May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 28, 2002
TEXT: John 14:1-14 - Jesus' Farewell Discourse (Section)
"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works then these, because I am going to the Father."
ISSUE: Jesus’ work is to bring God's people to the Father. They like himself are to be at one with the Father. In this relationship they are able to do significant works as Jesus himself had done. This passage addresses a very difficult time for the early church. Jesus' farewell address is providing assurance and hope. His people presently dwell in peace with him if they accept him as Lord, and as the way to the Father. They'll never be abandoned. It is a message for our world in a period of great anxiety. We find in Christ the way and what is truly authentic and meaningful. Maintain a relationship with Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from the Gospel of John is a passage, which is taken from what is called "The Farewell Address" of Jesus to his disciples. We have a portion of it read this morning. Farewell addresses are fairly common in the Bible. Jacob when he is near death, makes a farewell address in Genesis 49 to all of his twelve sons. Moses in Deuteronomy 31-33 makes a farewell address to his people before his death, and before the people cross the Jordon River into the Promised Land. Paul gives a farewell address in Acts 20. They tell usually what must be watched for and guarded against in the future. They are something like pep talks to the troops. So John tells us some of what he believes is the last words, or what he thought Jesus may have said to his disciples in his Farewell Address, in his last days before his death.
The Farewell portion of the address that we read today is in the true Johannine style. It is addressed to two specific disciples: Thomas and Philip. Thomas is Jewish, and Philip is Greek, and thus it is an address to both significant cultures of the period. True to the Johannine style both disciples appear to be dense, and express lack of understanding. Remember some of the other recent passages of John that we've read. Nicodemus did not understand how to be born again, and did you have to get back into mother's womb. The woman at the well could not understand how Jesus could be living water. Did that mean she would not have to come to the well again? The healing of the blindman is not aware of what has happened to himself, and has to encounter Jesus a second time to know that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
In this passage, Jesus says to Thomas that he will go away for a time, and that the disciples will follow. But Thomas becomes very anxious declaring, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus has to reassure Thomas with his words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father expect by me." Philip also who has been very close to Jesus, brings another disciple, Nathaniel to him. But Philip, similar to Thomas who cannot imagine where they would find enough bread at the feeding of the multitude, asks Jesus to show them the Father. And Jesus somewhat impatiently must say, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." You get the impression that Jesus wants to shake these guys into a greater awareness of what is going on, and what they have been up to. They have a hard time catching on. The passage is also being addressed to new disciples who need to understand and who need constant encouragement.
As we read and study passages like this one we have to keep in mind what was going in this early Christian Community, when John was addressing his community.
1. All the eyewitnesses to Jesus' life and ministry were gone. It was imperative that true faithfulness be an essential part of the community's life together. There were dissentions within the church itself.
2. It was clear that in the Jewish community it was being declared that anyone who believed Jesus to be the Messiah were being thrown out of the synagogues. This excommunication was a significant threat to people's livelihood. To be excommunicated was to lose family ties, and to lose economic business connections, and I suppose to lose honor and standing in the community. Thus, the affirmation to Thomas the Jew that Jesus is the way, truth, life, authentic faith.
3. There were influences on the early church from the Greek and Roman cultures that included superstitions and questionable beliefs, and rooted in pagan gods unrelated to the life and ministry of Jesus. Thus, Philip is assured that to see Jesus is to see the authentic God of Love.
4. It was also a time when the early church was beginning to feel the pain of outright persecution for their beliefs.
Thus, John is writing in a style that works at repeating and clarifying, and saying things sometimes in an almost repetitious way to solidify the church's beliefs and to keep clarifying for newcomers entering the community.
As the passage reveals itself you see Thomas as a symbol of a very anxious community. But John is telling that anxious community: Though Jesus has died and appears to have gone away from them, his work has been to reassure his people that God has a place for them. That God will not abandon them. Jesus died, was crucified, rose again, and appeared to them. He is the living Lord and there is plenty of room for them. Though the world may reject them, i.e. their excommunication, God has room for all, and takes all into his family. God, Yahweh, is the Father of the family. Jesus is the truth about God. Jesus is the Way to God, and through him you have life, in spite of your fear of death. Remain faithful and be assured.
Philip is also dense, but John is impressing upon the community through Philip's questioning "Show us the Father." How do we know the Father? How do we know God is with us? The answer is that if you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father. Jesus is the expression, the incarnation of God, the in-the-flesh presence of God into human existence. Look at him, believe in him, and pay attention to what he has done. Be aware of the work that Jesus has done. Jesus is the full expression of God's love. He is redemption, the buying back of his people. Not a soul is lost from God, because Jesus has come to reclaim the creation for God.
Look at what Jesus has done. He is the profound expression of God's love in this sacrifice upon the cross. He dies for the world to show that he loves the world of God's creation. His ministry has been one of a healer, and one who enlightens the blind. He loves the least, the last, the lost, and restores them to a place of honor and dignity in the eyes of God. Jesus is a lover of true justice and works for justice among his people. Note the parables in which he honors and loves those who are beaten and down trodden. He calls for the last to be first. He calls for transformation of human existence and of the world of this time.
It is clear for John that if you accept Jesus Christ as Lord, if you see in him a whole new way of life. If you see in him the truth about God, God is love and grace, then you have life and hope without end. He calls his community into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the restoration and the renewing family of God. Those who embrace and trust Jesus as Lord, who accept his love and forgiveness and live that way, will become able to do what he did and more. They are, in fact, called into partnership, fellowship, community with him. The love that John is talking about is the love of Jesus Christ that transforms people, and that gives them peace and hope, and an assurance in view of their terrible anxiety and uncertainty. Jesus is the expression of God. He is the hope that God is present and cares. He calls them each by name and loves them, and reassures them.
This teaching is often greatly misunderstood by our culture, and popular religion. Many people have come to believe that Jesus comes to the world and does some good things, dies on a cross, gets resurrected, and ascends to heaven somewhere in outer space to build a gigantic motel for good people. That concept was not the meaning of this passage, for John's time or for our present time. The point is that Jesus lived and died and came back resurrected to reassure the faithful community that God continues to live and be with his people, and that there is ample room in the Kingdom of God, now! Here in this present time. Jesus Christ has a place for each of us, an assigned calling in his mission and ministry. God in Christ and through Christ is with us.
The world we live in today is tricky, and we must be careful what we believe. We have never known a time in history when, at least in this country, there has been so much prosperity. Success and prosperity has often been the measure of godliness in the world. But our prosperity has not really saved us. It is also a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. It is an age so complex that it is particularly difficult to know the answers to some of the problems, issues, and involvements of the world. We hardly know what to believe. Our country is now engaged in a war and we hardly know what to make of it. We do not want to see peoples discriminated against, or murdered, because of their race or economic or religious beliefs. On the other hand we seem to become easily involved in using tremendous force through bombing, as a kind of solution to every problem, not to mention the use of force and abuse in families. We can't get at finding ways to negotiate understanding and peace. The Middle Eastern mindset seems unable, fixed in an eye for eye diplomacy. The hatred, prejudice, and warfare continue.
The events of September 11th still plague us. We live with the constant fear of terrorism, most clearly seen in our airports. We see innocent people suffer in our own land as well as abroad. We hear about the possibilities of threats on nuclear power plants, and the making of “dirty” atomic weapons. We are threatened with biological warfare with agents like anthrax. It is not a particularly happy time in the world today.
People and especially children have never before in history been so exposed to pornography, sex, bombs, racial hate, terrorism, drugs and alcohol like the world we know today. Violence pervades nearly every aspect of the human condition, from family abuse and violence, sexual violence and abuse in the church, to racial and national violence in the world. The wonderful and awesome internet has come upon us, and nearly everything that is good, and that is so very bad is at the finger tips of everyone of us. What are we to do?
What is the truth for us? What is the way for us? How do we find God. How do we re-enter into the family of God in the awful age of great anxiety. The foundations of our lives are shaken, aren't they? We have difficulty in finding what to hold on to for security. The very idea that someday when we die there is heaven in the sky is not a satisfactory response to our present basic human need.
Jesus said to Thomas who was really quite anxious, as we are. I'll be gone awhile through my dying and sacrificial love. But my work is to assure you and to prepare a place, a mission, for each of you, and I will come again and you will see me risen and alive. Trust that my way of love and forgiveness, my way of healing, my way of dying, and restoring is the way of God. Trust that I am authentically the truth about God, and the way to God, and you will have life, and a way of life that will alleviate you fear. We are in fellowship and community together.
Philip said in his anxiety: How do we know the Father, how do we know God. Jesus said to him if you have seen me, and know that I am with you, you have seen God; you have seen the Father. So embrace me as your Lord always.
The world, along with our selves, may well know fear and anxiety. Yet, we have a faith that calls us to trust that God is still with us. That God is with us. Embrace the Christ, embrace the Father; be in relationship with him and with one another. Be in union and love with one another. Carry on in the light of Christ and there will be healing, hope, and peace. We may not know all the answers. We may still be confused about the world. But we shall be in the Kingdom of God do our work with Christ, as the body of Christ, transforming the world into the Garden of God.
In that fellowship with Christ, with one another in fellowship and embracing the way, the truth, the life of Christ, we continue to do the work of the Lord, with the potential of doing even greater things in this age.
(This Sermon is largely based on the Sermon for Easter 5A, from 1999, with some editing and change.)
Sunday, April 28, 2002
Sunday, April 21, 2002
Easter 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
[FMC1]
SEASON: Easter 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Essex
DATE: April 21,2002
Memorial Service, The Rev. Robert Grumbine
TEXT: John 10:11-16 – “I am the good shepherd.”
ISSUE: The imagery of God as the Good Shepherd is deeply rooted in the Judaic-Christian Tradition. God is the Good Shepherd, and Jesus reveals specifically what that means in terms of a beautiful life given in servanthood. And we are all called to be Good Shepherds to one another in the image of Christ Jesus. Fr. Robert (Bob) Grumbine while hardly perfect, did his part to be a faithful serving shepherd.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What could be a more appropriate day to offer this Memorial Service for Fr. Robert Grumbine than on this evening of the Sunday that a large part of Christendom refers to as Good Shepherd Sunday!
This evening we are gathered here to celebrate and to give thanks for Bob’s relatively long life as a husband, father, grandfather, and devoted pastor, both in the parish ministry and in the Franklin Square Chaplain’s Department. We come to remember and to give thanks to God for Bob’s work with the Baltimore County Police and Fire Departments as their chaplain. I personally remember the many times that Bob and I were together. I used to search him out at Franklin Square Hospital when I made pastoral calls there. We had some delightful coffee “glotches” together in the Coffee Shop. We roomed together at some Diocesan Conventions, and Clergy Conferences, and shared our thoughts and feelings at many of the proverbial “small group discussions” at an interminable number of diocesan meetings and conferences. Bob was for me a mentor. He was an extraordinarily sober, trustworthy, dedicated priest. His ministry was indeed a most faithful and honorable one. His devotion to the Diocese of Maryland was unique. While working as a chaplain at the hospital, Bob also did some interim work in various parishes in the Diocese, and it is my guess that he either preached, or at least visited almost every Episcopal parish and mission in the Diocese. He was honored for his devotion to the Fire Department. And most important of all his devotion to his Lord goes without question, worshipping on Sundays in his last days in parishes, when many of us in his condition would have preferred the comfort of our home. I thank God for what I learned from Bob and give heart felt thanks for his long devoted ministry.
When we have remains present, like a casket or urn of ashes, they are usually place in front of the altar in the same way that church ushers bring before God the offerings of the people. So tonight we might think of Bob being here and we are offering up his full, untiring, and vivacious life to the Glory of God.
Let me interject here that we are often persuaded to say all the good things we can about a person when they die, especially in eulogies. I recognize fully that Bob was human. He had much to offer that was good, wholesome, honorable, and worthy. I am not so naïve to think that there isn’t some one here, perhaps family members, who can remember some not so pleasant. “Oh yea, ”they might say, “if only you had been there when . . . .” Bob, like the rest of us, was not perfect, none of us is. My own children have said to me, “Dad, you’re not the same person here at home as you are over there in that church with other people.” But this evening we come to offer up both and good and the not so good, and seek to hold up before God what was his best, doing our best to forgive the other, as God does.
We do think of our pastors as shepherds. The image of the Good Shepherd is deeply rooted in and developed in our Judaic-Christian tradition. One of the first things that many of us may have learned in Sunday School or church was the beautiful 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd. . . . . And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for you are with me.” First and foremost we think of God as being like a strong and Good Shepherd, carrying his rod and staff to protect and guide us. In the Hebrew Scriptures several of the servants of God were also considered shepherds to their people, Moses and King David were seen as good shepherds. Kings of Judah and Israel were also supposed to be shepherds to their people.
In the prophet Ezekiel 34, however, there is a condemnation of some of the kings and leaders who failed miserably to be good shepherds to God’s people. “How I hate the shepherds of Israel who care only for themselves! Should not the shepherd care for the sheep? You consume the milk, wear the wool, and slaughter the fat beasts, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not encouraged the weary, tended the sick, bandaged the hurt, recovered the weary, recovered the straggler, or searched for the lost; and even the strong you have driven with ruthless severity. They are scattered, they have no shepherd; they have become the prey of wild beasts.” Then, God goes on to say, “I myself will tend my flock, I myself pen them in their fold. I will search for the lost, recover the straggler, bandage the hurt, strengthen the sick, leave the healthy and strong to play, and give them their proper food.” . . . . . “I myself will tend my flock.”
For the Christian Community, it is Jesus Christ, who is Son of God, who is the revelation of the living Good Shepherd. He feeds his flock like a shepherd. On a green hill, in green pasture he invites the 5,000 sheep of his pasture to sit down and be fed with his abundant bread and fish of love. He is the living healer of the broken and down trodden, the untouchable lepers. He raises the fallen, the death ridden hopeless and despairing folk. He is the joy and the witness of God to the healthy and the strong. Jesus Christ is the living word of God, and the hope of the least, the last, the lonely, and the lost. He is the Lord who walks with his sheep through the valley of the shadow of death to heal, to love, and to give hope, carrying the rod and staff. He is the one who himself had laid down his own life for his sheep.
In the conclusion of John’s Gospel, the Risen Lord and Good Shepherd, Jesus meets with his disciple Peter for breakfast. Peter is one of his own sheep. Now we know that Peter had denied Jesus at his trial and crucifixion. Rock that he was; like all of us, and like Bob, Peter was hardly perfect.
And yet Jesus calls him out of the shadows, “Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than all else?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter answers, “You know that I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes Lord, you know I love you.”
“Tend my sheep.” Jesus replies.
Peter was hurt that the Good Shepherd asks him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” But after all Peter had denied Jesus three times, and the Bible loves to do things in threes.
“Lord, “ Peter says, “You know everything. You know I love you.”
“Feed my sheep.” says the Good Shepherd even once again.
And so, Fr. Robert Grumbine, Bob, heard the call from the Good Shepherd to feed and tend the sheep, weak and strong. I am convinced he did his best in the service of others. And whatsoever defilements he may have contracted in the midst of this early life, may they be purged and done away and his soul offered and returned to the Good Shepherd of us all, Jesus Christ our Lord. We rejoice in his long and faithful ministry.
And a brief epilogue: We are also gathered here tonight to face our own mortality. We also know our grief and sorrow, our fears, failures, and uncertainties for the future. Death of a loved one is always threatening to our own well being in life. Even when a loved one has had a long illness, death is still like having the rug pulled out from under us. It is a time for some reflection on our own lives. As God is our shepherd, in the midst of things we cannot always understand, we are called too to be shepherds to one another in our weakness and grief. Love the Lord. Be good to one another. We need one another. Remember Edna, (Fern), Kathy, Anne, Carol, Edward, Raymond, and Richard. Remember the stepchildren: Lee, Deborah, and Lisa, and all the wonderful grand and great grand children.
Be there for one another, be patient in this difficult time. Live into our calling as Christ’s shepherds; be shepherds for one another. No greater love is there, than we lay down our life in service for our friends. May God bless us all in our shepherding of one another.
Good night, Bob, (+) and may your soul and the souls of all the faithful through the mercy of God rest in peace.
[FMC1]
SEASON: Easter 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Essex
DATE: April 21,2002
Memorial Service, The Rev. Robert Grumbine
TEXT: John 10:11-16 – “I am the good shepherd.”
ISSUE: The imagery of God as the Good Shepherd is deeply rooted in the Judaic-Christian Tradition. God is the Good Shepherd, and Jesus reveals specifically what that means in terms of a beautiful life given in servanthood. And we are all called to be Good Shepherds to one another in the image of Christ Jesus. Fr. Robert (Bob) Grumbine while hardly perfect, did his part to be a faithful serving shepherd.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What could be a more appropriate day to offer this Memorial Service for Fr. Robert Grumbine than on this evening of the Sunday that a large part of Christendom refers to as Good Shepherd Sunday!
This evening we are gathered here to celebrate and to give thanks for Bob’s relatively long life as a husband, father, grandfather, and devoted pastor, both in the parish ministry and in the Franklin Square Chaplain’s Department. We come to remember and to give thanks to God for Bob’s work with the Baltimore County Police and Fire Departments as their chaplain. I personally remember the many times that Bob and I were together. I used to search him out at Franklin Square Hospital when I made pastoral calls there. We had some delightful coffee “glotches” together in the Coffee Shop. We roomed together at some Diocesan Conventions, and Clergy Conferences, and shared our thoughts and feelings at many of the proverbial “small group discussions” at an interminable number of diocesan meetings and conferences. Bob was for me a mentor. He was an extraordinarily sober, trustworthy, dedicated priest. His ministry was indeed a most faithful and honorable one. His devotion to the Diocese of Maryland was unique. While working as a chaplain at the hospital, Bob also did some interim work in various parishes in the Diocese, and it is my guess that he either preached, or at least visited almost every Episcopal parish and mission in the Diocese. He was honored for his devotion to the Fire Department. And most important of all his devotion to his Lord goes without question, worshipping on Sundays in his last days in parishes, when many of us in his condition would have preferred the comfort of our home. I thank God for what I learned from Bob and give heart felt thanks for his long devoted ministry.
When we have remains present, like a casket or urn of ashes, they are usually place in front of the altar in the same way that church ushers bring before God the offerings of the people. So tonight we might think of Bob being here and we are offering up his full, untiring, and vivacious life to the Glory of God.
Let me interject here that we are often persuaded to say all the good things we can about a person when they die, especially in eulogies. I recognize fully that Bob was human. He had much to offer that was good, wholesome, honorable, and worthy. I am not so naïve to think that there isn’t some one here, perhaps family members, who can remember some not so pleasant. “Oh yea, ”they might say, “if only you had been there when . . . .” Bob, like the rest of us, was not perfect, none of us is. My own children have said to me, “Dad, you’re not the same person here at home as you are over there in that church with other people.” But this evening we come to offer up both and good and the not so good, and seek to hold up before God what was his best, doing our best to forgive the other, as God does.
We do think of our pastors as shepherds. The image of the Good Shepherd is deeply rooted in and developed in our Judaic-Christian tradition. One of the first things that many of us may have learned in Sunday School or church was the beautiful 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd. . . . . And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for you are with me.” First and foremost we think of God as being like a strong and Good Shepherd, carrying his rod and staff to protect and guide us. In the Hebrew Scriptures several of the servants of God were also considered shepherds to their people, Moses and King David were seen as good shepherds. Kings of Judah and Israel were also supposed to be shepherds to their people.
In the prophet Ezekiel 34, however, there is a condemnation of some of the kings and leaders who failed miserably to be good shepherds to God’s people. “How I hate the shepherds of Israel who care only for themselves! Should not the shepherd care for the sheep? You consume the milk, wear the wool, and slaughter the fat beasts, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not encouraged the weary, tended the sick, bandaged the hurt, recovered the weary, recovered the straggler, or searched for the lost; and even the strong you have driven with ruthless severity. They are scattered, they have no shepherd; they have become the prey of wild beasts.” Then, God goes on to say, “I myself will tend my flock, I myself pen them in their fold. I will search for the lost, recover the straggler, bandage the hurt, strengthen the sick, leave the healthy and strong to play, and give them their proper food.” . . . . . “I myself will tend my flock.”
For the Christian Community, it is Jesus Christ, who is Son of God, who is the revelation of the living Good Shepherd. He feeds his flock like a shepherd. On a green hill, in green pasture he invites the 5,000 sheep of his pasture to sit down and be fed with his abundant bread and fish of love. He is the living healer of the broken and down trodden, the untouchable lepers. He raises the fallen, the death ridden hopeless and despairing folk. He is the joy and the witness of God to the healthy and the strong. Jesus Christ is the living word of God, and the hope of the least, the last, the lonely, and the lost. He is the Lord who walks with his sheep through the valley of the shadow of death to heal, to love, and to give hope, carrying the rod and staff. He is the one who himself had laid down his own life for his sheep.
In the conclusion of John’s Gospel, the Risen Lord and Good Shepherd, Jesus meets with his disciple Peter for breakfast. Peter is one of his own sheep. Now we know that Peter had denied Jesus at his trial and crucifixion. Rock that he was; like all of us, and like Bob, Peter was hardly perfect.
And yet Jesus calls him out of the shadows, “Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than all else?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter answers, “You know that I love you.”
“Then feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes Lord, you know I love you.”
“Tend my sheep.” Jesus replies.
Peter was hurt that the Good Shepherd asks him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” But after all Peter had denied Jesus three times, and the Bible loves to do things in threes.
“Lord, “ Peter says, “You know everything. You know I love you.”
“Feed my sheep.” says the Good Shepherd even once again.
And so, Fr. Robert Grumbine, Bob, heard the call from the Good Shepherd to feed and tend the sheep, weak and strong. I am convinced he did his best in the service of others. And whatsoever defilements he may have contracted in the midst of this early life, may they be purged and done away and his soul offered and returned to the Good Shepherd of us all, Jesus Christ our Lord. We rejoice in his long and faithful ministry.
And a brief epilogue: We are also gathered here tonight to face our own mortality. We also know our grief and sorrow, our fears, failures, and uncertainties for the future. Death of a loved one is always threatening to our own well being in life. Even when a loved one has had a long illness, death is still like having the rug pulled out from under us. It is a time for some reflection on our own lives. As God is our shepherd, in the midst of things we cannot always understand, we are called too to be shepherds to one another in our weakness and grief. Love the Lord. Be good to one another. We need one another. Remember Edna, (Fern), Kathy, Anne, Carol, Edward, Raymond, and Richard. Remember the stepchildren: Lee, Deborah, and Lisa, and all the wonderful grand and great grand children.
Be there for one another, be patient in this difficult time. Live into our calling as Christ’s shepherds; be shepherds for one another. No greater love is there, than we lay down our life in service for our friends. May God bless us all in our shepherding of one another.
Good night, Bob, (+) and may your soul and the souls of all the faithful through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Easter 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 14,2002
TEXT: Luke 24:13-35 – “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and give to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
ISSUE: This story reveals the great disappointment of two disciples leaving Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus. All they had hoped for was over, and peasants of the time were probably used to having their hopes dashed. The expectant redeemer is crucified. Yet the stranger reveals to them much from the scriptures that told of suffering and yet God’s forever renewing hope to redeem and deliver his people. Finally, they see in the stranger the risen Christ who teaches and abides with them and becomes revealed through the supper, bringing back memories of the last supper and the great feeding miracles. They are fed again with hope.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Luke’s gospel gives another fascinating resurrection story. It is the story of Cleopas, a disciple, and a mysterious unnamed disciple. They have both been in Jerusalem and were apparent witnesses to the crucifixion of Jesus. We would gather that they were a part of the peasant class of Jesus’ followers. These disciples become disappointed when there are reports that Jesus had risen, but others had gone to the tomb and did not see him.
We can well imagine that for peasants of this period, disappointment and discouragement was a significant part of their lives. Little ever changed, and their status in life was pretty much set. Occasionally there were good days and hopeful things that happened, but for the most part life could be fairly dismal. As Cleopas and the other disciple continue on this road to Emmaus discussing the tragedy that had experience in the last several days. A stranger encounters them and inquires about what it is they are talking about, and why they are so sad.. They treat the stranger as if he were some kind of idiot: “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days . . . . . The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet might in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
The stranger replies, also in a somewhat demeaning way, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” The stranger begins to do some teaching as the group moves along the road, starting with the story of Moses. We really do not know what Jesus taught. It is something of a mystery as well. We can only ourselves be familiar with the scriptures and make thoughtful educated guesses as to what the stranger taught or revealed to these disciples. He may well have explained how Moses was the servant of God, and how through his faithful devotion a people in oppression and slavery were led to receive the civilizing commandments of God, manna in the wilderness, water from a rock, and eventually were led to a new homeland. While Moses may not have suffered like Jesus had suffered, Moses took on many years of dealing with a cantankerous people, who often fought him much of the way. But Moses faithfully committed himself to the deliverance of God’s people, when he himself never got to enter the promised land.
The stranger may have taught how the Judges struggled with Israel, and how David, himself only a shepherd boy, becomes a charismatic King and fought off enemies and brought his people to a time of faithfulness and grandeur. He was indeed an imperfect but a faithful messianic hope in his time. Repeatedly the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets wrestle with the sins of the nation Israel, suffer at the hands of their hard heartedness, all in the effort to restore the nation when it is down, and to bring hope and restoration to some very dismal situations. Even old Jonah in the belly of the big fish is raised up to do what God wants him to do. Isaiah also had an image of a Suffering Servant that would humbly, mercifully, without violence would bring hope to the world, and bear the sins of many, that restoration and hope would come again.
Maybe in the teaching of the stranger, he is saying that Jesus, who these disciples had depended upon, was in fact another prophet and a son of the Father who was willing to teach, heal, restore the alienated, suffer, and in great and profound love lays down his life for his friends. There is no greater love. And as surely as God enters into human history in an effort to give and hope and restore his own, will not the Lord Jesus himself be raised up and his way of love and intent suffering for his friends become a living vitally important way of life and of God in the history of humanity? Maybe the stranger addressing the disciples was saying something to that effect.
For these disciples it seems to make some sense. It is not just blind faith in resurrection but a revelation of the trend and understanding of God in human history that God constantly attends to the needs of his people and calls them into service with him.
After the discussion, Cleopas and the other disciple (incidentally possibly likely that it was a woman, and may have been the wife of Cleopas) invite the stranger to supper. Of course, at this time eating together meant these people were equals and that they had become intimate. Notice the transition from their earlier almost hostility toward one another and the transition into friendship in the dialogue that has taken place. Talking with one another and keeping open conversation and communication can be very hopeful and healing for relationships. The stranger takes the lead:
“He took the bread . . . blessed the bread . . . and broke it . . . and gave it to them.”
“Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”
The great “Aha!” has happened.
In the familiarity of the meal of eating with him, accepting him, understanding him, remembering the Feeding of the Five Thousand: “He took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread and distributed it.” It was reminiscent of the Last Supper: “He took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread, and distributed to his disciples saying, ‘This is my Body.’” In this wonderful event Cleopas and the other disciple becomes aware this is the Lord. He is with us. God has done it again. God continues to feed and nourish, and we with Christ are the living body in the world. The eyes of faithfulness are not blind, but they see God’s presence and hear the calling to be the body of Jesus Christ in the world and to join faithfully that servant ministry.
We are living in a world right now of many tragic disappointments. It is so disappointing and depressing to see the problems that some of the great religions of the world have created. In an article which appeared in The New York Times, April 7, 2002 on the Web by Maureen Dowd it was reported that someone scribbled on a wall in Washington D.C. after Sept. 11, the following prayer: “Dear God, save us from the people who believe in you.” Tragically extremists of the Islamic Faith and of the Jewish Faith have been unable to find the way of peace in the name of God, through their relationship with God, but have turned their scriptures in to a force for hate. And this hatred has effected the entire world, not the Middle East alone. So called Christian militants have smeared the name of Christianity at the bombing in Oklahoma, in murdering gays, blacks, and bombing abortion clinics. We’ve experienced the sad messes created by the evangelists, Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Jim Jones in Guyanna. Even Billy Graham is supposed to have made some anti-Semitic remarks on the famous Nixon Tapes. The recent sexual scandals in The Anglican Church in Canada and in the Roman Catholic Church (and some here in our own diocese) have all given Christianity a very black eye at a time when our religion is so desperately needed.
All around us there is a lot disappointment and sadness. We see marriages breaking up. We see the tragic influential effects of alcohol that destroy lives in our young people in high schools and colleges, in older adults, and I would suspect that the high divorce rate is also a result of the excessive use, or should I say ‘abuse” of alcoholic consumption.
In recent years, all clergy of the Episcopal Church are required to have training in the prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Misconduct, or resign from their parishes, along with other church employees. Now all of our clergy are required to have training in the handling of Violent Physical Abuse in Families, relating to children and spouses. These are the tragic issues of our time that demand our attention and our redemption.
For the longest time in the telling of the story of the Good Samaritan, we have been inclined to put ourselves in the place of the Good Samaritan. We’re the good guys in the white hats. But now we have come to realize that we are not the Good Samaritans, we are more likely the indifferent priests that pass by or are more likely those in the ditch so desperately ourselves in need of a redeemer and of a Good Samaritan that we feel stuck and hopeless, discourage and sad. At a time when we are so desperately in need of a faith and hope in times of our troubles, national, religious, and personal, it seems that there is no hope, no peace, no reconciliation.
They were walking along the road to Emmaus. “What are you worrying about and saying? Why so sad, so disheartened so discouraged?” the strangers voice asks.
Are you so dumb you don’t know how disappoint our lives have become, how fearful we are, how hopeless the world seems. Look at it; it’s a mess!” we reply.
“Don’t you know the story,” the stranger replies, “The story of how God has always been present, trying to redeem and lead the way. How prophets and servants have suffered but remained faithful living in hope that God would renew and raise up the fallen.”
Who is the stranger who seems so calm and reassuring? Who is this one who takes the bread, blesses the bread, breaks the bread, and gives it to us? Who suffers and dies for us, and with us, who reaches out to us and says take eat? This (You are) is my body? Who is the strange foreigner in our midst who comes to us in the ditch? It is God in Christ come again to feed, nourish, renew us in faith, and to lift us up into a new community with the Lord.
SEASON: Easter 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 14,2002
TEXT: Luke 24:13-35 – “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and give to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
ISSUE: This story reveals the great disappointment of two disciples leaving Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus. All they had hoped for was over, and peasants of the time were probably used to having their hopes dashed. The expectant redeemer is crucified. Yet the stranger reveals to them much from the scriptures that told of suffering and yet God’s forever renewing hope to redeem and deliver his people. Finally, they see in the stranger the risen Christ who teaches and abides with them and becomes revealed through the supper, bringing back memories of the last supper and the great feeding miracles. They are fed again with hope.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Luke’s gospel gives another fascinating resurrection story. It is the story of Cleopas, a disciple, and a mysterious unnamed disciple. They have both been in Jerusalem and were apparent witnesses to the crucifixion of Jesus. We would gather that they were a part of the peasant class of Jesus’ followers. These disciples become disappointed when there are reports that Jesus had risen, but others had gone to the tomb and did not see him.
We can well imagine that for peasants of this period, disappointment and discouragement was a significant part of their lives. Little ever changed, and their status in life was pretty much set. Occasionally there were good days and hopeful things that happened, but for the most part life could be fairly dismal. As Cleopas and the other disciple continue on this road to Emmaus discussing the tragedy that had experience in the last several days. A stranger encounters them and inquires about what it is they are talking about, and why they are so sad.. They treat the stranger as if he were some kind of idiot: “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days . . . . . The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet might in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
The stranger replies, also in a somewhat demeaning way, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” The stranger begins to do some teaching as the group moves along the road, starting with the story of Moses. We really do not know what Jesus taught. It is something of a mystery as well. We can only ourselves be familiar with the scriptures and make thoughtful educated guesses as to what the stranger taught or revealed to these disciples. He may well have explained how Moses was the servant of God, and how through his faithful devotion a people in oppression and slavery were led to receive the civilizing commandments of God, manna in the wilderness, water from a rock, and eventually were led to a new homeland. While Moses may not have suffered like Jesus had suffered, Moses took on many years of dealing with a cantankerous people, who often fought him much of the way. But Moses faithfully committed himself to the deliverance of God’s people, when he himself never got to enter the promised land.
The stranger may have taught how the Judges struggled with Israel, and how David, himself only a shepherd boy, becomes a charismatic King and fought off enemies and brought his people to a time of faithfulness and grandeur. He was indeed an imperfect but a faithful messianic hope in his time. Repeatedly the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets wrestle with the sins of the nation Israel, suffer at the hands of their hard heartedness, all in the effort to restore the nation when it is down, and to bring hope and restoration to some very dismal situations. Even old Jonah in the belly of the big fish is raised up to do what God wants him to do. Isaiah also had an image of a Suffering Servant that would humbly, mercifully, without violence would bring hope to the world, and bear the sins of many, that restoration and hope would come again.
Maybe in the teaching of the stranger, he is saying that Jesus, who these disciples had depended upon, was in fact another prophet and a son of the Father who was willing to teach, heal, restore the alienated, suffer, and in great and profound love lays down his life for his friends. There is no greater love. And as surely as God enters into human history in an effort to give and hope and restore his own, will not the Lord Jesus himself be raised up and his way of love and intent suffering for his friends become a living vitally important way of life and of God in the history of humanity? Maybe the stranger addressing the disciples was saying something to that effect.
For these disciples it seems to make some sense. It is not just blind faith in resurrection but a revelation of the trend and understanding of God in human history that God constantly attends to the needs of his people and calls them into service with him.
After the discussion, Cleopas and the other disciple (incidentally possibly likely that it was a woman, and may have been the wife of Cleopas) invite the stranger to supper. Of course, at this time eating together meant these people were equals and that they had become intimate. Notice the transition from their earlier almost hostility toward one another and the transition into friendship in the dialogue that has taken place. Talking with one another and keeping open conversation and communication can be very hopeful and healing for relationships. The stranger takes the lead:
“He took the bread . . . blessed the bread . . . and broke it . . . and gave it to them.”
“Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”
The great “Aha!” has happened.
In the familiarity of the meal of eating with him, accepting him, understanding him, remembering the Feeding of the Five Thousand: “He took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread and distributed it.” It was reminiscent of the Last Supper: “He took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread, and distributed to his disciples saying, ‘This is my Body.’” In this wonderful event Cleopas and the other disciple becomes aware this is the Lord. He is with us. God has done it again. God continues to feed and nourish, and we with Christ are the living body in the world. The eyes of faithfulness are not blind, but they see God’s presence and hear the calling to be the body of Jesus Christ in the world and to join faithfully that servant ministry.
We are living in a world right now of many tragic disappointments. It is so disappointing and depressing to see the problems that some of the great religions of the world have created. In an article which appeared in The New York Times, April 7, 2002 on the Web by Maureen Dowd it was reported that someone scribbled on a wall in Washington D.C. after Sept. 11, the following prayer: “Dear God, save us from the people who believe in you.” Tragically extremists of the Islamic Faith and of the Jewish Faith have been unable to find the way of peace in the name of God, through their relationship with God, but have turned their scriptures in to a force for hate. And this hatred has effected the entire world, not the Middle East alone. So called Christian militants have smeared the name of Christianity at the bombing in Oklahoma, in murdering gays, blacks, and bombing abortion clinics. We’ve experienced the sad messes created by the evangelists, Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Jim Jones in Guyanna. Even Billy Graham is supposed to have made some anti-Semitic remarks on the famous Nixon Tapes. The recent sexual scandals in The Anglican Church in Canada and in the Roman Catholic Church (and some here in our own diocese) have all given Christianity a very black eye at a time when our religion is so desperately needed.
All around us there is a lot disappointment and sadness. We see marriages breaking up. We see the tragic influential effects of alcohol that destroy lives in our young people in high schools and colleges, in older adults, and I would suspect that the high divorce rate is also a result of the excessive use, or should I say ‘abuse” of alcoholic consumption.
In recent years, all clergy of the Episcopal Church are required to have training in the prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Misconduct, or resign from their parishes, along with other church employees. Now all of our clergy are required to have training in the handling of Violent Physical Abuse in Families, relating to children and spouses. These are the tragic issues of our time that demand our attention and our redemption.
For the longest time in the telling of the story of the Good Samaritan, we have been inclined to put ourselves in the place of the Good Samaritan. We’re the good guys in the white hats. But now we have come to realize that we are not the Good Samaritans, we are more likely the indifferent priests that pass by or are more likely those in the ditch so desperately ourselves in need of a redeemer and of a Good Samaritan that we feel stuck and hopeless, discourage and sad. At a time when we are so desperately in need of a faith and hope in times of our troubles, national, religious, and personal, it seems that there is no hope, no peace, no reconciliation.
They were walking along the road to Emmaus. “What are you worrying about and saying? Why so sad, so disheartened so discouraged?” the strangers voice asks.
Are you so dumb you don’t know how disappoint our lives have become, how fearful we are, how hopeless the world seems. Look at it; it’s a mess!” we reply.
“Don’t you know the story,” the stranger replies, “The story of how God has always been present, trying to redeem and lead the way. How prophets and servants have suffered but remained faithful living in hope that God would renew and raise up the fallen.”
Who is the stranger who seems so calm and reassuring? Who is this one who takes the bread, blesses the bread, breaks the bread, and gives it to us? Who suffers and dies for us, and with us, who reaches out to us and says take eat? This (You are) is my body? Who is the strange foreigner in our midst who comes to us in the ditch? It is God in Christ come again to feed, nourish, renew us in faith, and to lift us up into a new community with the Lord.
Sunday, April 7, 2002
Easter 2 (time capsule)
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 7,2002
TEXT: John 20:19-31 - “Put your fingers here and see my hands. . . . . . Do not doubt but believe.” “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
ISSUE: This passage strikes me that it is not so much about how we must have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, but rather how our Lord has faith and confidence in us to grasp the meaning of his mission and ministry. The disciples accept the Lord’s presence, and the Lord returns a second time to Thomas with the hope that he will also believe and carry on the ministry and be with the others the living body of Jesus Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the world. The calling and presence of Christ continues to this day calling us to join with him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The appearance of Jesus to his disciples who are in a locked room is one of the several resurrection accounts that we find in the four accounts of the Gospel. On the surface of it all, it is another story to convince the disciples of the time, and all of the rest of us for all time that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This particular account, however, is clearly more than just a resurrection appearance; it is also a commissioning of the disciples to carry on the ministry, and a call to faithfulness.
In this story, the room where the disciples are hiding is locked. The locked door is an explanation of the disciples fear and uncertainty about the future. People didn’t lock doors much in this period, for a locked door or a demand for privacy was a social sign of some perversity or deviant behavior. The disciples clearly feared the authorities, because of their association with Jesus. They are locked in, as if in a tomb themselves.
Jesus appears to them! He shows them his wounds, his hands and his side. He offers them peace. Then, Jesus breathes the resurrection spirit upon them and into them and commissions them to continue the ministry of forgiveness. “If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven; if you do not they will be retained. Therefore, get on with the business of carrying on the ministry of forgiveness, redemption, and renewal.” (paraphrased) The disciples themselves now are resurrected, lifted up out of the hiding locked tomb and commissioned to greet the world with the message of hope.
In the story there is a catch: Thomas is not there. When Thomas hears of what has happened, he asserts himself by saying that unless he too sees the mark of the nails in his hands and puts his fingers in the wound in his side, he will not believe. What happens? A week later there is another mystical spiritual encounter with the risen Lord. Jesus returns again and tells Thomas, just like the others had seen his wounds, now I show them to you. “Go ahead, and put your hands in the wounds of my hands, and your fingers in my side. You too be a believer. Do not doubt but believe!” (paraphrased) In great faith, Thomas replies without touching Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” It is a great moment of awareness and faith.
The passage concludes with a Johannine beatitude. Remember John’s Gospel was written at a time when all of the eye witnesses of Jesus death and resurrection were themselves deceased. John is intent on calling the second generation Christians to faithfulness in the face of a very difficult period of persecution and excommunication from their families and synagogues. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” It is a passage that calls the Christian community to faithful belief in Jesus Christ as Lord, as the light of the world. It is the commissioning story that calls the early church to carry on the ministry of Jesus of reconciling, redeeming, forgiving, loving, and providing hope in the face of great difficulty. The early Christian community is called to be the living continuing body of Jesus Christ in the world. Real genuine blessedness, real honor, real men and women believe that God lives in Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is the way to resurrection and fullness of hearty genuine life. The disciples are liberated from locked door, their fearful entombment, and are set free with mission and purpose by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. Their loyalty to him and his mission sets them free to purposeful meaningful lives. The message is that being faithful in; trusting in, loyal to the ways and teachings the death, suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. You gotta have faith. You don’t just believe there was a Jesus (anybody can do that and most people do), but you trust in him, and his way of forgiveness and love to be the hope for the anxious and troubled world, and even in our personal lives.
I want you to observe something with me. The commission of the disciples is not the only commissioning in our Christian-Judaic tradition. Early in the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses is commissioned. Moses appears before a burning bush and the voice of God calls from the bush that will not burn up, and commission Moses to go to Egypt to liberate the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. In the story from Exodus (3:4-4:17) Moses begins to resist the commissioning, and perhaps to some extent, who it is that is sending him to Egypt:
v He begins by saying he’s a nobody, and just can’t do it. God assures Moses that he will be with him.
v Then Moses complains he doesn’t know God’s name, and the people will not follow him. God tells Moses his name, “Yahweh, I am who I am.” Go for it Moses.
v Suppose the people will still not listen? God gives him special powers with his walking stick, the ability to have leprosy and be healed, to turn Nile River water into blood.
v Finally Moses complains that he has a speech impediment, and can’t talk well with slow and hesitant speech. Send someone else. Then, God says I’ll send Aaron with you to speak for you, but “Go! Moses, Go!”
In still another Hebrew Scripture story, (Judges 6:11-36) God calls Gideon to release his people from the Midianites. Gideon complains he and his tribe are too weak. Prove that it is really God who is demanding this mission, which God does in this story as well. But again it is a story of commissioning and the prophet or disciple’s resistance, and the Lord’s trust in the man he calls.
In other accounts of the resurrection, in Luke for example, the appearance of the Lord to his disciples creates alarm and doubts (Luke 24:33-53). Yet Jesus stays with them and eats with them, showing his hands and his feet. It’s almost a kind of pleading with them for belief until it finally sinks in, and they become filled with joy and praise God and give thanks in the Temple.
My observation is this: God trusts us. God pleads with us. God extends his unearned bountiful grace to get our attention. Jesus appears to his frightened and despairing disciples. He commissions them with little concern for their abandonment. Breathing the Spirit of God into them they are graciously commissioned. For Thomas who is slow to believe, who can’t believe, Jesus comes again and pleads for his confidence and belief and sends Thomas along with all the rest. Moses is trusted and implored. You can do it. Gideon, you can do it, I trust you. Peter, you denied me three times: Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Yes I do Lord. Yes I do. Yes, I do. Feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. God in Christ trusts his own and has faith that they will carry on the body of Christ in the world.
Here we are folks. In so many ways we live in a wide wonderful world. We are blessed with technology and the wonders, if not miracles of science. Americans have great affluence, and relative security because of our power. Many would believe by our own and on our own we have achieved great accomplishments as a result of our own doing. Yet permeating the wonder is a lot of hatred, violence, despair, and anxiety. There is still a lot of sickness, poverty, AIDS, alienation, loneliness. The world still has much ignorance and prejudice. People are blind to finding peace and hope, and ways out of their demeaning addictions. Stuck in worn out traditions and despair, many are lame with hopelessness. Fear possesses the lives of many Palestinians. Some cannot hear the music of loves spirituality that resurrects and lifts up people from despair, poverty, and hopelessness.
Surely it is important to believe that God provides us hope and resurrection in the midst of life’s crucifixions, and loves us in spite of our resistance to him. Trusting that God’s sacrificial love, forgiveness, and God’s freely given grace liberates us, gives humanity dignity, and makes us healthy. It seems to me that the message of this Gospel affirms and calls us to trust in and love of God in Jesus Christ. “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” But it is equally important to believe that God trusts us, believes in us, maintains a loyalty with us to be his risen body in the despairing aspects of human lives and in the world.
In John’s Gospel account (17:18f), John has Jesus offering the high priestly prayer for his disciples: “I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. And for their sake I dedicate myself to you, in order that they, too, may be truly dedicated to you. I pray not only for them, but for those who believe in me because of their message. I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you.”
To be faithful is indeed a great Christian virtue, but to know that Christ trusts us to join him in mission in the world as well is grace at its best. I pray that we shall be aware and knowledgeable that God is calling and trusting us as a parish church to prevail in Christ’s mission.
(This sermon was sealed in the time capsule, and placed behind the memorial stone of the Church Handicapped Ramp, St. John’s Parish, Kingsville, MD. 21087)
SEASON: Easter 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 7,2002
TEXT: John 20:19-31 - “Put your fingers here and see my hands. . . . . . Do not doubt but believe.” “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
ISSUE: This passage strikes me that it is not so much about how we must have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, but rather how our Lord has faith and confidence in us to grasp the meaning of his mission and ministry. The disciples accept the Lord’s presence, and the Lord returns a second time to Thomas with the hope that he will also believe and carry on the ministry and be with the others the living body of Jesus Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the world. The calling and presence of Christ continues to this day calling us to join with him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The appearance of Jesus to his disciples who are in a locked room is one of the several resurrection accounts that we find in the four accounts of the Gospel. On the surface of it all, it is another story to convince the disciples of the time, and all of the rest of us for all time that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This particular account, however, is clearly more than just a resurrection appearance; it is also a commissioning of the disciples to carry on the ministry, and a call to faithfulness.
In this story, the room where the disciples are hiding is locked. The locked door is an explanation of the disciples fear and uncertainty about the future. People didn’t lock doors much in this period, for a locked door or a demand for privacy was a social sign of some perversity or deviant behavior. The disciples clearly feared the authorities, because of their association with Jesus. They are locked in, as if in a tomb themselves.
Jesus appears to them! He shows them his wounds, his hands and his side. He offers them peace. Then, Jesus breathes the resurrection spirit upon them and into them and commissions them to continue the ministry of forgiveness. “If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven; if you do not they will be retained. Therefore, get on with the business of carrying on the ministry of forgiveness, redemption, and renewal.” (paraphrased) The disciples themselves now are resurrected, lifted up out of the hiding locked tomb and commissioned to greet the world with the message of hope.
In the story there is a catch: Thomas is not there. When Thomas hears of what has happened, he asserts himself by saying that unless he too sees the mark of the nails in his hands and puts his fingers in the wound in his side, he will not believe. What happens? A week later there is another mystical spiritual encounter with the risen Lord. Jesus returns again and tells Thomas, just like the others had seen his wounds, now I show them to you. “Go ahead, and put your hands in the wounds of my hands, and your fingers in my side. You too be a believer. Do not doubt but believe!” (paraphrased) In great faith, Thomas replies without touching Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” It is a great moment of awareness and faith.
The passage concludes with a Johannine beatitude. Remember John’s Gospel was written at a time when all of the eye witnesses of Jesus death and resurrection were themselves deceased. John is intent on calling the second generation Christians to faithfulness in the face of a very difficult period of persecution and excommunication from their families and synagogues. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” It is a passage that calls the Christian community to faithful belief in Jesus Christ as Lord, as the light of the world. It is the commissioning story that calls the early church to carry on the ministry of Jesus of reconciling, redeeming, forgiving, loving, and providing hope in the face of great difficulty. The early Christian community is called to be the living continuing body of Jesus Christ in the world. Real genuine blessedness, real honor, real men and women believe that God lives in Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is the way to resurrection and fullness of hearty genuine life. The disciples are liberated from locked door, their fearful entombment, and are set free with mission and purpose by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. Their loyalty to him and his mission sets them free to purposeful meaningful lives. The message is that being faithful in; trusting in, loyal to the ways and teachings the death, suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. You gotta have faith. You don’t just believe there was a Jesus (anybody can do that and most people do), but you trust in him, and his way of forgiveness and love to be the hope for the anxious and troubled world, and even in our personal lives.
I want you to observe something with me. The commission of the disciples is not the only commissioning in our Christian-Judaic tradition. Early in the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses is commissioned. Moses appears before a burning bush and the voice of God calls from the bush that will not burn up, and commission Moses to go to Egypt to liberate the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. In the story from Exodus (3:4-4:17) Moses begins to resist the commissioning, and perhaps to some extent, who it is that is sending him to Egypt:
v He begins by saying he’s a nobody, and just can’t do it. God assures Moses that he will be with him.
v Then Moses complains he doesn’t know God’s name, and the people will not follow him. God tells Moses his name, “Yahweh, I am who I am.” Go for it Moses.
v Suppose the people will still not listen? God gives him special powers with his walking stick, the ability to have leprosy and be healed, to turn Nile River water into blood.
v Finally Moses complains that he has a speech impediment, and can’t talk well with slow and hesitant speech. Send someone else. Then, God says I’ll send Aaron with you to speak for you, but “Go! Moses, Go!”
In still another Hebrew Scripture story, (Judges 6:11-36) God calls Gideon to release his people from the Midianites. Gideon complains he and his tribe are too weak. Prove that it is really God who is demanding this mission, which God does in this story as well. But again it is a story of commissioning and the prophet or disciple’s resistance, and the Lord’s trust in the man he calls.
In other accounts of the resurrection, in Luke for example, the appearance of the Lord to his disciples creates alarm and doubts (Luke 24:33-53). Yet Jesus stays with them and eats with them, showing his hands and his feet. It’s almost a kind of pleading with them for belief until it finally sinks in, and they become filled with joy and praise God and give thanks in the Temple.
My observation is this: God trusts us. God pleads with us. God extends his unearned bountiful grace to get our attention. Jesus appears to his frightened and despairing disciples. He commissions them with little concern for their abandonment. Breathing the Spirit of God into them they are graciously commissioned. For Thomas who is slow to believe, who can’t believe, Jesus comes again and pleads for his confidence and belief and sends Thomas along with all the rest. Moses is trusted and implored. You can do it. Gideon, you can do it, I trust you. Peter, you denied me three times: Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Yes I do Lord. Yes I do. Yes, I do. Feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. God in Christ trusts his own and has faith that they will carry on the body of Christ in the world.
Here we are folks. In so many ways we live in a wide wonderful world. We are blessed with technology and the wonders, if not miracles of science. Americans have great affluence, and relative security because of our power. Many would believe by our own and on our own we have achieved great accomplishments as a result of our own doing. Yet permeating the wonder is a lot of hatred, violence, despair, and anxiety. There is still a lot of sickness, poverty, AIDS, alienation, loneliness. The world still has much ignorance and prejudice. People are blind to finding peace and hope, and ways out of their demeaning addictions. Stuck in worn out traditions and despair, many are lame with hopelessness. Fear possesses the lives of many Palestinians. Some cannot hear the music of loves spirituality that resurrects and lifts up people from despair, poverty, and hopelessness.
Surely it is important to believe that God provides us hope and resurrection in the midst of life’s crucifixions, and loves us in spite of our resistance to him. Trusting that God’s sacrificial love, forgiveness, and God’s freely given grace liberates us, gives humanity dignity, and makes us healthy. It seems to me that the message of this Gospel affirms and calls us to trust in and love of God in Jesus Christ. “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” But it is equally important to believe that God trusts us, believes in us, maintains a loyalty with us to be his risen body in the despairing aspects of human lives and in the world.
In John’s Gospel account (17:18f), John has Jesus offering the high priestly prayer for his disciples: “I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. And for their sake I dedicate myself to you, in order that they, too, may be truly dedicated to you. I pray not only for them, but for those who believe in me because of their message. I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you.”
To be faithful is indeed a great Christian virtue, but to know that Christ trusts us to join him in mission in the world as well is grace at its best. I pray that we shall be aware and knowledgeable that God is calling and trusting us as a parish church to prevail in Christ’s mission.
(This sermon was sealed in the time capsule, and placed behind the memorial stone of the Church Handicapped Ramp, St. John’s Parish, Kingsville, MD. 21087)
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