Once and Future

Announcements:

Communion will be during the sermon this morning

Seder meal

Good Friday

Sunrise Hike/Service

Oops:

We are looking for heroes that can’t be found…so we turn to mythology…

I’ve said it before, I’m a bit of a nerd. I like fantasy and sci-fi books and movies. Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and others were my home away from home growing up.

I think I can assign at least part of the origins on this personality quirk to repeated watchings of a particular animated feature film on the Disney Channel. The Sword in the Stone.

Based on the Novel by TH White, we see a young Arthur, only wishing to be a squire, when Merlin lands in his life to be his teacher.

Over the next hour he is changed to a squirrel, a fish, and a bird all to teach him that there are better things than might, that wisdom and prudence are equal weapons to a sword. And of course it’s all wrapped in Disney quirkiness.

All leading up to the day when Arthur, trying to find a replacement sword for his adopted brother in the tournament pulls the mythical sword from the stone revealing himself to be the true king of all England.

Sorry if I spoiled it...

This movie is based off the first movement of a larger work called the “Once and Future King”. In the mythology of Arthur, which is varied and has been told a thousand ways somehow Arthur is both a returning king coming to begin a good kingdom as well as a promised future king who will return again to set all things right forever.

I have read several versions of the Arthur story by different authors over the years…but why is the character so enduring? Why so many versions? Why does it capture the imagination?

Why do we eat up movies with superheroes? Why do we love Superman’s strength and nobility?

Batman’s cleverness and will for justice?

Spider-man’s innocent desire to do the right thing?

Iron Man’s journey of transformation into a protector?

But it’s not just the nerds...

We love Caleb Love draining a three to put North Carolina outside of Duke’s reach last night

We love Leonardo DiCaprio pushing Rose onto the door (that probably could have supported them both) in Titanic as his love causes him to make the sacrifice

We cheer as Westley conquers giants, swordsmen, and scoundrels all for the true love of Buttercup

Ugh

more we want to be part of a heroic story. We want to live a life that matters. Meaning is missing.

I bet right now, you have your own favorite stories from film, books, sports, or the news running through your mind. Stories of men and women who become something more…heroes.

And we seem to need both the stories of the superhumans we could never be and the ordinary person taking on the world for the sake of what is right, what is loved.

Why?

Why have we as humans needed to create, tell, and hear stories like these?

I have long maintained that anywhere real and true creativity is at work, you can find the story we are going to share today from God’s word. It may be buried deep, but in genuine creativity, the fingerprint of the one who gave us that ability to imagine can’t help but shine through.

And it is in this need for both a hero and the need to see ordinary people that live lives that matter that the fingerprint is the clearest to me.

We are going to do these Easter week stories a little out of order. Next week we will rewind a bit to Palm Sunday and the Triumphal Entry. This morning we sit at a table with Jesus and his disciples. A table where a story is told. A story that was, and is and is to be. A story of a Once and Future King.

Aha (bulk)

As we have and will see, Jesus is that hero. Not only today…but yesterday and forever

Luke 22 is where you will find the story for yourself. I’ll be focused on 14-20…but read the whole chapter today. Sit in this story on your own a bit.

Luke 22 starts by giving us a date. The feast of unleavened bread…Passover…a celebration of the Exodus from Egypt, and the chief priests and scribes, the religious leaders were looking to put Jesus to death.

Too many times Jesus had pointed out their hypocricy and failure to understand the God they claimed to serve, the emotion he was stirring up in the people had the potential to ruin everything from their standing with Rome to their very way of life. He wouldn’t change…so they had to deal with him.

One of Jesus’ disciples had grown disillusioned by the cost, frustrated with Jesus’ style of leading, and agreed to betray him to these men in exchange for some money. Probably to help him reestablish himself in the world after three years of wandering.

Jesus meanwhile has his disciples prepare a borrowed room to celebrate the Passover meal. Our story begins at that meal.

Luke 22:14-20 “When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

Pray

We are not going verse by verse through this one. It has to be taken together…we will take it in layers instead. Layers of past, present, and future.

Jesus is...

The Story That Was

Imagine for a moment that it is the fourth of July and your uncle pauses before lighting a firework to explain how he is pointing you toward the day he liberated America from the Redcoats.

That is the magnitude of what is being said by Jesus here. This is THEIR biggest moment. The moment they became a nation.

I strongly encourage you to come join us in the Seder meal on the 14th to get the bigger picture on this one.

Jesus is making the claim that this story was pointing to him. That he is the redeemer and salvation of Israel.

This is not unique to this story though.

Matthew 5:17 ““Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Jesus is there in the moment of creation, the Word of God who would be made flesh speaking life and shape into the cosmos

Jesus is there when Noah is given call to renew life

Jesus is there when Abraham is told to sacrifice his son, but finds a ram in a nearby tangle

Jesus is there in the law, Jesus is there in the psalms, Jesus is there as prophets cry out the love of God and the coming cost of rejecting him.

Now he takes the unleavened bread and the wine. Images that point to a lamb that was slain, blood painted on the door posts, so the wrath of God might passover the people of Israel…not because they were more righteous than the Egyptians…but because he chose to show his love for all mankind through them…and he says this is my body…this is my blood.

God has been telling his story of love and redemption since the day we walked away from him. From the moment we chose to be takers of life, rejectors of God’s nature, and ultimately our own god and lords, enslaving ourselves to sin and death in the process…God has been telling a story of rescue. And Jesus says that story is ME.

He is the super human hero who has been there in the background, one story at a time rescuing humanity from the worst enemy…itself. And every time calling us to join him in the work. Calling out ordinary people to remarkable tasks. Lives of meaning and value.

Moses was a spoiled prince, who became a murderer, then an outcast, then a shepherd, then the friend of God who would lead the people out of Egypt.

Gideon was the least of his tribe, but God used him to defeat an army of a hundred thousand with a few hundred with trumpets and jars.

David was the youngest of 7, smallest and least noticeable, but God’s choice to be king over the nation.

Daniel was an exile who became the voice of hope for his people from inside the power structure of their conquerers...

Ordinary made extraordinary as they partnered with God for his great mission of redemption.

But in this meal, there is more than just the past remembered. for Jesus doesn’t say these things were by body and blood...

He says is.

The Hero that Is.

Luke 22:19-20 “And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

As families gathered all over Israel they remembered the stories of their history, the Exodus in particular. They remembered that God had redeemed them from the hands of oppressors before.

They typically forgot that their biggest oppressor was sin. Their greatest enemy was their rebellion against God.

As they relied on God, he never let them fail. Their enemies made peace, or were often defeated without the Israelites even getting their hands dirty. It was when they told God he wasn’t needed, when they gave others credit for his goodness that they inevitably found themselves oppressed.

How often has God come through for you?

Giving you strength when circumstance made you weak?

Giving you wisdom when you weren’t certain which road to travel?

Providing what was needed before you even asked?

And yet how often do we forget him? How often do we still try to walk in our own way, our own strength, our own wisdom? And we find ourselves back in a mess.

Christian, remember who you were before Christ saved you!

Your life without hope

Your destiny destruction

Your purpose to care for you and yours…but nothing beyond…no purpose that would endure beyond the grave.

But that isn’t you anymore! 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

You are no longer among the ordinary! You are called, you have been recruited like Moses, Gideon, David and Daniel to be his partners in a life that matters. Not only for today but for eternity

But that salvation, that invitation comes at a price.

This is my body…given…remember

This cup is the new covenant…in my blood…poured…remember

Jesus was telling them what was about to happen. The hero fighting a battle that night. A battle he would have to lose to win.

A blink in the story later we find Jesus in the garden, less than an hour from a mob coming to arrest him praying:

luke 22:42 ““Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.””

There’s something that resonates into our story telling here.

How many heroes have to take the loss in order to win the war? I can hardly think of an adventure movie where that doesn’t happen. In the best stories , always.

At our good Friday service we will give our time wholly to remembering the hours following this prayer. A trial, torture, and execution. On Easter we celebrate the power of God over death and sin in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He took death, he took the shame and pain…and then defeated them that we might have life!

On Easter we will celebrate this in the best way possible, by watching as men and women who were outside of God’s kingdom, who have turned to Jesus take a powerful step of obedience by imitating and identifying with Christ in his death and resurrection in the waters of baptism.

It is not too late to be a part of that. I’ll add this, if you have placed your faith in Jesus, or are ready to, but have not been baptized, I would encourage you to take this step. The water isn’t magic. It won’t transform you…but obedience will.

This is your chance to make a public declaration of faith in the most supportive environment possible. Around your family in faith that wants nothing more than to root for you and love you.

If you are ready to trust Jesus for salvation, or take the step of baptism, there will be people ready to pray with you after the service, write it on a connection card, talk to me, or something!

Jesus is your savior today. He died for you because of his great love.

2 Cor 5:21 “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The story gets better. Jesus is the story that was, the hero that it and...

The King that Will Be

There is a really cool thing Jesus states at the beginning of this time:

Luke 22:14-18 “When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.””

I’ll never forget Big Lake Camp. It was the last camp I directed with Lane County YFC before moving to Vancouver.

Not just the last camp, but really the last thing. My final hurrah. Josh and Jacob were with me, both shorter than me then… my sister came down to help me out.

I spent some time with each of the men and women I had partnered with in sharing the gospel with teens in Eugene. We told stories and celebrated our friendship and how much we would miss working together.

But at the same time, we knew that this goodby was not forever. That even as our calling took us to the far off land of SW Washington, we had eternity before us.

And its only a couple hours…we could still visit.

Jesus takes the time to point his disciples forward. He tells them he will suffer, and he tells them he is leaving…but he also tells them there is a kingdom…AND HE IS THE KING…and the kingdom is coming.

This is the hope of the resurrection. That we have an eternal kingdom that is our home…the real home for our hearts.

This is the power of the cross, that because of Jesus’ death, all who trust in him might be loved citizens of this city.

This is the joy we have even in grief, that those who go before us in Christ already sit at the table in the presence of God not like the disciples in anxiety about what it means but in the complete satisfaction of seeing this story to its heroic ending where Jesus wins, God’s redemption story is finished, and love has conquered sin and death now and forever more.

Whee

We are invited to join him. He always intended we share in his vision for a world made right.

So we come around the table. It is set here. This invitation to come, to remember the story that was, the hero that is, and the king that will be now and forever more.

As the worship team plays, I’m going to ask you to come up the middle isles pick up the elements, then return to your seats by the outer isles so we can take the elements together.

All who have placed their trust in Christ alone are welcome at the table. There is no membership requirement or minimum goodness for entry. For this is the Lord’s table. A table he sets not before the self-right, but for those who simply place their hope in him. Will you come?

MUSIC

We have our hero. The true hero that has inspired every other. There is no Thor, no James Bond, no hero who is not at some level a reflection of Jesus who we remember today.

And we also have our invitation. An invitation to join him in a life of meaning and purpose. A life that brings God’s goodness and grace into the world. A life that goes into the world not just to live, but to be light and salt, transforming it. Calling those still in darkness to know our hero, our savior, our King Jesus.

Let’s read together out loud from our text today:

Luke 22:19 “And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””

Luke 22:20 “In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

Pray

Today, as we sing a closing song, we have people up front here to pray with you. Bring your hurts, your joys, your needs before the Lord this morning.