March 29, 2015
Welcome back friends. It has been three years since my last (and only) post. I am going to try to post all of the messages that I have delivered at Road. The other blog post was my first, and this one was delivered today. I have two or three others to find and add to this blog.Thanks for reading. Comments welcome here or on my FB page. Love to all. Michele
Message for Road Church by Michele S.
Wheeler
Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015
On this Palm Sunday, we remember how our
Lord Jesus was received as a king when he rode into Jerusalem. People strewing palms and their own coats
onto the ground as a sort of red carpet, and hailing him as Hosanna in the
Highest… it makes me wonder if Jesus were to return today, would we recognize
him?
Easter never meant much to me until
about a decade ago. When I was growing
up, I went to church on Christmas and Easter.
To me, though, they were all about Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny and
perhaps a new outfit. Then when I was in
my late teens and twenties, I always worked on Easter. I served brunch in restaurants or checked
people in and out of hotels. I always
enjoyed the cheery nature of guests on Easter, but I did not understand their
need to exclaim, “He is Risen” to one another.
Indeed I have to admit that even after I was saved here at Road Church,
and became a Christian, I did not really value Easter. After all, I was Born Again… I was no longer
a sinner, right? I didn’t NEED Jesus the
way all those poor lost souls did.
In The Screwtape Letters, C.S.
Lewis writes letters between one of Satan’s close allies in Hell, and his
nephew on earth who is trying to win over the soul of a human for Satan. He tells him not to worry that the man is
going to church, because church itself can cause problems for a man’s
soul. Screwtape explains to Wormwood: “At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favourable
credit-balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and
thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church
with these "smug", commonplace neighbours at all. Keep him in that
state of mind as long as you can.”
In order to recognize Jesus, I believe one
first must realize one’s own need for Him.
When I first started studying the lay ministry seven or eight years ago,
I was told not to preach about sin, because people don’t like it. Well, first of all, I do not consider myself
to be preaching about anything when I am up here. I am delivering a message- usually just
sharing a devotion I have written for my own understanding. But really, I do not believe one can
recognize Jesus if one does not recognize sin.
A friend suggested to me that there were at least half a dozen ways a
preacher can sin from behind the pulpit.
Indeed, Lust, Envy, Greed, Pride, Gluttony, and Theft all come to
mind. I know this too well. Once, I was up here as pulpit assistant, when
as I sat listening to Ron open the service, I noticed that three or four ladies
in church all had the same style sweater on.
They all looked fresh and new and trendy. I began wondering if they shopped together. This lead me to be jealous that I don’t live
closer, and I have children at home, and I can’t get together to shop. I was
going down a slippery slope, when suddenly it was my turn to read the
Bible. I hoped that no one guessed as I
read, that just moments before I had been wallowing in envy.
Do you know it when you sin? We all have an inner compass that we should
learn to follow. A couple of months ago,
I was visiting a friend, who is ill. It was at the time of the attack in Paris on
the Charlie Hebdo publishers. We were
watching the news, and it was a captivating introduction to an interview with
the editor. But my friend was not
captivated, and indeed did not pay attention to the report. Just before the interview began, she noticed
the word France on the screen and started telling me a story about when she
took French in the eighth grade. I
couldn’t believe she was chattering during this interview! I grit my teeth and tried to smile, thinking
I couldn’t wait to call my best friend and complain about how this had happened
to me. Boy am I an angel sitting here
not saying that I want to hear the news report.
Fortunately for me, the Lord spoke to my heart. He reminded me of why I was there in the
first place. Cherish her story, he told
me, not the one on TV. I turned my
complete attention to my friend and we laughed and enjoyed the rest of the morning
before I had to leave. But you see I was
so close to neglecting her needs. I was
so close to being absorbed in a report I could easily look up later on line. I
was so close to being proud of myself for the sacrifice. Like Screwtape indicated at another point in the book, just call attention to your own sacrifice immediately turns your brain to the pride. If you have a few hours, I can go on
explaining all the times wrath, gluttony, even dishonesty have gotten the
better of me … and that was just this week... But I know it is not just me.
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” Recognizing our own propensity to sin is important to recognizing
Jesus.
Then one must acknowledge who the Lord
Jesus really is. I recently saw a debate
on line between people who give things up for Lent. One half of the people believed that since
there are more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, that one should
take Sundays off from Lent. The others
believed that since the Lord had no break in his fast, one should not take a
break either. What caught my attention
was that one person said, “Well, Jesus was God, so he could do it straight
through, but I am human, so I can’t.” To
me, this completely misconstrued the meaning of Easter. While Jesus was indeed both Wholly God and
Wholly Man, he felt all of the sacrifice and pain as a human. If not, the Lord would not have accepted it
in exchange for our sins. I actually
remember being told the same thing as a child in catechism class. I got all emotional and upset hearing about
Jesus’ hands being nailed to the cross.
My teacher angrily said, Oh, Michele, he was God, it didn’t hurt.
The Gospel of Luke, however,
explains clearly that the Lord not only felt the pain, but that he was
forewarned of it and chose to sacrifice for us.
He was indeed so human that in becoming aware of the torture he was
about to face, he sweat blood. One
theologian, J. Lee Grady, explains, “Nobody performed an
autopsy on Jesus’ mangled body after He was taken down from the cross. But
doctors who have studied the Bible’s description of His death say the pain
would have been beyond excruciating. In fact, the word excruciating means ‘out of the cross.’ Jesus
literally defined the worst pain anyone could feel. His suffering began in
Gethsemane, when God laid the sins of the world on His beloved Son. The intense
stress caused what physicians call hematidrosis,
a condition in which blood seeps out of sweat glands. After His arrest, Jesus
was flogged so mercilessly that his skin was stripped off His back, exposing
muscle and bone.” Imagine knowing that
all of this was going to happen to you, as well as crucifixion, and still
choosing to take that and offer it up for all the rest of the world’s sins.
I recognize that I am a sinner, and I
recognize that Jesus suffered so that I may still get into heaven. Yet, there
seems to be a disconnect. The last part
of recognizing Jesus is recognizing that he is inside of you.
When Jesus died, the curtain in the
temple tore. This removed the need for
people to go through priests to speak to God.
In this moment God gave his Holy Spirit to live within all of us. Also in the book of John, in chapter 14
verses 15-18, Jesus describes, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of
truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeith him not, neither
knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in
you.”
Have you heard of the legend that a
Native American is supposed to have told his grandson? It says, “Inside each of us there are two
wolves. One lives on greed, deceit,
anger, ambition, and pride… the other lives on love, joy, patience, and faith. They are constantly battling within each of
us to take over our personality.” The
boy asked, “Which one wins?” And the
grandpa answered, “The one you feed.”
Earlier I spoke of an inner
compass. That inner compass is the voice
of Lord. It is not two wolves battling
within, but it is a battle nonetheless.
Everywhere around us there are temptations. Each day there are dozens of small ways and
also some big ways that Satan would love for us to sin. And often we do. Yet we must remember that also within us is
the Holy Spirit. The still small voice
that is always ready to show us the right path if we will only listen to
Him. Just as the Native American
grandfather says, the one who wins is the one you feed. The way to feed and nurture the Holy Spirit
within you is to feast on the Word. Make
Bible reading part of every day. If you
pray before you read that the Lord will add his blessing to your understanding,
you will find time and again that you are more fortified to face the
temptations of life.
In order to recognize Jesus when he
returns, we must prepare ourselves. This
means recognizing our need for Him, recognizing the full magnitude of his
sacrifice for us, and recognizing his voice when he calls to us.
Let’s Pray:
Dear Lord, sometimes we are so into the
daily business of our lives… so swept up in current news or politics, financial
or health woes, even just the daily grind that we forget to listen to you. We are so grateful that you have chosen to
come into our hearts and offer us courage against temptation. Help us to listen
to your voice, to feast on your word, and to recognize you when you come
again. AMEN
A great hymn to follow this message is: It is Well (When Peace Like a River).
A great hymn to follow this message is: It is Well (When Peace Like a River).
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