Well an unusual Easter for us on several counts:
First, I’m not preaching
Second, we were in the overflow room
Third, there were donuts and coffee….and that is a good thing.
Fourth, we were rear-ended on the way home because an elderly couple slammed on their brakes, for maybe another elderly couple and though I managed to stop on time, the lady behind me didn’t and wham.
But the elderly couple got away…I mean, they booked out of there and I wouldn’t want her to lose her license or get heat from her kids. Lord, let them be independent as long as possible. So that was a good thing.
The Lady behind, who hit me and pushed me into the couple in front, had a 2-month-old, who, because of the brilliant technology behind plastic bumpers on European and Japanese cars, and the brilliant technology that goes into the making of car seats, didn’t even wake up… I mean the baby.
And I think Laura and I and Golf are no worse for the wear.
As I sat in church today, I realized how tired I am of Easter services. I like Easter, but the apologetics and the blazing songs, what does it mean? I know what Easter means, but there isn’t the newness of touch, as to what it means. Surely it should touch and not just be informational. This kind of goes along with Donald Miller and other writers regarding the spirituality or spiritual element of following Christ. It is not all head and it isn’t even all heart. I can explain both of those just from human experience, but where does the spirit become engaged. We still only move on the levels of flesh and humanity and fail to bridge the gap to the spirit.
My Friend just moved from Olathe to Omaha. His friends took him out to some bar and had some singer sing a song they had made up for him. They announced that he was getting a divorce and moving to Omaha. He got a round of applause from the humans in the room. That is the best humans can do. Our minds tally up the experiential information and crunch the numbers. Our emotions flow through the crevices of our brain looking for networks of feelings. All very human and Ok, but where is the spirit? We do the same in church during an Easter service. We dig within to find experience with God that makes the resurrection valuable. We search our brains for feelings telling us there should be joy. And as we draw blanks or stir up some concocted feelings and rationale, we squeeze our eyes shut and try to find emotion in a song… we don’t know, unless we open our eyes and read the words, but because you’re in the overflow, you don’t get all the words…and then the message is an apologetic for the resurrection and that really isn’t a problem for many people anymore. Is a post modern interested in the logic of the resurrection, or rather how or if it works, why it’s important, what makes God God, and how does this touch the soul? And even we don’t know. So where is the hope? Is it pie in the sky, the dessert plate waiting for us after we die? How does this help my friend whose life is lying in pieces? How does it make sense for me in the suburban ghetto, trapped in comfort thinking in my ever bloating body?
So I’m reading in Romans 14, way off the trail beaten by pilgrims looking for motivational devotion and there is a strange verse, “For to this end Christ died and lived again….”
Whoa! Who put that there? There it is, a reason for the resurrection. I’ll bet this was preached a lot on Easter, Not.
Paul is talking about the strong and the weak and the back and the forth judging going on, so he asked them what right they had to judge the servant of another. Everyone stands or falls before their own master and that master can make them stand.
Weak..strong…not important, it is their master who makes them stand. Each in relationship to the grace given them, in relation to the life and circumstances dealt to them. Don’t judge. Shut it if you can’t encourage, because it is their master who can make them stand.
My friend didn’t have a lot going for him. The equivalent of trusting Christ on an airplane seconds before fatal impact. Don’t judge. A mother with young kids…never judge. Correct if they are drifting, love if they are falling, lift if they are limping. But we can’t judge, because only their master knows their load and how they’re doing.
Here is the grace of the resurrection…we have a Lord, a master, we are not alone to live and die. “None of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord, so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lords.” I follow as I am.
Hold that thought…we have someone…Our Master, the Lord. Cool. I may be lonely; but I don’t live for me, I live for Him. I may die; but I don’t die for nothing, I die for Him. Regardless of my feelings, I’m wrapped in Him, in purpose, in direction. This day may stink, but tomorrow I awake and He’s still there and His Word and the Spirit’s silent work have healed the hole from yesterday.
How? The resurrection. “For to this end Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the Living.” He rose to be my Lord. He didn’t take a nap. He blew to the surface to get to work, to be my Lord. Before another charge could be made it was “Jesus Christ who died, yes who is risen from the dead, who sits at the right hand of God, who indeed makes intercession for us.” He rose to be my Master, my Lord. In honor of His resurrection, I follow as I am.
He is risen! But not to show He could do it, rather to be there to hold out His hand as your Lord. For my Friend? Yes. To me? Yes To comfort? Yes. To lead? Yes. To give you purpose? Yes. To just hang out? Yes. Is He patient when we are weak? Yes. Does he wait for us when we stumble? Yes. He Loves me? Yes. For to this end, for this very reason, Christ died and lived again, for us, to be Lord and all that means, both of those who are already gone, and for those who remain. So because of the resurrection, if we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. And though we be weak, our master is able to make us stand, for He is Risen!
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