'On A Hill Far Away'
Sermon
About A Loving God
Our faith is a paradoxical thing, isn’t it? In Jesus, God turns our world upside down.
That’s one thought I always have when I hear the words to George Bennard’s beautiful old song, 'On a Hill Far Away.' In that song, Bennard talks about clinging to the very things from which we shy away. He talks about clinging to the suffering and death of Jesus.
As we come here today to share our love and our grief at the death of **, it might be helpful to remember God has always sided with the weak and hurting.
God is a God who saves, and to be saved, we have to want to be. We have to feel the need for God’s salvation.
If you listened to the Scriptures for today, you heard three descriptions of God’s saving acts in history.
'[T]he Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us a hard bondage,' the Scripture says. But God with a mighty hand brought his people out of bondage and led them to a land of milk and honey. Out of their pain and grief God brought salvation, and out of our pain and grief God can do the same.
It’s not that I’m trying to tell you what to feel today. Each person has a different feeling in the face of death. Some are angry, some grieve, some feel a kind of strange relief that the struggle’s over. Deuteronomy and that great old song that we know as 'The Old Rugged Cross' tell us there’s hope today.
'He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap,' the psalmist says, and if God can do that for his chosen people in the exodus, he can do that for us today. God can help us walk through our pain, our grief, all the adjustments we have to make in the face of tragedy and death.
God can help us cling to Christ’s cross and see the saving power of Christ’s blood. That’s where the power of this old song is, in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. It’s not our trophies that will save us. We are called to lay down our trophies and take up the promise of Christ’s cross and his crown of resurrection.
Because God turns our world upside down, because God saves us when we are most weak and most in need, we can put our faith in the one who was crucified for us, knowing he has 'entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.'
In the Old Testament, the people had to come to God through an intermediary, through a human priest. But now, because God turns our world upside down and brings salvation through his Son, the Savior, we find our salvation in the one who has 'appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.'
The world may disdain the cross, but we know Jesus is the Lamb of God, the true unblemished Passover Lamb, through whose blood God makes it possible for the Angel of Death to pass us by.
It’s not that we don’t die, of course, but through the cross and through the love of the one true living God as seen in Jesus, we, as he, will live again.
That’s the promise we claim for **, and that’s the promise we can claim in our own lives today.
God saves. God saves his people in the exodus, and they responded with their offerings in faith.
God saved Jesus through the resurrection, and, because Jesus is the new high priest, we can respond in faith. We can live in the hope of resurrection, in the hope that * and all of us who follow Jesus will be called, as the old song says, to our 'home far away' to share Christ’s glory now and always.
It is on a hill far away that we were brought close to God in Jesus, and it is because of God’s love as seen in the dying and the resurrected Jesus that we have a sure and certain hope for * and for ourselves today.
Let Us Pray
Almighty Savior, whose power is seen in weakness, save us in our pain and weakness here today. Help us remember the joys and sorrows of the life of ** and call us to claim your saving power in Jesus for * and for us.
None of us deserves to know you or to be able to find our hope in you, but, because of your love, we have been saved. As we go forth today, help us claim that salvation and live in the light of your eternal love, both now and always. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
'On a Hill Far Away' was written by George Bennard. Copyright 1913 by George Bennard. Copyright renewed 1941 (extended), the Rodeheaver Co., owner.
*Person’s first name
**Person’s full name
That’s one thought I always have when I hear the words to George Bennard’s beautiful old song, 'On a Hill Far Away.' In that song, Bennard talks about clinging to the very things from which we shy away. He talks about clinging to the suffering and death of Jesus.
As we come here today to share our love and our grief at the death of **, it might be helpful to remember God has always sided with the weak and hurting.
God is a God who saves, and to be saved, we have to want to be. We have to feel the need for God’s salvation.
If you listened to the Scriptures for today, you heard three descriptions of God’s saving acts in history.
'[T]he Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us a hard bondage,' the Scripture says. But God with a mighty hand brought his people out of bondage and led them to a land of milk and honey. Out of their pain and grief God brought salvation, and out of our pain and grief God can do the same.
It’s not that I’m trying to tell you what to feel today. Each person has a different feeling in the face of death. Some are angry, some grieve, some feel a kind of strange relief that the struggle’s over. Deuteronomy and that great old song that we know as 'The Old Rugged Cross' tell us there’s hope today.
'He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap,' the psalmist says, and if God can do that for his chosen people in the exodus, he can do that for us today. God can help us walk through our pain, our grief, all the adjustments we have to make in the face of tragedy and death.
God can help us cling to Christ’s cross and see the saving power of Christ’s blood. That’s where the power of this old song is, in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. It’s not our trophies that will save us. We are called to lay down our trophies and take up the promise of Christ’s cross and his crown of resurrection.
Because God turns our world upside down, because God saves us when we are most weak and most in need, we can put our faith in the one who was crucified for us, knowing he has 'entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.'
In the Old Testament, the people had to come to God through an intermediary, through a human priest. But now, because God turns our world upside down and brings salvation through his Son, the Savior, we find our salvation in the one who has 'appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.'
The world may disdain the cross, but we know Jesus is the Lamb of God, the true unblemished Passover Lamb, through whose blood God makes it possible for the Angel of Death to pass us by.
It’s not that we don’t die, of course, but through the cross and through the love of the one true living God as seen in Jesus, we, as he, will live again.
That’s the promise we claim for **, and that’s the promise we can claim in our own lives today.
God saves. God saves his people in the exodus, and they responded with their offerings in faith.
God saved Jesus through the resurrection, and, because Jesus is the new high priest, we can respond in faith. We can live in the hope of resurrection, in the hope that * and all of us who follow Jesus will be called, as the old song says, to our 'home far away' to share Christ’s glory now and always.
It is on a hill far away that we were brought close to God in Jesus, and it is because of God’s love as seen in the dying and the resurrected Jesus that we have a sure and certain hope for * and for ourselves today.
Let Us Pray
Almighty Savior, whose power is seen in weakness, save us in our pain and weakness here today. Help us remember the joys and sorrows of the life of ** and call us to claim your saving power in Jesus for * and for us.
None of us deserves to know you or to be able to find our hope in you, but, because of your love, we have been saved. As we go forth today, help us claim that salvation and live in the light of your eternal love, both now and always. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
'On a Hill Far Away' was written by George Bennard. Copyright 1913 by George Bennard. Copyright renewed 1941 (extended), the Rodeheaver Co., owner.
*Person’s first name
**Person’s full name
