"I came to empower YOU," Jesus told them . . . and then up into the sky he went. They watched in amazement. Their necks were bent and sore, their hands shielding their eyes from the glare of the sun. "What is going on NOW?" they must have thought.
We must not grimly pursue some media-inflicted notion of human perfection, but instead open ourselves to the fulfillment God wills for us. Better Franklin Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Joseph Stalin on his own two feet! Better the wrinkles of Mother Teresa than the plastic profile of Michael Jackson!
The refusal to believe gives way to a bold confession of faith: "My Lord and my God!" There is no better statement of who Jesus is than these words from Thomas the Believer. Thomas moves from being dominated by doubt to being set free by faith. This is his resurrection.
Set free from cheapened forms of desire, from violence and sentimentality, we can desire the One who is the most desirable. These desires of ours will become worthy of the God who pierces the hearts of his saints with desire for himself--because his heart is pierced with desire for us.
In The Wizard of Oz, a powerful wind, God’s ruah if you will – a tornado – comes into Dorothy Gale’s drab life and lifts her out of her place, spins her around, and drops her smack in the middle of a new world. In this new world, nothing is the same as it had been before the wind came.
Jesus called each of the sheep by name. Jesus called Mary by name and she knew His voice and followed Him. On the road to Damascus, Luke tells us the Jesus called Saul by name and thereafter He followed Jesus as the Apostle Paul. Jesus calls each of us by name.
(This sermon was delivered to a group recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.) I don’t know if you’ve seen the Sunday Statesman – but our little service has made the front page. The story’s about “the Easter Resurrection of the drunks & druggies,” but it tells some of my own personal story too.
“They immediately went out, and entered into the boat. That night, they caught nothing" (John 21:3). When it comes to living the promise, this is LESSON NUMBER ONE: Seek God’s will for your life; otherwise, you’re sure to come up empty-handed.
Finally, when Hilda had stopped crying Pastor Linn asked her to look into God's eyes and watch what God wanted to do. And she saw God step down from the throne and embrace her son. And the three of them, Hilda, her son, and God, cried together and held one another.
We torture ourselves believing that our behavior makes us unfit to be loved by God. We search for ways to make ourselves worthy. If you have ever felt this way, you are in good company. Martin Luther used to torture himself with the words, “Have I done enough!?”