This coming Sunday is the very last Sunday in the Season of Pentecost. Pentecost is the longest season in the Church's liturgical year. The reason is that we need to be reminded that we are a people waiting, actively waiting. Our waiting is a walking in the Spirit, empowered to continue to do the ministry of Jesus till He comes again. we are God's workmanship, St. Pauls states, created in Christ Jesus for good works that we are meant to do as a matter of life and call from God. Our waiting has a purpose and it is anything but sitting around "clock-watching" as we wait.

 

We are waiting for a promise Jesus made to be fulfilled. We know it will be fulfilled because Jesus made it. His promise was to come again and to receive us to Himself. He will, in the blink of an eye, transform our mortal bodies to be like His own eternal Resurrection Body. He take us to the Home He has been preparing for us, at last to be with Him forever.

 

His first coming was in great humility. The Sovereign over all creation laid aside His glory, not His Deity, and became a man...full man and yet still fully God. When He comes again, it will not be in obscurity. Every eye will see Him when He returns. He will come as the Conquering King of kings and Lord of lords. He will come revealing Himself as He has eternally been. Almighty God the Son. He will come in power and infinite glory. All injustice will be redressed. All evil will be done away with forever. Death itself will die and the grave will know utter defeat. Sin will be obliterated. We will see fulfilled in us the promise of God that having begun a good work in us He will bring it to completion, perfection...the perfection of Grace!

 

This last Sunday of Pentecost is known as Christ the King Sunday. Our Kind has eternally been King. He was not a heir in waiting, He did not replace another dynasty. There has never been another King. His Throne is from everlasting to everlasting and shall never pass away. Earthly kings come and go. Dynasties flourish and then are gone like the morning dew. Some are overthrown to be replaced.

 

Our King will never abdicate, never be threatened by some celestial coup, is not subject to any Parliament and is answerable to no one. Our King is eternally holy, just, good, merciful, kind, patient, loving, gracious, perfect, omnipotent (almighty), omniscient (all knowing) and omnipresent (everywhere at once. He is to wise to ever make a mistake and to good to ever do anything wrong. He alone is the objective reference for what is True...eternally True.

 

This is our King. His Name is above every name, both in this present age and in the age to come. At His name every knee will one day bow and every tongue, tribe, nation and people group will proclaim that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

 

The Gospel this Sunday is the record of Jesus Crucifixion. The lectionary reading is not a mistake. "...so take Thy Cross, O Lord, and reign!" go the words of a hymn. Jesus said, "If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to Myself." His death on the Cross settles an ancient question: "Who has right to me?" By His death, He has tasted death fully for ALL humanity. He died the death we deserved, drank the infinite and holy wrath of God to the dregs and broke the power of sin to keep us slaves to futility and eternal death. Jesus is the King who by right of creation has right to all we are. By right of Redemption, He has right to all we are. His right to rule is not opressive,,,EVER...it is a liberation of Love and Grace for all who will believe and receive the Good News that our King reigns! 

 

Knowing this makes our active waiting, active ministry and active mission anything but optional.

 

Waiting with you,

 

Fr. Mark+

What's on my mind?

Well, it's how much God loves you all. It's not some kind of neo-romantique sort of thing. It is a love that sees you as you really are...right to the core. It's a love that does not mince words. It sees you where you hope no one will ever see you. This love knows you fully and loves you with a love that is not bound by time and is not due to any thing you have done or not done.

God's love for you is honest, perfect and true. There is no flaw in it. It cannot be quenched by tragedy or trial or pain or suffering. It cannot be quenched by fear or indifference or even hatred. God's love for you is complete, lacking nothing.

This love is not a set of philosophical or theological propositions. This love was incarnate and became a man, worth an infinite number of human beings...even as the artist is worth more than an infinite number of his works...God became a man because of His infinite love for the crown of His creation: humanity. Jesus Christ was the singular,  unique and perfect man. There was no internal dry-rot, no envy, jealousy or pride. There was no variance from goodness found in Him. He was without human brokenness. His worth was more than an infinite number of human beings.

He was the only One who, being both God and man could stand in the place of all humanity for all time and receive in Himself the full measure of the consequence of the brokenness and rebellion of the human heart known as sin. He alone could bear the sin of the whole world and the infinite just punishment it deserved. Jesus became sin...the very state of being that separates all mankind from the life God intended us to live and know.

Jesus became sin, my sin, your sin. He bore my shame, your shame so that we would not have to be covered in it. He became sin to destroy the disease of sin. He lived the perfect life we could not live,  died a death we could not die, to pay a debt we could never pay to give the life God intended us to live.

I am thinking about how much Jesus loves you...all of you. An infinite price has been paid to rescue us from the prison of self-centered-dead-ended existence. God has demonstrated His love for you and me in time, in history through the willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross where He settled humanity's debt, once and for all time.

I am thinking about how God has done everything necessary for you and me to be completely reconciled to Him and to enter back into life that will never end, life that can't be taken from us, life that can only become bigger never smaller.

I want all of my friends...not simply the "virtual friends" of this social media, but the one I can call by name, say "Hi!" to from  my front door, pass a coffee to at Starbucks, greet in the supermarket or wave at from my car...to know this love...not merely "know about it". This love, this life is meant to be known, meant to be lived. It is a gift meant to be received. It has your name engraved on it. It is offered simply but if received will profoundly transform your living into more goodness than you can imagine.

This is not about religion. It is about the relationship you were created for. Jesus Christ did not come, live, die and be raised from the dead to establish a new world religion. He came to rescue humanity and restore us to the relationship that was shattered in Eden's garden when mankind believed the lie that we needed something more than what God had already given. The sorrow, death and decay that decision brought has been eclipsed by and consumed on our behalf by Jesus Christ.

I beg you in the name of Love, to turn and be reconciled to God. He is not angry. He is waiting for you to come home.

That's what I'm thinking about...FYI.

Years ago Yolie and I drew up a "Last Will and Testament." It needs to be updated since our son is now an adult, but it was pretty simple. If I die first, Yolie gets everything and then when she dies, John-Mark gets the whole enchilada. It also was written in the reverse. If we both died at the same time, our son inherited all we have.

The thing about a will is that is only goes into effect after the "will-maker" takes their last earth-breath. One has to die to bring the will "to life" for all those who are listed as heirs.

We separate the Bible into two sections. One is called the Old Testament and the other is called the New Testament. Actually, it is a seamless text, God's Word recorded through human history revealing His nature, His purpose and His will to all humanity. In 2 Corinthians 1:20, St. Paul states that ALL the promises of God, His revealed will, are "Yes!" in Jesus Christ. The full Will of God is found in Jesus.

To bring to "life" all the promises made in the "Will of God," Jesus had to taste death for the whole human race. He had to bear in His own human body on the cross the full weight of the sin of all people, for all time. He experience the complete and just wrath of God against sin seeing it as only God can and experiencing its utter desolation as only God could...in His real, physical body...with His real human emotions...with His real human mind. He had to die for us so that the Will of God would go into effect for everyone who would simply believe Him, receive Him and follow Him.

When I die, my will will go into effect, but my family cannot expect anything else from me. My physical being will have ceased to effectively function in any way as far as the day-to-day world is concerned. I'll be dead. No one will be able to count on me again. My effectiveness as far as anyone here on earth is concerned will have come to an end.

Not so with Jesus...I know that MY redeemer lives! The One who died for me conquered death and was raised from the dead to live forever. He tasted death once and for all...for all.  Death can no longer exert any control over Him. He has vanquished death. He lives eternally now, Jesus Christ, in His Resurrected Body.

He is the ONLY "will-maker" who ever lives to bring to bear all the promises of God's Eternal Will in the lives of those who become heirs of God, joint heirs with Him by grace through faith. Our God is the Living God. We do not serve and follow a mere memory. We serve a Living Savior.

He is in the world today. He lives His very life in you, Christian. It is His will that where you go, His kingdom, His rule authority, truth, blessing and work continue...through you!

If you belong to Jesus Christ, eternal live is already at work in you. It is transforming you day by day. From the inside out the Holy Spirit is working to reproduce in you the life, character and nature of Jesus Christ. THAT is your heritage. Having begun a good work in you, He will bring that work to completion.

We live in a world that has become more and more profoundly blind because they have refused to love the truth: they need rescuing and God has already done the rescuing to be received as a gift. It you are not hungry, you will not seek food. If you are not thirsty, you will not seek water. The world is full of people ripe for deception. They believe they are OK...good people...at least they have people they have graded as worse than they perceive themselves.

They do not really know that God is the living God, active, merciful, forgiving, just and loving. How in the world will they ever come to get a glimpse at the eternal wonder of our God? I'm glad you asked the question. The answer God has for them is meant to be lived out through you. To hear about God's love through you, to see the life of God being lived through you, to be able to examine over time the reality that, "DANG! IT'S TRUE!" and to touch the reality of the Living God in you...that is their hope. God lives through you and He draws them to Himself through you.

They will see that God does love imperfect folk, does forgive to the uttermost and does care intimately and specifically because they will see it in you as you follow Jesus. Jesus is going to live His life in His power in His authenticity and winsomeness THROUGH YOU!!!

There is no part of the Will of God that you are left out of. The One who dies to bring that Will to life, ever lives and He is living in you by the very power that raise Him from the dead. THAT is the ground of our hope.

I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last day he will stand upon the earth and my own eyes shall see Him and I will know Him...He will be no stranger to me!