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But again, I don't want to leave that. I really don't want to leave it on a sour note. I want to say what I want us to, you know what? Okay. So one of the biggest things that ever happened in Christianity obviously was the death of Jesus Christ. As far as the church is concerned, everything is rolling along.
You can think about the stories, the disciples, they're sitting there, they're listening, they're picking up on everything Jesus says and they're arguing with each other about which one of them is going to get to see it at the right of the left and they're doing all the things that humans do, but Jesus is right there. And Jesus is teaching and Jesus is forgiving and Jesus is being merciful and Jesus is being a good friend and he's sharing with them these universal truths, these eternal truths.
He's sharing with people who in their day and time would not have been considered worthy to receive such teaching and yet here Jesus is, he's teaching this stuff. And then one night he gets arrested and the next morning he's beaten, he's whipped, he's crucified and he's dead within hours. He's dead. They take him down off the cross, off the implement of his demise and they put him in
a tomb. Roll the rock across and it's over. Everything that they've been experiencing it's over. They have no idea, they're terrified. They think they're probably next that the religious leaders will send for them next, that they will, they'll be recipients of a similar fate. So they huddle away, they hide.
They're not going outside. Again, everything they thought would happen. It's thrown up in the air. Now we know how the story goes. We know how the story goes. And the truth is the story goes and everything they knew was thrown up in the air because he comes back. And so despite the fact that here they went through this moment where their lives sort
of came to this halt, the direction of their life came to a screeching halt. Then all of a sudden they get themselves, it takes two or three days and you can imagine as I would do anyway, I figure out another way. What does this mean for my life going forward? Well, it means that I'm going to have to live in a cave the whole time because I'm terrified that the religious leaders are going to hang me up or hang my family up and I don't want that or I'm going to be arrested.
I'm going to be prosecuted and be persecuted for my faith in this guy. So you sort of start wrapping your head around how do I survive and then all of a sudden dude comes back. Mmm, it throws it all into turmoil again. And I've got to learn how to live with this new reality. Now the choice for those disciples was exactly that. How do I learn to live with this new reality or do I just forget about it?
Just accept the fact that everything has ended, that my dreams are over because it's just not going to turn out the way that I thought. I thought this guy was going to free us from Rome. I thought this guy was going to kick the centurions out. I thought this guy was going to kick the legions out. I thought this guy was going to bring back an honorable, godly authority class.
I thought this guy was going to bring about a better world right now, right here. And by the way, that better world is the way I want it to be. And yet, none of it comes to pass. So again, the disciples have a choice. They can accept the reality as it is that Jesus has come back.
The mission will go on and it won't look anything like what they expected. Or they can just accept that it's over. What they wanted isn't going to come to pass and that it's over. That's what they have.
There's two forks in the road. They have a choice as to which path they'll follow. Things have changed, but I'm still going to follow Christ or things have changed and life as I know it is over. What do we do? What do we do in a moment like this? Did we get what we wanted? No.
We didn't. Are things going the way we want them to go? No. They're not. This is Trump throwing a monkey wrench into our lives. A monkey wrench and the bag that it came in. Are things going?
Is this turning out in a way that we would say I really would have wanted this? No. So what are we going to do? Do we accept that life as we know it has changed and just simply resign, give up? Or do we choose in this moment the rise above it to accept that life has changed and to
look for the opportunities that this change is going to provide, that this change may provide? Do we accept that, yes, despite all of my disappointment that there might be an opportunity here, that there may be a path forward to bring about the world that we want to create?
So like I said, the prime minister, I can't remember his name of Quebec, he said, we're going to take this moment and we're going to invest. We're going to invest in new ways forward, new trade relationships. We're going to invest our money in making new economic friends. I love that mentality.
I'm not going to be beholden to the whims of this person. I'm not going to be beholden to the whims of this guy. I'm going to choose a new way forward. The status quo, the status quo, it's just too volatile.
Even if the tariffs come down, the status quo is too volatile. So we're going to invest in new relationships that are not as threatening. But are mutually beneficial where we don't have to worry about somebody's mood. We don't have to worry about somebody having a fit. We don't have to worry about somebody hoping to boost their support and boost their approval
at our expense. We're going to look for a new way forward. And that's the better way. That's the better path for all of us. There are opportunities ahead of us.
There are possibilities. There is light ahead of us. There is hope. We might have to look for it. We might have to explore. We might have to search around in the dark looking for these things. But I believe they're there. It's just a matter of, are we willing to let go of what was so that we have room to embrace
what could be? We have it in us to let go of the way we were going in order to take a chance on a new path that will also get us to where we want to be.
There's a tez-e-him that's popping into my head. Nothing can trouble. Nothing can frighten. Those who seek God will never go hungry. We can do it.
We can do it. We can do it. Amen.
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