Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E122 | Everyday Eurasia |  Caleb Cray Haynes

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S1-E122 | Everyday Eurasia |  Caleb Cray Haynes · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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  him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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  reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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  This week, we will join Reverend Caleb Gray Haynes.
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  He directs nesrines for creation care.
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  He has written multiple books on creation care, including his
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  newest book, Earthbound Christian.
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  Caleb host the Econ Christian Podcast and serves on the board
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  of Directors at Creation Justice Ministries.
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  Greetings friends, this is Reverend Caleb Cranes.
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  I'm sure you're all familiar with the story in Luke 5 when
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  Jesus is teaching inside a house and a group was courageously and
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  compassionately attempting to get their paralyzed friend to
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  Jesus. Eventually, desperate, they
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  hoist their friend up on the roof, RIP it apart and lower
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  him, stretcher and all, down into the home.
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  I guess sometimes ministry looks like taking the roof off.
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  You know the story. Jesus looks at the friends and
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  the paralyzed man and says, Son, your sins are forgiven.
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  Then Mark writes. But some of the scribes were
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  sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts, Why does
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  this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
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  Who can forgive sins except God alone?
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  Immediately Jesus, aware in His Spirit that they were thinking
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  that way within themselves, said to them, why are you thinking
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  about these things in your hearts?
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  Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are
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  forgiven? Or to say get up and pick up
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  your pallet and walk? This is the word of the Lord,
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  friends. There Jesus goes again, blurring
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  the lines. We struggle with texts like this
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  because it doesn't fit the way that we usually speak about sin.
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  But what is striking here is that for Jesus, this man's
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  wounds are bound up in a larger narrative.
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  It's not that the man was a sinful man, thus he suffered as
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  a paralytic. If this were the case, we'd all
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  be immobile in our sins, wouldn't we?
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  But the story becomes more sobering as we understand that
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  sin and salvation are far more sweeping than we often suspect.
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  It's wrapped up within our bodies.
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  It's wrapped up within creation. Sometimes we make the mistake of
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  dealing with sin in the church with something akin to how
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  conventional farming attempts to deal with weeds or past right.
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  We give it a good dose of spiritual herbicidal thoughts
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  and prayers and a fertilizer of ointments rather than dealing
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  with the underlying cause. An impoverished soil.
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  The reason Jesus is so quick to mix sin and this man's broken
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  body together and one healing mic drop is because God's
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  all-encompassing salvation has to do with repairing the hole.
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  Salvation through Jesus is the healing of right relatedness
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  between the microbes in the soil, the food in the body, in
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  the legs, in the blood, and yes, in the heart and the spirit of
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  our human existence. This is a glimpse of the cosmic
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  telos of God's reconciliatory work of salvation.
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  Did you know that although John Wesley wrote many books and
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  sermons that he is famous for, what we may not know is that
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  Wesley's best selling book was Primitive Physic, a Practical
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  Guide to Health and Medicine. He didn't just preach ethereal
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  words to those in need, but knew that true good news involved
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  health care, that the gospel was a holistic concern.
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  In fact, Wesley didn't just carry with him a Bible, but also
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  a medical bag where we he would have simple remedies and tools
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  for dealing with common ailments.
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  Why would he do this except that he knew that the gospel he
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  preached extended from hearts into actual hands, from soul
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  into actual soil? Why would he do this except that
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  he was actually following Jesus lead?
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  So lately I've been digging into quantum science a little bit
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  like you do. And you know, you and I, we're
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  made from subatomic particles, right?
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  Everything you've ever seen or known are made from these tiny
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  particles that comprise our being.
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  And if we could zoom in with our own eyes and microscopically
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  look at ourselves, we would see something that's galactic,
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  right? That's just weird looking.
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  We would witness first hand just how much everything is really
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  connected to everything else atomically.
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  Are you with me? As these tiny particles join to
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  create atoms and these atoms join to create molecule
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  molecules think like H2O. Eventually you zoom out enough
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  to see something that looks like water.
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  Actually, in an interview, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse
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  Tyson states that there are more molecules of water in a glass of
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  water than there are glasses of water in all the world's oceans.
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  Which means that after you drink that water and it comes back out
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  of you, there's enough molecules that pass through your kidney to
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  populate every other glass of water drawn from the world's
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  water supply. You might have to rewind it and
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  listen to that twice. He goes on to explain that what
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  that means is there are water molecules in your glass of water
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  that definitely passed through any and every historical figure
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  you can think of, including Jesus, the incarnation of God on
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  earth. You have molecules inside you
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  that were in Christ. The molecules of water that
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  you've been drinking today, thousands of years ago, would
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  have passed through God embodied on earth.
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  The salvific implications of this are gargantuan for all the
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  reasons we theologically state the importance of the
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  incarnation of Jesus as God, taking on human form and
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  experiencing life in a body. We must further consider this
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  sanctifying work as it extends to the very molecules and
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  subatomic parts of creation as they are part of the whole.
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  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is
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  subatomic and this is good news, friends.
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  The good news of the Gospel comes to us today saying your
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  sins are forgiven. And we find in that work that
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  through that saving act, all of creation is able to get up and
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  walk. Let's pray, Lord, we are
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  tattered from our quest to be tatterless.
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  Our hands and feet are sore from building and climbing to put our
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  name in the heavens. God, help us to stop and to hear
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  Your spirit whisper descend. Lord, you are always teaching us
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  about the descending path. We pray for the courage to
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  follow you back down to the ground.
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  We aren't trapped in a body, but we are saved in one.
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  We aren't chained by limits, but set free within their
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  generosity. We aren't ignorant of our lack,
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  but wise enough to know that we aren't gods.
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  God, you have loved us well through your creation.
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  Lead us along better ways that we may also love you through our
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  caretaking of it, and may we be surprised by your mercy on the
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  way. Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Fate for everyday. For more Everyday Stories,
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  subscribe on this podcast channel, follow our socials,
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  For our newsletter and further information about the Eurasia
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.