Chris Yaw

I had lunch this week with a man whose daughter was killed in a mass shooting.

Such a faithful, conscientious, determined soul, one rarely meets!

I held back tears as he described the tragic incident, what he did on that day, and what he was doing now.

Amidst the questions and the mystery behind why this terrible event struck such a wonderful family, his great obsession was with the most important question we can all ask in the face of any problem, setback, or tragedy:

What good can come out of this?

Instead of getting bogged down with that looming question that has no answer: why? my friend has made the decision to be utterly consumed with the question of what?

What good can come out of this?

This Sunday we'll hear the horrid story of the Martyrdom of John the Baptist at the whimsy of the brutal King Herod, after a belly dance depicted in the artwork above.

What were John's friends and followers to do in the face of such senseless tragedy?

I think my friend understands.

He knows how needful it is to concern ourselves with productive acts of love, and not gloomy, thoughts of regret.

What good can come out of this?

That has been my friend's choice and it's a good one

How do we need to do the same thing?

I'm sure they're good people, but a handful of gun rights legislators put forth a terrible bill in the Michigan legislature to make the AR-15 rifle the official State weapon.

It's silly and it's sad, first, because of the optics, the AR-15 used in five of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in the nation, including Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and parkland. Is that an appropriate state symbol?

It's silly because the majority of state residents do not own a gun, much less an AR-15, in a democratically LED State, so this will never pass.

And on the heels of the Surgeon General's declaration of gun violence as a public health threat, our limited resources need to be used, not putting forth clickbait legislation, but compromising and coming together to address this scourge of gun violence.

As Christians, our job isn't so much to criticize the government or commend the government as it is to be a moral conscience, the Bible reminds us that our time here is short, and we need positive change now!

We have good people in our legislature that can come up with good compromises! This bill is not one of them.

So you finally found your dream home site!

You imagine sitting in the living room looking through that plate glass window at the snow-capped mountains and pristine lake below, so you call a builder who makes it happen!

And the first day you move in, you wake up, brew a cup of coffee, sit down in your favorite chair and look out at that lake when it happens,

A bird flies by and poops in the middle of your window!

You get up and clean it off, then the same thing happens the next day, and the next, and before you know it, you're no longer paying attention to the view, but the poop.

Since when has cleaning the poop become our most important job? Instead of paying attention to the view - that pristine view, the reason you built the house in the first place.

This Sunday, as we begin the season after Pentecost, the long green season that will take us all the way up through Advent, we run headlong into a group religious leaders that will oppose Jesus at every turn. While they serve God and purport to know God, they fall short when they put tradition and career ahead of revelation.

Yes, Jesus is here to reveal many things, one of the most important is for you and I to stay open to change.

Don't let the insignificant and unimportant keep you from embracing the big picture! Shrug it off, don't pay it no mind, the main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing!

When I was a teenager I ate so quickly.

And 20 minutes later, like clockwork, I could feel it! Yes, we all know it takes about 20 minutes for us to begin feeling satiated after a meal, but time and time again I didn't pay attention to that.

It took experience, getting older, for it to finally sink in.

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost.

For Jesus' followers, this was the time when it finally sunk in.

They had heard him preach for years, seen him heal, feed, and stand up for righteousness.

They had seen him die, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven.

This was over a period of years.

And when they finally got it, on this iconic Jewish holiday called Pentecost we see God show up, empowering them like never before, to go out and do the works that they had witnessed.

We ask ourselves how long will it take us to get it?

Has our Pentecost come?

How are we commemorating it?

Or are we still waiting for it? For time and experience to sink in?

I bet there is a lesson, a reminder, a red flag even, in your life that you have been putting off, denying, and not allowing to sink in;

Like eating too quickly

Pentecost invites you to look at this, look for this, for your good, and the good of others.

(Thursday and again on Sunday we celebrate Ascension Day! We commemorate Jesus' last day on earth, and the first day of our sacred assignment: to continue the work he began. What does that mean to you?)

After he rose, he arose!

Jesus stuck around for forty days, basking in the miracle of new life following his resurrection before he did something just as magical: standing before his disciples 40 days after his return from the grave, he was lifted up and ascended on high into heaven.

But before he did this, he promised the disciples that power would come their way, in 10 days time, the Holy Spirit of ambition, assertiveness, adventure, and imagination would come upon them, convincing them that love is the answer,

And giving them boldness to go do more of what Jesus did, heal the sick, encourage the downtrodden;

And teach a new way of living, not based in revenge and selfishness, but love, sharing, and selflessness.

Ascension Day is about the handing over of God's work from the teacher, to the students.

We do well to imitate that teacher, to look toward Jesus as the source of our power and inspiration;

To embody his vision of a whole world that respects, assists, and loves one another, eschewing the temptations to hoard, dominate, and embrace a small, myopic view of life.

Let us also rise and arise to the challenge before us, to worship, obey, and imitate our ascended Lord.

You just got a promotion - will you take it?

That's right, Jesus whom we call Lord, has actually asked us to call him "friend!"

It's a subtle change in how the Lord considers you and me - no longer as servants, but as friends (John 15 in this Sunday's gospel).

What does this mean to be a friend? Well, it asks us to up our game.

Friends share equal status and responsibility for making the relationship work and making the work go forward. Moving out of the servant's quarters, and into a corner office means we not only enjoy a better salary, benefits, and snazzy title, but we also have responsibilities and the duties that the servant never had.

Our promotion allows us to grow up, to live into our potential, and to be the driving force of positive change in the world God created us to be. I think this Sunday's gospel asks us to contemplate what kind of relationship we want with Jesus - and that he has made it clear that he wants to partner with us - doing the difficult but needful work of self-sacrifice, reconciliation, healing, and love.

Let us take a moment and contemplate this blessed promotion and do our part to be a good friend.

A politician recently told a crowd to put on the armor of God - and to strap on a handgun.

This is the perfect image of our ongoing American wrestling match - with a cross in one hand, and a gun in the other.

But let's be clear: Jesus didn't advocate violence,
he called himself the Prince of Peace!

He didn't retaliate against his persecutors,
he forgave them.

He didn't defend himself,
but in Sunday's gospel, he says he laid down his life - and that we should too.

Time and again, Jesus showed us love, and that love is ready to die, not kill.

How are we being tempted by our evolutionary and cultural programming to fight and harm instead of following the Jesus Way of forgiveness and peace?

What will be the good news to those grandparents in Newaygo who, last week, left an unlocked and loaded weapon within reach of a toddler, resulting in the child's death?

The legal system, their neighbors, their family will understandably condemn, judge, and vilify this couple who are already punishing themselves, more than likely, much more harshly than anyone else.

Two weeks after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and declared his mission: 'that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed.'

There is a place for judgment, it needs to happen.

But we often go overboard - and make our sins our identity: we did something bad, hence we are bad.

The Risen Christ won't have it.

Of course those grandparents did a bad thing.

But does that make them bad people?

The Resurrection helps us separate bad deeds from good people.

It puts into perspective our divinity and humanity.

Don't let judgment overshadow forgiveness.

Putting stuff before people, we do it all the time!

And not just money and possessions, but political opinions, ethnic pride, and financial status. It can divide us, and keeps us from connecting like we should, with the people we should, to follow the example we should!

Spy Wednesday, Holy Week's Hump Day, points to Judas and you and me and the ways we make regretful decisions that sacrifice relationships, which are the greatest well of happiness humans have!

Holy Wednesday invites you and me to take the high road, like Jesus, and to let God get mad, let God get even. Amidst that betrayal, Jesus still loved Judas, he put the relationship above all else, because when we love our neighbor, especially our enemy, we love God.

How will we love our enemies today, like Jesus?

Our best life often comes after a lot of little deaths...

When we have found a way to put to death our selfishness, gluttony, laziness, apathy, lack of belief in ourselves, we often discover what remains:

It's who we are at our essence, the God-breathed image of God, alive to peace, joy, harmony, courage, and hope.

Yet for these to emerge, we must actively put to death their opponents.

When Jesus talked about a seed falling to the ground, to its death, in order for abundant new life to emerge, we can take this as a challenge to confront the negative forces that keep us down, knowing that when these are vanquished, newness and new life emerge!

What does this look like for you?

Don't be afraid of death! In the midst, is your new life!

What makes you mad?

For Jesus, it was injustice - seeing hypocrisy, greed, and selfishness playing out - as religious people built walls of separation between God and God's people - denying them of what we all yearn for - wholeness, abundance, peace, and connection with their creator.

Did you notice that Jesus didn't sit around.

He staged a dramatic protest.

He made it known that he was not going to stand by idly in the face of injustice.

And in so doing, he teaches you and me how to channel our own voices of protest.

You and I were not created to sit idly by as our hearts get similarly pierced by the injustices all around us!

What's making your blood boil?

What's got your Godly anger piqued?

Did God give you that emotion so you could suppress it?

No!

To carry on Jesus work means to engage in our own dramatic protest - we see injustice around us!

Where do you see it?

As God led Jesus to champion the rights of the oppressed, how are we being similarly led?

Are you believing God today?

The patriarch of the major Abrahamic faiths, Abraham, was famous for doing that, for having faith.

But not just any faith, a belief that was honed over years of success, like having a child at an old age, but also through missteps, like denying his marriage and taking sleeping with the maid.

But while Abraham certainly shows us faithfulness, much more he shows us God's faithfulness! - how God continued to believe in Abraham - despite the cringe-worthy mistakes!

That same God believes in you - despite the mistakes and mishaps you have made, you and I are challenged to believe in the journey! To believe that as we, too, hone or beliefs in God, God is doing wonders through us as well.

So forgive yourself, look to God for strength, your own faithfulness comes from God's faithfulness!

See you Sunday!

Chris Yaw

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