As a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker, have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? You have not loved me. Have you been hot-tempered, rude or quarrelsome? You have not loved me. Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? You have not loved me. Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm? You have my commandments, and you have not kept them. You are not one who loves me.
Sermons
“I AM,” He says. So, we are…one flock with one Shepherd. Not by law. Not by lawlessness. But by Him who calls us each by name…and leads us out…from bondage to freedom, from death to life.
Easter is about God. It’s not about the resuscitation of a dead body. That was Lazarus, not Jesus. It’s the resurrection of the body. It’s not about the “immortality of the soul,” or of some divine spark that endures after we die. That’s Plato, not Jesus. It’s not “the spirit of the master carrying on” or “new beginnings” or “Jesus living forever in the hearts of those who love Him.” As if Jesus has passed on, crossed over, gone to a better place. None of that is Easter.
Easter is about God; the God who creates a way where there is no way. The God who makes war on evil until evil is undone. The God who swallows up death by death, who raises a very dead Jesus to very real new life just to show us who’s really in charge. You can’t explain that. You proclaim it.
Text: John 13:31 “When he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” The further we get into this Holy Week, the darker things seem to be getting. Both in our weather outside and the readings that have shaped…
John 12:35-36 So Jesus said to them, “The Light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the Light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, that…