prayer

Spiritual Pornography (Sermon May 24, 2014)

Scripture: John 14:15-21

It seem that today we live in a culture of consumption. I say this not to be critical of the world but as an observation. We want and we strive to obtain what we want. The problem comes when we do not know what we want. That is where consumption comes in. It is when we seek to fill a need with something but what we seek to find fulfillment leaves us not only still seeking to fill the need, but needing more of it. The ancient Persians observed this sort of thing when they first diagnosed diabetes, saying that there was an increased appetite but a collapse of function. That seems to describe our cultural condition, we have an increased appetite but the results of our appetites seem to go nowhere. This consumptive disease affects all aspects of our lives. It affects our minds when we fill it with things of little or no lasting value. How often do we stay glued to the 24-hour news cycle where there is a constant repeat and rehashing of the same story continuously for days or weeks, or we spend hours online reading articles that seem interesting but have little evidence to back them up? We fill our minds up we consume vast quantities of information yet have learned very little. This consumptive disease affects our bodies in ways that I do not really need to describe because we have all seen these effects. It saps our strength; because we spend hours working in front of monitors sitting in chairs to the point that walking up the stairs becomes a chore. But what we least see is how this consumptive disease has damaged our spirits. It may surprise you that our culture is spiritual consumers, but often people will get a dose of the spiritual fell good for a while and go back for more. The problem is that they seek quick fixes and when reality sets in they leave and try something else, using excuses like, “I’m just not being fed.” Which then leads them to something different that may or may not fill the need, and all too often the spirit is left hungry because we have an increased appetite but a collapse of function because we filled our hunger with nothing of lasting value.

This consumption based culture will often look at passages like John 14 and focus on verse 12, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these…” and believe that the miraculous should be happening all around them if they believe hard enough. Then they will read verse 14, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it…” and then will allow that to justify their consumption based lifestyles. The danger is that often things do not work how we want, and we pray and ask for things in Jesus’ name and they do not happen how we desire. We strive to do great works and maybe our efforts do not have the results that we wanted so we begin to question our spirituality and question God. We then turn to other ideas and consume other brands of the spiritual. This is one reason why I felt it was necessary to focus on the term believe last week. Because without belief, without the movement from knowledge, to trust, to entrust we run the risk of consuming spirituality without getting nourishment.

Which leads us to today’s passage. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” These verses that follow directly after the verse that says you can have anything you ask of me, seem to turn that verse upside down. Because the asking of verse 14 would be tempered by the pleasure we seek in Jesus whom we love. If we love Jesus, we are entrusting to Him our desires and the fulfillment of our desires. So when we ask for things in His name they are not our desires but His. And the thing that Jesus gives, the desire we long for and ask for in His name is another Advocate that will be with us forever.

Jesus is telling this to His closest friends, He is looking at them and can see that in each of their minds the greatest desire that they have is that He would stay with them forever, establish the kingdom and throw off the chains of their overlords. Jesus is telling them that they will not be without. They want Him to stay but the Father will give them another Advocate. The key word there is another. We often jump over that word and read Advocate. The term Advocate is one that is often illustrated in the legal usage of the word, which is similar to a lawyer or one that represents an individual. This word is also translated as helper, comforter, and consoler each of those terms lend a different type of image. And even the legal terminology seems to fall short, because the term refers to a special kind of lawyer, one that is more of an advisor as well as a representative. This type of lawyer is a close friend that helps you discern a path into the future. So I do not want to diminish the importance of the Advocate but want us to focus in on the word another because Jesus is already an Advocate. The disciples were looking at him thinking we already have you why would we need another?

This other advocate that Jesus speaks of is the Holy Spirit that abides, remains, and continues forever. Jesus tell them that they already know this other advocate, that they have already had intimate experiences with it but that this knowledge will deepen even more. Early Friends often spoke of the Spirit as that of Christ that dwells in all people. Some theologians would say that not all people have the Spirit and that the Spirit only dwells in those that believe, but I want us to just consider for a bit why our culture is so consumed then? Why is it that people continuously sought out the spiritual or why do they seek to deny the spiritual? How could God harden the heart of Pharaoh if the Spirit of God was not active in any way in the hearts of all people? But then you may say that Jesus just said that the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth. This is where deepening our belief becomes important, deepening our knowledge and trust as we move to entrust our lives deeper into our relationship with God. Receive is not just an acquisition but also a benefit. You can read verse 17, as the world cannot benefit from the Spirit, why because they neither see nor know Him. The concept of see extends not only to the visual aspect of the word, means to look at, understand or experience. And the word know refers to an intimate understanding or relationship. So the world cannot benefit from the Spirit of truth because they have not experienced the intimacy of the relationship, they have not understood, examined, or acknowledged that relationship. But you have it.

Let us take a step back again to Advocate. If the advocate is not only a legal representative, but an advisor, helper and counselor then it is the teacher and encourager as well. Jesus is telling us that this Spirit of Truth, who abides forever with us, is our ever-present teacher and guide. This concept is what started the Friends movement. This idea that God will teach us directly is what inspired George Fox and others to begin ministering to their countrymen. George Fox also spoke of knowing things experimentally, which is to say that he had an understanding both through study and intimate experience. Jesus and Fox both are speaking of the same concept here. If you love God, if you believe in God there will be an intimacy that will move you from knowledge, to trust, to a relationship where you will entrust every aspect of your life into the hands of God. And that as this relationship grows you will experience or become familiar with this everlasting advocate, the Spirit of truth. And as that experience deepens you will become less focused on yourself and become more focused on the things that God would have you do in the world around you.

Jesus begins this passage by saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What commandments are we to keep? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and Spirit and your neighbor as yourself. All the books of the law and the oracles of the Prophets are summed up in those two commandments. Which leads us to another question how do we keep these commandment?

This goes back to the Advocate. If Jesus is the first Advocate, the first advisor, intercessor, helper, and all then we look first to him. Jesus in his humanity showed us a lifestyle, or spirituality that would deepen an intimacy with God. And in His divinity he provided the means for that intimacy to happen. He showed us a rhythm of life that would open our eyes so that we could see and experience life with God. The rhythm of worship, prayer, and service which could be called loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit and living the love of Christ with others. This same rhythm of life was embraced by nearly every religious movement and order within the history of the church, this rhythm where intimacy with God through prayer and worship led them to serve and minister to those within the community that were often marginalized by the world. It was through the rhythm of worship, prayer, and a willingness to serve others that they were inspired to become the embodiment of Christ to the world that was left blind to the intimacy of God. How will the world ever receive the Spirit of Truth if the people that believe do not entrust their lives to God? How will the world ever experience the truth if those that claim to love Christ do not extend that love to them where they currently are?

We live in a culture of consumption. We have an increase in appetite but a collapse of functionality. We have a desire for spirituality but often we feed that appetite with things that do not reveal the truth. We strive for the abundant life in Christ, but instead of seeking Christ to fulfill that desire we instead look for the quick fix. But there are short cuts to intimacy. Much of the trending and popular things of spirituality are nothing more than pornography for the soul, giving us a taste to quench a desire but leaving us still hungry to the point of collapse. This is why Friends turned from many of the traditional expressions of faith, because all too often the deep meaning behind the symbolism was left behind and they were then presented as quick spiritual nuggets. All you need to enter heaven is to eat this bread and drink this wine, and Jesus is in you. All you need to do to gain the kingdom of God is to be washed in the water and your sins are forgiven. All you need is to say a few words and you are born again. None of those things in themselves are wrong, in fact they are beautiful ceremonies that can be used to deepen faith but all to often they are presented as a quick simple solutions to a spiritual life that has collapsed and is failing to function. They can become a distraction to the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that says that the Kingdom of God is at hand; the kingdom is all around us and abides in and with us. They are quick fixes to a broken life that only true repentance can mend; a life where we turn from ourselves and entrust all our hopes and dreams in God, through Christ in the Spirit.

I realize that I may have stepped on toes and may have upset some people, but the truth is that if we want to see great and mighty things happen in our community we must first believe, if we want Jesus to do anything that we ask in his name, we must first be wedded to his name. If we want to see or to know deeply the intimacy of God we must experience him through that rhythm of life that was shown to us by our first advocate Jesus and continuously revealed to us by another advocate, the Spirit of Truth. There are no short cuts or quick fixes only a progression of belief beginning in knowledge, advancing to trust, and engulfed or saturated in the entrusting of our being to God.

Where is it that we stand? Do you have an increase of appetite but a collapse of function? Do you have a yearning for something deeper but do not see where to go? There is one, even Christ Jesus that can speak to your condition. Let us now seek that intimacy with God as we enter into this time of holy expectancy and open worship. Let the Spirit of Truth intercede and counsel you in the ways of Christ and let us experience the love of God so that we can then become the living testimony of his commandments.

The Journey with Christ (Sermon May 4, 2014)

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35

One of the worst feelings I have ever felt is not knowing where the path I am on is going to lead. When we are children we seem to have dreams that reach to the stars and year-by-year the dreams seem to become less broad and more confined. Each year the dreams begin to look more reasonable and less fantastic. Occasionally something happens that gives us a chance to dream again, but often we get stuck in a rut of responsibility. I know many of you have felt this at some point in your life, at times the dreams are taken away because of the infamous glass ceiling, other times we just simply stop dreaming because it is easier to settle.

I want us to remember our dreams for a moment. The dreams that caused us to reach out in our lives, the dreams that caused us to fall in love and to have children, I want us to remember the dreams that each of us have had but have possibly pushed to the back of our minds because they were not practical. I also want us to remember just what caused us to leave those dreams behind in the first place.

I know it seems to be a weird exercise. It may possibly cause us to become a bit uncomfortable. I want us to consider this because dreams are important, often those dreams we once had were movements of the Sprit of God directing us to walk farther down the road. It becomes uncomfortable for us to consider these unrealized dreams because it causes us to consider for a moment that we may have been grieving the Spirit of God.

This is just the sort of feeling that I imagine these two disciples of Jesus were having. They were people with dreams and ideas about their future. But all of a sudden the dreams they had evaporated before their eyes. They saw in the man, Jesus, the freedom of Israel. They had become His disciples and were with the others in the upper room mourning the loss of their friend. They had seen Jesus hung on the tree, they had witnessed Him being buried and they had seen the stone rolled before the entrance to seal off the living from the dead. They had heard the testimony of the Mary who excitedly claimed that Jesus was not in the tomb. They had listened the breathless statement from John and Peter as they confirmed that the tomb was empty.

The tomb was empty. For them at that moment that fact that we hold so dear to our hearts was the symbol of lost dreams. So they began to walk home. There was nothing left for them. There was no body to mourn, nothing. They pursued a dream and everything they thought they were pursuing suddenly fell out from under their feet. So they walked.

The translators say that Emmaus is about seven miles from Jerusalem but the problem is that the actual location is not known for sure. Some of the ancient manuscripts actually allude to the possibility that the town could be as close as seven but as far as thirty miles away. I do not mention this to dispute the accuracy of the translation but show us that this was a long walk that would take the majority of a day. A walk long enough to think and to begin processing things, a trip that would allow them to talk through some of the events and try to make some sense out of it. They walked and talked to each other. They walked and considered what they would do now that they had spent the past few years pursuing something that seemingly ended up empty.

While they were walking, talking, and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”

These disciples seemingly lost it all, and they were blessed with a gift of not recognizing Jesus right away. Yes I say they were blessed with a gift of not recognizing Jesus. I say this for a reason; by not being able to recognize Jesus right away they were able to speak freely as broken humans like most of us. They were able to shed off all the masks of who or what they were supposed to be and were able to be real. They were able to speak about the events, not having any answers and not having to make any defense for what they beloved, and could just speak openly and freely about what they hoped for and what they had lost. And Jesus walked with them and listened as they told Him the story of the mighty prophet in word and deed that they had followed and how now they are confused because the tomb was empty.

They were blessed with a gift. There as they walked along that road they were able to speak clearly their dreams and how their dreams became foggy and clouded. They were able to express the pain they felt as the chief priest handed their friend over to the authorities to have him executed, they could honestly express how they failed their messiah as they stood not knowing what to do next, and then tell Jesus why they were walking back to Emmaus. They were kept from recognizing Jesus so that they could freely express their hearts, so that they could confess how they too have grieved the Spirit and have lost a portion of their faith. They spoke openly and freely because as far as they could tell Jesus was just another traveler that did not know what was going on and it did not really matter.

Jesus listened and walked with them. Jesus could have revealed Himself immediately but instead He listened. That is a gift. You see Jesus walks with us on our journeys even though we may not recognize that He is there. Even when we cannot see past the clouds that hem us in, He is walking with us. He does not expect us to have every answer to every theological nuance, he just wants to listen and walk with us.

They did not know Jesus at that moment, yet there He was. This speaks volumes. As we as a culture enter into a new era of history, an era that many call post modern or post Christian, this speaks directly to our condition. We in this Meeting and others throughout the church have had dreams and ideas of what the church should be and do yet all around us we see the world seemingly slip away out from under our feet. We are those disciples walking to Emmaus unable to see that Jesus is walking with us and about to reveal something amazing soon. Jesus is walking with us listening to our pleas and prayers waiting for us to calm ourselves so we can listen.

There is a second view that we can take. We are entering into a new era and maybe we are walking because the church we thought we were getting into has turned out to be something totally different than we hoped. We are walking away from faith because we just do not see any hope in it any more. Maybe we have turned our back on God even because we placed all of our hope in Him, and He seemingly let our hearts get hurt. So we are walking venting our frustrations out to the air, screaming our pain to the darkness of the night yet even there Jesus is walking right there by us letting us speak and waiting till we calm ourselves so he can reveal something amazing soon.

This new age of history is frightening because we really do not know what will come of it. Where will the church be? And where will we as believers be? Will we fade away into obscurity? Or is there something else around the bend? We are the disciples walking to Emmaus. But we are also bearers of the Light of Christ. For those that do not have faith we bear the Light for them to see, but to be able to speak to them we first have to walk along the road with them, meet them where they are at and just keep walking as long as it takes. Not arguing or defending a position but listening, hearing them pour out their souls so that after a while they are able to calm down and let God reveal something to them.

Jesus walked with them and let them talk. They spoke of the rise and fall of their prophet and their dreams, and then there is an opening for Him to speak. He opened the scriptures up to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets; He interpreted to them the things spoken about Him in scriptures. He explained to them in a way they could understand. Starting from the beginning and building from there. He did not just jump in and begin to debate, but listened first. This tells us a great deal about Loving God, Embracing the Holy Sprit, and Living the Love of Christ with others. It speaks about prayer, worship and ministry. Before we are able to pray and hear clearly from Christ we first have to remove the distractions. Jesus let the disciples vent before he spoke. We too need to be real getting our concerns out of our minds and off of our chests so we can then relax and listen to the Word of the Lord. This also speaks to us about ministry, to be able to encourage others in their faith we need to allow them to speak first, listen to them and only after we listen can we begin to speak.

As they neared the village the two disciples invited Jesus to stay with them. They invited Him to their homes allowing the conversation to continue. They had walked a great distance with this man they had had a very deep conversation and yet their eyes were still closed, but when Jesus broke the bread and blessed it they knew that something amazing happened before their eyes. They had seen the risen Lord, the dream they once had had died but now it was resurrected into something new.

I began today speaking of broken dreams, or dreams that various aspects of life caused to become unobtainable. These men lost their dreams but the power of the resurrected Jesus caused those dreams to take on a new form. Something changed on that walk down the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was on that journey that they began to realize that their dreams were not God’s dreams, that in their zealous faith they had skewed the truth of the Gospel to make it fit into their own personal ideologies, but God revealed to them the truth along that path.

Our wisdom can only take us so far, eventually we have to let go of our dreams so that God can convert them into something greater. The dream they had was a restored Israel, but God converted that dream to be even greater, not only Israel but also the entire world and universe. This is where I want us to examine our dreams and our ideologies. I want us to be honest with ourselves and be willing to admit that we in our dreaming and in our unachieved dreams have allowed ourselves to take control of things and have not allowed God to work through us. I want us to examine these things, speak them out to God and get them off of our chests but after that let us listen to the still small voice of the Lord our ever-present teacher and guide. Let us let Jesus Himself open up before us the amazing possibilities that He has been preparing us for. And let us in this time of Open Worship journey down that path with Jesus.

Resurrection of Hope (Easter April 20, 2014)

Scripture: John 20:1-18

Thursday as I was driving across Kansas I drove into an inferno of flames and smoke. Flames were sprinting across the prairie consuming the dry brown grass until all that was left was the charred black earth. The smoke was billowing into the sky and wafting across the interstate to the point that it was becoming difficult to see. There was a sense of danger and beauty as you observe the grass fires of Kansas. If one did not know what was occurring you would be gripped with fear not knowing what type of a hell you may be driving into. But these fires are ignited every spring. When people first began to settle the prairies the constant fires scared them, they would ignite and spread rapidly devouring everything in their paths. They would try all they could to contain and stop the fires but still they would rage, and often through their efforts the fires would only intensify. After years of study they found that the periodic controlled burning of the grasslands was the only sure way to manage the danger of the prairie fires. If they would start small fires and burn a bit at a time they would be able to minimize effects of a raging uncontrollable wildfire. Through the observation they also found something else, the burning of the grassland had a positive effect on the environment. After the blaze in the spring, the various grasses would emerge more vigorously. They then began to study why this happened, they tried safer methods like mowing off the dry grass, but nothing seemed to work quite like fire. Because through the flames, that dreadful orange serpent that slithered across the hills, something almost magical happened, the flames removed the old growth and also heated the ground causing the seeds to germinate and then out of the char new life emerged stronger, thicker, and healthier than before. No matter what they have tried the risk of flames brought about the greatest life.

Without that knowledge the flames are scary. The fire is something that most intend to prevent. In the early days the preserves and national parks spent time preventing fires, but even in the forest they found that fire, though it is something destructive and something to be feared, can bring about awesome changes in the environment. Without careful observation humanity in its attempts to preserve nature can at times cause greater disaster. Every summer we hear reports of wildfires burning out of control across the western states. Families get displaced, cities are gripped with fear, the grand forests of our national parks are threatened but we can minimize the damage of most of these raging wildfires with disciplined, controlled, systematic burning to rid the earth of the dry dead plants that only kindle the flames.

Nature often speaks volumes to our spiritual conditions; this is part of the natural law. There are cycles of life and death, destruction and rebirth throughout nature. It is no wonder that the ancient religions built mythologies around the changing of the seasons and why the church used these natural laws of nature to share the gospel. But nature does not tell the complete story. It speaks in a language that we cannot fully understand, and it is only a reflection of a deeper truth that can only be revealed in the light of God. This is why Christ stands above all other religions because in Him all things have are made complete.

In today’s passage we meet again with Mary, this young woman whose life had been dramatically affected by the relationship she had with Jesus. Scripture says that she had been possessed by seven demons and was released from that bondage by a word from Jesus and she had seen Jesus restore life to her dead brother’s body, she had been the recipient of some of the most miraculous events in the life of Jesus. As a result she devoted her entire life to this man whom she believed was the Christ, they Messiah sent by God. Mary had an idea, an image, of Jesus, she thought that he was going to bring heaven to earth and restore the kingdom of David and the promise to Abraham. Yet as we meet Mary, rejoicing is not on her lips. Instead we meet her with tears streaking down her face, because two days prior, on a day we call Good Friday, the man she placed all her hope in was executed on a tree, and she had just spent the Great Sabbath, or Black Saturday, not in praise but mourning. Everything in her life, the escape from the bondage of demons, the restored life to her brother and benefactor, was no longer sources of hope. Her world was a char blackened scorched earth. It was as if a raging fire slithered its way through all her hope and dreams, consuming everything in its path leaving her with nothing but the cold tomb and a lifeless savior.

I want us to consider the emotional pain Mary is going through in this passage before we move forward. Pain is part of life. A friend of mine, a friend that has endured much pain and hardship, has tattooed on his arm “we cannot learn without pain.” There is truth in that statement, a depressing truth. We do not like pain, nor do we seek pain out willingly, but without the risk of pain we cannot grow. Love always carries a risk of pain. Success always carries with it the risk of total devastation. Life carries with it the risk of death. We can never remove that risk completely, when we attempt to something far worse often results.

Without the risk of pain in love, without making ourselves vulnerable to loss and emotional pain, we would never fully know love. Love is found in vulnerability, the shedding of our facades. But often in our attempts to save our own skin we build walls around our vulnerability, keeping the threat of pain at a safe distance only to find ourselves locked away, isolated, and alone never understood and never understanding. Living as a sheltered shell of a human.

Mary has experience the most heart wrenching pain that one could experience. She lost one that she loved. To her Jesus was everything. She spent hours sitting at his feet, she wept and anointed his feet with her tears and costly perfume. To her Jesus was more than just a friend; she risked her entire existence to be with him, as did the rest of her family. They risked their name, their house, their very lives to be part of his disciples. Now all they invested is buried. She lost a brother, a potential lover, a king, and hope. All that she had left was to anoint his body and to attempt rebuild a destroyed life.

What she does not know is that on the other side of pain is something better. Just beyond the smoke something just below the surface of her reality is beginning to take form. Just as the fires that consume the prairie give rise to the next season of grass. Sacrifice, pain, and struggle often give birth to the greatest reward.

In the Garden of Eden, God told our first parents that if they eat the fruit of the tree that they would die. God created the world with a potential of loss. Some would look at that potential as being a sign of an unloving God, but without the risk of loss is there really love? We know love because of the sacrifice and effort. The process of bringing life into the world is filled with danger, even from the very start of the process. Yet for each of us to be sitting here today someone took the risk. Our mothers risked their bodies to bring us into this world, for some the risk was so great that it nearly took their lives, or their lives will never be the same afterward. For a few they gave their lives completely just to participate in the creation of life. Yet there is not a mother in this room that would have had it any other way. The opportunity to participate in the creation of life was worth the risk they took. Love is sacrifice.

For Abraham, God promised him a great nation for a price, he would need to leave his homeland and go to the place that God lead him. The risk Abraham took was great, the reward was greater, he left everything that he knew, a life that he had build and extended family that he loved, and he walked out into the wilderness. For years he lived on that promise and that nation he never saw until the birth of his son at a time when all hope was lost. Yet he clung to the promise, he made the sacrifice, and he became the father of a great nation. Throughout history we see testimonies of sacrifice and success, both in a spiritual sense and in the secular arena.

Mary risked her comfortable life, and lost it all, yet behind a stone something amazing happened. Mary walked to this tomb to finally seal and conclude her dreams yet when she got there the stone was removed. She lost it all and suddenly it felt as if someone was pouring salt on an open wound. She ran to the others in a panic that words could not begin to express. Sure all her hope was gone but the tomb where they buried her dreams was tampered with. A crime regarded so heinous that the penalty was death. She cried to the others and they ran to see, only to find a mystery. Everything was there, the grave clothes and the head covering, but the body was gone. The clothes were where they knew the body once was. There is no mention of the condition of the clothes, except for the head covering, which was rolled up by itself. They make no mention that anything is amiss about the clothing other that one fact, everything else was as it should be except there clothes were empty.

They were all at a loss. The flames had consumed the last bit of hope they had, and they were all left devastated. The men returned home, Mary stayed to weep over the grave that once held her greatest friend. And then two angels visit her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” they ask. Every ounce of hope she had was now gone she was left there broken and as empty as the stone tomb she was standing in front of, and two beings ask her why she was crying. She took a chance and by all accounts she failed. The only activity her body could muster was for tears to flow. Then someone walks up behind her and she turns, again the same question is asked. Irritated and hurt she lashes out at the man and says, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Through our pain and hopelessness we will often lash out and cry. Saying things to people we care about that we do not intend to say. It is part of our emotions, and part of our defenses. I imagine that Mary screamed at this man that she thought was a gardener. Darkness was shadowing everything in her life. All was lost and in her mind there was not even a glimmer of hope left. Until the man before her spoke her name. The smoke lifted and the sun shown all around. Suddenly new green grass emerged through the charred scorched earth. Hope returned with one single word.

Why is this day the crowning glory and completion of all things? Hope returns. In nature winter turns to spring, in the prairies life emerges from the ashes, in this moment in history in Judea 2000 years ago life was restored to the dead. All of creation groans and the trees clap their hands because through sacrifice and death life returns. Love emerges triumphant, fear and death no longer has a grip on those who put their faith in Jesus, because He emerged from that grave once dead but living again.

Do we understand what that truly means? Do we grasp what power we really have in that knowledge? I do not think we have begun to experience the fullness of what the resurrection has in our lives today. But we do get glimpses. William Penn once said, “The adventure of the Christian life begins when we dare to do what we would never tackle without Christ.” The adventure begins when we dare, when we put ourselves out there to attempt to do things that our worldly wisdom would never allow, risking it all because we have hope in the power of the resurrection.

St. Patrick prayed this in his prayer, “Against the demon snares of sin, The vice that gives temptation force, The natural lusts that war within, The hostile men that mar my course; Or few or many, far or nigh, In every place and in all hours, Against their fierce hostility, I bind to me these holy powers. Against all Satan’s spells and wiles, Against false words of heresy, Against the knowledge that defiles, Against the heart’s idolatry, Against the wizard’s evil craft, Against the death wound and the burning, The choking wave and the poisoned shaft, Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.” He understood the power in Christ resurrection, the power that even when we face risks of greatest proportion we can live without fear, and it is that life without fear that won the hearts of the Irish.

Mary began bound in hopelessness, with a word she was freed to life. Again was brought low in despair, but with a word was given a power to testify before the apostles and her testimony was recorded for all of history to see as being the first to see the risen Lord. Love sacrifices, Love loses, Love risks, and Love conquers. The love of God for His world sent his son to give himself so that we could be freed from the fear of death, and restored to love other. An adventure has been set before us, an adventure to go and make disciples of all the nations, beginning here in our community. Our community like the days of St. Patrick is a society that is bound by fear; people have been so driven to remove that fear that it has crippled us from being able to even live. That is the destruction of sin. That is where the power of the resurrection can bring new life into our often-scorched earth.

As we enter our time of Holy Expectancy and communion as Friends. Let us imagine the emotions of Mary, let us imagine the power of St. Patrick’s prayer over the fears that bound the land he was called too, and let us imagine and embrace the adventure Christ is urging us to embark.