Good Lord, He's Done It Again!

“Good Lord, He’s Done it Again!”

Sunday was the day we celebrated the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection! Sunday was an extra special day in our Church year! But every day of our lives is special as we remember the miracles of God’s love, of salvation, of eternal life; every day that we feel the presence of God living within us; every day that we experience in our surroundings the miracle of creation and thank God for the bounty we have received and continue to receive. We praise the God of all blessings and rejoice in Jesus’ victory over death! We are amazed at the extent of God’s sacrifice so that we might have eternal life. We are truly Easter people.

We marvel that God has given us eternal life and in return asks only that we believe in the power of Jesus’ resurrection. I’ve spoken to Jewish people who find the concept of “only” believing hard to understand; undoubtedly because Jewish scholars officially recognize 613 commandments given to the Israelites by God. From a practical standpoint, well over 100 of those commandments are irrelevant today because they involve sacrifices and various rituals to be carried out in and around the Temple and there is no temple. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, in 70 CE. The Jews are still waiting for the temple to be rebuilt. (I did read an interesting bit of news: A prominent Israeli Rabbi, Yosef Berger, believes that Trump is destined to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple before the coming of the Messiah.)

With so many commandments to follow, it’s little wonder that the Israelites gradually drifted away from God and God’s ways. Promises were broken by the people, but never by God.

Of course, we know the stories of the Jews falling on hard times when they turned from God. And when things got bad enough, they turned back and cried for help. And when they did, a compassionate and merciful God forgave them.

That’s what it was like under the old covenants, but the new covenant is a whole different story. The outline is simple.

Jesus died;

Jesus conquered death and rose from the grave.

Jesus’ resurrection took away the sins of the world from that point forward.

• Our side of the covenant is to believe in Jesus as our risen savior.

• God’s promise to us is eternal life.

That’s the gist of the new and final covenant and the beginning of our lives as followers of Christ. Believing is the beginning, but following Jesus along paths of righteousness is for the rest of our lives and on into eternity.

Some of you may remember from our last service that April 10th was my birthday. I got a number of nice cards, but I wanted to share with you one from my sister, the Agnostic. (She claims that agnostics get to celebrate all the religious holidays, not just a select few.)

I have since discovered that the joke on the card has made the rounds of Facebook and Twitter so you may or may not have read it. Regardless, here’s the card. It seems a patrolman has stopped a car driven by a man in clerical garb and asks him this question, “Reverend, have you been drinking?” The good man in all innocence says “Only water.” The patrolman responds, “Then why do I smell wine?” To which the Padre replies, “Good Lord, He’s done it again!”

During the six weeks of Lent we have prepared ourselves for the high point in our church year—a celebration of the morning our Savior rose from the dead. Over a period of 3 days we have felt deep sorrow and compassion for all that Jesus suffered on our behalf, including an agonizing death on the cross, and on Sunday we experienced the great joy of his resurrection.

The memorial services we have after someone dies are often called “Celebrations of Life.” Jesus was only in the grave for a brief period before he arose, yet Christians continuously celebrate his earthly life. We hear the stories of his love, his healing, and his miracles over and over again. We tell and retell his parables. No matter how many times we read or hear these things, they are new and exciting each time. We never get bored. Because we’ve heard them so many times even a simple sentence in the proper context—“Good Lord, he’s done it again!” can take us back to the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into fine wine.

Or an image from a passage of scripture brings to mind another story. For example, in John 2:19 Jesus says when questioned by religious leaders at the temple:

“Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up,”

With these few words, I can relive the scene in the temple where Jesus overturned tables and drove out the merchants and money changers. We are also reminded that this “raising up the temple” talk confused the Jewish leaders because, after all, the Second Temple took 40 years to build so what did this upstart preacher mean by saying that he could raise it up in 3 days?