Acts 2:1-21; I Corinthians 12:1-13

Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the    meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us andgrant that we may hear and in hearing be led in   the wayyou want us to go.  Amen.

There is a story which I told before, about a boy who waswandering around the   narthex of an Cathedral one Sundaymorning and stopped and examined a large bronze plaque   that was hung on the wall.  

"What are all those names up there?"  he asked one of the ushers.  

"Those are  the names of people who died in the service." the usher replied.  

Curious, the boy asked the usher.  "which service, the   9:00 service or the 11:45 service?"

I am happy to report today that what we are celebrating, is a birth - not a death- the  birth of the church - the birth of Christ in you and me - and in all who   call on his name.

It is a significant day - the day on which the first     believers came alive in their faith, the day when the    Rock upon which Christ planted his church began to       support and uphold an incredible new life - a life that  has existed since the world began, but which was poured  out in a special fashion and took on flesh in  you and memuch as it took life in Jesus, the earthly son of Mary,  the son of Godso long ago.

Pentecost is an event that the world has long been       promised and which the people of God have long awaited.

Pentecost is the reversal of what occurred at the Tower  of Babel when, because  of our sinfulness, we became     unable to understand one another.

It is the gifting of God to make us one - and to make us one in the way he is one.

Pentecost is our becoming Christ in the world.  It is Godtaking on flesh - not  only in the least of those to     whom we give water to drink or clothes to wear; but      taking on flesh in us.

Praise be to God.  God keeps all his promises.

Pentecost gives us the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

The eyes to see that God is in the details, that God is  in the flesh - as well as in the Spirit.  And the ears tohear him speaking in our hearts and upon the lips of     others - in the rush of the wind.

The eyes to see and the ears to hear - as one - and as   unique persons valued and treasured so much by God that  God comes to us as we are and makes us even more   truly who we are when we are His. The story of the birth of thechurch, of that  day some fifty days after the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus that Jews   and Christians  call Pentecost - tells us that this what God has done -  and is yet doing.  

The followers of Jesus are given the ability to speak the languages of all those who are assembled in the city and beyond.  God grants that we might understand   one      another and that we might understand the good news - in  just  the way we need to hear it.

Much as God communicates to each one of us here today.

We hear the gospel in our own language, in our images,   with our own metaphors, with our own ears.

Some today will be encouraged to spend more time in      praise and wonder to thank God for blessings, others will hear that the power that they need for tomorrow's trials and tribulations will come, still others will take heart - knowing that God is present to them at all times.

Whatever it is - it will be filled with God - and        uniquely yours.

Pentecost is the birth of the Church.  It is God amongst us in power, making us  not simply a group of believers, but Christ in the world, unafraid, empowered.   bearing   the cross out of love, and being raised from the Grave  in glory.

I began with a story - I would like to end with another. One that I pray that   God will use in your life as you  meditate upon it from time to time.  It is a very simple,but true story about a man called Yates, but who could
be you and me - and this congregation - or any of a      thousand and one other  congregations, a thousand and oneother persons. 

The story is told of a man called Yates who, during the  depression, owned a sheep ranch in Texas.  He did not    have enough money to continue paying on the mortgage -in fact he was forced like many others to live on governmentsubsidies.  

Each day as he tended his sheep he worried about how he  was going to pay his bills.  Sometime later a            seismographic crew arrived on his land and said that     there might be oil on his land and could they test drill.After a lease was signed they went ahead. 

At 1115 feet a huge oil reserve was struck - subsequent  wells revealed even more oil than the first well         revealed.  Mr Yates owned it all.  He had the oil and    mineral rights.  He had been living on relief - yet he   was  a millionaire.  Think of it - he owned all that oil with its tremendous potential, yet for many  years he didnot realize it.

How often are we like Mr. Yate's?  Considering ourselves poor and helpless all   the while unaware of the         extraordinary power that we have available to us - that   which is lying just below the surface in our minds and  our hearts.

We here today are a Pentecost People. 
The Spirit has been and is being poured out upon us.
The gift of God is just below the surface in our minds   and hearts, and to the  right and to the left of us -    above us and below us, to the front and to the rear.

Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One, and   blessed be the church   which his victory has won.  Amen.

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of  our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable tothee, oh our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Today I want to talk to you about devotion - devotion to the teachings of the apostles, to the fellowship of the  church, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

The first thing I want to tell you is this - that without devotion to these things our life as individuals - and our life as a church - cannot succeed.

It can't succeed because without devotion to those things God has
given us, we end up adrift - we end up separated from our Lord -
the shepherd of our souls, and swept away by the false teachings
of our world.  
   We loose the strength and the hope that we are supposed to
   have, and our joy, our health, and our strength, quickly
   dissipates.
       We become a people who are lifeless and unattractive and,
       unless we change our ways, unless, by the grace of God, we
       are once again found - we stumble and fall..

The father of all lies tries to tell us - that devotion,
      - that the dedication of ones time and energy to the
      teachings of the apostles,
      - and to the fellowship of the church,
      - and to the breaking of bread and to prayer,
is not really all that important.

He tries to tell us that we can get by with an occasional prayer,
   and that it will not hurt all that much if we don't read and
   learn about the bible,
       and that a person doesn't really have to attend church or
       get involved in Christian groups to be a follower of
       Christ.

This is a lie - and anyone who tells you otherwise is speaking to
you with the voice of Satan. 

The secret of every growing church, and the basis of every
healthy spiritual life, is an overriding commitment to hearing
the word of God and applying it to one's life.

It is a dedication to the health and prosperity - both spiritual
and physical, of one's fellow believers, and the desire to invoke
the presence of God within that community, and within one's own
private prayer life.

I am sure many of you have seen the bumper sticker that says
- the family that prays together, stays together -

We are the family of God 
- and unless we pray - together,
- unless we study and seek the will of God in the word of God - together,
- and unless we share good times and bad times - together,
we will suffer the fate that comes upon those who stay apart,
we will be alone;
and ultimately we will loose our sense of direction; 
our sense of purpose; our faith.

And that is happening and has happened in churches throughout
North America and Europe.  

It is happening in those places where individual happiness is
prized more than righteousness;
   where pursuing material success is held to be important than
   spending time in community
       where golf on Sunday or watching Football or taking the
       kids to a ball game is deemed more important than building
       one's relationship with God 
   where watching TV or going shopping for the weekend is deemed
   more important than sharing with one's brothers and sisters
   the joys and the concerns that we have and praying together
   and sharing together those things which have helped us in
   God's word.

I assume, that despite our parent's advice, that all of us have
played with fire.

We have sat before a fire place or a camp fire,
and watched the coals glowing red and hot.
And all of us know - that if we take a single coal out of the
centre of the fire and place it to one side - it soon turns dull
grey, its bright heat becomes first lukewarm and then cold -
while the rest of the fire continues to burn.

So it is with us.

Separate a person from the Christian community, 
take them away from the place in which the word is proclaimed,
bread is broken,
and prayers uttered,
and soon the light of their faith grows dull,
and the warmth within their souls begins to diminish.

Let no one lie to you!

You can't be a Christian,
at least you can't be an effective Christian, 
a fully alive Christian,
   one who, as Jesus says in today's reading - has life and that
   abundantly,
if you do not listen to the voice of the shepherd who calls you by name,
or if you flee from the sheepfold that he would lead you to for
your own safety.

How can you expect do what is right, 
   how can you expect to experience the blessings of God
       how can you hope to minister to one another the love of
       Christ and feel that love return to you 30, or 60 or 100
       fold,
if you do not turn to Christ and listen to his voice?
if you do not enter the sheepfold with your brothers and sisters?
if you do not pray together and work together and love each other
with the love of Christ?

You can't!  And the evidence of that is all around us.
It is in the people we meet day by day who claim to believe in
and love God - and yet have none of the signs of the abundant
life that Christ promises to all who hear his voice and enter his
sheepfold.

Devotion, Dedication, Commitment --
this is the secret of success in all endeavours,
and in all endeavours that devotion, that dedication, that
commitment is focussed on specific things.

To experience life - and that abundantly - as Christ says we can,
our focus must be on the teachings of the apostles, which are the
teachings of our Lord,
      on the fellowship of the believers,
       on the breaking of bread - the invoking of Christ's
       presence in community,
            and on prayer.

The early church had this focus - 
and the results were tremendous.

As Luke tells us in today's reading -

   "all who believed were together and had all things in
   common, they would sell their possessions and goods and
   distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  Day by
   day, they spent much time together in the temple, they
   broke bread from house to house, and ate their food with
   glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having the
   goodwill of all the people.  And day by day God added to
   their number those who were being saved."

Day by day, God added to their number.

From that first community - came the entire church - 
   a church that survived the stoning of Stephen,
       the persecution of Paul,
          and the destruction of Jerusalem itself.

The early church survived and prospered,
   because the people within it committed themselves to one
   another and to the Lord who brought them together,
              
The early church grew and spread like a fire in dry grass
   because those who believed sought God' presence, and prayed
   for his will to be done in their midst, not just one day a
   week, but each and every day.

I wonder how many of us even pray each and every day?
let alone seek out the fellowship of fellow believers and pray
with them and eat with them on a regular and consistent basis?

I wonder how many of us read the scriptures each day?
or even think about what it is God has said in the past to us?
let alone seek to hear what it is he may be trying to say to us
now - in the midst of our busy routines?

I am sure everyone here is familiar with the expression - "cool
as a cucumber".

   The expression "cool as a cucumber: refers to someone who
   is able to remain calm and collected in the heat of life's
   battles.  The expression actually has its basis in
   scientific fact.  A cucumber lying in the sun on a hot day
   is cooler on the inside than the outside.  In fact the
   centre can be as much as ten degrees cooler that the
   outside.  Even without a thermometer, the temperature can
   be easily detected by the touch.

   But the difference in temperature between the inside and
   the outside can only exist as long as the cucumber is
   attached to the vine.  Once the cucumber is severed, it
   loses its ability to "keep its cool."

Like the cucumber, we can only keep our cool in the midst of
difficult circumstances, we can only thrive in the midst of an
insane world, as long as we remain attached to the vine.

Our vine is the fellowship of fellow believers and its head -
Jesus Christ.  The sap which runs through it is the word of God
and the power unleashed in listening to it and in breaking bread
together and in praying together. 

In the vine we have life.

Jesus said: "I am the vine, you are the branches.  They
   who abide in me and I in them, bear much fruit, but apart
   from me you can do nothing."

Jesus also said - I am the gate for the sheep.  Whoever
   enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out
   and find pasture. 

God has prepared a fold for us,
He has made ready a safe haven for us,
and appointed a faithful shepherd over us.

To enjoy that haven, we need  to listen to voice of our shepherd,
and together, in the company of our fellow believers, follow him.

When we follow him - he will lead us by the still waters, 
and to the green pastures,
and he will keep us safe as we walk through the valley of the
shadow of death
his rod and his staff will comfort us.

And the opposite is also true.

When we fail to follow him,
when we fail to listen to his voice
and join ourselves with the rest of the flock
the waters will not be stilled,
we will experience terror in the valley of the shadow of death,
and our cups will not overflow in the presence of our enemies.

We need,
and all those who claim to believe in God need,
to truly commit ourselves to our Lord and his teachings,
and to one another as brothers and sisters in him
if we are to be as alive as was the church in Jerusalem after the
day of Pentecost.

As we do this, as we pray and break bread together
Christ our Lord will do the rest.
He will make sure our souls are restored,
he will set a table before us in the presence of our enemies
and ensure that we dwell in the house of God forever,

He will do this, for he is the bread of life; 
and the good shepherd; 
the way and the door; 
the resurrection and the life,
the one in whom God was pleased to fully dwell within,
the one in whom God is even now fully revealed for those with
eyes to see and ears to hear.

Praise be unto our God, and to our Lord Jesus Christ - now and
forevermore AMEN

I Peter 2:1-10 and John 14:1-14

"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen.

Peter begins the second chapter of his first letter to God's chosen people with an exhortation:

He writes: "Rid yourselves then, of all evil; no more lying or hypocrisy, or jealousy, or insulting language. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up in your salvation."

In the last verse of today's gospel reading Jesus says: "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

What do you crave? What do you yearn for? What blessing do you ask God for?

A couple of items for you to ponder as you think about that question.

Some years ago, I understand that a well-known televangelist sent green prayer cloths to thousands of his viewers. God supposedly told him that the prayer cloth would be a point of contact, between him and the audience, for releasing God's blessing - with one essential condition. His viewers needed to send lots of money with the prayer cloth, or as he put it, "Sow your very best seed."

To those who returned the green cloth with some money, the televangelist promised great prosperity: "Send me your green prayer cloth as my point of contact with you!" he pleaded. "When I touch your cloth, it will be like touching you! When you touch this cloth, it will be like taking MY hand and touching me. I want the anointing that God has put upon my life for miracles of finances and prosperity to come directly from my hand to yours... You can reign in life like a king!" According to this televangelist, within months of sending in her prayer cloth, one woman received $286,000 in bonds and $65,000 in cash. Also, as a bonus, her husband was delivered from alcoholism.

That's interesting. Get rich and have your family problems solved in a moment by just sending for a prayer cloth. It seems like a good deal.

The second item is something that appeared in a newspaper quite a while ago.

The Rev. Patrick Leary is the rector of the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer in Las Vegas, Nevada. He says visitors to the cathedral there often make the same request.

Can you guess what it is??

"Father, will you pray for me to win?"

The article continues by saying that Father Leary pointing around at the beautiful church and said to the reporter, "I tell them if it was that easy, do they think we will still have a debt on this place? I believe in the power of prayer, but even prayer has its limits."

"Even prayer has its limits." Do you believe that??

If you do - what do you do then with these words of Jesus: "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it"?

Think of the possibilities - a new car, a new home, a cure for baldness. All we have to do is ask.

"If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."

Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, a well know preacher many years ago, said that once, when he was a high school student, he had a very difficult examination. But he had discovered that verse, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do..."

He believed that verse meant that all he had to do was ask and he would pass the exam. He told God he was believing God's promise, and he wanted a good grade. The next day young Weatherhead took the examination, but when the grades were in, he had failed. He was disillusioned. He rebelled and almost lost his faith. He came to the conclusion that the promises of the Bible were not good - all because God had not granted his wish for a good grade.

The next year he repeated that course. He worked hard, and he passed. This time he decided that he did not need God, that he could get along by himself.

I think that this is a conclusion that many of us reach - we need something, we want something, and we pray for it - and - when we don't see the results that we want, we come close to losing our faith. At the very least - we conclude as did Dr. Weatherhead that we can, or we must, get along by ourselves.

Fortunately, Leslie Weatherhead changed his opinion over the years. Fortunate because his life touched hundreds of thousands of people, bringing to them the blessings of God in a way that the televangelist I mentioned earlier has not.

After some years had passed, Dr Weatherhead came to understand that his own powers and abilities were in reality the power that God had given to him. He began to realize that God had already given him the power to pass the examination, but he had not used that power the first time.

God never gives us more power than we need. As Dr. Charles L. Allen has said, "Until we are willing to use what God has already given us, there is no need to ask for any more."

"If you ask Me anything in My name," said Jesus, "I will do it." Quite a claim. But let's examine it a little closer.

Notice first of all that Jesus is talking to his disciples.

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?", Jesus asks his disciples. "The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.... I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son...."

Jesus is giving his disciples words of encouragement." You have seen the blind recover their sight," he is saying. "You have seen the lame made whole. You're going to do greater works than that!"

Jesus was talking to the church. He was not talking about new houses or new cars or passing examinations. He was talking about the work of the Kingdom. He was saying that when his disciples decide to get into action doing the work God has called them to do, and when they enlist God's help, nothing is impossible! And that is true. Nothing is impossible for the church of Jesus Christ!

What do you crave, what do you desire the most?

Do you thirst for pure spiritual milk?
Do you yearn to do the works that Jesus did?
Do you desire that the church, that the people of God, that you yourself, might make a great witness to the world and bring glory to God's name?

Dr. Robert Schuller, that legendary advocate of Possibility Thinking, says that there are two words that have killed more God-inspired dreams and hopes than anything else he can think of.

The two words are "Be realistic!"

If we Christians, Dr. Schuller says, were "realistic" then nothing would be accomplished. He cites the example of Tom Dempsey - a young man who was born with half a right foot and deformed right arm but a ton of faith.

Dempsey wanted to be a football player - in spite of his considerable handicaps. And he did play football. He became a kicker for his high school team. But that was not enough. He wanted to play college ball. And again, he became the kicker on his college team. But when he graduated from college, his dream became even wilder and more fantastic. He wanted to be a professional football player!

A professional football player with half a foot and a deformed right arm. Impossible! No coach would accept him. They all shook their heads. All except one, and it is ironic and more than coincidental that Dempsey became a kicker for the professional football team, The New Orleans SAINTS!

The rest, as they say, is history. In 1972, Dempsey kicked the longest field goal ever - 63 yards! All because he was not realistic! All because, Schuller tells us, Tom Dempsey had faith in Jesus Christ who gave him the strength to do what he dreamed.

Amazing things are accomplished in this world by people who believe and will not give up. Our text for the day says that you and I are capable of amazing things when we set out to serve Jesus Christ. Jesus was speaking to his church when he said, "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." Nothing is impossible for the church of Jesus Christ.

But there is something else just as important... Jesus adds a qualifier: "And whatever you ask in My name," Jesus promises, "that will I do, that the Father may be glorified..."

Christ will do anything we ask if it glorifies the Father. Here is where we generally stumble. Not everything we do in the church is done to the glory of God.

Isaac Asimov, familiar to many as a noted scientist and author, once told a hilarious story about a Rabbi Feldman who was having trouble with his congregation.

It seemed they could agree upon nothing. The president of the congregation said, "Rabbi, this cannot be allowed to continue. Come, there must be a conference, and we must settle all areas of dispute once and for all." The rabbi agreed.

At the appointed time, therefore, the rabbi, the President, and ten elders met in the conference room of the synagogue, sitting about a magnificent mahogany table. One by one the issues were dealt with and on each issue, it became more and more apparent that the rabbi was a lonely voice in the wilderness. The president of the synagogue said, "Come, Rabbi, enough of this. Let us vote and allow the majority to rule." He passed out the slips of paper and each man made his mark. The slips were collected and the president said, "You may examine them, Rabbi. It is eleven to one against you. We have the majority."

Whereupon the rabbi rose to his feet in offended majesty. "So," he said, "you now think because of the vote that you are right and I am wrong. Well, that is not so. I stand here" - and he raised his arms impressively - "and call upon the Holy One of Israel to give us a sign that I am right and you are wrong."

And as he said this, there came a frightful crack of thunder and a brilliant flash of lightning that struck the mahogany table and cracked it in two. The room was filled with smoke and fumes, and the President and the elders were hurled to the floor. Through the carnage, the rabbi remained erect and untouched, his eyes flashing and a grim smile on his face. Slowly, the President lifted himself above what was left of the table. His hair was singed, his glasses were hanging from one ear, his clothing was in disarray.

Finally he said, "All right, eleven to two. But we still have the majority."

We all know that not everything that is done in the church is done to the glory of God.

But wouldn't it be great if we had a dream for this church that was big enough that we would have to depend on God to accomplish it? And wouldn't it be great if we searched our hearts and souls with prayer so that our dream would match God's dream? Wouldn't it be great if we yearned for the pure spiritual milk that will helps us to grow in our salvation - and which affects the whole world around us?

George Barna, a church-growth specialist, asked a group of pastors how they believed Christ would rate their church if He were to return today. Fifty-three percent of those pastors said Christ would rate their church as having little or no positive impact on souls or society.

How sad. How very sad. Wouldn't it be great if we could see concrete evidence that our community is a better community and our town is a better town because this church is here?

Christ tells us we can see such evidence - if we dream great dreams and if those dreams are to God's glory and not our own.

What do we crave? What do we yearn for? What do we desire?

All prayer is answered my friends. Even the prayers that we ask strictly for ourselves and for our families.

Sometimes the answer is no - I have plans - trust me in this. Sometimes it is - no, not yet, the time is not right.

Other times it is yes - I thought you'd never ask. And still other times it is yes - and just wait to see what else I have in store for you.

What God does for the faithful - what God allows to happen to them - how God answers their prayer - always works for the good.

As that is true for each of us as individual believers is doubly true for us as the church - for us as the people who gather in God's name to worship and work together the works he calls us to work.

If we dream a dream for this church and if it is truly God's dream, then great things will happen and each of us can be part of it.

What is your dream? What do you desire the most? Is it pure spiritual milk that you may grow in your salvation and continue to know that God is good? Is it to do the works of God - even greater works than Christ did - that God's name may be glorified?

I started this message with the first words from today's reading, from the First Letter of Peter. I would like to conclude with the last words from that reading - where Peter writes:

"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy; but now you have received mercy."

We have a purpose - and we have the tools that we need to accomplish that purpose, so much so that we can do even greater things than did Christ - should we desire to.

"You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Why not put Christ to the test?

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen

Acts 2:14a,22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

How different this day seems to be from Last Sunday. One week ago we sparkled and smiled - we sang and we soared as we took part in the Great Festival of our Faith - Easter Sunday and our Celebration of the Resurrection.

But today - today seems to be just another Sunday.

Gone too are the secular aspects of Easter

- the chocolate bunnies have been consumed
- the gaily coloured eggs which were hidden have been found and eaten
- the jelly beans have been mashed into the carpet and removed, and our children were just as much trouble to rouse from bed today as they ever have been on those days which are not special.

Gone too is the contrast between the sombre sanctuary on Good Friday with the black drapes and low lighting and the beautifully arrayed communion table of Easter Day. Gone is the aroma of lilies - and our choir, which swells so much for Easter - well it seems to be entirely on holiday.

Indeed, I suspect that most of feel as though we are right back where we were before Easter - fighting familiar frustrations and bearing well known burdens, as if Easter had never occurred.

That is precisely why we need to grasp the message of this the Second Sunday of Easter, the message concerning how the Risen Christ gave new life to the disciples, how he gave them the Holy Spirit and energized them and gave them confidence, how he made them into people who were filled with both peace and power.

I think it is important for us to understand just what the disciples were like after the first Easter Sunday.

The vast majority of Churches around the world today, and every Sunday following Easter every year, read the same text, the same scripture, the same story, that we heard this morning: the story of how Jesus appeared to his disciples in the Upper Room.

We all know that the first generation Christians did not hesitate to preach the good news of Christ's resurrection. They knew what they had seen, and they knew God had sent them to tell others what he had done in Christ - and they did so - with verve, and conviction, and courage - so much so that they converted thousands of people to the new faith.

But it was not always that way.

At first the disciples were scared, they were afraid, and insofar as they met together, they met behind closed doors - behind doors that were locked, so the scriptures tell us, because they feared the authorities; because they were afraid that what had happened to Jesus might happen to them.

They knew already that Jesus was risen - the women had told them about the empty tomb, and about encountering Jesus in the garden, and they had, over the previous years, witnessed many great miracles performed by Jesus.

Peter had himself managed to walk on water with the help of Jesus - and everyone of the 12 faithful followers had brought healing to the sick in his name - each one had commanded demons to come forth from the possessed - and many more had eaten of the bread that seemed to never end, the bread and the fish brought to Jesus by a small boy to help feed a crowd of thousands.

The disciples had witnessed much and taken part in much and been commanded by Jesus to do much.

But after Good Friday - and indeed even after Easter Sunday they were powerless people.

They could not make themselves do what the Lord had commanded.

Their frail faith could not be made formidable simply by declaring, "We have seen the Lord". They could not be made strong by another requirement from the Redeemer. They could not be made dedicated through demands.

Certainly Jesus knew that. So he did something else.

When he appeared to them he not only blessed them, saying "Peace be with you". He not only told them "As the Father has sent me, so I send you". He breathed on them - he said "Receive the Holy Spirit". And by his presence - by his command - by the breath of live in him, he gave the breath of life to them.

As one commentator puts it - he gave power to the powerless.

You and I often share the feeling of hopelessness of those persons who huddled in the upper room till the Spirit came to them.

We, too, are often shattered by the strain of battle, the strain of living, the strain of trying to make sense of out things, the strain of trying to do what is right - but of not being sure of just how to do it, where to do it, and when to do it.

Like the first disciples before the Spirit came we are often fearful, and in our fear we cling together, spiritually hiding ourselves away behind closed doors, behind locked doors as it were, so that what little energy, what few resources, what slender hope we have left might be kept safe.

We regard the church as important - and its mission as important - but we have no energy - no life - we feel worn down.

We are fearful because the whole matter of God, and of heaven, and of resurrection and re-birth just seems a little too much to believe in, in a world of multi-culturalism, mass communication, and myth debunking science.

We are fearful because of our declining numbers, our empty Sunday School class rooms, and our drained bank accounts.

We are fearful because we know that the world scorns us - and because we realize that as we are get older each day the world itself is getting ever more hostile, ever more unfriendly.

And in fear - we come to believe that no program, no promise, no plan, no powerful preaching, no perky youth ministry, no parking lot, no persistence, can possibly save us.

And we are right in this belief.

When all is said and done we are no different than the first disciples. We have absolutely nothing going for us that the world does not have going for it - perhaps in fact less - except, that is, for one thing - The Risen Christ and the Spirit he gives us.

And that is the point of today's story from the Gospel of John.

In the final analysis, it is a story of how the risen Christ pushed open the bolted door of a church with absolutely nothing, of how the risen Christ enters the fearful chambers of every church, of every believer, and fills the place with his own life.

What we are asked to recognize - what I want you to realize, is that every church is this way!

No matter what a church says about itself, if it is left to its own devices, if it draws only upon its own resources, it is nothing.

Apart from the Risen Christ the church is an empty place. Apart from the Spirit that Jesus breaths upon us we are hollow vessels - with nothing to offer - nothing of significance to share, no different in the end than any social agency or service club.

Indeed the ceaseless and frenetic activity of many congregations with various programs for their congregations, is often the lonely attempt of a group of scared and hopeless people, to fill in the void where God, "the most missed of all missing persons" should be.

A doomed attempt - because in the end - the Shopping Mall, and the YMCA, even, dare I say it, the government, offers better facilities than can our church.

The answer my friends is not in better programs, plans, promises, or projects (though all of these have their purpose and their place in the church) it is in the person of Christ Jesus - and in the gift he brings us even when we are hiding behind locked doors out of fear.

The fundamental reality of our faith lies not in what we believe,

- it rests not in our acceptance of dogma and creed
- or even in thinking that resurrection happened and that miracles can still occur.

The reality of faith - the significance of our faith lies not in these things, nor in our belief, but in who we believe in.

The power that transformed the first disciples from fearful people into men and women who were unafraid to speak to crowds of thousands - unafraid to testify before the very authorities who crucified their Lord - willing to travel vast distances and endure stoning, imprisonment, and poverty - and able to convince men, women and children that something important hinged on their acceptance of their message concerning the person of Jesus Christ, was not the power that is unleashed by their being reflective - by their writing down their dreams in a journal - or even by their praying a lot, it was the power granted by the one in whom we believe - the power that he gave to them in their locked room when he breathed the Holy Spirit upon them - and then again poured out that Spirit upon all believers on the day of Pentecost.

For thousands of years, my friends, there have been many men and women and children who have huddled together out of fear.

- They have seen their hopes and their dreams in this world turn to ashes
- They have believed in God and in bitterness and in grief gazed upon what seems to be his death.
- They have locked the doors to their hearts, afraid of experiencing one more pain, one more disappointment.
- They have all but given up hope.

And for two thousand years their have been men and women and children in this situation who have experienced what the first disciples experienced.

As they have assembled to worship, as they have sought the face of God, as they have striven to understand what it is that God is about, they have experienced Christ suddenly standing among them, they have heard his word - peace be with you and felt his breath touch them and fill them and they have gone out and - with nothing else but this experience, this encounter in the deep and silent place within their hearts, transformed their homes, their communities, and indeed their world.

All of us - if we have an ounce of conscience long for something more than what we see now around us - within the church and within the world.

The renewals that have happened and which most surely will happen again, happen not because of us and our inner strength and purpose, they happen because of God - and his love; they happen because Jesus is alive, because he has been able to burst out of the sealed tomb and to enter into locked rooms and fill hearts that need him.

The good feelings of Easter Sunday may be seven days in the past, the afflictions of daily life may have returned full force, but the reality of Easter - the Risen Christ - is still with us.

He has not forsaken us.

Trust him. Give thanks to him - knowing that as he has risen to new life so he is here to bring new life to us all.

He is here - and he will bring that life - even though there be locked doors in his way.

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.

Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 28:1-10

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Where the Gospel according to Matthew ends, the Christian faith begins - in the resurrection of our Lord.

The resurrection exhausts our capacity to imagine and it pushes our reasoning ability to the breaking point. However we don't have to explain the resurrection. Rather it explains us, it establishes who we are and why we are here today. Because Easter happened, because the resurrection happened, the church happened.

The story of Easter is so familiar that we sometimes fail to hear some of the details of the account. Today I want us to look at three of those details as they are found in Matthew's account of the first Easter morning.

First, the stone was rolled away - not to let Jesus out - but to let us in.

I say this because the idea that God rolled the stone away from the door to let Jesus escape is inconsistent with the resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded elsewhere in the scriptures - appearances in which he suddenly appeared in the midst of the disciples, even when they were behind closed doors. Closed doors never kept Jesus in or out.

Matthew makes this clear in today's reading. In his account of the resurrection it was after Mary Magdalene and the other Mary had come to the tomb that "there was a great earthquake, and an angel of the Lord rolled away the stone and sat upon it."

For centuries the curious have always wanted to look into the dark depths of death, but the tomb has been sealed with secrecy. The tomb has always mocked us. It has always stood as the "dead end" of all our efforts to peer beyond this life into the life to come.

The angel tells the two women on the first Easter morning to look inside the tomb, saying to them: "do not be afraid, I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised - as he said. Come, see the place where he lay."

Easter rolls the stone door of the tomb away for us so that we might penetrate the mystery of death. It makes of the tomb a tunnel - a tunnel into the heart of the eternal and shows us that the holy heart of God is love and life. God rolls the door of the tomb away not to let Jesus out - but to let us in - to allow us to see that Christ's promises are true.

Second - the tomb is not completely empty - Christ's body is not there, but the place is filled with the words of the angel, the words we just heard, the words that say, "Look, he is not here, he is risen." The words that continue on saying:

"Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples - he has been raised from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee, and there you will see him."

If the women on that first Easter morning had looked into an empty and silent tomb, then our resurrection faith would be a belief based on human speculation, an assumption of the moment, an argument based on negative evidence.

But no! Our faith is based on a word spoken to us by God. It is based on God's holy promise, spoken by Christ before he died, and upon God's holy assurance - spoken by the angel on the first Easter Sunday.

That same word that echoed and re-echoed in that Easter tomb still fills the emptiness of world today. "He is risen". The tomb has become a trumpet proclaiming the victory of life over death, and the continuation of Christ's presence and mission in this world - first in Galilee, and ultimately to the ends of the earth.

The third detail is this - because of Easter we can turn our backs on the grave.

Matthew tells us that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, having heard the angelic assurance, "He is risen", turned their backs on the grave and ran "with great joy" to tell the disciples.

Joy is the key word here. Christ was buried, but he wouldn't stay dead. The tomb could not hold him - and because of him - the tomb cannot hold us either.

This indeed is what Jesus promised to us before he died, a promise that seemed at the time totally incredible, a matter, at best, of metaphor, and hyperbole, but which - because of the first Easter morning, we now know to be a matter of fact and substance.

The stone was rolled away from the tomb, not to let Jesus out, but to let us in, to show us that death is not the end - but rather a new beginning.

A beginning that proclaims the victory of life over death, and which allows us to turn our backs on the grave and face our future with faith and hope, confident that all of God's promises will indeed bear fruit. May His Name be praised day by day. Amen!

Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Matthew 27:1-2,11-50

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

Crowds. They're sometimes scary. Sometimes supportive. There are cheering crowds. And there are jeering crowds. And there is a "crowd mentality".

You've heard of "mob rule". That's the mentality of a crowd. There is no space for individual thoughtfulness. No time for reflection. Just immediate and mass response.

One thing that's been true, from the very moment the first crowd gathered. And that is this: There are usually two sides in a crowd. Whether its a packed stadium for a baseball game, or a political rally, there are those for, and those against. There are the cheerers and the jeerers.

And sometimes one side or the other takes over. Sometimes, you get a crowd that becomes either supportive, or hostile. And often - the balance is delicate and fragile. A crowd can turn on you.

The crowd that Jesus faced in these days at Jerusalem was both.

It started off as a cheering and supportive crowd. And that's the crowd we meet today on Palm Sunday.

But - watch out Jesus! Because - in a very few days - these same people are going to be a very different sort of a crowd for you! And God help you, my Saviour Jesus. These cheering ones - are going to turn into jeering ones.

Jesus attracted crowds.

He was a most charismatic person, this One who called himself the "Son of Man". People came from far and away to hear him. To see him. To witness to the amazing things he was doing. The great and inclusive and loving addresses he gave. The miracles he was known to perform.

But in any crowd - then and now - you get two kinds of people - the believers, and the doubters. And we see this quite often in the Bible - when we are told of the reaction of the crowds, the behaviour of the onlookers.

For example: When Jesus healed the man born blind by making mud with dirt and spit and anointing his eyes with it some of the Pharisees believed it to be a great miracle. Some believed that indeed Jesus was the Messiah.

But many more did not believe. As we heard before, they kept on questioning the healed man. And his parents. And his neighbours. And then they accused both him and Jesus of being an agent of the Devil.

Some for, some against. The cheerers - and the jeerers.

And later - when we look past Good Friday, past Easter, to the events of Pentecost - to them time when the Spirit descended on the disciples like tongues of flame and they began to praise God and speak in other languages, we discover that some of the onlookers saw it miraculous event. To others it was just a big drinking party! "They are filled with new wine" they said.

But - you know - as a crowd takes shape, as "mob rule" comes into effect, the sentiment of the crowd solidifies. The mind of the crowd moves to one side - or the other - of an issue. It can be very frightening. And if you're in such a crowd - there's only a couple of "safe" ways to behave. Either go along with the crowd, or keep quiet.

If you don't agree, better stay silent, or leave - inconspicuously.

Some interesting experiments have been conducted by psychologists to understand crowds. And these experiments show how readily people will change their opinion to match the crowd. And I don't mean pretend to change their opinion, to fake it. I mean - really change their mind.

The experiment was simple. A bunch of people were seated in a dimly lit room. Onto a screen at the front of the room two straight lines were projected. One was obviously longer than the other.

The task was simple. State which line was longer. However unknown to the one subject of this experiment (let us say unknown to you) all of the other people in the room were involved in trickery. They had been told to lie. So - you had twenty or so other people around you saying that line A was the longer one. Everybody else in agreement. And you can see clearly that line B is longer.

What happens? Well, the experiment showed that you change your opinion, that's what. Pure and simple. And - even after the experiment is finished, and you are told what was going on. You still hold to your changed opinion. That line "B" was longer. That's how persuasive the effect of a crowd is. It will even sway you to an obviously wrong opinion - and keep you there.

There was a big crowd in Jerusalem that day. Lots of people who didn't even know who Jesus was - even though he'd been the talk of the country in recent weeks. It was at Passover time, when many Jews from the countryside would be there - celebrating this special feast.

There would be Jews from far away places too. Honouring their religious beliefs by travelling the great distances to Jerusalem, perhaps only once in their lifetime. Going to the Holy City for the most Holy of Feasts - the Passover. And this crowd - this day - was in a happy mood. They're ready for a parade! They are ready to celebrate.

And Jesus - knowing the mood of the city just before Passover - knowing the prophecies concerning how the Messiah would enter Jerusalem - and knowing what would come later - rides into the city on a donkey - his disciples beside him.

For those who have eyes to see - it is significant this choice of animals. Conquering heroes - generals and kings ride into town on horses - on stallions. The Messiah comes in a more humble fashion - on a donkey. Just as predicted by the prophets.

And on this day - and on this crowd - the Spirit of God had descended. "Hosanna" they shouted "Hosanna in the highest Heaven". "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord".

The disciples must have thought they had it made. Success - at last! Where are those arrogant Pharisees now? We've got it made - with Jesus! The people are all for him. They recognize that he is the promised one - the Son of David - it won't be long now - everything is going to go our way.

But Jesus knew what was to come.

He know even as the people shouted on Sunday - Hosanna in the highest - Hosanna to the Son of David - Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. What was to come on Friday.

He knew what the same crowd would shout out when Pilate asked them "What should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?"

He knew that they shout out "Let him be crucified!" And that when Pilate asked, "Why, what evil has he done?" they would shout all the more, "Let him be crucified!"

And so Pilate released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

How quickly things can change. One week a hero, the next just another victim, a person, an object, to be spat upon and scorned - to be beaten and killed.

And yet here we are today - the Sunday before the Friday. With our palm leaves and branches - singing praises to Jesus with our children.

We have cheered with the crowd that cheered for Jesus - and rightly so - for Jesus deserves all our cheers.

But we have also -if we have understood aright, cheered with a heart heavy with the knowledge of what is to come.

In that we are closer to Christ and his knowledge of the real situation than the disciples were.

Jesus knew who he was dying for - he knew that Judas would betray him, that Peter would deny him, that the disciples would abandon him and that crowd would call for his death.

He knew what was to come - and yet he ate and drank with Judas.
He knew and yet he prayed with Peter.
He knew and yet he called all the disciples his friends.
He knew and yet he taught in the marketplace and healed those who came to him.

Jesus knew - and we know.

We know his part - and we know our part - and knowing - we have celebrated and I say to you we must celebrate.

We must cheer for life, knowing that death follows. We must praise Jesus and call him Lord, even knowing that we - like all the others have failed him, and may yet fail him.

We must cheer, and we must remember, we must remember that Jesus knows who we were - and who we are, and what we have done and will yet do, and he still lay down his life for us.

Today we handed out palm leaves so that we might celebrate a token memory of the cheering crowd on Palm Sunday when they lovingly spread palms and cloaks and branches into the roadway ahead of our Saviour. And we have handed out palm leaves shaped into crosses.

Look at what you hold - perhaps you have placed it on a seat beside you...

The palms of "hosanna"! The palms of this "day of acceptance" of our Lord are woven into the cross of rejection.

And yet, it is an empty cross - this cross you hold - a cross which bespeaks resurrection - a cross which bespeaks forgiveness.

It is a very holy mystery - this cross that you hold - this cross upon which Jesus died.

It is a mystery which the crowd can never quite accept. A mystery which you and I cannot truly understand - but which, when we accept it in faith - in our heart of hearts turns earthly despair into heavenly triumph.

Hosanna - Jesus! Hosanna - in the brief moment of earthly acclaim.
Hosanna, and may God your Father give you strength for what is to come.
Hosanna, blessed are you who have come in the name of the Lord to save and deliver your people.

Blessed be your name - now and forevermore. Hosanna in the highest heaven. Amen!

Ephesians 5:8-14; Psalm 23; John 9:1-41

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

After the baptism of his baby brother in church one Sunday, little Johnny sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong.

Finally, the boy replied, "That priest said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I want to stay with you guys!"

Father got the message and they began to go to church regularly...

Needless to say the family had a bit of catching up to do. One day the Sunday School Teacher asked Johnny, "Now, Johnny, tell me - do you say prayers before eating?"

"No madam," little Johnny replies, "I don't have to. My Mom is a very good cook."

As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

Thus began this morning's Gospel Reading.

The entire passage that Lok Man read today deals with blindness - but strangely enough it is not the blindness of the man who was born blind that is central to the passage - despite how this man is mentioned throughout it, rather it is the blindness of those around him and most especially the blindness of the religious teachers and authorities that is central to the passage - their blindness and their sins.

And this is so much so that the closing words of the story about the Man Born Blind - which come after the man born blind has been questioned, his parents questioned, and he has been questioned again and then thrown out of the synagogue by the priests and teachers of the law and has then been found by Jesus and has professed his faith in him and worshipped him are these: "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

And then we hear that some Pharisees who were with Jesus heard him say this and asked,

"What? Are we blind too?"

And Jesus replies

"If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

What are we to make of the story of the man born blind? Well, it is a very rich passage - and today I have time only to touch on a couple of things.

The first thing I would like you to grasp is this - while all people sin and fall short of the glory of God, not all afflictions, perhaps not even most afflictions, can be blamed on the sin of the person who must bear that affliction, or - as in the case of a genetic defect or a birth accident like that the man born blind must have had - upon the sin of the parents.

God doesn't work that way.

While some afflictions obviously are the result of one kind of sin or another - for example someone driving drunk may have an accident in which they are crippled for life or in which they cripple someone else for life - for the most part many other afflictions can't be blamed on someone, nor should we try to blame them on someone.

Rather we should try to bring healing to those who are afflicted.

Which is the second point I want to make.

Jesus answers the question about who sinned that the man was born blind by saying: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. "

And he healed him with mud and spit and the touch of his own precious hand.

This is how God operates. This is what Jesus is about. He has come to give us relief from those things afflict us - to give sight to the blind and to heal the lame - and to set free those who oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord to those who are poor.

Indeed - even if - and this is a big if - even if the particular affliction or tribulation that rests upon a person is the result of a direct sin, for example, that drunken driver who has wounded himself or some one else - even if this is the case - Jesus still wants them to be whole. He still wants to make the work of God manifest in their lives.

That is what the cross is ultimately all about - bringing forgiveness and salvation to sinners, and showing the love of God to those who, by any other standard, are unlovable.

But some will not accept this. They did not in the past, and they do not now.

As with some of the Pharisees and Scribes of old, they will persist in denying that there is anything good that could come out of Nazareth. They will deny the good that they see done around them is being done by a servant of God. And they, despite their love for God, will attempt to stop the one doing good from doing good.

They are many modern day self-righteous ones, both in the church and outside of it. They don't want the boat to be rocked - they don't want to have to change their comfortable accommodation with the status quo, they don't want to change the way they see the world.

And like some of the Pharisees and Scribes of old they will continue to seek to blame the condition of the poor upon the poor; and of the sick upon the sick; and the oppression of the oppressed upon the oppressed.

It is safer that way isn't it?

It means that they - or is it we - don't have to do anything - we don't have to change.

We can charge the rich low tax rates while we will do give those on welfare a decent living allowance, which is enough to live on. We can ignore the hunger in the third world while spend massive amounts on ski trips and vacations. Or we can call those who seek to help the street people and defend the abused women in our society unrealistic idealists who don't fully understand that those people are responsible for their own condition - and cheer as the welfare funds are reduced and funding for on government organisations and for counselling programs cut.

There is none so blind as those who will not see.

There is none so blind as those who will not accept the call of our Lord - the call to allow the work of God to be displayed in their lives - the call of God to bring healing and salvation to those around us who really need it - regardless of what sin those who need healing may have or may not have committed.

I don't know if you noticed, but all the hymns this morning except "Give To Us Laughter" and the "23rd Psalm were written by the same person.

"All the Way My Saviour Leads Me", "Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross", "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine" and "Pass Me Not Gentle Saviour" were written by a lady by the name of Fanny Crosby.

I chose hymns by her today because Fanny Crosby could not see.

When Fanny was six weeks old, she had an eye infection. Her regular doctor was out of town, and a man posing as a doctor gave her the wrong treatment. Within a few days, she was totally blind.

If that happened to some people, I am afraid they would be very bitter and would probably spend a lifetime feeling sorry for themselves. Fanny was never bitter and she never felt sorry for herself. When she was only eight years old, she wrote this poem:

Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I can not see.
I am resolved that in this world,
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don't.
To weep and sigh
Because I'm blind,
I cannot and I won't!

Instead of being bitter and feeling sorry for herself, instead of blaming the doctor for his "sin" against her and dwelling in darkness all her days, Fanny used the gifts that God had given her to write over 8,000 hymns and poems to praise and glorify God.

We might know who caused her blindness - but to Fanny knowing who caused her blindness didn't matter. Nor did it matter to her that she was blind - because in her mind - and in mine - she could see.

As a Australian preacher by the name of Bruce Prewer put it this way in a discussion of the story of the Man Born Blind:

"Some people have excellent eyesight but do not see further than their noses. Some have good vision yet choose to see only a little of the way, the truth and the life. And some have no physical sight yet who see brilliantly along the path of Christ".

Christ didn't heal the physical blindness of Fanny Crosby as he healed the sight of the man born blind, but like that man at the end of today's Gospel reading - when he knelt at Jesus' feet and worshipped him, she saw more than we can imagine - she saw more - and felt more blessed - than millions about her with eyes to see, but no will to look past themselves and their own vision of what is and what should be.

The next time we you someone who is afflicted - in body, mind, or spirit - remember what Jesus said about the man born blind - remember how Jesus said that his affliction happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life and then healed him.

And the next time you see someone else engaged in disputes about who is doing the right thing and who is doing what is wrong - quietly remember what Jesus said to those who were confident of their rightness and all to ready to judge him and most others as less worthy of God's love than themselves.

Remember how Jesus said "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." And remember too how he added when they asked him if they were blind too, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

Remember too - all of you are blessed - you are blessed to be a blessing.

Amen.

Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42

"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen.

Some time ago I heard something which I would like to share with you:

When it comes to times of stress, the most reassuring companion isn't your sweetheart - it's your dog.

A study has found that people who were under stress showed the least amount of tension when accompanied by their dog. The stress levels were highest when the people were with their husbands or wives.

"I think that dogs are non-evaluative, and they love us", said Karen Allen, a research scientist at State University of New York at Buffalo's medical school.

This caught my attention, not because of what it says about stress and our spouses - I don't happen to find its assertion in this regard to be true in my experience of the in which I have been married to Carmel. NO, it caught my attention because of what asserts about how dogs love us - and of the benefits that kind of love has.

There is something very biblical in the assertion made by Ms. Allen that non-evaluative love, non-judgmental love, reduces tension.

In fact the scriptures testify that this kind of love does far more than reduce tension - it in fact gives life - it gives hope - it gives assurance - to all who receive it.

Non-judgmental - accepting - all embracing love is the essence of the Gospel message: it lies behind such statements as: "Do not judge others lest you be judged - for the judgement you give will be the judgement you receive" and it is at the root of what has happened whenever we find Jesus being criticized by the scribes and pharisees for the company that he keeps.

Jesus accepts and embraces those whom others find wanting. He loves those who seem unlovable - to others - and to themselves.

I'm not much of gardener, but one thing I do know is that every plant needs water to grow.

And I know this as well - the plants that are in the driest soil - the ones that are struggling the hardest and beginning to wither - the ones whose leaves are beginning to curl and which look worse than the rest need more water than those who are in damp ground are whose leaves are rich and full of moisture.

And I know too that dry plants respond better to water than they do to added heat - that they thrust down their roots to where they can find it or turn their leaves over so that they better receive it - and receiving it - they change - they begin to look better - they begin to grow - and at length - they produce the fruit that they have been designed to produce.

We are the plants in God's garden - placed here for a reason and a purpose - and some of us are awfully dry - and some of us are not.

But each one of us, whether we be dry or moist at this very moment, needs the living water that Jesus says he has come to give:

- that water which wells up to eternal life,
- that water which overflows and brings life to other plants near to it.

I give thanks to God today for his love - for that love shown by Christ - that love which was poured out me when I was withering and perishing as a young man - alone in a large city and which even now is poured out upon me -even though I am far from perfect.

I give thanks for his love which has given me hope that I never had, a peace that at one time I could only long for, and an assurance that I thought I would never see at work in my life.

In giving thanks before you today I do what thousands, indeed millions of people have done before me, I do what the woman at the well did after first encountering Jesus: I point to the one who is the Saviour promised from long ago, I point to the one who has accepted me - the one who calls me brother and does not hold my human failings against me - the one who encourages me and challenges me and never - even when I argue with him - rejects or condemns me.

That is what Jesus did with the woman at the well. He accepted her.

He accepted her though she was a Samaritan and an enemy to his people.

He spoke to her of God though she was a woman and not thought worthy of such conversation.

He offered her his blessing - even though she debated with him and questioned his statements.

He regards her as a dear sister - and gives her the same title of endearment he gave Mary when he calls her woman in verse 21 and asks her to believe his words concerning how the time is coming when true worshippers will worship Father in Spirit and in Truth.

And that is why she sang his praises in her village. Because of his acceptance - because of his love.

It was not just because knew her past.
It was not just because he could tell her things that no stranger should know that she spoke of him to her friends and neighbours.

It was because in knowing her, in knowing her nationality, her gender, her religious attitudes, and the mixed history of her marriages, he none-the-less treats her as if she was an equal, as if she was a person worthy of respect, worthy of affection - worthy of love.

And that is where it is at.

When we treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated - when we can talk to kings and to beggars and not show any preferences to the one and not the other - when we can debate with sinners and with saints - and have both feel that you respect them - when we can open our homes to both friends and strangers - and have both feel welcomed - when we can encounter people and not judge them - not put them down - not patronize them - then we know something of God's love, then we show something of God's love.

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.

Genesis 12:1-4; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5,13-17; John 3:1-17

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

Some of you have heard this story before - It's about a congregation that undertook a long and diligent search for a new minister - and at last settled on one.

On the first Sunday the new minister went into the pulpit and delivered an absolutely amazing sermon. Everyone was deeply moved - they laughed, they cried, they were filled with awe. On the way out the door at the end of the service they congratulated the minister on his wonderful sermon, and when they got to the parking lot they congratulated each other on the wonderful choice they had made when they selected the new minister.

On the second Sunday the new minister went up into the pulpit and delivered exactly the same sermon has he had the week before. Again people were deeply moved - but some scratched their heads and wondered what was going on. But, they gave the new minister the benefit of the doubt - perhaps he had just picked up the wrong notes on the way to church that morning - and they didn't say too much.

On the third Sunday the minister once again gave exactly the same sermon as he had on the first and second Sundays. This time there was widespread consternation. The elders immediately called a meeting with the minister and asked him what was going on.

"Pastor", they said, "The sermon you preached today is a really great sermon - and we all are deeply impressed by your ability - but you've delivered it three times now. Don't you know any other sermons?'

"Oh, yes!, replied the new minister, "I have scads of them - and they are all just as good as the one you just heard."

"Well then," replied the elders, "Why don't you preach one of them next week."

"I'm not going to do that", the minister replied, "till all of you have started following the message of the first one."

Today I have a new sermon, but I have an old message, a message that each one of us needs to hear and to accept, it's the message of salvation. And it is found in this book here - and especially it is found in the New Testament passage we heard read this morning: the passage concerning Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus - where, and I quote, he says to Nicodemus:

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."

Some of you here today probably had, at one time or another, the reaction that Nicodemus had to that word from our Lord.

You have felt confused by what Jesus said, and with Nicodemus you may have wanted to say: "How can a person be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb?"

Others who are less literal than Nicodemus - others who understand the image of rebirth, may still have problems with the message that Jesus gives and the particular language that Jesus uses in today's Gospel story because it reminds you of all those
people who in one of two ways - and often in both:

- "Are you saved?"
- "Have you been born again??"

For some reason a lot of people who come to church, and a lot more who do not, resent that question - in either way that it may be asked.

Why is that anyway?

Unbelievers most often resent it because they feel put down by it:

- They feel that the person asking them the question is trying to sell them a bill of goods
- That the person asking those questions doesn't really care for them or want to understand them.

That may or may not be true, it depends on who is asking the question - and why they are asking it.

But why do so many church people resent the question?? Especially when the answer ought to be so easy to give??

I remember one time when I was asked this question by a total stranger in a shopping mall. The very first thing that this person introduced himself to me was - Are you saved?

Quick as a wink - I said - Yes.

Clearly this man had doubts to my answer when he further ask: "When were you saved", he asked, "And how were you saved? Did you receive the Holy Spirit? Do you believe in the forgiveness of sin and the life everlasting??" And the biggest question that either makes us a Christian or makes us something else - "Did you invite Jesus into your heart".

And I told him all that he wanted to know about my relationship with the Lord.

Finally he relaxed - and said to me - "I'm so very glad for you. It's so wonderful to know the Lord. I've talking to so many people, and they just won't answer my question. They always want to talk about something else - they just seems to want to get rid of me."

It's such a great thing to be able to tell someone - with confidence in your heart:

Yes, I am saved.
By the grace of God I have been reborn.
God's spirit has blown my way and every now and then I can hear its sound - and I feel tremendous because of it.

Most of you here, but probably not all, have likewise been compelled - or just perhaps propelled - and are able, as Jesus says to Nicodemus, "to see the Kingdom of God".

If you have, I know you're going to listen up because you know what I am about right now, and the reminders that I am giving right now you know are in the book and that they are important and good to hear now and then.

If you haven't yet been compelled or propelled, let me tell you right now that it is true what you have heard - that some things are simple - and some things are not.

It is also true that good things are invariably simple - so simple, in fact, that even the smallest child can grasp them.

The things of God are always simple in this way, at least when they come down to the basics.

The basics are known in our hearts, simply because we all were made by God - and I'm not talking here about the basics of morality - I'm not talking about whether we believe in loving one another and in forgiving one another - as we ourselves hope they will forgive us.

I'm talking about the basic thing in us that lets us know whether or not we have actually connected with the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob - the thing deep in down in us that tells us whether or not the God and Father of Christ Jesus our Lord actually lives within us.

You see - God made us in such a way that ultimately it is not enough for each one of us simply to believe in Him as a force who permeates the world - and especially nature.

Most everyone believes in this way - yet our corporations and our companies still rape and pillage our environment - and we ourselves, in personal and particular ways, still hurt our brothers and our sisters and ourselves.

Everything is not right either in us or around us.

God wants us to connect to him personally - to connect to him as one who is able to guide and direct us in our daily affairs - to connect to him as one who parents us - who is a father to us - to connect to God as a Father - and to Jesus as a brother - as one who is here to walk with us each day.


God wants us to connect with him as one who nurtures us:

- as a mother nurtures her children
- as the rain nurtures the dry ground
- as a friend nurtures another friend at a table - with bread and wine - and a communion of mind and heart and soul.

God wants to birth us into a new family, his own special family:

- where his love rules
- and his mercy and forgiveness washes and cleanses
- and his spirit gives energy and the seal to the promise of eternal life.

God wants us to know that with him there is a new life to be had and a whole new world a coming that, as it was for Abraham in this morning's old testament reading, there is a whole new land out there for us - and that all we have to do is trust in God and set forth on the journey he calls us to make, the journey of faith.

"Truly, truly, I say to you - no one call see the kingdom of God unless he is born again"

It's a process my friends, this being born again. It is journey - a journey of faith that leads us to places we have not been before.

It is an event - a process - that has a beginning - a place in which we ultimately say Yay or Nay to the Lord our Saviour and an end - when we do not know - when we inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for us.

In the middle - when you have said Yay - there are some things you can do and experience that none other experience:

- you can feel peace
- you can feel confident
- you can be humble without being prideful about it
- you can love those whom you do not like
- you can bless those who curse you
- you can be free - and yet give that freedom up to serve others and to help them in their weakness, you can do this because God is born in you and God is with you to help you.

The journey of faith - the kind of journey that Abraham made and which tradition tells us that Nicodemus also made is a tremendous journey:

- a journey that we should be glad we are on
- a journey that we need to be on.

It is a journey that gives us new life - which causes us to be reborn - and it begins - and it ends - in saying "I believe Lord, and I will follow".

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen!

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11

God of law and of love, dispenser of justice and of mercy, judge of our actions and saviour of our lives - help us to hear your word this day. Bless my lips and our hearts - so that in speaking and in hearing your will may be known and that which you want us to have and do may be had and done - we ask it though Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our texts today deal with sin and temptation and with grace and faith.

- the first text tells us the story of how Adam and Eve were tempted and sinned against God in the Garden of Eden.

- the second shows Christ living blamelessly in the face of evil, by the power of faith.

Temptation and sin, grace and faith - these are the great motifs of our lives here and now in the world - the axes around which everything else revolves.

As Christians we believe that sin has power - a deadly power - that comes from evil; but we also believe that faith has power - a live giving power that comes from God.

In our lives we experience a struggle between these two powers, and even when we are on the side of life, even when we have faith in the God of life we experience temptation, we feel desires and live through events that test our faith and seek to lure us away from God and have us serve evil instead.

There is an old Scandinavian legend about mighty Thor and how one day he visited the land of the giants.

When Thor arrived there he found that the giants were engaged in various contests of strength. They asked him if he would like to take part in their games and he said that he would. So it was that they proposed three tests of strength for him.

First Thor was asked to drink all the liquid in a large two handed drinking bowl. But as much as he could drink of it, only a tiny portion of the liquid in it disappeared. Finally he had to put down the bowl and admit defeat. To him the giants seemed sympathetic - and they proposed something a bit easier for his second test. A black cat was walking by and Thor was instructed to lift it up. He grabbed hold of the animal, thinking it should be easy to hoist it up, but strain and tug as hard as he could, he couldn't even begin to budge the cat.

By this time the giants were beginning to be openly amused at Thor's predicament. "You are supposed to be strong", they said, "but it seems you are not. Well - we will give you something even easier for your third test."

So for the third test the giants challenged Thor to wrestle with an old woman and throw her to the ground. With every bit of strength that Thor could muster he grabbed hold of the toothless old woman, but all his pushing and pulling and twisting was in vain. He simply could not meet the challenge.

As Thor, humbled and dejected, left the giants to head back home, one of them went with him for a part of the way and told him that their was magic in the contests. "The cup," he said, "contained the sea and who can drink that? The cat was the evil in the world, and who is able to lift that up and take it away? And the old woman was time, and who is able to contend with her?"

I believe that most of us feel, when it comes to the sin that is in the world, that we are living in the land of giants.

We are tempted to give in to despair - the despair that nothing we can do will make a difference; the despair that says that there is no help or hope for us our for our world.

Indeed I believe that this is the greatest temptation of our age.

But my brothers and sisters-in-Christ, we have within us one who is stronger than the world, one who is greater than the tempter, one who has triumphed over evil both in life - as we see in the story of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness, and in death - as we see in the cross - and again three days later - in the resurrection.

Some people - most people perhaps - dwell too much on the negative side of things. Like the game show Jeopardy - all their answers to life's problems are expressed in the form of questions. They see the problems that exist all round us - but do not lay hold of the solutions - of the good news that also exists all round us - of the salvation that is offered to us all - without condition or qualification.

They despair on account of the giants - forgetting perhaps the story of David - and of how one small stone in his hands brought an end to the Goliath that threatened his nation that caused even Saul and his mighty army to despair of ever being victorious.

A man by the name of Richard Lederer collects funny signs. Some of these are simply the result of people in foreign countries having difficulty translating into English. He says that at the entrance to a hotel swimming pool on the French Riviera there is a sign that reads like this: "Swimming is forbidden in the absence of a Saviour."

Maybe the person who put up that sign knew English better than we may suppose. Not only swimming but life itself should not be lived in the absence of a Saviour.

We have a Saviour - one who remembers who we are - one who loves us as a father loves his children - one who seeks to nurture us as a mother nurtures her brood.

This Saviour has ventured into the same waters that we swim in each day. He has battled the currents - fought the foes - and shown that he is able and shown that we - when we swim with him - are able as well.

Our Saviour remembers who we are - and he loves us - and seeks the best for us. He knows that we are weak swimmers - that we from time to time we will flounder and thrash - and sink. He knows the waters we are in - and that is why he has been appointed the judge of the living and the dead.

Our Saviour is our judge. He does not judge us for the sake of condemning us - he takes no delight in catching us in our sin, he has no joy when we hurt ourselves or hurt others - rather he reaches out to us - he calls to us - he seek to guide us and help us - and like all good parents - he forgives us and does all that he can to make sure that we start each day new and fresh and bathed in love.

Kenneth Filkins has caught this beautifully in a poem entitled "The Pit." Let me share just a little bit of it with you: Visualize, if you will a great pit - a pit perhaps of your own devising - or perhaps one devised for you by others - visualize a pit into which you have fallen and cannot get out of.

Filkins writes: A man fell into a pit and he couldn't get out. BUDDHA said: "Your pit is only a state of mind." A HINDU said: "This pit is for purging you and making you more perfect." CONFUCIUS said: "If you would have listened to me, you would never have fallen into that pit." A NEW AGER said: "Maybe you should network with some other pit dwellers." A SELF-PITYING PERSON said: "You haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit." A NEWS REPORTER said: "Could I have the exclusive story on your pit?" A FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT said: "Have you paid your taxes on that pit?" A COUNTY INSPECTOR said: "Do you have a permit for that pit?" A REALIST said: "That's a pit." An IDEALIST said: "The world shouldn't have pits." An OPTIMIST said: "Things could be worse." A PESSIMIST said: "Things will get worse." BUT JESUS, SEEING THE MAN, TOOK HIM BY THE HAND AND LIFTED HIM OUT OF THE PIT.

A pit is an awful place to be -particularly the pit of created by the power of sin and temptation. But there is One who will help. There is one who has managed to avoid the pit and who seeks to help us out of the pit. His name is Jesus - and he lives and reigns with God - and with God he is able - able to help - able to save - able to redeem.

Not only is he able - he is willing.

And not only is he willing - he has already acted - acted to save us - acted to bring to the world a new day. Acted to bring to each of us a new life.

Do not dwell in the pit - Do not accept the pit - Rather reach out your hand to the one who has stretched out his hands for you - and who still reaches out for you today. Reach out to Christ - and through Christ - reach out to others around you and let the know that there is a better life to be had - a life that is given freely to all who desire it. May His Name be praised day by day! Amen!

Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 99; II Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

For at least the last five hundred years the Western World - the industrial and scientific world - has been intolerant of mystery. Ours is an age which is obsessed with the idea of knowing and explaining everything.

A story is told of a little boy who lived in a religious home whose father expressed the usual before dinner command - "Hurry up, and wash your hands and come to the table so we can say a prayer and eat."

As the boy went toward the bathroom, he was heard to mutter, "Germs and Jesus, germs and Jesus! That's all I hear around here, and I can't see either one of them."

There are many things, my friends, that we can't see, many things that we can't touch, which are real and powerful:

- the light from the Sun
- the electrons which flow through the billions of miles of wires we have strung up around the world
- the radiation that we transmit from microwave dishes and radio antennae to power our telephones and televisions
- the love that we experience from our parents and our partners...

All these things are unseeable and untouchable - yet real.

Yet despite the evidence that there are real but invisible and untouchable forces all around us many people refuse to believe in God; and of those who do believe in God there are many who refuse to believe that God can do anything out of the ordinary:

- they refuse to believe in miracles
- they refuse to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit
- they refuse to believe in the healing touch and in prayer as a powerful instrument of change and transformation.

Sometimes it seems that we of the Church - particularly of the Western Church - are completely out of touch with why our faith has been so powerful a force in the world - sometimes it seems that we are out of touch with the invisible force that underlies our dogma and our belief.

Have you noticed that many people today seem to be hungry for some experience of what I call Spiritual Realities?

The dramatic upswing of interest in the existence of angels, of witches, and the number of people who consult psychics and future tellers speak of a longing that people have to go beyond the merely rational and scientific.

Certainly this longing is reflected in the New Age movement.

There was an interesting news report sometime back. It seems that a company called "Chi Pants" of Santa Cruz, CA, in keeping with the New Age belief in quartz crystals, is marketing a new line of trousers.

Each pair of the trousers has a tiny crystal sewn into the back seam which will rest at the base of the spine when the trousers are worn. The company advertises, "You won't feel the crystal; you'll just feel the energy."

There was another news story sometime back. An artist from Jersey City by the name of Marybeth Strobel explained why she wears a large chunk of quartz on a strap around her neck.

"It puts a circle of power around you that keeps you feeling protected," she says.

You and I may scoff but such beliefs have a great appeal for many people.

They have that appeal - because too many of us - especially those of us in the mainline churches have failed to connect others - let alone ourselves - to the very real power that is spoken of throughout the bible and the history of our faith.

We have been too head oriented and have placed too little emphasis on the heart for too many years - and the result has been confusion and the rise of charlatans and cheats who mislead those who suspect that there is more to the world than meets the eye - but who do not know how to test and evaluate other people's claims about the nature of the spiritual universe that exists all around us.

There is something we ought to acknowledge, something we need to confess and it is this.

Mystical experience is very much a part of our faith. Indeed it lays at the root of all that we believe in.

From stories like those we heard today where we see Moses going up on a mountain and hearing God speak and Jesus being transfigured by a bright light in the presence of three of his disciples, to the indescribable peace and joy that groups of praying and praising Christian pilgrims experience; unexplainable and unprovable - in the scientific sense at least - spiritual realities undergird and indeed, permeate, our faith.

Indeed throughout history right until the present day many of the greatest Christians who ever lived have reported experiences that are outside the realm of rational experience.

It is said that a friend wandered into Handel's room just as he was finishing the last notes of the "Hallelujah Chorus." He found the composer with tears streaming down his cheeks. The magnificent work lay completed on the desk in front of him. "I did think," Handel exclaimed to his friend, "I saw all heaven before me, and the great God Himself."

What do you make of an experience such as Handel reported? Is he speaking metaphorically? Or did he really see heaven?

And what do you make of the man who reports that a friend prayed for his sick brother - a man who was expected to die within a day - and that this brother was given another five years?

What do you make of reports that Elijah raised a poor woman's son from the dead or of the hundreds of people who reported that they saw Jesus alive and well long after he was laid in the tomb?

How do you explain the absolute conviction of those people who have died on an operating table or in a hospital room and on being brought back to life reported travelling down an ever brighter tunnel till at last they met their loved ones and were beckoned to either move onward toward God or to return to life and finish what needed finishing?

If we but believed what we have long preached, what we have long read in this book - how much different might our world be today?

My friends - today I do not want to do with you what so many generations of preachers have done with the story of Jesus and his transfiguration - I do not want to rush you down the mountain and tell you that what happened up there is not as important as what happens in the valley below.

What I want to do

- is have you understand that there really are spiritual realities that exist and which defy our conventional wisdom - our scientific reason
- and to give you one essential tool for evaluating them.

The first thing to be said about mystical experiences is - be careful.

The human brain is a tricky piece of machinery. It can see things that do not exist - or take the wrong message from what lies before it.

William James, a psychologist of religion early in the last century once pointed out that you can toss a bag of marbles on the floor and by selectively ignoring certain marbles find any pattern you wish. Our eyes and our minds can play tricks on us and lead us in directions that have no profit to them.

We see that tendency displayed in some Christians' obsessions with numbers.

Charles Swindoll tells about a lady in Kansas City who went to court to get her license plate changed because it ended with 666. She stated that her fellow church members were shunning her. As you may know, the mark of the beast in the Book of Revelation is 666.

Swindoll goes on to note that the 666 scare stuff is getting downright ridiculous. The fact is that those three digits can be uncovered in almost anybody's name if you're willing to work at it hard enough. Using the code A=100, B=101, and so on, Hitler adds up to 666, The same technique works on the word computer - a coincidence to which some of us might attach some validity.

By adopting the so-called "devil's code" whereby the alphabet is numbered backward from zero; Z=0, Y=1, X=2 as so forth - and then multiplying each letter-value by 6 (whew!), fundamentalist leader Jerry Falwell's last name equals 666. Even Billy Graham's name is not exempt. His initials are WFG. (William Franklin Graham). Using the A=1 code, the letters add up to 36. The sum of the counting numbers from 1 through 36 is 666, and 36=6 x 6. When Ronald Wilson Reagan was elected president, mischievous Democrats pointed out that each of the President's names had six letters - 666 - and so forth.

Maybe you find all this fascinating, maybe not. There are some people, though, who are very susceptible to such logic. And there are unscrupulous people who look for these susceptible people to manipulate to their own ends. Often they do it in the name of religion. They tell you that what they are saying is based on the invisible spiritual realities which undergird the world. Be careful.

If you wonder why most Christian churches put more emphasis on being true to the historical faith than on any one particular subjective experience, this is it.

We know feelings are subject to distortion and manipulation. It may make us seem somewhat dry and unexciting at times but we know that when we are faithful to Scripture and the teachings of the Church we cannot be misled by passing fads or sensations.

Be careful. But also be tolerant.

We don't know how God may choose to work in individual lives. It is the height of arrogance for any of us to declare that God can only work in one way or another - that God can only be found in one group or another.

Most of us would be thrilled to have the kind of mountaintop experience that Peter, James and John had where they beheld Christ transfigured before them; we would love to go up on a Mountain as did Moses and hear God's voice, but we may live a lifetime and never experience any more than a lump in our throat and a calm assurance in our hearts.


If that's all we experience, that is enough. God knows what we need. If other people discover a wider range of experiences, if they shout and dance and speak in tongues, then who's to say but that God knew their needs as well.

Remember this - and this is the crux of the matter: The test of faith is not our experience of, or our knowledge of, invisible spiritual realities, but in whether we bear fruit that is pleasing to God.

The fruit of the Spirit, says St. Paul, is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. (Gal 5:23)

Does your special experience make you more loving, more peaceful, more trusting, more humble? Does your knowledge of the Spiritual Realities which undergird the world make you more faithful, more prone to give God praise? Does your conviction that God has sent an angel to you to bring you comfort it result in your being a better neighbour? A better citizen?

If it does, then no matter what that experience is, you are not far from the Kingdom of God.

There are, my friends, spiritual realities that undergird not only our faith, but the very world around us.

There are angels. There is a resurrection. Miracles still occur - the blind can still be made to see and the lame to walk. Demons still chill the air and prayers still reach the ear of God. And God still speaks - in dreams and in visions - and through his Word.

And there are many here who can testify to these things.

My friends - there are spiritual things - spiritual realities that are beyond our ken - wonders that still reach out and touch those who expect them and those that don't.

The transfiguration of Jesus is one of these. It happened to strengthen Jesus before his journey to Jerusalem - and it was witnessed so that we might be encouraged in our faith. The spiritual reality - the spiritual power made evident that day - had a purpose. A good purpose.

And so it should be for all those things we call Spiritual.

The important thing is that we believe not simply in the power of the world that is beyond our everyday sight - but in the truth behind that power and in the God who makes it so - and that in believing in God and in his power - we strive - without fear - to live out a worthy life - a life like that of Christ Jesus our Lord. May His name be praised day by day. Amen!