Good morning,
The Lord blessed us with a wonderful weekend with a blessed gathering on Saturday evening at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott. Some of our dear friends from years past attended the worship. A young couple whom I joined in marriage on January 1, 1984 attended the worship with her parents, who live in Ithaca at present. The mother of the bride retired recently from active ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church. The young bride and her husband have relocated to Vestal now. She is a very successful owner of local franchise here in Vestal, an RN by training but a very good business woman by birth. She and her husband have been blessed by three grown children.
It is gratifying in ministry to see young people together living raising families. It is gratifying to see families who are together through thick and thin, knowing that we serve a captain who has never lost a battle. The Race is worth running.
On Saturday one woman gave her testimony how the Lord delivered from drug addiction; now Jesus is her Lord she is having the best of her days, serving Christ and loving the Lord. Our Daughter led the worship with much joy and fervor. I did not get to preach at all but the priesthood all believers was demonstrated during the worship. People gave their testimonies how the Lord has been faithful to them. It is a great wonder to love the Lord and serve Him.Wow!
A Moslem Couple have been coming to the worship. This man is almost very close to the Kingdom. He said he is one of 14 children. One of his sisters is dying with AIDS. He had a daughter, 7 years of age, who died tragically, but he was too much into drugs to know about her death. He composed a amazing piano piece after her death, which he played on the Grand piano of the church. It was moving and powerful. Jesus reigns. He is upon the Throne.
Today we focus on a lesson from Isaiah, Ch 65, ( Part of the reading from Yesterday) who gave us a beautiful vision of the future. It is a message full-to-overflowing with joy, and hope, and peace. Our future, says the prophet is not something to be dreaded or feared; rather, it is something to get excited about. The prophet sees a beautiful future which is not our doing, but God’s doing. God, says the prophet, is going to act in a wonderful and surprising way. God is going to create a new heavens and a new earth and a new Jerusalem. God is going to take great joy in this new creation, and the people too are going to be full of joy and celebrate God’s new creation.
The prophet then describes something of what such a new creation is going to look like: there will be no more weeping and crying, no more tragic deaths of infants, no more premature deaths of adults, people shall enjoy building homes and living in them. There will be no more homeless people. People will eat the fruit from vineyards that they planted, enjoying the work of their hands—no more hungry people. God will bless people of all ages, and prayers shall be answered even before people pray them. This is a picture of a society where perfect equality, freedom, justice and peace prevail. Even the whole created order of nature shall be changed as enemies shall become friends, so that even wolves and lambs, lions and oxen, even serpents shall live in perfect harmony and peace.
Martin Luther, commenting on this passage, said, "Through his Gospel God can make the supreme tyrants of the world subject to a simple man and preacher, even though these tyrants were lions and wolves. God can turn enemies into friends. They shall feed together ... The kingdom of peace follows. They shall not hurt. The sum of everything: There must be a reign of peace among themselves. There will be peace without sword or force or tyranny, because there will be love, they will have the same inheritance, and everything will be the common possession of friends.
Indeed, this is a beautiful vision of a future bursting with perfect peace. This vision of the future is what the New Testament writers describe too, as they point to the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross and God’s mighty act of raising him from the dead three days later. The resurrection of Christ, which we joyfully celebrate today, is God’s sign to us that such a future of perfect peace is possible. One day, we too shall share in a resurrection like Christ’s and live with him in perfect peace.
Until then, we are blessed with small glimpses of that future whenever Christ’s love and peace shine in us and through us. In Jesus, our Prince of Peace, we look forward to that future time, that day of our resurrection, when all violence, hatred, sin, death, and evil shall end. Then, as the prophet so beautiful describes it: “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.” Amen! Hallelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76RrdwElnTU
Saturday Evening Worship Service
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church
128 Maple Drive
Endicott
6 PM: Gather for Coffee and Fellowship
6:30 PM: Worship
Special Music: The Worship Team from Hawleyton United Methodist Church Preacher: The Rev William Puckey
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