Good Afternoon,
Praise the Lord for Good Friday. Praise the Lord for Calvary, the richest hill on earth. From this hill flows, nonstop, the streams of blessings of grace and glory. Last summer I met in person Dr. Calvin Miller, a poet and a great communicator of the Good News of Jesus. Calvin Miller said, "One cannot even begin to understand the life of Christ without understanding His death." *
In Peggy Noonan’s book, "When Character Was King", she tells about a meeting between President George W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. It was their first meeting as world leaders and Bush wanted to be sure they connected-- that they looked for depth of soul and character, and did not simply have a political meeting. Bush brought up a story he had read about Putin. His mother had given him a Christian cross that Putin had blessed while in Jerusalem. Bush had been touched by the story. Putin told a story in response. He had taken to wearing the cross, and one day had set it down in a house he had been visiting. Strangely, the house had burned down, and all Putin could think about was that his cross was lost in the ruble. He motioned for a worker to come to him, so he could ask him to look for the cross. The worker walked over to Putin, stretched out his hand, and showed him the already recovered cross. Putin told Bush, “It was as if something meant for me to have the cross,” inferring that he believed in a higher power.
Bush said, “Mr. Putin, President Putin, that’s what it’s all about—that’s the story of the cross.” The story of the cross is that God intended it just for you.
A cartoon has been found in the ruins of ancient Rome showing how crazy the Christian message seemed to the people of that time. It’s a caricature of Jesus’ crucifixion, showing a man’s body hanging on a cross – but the body has a head of a donkey. Standing to left of this cross is a man with his hands raised in worship. Underneath is the inscription, “he worships his God!”
As we head into the crucifixion and then resurrection of Jesus Christ, I find these portions of Scripture evoke emotions like no other, but I also know we do not want to zip past the death of Christ to celebrate the Resurrection. We need to pause and ponder.
The cross is about a holy God, a sinful people, and the God-man Savior, Jesus Christ, providing reconciliation between God and man by providing the ultimate sacrifice for sin. In order to better understand the events of Calvary, we can look at some of the persons involved in that traumatic but precious scene. Simon the Cyrene (Mark 15:21), a Jew in town for the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, was the first strong looking guy who was walking by. This innocent bystander would likely become a follower of Christ. Mark points out the names of his sons as though they were known to the church.
This horror turned out to be a blessing for Simon; indeed, God often uses trauma and hardship in our lives to draw us to Himself. He shakes us to wake us. Ray Botz’s song, "Watch the Lamb," portrays this event well. Some of us have a testimony like Simons’, a tragic or traumatic experience shook us and awakened the sense within we that we need the Lord, and perhaps that awful thing ended up being the best thing in our lives.
The cross is about a holy God, a sinful people, and the God-man Savior, Jesus Christ, providing reconciliation between God and man by providing the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Jesus carried not only the sins of the world, but their grief; He grieved over the destruction of Jerusalem that would come in 70 AD because His own people rejected Him. Jesus knows our grief and the trials that will befall us as well; He does care, but He also allows these for reasons beyond us. We are not the first generation to ask the questions, "Why? How do we know God loves us? (Romans 5:8)
While Jesus was suffering on the Cross, He was offered wine mixed with myrrh (a tranquilizer), and He refused it. He needed to drink the cup of wrath given Him by the Father for our sins.
He cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." These people were held accountable by Peter in the book of Acts for crucifying an innocent man, but the Father did not hold them guilty for crucifying the Son of God because they did not understand their sin and guilt.
Here we can see a principle repeated in the Word; we need to confess the sins of which we are aware to the Father, but we sin many more times in ways we do not even realize. Yet, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."
He had dialogue with the repentant thief and promises Him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Even in His suffering, Jesus Christ was ministering to others around Him!
In Christ,
Brown
Click here to view video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZsDp01VK40
Our TV outreach today at 7p.m. on Time Warner Cable 4.
Here is a reminder of the weekend services, please invite family and friends to come and join us on this special Sunday, He has Risen from the grave! We are free to be all that He has called us to be. Amen.
Good Friday, March 21--Combined Good Friday service will be held at the Nazarene Church, Rt. 26, Endicott, at 7:00 p.m.
Holy Saturday, March 22--11:00 a.m. Easter egg hunt for the children.
12:00 luncheon for the children, serving hotdogs and candy.
Easter Morning Celebrations, March 23
6:30 AM--Sunrise service—Ray Bartholomew will be preaching and Emily Sabin will be playing special music.
7:30 AM—Family breakfast—Chef Jim Holmes and company.
8:30/11:00 AM-Easter Celebration—Pastor Brown will be preaching
9:50 AM—Sunday school for all ages
9:30 AM—Worship services at Wesley UMC
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 3-20-08
Good Morning,
I have borrowed the teaching on Passover and Communion from the presentations by our friend, Rabbi Ron Goldberg. He will be leading the Seder service this evening at 7 p.m. in our church .
This day, Maundy Thursday, (also "Holy Thursday" or "Shire Thursday"1) commemorates Christ's Last Supper and the initiation of the The Lord's Supper. Its name of "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "command." This stems from Christ's words in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you." Today we remember the events that occurred on Thursday of what the church calls Holy Week, the last week in the life of Jesus.
It has been estimated that about a third of all the events that we have recorded in Scripture about Jesus’ life occurred during this week.
On that Thursday, the disciples gathered in a home, (whose we are not sure), that had a furnished second floor. Tradition has it that it was the house of John Mark’s mother. (John Mark is the author of Mark’s Gospel). As they gathered, they were taking part in the Seder meal, one of the highlights of the Passover week. The Passover festival was ingrained in the life of the Jewish nation. It commemorated that time when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt. Moses had warned Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh refused. So God sent one plague after another. Pharaoh wasn’t moved until God sent the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborns in Egypt. However, this death passed over the homes of the Jews in Goshen as long as the blood of a lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts.
Thus, the feast of Passover was ordered by God as a commemoration of the Jewish nation’s deliverance by God. The meal itself was a symbolic one reminding the Jews of the sufferings of their forefathers and the power of God’s deliverance.
The foods that were eaten were symbols to remind the Jews of their captivity in Egypt. The elements of the Seder include:
1. Lamb The word ’pesach’ (pasch, passover) applies to the Lamb of sacrifice as well as to the deliverance from Egypt and to the feast itself.
2. Unleavened bread (Matzoh) called the "bread of affliction" because it recalls the unleavened bread prepared for the hasty flight by night from Egypt. Three large matzohs are broken and consumed during the ceremony.
3. Bitter herbs (Moror) is a reminder of the bitterness of slavery and suffering in Egypt.
4. Green herbs to be dipped in salt water. Salt water represents tears of sorrow shed during the captivity of the Lord’s people.
5. Haroseth (or ’haroses’) - a mixture of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine represents the mortar used by Jews in building palaces and pyramids of Egypt during their slavery.
6. Wine is dipped from a common bowl.
There are four acts of drinking wine during the Seder feast – known as the ’Four Cups”. They are the cups of Thanksgiving, Hagadah (’telling’), Blessing, and
Melchisedek (’righteousness’).
It was this Seder Meal that Jesus and the disciples were celebrating in the upper room that night. It was at the conclusion of that meal that Jesus himself gave two of the symbols of the Seder meal fresh significance. He took a loaf and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying:"Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me." Then he took a cup with wine. He drank from it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.” And, of course, from this was born the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. It is significant hat Jesus took the elements for the Holy Communion from the Passover festival because, in Passover, the children of God celebrated God’s Salvation, which resulted in the Israelites being released from the slavery of Egypt
In Holy Communion we, the children of God, celebrate God’s salvation through Jesus’ death on the Cross. Indeed, the salvation Jesus offers has resulted in all mankind having the capability of being freed from the slavery of sin. In other words, the first Passover is an Old Testament prefiguring of Jesus’ vicarious death of the Cross – the Salvation of God. So it was highly significant that Jesus died at Passover, for it reminds us of what God has done through Jesus.
As St. John put it, 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Or, as St. Paul puts it, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
So today, let us give thanks for that wonderful gift of God – our salvation – eternal life that cost Jesus dearly, as we recall tomorrow on Good Friday. And let us remember too that Christ gave his Church just one command: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Jesus give us the motivation to be different. We are called to LOVE. Francis Schaeffer founder of the L’Abri Fellowship said: “Love is the final apologetic” . Tertullian, in the second Century, reported the comments of pagans in his day: “Behold, how these Christians love one another! How they are ready to die for each other!” Their mutual love, Bruce Milne wrote, ”was the magnet which drew pagan multitudes to Christ. It has the potential to do so still.”
In Christ,
Brown
click here to view video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbMOAzoOP08
I have borrowed the teaching on Passover and Communion from the presentations by our friend, Rabbi Ron Goldberg. He will be leading the Seder service this evening at 7 p.m. in our church .
This day, Maundy Thursday, (also "Holy Thursday" or "Shire Thursday"1) commemorates Christ's Last Supper and the initiation of the The Lord's Supper. Its name of "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "command." This stems from Christ's words in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you." Today we remember the events that occurred on Thursday of what the church calls Holy Week, the last week in the life of Jesus.
It has been estimated that about a third of all the events that we have recorded in Scripture about Jesus’ life occurred during this week.
On that Thursday, the disciples gathered in a home, (whose we are not sure), that had a furnished second floor. Tradition has it that it was the house of John Mark’s mother. (John Mark is the author of Mark’s Gospel). As they gathered, they were taking part in the Seder meal, one of the highlights of the Passover week. The Passover festival was ingrained in the life of the Jewish nation. It commemorated that time when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt. Moses had warned Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh refused. So God sent one plague after another. Pharaoh wasn’t moved until God sent the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborns in Egypt. However, this death passed over the homes of the Jews in Goshen as long as the blood of a lamb was sprinkled on the doorposts.
Thus, the feast of Passover was ordered by God as a commemoration of the Jewish nation’s deliverance by God. The meal itself was a symbolic one reminding the Jews of the sufferings of their forefathers and the power of God’s deliverance.
The foods that were eaten were symbols to remind the Jews of their captivity in Egypt. The elements of the Seder include:
1. Lamb The word ’pesach’ (pasch, passover) applies to the Lamb of sacrifice as well as to the deliverance from Egypt and to the feast itself.
2. Unleavened bread (Matzoh) called the "bread of affliction" because it recalls the unleavened bread prepared for the hasty flight by night from Egypt. Three large matzohs are broken and consumed during the ceremony.
3. Bitter herbs (Moror) is a reminder of the bitterness of slavery and suffering in Egypt.
4. Green herbs to be dipped in salt water. Salt water represents tears of sorrow shed during the captivity of the Lord’s people.
5. Haroseth (or ’haroses’) - a mixture of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine represents the mortar used by Jews in building palaces and pyramids of Egypt during their slavery.
6. Wine is dipped from a common bowl.
There are four acts of drinking wine during the Seder feast – known as the ’Four Cups”. They are the cups of Thanksgiving, Hagadah (’telling’), Blessing, and
Melchisedek (’righteousness’).
It was this Seder Meal that Jesus and the disciples were celebrating in the upper room that night. It was at the conclusion of that meal that Jesus himself gave two of the symbols of the Seder meal fresh significance. He took a loaf and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying:"Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me." Then he took a cup with wine. He drank from it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.” And, of course, from this was born the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. It is significant hat Jesus took the elements for the Holy Communion from the Passover festival because, in Passover, the children of God celebrated God’s Salvation, which resulted in the Israelites being released from the slavery of Egypt
In Holy Communion we, the children of God, celebrate God’s salvation through Jesus’ death on the Cross. Indeed, the salvation Jesus offers has resulted in all mankind having the capability of being freed from the slavery of sin. In other words, the first Passover is an Old Testament prefiguring of Jesus’ vicarious death of the Cross – the Salvation of God. So it was highly significant that Jesus died at Passover, for it reminds us of what God has done through Jesus.
As St. John put it, 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Or, as St. Paul puts it, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
So today, let us give thanks for that wonderful gift of God – our salvation – eternal life that cost Jesus dearly, as we recall tomorrow on Good Friday. And let us remember too that Christ gave his Church just one command: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Jesus give us the motivation to be different. We are called to LOVE. Francis Schaeffer founder of the L’Abri Fellowship said: “Love is the final apologetic” . Tertullian, in the second Century, reported the comments of pagans in his day: “Behold, how these Christians love one another! How they are ready to die for each other!” Their mutual love, Bruce Milne wrote, ”was the magnet which drew pagan multitudes to Christ. It has the potential to do so still.”
In Christ,
Brown
click here to view video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbMOAzoOP08
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 3-19-08
Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for those who see Jesus in His Majesty and Splendor. Praise the Lord for those who exemplify a great sense of devotion, reckless love, and self forgetfulness. Mary of Bethany was one of them. Jesus was in Bethany (a small village about 2 miles east of Jerusalem) with Mary, Martha, Lazarus and His disciples and, according to Matthew 26, they were meeting in the home of a man named Simon the Leper (probably because the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha was too small). This crowd of people had gathered this night for one reason, to have a dinner in honor of Jesus.
This was the night before Jesus’ triumphal entry, the night before Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey to the praises and shouts of the multitudes, "Hosanna (which means save us now), Hosanna! blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" The days before this dinner had been days full of turmoil, energy, and excitement as the ministry of Jesus was drawing closer to it’s dramatic climax. Only a few days earlier Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, calling him forth from the tomb after 4 days. The news of this miracle spread and many people were looking to Jesus as the Messiah, as their King.
In Bethany, while Jesus was reclining at the table Mary, the sister of Lazarus, broke open an alabaster jar which contained expensive perfume. Mary took the perfume and walked over to Jesus, where she broke the jar, filling the room with its aroma. And then she anointed the feet of Jesus, drying his feet with the only towel that she had brought, her hair.
Judas, who knew the price of everything but the value of nothing, seeing what Mary had done and smelling the expensive perfume said, "WHY WASN’T THIS PERFUME SOLD AND THE MONEY GIVEN TO THE POOR? IT WAS WORTH A YEARS WAGES?" The disciples joined in agreement with Judas according to the other Gospel accounts.
Yet, what Mary did with that alabaster jar of perfume was the perfect thing to do. As we look back on this event with the cross behind us, WE can ALSO see that it was the perfect thing to do. But Mary, she knew it then. That’s why, when the men in the room criticized her, Jesus said the following as recorded in Matthew 26:10-13, "WHY ARE YOU BOTHERING THIS WOMAN? SHE HAS DONE A BEAUTIFUL THING TO ME. THE POOR YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU, BUT YOU WILL NOT ALWAYS HAVE ME. WHEN SHE POURED THIS PERFUME ON MY BODY, SHE DID IT TO PREPARE ME FOR BURIAL. I TELL YOU THE TRUTH; WHEREVER THIS GOSPEL IS PREACHED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, WHAT SHE HAS DONE WILL ALSO BE TOLD, IN MEMORY OF HER."
Mary knew that Jesus was God the Son, she knew what she was doing, she knew that death awaited her Lord when he rode into Jerusalem the next morning... and she knew he would be dying for her. Because of this, Mary wanted to do something for Jesus that would express to Him her great love. She wanted to do something for Jesus while she still had the opportunity.
Therefore Mary took the most expensive thing she had, an alabaster jar of expensive perfume equivalent to a years wages . Then she knelt down at the feet of her Lord, breaking open the jar and anointing his feet. Then Mary took her hair which Paul’s say’s in I Corinthians 11:15, "is a woman’s crown and glory" and she dried the feet of Jesus with her hair.
For Mary, no sacrifice was too costly. For Mary, who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair, no service was too demeaning. Why would Mary do this? Isn’t it a little extreme to pour a whole jar of expensive perfume on someone’s dirty feet?? And isn’t it degrading and demeaning just to wash someone’s feet. Isn’t it going just a bit to far to dry his feet with her hair? But Mary was right IF Jesus is the Son of God AND that he LOVED US ENOUGH TO PUT ON HUMAN FLESH TO DIE FOR OUR SINS AND THE sins of the world. If Mary was right, then even if somehow she was able to gather UP all of the wealth and all of the riches of the entire world, AND PUT IT IN THAT JAR AND POUR THAT ON THE FEET OF JESUS IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A WASTE!!!!!!!!! WE CAN’T GIVE TOO MUCH TO JESUS. YOU CAN’T GIVE TO MUCH TOO JESUS!! JESUS IS WORTH ALL WE HAVE AND ALL WE ARE.
During those times when the Christian walk gets tough, when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, when people get you down and disappoint you, when you effort seems to go without results, when you try and try and seem to be getting no where, WHEN you feel like throwing in the towel, WHEN you feel like dropping out of the race, WHEN you feel like you can’t give any more, WHEN you feel used, abused, and unappreciated . . . JUST REMEMBER that JESUS IS WORTH IT!! JESUS IS WORTH YOUR TIME!! JESUS IS WORTH YOUR EFFORT!! JESUS IS WORTH ALL THE PAIN AND THE FRUSTRATION!NOTHING WE EVER DO FOR THE GLORY AND HONOR OF JESUS, IS EVER A WASTE.
THOSE WHO ARE LIKE JUDAS AND HAVE REJECTED JESUS AND THOSE WHO ARE LIKE THE DISCIPLES AND ARE MEN AND WOMEN OF MODERATE DEVOTION WON’T UNDERSTAND AND THEY WILL THINK IT IS A WASTE TO:
GIVE SO MUCH TIME TO THE CHURCH..
GO TO A SMALL CHURCH WITH LITTLE PRESTIGE..
PREPARE YOUR HEART OUT FOR JUST A FEW KIDS..
HAVE SOMEONE WITH YOUR ABILITY TO CLEAN A CHURCH BUILDING..
USE YOUR VACATION TIME TO GO HELP BUILD A CHURCH...
IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHO IS RIGHT (JUDAS, the DISCIPLES, OR MARY)
JUDAS WAS WRONG!! THE DISCIPLES WERE WRONG! BUT MARY WAS RIGHT!!!!!
YOU CAN NEVER GIVE ENOUGH OF YOUR LIFE (YOUR TIME, TALENTS, AND TREASURE) TO JESUS, FOR IT EVER TO BE A WASTE BECAUSE JESUS IS WORTH IT!
In Jesus our Saviour,
Brown
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”
Jim Elliott.
Praise the Lord for those who see Jesus in His Majesty and Splendor. Praise the Lord for those who exemplify a great sense of devotion, reckless love, and self forgetfulness. Mary of Bethany was one of them. Jesus was in Bethany (a small village about 2 miles east of Jerusalem) with Mary, Martha, Lazarus and His disciples and, according to Matthew 26, they were meeting in the home of a man named Simon the Leper (probably because the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha was too small). This crowd of people had gathered this night for one reason, to have a dinner in honor of Jesus.
This was the night before Jesus’ triumphal entry, the night before Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey to the praises and shouts of the multitudes, "Hosanna (which means save us now), Hosanna! blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" The days before this dinner had been days full of turmoil, energy, and excitement as the ministry of Jesus was drawing closer to it’s dramatic climax. Only a few days earlier Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, calling him forth from the tomb after 4 days. The news of this miracle spread and many people were looking to Jesus as the Messiah, as their King.
In Bethany, while Jesus was reclining at the table Mary, the sister of Lazarus, broke open an alabaster jar which contained expensive perfume. Mary took the perfume and walked over to Jesus, where she broke the jar, filling the room with its aroma. And then she anointed the feet of Jesus, drying his feet with the only towel that she had brought, her hair.
Judas, who knew the price of everything but the value of nothing, seeing what Mary had done and smelling the expensive perfume said, "WHY WASN’T THIS PERFUME SOLD AND THE MONEY GIVEN TO THE POOR? IT WAS WORTH A YEARS WAGES?" The disciples joined in agreement with Judas according to the other Gospel accounts.
Yet, what Mary did with that alabaster jar of perfume was the perfect thing to do. As we look back on this event with the cross behind us, WE can ALSO see that it was the perfect thing to do. But Mary, she knew it then. That’s why, when the men in the room criticized her, Jesus said the following as recorded in Matthew 26:10-13, "WHY ARE YOU BOTHERING THIS WOMAN? SHE HAS DONE A BEAUTIFUL THING TO ME. THE POOR YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU, BUT YOU WILL NOT ALWAYS HAVE ME. WHEN SHE POURED THIS PERFUME ON MY BODY, SHE DID IT TO PREPARE ME FOR BURIAL. I TELL YOU THE TRUTH; WHEREVER THIS GOSPEL IS PREACHED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, WHAT SHE HAS DONE WILL ALSO BE TOLD, IN MEMORY OF HER."
Mary knew that Jesus was God the Son, she knew what she was doing, she knew that death awaited her Lord when he rode into Jerusalem the next morning... and she knew he would be dying for her. Because of this, Mary wanted to do something for Jesus that would express to Him her great love. She wanted to do something for Jesus while she still had the opportunity.
Therefore Mary took the most expensive thing she had, an alabaster jar of expensive perfume equivalent to a years wages . Then she knelt down at the feet of her Lord, breaking open the jar and anointing his feet. Then Mary took her hair which Paul’s say’s in I Corinthians 11:15, "is a woman’s crown and glory" and she dried the feet of Jesus with her hair.
For Mary, no sacrifice was too costly. For Mary, who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair, no service was too demeaning. Why would Mary do this? Isn’t it a little extreme to pour a whole jar of expensive perfume on someone’s dirty feet?? And isn’t it degrading and demeaning just to wash someone’s feet. Isn’t it going just a bit to far to dry his feet with her hair? But Mary was right IF Jesus is the Son of God AND that he LOVED US ENOUGH TO PUT ON HUMAN FLESH TO DIE FOR OUR SINS AND THE sins of the world. If Mary was right, then even if somehow she was able to gather UP all of the wealth and all of the riches of the entire world, AND PUT IT IN THAT JAR AND POUR THAT ON THE FEET OF JESUS IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A WASTE!!!!!!!!! WE CAN’T GIVE TOO MUCH TO JESUS. YOU CAN’T GIVE TO MUCH TOO JESUS!! JESUS IS WORTH ALL WE HAVE AND ALL WE ARE.
During those times when the Christian walk gets tough, when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, when people get you down and disappoint you, when you effort seems to go without results, when you try and try and seem to be getting no where, WHEN you feel like throwing in the towel, WHEN you feel like dropping out of the race, WHEN you feel like you can’t give any more, WHEN you feel used, abused, and unappreciated . . . JUST REMEMBER that JESUS IS WORTH IT!! JESUS IS WORTH YOUR TIME!! JESUS IS WORTH YOUR EFFORT!! JESUS IS WORTH ALL THE PAIN AND THE FRUSTRATION!NOTHING WE EVER DO FOR THE GLORY AND HONOR OF JESUS, IS EVER A WASTE.
THOSE WHO ARE LIKE JUDAS AND HAVE REJECTED JESUS AND THOSE WHO ARE LIKE THE DISCIPLES AND ARE MEN AND WOMEN OF MODERATE DEVOTION WON’T UNDERSTAND AND THEY WILL THINK IT IS A WASTE TO:
GIVE SO MUCH TIME TO THE CHURCH..
GO TO A SMALL CHURCH WITH LITTLE PRESTIGE..
PREPARE YOUR HEART OUT FOR JUST A FEW KIDS..
HAVE SOMEONE WITH YOUR ABILITY TO CLEAN A CHURCH BUILDING..
USE YOUR VACATION TIME TO GO HELP BUILD A CHURCH...
IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHO IS RIGHT (JUDAS, the DISCIPLES, OR MARY)
JUDAS WAS WRONG!! THE DISCIPLES WERE WRONG! BUT MARY WAS RIGHT!!!!!
YOU CAN NEVER GIVE ENOUGH OF YOUR LIFE (YOUR TIME, TALENTS, AND TREASURE) TO JESUS, FOR IT EVER TO BE A WASTE BECAUSE JESUS IS WORTH IT!
In Jesus our Saviour,
Brown
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”
Jim Elliott.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 3-18-08
Good Morning.
Praise the Lord for this Holy Week. We would continue to look at the Triumphant entry of Jesus, the King our Lord, to Jerusalem as it is recorded in Luke 19.
It must have been quite a scene as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. First, he is not riding a warrior’s horse, he is riding on the colt of a donkey. His head is bobbing as the colt takes its awkward steps. And all around is a motley crowd. Former prostitutes, shouting children, people who had been lepers who were now cleansed, people who were once blind who now could see, people who at one time had running sores and untouchable diseases, tax collectors, foreigners — all of whom had been touched by Jesus. The Bible says, “The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen” (Luke 19:37).
Jesus seems to be repulsed by the religious, and strangely attracted to the sinners and unacceptable people of society. He drinks and eats with tax collectors so that he is called a drunk and glutton. Women with bad reputations caress his feet, washing them with their tears and drying them with their hair. They anoint his head with expensive perfume. He touches people with leprosy and terrible diseases, things that most people would not get within a hundred yards of. Jesus has accumulated a strange mix of people among his disciples. There are zealots who wanted to fight the Romans with terrorism, and whatever other tactics and force were required. On the other hand you have tax collectors who have collaborated with the Romans. Because of this, and issues like who was the greatest, there seems to be constant conflict among the disciples. How patient our Lord must have been — how open his heart.
I see Palm Sunday as one grand act of invitation. Jesus is riding into Jerusalem inviting, not forcing, them to receive him as King — only not the kind of king they thought they wanted. His arms are open wide. The invitation is for them to lay down their political ideas of what the kingdom of God means, and take up his teaching of what the kingdom actually means. This is not an invitation to take over Rome so that Israel can be free, this is an invitation into new life in the kingdom of God here and now, while Rome is in control politically. This is not just an invitation to be healed, delivered or forgiven, it is an invitation to kingdom living that transforms the world. Jesus’ invitation was for everyone to come and recognize the King of this new kingdom. It was an invitation to leave their directionless and self-absorbed lives of confusion and ambiguity. It was more than an invitation to be saved from personal sin; it was an invitation to leave a life of futility and stupidity and enter into the God-life he was offering. It was an invitation to leave a life of dysfunction and have a life that worked, because it was a life lived God’s way.
Brian McLaren puts it in his book "The Story We Find Ourselves In". He says, “For prostitutes, the call of Jesus was to leave their story of men who pay money for love, and to enter the story of God, who in love pays for us with his own life. For Pharisees, it was to leave their story of religiosity and superiority and rigidity and judgmentalism, their story that was exclusively focused on their own narrow little sect, and instead to enter God’s broader and deeper and better story of grace and compassion and mercy and love for all people. For Zealots like Simon, it was to leave the political story of violence, to stop slitting Romans throats, as if that would bring the story to its desired end, and instead to enter God’s spiritual story of peace for all people, to risk persecution for justice and to prefer suffering over causing others to suffer. For tax collectors like Zacchaeus or Matthew, it was to stop collaborating with the Roman Empire, and profiting in the process, and instead to collaborate with the kingdom of God, and sacrifice in the process. For the rich — like that young ruler Jesus met — it was to abandon the hollow story of acquisition, and instead to enter God’s better story of generosity. For farmers and shepherds, it was to realize that there’s more to life than just planting seeds of wheat or tending flocks of sheep; instead, Jesus invited them to enter into the bigger story of planing seeds of truth and seeking lost men and women, every one of whom is loved and counted and missed by God. For fishermen like Peter and Andrew and James and John, it was to trade in the story of catching fish for a bigger story of fishing for men and women, inviting them into God’s story of ongoing creation and redemption. For the middle class, who want nothing more than to create a little social aquarium for their family. . . . it’s a call to care about the families of their neighbors too, especially the poor, to see them as family too, as children of Adam and children of God.”
Jesus invites the atheist to leave the story of a world where God does not exist, and enter a beautiful, new, colorful world where God is the cause of everything that exists. He invites the humanist, whose story is all about depending on himself to discover meaning and ultimate reality in the material world, to enter the story of God where God’s greater purpose is bigger than any one person or group of people, a meaning and purpose which God has built into the universe. He invites nominal church people to leave a life where God only occupies one hour a week, with a passing prayer here and there, to enter fully into his life and teaching, on a moment by moment basis. Instead of inviting God to be a part of your life, accept his invitation to fully be a part of his, to move beyond thinking we need God’s help to realizing how much we need God himself. He invites us to move beyond a list of rules and right doctrine to a life of ongoing relationship with himself. He invites you to understand that he did not die just to bring you to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth through you.
Jesus gives an open invitation to a life of fruitfulness. Jesus’ openness to us is not an invitation without cost. It is not just an invitation into God’s love, although it certainly is that, it is an invitation into God’s kingdom where there is work to be done. Being a kingdom person means accepting kingdom responsibilities. What strikes me about the context of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem that we are celebrating today is that it is sandwiched between two great parables. Luke tells us that as he was heading toward Jerusalem, he told the parable of the ten minas. We are told that the reason for telling the parable was, “because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once” (Luke 19:11). Minas were a currency that was about the equivalent of three months wages. The parable begins with the words: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return” (Luke 19:12). Jesus is talking about himself. He was telling them that he was going away for a period of time, but it would result in him being appointed King of all the earth and return to it. But before he left, he would give money to his servants which they were to put to work until he returned. He gave each servant a mina. One servant multiplied it to ten minas, the next multiplied it to five, but the last one hid his mina in a piece of cloth and hid it. The master was angry and took the man’s mina and gave it to one who had ten. The parable ends with the words, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away” (Luke 19:26). Jesus expects us to be fruitful. His invitation is an invitation to have our lives count.
In Him,
Brown
The Holy Week Schedule for Worship Services:
On Wednesday at 6 p.m., there will be a soup supper, followed by the movie, "The Passion of Christ"
On Maundy Thursday at 7 p.m. Ron Goldberg will serve a Sedar, which will be combined with a communion service.
Good Friday at 6 p.m., there will be a combined worship service at the Endicott Church of the Nazarene
Saturday at 11 a.m. there will be an Easter Egg Hunt for the children, with lunch to follow.
Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection, there will be a Sunrise Service at 6:30 a.m. followed by a family breakfast at 7:30.
Worship Services at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m., and Sunday School at 9:50 a.m.
Marriage Advice from Kids
How Does a Person Decide Who to Marry from a kids viewpoint . . .
"You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming."
Allan, age 10
"No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with."
Kirsten, age 10
Concerning the Proper Age to Get Married
"Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then!"
Cam, age 10
"No age is good to get married at.... You got to be a fool to get married!"
Freddie, age 6
How Can a Stranger Tell if Two People are Married?
"Married people usually look happy to talk to other people."
Eddie, age 6
"You might have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids."
Derrick, age 8
What Do You Think Your Mom and Dad Have in Common?
"Both don't want no more kids."
Lori, age 8
What Do Most People Do on a Date?
"Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough."
Lynnette, age 8
"On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date."
Martin, age 10
What the Children Would Do on a First Date That Was Turning Sour
"I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns."
Craig, age 9
When is It Okay to Kiss Someone?
"When they're rich!"
Pam, age 7
"The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that."
Curt, age 7
"The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them.... It's the right thing to do."
Howard, age 8
The Great Debate: Is It Better to Be Single or Married?
"I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing ... I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out!"
Theodore, age 8
"It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need somebody to clean up after them!"
Anita, age 9
"Single is better ... for the simple reason that I wouldn't want to change no diapers... Of course, if I did get married, I'd figure something out. I'd just phone my mother and have her come over for some coffee and diaper-changing."
Kirsten, age 10
What Promises Do a Man and a Woman Make When They Get Married?
"A man and a woman promise to go through sickness and illness and diseases together."
Marlon, age 10
How to Make a Marriage Work
"Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck!"
Ricky, age 7
"If you want to last with your man, you should wear a lot of sexy clothes.... Especially underwear that is red and maybe has a few diamonds on it."
Lori, age 8
Getting Married for a Second Time
"Most men are brainless, so you might have to try more than one to find a live one."
Angie L., age 10
How Would the World Be Different if People Didn't Get Married?
"There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?"
Kelvin, age 8
Praise the Lord for this Holy Week. We would continue to look at the Triumphant entry of Jesus, the King our Lord, to Jerusalem as it is recorded in Luke 19.
It must have been quite a scene as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. First, he is not riding a warrior’s horse, he is riding on the colt of a donkey. His head is bobbing as the colt takes its awkward steps. And all around is a motley crowd. Former prostitutes, shouting children, people who had been lepers who were now cleansed, people who were once blind who now could see, people who at one time had running sores and untouchable diseases, tax collectors, foreigners — all of whom had been touched by Jesus. The Bible says, “The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen” (Luke 19:37).
Jesus seems to be repulsed by the religious, and strangely attracted to the sinners and unacceptable people of society. He drinks and eats with tax collectors so that he is called a drunk and glutton. Women with bad reputations caress his feet, washing them with their tears and drying them with their hair. They anoint his head with expensive perfume. He touches people with leprosy and terrible diseases, things that most people would not get within a hundred yards of. Jesus has accumulated a strange mix of people among his disciples. There are zealots who wanted to fight the Romans with terrorism, and whatever other tactics and force were required. On the other hand you have tax collectors who have collaborated with the Romans. Because of this, and issues like who was the greatest, there seems to be constant conflict among the disciples. How patient our Lord must have been — how open his heart.
I see Palm Sunday as one grand act of invitation. Jesus is riding into Jerusalem inviting, not forcing, them to receive him as King — only not the kind of king they thought they wanted. His arms are open wide. The invitation is for them to lay down their political ideas of what the kingdom of God means, and take up his teaching of what the kingdom actually means. This is not an invitation to take over Rome so that Israel can be free, this is an invitation into new life in the kingdom of God here and now, while Rome is in control politically. This is not just an invitation to be healed, delivered or forgiven, it is an invitation to kingdom living that transforms the world. Jesus’ invitation was for everyone to come and recognize the King of this new kingdom. It was an invitation to leave their directionless and self-absorbed lives of confusion and ambiguity. It was more than an invitation to be saved from personal sin; it was an invitation to leave a life of futility and stupidity and enter into the God-life he was offering. It was an invitation to leave a life of dysfunction and have a life that worked, because it was a life lived God’s way.
Brian McLaren puts it in his book "The Story We Find Ourselves In". He says, “For prostitutes, the call of Jesus was to leave their story of men who pay money for love, and to enter the story of God, who in love pays for us with his own life. For Pharisees, it was to leave their story of religiosity and superiority and rigidity and judgmentalism, their story that was exclusively focused on their own narrow little sect, and instead to enter God’s broader and deeper and better story of grace and compassion and mercy and love for all people. For Zealots like Simon, it was to leave the political story of violence, to stop slitting Romans throats, as if that would bring the story to its desired end, and instead to enter God’s spiritual story of peace for all people, to risk persecution for justice and to prefer suffering over causing others to suffer. For tax collectors like Zacchaeus or Matthew, it was to stop collaborating with the Roman Empire, and profiting in the process, and instead to collaborate with the kingdom of God, and sacrifice in the process. For the rich — like that young ruler Jesus met — it was to abandon the hollow story of acquisition, and instead to enter God’s better story of generosity. For farmers and shepherds, it was to realize that there’s more to life than just planting seeds of wheat or tending flocks of sheep; instead, Jesus invited them to enter into the bigger story of planing seeds of truth and seeking lost men and women, every one of whom is loved and counted and missed by God. For fishermen like Peter and Andrew and James and John, it was to trade in the story of catching fish for a bigger story of fishing for men and women, inviting them into God’s story of ongoing creation and redemption. For the middle class, who want nothing more than to create a little social aquarium for their family. . . . it’s a call to care about the families of their neighbors too, especially the poor, to see them as family too, as children of Adam and children of God.”
Jesus invites the atheist to leave the story of a world where God does not exist, and enter a beautiful, new, colorful world where God is the cause of everything that exists. He invites the humanist, whose story is all about depending on himself to discover meaning and ultimate reality in the material world, to enter the story of God where God’s greater purpose is bigger than any one person or group of people, a meaning and purpose which God has built into the universe. He invites nominal church people to leave a life where God only occupies one hour a week, with a passing prayer here and there, to enter fully into his life and teaching, on a moment by moment basis. Instead of inviting God to be a part of your life, accept his invitation to fully be a part of his, to move beyond thinking we need God’s help to realizing how much we need God himself. He invites us to move beyond a list of rules and right doctrine to a life of ongoing relationship with himself. He invites you to understand that he did not die just to bring you to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth through you.
Jesus gives an open invitation to a life of fruitfulness. Jesus’ openness to us is not an invitation without cost. It is not just an invitation into God’s love, although it certainly is that, it is an invitation into God’s kingdom where there is work to be done. Being a kingdom person means accepting kingdom responsibilities. What strikes me about the context of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem that we are celebrating today is that it is sandwiched between two great parables. Luke tells us that as he was heading toward Jerusalem, he told the parable of the ten minas. We are told that the reason for telling the parable was, “because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once” (Luke 19:11). Minas were a currency that was about the equivalent of three months wages. The parable begins with the words: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return” (Luke 19:12). Jesus is talking about himself. He was telling them that he was going away for a period of time, but it would result in him being appointed King of all the earth and return to it. But before he left, he would give money to his servants which they were to put to work until he returned. He gave each servant a mina. One servant multiplied it to ten minas, the next multiplied it to five, but the last one hid his mina in a piece of cloth and hid it. The master was angry and took the man’s mina and gave it to one who had ten. The parable ends with the words, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away” (Luke 19:26). Jesus expects us to be fruitful. His invitation is an invitation to have our lives count.
In Him,
Brown
The Holy Week Schedule for Worship Services:
On Wednesday at 6 p.m., there will be a soup supper, followed by the movie, "The Passion of Christ"
On Maundy Thursday at 7 p.m. Ron Goldberg will serve a Sedar, which will be combined with a communion service.
Good Friday at 6 p.m., there will be a combined worship service at the Endicott Church of the Nazarene
Saturday at 11 a.m. there will be an Easter Egg Hunt for the children, with lunch to follow.
Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection, there will be a Sunrise Service at 6:30 a.m. followed by a family breakfast at 7:30.
Worship Services at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m., and Sunday School at 9:50 a.m.
Marriage Advice from Kids
How Does a Person Decide Who to Marry from a kids viewpoint . . .
"You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming."
Allan, age 10
"No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with."
Kirsten, age 10
Concerning the Proper Age to Get Married
"Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then!"
Cam, age 10
"No age is good to get married at.... You got to be a fool to get married!"
Freddie, age 6
How Can a Stranger Tell if Two People are Married?
"Married people usually look happy to talk to other people."
Eddie, age 6
"You might have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids."
Derrick, age 8
What Do You Think Your Mom and Dad Have in Common?
"Both don't want no more kids."
Lori, age 8
What Do Most People Do on a Date?
"Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough."
Lynnette, age 8
"On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date."
Martin, age 10
What the Children Would Do on a First Date That Was Turning Sour
"I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns."
Craig, age 9
When is It Okay to Kiss Someone?
"When they're rich!"
Pam, age 7
"The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that."
Curt, age 7
"The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them.... It's the right thing to do."
Howard, age 8
The Great Debate: Is It Better to Be Single or Married?
"I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing ... I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out!"
Theodore, age 8
"It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need somebody to clean up after them!"
Anita, age 9
"Single is better ... for the simple reason that I wouldn't want to change no diapers... Of course, if I did get married, I'd figure something out. I'd just phone my mother and have her come over for some coffee and diaper-changing."
Kirsten, age 10
What Promises Do a Man and a Woman Make When They Get Married?
"A man and a woman promise to go through sickness and illness and diseases together."
Marlon, age 10
How to Make a Marriage Work
"Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck!"
Ricky, age 7
"If you want to last with your man, you should wear a lot of sexy clothes.... Especially underwear that is red and maybe has a few diamonds on it."
Lori, age 8
Getting Married for a Second Time
"Most men are brainless, so you might have to try more than one to find a live one."
Angie L., age 10
How Would the World Be Different if People Didn't Get Married?
"There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?"
Kelvin, age 8
Monday, March 17, 2008
Brown's Daily Word 3-17-08
Good Morning.
The Lord Blessed us with a wonderful, and very blessed, weekend. Our young friend Michelle McPherson, whom we have known since November 1990, got married to her fiance James Felton on Saturday, March 15. Laureen came home, as she was the pianist for the ceremony. Our friends, Warren and Linda, from Vermont came down, and they were the official photographers for the wedding. Alice drove to Hamilton, New York to attend my Mother-in-law's 80th birthday celebration. Our friends, Allan and Senie Burns, came from Virginia to spend the weekend with us. We attended a portion of seminar, "A Bird's Eye View of the Book of Isaiah", presented by Dr. Sandra Richter, Old Testament Professor at Asbury Seminary. Sunita flew back to Washington safely, arriving Thursday, after spending almost two weeks in Uganda. Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon, spent the weekend in WilkesBarre, PA. Jessica flew on Saturday with Tom's parents to Costa Rica for a week. Our Choir presented the Easter Cantata during both of the morning worship services yesterday. The whole weekend was beautiful and bountiful. Praise the Lord, for He is indeed the Lord grace and mercy.
Praise the Lord for Palm Sunday. Jesus is marching to Jerusalem, going onward, upward, and forward. He is the King. He is the Lord of Majesty and Glory.
Billy Crystal’s monologue as Mitch in the movie City Slickers is as follows: “Value this time in your life, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?” Your forties, you grow a little potbelly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. You fifties you have a minor surgery. You’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Your sixties you have a major surgery, the must is still loud but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Ft. Lauderdale; you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering, “how come the kids don’t call?” By your eighties, you’ve had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand but who you call mama.” Depressing isn't it? Yet, that is how many people view life.
We live in a world like this where we need a Savior like Jesus who is the Lord of meekness and Majesty. He triumphs over sin , grave and death. He rides on Palm Sunday in Majesty and Authority.
Jesus sets out from Bethany heading towards God’s Holy City, Jerusalem, and when he arrived in Bethphage on the Mount of Olives he called 2 of his disciples to Him, to "GO TO THE VILLAGE AHEAD OF YOU AND JUST AS YOU ENTER THE CITY YOU WILL COME TO A HOUSE WITH A DONKEY AND HER COLT TIED TO IT -- THE COLT HAS NEVER BE SAT ON.... UNTIE THEM BOTH AND BRING THEM TO ME. AND IF ANYONE ASKS YOU WHAT YOU ARE DOING TELL THEM THE LORD NEEDS THEM, AND HE WILL SEND THEM RIGHT AWAY..." So the 2 left the large group and headed for the village just up the dirt road. I wonder which two went? Peter? James? Andrew? Nathanael? What do you think they talked about on the way? Do you think they wondered if, with such a large crowd everywhere, it would be impossible to find a donkey and a colt tied up? Do you think they were asking each other, "do you really think we should just untie the colt and take it?"
Yet, as they were talking they looked up ahead and saw the colt and her mother tied up, just as Jesus had said. So they untied it, and as they were leaving the owner came out (probably a little on edge with Passover taking place. There was the great and constant noise of the crowd walking by his house day and night. It must have been much like people who live right next to a stadium during a big game. To make sure his property was safe, the owner said to them, "hey what are you two guys doing with my colt and donkey"? Then the disciples replied as Jesus had told them, "THE LORD HAS NEED OF THEM." Thus they left with the colt and her mother.
Upon arriving back where Jesus was, they took off their coats and put them on the colt and Jesus sat down. In the entire scene we see a sense of reckless love, reckless obedience, reckless self-forgetfulness, and reckless worship.
Jesus could have walked into Jerusalem on that Sunday morning nearly 2,000 years ago, but he rode on the colt of a donkey. This was a graphic and symbolic claim that He was the Messiah, for the prophet Zechariah, hundreds of years earlier, wrote in Zechariah 9:9, "REJOICE GREATLY, O DAUGHTER OF ZION! SHOUT, DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM! SEE, YOUR KING COMES TO YOU, RIGHTEOUS AND HAVING SALVATION, GENTLE AND RIDING ON A DONKEY, ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A DONKEY."
Previously thousands (after the feeding of the 5,000) wanted to make Jesus "King" but Jesus withdrew from them because it was not the right time. Many times Jesus had told people not to tell of the miracles he had performed. For nearly 33 years Jesus had purposely stayed out the limelight (as much as possible) because it was not time yet. Now the time has come (the tree is ripe) and Jesus announces that He is indeed the King, not according to the plan of man, but rather according to the plan of God, as revealed by his prophets in His Holy Word.
Jesus enters Jerusalem royally. Jesus enters Jerusalem freely; He is not a victim nor is he a prisoner. Jesus did not hide and He did not hurry. Jesus did it His way and on His time schedule. And Jesus was not afraid. He did not try to secretly slip into the city. Jesus acted deliberately and with purpose as he rode into the city. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who is coming to the capital city of Jerusalem, the city of King David.
Not only was Jesus announcing His Kingship, but he was also announcing the character of His Kingdom. You see, Jesus did not claim his kingdom in the way that the world would expect. He did not ride in on a white stallion arrayed in fine attire, surrounded by a mighty army. Rather, he rode in on a beast of burden. His army was an unorganized mob of fishermen, farmers, and shepherds. You see, the Kingdom Jesus was establishing, as he told Pilate, was a Kingdom not of this world. It was not a physical Kingdom, but a spiritual Kingdom, not a temporary Kingdom but an eternal Kingdom.
Jesus is riding towards the Holy city, surrounded by thousands of people. With every step the excitement and energy reached epic proportions. It was like a volcano that had suddenly erupted with tremendous power after weeks and months of shaking and smoking. The people, after waiting months for Jesus to make his claim, now see Him making it. Their joy and emotion erupted and it’s fallout was flowing down the winding road from Bethany to Jerusalem.
In Mathew 21, we read that the whole city was stirred. The word Matthew uses here that is translated stirred is "seismos", which means quaking, trembling, is the same word from which we derive our word seismograph. The city, which had swelled to nearly 3 million was exploding with excitement; it was an emotional earthquake. Jesus was surrounded by thousands who were following Him, and thousands more as he neared the city, came rushing out to meet him.
Jesus was the one everyone was talking about, the one that had performed mighty miracles, the one everyone was hoping would show up, He was here, and they were literally in a state of frenzied euphoria. This crowd of thousands began taking off their coats and laying them on the road on which Jesus was riding. Many of them climbed palm trees and cut off branches to throw down for the colt to walk upon. Still others waved the palm branches back and forth. You see, palm branches are an emblem of victory and restoration (Rev 7:9), and these people felt that victory and restoration were riding right before their eyes on a colt (they were right, but they were wrong about how it would happen).
Suddenly the streets erupted with the sounds of praises, singing and shouting,
"HOSANNA (SAVE US NOW WE PRAY) , HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID! BLESSED IS HE THAT COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST BLESSED IS THE COMING KINGDOM OF OUR FATHER DAVID BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD PEACE IN HEAVEN AND GLORY IN THE HIGHEST. HOSANNA BLESSED IS THE KING OF ISRAEL."
The people are shouting "King", but his garment is not a royal robe; it is homespun and seamless. His "charger" is a beast of burden. His court is made up of fishermen and hated tax collectors. His parade is an array of common people. Yet, no pageant that ever passed through the streets of any city has so set its mark on time as this one. The triumphal entries the Roman, and other, Empires have long since been forgotten, but this one, in every detail, is known and retold year after year, century after century.
Wouldn’t you love to have been there --- wouldn’t you have loved to be in that shouting, singing crowd as the King of Kings, the Son of God, esus our Lord and Savior, rode triumphantly into Jerusalem.
As Jesus sees Jerusalem, it is not for himself that His tears are shed; he was not weeping over the cross that awaited him. NO! He was weeping over the fate that would come upon the nation. Instead of the resounding and joyful shouts and praises, Jesus heard the screams, the cries, the shrieks and groans of the men woman and children who would die in the city. He could see the burning buildings, the city turned to rubble, and He could smell the odors of smoke and death.
He came to His own and his own did not accept Him, they crucified the son and invoked the fathers furious wrath. Jesus wept for those who would reject the gift he came to give, for those who would reject the crown of life he would win... For those who would reject him. There were many faces in the crowd that day as Jesus rode into Jerusalem -- and just as Jesus wept for the city’s fate -- he no doubt shed tears and sobbed for the many faces in the crowd. For behind those now exuberant faces, were people who would soon reject him and his word -- And in so doing incur the father’s wrath. And as Jesus looked at the faces in the crowd He wept.
As we ponder the mystery and the wonder of Palm Sunday, let us for a moment focus on the donkey that carried Jesus to Jerusalem. This donkey is a role model for us, because she carries Christ into the world. And that is what it is all about. That is the purpose of life: Carrying Christ into the world.
The name “Christopher” is derived from two Greek words, “Christos” and “pherein” “Pherein” means “to bear, to carry.” Thus, Christopher means Christ-bearer. The donkey was literally Christopher, Christ-bearer.
In our pride, we hesitate to take a donkey as a role model, but the donkey of Palm Sunday, has something to show us. We also are called to be Christophers.
There is on old Christian story about this donkey. I do not have a source for this story but it goes like this:
It was the next day. The donkey was still excited about the previous day’s ride into Jerusalem. Never before had she felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. She walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” she thought. But they just went on drawing water and paid her no attention.
“Throw your garments down,” the donkey said. “Don’t you know who I am?” They looked at her in amazement. Someone slapped her across the rear and roughly ordered her to move. “Miserable heathens!” she muttered to herself. “I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.” But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as she strutted down the main street. “The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!” she shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!” Hurt and confused, the donkey returned home to her mother. “Foolish child,” mother said gently. “Don’t you realize that without him, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
Just like the donkey who carried Jesus into Jerusalem, we are most fulfilled when we are in the presence of Christ. Without him, all our best efforts are like “a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. When we lift up Christ, however, we are no longer ordinary people, but key players in God’s plan to redeem the world.
Notice that the donkey’s service to Christ consisted in doing what donkeys do. Donkeys carry burdens. But the donkey’s ordinary task was made sacred when it carried Christ. The lesson is that when we go about our ordinary lives, the ordinary things that we do are made sacred by bringing Christ into them.
Nicholas Herman was born around 1611 in Lorraine, France. He served as a soldier in the Thirty Years War. The atrocities he witnessed led him to become a Christian.
Later, he entered the Carmelite monastic order. As a monk, he was given the name Brother Lawrence and assigned work in the kitchen. He hated it. He thought, I have been a soldier, and I have decided to devote myself to God and I should be praying and reading the Bible and thinking high thoughts, but what am I doing? I am scrubbing dirty plates and pots in the kitchen. How demeaning! For ten years Brother Lawrence chafed against his situation. He was filled with spiritual anguish at this humiliating job he had to do. Then one day he achieved a major breakthrough and understood that washing pots can be a great thing to do—if you do it in and for Jesus. He was scrubbing those plates not because someone had assigned him a dirty job, but because that gave him a chance to make his small section of the world a little better, or at least a little cleaner, for Jesus, and thus he contributed in his own way and place toward realizing the kingdom of God. Lawrence now loved kitchen work. He said that he never felt closer to God than when he was peeling potatoes.
Jesus, as Brother Lawrence discovered, is what makes life worth living and work worth doing. When our work is empowered by Christ, it is transformed from mere drudgery into the most important thing in our lives. It becomes our contribution to the kingdom of God.
Back in 1942, Clarence Jordan founded of Koinonia Farm in Sumter County, Georgia. It was an interracial community before anyone had ever heard of civil rights. Jordan himself was a pacifist as well as an integrationist and, though he came from a prominent family, in the forties and early fifties, he was probably the most hated man in Georgia. The Koinonia Farm, by its very nature, was controversial and always in trouble. In the early ’50s Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to represent legally Koinonia Farm. They were having trouble getting LP gas delivered for heating during the winter even though it was against the law not to deliver gas. Clarence thought Robert could solve the problem with a phone call.
However, Robert said, “I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”
Clarence replied, “We might lose everything, too, Bob.”
But Robert said, “It’s different for you.”
“Why is it different?” asked Clarence. “I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church on the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ What did you say?”
Robert replied, “I follow Jesus, up to a point.”
Clarence said, “Could that point by any chance be — the cross?”
“That’s right.” Robert said, “I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”
“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple,” responded Clarence. “You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer, not a disciple.”
“Well now,” said Robert, “if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?”
“The question,” Clarence said, “is, ‘Do you have a church?’”
[Stanley Hauerwas, cited in “When we don’t ‘carry’ Jesus far enough,”June 21, 2004, Odyssey Web Site,odyssey.blogs.com.]
The question for us is do we have a church? Clarence Jordan said that if we are not willing to bear Christ into the world, then we do not have a church. In other words, he calls on us to make Christ real in our ordinary lives, and thereby to stop being ordinary folks and start being Christophers, Christ-bearers, donkeys.
In Christ,
Brown
I don't preach Jesus' story in light of my experience as some sort of helpful symbol or myth that is helpfully illumined by my story. Rather, I am invited by Easter to interpret my story in the light of God's triumph in the resurrection. Only because we worship a resurrected Lord can we risk preaching.
William H. Willimon, "Easter Preaching as Peculiar Speech," in Exilic Preaching
Golgotha, the place of the skull, where nails smashed through the wrists and feet of Jesus, the teacher from Nazareth in Galilee, can stand for the skulls of every genocide. Betrayal by friends, self-preserving denial, making sport with prisoners, the mockery of crowds, spectators drawn to the spectacle, the soldiers doing their duty and dicing for his clothes, a mother in agony, and a knot of women helplessly looking on—it happens time, and time, and time again.
Richard John Neuhaus, First Things
We live and die. Christ died and lived!
John R. W. Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church
Spike's Apology
Dear Spike,
I have been unable to sleep since I forced my daughter to break off her engagement to you. Will you forgive and forget?
I was much too sensitive about your Mohawk, tattoo, and pierced nose. I now realize motorcycles aren't really that dangerous, and I really should not have reacted the way I did to the fact that you have never
held a job.
I am sure, too, that some other very nice people live under the bridge in the park.
Sure, my daughter is only 17 and wants to marry you instead of going to Harvard on a full ride scholarship. After all, you can't learn everything about life from books. I sometimes forget how backward I can be. I was wrong. I was a fool. I have now come to my senses, and you have my full blessing to marry my daughter.
Sincerely,
Your future father-in-law
P. S. Congratulations on winning the Powerball lottery!
The Lord Blessed us with a wonderful, and very blessed, weekend. Our young friend Michelle McPherson, whom we have known since November 1990, got married to her fiance James Felton on Saturday, March 15. Laureen came home, as she was the pianist for the ceremony. Our friends, Warren and Linda, from Vermont came down, and they were the official photographers for the wedding. Alice drove to Hamilton, New York to attend my Mother-in-law's 80th birthday celebration. Our friends, Allan and Senie Burns, came from Virginia to spend the weekend with us. We attended a portion of seminar, "A Bird's Eye View of the Book of Isaiah", presented by Dr. Sandra Richter, Old Testament Professor at Asbury Seminary. Sunita flew back to Washington safely, arriving Thursday, after spending almost two weeks in Uganda. Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon, spent the weekend in WilkesBarre, PA. Jessica flew on Saturday with Tom's parents to Costa Rica for a week. Our Choir presented the Easter Cantata during both of the morning worship services yesterday. The whole weekend was beautiful and bountiful. Praise the Lord, for He is indeed the Lord grace and mercy.
Praise the Lord for Palm Sunday. Jesus is marching to Jerusalem, going onward, upward, and forward. He is the King. He is the Lord of Majesty and Glory.
Billy Crystal’s monologue as Mitch in the movie City Slickers is as follows: “Value this time in your life, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?” Your forties, you grow a little potbelly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. You fifties you have a minor surgery. You’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Your sixties you have a major surgery, the must is still loud but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Ft. Lauderdale; you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering, “how come the kids don’t call?” By your eighties, you’ve had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand but who you call mama.” Depressing isn't it? Yet, that is how many people view life.
We live in a world like this where we need a Savior like Jesus who is the Lord of meekness and Majesty. He triumphs over sin , grave and death. He rides on Palm Sunday in Majesty and Authority.
Jesus sets out from Bethany heading towards God’s Holy City, Jerusalem, and when he arrived in Bethphage on the Mount of Olives he called 2 of his disciples to Him, to "GO TO THE VILLAGE AHEAD OF YOU AND JUST AS YOU ENTER THE CITY YOU WILL COME TO A HOUSE WITH A DONKEY AND HER COLT TIED TO IT -- THE COLT HAS NEVER BE SAT ON.... UNTIE THEM BOTH AND BRING THEM TO ME. AND IF ANYONE ASKS YOU WHAT YOU ARE DOING TELL THEM THE LORD NEEDS THEM, AND HE WILL SEND THEM RIGHT AWAY..." So the 2 left the large group and headed for the village just up the dirt road. I wonder which two went? Peter? James? Andrew? Nathanael? What do you think they talked about on the way? Do you think they wondered if, with such a large crowd everywhere, it would be impossible to find a donkey and a colt tied up? Do you think they were asking each other, "do you really think we should just untie the colt and take it?"
Yet, as they were talking they looked up ahead and saw the colt and her mother tied up, just as Jesus had said. So they untied it, and as they were leaving the owner came out (probably a little on edge with Passover taking place. There was the great and constant noise of the crowd walking by his house day and night. It must have been much like people who live right next to a stadium during a big game. To make sure his property was safe, the owner said to them, "hey what are you two guys doing with my colt and donkey"? Then the disciples replied as Jesus had told them, "THE LORD HAS NEED OF THEM." Thus they left with the colt and her mother.
Upon arriving back where Jesus was, they took off their coats and put them on the colt and Jesus sat down. In the entire scene we see a sense of reckless love, reckless obedience, reckless self-forgetfulness, and reckless worship.
Jesus could have walked into Jerusalem on that Sunday morning nearly 2,000 years ago, but he rode on the colt of a donkey. This was a graphic and symbolic claim that He was the Messiah, for the prophet Zechariah, hundreds of years earlier, wrote in Zechariah 9:9, "REJOICE GREATLY, O DAUGHTER OF ZION! SHOUT, DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM! SEE, YOUR KING COMES TO YOU, RIGHTEOUS AND HAVING SALVATION, GENTLE AND RIDING ON A DONKEY, ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A DONKEY."
Previously thousands (after the feeding of the 5,000) wanted to make Jesus "King" but Jesus withdrew from them because it was not the right time. Many times Jesus had told people not to tell of the miracles he had performed. For nearly 33 years Jesus had purposely stayed out the limelight (as much as possible) because it was not time yet. Now the time has come (the tree is ripe) and Jesus announces that He is indeed the King, not according to the plan of man, but rather according to the plan of God, as revealed by his prophets in His Holy Word.
Jesus enters Jerusalem royally. Jesus enters Jerusalem freely; He is not a victim nor is he a prisoner. Jesus did not hide and He did not hurry. Jesus did it His way and on His time schedule. And Jesus was not afraid. He did not try to secretly slip into the city. Jesus acted deliberately and with purpose as he rode into the city. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who is coming to the capital city of Jerusalem, the city of King David.
Not only was Jesus announcing His Kingship, but he was also announcing the character of His Kingdom. You see, Jesus did not claim his kingdom in the way that the world would expect. He did not ride in on a white stallion arrayed in fine attire, surrounded by a mighty army. Rather, he rode in on a beast of burden. His army was an unorganized mob of fishermen, farmers, and shepherds. You see, the Kingdom Jesus was establishing, as he told Pilate, was a Kingdom not of this world. It was not a physical Kingdom, but a spiritual Kingdom, not a temporary Kingdom but an eternal Kingdom.
Jesus is riding towards the Holy city, surrounded by thousands of people. With every step the excitement and energy reached epic proportions. It was like a volcano that had suddenly erupted with tremendous power after weeks and months of shaking and smoking. The people, after waiting months for Jesus to make his claim, now see Him making it. Their joy and emotion erupted and it’s fallout was flowing down the winding road from Bethany to Jerusalem.
In Mathew 21, we read that the whole city was stirred. The word Matthew uses here that is translated stirred is "seismos", which means quaking, trembling, is the same word from which we derive our word seismograph. The city, which had swelled to nearly 3 million was exploding with excitement; it was an emotional earthquake. Jesus was surrounded by thousands who were following Him, and thousands more as he neared the city, came rushing out to meet him.
Jesus was the one everyone was talking about, the one that had performed mighty miracles, the one everyone was hoping would show up, He was here, and they were literally in a state of frenzied euphoria. This crowd of thousands began taking off their coats and laying them on the road on which Jesus was riding. Many of them climbed palm trees and cut off branches to throw down for the colt to walk upon. Still others waved the palm branches back and forth. You see, palm branches are an emblem of victory and restoration (Rev 7:9), and these people felt that victory and restoration were riding right before their eyes on a colt (they were right, but they were wrong about how it would happen).
Suddenly the streets erupted with the sounds of praises, singing and shouting,
"HOSANNA (SAVE US NOW WE PRAY) , HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID! BLESSED IS HE THAT COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST BLESSED IS THE COMING KINGDOM OF OUR FATHER DAVID BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD PEACE IN HEAVEN AND GLORY IN THE HIGHEST. HOSANNA BLESSED IS THE KING OF ISRAEL."
The people are shouting "King", but his garment is not a royal robe; it is homespun and seamless. His "charger" is a beast of burden. His court is made up of fishermen and hated tax collectors. His parade is an array of common people. Yet, no pageant that ever passed through the streets of any city has so set its mark on time as this one. The triumphal entries the Roman, and other, Empires have long since been forgotten, but this one, in every detail, is known and retold year after year, century after century.
Wouldn’t you love to have been there --- wouldn’t you have loved to be in that shouting, singing crowd as the King of Kings, the Son of God, esus our Lord and Savior, rode triumphantly into Jerusalem.
As Jesus sees Jerusalem, it is not for himself that His tears are shed; he was not weeping over the cross that awaited him. NO! He was weeping over the fate that would come upon the nation. Instead of the resounding and joyful shouts and praises, Jesus heard the screams, the cries, the shrieks and groans of the men woman and children who would die in the city. He could see the burning buildings, the city turned to rubble, and He could smell the odors of smoke and death.
He came to His own and his own did not accept Him, they crucified the son and invoked the fathers furious wrath. Jesus wept for those who would reject the gift he came to give, for those who would reject the crown of life he would win... For those who would reject him. There were many faces in the crowd that day as Jesus rode into Jerusalem -- and just as Jesus wept for the city’s fate -- he no doubt shed tears and sobbed for the many faces in the crowd. For behind those now exuberant faces, were people who would soon reject him and his word -- And in so doing incur the father’s wrath. And as Jesus looked at the faces in the crowd He wept.
As we ponder the mystery and the wonder of Palm Sunday, let us for a moment focus on the donkey that carried Jesus to Jerusalem. This donkey is a role model for us, because she carries Christ into the world. And that is what it is all about. That is the purpose of life: Carrying Christ into the world.
The name “Christopher” is derived from two Greek words, “Christos” and “pherein” “Pherein” means “to bear, to carry.” Thus, Christopher means Christ-bearer. The donkey was literally Christopher, Christ-bearer.
In our pride, we hesitate to take a donkey as a role model, but the donkey of Palm Sunday, has something to show us. We also are called to be Christophers.
There is on old Christian story about this donkey. I do not have a source for this story but it goes like this:
It was the next day. The donkey was still excited about the previous day’s ride into Jerusalem. Never before had she felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. She walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” she thought. But they just went on drawing water and paid her no attention.
“Throw your garments down,” the donkey said. “Don’t you know who I am?” They looked at her in amazement. Someone slapped her across the rear and roughly ordered her to move. “Miserable heathens!” she muttered to herself. “I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.” But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as she strutted down the main street. “The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!” she shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!” Hurt and confused, the donkey returned home to her mother. “Foolish child,” mother said gently. “Don’t you realize that without him, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
Just like the donkey who carried Jesus into Jerusalem, we are most fulfilled when we are in the presence of Christ. Without him, all our best efforts are like “a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. When we lift up Christ, however, we are no longer ordinary people, but key players in God’s plan to redeem the world.
Notice that the donkey’s service to Christ consisted in doing what donkeys do. Donkeys carry burdens. But the donkey’s ordinary task was made sacred when it carried Christ. The lesson is that when we go about our ordinary lives, the ordinary things that we do are made sacred by bringing Christ into them.
Nicholas Herman was born around 1611 in Lorraine, France. He served as a soldier in the Thirty Years War. The atrocities he witnessed led him to become a Christian.
Later, he entered the Carmelite monastic order. As a monk, he was given the name Brother Lawrence and assigned work in the kitchen. He hated it. He thought, I have been a soldier, and I have decided to devote myself to God and I should be praying and reading the Bible and thinking high thoughts, but what am I doing? I am scrubbing dirty plates and pots in the kitchen. How demeaning! For ten years Brother Lawrence chafed against his situation. He was filled with spiritual anguish at this humiliating job he had to do. Then one day he achieved a major breakthrough and understood that washing pots can be a great thing to do—if you do it in and for Jesus. He was scrubbing those plates not because someone had assigned him a dirty job, but because that gave him a chance to make his small section of the world a little better, or at least a little cleaner, for Jesus, and thus he contributed in his own way and place toward realizing the kingdom of God. Lawrence now loved kitchen work. He said that he never felt closer to God than when he was peeling potatoes.
Jesus, as Brother Lawrence discovered, is what makes life worth living and work worth doing. When our work is empowered by Christ, it is transformed from mere drudgery into the most important thing in our lives. It becomes our contribution to the kingdom of God.
Back in 1942, Clarence Jordan founded of Koinonia Farm in Sumter County, Georgia. It was an interracial community before anyone had ever heard of civil rights. Jordan himself was a pacifist as well as an integrationist and, though he came from a prominent family, in the forties and early fifties, he was probably the most hated man in Georgia. The Koinonia Farm, by its very nature, was controversial and always in trouble. In the early ’50s Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to represent legally Koinonia Farm. They were having trouble getting LP gas delivered for heating during the winter even though it was against the law not to deliver gas. Clarence thought Robert could solve the problem with a phone call.
However, Robert said, “I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”
Clarence replied, “We might lose everything, too, Bob.”
But Robert said, “It’s different for you.”
“Why is it different?” asked Clarence. “I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church on the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ What did you say?”
Robert replied, “I follow Jesus, up to a point.”
Clarence said, “Could that point by any chance be — the cross?”
“That’s right.” Robert said, “I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”
“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple,” responded Clarence. “You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer, not a disciple.”
“Well now,” said Robert, “if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?”
“The question,” Clarence said, “is, ‘Do you have a church?’”
[Stanley Hauerwas, cited in “When we don’t ‘carry’ Jesus far enough,”June 21, 2004, Odyssey Web Site,odyssey.blogs.com.]
The question for us is do we have a church? Clarence Jordan said that if we are not willing to bear Christ into the world, then we do not have a church. In other words, he calls on us to make Christ real in our ordinary lives, and thereby to stop being ordinary folks and start being Christophers, Christ-bearers, donkeys.
In Christ,
Brown
I don't preach Jesus' story in light of my experience as some sort of helpful symbol or myth that is helpfully illumined by my story. Rather, I am invited by Easter to interpret my story in the light of God's triumph in the resurrection. Only because we worship a resurrected Lord can we risk preaching.
William H. Willimon, "Easter Preaching as Peculiar Speech," in Exilic Preaching
Golgotha, the place of the skull, where nails smashed through the wrists and feet of Jesus, the teacher from Nazareth in Galilee, can stand for the skulls of every genocide. Betrayal by friends, self-preserving denial, making sport with prisoners, the mockery of crowds, spectators drawn to the spectacle, the soldiers doing their duty and dicing for his clothes, a mother in agony, and a knot of women helplessly looking on—it happens time, and time, and time again.
Richard John Neuhaus, First Things
We live and die. Christ died and lived!
John R. W. Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church
Spike's Apology
Dear Spike,
I have been unable to sleep since I forced my daughter to break off her engagement to you. Will you forgive and forget?
I was much too sensitive about your Mohawk, tattoo, and pierced nose. I now realize motorcycles aren't really that dangerous, and I really should not have reacted the way I did to the fact that you have never
held a job.
I am sure, too, that some other very nice people live under the bridge in the park.
Sure, my daughter is only 17 and wants to marry you instead of going to Harvard on a full ride scholarship. After all, you can't learn everything about life from books. I sometimes forget how backward I can be. I was wrong. I was a fool. I have now come to my senses, and you have my full blessing to marry my daughter.
Sincerely,
Your future father-in-law
P. S. Congratulations on winning the Powerball lottery!
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