Are you Kidding Me?

As we think about Easter and about the resurrection, lets try to put our selves in the place of the people living back during this time. So what do we know about that time? Well I imagine it was very dangerous. It was scary. There was a lot cynicism; A lot of hate; and a lot of skepticism. The Jewish people, the people of Israel, had been persecuted and oppressed for centuries. And now they were being oppressed persecuted by the Romans. Look at a Roman soldier the wrong way and youll get beaten and thrown in prison. Best thing to do is to keep your head down and keep a low profile. And dont cross anyone allegiances are hard to understand and constantly changing. And their faith was the one steady thing they could count on. And they had been told for centuries for the ages really- that the messiah was coming one day to save them from their plight. Im sure they daydreamed at times imagining the Messiah coming and helping them enact revenge on their oppressors in bloody and violent ways. You know, the whole eye for an eye thing. Cause after all the Bible was filled with bloody and violent things that God had supposedly facilitated. Noahs Ark, Cain and Abel, the plague on the Pharaoh The Skeptics Annotated Bible lists 1154 violent acts by God in the Old Testament. I have a hard time believing that God just changed his mind and decided to start being loving. I think its more likely that the people were just blaming God without understanding. So here all these folks center and focus on the one thing they are sure of the Messiah is coming. We dont know when and we dont know

how, but when it does happen, its going to be a game changer. No more suffering and no more oppression. But theyve been fooled so many times. As long as there has been talk of the Messiah, there has been a long history of people claiming to be the Messiah. Plenty of magicians and miracle workers have played their tricks on these people that want to believe. So here you have this Jesus fella and hes doing the same thing. Can you blame them for being a little skeptical? Sure hes compassionate, and it seems like these miracles are the real thing, and he seems like such a nice boy, but he lacks a certain fire and brimstone talk that maybe were hoping for..All this talk of love and kindness. I just dont knowAnd now the elders of the church, they dont believe him. So why should I? They know better than me, and theyre saying hes a blasphemere.. And look at him up on the cross if he was really the Messiah, the son of God, couldnt he just save himself? So he must not be, right? And then he dies, and yeah the tomb is empty but some grave robbers could have just take the body. Everything is explainable. There is plenty of room to doubt. No way was that the Messiah. Oh well better luck next time. And then Jesus comes back to life. There he is in the flesh. Come back to life. Reincarnated a concept not even imaginable back then. If Im in that room, my response is Are you kidding me? Weve been waiting all this time, and you were the real deal? And now weve

missed it? We were hardly even paying attention to all the lessons that you were teaching. Now what do we do? What do we do with this? The twelve disciples, theyve been followers, not leaders. And Jesus just got killed for the words he was speaking. And you want us to go in your footsteps? Can you imagine the fear? Here is Jesus, in the Flesh mind you not just a spirit, but in the flesh, back from the dead. 24:37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 24:38 He said to them "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 24:39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." 24:40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And then just in case there were any doubters: 24:41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" 24:42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 24:43 and he took it and ate in their presence. Guess what? Ghosts dont eat.

And then Jesus goes on to tell them, and to get them to see, what the real game changer is: Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 24:46 and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 24:47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 24:48 You are witnesses of these things

The real game changer, is that God is not a God of fear and hate and revenge hes a God of Love and Kindness and Forgiveness. And its their job to share that news with the world. - repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Great. No road map, no instruction manual. Just words; and Jesus; and each other. And love. In a world filled with hatred and violence. What do you do with that? Isnt that the same challenge that we face today? I think that many of us here today, were believers, our minds have been open to understand the scripturesIsnt it up to us to proclaim his name to all nations? To make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world? So if we look at the disciples and the followers, the early adopters, the early believers they had NOTHING but words, and Jesus, and each other. They didnt have a beautiful church building they met and worshipped in caves and basements and in secret. They didnt have the Bible, the new Testament, they were making were busy trying to make sense of it all and creating history, not studying it. They created their own future, they didnt just try to predict it. They were people of action at the risk of great peril, they were relevant, they brought a message of hope and love in a time of fear and hatred and oppression and injustice. Yet they came together, with love and patience, and respect, and kindness and carried out the task of building a church and a foundation that would last more than 2000 years. And it is exactly that foundation that has made it strong enough to last 2000 + years.

Over the last year or so, our church community has been grappling with some of the same issues that the early church had to deal with. Who are we, what is our mission, what is our vision for our community, what are we trying to do, what are our values? How do we proclaim forgiveness and repentance in his name to all nations? I imagine that twelve disciples had twelve different opinions and twelve different ideas on how to do that. But they put their faith in God, and found direction in the very words that Jesus spoke. And we must do the same. Each individual in our community must bring their ideas and opinions forward and let your voice be heard. Over the next few weeks we're going to be talking about the work that our church leadership did at our retreat - our history, our place in this community, the outreach programs that we do, who we are to our neighbors, who we serve, our passions and our values - and on May 20 Heritage Sunday - we'll be asking for your input and ideas on our mission and our vision for the future. So please mark your calendars, as this day will be an important and giant step in our continued path to returning to being a healthy and vital church. And there's already lots of ideas. And lots of opinions. We have a lot of energy and momentum. And there's a growing desire to see this energy transformed into action. But like the disciples we must do this together and your input is crucial. In our world today, to you and I, it might not seem to be as dangerous a place as it was 2000 years ago. We don't have Roman soldiers oppressing us, we won't be put to death because of our beliefs.

But there are people that live with these fears every day. And there continues to be a lot of hate, and cynisism,and fear and injustice, and oppression. And we can't be lulled into believing that the teachings of Jesus aren't as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago. In fact I would argue that because of our comfortable situations, relatively speaking, his words and teachings are even more relevant. The oppression and hate and fear isn't as obvious, and often comes disguised, sometimes even draped with the bible itself. We must be his voice to help fight injustice, to help feed and clothe the needy, to help spread the word of love and kindness. To balance the skeptisism with hope. And yes sometimes to even do that in a righteous way. There's a lot at stake my friends. We must find a way to shout his message to our community, through our words and deeds. And during this critical time of planning and visioning and decisions, let's overcome our fears and uncertainty and work together to write our own history.