GOOD
NEWS
SPECIALIZED
MINISTRIES, INC.
|
GOOD |
|
“The Palms Of His Hands” There is nothing more terrible than being abandoned. We are left feeling rejected, alone, and forgotten. I am sure that we have all had some taste of this kind of experience at one point or another in our lives. One of the incidents that I remember most clearly in my own life was the inevitable “Selection” time in grade school – of who would be chosen for the schoolyard “baseball” team. Do any of you remember that time? As my reputation for hopeless “un-coordination” always preceded me– I was, of course, the last chosen and the first abandoned in the neighborhood baseball wars. It was understandable- but humiliating- to wait for someone to call out my name – to be remembered. As the selection process advanced and the formidable neighborhood “catchers” and popular “pitchers” and “hitters” were eagerly scooped up by the opposing sides – that feeling of not being “wanted and “abandonment” by childhood friends increased until I was alone and (understandably) the last chosen. For each of us the incidence of abandonment is different. But it is an experience we will all share at one point or another in our human journey. For each of us the memory may revolve around someone different such as a spouse, brother, sister, parent, friend, or some other that may be separated from us today by time, space, misunderstanding or even death. The feelings remain though of being “forgotten” or “rejected” in that moment of abandonment. And if sometimes, in the middle of the night, that feeling of “abandonment” wells up in your throat with a conviction that you (of all people) are most forgotten – then the promises of Christianity, my dear friends, are especially for you. For even as we have heard in today’s OT reading the Lord God Almighty declares again through the prophet Isaiah to each of you this eternal truth: “Can it be that a woman would forget her nursing child, or that a mother should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, even these may forget you; yet I the Lord your God, will not forget you! Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands! Your walls are continually before me. Your builders outstrip your destroyers and those who laid you waste go forth from you!” (IS 49: 14-17) For the Good News, my dear friends, has not changed! As the physician Luke reminds us in the book of Acts: God’s “promises are for your children, and your children’s children and to all that are far off and near-everyone to whom the Lord our God calls to himself (Acts 2; 39) for it is “”This Jesus, God has raised up – and of that we are all witnesses –for God knew and spoke of resurrection of Christ and that he was not abandoned to Hades – neither did his flesh see corruption!” (Acts 2; 31) “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God our Lord Jesus has received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit and he has poured out hat which you see and hear today!” (Acts 2:33) For indeed – it is no less than the Lord God Almighty – Maker of Heaven and Earth- Creator and Sustainer of all that is, was, and shall be – that has declared to us both today and through his prophet Isaiah some 800 years even before the birth and death of Jesus of Nazareth – that the Lord God of Israel has written YOU on the palms of His hands! “I will NEVER forget you!” our God still declares. For even as our Lord Jesus surrendered his soul and future life to God the Father on a Passover Thursday some 2000 years ago, by Good Friday on the following day the nail marks containing our names were engraved on Jesus’ hands as the Roman spikes were pounded through his palms as he was placed on the cross. For he did indeed, as the prophet Isaiah said, “Bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. For by his stripes, we are healed..” (IS. 43:12) For our Rabboni- our Master Teacher Jesus – knew only too well that feeling of utter abandonment as he faced a criminal’s death on a Roman Cross. Forgotten by most and abandoned by all the apostles but John, he was wept over only by a few women disciples and a widowed Mother, and finally laid in a borrowed grave – eternally sealed by the power of a Roman legal injunction. The world said he was finished! And his final cry from the cross echoed through the night to haunt with guilt and shame those very disciples who had abandoned him: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus cried. And when the women carried his body tenderly away to prepare it for burial, they carefully washed and bandaged with linen strips those nail scared hands of God’s perfect Passover Lamb. And as Saturday turned into Sunday, the Angel of Death once more passes over each of us as that Stone is again rolled away from our own heart! For we today can identify only too well with the women at the tomb as we question “WHY?” and seek to find meaning in our own confusion and fears in these difficult times. “Why do you weep, Mary?” the Angel of Old asked and she replied, “Because they have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have laid him!” (JN 20:13) And yet Jesus would speak our name to each of us even as he did to Mary of old and say again: “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God!”(JN20: 17) For even as Jesus our Messiah calls out our very name – he reaches out the palms of his nail scared hands to clasp the very hand of God our Father and then each of our hands. For scripture says that he is indeed “Therefore exalted to the right hand of God”. And so today on this October Sunday once again – that ancient prophecy of Isaiah of old waits to be fulfilled anew for each of us now –only as we have the courage to take the hand our Master offers and examine for ourselves in this day, the evidence of God’s greatest gift of eternal Love. For god has indeed engraven you and me on the palms of his own hands so that he can never forget any of us! For the scars on the hands of Jesus his Son are ever before our father’s eyes – as a reminder of the greatest sacrifices of love possible! For totally as God has promised, he has not forgotten even one of us! For our God has indeed eternally written out very names on the palms of his Son’s hands even as he wrote his Old Covenant Law upon the tablets of Stone of old: For scripture records in Exodus 32:15: And Moses turned and went down from Mt. Sinai and the 2 tablets of the Covenant were in his hands – for the stone tablets were written on….and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the stone tablets..” For our God would invite each of us today to extend our hands even as Thomas, the apostle of old did in that first Resurrection Season, and examine ALL the evidence. For the prophet Jeremiah predicted (JER 31;31) that “The days will come, thus saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel. For I will write my Law on their hearts and not on tablets of stone and I will be their God and they will be my people and I will remember their sins no more. And they will all know me from the greatest to the least…for I will put my law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts..” And even though the doors and minds of our Lives may be shut, our Resurrected Lord stands among us today – here and now- and proclaims to you and me as he did to Thomas of old: “Peace be to you! For you are graven on the palms of my hands. I will never forget you. Come! Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not be without faith. Only believe!” (JN 20:27) ………”For this cup which has been poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood” (LK 22:20) May we today, my friends, have the courage to say with Thomas -when confronted with the overwhelming evidence of God’s love for us: “My Lord and my God!” for our Resurrected Lord would say to you today, my friends, as he did to Thomas: “Have you believed because you have seen me Thomas? Truly I tell you, blessed will be those who have not seen and yet will believe!” Or as the apostle John records “Jesus did many other signs and wonders …but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name! (JN 20:30) Or as Romans 11 reminds us: “Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (RM 11:13) For the living Lord Jesus stands before us now - even today-with arms extended and hands wide open, and invites you to call upon the name of the Lord- for you personal name has already been written in the palms of his hands. For our Lord would invite each of you to make the same commitment that Thomas of old did on that resurrection occasion so long ago. It is to the credit of Thomas that he was willing to make a commitment and stick with it! For he was the only disciple who had boldly proclaimed when faced with Jesus’ imminent death : “Let us also go that we may die with him!” (JN 11:16) The difficulty for Thomas was NOT his lack of faith in Jesus, but the problem lay in his concrete, rigid, preconceived thinking of limited possibilities. For when Jesus was yet alive and there had been hope for a political messianic earthly kingdom led by Jesus, Thomas was willing to die for the cause. But once Jesus had died , Thomas’ dreams of freedom from Roman oppression seemed finished. His locked in, limited, literal thinking kept him fro seeing and believing the truth of an even greater Kingdom miracle. For is it possible that many of us are much like Thomas? And I believe that our Lord would remind us today not to pour our preconceptions of the way things “should be” into pre-formed concrete. Allow God to do the impossible in your life my friends even as he opens your vision to new possibilities! Expect a miracle today! Ask the God of all miracles to open your eyes to see new possibilities of Truth. Examine all the evidence. Commit yourself completely as Tomas did even in the face of the unknown! Please do not allow locked-in thinking to keep you from anticipating the impossible and claiming your miracle today. For we must believe – BEFORE we can truly see if we are to be truthfully blessed. Or as Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (JN20: 29) For the hands of Jesus are once more outstretched to each of you today, my friends. For our God would say simply “Believe!” Believe you have not been forgotten. Believe I will never abandon you. Believe that life is stronger than death. Believe that Love is stronger than hate. Believe that life does indeed dance on the grave of death. Believe that good is stronger than evil. Believe that Christ is indeed risen. For he lives. He LIVES! And he walks before you and me even today. For our Lord has promised “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end!” Therefore, “Sing o Heavens and be Joyful O Earth. Break forth into singing O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted ones! For Our God says “Behold I have written you on the palms of my hand. Your walls are continually before me. Your builders outstrip your destroyers and those who laid you waste go forth from you. Lift your eyes round about and see!” (IS 49: 16-18) Behold He lives! For the Angel would say once again to the church today as he did of old “Do not be afraid. For I know you seek Jesus who was crucified ..He is not in the tomb but he is Risen as he said.” (Mth 28:5-6) And he goes before each of us today as we prepare to go forth from this place. For even as Christ stands with us now he says simply “Give me your hand for you are engraved on the palms of my hand. I will never let you go” Even now the words of Jesus ring with truth for each of us when he says, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know each of them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (JN 10:27-30) For we shall indeed know our Savior when he comes to us by the mark where the nails have been! For our Lord stands ready on this October day, my friends, to take your sorrows and transform them into Joy. He stands among us prepared to take your burdens and carry them for each one of you. And He stands ready to take all your fears and transform them into faith! Only Believe for Christ is indeed risen! And He goes before you in all your days and walks with you in all your ways. For He Lives! He Lives! He Lives! So it is written. So it is. So shall it be. Amen and Amen.
|