Speak life into the world

The last Sunday in Lent had a fascinating combination of readings from the liturgical lectionary for the church year: Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, and the Gospel reading about raising Lazarus from the dead. In between these two readings we had this proclamation from Romans 8 ... "Christ lives in you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you."

Why was it so important for God to give us his Spirit?

When humanity fell into sin (recall the garden of Eden account) we were warned not to eat from the fruit of a particular tree, or we will surely die. The temptation in the garden back then was: my will over and above God's will for my life. Ever since then we have this broken world and the experience of evil, dark, and deadly things. But more tragically than all of the pain and destruction around our world, is that at that very moment in paradise, our spirit died. The flesh is just playing catch up and it may take a few many decades, but we will all die. No surprise there!

Jesus entered our death and went into death for us. There in the garden of Gethsemane we see a reversal taking shape: 'not my will, but your will be done.'

What is the will of God the Father?

We pray it into our life every time we speak the words of the Lord's Prayer: "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Just as Jesus has done to bring life and speak life into people's tragic moments, so now we have a new commission as we read in John's Gospel as Jesus met with his disciples after the resurrection, "as the Father has sent me, so now I send you! Receive the Holy Spirit ..."

Life has been breathed back into our existence - read Jn 10:10, and breathe in the Life Jesus has won for you, his abundant healing and restoring life for all.



> posted by D.WILLNER

Sermon summary . 4th Sunday in Lent

Remember what it was like to be a kid, especially your first few goes on a bike? If your experience was anything like mine, you'd also recall when you came off your bike and hurt your knee, perhaps even broke some bones. What's the first thing we do, besides scream? We put our hands over the wound on the knee and hold down tight. Then Mum comes along and 'wants to see', encouraging us to let go. But that means more pain; washing out the wound, cream that stings, bandages. If we don't do that, then the wound becomes infected and the situation becomes far worse.

Healing comes by dealing with the hurt.

Now consider a flesh wound through a cut on the arm. Amazingly, the body heals itself. But if you go to the butcher, and see the cut meat there, you won't ever find that it will heal itself - it has been cut off from the body! You might rightly call it 'dead meat.'

Healing takes place by being part of the body.

The church is supposed to be known as the body of Christ; a place where healing can take place. Here we have what Luther called: people who are saints and sinners at the same time, or to put it in another way, hurt and healed at the same time. We still have to deal with issues of hurt, but we are learning to become beakers, as we experience healing. Huge amount of medical research has shown that stress related deceases are basically defined by the human emotion called: Resentment. For us to deal with that wound, Christ has taught us about forgiveness called: Release.

Learning to release people who have hurt us is the first emotional step that brings with it healing to the spirit, soul, and body.

Whatever we hold onto, will have a hold on us!


Posted by Dirk Willner