[Mcgregorpage] Fwd: McGregorPage #553, Easter 4, 4/29/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

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From: rmcgregoralbq at aol.com
To: grammiealbq at aol.com
Sent: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 8:14 AM
Subject: McGregorPage #553, Easter 4, 4/29/07


 
EASTER 4 - (April 29, 2007) 
 
Acts 9:36 43 
Psalm 23 
Revelation 7:9 17 
John 10:22 30 
 
GOD TO THE RESCUE 
 
Peter raises the dead as an extension of the power of the risen Lord. The Psalmist lives in the promise of a shepherd's rescue. John of Patmos see the saints "...who have come out of the great ordeal," rescued beyond their very death. In the Gospel of John, when asked his identity, Jesus points to the works of God that he does. As the blind man said, "Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind." (John 9:32) Only God can perform such a rescue; therefore, this must be God. 
 
"God to the rescue" sounds melodramatic, unless you are the one being rescued. If God is creator and sustainer, can God not also be rescuer?  There is a problem with God's coming to the rescue, though. It implies that the Holy One is not adequately in charge. "Oops, Tabitha died. I didn't intend that -- good of Peter to remind me." It challenges us to understand randomness within God's will. Some things just happen, maybe a lot of things. They happen because of all the decisions people make every day. They happen because of forces working independently. Otherwise, why would God intervene in anything? Why would God raise the dead, shepherd people around the dangers of life, or provide alternate consequences for the faithful than the normal consequences found on earth, if God were totally in charge of the day-to-day events. You don't rescue people from consequences you ordain; and if you ordain trouble just so you can rescue people, you are sick. 
 
Did God ordain Tabatha's death or not? What is the meaning of this rescue? What does it say about the identity of God and the church? Luke doesn't say Peter labored long in prayer over the body. He doesn't mention prayer chains stretching across the country with their own web page. All he says is that Peter prayed and bingo... Don't you suppose there were other mourners in Joppa at that time? If people could be resuscitated as easily as Tabatha was, couldn't the church have made that its primary business? Who could have competed with such power? "Raising of the dead every Wednesday at 7:00 PM in the chapel, members only." 
 
The church didn't take up the resuscitation of corpses as its mission because that was not its mission. Raising Tabatha contributed to the mission of the church by identifying the power by which the church lived: God the Holy Spirit. "...many believed in the Lord," is the consequence of the raising of Tabatha not "many came and brought bodies with them." So, maybe her death wasn't so random after all. Maybe both her death and her resuscitation were ordained by God for the sake of identifying Christ in the church. Maybe miracles aren't for us at all, but for the sake of another audience. Expecting a miracle for myself is vain. Receiving a miracle in order to identify God to a lost and desperate world is humble service. 
 
"Well, preacher, does God come to the rescue or not?" Certainly God does. That is what makes such rescuing God's very signature. The Gospel is the story of God's rescue mission. "Then can I expect the rescue I want?" If you expect the rescue you want, you may miss the rescue you get -- better just to trust the rescuer. 
 
May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
(an e-mail service) 
 
[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with these lections.] 
 
http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/ 
 
Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at 
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 --Copyright 2007, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved— 
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