Saturday, May 04, 2013

Sermon, "To Stand in the Presence of God", by Raymond A. Foss, to be preached at Suncook United Methodist Church, May 5, 2013


To Stand in the Presence of God

Good morning

Let us pray, God may the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing in your sight, no, may they be your words, to share with the world. Amen.

In addition to the Psalter, and the passage from John and the reading from Acts, here now is a reading from the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verses 10, and 22 to 27 continuing to Revelations Chapter 22, verses 1 to 6, and I will be reading from the Common English Bible this morning.

Listen for the good news from God to you and me, the people of God. . .


Oh to have been on that hillside, having walked with the Lord. To have been with him, risen, knowing we are restored. To believe because we had seen, to have walked with Jesus.

Knowing the cross, but also knowing Easter. To stand in the presence of God, to feel Christ with us. To go into the wilderness, even as he ascended. To hear his final words, his commission, his victory. To watch as he ascended, to go into the world.

If we cannot imagine the Ascension, if we cannot believe Easter, if we do not live Pentecost, all the days of our lives, if we don’t follow the Great Commission, if we don’t say with Joshua, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”, what is the point, why do we claim Jesus, if we do not love, if we do not love as he did, how can we say we are his disciples.

We are commissioned, we are commanded by our risen Lord, through the power of resurrection; we are called to share the message, to be light in this world.

To stand in the presence of God, to walk yoked to Jesus, we are called to feel his sweat, to feel the Spirit in us.

We are not to ask what would Jesus do, but to sense his Spirit guiding, leading us in this life, listening for his message, for the call on our lives.

Today is Ascension Sunday, the sixth Sunday of Easter, the day when our Risen Lord finally got to complete his journey on earth and go home, to rise to heaven to be reunited with God in a more personal way than when he walked the earth. Finally, it was truly finished, as he had said on the cross.

All that he had accomplished, for us meaningless unless we center ourselves, our very lives, on the cross of Jesus, on the Resurrection, the Great Commission, the Ascension, and the power of Pentecost.

Where do we ground ourselves? Do we live because of the power of the cross of Jesus?

As Pastor Ruth has been challenging us during Eastertide, especially as she challenged us last week, when she asked us “How will we choose to live our lives?”

It is a question for each of our lives and it is a question for our family as this church, part of the body of Christ here and around the world.

The scriptures today and this week tell us

In Psalm 67, we here the prayer of the people. It begins with the prayer fulfilled in rest of the scripture for today. To see God face to face, to feel His glow upon us.

That the whole world would fear, or honor God, that we would all become the select, that we would all be as Moses, whose face shone when he had come into the presence of God. To be illumined by the light within. Walking with the Creator, the living God.

In John 14 we hear Christ’s promise, to send us the Spirit of God, to fall down upon us, just as we will celebrate in two weeks on Pentecost, when Pastor Ruth is back preaching.

Christ calls us to show ourselves as his children, to truly love God, to obey Christ’s teachings, to keep his word; to listen to the Advocate, the Companion, the Friend, the Holy Spirit; who will come down.

This is the promise, the answer of the Messiah, that we long for the hope of the people, that was raised in the prayer in the Psalm.

In the Acts 16 scripture we see the faithful missionary Paul, taking the word to the ends of the earth, to the far off country, to the Gentiles, to the riverside in Phillipi, to share the message with the people there, with Lydia, who hears the message and longs to be baptized, she and her whole family.

Then, reborn, she offers comfort to Paul and to Luke, to the missionaries, letting them stay with her family, in her home. This is how the message was spread, by faith and an openness to the calling of God, to the Spirit’s leading, out into the world. God dwelling with us, in the Spirit within

Revelations 21, as it did in the reading last week, sets the stage, that glorious future, when the old is cast away and the New Jerusalem descends, and we can live with God forever. The glorious image of the new heaven, where God will walk with us.

But, more than that, finally in Revelations 22 we are brought to conclusion, brings it all home, completing the circle of the prayer of Psalm 67, when the new heaven comes and we enter into God’s glory.

Revelations 22:4-5 reads:
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more. They won’t need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will rule forever and always.

The prayer is fulfilled and there is no need for the Temple, just as in Acts, there is no synagogue.

We will dwell with God, our lives will shine in God’s presence. We will shine like Moses, bathed truly in the light of God! The whole city will be aglow in the light of the Creator and the light of the Lamb, restoring our union, broken since the Fall.

The Spirit is the bridge, the perfector of our faith since the Ascension, the rising, Christ returning to God. The Spirit is the Advocate, the Companion, the Friend, teaching us, leading, until Christ’s return.

Imagine  - Shining with God’s glory

no sun, no moon, no sea
God will illumine the nations
the light of God alive
we are like Moses
Shining with your Glory
our hope in that day
when God comes from heaven
and we walk in the way

What a glorious future, what a promise that is that we can hold onto?

Do you believe it? Do you trust the word of God? Do you shine that light that you have been given? Does the Spirit burn within you? Does your face shine like Moses?

Tap into that well, into the power of the cross of Jesus, the power of resurrection, the power of Pentecost, the promise of tomorrow; look he is coming, to bring us new life, to dwell with us, to prepare us for that day, when Jerusalem will descend and we live in the light of God!

Amen.


May 1, 2013
Worship Theme: “Ascension Sunday:
The Great Things God’s Love Does”
John 14:23-29
Acts 16:9-15
Revelations 21:10, 22:1-5
Call to Worship
Unison Prayer (Psalter Psalm 67, UMH 791)
Prayer of Dedication
Message for Children
and sermon “To Stand in the Presence of God”
by Raymond A. Foss
substituting for Pastor Ruth Foss
A Handmaiden of the Lord
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
May 5, 2013
Ascension Sunday


All of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage. See all 24,060+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.

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