Lighten the Load

 Read John 20

We remember the exchange between Mary and Jesus on that morning of the first day. I will pick up at the point where Peter and another disciple—likely John—have left the tomb and Mary looks in and sees two angels.

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.

 

He asked her, “Woman, 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 put 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 ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

 

Jesus told her to go and tell the disciples what she had seen.  In other gospels Jesus adds meet me in Galilee or to remind Peter that this message is for him too.

It seems that Mary was the first person to see the resurrected Lord.  She couldn’t give him a big hug because he told her not to—he had yet to ascend to the Father.

Mary did as instructed but it appears nobody returned to the tomb after this. Jesus appeared to them—all except Thomas—on the evening of that same day.  We know the story of Thomas having to see for himself and he got that opportunity a week later.

We remember Thomas not needing to put his finger in the holes in the hands of Jesus or in his side.  Thomas was convinced immediately—my Lord and my God.

I love the words of Jesus that followed.  You believe because you have seen.  Those words applied to all of the disciples not just Thomas. Jesus continued, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

What wonderful words that followed the resurrection, but I would like us to consider what happened to kick this day off.

Mary had gone to the tomb.  The stone had been removed.  Evidently, she didn’t look inside, or maybe she did. She ran back to tell the disciples and told them that they have taken the Lord and we don’t know where he is.

So, maybe she did look in the tomb or maybe she drew her own conclusions. In either case, it was enough to prompt Peter and John to race to the tomb.

Long ago and far away, I was the commanding officer assigned to train and prepare a reserve infantry company to mobilize and go to war.  That day came with the first Gulf War.  When the reserves returned, their first sergeant remained on active duty for a few months.

Every day at noon we would go for a 5, 6, or 7-mile run.  As we were returning to my office and nearing the end of our run, I would ask if we were going to the sidewalk or the flag pole for the end of our run.  The first sergeant would say one or the other and I would sprint ahead of him to that point to make sure I finished first. Yes, I have always been that ornery.

After a couple months we entered the Dam to Dam 20 K Run.  It was 20 kilometers as you might suspect.  We paced each other for the duration.  This probably helped us go a little faster than we might have on our own. 

As we neared the end of the race, there was tape along the sides of the route that narrowed our running lane so the person at the finish line could take our tags and record the order of finish.

As we approached that point, the first sergeant asked me, is that the finish line? I said, I think so. I had never run this race before so his guess was as good as mine, but he sprinted in front of me so the person at the end of the funnel took his tag first.

He got me.  When it counted and our names would be listed, his should appear first. Years later, I googled the run and the year and found a list of finishers.  I was listed as something like 1,012 of over 9,000 runners (maybe more, maybe less—a whole bunch of people) and the first sergeant was listed as 1013.  Somehow, my tag got put on top of his. So for all posterity, I got to the finish first, not that anyone will ever check or care.

John—this gospel’s author notes that the other disciple—probably John himself—beat Peter to the tomb. He stopped but didn’t go in. Peter caught up but didn’t stop.  He went in.

John followed.  Jesus wasn’t there but his burial garments were.  The gospel says:

They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

So what did these two disciples do?  They went home, or at least to their home away from home in Jerusalem.

Upon hearing Mary’s report and seeing for themselves that Jesus was not in the tomb and his burial clothing was left behind, they rejoiced in his resurrection and started singing He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!  Not exactly!

They still didn’t get the big picture, even though Jesus told them more than once what had to happen.  Jesus even chewed out Peter when he said he wouldn’t let it happen.

These two men who would become pillars of the church were dumbfounded.  They didn’t get it.  They did the only thing they could think of—they went home, wherever that was in Jerusalem.

Maybe there would be a little coffee left or half a bagel. If they had stayed in a first-class joint, maybe some yogurt.  They went back to where they were staying.

Other than having a little chuckle at these disciples’ expense, why do I point this out?

There are two things that I will challenge you to do in celebration of today.  The first is begin a year-long celebration of the resurrection.  Yes, find a way to celebrate the victory of Jesus over death every day.  He took away our sins and conquered the grave.  We can look forward to life because of this.

Amen!  Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Oohrah!

We should celebrate today.  It is special not because it’s the actual date on the calendar but resurrection is special, and the love that sent Jesus to the cross is special. We are special to God.

The second thing is that I want you to cut yourselves some slack.  Yes, the Holy Spirit lives within us.  Yes, that same Spirit brings us to conviction when we do something wrong or fail to do what we should have done.  The Spirit is a blessing but very demanding.

It is tough to live up to the right standing that God gave us in the blood of Jesus.

On occasion, consider Peter and John on that first morning.  Despite the great things that they did in the days and years to come; they were somewhat confused.  They didn’t get it.  They were at a loss as to what to do so they went home.

Cut yourselves some slack every once in a while, when you don’t have everything figured out.  Take a breath when you don’t have all the answers.  Just chill every so often and know that God is God and he does have this figured out.  He knows the next steps.

Trust him and quit beating yourself up every time you miss the mark.  We still confess to God where we fall short.  We still aim high desiring to bring glory to God, but we are going to stop beating ourselves up and feeling down when we don’t quite have an explanation for everything—when we are not exactly sure what the next step is.

Who can understand the ways of the Lord?  Who can grasp the whole picture?  Sometimes, we know exactly what we must do, and sometimes, we wait for the Lord to reveal our next step.

We need to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord and what he has in store for us as his disciples.  We need to be known by our love and be a light in the world, and we need to lighten our load a little and stop carrying around the need to know exactly what to do right now.

Sometimes, we are to wait upon the Lord.  Sometimes we just trust and see where he leads us.  Sometimes we just go home, but we must never despair for we know with certainty that God loves us more than we can understand and will never stop loving us.

Let us celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

Let’s lighten our load.  The Lord will direct our next steps in his time.

Amen.

Farmer's Patience

Read James 5

It takes 1 woman 9 months to have a baby, but a government study has concluded that 9 women could have 1 baby in only a month.  A 9-month term is too long to wait.  We don’t like to wait.

The kid at the fast-food counter apologized that I had to wait.  My wait was almost 45 seconds.  He stilled messed up my order, but did apologize that the messed-up order took so long.

When I think about waiting when I am dining out, I can’t help but think about what Yogi Berra had to say on the subject.  Nobody goes there anymore.  It’s too crowded.

You want to understand waiting in the modern world, think FTP.  That’s File Transfer Protocol.  Back in the day, if I needed some information, I had to have my computer dial up the computer that had the information via a telephone line, connect, do the online handshake thing—protocol sounds way more official—and then get the down load.

The 10- or 20-page document that takes 15-20 seconds to download now, took half an hour.  During that entire time, you hoped and prayed that you didn’t lose the connection.

I have waited at our one and only traffic light as the light cycled through a couple times and I am still sitting in the left turn lane on Sooner Road.  There has been no traffic at all for over 2 minutes but I’m stuck at the light.  I must decide to just run the light, get out of my car and wave my arms so the sensor that has been asleep knows I am there, or just wait patiently.  Most of the time that I am stuck at that light are not days in which I have practicing patience on my to do list.

If the people in front of you on the golf course are playing slowly, you want to play through.  It only makes sense.  Why should you have to wait?

After my stroke, the doctor recommended that I limit myself to one cup of coffee per day.  I complied with his instructions on one cup per day.  I have fully complied with one cup per day.  Right now, I am up to January 24^th, 2029.  Why should I have to wait for the day to arrive?

We don’t like to wait.  We will pay extra not to wait.  We will complain when we have to wait.  Sometimes we even throw a tantrum when we have to wait.

Do you know who learns to wait better than most?  The farmer.  Unless you are growing radishes, there is usually a significant amount of time between seedtime and harvest.

You just don’t see a farmer sowing wheat on Monday and firing up his combine on Friday.   This whole business of a seed producing a plant that produces something to harvest is incredible, but not instantaneous. 

The farmer without patience is a frustrated farmer.  The immediate gratification mindset of this age doesn’t go well with the principles of the farm.

So the farmer plants his seed and then can binge watch Netflix for the next few months, right?  Not exactly.  The farmer always has something to do between seedtime and harvest.

We need to understand that patience is not procrastination.  Just because the harvest is some time away, does not mean that there are not things that need to be done now.

These things don’t bring the harvest any closer but are essential nonetheless. 

This is the season of Advent.  We prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus.  We celebrate God with us.  We remember what we generally call the Christmas story.  We sing of a babe in a manger, shepherds watching their flocks, a silent night, a holy night, and we even ask Mary if she knew when she kissed her baby that she kissed the face of God.

We get that part.  We celebrate with joy knowing with certainty that 25 December isn’t the date on our Lord’s birth certificate, but it’s when we celebrate his birth into this world.  He was the King of Kings as birth but lived the life of the suffering servant.  We celebrate that salvation had come.

We also look forward to our Lord’s second advent—to his return in which he will claim all of his children.  He is coming for us.  We won’t be looking for him in a cave or a barn or some twig hut—in mean estate as the vision we have of the first coming.  He will come as he left—from heaven above.

And some days, we cry out Maranatha—come Lord Jesus, come.  I am so ready now to leave this world.  We want him to come to get us now.   We understand that when we say these words we had better be loving the Lord with everything we have.

But other days, perhaps we are not calling out for his immediate return.  On those other days, we find ourselves doing his work, loving our neighbors, proclaiming the grace and favor of the Lord, bringing our kids up in the way they should go.

We still look forward to the time when the Lord will come and claim us but we are not anxious.  We are patient.

For the Lord is not slow in coming.  He is patient with us.  His desire is that none perish. 

The Lord is patient with us.  James tells us to be patient as we wait uponthe Lord.  But just how can we be patient?

Today, I challenge you to be patient by being purposeful in every moment of your life. 

When you go to work, work as if you are working for the Lord and not for men.  It is the Lord, Christ whom we serve.

When you go into the world, be the salt of the earth.  Be the God seasoning of the planet.  Let others taste the goodness of the Lord.

Be the light of the world.  Let people see what you are doing—not for your own edification—but to bring glory to God.

Give your whole life to God as your offering, your sacrifice, your gift to him. 

Purpose your days and your hours.  Lord, teach us to number our days.  Let people see through us how precious this gift of life is.  Why would anyone want eternal life if they can’t see the value of every moment of life?

I have mentioned on many occasions that today’s world has gravitated to the twin gods of apathy and ambivalence.  People are living without purpose.

Sure, people get up and go to their jobs.  They pay their bills.  They even get their kids to school, sometimes they even get them there on time.

But, life, time, work seem like punishments or at best, necessary evils to those living without purpose.  We who live purposeful lives consider these resources, gifts, blessings.  Our lives, our time, our enterprises are blessings of purpose.

How can we patiently wait upon the Lord?  We do so by living a life of purpose.  Jesus said that people will know that we follow him by our love. 

Some fool themselves that they have not found their purpose in life.  The fact is that it is not and was never hidden.  Love God and love each other are surely at the heart of our purpose.  How we work these things out will vary, but we share these common purposes.

Loving God and loving others are purposes that are not hidden.  Let me get Presbyterian on you, and add one.  Let us enjoy God very much.

How can I wait upon the Lord?  How can I be patient while I wait? 

Love!

Number your days.

Live with purpose.

Enjoy your relationship with God so very much!

You know the saying that time flies when you are having fun.  It may be true but it’s not all-inclusive.

Time flies when you are living with purpose.

Time flies when you are living a life of love.

Time flies when you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The tasks may be challenging.  The price paid may be high.  There may be some suffering involved but the wait itself is not debilitating. 

I used to dread a visit to the doctor or dentist.  It wasn’t the time with either that bothered me.  It was the time lost in the waiting room.  Well, I don’t mind those appointments so much anymore.

As I wait upon the doctor, I am writing a sermon, preparing a lesson, writing a book, listening to or counseling the person next to me, or sharing the gospel.  Time in the waiting room goes quickly.  I can wait patiently because my waiting time is purposed time.

But you think that all waiting can’t be purposeful.  Life happens.  Pain happens.  Suffering happens. 

James tells us that we are right.  Life happens.  Pain happens. Suffering happens.  Then he has the audacity to tell us to persevere and be blessed.  Perseverance without purpose is just stoicism.  James is telling us to continue in our purpose, to persevere in our purpose, to endure until the day of the Lord.  And while we are at it, be patient and know the Lord’s timing will be exactly right.

He has the boldness to say that waiting for the harvest is just the way it is supposed to be.  Look at the farmer.

James reminds us that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.  We are not waiting and wondering.  We wait with anticipation of the good things that the Lord has promised.

Some of you can hardly wait to celebrate Christmas day.  Immediate gratification is our nature, but we are to be excited and patient at the same time as we wait on the coming of our Lord on a day announced only by his coming.

It sounds like something impossible—be excited and patient.  It’s not impossible.  Our hearts can cry out Come Lord Jesus and we can listen to the Spirit that lives within us and be patient as we wait for the Lord’s return.

You know what I couldn’t stand in school.  It still gets under my skin.  What was it?  Busywork.  Just doing something for the sake of filling the time.  We don’t fill the time!

Waiting on the Lord seems excruciating when we are just filling the time.  Waiting on the Lord’s return while we are living this life to the full, living purposefully, living lives of love is just being patient.  If we are enjoying our relationship with God in the course of serving him, time flies.

Maybe, there’s a little farmer in all of us.

Let’s look forward with excitement and anticipation to our Lord’s return.  Let’s be patient and purposeful while we wait.

Excitement and anticipation.

Patience and purpose.

We can wait upon the Lord.

Amen.