This was done in Oct, 2009...but I can't let it go. It was and amazing meditation that really says what I needed to hear.
He was born in a small town the child of a peasant woman. Until he was thirty years old He worked as a carpenter and then for three years He was a preacher. He wrote no books, He held no office, He owned no home. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place that He was born. He never did any of the traditional things that accompany greatness.
The authorities condemned His teachings and He was arrested. His friends deserted Him. One said He never knew Him, while another betrayed Him with a kiss. He was ridiculed and mocked in a trial, and then He was killed in public along with two criminals. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He owned on Earth, His coat, and when He was dead, His body was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.
Two thousand years have come and gone, yet today He remains the crowning glory of the human race; because all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, and all the governments that have ever existed, put together, haven’t even come close to impacting the life of mankind upon our planet so profoundly as this one single life.
He wrote no music, yet Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn wrote hymns, symphonies and concertos to praise Him. He painted no paintings, yet Raphael, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo spent their lives portraying His, on canvases and walls that have become the world’s master pieces, worth more than the combined wealth of entire nations. He wrote no poetry, yet Dante, Byron, Keats, Tennyson, Tolkein, and Lewis wrote flurries of linguistical torrents in an attempt to encapsulate His ideas.
If I were an eternal being jealous for the worlds worship I might have to do something about Jesus. If I wanted the worlds worship, I might have to murder Jesus. If I wanted the worlds worship and I couldn’t keep Jesus dead, I might have to erase Jesus from all of human history. If I couldn’t completely erase Him, I might have to so confuse history that people could no longer tell fact from fiction, truth from lies. If I wanted the worlds worship, I might have to foster systems that keep people so busy and so distracted that they could never find the time to unravel it all.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, He sat in a large upper room with His disciples and said, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to glorified, to die on a cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world.” He took bread and wine and said to them, “this is my body and blood given and shed for you.” “From this point forward whenever you consume these… remember me.” As if to say there is something in your world that does not want you to remember me. As if to say to His disciples then and now, there is something in the world that does not want us to remember the cross.
As the Church I have always loved that we are the rebels, the defiant, who are saying in this moment “O no no no no devil, we are going to unravel history, and we is going to remember Jesus.”
“So go on now child and remember…”
Let’s remember that because of Jesus shame, is our history, not our future.
Let’s remember that because of Jesus fear, is an acquaintance, not a companion.
Let’s remember that because of Jesus the underdog, can win.
Let’s remember that because of Jesus, anything and anyone can change.
Let’s remember that because of Jesus, war, hunger, greed, disease, and death are temporary.
Let’s remember that because of Jesus those who mourn will be comforted, and we will embrace our loved ones, again.
In our economic uncertainty.
Let’s remember that our investment in Heaven is secure and growing, and real estate in the Kingdom of God has never been more valuable.
Let’s remember that the house built on the rock, will, stand!
Let’s remember that although we may live in poverty, poverty will never live in us.
Let’s remember that this too shall pass.
Let’s remember that peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but the presence of hope, and because of Jesus hope is realistic.
In our relationships.
Let’s remember that love crucified, can rise, again.
Let’s remember that Jesus showed us that he who forgives first, wins!
In the work of reconciliation,
Let’s remember that the narrow road less traveled does, make all the difference.
On the mission field.
Let’s remember that with the faith of a mustard seed we can throw mountains into seas.
Let’s remember that Jesus taught us that a family united will thrive, and a world divided, can be conquered.
Let’s remember, that it doesn’t take a majority vote or adequate funding to change the world. It takes twelve ragamuffin disciples who have encountered God, to set forest fires in people’s hearts one opportunity at a time.
And finally,
Let’s remember, that at the cross sincerity is known by its actions, and to Jesus we are something more than our job descriptions or portfolios, something more than our trophies or wrap sheets. To Jesus we are something worth dieing for, and I pray we all instead may forget those things that are encumbering our stride, and rise from this moment with audacity to dream better dreams; for ourselves, and those who are waiting on us to dream them,
because you my Church, are the light, of the world.
Amen.
