An Easter Message-Resurrection

Happen-chance does not exist! It was not by accident that our youngest son stayed overnight at a friends on Sunday night, without so much as a word. It was not by accident that I found myself angry, not at our son, but at the parents of his friend who failed to remind him to call home. It was not by accident that I found myself upset the next morning at my dear wife, when our son called with the message that "I was not amused." It was not by accident that both Anthony and Spruce called to ask me if I would speak at the Easter Rally. It was not by accident that Mark had planned to close the restaurant on Easter Sunday; and it was not by accident that the front page of both Vancouver papers leaped out at me to proclaim, "It was not by accident."

A young man had been struck down on the road by another driver, who after he had run the young man and his two friends off the road, returned to run them down. It was not by accident that I have come to believe that my grandfather was shunned and excommunicated by the Old Colony Church; and it is not by accident that we are now planning the 70th anniversary of my grandmother's death, for which my grandfather was blamed and which resulted in his banning.

As we plan the whole event I have spoken lots with my sister about our mom, who cared for the man she held accountable for her mother's death during the last painful year of his life. My sister responded angerly when I suggested that her decision to care for grandfather in his dying days might have had something to do with guilt. "It had nothing to do with guilt," she retorted. "It had to do with compassion, one human being caring for another; and it had to do with the power of forgiveness." From bitterness and anger to mercy, grace and peace. All in the time that it took to speak a single word-forgiveness.

Turn with me to Psalm 22. This is Jesus' journey, and as my blog is entitled, Sometimes the journey is the destination. It is not by accident that it ended for all the world to see on a Roman cross 2000 years ago.

"Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabacthani" Perhaps the most poignant words spoken by anyone in the history of the world, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" Hear his cry. These are the words of a despairing man who feels that his God has abandoned him. "Why are yo so far from helping me, so far from the words of my despairing."

Jesus was not ignorant of the outcome of his life. Only days, perhaps hours before he had said to the twelve that this would be his end. Yet now in the pain of death he feels so all alone. Have you ever been there, some situation in life that has left you feeling totally abandoned. You have blamed every bad thing that has happened to you on this one event. You are experiencing death, psychological, social, emotional. "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"

You cry out in the daytime, and you cry out in the darkness. You are not silent, but God does not seem to be listening. "You are separated from me. You, who for thousands of years, have listened to the cries of your people, are now deaf to my groaning."
Can you hear the pain in Jesus' voice. "I don't understand! Our fathers trusted in you, and you delivered them. They cried out to you, and you listened, but then, they were your people and I am but a worm. I am the reproach of men, despised by the people of God. Jesus was despised and rejected by the people that he came to save, a man of sorrows, the prophet says, well acquainted with grief. Man, including you and I, have turned our faces from him; and now in the moment of his greatest need, God himself hides his face.

Taunting voices cry out from the foot of the cross, "He trusted that the Lord would deliver him; let God deliver him if he really cares." Have you ever been there? Greeted at the moment of your greatest need with silence.

Silence and confusion! But never unbelief!

But thou art he who took me out of the womb; thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Ann Rice, the prolific author of The Vampire Chronicles, came back late in life to the faith of her childhood. She embraced once again the truths she had learned at her mother's knee. What a wonderful place to hear the stories of faith. Tell me the old old story, is a hymn that every child has sung at one time or another. Jesus was no different. In Christ The Lord-Out of Egypt, Ann Rice gives the reader a picture of what his early years might have been like. Now admittedly, this is a fanciful tale based on myth and legend, but the captivating part of the story is how it takes the reader back to their own childhood, growing up in homes filled with awe and wonder. It was to that home that I returned in 2003 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the little church where I first came to faith 51 years ago. So I see it to be as Jesus languishes in death, his mother at the foot of the cross.

Many of us in troubled times, will remember the faith of our mothers who sang the anthems of faith for our tender ears. We stand in pretty good company. Jesus, in his most despairing moments, remembered, not the God of his father, but the God of his mother, who had undoubtedly taught him the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The stories that helped him now formulate a picture of the Father who was still near.

Be not far from me, he cried, for trouble is near at hand, and there is no one else to help. The whole world is against me. I am pured out like water. My spirit is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my being, like a candle held too close to the flame. My strength is all but gone, and I am facing death.

Nailed naked to the cross, his very garments the prize for his tormentors , shamed before the watching eyes of the nation that he came to save. Jesus still clings to the Father, "Be not thou far from me, O Lord, make haste to help me. Deliver my soul, not my body, but my soul, from the sword. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the altar."

Can you catch a glimpse of the glory here? "I will deliver thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the great congregation I will praise you. You have not hide your face from me!" Then this portal into the future: the poor shall eat and be satisfied. your heart will live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto you. All the tribes and nations will worship before you. In the very midst of his despairing Jesus see God's hand. Then as he gives up his spirit he cries aloud, It is finished. He has made all things right, and a people yet unborn will see and hear that God has unboubtedly and completely finished what he began before the foundation of the world.

Now, here is the point of all this: The Psalm begins in absolute despair. All hope is gone, yet it does not end in this defeat. Jesus placed his life in the Father's hands. "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way that I should go, for to you I lift up my soul" (Psalm 143:8).

Now hear this, it is OK to feel discouragement. It is a part of the process of grieving and working through the times of pain, but God loves us too much to leave us in the pit of despair. So don't give up! Nothing happens by accident. The events in your life may seem beyond reason, but you can have the victory. Acknowledge and accept that God, himself present with Jesus on the cross, is present with you in your most despairing moments, and he does everything, everything right.

Note this glass of water. Is it half empty? or Is it half full? The decision is up to you. You can live in the despair of the past, or you can recognize God's hand in your most despairing moments, working out everything for his glory. Or, you can stand with me I am not going to give the devil credit for anything that God is doing well. Now, you may be sitting here tonight thinking; yeah, it is easy for the preacher to say, but what does he know. He doesn't now anything of the pain of my life. And you are right. i don't know anything about your pain, I have enough pain of my own to deal with. When I was just a little boy, living with my mom in a broken down derelict hotel, a man whose name I no longer remember often too drunk to return home, after a night of drinking took advantage of me. I won't go into all the sordid details except to say that even today I bear the physical scars of the abuse that I suffered at his hands and for his pleasure.

Mom was terrified that there would be a re-occurance. She was powerless to defend me, and the story could end right here leaving me to wallow in my own despair, and the devil would get his due, another ruined life. But, I have discovered that nothing happens that God does not have a part in, "What the enemy intended for evil, God intended for good." Do you feel the weight of the word "intended?"

Mom was so afraid that the abuse would continue she sent me to live with her youngest sister. it was in aunt Tillie's home that I first met Jesus, and it would be many summers later at a Pentecostal Summer Camp that I would be baptized by the Holy Spirit, sealed for God's own purpose.

This is my story; this is my song, praising my saviour all the day long. Nothing happens by accident; not the many good things, not the bad. It is my response to these things that matters. I can become bitter and angry, blaming all my present problems on the stuff that has happened in the past; or I can praise God that because of that past I have a hope and a future. God has a plan, and he does all things right. I will ask you again, Is the glass half empty or is it half full? the choice is yours. Is God sovereign, or is he simply a tool in the enemy's hand, having to respond to every quirk and whim of the enemy?

These are hard questions if you have a troubled past. But where do you want to go on living, in the past with all of its misery, or in the future with all its promise? Will you join me today giving thanks for your life, or do you want to wallow in the past. Don't let go of the past, give thanks for it. Acknowledge God's omnipotent hand. Nothing happens by accident. You are not here tonight because you are hungry. You are here tonight because God willed it. Are you ready to acknowledge the sovereignty to God in your life, stand up; and with the Psalmist say in a loud voice that God has laboured in your life to make things right; and he has doubtlessly, completely made a righteous end. Cry out with Jesus, "It is finished."

Preached at the Gwa'sala-'nakwakdax Easter Rally in Port Hardy, BC on March 23, 2008

The Things People Want

17. the King is coming!

18. Join the feast.

19. The new age has begun.

And for today, this is my journey through the Gospel of Matthew.

Step by Step

7. May your kingdom come.

8. Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts.

9. Pay it forward!

10. Now is the time.

11. The sign for all nations.

12. Chosen to know.

13. Obedience is the key.

14. No stone upon another.

15. More than enough.

16. The things people want.

Keep reading! We are nearing Jerusalem. The end is in sight.