Scripture/Sermon of the Day

Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God. This happened through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 who through our faith has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory. 3 We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience. 4 And patience produces character, and character produces hope. 5 And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us.

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Our relationship with God is transactional. It’s a transfer of goods, from God to us. If God ever stopped transferring this power and spirit into us, which is the power of love, we’d become, in the words of the Trappist monk Fr. Keating, “grease spots.”

II. Everything is transactional. Our cars, our food, the liquids we need through the day. Energy goes out — fuel, or power or spirit has to come in. We become tired, we need sleep.

IV. Without food, we starve. Without liquid, we dry up and die. But — if we eat and drink and exercise — we can live 50 or even 100 years! Our hearts can beat for a century — and billionaires are investing money to find how to live longer. It’s called the Science of Longevity.

While advances in science and healthcare are likely to increase average life expectancy, reaching beyond 125-150 years remains uncertain and depends on future breakthroughs.

VI. THE BIBLE MAKES A DISTINCTION BETWEEN LIVING AND BEING ALIVE. What’s missing in The Science of Longevity is the health of our soul.

VII. Maybe Jesus’ most clear teaching on the difference between living and being alive is his story we call The Prodigal Son. According to Jesus, the Prodigal Son died the moment he left home — when he left his Father’s house. Medically, his vitals were perfect. Blood pressure, body temperature, respiratory rate (14 breaths per minute). Physically -- he was a vital and perfectly functioning human being.

VIII. For Jesus, and the Bible in general, our life comes from God, and it is measured by the health of our soul. And there’s no scientific apparatus that can measure that. ***Jesus said BEING ALIVE can only be measured by how we love God, and other people, and ourselves.***

IX. Right now the spiritual health of our nation, the soul of our nation, is measured by how we treat people who live here but are not citizens. By that measure, our country is — DYING.

We need more God in our lives. Not more church or Bible or prayer in schools. WE NEED A SPIRIT TRANSFUSION — A TRANSFER OF LOVE INTO OUR SOULS — TO MAKE AMERICA ALIVE AGAIN -- MAAA! Not great, but ALIVE!

TIM FRIEDE, who lives in Wisconsin. A construction worker who’s spent the last 18 years purposely being bitten by poisonous snakes so he could help to develop a universal antivenin — to save the tens of thousands of people who die from snakebites every year.

He’s been bitten by 200 of the worlds deadliest snakes, AND injected by needle 650 times with venom from other snakes. The first time he allowed himself to be bitten, by AN EGYPTIAN COBRA and then by a MONOCLED COBRA an hour later, he spent four days in a coma. When he was finally revived, he continued.

In 2017, immunologists made an antivenin from Friede’s antibodies which, when used on mice, fully or partially neutralized the venom of 19 of the world’s deadliest snakes, including the black mamba, king cobra, and taipan. If human trials are successful, it could save tens of thousands of lives every year. Friede told the Washington Post recently that “It’s an overwhelming feeling that what I’m doing can save so many lives.”

XI. What makes someone do something like that? LOVE — THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN US. Sister Joan Chittister offers a way to become more alive with God’s Spirit every day. She says, “Say this silently to everyone and everything you see: ‘I wish you happiness now and whatever will bring happiness to you in the future.’” How easy is that? And it’s free. "Do that," says Sr. Joan. "See how you change."