The Journey ~ From Nazareth to Bethlehem

For the past three weeks we have been looking at the unusual journey that brought Mary and Joseph together and eventually led them to Bethlehem and what I have appreciated is a new perspective on an old and familiar story. For example, a few weeks ago we heard how Joseph may not have been from Nazareth where Mary lived but from Bethlehem which was about 80 miles away. Arranged marriages over long distances were not uncommon in those days so it’s possible that Joseph was from Bethlehem because as we heard today, that is where they travel at the time of the census when people were called to return to their hometowns. If Joseph was from Bethlehem, he most likely heard that Mary was pregnant while she was visiting with her cousin Elizabeth who lived in Ein Karem, which was a small town just a few miles from Bethlehem.


Last week we heard that Mary spent the first 3 months of her pregnancy with her cousin Elizabeth and then we assume Mary and Joseph travelled back to Nazareth where they quickly got married and waited for Mary to give birth. Now the custom in those days was for a young couple to return to the groom’s home where a room would be set aside or built onto the house for the newlyweds to live until they saved enough money to move out on their own, but because Mary was pregnant we assume they planned to stay in Nazareth at least until the baby was born so that Mary’s family could help her at the time of the delivery. While that may have been their plan, that plan changed when a Roman Centurion arrived with the news that the Emperor Augustus had called for a census which meant that all men had to return to their hometowns to be counted. Joseph, being from Bethlehem, now had to return home so he and Mary were forced to take the long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Before we look at the actual road that Mary and Joseph would have travelled, let’s stop and consider the census for a moment. In those days a census was called for one reason, to levy taxes. By including this detail in the story, Luke is making a point of reminding those who are reading this that when Jesus was born God’s people were living in an occupied land. The people of Israel were not free – they were being ruled over by Rome and the people hated that and they longed for the day when they would be free. In fact, the Jewish people were looking forward to the day when the Messiah would come and it was this Messiah that the angel said would be born to Mary, look at Luke 1:32-33.

This is the kind of Messiah the people were looking for, someone who would sit on the throne of David and overthrow the Roman government so the people could be free. While Jesus didn’t come to be that kind of Messiah, he did set people free from bondage – from the spiritual bondage of sin and death. So today when we hear about the Emperor Augustus and Quirinius the governor of Syria it reminds us that at times we also live in bondage and look for a Messiah to set us free. The apostle Paul talks about the bondage we live in, in the bondage of sin, in Romans 7:15, 19-20.

It is the power of sin which compels us to do those things we know we shouldn’t do and it is the power of sin which keeps us from doing what we know God wants us to do. This is the bondage and oppression that Jesus was born to take away. When we accept Christ and allow the power of God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives, we begin to experience freedom from this kind of sin and bondage and we begin to experience the joy of new life. This freedom and new life is available to all of us today if we are willing to accept the power of God and allow God’s spirit to work in us. One of the carols we sang today said, cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today. Freedom and life can be born in us by simply accepting Jesus as our Savior and allowing God to begin to develop new life within us. That’s a spiritual journey that can begin today by simply asking Jesus to be born in us, it won’t mean everything will suddenly be perfect and easy – it wasn’t easy for Mary and Joseph, but when invite Christ into our lives we begin a journey where we will experience the fullness of life.

For Mary and Joseph, their journey took them to Bethlehem and there are two roads they could have taken. 

 The road on the eastern side of the Jordan River would have been the easiest road to take. Literally, it was an easy road to travel because it was flat and followed the river which meant there would be food and water, and this road also passed through areas that were much more acceptable and friendly to the Jewish people, but this road was longer so it would have taken Mary and Joseph more time to get to Bethlehem which meant they ran the risk of having their child along the way.

The other road, which lies to the west of the Jordan River, ran through a much more difficult terrain. There were sections of this road that went through the mountains and it was very dry and having enough water was always a concern on trips in those days, so the physical journey would be difficult for anyone, let alone a woman 9 months pregnant. The western road also travelled through Samaria which was considered an unclean land by the Jewish people. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews and because many Jews considered the Samaritans ritually impure and unclean, the region was often avoided by many faithful Jews, but this road would have been the fastest way to Bethlehem and so most scholars believe that this was the road travelled by Mary and Joseph.

What is interesting about this road through Samaria is that it is called the Way of the Patriarchs because it is in this region that much of the history of the Old Testament took place. For example, this was the land where Abraham was shown the land God was going to give him and his descendants forever. It was in this land that Joseph was buried and it was here that Joshua set up the Ark of the Covenant. This was also the road that Israel would have travelled when they were led away into captivity, travelling from Jerusalem to the land of Babylon in the northeast, and this would have been the road God’s people would travelled when they returned to their homeland to rebuild the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. This road was rich with history and in many ways it was a road God was very familiar with because he had travelled it with his people for generations. How interesting to think that now God was going to travel this road in the flesh, in the womb of Mary.

Mary and Joseph’s decision to take this road to Bethlehem also reveals something to us about their heart and character. Because they were travelling through Samaria, Mary and Joseph must have been ok interacting with people that others considered unclean and impure. When we consider the life of Jesus and remember all the times he reached out to those others considered unclean, we begin to see just how his heart and life were shaped by his earthly parents.

As an adult, Jesus would travel through Samaria and not just pass through like other Jews would, but actually stop and engage in ministry. In fact, a well that Mary and Joseph would have stopped at for the night was the same well where Jesus stopped and asked a Samaritan woman to draw him some water. Jesus shocked his followers by not just reaching out to speak to Samaritans but he offered them forgiveness and salvation. While this was shocking to many people in Jesus day, it makes sense that Jesus might be like this when we think about his parents. They were compassionate people who also may have been willing to reach out and embrace people who were different than they were.

All of this makes us stop and ask ourselves if our own hearts are open to all people? Do we really believe that God’s love and forgiveness is available to everyone regardless of who they are and what they have done in life? Do we believe that God’s grace is deep enough to forgive and wide enough to receive everyone? We have been wrestling with this very issue in our community recently as we have had to come face to face with the reality of child abuse. We have had to ask ourselves if we believe that God’s grace is for all people, even those who are accused or found guilty of crimes. This doesn’t mean there isn’t justice for criminals and consequences for sin, but is God’s grace big enough to forgive everyone? May and Joseph were willing to open themselves to everyone, to all people – the angels told the shepherds on the night that Jesus was born that a savior had come for all the people - Jesus offered God’s grace and life to all people – will we offer God’s grace and love to all people?

So we believe that Mary and Joseph travelled through Samaria and arrived in Bethlehem where it says in Luke 2 that Jesus was born and laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. So now we come the question many of you have been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, if Joseph was from Bethlehem, then why did Mary and Joseph have to go to an Inn instead of to Joseph’s home? That’s a great question and one possible answer is that maybe they did go to Joseph’s home.

If we look at Luke 2:7 it just says that they laid Jesus in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now the word inn here is the Greek word kataluma and the only other place this word is used in the Bible is in Luke 22 where Jesus tells his disciples to prepare the Passover meal in the kataluma or the guest room of a home. Luke 22 translates kataluma as guestroom and if we read Luke 2 that way, it changes the whole tone of the passage. She wrapped him cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the guest room. Another reason we might want to read it this way is because in the story of the good Samaritan when Jesus talks about an actual Inn, Luke uses a different word, so if Luke wanted us to see this as an actual Inn, then he might have used a different word. So if we read Luke 2 and see it as a guest room that was full, we would assume the guest room was in Joseph’s home and it would make sense that the guest room was full because the census would have brought everyone home.

But, you may ask, why wouldn’t the family have given the guest room to Mary and Joseph since she was pregnant and in such need? Another good question; according to Jewish law, when a woman gave birth – because of the blood involved in the process of childbirth – the woman and all that she touched and all that the blood came into contact with would be considered unclean for a period of time which meant that if Mary had given birth in the guest room, the room would have been off limits to the entire family and most homes didn’t have more than one guest room, which meant that most of Joseph’s family would have been displaced, so it makes more sense to send Mary and Joseph to the stable to give birth and not disrupt the entire family.

Now while we may think this stable would not have been a good place to have a child, in many ways it was ideal. Stables were often built onto the back or side of the house which means that they were protected from both the weather and wild beasts, and the location could have been close to Joseph’s family, which means that they would have been there to help if and when needed.

I have to say that this new way of looking at the story was a challenge for me; after all, when I was in 5th grade I played the part of the Innkeeper who turned Mary and Joseph away, but did you notice that there is no innkeeper in Luke? While this new perspective might change your image of what took place on the night Jesus was born and while it might change how we write and present Christmas pageants, here’s what I like about it. It comforts me to know that Jesus didn’t enter the world in a strange location all alone, but in the stable of Joseph’s family. Think about it, if the feeding trough was made of wood, maybe it was something Joseph built with his father when he was a child. The stable would have been a familiar place for Joseph, maybe a place of happy memories, and his family would have been close by so in the city of Bethlehem there may not have been a better place for Jesus to be born – God provided what was best.

I think that is what encourages me the most when I look at the stable from this perspective, maybe Mary and Joseph weren’t as alone as we picture them on that night. It encourages me to know that God provided a good place for Mary and Joseph to deliver their child because that tells me that when we are in need, God will provide. If you are on a long difficult journey and if like Mary and Joseph you are asking God why things are so hard and why things aren’t turning out the way you thought they should and if you asking why God’s will is so hard to see, then I hope you will take home this one important lesson from Mary and Joseph – God will provide. God provided for Mary and Joseph all along their journey to Bethlehem and God provided for them in Bethlehem and God was going to continue to provide for them in the future because their journey wasn’t over. God never abandon them, and God does not and will not abandon us.

As faithful Jews, Mary and Joseph would have known their scripture and I wonder if the words of the prophet Isaiah rang in their hearts and minds as they travelled the road to Bethlehem or faced an uncertain future in a stable:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

On our journey today, I hope we will hear this promise of God? God loves us so much that He will not only be with us, but in love and grace and in power – He will provide.


Next Steps:
Jesus came to “cast out our sin” and set us free. What sin do you need to confess to God so that God’s forgiveness and grace and set you free? Confess that sin to God this week and allow God’s grace to bring you the gift of freedom and true life.

By travelling through Samaria on their way to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph remind us that the gift of Jesus and God’s salvation and grace is for all people. What person (or groups of people) do you struggle to love? How can you reach out to them in love in the coming year?

The stable (or cave) where Jesus was born may have been attached to Joseph’s home and the Inn that was full may have been the guest room in Joseph’s family home, so when you see Nativity scenes this week thank God that He sent Jesus to your home and to touch the hearts and lives of your family.

Invite someone who is “hungry for God” to worship with you this Christmas Eve at 4:00, 7:00 or 9:30 PM.

The Journey ~ Mary's Visit to Elizabeth

Today as we continue to explore the journey of Mary and Joseph that led them to the manger of Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus, we are going to turn our focus to a part of the story which is often overlooked. There are no Elizabeth and Zechariah’s in our manger scenes or Christmas pageants so we don’t often remember the vital role they played in Mary and Joseph’s journey, but in many ways it was this visit of Mary to see Elizabeth that played a key role in Mary and Joseph making it Bethlehem together at all.


What we know about Elizabeth comes from Luke 1. We know that she is the wife of Zechariah who as a descendent of Aaron which meant that at some point in time Zechariah would serve as a priest in the Temple. We also know that Elizabeth was barren and, as it says in Luke, they were both well along in years. It is when the angel Gabriel visits Mary that we find out that Elizabeth is a relative of Mary, we assume a cousin, and it is Gabriel who tells us that while Elizabeth is both beyond child bearing years and thought to be barren and unable to have children she was, in fact, currently in her sixth month of pregnancy -Luke 1:36-37.

Now this may be the first time that Mary is hearing about her cousin’s pregnancy because if we go back to Luke 1:24 it says that after Elizabeth became pregnant she went into seclusion for five months and if you remember the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, when Zechariah was told by God that his wife was pregnant he didn’t believe God so God made him unable to speak until the child was born. So the reality is that the news about Elizabeth being pregnant in her old age may not have spread throughout their small town let alone travelled to Elizabeth’s family living in Nazareth.

So not only does the angel tell Mary that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah and that her child is to be conceived in a miraculous way, but that her cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant. Now one of the reasons the angel shares this news about Elizabeth with Mary is to help her understand that God is able to bring forth a child in impossible situations. If God can have Elizabeth, an old and barren woman conceive a child, then God can have a young virgin do the same thing. In other words, nothing is impossible with God. So Gabriel uses Elizabeth as an example of what the power of God can do to help assure Mary that God can bring forth a child in her. As soon as Mary receives this news she rushes off to visit Elizabeth and the question we ask ourselves is – why?

It could be that Mary wanted to help her cousin in the final weeks of her pregnancy and act as a midwife or helper at the time of the birth, but I think more than that Mary rushes off to see Elizabeth to make sure that what the angel said was true. If Mary goes and finds Elizabeth 6 months pregnant then she knows that what the angel said is true and she knows that God can bring about children in miraculous ways. A pregnant Elizabeth gives Mary the assurance that what is going to take place in her is from God. Mary may also have gone to see Elizabeth because if what the angel said is true, then of all the people Mary knows, Elizabeth would be the one to understand what Mary was going through. If nothing else, at least Elizabeth would believe her story about the angel and finding herself pregnant.

Now tradition tells us that the name of the Judean village where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived was Ein Karem and as we heard last week it was just a few miles from Bethlehem which were both a short distance from Jerusalem. While close to Bethlehem and the town where Joseph may have lived, Ein Karem was 80 miles from Nazareth and the journey for Mary to get there would have taken 9 or 10 days. Most likely, Mary would have joined up with other travelers who were making their way to Jerusalem because Mary would not have travelled that distance and that difficult and at times dangerous road alone.

Can you imagine what that journey must have been like for Mary? At this point she doesn’t know if Elizabeth is pregnant or for that matter if she is pregnant, after all it has only been a few days since the angel’s visit. Why had God chosen her? What was Joseph going to say if all of this was true? Would he still marry her? What would the rest of her family say? Who was going to believe her? All of these questions, doubts and fears must have been swirling in Mary’s mind as she makes her journey and all along the way she has no one to talk to. What a long and lonely road that must have been. When Mary finally arrives at Elizabeth’s home and calls out to her cousin it says that when Elizabeth heard her voice the child in her womb leaped for joy and then filled with the Holy Spirit Elizabeth immediately says to Mary, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. So in an instant Mary not only sees that Elizabeth is pregnant, so what the angels said is true, but Elizabeth’s greeting also confirms that not only is Mary pregnant but that her child is indeed holy and blessed. Elizabeth goes on to actually call Mary’s son Lord, (Elizabeth is the first person in all the scriptures and in all the world to call Jesus Lord) which again confirms for Mary that what the angel said is true and that the child she carries is the son of God.

When we stop and think about it, this entire scene is amazing. Elizabeth doesn’t know Mary is coming and she certainly doesn’t know Mary is pregnant but as soon as Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice something profound happens deep within her. Not only does her child leap for joy because he recognizes the child Mary is carrying, but Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit which helps her understand that Mary is pregnant and that the child she is carrying is the long awaited Messiah. And all of this happens for one important reason, to help assure Mary that what the angel said is true. You see God doesn’t give us a message or purpose and plan and then not work to confirm it in different ways. While God wants us to walk in faith, it isn’t always blind faith; God loves us enough to work through others and through the power of the Holy Spirit to help confirm his purpose for our lives.

There was a point in my life when I needed some guidance and prayed for God to give me that clear direction. In a dream God gave me that direction and as I shared this story with a group this week they asked me, how did you know it was God’s voice? The answer is that God didn’t just speak and then walk away. God used his word to help confirm that message and then as I stepped out in faith to follow God’s plan – God guided me every step of the way. God opened doors that needed to be opened and God sent people into my life and like Elizabeth, they helped confirm God’s plan.

While we often by-pass this story of Mary visiting her cousin and just jump to Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem, I’m not sure that trip to Bethlehem would have taken place if Mary had not first visited Elizabeth. This visit gives Mary the confirmation she needed to keep going and maybe this visit helped Joseph as well (we’ll look at that in a moment). Elizabeth not only provides assurance that what the angel said is true, but she also provided inspiration and support for Mary. Elizabeth becomes a mentor for Mary who not only helps her understand that what is taking place in her is from God, but that it was also a blessing. Three times Elizabeth uses the word blessed, twice to talk about Mary and once to talk about Mary’s child and all of this had to have been an encouragement to Mary. So many times when we are faced with difficult situations we feel like Mary on the road to Ein Karem, we feel lost and alone and we think that there is no one who can possibly understand what we are going through, but the truth is that God always provides someone for us to turn to in times of need. If we will open our eyes, and maybe the eyes of our heart, we will find mentors and friends who are right here to support us and pray for us when we need it.

In every church I have served God has provided people who have been there to give support, encouragement and inspiration when it was needed. It Altoona it was a wonderfully faithful couple, Gene and Jackie Ross, who supported me during times of conflict and change when many others were pretty unsure about my leadership and ideas. Jackie was one of the leaders in the church and she faithfully stood with me at all times and supported what she saw God doing in me and through me. In Lewisburg there was a retired minister named Luke Brinker who served as a mentor and prayer warrior for me and he always made sure I knew he was behind me when I needed support or strength. Jackie and Luke were my Elizabeths; they were the people who with a word could encourage me when I was filled with doubt or fear.

We all need an Elizabeth in our lives and I believe God provides them if we will open our eyes and our hearts to those around us. I want to encourage you to think about the Elizabeth that God has provided for you today. Who is the man or woman that God has placed in your life that will support you and encourage you and maybe help show you what it means to walk with God? God has provided these people for us, but we do have to work to build the relationship with them. Think about Mary, God provided her someone for support, but she had to work to deepen that relationship. Mary had to make the long journey to visit Elizabeth, but it was definitely worth it.

We all need an Elizabeth in our lives but we also all need a Mary. No matter who we are we need to be looking for people who need some support and encouragement because God has placed people in our lives that need guidance and direction and He is asking us to step up and help them. Are we willing to reach out and mentor others? It takes time to build relationships where trust and love can flow in such a way that others are built up and in the midst of our busy world it may not seem like it is worthwhile taking that time, but when we look at Mary and Elizabeth we realize it is. Because of Elizabeth, God’s plan of salvation was accomplished and today God wants to use us to help bring about his plan in our lives in and in the lives of others.

Mary needed this time of encouragement, but you know, I think Joseph did as well. Last week we saw that if Joseph was from Bethlehem, which was just a few miles from where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived, then it makes perfect sense that Joseph would have travelled to Ein Karm to see Mary while she was there and that may have been where he learned about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. Now while the angel gave Joseph the assurance that Mary’s story was true and that the child she carried was from God, think about what seeing a pregnant Elizabeth must have done to help Joseph come to terms with the situation. Seeing the miracle of birth in Elizabeth may have been the encouragement and assurance that Joseph needed to know that Mary’s child was indeed from God. This visit to Elizabeth was not just encouragement to Mary but it was important to Joseph as well and it may have been Elizabeth and Zechariah who helped Joseph get to that place where he felt comfortable taking Mary as his wife which in turn helped complete God’s plan for bringing Jesus into this world.

Again, while we often overlook this story because we don’t see Elizabeth or Zechariah in our Nativity scenes, they are vital to the journey of Mary and Joseph because they help confirm the message of the angel and their situation offers both Mary and Joseph the support, encouragement and inspiration they need. If you need support, encouragement and inspiration today – God has provided it for you and at the same time God wants to use you to support, encourage and inspire others. My hope is that as we make our way through this season we won’t get too busy to see the Eliabeth’s and Mary’s God has placed in our lives because these relationships will not only be ones of support and encouragement for us, they may the relationships that will help us both discover and then live out God’s plan and purpose for our lives.


Next Steps:
1. Who is your Elizabeth? Identify that older person who serves as your mentor and guide and take the time to deepen that relationship. Tell them you appreciate their wisdom and support.

2. Who is your Mary? Identify the younger person you are encouraging and investing yourself in. Make sure you carve out the time to deepen that relationship and share with them the blessing and joy they bring you.

3. Read Mary’s Magnificat found in Luke 1:46-55 (read it in several different translations). What does this song of praise tell us about the character of Mary? The character of the God who chose Mary? The work Jesus would do?

4. Part of Mary’s Magnificat says that God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. Help fill the hungry this season by donating time, food or supplies to the Christmas dinner.

The Journey ~ Joseph of Bethlehem

When we think about the story of Jesus birth, there are certain assumptions we make about how all they events took place. For example, we assume that both Mary and Joseph were from Nazareth and that after they each heard from the angel about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy they quickly got married and then at the time of the census travelled to Bethlehem where Jesus was born and laid in a manger. But with a closer reading of Matthew’s gospel we see that Nazareth is not mentioned at all until chapter 2 which is several years after Jesus has been born. According to Matthew, itis only after Mary and Joseph have had the visit of the wisemen, which could have been several years after Jesus was born, and after they had travelled to Egypt that we find them finally settling down in the village of Nazareth. What Matthew seems to assume is that Joseph was not from Nazareth but from Bethlehem, so let’s explore that possibility for a moment.


The first question that comes to mind if Joseph is from Bethlehem and Mary from Nazareth is how they came to be engaged if the towns they lived in were so far apart. The simple answer to that is that most marriages in those days were arranged by the family and these arranged marriages often involved people from different villages or towns, so while Mary was from Nazareth, Joseph could very easily have been from Bethlehem.

The second question that comes up is how did Joseph hear about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy if they lived in different villages? Again the answer is pretty simple. In Luke’s story it says after Mary’s visit from the angel she travelled to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also expecting a child (Luke 1:39) and Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months (Luke 1:56). Now the Judean town where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived was called Ein Karem which just happens to be 4 miles from Bethlehem. So while Mary was visiting with Elizabeth it would have made perfect sense for Joseph to visit her and during one of those visits to hear the news of this unexpected child. You can almost picture Joseph walking home to Bethlehem disillusioned and disappointed after hearing that his fiancé is pregnant and he knows that he is not the father. While Mary said the child was from God, Joseph simply does not believe her. When it says that Joseph decided to dismiss Mary quietly and not expose her to public disgrace it is because Joseph doesn’t believe Mary’s story about the child being from God. If Joseph had believed Mary he would have taken her immediately as his wife, but he doesn’t do that. Joseph doesn’t believe Mary’s story about the angel and the baby, which only leaves one possibility – Mary had been unfaithful.

Being unfaithful during an engagement was just as bad as being unfaithful in marriage because an engagement was a legally binding contract. Mary and Joseph were already legally united, all that was left was the wedding ceremony and then the honeymoon. Since they already had this legal arrangement, with Mary breaking that covenant and being pregnant and Joseph knowing that he is not the father, he has every right to make Mary suffer the consequences of her unfaithfulness and publically shame and disgrace her, but it says that Joseph was righteous and didn’t want to do that. It’s interesting how Matthew is interpreting righteous here. His righteousness is not for the law or for the pursuit of justice but for compassion and mercy. That says something about Joseph and it says something about the God who chose Joseph. By choosing Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus who will guide his life, God is choosing a man who is more concerned about mercy than the law and let’s be clear, God chose Joseph as much as God chose Mary.

Think about it, Joseph could have continued on with his plan to dismiss Mary quietly and wash his hands of the whole situation. Joseph could have stepped away and had no involvement in the life of the child that Mary was carrying – but God intervenes and changes Joseph’s plan so that he becomes the earthly father of Jesus. By sending the angel to Joseph God is now choosing Joseph to be the father of the Jesus and God chose Joseph because he was a man who was righteous not about law and justice but love and mercy. That was the kind of man God wanted shaping the heart and mind of Jesus because that is what lies at the heart of God. The righteousness of God is not seen in his pursuit of justice but mercy, but love and grace. God’s righteousness offered forgiveness to the sinner and grace to the world through the life of Jesus.

So God chose Joseph and if he was from Bethlehem than God is also choosing Bethlehem. Like Nazareth, Bethlehem was a small town not far from the larger city of Jerusalem. The population of Bethlehem was perhaps 500-1,000 people and while it was small like Nazareth, unlike Nazareth, it was very well known. Bethlehem was the village where King David came from and according to the prophet Micah it was the place where the Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2). While Bethlehem was going to be the birthplace of the future king, at this point in time it was a working class town that was home to both shepherds and farmers. While the shepherds of Bethlehem are well known because they were the ones who were worshipped Jesus in the manger, the farmers in this area also play a significant role in the larger life of Jesus. The farmers in this area grew wheat and barley which were sold to the bakers in Bethlehem who were known throughout the region for producing bread which helped feed the people of Jerusalem and it was this grain which helped Bethlehem get its name because Bethlehem means, house of bread. Again, I don’t think it is a coincidence that from a city that was known for producing bread came one who not only provided bread for those who were hungry but who also said, I am the bread of life. That God choose to find the father of Jesus in Bethlehem not only fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus would come from the house of David and the town of Bethlehem, but it shows us once again that God loves to choose the humble, meek and hard working people of the world to accomplish his will.

While not much is known about Joseph’s life we do know that he was a simple carpenter. The word carpenter that is used to describe Joseph is the word tekton which means builder and usually refers to someone who built things out of stone or wood and teckton is part of our word architect. But Joseph was not an arch-tekton or master builder, he was just a tekton, a simple builder or wood-worker who helped provide doors and roofs for the people of Bethlehem and for the larger city of Jerusalem.

So Joseph was a simple hard working man who as we have already seen, had a very human reaction to the news of Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. Let’s go back to that reaction for a moment. Joseph has just learned that Mary is pregnant and he knows beyond any doubt that he is not the father. This has to be the lowest moment of Joseph’s life. No matter what he does he will face shame and ridicule because people will talk and make up their own minds about what really happened. If he dismisses Mary, people will think that he was cheated on, and if he takes her as his wife and do the math when the baby arrives, they will assume that he didn’t wait for the wedding to consummate the marriage. There is no easy way of the situation and Joseph is disillusioned, disappointed, and maybe even a little bit angry at Mary and at God, and yet think about this, in the midst of the lowest moment in his life – what is God doing? As Joseph is wrestling with the mess of his life, God is at work in Mary bringing about the child who will save Joseph and all the world from the mess of sin. Not only is God working to save Joseph, but God is also working to include Joseph in this grand plan. While Joseph is struggling with his situation, God is at work sending an angel to Joseph so that he can be part of God’s plan. When we step back and look at this moment in Joseph’s life we see that in his moment of great disappointment, pain, frustration and doubt - God was still at work bringing about salvation and purpose. Can we see that today in our own lives?

In the midst of great disappointment or disillusionment when our lives haven’t turned out the way we wanted them to or thought they should, can we stop and see that God is still at work to bring about our salvation? And can we see that God is working to help us see the plan and purpose he has for our lives? While Joseph is wrestling with his doubts and fears – God was preparing Gabriel for another mission and issuing another invitation. Even when we can’t see it, God is working to bring us life and the fullness of life is there for us if we will just keep walking with God.

Think what Joseph’s life would have been like if he had walked away from Mary. He would never have been blessed to hold Jesus in his arms. He would never have worshipped with the shepherds and wisemen, he would never have experience the thrill of working with God to bring salvation to the world and that was the mission God gave Joseph. Look again at what the angel said to Joseph. Take Mary as your wife – which also means take the child she carries as your son and name him Jesus for he will save people from their sin. Joseph has a part in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world and if he walks away – he misses the adventure and the blessing of working with God.

Sometimes it is tempting for us to walk away from God when we are disappointed with life, but think of what we will miss out on if we do that. God wants to use us to help bring love and joy and salvation to the world. God wants to work in us and through us and with us to accomplish his purpose and plan and there is nothing more satisfying than the experience of working with God. We may not see the world change as we walk with God, but neither did Joseph or Mary or for that matter Jesus. They didn’t see the world transformed by their faithfulness, but they did see lives changed. One at a time they saw lives changed. Joseph saw the lives of Shepherds and Wisemen changed when they came to worship Jesus and so can we. By offering the compassion and mercy of God to those around us, we can change thir lives. By reaching out to love and forgive we can change lives. When we share with others that the God of the universe cares for them and loves them - we can change lives. Like Joseph, God wants to change lives through us and he can if we will simply keep walking with Him.

Joseph kept walking with God. He walked back to Mary and together they walked to Nazareth, Mary’s hometown where there was a wedding. Then Joseph walked with Mary to Bethlehem where their child, God’s Son, was born. And then Joseph kept walking with God and was used by God to help protect Jesus as an infant shape his heart and life as a child and we know that Joseph shaped Jesus heart and life. Think about the righteousness we see in Jesus. It wasn’t zeal for the law but for love and it wasn’t a call for justice but for mercy. Jesus learned what true righteousness was all about from both his fathers – God and Joseph and all of that happened because in the midst of his disappointment and disillusionment in life – God was still at work in Joseph and Joseph kept walking with God. Today, no matter what we are going through – God is still at work in us so let’s keep walking with him.

Next Steps:
What disappointment have you experienced that you need to ask God to help you through? What will it mean for you to walk with God through this time and not away from God? List three ways you can continue to walk with God:

Through Joseph’s disappointment, God was still at work, how is God at work in your life? Identify three specific ways you see God working in your life and use this list to help you see the purpose and plan God has for you:

Identify one person who is going through a difficult time and offer them words of hope. Be the voice of an angel (God’s messenger) and remind them that God is still at work and has a plan for their lives.

Continue reading the journey of Mary and Joseph found in Luke 1 and 2 and Matthew 1 and 2, as well as the prophecy about Bethlehem found in Micah 5:2-5a. What do these passages tell us about the character of Mary, Joseph and the coming Messiah as well as the heart and character of God?

The Journey ~ Mary of Nazareth

For the next four weeks we are going to take a journey into one of the most familiar stories we know, the story of Jesus’ birth. It’s a story most of us have heard all our lives and while all the major characters are familiar to us: Mary, Joseph, shepherds, Wiseman and angels, there are probably some details that we have never stopped to think about. One of the problems with any familiar story is that sometimes when we hear it we forget to really listen and so can we miss out on some of the deeper truths. My hope and prayer is that during our Advent journey we will hear together new details about this story that will open our eyes, minds and hearts so that we will not only see the richness of this journey but that we will see the power and love of God in some new ways.


Every journey begins with a single step and the first step in the Christmas story is found in Luke 1:26. Now we have heard this so many times that it may not strike us as being out of the ordinary or even very significant, but that God sent an angel to Nazareth, for the people who first read Luke’s gospel this would have been startling because at this point in time Nazareth was not well known at all. The village of Nazareth is not mentioned in any of the official secular history recorded by the historian Josephus, and even in the Jewish writings, Nazareth is not mentioned at all. The town of Nazareth is not once mentioned in the Old Testament and it is not mentioned at all in the expanded Jewish writings known as the Talmud. Nazareth is a totally obscure and insignificant place with maybe a population of 400 people.

While Nazareth was not well known it was the suburb, if you could even call it that, of the much larger and well known city called Sepphoris. Sepphoris was known as the ornament of Galilee and it was the city that Herod Antipas chose as his capital in 4BC. At the time of Jesus’ birth, Sepphoris was an affluent and prosperous city that boasted a population of over 36,000 people. Sepphoris was not only the capital but it was known for the luxury villas that people built on the hillsides and many of those villas had beautiful mosaic floors. (show picture) So Sepphoris was well known and important – Nazareth was obscure. Sepphoris was wealthy and prosperous, Nazareth was poor and struggling. Sepphoris was the home of rulers, leaders and the wealthy businessmen of the day, Nazareth was the home of farmers, servants and the laborers who installed the mosaic floors. If God was going to choose a woman to be the mother of the Messiah and he was looking at this area, most people would have thought that Sepphoris would have been the place God would look. So that an angel went to Nazareth would have been surprising.

While Sepphoris held all the money and artistic beauty of the area, Nazareth did have one important feature that made it vital to the larger community – it had a spring that provided water for the surrounding area. Being such a dry region, villages usually developed around springs of water and it is believed that this is how Nazareth became a village in the fist place. Why that spring is important is because there are some who believe that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary at the spring when she went to draw water. Drawing water would have been Mary’s job as a young girl and so much of her time would have been spent at the spring and so the Orthodox Christian Church believes that Gabriel appeared to Mary and spoke to her not at her home but at the spring.

I have to say that I found this fascinating because I always pictured this story in Luke taking place in Mary’s home, in a simple bedroom during the middle of the night. Again, some stories are so familiar that we don’t really listen to them, but if we go back and look at Luke 1, nowhere in the story do we hear that Mary was at home or that it was at night when the angel appeared so this encounter could very well could have taken place at the spring early in the morning or in the evening when Mary went to draw water. But let’s push this idea a little further.

The Orthodox Christian Church also believes that while Gabriel was an angel - he appeared to Mary not as a heavenly being with wings and radiant light, but as a man who simply walked up to Mary and began a conversation. When we read the account in Luke1, this again makes some sense. Nowhere does it say that Mary was terrified by the sudden presence of a heavenly being like the shepherd were, so Gabriel could very easily have been a messenger in human form who simply walks up to Mary and brings her this message from God. This makes a lot of sense because that is often how angels appeared to people in the Old Testament.

In Genesis 18 there is the story of 3 visitors who simply walk up to Abraham and Sarah and give them the message that even though they are well beyond child bearing age, they will indeed give birth to a child just like God had promised. It is clear from the story that these men were considered angels or messengers of God but they aren’t heavenly beings, they are simply men who come with this message that a promised son will be born to a woman who physically shouldn’t be able to give birth. Sound familiar? This story of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she is going to have a son even though that seems physically impossible since she is a virgin is actually very similar to the story of the angels visiting Abraham and Sarah.

When we think about how God sent angels in the Old Testament, we begin to see how this visit of Gabriel to Mary may not have taken place in Mary’s home at night, but at a spring during the day and how appropriate for the announcement of the Messiah coming into this world to take place at a spring because just like a spring provided life to the larger community, the Messiah was coming to bring life to the world and Jesus himself said that he was the living water and that those who drank it would never thirst again. I don’t know about you, but I find it exciting to see this story in a different light and if the first step of the journey is different than what we thought, then maybe the entire journey will hold new insights and more surprises for us.

That the journey begins in Nazareth is also significant because the word Nazareth comes from word netzer which means a shoot or branch, and for Israel that word brought hope. After the nation of Israel was destroyed and the people carried away into captivity in 722 BC, the prophet Isaiah began to talk about a ruler who would one day come and unite God’s people and lead them into freedom. Isaiah said that this ruler would come from the line of David but his exact words were that he would be a netzer or a shoot or branch rising up from the stump of Jesse. Look at Isaiah 11:1-3. Jesse was the father of David, so a netzer from the stump of Jesse meant that this ruler, or Messiah, was going to be an ancestor of David. For generations the people of Israel found hope in this netzer and the word itself brought them hope so while the village of Nazareth might have been an insignificant town in the shadow of Sepphoris, the name brought people hope.

Knowing that the name Nazareth refers to the hope people placed in the coming of the Messiah and knowing there was a spring of water that would reflect the living water the Messiah would bring both lead us to think that maybe this is why God chose Nazareth to begin this journey, but asking ourselves why God chose Nazareth is the wrong question. The more important question is what does the choice of Nazareth tell us about God? That the journey of Jesus begins in a obscure and insignificant town tells us that God looks for the meek and humble to fulfill his purpose. God could have sent his messenger just a few miles away to the important and powerful city of Sepphoris, but he didn’t. God made a conscious choice to send the angel to Nazareth and this tells us that God is willing to choose the humble to accomplish his work. God doesn’t always look for the rich and powerful (although he will use them as he uses all people) but God delights in choosing the least likely person and the most obscure places to do his work because then we know that the work and the power really belongs to God.

This is good news for us to hear as we begin our Advent journey because while we may feel like we don’t have anything important to offer God, God’s choice of Nazareth shows us that God delights in using the simple and ordinary. God loves taking our simple and ordinary lives and doing something extraordinary with them. Jesus took simple fisherman and used their lives to change our world and God can use our lives for something significant if we will allow him to and Luke 1 shows us that Mary was willing to do this.

Mary was a simple humble girl. Being from Nazareth we believe she was poor, uneducated and probably a servant for one of the wealthy families in Sepphoris. Mary may have only been 13 or 14 years old when the angel visited her because that was the age that young girls got engaged and we hear from Luke 1 that Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph. While we don’t know much about Mary, what we do know is that she found favor with God. Now this doesn’t mean that Mary is God’s favorite or that he likes her more than any of the other young girls on the planet, favor means grace and so a favored one was one whom God fills with his grace and grace is the undeserved power, love and kindness of God.

Now unlike the Roman Catholic Church which views Mary as being born without sin, the protestant church believes that Mary was just an ordinary girl whom God filled with his grace. While she was humble and faithful and willing for God to move in her life, Mary didn’t deserve or earn God’s love and kindness it was an act of grace or God’s favor. So it’s God’s grace that stands at the center of the Christmas story because it was God’s grace that chose Mary and Joseph, and it was God’s grace that filled Mary and brought forth a child. The Christmas story is all about God’s grace and the central force and power of Jesus’ life was God’s grace. It was God’s grace that reached out to tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners. It was God’s grace that took sinful ordinary fisherman and made them disciples and transformational leaders in the world. The work of God in and through Jesus is all about grace and that grace has power for those who are willing to receive it and Mary was willing to receive it.

Look at Luke 1:38. This is Mary’s response to God’s grace, she simply says Yes, but Mary said yes knowing that it would begin a journey in her own heart and life that would not be easy. For Mary to be pregnant before she was married meant that she could be stoned. Even if that didn’t happen, she certainly must have thought Joseph would dismiss her in disgrace. I’m sure Mary wanted to ask Gabriel, what about Joseph? Will you go and make sure he knows everything that is going on here? She may have wanted to ask that, but she doesn’t. There is no mention of Joseph or the problems Mary might encounter during the journey to come. None of that is mentioned and it might be because Mary somehow knew that God’s grace was sufficient for her. What an act of faith and strength and courage we see in this young girl.

Just as God’s choice of Nazareth reveals something about the character of God, so does God’s choice of Mary; by choosing Mary, we see that God’s passion is for those who are humble and simple and those who are willing to walk with Him one step at a time. God desire is to fill us with his grace so that we can do more than we ever thought possible or imagined and I believe this grace is working everyday of our lives to do just that. John Wesley talks about prevenient grace, which is the grace of God at work at all times and in all places and it is a grace that draws us closer to God even before we say yes. God’s grace fills us so that we can hear God’s message for us and begin to understand God’s will for our lives. God’s grace is also what gives us the courage and strength to finally say yes to God and follow His plan - like Mary.

So we begin our advent journey today at the very same place Mary began her journey (and I don’t mean in a small town next to a big spring of fresh water, although when you stop and think about it, the similarities between Nazareth and Bellefonte are quite striking), we begin like Mary, with some uncertainty about where the next step will take us. We begin like Mary – wrestling with how God’s grace will accomplish in our lives all that God wants to accomplish. We begin like Mary - trusting in God’s grace to help us say these simple words, Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with him and in me and through me according to you word.


Next Steps
Begin an Advent Journey of listening daily to the messages of God.
• Read through the new Faith Church Advent Devotion, the Upper Room or the Daily Bread.
• Read Luke 1 with fresh eyes and an open heart.

Reflect on the work wants to do in you and through you. What will it mean for you to say, let it be with me according to your will.

Give thanks for a God who not only chooses Nazareth and chooses Mary but chooses us as well.

Cultivating a Spirit of Thanks-giving

Would you like to have more energy,
be more optimistic,
have more social connections
just be happier than people around you?

Would you like to be less depressed,
envious,
greedy,
or prone to addictions?

How about having more money,
sleep more soundly,
exercise more regularly,
and have a greater resistance to viral infections?

Would you like your children and teens to be less materialistic,
get better grades,
set higher goals,
complain of fewer headaches and stomach aches,
and feel more satisfied with their family, friends and schools?

I know this all this sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? But a decade long study published last year in the Wall Street Journal said that all of this is reflected in people’s lives when their lives are characterized by one thing - gratitude. A lifestyle of giving thanks leads to better attitudes, better health, better relationships and just a better life which is why God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in all circumstances. God commands us to give thanks because God knows that a lifestyle of thanks-giving is physically, emotionally, mentally and relationally good for us.


So how do we cultivate a deep spirit of thanksgiving? How do we order our lives so that gratitude flows from us in all circumstances? Well, we don’t develop this spirit of thanksgiving by eating turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce one day a year. That may be how we celebrate Thanksgiving but it is not how we cultivate a life of giving thanks. We cultivate a grateful heart and a thankful spirit by following the principles we see in the actions of the one leper who returned to Jesus. Luke 17 is the only place this story is told and it is a familiar one, Jesus heals 10 lepers but only one of them returns to say thank you. Jesus response to the leper is, your faith has made you well.

As I was reflecting on those words it struck me that all 10 lepers had faith in Jesus. All of them looked to Jesus for healing, all of them followed Jesus’ command to go and show themselves to the priest and all of them are healed, and so they all had faith in Jesus, so what is this faith that Jesus is talking about here. Maybe the faith Jesus sees and mentions here isn’t a belief in him, but a spirit of thanks giving. What set this man apart from the other lepers is that he was grateful for what was happening in his life and so he returned to Jesus to say thank you and it is that gratitude which Jesus sees here, and it is that grateful heart that brings a wholeness to this man’s life that the other 9 didn’t experience. But this wholeness in life doesn’t come from Jesus. Jesus doesn’t offer this man some kind of bonus healing because he returned to say thank you, what Jesus is saying is that because this man has a spirit of gratitude that guides his life – he is going to experience more wholeness and health than the other nine. So Jesus was saying here what a decade long study in 2000 years later has proved – those who are grateful will experience more wholeness and happiness in life. So what can we learn from this man about how to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving.

The first things we see in this leper is that along with the other nine, he cried out to God in his need. Lepers were a pretty helpless group of people. They did not have the ability to make themselves clean. If a skin disease didn’t clear up quickly, then it was most likely going to be considered leprosy which meant that the person had to be cut off from the larger community so that the disease would not spread. That these 10 lepers were all together tells us that they had probably tried everything to get better and nothing had worked. So here they are cut off from the larger community, unable to get themselves clean or healthy on their own and so in desperation cry out to Jesus who they believe can help them. Not only had these lepers heard about Jesus power to heal but they heard that he was willing to heal the poor and outcast. While no one else would help them, they had faith that Jesus would so they humble themselves and cry out to Jesus.

Having a thankful heart and grateful spirit requires an element of humility. Giving thanks calls us to have a basic understanding that what we have and what we need in life isn’t always going to be found in ourselves so we need to look to God and others for help. I think the Pilgrims in that first thanksgiving had that same spirit. They knew they needed help if they were going to survive in this new land and so they humbled themselves before God but also reached out and took help from the natives who were here. It was the Native Americans who taught the Pilgrims how to use the resources of this land to help them grow crops and find food which enabled them to survive that first year.

So gratitude requires humility. Before we give thanks we have to acknowledge our own needs, but humility and crying out in times of need is not easy. Too often we see humility or acknowledging our need as a sign of weakness but in reality it is the first step toward giving thanks which is the key to a healthier life. So to really give thanks we need to ask ourselves what need we have today that God can meet? What power of God do we need to experience in our lives? If it is a need for healing or forgiveness or peace – God wants to help. If it is a need for physical support or inspiration or encouragement – God’s people want to help. The question is whether or not we will cry out to God and ask for help. Are we willing to stop trusting in ourselves to provide all that we need and start looking to God and others? Are we willing to stop thinking that we can do it all on our own and start asking people around us for help? We need to see this kind of humility not as weakness but as the pathway to giving thanks and experiencing wholeness and power in life.

So the lepers cry out to Jesus because they have exhausted every other option. There is nothing else they can do to help themselves so they turn to Jesus and Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priest who is the only one who can declare them clean. Now all 10 lepers have faith in Jesus power to heal so they all begin to make their way to the priest and as they go they are made clean, but it says that the one who returned to Jesus saw that he was healed. Now obviously all 10 saw that they were being healed, they could see their skin turning healthy and as they went they celebrated this healing but while the other 9 just kept going the one who had a grateful spirit stopped. He stopped the direction he was going, he stopped what he was doing and he took the time to really take note of what was going on in his life. He not only noticed that his skin was healing but he thought about why it was happening and who was responsible for it. He stopped and thought about what God was doing in his life and that is the second key to a thankful spirit.

A thankful spirit requires us to stop and recognize what God is doing in our lives and how God’s power and grace is helping us and moving us forward. Again, I think this is what the Pilgrims did that first thanksgiving. They stopped in the midst of a busy season to recognize what God had done during the past year and what God was doing in their lives at that moment. Think about what a busy time it was for the Pilgrims. While the harvest may have been over – they were still preparing for the winter and to take a couple of days out of their preparations to acknowledge all that God was doing is significant. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we are too busy to stop and reflect or too busy to stop and take note of all that God is doing in our lives but gratitude requires us to take this time.

I know that this coming week is usually a busy one for all of us. We have family visiting or maybe we are travelling to visit family. We have meals to plan, Christmas shopping to begin, football to watch and hunting trips to get ready for – it’s a busy time and it’s all good and fun things that we want to be busy with – but in the midst of it all can we take some time to stop and take note of what God is doing in our lives? What has God done in our lives this past year? How have we seen God’s power and how have we experienced God’s provision? What blessings has God provided for us and what blessings do we see as part of our lives today? We will never be able to give thanks if we don’t take the time to notice all the things that God is doing for which we need to give thanks.

And let’s not just look back and give thanks – let’s also look forward. I don’t think this one leper was looking back on his old life when he came to Jesus; he was looking to all the open doors and opportunities that this healing was going to bring him. He knew that this healing would help reunite him with his family. He knew this healing would open the door for him to literally be able to feel the touch and embrace of his loved ones. He would be able to connect to society once again, worship in the temple and eat at the table with his friends. So many open doors were in front of him and he was grateful for them all. Too many times at our Thanksgiving tables we only look back when we think about giving thanks and while that is a good thing to do, I would challenge us to also look forward. What is the open door and new opportunity for which we are thankful for today? How is God leading us into the future? What is God’s plan for us because God does have a plan for us – Jeremiah 29:11-13. God has a plan for our future and God wants to share that plan with us and we will hear about that plan when we stop and begin to take note of all God is doing in our lives.

So we cultivate a lifestyle of giving thanks by crying out to God in humility and stopping long enough to notice how God is meeting those needs and leading us into the future, but there is one more step in a lifestyle of gratitude that we see in this one leper and that is to physically give thanks. The leper stopped in his tracks, turned on his heels, returned to Jesus and fell face down on the ground in front of him to say thank you. These are not casual words of gratitude here, these are physical and intentional acts of giving thanks to God and we need to find intentional and physical acts of giving thanks that we can make part of our lives as well.

What physical way of thanking God can we embrace this week? Maybe it is taking a physical posture in times of worship, praise and prayer. Maybe when we pray we need to simply open our hands to God as a sign of humility or as a way of saying that we know that what we need in life will come from God. Maybe it will mean kneeling in prayer each morning or evening, or lifting our arms to God because we know that we need God to take us by the hand and lead us. Maybe the physical act is to literally count our blessings and write them out so that we can see all God is doing in our lives. I have seen a number of people on fb recently place in their status every day this month a list of things they are thankful for. Each day they are simply taking time to take note of what God has done and is doing in their lives and they are physically giving thanks.

Another intentional act might be to write out a prayer of thanksgiving to use in our family meal. My Grandfather did that and I am blessed to have those prayers, all written before I was born. These prayers were shared at the table with my family and they reflect the intentional sitting down and counting of God’s blessings. What a gift it might be to your Grandchildren if you wrote out a prayer of thanksgiving and began a tradition of passing those prayers on to your family. Another intentional act might be to read some of the psalms of thanksgiving and I have listed 7 of them in the next steps so we can read one everyday this week. Maybe we need to read it out loud as a prayer so we can hear with our own ears some of the things we need to be thankful for. We train and condition our hearts and develop a deep attitude of thanksgiving by intentionally and at times physically giving thanks to God. All of these intentional acts will shape our attitudes and cultivate the lifestyle of gratitude that we want to embrace.

I hope that this week won’t just be a time of visiting with family, eating food, shopping with the crowds or getting ready for camp, I hope this week we will work to cultivate a lifestyle of giving thanks that will carry us through the rest of this year and into the next. Giving thanks every day will change us, it will bring us more of the life we want to live and more of the life God has to offer.


Next Steps:
Cry out to God. Identify a need in your heart, life, or relationships that needs God’s grace and power. Name it to God this week.

Stop and take notice. Take time out of this busy week to stop and look at your life. Make note of all that God is doing. Make a list of the past and current blessings but also open doors and new opportunities God is giving you.

Thank God. Find intentional and physical ways to thank God.
• Write a prayer of thanks (and use on Thanksgiving).
• Prayer walk your house and thank God for something or someone in each room.
• Take a posture of giving thanks during a time of prayer or thanksgiving: kneel, open your hands to God, bow your head, raise your arms.
• Read a Psalm of Thanksgiving (perhaps out loud) every day this week: Psalm 65, 95, 100, 103, 105, 108, 116

Parable of the Talents

(This sermon was preached the Sunday after the sex abuse scandal broke at Penn State University.  The news has effected everyone in our community (10 miles from PSU) and this message is an attempt to speak to a difficult situation.  My hope and prayer is that will be quick to listen and pray and slow to speak.)


One word that has come up again and again through the events of this week has been the word response. Whether it is the lack of response of people when they heard allegations of abuse, or the response of the Penn State Board of Trustees to a crisis, the response of students to all the news and events of the week, the response of a team called on to play a football game under difficult circumstances or the response of a community shocked and saddened by what is unfolding around us, response is the word that has been coming back to me again and again and I think it is the word which stands at the heart of Jesus parable of the talents.


In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of three servants who have all been given something very valuable by their master. While it is unclear exactly how much money we are talking about here, a talent of money was a huge sum. One talent may have been as much as 20 years worth of wages for a day laborer, so 5 talents could have been the equivalent to 100 years worth of wages, but the point of the story isn’t how much money they were given, it is that each servant was given of something of great value and when the master returned he wanted to know how responsible the servants had been with the resources entrusted to them. For the master, the key wasn’t the results, he wasn’t looking for a specific sum of money on his return, what mattered was if the servants had been responsible. How did they respond to the gift given to them? The focus of Jesus story isn’t the end result; it isn’t that the good servants doubled the money given to them, the question is were they good stewards of what God gave them. The question for us is, are we good stewards of all that God has given to us? What is our response to the treasure God has given us?

Now when I talk treasure here I am not primarily talking about money, I’m talking about all the resources that God has given us. God has given us the gift of life and so one of the greatest treasures we have is time. Do we use our time wisely? Do we make the most of every day and ever hour that God gives us? When opportunities to help those in need around us become available do we take the time to do it? When people are hurting and need someone to listen to them do we take the time to sit and allow them to share their burdens and pain? When someone needs encouragement do we take the time to offer words of hope and inspiration?

One of the amazing things about Jesus is that as focused and driven as he was in his mission of teaching, preaching and revealing to people the power and love of God, he also took the time to reach out to individuals who came to him. Jesus was always willing to allow himself to get interrupted by the needs of people. One day as Jesus was teaching a man was lowered into the house in front of him with the hope that Jesus would heal him. Jesus allowed his agenda and schedule for the day to be interrupted and he didn’t just heal the man, he forgave him as well. When Jesus was travelling the crowds would press in around him and again he would stop and offer healing and forgiveness to the unnamed people who came to him. When the disciples didn’t want Jesus to be distracted by the children, it was Jesus who didn’t see the children as a distraction – they were worthy of his time and attention. Jesus spent his time wisely, he took the time to listen and care for people and we need to ask ourselves if we are being responsible with the time God has given us. There are a lot of people in our community right now that just need to talk and share and maybe the best use of our time is to just listen.

God has also given each of us unique skills, abilities and passions that he calls us to use for his purpose. Each servant in Jesus story received a different amount of money – they each received a unique talent and so do we, we all have been given something valuable and unique, what is our response to these gifts? One of the most challenging times of my life was when I was working as a theater manager but knew that I needed to think more seriously about going into ministry which meant going to seminary. My Dad actually used this very parable to challenge me to not take the gift of faith given to me by God and a passion to serve God and people and not just bury that all because I didn’t want to go back to school. He challenged me to use the talents and passions God had given me wisely. God has given each of us different skills, talents, interests and passions and God will hold us accountable to how we use these gifts and again, God isn’t interested in how successful we are with them, it’s not the results that matter, it’s our response. Are we willing to just step out in faith and begin to use what God has given us for His purpose and glory?

Now being responsible with God’s gifts doesn’t mean we all go into full time ministry – it may mean stepping up to serve in some capacity in the church or in our community. Maybe it means working with children or visiting those who are sick or lonely. If the gift God has given us is music maybe a good response is to agree to sing in the choir or share our music in the schools or in nursing homes. We all have some skill, interest or experience to share and use for God’s glory and we need to make sure we are not burying this gift but taking steps of faith to use it for God and in ways that help God’s people.

In the parable Jesus tells the gift given to the servants is money and so we need to be honest and ask ourselves if we are being responsible with the financial treasure God has given us. The Bible is clear that God calls for a tenth of our income to be returned to Him as an offering (Malachi 3:10-12). If we are looking at our checkbooks and realizing that our response to the money God has given us is not good – if we are in debt, overdrawn and living beyond our financial means or simply not giving God the gifts he calls for, then our first response should be to tithe and begin to get our financial house in order. God has promised that when we step out in faith and give him what he calls for – he will provide for us. He may not provide all we want – but we will have what we need.

Many times we think that time, talents and financial treasures are the only gifts God has given us, but the truth is that none of these are the most valuable – the most valuable gift God has given us is the gift of faith. God has not only revealed to us who He is, he has given us the knowledge of his love and grace and power. God has shown us that there is salvation and eternal life through faith and trust in Jesus Christ. God has blessed us with the gift of the church – the body of Christ – a community that brings hope and peace and encouragement to the world. God has given us this gift of faith and maybe more than any other gift today God is asking us how we will respond to this gift. Are we hording it for ourselves or investing it in others? Have we buried our faith it our own hearts or are we willing to share it with others with the hope that it brings more people into a relationship with God and into a relationship with the body of Christ – the church.

What we have seen this week is that we live in a broken and hurting world where people need the gift of faith. People need the grace and power and truth of God. Our broken and hurting community needs the comfort and peace of God and as God’s people we need to respond to the needs of the people around us and share the healing and hope that our faith provides. Are we sharing with others our belief in a God who brings healing and strength and new life to those who are broken and broken hearted? Are we sharing with people our faith in a God who calls for justice and yet offers mercy? Are we sharing with family, friends and neighbors our faith that the peace and love of God are greater than any force of evil or injustice in this world and that this peace and love can make a difference in our lives and bring healing to a hurting community? One of the most powerful and healing moments of this week was a moment of faith when players from Nebraska and Penn State knelt to pray. They not only drew upon their faith to bring healing, but they shared that faith for a world to see.

As we think about the response God is looking for from us today I want to take us back to our core values as a church. The core values of the church and of our church are to connect, serve and grow. Today, in the midst of all that is going on around us, we can make a difference in our community by helping people connect to God and to one another and we do this by reminding people that even in the midst of pain and suffering – God is right here with us. Maybe we need that reminder right now. Last week we heard from Isaiah 43 that when we go through difficult times, God is with us. Little did we know last Sunday how severe that fire or flood would be, but my hope is that there have been moments this past week when we have experienced the presence and power and peace of God and because we have experienced this for ourselves we can now share God presence, peace and power with others. When the future looks uncertain or we are feeling disappointed and disillusioned we need to remember and proclaim that God is still with us.

A faithful response to sharing our faith is to also serve those in need around us and we can serve people best right now by being willing to pray and listen. We need to pray for the victims of abuse, all victims of abuse because what we have seen and heard about this week brings up painful memories for all those who have been abused during their lives. We need to pray for all those involved and be willing to listen to those who are really struggling to make sense out of what is going on. As I have listened to people this week I have been amazed at how many people in our church and community are connected to different people involved in this situation. Just about everyone is connected to someone somewhere because the Penn State family is a big one and so right now there is a lot of pain. We need to listen to people when they are angry, disappointed and disillusioned and it is important for us to be quick to listen and pray and maybe slow, thoughtful and prayerful when we actually speak. Reading comments this week I fear that we talk too much and too quickly we end up saying things we might not want to say. I’ve read many words this week that do not reflect the depth of our faith and trust in God and so we need to choose our words carefully and spend more time listening and praying than actually speaking.

A faithful response to God will also be for us to grow deeper in our own faith by seeking God ourselves in the midst of the storm. We need to learn more about God’s teaching of grace and mercy as well as truth and justice. We need to allow our own hearts and lives to be shaped by God’s hand so that God can use us to help others. I believe that God wants to be at work in our lives, in our church and in our community right now in some very powerful ways. We have an opportunity to commit ourselves to those things that really matter, get our focus and perspective back on God and evaluate our lives to see how we are responding to the gifts God has given us. We can never forget that in Jesus story the master returned and all of the servants had to stand before him and given an account of what they did with the riches they were given and so will we. We will all have to stand before God someday and tell God how we responded to all that God has given us. I don’t know about you, but that is a sobering thought, I’m just thankful for the opportunity today and in the days ahead to revaluate my response and make changes that will honor God and the gifts God has given me.

For the past week we have been caught up in a whirlwind of how others have responded to various situations and so it is a good time for us to think about our response to God, to the gifts God has entrusted to us and to the faith that God has called us to share with others. It is in times like this that our faith needs to shine. It is in times like this that God is calling us to make the most of all he has given us. As the church – what will be our response? To children who need comfort and a community that needs healing – what will be our response? As servants and followers of Jesus who will one day stand before our master to give an account, what will be our response?


Next Steps

Connect
• Reflect on the following: Psalms 23, Psalm 139, and Isaiah 43:1-4, which remind us that at all times, God is with us. Share this good news to others.
• Pray for healing and hope for all in our community especially the victims of abuse and their families.

Serve
• Listen to the concerns, disappointments, fears and frustrations of others.
• Be quick to listen and pray and thoughtful when we speak.

Grow
• Take an inventory of our life to make sure we are responding faithfully to God’s generous gifts of time, talent and financial treasure.
• Step out in faith and find new ways to use God’s gifts according to God’s will.

What's holidng us back?

One of the interesting things about the Bible is that it doesn’t tell us a lot about the personal life of Jesus. We get very little information about his childhood and no information about those awkward teenage years. We don’t know anything about what Jesus did before he entered into the public eye at his baptism and even during his three years of ministry, which is what is recorded in the gospels, we really don’t know much about Jesus’ personal life, but we do know that he had some close friends because in John 11 there is a lengthy story about Jesus relationship with two sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus. We get the idea that while these three friends were not official disciples of Jesus, they were close. They may have provided a place for Jesus to stay when he was in Bethany, they may have provided food, shelter and money for Jesus as he travelled and ministered and they may have given Jesus a kind of sanctuary, or retreat when Jesus needed to get away from the crowds.


As Jesus is travelling, news comes to him that Lazarus has become sick and Mary and Martha want Jesus to come to Bethany and heal him. Jesus puts off going to visit Lazarus and in time Jesus learns that Lazarus has died. When Jesus finally arrives at their home, Lazarus has been dead for 4 days, which is long enough for the smell of the dead body to reach out of the tomb so that everyone in the community knows for sure that Lazarus is indded dead. As Jesus talks with Mary and Martha he asks them if they believe Lazarus will rise from the dead. They say yes we they know Lazarus will some day rise from the dead and be in heaven, but they don’t believe that resurrection will be here and now. Jesus says to them, but I am the resurrection and the life and again they say, yes we know that and we know Lazarus will rise someday, but it won’t be today. All of this disturbs Jesus. Lazarus death disturbs Jesus, the sisters’ lack of understanding that Jesus holds the power of life disturbs Jesus and so as it says in the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, Jesus wept. And then the story continues in John 11:38-44

This story of Lazarus shows us that Jesus has authority over death and because of that power he calls for Lazarus to come forth out of the tomb, and he does. Lazarus is a dead man now alive and walking – but we see from the story here that Lazarus isn’t walking very well because he is all tied up in the grave clothes. In Jesus day they would wrap a dead body in strips of cloth before they would lay it in the tomb and those strips of cloth were now getting in the way of Lazarus experiencing the fullness of life. The cloth that was wrapped around his face kept Lazarus from seeing where he was going and the strips that bound his hands and feet kept him from being able to really move. The grave clothes were holding Lazarus back from living the life that Jesus had called him forth to live.

So what’s holding us back? What holds us back from living the life that God calls us forth to live? God has called us to rise up in faith and experience the fullness of new life. God has called us to leave the darkness of the world and step into the light of his grace and power. Jesus calls us to leave our lives of sin and experience forgiveness, to leave behind doubt and bondage and experience the freedom and love that he offers. Like calling Lazarus up from the grave Jesus is calling us to experience the power of new life… so what is it holds us back? What keeps us from walking with Jesus? What keeps us from seeing Jesus? What are the grave clothes that keep us from experiencing the power of life?

I wonder if what holds us back is our lack of faith in Jesus or our lack of faith in ourselves?

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already died, in fact he had been in the grave for a couple of days and the distinctive odor of decaying flesh was coming forth from the tomb so everyone knows he’s dead and in the midst of the grieving and crying Jesus asks Mary and Martha if they believe and trust in him. Look at John 11:25-26. Mary and Martha believe in Jesus, they believe he has power, in fact earlier Martha said, I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him. They believe in Jesus, they believe in his power and love, and I think most of us believe in Jesus.

We believe Jesus has power, we believe he rose from the dead, we believe he raised Lazarus from the dead, we believe that he loves and forgives, our problem isn’t faith in Jesus, it’s faith in ourselves. We don’t question God’s love for others and we believe that Jesus forgives others; I think we struggle to believe that God can love and forgive us. It’s faith in God’s love for us that often holds us back from experiencing this power of resurrection, or new life.

Yet we ask ourselves, how can Jesus possibly love me after all I have done? Why would God wipe away my past, I don’t deserve to experience new life? Can God possibly forgive me for how I feel, what I think, and how I live today? And why would God call me forth to new life when I have nothing to offer him? I don’t think our problem is faith in the power of Jesus; it’s faith in ourselves, or faith that God really does love us enough to move in our hearts and lives to bring us life. I believe that some of the grave clothes that hold us back are our past failures, our present sin, and this thought that we have no presents – or gifts – to offer God.

I don’t know about you, but I know my past failures bind me up at times. We wonder how God could love us after all we have done? If you are asking that question today, you are not alone, I believe it is a question we all struggle with. We know who we really are and we know all the failures and sin of our past and when we sit down and think about those things it is hard to imagine how God could possibly call us to walk with him in new life. King David struggled with this. After David was confronted with the reality of his past failures which not only included adultery but conspiracy to murder, David said this to God. Psalm 51:3-5.

David is thinking back to his past and knows that God is right when he passes judgment on him – he is guilty. We are all guilty. We have all failed, and yet God still loves us and God forgives. In fact David goes on to say this in Psalm 51:7. It is only if God washes us that we can be clean. We can’t erase our past – but God can. We can’t wipe away our failures, but God can and God does if we will hear God’s call and step out in faith to take hold of God’s love.

While we may be able to overcome our past failures, we then begin to wonder how God can forgive us for the sin we commit today. So many times the words of David are our words, my sin is every before me. Or the words of Paul echo in our hearts and minds, the good I want to do I don’t do and those things I don’t want to do – I do, what a wretched man I am. Even if we can overcome our past, we then struggle to believe God could love and forgive us because of the sin we see in our lives today.

One of the things I have come to realize is that Jesus always called people who were caught up in sin. Every single person Jesus called to follow him, every person Jesus reached out to heal, every person Jesus loved and forgave was a sinner – every single one – and that sin, their sin, did not keep Jesus away. This means that our sin does not keep Jesus away. Our sin does not keep God from loving us; it doesn’t keep God from calling out to us in the grave of our sin like Jesus called out to Lazarus in his own grave. Many times we think that God is so holy, pure and powerful that he can not enter into the darkness of our lives, but he does Jesus shows us that he does. God came into the darkness and sin of this world to forgive and God still comes into our darkness and sin of our lives to forgive and bring the light of love and freedom. Look at Psalm 139:11-12. Even the darkness of our sin is not dark to God – it doesn’t keep God away and it doesn’t keep the power of God’s love away. God is right here with us if we would just believe – not believe in God, but believe in God’s desire and ability to love and forgive us, if we would just believe we would begin to walk in freedom and life.

If the grave clothes of our past failures or present sin don’t bind us up, then it might be our struggle to see how we can walk with God when we don’t think we have anything to offer Him. Why would call me to new life? How could God possibly use me when I have no gifts or abilities to offer him? Well, let’s go back to Lazarus for a moment. When Jesus called Lazarus from the grave, what did Lazarus have to offer Jesus? He had nothing – he was dead – literally dead – he had nothing to offer Jesus in that moment but grave clothes: failures, sin, death, and yet… Jesus called him forth, why? Because Jesus loved him and Lazarus only response to Jesus, his only gift to offer in return was love.

We need to understand that God doesn’t call us to new life and Jesus doesn’t forgive and love to get something in return. God isn’t looking for presents and offerings from us; Jesus doesn’t want any gift but one – our hearts. Go back to Psalm 51:16-17, God doesn’t want an offering as much as God wants our hearts and lives. In fact, after Lazarus rises from the grave we never hear about him serving God, becoming a teacher or evangelist or even waiting on Jesus as a servant, the only time we hear about him again is in John 12:2 where once again Jesus is at Lazarus home and while Martha is serving the dinner, Lazarus is at the table with Jesus. Lazarus is simply sitting by Jesus side. God doesn’t raise us up and offer us new life in order to get some kind of present in return – he offers us life because he loves us and it’s time for us to not just believe in Jesus but to believe in his love for us.

One final word here, when Jesus says take off the grave clothes, he isn’t talking to Lazarus, he is speaking to the people who are around Lazarus which means that we need to help one another remove the obstacles that keep us from walking with Jesus. We need to help one another let go of past failures and present sin and we do that by reminding one another that God loves us and forgives us. We need to share with one another the truth of God’s love and grace and we need to be willing to offer that forgiveness and grace ourselves.

Now I believe that as we help take the grave clothes off of others, we experience the power of God for ourselves. Think about what it must have been like for the people who walked up to Lazarus as he comes out the tomb and they began to untie him. They were experiencing themselves the power of Jesus’ miracle and we have that same opportunity every time we look at someone and tell them that their past failures and present sin can not keep God from loving them. We experience the power of God’s love and grace ourselves every time we share that love and grace with others and that not only unties them it helps set us free as well.

So as we close today, I want us to share in God’s promise of love and forgiveness together and allow these words and this message to help us remove our grave clothes so that we can be set free.
Isaiah 43
I have called you by name and you are mind.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
When you pass through the rivers,
They will not sweep you away
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned,
the flames will not set you ablaze.
Because you are precious and honored in my sight
And I love you.

Next Steps:
Identify the grave clothes in your life. Is it your:
Past (failures)
Present (sin)
Presents (a sense of having nothing to offer God)

Read and reflect on these words of God’s love and forgiveness:
1. Psalm 103:8-14
2. Isaiah 43:1-7, 49:15-16
3. Jeremiah 29:11, 31:3
4. Zephaniah 3:17
5. John 3:16-17
6. Romans 8:31-39
7. 1 John 4:10-11

Pray.
Lord Jesus, help me to hear your voice calling me to live a new life. Give me the strength to leave my failures and sin behind and to trust your love to bring freedom, healing and life. Thank you that you have the power of life over death and thank you for sharing that power with me today. Help me to walk by faith and in faith today and everyday. AMEN

Living on the Edge ~ Overcoming Evil

What almost kept me from experiencing the amazing view of Fontana Lake and experiencing a little taste of life on the edge was my fear of climbing an 80 foot open stairway to the top of a fire-tower, but what keeps many of us from really living life on the edge and experiencing the best God has for us isn’t a fear of heights, or a lack of money, or being stuck in the wrong job or without a job all together. The greatest obstacle to our experiencing life on the edge is our unwillingness to forgive. As we have worked our way through Romans 12 I hope that one thing has become clear, living on the edge comes when we are in right relationships. It starts with a right relationship with God where we are fully surrendered to him, it continues with a right relationship with the world around us where we limit the power of the messages we receive from this world that are not from God. Experiencing the fullness of life comes when we are in a right relationship with ourselves which means seeing ourselves the way God does and then working to establish strong relationships with our family and friends within the body of Christ. God has created us to be in healthy relationships. Life is found in healthy relationships so when we are unwilling to forgive those who have hurt us it not only keeps us from experiencing a relationship with that person, it keeps us from experiencing the fullness of any relationship and therefore keeps us from experiencing the life God wants for us.


A number of years ago I had a friend who hurt and disappointed me and our friendship did not end well. For years I held on to the bitterness of that relationship and all that happened was that I began destroying myself. Not only was that anger and resentment eating me alive, it was keeping me from entering into new and life giving relationships with others. As long as that bitterness burned in my heart there was no room for love to develop toward anyone. Many people have talked about how anger is like a cancer on our soul that slowly eats away at everything until it destroys all of our relationships and it true, bitterness and an unforgiving spirit doesn’t hurt anyone else, it only hurts and destroys us and to remove that cancer we have to be willing to forgive and Romans 12 begins to show us what forgiveness looks like.

Before we read this last section, I want us to get practical for a moment and so I am going to ask you to think about the person who has hurt you the most or the person that today you are struggling to forgive. It might be a parent or a child; it might be your spouse, or an ex-spouse. It might be the bully who terrorized you as a child, an employer who destroyed your self-esteem, a coworker who has not been honest about you or a friend who disappointed you. As we think about this person, or persons, let’s hear God’s word - Romans 12:14-21.

Now your first thought in hearing this scripture might be to think that this kind of action toward those who are persecuting us is just not possible, but it is. God would not give us these commands and directions if it were not possible, so we need to take this teaching seriously and this is not just the teaching of Paul – this is the teaching and example of Jesus. In Jesus sermon on the mount, which is another message that God gives in order to help us understand what it looks like to live life on the edge, Jesus says: Matthew 5:43-45.

So Jesus is also clear that we need to be willing to forgive our enemy but even more powerful than his teaching is his example. When Jesus was betrayed and deserted by his friends he didn’t become bitter. When he was falsely accused, beaten, forced to carry a cross and finally crucified, Jesus didn’t lash out in anger or hold a grudge against those who persecuted him, in fact, from the cross Jesus says, Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. Both the teaching and the example of Jesus show us that God’s will for us is to forgive and the reason God wants us to forgive is that forgiveness opens the door to life. It was Jesus willingness to forgive on the cross that led to the resurrection and new life so we see that for all of us forgiveness leads to life.

If we want to experience the power of resurrection, or life on the edge, we need to be willing to forgive and Romans 12:14 begins to show us what forgiveness looks like. Now to bless someone means that we wish them well and desire God’s blessing, God’s riches and God’s mercy to be a part of their lives. To curse someone is to wish and even ask God to bring about their destruction. Our natural instinct is to curse those who persecute us. We want them to get what they deserve, we want them to hurt because they have hurt us, so the thought of blessing those who have hurt us might seem impossible and if we left it up to our feelings it would be, but the first step in blessing those who curse us, or overcoming the evil that is directed toward us by others is to simply make the conscious decision to forgive.

Romans 12:14 is a command not a suggestion. Bless those who persecute you is not just a good idea God wants to offer us – it is a command that God is giving us. It’s the same with Jesus teaching in Matthew 5. Love you enemy is not a suggestion, it is a command and since God commands us to do it – it can’t be something that requires us to feel like doing it because we can’t always command our feelings. We may never feel like forgiving someone, we may never feel like blessing them, but our feelings don’t matter – this is not a matter of the heart it is a matter of the mind and will. We need to make the decision to forgive and allow God to bring the change of heart in his time.

So can you make the decision today to forgive the person you were thinking of a moment ago? Can we step out in faith and say, God I want you to bless this person, or God I am making the decision today to forgive this person. I’d encourage you to go home or even at the close of worship today to pull out the next steps and complete step #2. God, today I am asking you to bless… and then fill in the name. The first step to overcoming the evil that is aimed at us is to begin a process of forgiveness and love directed toward those people. I’m sure Jesus didn’t feel like forgiving those who had just driven nails into his hands and feet, but he said the words, he made the decision to forgive and I wonder if it was the power of saying the words that helped Jesus truly forgive and love his enemies.

Now you may be asking yourself what good is it to make this statement if our heart is not in it – good question. The answer is that forgiveness doesn’t come in one big step – instead it is a long slow process. Making the decision to forgive and asking God to bless is just the first step and Jesus then gives us the second step. Go back to Matthew 5:44 pray for those who persecute you. Prayer is the second step in overcoming evil through forgiveness and it may be the only step we take for weeks and months and years to come, but I will guarantee you this, if we pray on a regular basis for those who have hurt us or those who are persecuting us - something will happen. Those directing evil at us may not stop – those who have hurt us may not suddenly see the error of their ways and come to ask us to forgive them, but something will change because we will change. As we pray, our hearts soften and in time our feelings toward those who have hurt us will also soften so that forgiveness will flow naturally from our lips and our hearts.

While prayer is the second step, Paul shows us that we need to take this further. In Romans 12:15 Paul says, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Now when we read this verse we need to remember that Paul is not talking about mourning and rejoicing with our family and friends - that’s easy. We don’t need to be told to do that because we will naturally do that. What Paul is saying here is that we need to rejoice and mourn with those who are persecuting us, that’s the context here. Paul is talking about our relationship with those who are working against us, our enemies, so when our enemies rejoice we are to rejoice and when they mourn we are to mourn. Now let’s be clear that Paul is not talking here about political relationships, he’s talking about personal ones. The call to mourn and rejoice is a call to reach out in a personal way to those individuals who have hurt us and while again this seems impossible – if we will step out and do it, we will experience the power of God.

Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie were Christians who were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp during WWII because they helped hide Jews in their home. Betsie died in that camp and their story is told in the amazing book, The Hiding Place. After the war, Corrie travelled around Germany talking about her experience in the camps and the power of God and at one of those meetings she recognized a man in the audience and realized he had been one of the guards at Ravensbruck. The guard came up to Corrie after her talk and introduced himself as one of the guards from the camp she had been in, "But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well.” That’s when he extended his hand and said, "Will you forgive me?"

Corrie said she stood there and remembered her sister Betsie who had died in part because of his work and wondered how he could ask her to erase her sister’s slow terrible death simply for the asking? And for what seemed hours Corrie wrestled with the most difficult thing she ever had to do. Corrie said, “The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us and so I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion,” she said. “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. " So very mechanically she stuck out her hand and took the hand of the guard and in that moment Corrie said an incredible thing took place. “The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

God brought healing and power to Corrie because she was willing to mourn with this man as he confessed his sin and rejoice with him in his experience of God forgiveness and new life. This is living on the edge and it is not easy, but as we see, it is where the power of God is and it is what brings us the excitement of life.

So what might it look like for us to rejoice with those who have hurt us? Several years after my friend and I parted ways I got a call from him and he asked if we could get together. When we did, he shared with me that he was thinking about entering graduate school and wanted to know if I would be willing to write him a letter of reference. I have to tell you that I felt like I was being used and I wanted to say no, but to follow Jesus meant to let go of my bitterness and even though I didn’t feel like doing it, I gave him the reference and learn a little bit about what it means to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Maybe rejoicing with those who rejoice means sending a note when we hear about something positive happening in their lives. Maybe it is offering a word of grace when we see them and know something good is going on. And we mourn when they mourn by offering words and notes of encouragement when we know they are going through a difficult time. Now let me say that some pain and some circumstances may require us to keep our distance from those who have hurt us, and in those relationships we need to stand back and simply pray, but those prayers can help us have an attitude of joy if we see real change in the lives of others, and those prayers can cause us to weep when we know they are truly hurting.

Paul gives more direction on how to treat with our enemy in Romans 12:20a. Again, these are not easy things to do and we need to get involved in situations like this only after we have spent some serious time in prayer and maybe after we have asked others for their counsel and support – but if this is where God is leading us, we need to walk this journey because this is where we will find life.

The resurrection of Jesus shows us that we can overcome evil with good. When we make the decision to forgive, when we pray for those who have hurt us and reach out to bless them in words and actions we begin to break the power of evil and begin to experience the life God wants for us. Jesus did all of this and while it was not an easy road, at the end was resurrection and new life. Living on the edge is not easy, it involves surrender, sacrifice, service, forgiveness and love, at times it involves carrying a cross – but in the end we stand victorious – in the end we experience life.


Next Steps
Connect:
• Begin the process of connecting with (forgiving) those who have hurt you (or are persecuting you) by naming them today.
• Identify a friend who will walk with you as you seek to offer forgiveness.

Serve:
• Make the decision today to forgive the person you identified above.
• Write out the following prayer: "God, today I am asking you to bless __________________________________.

Grow:
• What will it mean to rejoice and/or mourn with the person who has harmed you?
• Can you step out in faith and offer this love and grace this week?