“King on a Donkey”

Sermon for Palm Sunday 2012

Meditation on Mark 11:1-11

       We are walking the dusty road with Jesus and His disciples in our gospel lesson today. They are headed toward Jerusalem to celebrate the Holy Festival of Passover. 

       Their last stop was in Jericho, where Joshua had so long before led a battle for the Lord, and Jesus more recently had healed a blind beggar in the streets.

       Between Jericho and Jerusalem is only about a dozen miles. But the walk is a steep, rocky climb—desert most of the way.  Jericho, at 800 feet below sea level, is the lowest city on earth. Jerusalem is nearly 3,000 feet above sea level.

       Before Jesus and his disciples reach the Holy City, they rest on the top of the Mount of Olives, where desert gives way to green vegetation. Jesus sends two of his disciples ahead to a village to fetch a colt.

      We assume this colt is a donkey because the gospel of Matthew fills in that detail, as does Zechariah the prophet in our reading today. 

       This donkey has never been ridden and has no saddle.  The disciples throw their cloaks over the animal’s back. Jesus climbs on.

       What scholars call Christ’s Triumphal Entry begins.

       It is a kind of royal procession, on a small scale.

       People see Jesus coming. They rush out to him, remove their cloaks and spread them on the ground in front of him. Others pick branches from the trees and gather straw from the fields to wave jubilantly.

      They cry out, “Hosanna!” a Hebrew word from a prayer asking the Lord to “Come quickly! Save us now!”

      They shout, “Blessed or welcome is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!”

       Jesus enters the Holy City.  King on a donkey. 

       This king of heaven is unlike any worldly king. No weapons display or show of military force. No colors blazing on banners held high; no drums rumbling or trumpets sounding.

        No other king would come so quietly, so peacefully, so humbly. Christ’s kingdom is like none on earth we know.   

        The triumphal entry ends in almost an anticlimax. A letdown.

        Jesus rides in, goes to the temple, looks around.  And because the hour is late, he heads right back out of the city again—to the village of Bethany, where he will stay with his disciples during the few days leading up to the Passover.

       Mark leaves us hanging as to what will happen now that Jesus has made His presence known in Jerusalem.

***

        Today, on Palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry and begin our first day of Holy Week, we also welcome five young women into membership in our church. 

       All five have been coming to Ebenezer since they were babies in their families’ arms.  They were baptized here.

     When they were baptized, their parents and everyone in this church vowed to nurture them in the Lord and help them—and their parents—along their journey of faith.

      These five have now completed confirmation. Last Sunday, each shared their faith statements with their parents, mentors, pastor, and members of session. 

     But their journey of faith has just begun.  They have a lifetime of spiritual growth and learning ahead of them. They will need your encouragement more than ever in the next few weeks, months and years, when it may seem like a kind of an anticlimax or a letdown to them.

     For all of their lives, they have participated in a structured Christian education program with specific goals, some of which they have now achieved.

     Today there is excitement and joy, celebrating their decision to follow Christ through service in this church and their completion of the program. There will be prayers and hugs, cards and presents, and parties with cake and relatives and friends.

     And then tomorrow will come. And next Sunday.  And the next.

    What will happen, then?

    Ebenezer has no structured program for confirmation graduates. We have no senior high class or weekly youth group.  No adults have come forward—not yet, anyway—expressing interest in leading such a class or group.

     These five are urged, of course, to attend adult Bible studies and Sunday school classes, and stay involved with mission and outreach. All have expressed interest in helping out with the children’s programs, including Vacation Bible School.

      But will they be motivated, without a structured program, to come to church every week?

      Will they, like some of our teens and young adults have done in the past, start to drift away...?

      They will have to make choices, with our help.  And they will choose to follow Christ with all their hearts. Or they will choose to chase after the activities, friendships, and feel-good rewards the world has to offer, leaving them little or no time to pursue the things of God’s kingdom, which is like nothing else on earth.

      What happens in their lives of faith from here on out depends on them and whether their faith statements and commitment to serving Jesus Christ and loving others are real or simply words spoken to please other people.

       What happens in their lives of faith also depends on all of us. Is our faith and commitment to serving Christ and loving others real?

      Let us care enough about our young people to demonstrate the gospel to them through our own lives, words, and journeys of faith.

      Let us remember to pray for them, reach out to them, and hold them to the responsibilities that go along with membership in the Body of Christ.

      Let us have the courage, then, to walk as our humble king would have us walk—as individuals and as a church. 

***      

       Our gospel lesson reveals to us a day in the life of Christ that was joyful and triumphant. But the triumph is bittersweet.  The joy is fleeting.

     Mark hasn’t really left us hanging.  We know what’s coming. In a matter of days, Jesus will be scorned and rejected. Abandoned by those who welcomed Him at Jerusalem’s gates.  Abandoned by his own frightened disciples.

       There will be no donkey for our humble king to ride and no cloaks laid on his path on the way to His crucifixion. He will have no garments of splendor to wear—only a cruel crown of thorns.

       There will be no waving branches, no royal procession—not even a small one.

       No cries of “Hosanna!  Come, Lord! Save us now!”

Will you pray with me? 

      Merciful Lord, forgive us when we have taken your work on the cross, your love, suffering, and sacrifice for our sakes, for granted.  Send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us to do your good works and obey your will.  Help us to love and nurture these five young ladies and the other young people of the church so they will have a faith to carry them throughout their lives.  Keep them strong in Spirit and committed to serving You. Give them hearts of compassion for the needy and a desire to take the gospel out through loving words and kind deeds. Protect them from discouragement and apathy.  Keep the evil one and his temptations away.  Thank you for your love and your forgiveness through your Son, Jesus Christ.  In His name we pray.  Amen.

      

    

      

"The Hour Has Come"

 Meditation on John 12:20-33 for the 5th Sunday in Lent

     Scripture: "Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’

      Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

      Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 

     Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

     Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

    ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’

     Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’

     The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’

    Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die."

***

      

      Last week, we talked about one of our biggest obstacles to living out a heartfelt faith.  The problem of busy-ness.  We fill up our days, evenings, and weekends with activities, in addition to our work and school responsibilities.  

     We keep going and going and going. 

      But the problem isn’t just our busy-ness.   It’s whether or not we want to pray, read our Bibles, go to church, and serve the Lord.

      Does it really matter if we do or not? Being a Christian definitely means different things to different people, depending on whom you ask.

      I had a childhood friend once explain to me when I was in my early 20s that she was a Christian, but religion wasn’t as important to her as it was to me.  She said she didn’t want to make it as much a part of her life as I did. 

      She didn’t feel the need to pray, read her Bible, or go to church.  She believed Jesus had died for her sins.  That was enough.

     Now she was an adult and had a career to worry about and a mortgage to pay. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even want to talk about faith and whether she went to church.  That wasn’t any of my business, though we had known each other and been close friends since we were in the 3^rd grade. 

     This very same childhood friend cut off all communication with me after I left my journalism job in 2005 to go to seminary, draw closer to the Lord, and hear what He wanted me to do.  

      I was stunned when she didn’t return any of my calls, letters or emails after that. I never imagined her enraged response to my decision to follow Christ and use the gifts He had given me for His Church.

***

      In the gospel of John, we get a pretty good picture of some of Jesus’ followers—and what stirs them to follow—and some of His enemies—and what stirs them to hate.  After Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, many people, in addition to His disciples, believe in Him and tell others about Him. 

    More and more people seek Jesus out because they hear what He has done—this sign showing He has power over life and death—a power that could only come from God. 

     The chief priests’ reaction to the raising of Lazarus, though, is anger and jealousy. They plot to kill Jesus, and they plot to kill Lazarus, whose very existence bears witness to the Christ.

     At the beginning of our gospel reading today, some people on a religious pilgrimage show up and tell Philip, one of the disciples, that they want to see Jesus.  John’s gospel calls them simply “Greeks,” which means they are probably not Jewish.

      This is the first time in Jesus’ ministry that non-Jews have come to Him seeking truth. This is a turning point in the gospel of John.

      Well, Philip doesn’t know what to do with these Greeks, so he goes to Andrew and tells him.  And then both of them go and tell Jesus.

     Christ’s response?

      “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified,” He says.

       It is time to begin his journey to the cross and complete what God has sent Him to do. Up to now, His message has been that the hour is coming or has not yet come.  Now it is clear that Jesus has come to save not only the Jews but everyone else, including the Greeks.

       Jesus tells them, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

       What He is saying is that He has to die so that from His death, others will have new life.

        Jesus knows He has to do this, but suddenly, when death looms nearer, His response is, at first, very human. 

       “Now my soul is troubled,” He says. 

        But should he call out to His Heavenly Father to save Him? 

        No. “But for this purpose I came to this hour.”

       And He is perfectly obedient to God—all the way to the cross.

*** 

       I think about my childhood friend off and on.  Sometimes I dream about her, remembering the hurt.  I wonder if she is OK because I know for many years, I was like family to her. And she was like a sister to me.

     When I wake up from those dreams, I just pray, placing my friend in God’s hands.  I don’t even try to contact her anymore.

     Christ tells us that you cannot love your life in this world and serve Him. In this passage in John, he tells us to “hate” our lives! Now He doesn’t mean that He wants us to be miserable and grumbling all the time.  He means that our motivation to do the things we do cannot be the things—or the people—of this world.  We have to be serving Him.

      If you ask me what it means to be a Christian, I will tell you that it means your heart and your life are different than if you were not a follower of Christ. 

      I will assure you that if you ask God faithfully in prayer, He will show you exactly how He wants you to live, with your specific gifts and situation.  Don’t compare your life to anyone else’s.  God has something planned just for you.  Just wait and see.

     Also, to me, being a Christian means sacrifices and suffering sometimes, because Christ suffered and was a living sacrifice for us.  How else can we carry His cross?

     If you aren’t making any sacrifices and you have never suffered to live out your faith—are you sure you are following Christ with all your heart?

      My friend was very proud of me when I was journalist. She knew me when I was a little girl who loved to write. I was proud of myself, too, and I am ashamed to say I didn’t always give God all the credit for what was, without a doubt, His gift to me. I wasn’t using it all the time for His glory. 

     With God’s help and my husband’s support, I did what God wanted, and finally found peace.  I know I made the right choice, though it was so hard to do.  

     My friend was angry and ashamed of me that I would give up a prestigious career in order to be, of all things, a more faithful Christian.

      But you have to want to serve God with all you have and all you are—at work, school, church, and play. 

      And if your friends get in the way of your spiritual journey, your drawing closer to the Lord, then maybe they aren’t really your friends. 

      If you want to serve the Lord, then you have to follow Him.

      And He was perfectly obedient to God—all the way to the cross.

    

Prayer:  Holy God, thank you for your patience with us as we continue to learn, each day, what it means to live as a Christian. Thank you for Christ’s perfect obedience to you. Forgive us when we are selfish and want to do what we want to do.  Give us ears to hear Your will for our lives and hearts to obey.  Teach us to love serving you more than anything else.  In Christ we pray.  Amen.    

"Love the Lord Your God With All Your Heart"

Scripture: John 12:37-43.  

     "Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him.

     This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

     And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they might not look with their eyes, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.” Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him.

      Nevertheless many, even some of the rulers, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.

     For they loved the praise of other people more than the praise of God."

Meditation for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

      Jesus turns water into wine. He heals the blind and lame. 

      He feeds 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. 

      He raises Lazarus from the dead.

      He does many other miracles or “signs.”

      And some believe in Him. That He is the Light of the World, the Bread from Heaven, the Good Shepherd.

      But many more do not. Those with hard hearts include some of Christ’s own followers. He loses quite a few of them after He talks about the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood. The 12 we know of are the ones who remain after the others walk away.

      Other unbelievers include his half brothers who are ready to expose him to the Jews who are seeking to stone him. 

      And of those who do believe in Him, few are willing to confess their belief.

      In our gospel reading tonight, John says some of the religious authorities believe in Christ, but they keep silent, “for they love the praise of other people more than the praise of God.”

     It is difficult for us to imagine life in Christ’s time, when law permitted only certain faiths and practices—yet religion meant everything.  Religion was your family, culture, and community.  It was as much a part of your identity as the color of your eyes and the language you spoke. Most people did not choose their religion just like most people did not choose their situation in life—they were born into it.

    And along came Jesus—into this stratified world—to call people to a new radical form of religion of the heart—one where the faithful must choose to follow God. And not simply to satisfy the laws of their ancestors, but because they love the Lord and want to please Him!

     Jesus challenged many of the accepted rules, attitudes, and practices of religion in His day.  In a community where family meant your identity, Christ’s Father was always His Heavenly Father not Joseph, the carpenter. When others believed that you were God’s own simply by being born into a Jewish family, Jesus said his brothers and sisters were not his biological brothers and sisters at all—they were people who did the Will of His Father.  That meant Gentiles could also be holy and acceptable to God!

      Christ angered the religious authorities when he healed on the Sabbath, breaking the Sabbath law.  He angered them again when he ate with Gentiles in their homes, breaking dietary laws. He had the audacity to forgive people of their sins! He uttered such blasphemy as “I and My Father are One.”

     It wasn’t long in His ministry before Jesus had made powerful enemies. So following Christ meant you were put out of the synagogue and no longer a member of the Jewish community.  That meant your own family could not associate with you.  You were an outcast!

    If you proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, you had to be ready to be persecuted and possibly lose your life.

     So it is not surprising—is it—that most people who believed kept their faith a secret. This included the Jewish teacher Nicodemus, who came to see Christ only under the cover of darkness.

     Today in America we are blessed that we can be open about our faith without breaking any laws. But our society has changed in its attitudes towards religion over the last 4 or 5 decades.  We have become more secular, more worldly, as a whole. Church activities and family devotional practices—such as Bible reading and prayer—are not as important to as many people as they used to be.  Most mainline denominations, including Lutherans and Presbyterians, have seen a decline in membership.  Sunday school classes in our churches are only a shadow of what they used to be.

     Today, I am going to share with you what I think is the biggest obstacle to a heart-felt faith and loyal obedience to God. Here it is. Even Christians who want to follow God with all their hearts struggle. They struggle to keep their lives in balance. Families are often scheduled almost to the breaking point—7 days a week. Some folks don’t seem to have a moment to breathe, let alone pray or go to church and Sunday school. Their calendars are overflowing with ink!

     Society encourages this. People have come to accept this hectic lifestyle as “normal.” They look around and see that everyone else appears to be in the same boat.  Busy.  Driving here and there, husbands and wives going in different directions to get kids to their activities on time or get to their own meetings, jobs, and social commitments. People are stressed. Tired.  Is it any wonder we drink so much coffee?

     It is easy to forget that to love the Lord with all your heart, you have to go against the norm. You have to stop looking at other people as models for your life.  There is only one model for us.  Jesus Christ, who urges us to pray and even gives us a model prayer so we know how.

       In our scripture today, those who kept their faith a secret did so because they loved the praise of other people more than God’s praise. Let’s not make that same mistake.

      Friends, the Lord is beckoning us, in this holy season of Lent, to draw closer to Him.  He desires that we turn from the things that get in the way of this. He wants time with you—and you need time with Him! 

     There are always plenty of things we can be doing! But God will show us what we should be doing, if we ask Him in prayer. He will tell us what to keep in our schedules.  And what to cut away.

      When we pray, imagine you are laying at the foot of the cross all the things that are just too much.  That get in the way of living out your heartfelt faith.

      Turn to the only one who won’t lay His burdens on you.  Turn to the only one who can remove your burdens, if you let them go.

     Turn to the only one who will provide true rest for your soul.

 Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, we confess that we haven’t loved you with ALL our hearts.  We have loved the world too much.  We care too much about what other people think of us.  We seek the praise of human beings, when all that matters is your praise!  Father, thank you for loving us and forgiving us in Jesus Christ.  Send your Holy Spirit to recreate us, to make us obedient, to replace our wills with Your own.  To give us the peace and rest that only you can give. In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

"When Jesus Got Angry"

     Meditation on John 2:13-22

Third Sunday in Lent

     A Christian friend challenged me with questions about faith this week.  He had read an article about a man who says he is a Christian, but doesn’t believe in religion.

      “Is that possible?” my friend asked. “Can you be a Christian and not believe in religion? And what is religion, anyway?”  

        He wondered if the man was talking about a denomination, like our own PC (USA). I told him that religion refers to a broader system of beliefs and practices.  Christianity is a religion. So are Buddhism, Judaism and Islam.

      That led to questions about how someone could claim to be a Christian, but not believe in Christianity?

      What does it mean to be a Christian? Are there essential beliefs and practices?

     This question was already on my mind because our confirmation class will begin working on their faith statements tonight.  While we want these statements to reflect their own personal beliefs, we hope the statements will contain certain foundational beliefs, taken from the Bible and our creeds.  These beliefs include Jesus being God’s Son, His being born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, His being sent by our loving Creator God to call us to repentance and die for our sins.

    The essential practices of Christianity are more difficult to define. Do we have to read the Bible, pray, and go to church to be saved?  

     No, we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. BUT to live as Christians, we build our faith through godly pursuits, which include reading the Bible, praying, worship, and serving God and the community through a church. Christ calls us to “be one in Him” and to be known by our love for one another. How can we love one another and serve God in shared mission if we don’t gather to worship and pray, sing His praises, build loving relationships, and be equipped with faith and other spiritual gifts through the Word and Sacrament?

     After this conversation, I began to wonder what was really at the root of the man’s claim to be a Christian, without ties to religion.  When people debate what it means to be a Christian and how one is saved, they are sometimes trying to defend why they don’t go to church and their distrust of religious people and organizations.  They may be people who have been hurt by churches before—sometimes by the very people they trusted as their shepherds. 

      Christ had to deal with the issue of God’s people being hurt by their religious leaders in His time. John’s gospel today describes when Jesus got angry and had to “cleanse the Temple.” Religious authorities had become so greedy and corrupt that the entire sacrificial cult of the Temple had been transformed into a tool of oppression for the people of God.

     More than 2 million people, many of them the working poor, would have made the pilgrimage to the holy city each year to keep the Passover.  Every Jewish man had to pay the Temple tax.  The tax was one-half shekel—equivalent to about 2 days’ wages.  But it had to be paid in Galilean shekels or the shekels of the sanctuary, money that people who lived outside the area wouldn’t have.  Currency from other places was fine for ordinary purchases and debts, but it was foreign and therefore “unclean” in the Temple.

      So, there inside the Temple courts, sat the moneychangers. They charged high fees to exchange the foreign currency for the Galilean shekels, making considerable gain on every transaction.

     In addition to paying the Temple tax, worshipers made a sacrificial thank-offering for specific blessings in a family’s life.  So, along with the moneychangers, there were sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves in the Temple courts.

     Law required that all sacrifices be perfect.  The Temple hired their own inspectors to examine for imperfections sacrifices bought outside the Temple.  The inspectors charged a fee for this examination, and, if the sacrifice was declared imperfect (as it often was), then the pilgrim had to pay the fee and buy another sacrifice from religious authorities.  Animals sold inside the Temple would cost as much as 15 times the usual marketplace price.

      It was a shameless social injustice. And the worst thing was that it was done in the guise of religion, as if the Lord required it! 

     So Christ made a whip. He drove out all the moneychangers and scattered the people selling animals. He told them to get out of His Father’s House.

     He poured out the coins. He overturned the tables. 

     He did what Scripture said the Messiah would do.  His disciples would recall this later on—after His crucifixion. This would be further proof of His true identity.

       And the Jewish authorities, knowing that with this show of anger, Jesus was declaring Himself to be the Messiah, said, “Prove it. Show us a sign.”

      “Destroy this temple,” Christ answered, referring to His own body.  “And in 3 days I will raise it up.”

       Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection, which would render the entire sacrificial system of the Temple obsolete.

      As expected, the Temple authorities weren’t about to voluntarily give up their corrupt fortune-making system.  They didn’t care that they were stealing from God’s own.  They didn’t care because their so-called “religion” did not penetrate their hearts.

     After our scripture reading today, I cannot help but feel compassion for God’s people during the time of Christ. They were just trying to do the right thing—please God and obey the authorities in the faith.  

       I also think about God’s people today, who might not have a home church because of some hurt in the past.   They might not even be looking for another church—if the hurt went deep enough. 

     But Christ calls us to reach out to the hurting and help them heal. Help them forgive. How can we do this, if they don’t want to trust the church again? By modeling authentic Christianity through relationships and showing them love, acceptance, and patience.

     This is what I have hoped the confirmation students would learn from listening to all the personal faith stories of their mentors and other Christians in our community. Christianity isn’t just a system of beliefs and practices. You aren’t a Christian because you have memorized the right answers to the catechetical questions. Nonbelievers can do that!

     Christianity is a matter of the heart. The Spirit dwells within us and changes us! We respond to God’s love and mercy by loving Him with all heart, soul, mind, and might—and loving neighbors as ourselves. God’s grace and mercy humble us; we learn to forgive when we truly understand how great a price God paid for our forgiveness.

     Christ came to call people to repentance—and draw their hearts back to God. The sacrificial cult of the Temple—and the 10 Commandments—failed to move people’s hearts. Then, one day, Jesus got angry in the Temple.

      God had another plan. He knew a way to set us free from the bondage of sin—and reconcile us with Him. The Lord would rescue the world through His Son, Jesus Christ, who took all of our sins onto His Body. He became God’s perfect sacrifice. 

 Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, thank you for our friends who challenge our faith with questions.  Prepare us with the heartfelt words to say when you bring unbelievers our way. Bring us opportunities to develop relationships with people who have been hurt by church and other Christians. Teach us your compassion, patience and love. In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

                                                        

“What We Need Are Heart Monitors…”

Meditation on Genesis 41:14-40  

    The winter morning started out beautiful and clear, sunlight reflecting off snow. People did what they do every day.

     Students and faculty arrived as they normally do –by bus or car—at Chardon High School, in a wealthy suburb of Cleveland.

      Everything went as usual, that is, until a boy walked into the cafeteria where students waited for the first bell, releasing them to their first period classes. 

      Up to that point, the quiet boy had been successful at hiding his anger and pain. The boy, T.J. Lane, lived in a home fractured by domestic violence.

      But on Monday he pulled out a gun and started shooting. He wounded 5 students; 3 have died.

     The horrible, senseless violence in the Ohio school brought back memories, fear, and grief for those who were at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, in 1999.  One day in April that year, two high school seniors walked in with guns, killed 13 people, and wounded 20 more, before turning the guns on themselves.

      Though nearly 13 years have passed, principal Frank DeAngelis says they are feeling the trauma all over again after hearing what happened at Chardon.

      This senseless act of violence, like so many other tragedies that steal the lives of innocent people, cause some to question their faith. They ask where was our loving, Providential God when children were killing children?  And how can God possibly use all this evil to accomplish His good purposes? 

     The story of Joseph addresses this theme of God using for good what human beings intend for evil. We read how the Lord uses Joseph’s personal misfortunes and suffering to move him to the place where God can use him to accomplish a dramatic rescue of all Egypt and the people of Israel.

     At 17, Joseph’s jealous half brothers throw him in a pit in the wilderness and leave him to die. Their father, Jacob, loves Joseph more than all the other children. He lavishes attention on him, giving him a special long tunic.

     Traders discover Joseph in the pit and take him to Egypt; they sell him into slavery.  Joseph becomes a servant to a high official and things seem to be going better.  But then he refuses to return the advances of the official’s wife and she falsely accuses him; he ends up in jail. While he is there, he reveals his God-given ability by correctly interpreting the dreams of two cellmates, the Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer. 

     In today’s reading, Pharaoh has 2 disturbing dreams that no one can figure out. The cupbearer, who had been released from prison, remembers Joseph’s uncanny ability.

     Then Joseph, with God’s help, interprets Pharaoh’s dreams, predicting a terrible famine.  He advises Pharaoh how Egypt can avoid starvation by storing away the excess grain in the “fat” years so they will have enough food in the “lean” years. Pharaoh elevates Joseph to second in his kingdom so he can oversee the storage and distribution of all the grain, placing him in the position to save many lives, including his own family, the people of Israel.

     Maybe this is the hard part of the story to accept as we seek to apply this scripture to our lives. The Lord actually gave Joseph trials and suffering, along with spiritual gifts, to accomplish God’s Will and to transform Joseph’s character from an arrogant, spoiled teen to a man of humility, gratitude and compassion. At the end of his story, Joseph is finally able to forgive and reconcile with those who hurt him.  

     This is what God intends for us. He seeks to open our eyes to the miracles in our lives, to what He is doing in and through us.  He wants to move us to gratitude and compassion. This means we will have trials and suffering, but we will also receive God’s gifts (spiritual and otherwise) that will help us bear the trials. God has promised to change our hard hearts and mold us into His Son’s image, so we can forgive, let go of all the hurts we carry, and be instruments of His peace.

    After the tragedy of Chardon, journalists have sought answers from Frank De Angelis, the principal of Columbine High.  Frank says if any possible good could come from Columbine, he hopes it would be that we would learn how to prevent the tragedy of Columbine from happening again.

      People ask Frank, “What causes children to commit such violent acts?”  Is it guns? Bullies? Video games? Is it the music kids listen to?

    “Parents want answers,” Frank said.  “They want to feel safe. They want something to blame, but you can’t pinpoint one thing.”

      Frank said the real key to prevention of school violence isn’t metal detectors and surveillance cameras. He suggests that we put money and our efforts into programs that seek to help troubled kids and struggling families.

      He said, what we need are heart monitors to detect the brokenness in each other.

      This is something we all can grasp onto today!

      Many people in this world, children and adults, are hurting and need the presence of Christ in their lives.  They need you! This is what it means to live out God’s call and make disciples of the nations. Let God use you!

      When we reach out to someone and show we care about their pain, we bring God’s love and Christ’s peace to a broken world, one person at a time.

      The quiet boy who killed 3 at Chardon High on Monday is still alive, Frank points out. We can learn from him. We can learn his family history and find out what led him to sink into the despair that led him to do the unthinkable.

    Frank asks, “What causes so much pain that this kid wanted to (kill)?”

    Chardon, like Columbine High, will never be “normal” again—not like it was at the start of that beautiful clear morning, sun reflecting off snow.

   People did what they always do that day, without knowing a boy with a gun would walk into the cafeteria and their lives would be changed.          

    Healing can take a long time, Frank says. He offers this advice to the Chardon High School community: Get counseling.  Be vigilant. 

     And hold fast to your faith. 

Let us pray.  Lord forgive us for our anger at the tragedies that take place in this world, at the loss of innocent lives.  Turn our anger into passion for the gospel, for serving You by serving the world with compassion and love. Forgive us when we have failed to do what you call us to do and, instead, keep the Good News for our own families and friends, at the neglect of our neighbors. Lord, protect our children in schools from evil and temptation.  Help the communities of Chardon and Columbine high schools heal.  Show us how to prevent tragedies like this from happening again by reaching out to troubled children and broken families. In Christ we pray.  Amen.