The Way of The Cross

--- The Way Of The Cross ---

What comes to mind when you first see a “CROSS”

What do these words mean to you “THE WAY OF THE CROSS?”

Feb 22, 2015 Readings:  2 Corinthians 4: 3-6   Psalm 50, Mark 9: 2-9

The people of the Corinthian church were complaining that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was just too difficult to understand and follow.  Some theologians and denominations within the modern church today still claim that this is one of those passages that can be used as a litmus test to determine the saved from the non-saved.   Paul states that if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.   Well, if you interpreted this passage literally, I guess that would label most of the disciples Peter, Thomas, Andrew, James, and a lot of other good church going folk including myself as the unsaved.  Paul says nothing here about the saved or the unsaved, he is talking about a perishing people meaning people who are destroying or ruining their lives.  Is there one among us, who could boldly boast that there is no innocent parasite of wrongdoing slowly eating away at your goodness.  I would challenge anyone who would be so arrogant, to suggest that they completely understood the Gospel of Christ.   In fact be weary of the one who teaches such arrogance.  Our Gospel teaches that we are saved by grace not by works, words, actions, or by any other means.  Our Gospel also teaches us that God saving grace if sufficient for all.  That would include the “Good” the “Bad,” the “Ugly” and all parts in between.    In fact if there were such a person, that understood and could teach us the complete truth of our Gospel, wouldn’t everyone be following him or her?  Would that not be the person you could trust with your life?    Are you with me church?  

Even the closest of Jesus’ companions as they walk with him towards the cross failed when it came to understanding the truth about the way of the cross, about his mission and about who Jesus really was.  Peter the rock, denied even knowing Him when the going got tough.   You know the old proverb “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”     Their ignorance and betrayal still did not keep them from coming back to him over and over again, asking for forgiveness, of which he never denied any of them.  Aren’t we all veiled from the truth when the world pushes us into a corner?  Haven’t we all fallen victim to ignorance and arrogance at one time or another?    How did Jesus stop arrogance in its tracks?  Anyone remember?  “You who are without sin may cast the first stone”.  In other words we have no right to assume we are privileged to know who has or has not been graced.  I remember  a great preacher once saying to his congregation “If I were to make it to heaven, I would probably be surprised at who was there, In fact I would imagine there would be a lot more surprised that I was there.   So then, may I suggest that it is a waste of good time even to ask your neighbor the question?  Our time might be better spent on understanding how and why “WE” are veiled from the Gospel.   Let me try a metaphor using light to help us see. 

I believe it is because of too much light.  Let me explain by giving you this example.  My grandchildren live in the city.  When they come to our cottage on the River Philip in summer, they are always amazed at the number of stars in the night sky.  You see in the city, there is so much night light, that only the biggest stars are visible, all else is veiled from their sight. 

May I suggest that one of the biggest blinding light bulbs that keeps us veiled from the Gospel of Christ is our reasoning?    Everyone is looking for evidence these days, and data is presumed to be more persuasive than faith.  Case in point, people are more interested in discussing how Jesus feed the crowd of 5000, rather than why he did it.  Yet for those of us who have tried to answer this question with human reasoning, end up dancing with idolatry.   As followers of Jesus we are only permitted to think it through as far as we can, then, we must be willing to take a leap of faith.   Not everything is explainable folks.   Quantum physics is just beginning to understand that the smallest particles they have been able to reach are not yet the smallest ones.  And they seem to have some sort of intelligence.  Apparently our Creator is not yet ready to give up that mystery of creation.    

There are other sources of blinding light from the gods of this world and I’m sure as you begin to talk, you will come up with some of your own.  Advertising is one.  Did you know that the writers of diet programs know that best ones fail?  Think about it folks, these guys and gals would go broke if their diet programs really worked not strings attached. 

So then how do we begin to take the blinders off?  The reason we too find the Gospel hard to follow and understand is that we are often afraid to speak the truth.  If there is an injustice happening and we do not speak out, “FEAR” veils us and this is not the way of the cross.  If we cannot ask for and then offer help or forgiveness to our worst enemy, then our “PRIDE” veils us from the way of the cross.  If we continue to do things that causes others to fall into sin, our “SELFISH SELF-CENTEREDNESS’ veils us from the way of the cross.  It is not easy to follow Christ folks, we are not called to be perfect, but God calls us to do our best to lift the veil.    Let us pray.

Solomon Burke puts it all together in this song take a listen: 

Looking For Loopholes

LOOKING FOR LOOPHOLES

Readings:  Dout 30: 15-20 Psalm 119 Matt 5: 21-37

One day Abraham invited a beggar to his tent for a meal.  When Abraham began giving God thanks for the abundance of food, the man began to curse God, declaring that he could not bear to hear God’s name.  Seized with indignation, Abraham drove the cursing beggar out of his home.  That evening when Abraham was saying his night prayers, God spoke to his heart,” Abraham, the man you sent away from your tent today, this man has cursed and reviled me for fifty years, and yet I have given him food to eat every day.  And you Abraham!!  Could you not have put up with him for a single meal?"  The profound revelation here is:  not only our neighbor folks, God is telling us we must also love those who hate and curse God.

We just celebrated St. Valentine's Day, so l thought this is a good time to hear this simple but profound message from God – love each other.  Love each other - not with the love that depends on chemistry,  or mood, or feelings -  not with a the love that depends on the behavior of others either, but love each other with the kind of love that Christ refers to in today's reading from the Sermon on the Mount.   You know the kind of love I mean - it is the love that goes beyond emotions and yes even what sometimes seems to go beyond the letter of the law.  It is a love that contains the Spirit of what God wants for us, it a love that compels us to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to morn for those brothers and sisters who are spiritual poor in our midst, to be an example of God’s grace to in the world, offering peace where ever war rages, at home, in family, or out in the world.   It is a love that values others, regardless of who they are or what they have or have not done.  This is not a suggestion folks, it is what Gods is asking of us.  

I recall reading that someone once caught WC Fields { a confirmed atheist} reading the Bible. "What are you doing?" asked the person.  "Looking for loopholes.", growled Fields.   With God’s unconditional love my friends - there are no loophole, no escape hatch, no clauses that say that God’s love can be revoked if this or that condition is not met.   Love is total - it is unconditional - or it is not love at all.  Think of the words of Jesus we heard in the reading this morning.  They were words addressed to a people used to compromising – to altering love's demands as they are found in the law of God so that those demands would be easier to fulfil.  If love is not working in your life these days may you consider this?   We have heard from the Law of Moses  “thou shall not murder - but Jesus  said,  if you are angry with your brother or  sister - you will call judgement upon yourself and your punishment will be self-inflicted ."  "You have heard the Law of Moses say “thou shall not commit adultery”, but Jesus tells us that everyone who looks with lust at another has already committed adultery.  You have heard the Law of Moses say ,” thou shall love your neighbor”, but Jesus tells us to love our enemies. and pray for those who persecute us..." Did you know that persecute means to show predigest, malice, or to harm one with words or physical violence.  There are no loopholes to be found in Jesus' words--- No compromises,  No deals,  No escape hatches. Jesus love is totally and completely unconditional.  

What Jesus does is crystallize the issues involved in loving God and our neighbor so that we can know - without doubt – just where we stand, and exactly what we need to strive for.    Folks! Think about where you stand for a minute - Think about how you love others and ask yourself - is my love up to the standards set by Christ?  Is my love truly unconditional???   .  If love is not working in your life these days may you consider this?

- If you haven't killed someone -  who have you called a fool, an imbecile, a no good for nothing?  What emotion did you pour out upon a loved one, or a stranger when you became angry with them? - If you haven't committed adultery - and felt good about this - consider what your eyes dwell upon or what your mind has wanted-- Or consider who holds a grudge against you because of something you did or didn’t do, - something for which you have not apologized for - When was the last time you unjustly criticized someone or expressed your dislike for a person because of their position in life.   Perhaps these are poor examples - but for most of us, we love only those who appear to love us - and even then we are not sure about our friends or family at times....  We greet those who greet us, We do good to those who do good to us, We lend to those who will pay us back,  We welcome those who welcome us.  As for everyone else - well - if asked, most of us have a REASON!! for what we do, and an EXCUSE!! for what we do not do.   What we must strive for as Christians, NO!! I will go even farther than that, what God’s commands from us,  is to  break through the limitations of our excuses,   destroy all reasons that we might offer to treat one person as less than another and to enter into relationships with each other that are based upon our equality before God. 

An old pilgrim was making his way to the Himalayan Mountains in the bitter cold of winter when it began to storm.   The inn keeper said to him, "How will you ever get there in this kind of weather my good man?"  The old man answered cheerfully - "My heart has always been there, and so it's makes it easy for the rest of me to follow."   The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that we can meet all the demands of unconditional love, but our hearts must go there first, and to accomplish that we must take upon ourselves the heart of Christ.  Therefore I urge you - let your hearts go first - love God and love each other as deeply as you can. When you do - you will find, no matter how many mistakes you may make on the way, goodness and blessedness will blossom along your path, and all that God has planned will come to pass.   Take time to pray. 

Who Can You Trust Completely

Here is a question to get you thinking:  Who do you consider the hero’s of today.

Can you think of a person or persons that you could trust enough to share your most venerable feelings and past with?          

Feb 8, 2015 Readings:  1 Corinthians 8: 1-13, Psalm 111, Mark 1: 21-28

If you were attentive to the 3 readings this morning you may have heard this very interesting connection.  There is a voice of authority in our midst that can moves mountains, heal the sick, raise the dead and yes even drive out evil demons from one’s life.  Even people who take the Lords name in vane know the power surge it offers them.  I challenge you try using any other name while cursing, it doesn’t work.   

According to Mark the voice that speaks to the heart, to compassion, mercy and love, also speaks to evil and given time, will call evil to account.  One of the great Mysteries of our bible is this:  Is Jesus the voice of God incarnate, or is Jesus just the conduit for the voice?  Well, according to Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians verse 6 and I quote “ yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.    How come the same?       

Paul’s perspective here seems to suggest that Jesus and God are actually one in the same.  In the Gospel of Mark we also find that the evil spirit within the man apparently recognizes Jesus’ voice and refers to him as and the Holy messenger of God.   Jesus is not speaking to the man, he is actually speaking to the evil spirit within the man. 

Again I say to you folks, it matters not how you perceive Jesus, as God incarnate, Lord, The Son of God, Messiah or just a prophet with an unusual sense and understanding of the Holy.  What really matters is do YOU recognize the authority in Him.  Can you count yourself as one who is willing to follow Him?    As a Christian, can you put your full trust in Him as the authority, mentor, lifelong companion and your guide? 

Over these last couple of sermons we have been thinking about “THE VOICE” of authority and how we too have often heard it speaking to the spirit within ourselves.  Follow its leading and you will eventually receive a blessing, remembering that faith does not always give you instant results.  On the other hand, Ignore the voice and eventually you will pay the piper as the old saying goes.  From a theological prospective I believe that we struggle with the many voices that we listen to during the run of our day.  Some are audible and some seem just to crop up out of the blue in the mind.  I recently referred to it as that mad monkey mind we all have at times.   Paul refers to them as the voices of other gods {with a small g} in his writings, their domain lay in worldly ways, and materialism.   Major negative ones might be the voice that calls us to jealously or to unrighteous anger.  Then the voice of anger calls upon rage and the voice of rage leads to death.  Not so drastic to us are the voices of greed, selfishness, or lust but, they very well might be, to an innocent by stander.  As Christians, we are committed to listen to the one voice who claims, I Am the truth and the life.   Here is an interesting perspective.   When Moses asked God on the mountain top, “what shall I say when they ask who sent me Lord”, and God said, “tell them I Am sent you.”   I Am is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through I Am.   Case in point:   John 8: 23-25  NIV. But he continued. "You are from below: I am from above.  You are of this world: I am not of this world.  I told you that you would die in your sins: if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins".  "Who are you they asked. "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning."  Jesus replied.   John 10: 30  " I and the Father are one". 

Wow!! Isn’t that a new perspective.  I believe Jesus is suggesting that He is the "I Am"? We also know, that the voice of God often speaks to us through ordinary people.  Through their writings, their poems, their acts of love, compassion and kindness.  John 14: 20  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 

I do not personally see the image of God as being a physical image.  Meaning a physical body with long white hair, sitting on a throne, as some may have learned to image God.   The references in scripture to God having eyes, a head, torso, hands, feet etc. I believe is metaphor.  Yes we were created in God’s image but I believe the image that was intended, is not a physical one but the image of love.   A love that is completely all encompassing, a love that never fails, and is completely unconditional, no strings attached.  Isn’t that what we seek in our wonderings, to fill the lonely, rejected empty spaces in our lives?   This love allows us to make up our own minds, a love that give us the freedom to choose and fall, and it is a love that allows us to learn how to get back up.   Here again I think it might be good to remind ourselves that belief and faith are not the same folks.   Belief and religion can be manipulated, you can learn to believe in anything, some good, some bad.  Case in point, just watch TV or listen to the news today and you can see or hear about the atrocities that are being committed in the name of an unloving god, a god of conditions.

Faith and trust on the other hand cannot be manipulated, you either have an unconditional faith that you can trust in, or you do not.  Case in point, Jesus and His way.  Let us pray. 

"The Voice"

When you hear the word CHURCH what is the first thing that comes to your mind? 

If someone asked you, this question what would be your reply? “Why do you gather”

Jan 25 2015 Readings:  Jonah 3: 5-10  Psalm 62, 1 Corinth 7: 29-31   Mark 1: 14-20

The very first words of Jesus when he met Simon Peter and his brother Andrew on the shores of the Sea of Galilee were "Follow me, I will make you a fisher of men."  Song:  “I Was Just A Fisherman” take a listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMUIZ4WEA7c

Now I ask you to think about this for a moment Folks, who in today’s society would drop their livelihood and set aside their family to follow a complete stranger?  Something tells me that even though these men had not meet Jesus before, something inside of them recognized “THE” voice.   The spirit of God, was speaking to their spirit within.  It was through the breath of life that God’s breathed His Spirit into and is housed in every living body there ever was or will be and if we are willing, we can and often do recognized and hear the voice of all truth.  The spirit in them not only recognized the voice, they responded in faith by following.  Song come to mind “We Are One In The Spirit”   take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7_wHi0PNHg

This act of faith, to follow a complete stranger would have to be an act of full trust, then they put their faith into action.   Faith you see is trusting in something we do not fully understand.  How many of us here today have had the experience where your intuition has spoken to you, then you have followed the nudge.  If the nudge is from the Holy you will received a blessing.  On the other hand, how many of us have rejected “THE” voice and things have turned agains us?  I don’t know about you, but I have experienced both.    A song that comes to mind is “looking for Love in All the wrong places”.  I was lookin' for love in all the wrong places looking for love in too many faces Searchin' their eyes, lookin' for traces Of what I'm dreaming of.

As followers we are not all called to drop our livelihood, or leave our families to follow the Spirits leading, but we are all called to be one in Spirit with the Lord.  To worship and serve one God only.  Not a God of materialism, but the God of service and love.  To love and care for our neighbor.  In fact I believe that is one of the main reason we gather as a community of faith, so we can learn to love and support not only ourselves but the person sitting next to me in the pew.  I often think of this very wise saying I heard from and lady who was over 100 years old.  She was in a nursing home in Shelburne, she would say to me “I love people Sim, but I don’t always like what they say or do and that’s OK but I love them anyway.”    We don’t have to like a person, nor agree with what they say or do but we are called to extend love to them. I believe the reason we gather as a church community shouldn’t be because of this building, nor because a particular preacher is leading us.   We gather to be with our family, to support one another even those we may not like and or agree with them at times.  Making sure everyone is OK, that each has enough of the basic essentials and allowing each to offer their particular giftedness is a loving act.  

  As we heard mentioned this morning in his reading, without the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit the Church in Corinth was being undermined by the ways of their world once again.  They were slipping back to idol worship, self-centeredness and Spiritless morality.  They were falling back into their old patterns of living, worshiping idols and the many Gods.  Now in the modern church today we have a similar problem when it comes to church buildings don’t we.  It is a proven fact that if you take away the building, many will not gather in another place.   That fact should speak to us, unfortunately people who worship a building, follow a preacher or a particular religious demolition can be easily divided, think about that reality folks.  On the other hand Faith filled people cannot be divided, take from them and they just become more determined.   The faithful will continue to seek and to gather as church no matter what, no matter where.  Paul reference to the Church was not in reference to a building or its leader.  Wherever two or more are gathered, there is where we will find the church.  Here, Paul rightly confirms them CHURCH, as the gathered people.  This is a major problem within many denominations today.  Take away the building and many refuse to gathering else ware.   If a church group stops gathering because they lose their building, the building has become the icon, the idol, and it is the building, not the Spirit that holes power over the people.  This has been the case in many a pastoral charge today especially when trying to keep and maintaining our outdated and worn buildings. 

For the people of Corinth buildings were not there obstacle, they were struggling with religions and who’s teachings they should follow, the Greek, Jews or the teachings of Jesus.  

Is this not the struggles we are still having in our society today?   Whom and what do we follow, is it The POPE, a Preacher, the Queen, a Prime Minister, a Movie star?    We are all called by God to trust and follow the Son of Man.  According to our Scriptures, this is the only person who we can put our complete trust in, as we follow him.  We are all call by God to follow, trusting Jesus to know the way.  Now this brings up and interesting controversy around the concept of trust verses belief.   Many theologians accept that these two concepts are not of the same family the same and sometimes find themselves acting like advisories meaning against each other.   

Think about this for a moment folks.  Belief is the foundation of religion but radical religious beliefs have and are causing havoc all over the world.  Just think of the many religious wars that have been fought in the name of Christianity. Trust on the other hand, is the foundation of Faith.  It is faith and trust that saves, not religion, nor its rituals, nor its beliefs.  According to Jesus words, it was their faith that made the sick well, the lamb walk, and the blind see again.  It was Faith not belief that healed, raised the dead, and set the captives free.  Often Jesus would say YOUR Faith has made you whole, go now and sin no more.  Believing who Jesus is, is not as important as TRUSTING IN HIS WAYS?  If you can trust in his words and His way that is where you will find the saving grace of God.    Let us Pray