John’s gospel is what is sometimes called thick. This is my attempt to ponder John’s Last Supper, which is a Last Supper and not one at the same time. The icon at the left is the footwashing. That is what John talks about when the synoptics relate the institution of the Lord’s Supper. This sermon meditates on how John captures the sacramental life: Baptism, Lord’s Supper and Confession in one scene. And then relates how we live that sacramental life.
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This morning, about 4 AM, my wife pushes me and says she thinks its time and adds she is having contractions about 4 minutes apart. At 4 AM when I heard that I was thinking more about how to deliver a child than driving to the hospital becuase this thing is coming now. The 4 minutes things soon subsided. She got up and made the proper calls and walked around and what were felt to be contractions subsided or at least slowed way down. (While daddy is running around throwing the necessary stuff in the car only to be told not just yet.) The labor pains are starting, but not 4 mins apart. New life is on its way.
That seems a little like the drawing near of the kingdom to us. We are all pregnant (Romans 8:22-23) and can feel the pangs of our future glory. Sometimes the kingdom is as near as a 4 AM wakeup call with contractions 4 minutes about. And sometimes it says not quite yet. Babies and God both have their own timing. The thing that we do not have to worry about is the end. Babies are born. The Kingdom will be revealed in our flesh just as it is now in Jesus Christ.
With that note, here is the Easter Sermon. It was a glorious day. The congregation even drowned out the trombone. He is Risen!…He is Risen Indeed. Alelluia!
Continuing the mid-week series started Ash Wednesday we are working our way through the Holy Week account in the gospel according to Mark. Below is the compressed devotion coming out of the fuller text. Please join us looking at The Mission of Holy Week.
Text: Mark 14:1-2 (“But not during the feast…”)
We like to think that we are in control. The Chief Priests and the teachers of the law wanted to kill Jesus, but they wanted to do it on their terms and in their time. “Not during the feast, or the people may riot.” How did that work out? We like to think that we are in control, but we are only in control as much as we are following the will of God. It was God’s will to endure the cross for our sins. It is God’s will that we should make disciples. He gives us his Word. He places us in situations. He wants us to walk in the good works he has planned out in advance for us to do. We can refuse. We can book passage to Tarshish. But big whales often get in the way of those trips. We can rebel. We can look for ways to kill the Spirit that lives within us. Unfortunately, that often works. Our hearts become hard. We no longer hear the Word. The better path is one of prayer and study and trial. We pray and we study to be able to discern the path God wants us to walk. We intentionally look for those God wants us to disciple. Discipleship can be a trial. It does not always work out. Our disciples can refuse and rebel just like we can. But do we want to find ourselves in the feet of the chief priests working against God?
