“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  John 12:25

I love my life.  I have a beautiful, godly, gifted wife who happens to also be an amazing mom.  Together we have 4 children who succeed in all they do.  They actually like each other and when our fourth came along 13 years after we thought we were finished, none of them resented him or the attention he receives, but each became a pretty darn good parent in their own right.  We live in a safe and peaceful neighborhood in a spacious house with everything we need and more.  Our families are supportive and loving and even love each other.  We love our jobs, our church, our friends, and most of all each other.  I love my life.

This makes this verse in John a hard one to swallow.  Jesus is speaking to the tendency of His people toward comfort and self-indulgence.  And truth be told, I don’t know anyone around me who does not fit that description in spades.  To my discredit, I know few if any people who are chronically hungry, or oppressed, or fear for their life.  I don’t know anyone who wants for anything, who is part of the second half of this verse: those who hate their life in this world.  It is a difficult thing to ponder this verse in a land of prosperity.

Does God mean for us to purposely live lives that are hateful, not because we don’t have something we want but because we don’t have anything we need?  Does Jesus call us to give all we have to the poor and come and follow Him?  What would that look like in our context?  What if that wasn’t just a call to that particular rich young man, or a metaphor for needing God, or any of the other misinterpretations we foist upon ourselves whenever we read a verse like this?  What if Jesus really meant it?  If so, I’m in a lot of trouble.  How about you?

“So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.”  2 Chron. 10:19

This verse from our Old Testament reading today foreshadows the end of our New Testament reading.  John’s gospel makes clear the division between the Jews (“Israel”) and Jesus (“of the house of David”).  But there is another verse that also speaks from the Old Testament reading to the New Testament reading today.  “…for this is My (God’s) doing.”  2 Chron. 11:4.  Jesus was opposed by the Jews, the Pharisees, the Jewish Leaders, or the Scribes, depending on which story and which gospel you are reading.  Some say Jesus was killed by the Jews, and some say it was at the hand of Rome.  And both of these would be true in their own way.  The Jewish leaders sought out ways to arrest Jesus, handed Him over to the Romans, and riled up the crowd against Him at His trial.  The Romans were the ones to pronounce the sentence of death and to carry it out since the Jews did not have the authority to do so.  Both are to be held accountable for Jesus’ death.

But ultimately, it was God’s doing that Jesus should die for His people.  This was not a change in God’s plan once people began to sin.  This was not a “plan B” at all.  It was the plan from the beginning of time.  All events happened, were directed by God, to create this scenario, to lead to the cross.  Israel’s rebellion against the house of David personified in Jesus Christ was God’s doing.  It is His fault.

But if we are to lay the blame for Jesus’ death at God’s feet, then we must also give Him credit for the Resurrection, for you can’t have one without the other.  As foreshadowed so specifically in Lazarus’ rising, the stone of Jesus’ tomb would be rolled away and Jesus would rise again as well.  It may be the ultimate proof of God’s omnipotence and direction in our lives, that He would plan to sacrifice Jesus for our sins, only to resurrect Him as the first, but not the last, of us to experience resurrection.  It is God’s plan, God’s doing, but the end of the plan is eternal life with Him.

This summer, our congregational gatherings revolve around our church’s Core Values:

Community – June 13
Authenticity – June 27
Relationships – July 11
Engagement – the week of Aug. 2 through Aug. 7

We’re calling it “LCC C.A.R.E.S.” Each event this summer will focus on one of these themes.  To learn more about each event and to sign up to participate in them, simply click on the word above!  We will also post each event individually so you can get more details.

“It is in our greatest difficulties that God reveals Himself most clearly.”

We humans spend most of our lives seeking comfort and pleasure, security and significance.  We avoid pain, sorrow, and sadness like the plague.  We go to unbelievable extremes to solve every problem, cheer ourselves up, and stay away from anything difficult.  When was the last time you thought, “O goody!  A problem!”

Yet at the same time, we should know by now that all of these things we seek don’t lead us closer to God.  In fact, they lead us away from God, toward self-sufficiency.  It is not in our comfort but in our difficulties that we draw closer to God.

The biggest difficulty we face in this life is death.  It is the ultimate enemy and every movie we watch tells us so.  Even the scriptures call it the Last Enemy.  And for Mary and Martha, it was an enemy who had won the battle, stealing their brother Lazarus away from them.  They had called Jesus, their friend and healer, but He was too late.

And yet it is in the face of death that we get the most powerful statement of Jesus’ identity in the whole of scripture:  “I Am the resurrection and the life.”  John puts this story at the very center of his gospel, literally and thematically, to emphasize this point.  As these friends faced the greatest difficulty of their lives, the premature death of their brother, they saw God revealed in Jesus Christ in a way they never could have before.

When we are tempted to avoid our difficulties, or blame God for them, lets first take a moment, even in their midst, to see how God might be revealing Himself and drawing us closer to Him in the midst of them.

“It is in our greatest difficulties that God reveals Himself most clearly.”

We humans spend most of our lives seeking comfort and pleasure, security and significance.  We avoid pain, sorrow, and sadness like the plague.  We go to unbelievable extremes to solve every problem, cheer ourselves up, and stay away from anything difficult.  When was the last time you thought, “O goody!  A problem!”

Yet at the same time, we should know by now that all of these things we seek don’t lead us closer to God.  In fact, they lead us away from God, toward self-sufficiency.  It is not in our comfort but in our difficulties that we draw closer to God.

The biggest difficulty we face in this life is death.  It is the ultimate enemy and every movie we watch tells us so.  Even the scriptures call it the Last Enemy.  And for Mary and Martha, it was an enemy who had won the battle, stealing their brother Lazarus away from them.  They had called Jesus, their friend and healer, but He was too late.

And yet it is in the face of death that we get the most powerful statement of Jesus’ identity in the whole of scripture:  “I Am the resurrection and the life.”  John puts this story at the very center of his gospel, literally and thematically, to emphasize this point.  As these friends faced the greatest difficulty of their lives, the premature death of their brother, they saw God revealed in Jesus Christ in a way they never could have before.

When we are tempted to avoid our difficulties, or blame God for them, lets first take a moment, even in their midst, to see how God might be revealing Himself and drawing us closer to Him in the midst of them.