B, Pentecost Sunday – Acts 2:1-8,13,14 Ezekiel 37:1-10 “Dead Men Walking”

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So how does this all work; Holy Spirit, baptism, Jesus' death two thousand years ago, his resurrection and ascension and you? It's a fair enough question since many these days have not grown up in the church and have no idea how it all works. Even for many in the church, if asked and put on the spot, would be hard up to give an outline of why they believe, and what happens in a believer. Why? Because much of it happens due to God's work hidden from our conscious minds and understanding!

In fact, it takes greater conscious effort to walk away from believing! And added to this, once one rejects what God has freely given, the evil one accuses and makes one feel guilty.

Not that this guilt is bad. If we see it for what it is then we can use it to God's advantage and return to him. When the devil accuses, he seeks to tell us we are not worthy to be before God, that he would condemn us if we did, and so the devil's attack shows us that by ourselves we are not worthy.

However, he uses more spin than a politician on the campaign trail! He's not going to remind us of what God has done and is doing. He is not going to remind us that he really cannot attack us anymore once we are covered with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so we come to the original question, "How does this all work?" Or, "How do we get and remain under the righteousness of Jesus Christ?" You need to know so the devil can't play with your doubts and drive you away from the wonderful effective gift which gives life upon life into eternity.

The first thing I would like you to picture is what happens when you hold your breath. Just say for argument sake you decided you were going to be very childish and stop breathing to get your way. What would happen? All would start off well, then after about thirty seconds you body would say, "Hang on mate, I need air!" After a minute you would be going red in the face, and only if you were stubborn enough could you hold on any further. If you could you might continue for some time until the oxygen in your blood started getting low, you would get light headed and finally pass out. But what happens once you go unconscious? Your body forces you to breathe again, that why people drown in water because the moment you pass out you cannot hold your breath any more, and you begin to automatically breathe regardless of where you are.

In fact, anyone who holds their breath knows it takes more effort not to breathe than it does to breathe. The human body wants to breathe, that's what it's created to do, and that is why you and I are human beings. We are not people who rise in the morning needing to remind ourselves to breathe because we have been doing exactly that unconsciously the whole night through. We don't have to "do" breathing it's a part of our being. And because we "are", we have "being", we are humans being!

For Christians it's the same. I will come to what gives us our being in a moment, but the devil seeks to tell us time and time again we are not Christians being, but rather we need to be doing more. It's like if he was to convince us we are humans not being, that breathing won't give us life, causing us doubt that breathing oxygen is the right thing to do and that we need to do something else to be human. Can you imagine how hard it would be to be a human and to exist without oxygen?

Yet this is what the devil does to those who have been given life as a Christian. He condemns and confuses Christians to stop being Christians, because he causes doubt over the very thing that freely gives us the life breathe of forgiveness, peace, hope and love.

Something very important happens through the disciples at Pentecost, the same thing can also happen though any Christian who is asked, "What is all this Christian stuff about?" Do you realise you have been given the same power as them in your baptism. This is the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of Jesus hidden within, and it's promised to all who are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, they were apostles with a very important job on the day of Pentecost, and most of you are not called into an ordained ministerial office. Nevertheless, like them you and I are believers, and it was in trusting and believing that God could do anything, big or small, through them. They, like you, were believers and therefore doers of the tasks God had set for them. We are all very different human beings, but unless every person trusts the breath they receive no one is able to do anything.

So let's look at the apostles for a moment. Their job as apostles began a long time before the day of Pentecost. Jesus had worked with them for three years — teaching, correcting, and sending them out to witness while he was walking on earth. Then after the crucifixion and resurrection he came to them on that first Easter Sunday evening and gave them the Holy Spirit and opened their minds. After this time Jesus was still present but not always seen. God caused him to be seen at various times over the next forty days until Christ finally ascended from their sight. How could these terrified men remain in the very place where their Lord was crucified? Surely if they showed their faces they would have been arrested and received the same fate as Jesus on the cross? It was the Holy Spirit whom Jesus breathed into them!

Then fifty days later, we hear the twelve were gathered in one place, the sound of wind rushing occurred and tongues of fire appeared over their heads. And thirdly they spoke in different tongues so others present could understand what was going on. We are not necessarily going to have this happen to us audibly or visually, nor will we necessarily be able to speak in other languages. But all Christians receive the breath of life from the Holy Spirit, when God breathes his word and Holy Spirit into us at baptism. And what God chooses to do through those who trust him, is then only limited by God's will and what he needs to do to make himself known to those he would have us meet.

We hear a strange occurrence in Ezekiel 37 where Ezekiel recounts being caused to see a valley of dry dead bones.

And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord God, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 37:3–6 ESV)

So he did what God commanded and the bones came to life. Don't underestimate the power of God the Holy Spirit, given the right circumstances he might chose to use any of us in ways we might not even begin to comprehend. So don't let the devil make you doubt what God has done and what he can do!

What happens to the valley of dry bones and the apostles on the day of Pentecost is the same. And the same happens with us.

There is a movie starring Tom Hanks based on a novel by Stephen King called "The Green Mile". In it Hanks plays a prison officer in a death row prison. When the prisoner is walked to the electric chair from his cell past all the other prisoners in their cells, the guard cries out, "Dead man walking!" The valley of dry bones and the apostles on the day of Pentecost were "Dead Men Walking". And so are you.

But we are not walking in the same doomed and deathly way as those prisoners. We are walking to death, but through it by faith. In fact, before we were made eternal beings by God in baptism, we were "dead men walking" in hopelessness through this life, never content, never finding true peace, always knowing something was missing in our lives. But now having received the Holy Spirit we, who were once dead and as lifeless as bones in a valley, or as frozen in fear as the disciples were after Jesus' death, are called to see that God has put his life in us and us in the life of his Son.

We may not be able to speak in all sorts of tongues but we have all been given the same being. And this being enables in us the language of love, to forgive, to encourage, and to tell others the hope we have.

So how does it all work? It works because God makes it work. The Holy Spirit continually reveals the kingdom of heaven is with us. His job is to give us the being of eternal life; he is sent from the Father and the Son, to bring us to and reveals Jesus Christ in us. He puts the wind of life as Christians in us; he is the doer and the shaker, the deliverer and maker of faith.

All humans are "dead men walking". But those who trust the being of eternal life and allow the Holy Spirit to walk them in it are no longer dead men walking in death, but rather dead men walking in life. Don't let the devil deceive you with only half the story! Yes, on your own you are guilty! But, your guilt has been drowned in baptism; so let the Holy Spirit daily raise you to a life of faith, hope, and eternal love. Amen.

A, Lent 5 – Ezekiel 37:1-14 “A Bone To Pick”

A Bone To Pick
A sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14
THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT (Year A) 10/04/11
Pastor Heath Pukallus Katanning-Narrogin Lutheran Parish

Dry bones in a dead paddock paints a picture of desolation! What was once covered in life with flesh and sinews is now deserted of life lying in the dust. Dry bones tell us death has put an end to life.

There's not much one can do to make bones live. But bones have been used by people since the earliest of times to make tools, such as knives, hooks, and spears. Still bone a lifeless object can be used to take life away when it's used as a weapon. But then again bone has been used as needles, buttons, and in corsets. Yet still it's used as a result of the lifeless cravings people had in the Garden of Eden.

Ezekiel, under the hand of God, had a vision of a valley of bones. These bones were dry as dry. They were completely void of water, of life. But these bones were not the bones of animals. No! They were human bones!

It might be one thing seeing bones of animals lying out in the open, but human bones in mass numbers, surely would run a chill up anyone's spine. The sight of human skulls and empty bodily frames would cut to the bone of any living person. We're thankful we are spared having to witness such a gut wrenching sight. But, in the past some have uncovered mass graves from human atrocities such as those of world war two and more recently in places like Bosnia.

But even so these bones were discovered in graves; however, the bones Ezekiel saw were in a valley, out in the open. Only the bodies of those most contemptible would be left out to rot for all to see. There would be no honourable burial for those who defiled themselves while alive. One only has to think of Jezebel, the evil wife of King Ahab, who was thrown into the street, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs. Only the despicable would be left this way. Human bones scattered like excrement exposed for others to stand on.

And so God shows Ezekiel bones exposed like these. Thousands upon thousands of human fragments absent of life, bones as dry as… a bone! Left desolate, deserted, defiled, and dead! And God asks Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" To which he replies, "O Lord God, you know." (Ezekiel 37:3)

God addresses Ezekiel as "the Son of man". Immediately this title might resonate within as the title Jesus used of himself over and over again on his march to the cross. To be a "son of man" is being a son of Adam, a human, a created being from the earth who's received the breath of life from God.

Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man. The eternal and omnipresent Son of God is born the Son of Mary, the Son of Man, in the line of Adam! Created out of Adam as a servant to those of Adam! The Son of humanity is also the servant of humanity!

Ezekiel is called to serve God in this vision by serving these bones. The question is asked if the bones can live. We might say in despair, "God only knows!" But Ezekiel replies, "O Lord God, you know."

And he did know. When we look at the context of this vision from chapter 37 in between chapters 36 and the latter half of chapter 37 we see God is restoring his creation and his people from their desolation to the chosen land once given to them. God was promising to turn the desert back into a fertile place, a land of milk and honey, a place of promise, appearing like the Garden of Eden, with a shepherd serving them as King David once did.

Why was God doing this? For the sake of his holy name. He says, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God." (Ezekiel 36:22,25–28 ESV)

God had a bone to pick with Israel, and like a bone picked clean by a dog, God had reduced his wayward people through exile and hardship leaving them as dry as a bone chewed clean by dogs. Not only did he cut to the bone, he left the bone bare and now sends his servant Ezekiel, a Son of man, to be his mouthpiece of life, breathing God's word back into Israel's parched desolation.

Even greater than Ezekiel, God the Father sent his Son Jesus Christ as the Son of Man as his servant to restore holiness to all of humanity. And God still seeks to cleanse through Christ, he seeks to sprinkle his grace and mercy on all, cleansing from the idols that seem to pop up in our lives, to daily wash those who allow the Holy Spirit to drown the old sinful "bones" through repentance and resurrect us in forgiveness and faith.

Yes! God has a bone to pick with you and me, but he has picked us clean in Christ. But now we're called to make no bones about it. Like heart-warming soup on a cold winter's day, we're called to swallow the truth of his word with confidence and ease. Rather than make bones about it, or to put bones in the soup, let God's way be your way to his glory.

Make no bones about it – Jesus sees you in the hardships of your human existence. And not only that – like Lazarus you are his friend, and he weeps over what your sin does to you. But God has done something about it. He left Jesus languish on the cross, to pay the price of your sin. We hear Jesus' heartbreaking cry of our human condition, "My God, My God why have you forsaken me." (Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:26)

These words recorded first in Psalm 22 also testify to Jesus' wretched bones on the cross, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast… I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." (Psalm 22:14,17–18 ESV)

Your bones, the bones of all believers, the bones of Israel are now bound together by the sinews and flesh of Christ. Our bodies are not left desolate in the desert for dogs to digest. No! Our graves are made holy by God and the Son of Man is returning to roll the stone away from our graves and our lives of sin. Jesus promises to raise you to life, not in the earthly kingdom of Israel, but in fellowship with him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in his Holy Kingdom of Heaven.

For… "Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord." (Ezekiel 37:12–14 ESV) Amen.

A, Last Sunday of the Church Year - Ezekiel 34:11-16 "Sheep Need a Shepherd"

The picture of a grazier feeding grain to sheep from the back of a Land Cruiser has become a dim picture in the minds of most Queenslanders in the past ten years or so. In fact most kids would not have ever seen or experienced an economy riding on the backs of sheep, unless they live on one of the few properties that still graze sheep. When driving around the Tara-Meandarra area one will notice there aren’t many sheep left. Thousands of sheep grazing in paddocks, a common sight in the 70’s and early 80’s, are not there anymore. The pictures of the caring grazier feeding his sheep grain on drought stricken properties are gone, and, so too, the pictures of sheep grazing on green grassy paddocks are just memories of the past.

So as Australia moves away from being a country dependant on an economy driven by wool and mutton, the picture painted in the texts today of a shepherd caring for his sheep two-thousand years ago in the Middle East gets just a little bit dimmer on the horizon. If we look at what a shepherd does and see the sheep for what they are, these texts can give us a very good picture of what God does for us, how he does it, and who we are. We can put aside the far-fetched picture painted by the movie ‘Babe’, where sheep, a little pig, dogs and a duck seem to be as intelligent as, or even more intelligent than, the old man who farms them.

Anyone who has ever had to work with sheep will know that they are not the brightest animals to ever walk the earth. Left to their own devices they will get into trouble. Some say they are thick or stupid. Sheep easily sulk, flopping down, refusing to be brought back to the herd when they have gone astray. These animals need boundaries and protection. Their wool which once made them so valuable is also the very thing that can harbour their death, if it gets wet and fly blown. When sheep are chased through a gate, if you can get them to the gate, one will jump then the next and the next and so on. Maybe you have heard asked, ‘If someone jumped off a cliff would you?’¬– well a sheep probably would! Graziers have to spend much time and money building and mending fences, to hold the sheep in, and, in some areas, to keep wild dogs out. He might spend a great deal on vehicles, sheepdogs, and pasture improvements to guard and protect these dumb animals. These animals need to be shepherded; the Australian grazier uses these means to do this task of shepherding.

So sheep need pasture or land on which to graze. They need protection from disease and attack from wild animals, and they need someone to watch over them. Farmers have paddocks to protect and keep the sheep together, but when these paddocks run out of feed, the sheep can’t find a new one, and rarely do they find their way back to the paddock if they get out. When their protector approaches them to catch and care for them, they become scared and struggle to get free or go into sulk mode and flop down as if they would give up their life in an instant.

The picture of a shepherd in the Middle East is not really that much different. There are no fences, the shepherd travels with his sheep; he in a sense is the fence for his sheep. He finds the right pastures for them, if he left them to their own devices others would steal them, wild animals would eat them, or they would wander off and get lost from the flock. He calls his sheep with his word and uses his rod to protect, and his staff to save them. Whereas motor bikes, dogs, and Land Cruisers are the identifying sounds and instruments of an Australian shepherd or grazier.

But the fact is without a shepherd, of some sort, sheep are not going to survive. In their temporary existence away from their shepherd or the things put in place to shepherd them, their quality of life will be next to nothing. We are God’s sheep, and he is our shepherd. Are we thick, dumb, or stupid like sheep? Well no, we are not! But our actions are similar to that of a sheep’s because of sin. So we too, need a Shepherd.

The pastures in which God originally placed us, was the lushest garden ever. The Garden of Eden was a paradise of infinite gifts to us from God, with one boundary, and that was not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But like sheep left to their own device, the grass seemed greener on the other side of the fence, outside the boundary, and humanity shepherded themselves into death and separation from God and his garden of gifts, by crossing that boundary. They turned their backs away from the Shepherd and his green pastures, to the fruit which has made us all rotten to the core. Now there is no way that you or I, can get back into the garden that is eternal life, or paradise, no matter how much we try to look like good sheep outside the fence.

So what does God have to say about weak stray sheep outside the fence of paradise and eternal life? He says: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. (Ezekiel 34:11-16)

God has placed a hole back in the fence, so we can enter back into paradise. But guilty as we are, we flee further from God, seeking to be fed outside the fence. The opening he gave us only exposes the boundaries we ignored and crossed. Such is the Law of God which shows us how we sin; the Ten Commandments expose our desire to turn away from God, his will, and the bountiful gifts he wants us to have in our lives. God gives us an entrance back in, but the same craving which led us to break the boundaries and be thrown out of the Garden in the first place, only causes us to run further away.

So to bring us back to his garden of paradise, the Shepherd, in an act of brilliance, sent his Son to shepherd us. He came to make us content to dwell in his garden, or his paddock of perfection, and to heal us and cleanse us of our stricken state. We once again have value as his sheep because he came to seek us and lead us home to our Father’s property, named, Heaven. The Shepherd came to us not as the Shepherd but as a sheep; he came as the Lamb of God. Just as the economy of our country once rode on the sheep’s back, God put his household in order by placing the burden of obedience on Christ’s back. Jesus came as a sheep to heal our waywardness, protect and cleanse us from evil, and to carry us home on his back.

Jesus bore the punishment for our corruption of paradise and subsequent expulsion; he makes us acceptable and gives us access back into the Father’s presence. The Shepherd gave up his position as Shepherd and came as the humble Lamb who bears your sin and mine. And now having been raised, the Lamb of God leads his flock back into God’s eternal paddock of paradise. The economy of God’s church is carried on the back of the Lamb of God. The head servant, Jesus Christ, shepherds us back into God’s presence where he causes us to live forever on his green pastures of paradise.

You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God (Ezekiel 34:31).

[So] come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care (Psalm 95:6-7a). Amen.

A, Lent 5 - John 11:17-27 "Resurrection Standing"

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” (John 11:17-27)

Just two weeks prior to Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, it is fitting to look at what resurrection is and what it does. The texts for today, the fifth Sunday in Lent, give us opportunity to examine resurrection; which is, the act of being raised to life.

We use the word resurrection for many things in this earthly life. Such as parents resurrecting things after their little children have been at them, especially things like books or toys that get broken through harsh treatment. Or one only has to imagine what would need resurrecting if a two year old is let free with an ink marker or lipstick when no one’s around.

But then we might speak of resurrection when restoring something. One might resurrect trees, plants, crops, or even homes after a wild storm. Perhaps resurrection might happen when one takes the time to repair or revive an old motor, a piece of machinery or furniture. Perhaps it’s a business after bankruptcy or a political career that receives resurrection. Whatever it might be receiving resurrection, the fact is — it is brought back to life and has been caused to stand as it once stood.

Notice with everything one might resurrect, it needs someone or something else to cause the resurrection; to make it stand, or go, or work again. And when things are brought back to life these objects stand or exist to do what the one resurrecting wants them to do. But if the object resurrected doesn’t do what it’s meant it usually ends up on the scrap heap, or back on the workbench because its resurrection was not complete the first time. Perhaps the thing is still in the process of resurrection.

Even actively living things like plants, crops, or trees when resurrected, do what they were originally intended to do. So too, do living organisms like businesses or political careers! Although they are living, they re-stand where they once stood, caused to do so by an exterior influence.

So resurrection is to re-erect, or caused to re-stand once again. And it’s no difference when we focus on the resurrection of Jesus, and all who ever since have placed there faith in Jesus Christ, and live their lives as his resurrected ones. Jesus’ death and resurrection is all about God’s plan to have us resurrected to re-stand and remain standing in peace with him.

The texts before us today all speak about living lives as the resurrected children of God. And being resurrected as his children we live in the hope that we too will receive the eternal resurrection into his heavenly glory at our death.

In Psalm 130 the psalmist says, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” What is being said here is that sin must be punished with death before God. Sin knocks us down so we cannot stand. So there’s a yearning for resurrection here, and the next line of the Psalm tells us where the resurrection or the ability and strength to stand comes from, “but with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” It comes from the Lord through forgiveness.

Therefore, we live every day, resurrected by the power of God the Holy Spirit, who has come to us through water and the Word. In baptism we are daily reconnected with Christ who gives this forgiveness won at the cross. In our sin we are the dry bones in the desolate valley, and now the Word made flesh gives us flesh and life by the Spirit. We’re resurrected and caused to stand by Christ, and now we’re called to remain standing with the aid of a crutch, namely, faith in Christ and the cross. When we throw this crutch away thinking we can stand by ourselves, we become guilty of insurrection, which is a sinister selfish uprising. And when we do we’re worth about as much as the dry bones in Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven.

In fact, it was humanity’s insurrection in the first place that brought the need for our resurrection. In Romans eight Paul talks about our insurrection, our seeking to stand by ourselves, as being hostile towards God. But he goes on to address our need of resurrection and continued restoration by the Holy Spirit who also raised our Saviour, Jesus Christ, from death.

…if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:10-11)

Further to this we are like Lazarus. Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters; he loves you too. But we like Lazarus are dead in ourselves. There is nothing we can do to resurrect ourselves day after day in our lives leading to death. In fact, our deathliness is such that our bodies have the same ability to save themselves as did Lazarus’ four day old blue and bloated body. Therefore, it’s to God’s glory that each day our lives are resurrected from the death our sinfulness deserves.

Having been raised in baptism, and having had the bandages of death removed daily so we can stand re-erected before God, God now calls us to live as children of the resurrection. He calls us to turn from all insurrection of crediting ourselves through our own merits.

Jesus now calls us to live and believe he is the sole agent of resurrection, since he tells us in his word ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. Our believing, our faith, our trust, is none other than standing and remaining in what the Holy Spirit placed us in and placed in us; that is, Jesus’ death and resurrection standing up outstretched in us, displaying all the forgiveness of the Father.

You will stand because Jesus is able to make you stand. In fact you are standing, and have stood, only because Christ is standing resurrected in you.

So stand firm, you are in the process of being resurrected. Therefore, be resolute in your resurrection, confess and flee your insurrection, and consider Jesus Christ who is faithfully ever-present saying, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 3:20-22) Amen.