Epiphany Creates Servants
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture
Mark 1:29 – 39
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. Read more…
1 Corinthians 9:16 – 23
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no grounds for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
Once I was participating in a worship service. The music was loud; it filled the whole room. Those leading the time of worship, including the musicians, pray-ers, and other speakers were deeply in love with God. The presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable that day. And as I stood in my spot, fully immersed in the activity of worship, I had a profound moment with Jesus. It was as if there were a parade full of music and dancers passing in front of me. Jesus was in the parade. He was surrounded by people, but somehow He stood out. He radiated such peace. And then He looked at me – right in the eye. You know that tired old cliché “their eyes met across the crowded room”? Well, that’s what happened. He looked me right in the eye from across the crowded room, surrounded by dancers and musicians and other celebrants in the parade. And His gaze was full of the most extraordinary love I had ever known.
I hope that you have experienced that kind of love from Jesus. I hope you have experienced what it is to be deeply and totally and extraordinarily loved by Jesus. And if you have never experienced it; if His love is still a theoretical concept for you rather than a living breathing encounter, I hope and pray that God will deal quickly and completely with whatever stands in the way of you experiencing Jesus’ love for you.
On Sunday we’re going to be invited to participate together in Communion. It is, quite possibly, the one rite in the church that most tangibly communicates Jesus’ love and compassion for us – for all people. On the face of it, Communion, with its broken body and spilled blood references, seems only violent and ugly. It seems the furthest thing from the Jesus described above. But consider this, in the words of another pastor, Brian Zahnd,
“At the cross we…discover a God who would rather die than kill His enemies…At the cross…we see a world formed in violence reaching a hideous apex. And with great violence, the world sinned its sins into the body of Jesus Christ. The wounds on Christ’s body, on His hands, His feet, His side, these are the entry wounds as sin is being violently injected into Jesus. But what happens when sin enters the body of Jesus? Sin itself dies. Jesus goes down into death, leaves sin and death there conquered and defeated. He’s raised on the third day. He comes back preaching the first word of the new world, ‘Peace be with you.’”[1]
Jesus loves us so much that He willingly died so that we might live. Jesus loves us so much that He willingly took humanity’s sin into His own body so that we might be free. As you prepare for Sunday, maybe just sit with that truth for awhile. And as you do, as Jesus’ love for you digs into your soul, maybe ask how you might reflect that love to others.
[1] Rick Pidcock (January 14, 2021). ‘Postcards from Babylon’ documentary tells a better story. Retrieved January 25, 2021 from Baptist News Global: https://baptistnews.com/article/postcards-from-babylon-documentary-tells-a-better-story/#.YA-NQOhKhhE.