Sermon: “God of the Old Testament” by Pastor Mark Swart

Scripture: Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon: “The Cosmic Christ” by Pastor Todd Buurstra

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon: “Whisper Down The Lane” by Anna Schwarz

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Sermon: “Passing the Torch in the Wind” by Pastor Todd Buurstra

God gives every believer a torch, and Elijah’s torch was flickering. It was flickering because Elijah, like we, lived in a windy world. In Elijah’s world Israel’s King Ahab made a foolish choice. To make an alliance he married the wicked Queen Jezebel. Jezebel brought with her the fertility cult of Baal. And so Israel’s worship disintegrated into cavorting with temple prostitutes in order for families and fields to be fertile. While the goings on at the temple of Baal may have seemed exciting at first, What? I get to have sex in worship?, they became sickening (STDs) in the end. But this is what the wicked queen decreed, and this is the gale force winds that our prophet, Elijah, faced. And so he said, in effect, Lord, here I have served you for my whole career, and I have no followers to show for it! I just want to roll over and die. Take me, I’m worthless.

Indeed, it’s a depressing time to try to pass the torch of faith today, too. Just look at the history of the Somerville Reformed churches. 50 years ago there were four, strong RCA churches worshiping about 6-800 on a typical Sunday. Then 40 years ago Second Reformed merged with First Reformed to become United Reformed. Four years ago, Fourth Reformed folded, a few weeks ago Third Reformed sent a dozen, feeble seniors to merge with United, and now there are maybe 80 people, most close to 80, struggling to keep United afloat. Unless God does a miracle, what’s now 90% smaller than 50 years ago, may be 90% smaller yet in another 15 years. Passing the torch on a windy day.

How is the torch of faith passed on a windy day?

First thing to realize is that God wants the torch passed. So the lonely prophet Elijah is hiding in his cave—literally. And God beckons him out to the mouth of the cave. He steps out dejectedly to meet his Maker. And a strong wind blows up and rock is literally shattering all over, but God is not in the wind. Then an earthquake roughs up the mountain, but God is not in the earthquake. Then fire flares up, but God is not in the fire. And lastly, a still, small voice. Elijah, pass the torch: nationally to Jehu and spiritually to Elisha. And don’t worry, 7000 have not bowed their knees to Baal.

God wanted faith’s torch passed to you and me also. Who taught you about the faith? Was it your mother who brought you to Sunday School? Did a youth leader take you out to lunch and guide you? I remember my ministry mentor, pastor here 25 years ago, Bert Van Soest. Early in my ministry I would go to Bert’s house and we would walk and talk. We’d lap his development and I’d ask him questions. Bert, they say they don’t get anything out of my sermons. How do you get ready to preach on a Sunday morning? Todd, I pray it and preach it hot! What? On Sunday mornings, I get up, practice preaching my sermon, then I go for a walk, and I pray God’s power upon the people. So, I started, and I still do a rendition of pray it and preach it hot. You be the judge as to whether I am passing the preaching torch on from Bert. Have you passed on your torch?

Secondly, God passes the torch by gathering us close together. I’m thinking here of the skit our senior high youth group did for Youth Sunday. Remember how there was the devil figure in black and the Jesus figure in white, and other kids with their lit candles. And the devil figure weaved in and out blowing out the kids’ light, and Jesus weaved in and out relighting them, until finally Jesus brought them close enough together that the old devil could no longer get to them? Don’t let Satan blow it out, I’m gonna…

So Elisha got close to Elijah. Over the years Elisha watched what Elijah said. He watched what Elijah did. He observed his character when no one else could. So when Elijah neared his end, and asked, What can I give you? Elisha’s answer in this translation isn’t the usual double portion of your spirit, but more directly, Your life doubled in my life. Wow! Like most apprentices, Elisha wanted to measure up to his mentor.

When Laura Kroon came to me to start her mentoring ministry here at NBRC (which is starting with 12 people growing closer with God and each other so Satan can’t blow out their lights!) Laura named two transforming experiences with mentoring: her’s and Adam Clark’s! Since Laura has already mentioned her experience to us, I’ve asked Adam to tell us what God is doing in his life. Adam was part of the core group of Ignite.

So what happens if we get close enough to God and another through mentoring to pass the torch? Well, Elisha became such an effective prophet that, as God’s CIA agent, he was thwarting the plans of the enemy. So Aram wanted to capture him so their army surrounded Elisha’s town. His servant said, What shall we do? Elisha calmly said, Those that are with us are more than those that are against us. And the servant suddenly saw heaven’s army surrounding Aram’s army. The angels were protecting them!

What will happen as we get closer to God and each other to pass the torch on our windy day? I don’t know what God will do. But heaven’s army will defend us, and the church will advance, and God will be glorified. Who knows? Maybe there will be 5 RCA churches in Somerville in 50 years worshiping a thousand or more? That’s God’s power!

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Sermon: “Don’t Be Afraid to Cry” by Dave Dzwonczyk

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Sermon: “The Joy of the Forgiven” by Pastor Mark Swart

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Sermon: “Greening our Faith” by Pastor Mark Swart

Today we welcome Rev. Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest, Executive Director of GreenFaith and an award-winning spiritual writer and nationally recognized preacher on the environment. Rev. Harper has developed a range of innovative programs to make GreenFaith a leader in the fast growing religious-environmental movement.

This recording is from the 10:45am service.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

I saw them kind of waiting for me by the Nursery leaning up against the wall. I walked faster because they were a young couple with a baby—just the kind absent from many churches. So I leaned up against the wall with them and we got acquainted. The young mother spoke most and first. Found out we each went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Found out that they were part of the premier church planting engine in the NE called the Redeemer Planter movement (who has planted 20 churches in NYC in 20 years, and been a huge influence on Mike Hayes). And then she lobbed her grenade. I don’t want to sound critical after visiting here just one time, [she pulled the pin] but how can you change scripture in your communion thanks-giving? You know where you say, As a father [and mother] have compassion upon their children so the Lord has compassion… I tried to explain how while the Bible never calls God mother scripture uses many motherly metaphors for God, and how the word “spirit” is feminine in both Hebrew and Greek, so the Holy Spirit is the female expression of God. But that’s not what that Scripture says. True, but after assuring her of my belief in the authority of scripture, she kept coming back to but that’s not what that Scripture says, I wanted to say:
This is a loving church. I think you’d fit in better with the more judgmental church up the street. But I didn’t. So let me talk today about how the Holy Spirit is the motherly expression of God.

Beyond the feminine noun thing, and many other motherly metaphors, the Holy Spirit is a homemaker. and we [the Father and Jesus] will come to them and make our home with them. Theologically we call this the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yes Jesus (and the Father) is/are in your heart, but as you study Scripture you find they live in you through the Holy Spirit. Isn’t this motherly? I think of our previous organist Helene Cantilina. Did you know that every Sunday she went from a busy morning here to prepare a meal for some 15 of her family every Sunday night? Her home was permanently set up for this Sunday meal. As you came in the door you walked right into the dining room with 2 or 3 tables sit up for next Sunday. Natsuko and I often went home saying, Boy, this is the way to see your grandkids every week. Cook for them! And, indeed, the Cantilina clan is a tight group for their mother is a homemaker.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit is a homemaker. The Holy Spirit always brings people together in Jesus around food. I think of our 15 or 16, I lose track, small groups of which a new one formed a few weeks ago. Over 100 people of this congregation eat together and then talk about spiritual nourishment monthly. If you’re interested, talk to Mark. And then I think of Communion. Deacon Casucci often reminds me that God would have us celebrate this every week, but we’ve just got it up to 14 times from 4 times 20 years ago. Is it time to move to 28 times a year? On 4/25 Mike Hayes and I visited our newest Philadelphia church with 250 people all under 35. They sing contemporized hymns and celebrate communion every week. It was the first time that I have ever received communion from a pair of 25 year olds: he with tattoos all up his arms, and she with a mouth ring. But we’re family because of the homemaking Holy Spirit.

Then in verse 26 the Holy Spirit is described as the one who is always there for us. Different translations call paraklhtos Comforter, Counselor, Advocate. All motherly terms. But paraklhtos literally means, one called alongside because the Holy Spirit is always there for us. paraklhtos is John’s favorite name for the Holy Spirit as it occurs four times

So let’s say that I am accused of murder. The staff believes I did it; the consistory believes I did it; you believe I did it, but my mother? Y’all may abandon me in court, but if there is any ounce of possibility that I didn’t do it, my mother will be by my side. Wouldn’t yours?

That’s the Holy Spirit. Your mother may even abandon you, but the Spirit won’t. I may even be guilty, but the Holy Spirit will be by a believer’s side even if only to help them accept responsibility. Just the other day I had lunch with a pastor friend. He feels his wife has abandoned him. Indeed, her mother had abandoned her at two. And he was just broken that he can’t stand it anymore and is divorcing. I told him what I believe the paraklhtos would say, I know you did your best. I support you. I believe that God will renew your ministry. It helps that his leaders are standing by him, alongside the Holy Spirit. Now he worries that she be supported.

Lastly, in verse 27, as Jesus leaves, because the Holy Spirit comes, there is a gift: peace. The homemaking, always by your side, motherly Holy Spirit gives one gift—peace.

Isn’t your mother the one who helped you feel peaceful? She rocked you, she fed you, she listened to you. When my kids were young and they woke up in the middle of the night, they never called for me. They always called Mommy! And I didn’t feel slighted either. I had dissuaded them from calling Daddy! Because whenever I woke up I was a grouch: Be quiet! Go back to sleep! But Natsuko would pick them up and check their diaper, feed them, rock them if necessary. She did the motherly stuff that I didn’t. Then, peaceful at last, we’d fall back asleep.

To the extent that you let it sink in that our motherly Holy Spirit makes her home in you, and the church a home for you. To the extent that you realize that she is always by your side, no matter the place, no matter the time, no matter the circumstances. To the extent that you set your mind on our Holy Spirit, you can be rocked to sleep. For you can have the gift of peace.

So, on Mother’s Day 2010: honor your mother, but praise the Spirit. Amen.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Today I’m wondering about wonders. But in my wondering, I’m going to wander, Jon Stewart calls it, a long walk–for there are a few steps to get to my point. So, lace up those shoes.

As soon as Paul commands the cripple to stand up, the Lycaonians go nuts. Next thing Paul and Barnabas know is that the people are shouting The gods have come down! And Zeus’ priest is honoring them with a garland and sacrifice. So Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes and ran among them shouting, Don’t do it! We’re one of you. It’s the living God who healed him!

The people of Lystra interpreted God’s miracle as coming from their gods. Under-standable, since it was their worldview that Zeus and Hermes occasional visited them. I thought, have we seen a miracle lately for which we need to give God glory? And then I heard that the Dow Jones is up 70%, and bank profits up 170%! 4400 points up in little over a year. Wow!

But in our secular worldview we give credit for this to: market forces, the great American entrepreneurial spirit, the stimulus package, you name it. Yes, but does God get any credit? I don’t expect CNN to say, Praise God the Dow hit 11,000!, but do we? I think it’s critical to adopt a Christian worldview whereby we see God’s fingerprints on all miracles from melanoma healings to market healings. James teaches, God is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

Why is it critical to see God’s fingerprint on the market miracle?

Most simply, where we see God’s fingerprint we see God’s claim. Just as if I lost this pen, and you liked it so that you lied, Hey, that’s mine. We could test our claims by testing the fingerprints on it. In the same way, God’s fingerprints tell us that the market is God’s.

So what is God’s claim on the market? Today’s lectionary reading in Acts tells us that miracles are a sign of the living God, not of people, and John tells us the supreme sign of the living God is love. So God’s design for any miracle is love. In Acts it was love for the cripple, in John the miracle is love for his disciples. We’re still walking. I’m not quite there yet.

How can American businesses love? Christian ethicists say that social love is really, sorry to say, Glenn Beck, economic justice. Economic justice is all through the Bible, though it doesn’t have to mean bigger government. Earlier in Acts the believers shared all things in common. So we can say that God’s purpose in our market miracle is prosperity for all.

How we doing with this market fairness? Well, we have a record bonus pool on Wall Street…even though many fewer people have houses and jobs. My read of history says we came out of the Depression pulling for each other. And so, as you’ve heard me quote before, in 1967 the average CEO made 27 times the wages of his average worker. Today? The AP reports it’s over 427 times. Our society is worshiping economic gods! As Jon Stewart asked Jim Cramer last year, “Any time you sell people the idea that, sit back and you’ll get 10 to 20% on your money, don’t you always know that that’s going to be a lie?” When are we going to realize in this country that our wealth is work? In Gandhi’s list of seven social sins, I believe this is called wealth without work. That’s what happens when you miss the fingerprints on the miracle.

Natsuko worked for the president of Shiseido America in the mid-80s. Mr. Hamaguchi was such an effective leader that Shiseido turned their first profit in the US in 20+ years. Even though he didn’t speak any English, every day he walked the factory floor smiling at the workers to say, Haro. Haro… Haro. They loved him. Now he made only 10 times more than they because he believed that they were the key to success. So they would do anything for that man.

I don’t know how you live by God’s loving claim on our market miracle. Do you write your senator? Do you divest from companies that pay their CEOs like gods? Do you vote for candidates that pursue a more just vision from either the right or left? All I know is God did it.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

We welcome the Rev. Mike Hayes, Executive Pastor of City Church, San Francisco, Clerk of the Center City Classis, and foremost RCA expert on church planting.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Denial. Keeping tough truth in the dark. The most recent religious form of denial has been plastered all over our media in the form of the Catholic church’s alleged cover up of clergy sexual abuse. I was saddened particularly during Holy Week that the media was obsessed with this story. And not just TV, but David Dayen wrote:

The abuse can be seen as systemic, as well as the response from the church leadership – to hide the problem, transfer the abusers and deny accountability.

Sinead O’Connor, Irish popstar famous for tearing up a picture of the previous pope on SNL 18 years ago, lit in to her church in a Washington Post editorial:

Pope Benedict’s so-called apology takes no responsibility for the transgressions of Irish priests… But Benedict’s infamous 2001 letter to bishops…ordered them to keep sexual abuse allegations secret under threat of excommunication… In Ireland, it is time we separated our God from our religion, and our faith from its alleged leaders.

Sad, so sad. Such denial is not just a Catholic problem, it’s a Protestant problem. Not only because we have turned the other way when our pastors have abused others (I think of a friend of mine who left his associate pastor position because he couldn’t stand all of the rumors of the senior pastor’s philandering), but because the world paints us with the same brush. Organized religion? I believe in God but not the church! some say.

How does Jesus deal with our denials?

Well, how did Jesus deal with Peter’s denial? Remember how on crucifixion eve Peter was warming himself by the fire in the courtyard, and 3 times was asked, You were with Jesus, weren’t you? And just like Jesus predicted, 3 times he said, something akin to, Hell no! And then the rooster crowed. Peter hung his head, and even after the excitement of Jesus’ resurrection, he couldn’t quite make eye contact. So what do you do when you have some feelings of failure? You go back to the tried and true. Peter? He went fishing. So after a long night of fishing, the best time to catch fish, as the sun was rising, the Risen Son spotted a shoal of fish on the other side of the boat, not uncommon, and yelled from the shore, Hey guys, drop your nets on the right side! And the net filled with 153 fish! Peter was so excited that he jumped into the water and ran to shore where Jesus had started a fire to cook breakfast. As Peter smelled the fire, his eagerness to meet Jesus for the third time after Easter evaporated, and his eyes avoided Jesus’, because he remembered that fire the night of his denial. Jesus begins to deal with our denial by meeting us in our denial, just as he met Peter who was avoiding him by fishing.

So Peter and friends enjoyed Jesus’ freshly cooked breakfast on the beach. As he pushed himself back from the table with full belly, Jesus seized the moment to confront his denial. Peter, do you agapaw me (love me unconditionally like God loves)?

Jesus, you know that I filew you (love you like a brother).

Peter, do you filew me (love me like a brother)?

Hurt that Jesus asked 3 times, Jesus, you know that I filew you (love you like a brother).

Three times. Once for each denial. Peter not able to reach up to Jesus’ love for him, but Jesus bending down to Peter’s ability to love. The Risen Christ reinstates Peter by accepting his best, imperfect love. How might the Risen One reinstate today’s church?

NS First off, there are strong parallels between this story and the current crisis in the Catholic church. Who is Peter to Catholics, but the first pope, since he was head of the church of Rome. And why 153 fish? Knowing that the book of John is highly symbolic, a few early church fathers saw the universal, or catholic, church in that number. Cyril of Alexandria says 100 for the full number of Gentiles, + 50 for the remnant of faithful Jews, + 3 for the Trinity = 153. Or, Jerome says there were 153 known types of fish in the sea. Either way, Jesus was reinstating Peter to be a fisher of all folk, Jew and Gentile.

So how does Jesus meet us in our denial today? Jesus will not let us keep the lights off on the truth. Either other folk will keep pointing it out (the media?), or our conscience will bother us (pope’s unprecedented action), or Jesus will expose it on Judgment Day. God’s searchlight will shine on the truth. God’s light cannot be denied.

In the case of today’s church, we need to acknowledge that we’ve all looked the other way. I remember how much I wanted a weird harassment issue to go away several years ago here. I hated bringing the tense case to our elders. I agonized that one family eventually needed to leave the church over it. It was the worst months of my ten year tenure here by far. And here’s where I think we Protestants can hold our Catholic friends accountable. You know their issue? It’s not sex or money; it’s power. It’s that their organization concentrates power at the top, as opposed to sharing power with laity. So that the bishops are incentivized to keep it quiet. We are blessed to share power representatively—clergy and you laity together. They need that same blessing.

Then if we do the hard work of admitting truth., Jesus will accept our best, imperfect love. Lord, you know that the church can’t say that we love you agapaw, unconditionally like you love us, but thank you for accepting our best, imperfect love. Thank you for dealing with our denial because we’re all Peter, and you love us still…

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

On June 10, 2010, my Aunt Wilma would have turned 90. The Lord took this saint home to be with Jesus, and the two husbands and son who died before her, on March 20, 2010.

My Aunt Wilma was a character. She was feisty as all get out. Play cards with her, and she wanted to win so bad, this saint would cheat! This bugged my dad who would say, Wim, you’ve got an Ace on the bottom; cut the deck! She’d pretend she couldn’t hear him. And then, she called the police on her own son when he took the keys from her because she was no longer a safe driver. The police called Doug and threatened to arrest him, until Doug explained that he was the County Prosecutor, and gave them 7 witnesses to her reckless driving. The policeman ended the phone call with Ah, I guess then I should say thanks for taking your mom off the road.

I wonder if Jesus waited until almost 90 to take her because he had to build up the courage? But honestly, I know he welcomed Wilma with open arms because she lived Easter.

May I tell you how? She was born in 1920 as Wilma DeBoer, one of two sets of twins in this pioneering family of 12. Her dad ran the General Store, and she grew up with her pony, Harry. About the time that she was memorizing her catechism in the Leota Christian School the Depression struck. As she struggled to remember the meaning of Easter, her chief joy, other than her pony–Harry, was the penny candy she got rewarded with for correct answers. Around this era she and Uncle Willis, her twin, came home very late in the buggy behind Harry. Great Grandpa Nick was so upset that he pulled Willis off the buggy, reached for the first board from the pile, forgot to check for rusty nails, and whack, Yaowww! Grandpa Nick was so sorry that Wilma got to sneak away with no punishment. She was resurrected to new life, you might say.

Her life can be divided into the points of this catechetical meaning of Jesus’ resurrection:
Jesus has overcome death. Though she never said it exactly, knowing how deep her faith became, I have to believe that the Depression and World War II strengthened her reliance upon Jesus’ victory over death. Maybe, more precisely, Jesus helped her overcome a fear of death. What with her husband in the Army in Europe, and her twin brother dropping bombs there also, death was a constant possibility. So she moved in with my mother and Grandmother, and they lived on base, and sang Up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph o’er his foes in the chapel. When stateside, her twin would fly low over church as they sang to drown them out. What were her prayers every night for Jerry and Willis? How did she face each anxious new day, reading headlines of more casualties, but for the faith in the One who overcame death?

By Christ’s power we are resurrected to new life. On a springy April day, 42 years ago, one of Wilma’s three children, 18 year old Craig, and her husband, Jerry, were delivering an organ in Grand Rapids. As they came around a blind curve there was a semi across the road. Their van went under the semi and severed their necks immediately. At 47 Wilma had to bury a husband and a son on the same day. She could have cursed God, stopped going to church, quit her Bible study, but she didn’t. By Christ’s power alone, she eventually resurrected, took over the business after Jerry’s partner tried to swindle her, made a handsome profit, and married another handsome man. All because she believed in the resurrection of all resurrections!

Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection. Having stared death in the face in war and peace, I know that Aunt Wilma did not fear it. Why? Long ago she had memorized that she had a guarantee, more certain than the FDIC. And so she planned her own funeral with this list of her favorite verses. And they sang, Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because he lives, all fear is gone, because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just… That, my friends, is a lived Easter. May you let Jesus and his church help you do the same.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

You pay attention to a loved one’s last words. Words like, I love you, or, Take care of your sister, or, Peter Marshall, Chaplain of US Senate’s, famous last words to his wife, as they carried him out in the stretcher after his second heart attack, See you in the morning! And, indeed, she did–on the first heavenly morning they spent together.

As I’ve told you before, I have always been inspired by my preacher grand-father’s last words. As Gramma and my mom were rushed into his bedroom for their final good-bye, he pointed up. Mom said, Dad, soon you’ll hear the angels sing. And my Gramma chimed in, And Jesus will say, Well done! He replied with a last word that has inspired me about that last step between this world and the next. Simply, Applaud.

And so it is that on this Palm/Passion Sunday, I want us to pay attention to Jesus’ seven last words. They transform us as they tell us who he is for us and for others.

The first 3 of his last 7 words tell us how much he loves us. Beginning with Father forgive them for they know not what they do. What a loving thing to do, to forgive with one’s last breath. But who is he forgiving? The soldiers, who are part of the execution detail that are just doing their job? They’re calloused to Jesus’ screams, and just pound the nails and hoist the cross up, dropping it with a thud in the hole. The religious leaders who manipulated Pilate and the Romans? The Romans who did it? Or you and I? I believe it is all of us. Especially us. So we can stand amazed by such grace.

The second word is Today you will be with me in Paradise. This was spoken to one of the two thieves between which Jesus was crucified. One was a thug who mocked Jesus, If you’re the Messiah save yourself and us. But the other thief rebuked him, Hey we’re here for a crime, but Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong. Then he asked Jesus to remember him. Isn’t it loving that Jesus did evangelism till his last breath? I’ve been praying to share my faith more often. To a Jew who was losing faith after a death, I said, When I lost a child I had to yell at God for a while. Jesus did the same on the cross. Try it. Since then I am praying that the Holy Spirit will help and bring him to the cross.

To a woman turned off years ago when her church choir scolded her for working on Sundays, I said, I understand that the church can seem judgmental, almost like God’s enemies. I love you and your family. I hope you’ll consider NBRC your church family.

The third word displays family love. Among the few friends that stayed to witness Jesus’ death were his widowed mother and probably single disciple, John. And so with his last breath Jesus instructed them to care for each other. And so Jesus’ infinite love strengthens us to care for, and be taken care of by our family, and church family.

Words 4 and 5 speak of how much Jesus suffered for us. As the physical agony of pushing down on nails to lift up one’s chest to breathe increased, and the spiritual agony of bearing the weight of the world’s sins increased, Jesus let out this excruciating cry. Why would God forsake a son? Because God is so holy that God cannot even look upon sin. To redeem creation, Jesus had to suffer alone—in solitary confinement.

The fifth word highlights Jesus’ physical distress. As you may have swabbed a loved one’s mouth with that toothbrush sized sponge dipped in water, Jesus needed relief. So the Roman soldiers dipped a sponge in their version of a bucket of gatorade to quench his thirst. If you ever thought with the Gnostics that Jesus was just some New Age spirit with a fake body, here is proof of his humanity. In agony he endured that thirst so that he might quench our spiritual thirst and we might quench another’s.

The last two words speak of how well Jesus finished his mission. After Jesus received the liquid swab, he mustered his last amount of strength to whisper, It is finished. These words speak of a life well lived. A mission accomplished. And they teach us that if we’re going to receive the forgiveness of the first word and follow Jesus then we, too, must live lives of purpose and focus. And, even more than that, be willing to suffer to achieve God’s purpose! You see, sometimes I just want to receive the goodies— forgiveness, love—and bail when following gets hard. Hard like risking folks thinking I’m impolite by talking about my faith, or standing up for the unpopular when that’s unpopular. Or evaluating my politics on the basis of whether they help the weak…

But Jesus wasn’t completely finished until he commended his spirit to God. These words were part of every devout Jews’ evening prayer. And of the two signs that accompanied these last of the 7 last words, this one made it seem like evening. An eclipse of the noonday sun enveloped the cross in darkness. The God who wouldn’t look upon the sin for which his son suffered made sure that humans couldn’t look upon that suffering either. And then the second sign appeared. The 60 foot by 30 foot curtain woven in 72 separate squares that separated the Holy of Holies, God’s earthly throne room in the temple, from the Holy Place, was torn in two. Was it invisible hands that tore it? Or did the earthquake that happened just then cause a beam to fall down ripping the curtain at that moment? Regardless, now with the completed work of salvation we can go directly to God through Jesus, not through any priest, and live in God’s nearer presence everyday!

If you pay attention to Jesus’ last words you hear love, suffering and completion. Those are the words we need to speak about him to a world as spiritually thirsty as we.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

In the years just after A.D. 60 the luxury of Roman society was unparalleled. It was at this time that they served feasts of peacock’s brains and nightingales’ tongues; that they cultivated the odd habit of taking emetics [to induce vomiting] between courses so that the next might taste better; that meals costing thousands of [dollars] were commonplace.… They would try anything for a new thrill, because they were both appallingly rich and appallingly hungry.

So writes William Barclay about Rome. Are we like the Romans? Look at what happened to Michelangelo’s David after just two years in the US! My cholesterol is a tad high, like Obama’s, because I’m a meat and potatoes guy. Then there’s our obesity epidemic. As the prophet cried out, Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?! Jesus felt this way about the Jews (and probably about us). [Y]ou are looking for me…because you ate your fill of the loaves. Jesus had just fed the 5000 with a few loaves and fishes. Wow, Jesus, can you turn this rock into filet mignon?!

ecortasqhte means to fill one’s belly like a grazing cow. Sounds like us, doesn’t it?

So, we are physically fat and spiritually famished. To quote God through another prophet, Amos, I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Physically fat, faith-famished. 90% of American households own a Bible, but 12% of adults believe Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc, only 42% can name 5 of the 10 commandments, and only 50% of American adults can name any of the four gospels. Think that’s bad? Test the next generation–it’s even worse because we don’t teach them! Most churchgoing families don’t feed their kids at home, i.e., spiritually, they rely on the Church School to do it. This is what kids look like if they eat only one spiritual meal a week!

Instead of another, amazing food miracle, Jesus offers them bread from heaven. Now they thought, Maybe Jesus means manna from heaven—like when our ancestors were 40 years in the wilderness? Didn’t that fall from heaven? [Actually there's a scientific explanation.] And weren’t we taught that the Messiah will be able to repeat that miracle? So their minds are still in their bellies. Sounds like a group of men, doesn’t it? Fastest way to a guy’s heart is through his belly? I guess turning 5 loaves and 2 fishes into enough to feed 5000 wasn’t enough?

So Jesus surprises them even further to say, I am the bread of life. What?! How can that be?? And even moreso, Whoever comes to me will never hunger or thirst! This is the turning point in the gospel of John. From now on folks leave him because he’s nuts. You can almost hear them mutter as they walk away, What rabbi teaches to eat his flesh?! If I take a bite of his arm, I’ll never be hungry again?! He’s crazy! Jesus, of course, is referring to the spiritual nourishment he gives. But they take him literally and walk away. So Jesus asks his disciples,

Do you also wish to go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom can we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Our culture, too, has turned away from Jesus to pursue physical food. Do you also wish to go away? By staying our family can feed on Jesus spiritually, so that we are spiritually fit.

How do we feed on Jesus? As you know, I come from a long line of Dutch pietists. My ancestors on my mother’s side, where all the ministers are, in a sense, fled religious persecution in the Netherlands 150 years ago. And they brought with them a meal time piety that taught that every family meal nourishes physically and spiritually. Obviously the physical nourishment is the meat and potatoes. The spiritual is the prayer before the meal, and the Bible reading after. In my house you couldn’t eat a meal without a prayer and a Bible verse—every meal! Many a summer night I squirmed in my seat, longing to join the baseball game outside, as Dad droned on about Hezekiah begetting Manasseh, who begat Amos, who begat, not Andy, but Zerubbabel… I much preferred Gramma’s house because she did creative things like write out a verse on a theme, and hide it under each plate, or she’d ask us for a Psalm and we’d try to remember, Which Psalm is 176 verses and which is 3: Psalm 117 or 119?! Though I didn’t experience many life-transforming insights from the practice, I did learn the importance of a spiritual meal.

If you want to feed your kids more than one meal a week at Church School, then let me help you. First, a little advice. And secondly, some resources to chew on. My advice is simply,

Effective family devotions are

To the point.

Up until about 3rd grade we’d get on the floor after the meal and read their children’s Bible, given at baptism. After 3rd grade we picked a devotional written for their age. Now we read a devotional written by teens for teens. So stop by the Fellowship Hall table to peruse options.

After you decide on a resource you, too, can feed your family spiritually!

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Problems aren’t your problem. Huh? Our reaction to them is our problem. For example,

Problem: You get a D.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I’m stupid. I’ll never get Calculus!
Qualification: Maybe, maybe not.

Problem: Your lover tells you: We’re thru!
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I have so screwed up this relationship! Really?
Qualification: Sure?

Problem: Your boss says, Your services aren’t needed.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I’ll never get my kids through college.
Qualification: True?

Since Eve ate the kumquat, every human has suffered from stinkin’ thinkin’ because sin has affected us body (sickness), soul (selfishness), and mind (stinkin’ thinkin’). Paul’s mind must have been spiraling downhill as he sat there to rot in prison writing this letter to the Colossians. So Paul meditates, and calls us to the same, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, he says. How does Christ-centered meditation help us with stinkin’ thinkin’?

Well first, is what you’re doing Christ-centered meditation? In Paul’s words, is it the word of Christ that’s dwelling in you? I mean there’s a whole smorgasboard of meditation options out there. I remember hearing an otherwise pretty good reformed professor say once, Yoga is not Christian. What? I thought. I think yoga can be Christian, but what I think he was saying is that the act of just emptying your mind (like is popular now in yoga, or Transcendental Meditation, or any Eastern religion) is not Christian, per se. It’s what you fill your mind with.

Paul wants us to fill our mind with the word of Christ to purify stinkin’ thinkin’. So in his culture of many gods, he asserted, Christ is the image of the invisible God…all things have been created through him and for him… Christ is the head of the…church…so that he might come to have first place in everything… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Nothing else, no other god, no empty mind compares to the word of Christ.

And Christ’s word is not just to dwell in us, it is to dwell in us richly. You’ve heard about the little guy who gave me a penny the other Sunday? I stooped down and said Thanks, buddy. What’s this for? He said, It’s for you. My daddy says you’re the poorest preacher in town. How do I become a richer preacher to nourish your spirits more richly? Like communion, we let Christ’s word nourish us–the richest of fare! The Hebrew word for meditate shares the same root as a cow chewing her cud. Guigo said: “Scripture… Reading, as it were, puts the food into the mouth. Meditation chews it and breaks it up. Not the empty calories of an empty mind yoga, it’s the nourishment of Christ-centered meditation, which could be yoga.

Say more about how I let the word of Christ dwell in me richly? You find a verse through which Christ speaks to you, and chew on it. Turn it over in your mind until you think:

Problem: You get a D.
Meditation’ Thinin’: I Cor. 2:16: I have the mind of Christ. Hmmm, God gave me a mechanical mind.

Problem: Your lover says, We’re thru!
Meditation’ Thinin’: Jer. 31:3: I love you with an everlasting love. I am still loved.

Problem: Your boss says, Your services aren’t needed.
Meditation’ Thinin’: Phil 4:19: God will supply my need. We’ll be ok.

The waitress picked up a quarter and said, this is the best tip I’ll get all day. Why? You see all the napkins on the floor? Just before you there was a group of headstart kids here. They get one meal a day from their headstart class and this was their meal. Then their teacher gives them each a quarter to play one video game over there. You see, these kids don’t have Xboxes at home. This one little boy had been living in a rusted school bus, but now his family has upgraded to a shack. But his mom tries to make her kids rich on the inside. She tells her kids often, I Thessalonians 5:18: Give thanks in all things. So he leaves his quarter to thank me.

That’s the power of letting the word of Christ dwell in your richly.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

with Little Time: Centering Prayer

I wonder if a typical morning for many might be: (ring) Gotta make lunches! Gotta finish my homework! Gotta finish the boss’ report! (Sigh) Everyone wants something from me!!

And then: I don’t like baloney sandwiches! You’re late! This homework is incomplete. This report isn’t thorough. Ah, everyone wants something from me, but no one is happy with me.

Since this is a typical for too many, our title admits that we have to fit our spirituality into little time. That is why we began last week with prayer on the go. Yet praying through the day on the way to school in a bus, or on the way to work in the car, can only go so far. Praying on the go can leave us a half a bubble off with a hyperactive spirituality. To balance this, we must be still and know that I am God. Now, if we only do centering prayer, and no ongoing prayer, then we are also a half bubble off. For then we may just check it off, with a compartmentalized spirituality. So ten minutes of centering prayer is the balance to pray through the day.

How do we let prayer center us?

Jesus, as always, is our model. Jesus had a very busy life. After all, God gave him the job to save the world–talk about responsibility?! You only have to launch a new product like an Ipad, or write five essays, or finish three loads of laundry, or keep looking for a job after your 77th rejection. Jesus said, I have come to seek and to save the lost (Matthew 18:11). Whoa! Remember how Jesus Christ Superstar portrayed Jesus on a pedestal with a crowd around him each pulling him in a different way? In the rendition that I saw, Jesus was doing one of these. Everybody wants something from me, and in light of the crucifixion, and no one is happy with me! Mark portrays this busyness with the word immediately, euqus. This word occurs 17 times in Mark’s gospel so Jesus is pictured as a man of action: preaching, teaching, healing—the carpenter remodeling the world. We see it in this Lenten passage of the temptations…

So how does Jesus show us how to handle our busyness? Even in this gospel of action Jesus retreats 9 times—twice in our passages. Once on his way to be tempted, we forget that he was camping in the wilderness, campers. The other time after a huge healing service that went late, he got up before light, to go to a deserted place. Don’t you hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep because something keeps circling through your mind? The comment at the meeting. That insult. Or how pitiful that blind man looked. (I bet that was what Jesus was experiencing!) I’ve begun to think of those times as a call to prayer. And, I find that I might as well because I can’t get back to sleep until I pray through what’s swirling in my brain anyway. I try to let go and let God to rest my mind in order to rest my body

Why is it so hard for us to slow down so we can let go and let God? I think because our pride likes to feel the importance of busyness. I’ll never forget the time that the kindergarten Church School bell rung in MI, and Jessica stayed in her seat talking to my Zach. Mrs. Assink, the teacher, told us later that Jessica said, Wow, Zach, it’s so cool that your dad is the preacher that owns this church. Zach, unimpressed didn’t miss a beat, Yeah, but he farts a lot. That let the gas out of my importance. Jesus, the very Son of God, could claim more importance than us all, yet he tempered his busyness with quiet times away, praying. He was centered in prayer.

What benefit did he get from this? Jesus had a clear sense of who he was and what he was to do. So critical to God’s mission! When Martin Luther was reforming the church and he had a particularly busy day of translating the Bible, teaching in school, fighting the pope, etc. he said that he was too busy not to pray—needing that laser focus. Jesus had it. That helped him tell Satan to shove his temptations of, in a sense, money, sex and power; and, to tell Peter that even though the people of Capernaum begged him to stay, NO. For his strategy said he needed to move on in his preaching tour of Galilee. I probably would have tried to stay and go.

So St. John Cassian, 4th century, developed a practice that he picked up from desert fathers and mothers, who picked it up from Jesus. He called it centering prayer. For two millennia this has been a way to tap into the Holy Spirit within—God’s breath So that your inner calm reflects the glassy sea from St. John the apostle’s vision of God’s throne in Revelation.

How do you pray in a centered way?
First, you sit in a quiet spot for 10 minutes—I do mine at 5:30 AM.

Second, you just breathe—remember breath is the same Greek/Hebrew word for Spirit.

Lastly, you may want to match a word to the rhythm of your breath—I do Jesus…

And then you get distracted. What will I make for lunch? Hmm, didn’t like baloney, so ham? The temptation is to say, Gee! There I go distracted again! Better to just let it go, and gently come back to your word and your breath. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And you start the day centered.

What’s the benefit of letting prayer center you? Like Jesus,

you see things most clearly that you look at most calmly.

The story, called 1000 marbles, is told of an elderly ham radio operator that was overheard talking to a younger ham radio enthusiast on the radio. Well, Tom it sounds like you have a very busy and important job, and well paying, too! Too bad that you have to spend so much time away from home that you missed your daughter’s dance recital. Let me tell you what’s helped me keep my focus. At 55 I was sort of meditating, or praying really, on how much time I have left. I’m a prayerful, or meditative, kind of guy. I realized that if I would live 20 more years, I’d have about another 1000 Saturdays in life. So I went to the toy store and filled a jar with 1000 marbles. Every Saturday since, I have taken out one marble. I found that there’s nothing quite like watching your time here on earth pass to really focus you. Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning I took the last marble out of that container. So if I make it until next Saturday, God will have given me extra time. Thanks for listening to my story, hope it helps. This is K9NZQ, clear and signing off.

Why not let prayer center you? Amen.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

What I love about the Warrior drama is that it takes prayer out of the monestary or sanctuary and puts it on the street, or in the house. That’s crucial for busy folks like us!

I once heard of this prayerful monk who would be so stressed after chairing his monestary’s business meeting (you know: Brother Jerome wants to paint the hall green for creation but Brother Ignatius likes black for his sins), that he needed to lock himself into his room for an hour of prayer after the meetings. I wish I had that luxury, you too? But God calls us to take prayer to the streets, of which Maid Marlene is our patron saint!

To this end, St. Paul challenges, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstance. In other words, pray always. How does ongoing conversation with God benefit us? First, make sure you get the verse right.

Prayer on the Go: Prayer anyway, anyhow, anywhere.

First, prayer anyway. God is saying that you don’t need a special posture to pray. Back in the dark ages when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in Church School, the teacher would say before every prayer, Now fold your hands and close your eyes. When LeRoy the pastor’s son, came back from seminary he would play with us before his prayer by saying, Now fold your eyes and close your hands. There is nothing wrong with a certain prayer posture: kneeling, hands raised, whatever helps you, but most of my praying is with my eyes open—which I find especially effective while driving!

Second, prayer anyhow. Jesus is showing us that we don’t need special prose to pray either. Back in the day, adults prayed, O Thou who makest the heavens, we praise Thee… you know, hymn language. Up until the 19th century they thought that New Testament Greek must be a special, heavenly language since they didn’t find any written Greek like it. Until they discovered spoken, street Greek. Turns out its an exact match! Even today I find that most who are afraid to pray out loud really just need to learn what to say to take off and land. You know, Dear God,… Amen. But in between all you need to do is to have a conversation with God: love that snow, Lord! Be with Aunt Tillie’s cancer…Pray with Matt Brianik once, he’ll learn ya. The Black Sioux said, For the Great Spirit is everywhere; he hears whatever is in our minds and hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to him in a loud voice, or we might add, in perfect language.

Lastly, prayer anywhere. The Spirit teaches you don’t need a special place to pray. Cathedrals, sanctuaries, cathedrals of creation like Sedona or a lakefront, are all nice but not necessary. As Marlene, you can’t pray always without praying everywhere.

Why? Because ceaseless prayer is, like we say in the benediction, prayer with the Christ who goes with you… before, beside, above, below. The Benedictine monks have told us for centuries loaborare est orare: to work is to pray. What? Because prayer is life and life is prayer! So, if you see life as prayer then three things will happen:

In God’s presence you will receive the present of the present. I mean prayer has helped me reduce plaque. I am one who brushes my teeth thinking of my next two things to do. My dental hygenist keeps saying, slow down… brush for 3 minutes… use an egg timer. So I’ve tried to brush prayerfully by being aware of what I’m doing. Last time she said, I don’t know what you’re doing, but KEEP DOING IT! I told her I’m brushing prayerfully. She didn’t know what to say. The desert fathers said Unceasing prayer heals the mind. You know why? Because God lives in the eternal now—all time is accessible to God right now—so ongoing prayer lets us savor the moment. It gives you the present of the present where the Spirit then leads you to either give thanks or rejoice.

Constant prayer helps you see all life as God’s gift. The promotion and the job loss, the A and the C-, the baby born and the grandmother dying, if accompanied with thank you, Lord, all become a gift. Augustine reminds us that when we do not pray, our hearts are trammeled in the direction of ungrateful possessiveness. This is why I recommend you give thanks before every meal, even if it’s just a moment of grateful silence, because it helps you see, even your liver and spinach as God’s gift. And, I contend that if you say grace, it will reduce obesity. Why? Because the more gratitude that fills our hearts the less need to stuff our stomachs to feel full. Life is God’s gift.

Lastly, frequent prayer builds up a Christ-centered confidence to bless the world. I was so proud of your all-time highest mission offering of $5K+ to Haiti! You decisively answered that challenge! What builds up the confidence of a strong response to bless the world? Nehemiah tells us the joy of the Lord is your strength. Just enjoy God’s adventure of renewing the world! And this joy will embolden you to the end. The story is told of a pastor who visited a dying saint. As the pastor stepped into the hospital room he saw the son, daughter and wife in tears, with the dying man masked with oxygen. Pastor suggested they hold his hand and sing his favorite hymns. They started with Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever… and continued with Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father… and ended with Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. As they sang the mood lifted from despair to hope, and as they came to the last verse, When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun, the pastor noticed two things: confident smiles in the room and the saint’s heart rate flattening. They sent him off rejoicing.
So, I commend to you this week, prayer without ceasing. Amen.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Scripture: Revelation 21:1-5

Sermon: “Epic Act Four: Thy Kingdom Restored” by Pastor Mark Swart

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

The battle for your heart. When you think of a battle for your heart you may imagine this. As a child, you’re standing before the cookie jar, when no one is around and the angel says, Mom told you not to take a cookie, but the devil says, Ah, she’s watching her show. She’ll never know. What do you think, she counts the cookies in the jar?! (Well, my mother did.) She won’t trust you if you disobey. Ah, go ahead! Don’t they smell good? It becomes a tug of war in your heart. When we’re older it may not be the cookie jar, it may be whether I report the cash income you give me from a wedding or funeral. Or whether you buy new shoes or donate to Haiti. When is your heart a spiritual battleground? Always, right? The issues just change. To understand this spiritual warfare let’s ask all the normal questions: Why? What? Where? How?

Why is there a battle within? Because God gives us the freedom to reject him. This is amazing when you think about it. If I were the creator of the universe I might try to force you to worship me. Like me, you might do what every dictator does: force the people to yell, Heil Hitler! Force them to call you the Great Leader. Make their TV shows about how the Great Leader is so wonderful to give us food to eat (even though they may be starving), clothes to wear (even though their uniforms might be a little worn), jobs to do (even though the pay might be pennies). But God didn’t do that. God is so free of a need for our love, so secure in the love of the Trinity, that out of God’s freedom from need God could give us freedom to choose.

I mean think of the Garden of Eden. I’ve read and thought about this story literally 100s, if not 1000s, of times and missed an obvious point. Maybe it was my legalistic Dutch Reformed upbringing, but I often thought of God as a judge making sure I lived by the rules. And more than that, that there were a lot of rules: ten commandments, 613 rules. But if you look at the text there was only one rule. They could freely eat of every tree save just one.

And why would God be so free to give us such radical freedom? Read Eldredge’s reason with me, … Love cannot be forced, it must come freely. Remember that lover, parent, child.

Well, then what is the battle within? Here’s where the angel and demon analogy breaks down. A battle between an angel and demon feels almost too equal. The real battle is between a greater and a lesser, even a lover and a hater. God is greater than Satan because only God is infinitely powerful and good. Satan, though more powerful than you, is a finite, fallen

angel. With just a nod of your head God wins the tug of war, hands down. And why would you give Jesus that nod? Because God loves you while Satan hates you. Only one has your back.

God is filled with the jealousy of a wounded lover.

It’s less between a semi-equal angel and demon on your shoulder and more like the battle my friend, Earl, faced. Earl was popular and cool in high school, in the middle of the battle of his life. Many nights Earl would come home drunk. A good night, he thought, was when he didn’t remember what he did. But his mom was always up waiting. As he knelt before the porcelain throne she’d say, Earl, Earl, what are you doing to yourself? Let Jesus help you with your addiction. You see, Earl’s battle was between his mother who loved him and wanted the best for him, and his self-destructive friends. Eventually Earl realized that if he had an ounce of self-respect, it was no contest. He listened to mom, gave his life to Jesus, and got healthy.

Where is the battle within? It’s in every area of life: body, soul and relationships.

It’s in your body. One of you told me recently of the preacher who was trying to get a point across with worms. He put worms in three jars. In one jar he put in a burning cigarette. In the other jar he poured a little alcohol, not to drown, over the worm. And in the third jar he left it clean. Then he took the worm out from the cigarette smoke, dead. Exphyixation. He took the worm out from the alcohol, dead. Inebriation. But the worm in the clean air was as wiggily as ever. So he asked the congregation, What does that tell ya? An old lady from the back piped up, I guess if ya smoke and drink, you won’t get worms! Hm, how was the battle for her body going?

It’s in your soul. Paul contrasts the two sides, the Adam and Christ, in Romans, Some people read this and say, Ah, there’s nothing anyone needs to do because it says here we’re all saved. That would be nice. I wish that the rest of the Bible guaranteed me that my agnostic mother-in-law, for example, was saved. But taken in context with the rest of God’s word I have a choice, and God respects my choice too much to force me into heaven. This guarantees all believers’ salvation, and the rest? We simply don’t know because God won’t bend their will.

It’s in your relationships. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve tried to force a loved one to love me by begging, manipulating, or ordering. I’ll never forget the story our former elder and counselor, Judy Barry, told about her daughter’s wild, college days. As Judy cried about having to let go and let her daughter make some life-altering, stupid decisions, it’s as if God said, Judy, I know what it’s like to give up a child. I did it on the cross. That’s a hard way to learn that you can’t force love, you can only give it freely, but given freely is the only way it ever returns freely

So lastly, how do we win the battle within? Most simply, make good choices by letting Jesus take the wheel. By turning over our life to Christ, we win the big battle over where we’ll spend eternity. And, we can gradually win all of the littler life battles that happen in body, soul and relationships. It’s funny isn’t it? The only way to win the battle for your heart is to surrender. May you surrender for either the first time, or for the first time today, as we pray.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.