He is Risen! (He is risen\nindeed) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.\nexited<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes\nit takes a lot effort on the part of God\/Jesus, to refocus someone, so that he\/she\nwill actually do what God wants him\/her to do. Saul\/Paul (as we now know him) was\nnot a bad guy, well maybe he was early on, but Saul\/Paul was serving God in the\nway that he thought God wanted. He was a fanatic! He believed that Christians\nwere in fact heretics that threatened Judaism by leading good and faithful Jews\naway from orthodoxy, away from the traditional practices of the faith. For this\nreason, I still don\u2019t like the idea of him being called bad; he was more\nmisguided than bad; he was doing what he believed God wanted him to do. The\nproblem was, no amount of faithful witnesses (and there were those who\nwitnessed to him about Jesus) and no amount of logic was able to sway Saul\/Paul\naway from his beliefs; something dramatic was needed. And Jesus, like God the\nFather, knows how to do the dramatic. Jesus appeared to Saul; he knocked him to\nthe ground; he spoke to Saul; he blinded Saul. That was dramatic! But Jesus\nwasn\u2019t finished with Saul and everything was not going to seem like a\npunishment to Saul. Jesus sent to Saul, a Christian by the name of Ananias, to\nheal and instruct Saul in the ways and faith of Christianity. And Saul, who then\nchanged his name to Paul, learned that his call, was not to punish Christians,\nbut to become one of them and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the\nnations, not just to Jews but to Gentiles and he was uniquely suited for this\nwork. Paul was a Jew and a Pharisee, but also a Roman citizen, which gave him\naccess to all peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwasn\u2019t just Paul that took a lot of the Lord\u2019s attention and the effort of his\nchosen witnesses, to refocus to do what it was that they were called to do. Peter,\nThomas, Nathaniel, James and John and two of Jesus\u2019 other Disciples, 7 of the\n11, who had witnessed the resurrected Jesus and saw the marks of the nails, and\nwho were sent out by Jesus to share the good news of the resurrection, decided instead\nto go fishing. From what we can tell they went back to the work that they had trained\nfor as youths, fishing (at least Peter James and John were trained to fish). They\ndidn\u2019t get it. And they didn\u2019t just go out for a relaxing day of fishing; they\nwent out with nets, fishing for a large catch; maybe they were going back into\nthe fishing business. That wasn\u2019t Jesus\u2019 plan for them; that wasn\u2019t why Jesus\nhad taken them on as his Disciples and taught them all that they would need to\nknow; that wasn\u2019t what Jesus had in mind when he told them, at the very\nbeginning, that they would be fishing for people. They needed some refocusing. And\nPeter specifically. Peter had led the others to go fishing, and Peter, while\nspeaking so boldly about his loyalty to Jesus, when confronted, had denied even\nknowing Jesus. Of course, that was before the resurrection, but Jesus knew that\nPeter needed some tough love, some refocusing. And so, after showing them his\npower by directing them to a large catch of fish, he invited them to breakfast.\nBut, after breakfast, he turned to Peter, the one who led them fishing, and Jesus\nasked Peter if Peter loved him. Three times Jesus asked him (the same number of\ntimes that he had denied Jesus), three times Peter answered Jesus, yes, and\nthree times Jesus commanded him to care for his sheep (feed the lambs, tend the\nsheep and feed the sheep). It wasn\u2019t their calling to go back to fishing; Peter\nknew he had failed Jesus first by his denials; they had all forgotten their\ncalling, or maybe let their fears lead them away from it. After Jesus set them\nstraight, and later after he had sent to them the gift of the Holy Spirit, they\nnever, it seems, strayed from their calling; they like Paul dedicated their\nlives to the sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could\nit be that we have also strayed from our callings? Could it be that the church\nat large has strayed? I wonder this sometimes when sitting through meetings like\nthe Synod Assembly. I often wonder what the Lord may do with his church and\nwith us to direct us back to our calling to share the good news of Jesus\nChrist. I wonder, am I the instrument of the Lord to refocus our members to do\nthe things that God has called us to do? I wonder what Jesus may do to refocus\nme. We are only able to function as the Body of Christ when we each of us,\ntogether use our God given talents to the glory of God. Today we will grow the\nBody of Christ here at St. Peter\u2019s. Today we will receive the Grant family into\nmembership, Phil Grant as an adult member, Roger and Nathaniel as child members\nand Betty will be received as an adult member by baptism; Roger is currently in\nconfirmation class and will (hopefully) be received as an adult member, by\nconfirmation, on June 2. Though we are officially receiving them as members\ntoday, they have already begun finding ways to be a part of the Body of Christ.\nPhil will be leading our Chris. Ed. program, the kids are in Sunday School and\nRoger is involved with the youth. The ministry of Jesus Christ is stronger with\neach addition made to the church. Pray for our new members, pray for the\nmembers that have fallen away from active membership, let those who are new\nknow that they are welcome and let those who are inactive, who may now be receiving\nJesus\u2019 refocusing care, know that they are missed, that it is the Lord\u2019s and\nour hope that they will see their needs met and that they will use their Spirit\ngiven gifts for ministry, within the church and out in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He is Risen! (He is risen indeed) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. exited Sometimes it takes a lot effort on the part of God\/Jesus, to refocus someone, so that he\/she will actually do what God wants him\/her to do. Saul\/Paul (as Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}