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No Greater Love

5/20/2021

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John 15: 9-17; 1 John 6: 1-6

 
        “Are you mom enough?” so once asked a Time Magazine’s provocative article - portraying on the cover a three-year-old boy breastfeeding.   The article describes a movement called “attachment parenting” where children sleep in the parent’s bed, when young are carried around in a sling, breastfeed on demand and weaned when the child wants to. “On the other hand, we have the advice from the book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” which extolls parents to be strict disciplinarians, setting forth grueling regime of musical lessons, academics and high expectations that will land your child into Harvard.  Who here knows the term Helicopter parents?  Parents hovering around their offspring’s social science and science projects, checking and double-checking homework, deeply engaged in all aspects of their social lives. 

Before that, in my day, it was the battle between the stay-at-home moms vs. the moms who worked –the ones who always brought the store-baked cupcakes to the school bake sales (guilty as charged).  It was the moms who choose midwives vs. those who went with obstetricians. It was the moms who chose labor without medications vs. those who demanded drugs at the first contraction.  It was the moms who insisted on organic baby food and cloth diapers, those who felt beechnut and pampers were just fine.


Some of us are products of the Dr, Spock guide to baby and childcare, empowering parents to just follow their instinct.  In his heyday Dr. Spock books outsold everything except the bible. Now there are elders among us, or even our parents and grandparents, were reared with the scientific methods of John Watson who chided mothers for their indulgence, warned about the dangers of "too much mother love," and prescribed strictly regimented feeding schedules for infants. Of course, there’s the age-old Biblical proverb “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” Proverbs 13:24. Welcome to the brave new world of motherhood, parenthood, USA! 


Mother’s Day, which is celebrated today a secular holiday. There are some churches that won’t mention Mother’s Day as a point of principle. Frankly, it can be difficult holiday to observe – not everyone was raised by a wonderful mom.  Some of us are estranged from our mothers, or our moms are dead.  Some of us are not mothers, or cannot bear children, or have lost a child or pregnancy in one way or another. Some of our children don’t fit the well-adjusted, well-rounded mold – they are sick, disabled or have other problems.  How do we honor the totality of the human and spiritual experience that comprises motherhood?   


Our lives have been touched and shaped by the women in our lives--mothers, whether biological or not, or a grandma, auntie, sister, relative, teacher, boss, neighbor or a friend – someone who laid down their life, gave up or deferred a dream—sat in patience, out of love and care for us. Women who encouraged us, believed in us when no one else did – who saw something that no one else did -- doing what John speaks about in our gospel lesson: to love each other as God has loved us. Jesus adds there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend. When we lay something down, we let it go. That’s what love teaches us—to let go -- of our life – not just physically—but let go of control of outcomes, let go of our expectations, of self-centered actions -- in order to help others, to let them blossom as God ordained them to be.
Some of us are lucky as adults, to consider our mother as a special friend. Friendship in Jesus’ time was a very serious matter. To be considered a friend was an honor. Being a friend meant being treated as kin.


So, our Mother’s Day readings invites us to lay down our preconceived ideas of God – of love -- to enter into kinship and friendship with Jesus. So today we also celebrate the feminine images of God in scripture that teach us about love. In Scripture we hear of a God described as a woman in labor (Isa. 42:14)  a mother suckling her child (Num. 11:12),  a mother who does not forget the child she nurses (Isa. 49:14-15), a mother who comforts her children (Isa. 66:12-13), a mother who births and protects Israel (Isa. 46:3-4, Dt. 32:18) --  a mother who calls, teaches, holds, heals and feeds her young (Hosea 11:1-4). We see God as a seamstress making clothes for Israel to wear (Neh. 9:21), God as a midwife attending a birth (Ps. 22:9-10a, 71:6; Isa. 66:9), God as a woman working leaven into bread (Lk. 13:18-21), God as a woman seeking a lost coin (Lk. 15:8-10). God like a female bird protecting her young (Ps. 17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 91:1, 4; Isa. 31:5; Dt. 32:11-12), and like a female eagle (Dt. 32) who hunts and bears the eaglets on her wings (Cf. Ex. 19:4, Job 39:27-30), God like a mother hen (Mt. 23:37, Lk. 13:34; Ruth 2:12) who gathers her brood under her. A God who is like a Mother Bear (Hos.13:8), whose rage against those who withhold gratitude is like that of a bear "robbed of her cubs." God as Holy Spirit (which in Hebrew and Greek is feminine) often associated with the birthing process (Jn. 3:5; cf. Jn. 1:13, 1 Jn. 4:7b, 5:1, 4, 18), consoling, comforting, and inspiring. All these images show feminine power to lay down our lives, endure hardship, to care, and sacrifice – all rooted in the love of God. Scriptures go even further – God says through the prophet Isaiah: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Is. 49:15).


Contrast these biblical images with cultural messages on TV and other media. This 28-billion-dollar industry wants to make sure we don’t forget the cards, flowers, chocolates, special dinners, fancy jewelry, clothes, spa treatments that moms deserve. Ads even pop up when I turn on my kindle, directing me to local florists.  How creepy is that?!  Yes, get the flowers and make a special dinner, but let’s not stop there.  Mother’s Day, as originally intended in the US, calls us to lay down our lives, out of love.


Mothers’ Day in the US came about because a woman named Anna Jarvis, wanted to honor her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis. Mother Jarvis was a lifelong active Methodist. Mother Jarvis organized medical services for soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict during the Civil War. Shortly after the Civil War, Mother Jarvis organized events to address the poor health conditions in her West Virginia community. She called it Mother’s Work Day, and she went on to organize other local Mother’s Friendship Days to help heal the scars of the Civil War.  She did this, despite the personal tragedy of losing four of her children to disease. In all, eight of her twelve children died before reaching adulthood.

Also affected by the ravages of war, the poet and philanthropist Julia Ward Howe also proposed in 1872 an annual Mother’s Day for Peace -- to honor peace, motherhood and womanhood.  Howe envisioned Mother's Day as "a worldwide protest of women against the cruelties of war." She made this Mother’s Day Proclamation: “Arise, then, women of this day! ....  We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up …. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!" …Let (women) them then ..take counsel with each other.. whereby the great human family can live in peace, and each bearing the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.”  Mother Jarvis also called for a special day for prayers for mothers, children, and for non-violent solutions for disputes between nations.     


In 1905 Anna Jarvis swore to dedicate her life to her mother’s projects. Anna Jarvis’ letter-writing campaign led directly to the establishment of a Mother's Day.  So, on this day, May 9, in 1914, by an act of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.


Sadly, Anna Jarvis became quickly disillusioned with how Mother's Day evolved, that it deviated from the intent to honor the work of mothers as social reformers, activists, and peacemakers. She was against the money-making machine that emerged out of Mother’s Day observations.


We face the very same dilemma.  What could that 28.1 billion dollars we spend on flowers and trinkets and dinners accomplish in terms of maternal health in developing nations?  Giving birth is still risky business in many parts of the world.  Many bleed to death, leaving a family of orphans. Many mothers are still illiterate and can’t feed their children adequately. Mother Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe, would want us to honor our biological or spiritual mothers by befriending and laying down our lives for all mothers, everywhere.  Because there is no greater love than this. Uplifting the mothers in need in this world uplifts future generations and uplifts, justice, peace and love.


So, this is how do we honor our mother God, and all who serve in her name -- all the women and men who are surrogate mothers, who nurture and care for us, Who lay down their lives for others. Who abide with us, whether you follow Dr. Watson, Dr. Spock, attachment parenting or being a tiger mother.  Who want the best for all through acts of justice and love.  


  So lay down your life.  Aspire to the greater love for those in your life. Be a friend to someone in need. Be a mother. In this way joy will shine in us and through us to touch those who God has entrusted to us.  And have a Happy Blessed, Mother’s Day, whoever you are, and may this greater love guide all you do. Amen.

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On the Road to Gaza

5/20/2021

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​\Acts 8:26-40; John 15:1-8

 
         Our text from Acts this morning finds us on another Easter journey, this time on the road to Gaza, of all places.  Modern day Gaza has been a place of civil unrest for years.  At this troubled place come two men with challenging situations and who together find transformation through the Holy Spirit.

Our passage from Acts tells us an Ethiopian Eunuch, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning home to Ethiopia via Gaza.   Although this Ethiopian is unnamed, there are several important pieces of information about him.

He was a man of power and of wealth. He was a court official of the Queen of Ethiopia, in charge of her entire treasury.  The fact that he could read, in Greek, and that he had a scroll of Isaiah, and a nice chariot to boot, are clear indicators of his privilege and prestige. Not many people had any of these things in Jesus’ times. Judaism had been a presence in Ethiopia for many years. Indeed, Ethiopia has been noted as the first center of monotheistic worship on the African continent. 

        Mighty man though he was, the Ethiopian was a eunuch.  Emasculation was common in some pagan rituals, with slaves, and in many royal positions, especially when dealing with women.  No matter how much power a eunuch accumulated, he was always set apart, an outcast.  Jewish law in Deuteronomy made clear that “No  one who has been castrated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD”  (Deut. 23.1) The severity of the laws obliged him to withdraw in the hours for common prayers, yet he was allowed to go alone into the Temple and there offer his sacrifice.  Even though he was looked down up, denied full membership in the assembly, this wealthy, faithful man still made the 1,600 mile dangerous, difficult trip to Jerusalem. 

Our text also introduces us to Philip, one of the first deacon/evangelists named early in Acts.   Philip was friends with Stephen the first martyr of the faith, who had just been stoned to death.  Philip experienced the persecution of the early Christians in Jerusalem, so he and others fled to that despised region of Samaria. –and there he helped establish Christian communities.  It was in Samaria that Philip began preaching, and there were healings, and there was great joy.  There Philip gets the call – to go south to the road that leads to Gaza.

Philip obeys.   The Spirit leads Philip up to that fancy chariot and says something remarkable to Philip: go and join yourself to it.  Philip is not just told to say: halt! Could you pull over? Stop the chariot! Or Can I talk to the guy in charge?  Philip is told “Go over to this chariot and join it.” A powerful word here is used in the Greek for join:  a word that implies a cleaving, a gluing, a connection that produces a deep, lasting and abiding relationship –to have a soul-knitted kind of friendship. Paul uses this word when he encourages us to in Roman 8:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”  

 With that context in mind, Philip hears the Eunuch reading the text from Isaiah 53, and so he asks, do you understand this?  Philip assists this prestigious man who actually owns a scroll if he understands this text from Isaiah, to connect to the text.  Intrigued, the Eunuch invites Philip into the probably very spacious chariot and asks for guidance.  Who was this man, like a sheep led to slaughter?  Who is this man who was silenced? Who is the man who was humiliated? Who was this man who was denied justice?  Who was this man whose life was taken away from the earth? Who is the prophet speaking about? The eunuch asks these questions, because we can imagine, that even with all his authority and power, he was not able to go into common prayer in the Temple; he was excluded, he had no voice, he was denied, because as a child, he was forcibly castrated.
        But this is not a barrier for Philip. Philip tells him. He tells him the good news about Jesus. How he came about to do good; to preach repentance of sins, and the kingdom of God.  How Jesus too was rejected, humiliated by the authorities, left to die on a cross. How they found the empty grave. How he was Risen.  How Jesus gave them a new commandment: that we love one another as he indeed loves us.   Philip helps the eunuch to connect his life --- to join, to cleave, his life to Jesus.

        See, I imagine, as Philip is sharing these things about Jesus, but he is also rolling the scroll a bit further along to show the Eunuch another passage from Isaiah at Isaiah 56:4-6:

and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.
 
 
The Eunuch stops the chariot and asks – what is to prevent me from being baptized?  He is so used to rejection he has to ask this question, after all – being a eunuch keeps me from the Jewish assembly – am I allowed in the Christian community? Do I belong?  The answer is yes, Jesus accepts you just as you are. Philip baptized him. The Eunuch went on his way rejoicing.  Now he belonged.

        It is notable that there has been a strong Christian community in Ethiopia since the first century; and many consider the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church the only pre-colonial Christian church of sub-Saharan Africa.  Many believe Ethiopia is the only region of Africa to survive the expansion of Islam as a predominantly Christian state.  The bond of love and friendship that the Spirit told Philip to share with the Ethiopian Eunuch is a vine that was planted in the soil of an ancient and noble civilization, and has borne much fruit, fruit that has endured two millennia.

        We are called to learn from the very first followers of Jesus. From real people, people who were broken, who suffered, yet were able to connect to one another, find Jesus and ultimately joy in that encounter.   Like Philip who saw a dear friend murdered and was exiled to a despised land, yet there he prospered in faith. Like the Eunuch, who could never experience full acceptance until he met Jesus, through the witness of Philip.
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        Imagine finding Jesus on your road to Gaza. Gaza which represents that place of mess, exile and conflict in us and around us. Gaza It is that wounded place where you have been rejected or hurt by the world. That’s where the spirit finds you today. What troubles keep you isolated, what hurts pull you down? God’s good news to you today is that in Jesus there is the power to heal, to connect, to belong, and forge a community of love and support through the name of Christ our Lord.   You belong. You are whole. You are joined – to Jesus, to one another and there is nothing that can stop you. So in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, join yourself and find the wholeness, the belonging, that your heart seeks, there on your road, in the midst of Gaza, is the Lord, who also seeks to find you there. Amen.

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When Their Eyes Were Opened

5/20/2021

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1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48

 
When my sister-in-law, Dr. Jane Case-Smith died, her legacy as a giant in the field of Occupational Therapy was honored at Ohio State University, with the organization of an annual 5k Run, Walk and Roll to help fund a special scholarships in her name.  Jane an avid runner and did five miles a day in addition to her demanding work load and family obligations.  Somehow, she found time for it all.  Key to her secret? Something like: Go to bed at 9 get up at 4.  Sorry, that’s not happening!  At least not right now.

        Running, or walking, is more than a health practice. It is also a mental practice as well as a spiritual practice.  Many great writers have extoled the importance of walking, not just for its health benefits but for its power to move the spirit and clear the mind.

        Jesus’ ministry was a walking, itinerant ministry. Scholars estimated that Jesus on average, walked 15-25 miles a day.  In our day and age when getting to and from the subway or driveway is the extent of most of our exercise, we forget that not too long ago, the average American walked 11 miles a day – to visit a neighbor, go to school or church or go shopping in the nearest town.

Walking takes us places we don't expect to go to, leads us to people we don't expect to meet, and we find ourselves in chance encounters we hadn’t planned on. Sometimes we walk quietly together.  Sometimes we walk and talk, discussing the events of the day.   Today we hear how Jesus initiates a conversation with two of his disciples, Cleopas, and most scholars assume his wife, walking to Emmaus, a village seven miles from Jerusalem. 

There could be many reasons these disciples didn’t recognize Jesus:  because they were looking through their own doubt, as they discussed their own interpretation of the scriptures.  They doubted the message of the women who said that angels had told them that Jesus was alive.  If these two had believed that message they would have gone to Galilee as the angel reminded them.  They would have stayed with the other disciples to see what was going to happen next, but they didn’t.  They were on their way home, disappointed that Jesus hadn’t been the Messiah, disillusioned that the kingdom he talked about hadn’t come and filled with doubt about him being alive.  

What often keeps us from seeing Jesus at work in our lives and present in our world is our own sense of disappointment, doubt and defeat.  When our own lives don’t turn out the way we hoped they would, our disappointment leads us to ask, where is Jesus in all this?  When we see violence, injustice and persecution in the world we become disillusioned and wonder, is the power of Christ at work in the world?    Jesus often seems like a stranger to us.  Sadly, the church can make Jesus a stranger to others.

As they walk home this stranger accompanies them, listens to their hurt and disappointment. He is accessible and interested in connection. He listens more than he speaks, but when Jesus does speak, he repeats the very teaching and tradition that the two have found lacking. He speaks of the very religious reality they are walking away from. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus the stranger, interprets the scriptures, strangely warming their hearts as they listen.

        But something interesting is happening here.  Consider that word, stranger. The Greek word in the Bible is PAROIKOS. Elsewhere it the Bible the same word is also translated as immigrant, an exile, an alien or a resident alien. Imagine Jesus – the exile, an alien, the immigrant – the stranger in our midst, who opens our eyes to God’s word, God’s presence in the world.

        PAROIKOS also gives us the word parish – a common word used among many Christian denominations for a congregation.  Isn’t that what the church should be: a community, an intentional family, a motley gathering to include all peoples: from all backgrounds, differences, to include strangers, the outcasts, church exiles and “aliens” like Jesus the stranger, the Paroikos, who walks in our midst.

        Back in our Emmaus story. Look at how that first parish emerges. The travelers urged Jesus strongly to stay with them. Time spent on the road, telling stories, turning stranger into friend. 

        So, Jesus went into their home, not as a stranger, but as an esteemed friend and guest. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Just as he had done so many times on so many roads at so many places. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him and Jesus vanished. 

I believe the Emmaus story is a critical scripture for us. Because it calls us to see Jesus in the stranger in our midst. It invites us to walk with the unseen Jesus. It helps us turn strangers, exiles, the different, into friends through walking and talking about sacred stories, those concepts most sacred to us.

So I would like to challenge us to a spiritual 5K run, walk or roll. To begin a new journey together. To set aside significant time to explore the scriptures this year. To enter the unknown.  To pray together for our community and our future.   As we partake in this spiritual journey may the unseen Jesus led us to become an Emmaus Church – a place open to the stranger, to spiritual exiles, where the word is encountered, Jesus is found, bread is broken, hearts are warmed, and we can celebrate this ancient Irish saying
​:
We saw a stranger yesterday.
We put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place.
And with the sacred name of the Triune God
We were blessed, and our house,
Our cattle and our dear ones.
As the lark says in her song:
Often, often, often goes the Christ
In the stranger’s guise.



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Life in His Name

5/20/2021

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John 20:19-31, Acts 4:32-35

 
      It’s been one week since Easter, one week since the chaos and excitement, one week since the empty tomb, one week since our first “Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed!” It’s one week after the resurrection and the disciples are in the same place they were Easter night. They are in the same room behind the same locked doors. (John 20:19-31)
     So, if the resurrection is such a big deal, such a life changing event, why are they still stuck in the same place? What difference has the empty tomb made? How has it changed them? Has it let them see themselves and their world differently?   I wonder, one week after Easter, what has Christ’s resurrection done for us? Is our life different?          Do we see and engage the world in new ways?  Today’s readings call us to reflect on what a difference Jesus makes in our lives. John declares, “these things are written so you may come to believe that Jesus is the messiah, the son of God and through believing you may have life in his name.”  What does life in his name look like?
According to John the disciples were gifted with new life as they Jesus appears, greeting them with “Peace be with you.”  Jesus then breathes on them, giving them holy spirit.  It reminds us of the second chapter of Genesis when God breathed into Adam the breath of life.  
The kind of life God breathed into Adam as recorded in Genesis is life known as bios in Greek. The English word biology is derived from this root. It refers to the duration of life — one’s life span, the time between one’s birth date and one’s death date; or it refers to the necessities of life — one’s food, shelter, and clothing. Another important Greek word for life is zoe, in which the English words zoo and zoology are derived. It refers to life as God has it. The life that belongs to God that becomes ours when we receive Jesus as messiah, God’s son, and enter a relationship with God. This zoe life, life of the spirit, is not limited by time, nor hindered by death. This is the life Jesus breathed into his disciples when he declared, “receive the Holy Spirit.”
When we were born, we were given bios life, when we are born again we are given zoe life. Until enter into a relationship with God through Jesus we may be physically alive but spiritually we are dead. Remember Jesus assures Nicodemus that we must be born again, born from above.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the spirit is spirit Jesus reminds us. To be a follower of Jesus, to know who he is and what he means brings usa new vitality, a new meaning, a new energy, a new purpose, a new significance, a new outlook, a new hope, a new joy, a new life.
     Our lessons from John 20 and Acts 4 today give us several insights into the kind of spiritual life, zoe-life, that Jesus brings us.
In our lesson from John, Jesus speaks to the disciples three times in the upper room giving them assurance. “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (vv. 19, 21).  The spiritual life Jesus gives us gifts us with purpose. We are sent forth into the world to make a difference.  We are called not just to exist but to contribute to the healing of the world.  That’s what zoe life does.  So what are your gifts of service?  Are you called to cheer people up?  Do you have resources you can share with the needy?  Do you use your time to visit or contact those who are sick, in prison, or shut in?  What is that special thing God has placed in your life to share with others, to bring life, in his name? There is no better time than the Easter season to discover Jesus’ calling on our lives.

In the passage from John, after Jesus commissions his disciples, after he sends us forth, he then breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained” (vv. 22-23).  Out of all the characteristics of this new life we are called to, forgiveness and mercy is at the cornerstone of our life. Not wealth, not wisdom, not fame, not glory, but forgiveness. We are called in our new life in Christ, to exhibit and bring forgiveness, healing, reconciliation. 

         Jesus preached a crucial message about forgiving one another, as God forgave us. We stand in grace, and He expects us to keep our hearts pure toward others, not holding grudges or harboring a spirit of unforgiveness.  Jesus said those who have been forgiven much, love much (Luke 7:47). He expects us to forgive others 70 times 7 times (Matt. 18:22). We are also told that if we are praying but hold something against anyone, we are to forgive that person so our relationship with God is right and righteous! Col. 3:13 says, “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” God has determined that forgiveness is a key to showing we indeed have eternal life, zoe life.  Whom do we need to forgive this day?  Whom do we need to ask forgiveness from? Forgiveness is often a process, but it is a process at the root of zoe life.

After this, Jesus also brings new life by freely sharing his wounds with Thomas. “Reach here your finger and see my hands. Reach here your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving but believing” (v. 27).  To which Thomas replies, “My Lord and My God!”  Sharing our wounds whatever they may be with others is another characteristic of the zoe life,  spiritual life, Jesus brings us.  God works through our broken places to reach others.  In Jesus’ resurrected body, his scars remain visible.   Just so our weaknesses become a source a strength, a place that God uses, so that God’s power shine bright. The Lord said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9 ). We are often ashamed of where we are weak. The times we failed, or sinned. The illnesses we endured, the problems we have carried.  The trials we’ve suffered.  The truth is this: people will more readily connect with us in our humility and brokenness. We need to risk sharing our most broken parts with each other, sharing how God has seen us through our pain and suffering.  The Good news shines more brilliantly through the cracks in our lives than our triumphs.  So, treasure your scars and wounds.  Share them.  Let God speak through them so others can draw close to you and can also feel God’s love touching their wounds as well, and they too can receive life in the name of Jesus. 

What is the result of a spiritual life, a zoe life, of purpose, rooted in forgiveness, and sharing our wounds?   Our story from Acts gives us a snapshot of the radical love expressed in the early Christian community.  “They were of one heart and soul.” They shared their possessions in common. They had great power to share their testimony and there was great grace upon them all.  As a result, there was not a needy person among them, for what they had was distributed to all to had need.  That is what God calls us to: spiritual life meets the needs of the community.

       What an image of zoe life, spiritual life present in life on earth. This is a powerful example of what we could achieve if we, as the body of Christ, believe, and have this life, zoe life, coursing through our veins, in his name. To be of one heart and soul? Unified.  Connected.   What would it be like to hold all things in common?  To eliminate need because we are completely committed to one another.  What a testimony of zoe life, spiritual life, we can be in our community if we set our vision to the image of the early Christian community.  Easter calls us to seek Acts 4 as our goal, the full manifestation of life, zoe life, life in his name on earth. To pattern our lives on the life of that early church, through embracing our calling, to practicing forgiveness, to sharing our weaknesses, so we achieve this life, this zoe life. This is how we grow our church. This is how we be church, in all its vitality and wholeness. 
​
     This is the gift of Eastertide. It calls us to seek his life, to celebrate our callings, to practice forgiveness and reconciliation, to share from our weakness and our wounds, let us be of one heart and mind, mighty in grace bringing the good news of Jesus Christ, so that all might believe in his name, and find life through him. Amen.
 

https://www.gotquestions.org/John-20-23.html

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    Moirajo is a minister, social worker, wife, mother, writer and animal lover. That's just for starters. Join the story, there's so much we can share together! 

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