Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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Last Sunday, we began our investigation into the meaning of the healing of the man who was born blind by going all the back to the beginning ‘ Genesis, chapter 3. Good investigations always go back to the beginning.

We discovered that the serpent promised to open the eyes of Adam and Eve so that they could see. Adam and Eve ignored the Word of God and listened to the word of the serpent. And ‘their eyes were opened.’ And they were blind. The curse of sin made its mark upon the eyes of man and the woman who HAD SEEN perfectly, but who were now blind to the truth by the darkness of sin.

But in walks Jesus. And with a little spit and dirt properly mixed, along with His creative and re-creative Word – ‘I am the light of the world,’ the blind man received his sight. The ancient curse was lifted because in Christ, there is the forgiveness of sins. The eyes of the blind man were opened. The man declares, ‘I was blind but now I see.’ God is renewing Creation through Jesus Christ. The cause for our blindness to the truth, is our sin. But Jesus Christ takes away our sin and the sin of the whole world by bearing it in His own body on the cross. Continue reading →

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Would you take out your bible please and turn to Genesis, chapter 3. (Page 2 in the pew bible). We’re going to consider what happened and the meaning of what happened when Jesus gave a man, born blind, his sight. But we’re going to come at this from a different direction than we’re used to and that we’ve come at this before.

We’re going to read this familiar account of the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve into sin and highlight a few things along the way. We’ll read chapter 3, verses 1-11, stopping along the way.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The serpent is making Adam and Eve a promise. His promise to them is that he will give them sight. “Your eyes will be opened.” What the serpent is really telling the man and the woman is, “right now you are blind. When God made you He made you blind. Your eyes are closed. But I will open your eyes and give you sight.” Continue reading →

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It began as an ordinary day, no different than any other. The sun rose, the roosters crowed, she awoke from her sleep. She felt the same stiffness in her joints that was there every morning. There were chores to do. Cooking, laundry, mending. Whatever 1st century women do, that was her day.

But on this day, there was one ordinary, everyday routine that would become eternally significant for her. She would go to the well to draw water just as she had done everyday for as long as she could remember. But she would never forget this day.

This woman, whose name we are never given, walked the same path to the well that she has walked countless times. She had no idea that Jesus was also walking a path that led to this same well. John writes that He was making His way from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north and that He ‘had to go through Samaria.’ ‘Had to,’ not as in, it was only way to get from point A to point B. But ‘had to’ as in, ‘had to’ meet with this woman. Continue reading →

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We are very fortunate to have quite a few professional, schoolteachers in this congregation. A quick scan through the Membership Directory reveals that there are 13 professionally trained teachers among the membership. We have several preschool teachers, elementary school teachers, high school teachers and college teachers. (stand) Teachers are not just people with a thorough knowledge of a particular subject. They are also people who know how to impart that knowledge to someone else. People are not like computers. If you want to impart the data from one computer to another computer, you connect the two together with a wire or download the information onto a disc and load it into another computer. But it doesn’t work that way with people. They must be taught, and teachers are trained how to do that.

One evening, a man named Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Teacher.” Nicodemus thinks that Jesus possesses certain knowledge and he wants Jesus to impart that knowledge to him. Nicodemus thinks that Jesus has knowledge of God because of the things that Jesus has done. “Rabbi, (which is the Hebrew word for a ‘teacher of religion’), we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

There are ‘teachers’ and then there are ‘teachers.’ There’s a difference between a teacher who has read all of the books and knows all of the theory but who has never actually done it, and a teacher who has actually done it. If I wanted to learn how to build a house, I’d rather have a teacher who has actually built a house rather than a teacher who has read all the books on house building but who has never actually done it.

Likewise, if I want to learn theology, about God, I’d prefer a teacher who knows the Scriptures and who believes it to be the very Word of God and strives to actually live it, apply it to their life, rather than the teacher who may know the Bible inside and out but who doesn’t actually believe it or apply it to his own life.

Now lets take that one step further. If I had the chance to study theology under a teacher who not only knows the Word of God but who actually DOES DIVINE THINGS, that would be the best teacher of all.

Give Nicodemus credit for recognizing that Jesus was in a totally different category than all of the other ‘Rabbis.’ “No one can DO THESE SIGNS unless God is with him.” Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus has unusual and extraordinary credentials. Continue reading →

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This morning we want to follow Jesus into the desert where He faced temptation.

I. 4 Points About Temptation
A. 1st We Are Tempted By The Devil.
We want to make four points about temptation based on Jesus’ temptation in the desert. The first point is this, every temptation is an attack upon us by the devil. ‘Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.’

It’s important to understand what we’re up against here. Luther saw the devil much more clearly that we do today. In one particular bought with the devil while Luther was in exile in the Wartburg Castle, he felt the devil tempting him to give up what looked like a losing battle for the gospel. Luther picked up the ink well at his desk and threw it at the devil. It broke against the wall of his study where it left a huge ink stain, which even if it isn’t true, is a great story.

We may think that Luther was just a ‘poor medieval fool.’ Our modern and enlightened worldview has freed us from such silly superstitions as a personal devil. A 2009 survey of professing Christians in America by the Barna Group reported that 59% of American Christians ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘somewhat agreed’ with the statement that ‘Satan is not a living being but only a symbol of evil.’ Continue reading →

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Throughout the course of this season of Lent, we intend to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ as He makes His way to the cross to atone for our sin and the sin of the whole world. It is true that we can view His entire ministry beginning with His Baptism in the Jordan River as His “journey to the cross.” But our intention during these mid-week services is to follow our Lord on his “journey to the cross” beginning with the time that He leaves the Upper Room in Jerusalem with His disciples and goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the time with He is crucified, died and buried on Good Friday. Incredibly, this covers a time period of no more than 24 hours. And yet what takes place in that short period of time will be more than we can cover in these eight Lenten services.

And so we begin this “journey to the cross” in the Garden of Gethsemane. This evening we’ll consider the agony that Jesus experiences and the prayer that He prays there. Next week, we’ll consider His betrayal and arrest there. Continue reading →

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Anyone who has ever visited Acadia National Park and driven the “Loop Road” knows what a “scenic pullover” is. It’s a place where the view is particularly beautiful and unobstructed. And the “Loop Road” is full of these “scenic pullovers.”

Today, the Christian Church on earth stops at a “scenic pullover” to catch a view of its Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Transfiguration of our Lord is an unobstructed view of Jesus, from which we see what St. Paul describes as, “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2Cor. 4:6). And it is a beautiful sight.

Like Peter, we wish that we could stay forever. And in fact, one day, we will. This is the view of Jesus that Christian Church in heaven has all the time and its never time to move on.

But for the Church on earth, the Transfiguration of our Lord is a temporary, all too brief stop along the road that leads to the cross and grave. In fact, for the Church on earth, the journey is filled with one “overlook” after another in which we get an unobstructed view of the effects of our sin. It’s not a “scenic” sight at all. Too often, it’s a downright ugly view. The scenery is cluttered with selfishness, greed, gossip, theft, murder, adultery, divorce, broken promises, broken dreams, death, life in all its unfairness. Instead of wanting to remain and never leave, we want to move on as quickly as we can and put what we’ve seen behind us. Continue reading →

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The mission trip to Southeast Asia that I went on in November last year was remarkable in many ways. However, one of the unremarkable aspects of the trip was the number of times I went through airport security from my departure from Portland, Maine to return to the same airport. I had to go through airport security or customs 22 times in the course of 17 days.

One comical story from that experience has to do with my friend Alan Taylor. I traveled with Rev. Ted NaThalang with LHF and Rev. Taylor from Texas. Alan warned us that because of his prosthetic hip replacement, he may get held up at airport security. Sure enough, Ted and I went through every airport screener without a problem, but Alan was stopped at every single one. And at every security point, he received one of those famous ‘pat-downs’ that was a big topic of discussion for a while.

Like it or not, airport security is a necessary part of traveling these days. And I must say from my experience, that the airports that had the tightest airport security made me feel the most secure on the plane. Security at the airports in Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia was pretty lax, and that made me nervous.

Seems like the principle here is: the greater the security, the less the worry; the weaker the security, the greater the worry. The more I worry about my security, the less I’m able to enjoy the flight. The more confident I am of my security, the more I’m able to relax and enjoy the flight. Continue reading →

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This is now the third week that we have been invited to gather around Jesus listen to listen to His Sermon on the Mount. Two Sunday’s ago, we followed Jesus up the mountain, and listened as He opened His mouth and poured out those wonderful Beatitudes upon His disciples – one blessing after another, like the waves of the ocean breaking on the beach.

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus tell His disciples that they ARE the salt of the earth and they ARE the light of the world. This is not a command to BECOME salt and light or even STRIVE TO BECOME salt and light. “You ARE the salt of the earth.” “You ARE the light of the world.”

Like we said last week, it’s important to get the order here right. They are not to be a blessing so that they may win Christ’s blessing. He blesses them before they’ve done anything at all. Now, they are simply to be what His blessing has made them. They are blessed to be a blessing. That’s what discipleship is all about. It’s simply being the person that Jesus Christ has made you when He called you through your baptism to be His disciple.

Now this morning, we hear Jesus continue His sermon by describing just what it means to be the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” He is sending them into a world that has lost its saltiness and that is covered in darkness. They are to be the preservative and the shining light in the midst of decay and darkness. They are to be the spring and the fountain of God’s blessing to a world that lives under the curse of sin. Continue reading →

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I. Old Testament Background for “Blessing”
A. The Beatitudes
Last Sunday, we heard the marvelous introduction to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” which we call, “The Beatitudes.” Jesus sat down, his disciples gathered around him, and “he opened his mouth.” And out of His mouth flowed one blessing after another, like the waves of the ocean breaking onto the beach.

One of the points that we made last Sunday was that this blessed word that comes out of the mouth of Jesus here on this mountain is perfectly consistent with the word of God throughout the whole Old Testament as well. In fact, what Jesus is doing here on this mountain is simply carrying His blessing forward from the Old Testament into the New through these disciples whom He has hand chosen. And we today receive the same blessings that they received from Jesus Himself, as we receive from them through the “apostolic word,” – the New Testament.

I’d like to begin this morning by building on this point because I think that it will be very helpful in understanding the words we heard Jesus speak in our Gospel reading this morning. I want to look at two examples where God pronounces His beatitude, His blessing upon His people in the Old Testament. Continue reading →