The Gift of Mountaintop Experiences

Based on Luke 9:28-36

I have in my hand a small river rock that I picked up along the shores of the Illinois River that flows through the hills of eastern Oklahoma. There is a United Methodist church camp there called Camp Egan. The church I grew up in went there often for retreats. There is a place at Camp Egan where you hike up to the top of a ridge that overlooks a beautiful valley below. There is a clearing with some benches and a large wooden cross. It is an outdoor worship space. Hundreds of thousands of people over the years have gathered at that spot for worship, to experience the presence of God in the beauty of nature. People have had literal “mountain top experiences” at that sacred site called Camp Egan. I am one of those people. And it’s hard for me to put in words the experiences of God’s presence I have had at Camp Egan. That’s how it is when we experience the presence of the divine. Words to describe the experience fail us.

Today we hear the story of when Peter, James and John had their mountain top experience, when they saw Jesus transfigured before them, having a conversation with Moses and Elijah. And then a cloud enveloped them. They heard the voice of God declaring Jesus as the chosen one that they need to listen to. These disciples had a mountain top experience like no other. It was so powerful that they couldn’t tell anyone about it, at least not yet. They couldn’t put the experience into words. But I can imagine that from then on out, Peter, James and John had a completely new perspective about Jesus. They had seen a glimpse of who Jesus is in his fullness. No filters. It was a vision they could not articulate. Words to describe the experience failed them.

This rock I have from Camp Egan I picked up when I was not yet a teenager. On one side of it I have a drawing of a mountain. On top of the mountain is a cross. A huge sun is rising behind the mountain. And in the corner are three birds flying in the sky, representing the Trinity. This picture was an attempt to describe a mountain top experience I had at Camp Egan. As I came back down the mountain and returned home, I took this rock with me. It has sat on a home altar I have maintained for years, along with other objects I have collected that mark “mountain top experiences.” These objects remind me of how God has revealed Godself to me in a number of different ways, in different contexts, for over four decades of my life. When we have these mountain top experiences we carry them with us for the rest of our lives. They shape our faith. They help form who we are as persons.

Can you imagine how Peter, James and John were impacted by their mountain top experience? Like I said, surely they looked at Jesus differently from then on out. When they saw Jesus in his resurrected body, the Transfiguration experience surely flooded their memories and reaffirmed for them that their mountain top experience was real. Seeing the transfigured Jesus shaped the faith of Peter, James and John. They came down the mountain carrying that experience. They were different than the way they were before they went up the mountain with Jesus to pray.

What made my mountain top experiences possible as a kid was the result of the United Methodist Church. It was the church I belonged to that got me to that United Methodist owned camp. Not all my mountain top experiences have been at United Methodist church camps. But some have. Perhaps for many of us, and I would hope all of us, it has been through the church, particularly the United Methodist church, that the context for a mountain top experience was provided. Our church is a gathering of disciples around Jesus Christ, who from time to time gather on mountain tops, literally or figuratively, and experience the divine in powerful ways. We have these experiences as a church. And they are transformational experiences that shape our faith.

That’s what we heard about this morning. Peter, James and John, a tiny church gathered around Jesus, having their mountain top experience. The church has been that gathered community around Jesus for many of us where we have experienced the presence of God.

But, when church camp was over at Camp Egan, I had to go home. After we have our mountain top experiences, we have to go back down the mountain and return to the messiness of daily life. When Jesus, Peter, James and John came down the mountain, they walked right into chaos and pain. Listen to this description of what they were confronted with right after this incredible experience on the mountain.

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”

While Jesus and the others were on the mountain top, down below there was a father crying out for his son who was possessed of a demon. He had pleaded for the rest of Jesus’ disciples to cast the demon out. They had the power to do so. In Luke 9:1 we read where Jesus specifically gives his disciples the authority to cast out demons. They have the power but, for some reason we don’t know about, this father’s son was still demon possessed and the disciples had failed. Did the father not really believe the disciples could do it? Were the disciples not confident enough to try, for fear of looking foolish if it didn’t work? Whatever the reason, this failure frustrated Jesus to no end. The disciples had the power to cast out the demon and heal the man’s son, but it didn’t happen.

What was Jesus’ response? “You faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you and bear with you?” Ouch. Was Jesus directing that barb toward only the disciples or did he mean that for everyone? One thing is clear. Jesus was angry. He was hurt. He was frustrated. And he did not bite his tongue but expressed his frustration. He didn’t sigh, or get flushed, or even say something like, “Really?” No, Jesus was specific about what was irritating him. What he saw before him was a faithless and perverse generation. Those words are cutting. They hurt. They are offensive, even if they are descriptive. And if it wasn’t for the fact that it was Jesus saying this, surely the crowd would have told Jesus what they thought of that statement and walked away. Maybe some did.

But Jesus didn’t stomp off angry. Jesus’ frustration didn’t close him off from addressing the pressing need for this boy to have a demon cast out of him. There was healing and restoration that needed to be accomplished. There was work to do. Jesus wasn’t going to walk away from where the pain and brokenness was. He didn’t turn himself around and walk back up the mountain. If the disciples couldn’t get the job done, then Jesus would do it. He would cast the demon out and restore the boy to his father. And that’s what he did. Nothing would stop Jesus from healing the suffering child.

The example has been set for us. There is much suffering in our communities: people living in tents and families living in cars, sons and daughters ensnared in substance abuse, children traumatized by violence and struggling with anxiety and depression. We have systems of support for folks in need of healing. But there’s not enough. And those who do this healing work are often stretched thin and are weary. Even with the systems of support we have in our community there are still those who are in need of healing and restoration. There is healing work for all of us to do.

But what can you and I do? What is Jesus’ example? Jesus did not hide his frustration but named what he saw. We don’t need to look around us and say, “this is a faithless and perverse generation.” But what could we say in our frustration? Maybe we can decry the inequitable distribution of resources, or the breakdown of civic responsibility, or the decay of moral virtue in our society. Whatever it is, Jesus invites us to acknowledge our frustration and to name it with as much specificity as we can.

What else can we do? We can resist the temptation to go back up the mountain top, to remove ourselves from the mess and go back to where we had that mountain top experience and wait for another one. We can decide to engage with the needs around us in whatever way we can rather than close ourselves off. I don’t know how you will engage, to respond to the hurt and brokenness all around us. When the need is right in front of you, ask God the question, “What does love require of me?” And then see what rises up for you and do that.

After Jesus healed that boy and restored him to his father, Jesus and his disciples made their way toward Jerusalem. Jesus was on his way to complete the work he was sent here to do, the suffering, the death on the cross, the burial, and then the glorious resurrection. Before the resurrection, there will be great suffering and death. As Jesus endured the suffering, and as Peter, James and John looked on, don’t you think that they remembered that moment on the mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured and talking with Moses and Elijah, and when the cloud engulfed them, and the voice spoke of Jesus as the chosen one? Surely in those moments of great pain and struggle, they all remembered that mountain top moment. It had to be a source of encouragement. Remembering that moment on the mountain had to give all of them strength, and hope that there is something more, bigger, holy, than the present suffering, the messiness, the chaos.

Those mountain top moments we experience are gifts. When we are frustrated or weary with the struggles of life, of working at doing good in the world and not seeing much of anything change, and the chaos and suffering of the world becomes too much, our memories draw us back to those moments when we experienced the presence of God in powerful ways, in ways that are indescribable. What a gift. I invite you now to go back in your memory to one of those mountain top moments. Re-live that experience. And give God thanks for this precious gift, a gift you carry with you on this journey, as we make our way toward our destiny, when we will stand in our glory before the glorified one, Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord.

From One Body to Another

Based on 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50

“I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” This is the last line of the Apostles Creed, one of the oldest statements of what Christians believe. We say the Apostles Creed every time we have a baptism, as is part of the tradition that has been handed down for generations. This Creed is a straightforward and succinct statement of what are the core beliefs of the church. The last line makes it clear that we believe in the resurrection of the body and of life everlasting. But what does the resurrection of the body look like? When will we experience this resurrection?

These are some of the questions that were being asked among the Christians in Corinth. They need more information about exactly what resurrection of the body is. Which body? What kind of body will it be? Paul’s response to the questions are not very tactful. Maybe in all caps he first answers their questions by writing the word “Fool!” Like I’ve said before, Paul really takes seriously belief in the resurrection. He won’t tolerate those who question the promise of the resurrection of the dead. It matters that much to him.

It’s still a fair question, however. We want to know, what kind of bodies will the dead have when they are raised? Will they be resuscitated corpses? Say, someone lived their whole life blind or during the course of their life they had their arm amputated. When they rise from the dead will they still be blind or have a missing arm? Or, what if someone was eaten by a pack of lions or their house caught on fire and they were burned up. What kind of body will they have when they rise from the dead? I have heard people who are opposed to cremation based on this concern that they won’t have a body to rise with. When we rise from the dead will we still be the same age as when we died? I’ve heard people suggest that since Jesus died around the age of 30 that our resurrected bodies will have the form of what we looked like when we were 30. Who knows? Whether out of genuine concern or as a way of mocking the idea of bodily resurrection, these questions were being asked in Corinth and it got a rise out of Paul.

It is too much in a sermon to break down what Paul is arguing in this passage from 1 Corinthians. He uses a lot of terms that have to be explained, like physical body, spiritual body, the flesh, first man, second man, image of the man of dust, image of the man of heaven. It’s a lot. Paul uses the image of sowing seeds and compares Adam and Jesus. He gives a nuanced and complicated argument that would be a fascinating Bible Study but way too deep to digest in a sermon.

So, what I want to do is focus on the central point that Paul is making, which is that the resurrection of the dead is the end result of a process of transformation. We are going to focus in on what that transformation is, what is being transformed, how is this transformation occurring, and when this transformation will be complete. My hope is that by focusing on this theme of transformation that this will not be for us interesting information but inspiration for how we live our lives. Because the lives we live now in Christ is part of that transformation process. Let’s jump into it.

The first image Paul uses to describe what the resurrection of the dead means to him is one that would be familiar to everybody, the sowing of seeds. It’s a great image to make his point that resurrection has to do with transformation. Take a radish seed and plant it in the ground. In about a month, you will see the sprouting of leaves. The growth of the plant continues until it’s time to harvest when you pull up the plant and have a fully developed radish. The radish plant looks nothing like the radish seed. In fact, the seed is gone. It now has a new “body” in the shape of a radish.

In the same way, when we die our bodies we have been living in disintegrate but we will rise out of the ground with new “bodies” as God has determined. Paul doesn’t answer the question directly about what kind of body is the resurrected from the dead but he makes his point that the body will not look like the former body, as a radish seed does not look like a radish. So, when we rise from the dead, experience the resurrection of the body, the body we inhabit will not look like the body we have right now. We will have a body but it will be different. A transformation takes place.

Paul then compares Adam with Jesus. Specifically, he compares Adam who is the first man with Jesus who is the second man; Adam, who is the man of dust, and Jesus, who is the man of heaven. It is like Paul is contrasting two kinds of humans. There is the human from the earth and the human from heaven. There is the earth human who became a living being and a heaven human who became a life-giving spirit. I guess you could say that Adam is like the turnip seed and Jesus is like the turnip. And here is the key to what Paul is getting at in vs.49, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” In other words, we are currently earth humans. But one day we will be heaven humans. There will be a transformation, from one kind of human to another kind of human. Wow! 

I hope you are following me how transformation from one kind to another flows through Paul’s explanation about what the resurrection of the dead is about. It’s like a seed transformed into a plant. It’s like an earth human being transformed into a heaven human. There’s one more example of transformation I want to talk about.

Do you remember what happened in the story of Adam and Eve when God shaped Adam out of the dust and formed him into a physical body? The next thing God does is breathe into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, a life-giving breath, and in that moment Adam became a living being. We can call that life-giving breath soul. We have a soul. It is our soul that is the source of our living. It’s what animates us as opposed to a chair that does not have a soul. Our soul is embodied. We are ensouled bodies. 

But there’s something else within our bodies than just our souls. When we were baptized, the Holy Spirit took up residence in our bodies. We read in the Bible of how we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We have within our bodies a soul and the Spirit of God.

Now, what is the Spirit of God doing in our bodies? The Spirit of God is at work within us, purifying us, healing us, shaping us, transforming us so that we more and more become like Jesus. We are being sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our bodies. The Spirit of God is transforming our souls. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we have a soul, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven, we have the Spirit. Paul says that we were sown a physical body, an ensouled body. But we will be raised a spiritual body, an enspirited body. Our souls, just as our bodies, will be transformed into spirits…enspirited bodies. 

I know, this is deep and confusing. But the main point I’m making is that from this moment until we experience resurrection we are in a process of transformation. In our day to day living, as we strive to live our lives that reflect the way of Jesus and reject the way of sin and death, we are being transformed from the inside, made holy, sanctified, purified. Something is happening inside of us. The Spirit of God is working on us day by day, moment by moment. And it is all a process of transformation that is leading up to an end point, when we will be raised as spiritual bodies, whatever that looks like.

This is where I find hope and why I think belief in the resurrection of the body is so important for Paul. It is that hope and faithful expectation that one day we will inhabit bodies that enable us to fully express the spirit of God in our living. One day we will be whom God has always intended us to be. As God intended that radish seed to become a tasty, fresh radish to garnish a salad, so God intends us in our frail ensouled bodies to become fully human, complete and perfect images of God. This is our destiny, the completion of the process of transformation we are experiencing right now, today, in this moment.

How are the dead raised? We don’t know. With what kind of body do they come? We don’t know. But we have faith and place our hope in this belief held by Christians from the beginning, this belief in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Glory be to God who has determined this to be so.

The God of Life

Based on 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

What happens after we die? That’s probably one of the few questions that every human being has asked themselves. It’s a difficult question to answer beyond what we observe when any living creature dies. The body decomposes, returning minerals into the soil. But is that all? Do we simply cease to exist or is there something more? For most people, the idea that when we die that there is nothing else, that it’s simply lights out, is not a satisfying answer. For some, the thought that there is nothing that happens after we die is actually a bit alarming. But what would that something be? We are left to speculate. And there has been a lot of speculation among humanity for these past several thousand years.

One answer is that when we die, our souls leave our bodies and go somewhere else. Maybe the soul goes to the great consciousness from which it came. Or it goes to inhabit another body through reincarnation. Or it goes to heaven or maybe hell. I came across an interesting explanation of what might happen when we die a few years back. It goes like this. God remembers every moment of our lives. God doesn’t forget anything about us. So, although when we die we disintegrate and become elements in other living creatures, we remain in God’s eternal memory. We are living memories in God. An interesting explanation that may not work for everyone.

What happens after we die was an issue in the church in Corinth. It was a big enough issue that Paul had to address it in his letter to the church. All of chapter 15 is about this issue. It appears that not all the Christians were on the same page when it came to belief in the resurrection. For Paul, it clearly mattered to him what people believed about the resurrection. This was not an agree to disagree moment. For Paul, belief in the resurrection was a central part of the gospel message. Our salvation depended on what we believed about the resurrection.

What did some of the Christians believe about resurrection? Paul doesn’t explicitly say. He only says that he has heard some do not believe there will be a resurrection from the dead. This is hard to understand when Paul made it clear in his proclamation of the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and after three days rose from the dead. Did some of the Christians think that only Jesus rose from the dead but no one else will? Did some think that at baptism people experience a spiritual resurrection at that moment? We unfortunately don’t know what exactly it was that they thought about resurrection.

But it is clear what Paul thinks about resurrection. He is letting the Corinthians know that when God rose Jesus from the dead, that this was not a one and done. No, Jesus was the first of many who will rise from the dead. Paul says that Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruits of the resurrection. The first fruits offering which the Jews would have known about was the first offering of what was harvested from the fields. That first offering is offered to God as an act of gratitude. In the same way, when Jesus rose from the dead, that was the first of what would be a harvest of resurrection at some point in the future.

For Paul, we can anticipate experiencing resurrection ourselves. We will rise from the dead just like Jesus did, with real bodies. But these bodies won’t wear out or be ravaged by disease. They will be indestructible bodies that our souls will inhabit for eternity. This hope of experiencing the resurrection is central to the gospel message, Paul says. Our salvation depends on having this hope in our own resurrection. To not believe it is to make belief in Jesus a vain belief. Paul goes so far as to say that those who don’t believe in their own resurrection are still lost in their sins. How so?

Let’s remember what death is understood to be. If we go back to the book of Genesis, we find the ancient story of Adam and Eve. It is in this story that we are told that death is the consequence of sin. Death is a curse. It was not part of God’s intent. We might remember when Jesus was having an argument with some Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, Jesus said to them that God is the God of the living and not the dead. God is the source of life. Death is not what God is about.

When Paul says that if there is no resurrection we are still lost in our sin, what he means is that if we die and stay dead, that means we are still under the curse of sin. Death is the punishment of sin. So, if we stay dead, we haven’t been delivered from that punishment.

But Jesus removed the curse. When he died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and then was raised from the dead after three days, the curse of death was broken. Death has been defeated. This is the good news! Because of Jesus we are set free from the curse. Does this mean there are no consequences for our sin? No. Does this mean that we won’t die? Of course not. There are consequences for the sins we commit. Sin harms our relationship with God, others, the earth, and ourselves. We will all die. But we won’t stay dead. We will live on, not as disembodied spirits floating around but in real, substantial, spiritual bodies. As Jesus was raised, so will we.

But what difference does this make in our lives right now? It is certainly good news to have hope that there is something for us after we die, that we don’t simply cease to exist, fade to black. But does belief in the resurrection make any impact on how we live today? That’s not an easy question to answer. There’s surely more than one answer. Perhaps you could say that since we are going to live forever and that our life on this world is merely a blip in time, then why really be concerned about this world? As I have heard people say, it’s all going to burn anyway so why should we be concerned about the problems of the world? Our singular focus ought to be to proclaim the gospel and save as many people as possible before judgment day. Nothing else matters. I have also heard this phrase that some Christians are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. They simply don’t care much about the state of the world. Best to persevere through this life of woe until we are finally released from this old world and be at home with Jesus. Why care about the changing climate or social justice?

I don’t believe that’s the best way to let the hope of the resurrection to influence our lives in this world. Instead, I suggest that our hope in the resurrection reinforces a core belief about who God is. God is the source of life. God is the God of the living. God loves what God has made and seeks to redeem it from the stain of sin and the curse of death. God conquers death so that creation can be set free from its curse because God is all about life, abundant, creative, harmonious, flourishing life. Anything, any action, that contributes to the flourishing of life is what God is about. Resurrection reinforces this belief about what God is about. God is the God of life.

This core belief impacts how we live in our daily lives. To believe that God is about life and not death, and that by God’s grace we have been set free from the curse of sin and death so that we can experience eternal life, how does this impact how we live today? I submit to you that this belief in God motivates us to care for all that God has made, including our own bodies, including the earth itself. It is a reason to embrace life, to contribute to the flourishing of all life. Far from being uncaring or ambivalent about the state of the world, belief in the God of resurrection means contributing to what God is up to, which is redemption, flourishing, the mending of creation that is being ripped apart by sin.

Do you recall what we have been talking about the past few weeks? We have looked at what Paul said about spiritual gifts, that we all have one for the purpose of being used for the common good. Paul challenged us to express equal mutual concern for all. He reminded us that the central motivation for all we do is to be love, along with faith and hope. After saying all of this, about how we are to build up and care for community, he talks about resurrection. Belief in the resurrection is where we place our hope. It is this hope that encourages us to press on in our care for the world, to not despair that the forces of death will ultimately win, but in fact death has been defeated. Our lives of faith, hope and love are not in vain. It is the promise of resurrection that secures this. Glory be to God, the one who conquers death and the grave and provides for us life everlasting.

What's Your Story?

Based on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

       “What’s your story?” That’s a great question when you want to get to know somebody. I mean, really know them. When you want more than just where someone lives, what they do for a living, if they have family, you want to hear their story. When people tell their story, they are giving you a sense of how they understand themselves, what they are about, what joys and sorrows they have experienced, what life lessons they have learned along the way. You get a richer understanding of who this person is when they tell their story.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of interviewing people who are in the process of ordination. One was pursuing commissioning to begin her probationary years as a deacon and the other two were presenting themselves for full conference membership and ordination as deacons. One of them has a Parkview and Westgate connection! Alycia Orcena’s father is Rev. Boyer, who served at Parkview and her mother, Joy Boyer, was the secretary at Westgate. After reading over their files, the interview team got to ask them questions so that we could hear more about their story, so that we could get a sense if they were ready to move forward in their ordination process. It was a joy for us. All three candidates had incredible stories to share about how they had experienced God in their lives, the ministry that they have been doing, the personal, professional and spiritual growth they have experienced in their lives. One in particular shared her story about how she had got caught up in a relationship that had drawn her away from the church. But the Spirit never let go of her. Eventually, she found herself coming back to church. And it was through worship, and especially the receiving of Holy Communion, where she experienced deep healing in her life. This personal experience is what drives her to use her musical gifts to design worship and lead others in how to create meaningful worship experiences. She also teaches classes at United Theological Seminary on the sacraments. Her story of redemption was so inspiring to us and I for one am excited that she will be ordained as a deacon in a few months.

Each of us have our own stories to tell. The stories we tell about ourselves are powerful stories. These life stories shape our identity. They help define for us who we are, where we come from, how we understand our place in the world. These stories help give our lives meaning. As we tell or write down our stories, our autobiographies, we are able to see how the experiences we have had in our lives all fit together to make us who we are.

There are other stories we tell that are not specifically about us as individuals but are instead community stories. These stories have power too. I am talking about family stories. My mom told me and my sister this story about her great-grandfather who immigrated from England. He meant to get on a ship headed for Australia. But somehow he ended up on a ship to America. Mom doesn’t know how he made that kind of mistake. We are left to wonder! But at any rate, that’s how her family ended up in America instead of Australia. What family stories have you passed down to the younger people in your family? We also pass down folklore, national stories that try to communicate what it means to be an American. There are so many stories we tell. I think of the one I heard about when George Washington cut down the cherry tree and when confronted with it said, “I cannot tell a lie, I cut down the cherry tree.” Folklore is powerful because through them we try to create a communal identity. This is who we are as a family. This is who we are as a nation. The stories we pass down as a congregation does the same thing.

Paul had a story to tell. We hear a bit from these two stories in the scripture passage we are reflecting on. One story is the one he heard from the followers of Jesus that he is passing along. It is a community story. The other story is about how he has experienced the community story in his own life. It’s a personal story. Let’s take a look at these stories.

The community story is the story about Jesus. It is a story that has roots in the Holy Scriptures, especially Isaiah 53. It is the story of Jesus’ mission: that he died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to Cephas, to the twelve, and to many others, and lastly who appeared to Paul himself. The community story that Paul is telling is the gospel, the good news. It is this story that is passed along from generation to generation, a story first told by the apostles 2,000 years ago and is still being told today. It is a story that has power. Not only does this story give the reason for why the church exists, but it has the power to save those who believe and hold fast to this story. This story tells us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53. And Jesus rose from the dead, giving us the hope that we will experience the resurrection ourselves. Sin and death have been defeated, as the story goes. It is our belief in this story that saves us from judgment and from despair. We are cleansed. We are set free from the bondage of death. Our future is secure. This story gives us reason to live our lives from a place of faith, hope, and love. That’s the power of this story. This is our family story, the one we pass on from generation to generation. It is the story that establishes who we are as a community of believers.

Then, Paul tells his own personal story of his encounter with Jesus. It is his experience of grace, his testimony. He gives his testimony a few times in the book of Acts and in a few of his letters. This telling here in chapter 15 is brief. But it is the heart of his testimony. Paul speaks of how he was once a persecutor of the church. Yet, God had chosen him to be a witness of the gospel story. In an act of amazing grace, Paul encountered Jesus while on the way to Damascus in his pursuit of Jesus followers. It changed everything in his life. The persecutor of Christians had come to belief, by God’s grace. 

The amazing grace that Paul received was not lost on him. It was this grace, this encounter with Jesus, that drove him to fulfill his purpose as an apostle. Just as the person I shared about earlier, who experienced deep healing through worship and the sacraments which now provides her reason why she serves God as she does, so Paul’s experience of God’s grace gave his reason why he worked so hard, harder than all the rest Paul humbly brags, because of the grace that he experienced. If someone wanted to know Paul’s story, to get to know what he is about, this is the story that Paul would tell. It is his testimony.

What’s your story? I know you have one. It may not be as dramatic as the stories we have heard in this talk. It is certainly different from the ones I have shared. Your story is yours alone. And it is yours to tell. Have you ever sat down and written your story? One of the documents that those who are in the ordination process have to provide is called a spiritual autobiography. They are invited to look back over their life and write about how they have experienced God. It can be a clarifying experience. When we reflect on how our life has unfolded with God, we may get a better sense of how our life fits together. We can see how the unseen hand of God has led us to where we are today. It is a sacred story, a story worth sharing.

This is my invitation for you. Write it down. Give your testimony. How have you encountered Jesus in your life? What’s your story?