Greetings from Austin Street

Blessed Sunday to you all!  All is well here at 811.  Bruce and Geni played handbells in both worship services at Advent Lutheran today and I preached at St. Andrews Christian Church in Carrolton. Preaching is fun for me. I like to walk around in a passage of scripture and give some information about the text, find a way for this text or at least part of it to have meaning for our lives and tell a story. Geni is continuing to work on cookie recipes for the Think Pink party being held during my surgery on Thursday. She is really an amazing daughter. 

Dear God, thank you for putting the times of my waiting into perspective. I praise you that all you have planned for me is already accomplished. Thank you Lord for the message in the Gospel of John that reads “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  I thank you for sending me to this passage because I think I better understand it now.  Thank you God for your powerful desire to dwell among us so that we could know you through the body of Jesus. I love you Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Today I preached on the passage from John 11: 1-45. It is the story of the raising of Lazarus. It is an enormous passage; far too much in which to preach on in one time slot. I titled the sermon “When the Dead Stand Up…The Funeral’s Over!”   Jesus never preached a funeral he just raised the dead. But the focus of the sermon was in the reaction of Mary and Martha and their reaction to Jesus at the death of their brother. Both of these women greeted Jesus with the same declaration, “If you had been there our brother would not have died.” Martha meets Jesus on the road near the tomb and shares her powerful faith in her friend as Messiah Son of God. Mary did not go to greet Jesus on the road. She remained at their home and Martha had to go and get her. It is this event that caused me to think.

I think Mary was so hurt, angry and felt so neglected by Jesus in this time of her greatest need that she did not want to see him. When she arrived in the presence of Jesus she too declared, “If you had been here my brother would not have died.” And Jesus having such compassion for these grieving, broken hearted women filled with so much sadness and sorrow that he did not scold; he wept. He wept for their sorrow and their pain. He took the possible anger of Mary and the faith of Martha and became “the word made flesh and dwelt among them.”

And Jesus weeps with us today. Jesus is compassionate and hurts with us bringing the very heart of the gospel to us at the point of our deepest need because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” for when Jesus weeps with us our healing begins and God cries too.

“Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”

Psalm 37:5

Take joy in the journey remembering that Jesus dwells in us. Wear comfortable shoes, get some sleep and think pink!  Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene