Monday, April 28, 2014

The Peace of Christ Be With You

Peace be with you!  These simple words of Jesus offer us a promise and a hope and a new beginning.  The first word that Jesus shares with his disciples on this side of the cross is "Peace!"


As I shared in my sermon this past Sunday, this is where God begins with us.  Peace.  For our relationship with God begins with what God has done for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  If you are holding on to your bitterness, anger, frustration, hurt?  Jesus says, “I let go of that a long time ago.”  So EXHALE – let it out!  Release!  Receive God's peace.

Pastor Thomas Long shares this story:  


I was invited by a church in a nearby town to be the worship leader at a special evening communion service. The church staff had planned this service to be educational as well as worshipful. The idea was that, first, the congregation would gather in the sanctuary and I would give a brief talk about the meanings of the Lord's Supper. Then, we would go into the fellowship hall and be seated around tables for the service itself.

At each table there would be the flour and other ingredients to form the dough for the communion loaves. The plan called for each table to prepare a loaf and, while the loaves baked in the ovens of the church kitchen, the people at each table were to engage in various exercises designed to get them talking about their experiences in the faith.

It was a good idea, but like many well-planned events, things looked better on the drawing board than they turned out in reality. There were problems. Children at many tables began to play in the baking ingredients, and white clouds of flour floated around the room coating everybody and everything. There were delays in the kitchen, and the communion bread baked with agonizing slowness. Some of the tables ran out of things to say; children grew weary and fussy; the room was filled with commotion and restlessness. The planners had dreamed of an event of excitement, innovation, peak learning, and moving worship. What happened was noise, exhaustion, and people making the best of a difficult situation. In other words, despite the rosy plans, it was the real church worshipping down there in the church basement.

Finally, the service ended, and, with no little relief, I was able to pronounce the benediction. "The peace of Christ be with you all," I said, and just as I did, a child's voice from somewhere in the room called out strong and true, "It already is."

Just that -- "It already is" -- but with those words the service was transformed into an event of joy and holy mystery. That small voice captured what the Gospel of John is trying to say. In the midst of a church that can claim nothing for itself, a church of noise, confusion, weariness, and even fear, the risen Christ comes to give peace. The peace of Christ be with you? Because the risen Christ comes to inhabit our empty places, then, as the child said, "It already is," and the church with nothing becomes the church with everything.  (Thomas G. Long, Whispering The Lyrics, CSS Publishing)

One more thing - 

I included this Easter greeting in the sermon as well - it is from our Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton.


Peace,

Pastor Charlie

Monday, April 14, 2014

Holy Week Highs and Lows

Holy Week is a roller coaster of activities and emotions. The celebration of Palm Sunday, the wonder of the Lord's Supper, the agony of Jesus' arrest, trial and crucifixion, and the incredible joy of Easter make for a week of highs and lows, joys and sorrows. In light of this, I have two things to share in this week's blog - a reading and a video.

This is a reading we often use for Good Friday services is Isaiah 53, written a few centuries before Jesus walked the face of the earth. Isaiah's words are fulfilled in Jesus, the one who comes to bear the cross for you and for me.

Here are the words of Isaiah 53 from Eugene Peterson's transliteration, "The Message."  

Who believes what we've heard and seen?
    Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
    a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
    nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
    We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
    on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured,
    but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
    and like a sheep being sheared,
    he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
    and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
    beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
    threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
    or said one word that wasn't true.
Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
    to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
    so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
    And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
Out of that terrible travail of soul,
    he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
    will make many “righteous ones,”
    as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
    the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
    because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
    he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

On a lighter note, I wanted to share a video I came across. There is nothing better than kids sharing the story.  Enjoy!




God bless you and yours this holiest of weeks!

Peace,

Pastor Charlie

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Invitation to Holy Week

I am looking forward to Holy Week. That may seems surprising to hear from a pastor, as this is the busiest time of the year, even more so than Christmas. I guess the reason that look forward to this time of year is that I appreciate the invitation to participate in the story once again. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and we keep running through Easter Sunday.  We journey with Jesus as he triumphantly enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We gather with Jesus and his disciples around the table where Jesus washes his disciples feet, gives them a new commandment, and institutes the Lord's Supper. We see the anguish of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to his Father in heaven. We watch Jesus as he is arrested and is taken through the mockery of a trial. We feel the weight of the cross on his back, the pain of the nails in his hands on Good Friday. And we await the dawn of new day as we gather on Easter Saturday for the Easter Vigil, knowing something incredible is about to happen.

I invite you to join in the journey and participate in the story. Come and immerse yourself in the messages, the sights and sounds, the community gathered together for these worship-filled events. Come and journey to the cross and the empty tomb.

At the Far Hills campus this coming weekend, our Palm Sunday worship will conclude with a dramatization of Walt Wangerin Jr.'s story, "The Ragman." Wangerin is a Lutheran pastor, a gifted author and preacher, and a great story-teller.  "The Ragman" is a powerful story that demonstrates Jesus' great gift of compassion, suffering and dying for you and for me. In addition to being a great story, the dramatization of the story will be done with life-sized puppets made by Epiphany member Shirley Wasser and operated by members of our Puppet Ministry team. I love this story, and have used it in sermons and devotions over the years. You don't want to miss this.

I hope and pray you can join us in the days to come.  

We stand on the threshold of Holy Week.
It is not for us now
to rush ahead to Easter. 
As easy, as comfortable, as uplifting as that would be,
we miss the true joy of Easter
if we do not understand
and come face to face
with the true pain and sorrow of Jesus’ suffering and death –
the passion of Jesus Christ.

In the days to come,
we travel not just as bystanders of Jesus’ sacrifice,
but participants in the passion. 
For on the cross,
Jesus does not die alone
no –
the sins of the world –
of you and me,
past, present and future,
are put to death
and with them,
our sinful selfish desires
and our replacements for God. 

It is necessary
for us once again
to undertake the surrender
to Jesus
of all of our false expectations and selfish hopes.

It is necessary for us
to watch as our sin
burdens him
and bears down on his head
like a crown of thorns.
It is necessary for us
to see him die
as the Lamb of God
who absorbs the sin of the world and bears it away.
It is necessary for us
to suffer patiently
the dark night of sorrow and death,
if we are to enter the brilliant new light of Easter
and receive the gift of eternal life
offered to us in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
(Copyright © 1996 Edwin D. Peterman. All Rights Reserved.)

May we walk with Jesus to the cross. 
The passion begins.

Peace,
Pastor Charlie