Ian MacLaren wrote:
“Jesus was himself the one convincing and permanent miracle.”
That sentence for me is stunning.
It says something about the Jesus who is at the heart of our faith
in a way that, for me, is indisputable.
It is an affirmation of who Jesus is
without the theological or doctrinal trappings
that can lead to arguments and divisiveness.
It just says something plain and clear.
“Jesus was himself the one convincing and permanent miracle.”
One could dispute the miracles of Jesus, I suppose. In fact, many do.
One could argue about whether Jesus actually walked on water
or whether he really did turn water into wine.
One could get into a debate about whether he actually fed a crowd of 5,000
with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
One could engage in a stimulating conversation
about whether he actually raised Lazarus from the dead
or did a hundred other things attributed to his miraculous touch.
One could bring out their proof texts and make their assertions
and belabour the point until they’re blue in the face.
But for me there can be no dispute or argument or debate about Jesus himself …
about the incredible person he was …
about the nature of his life …
about the miracle he was …
about how he changed the world around him
because he changed the people around him.
I think Ian MacLaren was right.
“Jesus was himself the one convincing and permanent miracle.”
_____________________________
So let me ask you a question?
It’s perhaps the most important question I could ask you as a people of faith?
It is a deeply personal question.
It isn’t a question someone else can answer for you.
It’s a question only you can answer for yourself.
It isn’t about a theological argument
as much as it is about a spiritual experience.
It isn’t about “Well, this is what the Bible says”
as much as it is about “This is what my heart says because I have experienced it.”
It isn’t someone else’s answer.
It’s your answer.
In the passage of scripture read a few moments ago ~
after Jesus had asked his disciples what the people were saying about him
and about who the people thought he was ~
he made the question personal.
He asked them:
“How about you? Who do you say I am?”
And so I put the question to you:
“What about you?
Who do you say Jesus is?”
What is it about Jesus that has made you say yes to him? …
What is it about him that has won your heart?
As you think about that …
perhaps as you think about that throughout the day …
let me tell you about the Jesus I know,
about the Jesus I have said yes to,
about the Jesus who has won my heart,
about the Jesus who is for me the one convincing and permanent miracle.
I tell you this not because I have all the answers
or because the answers I have are the right ones.
I tell you this because this is the Jesus I know
and the answers I have are right for me.
_____________________________
I first learned about God and Jesus
when I was a boy growing up in London, Ontario.
The things I learned, I learned in Sunday School and from my Mom.
It was in lessons taught and through songs like
“Jesus Loves Me” and “God Sees The Little Sparrow Fall”
that I learned about God and Jesus.
This is what I learned …
Yes … there is a God.
Our world, which God created, is filled with God’s presence
if we have eyes to see it
and ears to listen for it
and hearts open to experience it.
And I learned what God is like. William Sloan Coffin wrote:
“What is finally important
is not that Christ is God-like,
but that God is Christ-like.
God is like Christ.
That’s what we need to know, isn’t it?”
Because of Jesus, I learned that God is
kind …
forgiving …
merciful …
good …
loving …
wonderful.
Because of Jesus, I learned that
God loves the whole world …
and that whole world included me.
Because of Jesus, I learned that
God not only loves me …
God cares for me.
Because of Jesus, I learned that
through the tragic and triumphant story of Easter ~
the heart-breaking and hope-inspiring last days of Jesus’ life ~
that God’s love was greater than our sin …
that God’s love was greater than death …
that God’s love was greater than anything.
I learned all of that.
And if I could just believe it …
if I could just give my heart to it … to God … to Jesus …
I would never live a day in my life without the sacred being near.
And so I did.
And on Palm Sunday, April 10th, 1960, when I was 13 years old,
I was confirmed in my faith.
That was 50 years ago.
I gave my heart to Jesus.
To the Jesus I loved and who loved me.
Jesus’ life was the one convincing miracle that had claimed me.
It was miracle enough for me.
And as I grew in my faith I gave my life to service in the church.
and 12 years after my confirmation, on May 25, 1972, when I was 25 years old
I was ordained …
ordained as one who was called, more than anything else,
to tell the story that had claimed my life.
_____________________________
That was 38 years ago.
But it has been during the years since those eventful moments,
and even in the years leading up to them,
that my confirmation faith and my ordination faith
have been put to the test, so to speak.
You see, it is easy, I think, to believe in the goodness of God
when life is full of goodness …
and it is easy to believe in the love of Jesus
when life is full of love.
It is easy to believe
when things are wonderful
when the days unfold beautifully …
when your heart’s dreams come true
and joy has wrapped its arms around you.
It is easy to believe in the love of Jesus
when the sun in shining and the sky is blue.
Life itself, for me, affirms the goodness of greatness of God
and the love of God which is found in Jesus.
But what about the times
when life is not full of goodness …
when life is not full of love.
It is not so easy to believe
when things are not wonderful
when the days don’t unfold beautifully …
when your heart’s dreams don’t come true
and when sorrow or struggle have wrapped their arms around you.
Scott Peck, in his wonderful book “The Road Less Travelled”
begins the first chapter of his book with this sentence:
“Life is difficult.”
That simple, startling sentence, in many ways, sums life up.
Life is difficult.
We’ve all been at that “Life is difficult” place.
I know I have.
I have been there when the marriages of both our daughter’s ended.
I have been there when, as Kim and I held hands
and the hands of her father in a dimly lit hospital room,
Kim’s father died.
I have been there when, against her wishes,
our mother was placed in a nursing home,
and we, as her children, lived with regret and great sadness.
I have been there when one of my dearest friends, my mentor,
the one who groomed me for ministry
the one who took me into his heart and home
let me know that he has cancer.
I have been there as I stood at a graveside,
weeping with our children and many others,
saying goodbye to a young woman who at eighteen years of age
had died because she was too frail to receive a heart-lung transplant.
I have been there when hopes have been shattered
and dreams have been broken ~
the hopes and dreams of others …
and my own.
I have experienced and witnessed the brokenness of life.
I have been there.
So how does your answer to the question
“Who is Jesus for you?”
speak to those moments?
_____________________________
It has been as I grew up in years and grew up in my faith, still asking the questions,
that I have come to understand as much, I suppose,
as one is able to understand:
That’s the way life is.
It was Jesus ~
this one convincing and permanent miracle ~
who said of this life of ours:
“In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart. I have overcome the world.”
Jesus, himself, lived the troubled life, and rose above it.
Jesus, himself, experienced a terrifying death
and by God’s power that bright Easter day
rose above that, too.
And his faith, not only taught but lived out beautifully, said:
“In the midst of it all …
in the midst of all those things that the hand of life deals us …
in the midst of all those things we often bring on ourselves …
in the midst of it all
God is with you … I am with you … in love.”
In the midst of it all, his Love, believed and embraced and lived out,
can strengthen us
encourage us
comfort us
forgive us
help us
save us.
I began to discover that truth in my own life
not just as an answer in a game of intellectual pursuit
but as a glorious fact of experience.
A renowned Philosophy of Religion professor
tells of a man who said to him once,
“I spent twenty years coming to terms with my doubts.
Then one day it dawned on me that I had better come to terms with my faith.
Now I have passed from the agony of questions I cannot answer
to the agony of answers I cannot escape.”
Even with all of my questions, then and now,
which I cannot answer,
Jesus has become the answer I cannot escape.
This is the one convincing and permanent miracle that Jesus has become for me.
This has been my experience of opening my heart to him:
there is no life so lost that God’s love cannot find it …
no life so wasted that God’s love cannot give it a new purpose …
no sin so grievous that God’s love cannot forgive it
no life so small that God’s love cannot enlarge it …
no person so defeated that God’s love cannot lift it …
no situation so hopeless that God’s love cannot transform it.
No one’s life is beyond the reach of that love.
Not yours. Not mine. No one’s.
When it comes to miracles,
I can tell you that I have never seen a man walk on water
or feed a crowd of 5,000 with five loaves and two fish
or raise a dead person from the grave.
But like William Sloan Coffin,
“I have seen miracles throughout my life.
I have seen Jesus change beer into furniture,
sinners into saints,
hate-filled relationships into loving ones,
cowardice into courage,
the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope.
In instance after instance, in life after life,
I have seen Christ be ‘God’s power unto salvation.’
That’s miracle enough for me.”
Every time hope lifts someone, it is a miracle;
every time forgiveness releases someone, it is a miracle;
every time love values someone, it is a miracle;
every time joy, given and received, fills the heart, it is a miracle;
every time someone is given a vision of the world, not as it is,
but as it can be, needs to be, it is a miracle.
It is a miracle because it is of God …
because the spirit of the risen Christ is present
to raise us up, even as he was raised up.
Jesus is, above all, my Friend …
a Friend who by his grace
has sustained me
sheltered me
supported me
and saved me.
It is the friendship of Jesus that gets me through.
And the wonder of it all?
He is your Friend too.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
THE READING OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
Matthew 16:13-20 (The Message)
When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
"What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah,
some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets."
He pressed them, "And how about you? Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Jesus came back, "God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn't get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I'm going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. And that's not all. You will have complete and free access to God's kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven."
He swore the disciples to secrecy. He made them promise they would tell no one that he was the Messiah.
