John 16:21-24

John 16:21-24

English Standard Version 

  Well, I've certainly never given birth to a child, or anything nearly as challenging as that, but I've done plenty of hard things.  When I think about triathlons I've competed in, they weren't easy, but at the moment when I crossed the finish line, there was nothing but joy.  The same is true for graduations -- I don't get dragged down by exhaustion from work that was done, but celebrate the accomplishment.

  In this life, there will be plenty of challenging moments.  We will undergo suffering and trials, both in our own lives and those around us.  At times, we'll likely wonder where God is and what God is doing.  There aren't often easy answers in those moments, but God promises us that those will pass, and that the fullness of joy is awaiting us on the other side of our suffering.  One day, there will be the fullness of joy, and the hope of this is what helps us push through the dark nights of the soul that we face.  Like a traveler on a lonely road in the dark of night, we wait for the dawn, knowing the stone has been rolled away and the tomb is empty and we shall rejoice together one day.

John 16:16-20

John 16:16-20 

English Standard Version 

  So Jesus spends 3 years, every day, with the disciples.  He predicted his death and resurrection, speaking plainly about his ability to transform sorrow into joy, and yet when he died on the cross, what did the disciples experience?  Sorrow.  Were they filled with hope and expectation that their sorrow would turn into joy?  It didn't seem like it.  Thomas certainly didn't expect Jesus to turn his sorrow into joy.  He thought there was only sorrow.

  So, too, with us.  We have sorrow, and in the depth of our sorrow, it's so hard to remember Jesus' ability to turn sorrow into joy.  We forget, and we lack imagination, so we live in sorrow and doubt and fear, wondering if joy will come again in the morning.  

  It's so important to continue to pray for God's wisdom to guide our hearts, and for us to sit with those who are in sorrow -- they need someone to gently and compassionately remind them that there is joy for the sorrow, that there is sunrise for the night, that there is hope in despair. No matter how dark the night, there is always some light to shine, now and forever.

John 15:7-11

John 15:7-11 

English Standard Version 

  There's a lot of criticism of workplace environments lately, and I think there's a lot of valid questions being asked about the nature of work and how we interact with our work environments.  Work should be a two-way street, where the employee offers time and gifts to the workplace, and the employer offers compensation and fulfillment to the employee.  When that balance gets out of whack, one way or the other, things fall apart, because there's a lack of mutual trust.

  When we think about church, we often think about what we give, in terms of time and money, and it's important to think about what God wants to give you.  Jesus longs for our joy to be full.  Jesus doesn't just want us to be happy and be at peace, although he wants that for us, but a fullness of joy that pervades, that has depth, that lasts, now and forever.  That's what God wants to give us.  What could we give back?  We give everything back, with joy, knowing that God is giving us even more than we could possibly give.

John 15:1-5

John 15:1-5 

English Standard Version 

  No church ever puts an advertisement out on the church sign that people should come check out the community and find out how God will prune them!  Not exactly a winning slogan, but that's the teaching from Jesus Christ -- that God prunes those who are bearing fruit, in the hopes that there will be even more fruit.

  So when we come across challenges in our walk with God, when we feel like we're running into a wall, may we have the openness to the Holy Spirit to wonder how God might be pruning us, that we may be drawn even closer into community with God and with one another.

John 14:25-31

John 14:25-31

English Standard Version

  What were the things you wanted when you were a kid?  When I was younger, I had a poster of a Lamborghini on my wall and thought that if you ever had a million dollars, then you wouldn't have a single problem in the world.  

  Well, I don't have a Lamborghini or a million dollars, but the idea of what success looks like as an adult is very, very different than what I thought it was as a kid.  The idea of anxiety didn't really occur to me as a youngster.  

  Did I appreciate the promise of Jesus in John 14 as a child?  Probably not.

  Do I fully appreciate it now?  I certainly do now.  When Jesus tells me that I should not let my heart be troubled, I think of all the things that trouble my heart, and I think about how all the promises of various things in the world that fall short of that, and it amazes me how much time and energy I invest trying to eliminate my own troubles, rather than turning to Jesus.  Money or success or beauty or fame or popularity -- none of these will ease all your troubles.  Many of them only make them worse.  

  But Jesus offers to give us peace.  It won't necessarily be peace like the world thinks about it, but it'll be peace that keeps our hearts from trouble and fear.  Let us cling closely to Jesus, in anticipate of this, hanging on to Christ as our only hope in every moment.

John 14:15-17

John 14:15-17 

English Standard Version 

  If you love cupcakes, you'll eat cupcakes.  And if you eat enough cupcakes, there are repercussions of that as well.  

  If you love the theater, you'll go see lots of musicals.  As a result, you'll learn many of the plays by heart, and you'll meet lots of people who also love the theater.

  When you love things or people, you act appropriately.  Augustine talked about the root of sin being our disordered loves -- we love the wrong things too much, and so we do the wrong things as a result.  In the same way, when we love the right things, we make the right choices.  Jesus is trying to teach us to love the same things God loves, to love all people because God loves all people.  When we love properly, we then act out of that love, and then the way we act changes us -- there's a result, and then our life isn't the same.  

  In the same way, when we love God, we do the things God calls us to do.  And Jesus is sending us more help in the person of the Holy Spirit, who guides us and strengthens us and teaches us and inspires us.  The Holy Spirit encourages us to continue loving the things that God loves, and so it's a cycle -- the more steps we take, the more encouragement we receive, the more we want to keep loving the things of God.

  So may we take the first step, no matter how small, and let God guide us from there.

John 14:8-14

John 14:8-14 

English Standard Version 

  At one point, I wanted to be an architect.  Then I thought I'd be a pilot.  There were some other career choices, too, before I finally settled on engineer.  That didn't work out.  At all.  Most days, I'm still trying to figure out who I am!

  Jesus, however, knew exactly who he was.  He didn't waver on his identity - he was fully God and fully human.  He wasn't just a great teacher that other people mistakenly identified as God.  Read the verses again -- does this sound like someone who is simply trying to teach moral truths?  Is he simply hoping you'll live your best life?  Or is he transcendent and inviting us into an eternal relationship with the God who created the universe and can speak power over death itself?  

  Jesus knows who he is, and he calls you by name, which means that however much we may be confused about parts of our identities, we can clearly define ourselves as children of the living God who are claimed by the Son of God and marked as Christ's own forever.  That's a pretty good starting point for our identities!

John 14:1-7

John 14:1-7 

English Standard Version 

  Whenever I go visit a national park, I always stop at the visitor center and ask for recommendations.  At every one, they pull out a map, and they usually helpfully circle the best places to hike.  Sometimes, they do this enthusiastically.  Sometimes, you can tell they've given the same speech and circled the same destinations on a map 16 times in the last 20 minutes.  Once, they told me all the best places that I should go see, but to do any of it, I needed a ticket that I couldn't get.  Less helpful, but the same map.

  Jesus doesn't point to a map.  He doesn't give us directions to follow.  Instead, he tells us that he is the map.  He is the way.  We don't get a map, we get a relationship, and we should remember that the relationship is with someone who is willing to die for us, even if we're going to stray from the map and get lost -- the God in the relationship comes after us.  We're the lost sheep going away, but we can't fall off the map, because God pursues us.

  It's way better than a map -- it's a person, and that person loves us enough to pay any price to be in an eternal relationship with us.  Rather than follow a map, we follow a person, and that person chooses us!

John 13:36-38

John 13:36-38 

English Standard Version 

  Imagine going in for a performance review with your boss, who tells you that everything is going swimmingly, and two weeks later, you receive a notice in the mail that you're fired.  I highly, highly doubt that you'd have kind things to say about the boss or the company.  If you knew that's how this company treated people ahead of taking the job, would you have even taken it?

  Imagine going to a restaurant and placing your order.  The waiter assures you that your food will be out surely, and then you never hear from them again.  You leave hungry.  How many stars do you give them on your review?  If you knew it was going to happen ahead of time, would you have even gone?

  Here, Peter tells Jesus that he's going to follow Jesus wherever, and promises that he'll lay down his life for Jesus.  Jesus, however, knows that Peter will deny even knowing Jesus.  Jesus tells Peter this.  Despite knowing that Peter will do the exact opposite of what he says he will do, Jesus goes ahead and dies for him.

  Despite knowing that you and I will do the opposite of what we say we will do, Jesus goes ahead and dies for us, too.  We don't get what we deserve, and thanks be to God for that!!

John 13:31-35

John 13:31-35 

English Standard Version 

  The church hasn't always gotten this one right.  Jesus tells us directly that we have one job -- to love one another, just as Christ loved us.  Well, Christ loved us sacrifically, to the point of dying on a cross so that we might be saved.  The church has gotten this spectacularly right at certain times, choosing to serve communities near and far.  At other times... well, we haven't done so great.  We've been greedy and selfish and chosen our own interests over the interests of our communities.  There is a long, long list of things that we would do differently if we had the chance.  By failing to love one another, we haven't pointed to Christ in the way we should have, and that's tragic.  Other people have looked at the church and turned away, uninterested due to the failures of the church.  It's terrible.

  We in the church should never set ourselves up as perfect.  We aren't, and we should always be humble enough to admit our mistakes.  But we should always choose to love sacrificially first.  It's much easier to protect our own interests, but that's not how we're called.  We're called to love, first and always, the way that we're loved.  And Christ loves us without limit -- even in our very worst, Christ chooses to love us.  May we look around and love the world the same way.

John 13:21-30

John 13:21-30 

English Standard Version 

  It's easy to say we wouldn't do it, right?  Sitting here, reading this, we wonder what Judas was thinking.  

  But in the middle of it... we make different choices.  It's always easy to be dispassionately removed from a situation and talk about what you would do.  But when that temptation is in front of you, or you're caught up in emotions, that calculating decision process often isn't available.  We're all capable of incredibly poor choices.  Many of us are lucky enough not to be in circumstances where the wrong decisions we make have grave consequences.  But that doesn't mean we're better than anyone else.  It simply means we are on a different path, and but for the grace of God, who knows what path we might be on.  I can't say I'm any better than a lot of people who have done far worse things, but I haven't faced the same temptations under the same circumstances with the same pressures.  

  We all fall short, and we all rely solely on grace, and grace alone, to deliver us.  We deserve condemnation, and yet we are given grace.  So may we treat one another with grace, for we are all damaged, and capable of great damage.

John 13:12-20

John 13:12-20 

English Standard Version 

  The Dead Sea is a lake that only receives.  No rivers flow out of it.  

  The Sea of Galilee, on the other hand, has a river that flows into it and another flowing out of it.

  Guess which one the disciples fished in, because it was teeming with fish?

  What kind of person would you like to be?  A dead end for grace, where blessings flow in and never leave, or one vibrant and alive, both receiving and giving, where your fingers are open to let the blessings of God run through them, leaving room for more?

  What kind of church do you want to participate in?  One that focuses inward, or one that looks beyond the walls to see how it can serve the community?

  May we always be thinking of ways to share what we have received, to communicate the love and grace of God!

John 13:4-11

John 13:4-11 

English Standard Version 

  Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product that you didn't know you existed and yet suddenly couldn't live without?  That's what I think of when I read about Peter's change of mind here in John 13.  Peter has spent years with Jesus, yet he can't figure out that Jesus is eager to serve him, until Peter tells him that the only way to be saved is to be served by Jesus.  Suddenly, Peter can't get enough of Jesus' service!  

  To go see a doctor, you have to acknowledge that you're sick.  This is hard for us -- we have pride, and don't like to acknowledge that we need someone else to save us or deliver us.  We don't like to think of ourselves as in enough trouble to need to be saved.  

  But the Gospels teach us that we all need to be saved.  Each and every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Are you humble enough to admit that?  You need a doctor.  Each and every one of us cannot enter God's presence without the intervening love of Christ.  He gives it freely, thanks be to God!

John 12:44-50

John 12:44-50 

English Standard Version 

  Here's Jesus, once again blowing holes in anyone's theory who would say that he was just a nice teacher who never claimed to be God.  He clearly taught that his authority extended well beyond his group of apostles, well beyond the present time and place, and into eternity.  The very Creator of the universe was giving him direct commands...

  And those commands are to save.  I think it's so important that the Christian church be rooted in this reality -- that God's goal is to save people.  God wants to save people.  God created people to be with God, and the reality of sin breaks the very heart of God, which is why God is willing to pay such a high price so that people might be saved and reunited with God.  Jesus was willing to pay the price because Jesus shared this love.

  If this is God's fundamental orientation, how should that guide our life?  

  It's so easy to overlook people, to get wrapped up in what we're doing and ignore the needs of the world around us.  But that can't be out way of life if we're following Christ, because Christ's basic guiding principle is to save.  We can't save people, but we can join with Christ in loving people, even at great cost to ourselves, because people, all people, are worth saving.

John 12:12-19

John 12:12-19 

English Standard Version 

  How many times have you avoided asking a question because you were afraid of looking foolish?  

  The disciples give us all a lot of comfort.  They spent 3 years with Jesus, but there were so many things they didn't understand.  They heard and saw directly, but the pieces didn't fall together until later, until after the resurrection. 

  So when you have questions, remember that you're in good company.  It's ok not to know everything, and sometimes, it's enough simply to trust the one who does know everything.

John 12:9-11

John 12:9-11 

English Standard Version 

  This passage always amuses me.  Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, so the chief priests plan is... to put Lazarus back to death.  I like to imagine this going back and forth, every other day, with one group killing Lazarus and then Jesus, exasperated, bringing him back to life after every attempt.  How many times before the chief priests realize that Jesus is always going to win?  Once?  Twice?  Ten times?  

  It's an important question for us, too.  The devil is always attacking us, but Jesus isn't going to give up.  Jesus isn't going to grow exhausted from saving us.  Jesus will always win, for he's claimed us as his own, and that is a permanent victory.  Great news for us!  Jesus, as always, wins in the end!

John 12:1-8

John 12:1-8 

English Standard Version 

  A lot of times, when we think about giving, we usually think about how little we can give.  We think of it as a sacrifice, and we're thinking about how we could use that money somewhere else, on something that might do a little more for us.

  Good thing Jesus didn't think like that!  

  He was willing to give everything, because he thought the reward (which is you!) was worth any price that had to be paid.  He didn't think about what he was giving up, because his love for you is so great that he was only focused on that.

  In the same way, here in this text, Mary is so focused on what she's receiving in having Jesus as her Lord, that she isn't worried about the cost of what she's giving up.  What she has received in Christ is so much greater than anything she can give, that she therefore gives willingly.

  So when we think about what we give to God, it's not a matter of willing ourselves to give more by trying to feel guilty that we're not giving enough.  Instead, it's a matter of focusing ourselves on the eternal relationship we're going to have as a free gift because the Creator of the universe loves us enough to grasp us out of the pit we were in.  The more we focus on that, the more we realize that any gift we can give is a small pittance compared to the reward we've been given, and so we give out of gratitude, not guilt.

John 11:54-57

John 11:54-57 

English Standard Version 

  Healing people had a cost to Jesus.

  Here, because he'd raised Lazarus from the dead, he was no longer able to walk openly.  The Jewish leaders were so intent on removing him from the scene that he couldn't come and go as he wanted.  Imagine -- the person who designed and made the world, not being able to walk about it freely!  The indignity of it is appalling.  We've come a long way from the Garden of Eden, right?  

  Jesus was willing to bear the cost of this for us.  Such are the sacrifices that are made out of love -- we choose to restrain ourselves.  In marriage, each spouse gives up other options to make a commitment.  It's a sacrifice, but one the beloved makes willingly, because the reward of complete trust and mutual love is well worth the sacrifice.

  So when we're amazed at the sacrifice, realize that it's made because Jesus thinks the reward of spending eternity with you is with it.  Jesus constrains himself because he loves you.  The creator of the world, who could have no constraints, takes them on out of love and devotion.  

  Clearly, you're worth a lot to God.

John 11:45-53

John 11:45-53  

English Standard Version 

  Some people look at events out of a perspective of fear.  Others choose hope.  Part of that depends on what you're clinging to -- if you've built your life on something that can be taken away by a stronger force, then you're likely to live in fear.  If, however, you've built your life on a solid foundation, then you don't have to be afraid, because your future cannot be taken from you, no matter how strong the opposition may be.

  The Pharisees saw Jesus raise a man from the dead, and rather than think about how exciting this was, they shrunk back in fear and worried that they might lose what they had.  Others watched the same man raise someone from the dead and realized that they might never need to fear death again.  Same events, same participants, wildly different outcomes.  

  Which group would you rather be in?

  When we choose to build our lives on Christ, then no matter what the Romans or any other army might do, we don't have to be afraid, because we're safe in the arms of the strongest force that's ever been.  

  How do we know where the foundation of our life is?

  Well, what would you do if you lost all of your money?  Or your health?  Losing these things would of course be tremendously difficult.  I'll not pretend otherwise.  But they shouldn't be the end of us.  We should still be able to find a reason for hope, no matter what, because no matter how far down we go, we discover that the bottom is solid.

John 11:40-44

John 11:40-44

English Standard Version 

  When a kid at a park yells for mom, every single mother in the area looks up, wondering if it is there kid that is in need.  The word 'Mom' doesn't distinguish between all the different moms that are there -- they're all programmed to respond to a child in need.

  Whenever I read this voice, I think about how Jesus is very specific when he yells in the graveyard.  Had Jesus not, then every dead soul in that graveyard might've wandered out, creating a scene of chaos as Lazarus was one among many.  Such is the power of Jesus over death!  He is the one who unbinds us, who releases us from the things that hold us, who sets us free so that our future might not be determined by the forces opposing us.

Sermon for October 2, 2022