Tag Archives: Jesus

G*d’s Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, Messiah, Savior

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on August 16, 2015
Tags: , Jesus   

Eat His Flesh – Drink His Blood — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

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August 16, 2015
Sunday

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”
John 6:54-55

“No wonder early Christians faced accusations of cannibalism! This is gross. And yet we recall this kind of imagery every time we participate in the Eucharist. As I receive the bread, I hear the words, “the Body of Christ,” and then another phrase, usually, “the bread of heaven.” As I receive the wine, I hear the words, “the Blood of Christ,” and then usually “the cup of salvation.” These four phrases have at least one thing in common:

Their meaning is obscure — unless, minimally, you’ve spent a fair amount of time hanging out with and hearing from Christians. “The bread of heaven”? How would those words be understood by us were it not for their association with Christian liturgy and tradition? Another way to think about it is to ask how a hypothetical tourist from Mars who’d memorized a decent English dictionary but had little other exposure to Earth cultures might hear those words. “Bread from heaven,” our Martian visitor might muse, “it surely can’t be about its origin, as that woman over there bought it from a store called a ‘church supply house,’ and its ingredients — none claimed to be extraterrestrial in origin — are listed on the box. Perhaps they mean ‘heavenly,’ as in very good or pleasant — but this stuff tastes like cardboard!”

Flesh and blood are the seat of life — life belonging only to God, life that can be claimed rightly only by God. And yet in Jesus, God has willingly poured out that life for the sake of the world — not just the good people, the people who try hard to do the right thing, the people who praise and encourage the saints, but as much or more for the people who hate, and who act on their hatred, even to the point of killing a righteous woman or man, an innocent child.” (dylan’s lectionary blog, Sarah Dylan Breuer, saralaughed website)

I am glad that the above blog points out that Jesus poured out his life for all people — both the good and the bad. We all struggle to be good, to do good deeds, to think good thoughts, to be the best “good” people we can be. Still, that doesn’t mean that we are always good. And sometimes we do hateful things, and we encounter hateful people, and we witness the hate of the world, and we need to remember that Jesus died for those people as well. Through Jesus Christ, G*d has acted for the sake of the world — human, animal, vegetable, mineral, and insect. All creation is reconciled to G*d through Jesus Christ, whether we like it or not.

We come to the table of Holy Communion believing that Jesus is present in the meal because Jesus promised to be present. And so no matter who partakes of that meal, whether in the right state of mind or not, in the right state of forgiveness or not, in the right state of peace, love, mercy and Grace or not, Jesus is still there — flesh and blood — poured out for our benefit. Thank G*d that is the kind of G*d that we have……

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on August 10, 2015
Tags: Jesus,   

Jesus is the Light — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

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August 10 2015

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
Psalm 91:1-8

“The psalmist understood the connection between fear and darkness, but he also knew that God is greater than those fears. He wrote, “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness” (Ps. 91:5-6). Neither terrors of night nor evil in the darkness need to drive us to fear. We have a God who sent His Son, the Light of the World (John 8:12).”
“Our Daily Bread” devotion for July 6, 2015

Several months ago there was an internet sensation that came in the form of a dress. A woman had posted a picture of a dress she had purchased for an upcoming wedding, and instantly it caused some confusion, if not some intense arguments. Some people, when they looked at the dress, well they see it as white with gold stripes. Others see the dress as blue with black stripes. Why, so many people argued, did we not all see the dress the same? How could this be? In one afternoon, as I read an article about the dress and this interesting phenomenon, one moment I saw the dress as blue and black, and the next, it looked white and gold. The inconsistency suggests that the dress is a new type of perceptual phenomenon previously unknown to scientists.

The answer to this conundrum seems to come in the discovery of a new problem — the brain’s color-processing mechanisms which may vary from one person to the next, and can depend on prior experiences. And after more studies, it was also determined that the dress can look differently in the context of shade versus direct sunlight. In other words, more light changes things.

This is true with the light of Christ. The more light we live in, the more our lives are changed — changed for the better. If we stay away from the light of Christ, then our lives are changed for the worse, not the better. But when we live in the light of Christ, then we can see how things are supposed to be — and then do something about it.

Pastor Dave