“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?
We learn the answer in verse 22. After Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said and realized he was talking about his body, not the temple where he railed against the merchants and money changers. This was an “AHA!” moment for them. They didn’t know it at the time, but his words had foreshadowed what was to come.
Another example of a familiar passage comes from Mark 5:34:
And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
Even though Jesus used a similar expression in many of his healings, this scripture recounted the first time it was used. We only need to hear that verse to conjure up a mental picture of a woman with a bleeding disorder fighting her way through a crowd to try to reach Jesus.
Every other attempt at treatment had failed and she thought if she could only touch his garment, she would be healed. She was frightened because she was considered “unclean” and anyone she touched would also be unclean, but she was desperate and when her faith overcame her fears, she was healed—instantly!
I’m sure most of you can think of a particular verse that for you acts as a trigger for remembering all the details of a favorite story of Jesus. One Wednesday in the fall, maybe we can plan a service around that concept. Or perhaps Don can make that part of a quiz for one of the soup suppers.
These stories and many others are focused on Jesus, the Man; particularly, the events that took place during his all too brief ministry.
But there is another side of Jesus I would like to talk about now. It just so happens that Monday was Earth Day and Easter Sunday marked the “Festival of God’s Creation.” Jesus was a man for only a few years; but he has been God from the beginning. Consequently, he is Creator as well as Savior.
John lays it all out in Chapter One of his Gospel, verses 1-5.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God
and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning.
Everything came into being through the Word,
and without the Word nothing came into being.
What came into being through the Word was life,
and the life was the light for all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
We talk about following Jesus by loving God and loving our neighbor. We try to emulate his relationships with people by including everyone in our love just as he did; by praying, by ministering to others; by feeding the hungry, comforting those who grieve, and healing the sick; by acting for justice in all things and for all people; and finally, by doing everything for the greater glory of God.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus the Savior gives all his disciples a great commission to spread the Good News when he says,
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you...”
Jesus, the Creator, gave us another commission. After creating us and making us a little lower than the angels, he gave us dominion over all of creation and charged us with taking care of all that we have been given.
The word of God from the book of Genesis
Chapter 1, verses 27-29
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon
the earth.”
Chapter 2, verses 8, 9, and 15
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out
of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food… The
LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
The Great Commission in Matthew tells us to spread the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection and make disciples of everyone. This is a huge responsibility. I believe we also have the huge and urgent task of protecting our planet—God’s Creation—from the effects of years of neglect and harsh treatment.
You may have noticed that much of our Liturgy is directed toward that end. Too many of our leaders put profit before protection. They conveniently deny the problems and do nothing to alleviate them. Too many people put comfort and convenience before addressing the threats to the environment that are created, for example, by the widespread use of plastics in various forms—plastics that make our lives a little more convenient, but cause many problems for the environment. Our landfills are overflowing and fish are dying from water polluted with plastic bags. I’m not sure how much we can do, but we need to do something.
We can take individual responsibility in small ways and encourage others to do the same.
• We can buy reusable grocery bags and urge lawmakers to outlaw the plastic ones.
• We can drink out of a glass or buy a reusable straw. (We just bought some stainless steel ones.) Some
places have already outlawed plastic straws and we can work to make that happen in others.
• We can buy reusable storage bags instead of using one and then disposing of it.
• We can drink water from reusable bottles, not throw-away plastic.
• We can recycle everything possible.
These are small things, but each additional person who does them increases the positive effect on God’s Creation. Larger improvements can be realized by voting for leaders who are willing to work on environmental issues and make hard choices about the proliferation of plastic.
In addition to issues with plastics, we are faced with the dangers of Global Warming—dangers that need to be addressed immediately. Again, many of our leaders deny its existence even as most scientists suggest that we have a very limited time in which to tackle the problem before it’s too late. I don’t like to be political, but the only solution I can see is to vote our concerns by electing people who are willing to look beyond inconvenience or cost and begin to take the necessary steps to turn things around.
None of the environmental difficulties we are facing at this time are likely to have much impact on people in our age group, but they will perhaps affect our children and will definitely affect our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. When you leave this place, look around you and you will be impressed. God gave us our wonderful planet and all of creation; God made us stewards of these outstanding gifts;
If we love Jesus, Creator and Savior, we will do all we can to be faithful servants and good stewards, so that one day our grandchildren can look around at God’s renewed and awesome creation and shout with joy, “Good Lord, he’s done it again!” Amen
