Peace Be with You

John 20:19-31 2^nd Sunday of Easter

Elizabeth M. Deibert
15 April 2012

Christ, be our peace, that we might see you, hear you, touch you, and know you as we hear your Word.   Amen.

Every year on the second Sunday of Easter, we step back from our Easter exuberance, and hear the concerns of Doubting Thomas.   This is the Sunday for quiet reassurance that Christ is alive and breathing peace on us, no matter what we see or don’t see in the world around us.   Christ is driving the dark of our doubt away, always bringing peace into the locked rooms of our lives where we fear and confusion give way to faith and confirmation.

I was so excited last week with the crowd we had here.  230 people!   But really, the crowds should come back on the second Sunday of Easter.   This is the story for us.   Yes, especially in this congregation, we should love this resurrection story.    Peace, Joy, Peace Doubt, Peace, Faith.  Peace is everywhere.   We love exchanging the peace of Christ and really meaning it, not just being friendly, but hoping with our words and our attitudes of forgiveness to change lives.  So we say with all depth, “Peace be with you.”   We mean it.   We don’t exchange pleasantries in that moment.   It is not like running into a friend at the park.   We share peace.  Our recyclable grocery bags say it and our business cards say it.   “Peace to you.”    If I tried to distill the one message I have for the world into one word, it would be “peace.”  If I wanted to communicate one thing Christ was bringing to all people, it would be in the Hebrew sense of the word, shalom, wholeness – Peace.   If there one thing I hope my life will embody in the world – in the way I live with others – it is summarized in peace.   What a great name for a church – Peace! 

 

I invite you now to imagine a night of great unrest for the disciples.   Some women had reported an empty tomb, but there had been no confirmation.  What they currently experience is an empty room full of fear.   Who might get crucified next?   And are these stories about the empty tomb real, can they give their friends who saw and believed the benefit of the doubt? 

John 20:19-31 (NRSV)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The doors were locked, but  Jesus came in anyway and said, “Shalom.”   This shalom is for them, to calm them, to reassure them.   Then he showed them the evidence of his wounds.   They rejoice in seeing him.   He gives them peace again, and with it a charge.   The second “shalom” is the one they and we must bear to the world.  Jesus was the one sent.   Now he is sending them, but first he breathes on them.  The wind-breath-spirit (pneuma) is given them.

  

As those who follow Jesus we are given peace into our souls and by his Spirit we bear peace to the world.  But that’s not all.   Jesus then gives the power of forgiveness – a huge gift and burden.   Do you know the power of forgiveness?   Do you know the release you can give yourself and others by offering forgiveness, especially to those who do not deserve it.    That’s what Christ offers us – that is the essence of his peace – and he says, as the Father sent me, so I send you.    Give people the peace of your forgiveness.   Give those who have betrayed you or forgotten you the peace of your forgiveness. 

    

Know Christ’s peace in the depths of your soul, so you can dig deep into that peace, when you’ve been hurt, and offer forgiveness to others.  There is great peace in laying our bitterness aside.   To love and forgive others is possible only to the degree we have received Christ’s peace.   To fully embrace Christ’s peace is a process of trusting his love to be the One thing that completes us, that fills us, that heals us.    Sometimes we want to hold back parts of ourselves, not believing that God is what we most need in that deep needy part.   Sometimes the deep needy part of us wants the quick feel-good.   Sometimes we want to reserve a little spot for our justified anger or blame toward others.   We want to reserve that spot as point of pride, thinking too highly of ourselves.   What we need is for Christ’s breath to enter that spot and heal it.   With Christ’s peace in us, giving us the benefit of the doubt, we can give others the benefit of the doubt.

But we like to cling to our doubts about Christ’s peace.   We like to think there are some wounds he cannot heal, so we hold them back.    We like to cling to our doubt, because doubt or skepticism is the intellectual way these days, and we educated people value our minds.  Smart people question things like Thomas did.    Smart people need hard evidence.   Science.   Fact.   Evidence.   Unless I see the evidence of his wounds and touch them, I will NOT believe.   Thomas is not just saying to his friends, “I wish I had seen Jesus with you.   I’m having a hard time believing.”    No, he was exercising his will in doubt.   I will not believe. 

 

Like Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie, Bucket List when the two guys talk of faith and Jack says with a smirk, “Oh, I admire you people with faith.  I just can’t get my head around it.   And Morgan Freeman wryly responds, “Well, maybe your head’s in the way.”   I love that line.   And Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the Genome Project, a Christian who developed the video series we are called Science and Religion, admits that his intellect was in the way of believing for many years.  It was his clinical contact with real human suffering that made him question his agnosticism.  And as he read Mere Christianity and began to seriously ponder the Christian faith, he came to a point of believing more than doubting – just like Thomas.

The best thing about this story of Doubting Thomas is that he does not continue to doubt.   Jesus comes twice that evening to the disciples, seemingly just to bring more peace – peace enough for Thomas to believe.    Was it peace or evidence that made him believe?   Peace be with you, Thomas.   Peace to all the doubters of the world.   Here – you said you need to touch and see.  Okay.  Do it.   Don’t doubt, though, believe!

And Thomas’ stubborn agnosticism falls away.   The peace of Christ overwhelms him and heals him, and he utters a most profound statement of faith:   My Lord and My God.

You might be thinking, “Well, Thomas got the evidence, so of course, he began to believe, but I don’t have Jesus standing in front of me.”   But was it the evidence or the peace that changed him, I ask you?  For all of us who never had this face-to-face encounter with the Risen Lord, Jesus says we are blessed.    Yes.   We who are challenged to claim a blind faith are the blessed ones.   Is there more peace in a faith that trusts enough, even in the dark of not knowing?

Those who get their proofs are believing, but they don’t need as much faith to hang on.   But those who believe without seeing, those who can handle the mysteries of life, they are the strong ones.   Those of us who have not seen have the benefit of the doubt when we believe despite our doubts, despite our not seeing.   If you think about it, faith is giving Jesus the benefit of the doubt.  

What evidence do we have that Jesus rose from the dead?   We give this scripture the benefit of the doubt.   What evidence do we have that the church has not been duped all these years.   We give the church the benefit of the doubt.   We give each other the benefit of the doubt as we seek together, as best we can to follow Jesus’ way.   Faith is giving God the benefit of the doubt.   But we’re receiving the benefit of the doubt, even as we give it, because the benefit of the doubt is Christ entering and filling us with his peace, made real.

How do we know someone who dies is not gone forever?  What evidence do we have that we will be reunited one day?   No hard and fast evidence – the kind the world likes.  

We only have a few near-death experiences reported, and we have to give those people the benefit of the doubt.  But we are blessed, we are benefited all the more to believe in the Resurrection of the body and the life everlasting with no evidence but the witness of scripture, the church through the generations, and our faith. 

 

Jesus is understanding of Thomas, but not willing to leave Thomas where he is.   He charges him to believe.    I think believing is an act of our will, more than an ascent of the heart or mind.   I think believing often comes in response to an experience of the peace Christ offers, more than any proofs.  Evidence we have but no proof.   And our evidence is Christ’s peace, the peace we experience in worship, the peace we experience in prayer, the peace we experience in the beauty of nature.   The peace that passes all understanding when we walk through a heavy grief and are surrounded by the love of our friends.   The peace that still our souls when our lives feel like locked rooms, full of fear and confusion. 

 

You walk into this worship service, Christ is here, pouring out peace in your soul, encouraging you to believe, to forgive, and to share that peace and forgiveness with others.   Sometimes the doors to your heart are locked, but Christ can enter anyway.  And his message always is “Peace be with you.   Do not doubt but believe.”    And once you are rejoicing in faith, his message is “Now that you believe, receive the Holy Spirit.   As my Father sent me, so I send you.”   So let us be at peace, let us forgive, let us believe, and let us share the peace we have been so graciously given by always giving the benefit of the doubt to all whom we meet.

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for this peace which now floods our souls.  We believe your love is healing every doubting dark corner of our hearts.  Renew us in your love, that we might forgive, believe, and share your peace with this hurting world.

Truth for Life

Peace Presbyterian Church
1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 51-58
Easter Sunday
Elizabeth M. Deibert

Paul was not even there at the empty tomb when the women came and heard the angel say, “He is not here, but is risen.” Paul was not there in the upper room when Jesus appeared to the twelve. In fact, Paul persecuted those who were there and those who first believed the news about Christ. So why should we listen to what he says about the resurrection? Because Paul’s testimony is truth for life.

Many churches will be reading one of the four gospel narratives this morning, and we usually do that too, but this year, I thought turn our focus to 1 Corinthians 15, which was actually written down earlier than any of the Gospel stories.

First Corinthians 15 aims to counter the belief, apparently held by some members of the church in Corinth, that there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul writes a long and complex chapter to persuade the Corinthians that believing in the resurrection of the Christ is essential to the faith. This earliest scriptural witness to the Easter event asserts both the death of Jesus Christ and also his resurrection as confirmed in his appearances to the disciples. By citing the Easter tradition and extending the list of appearances (vv. 6–8), Paul calls the Corinthians back to the fundamental ground they share with him, that God did indeed raise Christ from the dead. This is truth for life – that death, while still agonizing, death, while still painful and capable of causing deep grief, death does not have the final word. Death has been overwhelmed by the life of Christ.

Glory to you, O God: on this day you won victory over death,
raising Jesus from the grave and giving us eternal life.
Glory to you, O Christ: for us and for our salvation you overcame death
and opened the way to everlasting life.
Glory to you, O Holy Spirit: you lead us into the truth.
Glory to you, O Blessed Trinity, now and forever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11, 51-58

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you-- unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them-- though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

51 Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
(NRSV)

As Paul reminded the Corinthians of the life-giving truth in which they stood, so I remind you. We come to worship to be reminded weekly of the good news of our salvation, so that our faith will be authentic and enduring, especially in difficult times .

C.S. Lewis once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscious and shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Pain is God’s megaphone. I read this quote in a piece in Washington Post, written by one of my daughter Catherine’s Furman University classmates, twenty-two years old. She says, “My whole life prior to cancer, the Lord has been whispering to me, and at times even speaking to me, to remind me of His presence and love. But my diagnosis became like a megaphone, blaring the Lord’s love for all to hear. Christian and non-Christian friends alike all gathered to pray for me in those dark days. The Lord had to constantly remind me that it is He who controls my life, not the doctors or the statistics I was facing each day. Cancer has been a turning point in my life that I never could have dreamed of, and I know that my life will never be the same. But despite the hard times and the multitudes of tears, the Lord has been protecting me every step of this journey. Whether I live, and one day become cancer free, or I die, I know without a doubt that God is good, and that does not change based on my circumstances. For now, I can rest in the assurance that the Lord is looking out for me, and therefore I can simply strive to live life joyfully for every day that I am given.” (P. Thompson) Amazing truth coming from a twenty-two year old!

That’s an Easter perspective, if I ever heard one. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the grace bestowing life.”

This is the good news that compels us pull out every instrument, and fill the choir with nearly 40 voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus. You may have heard that Handel wrote the Messiah in 24 days, but did you know he was depressed and in great debt when he did this? There is something about hopelessness that coupled with faith has the power to witness in powerful ways to the truth that gives life.

Confronted by our hopelessness in sin and death, Christ interceded by offering himself in order to reconcile us to God. With no power but the power of love, Christ defeated sin, evil, and death by dying for us. He even took on the agony of our abandonment by God to spare us.

You know how when someone does something for you that is beyond the call of duty, when someone really extends themselves to help you, how grateful do you feel? How loved do you feel? When you’ve been a pain in the patooty to someone in your family or to a best friend and they go right on loving you without missing a beat? Can you get in touch with those feelings? Can you multiply in your mind’s heart to the nth degree? Then you are beginning to get a glimpse at understanding what a debt of gratitude you owe to Jesus Christ for your salvation.

Paul recites what sounds like the Nicene Creed “Christ was buried and raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures. Then he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the twelve. Then to five hundred brothers and sisters, then to James, then to the apostles.” And Paul adds, and last to me, because I persecuted the church. Paul calls himself an apostle because he had a unique encounter with the risen Lord, but he also deems himself unworthy of the title.

Some of us have a confident faith and others are doubting. Some of us are humble, and others are proud, but that’s nothing new. From the first day of the resurrection, there were those who doubted, Thomas among them. Until he could see for himself, he was not going to take someone else’s word for it. Likewise, Paul, to be converted, had to be blinded by the light of Christ, knocked to the ground, without vision for three days. He was accused by a voice from heaven, “Why are you persecuting me?”

Some of you have had dramatic experiences like Paul while others of us have had or are having more of a gradual awakening to the love of God. Each of us has our own story of the presence of Christ in our lives, even if we are only becoming aware of that presence.

Our call is to be like Paul – to be witnesses of that truth for life. To proclaim it to others so that they too might believe. Those who proclaim it against all odds, like the college student at Furman with cancer, have a particularly compelling message.

Because Christ lives, we will live also. We will be given imperishable bodies to replace our perishable ones. The resurrection of the body celebrates our eternal value to God as living persons, each one with a unique and distinctive identity. The resurrection of the body means hope for the whole person, in the unity of body and soul. How did Christ appear? Christ was heard, seen, and touched in person, after the discovery of an empty tomb. Christ was different in the resurrection. He appeared and disappeared, but he had a body that could be touched.

Now what does this mean when we die? Many of us simply think we are done with our bodies when we die and that it is our souls that go to be with God. But this text and the Apostles’ Creed which we will say together in a few minutes both affirm the resurrection of the body, not just the soul. When the last trumpet sounds, we will be changed.

How can the difference Christ has made in your life be made a real and compelling story for others that touches their own deepest needs? The story Paul shared with the Corinthians did that. Our own stories of life and faith should do the same. They should build up the faith of others with a truth that is life-giving, not life-draining. They should not only be our stories, but they should be connected to the faith tradition which has been passed down to us. (JEFFREY D. JONES, Feasting on the Word)

Presbyterian professor of preaching, Tom Long writes: Christians are on the witness stand to tell that story, not because it is a likely story or an advantageous piece of testimony, but because it is true. We know it is true because we ourselves have experienced it and witnessed its truth. That is why we are on the witness stand and have taken the oath to tell the truth “so help us God.”

So we declare that Jesus lives and Jesus is Lord. We announce today and for the next fifty days of Easter that Christ’s resurrection is a decisive victory over the powers that deform and destroy life. We do not yet see the end of suffering and death, but in Christ we get a glimpse of the new creation that has begun and will surely be completed one day, when there will be no more tears or pain, when the fellowship of God with all God’s people will be perfected. Ultimately death is no match for God. The resurrection of Jesus was God’s victory over death for all of us. We are convinced that the life God wills for us is stronger than the death that destroys us. In the face of death, we grieve, yet in hope we celebrate the life that God gives us. (several quotes from A Declaration of Faith, chapters 4 and 10)

Death is a broken power. It has lost its sting. It has lost its grip. Where, O Death is your trophy? Don’t you see, Death, you will never win. This is the truth. This is the life – that you, Death, never get the last word. Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s why we are singing no less than 185 hallelujahs in this service because we can do none other than to praise God for this truth, this life, this victory over death, in which we stand.

Fools for Christ

Fools for Christ
Philippians 2:1-11
Palm/Passion Sunday
Elizabeth M. Deibert

O, how he loves you and me. O, how he loves you and me. He gave his life. What more could he give? O, how he loves you. O, how he loves me. O, how he loves you and me. Sometimes the heart of the message is better sung than spoken. Today’s scripture contains the oldest lyrics of the Christian faith, the earliest Christian hymn. Let us pray with Richard of Chittister of the 12^th Century:

Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, forall the benefits which you have won for us, for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

Christ embodied the love he proclaimed – all the way to the cross. He entered Jerusalem, knowing that it was dangerous for him. Entering Jerusalem was foolish by all practical standards. He should have been hiding, not allowing his followers to celebrate his entry with a parade of palms. Political leaders were nervous about anyone causing such unrest among the people. Religious leaders hated him because his criticized their hypocrisy and challenged them to live with justice and mercy. And they call him Messiah, King? He claimed to speak and to act with the authority of God? Foolish. The disciples began to see how foolish this was as the week progressed. Judas betrayed him to authorities. Peter denied even knowing him. The crowds who waved palm branches cheering the great healer and miracle worker on Sunday shouted crucify him on Friday.

In the presence of Jesus, who perfectly lived what we are called to be, humanity was threatened beyond endurance. Blinded by our own rebellion against our Creator, we killed the only One who lived the perfect life, God incarnate in Jesus Christ. (adapted from A Declaration of Faith)

Those who lived the first Holy Week were no doubt terribly confused about what was happening, because they had so misunderstood what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah. They understood Messiah to be strong one, a leader who fights for the people, not one who goes willingly and quietly to his death.

The disciples look like fools all through the Gospels, as they never quite seem to get it, despite many hints from Jesus. So if on this Palm and Passion Sunday, you feel like you still don’t get it – all the ironies of loyalty and betrayal , of suffering and triumph, of death and new life -- please be reassured that you are in good company. None of Jesus’ followers have ever really mastered this foolishness. So if your faith makes you feel like a fool on this first of day April, then just settle in and accept it. It is part of the life of one who follows Jesus. As Tricia preached three weeks ago, the message of the cross appears as foolishness, but the Apostle Paul reminds us that, “God foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

The scripture we are reading today tries to make some sense of the foolishness of the cross. It is contains one of the first earliest pieces of Christian worship, a hymn about Christ’s kenosis, his self-emptying and his death on a cross.

Hear now what the Spirit is saying to her church:

Philippians 2:1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ² make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, ⁷ but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, ⁸ he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (NRSV)

Paul begins with a ridiculous set of four conditional clauses. If there is any encouragement in Christ, if there any consolation from love, if there’s any sharing in the Spirit, if there any compassion and sympathy…

Of course Paul knew that all of these do exist in abundance, so writing from prison, with his own life hanging in the balance, he is pushing his readers to fulfill that encouragement, that consolation, that sharing, and compassion and sympathy by being in full accord, by loving one another. Again, he speaks in four’s. Have the same mind, the same love, the same unity, the same purpose.

Then he goes on to explain what it means to love: not being motivated by selfish ambition but in humility, putting others ahead of yourself, looking to what matters to them before concerning yourself with what matters to you. I read a great quote which helps if you’re concerned that modeling your life after Christ like this will turn you into somebody’s doormat. “Paul is not asking to think less of yourself, but to think of yourself less.” So this is not an invitation to criticize yourself, to be self-deprecating. No, it is a call to take all positive or negative focus off yourself and think of others. It is not a call to uniformity of thinking but to the unity of love that transcends differences.

Paul is writing to a community, challenging them out of individualism, an enormous modern cultural problem which Paul could not begin to imagine. Think of the transformation of families, communities, and churches if each person is seeking to meet the needs of others. Churches: It is not what you get out of worship, but what you give to someone else in worship. It is not whether you feel welcome and comfortable during fellowship time but whether you make someone else feel cared for. It is not whether you come to lively learning because you enjoy it, but whether you are present to encourage others. It’s not about you. It is about people voluntarily putting others first. Now that’s a foolish idea.

Jesus modeled that foolishness. As Christ-God, he was fully equal to God and fully able to avoid all suffering, but he chose to take the form of a slave. He chose to limit himself, limit his own power, in his humanity, to be just like us. He could have rescued himself from the suffering and become the overpowering Messiah the disciples imagined him to be, but he humbled himself and became true to his identity and calling. That’s obedience – to be true to who you really are.

And who is Christ truly? He is love, a love that cannot let us go. God is love, and for God to demonstrate love means to suffer for and with us, to walk the lonesome journey with us, to feel our pain and loss, so that he can redeem us, save us, give us new life, having lived our life. Notice that every act of sacrifice is an active verb – emptied himself, took the form of a slave, humbled himself, became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, the lowliest form of death.

He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. By being at once our priest and our sacrifice, Christ intercedes for us by offering himself, to make us one with God and God one with us. His life, death, and resurrection become the great “yes” that continues to be spoken despite how often we have said “no.” (adapted from The Study Catechism, questions 39-40) Notice that having actively given himself up, Christ is restored as he becomes the object of God’s uplifting actions. Therefore God highly exalted him, gave him the name above every name. As Servant, Christ acts humbly as our priest to redeem us from the sin of pride; as Lord, he exalts humanity by grace to royal partnership with God, liberating us from the sin of self-abasement. In Jesus Christ, God is humbled and humanity is exalted. In that leveling is our unity, our oneness in God’s love.

And the song ends with all of humanity getting on board with Christ’s love – every knee bending, every tongue confessing – Jesus Christ is Lord. In both his majesty and his lowliness, the greatness of Christ is made known. It looks like foolishness but it is true greatness. A Franciscan poet Jacopone da Todi of the 13^th Century speaks of the foolishness of Christ’s love in Philippians 2 in this way:

You did not defend Yourself against that Love
that made You come down from heaven to earth;
Love, in trodding this earth
You humbled and humiliated Yourself,
Demanding neither dwelling place nor possessions
Taking on such poverty so that we might be enriched!
In Your life and in Your death You revealed

The infinite love that burned in your heart.
You went about the world as if you were drunk,
Led by Love as if You were a slave...
Wisdom, I see, hid herself,
Only Love could be seen.
Nor did You make a show of Your power –
A great Love it was
that poured itself out,
Love and Love alone, in act and desire,
Binding itself to the cross
And embracing [humanity]

Thus, Jesus, if I am enamored
And drunk with sweetness,
If I lose my sense and mastery of self,
How can you reproach me?
I see that Love has so bound You
As to almost strip you of your greatness;
How, then, could I find the strength to resist,
To refuse to share in its madness?

For the same Love that makes me lose my senses
Seems to have stripped You of wisdom;
The love that makes me weak
Is the love that made You renounce all power.
I cannot delay, nor seek to –
Love's captive, I make no resistance...

And I end this sermon with the greatest line by missionary, Jim Eliot, who died at age 29 doing something foolish – trying to get the Christian message to isolated, indigenous tribes in Ecuador who were very mistrusting of outsiders in the 1950’s. He left behind a wife of three years and an only daughter, less than a year old when he and four other missionaries died. Jim Eliot writes,

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep

to gain that which he cannot lose."

Give us the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, that, sharing in his humility, willing to give up what we cannot keep, we will be ready to gain what we cannot lose – life with you in the glory of your love.

Starting Over

Jeremiah 31:31-34
5th Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert

Someone asked me recently, “How do you know God is faithful?” It is a good question. How do I know? Well, part of the answer to that question is that I shape my life around the Word and the Sacraments which remind me weekly that God is faithful, even when my circumstances make me doubt. The other part of the answer to that question is my observation that God is faithful, as I see prayers being answered, people being cared for, the beauty of the earth, and love being shared among friends and forgiveness being lived out in our church family. I see God’s work in people being able to start over again after hard times.

When the Babylonians ripped apart the temple in Jerusalem and dragged King Zedekiah off in chains, they destroyed the symbols of God’s covenantal promises. The people of Judah faced a crisis. Not only had they lost power and prestige, freedom and security; they had also lost the assurance of God’s faithfulness. I cannot begin to describe what a catastrophe that was for them. It would be dangerous to make any comparisons of 587 BCE with our contemporary experience. Yet in smaller, more personal ways we know the ambiguity and pain of life and we, like they, sometimes wonder about God’s commitment to keeping promises.

If you are wondering about God’s faithfulness, then this is a good message of hope for you today. It is one of the most significant teachings of the prophet Jeremiah – that God is planning a new covenant and that this promise, which we Christians believe, was enacted in Jesus Christ, is one in which God believes new relational integrity will be established between God’s own self and God’s people. This is an exciting promise of a God who plans to start over, to make things right. This is the promise that allows us to start over. This is the promise that assures us that one day, as Mother Julian of the 13th century said, “all will be well, and all shall be well, and every manner of thing shall be well.” She said that was true because of her unique experience of the presence of Christ in her suffering and isolation.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more .

(NRSV)

The days are surely coming, surely coming. We believe those days came. They came in the one who lived a new covenant by focusing on the habits of the heart rather than the legalisms of the law.

God was starting over, because God’s estimation of the people’s ability to keep themselves faithful to God’s law seems to have changed. God says through the voice of Jeremiah, “Even though I was their protector and kept my promises to them, they did not keep theirs.” So God determines to cut a new covenant, a promise that will reside within the people, which will transform the people by forgiveness and close-relatedness. “No longer shall they implore one another saying “Know the Lord” for they shall all know me. Not just the important, powerful people, but the least important, powerless people. They will know me, too. Relational integrity. God is doing a new thing. And I am here as a Christian pastor to say that the new thing is, was, and will be Jesus Christ – God coming to us to know us and to be known by us. That’s the uniqueness of our faith – that we believe God actually lived among us and still lives among us through the Holy Spirit. That knowing happens in a person, not a set of rules.

All of us have probably heard the saying, often repeated by parents to children, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Well, we all know that children will do as you do.

You can talk until you are blue in the face, but the kids are watching and they will follow patterns of behavior. They will pick up habits, ways of communicating, spiritual practices, attitudes – both good and bad, healthy ways of living and unhealthy ways. They will pick it up not just from you but also from their friends, whomever they spend much time – good reason to have them at church, working to surround them with people who intentional about living their faith out. You can dole out the commandments, but the laws written on their hearts are the lived laws. Don’t just say it. Model it. Relational integrity.

How could God set up commandments that were so easily broken? God was trying to operate a bi-lateral covenant with God’s people. God was trying to live by the “Do as I do” model, but this took on all new reality when God came into the world as Jesus Christ to fulfill the covenant promise, saying I’ll show you. “Love one another as I have loved you.” “If any want to be my disciples, they must take up their cross and follow me.” “Come. Follow me. I am the way, the truth, the life.” He did not say, “I’m sitting in my cushy seat here, while you dig the ditches.” He did not say, “Go over there and wash some people’s feet. Heal some folks. Make sacrifices for their lives.” No, Jesus showed us how to serve. He showed us how to be a healing presence to others. He demonstrated how to live and how to love, how to die and how to live again.

Jesus Christ is very same person as the God who spoke through the prophet Jeremiah. John’s Gospel tells us He was from the beginning with God. And the same God is still present with us, in us, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, we are given power to believe, power to start again, power to keep starting over, no matter how hard it is. In Christ, our sin is remembered no more, it is washed cleaned, just as Jeremiah predicted to make it possible for us to start over in a radically new way. God has not forsaken his promises to his people. Paul tells us in Romans 9-11 that God cannot break his covenant, but what God did in Christ was break open the covenant that had in Jeremiah’s day been reserved for the Jews, the Hebrews, the people of Israel and Judah.

God made a new promise for all the people everywhere. If this promise was not for everyone, I could not stand here and preach about its greatness.

By the mystery of the Spirit of Christ working through Word and Sacrament, music and prayer, I know in my heart that God will make all things new for everyone. And when Jeremiah speaks of heart, by the way, he’s talking not just about emotions but of the mind and the will. Will God’s new covenant still be yours, if you don’t accept it? Yes, it’s still there for you, like a spring bulb, eager to be watered so it can burst forth in all its glory; like beautiful present, waiting to be opened; like a land of promise waiting to be explored. As we said last week, God’s forgiveness, God’s love, God’s grace is a gift. But what a joy to claim it, to know it, to embrace it, to celebrate it! When we do, it’s a new beginning, a starting over moment, a new life, filled with hope in believing in God’s promises and living by them, despite moments and days of doubt here and there.

God is even now doing a new thing in our life together here at Peace? Do you not perceive it? I think you do. I think your hearts/your souls/your minds are embracing it. I think you are longing to be like the Peace storage closet – cleaned out. Yep. If you haven’t seen that closet in recent months, well, just imagine your worst closet ever – jammed with stuff, overflowing with stuff, disorganized stuff – except for organized spot where the Fellowship and Property Teams had their stuff. Debby Sunkenberg and I were working on that church storage closet this week, as this sermon was simmering on the stove of my mind. Once we started I could not stop working to re-organize the closet because it became a symbol for me of the clean heart, the new covenant, the good work that God is doing right now with us, and yet really cannot fully accomplish without our cooperation, without our openness or willingness.

In the Psalm assigned to us today, Psalm 51, we read “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Is that your prayer, today? I’m thinking that all our hearts need some good cleaning out. Many less important things need to be moved out of the way, and some things disposed of, so that your heart has more room for the Spirit of God. It can be hard to let go of a messy heart with all of its boxed up memories, with all of its good intentions never accomplished, with all of its bitterness and frustration, with all of its excuses for why it was such a mess.

Letting God loose in your heart for a re-boot on life is a courageous and liberating decision, requiring trust and submission to the process of spiritual transformation. So I encourage you today to step out in faith, actively asserting your trust in the God of the covenant who gave the people of Judah new hope, who many, many years later is still giving us new hope. C.S. Lewis said you are never too old to dream a new dream. God is able and willing to renew your life by empowering you to grow more and more like Jesus Christ through the presence of the Spirit at work in your life. Are you willing to imagine the newness that God can do in you?

(Prayer – Change my heart, O God, may it ever true. Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.)

The Immeasurable Gift of God

Ephesians 2:-1-10
4th Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert

O Lord our God, you are always more ready to bestow your good gifts upon us than we are to seek them. You are more willing to give than we desire or deserve. Help us so to seek that we may truly find, so to ask that we may joyfully receive, so to knock that the door of your mercy may be opened for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (The Message)
1 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. 2 You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. 3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. 4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, 5 (God) embraced us. (God) took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ, (doing) all this with no help from us! 6 Then (God) picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 7 Now God has us where (we need to be), with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.
8 Saving is all (God’s) idea, and all (God’s) work. All we do is trust (God) enough to let it happen. It's God's gift from start to finish! 9 We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! 10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. (God) creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join in the work, the good work (God) has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

That’s an adapted version of the Message translation of Ephesians 2:1-10. I am hoping that the modern colloquial language might hook us in a new way. Because what I’ve been thinking all week is this: How can I get the people of Peace excited about the grace of God – this immeasurable, incredible, amazing gift?

It is no small matter that both the children’s catechism, which we just read together and the Study Catechism, which we will use later both open with a message that sounds a lot like Ephesians 2:8 -10. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

God’s grace overcomes our sin by Christ’s gift of love, which calls us to a life of responding in trust and obedience. It is the central message of the Christian Gospel – that God so loved not just us, but the whole world, that God came in human form as Jesus Christ, to live and die and be raised for us. “The emphasis on “grace” and “faith” in this passage has made it a favorite with the Reformers. Here we have all the great themes of Reformed theology: a dramatic “before” and “after,” the total transformation of the believer, and the emphasis that it is all the “gift of God.” Embedded in this passage are a distinctive cosmology, a sense that the resurrected reality promised to the Christian is already being realized, and a conception of salvation, which is complete and total.” (Ian Markham, Feasting on the Word) Listen for the Spirit speaking to you today:

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (NRSV)

This message shapes the pattern of historic Christian worship. As we come into the presence of a Holy God, we acknowledge our sin and are reminded of the gift of grace. We share that grace and peace with others. We are fed by Word and Sacrament, and given strength for living more faithfully. We pray for the world and give of ourselves in response to God’s grace, re-committing ourselves to a life of discipleship. Ephesians 2 begins with our deadness, our desperate situation, our weakness, our failure. Then it moves to the gift of grace, not the result of works, which is ours. It was there for us, even before we became aware of it, so sometimes we just take it for granted. This seems to be increasingly true. I have noticed in the twenty-two years of my ordination, that attitudes about grace are changing.

People used to get excited when they would hear sermons about the unconditional love of God. They were so relieved to hear that God could forgive any and all sin. They were excited to learn that there is nothing that can separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Their faces brightened when they heard that grace is a gift – cannot be earned. They knew they did not deserve it, so news of it was great! Now I am concerned that people seem to accept grace as a given. “Oh yeah, of course God loves me.” Have we really not considered how dead we were in our sins? Do we not see that God’s expectations are high, and that we have not met them? This is not horseshoes. Close doesn’t really count. It’s not about being a reasonably good person. You were dead in your sins.

I’ll tell you about the deadness of a reasonably good person. A twenty-three year old man in law school, good friend of my nephew, comes from a great family, all of whom are faithful members of the Methodist Church, where my brother and sister-in-law have been active for twenty years. A couple of weeks ago, this guy was at a bar with his girlfriend when another man made a pass at his date. This led to an argument and a shift to the sidewalk, where apparently, my nephew’s friend shoved this guy into the street, just as a BMW drove by. The man was hit and killed. My nephew’s good friend is now charged with first degree murder. Can you imagine the horror of this situation for both families?

Both guys probably had enough alcohol in them to impair their judgment. An indiscretion. A flared temper. A stupid fight and now one is dead and the other will likely land in prison for many years. Dead! Children of wrath. Caught up in the passions of the flesh. Sad. And what makes it so sad is that all of us have the capacity to make such a dumb mistake in the heat of passion, especially when under the influence of alcohol or drugs. How quickly the sinful action of a reasonably good person led to death. The Greeks understood evil to lie in the zone between heaven and earth, thus the reference to the “ruler of the power of the air” as evil. Sometimes consequences are severe, sometimes not so much, but we are all children of wrath, dead in our sins. Even those of us who are less likely to physically harm someone have had moments when we verbally threw someone under the bus. Temper.

I lost my temper Thursday and screamed at Richard. We were having a great family outing on a rented boat, but the choppy water had jarred my neck and back repeatedly, and from some angry place inside me came an unexpected rage, shocking, even to me. Richard apologized for the excessive speed of our boat. I apologized for losing my temper.

And those who are quiet, less impulsive, can be just as self-absorbed and sinful as those who have anger management issues. We are part of the human condition of sin, whereby our systems of relating to one another are full of attitudes and actions that wound others. We are all sick and in need of God’s good medicine of grace. Watch teen girls ruthlessly exclude. Watch teen boys ruthlessly cut one another down. Not too different from adults. Our communities and our government are corrupted by our bad attitudes and insecurities. We can blame all our problems on the Democrats or on the Republicans or on all the officials in Washington who never accomplish anything because they are so polarized, so politically motivated. We can blame Wall Street or Main Street, but the bottom line is, we are all part of the system. Some people are lazy, and many are stuck. And we don’t really care – not enough to make a difference, not enough to make a sacrifice. We live in a great country, but it is captive to sin. We live in a great world, full of creative and kind people, but our communal and individual selfishness leads to deadness all the world around. You know deadness when you see or experience conflict in families and the strain on relationships because of all kinds of selfishness, which is usually denied. You know deadness when you read about Syria or other countries in the Middle East or Northern Africa, where warfare has ravaged so many lives. You know deadness when you see us here in a land of plenty, killing our own people in neighborhoods and schools and not being able to find an acceptable solution to the huge problems of healthcare and growing prison populations.

I am often amazed at the number of people who think they haven’t done anything wrong. Educators observe that children and their parents are less likely to take responsibility for their own wrongs. “What did my kid do?” Surely it was someone else’s fault. Pastors see people coming in with all kind of brokenness and irreconcilable conflicts in their lives, but they did nothing wrong. Our sin is not always wrong action but lack of action. Children are dying of hunger around the world, while we kill ourselves by eating too much processed food, but we’re not doing anything wrong. As our Lenten prayer of confession has reminded us, we have sinned by what we have done and by what we have left undone. Friends, it is healthier to admit that you’ve done wrong or at least failed to do right. Part of our deadness is our inability to see how dead we are, how caught up in sin we are. Another part of our deadness is that we ignore the suffering love of Christ and just go on living in sin, as if the gift meant nothing.

But the good news is that God does NOT accept us as we are. No, God intends us to be MORE than we are. We can keep choosing sin and death if we want because God does not control us like puppets, but short of taking away our autonomy, God will do everything to lead us to choose goodness and life, because the free gift of God in Christ is life abundant, life lived for God and others. God took our sin-dead lives and made us brand new in Jesus Christ. God did this. We cannot take the credit. With amazing love and forgiveness, God embraced us and gave us a new start by the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

If only we could see Jesus Christ in the fullness of who he really is and the gift of God’s grace for the immeasurable greatness that it is, then we would give our whole-hearted allegiance, our love and trust to our Savior. (John Stott) We would love all people, even those who are different from us, as beloved children of God. We would be generous toward them, even when they don’t deserve it, as God has been toward us.

Ephesians says we are seated in the heavenly places with Christ. I bet you don’t often imagine yourself already ascended with Christ. But this free gift is not just a ticket to a place called heaven when you breathe your last breath. This free gift of grace is for life going forward here and now. We cannot save ourselves, but we are called and invited to live into the good news of our salvation. We are created for good works, though we do not earn God’s grace by good works. No, good works flow from a depth of gratitude for the grace which is ours in Jesus Christ. This distinction is very important. Otherwise, you’ll end up a Pelagian, thinking that you can achieve God’s grace by your good works. Grace is a gift, and faith is what we exercise in embracing that grace and growing in gracefulness. We are created for good works, but not reconciled with God through good works. We could never work hard enough or have enough faith to achieve grace.

Because you see this grace is so amazing, so deliciously sweet. It has such a sweet sound, especially when you know the extent of your wretchedness, or at least your participation in the wretchedness of this world. When you know you’ve been lost, it is wonderful to be found. When you know you cannot see, it is a gift to have your eyes opened by the one who knows all your blind spots. Yes, this is the best news on earth and we’re here to celebrate it, to sing about, and to be transformed by it week in and week out.

To Be Wise? To Be Foolish?

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Tricia Dillon Thomas

To view this sermon click here

A Life of Sacrifice

Mark 8:31-38
2nd Sunday in Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert

O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you,
strength of the thoughts that seek you: Help us so to know you that we may truly love you, so to love you that we may fully serve you, whose sacrificial service is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Are you a fickle fan of Jesus Christ or a follower of Jesus Christ? That’s today’s question. A fickle fan only follows when it’s easy, when it’s a winning game. A loyal follower of the Duke basketball team is still cheering today, even after they were stomped on by the Carolina Tarheels last night.

We live in a day of casual Christianity, but today’s text is nothing but casual. It is not popular to talk about sacrifice and self-denial. Casual Christians want to be part of the flock, but don’t particularly want to follow the Shepherd. They want the forgiveness of the cross without the call to be cross-bearers. Casual Christians come to worship when it is convenient for them. They want to feel good on Sunday morning in church, but offer no commitment on Monday-Saturday. You cannot have the crown of Christianity without the cross. You cannot have Easter without Good Friday. You cannot have deep joy without the deep life of sacrifice.

The scripture we are reading is the turning point in Mark’s Gospel. Until now the Christ demonstrated God’s reign in the popular forms of strength and triumph as he has taught, healed, and fed the masses. Everyone wants to follow that Christ. He’s the winner! Now he shifts to the other side of the coin of God’s power – authority in the form of weakness and defeat. Peter as representative of the disciples tries to challenge this notion of a suffering, rejected, killed Messiah. But Jesus rebukes him, even calling Peter, Satan. Then Jesus makes it clear that following him means living a life of sacrifice. That message is not popular. In fact, it is downright offensive. You can feel the edginess of this text.

Listen for the power of the Holy Spirit speaking to us today about a new way of living that involves dying, a new way of winning that involves losing, a new way of having more by having less, giving away to others.


Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (NRSV)


Jesus demonstrated his willingness to yield to this life of sacrifice throughout his entire existence. Ephesians 5:2 states, "Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Mark 10:45 records that Jesus "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Christ was completely submitted to His Father’s will, even though it meant enduring physical pain, facing rejection, bearing the sins of all humanity, and accepting a tortuous death. Jesus experienced the high cost of living a life of sacrificial love, but He also experienced the eternal reward of obedience, sitting now at the right hand of God, helping us connect with God.

When Jesus says that we are to take up our cross, He is saying that we are to live as dead people. Paul helps us understand that when he tells the Galatians in 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

God is calling you to a life of sacrifice and a willingness to go wherever He takes you, to minister to whomever He brings you, and to go whenever He asks you. The question is, “Are you willing to live that life of sacrifice?” or will you wimp out at the first serious test of your resolve to follow Christ?

A life of sacrifice does not mean being a doormat for every abusive person whom you meet. A life of sacrifice does not mean having a self-deprecating attitude, saying, “I am a worthless, no good human being.” No a life of sacrifice means renouncing our right to rule our own lives. Sacrifice begins with all the little stuff. It is looking not to my own interests but to the interests of others, as Paul says in Philippians 2. Sacrifice can happen in the Peace fellowship hour. Is the conversation all about you or do you ask meaningful questions of others? Do you even linger long enough to show interest in other people? That’s a sacrifice, getting outside yourself, giving up some time, listening well to others.

There is opportunity for sacrifice in your own home. Do you expect your spouse, your parents, your partner, your roommate to pay all the bills, do all the dishes, wash all the clothes, cook all the meals, or is there some shared arrangement of serving one another, of sacrificing gladly for one another. Of going the extra mile for the other, doing favors that others will especially appreciate? There is opportunity for sacrifice in your workplace and school. Do you have an ethic that keeps you working hard for the sake of others, caring for the best for others, or is your workplace or school all about your profit, your popularity, your benefit, your bonuses, your grades. Who is being blessed by your diligence? Anybody besides yourself?

Opportunity abounds for sacrifice at church as we live into our Lenten disciplines. Do you think I feel like giving up my quiet Saturday, the day when I need to gear up for Sundays? Do you think I really want to participate in a prayer vigil for the justice of farmworkers? The self-centered part of me would really rather stay home, but I believe I am called to sacrifice my self-oriented day for a chance that farmworkers might be paid more fairly by Publix and the farmers who sell to Publix.

I was asked to prayerfully consider fasting all week with them, and six days of fasting was a sacrifice I could not make, but Pastor Tricia and I are each participating partially this week in the fast to be in solidarity and in prayer with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Do we like fasting? No. I get in a bad mood when I fast even for part of a day, but through prayer we will draw near to God and to those in great need of our eating sacrifice. Which one of us is not willing to pay a little more for a tomato that we pick out o the store, so that the ones who pick them in the fields have enough income to live? Isaiah said, “Is this not the fast I choose – to loose the bond of injustice?”

Have you sacrificed a few dollars and some time to contribute shares of beans and rice? That’s another way to help impoverished farmworkers. Some of our Peace family members sacrifice every Thursday morning to pack those beans and rice and other food items for the hundreds of families who are delighted to receive them. When you begin to make a habit of sacrificing, then little-by little you begin to experience some joy in it.

Methodist professor of preaching Fred Craddock once gave an analogy in money, “We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking $l0,000 dollars and laying it on the table—‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’ “But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $l0,000 for dollar bills. We go through life putting out a dollar here and $5 dollars there and $50 elsewhere. It’s the little by little gifts that add up and that change our attitude about giving. It is the gifts of time and attention. Listening compassionately to the person whose banter drives us crazy. Making gentle conversation with the kid who nearly knocked us over running through the hallway. Taking time with a neighbor or giving our place in line at the grocery store or someone who is harried. Being grace-filled and accommodating when there’s been a misunderstanding. Admitting your own fault and asking for the other’s forgiveness is a significant sacrifice.

I firmly believe Jesus Christ is asking each of us this Lent to consider giving to the point of sacrifice in some area of our lives. Giving generously, loving sacrificially. Giving up something you don’t want to give. What do you love more than you love Jesus Christ? What do you trust more than you trust Jesus Christ. That’s the death you are called to die. That’s the cross you must bear – giving that up.

It’s the idea of being willing to go all the way for Jesus - no holds barred and no turning back - just a steady, humble walk that follows His footsteps and His path through this world.

True sacrifice is not a once-and-done deed. When you sacrifice, you give up a part of yourself that you will not get back. You let go of your grasp and offer it up for the bigger picture, for a purpose larger than yourself. There’s no going back. It’s transformational, and every part of you is affected.

Sacrifice is not just about lavish acts; it’s about offering up every little choice, every step, and every decision to God’s plan. It’s about asking in each moment, “How can I be a blessing? How can I do good today?” It is in those small choices that we slowly start to transform ourselves and the world around us.

There is a sense in which Christians must give their lives to God every day. This is not necessarily a physical death as Jesus died for us (though such might be required), but a daily total sacrifice of self to do the will of Jesus.
Whatever He wants with my life is what must be done with it. What I want no longer matters, but I give myself for Him, just as He gave Himself for us.

If you think about it, any great achievement requires torture. Athletes torture their bodies. Thinkers torture their minds. And we get that on the physical and intellectual plane, but wish there was another way on the spiritual plane. We want to be casual Christians, coasting along comfortably. But the reality is: No pain. No gain. It’s not pain for pain’s sake. That makes no more sense than it makes for an athlete to torture his or her body with no purpose. I am not recommending that you drive nails into your hands to be like Jesus or to get someone to whip you, so you feel pain. I am not recommending that you wallow in despair because of all the pain and suffering of people in this world.

No, the pain of sacrifice has to contain the meaningful purpose of loving, serving, blessing another.

Does your grief for the people affected by tornadoes inspire you to pray for them, to contribute to the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering, which will be a blessing to them and others in their predicament? Does you concern for the plight of farmworkers inspire you to participate with me on Saturday or possibly to take on prayer and fasting for this one day this week? Does it make you want to supply our Beth-El Baggers on Thursdays with plenty of money for beans and rice?

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” It is a matter of dying to self-centeredness every day. Think about Christ as he faced the insults and the abuse that came to him in the week we now call Holy Week. And he prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” And if you keep dying to self, and living like Christ, you’ll come alive in ways you never imagined. In fact, you’ll live forever in the abiding and deep joy of your salvation.

Everlasting God,
in whom we live and move and have our being:
You have made us for yourself,
so that our hearts are restless
until they rest in you.
Give us purity of heart and strength of purpose,
that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing your will,
no weakness keep us from doing it;
that in your light we may see light clearly,
and in your service find perfect freedom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.