light

Jesus shouted, “Whoever believes in me doesn’t believe in me but in the one who sent me. Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in me won’t live in darkness. If people hear my words and don’t keep them, I don’t judge them. I didn’t come to judge the world but to save it. Whoever rejects me and doesn’t receive my words will be judged at the last day by the word I have spoken. I don’t speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me regarding what I should speak and say. I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I say is just as the Father has said to me.” (John 12:44-50, CEB)

Jesus never said to believe in him, he pointed people to God.

Jesus also said here he didn’t come to judge the world but to save the world. If people hear the words he doesn’t judge them if they don’t keep them. So why do so many who claim to follow Jesus feel like they need to do something that Jesus never did and said he would not do?

We need to be light. Shine on God and show people love. Not judge them because they don’t accept it the way we expect them to.

Love like Jesus.

Do not judge.

Be Light.

Loving People. Loving God.

confidence

After their release, Peter and John returned to the brothers and sisters and reported everything the chief priests and elders had said. They listened, then lifted their voices in unison to God, “Master, you are the one who created the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. You are the one who spoke by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers gathered together as one against the Lord and against his Christ. Indeed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with Gentiles and Israelites, did gather in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and plan had already determined would happen. Now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with complete confidence. Stretch out your hand to bring healing and enable signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, your holy servant.” After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence. (Acts 4:23-31, CEB)

We have all been filled like these disciples were filled.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit. We can be confident in what we are speaking.

The Holy Spirit will give us the words to speak.

We can confidently share our faith and the love God has give us with everyone around us.

Love like Jesus.

Speak with confidence.

Loving People. Loving God.

Devoted

The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47, CEB)

They were devoted to the teachings, gathering for meals, praying, and worshiping.

They were not telling people they were living a life of sin.

They were not trying to make people live their lives exactly like everyone else in the group.

They were gathering for meals, worship, learning, and praying.

And God was adding to their numbers. They weren’t doing that, God was.

God was bringing in all kinds of people, and they were gathering, eating, learning, and praying. Not worrying about the rest.

Maybe we can learn a lesson.

Loving People. Loving God.

‘especially’ Peter

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb. They were saying to each other, “Who’s going to roll the stone away from the entrance for us?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away. (And it was a very large stone!) Going into the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right side; and they were startled. But he said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.” Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. (Mark 16:1-8, CEB)

Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. That is how the CEB (Common English Bible) decided to translate the sentence, “ἀλλ’ ὑπάγετε εἴπατε τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ τῷ Πέτρῳ ὅτι προάγει ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν·”

I had to go and look at the Greek on this one because the “especially Peter” stuck out to me. I remember reading this passage many times and it was always, go tell the disciples and Peter in the NRSV.

καὶ τῷ Πέτρῳ is the part in question in the sentence. Kai is the word translated as and in the NRSV and especially in the CEB. I learned it means and. I looked it up in a dictionary and got several meanings: both, and, also, even, but. Not especially.

But I have always wondered about that statement from the angel, go tell the disciples and Peter. Was Peter not a disciple? Go tell the disciples, also Peter? Go tell the disciples, even Peter? None of these work well for Peter. But I feel like it is probably because Peter doesn’t feel like a disciple, and naming him means he still is. Jesus wants him to come to Galilee. Jesus sees Peter as a disciple. Even with what Peter has done. Peter is also a disciple and a friend of Jesus.

Know no matter what you have done or will do, Jesus will want you to come.

Especially you.

Loving People. Loving God.

change

This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom. Something that rots can’t inherit something that doesn’t decay. Listen, I’m telling you a secret: All of us won’t die, but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will blast, and the dead will be raised with bodies that won’t decay, and we will be changed. It’s necessary for this rotting body to be clothed with what can’t decay, and for the body that is dying to be clothed in what can’t die. And when the rotting body has been clothed in what can’t decay, and the dying body has been clothed in what can’t die, then this statement in scripture will happen: Death has been swallowed up by a victory. Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death? (Death’s sting is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.) Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! As a result of all this, my loved brothers and sisters, you must stand firm, unshakable, excelling in the work of the Lord as always, because you know that your labor isn’t going to be for nothing in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, CEB)

We will all be changed.

If Jesus returns while we are alive or if we have already died.

We will be changed.

And that is not something we are waiting for…

We have been changed. By the love of God into what God created us to be.

So go and be.

Be love.

Be change.

Be hope.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Look, fool!

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” Look, fool! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. God gives it the sort of shape that he chooses, and he gives each of the seeds its own shape. All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory. The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory). It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead: a rotting body is put into the ground, but what is raised won’t ever decay. It’s degraded when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in glory. It’s weak when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in power. It’s a physical body when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised as a spiritual body. If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body. So it is also written, The first human, Adam, became a living person, and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. But the physical body comes first, not the spiritual one—the spiritual body comes afterward. The first human was from the earth made from dust; the second human is from heaven. The nature of the person made of dust is shared by people who are made of dust, and the nature of the heavenly person is shared by heavenly people. We will look like the heavenly person in the same way as we have looked like the person made from dust. (1 Corinthians 15:35-49, CEB)

Look, fool!

A seed dies and is not itself when it grows out of the ground.

It has changed. Like we are changed.

We were once dead, but now we are alive in Christ.

Live like Jesus.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Nothing…

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb. They were saying to each other, “Who’s going to roll the stone away from the entrance for us?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away. (And it was a very large stone!) Going into the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right side; and they were startled. But he said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.” Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. (Mark 16:1-8, CEB)

They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

The women left the empty tomb and said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. This is where scholars believe the gospel of Mark originally ended.

The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ is how Mark begins, and the author ends the book with the woman saying nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

How is that Good News?

Because my friends, it doesn’t end there…

You continue the story.

You tell about Jesus.

You share the love God has given.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Holy Saturday

That evening a man named Joseph came. He was a rich man from Arimathea who had become a disciple of Jesus. He came to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission to take it. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had carved out of the rock. After he rolled a large stone at the door of the tomb, he went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting in front of the tomb. The next day, which was the day after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. They said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will arise.’ Therefore, order the grave to be sealed until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people, ‘He’s been raised from the dead.’ This last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate replied, “You have soldiers for guard duty. Go and make it as secure as you know how.” Then they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard. (Matthew 27:57-66, CEB)

How did the Pharisees seal the tomb?

It says that Joseph wrapped the body and laid it in the new tomb and rolled a large stone in front of the opening. Then the Pharisees went to Pilate and said, “He said he would rise after 3 days, so we need to secure the tomb.” And Pilate told them they had guards, they could secure it, and the reading says, “Then they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard.”

They sealed the stone…

With? Duct tape? Caulk?

Not that it really matters, nothing can stop God from doing what God is going to do.

Know that God’s love can penetrate any seal, and nothing will stand in the way.

Loving People. Loving God.

Good Friday

My God! My God,
    why have you left me all alone?
    Why are you so far from saving me—
        so far from my anguished groans?
My God, I cry out during the day,
    but you don’t answer;
    even at nighttime I don’t stop.
You are the holy one, enthroned.
You are Israel’s praise.
Our ancestors trusted you—
    they trusted you and you rescued them;
    they cried out to you and they were saved;
    they trusted you and they weren’t ashamed.
But I’m just a worm, less than human;
    insulted by one person, despised by another.
All who see me make fun of me—
    they gape, shaking their heads:
    “He committed himself to the Lord,
        so let God rescue him;
        let God deliver him
        because God likes him so much.”
But you are the one who pulled me from the womb,
    placing me safely at my mother’s breasts.
I was thrown on you from birth;
    you’ve been my God
    since I was in my mother’s womb.
Please don’t be far from me,
    because trouble is near
        and there’s no one to help.
Many bulls surround me;
    mighty bulls from Bashan encircle me.
They open their mouths at me
    like a lion ripping and roaring!
I’m poured out like water.
    All my bones have fallen apart.
        My heart is like wax;
        it melts inside me.
My strength is dried up
    like a piece of broken pottery.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you’ve set me down in the dirt of death.
Dogs surround me;
    a pack of evil people circle me like a lion—
    oh, my poor hands and feet!
I can count all my bones!
    Meanwhile, they just stare at me, watching me.
They divvy up my garments among themselves;
    they cast lots for my clothes.
But you, Lord! Don’t be far away!
    You are my strength!
    Come quick and help me!
Deliver me from the sword.
    Deliver my life from the power of the dog.
    Save me from the mouth of the lion.
    From the horns of the wild oxen
    you have answered me!
I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
    I will praise you in the very center of the congregation!
All of you who revere the Lord—praise him!
    All of you who are Jacob’s descendants—honor him!
    All of you who are all Israel’s offspring—
        stand in awe of him!
Because he didn’t despise or detest
    the suffering of the one who suffered—
    he didn’t hide his face from me.
    No, he listened when I cried out to him for help.
I offer praise in the great congregation
    because of you;
    I will fulfill my promises
    in the presence of those who honor God.
Let all those who are suffering eat and be full!
    Let all who seek the Lord praise him!
        I pray your hearts live forever!
Every part of the earth
    will remember and come back to the Lord;
    every family among all the nations will worship you.
Because the right to rule belongs to the Lord,
    he rules all nations.
Indeed, all the earth’s powerful
    will worship him;
    all who are descending to the dust
    will kneel before him;
    my being also lives for him.
Future descendants will serve him;
    generations to come will be told about my Lord.
They will proclaim God’s righteousness
        to those not yet born,
        telling them what God has done.
(Psalm 22, CEB)

The first verse of Psalm 22 is included in the words that Jesus said from the cross.

I was taught that people in Jesus time would pray a psalm by stating the first verse.

If this is true, Jesus saying this makes it sound like he is saying God has abandoned him. But if he is praying the whole psalm, is God leaving him to be alone?

The end of this psalm talks about hod God heard the cries and came to aide the one crying out. God vindicated and stood by the person.

God did not abandon Jesus on the cross.

God will never abandon you.

Loving People. Loving God.

Maundy Thursday

Before the Festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully. Jesus and his disciples were sharing the evening meal. The devil had already provoked Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but you will understand later.” “No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!” Jesus responded, “Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you.” He knew who would betray him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you is clean.”
When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now—‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’ “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35, CEB)

Love each other, just as I have loved you.

This after Jesus just washed the feet of the disciples. Taking on the role of the servant and doing what only the lowly would do.

Be a servant to others and show them love, by doing what you think if beneath you.

You do not get the seat of honor, you are to serve all.

Love others, as I have loved you.

Unconditionally.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.