The Walk - Easter Sunday

 If you aren’t a big basketball fan, you may not know that we are in the middle of the NCAA basketball tournament.  As a graduate of Duke Divinity School and MSU, and having grown up in CT, I have had some great teams to cheer for during the tournament. Now, unless you are a real fan of Duke basketball, you probably don’t know that one of the greatest comeback stories in Duke Basketball history took place on January 27, 2001.  The game was at College Park MD and with less than a minute to go, Duke was down by 10 points.  Most people thought the game was over and the MD crowd was chanting “overrated” as they were ahead on #2 Duke.

With 53.5 seconds left in the game, Jay Williams hit a lay-up to cut the lead to 8.  Duke then trapped a MD player on the inbounds pass, stole the ball, and Jay Williams hit a 3 point shot so the lead was down to 5.  After 2 missed free throws by MD, Duke had the ball and Jay Williams hit another 3 point shot so the lead was cut to 2. In 23.5 seconds, Jay Williams of Duke had scored 8 unanswered points.  

On MD’s inbound pass, Duke stole the ball again and while the shot didn’t go in, a Duke player was fouled and hit 2 free throws so that the game was now tied.  MD had a chance to win the game, but missed their shot, so the game went into overtime where Duke won.  An article I read this week about the game said,  Duke's 2001 rally in College Park might be the most famous minute in Duke basketball history, a where-did-that-come-from blitz of skill and desperation that redeemed a game most saw as lost.

I love that last line, a comeback that redeemed a game most saw as lost.  As great as that comeback was, a true miracle minute, it was not the greatest comeback, the greatest comeback took place over 2000 years ago when one man who everyone thought was dead, and whose movement both Rome and the religious leaders of Israel thought was defeated, walked out of a tomb.  Easter is the greatest comeback of all time, and it started like all comeback stories start, with a sense of failure and defeat.  

On Friday, Jesus had been crucified.  One of his disciples had betrayed Him and the rest had abandoned Him.  He died alone on a cross, and when He was taken down, His body was laid in a borrowed tomb.  It was only a group of women who had walked with Jesus during His ministry, who saw where He was laid.  

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.  

Luke 23:55-56

One of the women who was part of this group was Mary Magdalene.  While her name is familiar, we don’t know much about her.  What we do know of her comes from the gospel of Luke.

Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.  Luke 8:1-3

Mary called Magdalene.  Most women were identified by a man in their lives: like Joanna, the wife of Chuza.  Since Mary was not known as Mary, wife of, or daughter of, or mother of, she was most likely alone.  She may have been orphaned so was without a father or family to care for her.  If she had no husband, she could have been divorced, which would have cut her off from both her family and her husband’s family.  She was also not a mother which carried its own sense of shame.  Any one of these situations would have been devastating for Mary and put her on the outside of society.  

The other thing we know about Mary is that she suffered from some kind of affliction, or demon possessions.  We don’t know what her demons were.  They could have been physical problems, emotional disturbances, or true demonic possessions.  No matter what the affliction was, her problems probably contributed to her being alone.  Maybe she had been driven out of her home because of her brokenness and now, no man wanted anything to do with her.  While we don’t know what was going on before she met Jesus, we do know that Jesus radically changed her life.  She was a new woman who now had a sense of meaning and purpose.  She had a future and she owed it all to Jesus, which is why she had joined His movement and walked with Him.  

While women would not have been able to be called disciples in Jesus’ day, Mary was very much a disciple of Jesus.  She walked with Him. She listened to His teaching.  She saw His miracles, and it says that she gave her money and resources to help support the work Jesus was doing.  Unlike the male disciples, Mary was at the cross when Jesus died, and she saw the place where He was laid. Now, early in the morning, she was making her way to the tomb.

The resurrection accounts in the 4 gospels are all a little different.  The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all tell us that a group of women went to the tomb at sunrise, but John’s gospel says that Mary went alone while it was still dark.  What helps us understand this difference is knowing that John is not interested in giving us exact details about the resurrection, his writing is full of symbols that are to help us understand what’s going on.    

John says Mary came to the tomb while it was still dark, and darkness was a common symbol for John.  In John’s gospel, darkness was a sign of evil, confusion, and fear.  John’s gospel tells us that when Judas left the upper room to go and betray Jesus it then became night.  Evil was coming for Jesus.  

John is the one who told the story of Nicodemus coming to ask Jesus what it meant to be born again. John said Nicodemus came at night and the reason he came at night was because he was afraid.  Nicodemus wasn’t afraid of Jesus; he was afraid of being seen coming to Jesus.  The darkness was a sign of Nicodemus’ confused, uncertain and doubt. 

Darkness was a place of confusion and brokenness.  It was a place of hopelessness and despair, and that was how Mary felt as she made her way to the tomb.  Mary was coming to the tomb while it was still dark because she felt hopeless.  The one and maybe only man who had ever loved her, accepted her, and helped her find meaning and purpose in life was gone.  He had died a horrible and painful death and Mary had no idea what her future would be.  Would the demons return?  Would anyone else respect her and see value in her life? Could she survive without Jesus? All seemed lost.  

John also has Mary coming to the tomb alone and he might do that so we can more easily see ourselves in Mary.  Without anyone else there, we can put ourselves in Mary’s place.  Have you ever felt hopeless?  Have you ever looked at your future and thought that all was lost?  Many of us have been in situations like this.  We get a hopeless diagnosis, and the doctors tell us there isn’t anything they can do.  We are watching the destruction of a relationship or find ourselves going through a financial crisis and we see no way out.  John places Mary at the tomb alone and in the dark because he wants us to our place in the resurrection story. 

Mary is each one of us and as often happens in life, just when we think that things can’t get any worse, they do, and they do for Mary.  When Mary arrived at the tomb, she saw that the stone had been rolled away.  This didn’t fill Mary with joy.  There was no possibility that this was the work of Jesus, the only thought Mary had was that someone had taken Jesus' body.  That was the message Mary took to the disciples and when they arrived at the tomb, they found it just as she said - empty.  While the disciples returned home, Mary stayed and stood weeping outside the tomb.  

Mary was overwhelmed.  She watched the man who loved her and had saved her crucified and buried.  She had no idea where the body was, she just assumed that someone had stolen it to humiliate Jesus even more.  They stole the body to create maximum chaos, confusion and pain and Mary couldn’t take any more.  She is tired and empty and alone.  She weeps.

This picture of Mary weeping outside the tomb is a picture many of us can identify with. There are times we all feel tired, empty, and alone.  There are times we can’t see any way out of the situation we are in and no matter what happens we know things will just get worse.  As much as Mary loved Jesus, believed in Jesus and walked with Him these past few years, she simply could not see what Jesus was about to do.  And this is often true for us.  We can believe in Jesus, love Jesus and strive to walk with Him but when we find ourselves in dark and difficult places in our own lives, it’s hard to see what God can do   

And this is where the comeback starts.  Mary is down 10 points, there is less than a minute left in the game, the crowd is chanting overrated and Mary has no idea how things could get better, but then she sees a man outside the tomb.  Mary is so hopeless that she can’t fully see who she is talking to until He speaks one familiar word - Mary.  

At the sound of her name, Mary recognizes the voice of Jesus and realizes that He is not dead but alive.  She doesn’t know how He can be alive, and did you notice that she didn’t ask. She doesn’t care. She simply grabs Him, holds on to Him, and is not about to let Him go.  Jesus literally had to say, Mary, let go. I have more to do and there is more for you to do. Go tell my disciples that I’m alive.  

The Easter story was not just a comeback of the ages for Jesus, it was a comeback for Mary.  Jesus' resurrection was the where did that come from blitz of love and power that redeemed people who thought all was lost.  The resurrection of Jesus can be our comeback story as well if we will remember just two important things:

#1. The worst thing is NEVER the last thing.  

Author and theologian Fredrick Buechner said,  The worst thing isn't the last thing… It's the next to last thing. The last thing is the best. It's the power from on high that comes down into the world, that wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a hidden spring. Can you believe it? The last, best thing is the laughing deep in the hearts of the saints, sometimes our hearts even. Yes. You are terribly loved and forgiven. Yes. You are healed. All is well.

The worst thing we'll ever go through, no matter what it might be, is never the last thing because of the comeback of Jesus.  Even death does not have the final say because death itself has been swallowed up in the victory of Jesus Christ.  The apostle Paul said, 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:35, 37-39

No matter what you are going through today, no matter what battle you are fighting, what game you are losing, or how desperate and hopeless the situation looks and feels, this is not the end.  Jesus is the end and the resurrection of Jesus reminds us that God’s redeeming grace and power and love will always win.  

This doesn’t mean everything will work out the way we want it to and that we won’t struggle at times and be disappointed.  Those things will happen, but the resurrection tells us that God can and will work for good in every situation.  If God can bring a resurrection out of a crucifixion, God can redeem any and all situations and restore our lives.  

#2. Jesus knows OUR name. 

The resurrection of Jesus can be our comeback if we will remember that Jesus knows our name.  What turned things around for Mary was hearing Jesus call her by name.  I wonder if it was Jesus calling Mary by name that drove out the demons in the first place?  Was the power of Jesus calling her name a second time what opened her eyes and heart outside the tomb?  

There is power when Jesus calls out our name and Jesus knows your name.  Jesus knows your situation. He knows when you feel like there is less than a minute to go in the game and the game is already lost.  That is the very moment He says, “Andy” you're not done yet.  The game is not over, in fact, the best is yet to come.  

If you are having trouble hearing Jesus call out your name, do what Mary did.  She stayed in the garden.  Peter, James, John and the rest of the disciples left the empty tomb when they didn’t see Jesus, but Mary stayed and because she stayed, she was the one who got to hear and see Jesus.  

Sometimes it’s hard to stay in the faith when things aren’t going well.  When the world tells us the death and resurrection of a man 2000 years doesn’t mean anything for us, it’s hard to stay.  It’s hard to hold on to our faith.  But if we will stay, if we persevere through the dark and difficult moments of doubt and fear, we will hear Jesus call our name and we will see Him.  The comeback of the ages can be ours if we will stay and learn to walk with Jesus.  

Walk with Jesus.  It’s what we have been talking about for the past 6 weeks.  5 spiritual practices that help us remain faithful and experience the fullness of life with Jesus.  The 5 spiritual practices are worship, reading and reflecting on God’s word, serving God and others, giving generously, and sharing our faith.  You might not be surprised to hear this, but these 5 spiritual practices are all part of Mary’s comeback.  

What is the first thing Mary did when she recognized Jesus?  She worshipped Him.  She literally holds on to Jesus with all she has and this is a great picture of worship.  Worship is holding on to Jesus with all we have.  

Then she heard the word of God. Jesus said, Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’  John 20:17

Mary doesn’t just hear the word, she acts on them and she is the very first person to share the news that Christ is Risen.  She is literally the first person to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Mary is walking with Jesus through worship, hearing and acting on the word of Jesus, and sharing her faith.  The rest of her life was given to what she had been doing before as she walked with Jesus, serving, and giving generously.  The greatest comeback of all time was when Jesus walked out of the tomb defeating sin and death, but His comeback is ours as well.  Today, the worst thing we go through will never the last thing because Jesus not only knows our name, but he is calling out to us today.   

Next Steps

 

Read John 20:1-23.

● Darkness in John’s gospel is a symbol of evil, hopelessness, confusion, doubt, and fear.  

● How is Mary experiencing all these things in her life as she makes her way to the tomb?  

● When have you experienced this kind of hopelessness and fear?  

● Why was the empty tomb not a sign of joy when Mary first arrived?  

● Why do we often think the worst when we experience a problem?  

 What began to turn things around for Mary?  John 20:16

● What did seeing Jesus alive mean for Mary?

● What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for you?

The worst thing is never the last thing.

Read Romans 8:35-39.

● What struggle are you experiencing today?  

● How is God walking with you in this struggle?

● How might God be able to use it for good?

● Remind yourself that a resurrection is coming.  

Jesus knows your name.

Read Psalm 139, Isaiah 43:1-7, Isaiah 49:15-16, Matthew 6:25-27, and John 10:1-18.

● When have you heard Jesus call out your name?

● To hear Jesus speak your name, stay with Him. 

● Use these 5 spiritual disciplines to walk with Jesus:

○ Worship.

○ Read the scriptures.

○ Serve God and others. 

○ Give generously.

○ Share God’s love with others.

The Walk - 5 practices from the cross

 

Over the past 5 weeks we have looked at 5 spiritual disciplines that can make all the difference in our lives.  Each discipline can be done alone or with others, and when they are an ongoing part of our life, they shape us to look more and more like Jesus.  We have called this series The Walk because if we walk this path, we will walk with Jesus and like Jesus, we will be more faithful to God no matter what circumstances we face.  These practices give us the strength and courage to face all things with confidence so that we can say with boldness, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

It was these 5 spiritual practices that shaped Jesus' life and gave Him the strength to remain faithful during the most agonizing and painful moment of His life, His death on the cross.  While today we remember the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, and the excitement people felt at His presence because they hoped He was going to be the Messiah and bring in the kingdom of God, we also remember that the excitement soon turned to betrayal and Jesus found Himself sentenced to die on a cross.  

Crucifixion is one of the most painful ways to die.  We often say that the nails pierced Jesus' hands and feet, but the nails were actually driven into His wrists as a nail in His hands would not have been able to support the weight of His body.  The feet of the condemned would have either rested on a small wooden platform, or the ankles would have been nailed to the sides of the cross.  To breathe, the person would have had to push up with their feet which would have caused excruciating pain all throughout the body.  

I had never thought of this before, but because of how difficult it was to breathe, when someone hung on a cross, they usually never spoke;  it would have been too painful to get air in your lungs to say anything.  But Jesus did speak, not once or twice but 7 times.  There are 7 recorded words of Jesus we find over the 4 gospels and each time Jesus spoke it must have caused great pain.  If Jesus went through all this pain to utter these words, it is important for us to both hear and understand them.  

We are going to read these words today and what we are going to see is that the 5 spiritual disciples we have been looking at not only shaped Jesus’ life, they shaped His final words.  I want to invite you to say these words with me. 

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Mark 15:34

This first word we hear from Jesus is a prayer.  In fact, 3 of the 7 words we hear from Jesus on the cross were prayers.  The reason we hear Jesus pray on the cross is because prayer had been an ongoing part of Jesus’ life.  Jesus prayed at common times like before meals.  We heard Him pray when He fed the multitudes and served the Passover meal.  He prayed at crucial moments of His life like the night before He chose His 12 disciples.  There was another crucial moment when the crowds wanted to make Jesus King but He knew this was not the moment and that there was another road He needed to walk.  Jesus also prayed in moments of crisis, like in the Garden of Gethsemane when He knew Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, and His most faithful friends would abandon Him. 

Prayer was an ongoing rhythm of Jesus’ life and prayer is one element of worship.  We pray when we come together, and we need to pray when we are alone.  We talked about praying 5 times a day to help prayer become part of the rhythm of our lives.  Jesus probably prayed more than 5 times a day and the power of His prayer life was so evident that His disciples said, teach us to pray, and He gave them the model of prayer we know as the Lord’s Prayer.  Prayer and worship was one of the disciplines that shaped Jesus so that now, in a moment of real suffering and pain, He prayed.  

The words of Jesus' prayer, however, came from the scriptures.  

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?  Psalm 22:1

Jesus knew the scriptures so well that their words became His prayers, and Jesus knew the scriptures so well because His life was spent reading and reflecting on them.  Throughout the gospels we hear Jesus quote from the book of Deuteronomy 8 times, from the Prophet Isaiah 10 times, and the Psalms 13  times.  The message of scripture shaped Jesus' life.  He was the good shepherd from Psalm 23 and Ezekial 34, and He was the suffering servant that the prophet Isaiah said would be the Messiah.  Reading and reflecting on scripture was so much a part of Jesus’ life that He continued to find strength and comfort in the scriptures on the cross.  

Another prayer of Jesus on the cross that comes from scriptures was

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  Luke 23:46

This is another quotation from the Psalms and in many ways these first two words, which are prayers, need to be read and prayed together.  As much as Jesus felt forsaken and abandoned by God in this moment, ultimately, He knew that God was still there to receive His spirit.  Taken together, these 2 prayers remind us that even when we feel abandoned by God, even when God seems far away because of our sin, or the suffering we see or experience, or because of our doubts and questions, God is still there.  

If you feel forsaken by God, or that God is simply not there for you, Jesus knows your pain.  He knows what it’s like to feel isolated, alone, and abandoned by everyone and yet He took the effort from the cross to remind you and me that God is still with us.  His hand will sustain us, support us and save us.  With confidence we can also pray, God, into your hands we commit our spirit.  

The third spiritual discipline we looked at was serving others and in order to serve others we need to see the needs of people.  From the cross Jesus saw the need of 2 specific people, His mother and His best friend, John.  From the cross, Jesus looked down and saw the pain and anguish of His mother and knew that she was going to need help and support.  Jesus also looked into the eyes of His best friend, John, and saw the same sorrow and pain, so He asked the two of them to care for each other in the days to come.  

Woman, here is your son…   Here is your mother.  John 19:27

In a moment of intense pain, Jesus reached out to care for His mother and for a man who was like a brother.  What does care for your family look like?  Last year I learned a lot about what caring for older parents looks like.  It looks like time and patience and sacrifice.  It looks like setting aside our own wants and needs to make sure our parents are cared for physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Only 1 of the 10 commandments comes with a promise and that is: Honor your father and mother… so that it might go well with you.  

What I learned was that honoring my father and mother at this stage of life means serving and at times going out of my way to meet their needs, but all of that came with a blessing, a blessing of peace, and love, and grace.  How is God calling you to care for your parents?  And notice that what Jesus did from the cross was to call  all of us to care for the parents of others.  Mary had other children, but she asked John to help care for her.  

In the life of the church, we are called to help care for the parents of others and the children of others.  How can you help care for older parents in the church?  How can you help care for children and youth in the church?  The church is a new family, a spiritual family, and in this family, we are called to serve one another.  The spiritual discipline of service can be practiced right here and there are lots of opportunities for us to do just that.  

If you want to help care for parents, contact LeAnn Showers and she can partner you with a person or a facility where you can visit and care for older people.  Or you can connect with people at home and make sure they aren’t forgotten.  To work with children, contact Jeff Pilger.  Our VBS is coming up soon and we always need crew leaders who will care for children during the week.  

The other act of service we see in this moment of Jesus’ life is found in the cross itself.  What Jesus is doing on the cross is an act of service for all humankind because He is taking on our sin and paying the price for it. One of the scriptures that shaped Jesus' life was a section of Isaiah known as the suffering servant passage.  In that section, we hear about what the Messiah was going to be like.  

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God, 

stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

 each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Isaiah 53:4-6

This is what Jesus was doing on the cross.  He was serving us by paying the price for our sin.  Serving was so much a part of Jesus' life that His final act was itself an act of service.  What we need to remember is that Jesus calls us to take up a cross and make service an ongoing part of our own lives.    

From the cross Jesus is also sharing His faith and giving witness to the love and grace and mercy of God.  

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.  Luke 23:34

From the cross Jesus looked out at all those who had betrayed Him, abandoned Him, condemned Him, ridiculed Him, taunted Him, denied Him, and rejected Him and He offered them grace and mercy.  They didn’t deserve forgiveness, but Jesus forgave anyway.  It is such a powerful witness to God’s mercy and love that someone close by heard it and asked Jesus to forgive him.  

Jesus was crucified between two thieves, or bandits, and while one of them taunted Jesus, the other asked for the forgiveness he had just heard Jesus offer others.  He said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.  Jesus, the kindness and mercy you have shown to others, please show to me.  And Jesus replied…

Today you will be with me in paradise.  Luke 23:43

When Jesus looked at the dying man on the cross next to Him, or the crowd that surrounded Him, He was also looking at you and me.  Some have said that when Jesus looked out from the cross He was looking through the corridor of time and right into our eyes and offering forgiveness to us and to all who turn to Him.  Today this forgiveness is yours and mine and like Jesus, we can remind people that God’s grace and mercy and love is for them as well.  God so loved the world, everyone, that He gave His one and only son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  Today we can be with Him in paradise.  We can also give witness to this work of Jesus and make a difference in the life of others.  

So we come to the final spiritual discipline we talked about and that is giving and generosity.  Generosity isn’t always giving our money, sometimes it is giving something more difficult than money, like grace and mercy and love.  It is these harder gifts that Jesus gave so generously from the cross.  In one of His final words, Jesus said, 

I thirst.  John 19:28

Physically, Jesus had to have been thirsty, but He also says this because He has literally just poured out everything He had for others.  His cup is empty.  He gave all He had because generosity and giving had been an ongoing part of His life.  He gave until He had no more to give and then He said His final word.

It is finished.  John 19:30

In the Greek, this is just one word, tetelestai, which means Done.  It means: Mission Accomplished. Victory.  Once Jesus gave all He had, His mission was done.  The price of sin had been paid in full and there was nothing more that was needed.  His generous and gracious giving was all that was needed then and it is all that is needed now.  

There were 5 spiritual disciples and practices that shaped Jesus’ life: worship, scripture, serving, giving and witness, and from the cross each one is seen in what Jesus does and heard in one of His final words.  At a time of intense suffering and pain, it was these 5 spiritual practices that gave Jesus the strength and power to stand firm and walk the painful road to the cross.  

With His final words, Jesus reminds us that these 5 spiritual disciples need to be part of our personal daily walk and part of our walk of faith together.  When we walk in these disciples, we will be able to endure all things and find the courage and power to do all God calls us to do, even carry a cross.  This walk of faith, this walk of Jesus, will make all the difference in our faith and make all the difference in our life.  

 

Next Steps

The Walk -  5 Practices from the Cross

The seven last words of Jesus:

1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Mark 15:34

2. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  Luke 23:46

● Why do we need to pray these 2 words together?

● When have you felt forsaken?

● How can worship help you know God is still there?

● What scriptures can be part of your prayers?

● Take time this week to read and reflect on these last 7 words of Jesus.

3. Woman, here is your son… Here is your mother.  John 19:27

● Who is Jesus asking you to serve?

● How can you serve your parents or children this week?

● Contact LeAnn Showers if you want to serve older members of the church.  

● Contact Jeff Pilger if you want to work with children and youth in the church.  

4. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.  Luke 23:34

5. Today you will be with me in paradise.  Luke 23:43

● Who needs to hear this message of forgiveness and grace?  How can you share it with them?

6. I thirst.  John 19:28

● Jesus emptied himself and gave all He had.  

● What is God calling you to give?  How is God calling you to empty yourself for Him and others?

7. It is finished.  John 19:30

● Nothing more is needed.  Thank God for His gift of salvation and new and everlasting life.  

The Walk - giving

 

The past few months I had been so focused on getting my mom’s tax information gathered together that I forgot all about my own.  So  Monday morning I started gathering up all the forms and documents I needed for my taxes.  As I pulled things together and looked at the numbers, I started thinking about how our financial documents can give us a pretty good picture of our lives.  

Our financial documents can tell us if we are living within our means?   Do we have some savings?  Do we have financial margins that can give us peace of mind if something unexpected happens?  Do we have a retirement plan?  Are we being generous and giving to others? What does your tax return say about who you are and how you are living?  Does it reflect your faith and trust in God?  

During this season of Lent we are looking at 5 spiritual practices that can help us look more like Jesus.  These are disciplines we can practice alone or with others, and each one can help us strengthen our faith.  We have talked about worship and the importance of the word of God, and last week we talked about serving both God and others.  Today we are going to talk about a discipline and practice that is probably the most uncomfortable and unpleasant to talk about, giving and giving generously.  

I want to be clear and state that I’m not talking about giving 87 because the church needs your money.  I’m talking about giving and generosity because the Bible states over and over again that joy and peace and meaning and purpose and all the abundance of life are not found in amassing great wealth but in giving and generosity.  

One of the wisest and richest men who ever lived was Solomon and he is credited with writing the OT book of Ecclesiastes.  He said,

I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces…  Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 2:8a, 11

Solomon thought, and at times we think, that the more we get and the more we accumulate the happier we will be, but Jesus tells us that the opposite is true.  Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Luke 6:38.

In other words, the more we give the more we will receive.  This doesn’t mean the more money we give the more money we will get, but it does mean that the more we give of everything: our money as well as our time, energy, faith and love, the more we will receive.  Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Acts 20:35

Decades of study on giving and generosity have proved this to be true.  Arthur Brooks, the author of Gross National Happiness, said,

To the extent that happiness can be “bought” it is with charity: giving of effort, time and money makes people happier.  

There have been studies on the human brain that show when people just think about giving to others, the pleasure center of their brain lights up and becomes more active while the areas of the brain associated with stress and worry become less active.  Emotionally and physiologically, giving makes us feel good.  It is more blessed to give than to receive.  There are all kinds of benefits that are ours when we give and when we give consistently and generously.  

Even though we know giving is good for us, we still struggle to do it, so let me share three perspectives that can help us walk in generosity and giving.  

The first perspective is to want what you already have.  

The world constantly tells us that we want and need more. We are told over and over again that life will be better if we have new and better stuff.  If you don’t have a quantum dot LED 8k TV - you are missing out.  If you don’t subscribe to all the streaming TV services - you can’t binge watch all the shows others are watching and you are missing out.  If you don’t have a new car, you aren’t getting all the bells and whistles that make driving so much fun.  If you don’t have the newest computer, then you aren’t experiencing the best online experience you can.  If you don’t have all that is new, then you are missing out.  The world tells us we need more and if we are honest, we often want more.   

How can we fight this message that is everywhere we turn?  The answer is to learn to want what you already have, and the way to do that is to practice gratitude.  There are some people who are always planning to get a new car as soon as the new car smell is gone.  Some people are always looking at next year’s models wondering what they are missing and how they can trade in what they have to get something new.  Instead of looking at a new car every year, maybe we need to go out and sit in our current car and give thanks for what we have.  

If we think you need a new computer or TV or phone, maybe we need to stop looking at what all the latest technology can provide and give thanks for what we do have because what we have is paid off and it meets all our needs.  Before we buy anything new, maybe we need to look at what we have, give thanks for it, and allow that gratitude to shape our thinking, planning and purchasing.  Now this doesn’t mean that we will never buy a new car or upgrade our technology and services, but let’s give thanks for what we have first and see if an upgrade and new purchase is really needed.  

Being grateful for what we have can break the cycle of always wanting more and what is new.  Gratitude reminds us that life is not found in the abundance of things but in the presence of the One who gives us all things.  

The second perspective that can help us walk in generosity and giving is to live with purpose.  Again, Solomon thought that meaning and purpose were going to be found in all of his wealth and possessions.   

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.  I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female servants and had others who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.  I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well.  I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me.  Ecclesiastes 2:4-9

This was Solomon’s life.  He was richer and greater than anyone in Jerusalem, maybe anyone in the world.  He had everything the world could buy but when he stopped and thought about all he had, he came to the realization it was all meaningless.  Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless.  Ecclesiastes 2:11

The wealth and possessions of this world will never give our lives meaning and purpose, so what does?  What brings meaning and purpose to your life?  When my parents retired, they decided to go to Hilton Head for 4 months out of the year.  They knew that if they were going to be down there for a third of the year that they were going to have to volunteer doing something, because serving and giving was what gave their life meaning.  

Many of the people my parents met asked if they played golf or tennis, because that is what people do at Hilton Head.  My parents shared how they didn’t do either but enjoyed working with Habitat for Humanity.  After several years they shifted their service to a ministry called Deep Well which is like our Faith Centre and Foodbank.  When they were no longer able to go to HHI for the winter, they continued to support Deep Well through their financial giving.  While tennis and golf are good, life for my parents was going to be found in giving and generosity to others.   

What brings you purpose?  What adds value and meaning to your life and how can you prioritize and give to those things?  When we  give our time, energy, and yes, our money to those things, life is filled with  meaning and purpose and we walking in a discipline that shapes our hearts and strengthens our faith.  

The last perspective that can help us walk in giving and generosity is knowing that we were created to give and give generously.  

It helps us lean into giving when we know that we were created to give.  The Bible says that we were created in the image of God and fundamentally, God is one who gives and gives generously.  God created the world and gave it all life, but when we think of the hundreds of billions of planets and solar systems that are part of creation, we see that God gave generously.  When we look at our own world and think about all the plants and animals on the face of the earth, we once again see that God gave generously.  God created all kinds of unique creatures that fill the oceans and the land and the sky and the variety of plants is beyond our imagination.  

God’s giving and generosity were also seen when God chose to breathe into us the breath of life.  God didn’t just create us as human beings, God shared with us His intellect and love.  God could have created us to automatically do everything He wanted us to do, but God loved us enough to want us to know the joy of freedom and love.  God created us to be like Him, so we were created to give and give generously.

God’s generosity didn’t stop with creation, however.  When we rejected God and decided to live on our own, God once more gave, this time He gave the gift of His Son, Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 

We have been created in the image of this giving and generous God which means that we were created to give and give generously.  The more we remind ourselves that we were created to give, the more we make giving a part of our life. 

With each of these spiritual disciples we have seen that we need to walk in them personally and together.  Personally, how is God asking you to give more faithfully or generously?  How can generosity simply flow from you?  This doesn’t have to be some big financial change in life, it might be something very small.  

Last year I spent a lot of time with my dad as he was going through immunotherapy.  He wasn’t able to drive but he still wanted to do all the errands, so I went with him.  There was one little grocery store that he wanted to go to so we went and I noticed him give the cashier a few dollars.  She tried to give it back saying he didn’t owe it but my dad insisted she take the money and put it away for herself.  I’ll be honest, I was kind of embarrassed because we just don’t tip in grocery stores, but my dad wanted to give it to her.  I now see that as a reflection of my Dad’s desire to give and be generous.  He did this at the gas station he went to as well.  How can we make generosity an ongoing part of our own lives?  

Giving with others as part of the church is also important because together we can do more than we can alone.  My money will only go so far, but when we all give, we can do some amazing things.  A few weeks ago we lost a dear woman from our church, Mamie Reese.  My favorite story about Mamie was that she was watching her grandchildren during our week of VBS and they decided to run a lemonade stand to raise money for the VBS offering that year which was well drilling in Sierra Leone.  They didn’t raise much money so weren’t going to give it to the church, but insisted that since they did it for God they needed to give it to God.  

I got this note.  Hello, my siblings and I did a lemon ice tea stand.  Sorry its little money but we tried our best to make as much as possible.  From Kara, Hunter, and Bayli Bates.  The sent in $1.

I shared this story with my sisters because we ran a lemonade stand as kids and the only reason we made money was because a neighbor gave us $10 for a cup of lemonade and told us to keep the change.  I asked my sisters to give up this stand to encourage them, and they did.  Then my parents gave, and then many of you gave, and within a few months that $1 turned into over $1800 for well drilling in Sierra Leone.  Together our giving can accomplish so much more.

Where can our giving as a church allow God to make a significant and lasting difference in the world?  How can giving as part of a group make a difference in someone’s life?.  Maybe you can buy some stock and help send our youth to Costa Rica.  A share of stock is $20 but you can buy just part of a share if that is all you have.  If giving generously means just a few dollars - give just a few dollars.

Maybe giving generously for you isn’t $20 but $2,000, or maybe $20,000.  Where is God calling you to give in order to further His kingdom or bless His work?  When we give together, we not only support all that goes on at Faith Church, but we help support mission and ministry in our community and world.  The more we give together, the more of God’s kingdom we can build on earth and the more we personally will look like Jesus.   

I want to close with a video that shows us the difficulty that we all have when we choose to walk in a path of giving and generosity.  The video also reminds us that at times it will be a little child who will lead us.  

What great wisdom.  Lego’s don’t matter, family matters.  Put your treasure where it matters and give generously.  

 

Next Steps

The Walk - Giving

What does your tax return say about your financial life, priorities, purpose, and faith?

What do these passages teach you about money and giving?

● Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

● Matthew 6:24

● Mark 10:4-25

● Luke 6:39

● Luke 12:32-24

● Acts 20:35

Steps to help you walk in the discipline of giving:

1. Learn to want what you already have.

Practice generosity.  

Give thanks for what you have before you buy anything new.

2. Live with purpose and meaning.

What brings your life meaning and purpose?

How can you give to these things generously?

3.Remember you were created to give.

What examples can you find of God’s giving and generosity?  

What does it mean for you to be made in the image of this generous and giving God?

4.Give to the work of God in and through Faith Church.

Buy Stock in the Youth Mission Trip.

Support Missions Locally.

Support the work of the church through an ongoing offering.

Support one of our partners in ministry:

Faith Centre, Bridge of Hope, Pregnancy Resource Centre, Sierra Leone Initiative, Habitat for Humanity, Sowing Seeds in Belize, Raising Hope Ukraine, Bellefonte Youth Center

The Walk - Service

 

We are in a series called The Walk, where we are looking at 5 spiritual practices that can help us grow in our faith so we can look more like Jesus.  The first week we talked about the importance of worship both personally and as a church.  While all of creation worships God, we are the only part of creation that chooses to worship or not to worship God.  It is our choice, but when we do worship, we begin to experience all the fullness of life because we are doing what we were created to do.

Last week we heard that in time we begin to look like those we walk with, so it’s important for us to walk with Jesus and the best way to do that is to walk with Him in God’s word.  The best way to spend time with Jesus is to read the gospels and place ourselves in the story and allow the story of Jesus to form in us.  Reading and reflecting on God’s word is the best way to strengthen our faith so we need to make it an ongoing part of our lives, but reading God’s word with others has a unique power to shape us as well.  

Today we are going to look at the spiritual discipline and practice of service.  When the people of Israel finally settled into the Promised Land, they weren’t given the command to serve God, they were given the invitation to serve God.  Joshua said,

If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  Joshua 24:15

Joshua wasn’t commanding the people to serve God, he was inviting them to, and today we are still invited to serve the Lord.  Now, what serving the Lord often looks like is serving others. Jesus talked about the importance of serving others.  

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Matthew 20:26-28

While we are invited to serve God and called to serve others, the Bible is also clear that we were created to serve others.  

We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

If we were created to serve others and do good works, then when we do them, we are doing what we were created to do and that is where we experience all the fullness of life.  A few weeks ago, we talked about living in that “sweet spot” of life where we feel like we are doing everything that we are born to do and life is good. That sweet spot comes when we are doing all the good works and service God created us to do.  

Now I do want to be clear and say that God’s love and salvation aren’t given to us when we serve others.  Paul makes this clear in his letter to the Ephesians.  Right before Paul talks about the good works we were created for, he says, for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

Our good works don’t save us.  We are saved by faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. and that is a gift of God.  Paul wants to be clear that salvation is not from good works we do but that good works flow from our salvation and that they need to be part of our life because it’s part of why God made us.  God made us to worship but God also made us to love and serve Him and others so when we walk in paths of service we experience the peace and power of life, but the choice to serve is always ours.  

In the book of Isaiah there is this wonderful call of God to serve.  

Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?   Isaiah 6:8  

It’s not a command to go and serve, it’s a call and invitation.  Isaiah replies.  Here am I. Send me!  Isaiah 6:8

We are being invited to walk with God in paths of love, kindness and service, and when we do this, we are following the example of Jesus, but serving others doesn’t just happen, we have to be intentional and make service the orientation of our lives.  To do this, 2 things are needed.  We need to be Available to God and Aware of People.

Becoming available to God might start with a simple prayer every morning. God, today I make myself available to you.  

Like the Prophet Isaiah we could say, Here I am, send me.

We could use the words of Mary who, when asked by God if she would be the mother of the Messiah, said  I am the Lord’s servant, May your word to me be fulfilled.

Over 200 years ago, John Wesley, one of the founders of the United Methodist Church, wrote a prayer that can also be used as a means of making ourselves available to God.  (provided on the next steps)

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things 

To thy pleasure and disposal.  

There is also an old hymn of the church we could use as a prayer. 

O Master, let me walk with Thee.  

In lowly paths of service.

Tell me Thy secret, help me bear, 

the strain of toil, the fret of care.

What I like about this hymn is that it asks Jesus to tell us His secret to living a life of sacrifice and service.  One secret to sustaining a life of service is knowing that serving God actually makes our lives better.  This has been proven over and over again.  

Studies have shown that there is a benefit we get when we serve.  We know this.  How do you feel when you serve someone or practice a random act of kindness?  How do you feel when you are able to help someone or bless someone?  You feel good.  That good feeling has many physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits.

Physically, when we serve others on a regular basis, we experience less stress, have a lower blood pressure and are more likely to be physically fit.  This all leads to a longer life.  Studies show that those who volunteer and serve actually live longer than others.   

 Emotionally, those who serve others experience less depression.  One of the key factors for people who said they felt very happy in life was that they volunteered about 6 hours a month.  

Spiritually, because Jesus loved and served others, if we do the same thing, we are walking with Him and therefore we will look more and more like Him.  Serving others strengthens our faith.  

Making ourselves available is the first step in a lifestyle of service, becoming Aware of People is the second.  

When we ask God to use us, God will show us the times and places where we can be used.  When we want to be used by God and make ourselves available to God, God will show us the needs He wants us to meet.  There are needs all around us and we probably see them already, but if we are going to meet those needs, we have to be willing to have our lives interrupted.  

A lot of the work that Jesus did, and the miracles He performed, were not planned but happened because Jesus saw a need and allowed Himself to be interrupted.  Jesus was walking into the city of Nain one day when He saw a funeral procession heading out of the city.  They were carrying out a young man to be buried.  When He heard that the young man was a widow’s only son, He was moved with compassion and stopped to raise the young man and return him to his mother. 

Jesus was on His way to heal the daughter of a Roman official when someone touched His robe and He felt the power of healing flow through Him.  Jesus stopped to find that person and when He did, He offered her an even greater blessing of restoration by calling her a daughter of God.  

On other occasions, Jesus allowed His day to be interrupted by children and He took the time to bless them.  Jesus fed the multitudes when they all found themselves far from any town and close to dinner time.  The disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away so they could go on with their own plans, but Jesus said, no, you feed them.  All of these miracles and moments of Jesus blessing and serving others took place because Jesus allowed Himself to be interrupted. 

You may have heard the expression; life happens when we are busy making other plans.  Well, the same is true for ministry, miracles, and service.  Those opportunities often come as interruptions to our life, but if we choose to stop and serve, we will be blessed.  

Personally, we need to walk with Jesus and develop a lifestyle of service, but we also need to find ways to serve together.  The reason we need to serve with others is that together we can do more than we can alone.  The examples of this are all around us.  

If I  tried to feed the hungry in the community by myself, I might be able to buy a few bags of groceries and find some people to give them to, but I wouldn’t be making a big difference.  When we work together, however, we are able to gather all kinds of food from all kinds of sources and make sure all those who are hungry get fed.   Together we are able to do so much more than we can on our own.  

During Vacation Bible School we will have the opportunity to serve 100+ children and teach them about Jesus through games, lessons, music, and snacks.  On my own, I might be able to do something for a child or two, but together we can make a bigger impact.  

Each Sunday we get a great example of how this works with the Choir (Worship Team).  On their own, each part (instrument/singer) would have been able to provide something, but it wouldn’t have moved us like the full choir(team) did.  We can do so much more together.  

A few years ago our mission team helped a woman in need and if I had gone to her house alone, I may have been able to sweep out her basement and paint some of her walls during the entire week.  Working with others, however, we did electrical work, put in a new bathroom, regraded her yard so that her basement wouldn’t flood and we did a full clean out of her basement to create a usable play space for her special needs daughters.  None of that would have been accomplished if we didn’t have a team of people who fed us and provided water and coffee.  We made a much larger impact because we worked together. 

The Christmas Dinner is another great example of this.  There is no way one person can serve 700-800 people a full turkey dinner in 3 hours, but working together, we can, and each year we do.  But to do this kind of work, we need everyone to be willing to say, Here I am, send me.  Put me to work.  Let me serve with you.  If each one of us is willing to do this, we can make a huge difference in our community and world.  

Right now, at Faith Church, we are seeing some amazing growth in the area of children and youth.  It’s wonderful, but it also means we could use a few extra people so we could start some new classes.  Pastor David is working with a team of people to help launch some fresh expressions, some ways of sharing Jesus with our community beyond the walls of the church. Those expressions need some help and support.  No growth can take place in a church and be sustained over time without everyone making themselves available to God and being willing to be aware of and meet the needs.  What needs can you meet?  How can you serve God and others?  On the next steps you can find some specific needs we have right now.  

A few weeks ago we talked about praying 5 times a day, what if we committed ourselves to serving 5 people a day, every day.  The service doesn’t have to be big; it can be a note, a phone call, holding the door for someone or a kind word of welcome or encouragement.  Or maybe it’s offering your service to others through the church or a community group.  If each one of us could commit to 5 acts of service every day, lives would change.  Do the math.

There are over 400 people who worship with us in person and online.  If each of us serves someone 5 times a day, that’s 2,000 acts of kindness, love and service in our community - every day.  We all do that for a year and it means that 730,000 acts of service have touched the lives of others.  I can’t help but think that ¾ million acts of kindness and service will change our community in some pretty significant ways.  Even if it doesn’t change our community, it will change us.  

God doesn’t command us to serve others, He invites us to.  It’s an invitation into a life where we will experience abundance and joy as we honor God and make the lives of others better.  Who will go and serve, God asks.  May our response be, Here I am, Lord.  Send me.  

Next Steps

The Walk - Service

When have you served others and how did it make you feel?

What acts of kindness and service are already an ongoing part of your life?  

To strengthen your walk of service, be:

Available to God

• Read Isaiah 6:1-8

• Read Luke 1:26-36

• Read Luke 10:25-37

How can you make yourself more available to God?

What holds you back?

Aware of People

• Ask God for eyes to see and ears to hear the needs of those around you.  

• Keep a journal of the needs you see & ask God to help you discern what needs you might be able to meet.  

• What need is God asking you to meet and how can you invite others to help you meet it?

John Wesley Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things 

To thy pleasure and disposal.  

And now, glorious and blessed God, 

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 

you are mine and I am yours. So be it. 

And the covenant now made on earth, 

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.