May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 15, 2001
TEXT: Luke 24:1-10 - They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. . . . . . . . . . The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
ISSUE: The women go to the tomb after the Sabbath in search of the body of Jesus to prepare it for burial. They find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Where is the body?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The thrust of this sermon which was preached from notes, was that the risen body of Jesus Christ is found in us. The story of the Prodigal Son, tells of the father who ends up having given everything away: part of the inheritance to the youngest son, the robe, the shoes, the ring of authority, the fatted calf, and the last of everything to the angry older son. The father, like Jesus on the cross, remains totally given away out of love. Everything now belongs to the sons of the father.
We Christians today need to be aware of how Jesus Christ was poured out for us in love. He is indeed risen and is the head of the church, but we are his body called to serve and give in the world we live in, which desperately needs what Jesus Christ came to offer.
The sermon also takes note of how Jesus both in his ministry, miracles, and parables called people into the party to celebrate the love and forgiveness of God. This celebration is often expressed through some kind of feasting or banquet: Lost Coin, Lost Sheep, Feeding of 5,000, Wedding in Cana of Galilee, Wedding Feast Parables, and the Last Supper. At the last Supper Jesus says as he feeds his gathered disciples and friends: “This is my Body, given for you.”
Sunday, April 15, 2001
Sunday, April 8, 2001
PALM/PASSION SUNDAY
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
[FMC1]
SEASON: PALM/PASSION SUNDAY
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 8, 2001
TEXT: Luke 22:39-23:56 – Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.
ISSUE: The Passion Narrative needs to be understood from several points of view: from the historical point of view, and also from the early church’s point of view developed after the crucifixion and resurrection. What is also a significant point is that the crucifixion is the ultimate act of grace. In Luke’s account an aggressive soldier is healed, a responsive criminal is offered Paradise, and Jesus’ prayer is for the forgiveness of all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The passion narrative is probably the oldest section of writing and story about the life and ministry of Jesus. It is beautifully and richly crafted into a drama, which can be acted out and participated in, as we do here at St. Johns in the dramatic reading of the passion and the Passion Play on Good Friday by the time it is recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The story is really and was probably was for the earliest Christians the very heart of the Gospel. Strange isn’t it, that the heart and central part of the Gospel, which was a crucifixion story became known as “The Good News,” most of which happened on Good Friday.
To fully appreciate the story and crucifixion event, it is helpful to approach it from several points of view. By and large, we the modern world and the church have often passed Jesus off as a really nice guy. He loved people. He healed. He said a lot of the right nice things. Time and misunderstanding has kind of tamed Jesus, mellowed him into a romanticized handsome good shepherd seen in modern stained glass. And, of course, the question arose, If Jesus was such a good and gentle soul, Why did he get crucified?
We have to understand Jesus in the context of his time and culture. Jesus was a prophet and a reformer, and something of a political agitator. In the Christian Scriptures Jesus is often portrayed and associated with such dynamic characters as Moses and the Prophet Elijah. He was seen as messianic leader in the style of the Prophet Zechariah. Jesus we are told attempted to ‘cleanse’ the Temple in Jerusalem of its corruption. Cleansing puts it mildly; it was a symbolic attempt at destroying the Temple, which had become corrupt both politically and religiously. This was a direct attack on the corruption of Judean leadership who were in league with pagan Roman power. Jesus was living in a time when taxes, both Roman and Judean were exorbitant. The rich lived to be a fairly old age, when the poor were dead at usually 26 years of age from disease and malnutrition. The mortality rate of children was excessive. Jesus’ ministry is given to healing, but many of his healings were probably as politically motivated as they were from compassion. Jesus primarily heals the lame, the blind, the deaf, the demon possessed, the lame, and the dead. All of these types of people were considered to be no-goods, and totally expendable. They had no dignity or worth in their society. Jesus is raising up the oppressed. He is restoring dignity to outcasts. A repetitious phrase through the gospels is: “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” This statement was a significant statement of challenge and change in his time. The growing idea that Jesus was the messiah had significant militant and political implications. Jesus was most likely crucified from a historical point of view because he was in fact a prophet with a non-violent political and economic punch! He wanted justice for the poor and the oppressed where only two percent of the population held all the wealth. As Jesus begins to collect a significant following of the poor, the lame, the expendables, the oppressed, he becomes seen as a real threat to people like Caiaphas, high priestly power in the Temple, and Pilate Governor of Judea, and King Herod. The horrible death of crucifixion was clearly set aside by the Romans as punishment for political enemies, insurrectionists. Jesus was daring to transform the oppressive culture.
(Be careful assuming that Pilate saw nothing wrong with Jesus, when the Nicene Creed clearly states, Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate.)
After Jesus’ crucifixion, and the early Christians many of whom were Jews, began to approach Jesus’ crucifixion from another point of view: the point of seeing Jesus as a once and for all living sacrifice for the sins of the world. Remember the Hebrew Story of Abraham and Issac, in which God says to the faithful Abraham, Do not slay the child, but I will provided myself with a sacrifice. Jesus becomes the ultimate ‘Son’ to be sacrificed now on the cross. When Moses is about to lead the oppressed Hebrew people out of Egypt, the night before they leave, the offer a lamb as a sacrifice, and the angel of death passes over them, and they are set free from bondage, liberated. When Luke was writing this crucifixion story in its final form, the Romans had already destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. The temple had been the place where people came to offer their sacrifices. There was no longer any place to offer sacrifice. There was no Temple. Without this relationship with God through sacrifice, Temple, and worship, without the political structure of the Temple people were devastated in terms of their way to be in relationship with God. What miraculously and spiritually comes through for the followers of Jesus was that they not only saw him as their prophet, but as their priest, their high priest as well. Jesus becomes known as the Lamb of God, the high priest who once and for all has suffered outside the city walls of Jerusalem, where great prophets had suffered and died. Jesus becomes the living sacrifice that leads people to God. He is the new Temple where people find God and become worthy of God. He is the Son of God with whom God is well pleased. Look to him, and find the one who lays down his life for his friends that they may see the sacrificial, servant hood, love of God revealed. Isaiah’s image of a non-violent Suffering Servant is realized in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
From still another point of view, there comes one of the greatest gifts of all from the crucifixion, and from which it gets its greatest meaning of Good News and Good Friday. Early on in the Passion Narrative, Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss. His enemies approach him and a fight breaks out, to which Jesus calls a halt and immediately heals the soldier’s ear that is injured. Peter who is among the inner core of the disciples denies Jesus not once but three times. Barrabbas the murderer and insurrectionist is liberated. Jesus is crucified, given the world’s worst form of execution, more accurately torture. He is ultimately humiliated to hang before the world naked and shamed in every sense, totally dishonored. His being crucified between two criminals compounds the dishonoring of Jesus. His criminality is assured. Now out of this scene comes the words: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Out of this awful situation comes the maximum, noblest of gifts, . . . .Grace. Unearned, unwarranted, undeserved love is Grace. Naked, with nothing left, like the Father in the Prodigal Son Story, Jesus bestows love and forgiveness on a broken and raging world of sin and injustice.
We Christians must not cheapen that grace by indifference and nonchalance, but by turning in faith, in loyalty, and in trust that the way of God in Christ is the only way in our own broken world of sin and injustice. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the Sin of the world.”
[FMC1]
SEASON: PALM/PASSION SUNDAY
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 8, 2001
TEXT: Luke 22:39-23:56 – Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.
ISSUE: The Passion Narrative needs to be understood from several points of view: from the historical point of view, and also from the early church’s point of view developed after the crucifixion and resurrection. What is also a significant point is that the crucifixion is the ultimate act of grace. In Luke’s account an aggressive soldier is healed, a responsive criminal is offered Paradise, and Jesus’ prayer is for the forgiveness of all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The passion narrative is probably the oldest section of writing and story about the life and ministry of Jesus. It is beautifully and richly crafted into a drama, which can be acted out and participated in, as we do here at St. Johns in the dramatic reading of the passion and the Passion Play on Good Friday by the time it is recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The story is really and was probably was for the earliest Christians the very heart of the Gospel. Strange isn’t it, that the heart and central part of the Gospel, which was a crucifixion story became known as “The Good News,” most of which happened on Good Friday.
To fully appreciate the story and crucifixion event, it is helpful to approach it from several points of view. By and large, we the modern world and the church have often passed Jesus off as a really nice guy. He loved people. He healed. He said a lot of the right nice things. Time and misunderstanding has kind of tamed Jesus, mellowed him into a romanticized handsome good shepherd seen in modern stained glass. And, of course, the question arose, If Jesus was such a good and gentle soul, Why did he get crucified?
We have to understand Jesus in the context of his time and culture. Jesus was a prophet and a reformer, and something of a political agitator. In the Christian Scriptures Jesus is often portrayed and associated with such dynamic characters as Moses and the Prophet Elijah. He was seen as messianic leader in the style of the Prophet Zechariah. Jesus we are told attempted to ‘cleanse’ the Temple in Jerusalem of its corruption. Cleansing puts it mildly; it was a symbolic attempt at destroying the Temple, which had become corrupt both politically and religiously. This was a direct attack on the corruption of Judean leadership who were in league with pagan Roman power. Jesus was living in a time when taxes, both Roman and Judean were exorbitant. The rich lived to be a fairly old age, when the poor were dead at usually 26 years of age from disease and malnutrition. The mortality rate of children was excessive. Jesus’ ministry is given to healing, but many of his healings were probably as politically motivated as they were from compassion. Jesus primarily heals the lame, the blind, the deaf, the demon possessed, the lame, and the dead. All of these types of people were considered to be no-goods, and totally expendable. They had no dignity or worth in their society. Jesus is raising up the oppressed. He is restoring dignity to outcasts. A repetitious phrase through the gospels is: “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” This statement was a significant statement of challenge and change in his time. The growing idea that Jesus was the messiah had significant militant and political implications. Jesus was most likely crucified from a historical point of view because he was in fact a prophet with a non-violent political and economic punch! He wanted justice for the poor and the oppressed where only two percent of the population held all the wealth. As Jesus begins to collect a significant following of the poor, the lame, the expendables, the oppressed, he becomes seen as a real threat to people like Caiaphas, high priestly power in the Temple, and Pilate Governor of Judea, and King Herod. The horrible death of crucifixion was clearly set aside by the Romans as punishment for political enemies, insurrectionists. Jesus was daring to transform the oppressive culture.
(Be careful assuming that Pilate saw nothing wrong with Jesus, when the Nicene Creed clearly states, Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate.)
After Jesus’ crucifixion, and the early Christians many of whom were Jews, began to approach Jesus’ crucifixion from another point of view: the point of seeing Jesus as a once and for all living sacrifice for the sins of the world. Remember the Hebrew Story of Abraham and Issac, in which God says to the faithful Abraham, Do not slay the child, but I will provided myself with a sacrifice. Jesus becomes the ultimate ‘Son’ to be sacrificed now on the cross. When Moses is about to lead the oppressed Hebrew people out of Egypt, the night before they leave, the offer a lamb as a sacrifice, and the angel of death passes over them, and they are set free from bondage, liberated. When Luke was writing this crucifixion story in its final form, the Romans had already destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. The temple had been the place where people came to offer their sacrifices. There was no longer any place to offer sacrifice. There was no Temple. Without this relationship with God through sacrifice, Temple, and worship, without the political structure of the Temple people were devastated in terms of their way to be in relationship with God. What miraculously and spiritually comes through for the followers of Jesus was that they not only saw him as their prophet, but as their priest, their high priest as well. Jesus becomes known as the Lamb of God, the high priest who once and for all has suffered outside the city walls of Jerusalem, where great prophets had suffered and died. Jesus becomes the living sacrifice that leads people to God. He is the new Temple where people find God and become worthy of God. He is the Son of God with whom God is well pleased. Look to him, and find the one who lays down his life for his friends that they may see the sacrificial, servant hood, love of God revealed. Isaiah’s image of a non-violent Suffering Servant is realized in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
From still another point of view, there comes one of the greatest gifts of all from the crucifixion, and from which it gets its greatest meaning of Good News and Good Friday. Early on in the Passion Narrative, Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss. His enemies approach him and a fight breaks out, to which Jesus calls a halt and immediately heals the soldier’s ear that is injured. Peter who is among the inner core of the disciples denies Jesus not once but three times. Barrabbas the murderer and insurrectionist is liberated. Jesus is crucified, given the world’s worst form of execution, more accurately torture. He is ultimately humiliated to hang before the world naked and shamed in every sense, totally dishonored. His being crucified between two criminals compounds the dishonoring of Jesus. His criminality is assured. Now out of this scene comes the words: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Out of this awful situation comes the maximum, noblest of gifts, . . . .Grace. Unearned, unwarranted, undeserved love is Grace. Naked, with nothing left, like the Father in the Prodigal Son Story, Jesus bestows love and forgiveness on a broken and raging world of sin and injustice.
We Christians must not cheapen that grace by indifference and nonchalance, but by turning in faith, in loyalty, and in trust that the way of God in Christ is the only way in our own broken world of sin and injustice. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the Sin of the world.”
Monday, April 2, 2001
EASTER
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: EASTER
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 2, 2001
TEXT: John 20:19-31 – “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
ISSUE: The passage is in two related parts. There is the commissioning of the Apostles to assume the authority of Jesus and to establish the church. There is also the reluctance of Thomas to believe. Yet in spite of his skepticism he is give the grace of Christ Jesus to believe. As a late comer, like ourselves, Thomas is incorporated into the commissioning. Again, there is a kind of follow up to the Story of the Loving Father (Prodigal Son), as the frightened and wayward disciples are called to apostleship and given full authority.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel of John wastes no time in getting right down to the commissioning of the disciples of Jesus to begin to be the church in the world. In the modern church we think of the commissioning of the disciples as that event called Pentecost, which occurs later in the year, 50 days after Easter and/or Passover. John’s commissioning story will be read again on Pentecost, but unlike Luke’s story of the fire and wind, Jesus appears almost immediately after the resurrection to several of his disciples gathered in locked room in fear themselves of the authorities.
To this point in John’s Gospel, there is no experience of the Risen Lord, except for his appearance to Mary Magdalene. She had found the tomb empty, and told Peter and John, the beloved disciple. They find the tomb empty but have no immediate experience of the resurrection. Mary herself encounters Jesus in the garden, thinking he is the gardener. She then tells the disciples what has happened, but women were not considered to be credible witnesses in these days. Thus, Jesus makes the appearance to a tired and frightened band of disciples who have locked themselves into a room. In spite of the lock doors, Jesus appears to them, showing his hands and feet, his crucifixion wounds, and bringing them peace.
This appearance is curios. Jesus appears to them in spite of the locked doors, which would indicate some kind of a mystical experience. However, he is also intent upon their examining his body and its wounds. This was the early church’s way of saying that the Jesus crucified is one and the same with the Risen Lord. He is for real, and the body of Christ lives. It is not a mere ghost story.
The appearance is coupled with the commissioning of the disciples. Jesus appears and breathes on them saying, “As the father has sent me, so I send you.” Note the urgency here. The whole image of this encounter is Jesus coming to his disciples who are their selves locked-in, that is to say they are entombed their selves in fear. For all they know the great hope that Jesus had brought, his movement, his hope for the world is dead. What you have here is a renewing, reawakening, renewal of hope. Women are the first to encounter the resurrected Lord. Women are the life givers and the child bearers of new life. The locked room, perhaps a symbol of the womb, and certainly a tomb, is broken open by Jesus who gives to his disciples new life, hope, and a charge. He breathes on them the Holy Spirit, which is of course what happened in Genesis to bring Adam and Eve to life. A whole new resurrection and new beginning has begun. Christ has risen, and his disciples are risen and commissioned to carry on the work of raising and resurrecting the sinful broken, destitute and despairing folk of the world. They are given authority to forgive sin, to wipe it away, to restore the world, and if they don’t, Who will? Carry on brothers!
Now while this takes place, Thomas is not present, but appears on the scene later. Thomas frequently known as the doubter was in fact one of the really strong disciples of our Lord, according to John’s Gospel account. When Jesus is going to Jerusalem at the death of Lazarus, Thomas declares, “Let us all go along with the Teacher, so that we may die with him.” As a disciple, Thomas is no slouch. However, the disciples tell him of the resurrection, but Thomas is skeptical. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Remember that the Gospel of John was written last of all the gospels. By the time John is telling his account of the resurrection, some 90 years or so after the events, all of the disciples and apostles were themselves no deceased. John was also dealing with a very skeptical culture of people. People lied considerably to protect their honor. Thomas is a representative of that culture. In spite of the fact of his skepticism, The Risen Lord appears and shows him the wounds, the reality, and John declares a new beatitude for a world that has no immediate apostolic witnesses to the resurrection: “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” Another way of saying this is “Those who have not seen and yet believe, trust, place their loyalty in Jesus Christ as their living Lord shall be held in great honor and high esteem.”
What is happening in this story of the commissioning of the disciples, and the calling of Thomas to believe and trust, is again so much like the Loving Father with the Prodigal Sons. On the one hand you have those who have run away, and even betrayed the Lord, and have locked their selves up in fear. Christ comes like a loving Father and calls them out and restores their authority to be his own. He gives the authority, like the signet ring, new clothes, and shoes on their feet. Get going in your renewed ministry with me. Then there is Thomas, who just can’t get it, can’t believe. It’s too good to be true that a father could extend such grace. Yet the grace is given, the undeserved calling and the high esteem to join him, and enter into the joy of being raised with Christ and in his service is fully extended, and the invitation to enter his new Kingdom is made wholly available.
We also live in an age of skepticism. Our skepticism is not based so much on honor in American culture as it is on science. People today like scientific proof for things. It’s hard to believe that a person who was crucified on a cross ever gets up and walks around again, especially when you know the full biological implications of a crucifixion. Sophisticated people are not comfortable with ghost stories, which is what some people think of in terms of the resurrection.
What is the meaning of this resurrection event? It intends to stress the reality of life with all its difficult moments, but at the same time with the hope or rebirth, renewal, and hope. Just as the darkness cannot put out the light, the light prevails. The love of and the undeserved grace of God will not be extinguished. You can count on it. Is there suffering, evil, and pain in the world? You bet there is. There is a great deal of hardship, sickness unto death, incivility, the infliction of pain and suffering on human beings by other human beings. Who knew that any more than Jesus himself? Yet we saw and see in him what a real human being who is a child of God looks like. He is totally absorbed in that world, but faithfully served. He in his love is raised up, and held in the hand of God that all may see his love and forgiveness and his plan for a Kingdom, or Domain that is God’s way, God’s truth, God’s way of life. He was compassionately absorbed in his mission, and raised on high for all to see. He lives to breathe the Holy Spirit of God upon us. Battered by life’s disappointments is it hard to get it, to grasp the miracle, the hope? Sure it is. Is it hard to hold on to? Sure it is. Yet out of the darkness, the cold, the despair the springing to life comes again and again.
Blessed are they who having not seen, nor have seen witnesses to the resurrection, who have known their share of pain and suffering, who can still trust and be loyal to God and God’s benevolent grace. The resurrection of Jesus is neither about science nor blind believing. It is about trust, loyalty, to a way of life that comes from God, where That which is fallen is raised up, renewed, and forgiven, and where That which is old is made new, and where no one escapes the possibility of being in the Hands of a compassionate and loving God.
SEASON: EASTER
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 2, 2001
TEXT: John 20:19-31 – “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
ISSUE: The passage is in two related parts. There is the commissioning of the Apostles to assume the authority of Jesus and to establish the church. There is also the reluctance of Thomas to believe. Yet in spite of his skepticism he is give the grace of Christ Jesus to believe. As a late comer, like ourselves, Thomas is incorporated into the commissioning. Again, there is a kind of follow up to the Story of the Loving Father (Prodigal Son), as the frightened and wayward disciples are called to apostleship and given full authority.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel of John wastes no time in getting right down to the commissioning of the disciples of Jesus to begin to be the church in the world. In the modern church we think of the commissioning of the disciples as that event called Pentecost, which occurs later in the year, 50 days after Easter and/or Passover. John’s commissioning story will be read again on Pentecost, but unlike Luke’s story of the fire and wind, Jesus appears almost immediately after the resurrection to several of his disciples gathered in locked room in fear themselves of the authorities.
To this point in John’s Gospel, there is no experience of the Risen Lord, except for his appearance to Mary Magdalene. She had found the tomb empty, and told Peter and John, the beloved disciple. They find the tomb empty but have no immediate experience of the resurrection. Mary herself encounters Jesus in the garden, thinking he is the gardener. She then tells the disciples what has happened, but women were not considered to be credible witnesses in these days. Thus, Jesus makes the appearance to a tired and frightened band of disciples who have locked themselves into a room. In spite of the lock doors, Jesus appears to them, showing his hands and feet, his crucifixion wounds, and bringing them peace.
This appearance is curios. Jesus appears to them in spite of the locked doors, which would indicate some kind of a mystical experience. However, he is also intent upon their examining his body and its wounds. This was the early church’s way of saying that the Jesus crucified is one and the same with the Risen Lord. He is for real, and the body of Christ lives. It is not a mere ghost story.
The appearance is coupled with the commissioning of the disciples. Jesus appears and breathes on them saying, “As the father has sent me, so I send you.” Note the urgency here. The whole image of this encounter is Jesus coming to his disciples who are their selves locked-in, that is to say they are entombed their selves in fear. For all they know the great hope that Jesus had brought, his movement, his hope for the world is dead. What you have here is a renewing, reawakening, renewal of hope. Women are the first to encounter the resurrected Lord. Women are the life givers and the child bearers of new life. The locked room, perhaps a symbol of the womb, and certainly a tomb, is broken open by Jesus who gives to his disciples new life, hope, and a charge. He breathes on them the Holy Spirit, which is of course what happened in Genesis to bring Adam and Eve to life. A whole new resurrection and new beginning has begun. Christ has risen, and his disciples are risen and commissioned to carry on the work of raising and resurrecting the sinful broken, destitute and despairing folk of the world. They are given authority to forgive sin, to wipe it away, to restore the world, and if they don’t, Who will? Carry on brothers!
Now while this takes place, Thomas is not present, but appears on the scene later. Thomas frequently known as the doubter was in fact one of the really strong disciples of our Lord, according to John’s Gospel account. When Jesus is going to Jerusalem at the death of Lazarus, Thomas declares, “Let us all go along with the Teacher, so that we may die with him.” As a disciple, Thomas is no slouch. However, the disciples tell him of the resurrection, but Thomas is skeptical. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Remember that the Gospel of John was written last of all the gospels. By the time John is telling his account of the resurrection, some 90 years or so after the events, all of the disciples and apostles were themselves no deceased. John was also dealing with a very skeptical culture of people. People lied considerably to protect their honor. Thomas is a representative of that culture. In spite of the fact of his skepticism, The Risen Lord appears and shows him the wounds, the reality, and John declares a new beatitude for a world that has no immediate apostolic witnesses to the resurrection: “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” Another way of saying this is “Those who have not seen and yet believe, trust, place their loyalty in Jesus Christ as their living Lord shall be held in great honor and high esteem.”
What is happening in this story of the commissioning of the disciples, and the calling of Thomas to believe and trust, is again so much like the Loving Father with the Prodigal Sons. On the one hand you have those who have run away, and even betrayed the Lord, and have locked their selves up in fear. Christ comes like a loving Father and calls them out and restores their authority to be his own. He gives the authority, like the signet ring, new clothes, and shoes on their feet. Get going in your renewed ministry with me. Then there is Thomas, who just can’t get it, can’t believe. It’s too good to be true that a father could extend such grace. Yet the grace is given, the undeserved calling and the high esteem to join him, and enter into the joy of being raised with Christ and in his service is fully extended, and the invitation to enter his new Kingdom is made wholly available.
We also live in an age of skepticism. Our skepticism is not based so much on honor in American culture as it is on science. People today like scientific proof for things. It’s hard to believe that a person who was crucified on a cross ever gets up and walks around again, especially when you know the full biological implications of a crucifixion. Sophisticated people are not comfortable with ghost stories, which is what some people think of in terms of the resurrection.
What is the meaning of this resurrection event? It intends to stress the reality of life with all its difficult moments, but at the same time with the hope or rebirth, renewal, and hope. Just as the darkness cannot put out the light, the light prevails. The love of and the undeserved grace of God will not be extinguished. You can count on it. Is there suffering, evil, and pain in the world? You bet there is. There is a great deal of hardship, sickness unto death, incivility, the infliction of pain and suffering on human beings by other human beings. Who knew that any more than Jesus himself? Yet we saw and see in him what a real human being who is a child of God looks like. He is totally absorbed in that world, but faithfully served. He in his love is raised up, and held in the hand of God that all may see his love and forgiveness and his plan for a Kingdom, or Domain that is God’s way, God’s truth, God’s way of life. He was compassionately absorbed in his mission, and raised on high for all to see. He lives to breathe the Holy Spirit of God upon us. Battered by life’s disappointments is it hard to get it, to grasp the miracle, the hope? Sure it is. Is it hard to hold on to? Sure it is. Yet out of the darkness, the cold, the despair the springing to life comes again and again.
Blessed are they who having not seen, nor have seen witnesses to the resurrection, who have known their share of pain and suffering, who can still trust and be loyal to God and God’s benevolent grace. The resurrection of Jesus is neither about science nor blind believing. It is about trust, loyalty, to a way of life that comes from God, where That which is fallen is raised up, renewed, and forgiven, and where That which is old is made new, and where no one escapes the possibility of being in the Hands of a compassionate and loving God.
Sunday, April 1, 2001
Lent 5
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 5
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 1, 2001
TEXT: Luke 20:9-19 – The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard
ISSUE: The Parable of the Tenants is not a Parable of the Kingdom, but a Parable of what the world is like. It is in great distress and rebellion. Human nature is so foolish as to think it can destroy God. A nurturing vineyard lies in ruin from the killing and stoning of God’s prophets. But the cornerstone, which is rejected will rise up to be the cornerstone of a new Kingdom of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here’s a fascinating parable told by Jesus but has very likely been interpreted by Luke and the early church. It has interesting and mixed images of a vineyard and stones.
This Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard is one with which we must be careful in our interpretation. We may be to quick to think we have the parable all figured out. The parable is easy to allegorize. The Landowner is seen as God who gives a great piece of land to his people. When he sends his servants to collect his portion of the fruit, they are treated with cruelty, just like God’s prophets were treated. The son, we immediately think of as Jesus, was sent with the hope that the crowds would listen to him, but he is crucified and killed as well. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. The others are depicted in the parable as the scribes and chief priests, and the Jews. The Vineyard of God, then will be given to the Gentile Christians. This was and still is a very poor interpretation of the parable as it is clearly anti-Semitic. Fact of the matter is that Gentile Christians have themselves been just as quick to throw out God’s prophets as some of the Jewish leadership rejected Jesus and others. Remember the Holocaust and how one of the most Christian countries in the world treated Jews and others, while other Christian countries turned their heads to what was going on. Remember the rejection and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., some years ago in this country. One of the first sins of the church was its anti-Semitic stance. Jewish people were often scapegoats for the Romans, because the early church was overpowered by them, and coddled up to them for protection. It is so important that in this season of late Lent and Holy Week that we be careful not to become anti-Semitic.
In the world that Jesus himself lived in there was a great deal of injustice which led to oppression and impoverishment. There were absentee landlords who had usurped peasant lands, and left them to become tenants on their own land. While they tended vineyards of their landlord, they would plant food for themselves between the rows on the land, for which landlords would also demand a percentage. These demands along with Temple taxes and Roman taxes created great resentment and a hot bed of rebellion. When Jesus speaks of a landlord who comes to collect, the parable got the people’s attention.
Jesus’ parable is thought to be based on a parable of the Vineyard in the Hebrew Scripture of Isaiah 5:1-7. A man builds a vineyard clearing the land, fertilizing, digging the soil, clearing the stones, and plants the finest vines. But at the time of harvest the grapes are all sour, everyone. What will the owner do? He destroys the vineyard by drought, by allowing it to be trampled by animals, and becoming overgrown with weeds. The point is that God has brought forth a good nation, but it turned sour with injustice and murder.
In Jesus’ parable, however, the landlord, God, is not quite so quick to destroy the vineyard. Rather, he sends his messenger, a prophet, to check the fruit. When the tenants kill the messenger, the Landlord-God sends still another prophet who is badly treated, and still another, and still another. Finally, he decides to send his own son; surely, they will listen to him. Jesus’ parable presents a more merciful God, a stunning God who would even in the midst of the tenants violence dares to presume the best, that surely the tenants would not kill the son. They do with a belief that they will inherit the land for themselves. If Jesus is originally telling this story, who is the “son?” It is possibly Jesus’ own mentor, John the Baptist. He was a prophet, a real child or son of God, who came to God’s people and called for repentance, change, a turning around to God. John had a pleading ministry, and it killed by the powers of the world. The people cannot grasp the mercy, the compassion of the messenger, and of the landlord-God. What will the landlord do? As the world understands things, the landlord will come and destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others. Is Jesus addressing a corrupted leadership? Probably so. Is he addressing a corrupted world? You bet!
Jesus and his contemporaries were living in a time of great despair. They were dominated by a cruel nation. Their leadership collaborated with the enemy. The Temple had become corrupt. Injustices, oppression, and heavy taxation prevailed. Finally, when it could not be tolerated any longer there was a revolution, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem tearing down the massive Temple, stone upon stone. When Luke, and Mark, and Matthew pick up this parable of Jesus’ their world was either on the very verge of, or had just experienced the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Their world was in rubble. The vineyard of Jerusalem is destroyed. Hatred and animosity prevail. This parable is not about the Kingdom of God. This parable is about the world, a world in rubble.
We too know what a world in rubble is like. We’ve seen pictures of Europe after World War II, and the bodies of soldiers and holocaust victims. We’ve seen the rubble of Korea and Vietnam and not only the rubble of material things, but the rubble of people’s lives as a result of the trauma of war. We’ve seen the rubble of Iraq, and the rubble of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. We saw the rubble of American cities after the riots in the 60’s. We see the rock throwing today between the Palestinians and the Jews. God wills peace, mercy, compassion, and we still spend billions on the military, when our schools are in rubble. God calls us to love and the avoidance of killing and American states re-instate the death penalty. The world has always hated and rejected the prophets and the sons of God. The world is rebellious and defiant. Every great nation that rejected God has fallen, has met its demise. Yet the Tim McVeigh’s and the unabombers persist. Terrorism and counter terrorism prevails, along with road rage and street violence. We live in a culture like so many in the past that tends to make less room, and less time for God, referred to by some as the ‘de-Godded’ culture. Most everything else is more important that our time with God, with our spirituality, with our religious life. The vineyard of God is in ashes and rubble abounds. Even Christ is crucified and destroyed. And a world of justice and fairness is an illusion. What will God do? The parable of the world has a grim conclusion.
What are we to do? After the great wars and the cities in rubble, after earthquake destructions, after pain and suffering and the storms that tear up our lives, people are inclined to go sorting through the rubble to find meaningful things, trinkets from their past lives. They seek out the things that will help them to rebuild the future. What does this text mean: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” A world and people must begin the renewed search for a cornerstone, often the very one rejected. There needs to be a search for the cornerstone that is Christ who helps us to replant a fruitful vineyard, and a world that is based on a compassionate, merciful and sacrificing God. In the end there is the new beginning. Out of the ashes of Lent and the rubble of our lives comes a God who dares to send his Son again, who lifts him up. He is the cornerstone of the new age, resurrected out of the rubble. With Christ as the cornerstone of the vineyard, and with all that Christ stands for and represents in terms of sacrifice and love, we see the hope and the potential for the rebuilding of the land, the new vineyard, the Realm and Domain that is God’s. It is a mighty stone in whose shadow we stand in judgment, as well as in the shadow of mercy, love, and compassion. The very Christ who was condemned and rejected is raised up from the rubble as the new cornerstone of God’s world of love.
SEASON: Lent 5
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 1, 2001
TEXT: Luke 20:9-19 – The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard
ISSUE: The Parable of the Tenants is not a Parable of the Kingdom, but a Parable of what the world is like. It is in great distress and rebellion. Human nature is so foolish as to think it can destroy God. A nurturing vineyard lies in ruin from the killing and stoning of God’s prophets. But the cornerstone, which is rejected will rise up to be the cornerstone of a new Kingdom of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here’s a fascinating parable told by Jesus but has very likely been interpreted by Luke and the early church. It has interesting and mixed images of a vineyard and stones.
This Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard is one with which we must be careful in our interpretation. We may be to quick to think we have the parable all figured out. The parable is easy to allegorize. The Landowner is seen as God who gives a great piece of land to his people. When he sends his servants to collect his portion of the fruit, they are treated with cruelty, just like God’s prophets were treated. The son, we immediately think of as Jesus, was sent with the hope that the crowds would listen to him, but he is crucified and killed as well. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. The others are depicted in the parable as the scribes and chief priests, and the Jews. The Vineyard of God, then will be given to the Gentile Christians. This was and still is a very poor interpretation of the parable as it is clearly anti-Semitic. Fact of the matter is that Gentile Christians have themselves been just as quick to throw out God’s prophets as some of the Jewish leadership rejected Jesus and others. Remember the Holocaust and how one of the most Christian countries in the world treated Jews and others, while other Christian countries turned their heads to what was going on. Remember the rejection and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., some years ago in this country. One of the first sins of the church was its anti-Semitic stance. Jewish people were often scapegoats for the Romans, because the early church was overpowered by them, and coddled up to them for protection. It is so important that in this season of late Lent and Holy Week that we be careful not to become anti-Semitic.
In the world that Jesus himself lived in there was a great deal of injustice which led to oppression and impoverishment. There were absentee landlords who had usurped peasant lands, and left them to become tenants on their own land. While they tended vineyards of their landlord, they would plant food for themselves between the rows on the land, for which landlords would also demand a percentage. These demands along with Temple taxes and Roman taxes created great resentment and a hot bed of rebellion. When Jesus speaks of a landlord who comes to collect, the parable got the people’s attention.
Jesus’ parable is thought to be based on a parable of the Vineyard in the Hebrew Scripture of Isaiah 5:1-7. A man builds a vineyard clearing the land, fertilizing, digging the soil, clearing the stones, and plants the finest vines. But at the time of harvest the grapes are all sour, everyone. What will the owner do? He destroys the vineyard by drought, by allowing it to be trampled by animals, and becoming overgrown with weeds. The point is that God has brought forth a good nation, but it turned sour with injustice and murder.
In Jesus’ parable, however, the landlord, God, is not quite so quick to destroy the vineyard. Rather, he sends his messenger, a prophet, to check the fruit. When the tenants kill the messenger, the Landlord-God sends still another prophet who is badly treated, and still another, and still another. Finally, he decides to send his own son; surely, they will listen to him. Jesus’ parable presents a more merciful God, a stunning God who would even in the midst of the tenants violence dares to presume the best, that surely the tenants would not kill the son. They do with a belief that they will inherit the land for themselves. If Jesus is originally telling this story, who is the “son?” It is possibly Jesus’ own mentor, John the Baptist. He was a prophet, a real child or son of God, who came to God’s people and called for repentance, change, a turning around to God. John had a pleading ministry, and it killed by the powers of the world. The people cannot grasp the mercy, the compassion of the messenger, and of the landlord-God. What will the landlord do? As the world understands things, the landlord will come and destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others. Is Jesus addressing a corrupted leadership? Probably so. Is he addressing a corrupted world? You bet!
Jesus and his contemporaries were living in a time of great despair. They were dominated by a cruel nation. Their leadership collaborated with the enemy. The Temple had become corrupt. Injustices, oppression, and heavy taxation prevailed. Finally, when it could not be tolerated any longer there was a revolution, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem tearing down the massive Temple, stone upon stone. When Luke, and Mark, and Matthew pick up this parable of Jesus’ their world was either on the very verge of, or had just experienced the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Their world was in rubble. The vineyard of Jerusalem is destroyed. Hatred and animosity prevail. This parable is not about the Kingdom of God. This parable is about the world, a world in rubble.
We too know what a world in rubble is like. We’ve seen pictures of Europe after World War II, and the bodies of soldiers and holocaust victims. We’ve seen the rubble of Korea and Vietnam and not only the rubble of material things, but the rubble of people’s lives as a result of the trauma of war. We’ve seen the rubble of Iraq, and the rubble of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. We saw the rubble of American cities after the riots in the 60’s. We see the rock throwing today between the Palestinians and the Jews. God wills peace, mercy, compassion, and we still spend billions on the military, when our schools are in rubble. God calls us to love and the avoidance of killing and American states re-instate the death penalty. The world has always hated and rejected the prophets and the sons of God. The world is rebellious and defiant. Every great nation that rejected God has fallen, has met its demise. Yet the Tim McVeigh’s and the unabombers persist. Terrorism and counter terrorism prevails, along with road rage and street violence. We live in a culture like so many in the past that tends to make less room, and less time for God, referred to by some as the ‘de-Godded’ culture. Most everything else is more important that our time with God, with our spirituality, with our religious life. The vineyard of God is in ashes and rubble abounds. Even Christ is crucified and destroyed. And a world of justice and fairness is an illusion. What will God do? The parable of the world has a grim conclusion.
What are we to do? After the great wars and the cities in rubble, after earthquake destructions, after pain and suffering and the storms that tear up our lives, people are inclined to go sorting through the rubble to find meaningful things, trinkets from their past lives. They seek out the things that will help them to rebuild the future. What does this text mean: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” A world and people must begin the renewed search for a cornerstone, often the very one rejected. There needs to be a search for the cornerstone that is Christ who helps us to replant a fruitful vineyard, and a world that is based on a compassionate, merciful and sacrificing God. In the end there is the new beginning. Out of the ashes of Lent and the rubble of our lives comes a God who dares to send his Son again, who lifts him up. He is the cornerstone of the new age, resurrected out of the rubble. With Christ as the cornerstone of the vineyard, and with all that Christ stands for and represents in terms of sacrifice and love, we see the hope and the potential for the rebuilding of the land, the new vineyard, the Realm and Domain that is God’s. It is a mighty stone in whose shadow we stand in judgment, as well as in the shadow of mercy, love, and compassion. The very Christ who was condemned and rejected is raised up from the rubble as the new cornerstone of God’s world of love.
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