Jesus is Loose, to capture you!

There are a hundred different variations on these, and they try to bind us tightly,.... but their effectiveness is only for a while; they shall not continue forever.

Jesus is loose,

and he will free us from every one of those worries, and especially from that final one.

Knowing that changes how we go about things today.

I read about a man who had suffered through a Japanese POW camp, where he had been treated horribly.

For many in that situation, life seemed to be not worth living anymore.

But this prisoner began to hum as the men were being driven out to work in the fields.

In sweltering heat, unwashed, poorly fed, nevertheless he began to hum America the Beautiful.

The Japanese guards did not know the tune; it meant nothing to them.

But humming the tune reminded other prisoners of the text:

...amber waves of grain.

...purple mountain majesties

...God shed his grace on thee....

Soon some of the other prisoners began to hum the tune also as they trudged along.

It was a song of remembrance,

of hope, of deliverance.

Because of that vision, they could get through one more day.

For Christians, it has often been hymns which have sustained us in difficult times.

There are those persons and forces of evil that

by craft or sword

would wrest the kingdom from thy Son and set a naught all he has done!

[Martin Luther, Hymn #230]

Many times, it has been a hymn, especially an Easter hymn, which can encourage us.

A Lutheran woman held hostage in Iran has spoken about the hymn stanzas which she had pulled from her memory to sustain her in the long months of captivity.

For someone else it may be the contemplation of an icon which can direct our thinking to a durable hope.

Often we only give a visual image a quick glance and expect to know all that it says instantly.

But some have found that prolonged focus on an icon can open deeper insights.

It can unlock encouragement for living now and anticipation of resurrected life also.

There are a variety of ways to explore resurrection truth: art, music, literature, study, mutual conversation and consolation, worship, prayer....

Some of them can be available to us even in the most difficult of situations.

Each of them can help us better hear the news that Jesus is loose,

and also help us recognize that with the news comes the commission

“Feed my lambs. Follow me.”

These are awesome tasks,

but ones which we can dare to undertake because Jesus is loose and will by his Holy Spirit guide us, encourage us, save us, and bring us to the fullness of life.

No matter if it has been a quiet and easy time of late, or difficult and conflicted for any of us,

with full voice, with confidence, let us remind each other of that powerful reality of the season...that Jesus is loose:

Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.