Forgiveness is love May 9, 2010

Forgiveness is love

RUMC

5/9/2010



I think a mother is one whose forgiveness is always one-step ahead of our mistakes. No matter how many times we spill on the living room couch, Mom always forgives us one more. No matter how many times we come in late, mom always forgives us for one more. No matter how many times we forget to say thank you. Mom always forgives us for one more. No matter how many fibs we tell, how many messes we make, how many muddy footprints we leave, No matter how many snotty noses we have, there is always one more Kleenex. No matter how many skinned knees, there is always one more kiss. Mom’s arms are always open; there is always enough forgiveness for one more.

I know that is not every mom is like that, but mine is. I am pretty sure that after 48 years, my mom has already forgiven me for 100 years of mistakes. That’s just who she is.

If your mom is not like that, maybe you have a grandma or an aunt or maybe the mother of your children. Dag Hammarskjold is quoted as saying “Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle- by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.”

“What is broken is made whole and what is soiled is made clean.” That is forgiveness.



That dream is not always our reality. The truth of our lives is that often what is broken remains broken and what is soiled remains soiled. The brokenness and filth of our lives does not easily give birth to love.

Too often in our perpetual brokenness, we hold on to Grudges and regrets,

I have told you the story before about the bitter man who came across a magic genie who granted him one wish; the catch being that whatever he wished for, his worst enemy would get double. He thought and thought. He thought about wealth, and power and property and fame and eternal life and health; but couldn’t bear to see his worst enemy get twice as much as he got. Finally he said, “I know, Genie, I wish to be blinded in one eye.” What a waste. What a waste it is when we hold on to grudges and regrets.



On the other hand it is no better when we live out of revenge which seeks only to generate fear.

A woman bought a parrot for a pet. All the parrot did was treat her bad. It insulted her and every time she tried to pick it up, it would peck at her arm.

One day she got fed up with the parrot and as it was insulting her she picked it up, it continued with the insults.."you're ugly! I can't stand you!" and it pecked at her arm as she carried it. She opened the freezer door and threw him in and closed the door. From inside, the parrot was still going on for about 5 seconds and then it was suddenly quiet.

She thought, "Oh no, I killed it!" She open the door and the parrot just looked at her. She picked it up. Then the parrot said:"I'm very sorry. I apologize for my bad behavior and promise you there will be no more of that. From now on, I will be a respectful, obedient parrot."

"Well OK" she said. "apology accepted". The parrot said "Thank you". Then he said, "Can I ask you something?" She said, "Yes, What?"

And the parrot looked at the freezer and asked, "What did the Chicken do?"

She got her well behaved parrot by fear. Usually fear and revenge don’t work out that well. No better than grudges and regrets.



God has a much better model for us.

It would be easy to say love is the better model and ultimately it is. But I had not noted until this week that Jesus words about love that we talked about last week, “As I have loved you, so you must also love one another.” Are sandwiched between Jesus predictions of Judas betrayal and Peter’s denial.

In 20 short verses Jesus says one of you will hand me over to be killed.

As I have loved you, love one another.

Peter, before the rooster crows you will deny me three times.

Isn’t that interesting? It is essentially a love sandwich on a bun of tragedy and betrayal, heavy on the denial. What a heartbreaking passage. The good news is that Jesus, like my mom, is really good at forgiveness had, I am sure, already forgiven them for what they would do next.



Could you do that? When you are stuck between being betrayed on the right and being denied on the left, does your mind turn to love?

When you are stuck with a backstabbing friend on the right and an angry stranger on the left does your heart automatically overflow with love?

When you are trapped between those who would hurt you physically and those who would hurt you emotionally, is it love that overflows of something else that boils over?

In Ephesians 4:31 Paul writes, Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: 4:32 and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.

But how do we do that? Let’s take that Ephesians passage apart.

1. It starts with feelings. Like bitterness, and wrath, and anger, what are we supposed to do with those? It says those things must be put away. In other words don’t dwell on what happened. Don’t live in the past. Don’t keep digging it up for yourself or for others.

How many times in an argument do people say things like “but you always” or “remember when” or “I never forgave you for.” We can’t do that. We have to let go of the past. Lilly Tomlin says, “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” We can’t change the past-- let it go. And with it all of the negative emotions that went with it.

Now, I don’t mean to say that it won't come in to my mind. I don’t believe in forgive and forget. But we don’t have to live there either. When it comes up, we can push it aside.

The first step in forgiveness, then is saying I won’t dwell on what happened. I am moving on emotionally.



2. Then we have to say “I will not talk to other people about what happened.” “It's not open for discussion.. In Ephesians Paul calls this “clamor, and railing” Those are the ways we keep bringing it up to other people. “You know he is such a back stabber.” I’ll never forget when he .” “ I don’t know what you think, but I think he is a . . . “

Those are all ways of keeping the hurt alive. Keeping the damage growing. The more we talk the more people who know what that so and so did, the better.

Sometimes we do this under the guise of warning others what the person is like. Sometimes under the pretence of “talking it through.” And occasionally we do need to warn others. Occasionally we do need to talk thorough our feelings, but mostly we just want sympathy and we want to keep the hurt growing.

So Paul says, put away your clamoring and your railing. In other words move on verbally



So first we have to move onemotinally, then we move on verbally



3. Third we have to promise that we will not use what happened against the person.

Paul talks about putting away malice. Now, malice is more than anger, it is meanness. It is mean to use someone’s past to haunt them! It is mean to keep beating someone up with what they did in the past. They can’t change it, and is there is no benefit for anyone in that.

It has been said that “Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. “That is the only way to let the relationship move past the hurt.

This is where we move on relationally



4. Finally, Paul writes “be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.”

This might be the most misunderstood part of forgiveness. We ask, “If they put my child in danger does forgiveness mean I have to use that babysitter again.” No, but instead of saying you are the most irresponsible person I have ever known, I can never trust you again,” we can say, ”I know you didn’t mean to and you are forgiven, but I am just not comfortable leaving my child with you right now.”

We don’t have to pretend nothing happened. Maybe we learned something. Maybe they learned something. We hope so. But we should not continue to treat the person badly. I like Paul’s word here, Tenderhearted; to me that is with respect for their feelings and care for them as a person. It doesn’t mean we have to behave recklessly or gush all over them.

Maybe things can return to the way they were. Maybe not. It is not automatic. Things may never be the same. We have to be safe and smart. The key is that we have a responsibility to establish new boundaries and rules. We have to reestablish the relationship.



So to summarize.

Move on emotionally

move on verbally

Move on relationally

Reestablish the relationship





Refusing to forgive and holding the anger inside is like drinking a glass of poison; then sitting down to wait for your enemy to die.



Sometimes we act as though Paul wrote 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be pent up inside of you, with all malice: but he didn’t.

He was helping us to love as a mother loves. To love as Jesus loved. To love as God loves.



Forgiveness is love for the hard times. Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”



Hey that sounds an awful lot like “As I have loved you, Love one another.”

As Jesus has forgiven you, forgive one another.



“What is broken is made whole and what is soiled is made clean.” That is forgiveness.

Accepting love 5-2-10

Spirit of Acceptance

Reinbeck UMC

May 2 2010

·                     Since I was called into the ministry, I have probably written about 800 sermons and preached about 1500 times.  That is almost 3 million words.

·                     Since I arrived in Reinbeck in July 2007, I have written somewhere around 150 sermons: and preached about 300 times.  That is somewhere around a half a million words.

·                     If you have been attending church for 20 years you have probably heard about 1000 sermons.  That is about 2 million words you have heard preached.

·                     The Bible has only 750,000 words.

·                     Jesus boils it down to 11

Jesus said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  . . . AMEN.

I got to thinking about all the words that have been preached - all the books that have been written- all the class discussions that have been held . . . and Jesus pretty much says it all in 11 words.  “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  In fact, we could boil it down to six words “As I loved - you love.”

It is pretty humbling to a preacher who spends his career trying to write and interpret and teach from the scripture, that Jesus just wrapped up the whole thing in six words.  “As I loved - you love.”

I was tempted to quit right here.  Retire and move to Tennessee.  After all what more can I add? 

·                     It is like the saying, “It is as clear as the nose on your face.”  Well, take just a second here; take a look at your own nose.  You cannot see it very well can you.

·                     It is like when Dian lays a piece of paper on my desk.  I can sit there and look at my desk for 10 minutes.  I can walk away and come back to look at it some more and still not see it.  When I ask her, “where did you put that” . . .  she can walk right in a pick it right up.  “As clear as the nose on my face.”

·                     Or in today’s advertising culture, we might say it is so easy, even a caveman can do it.

“As I loved - you love”

Let’s be honest it is easy to love some people.  Like me.  And you too.  On the other hand, there are some people who are just really hard to love.  So today, I want to think of God’s extraordinary love for those hard to love people.  And Jesus command for us to love them too.

From God’s divine perspective, we can hardly even be specks of dust.  We can hardly be more than a gnat buzzing in the celestial ear.  From the heavenly perspective, humanity as a whole let alone one individual must be so insignificant as to be barely a blip on the radar.  Like an amoeba to a whale, a drop of water to the ocean, or a single ant to a to a highway project.

·                     Yet even for that insignificant amoeba, that drop of water, that ant; God became flesh, lived, and died.

·                     Who are the most insignificant people you can think of?  Who are the almost invisible?  Who are the forgotten, the ignored, or the powerless?

·                     God loves and accepts even them.

AS I HAVE LOVED . . . YOU LOVE

From God’s perspective, our sinfulness must be like a plague.  Our sinfulness must be like a gaping wound.  Our sinfulness must be like the elephant on the dining room table.  Our alienation from him must be like missing a limb or at least a digit.  Our selfishness must be an affront to God’s generosity.  Our guilt is an ugly black stain on an otherwise unadulterated perfection.

·                     Yet God accepts us in our ugly, guilty, stained, unlovable brokenness.

·                     Who are the most unlovable people you can think of?  The most distasteful?  The most offensive, the most repugnant?

·                     God loves and accepts even them.

AS I HAVE LOVED . . . YOU LOVE

From God’s perspective who could be more undeserving than us?  How many times have people thrown away God’s love?  How many times in the story of salvation history did God try to love people into relationship, and people threw it away.  Adam and Even had a good thing going and threw it away.  Noah had a fresh start and threw it away.  They threw away the Promised Land, they threw away the kings, and they threw away the prophets.  And then they threw away Jesus.  Like an alcoholic keeps throwing away their chance at sobriety, we keep throwing away God’s love because we are addicted to sin.  Could there be any one less deserving of God’s love than this hardhearted people?

·                     Yet God keeps loving us and accepting us again and again and again hoping that we won’t throw it away this time.

·                     Who has betrayed you and thrown your love away over and over.  Who is the most undeserving of your love?

·                     God loves and accepts even them???

AS I HAVE LOVED . . . YOU LOVE

From God’s perspective, can there be a more ungrateful people?  He gives them a garden and they eat themselves out of house and home.  He gives them freedom and they melt down their wealth to make an idol.  He provides them an ark to worship and they cry because they don’t have water, he provide them water and they cry because they don’t have bread, he provides the manna and they cry because they can’t keep it in the cupboard.  God gives them a land and they want a king like everyone else.  God gives them prophet after prophet and they don’t listen.  God gives them chance after chance and you would think they would be grateful, but they only want more.  It makes me think of Noah’s Michael’s book, If you take a mouse to the movies he’ll want popcorn and if you give him popcorn he’ll want a drink , and if you give him a drink he want something else and something else and something else.

·                     You know what?  We are still demanding and ungrateful.

·                     Who is the most demanding ungrateful, person you know?  Who do you know for whom you can never do enough?

·                     God loves and accepts even them???

AS I HAVE LOVED . . . YOU LOVE

When we think about those who are hard to love--

Jesus love comes from God’s love that is an accepting love.  Accepting the unimportant, accepting the unlovable, accepting the undeserving, and accepting the ungrateful.  Accepting the tax collectors.  Accepting the prostitute and the adulteress.  Accepting the Samaritan woman at the well and the ritually unclean woman with a flow.  Accepting the Pharisees and the high priests.  Accepting the fishermen and accepting you and me.

·                     Jesus says, AS I ACCEPTED you when you were considered unimportant.  .YOU MUST ACCEPT AND LOVE the ones you consider unimportant even when no one else does.

·                     Jesus says, AS I ACCEPTED you when you were virtually unlovable.  .  YOU MUST ACCEPT AND LOVE others even when it is hard because they smell bad or are hard to look at.

·                     Jesus says, AS I ACCEPTED you when you were undeserving.  .  YOU MUST ACCEPT AND LOVE others even when they are demanding and manipulative.

·                      Jesus says, AS I ACCEPTED You in spite of the fact that you were ungrateful.  .  YOU MUST ACCEPT AND LOVE others even when you know you will not get a medal, a pat on the back or even a thank you.

Jesus said AS I HAVE LOVED . . . YOU LOVE

April 24- change the world day sermon

Change happens- what kind will it be?

RUMC April 25, 2010

How many united Methodists does it take to change a light bulb.

109.

 Seven on the Light Bulb Task Force Subcommittee, who report to the 

12 on the Light Bulb Task Force, appointed by the 

15 on the Trustee Board.  Their recommendation is reviewed by the Finance Committee Executive of

 5, who place it on the agenda of the

 18 member Finance Committee.  If they approve, they bring a motion to the 

27 member church Board, who appoint another 

12 member review committee.  If they recommend that the Church Board proceed, a resolution is brought to the Church conference.  They appoint another

 8 member review committee.  If their report to the next Church conference supports the changing of a light bulb, and the conference votes in favor, the responsibility to carry out the light bulb change is passed on to the Trustee Board, who in turn appoint a 

7 member committee to find the best price in new light bulbs.  Their recommendation of which Hardware Store has the best buy must then be reviewed by the 

23 member Ethics Committee to make certain that this hardware store has no connection to any unjust corporations.  They report back to the

Trustee Board who, then commissions the

Trustee in charge of the Janitor to ask him to make the change.

By then the janitor discovers that one more light bulb has burned out.

Nevertheless, everyone has a pot luck to celebrate what they accomplished.

It is a good thing that we can laugh at ourselves isn’t it?  

Let me ask you a serious question now.  How many Christians would it take to change the world?

Change is inevitable in life isn’t it?  And not just light bulbs.  They say the only thing that stays the same is that nothing stays the same.  We have seen a lot of change.  I like to ask our older members what has changed life the most since they were a child.  Some say electricity, some computers, some say cars and some say communications.  But they all agree that the change has been tremendous. 

They also agree that some change has been good and some has not.

God is a God of change.  Read the next to last chapter of Revelation.

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Rev 21)

You think imagining the new heaven is hard; now wrap your brain around this.  God has appointed the church to be the ushers for this new kingdom.

It has always amazed me that God trusted the kingdom to such a group of stumbling and bumbling people as us.  However, God did!  Thus the idea for CHANGE THE WORLD DAY which we celebrate today.

The question was what if we got 11 million people on the same page to work to change the world?  It just so happens that the United Methodist church has 11 Million members.  But how . . .  how do we do it?

How about starting with prayer?  Do you think prayer changes things?  I do.  I am convinced that prayer is the greatest power in all creation.  God says, “Ask whatever you will in my name and I will give it to you.”  Just last week we read, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Do you take those promises seriously?

You should . . . both individually and corporately; we have seen over and over again the tremendous power of prayer.  Bodies healed, jobs found, disasters averted, marriages saved, prayer is the number one most powerful tool for changing the world because it connects us directly to God's intention and God's power to change.

If there is any greater hope for changing a world that so desperately needs to be changed, I don’t know what it is.  So the number one world changing tool whether you are a single Christian or 11 million UM’s or 2 billion Christians worldwide, the number one world changing tool is prayer.  Pray, pray, pray, pray and when you are just about prayed out, pray again.  Change the world with prayer.

The second way we change the world is by banding together in worship.  Worship might be as small as 2 or 3.  .  .  Or as much as 25-30 thousand like Joel Osteen claims. 

What is so powerful and world changing about attending worship?  Let’s put it this way, don’t you think changing the world should start in our own hearts?  How can we teach forgiveness while we are holding a grudge?  How can we teach hope when we are in despair?  How can we teach about love when our own hearts are empty?  Worship transforms by the renewing of your mind
          Being present in worship is the place to start because that is where we are ourselves transformed.  That is where we ourselves are made new.  Worship is where we ourselves are molded, shaped, disciplined, and changed into the creation God envisions for us.

Every time we expose ourselves to the influence of God's word and every time we sing the songs of the faith; we walk away changed.  We walk away transformed. 

Change the world with your presence in worship.

The third tools we have to change the world are our gifts.  This is a very generous church.  As we celebrate “Change the world day,” we start a new offering for Mosquito Nets to wipe out malaria. 

We are using our change to change the world.  We can use bills and checks too, but it is not as catchy.

But this latest project is just the tip of the ice berg.  The apportionments are fundamentally the United Methodist church banding together 11 million members strong and saying together we can change the world with our gifts.  We gave $25,000 to apportionments last year.

But that is not the whole story either because on top of that you gave through your noisy offerings and fund raisers and your Operation Christmas child boxes and your health kits and the post garage sale donations--- are you ready for this?. . .  $18,156.  That is what these posters are about back here.  Please look at those.  When you add in the apportionments, a big percentage of which also goes for changing the world, that accounts for about a 1/3 of our spending last year. 

Do you think we might have changed the world for a child when they received their operation Christmas child box? 

Do you think we might have changed the world for one of the families I took to our local food bank?

Do you think we might have changed the world Change the world for a mother with a hungry baby when we gave to CROP or 30 hour famine or society of saint Andrew?

Do you think we might have changed the world when we helped provide a rent deposit so an abused woman and her children could have a place to live?

I would say you have changed the world with your gifts.

The fourth tool we have for changing the world is our service. 

I warned Mrs. Christiansen that I was going to do this to her.  She sits before us as a living breathing illustration of how the world changes because we love and serve. 

I met Beverly and Carl about a year ago when they moved in as my new neighbor.  And Beth met them and so did Sherris and others.  Little did any of us know that Carl would die in the December blizzard.  The congregation rallied around Beverly to get her through the first day when her family could not make it to Reinbeck because of the roads.  Carolyn even stayed with her through that dark first night.  And again, we served by inviting them to have the service here, and again by serving the lunch, and again by the way many of you treated them that day and in the following days.  And I know from Beverly’s own words that you showed her the love of Jesus by the way you treated her.  Your love showed her the love of Christ in a whole new way.  And today she sits here to become a member of this congregation.  Do you think you changed the world for Beverly?  I’d say so.

Again Look at LIGHT!  Look into the faces of those young children as they learn about Jesus.  Talk to the parents as they tell you how grateful they are to have a time that works for them to worship and learn as a family.  Do you think you just might be changing the world for them?

And what about our campership dinner.  Do you think that going to camp might change a child’s life?  Just ask me I will tell you it can.

What about love your neighbor day?  Or the blood drive?  Or the Valentine’s Day cookie walk?  None of them seems earth shattering, but for a family with a warm floor or a woman with clean windows or the parents with the child in need of blood or the person who thought no one cared for them.  You may have changed the world.

Change the world with your service.

Add all of these things added together- Prayers, presence, gifts and service then couple that with the final tool of our witness to the life changing power of Jesus Christ and, my friends, you have a recipe to change the world for someone.

Isn’t that what the scripture was about this morning.  for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.  When we do these things with the knowledge that we are doing them for Jesus, we just may be changing the world.

I don’t know how many united Methodist it takes to change a light bulb.  I don’t know how many united Methodists it would take to change the world.  But I do know that it only takes one person faithfully living out their Christian commitment to change the life of one other person, and then another and then another.

Let’s change the world one person at a time.

Change the world with your prayers

Change the world with your presence

Change the world by your gifts

Change the world by your service.

Change the world by your witness.

AMEN

           

"believing is believing" April 11, 2010 RUMC

Believing is believing

Rumc Easter week 2, 2010

·         If I say the name Judas, what word comes to mind?  Many of you say “betray" but not all of you.

·         If I were to mention Simon Peter, some of you would say "faith," but not all of you.

·         If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would say "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you.

·         But when I mention the word Thomas, there is little question that most everyone would say what?. . .  “Doubt.”  In fact, Thomas is so closely associated with doubt that we have coined a phrase to describe him: "Doubting Thomas."

Do you know that in the first three gospels say absolutely nothing at all about Thomas? It is only in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is enough.

When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Which disciple said, “Then let us go so that we may die with him.”  THOMAS It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that.

When he missed Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples, which disciple asked for the same opportunity the rest of the guys got?  THOMAS.  That is the context of his words, I will not believe unless . . . “But we don’t look at it that way do we.

When Jesus appeared which disciple bowed down in an earth shattering confession of faith “My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind.   THOMAS. These are certainly not the words of a doubter.

Even if we continue to call Thomas the doubter,

·         How different is his first reaction than the women who accused the gardener of stealing his body. 

·         How different is Thomas from the materialist Sadducees who didn’t’ believe in a bodily resurrection.

·         How different is Thomas from the millions of people throughout history who have said, “I don’t know- ‘now you see him, now you don’t, now you see him again’ doesn’t seem like God’s game.” 

·         How different is he from those who say he must not have really died? 

·         How different is he from those who say he was a ghost? 

·         How different is he from those who say I just don’t know

·         How different is Thomas from those who have tried many times to use historical of scientific methods to prove or disprove the resurrection.

·         How different is Thomas from those who say the dead do not normally rise, and therefore Jesus could not rise from the dead.

·         How different is Thomas from those who say I’ll follow Jesus because he was a great teacher.  But this resurrection stuff is just too much?

·         How different is Thomas from you and from me?

Preachers have spent way too much time trying to prove the resurrection to skeptical congregations.  I have read so many sermons entitled “5” or “7” or “3” reasons to believe Jesus was raised from the grave sermons that I begin to ask myself, “Who are they really trying to convince? The congregation or themselves?

Let me show you the best evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1.      I’ll start right here.  Do you think I could have gone out and followed a career path that would make me more money?  Sure I could have, and I might have, if the real power of the resurrection hadn’t grabbed hold of me while I was still in High School and changed both my goals and my values.

2.      Do you think that after one church burning down and the other being on the edge of the 93 flood, after depression, suicide attempts, hospitalization mocking, after being stalked, harassed, threatened, and being told in a church council meeting that they ought to tar and feather me and run me out of town on a rail.  Do you think that after successfully working in a couple of  different industries, becoming a journeyman carpenter, starting my own business . . .  do you think after all of that that there is any explanation for my standing here today is anything short of a living testimony to the power of the resurrection in my life?

Let’s look at you

1.      I know of people in this congregation who have been raised from the grave of awful addictions to walk among us.  Is there any explanation for that besides the power of the resurrection of Jesus?

2.      I know of people who have survived awful, abusive childhoods or marriages, some who continue to suffer; yet sit here week after week.  Is there any greater evidence of the reality and power of the resurrection than their presence in our midst?

3.      I know of people here who have been down the road of mental illness; they daily struggle with the fear that it will come back or get out of control.  How do you explain presence in our midst? Only because the power of the risen lord brings them here.

4.      I know of some who have been through unspeakable illnesses, suffered, been on the brink of death, or walked through such illness with a loved one. Yet sit in our midst and testify to the love and the power of Jesus.  Is there any explanation other than the work of a resurrected and living Christ at work in your lives today?

5.      I have walked with some of you through the death of some dear people.  We have walked away from their graves with our heads hanging low.  Yet because the power of the risen and living Christ is proclaimed in our midst we have the hope to return on Sunday to sing halleluiah- AMEN. 

YOU- AND YOU AND YOU AND ME ARE THE BEST EVIDENCE I CAM IMAGINE THAT JESUS LIVED, DIED AND LIVES AGAIN.

How many of you were here Wednesday night?  Raise your hand.  Can you imagine any greater proof that we serve a resurrected and living Jesus, than what you saw Wednesday night? 

·         I am sure there were some who went Wednesday night believing in their hearts   that LIGHT would fail.

·         Here we are in a congregation with an average age of somewhere around 60

·         In a denomination with an average age of 62

·         In a time in history when we have lost 6 million members from our denomination

·         When the church is no longer marginalized but has been pushed off the page for most people.

·         With people around us asking “Why can’t they come on Sunday?  Or “Why should we make it easy for them?”—yes that question was really asked!!!

In that context we launched the first week of LIGHT.

Ø  We had more high school students than we have had all year including one who hasn’t been here since confirmation a year and a half ago.

Ø  We had ALL of the confirmation students here- which hasn’t happened in months, and they were alive and engaged!

Ø  The children’s rooms were overflowing and we know of more who plan to come this week!  There were two huge adult classes making the walls of their rooms bulge.

Ø  There were God’s children of all ages sitting fully engaged in praising God, and hearing God’s word. 

Ø  There were people you may have never met sitting in your pews.

Ø  There were people who hadn’t been to church in years smiling and talking about bringing friends.

If there is better evidence of the resurrection of Jesus than that I don’t know what it is!!!

Friends.  We don’t need scientific proof.  Friends, we don’t need to put our fingers in his hands and in his side.   Friends, we don’t need to see the grave cloths ourselves.  Friends, we don’t need to rely on our own private feelings, or hopes to prove the resurrection of Jesus.  And though it is a powerful reminder we don’t need to rely on a 2000 year old story to prove to us that Jesus is alive and well in our world, in Reinbeck, in our congregation and in our lives.

Last week, on Easter, we celebrated that after that awful Friday and that dark Saturday came Sunday morning.  The women left in brokenness and hopelessness and came running back from the tomb saying he’s loose! He’s loose!

Here we are a week after Easter- Just like the Thomas story.  Today we remember the one called the doubter , but we remember him not for doubting but for testifying that Jesus really is not just set loose from the tomb, and set loose in Thomas life.

Today we look at the story of the resurrection and it is almost unbelievable.  By that I mean it can’t be measured, explained, proven or disproven: except one single and miraculous way.   When Jesus himself comes to stand in front of us.  (I don’t mean bodily)  I mean in you looking at me and me looking at you.  I mean in all of us seeing in awe the living breathing Christ teeming in the faces that filled this sanctuary Wednesday night.  I mean in each of us as we see in our mind’s eye the person we once were and the person Christ has made of us. 

And there is only one response.

Some might say: evidence is believing.  But that is not really believing.

Some might say: I’ll believe when I can touch it. But that is not really believing.

Some might say: seeing is believing But that is not really believing.

Some might say: feeling is believing But that is not really believing.

Some might say: proving is believing. But that is not really believing.

Jesus asks us to have faith.  That is to say- we must believe simply because we believe that we believe that we believe. 

To know that we know that we know. in the depths of our being.

To have faith is to say believing is believing.

To believe so deeply that with Thomas we leave all doubt behind and unashamedly fall on our knees in worship to exclaim my lord and my god.

Will you believe with me?  If so let’s say it together.  My Lord and My God! – My Lord and My God.