Our Labor is not in Vain

In Jesus' resurrection appearance in Matthew 28 (the context is Jesus commissioning of his disciples to carry forth his mission) Matthew mentions that "some doubted". I decided to comment on this Sunday as we prepared to receive communion. Here is the essence of those remarks. We take great encouragement in Matthew telling us that some doubted because we are reminded that God's love for us comes to us in the midst of our doubts and takes those doubts into account. Rather than feeling weak for doubting we are rather encouraged to take heart that God has taken account of them and is determined to work through our doubts to increase our faith.

I don't often include the remarks made around communion in the homily recap but apparently these words were encouraging to a number of people who have told me since Sunday. So, I include them here in gratitude that the Lord does work in mysterious ways; I had not planned on saying anything about doubt until I walked up to mic and started speaking. The Holy Spirit is our teacher, truly.

In the homily we spoke about some of the truths of the gospel that Jesus' resurrection teaches us.

When Jesus says, as the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, that all power on heaven and earth has been given to him he is looking backwards and forwards - backwards to the Lords' prayer where he asks that God's kingdom come and will be done on earth, and forwards to the work of the church. Evangelicals who tend to be more familiar with theological reflection on the cross than the resurrection sometimes miss the profound implication of what Jesus is saying in what is often referred to as the great commission. He is saying that because of his resurrection form the dead that his prayer has been answered and that the Kingdom of God has begun in earnest. The implications of this are vast and grand, to borrow words from a friend of mine. One way of applying this truth to our daily lives is by thinking through how God thinks about the mundane activities we are involved in.

Recently I experienced an interruption in my schedule that ended up consuming several hours after all was said and done. I had to clean our car and baby's car seat in the aftermath of some projectile vomiting (I know - that's gross and too much information but it is what it is). I found myself incredibly annoyed in the midst of all of this and could not put my finger on why exactly. Then it hit me. I thought deep down inside that this interruption and the shape of it was beneath me. My schedule was full of important things and in my mind this was an affront to that. God taught me through that realization though that the resurrection spoke to my attitude. If all authority on earth has been given to Jesus then that means that the mundane is important to God and is the object of his redemptive love. I was humbled and repentant. As I continued to think about this and what I had learned I thought about how the implications of the resurrection speak to a kind of sin that, in my opinion, is rampant in our society. Here is how I would describe it: the sin of placing comfort and self-fulfillment principally above serving others in love. When we do serve it is often with the left-overs. The good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection offers the deepest hope that this sin will not have the last word in our lives. Let's think about that for a moment.

This offers as good a time as any to talk about how a theology of the resurrection is necessary to understand the gospel more fully. When Jesus comes to his followers after his resurrection he confronts them as their victim and, by virtue of who he is, as their judge. But his purpose in coming to them was to draw them to repentance and give them the power of the resurrection. Their sin (our sin) did its worst in the death of Jesus on the cross. But the resurrection teaches us, and I paraphrase Rowan Williams, that when our sin had done its worst God raised Jesus from the dead. Sin and evil do not have the last word because the resurrection teaches us otherwise. Jesus is the only face we will ever look into and receive at once a wincing judgment against ourselves and the warm eyes of the one whose redeeming love will not let us go.

Now we come back to the sin of placing comfort and self-fulfillment before serving others in love. The resurrection prompts us to simultaneously see the truth about ourselves and gives us the forgiveness, hope and power to live in the knowledge that all power on heaven and earth has been given to Jesus and that he is with us always.


Questions for discussion:

1. Do you count yourself as one who sometimes feels doubtful that Jesus is raised from the dead? Do you think this is a normal part of the human condition for the follower of Jesus? How do you deal with the doubt?

2. Roy Anker, in a review of Slumdog Millionaire for Books and Culture wrote: "Exhilarating and infectious, Slumdog swept the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Awards: picture, screenplay, director, and score. And it is no wonder, really. Humankind seems a patsy for this sort of thing, no matter how much conscience and brain tell us to prefer high-minded, and usually dire, realism. Simply put, (fairy) tales as disparate as Rocky and Slumdog play to another part of the self—the soul's deep thirst for repair of some small slice of the world's incalculable woe. Fair enough." It was suggested in the homily that the desire for the repair of some small slice of the world's incalculable woe is addressed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. How does Jesus' resurrection from the dead speak to you when you find yourself soaking in despair and thirsting for repair? How can this truth move from an objective concept totrans-formative power?

3. Let's say you find yourself in a similar situation to the example offered above (the car-seat example). Let's say you tell a friend what you are struggling with and they respond to you by saying, "you should not feel that way - that's selfish". What does that say about that person's understanding of the human condition? How would you respond?