In years gone by here I’m making an educated guess I think that there’s been some discussion on this verse! Of course there has, it’s literally written on our wall out there!!

What are these 4 things, what do they mean, how do they happen, what are they based on… 

OVERVIEW

Important to remember the context of Acts 2 > what’s happened before this? Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appearing in tongues of fire, people speaking to and hearing each other in their own languages, the Spirit of God being among people and bringing them together in this amazing way > more to come on that in a few week’s time!

That bit of context helps us remember IT’S NOT ALL ON US > these 4 things are not about us, it’s not like ‘we achieve these 4 things = then that means we’re a good church,’ or ‘we’ve done our job’ or something like that > it’s actually really important for us to guard against that way of thinking, as if being and doing church is ticking a number of boxes or crossing off things on a list. That couldn’t be further from the truth! 

To think that way and to operate that way is actually putting limits on God, it’s actually trying to put God in a neat-and-tidy box that we can open up on Sunday morning and then close up again for the rest of the week > if that’s what we think church is we’ve got a serious problem.

The Holy Spirit is the instigator and enactor of faith, not us. God shows up and we receive from him. We cannot possibly limit God – but we all try to. We are the ones who are limited, limited in our understanding, limited in our capacity of what we can do on our own > which in spiritual terms is actually NOTHING without the work of the Spirit. 

We are guilty of thinking TOO SMALL > all of us fall into the trap of thinking small, as if our church and our friends and family and the people we interact with are all there is, when if fact that’s only a tiny percentage of who’s actually out there around us, in our own backyard, connected in to our church around our local area, state, country, even overseas > all that and we haven’t even mentioned those who’ve gone before us in the faith, much to learn from there.

We tend to think SMALL but God calls us to THINK BIG > Only thinking small leads us to look down, to look inward only, to miss what else is happening around us.

Thinking big is to open right up, to think about not only ourselves but how we all fit into this world we’re living in > when we do that our perspective shifts dramatically, we start to see all the other ‘sheep’ out there, all the other paddocks, not limited to our own little patch… more ‘not only what IS but what COULD BE’ / God is a God of POTENTIAL not LIMITATION…

Onto the Big 4 things, what are they are how do they play out among us?

‘APOSTLES’ TEACHING’

What is apostles’ teaching??

Simplest form: what the apostles taught, what Jesus’ followers taught, which is not teaching that they came up with themselves but teaching of Jesus given to them and given to us. What evidence do we have of apostles teaching? New Testament > Gospels, Paul’s letters, other letters from other apostles, and then we have our confessions and statements of beliefs which are based on these teachings.

So we have A LOT of content! This is NOT something that we learn once and then we know it, we don’t ‘graduate’ from knowing apostles teaching, all of us are always learning because what the apostles teach is that God’s word is revealed to us in Jesus through the Spirit, who is active in our lives and the lives of others > ongoing learning journey all through life.

That’s why we continue coming back to the Word again and again, we always have more to learn and we always need God’s help.

‘FELLOWSHIP’

We can think of this as the environment for this ongoing learning, this lifelong learning journey.

This is where it happens, community together, being and doing church together. Participating together, sharing together is the original sense here. We’re not consumers, we’re participants – church is not like going to the shops to get a product, and it’s not like sitting on the couch at home and watching a TV show, it’s a community to belong to – much deeper purpose, connection there. We are not meant to be just on our own, working this out for ourselves > this is a shared thing, as hard or as challenging as that may be at times. 

Who knows Bonhoeffer’s ‘Life Together’ book? One of the things he talks about are our two modes, ‘the day alone’ and ‘the day with others.’ 

That helps us see the purpose of time on our own and time with other people, both are important, necessary for our walks of faith. And the key point is both modes are with God > the day alone is actually with God, and the day with others is also with God. He is always with us, whatever mode we’re in.

‘BREAKING OF BREAD’ (How is this different to fellowship?)

Not a coincidence that we hear Isaiah’s (53:5) words today > ‘By his wounds you have been healed,’  by Jesus giving his body and blood for us > that we receive together in the bread and wine of communion > we are healed – who needs some healing today?! This is a good thing, a very important thing for us to receive as we continue to do.

So the ‘breaking of bread’ is in the bread and wine, Jesus body and blood broken and given for us. 

And it also happens in our fellowship together, us doing life together in community, when we share a meal together, when we share morning tea after worship – this is our first opportunity to live out who God calls us to be! Receiving from God, then giving to and receiving from each other in community. When we catch up with an old friend, when we meet someone new, all these everyday interactions that happen and we have a chance to be in community > God reaches us there, God has designed us to live in community and he shows up there.

‘PRAYER’

And this is how we communicate with God, how he speaks to us and how we speak to him.

I can share with you some thoughts from our district bishop who’s recently been on retreat, great to have opportunities to retreat and to park some of the everyday things to be able to spend time with ourselves and with God >

‘Prayer does not begin with us, but with God’s command and promise’ (Luther)

God calls us to pray, and he promises to hear, to listen to what’s on our hearts.

‘Prayer is as essential to the life of the soul as breathing is to the life of the body’ (Thomas Merton)

Beautifully put, we have to do this! It’s so important! We get to do this, we all have direct access to the creator of the universe at any time – right now, on a random Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of the night – through the Word and through prayer, we’ve got to make use of this.

Like our bodies will struggle without water and good food, our souls will only struggle if we don’t have prayer, if we aren’t connected to the one who made us and sustains us.

‘Prayer is as natural and as real as conversation between good friends’ (Bishop Mark’s own reflection)

Think of a good friend you can talk to about real things that matter to you in your life – that’s what it’s like to talk to Jesus, even better he is not only your friend but your Saviour, he gives you new life and he gives you those good friends as well! We have to lean in to this, it is so good and so important for us.

So to sum up, NONE OF THESE THINGS are our work, our own efforts, none of this is independant of God, he is the source and sustainer of it all!

God is NOT saying here’s the content, now you go do it. No, he’s saying here’s the content, now let’s be in relationship and do this together > big difference there.

We have the APOSTLES TEACHING, words from Jesus himself, words to live by, be empowered by and keep coming back to.

We have FELLOWSHIP, the environment we find ourselves in for this ongoing learning and trusting journey we’re on together.

We have the BREAKING OF BREAD, which is Jesus’ body and blood broken and given for us, and all those opportunities we have for being together over a meal, a coffee, a walk, all these ways we can find connection and community with each other.

And we have PRAYER, our way of hearing from and speaking to Jesus himself, as important as being ‘essential to the soul’ but also as natural as a chat with a good friend. 

So let’s trust together in what we have received, where God calls us to be, how God reaches us and how God calls us to reach others – this is the sort of stuff you write on a church wall!

Lord we thank you for teaching us, for giving us people to do life with, for what your Son has done and won for us on the cross and that we can have direct access to you, our maker and our sustainer. Help us as we journey together as your people, not limited by what is but inspired by what could be. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

//

When was a time you did something foolish? 

I’m sure most of us can think of a time, maybe we did something silly or embarrassing or maybe a bit immature, a bit thoughtless, a mistake in a bad moment…

We all have these moments, part of life, no matter how hard we try we will all do something foolish or silly or thoughtless, because we are human. It cannot be avoided!

We can be foolish in life, and we can be foolish in God’s eyes.

I can share a time when I was a bit foolish, when I was I think 17 or 18 years old and I’d just got my drivers licence. 

I was driving my mate from school down a winding country road in my first car, a green Mazda 323, and we were stuck behind a truck > you know that feeling, single lane road and a slow truck blocking your way. 

So, I decided I wanted to overtake this truck > but there were no overtaking lanes on this road, and there was also no visibility because it was a winding road and you couldn’t see what was coming around any of the corners. But being a 17-18 year old P-plater I wasn’t thinking about that, I was thinking about getting around this slow truck.

So I pulled out onto the wrong side of the road on a corner, without knowing if anyone was coming around the corner towards me or not, and overtook the truck. I got around it and got back onto the right side of the road again, luckily before anyone came speeding down the other side towards me.

I had been extremely lucky, this was a foolish thing to do and I was lucky my error had not had terrible consequences. 

I only realised how foolish I had been later on, when my mate and I were comparing our driving styles, and I asked him what he thought of mine > he said he thought I was crazy!

So that’s my story of being foolish > funny how we don’t always realise we’re foolish until someone else points it out for us! 

As humans we need a bit of help to realise these things, we need a bit of help to get a better perspective of things > while I might have thought I was being a slick driver what I was really doing was endangering the lives of not only myself but also my mate in the car with me, sobering thought there. 

This leads us to what Jesus says to these two travellers today, on the road to Emmaus. 

He calls them out doesn’t he, he says they are ‘foolish,’ that they are ‘slow to believe.’ 

But this is not actually a bad thing, to be told you are foolish and slow to believe by Jesus > this is actually a very helpful thing, a very useful thing, an example of how Jesus teaches us what we need to know, how he can reveal a whole lot more perspective than we can find ourselves…

And we know Jesus doesn’t call us foolish and leave it there does he, he calls us foolish so he can tell us what he can do for those who have been foolish… 

THE STORY

The road to Emmaus is such an interesting passage, where Jesus is with these two guys walking down this road, but they don’t know it’s him because he hasn’t revealed himself.

Jesus asks them what they’re talking about as they discuss the recent events in Jerusalem, and they are amazed that he wouldn’t know! Everyone knows about what happened with Jesus of Nazareth they say.

And you can’t really blame these guys, they’re trying to make sense of all this how Jesus was put death while they were hoping he was going to ‘redeem Israel,’ and then the women and the men went to the tomb but no one could see Jesus. They were probably confused, disappointed, a bit lost, a bit unsure among other things.

But in the midst of that Jesus comes in, calling them ‘foolish’ and ‘slow to believe.’ Jesus doesn’t say ‘yeah wow that sounds like a crazy time, you guys must be feeling a bit confused, disappointed, lost and unsure!’ He says they are ‘foolish’ and they are ‘slow to believe.’ 

It’s all there in the scriptures Jesus says, if you knew what the prophets had said about what the Messiah had to suffer you would not be surprised! And he goes on to give them a lesson in exactly what the scriptures say on this – I can’t help but wonder how long that lesson went! 

As they’re coming to their destination they convince Jesus to stay with them, and then this is where all is revealed > of course Jesus chooses to reveal himself in the breaking of the bread. ‘Their eyes were opened and they recognized him’ it says, and then just like that he’s gone. 

Their eyes were opened, and as they reflect on what’s just happened they notice their ‘hearts were burning within’ them as Jesus ‘opened the scriptures ‘for them > a few really important points there.

THE MEANING

Their eyes were opened >

They could see him, they could recognize him. How did they recognize him?

Through the breaking of the bread, and the hearing of the word. Simple as that, simple ways Jesus reveals himself. 

Jesus tells them they are foolish and slow to believe, and because he says this they realise it’s true > they would not have realized this on their own, they needed Jesus to tell them how it is so they could know how it is.

So their eyes are opened, but also:

Their hearts were burning >

That’s a strong description isn’t it, strong feeling, deep sense of the importance of what’s happening. When has your heart burned, interesting one to think about for ourselves…

Jesus words causes not only ‘eyes to be opened’ but also ‘hearts to burn’ > these are important words! Powerful words, life-changing words. The literal translation here is ‘slow – of heart – to believe’ – not only head-knowledge but heart-knowledge, impact on the mind, body and soul going on here.

So we’ve got opened eyes and burning hearts, and

OPENED SCRIPTURES, the scriptures were opened to them > 

The word of God is revealed in the person of Jesus, he is the word made flesh, he has come to be among them. 

This is a really significant indicator for us of just how we should read, how we should hear, how we should interpret the scriptures, the bible, God’s word, and how we should think about what it means to be part of God’s church > with a Jesus lens. 

Jesus opens their eyes and opens the scriptures, and he does the same for us. Through Jesus we can know God’s word, God’s word is revealed to us in Jesus. 

Whenever we read, hear, interpret God’s word we need to use the Jesus lens, the Jesus filter if you like, to know what God is saying to us. We can test our interpretation against who Jesus is and what he’s done, always keeping that in mind whenever we open a bible or hear a reading or reflect on what it means to be a Christian. 

That’s exactly what these guys on the road to Emmaus needed, that’s exactly what we need. 

Lastly we can look back to our first reading from Acts today, where it says this:

Acts 2:38 – ‘Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’

So we are foolish, we are slow to believe. 

We get caught up in our own interpretation, we forget to apply the Jesus lens, we are distracted by the noise of the world and we miss that Jesus is right there with us.

But Peter’s words are comforting for us > in Jesus we can receive the forgiveness of sins, we can receive the gift of the Hoy Spirit.

We are foolish, but we are forgiven. 

We miss when the Spirit is at work, but that doesn’t stop him being at work.

We are slow to believe, but Jesus will be there. He remains, he continues to walk alongside us, even when we’re too foolish to see him.

Jesus calls us out, so he can call us IN > foolish yet forgiven.

Heavenly Father we thank you for forgiving us, and for gifting us the Holy Spirit – help us to appreciate what you’ve done for us, what you’ve won for us, help us to trust in your ongoing presence with us in all times and all seasons. Remind us that even though we are foolish, your forgiveness remains. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

//

On Maundy Thursday, the entry point into the Easter weekend, we hear about a ‘man of sorrows’ – who is this man of sorrows? 

We know it’s Jesus, this man who is going through significant challenges on this night, where he is betrayed by his own in Judas and also misunderstood by his own in Peter, who does not understand what Jesus is teaching him in these moments.

So sorrow is one of the dominant themes here, Jesus is experiencing sorrow around what’s to come, and soon those around him will be in sorrow at what has happened.

These words from the song ‘Man of Sorrows’ that we’re going to hear in a moment really capture what this is all about, what Jesus has done and what it means for you and me >

Now my debt is paid, it is paid in full

By the precious blood that my Jesus spilled

Now the curse of sin has no hold on me

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed

There is incredible joy in these words > this is a song about a ‘man of sorrows,’ but in these words there is great joy, great hope, an incredible sense of the weight of all this. The life-changing nature of of Jesus’ death and resurrection for you and me. 

We also hear about freedom in these words, another major theme for us tonight. 

We have sorrow and we have freedom, two seemingly unrelated things that Jesus brings together! His sorrow earns our freedom, the cost of our freedom is his sorrow. Without his sorrow we would not be free, we would be stuck in sorrow!

But by his loving sacrifice for us, we are no longer in sorrow. 

By his loving sacrifice for us, the debt has been paid, the curse of sin has no hold on us anymore.

By his loving sacrifice for us, we are set free!

This ‘man of sorrows’ gives up his life for the freedom of his people. 

//

And then we come to Good Friday, and we see a man in the worst time of his life – not only a difficult period but a ‘dark night of the soul’ we might call it.

But not just ‘a man,’ this man is the Son of God, God come to be among us in human form. It’s the worst time in his life, things are going from bad to worse as we know.

This is a king who has come into the world, but his kingdom is not of this world. The only one who really knows what’s going on here is the one who is being subjected to it, all on his own, rejected, betrayed and misunderstood by those who knew him best. That’s a ‘dark night of the soul’ right there.

This is the point where it seems all hope is lost, there’s nothing more to do, it’s all over. 

Even Jesus says so, when he says ‘It is finished’ on the cross. 

But what’s really finished here?

Is it hope that’s finished, or is it actually sin and death that are finished?? Is it the ‘dark night of the soul’ that’s finishing here, to make way for something new…

We might be tempted to think it’s all over. As we hear again Jesus’ journey to the cross, how it only goes from bad to worse, how Jesus refuses to take the easy way out and goes all the way down the hardest road, this is a dark night of the soul indeed. 

Jesus goes to hell and back > that’s actually what happens as we confess in our creed, he goes to hell and back in this dark night of the soul.

And for what? 

Is it because our God is defeated, is it because our hope is gone, is it because God has given up on his people > he has every right to, going by the way we reject, betray and misunderstand Jesus time and time again. 

No it’s not because our God is defeated, it’s not because our hope is gone, and it’s not because our God has given up on us > far from it, our God wins the ultimate victory here, we have more hope than ever before, and far from giving up he’s gone ‘all in’ on us!

This is how God wins, how God makes new, how God redeems > not in ways we would expect, and not for people who deserve it either.

But that’s how God bridges the gap > he bridges the gap between us and him because of our sin, by filling that gap with his love! He goes the distance for us, he shows us how much we mean to him despite our flaws and our failings, Jesus endures this ‘dark night of the soul’ to make way for something new…

And if we’re in a ‘dark night of the soul’ ourselves, if things are not looking good, even it’s looking like hope is gone > we can know we have a God who has gone all this way so we would know he loves us, we would know he is with us, we would know we have hope in him. 

We can talk to him, we can ask him for help, we have a God who turns his ear towards us and hears our cries, who does not leave us, even in a ‘dark night of the soul.’ 

//

And finally, the MAJOR SHIFT of Easter Sunday morning comes…

So far there’s been a fair bit of quiet introspection, reflection on how much we needed what Jesus has done for us through Lent, through Maundy Thursday and through Good Friday as well. Important to do, good for us to sit with and to dwell in a little bit.

But today there’s a MAJOR SHIFT > it’s a BRIGHT NEW DAY! 

We’re no longer in the sorrow, no longer enduring the ‘dark night of the soul’ > we’ve moved through those two in the past few days, and now it’s a BRIGHT NEW DAY. 

We see this BRIGHT NEW DAY shining through as the penny drops for Mary in the garden outside the tomb, and she goes from sorrow and darkness, to the INCREDIBLE JOY AND LIGHT realizing that Jesus is alive, she has seen the Lord!

I remember back to Easter Sunday last year, a particularly special one personally having Zeke’s baptism that day > on days like that it’s a similar feeling to what Mary must’ve had > I have seen the Lord! Joy, hope, seeing and experiencing first-hand the good things of God. I hope you’ve had experiences like that, special times, planned or not, where like Mary we are hit by the unmistakable presence of God in our lives.

This is the good stuff, these are the THINGS ABOVE that Paul talks about in our second reading today.

What does he say in Colossians 3:2 – ‘Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’

THINGS ABOVE, not earthly things. 

This is not saying ‘have your head in the clouds’, ‘day-dream,’ ‘ignore what’s right in front of you’ > NOT what’s going on here. How do we know that?

Because we’re on earth, God reveals THINGS ABOVE through earthly things. This is how God reaches us.

Both THINGS ABOVE and earthly things co-exist, God has made the world and we are called to live within it, while we’re here.

And if we’re a bit unsure we’re to put our focus, what’s the anchor point for us here as we look to THINGS ABOVE > Hebrews 12:2 gives us some help on that – ‘fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.’

This is always our focus, always our main direction > fix our eyes on Jesus. Like Mary, she couldn’t look away, she had seen the Lord!

And ‘fixing our eyes on Jesus’ is not to ignore what else is going on around us, it’s to see how God speaks into our world, how what Jesus has done for us matters here and now in our real life.

So because of today, we get to be resurrection people – if we’re going to claim to be resurrection people, people who believe this has really happened and it really matters for our everyday life, not just for us but for all people, then we’re going to keep our eyes on the prize, the prize that is Jesus, what he has DONE and WON for us.

He is the pioneer, he is the perfector of faith, the one who brings THINGS ABOVE into the real world we’re living in today //

Have you ever thrown something away, only to want it back again?

I used to own a BMW e46 coupe a number of years ago, I really liked this car, but it was not practical or affordable or sustainable (among other things), so I don’t have it any more – even though I would love to have it sitting in the garage!

So when you throw something away, you can’t get it back again, various reasons may apply.

Can’t be done, it’s gone… 

But with God, it’s different. 

As we’re about to hear at Easter, something that we thought was gone, done and dusted was actually not gone or done and dusted, it actually makes a triumphant return – that theme of triumph we see in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem today.

God can bring back what was gone > not thinking in terms of material things like stuff we used to own but don’t anymore, God goes deeper than that.

God can bring things back, he can bring life out of death, he can take a stone from ‘rejected stone’ to being the ‘cornerstone’ of a whole new project! 

Speaking about stones and new projects > I’m not a builder so I don’t know much about this but I believe there may be a builder or two in the house today, people who have built things, made things, put things together > are you familiar with what we hear in Psalm 118 today, about ‘the stone the builders rejected?’

So the image is you’re building something, and you come across a stone that isn’t going to do the job. It isn’t the right shape, it doesn’t have the right qualities, and so you throw it away, you REJECT it because you don’t need it. 

Makes sense > if something’s not going to do the job you thought it was going to do, why would you need it any more?!

But then we hear in the rest of our theme verse today, that very same stone that had been rejected has now become the CORNERSTONE of the whole project… How on earth does that happen??

We threw that stone away, we didn’t need it any more, it was of no use to us by our own thinking and our own judgment. But now it’s the foundation that the whole project is built on, the most important stone of the lot! That doesn’t make sense to us, what on earth is going on here…

This is where we can bring in the scene of Jesus entering into Jerusalem today, on PsALM SUNDAY as we’re calling it today, where the words of Psalm 118 – written many years before these events come to pass – line up with exactly what takes place through Holy Week and into Easter.

What did the people think of Jesus as he was riding in on that donkey?

They laid down their cloaks for him, palm branches too, they sang and shouted ‘Hosanna to the king!’ They’re welcoming in their king, who has finally come to restore to kingdom > but the kingdom they had in mind was not the kingdom Jesus was there to bring…

Jesus did not come to restore the kingdom of Israel, as it was in David or Solomon’s day. He did not come to overthrow the Romans, to take on the authorities with a great army > we get a hint that the kingdom Jesus is on about is very different to what the people would’ve expected by his choice to ride in a donkey of all things – definitely not cruising through in his BMW e46! Jesus comes in HUMILITY, not in power, at least not earthly power as we might expect.

So this is where the people start to second guess the situation, where the doubt creeps in > questions start to come up like ‘why have you come then Jesus, why have you come if not to overthrow the Romans and restore the ancient kingdom, to take us back to the good old days??!! That’s what we want, what are you doing here if not that??’ 

Very tempting for us to crave the ‘good old days,’ the times we hold as the best times, the times we look back on fondly but seem to not be happening any more…

And this line of questioning and doubt leads to what? 

The VERY SAME people who welcomed Jesus in, shouting Hosanna and praise to the king, in the space of a very short time end up doing what? Calling for this VERY SAME Jesus to be put to death, to be handed over to the Roman authorities to die on a cross. Sobering thought there, it goes from ‘praise to the king’ to ‘crucify him.’ Serious turn of events.

And the even more sobering truth is that we’re in exactly the same boat here.

We are like the builders who reject the stone, because it’s not what we want. It’s not what’s going to work based on our assessment. This stone isn’t the right shape, it doesn’t have the right qualities in our opinion, so we throw it away.

We are people who reject Jesus. 

We decide that what Jesus is on about is not what we want. We would rather have our own kingdom than HIS kingdom. This is human nature, our sinful nature that says I don’t need Jesus, I can do it myself! We all do this in many different ways, none of us are immune to what our sinful nature says or desires.

But here’s the REAL HOPE of EASTER that’s about to come in > the stone the builders rejected has become the CORNERSTONE. 

We threw Jesus away, we forgot how good our God is, we thought we were on par with God, or even better than God. We thought we knew best, we knew what was good for us!

All of us are in that boat, we’ve all done that > and this is bad. This is a serious problem, because it means we are separated from God. Cut off from our own creator, our own heavenly father who dearly loves his children. God knows how bad this is, but as we know he goes to the furthest possible lengths to change it all.

He forgives us. 

He forgives us for our selfishness, our ego, our self-importance, our lack of action, our lack of faith. All of these things, and more!

Jesus faces all the rejection that could possibly be thrown at him, even from us, people who call ourselves Christians, who call ourselves his followers.

He took all that on himself, in the process becoming the CORNERSTONE of a whole new project > what’s this new project? It’s NEW LIFE for you and me. 

Ultimate humility and ultimate generosity, ultimate grace there as Jesus dies for people who would not even claim to follow him in the heat of the moment – like Peter when he denies ever knowing Jesus three separate times – let alone die for him, as he does for us. 

When our faith is tested – like the faith of those around Jesus at this time – it’s easy to fall away, to tap out, to shift the blame. Very easy to do, and we’ve actually become very good at doing that as the human race over the years!

But when Jesus’ faith is tested, he doesn’t bat an eye. Incredible.

And because of his faithfulness, the goodness of the Lord that endures forever, even in our faith-LESS-ness our God is faith-FUL to us. 

Even though we’ve made the fatal mistake of rejecting Jesus, he remains as the CORNERSTONE of this new project, project NEW LIFE for all God’s people. 

So as we head into Holy Week and Easter, starting on Thursday night, we can lean on this CORNERSTONE. 

Not worried about the ways we’ve rejected Jesus, not consumed by our own failings, not stuck in the same patterns of hearing about Jesus on the outside but not letting him into our hearts, where it really matters. 

We can be open-hearted to the incredible faith-FUL-ness our God has shown us, and still has to give us day by day as his own dearly loved children > this ‘love that endures forever.’

Let’s pray, some words out of Psalm 118:

Lord we give thanks to you, for you are good. Your love endures forever.

You are with us, we don’t need to be afraid.

We take refuge in you Lord, you are our strength and our defence.

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, you have done this Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes!

You are our God and we will praise you.

We give thanks to you for you are good, your love endures forever. Amen.

//

A starting point for you straight up this morning: think of something you wish could happen…

Something you would love to see happen, something that isn’t happening right now, but you wish it could.

Some examples? 

Better health, better financial security, better relationships with those we care about could be some

That’s the first part > keep that in mind for our moment of prayer later on.

Now think of something that’s stopping that thing you wished about from happening…

Things that are in the way, problems that don’t seem to go away.

Some examples?

Illness, cost of living, that lingering hurt or pain in that relationship with that someone in your life

That’s the second part – keep that in mind too!

And now we come to God’s word before us today, words from the prophet EZEKIEL and the story of Jesus’ friend LAZARUS – 

We go to God’s word to see how God speaks into these things in our lives, how God speaks into things like what we wish could happen and the things that are in the way.

LAZARUS

In the story of Lazarus we hear about a friend of Jesus who has died, this causes Jesus to be ‘deeply moved,’ he and the people in his close-knit community are really feeling it here. 

Twice we hear Jesus being told what? That he should’ve been there! 

If you were here this would not have happened, Lazarus’ sisters both direct this at Jesus when he finally does show up. 

If you were here this would not have happened – I think that might be a complaint we’ve all directed at God at some point.

So the wish is that Jesus had been there to stop Lazarus from dying, that Lazarus would still be alive, and what was the barrier to saving him? Jesus wasn’t there, that’s the perceived barrier to Lazarus remaining alive and well.

There’s a couple things going on here – there is actually a statement or even a confession of faith in these words from Lazarus’ sisters Mary and Martha. 

They know who Jesus is, they know what he has done and what he can do > an acknowledgement of Jesus actually being who he says he is there.

But the other thing here is doubt, a lack of understanding of how God works > that doubt and that lack of understanding of how God works that all humans possess, none of us know exactly how God will work in our own circumstances, and we might even doubt that he’s going to do anything at all!

So it’s a mix of faith and doubt going on here > not uncommon in intense personal and emotional situations.

And Martha goes further, she says she knows ‘even now’ God will give Jesus exactly what he asks (11:22) > strong faith on show there, and then what does Jesus tell her? 

Your brother will rise again.

She thinks sure, in the resurrection at the last day you mean? 

But then Jesus says how he is the resurrection, how to believe in him is to never die, even though someone has literally just died. 

Hard to hear I’m sure in that moment for Martha, but also pointing to the ultimate hope and joy of what God has in store for us at the same time.

So that’s a bit on Lazarus, let’s put that together with what we hear about in Ezekiel >

EZEKIEL

In this passage about the valley of dry bones, these dry bones that God breathes new life into, we see again the MAJOR BARRIER to being alive and well > that’s being not alive, in fact being dead. Dry bones, not much to work with there Ezekiel might have thought. 

But not for God. 

That’s all he needs, God can make something out of nothing! 

That’s what he did when created the world and everything in it, God doesn’t need help he’s got the power to get it done!

We confess this in our creeds, we say we believe in the resurrection of the dead, we’re looking for it! 

Important to notice what we are saying, the BOLD CLAIMS we make when we say these words together as community! Words we speak in solidarity with God’s church around the world.

This is a BOLD CLAIM – to say ‘I believe in the resurrection from the dead,’ serious talk! 

Think about what we’re saying here, what this really means > this is not simply doing worship correctly, in a ‘good Lutheran way’ or something like that. This is LIFE AND DEATH talk, serious stuff! 

This has serious weight to it – we can easily skim over these serious words when we’ve heard and spoken them countless times – you might notice that’s why we have different words in our prayers and confession of faith from time to time, to help us think more deeply about what we’re saying and what it all means. 

It is a BOLD CLAIM to confess our faith, with God’s help we need to know the weight of what we’re saying and what we’re doing.

So in both of these passages God reveals what he can do, which is exactly what the people present cannot do, what you and I can’t do. 

God can breathe new life into dry bones. 

Ezekiel sees it happen, he is the vessel God uses to command these bones to come back to life! Incredible scenes. 

And Jesus can bring people back from the dead. 

Mary and Martha see this happen as their brother Lazarus is brought back to life, not only at the resurrection at the end of days but there and then. Incredible scenes. 

These incredible scenes are displays of God’s power aren’t they, of his power over life and death, and for what? 

Does God do these things to impress us, to make us feel small and make himself bigger, to show us that we’re no good and he’s got it all!?

All of those results might actually happen, but God has more for us than that > 

Why does God breathe life into dry bones?

So they may live, (Ezekiel 37:9) and so ‘then you will know that I am the Lord’ (37:6).

Good news for the dry bones, good news for us!

Because of what God does, that means we can know who he is. 

We don’t have to guess, we don’t have to make it up, we don’t have to come up with our own idea of God > he’s right here, this is the God we’re talking about.

And it gets intimately personal with Lazarus, why does Jesus bring him back?

Well firstly we know he is feeling this one, he is deeply moved twice here about Lazarus being unwell and his passing. 

We can see Jesus had love for this man, that’s why he brought him back. Love like a brother, love like a dear friend. 

Like the love he has for us. 

He wouldn’t go and die on the cross if he didn’t care, if he didn’t love us and want us to be with him. 

Two other things we didn’t hear in our gospel reading > 

Jesus actually knows what’s going to happen here before it happens, and he lays it out, before he even gets to Lazarus and somehow also has these deep feelings about what’s happening:

He says ‘this sickness will not end in death’ (John 11:4)

And he says ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up’ (11:11)

These are words we can hope in today! Even if it looks like Jesus isn’t there, he tells us we can trust that he is! He knows what’s happening, he is with us in our time of need and all the time.

In the face of the ultimate wish we could say, that there could be life instead of death, there are MAJOR BARRIERS  for us. We can’t do a thing about it, we do not have the power to beat death.

But God does. 

In him we have both hope in this life and eternal life beyond, in life that goes on with him. 

Hope, peace and joy there > very soon we get to hear all about that once again at Easter.

So there are going to be times when the bones are all dried up. 

There will be times when people we love move from this life to the next, when that happens for us too > but even more sure is the hope that we have in Jesus. 

The words of Jesus may be all we have in times like those, but we know the words and actions of Jesus carry serious power, serious weight, where because of him we go not from life to death, but from death to life.

Lord we thank you for the incredible scenes we hear about in your word, your incredible power on display that has reached and continues to reach all people who know you. Help us in the major barriers of life, help us to trust in you and to know that even if you are all we have, we know with you we have all we need. Amen.

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Beautiful words, we love Psalm 23, how many of us would say this is our favourite passage in the bible! At least top 3 for many of us. Look to choose a few words/title for our screen, can’t go past whole thing!

So many good things for us in these words David writes, and not only good things on their own but good things in the middle of really bad things > there’s mention of the ‘darkest valley,’ of ‘evil’, and of ‘enemies’ – 3 bad things there, 3 bad things that these words speak powerfully into

And there’s something under the surface a bit here I want to focus in on this morning > we know about God’s provision don’t we > with Jesus as our shepherd we lack nothing! Nothing at all, we have everything! We’re well provided for right there aren’t we >>>

What else is in there? 

Green pastures, quiet waters, the right paths, God’s rod and staff for our protection and comfort, a table prepared before us – in the presence of enemies no less. 

There is refreshment for the soul, what a beautiful and powerful thing that is, what we get when we receive God’s holy meal together as well. 

We get goodness and love, and that goodness and love goes with us now and forever as we get get to dwell – to live, to belong, to remain – in God’s house.

And we’re anointed, to the point where out cup overflows, meaning we’re set apart, we’re given a new identity in Christ, a new calling on our lives.

And that last one points to the part that sits under the surface here, I wonder if you see it >

The part that sits under the surface is the part about God’s call on our lives, on our hearts. God’s call not to only sit still, but his call to MOVE, to go, to do and to be. 

Yes there are times to sit still, of course Psalm 46 says ‘be still,’ but be still for what reason? 

To know who God is. That’s the reason, that’s why we need to be still. To be still in this way is to quiet your heart and mind, to hand over the troubles and concerns of life to God and hear from  him what he has to say to you.

So sitting still is good, being still so we can know God and his will for us is very good, hugely important for us to do and keep doing of course – but we’re not called to sit still and stop there. 

We’re not called to watch on from a distance, we’re not called to let other people do the work, we’re not called to become slack or lazy or disinterested in the meaning and the purpose of why God has put us here. 

And there’s a challenge in there for us > an opportunity to reflect on our own lives. 

Think about these questions for a moment:

Have we sat still for too long, when we should be MOVING, we should be doing, going and being?

Have we become slack or lazy in our walk with God? Yes we might have heard who he is and what he’s done for us, but do we know what that really means for our life? Do we have an actual living relationship with our good and gracious God? Are we really aware of how that changes our life, how that changes the world, how reality gets shifted as we mentioned last week by who God is, what he’s done and what he continues to do??

Do these words here on the screen before us today, do these words matter to us? Do they make a difference to our everyday life, or have we fallen into a loop of hearing it on Sunday then forgetting it by Monday?! It’s ok that does happen!

Some hard questions to face there, things we all struggle with. We’re all in the same boat here, struggling with these things together! Life together in community is nothing if not a shared struggle!

In this shared struggle we might hear these words and think, ‘that’s what I want, that’s why I need right now! That’s what that person close to me, that loved one needs right now!’ 

These good things like green pastures, quiet waters and refreshment for the soul. Very good things!

But along with the sense of being still and knowing God, of receiving and hearing from him in our shared struggle together, there is also a sense of movement. Of the call to MOVE, not only sit still but get moving…

Being ‘led beside’ the quiet waters.

Being ‘guided along the right paths.’

‘Walking through’ the darkest valley. 

‘Being in the presence of enemies’ – not somewhere any of us want to stay for too long!

And being ‘followed’ by God’s goodness and love, not just for a moment but forever!

Do you see what I mean when I say there’s a sense of movement there? Not only sitting back and receiving good things, but how those good things go with us and move us forward. They compel us to move, they mobilise God’s people, they empower us to move, to go, to do and to be exactly that, God’s people!

Jon Foreman, someone I’ve mentioned before, lead singer of the band Switchfoot and a solo artist as well, has some good bits and pieces on Psalm 23 – he has a song called ‘House of the Lord Forever’ that’s based on these words, and his band has another song called ‘Dare You To Move.’ 

I think that’s something that God actually says to us, and something we can encourage each other in > I dare you to move. 

There are some really interesting lines in this song, things like redemption and forgiveness and salvation are all mentioned in this song! Worth a listen if you get a moment, might not be your favourite style of music but very interesting lyric-wise. 

Being dared to do something is usually associated with that thing being hard to do! And we might think about being dared to do something in a negative light, as in being dared to do a bad thing. 

But if we turn it around and think about it in terms of doing good things, receiving and living out of the good things of God – all the things we hear about in Psalm 23 – then it hits a bit different. 

We hear God saying ‘I dare you to love your neighbour, even love your enemy.’

Maybe that sounds a bit hard right out the gate – I dare you to pray for your neighbour, to pray for your enemy. 

I dare you to serve or to give to someone in need. I dare you to share a kind word with someone, even if they haven’t had a kind word for you.

I dare you to put your hope in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, this God who knows you as his own child, part of his own family. Put your hope in him like your life depends on it – because as we know, it does!

And a key thing to remember in all this daring and daring activity > who’s right there alongside you all the way, who will always be there for you and who will use you for his good purposes, even if you don’t know it at the time??? Who did the most daring thing anyone could do and gave up his life so you could come to know him? 

THE LORD YOUR SHEPHERD, who makes you lie down in green pastures. 

Who leads you beside quiet waters.

Who refreshes you in your soul. 

Who guides you along the right paths, not as in ‘correct’ in human terms but as in HIS path, even when you’re in the darkest valley, who gives you the comfort and strength and hope to carry on and to not fear the evil one.

Who prepares a table – as in giving you what you need – not only when things are all good but when you’re in the presence of enemies. A place no one wants to be, but even there the Lord your shepherd is with you.

Who keeps filling up your cup to the point where it overflows! He has more than enough to give you, and when you know him you see just how much he has given you, is giving you and has in store for you too!

What’s in store for you and me?

Goodness and love, all the days of our lives, as we dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Not bad.

Amen to that, receive the peace of God today in your hearts and your minds, may his peace be with you and may you know how much he has for you.

Lord we thank you for your abundance, all the things you have done for us and still have in store. Remind us of your presence, when things are great and when we’re in the thick of difficult times too. Compel us as your people to MOVE, to do and to go and to be who you call us to be. All these things we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Have you ever been disappointed??

Have you ever been disappointed by something that happened in your life, by someone in your life? 

I think if we answer honestly we would all say ‘YES,’ we have been disappointed. By something, someone, whatever it may be. 

So if we know disappointment happens in life, let me ask you this: when was the last time you were disappointed?

Maybe it was this morning, maybe your toast was in the toaster a bit long and now it’s burnt.

Maybe it was over the weekend when you wanted the weather to be a certain way, but it had other ideas. 

Maybe your sporting team didn’t do so well in their last game.

Or maybe you were disappointed on a more serious level >

Maybe you were disappointed by the actions or inactions of someone you love.

Maybe you were disappointed by someone not listening to you, someone not hearing what you were saying.

Maybe you were disappointed by an expectation you had of someone or something not turning out the way you had planned. 

Maybe you even felt disappointed by God himself, that’s a big one to get into!

Many ways we can be disappointed, small thing and bigger things. 

And what happens when we feel disappointed?

We get a bit down, a bit low. 

We might feel different emotions, sadness, frustration or anger even.

We might become a bit negative, a bit cynical, a bit withdrawn and resigned, we might feel like giving up on that something or that someone that has disappointed us. I’m sure we’ve all been there.

So that’s a bit about disappointment, being disappointed, what being disappointed feels like. You might have some thoughts and experiences you reflect on there.

Why are we talking about this today, being disappointed??

Why would we be talking about that on a day like today, when we’ve just witnessed a young child being welcomed into God’s family through the waters of baptism, what a joyful thing to celebrate – why are we talking about disappointment?!

Because we get disappointed. Disappointment happens. 

Because it’s worth acknowledging that disappointment happens in life, it’s worth admitting it, it’s worth talking to God about it, and it’s worth hearing what he has to say about it.

So what does God say about disappointment – today in our second reading from Romans 5 we hear something about disappointment, about ‘being put to shame.’ 

That’s the end of the sentence, but what do we hear at the start? ‘HOPE DOES NOT.’

HOPE DOES NOT put us to shame, HOPE DOES NOT disappoint us. 

That’s how Paul puts it, HOPE is the key ingredient God provides here in the midst of disappointment, of being put to shame.

So we’ve got two contrasting things now, the disappointment of our experience as human beings – even disappointment with God himself – contrasted with the HOPE God gives, the HOPE he provides, the HOPE that is always there for us.

So let’s talk about HOPE for a moment, what does God say about this HOPE??

Paul goes right into it today, this passage is absolutely packed with one-liners and phrases that summarise the goodness of our God and what he’s done for us – maybe there’s even too much in here, too much for us to take in in one go, too much good stuff that what we really need to do is SLOW DOWN, slow down to hear just one or two things about what God has to give us today.

So I can give you one or two things: Paul says Jesus ‘died for the ungodly’ (that’s us by the way, all people are in that category until God did something about it), and he didn’t die for them because they were wonderful people and they deserved it. He died for them ‘when we were still powerless’ Paul says. Not powerful, power-LESS. We had nothing to give our God, but he had everything to give us. 

While we were sinners even, sinners aka people who actively went against God, even then Jesus had enough love to give us to cover our wrongs and make us his. 

And Paul’s not done yet, while we were God’s enemies he had this love to give us. 

Powerless, sinful, enemies of God – not something we would call ourselves!

Imagine introducing yourself to someone and saying that! ‘Hi, my name’s Tom and I’m a powerless, sinful, enemy of God – until Jesus changed my life and made me his own child’ – add on that second part and it sounds a bit better!

Powerless, sinful, enemies of God is what we are without the saving grace of Jesus. There is HOPE in that, serious HOPE, even our ONLY HOPE we could say.

In that gospel video we just saw from John 4 there’s one line I want to pick up from what Jesus says to the woman at the well, this woman who Jesus knows intimately, even though she’s of a different culture to his own and most people from his culture would not be associating with her as Jesus does!

What does Jesus say to her about water, about being thirsty:

John 4:13, 14 – ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst’

She’s a bit confused by what he says – aren’t we all at times! – she asks ‘where can I get this living water?’ And Jesus redirects her to show her how intimately he knows her, what he knows about her life. Things in her life she might not be proud of, things she might not want other people to know!

Let me bring in disappointment again here – when we have these serious-level disappointments in our lives, when we feel ‘put to shame’ even and we really don’t want anyone else to know about it, what we hear from Jesus is that he already knows.

He knows without us saying a word to anyone else. 

God knows our deepest disappointments, the disappointment of the burnt toast and the disappointment of the person we love letting us down. God knows our hearts and minds – because he is our creator, of course he knows what’s going on in our hearts and minds! 

So if you’re ever feeling disappointed – even by God himself – let him know! It’s ok to tell God you’re disappointed, acknowledging what’s really going on in your life is a key ingredient for us in building a relationship with him! Talk to him, share what’s on your heart and mind with him. Tell him how it is, know that his listening ear is for you, and then listen to what he tells you next.

Back to the woman at the well > So what this woman hears here from Jesus is significant – the words of Jesus are not just nice, kind, thoughtful words. Not just about doing the right thing and avoiding the wrong thing – so much more than that! 

The words of Jesus are LIFE-CHANGING words.

WORLD-changing, REALITY-SHIFTING words. Just look at what happens next in this woman’s community > she tells her people about this guy and the words he said to her, and the verse is: ‘Because of his words many more became believers’ (John 5:42). 

Many more became believers, BECAUSE OF HIS WORDS. 

They heard the words of God from the mouth of Jesus. And that’s how it happened, that’s how it happens today!

We hear the words of God too – these same LIFE-CHANGING, WORLD-changing, REALITY-SHIFTING words are for us too. 

We heard a bunch of them in the baptism today – let the children come to me, ask and you will receive, receive the forgiveness of your sins and be part of my family – all words we’ve heard today, all words from God that give us SERIOUS HOPE. 

Words to live by, words to depend on in times of need, like when we’re disappointed.

These are words to live by, words to depend on because the HOPE our God gives DOES NOT disappoint. 

It DOES NOT disappoint, instead it gives us new life. Peace. Joy. Protection. Wisdom. Knowledge. More things we could add to that list. The open-hand of a loving relationship with out creator himself. That’s what God’s HOPE gives. 

SERIOUS HOPE, a HOPE that DOES NOT disappoint. 

Thank you heavenly Father for being our hope, for giving us hope, even when we feel anything but hopeful. Remind us you’re there for us always, you always have HOPE to give us, you always have a listening ear we can turn to, and you always have the words of life that give us hope for the soul. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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