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March 1, 2009
 
 
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March 22, 2009
 

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March 29, 2009
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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April 12, 2009--Easter Sunday

Lectionary Texts: Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8

Sermon Text: Isaiah 25:6-9

Saving Steps

We are a very interesting people, yes? It has been said that in our culture we are more likely to get a second opinion from a professional, while at the same time highly and quickly influenced by infomercials and the latest fads. Why do you think that is the case?

Though I’d like to think that we haven’t lost our ability to make good judgments, something is awry. Could it be instead that we have begun to simply place too much weight on the shoulders of those judgments? I suppose that is the burden of the rational mind--we often think too highly of our own thoughts!

So I wonder, on an Easter Sunday such as today, what place does the faith story of an eight-century Hebrew prophet have in our lives today? Could it be that an old message declares a new reality?

I invite you to look at the text with me. Isaiah’s salvation expressions communicate rich, yet basic human images of delight. That is something that hasn’t changed over these years. Though we may argue forms and types, we still know that this is a story of praise. And not just praise for the gift of one big party for all humanity, these are images of praise declaring the responsive grace of God amidst our sin and shame (a sad reality that continues today).

I probably don’t have to convince you that the world has strong hands of sin and shame that have gripped every person’s life. Though today your life may feel as though it is “not as bad” as another’s. Even that thought may be a pitfall of our rational minds. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned. Try this rhyme I used to hear when I was a child: no matter how big or small our guilt or shame, the reality of our need is just the same.

It is then our common need that becomes the lens by which we see the gift of God in this passage. These are the declarative statements of the full transformation that comes by God’s hand to all people. As it says in verse 9, these are the promises of what will be “in that day” as salvation is known by us all. That is the day of the Lord’s salvation that promises to be a day of equality for all people- with all benefiting from the Lord’s offered bounty.

So herein is the question that bridges the gap between the prophetic hope of Isaiah and the reality of our sickened world: Can we believe in faith that the gift of God’s salvation is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? The Biblical text seems to hinge all of this on our willingness to trust the Savior. From the level of basic human experience, as our tears are wiped away and our disgrace removed, the salvation gift of God is to be felt and known. The more our brains step out first in trying to check our systems for that experience, the more we are driven to make sense of this experience or to reject it’s presumed absence. The effect of such rationalized faith is akin to what happens when a person in the middle of a panic attack is told to “just calm down!” In these instances a lack of faith is perpetuated.

Hebrews 11 gives us wonderful testimonies of those who have gone the way before us. It tells the story of people who faithfully trusted the Lord, persevering against rational negotiations with the realities of life. Trusting the laws of God over the laws of nature, these men and women moved to a place of faith. Hebrews tells us that the fullness of this ancient faith is found in Jesus Christ, through whose body we are saved and made holy.

Are those merely words? Is this just a conversation from a professional practitioner spewing doctrine? Then like the testimony in John 9 of the man born blind, healed by Jesus during His earthly ministry, listen for a few minutes to one who “now can see.”
[Introduce the personal testimony of a parishioner who has experienced the Lord’s salvation in faith. It is helpful to include the voice of an often marginalized demographic in the congregation.]

May you be raised today with Christ to that holy mountain! May you eat and drink of salvation. May you feel the peace of God’s loving gift through Christ that forgives us--giving us not only the hope of victory towards a heavenly future beyond this life, but resurrection power to save us from guilt and shame, here and now, by being present in victory in the daily experience of our lives.

This Easter Sunday, may you sense and know in faith that Jesus, risen from the dead this day, is truly the Savior of your world!