2 Sunday after Pentecost 6/10/07 Text: Psalm 30 Title: Life and Joy
Second Sunday after Pentecost
6/10/2007
Text: Psalm 30
Title: Life and Joy
In the Old Testament reading we read about Elijah bringing a child back to life. In the Psalm we see that King David is brought back from a near death experience. In the New Testament reading Jesus brings a young man back to life.
In the time that these two event took place if a woman was not married, or had a male relative taking care of her she was destitute and had nothing but poverty to look forward to during her life. Both of these women had good reason to celebrate their sons returning to life.
When the readings were read just a few minutes ago, did you hear the extreme sadness and then joy in their voices? You could almost feel it. First there are the tears and wails of grief and then in an instant laughter and tears of joy. There must have been a lot of hugging, laughing and dancing on, for he who was dead was alive.
As wonderful these readings are they are about more than restoring a person who was dead to life. They are about God caring for his human creation, keeping his promises, and the raising of the dead on the Day of Judgment.
I want to point out some things in our readings before I go any further. In the Old Testament you will notice that Elijah was a prophet, a man of God. He had a relationship with the woman and her son, for he was living with them.
Jesus on the other hand, at least as far as the woman knew, did not know her or her son. He was just there as the funeral possession went by.
Elijah was there when the boy died. He immediately took him to his room where he laid across the boy three times while crying out to God to restore the boy’s life.
Jesus on the other hand was not there when the young man died. He was probably dead for several hours and after being prepared for burial was being taken to his gravesite. Jesus just touched whatever it was they were carrying him on and told him to rise up and the young man did.
The biggest difference is that Elijah had to call on God to help, while Jesus being God just gave a command and the young man returned to life.
Of course both the child and the young man lived to die another day, for there is no human that can escape this life without dying. Once we are created we start to die. The real miracle of life is that we live as long as we do.
I am not sure, if you got right down to it, that either mother really cared if either Elijah or Jesus was a great prophet. All they cared about was that their respective sons were alive.
Both women had their sons back alive and well, so each was secure. They would be taken care of. Their would be no throwing themselves on the mercy of those living around them as they begged for table scraps
I rejoice with those two women who lived so long ago, but I have to admit to you that for a major part of my life I could not see what these two accounts of the dead being brought back to life had to do with us. Maybe you have the same problem. Jesus is not living here on this earth so that he could bring someone back to life, so what does this story have to do with us?
In fact, for many people I would say that these two accounts of the dead receiving life would be distressing to some. How many people have prayed and prayed that God would restore their love one back to health only to see them suffer and die, their prayers unanswered.
A lot of people, maybe you are one of them that have been disappointed by God when he let your loved one die. I think that the problem we have with these texts is that when we read or hear them we really do not know the purpose of them. We think it is about people being brought back to life, and in a sense it is. But that is not the main purpose these were recorded for us. The main purpose is that by our reading these words of God we are to see his love and power over death.
In the Old Testament God answered Elijah’s prayers so that the mother of the boy would see that it was only through God that her son could be brought back to life.
In Jesus’ case the text shows that Jesus has power on his own to bring a dead person back to life. It also shows us that God cares for his human creation.
You might not think he cares very much when you are standing at an accident scene, emergency room, or at a grave side as you mourn the death of a loved one, but he is. He is there in his word, the Word of God where we hear him promise to us, “Rise, all you that loved me. Come live with me in perfect health, happiness, and communion where there is no more death.”
When Jesus ascended to the heavens he promised that he would send the Holy Spirit who would be with those who believe until he came back. Remember last Sunday we confessed that the Holy Spirit is God, that he is neither less than nor more than Jesus or the Father.
We are told that the Holy Spirit works through the Word. That is why David wrote what we know as Psalm 30. I love this Psalm because rich and powerful David in his humanness is just like us, for he tells God that it will not help God if he died, for then he would not be around to praise him and tell others of his love. I think I hear a little bargaining going on.
God must have listened to King David, and brought him back from what ever was that brought him near to death, for he says in verse 11 and 12, “ You have turned for me my mourning time into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
David rejoiced in the Lord’s goodness in sparing his life, but we know from some of his other Psalms that he also knew that God was with him in death, that he would not be abandoned to the grave.
Ever since Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, our perfect bodies, the bodies that God created, are corrupted by sin. They are corrupted in such a way that the only thing that can free our bodies of sin is for them to die, for as we are told in God’s Holy Word a dead body can no longer sin or raise itself back to life.
So is death bad? We think so, and rightfully so, for we value our lives, our existence. But for God death is the way that he really shows his love for us, for death is not the end but the beginning of life, the life that he created us to live, a life full of happiness as we walk with God in the new heaven and earth. Amen
6/10/2007
Text: Psalm 30
Title: Life and Joy
In the Old Testament reading we read about Elijah bringing a child back to life. In the Psalm we see that King David is brought back from a near death experience. In the New Testament reading Jesus brings a young man back to life.
In the time that these two event took place if a woman was not married, or had a male relative taking care of her she was destitute and had nothing but poverty to look forward to during her life. Both of these women had good reason to celebrate their sons returning to life.
When the readings were read just a few minutes ago, did you hear the extreme sadness and then joy in their voices? You could almost feel it. First there are the tears and wails of grief and then in an instant laughter and tears of joy. There must have been a lot of hugging, laughing and dancing on, for he who was dead was alive.
As wonderful these readings are they are about more than restoring a person who was dead to life. They are about God caring for his human creation, keeping his promises, and the raising of the dead on the Day of Judgment.
I want to point out some things in our readings before I go any further. In the Old Testament you will notice that Elijah was a prophet, a man of God. He had a relationship with the woman and her son, for he was living with them.
Jesus on the other hand, at least as far as the woman knew, did not know her or her son. He was just there as the funeral possession went by.
Elijah was there when the boy died. He immediately took him to his room where he laid across the boy three times while crying out to God to restore the boy’s life.
Jesus on the other hand was not there when the young man died. He was probably dead for several hours and after being prepared for burial was being taken to his gravesite. Jesus just touched whatever it was they were carrying him on and told him to rise up and the young man did.
The biggest difference is that Elijah had to call on God to help, while Jesus being God just gave a command and the young man returned to life.
Of course both the child and the young man lived to die another day, for there is no human that can escape this life without dying. Once we are created we start to die. The real miracle of life is that we live as long as we do.
I am not sure, if you got right down to it, that either mother really cared if either Elijah or Jesus was a great prophet. All they cared about was that their respective sons were alive.
Both women had their sons back alive and well, so each was secure. They would be taken care of. Their would be no throwing themselves on the mercy of those living around them as they begged for table scraps
I rejoice with those two women who lived so long ago, but I have to admit to you that for a major part of my life I could not see what these two accounts of the dead being brought back to life had to do with us. Maybe you have the same problem. Jesus is not living here on this earth so that he could bring someone back to life, so what does this story have to do with us?
In fact, for many people I would say that these two accounts of the dead receiving life would be distressing to some. How many people have prayed and prayed that God would restore their love one back to health only to see them suffer and die, their prayers unanswered.
A lot of people, maybe you are one of them that have been disappointed by God when he let your loved one die. I think that the problem we have with these texts is that when we read or hear them we really do not know the purpose of them. We think it is about people being brought back to life, and in a sense it is. But that is not the main purpose these were recorded for us. The main purpose is that by our reading these words of God we are to see his love and power over death.
In the Old Testament God answered Elijah’s prayers so that the mother of the boy would see that it was only through God that her son could be brought back to life.
In Jesus’ case the text shows that Jesus has power on his own to bring a dead person back to life. It also shows us that God cares for his human creation.
You might not think he cares very much when you are standing at an accident scene, emergency room, or at a grave side as you mourn the death of a loved one, but he is. He is there in his word, the Word of God where we hear him promise to us, “Rise, all you that loved me. Come live with me in perfect health, happiness, and communion where there is no more death.”
When Jesus ascended to the heavens he promised that he would send the Holy Spirit who would be with those who believe until he came back. Remember last Sunday we confessed that the Holy Spirit is God, that he is neither less than nor more than Jesus or the Father.
We are told that the Holy Spirit works through the Word. That is why David wrote what we know as Psalm 30. I love this Psalm because rich and powerful David in his humanness is just like us, for he tells God that it will not help God if he died, for then he would not be around to praise him and tell others of his love. I think I hear a little bargaining going on.
God must have listened to King David, and brought him back from what ever was that brought him near to death, for he says in verse 11 and 12, “ You have turned for me my mourning time into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
David rejoiced in the Lord’s goodness in sparing his life, but we know from some of his other Psalms that he also knew that God was with him in death, that he would not be abandoned to the grave.
Ever since Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, our perfect bodies, the bodies that God created, are corrupted by sin. They are corrupted in such a way that the only thing that can free our bodies of sin is for them to die, for as we are told in God’s Holy Word a dead body can no longer sin or raise itself back to life.
So is death bad? We think so, and rightfully so, for we value our lives, our existence. But for God death is the way that he really shows his love for us, for death is not the end but the beginning of life, the life that he created us to live, a life full of happiness as we walk with God in the new heaven and earth. Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 12:25 PM
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