Fullness in Silence

Luke 2:1-20

John 1:1-14

Many of us look forward to singing silent night, carrying our candles

out of the sanctuary and down to the street. 

We sing the beautiful carol in unison as we light one another’s candles.

Remembering perhaps the words of Jesus, “You are the light of the world.”

We sing together.  A strange thing in a culture like ours of so many individual performances.  We sing this song together and we light together and we walk together.

I remember being a young person and holding my candle, fascinated with the melting wax and wondering how long it would take to touch the soft wax and not burn.

I remember covering the rubber part of my Converse All-Star shoe with dripped wax from the candle. 

But still, regardless of how attentive I was at one or many of those Christmas Eve services, I remember them fondly, and relish the ability to partake again in the yearly tradition.

Let It Be With Me

Luke 1:26-38

I went to the Advent service at school again this year,

I always enjoy the music that’s brought together,

It’s been everything from

Ave Maria to

Curtis Mayfield:

You know the song—

“People get ready, there's a train comin'

You don't need no baggage, you just get on board

All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'

You don't need no ticket you just thank the lord.”

And during this year’s service, someone got up and shared a reflection

And said something that made me see today’s gospel story in a whole new light.

I’ve always imagined this story of the angel visiting Mary as the only visitation that happened on that day.

But what if Mary was one among many that received a visit from the angel?

Of course she’s the only one we read about because she’s the only one that gave birth to Jesus.

But what if she had not been the only one asked?

How many young women in Israel might have been asked to bear the Savior?

How many times might Gabriel have entered a room and said, “Greetings, favored one!

The Lord is with you”?

Maybe just once.

Maybe just to Mary.

But then again, maybe not.

Mary was there.  The angel came into the room.

And perhaps there was a long silence as they adjusted their eyes to one another.

What was it that happened in that space?

A word was given and word received by faith.

And what was that word?

Don’t be afraid, you will bear a son, named Jesus, who will rule as heir to David’s throne, forever.

And Mary. 

Not drawing back from this.

Not rushing away.

Patient, beginning to recognize the goodness of the messenger,

Beginning to experience the faith and the hope and the love

radiating from the messenger’s presence.

Mary says “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

She stays.  She does not leave the impossible messenger and the impossible and outrageous message.

She stays with it.  And wonders at its impossibility.

Perplexed, unsure. But she stays.

How can this be? She asks.

And with her all of humanity asks again and again concerning the redemption of the world.

How can this be?

How can this be – since we are so violent?

How can this be?

How can this be – since we are so deaf and blind to the createdness of ourselves and all the earth?

How can this be?

How can this be – since history has proved lasting peace, real justice, and enduring salvation

to be the last thing possible for humanity?

How can this be?

The angel stays. 

The angel doesn’t get impatient. 

The angel doesn’t ridicule the young woman.

The angel replies.

The Holy Spirit will do it. 

The uncontrollable power of God who renews lives

and creates form out of the formless waters of chaos.

The Holy Spirit who gives insight and inspiration and comfort to those in the deserts of doubt or sorrow.

The Holy Spirit who gives courage and words

to prophets who speak to the powerful, words of truth and love.

Who gives courage and words to friends who comfort and encourage one another.

The Holy Spirit who longs for the creation to become a place where all people can experience fully the love of their Creator and the abundance of God’s creation.

The Holy Spirit will do it.

The same Holy Spirit who gave the impossible child of blessing to Abraham and Sarah,

The same Holy Spirit who is even now giving Zechariah and Elizabeth their child John in their old age,

Rising up a prophet for God’s way.

“For,” the angel says, “nothing will be impossible with God.”

The God for whom all things are possible,

from whom this angelic messenger comes,

From whom the word of promise comes,

This God is the one who will give a child to Mary.

And then her words.

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Simple words.  But words of revolutionary faith.

Words which give voice to a faith and a hope and a love

Living in the midst of perplexity, uncertainty, and seeming impossibility.

Words that trust God to save, to renew, to heal.

Of all of those visited, Mary shows her willingness to become a part of God’s impossible salvation.

Why does she say yes?

I imagine that Mary was a person who felt deeply the sorrows and injustices of her world.

Mary was young, maybe only 13 or so.

And one of the many gifts of young people in the community,

is their ability to see still with eyes that have been hardened by the cynical realism of adult life,

their hearts still break and they still ache for a better world,

And when the angel said that Mary’s baby would become great and heir to the throne of David,

She probably did not hear this as an individual excited that she just won the lottery and would become wealthy and happy and live a long life in comfort and security.

What she probably heard was that someone, finally, would bring peace and truth and grace

To a land thirsty and hungry for righteousness.

What she probably heard was that God would bring healing to God’s people,

And save them from the oppression of greed and violence and hatred,

And this is the song that Mary sings later on in the chapter:

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

    and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

    and sent the rich away empty.”

Mary saw the angel in that room.

And saw the faith and the hope and the love with which the good news came to her.

And Mary said, “Let it be.”

(makes me think of a song)

Friends, in the name of Mary’s child, I encourage you to listen to the call of God in your life.

God is longing to bring love into the lives of hurting people,

God is longing to bring healing to a creation that has been despoiled by the limitless desires of human beings,

God is longing to bring peace and reconciliation to communities divided against one another,

God is longing to bring rest to the anxious and worried, who need the support of their community,

And the knowledge of God’s relentless presence with them and for them,

We are in the place of Mary each new day,

As we behold the impossibilities which God declares possible,

We know the way that love bids us go,

And we can follow in faith,

Knowing that hope is not a quick fix, but a lifetime pilgrim journey towards

God’s healing of the earth.

But just because it is not quick, does not mean that it is not a path of joy.

Each new day

even as we see evidence of the brokenness of human society,

We can witness the goodness of the creation,

the image of God in our fellow humanity,

And we can see that God may work very slowly,

But God does not give up,

“People get ready, there's a train comin'

You don't need no baggage, you just get on board

All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'

You don't need no ticket you just thank the lord.”

And in the impossibilities of each new day may we hear the words of the angel:

"Do not be afraid,” and “nothing will be impossible with God.”

To which we can respond in those words for which we bless Mary and her courage,

The words of faith, borne of love, looking toward the hope of God’s salvation:

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Amen.

Keeping Time Together

Cantata Sunday

Luke 2:8-20

This has been a beautiful work of the people.

Young and old and middlers,

Coming together to sing, to share, to contribute to the common experience.

I’m tempted to say that we need more events like this, 

but that just turns my gratitude into restless discontent.

I’m grateful for what people have done to make this happen.

And it makes me reflect upon what it means to be in community together.

What are communities for?

And I think one thing communities are for

is keeping time. 

Squinting Towards the Promise

Isaiah 40:1-11

Mark 1:1-8

Near the end of the 40^th chapter of Isaiah we get a picture of the kind of lament that Israel is giving voice to in the difficult time of their exile in Babylon.

They longed to return to their home, their place, to be restored as a community.

But they also felt that God had done them wrong, that God had promised them blessing

And here they were experiencing what felt like curse.

Here’s the picture we get:

The prophet writes:

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

This was their lament.  God does not care what I do—God does not care if I get what is fair or what is unfair.

This lament is honest and authentic.  And it is a prayer that people raise out of the pain of their own experience and experience of their neighbors, their community.

Where are you God? It says.

This is something that the people felt more and more I imagine as the years turned into decades and the decades into a generation and exile from their homeland became more and more a permanent reality.

It felt more and more that either God couldn’t see the suffering of the people.

Or God didn’t care.

And it’s into this experience, this lament, which is honest and true,

That the prophet brings God’s promise.

Creative Lament

Isaiah 64:1-9

Mark 13:24-37

We are entering a time this Sunday that depending on who you are and where you live and what things are like at home,

You may call it Christmas shopping season, you may call it the

End of the semester,

some have called it the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year” or the “Happiest Season of all”

Others greet this time of year with a deep sadness and grief

For some it would be more aptly named “the loneliest time of the year”

Those who have lost loved ones in this year or recent years will feel the ache of that loss again

Those who are struggling to find basics of food and shelter will find this time of year exceptionally painful

In Dickens’s memorable words, “It is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.”

Among the names that this season carries is Advent.

What does Advent mean?

Advent is a Latin word that means “Coming”

Or “to arrive.”

Advent is a season of expectation.

Expecting what?

It’s not about expecting Christmas presents or school vacation –

Or the end of a school semester

It’s expectation that is much bigger than these things – though these smaller longings are related.

It’s an expectation of the coming of God’s redeeming grace among us.

Advent marks a time of divine discontent.  A sense of longing for God to heal what has been broken

In our hearts, in our communities, in our land.

Where is my Neighbor?

Matthew 22:34-40

Last week we looked at the second part of the Great Commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself.

As yourself was our focus, trying to better understand what it means to love ourselves well.

This week I want to pay attention to the first part of this phrase.

Love your neighbor.

When I mentioned to a friend that this was going to be the text of my sermon, he replied wryly

“So your sermon is going to be, ‘Do it’?”

The Great Commandment is at once a very simple command, a very simple teaching.

And yet, as I mentioned last week we can very easily take it for granted that we know the command “Love God, love neighbor” and forget that as yourself is part of the mix.

In the same way I think there’s more to consider in love your neighbor than merely a general encouragement to do good.

When Jesus was asked by a lawyer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” he was answering one of the important questions we put to this command.  In Jesus’s characteristic style he answered by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.

I want to put another question to this command, not “Who” but “Where is my neighbor?”

“Where is my neighbor?”

I think this is a really important question for us.

We can take a few seconds and in that short of time imagine many more people with whom we are connected than we can reasonably be expected to love or care for.

This for me has been one of the problems of Facebook.

What's So Often Left Out

Romans 13:8-10

One of the things I love about living here and being a part of this church community is how much people care about serving their community and helping their neighbors.

Small churches like Acworth are full of people who earnestly help, serve, and do good for their neighbors, for their communities.

I think it’s not insignificant how many people in this room work in some kind of service occupation or are retired from one.  Here in this room are nurses, teachers, counselors, volunteers, public servants.

Much of the week is spent in considering how to care for the neighbor or do good work for the community. 

We are a neighbor-loving people and if someone were to ask us what the most important commands in the bible are, many of us might summarize it so:

Love God. Love neighbor.

But something was just left out in that summary of the summary. 

Communion of Saints

Revelation 7:9-17

Matthew 5:1-12

When I was a young boy, I became fascinated by the book of Revelation.

I say I was fascinated. 

But I was also fascinated by pictures of mushroom clouds and stories of World War II.

The kind of fascination I found in the book of Revelation was much more akin to these kinds of fascination than, say, my love for the stories of Robin Hood or Redwall.

The book of Revelation for many in our day has become a kind of Rorschach test

Upon which people project their fears and desires – and many of the books we can read interpreting Revelation for today can tell us much more about the interpreter than about Revelation or today.

The writer of Revelation, John, was in prison on the island of Patmos – it was a time when Christians were being imprisoned and executed at the hands of the Roman empire because they would not denounce their faith in Christ.  The book describes a battle of good and evil that was a very real experience for John and his community – and this is why it still fascinates people today – because we still see forces of international greed and violence at play – and in every generation since this book was written, people have seen their time revealed in these apocalyptic pages. 

But the book was not written to give people a new code to decipher and forecast what will happen next, it was not written to be a textbook for the future.  It was written to be a source of imaginative hope for the experience of the present suffering at the hands of the empire.

Can we worship in a fellowship hall?

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Matthew 22:34-40

As many of you already knew and as all of us are now experiencing,

We decided at our annual meeting this year to not move to our other building in the South Acworth village this year.  Last year was a really tough year for us keeping both building minimally heated during the winter and so we wanted to cut back this year to try to make up some of the difference.

If you’ve never experienced a move with us before, it can be quite fun.

We ask everyone to lend a hand – as many hands make light work.

And at the conclusion of morning worship, after we sing Grant Us Thy Peace, we grab the hymnals and the Bibles and put them in storage containers.  And we put the storage containers into the back of Richard’s or John’s or Brian’s truck.

Many probably know this already but Richard and Ella would always take the hymnal we aren’t using that Sunday down to the Valley earlier in the week and would make it an easier and quicker process on the Sunday after church.

Other things that we would need for worship down in the Valley would be placed into vehicles and we’d all reconvene down in the Valley for coffee hour.

This was an important part of the process since if we had coffee hour up here on the hill,

We’d have far less help bringing things down to the Valley.

The Relationships That Make Us

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

When I was in 8^th grade, I was invited by this church to begin a confirmation class.

As part of this class I was assigned a mentor, John Luther, who I would meet with on a regular basis and talk with about life and the gospel of Mark, which everyone in the class was required to read and reflect on.

I don’t remember much of the what of our conversations.

But I do remember the where and the how.

Meaning – I don’t remember exactly what we talked about – though I imagine there was some part that had to do with the gospel of Mark – some part that had to do with oldies on the radio no doubt

But I do remember that we had conversations about the spiritual life while milking cows.

And I’ll never forget learning how to milk a cow during the first meeting.

I’m not sure if this is a standard practice for teaching someone how to milk,

But as I was leaning in to see just what John was doing with his hand so I could imitate it

John turned the spray in my direction and laughed as I jumped back with surprise.

A Breath of Fresh Air

"The Peace of Wild Things," by Wendell Berry

Philippians 4:1-9

I’ve been puzzling over Paul’s words here this week.

When I read, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice,” I can’t help but imagine someone coming up to me when I am stressed out or feeling sad and

Saying something like “Turn that frown upside down.”

It does no good for someone to tell me to cheer up as if by some act of the will alone I am not able to feel full of joy.

And I think a lot of this comes from cultural pressures to appear in certain ways.

And if America’s cardinal virtues are productivity, efficiency, and speed –

We can see why melancholy is not something that is socially acceptable.

It is something, then, that we try to fix.  A problem we try to solve.

And so someone comes up to you and says, “Cheer up.”

Which turns out to not be very helpful for someone who is burdened by grief or worry.

But I think this is a symptom of a larger cultural problem.

And that’s that we have lost the deeper understanding of what it means to be joyful.

I’m not saying we don’t know how to have fun.

We know how to have “good times” and we can post pictures of those good times on Facebook.

But I am saying that I don’t think fun and joy are the same thing.

Walking Together

Philippians 3:4b-14

We are pilgrims on a journey,

We are travelers on the road,

We are here to help each other

Walk the mile and bear the load.

These are familiar lines to some of us. 

I can remember singing this song countless times in my parents’ living room on Sunday evenings

when people from the community would come over for Bible study.

What I like about these words is not merely that they describe the spiritual life as a journey,

That’s a helpful metaphor and I’m sure one that many of you have heard before.

But it describes it as our journey.  We are pilgrims on a journey.

It recognizes that I’m not alone in trying to find my way in 21^st century America

towards a life that is free and a love that is genuine, towards a wholeness in God.

One thing I’ve learned about going on a journey is the need to pace myself.  I say I’ve learned this, but that just means I’ve recognized its importance.  Putting this into practice is a lifelong process.

And this is why it can be dangerous for me to read something like what Paul wrote to the Philippians in today’s reading.

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

It can be dangerous for me to read something like this because I can easily hear it as “try harder” – like the coach in the locker room giving a pep talk – “you can do it – don’t stop now – keep going”

I hear these words of Paul’s as telling me to keep pushing forward in my efforts to achieve whatever goals I have made for myself.

But the more I have sat with this text, the more I don’t think that’s what’s going on at all.

On This Rock

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

“On this rock I will build my church.”

Acworth knows how to build a church.

As a community we’ve built three churches and they’re all still standing.

We have become aware of various needs of the buildings and have sought to problem-solve to do what needs to be done in the way that will best use the resources at hand.

In 2006 when it became clear that the steeple was leaning,

We realized that this project would be a whole other ball game.

But if you look up there, you’ll see a steeple standing tall and strong.

Because when the resources of a church membership of 50 people were clearly not going to fund the project, the church received help from the community.

It was important for this community that this building remain standing.

But when Jesus said in today’s gospel reading, “upon this rock I will build my church” – he’s not looking down at good solid slabs of granite and thinking of the possibilities of making or remaking a meetinghouse.

Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

Matthew 15:10-28

Jesus and the disciples have gone into strange territory.  Into the land of Tyre and Sidon.  Tyre and Sidon are coastal cities located on what is now the southern coast of Lebanon.

So Jesus and his disciples were outside of their own home and their own ethnic and cultural community.

I can imagine a different language was the dominant language. 

And the people looked and dressed differently and probably behaved differently than the people they were used to in Galilee.

We don’t know if this was the first time that Jesus and the disciples visited Tyre and Sidon, but still we can imagine that it was not a place where they would particularly feel at home.

And the historic relationship between the Hebrews and the Sidonians was not very friendly.

So Jesus and his disciples very likely had grown up with impressions and judgments of those people – those Sidonians, those Tyrians.  And these judgments would yield plenty of opportunities for them to suspect the Sidonians or to keep from associating with them, perhaps even resent them.

Trust in the Midst of the Storm

Matthew 14:22-33

We’re not told why he asks them to go across the sea just as it’s getting dark. 

But perhaps he knew that the only way that they would get peace and rest is away from the crowds.

But there they are.  In a boat in the middle of the sea.

and something happens which the disciples knew was a possibility, being, many of them, experienced fishermen,

something happens that they knew was a possibility but were crossing their fingers wouldn’t happen that night.

The winds came down from the hills.

Learners in the Way of Jesus

Matthew 28:16-20 and 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 

I have struggled over what I should say this morning.
It’s graduation weekend for many.
It’s Father’s Day on the American calendar.
And it’s Trinity Sunday on the Christian calendar.

And I think a lot of sermons may be conceived in the abstract – but then you experience the week. All of the people you interact with whose real joys and real pain resonate within me.
And real suffering of every day life complicates my abstracted theological musings.

I have struggled over what I should say this morning.
When there’s wars and rumors of wars in the news.
When people are just barely getting by.
Just existing from day to day could be celebrated if they had the emotional strength to muster up that sort of excitement.

We hear of cancer and heart disease.
Of dementia and depression.
And this is not just in the news but among our neighbors.

So, I have struggled over what I should say this morning.
What is the promise that we need to hear from God today?
Certainly not the promise of “everything’s going to be okay.”

In fact I don’t think you find that promise in the Bible.
But you find a better promise than that everything’s going to be okay.
The promise on the lips of Jesus to his disciples in his last moments with them, on the mountain in Galilee,
Is not everything is going to be okay.

But rather.
“remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

I was at graduation yesterday at Fall Mountain.
And I heard an excellent guest speaker.
And she told the students that they must be wise in their decisions as they go forward and they must realize that things will not go the way that they necessarily planned. There will be surprises and difficulties along the way but that they must be learners, lifelong learners who will see the opportunity in the difficulties of life.

Life brings us the unexpected. We set out with our dreams and hopes for what we will accomplish and where we will be,
But life happens along the way.
We have our intention of what we want for a good career, a good retirement, a good old age, a good college experience, graduate degree, a good marriage.

And we find that there can be huge setbacks and sometimes total disappointment.
And so many of us here have experienced this truth. And some have experienced it over and over.
I started to think of Jesus’s last words to his disciples in Matthew’s gospel as a kind of commencement speech – a graduation of the eleven disciples.
And Jesus’s words are not “everything is going to be okay.” And they are not “you have unlimited potential to achieve all that you desire.”

Jesus’s words are much more direct and concrete.

And it’s as if we are in the plastic chairs on the football field, listening in to Jesus’s final remarks in his ministry – the opening remarks for the disciples’ ministry.
And the graduates for whom the speakers on the stage speak – are probably thinking about a million other things than how to wisely approach their future. But we who are in the plastic chairs under the June sun – we can reflect on where life has brought us and what it all means for us now.

And I think that’s how we can approach Jesus’s Great Commission to his disciples.
This was the beginning of the Apostles’ ministry.

And at the beginning they are not told that everything will be okay.
In fact they already have experienced how things will be for them – in the way that the powers resisted Jesus and brought him to the cross.

But they are given direction – one holy vision, a singleness of purpose to direct their lives towards.

Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Why is this the most important direction for Jesus? Why is he saying this and not “go out and reach your potential, and realize your dreams”?

For Jesus the most important thing is redemption not success.
It’s not Jesus’s dream for those disciples that they go out and make it big in the Roman world.
It’s not even Jesus’s dream for those disciples that they find a safe corner in which to establish a good business and carve out for themselves a comfortable lifestyle.

Jesus’s vision for them is much bigger and yet much more real.

Make disciples.
And this can be abstract so we need to ask the question – what is a disciple?

A disciple is literally a learner. One who learns from someone else.
These disciples have become students of the way of Jesus and Jesus is leaving them with this purpose for their lives.

Show this way to other people.

And when you see the English translation, “Go therefore.”
It sounds like a command to leave. To go away.
But if you look at the Greek that this was translated from it reads more like, “As you are going, make disciples.”

So it’s not so much that we seek to go certain places and intensely work on this task of making disciples, sharing the way of Jesus with others.

Rather it’s a call to be a follower of Jesus where you are in the relationships that you are given and in the places where you spend your days. To share the love and wisdom of God that you’ve received with others.

Wherever you find yourself. In work, at home, as you are going – wherever – there’s a person who is God’s child and who God loves who through your care can become aware of – can become a learner, a student of the way of Jesus.

And as we overhear on our plastic chairs on the football field,
We are brought into that reflection upon what our purpose is in this life.

And the way that I have come to understand Jesus’s gospel is that our purpose is to be learners in the way – seeking after the healing of God for ourselves and for our neighbors.

And isn’t this a much better purpose than to merely seek our own financial and physical viability?

We need a higher calling than survival to bring us through the hard times. We need something beyond ourselves to make it possible to love even when we are afraid for our lives.

And for me that’s the way of Jesus.

For me that’s in living with the vision that Jesus gave for a redeemed humanity – people brought into the grace and truth of God and given the courage through relationship with God, through encouragement of their community – through prayer and conversation and mutual learning – to make manifest the reign of God, the healing reign of God in the places of weariness and brokenness and pain where we will always find ourselves --

As we are going.

And Jesus’s promise to us is this:
“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
In your battle with cancer, “I am with you.”
In your struggle to pay the bills, “I am with you.”
In your caring for your neighbor, “I am with you.”
In your bearing each others’ burdens, “I am with you.”
In your sharing with your neighbors the vision of the redemption of the world in the way of Jesus, “I am with you.”
In your advocating for greater justice and in your working for peace, “I am with you.”
In all things and to the end of the world, Jesus says, “I am with you.”

And this for me is what the Trinity means. The God who created us, came among us, and promised to be with us and for us to the end of the world.

And this is good news. This brings us vision in our valleys and encouragement in our fear.

Though all else falls apart and fades away, God remains the same and will be with us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, leading us into more and more redemption even through our sufferings.

Because God’s purpose for us is not that we be successful, but that we know how much we are loved and help others to know the same.

As Paul writes to the Corinthians,
“the God of love and peace will be with you.”

Go from this place trusting in God’s eternal care.
And may others see in your words and in your deeds
That above all other things, you have become a learner in the way of Jesus.

Unity Through the Basin and the Towel

“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” John 17:11

Jesus and his disciples eat their last meal together and Jesus teaches them and engages them with a new kind of intensity – sharing with them his realization that he would be leaving them soon.

And in a beautiful symbolic action, Jesus washes their feet.

He bends down and picks up each of their dirt encrusted feet and with a basin of water and a towel

Does for them what in that culture only the servants of a house do.

And some of the disciples are deeply uncomfortable with this gesture.  

Peace Be With You

John 20:19-31

The purpose statement of the gospel of John is in our reading today.
Why was this gospel written in the way that it was written?

“These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

This is all about Jesus who the disciples came to know as Messiah, Son of God.

Mark says this in a similar way in his gospel
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ (which is the Greek word for Messiah), the Son of God.”

There were other stories that were not told.
These were told, John writes, that you come to believe and believing have life.

The disciples were hiding.  Locked doors and afraid.
But the risen Jesus came among them, broke through their fear, the fear that’s a kind of locked door on the mind and heart.

And coming among them said “Peace be with you.”

We don’t know how we’re supposed to imagine the disciples reacting to this appearance and word of assurance.

But John writes that Jesus showed them his wounds and it was then that they “saw the Lord.”

And they rejoiced.

And poor Thomas.
All of his friends had seen and he had not.
They all shared an experience of their risen Lord and Thomas was not there.

An Everlasting Love

Jeremiah 31:1-6
Matthew 28:1-20

The crucifixion was a horrific thing.
The disciples were traumatized at seeing their good and loving leader forced into Roman custody, beaten, mocked, slandered, and humiliated, made to carry the cross.  Nailed up there for public shame.

People who have seen such things would likely experience post-traumatic stress.  Would likely be very anxious.  Would likely be very afraid.  The world is against them.

Everything they thought good and everything that made sense
Was nailed up to that cross with their friend, their teacher, their Lord.

Can you imagine for a moment, going through the first Maundy Thursday into Good Friday?

It is truly remarkable that we read in Matthew’s gospel that “after the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”

Can you imagine how much anxiety these women had to overcome to approach a tomb of a publicly executed criminal, a man who was so recently made an outlaw of the Roman empire.

How much fear they would have if they weren’t also reeling from post-traumatic stress.
These women loved Jesus and with brave hearts set themselves on the road towards his tomb.
To show their love, to remember him and give him the respect and honor so violently taken from him.

 And when they arrive at the tomb, an earthquake.

I’m not sure how common earthquakes were in Ancient Palestine,
But I can imagine this would be one more worry to an anxious mind.

How’s my house?  How’s my family.

But they are not able to linger long on those thoughts before they encountered the heavenly being,
The angel sitting on the rolled away stone.

The guards who felt the earthquake, who saw the angel.  Fall down, faint and collapse from fear.

But Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary”
(I wonder how she felt about being referred to all the time as “the other Mary”?)

Life to Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The prophet Ezekiel is transported by the spirit of the Lord to the middle of a dry valley.

And everywhere he looks.  Bones.

He is walked around the periphery of the valley.

“There were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.” Bones and more bones.

The Lord said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”

Bones are the basic structure of a human being.  But with no muscles, no flesh, no blood, they lay like rocks, weathered by the wind and sun.  Bleached and desiccated.

They will waste away and the only memory of them will be the chance fossil found by future generations.

“Mortal, can these bones live?”

I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”

What kind of question is this?  Can these bones live?

If I were Ezekiel I might have said, “is this a trick question?”