🦁 Easter 1-6
Readings: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Genesis 1:20-2:4a; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.
Reflection
Good morning. This is Tim. Trouble coming to you from Sacramento, California. Today's readings are Psalm 118, verses one and two and 14 to 24. Genesis chapter one, verse 22, Chapter two, verse four and First Corinthians Chapter 15, verses 5258.
And in our sort reading from Psalms today, there's a couple of interesting things in here that relate to Jesus in the Easter season and how we are or should be as Christians. And in the way that I look at being a Christian and in verse 22, it says that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone because this takes a little bit of understood ending of how in Cana they built buildings. Back then, Stone Masonry was a very popular trade that was very in demand because they would cut stone and they would make the foundations upon which the mud bricks were laid to build the houses up.
And anybody knows anything about building anything. You have to have a firm, solid foundation. If you don't, the whole thing comes down and you don't want that. So builders would evaluate the stones, you know, just like when we go to you go the Home Depot or loaves and you go down to a lumber section, right? You're buying a bunch of two by fours. I mean, I do this, you pull up my side, look down. Are they straight? The other one is curved and I want that one. You want nice straight boards? No, not, not holes in them, chunks missing out of them, splinters, things like that. All the same thing with these stones and what verse 22 says is that the the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And this analogy was used with Jesus and Jesus was rejected. I mean, we crucified him and then he is the cornerstone of our faith. But he was rejected.
And this also translates to us, we don't have to be perfect. You look at the Ministry of Jesus and his time here on Earth and who he associated with. He associated with the people in that society that nobody else wanted to be around. To the extent that the Pharisees at one point asked the disciples, Why is this guy here all the tax collector? Why are you hanging out with these sinners, the prostitutes and all that? Because they were the ones that needed to hear about God's grace. They were the ones who needed to be healed. They were the ones that needed to be known that God's omnipotent grace, God forgives everyone for anything to those that do so. As we continue on the 50 days of Easter, one of the things to think about is who do we associate with? You'll see a version of Christianity out there. It's called the Prosperity Religion. And you know, if you do what God wants, God will make you wealthy. And you look at Jesus ministry, Jesus, who was homeless, He did not have a home. He wandered around. He came out, as we call it now. CouchSurfing stayed with friends, slept at the side of the road. Whatever he did, you cannot go and take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and go, Jesus, this is the house of Jesus. Doesn't work that way.
So Jesus was experienced, experienced all of the physical and emotional triumphs and trials and pains that we do as human beings because he took our form. And he the difference is he made it through his time here without sin. And sin is an interesting word. People look at, you know. WOLFSON You know that they equated a lot of times to to the laws of the land, to moral, moral laws, things like that.
The the New Covenant love God with all your mind, soul and heart and love your neighbor as yourself. There is a law, the sin that gets done on that last one. We don't love our neighbors as ourselves. I'm not saying the neighbors make it easy sometimes, and I'm not saying I'm good at it. I'm not. I feel a lot of that on a regular basis, but how we act if we want to be followers of Christ, if we want to be Christ, like we use words like humility. We hang with people who are not of substance, the people who the rest of society have thrown out, they're not worth it. They're not this, they're not that.
Those are the people that we share our time with. Those are the people that we need to be out ministering to, that we need to be out helping just like Jesus did. And you notice in Jesus ministry, every time he prayed, he took action. And that's something that we're missing. The is in the thoughts and prayers realm, absolutely, positively. I believe in the power of prayer.
Absolutely. And with that prayer comes that still small voice that tells you what action that you need to take for that prayer that you just gave. When we pray for someone, you know, thoughts and prayers for someone who's lost someone, what are we doing to help them? What are we doing to comfort them when we say thoughts and prayers for someone who's been injured or is sick, what do we do to help them? Do we take food to them? You know, make a meal, take it their house? Do we help take care of their family because maybe it's the breadwinner or maybe it's the person who does the heart of the housework, whatever that type of thing. What do we do?
Jesus took action. So as we continue on through our Easter season here, Jesus is the cornerstone that was rejected. Jesus is the man who walked with those that no one else wanted to walk with ministered to those that no one else wanted to minister to gave hope, peace, grace to those that no one else would or no one else wanted to be around.
That's our message. That's who we are as Christians. It's not, you know, God's going to be good to me and give me wealth. He's not our fairy godfather. He is not a celestial eater. This is about living a life of meaning and substance to those around us who are our neighbors Amen.
