John 4:5-42

Jesus was thirsty. He came to a well near a Samaritan town and stopped to rest. Usually Jews and Samaritans did not associate with each other. And they were not very welcoming of Jesus and his disciples because they were obviously Jews. But Jesus, apparently to avoid a confrontation with the religious authorities was taking a shortcut through Samaria. And about noon they come to a village so Jesus stopped at the well while the others went into the town to gather food.

Then a woman of that Samaritan town comes to the well. She is thirsty too. She has come out in the middle of the day to get water to drink. Now, the polite thing to do is to ignore one another. After all Jews and Samaritans aren't supposed to mix and men were not supposed to address women in public, and you don't get more public than the village well.

But Jesus spoke to the woman, in public, right there in front of God and everyone! He was thirsty but had no means of reaching the water. She however had a bucket and a rope and could reach the water. So he asked her for a drink of water. After all Jesus was thirsty.

Like Jesus the Samaritan woman was thirsty too. But she thirsted for more than water. Jesus could see that. As they talked he revealed that he knew her thirst. She had been married five times and was living with a man in sin. This was in a day when only men could divorce. She had been used and discarded again and again.

She thirsted for a genuine relationship. She also thirsted for God. Once she realized that Jesus was more than just another Jew she asked him a question. The question basically amounted to "Where do I find God?" You see the Samaritans had descended from Jews who had abandoned worshipping in Jerusalem and would sacrifice in the hill shrines. The Jews however sacrificed only in Jerusalem.

She was thirsty for a real relationship and for God. Jesus had a never ending supply of what she needed. So he offered her both. He let her know that he knew her and still cared. He was honest with her even when it was not pleasant. And he told her that, while the Jews had it right about where to sacrifice, in the long run what matters is not where you worship but where your heart is. What really matters is not the geography but that one worships in spirit and in truth.

She was thirsty, so Jesus offered here living water!

Jesus and the woman at the well were thirsty. There are a lot of thirsty people in our world. There are a lot of people who have knocked around by life. They are looking for a genuine relationship. Their families, their friends, and even their spouses have let them down. There are many who have looked for love in all the wrong places. They genuinely thirst for someone who can know them and love them as they really are.

There are a lot of people in our world who thirst for God. Most people say they believe in God. And many are seeking some kind of spiritual direction. Like the woman at the well the ask, "Where do I find God?" And, as with love, they are often looking in all the wrong places.

I am sure there are even some thirsty people here today. As I look at all the people here I am sure some of us have known the heartache of betrayal. We have all at one time or another yearned for a loving relationship with a parent or friend or spouse. And I hope someone came here to day seeking God. I mean, you would think that some of the people in a church on Sunday morning would be there because they had a thirst for God in their lives.

There were also a lot of thirsty people back in Jesus' day. The Samaritan woman realized this. As soon as she knew who Jesus was she ran to the town to tell others. The amazing thing is that these are the very people who had shunned her. Some of them may have been her ex husbands and men she had been in elicit relationships with. Bible scholars suggest that she was at the well at noon in the heat of the day to avoid the crowds of women who would have gathered there in the mornings. Probably any potential relationship with the women of the town had been poisoned by her dealings with the men. Yet she ran right to these people who had shunned her and abused her to tell them that God's anointed one had arrived.

Just as amazing is that fact that these people came. I am sure few of them trusted the woman. As a community they had shunned her. But they came to see this man she spoke of.

I think they came because they were thirsty too. They yearned to know God. They were shunned and mistreated by the Jews and to hear that the Messiah had come was amazing. But even more so that he had come to their well - to their town. Their thirst was greater than their mistrust. And in the end they said "We believe not because of what the woman said but because we have seen him for ourselves!"

In the end the thirsty people came to Jesus for living water, and their thirst was quenched!

Are you thirsty? If you are, let me offer you some living water. I know this guy who has a never ending supply of living water. Not just your run of the mill H2O, but water that gives eternal and abundant life. His name is Jesus, and he is God's only begotten Son. He came to show us God's love. He said "My daddy loves you this much," then he died on a cross for our sins. And because of Him we can know God in spirit and in truth!

It would be a shame for us to keep the news to ourselves. After all there are so many others who thirst for this living water. If you saw someone dying of thirst and you had access to all the water in the world, you wouldn't just stand there would you? You would do all you could to lead that person to the water. You would even carry them yourself to find that water.

We were all thirsty and I hope we all here have drunk deeply of that living water. Let's follow the example of that Samaritan woman. Let's run to the thirsty in our world and tell them! "I have met a man who knows me better than any ever could. Could he be God in the flesh? Come and see for yourselves!"

What was her name? We're not sure. The Bible doesn't tell us. For the purpose of discussion we could call her Carol, or Marsha, or Janice, or just about anything. Her story is the story of so many women and men. We usually just call her "the woman at the well." And that's good enough because the well, the source of water, is an important part of her story.

We may not know her name, but we do know something about her. She was thirsty. She had come to draw water from the well on a hot day. She came to get something to drink. But in reality her thirst was deeper than that. Even among the outcast Samaritans she was an outsider. This woman was a woman with a past; a reputation. Everyone knew her past. She had had five husbands and was living with a man in sin.

She needed more than water. She needed some peace from the turmoil and chaos of emotions and relationships in which she lived. She needed forgiveness and release of the shame that she lived in. She needed the love that she so desperately sought but failed to find five times. She needed someone she could trust and believe in. She needed a Savior; a Messiah!

The woman at the well needed a lot of things but it was her need for water thought that brought her to the well and a chance encounter with Jesus. It was the middle of the day and the sun was hot. Women usually didn't come to the well in the heat of the day. They usually came in the early morning or in the evenings. Carrying a large jar of water may have been women's work but it was hard work. It was much easier to do that work in the cool of the day. Some have suggested that the woman at the well came in the middle of the day to avoid the crowds that were at the well in the evenings and mornings. She wanted to avoid all those sidelong glances and the whispers behind her back. She wanted to avoid the experience of being shunned by the more "respectable" women of the village. It was bad enough being a Samaritan, but to be shunned by them was worse.

So there she was, and there was Jesus. And Jesus reached out to her in her loneliness and said, "Excuse me, may I have a drink of water." The woman was probably shocked that Jesus had spoken to her. She could tell by his accent and dress that he was a Jew and Jews didn't talk to Samaritans, especially Samaritans like her. And she was a woman. The Rabbis taught that Jewish men were not supposed to speak directly to a woman in public. Much less to a Samaritan woman like her. Walls had been constructed between Jesus and this woman. Society had placed walls designed and intended to keep Samaritans and women in their place. And years of bad experiences with men had led the woman to build walls in her heart: walls of mistrust and bad feelings.

But the woman had come to the well in need of a drink. So Jesus reached across the barriers to touch the woman. He reached across the barriers of racial prejudice. He reached across the barriers of sexism. He reached across the barriers of shame and guilt. He reached across the barriers between good and bad. And Jesus asked her for a drink of water. You see, like the woman, Jesus was thirsty too. It was a hot day and he and the disciples had been walking since sunup. He needed water for his parched throat. But I think Jesus had a deeper thirst. I believe he sensed the deeper thirst in her. And out of compassion he needed to offer her help. He yearned to touch and heal the hurt and pain and mistrust. To fill the emptiness of her soul with the love and peace of the Heavenly Father.

Maybe if they pooled their resources they could help each other. You see Jesus needed physical water but he didn't have a rope or bucket to draw the water from the well. The woman did have a bucket, and so she had access to all the water they both needed. She, on the other hand, had a deep need for spiritual water. Jesus had access to an infinite supply of what she needed most: the love of God.

But Jesus' boldness surprised the woman. And she quickly reminded him of the barriers between them that he had just ignored. "How is it that you, a Jew, speak to me, a Samaritan and a woman." Jesus replied, "If only you knew of God's grace and who I am, you would ask me for living water." "But you have no rope or bucket how would you get me water. Anyway my ancestors dug this well. Are you saying that its water is inferior?"

Jesus had begun the dialogue around their mutual need for water and now he had the chance to deepen the discussion. "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. But those who drink the water I will give will never again thirst. The water I give will become a source of eternal life in the heart those who accept it."

This made the woman more curious, but she still failed to catch the significance of what Jesus was saying. So she said, "Give me this water. Then I won't get thirsty and have to come draw water every day." Now Jesus had a chance to touch that part of her that hurt and heal it. "Go get you husband and bring him here." She probably winced at that request, "I have no husband."

Jesus had touched her pain and now had a chance to offer healing. "You're right. You have five husbands and the man you are with now is not married to you." "How did he know that?" she thought. "And if he knew that, why is he talking to me?" "You're a prophet," she replied. So she asked him a religious question, "Should we worship in the hills like the Samaritans or in Jerusalem like the Jews?"

Jesus replied, "That is not the real issue. You Samaritans don't know what you are doing and the Jews are right. But soon all that will mean nothing. The time is coming, and has already arrived, when real believers will worship in Spirit and in Truth. After all that is the kind of worship God wants. God is spirit and the place isn't what is important What is important is the spirit of the ones worshiping."

"I know," said the woman, "that the Messiah is coming and when he arrives he will teach us much we do not know. Maybe he can explain these things." Then Jesus replied, "I am the one you are thinking of. I am the one who can answer all your questions. I am the one who can save you from your sin!"

Are you thirsty? Is there a dryness anywhere in your life. Is there a part of your heart that has been burnt by the heat of someone else's hate? Is there a part of your soul that you have failed to water and like a neglected house plant is brown and wilting. Is there a need in you for love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Do you ever thirst for something deeper and more meaningful in life.

Come to the well. Meet Jesus there. He will give you living water. Water that brings new life to the dead parts of our hearts and souls. Once we have drank of that water we will never thirst again for eternity.

Jesus already knows you better than you know yourself. He is a prophet who can see to the heart of our sin and need. As with the woman at the well he can see the turmoil in our lives. He can see the pain of betrayal. Accept him and his gift of living water, new life, eternal life.

But I think most of you know that already. I believe most of you have already drank that living water: you already have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and you go to that well daily. But look around you. Around you is a world dying of thirst for living water. People are seeking something and they are looking in the worst places. They are looking to flesh, drugs, wealth, power, or self for life.

But we know that Jesus is the only source of living water. What people need is a relationship with Jesus Christ. I am not saying that all a persons' problems will disappear because they give their lives to Christ. They may still live in poverty or oppression or loneliness or illness or whatever. I am saying that through Christ they will have the strength to face whatever life throws at them. The problem is: How do we reach out to them? In this incident Jesus gives us an example. Jesus looked around him and he saw a need. It was a simply need a need for a drink. So he shared his need and started a relationship. But more importantly he started a relationship with someone that everyone else would have ignored. Jesus simply reached out in love in a small way at first.

Jesus reached across the barriers of hatred and prejudice and ignorance. And we have to do the same. Simply reach out in friendship and love. How many of you know your neighbors or your co workers. How can you love your neighbor if you don't know them? Offer people a relationship with you as a Christian friend and then maybe they can develop a relationship with Christ.

People need the Lord. So offer them God's love. Offer them Jesus the source of living water.

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Romans 5:1-11

"All roads lead to Rome." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that all roads lead from Rome. Either way the point is the same. In the ancient world Rome was at the economic, political and social center of the known Mediterranean world. One of the first extensive road systems in the western world was constructed by the Romans to maintain their empire. Some of those roads still exist today. So to get anywhere in the first century Mediterranean world one had to go to Rome.

And that was Paul's plan. He wanted to go to Rome as a means of heading to the western side of the empire, Spain, to spread the Gospel. The area of Asia Minor or Greece was already fairly well evangelized. Paul had established churches that could carry on the ministry of spreading the Gospel in those communities. He felt a call westward: "Go west young man."

So Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome. How this church came to be no one is sure. Perhaps people converted to Christ in Palestine or Greece migrated there and started it. However they came to be they were there and Paul was writing to them a letter of introduction. He wanted to introduce himself to them and introduce them to his teachings. I am sure it was partially to make sure they had the right understanding but also to establish their community as a base for striking out to the western provinces of Rome.

The passage we read this morning is a pivotal passage in this letter of introduction. In it Paul rearticulated his basic theology. He wrote, "Therefore since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand."(Rom. 5:1) Salvation is by grace through faith. It is grace and not our works that saves us and we receive that grace through faith. We must have faith in Christ and through that faith we have peace.

The peace Paul speaks of is not just a feeling of contentment. He is speaking of the peace that passeth understanding. He is speaking of more than not being at war with ones earthly neighbor. The Romans spoke of the "Pax Romana" or the Roman peace. That was the peace that Rome kept in the provinces. It was usually kept by cruel oppression. The peace that Paul spoke of was quite different. Paul here means being at peace with oneself and being at peace with God. All that is sinful and unrighteous is at war with God, but faith is the means through which we are brought into a state of peace with God and ourselves.

This is a gift of grace. God simply gives us this as an unearned gift. It is through Jesus that this gift is offered. Jesus died of the cross for the sins of the world as a gift from God. And we receive this gift and the accompanying peace by trusting or having faith in God in Christ.

And since we are made right with God by his grace through faith we will share in glory, or in other words we will go to heaven.

This is all basic Sunday School stuff. We are saved by grace through faith. We have to believe in Jesus and make him our Lord to receive the free gift of forgiveness and salvation. Paul spends most of the first part of this letter explaining that. But that is where most Christians' theology ends. They say, "I gave my life to Christ and by grace I have been forgiven and will go to heaven!"

But Paul still has 11 chapters to go before he is finished. Salvation by grace through faith is not the end. It isn't even the beginning of the end. This is just the end of the beginning. Paul says we are saved by grace through faith and therefore we boast in our suffering. It seems to me that Paul is saying, "We have been saved so we suffer." Suffering is the result of salvation.

Paul knew what he was talking about. Just read the book of Acts. Paul believed in Christ and from then on he was on the run. He was beaten and imprisoned and slandered and stoned and shipwrecked. All for the Gospel.

So why does he boast. Because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope. Paul boasts because through his suffering God helps him to grow. Through being persecuted he becomes strong and he has hope.

But even that is not the end. Salvation results in suffering and suffering results in hope and finally Paul says hope does not disappoint us. The hope that is produced in him is based on Jesus. Jesus is our hope of Glory. He is the one who vouches for the truth of our hope. I can hope to win a million dollars, but that is quite different from hoping the sun will rise in the morning. Our hope of glory is like the hope that the sun will tomorrow because that is certain!

In other words we know that we will live with God in heaven because God lives in us now! Or as Paul said it, "Hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that he has given us."(Rom. 5:5) Paul would have made a good Methodist. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said that when he experienced God's grace he felt that his heart was "strangely warmed" by God's love. God's love had come into that empty part of him and filled it with warmth.

And how do we know for sure that God loves us. Well, look that the historical facts. God sent his Son to die for us. Not because we deserved to have someone die for us. If we were righteous and were sentenced to death, it would make sense that someone would choose to die in our place. But Jesus showed God's love in that he died for us while we were yet sinners! (Rom. 5:8)

Paul planned to go to Rome so that he could spread the gospel to the west of Rome. So he wrote a letter to the Christian church in Rome and he told them that their salvation would produce suffering so that they could know glory. But that is not the end of the story. There is more. I feel a little like Paul Harvey, "Now for .... the rest of the story." But first a word from our sponsor � just joking.

Before Paul, the Apostle, could set out for Rome he had to go back to Jerusalem. He had been gathering an offering for the relief of the Christians in Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem a riot started and he was arrested. After being held for a long time he appealed to Caesar as was his right as a Roman citizen. So Paul went to Rome, but not to preach. He went to stand trial.

Paul probably died in Rome and never went to the east, but his words to the Romans were prophetic. They were persecuted just as he had indicated. The Roman emperors, in the centuries that followed, persecuted the Christians and the Roman Christians were in the center of it. Many of the earliest martyrs on the church were from around Rome. So, because they were justified but grace through faith they suffered.

And that suffering made them strong in the hope of eternal life. The church in Rome endured and grew strong and became one of the strongest centers of Christianity in the world. In fact they sent missionaries out to the Germanic peoples of northern Europe and to Britain and to, yes, Spain! In fact as Methodists we trace our ecclesiastical lineage back to Rome through the Anglican Church. Most other Protestants: Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians and even Baptists also grew out of the church in Rome that Paul wrote to. Maybe Paul didn't personally take the Gospel to the west, but his vision of Rome as a base of operations for spreading the Gospel was correct.

That is what you were saved for. You were justified, made right with God by grace through faith. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. He died for your sins. And because you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you are a recipient of that grace. You have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and will go to heaven when you die!

But that's not all. Like Paul and the Roman Christians, you were saved to suffer. You were made right with God to suffer the persecution of a world at war with God. You were justified, made right with God, to struggle against a world that is not right with God. You are called to suffer the heartbreak of watching so many in the world ruin their lives because they refuse to trust in God.

But that suffering makes us strong. It produces endurance and even hope. And that hope will not disappoint us. That is why you were saved. Not merely to keep you out of the flames of hell, but so that you could participate in God's saving power and suffering for the world.

Don't let your religion stop with salvation. Let it begin there.

Abram and Sarai were old! I am sorry. I don't know any other way to say it. I know that now-a-days people like Abram and Sarai are called "Senior Citizens." But Abram and Sarai were just plain old. Even by modern standards they were old. Abram was 99 years old and Sarai was 90.

Picture them if you will. See them standing next to each other in front of you. Abram is mostly bald. What little hair is left is white. His beard is long and white. Sarai's hair is also long and white. Sarai is stooped over a little and Abram has a cane. "Wisdom lines" run across their faces. And given that your typical nomad in the 20th century B.C. didn't have access to false teeth, their lips are drawn in because of as lack of teeth to support them.

And they have no children. They've never had any. No descendants whatsoever. At their 75th wedding anniversary there were no children or grandchildren or great grandchildren, just Lot and a few great nephews and nieces. They are old and barren. It just so happens that God wanted to make a nation. So God decided that Abram and Sarai were the prefect couple to start with.

The prefect couple? Perfect for what? God's purpose was to create a nation; a new race of people created to serve God's will. A chosen people that were holy and set apart for God's use. To make this nation God would begin by giving a special child to just the right couple. This was a child of promise who would bear the promise of God's grace and who was destined to father a nation.

With all due respect to Abram and Sarai, by human standards they were not the perfect couple to receive this child of promise. Imagine you are an adoption agent, and you have been given the job of placing this child of destiny with a family. Would you choose an elderly couple: he's almost 100 and she's not far behind. Would you place this child with a couple that has no experience raising children. Would you let a family that lives in a tent adopt this child.

No, human standards demand just the opposite! You would find a younger couple in their late 20's or 30's. After all you would like to think that the parents would still be alive to see this child graduate from high school. You would also choose a couple who already have well adjusted children because that demonstrates parenting skills. You would also choose a family that is not moving around all the time so that the child would have a stable home environment. By human standards an elderly, childless, nomadic couple is anything but the perfect couple.

By human standards Abram and Sarai are the last couple to start with in making a nation. But by God's standards, they were the perfect couple. God works in a different way and with different criteria than people do. People look for the optimal situation. A situation where there is already hope and life. A situation where the desired goal, in this case descendants, already seems possible. Then all that is required is assisting the already naturally existing tendencies.

But God doesn't work that way. God Almighty is a God of miracles. God looks for the most impossible and the most hopeless situation to start with. Our Heavenly Father is one who makes the impossible, possible. God is the one who brings life out of lifelessness. God makes the hopeless hopeful.

You see, by God standards Abram and Sarai are the perfect couple. The book of Hebrews says that Abram was as good as dead (Hebrews 11:12), yet God brought forth life from them. A 90-year-old woman and 99-year-old man have a child! Impossible! But God makes the impossible possible. Abram and Sarai were a hopeless case, but God gave them hope. Anyone could produce a nation from a young couple. But only God could do it with a couple like Abram and Sarai. There would be no mistaking whose nation this was.

Jesus' death and resurrection is another example of God making the impossible possible, bringing hope out of hopelessness, of God bring life out of death. Jesus tried to explain this to his disciples. He told them plainly that the Son of Man must suffer and die and on the third day rise. But this didn't make sense to them. Jesus was the Messiah, a great King, and great kings don't die before they have been crowned. By human standards the Messiah was supposed to go to Jerusalem, conquer the Romans, and establish the Kingdom of God.

That was the way humans think not the way God thinks. Jesus explained God's plan to the disciples. The Son of Man was going to Jerusalem - that part was fine! But once in Jerusalem he would be rejected and die on a cross and rise on the third day. That just didn't add up by human standards. By human standards you needed a palace and an army: that was the perfect couple for bringing forth a mighty King. According to God's standards the perfect couple for bringing forth the King of Kings was a cross and a tomb.

It has been said that Christianity is the only religion that has taken an instrument of torture, the cross, and turned it into an object of beauty. We decorate our churches with crosses and we wear them around our necks. If you think about what a cross really is, it is like we are wearing electric chairs or gas chambers around our necks. But that's not completely true. Electric chairs and gas chambers are designed to put people to death as painlessly and quickly as possible. The cross was designed to torture people to death in as painful and lengthy a way as possible. Yet God took this instrument of torture and sin and turned it into the means by which sin is forgiven. Through the cross God brings and end to the spiritual torture of eternal separation from our Creator. And then God took the tomb, a place to death and decay, and made it a womb that brings forth eternal life.

That is God's way of doing things. God brings hope out of hopelessness. God creates light out of darkness. God makes the impossible possible. Our Heavenly Father brings life forth from lifelessness.

Are there situations in your life that seem hopeless? Does your family life, your marriage, or your spiritual life seem to be a hopeless case? Does your spiritual life feel dead and lifeless? Do you sometimes feel like you dwell in darkness? If so, that is the perfect situation for God to work. God specializes in bringing life out of death, and hope out of hopelessness. God majors in making the impossible possible.

Just turn it over to God. But when you do turn it over to God, you will be changed. God changed Abram and Sarai. They went from childlessness to being the parents of a nation. They went from being as good as dead to bringing forth life. They went from being no people to being God's people. And God changed their names as a sign of this change. God changed them and God will change you.

God can bring life to the deadness in you. After all God brought us his eternal love and loyalty through the disloyalty of Jesus' disciples. It was God who offers us eternal life through the death of his Son. It was God who used a cross and a tomb to bring forth new life. And if you accept Christ and put your whole trust in him, God will do the same for you. God will take the deadness and darkness in you and make it light and life. And your Heavenly Father will make hope possible even if things are impossibly hopeless.

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to dust. The story goes that a preacher was visiting a family and one of the children had a burning question to ask. Like a good student the child raised her hand during the discussion and when she got the preachers attention she asked, "Is it true that we all came from dust and we all return to dust." The preacher answered carefully because he could see how serious she was. He said, "Yes, the Bible tells us that God made us out of the dust of the earth and that when we die our bodies return to dust." Then the child looked shocked and exclaimed, "Well, someone is either coming or going under my bed!"

The Bible reminds us that we were all made from the dust of the earth, and to it we will return. In the opening chapters of Genesis, God takes clay and breathes life into it. And the first human being was created. But that same creation story tells of how humanity fell. And as a result of the fall, sin came into the world. And because of sin, death.

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. The fact that we are nothing but ashes and dust is part of the theme of this season of the Christian year. This theme is perhaps the most important part of Lent. It is so important because it is true. We don't like to think of those things. We would rather accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Lent makes us look at our own sinfulness and finiteness. Without God we are as lifeless as the dust of the earth and we are as dead as the rocks beneath our feet.

Our lessons today deal with this reality of the deadness of the human race. One is about a promise of life from a lifeless and barren womb. The other is about the death of our Lord. Both teach us important lessons.

The first of these lessons is about God making a covenant with Abraham. Now Abraham was old. That would be true even by today's standards, and life expectancy is a lot better now then it was back then. The Bible says that Abraham was 99 years old. Abraham was so old that Paul says in Romans that Abraham considered his own body to be as good as dead. Abraham was old but Sarah was not far behind him. She was probably in her late eighties. The two of them had reached that point in their lives when most people sit in rocking chairs on their front porches and spend their time keeping track of how many great grandchildren they have. The problem was they had never had any children. Sarah was barren and much too old to bear children, or so she thought.

Then God came to Abraham to make a covenant with him. God appeared to Abram and said, "I want to make a deal with you. You walk blameless before me and I will make you a great nation. You shall no longer be called Abram, exalted father, but you shall be called Abraham, Father of multitudes." But how could Abram become a great nation, he had no children? He was the end of his line. But there was Ishmael, Abraham's son by Sarah's servant. He could produce descendants. But God said, "Your wife Sarai shall no longer be called Sari but Sarah, princess. And I will bless her and she will bear you a child, and she shall be the mother of nations." Surely God was kidding! Could a 100-year-old man have a baby boy? Could a 90-year-old woman bear a child? And Abraham laughed until he was rolling on the ground. And he said "O.K. God. Just bless Ishmael and we will all be happy. Anyway, I am too old to be chasing after my own children." God said "That�s your way, I�m God around here and I have other plans. Your wife Sarah will bear a son. And my promise will be fulfilled through him."

The lifeless womb of Sarah was a reality. The physical reality is that a ninety-year-old woman cannot bear children. Life could not be produced from a couple that was so old they were close to returning to dust themselves. But God decided to make Abraham a nation that would follow the Almighty who can do all things. God decided to take something lifeless and create life out of it. That was inconceivable to Abraham, but that is how God Almighty decided to do it.

Thousands of years later Peter was sitting with the disciples listening to Jesus. And as they were sitting there Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer. He will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. He will be killed. And on the third day he will rise again. Jesus said this plainly so that they would not misunderstand him.

But Peter pulled him aside. "No, Lord you have it all wrong. You are the Messiah the anointed one of God. Just a minute ago you asked me who I thought you were, and I said you are the Messiah, and I believe that. You are supposed to go to Jerusalem and all the people will hail you as king. You will not die, you will live forever. Long live the King!"

But Jesus said, "Peter you have it all wrong. That is this world's way, but my way is different. My way is to bring life out of death. The world says, �Look out for yourself, save what you've got.� But my way says, �If you try to preserve your life you will lose it and if you lose your life for my sake you will preserve it unto eternal life.� I must die to bring you eternal life. This is my way of doing things. This is my Father's way of doing things. If you can't accept that, you cannot be a part of me."

We live in a world where death is a reality. There is the death of sin. There is the lifelessness of our stone cold culture. There is the decay of our own bodies and the death of our loved ones. There is the mass death of war. And there is the lifelessness of the human soul without God.

These things are real. They cannot be denied or painted over. But that is what we try to do. Our culture exalts youth. It is part of our attempt to deny the fact that we all will die. Instead we try to project the image that we are eternally young. One example of our attempt to deny the reality of death is the way we treat war. War is a war and people get killed. Sometimes innocent people. Sometimes a bomb, which is intended to destroy a bridge, hits a house and civilians are killed. And we refer to it as "collateral damage." The truth it that we come from dust and we return to dust.

But in the face of this reality Christ offers us hope. God's way is to bring life out of death. This is what our Scripture lessons show us. God made the lifeless womb of Sarah bear a great nation. God brought eternal life out of the death of Jesus the only begotten Son of God. And God brings life out of the deadness of the tomb. God has taken the grave and turned it into a womb that bears new life. Our Creator can take lifeless dust and breathe new life into it.

God can also take the dead and lifeless parts of our lives and breathe new life into them. But if we deny that these lifeless parts exist, no life will come out of them. If we deny the sin that kills our spirits, God cannot breathe new life into those spirits. The world�s way is to say, "Life can only come where there is life." But God's way is to bring life out of death. If we cannot accept that, we cannot be part of Christ. Only when we admit that we are dust and ashes can Christ breathe life into us.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We are nothing but ashes and dust. But God can make us alive again. Do we want God to bring life out of the ashes and dust of our lives? If the answer is "yes" then let's lift up the sin and death in our hearts so Christ can make new life out of it.

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