1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

As I pondered this scripture this morning, I was struck by the phrase, “who will roll the stone away”.  The women were trying to get to Jesus but they perceived that there was a barrier preventing him from reaching Jesus.  But if you read on, the stone was already removed.  God removed the barrier between him and us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The stones that become barriers now are the ones that we erect, stones of selfishness, pride, fear, unforgiveness and (fill in the blanks).  Because they are ours, we must first recognize them then be willing to have them removed and finally ask Him to take them away. 

6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia–your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Yesterday I met with a young couple who came to me because they wanted me to perform their wedding.  They are not members of my church or any church in Marathon.  Yet, they wanted their marriage blessed by God and performed by a minister.  I asked them why they chose to come to me.  They admitted that they had approached other pastors in the community and had been turned away because they do not profess the Christian faith and did not plan to become members of the church of the pastors that they approached.  Yet.  They told me that they had heard about me from others in the community.  They had gone to our website and read my bio and decided to come to me.  That is a wake up call to all of us who claim the name of Jesus Christ.  People outside are looking in and they are making decisions about the church and about Jesus Christ based on what they hear about us.  Their wedding date is actually at the end of a week that I plan to take as a vacation week.  I had a very good reason to decline and had been considering doing just that…..until I talked to them.  What kind of opinion of the church universal and our church specifically would they have had if I had turned them down too?  I had an opportunity to share the love of Christ with them.  To give a cup of cold water in his name.  They may never come to our church or any other.  But what if I have planted a seed?  That is all that Christ is asking of us, to reach out our hand. 

11 And it came to pass, as they were on their way to Jerusalem, that he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee.

 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off:

 13 and they lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go and show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed.

 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, with a loud voice glorifying God;

 16 and he fell upon his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

 17 And Jesus answering said, Were not the ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

 18 Were there none found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger?

 19 And he said unto him, Arise, and go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Ten men with the same illness encounter Jesus.  They ask him to have mercy on them.  It doesn’t say that they asked him to heal them.  Perhaps they were asking for alms.  In any case, Jesus told them to go and present themselves to the priests and as they went they were cleansed.  Often we ask God for one thing but he gives us what we need.  One man, a Samaritan came back to thank Jesus.  What were the others thinking?  That their prayer had not been answered because God didn’t do it in the way that they expected?  How often do we make that mistake.  Some other observations that I made in this passage are :

1.  Everywhere that you find mention of Jesus’ healing someone there was some action on the part of someone involved.  Either from the persons themselves or from someone pleading for them.  He told these men to go and present themselves to the priests and as they went, they were healed.

2.  These were apparently Jews but a Samaritan was with them.  The commonality of their illness, their need made the usual prohibition against Jews and Samaritans being together unimportant.

3.  Jesus often compares the faith of Gentiles to that of the Jews with the Jews being found to have less faith (the Samaritan woman, the gentile woman begging for her child, the Roman centurion). The people on the outside showed more faith than the “good church people.”

4.  When the one came back to thank Jesus, he sent him on his way saying, “Your faith has made you whole.”  He had already cleansed him of his leprosy but now because of his gratitude, Jesus says that he is whole.  We are never complete in our healing until we recognize from whom that healing comes.  Physical healing is just a part of our need.  We need to be spiritually whole and that only comes when we acknowledge the power of the Great Physician.  One of my favorite teachers is Joyce Meyer and she says, “Jesus can heal you everywhere you hurt.”  Many of our physical illnesses are just a symptom of an underlying spiritual problem and only Jesus can heal that.

 18 As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him. “My daughter has just died,” he said, “but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.”

 19 So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. 20 Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, 21 for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”

 22 Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

 23 When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. 24 “Get out!” he told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” But the crowd laughed at him. 25 After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! 26 The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.

Jesus was on his way to a very important appointment, raising the dead.  While he was on his way he was interrupted by the woman who had been plagued with bleeding for 12 years.  She was bold enough to approach Jesus even though it was probably obvious that he was on a mission.  Jesus was gracious to her and was encouraged by her faith.  Then he went back to his original mission.  We have just been interrupted by a woman named Fay.  She blew into our lives, dumped on us and then moved on to interrupt other lives.  Was this just an annoyance, a brief interlude, a time out in our lives?  Or was there a purpose?  What can we learn from Fay?  I had purposed to begin a sermon series this last Sunday on the Road to Recovery.  Interesting subject in light of Fay.  However, since it was apparent that many people would be engaged in preparations for the arrival of the storm and absent from worship and further that those who did come would have their minds on preparations, the Holy Spirit nudged me to change my plans.  As it turned out we considered the importance of making preparations for Christ’s return during our time of worship.  What was really significant is that the music that we had selected for one theme turned out to be perfectly appropriate for the other.  Is the Holy Spirit cool or what?  What all of this has taught me is that we need to focus on the journey and not on the destination.  There are many interruptions in our lives and we need to embrace them rather than chafe at them because God has something to teach us at every juncture.  He wants to give us instruction if we will just stop and listen.  So what is normal?  Is it life  lived according to our plan or is it a life of holy interruptions?

Joe and I just returned from a train trip to Wilmington, Delaware.  We went there for a worship conference presented by the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts.  This was our first long train trip.  It was a 28 hour trip going up and 24 hours coming back.  We thought that having a coach seat for just 28 hours that we could handle it, no problem.  Without boring you with the details, we upgraded to a sleeping compartment for the return trip.  It caused me to ponder on our spiritual journey through life.  It will take the amount of time that God chooses but we often make choices that alter that plan or makes it more or less comfortable.  Many times we choose paths that cause us needless pain and suffering. When we confess our sin God forgives our sin but God does not always relieve us from the consequences.  He sometimes chooses to use those consequences to teach us a valuable life lesson. There are a lot of other comparisons that I could make and probably will over the next few days but I don’t want this post to run too long.  I’ve missed putting my thoughts out there and hope that those of you who have been reading have missed me as well.  Remember, life is a journey, enjoy the ride.