Heart of Jesus: A Victorious Heart

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 5/6/18

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^NRS John 17:1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

There was a woman at work when she received a phone call that her daughter was very sick with a fever. She left work and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication for her daughter. She returned to her car to find that she had locked the keys inside the car when she went into the pharmacy and was now unable to get into her car to drive home.
She didn’t know what to do and started to panic, so she called home and told the baby sitter what had happened and that she did not know what to do. The baby sitter told her to find a coat hanger and see if that would open the door. The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been thrown down on the ground, possibly by someone else who also had locked their keys in their car. Then she looked at the hanger and said, "I don’t know how to use this." So she bowed her head and asked God to send her some help. In so doing, she obeyed the command to never stop praying. Do you think God would reward her for that?

Within five minutes, a motorcycle roared up and pulled into the parking space next to her car. A rough, dirty-looking biker got off and saw her situation. He asked if he could help her. The woman thought, "This is what you sent to help me, God?" She finally told him yes, as she needed to hurry and get home to her sick daughter. He walked over to the car, and in less than one minute, the car was opened. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "Thank you so much! You are such a nice man." The man replied; "No, I’m not, Lady. I just got out of prison for car theft." The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out to God, "You even sent me a professional."

As we celebrate this week lets return to the Passion narrative of Easter. Jesus is looking into the face of death itself. He knows what is coming soon and in spite of that, He asks God to stand by the promise that all of humanity is given into the hands of Jesus. Jesus tells us that He has complete authority over the whole earth and all of its inhabitants, not just for the first century but also for all time. Jesus is asking God to give us, those that believe in the love of God brought through the love and sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus, to receive the promise of eternal salvation and life. All of this while looking into the very depths of Hell itself and death. What love there is that can do this kind of thing? One that we cannot truly understand or appreciate. However, this is exactly what happened and what we must be forever thankful. How can we ever repay that which is given to us freely and without strings attached unless we spend our lives witnessing to the grace and mercy of God? How can we ever truly sit at our tables or in our houses comfortable without thinking about the sacrifice that God has given to us? Thanksgiving is a time to do that very thing. Jesus is saying to us that He is ours if we are willing to open our hearts to Him and invite Him in. Will you, can you, won’t you?

Jesus has a victorious heart, made up of all the woes of the earth, all the joys and tears and celebrations that we can imagine. That sounds a bit like an oxymoron but the truth is Jesus death and resurrection allows Him to hold all of that in tension. The beauty of this story is that God sent Jesus, the very example of physical living love into the world so that we might see that example and learn to live into it in our own lives. Jesus wants us to know that we are free from the chains and binding holds of this world. Jesus wants us to know that we have eternal life at the asking just by loving God and loving one another. He is calling us to an unconditional love for God and for each other. In that love, Jesus shares the victory over death with us. That is the good news of the Gospels, the good news of the Biblical story that began with God’s love for the world in the Garden of Eden that carries through the last chapter in John’s Revelation.

We live in a difficult time in the world today. There can be no doubt that there is more violence and bloodshed, hate and anger, than when many of us were young. The world is full of terrorism and hate amongst the peoples of the world. We saw it played out in Paris, Beirut, and Mali in recent days. We must also remember that there are thousands of people who are struggling in the places where hate originates. They are fleeing to bring better lives for their families and themselves. Is that any different from the story of the Exodus from Egypt by the people we call Israelites under Moses? For most of us, the stories of our ancestors who came to this country fleeing religious persecution, difficult times in their homes countries of Europe, Italy and the Middle East. Can we but take a moment and remember that if not for the generosity of this place we call America; all of us would have lived and died in places like Syria though the names would have been Scotland and Ireland, Germany and Italy among many. Are we not the country that has said to the world, “Give me your tired, your poor/ your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” So let us this season remember that we are all aliens in a strange land with the exception of our Native Americans. We all washed with the blood of a loving God who gave His blood for our eternal lives.

In Jesus we are victorious. Death is beaten and the promise of eternal life in a place where joy, peace and celebration abound is fulfilled. Jesus gave His life so that we might share in the Garden in our lives. Not just at some future point in time but right now. We have the opportunity to share in this promise by living our lives in the image of Jesus, an image of the creating God, the image of love in the world. Our victories come when people from all nations, ages, sexual preferences and life’s understandings can live in peace with one another. A world where differences allow our unique talents to better the world rather than divide it. Jesus promise is to all people. Should we act any differently? The victory of God is when we live our lives every day in love for one another. Come to the table all you who are weary and I will give you rest. Isaiah’s promise that we will all sit at the table of God is available to all of us right now in this place.

I dream of a world where the church called Sydenstricker is so focused on loving one another that the world desires to be a part of our family. Where everyone can find sanctuary and love in this place regardless. Where discipleship is the core foundation of who we are as we gather for worship, study and small groups where we lift each other up daily. Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us that we may not get there together but we can build the foundation on which this vision is built. Moses looked out from the mountain and saw all that God had promised. Joshua led them through the Jordan to the Promised Land. My friends, Jesus has won the victory on the cross. The Tomb is empty and the promise of eternal life is yours for the taking. The cost to you is living your life as a loving sacrifice to the world. The price is priceless.

Heart of Jesus: A Burdened Heart

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 4/22/18

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^NRS Matthew 11:28  "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

We are nearing the end of the Heart of Jesus series. Each week we have explored a personality or a dynamic of the heart of Jesus. All of this is simply another way of understanding the love and grace of God. We know that as Christians that God loves us so incredibly well that God sent us Jesus to show us how to love one another and be the disciples God has called us to be. Our church, Sydenstricker has taken a definitive resolve to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We know that Disciples are lifelong learners who influence others to serve and we are learning what all of that means. Today I want to talk to you about life and the struggles that we all face. Each of is in this place having gone through or going through some kind of burden, some kind of hurt, some kind of illness and more than ever we could use a lift up from where we are.

August 10, 1628, was a dark day in naval history. On that day, the royal warship Vasa set out on her maiden voyage. After taking 2 years to build, lavishly decorated and holding 64 cannons, the pride of the Swedish navy sank only one mile out to sea. What went wrong? The excessive load was too heavy to make her seaworthy. Excess weight pulled the Vasa to the bottom of the ocean.

Over 16.9 million people in this country are suffering from the effects of depression. That is over 6.9 % of the total world population. Our people today struggle with how to deal with the world around us in ever-increasing ways of anxiety. Never before in the history of the United States have some many people struggled so much with every day stuff, not to mention the political challenges, social challenges and fear for jobs and security. I see young people today who have such high level of anxiety in school and home that they have periods where they simply cannot function. We are a truly burdened society.

I remember a number of years ago, sitting in the cancer center. I was there with my mother as she was having some procedures to assist in her healing after a radical mastectomy. When you sit in that kind of emergency room, you cannot help but pay attention to the people around you. Some of them clearly were struggling, physically and mentally as they tried to deal with the illness that was knocking them down. Some of them came from the doctor’s room crying, some just empty while others had received good news and came with a smile, almost ashamed of it, but it was there none the less. Over the course of 16 years, I have talked with a number of people struggling with cancer and other serious life threatening illnesses. All of them carry that burden like the world lifted on their shoulders. However, some of them have a lighter outlook. What is the difference? The ones who know Jesus seem to have a better time of it.

Flora Wuellner writes of a story where the people in Hell to come to heaven once in eternity for the day. Upon arrival, many are soon uncomfortable in the joy and wonder that we understand heaven to be and begin to ask to go back to Hell. Why, the angels ask would you want to leave this for that. “Because, we do not deserve to be here,” was their reply, “we failed to measure up and carry the weight of those sins with us even now”. Notice what they said, they carry the weight of those sins even now. How many of us come to this place on this day carrying the weight of past sins on our shoulders and around our necks like the ball and chains of yesteryear? How many of us come to this place harboring the pain of past mistakes often from so many years ago that everyone but us has forgotten? I remember the old man crying in my arms asking for forgiveness for what he thought was a sin he had committed in Normandy beach sixty plus years ago. He was broken because of it. We are all broken because of our own mistakes, our iniquities if you remember that word and we refuse to let go of them. We make our lives a living monument to our mistakes by wearing them on our sleeves and in our faces and in our actions.

So here we are. We carry the burdens of our past, our own mistakes, our illnesses, our life decisions and even today, we carry the burden the world has placed on us just because we live in this place and this time. What if we could release that and let it go? What if we had the ability to find peace and comfort in our lives regardless of the issues we face?

Into this discussion comes Jesus. Now the scripture we heard today suggests that Jesus has no burdens or very few since His burden is light and easy. I am not sure that the understanding of the scripture leans in that direction for the truth is Jesus carries with Him the burdens of the world. I believe that Jesus understands those burdens in the scope of time and space. Our lifetime is such a small portion of the eternity that we will share with God and one another. So in fact, maybe our burdens are not that mountainous, as we believe. It might be our perspective after all.

Today is may be a bit difficult to understand the idea of yoking, especially if you have never been around farms where bulls are used to pull the plows that turn over the ground. However, in Jesus day, many would have understood His statement. You see a yoke is that thing placed around the head of the animal to connect him with the piece of equipment, trailer or plow that he is going to pull. Yokes typically are made of wood at least that was the choice du jour of Jesus day. Things made of wood tend to have splinters and burrs that can irritate or cut. So often the farmers would spend a great deal of time, sanding and working the inside the yoke so that it was smooth. When they get it just right they often say that the yoke is easy, meaning it is easy to wear without irritation or hurt. Young bulls are full of energy and they would often need to be tamed in order to become a good working animal. The method to do that was to yoke a young bull with an older bull in a double yoke. The young bull would tug and fight while the old bull would just move forward doing the job it was asked to do. Over time the young bull would relax and found that when it did the yoke was easy, not rubbing or chaffing as it was when the young bull was fighting against it.

Makes me wonder how many of us are young bulls? How many of us are fighting against the world? Maybe we are fighting because the world decided to throw a torrential downpour of frogs at us through no fault of our own. Maybe we are fighting because the rules we have to live by are difficult to master and we would rather be doing our own thing anyway. Maybe we are fighting out of shame of guilt for our actions. I do not know about you, but I find myself worn down when I am fighting the yoke of life. I find myself depressed and tired. Some days I think, why get out of bed; it is going to get worse from here. Have you felt that way?

Then I remember Jesus words. Come all of us who are struggling, depressed, burdened with illness, guilt, shame, anxiety or just life. Jesus is calling us to come to Him. Our young bull instincts yoked with His calm grace and view of eternity that we cannot see. I remember then that Jesus came into the world and lived life just as I am now. That He shared in the joys and sorrows of His family and friends. That He watched men and women falter under the oppression of Roman rule and heavy Roman and Jewish taxation. He watched as people struggled to make ends meet, just like today, and how they often lost everything. I think about how He watched those who would put Him to death and I cannot help but think that He did so with such agony and pain. Yet He did! Not only did He watch, He reached out to bring comfort and peace to many. Then He went to the cross so that you and I could find peace in the midst of agony, comfort in the midst of anxiety and life in the midst of death.

AS I ponder these things, a song often comes to my mind.

Do you still feel the nails
Every time I fail?
Have I crucified you, Jesus,
With my sin?

If you are here today and you are feeling the burdens of life, come on down to the altar. If you are here today and you feel an emptiness where peace and comfort should be, open your heart to Jesus.

If you are here, today and you know that there, is something bigger and better but cannot seem to find it, offer your heart to Jesus.

Jesus has a burdened heart carrying all our sorrows, all our anxieties, all our mistakes and iniquities, and all or illnesses and He is offering to carry the weight of that burden on His shoulders if you will let Him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Parallel Chapter Eight

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Chapter 8

Ministry in Judea

           We are going to explore Jesus ministry in the Judean region of Israel. John puts this ministry following a visit to Jerusalem, which the other Gospel accounts do not mention. John may have wanted to show a desire by Jesus to win over the leadership of Israel and have them acknowledge Him as Messiah. If that had happened the world would have changed dramatically and the need for the crucifixion may have no longer been needed. John may have wanted the Gentile world to know that Jesus had the desire to bring change without the necessity of sacrifice. In the four Gospel accounts, His ministry in Judea is where most of His teaching occurs.

           I often refer to this section as the Beginning of the End since it is here that Jesus begins the process of making true disciples, teaching the hard lessons of discipleship and setting His vision on Jerusalem, death and resurrection. It is during this period of time that He begins to let the disciples in on the coming events and how their world is about to dramatically be changed. But it is also a time of testing for them, assuring that they understand the lessons He is teaching them.

           We begin with an interesting account in Matthew 19 about the confession of Peter. Jesus reaches out to the disciples asking them who they believe Him to be. Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah. It is at this point that Jesus tells Peter that he will be the person who will build the new church of followers of Jesus. It is important to note here that the other two Gospel accounts do not make this assertion so it is possible that Matthew, speaking to the Jews, is trying to increase their awareness of Peter’s importance and authenticate the movement. What is also interesting is that Matthew’s account does not follow the departure of the other disciples who find Jesus teaching too difficult.

Jesus begins the process of telling the disciples what the future holds though it is doubtful that they truly understood until after His death and resurrection. All three follow this story in the same way so it is highly likely that Jesus did in fact have this conversation with the disciples and it is recorded here. Why is it important? For us the readers thousands of years later, we know by this account that at this point in time Jesus had full knowledge of what awaited Him in Jerusalem. This is immediately followed by the transfiguration story where Jesus meets Elijah and Moses on the mountaintop and is transfigured into the heavenly image. Again, did this story happen in this way is not the question though the fact that all three accounts report it is important. This event would mark the disciples for the future and gave them a glimpse of how Jesus really is. Matthew and Mark follow this story with the story of Elijah. The reasoning for this account is to show fulfillment of the prophecy that Elijah would come before the Messiah. Both authors want the reader to see John the Baptizer as the spirit of Elijah who would come to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. Surprising Luke does not include it in his Gospel account.

Jesus continues to teach the disciples and admonishes them to stay faithful not only to the teachings but not to teach others differently than what they have been taught. All three share the same story although Mark tells it earlier in the ministry than Matthew and Luke. Do not cause others to stumble is the way Jesus admonishes all of us to stay faithful and that we are to be judged more harshly as teachers if we teach a false Gospel. (See James 3:1 to see this understanding stated for those who teach.)

Several of the stories we are familiar with like the sending of the seventy out into the world ahead of Jesus and storing treasures in heaven are only in the Gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke. There is a possibility that Mark was not familiar with those stories or that they had no special relevance for his ministry to the Gentile world. It is interesting that Matthew sends the seventy out much earlier than Luke does. Luke’s accounts suggests that Jesus sends them out to pave the way for His movement toward Jerusalem.

We then come to another story that is included in all three Gospel accounts. Interestingly enough, John does not include this account in his account of Jesus teaching. Matthew includes it earlier in the ministry than Luke and Mark likely because it fit better there. Mark and Luke indicate that the first will be last and the last will be first and in fact this all Mark has to say about this. Matthew and Luke spend more time focusing on how hard it is to be a follower and included. Another interesting note is that Matthew and Luke both allude to a future time when the followers will come to Israel, from the east and then the west, the north and then the south. For those who may be interested in “End times” revelation, this is precisely how the repopulation of Israel by the Jewish people has taken place and the migration from the south is the most recent large migration of people into Israel.

Finally, we come to the story known as “The Day of the Son of Man”. All three Gospel writers account for this story and most theologians believe this is Jesus teaching on how He will return. It is a prophetic message of the coming again of God and in fact Matthew and Mark use the same words as clearly referencing the Day of the Lord in Joel 2: 30-31. Jesus message from these three Gospel accounts in many ways is a parallel to the Parables where He preaches to be prepared and ready for His return.

In the next chapter, we will explore Jesus entrance into Jerusalem and the Olivet Discourse.