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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
...and Sharon J. Vanati
Tom Ludwig led our weekday 8:00 a.m. zoom devotional this morning (Good Friday), and he shared a recent Facebook post by a woman named Sharon J. Vanati, who calls herself @thewomanbythewell. I knew as soon as I heard it that I wanted to share it with the rest of you on this Good Friday.
It's no secret to any of you who've been attending our worship services these past five years that the primary reason I have been so deeply attracted to the Path of Jesus for almost 50 years now is because of the Love at the heart of who and what Jesus is all about. You've heard me quote 1 John 4:8--"God is Love" a zillion times. To me, Jesus shows us what the Love of God lived out in a human life looks like most completely. Jesus is not the only man or woman in history to embody the Love that IS GOD in a profound and compelling way, but he's the one I've been irresistibly drawn to, and the One in whose Name the Church gathers and lives out its vocation to continue embodying and manifesting that kind of Love in this broken and beautiful world.
We don't need to "believe in Jesus" or follow Jesus Christ to experience love, at least to some degree. But the reason I'm so powerfully attracted to the Love revealed in and through Jesus's life and teachings is because of its depth and intensity and total inclusivity. Jesus makes it quite clear that God's Love is for everyone. There are no exceptions. There's nothing we can ever do or not do that could cause God to stop loving us. That's why I use a capital "L" when I refer to the Love of God and/or Jesus. I'm talking about Divine Love. The LOVE that is the Source of Love. The Love that has no limits, leaves no one out, and that sometimes lays itself on the line and costs a person everything--even life itself--as it did Jesus on that Roman Cross.
It's easy to say we embrace this same kind of radically inclusive and costly Love ourselves. Many of us sincerely want to, and we are committed to this path. But most of us, and I'm no exception, bump into limits when it comes to our own willingness and ability to offer this kind of Love to others. There are people we regard as somehow unworthy of being loved in the way Jesus taught us. I know, we like to think that's not the case, but it happens every time we think we have a good enough reason to treat someone with disrespect, disdain, or contempt. It happens every time we are unnecessarily unkind to someone and think we are justified in treating them that way.
A firey and brilliant preacher friend of mine named John Smith from Australia once was a keynote speaker at a large conference for Christian Music Industry professionals in Estes Park, CO. I was there among the crowd. It was 1989 or so, and that group of industry professionals was comprised largely of evangelical Christians who were politically and theologically very conservative. Colonel Oliver North was one of the other keynote speakers. John started preaching on Matthew 5:45 in which Jesus says that God's Love is like the sun and the rain that everyone receives--the "just and the unjust alike". And John then said, "I wonder--if this assembly were in charge of the weather--would the (former) Soviet Union ever receive any rain?" I never forgot that. He went on to challenge U.S. policy in Central America and talk about the dangers of right-wing Christians (or left-wing) assuming that "God was on their/our side." I approached him immediately afterward and thanked him for his courage and faithfulness to the Path of Jesus, and that began a lengthy friendship between us. For those of you familiar with my song, "Follow Me (87 Times)," John is the "preacher from Australia" I reference in the opening line of that song. Here's a link to it if you're curious.
It's amazing how discriminant we can be when it comes not just to our own love for others, but also when it comes to who we think is "okay or not" with God. Oh we don't come out and say it. We may not even be aware of it. But most of us have an amazing tendency to assume that people whom we consider to be on the wrong side of history, or who represent what we personally dislike most, are somehow "on the outs" with God. As author Anne Lamott put it:
"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
So here's the Facebook post that Tom shared with us this morning. Thanks again Tom. And thanks @thewomanbythewell.
Hope to see you all at church this Easter Sunday,
Pastor Bryan
"Judas Ate Too"
Hours before the death of Jesus, Judas ate too.
Jesus fed Judas too.
Jesus prayed for Judas too.
Jesus washed Judas' feet too.
I struggle to fathom what kind of love this is...
A love that would feed the mouth that deceived you.
A love that would wash the feet of the traitor.
A love that could forgive even the vilest of betrayals.
Honestly I struggle to comprehend it.
And then, suddenly, I realize...that I'm Judas too!
And in that moment I'm so thankful and altogether overwhelmed that...
Judas ate too.
The true test of Christianity is not about loving Jesus
but loving Judas.
Showing love to someone like Jesus is so easy,
But loving someone hard to love,
a sinner like Judas is difficult
That's what "following Jesus" is all about.
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