The Grafted Olive Tree--The Tree of Love; Romans 11:13-36

This Advent I have been doing a series on the theme of trees. If you are interested, you can find prior messages on my blog: pastorparato.blogspot.com. One is an audio recording and the others are manuscript versions. And I will be posting today’s message on there as well. I started with the Tree of Life as a symbol of hope. The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden shows us that it was God’s plan from the beginning to give eternal life to people. The Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem, in the new heavens and new earth, shows us that God’s plan has not changed, that our hope of eternal life is a sure hope. It’s just now been given to us by a different means, which brings us to the second Sunday of Advent, in which I shared that the cross is the tree of our peace. Instead of eating from the tree of life, God sent Jesus to die for us to make peace and to give us eternal life. Colossians 1 says that we have peace through the blood of the cross of Jesus. This peace isn’t just between us and God but broke the curse over all creation. God is reconciling all things to Godself through Christ, and Jesus’s death also helps us to have peace with each other. The beams of the cross point to our reconciliation—the vertical beam, our peace with God, the horizontal beam, our peace with other people. Last week, I preached that the tree of Jesse is the tree of joy. The tree that grows up from the root of Jesse is a person—Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the source of our joy. On this last Sunday of Advent, I aim to show that the grafted olive tree as heard in our Romans passage this morning is the tree of love. We often think of olive trees as the sign of peace. And certainly they are. The first mention of the olive branch in Scripture is when the dove flew back with one in its beak after the flood, letting Noah know that it was okay to open the ark. Consistently throughout Scripture, the olive tree is used as a symbol of prosperity and peace between people. But the gift of peace and reconciliation is also a sign of God’s love. The promise of God not to destroy the earth again by water is a sign of mercy. The sparing of Noah and his family was mercy and grace. All of God’s actions stem from the root character of God which is love. God is love. God’s work of reconciliation is the work of love. Last week, in looking at the Tree of Jesse in Isaiah 11 and Romans 15, we heard that the Gentiles were repeatedly told to rejoice because the Tree of Jesse was and is their hope too. Jesus is the hope of the Gentile and the Tree of Joy. Jesus reconciles both Jews and Gentiles to God and with each other, which is what we see in today’s Romans passage in this image of the grafted olive tree. I did some research on olive trees and grafting. When I was in Israel, I saw some olive trees, including ones on the Mt. of Olives, which are over a 1000 years old. I even picked an olive and bit it, which I don’t recommend. They must be cured in order to be edible. But grafting olive trees is a common thing to do. Cultivated olives produce tastier fruit. Wild olives produce better olives for oil not used for eating purposes, for example for fuel, as a lubricant, in medicine, soap, etc. Native olive trees can be more acclimated to the environment whereas cultivated olive trees need more tending. Grafting is usually done by adding cultivated branches to wild root stock, so good fruit will grow from strong rootstock. Rarely would the reverse occur, but that is precisely what we read about today in Romans 11. God grafts wild branches into cultivated root stock. Last week in Isaiah 11, we saw that the Jesse Tree had been cut down. It was a stump. It started out as a cultivated tree. Out of all the families on the earth, God chose Abraham and his line to bless the earth. God chose a son of Jesse, the youngest son, David to be king of those descendants. God chose God’s people Israel, carefully cultivated, to be a model for the nations and to use them to point the nations to God, but they failed miserably. Yahweh’s people pursued other gods, broke the Lord’s commandments, were violent and greedy, and buy the time Isaiah writes, they had become so corrupt, that the Lord pronounced judgment upon them. Israel had been destroyed by Assyria, and Judah had been carried off to Babylon. The tree of Jesse had been cut down, but the rootstock was still healthy. God always keeps God’s promises, and God had promised that the line of David would not die out. And so Isaiah prophesies that a shoot would grow out of the root of Jesse. We know that shoot is Jesus, the Righteous Branch. With the coming of Jesus, the Branch is now a healthy tree. God’s people have been redeemed. The cultivated olive tree is producing some good fruit. But Paul notes in Romans 11 that some of the cultivated branches still had to be cut off. They weren’t producing. We know that many Jews rejected Jesus, and so because of their unbelief, they were cut off from the trunk. But the God who keeps promises, also kept God’s promise to the Gentiles in Isaiah 11. God has grafted the Gentiles, wild olives that don’t produce good fruit, into the cultivated olive tree. God makes them part of God’s family in Jesus. And something amazing happens. The wild olive branches are able to bear good fruit! Paul says in Romans 11:16-17, “If the root is holy, the branches are too, but if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.” We are made holy and are able to bear good fruit because the strong, good root, Jesus, passes His holiness on to us. Paul warns that while this is indeed a great reason for us to rejoice, it is not a reason to become arrogant. Our promise keeping God is able to graft in the branches that have been pruned away for their unbelief. And Paul says, that it will be easy to graft them in again, because they were part of the cultivated tree to start off with. They are of the same stock as the root. Paul emphasizes the nature of our Promise-keeping God when he writes in verse 29 that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” God is in the process of bringing all God’s people back together into one tree. Praise be to the God of love. God’s original plan to give eternal life to people is being fulfilled. In warning us not to be arrogant and prideful because we are grafted into the tree nor to be envious of the cultivated branches that have been there all along, we are called to be people of love. Jesus reiterated that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything we have and everything we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and to work for reconciliation in the world. Paul warns us that if we are unkind, we risk being cut off as well. If we do not want to be cut off again, we must abide in the trunk of the tree. Using the image, not of an olive tree, but of a grapevine, Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in Me, bear much fruit.” The fruit of the wild branches and cultivated branches may be different, but when grafted into Jesus, the fruit will be good fruit. Jesus goes on to say that abiding is to abide in His love and the love of the Father. “As the Father has love me, I have also loved you; abide in my love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.” Obedience is key to not being cut off from the trunk. Obedience is the way we demonstrate our love for God. Kindness is the way we demonstrate our love for one another. Too often today, we confuse niceness with kindness. They are not the same. Niceness is cultural, kindness is self-sacrificial. We can be nice when we don’t want to upset or offend people. But kindness can be misconstrued as being not nice. When you are acting on behalf of another’s wellbeing, they may think you are being mean, when you are trying to be kind. Houston Kraft points out that kindness requires empathy, intention, vulnerability, and perspective. Niceness does not necessarily require any of those things. Being nice can be a burden because it can mean that you are not being authentic. But being kind is being a blessing to others. And as you are a blessing, you will find that you are filled with joy. God has shown love to us by making us part of God’s family through Jesus Christ. Have you been grafted into God’s olive tree of love? If so, rejoice and be glad. Pray that all of God’s branches will be grafted back into the main trunk of God’s olive tree of love. Are you bearing good fruit? Are you at risk of being pruned or are resting in Jesus? How might you spread God’s kindness this week?

The Tree of Jesse--The Tree of Joy; Isaiah 11:1-11, Romans 15:7-13

This Advent I have been doing a series on the theme of trees. If you are interested, you can find prior messages on my blog: pastorparato.blogspot.com. One is an audio recording and the other is a manuscript version. And I will be posting today’s message on there as well, and will provide a link for you on your Facebook page. I started with the Tree of Life as a symbol of hope. The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden shows us that it was God’s plan from the beginning to give eternal life to people. The Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem, in the new heavens and new earth, shows us that God’s plan has not changed, that our hope of eternal life is a sure hope. It’s just now been given to us by a different means, which brings us to last Sunday, in which I shared that the cross is the tree of our peace. Instead of eating from the tree of life, God sent Jesus to die for us to make peace and to give us eternal life. Colossians 1 says that we have peace through the blood of the cross of Jesus. This peace isn’t just between us and God but broke the curse over all creation. God is reconciling all things to Godself through Christ, and Jesus’s death also helps us to have peace with each other. The beams of the cross point to our reconciliation—the vertical beam, our peace with God, the horizontal beam, our peace with other people. Today, on this Sunday of joy, we will see that the tree of Jesse is the tree of joy. The Jesse tree I shared with the children this morning is a great tool for learning the metanarrative of Scripture—the one big story that Scripture tells. All those pictures point to one person, who is the main character of the story. That person is Jesus. In our readings today, we hear that Jesus is the tree that grows from the root of Jesse. And if there were any doubt at all that these passages are talking about Jesus, we can go to Revelation 22:16, where Jesus Himself says, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these thing for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.” Our Romans passage tells us that we are to rejoice because the Ruler of the Gentiles has come Root of Jesse and that God will give us peace and joy when we believe in Jesus. So today we see that the source of our joy is in this Tree of Jesse. The source of our joy is in a person—Jesus Christ. We heard it this morning in our Advent lesson—when Jesus is born in us, we have joy. I’ve been doing a Bible study this fall with some other ladies on the topic of joy, particularly as it is described in the book of Philippians. Each week, we are given a joy builder idea or two to practice because we allow so much to steal our joy, but when we realize that joy is in a Person, a Person who is always with us, Jesus, Immanuel, our joy remains despite our circumstances, even in our circumstances, regardless of our circumstances. We might not be happy, but we can have a joy that cannot be quenched, that can be revived when we remember what we have been given, WHOM we have been given. Let’s take a closer look at this tree that grows from the root of Jesse. At the time our Isaiah passage was written, Israel had been obliterated by Assyria and Judah had been reduced to a remnant by Babylon. The small leftover part was the stump the root of Jesse, but sometimes stumps grow back. My parents recently dug up a stump in their yard because it kept growing back in a place where they did not want a tree to grow. This root of Jesse was still alive, even though it had been cut down. God promised it would grow again. What had been growing in Israel and Judah was not healthy. God allowed it to be cut down. But the roots of the tree never stop growing, and God was going to keep God’s promise to God’s people by allowing something new to spring up from that root. Sometimes we have to undergo a severe pruning in order to grow back healthy. That’s a good thing to keep in mind as we look at things happening in our world right now. We ought to ask God, “What needs to be removed? What do you want to grow back, Lord?” Last week, I shared how Jesus had to die to bring us peace and to break the curse brought about when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In order to receive that peace and life that Jesus gives, we have to die to sin and self and be raised with Christ to new life. Christ then bears fruit in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faith, and self-control. Roots anchor a tree. They absorb water and nutrients from the soil that help the tree to grow. The Root of Jesse symbolizes permanence, firmness, source, and cause. God is the giver and sustainer of life. In the Scriptures, Jesus is not only called the Root of Jesse, but also the Righteous Branch. Jesus as the Root, shows us that He is the Giver and Sustainer of Life. He is fully God. The shoot that grows from the stump is an extension from the trunk. They are the same. Jesus as the shoot from the stump of Jesse represents Jesus’s humanity. He is the same as His people. He is of the people. He is one of them. He can identify with them. The Messiah foretold is both fully God and fully human. Our Isaiah passage tells us that the shoot that grows out of the stem of Jesse will rule the world. He is qualified to do so because He has the fullness of the Spirit of God resting upon Him. For the Spirit to rest is to remain, it’s not a temporary filling. Verse 3 says that the Messiah has eyes to see beyond the way they appear to be. Christ sees things the way they are. He can see through and into. He see into our hearts and minds. Verse 5 says that righteousness and faithfulness are the Messiah’s belt. This reminds me of the NT descriptions of the armor of God which we are called to put on. When we put on our spiritual armor, we are putting on Christ—His righteousness, His faithfulness. In Isaiah 11:6-9, we have these images of the peaceable kingdom. These images aren’t necessarily meant to be taken literally. For example, many scholars believe that wolves, lambs, snakes, calves, and lions represent different types of people all getting along. With Christ as King, there will be no more cutthroat, utilitarian relationships. The sons of the snake will become saints. We won’t be eating at each other, tearing one another apart with our words and actions. Divisions of inferior and superior will be erased because all will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. There will be no more war, evil, or even the fear of evil. In our Romans passage, Paul tells us that we are to accept each other because Christ has accepted us. In other words, we are to live as if we are in the peaceable kingdom because Christ has come. Therefore the peaceable kingdom has begun. Instead of letting others steal our joy, we can bring joy to others. Some of the joy builder ideas from the Bible study I’m doing are being conscious to say “thank you” when someone helps you—be intentional about finding at least one person to thank every day, and then say a prayer of blessing for that person. Another is to thank God daily for your spouse. For some people, that’s very easy. For others, it can be a challenge. Another is to confess sin daily and be as specific as you can and to say a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s mercy, and to ask for wisdom to make reparation if you have wronged another person. Also to consciously forgive anyone who has wronged you that day and to thank God for God’s grace. This is accepting others as Christ has accepted us. And of course, we rejoice in Jesus. Praise the Lord for who He is. Name the attributes of God and praise God for them. Name the actions of Christ, and thank Him for them. I love how this last verse we read, this benediction Paul gives us sums up the first 3 Sundays of Advent, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Hope, peace, and joy are all here. Brothers and sisters, I pray that you may be filled with the joy that is found in the Tree of Jesse—that wonderful shoot that grew up from a stump that was cut down, but from a root that would not die, the promised Messiah, who has now come and is coming again, Immanuel who is always with you. I pray you are filled with the joy of Jesus, joy that no one and no circumstances can take away. May you be those who spread that joy to others, so that they may even ask you about the hope that is in you!

The Cross--The Tree of Peace; Genesis 3:1-21, Colossians 1:19-23

Last week, we saw the tree of life as a symbol of the sure hope we have of eternal life. We heard that it was God’s plan from the beginning to give eternal life to people, freely offering it to any and all who will receive it. We also saw that although neither Adam nor Eve, nor any other human being, were permitted to eat of the tree of life after choosing to disobey God, the tree is present at the end of time, showing that none of us are without the hope of eternal life. It just comes to us differently. Today we see the promise of peace that was given to Adam and Eve and has been given to us—peace given to us through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. So what was so wrong with what Adam and Eve did? Was it wrong to want wisdom? We are told to ask for wisdom. Was it wrong to want to be like God? We are called to be like Jesus, and He even gave us the Holy Spirit so that we can be like Him? No, it was wanting to be equal with God, something that the Son of God had from the beginning but didn’t grasp and hold on to, but willingly relinquished for our sake, as the Christ hymn in Philippians 2 tells us. And yet, our Colossians passage tells us that “it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ.” He was fully God. By the way, this part of our passage is part of a Christ hymn as well. So in addition to simply being disobedient, which is a big enough problem on its own, the problem with eating of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil was defining for ourselves good and evil, wanting to be in the position of God. This is something we have problems with all the time today. We do what is right in our own eyes, just like they did in the Book of Judges. When we try to do good, there are often unintended harmful consequences. That which we label as evil is often not as bad as we make it out to be. We’ve just come through one of the closest elections ever, and some offices are still too close to call, and yet the two main parties constantly demonize the other, even though each group represents almost 50% of the population. The world views held by each position are radically different. Both views have flaws. And there are many more world views out there. This is what happens when we try to discern for ourselves good and evil. We end up divided and confused, and we fall into the same blame game that Adam and Eve did. But there is a solution to the problem. Adam and Eve were not left without hope for eternal life, even though they couldn’t eat from the tree. They had to wait for a promise, a promise of peace, and Someone in whom they could put their trust. We see that promise given by God in Genesis 3:15. Even as God is pronouncing curses and will continue to pronounce the curses, the consequences for breaking the covenant, God offers a solution by way of a promise. God tells the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” The curse the serpent received is the promise of hope and peace for Adam and Eve. Though strife between the serpent and the woman would exist, the seed of the woman would be victor. We know that this is a prophecy fulfilled only by Jesus Christ. Women do not have seed. That is a term used for male sperm. But Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary without contribution from any man. Rather, she conceived by the Holy Spirit. The cross was a bruise to the heel of the Promised One, but on that same cross, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent, because it was through His death that He purchased reconciliation for people—reconciliation not just with God, but also between people. Horizontal and vertical relationships could be restored, symbolized in the shape of the cross. And His victory was in the fact that He conquered death through death by rising again from the dead. Our New Testament reading this morning tells us that Jesus reconciles all things to God—all things, all of creation that has been disordered can be put back to right. Jesus has made peace through the blood of His cross, according to Colossians 1:20. I Peter 2:24 says Jesus “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” He carried out sins up to the cross, so ‘that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” Colossians 1:21 goes on to tell us that we were hostile to God in our minds and alienated from God, engaged in evil deeds. We needed a change of mind, and we need a change of mind if we want to see things from God’s perspective. According to Romans 12:1-2, our minds are renewed as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We surrender ourselves to the will of God. We go back to what God wanted for us in the beginning, and now we are capable of doing so. Though we were subject to the consequences of eating from that tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, Christ reconciled us through His bodily death, so that we can stand before God as holy and blameless if we continue in the faith and the hope of the gospel. There is an emphasis on the body of Jesus, because not only is He fully God but fully human. He had to be fully human to bear the curse. In Galatians 3:13, Paul tells us, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” according to Deuteronomy 21:23. What was intended to be a curse provided the removal of the curse and became the instrument of peace. By the cross, the power of the curse was broken. I have been introduced this Advent to paintings called “Mary Consoles Eve.” These paintings of two women, one pregnant, Mary, comforting a shamed and remorseful Eve, showing her that her child is the Promised One is coming who will break the curse. I love the image of restoration and healing. The promise given to Eve is being fulfilled. She has not been forgotten by God, and she can receive peace and life. Jesus gives us lasting peace that takes away guilt and shame. Partaking of a forbidden tree led to strife, but Jesus’s death on a tree restores us to peace. Do you have the peace of Jesus? Are you still quick to decide for yourself right and wrong, or are you genuinely seeking God’s best? How will live into peace this season with so many divisions in our world? Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. He has passed His ministry of reconciliation on to us. Where in your mind does hostility still reside? Is it with God? Is it with certain people or a person? Will you surrender it to Jesus so that your mind can be renewed?

Tree of Hope--Tree of Life; Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17, 3:22-24, Revelation 22:1-3

Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent 2020, part of a series on trees. To listen, click here.

For All the Saints; Revelation 7:9-17, Matthew 5:1-12

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Little Lost Sheep; Matthew 18:12-14

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Valuable Members of the Body; Romans 12:1-8

Today is Pentecost—we celebrate that Jesus gave the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ, the Spirit empowers us with gifts of grace to fulfill Christ’s mission in the earth. The Spirit first makes us members of the Body of Christ and gives us a place in that Body to help it function and grow.
In Confirmation class, one of the Scripture passages we look at is I Corinthians 12, like Romans 12, it is written by Paul and talks about how we are members of the Body of Christ--that we have been given different gifts of grace, and how all those Body parts are important. You may notice that there are some gifts that Paul lists here that are different than the ones in I Corinthians 12. Some are the same and some are different. There are so many different gifts that the Spirit can give us, but they are all important and needed, and God is going to make sure that the Body is given whatever gifts are needed to fulfill God’s mission.
One of the things that is said far too often in churches is “Youth are the future of the Church.” I’m here to tell you that youth are the church. You 5 folks being confirmed today are entering into formal membership of the Church. You are no less important than any other member. This is what I Corinthians 12 tells us. No one can say to another body part, “I don’t need you.” Your value to God isn’t dependent on age, gender, race, social status, income. No, you are valuable because the Holy Spirit has made you a part of Christ’s body and has uniquely gifted you and placed you in that Body to help God’s kingdom grow on earth.
In I Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that we shouldn’t think of ourselves or others as less important members of the Body of Christ, but to value one another. Here in Romans 12, Paul also tells us to remember that every body part is important, but not to think too highly of ourselves. We are to look after others and serve one another. Last week in the women’s Bible study, we were reminded that Jesus said that those who want to be great in God’s kingdom must learn to be the servant of all. And we do this in response to what Jesus has done for us. He has been our example of a servant, laying down His life for us. If we were to have read Romans 11, we would read about the wonderful things God has done for us in making us people of God. Romans 12 begins with the word “Therefore,” and one of the basics of Bible study is when you see “therefore” go back and read what it’s therefore. Because God has done so much on our behalf, we are called to lay down our lives in surrender to God. The only thing that limits our effectiveness in the body of Christ is our lack of surrender. The more we surrender, the more useful we will be. The more we control we allow the Holy Spirit to have in our lives, the more God can and will accomplish through us.
The women’s Bible study has been looking at Jesus in the Old Testament. One of the early lessons we did this year was on the story of Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice. Some people have a hard time with this story because it can seem like spiritual child abuse, esp. if we get our theology from pictures or Bible story books, where Isaac is depicted as a child. But the word used to describe Isaac puts him at the youngest 13 and at the oldest in his late 20’s. And Abraham would have been well over 100. So who do you think was stronger? In fact, the Bible tells us that Isaac carried the wood for the altar. This isn’t just a few logs of firewood. Isaac was strong enough to resist his father, but he didn’t. He allowed himself to be offered. Just as the ram caught in the thicket was a picture of Jesus as our substitute sacrifice, Isaac too is a type of Christ as a willing sacrifice. This is the same picture we see here in Romans 12:1-2. We are to offer ourselves up to God as living sacrifices because of what Jesus did for us. This is our highest and holiest act of worship—to fully surrender to God. This act of surrender is shown in how we live our lives. We have these spiritual gifts to share with one another such as those listed in 6-8, but the rest of the chapter also lists actions that characterize those who surrender their lives to Jesus. These actions are blessed by God. In fact, I see them as ways to live out the Beatitudes that Jesus teaches in Matthew 5.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to be effective members of the Body of Christ, not only through gifts of grace but by molding our character and enabling us to live out Christ’s commandments to love God and to love one another in practical ways.
May you grow in your understanding of what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ and may you live more and more in the power of the Holy Spirit as you offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God.

Seeing Jesus (video); Luke 24:13-35

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Here is the video mentioned at the beginning of the sermon. Watch the first 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

And here is a bonus link: Carrie Newcomer's "Holy as a Day is Spent", a powerful song about experiencing the sacred in the ordinary.

The Resurrected Body of Jesus; Luke 24:36-49, I Corinthians 15:17-24

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Hear the Good News!; Luke 24:1-11

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No Crown without the Cross; Matthew 17:22-23, II Corinthians 4:7-12

Back when my husband was a music director, one of my favorite songs that his choir sang during the Lenten season was “Without His Cross, There is No Crown” by Joseph Martin. Without His tears, there is no comfort Without His death, there is no life Without His blood, there is no pardon Without His cross, there is no crown Without His shame, there is no glory Without His grief, there is no joy Without His stripes, there is no healing Without His cross, there is no crown Lamb of God, You bring salvation And with Your grace, our hearts are sealed Lord, with Your tears of love, You bathed our sorrows In Your eyes we stand revealed Friends, this is the good news. Because Christ suffered for us, we have salvation, comfort, life, forgiveness, joy, healing. Because Christ suffered for us, we can share in His glory and victory. But there would be no crown without the cross. The suffering of Jesus was necessary. When we were going through Matthew 17, we skipped these two short verses that comprise our gospel reading today. “And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to the disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised again on the third day.” This is now the second time that Jesus has been straight up about His impending death. The first, you may recall, was in Chapter 16, after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus tells them that He is going to suffer and be killed, and Peter tries to rebuke Jesus, but gets rebuked in return. Both times, Jesus tells them that He is going to be raised on the third day. He does not leave out the resurrection. But their reaction is to be exceedingly sorrowful. They are grieving, and their grief is real. Many of you are probably familiar with the stages of grief as explained by Elizabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. None of these stages are bad—they just are. For some of you, this hits home as you have been going through these stages due to recent losses. Though denial does tend to be one of the earliest stages and acceptance one of the latter stages, each person is unique, and there is a tendency for us to bounce around in the stages—going from denial to depression to anger to bargaining back to depression then acceptance with anger and depression still reappearing from time to time. And as far as length of time, we are all different. But rushing the process or dragging it out can be harmful. If we try to rush the process, we often end up making unwise decisions because they might be coming from a place of anger or depression or bargaining, or denial. If we drag the process out too long, we never find the healing that God intends. Usually this happens because we are holding on to resentment or unforgiveness. The disciples are already grieving the loss of Jesus. In fact, their reaction to Jesus the first time around was also grief. Peter’s response to Jesus back in chapter 16 was a grief response of Denial and Bargaining. Here, in chapter 17, they experience depression. Resurrection is something they don’t understand. Even though it’s going to be more amazing than they can ever imagine, it’s also going to be a huge change, and the way to resurrection is going to be difficult. Changes that we don’t understand are sources of grief. Even the promise of an amazing outcome does little to comfort us. Jesus is with us in our grief process. Jesus is described by the prophet Isaiah as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He knew what it was to grieve and He tried to take time to grieve, though He was often interrupted. He was finally able to pour out the fullness of His grief in the Garden of Gethsemane. Those hours were so important. In the garden, we see Jesus in the stages of depression and bargaining—“If You will, take this cup from Me.” He knew there was no other way, and He was fully committed to doing the Father’s will, yet in taking this time, He was able to come to the place of acceptance. He could face the pain and shame of the cross because He knew that there was going to be a crown on the other side. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that He was able to endure the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. He moved past the grief and focused on the joy. That joy was not limited to His personal triumph over death and the devil. It was not limited to His return to the glory and taking His rightful place as King of all, but it was the joy of the salvation of His people. You and I are part of Jesus’s joy. Grief is not just experienced alone. There is corporate grief. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He wrote Lamentations in addition to the book that bears his name. But Jeremiah didn’t just write laments for himself. Much of what he wrote was in the style of a city lament. He did not invent this literary form. City laments were used when some kind of catastrophe fell on a city—such as they were conquered, or ransacked, or a leader died, or a fire or plague broke out. They were often written with a sense that their gods had abandoned them. They were used to help the community grieve together. Jeremiah writes these on behalf of his people. Grieving together can allow healing to take place. Churches go through grief…sexual misconduct, financial misconduct, loss of a leader. Just like with individuals, if we rush or drag out the grief process, it can harm the body. Too short and poor decisions are made. Too long, and new visioning and resurrection doesn’t happen. David Kessler has recently written about a 6th stage of grief—finding meaning. When loss occurs and we have begun to accept it, we still want to know why, to find some purpose in the pain. The meaning that God intends is resurrection, vitality, a crown. I read a great article a couple of weeks ago by Chad Bird entitled, “I Can’t Wait to Get Out of Heaven.” The heaven that now is, at least from out trapped in time position, is not the end. Resurrection is the goal. The graveyards and columbaries are going to be empty. There’s going to be a new heavens and earth. There will be no more barriers. It will be always light because of the constant presence of God and Jesus. It’s going to be so amazing we can’t even imagine it. We are going to be everything God intended us to be from the beginning. Resurrection is about God bringing beauty from death and destruction. I don’t believe God ever wastes a hurt. All of our hurts will be redeemed. Look at what happened to the disciples post-resurrection and ascension. They became spiritual powerhouses who turned the world upside down. Keeping sight of the resurrection even in our grief helps us to move forward and find meaning. Our epistle reading this morning was written by Paul. He didn’t have the same experience with Jesus that the other disciples did, but he knew all about grief and suffering. In fact, these words were written when he and his companions were undergoing persecution and suffering, but he keeps his eyes on the resurrection. If we had kept reading, we would have gotten to verse 14—“knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you.” Resurrection is coming, and because of that, we can be “hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. Both the life and death of Jesus can be seen in our bodies at the same time. Some things have to die so that resurrection can take place, but it doesn’t have to be a hopeless process. Paul describes us as jars of clay and even cracked jars of clay. Our brokenness allows for resurrection to take place. It allows the power of God to shine through. I went to our presbytery’s small church gathering at the end of January. Our keynote speaker was Jihyun Oh, who is our midcouncils liaison in the Office of the General Assembly. She talked about the need for adaptive change using the metaphor of fermentation. Fermentation is the process of the breaking down of a substance by the means of the addition of something new and often seemingly unpleasant to create a new substance, one which is often considered better or more valuable than the original substance—cheese, wine, chocolate. It’s not the same thing as rot—where something just decays. She used this metaphor to talk about change in the church. Sometimes what we think is neat and clean can be harmful. Fermentation is messy and produces heat—there is often discomfort, it can expose our sin, and yes, there is grief with change, but to undergo the process helps to ward off rot. In order for resurrection to take place, what might need to die first so that something new can be formed? What might need to be added? Are we trying to delay what God is doing because we can’t get past our grief? The resurrection of Jesus was so much bigger than the disciples. Jesus came to save the world, not just a few people from Galilee. As we heard in the play last week, Jesus didn’t come to be a local, earthly King. Certainly, He is King of the Jews, but He’s also King of the Universe! We may find that the dying and rising process might not be for our own personal benefit. In II Corinthians 4:12 Paul says that death works in him and his companions so that life works in the Corinthians. Are we willing to do whatever it takes for someone else to find life in Jesus? Cole Richards, President of Voice of the Martyrs, recently wrote the following: Obedience must be understood to be active (there is no passive obedience), and remaining active for Christ will cost us our lives as we expend our limited stocks of time, energy, and resources. Biblical discipleship is therefore a process of losing our lives; it is impossible to interpret and apply Christ's teachings without understanding this point. 'Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it," He tells us in Matthew 10:39 It is worth noting that even if we are not obedient to Christ, we are diminishing day by day as we approach the day of our death. Therefore, we have only two options: (1)seeking to expend ourselves for Christ's sake or (2)attempting to preserve ourselves as we diminish day by day. Let us be clear in our understanding that both options lead to our earthly death. Our lives are either used or lost. ...Our Lord's eternal kingdom is worth so much more that we not only should be ready to respond to God's call but should beseech Him for greater opportunities to trade anything (or everything) for the kingdom's advancement. Are you willing to risk loss for the sake of seeing Jesus do a new thing that might be a whole lot different than what you expected, but will also be a whole lot greater than you could ever imagine, or are you risking your life to keep things the same? Faithfulness doesn’t always look like success, but if you are being faithful to God’s will, God will crown you with honor. If you don’t have the assurance of resurrection, carrying around Christ’s death in your body can be a terrifying thought. You need to know you have eternal life before you can give your life away. I would love to help you find the assurance of eternal life and the hope of resurrection.

Teaching Through Trials and Temptations; Psalm 25, Mark 1:12-15

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It's Not Just about Us; Matthew 18:1-14

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Tax Exempt?; Matthew 17:24-27

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Mustard Seed Faith & Prayer; Matthew 17:14-21

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The Way of Crucifixion; Matthew 16:21-28

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Rising Star; Numbers 24:17-19, Isaiah 60. Matthew 2

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