Tag: gospel of john

John 14:27-29 – Peace

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. (NRSV)

Peace. Personal peace. Family peace. National peace. World peace. We all seem to want peace. And, yet, so many of us lack peace so that we must medicate to sleep at all. Avoiding family seems normal, just to keep the peace. National peace almost sounds oxymoronic. World peace is merely wishful thinking for far too many people. Perhaps we are in such a befuddled conundrum because of this reason:

We already possess what we so desperately want.

The search for peace is really the search within. The simplest of observations about Christ’s words in today’s Gospel lesson is that Jesus has left us his peace. He gave it to us. We have it. Perhaps we have misplaced it? Maybe its lost in that huge stack on the desk?  Most likely, we plain old forgot about it. We need to remember that God’s peace is here with us. Right now. This very minute. We have exactly what we want.

The peace Jesus is talking about is far more than the absence of war, conflict, and/or infighting. The peace of Christ is the settled and restful calm and confidence of being with God, of an intimate union with the divine. Jesus has given himself. He himself is our peace. Peace did not just happen by chance, or magically appear. Peace was bought at a price – the blood of Jesus (Colossians 1:20). The gift of peace needs to be unpacked (Ephesians 4:3).  Practices of peace and peacemaking must be acknowledged and grafted into our lives if we are going to experience it on the daily practical level (Romans 14:13-15:7).

Since Jesus gives in a different way than any other gift, it may have thrown us off. Like the delivery guy who leaves a package in an odd place, we could be searching for the ongoing gift of peace somewhere on our property. It’s there – it just seems so darned elusive. Yet, peace, the authentic peace that is harmony and unity, can neither be found in perfect circumstances nor in idyllic families and faith communities. Divine peace is the security of relationship with God, smack in the middle of life’s crud.

The reason Jesus can exhort his disciples to be untroubled and unafraid is because the life of God is within them. As that life grows within us; as our hearts are healed with that presence; as we receive peace from the gracious hand of God; then, we discover, often by happenstance, that perfect love has driven the fear away. Fear focuses on the hard situation in front of me, whereas love directs attention on Jesus. As the Father has loved the Son, so the Son loves us – and we have peace – without trying to miraculously conjure it with positive thoughts.

It is the glorious, gracious, and mystical union between Jesus and the believer which is peace. All obstacles have been surmounted and tossed into the trash for the garbage guy to haul away. And, no, you did not accidentally throw your peace in the dumpster. There really is no need for any dumpster diving with Jesus around. He has already done that work for you and me through the cross.

Yet, peace still seems a pipe dream for some, even with the understanding of the gift. Like a new product packed so tightly in the plastic, we struggle to open it. Maybe the following thoughts may help to unpack peace for us:

  • Stop and breathe. It is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit of God is likened as wind. Pausing to take deep breaths in through our nose, and full exhales through our mouth can become prayers. The ancient Christian practice of breath-prayers can help us here. Some examples: Inhale saying, “More of you,” and exhale saying, “Less of me.” Inhale, “Holy one,” exhale, “heal me.” Inhale, “Abba Father,” exhale, “let me feel your love.”
  • Listen to peaceful music and words of peace. If we continually are in a state of agitation, it could be that we are listening to talk radio or taking in a steady stream of TV and social media that is anything but peace forming. It leaves us perpetually upset about something. Turn it around through paying close attention to your music and your media intake.
  • Identify trigger words or phrases. That is, when you sense fear or the lack of peace arising, have a “go to” word or phrase that helps bring you back to the peace which is within. For me, it is quoting Psalm 23, Romans 6, John 14, or some other Scripture passage from memory. So, the trigger phrase is sometimes, “The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need, or “Trust God, trust also in me.”
  • Smell it. I keep candles around with pleasant odors and light them when feeling stressed. I also have found that, for me, burning sage helps to feel unburdened and, thus, peaceful.
  • I have observed that many of the behavioral health patients I work with have little to no peace in their lives due to either resentment toward others or the inability to forgive themselves. Forgiveness brings peace, even if the other party does not want it.

There are many more ways to unpack peace in our lives. Hopefully, these few suggestions are helpful for you. Finally, one of the best ways to experience peace is to be a peacemaker. I leave you with the Peace Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

John 14:1-14 – “I Need Jesus!”

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Welcome, friends! Simply click the video below and we will have a time together centered around the Lord Jesus.

You can also view this video at TimEhrhardtYouTube

Mindful of the many wonderful mothers and women which surround me, here are a few links with females leading us in worship of God:

Down to the River virtual choir of women

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) this version of the Chris Tomlin song produced by BYU Records.

May you experience the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus as present and powerful today and always.

Peace be with you, my friends.

John 21:1-14 – Breakfast in the Liminal Space

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
BreakfastAtDawn MikeMoyers
“Breakfast at Dawn” by Mike Moyers

Later, Jesus himself appeared again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. This is how it happened: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter told them, “I’m going fishing.”

They said, “We’ll go with you.” They set out in a boat, but throughout the night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus.

Jesus called to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”

They answered him, “No.”

He said, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”

So, they did, and there were so many fish that they couldn’t haul in the net. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around himself (for he was naked) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they weren’t far from shore, only about one hundred yards.

When they landed, they saw a fire there, with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter got up and pulled the net to shore. It was full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three of them. Yet the net hadn’t torn, even with so many fish. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples could bring themselves to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. (CEB)

Sometimes, maybe oftentimes, it takes a bit of time to wrap our heads and our hearts around a new reality. After all, if you’ve been used to operating a particular way for a long time, it can be hard to come around to embracing difference – even if that change is really good.

Good ol’ Peter, you’ve got to love him. Bless his heart, the Lord Jesus is risen from death and he, along with some of the other disciple fishermen, are not quite up to speed on resurrection. Christ is alive, the disciples have already seen him on two separate occasions, yet they seem like a dog who has chased a rabbit and now don’t know what to do with it once they’ve surprisingly gotten it.

So, Peter goes fishing. Yep, when all else seems upside-down and topsy-turvy, just go fishing. The problem is: Peter and the boys are going back to a life that doesn’t exist anymore. And that’s pretty much what we all tend to do when we are stuck in a liminal space, caught in a situation of uncertainty without much of a clue what to do. We simply go back to what we’ve always done and hope we catch some fish.

But we can’t catch fish. It isn’t the same anymore. The resurrection of Jesus has completely upended the world. There’s no going back to any sort of pre-resurrection days. All has changed. I’m not sure if the disciples believed they were going to catch any fish, or not. Seems they just had to go do something familiar.

Unknown to them, the rules changed. The old way of fishing won’t work. While they’re off trying to live from the old life, Jesus shows up on shore. The disciples don’t realize its him. So, they don’t anticipate that when Jesus calls out and encourages them that they’ll end up with a nice haul of fish. While the old life yields nothing, the new life with Christ brings abundance, blessing, and fellowship. After the big catch of fish, here are the disciples now eating breakfast with the King of Kings, yet they’re still scratching their heads. What’s going on? Who is it? Well, of course, it’s Jesus, but is it? What’s the plan? I’m so confused.

In the passage and the journey from one reality to another, from a place of familiarity to a place of a future we’ve never seen, from an old life to a new life, there is both the shadow of doubt which makes everything feel so uncertain and the confidence of faith which keeps us going forward. In this middle space there is a continual vacillating between doubt and faith. Rarely is there ever a black-and-white existence. No, instead its wise to become friends with the gray because most lessons we learn come while inhabiting this weird in-between space.

When the disciples encountered Jesus in today’s Gospel story, it was an experience of Jesus in the middle – a six-week time between resurrection and ascension. It was also an experience of the disciples in the middle. There was no going back to a pre-resurrection time of walking and talking with Jesus as they had done before. And there is also no future where they can live in the past or pick up the fishing business just like before.

Although we have the advantage of knowing how the story shakes-out with Christ’s ascension, the giving of the Spirit, and a robustly bold group of disciples going out to change the world – the disciples cannot picture that future in their liminal space on the beach.

We, too, inhabit a middle space. We are in-between the two advents of Christ. This truly is an awkward time in which we, along with disciples, experience a mix of belief and doubt because we aren’t at the end of the story. So, a combination of worship and wondering exists in the here-and-now. Jesus doesn’t chide the disciples for sometimes believing and sometimes not; and, our Lord isn’t exasperated with us because one of the certainties for the Christian is that grace overcomes everything. Sitting down with Word and Meal creates a new space where we can begin to make sense of our sometimes very nonsensical lives.

Great God of Resurrection, help me to embrace both the meaning and the mystery of faith as I negotiate and interpret every situation in my life through the light of Jesus Christ, your Son, my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Click There Is a Hope by Stuart Townsend for encouragement through your liminal space.

John 20:1-18 – Resurrection of the Lord

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Empty tomb

 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.  So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.  Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.  Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb.  He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head.  The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.  Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside.  He saw and believed.  (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.  As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”  At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying?  Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have carried him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.  Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news:  “I have seen the Lord!”  and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Although Peter and John have a role in this story about Christ’s resurrection, the main character is Mary Magdalene.  This is significant and symbolic of the fact that it was Mary who experienced one of the most profound and deep changes of life due to the ministry of Jesus.  Mary had been an immoral woman and spiritually enslaved to the machinations of seven demons.  It was Jesus who thoroughly delivered her from her personal hell.  Mary was forever thankful to him for changing her life, and so, she followed Jesus and supported him in any way she could.  Mary was at the foot of the cross when Jesus died.  While other disciples were keeping their distance out of fear, Mary was bold in standing with the other women for all to see that they were completely devoted to Jesus.  Mary never turned her back on Jesus.  It was Mary who was there on the Sunday morning of Christ’s resurrection.  Whereas the other followers were nowhere to be found, Mary came to the grave, still with a heart given to Jesus and grieving over his death.

Because Mary had been given a new chance at life, she was deeply thankful and everything she had belonged to Jesus.  Mary Magdalene was forgiven much, and, so she loved much.  Here she is, after her Lord’s crucifixion, death, and burial, at the grave of Jesus.  Mary came to the tomb on Easter Sunday still living in a Good Friday world – grieving, sad, and discouraged.  She soon discovered, however, that Christ is risen!

In the midst of your days of disappointment, loss, or sadness, how have you been surprised by joy and the presence of the risen Christ?  How has your grief been turned to gratitude?  Have you seen the risen Lord?

One day, 33 years ago, I was down sick with the flu and in bed.  I barely remember my wife coming into the bedroom after a doctor’s appointment upset and crying.  She was trying to rouse me with a mix of good and bad news.  Mary had gone to the doctor thinking that she probably had picked up my flu.  Instead, the doctor gave her the news that she was pregnant with our first child.  But there was more….

After the examination the doctor had reason to believe that our little baby might be in the wrong place – that she was not where she should be and may very well be in the fallopian tube and not the womb.  So, here I am – barely able to move getting out of bed – driving my wife to the hospital for an ultrasound with such a range of emotions within me that all I can do is weep, feeling, much like Mary Magdalene, that my Lord has been taken away from me.  It just felt like I didn’t know where Jesus was at that moment and why I was going through this surreal craziness.

I will never forget the words and even the tone of voice of the ultrasound technician as we anxiously stared at a screen we didn’t understand.  The technician said, “She is right where she is supposed to be!”  The tears turned to complete joy.  And the words were prophetic.  There was no way that the technician could know at six weeks in the womb that we were having a little girl, yet she referred to the peanut within my wife as “she.”  And we immediately knew what her name was:  “Sarah,” which is the Hebrew name for “Princess.”  God had graced us with a precious gift of royalty, coming from the grace of King Jesus.

I want us to know this morning, on this great Day of Resurrection, that we are right where we are supposed to be.  It might seem out of place spending so much time at home; not working in ways we’re used to, or even working at all; wondering where God is or how the divine fits into this topsy-turvy situation of pandemic and economic instability.  The truth of matter is this:  You are right where you are supposed to be.  God has you precisely where he wants you.  This morning, right now, you are a witness to the resurrection of Jesus.  Along with Mary Magdalene there is the astonished declaration, “I have seen Jesus.”

Do Not Hold On To Me - He Qi
“Do Not Hold On to Me,” by He Qi, 2013. Jesus and Mary Magdalene

Let Mary Magdalene’s experience be of encouragement to you.  Mary had been given a new life and was transformed by the Lord.  Yet, on Easter Sunday she did not immediately get what the heck was going on.  Jesus rising from death was not anywhere on her radar.  The empty tomb and the angels did not immediately lead her to faith – not until she saw Jesus, and even then, she did not recognize him.  Only when Jesus called her name did Mary recognize him and respond, believing it was her Lord.  And Jesus is still calling out names.  He is calling your name.  Jesus had said to his disciples that the sheep listen to the shepherd’s voice; he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:3-4).  One little word can change our lives forever:  our name.

Easter opens a whole new world for us, as it did for Mary – a future of announcing good news and proclaiming resurrection.  There is a simple reason why the grave clothes were left in the tomb just lying there – they were not needed anymore!  We no longer need the grave clothes of discouragement, defeat, and despair.  We no longer need to weep and wonder, because Christ is risen!  He has called our name and we hear his voice.

The 20th century Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, said that what brings people to worship God – not just on Easter, but any day – is an unspoken question clinging to our minds and hearts:  Is it true?  Is it true that God lives?  Is it true that Jesus is alive?  Could it be true that I can live a new life in Christ?  Is it true that I can rebuild my life?  Is it all true?  Mary Magdalene approached the tomb and found that it was true.

All over the world, this very day, followers of Jesus are testifying that this is all real:  Christ is risen, and there is new life in Jesus our Lord.  Right now, believers across the globe are worshiping the risen Lord because they declare along with us, “I have seen the Lord!”

God has always been in the business of changing lives.  British author A. N. Wilson, used to be known for his scathing attacks on Christianity and proclaimed the death of God… celebrated Easter in 2009 at a church with a group of other church members, proclaiming that that the story of the Jesus of the Gospels is the only story that makes sense out of life and its challenges. Wilson said, “My own return to faith has surprised none more than myself …. My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known—not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in light of the resurrection story, and in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.”

The moment Jesus calls a person’s name, the power of the resurrection is enabled—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.  See what you consider as immovable slabs of stone in your life—maybe it’s bitterness, insecurity, fear, self-doubt or cynicism. Those immense rocks can be rolled away. To know Jesus is to know the power of the resurrection.  We don’t need to merely hear testimonies of changed lives like Mary Magdalene’s; we can experience new life ourselves.

There is one word, one name, which has forever changed the world: “Jesus.”  And Jesus wants to change the world by uttering one simple word, one name:  your name, so that you can exclaim with great joy, “I have seen the Lord!”

Mighty God, as Christ burst forth from the grave, may new life explode from us and show itself in acts of love and healing to a hurting world.  May your ever-living Son, Jesus our Lord, keep our hearts rejoicing and grant us peace this day and always in resurrection power.  Amen.

Click Christ the Lord Is Risen Today by the Northland Church choir and sing aloud to the One has conquered death!