The 3rd Sunday of Easter - Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior

Ichthys, the Greek word for fish, came to carry special meaning for Christians.  Each letter of this word in the Greek alphabet stands for a part of Jesus’ name and title: iota, Jesus; chi, Christ; theta, God’s; upsilon, son; sigma, Savior.

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior: this was Peter’s proclamation we heard from the Acts of the Apostles.  What led to this forceful preaching about who Jesus was?  Here’s how Chapter 3 begins: “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.” Instead of giving the man alms, Peter pronounced him healed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Then Peter asks the crowd why are they staring at him and John. A modern equivalent might be, “Whatcha looking at me for?” Then he launches into an explanation of who Jesus is.  He tells his listeners that the God of their ancestors, glorified in Jesus, gave Peter the power to pronounce healing for the man who was lame.  Then he exhorts them to repent and place their faith in Jesus.

This isn't a gentle exhorting. Peter placed blame for Jesus’ crucifixion on these folks(even if they weren’t present), as being part of the crowd who demanded “a murderer” be set free. Then he claims they really didn't know what they were doing. But if they repent and turn to God things will be made right for them—their sins forgiven.

How did Peter become so bold?  Remember his denials on the night of Jesus’ arrest?  He became so bold through his interaction with the resurrected Christ. Our gospel reading today contains one of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances.

What makes Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances so life-giving? How could this have made the disciples bold?  Luke tells a four-part account this post-resurrection appearance.  Each of the four parts leads toward the conclusion that the resurrected Christ, though changed, was as real as he had been when they had traveled with him.  He wasn't a figment of their imagination. He wasn’t a ghost.

Jesus’ resurrection troubles many folks today.  How can something as out-of-the-ordinary as resurrection be possible? It cannot be verified through reproducing the phenomenon.  Nor have we been able to discover some biological or physical explanation.

Well, Jesus’ disciples were not any more ready to believe in resurrection than modern folk may be. People in the first century did believe in ghosts.  So the disciples feared they were seeing one when Jesus suddenly appeared among them.

But “faith seeking understanding” cannot be considered out of line here.  On Maundy Thursday someone asked me what did I think would have happened if Jesus’ disciples were never convinced that the resurrection had happened—or if it really hadn’t happened.   I answered the question by saying I think the Jesus movement would have failed.  Author John Updike penned these words to make this point very eloquently in his poem “Seven Stanzas at Easter.”

“Make no mistake: if he rose at all / it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules / reknit, the amino acids rekindle, / the Church will fall.”

What Jesus does next are the four steps I mentioned earlier that lead to the disciples having faith in the resurrection. He greets them with peace and tells them to look and see the wounds.  Then he asks them to touch him. Next he asks for a piece of fish to eat—neither ghosts or figments of one’s imagination consume food. Finally, he explained the scriptures concerning him. Luke described their minds as being opened.  Now they could accept Jesus’ resurrection!

Can we imagine ourselves in this group of disciples?  Have we ever wondered about Jesus’ miracles, the signs and wonders Jesus did in the gospels—could they have been real or something else? And finally Jesus’ resurrection—how was that possible?  We should be able to find ourselves in the same frame of mind they were in: glimmers of faith in shadows of doubt.

What can we do? We don’t have the resurrected Jesus in our midst to see, to touch and to give a bit of fish. But we do have the Hebrew Scriptures, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and all those letters written by St. Paul and others. By listening to the scriptures being read each Sunday, by reading them as devotions, and finally by studying them, we, too, can have our minds opened to understand who Jesus of Nazareth is: “Jesus Christ, God’s son, Savior.”

And in addition to these holy scriptures, we have experiences that can lead us to faith in Christ.  Many find the natural world with its diversity of flora and fauna as testifying to God’s greatness. Then we may be able to go the next step to believe, as Peter said in the temple that day: that “the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant, Jesus.”

And in addition to these holy scriptures, we have holy communion which we also call Eucharist from the Greek word for “thanksgiving.”  As the bread and the wine are consecrated and we receive them, we may become acutely aware of Christ’s presence with us. In these elements, as we understand the great mystery of our faith, we can see, touch and taste Christ, using our senses, as the gathered disciples did that day.

Yes, in our giving thanks for the blessings we have received from God, we may come realize that the resurrected Christ is as close to us as our breath—perhaps the most important of all the blessings we have received, the gift of our very lives.  Then we do indeed give thanks for Jesus Christ, God’s son, Savior!

The 2nd Sunday of Easter - Living in Unity, Living in Diversity: A Wide Embrace

“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.”  Psalm 133 reminds us this unity is like precious oil or the dew which falls on Mount Zion.  These are indeed signs of God’s blessing, so unity among kin folk must also reflect God’s blessing.

Psalm 23 contains these words:  “ . . . you [God] anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. / Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

The baptismal rite we experienced last Sunday contains the outward and visible signs of water and oil. The person being baptized becomes a member of Christ’s body immediately—blessed and sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.

In the 17^th chapter of John’s gospel Jesus prays these words of intercession for his disciples: “All mine are yours and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer 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.

What’s happened? Right from the beginning, even among those closest to Jesus during his lifetime, there has been disagreement. We heard that Thomas would not believe what the other disciples told him about Jesus’ appearance where they were staying.  By his refusal he’s saying that these men and, most likely women, were not reliable witnesses.  Thomas felt his own eyes and hands could be trusted to evaluate the truth of the situation, but no one else's.  John doesn't report the other disciples’ reaction to his dismissing their testimony.

Did he make them angry? Or did they just shake their heads and say that’s just the way Thomas is? We do know from the rest of this story in John that Thomas wasn't put out of the group of disciples, who hid from the religious authorities behind a locked door. He was with them a week later when Jesus returned and showed him the marks of his crucifixion.

The reading from Acts talked about the group of believers who “were of one heart and soul.”  In response to the apostles’ testimony and God’s grace they received through that testimony worked to bridge the gap between the well-off and the poor of that early Christian community.  Samuel Balentine, a professor of Old Testament, described this sharing of resources “when occasions of need arose” grew out of “a  fundamental imperative to care for one another.”  He described a good neighbor as “one who responds to those in need with mercy and compassion.” So the potential for division between those who had property (lands or houses) and the poor  followers of this new movement was overcome with a very generous response.

Then we have evidence of  division from the first epistle of John.  The author of this letter begins by proclaiming his authority because of what he had seen and heard “concerning the word of life.”  He wrote that the fellowship among those were “eye witnesses” and those who only had heard testimony about Jesus would be a joy for him.  His language implied that a division between these two groups had caused him pain.  Now he urges all of them to confess their sins and accept forgiveness through Jesus’ work.  If they are able to do this, they can walk in “the light” of Christ and be in fellowship “with one another.”  Fellowship with one another means that joy will be shared.  Sinfulness will cause division.  Accepting that we do sin, but wanting to walk in the light of Christ, then offering and accepting forgiveness can heal the division.

As I was thinking through the issue of unity and division in our readings today, I began to realize how important this issue is for us today.  While the unity spoken about in the psalm may be a tribal sort of unity, the unity or fellowship spoken of in the reading from first epistle of John and in Jesus’ words of blessing in the gospel reading imply a unity that is broadly inclusive.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 

Our Christian unity, if inclusive, should not rest on uniformity of ideas or beliefs.  Rather it should rest on how supportive and compassionate we are.  It should rest on our willingness to admit when we have fallen short of our desire to walk in the light of Christ.  It should rest on our offering and accepting forgiveness in order to create a joy-filled fellowship.  It should rest on our accepting where each of us is in our faith journey.  If there is a “Thomas” among us, we show the same tolerance for his or her concerns as Jesus did. And, yes, our unity must be centered on Christ.

I worked in a school a long time ago where the guidance secretary and I thought a lot alike.  Because I had the responsibility for making sure the records for special needs students were in order, the secretary and I chatted frequently.  Sometimes an administrator or another staff member would do something that really irritated both of us.  Then we would say that if only “they” would put the two of us in charge, things would run smoothly and be done right.  Our musings were a good way to let off steam, but our being dictators would not have been a good way to build fellowship—no matter how right we may have been!

         Rather, fellowship must be built on the unity that comes through working to create trust and acting with compassion.  Unity does not depend on defining “right” and “wrong,” but being willing to dwell with others in the uncertainty found in the diversity needed to include the whole world: “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate . . . Jesus Christ, the Righteous, and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  With that said, knowing we can depend on God’s grace, now we can relax and concentrate on loving our neighbors!

                *Samuel Balentine in "Feasting on the Word - Year B - Vol. 2," p. 385.

Easter Day 2015 - A Baptism on Easter Day

One of our Easter hymns begins with these words: “Welcome happy morning!”  The second and third verses—which can be skipped according to the asterisks at the beginning of the stanzas—talk about the coming of earth being clothed in “spring” with “blooms in every meadow” and “leaves on every bough.”  With Easter’s being so early this year, these signs of spring and symbols of Christ’s resurrection are barely present.

Our understanding of Easter is highly influenced by our climate: reawakening of the earth after winter and Christ’s resurrection seem to work together well.  Of course, it’s fall in the Southern Hemisphere, so they would eliminate these verses.  And some places have little in the way of seasons, just dry or rainy seasons.

Speaking of water, let us remember that baptism takes its pattern from Jesus’ death and resurrection.  In the prayer called “Thanksgiving over the Water” I say these words, “We thank you Father for the water of Baptism.  In it we are buried with Christ in his death by it we share in his resurrection. Through it we a reborn by the Holy Spirit.”

Resurrection came unexpectedly for the followers of Jesus, even those in the inner circle.  Mary Magdalene saw the stone covering the entrance to Jesus’ tomb and concluded that Jesus’ body had been removed by someone.  The reaction of Peter and the beloved disciple shows their confusion.  John reported that upon seeing the tomb was empty with the burial cloths still there these two disciples “believed,” but then they went home.  John comments on this by saying, “for as yet they did not understand the scriptures that he must rise from the dead.”

Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, would not allow the mystery of the empty tomb remain unsolved.  Her persistence was blessed by being the first, in John's account, to see the Risen Christ, even though she mistook him at first for the gardener. But upon hearing him speak her name, she knew he was her teacher.  He made her the first apostle by sending her to “the brothers” to tell them the good news of Christ’s resurrection.

The movement from sadness and despair to recognizing that God had indeed defeated death happened unexpectedly and quickly for Mary.  Yet, despite how quickly she understood what had transpired, much more slowly she had to figure out how to live in this new reality.

For baptism comes rather quickly (and unexpectedly as well, if an infant is baptized). With the water and the oil of chrism the baptized person becomes marked “as Christ's own forever.”  But as with all disciples throughout these over 2,000 years, the newly baptized will come to understand and respond to their new reality slowly day by day for the rest of their lives.  If he or she is an infant, that child will depend on their parents, godparents, family, and the church community of which they are apart.

Yes, the joy of a new life in Christ will be tempered by the difficulty of living as Jesus taught us to live.  So to the joy of this Easter Day.  While this Easter Day will hold great for us in these moments of worship and perhaps great for many of us will find joy in the rest of the day’s activities, Easter Day should be viewed the beginning of another year’s journey with all the normal difficulties and some significant difficulties that make up our lives.  Yet our days, lived in the knowledge of God’s love for us and God’s grace with the power to redeem our mistakes and our misfortunes, can be filled with the joy of thanksgiving for God’s presence with us, God’s blessing us, and God’s never-failing care for us.  Welcome happy morning! Alleluia, the Lord is risen!

Good Friday 2015 - How Shall We Look at Jesus' Crucifixion?

“I danced on Friday when the world turned black/It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.  They buried my body and they thought I’d gone/But I am the dance and I still go on . . .”  Do you recognize this?  Yes, "Lord of the Dance" is a hymn with words written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963.  On this Good Friday we remember Jesus’ horrific torture and execution, alluded to in Carter’s words. 

Perhaps we will respond to it through a theological lens.  We call one of the most famous of these lenses “substitutionary atonement.”  This theology appears in a work by Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury who held this position in the latter part of the 11^th century and the early part of the 12^th.  He wrote a book about why Jesus had to die.  Its Latin title, Cur Deus Homo, can be loosely translated “Why God Became Man.”

Our sins, according to Anselm, cannot be forgiven without satisfaction, meaning God has been angered and injured by our sin—so we are damned for eternity. We were unable to do anything to satisfy God because of our massive sinfulness.  Only the physical sacrifice of a sinless person would make God relent and not damn us all.  Thus only Jesus, God-made-man, could be killed to satisfy God.

Although many of us were taught this as children in our Sunday School lessons, modern theologians reject this, because they view God as loving us without reserve.  Yes, we will be accountable for our lives, but in the end God’s grace will grant us eternal life. Jesus came to be with us, fully human and fully divine, to demonstrate God’s love for us—even allowing the world’s evil to do its worst on “Good Friday.” So our lives should be transformed by responding to God’s grace.  We will love God will all our heart, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.  We will do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. 

Or we might respond to it through a biblical lens.  From the earliest days of Christianity the passages from Isaiah’s prophecy have been applied to Jesus.  Historically this may not be the most correct way to interpret this passage, but through the eyes of faith we can see Jesus pre-figured in Isaiah’s fourth servant song.

Isaiah 53: 4-6 Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This passage could be said to speak about a model servant of God who willing becomes a scapegoat, killed for the sake of his community. Yet through that servant’s death the community is restored, healed and made whole.  For many of us a modern example of this suffering servant would be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Or we might respond to this day through a personal lens.  As you may know, my husband died in November of last year. He suffered from lung cancer, which took away, piece by piece, all the activities he held most dear, including attending classical music concerts and spending happy times with his family, especially his beloved grandson, Jacob.  You may have witnessed such suffering in a loved one or friend.  We bring our experience of suffering unto death with us to our worship on Good Friday.  We pray that this suffering not to be the last word in the life of this person we held dear—or even in our own lives.

John Donne, a priest in the Church of England in the 17^th century, wrote a sonnet, which spoke to his belief that death would not have the last word. Through this poem, he told death off. I read it at my husband’s funeral, and I want to share it with you today.

A Holy Sonnet:  “Death be not Proud” by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,

For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow.

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Whatever lens we use today to help us understand the meaning of this dark day we call Good Friday, let us ask God to touch our hearts and give us the strength to bear our own crosses, to live as Jesus taught us to live, and to die with a holy hope in the grace and glorious victory of God.

Palm Sunday 2015 - Jesus' Journey; Our Journey

Jesus had been on a journey, and so have we.  Jesus’ human life began in Mary’s womb and ended when he died on the cross.  Our lives began in our biological mothers’ wombs and will end at our death—most like in a bed, although some folks’ lives will end in a disaster—in a crash, in gunfire, in a storm, in a flood, in a landslide, in fire . . .

Today, through listening to the scriptures read on this Palm Sunday, we encounter the last days of Jesus’ human life.   On occasion we’ve been asked to imagine where we might place ourselves in that story, as in the hymn, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

This can be a fruitful approach for finding meaning in the Passion Gospel.  You may grieve with Mary.  You may get angry at Judas’ treachery.  You may eagerly reach for a piece of bread or the cup of wine at the Last Supper.  You may come to understand how frightened Peter was, which led him to deny Jesus’ three times.  You may even go so far as to imagine the physical and spiritual agony Jesus suffered as he was tortured and crucified.

But an equally fruitful approach might be to recall a time of suffering for yourself, a loved one or a friend.  You can also imagine yourself in the midst of the suffering of people you’ve heard about or read about in the news.

Let’s pause for a moment and bring such a moment from our memories into our imaginations.  [Pause] 

As painful as these memories may be, God can use such moments of suffering to help us grow in our understanding of how much God cares for us.  As painful as these memories may be, through them we can grow in our love for God and our desire to live as God would have us live: to work for justice and to find compassion in our hearts for people who suffer.

Dr. David Lose, a Lutheran pastor and president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, tells us how he views Jesus’ Passion:

“Jesus suffers, that is, so that when we are suffering we know God understands and cares for us. Jesus is utterly alone by the end of the story so that when we feel alone we know God understands and is with us. Jesus cries out in despair so that when we become convinced the whole world has conspired against us and feel ready to give up, we know that God understands and holds onto us. Jesus dies so that we know God understands death and the fear of death and reminds us that death does not have the last word.

“All that we see and hear [on this Palm Sunday], all that we read and sing, all of this is for us. And so the fourth century theologian Athanasius, speaking of the Incarnation that reaches its climax in the crucifixion, said that God becomes like us in Jesus so that we may become like God. And twelve hundred years later, Martin Luther described the cross as the divine exchange where Jesus takes our life and lot that we may enjoy his righteousness and victory.”

This Holy Week let us ponder how we might find God in the darkest moments of our lives.  Let us ponder how knowing God in this way might lead us to become people who work for justice and practice compassion—who, even when tempted to give up hope, still can long for and strive for the reign of the risen Christ.

--Dr. David Lose from Day 1 - http://www.davidlose.net/2015/03/palmpassion-sunday-b-entering-the-story/