Resurrection Sunday

He is Risen.
He is Risen Indeed.

Glorify the Risen Savior Today with other believers as the church.

May God richly bless you in this, and thanks again for reading and/or following our Lenten blog for 2011.

Holy Saturday

This is the day in between. Hope was buried. More than this, hope went to hell. The world was caught between the promises made and the promises fulfilled: the wasteland. Holy Saturday is where so many of us live.

Let today be a day of waiting and prayer. Ask God for help in letting your soul catch up with the meaning of the day and get ready for the celebration tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this blog and, more so, for being interested in the the meaning of the Cross. This bodes well for your spiritual life. May God richly bless you.

The Seven Last Words of Christ

The seven "last words" of Christ from the Cross (with various prayers reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, © 2004, CRC Publications.)

1) “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Loving Father, to whom your crucified Son prayed
for the forgiveness of those who did not know what they were doing,

grant that we too may be included in that prayer.

Whether we sin out of ignorance or intention,

be merciful to us and grant us your acceptance and peace.

2) “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

O Lord Jesus Christ, who promised to the repentant the joy of paradise,

enable us by the Holy Spirit to repent and to receive

your grace in this world and in the world to come.

3) “Woman, behold your son . . . Behold your mother.”

O blessed Savior, in your hour of greatest suffering
you expressed compassion for your mother

and made arrangements for her care;

grant that we who seek to follow your example

may show our concern for the needs of others,

reaching out to provide for those who suffer.

4) “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)

O Lord, I call for help by day, and in the night I still must cry.

Regard me, listen to my prayer. My soul is troubled; I am weak.

Without You, I am cut off as one whom you forsake,

forgotten near the pit of death.

Without You, Your wrath weighs heavily on me. 

And my eyes are dim because I weep. 

Without You, the darkness is my closest friend—

I am shunned and forsaken, all alone, without You.

5) “I thirst.”

O blessed Savior, whose lips were dry and whose throat was parched,

grant us the water of life, that we who thirst after righteousness

may find it quenched by your love and mercy,

leading us to bring this same relief to others.

6) “It is finished.”

O Lord Jesus Christ, you finished the work that you were sent to do;

enable us by your Holy Spirit to be faithful to our call.

Grant us strength to bear our crosses

and endure our sufferings, even unto death.

Enable us to live and love so faithfully

that we also become good news to the world, joining your witness.

7) “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Father, into whose hands your Son, Jesus Christ, commended his spirit,

grant that we too, following his example,

may in all of life and at the moment of our death

entrust our lives into your faithful hands of love.

In the name of Jesus, who gave his life for us all. Amen.

Maundy Thursday?

We come soon to the end... and to the beginning. The Cross - its experience, pain, and satisfaction of wrath - begins today, not tomorrow. Today there was betrayal. Today He was abandoned. Today He was sold out. Today He was arrested. Not just the mental and emotional tortures, but the physical as well, began this day and especially this day's night. I prefer Holy Thursday to Maundy Thursday. Maundy is an Old English term for commandment. John 13:34-35 has Jesus commanding us to love one another. That certainly was on His mind as He climbed to the Cross, but it certainly was not and is not on ours. It is the first command we break. It is the command we break most often. We have no ability to respect this command outside of all the work Christ does for us on His Cross and through His Empty Tomb. Maundy Monday would be more theologically correct. Come Monday we have the means in Christ to obey Christ. Before then we only want to crucify Him and each other. The only authentic love found in Holy Week is God's Love poured out for us. We have none in ourselves to give to Him or each other. That's the meaning of the Cross.

Holy Wednesday

Did you know that Holy Wednesday, today, the Wednesday of Holy Week, is also called "Spy Wednesday?" This is seen as the day Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty silver coins. Judas Iscariot is an interesting person in history. He is probably the most tragic and condemned man in history. Reflecting on his life and choices is uncomfortable; it hits too close to home for most of us. Here are a few reasons why:

1) Judas thought he was smarter than Jesus.

2) Judas thought he was better than Jesus.

3) Judas developed a taste for stolen and quick money that overrode his spiritual values completely.

4) Judas was always completely alone. He still is.

5) Judas only lied. He hid in plain sight, the ultimate form of lying.

6) Judas knew the power of God (and was an instrument for it as a disciple), but he never knew the purpose of God. 

7) Judas thought he could, would, and should get away with it.

8) Judas life was only about Judas. Even his bitter end points to this.

9) Judas is glorified by contemporary culture. This is no surprise in a culture where many brazenly choose to live as sons or daughters of Judas.

10) Judas looked to make the most of a bad situation. He saw things going south and decided to take action. (So much evil begins with this as a motive.)

     

Holy Tuesday

Yes, in some corners of Christendom, Holy Tuesday is a holiday. The parable of the ten virgins is sometimes developed today in various services and studies. Related to this, oils used in prayers for healing and anointed are sometimes anointed and prayed for themselves.

I recall one of the verses of one of the first worship songs I ever learned: "Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning."

Yes, indeed. I want to keep going in Christ and I want to be ever ready for His return. It could happen before Easter this year, or exactly on May 21st as Harold Camping and his people assert, or a thousand years from today.

His coming once affirms His return. I need oil because life and the night are long. I need vigilance because it will all end suddenly. Midnight is coming.

Matthew 25:1-13
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."     

Holy Monday

Holy Monday. That's what today is called. In some Christian traditions the withering of the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22) is the focus. Others recall the story of Joseph starting in Genesis 37 as it parallels Christ's story in many ways. Still others read through the entire gospel of Matthew and some of Mark at various hours of the day as part of a three day reading through most of the gospels. The Roman Catholic church this year (in our part of the world anyway) is offering confession for a big part of the day. Maybe you noticed the full page ad in the paper yesterday. My 'boss' (in the military) is a priest and his schedule for the week is difficult to hear even in summary form. Today is a long day of ministry for him and his ilk.

Holy Monday. It almost seems like an oxymoron. For some of us, it's the one day of the week that doesn't feel holy. For me it has always been holy, a day off. Today I can't tell my family I'm too busy for them. Today I can't tell God I'm too busy doing His work to spend a little alone time with Him. Today I eat a real breakfast and read real books.

That fig tree account always makes me swallow hard and take a deep breath. Am I fruitful enough to escape withering? Am I faithful enough to move mountains? All creaturely holiness begins with the wholesale insufficiency created by these questions. "Woe is me, Lord. I need help. I need You."

Matthew 21:18-22 (NASB95)
Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  

The Real Royal Family

So, on earth, one of the most interesting things scheduled to happen in these next two weeks in 2011 is the royal wedding. Riveting. Between it, the movie "The Queen" and the soon Blu-ray release of "The King's Speech," I'm one of hundreds of millions of people who watch and will watch at least some of all this.

The British Monarchy is interesting to so many for good reason; we were born to be ruled by and fascinated with royalty. Today is Palm Sunday, a day of true royalty. Though far fewer people were in the crowd shouting "Hosanna" back then than will be watching Prince William & Catherine Middleton exchange vows on the 29th of April, it was the greater event. The Royalty present far outstripped any who have ever lived. Jesus is the true King of Jerusalem and the Universe for the matter. That's what He claimed. Our hearts yearn for a King like Him, and there has only ever been one.

Shout "Hosanna" today in church like you mean it. Search your heart. You do.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday

There's something about Palm Sunday every year that makes the shame and pain of the Cross seem farther away than ever. There seems to be no Cross in view in the hearts and minds of people shouting "Hosanna" to Jesus Christ. We now know, however, that some of the same voices that shouted "Hosanna" on Sunday shouted "Crucify Him" the next Friday.

Still, Palm Sunday is amazing. He has arrived. The King is home. The war is over. The wait is over. Victory!

In a way, Palm Sunday will happen again. He will return triumphantly. When all on earth seems stale and lifeless, Christ is fresher and fuller than ever. For believers, His promises grow in glory with each passing day. We still shout, "Hosanna."

The Cross and Another Day

Sometimes the days race by with heartless fury. This week has been a painful one for many I know. Death and dismemberment, literally, are what I'm helping people deal with directly or indirectly. Still, there are schedules to keep and a calendar with very little margin on it. Everything about the forward roar of the typical day seems to promote expediency. Just find a way to get more done in less time. Draw a straighter line. Get to the point. Get it done. Get over it. Get on with it. Get through it. Get going.

The Cross is too old for this, too slow. It's too quiet and quaint for a smartphone world. One righteous man dying for what again? It can be forgotten even as we make room for it on the calendar. We take time off from school. We attend services. We observe days. The same songs and same sermons remind us that it's that same time of year again.

What happened again and why does it matter? Hurry up and explain it to me so I can get back to work, back on track, back in business.

Is today really just another day? Today might be your last day.

If we take ten more seconds to think about why Christ died and, therefore, remember what matters most, this alone may bring us and our day to life. Don't rush by the Cross today.

The Cross Unites or Divides

Ephesians 2:14-16
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 


The cross unites those who unite themselves to it, but by the same token it also divides those who divide themselves from it. When He makes the two one, both of the two have to want it. Reconciliation is not forgiveness; it involves two. Forgiveness involves one. The Cross will set one free, but it will not set things right between two unless both are free. This is a tough lesson to learn. The Cross kills hostility between people as long as none are hostile to the Cross. The Cross can't be the starting point; it has to be the whole point. The Church itself, in these latter days, is being split apart due to the Cross, but certainly not by the Cross. It's purpose is unity. This shows how important reconciliation is to God. The fuller teaching of these verses includes the negative of this as well. If we don't rely solely on His crucified flesh to break down the dividing wall of hostility between us, we then, by default, reinforce it.

Enemies of the Cross

Philippians 3:18-19 says, "For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things."

Therefore I am being an enemy of the Cross when...

- I am led by my emotions.
- I want what I want more than I want what God wants.
- I have an appetite for anything ungodly.
- I justify my sin.
- I recruit others to join me in this. (Notice the word "their.")
- The things I want are not things Jesus purchased for me on the Cross.
- My walk doesn't match my talk.
- My walk doesn't match His talk.
- I am headed for destruction.
- I'm not ashamed of what's shameful in me or my life.
- I exhaust my mind and gifts to acquire things that will not last.

The Cross and Getting Over What Happens to You in This World

The Cross underscores all the bad things that happen to us in this world as a result of our sin. So, when people do us wrong, for instance, the Cross is where we take what this does to us. It's not just that we are reminded of how great our forgiveness is, it's that we understand that the fatal, worldly way of resentment is the only path we're on unless we repent and believe. The bad things that happen to us are not out of the ordinary. It's the good things that don't make sense. The Cross, for Christians, is the door to all the good things of God. It's a door out of this world. I'm glad for my forgiveness in Christ today because...

- It gives me hope for tomorrow.
- It helps me put away yesterday.
- It pulls me out of my emotional mire.
- It corrects my thinking as well as my feeling.
- It shows the lies behind what sin promises.
- It proves the truth behind what God promises.
- It connects me to believers of yesteryear who reside with Christ this moment.
- It ruins the world for me and me for the world.

Galatians 6:14 - "But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." 

The Cross and Daily Life

The odd thing in considering the crucifixion of Christ is that daily life in this world went on as usual until it was over. That's when, in Jerusalem anyway, the sky was darkened and the curtain was torn. That's when those ignoring the proceedings were suddenly interrupted by them. Maybe many remained unaware. Daily life in Jerusalem may have been interrupted for a few hours, but the people living in or around New York were, most likely, totally unaware of what happened. Many people today remain totally unaware of what happened. Daily life grinds on with every living person seeing himself or herself as the center of it. God allows us to ignore Him, if we so choose, for a season. Afterwards, He interrupts us with Himself and the truth. A believer is someone who has been interrupted early.

God allows us to live life and not know what life is. For believers, this is a frightening thought. For nonbelievers, there is nothing here to care about or be frightened of.

Worship is my life's purpose.

Yes, this is true. It doesn't mean that the activities within a church service themselves are my life's purpose, it means that they put me in touch with my life's purpose like nothing else will.

It's not that the blessings of God won't come to me from God if I don't come to a church service. It's that I'll have so little to help me learn to catch those blessings.

It's not that going to church makes me a believer, it's that being in church shows that I am being the church, that I am a believer. I can't love Jesus and hate the church. I can't have Jesus and intentionally skip church. Church is for now and for then. It is the heart of how I respond to God now and the rehearsal for eternity with God then. There are substitute teachers and sugar substitutes, but no substitute for live, in-person worship with other believers.

Worship is my life's purpose. My life is not my own. I belong to a community and a community belongs to me. I am redeemed as part of a community. There are no private booths in Heaven. When I read John 14:1 and following, I must remember that the "you" Jesus speaks to is plural. The "you" is plural so often in Scripture.

Worship is OUR ongoing faith-response to the Cross of Christ. Worship is OUR life's purpose.    

Fasting and the Cross

Each year I'm a little frustrated by the fasting part of Lent. The year we as a church gave up complaining and wore wrist bands to remind us of this was my favorite. Every other year has been a mess. In thinking about this I realize that the whole orientation of fasting is toward the mess. When I do fast "successfully," I still experience a loss of control and a intensifying of burden. Some people talk about how swimmingly their fasting goes. Good for them. For me there's a bit of chaos even when I'm fasting from something as simple as food. For example, I'll have five lunch dates for the two weeks I've set up to skip lunch as a fast. I will mean not to, but life seems to be unable to resist interfering in this way with my finest fasting plans. And here I'll further confess that I never have any fine fasting plans. Left to my own inclinations, I would just skip it. It's not for me. This reminds me of the Cross. The Cross is the most inconvenient thing in history. It stinks up every human plan ever made. It interferes with every human aspiration. The Cross is the messiest thing in history too. It cannot be approached reasonably. Everyone who draws near to the Cross and the Christ who died on it is undone. Whatever success or competency one has in life, the Cross obfuscates it. The Cross is frustrating. Because it fatally pokes at the heart of our sinfulness, it will always be frustrating. The blood of it gets on our identity. How the Father saw and rejected the filth of it, when the Holy Spirit reveals this to any one of us, crushes whatever we've tried to do for ourselves religiously. Fasting quickens the frustration. It hurries us along the path of dying with Christ. It is married to prayer. We have a prayer group in our church. When God really begins to move, that prayer group will be renamed and transformed from the inside out into a prayer and fasting group. Fasting ties prayer to the Cross and its power because it forces the issue of our sins and weakness.

In the end, when I don't fast, it's because I don't want God to do much in my life. I'm trying to manage the mess, the same mess the Cross has proven to me is unmanageable. In the end, I am my own frustration. A patient Savior calls to me through His Cross.  

The Cross and Friendship

John, my namesake, stood there with the women. Often the point made by this fact is that everyone abandoned him, at least all the men, all His followers, His official, named disciples. John records his presence at the crucifixion in the gospel he wrote. He refers to himself simply as the "disciple whom He loved." Other accounts don't mention him.

Matthew 27:55-56
Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. 

Mark 15:40-41
There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome. When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem. 

John 19:25b-27 
But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Women gathered to tend to Jesus in death. It is touching and was brave, however, aside from His Heavenly Father and the redeemed thief, who else did Jesus personally address? I think it was only His mother and His... friend. In the midst of struggle and conflict, the likes of which defy imagination, Jesus wanted to take care of people He had loved on earth. In fact, relationship meant so much to Him that He added to the creation of a deeper one even from the Cross. He said of His disciple who was His friend, "Now you are my brother, son of the same mother."

There is something Jesus is teaching us here that many of us miss.

Friendship, if we dare face the truth, is a missing part of most of our lives. We rise to the level of warm, caring coexistence, but Jesus is showing something different from this. If He taught this from the Cross, and we're missing it, just how much are we missing? He did not live or die without friendship. His heartfelt offer to His disciples was His friendship. (See John 15.) Why have so many of us chosen to live without this? We have a built a world with Facebook and Twitter and the like, a world filled with walls keeping friendship out by replacing it with counterfeits.

Still, Jesus' offer stands. "Be my friend. Be a friend to others in my Name." Amazing.

The Cross and Flowers

Kelsie talked one of our neighbors into giving her one of the flowers from her flower bed. As she plucked it and handed it to my little girl, I thought about all that had gone into this moment for the flower. A bulb, with no appearance like that of a flower, was strategically buried. It had a cost, which our gardening neighbor paid. Slowly this early spring, the flower blossomed, despite cold and snow. Only then did a little girl notice it and want it.

I am amazed how many sermon illustrations God has built into His creation. This story of a flower can be directly tied to the Cross. A high price paid and a burial precede anything of beauty. Once the beauty is seen, everything else is overshadowed and seemingly forgotten. I think of the things in my life that work this same way. How many dreams are dead and buried? What whole parts of my life resemble a bulb that looks to an uneducated eye like it has been thrown away "outside the city?" A Christian's eye is trained to see the bulb for the flower it is. We see the cross - which is only about death - as our source of abundant and eternal life, and rightly so. The Cross is the bulb of an empty tomb. "It is finished" must come first. Only then do we have "He is Risen!"

The Cross and the Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base

It's been years, but the images of young, dead bodies rendered into all manner of burnt, punctured, partial, twisted and ripped versions of what they had been while living remain fresh in my mind's eye. My time as a military chaplain in that facility coincided with 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The war dead were numbered in the hundreds then instead of the thousands as they are today. Each death got attention. Today they are largely ignored. Soldiers die in violence and sacrifice over there; their deaths meet with silence and disinterest over here. Perhaps it's bad taste for me to mention this. I mention it only to point to truth. We love villains and yawn for heroes. The kid who hurls his young body onto a grenade doesn't care that we don't care. No hero I know of ever did something heroic in order to become a hero. They did what they did because who they are (or were). Of course, Christ is the ultimate example of this. He didn't choose the Cross because the glory of it drew Him. He chose it because His Father wanted him to. He did what He did for another, first His Father and then you and me. There is no other heroism.

I remember one soldier who had been captured and brutally beheaded. As we prepared his remains, we honored a common request to place photos of his family in the pockets of the uniform he was to be buried in. I sometimes picture Christ, after being brutally crucified, being buried with pictures of His Father... and you... and me... in his pockets, at His Father's request. Romans 5:8 "... but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 

   

Scandalous (A new book about the Cross by D. A. Carson)

From the preface of this new book about "The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus," here are three excerpted sentences:

- "The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago."

- "Jesus' own followers did not expect him to be crucified; they certainly did not expect him to rise again."

- "It is as important to to know what these events mean as to know that they happened."

From page 36: "Jesus cries this cry, "My God! I am forsaken!" so that for all eternity Don Carson* will not have to."

*Put your name here instead if you too are a believer. 

Amen.

The Cross and All of Humanity

The Cross, representing the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is an event that touches the life of every single person alive today. The convinced atheist is no less touched by it than the lifetime believer. Adherents to other religions (should I say all religions?) cannot escape the fact that the Cross happened. The nature of Christianity is that it spreads. It spreads quickest and deepest when those in authority attempt to crush it. The story of the Cross is spreading even as I write this, even as you read this. Countless people are sorting it out, categorizing it, placing it in their catalog of concepts, or finding a way to redefine it. The more people try to explain it, excuse it, ignore it, or mock it, the more it gets out there and gets attention. The Cross is tied, of course, to the One who hung and died on it. The reverse is true as well. As there is no Cross without Jesus, there is no Jesus without the Cross. Many strive to separate the two. They did while Jesus walked the earth. This striving to separate powerfully bonds the Cross and the Christ together; by trying to put out the fire, they only fan its flames. Every day we have news to read, watch, and hear. Every bit that we hear points back and up to the Cross. The larger the story, the greater the body count, the heavier the burden, the sadder the outcome, it brings us back, whether we know it or not, to the Cross. At the end of the most horrifying news account, we can look at each other and say, "That's why there was a Cross." The Cross is justice, answers, peace, truth, hope, purpose, and, of course, forgiveness. The Cross is the one mirror that accurately tells us what we look like on the inside, how we are, and who we are. The Cross is the end of lies. The Cross is the end of needing to lie. Today, all of humanity lives, some knowing, some not, under the shadow of the Cross.  

Sundays in April

Church is always fun, in the way the Holy Spirit makes it for our desperate and weary souls, but the weeks of and prior to "He is Risen" Sunday are special. Don't miss out. Friends don't let friends miss out. If you have some churchophobic half-believers you love who won't come without prodding, then make up your mind to prod. One thing I've learned in 13 years of pastoring: most people want to be at or in church to a greater extent than they are. As soon as they're given an excuse, like they "kind of have to be there," they will be there. They may grumble. There may be awkwardness to overcome. These are small obstacles. They are social obstacles, not spiritual. Push through them for others as much as you can. They are the residue of modern life. All of us are afraid of people in some way. We don't know how to be together or talk to each other. We don't realize that everyone else is afraid too.

And the Cross is for everyone. Those who seem most hostile to it (like I was in my early 20's), often turn out to be the most moved by it. Resistance means power is felt. Negation means truth is acknowledged. Life is short. Left to ourselves we pour it down the drain. We all need the help of others to get the help of God. There's no "alone" in the Kingdom of God.

See you there!

Time Out (showing a 5-year-old the Cross)

I have an idea. When it's appropriate, and my daughter has "earned" a time out, I will say, "Now, honey, because of what you did, you have to go into time out, but, to show you what Jesus did for you on the Cross, Daddy's going to go into time out for you."

Of course, time out, to Daddy, sounds more like Heaven than Hell, so the planned illustration is far from perfect, but let's see if she gets the point.

Thinking of this has me thinking of more. What ways can we show family members and co-workers the Cross? Every effective message relies on illustrations. Say a co-worker fouled up a project and now has to stay late and cancel much anticipated plans for the night. Would it be appropriate to say, "I want to show you what I say I believe about Jesus and the Cross. Not to sound weird, but would you honor me by allowing me to do this work for you? It's not about doing you a favor; it's about earning the right to have a conversation with you someday about faith. What do you think?"

It's hard to imagine it going that well, but who knows? This is the kind of thinking the millions of us who are Christians need to do more of, I think. I know I need to do more of it. We have to show what we're telling people. I don't mean the silly nonsense of, "I rather see a sermon, than hear it." This rubbish has "solved the problem" of witnessing and silenced the testimonies of far too many frightened Christians. No, I mean, "I want to see what I'm hearing, so I can understand what I'm hearing." No one is led to saving faith by the kind of mimes that some Christians claim to be. We must speak out loud with our mouths (or sign language) if we want to obey the Great Commission, but actions and words together are always louder and clearer than actions alone or words alone.

What do you think?

The Joy of the Resurrection, Courtesy of the Cross

I've been wondering how Jesus felt as He walked around in His resurrected body. Because we know His story, as well as humans can know it, we have some ability to empathize with the pain He went through prior to "He is Risen." Can we also empathize with His joy? It is the joy of overcoming. It is a joy of peace, well-being, and rest. Fear has absolutely no place in it. Regret, bitterness, and anger are all absolutely forsaken. Can we even imagine this? It seems to me that the Bible insists we do more than imagine it; we're supposed to walk in it. For me, it's only in moments of joyful, appropriate laughter or unhinged-from-time worship, or forgot-about-my-stuff community engagement that I come close to the fearless, hateless, covetless state of resurrection.

The cross is what bought this joy. Christ's resurrected body is its receipt on legs, those legs standing this second next to the Father in Heaven. We get this joy, all of it, in the end, simply by believing. I almost want to shout, "Unbelievable!" Nothing is as paralyzing as true joy. We don't what to say or what to do. We blubber and weep. Sometimes, in fact, our worship is exactly this!

Joy. It can be ours now. It certainly waits for us in the future. We, in Christ, can be more sure of it than death. Why do I almost never remember this? God, I believe. Help me with my unbelief!