Groans of Labor

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 5/24/15

Read Romans 8:22-27

Read Acts 2:1-21

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

            Today in the life of the Church we celebrate the day of Pentecost. It is the amazing day in which the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire upon a group of early followers. Although these followers were from different areas and spoke different languages, through the spirit they began to understand what the others were saying as if they were speaking their own native tongue. This event was so powerful that after it 3,000 members were baptized and joined the church that day. For this reason Pentecost is often referred to as the birthday of the Church. This makes sense, after all Jesus had just ascended 10 days earlier, the disciples had just elected a new 12^th disciple, but still there were questions of leadership, authority, and an overall feeling of what now?  Jesus is gone, what do we do now?  The Spirit’s presence with the people answered these questions; God’s presence was still with them, and they could continue their ministries in the world through the guidance of the Spirit. With this new hope and guidance and with the 3000 members that joined that day, it no wonder why this day is celebrated as the birthday of the (big C) Church.

            But although Pentecost is rightfully celebrated as the birthday of the Church, it is really only a labor pang of the Kingdom of God. As our scripture from Romans says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” While Pentecost is a significant celebration of the glory of God, too often churches today look back at that earliest Church as say, “If only we could be like the original Church.” But this Church at Pentecost is not the goal to be desired, it is instead more like an announcement of what is to come. In Revelation 7, John of Patmos reveals to us a picture of what the Kingdom in all of its glory will be like. He says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation tells us of the Kingdom of God in its fullest as a time where all peoples from all nations would be gathered in praise of Jesus Christ. It even goes on to say that “God will wipe every tear from their eyes”.

            As we look back to that day of Pentecost, it is obvious that this day is not the coming of the Kingdom in its fullest. It is however, a day that that with hope points towards the coming of the Kingdom in all of its glory. In a way, Pentecost is an announcement to the world; not only that the Kingdom of God is coming, but that the Kingdom is here. As we heard earlier from Romans, Paul equates the time we are in now to a time of labor pains before the Kingdom of God is fully birthed. While the celebration of Pentecost is a celebration of the Church’s birthday, not that of the Kingdom of God, it is still something that calls for celebration.

            For years, probably even centuries we as a culture have been great at celebrating birthdays. Kids gather around lit candles on a cake just waiting to blow them out and make a wish. We give gifts and cards to people on their birthday, or gather as family and friends for a meal. Even here in the church we sing “Happy Birthday” to those who are celebrating in the upcoming week. With the advances in technology a new sort of tradition has begun, and that is the celebration of the announcement. For those who are on Facebook you have most likely seen what I am talking about. Usually a couple will take some sort of creative picture to tell to the world that they are expecting a child. My favorite one was probably my boss from college who was expecting around Christmas, so announced with a picture of a Christmas tree saying “We are expecting a special gift under the tree this Christmas,” or something along those lines. These celebrations are important. No longer do we just celebrate a babies, arrive, but now we also celebrate the hope of their arrival.

            Pentecost is very similar to this type of announcement celebration. As the Spirit descended upon the people gathered there allowing them to speak to and understand each other, hope for the Kingdom of God in its fullest was proclaimed. But let us not fall into the trap of thinking the Kingdom of God is only something far away in the future. Pentecost is a celebration that the Kingdom is here, now. Though it has not arrived in its fullest, it is not the way it will ultimately be; it is here and here to stay. When a couple announces they are pregnant, the child has not arrived, but in a way it has. In the womb there is a child, growing each day. It is not just some false hope of one day we will have a child, the child already exists and awaits it day of birth. Likewise Pentecost is not a day of false hope, but one that declares that the Kingdom is here, it exists, and will one day that New Creation will be birthed.

            It is no surprise that this day of Pentecost brings us so much hope. Not only do the earliest followers receive the comfort from the Spirit knowing that God has not abandoned them, but Pentecost is in itself a small glimpse, a microcosm of the Kingdom in its fullest. Whereas we heard all nations and tribes and languages gathered around the throne, here on Pentecost we at least get a taste of that. On Pentecost we have not all, but a collection of people from different tribes, and languages, and nations, all celebrating together the glory of God. Their differences do not hinder the celebration as it had ever since the Tower of Babel, but instead these differences now further glorify God and show that Christ truly is Lord of All. At Pentecost we see the hope of the Kingdom in its fullest, lived out on a smaller scale; a sign that the Kingdom is already here.

            Pentecost also reminds us that because the Holy Spirit is with us, we too can catch glimpses of the future glory of the Kingdom. Last week I mentioned that for me one of these times was at Seth Mokitimi Seminary in South Africa. As me and a few fellow classmates from Duke served and studied there for a summer, we would gather each morning in the chapel for Worship. We as Americans were able to Worship with people from South Africa and surrounding countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as other students from England. This experience was more than just worshipping with people from different countries however, for South Africa is very different culturally than the U.S.  In South Africa there are different tribes such as Zulu and Xhosa and many more, descents of the English colonizers, as well as Dutch descendants known at Afrikaners. In South Africa there is no official langue like English is here, but isn’t there are 12 official languages of these diverse groups and many more that are unofficial. These groups are separated by more than just their different languages, they are also separated by a difficult past. The Afrikaners and English both colonized the tribes of South Africa, and also fought against each other in the Boer War. While this was happening tribes fought against tribe and some sold others into slavery. Later in 1948 unjust system of law called the Apartheid was put into place, forcing the blacks out of cities and towns and into the rural areas and what are called townships, which are often poor shanty towns outside of the cities. These people were oppressed, given no rights and often arrested or killed. This lasted until 1994, only 17 years before my trip.

            This history and diversity is what made worshipping together so powerful. We truly gathered as different nations, tribes and languages, and worshipped Christ. One of the most powerful aspects of the service was when we would sing hymns; there would be a blend of both traditional Western hymns as well as some of the tribal worship hymns. As we sang we would also often sing each verse in a different language. The significance of this could not be overstated. Here we had Zulu and Xhosa Christians singing praise to God in Afrikaans, the language of their once oppressor, and at the very next verse those English and Afrikaans students were singing in Zulu. What a powerful sign of humility and forgiveness, of reconciliation and love. It was there that I experienced my own Pentecost moment, my own glimpse of the Kingdom of God in its fullest.

            But for as special as moments like these are, we are often quickly reminded that these are only glimpses. The Kingdom of God is here, but what it will become cannot fully be seen. We need only to look at the unrest in Baltimore or the gunfights in Waco to see the brokenness of the world. We need only to look at earthquakes in Nepal and tornados in the heartland to see devastation. We need only to look out our own backyard and into our community to see that unjust systems are in place that hinders farmers, factory workers, and those looking for a job at all. We realize that these glimpses are the birth pangs, the morning sickness if you will of  the fullness of the Kingdom.

            Often we try to celebrate Christ in the midst of all that is happening it only comes out as groans. When we try to formulate words to say to God is often comes out as some inaudible sound. But Pentecost gives us hope, for as Paul says, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”  With the Spirits help, those moans and sighs we lift up when we have nothing to say become ardent prayers to God. I wonder if on that day of Pentecost those original followers had anything to really say to each other or if their desperate groans were turned into loud shouts of praise, their sighs turned into the rushing wind of the Holy Spirit. For God took our desperation and gave us hope, our despair and gave us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to be with us always.

            This understanding of the presence of God with us was nothing new the early Christians. From the earliest moments, we hear of God breathing into us the breath of life. This word in Hebrew ruah, which means both spirit and breath even imitates our breath, ruah. Likewise as Rob Bell describes in one of his Nooma videos, the word for God the Israelites had was not said one out of reverence to God, but also because the word Yahweh was almost inaudible, more like a groan or a sigh or a breath than a word. (yod-he-va-way). Bell helps us to imagine a baby’s first action in this world or that last thing someone on their death bed does is proclaim the name of God. (Yaweh). The Spirit, the breath of God proclaims the glory of God, even when what we let out are sighs too deep for words.

            Pentecost is that reminder that though the Kingdom of God is not yet revealed in all its glory, that though there is hardship and pain is all around us, that God is with us, with every breath we take. As we like the original followers at Pentecost begin to realize that God has not abandoned us but has instead declared to all the world that the Kingdom is here and will come with certainty one day in its fullness, then we too can begin to lift up our voices in praise. We can celebrate as black or white, rich or poor, American, South African or Iranian the good news of Christ’s Kingdom. And when the world around us beats us and batters us, when the things that make up the beautiful tapestry of diversity of the Kingdom are the things that begin to divide us, then let us like on that day of Pentecost use our groans. For we know that the Spirit intercedes for us in groans, sighs too deep for words.  We are in the labor pains of the Kingdom of God, so maybe we should take a cue from expecting mothers and learn to breath. (Lamaze breath slowly turns in Yahweh)

Witnesses of Something Spectacular

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 5/17/15

Read Acts 1:15-26 
Read 1 John 5:9-12 

Certain years tend to hold certain memories for me. For example 2015 will be the year I am ordained, 2013 was the year I got married. 2012 was a big year, it was the year that I proposed to Heather, graduated from seminary, and started my ministry here at Lambs/Evington. 2011 was the year I went to South Africa. But 2010 will always be the year that I watched Duke win the National Title. Sure Duke has won it all before that year, and yes they won all again this year, But 2010 was special because I was there. No I wasn’t actually there in Indianapolis where they won it all, but I was at the next best place; Cameron Indoor Stadium, watching on the big screen with thousands of other students around me. When that last shot barely missed and Duke won, that place erupted. It was so loud that as I hugged my friend J.D. in celebration, there was no way to differentiate his yelling in my ear from the screams all around me. As we all filed out of the stadium we headed for the quad for we knew what was awaiting us. On Duke’s campus there are these huge benches that are built each year for the sole purpose of burning to celebrate extraordinary events. It is a smart move by the school to create a safe, fun way to celebrate as Fire firefighters prepare and watch over the massive bonfire. It may sound strange, but there is nothing quite like celebrating late at night with thousands of people around a huge bonfire.

            We had witnessed something that some schools and fans only dream about. As the days passed there was still a buzz, people couldn’t stop talking about the night. The book store was packed with people buying National Championship t-shirts (which I have two of) and even a shirt for the students that read “I was on the Quad” Still to this day the bookstore still sells tiny little wood blocks that were part of the championship floor for over $100. People just want to have some memory, some proof, some conservation starter about the night they saw Duke win the National Championship. In fact you can probably sense how excited I get talking about this great event that I got to witness.

            It does make me wonder however, why are we so willing to witness to stories like this, but so rarely witness to the Messiah who rose from the dead?  Because I don’t think I’m alone, I am sure each and every one of you have a story like mine that you love to share. The story of your engagement or wedding day, the story of the birth of your children, the story of the concert that you once went to, or the day you ran into that famous person on the street. We tell stories about the places we’ve been, the work that we have done, the fish that we have caught (even if those stories are a little exaggerated), but still we rarely find ourselves sharing the story of the savior we follow.

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

            Today in the life of the Church we find ourselves celebrating one of the most spectacular events in the New Testament, but sadly it is one that is not as well know and not often celebrated like it should be. As Christians we are good at celebrating Good Friday and Jesus’s death on the cross. We are good at celebrating Easter and Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, but now as we come to the end of this Easter season, we celebrate Jesus’s last recorded event on Earth, the day he ascended into Heaven. This is a spectacular event, so why don’t we talk about it more often. We say it every week in the Apostle’s creed, “He ascended into heaven from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead,” so why don’t we give this day more praise? Do we find it too unbelievable? If so then why are we okay with celebrating tongues of fire resting on people’s shoulders next week at Pentecost?  Or are quiet in celebrating the Ascension because we don’t want Jesus to go? Even though we are promised that he is with us through the Spirit, and we see that fulfilled just days later at Pentecost, do we still not celebrate the Ascension because we feel abandoned. Are we afraid because now the witnessing to the world is not through the miracles and signs of Jesus, but the witnessing now falls on us? Do we fear the Ascension because it is the time where were are reminded that responsibility and leadership now at least partially falls on us?

            I believe that is at least the state that we find our disciplines in our scripture for today. Their leader had just ascended into heaven and they are obviously in the middle of a leadership crisis.  They did not have Jesus there to tell them what to do or how to minister to the world. None of them could fill the shoes of Jesus, not even Peter who Jesus called the cornerstone on which he would build the church. It was obvious that there would need to be a restructuring of sorts; instead of one leader, the 12 disciples would become tasked with testifying to what they had seen and learned. The only problem is that one of the disciples is now dead. Judas after betraying Jesus left the disciples and died, either by hanging himself as we read in Matthew, or through his guts spilling out as we have here in Acts.  Regardless of the discrepancies one thing is clear, Judas is gone, and needed to be replaced.

            The disciples come up with some strict guidelines of who was eligible to be the new 12^th disciple. The next disciple must have been there when Jesus was baptized, had to witness the miracles of Jesus, his death, his resurrection, and yes his ascension. The requirements for the new disciple were required more than what the existing disciples had to do! But it was all done so that they would know that the newest disciple would be able to testify and witness to the glory of Jesus Christ. And so out of about 120 followers gathered there, these requirements left two people, Mathias and a named Joseph sometimes called Justus. Finally after it was determined both of these men were qualified, the disciples prayed about it, and cast lots to determine the next disciple. The lots fell on Mathias, and that’s how the new 12^th disciple was decided

              This kind of reminds me of my journey towards ordination. The Board of Ordained Ministries requirements are rivaled only by those requirements we have here in Acts. For Ordination you must go to both Undergraduate and Seminary. You must be recommend by your home charge, you home district, and then after countless papers and interviews you are entered into what is called the provisional process. This is the process you all have so graciously walked with me through. During this process while you serve full-time, there are more meetings, papers, surveys and psychological evaluations that you can shake a stick at, until three years later you are able to write papers once more and sit in front of the board hopefully your last time. As you are interviewed for 3 hours, your body shakes, sweat drips off every part of your body and you pray that the Board recognizes in you the same gifts for ministry that you feel you have. But the Board of Ordained Ministries’s goal is the same as that of the original disciples, they want their new leaders to be ones who can effectively witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.

            I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for Mathias and Joseph on that day. You both have all of the requirements necessary to step up into this leadership role and so it comes down to either you or him. But here there is no chance to articulate why you are the better candidate or why your gifts for ministry would make you a great next disciple; it is all left up to the casting of lots.  A coin flip, dice roll, rock, paper, scissors; this is in essence how your fate is decided. It just so happens that day that Mathias was the one the lots fell upon. Mathias was the newest disciple to witness to the glory of God through the leadership role as one of the 12.

            When you hear this story you almost start to feel a little bad for Joseph, the man not chosen to be a disciple. He had been with Jesus since his baptism, he had witnessed Jesus’s miracles firsthand and had even just recently witnessed the amazing act of Jesus ascending into the clouds to sit at the right hand of the throne. Joseph was just as qualified as Mathias, but Mathias gets all of the glory and responsibility of leadership, while Joseph continues on as just another follower of Christ. In fact Joseph’s name is never mentioned again in the Bible. It seems unfair, Mathias gets the glory, and Joseph gets none. But let’s look at Mathias a little closer. He has just been chosen for this great honor of leadership in the first chapter of Acts, so how many times do you think we hear about Matthias later on? The answer is none. Like Joseph, Matthias is never mentioned again,

            This passage really makes me reflect upon the roles of clergy and laity in our churches today.  Matthias is like the clergy who have been called and set apart to be leaders in the church. They have met all of the requirements of the Church and are called into this sacred role of ministry, while the laity are like Joseph, called to continue to serve Christ through their participation in the Church. But what separates the two men? It is not that Mathias has more privilege or experience of Jesus than Joseph does, it is simply that Mathias was called into leadership. Too often in our church today laity act as though they are not qualified to witness to their faith. We have a pastor, they’re the ones that are called to do that not me. But as we see both Mathias and Joseph are called to witness. Both can testify to glory of God. Matthias is not greater than Joseph, neither men are mentioned again after this passage. But as we continue in our stories we can bet that both men are there as part of the gathered following on the day of Pentecost. Both men received that spirit, and both were sent into the world to witness to the good news that Jesus Christ now sits on the throne of judgement, the Kingdom of God has been established and Jesus is Lord!

            We all have a story to tell. It doesn’t matter if you are lay or clergy, I am sure that you have witnessed sometime in your life the amazing works of Jesus Christ in this world. As 1 John says, “Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts.” It is my job to witness to my faith, but not because I am a pastor, but because like you I am a follower of Christ. I am called to tell the story of how God’s love entered my heart on a youth trip to Lake Junaluska. I am called to tell how I have seen a glimpse of the Kingdom in its fullest as I worshiped at Seth Mokitimi seminary in South Africa singing “How Great Thou Art” in the many different languages of the students there. And I am called to tell these stories because I have been a witness to the glory of God in my life, and because these stories are powerful. I remember the stories my mom would tell of my grandfather in his ministries, standing up against segregation, even when his life was threatened on multiple occasions. It is stories like these that help spark my own flame and have given me courage to witness.

            But the storytelling does not rest squarely on my shoulders. Like Mathias and Joseph, You and I are both witnesses of the glory of God. You and I are both called to tell the stories. As we tell the stories of Christ, let us do it with the same passion and frequency as we do our other stories. Hopefully when we talked about Christ we can get as excited as I do when I talk about witnessing Duke win the championship, or that you do about the fish you caught that one time; because let’s face it no other story we could tell could ever match the story of God as human dying, rising from the dead, and ascending into Heaven. Let us as the classic hymn says “love to tell the story” because 2015 may be the year of ordination and 2013 may be the year of our wedding; but all of them are the year of the Lord.

Joyful Obedience

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 5/10/15

Read 1 John 5:1-6 

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

As we have journeyed through 1 John a bet you can sum up in one word what the main theme running throughout the text is. (Love).  We have looked at the love of God who has claimed us as children of God. We have looked at the love of Christ who calls us to lay down our lives for one another just as Christ did for us. We have even looked at where love comes from and discovered that we are able to love only because God first loved us. As we turn to chapter 5 of this great book, we see love being expressed in a different way. We hear love being expressed through obedience. Our scripture says, “For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,.”

            Some of us may have no problem with this text at all; obedience has been ingrained in you from your very childhood and you would expect nothing less from our God than to demand obedience. Those veterans among us this morning probably know a thing or two about obedience as well. On this Mother’s Day we probably remember a few things about obedience from our loving mothers. We probably remember being told not to do this or not to do that, and remember the consequences for it when we didn’t listen. Still most of us remember this with fondness knowing that our Mothers did it because they loved us. For many however, obedience can be a nasty word, a trigger of sorts to all kinds of bad thoughts and feelings. There are probably a large contingent of people who grew up during both the civil rights and the free love movement that learned obedience was an oppressive word. For women who are taught that they are second class and subservient to men, obedience, especially in the Bible, is just another way to make them feel lesser. Obedience to God the Father may mean something completely different and terrible to a child who grew up in an abusive household. I even have to admit, that there was always something off putting, something that made me cringe when I heard the word obedience, especially when I heard it in church.

            I believe that if we are one of those people who cringe at the word obedience it is probably because first we have seen power abused before, and second because we have a false understanding of freedom. For many of us, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” We are free when there is nobody or nothing to tell us what to do but us. Freedom is to be rid of fear, rid of enemies that could harm us, rid of government controls our lives, and free from a God to whom we must be obedient. Our common notion of freedom is summed up in John Lennon’s hit song Imagine where he asks us to, “Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace.” Lennon shapes an image of the perfect world, a peaceful world around the idea that if we were just free from rules and structures all around us.

            But rules do matter, structure is important, and yes obedience is necessary. This is hard for some to wrap their heads around, especially older children who are starting to enter in to that time in their lives where every other question is why? Why do I have to go to school, Why do I have to take a bath, Why are the commandments and obedience to God important? To answer this question I usually like to play a little game with the kids. I pick up a ball of some sort, and I tell them that they are going to make us their own game using the, expect there can be no rules in the game. Kids will call out ideas such as you have to throw the ball into a basket to score, and I will gently tell them, that’s a rule. Well, maybe you can bounce the ball as high in the air as possible and whoever gets the ball first wins. Well who gets to bounce the ball? “The oldest person.” Well that’s a rule too. And the activity goes on like this until the kids realize that they need rules in order to play a game. A game without rules is actually no fun at all.

            As Christians, sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that the world would be a better place if we were free from rules. Everything would be better if everyone and everything would just let me decide what I want to do. We even sometimes convince ourselves that our spiritual life is better not when we listen to the commands of God, but when we are free to live and Worship however we want. For Christians though this isn’t freedom. Sure, through Christ we are free from sin and death, but so often we emphasize the freedom from, and forget to emphasize the freedom to. We are free from sin so that we may finally have a right relationship with God. We are free to be faithful servants. We are free to be disciples of Christ, we are free to be kingdom builders.

            In the gospel of John Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” This verse reminds me of when we gather for communion and often start with a prayer of confession, telling God all of the ways that we as a church have failed to be the Church; and as we do there is one line at the end that sticks out. “Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Those are two words that you have never associated with each other; Obedience and joyful. When we realize that as we confess our sins that Christ has already forgiven them, that our failures and shortcomings do not stop God from calling us into the world transforming ministry of Kingdom building, and that God still promises victory even with our failure; then we begin to understand the role of joyful obedience. Imagine you were walking up for a job interview for a important project in the community and the boss asks for a resume and you say, “well I failed at this, and I forgot to do this, and I didn’t listen to this when I should have…. do you think you would get the job? But God says, “Ok, welcome aboard, this is how we are going to change the world.” Who wouldn’t want to work for a boss like that? Who wouldn’t joyfully follow such a God?

            The question we must ask is how do we obey? We know that our obedience is best summed up in the two commandments to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor, but what does obedience to these commandments look like? It looks like Jesus. If we want to follow the way of the Lord, we must learn from the example of Christ. Who as Philippians tells us, “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross.” If we look at Christ’s ministry to the world then we will know what perfect obedience looks like, we will know what it means to love God and Love neighbor. Obedience looks like a young Jesus sitting and listening to the Rabbis in the Temple. Obedience looks like Jesus healing the sick and giving sight to the blind. Obedience looks feeding 5000 tired and hungry listeners who had gathered to hear the word of God proclaimed. Obedience looks Jesus as he went out alone to pray and be in communion with God the Father. Obedience is Jesus washing the feet of his own disciples.

            As we see Christ’s obedience to the will of God throughout his life and especially in his time of ministry we see the essence of this obedience almost bookended with two acts. Although Jesus’s impact in the world started that night he was born, his real ministry started at the Jordan River. John the Baptist for some time had been preaching a gospel of repentance and foretelling of the Messiah who was coming who would be greater than he. As he was baptizing members into this very truth, the one whom he was talking about arrived. John recognized this significance, and at first he refused to baptize Jesus. He insisted that it should be he that should be baptized by Jesus. In this first act of baptism, Jesus humbled himself, and received the same claim upon his life that we now as brothers and sisters in Christ have also received. You are my beloved with whom I am well pleased. Jesus did not see himself as better than others, not needing to be baptized, but instead he embraced his humanity and our need for repentance and forgiveness and was baptized by John in the Jordan River.

            This marked the true beginning of Jesus’s ministry that included all of those forms of obedience that we mentioned before. Jesus’s final act of ministry however may be the greatest example of obedience the world has ever seen. As Jesus cried out in the garden before his arrest, “Father if you are willing take this cup from me, but not my will but yours be done” we see perfect obedience. We see Jesus who even though he was about to endure a gruesome death, yielded his will to the will of the Father. We see a God who could have torn himself down from the cross, but suffered for our sake. We see the Messiah who did not come with the sword to topple the enemies, but who through love and mercy exemplified on the cross established a new world order. This truly is love for God and love for neighbor, this truly is obedience.

            We see that Jesus’s ministry in a way in bookended with his baptism and his death on the cross. The elder writing 1 John notes this in our scripture for this morning saying, “This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood.” Christ’s ministry through the world started with the water of baptism and ended with his blood on the cross. We know that this really isn’t the end of Jesus’s ministry. On the third day Jesus rose from the grave conquering sin and death. He visited with his disciples and walked on the road to Emmaus with some fellow followers. Next week we will celebrate Jesus’s ascension into Heaven where he now sits at the right hand of God the Father, and the week following we will celebrate Pentecost; where the early church was born and received the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’s ministry is not over, it now through the power of the Holy Spirit continues in us.

            The cornerstones of our ministry here on Earth are also the water and the blood. Like Christ our ministry in the world begins with the waters of baptism. Though God’s grace had worked in our lives previously, at baptism we are claimed as one of the children of God, and at confirmation we affirm that we will be obedient to God. In the United Methodist Church we profess to be a faithful member through our prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness. And through the blood of Jesus we carry out those vows. As we gather around the Communion Table we are in prayer with one another to God. We are present and gathered from our individual day to day activities as one body, the Body of Christ. We offer our gifts before the Lord, and we are prepared by God’s grace to go out into the world in witness and service to be Christ’s body for the world. Like Christ, the foundations of our obedience to God is the water and the blood.

            Through this obedience to Christ we are free to do some amazing things. We are free to gather as young and old, rich and poor, black and white and truly experience a loving community that the world cannot give. Through the obedience we are able to seek justice and topple oppressive regimes. Let us not forget that the Civil Rights Movement that did so much for this country was in rooted in Christian practice. Through obedience we are able to come together as a community and provide a house to a man in need, and provide food and resources for those who do not have them. Through obedience to God, colleges like Liberty and Randolph, and my Alma matters Duke and Randolph-Macon were created to give us our children opportunities for education that many of our parents and grandparents did not have. Through obedience to God, Ann Jarvis and her daughter Anna recognized the gifts and voice that women and in particular mothers had, at a time when women had very little rights; and through obedience these women helped to establish this very holiday of Mother’s day that we celebrate today. When we are obedient to God, When we follow Christ’s example of loving God and loving others, we participate in these groundbreaking ministries. We participate in the building of the Kingdom of God, and who wouldn’t want to be part of something as spectacular as that? So this morning may our prayer truly be, “free us for joyful obedience.”