Easter Sunday
Bob Seymour • April 6, 2021
Easter Sunday
A few months ago Rob and I were talking about friends of ours and the difficulties they are experiencing in their relationship. Rob said something so true and terrible when she said, ‘don’t forget she lives in a graceless marriage’, my heart did sink a bit at that bad news.
Tragically there are those in this room and in our families who have or are experiencing that injustice and whose marriage vows, parenting and other close relationships are a mockery of love and honour.
On ‘Good Friday’ we are reminded of how hard it was on that day for the greatest act of grace by God to be seen by those attending. Brutality designed to kill and terrorise, it was so that day as it is always the way when people design their days without mercy or without grace.
There’s not an event in the Christian calendar carrying more significance and truth about God than Easter. Safe to say without Christmas the acknowledgement and celebration of the birth of Jesus there would be no Easter, but without Easter the whole message and purpose of Jesus arrival would never have gained its power and the full purposes of God for His creation. God sent Jesus.
John 3:16 has been called the Gospel in a nutshell and is probably the best know verse in the Bible. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
From the time when people first discover this truth all energy and focus is about our response to God. The Holy mysteries of this day aren’t understood by me – but they are deeply felt.
When we come into a personal realisation of God we don’t just come to a new set of beliefs, we come in to a new life. We are encouraged and told by those who would disciple, lead and instruct us, there are two things we must have if we are going to change our way of life to become followers of Jesus.
One is faith, the new confidence in things unseen, the other is obedience, to live according to our faith, living each day as we believe God wants us to live, with gratitude, humility, honesty, purity, unselfishness and love.
Faith and obedience will give us the strength needed to overcome those struggles to give up and struggles to give in, and choose to live well Gods way.
How is it, what we do, or don’t do, matters to God….God the Creator! God says He alone is the Creator, Governor and Preserver of all we can see, hear and do and much, much more besides while retaining a vital interest in all of humanity. That’s just too vast for me to understand, but not just me, I’m in good company.
Scientists and scholars say the ‘master planner’ of creation left nothing to chance. The slant of the earth at 23 degrees produces our four seasons, and just one or two degrees difference the scientists tells us the north and south poles and the oceans vapours would pile up continents of ice.
The moon is 200,000 miles away but if it were only 50,000 miles the whole planet called earth would be submerged in water. If the earth’s crust was just 10 feet thicker there would be no oxygen leaving no animal or vegetation and certainly no humans.
How they do this I’ll never understand but the earth is estimated to weigh six sextillion tons. That’s a six with 21 zeros and it remains perfectly balanced and revolves at more than 1,000 mph.(1600kph)
That weight at that speed on the invisible axis held in place by bands of gravity and Job said, ‘God poised the earth on nothingness’ Job 26:7 ‘He hangs the earth itself on nothingness.
And there is David in Psalm 8 which is based on Genesis 1, celebrating God’s majesty as Creator but also the unique place of human beings in His Creation. ‘When I gaze to the skies and meditate on your creation….on the moon the stars and all you have made, I can’t help but wonder why you care about mortals…sons and daughters of men…specks of dust floating about the cosmos’.8:3.
And don’t you? I often enough wonder the same as the Psalmist as we express amazement, considerable shock and are stunned in the same way as we reflect on the immensity of God and the intimacy of God.
So, what is Grace, what does God say…..but very importantly, what do you say!? Not just an opinion or a repeat of the churches doctrines….the unmerited favour and love of God. Or. ’The Spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate and strengthen them’.
There are different concepts of how we might attain this grace, how can I get it, what do I need to do to earn my salvation!?
It is Easter and we need now more than any other time to focus on the total and complete wealth and sufficiency of the redeeming work of God.
We each in our endeavours to love and serve God proceed with some care when it comes to interpreting the common and popular and somewhat distorted wisdom of this world. There are many concepts twisting our thoughts when it comes to us deserving and earning our entitlements and rewards.
Often we would agree and say we believe it is God’s and only God’s Grace which redeems and saves, not our works or exertions or performances.
There’s no free lunch.
You get what you deserve.
You want money? Work for it.
You want love? Earn it.
You want mercy? Show you deserve it.
Watch out for welfare queues, the shiftless thieving homeless.
Government handouts that are abused…give them something, but not a penny more.
God loves good little boys and girls.
There is such a big judgement on personal effort and who the deserving and undeserving are.
Tragically that is twisted and distorted and bought into the church and colours the pages of the Bible.
No pain, no gain gives the impression DoItYourself has become the fashion of the church.
The Scriptures have always, and will continue to insist the work of salvation is God’s initiative. There is no side entrance or secret code to gain entry into the house of God..
Personal responsibility has replaced personal response.
Your spirituality, my spirituality, without exception or excuse starts with God. By Grace we are Saved.
We talk about acquiring virtue or spiritual maturity like it can be attained like good handwriting or the ability of drawing a horse.
The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing, believing we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.
In practically every other endeavour in life our efforts and enterprise is what makes a big difference in us achieving what we want. When it comes to our relationship with God it must be realised by us the union or our communion with God starts with Him…not me!
It will be discovered by us, if it hasn’t already… we have an inability to add even a single inch to our spiritual status.
Our scrambling for brownie points, the huffing and puffing to fix ourselves to make ourselves worthy is futile and ignores the Gospel of Grace.
Matthew 9:9-13. The Voice.
Later Jesus was walking along and He saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s office.
Jesus (to Matthew): Follow Me.
Matthew got up and followed Him.
Once when He ate a meal at home with His disciples, a whole host of tax collectors and other sinners joined them. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus’ disciples,
Pharisees: Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus (overhearing this): 12 Look, who needs a doctor—healthy people or sick people? 13 I am not here to attend to people who are already right with God; I am here to attend to sinners. In the book of the prophet Hosea, we read, “It is not sacrifice I want, but mercy.”[a] Go and meditate on that for a while—maybe you’ll come to understand it.
In today’s world Jesus comes for sinners, those outcasts, for those caught up in consequences of bad or reckless choices, abandoned and failed dreams and plans. God’s grace in the gift of Jesus comes for those our world admires and venerates, the superstars, the comfortable and those our world avoids and cares little for. God’s grace is for all so none would be lost to Him.
Not only does Jesus engage and talk with these drifters and wanderers, He sits with them and shares a meal, fully aware the company at His table does not find approval by some. Those who sit and eat with Jesus in this parable know full well who Jesus is and importantly they understand they are sinners.
The sweet sound of Amazing Grace can always help us to stop denying our common weaknesses and know we are in need of Grace.
God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am, Jesus point is, there is nothing any of us can do to inherit the Kingdom. We must receive it like little children. And little children haven’t done anything.
“God loves unconditionally as we are and not as we should be, because nobody is as they should be” (Brennan Manning)
Sermons For The Moment
New Year - Matthew 2:13-23
Do not be afraid - Matthew 1:18-21
Luke 2: 4- 15
Luke 1: 26-33
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Ruth Chapter 4
Ruth 3
Ruth 2
Commitment from Love, Ruth 1: 1-18
This is an interesting Psalm – another psalm of ascent. We spoke about these Psalms of Ascent a few weeks ago. They were songs the Jewish people sang as they made their way to Jerusalem to go to the temple, through the forest, along the tracks, camping by the roads. And I believe songs like this kept them focussed and kept their spirits up. I can imagine days of walking together, tiring, boring, hot and dusty. And singing some of these Psalms keep them focussed on the faithfulness of God. Much better then eye spy for the kids. Journeys are not all their cracked up to be even if the destination is worth it. As you know, when I was growing up we always holidayed at Bawley Point past Ulladulla, and in those days it was about a 4 hour drive from Sydney. We always left later than we meant to…and the last 20 mins was on a dirt road. One year when I was probably about 4 years old it was dark by the time we got to the dirt road, and half way along the dirt road, was a dodgy wooden bridge over a river. I think part of the bridge had been damaged and we had to wait a bit in the pitch black darkness before we could proceed. Dad was out with a torch ensuring the bridge was safe to drive on and mum and us 4 kids were sitting in the darkness – no street lights, no moonlight. Of course, you might be able to guess what I said to mum in that car, with fearful crying…you’ve probably heard it from kids before. I said ‘I want to go home’. Mum said to me, ‘we can’t go home Robyn, we’re almost there’. In truth, after the bridge we had the last 10 minutes of a 4 hours journey left. We safely crossed the bridge and we were OK. But I remember it. I remember the feeling of being scarred in the darkness. I remember not liking this journey at all. Even though I always loved the destination. Well this psalm celebrates the end of the journey and the arrival at the destination. Psalm 126:1-3, “When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.” Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!” Before we can understand the laughter and joy of the Israelites, we have to understand their journey. This Psalm looks back to when they arrived back in Jerusalem after 70 long years in Babylon. The captives had experienced great sorrow and mourning in exile. We read these heartbreaking words in Psalm 137: “Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?” (Psalm 137:1-4). Their tormentors demanded they sing joyfully, but they were like – that’s impossible, it doesn’t come from our heart. So they just sat by the waters of Babylon and wept. But now by an amazing work of God they were suddenly back in Jerusalem. And so their joy came from their heart. The wait was over, the journey was complete. “We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.” The journey is the hard bit though isn’t it? I was reminded of this, this week. An Officer couple I was speaking to, said that their teenager said some very hurtful things to them. Stuff like, ‘you make my life worse’. As they spoke to me, I did very little but listen and pray with them. They do have other supports in their life as well, already seeing a psychologist. But what I was thinking in my head as they were speaking was ‘oh the teenage years, I’d forgotten them’. Though we have 2 wonderful young adults in P and K, they were times when it was more than tense. K wears her heart on her sleeve, and to this day apologises for some of the things she said to me. And P, you wouldn’t know what he was thinking, and then all of a sudden all his thoughts and feelings for the last 3 years would come out like molten lava everywhere. A few days later I checked in to see how the couple and their teenager were going. I mentioned in passing about teenage years and very briefly about our experiences. I didn’t want to make it all about me. But I said teenage years can be painful and those years can really hurt everyone in the family. Teenager included. They know that we have a good relationship with P and K and they said to me, you know, this is helpful. It gives us hope. I was like, yep, this too shall pass. Because when you’re in the midst of the journey of pain and sorrow, you sometimes wonder if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. If you’ll laugh again or experience joy again. You begin to wonder, “Is this all that God has for me? Will I ever be happy again?” And here’s the promise in Psalm 126:4-6, “Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” When you are going through a time of deep sorrow, Psalm 126 is strong medicine for your soul. It carries a powerful message of hope. It tells you that times of trouble and sorrow do not last. It tells you that God will turn your sorrow to joy and your tears to laughter. If you are going through a challenging time right now, I pray that this psalm will speak to your heart this morning. Let me tell you right up front, whatever you’re going through, it will get better. God will change your tears to joy. This week I found something I wrote about 10 years ago. I had written it on a piece of paper and there was a whole reflection about my life. At the time we had my mum living with us, she had dementia, and mostly I remember the good times and the fun times with her. I was also the Corps Officer at Glebe and Bob was the manager at William Booth House. After a page of writing I had written something like this “I’m often anxious, I’m usually stressed, I have eczema on my eyelids and ulcers in my mouth. I always feel pressed.” I went out to Bob in the lounge room and I’m like, ‘oh my goodness, eczema on my eyelids and ulcers in my mouth’, often anxious, usually stressed. The thing is, my life feels a long way from that now, and I’d forgotten what that part of my journey felt like. I’m sure when I was there I couldn’t look ahead and see a time of joy…but the truth is that “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” This too shall pass. ‘Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!’ says verse 3. God is faithful – he does the healing, the restoring, he brings the streams in the desert that renews and brings fruitfulness. I don’t need to tell you – it takes time. Today, I’m praying for a work of healing in your life, a gradual restoration of joy, of laughter. Like me as a kid, sometimes we don’t like parts of this journey at all. Even though we know our destination is good. And ultimately, we have a destination like no other and that’s the promise of God. A home in heaven made possible through Jesus. May God bless you this week as you look to Him, listen to Him, find your hope in Him and find courage and healing in your journey.