A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. What do you see when you look out at your world right now? Your life?

2. Paul gives the worst of these things names, like: "hard-pressed," "perplexed," "persecuted," "struck down." How do you experience the current realities of pandemic, restrictions, and sorrow around you? What would you call them? How would you name what you're/we're facing right now?

3. What invisible realities are present in our world and in our lives? Can you name just as many here as you did above in question #1? How do they compare?

4. What does it mean to "carry the death of Jesus" in our bodies and lives? In what ways do we do that?

5. What difference does it make to understand our lives through the death of Jesus? How do the unseen things of this world shape the way we experience what we do see?

6. Does this change the way you'll be looking at your life this week? How will you carry and see the death and life of Jesus with you?

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. … I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-8a,10-11)

Maybe these words from Paul are easier to see, understand, and appreciate through the lens of a pandemic. Or through the lens of so much loss and grief that we've suffered as a church this past year. It seems that there has been a death in our congregation almost weekly for longer than I care to remember. And toady: another funeral. Pastor Michael's father.

It strikes me again how clarifying death can be, even through our grief and grieving.

So many of the things that we spend our lives pursuing are lost in the face of death: good health, strength, positions, experience, skill, wealth, status, property, security. Even our relationships are broken by death, which is why we grieve.

But one thing is not lost through death: our relationship to Jesus Christ.

Our connection with Christ endures. Because Jesus Christ, and he alone, has passed through death and risen to newness of life. That's why our Christian hope, indeed, our only hope for this life rests in him.

An older tradition of the church said that the Christian life is really all about preparing for a good death. That actually, we are called to live all of our Christian lives in light of death. And that's really what Paul is getting at in this text, too.

Paul had a lot of privilege in his column, a lot of things to count as gain by the standards of the Jewish world he lived in. He had ethnic privilege, private religious schooling privilege, professional association (Pharisee) privilege, and he exercised his privilege in power and with impunity too as he persecuted the young church and kept a righteous air about him all the while.

But then he died. That is, he died in the death of Christ as he was baptized into Christ's death. And having died? Seeing his life through the lens of death: Paul looks back on all his privilege, all the things he spent his life striving to earn, and sees it all, as a loss. Because the only thing of worth, the only thing that endures, and so the only thing, finally, worth having at all: is Christ.

As a church and as Christians, what will get us through this pandemic and all the many journeys of grief we walk, is a stubborn clinging to Christ and to the hope he gives us of resurrection life in him. Nothing else will do. But in him: we have everything. The promise of life restored and a world set right.

Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat (Genesis 2:8-9 MSG).

Then the Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street. The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month. The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations. Never again will anything be cursed. The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service… (Revelation 22:1-3 MSG).

First, let me apologize for the lateness of Tuesday's edition of Wilderness Wanderings. An official report would say, 'human error.' I clicked on the wrong icon when publishing the file and thus it wasn't sent out.

In that edition, I mentioned that my Dad was born on April 13, 1937. He did make it to his 84th birthday. He died late in the afternoon, as many of you will know by now. As I spent time with my mom and siblings around his body, I got thinking about our texts for today and want to share some of my reflections with you.

I had noticed over the past several months that I had been feeling a mild but persistent sorrow in my heart. That are numerous reasons for this sorrow and I knew that one of them was because of my dad's illness. It seemed to me that it was more about his illness than him impending death.

Dr. Neal Plantinga wrote a book about sin titled, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be. As the cancer leeched away my father's physicality, I have seen just how apt Neal's title is. Our text tells us that when God created humanity, we were created to live physically on this earth. God made a garden that was both beautiful and useful. The human eye and the human stomach would both enjoy this garden.

My dad's legs were the first to go. Last May, I planted his vegetable garden. He was able to enjoy some of its produce even though he had been unable to contribute any physical care to the plants. First, his mobility was taken away, then he gradually lost his interest in food, towards the end, his stomach rejected most offerings. In the end, his eyesight dimmed. It seemed to me it was Eden undone. That is the effect of the human fall into sin. It is right that we grieve it.

But thankfully, that is not the end of the story. The Bible has an ending that we are still waiting for. By faith, we eagerly wait for its coming. Notice that the ending also includes trees, or a tree, The Tree. How do we picture a tree that is planted on both sides of the River? Yet, the purpose of this tree is poignant and clear. It is there for both food and healing. The effects of the human fall into sin are undone. Its Eden 2.0. The visions of Revelation offer us images not just of a return to Paradise, but a Paradise that is even better. In Genesis, God comes to visit his humans in the cool of the day (3:8), but in Revelation he lives with them.

On the great day of resurrection, my dad's body will be raised and reunited with his soul. His physicality will be fully restored and more. It will be glorified, as Jesus' resurrected body was. In the meantime, it seems to me, he is with the great host in Revelation 7 singing songs of salvation before the throne of God. If you wonder about the phrase, 'these are those who have come out of the great tribulation' (7:14), then I refer you to Pastor Anthony's recent sermon on Matthew 24 (March 7 podcast).

I will miss my dad. There is a different sorrow now. Dad is with our Lord and Saviour and I can say that that is good. I also look forward to the day of resurrection when we will all be fully physical. Then our service to God will no longer be tainted by our fallenness. We will all serve him perfectly.

Before we go to our scripture text, first an apology that yesterday's devotion didn't go out! We clicked the wrong button when we put it up: but it's up now, and you'll find it posted below in today's email or however you get this.

And, another, more serious note too.

With sadness, I'd like to let you know that Pastor Michael's dad passed away yesterday afternoon, April 13. A note from the church will go out about that later today. His dad's death was expected, but we grieve with him and his family, and I invite you to lift them up in prayer today. That's another reason to give a listen to yesterday's devotion too: Pastor Michael wrote it, and reflected a bit on the journey he and his family have been on these past months.

And it's in light of that and so much other suffering we face that our text for today comes to us, from Romans 8:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

There is a long yearning that we feel in our bones these days. As we're confronted by so much death, now of Pastor Michael's father too. As we're shut in again at home in fear of a virus and in frustration about it's restrictions, including the cancellation of in-person classes in schools. And, as we're weary from too many long, hug-less days of avoiding our neighbours, friends, and loved ones.

"The whole creation groans." Ain't that just the truth. And we ourselves groan too. It's been a long road. It still is.

But in our groanings is a longing. A longing for a better day. A longing for Christ to come again. For these bodies that betray us in sickness and pain and death to finally be redeemed to the fullness of new creation. For the separation between us and our loved ones to end. It's the hope we were saved in: a hope for life beyond death. For forgiveness beyond failings. A hope for God Himself to be with us and to be our God in a way that looks like the best of a family reunion. Being enveloped in the joy of a loving embrace after too many years of separation in a place where all is finally well.

We long for these things. We groan for them, together with the whole creation. It's about all our weary selves can muster these days. But, even our groans are still an expression of hope. A longing for Christ to return. So today, just that simple prayer again: Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Full disclosure, 84 years ago today, my day was born. As many of you know, he is dying of cancer. It is possible that he will not make this milestone. Last Thursday, the nurse told the family not to leave him alone, and so we been holding vigil at his bedside since then. His diagnosis was made about 10 months ago, at which time he was given about 3-4 months to live. So, it feels like it has been a long journey.

Most of us feel exhausted by this ongoing pandemic. The shifting regulations from our government have caused even greater despair. Quite a few in this congregation are carrying grief in their hearts which came during COVID and sometimes because of COVID. There are those among of us who continue to carry struggles which began long ago, some of which were intensified by the pandemic.

In the Immanuel news this past weekend it was shared that some pastors in Nicaragua had not had a day off from ministry in five years. The church has been growing rapidly and is under a moderate amount of persecution. Criticism of the government is considered rebellion and so pastors are careful not to criticize because sometimes spies are within their own congregations.

As I read about these pastors, I wondered how they manage. I then wondered if they understand Paul's words in our text in a very personal way. Paul has been writing about his personal struggle for the church; this struggle was taking a literal toll on his body. When he writes that 'outwardly, we are wasting away', he meant it literally.

But he was okay with that. This was not a matter of self-mutilation in any way. It was simply that he was willing to give his all for the cause of Jesus. He saw that as his body took its bruises, he was being inwardly renewed. To echo his earlier words, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). That transformation was all that mattered to him.

I think Paul is building on Jesus' rather famous prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread". The church has long understood that this includes spiritual as well as physical food. Paul is testifying that God was giving him and his fellow workers enough grace for each day, one day at a time. We all want to flourish, and God wants us to flourish, too. But Jesus was clear, that first we must learn to pick up our cross. God gives us grace to pick up that cross and flourish even while we are carrying it. This, I think, is what Paul is saying.

As we so clearly saw during Lent, the Christian life is first dying to self before we can be raised in Christ. And it is when we die to self that we discover the eternal perspective that Paul advocates. Yes, there is struggle and suffering and cross bearing and death in this life. But it will all seem like nothing when we are taken fully into glory.

When Paul says, that "We are being renewed day by day," he means that each day we are made a little bit new as in re-creation. We catch glimpses of that glory, but the full picture we cannot see in this life. And so, we have an eternal perspective. We believe that God is doing this, even when we cannot see it with these eyes. We press on trusting that God is at work in our struggles; someday we will see the glory; then we will know it was worth the struggle.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10)

There is a picture that cycles through as a background on my laptop. It's a picture of the global church at worship. I was in Geneva, Switzerland at a meeting of the World Council of Churches' Central Committee, consisting of around 150 Christians representing six continents, working in four main languages, and coming from around 320 denominations from around the world.

Now, some of you may have negative connotations with the World Council of Churches, but I ask you to suspend those judgements for a moment, especially in light of so much good work that has been done around their tables by the likes of Lesslie Newbigin and Hendrik Berkhof.

For me during those nearly three weeks I was there while still a seminarian, it was the worship that really grabbed my heart. On one particular Sunday, they carted us off on buses to a small Swiss village with a great, stone cross-shaped cathedral in the middle of it. The bells clanged on and on as we walked up the cobbled path to worship.

Inside the dark old grey-stone cathedral during worship, we were invited to partake in the Lord's Supper together: the single most visible sign of the divisions between us all. Many of our churches practice closed communion, barring Christians from other churches or denominations from partaking. The table that ought most to signify our union as the one, singular body of Christ, is the place where we are most confronted with the sins of our division.

But on that day, we gathered in a big circle under the dome at the centre of the cross. Representing different nations, different ethnicities, and many different Sunday-best clothing colour schemes—in that circle we saw one another. We sang with one another. And we passed the bread and wine: "the body of Christ, given for you," "the blood of Christ, shed for you" echoed in all different languages around that great, grey hall. Bishops, metropolitans, priests, pastors, Salvation Army officers, Quaker meeting leaders, lay preaches, and ordinary ol' folks like me. There we were: reconciled in Christ, the Lamb, who had broken down the dividing walls of hostility between us. If only for just a moment, we were one body, his body.

Never have I had a clearer vision of these words from Revelation 7. We could've been wearing white robes and holding palms. Perhaps we were. The Spirit seemed to lift our hearts to heaven.

When Christ comes again: all division will cease. He will come to claim his own. All of us. And we will be together around his throne and around his table. The sin of our hostilities and divisions, our grievances and our grudges will be once and for all, washed away. That too, is our hope in Christ.

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Colossians 1:1-14 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. Is it ok for a sermon to be about giving thanks for God's work in the congregation that sermon is being preached to? Why?

2. In what ways might you be able to make gratitude to God for the others in the church a bigger part of your life, and therefore, our life together as God's people?

3. What might you thank God for about Immanuel CRC?

4. What does pastor Anthony thank God for about the faith, hope, and love of Immanuel CRC? Were any of those things new or surprising to you?

5. Of course, our church isn't perfect: it never will be this side of eternity. God continues to do his work in us and we continue to grow in his grace. So, what do you pray for our church going forward?

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The day I prepare this devotional, I led the funeral for Henry Katerberg. Among the many things he will be remembered for is that he was a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a shepherd in Christ's church. I wonder how many times he travelled to a cemetery along with a family who was leaving behind their loved one.

I can imagine Henry standing at the graveside reading these words from 1 Thessalonians to reassure and comfort this grieving family. Today, I read them to Henry's family as they stood at his open grave. And we return to them, on the Friday after Easter, as we continue to meditate on the hope we have in Christ.

Remember that the Old Testament ideas about life after death were very vague. We find references to Sheol, the place of shadows and death. The idea of resurrection and heaven are not found there. They are things of the New Testament. Paul wrote these words to the church because many Christians were afraid of death, thus Paul ends saying, "Encourage one another with these words". In obedience to that challenge, we take up these words.

Paul wants to make several things clear. First, when Christian's die, they go to be with Jesus. We do not need to worry about them at all. They are in a much better place than we are. They are with their Lord and ours. In fact, they are so well cared for, that when Jesus returns, they come with him. Paul also says that their bodies will be raised, so resurrection, the reunion of body and soul.

Secondly, Paul wants us to understand what will happen when Jesus returns. He will come with those who have already died, and their bodies will be resurrected. Then those who are still alive will join them in the air and be with Him forever. Notice the emphasis on being with Jesus. This is eternity, being with Jesus forever. It will be the best family reunion ever. We will all be there, and we will all want to stay, which, of course, we will.

Paul makes something else clear: when Jesus returns it will be the opposite of his first coming. He came unobtrusively the first-time round. If the Magi from the east had not shown up in Jerusalem asking about him, who would have known? But not his second coming. There will be fanfare. This time, no one will miss it. Despite all the theories to the contrary, Christ's second coming will be seen by all on earth.

And please don't worry about how this will happen. We are talking about the God who can raise the dead. Surely, this will only be a minor miracle. All will see him and acknowledge him as Lord.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

These too, are words often heard at funerals. "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

It can feel strange sometimes to hear them at a funeral. Because, isn't the sting and victory of death obvious there? How can Paul speak so confidently?

Our congregation has faced a lot of death this past year. Today we'll face it again at a funeral as we grieve Henry's death.

But funerals aren't the only place we feel the sting of death. We also feel it as we're once again ordered to stay at home and as we watch the case counts in our Province rise. We also face down death as we feel and witness the impacts, not just of the virus, but also of the lockdowns themselves. Jobs lost, inequities revealed, again, and mental health incidence rates, substance abuse, and other forms of abuse once again on the rise.

So how can Paul say that "Death has been swallowed up in victory"? Well, he says it, because he believes in the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus defeated death. Jesus rose from death to life. He won the victory over death. And Jesus promises that that victory will be ours as well.

We too will live in the resurrection life of Jesus. Just, not yet. It's not a question of "if" it will happen. Paul quite clearly uses the word "when."

So yes, today death remains: all around us. Today, we find ourselves still waiting and longing for the day when our perishable bodies will be clothed with the imperishable, and our mortality with immortality. But, Jesus' human body was, the sure promise that ours will be too.

And so while we wait, we remind each other of this, our hope in Jesus Christ. We remind each other each time again in the face of death, as we'll do again today: that the day will come when the perishable is clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. The day when we will have finally received that promise we've waited for and believed all our lives. The day when it can truly and finally be said:

Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

This passage is a standard at Christian funerals. As I am sure we have said before here, it helps Christians to grieve well. I've noticed that many people are not sure what happens when someone dies and so they do not know how to respond to the death of a loved one.

No one has every told me that they believe we simply cease to exist. Most people believe that something of us continues after death but have only the vaguest idea of what that might mean. Its easy to live with a vague understanding of death until death affects one personally. Then, it really does matter what we believe about what is beyond death.

To lose a loved one is a deep emotional shock. And it can be a struggle is to bring our faith and emotions together. For the early Christians it also created spiritual questions. They had come to believe in Jesus Christ who rose from the dead. Death was defeated, it had lost its sting. Is that not what we celebrated just this weekend? If death was defeated why were Christians dying? They believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime, not that Christians would die. So, what was going on?

This question was creating fears in the church. One answer was that those who died were not Christians at all. Their faith had never been real and now they were lost. This caused those still living to wonder if they truly believed. Another common option was that those who had died had a weak faith. This too caused anxious questions, "Is my faith strong enough?" Or maybe death had not been defeated?

That is one set of questions. But there was another. The second was that Christ had returned and all those who were still living had missed it, as in the Left Behind series. Christians who put any stock in the Biblical accuracy of that series ought to study this passage. The idea that they had missed Christ was an horrifying thought.

Ignorance leads to fear, and so Paul wants to assure that the Christians have the facts right. His most basic teaching is this: those who have died and those who are still alive are all in the hands of Jesus. To all this fear and anxiety, Paul says, 'Don't worry, those who have died are still in Christ's hands. We are all safe.

Our hope is grounded in Christ's victory over death through His resurrection. There is life after physical death. Paul uses the word 'sleep' to refer to death. It suggests something that is temporary. He, of course, borrows this from Jesus, who used that language about his friend Lazarus.

Being asleep involves future awakening. The point of sleeping is to wake up fresh and renewed. Those who die in Christ go to be with him. They are not separated from him. Jesus' resurrection means that Christians who have died will be raised too – these two belong together. Jesus' resurrection and ours, go hand in hand.

Death still separates, but not forever. When Jesus returns, he will bring with him all believers have already died. Its right for Christians to grieve when death comes. But we grieve with hope.