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Good Samaritan United Methodist Church 19624 Homestead Road, Cupertino, California 94087 - 408-253-0751 - goodsam.info |
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
Matthew 24:32-25:13 Doug Souvignier
What will the second coming of Jesus be like? In this passage, Jesus tells us it will be sudden and without warning. People will be going about their daily routines, just like any other day. Would we live differently if we knew the “day and hour?” Would we tie up all the loose ends in our lives, and make peace with all our relationships? Jesus tells us there won’t even be enough time to make peace with God. There won’t be any advance notice to get our spiritual lives in order.
This passage gives urgency to the phrase “Live each day as if it were your last.” We need to be doing His work here on earth, so that when He comes again, we will be ready. And even if that day does not come in our lifetimes, isn’t that a wonderful way to live?
Monday, March 17, 2008
Matthew 25: 14-46 Jay Stanton
In this passage we have 2 parts. The first is the “Parable of the Talents” and the second is the “The Judgment of the Nations”.
So let’s begin with the question of loaned monies?
Do you invest it? Do you put it in the bank? Do you bury it out in the field?
The real questions are: How strong is your faith? And what should you do to glorify our God? Sounds like something our country and the world should ask themselves on a daily basis.
From the Life application study bible we have this footnote:
“This parable describes the consequences of two attitudes toward Christ’s return. The person who diligently prepares for it by investing his or her time and talents to serve God will be rewarded. The person who has no heart for the work of the Kingdom will be punished. God rewards faithfulness. Those who bear no fruit for God’s Kingdom cannot expect to be treated the same as those who are faithful”.
I tend to think of this as: God never wants us to stand still and do nothing! God wants our actions. God wants us to have a pro-active relationship with our monies, our time and our talents. By doing this we are bettering the world around us and ultimately the Kingdom of God.
The second part of Matthew centers on “The Judgment of the Nations”. How will the Nations be judged? Are they serving the needs of the People? The point is the importance of serving where service is needed. The focus of the parable is that we should love every person and serve anyone we can. Such love for others glorifies God by reflecting our love for him.
Read the last part of Matthew 25: 44 – 45
“Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you? And he will answer, ‘I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters; you were refusing to help me.’
Think about the last couple of days, weeks, months and years. Did you see a need or a hunger?
Did you feel a pain? Was there a thirst placed just inside your grasp?
As we make our way through the rest of our lives let us spark a change in the lives of others and through doing so we are truly glorified in the eyes of our Lord. Amen
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Matthew 26:1-30 Joe & Denise Austin
In this passage we will focus on three topics:
1) Love conquers pain
2) Communion
3) The final promise
In verse 2, Jesus tells his disciples that he shall be betrayed and crucified. Even with this knowledge he willingly goes along with God’s plan. He knows that he must go through much pain and suffering in order to save all of humanity. Even
still, his love for us and all people is far greater than the pain he is about to endure.
In verse 26, Jesus initiates communion. When Jesus blesses the bread and wine and then shares them, the bread and wine are no longer ordinary but extraordinary in that they become the new covenant. They are the body and blood poured out to forgive the sins of multitudes. God made that new covenant with us, through his Son Jesus. We acknowledge and accept that covenant when we partake in communion. Even though we come as one people, one body of believers, it is a personal statement of faith.
Throughout the gospels Jesus mentions several times something about a Kingdom, Heaven, or a new place. Here in verse 29, he makes a promise to his disciples (and to all believers), “I will not drink this wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” This is not just a hint. He flat out promised that he will be victorious over death, all he has said is true, and that he will have communion with us in heaven. We can only imagine what that communion and celebration will be like.
Thank you Father, for sending your Son to show us how to love, for inviting us to your table, and for promising we can share in your victory celebration in your Kingdom. Amen
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Matthew 26:31-75 Mark & Joyce Fisher
One verse in particular jumped out at me as I read and pondered this passage.
Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.”
Usually one thinks of falling into the temptation of sin, doing one of the ten evils. Watch and pray you don’t steal something. Replace “steal” with the sin of your choice. But in thinking about it, we’d like to take a different spin on this scripture.
Consider the temptation of sloth. Not volunteering. Not getting things done. We are sill in the month of January as we write this, with New Year’s resolutions still fresh on our minds. And so many things we should do are swirling around in our heads. Even writing this response—something we volunteer to do each year, seems to get done at the last minute (or even past the due date…).
The spirit is willing but the mind is weak. This could be the mantra for the Fisher family, and we are probably not alone. Mark starts a great home improvement project, but then it lingers for months until it gets completed. Stephen shares great plans for tackling college applications and scholarship forms, yet seems to be running to the post office on the night of submission due dates. Timothy loves to plan gatherings and events in conversation, but loses interest once he needs to start getting his hands dirty with the details. And Joyce has enough supplies to make quilts for every member of the church, yet somehow, few quilts rarely get finished.
It seems that the really important things—prayer, giving time to others, helping the church family, reaching out to those who need us—rarely make it onto the “To Do” list. Jesus asked his disciples to pray with him, but they fell asleep. They had good intentions, but their eyelids grew heavy. Eventually Jesus gave up and stopped waking them.
We need to make a greater effort to follow through with more good intentions. Think about some of the ways we have been asked to help our church family just this year so far:
•Volunteering to drive youth to the ski trip
•Un-decorating the church after Christmas
•Driving for Adopt-a-Miracle
•Cooking for the Family Shelter
•Joining a new small group—
Men’s Breakfast, UMW, Parent Support Group
•Helping with memorial services
•Teaching Sunday School
We have helped with some of these items, but not as many as we could or should. It sounds so good on Sunday morning—but when the time comes to make that commitment, we are too tired, to too busy, or we just figure someone else will take care of it.
Let’s all try to make the body as committed as the spirit is willing. Begin with prayer, let God tell us what He wants us to do. Then find the resolution to follow through and get things done. Resist the temptation to let others do it or let it Imagine what we could accomplish as the Good Sam Family in the name of Jesus
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Matthew 27:1-31 Brenna Stanton
I don’t know about anyone else, but, in my personal experience, one of the most excruciating things ever to be encountered on this dear earth…is a paper cut. Yes, you heard me right—a tiny, almost miniscule, microscopic little injury is the one and only bane of my existence. Why? Why a paper cut, of all things? I don’t know. Perhaps because you never expect it—it’s almost like an act of terrorism against your person. There you are, innocently shuffling, flipping, scattering, grabbing, holding, tearing, and otherwise manipulating a thin (very, very thin) piece of your local tree, and it attacks you with a viciousness previously unknown.
Instant betrayal. You yell, tossing the offender at an alarmingly fast rate across the room, hop around on one foot (although, interestingly enough, nothing appears to be wrong with your feet) until what seems to be the entire world Zero’s in on your situation: the unbearable, unthinkable truth of being nearly eaten alive by an inanimate object. You sniffle, soaking in the pity, and don’t snap out of it until the battle wound is appropriately bandaged, the sympathy cards start flowing in, and the pampering process is underway. And there you have it—for the rest of your life, the heroic tale of your war with death (because ‘war with paper cut’ doesn’t really hold the same appeal) pops up in almost half your conversations, forever ingrained in your mind as the singularly most painful moment of your career.
Pain is a very persuasive bargaining chip. Pain is why sane people don’t jump out of airplanes without parachutes, or walk any distance without shoes, or jump in the way of bullets. It hurts—your natural reflex is to recoil. Too much pain, and a person will pass out. Which brings me to an interesting notion, a thought that occurred to me as I was reading a section of Matthew.
The moments before Jesus’ crucifixion were Hell. So why would Jesus go through Hell? All the agony, both literally and figuratively, the humiliation of being, the despair permeating the very air, the loneliness among the jeering throng…Why would Jesus, a perfect being, entirely capable of calling forth legions of angels, willingly put himself through that? Even when he had a way out of it—renouncing his truths, then later, drinking drugged wine to numb the pain—he refused. Why? It was people who praised him, people who scorned him, people who betrayed him, people who hated him, people who loved him, and people who condemned, who killed, who murdered him.
He knew this. And still he endured the wrath of a naïve, cruel, and dark aspect of man. Why? Out of love for us. That is what we have been told. But I think it’s a little more than that—it was not just love that drove him. I believe it was also hope, perhaps even fear. He loved us enough to fear for our safety, and to hope for our future welfare. Powerful beyond anything we can imagine in this world—to face pain and the inevitable death, for a love and a hope and a fear for a world undeserving and encased in flame. He suffered for us out of love for us—and so he refused to smooth the path before him, because he wasn’t going to play games with the future he saw. Had that future been our fate, we would have suffered the same—and so he took on the equal weight of our own sin, with no merciful hesitation, and gave death everything he had.
How little my paper cut fiasco seems now, in comparison to the big picture! But it’s because of this big picture that that is all I currently stress over—Jesus bore the pain so you and I wouldn’t have to.
…you know, paper cuts really aren’t so bad.
.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Matthew 27: 32–66 Rev. Kristie Olah
Every time I read through the stories of Jesus’ death on the cross, my heart breaks. If I take the time to read this passage aloud, my voice slows and softens under the increasing weight of the words.
Again and again the Romans had put to death their enemies, accused criminals, and disrupters. One wonders if this day was just like so many others for the soldiers. It seems not; the acts of degradation and humiliation were intense for this man. They divided his clothes, they taunted him, and they gave him bitter wine, all to dethrone a self-proclaimed king.
But these activities form a sideshow around the deepest horror: the agonizing death of the noble, beloved, compassionate, holy man.
Jesus cries out and breathes his last. Sometimes with death, there comes a moment of deep silence, as if the universe stops breathing, too. But when Jesus dies, the whole earth rocks and rolls. Now they know. Now they are terrified. Truly this is God’s Son.
The details draw us deep into the tragedy. We walk with the women and the disciple Joseph through the first hours of mourning. With them, we pause and wait, resting our spirits in the injustice of his death.
We are not left without hope, but it comes from unlikely voices. The men who conspired for his death, the chief priests and Pharisees, remember what he said.
“After three days I will rise again.”
Jesus has died and we feel the pain. But God’s hope for the world is about to come alive. Even today, especially today, we live in hope.
Every time I read through the stories of Jesus’ death on the cross, my heart breaks. For I know, somehow, he died for me. Me and you, and not one of us deserved it, except through the awesome, amazing grace of God.
Lord Jesus Christ, Sometimes we struggle to understand God’s ways. Sometimes we struggle to live our faith. But always, we give thanks for the blessing of your love for us. Draw us close, that we may follow in your ways and live in your hope forever. Humbly we pray, Amen.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Matthew 28:1-20 Ted Larson
There are four things about this passage that caused me to stop and reflect deeper on it's meaning:
1) there was an earthquake,
2) people were told 'do not be afraid'
3) the disciples actually worshiped the resurrected Jesus, and,
4) the Great Commission is given by Jesus to the disciples.
Of these, I'd like to focus on the great commission. This is actually the second time the disciples have received their marching orders. The first time occurs in Matthew 10, the entire chapter, but especially verses 7-8: "preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.'" Gosh, these are hard orders to follow! We kind of think that good Christians should attend church on Sunday and be nice to other people. But Jesus tells us to heal people and drive out demons. Now compare that with the 2nd Great Commission in Mt 28:18-20… 'go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them…"
On this day, let's discern our calling. What skills, gifts and graces have you been given? It has to go beyond Sunday morning doesn't it? I like to think of the Great Commission in relation to the spiritual gifts in Romans 12:5-9… 'so in Christ we who are many form one body… we have different gifts… prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership, showing mercy and loving.'
Today, let us reflect on how we perceive the Great Commission in our own life. What grace have you been given? What gift will you share? How will you do it to change the world around you? These can and probably will change to be refreshed over the years. For me, I've felt called to use different gifts and talents across different decades. As we celebrate Easter, know that God may be ready to give you a fresh start with the sharing of your gifts. In order to unlock that, like the women on the resurrection road, we may have to overcome our fear, or maybe deepen our worship. Whatever it may be, do this with strong knowledge of Jesus' last words and the last verse in Matthew: "I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."