The Farewell Address (John 13: 31-35)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 4/28/13

On July 4, 1939 thousands of fans packed into Yankee stadium, but on this day they did not come to see a baseball game; no they came for a much more somber occasion. They came because news had spread that one of their beloved Yankees, Lou Gehrig, had been diagnosed with a new rare disease, one that would later be named after him, and one that would eventually take his life. Knowing the imminence of his own death, Gehrig came to give a farewell address to his loyal fans. He was joined by some of the great Yankees of all time, including Babe Ruth, and when it came time for him to speak he uttered some of the most famous lines in sports history. “Today I consider myself, the luckiest man on the face of this Earth.” Those words have lived on and for as great of a player as he was, for all of the records that he held, this may have been his defining moment.

            Another farewell address in sports that happened a little more recently also holds such great power. It was 1993 at the ESPY’s a sports award show much like the Oscars or the Grammy’s. Jim Valvano was the recipient of a humanitarian award. Valvano had been the head coach of the NC State basketball and had even lead them to an improbable National Championship in the early 80’s, and yet much like Gehrig, Valvano’s legacy may be defined by his farewell address. Jimmy V as he was lovingly referred to as, was diagnosed with cancer, his body riddled with tumors with nothing the doctors could do. He teamed up with ESPN to start the Jimmy V foundation to raise money for cancer research, something that at the time was not as common and as he said in his speech was ten times less funded than AID’s research. During this speech there are many classic lines, but two of them have stood out over time to become the defining lines of this farewell address. First he says, “To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.”  And the second legendary line that has become the motto of the Jimmy V foundation is, “Don’t give up don’t ever give up.” Jimmy V after giving this speech was so weak that he had to be helped off the stage by Dick Vitale and Mike Krzyzewski. Jimmy V died less than two months after that speech. It is still played in its entirety near the beginning of the college basketball season to raise money for the Jimmy V foundation.

            There is just something about farewell addresses that gives the words that the person is saying so much weight, so much gravitas. A person knows they are going to die and these are the words that they find important to share before they pass away. “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” “Don’t give up, Don’t ever give up.” If someone who is dying, someone who has had time to reflect upon their own life and have come up with what is the most important things to say tells you something; you take it very seriously. It even becomes phrase or memory to remember them by.

            So why am I spending so much time on farewell addresses? Well, it is because our scripture for today is a farewell address of its own. Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he knows that his time is quickly coming, so he starts to tell the disciples about it. He starts off by talking about how he is glorified through God, and God’s is glorified through him, and some other very deep things that I’m sure that the disciples didn’t understand, and that will be the topic of discussion for us another day. The mood of the address changes quickly and becomes much more intimate, he says to the disciples, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you.” This is it, this is the iconic line, the build-up must be killing the disciples, what is it that Jesus is going to leave for them to remember? Jesus continues, “'Where I am going, you cannot come.”  Wait, what?! Where I am going you cannot come.  Jesus has come to the crucial moment of his farewell speech,  and what he says is  “Where I am going you cannot come.” At best,  this statement seems to be anti-climactic, a letdown, not what the disciples were expecting. At worst, this statement may have made the disciples feel as though their faith had been in vain. That they had been following the Messiah, holding on to the words of hope of eternal life that he had been sharing, only to hear Jesus say, “where I am going you cannot come.” We know that Jesus is not saying that we can’t come to heaven, we know that all who truly believe in Christ have the opportunity for eternal life, but for the disciples this could have been a shocking statement.  Even we today may be like the disciples wondering what he means when he says that we cannot go where Christ is going.  If we read the next line of what Jesus says we may however start to get a better understand of why Jesus would say such a thing.

After telling the disciples that the cannot go where he is going, Jesus says to them, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Jesus tells the disciples to love one another. Sure this is something that we have heard from Jesus multiple times, but here Jesus put an emphasis on this point, he says, “I give you a new commandment” This is our new commandment, our new charge, our new responsibility, to love each other. Jesus tells the disciples that when they show the same love for each other that Jesus showed for them, then everyone will know that they are disciples of Christ, or as the hymn states it,  “they will know we are Christians by our love.”

            When we hear this new commandment from Christ to love one another so that all will know that we are disciples of Christ, and when we hear it right after Jesus telling the disciples that where he is going they cannot come, it starts to become a little clearer about what Jesus is saying. He isn’t saying that we don’t have the opportunity to get to heaven, he isn’t saying “Nanny nanny boo boo, I’m going to heaven but you can’t come.  He is saying to the disciples, I have my work here on Earth, to die and rise again for the forgiveness of sins, and to ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. You also have work to do; that you should love each other so that all may know me through your love; that others may see my love working through you and want to follow as well. You see, the reason that Jesus says that we cannot come where he is going, is because we have been called to join in with God’s mission to the world, by showing God’s love to one another.

            So when Jesus tells us to love each other, we can read it as a command to first and foremost love the other followers of Christ. That there should not be backstabbing, hatred,  and malice between those who claim to be followers of Christ, because after all that is not how Christ loved us. The Bible says a house divided against itself cannot stand, so how can we be truly followers of Christ, living out God’s mission for the world, if we are in constant conflict with ourselves. We can’t. I think this commandment to love each other goes much deeper than not fighting with each other however. If we are to love each other as Jesus love the disciples, then we must love each other, brokenness and all. We must realize that the disciples that Jesus called were not the perfect, clean, respectable members of society; they were fisherman, tax collectors, those that society saw as unclean, or even as morally corrupt.  Jesus however called these men and used them in extraordinary ways for ministry. And yet sadly, in most churches today there is this concept that those who follow Christ have no blemishes; and if they (which they do, then it is something that we must hide).   Countless Christians sit in their pews week after week battling with addictions, struggling in their marriage, fighting depression, fighting eating disorders; and they have no idea that their neighbor sitting next to them is going through difficult trials of their own, maybe even the same circumstance.  When Jesus is calling us to love each other as he loves us, he is calling us to embrace each other’s pains and weaknesses; to embrace each other’s faults. Not that we embrace the faults themselves, but that we do not create a culture of shame, but instead create a safe sanctuary where children of God feel safe to wrestle with their difficulties, knowing that those around them are there to love them. This is truly loving each other as Christ loved us.

            Loving each other is not contained only in the walls of this building, Love each other does not only mean loving other Christians, but if we are to truly love in the way that Christ loves, then we know that we must all of God’s creation. Jesus was in ministry to the sick, the poor, those in prison, those oppressed by race, or nationality, or economic standings. If we are to love each other as Christ loves us, then we must love in a similar manner. We should be visiting the hospitals, nursing homes and the shut-in. In our culture today there is a unspoken belief that once a person is no longer “useful” to society then we should put them out of sight and out of mind. As Christians however we know that all life is sacred, that all life serves a purpose on Earth and if we are not there to affirm and treasure that life who will be? The same goes for prison; society see criminals as those who have lost all rights, all privileges, in essence have lost their humanity, but we as Christians know that through Christ there is hope for all, that through Christ there is forgiveness. We have all probably heard of the wonderful works that prison chaplains have done, bringing prisoners to repentance. For some of us this is hard to accept that someone could commit a crime and still reap the benefits of eternal life, but this is what is so wonderful about our savior’s love, is that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Prisoners still face their sentence on Earth, but like all of us have the opportunity for eternal life; therefore we as Christians should not hesitate to show our love to those in prison through visitations or simply cards expressing our love. These are just a few ways that we as Christians can show Christ’s love to the world, but there are so many more ways. It is the call that Christ has placed upon us; to love each other as he loves us. That we cannot yet go where he is going, because we are called to be in ministry to each other and to the world. It may at first sound like a burden, but when it is all said and done, when we have spent our lives in love, we like Gehrig may be able to say, “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this Earth.”

The Shepherd's Voice (John 10:22-30)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 4/21/13

“The Lord is My Shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.  He leads me in the right paths for his name sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” These words or a another translation of these words from psalm 23 hold a special place in the hearts of so many of us. It is usually one of the first psalms that we ever learn.  We hear it frequently in times of great joy, but we especially hear it in times of our greatest distress. I would bet that it is the most common psalm used at funerals, and it seems to bring such peace to so many who are grieving. I have even been able to personally witness the power that these words have. I once had the opportunity to visit the family of a man who was in his last days on Earth. The family asked me to pray over their husband and father, and so together we prayed, but as we finished praying one of the family members asked if we could conclude by praying these words from the 23^rd psalm. It was a powerful moment and one that seemed to bring some sense of peace and closure to the family. What is it about these words that bring us so much comfort? What is it about saying the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, that gives us a feeling of such peace? Our scripture today may not explain the power of these words, but it may help to give them even more power and meaning for us.

            Our scripture for today starts with Jesus in Jerusalem at what the Bible tells us is the festival of the dedication in winter. In other words Jesus was in Jerusalem during the time of Hanukkah. Like so many of the stories that we have of Jesus in the Bible, this story starts with Jesus being asked questions; this time he is being asked by some of the Jewish leaders at the Temple. “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah tell us plainly.” The text makes it seem as though these leaders are hanging on the words of Jesus, waiting for him to proclaim that he is the Messiah so that they can follow him; however there seems to be something lost in the translation. The leaders actually use an idiom that would not make sense in English so translators tried to have it make sense to us.  The original tone of the phrase is probably more hostile than it seems when we read it. The leaders are probably asking a question more like, “How long are you going to keep annoying us, or How long are you going to keep bothering us.[1]” The leaders wanted to know whether or not Jesus professed to be the Messiah and what evidence he had to support it. It is difficult to tell whether they truly believed that it was possible if he were the Messiah or whether they were simply asking him so that they could make a case against him.

            The scripture does make one thing clear about this interaction however, and that is that they did not know him. Sure they knew who Jesus was, they had heard about the signs and wonders that he had done, this is probably where their curiosity came from; but for as much as they knew about Jesus they did not know Jesus. They did not know that this man was the Messiah. This is made clear when Jesus answers them saying, “I have told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”  In essence Jesus is saying to the Jewish leaders, you ask me to tell you if I am the Messiah but I have shown you. I have done many works in the name of the father, but as he says later in the passage, “The father and I are one.”  Why do you need me to tell you that I am the Messiah when my works attest to the fact that I am. You do not follow me, you are not part of my flock and therefore you do not believe.

In English we can say that we know something or someone, however in many other languages such as Greek and Spanish to name a few, there are multiple different words for knowledge. These words differentiate between types of knowledge.  For example if we were to say we know George Washington, what would we be saying? We would be saying that we know about him, we know his history, and why he is significant. On the other hand, if we were to say something like, I know my son, or I know my wife and they would never do something like that, what are we saying then? In this instance it doesn’t seem to be a knowledge based on intellect, it seems to be a knowledge based on experience or relationships. It then starts to become clear that there is a difference between intellectual knowledge and relational knowledge.  We could even say one is a knowledge of the mind while the other is a knowledge of the heart. This difference in knowledge seems to be what is at play in our story for today. The Jewish leaders desire an intellectual knowledge that Jesus is Messiah, that want to prove that it is either true or false. They know about Jesus and what he has done, and yet they do not believe because they do not know him. They do not have that deep relation with Christ. They are not part of his flock.

            This leads to us back to the words of psalm 23, this might help to explain why it is that the imagery of the Lord as our shepherd is so comforting to us; because after Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that they are not part of his sheep, he goes on to say, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” When we hear these words from Jesus as he describes himself as a shepherd and us as his sheep, we get a sense of great intimacy. Whereas the Jewish conception of a Messiah is a great ruler, a military avenger; Christ likens himself to a shepherd. It seems to be in stark opposition to the expected role of the Messiah. The Son of God should be strong and mighty, the Messiah should almost be like a king, and we his subjects, and yet Christ does not use this comparison but rather compares himself to a shepherd.

            What beautiful imagery the shepherd truly is for our Lord! On the one hand the power dynamic is still there. A shepherd is in control of the flock, rounding them up, herding them where they are supposed to go. The shepherd plays the role of protector, keeping predators away from the flock.  If we remember the parable of the lost sheep then we remember that the shepherd is also responsible for the group as a whole but for each sheep individually and would go to any lengths to find a lost sheep. All of this stresses a status of power, and yet there is a great relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.

The first aspect of that relationship is that the shepherd knows his sheep. Even when the sheep of two different flocks come together, the shepherd is able to know which is his. The great news of Jesus as the shepherd is that we are all his sheep and that he knows each one of us. The Bible tells us that we are wonderfully made and that even the hairs of our head are known by God. This truly is good news. We have a God who truly knows us, knows our joys and knows our pain. A savior who sees each and every one of us as a unique and special individual; a individual worth seeking after when they are lost. Jesus says earlier in the chapter, “I am the Good shepherd… I lay my life down for the flock.”  This may be the most amazing element of this relationship between sheep and the shepherd; that when push comes to shove, when the lives of the sheep are in danger, the shepherd will risk his own life for the sake of the sheep. Jesus is indeed the good shepherd and he laid down his life for us. Not only did he lay his life down for us but here the good news, Christ died for us while we were still sinners, that proves God’s love for us. The good shepherd died for us, even when we did not deserve it. It is that sacred relationship between the sheep and the shepherd.

The first aspect of that relationship is that the sheep know their shepherd’s voice. Earlier in the chapter Jesus talks about the nature of sheep. He says that sheep are able to distinguish their shepherd’s voice from the voices of others. I’ve heard stories of different flocks that were intermingled and yet at the call of their shepherd’s voice they quickly separated from each other, all because they could recognize their voice. The Bible tells us that when a stranger comes and tries to call the sheep they will not follow because they do not recognize their voice. We take it for granted but one of the greatest aspects of our relationship with God is not only that God is loving, and merciful, and just; it’s not only that the shepherds knows us and seeks after us when we are lost, but one of the greatest aspects of that relationship is that we are able to hear  the shepherd’s voice. God is not some distant being, watching from afar as play out our lives here on Earth; God is ever present, God is with us, walking beside us, leading us, calling out to us.

            In the midst of the horrible tragedy that happened Monday during the Boston Marathon there have been a lot of voices calling out. There have been voices of fear, voices of pain, voices of anger and retaliation,  There have even been voices questioning whether God even exists because if God did why would something like this be allowed to happen? Still, in the middle of all of these voices, in the middle of our own doubt and fear, we as God’s flock are still able to hear the shepherd calling out to us, saying to us, “yea though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, do not fear for I am with you.” The voice reminds us that even in times of such tragedy, we should as Mr. Rogers said, “look for the helpers.” We may not be able to understand how or why things like this happen, but if you are asking where is God in all of this, look for the helpers. Look at those brave men and women who rushed into the debris to try and save those hurt by the explosion, putting their own lives at risk. Look at those runners who after running a marathon, who continued to run to the local hospitals so that they could give blood. Look at the countless cards, emails, facebook and twitter messages that have been sent to the victims and their families. Look at the millions of people from different faith traditions gathering in prayer for those involved. When we see these things we are able to see God at work. We are able to see God’s love and mercy at work at a time of such great need. We are able to hear the good shepherd calling us just as he called Peter saying, “tend my sheep” and we are able to see those who have followed the call. It is this relationship that makes psalm 23 so special to us. It is a relationship that allows to say the Lord is my shepherd, and to claim that surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

           

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[1] New Interpreters Bible Commentary

Once ,Twice, Three Times My Savior (John 21:1-19)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 4/14/13

 

One of my favorite movies of all time would probably have to be Braveheart. It is a movie about medieval Scotland and the Revolutionary William Wallace. Scotland at that time was under oppressive British rule, so oppressive that one of the laws was that British troops were given the right to be with a man’s new wife on their wedding day.  After William’s wife resists and is killed, William starts a revolt against the king in attempts to free Scotland. There is one aspect of this movie that reminds me of our scripture for today. While in the midst of his struggles to free Scotland, William elicits the help of one of the noblemen of Scotland. He was a Scotsman who had been given money and some power from the king in exchange for his obedience. William asks for his help on the battle field and he consents. During a major battle however, as William is relying on the forces of this nobleman for help, the nobleman abandons William in his time of need. William is later captured and executed, however the movie ends with this nobleman taking up the fight, and leading Scotland to freedom. It is a true story of redemption.

            Our scripture for this morning is also a story of redemption. In our scripture for today there are really two different things going on. First you have Jesus appearing on the beach to the disciples and telling them where to cast their nests in order to catch more fish. The second part of the story is a conversation between Jesus and Simon Peter. This morning we will be focusing on the latter.  The gospel of John gives us a fascinating conversation between Jesus and Peter. “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."  A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."  He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him  the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.”  

            This is a very interesting and confusing conversation between Jesus and Peter.  Jesus continues to ask Peter if he loves him, and Peter keeps answering yes. We can sense the frustration of Peter, and we begin to wonder why is Jesus doing this? There are many theories and interpretations to what this means, and many of them are correct, but this morning as we ask the question why did Jesus ask Peter this question three times, we must turn to another scripture that might shed some light on the question. We must go back to John 18 and the night in which  Jesus was handed over to be killed. “ Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." After this the scripture switches to Jesus being questioned by the high priests, but a little later in the chapter the story comes back to Peter. “Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it and said, "I am not."  One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?"  Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

            And with the cock crowing, Peter had fulfilled what was prophesied by Jesus, that Peter would deny Jesus three times before the cock crowed twice. We must realize that this is not some minor incident. While Jesus had twelve disciples that he relied on, there is no arguing that Peter was special, that Peter was some sort of leader amongst the disciples. Peter is talked highly about throughout the gospels, and even this gospel of John, who frequently refers to a different disciple as the disciple whom Jesus loved, still talks about Peter as though he was a leader of the disciples. At the mount in which Jesus was transfigured before a select few disciples, Jesus even tells Peter that Peter is the rock on which he will build his church. This even plays a huge role in the Roman Catholic church, as it is believed that is pope is in a lineage all the way down from Peter himself. This means that one of the great leaders of the disciples and one of the leaders that the church today emulates, denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times. This certainly seems to put a dent in his credentials as a Christian leader.

            This leads us back to our scripture for today.  As Jesus is asking the question of whether Peter loves him, I can imagine that Peter has that fateful night in the back of his mind. He must be thinking that he had betrayed Jesus, and now Jesus does not trust him eanymore. It must have been a horrible feeling, to feel as though the one that you love so much as your Lord and savior no longer trusts you. It must have been humiliating to feel as though you had let your savior down. While this may have been how Peter was feeling while Jesus was asking him these questions, I think that it would be wrong to assume that this was Jesus’ intent. In fact if we look at these questions from the perspective of that fateful night in which Peter denied Christ, we may see that this moment now on the beach is actually a chance for redemption.

            As we think about that horrible night for Peter, let’s pinpoint what it is that Peter did that would make him feel guilty or ashamed. It is a pretty to figure out; Peter was asked if he knew Christ and he denied him. He didn’t just deny him once, not even twice, but Peter denied Christ three times! Peter wasn’t even being asked whether or not he loved Christ, he was simply being asked if he knew him, and still Peter denied knowing Christ. And now Jesus is here with Peter asking whether or not Peter loves him. At this moment we are going to take a step back and have some of our scripture acted out and then maybe we will start to get a sense of the significance of this moment.

Reader 1: "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?"

Me: “I am not”

Reader 2: “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

Me: “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

Reader 2: Feed My Lambs 

Reader 1: You are not also one of his disciples, are you?"

Me: I am Not

Reader 2: “Simon son of John, do you love me?"

Me: Yes, Lord; you know that I love you

Reader 2: Tend my Sheep

Reader 1: "Did I not see you in the garden with him?" 

Me: You must be mistaken; I do not know this man

Reader 2: Simon son of John, do you love me?

Me: Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.

Reader 2: Feed My Sheep

Cock-a-doodle-do

            This is the beauty of our scripture for today.  Three  times Peter denied Christ on the night in which Christ gave himself up for us, and now three times Peter is able to tell Christ that he loves him. It is not Jesus doubting Peter because even Peter says that Jesus knows all things and knows that Peter loves him. This conversation was a gracious act of mercy by Jesus, allowing Peter to redeem himself by testifying to the goodness of the Lord. Our passage for today is a redemption story. It is a story that tells us that even when we fail, even when we turn our backs on Christ, Christ is there offering us grace and forgiveness. That is why our liturgy for the sacrament of Holy Communion says,  “when we turned away and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.” Christ’s love remained steadfast, it remained steadfast for Peter even after betrayed him, and it remains steadfast for each and every one of us here this morning. We just have to answer that one question, “Do you love me?” Of Jesus I love you. 

            If we stopped here with the message however we would be missing one crucial element of the story. After this great moment of redemption, after each time Peter was able to affirm his love for Christ, what did Jesus say? Feed my sheep, Tend my lambs, feed my sheep. You see Jesus did not simply say I forgive you go on your way, he did not say you are now redeemed let’s go back to eating fish on the beach. He says feed my sheep, tend my lambs. Christ gives Peter a calling, a ministry of his own. Now there are some who would argue that this was some penalty for Peter’s betrayal. Some would argue that since we do not merit the grace that is freely given that we must do the work for Christ out of our debt for him, but this is not how I understand it because Christ did not cancel our debt of sin simply so that we would become indebted to him. What type of freedom is that?  Instead, Jesus is saying,  Peter, I told you that you are the rock on which I will build my church, and I did not lie. I have not turned my back on you Peter, you have not lost my trust, I will still build my church upon, here is your mission, feed my sheep.  Our calling to ministry, and when I say that I mean all of us,  is not out of  some debt that we have to God, but is out of God’s love, that even after we fail him time after time, Christ still sends us forth in his name. That with every denial  there is a chance for redemption, that every time we turn away, there is still an opportunity to serve. That even in all of our failings, we are called to be Christ arms and feet in this world. It is a humbling and daunting task, and yet one that proves God’s love towards us.

 

 

Something Beautiful (John 20: 19-31)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 4/7/13

 

 

This morning as I begin I must admit that earlier this week I had a sermon all ready to go. I was going to preach the typical sermon about our scripture lesson for today. I was going to talk about Thomas and to talk about doubt, I was going to talk about our need to see something for ourselves for us to believe, and the importance of faith when we can’t see any tangible signs of God in our lives. It would have been a fine sermon, worthy of preaching this morning. This week however I was reading a book by Nancy Eisland called  “The Disabled God” and the imagery of the book, the way it tied into our scripture for this morning, the way it spoke to the depths of my soul, well it was certainly a movement of the spirit, and so having a sermon already finished I started anew, with a rough, unclean and yet hopefully powerful message for you today.

            Because our scripture for today has almost always been interpreted from the standpoint of faith and doubt; and as I said this was even the way that I had intended to preach it. We focus in on Thomas, we focus on his doubt, we focus on his need to stick his fingers into the side of Jesus to know that it was truly the Lord. So often we focus so much on Thomas in this story because we relate to him, we have fears and doubts just like he did. This however leads that message of this story is centered around Thomas and feeling of Jesus’ wounds,  and we forget that it is not about Thomas, it is not about us, the message of the story is that Christ is risen, that Christ has returned to his disciples. What through me for loop, what blew my mind as I read the book is that for the first I stopped thinking about Thomas putting his hand in Jesus’ wounds, and focused on the fact that Jesus had these wounds in the first place.

            When it comes to Holy week and Good Friday and all of the celebrations that go along with the crucifixion of Jesus we do not forget to focus on the wounds. We think about the nails in his hands and feet, we think about the crown of thorns around his head we think about his pierced side, we focus on the excruciating pain on the cross and how much Jesus suffered for us out of love. When the Easter season rolls around however we think about the resurrected Jesus, we think about new life, and we tend to discard the wounds and the pain of the cross as if they were something of the past that has now simply been replaced. This is particularly true  for us Protestants, in fact it has sparked theological discussions between depictions of the cross and that of the crucifix.  As some of you may have noticed most protestant crosses do not depict Jesus on the cross, whereas the crucifix, or in other words a depiction of the cross with Jesus on it, is more common in Catholic churches. Protestants have claimed that the crucifix does not tell the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead and reigns forever; this is a true and valid argument.  In our attempts to get Jesus off of the cross however it seems as though we try to quickly brush aside the pain, the brokenness, the agony of the cross. The true gospel message can only be embraced when we learn that the crucifix and the empty cross are integral for our understanding of the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

            We as Christians and especially as Protestants have embraced the good news of a resurrected God,  however I fear that far too often we embrace it because we are afraid to believe in a savior who died on a cross. That should not be possible, we are only able to believe in the death because we know of the good news of the resurrection; otherwise we know that we too would be like Thomas, not believing until we saw it for ourselves. But we do believe in the resurrection, we believe that Christ came back from the dead conquering sin and death. We want to believe that when Jesus came back he came back even more perfect if that is even possible, and if it isn’t then we want to believe that he came back like new, once more restored in full glory. We want to think this way because it gives us the hope of overcoming our brokenness, of getting rid of our pain and our wounds and being made perfect like Christ in his resurrection. This is why our story for today is so shocking, because for as much as we want to picture a God who overcame the pain and agony of the cross, as much as we want a savior who put all of that behind him, we see a restored and resurrected savior, with holes in his hands and in his side.

            This is not what we want to think of when we think about restoration, this is not what we want to think about when we think about becoming perfect. We want to think about leaving our past in the past where it belongs, we want to think about getting rid of our brokenness and our pain, the holes in Jesus’ hands and side is a sign that our brokenness is not covered up, it is not forgotten, but instead we have a savior who can restore us through our brokenness and pain. We have a savior who can take “broken aside and make it beautiful; a savior who did not cover up his wounds but helped Thomas to believe because of them. I want to be clear that it is not that God puts these things in our lives, God does not want us to suffer, however as a fallen people suffering has become part of our human condition. The good news is that God is there to help us through it, and that God can even use our brokenness and turn it into a way to serve and glorify him.  Today know that whatever pains our brokenness of your past that has shaped you to be the person you are today, is not something to be locked away or forgotten, but that God can you our brokenness to make something beautiful in the world.

The Empty Tomb (John 20:1-18)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 3/31/13

 

 

Many of us have experienced the death of a good friend or a family member; it is for sure a time of deep pain and deep sadness; a time of grief, and a time of loss. Now imagine that only days after that loved one had been buried you were going to the gravesite to pay your respect to your love one. When you arrive at the gravesite, you find the dirt piled up around the side, leaving the hole that had been dug open. You look into hole and see the casket with its cover removed, and find that the casket is empty. Think now about the emotions you would be feeling at this moment. Confusion: what has happened, where is the body, how long has it been missing? Anger: someone must have taken the body, grave robbers, why would someone do something like this? And of course sadness: I just lost one of my best friends in the world and now this happens! I can’t even come to mourn my friend’s death, and now I have to deal with this! You see one of the groundskeepers and you run up to him in pure desperation and ask him, “Where have they taken my friend, the body is gone, if you know where it is please just tell me!”

            If we can wrap our minds and our hearts around these emotions then we can begin to understand the emotions at play in our Easter story for today. We so quickly jump to the good news of Easter, but we first put ourselves in the shoes of Mary and the disciples as they visited the tomb that morning. We must experience the pain with them; we must experience the horror of the empty tomb.  That is after all how our story for this morning starts. It is early in the morning, we are told in fact that it is still dark,  and Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb to visit Jesus and we are told in the other gospels that they are coming to take care of some of the final burial procedures as well. When Mary arrives she however finds that the stone had been removed and that the tomb was empty. We can almost feel the panic set in, she runs back to Peter and the other disciple and tells them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."  The panic continues as they all run back to the tomb, Peter and the other disciple look into the tomb for themselves and see the linen that they had wrapped Jesus’ body in lying in the tomb, and the cloth that was wrapped around his head was folded  up in another location in the tomb. We do not know much about the disciples reactions other that they saw and believed, and then returned to their homes; however the story continues to stay with Mary.

            Mary is now outside of tomb weeping, if we think back to the imagery at the beginning we can start to understand why. For Mary this empty tomb was not a sign of hope, but a sign of loss. That she had already lost her dear friend, teacher, and savior, and now the missing body, the empty tomb further drives in that point, that Jesus is gone, and not even his body can be visited. At this time she saw two angels in the tomb who ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." At that moment she may have been literally talking about Jesus’ body but I can’t help but to think that she was saying much more. It is almost as if her hope was gone, as God was gone. They have taken away my Lord and I do not I do not know where them have laid him. 

            It is at this point that a man, whom Mary assumes is the gardener, comes up and asks her, “"Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?"  To which Mary replies, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."  Mary does not recognize that this man is in fact Jesus. It seems strange to us, how could Mary not recognize him. How could she not recognize the man who saved her life, the man that she has been follow for the past couple of years? How could she not notice the holes in his hands and the piercing in his side?  This is not the only account in the Bible in which Jesus comes appears to his loved ones and they don’t notice it. There is also the story of the walk to Emmaus in which Jesus joins a couple of his followers in their walk as they even talk about the events of Jesus’ death, and yet they too do not recognize Jesus. How can this be?   There have many theories about it, some have argued that Jesus was hiding his appearance, or that he came back in a different body. Some argue that he came back in his same body but completely healed of his wounds.  Yet from other stories such as Thomas sticking his fingers into the side of Jesus, we can conclude that it was Jesus in his own body, scars and all, and that those close to him simply didn’t recognize them. They may have been so overcome by grief, by pain and by loss that they could not recognize Jesus standing there in front of them. That their hope had been shattered so much, that there was no way the savior could be alive. It took Jesus calling her by name, Mary! for her to realize who stood in front of her.

            With the calling of her name, her eyes were opened, she realized that Jesus Christ her Lord had risen. She cries out, “Rabbouni!” which means teacher; a term of endearment yet respect.  With the calling of her name her tears of pain and sorrow become tears of joy. The excruciating pain of loss that she had felt on Good Friday and that that had been stirred up again this day, had now been turned to overwhelming joy. The empty tomb which to her was once a reminder of all that she had lost, was now a sign of great hope, because that empty tomb was a sign that Jesus Christ has risen and conquered death. The savior lives! All of the confusion of how the savior could have died, all of the doubt that must have swirled around in her soul on that long dark Saturday, all made sense now, because once again Jesus had done something greater than anyone expected, even though he had told them all along.  The empty tomb would be forever on a symbol for Christ’s power, that even death could not conquer our Lord.

            As we have explored the emotions of this Easter story; as we have wept with Mary, looked in on the tomb with her in complete and utter fear,  I imagine that we have found that we ourselves still feel many of the emotions that Mary felt that day; confusion, fear, doubt, sorrow, hopelessness, and the list goes on. In fact the more we dive into this story the more that we realize that still today we are a lot like Mary was on that Easter morning. How often do we fail to remember and recognize the good news of the empty tomb? In Christianity today there is a growing theology of what we call deism, whether we like to admit it or not. Deism is the believe that there is a God who created the heavens and the Earth, who set everything in motion, and now sits back and watches as we humans run our course on Earth. We may be thinking to ourselves, I could never believe something like that; yet when many of us truly think about our own beliefs we may find that they are not that different from this view.

            So often we think about heaven and Earth; Earth is where we live and heaven is where God lives. We feel like there is some great cosmic divide between here and there, that can only be breached once we die. We feel as though God is there, and we are here and our goal and our job on this Earth is to live a good life so that one day we may finally be with God. We hear the stories about Jesus in the Bible, and we think about what a man did for us over 2000 years ago. We know however that this wasn’t just any man, but this man was God, so we come and we give thanks to God for saving us so long ago. And yet so often  we approach the Bible, we approach church, we approach our faith with the same sadness of Mary as she approached the empty tomb. I am thankful for what Christ did for me then, but now he is gone, they have taken away my Lord. We sit in despair waiting for when we might be able to reunite with Christ. We sit waiting for the time in which God will come again to be with us. We sit holding on for just a little more time with Christ.

            We look at the empty tomb and so often do we forget that this is truly good news.  The empty tomb does not mean that Christ is gone, it means that Christ has conquered death, that Christ has risen, that Christ has not left us, but is always here with us. The empty tomb reminds us that the salvation story did not end on the cross, no the empty tomb tells us that this was just the beginning. That Christ is with us and that we are constantly walking with Christ everyday of our lives.

            When we feel as though Christ is there, when we feel as though there is some great divide between us and God, that is because we, like Mary, fail to recognize Jesus standing right in front of us. After all, Jesus came up and spoke to Mary, and yet she did not recognize him. In that dialogue there is something interesting that happens that literally gets lost in translation. Jesus walks up to Mary and asks her why she is weeping to which Mary replies, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." In her reply she calls Jesus sir, which is of course a proper sign of respect to give to someone you do not know. What we lose in the English however is this word sir, which in the greek is kurie, has multiple meanings. Kurie can mean sir and is certainly what she is saying in this passage, but the word also means Lord. In fact earlier when Mary says they have taken away my lord, she is using a different form of this same word. Mary is addressing Christ as Lord without even knowing it. How often have we acknowledged Christ in our presence without even realizing it. Whether is in the way that someone has helped you, sent you a card, prayed with you and for you. Whether its been a moment here at church in which a song has touched you, a scripture has spoken to you and your heart becomes glad though you are unsure of the reasons why. How many times in your daily lives have you uttered the phrase “thank God” after some good news you received, and you did not say it as a prayer but simply as an everyday common phrase that you use. And yet in all of those moments, when you felt that love in your heart and responded, when you cry aloud than God, are we not like just like Mary, giving our praise and honor to God without even realizing it.

             It is something that God knows, God knows our pains and our joys, just as Jesus knew why Mary was weeping. But the question must be asked so that we may be able to recognize the good news of the empty, the good news that Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.  For Mary it still took Jesus calling her by name to recognize the good news of salvation, of resurrection, the good news of the empty tomb. This morning God calls each and every one of us by name. He is calling us and telling us I am risen, I am with you. I pray this morning you are able to hear him calling.

Lamb of God (Exodus 12:1-14)

Sermon as preached at Evington UMC 3/28/13

 

This is the night! This is the night the disciples gathered with Jesus around the table and partook of the Last Supper. This is the last time many of Jesus’ disciples would see him again until after the resurrection. This night holds so much importance to us as Christians today, and yet the disciples truly had no idea how important this night would be. It is not as if the disciples gathered knowing that this was going to be their last supper with Christ, they did not know that the next day he would be dead.  For the disciples this night was special because they were gathering to celebrate Passover. I think that many Christians today forget that the Last Supper was a Passover celebration. More importantly, I think that we often fail to recognize the significance of that fact.

            So let’s take a little refresher course into our Old Testament scripture for today, and remember the significance of this Passover celebration. If we remember the story of Moses, then we remember that at that time the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. The pharaoh who was afraid of the growing number of Israelites ordered that the firstborn son of all the Israelites be killed. Moses, a first born son, was sent down the river as a baby in hopes that his life may be spared. He was saved and grew up in nobility, until one day he saw an Egyptian guard beating a Israelite slave, and Moses acted and killed the guard. After this he fled for a while, but with his return he demanded to pharaoh that the Israelites be set free. Pharaoh refused, and thus started the ten plagues, all leading up to the final plague, which was ironically the death of all of the first born son’s; a form of punishment for pharaoh’s killing of the first born sons of the Israelites.

            That leads us to our scripture for this evening. It was the night in which the tenth plague would fall upon the land of Egypt, and Moses and Aaron gave orders to the Israelites for what they must do that evening. And the instructions are very specific. A family it to obtain a lamb, and if the family is too small, then neighbors should get together and share the lamb. Here already we see a uniting of family and neighbors. It can’t be just any lamb that is to be obtained, but this lamb must be without blemish. We again see that the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall gather to slaughter this lamb. Next we see that the blood and the flesh of the lamb play an important part in this Passover. The blood of the lamb is to be smeared on the doorposts of the houses in which they are gathering to eat. This blood is a sign for the plague to pass over those families who are gathering together for this meal; leaving the first born sons of those with the mark unharmed. The blood wasn’t the only important aspect of the lamb however, because in the scripture we also read about the preparation of the flesh for a meal. All of the lamb was used and shared amongst the families. As the Bible tells us, these families were saved from the plague while the rest of Egypt, including Pharaoh himself, had to endure the horrible heartache of death.

            As the disciples gathered with Jesus that evening for the Last Supper, this is what they were gathering to celebrate. They were gathering that God had shown love and mercy on his people sparing them from the tragedy of death. They were celebrating the fact that God would go on to lead his people out of captivity. They were celebrating the unity that this Passover meal had come to represent; that this holy day was a time to bring friends and family together united in their love and gratitude for God. The fact that the Last Supper happened on this Passover celebration is extremely significant.

            As the disciples and Jesus gathered around the table at this Passover meal, Jesus took the bread and said to the disciples, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." This is a meal celebrating the great Passover, reliving the meal shared between family and neighbors, a meal that saved the Israelite children from death; and Jesus is now saying that this bread is his body.  As Christians when we partake of Holy Communion we realize that we are remembering this night, the night of the Last Supper; but how often do we remember that this Last supper took place during a time of celebration for Passover? Many may be wondering, what is the big deal about that?  Well, in this meal, the Last Supper, Jesus is taking a tradition and celebration and uses it to reveal to the disciples and the whole world a greater truth. That for centuries God’s people have been unified in the remembrance of that Passover meal, but from now on the disciples and the world with gather in remembrance of him. That the world will be unified by Christ’s body; that when we gather in fellowship around the table, we do it in remembrance of these mighty acts in Jesus Christ.  When we eat of that bread; we are partaking in the lamb that saved us, the Lamb of God.

            This leads to one of the greatest points of significance between Passover and the Last Supper. After the supper was over, Jesus took the cup gave thanks to God and gave it to his disciples saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the new lamb! Just like the lamb in the Exodus story, the lamb who would save the world must be one without blemish. At the beginning of Lent we heard about the temptations of Jesus in wilderness by the devil, and yet Jesus did not succumb to the temptations. Jesus led his life and ministry without blemish, worthy of being hailed as the King of Kings, worthy of shouts of Hosanna as he entered into Jerusalem, but also worthy of being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  Just as the blood of the lamb was placed on the door frames signally the plague of death to pass over that house, Jesus’ blood is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness sins; so that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life. This is the blood in which we partake in when we share of the cup in Holy Communion.

            All of this happened on the night in which he gave himself up for us. A night in which he gathered with his disciples already knowing those who would betray him, knowing full and well what was going to happen to him. This week as we go through the highs and the lows of Holy Week, from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem to Christ’s death on the cross, to good news that the tomb is empty; we must not forget the importance of this special night. That with this meal, Jesus revealed to his disciples and to the world that he is the Lamb of God, who would be sacrificed to save us from captivity to sin and death, and to establish with us a new covenant. As we gather around the table, as we are united in Christ’s body and blood, we must always remember this significance of this night.