Most of my life I have heard people say “Jesus is the answer.” Well, yes, in one sense, obviously Jesus is the total answer. The trouble is I go back and forth whether this is an incredibly profound statement, or simply a shallow, easy bone thrown to the really hard, doggy things life sometimes presents us.

I have a better slogan for us to ponder: “Jesus is the question.” In fact, as we recover from celebrating Easter, and realize there was a spiritual dimension to it, even if sometimes buried in all the bunnies, ham and easter parades. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Did you hear me correctly? Jesus Christ rose from the dead. With something incredible like that being affirmed Easter Sunday how can we focus on anything but “Jesus is the question”?

Just who is this Jesus Christ who did something that was literally death defying? Someone who threw the brakes on the whole natural order, who refuted the universality of the second law of thermodynamics, and who audaciously claimed that we, too, would experience what he lived through?

“Jesus is the question.” And how! Questions. This event unleashes all the mystery of the universe, all the excitement of discovery, all the thrill of exploration, all the extreme limit pushing a person can handle. It should keep us up nights praying and wrestling and struggling. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for our world? Do I believe it? If I do not think I believe it, can I casually ignore and dismiss it, or must I treat it with the respect it’s enormous implications deserve?

This world has shallow. It has superficial. Often we take our faith in easily digested sound bites, and then when divorce or cancer or even our own human failure hits us, we fall apart. “Jesus is the answer” rings untrue, and our faith fails. Only when we do real soul-searching, heart-and-mind-expanding grappling with the question of Jesus, and how to connect what we discover there with our life do we realize both slogans are profound hints of heavenly mysteries. Jesus. The Question? The Answer? Absolutely. So what? How does he fit in my life today?

He is Risen!

He is Risen!

HE IS RISEN!

The cry arose that first Easter morning in the garden when the women came to Jesus' tomb and realized that his body was no longer there. Then He appeared and the cry increased in intensity and echoed down the ages of history. It reverberated through the disciples' hiding places and emboldened them to speak out to all who would listen. He is risen!

It overtook the disheartened disciples on the Emmaus Road. He is risen!

It swelled and exploded with power at Pentecost. It traveled along the trade routes of ancient Europe and Asia. It created a bond between those of different skin colors and languages and cultures. He is risen!

It echoed through the catacombs as the early church met amid danger and secrecy. It was cried out as those early Christians faced the lions and gladiators. He is risen!

It empowered the early church councils and medieval monasteries. It brought comfort through the Plague and Black Death. He is risen!

It strengthened the reformers! It set Christianity apart from all the other religions whose founders lay buried in their tombs. He is risen!

It was whispered in the foxholes of the many wars. It has power to unseat and dispel evil. He is risen!

It resides among the Christians across our troubled world. He is risen!

It is clung to by immigrants seeking help and
desperate believers who have no hope apart from their Savior. He is risen!

It is emblazoned upon our hearts and souls. He is risen!

It mirrors the wonder of the scared and mysterious! He is risen!

It spread across the world and is still moving and gathering strength! Death is defeated! Hallelujah! He is risen!

Happy Easter!
HE IS RISEN!

I remember as a child wrinkling my nose and saying “Yuk!” when I heard the the story of Jesus healing a blind man. What prompted my response was the way Jesus went about getting the job done. Jesus, you see, spit into the dirt at his feet and rubbed some of the little puddle of mud he created into the man’s eyes. It’s not that I as a young boy objected to dirt, but the spit was another thing. I remember struggling with whether I would want Jesus to heal me or not if it involved him rubbing spit on me. Yuk!

As an adult I still have trouble with the way Jesus sometimes does things. It seems to me that often my ideas and my standards are so much more acceptable and appropriate than his. And, I confess, sometimes much more convenient and to my liking.

The people with Jesus were convinced there was a place to lay the blame for the man’s blindness. “‘Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?’ Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.” (The Message, John 9)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus used spit to heal the man? The Jewish believers didn’t wonder - they knew exactly why he did it. In the beginning God took the dust of the earth, breathed on it, and brought to life the first human being. Now Jesus symbolically takes the dust of the earth, repeats this act of creation and for the very first time the man sees.

Right before everybody’s eyes -- including the blind man’s -- Jesus was showing what God can do. By creating sight, Jesus was revealing that he was God the Son. Jesus wasn’t just a traveling rabbi, he wasn’t a small time evangelist who went from town to town putting on a carnival show of old fashioned revival meetings. Jesus was and is God’s only begotten Son who originally created the world, who still held the powers of creation in his hand, and who today brings healing and life to his people.

During lent we do a lot of talking about sin. Sin! That’s something I’m quite comfortable pointing out in the lives of other people. Facing the sin in my own life? Yuk! I’d avoid that like spit. We also talk about God’s solution for sin. It involved such nasty things as Jesus’ blood, cross, and death. Yuk!

As an adult I wonder if God couldn’t have done it some other way. Maybe it would have been more acceptable and appropriate to deal with sin by using nanotechnology, or holding a big fund raising rock concert, or having Congress pass a law. But bringing sight, forgiveness, healing and life by using spit, mud, a cross, and a grave? Yuk! I guess the question we must struggle with is whether we want Jesus to get the job done in our lives. If so, let’s stop wrinkling our noses, yield control of our lives to Jesus Christ, and be amazed as we “Look instead for what God can do.”

Pastor Jon

There are words I do not understand. These include the words of the year for 2007. Merriam-Webster has has chosen “w00t”, which is an expression of happiness, similar to “hooray”, as in “w00t! I won the lottery.” You might find this word in “facebook”, which is their runner-up. As in “Facebook me some time and we’ll talk.” The American Dialect Society has chosen “subprime” as their word of the year, and nobody likes that. The New Oxford American Dictionary has decided on “locavore.” Now that is a word I can live with. You might be a locavore if you pass up the supermarket and buy your apples and tomatoes at the Arlington farmer’s market. Locavores prefer to eat something that is environmentally friendly, and they don’t mind shaking the hand of the farmer that grew the thing.

Then not only do hundreds of new words pop up every year, but there are words that change their meaning. This is what makes me feel sorry for middle school English teachers. For example, even I know that if you’re hot you’re really cool, and if you’re good you’re bad, and if you’re really good (or is it bad?) you’re wicked good. As an uncool clergy person I know enough to recognize when somebody says the Patriots are wicked, they are not specifically talking about Randy Moss’s alleged behavior off the field. To make this even more confusing, when somebody tells you something exciting, your wicked cool response is “Shut up!” That is not a rude comment, but an affirmation.

“We just got back from a vacation surfing in Hawaii.” “Shut up!”

“I got a brand new Toyota RAV4!” “Shut up!”

“I’ve lost ten pounds since New Year’s.” “Shut up!”

You get the idea. Frankly, I sometimes don’t know what to say. Speaking of “frankly,” that’s a word I just can’t stand. People use it: “Frankly, we’ve always done blah blah blah...” It’s as if using “frankly” gives the statement more importance, more authority. It’s like a “win-win” situation. Lots of business types use this to describe an arrangement that is best for everybody. I doubt it. When the saleswoman who’s selling that Toyota starts talking real fast about a “win-win” deal, I usually suspect the poor customer is about to lose his shirt. Can you imagine Bill Belichick talking about a “win-win” outcome for the Patriots and the Giants in the Super Bowl?

So there are words I do not understand, words that change their meaning, and words I do not like.Then there are words so clear and unchanging, that I just cannot escape their call upon me. Words like Jesus said in Luke 11:28, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

I wonder what words would be used to describe First Baptist Arlington if we took that comment of Jesus most seriously in 2008? “w00t!”

Jon Dale Hevelone
Pastor