Leading Ahead- Reflection on Being Resurrection People
Lent is upon us. The seasons of Christmas and Epiphany has flown by. Ash Wednesday will be a reminder that we are nothing but ash. Granted the monetary value of the human body, in raw materials is about $160, however, while science can give us the entire physical breakdown, there’s never been a successful attempt at bringing a human to life. There’s still something missing.
Over the next seven weeks, we will hear the Old Testament narratives about humanity’s fall into sin and how through this act of disobedience, death enters the existence of the human reality. We will hear how Abra(ha)m was called to leave the comforts of home and family and step out in faith and how that justified Abraham in God’s sight, and how we too live justified in the same way.
The children of Israel will journey in faith toward God’s promise land. Yet, even in faith, they will question God’s compassionate presence with them. But they like us will come to see that suffering is a part of the process of growth.
Because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And the hope we attain is that God is with us.
Along the way, we see a new king anointed and appointed to lead Israel into new days of glory. We will be called to be light. Not our own light, but the light of the Lord, the light that overcomes darkness.
We will hear Ezekiel speak flesh onto and life into dry bones (“those bones, those bones, those dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord”). Yet, Paul will remind us that “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”
In six weeks, we will relive the entrance into Jerusalem, the final leg of Jesus’ journey to the cross. We will be lifted so high that we might think we are back on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Four days later, he institutes a meal of promise for his disciples and one more time prays with and for them in the darkness of the garden. But our hearts will drop into our stomachs as we hear the soldiers and synagogue leaders coming toward the garden, see the torches, look for the absent disciples and see an innocent and abandon man arrested, tried, beaten, falsely accused, and abandoned by those who earlier in the week had cheered him. Then they will jeer him.
We will not be quick to judge them. We have all been there. We have been all of this story. We have been created. We have fallen from grace. Called out again. Called justified.
We have journeyed in faith and at the same time questioned God’s presence. But then endured suffering to come out with a renewed hope. Then we shined brightly as our dry, lifeless bone had been restored.
We have cheered our King and received the benefits of his meal, only to abandon him in thought, word and deed. By what we have done, and by what we have left undone...However, soon Easter will be greeting us with the exclamation, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” We will celebrate! We will rise to a new day and a new life in Christ. We will want to run to tell others. We will be resurrected by the hope that is our in Christ Jesus and his own resurrection.
Being resurrection people doesn’t mean we don’t undervalue ourselves. It does mean that we are fearless in the journey. It doesn’t mean we don’t suffer. It doesn’t even mean that every so often we don’t hold to our commitments to God.
Being resurrection people means we believe God at God’s Word. We live by faith in God’s Word and are thereby justified by God’s grace through faith. That’s way it has always been. That’s the way it will always be…for Resurrection People.
Have a blessed Eastertide, Amen
Pastor Kent
Reading Ahead
Sundays’ Readings
Mar 5 – First Sunday in Lent
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Mar 12 –Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17
Mar 19 – Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
Mar 26 – Fourth Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
Apr 2 – Fifth Sunday in Lent