Christ
Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed! A humorous book series I found recently, entitled, "Worst Case Scenarios Survival Guide," has specific books for difficult situations of life, including Weddings (Not enough money? Rent advertising space on the back of your tux and wedding gown), Work (how to retrieve a candy bar stuck in the lunch room vending machine), Life itself (What to do in case of a small pox epidemic, What to do if your hair is singed by a barbecue), and yes, there's even an Extreme Edition (How to survive an elephant stampede, How to avoid a vampire attack, How to clean and cook a squirrel). There is even a Lutheran version of such a book - some of you have it. It's called The Lutheran Handbook, and it has such sections as How to avoid getting burned at the stake, How to banish the devil, What to bring to a church potluck, and (gasp!) How to respond when someone sits in your pew!!!! I bring this up because one of the great temptations we face as Christians is to constantly live in what I would call, "Worst Case Scenario Mode" ("WSCM" for short). That is, ALWAYS living as though the worst possible thing is about to happen - living in fear of what MIGHT happen. We justify this to ourselves as "being cautious," but this often goes beyond such normal, prudent caution and right into something quite different and ultimately antithetical to a life of faith. Living regularly in WCSM changes us. It preconditions us for failure, even for disaster, and even if the WCS doesn't happen, it might as well have because we have been living under the control of the fear of it. Living in WCSM often virtually guarantees that it will happen because we have linked ourselves to a negative outcome. Fear, like hate, and even love, are in essence connections to people, emotions, states of mind and outcomes in life. If we are constantly looking for problems, that is what we will find most often. If we are on a team and expect to lose, we will likely lose. That isn't where Jesus intended to leave us. In 1 John 4:16-19 we read, "So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us" Jesus' victory over sin and death was also a victory over fear. It was a vindication of the power of love over hate, over fear and even death itself. How does that help us? Well... what if, instead of going through life expecting the worst (which may still happen!), we live in hope and in love, expecting that, no matter what, God's love will prevail over all things. We are free, then, from the power of fear and loosed to live in hope. Instead of looking for the worst to happen (and thereby facilitating its arrival!), what if we EXPECTED TO FIND THE BEST CASE?!?! What if we actually believed that Jesus is alive? That he actually conquered sin? That he is with us each day? That he calls us into service in his kingdom - not to fail, but to joyously succeed in love and hope? What if we believed and trusted in a God whose normal mode of operation is to bring good out of evil, joy out of sorrow, hope out of fear, and life out of death. In Romans 8:26-30, one of the most powerful and impossible to believe sections of scripture, the Apostle Paul writes, Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. Here read and understand that God is on our side, facilitating communication with him by the Spirit; that God is able to make EVERYTHING that we experience and encounter, good and bad, weird and wonderful, difficult and easy, even those things that are damaging and destructive as well as those things that build us up, work for good in our lives IF, IF, IF we love God (meaning trust him with all our hearts) AND are living and working in his Kingdom of forgiveness, love, healing, reconciliation and healing. These things will be used in our lives to (wait for it) make us more like Jesus, who, brought healing, reconciliation, sacrificial love, forgiveness and hope wherever he went, to whomever he encountered, helping all experience the presence of God in their lives. Many Christians, usually those of us who are caught in the death grip of WCSM thinking and interacting with one another and God, want only to hear the first part of this section of scripture - an easy, spiritually kind of lazy, and ultimately incomplete and VERY wrong understanding of it: that God is on our side and everything will turn out ok. That sounds so nice, and would be a very easy message to preach and share. And so we go merrily on our way, expecting that somehow things will work out, with a vague notion that God is in control. And when things DON'T go as expected, we become frustrated, blame God or ourselves, and fall into the Worst Case Scenario grip of death. What we don't understand is that the circuit is incomplete, that we have not actually allowed God a full access pass to our lives and hearts. Only when that happens, when we come to God with repentant hearts, ready to be healed and forgiven, ready to share these gifts with others and be a part of what he is doing in our lives and the world. Christ IS Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Allow him to live in you. Pastor Larry  |
