Blog: E-Lifts

Change Decently and in Order!

5/20/2021

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)

Listen to:  Mark Harris, One True God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z95ms1rOlo

You know you might be Presbyterian if you can name some or all of the following:

PCA, PCUS, PCUSA, PC(USA), PC(U.S.A.), PCUSA(NS), PCUSA(OS), RPCES, RPCNA-GS, RPCNA, EPC, OPC, ARP, NAPARC, CRC, RCA, BPC, BPC-Collingswood, BPC-Columbus, CPC, TE, RE, WCF, WLC, WSC, BCO, UPC, UPCNA, UPCUSA, NPC, COM, CLP, CPM, NFoG, ECOP.

Presbyterians. We even do change "decently and in order!" Think of all the change in denominations and committees this list represents!

We are a world in flux, in a denomination facing enormous change, a congregation in time of significant transition, each of us is facing change in some area of our lives. This past year of COVID has brought us through a whirlwind of change. Life seemed to fall apart, when in reality it is being reconfigured in order to move forward more alive, more whole, more vibrant.  Thank God we have a God who is eternal, and can change us, mold us in the image of Christ, loving and serving others. Thank God we can turn to Christ as our rock. His example and help will hold us steadfast and guide us through whatever we face.

The Bible is a change document. It teaches us how to embrace change (and sometimes how not to!) with discernment, trust, faith and hope in God, the author of the future. Think of, for example: Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Ester, Ruth, Peter, Mary, Paul -- and the change they lived through following the Lord. So pick your favorite character this week, study it, and you will find some challenge to grow and change. Name the choices and actions that made a difference. So what is your challenge? How can you change, and help the church to change in a spiritually healthy manner?

Remember Charles Darwin's observation: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

PRAY:  "God, show me where I need to change"

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Keep the Change

5/20/2021

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Listen to: The Change" by Steven Curtis Chapman,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgpEwGoSLB8

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, s/he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinth. 5:17)

What did the Dalai Lama say to the hot dog vendor?

Make me one with everything.

The hot dog vendor said "that will be $2.50" and the Dalai Lama handed him a five.

And waited. The Dalia Lama said "Hey where's my change?"

The hot dog vendor said "ah, change must come from within....!ust come from within"

The Christian life is a life of transformation and change. Change is written on each page of the bible. It is written in the fabric of our bodies: While we are sitting here we are changing. During this message about ½ million cells in our body are going to die and be replaced with a half a million new cells. Our skin replaces itself every month. Change is natural. Our families change. our societies change. Our churches change. Everyone changes. We are not alone.

Ideally as we change, our emotional and spiritual responses begin to change too. We learn to know God is in charge. We learn to trust. We respond to change in more healthy ways. We learn to handle the sadness and fear, and through it, with God's help, learn to hope and embrace a new future.

Churches everywhere are in times of accelerated change, accelerated by this time of COVID. So we're going to spend some time talking about change; understanding and recognizing it, responding in healthy ways to it, supporting each other and growing in faith together. So think about your changes around you, in you, and in the church. Begin to name them, make a list. Think and pray about how change is affecting you. What's troubling you? What gives you hope? Knowing that our Eternal God, Changeless, is in the midst of the changes, seeks to guide us "reformed, and always reforming" is a comfort.

For now it is good for us to remember the prayer of change from the great Reformer, Martin Luther:

"This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”

PRAY: "Show us to embrace and manage the changes of life with grace, courage and trust in you. Help us be sensitive and caring to others in the midst of their changes."

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Called to Galilee

5/20/2021

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"But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you"
Mark 16:7

An "oldie but goodie": Keith Green singing, The Easter Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3StQfGXwKQ0

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

So it begins -- where it began before. Jesus goes back to Galilee. Not the temple. Not Nazareth or Bethlehem. Galilee brings into the present all the disciples had experienced with Jesus: the calling to follow him and take up the ministry he had begun.

It was in Galilee that Jesus began his preaching and teaching and healing. It was in Galilee that he had called his disciples. It was in Galilee that Mary, Mary and Salome had themselves become disciples and from where they had followed all the way to the cross and now to the tomb. It was in Galilee that Jesus was baptized by John, and began preaching the Good News to the poor. In Galilee water was made wine, a withered hand restored, a blind man's sight returned, demons driven out and the lame leaped. It was in Galilee he called Israel to a law of love surpassing love of the law.

We are called to Galilee. Where ever someone is in need of healing, help, forgiveness; to hear Good News of God's love and mercy -- there is Galilee. The resurrection does not allow for complacency. Easter gives us marching orders to go to Galilee -- and bring resurrection to the living. Amen!

PRAY: "God, thank you that you sent Jesus ahead of us to Galilee to prepare the way. Make us an Easter people, may Allelulia be our song and caring for others be our prayer."

"But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you"
Mark 16:7

Listen : :

An "oldie but goodie": Keith Green singing, The Easter Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3StQfGXwKQ0

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

So it begins -- where it began before. Jesus goes back to Galilee. Not the temple. Not Nazareth or Bethlehem. Galilee brings into the present all the disciples had experienced with Jesus: the calling to follow him and take up the ministry he had begun.

It was in Galilee that Jesus began his preaching and teaching and healing. It was in Galilee that he had called his disciples. It was in Galilee that Mary, Mary and Salome had themselves become disciples and from where they had followed all the way to the cross and now to the tomb. It was in Galilee that Jesus was baptized by John, and began preaching the Good News to the poor. In Galilee water was made wine, a withered hand restored, a blind man's sight returned, demons driven out and the lame leaped. It was in Galilee he called Israel to a law of love surpassing love of the law.

We are called to Galilee. Where ever someone is in need of healing, help, forgiveness; to hear Good News of God's love and mercy -- there is Galilee. The resurrection does not allow for complacency. Easter gives us marching orders to go to Galilee -- and bring resurrection to the living. Amen!

PRAY: "God, thank you that you sent Jesus ahead of us to Galilee to prepare the way. Make us an Easter people, may Allelulia be our song and caring for others be our prayer."

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HOLY WEEK: Nails

3/31/2021

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When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. Colossians 2:14 - Message

As we enter the heart of Holy Week, the image of Jesus nailed to the cross comes front and center. The nails made sure that Jesus was fastened securely to the cross, there was no escape. The nail gives us the most visceral experience of the suffering of Jesus. There on the cross for several hours Jesus hung, with unending, excruciating pain. The nails made sure Jesus would hurt in the worst way possible. Nailed to that cross were all the sins of the world. Nailed to the cross was the debt owed God. Nailed to the cross was Love, a love that attached itself unconditionally to us, refused to let us go, committed to opening the doors of eternal life for us.

This is the deepest mystery of our faith. God in human flesh, was willing to endure the sting of the nails for us. In this we see the power of unconditional love, a love so deep, so profound it would not let us go. We can't comprehend such love. However, if we open our hearts, we can receive it. It can transform our lives. It can lift us up out of our despair, our guilt, our shame. out of any situation in which we are stuck. In a sense we can say Jesus, through the cross, has spiritually nailed himself to us so that our lives are forever attached to his, by the power of the Holy Spirit. What joy it is to know this! Because of the nails, we can journey through the passion and death of Jesus in the hands of divine love, and recommit ourselves to following the footsteps of our Lord. Let us chose to be nailed to love, to service, to each other the way Jesus allowed himself to be nailed for us. Amen

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Lent 5: Light

3/31/2021

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"You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14)
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12)

From your Lent in a Bag, take out your votive candle and turn it on. If you don't have Lent in a Bag, find a candle and light it.

As we draw towards the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week, we are reminded that soon the forces of darkness will take over. The light will dim. Often on Good Friday at the end of worship the Christ Candle is the only candle left illuminating the sanctuary. This reminds us in our grief what the gospel proclaims, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).
Jesus has died, but the promise of the resurrection is fast and sure. So even in the darkest of moments we have hope.

We live in a spiritually dark world, where mass shootings are commonplace, inequalities seem impossible to change, where faith seems to divide instead of unite. Even in these difficult times we are called to reflect the light of Jesus. We are living lanterns, called to cast our light into some dark corner. Where today will you shine? Who will you care for? What kind words and encouraging words will you speak? To whom suffering, hurting person will your presence bring comfort? Be the light people need to make their way in these uncertain times, and never underestimate the good that one light, shining brightly, can bring to a troubled heart. Despite the darkness, let us be like Jesus and shine bright!

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Change Decently and in Order!

Keep the Change

Called to Galilee

HOLY WEEK: Nails

Lent 5: Light

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