June 4th 2023 Sunday’s Listening for The Promise by Rev. Dona Johnson
The Goodness of God
On Christmas Eve 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell celebrated humanity's first orbit around the moon by reading ten verses of Genesis.
Even the most nonreligious person would have recognized the evocative words. In fact, the astronauts read first ten verses of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." I still remember how those words read from outer space stirred my heart. Listening to NASA's crackly radio transmissions was amazing. Planet earth never looked so beautiful, so mysterious—pictures sent back of a blue and green orb suspended in the vast
darkness of space reminded all of us of how fragile and small we are.
In the beginning God created the earth. Before Adam and Eve could bite into the forbidden fruit which brought the darkness of original sin into the world and destroyed the divine order, God’s original “goodness” was already at work. As God’s Spirt hovered over the deep, God spoke life into being. And as he created each living thing, God’s constant refrain was “...God saw that it was good.”
God’s divine goodness, his divine genius, his creativity, his splendor was all on display in creation. His goodness was woven into every nook and cranny of the universe, even before sin existed. Think of that for a moment. The goodness of God existed prior to sin. And it is very much at work today. As one song states, “God’s goodness is running after us.
Genesis 1:27-28 tells us that God created every human being in his image— male and female. And then God put his divine blessing upon them, that they would be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. He also instructed them to have dominion. The Hebrew word for rule or dominion is “radah.” One Hebrew scholar translated the word rule this way: “to actively partner with God in taking the world forward.” OT Scholar Terrence Freitheim translates dominion not as one who dominates over creation but as one who “shepherds” creation in reaching it full potential. We begin to hear echoes of
holy stewardship—protector, care-taker and shepherd.
And so you and I are called not to dominate or be willful towards each other
and creation, but we are to shepherd one another, helping each other reach our full potential in Jesus Christ, who is also Creator (Col 1) with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Godhead.
In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “this freedom to rule includes being bound to the creatures who are ruled...[they] constitute the world in which I live, without which I cease to be...I am not free from [them] in any sense of my essential being...my spirit having no need of nature...On the contrary, in my whole being, in my creatureliness, I belong wholly to this world; it bear me,
nurtures me, holds me.”
In His abundant and unconditional love,
Pastor Dona
May 28th 2023 Sunday’s Listening for The Promise by Rev. Dona Johnson
The Spirit Descended
Fifty days after the first Easter, the church was born. It was not only born but it was also given a mission—to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as we are told in Scripture, Christ is the head of the Church (Eph 5:23; Col 1:18). The church (the bride of Christ), belongs to the one who created her. And He, the Groom will one day return for her. As much as we sometimes think we own the church, we don’t. It is His.
The Greek word for fifty (50) is “Pentecost.” And so every year, fifty days after Easter, many congregations celebrate the ancestral story of the Church, the day of Pentecost.
Steeped as we are in modern Western culture, it's easy to forget that we worship a Jewish Messiah. But Jesus was Jewish, and Christianity is deeply rooted in Judaism. The first Christians never thought otherwise because they themselves were Jews. To them, Christianity was not a different religion from Judaism—it was the fulfillment of all that was written in the law and the prophets. In today’s culture, with all its fracturing and complexity, many of us have lost our ancestral family story. Where we came from, who shaped us, as well as how each of us were formed throughout the generations—all these things are a part of who we are today— whether we deny or embrace it. And so it is with the church which is represented in every local congregation in every time and place— the church has a long and glorious history.
The church was birthed through Jesus who was born Jewish and yet primarily rejected by his people. He was adopted by both Jewish and Gentile followers whose early culture was rooted in Judaism. Therefore, the early church was simply considered a “Jewish sect,” but by AD 365 Constantine and the various councils removed the majority of the Jewish culture from “Christianity” and gave it a more Roman expression. In doing so the church lost some of its Jewish roots and identity.
On Sunday, we will take a closer look at a very famous episode in the book of Acts, the day of Pentecost. What makes this unique is the descent of the Holy Spirit. There’s a sense in which the Old Testament people of God became the New Testament people of God because the Holy Spirit came down with a transforming power that had never been known before. In a certain sense, the people of God were getting rebooted, relaunched in fullness of the Spirit.
So what does all this mean for you and I? We need to ask the same question the crowd asked that day: “What does this mean?” It means that God’s people are now filled with the Holy Spirit. And what does being filled with the Spirit mean: the power of God from outside us, now for the first time lives inside us, this supernatural power creates an inner wonder and hunger for God, a universal message of salvation and the kingdom of God is proclaimed, a new man now stands on the mountain and eternity enters time!
In His abundant and unconditional love,
Pastor Dona
May 21sr 2023 Sunday’s Listening for The Promise by Rev. Dona Johnson
The Happy Ending
Jesus entered this world shrouded in mystery (the incarnation) and he left this world in mystery. At some point Jesus had to leave his earthly ministry. He had to return to the Godhead and take up his place at the right hand of the Father. And it is there that Jesus continues his ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation—constantly praying and interceding for you and I. In fact as I write this message to you, Jesus is praying for me and praying for you that our hearts will be opened to the many wonders and mysteries of the gospel.
When Paul gave a defense for the resurrection of Christ, many in the crowd mocked and jeered him. Some rolled their eyes while others were convinced and believed his message.
Jesus’ earthly ministry, like all ministries had to come to an end. His public ministry only lasted three years. But as N.T. Wright has stated, in those three years Jesus was able to leaven the whole world with the love of God.
After his resurrection, Luke makes it clear in The Acts of The Apostles, that Jesus for a period of forty days continued to appear to his disciples—to encourage and assure them. Now in his final appearance, Jesus gives the disciples their mission—to stay in Jerusalem until they receive the
supernatural power from God. And then they are to go out into the world preaching repentance and forgiveness.
So Jesus, led the disciples out to a place called Bethany. He lifted up his hands and he blessed them. And while he was still speaking, he was taken up to heaven.
To the disciples the ascension of Jesus meant three things: First, it was an ending. The disciples had known Jesus in both flesh and blood—the physical, emotional and spiritual Jesus. They could touch him, laugh and cry with him, debate and be rebuked by him, and were loved by him. They were linked to someone now through the Spirt who was independent of both time and space. Secondly, you would think that the disciples had left Jesus’ departure sad and brokenhearted. But nothing could be further from the truth. They left with a great sense of joy. The Jesus of earth now became the Christ of heaven. And thirdly, the disciples now had a friend not only on earth but in heaven. And Jesus, their holy companion was preparing a place for them. He was awaiting their arrival. As he awaits our arrival. As followers of Christ, to die is not to go out into the dark, it is to go to him.
Rev. Timothy Keller, a renown pastor, teacher and theologian died yesterday. On Aug 17, 2017 he Tweeted: “Buddha's Final Words: Strive unceasingly. Jesus' Final Words: It is finished.” Tim Keller’s last words: “There is no downside for me, in the slightest. I am ready to see Jesus.”
One question we need to ask ourselves is: Are you and I ready to see Jesus?
But until we see Jesus, we’ve been given the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit. To comfort us, to encourage us and prepare us until it’s our time to be joined with him!
Luke reports that soon after Jesus’ ascension (departure), the disciples were found in the temple, continually praising God—rejoicing in the happy ending. It’s not an accident that Luke’s gospel ends where it began, in the House of God.
In His abundant and unconditional love,
Pastor Dona
May 14th 2023 Sunday’s Listening for The Promise by Rev. Dona Johnson
Engaging the Culture
This Sunday, we find Paul alone in Athens. It is about 50 A.D. His spirit was deeply vexed as he saw the whole city full of idols. Athens was a university town. The greatest in the world. And people came from everywhere far and wide to study there. Athens was also a city of gods. It is said that Athens had more statues of gods than all the rest of Greece put together. It was easier to meet a god than another person. There was also a great city square where people met to talk. It was much sooner than later that Paul found this city square and met the leading philosophers of Athens. They took Paul to the Areopagas (Greek for Mars Hill). The Areopagas was a Greek temple, a court which dealt with cases of homicide and had the oversight of public morals.
So here is where we find Paul—all alone and surrounded by a mecca of other gods. It might have daunted anyone one else, but not Paul, who was never ashamed of the gospel.
When Paul gave a defense for the resurrection of Christ, many in the crowd mocked and jeered him. Some rolled their eyes while others were convinced and believed his message.
Paul was not in the least embarrassed nor was he ashamed—afraid of what others might think of him.
To the Greeks, being raised back to life had all the appeal of a root canal without anesthetic. Escape from the body was the goal. So the prospect of getting your body back by-and-by seemed less like a glorious reward and more like a cruel punishment. And any god worth his salt would surely know that much. So they left shaking their heads and repressing some giggles.
Imagine for a moment if you were standing alone at the Stupa or at the center of Tlaquepaque, an outdoor shopping mall in Sedona. Imagine yourself meeting with new-agers and retired intellectuals (agnostics) giving a speech about Jesus—life, death and resurrection. What would you say? Where would you start? What would you do as people sneered and shunned you? Does the thought of this leave you a little queasy?
Sedona is a mecca for “other” gods such as crystal shops. And it is good to reminded of its lure and attraction. II got a pop-up on my iPhone for a church called the “Church of the Golden Age.” What do they profess? They sell channeled messages, healing and meditation on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. Google Sedona and it calls Sedona the epicenter of mystical mania. And of course, I am not telling anyone who lives in Sedona anything new. However, we who live here have a great opportunity before us. Like Paul, God calls us out of the culture. God calls us to be prepared in season and out of season, when it’s convenient and inconvenient to share our faith with others, we are to take what we learn and experience on Sunday mornings and go out in the world and speak those truths to others (2 Tim 4). It is easy to “clock in” and “clock out” of our faith, erroneously believing that we represent God at church but not throughout the week.
In His abundant and unconditional love,
Pastor Dona