Dare to Be Fully Alive!This is the New Years Resolution that I proposed for New Salem.Lent was 7 weeks of reflecting on the meaning of the Cross in today’s world. The challenge to be fully alive is stronger than ever.
Jesus teaches us that if something is worth living for, it is worth dying for.Jesus died so we could Dare to Be Fully Alive!
God became fully alive to us in Jesus Christ.God sent his only son that whoever believes in him will have – what?Eternal – what?Eternal Life!
Today we celebrate not only Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.We, the body of Christ, the Church are celebrating that we, too are resurrecting from the dead.
Jesus is the Word of God, the Wisdom of God who came to dwell among us.Jesus came to teach us the heart of God.Jesus, in his humanness, taught us what life is all about; how to be fully alive!Jesus did this by showing us how to live.
The night before Jesus died Jesus gave us a new commandment.Think if you knew you were going to die tomorrow and you brought together those who meant the most to you, and you knew this was the last opportunity you had to tell them what was most important.This is what Jesus did the night before he died.
Jesus knows our deepest yearnings. We search our whole life for meaning.We spend whole fortunes trying to be fully alive.We search for sustained happiness, we are looking for fun everlasting!Maybe if we get thin enough we will be happy; if we get the big boat we have been dreaming of all winter we will be satisfied; if we can make ourselves look 10 years younger – or 5 years older; if we can get in with the ‘in’ crowd at school; if we make the A team of the baseball team; if we get the large screen TV; if we find a source of pure drugs and get that next hit; maybe its that new jacket.We are missing joy in our life and look in many shadows thinking life could be found there. Where is that fountain of life that will make us fully alive????
Jesus knew exactly what we are all looking for as we are looking for the fountain of life.Jesus took the opportunity of that Passover meal the night before he died to share with those he loved what he most wanted them to know about what is important in life.Here is what Jesus said:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
There it is, the secret of daring to live fully alive!
Let me tell you more.Jesus gave us this commandment right after he showed his love for his disciples by washing their feet. He was serving the disciples with loving care as an example for them and for us as to how to serve one another with love.
Then Jesus gave his body and blood to his disciples and to us by sharing his last meal of bread and wine, his body and blood, the great feast of Holy Communion where we take into ourselves the very body and blood of Jesus Christ and become the Body of Christ, the Church.
This is how we dare to be fully alive!Serving one another in love as we become the body of Christ.
This meal was a foreshadow of the reality that was yet to come.Jesus believed so much in the need for people to serve one another in love that he gave his life for this.He put himself out there in front of many who were angry with him because his love showed no bounds. Jesus reached out to everyone with love, everyone!
Jesus is all about bringing life from death.Jesus is all about helping people to live fully alive!Wasn’t that Jesus who changed the water into wine at the Cana Wedding feast? Wasn’t that Jesus who healed the nobleman’s son?Wasn’t that Jesus who had the disciples catch full nets of fish?Who cast out unclean spirits?Who cured people of deadly skin diseases?Who healed the paralytic; Who healed a man’s withered hand?Who raised a widow’s son from death?Who stilled the storm?Who healed the woman who had a hemorrhage of 12 years?Who fed the 5,000?Who walked on the sea?Who opened the eyes of the blind?Who healed the bent over woman?Who forgave the sins of the people caught in adultery?Who brought life out of death?
Jesus continued to give life to people who lived in the shadows of death even when the authorities threatened his life if he continued.Jesus gave up his life so we could live fully alive.
Who did he give his life to?Who?He gave his life over to God. Jesus’ last words in the Gospel of Luke are “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Jesus calls you to join him in his death.Give to Jesus all in your life that is death; all your pain and suffering; all your yearning for healing in relationships, all your longings for whatever holds you bound in addiction, all your grief that you carry deep within you over loss in your life; all your longing for the perfect relationship; all your longings within yourself to be perfect.Join Jesus in his death – dear Body of Christ; do as Jesus “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Join me “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Dear Body of Christ as you have commended your spirit to God, you have joined in Jesus death.You have given over your sins, your sins are crucified with Christ.Just as Jesus healed people before his death; Jesus heals you now.
And so, if we, dear Body of Christ die with Jesus.ALLELUIA WE LIVE WITH JESUS.WE ARE THE RESURRECTED BODY OF CHRIST!We dare to be fully alive and arise with Jesus into NEW LIFE.The old has passed away.
We, the church, are the body of Christ. We are reminded of this each time we come together and take into ourselves the bread and wine, the body and blood that Jesus gave for us so that we will know that our sins are forgiven and be transformed, and Christ’s body is once again a resurrected body; ready to be given out into the world. When we are the resurrected body of Jesus the Christ, we joyfully go out into the world with love and service to transform the world that God so loves – that is why he gave his only son – so that we, the church, the body of our Lord will go out into the world and proclaim the good news that Jesus is Risen, Halleluia!And the people say “He is Risen indeed!” Halleluia!
