Do You Believe in the Resurrection?

            Can you believe in something that you have never seen?  How do you know that something is true if you have never seen it or experienced it yourself?  Those are questions that some ask in regard to the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we celebrate yearly on Easter Sunday.  Some doubt the resurrection of Jesus because it is difficult for them to grasp how a person who has died can be brought back to life again. 

            Believing in something we cannot understand is not new for modern people.  Even with all the scientific knowledge that exists, there are things that we encounter daily that are hard for most of us to understand.  Each time I flip on the light switch and the lights come on, I am doing something that I do as a repetitive motion but one that is not something I truly understand.  I simply know that, unless the electrical power to the house is not working, when I do it the lights in the light fixture will produce light.  The light bulbs themselves are a mystery as to how they work.  Perhaps Thomas Edison understood how the light bulb worked since he invented them, but for me as an average consumer I only know that if the light bulb is in the light fixture and connected to the electrical lines running through the house, then light will be produced by my action of flipping the light switch. 

            There are so many innumerable other things that we do in life that we do not understand that we have grown accustomed to simply doing them or using them without knowing exactly how they work and that is the way our lives are ordered.  I use a cell phone and a computer daily and I have no idea how simply pushing buttons or tapping a keyboard causes words to appear on a screen that I can print out on a sheet of paper or send electronically to people around the world.  I simply do these things and have faith that it will work unless there is a problem inside my computer or phone that causes it not to work (and I don’t understand how that can be either.)

            So, we all live our lives daily in ways in which we place faith in objects or customs to do the things in life we want to do without understanding how those things work or what causes them to do what we want them to do.  Why is spiritual faith something that operates out of the normal way of life when it comes to belief in something that we cannot explain? 

            When I say that I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that God raised Jesus from the dead in some supernatural way, I can believe in that idea without understanding how it happened.  If I believe that there was a man named Jesus Christ of Nazareth who lived over 2000 years ago in a land we now call Israel and whose teachings make sense for ordering our lives, then why can I not take another leap of faith (who is to say that any historical persons we learned about in school or at church actually existed?  We believe in them because we trust the people who taught us to believe in them.) and say that it is possible that God (another matter of faith—to believe in God takes faith on the part of the believer) could raise Jesus from the dead and bring him back to a spiritual life that is beyond explanation. 

            The celebration of Easter precedes the celebration of Christmas by many centuries.  Persons in the Early Church saw the resurrection of Jesus as one of the hallmarks of what it means to be called a Christian.  The life, teachings, and death of Jesus are vastly important to society and humankind but the resurrection of Jesus sets Christianity apart from other religions because Christians believe that if Jesus was raised from the dead, then we too will experience a spiritual resurrection when we die.   

            I choose to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not because I can explain how it happened but because it gives me hope for the future and purpose in life knowing that this life is not all there is.  I am not wishing for a quick exit from this life because I enjoy life and living but I do not have to be afraid of death or dying because God has prepared something after this life that I believe exists through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

            Each time I officiate at a funeral I begin with the same words called “The Word of Grace”.  It says, “Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”  Those words of Jesus give me hope that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we all can experience a continued existence after this one ends.  That hope conquers any fear that society’s ills may produce.  We have hope in Christ because Christ has conquered death and our lives are contained in his life so we too will have life beyond death when our time comes.

            May the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be yours both now and always.  Amen.  

Living Water That Brings Restoration and Reconciliation

How thirsty are you?  Do you ever thirst for the truth?  Do you thirst for the peace that calms the troubled heart?  Do you thirst for restoration and reconciliation with God and neighbor?

The theme for this next Sunday, the third Sunday of Lent, is reconciliation.  We will read three scripture lessons that all tell stories of reconciliation and restoration.  First, from Exodus, comes the story of thirsty people in the wilderness.  The People called Israel are wandering in the desert as they make their way from Egypt to Canaan Land.  There is little water in the dry land they are crossing.  They are thirsty and begin to call out to Moses to give them water.  Moses, in turn, calls out to God who tells him to strike a rock and water will gush out of it and sure enough it does, as Moses does what God commands him to do.   Thirsty people drink of fresh cool water gushing out from beneath a rock, a hidden spring that needed to be tapped.

Then, John's Gospel tells the familiar story of the Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus encounters and asks for a drink of water from her.  She is a troubled woman and Jesus senses her distress, since she is at the well at noon rather than early in the morning when most women came to the well to avoid the midday heat.  Her conversation with Jesus makes her believe he is a prophet and she calls the townspeople to come and see this remarkable man.  Jesus gives her the "living water" she seeks as she is restored to relationship with her community and to the God she seeks to know.

Paul addresses the church at Rome in chapter 5 of his epistle to them and talks about being justified and reconciled to God through the love of Jesus Christ, who gave himself for all humanity.  Jesus' actions have made all justified to God and brought about full restoration of the brokenness of human beings, both to God and one another.  The live and actions of Jesus have brought those who seek restoration into full and right relationship.

Living water is what Jesus offered to the Samaritan woman, the same living water that Paul offers to the early church at Rome.  The living water could only come through the Spirit of God working in Christ and evident in the lives of Early Christians who found a new way of living after Pentecost.  Living water is what modern day persons need also, water that stimulates the human spirit and revives the refreshes the soul.

The people of Israel who were crossing the barren wilderness after they left Egypt and were searching for a home needed real physical water to quench their dry throats and bring them relief so they could continue their journey.  God showed his love and compassion for them as he supplied their needs.  The physical water represented the love of God to them because God heard their cries and responded to their need.

God hears our cries also and answers our prayers, perhaps not always in the way we anticipate but in ways that are for our own good and welfare.  God's love is made known to us through the actions of others who come to our rescue when we need to hear words and see love demonstrated in tangible ways.  We find refreshing streams of water when we need them as we continue to seek God in our daily lives and to gather with God's People regularly to gain spiritual strength and renewal.

How thirsty are you?  How much do you need to know God's presence in your life?  Jesus said, "Come unto me, all you who are heavily laden and I will give you rest."  The waters of restoration and reconciliation are always flowing.  One simply has to come to the waters and receive what God offers to find relief.

Lessons From the Goose

Lessons from the Goose (taken from an anonymous source):

1. As each goose flaps its wings it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow.  By flying in a "V" formation the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

2. When a good falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone.  It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go.  We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

3. When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.
Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership.  As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents, and resources.

4. The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging.  In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater.  The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage others with those same values) is the quality of honking we seek.

5. When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help protect it.  They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again.  Then, they launch out with another formation to catch up with the flock.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.