Pastor's Message - May 2014

REFLECTIONS ON RESURRECTION SUNDAY, AND THE TIME LEADING UP TO IT, (some call it Lent)

Dear Friends,

I have to confess that Sunday afternoon, after the morning worship service to celebrate Resurrection Sunday, was really emotionally, a great let down. I felt like the air was let out of my balloon, like someone poked it with a pin and it was an immediately deflated. I was completely physically exhausted. 

So, I got to thinking about that for the next few days. Why? Was the question that I was thinking? I reflected upon the weeks that we worshipped during the Community Lenten Services, by the way, they are very important to our community. I hope next year many from the Liberty Street Church of God will attend. I attended all but one service and, for me, it is just good to have fellowship and “reach our hands in fellowship with every blood washed one.”

Holy Week was filled with lots of activities and opportunities to worship. Maybe for most it is too much? I don’t know. (In Facebook (FB) language IDK). I do know that many of the services were really not well attended except for Sunday Morning.

The several days leading up to Holy Week along with Holy Week was a time of great expectation, wanting God to help us to have an epiphany of sorts. For one of the first times, I really did have one that, for me, is rather profound.

The story in Scripture regarding the Emmaus Road, the day that the empty tomb was found, the first day of the week, two men were walking together, Cleopas and the other, most believed to be Luke. They were talking about the events from the last several days regarding Jesus. “That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, (14) and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.” Luke 24:13-14 ESV

Usually after big events, we talk, and talk, and talk. Think about events that have happened in the USA for example, there are wars that we still talk about that happened decades ago, but we still talk about it. In many cases these big events have shaped us, whether it be in our country, our personal lives, the lives of our family, and our spiritual lives. There is one person who says, “We are counting time by Jesus.” That is really an amazing thought. Every time we write a date on some document, some paper, a check, we are really, and probably unconsciously recognizing Christ.

This road to Emmaus story was just the beginning of the conversation about the biggest event in life for everyone who lived and died before Calvary, and everyone who came after.

My concern is that we are programmed to focus on Lent and Holy week and we will not have that kind of focus until next year when Lent rolls around, when in fact it should be part of our daily thinking with regard to Jesus and Calvary. 

The passage goes on to say, “While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. (16) But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” Luke 24:15-16 ESV Obviously, Jesus kept them from recognizing Him, but I would submit to you that in our lives it’s not Jesus that keeps us from recognizing Him, i.e. His presence, but things in life that keep us from recognizing Him. Relationships, material possessions, jobs, occupations, schedules, and the list goes on and on. What keeps you and me from recognizing Jesus? Can you be real and genuine enough at this moment to recognize anything in your life that keeps you from a thriving and growing relationship with Jesus? When you read God’s word, does anything jump out at you? Is there anything that convicts you and makes your want to rearrange your life?

In this passage it ends with this thought, “They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Luke 24:32 ESV When is the last time that your heart burned because of the presence of Holy Spirit? When was the last time that you really felt powerfully, the presence of God in such a way that you were willing to change? That you could not help but change that you started to think differently about a situation, an event, a passage of Scripture?

In our world today, and I am referring specifically to the life of the church, I am greatly concerned about where we are going with respect to church attendance, commitment to serving the Lord, being willing to sacrifice our time, talent, and resources for the work of the Kingdom. We are living in a time when younger generations base their decisions about church, with regard to attendance and service, on what their family schedule is, what the children are involved in and what we think is our priority.

What are we teaching our children with regard to these issues? Are you ever willing to give up a secular activity for Christ and the Kingdom?

I hope that after this past observance and celebration of Resurrection Sunday that you will reflect and try to recognize the presence of God in your life. I hope that we can, in the midst of pressure from the world, that we will be willing to change, that God will not have second, third, or fourth place in our lives.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  (8)  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  (9)  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— (10)  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  (11)  that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  (12)  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  (13)  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14 ESV 

Pastor Bruce