Disciple – Law & Prophet

“Law & Prophet” – Sermon by Caleb Campbell

I don’t know how they count these things, but I’ve heard that the Bible is the most sold book in the West. I didn’t go around and count. I’ve just heard that many times right in a couple of spaces, but what I do know is that here in North Phoenix, it is very popular. A lot of people own Bibles. But even for those of us that are still trying to figure out what we think about Jesus, odds are you’ve seen a Bible. You’ve been around the Bible. Maybe you even own a Bible. Some of us, we’ve bought Bibles for ourselves or we’ve gone to like bible.com and downloaded the Bible. Some of us have like inherited a family Bible. Do you guys anybody have a family Bible that’s been passed down for generations? I’ve got one. It’s this big and it has a wood cover with all these etchings on it. It’s that thick, and when I’m upset with my children, I tell them I’m going to give them the Word. Actually, I don’t, because it’s a family heirloom and that would ruin it. So, we don’t do that. For others of us, people have bought us Bibles because they felt like we needed it, and those people need to mind their own business. If you guys know what I’m talking about, right?

By the way, if you don’t own the Bible and would like one, please, feel free to take one of the Bibles off the table in the back, as our gift to you. The Bible is popular. It’s one of the most popular books, but it’s also one of the most like underused. And here’s what I mean. Usually in our community or in our culture, when the Bible gets used, it’s usually a verse here and there. Maybe it’s embroidered on something nice. Or a politician or someone giving a speech will reference something. Still others may have even have a tattoo or something. But usually, it’s like one or two verses, and we kind of take it and then we do what we want with it. For many of us, we find that it’s difficult to really have a steady diet of engaging with the Bible, and one of the reasons why, I think, is because oftentimes we’re not even sure how it’s supposed to work, what it’s supposed to do. In fact, for those of you that are familiar with the Bible, have you ever found it to be confusing? Yeah, like very confusing. Yeah, very confusing. OK? There’s a lot of stuff that’s confusing about the Bible.

Also, have you ever been disappointed in the Bible? Here’s what I mean. Maybe you’ve had a problem that you’re trying to solve, or you’ve had a deep feeling, or you’re really confused about something. You think, “I know what I’ll do. I’ll go read the Bible today.” Then you read the Bible and can’t find the answer. Has that ever happened to you?

I remember being a young man, and I was thinking “Should I get married to my (now) wife? So, I was you know, praying, “Lord, should I ask Lori to marry me?” You know the Bible, tell me if I should marry Lori. “When you are encamped against your enemies, be careful to avoid anything offensive.” Not helpful, right? So sometimes we’re just not even sure how the Bible is supposed to work.

Some of us think it’s like a car manual, where we look when there’s the little light on the dashboard and we’re like, oh, there’s a problem. So, I going to read the car manual, but then you read the Bible like a car manual. It doesn’t work that way. Then you think, well, the Bible is kind of like history. It’s a history book. Then you read the Bible and you realize that a ton of it kind of sounds like history, but there’s a lot of weird stuff going on. And also, there seems to be this overarching theme. When we approach the Bible, we want to have a sense of what it’s supposed to do.

Here’s what an early Jesus follower said. His name was Paul, and he wrote a letter to a guy named Timothy. This is what he says about the scriptures. He says the scriptures Bible are designed to make one wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus. There are multiple parts to that, but I just want to notice that the Bible is designed to make us what? Wise. The Bible is wisdom literature, and the Bible is going to shape us in ways that maybe we don’t even expect. So, if we’re approaching the Bible, we want to make sure that we’re not projecting onto the Bible our own expectations of what it ought to do. Rather, we’re going to receive what it wants to do to us or what God, through the scriptures, wants to do to us. And one of the things that God wants to do to us through the scripture is to make us wise. The Bible is ancient wisdom literature, and one of the things that we’re going to say may sound confusing to many of us. We may be like, “OK, what I don’t even understand this”

So let me just give you a frame to think about not only the Bible but also the whole world, yourself and God, OK? If you’ve ever had glasses … I wear contacts. But when I take my contacts out, I wear glasses and the glasses have frames on them, right? And within the frame, there are lenses, right? OK, very good. You guys are winning at the trivia game. So, the lens frame — whatever metaphor you want to use — I see the world through that lens. The glasses go on, and I can see things more clearly, if the prescription is correct. And so, when I put on the lens, I see the world in a certain way. Hopefully it’s adding clarity and fidelity. So, the lens that we’re going to look at today in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 9 is what I think is the critical lens that the Bible points to. All the Bible points to help us to frame the world, to frame our understanding of God, to frame our understanding of ourselves.

And then what we’re going to do is, I’d like to argue that from this text in Mark Chapter 9, then I want to try to apply it, or at least share with you how I’ve been applying it this week, especially over the last couple weeks. So, so let’s get into the text.

This is the gospel of Mark Chapter 9. Before this particular section of Scripture, the end of chapter eight of the Gospel of Mark, there was this pinnacle, powerful moment in Jesus’s life where he says to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Messiah, you’re the Christ. You’re the chosen one. You’re the Redeemer. You’re the savior, the one who’s going to save your people. You’re the chosen one, you’re the Messiah.” Then Jesus says, look, we’re going to Jerusalem, and from this point in time on in the Gospel of Mark, they’re headed towards Jerusalem.

So, he says, look, we’re going to Jerusalem and I’m going to be turned over into the hands of evil people, and they’re going to crucify me. They’re going to bury me, and then three days later I will rise from the dead. OK, so Jesus says we’re going to Jerusalem, and what’s going to happen to Jesus? He’s going to die. Now, here’s the deal. Peter does not like that. Remember, Peter was the one who said you’re the Messiah, you’re the chosen one. And Peter takes Jesus aside to say, “Jesus, no. May it never be.” Then Jesus says these really like hard, hard words to Peter. He says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” Right, get behind me, Satan. You’re thinking about the things of this world, not the things I’ve got. So that’s literally just happened.

If you want to know more about that, just go on our website dot church and listen to or read last week’s sermon. So, at this point you get Jesus taking just a few of his disciples, and we’re going to pick up the text. If you’re following along, you should have it in your handouts. If you’re joining us online, you just go to bible.com and again, we’re in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9.

OK, so here’s what we want to do. Remember that we’re looking at a lens or a frame through which to see all the scripture, to see God, to see ourselves, to see the world. And I believe that in this text Jesus is going to frame this up for us as well, as well as tell us what the Bible is all about. Think we can do that in the next few minutes? Your confidence is inspiring.

After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John and LED them up to a high mountain by themselves to be alone. *** (Verse 2)

*** TV timeout. Have you guys ever been to a concert and then the band starts playing another band’s song? Just ever have you guys gone to concerts? Yeah, OK, maybe you don’t go to concerts. Again, you know when you’re at the club, and the DJ is laying down some fresh beats. The DJ is going to take music from different musicians. He is going to take the backbeat from one musician, lyrics from another, the singing from another, and he’s going to mix it all up. And he’s going to mix in a bunch of different samples of other artists’ material. That’s now being presented in a fresh way. You guys know about this idea. Whether it’s like a cover band or a cover song — where a new band covers old material, or it’s a DJ, mixing different musicians, different artists’ pieces together — they are taking old work and presenting it in a fresh new way for our delight and enjoyment. That’s what musicians are doing.

Authors will also do this. Biblical authors are doing this all the time, especially in the newer testament. They’re mixing, they’re sampling, they’re riffing. They’re taking these little bits and pieces and they’re putting them into their whatever they’re writing, not only for our enjoyment, but also to help us. So, sometimes there’s going to be details in the text and you’re thinking, “Why is that detail there?” And it’s actually a little linked to a deeper story or to an older story, and we’re supposed to read the current thing that we’re reading in light of all the connections that it makes to the previous story. OK, watch this.

After six days, six days after Jesus proclaimed said he was the Messiah? After Peter did what? You know – he tried to lead him — and Jesus says get behind me, Satan. You’re thinking about the things of this world, not the things of God. It was six days after that, and Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up to a high mountain. Now here’s the deal. When you’re playing Bible trivia, and the question is “What is the location?” What’s the location that is most often mentioned as places where people meet God? Is it the valley? Is it the pub? Or is it a high mountain? Throughout scripture, people meet God on high mountains.

Now here’s the other thing, too. Has there ever been a time where somebody has ascended a high mountain? And six days has been a corollary feature of it. Yes, I knew you guys already know the answer. So let me just remind us that when Moses went up the mountain to meet with God, there was a period of six days where he goes up to meet God.

Now here’s the other thing too. This is all taking place in the Book of Exodus. I think that the author Mark is bringing in and riffing on the Exodus account, and I’d like to prove it even more.

Check this. They go up the mountain by themselves to be alone. By the way, who are they going to be with? It was just the four of them. They were going to be alone. But they aren’t going stay alone. Watch this.

“He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling – extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them.” (Verse 3)

*** TV time. I love how brief Mark is with his descriptions. He’s like, yeah, Jesus was transfigured. And we’re like, “What? Transfigured? What does that mean? Well, there’s the hint in the text. ***

Something has changed about his figure. His clothes became dazzling, extremely white as no launderer on Earth could whiten them. What is Mark saying? He’s saying that something has happened to Jesus’s person, to his body, to his being. Something has changed, so much so that it’s become glorious. How glorious? It’s like beaming white.

So, Jesus is like beaming. Has there ever been a time in Scripture where someone meets God and they’re beaming? Yes, actually. Moses in the Book of Exodus, after he meets God, the Bible says that his face is beaming. So here you’ve got this other riff. Remember that Moses went up the mountain to meet with God. Here Jesus himself is transfigured in front his three disciples. I think that he’s taking on the figure of Moses.

“Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.”(Verse 4)

So, it happens in front of them. This is going to be crazy. And remember they were going to go up, and they were going to go up and be alone. Guess what? Elijah appeared to them along with Moses. Elijah and Moses — these two people are dead. So, if you go camping to be alone with three of your friends, and two dead dudes show up, how do you feel? Delighted? Wondering did we bring enough hot dogs? How do you feel you feel? Terrified? Absolutely terrified.

So, Elijah – a real quick little bio on Elijah. Elijah is a prophet. The job of a prophet was to speak God’s truth to people. And often times — more often than not — call them to repentance. A lot of people think prophecy is all about fortune telling. It’s not. It’s not primarily about telling the future, in fact. The telling of the future was always corollary to a call to repentance. Here’s what I mean.

Prophets would come into town, and they would say things like this. “Hey, you people, if you don’t turn from your wicked ways, if you don’t repent and follow God, if you don’t turn from your wicked ways, you’re going to be destroyed. If you if you don’t stop being greedy. If you don’t stop abusing the poor. If you don’t stop worshipping other gods. If you don’t repent and turn, you will be destroyed.”

Now let me ask you a question. Do you think people liked hearing that? Prophets, by the way, were rarely invited to join people for dinner. In fact, a lot of times they got run out of town. And a lot of times they got killed.

Elijah here is kind of the boss status. He’s like the pinnacle prophet, right? In your Bible, there’s a section of what we call the older testament or the Hebrew scriptures. There are all these different prophets in the first part of the Bible, with stories of the different prophets and the words that they spoke to people. The interesting thing about Elijah is we don’t have a death narrative. In fact, the only thing we know is that he was carried up away into the heavens, as the way that his end is described. So you don’t have a death narrative.

At least for us, a little more popular figure is Moses of the Ten Commandments fame. Moses was the giver of the instruction, or the Torah, or the law. The Torah is usually what we call the first five books of the Bible. So, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses is the one who led the people of God out of Egypt, out of captivity in Egypt. And so here you have the law and the prophets now. Jesus would never have used the word Bible, which is a modern western word. Jesus used the word scriptures, and only rarely did Jesus use the word scriptures. The popular way to refer to the Bible at that time would have been the scriptures or the law and prophets. So the first five books of the Bible represent the law, and rest of is the prophets.

Let me ask you a question. What’s your Bible about? When you read the law — Genesis Exodus, Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy, when you read a book like Jeremiah or Isaiah, what are they pointing to? I think that in Mark we’re supposed to see the law and the prophets here talking with Jesus. Just notice the scene.

“Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let us set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah’ – because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified.“ (Verse 5)

What are they doing? They appeared and were talking with Jesus. The law and the prophets are talking with Jesus. Just notice what happens next. Peter said to Jesus — remember how’s Peter feeling? He’s terrified. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.” Really? With two dead guys? OK. Then he says, “Let us set up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Because we all know you guys don’t want to bunk together. Right. Makes perfect sense, right? And why did he say this? Because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified. Yeah, they’re terrified. He doesn’t always think now.

Here’s an interesting thing. This language of shelter could also be translated as Tabernacle. It’s kind of like a portable shelter. In the Book of Exodus, that portable shelter — the Tabernacle — was where the presence of God would dwell.

“A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my beloved Son: listen to him!’ Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.” (Verses 7-8)

If people in in the day of Moses wanted to know if God was with them, they would look over to the Tabernacle and see if a pillar of cloud was there. It’s strange, and we’re just going to let it be strange. I’m not going to resolve the tension. It’s a pillar cloud. It’s reflective of God’s direct glory.

OK, just notice this. We just want to remember right? Because DJ funky fresh is about to mix up some beats for us here. Notice what Mark says here. They were terrified. Notice what happens now. A cloud appeared, overshadowing them. And a voice came from the cloud. Is that weird that voices are coming from clouds?

“This is my beloved son. Listen to him.” OK. Here you have a high mountain, six days, you’ve got the law and the prophets present, and then you’ve got a cloud. Where else have we seen a cloud? Remember? In Exodus we saw that the direct presence of God was signified as a pillar of cloud. And now here you’ve got a cloud appearing and doing what? I love this. What’s the word? Overshadowing them or overtaking them. The cloud overtakes them on the mountain top. And as the cloud overtakes them on the mountain top, they hear what?

Now this is interesting. So, if you’ve been following along in the Gospel of Mark, you’re familiar with this. This is not the first time we’ve heard this statement about a voice from heaven. Earlier in Mark, where Jesus is baptized, the text says that the spirit of God descended on Jesus at his baptism like a dove and a voice from heaven was heard saying “This is my beloved son.” Now, here you get the same thing. With what we know about Mark — Mark is very brief, right? He doesn’t do any sort of flourish. He’s very brief most of the time. Why is Mark repeating himself? Why do we get this second proclamation of the Sonship of Jesus?

I’m going to give you my opinion. I think it’s a good one. Remember the context? Immediately before they ascended the mountain top, what did Jesus say would happen to him? He said I’m going to Jerusalem and when I go to Jerusalem, what’s going to happen? Do you guys remember? He’s going to die. He’s going to be killed. He’s going to be turned over into the hands of evil people, and he’s going to be crucified and then buried.

Now, if you are a follower of Jesus and you think that he’s the one who’s going to save your people and reestablish the kingdom, when you hear him say, “I’m going to Jerusalem and I’m going to be crucified,” does that make you happy? Or scared? Does that make you feel an overabundance of confidence or fear? In fact, you might even say to yourself, “You know, I’ve been following this guy around for a few years now, and he says a lot of hard things. Like love your enemies. Like turn the other cheek. Like the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. But this thing that he’s saying – that he’s going to go and be killed — I don’t know if I want to follow him anymore.”

And it’s at this moment of the hardest statement of Jesus about how he establishes his Kingdom that you get the second iteration of the voice from heaven. God the father, saying, this is my beloved son and do what? Have you ever needed to be reminded that listening to Jesus leads to our flourishing? See the frame here, right? We’re getting this frame. There’s this statement of violence. There’s this fear that’s coming; there’s this impending doom. And yet the frame that’s being framed up here for us — the way that we can see things is through this Jesus lens — the law and the prophets point to whom? Notice what happens to all of the prophets. Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them. Except for whom?

Yeah, there’s an old hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in light of his glory and grace.” They only see whom? Jesus.

OK, so I might like to argue that all of your Bible — which is beautiful and complex and wonderful and nuanced — and I’m expecting that I’m going to study it until I’m dead and still discover new things every day. And I want to invite you into that journey. And I hate to say, “Let me just give it to you in one sentence,” because the Bible is just wild. But let me give it to you in one sentence.

There’s a ministry called the Bible Project, and they say it like this: The Bible is a unified story that leads you to Jesus. So anytime that you’re reading it, the frame that we can put down on our Bibles is, “OK. How does this somehow point me to Jesus and make me wise in the process?” This is important, because sometimes we read the Bible and we don’t easily see a connection to Jesus. I believe that it’s an invitation from the spirit of God inviting you into a long discussion, maybe even debate — a long exploration in the direction of wisdom.

The Bible doesn’t work like a car manual. It’s designed to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus. So sometimes we’re confused. That is an invitation to keep reading, to talk about it with other people, to wrestle through it, to pray through it, and just to sit and say, you know, “I can’t resolve all the tension right now, and that’s OK, because maybe God’s using the Bible to make me wise.” It all points to Jesus.

“As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” (Verse 9)

Let’s keep going. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Notice this: What does Jesus think is going to happen to him? He’s going to die. And then what happens? The resurrection. Remember this: Jesus notices his death, but he expects a resurrection. You guys with me? He knows he’s going to die. But what does he expect? He expects resurrection.

“They kept this word to themselves, questioning what ‘rising from the dead’ meant. (Verse 10)

They kept this word to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. So, imagine them walking down the mountain, wondering out loud. They’re doing a Bible study. They are embracing the tension of the words of Jesus, and they’re talking to other people about it. This is a Bible study, right?

“What did rise from the dead mean now?”

“What do you think rising from the dead means?”

“Yeah, that which is dead being made alive again.”

“I want to hear what their other options were.”

“I don’t know. Do you think this is about bread?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, it’s a metaphor.”

“I don’t know. What do you think rising from the dead means?”

They’re asking what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, and this is interesting. I’ve been wrestling through this for a few months. I think that in this thing we’re about to read, I think they’re trying to get to do a “gotcha” for Jesus. Like Jesus, you’re not going to actually die and do all that death stuff. Because, watch.

“Then they asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’

‘Elijah does come first and restores all things,’ he replied.

‘Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?’

‘But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as it is written about him.’”(Verses 11-13)

Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

Remember, who are the two people that they just set up on the mountain top? Moses and Elijah. So, we just saw this dude. Why did why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

Elijah does come first and restores all things, Jesus replies, so they’re engaging in an argument, I think, with Jesus, trying to say, “No, no, no. We’re not going to do this death and burial thing. We’re just going to do the win thing. Because Elijah hasn’t come first, so we’re not going to go to Jerusalem and die. We’re still waiting on Elijah.”

Here’s what Jesus replies, “Elijah does come first.” I think that Jesus has in his mind John the Baptist. Does anybody know what they did to John the Baptist? King Herod took John the Baptist, because John the Baptist was a prophet, and you know what prophets do. They speak God’s truth to people, and usually prophets say things like repent, turn from your evil ways and turn back to God. And if you don’t, you’ll be destroyed. That’s usually what a prophet said, and who likes hearing that? Do you think kings usually like hearing that? Do you think kings who have the capacity to execute people suffer a prophet for very long? So what Herod does is, he takes this prophet of God and has him beheaded at a house party in order to please his wife.

So, when he says Elijah does come first, I think that Jesus has in his mind John the Baptist. Jesus now has referenced his own death, and I believe that he’s referencing John the Baptist’s death.

Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be treated with what contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to Elijah whatever they pleased, just as it is written about him. What did Herod do to John the Baptist? He did whatever he wanted to.

how does this Jesus frame help us see the text? Well, I think the text is all about Jesus, and it’s So designed to make us wise and the salvation through faith in Jesus. But how does that frame help us to see the world? I’m just going to invite you in and share with you a little bit where I’ve been processing this over the last few weeks. I’ve served as lead pastor here at Desert Springs for seven years. In those seven years, more than 20 times on a Sunday morning I have approached this pulpit table praying through whether or not I’m going to address a public atrocity. A school shooting. A church shooting. A synagogue shooting. A club shooting.

Shooting, shooting. More than 20 times I was talking it through with some other pastor friends of mine. Man, this is a lot more frequent than we thought it would be. Last week — as I read the names of the victims in Buffalo, and this week — as I read through the names of the victims in Texas — I was really wrestling through “How do I put the Jesus frame on this? How do I frame this situation?

So, I look at the kids’ faces. What wells up within me is, “God, why is this happening?” What also wells up within me is, “God, why would you let this happen? You say that you love us. You say that you answer our prayers.” Many of you have asked, and I’ve wrestled with this question, as well as how do we make sense of this? How do we frame this? How do we frame the death of innocents? How do we frame the fact that violence seems to win? How do we frame that?

There are just two ways that I think that the Jesus frame helps us. Did you notice in this text that Jesus looked his death right in the eye and he didn’t try to paint a rosy picture of it? Jesus references John the Baptist’s murder, and he specifically calls it out as a reality in this world. Did you guys notice that in the Jesus frame — for those of us viewing the world through a Jesus frame — we look at evil and we look at right in the eye. We don’t shrug our shoulders. We don’t say, “Well, it’s not a big deal.” We don’t say, “It’ll all work out in the end.” We don’t try to rosy it up at all, or pretty it up at all. We just look at right in the eye and we address it. And here’s what Jesus, to my frustration, here’s what Jesus does not do. Jesus never says, “Let me explain to you why.”

My question is why? And as I’ve read through the scriptures, as I’ve prayed as, I’ve wrestled with this in community here at Desert Springs, I’ve never gotten an answer to why?

But here’s what I do have in that Jesus frame. I have the capacity to lament, an invitation to be angry, an invitation to cry out for justice. I see this in scripture. And depending on where you’re at, if this strikes you a certain way, please come talk to me at it. But I think an invitation even to curse and to wrestle and to argue with God, I think there’s precedent all over the Bible for arguing with God.

And I think that there’s an invitation to that, because we’re trying to square what we know to be true about Jesus with what we know to be true about death. Because it seems like that the kingdoms of this world, death just continues to be paraded around as the most powerful thing in the world. Many of us treat death as if it’s the most powerful thing in the world. People will use the threat of death to manipulate and to abuse and to get their way. And so, when these things happen, we oftentimes cry out why the Jesus frame does not answer.

Here’s why, in a way that satisfies. Here’s the other part of the frame. Jesus looked death right in the eye. He looked at John the Baptist’s beheading right in the eye. He didn’t try to belittle it. He didn’t try to put it under the rug. Jesus even showed us how to argue and question in the Garden of Gethsemane. He, I believe, is arguing with God the Father, wrestling through how are we going to make this work? Is your way the best way? But then he ends up with “Not my will, but your will be done.” And then one of the last words of Jesus on the cross is a question: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

So, I believe that Jesus gives us that frame, but the other thing that Jesus does too here, and you see it in this text. He recognizes that death is not the end. Jesus tethers, anchors his future to the resurrection, and he invites us to do the same. So here’s the Jesus frame as I see it, even in this text.

The wisdom that that the spirit of God is building within us through the scriptures is a way to see things in a Jesus-centered way — which is to lament, to mourn, to be sorrowful, to hold in solidarity those who are weeping, those who are longing for justice, those who are asking why. To do that ourselves, and then also to do so in hope of the one future restoration of all things. Death is not the end. Jesus said it here as he marches towards Jerusalem. He says, “I will be put to death. I will be betrayed, but I will rise.”

And Jesus did rise. Your scriptures say that on that first Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the grave. He was the first to do what we will all do. Jesus rises from the grave on that Easter Sunday and then tells us that though death will take us — we, too will one day rise.

So, at least for me, this is how I’ve applied that frame as I’m reading the newspaper, as I read through the list of the children that passed, this word came to my mind. These souls are not lost to God. Now I’m angry. I’m simultaneously angry and raging and sad and sorrowful and frustrated. More than 20 times in my career as lead pastor — how many more, Lord? I’m scared. Will it be my kids next? But I keep coming back to that lens, that frame I’m going to keep looking through, fixing my eyes on Jesus and seeing this through the Jesus frame. Jesus laments. Jesus does not long for this. And yet Jesus, in his mighty resurrection, conquers death.

And so, I can move forward in hope of the resurrection. And so in Jesus’s resurrection, there’s a promise that we, too, one day will rise — and that all who want Jesus get Jesus. And then all that which is broken will be restored again. And so, seeing the world in that way empowers us here. Note this. By putting death in its rightful place and noticing and recognizing and trusting in the resurrection power of Jesus being the one that is victorious, I am able to live a life right now. Living on earth as it is in heaven, I can right now live according to the power of God, not the power of death. I can, right now, live in grace and wisdom, love, mercy, tenderness, long suffering, forgiveness. I can do that now because Jesus has disarmed death. Death has no victory over me, and death has no victory over you.

In a moment, we’re going to take communion. And if you would, please would you grab the elements that are available in the back of the seat in front of you? The bread and the juice. And for those joining us online, if you would please obtain some elements representing the bottom and blood of Jesus.

Communion is a way that, with our bodies, we proclaim the Lord’s death and his resurrection. As we take of the bread, we remember his broken body and of the juice, his shed blood. It’s a way that we physically, with our bodies, recognize and remember our union with God and our union with one another. It’s a way in which we remember that death is not the end.

And so, I’m going to pray. And I’m going to invite you to join me in this prayer of confession, repentance, lamentation and hope. And then we’ll take a moment to reflect. And then after we take a moment to reflect. Bertha will join me, and we’ll lead as we take communion together.

So, join me as we pray. Lord, in this taking of communion, we recognize that we are called to live according to the New Covenant in you. And as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we strive to practice your values on earth, as it is in heaven. As we prepare our hearts, we recognize that we often fail in this regard. And so Lord, we pray and confess that we have not always lived according to your Kingdom. We have often propagated injustice and evil. We have often fostered disunity, practicing favoritism, elevating our own concerns and preferences over those of others. Moreover, we have often failed to show hospitality, love and grace. We have often not lived the fruit of your spirit, and we confess this before you now.

Lord, we repent. We turn from these sins. We turn back to you, Jesus, knowing that you will never leave us nor forsake us. We ask that your spirit would continue to shape us more and more into your image. As we share in this communion today, Lord, we proclaim your finished work. Your finished work on the cross, your death, your burial, and your mighty resurrection. We cling to you, knowing that you are the only one who brings salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, life and life in abundance. And, in you, ultimately all things will one day be restored. Lord, would you comfort us in our mourning? Would you hear our cries for justice? Would you protect us from a longing for vengeance? Would you continue to make us agents of reconciliation? In peace we pray this in Jesus’s name, Amen.