As the Spirit Gives You

Acts 2: 1-12

Last week we were intentionally left hanging with our reading in Acts with the Ascension of Jesus. He gathered his disciples and gave them three promises: that his kingdom will come; that they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit; and that they would be his witnesses all over the land.  Then Jesus was lifted, he was surrounded by a cloud and was gone. 

The disciples had to re-group and get it together without him.  Probably not an easy task after your beloved, charismatic teacher has gone.  But they persevered and went back to Jerusalem to an upper room.  They were joined by others and spent their time in prayer and devotion in the days following.  There were about 120 of them by now and Peter took charge.  He led them to replace Judas with Matthias so the disciples who were now called apostles were complete with 12 once again.  They began to rebuild their lives.

Fifty days had passed since Passover and that fateful Friday that Jesus had been crucified and three days later rose from the tomb.  It was now the festival of Shavuot or Pentecost and they were gathered once again.

We will now hear our scripture today from the Book of Acts.  It will be different than all other Sunday’s.  It will be visual and it will be fast and loud and I will retell the story when we resume.  Watch now the story of Pentecost. 

This particular piece of scripture is anything but gentle and sweet.  Our celebration of the ‘birth day’ of the church is rather joyful and sentimental; we’ve got red balloons to signify the Spirit, we sing hymns about the gentile spirit of God and we’ll have cake at coffee hour to celebrate its birthday.  And that’s good I’m not pooh-poohing that.  But we need to be reminded that the day the disciples were empowered by the spirit to witness the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Christ was anything but gentle.  God crashes their party in a pretty significant way.

It was jarring and scary.  Gathered together suddenly, the Bible says, SUDDENLY a great sound came from heaven.  It was like the rush of a VIOLENT wind and fire was involved - lots of fire, tongues of fire that came upon each person who was there.  And then, if tongues of fire wasn’t enough, they began to speak in other languages.  It was not jibberish that no one could understand but it was intelligible languages so that everyone who was in Jerusalem that day could understand and hear their message. 

People thought they were crazy!  Drunk at 9:00 in the morning!  But Peter sets them straight.  “They are not drunk, they are merely a manifestation of the prophet Joel’s words.  The spirit will come and your sons and daughters will prophecy, the young men will have visions and the old men will dream.  And it there will be blood, fire and smoky mist, the sun will be dark and the moon will be blood-like.  Everyone, EVERYONE who calls out the name of the Lord will be saved”. 

Well, day by day, the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved.  Labor pangs of the church’s birth begins.  We’ve come a long way – we’re all grown up now!    

Yet, I believe, we still need that rush of a violent wind, that infusion of the spirit.  We need to be empowered once again to witness, not so  much about the church but about Christ himself, let’s go back to the basics. If you want to add numbers then go tell like the discples.  I think it’s that simple…on one level.  Get real excited about the transformation of your life with Christ and then let it be known.  From Judea to Samaria, from Norwalk to Norwich let it be known that you have been saved in some way, shape or form.    

 

The disciples didn’t witness about their church and it’s worship and meetings and outreach. The early folks were ‘Followers of the Way’; they didn’t have budgets, meetings and minute takers, they didn’t follow the prescribed lection of scripture or have doctrinal debates. 

They witnessed about what they had experienced living with Jesus in their lives.  The spirit infused them with grace and hope and the living Christ within them.  They gathered together and prayed and had a nice meal.  They were no more of a church as we know it than that proverbial man in the moon. 

Simply, they gathered to eat and to be in fellowship and then they lived their lives telling others.  This was, and still is the great gift at Pentecost.  That God sends the Holy Spirit to gather us, unite us, inspire us and reconcile us as brothers and sisters in the faith.  God calls us to Christian community then sends us out.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, pastor, who was martyred at the hands of the Nazi’s once said this about Christian community, “Christian community….is a gift of God which we cannot claim.  Only God knows the real state of our fellowship….what may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God…the more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.”1

Thank God for what has been given to us, it is a gift and we should be open to where God’s spirit is leading us.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of Christ, the Holy Spirit is the Christ within us.  We are the Church and the Church is inseparable from Christ.  You cannot have one without the other.  We do not exist for ourselves, we are not an exclusive club and we are not just another social service agency dolling out services. 

The Church is to be the face, hands, heart and intelligence of Christ in this world.  Teresa of Avila, mystic Carmelite nun of the 16^th century says this so beautifully in her prayer:

“God of love, help us to remember that Christ has no body now on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours.  Ours are the eyes to see the needs of the world.  Ours are the hands with which to bless everyone now.  Ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.”  Amen.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of Christ; the Holy Spirit is the Christ within us.  We are the Church and the Church is inseparable from Christ.  You cannot have one without the other.  We do not exist for ourselves, we are not an exclusive club and we are not just another social service agency dolling out services.  We are alive because of Christ!

In 2,000 years the world has changed and we still are witnesses to Christ’s message.  How do we witness in a post modern world where soccer games trump Sunday School?  Where the Sunday ‘Times’ and Starbucks has replaced the Gospel and communion?  How are we to be the face, the hands and heart of Jesus in this world?

I believe that the Church’s question isn’t so much how can we get people in here but more importantly how can we, individually; take our spirit infused faith in God outside of these four walls beyond mission outreach and into our everyday living. We need to feel the red hot flame of love, of the Holy Spirit above our heads everyday because surely that is a reminder of God’s love through the saving redemptive act in Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit comes, we celebrate in community gifted by God, and now we are to take it out in Wilton and beyond because we are all Christ has.  It might be intimidating, but God will provide you with what you need.

Eventually, after picking themselves up off of the dusty floor, the disciples left that room spiritually scarred by the Holy Spirit.  If we read further in the Chapter we know that they shared their witness with others about Jesus and his miracles, about how he healed blind beggars and prostitutes, about how he went up against the authorities and never wavered in his convictions and love for God, about how Jesus plucked them from their meanial existence and gave them hope, about how Jesus was buried and rose again and how the disciples baptized believers to be Christ followers.  100’s of them.  1000’s of them day by day.  And so, the church grew, and we will too. 

Amen

---

1  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ‘Life Together’, Harper Row Publisher, 1954, p. 30.

Now What??

Acts 1: 1-11

This is the season of cliffhangers.  I don’t watch television with any regularity but there are one or two shows that I try to never miss.  Grey’s Anatomy is one of them although I’ve had a love hate relationship with the show since a couple of years ago the cliffhanger involved some serious, scary and very needless violence throughout the entire show.  I was so disturbed by it that I didn’t watch the show for an entire year.  It didn’t help that at the time I was an overnight chaplain at Yale New Haven Hospital and had to roam the corridors of that big place from the sleep room to the ER. 

But, I forgave Grey’s and became a viewer again.  Two weeks ago I watched the cliffhanger that wrapped up this season.  It was gory but not necessarily violent and it has certainly peaked my interest for next year. Who will leave the show?  Who will stay?  Whose career as a doctor on TV will change?  What’s going to happen next? Cliffhangers leave us yearning for answers and conclusions.    

Jesus’ Ascension is a cliffhanger.  We are left wondering and waiting, what happens next?  The Book of Acts picks up exactly where the Gospel of Luke drops off with the Ascension of Jesus.  That’s because scholars believe the author of Luke is the very same author of Acts.  In Luke we are told of the stories and ministry of Jesus and Acts contains stories of the life and works of the early church and the people involved with it.  What divides the two are the Ascension and Pentecost that we will celebrate next week. 

It is forty days after Christ’s resurrection, and the Ascension marks a pivotal moment in scripture where Christ makes his physical departure from this earth.  He takes his leave.  Let’s read the account from the Book of Acts and then unpack the meaning it holds for us.

 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’

I can only imagine that this was a rather unusual experience for Jesus’ disciples, but by now they were used to unusual occurrences with their friend Jesus.  He provided them fairly regularly with out of the ordinary situations and learning experiences.  In fact, most everything he did was out of the ordinary from miracles and healings to dining with outcasts to scriptural interpretation, and being raised from the dead.  Why would Jesus actually leaving this earth be any different?

Now this was not some ‘beam me up Scotty’ type of Ascension but rather it appears to be a gentle taking of his leave and in his stead were two men in white robes.  ‘Why do you look up?’ they ask.  And then they reassure the men of Galilee, ‘he will come again, just like he went’.  Still in all, I would have been a little skeptical at this.  I don’t know about you but my head would have been frozen in the looking up at the clouds position like the disciples.   

That was it?  It’s all over?  The last three years…were they an enigma?  Was it just a figment of our first century imagination?  Did all of this really happen?  Did any of this really happen?  He was here and now he is gone.  We were at our fishing boats in the Galilee and now we are city slickers in Jerusalem.  We had this amazing experience and NOW WHAT?  Now what?

No doubt they were changed.  Unbelievable experiences, whether they are pleasant, exciting or tragic and sad will always change us.  Questions swirl in our heads and hearts; what am I supposed to do next?  How do I go on living?  What’s my purpose if my former reality has changed? How do I reorient myself toward healthy, hopeful living?

It’s as if your life was full and then a vacuum comes and sucks all of the life out of it leaving you empty and uncertain.  It’s the silence after a piercing explosion.

I am reminded of this ‘time after’, this ‘now what’ question especially on Memorial Day weekend and to a larger extent on Veterans Day.  So many men and women warriors did not make it home alive and their families had to reorient themselves to a life without their loved one.

Their courage in the battle for liberty, in the fight to do the right thing issues to families the question ‘now what?’ when they do not return.  How do we go on living, how do we find meaning when the rest of the world continues on its merry way? 

And vets will have to reintegrate themselves back into a more or less functioning society when they have had an experience like no other.  For some vets, it works.  For others it becomes a life long struggle with destructive behavior.

For non-believers in a divine it is a cliffhanger without resolution.  For us Christians, two men in white robes appear and offer a different course, a new way of seeing.  For us, now what?, really becomes what’s next!  Christ’s ascension is not without resolution.  Jesus does not leave them hanging, this is not a cliffhanger where you have to wait three months to see what happens.  Jesus leaves them with a promise of his abiding presence through the spirit to come.  The cliff that we cling to really is the mighty rock of our salvation.

Through the resurrection of Christ we have vision and hope.  We know that there is a future that we will eventually get to because promises were made; Jesus died and he rose and we can only believe that he will come again.  The apostle Paul reminds the people of Ephesus “...so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” (1:18) 

With a heart enlightened, you can see into a mirror dimly and envision the future path that you need to take. With a heart enlightened, you will see that you are not left alone to answer the question, now what?  The person next to you is there to help you and console you.  It is the beauty of being a church community that the disciples eventually did understand. With hearts enlightened church began.  With a heart enlightened there is hope.

The great good news of today is that when Jesus rose to heaven it’s not even close to being the end of the story.  The spirit will come, as promised but that my friends is the story for next week!

Amen.

Three Moms and a Baby

Exodus 2: 1-10

I could have very easily entitled this sermon ‘Five Moms and a Baby’ since there really are five prominent women who take the opening two chapters of the Book of Exodus by storm.  There are the two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah and then three unnamed women of which we will hear more about in a minute.

Exodus opens with a new King arising over Egypt.  He could care less about Joseph which was bad for the Israelites who, by now, were tipping the population charts in their favor. This did not make for a happy Pharaoh by any means.  So he made their lives miserable, more miserable than usual. Forced labor, imposing menial and backbreaking tasks, Pharaoh was ruthless.

He orders the midwives of the Hebrews, Shiphrah and Puah to murder all of the male children when they were born.  But they did not.  They loved God, they feared God and they let the little boy babies live.  “Why did you do this?” yelled Pharaoh.  “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” they said.  “The Hebrew women give birth too fast before any respecting midwife can get to them.” They answered.  Sneaky?  Yes!  Did they save lives?  Most definitely.

"Baby Moses" by He Qi



God liked their acts of civil disobedience!  Shiphrah and Puah stood up to the mighty Pharaoh and they were rewarded by God; they had families of their own and the Hebrews became even more prolific and strong.  But Pharaoh continued on his murderous rampage and life dragged on for the Hebrews.

Let’s pick up Exodus the 2^nd chapter.

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.  The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months.  When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.

His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.  The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.  When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son.  She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Enter three more women, all unnamed.  There was the mother of Moses who, later in chapter 6 is named as Yocheved.  There was Pharaoh’s daughter who was the Princess and then there was Moses’ sister whom we later know to be Miriam.  But for now, we don’t know anything of these women.  All we know of is their motherly acts toward this little baby boy.  It doesn’t matter whether one was the birth mother and the others adoptive mothers, all, in some way acted as mother to Moses.

I always struggle with preaching on Mother’s Day.  It can be quite sensitive for some women on so many levels, I understand that.  It can illicit sadness and emptiness for some or dashed dreams for others.  It can affirm decisions made by some and it can remind others of their remarkable or unremarkable relationships with own their mothers.  Mother’s Day is a joy filled with complications.  But so is life because we are relational creatures.

I do believe though that we miss an opportunity for theological reflection if we let the day pass by.  If we are all, male and female, mother and father, created in God’s image then God has a stake in Mothers Day and the inherent gift that nurturing women possess. Men, you too have been given these gifts so don’t turn down the volume on your set.

God had a very large stake in our story from Exodus.  God’s providential handprints are all over this story of mothers – birth mothers, adoptive mothers and siblings who act in motherly roles are the ones who love and nurture Moses, the future leader of the Israelites who will eventually lead them out of slavery into the promised land.  What God needs to accomplish, God will through unlikely sources and the most usual circumstances.

Who knew that the one who would lead a great band of people out of slavery, provide for their needs and eventually get them to their promised land would be birthed, nurtured and grown by five women?    If Moses were alive today surely he would be a candidate for the psychiatrist’s couch.

Sometimes our mothering comes from unlikely sources and unusual people.  People whom you would never think could possibly give you what a mother can give which is unconditional love, nurture, support, and a space to grow, really is the person who can extend that motherly love.

And what is motherly love?  Well in the case of Moses it was Shiphrah and Puah whose willful disobedience of Pharaoh let little boy babies live.  They did the right thing rather than the ordered or expected thing.  As a mother I had to advocate tirelessly for one of my children, threatening the educational system with legal action so that he could get the resources he needed. 

It was Moses birth mother who unselfishly floated him away so that he could have a chance at life.  We hear of heart rending decisions that women make who cannot care for their child and give them up for adoption or place them in the care of another family member. 

It was his sister who so lovingly protected him and watched out for him when his own mother couldn’t be there.  Foster mothers, grandmothers, even siblings are those who step in so that a child has parental influence in their lives, and it was Pharaoh’s daughter who was able to nurture him and provide for him, and who was compassionate towards him. Through these women God acted.  Through these women God’s compassionate and maternal nature is shown.

God has the capacity to love us beyond all human understanding.  Which is a very good thing, believe me.  We cannot fathom the wideness of God’s mercy, to do so would place upon God human constraints and shortcomings.  But we can know God through the love and the faces of others. 
This is why Mother’s Day is a joy filled with complications. There are disappointments to be sure but God gives you what you need through others who provide you with mothering love.

Today is about mothers but it is more about God who acts through mothers. We all need motherly love no matter our age. We all can extend motherly love and let God work through us.

A friend of mine, Eva, began an organization named “Mothers’ Day Movement” after she read an article by Nickolas Kristoff in the New York Times. He noted that we spend around $14 billion on Mother’s Day. MDM encourages people to donate money, that would have been spent on gifts and food, to a well researched organization that benefits mothers on a global level. Each year is different.

This year it is ‘Saving Mothers’ an organization that aims to reduce maternal mortality in childbirth in underdeveloped countries.

This is God working through one mother to make other mothers lives better.

May the mothering spirit of God be with you today and may all of your tomorrows being filled with divine maternal presence.
Amen.

Twined Together, Abiding in Love

John 15: 1-8

Our scripture from the Gospel of John today is the last of the “I am” statements that we find only in this Gospel.  “I am what I am” is not one of them; that “I am” statement belongs to Popeye.  Jesus is more concrete when he claims, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, and I am the way, the truth and the life.  Finally Jesus says, I am the vine and God is the vine grower.  Our morning’s scripture for reflection is from the Gospel of John, fifthteenth chapter.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

I’ve never had a vineyard, or even one grapevine but I do know that there are certain wise and prudent practices that must happen in order to grow healthy, delicious grapes.  I’m sure that you winemakers are very aware of what makes for a really grape good.  Grape plants need to be planted in soil with good drainage, they need lots of warm sun and they should be trained to grow on a trellis so that the grapes can grow freely and unencumbered and so that fungus doesn’t decide to take up residence and ruin it for everybody.

Grapevines also need to be pruned like most all flowering and fruit producing plants.  In fact it is essential for the vines to be pruned.  The best grapes that the vine produces are closest to the central vine, that’s where the nutrients are concentrated.  You can’t let the other little shoots and branches ramble on their merry way because they will steal the energy that is needed for healthy fruit.  When that happens you wind up with puny and less fruit.  Sounds simple, right?  Probably not so much however in application.

Vines, vineyards, branches and grapes, planting and pruning, Jesus uses plain practical illustrations in metaphorical form to introduce priorities for Christian living. The disciples were salt of the earth kind of guys.  Farmers, fishermen, grape growers, boat makers, when it came to their lot in life and their stature they were plain old folk, unpretentious and unassuming, hard working and struggling.

But now, added to the daily challenges of their first century agricultural life, they are trying to define what it means to live in community with one another in a contentious land and as followers of Jesus who are bound together by his love and commands.  This challenge too is not so different for us Jesus-followers today. 

Like the person sitting across from you in the pews, and the ones in the balcony and the one in the pulpit, we each desire to make meaning for our lives, to engage in meaningful work, to love and to be loved, to do the ‘right’ things in life, to be accepted for who we are, and to have our soul fed and nurtured.  And, we each have been given gifts for ministry.  How do we negotiate our special and unique gifts alongside of and maybe even twisted around one another like branches on a vine do? 

How do we live in community while utilizing our gifts in a culture that promotes individualism and self-expression?  None of us are mavericks! John’s passage illustrates this and challenges our Western way of thinking.  It’s not about ‘me’ it’s about us.  Even in this culture of self-expression and individualism we are taught here by Jesus to remain interwoven together on the branch that God has lovingly grown for us.  When we remain as branches on a vine, taken care of by God we are never alone and we will produce rich and succulent fruit.

We live in Christian community so that when tragedies happen in Wilton or her surrounding areas like they did this past week we can grieve together the loss.  We can comfort and console one another through words of encouragement and acts of love.  We pray together to strengthen ourselves and the people affected by tragedy. We come to church and find community in our common lot, where we can sit beside one another and know, perhaps even without using words, that we share a common bond.  This is the very best of the church; branch’s twined together in Christ.  

And what keeps us twined together is that we abide in Christ as he abides in us.  And we know that he was all about love.  Sweet love, tender love, correcting love, motivating love.  Love is the motivation for all that we do and all that we say.  “The mark of community is how it loves, not who are its members”, says Candler School of Theology, Dean Gail O’Day.  What matters is that we love deeply and thoughtfully together.

Abide in love; Christ in us and we in him.  Abide, that is to live. It’s not a word that we probably use too often, sounds a little ‘Old English’ to me.  Eugene Peterson in The Message, hears it as “Live in me.  Make your home in me just as I do in you.”  Jesus is the life giving vine in which we are to make our home.  It is to be an “intimate and organic” relationship.

He is where your love is to reside.  And, more important you are where Jesus resides and when Jesus resides or abides in you, you can endure anything that comes your way.  When you acknowledge that he abides in you then you can bear the toll that living takes.  Once he stakes claim in you, once he moves in and puts out the welcome mat, he never leaves.  Knowing this enables us to overcome the adversities and distractions that are present to us each day. 

Even elderly folks in a nursing home, with all varying degrees of mental illness and dementia will remarkably join in the Lord’s Prayer or the 23^rd Psalm or one of their favorite hymns when they seemingly are completely out of it.  That’s because Christ took up residence in their hearts and never left even though their mind has.  “Abide in me”, he says.

The disciples dropped their fishing nets, left their homes but they were never homeless.  Live in me, abide in me was Jesus’ invitation to them and it is here they found their home.  Let us also live in Jesus where countless others have made their home; twined together abiding in love.

Amen.

Even Behind Closed Doors

John 20: 19-31

                                                                            Piliero

A.  Post Easter Appearances of Jesus

Last week we heard the resurrection account from the Gospel of Mark.  Mark is the oldest of the Gospels as well as the least descriptive.  There are no embellishments.    Mark ends shortly after we hear about Jesus’ victory over the tomb without much fanfare.  In the words of Dragnet’s Joe Friday Mark it’s ‘just the facts ma’m, just the facts.’ There is a post resurrection appearance but it only takes a verse or two to tell the story. 

The Gospel of Matthew also ends quickly with only one appearance of Jesus after his resurrection.

Luke on the other hand tells us the beautiful story which we refer to as the Road to Emmaus where Jesus walks alongside of two disciples and yet they didn’t know who he was.  Jesus reveals himself when he blesses the bread and gives it to them; it is after that that they recognize him.

                                              

The Gospel of John is clearly the most theologically imbued Gospel. Outside of next week when we will hear from Luke, the next six Sundays we will be focused on John.   John contains a high “Christology” meaning that Jesus is already portrayed throughout the Gospel as the risen Son of God. 

I know, Christology, right?  It’s a seminary ‘SAT’ word!  It’s a word that seminary professors use regularly and their students who want to do well in their classes.  But high Christology is what makes John such an endearing Gospel to read.  Jesus say’s “I am the vine and you are the branches, I am the resurrection and the life, and I am the good shepherd”.  After reading the Gospel of John there is no doubt that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.   

B.  Jesus, the Disciples and Thomas

It’s too bad that Thomas didn’t have the Gospel of John in his back pocket to pull out and read when he doubted that Jesus was none other than Jesus the Christ.  Would have made it so much easier for Thomas.  Throughout time a lot has been written about this doubting Thomas, this somewhat arrogant disciple.  Many menacing sermons have been written about Thomas who had a few qualms about who Jesus really was.  Guess we all have doubts about our faith at times but there is so much more that is happening in this passage that begs our close reflection.

It still had not been twenty four hours since Mary Magdalene stood weeping at that empty tomb and Jesus, disguised as the gardener, appears to her.  She does as he requests and tells the disciples that she has seen her Lord.  They didn’t know what to do and they needed some time to process what had all just happened over this particular Passover. 

A joyful procession, anxiety in Jerusalem, an intimate meal, betrayal, denial, whipping and weeping, death and then this resurrection.  That was their week.  It is no wonder that they are hole up in a house with the doors locked.  I would be too. Who wouldn’t be afraid?

It’s through these locked up, shut up tight, barred doors that Jesus comes to them.  This is his second appearance to his followers after his resurrection.

“Peace” he says, “Peace be with you”.   That familiar, strong and calming voice.  Perhaps it sounded like a parent’s lullaby, or a favorite hymn from your childhood, or like a beloved story told to you over and over even though you know the end, or even a voice calling the sea to stop raging.  It was calm. 

In those four words, “Peace be with you”, Jesus is really saying, be still, be calm, relax, let your fear and doubts melt away, let the wholeness of my love reside in your heart.  He is saying, I am with you.  I will not fail you.  Trust in me.  I will walk next to you wherever you want and need to go.  I’ll be by your side even on those roads that you really shouldn’t be going down.  I’ll manage to get in when the doors have been closed.

Jesus shows them his wounds and again says, “Peace be with you.  God has sent me, so now I’m sending you.”  He breathes on them and at once they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus gives them his peace, he commissions them for greater work and he empowers them to go out and do this work. 

But Thomas wasn’t there for the first Jesus sighting, he didn’t hear the others story.  Too bad because we know how second hand stories particularly second hand stories of miraculous events, never quite pull the same punch.  Well, a week later when they all were gathered in that house, Thomas too, again with the door shut, Jesus comes to them.  Once more he says, “Peace be with you.”   His reassurance opens their hearts except for Thomas.

But Jesus didn’t tell Thomas off, or give him a good talking to, no reprimands, chastisements, or sarcasm.  Simply he says, “Peace” like he did the first time he came to the others and allows Thomas all the time and evidence that he needs to come around.

C.  It’s all about Jesus

This passage is not so much about Thomas and his doubts.  He’s human just like us.  It’s really about Jesus.  It’s about his tenacity to find us in our deepest, most locked away places.  Those places where we shut him out rather than let him in.  It is about his persistent love and his ability to be incredibly patient with our human foibles and less than desirable habits.

Just when the disciples didn’t know what to do next and rather than take a chance on the unknown outside of the walls, they decided to stay behind a locked door.  It’s Jesus who comes to them.  It’s Jesus who shows them what to do next. It’s Jesus who lifts them up and instills the spirit within them.  Even behind closed doors Jesus comes.  

D.  Our Closed Doors

We’ve all sat behind doors in our lives that have shut out the world, or worse shut out those whom we love.  Perhaps there is something overwhelming you and in order to deal with it you just completely close down.  I marvel at babies who fall asleep in their carriage even though they are at a parade with noise and music, cannons and people.  They just shut down

While it may seem ok at first, the door gets locked and then dead bolted and then even we ourselves can’t get out.  It’s not a healthy or good place to be.  Thank goodness God doesn’t let us alone but persistently and consistently figures out how to enter in and grants us that beautifully understanding peace.

 

Remember all the while Jesus says, “Peace”, “Peace be with you.” He says, I bring you my peace of love and patience, understanding and guidance.  Be assured that Christ enters into this process with you; he’ll help you with the inner workings of the spirit and discernment.  Be open and believe that you will emerge confidently in his name.  You will.

May that same Spirit who was breathed on the disciples behind their closed door light upon us to comfort and energize us for whatever the future holds. 

Amen.



Resurrection Vision

Mark 16: 1-8

The dawn revealed ever so slightly a ribboned sky of deep blues and indigo, some magenta with varying hues of orange.   As the sun began to rise over the mountains of Moab, over the Jordan River, and finally over the Mount of Olives Mary Magdalene, Mary, James mother, and Salome got the packages of spices they had purchased at the market and walked to Jesus’ tomb.  The chill of the early morning made them wrap their scarves more tightly around their shoulders.  There was no time when Jesus was crucified to properly prepare his body for burial since it was the Sabbath.  So they went now, in the early morning of the first day of the week to anoint him.

They knew, more than likely, that Joseph of Arimethia had a very large stone placed in front of the tomb, so robbers wouldn’t break in and take Jesus’ body.  But the problem for the women was that it was big and very heavy.  All they wanted to do was see him, to touch his broken body for one last time and to slather on him the spices for burial and this boulder would make it extremely difficult for them to do so. 

By the time they came down the hill towards the tomb the sun was beginning to shine and they saw an unlikely and incredible sight.  The stone had been rolled away from the cave tomb; their anxieties turned to fear, not surprising.

They went in panicked, their faces probably registered trepidation and fear.  They didn’t see Jesus’ body but they did see someone dressed in white.  He reassured them, “Do not be afraid. You’re looking for Jesus, but you see he’s not here, he has been raised.”  The women stepped back with their jaws dropped open in disbelief.  Then the man spoke, “Go tell the disciples and especially Peter the one who denied him; tell them that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee where they are to meet him.”  Certainly this must have appeared to be some sort of cryptic message to the women.

They dropped their spice boxes, turned around and fled from the tomb.  They hiked up their robes and began to run back on the same path that they had just traversed.  Terror struck. Amazed.  Quite afraid. They were seized with dread and told no one as they ran.

This is not quite the resurrection story that we celebrate today.  Today we have come knowing that the tomb is already empty, that Jesus has accomplished everything that was sent to do.  He conquered death and sin and he soon will ascend to heaven to prepare a place for us.  All that in a nutshell.

Christ is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!  It is our Easter mantra.  It is a prophetic statement that we claim over and over again.  And unlike those women who first encountered an empty grave, an empty grave does not scare us, we are NOT afraid.  I don’t see any hair raised or terror struck faces here today. 

‘Christ is Risen’ was not a glorious resurrection phrase for them as it is for us; it would have been ambiguous and filled with more questions than answers.  It wouldn’t be Christ is Risen! for the women but rather, Christ….is Risen?  Their lives were changed no doubt to a new reality where they had to recast their vision, reassess their lives and build new ones with Jesus dead and gone.

We’ve come a long way from that first hour and those first few days.  ‘We love to tell the story’ as Kate Hankey wrote in her hymn of so long ago, ‘we love to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love’.  It is the story of redemption and hope and of God’s love for us.  It is the story of life not death.  It is a narrative that unfolded long ago in a distant land but continues to give us a lens through which we can see our lives.

We have all experienced resurrection at some point in time, probably often if we stop to think about it.  Resurrection is a pivotal moment when you suddenly see dawn emerging out of the darkness of the night, when your torrential tears begin to subside, when your broken heart begins to mend, when just the mere sound of children’s voices or the springtime warble of a red bird once again brings you immeasurable joy. 

At this moment God has parted the waters of chaos and has guided you out of spiritual and emotional bondage.  You are ushered into God’s complete divine presence and grace.  We can emerge stronger than ever in the knowledge that through Christ and his death we are beneficiaries of resurrection vision not just once but as often as needed.

Years ago a man named Bill dropped by my office one day and asked if he could just sit and talk.  “Sure” I said, even though I was in the middle of writing a sermon and really didn’t want to be disturbed.  Bill was a pipefitter and a crusty old man.  He would sit and ‘witness’ to me like evangelicals do and I’d think to myself, come on Bill, I know all this stuff already, I know Jesus saves, I know about the ‘Footsteps in the Sand’ poem.  He would always start off with something about ‘Footsteps in the Sand’.  But God saved me and put me on mute so that I could listen and hear Bill’s story. 

I finally realized that Bill came to tell me his story of redemption.  He came to share with me, to witness and to tell me the same thing over and over again about his former addiction, his adult dysfunctional children who moved back home, and about his beloved wife.  He told me about how God picked him up every step of the way and carried him to a place where he could begin again with resurrection vision. 

Often Bill came for a visit.  And it’s almost as if the minute he sat down he pushed ‘play’ on his life’s tape recorder  and when he left my office he would push ‘rewind’ to get ready for his next visit. Our talks were always the same. Through his visits I learned patience, and beyond that, that once someone has been redeemed and resurrected to a new vision of their life they cannot help but tell other people as often as they can.  His message to me was I have been saved through Christ and an empty tomb is grace, unconditionally. 

Christ’s resurrection does not leave us in the same place.  It simply cannot.  It does not leave us standing at an empty tomb wringing our hands.  What’s the point of that?  His resurrection asks us, ‘What is life?’ “What is my life, what is your life?” ‘How will you choose to live the life that you are given?’  ‘Since you are a witness to the resurrection today what meaning will you make of your life that will embody a resurrection vision?’  A lot of people live lives of missed opportunities and broken dreams without ever taking accepting the gift of resurrection so they can see anew. Bill lived the vision for his life that freed him from his troubles and to see beyond his suffering, will you do so for yours as well?  Christ death and resurrection are over and done with.  Your life is what counts now in light of it all. 

Christ is Risen!  It’s the boldest statement that we will ever be asked to make in our lifetime. 

The Mary’s and Salome did eventually tell someone because, today, thousands of years later we say with conviction….Christ is Risen!  We speak today for those women who were gripped with fear.  We know there is nothing to fear, only resurrection vision to embrace.  We may not knock on someone’s door just to chat and tell them the poem of Footsteps in the Sand but we can tell our own story.  We each have one, you can’t fool me.

This is the Easter message.  Christ’s story, our story, elaborately knit by incredible redeeming love.  We must witness.  If you don’t believe me this year, come back next year and check in, the doors are always open.  By then I will have had a chance to rewind the tape to that old, old story of love…Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed!  

So Be It!

Amen.

Untie that Donkey

Mark 11: 1-11

Palm Sunday by William Hemmerling

It was Passover and Jerusalem was the place to be at Passover.  Jews from all over first century Palestine would make pilgrimage and gather to remember how God had ‘passed over’ their homes in Egypt during the slaughter of the innocents.  They remember how God had protected them from the plagues and how God had brought them out of slavery.

Jerusalem was also the seat of the Roman government in the Mediterranean world in the Roman Empire.  The people were burdened with taxes, economic issues, systems of land debt to the Romans, and Herod, a puppet ruler of Rome was not a happy, or skilled ruler for “all” the people. The people resented him.  They wanted badly to prevent the transformation of Jerusalem into a Greco-Roman city.  This was the situation that year and the people shouted, “Hosanna” which means in Hebrew, save us!  Not hooray, or yippee, not even praise him, hosanna means save us.  Their hope and expectation was for a king who would be able to save them from the Roman authorities and the Greco-Roman influence that threatened their religious identity.  Many believed Jesus was their man. They sang out “Hosanna in the name of the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” 

The ‘Palm Sunday’ narrative is recorded in all four of the Gospels each supplying its own unique details of that day.  Mark’s account is the shortest of the four gospels and it is the focus of today’s reflection.  Hear now the Gospel of Mark, the 11^th chapter:

Just east of Jerusalem on the other side of the Mount of Olives lies sleepy Bethany.  Jesus went there often for respite; it was his little ‘get away’ retreat spot.  As he and his disciples were getting close to Bethany, Jesus says to two of them, “Go, run ahead, will you?  Go to the village and when you see a donkey, a colt, untie him, then bring him to me.”  “Oh,” Jesus says, “and if anybody says anything to you, just tell them that I sent you.”  Seems as if Jesus already had thought this donkey fetching through.  In fact, out of the 11 verses that comprise this story, 6 are focused on donkey detail.  It’s a big deal.

I can just hear the two disciples now as they run ahead.  “What the heck?  Why do we have be the ones to get the donkey?  Why didn’t he choose those other two, you know the ones who never do anything?  For this we left our fishing boats and our beautiful Galilee?”  

Beyond their kevetching their mission was successful; and they lead this colt back to Jesus.  Certainly this animal was not fit for a ‘king’ so they put their cloaks on the donkey; at least it would protect Jesus from the dirt and dander of the animal.

The Colt and the King

Jesus began his journey out of dusty Bethany, over the steep incline of the back side of the Mount of Olives, down into the Kidron Valley and into bustling and contentious, Jerusalem.  The disciples followed, the people followed.  People threw their garments on the ground and they ripped down branches from palm trees, maybe even branches from some of the prolific olive trees that dot the side of the Mount of Olives. 

But what about the donkey and those two disciples who were dispatched to bring back such a lowly creature? I bet that they never, in their wildest imaginations thought that they would be untying a donkey that didn’t even belong to them, and then have to bring it to Jesus.  They probably never envisioned that this was ministry, that this mundane detail would become such a large part of the events of the day. 

When Jesus said, follow me, he meant, really people….follow me.  Believe me.  Trust me.  Do as I say.  But come on, untie a donkey?  That probably means cleaning up after the donkey too.  It’s hard to grasp the larger picture when grunt work is all that you are doing in the name of the Lord.

Yet, to follow Jesus is just as much hands on as it is an intellectual and spiritual exercise. 

When I entered the ministry a former colleague of mine asked me if I had my Swiss Army knife on me.  Being a quarter Swiss I had to stop and think for a minute, was he making a joke at my ethnic expense?  No. He was a joker!  He really did want to know if I had a knife with me, he needed the screwdriver because we were erecting the stage together for the upcoming Christmas pageant. 

They don’t tell you in seminary that sometimes you’ll have to fix a leaky faucet, pick up cigarette butts, wash the floors, screw stages together and fix paper jams.  They don’t tell you to keep a Swiss Army knife on you.  And they forget to tell you about all the committees and paperwork that needs tending to.  This is donkey detail!

To be relevant Karl Barth once said, “One should read with the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other”.  I say, “One should read with the Bible in one hand, the newspaper in the other, and have a Swiss Army knife hanging from your belt.”  Then, and only then are you prepared to follow Jesus, to bolster the church and to deal with the grunt work of ministry.

Ministry of the Church takes many hands and hearts.  Hands and hearts that are willing to perform the unglamorous.  

This is ministry of donkey duty, grunt work where we will have to metaphorically, go and untie that donkey.  It behooves us to do it ourselves for in that humble moment you know you are serving not yourself but God.  You have humbly given of yourself and your pride over to the greater need.  We will have to serve in unglamorous ways that equally and ultimately, too, lift up the body of Christ.  Our time and our efforts do NOT go unnoticed; it is all for a purpose which happens to be God’s purpose not ours.  That’s the outer grunt work of being a Christian.

But that’s only part of it.  Between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday there is a whole lot of inner grunt work to be done.  Are we willing to untie THAT donkey even when we don’t know why we have to?  Are we willing to follow Jesus to the end, through the betrayal, the arrest, the interrogation, the denial, the whippings and crucifixion?  Are the sounds of that beast of burden within earshot?  I hope that it is.

The expectation of Holy Week is that we will be with Jesus every step of the way until he hangs upon the old wooden cross.

The expectation is that you will examine your relationship with God honestly to ready yourself for resurrection.

Are you willing and daring enough to cry out from the depth of your being, hosanna, save us, so that your Alleluias on Easter morning will be your authentic voice? 

When Jesus says, follow me he doesn’t specify where and for what reason or what kind of work he wants us to do.  One day you will be a visionary leader and the next day you will be called to change light bulbs.  He simply says, follow, trust me, and believe in me, I will lead you to a better place.  And Jesus, well, he follows through, he does not disappoint us.  He leads us to hope not despair, joy not sorrow, self-sufficiency not helplessness; he leads us to God’s immeasurable grace.  Untie the donkey and ride into Holy Week over dusty and rough terrain.  It may not be glamorous but it will be the best thing you will ever do.

Amen.

                                                                                               Road of Flowers