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"My Cup Overflows"

4/25/2018

Psalm 23, Acts 4:5-12, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18

        Today is a cup that overflows day. Today I have the joy to become your pastor. If that weren’t enough, I have the joy to be pastor to not only the First Presbyterian Church of Merrick, but also to the Community Presbyterian Church of Merrick as well – two churches beginning a cooperative ministry together. What an exciting, unfolding venture we are entering into.

        We have the blessing to enter into the life of faith and our love for our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the blessing to get to know each other and share our struggles and strengths. We have the privilege to journey into the next chapter of ministry, as we pray for it, envision it, and create it together. We have the joy and honor to worship together. To pray together. To deepen our knowledge of the scriptures and Christ’s way together. We have the hope, we have the confidence that the Spirit will nourish us, guide us, prepare us to walk the right paths for His name’s sake – to love in truth and action, to serve each other and to engage in ministry to the larger community where God is calling us to. Is this overwhelming? Perhaps. I believe It wouldn’t be God’s handiwork unless we felt stretched a little over our heads. It’s God’s work after all. It’s been God’s effort that has brought us together. He is the Shepherd. We are the sheep. Overwhelming, OK, but more to the point, I say, my cup overflows. Today, we affirm: our cup overflows.

My cup overflows. Please say it with me: My cup overflows. My cup overflows not from the tasks that lay ahead – the meetings, the paperwork, finding my way around Freeport and Merrick – along with the nitty gritty of ministry – my cup overflows because this cup is in the hand of the one doing the pouring – Jesus. He pours his love into my cup. He pours his very life into my cup. He fills my cup with blessings, with spiritual nourishment. In this cup I find guidance. In this cup is restoration, when my soul is tired and weak. When toxic or evil elements have tried to seep into this cup, he has protected me. Even when this cup has cracked from danger or pain or heartbreak – He has been the glue that has put the pieces back together. I do not lack for anything. My cup overflows.

My cup overflows. In ancient times, when a host would receive a guest, not only would there be abundant, extravagant amounts of food – like Abraham’s lavish treatment of his three guests at the oaks of Mamre (Gen. 18: 1-8) – but the host would intentional overfill the cup, and allow it to run over, to signal that the guests where most welcome and could stay as long as they needed.

God does this for us. Jesus declared, “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). We are created for the abundant life. We are meant to overflow. Our cup overflows every minute of every day. What it overflows with depends on who we allow to do the pouring, in whose hand holds our cup. Our cup overflows depending and what we allow inside the cup. It is true, we can overflow with fear. Or judgment. We can overflow with resentment or bitterness. Or we can overflow with loving kindness. We can overflow with joy. We can overflow with peace. It all depends on who we allow to hold the cup. It all depends on who is doing the pouring. One thing I know today is that my cup overflows.

Jesus says we are meant for the abundant life. The image he chooses to help us understand this is by referring to himself the Good Shepherd. Jesus doesn’t call himself the Good Carpenter. He doesn’t call himself the Good Professor. He doesn’t call himself the Good Soldier. He doesn’t call himself the Good Emperor. He calls himself the Good Shepherd.

Jesus identifies with Shepherds because of their absolute devotion to their flock. They pour their lives into caring for the sheep. Jesus is the shepherd in Luke’s parable who will leave the flock to find one lost, scared sheep. Jesus is the shepherd who acts as a gate for the sheep, keeping predators at bay. Jesus knows his sheep: he knows his sheep, he knows they are defenseless, he knows they lack direction and need to be led, he knows they become restless and need attention, he knows if they fall they cannot get back up on their own, he knows their wool is constantly growing and needs grooming, he knows they are picky eaters and need plenty to drink. Jesus compares us to the endless overflowing needs of sheep.   The Good Shepherd Lord meets our constant needs. My cup overflows.

Jesus declares he is the Good Shepherd. Every day he nourishes us with his bread and body. He provides living water. He provides rest. He guides us. He rescues us when we are lost. He is with us peaceful times. In the dark and troubles, in times when oppression sits across the table from us. This is a shepherd who does not fill our cup halfway or part way, not just all the way to the top, but he makes our cup overflow. With each overflowing drop He says, you are welcome. With each overflowing drop, He says, I want you with me. With each overflowing drop, He says, you are prized and precious to me. My cup overflows not from an abundance of material success or worldly goods, but because of the abundance of care my Shepherd Lord pours out in me. He lays down his life for me. Today I hear his voice and I declare, my cup overflows.

My cup overflows with the presence and love of our Shepherd God. Because of who holds my cup, because of who is doing the pouring, I am released from my endless wants. I have what I need. Because of who holds my cup, because of who is doing the pouring, I shall not fear. As we embark on our journey together, we can declare, My cup overflows.

Now there will be times, no doubt, when our cups may feel bone dry and empty, with not a drop to be found. We will be tempted to focus on our lack. Like the silly sheep that we are, we get lost in that dark valley. There are many dark valleys churches get stuck in. We get worried about membership numbers that have been on a downward trend for decades. We are alarmed by deficits. We are concerned about aging buildings. Of course, we have anxieties and cares.   We’re sheep after all. Sheep are not known for the intelligence or sense of direction. So, we need help standing. “and stand we will” the apostle Paul reminds us, “For the Lord is able to make us stand” (Romans 4:4).   So together we will learn that when we are tempted, or when we stumble or fall, to keep “keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete” (Hebrews 12:2).

Our spiritual calling as a church community will be to train our eyes, teach our hearts, and guard our minds, in those valleys of worries and challenges we face. We are to learn together to redirect our attention to our Shepherd Lord. To follow his voice. This is we will come to know deeply the depths of our gracious God’s love and care. We have a ceaselessly loving God who pours living waters into our cups. Every second of every day. At this very moment, right here, right now, the divine Good Shepherd Jesus is pouring out his love, his healing his guidance into our hearts. He is shepherding us as we speak. God loves us and envelops us with his life. Because of this I say, my cup overflows.

We are created to experience life overflowing not just when times are sunny and bright, but when times are challenging and dark. This is the Christian path. In the process we learn valuable lessons. When our cups feel empty God uses us to fill each other cups. So, when I’m empty God uses you to fill me to overflowing. When you fill sucked dry from too many troubles, it is the people sitting next to you who can add their drops. God uses us, drop by drop, in the living and caring, to make each of us overflow. Worshiping together, praying together, serving each other and the community we create overflowing cups.    God directs our overflow to where ever it is needed. An overflowing church naturally overflows into the community. Praise be, my cup overflows.

Can we declare together, the age-old declaration of faith, my cup overflows.

The Christian theologian Tertullian noted at the end of the second century, as the churches were persecuted, that while pagan temples spent their overflow on “feasts and drinking bouts,” Christians spent theirs to “Support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girl destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined to the house.” The Emperor noted “The impious Galileans (he means us) support not only their poor, but ours as well.”

        You see? The church triumphed because its cups overflowed with the love and goodness of God in spite of trials and God directed the overflow to care for the sheep of other flocks. This is our grand inheritance as Christ followers. It is our destiny. Let Jesus hold the cup. Let Jesus do the pouring. Today we hear his voice. Today we follow his lead. Today, my cup overflows. It overflows indeed. Thanks be to God!   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2015/11/16/my-cup-runneth-over-bible-verse-meaning-and-study/#gZfSV4exQrta2CoG.99

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"Well Pleased"

4/25/2018

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Galatians 3:26-29; Luke 3:21-22

        As a minister, I have had the privilege to perform a number of baptisms over the years. I once heard the story of a minister who belong to a denomination that baptizes in the older language of “the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.” Once Sunday they had a baptism with the kids, present – and the baby was baptized “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” Later that afternoon his children went outside to play. He found them in the backyard quietly playing "church."

This minister’s 4-year-old daughter was conducting the baptismal service. She had the family’s small dog in the wading pool. Trying to be as solemn as her father, she repeated the phrase she had heard many times: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and in the hole ye go!" I’ve never heard of the Holy Ghost described as “in the hole ye’go.” Perhaps that little girl got it right after all. For in Baptism we are claimed and buried in and we live in the mystery of God’s love. It reminds us of what Paul proclaims in Romans: “Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.… (Romans 6:3)”

        Baptism is a powerful sacrament, a ritual of cleansing, of new beginnings, a seal of and recognition of God’s promises of love and salvation to all humankind. It is our seal into to the family of Christ and a reminder that we belong to him. It is a promise that our lives will be a continually given over to love, faith and grace.   No wonder Jesus claimed it as a sacrament of grace for his movement. Jesus began his earthly ministry with his baptism by John in the Jordan River. At the end of his earthly life, right before he ascended into Heaven, Jesus gave the Great Commission, declaring to his disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matt. 28:19). Baptism signals the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry and it signals the beginning of the spreading of the Good News of the gospel around the world, down through the ages, to this very day when we celebrated the baptism of Sophia.

Baptism signals not the end, but the beginning of a journey. This journey will take us through our entire lives. Baptism is too great, too powerful to be taken in one moment. The work of baptism must continue every moment of every day. We are reminded in that God declares he is “well pleased,” and names us as “beloved.” In our baptism, in Sophia’s baptism, we boldly claim her as dearly beloved, we take god-like pleasure as we remember that baptism affirms us as God’s precious, chosen people.
Michelle and Roy, all members of this church who have made their promise to raise Sophia in the faith; our work is cut out for us. We are all considered “sponsors, or godparents” by our church. This means we have the privilege to love Sophia. We have the honor and the obligation not just to provide her with the tenants of faith, but with a living faith that is only conveyed through love. We must love Sophia and make sure her first memories of Christ’s church are of love.

So, this is the task ahead of us.   Sophia’s baptism reminds us of the fundamental mandate that belongs to us as followers of Jesus.   We are baptized into the body of Christ. That means we are baptized and called into a life of loving service. Every day we are to expect to be baptized by love, in love and through love. Every day we are to be sealed in love, washed clean by love, made new by love. If there is anything we must model for Sophia it is the life of love. In doing this, we live out the promises of baptism. This promise means we treat each other with the love of God, no slave, no free, no male or female, no Jew or Gentile. All of us, one, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There once was a contest to find the most loving child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

There are many ways to love – most of them simple. Like the “most loving child” winner, the greatest gift is being truly present to each other. If we are truly present, we discover there are many opportunities to love – most of them right in front of us. To listen deeply. To smile. To care. To take care of. To withhold judgment or gossip. To be merciful and forgiving. Our task is to open our hearts as wide as possible and embrace the opportunities that are in front of us. This is to live out our baptismal promises and choose to live as Christ did.

In Sophia’s baptism, we are remind of our privilege to love. To expand the circle of love to all peoples. To create a new heavens and new earth, where love is a priority and prime motivator.   Where we spend most of our time loving and upbuilding each other. Love is our task. Love is our duty. Or perhaps we can say it a different way: we spend our day going to love, wherever we go.

         “There’s another beautiful picture of baptism given here: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Baptism clothes us with Christ. We’re wrapped up in Jesus and all his goodness. We’re clothed with his work and his righteousness. Armani, Gucci, Prada – none of those designer labels can compare with the garments we have in Jesus’ name. God tailors us with clothes. Clothed with grace. Clothed with love. Clothed with forgiveness and salvation. Clothed with peace and righteousness. What a wardrobe we have in Christ!

More than anything, this is what Jesus wants for us.   To love one another. That our love would identify us, make us stand out, name us and claim us.   Love-bearers in the world. That is our true identity, in baptism.”

So, let us love one another, pure and simple, as Jesus wanted, as our baptism encourages us. Let us love today, in the name of the Father, the son and in the hole we go, buried in Christ, risen in Christ, clothed in Christ…loved and loving, the same as Christ. Amen.
Notes: https://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-edward-frey-stories-baptism-3438?ref=TextIllustrationSerps

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"The Mark of the Nail"

4/11/2018

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John 20:19-31; 1 John 1:1- 2:5

       There is an ancient legend in which the Devil tries to get into heaven by pretending to be the risen Christ. Disguised and decked out in light and splendor, he arrives at heaven's gate with a band of demons dressed as angels of light. He shouts out the words of the Psalm 24: "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in." The angels in heaven are delighted and respond in the psalm's refrain: "Who is the King of glory?" Satan boldly opens his arms and says, "I am." But in so doing he showed no marks on his hands. The angels in heaven saw he was an impostor and slammed shut the gates of heaven against him.

         In our gospel lesson, we learn how Thomas, who missed the first appearance of Jesus to the disciples, adamantly declares he will not believe that Jesus has Risen until he puts his finger in the mark of the nail on Jesus’ hand. Thomas will forever be known as the “Doubter.” This is frankly too bad. Thomas is really being hard as a nail. Pointed. This is especially true when we look at the two other times that Thomas is mentioned in John’s Gospel. The first is when Jesus decides to head to Bethany to call Lazarus out of his tomb. The other disciples try to discourage Jesus from going. They argue that Bethany is too close to Jerusalem where Jesus risks being put to death. Thomas alone says, “Let’s go, we’ll die with him (11:17).” Pointed. Sharp. Determined, isn’t he? Thomas seems the only disciple who seems to understand Jesus’ mission and is prepared to follow him. Later, at the Last Supper, Jesus talks about his impending death and remarks, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas interrupts, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way (14:5)?” Again, Thomas is prepared to follow Jesus but asks for specifics. Pointed and sharp – not afraid to interrupt. These are not expressions of doubt. Thomas, is, matter of fact, a “show me” kind of guy. Thomas is clear, keeping Jesus’ mission foremost in his mind. Sharp as a tack. Hard as a nail.

      The expression, “to have nailed it” is provocative and striking and speaks to Thomas’ response to Jesus: “My Lord and God!” he said. He nailed it. To nail something is to pin it down, get it right, secure it. It’s related to other sayings, such as “to hit the nail on the head.” To be “hard as nails” is to be determined, tough, unmovable. And of course, to “hit a nail in someone’s coffin” is to signal inevitable defeat, bring about the end of something.   Nails convey permanency, pointedness and precision. No wonder nails are an instrument in Jesus’ death. No wonder Jesus keeps the mark of the nail on his risen body – because Jesus’ message to us is permanent, pointed, and precise. What does he tell his disciples? Have peace. Receive the Holy Spirit. Forgive. Sharp as a tack. Hard as a nail.

Nails were a key element in Jesus’ death. Although there is no evidence that Thomas witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, like the women and the beloved disciple, he knew that nails played a role in killing Jesus. Thomas somehow had enough faith to know that the nail prints would now mark the real, risen Jesus. They have “branded” Jesus. The Risen Jesus, Thomas has determined, can only truly identified by the wounds he carries in his hands feet and side. And he is correct. He won’t settle for less. The pain of Jesus’ death won’t let us settle for less.

So, the next time Jesus appears, he goes to Thomas and says, “Put your finger here in my hands….Do not doubt, but believe.”   Jesus not only knew Thomas’ concern, his guarded doubt, but tells us something vitally important: something Thomas implicitly knew: his resurrected body is not without blemish. It carries the scars he suffered in his crucifixion. The nails mark him.

As a carpenter’s son, Jesus no doubt learned the value of the nail. Nails hold things together. Nails enable the creation of furniture, buildings – and stabilize structures. A nail on the wall holds up a picture, a hat or a coat. A nail fastened the 95 thesis of Martin Luther to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenburg, protesting the abuses of the church – and ignites the Reformation. Nails in the form of spikes developed the railroad system across the U.S., and other countries around the world, allowing commerce and travel to flourish. Some of us know the pain of stepping on a rusty nail. Two of the most gruesome uses of nails are found in the bible: An Israelite woman named Jael killed the enemy General by hammering a tent peg in his head while sleeping (Judges 4:17-24). And of course, in the story we know so well: our Lord Jesus was crucified, with nails hammered into his hands and feet.

       It is not surprising that Jesus would take on the mark of the nail as his insignia. Raised a carpenter, he knew the value, power and symbol of the nail. Its ability to transform an environment and create structures, furniture fences necessary for living. The nails Jesus used to support life would be used to kill him.   God, faithful, raised him from the grave – wounded by nails – to become – we might say, a Living Nail of God.

    Jesus is known by the mark of the nail on his hands. Jesus, a Holy Living Nail, fastens us to God. Jesus through his wounds points us to the way of new, transformational life. Divine breath, hammers home that through the act of forgiving we are affixed now to a life of service and grace. Through Jesus we are attached to the love and mercy of God. Jesus – our living nail -- joins the Holy Spirit to our spirit – so we can know peace and be hope that glues the beloved community together.   In this process of we too become living nails – building up the kingdom of God and making this world livable, viable, blessed, holy.

Thomas is a living nail, fashioned by Jesus. Encountering the Risen Lord, touching those nail marks, he followed Jesus. He found the way. And his way, according to legend, was one of the farthest traveled by any of the disciples. It is not surprising that the stories tell us is that Thomas the Apostle was a skilled carpenter and builder and brought the gospel to India with significant success. It is not surprising that the sacred symbol for Thomas is the carpenter’s square, an instrument that lays out a square or right angel.

Our lesson today reminds us that being a Christian doesn’t mean our wounds disappear and fear go away. We too are marked -- and through them God pours out his life into us to turn us into wounded healers – into Living Christ-nails. Like Thomas, we look at the print of the nail in each other and there we see Jesus present. When our trials and faith are attached together, God forges in us a steely grace that can be the hook, to hold and help shape a lifeline that creates the Way forward others can follow. Sharp as a tack, hard as a nail.

How do we nail it? Franciscan priest Richard Rohr says that when it comes to the hurts we’ve received in life, we either transform them or we transmit them. The only way we transform our hurts is do what Thomas did – he placed his figure in the mark of the nail in Jesus’ hand. He let himself be fastened to Jesus—in his wounded place. That is our calling. To become living, breathing, sacred nails – each of us a part in building God’s kingdom. The writer Ernest Hemingway puts it this way: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
        So today – let’s hit the nail on the head. Come to Jesus, wounds and all. Let God breathe and transform you into a living sacred nail – because through Christ we are fastened to God by love. In love, we fasten ourselves to the care for this world. So, through our broken places may the Risen Lord breathe his peace and forgiveness, banishing fear, unlocking hearts, spreading the gospel of love to all we greet. Amen.

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"Love Raised Up"

4/11/2018

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John 20:1-18; Acts 10: 34-43
Easter

        Karl Fisch, a teacher at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, was asked a number of years ago to put together a power point presentation about technology and its impact on education. The power point presentation, “Called Did You Know?” has since become a stalwart presence on Youtube down through the years, viewed by millions of people.

Did you know that we are living in exponential times? Did you know that the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet? Did you know there are 31 billion searches on Google every month?

        Did you know that Facebook has 840,000,000 active users? If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s third largest, following China and India?

        Did you know that 4 exabytes (4 times 10 to the 19th power) of unique new information will be generated world wide this year, estimated to be more information than the previous 5,000 years collectively?

        Did you know that India has honor students than the combined total of all the students in the United States? We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. We are living in exponential change.

        Whether or not Mr. Fisch’s data holds up under close scrutiny, there is no question that the rate of change in modern life, the rate of accumulation of new information, the technological advances that are happening in our lifetime are just staggering. No wonder we experience a psychological whiplash adjusting to all the new advances that are introduced.

        Change happens. Easter is a celebration of exponential change. It is the celebration and acknowledgement of exponential spiritual change.   Jesus experienced more change in a week than most people endure in a lifetime. He was praised and everyone’s darling last Palm Sunday.   He was plotted and confronted against most of the week. He was betrayed, abandoned, rejected, scorned, subjected to a kangaroo court, tortured and crucified, and laid in a cold, borrowed tomb. And then he was raised up by God that Easter Sunday. Exponential change was born.

        Easter reminds us that life is about exponential change. Our lives may not take on the dramatic turns in a matter of days like Jesus took. But exponential change happens to us nonetheless. It is said that our entire body of cells change completely in the course of seven years. We may look more or less the same, but physically we are different people. Hopefully during this time that our bodies are changing we are also changing spiritually. Hopefully we are becoming, as technology at its best leads us to be, more connected. More connected to the Holy Spirit, the author of change.   More connected to each other. More connected to the world. Easter reminds us of the exponential power of love to transform our lives through the resurrected power of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Most of the time it is hard to deal with change. We struggle with it. We are like Mary Magdalene in the Easter story. We emerge from the darkness, stand at the open tomb and weep. Mary is a witness to the traumatic beating and brutal death Jesus endured. Her memories lead her to the wrong conclusion when she sees the empty tomb and empty linen wrappings. She believes Jesus’ body has been stolen. She can’t fathom the exponential change has occurred. She is asked not once but twice, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Exponential change stands before her and she can’t comprehend it. Finally, Jesus speaks her name. Mary! Suddenly grace breaks through. Mary’s heart turns from sorrow to joy. Her spirit turns from doubt to faith. Her tears turn into gladness. Her soul is raised up as she exclaims “Teacher!!”   She seeks out the disciples and exclaims, “I have seen the Lord!” She becomes known throughout history, as the “apostle to the apostles.”

Exponential change, that is what it is. We live in a time of exponential change and extraordinary challenge. The Resurrection calls us to an exponential change in consciousness that exceeds the exponential change in technology we experience in current times. It is an exponential, resurrection change that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described as moving from self-centered to other-centered consciousness. Every time we choose to help someone in need – every time we step beyond our comfort zone – we become the change.

The apostle Peter, an observant Jew, demonstrates the change in our reading from Acts. Peter had witnessed the Holy Spirit poured out on gentiles, the Holy Spirit led a Roman army captain named Cornelius to accept Jesus as Lord. His heart changed as he came see that God shows no partiality. Peter changed as he saw God’s love is for all people. So, Peter did not demand the non-Jews to first convert to Judaism in order to follow Jesus. As a result, Christianity took a different path. It became an exponential movement.

Easter is about exponential change. A profound change in the soul that raises up resurrection consciousness. It happens when people reach out, love, care, make a difference, act faithfully, positively, live out the Good News, when we proclaim the exponential power of Jesus as Risen Lord.

Last Palm Sunday Pope Francis replied to young people calling for a more authentic and transparent church. This was on the heels to all the youth rallies in the United States and around the world. The Pope said use your exponential power for the good! "you have it in you to shout," even if "we older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet."

        So Holy Week began with exponential voices of children and youth. 17-year-old Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, survivors of the Parkland school shootings, remembered slain classmates. Zion Kelly, 16, who wept for his slain twin brother Zaire Kelly, gunned down coming home from a College prep class in Washington D.C. There was 11-year-old activist Naomi Wadler who remembered 17-year-old Courtlin Arrlington, with dreams of nursing, shot dead one week before the Parkland, FL shootings. There was 9-year-old Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who called her generation to rise up to be a great nation. She echoes the prophet Isaiah who reminds us: “a little child shall lead them.”

These voices give us a glimpse. What if we were to unleash the exponential power of love? Love, raised up to 4 x 10 to the 19th power? What if we learned and practiced the exponential power of love as avidly as we developed technology? What if we unearthed the exponential language of healing, of hope and reconciliation wrapped in the power of the resurrection?

Love greater than Google, that searches and seeks 31 billion plus times a day the lost? Love that creates billions of bits of grace and blessings every day -- more than all the tweets sent and received. New ways to be loving in more unique encounters than the 4 exabytes of unique information? Love raised up to be the greatest nation on earth, the most widely spoken language on earth, the most powerful technology on earth? This is the Easter vision of Jesus.

        Did you that you are not a statistic? Your life matters. Do not keep quiet. You have it in you to shout it out! Christ is Risen!

        Did you know that we can be the change that world needs for resurrection consciousness to break through? Did you know that we are called to raise up love, to the highest exponential degree possible? Christ is Risen!

        So, go and let us create the technology of exponential love, a love just beginning, a vision that hasn’t yet been realized, so that someday our world will make that great spiritual leap with the Holy Spirit. Exponential change is happening, love raises us up, as we proclaim, “We have seen the Lord!” Christ is risen! He is Risen indeed! Aleluia! Amen

Notes:
http://elearning101.org/education/did-you-know-20-by-karl-fisch/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u06BXgWbGvA
http://www.nola.com/religion/index.ssf/2018/03/pope_francis_uses_palm_sunday.html

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"My Cup Overflows"

"Well Pleased"

"The Mark of the Nail"

"Love Raised Up"

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