Saturday, December 29, 2012

Finding Jesus


Have you ever had a time when you are so mad at someone you could see red. They did something so stupid you don't understand how they could have possibly did it without realizing they were an idiot. Like when your brother brings up your ex boyfriend the first time he meets the new boyfriend, or your friend takes your car, hits a deer and then leaves it in the driveway for you. This is how I picture Mary and Joseph looking at Jesus when they finally find him and hear his explanation for why he was not in the caravan.

Jesus is 12. At the age of 12 many young men would be apprenticing, they would be treated not as children but young adults. They would have responsibilities and obligations. The family had traveled many miles together for the passover celebration and it would have been expected that Jesus would help get things packed up and join with everyone else to go back. He would know it is time to go home.

At the end of the first day of the journey he was no where to be found. I can see Mary and Joseph and their family searching frantically for him. Where did he go? How could they have lost him? God asked me to raise his son and now we have gone and lost him!? If I was them I would also be thinking about what kind of punishment I was going to give him when I got my hands on him. Then the frenzy turns into three days of searching and going back to the temple. As a mother, by that third day there would be no thought of punishment just gratefulness that I found him and that he was okay. Then, I probably would be angry with his peevish response, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” This was most likely also insulting to Joseph who was representing his earthly father and had adopted him as fully as any father of the time could have.

I truly tried to put myself in Mary's shoes. Would I be so grateful to find him in one piece and safe that I would not mind his response, or would I be angry because he had made me worry so. Would I think that Jesus knew what he needed to do and where he should have been and he didn't even have the courtesy to tell me what he was doing? Would I have seen red because of his blatant disregard for what I wanted or would I have been grateful for him being okay? Or perhaps both.

Isn't this like our relationships with Jesus now. We go along on our way thinking Jesus is with us and then when we can't find him we get upset, sometimes we get down right mad at Jesus. Sometimes we expect Jesus to be in something and we can't see him. We can't see how it is going to work out, what is going on, where we are going or what we are supposed to be doing. WE feel lost and worried and alone. Yet Jesus is right where Jesus needs to be doing right what Jesus needs to be doing – just like at the temple. When we finally figure out a piece of the puzzle and look back and see where Jesus was and what he was doing are we mad or grateful? Are we still angry that our plan didn't work out? That our little journey home was four times as long and took a huge detour? Are we grateful for that? Or do we get so caught up in our plan that we don't take time to be grateful for the detour and all that we learned on it.

The Colossians passage that we read at the beginning of service (Colossians 3:12-17) tells us in v. 17 that “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” We don't know where Jesus is in our lives all the time. That is just how it is. Mary and Joseph didn't either. If they didn't and they were his earthly parents then why should we be any different? We are promised that he he is our Emmanuel – God with us. We know that he walks beside us and never leaves us. From Jeremiah 29:11 we hear from God “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope an a future.” With all of that when we can't know what God is doing, when we don't understand or are left looking and wondering as Mary and Joseph were, we are called by Colossians to remember to do everything in the name of the Lord and give thanks for everything. We are called to find things to be grateful for and to keep Jesus at the center of our lives even when we are wondering around feeling lost. We are never truly lost from Jesus, we may just now understand what he is doing. Just like Mary and Joseph we just may not “get it” until later on when we can see the big picture and Jesus is in front of us. Perhaps during this Christmas season and throughout the entire New Year that is exactly what we are called to do – be grateful and do everything in Jesus' name – even when we can't seem to see what Jesus is doing in our lives and we can't find any answers.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Bible Study - Redefining Evangelism

Hello all you happy readers.  I have a Bible study coming in January on redefining Evangelism that I just finished pulling together for a class. It is a way to look at some of those key words - salvation, kingdom of God, evangelism and see what that means to us now.  It also helps you to look at evangelism differently than knocking on doors, and screaming about hell from the pulpit.   It is more about living your faith everyday.  Let me know if you are interested and I can get you details.

Happy Holidays!
Missy

Salvation now!



At seminary a few weeks ago I heard a sermon on being in the in between times. We are on a journey and we are in between what we want to be and what we are , and what we had been. We are in a journey in school heading to graduation, but are in the in between. But this is true for all of us. We are in between starting a job and retirement. We have in between birth and death, we are an in between people – looking forward at where we want to go, looking back at where we have been and experiencing the now in all its imperfections. That too is Zechariah's story. In Luke 1:68-79 Zechariah speaks for the first time in nine long months. He is told of the coming of his son John and because of his and Elizabeth's age does not quite believe it. So he is struck mute until the child came and Zechariah nodded his agreement with Elizabeth that their son should be John. Which was against the culture and customs of the time. His community expected the son to be named Zechariah!

Zechariah knew from what the angels had told him that he was at the cusp of a new time. That he was in between seeing it actualized and it beginning. He was stuck in the in between. But in that uncomfortable time of knowing change is here and knowing what that is going to unfold like he sang this psalm of joy to the Lord.

Zechariah reminds us that God has been in the mix since the beginning. God has been with Israel in the prophets and the covenants and never has God been unfaithful to his people. God is always faithful to his covenants from Abraham on. He testifies to his son being the one to point us toward the savior of us all, and gratitude for that savior. He does not yet know that John will die fulfilling God's will to point to the savior and encourage people to repent of their separations from God. He does not know how this savior will play out for the world, but he is faithfully waiting in the in between time for God to fulfill God's promises.

Finally he reminds us that the savior will (1:77) “give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. (v. 78) By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, (v.79) to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

That is the summary of Jesus' time on Earth and what the Holy Spirit does for us today! Today this very day a bit more than 2000 years later this message is for us. Knight and Powe remind us of how Wesley saw salvation”
        “Wesley believes in going to heaven, but that is not for him the heart of salvation. Commenting on             Ephesians 2:8 (“Ye are saved through faith”) Wesley says the salvation spoken of in this text “is not a blessing which lies on the other side of death. . . . It is not something at a distance;” instead “it is a present thing, a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, ye are now in possession of.”6 It is the gift of a new life, a life we have in the present, and which death cannot take from us. It is heaven in the heart.”1

Salvation is a new life now. The forgiveness of our separations our sins is for now in our in between, while we are on our journey. The new life awaits us, the joy, and the “way of peace” as Zechariah says it is here. This is our story at advent. Advent is a time of waiting for the coming of Christ. It is the in between time when we examine our lives and see where we are on this journey. Are we ready for salvation – for a deeper relationship with Christ in our life now? Are we willing to stop holding onto what we think we should be doing, what should be happening and truly offer it up to God. Are we ready to truly, daily give our lives over to God so that we can experience salvation, and peace in our everyday. A way of living where no matter how bad our circumstances are we can truly find comfort in the Lord, offer our worries, fears and anxieties to the Lord and experience the joy of not walking this road alone. To know that the Holy Spirit walks beside us, that we are not alone in our sadness and loneliness. This is Zechariah's prayer for each of us. This is my prayer. May our God who came to us as Jesus, to show us the path to salvation break into our everyday lives and walk with us in peace. Let us truly get ready to invite Christ into our hearts and lives again this Christmas season.

Amen.

1Knight, Henry; Powe, Doug (2006-10-24). Transforming Evangelism, The Wesleyan Way of Sharing Faith (Kindle Locations 75-79). Discipleship Resources. Kindle Edition.