Friday, March 28, 2014

sermon, “Saved through Christ, our Redeemer, our Good Shepherd”, by Ray Foss, Mt. Heights Health Care Facility, Patten, ME, March 28, 2014

Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Monthly service at Mt. Heights Health Care Facility
Genesis 3:17-19
Romans 5:12-15
Job 19:25-27
Psalm 22:1-5
Psalm 23
sermon “Saved through Christ, our Redeemer, our Good Shepherd”
by Raymond A. Foss
March 28, 2014

“Saved through Christ, our Redeemer, our Good Shepherd”
Good afternoon. As some of you may remember, I was last here with you on the day after Ash Wednesday, helping Pastor Ruth distribute ashes for those who wanted that, as we began the season Lent. Lent is a time of reflection and walking with Christ after he turned his face toward Jerusalem to live out God’s plan for his life.

Do you remember the words of Ash Wednesday, “From dust you came and to dust you shall return?”

That is from Genesis 3:17-19, when Adam was condemned for his sin in the Garden of Eden. It reads, “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (KJV) Yes, we toil because of that disobedience and we are from the dust of the earth.  

Now Lent actually begins before the Ash Wednesday service for me, because for the last six (6) years, I have burned the palms of the prior year’s Palm Sunday to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday. Did you all know that is the traditional source of the ashes, the palms we waved, remembering the peoples’ joy when Christ entered Jerusalem? When they welcomed their and our King?

There is a lot of meaning in that act for me, to think of palms that were waved in triumphant as Christ rode into Jerusalem being burned, just as the hosannas of that first Palm Sunday became the angry flames of Friday morning when the mob called for Christ to be crucified and the ashes of Good Friday and Holy Saturday when Christ was on the cross and in the tomb.

 I wanted to share one poem I wrote with you, it is called, “breathing in Sorrow”, and I capitalized the word sorrow in the title as if sorrow became a proper noun, a named presence that walks with us during Lent.

breathing in Sorrow – v2

sensing Sorrow’s presence
in the fire’s progress
breathing in the smoke
deeply , deeply
that transformation
drawn into the pit

the palms of Sunday
covered with our hosannas!
their burning so quickly
in becoming sorrow, ashes
sweet acrid smoke

breathing in Sorrow
a cloak, a presence
the ashes drawn within
into my lungs, onto my heart
hidden, in secret, within
within my body, upon my life

my walk different
after the smoke, the ashes
sensing Sorrow’s presence
with me in this season
in life, in memory

But, that isn’t the whole story; our journey in Lent is not only our sorrow, our guilt, our fears, our awareness of our sin. Ash Wednesday is not the final answer, because we have Easter morning, the day of Christ’s Ascension and the Day of Pentecost.

We are not merely people of the dust, of the ashes, bound by our sin under the weight of the Law or the burden of Adam’s original sin as we learn in Romans 5:12-15 (KJV). Listen to this Good News, that though we have Death Through Adam, we have Life Through Christ:

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

            Christ paid the price for us, that is part of our sorrow in Lent but our joy in the resurrection. There is a lot of this back and forth, of sadness and joy in Lent, even on the cross itself.

We hear Christ’s words on the cross in Psalm 22:1-2, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.”

But, that too is not the whole story, because Christ was praying Psalm 22 on the cross, and he was living it out in the Passion story. Even the next few verses (verses 2-5) include the assurance we long for:  “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.”

We may be people of dust, of clay but we also are people of the Holy Spirit, of Christ indwelling within us. We are freed completely by Christ’s perfect sacrifice, the fragrant offering of His body upon Golgotha’s cross.

And, more than that, Psalm 22, which begins with that cry of abandonment and ends with assurance that God is with us is immediately followed before one of the most beloved pieces of scripture. Psalm 23, where we hear about God as our Shepherd, what a joyful song this is, written by the Shepherd King, King David.

How many of you know the 23rd Psalm? Can we share it together? I am reading from the King James Version. Please join with me…

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

We are protected, we are assured of that by our Good Shepherd, by our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. We are given life by the breath of God within us and we are given eternal life by Christ stepping in to pay our ransom, to free us from our bondage, our burden, forgiving us eternally of the wages of sin and death.

And, like all believers, we are assured of our salvation because Christ is alive, as we read in the Book of Job, Chapter 19, verses 25 to 27. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; […]”

Job knew and declared God would stand on the earth and that he, Job, would look upon the Living God. We too have that victory, we are redeemed of the sins we carry, we too are lifted up, raised from the dead, from the chains that bound us, by His triumphant resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. He rose like a phoenix from the ashes and ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

We too will see God, we too will see Christ face to face with our own eyes. We too are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, our Good Shepherd.  We too rise up from our Ashes as Easter People as Pentecost People.

That’s right, the Ashes of Ash Wednesday becomes the Shout of He Lives!, He is Risen Indeed! of Easter, for we serve a God who loves us, who wants relationship with us, and because our Shepherd is alive and will never leave or forsake us.

Amen and Hallelujah! We rise from the ashes because Our Redeemer Lives!

March 28, 2014
Genesis 3:17-19 (KJV)
Romans 5:12-15 (KJV)
Psalm 22:1-5 (KJV)
Psalm 23 (KJV)
Job 19:25-27 (KJV)
sermon “Saved through Christ, our Redeemer, our Good Shepherd”
by Raymond A. Foss
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Monthly service at Mt. Heights Health Care Facility
Patten, ME
March 28, 2014
&
Sermon 9 of “What’s In A Name…”
Sermon Series on “The Sacred Names of God”
Job 19:25-27 New International Version (NIV)
Romans 5:12-19 New International Version (NIV)
and sermon “Our Redeemer Lives”
(in the bulletin as “Hello My Name is …Go’el”)
by Raymond A. Foss
filling in for Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
March 9, 2014

All of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage. See all 28,640+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.

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