Message for Easter 3 on John 20:19-31 given on April 14, 2024 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Richardson, Texas
“Swampland visitations”—this is what psychotherapist and author James Hollis calls times of doubt, despair, or anguish. Even people with a strong spirituality and relationship with God can go through these experiences of “swampland visitations.”
The worst swampland visitation I experienced was in the middle of my five months of chemo treatment—Dan’s mom died a couple months before I was diagnosed, his dad was diagnosed with stage 4 brain tumor a few months into my treatment, we got a $10,000 tax bill, and a new study changed the protocol on my treatment which meant bigger doses of chemo, and at least one more added on. I was already plastered to the bed and didn’t have the strength to hold a cell phone to my ear, much less take care of our 3 kids.
And just it came over me uninvited—a dark night of the soul of doubt and anguish. It wasn’t so much like swamp, as it was a void. The complete absence of God. A dark silence. Like a hole opened in the floor and swallowed me. I am not sure how long it lasted—but long enough for me to think that I had not only lost my faith, but that maybe I would have to give up being a pastor, too. I was lost in doubt, empty and alone.
Perhaps you, too, have had a “swampland visitation.” Times of doubt often happen in young adulthood when the black and white faith of our childhood no longer serves us, and we have not yet embraced a relational, dynamic faith that embraces the questions and the paradoxes of faith. Often what we were told about God no longer fits who have become. And we wonder if the promises of our faith are really true—true for us, true for ME.
Other times, the crises in our life, issues with physical health, mental health or financial struggles stack up so unbearably high, we don’t know where to turn, and we wonder how there can be a good and loving God in this disaster. Most of us have experience a “swampland visitations,” when anguish looms large and faith is faint; when grief holds sway and trust wears thin, when we are left in doubt, feeling empty and alone.
Thomas is having a “swampland visitation” in our text from John. He is still grieving the death of Jesus and mourning his loss. We do not know where he was when Jesus first appeared to the other disciples—perhaps it was his turn to go to the market and get some fish and extra bread for lunch; perhaps he was a dutiful son, checking in on his mother.
Whatever his tasks, he was not with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them after the resurrection and offered them his peace. Thomas hears the story of course, from everyone else, but this leaves him as the odd one out. Everyone has had a great experience except him, and it’s all they can talk about…
Thomas, wonders, “Maybe this is a big joke, and they are just pulling my leg.” But then it goes on for several days.
Then Thomas starts to wonder if it really is true:
• If he’s so great and all-powerful, why couldn’t Jesus wait until I got back? He must have known I was gone!
• Why didn’t he appear when James and John went to get more wine?
• Why me?
• Why was I the one who missed out?
• Jesus must not love me; Jesus must not have wanted to come back to see me
Thomas’s swamp is getting bigger by the minute—It cannot be true; Thomas does not believe it. He will never believe it. Not unless he puts his finger in the nail holes of Jesus’ hands, and his hand in Jesus’ side. This has been the worse week of his life—worse than Jesus’ death. At least then, their grief was shared together. But this whole Jesus’ re-appearing ordeal, has left Thomas in doubt, empty and alone.
But Jesus does not leave Thomas in doubt, empty or alone! The next week, when all of them are together, including Thomas, Jesus reappears to them and announces his peace again.
Jesus singles out Thomas this time and gives him the very experience he asked for—to put his fingers in the nail holes in Jesus’ hands, and to put his own hand on Jesus’ side. When Thomas receives what he needs, he makes the most powerful confession of faith there is—"My Lord and My God!”
All of this is to say that Jesus is a “swamp Savior.” If you are having a “swampland visitation,” Jesus is a swampland visitor! He goes straight to where our need is, he enters our doubt is, and comes into our empty and alone feelings, and that is where he meets us. That is where Jesus meets Thomas and that is where he finds us.
It may take a little time for us to notice. He may send in some other witnesses like he did for Thomas who say—
“hey I saw the Lord, and here’s how he showed up” or “I love you, and this is why” or “you are going to get through this, and I will say it over and over until you believe it with me,” but our risen Lord meets us where we are in whatever doubts, questions, anguish, or swamp we are in, and he finds us there.
Romans 8 promises us:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That includes doubts, questions, anguish, depression.
Jesus met me in my dark night of the soul of doubt. And I experienced two important things as a result. I will have three invitations this week related to these:
The first is that I knew people who had a lot of faith and they were praying me. So, the first place Jesus met me was in revealing that I could rely on their faith and their prayers when I didn’t feel it. And I felt their faith carry me, and that gave me great comfort because I was still connected to the body of Christ through them—through their faith and their prayers.
That’s the power of this community. Because when someone is in the swamp of doubt or anguish, and can’t pray, they can say to themselves, “I am connected to this church full of faithful people who are praying, and I am relying on them to carry me right now.” Know that most days your faith and your prayers mean a lot to someone you may not even know.
That leads to my first invitation: If you aren’t already, take home the Prayer list in the bulletin and prayer for these names as part of your prayer practice a couple times a week—or those at home can click the link off the Weekly Word. If you have ever had a serious illness or chronic health issue, you know how much it means to you and your family to know people in the church are praying for you, and how much you rely on those prayers when you’re in a swamp.
A second invitation relates to remaining a strong faith community. I wonder what questions you have about our faith that arise from your doubts, that if we could address them, might strengthen your faith? If you are willing, I would like you to write your faith questions on the back of your Connect Card and, if we have enough of them, I can make a sermon series or Adult Education class out of them. It could be anything like “why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there so much suffering? What’s the deal with Job? There are extra cards in the Gathering Area if you want to submit a question anonymously. Those at home can send an email to the office or to me, or just put it in the comments.
The other way Jesus met me in my dark night of doubt was revealing that faith is not always a feeling or an experience. It’s wonderful when it is, but the ups and downs of my life do not change the reality or existence of God.
But, the other side of that was that I was experiencing God more often than I realized because as 1 John 4:16 says God is love. Every experience of love was an experience of God. There were many people helping us out of love. Then I found the less I focused on my misery and the more I focused on how much I loved my children, how much I loved my husband, how much I loved the rest of my family, the more prayer came back into my life, and the emptiness receded.
All experiences of love are experiences of God. Each time we receive love, we are being loved by God. Every moment we give love we embody the risen Christ;
Every time we share love, we express faith in the God whose love is more powerful than doubt or even death itself.
All experiences of love are experiences of God.
For your second practice: Pay attention to your experiences of love this week—giving it, receiving it, sharing it. It could be words of affirmation, acts of service, hugs, spending quality time, gift-giving or any other expressions of love.
How does it change your experience when you remind yourself that this an experience of God for you? How many times does God show up in your daily life when you count every experience and expression of love that you give and receive, however small, as a Jesus moment? I challenge you to keep a running list and see if you can share and receive more love each day. Who knows, you might be sent by Jesus as a “swamp visitor” one day to help someone, and not even know it!
The risen Jesus meets Thomas and all of us in our doubts giving us exactly what we need—his presence and his love. He surrounds us with a community that embodies his love for us even when they are not physically present, praying for us and upholding us just by the existence of our communal faith. As we experience this much faith and love, we can all confidently confess with Thomas, “my Lord and My God!”
Message for Easter 2 on Luke 24:13-35 given on April 7, 2024 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Richardson, Texas
When I was a freshman in college at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, the campus pastor told me that I should think about becoming a Lutheran pastor. When I grasped what he was saying, I saw a light above his head and I had a knowing feeling in my chest. I thought, “this is exactly what I am supposed to do with my life!” It was a moment of revelation.
My parents had never seen a woman pastor and were not so sure about this idea, especially since our most recent church was Missouri Synod. They knew me better than anybody. I began to think that maybe the conviction of the heart I felt about becoming a pastor was really just heartburn. Take two tums, walk away, and find another career.
After spending a year living in Brussels, Belgium where my dad was moved for work, I transferred for my sophomore year to a Lutheran college in northern MN. Because I had walked away from being convinced of my call to ministry, I double majored in Psychology, and Political Science/History, creating two pathways out of the church. I could become a psychologist or go to law school (I was really workin' this walking away-thing!).
But I was really looking forward to chapel and campus ministry which I imagined would be great at a Lutheran college. One of the first services I went to, the campus pastor read a children’s book called, Freddie the Falling Leaf. I was dumbfounded and deeply disappointed. Instead of speaking to the real-life issues we faced struggling to become adults, like identity, vocation, and relationships, we were given saccharin stories and superficial platitudes. When I needed something to encourage me when my parents lived half-way across the world, something to help me discern what to do with my life, the church was not pulling me in; instead, it was helping me walk away. I wanted to take that stupid book and hit the campus pastor in the head with it as I walked out the door.
Perhaps you too, have had a time when you walked away from God, from faith, from Jesus, or from church—from part of it or the whole thing. Sometimes we do not receive support from others when we most want it. Sometimes we need support from the church or a faith community, and it is not forthcoming. Or worse, people in the church hurt us and we wonder where God is in the mess of it. Nothing makes sense. We are disappointed, in pain, mad, and the only option we can see is to walk away, take a break, or find a new path.
But it’s especially hard when the church or a congregation disappoints us because we merge that experience with God, and it feels like God has forgotten us or hurt us. That’s the worst spiritual feeling there is.
Our Gospel reading tells the story of two disciples, Cleopas and one other, who also walk away—on the first Easter morning no less! Apparently, they did not believe the testimony of the women who came from the empty tomb and their excitement over seeing a vision of angels telling them Jesus has risen from the dead. Other disciples also went to the empty tomb and found it just as the women had told them, so it was clearly possible their story was true!
Wouldn’t you want to stay in Jerusalem and find out if the story was real—is it true that Jesus is alive?
But no, these two disciples are stuck in their story of grief, pain, and feeling forgotten—Jesus had died, he was not the Messiah, God had forgotten all about them, and all they could think about was how Jesus’ mission had failed them: We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
In their disappointment and grief, they walk away from the empty tomb, they walk away from the testimony of resurrection, and they walk away from their community which is trying to believe that something new just might be happening.
When we walk away, we expect God to walk away from us—we imagine that God’s patience and love and forbearance is akin to ours.
But that’s not what the risen Jesus does, is it? While Cleopas and his companion are headed to Emmaus, away from the empty tomb, away from the resurrection, away from the church, away from relationship with Jesus or their community, the risen Jesus follows them; the risen Jesus finds them on the road, and joins them on their journey out of Jerusalem.
Honestly! Whose God does this? Jesus says, "If you’re going to run away, I am going to run away with you!"
So he does. Jesus engages them in conversation and finds out that their hearts are broken. He listens, and he teaches, and illuminates their own faith to them, while they are still walking away!
Jesus becomes their incognito companion on the journey, showing up in friendship, in conversation and in gentle love!
There are no “shoulds,” no shaming, no “what were you thinking?”—just a companion walking beside them, so much so, that the wayward disciples invite Jesus to join them for a meal and lodging for the night.
Whenever we walk away from faith, from worship, from Jesus, from prayer, from a relationship with him—whether it’s for a day, week, a year, a decade or more—the risen Jesus always follows us and finds us on the road wherever we are going. Jesus runs away with us.
God’s patience, love and forbearance are not limited like ours—they are limitless and eternal. This is why God sent Jesus—to show us what eternal love looks like—
• God has patience that is more forbearing than our stubborn spirits;
• God has love that is more powerful than death itself!
The risen Jesus always searches for the wayward, the risen Jesus always looks for the hurting and the grieving, the risen Jesus always chases down those who are too hurt to stay.
Psalm 139 says,
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
...If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
The Lord’s presence comes in many forms—a person who supports us, an experience that helps us change direction, a new opportunity we had not anticipated, a fresh insight or way of thinking, an experience in nature, and even a bodily experience—like a conviction of the heart, a gut feeling, goosebumps, or that sense of the Spirit’s energy moving through us.
How has Jesus found you when you have turned away, whether it was for a day, a week or a year or longer?
This week I invite you in to two spiritual practices: the first one is to simply to
1. Practice Paying Attention: Pay attention to how Jesus finds you during the week both internally and externally
a. First Pay attention internally and trust your body’s signals. We are not really taught to pay attention to God showing up for us in the “aha” moments, in the conviction in the chest, the gut feeling, in the flush of the spirit, in goose bumps, or in the words of our Emmaus Road-disciples, their “heart burning.” Our temptation is to write it off as weird, or as nothing, rather than pausing to ask what Jesus wants us to notice. But those are moments when God is asking us to pause, to pay attention, to be present. The risen Spirit of Jesus needs earthly matter to show up in—it’s why we talk about the church as the hands and feet of Christ. Pay attention to the physical clues that Christ is here dwelling inside you, giving you a nudge to look closely at what is happening around you and in you.
b. Pay attention externally—look at the people around you, the conversations you have, the nature you see, the music you hear, the love you experience, the opportunities, events, and the moments that come your way—where do you see good, love, and God at work? These are all signs of the risen Jesus showing up on your journey with you.
2. Practice forgiving the church and other Christians for failing you. This is harder than it sounds because we want Christians, churches, and ministry institutions to be better, to be less sinful, to do fewer things wrong and more things right. So maybe start with one resentment you are hanging onto. We forget that people are just people, full of their own issues and hurts; we forget that their mistakes, pain, lousy chapel, or bad church behavior, does not speak for God. We forget that every institution no matter how holy it tries to be, is still human, and therefore equally prone to sin, to failure, and brokenness…just like…well…. we are.
The difference is not that we in the church don’t sin, but that when we do, we have a process in Matthew 18 for talking about it, for repenting, for asking for forgiveness, for offering forgiveness and living in reconciliation. In fact, that’s when community, deeper relationships get really great, become deeply meaningful, much more profound and have the power to change the world—because this is a church that is truly practicing love.
We are all a work in progress.
I rarely liked Chapel at college, but a friend told me who was the best preacher in town and Jesus found me there. I had great professors who mentored me, and Jesus found me there. I went on an urban semester in Chicago and Jesus found me in the inmates I tutored in Cook County Jail, in the African American Lutheran church where I volunteered, and in the people at the homeless shelter on the weekends. Pretty soon I discovered how much Jesus mattered to them and to me. One day quite accidentally, I stopped saying “if” I go to seminary, and said, “when I go to seminary…” and the decision was out of my mouth before I had consciously chosen it. But the conviction of the heart came back because Jesus found me wherever I was.
And my parents? Well, they were both in tears the first time I served them Communion on internship, and they bought the champagne for my ordination reception, so the risen Jesus finds all of us on our journey, wherever we are.
The two Emmaus-Road disciples do not recognize Jesus until he breaks bread with them. Ultimately, the risen Jesus finds us in this meal—where he calls us by name and says that the forgiveness and love he brings, he gives to each of us personally, individually, as an important member of this great community of Christ.
As we receive Jesus’ body and blood, as we accept his incognito companionship and constant presence, we will experience his presence internally and see him externally all around us, as Jesus finds us over and over again, wherever we are.
Easter Message on Mark 16:1-8 given on March 31, 2024 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Richardson, Texas
We never know what the future holds, but sometimes there are moments of grief or change when the unknown future causes is particularly scary.
In the fall of my freshman year of college, my parents announced that my dad was being transferred with work to Brussels, Belgium. They would be moving right after Christmas. Even though I had physically left home, I had not emotionally moved out, yet. So, when my dad said, “we’re moving to Belgium” I included myself in the “we.” My parents did not.
I was startled at first and then scared, but in good Scandinavian fashion, I swallowed my feelings and pretended everything was fine. But inside, I wondered, What the heck is going on? I was supposed to be leaving home, but instead home is leaving me. Where am I supposed to go when I want to get away on the weekend? I don’t like my roommate, much less most of the party animals in my dorm. I am not even sure about my major—I only came to this school because my older sister was here—but she has a boyfriend now. How am I supposed to figure out my future by myself?
Even though no one had died, I was experiencing grief—my life and future as I had imagined it was suddenly completely unknown, murky, and scary. I had never felt this alone, and it was hard to speak up.
Perhaps you, too, have had this experience of grief over unexpected changes in your life, and felt this fear of the future that grips us at times of significant change. You could be going through one of these changes right now.
• The person or people we have relied on are no longer physically around to offer the support and help we counted on. Someone close to us moves away—becomes ill, or their circumstances change.
• Sometimes the unknown future comes when someone we love passes away, and we are thrust into a reality we did not want or choose.
• An unknown future unsettles us when are laid off, go through career changes, or a relationship ends through a break-up or divorce.
All these events cause their own grief, and the future feels murky, uncertain, and scary—it’s hard to speak up.
Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome experience all these fraught emotions as they come to the tomb on that first Easter morning. They are wracked with grief, they are filled with fear, they can’t imagine how to step into a murky, unknown future.
The person they had come to rely on is gone—Jesus had changed their lives beyond measure— Jesus healed Mary Magdalene of demon-possession—and changed everything! How could Mary Magdalene now live without Jesus, this great friend and companion who had transformed her life?
The other Mary and Salome, mothers to disciples, were also distressed. Their whole families’ lives had changed because of Jesus, and they had become his followers. They had ministered to Jesus and his entourage—providing food and lodging, but they had received so much more than they gave.
They felt seen for the first time, like they really mattered. They saw hope in their sons’ eyes. How were they supposed to go back to “business as usual?” They could not see a future without Jesus in it.
The only thing the women can think to do, are the tasks of burial—so they come at sunrise with spices in hand. The problem is, they have no plan for how to move that huge stone in front of the tomb.
But that’s grief, turmoil, and fear, isn’t it?—we can’t see the future, much less think straight in the present. The women have no game. No plan. No strategy. Spices and nothing else. They realize their folly as they walk.
But even though the women had no plan, God’s got game, and God’s got a plan, a bigger plan than they could ever imagine. When they arrive at the tomb, the stone has already been rolled away!
An angel of the Lord sits there in dazzling white telling them the good news that Jesus no longer is dead but is, in fact, alive—he has risen from the dead! He has conquered our most fearsome enemy in the future, death itself, and come back to life!
Then the angel says the most important thing:
Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee and there you will see him!
Jesus is going ahead of them.
The future that the Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome fear—is already filled with presence of the risen Jesus.
The future that we fear, that we cannot we see, the future that seems uncertain and murky— is already filled with presence of the risen Jesus.
Jesus is going ahead of you. Jesus is already ahead of you in your future, and has made it crystal clear.
• Let’s start with the end of your future—Jesus has gone ahead of you into death—so when you get there—Jesus is already there, and there you will see him, and he will bring you to eternal life!
• But before you get there—when you get to your future, let’s say the is the next decade, or the next 5 decades if you're very young, Jesus is there even now-- and there you will see him!
• And when you get to the next 5 years, Jesus is already there, and there you will see him!
• And when you get to the next year, Jesus is already there! And Jesus is already in your next month, and your next week.
• The risen Lord is going ahead of you into your tomorrow, and into your tonight, and into your this afternoon, and into your next minute.
• The risen Lord is already present wherever you are now, and wherever you will be in the future, always and forever. Amen.
This is the most important thing, and indeed the only thing we need to know about our future.
And it’s crystal clear.
The tomb is empty.
Jesus, our risen Lord is loose in the world, and in your life, preparing the way for your tomorrow, which means he is with you today, now, this minute, this breath.
The angel at the empty tomb offers us 3 directions to help us embrace the risen Lord who is already in our future and in our today. I invite you to practice these this week, and then come back next week for our Post-Easter Sermon series about Jesus in Real Life—which is on the yellow card in your bulletin.
Here are 3 things the angel instructs us to do as followers of the Risen Jesus:
1. Look for Life- The women came to the tomb looking for death. The angel says, “Look, there is the place they laid him.” Death is gone—this is a place of life! Look, Look for life! Look for Jesus! Look for hope! Look for love—these are always present no matter what—even and especially at the tomb. When we are struggling through change—Look for Life. Go outside and look at a plant pushing through a crack in the sidewalk, listen for a bird, or google babies giggling. Notice love and good, in strangers, in what children say, in neighbors.
I have a mantra I repeat when I am struggling, which is “Jesus never fails me!” And it’s always true. It would be better to state it positively, “Jesus always shows up!” We see what we look for—When we look for Life, we see Jesus’ presence all around us. Matthew 7:7 says, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
2. Engage in Community- The angel sent the women back into the community of the disciples—"go to the disciples and Peter." A life of following Jesus is a group project. We do this together as sisters and brothers because Jesus shows up for us in others. None of us can navigate grief or major life changes alone. That freshman year in college, I had a lot of support—from an aunt & uncle, from my home church youth leader, my sister, and others. Most importantly, I became involved in campus ministry, where I made my closest friends, experienced community, and where my sister and I would worship together. It was that campus pastor who told me to consider becoming a Lutheran pastor.
You see, Jesus was already in my future, and he is already in yours too—working through a whole community of people he is using as angels to guide your path. Engage in Christian community--we have Life Groups here, and we will create more—faith is shared journey. Romans 12:5 reminds us, So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
3. Go & Tell- The angel instructs the women to go and tell the other disciples the good news that Jesus is alive, risen from the dead, and going ahead of them—that they will see him! But they had a hard time speaking up. In their fear and amazement they say nothing and the story ends with silence!
Clearly the women eventually spoke up or we would not be celebrating Easter today! So why end the story in silence? Because WE are the ones who finish the story. The angel invites us to find our voice, to speak up, and go and tell others how we have already seen Jesus’ presence in our life, how WE know Jesus is already here, now and in our future, how WE have experienced new life, hope, community, and help when we needed it most.
We finish the story when we go and tell others that when we thought the future was murky and scary, someone showed up for us, and in them we saw Jesus, we saw Life, we experienced love. In Matthew 6:24- Jesus says, do not worry about tomorrow because he is there! So we don’t!
We can finish the story when we go and tell that we do not fear the future anymore because we trust that Jesus is already there! And that makes our life, and our future, crystal clear. Our future is always shining with the light of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, disciples, are you ready to finish the story, and go and tell?
Let’s say Amen!
Image: Sadao Watanabe Women at the Tomb
Message for Lent 5 on John 12:20-33 given on March 17, 2024 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Richardson, Texas
About 30 years ago, Dan and I heard a sermon about the disciples always missing the point—they were looking to Jesus for direction and not understanding the answer. The preacher talked about Jesus blessing the children while the disciples were pestering him saying, “Come on Jesus, what are doing? We’ve got to get the kingdom the rolling, and you’re playing with kids. Let’s go, Jesus! It’s time to get the kingdom rolling.”
Three decades later, when Dan, who is also a pastor, and I are getting ready to leave for the workday, one of us usually asks the other, “so what is on your agenda for today?” We will share about the visits, appointments, or meetings we have planned. Sometimes, probably more frequently than I should admit, one of us will say, “I just gotta get the kingdom rolling.” This is a humorous way of admitting,
• I hope what I think I am supposed to be doing is what God wants me to be doing
• I need to look at the big picture and make sure what I am doing is moving toward the vision God has for me, but today I can’t see the forest for the trees or for the big pile of papers on my desk
• I am listening for God, but don’t see him today
• I am looking for Jesus, but he’s not coming in clearly
• I pray I am not missing the point
I know—it sounds a little backwards from a pastor—but as much as I love Jesus (and I really do--I am Jesus-girl through and through!), he does not plan worship or write Holy Week bulletins for me; he does not do visits, or make phone calls. It’s easy to forget to ask where God is in all this “doing”—because you know, I gotta get the kingdom rolling, and I have got to get to my list of church tasks.
I wonder if this happens to you, too. You may not say, “I gotta get the kingdom rolling.” But maybe it is more like—"I just gotta get through this day". Or “My to-do list is a mile long.” Or “Does all this stuff I do matter? To anyone? To God?”
You may be listening for God, but don’t hear him today. You may want to see Jesus but he’s not coming in clearly. You may have too much on your plate to remember to think about what God’s plan is for you. You want direction, you pray you are not missing the point of faith in Jesus, and following him—but many days, it feels a bit muddy.
You spend so much of your daily lives striving—striving to accomplish goals at school or your job, working to provide for your family, stretching to meet everyone’s needs, reaching out to help others when you can, trying to do the right thing. Even if you’re retired—you are some of the busiest people I know! So, where is God in all of this, you want to see Jesus but where is he, exactly?
In our Gospel reading from John believers like us want to see Jesus. They want to know where God is in all of this—in their life and the life of the world and if anything they did mattered. Philip and Andrew bring them to see Jesus, and they not only see him, they get so much more. And so do we.\
Jesus says a lot here (and we'll get to some of that), but to their question of, is God present in their life and does anything they do matter? the short answer Jesus gives them, is “YES!”
Yes! Everything you do matters!
God’s love is in everything and in every bit of creation—even a grain of wheat—even you!
God’s love is so deep, so wide, so high, so immense, so vast, says Jesus, that when I complete my whole human experience of dying, and reveal God’s power by rising to new life, and then I am lifted up to heaven, every single person on this earth will be drawn in and saved in love!”
And then a voice comes from heaven to affirm this truth. To those wanting to see him—Jesus says, “you are not just going to see me, you will have an eternal relationship of love with me. And the God who sent me. In this relationship, I will fill you with my eternal life and my forever-love.”
The Apostle Paul in our Ephesians passage makes it very clear what Jesus did for each of us: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast."
So, what does this mean for us about how we order our days, and trust that God is with us in our daily to-do lists, and help us know that all that life demands of us matters?
There are 2 Simple Daily Practices and I invite you to try this week to shift your awareness toward the constant presence of God with you in Jesus Christ.
1. An Affirmation, but first an explanation
Jesus says in verse 26: Whoever serves me, must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.
When we hear this, we think we have to me on a mission trip to Haiti or Africa, or somewhere else to follow Jesus. Or we have a notion that Jesus is over there with those faithful people, and up there, and that God is out there with that ministry, and in nature—and well yes of course, Jesus is with everyone, and God is everywhere. But today we are talking about YOU.
When Jesus was lifted up in resurrection, he drew YOU to himself. In Baptism God filled YOU with the risen Spirit of Christ, making you a Christ-Bearer in the world.
Where I AM there will my servant be also. Maybe we just need to reverse the sentence to really get it, where my servant will be, there I AM. God’s identity at the burning bush with Moses is, “I am who I am.” Jesus carries this I AM identity. Where my servant will be, there I AM. The “I Am” presence of God is in you, in Jesus Christ.
How easy it is forget that we are the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19), that God in Jesus Christ is as much IN HERE, as God is out there. One of my spiritual teachers taught me recently that we actually have 3 hearts. We know this intuitively, but having her say it to me recently was a big “aha.
• We have our physical heart which keeps our body alive
• We have our energetic heart—which enables us to express love and compassion for others. We usually feel love and compassion around our physical heart in the chest area. Eastern traditions call this the “heart chakra.”
• We have a 3rd heart-which is our sacred heart—the heart of Christ—or the “I am” presence of God within us.
We can connect with the heart of Christ within us through prayer and meditation, of course, but sometimes it helps to have a more concrete way. My spiritual mentor taught me that we can connect to the sacred presence of God here, at the base of the neck in the hollow between the two small bones. I encourage you in the morning or anytime during the day when you are feeling disconnected, harried, over-whelmed, or you just want to feel centered and grounded in faith, to just touch this hollow at the base your neck and say an affirmation: Christ is in me and I am in Christ. Or God is in me and I am in God. Love lives in me and I live in love.
Sometimes I just put my fingers here and take a deep breath. “The Spirit prays for us in sighs to deep for words” (Romans 8:26)
2. A Question: Let Love Crack You Open
Jesus uses the image of the grain of wheat in verse 24—unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
One grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, can grow a plant that produces up to110 new grains! Plant those 110 grains, and you are up to 12,000 grains; by the third harvest of replanted seeds, you are up to 1.3 million grains of wheat. Pretty soon we’re talking about enough bread for the world—seeds produce exponential growth! Jesus, as the seed of God’s love, produces enough eternal life and love to fill the universe, and draw us all to himself!
To do this, Jesus loved his way through the full human experience—that’s the meaning of the term Son of Man—or Son of Humanity—he embraces being fully human—family, grief, friendship, service, teaching, betrayal, physical suffering.
Jesus loved by asking what people wanted before he healed them, he invited people to join him—never forced them, and Jesus gave people freedom--he let people walk away if they were not ready for his love. Jesus crossed every boundary of class, race, religion, culture, gender, and politics to embody God’s way of life.
Like a seed that must crack open in order to release new growth, Jesus, the Son of Humanity fully entered all of these human experiences and allowed them to crack open his heart to greater love so he could go all the way through the cross to bear the fruit of eternal life for us.
Sometimes we think that we should be doing something else with our life to experience God or see Jesus, and if you are struggling with that question, then I would love to have conversation with you. But sometimes the truth is, we are where we are supposed to be, and Jesus invites us to let our daily life, crack us open to greater love.
Your “to-do list” is not causing you to miss the point or to miss God. It is the point. Your life is where God is—in the daily to do’s, relationships, parenting, challenges, work, frustrations, joys, and tears. That’s why everything you do matters! Experience it fully and love your way through it as Jesus did!
Remember, Where my servant is, there I AM –
I invite you to ask yourself one question: How might I love my way through this experience/task/day? (including love of God, others, self—this isn’t doormat, co-dependent love) OR How is this experience/task/day cracking me open me to greater love?
This is a dying-to-self question—because you are not asking, how can I make this the best day just for me?
It may surprise you how much you start expressing Jesus’ love, how often you start seeing and experiencing God! I talked with someone recently who helped buy lunch for a homeless man at a fast-food restaurant and then received an unexpected blessing from somewhere else a few days later. Someone else was in bind and received some help with lodging. A new property volunteer came yesterday and put the bookshelf together for the Family Area in the entryway, and then installed a new water fountain in the Preschool! All stories of expressing or experiencing God's love! Sometimes you're the giver. Sometimes you're the receiver.
Your daily life matters and all that you do in love plants seeds of Jesus' kingdom.
As we all do this in our daily lives, we participate in helping Jesus grow the kingdom exponentially!
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Linda Anderson-Little