Unforgiveness Can Kill You (Proper 15)

 Unforgiveness is an unforgivable sin. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask to be forgiven as we have forgiven others. We in effect put a curse on ourselves so God can not forgive us if we do not foegive others. After sexual sins unforgiveness is the most destructive sin, polluting our soul and wounding our spirit. It separates us from God and other people. 

• Lucille and I have seen and experienced the horrific damage unforgiveness wreaks on families in our ministry
• I was under a dark cloud for 30 years never speaking to my ex wife - it went away when we asked each other for forgiveness
• In the Readings (2 Samuel 6.1-5, 12B-19) Davids wife Michal “despised him in her heart) - and had no children.
• In Mark 6.19 “Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him.”
• The Good News is that God has chosen us to be holy and created a way for us to be forgiven in Jesus and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

1. We Are Chosen To Be Holy

Teaching Leads To Healing and Deliverance (Proper 14)

Jesus is commissioning us as His followers to a ministry of teaching, healing and spiritual deliverance. He is teaching us to be humble servants and expect obstacles including pride and ridicule as we speak the truth to the misguided. Paul is teaching us to rejoice in opposition and depend entirely on Holy Spirit.

1. Teaching leads to experience and faith

Holy Spirit Heals Us and Gives Us New Life (Proper 13)

 The Readings remind us that the desire of God’s heart is to have an intimate love relationship with us and to heal us physically and spiritually. We are moving deeper into Pentecost as we are reminded that Jesus ministry consisted of both dramatic supernatural healing and teachings about the supernatural. Fasten your seatbelts as we go deeper than some may have been before:

• Bible begins with the creation story of God breathing life into the man made of clay - a profound teaching on new life
• Valley of dead bones - the man prophecies breath into the dead bones to give them new life
• Jesus raises the dead girl to new life
• I have seen many miraculous healing - not superstition
• 
  

1. Personal Spirit Gives Life to the Body

Faith Can Overcome Fear - Proper 12

 The readings about faith overcoming fear should be a great comfort to us in this time of constant reports of sickness, death and lockdowns. As Christians we have a long history of hope and faith in the face of fear:

• David overcame his fear of death by protecting his sheep from lions and bears
• Jesus overcame His fear of death by surrendering His will to the Fathers will
• Paul overcame his fear by taking the long view of the joy of  faith and eternal spiritual life
• Readings challenge us to go deeper in our faith relationship  with Jesus and take this longer view

1. Fear often rules our lives

New Life In Christ - Proper 11

 “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.”  This is the “unseen” that we were urged to focus on last week. The point is that we can only know about a new life in Christ if we have experienced this ourselves. The bad news is we have to let go and die emotionally to our idols in this life in order to experience the new life. 

·     Like the scene from Raiders of the Lost arc where the hero has to step onto a glass bridge he can’t see

·     This life is a training ground – a test of faith

·     We are not just bodies – we are spirits that have a body and soul

·     We need to understand how this works in practice and affects our new life in Christ

1. Our Body: Our Physical / sensing intelligence

Take My Yoke Upon You - And Find Rest For Your Soul

 This is the Good News of the Bible! Jesus is offering us the gift of an eternal spiritual life of joy. This can begin when we put our trust in Him. Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to live in our personal spirit to guide us, heal us and comfort us. The challenge is that the Holy Spirit cannot live on a sin polluted spiritual garbage heap. We need to understand the Spirit – Soul - Body relationship and how the Yoke of Christ guides through life:

1. Our Spirit: Conscience /Intuitive Connection to Jesus

We Fix Our Eyes On Things Unseen (Proper 10)

 

Pentecost is the longest, most practical and probably most important season of the Church year. Pentecost is about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the daily lives of believers. We are prepared for the Holy Spirit by the teachings of:

•       Advent - OT history of God reaching out, making covenants

•       Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter - who Jesus isand His mission and our mission

•       Ascension - Jesus promises Holy Spiritto guide us

•       Trinity - defines the love relationship, work of Holy Spirit as the continuing presence of Jesus in the World

•       This week we learn that we have to focus on what is unseen and expect opposition from those who do not understand Holy Spirit

•       We are warned Christians will not be understood – and need a support community where they can safely share their own experiences of the Holly Spirit 

1.   The Pharisees think Jesus is possessed