Sunday, April 25th, 2004
Second after Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Psalm 15
O LORD, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
and speak the truth from their heart;
Who do not slander with their tongue,
and do no evil to their friends,
nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
In whose eyes the wicked are despised,
but who honor those who fear the LORD;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
Who do not lend money at interest,
and do not take a bribe against the innocent.
Those who do these things shall never be moved.
Over my last couple of years in college, instead of working on papers or reading as I should have been, I spent some time perfecting what I thought ended up being a really really good and simple recipe for chili: 3 cans of red kidney beans, 2 lbs of ground beef, a chopped onion, a couple of packages of chili seasoning, 3 cans of either diced tomatoes or whole tomatoes that I then cut up with a knife. A small can of tomato paste. 2 cans of water. And this is important: for the water you need to use either the cans that the beans or the diced tomatoes came in, not the tomato paste, otherwise that wouldn’t be enough water.
Mexican food, or in light of the past year’s education on TRUE Mexican food, Tex-Mex food, is virtually unknown in Spain. Or at least it was in 1985 when I was there.
The city I was living in, Oviedo, Asturias, gets an amount of rain comparable to Seattle, I suspect, though I’ve not actually gone out and confirmed the statistics. It is on the northern coast of Spain, where the mountains that run all along the coast block the cool moist air coming off the North Atlantic from crossing down into the heart of the peninsula. That is why the central part of Spain is so famously dry. I’m not really sure why ‘the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain’ was even used in My Fair Lady, except perhaps for the fact that it rhymes so well. But the fact of the matter remains: Oviedo is a cold, wet city.
I decided, on one of those cold winter days, to prepare my Chili for the youth group from church. ‘The Youth Group’ meant altogether 8 people, counting myself, Dennis and Judith Hale’s 3 daughters, and 4 Spanish youth. Between us, the ages ranged from 14 to 30. There were a few hurdles to jump. You couldn’t easily find canned beans, much less red kidney beans, or packaged chili seasoning. So I had to soak the beans overnight and then cook them. I had to concoct the chili seasoning from available ingredients. Cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, a pinch of oregano, some crushed red peppers … a few other things, I can’t remember exactly what else went into it.
The day came and I put the beans on a slow boil. I browned the beef and chopped the onion, added the seasoning to the beef first – that was a key step – the beef gets the seasoning, not the broth. I mixed them all together and then … well, then I had to run out on some errand or other … I think it may have been to deliver the weekly newsletter/bulletins to the post office as part of my duties as a Journeyman. It ended up taking much longer than expected, MUCH longer.
Suppertime had been set for mid evening, actually much earlier than true suppertime in Spain, but I rushed home and walked in the door and knew as soon as I did that something was wrong.
If you’ve ever burned beans you know what I’m talking about. There’s very little, if anything that can be done to correct, recuperate, or cover up the fact that there’s a layer of burned beans at the bottom of a pan. Truth is, the taste of burned beans spreads through the whole pot. It ruins the whole thing.
The point of the story is this: recipes don’t always turn out the way they are supposed to. We may follow them step-by-step, but there’s no guarantee that some unforeseen event or variant factor in the equation ends up giving us a pot full of something not worth eating.
Psalm 15, our text this morning, and part of our responsive reading, is a feel-good short list … a recipe, if you will, of what in one way is a comforting Psalm, but it is a challenging one as well. It is a list of what David seems to have thought would make sense for God to require of us. It’s not as short as the recipe found in Micah 6:8, which, very succinctly, says do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God, but it is a recipe nonetheless.
David seems to be saying, “If you do this, these things, if you DON’T DO these other things, God will smile on you and bless you.”
It seems simple enough: black and white, decisions, choices, option A or option B. Go, no go. Yes. No. Period.
I hesitate to say that we as humans, whether we cook or not, would rather seek the simpler things in life, since there is so much evidence, to not say EXPERIENCE, that goes against that, but lets suppose that for the moment, that is the case, that if we all had a choice, we would drastically simplify our lives. If there are two lists of things to do, and one has 20 items on it and the other has two, how many of us would honestly rather choose the shorter list?
In the movie ‘Contact’, Jody Foster plays the role of a skeptic and an astronomer, and Matthew McConaughey plays the role of a former seminarian who winds up being the spiritual advisor to the president. At one point in the movie they find themselves having a discussion at a cocktail party about Occam’s Razor and the existence of God. Occam’s Razor is a logical principle attributed to a mediaeval philosopher named William of Occam, which simply (pun intended) states the following: one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything. Put another way: all things being equal, the simplest explanation is the likeliest one.
Likewise, we tend to do that … the simplest solution is the best one. So we go looking for short answers. That is why we find ourselves surrounded by a culture that relies on sound bites and bumper stickers to get the point across. We don’t have time to sit and talk things out. We don’t have time to waste on considering all the alternatives and options and nuances to a particular issue.
In our own experience here at Jerusalem, since … August, is it? We have had a committee meeting regularly to review and revise the constitution and bylaws of the church. Sometimes the meetings are congenial, the discussions flow smoothly and we breeze through the item at hand. Other times they are not so much. We have had our share of tense moments. There have been times when we would all rather be elsewhere rather than sitting downstairs on those hard metal chairs for two hours going over whether we should use one word instead of another, or use one phrase instead of another. Yet we keep coming back to it, because we understand the responsibility we have to address inasmuch as we are able, the issues that might come up with this family of faith today and in the future. It is a sometimes tedious task, and can be thankless, and isn’t without it’s moments of sheer discomfort. And yet, somehow, the meetings aren’t all about grammar, and phrasing, and nuance and the choice of words … the meetings are ALWAYS about the relationships of which the document speaks. The committee is trying, diligently and deliberately, to put down on paper what relationships are like and what relationships there are within this family of faith. The document is a reflection of that, but it is not that, the actual relationship.
My friend Jay Voorhees, a United Methodist Minister in Nashville, has an online discussion going on – it’s called a BLOG, and in it he’s been talking recently about how God relates to us – how he identifies himself – most often we find God’s self-identification in terms of relationship – ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’ or otherwise simply in terms of being. How did God identify himself to Moses? I AM. Not “I am the God who created the heaven and the earth and all that is in it.” That does come, but it comes later. God's identity is centered not in God's accomplishments, but simply because God exists. Likewise, those of us created in the image of God must understand that a life devoted to accomplishment is to ignore the miracle that we simply are . . . we exist and reflect God in the world.
God’s primary mode of communication is through relationship, and relationship with HIM.
So what does all this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?
Does it mean that we should ignore the precepts listed in Psalm 15? Absolutely not. Does it mean that each of us, individually, need to seek out a relationship with the living God? Yes, and no.
Yes, absolutely, because God deals with us on an individual level. He knows us by name, he CALLS us by name. He knows us better than we know ourselves. But No, he doesn’t stop there. He also calls us to community. He calls us into fellowship with one another. He doesn’t call us into a life of isolation, of burying our faces in the Bible and getting lost in the minute details of academic study.
Last night after I dropped off Panuncio at the POV plant, I walked in and met a new friend, David, who was not here last year but was the year before. We sat for a few minutes watching television, and then he turned to me and asked me if I was the Baptist minister. I told him I was, and we quickly got into a discussion about the bible, and the different variations … the differing interpretations that different denominations take on it. One example he raised was of a faith that has calculated that the Kingdom of God actually arrived on earth in 1914. the calculation was made based on prophecies found in the book of Daniel.
I admitted to him I wasn’t familiar with those particular prophecies or with the fact that the kingdom of God has been present on earth since 1914.
What I DID tell him was that I believe the kingdom of God is present any time a kindness is done in the name of Christ and for the love of God.
God calls us to read the Bible in the light of Christ, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
So back to that list. Do those things, yes, don’t do the other things, yes, but when you do them, follow the lead of Paul, who described it so so well in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians. (read)
Lets pray.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Knowing Him
Sunday, April 18th, 2004
First after Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
John 14: 15-24
“Get out of my head!”
We said it at the same exact moment. But that’s how we are supposed to say it. Together. If we had been younger, you might have heard us say ‘Jinx, freeze jinx, you owe me a coke!’ Leslie and I were walking down one of the aisles at Food Lion this past Friday, and somewhere along the running commentary and conversation that we were carrying on, we both had the same thought at the same time, and it resulted in saying the same thing at the same time. It is not an uncommon occurrence, but it is rare enough that sometimes it catches us by surprise.
Jimmy, my brother who was visiting last weekend, and I found ourselves doing that when we shared an apartment in Louisville after I got back from Spain. We’d be fixing a meal in the kitchen, and would be doing different parts of the preparation, and it was almost eerie sometimes, how much we could read each other’s thoughts. I’d be at a certain place in the preparation, and realize I needed a particular spice, or was ready for the next ingredient, and Jimmy would be a little further down the counter, and without saying a word or even looking at each other, he’d reach for the needed item and hand or toss it to me. A couple of times, it was so in tune that we just looked at each other, shook our heads, and chuckled.
We experienced an echo of that during his visit last weekend. We were in Richmond eating supper, and Judson asked Jimmy if he had a pen to write with, so that he could draw on the placemat. Jimmy and I were sitting across from each other, with Judson on the end between us. Jimmy’s answer to Judson was that he didn’t have a pen, and before I could interject the smart-aleck comment about him being an academic, here with his PhD in Literature, and not be carrying a pen around, for Pete’s sake, he went on to say that he usually does carry a pen around, except when he is on vacation, which he was, and looked at me, and smiled. And we knew that he knew something I was getting ready to say.
Have you ever had that happen and it feels right? Have you ever heard it somewhere inside you, where knowing someone so well - or being known by someone so well - that they are able to read or anticipate your face or your thoughts is a comfort rather than an intrusion?
Last Sunday was the ‘High Holy Day’ for Christianity Worldwide. Easter is, besides Christmas, the day you expect to see the most people in church. It is a given among regular church goers that on those two Sundays you are likely to see people whom you do not see the rest of the year. It goes to show that even for those who have a passing familiarity with the faith; Easter still has a lot to say about what it means to be a Christian.
So what exactly DOES Easter say about the Christian faith? Simply this: Christ lived, Christ was crucified, Christ died, Christ was buried, and most importantly, Christ arose.
I use the term ‘simply’ in the broadest, most comprehensive sense of the word. To put it another way, the Gospel, and that is what those five statements make up, is at the same time simple and incredibly complex. It is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet complex enough to have provided fodder for theologians for the last 1800 years … but the question is not strictly an academic one. In fact, it is academic only in a secondary sense.
If we believe the Easter Gospel, believing entails more than simply attending church twice a year. It involves more than simply paying lip service on a semi-regular basis to what is, at least in this part of the country, a socially acceptable Sunday pastime. Believing the Easter Gospel means that we hold to be true the radical notion that after having died on the cross, Christ arose from the dead, and was again seen among hundreds of his followers for 50 days, and at the end of that time, he ascended into Heaven. It means that for several decades after that, there were people living and walking on this earth that had seen and heard, and spoken to the risen son of God. They were firsthand witnesses to his presence among them.
But does the Easter story mean anything different to us now, today, almost 2000 years later? Can we, as people living in the post-enlightenment age, approach and fully understand the meaning of the resurrection like the disciples did right after it happened? I think we are not that far removed from them.
Last Sunday morning, for the Sunrise Service, I referred to a passage that comes later in the book of John. Specifically, chapter 20, beginning in verse 24:
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
That’s where we come in.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
For those of you who are here today who were here at that service, I’ll be repeating a little bit of what I said. I trust you’ll agree with me that it bears repeating.
Why do we believe this Gospel? Paul speaks of it as ‘foolishness to the gentiles’ … we believe because on some level, we have experienced God in our lives, whether as individuals, as a family, or as a larger community, God has touched our lives in such a way that we are compelled to believe that what the Gospel says is the truth. We have seen God move in our midst, we have felt him move in our LIVES, we have experienced the love of Christ in such a way that there is no other explanation BUT that the Holy Spirit is alive and moving in us today.
So we are blessed because we have not seen, and yet have come to believe. Have we TRULY not seen? If we are talking about seeing the actual physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, then the answer is no, we haven’t. So if we believe then the fact that we are blessed does indeed follow.
However, if we are speaking of whether or not we’ve seen the risen body of Christ in the broader sense, that we have touched his hands, or tended to his wounds, or washed his feet … then the answer is a resounding YES!
To see him, all you need to do is look around you. Look into the eyes of your neighbor, your brother, your sister. Reach out, and in that moment, you are touching the risen body of Christ. Paul speaks of us as the body of Christ. Jesus spoke of us in similar fashion in the passage that I read from at the beginning of the message:
"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Christ has promised us that he will make his home with us, if we love him and keep his word.
So what does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church?
Are we living our lives … are we living our life as a congregation as though we are following a nice set of moral principles or as though we are following a risen savior?
Are we doing what is acceptable in the world’s eyes, or are we surprising the world with how we respond to it?
Can we catch a glimpse of the places where God’s Kingdom is breaking into the world, and is one of those places here, among us?
Do we know the risen Lord in such a way that we can anticipate his next thought, his next move? Do we know him in such a way that we can open our mouths and HIS words come out? Does he know us in such a way that we can catch ourselves looking at each other and smile and simply shake our heads … in communion so close that words need not be spoken, where actions are the mode of communication that speaks louder than any word, but at the prompting of a still, small voice?
Let’s pray.
First after Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
John 14: 15-24
15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.”
“Get out of my head!”
We said it at the same exact moment. But that’s how we are supposed to say it. Together. If we had been younger, you might have heard us say ‘Jinx, freeze jinx, you owe me a coke!’ Leslie and I were walking down one of the aisles at Food Lion this past Friday, and somewhere along the running commentary and conversation that we were carrying on, we both had the same thought at the same time, and it resulted in saying the same thing at the same time. It is not an uncommon occurrence, but it is rare enough that sometimes it catches us by surprise.
Jimmy, my brother who was visiting last weekend, and I found ourselves doing that when we shared an apartment in Louisville after I got back from Spain. We’d be fixing a meal in the kitchen, and would be doing different parts of the preparation, and it was almost eerie sometimes, how much we could read each other’s thoughts. I’d be at a certain place in the preparation, and realize I needed a particular spice, or was ready for the next ingredient, and Jimmy would be a little further down the counter, and without saying a word or even looking at each other, he’d reach for the needed item and hand or toss it to me. A couple of times, it was so in tune that we just looked at each other, shook our heads, and chuckled.
We experienced an echo of that during his visit last weekend. We were in Richmond eating supper, and Judson asked Jimmy if he had a pen to write with, so that he could draw on the placemat. Jimmy and I were sitting across from each other, with Judson on the end between us. Jimmy’s answer to Judson was that he didn’t have a pen, and before I could interject the smart-aleck comment about him being an academic, here with his PhD in Literature, and not be carrying a pen around, for Pete’s sake, he went on to say that he usually does carry a pen around, except when he is on vacation, which he was, and looked at me, and smiled. And we knew that he knew something I was getting ready to say.
Have you ever had that happen and it feels right? Have you ever heard it somewhere inside you, where knowing someone so well - or being known by someone so well - that they are able to read or anticipate your face or your thoughts is a comfort rather than an intrusion?
Last Sunday was the ‘High Holy Day’ for Christianity Worldwide. Easter is, besides Christmas, the day you expect to see the most people in church. It is a given among regular church goers that on those two Sundays you are likely to see people whom you do not see the rest of the year. It goes to show that even for those who have a passing familiarity with the faith; Easter still has a lot to say about what it means to be a Christian.
So what exactly DOES Easter say about the Christian faith? Simply this: Christ lived, Christ was crucified, Christ died, Christ was buried, and most importantly, Christ arose.
I use the term ‘simply’ in the broadest, most comprehensive sense of the word. To put it another way, the Gospel, and that is what those five statements make up, is at the same time simple and incredibly complex. It is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet complex enough to have provided fodder for theologians for the last 1800 years … but the question is not strictly an academic one. In fact, it is academic only in a secondary sense.
If we believe the Easter Gospel, believing entails more than simply attending church twice a year. It involves more than simply paying lip service on a semi-regular basis to what is, at least in this part of the country, a socially acceptable Sunday pastime. Believing the Easter Gospel means that we hold to be true the radical notion that after having died on the cross, Christ arose from the dead, and was again seen among hundreds of his followers for 50 days, and at the end of that time, he ascended into Heaven. It means that for several decades after that, there were people living and walking on this earth that had seen and heard, and spoken to the risen son of God. They were firsthand witnesses to his presence among them.
But does the Easter story mean anything different to us now, today, almost 2000 years later? Can we, as people living in the post-enlightenment age, approach and fully understand the meaning of the resurrection like the disciples did right after it happened? I think we are not that far removed from them.
Last Sunday morning, for the Sunrise Service, I referred to a passage that comes later in the book of John. Specifically, chapter 20, beginning in verse 24:
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
That’s where we come in.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
For those of you who are here today who were here at that service, I’ll be repeating a little bit of what I said. I trust you’ll agree with me that it bears repeating.
Why do we believe this Gospel? Paul speaks of it as ‘foolishness to the gentiles’ … we believe because on some level, we have experienced God in our lives, whether as individuals, as a family, or as a larger community, God has touched our lives in such a way that we are compelled to believe that what the Gospel says is the truth. We have seen God move in our midst, we have felt him move in our LIVES, we have experienced the love of Christ in such a way that there is no other explanation BUT that the Holy Spirit is alive and moving in us today.
So we are blessed because we have not seen, and yet have come to believe. Have we TRULY not seen? If we are talking about seeing the actual physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, then the answer is no, we haven’t. So if we believe then the fact that we are blessed does indeed follow.
However, if we are speaking of whether or not we’ve seen the risen body of Christ in the broader sense, that we have touched his hands, or tended to his wounds, or washed his feet … then the answer is a resounding YES!
To see him, all you need to do is look around you. Look into the eyes of your neighbor, your brother, your sister. Reach out, and in that moment, you are touching the risen body of Christ. Paul speaks of us as the body of Christ. Jesus spoke of us in similar fashion in the passage that I read from at the beginning of the message:
"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Christ has promised us that he will make his home with us, if we love him and keep his word.
So what does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church?
Are we living our lives … are we living our life as a congregation as though we are following a nice set of moral principles or as though we are following a risen savior?
Are we doing what is acceptable in the world’s eyes, or are we surprising the world with how we respond to it?
Can we catch a glimpse of the places where God’s Kingdom is breaking into the world, and is one of those places here, among us?
Do we know the risen Lord in such a way that we can anticipate his next thought, his next move? Do we know him in such a way that we can open our mouths and HIS words come out? Does he know us in such a way that we can catch ourselves looking at each other and smile and simply shake our heads … in communion so close that words need not be spoken, where actions are the mode of communication that speaks louder than any word, but at the prompting of a still, small voice?
Let’s pray.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Easter Sunrise Service Meditation
Sunday, April 11th, 2004
Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church
Emmerton, VA
Christ is Risen! (He is Risen Indeed!) (repeat)
It’s an interesting feeling, isn’t it? Some of us are used to being up at this hour, and some of us, probably MOST of us, are not. There is something about the break of day, especially during spring, that draws us … that makes it perhaps not so difficult to be up at this hour. Our voices are not yet awake, our mouths are still a little gummy still from sleeping … our eyes are still a little puffy, and since most of us just rolled out of bed and came here … we’ve not had a chance to ‘put on the day’, as it were. We’ll do THAT for the main service later on this morning … if we go to one, that is.
I like the idea that we haven’t had time or maybe haven’t taken the time to get ourselves all decked out. Though I’m REALLY looking forward to the service later on - I’m getting to wear a robe for the first time – the idea that we are here looking about as close to what we REALLY look like, is appealing … there’s an honesty in it that speaks to how we can approach God and how Christ approaches us.
I’ve always wondered what woke Mary Magdalene or the other Mary up that morning? How had they slept? Had they slept at all, might be a better question … with everything that had happened over the previous days, I can easily imagine them either STILL being too distraught, too shocked to sleep, or so exhausted that they may have fallen into the dreamless sleep of utter exhaustion … either way, I can imagine them both being a little bleary-eyed as they approached the tomb. Kind of like us here this morning, at least those of us who aren’t morning people.
This is my first Easter, my first sunrise service, as a Pastor. To tell you the truth, I’ve been looking forward to today since June the 1st of last year, the day I was ordained. The funny thing is, as the day has drawn nearer, I began to have these little sniggly doubts … afraid I’d goof up the most significant day we as Christians celebrate. Afraid I’d not say the right thing, afraid I’d forget something, or stumble somewhere and drop something. I’m still a little leary of that happening, especially with the robe thing coming up – I tried it on last night, and it’s long … almost to my ankles, so I’ll need to watch my step… it would be awkward, it would be out of place, it would be … less than graceful to have something like that happen, wouldn’t it?
As I was thinking about that this week, I realized that this is ALL ABOUT awkwardness. This is ALL ABOUT being out of place, being less than gracious, at least in the world’s eyes.
We are here, bleary-eyed and all, because we choose to proclaim that 2000 years ago a man was born who was more than a man, he was God, choosing to come live among us, as one of us. He spent a little more than 30 years living with us, and the last 3 years of his life were the years that he spent … publicly speaking, traveling, a little … though not widely, relatively speaking. At the end of those three years he was killed … in one of the worst ways imaginable. He was killed because what he brought to the world, the world did not understand. We know the story doesn’t end there, at his death. There’s more. He was killed on a Friday, and sometime between sundown on Saturday and dawn on Sunday he rose from the dead. I love it that the first people to spread the news of his resurrection were women. At that time, in the society they lived in, women were barely considered human, much less competent to carry the message that Christ had risen.
So it was an awkward situation. First, there are all these followers of Jesus who just watched their leader get crucified and die. Then, they all go hide. Then the WOMEN go to tend to the body instead of the men. (Some things haven’t changed, have they?) Then the women come running to tell this incredible story of Jesus having risen from the dead. You’d think it wouldn’t be such a surprise to them, if they had been around when Jesus raised Lazarus … no? There’s a point at which someone probably said, this is just too much. I ain’t believing this! Oh … someone did. Thomas. He said that he wouldn’t believe it until he saw the nail prints and stuck his hand in Jesus’ side; where the spear went in … guess what? The story is in the gospel of John … Jesus appeared to Thomas and TOLD him to ‘put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” It didn’t take all that for Thomas to believe and call Jesus ‘my Lord and my God’ … what did Jesus answer Thomas? "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
So here we are … those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Why do we believe this Gospel? Paul speaks of it as ‘foolishness to the gentiles’ … we believe because on some level, we have experienced God in our lives. Whether as individuals, as a family, or as a larger community, God has touched our lives in such a way that we are compelled to believe that what the Gospel says is the truth. We have seen God move in our midst, we have experienced the love of Christ in such a way that there is no other explanation BUT that the Holy Spirit is alive and moving in us today, just as he was 2000 years ago at Pentecost. But that is another holiday.
Today, we celebrate the risen LORD!
Let’s pray.
BENEDICTION:
Depart now,
In the fellowship of God the Father,
And as you go, remember;
In the goodness of God
You were brought into this world;
By the grace of God,
You have been kept
All the day long,
Even until this very hour;
By the love of God,
Fully revealed in the face of Jesus,
You are being redeemed.
Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church
Emmerton, VA
Christ is Risen! (He is Risen Indeed!) (repeat)
It’s an interesting feeling, isn’t it? Some of us are used to being up at this hour, and some of us, probably MOST of us, are not. There is something about the break of day, especially during spring, that draws us … that makes it perhaps not so difficult to be up at this hour. Our voices are not yet awake, our mouths are still a little gummy still from sleeping … our eyes are still a little puffy, and since most of us just rolled out of bed and came here … we’ve not had a chance to ‘put on the day’, as it were. We’ll do THAT for the main service later on this morning … if we go to one, that is.
I like the idea that we haven’t had time or maybe haven’t taken the time to get ourselves all decked out. Though I’m REALLY looking forward to the service later on - I’m getting to wear a robe for the first time – the idea that we are here looking about as close to what we REALLY look like, is appealing … there’s an honesty in it that speaks to how we can approach God and how Christ approaches us.
I’ve always wondered what woke Mary Magdalene or the other Mary up that morning? How had they slept? Had they slept at all, might be a better question … with everything that had happened over the previous days, I can easily imagine them either STILL being too distraught, too shocked to sleep, or so exhausted that they may have fallen into the dreamless sleep of utter exhaustion … either way, I can imagine them both being a little bleary-eyed as they approached the tomb. Kind of like us here this morning, at least those of us who aren’t morning people.
This is my first Easter, my first sunrise service, as a Pastor. To tell you the truth, I’ve been looking forward to today since June the 1st of last year, the day I was ordained. The funny thing is, as the day has drawn nearer, I began to have these little sniggly doubts … afraid I’d goof up the most significant day we as Christians celebrate. Afraid I’d not say the right thing, afraid I’d forget something, or stumble somewhere and drop something. I’m still a little leary of that happening, especially with the robe thing coming up – I tried it on last night, and it’s long … almost to my ankles, so I’ll need to watch my step… it would be awkward, it would be out of place, it would be … less than graceful to have something like that happen, wouldn’t it?
As I was thinking about that this week, I realized that this is ALL ABOUT awkwardness. This is ALL ABOUT being out of place, being less than gracious, at least in the world’s eyes.
We are here, bleary-eyed and all, because we choose to proclaim that 2000 years ago a man was born who was more than a man, he was God, choosing to come live among us, as one of us. He spent a little more than 30 years living with us, and the last 3 years of his life were the years that he spent … publicly speaking, traveling, a little … though not widely, relatively speaking. At the end of those three years he was killed … in one of the worst ways imaginable. He was killed because what he brought to the world, the world did not understand. We know the story doesn’t end there, at his death. There’s more. He was killed on a Friday, and sometime between sundown on Saturday and dawn on Sunday he rose from the dead. I love it that the first people to spread the news of his resurrection were women. At that time, in the society they lived in, women were barely considered human, much less competent to carry the message that Christ had risen.
So it was an awkward situation. First, there are all these followers of Jesus who just watched their leader get crucified and die. Then, they all go hide. Then the WOMEN go to tend to the body instead of the men. (Some things haven’t changed, have they?) Then the women come running to tell this incredible story of Jesus having risen from the dead. You’d think it wouldn’t be such a surprise to them, if they had been around when Jesus raised Lazarus … no? There’s a point at which someone probably said, this is just too much. I ain’t believing this! Oh … someone did. Thomas. He said that he wouldn’t believe it until he saw the nail prints and stuck his hand in Jesus’ side; where the spear went in … guess what? The story is in the gospel of John … Jesus appeared to Thomas and TOLD him to ‘put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” It didn’t take all that for Thomas to believe and call Jesus ‘my Lord and my God’ … what did Jesus answer Thomas? "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
So here we are … those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Why do we believe this Gospel? Paul speaks of it as ‘foolishness to the gentiles’ … we believe because on some level, we have experienced God in our lives. Whether as individuals, as a family, or as a larger community, God has touched our lives in such a way that we are compelled to believe that what the Gospel says is the truth. We have seen God move in our midst, we have experienced the love of Christ in such a way that there is no other explanation BUT that the Holy Spirit is alive and moving in us today, just as he was 2000 years ago at Pentecost. But that is another holiday.
Today, we celebrate the risen LORD!
Let’s pray.
BENEDICTION:
Depart now,
In the fellowship of God the Father,
And as you go, remember;
In the goodness of God
You were brought into this world;
By the grace of God,
You have been kept
All the day long,
Even until this very hour;
By the love of God,
Fully revealed in the face of Jesus,
You are being redeemed.
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