*CONFESSION AND PARDON
As we come before our loving God, let us come not with fear or shame, but to confess our guilt and seek forgiveness.
God of mercy and grace, we humbly confess that we often fail to life up to all you would hope for us. We are not always kind. We harbor thoughts that would embarrass us to speak out loud. We speak at times without thinking through how we might be heard. We fail to do the right thing, the loving thing. We dwell on the negative rather than reach for the positive goodness you offer. Forgive us all the ways we disappoint you, and teach us a better way.
Our God is indeed slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Without that promise, how could we stand? But the good news is that through Jesus Christ, God forgives us all we have done or failed to do. You are forgiven! Thanks be to God!
*SONG OF PRAISE Gloria Patri #579
*THE PEACE
The Prince of Peace binds us in peace with one another and with God.
May the peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.
Word
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
As we read your sacred word, may we find courage and strength for our daily lives and hope for today and the future. Amen.
THEME VERSE FOR TODAY Hebrews 4:15, NLT
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Lamentations 3:21-23, CEB
21 I call all this to mind—therefore, I will wait.
22 Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through!
23 They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
NEW TESTAMENT READING John 1:1-5, 9-14, NCV
1 In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him. 4 In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.
9 The true Light that gives light to all was coming into the world!
10 The Word was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him. 11 He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.
14 The Word became a human and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father—and he was full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 4:14-16, Message
14-16 Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.
SERMON God Gets You
A frequent plot twist used in romantic comedies is a misunderstanding. In real life they may not be so funny, but instead lead to serious conflict. One of the common conditions of human life is to feel misunderstood. We think to ourselves, no one gets me. But the promise to anchor our hope today is that God gets you. Why, because coming in Jesus, God experienced life as a human experiences it. Yet the Spirit of God sees all our thoughts and our past experiences from the inside out. God understands what is going on with us, even better than we do ourselves.
John's Gospel expresses this good news, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (1:14) It's a scripture we recognize, but what does it mean? The Word, as it's used in the first chapter of John's gospel is not the written Word but the living Word, the Word that spoke creation into being, the very Word of God. That Word, put on human flesh and came to live with us for a time as Jesus.
Paul expressed the same concept in his letter to the Colossians (1:19). I like this translation: "For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son." (CJB)
This is the mystery we refer to as incarnation. We believe that Jesus was fully human and fully divine simultaneously. The eternal One who made all things came to us as a baby born of a human mother to share this earthly life with us.
The incarnation may be a concept we find hard to explain, but it is a source of hope for us. The only image I can come up with to even remotely express the concept is a sponge soaked in water. It's a sponge, and if you just look at it sitting in the sink that's all you see, a sponge. But that sponge is full. It contains within its ordinary structure all the water it can possibly hold, more than we can imagine. Jesus looked as ordinary as the next guy in early first century Judah. But Jesus contained within that human body the fullness of God's Spirit, more than those around him recognized, more than we can imagine.
Max Lucado writes, "So human he could blend in unnoticed for thirty years. So mighty he could change history and be unforgotten for two thousand years." (p. 76)
Because he is one with God we worship Christ. We saw that power break through when he fed thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread, when he calmed the storm at sea, when he healed many who were crippled or diseased, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb after four days. Those glimpses of his divine nature give us the hope that Jesus can help us when we pray. We also dare to believe then that he has the authority he claimed on earth to forgive sins. We pray for that mercy, that Jesus will forgive us, even as he forgave the thief from the cross.
But because Jesus chose to live a life wrapped in human flesh, Jesus also gets it when we are in pain. He knew what it was like growing up: to play, to do chores, to learn prayers and scriptures as well as a trade. Jesus had the same growing pains and struggles in his teenage years. He even caused his parents to worry when he stayed in the Temple on his own at the age of 12. Jesus knew what it was like to have goals, to face obstacles, to be different from those around him. He got hungry and thirsty just as we do. He got angry with injustice and frustrated with hypocrites. He knew what it was to be tired and what it was like to need some time alone. He was misunderstood, abandoned, and betrayed. He knew pain and grief, disappointment and sorrow. All the physical and emotional things we feel, Jesus felt them, too. This is why Max Lucado says that Jesus gets us; he understands us through his own experience of human life.
From time to time I have said that everyone needs a venting partner. When the tough stuff of life builds up, we need a safety valve so we don't explode. There are people I can be that honest with or just grumble to; they can do that with me, too. Most of the time the conversation can then move on to better things or end with some humor shared. Of anyone, God is the safest to listen when I need to vent. Jesus understands when circumstances aren't what I want or when people are difficult to be around. He experienced that, too. But even then it's important to make my prayer conversations about more than my complaints. For God and especially for myself, it's helpful if those conversations also include listing my gratefuls, that shift in attitude beyond grumbling.
Jesus even experienced temptation as we do, though in the power of God Jesus was able to hold fast to his choice NOT to sin. This is why he is best qualified to be our high priest, our access to God's grace. Jesus understands our weakness as the writer to the Hebrews put it, but Jesus holds the way open for us to return to God. We don't need to be embarrassed to ask Jesus for help, for mercy, forgiveness, because he knows what it's like from our perspective. He was one of us.
Some may argue that since Jesus didn't give in to sin, he couldn't really understand how we feel. But Lucado points out that in spite of being sinless himself, Jesus accepted feeling the full weight of sin more than any one of us will ever have to face. While on the cross, Jesus allowed himself to bear all the sins of all people of all time, he felt all the hurt, the guilt, the regrets, the consequences of every human sin. Only God could bear that much pain and not lose the resolve to take it all away from us. He understands our sin better than we do.
Paul wrote about this. In his second letter to the Corinthians, "Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so that Christ could make us acceptable to God." (5:21, CEV) From his first letter to Timothy this statement of faith, "There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the human Christ Jesus," (2:5, CEB)
As people have offered to help me pack to move, I'm embarrassed by the condition of an apartment that is cluttered and not always clean. But knowing I will never get nine years of stuff into boxes on my own, I've accepted that help from people who know me well enough I trust them to love me in spite of my mess. It's like that with God. I could be embarrassed by many things in my life, but I need God's help. So, in spite of my flaws and failures, I accept help from God who especially loves me in spite of my mess.
I think the whole point of this chapter on incarnation is that two-fold benefit of Jesus being both human and divine. Jesus understands us and can help us. Sometimes God sends us help through other humans. Sometimes only God can truly help. The promise is, that the one who can help us, will.
In Max Lucado's story for this chapter, that is the point. In a college women's softball game, the score came down to an iffy batter, but that day she hit the ball over the fence and started to run the bases. Her coach realized in her surprised sprint she failed to touch first base. As Sara heard the coach yell, she turned back to first and popped a knee, barely making it to the base by dragging her body in pain. She couldn't stand, but if she didn't run, the game for the playoff spot was lost. The rules wouldn't allow her team to help her. The umpires debated. The first base player was a senior named Mallory, and of course she wanted to win the game and go to the playoffs, but not like this. Mallory asked if she could carry Sara to homeplate. The ump decided okay. So with help from the short stop and first base player of the opposing team, Sara completed her first ever home run. As Lucado says, "The only one who could help did help." (p. 79)
In this human life we are all going to fall. There are going to be times that we are in so much pain we can't move, maybe physically, maybe emotionally. Sometimes God is the only one who can help us. God can, and God will. Jesus is the one God sent to carry us home. Anchor your hope on that!
As we come before our loving God, let us come not with fear or shame, but to confess our guilt and seek forgiveness.
God of mercy and grace, we humbly confess that we often fail to life up to all you would hope for us. We are not always kind. We harbor thoughts that would embarrass us to speak out loud. We speak at times without thinking through how we might be heard. We fail to do the right thing, the loving thing. We dwell on the negative rather than reach for the positive goodness you offer. Forgive us all the ways we disappoint you, and teach us a better way.
Our God is indeed slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Without that promise, how could we stand? But the good news is that through Jesus Christ, God forgives us all we have done or failed to do. You are forgiven! Thanks be to God!
*SONG OF PRAISE Gloria Patri #579
*THE PEACE
The Prince of Peace binds us in peace with one another and with God.
May the peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.
Word
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
As we read your sacred word, may we find courage and strength for our daily lives and hope for today and the future. Amen.
THEME VERSE FOR TODAY Hebrews 4:15, NLT
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Lamentations 3:21-23, CEB
21 I call all this to mind—therefore, I will wait.
22 Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through!
23 They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
NEW TESTAMENT READING John 1:1-5, 9-14, NCV
1 In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him. 4 In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.
9 The true Light that gives light to all was coming into the world!
10 The Word was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him. 11 He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.
14 The Word became a human and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father—and he was full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 4:14-16, Message
14-16 Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.
SERMON God Gets You
A frequent plot twist used in romantic comedies is a misunderstanding. In real life they may not be so funny, but instead lead to serious conflict. One of the common conditions of human life is to feel misunderstood. We think to ourselves, no one gets me. But the promise to anchor our hope today is that God gets you. Why, because coming in Jesus, God experienced life as a human experiences it. Yet the Spirit of God sees all our thoughts and our past experiences from the inside out. God understands what is going on with us, even better than we do ourselves.
John's Gospel expresses this good news, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (1:14) It's a scripture we recognize, but what does it mean? The Word, as it's used in the first chapter of John's gospel is not the written Word but the living Word, the Word that spoke creation into being, the very Word of God. That Word, put on human flesh and came to live with us for a time as Jesus.
Paul expressed the same concept in his letter to the Colossians (1:19). I like this translation: "For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son." (CJB)
This is the mystery we refer to as incarnation. We believe that Jesus was fully human and fully divine simultaneously. The eternal One who made all things came to us as a baby born of a human mother to share this earthly life with us.
The incarnation may be a concept we find hard to explain, but it is a source of hope for us. The only image I can come up with to even remotely express the concept is a sponge soaked in water. It's a sponge, and if you just look at it sitting in the sink that's all you see, a sponge. But that sponge is full. It contains within its ordinary structure all the water it can possibly hold, more than we can imagine. Jesus looked as ordinary as the next guy in early first century Judah. But Jesus contained within that human body the fullness of God's Spirit, more than those around him recognized, more than we can imagine.
Max Lucado writes, "So human he could blend in unnoticed for thirty years. So mighty he could change history and be unforgotten for two thousand years." (p. 76)
Because he is one with God we worship Christ. We saw that power break through when he fed thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread, when he calmed the storm at sea, when he healed many who were crippled or diseased, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb after four days. Those glimpses of his divine nature give us the hope that Jesus can help us when we pray. We also dare to believe then that he has the authority he claimed on earth to forgive sins. We pray for that mercy, that Jesus will forgive us, even as he forgave the thief from the cross.
But because Jesus chose to live a life wrapped in human flesh, Jesus also gets it when we are in pain. He knew what it was like growing up: to play, to do chores, to learn prayers and scriptures as well as a trade. Jesus had the same growing pains and struggles in his teenage years. He even caused his parents to worry when he stayed in the Temple on his own at the age of 12. Jesus knew what it was like to have goals, to face obstacles, to be different from those around him. He got hungry and thirsty just as we do. He got angry with injustice and frustrated with hypocrites. He knew what it was to be tired and what it was like to need some time alone. He was misunderstood, abandoned, and betrayed. He knew pain and grief, disappointment and sorrow. All the physical and emotional things we feel, Jesus felt them, too. This is why Max Lucado says that Jesus gets us; he understands us through his own experience of human life.
From time to time I have said that everyone needs a venting partner. When the tough stuff of life builds up, we need a safety valve so we don't explode. There are people I can be that honest with or just grumble to; they can do that with me, too. Most of the time the conversation can then move on to better things or end with some humor shared. Of anyone, God is the safest to listen when I need to vent. Jesus understands when circumstances aren't what I want or when people are difficult to be around. He experienced that, too. But even then it's important to make my prayer conversations about more than my complaints. For God and especially for myself, it's helpful if those conversations also include listing my gratefuls, that shift in attitude beyond grumbling.
Jesus even experienced temptation as we do, though in the power of God Jesus was able to hold fast to his choice NOT to sin. This is why he is best qualified to be our high priest, our access to God's grace. Jesus understands our weakness as the writer to the Hebrews put it, but Jesus holds the way open for us to return to God. We don't need to be embarrassed to ask Jesus for help, for mercy, forgiveness, because he knows what it's like from our perspective. He was one of us.
Some may argue that since Jesus didn't give in to sin, he couldn't really understand how we feel. But Lucado points out that in spite of being sinless himself, Jesus accepted feeling the full weight of sin more than any one of us will ever have to face. While on the cross, Jesus allowed himself to bear all the sins of all people of all time, he felt all the hurt, the guilt, the regrets, the consequences of every human sin. Only God could bear that much pain and not lose the resolve to take it all away from us. He understands our sin better than we do.
Paul wrote about this. In his second letter to the Corinthians, "Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so that Christ could make us acceptable to God." (5:21, CEV) From his first letter to Timothy this statement of faith, "There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the human Christ Jesus," (2:5, CEB)
As people have offered to help me pack to move, I'm embarrassed by the condition of an apartment that is cluttered and not always clean. But knowing I will never get nine years of stuff into boxes on my own, I've accepted that help from people who know me well enough I trust them to love me in spite of my mess. It's like that with God. I could be embarrassed by many things in my life, but I need God's help. So, in spite of my flaws and failures, I accept help from God who especially loves me in spite of my mess.
I think the whole point of this chapter on incarnation is that two-fold benefit of Jesus being both human and divine. Jesus understands us and can help us. Sometimes God sends us help through other humans. Sometimes only God can truly help. The promise is, that the one who can help us, will.
In Max Lucado's story for this chapter, that is the point. In a college women's softball game, the score came down to an iffy batter, but that day she hit the ball over the fence and started to run the bases. Her coach realized in her surprised sprint she failed to touch first base. As Sara heard the coach yell, she turned back to first and popped a knee, barely making it to the base by dragging her body in pain. She couldn't stand, but if she didn't run, the game for the playoff spot was lost. The rules wouldn't allow her team to help her. The umpires debated. The first base player was a senior named Mallory, and of course she wanted to win the game and go to the playoffs, but not like this. Mallory asked if she could carry Sara to homeplate. The ump decided okay. So with help from the short stop and first base player of the opposing team, Sara completed her first ever home run. As Lucado says, "The only one who could help did help." (p. 79)
In this human life we are all going to fall. There are going to be times that we are in so much pain we can't move, maybe physically, maybe emotionally. Sometimes God is the only one who can help us. God can, and God will. Jesus is the one God sent to carry us home. Anchor your hope on that!
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