Celebrating Physical Salvation

Henry stumbled into Church on Sunday morning, with bed head, looking like he slept in his clothes. Everyone knew him as trouble and kept their distance. He sat though the service with a worried look on his face.

When it came to prayer time and the preacher asked for prayer requests, Henry raised his hand and said, “I need help right now. I got arrested last night for domestic battery. Darlene and I got into a huge fight and I pushed her down. I got arrested and I spent the night in my car out here in the parking lot. I’ve been arrested before, but this is serious. I think I’ve lost my wife, my house and possibly my freedom.”

The preacher looked and thought for a moment, and said “I’m thinking.” After another minute, he said, “Come stay with me and my family, until everything gets worked out.”

Right after Church, one of the elder’s wives said to the preacher, “You live in the parsonage, shouldn’t we put that up to a vote?”

“The Church property is holy, set aside for God’s purposes,” replied the preacher.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” said the elder’s wife.

Jesus found himself in another controversy with the Pharisees, who were following him around, trying to catch him making an error so they could discredit him.

Luke 6:1-6

¹ One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. ² Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” ⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

The Pharisees accused him of working on the Sabbath, and Jesus made a brilliant defense.

1. 1. It was ok for David to eat the ceremonial bread, and I’m greater than David.

2. 2. I am the Son of Man, sent to bring Salvation to Israel

3. 3. Salvation is physical as well as spiritual

4. 4. The Sabbath Celebrates Salvation

Jesus is our savior and we tend to focus on spiritual salvation, but there were plenty of times when Jesus took care of a person’s physical needs before he took care of a person’s spiritual needs. The truth is the Good News should be good news and when we talk about holiness and heaven to a person who is struggling to put food on the table, raise their kids, pay their bills, and keep their marriage together, our words can fall on deaf ears. So the Good News should be able to make a present day physical difference in a person’s life.

Healing Shame through Communion

^{Luke 5:27-32}

²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Shame

Tom is in prison, staying in a little room day after day, watching TV. He won’t look at other people in the eye, and he speaks very softly. He hears messages day after day that are shaming: “You’re Lazy, You’re Fat, You’re Stupid, You’re a bad person!” He feels like running and hiding every time he hears one of those messages, but there is nowhere to go. He just retreats further into himself. The messages from other people are nothing compared to the messages he tells himself; “I wish I’d never been born, I wish I could die, I wish I was someone else like the people I see on TV.”

Every meal, he sits alone on his bed, and watches TV and suffers in silence. The prison where Tom lives in his parent’s basement, he is 16 years old. Tom is a prisoner of his own shame.

Levi works as a tax collector and feels shame, since tax collectors were despised in Ancient Israel. One day a rabbi named Jesus comes by tells him to follow him. To follow a rabbi means that you will be taught by the rabbi and become a rabbi yourself! Levi has an opportunity to leave a despised occupation to be trained in the most honored profession in Israel.

To celebrate, Levi has a party at his house and Jesus comes and eats with other tax collectors and other sinners. When Jesus eats with them, he shows them acceptance. This is critical because a rabbi is the most honored profession in Israel, and for Jesus to eat with is amazing.

If the quarterback of the football team, the head cheerleader, the captain of the girls’ basketball team, the valedictorian, the lead soloist from the chorus, and the first chair tenor sax player all came to Tom’s house to invite him out for pizza, it would have a similar effect.

Sins we have committed against others and against ourselves produce shame in us. Sins done to us by other people also produce shame in us. Acceptance by others by others is the first step towards being healed of that shame. When we eat people, we are showing some level of acceptance. When we eat with Jesus at communion, we believe our sins are forgiven and our shame is healed!

Unity is What We Need by Evan King

My son Evan won third place in the state with this essay. When he wrote it, I liked it so much, I posted it on my blog. Today he found out he won third place in the state.

UNITY IS WHAT WE NEED

Today as I stand before you our great nation is again divided, just as it was in the time of the civil war. The division today might not be the North against the South but it is Democrat against Republicans, Christians against Muslims, Muslims against Jews, Black against White, Brown against Black, all with no middle ground.
Our nation is also divided on issues such as the economy, religion, abortion, immigration, and politics. Our nation is at war so this is a time for unity not division. Aesop’s famous quote “United we stand, divided we fall” has never been more important than today.
Our enemies wait at our front door while we debate issues with no common ground in near sight.
Our government has proved itself faithful to the American people time and time again. We need that faithfulness now. We need unity and decisions that represent all American people and their beliefs. We need unity to ensure our God given rights that were guaranteed by our forefathers as they designed the constitution. Thomas Jefferson said “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. For most of us, happiness means a united nation.
As leaders, we beg you, make decisions based on the good of the whole country, not just the interests of your business associates, or financial backers, or the wealthy, or only the opinion of your party. Benjamin Franklin said, “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.” Please consider us as a nation, and remember our enemy waits for us to fall.