A Challenge to Elevate Our Expectations

From   Death to Life

A   sermon by Mother Stephanie Swinnea, March 7, 2021

Paul says,

“You were dead following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.”

Children of WRATH – de-creation, destruction, violence, anger, hate. -  Children of SIN

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—"

Father Marie Dominic Molinie, a French Roman Catholic Priest and Thomist Monk, wrote in a little book called, The Struggle of Jacob, which featured that encounter with God in which Jacob wrestled with God all night long. Molinie explains a great truth revealed in that struggle, “God does not want our bent backs.” God does not want worshippers slavishly performing rituals and long prayers and struggling to keep the letter of every law in order to win God’s approval. No, God does not desire a “bent back” but a “bared breast.” God revealed through Jesus Christ that God desires our hearts laid bare before God, open to receive the love of God and eager to pass it on; open hearts that allow God to see everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. Hearts that are willing to be transformed by love.

‘For by grace you have been saved-- God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”

The Mothers’ Almanac, written by 5 mothers in Canada, sets out what you need to know about children from birth to age 5. It has suggestions for age appropriate stories, activities, art, music and so much more. The chapter about 4-year-olds caught my attention. In it they asserted, “every 4-year-old will talk about God. Now if you don’t believe in God and have never spoken of, you may well be surprised, but relax, it is just an area of interest particular to 4-year-olds and it will pass.”

My first thought was, “That’s GRACE!” God speaks to the heart of every child while they are still in their innocence, planting a seed of familiarity, so one day they can more clearly seek and find the source of their belonging in God. This grace was given to you, to me and to all.

In the ancient wilderness journey, when poisonous serpents infected the camp, killing a number of Israelites, the scriptures recount an unusual remedy:

Numbers 21

And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 

John suggests that Jesus is our remedy for the sin that steals our lives from us today:

John 3:14-21

Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.” 

Those who don’t want their deeds exposed, their hearts laid bare, want to perpetuate the deception, the lie, that they have no evil within them, no sin, in that way they are equal to God. Wasn’t that the deception the serpent in Eden used to seduce Adam and Eve? When we look at that serpent, may we reject that evil and be healed and come to the light.

“But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

IN God – not for God or out of servitude to God. As we are IN Christ, we – the body of Christ – are seated on the right hand of the Father in Jesus. As we are IN the Father, all that we do is done IN God through the transforming power and love of God.

Open your hearts in confession and self-revelation before God. See that serpent within, who would have you be a god. Reject the evil, the lie. Give your love to God and be transformed by Grace. And eternally enjoy your place with Christ in God forever.

Psalm 107

19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, *
and he delivered them from their distress.

20 He sent forth his word and healed them *
and saved them from the grave. 

21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy *
and the wonders he does for his children.

22 Let them offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving *
and tell of his acts with shouts of joy. AMEN.