May 8, 2011 Third Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:13-35

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

   17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

   They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

   19 “What things?” he asked.

   “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

   25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

   28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

   30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

   33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

“Slow Of Heart To Believe”

Heart is: “the seat of both reason and will and carries the meaning of the inner essence of our being.”  It is an important word in the scriptures.  

To try make sense of the resurrection to the mind alone is impossible; it must be to the heart first and then the mind will live with what it cannot fathom.  We don’t understand baptism; we do it.  We can’t comprehend heaven or describe it; we believe in it, and leave the rest to God.  It’s his problem not ours!  

He created us; he loves us; he caused Jesus to be born; he caused him to rise from the dead; he will take care of heaven for us.  We can just believe it with the heart and live as if it is true; knowing deep within - within the heart - that it is true!

“Stay With Us - Hospitality”

The story of the text comes to bear on the story of our lives, creating change in the story we live. (Sheldon Tostengard)

“When all is said and done, the astonishing thing in this story is not that these two fragile human beings were ‘foolish’ and ‘slow of heart’ to believe.  The astonishing thing is that with all their foolishness and slowness of heart they offered their hospitality to an incomprehensible stranger and were given the Lord’s own gift of Easter faith, the Lord’s own gift of self, in the breaking of the bread.”  (Proclamation 3, p.20)

Jesus words were not enough to create faith - his actions were.

For what the mind cannot comprehend, the heart can see and believe.

“Offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings.”  “Where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of (remain) an enemy.  Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.”  Henri Nouwen

“Joys That Are Eternal”

In a Prayer Of The Day for the 3rd Sunday of Easter we find these words which point to the theme of the day:  “Grant your faithful people a share in the joys that are eternal...”

To share in the joys that are eternal is not only for tomorrow;  it is for now!  One way is hospitality.  When we practice hospitality our eyes are opened to see Jesus walking with us in people, places and ways we least expected.    We discover the joy of

Jesus present in the here and now - in acts of love and compassion.

The challenge for us is to recognize Jesus walking with us, even when at first he is hidden from our sight.

We were in Amman, Jordan, in a Orphanage for “throw away children”.  Children who were so severely challenged, both physically and mentally that they could do little for them selves.  We fed them, played with them, took them outside.  We tried to be hospitable with them.  Little seemed to make much difference in their miserable existence.

Then on Thursday morning a well dressed man entered the Orphanage.  Suit, tie, very “western” looking.  As soon as he entered all the children began to squeal and make what ever noise they could.  We stood in awe as he removed his suit coat and began one by one to call the children by name and gently but firmly move their twisted limbs.

It look like it might hurt.  They enjoyed every minute of it.   And each had their turn.

When he was finished he sat with us.  He told us he was a Physical Therapist, a Muslim who instead of going to Mosque came weekly to the Orphanage to spend some time

with the children.  The children who were hopelessly deformed and for whom he could do little good.  Except give them a few moments of loving touch.

When he left we all agreed that we had seen Jesus - in that man and in the hospitality of his touch!  We were surprised by the discovery; and overjoyed to have our eyes opened to see that Jesus walks with all who touch in love!  Hospitality at its best!

May 1, 2011 Second Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

   21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

  24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

   But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

   26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

   28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

   29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

    30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 “Loved Into Believing” 

 For John, believing in God and believing in the resurrection is all tied up with loving one another. It is not something we do in isolation, something we achieve by ourselves. 

 It is something which happens to us when we obey his commands and do good to one another. Faith active in love increases faith so we can see what we could not see, believe what we could not believe, and know what we could never know - even the awesome truth of the resurrection. 

 The near impossible task of self-forgetfulness, the unappetizing chore of loving one's neighbor as Jesus defined that person, has the qualities of a baptism by fire. Dostoevsky teats the problem of unbelief in a cruelly realistic, forthright way, as do the gospels themselves. In both cases, many of us wait for faith and wait some more for faith to transform us. We are the spiritually dead. but we can be resurrected by loving; we can recognize that we are called by love to love.” Alcyone Scott in Christian Century. 

 “Shalom - Peace”

Peace or shalom does not mean the absence of struggle and pain;  it does mean the presence of love in our wounded, fearful hearts.

No one lives without fear; God embraces our fear with his presence and gives us a peace which passes human understanding.  We are loved in the place of our greatest weakness.

This is the perfect love which casts out fear and replaces it with peace.

 “Life In His Name”

The Easter message still rings in our ears; it brings a peace which passes human understanding;  a joy which cannot be taken away; ; forgiveness which is God’s healing grace at work in our lives; and a faith which dares to doubt yet believes.  A faith which risks life on the resurrection and believes what it cannot see.  A faith which hears and believes! Rom 10:17 “Faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes by preaching Christ.”

Doubting Thomas 

Be a doubting Thomas!  It is a part of healthy faith. 

 Luther: “There is more faith in honest doubt then all the creeds of Christendom.”

Be a doubting Thomas: 

It will keep you honest and open to change; open to Gods will for your  life. It will keep you humble - you will not get so easily caught in the idolatry of certainty. 

Faith will be a voyage of discovery, often disturbing, yet also fulfilling. 

Doubt helps faith happen - it opens us to the miracle of faith happening in us. 

For doubting is a part of believing. 

We don't believe by our own reason or strength...we believe by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Our doubts lead us to faith. They keep us healthy - not too sure and thus blind.  Blind faith is not a healthy faith; it is a dangerous faith. 

Quotes On Doubt: 

 Frederick Buechner 

 “Whether your faith is that there is a God, or that there is not a God, 

 if you don't have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. 

 Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” 

 Alan Jones 

“In a world where there is no room for doubt, ambiguity, or questioning, there is no room for genuine faith.”  

April 24, 2011 Easter Sunday

Matthew 28: 1-10

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

   2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

   5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

   8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

 “With Fear and Great Joy” 

“Christianity begins with Easter.  Without Easter there would be no Gospel, not a single narrative, not a letter in the New Testament.  Without Easter, Christendom would have no belief in Christ, no proclamation of Christ, nor any Church, any divine worship, any mission.”   Hans Kung, “Eternal Life”, p. 107

Without Easter there would be no Christmas either.

Easter is vital to a vibrant faith and a vibrant church.  

Without it, we are of all people the most to be pitied.

The Resurrection created the church!  We celebrate this today with great fear - because it is always stunning, amazing, confounding, bewildering - this message which is so incomprehensible.  And we celebrate it with great joy - for it touches our hearts and lifts our spirits and gives hope to our living.

Easter is a celebration of something new happening in this old world which forever changes things.  It is a powerful reminder that “God’s steadfast love endures for ever.” (Ps 136)

Easter is a love feast!

“The Resurrection tells us that at the heart and center of the universe, love is reigning”

Morton Kelsey, “Resurrection”, p. 93

The Resurrection “is a vista that makes our world too small and it makes human life too great.”  Paul Scherer

The Resurrection is love’s finest hour!

Things are soul size now!

This we celebrate today - with fear and great joy!

 John 20:1-18  (An alternate text for Easter)

  1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

   3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

   13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

   “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

   15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

   Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

   16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

   She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

   17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

   18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

“He Saw and Believed”

Easter proclaims the most incomprehensible, illogical, mind boggling, far fetched idea ever proposed on the face of this earth.  It is way out, man!

There was nothing to prove it true for Peter or John; and there is nothing to prove it true for us.  It is a mystery to be embraced; not a truth to be reasoned.  It is the impossible happening and we have to be open to something that wild or we will miss it.

All things are possible now; life can break out in new and wonderful ways.

To believe in the resurrection is to embrace a miracle and live with possibility.

When Dr. David Read, then Chaplain and prisoner of war was released by the liberating armies in 1945 he went up to the first soldier he saw, held out his hand to him, and said,

“Sir, I’m glad to see you, and that’s an understatement!”

An understatement - “He saw and believed.”

Hidden in these words is the mystery of faith, which embraces a mystery; the mystery of hope, which dares live in that mystery; and the mystery of love, which carries that mystery into all of life with transforming power.

To believe in the resurrection is to be captured by it; and made different because of it. 

To believe in the resurrection is to let God love you and trust as someone has said, that “Hence forth, all safety is in love.”

Dad died this past Jan. (1878) At his death bed he said to us (Mom and I) “It’s been good.”

I said to him, “You’ve been good.” ( A classic understatement to be sure!”)

He said three times a word I couldn’t get; then he spelled it - “Hurrah!”

And he died.  With a word of thanks, a word of joy, a word of love on his lips.

A word which was also, an understatement, for in that word was all the words of faith, hope, and love, born of a resurrection.

April 17, 2011 Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday

Matthew 26:14- 27:66

(This is a long passage.  Read it all this week from your Bible.  I have quoted just a

small portion which reminds us of  “love’s primary perfection”.)

 26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

“Reflection on the Passion Story”

Only the “nobodies” were kind and sensitive to Jesus on his journey to the cross.

The important people were either for the crucifixion,  seeing it as a tough but necessary decision, to preserve their truth about God and their religious systems; or they were afraid and hiding for fear they too would be nailed to a cross 

.

I think it was Scott Peck who said,

“Most evil - serious evil- in this world is done by people who think they are doing good.”

If evil were done only by those who ganged together and said: “Let us be evil together!”, evil would not spread far.  No, most evil is done by people who think they are good and doing their best.  So the question is obvious:  What am I doing now, what am I involved n now - shouting or timidly silent - that actually perpetuates innocent suffering n the world?

“There are situations where power is of no avail.  They are most of the situations in which as humans we find ourselves!  May we not also dare to say that, from the standpoint of a faith tradition which posits love, not power, as God’s primary perfection, they are most of the situations in which God finds God’s self too?” 

Douglas John Hall, God and Human Suffering. p. 99

This is a story about a love which will not let us go - ever!

“When the crucified Jesus is called ‘the image of the invisible God’. the meaning is that THIS is God and God is like THIS.  God is not greater than he is in this humiliation.  God is not more glorious then he is in this self-surrender.  God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness.  God is not more divine than he is in this humility.”  Hall, p. 112

The irony is we would avoid this week in we could for we would rather have light without darkness, vision without trust and risk; hope without despair, Easter without Good Friday.

“To be human is to suffer, and God knows that.  That’s why God suffers too...suffering is where God and human beings meet.  It is the one place where all persons - kings, priests, paupers and prostitutes - recognize themselves as frail and transient human beings in need of God’s saving love.  Suffering brings us closer to God and God closer to us.  Suffering despite all its inhumanity and cruelty, paradoxically enables humans to long for humanity, find it, treasure it, and defend it with all their might.”  Hall, p. 117

Listen to this story - “This is the essence of God, this is the heart of God.”  Hall p. 114

April 10, 2011 Fifth Sunday in Lent

John 11:1-45

1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

“The Story Of Lazarus”

“This pronouncement (“I am the resurrection and the life”) not Lazarus’s rather ludicrous stumbling out of the tomb, is the climactic moment of Jesus’ visit to Bethany.”

1987 Proclamation 3. A, p. 62

This is a story about the pain, disappointment, and suffering Jesus endured to effect human salvation; to show how much God loves us even when bad things happen to good people.

It reminds us how powerful God’s love is to raise us up and give us hope - no matter what. It is both an intimate and theological story. It touches the depth of human suffering and bewilderment with God and reminds us that even in the severity of life, God is faithful. God is good. He is worthy of all trust and all glory.

“For The Glory Of God”

The miracle of the raising of Lazarus is beyond our grasp.

A piece of it we can grasp is that it means that God can take the very thing which is causing us to say , “Life is a dirty trick.” and turn it into a revelation of God’s glory, and experience of God’s closeness. Yes, a blessing!

Illness is a part of life; an inevitable part.

Faith is a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life.

It enables us to trust that when Jesus became human he smashed forever the ability of the power of evil to be able to completely monopolize or control all of life. Even in and through illness something good can happen which can lead us to say that even this is to the glory of God. Illness can open us to God and make us more alive - all the way to the better end.

“Jesus wept.” Two of the most beautiful words in the NT; for they tell us how much Jesus is with us and for us. He cannot eliminate grief from our lives. He can walk with us in and through the grief.

Something greater is always happening with God. All human evidences of God at work are signs of the greater gifts God intends for us.

The problem of death is not going to be solved by bringing Lazarus back to life.

It will be solved only by entering death himself and overcoming it.

The irony is that a symbol of death at its worst - the cross, is now a symbol of love at its best!