March 11, 2012 - Yes, We DO Like the Law

God spoke all these words: ²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me. ⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. ⁷You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. ⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

¹²Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹³You shall not murder. ¹⁴You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵You shall not steal. ¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

            In Gettysburg, there used to be a civil war chapel.  It was a wooden structure on the main road in town and it was led by people in Civil War era clothing.  This was intriguing to me, and before it burned down, I had the opportunity to go and worship there.  I was really looking forward to the sermon, since I am always curious where someone is going to take the text and show their theology.  The sermon was on the Ten Commandments, and I knew we were in trouble when he started proclaiming that the Ten Commandments were the 10 don’ts.  No matter how we look at the commandments, there is no way to reasonably call them the 10 don’ts, since they don’t all have the word don’t, or shall not, or any other variation upon that phrase.  So I was already a little bit peeved.  Then he continued on about how if you don’t follow the 10 don’ts, you are going to be smited with God’s righteous fury…  Um yeah, that part is not in the text either.The commandments are not a set of rules or obligations, but rather they are a way of life that is fulfilling, a way of life that brings about healing and makes us a blessing to one another.  They are a way of life that gives us joy and comfort, instead of pain and sorrow.

  If we do not have God in our lives, if we bow down to fake gods such as money or popularity, we lose because we do not get to experience the joy of God or the comfort of God’s love, compassion, and mercy.  If we do not honor the name of God, and instead use it to curse others or to gain our own profit, we lose that connection to God which gives us that joy and comfort.  If we dishonor our mother and father, we have broken families and we suffer.  When we murder or steal or commit adultery, we break relationships with others and we are left alone and we diminish the lives of others as well. When we forget to take care of ourselves, to take that Sabbath day to rest and rejuvenate, our bodies break down and we can become depressed.  When we covet our neighbors things and refuse to be content with what we have, we fail to find fulfillment and satisfaction.  When we break these commandments, it is not God who punishes us, but rather we punish ourselves and our loved ones with our actions and our broken relationships.  Breaking these laws are like trying to break the law of gravity.  If we leap off the Empire State Building, we hurt ourselves and those around us, since not only do we get squished like a grape when we hit the ground, but also anyone underneath of us does as well, and our families and their families have to mourn our losses.  All of this is a natural reaction to our jumping, just as the destruction left behind when we break the commandments is also a natural reaction.

These commandments are not a set of rules that we must follow in order to avoid punishment, but rather they are a gift to us from our loving Creator, a gift that helps guide us in life, in order that we may live in harmony with one another and that all people may be respected and have fulfilled lives.  We are blessed by God with these commandments, for they are guide our lives and show us how we are to live in a way that is not only congruent with God’s will, but also in a way that will bring joy to not only our own lives but to all those that we come in contact with.

In the Jewish faith, the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible so includes the 10 Commandments and indeed many of the Jewish laws, is seen as a means of grace, a way in which God reaches God’s people and touches their lives and gives us all power and forgiveness.  These commandments are seen as a way that God helps us to define our lives and live better ones, just as we treat the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, and just as we see the entirety of the scriptures.  In a way, the commandments are much like the frog prince of legend.  They may appear to be ugly and difficult, they may not appear to be what you want, but when we give them a chance they prove themselves to be the prince that is so desired and enrich our lives beyond what we could have imagined.

The same is true for the rest of the law.  While we Lutherans have been accused of ignoring the law, just as Paul was accused before, it is simply not true.  If we did ignore it, Luther would not have written his explanation of the commandments in his catechisms, and he definitely wouldn’t haven’t followed Christ’s lead and added to their meanings.  Such as, we do not simply say “Do not steal” but rather we say that we should also help people keep what they have, and not only “do not bear false witness” and defame others, but also speak well of all people and put the best possible spin on their words and actions.

  We as Lutherans embrace the Law, because it not only sets boundaries for ourselves, but it also forces us to see our sinfulness when we break the law and forces us to see our need for God’s grace.  Without the law, we would wander adrift, believing ourselves to be perfectly fine without God, but with it we see that we are not perfect and we are in need of God and God’s mercy and love.  The law makes the hearing of the gospel all the sweeter to our ears and in our lives.

For we know that we are forgiven of our sins, we know that we are forgiven of the trespasses that we have committed against those boundaries set for us by the law.  We are given the peace that comes from God, who says I love you, you are my child and I will comfort you and guide you and be with you through all of your life, even past the point of death I will care for you. 

Amen

March 4, 2012 - You are NOT Forsaken

Mark 8:31-8

³¹Then 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. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But 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.”

³⁴He 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. ³⁵For 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. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those 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.”

            O Peter is at it again, trying to show that he knows better than Jesus.  Jesus declares to the disciples that He will be killed and rise again and Peter takes him aside and rebukes him, as if Jesus was some unruly child who need to be taken away from the people and chastised for his words.  Rebuking is not some gentle thing as if Peter is saying “Jesus, I’m not quite sure you know what you are saying.  I think you need to simmer down a bit.”  No, it is far harsher it is a “Jesus, You Idiot!  What are you talking about!  This is not the right message, you are not going to die, now stop talking like this now before I get really angry!”  Could you even imagine having the gall to do that to Jesus?  To take him aside and treat Him in such a manner?  I mean, I can get Peter being confused and horrified at the thought of his beloved teacher dying in such a manner, but to treat him in such a disrespectful manner astounds me. 

            Why does he do it?  He does it because he does not see the end result of Jesus’ actions, he doesn’t see the necessary sacrifice and the mission of God.  Peter doesn’t want that kind of pain and suffering, especially for someone that he cares about and respects so greatly.

  How many of us have found out that a family member or a friend has gotten some horrendous news about a terminal illness, has fought them when they did not want to go through the treatments anymore, who had accepted the idea of death or have even wished for it?  It is hard to imagine losing someone we love, and not much easier when they talk about a willingness to die.  So here we have Peter hearing his mentor and friend say that he was going to search out death, which goes even beyond accepting it.  But Peter did not see the big picture, he did not see the lives that would be changed and the promise of everlasting life that would be granted with Christ’s sacrifice, all that he saw was his discomfort and pain.

            Being a Christian is not easy.  The feel good messages that say that all we have to do is believe and pray in order to have a carefree and easy life is a lie.  For one, our lives are filled with compassion for others, not self centeredness.  It can be hard to have compassion, because we begin to take the pain of others onto ourselves.  We are called to service, and it is hard to give up working for our own desires and working for the needs of others.  It is hard to carry the cross of our faith, but it is rewarding.  Not with ease of life, but with purpose and a fullness of life.  We may lose some of the ease of life that Peter is hoping for, but we gain so much more instead.  We gain the support of the community, we gain the hope that comes with the promises of God, and we gain our purpose.  We need not be ashamed to embrace Jesus Christ and His teachings, no matter how much they may differ from our society.  When we are ashamed, when we hide the light that God has given us, that light is dimmed and Christ is not seen.  But when we act unashamed, when we let that light go forth with our words and our actions, God is seen and heard and felt and the light burns brightly.  Even in the darkest of moments, God’s light can permeate and be seen, and it may warm us in the coldest of nights.

            Life does not always make sense.  Innocents suffer, the wicked get wealthy, and those that we love and care about are taken from us.  It can appear as though God is not present, or just plain doesn’t understand our problems.  Yet God does understand, for God took it upon himself to suffer and to die for us.  Despite Peter’s protests, Jesus does go to the cross, he is beaten and mocked and stripped and hung up on the cross for all to see and jeer and he dies.  He took upon Himself all the punishment that the world could dish out and all the pain and humiliation that the world could give.  It got to the point that Jesus cries out “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”  Imagine feeling forsaken by God, feeling as though God had completely cut you off and left you alone to dry up and shrink into nothingness.  That level of emotion is foreign to many of us.  We may feel forgotten or distant, but its not often that we feel as though God willingly works against us.  Yet that is Christ’s words on the cross.  But those words are not without hope.  Today’s psalm is Psalm 22, and you may have noticed that it does not begin with verse one, but with verse 23.  Today’s reading is full of joy and celebration for all of God’s works.  But the very first verse on the psalm is not so joyful.  Instead the psalm begins with the very words Jesus speaks on the cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” Even when we feel forsaken, that God has turned His back on us and worked against us, there is hope because we know that God would never do such a thing.  We have a God who has been there for our ancestors and is here for us today.  Yes, times do get hard, but you know what?  God has been through those times as well.  Jesus experienced loss in his life, of friends and family.  Jesus knew the pain and humiliation of being bullied and mocked.  Christ knows the pain of being imprisoned, of being tortured, or being executed.  God, in the person of Jesus Christ, took upon Himself all of the torment that the world could dish out upon him in order to save us and in order to experience our lives, to know our pain and our sorrow and our trials.  When we are in the darkest points of our lives, God is there beside us, mourning alongside us, feeling our pain alongside us, and letting us know that we are not alone, we are not forsaken, but rather we are loved by our Creator and that He knows what we are going through and He can take all the yelling and the cursing that we can possibly lay upon Him, because God has had those experiences and loves and cares for us.

            Peter is not bad or stupid for wanting to help Jesus avoid those sufferings and those pains.  He merely could not see the full picture.  He could not see that God needed to experience those pains and those humiliations in order to be closer to us and to lower himself, in order that all could be found worth of God’s kingdom.   He could not see the fullness of God’s plan, much like we cannot see that plan.  Luckily for Peter and for us, not knowing the plan doesn’t mean that we will die.

We are not Romeo drinking poison due to not knowing that Juliet is only faking being dead.  Instead, we are all granted eternal life, all give hope and a purpose in our lives, and all called children by God and cared for by Him, even though we are clueless at times.  We have a God who loves us so much that He took the pain of the world upon Him in order to draw us closer to Him.  There is absolutely no shame in that, let us not be ashamed but instead rejoice in the light of God and take solace in his promises.  Amen. 

           

Feb 26, 2012 - Creation and Forgiveness beats Destruction

⁸Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

                The sheer power of water is amazing.  It can appear so docile, especially since we use and control it each day of our lives.  We use it to clean our bodies and we use it for our enjoyment when we swim and quirt each other with eater guns, we consume it each day and it nourishes our lives.  It can appear quite weak, not causing much damage at all.  But then we look at the Grand Canyon, whose majesty was patiently cut by water and we look at the devastation caused by hurricanes, which takes years to recover from, and we look at the story of Noah, when water is used to wipe out so many people and creatures, save those on the ark. 

            God uses water to enact punishment on the human race, for all of its Sin and corruption.  He saves only a few, those whom he believes to be the best of the best, out of the mercy and compassion that He has for His creation, in order that it would not be completely destroyed. And he sets a seal in the sky to show that He will never completely destroy the world again with water.  After all, it shouldn’t be needed, since God had handpicked the ones who would be saved.  Of course they would live to their utmost and holy way and their generations would know the stories and everyone would treat each other well, right?

            Yeah, not so much.  The first thing that Noah does is grow a vineyard and make some wine.  Now there is nothing wrong with that.  The he goes and drinks a lot of his wine and gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent.  Ok, you know what, I can even understand that.  After all, everyone outside of his immediate family is now dead, as are a vast majority of the creatures out there, so I’m sure the man could use a drink.  Well, His son Ham, which is one of the best names in the Bible, walks in on his dad naked and instead of covering him up or just letting him be, goes and decides to tell his brothers all about it.  Not the nicest thing in the world, to try and make a joke out of your dad, but you know what, he’s the youngest son, maybe he’s just a teenager and I know how I was at a teenager, and we can kind of understand why he thinks its so funny and wants to tell his brothers.  So his brothers go and cover up their dad without looking at him, and let him finish his rest.  Now what gets me is what comes next.  As punishment for his son Ham, for making him the butt of his jokes, Noah declares that Ham will be the lowest of the brothers, and the nation that arises from him will be slaves to the nations of his brothers.  He goes into overkill mode quite a bit.  I really think a stern talking to would have straightened the kid out here, but instead he denounces not only his son but all of the children that will come from him.  It seems a bit overly harsh to me.  I’m wondering if maybe God at this point is wondering if he saved the right people or if this whole destroying the world thing wasn’t quite the way to set things right.  One of the first things this group does is embarrass each other and curse each other.  Great way for us to restart the human race.

            The problem lies in the fact that we are all sinners.  None of us is perfect, all of us have our own issues and immaturities.  Yes, Ham should have covered his father and not tried to make him a laughing stock, and yes, Noah overreacted a bit by cursing Ham and all of his descendents.  They sinned, just as we sin each and every day.  It is sadly part of human nature, since all of creation has been tarred by Sin ever since the fall from Eden.  Every major Biblical character, outside of Jesus Christ, who even had some anger management issues, had serious faults.  Adam and Eve directly disobeyed God, David had a man killed and stole his wife, Moses was a murderer as well, and Abraham cast out his own son to die.  Our greatest heroes are sinful human beings, because we just keep falling into the way of the world, into seeking our own pleasure and forgetting about the needs or others.  No amount of destruction will change our nature.  Each and every one of us has sinned and made us unfit for the kingdom of God.  And God looked upon this world and knew this.

            So what would He do?  He had promised all of creation, not just humans but each and every being on this planet, that He would not destroy it again with water.  He didn’t say anything about earthquakes or fires, but He also saw that destruction lead to nothing but more destruction.  So what was there to do instead?  God decided to use water again, but instead of destroying with it, he created and cleansed with it.  Instead of reigning down destruction, He decided to destroy the power of Sin and Death.  God decided to bring healing through the waters of Baptism, where our sinfulness is washed away and we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  Yes we still commit sins, but we are changed.  God stops seeing our Sin and instead focuses on the Spirit that He has put inside of us, and He sees us at cleansed of those sins.  We still screw up, but God only sees a beloved child. 

            After all, we are the children of God.  God loves us because we carry His name.He saves us because we are His family.  Along with Noah and his sons and all people of all lands and all times, we are brought together into the family of God because God wills us to be.  We are tied together as one large family and cared for and forgiven.  Just like with the flood, we are given a fresh start in our baptisms and we can do nothing to ruin or defile that Sacrament.  So as we continue on our Lenten journey, let us be thankful to our Loving God, and may we be glad for all the things that he has done for us, including making us clean and whole in His sight.

Amen.

Change - It is a Part of Life

Mark 9:2-10

²Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

            For being described so regularly as the leader the disciples, the one on whom Jesus will build the church, Peter is pretty much always wrong in the gospels.  He keeps on trying to get Jesus to be comfortable, to not fulfill his mission.  When Jesus first tells the disciples that he is going to have to die, Peter rebukes him, when Jesus is talking to them before he is taken by the soldiers, Peter swears he will also stand by Jesus, no matter what, then promptly tells people that he never knew Jesus.  Of course, he is not the only one who doesn’t get it.

  Just a little while before this, after Jesus had fed thousands with just a few pieces of bread, twice, with plenty to spare, twice, they are sitting on the boat and wondering amongst themselves if Jesus is mad at them for not bringing enough food.  I can just imagine Jesus finding the nearest wall and hitting his head off of it for a while, growing all the more frustrated with the disciples and wondering “where did I find these guys?”  And here we have Peter on the mountain, looking upon Jesus, who is hanging out with Elijah and Moses, and he says “let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one Elijah.”

Sounds nice enough, doesn’t it?  Just to go up and relax on the mountaintop with Jesus and Elijah and Moses, have them live up there forever.  Afterall, Elijah and Moses had already left this world, Elijah via flaming chariot and Moses passed away, although some traditions state he also was taken up by God before his death.  So if Jesus is the Son of God and the other two have already gotten past death, there should be nothing to stop them from just living on the mountain together.  I mean, we have all these stories of wise hermits living on the tops of mountains handing out advice, why not make it even better by having three up there, especially when one is God?

            But that is not what Jesus was called to do.  Sitting on a mountain is not what Jesus’ mission is, instead it is to be active down in the world and to spread the good news of God and to call for repentance, for the people to drastically change their lives due to God’s presence and action in the world.  And it is not going to be getting any easier for Jesus in the days ahead.  Not with the disciples, who on the way down the mountain are going to argue about who is the greatest among them and talk about not letting others do things in Jesus’ name, both of which defy Jesus.  And when he reaches the bottom he is greeted by a father whose son is afflicted with a demon, whom he wants Jesus to cast out.  All round Jesus are people begging him for signs of His power, signs that God is present, and after each miracle the only thing they see is a healer and not God.  Maybe at times he felt like living on the mountain would be the better option.  It would sure be a lot easier.  But Jesus was called to take the easy way out.  Instead of staying up on a mountain, removed from the world and living in blessed ignorance and in stasis, He is called off the mountain to change the world, to even suffer and die, all for the sake of these people who clearly don’t get it.  And judging from the wide variety of denominations that are even just in this country, let alone in the world, can we say that we are any better?  Can we truly say that we understand it all and follow God precisely?  No.  But much like the disciples we are loved anyway.  Christ, while he may have gotten greatly frustrated with them, also understood them and knew that they were trying their best.  He also realized that they would far prefer comfort to anything else, so he prepared them for change and gave them insight so that they could follow him even when it appeared that all was lost.  Through the Transfiguration, through seeing Him with the embodiment of the Law and the Prophets and through hearing the voice of God declare Jesus His Son, and ordering them to follow Him, the disciples are prepared for all that is it come and they are given the strength to do what must be done, through all the changes that were going to happen.  Everything appears to go downhill following this moment, both literally and figuratively.  After this, they go down a mountain and soon the leaders are going to start plotting the death of Christ.  Everything moves towards His crucifixion, but the disciples are continually warned about it and are prepared.

In much the same what, we are also in a time of transition, as all congregations are.  At times it can appear as though the Christian faith is losing a battle to our culture.  People are attending worship less frequently and financial support has been shrinking across the board and our Biblical stories are discussed less and less.  The world has changed since Jesus’ times, it has changed since the 50s, and it has even changed this year already.  All around us change and transitions are happening.  And we need not be afraid, because we know that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God.

It can be easy to fear though, because the unknown is scary.  Yet we are a congregation that has faced a great amount of change already.  Think about it.  Some of them are quite obvious.  For one, you all called a new pastor, to be here and to help lead and be a part of the ministry of the congregation.  We have gone from a different style of communion each week , while using wafers, to having a steady style of communion, where we share together from one loaf of bread, unite as the body of Christ.  We experienced a new style of worship over Advent on Wednesdays, we spent a summer worshipping together as one body, we swapped preachers with local congregations for a Sunday, we have welcomed the Methodist church into our VBS program,  and we are currently redoing the parlor and creating a new nursery.  In less than a year, we have had all these transitions and all these changes, and the world did not end, our ministry did not fall apart.  No, instead we have begun new ministries and more will be coming as well, as each of us finds our gifts and our callings.  We have an active group that visits our members who cannot join us here at worship, we have a group who meets together to do crafts and enjoy each other’s company and gifts, and we having been growing in our connections to the community.

  And the changes don’t stop, and through it all we have been doing the work of God, our ministry has grown instead of shrunk.  Yes, change is scary.  Coming down off the mountain is also scary, especially when it means being confronted with a world that is sick and in need, but yet it is our mission to do so.  We are not called to a life of comfort, but instead we are called to a life of change and transition.  We are changed because of God’s love for us; we are empowered and prepared for transitions because of the gifts of the Spirit that He has given us.

The church is not dead, nor is Christianity dying, it is merely changing in light of the world around it, and we will change as well.  But we have shown already that we can change, that it is not something to be feared but rather is a way of growing.  We know that our Savior has died for us and has been raised in order that we may be with Him for all eternity.  We know that our God is a loving god who will not foreswear us.  There is no power of this world that can destroy the light of God, and we are that light.  Just as Christ shone on that mountaintop, Christ shines through each of us each and every day.

  Each face here is a reflection of God, a life that has been transformed and continues to be changed by God each and every day.  So be not afraid, for while change is inevitable, we go through it together in order that Christ’s light may shine all the brighter through each and everyone of us.  Times may be difficult, but through God all things are possible and all things are made new.

The season of Epiphany may seem like a mountaintop, especially as we end it today with Transfiguration Sunday.  It is the season of light and of growth.  We have heard stories of healings, of people being restored.  We are make a very quick change though, as this Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a time when we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return, signified with the ashes that will adorn our faces.  This can often be seen as a season of darkness, a season that we just try to get through, perhaps with some sacrifice being made, such as chocolate.  It can be seen as a season of despair, just as we despair over the past, of when pews were filled and Sunday school classes overflowed.  But instead of being a season of despair, it is a season of not only penitence, but of growth.

  It is a season where we discipline ourselves through not only sacrificing, but also adding, adding a time to devote to God, adding to what we give away to the needy, adding to our self-care, in order that we may be better stewards of the bodies that God gave us.  Through our experiences in Lent, in our reminder of our being dust, in our witness to the washing of the disciples feet and our Lord being crucified on the cross, we are prepared.  We are prepared for that glorious day when He rises from the grave and shows that even when it seems that all is lost, God is still there, God is still the most powerful being that ever has been and will be, and that when God shows us love and compassion and mercy there is nothing at all that we need be afraid of and nothing that can defeat us, for not even death can stop God nor can it fully defeat us, for we are the children of God, baptized in water and sealed with the Spirit, united with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. We don’t need to go to the mountaintop to find Christ, because Christ comes to us each and every day and calls us to follow him down the mountain and into the world.

So as we journey together through all the changes that surround us, changes in our lives, changes in our congregation, changes in our season, let us be united, let us see the light of God and the face of Jesus Christ imprinted on the faces of all who surround us.  Together we may shine that light all the brighter and help people to see that God is not only on the mountaintops, but also right here in our lives and in our communities.

Amen.