Wonderings--April 13

Like you I have read the Passion narrative many times in my Christian life; I have heard it read to me may more times. I have examined each of the four gospels as they speak about how Jesus died and rose again for us as the church. More than just examining each narrative, or hearing them read, over the years I have preached on each of the gospel's resurrection stories--and they all bless my heart and warm my soul. 

I never get tired of hearing how Jesus defeated death by choosing to be the perfect sin-sacrifice for humanity. Yet in that familiarity a temptation exists to skip portions of the story because we know it so well that we don't think it contains anything that can change us any longer. Like John 3:16, most of us can complete the resurrection story as it is read in worship this Sunday.

 And so I ask: what is left to wonder about on Easter morning? 

If we are so familiar with what Jesus did for us, then why read it each year? Why look for something that changes lives and remakes people when it feels stale and overworked? 

It is in that moment, as I am tempted to become frustrated and overwhelmed on Holy Week, it is at that moment when I remember an important detail-- an important choice that Jesus made. He surrendered to what was coming. . . I wonder what that might look like in your life today? 

Howard Thurman offers the church these words that I share with you today. He invites you and I, as we think on what he is saying, to surrender to God. He wonders with us if as we surrender to the Lord, do we allow what seems familiar the space that it needs to become transformational yet again? As we know this is the greatest story ever told. 

Thurman wrote:  

"I surrender myself to God without any conditions or reservations. I shall not bargain with [God]. I shall not make my surrender piecemeal but I shall lay bare the very center of me, that all of my very being shall be charged with the creative energy of God. Little by little, or vast area by vast area, my life must be transmuted in the life of God. As this happens, I come into the meaning of true freedom and the burdens that I seemed unable to bear are floated in the current of the life and love of God.

The central element in communion with God is the act of self-surrender."

Jesus self-surrendered for us. He gave up control for us. He allowed his mission and his purpose to overwhelm his humanity which we know was anxious and fearful. As did so, God the Father welcomed us back into perfect communion with Him forever and ever. All because of the simple act of surrender. 

Certainly something that dramatic isn't going to happen to us today if we surrender to God. But a miracle, a transformation, and renewal, will happen when we practice the self-surrender Howard speaks about. And as we practice this, I wonder, if the narrative will become live again? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek