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Sermons: Easter and Easter Season |
  
Easter Sermon -- April 16, 2006
"For Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory"
One of the favorite games that our daughters, and later our grandchildren
liked playing with my husband was to get behind him, hold on to his back
pockets on his jeans, and tell him “where’s Heather?” or Wendy, Karla,
Michael, or Harley. Which-ever child or grandchild. Then, Rich would walk
all over the house, with the child holding on to his pockets, following and
giggling while he searched, continuing to ask where she or he was. A form
of hide and seek where Rich knew where the child was all along. Whenever I
read about the empty tomb from Mark, I think of those games of hide and
seek. The women looked for Jesus’ body where they had seen Joseph of
Aramathea place it before Sabbath began. They had returned to anoint with
spices, according to custom, talking as they walked about who would they get
to roll the stone away from the tomb.
But, to their surprise, the stone was rolled away. When they looked
inside, there was a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the side.
He spoke to them, with knowledge of who they were seeking. And, he told
them that the one they were looking for, Jesus, had been raised, and there
was a message for the men who had been his disciples. The risen Jesus was
going ahead of them to Galilee, and he would meet them there, just as he had
told them.
Then, the women left the tomb, and ran away in fear and amazement. But,
Mark tells us that they told no one.
Years ago, when my girls were in grade school, they liked these books
called, “Choose Your Own Mystery”. You would read a page or two, and then
would be given the choice to go to one page if you expect one thing to
happen, or to a different page if you expected another thing to happen.
I enjoyed those books too. Except, I would read the story following one
series of choices, then go back to the beginning and read it following a
different set of choices. A book that could take an hour or two to read
through could end up taking several days by the time you read all the
possibilities. But, one thing I discovered was that whatever choices you
made in the reading, most of the time, you ended up with the same ending.
There were just different adventures getting there.
Mark’s gospel unfolded as a big secret all along the way. From the
cleansing of the leper, Jesus ordered those whom he touched with healing,
with cleansing from evil, with life, to say nothing to anyone. But, over
and over, we can read in this gospel that they told everyone anyway.
We also read that he would teach the disciples, the chosen few,
specifically about his mission and purpose, and what would happen. He would
tell them not to say anything to anyone. And, over and over, they didn’t
say anything, They also didn’t quite understand who Jesus was. They never
really got it. And they ran away toward the end.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus wanted those whom he chose to understand what it
meant for him to proclaim the kingdom of God, before they told of who he
was, the Son of God. But, those whose lives were touched already understood
the kingdom by the power of his healing touch. They couldn’t keep quiet.
They had encountered Jesus. They had come into the presence of the kingdom
of God. They had experienced the power of his touch. They had been given
new life. And they wanted to shout it from the hills!
The disciples however, had been chosen. Think of what happens to people
who see themselves as chosen for a special mission. They tend to think they
are pretty important. They tend to believe they are special in some way.
They also tend to try to learn all they can about the project or team or
event they are chosen for. The disciples were likely like that. They
wanted to know. They saw Jesus heal, cast out evil, and raise people from
death. They heard him teach of forgiveness, of mercy, of compassion, of
love.
But, nowhere in any of the gospels are we told that any of these men who
followed Jesus were personal recipients of Jesus’ touch. They couldn’t have
told anything if they had wanted to, because they hadn’t experienced it.
Two of the three women, we know were personally touched by God or Jesus
himself. Mary his mother, was overpowered by the Holy Spirit, and gave him
birth. Mary Magdalene was the woman from whom seven spirits had been
exorcised. We don’t know about Salome. But, she was one of the women who
supported his ministry. Two of these women had personal experience of who
Jesus was.
Mark ends this gospel bluntly, with none of the people telling anyone.
Remember the books I was telling you about? They’re like an interactive
game, where you have to have some knowledge, and make some decisions, in
order for the characters to move through the game. Mark was telling his
gospel of Jesus for his listeners in an interactive way. They needed to put
themselves into the story, and choose their own ending.
Now, if you read Mark, you would know that there is an ending. Actually,
there were two endings woven into the final eight verses of the final
chapter. They weren’t there in the first manuscript. A shorter ending was
later added, letting us know that the women did, indeed follow through with
what they were told, and let Peter and the others know what had happened, so
that they met Jesus. In the New Revised Standard Version, this is the
shorter ending:
[[And all that had been commanded them
they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterwards Jesus himself sent
out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable
proclamation of eternal salvation. ]]
Later still a longer ending was added, which reads:
[[Now after he rose early on the first
day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast
out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while
they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and
had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
After this he appeared in another form
to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back
and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
Later he appeared to the eleven
themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for
their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world
and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and
is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be
condemned.
And these signs will accompany those
who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in
new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any
deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick,
and they will recover.’
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had
spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of
God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the
Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that
accompanied it. ]]
Now, if those other endings hadn’t been written, how might we react to
this gospel? If Mark wanted the listener to be the one to end the story, to
choose our own ending, we might continue the story.
We know, because we are Easter People, that the disciples heard of the
empty tomb, and received the final instructions. We know that the writer of
Mark, named John Mark, heard the message, and was active with Paul and
Barnabas in the early church. Someone had to tell what they had
experienced. But, the message only continues if it gets told. And, as we
learned from they way Mark wrote the gospel, it is only told by those who
experience Jesus.
At some point the women had to tell Peter and the others to meet Jesus in
Galilee. They were gathered where they needed to be on the day of
Pentecost. The faith spread as more and more people began to experience the
risen Christ.
But, for most people, for all of us today, we don’t need to see Jesus to
know that he lives. But, in order for the message of salvation to spread,
we need to personally experience God’s grace in the risen Christ. We need
to be touched and healed, and we need to be given new life. Our experience
of Christ is what strengthens our faith so that we have the power to be true
disciples of Jesus.
Now, faith in Jesus doesn’t mean that we say a prayer and “zap” the bad
things go away. God isn’t a magician. But, faith in Jesus means that we
will come to know and understand God’s will for the world, we’ll have a
vision for God’s kingdom, and we’ll begin to sense our call to participate
in the work of that kingdom. It’s God’s kingdom, God’s reign that the
church works toward.
The question for this day is: Where’s Jesus? Not behind us as in Rich’s
game with our children. Jesus goes before us. To the places where we will
meet him again. To the places were we will meet him for the first time. To
the places were we would rather not go, except in obedience.
The end of Mark is the continuation of the Good News of the Risen
Christ. Chose your own ending. How will you participate in telling others
about what God has done? What will your story look like?
When you have an experience of Jesus as the risen Christ, when you’re
deepest pain has been touched by God’s grace and eased, when your greatest
sin has been forgiven by God’s mercy in a sigh, when your reason for life
itself has become clear and renewed, then like those in Mark’s gospel, you
cannot stop yourself from telling others.
Once the disciples finally met up with Jesus after the empty tomb, they
understood what Jesus had meant by the kingdom coming near. Once they heard
his commission to them, they had the power to overcome adversity. Once they
were touched by his love for them, they could comprehend the grace of God
that awaits all who believe.
During Lent, we have studied the Lord’s prayer. We’ve looked at how that
prayer changes us when we pray it for the now, and for the future, when we
pray it for ourselves and for the world. The prayer begins with
acknowledging who God is. And the prayer ends with the doxology for
everything that the Easter message tells us about God. And when we look at
the empty tomb, and then we meet the risen Christ, we can proclaim,
“For God’s IS the kingdom,
God’s IS the power,
God’s IS the glory,
FOREVER.
Amen.
Sermon Copyright © 2006 Ruth
Solo. All Rights Reserved.
Sermon for April 23, 2006
"How Will They Know?"
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Doubting Thomas
by Caraveggio
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Imagine yourself closed off in a room with your companions
whom you’ve traveled and journeyed with for three years. Your leader, your
teacher whom you loved and respected had been killed three days before. Some of
the women among you had gone to anoint the body early in the morning, but had
found the tomb empty. Some of the others had said one or more angels had told
them he wasn’t dead; he’s alive.
Now, everybody sat around, afraid, confused, wondering.
You had all seen him on that cross after Judas had turned him in to the
Sanhedrin. You had seen from a distance, but some of the others had been up
close. They saw it all, the suffering, the mocking, the last breath. The women
saw where the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea was, where he was laid just before
Sabbath began.
But, now, the reports were that his body was gone. Was he
really alive like the angels said? Or was someone playing a cruel joke. One
thing you know. Those who wanted him dead would surely come after all of you,
accusing you of taking the body to make claims of resurrection. It could mean
death for the rest of you.
All of the 11 disciples who were left, a few others who
were faithful to the way, and the women who traveled with you, sat in the small
room, talking about what was happening, eating the fish that Peter and the
others had brought in, and hoping no one knew where you were.
And then, there he was. Standing in your midst. At first
you thought it was a ghost. But, it was Jesus. He looked like himself, but
somehow different. But, he was dead. But, like the angel had told them, he was
alive. Here. In the very room with you. He greeted you all. Peace be with
you. Such familiar words from his familiar voice. But, how could it be?
He asked why you doubted. Who wouldn’t? Then he put out
his hands and his feet and said to look at them, and touch them. The wounds
from the nails were there. They weren’t bleeding any longer, but the wounds
were there. OH, how painful it looked. Yet, he didn’t seem to be in pain at
all. He actually seemed happy, and almost teasing as he stood before you and
talked.
Then, he asked for something to eat. Embarrassed, you gave
him a piece of left over fish. IT was all that was left. But, he ate it. It
must be true. Ghosts don’t have wounds. Ghosts don’t eat the food people eat.
He must be alive, just like you.
After he ate, he began to talk. He talked about the
scriptures, the Jewish scriptures, Torah, the prophets, and the psalms. He
quoted different parts that talked about God sending a savior, an anointed one;
he talked of scripture that said the one God sent would suffer; he taught them
about scripture that said God’s chosen would die, and be raised to life. He
opened your eyes, your mind’s eyes, to see. To understand. Yes. That’s it.
He was the One. It was Jesus. He had tried so many times to tell you and the
others. He was the one God sent. Jesus is the Savior.
But, what would this mean? You didn’t feel saved. You
felt afraid. Confused. Awed, for sure. You felt…you didn’t know….joy? Maybe
some. After all, your teacher, your rabbi, was alive, and still teaching you.
He was eating with you like old times, like when he ate bread with another of
those who had followed, Simon. It was like that last time you all ate together
with him, when he said those strange words about his body and his blood.
Strange, in light of seeing him die, how those words seem to have greater
meaning now.
But, then he brought it to an end. He told you that you
were to be witnesses, and go tell all about what had happened. How the
scriptures had been fulfilled in the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
You and the others were to tell all about it, starting in Jerusalem, then to the
whole world.
The whole world? God didn’t send the Savior just to save
the Jews? But the whole world? How can you, with this little group of people,
get this good news out to the whole world? But, Jesus said he would send what
his Father promised (he always talked of God as Father), something that would
give you power. You wouldn’t have to be afraid. You wouldn’t have to worry
about how to get this wonderful message to the whole world. You would wait.
He’d kept his promises so far.
It started in Jerusalem. It continued into the known
world. And, it was passed on through the ages. And, the story continues even
to this day. But, what proof do you have to be witnesses?
The commission to the disciples in that room so long ago is
the same commission that sends the church today. They were eyewitnesses to what
happened to Jesus started in Jerusalem, just as Jesus said. They could give
first hand accounts to Jesus’ appearances after the resurrection. They could
share those stories about his healing, his teachings, his acceptance of the
unwanted. They had been there. But, to what can you witness if you are to take
your commissioning seriously?
A recent poll by the George Barna group, an organization
that conducts research about church and faith issues, said that over 75% of
Americans have not been in a church in the last 6 months. A few years ago, that
number was just over half of Americans. There are many people who have not
heard this message. And much of that is due to those of us who are in the
church who don’t believe that we have anything to tell. We doubt what we
profess to believe.
If Jesus stood among us, would we believe then? If Jesus
came and ate with us, then would we believe? If we could see his wounds, would
we have something to tell? How will they hear? How will those who live without
the hope of salvation know?
Yesterday was our final confirmation retreat. We talked
about joining the church. We talked about why we join the church. I told the
young people I don’t want them to join because it’s the thing to do, because
it’s expected of them, or because their parents wanted them to join. I wanted
them to join the church because they have come to understand what it is they are
being commissioned to do as the church.
And you have been commissioned to the same work. Jesus
returned to God. We, the church are left to reach out to that 78% here in
America (that doesn’t even speak to those throughout the world awaiting a word
of hope!). The church is to continue the work that Jesus began.
What is that work? What is it that Jesus came to do? What
is it that Jesus did upon that cross? Why is Jesus alive now? So that the
world might be saved. Summed up in John 3:16 –17 we hear what our work is as
the church: “God so loved the world, that he sent his Son, so that whoever
believes in him, will have eternal life. For God did not send the Son to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved.”
The work of the church is the extension of the work that
was begun by Jesus. Jesus commissioned those who were called disciples to
become apostles, those who are sent. WE, as post Easter people, are to be
disciples, to continue learning from Jesus, but we are also to be apostles,
those who are sent that the world might be saved.
How appropriate to focus today on our Native American
friends. The church did everything but save those native peoples when we first
came to this country. We named them evil; we called them devils. We took a
long time to share the good news with them. We thought the way was to tell them
they were wrong, and we had the answers to life, while we killed those who
disagreed with us. But, eventually, we got it. Many Native Americans have
listened to Jesus’ message from those who learned how to love people as Jesus
loved, to accept them where they are, and to offer them hope in Christ.
How will the others know? Through us. By how we
experience the risen Christ, and how we are filled with the joy of Christ’s
living in us. By how we worship and celebrate that life each week when we
gather and encounter Jesus Christ in our midst. But how we tell those who
haven’t heard, or who have stopped listening. And, as I told the young people
yesterday. We will do this work of saving the world like Mother Theresa did
it. One soul at a time. One broken body at a time. One person at a time.
Each one tell one. Amen.
Sermon Copyright © 2006 Ruth
Solo. All Rights Reserved.
Sermon for April 30, 2006
"We Have Seen the Lord"
Have you seen him? Did you see Jesus anywhere today? Have
you seen him since Easter Sunday?
Surely someone must have seen him. We have celebrated that
Jesus is risen. People need to see him. How else is anyone going to know and
understand that he lives?
When my mother died, more than anything else, I wanted to
see and touch her one more time. I had been at her beside several times in the
days after the fatal heart attack, and with my brother and sister, had made some
difficult end of life decisions. But, when her time of death came, after the
funeral, when we had all returned to our lives, I just wanted to see her again,
and to touch the soft skin of her cheek. But I couldn’t.
I also wanted to hear her tell me again how to get through
the hard times. When she was alive, I would call her when I had a problem. I
would call her when I had a hard decision. I would call her when something
wonderful happened. I would ask her advise and seek her opinions. I wanted her
to tell me how to grieve her not being here. But, she couldn’t. My mother had
died, and I won’t see her again until I die to this life.
Jesus knew how we human beings are, though, wanting to hold
on to those we love. Jesus knew that those people who had followed him, those
who had become his friends, those whom he had shared his biggest secrets with,
would want to see him again, would have a desire to touch him, would need to
hear his voice telling them what to do now. So Jesus came to them, just as he
had told them he would.
They were closed up in the room. Afraid. Alone. Not just
the ones who became the leaders of the church. In John’s gospel, it was the
whole faith community who were in the room. An undetermined number of people
whose lives Jesus had touched. They didn’t know how to go on without him. They
gathered to remember. They gathered to recall his stories. They gathered to
comfort one another. But, most of all, in John’s gospel, they gathered in fear
of those who had planned his capture and advocated for his death.
Jesus had given them instructions about what they were to
do after he was gone. He had told them that he would give them his peace. He
had told them that he wanted them to share in his joy. He had told them that he
would send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to give them the power to do as he had
instructed. Jesus had said he wouldn’t leave them orphaned. But they sure felt
like orphans.
And then, suddenly, there he was. He greeted them with the
usual greeting, “Peace be with you.” Then he said it a second time. This time
with some extra emphasis. Peace be with you. It was his peace. The peace that
he had promised them, the peace that would comfort them and make them feel his
presence.
And then he breathed the Holy Spirit upon them. And they
felt the joy. He had given then what he had promised. And he commissioned them
to continue his work. He work of revealing God to the world by letting people
know who Jesus was. It was God’s work of loving the world. God’s work of
grace.
The Disciple Thomas wasn’t with them, however, when Jesus
appeared to them on that first day. We don’t know why he wasn’t there. But when
he heard what had happened, he didn’t believe them.
Thomas always gets a bum rap about this. But, in reality,
Thomas is no different than any of them were. When Mary Magdalene had run to
tell them that she had seen the Lord, they didn’t believe her. They didn’t
believe he was alive until he appeared to them. No, Thomas is not the doubter.
He, like all the others, was unbelieving. Like so many who have never seen
Jesus. How could someone be alive when you know that he has died?
Do you believe? Do you really believe? On what do you
base that belief? Thomas was no different than most people. Seeing, after all,
is believing.
But, Jesus knew that Thomas had to see him. Jesus knew
that Thomas had to touch him. Jesus knew that Thomas had to hear his voice
speak his name. The sheep hear the shepherd and know his voice. Jesus had said
that to them. So, Jesus came back when Thomas was there, and showed his hands
and feet, the wounds. And Jesus offered to let Thomas touch them.
But, now the best part. Hearing Jesus say his name, and
seeing Jesus, Thomas fell to his knees, and offered his confession of who Jesus
is, “My Lord and my God.” He accepted in that moment the relationship with
Jesus that he had been given before the crucifixion: Jesus had said as the
Father had loved me, so I love you. If you believe in me, you believe in God.
In the moment of Thomas’ recognition of who Jesus was, he saw God revealed. It
is exactly why Jesus came: to make God known. To reveal God to all the world.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet
come to believe.”
These verses that were read today end with a note to those
who read or hear them. It says they were written so that you might come to
believe. The Word revealed. That’s why the gospels are scripture. They reveal
God, through Jesus Christ.
We come to confession of Jesus as our Lord and our God when
we receive his peace. When we learn to live with one another as described in
the reading from Acts, where we are forgiving of each other, sharing what we
have, and loving one another, then we have that peace that Jesus promised.
When one among us goes without, we as the community of
faith, are responsible to see that they are cared for. Peace comes who all in
our community have what they need. In order for that to happen, those who have
must give up some of their possessions, so that those who don’t have will not
suffer. This leads to God’s peace. It is God’s way of making the world right.
When Jesus said, “My peace I offer you; my peace I leave
with you,” he was referring to those times who he encountered people in need,
and he met those needs. Many of them became those who followed. They became
part of the crowds. Peace comes only when the whole people of God are cared
for, have their basic needs met, and can freely and openly gather in worship of
the God who loves so graciously.
A few years ago, I heard that a woman I know in Toledo had
spent Easter Saturday night at a bar. By Easter morning, she was unable to see
her grandchild, because she was sick from drinking too much. I thought at the
time, how sad.
Think of how God must have looked upon her. Think of how
Jesus would have looked at her. Not with harsh judgment, but with compassion
and pity. God may think, “I have given my Son, so that you will know the
fullness of life. My heart breaks, and the wounds of my Son bleed, because you
look only to temporal means to numb your pain, and it always disappoints and
hurts you more.” I imagine Jesus offering that woman his hands, and saying,
“Touch my wounds, and know that your wounds are healed….Peace I leave with you,
my peace I give to you.”
I think God cries when one of God’s own children stays
locked in their little rooms of loneliness, despair, and fear. But, Jesus is
ready to hold out his hands and offer those wounds in healing, to make the
broken whole, to reveal God as unbounded, unconditional love for each one.
We come to confess Jesus as our Lord and our God when we
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Just as God’s spirit moved over the face
of the earth, and all the earth was created, and God breathed the breath of life
into the first human being, so Jesus breathed the breath of new life into the
new community, giving them faith and empowering them to move out into the world
and make God known, just as Jesus had done.
We often talk about it. But, we don’t feel comfortable
talking about God in the world. And, so I wonder. I don’t think it’s a lack of
belief. It may be a fear of embarrassment. But, most of all, I think that many
people in the church today lack an experience, an encounter with the living
Christ. We haven’t seen, touched, or heard Jesus ourselves.
Our experience of the living Christ comes as we open
ourselves to the stories of Jesus in scriptures. But it also comes when we
share with one another, we eat meals together, we offer comfort for one another,
we build each other up, and we worship God together. Our experience of the
living Jesus comes when one of our own is in need, and we act as Jesus acted,
offer ourselves to them, and bless them.
In my first churches, in the little town of Amsden, there
was a couple who were what what Tex Sample, a contemporary theologian, would
have called "hard living people." They were tattooed, he rode a rebuilt
custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle, they drank hard, played hard, and fought
hard. They had four young children, and it wasn’t rare to hear the children cry
as the couple yelled. It was a difficult thing to hear.
When the people of that community began to reach out with
an after school program, that young mother would bring her children. They were
sometimes dirty, always noisy. But she brought them. After I was no longer the
pastor there, I ran into a member one day. I was told that their program for
the children had grown, and that young woman was helping to teach in the
program. The children were active in Sunday school. And the dad even had given
the children’s sermon a couple of times.
Jesus came to reveal God’s love. In the church’s
confession of Jesus as Lord, the church begins to live in peace with one
another, so that God’s love can be revealed to the hurting, needy world around.
Jesus blew the Holy Spirit on the community of faith, so that they could accept
his wounds as their wounds, and fall to their knees, confessing Jesus Christ as
Lord and God. And then, they were ready to do the work of revealing God through
the communal body of Christ. May we receive that breath of the Spirit, so that
we, too, will live in peace with one another, and be sent to share God’s love.
Amen.
Sermon Copyright © 2006 Ruth
Solo. All Rights Reserved.
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