Tag Archives: Christ’s Death and Resurrection

God’s Abiding Love

Living in the Spirit
October 23, 2018

Scripture Reading: Job 42:1-6, 10-17

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this Job lived for one hundred and forty years, and sawt his children, and his children’s children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days. –Job 42:10-17

Job is a good morality play in which the protagonist after much misfortune lives happily ever after. We all long for such a state of being. The question ultimately is how do we work to make it happen?

God allowed Job to be tested and he stood firm in his righteousness as he took blow after blow. His friends functioned within the premise that bad things only happen to bad people. Although they knew nothing bad about Job, they encouraged him to confess for surely, he had done something wrong. Job eventually tried to understand why bad things happen to good people. Most of us have experienced that situation at one time or another. I wish there were a few more scenes in the play. I leave the theater with many unanswered, unsettled questions.

Farms and cattle and other riches can be replaced but any parent who has lost a child will assure us that that child can and will never be replaced. The loss of a child does often result in a deeper understanding of unconditional love and perhaps a keener understanding of the love God shared with us at the crucifixion of Jesus and a greater sense of hope resulting from his resurrection.

Prayer: Lord, abide with us as we struggle with life’s challenges. Turn them into lessons of how to love as you heal any bitterness and hate that flitter through our heart and minds in times like these. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Siblings of Jesus

Maundy Thursday
March 29, 2018

 Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. –I Corinthians 15:3-8

I do not know anything of about James, the brother of Jesus, except the few mentions by Paul. I, however, have my own fictional rendering of him. My guess is he was the brother just younger than Jesus. When Jesus set out to be an itinerant preacher, James was left to meet the needs of the family, a role that would normally have gone to the eldest son. We here no more about Joseph, James’ father after the temple trip when Jesus was 12. Joseph probably died leaving Mary to lean on James since Jesus was otherwise occupied. After the resurrection, James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. His early family responsibilities had most likely made him a good leader. We do not know what James thought or felt being left to deal with the common needs of his family. We do not know if he followed Jesus’ teachings before his death and resurrection. A lot of people would have resented this older brother whom his mother adored.  He played a tough, tough role.

I thus have wondered about the conversation Paul reports Jesus and James had following Jesus resurrection. Were fences mended? Did James experience a new enlightenment? The meeting was consequential, or Paul would not have written about it.

What difference do Jesus’ death and resurrection make in our lives? Did everything change for us some 2000 years ago or was it just another point of interest on the timeline of history? I am writing this after hearing a young man speak about the senseless death of his twin brother shot down on his way home from a college preparatory class. The surviving twin’s life, of course, was changed forever but that is not enough for him. He was speaking at a campaign to curb gun violence so that no one else’s brother would have to go through what he and his brother did.

Time can fade memory perhaps even lessen the pain of loss, but time should never decrease our resolve to carry out Jesus’ mission in our lives today. My guess is that was part of James and Jesus’ discussion after his resurrection. My guess is that is why James used the leadership skills he had honed growing up in a single parent home to make his brother’s vision a reality. We are called to do the same.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be our brothers and our sisters’ keepers as we work for justice and a world ruled by love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.