Will Vaus

The Heart of Christianity   We come today to consider again the story that is at the very heart of Christianity—the resurrection of Jesus.   When I was in seminary, my best friend, Richard Burnett, had a class with one of the foremost Scripture scholars in the world today, James H. Charlesworth. One day in class the question was raised, “If the bones of Jesus were discovered, what difference would that make to your Christian faith?” The question and the ensuing discussion were so provocative that conversation about both poured out of the classroom and into our interaction around the dinner table in the seminary cafeteria. Another one of our professors, who sat at table with us that night, said that it would not make any difference to him whether Jesus’ bones were discovered. He felt there were still many things that Jesus taught that were worth passing on. My friend Richard said, “If they found the bones of Jesus, I would hunt down people like you!”   That response may so...

A poetic meditation on Psalm 22 for Good Friday... My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Was it a cry of dereliction? or a grasping for hope? If nothing else it was a quotation from Psalm 22 David voiced your selfsame anguish hundreds of years before you experienced it a thousand years before you took on flesh our human flesh and died in that flesh on a rough-hewn cross But the psalm does not end where you began It does not end in despair The psalm begins with restlessness but soon the psalmist remembers the One enthroned on the praises of Israel In this God the psalmist says our ancestors placed their trust And what was the result? Deliverance Salvation… Not shame Yet you must have felt your humanity stripped away You must have felt not like a man rather like a worm Scorned Despised Mocked Humiliated Dying in seeming defeat amidst insults hurled like sharpened arrows deflating every last balloon of hope They say that in the moments before death one’s life flashes before one’s eyes...

Karl Barth, one of the most distinguished, Christian theologians of the 20 th   century, was giving a lecture series at a seminary in the USA many years ago. During a question and answer time, someone asked Dr. Barth, “What is the most profound thought that has ever crossed your mind?”   Barth’s answer was, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”   I believe that is one of the most profound thoughts that could cross any of our minds.   Today is Maundy Thursday, when we remember Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. And love is the focus of what John tells us about that night. Listen for God’s word to you from John 13:1-11…   Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Fa...