Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. We are a community who
gathers around the person of Jesus Christ. And
we desire to be shaped and formed into him as
global disciples with all of what we do, looking
increasingly like him. And the year as it shifts
from 2025 to 2026 is a great opportunity for
us to think and reflect and say, Lord, what are
some spiritual lessons for our journey of walking
with you that is going to help us? as we continue
forward in 2026. Now, last week, if you missed
it, Scott Hayden took words from Jesus' Sermon
on the Mount about, do I judge or do I not judge?
If you missed that, I would encourage you to
go back there because at the core of relationships
is really Jesus' teaching that helps us move
forward in that well. I'd like to, before moving
into what we are going to consider today, a spiritual
lesson that I want to bring to us from God's
word, I want to invite you to join me in prayer.
And you can do so by, if you want to hold your
hands open, that's fine, or if there's another
posture there, but what we're desiring is that
the Lord would move in and through us according
to his purposes in this time. So, God, I thank
you that you... are not caught off guard by anything
that has happened, even by the fact that we are
here today together. And so, Lord, I ask that
through the power of the Holy Spirit, that the
words of my mouth, that the meditations in my
heart, that they would be pleasing to you, God.
And I pray that those of us who are here, all
of us, that our hearts would be tender and soft
towards your word. You say that it's alive and
it's active and it's sharper than a double -edged
sword and it pierces into the inner parts of
who we are and invites us into transformation.
So welcome that. We welcome it. We pray this
in the wonderful and matchless name of Jesus
Christ. Amen. As I took time to think through
2025, it's good to just take a pause as the year
shifts and think, Lord, What were you doing?
Where were you active? Because we want to look
into the next year and say, Lord, what are you
calling me to? And I had a number of different
things that, Lord, what should I bring forward
in this month of January to ECB? And there's
a picture here that captures well something that
marked my year. Let's go ahead. Next picture.
And it's... It's that, now we're playing tag.
It's this picture here. And this was taken just
a couple days ago, one of the outskirts of Manila,
in the Antipolo area there. And this is my wife
and I at her brother's gravesite. He passed away
in the month of July this last year. And unexpectedly,
he's quite young. I thought through this and
this picture captures it well because we're sitting
there and we intentionally went to the Philippines
to do this. And thinking through the last year
and it's like, there's a lot of light in that
picture. But there's also a grave in that picture.
And that is really a capturing moment of 2025
for many of us in this community. I know some
of your stories. I don't know all of them. But
quite a few of you have lost parents this year
or other loved ones. There's been massive political
realities that have shifted huge organizational
funding structures which have caused a lot of
you to lose your jobs. And that means a lot of
our community has had to move. There's other
transitions that have happened here. There's
diagnoses that have hit our community that have
just really rocked and moved us. within all of
that is also beauty and light and goodness. And
just a matter of hours after this, I jumped on
a flight to head back to Bangkok. And I'm standing
there in the line just kind of processing all
of this. And Pastor Phil, I turn around and there's
another couple from ECB there. And I go to sit
on the flight. And we're with my kids and my
in -laws as well, so we're taking up a whole
row. And another ECB -er comes and sits right
in front of us. He's like, hey, how are you doing?
Some light, some beauty, some reminders that
there is goodness in all of what we do and we
see, right? So there's a question that we would
ask ourselves is, in a world still marked by
suffering, what does it look like to still hold
hope? What does it still look like to hold hope?
This is not a new thing that you and I have experienced.
In fact, the words that Ben just read to us from
1 Peter 1 through 9 were written almost 2 ,000
years ago. Written to a community where Peter
knew, hey, you need hope. You need a living hope.
And I want to remind you of that. And so those
are the words from Peter there. So here's my
desire, ECB. My desire is that as a community
over the next year, that we would be people formed
by resurrection hope. Formed by resurrection
hope. And Peter is going to very nicely outline
this for us within a matter of nine verses. What
does it look like for you and for me to be people
who are formed in resurrection hope? And he's
going to begin with purpose. He's going to say
there's a reason why, and it's actually more
an inferred reality in the whole passage. Why
write about hope unless it's very important?
Now, you may be sitting there and saying, I'm
not a very hope -filled person. I'm a pessimist.
I just see the world the way it is, and I kind
of live that way, right? Others of you may be
like, well, that's a virtue, but that's for that
guy or that woman over there, and that's great.
And every once in a while, I'll call them to
receive some of their positive vibes or something
like that. But that's not what we're looking
at here. Hope is absolutely a necessary ingredient
to what it means to be fully human. Now, as an
example of what this plays out, there's a man
by the name of Viktor Frankl who is an Austrian,
and he lived in the time of World War II. Now,
I bring up his story because this book, The Search
for Man's Meaning, if you have not read it and
you are a philosophical or you like to just study
human nature, grab this book. It's really short.
It's fantastic. It's not written necessarily
from a Christian perspective, but it does help
you understand the human experience. Now, here's
what Viktor Frankl went through. So as a 20 -year
-old just finished up his psychology degree,
the Nazis come in, they take over Austria, they
take all the Jews, Viktor being one of them,
to ghettos, and then eventually he gets put on
a train and ends up in Auschwitz in some of the
worst concentration camps that are there. Now,
what Viktor did during this time is he actually
spent time sitting with and listening to people
when he wasn't being forced into labor and things
like that, and just hearing their stories. And
as he sat there and he listened to their stories,
he was categorizing and thinking, okay, what
is it about the human experience that I'm learning
in this situation? And he came away with something
that is captured in this picture right here.
This painting. is by a friend of ours that lives
here in Bangkok. And what she's done is it's
linographed, so she's etched into it and then
printed different colors onto a paper. You can
tell I'm not an artist, right? And printed different
colors onto this paper, and you see light and
darkness. You see the tomb. You see community.
And it's capturing the women who are coming to
the tomb and longing and hope at that space.
And what Victor realized is that In the time
span of those who are in the concentration camp,
a matter of years for most, they were experiencing
what you and I will experience during an entire
lifetime smashed into a number of months. So
think about all the losses, all the pain, all
the suffering as you get old and you age and
there's different realities, you lose loved ones,
those things. You condense it, you concentrate
it into a couple months. Or a few years. That's
a lot of pressure on a human being. So why did
10 % of the people there survive? How did they
make it out? And what Victor realized is, he
said, it's not because they were strong. It's
not because they were extra smart. It's not because
they had great people skills. It's not because
they were leaders. What was it because? Hope.
They somehow found a way to have hope. And so
Peter writes this passage knowing that the life
that you live today is absolutely shaped by your
understanding of the future. So back to you again,
what is your understanding of the future? How
is that shaping how you and I live today? This
is the purpose that Peter writes for it. And
he says, hey, I need to make sure that I write
about hope because it is an essential component
of what it means to be a human being, to thrive.
Those who are tested to the absolute extreme,
the ones who do well in life, have been formed
in hope. Well, the good news is that God cares.
deeply about you and I having hope. And so there's
this outline from Peter here, from purpose to
posture. What does the posture of hope look like?
Well, right in the middle of this first passage,
we might read it and be like, okay, Peter, you're
addressing some people to the ECBers, the exiles
in dispersion in Bangkok, and you know, and on
and on and on. Peter's going to say that. Now,
what's important to realize is these people are
not refugees. They're not exiles in the sense
of a literal sense. They're actually Gentiles
living in these areas. Peter, why are you calling
them Gentiles and diaspora? Why are you calling
them people that are outside of their home? Because
he's talking about an existential reality that
you and I experience. We have all lost our home.
This side of Eden, we are all living away from
our home. Now, you may be from Bangkok, and there's
a physical reality here that is true, but Peter
wants to remind these people that there's an
experience to our lives that is going to look
like those ladies at the tomb. There's going
to be struggling that is there. We need to accept
the posture and embrace that posture of us being
away from home. That's one of the first steps
to it. Now, you might think, Pastor Phil, this
sounds like bad news. And then you might think,
okay, well, what are my options? If I don't like
this, what do I do? Well, some of us, we dig
in and we try really, really, really hard. And
maybe we've lost our hope in something and we
move towards something else to grab hope, right?
So maybe it's something that happened with a
spouse and then we move that to the child or
we move it to a workplace or maybe it's our health
and it begins to fade. And as we lose that hope,
we just find something else to struggle to willfully
attach hope to. But some of you may be like,
well, I tried that for a while and that was exhausting.
And it's more the will -less reality where you're
like, you know what? Life is really difficult,
and I'm just going to hold on and let it play
its course. But that's a will -less way of doing
it. And Dallas Willard actually offers these
two ideas to say, these are natural things we
move to as humans, either willfully trying harder
or will -lessly kind of giving up. And Peter
knows this as well, which is why he writes this
passage to us. And he's going to remind us that
there's a third way. There's another option for
you and I to go forward, to be formed in hope.
And here's the key to it. What does it highlight
there? Go ahead and say it. New birth. New birth.
A little over 16 years ago, I became a parent
for the first time. And before I welcomed my
daughter into our life, there's kind of a little
idea of like, I got this. And then you realize
how unbelievably dependent these little creatures
are that just stay with you. And sometimes, I
mean, I'm still calling my parents today at times.
It continues on. We are very dependent creatures.
That's just the way that God has created you
and I. And I don't think that Peter accidentally
chooses this metaphor. He wants you to know the
posture of those who are going to receive resurrection
hope. You see, if you give me a gift that I don't
want and I don't know I need, it's probably going
to go on a shelf somewhere and next Christmas
I'm going to re -gift it to somebody else. But
if you give me a gift that I know I desperately
need, I'm going to cherish that gift with all
of what I have. So the posture to resurrection
hope must be this broken spirit, this undone
reality. And so how do we become Easter people
living in a Good Friday world? Meaning Easter
is the celebration we all love because Christ
is risen. But then we go about our lives and
there's stuff that happens, right? Like what
I just came back from in Manila. There's another
third way, which is a willing sacrifice to go
through it. Resurrection hope is not for the
self -sufficient. It's for the undone. You've
got to be at the end of your rope in order to
go through a new birth and continue forward.
And it's not a one -time experience. It's something
we journey forward through in life. Now, why
is this good news? Well, let's continue on with
the rest of it. We've talked about the posture,
and if it's left there, then it's really bad
news, but it's not left there. Peter is going
to turn our attention now to why it's so good
if you have that posture, which is looking at
the person. So I want you to go ahead and read
this entire section with me out loud. So you
ready? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, he has given
us a new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Who's
doing the movement here? Jesus, right? Peter,
in fact, he repeats it over and over and over
again. Why? Because he knows we may try to go
for hope or we may resign ourselves. But he says,
you know what? Jesus has already done this for
you. You need to learn to live into that person,
that one who actually is the resurrection hope.
Why is that good news? Here's the reality. If
I am the reason for my hope and my body continues
to age. and my relationships continue to be complicated
and work realities are what they are and living
situations are difficult and there's wars around
the world, if it all depends on me, that's a
heavy load to lift. But if it depends on somebody
else and somebody who's actually gone to the
tomb and come back, now that is news worth holding
on to. But I have to be willing to want it in
order for that to be the case. So hope does not
erase the darkness, but it teaches us to go through
it. Why? Because God is there with us. He went
to the tomb and he's there with you and I. And
he says, go through this because I'm going to
do something with it, which is where we go to
next. So when the person of the resurrection
is there, we need to understand who Christ is,
because then we'll move towards the process that
Peter is going to invite us to. I grew up most
of my life near the equator and in high altitude
where the weather was extremely predictable.
And the days were 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours
of nighttime. It was really nice to just kind
of, you just knew exactly what was happening.
The biggest change of the year was a little bit
of a rainy season and then a drier season, right?
At age 10, my parents moved me and my siblings
to... The northern hemisphere in North America
to the northern part of North America to a high
elevation town in a mountain area. Now, some
of you who know winters are already like, OK,
this is coming, right? So I get there in the
summertime reality. I'm like, this is great.
This is just like my home. But the days are longer.
That means more playing, more freedom, more joy,
more happiness. I love this. And then comes September.
And then October. And something is changing around
me. The days are getting shorter. The nights
are getting longer. That happens, by the way.
If days get shorter, the nights get longer. The
cold is setting in. And then the ground is covered
with snow and ice. And the trees have lost all
of their leaves. And for a little bit, you're
like, okay, this is a new experience. I'm kind
of enjoying this. But I noticed week after week
after week, I started to get kind of like claustrophobic.
This sense of like, is this ever going to end?
Is my summer gone forever? And this long waiting
continues on. And about April or about March,
you're thinking, I can't do this anymore. And
then something happens. Something comes through
the snow and the ice. And as an outsider stepping
into this environment, you look around at the
community and they start doing things differently.
But it doesn't make sense because there's snow
everywhere. So why are you putting away snow
gear? Why are you changing your home? Why are
you adapting things as though the winter is changing?
You see, what they knew is something that I didn't
know. that that becomes a sign, this flower,
this crocus flower that pokes through the ice
becomes a sign that summer is coming within a
number of weeks. And so everybody begins to prepare
for this warmer weather, actually. It's spring,
and then it goes forward. But this is a reality
that I had to experience and live to, and the
crocus flower is kind of what Jesus is talking
about as the living hope here. So he says, you've
been saved into an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you who
are being protected by the power of God. All
of what is being framed here is the fact that
you are not responsible for this hope. Who's
responsible for it? God is. The living hope is
the one who is. You are there, kind of like the
crocus flower. You get to just watch it poke
through and this sign of something that is changing.
before your very eyes. You see, we don't reason
our way into resurrection hope. We receive it
from the living Christ. We don't reason our way
into resurrection hope. We receive it from the
living Christ. Now, as an example of this, during
the Soviet era, where the worldview that was
being communicated from that part of the world
was that there was no God. That we could not
trust in anything that could not be seen, identified,
understood through science or the natural world.
So you had a guy who was spending his life efforts
to tear apart, logically, the resurrection. And
he actually gathered in a room like this and
he spent an hour talking to the people and systematically,
logically saying, this is an impossibility. You
cannot. Somebody cannot rise from the dead. And
his hope in all of that was to say, let's get
done with these dreams and let's move on to the
reality that is there. And at the end of his
talk, he said, if anyone has questions or you
want to kind of dispute what I've said, you've
got a minute to share. And this old man in the
very back of the room raises his hand and slowly
makes his way to the front. And seeing that,
the speaker is like, hey, just want to remind
you, you only have one minute. And he goes, I
don't need a minute. I only need 30 seconds.
Confused, like I've just spent this hour dismantling
the resurrection. And the guy gets up there and
he says, Christ is risen. And the crowd erupts
with, he is risen indeed. You guys can do better
than that. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.
Now we notice this on the first service. Everybody's
like, it's not Easter. Can I say that? Is that
okay? Pastor, what are you doing? But what you
have here is the lived out reality of I have
experienced the resurrection because I know the
person of resurrection. And it defiles what I
can see around me, which is where Peter is going
to go next. But let's look at some stories, some
actual stories of what resurrection hope growing
within a person looks like. painting that I told
you about, Mary and the other women at the tomb.
It's a picture of longing for hope, right? Let
me read a passage of scripture that describes
how Jesus first met Mary. It's from Luke 8. It
says, Soon afterwards, he, meaning Jesus, went
on through the cities and villages, proclaiming
and bringing the good news of the kingdom of
God. So Jesus is bringing this new way of life,
this hope into the world around him. The twelve,
the disciples, were there, as well as some women
who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities.
Mary, who's pictured in this, called Magdalene,
from whom seven demons had gone out. I want you
to imagine Mary's life and the tear that she
was living in when Jesus first encountered her
and freed her from that. Do you think her allegiance
and her hope is in Jesus? Absolutely. But then
she finds herself here when Jesus is in the tomb
and she's like, Lord, what am I supposed to do?
There's this deep grief and this deep loss of
saying, I thought you would come to change things.
You changed my life. Now what is this? And she
actually looks in the tomb and she realizes that
Jesus's body is not there on Sunday morning.
And so she's even more desperate. They took my
Lord and my Savior. And she turns around and
she finds somebody there and she thinks it's
the gardener. And she's like, hey, do you know
what they did with Jesus? And at that moment,
the man says, Mary. And that personal connection
of him and her story come together in that moment.
And Mary realizes this is Jesus actually here
with me. He's resurrected from the dead. And
she ends up going back as the very first witness
of resurrection hope. You see the transformation
that happened? You go from a posture of despair,
whatever you're bringing into that, you wait
and Jesus encounters you and something amazing
happens. Well, let's go on to some of the other
stories, the disciples. They're up in the upper
room. They've just seen their leader, Jesus,
be crucified brutally on the cross. Rome looks
like it's won. What are you going to do? Go hide.
I'm going to be terrified. I'm going to go up
to a room and I'm going to hide. I'm going to
be full of fear. So that's what they do. This
is expected of them. And who comes? Jesus enters
into that space. And within a matter of days,
They end up preaching the gospel and 3 ,000 people
come to know Jesus from fear to courage. What
about Thomas? Thomas missed that scene, but Thomas
comes as a doubter, right? He's that thinker
and he's like, I'm only going to believe it if
I can see it, touch it, know it. Otherwise, I'm
just going to kind of hold back. And Jesus doesn't
look at Thomas and he's like, oh, you're doubting,
you're out of this whole thing. He encounters
Thomas in his doubt. And he says, go ahead, touch.
The scars on my hands touch the scars on my feet.
And as Thomas does that, he declares something.
He says, Jesus, my Lord and my what? God. This
is the most clear statement of Jesus's divinity
coming from the doubter himself. That's the transformation
that happens when the person of the resurrection
comes to you. What about the Emmaus pilgrims?
So they're in Jerusalem and they're like, great,
there's this great movement forward. I'm gathered
in a group of people. Something is happening
here. And then all of what happens takes place
and Jesus ends up on the cross crucified. And
you can see them just kind of walking away, dejected
to Emmaus. And on their walk, who comes? A man
joins them on that and begins to talk to them
and says, what's going on? And they say, I'm
so disappointed. I was a believer, but it didn't
seem to work. So I'm heading this way. And it's
not until Jesus actually breaks bread with them,
which we are going to do here in a moment, where
their eyes are open and they realize this is
the resurrected living hope. And what do they
do? They take a U -turn and they head back to
Jerusalem. Their calling has been restored again
because they have come into contact with the
resurrected living person, Jesus. So I want you
to now hear a story, a testimony of a person
in life today. So her name is Ellie Holcomb.
Now, for those of you who know my last name,
that's the last name, I am not related to her
as far as I know. She's a musician and songwriter.
And the reason I share her testimony is she spent
a lot of time trying to understand what hope
is and wrestling through it. She has song after
song about hope that's beautiful. But she's going
to share a story with you here. And let me just
set one context for that. She's wrestling through
with the fact that her niece has just died of
cancer. Nine -year -old girl has died of cancer.
And so you're going to watch as she goes through
this process of wrestling and surrender and then
being restored into resurrection hope with who
God is. And I was walking through a lot of questions,
wrestling, and also a lot of walks. Man, we lost
my... precious niece Bailey to a fierce battle,
aggressive battle of cancer. She was nine. It
is like, that is not how the story is supposed
to go. You know, it just is like, no one should
ever have to grieve a child. And yet she had
a smile that stretched as wide as Tennessee and
this deep confidence that she knew where she
was headed. She was like ministering to all of
us as we were grieving. Um, I think there, what,
what I was marveling at is this mystery that
I continue to encounter over and over again in
my story is that in my deepest places of lament,
where I'm like, this is like, you say you work
all things for the good of those who love you
and are called according to your purposes in
Roman. And I'm like, but this is not good. This
is breaking my heart. And so, um, I think I feel
more boldness to just come and be like, what
the heck? Like, why? And honestly, like, I'm
probably going to die with some of those questions
in me. And I can say with full confidence, I've
known the tenderness and the empathy of God and
the goodness of God to remind me that this isn't
the end of the story. There may not be healing
on this side. We may not get the miracle on this
side of heaven. But there is a day coming where
every sad thing will come untrue. And we all
make it back to the far country. We all make
it back to our true home. And Bailey's there
now. And I think she would love to know that
I'm singing about the hope that I know lived
in her, lives in her. Um, cause she is healed
and whole and I know she's out of glory. And
so it is this, I love that the gospel makes space
for both. Like from the grave and the garden
where Jesus is literally weeping, like wrestling.
If you can take this cup, take it. I just love
that God's answer to brokenness is me too. I'm
right here with you in it. And this is not the
end. There is an empty grave and that's where
our hope is grounded. And so, man, I, I'm so
grateful to hold on to that for my own heart.
And then, and then to get to say, Hey, I'll sit
with you in the sorrow because Jesus sat with
me and I'm going to point you to him because
he's reminded me. And I want to remind you, this
isn't the end. It's a good story that we get
to be a part of. Yeah. Now what you watch is
her process, right? So there's a beginning where
she's like, there's this hope or this wrestling
and this doubting and I don't know what to do
with it. And she's open and honest about it.
And then there's this and. And she switches because
she has encountered the resurrected living Jesus.
And that has shaped and changed her experience
of life. So then she goes forward, still holding
it all together. But it's quite beautiful. Now
let's turn to the last one. The one who wrote
the passage that we have, which is Peter. Peter
took a couple encounters. Like all of us need
a couple encounters with the resurrected Lord.
And Peter has this time where he... So Peter
was called to be the rock upon which the church
was built. And at that point, he's like, OK,
I'm going to be an important leader for the church.
But he fails in his leadership so tremendously
by denying Jesus three times. You can imagine
his regret and his shame in that moment. And
he's holding this regret and this shame. And
he's walking. He goes back to his previous career
of fishing. And Jesus comes and encounters him
there. And he spends time with Peter and he says,
Peter, do you love me? Yes, I do. Peter, do you
love me? Yes, I do. Peter, do you love me? Feed
my sheep. Three denials, three restorations that
bring him back into relationship. And that feed
my sheep is Peter's leadership restored as part
of who he's going to do. And now he's writing
a letter that we get to read today. Here's what
he says. In this you rejoice, even if now for
a little while you have had to suffer various
trials. Peter's not just talking about this because
he read it in a book. He's talking about it because
he has gone through it himself. And he's going
to say, give a metaphor here. And this metaphor
is one of taking some elements from the ground,
some metals from the ground, and you take these
out of the ground and they're mixed with the
pure metal and the impurities of the ground that
you pulled them out of, right? So you take that
and you have to heat it up so that the impurities
come to the top and you can scrape them off.
And what happens in that is the element itself,
gold, is remaining in its pure form. And what
Peter is saying through God's word in this situation
is that our journey through life with all of
the difficulties that we experience is not God
laughing at that reality, but it's an experience
of us slowly losing the things that we have placed
our hope into. And those are the impurities that
need to come out up to the surface and get scraped
away so that what is left is our hope completely
and purely on Jesus Christ. We're going to lose
everything in this world anyway. And it's this
process of doing that that God is right there
with us. And he's saying, these are good things.
But they're not the ultimate thing. Hold on to
me and I want to help to continue to shape and
form that in you. And so there's this metaphor
of that about going through the tomb that is
there. And what does he say? It's for the salvation
of your souls. This is not about your ultimate
destination. This is about the forming into the
fullness of who God has called you to be. Think
about the gold metaphor again. So resurrection
hope is not just something we believe. It is
something that we practice and embody. We actually
become the resurrection in the world around us.
So I want you to think back to that flower there,
right? We look at this and it begins to change
how we live our lives. It reshapes how we engage
in relationship. It reshapes how we engage in
our workplace. It reshapes how we engage in school.
It reshapes everything. And in the end, what
happens is we become this. An entire field full
of resurrection examples. Because this process
has been moving within us. And you know what
happens the more you see there, the more hope
is instilled in the world around you. And Bangkok
needs this. Thailand needs this. And the world
needs this. They need us, ECB, to be people who
are formed in resurrection hope so that we can
proclaim the goodness of what is happening in
the world around us through God. So we've looked
at the four -point process that Peter has outlined
here for us. I don't know all your stories. I
know some of them, as I referenced at the beginning,
but you do. And you know who you're sitting next
to, and you know the places of resurrection that
need to still take place within your own lives.
Remember that birth example? None of us have
arrived. We all need resurrection to be formed
increasingly within us. So what does it look
like to be formed regularly in resurrection hope?
Hold on to this passage from 1 Peter. One of
the things that I have made a practice of almost
every single morning is when I go to make my
coffee from a book called Every Moment Holy,
there's this prayer called the ritual of morning
coffee. And it is a ritual for me. I mean, grinding
and all this stuff that happens. Jonas, you're
here, right? Jonas knows this. He's been to my
house for coffee. During that process, there's
a prayer that is there, and this is how the prayer
goes. Would you meet me, O Christ, in the stillness
of this morning? Would you move me, Spirit, to
quiet my heart? Would you mend me, Father, from
whatever harms have journeyed into my life and
I have participated in from yesterday? In the
discords of yesterday, would you resurrect peace?
In the weariness of yesterday, would you resurrect
strength? In the doubts of yesterday, would you
resurrect faith? In the discouragement and the
despair of yesterday, would you resurrect hope?
In the woundings of yesterday that I did and
that was done to me, would you resurrect love?
Let me be awake to my need and aware of your
grace. Amen. And you do this as you partake in
your coffee or tea and you allow the resurrection
to shape you throughout your day in that way.
Thank you for tuning in to the ECB sermon podcast.
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you.