Fr. Christopher Leighton - July 31st
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I’m All Alone
“In 1941, in a village in Nazi-controlled Poland, a young man came home to discover that his father had died while he was at work. What made his father’s death exceedingly more unbearable was that several years earlier, both this young man’s sister and his mother had died. As he held his father’s dead body in his arms, he cried out: ‘I’, ALL ALONE. At twenty, I’ve already lost all the people I’ve loved.’
“One writer described it like this: Ripped out of the soil of his background, his life could no longer be what it used to be. He now began a journey to a deeper communion with God. But it didn’t come without tears, and it didn’t come without…certain existential horror.’”
This is what suffering does. In an instant, everything that was solid slips away. Realities that we never wanted are thrust upon us. We are forced to face an unknown future. This is the place where God draws most near to us – in the unplanned brokenness, in the unimagined possibilities of his grace.
That young Polish man was Karol Jozel Wojtyla, but he was known later in his life as Pope John Paul II. [Quoted material taken from Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell]
Jordan
The Rev. Jordan Easley
Assistant
Pray it Again, Sam
For most of the my life I have prayed the Lord’s Prayer like a robot. I rarely think about the words even though Jesus himself gave them specifically to teach us how to pray and how to live. Recently, Jesus has been showing me how he is at work in this phrase: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”.
A life of unforgiveness can turn your insides to cankers and gall. Of course, we all have a reason to be galled — people hurt us. Every single human is carrying around tremendous wounds. When we try, by sheer will-power, to forgive anyone who has harmed us, we simply can’t do it. Try it! Try to will yourself to forgive a mother, a father, a child, or a friend who has really hurt you. It is impossible. So, the gall gathers and festers and eats us up on the inside.
Yet, when we really experience Jesus’ forgiveness, suddenly it all changes. When you know that you know that Jesus’ blood has washed away all your own filth and junk, then suddenly you are able to offer that same cleanliness to others. When I realize the truth that God no longer holds me guilty, then I no longer have to hold others guilty. Forgiveness becomes my default
So, the next time you pray the Lord’s Prayer, whether it be in this worship service or before you go to bed or whenever, pray it like it’s words are true. Use it as a check on yourself: Do I live guilt-free because I’m forgiven? Do I hold others guiltless because I’m forgiven? Jesus is the only One who has made this possible, so give him a chance to prove his words.
Jordan
The Rev. Jordan Easley
Assistant
America! America!
A few years ago, Leah and I were teaching at the Theological College of Zimbabwe during the “election” of the long-standing dictator, Robert Mugabe. We remember sitting down with students as the reports came in - family members beaten, friends murdered, and churches burned when pastors refused to replace the cross with a picture of Mugabe’s face. All the while AIDS, hyper-inflation, and wide-spread food shortages swept through the nation. Zimbabwe used to be the strongest nation in Africa.
We returned to United States just a few days before the 4th of July, and I remember thinking to myself: “America! America! God really has shed his grace on thee.” Of course, I knew this before, but now I KNOW that I know it. Not much later I came across the second chorus of “America the Beautiful”:
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
As we celebrate the tremendous liberty that God has poured out on us this weekend, my prayer for my family, for our St. Paul’s family, and for this nation is that God will match our liberty with self-control. We have a beautiful statue of the first virtue in the New York City harbor. But where is the other statue? Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Where the fruit of the Spirit is, there is self-control! When we see the fireworks tomorrow, let us thank God for BOTH these gifts and ask him for more of both.
Jordan
The Rev. Jordan Easley
Assistant
Dan Scribner July 3rd
Podcast: Play in new window | Download