Creator's Sacrifice Week 3

Sermon

Live Stream Link

https://www.facebook.com/cwames/videos/567987391971286/

Sermon begins at 21:56 in the video

Intro

Have you ever experienced a situation that seemed so drastic, so difficult that you didn’t think that you could possibly get out. And Yet....

Have you ever gotten news that as so bad that thought there was no way out. And yet...

Have you ever lost someone you loved either through death or life circumstances and wondered how you could continue. Any yet....

I believe that we all have moments where we experience lostness, it’s part of the human story. And isn’t it interesting that those seems to be the moments that change us the most.

It is at pivotal moments that change us the most

Moments of utter betrayal, of grief, of loss, that become our turning points, and they become points were we look back sometimes days sometimes year later and remember what was being taught to us even in our struggle

Because it is in those moments that we most often hear God speak two words to us “And Yet....”

Moses doubted his ability to lead And Yet God gave him the strength and power to lead God’s people out of Egypt

Joseph was sold into slavery and yet God uses him to to save the people of Egypt

David was just a shepherd boy And Yet God choose him to be a king

Esther was an orphan and an outsider in many ways and yet she is exactly who God uses to save her people from destruction

Jesus was betrayed abandoned by his disciples, turned over to the authorities, friends turning on friends AND YET.....

And the list of course goes on...

Olivia Bighetty Painting

I like to imagine what it would be like if Judas, or Peter, saw this image later on in their story what they might have thought about it?

If you missed last week in worship we had a guest preacher Danita Parra from Daysprings Native American Church who walked through each one of these paintings.

If you didn’t join us in worship I encourage you to use the powers of time travel with our live stream to worship last week online because there was some really great stuff there

Danita highlighted a couple of pieces in this that I missed initially

Red and Blue meaning the humanity and divinity of Christ mixed in one, and also the thunderbolt at the top

Red representing the red road a road that is difficult but necessary and blue representing humanity

The thunderbolt is God the Son’s Connection to God the father

Scripture

Think about the And Yet’s of the Passage

Peter lashes out in anger AND YET Jesus responds with Peace

And how specifically does Jesus respond to Peter He reminds Peter of a covenant made with Noah. God made this covenant with Noah’s to reckon with human life and to remind the people of the violent history the God has already rescued them from.

Jesus could have overcome the mob with a legion of angels AND YET he responds peacefully

Legion is about 6,000 front line soldiers

More than 12 and of angels

Remember that most of the time when just one angel shows up in the Bible they most often start with the line “do not be afraid”

If most people are scared when one angel shows up I’m pretty sure you would be terrified if 72 of them showed up, and that is what Jesus is saying he could command from his father

Judas betrays Jesus AND YET Jesus calls Judas friend

Friend - Comrade - fellow in arms - a way of saying no Judas we are on the same team here

At the last supper Judas is just betraying himself in his own conscious, But at this point Judas is betraying Jesus himself

Judas is not acting out of cowardice Judas is acting out of betrayal

Cowardice is an unwillingness to act in a situation of fear

Betrayal is intentional action taken against those whom you formerly trusted

This is one of the only times the betrayal is even mentioned in the Bible. It translates something. Something like giving over of Jesus.

“Friend” - not quite brotherly friendship

This particular Greek word translates closer to something like comrade in arms

Jesus is betrayed AND YET this is how it ought to be

Often Judas is a challenging character for us as the church

And I know that Judas is a challenging character by how little we talk about someone who appears in all of the gospels

We want to distance ourselves from Judas - that could never be me....I couldn’t imagine the type of person that would betray a friend.

This betrayal was no surprise to Jesus

If God wanted to intervene in the story God would have

If Jesus wanted to prevent this betrayal from happening Jesus would have

There is something sacred in the story and the person of Judas for us

When we see Jesus respond with AND YET to his disciples, when we see God remind us that there is more to the story we see for ourselves with new eyes the AND YET’s in our midst.

Our Cultural “AND YET” Moment

It is not lost on me that this whole series we have been featuring native artwork and speaking about this theme of betrayal and they two seem so tied together

We have been starting our worship service the last couple of weeks with a reminder that there have been people who have been displaced from this land that they call home AND YET....

Our world over the past several years has been infected with a disease that has killed millions, AND YET....

Where are your AND YET moments

In a moment we will have an opportunity where I invite you to see yourself as a part of this story

Maybe you see yourself a Judas

Perhaps there was a way that you have betrayed yourself or someone close to you

Or maybe you feel like Peter

Filled with Hot Anger about the way that someone else has been hurt

Feelings of the pain and betrayal of the many injustices in this world

In a moment we will transition to a time of worship where you will have a minute or two to write your own AND YET statement

A moment of reflection, and this is for you to keep you don’t have to show it to anyone if you don’t want to

If your story is still in process I encourage you to ask where God might be speaking the words AND YET to you today