Reflexions – 4.30.10
I have begun preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. At the pace we are going, it will be into 2011 before we finish, maybe longer! Part of this is my desire to see us return to the basic story of Jesus, part of it is a desire for us to see the Gospel story as just that…a story. As we walk thru this book over the next few months and see how certain themes and ideas are repeated, we can get a better idea of what God wanted to reveal to us through the life and teachings of Jesus.
But one other reason Matthew wrote his gospel was to link the God of Israel and the OT with the Jews and Gentiles that God was reaching out to through his son, Jesus Christ. You see, Matthew was very interested in linking with the story of God in the past, bringing it to the present, and pointing to the future kingdom of God.
Matthew, echoing Jesus’ words (Matthew 5:17-20), never wanted to negate anything that God had done or said in the Old Testament, but he also knew that God was doing something new in Jesus, and that the kingdom of God was not a static, unmoving thing; but instead the kingdom of heaven was a dynamic, never before seen reality. God was doing something new!
Last fall, we were fortunate to get a few hostas from El St. John’s garden. Hostas are a lily-like plant, one of many, many plants to be found from El’s home. Annie planted them in front of the parsonage, not knowing whether or not they would take. Well, I am happy to say that in the past couple of weeks all of them have come up and look to be good and healthy!
Some day, a new pastor will come along, never having met El St. John or so many other Big Island saints that have gone on to glory. I feel it will be part of my responsibility to make sure they know the story behind those hostas. They may not want to keep them, they might want to move them or do something new with them; but I still want to make sure they know their story.
This is our task in the kingdom of heaven today. Let us never forget or neglect the past, but also let us never be afraid when God desires to do something new in us and in our community. May our hearts always be open and our faith courageous as each new day dawns upon us. What is God doing new in your life? And if you can’t answer that, pray to God that He will reveal His plan for something new in your life.
This Sunday we will have several reminders of God doing something new in our world – Dot Abel will be baptized as a symbolic act of being buried and resurrected with Christ into new life, and we will celebrate communion as a reminder of the new life all believers have through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and our repentant hearts. Our handbell choir will be playing, too. Our text will be Matthew 4:23-25…hope to see you there!
Grace and Peace
Pastor Bryon
