Absence and Presence

JOHN 16:22-24

22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Good morning. We have reached the end of another season of Lent. Christian brothers and sisters around the world used this 40 day span to prepare for the celebration of Easter Sunday with the help of numerous spiritual disciplines including prayer, fasting, and generosity.

The aim of Lent does not stop at the absence of luxuries, but also intends for us to feel the presence of a conversion stirring in our hearts to help us follow Christ more faithfully. The more I think about it the more I come to see how much our lives, how much of our faith is defined by those two realities. Absence and Presence. 

All of us have felt the presence of relief when trust is validated or witnessed the absence of assurance when hope is discredited. If you’ve lived any amount of time at all, then you know what it feels like to spend evenings in the presence of someone you love until one morning you start spending your days enduring their absence.

Absence and presence also accompany us when we come together at the Lord’s Supper. Of course, there is no denying the very real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. The broken bread symbolizes Christ giving His physical body, and the wine represents the shed blood of Christ. 

At the same time, however, the use of symbols and emblems also make us painfully aware of the undeniable absence of Christ. While the Lord’s Supper possesses the ability to bring us much needed comfort, peace and joy; it also contains unwelcomed reminders of the violent manner in which Christ was taken from us. 

But before He was taken, Christ made sure to make one thing abundantly clear in John 16. Death can steal the Savior, but it cannot steal the promise. Let me say that again. Death can steal the Savior, but it cannot steal the promise.

 And if we leave the Lord’s Supper knowing anything, it is that what applies to the Savior applies to us. Yes, the absence of good health can pillage our confidence, but it cannot abduct our hope. Yes, the absence of good friends can plunder our happiness, but it cannot rob our joy. Yes, the absence of good times can ransack our peace, but it cannot snatch our faith. 

So this morning let us not be afraid to acknowledge the absences in our lives, and instead take courage in that which is present...God’s love, the possibility of reconciliation, and of course, each other. 

Happy Easter

CJE

And Therein Lies The Glory

“8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” 

Ephesians 2:8-10

Good afternoon all. There exists no greater setback or disappointment than when God’s glory gets obscured by brothers and sisters arguing over the proper place of grace versus works. Some pour so much energy into winning the argument that they lose sight of the reality staring them right in the face. For the reality of God’s glory is made known precisely in moments when grace and good works join together amongst the various places and spaces of our lives. 

In Eph 2, Paul presents grace and works not as independent agents unaffected by the other, but as interdependent instruments supporting each other. He presents grace not as something that we achieve, but rather as something that we partake in.

Paul also declares that one can only experience grace when he or she yields completely to that which is greater than ourselves.  Consequently, we yield to the fact that God’s grace fills the air we breathe and permeates every molecule of our atmosphere. We submit to the truth that grace exists to be encountered, not clarified. 

While forming our understanding of grace, Paul also completely transforms our understanding of work in Eph 2.  Prior to Eph 2, our best interpretations of work might show themselves in spiritual acts of prayer, worship, or evangelism. At worst, we come to see work as a means to achieve significance, become famous, or make vast sums of money.

However, Paul makes it clear in Eph 2 that neither represent a proper understanding of work. Far from endorsing any notion that work is what we do, Paul reveals to us that in actuality...WE ARE THE WORK. More than any function or task we might perform, we exist first and foremost as God’s work invited to carry out God’s work.

And therein lies Christ’s purpose for establishing the church. The church lives because of and for the glory of God. Scripture repeatedly cites God’s glory as the primary aim of all creation, but our sin damaged this inherent aspiration. You see it was precisely for the sake of God’s glory that the Father sent the Son to destroy sin and make it possible for us to rejoin all of creation in glorifying the Creator. 

Having now been filled with the Spirit, we obediently accept God’s offer to help bring grace and good works into the hurting places and empty spaces of this broken world. As bearers of God's image, we gladly welcome the chance to show each other and the world what God is like. For regardless of  time, place, or sin; God is love and therein lies the glory. 

CJE