The Anatomy of a Relationship With Christ (2)

When, through my tears, I began to tell him something of the years during which I betrayed him, he lovingly placed his hand over my mouth in order to silence me. His one concern was that I should muster courage enough to pick myself up again, to try and carry on walking in spite of my weakness, and to believe in his love in spite of my fears. But there was one thing he did, the value of which cannot be measured, something truly unbelievable, something only God could do. While I continued to have doubts about my own salvation, to tell him that my sins could not be forgiven, and that justice, too, had its rights, he appeared on the Cross before me one Friday towards midday. I was at its foot, and found myself bathed with the blood which flowed from the gaping holes made in his flesh by the nails. He remained there for three hours until he expired. I realized that he had died in order that I might stop turning to him with questions about justice, and believe instead, deep within myself, that the scales had come down overflowing on the side of love, and that even though all, through unbelief or madness, had offended him, he had conquered for ever, and drawn all things everlastingly to himself. Then later, so that I should never forget that Friday and abandon the Cross, as one forgets a postcard on the table or a picture in the wornout book that had been feeding one’s devotion, he led me on to discover that in order to be with me continually, not simply as an affectionate remembrance but as a living presence, he had devised the Eucharist. What a discovery that was!

—Carlo Carretto, In Search of the Beyond

Yesterday we saw in Carretto’s writing, the necessary prerequisite of having a saving faith—the difficult and painful task of acknowledging our sin and our utter inability to fix ourselves. Today, we start to see the Good News of Jesus Christ. In vivid imagery that startles our modern senses, Carretto reminds us of the basis for our Christian hope—the Cross of Jesus Christ. In the cross, God has satisfied his Holy Wrath and his Holy Love. It is simply mind-boggling and it is simply True.

Carretto also tells us why he thinks regular participation in the Eucharist is so important. We come to the Table to feed on Christ so that he can dwell in us and remind us of his love and his Presence. We have Christ’s Holy Spirit living in us, feeding us, and reminding us of his Truth. It is a glorious gift of God and we are to feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

A Very Early Explanation of the Eucharist

No one may share the eucharist with us unless they believe that what we teach is true, unless they are washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of sins, and unless they live in accordance with the principles given us by Christ. We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a human being of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilate for their nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.

The apostles, in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: “Do this in memory of me. This is my body.” In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: “This is my blood.” The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another these things. The rich among us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

—Justin Martyr (ca. mid-second century), First Apology, 6

Justin’s rationale for placing restrictions on who may participate in the holy Eucharist destroys any argument for allowing the so-called “communion of the unbaptized.” Notice here the central role of faith. Those who partake of Christ’s Body and Blood must be believers and their faith leads them to have been baptized. It is faith that leads people to the Table. It is faith that consumes the elements, believing them to be the Real Presence of Jesus himself. It is faith that allows our Lord to be Present to us, strengthening us in our weaknesses.

Second, notice the authoritative role of Christ in this passage. Justin is concerned that they preserve the tradition handed down to them from the Lord himself through his apostles. Given that in Christ we have the privilege of becoming adopted children of God, this is not unlike preserving cherished family traditions. Justin is reminding us here of one of our most sacred and cherished traditions as the household of God.

This is why the rationale of hospitality is a bad idea for allowing unbaptized and/or unbelieving people to take communion. It simply does not make sense for an unbeliever to want to partake of the bread and the wine. If a person does not believe in Jesus, what would be the point of coming to the Table? Communion is a means of grace which perforce relies on faith. Everyone is invited to a saving faith in Jesus which will grant them access to his Table. Until that time, we can show unbelievers hospitality in a number of other ways, but not at our Lord’s Table, not until their eyes of faith have been opened and they believe the bread and the wine to be the sacraments they are: outward and visible signs of inward and invisible realities. Offering unbelievers or the unbaptized communion on the basis of hospitality completely misses this critical point.

As Justin points out, partaking of the Eucharist should be a regular part of our salvation story. It is a time to literally feed on our Lord Jesus so that he can work within us to remind us of our faith and hope that is in him. What a wondrous and glorious gift! Thanks be to God!

From the Morning Scriptures

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

—Colossians 1:9b-14 (TNIV)

Here we see the kind of life perspective a resurrection faith produces; it is an eternal perspective, not a temporal one. Notice where the emphasis is for Paul. He seeks to know God and his will as best he can. He acknowledges this kind of knowledge is only possible by the work of the Spirit living in us. Paul seeks to live a life worthy of the Lord for all that the Lord has done for us in his death and resurrection. What is it that Christ has done? He has rescued us from the darkness of our sin, from the alienation and separation from God that it causes, and brought us into the kingdom of light. In other words, through Christ’s blood we are no longer alienated and separated from God. We have been rescued from our sins by God himself.

No wonder Paul cared little about what happened to him or his body in this lifetime. For example, he writes to the Corinthians that he would much rather be away from his mortal and broken body and be with the Lord he loves. But Paul acknowledges that he still has work to do here, the work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:1-10). Here he tells the Colossians that they are to give joyful thanks to the Father in any and every circumstance because what we have to deal with in this life is temporary. This doesn’t play well with modern ears because we have become a people of instant gratification. God, however, is a God of eternity, not instant gratification, and part of growing in grace and faith is to learn that we are to be hopefully patient as we await our final redemption and new resurrection bodies.

Here is the essence of the Gospel. Our sin has alienated and separated us from God, the Source and Author of all life. This perforce leads to death. But God himself has taken care of the problem of sin himself. He became human and died to pay the penalty for our sin, satisfying both his holy justice and holy love for us. As a result, we are no longer separated or alienated from God. We are reunited with Life itself, now and for all eternity. But this will be accomplished in God’s time, not our own. Until that glorious day comes, we are to live joyfully and with hope, resisting our urge to be instantly gratified and trusting God knows what he is doing, even when we cannot fully comprehend or apprehend his will and designs for his creation and us. When we have this kind of hope and faith, we see immediately why Paul writes so joyfully to the Colossians here. This is what it means to have a proper relationship with Christ, one in which we acknowledge that he is God and we are not.

This is what it means to have an eternal perspective of life. Does your faith allow you to have this kind of understanding about life and your relationship with God?

The Anatomy of a Relationship With Christ (1)

As for me, I began to know Jesus as soon as I accepted Jesus as the truth; I found true peace when I actively sought his friendship; and above all I experienced joy, true joy, that stands above the vicissitudes of life, as soon as I tasted and experienced for myself the gift he came to bestow on us: eternal life. But Jesus is not only the Image of the Father, the Revealer of the dark knowledge of God. That would be of little avail to me in my weakness and my sinfulness: he is also my Saviour. On my journey towards him, I was completely worn out, unable to take another step forward. By my errors, my sinful rebellions, my desperate efforts to find joy far from his joy, I had reduced myself to a mass of virulent sores which repelled both heaven and earth. What sin was there that I had not committed? Or what sin had I as yet not committed simply because the opportunity had not come my way? Yet it was he, and he alone, who got down off his horse, the the good Samaritan on the way to Jericho; he alone had the courage to approach me in order to staunch with bandages the few drops of blood that still remained in my veins, blood that would certainly have flowed away, had he not intervened.

—Carlo Carretto, In Search of the Beyond

Here we see the prerequisite for having a relationship with Christ. We must do the hard work of acknowledging what a mess we are when left to our own devices. Carretto does exactly this using powerful language. It can be hard to read, but when we finally begin to understand how grievous is our sins to God, the sentiment from today’s excerpt is perfectly natural if we are at all interested in having a relationship with Christ.

But note too the hope that is contained here. Carretto acknowledges he fatally broken but he also knows from whence his help comes. This is the difference between seeing oneself clearly, broken and beyond self-repair, which can lead to life, and having a pathological loathing of self that inevitably leads to darkness and despair.

Proof is in the Doing

“What shall we do?” [the crowd asked Peter]. They did what must be done. They condemned themselves and despaired of their salvation. This is what made them such as they were. They knew what a gift they had received. As soon as they heard, they were baptized. They did not speak these cold words that we do now, nor did they contrive delays, even though they heard all the requirements. For they did not hesitate when they were commanded to “save yourselves from this generation” but welcomed it. They showed their welcome through action and proved through deeds what sort of people they were.

—John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 7.

Another Prayer for the Easter Season

Holy Father, we come before you with humble hearts, confessing our sins. We have chased after the vanities of the world and have wandered from our heart’s true home, and, forgetful of you, the living God, we have burned the incense of the soul before false gods that cannot deliver. Deal not with us as we deserve, but pardon our foolish and perverse ways. Of your clemency wash us clean from all sin, for no adversity shall harm us if no wickedness has dominion over us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Leonine Sacramentary

From the Morning Scriptures

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your fellow believers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

—1 Peter 5:5b-11 (TNIV)

Here Peter lays out for us the essence of humility. In any and every circumstance, especially the bad ones, we are to cast our anxiety on God, trusting that he loves us and has not abandoned us even when everything indicates he has. For whatever reason, God has not chosen to reveal all the mystery of suffering to us and we must be content with that. This is where humility comes into play because it is precisely at those times that we must remember that God is God and we are not. Consequently, we should not expect him to treat us as his equals because we most certainly are not. Instead, we must trust him and his love for us. We must keep the cross in the forefront of our thinking, because it is the surest sign of God’s love for and commitment to us.

Of course, none of this is possible without having a real relationship with Christ. Why? Because only then will we learn the trustworthiness of God’s love for us and his character. Only then can we count on the Spirit’s Presence in us, strengthening us in our weakness and reminding us that we are God’s children. If we do not know Jesus, God made man, we can never really know God’s love for us or anything about his character and promises.

To the extent that I am representative of others, having this kind of faith in the midst of awful sickness, sorrow, or any kind of suffering is the hardest thing for us to learn because it means we are no longer in control. But it is the consistent testimony of those who are able to put the kind of trust in Christ that Peter talks about in today’s passage that God does sustain them in the midst of their suffering and that finding joy and peace is possible.

Do you have this kind of Presence and joy in your life? If you do, give thanks to God the way Peter ends today’s passage. Let doxology spring from your lips! If you do not, then it may be time for you to be honest with yourself and your relationship with God (or lack thereof). Ask God to make himself present to you in a way that you can know it. Ask him to remove all doubt and fear and trust his timing. And as Peter reminds us here, resist the Evil One, invoking Christ’s name in doing so because the Evil One is stronger than us, and draw on both the grace and support of Christ and your fellow believers.

In the final analysis, suffering (or at least some aspects of it) will remain a mystery. But we have the promise of God himself that if we trust him, throw our worries and anxieties on him, and ask him to help us bear what we must, we will not be disappointed. In doing so, we learn how to be humble before God and God will reward us beyond our wildest expectations.

John Wesley Discovers Real Power

After my return home [from Aldersgate], I was much buffeted with temptations; but cried out, and they fled away. They returned again and again. I as often lifted up my eyes, and he “sent me help from his holy place.” And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well as under grace. But then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now, I was always conquerer.

From the Methodist Hymnal

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths
its flow may richer, fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine’s blaze
its day may brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thru the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms
red life that shall endless be.

Upon a Hill

Three men shared death upon a hill,
But only one man dies;
The other two—
A thief and God himself—
Made rendezvous.

Three crosses still
Are borne up Calvary’s Hill,
Where Sin still lifts them high:
Upon the one, sag broken men
Who, cursing, die;
Another holds the praying thief,
Or those who penitent as he,
Still find the Christ
Beside them on the tree.

—Miriam LeFevre Crouse, Upon A Hill

The Resurrection: God’s Love for Us Made Personally Real

Sermon delivered on the third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2010.

Lectionary texts: Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is the third Sunday of Easter. Over the past two weeks, we have been looking at why the Resurrection of Christ changes everything for us as his disciples. Last week we looked at why it was necessary for Jesus to show his resurrected body to the apostles and others. We saw that in Jesus’ resurrection, God confirmed that his promises to us are trustworthy and true, even when it is sometimes not obvious or evident in this broken world of God’s.

Today I want to continue to look at the theme of why the Resurrection changes everything for us, specifically by looking at how Jesus’ resurrection makes God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy offered to all on the cross personally real for each of us on an individual basis. He does this, of course, on the basis of faith and through the relationship he establishes with us because of our faith.

In today’s Psalm, the psalmist remembers how he deluded himself into thinking that he was in charge and able to handle anything that came his way. Then catastrophic illness struck and he was reminded just how delusional his thoughts of independence were as he cried out in desperation for God to help him.

In our lesson from Acts today, we see a proud and self-righteous Paul breathing out threats and murder against Christ’s Body, the Church. Reflecting back on that time in his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes that he had every reason to put confidence in himself. He was a man’s man and Hebrew’s Hebrew. He was zealous for achieving a legalistic righteousness and persecuting the Church (Philippians 3:4-6). From this it is not hard to believe that Paul saw himself as helping God preserve the Jewish faith by getting rid of these fools who claimed to follow an even bigger fool, one Jesus of Nazareth, who had claimed to be Messiah but who had managed to get himself crucified as a common criminal. Unwittingly, Paul was fulfilling what Jesus had predicted would happen to his followers when he told them in the Upper Room on the night before he was crucified that there would be those who would persecute them because they believed that in doing so they were offering worship to God (John 16:2). But then on his way to Damascus, Paul is struck down in a blinding vision of the Lord Jesus. He is left blind and essentially helpless for three days as he prays and fasts. Suddenly his proud self-sufficiency is exposed for what it is—delusional.

Next, we turn our attention to the Upper Room, just hours before the arrest of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus has just told his disciples that one of them would betray him and the rest would desert him in the coming hours. Peter takes issue with our Lord, proudly boasting that not only would he not desert his Lord but would gladly go to prison and die for him (Luke 22:33). Then hours later we see this same man weeping bitterly because when he feared for his own safety, he denied the Lord he claimed to love three times, just as Jesus had predicted at table (Luke 22:61-62).

In each of these stories we see the pride and foolish self-confidence of humans exposed for what they are—a delusion and a lie. And these stories resonate with us because they are our stories, they are us. If we have lived long enough, each one of us has suffered from self-righteous pride and bravado. In times of prosperity we have allowed ourselves to be fooled into thinking we really do have it all together. We pat ourselves on the back for our skill and ingenuity. And then like the people in these stories, disaster strikes and we realize that we do not even have control over our ability to act and think uprightly, let alone control over life as it unfolds. Like the psalmist, we know what it is like to cry out to God in desperation. Like Paul, we know what it is like to feel a proud self-righteousness, and like Peter, we know what it is like to lose our moral courage and deny the Lord we profess to love. Even though these stories resonate with us, we don’t like to think about these things because they are too painful and they expose us for what we are—broken and fallible beings out of control and in desperate need of God’s healing.

But it is precisely at these most desperate moments that we are ready to hear and receive the Good News of Jesus Christ because in the Gospel we are offered forgiveness and healing through the blood of Christ. Today’s stories are evidence of the great love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness of God offered to us, sometimes in spite of ourselves as was the case with Paul. As we have just seen, Paul was a proud and self-righteous bean counter by his own description. I do not doubt for a minute that before he met Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul thought he was serving God by persecuting the Church. He could not conceive of a crucified Messiah, let alone a Risen One, because this kind of thinking was entirely out of the box for any self-respecting Jew (or anyone else for that matter—see, e.g., 1 Corinthians 1).

But then he met the Risen Christ on that road to Damascus—not the crucified man from Nazareth, but the glorious Risen Christ that we get a glimpse of in the eschatological vision contained in today’s Epistle lesson from Revelation—and everything changed for Paul. Notice carefully the dynamics of Paul’s encounter with Jesus. Our Lord asks him first why he is persecuting him. The implication is clear. In persecuting Christ’s Church, Paul was persecuting Jesus himself. Here Paul gets his first lesson on what it means to be “in Christ” (see, e.g., Romans 8:1; 12:5). Paul will have this lesson reinforced to him in a very tangible way when Ananias lays hands on him and Christ restores Paul’s vision through Ananias. Jesus lives in and among his Body, the Church.

Second, Paul’s pride is exposed for what it is when he is left blinded by his encounter with Jesus. It is hard to be zealous to persecute someone if you have to rely on others to help you see your target. For three days Paul fasted and prayed. He was surely reevaluating his relationship with God and learning what would constitute a proper relationship with this Christ who had claimed him. Luke tells us that Paul was learning how to be obedient, and how to rely on Christ’s strength as he prepared to face persecution and suffering for the sake of his Name. We know from Paul’s letters that learning how to trust and obey Christ was an ongoing process, especially when Paul writes to the Corinthians about how Christ refused to remove the thorn in Paul’s flesh so that Christ’s grace might be made stronger in Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Apparently even for one like Paul, who enjoyed a direct encounter with the Risen Christ, the lesson of obedience was a hard one to learn.  But once he started to learn to obey Christ and rely on his power, it made Paul realize the utter futility of self-reliance and pride (see, e.g., Philippians 3:7-11). As he wrote to the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again; Rejoice!” and “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:4,13).

Likewise for us. It is the consistent biblical witness that there is real power in obeying Christ. Paul’s great ministry stands as a gigantic witness to this fact, but so does the story of Ananias. We do not hear of Ananias again, but because he obeyed Christ’s command to go and lay hands on Paul—despite his misgivings about doing so—Ananias was given the power to heal and his name forever remembered as having brought glory to Christ by obeying his command. Paul, like Ananias, found that he had great power, the Power of Christ, to love and serve others because Paul started to learn humility and obedience as a result of his encounter with the Risen Lord. Are you learning those lessons from Christ as you continue in your faith journey with him?

In Peter’s case, we see a different kind of encounter than we did in Paul’s case. This is probably because Peter needed a different medicine to be healed. But like Paul, Peter’s encounters with the Risen Lord changed everything for him. As we have seen, Peter also had an ego problem that caused him to shoot off his mouth and act impulsively. Peter’s pride and confidence in himself led him to boast that he would never abandon Jesus, let alone deny him. But when push came to shove, when Peter had a chance to demonstrate his love for Christ, he lost his courage and his will.

The story in today’s Gospel reading raises some questions for us. John previously reports that Peter had seen the Risen Christ at least twice before today’s account. You recall that in last week’s lesson, Jesus appeared to the disciples when they were hiding behind locked doors. They saw Christ’s resurrection body and got a preview of coming attractions of their own future glory with him. Jesus also commissioned them for mission work, sending them out in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-22). Why then do we see Peter and some of the other disciples back at the Sea of Galilee fishing? John does not tell us and we must be careful in our speculation. But one reasonable explanation is that Peter had lost his false confidence, a good thing, but something that also perhaps caused him to lose all confidence in his ability to fulfill Jesus’ call to him. This is not healthy because our Lord equips us with gifts and expects us to use them in his service. Because he works through us and helps us use our gifts in the process, we must therefore have confidence that he will equip us to use our gifts. Consequently we must never lose all confidence in our ability to fulfill Jesus’ call to us. If this is the case for Peter, it is another subtle indication that it was still all about him and not Jesus. Furthermore, perhaps Peter had not yet really accepted that our Lord had forgiven him (or had been presented with the opportunity for Jesus to forgive him) for his threefold denial after his arrest. Whatever the reason for Peter’s return to fishing, our Lord appears to him and restores him and we must not lose sight of this point amidst speculations about Peter’s motives.

Once again, it is helpful for us to look carefully at the dynamics of this story. The first two times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, the Greek word John uses for love is agapao, which denotes the sacrificial self-giving love of Jesus when he died for sinful humans. The word for love John uses to describe Peter’s response is phileo, which denotes an affinity, friendship or affection. In using these verbs, it is as if John is telling us that Jesus is asking Peter if he is willing to love him at all costs, something that Peter had been unable to do on the night of Jesus’ arrest, but which he must do in the future as Jesus reminds him later in the passage. Each time Peter is unwilling to answer yes, perhaps because he knew what his heart was capable of doing. After the third time Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, Peter is grieved and responds that Jesus knows all things.

In making Peter face his inability to overcome the darkness of his heart despite his great affection for Jesus, our Lord is helping Peter see that he is utterly dependent on Jesus’ power, not his own. He is also setting up the necessary conditions for reconciliation and restoration by making Peter confront the darkness of his soul that caused the alienation in the first place. It was not fun for Peter, but it was necessary for him to learn the conditions for having a real relationship with Jesus. We must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. As with Paul, in restoring Peter by forgiving him, Jesus demonstrated his great love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness in a very personal way, the same love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness that he showed all of humanity when he died for us on the cross.

So what does all of this mean for us? First, the stories of Paul and Peter remind us that no one is beyond forgiveness, unless of course, we do not think we need God’s forgiveness or refuse to accept it. In Paul’s case, he was separated from Christ by his sinful pride which led him to persecute Christ’s Church and vote to have Christians put to death (Acts 26:10). Yet the Risen Lord claimed this proud and self-righteous man and made him a great Apostle and servant.

Likewise, Peter had boasted he would never desert his Lord but in a desperate moment when his courage failed him, he denied even knowing Jesus. Yet Peter found forgiveness in his encounter with the Risen Christ because Jesus loved him enough to heal him. Luke tells us elsewhere there was a time when people would bring their sick into the streets so that Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he passed by (Acts 5:15). That’s real power. Likewise with us. Perhaps not in as dramatic a fashion but nevertheless, likewise with us. It does not matter who we are or what we have done or not done. If we are willing to humble ourselves, acknowledge our own inability to save ourselves, and seek to follow Christ in all that we do, we too can enjoy a relationship with the One who loves us and gave himself for us because he is alive and wants to be our Leader, Guide, and Savior.

If you have not already done so and are ready to commit yourself to Christ in this manner, like Peter and Paul, you will find power to live and overcome anything life can throw at you because you will have Christ’s power working in you and he will remind you that real life is about having a relationship with the Living God. Consequently your life will be oriented around developing that kind of relationship with Christ and seeking to obey his will for your life. Do your daily activities reflect that kind of desire and commitment?

Second, our lessons this morning remind us to let God love us through his people, the Church. Christ used Ananias to restore Paul and reminded Paul that when he persecuted the Church, he was persecuting Jesus himself. Our Lord knows we are flesh and blood creatures who need a human touch as well as a spiritual relationship with him and he blesses us with that in the fellowship of believers. Do you have the kind of relationship with believers that will allow God to love you and strengthen you in times of adversity through his people?

Conversely, the story of Paul’s conversion reminds us to treat each other with respect. When we get mean spirited with each other and bicker with each other as a church, we are really being mean spirited and bickering to Christ. This should remind us of who we are—Christ’s Body, the Church—and help us love each other, to be patient and tender hearted toward each other, and to work hard to build each other up other because in doing so, we are demonstrating our love for Christ himself. And if we are hesitant to try because we know our own hearts, we must also remember that we have Christ’s very Presence in us to help us be the people he calls us to be.

If you are one who desperately seeks forgiveness or healing or believes that you are beyond forgiveness, take heart and take great hope. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ makes his love and forgiveness available to each of us in a very real and personal manner. Jesus died a terrible death on the cross to make our healing and reconciliation with God and each other possible. It does not matter who we are or what we have done (or not done). Christ is alive and wants each of us to enjoy the love and forgiveness he offers to all humankind through his blood shed on the cross. He invites each of us into a proper relationship with him, one in which we acknowledge that he is God and we are not, one in which we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. When we are willing to do that, we can have confidence that he will be with us in any and every circumstance to help us persevere and even transcend all that life can throw our way. Why do we have this confidence? Because we have the testimony of Scripture and of countless Christians who have found power by trusting in Christ and Christ alone.

And because he lives, we can have confidence that we too will live and that he will transform us so that we can be like him and live with him now and forever. Right now we must live by faith in our mortal bodies and in a broken and fallen world. But the promise of the Resurrection reminds us that one day God will recreate and restore all that is wrong with his good albeit fallen creation. He will give us new resurrection bodies fitted to live in his New Creation and best of all we will get to live directly in his Presence forever. Until that glorious day comes, the Resurrection reminds us that we have the Power of Christ in us to help us in our weaknesses and struggles. This doesn’t mean we will have it easy or that life’s problems magically disappear. Rather, it means that Jesus will help us prevail because he lives in us and by his death and resurrection has overcome the world (John 16:33). So we have power to live joyfully and in peace, even in the midst of brokenness and chaos. Paul learned that. Peter learned that. Ananias learned that. Countless other Christians over time and across cultures have learned that. So can we if we will learn to trust him with our whole being. If you are willing to do this, you will find that you really do have good news, folks, now and for all eternity. Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.