Month: April 2019

Matthew 28:1-10
Corinthians 15:1-4, 12-22

As the pastor introduced his children’s sermon on Easter, he asked the little ones, “Do you see anything different about our church today?”
Little Heather quickly figured out the difference and blurted out, “It’s full!”

A guy attended church one Sunday and became increasingly annoyed as the pastor preached. After the service, he decided to speak to the pastor about it: “You really have to do something about your sermons; every time I come here you speak about death and resurrection.”
The preacher shot back, “What do you expect, you only come on Easter.”

Death and resurrection; sounds like a good theme to me. Let’s start with death.

In AARP’s magazine a couple of years ago, (not that I get it) Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin were interviewed about their feelings about death. Tomlin, 80, recalled a time when she was four-years-old, visiting her grandmother in rural Kentucky. A little girl had died and they laid the body out in the house. “Everyone was oohing and aahing over her,” said Tomlin. “Death didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make any more sense now.”

Jane Fonda, 82, had a very different reaction. “I feel the opposite,” she said. “Death is inevitable, so why not try to make peace with it? ¹

In the same article, John Mellencamp, 65, said, “I intend to make my ending good. I’m hoping it’s one of those long, lingering deaths. A lot of people go, ‘Oh, I hope I just die quick.’ Not me; I need time to put things right.” ²

And then there’s Sting, winner of 16 Grammy Awards. In a recent interview for Rolling Stone, the 64-year-old admits that he spends a lot of time thinking about death. He often stares at old photos of family members passed on. He also thinks about all the rock music icons who have died. “I’m 64; most of my life has been lived already, I have more days behind me than in front of me. Most people die in panic, there must be a way to die peacefully.” ³

Whether you have more days behind you or in front of you doesn’t really matter. The simple truth that we are all aware of but choose to ignore is that someday all of us will lose consciousness, our hearts will stop pumping blood to our organs which starved for oxygen will begin to shut down and we will be pronounced ‘dead.’

I am sorry to remind you on this otherwise glorious Easter morning of the cold, stark reality of that which awaits us all.

But how else can we truly appreciate the words of Paul? “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died” (I Corinthians 15:20).

Of course, not everyone believes what Paul proclaims.

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Luke 19:28-40
Mark 14:26-72

Derek Lam is a courageous young Christian leader living in Hong Kong, who has entered The Crucible. In August, 2017 he wrote in The New York Times about the suppression of human rights for Christians in China:

Since I was 16 years old, I have wanted to be a pastor. I was raised in a Christian family in Hong Kong that urged me to live by biblical principles and it is for that reason that I am likely to be jailed next month and that I will be barred from ever becoming a pastor. There is an unprecedented erosion of Christian religious freedom in Hong Kong, believers forced to worship in underground churches, the government tearing down church buildings. The only way to avoid trouble, Lam says, is for Christians to bow down to the current leader of China—Xi Jinping. I won’t make Jesus bow down to Xi Jinping. Although there is nothing I would love more than to become a pastor and preach the gospel in Hong Kong, I will never do so if it means making Jesus subservient to Xi Jinping. Instead, I will continue to fight for religious freedom in Hong Kong, even if I have to do it from behind bars.” ¹

According to Cambridge Dictionary a ‘crucible’ is “a container in which metals and other substances can be heated to a very high temperature” ² In that regard, crucibles come in various shapes and sizes and are used for the processing of metals and/or crystals.

Thankfully, Derek Lam didn’t enter a literal crucible. The word ‘crucible’ can also be used figuratively to describe being in a life situation that presents an opportunity for, according to Mr. Webster, “severe testing.” ³

History is replete with stories of people who have suddenly and often without warning found themselves in a crucible of severe testing.

Today’s history places our beloved Saint Peter in the crucible. The pressure must have been intense as Peter fears his reaction to the query about his relationship to Jesus could very well carry life or death consequences.

When re-live Peter’s story or hear stories of people who have suddenly found themselves in the crucible, we often wonder what we would do in similar circumstances.

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I Chronicles 29:1-18
Luke 12:13-21

A fellow was riding a bus when he suddenly realized he needed to pass gas. The music was really loud, so he decided to decrepitate with the beat. After a couple of songs, he felt better much as he approached his stop. As he was leaving the bus, people were really giving him the stink eye. And that’s when it hit him; the music he’s been tooting to is coming through his own ear-buds.

You could say that he needed to brush up on his ‘SA’; Situational Awareness.

The term ‘Situational Awareness,’ simply knowing what is going on around you, was coined first during the Korean War as it concerned aircraft and naval vessels. But it began to make its way into our everyday vernacular about 10 years ago as it concerns the ability to survive in an emergency situation. Today the term now includes Cyber SA, Emergency Response SA, Healthcare SA, Nursing SA, Plant Management SA, and so on.

It seems to me the term Situational Awareness can be adopted for use in the church as it regards our spiritual lives. For us to faithfully live as Jesus wishes us to, requires a sense of SA. This can be applied to many aspects of our life with God. Two weeks ago, I didn’t mention Situational Awareness, but it was implied as we talked about avoiding temptation. Last Wednesday, the Senior’s watched a video that reminded us that no matter how bad things might become, Situational Awareness remind us that God is closer than we think.

However today, I want to apply SA to Christian stewardship; that is our use of our resources, possessions and particularly money. If we are going to be faithful to God in this regard, then it is imperative that we are Situationally Aware.

And for us to be Situationally Aware as it concerns our use of money, we must come to grips with the Bible fact that GOD OWNS IT ALL!

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