New Testament: Acts 17:22-31
Psalm: Psalm 66:8-20
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:13-22
Gospel: John 14:15-21
First Peter tells us to be ready to give a defense to any who ask. People I know, people we know, our culture asking, about our hope, our faith. Do we know how to answer? Are we ready to give a defense? As I prepared this sermon I was listening to David J’s album Urban Urbane. David J was a member of the seminal Goth band Bauhaus, who broke up and went on to do their own projects you may be more familiar the Peter Murphy or Love and Rockets and Daniel Ash. David J went on to do more experimental rock and jazzy projects. Urban Urbane as an album deals with as the album title indicates the realities and contradictions of our urbanized world. At the end of this album comes the son No Faith, hear is a questioner, asking the questions, and asserting both a longing for truth and the loss of truth.
No Faith by David J, Album Urban Urbane
Well, I don't know what
The question is
But, Lord give me an answer
Don't know the question
But please give an answer
Searching high, searching low
High, low
I got no faith
In no Catholic churches
Can't waste no faith
On no, no capital purchase
I got no faith in no
Cosmic casino
Run by some guru
In a white stretch limosino
Searching high and low
I got no faith
In no academican
I got no faith
In no evangelist
With a mission
I got no faith
In no government in session
Neo-fascists practiced
In the art of false impression
Searching high and low
Where to go?
I got no faith
In no national institution
Built on an arms deal
And compulsory contribution
No faith in the rich
No faith in the poor
Little faith in anarchy
And no faith in the law
Searching high
Searching low
I got no faith
In no, no human nature
Look at all the armies
And the rape of Mother Nature
I got no faith
In no marital status
Resulting in attrition
And eventual hiatus
Searching high
Searching low
High, low
High, low
How do we answer such questions, such a searching? We too struggle with these questions and yet we are hear. We have some hope in the midst of our own questions. We have been facing some of our own doubts In the face of the resurrection of Jesus in this season of Easter. There are claims of truth in the texts we have been reading, but we do not want to be exclusive. And so we wonder at the words of Jesus that say I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Even so Jesus’ words in John claim a unique position. The particularity of Jesus of Nazareth is necessary for knowing god. All three of our texts say things like the World does not know God, that even when cultures or religions may have some inkling of God, even as creator that that portion of knowledge is ignorance, if it does not lead to Jesus Christ the one risen from the dead. Our texts I think should cause us to doubt what we believe about truth, about inclusive and exclusivist positions concerning the Church.
Our position on truth is perhaps understandable. If truth is abstract and non-relational, if it is something I either poses or don’t, if it is something I can wield in self-righteous satisfaction and demand that others then do as I say because I have the truth and others do not, then our objections to an exclusivist truth are on the right track. Though this reading of our Scriptures is from a position of power and pride foreign to the texts themselves. What I ask of us tonight is to admit that the interpretations we have heard are mistaken and to look at the texts before us from their perspective when Christians were not the powerful but the persecuted, and hear then what our this attitude can tell us about truth and the accounting of our faith and hope.
There is no coercion in this presentation of truth, though there are clear boundaries, but they are permeable boundaries. No one is beyond the bounds of God’s love, not even the dead who died in the flood because they would not repent. In these texts there is no fortress wall, but in the end either you know God in Jesus Christ as the one who is raised from the dead and are saved or you do not. If you do not you are invited to know Jesus Christ. There is no other way to fully know God, who is creator, except as trinity, father Son and Holy Spirit, not because some human said so, but because God has only acted in full self-revelation in Jesus Christ. If you want to know the truth one must be in relationship with Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God and God is truth. This is the logic of these passages.
Three things I’d like to draw our attention to concerning our relationship to this truth that is being in relationship with God. 1) Our relationship to truth is in our being priests. We are to handle our words, and those we speak to about the truth as if they are holy things as though we are priests attending to our most sacred duty. 2) While we are called to recognize that other cultures and religions may have some sense of the truth of God, we are also called to proclaim that only in relationship to Christ can that portion of truth be fulfilled. 3) The truth is about entering the divine relationship of the Holy Trinity who is truth, which thus the truth compels us to obey Jesus’ command to Love, but it is only in the relationship to Jesus that we find this love that is truth.
First Peter is a bit of a rambling epistle and so there is much packed into this brief epistle and this brief passage. It is difficult to pin down one theme. But a theme in this epistle is our priesthood as members of the Church. Our priesthood is derivative from Christ’s. The holiness then spoken of our priesthood is not our possession, but something we receive. Peter begins his epistle calling us back to the time of the Exodus when God took slaves out of Egypt and then called them a nation of priests a holy people, not because of their worthiness but because of what God had done. Our priesthood is not a source of pride but of humility.
We encounter the priestly theme in our passage when Peter moves from discussing our suffering and persecution to how others and we may respond to our suffering. So, in the midst of our struggles in life we are to sanctify Christ in our selves, in our hearts, we are to remember our priesthood our being set apart. Then so having remembered our set apartness in Christ, we are to handle the demand and our answer as to why we have any hope, with gentleness and fear (RSV says reverence). We are to handle the question and our answer, the questioner and the relationship with the carefulness of handling holy objects. This approach to our defense or answer is one of careful attention as a priest attending to the most sacred duty. There is no pride or cavalier attitude allowable in the moment of handling holy things. Our faith, the reason we can have hope in the world and those who notice our faith and our hope, are not to be treated cavalierly or roughly but with holy fear. We are called to answer gently. We are not to act rashly or out of anger or even out of a need to persuade. We are also not to act as if Jesus Christ makes no difference. We are to handle the situation as holy that is to se that occasion and our faith and the person we encounter as a holy thing that we offer to God as priests. We do so because Christ did this and acted as priest not only for the living but also for those souls who having rejected the truth of God in the times of Noah were preached to by Christ. In baptism we are like Noah saved form the flood, for in it we are given a clean conscience through the Resurrection of Christ. We are priests; we have hope and faith because of the work of Christ and our identification with the priestly work of Christ in baptism. As priests we are to proclaim this truth about Christ and the salvation that is found in being identified with Christ’s.
This is also the proclamation Paul gives in Athens when he finds a very religious and inclusive people, so inclusive that they include an altar to their ignorance, to the unknown God. Athens is perhaps not far from where we are at in our context today. In some sense we still harkens back to this seat of philosophy and intellectual center, Plato and Socrates. Our philosophers, intellectuals and many beyond the walls of the academy share this attitude today both of intellectual dispute, search for truth and attempt to be inclusive of all assertions of truth. We learn from Paul that we don’t have to condemn this that we can look into our culture and find the portions of the truth that is known or discovered. Paul goes beyond praise and demonstrates from their own poets’ praise of Zeus that they know something of this God, who is creator, even if this knowledge is, in comparison to knowing Christ, ignorance. Paul recognizes that in culture there may be bits of truth, the beginnings of God’s self revelation, but he is clear to the Athenians that this truth is ignorance if it is not joined with the knowing God in Jesus Christ, who is raised from the Dead.
The particularity of this claim of truth and that the truth is manifest in someone raised from the dead is too much for the Athenians. It is also too much in our context. Perhaps too much for we who have faith in Jesus Christ? I too have struggled with this. What of those who remain with only the portion of truth? In college I had a professor who was Buddhist with whom I studied Buddhism. If it were not for Christ raised from the dead I could have easily become a Buddhist or Hindu. In my conversations with my professor we talked and I saw in him the gentleness of Christ and the presence of the Spirit, and yet I also had to admit that it was partial, that I could recognize the Spirit because I knew Christ. My professor thought challenged me, to recognize the difference and incompatibility of Buddhism and Christianity. I could not follow Buddha and believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and God. Christianity did not claim that Jesus was a Buddha one who had just achieved enlightenment like everyone else can with enough time. We believe that God was in God’s fullness in Jesus Christ, and the Resurrection is the sign of that the universal truth was in one particular human being. Some of those philosophers and religious reject the Paul’s proclamation of this truth, and remain in the ignorance of the altar to the unknown god, others hearing this connection between their acknowledgement of ignorance of the truth ask to hear more, and some like Dionysius the Aeropagite, accept Paul’s proclamation. Paul wavers neither from commending the small bits of truth their culture has come to nor from asserting that Jesus Christ, the one risen from the dead is the only full revelation of God. The only way to come into the full truth their culture and religion already recognizes is to accept the risen one.
It is the risen one, or rather the one who is to be raised, who speaks to us about our being sent the Spirit of Truth, if we show our love for Jesus by keeping his commandments and thus being in relationship with him. Through Jesus we have relationship with The Father and the Spirit of Truth. These are intended as words of comfort Jesus gives to the disciples knowing he is going to his death and they will be fore a time scattered. There is an assurance that the disciples will not be bereft of relationship to Jesus or God. The assurance that we are not left alone as Jesus’ followers. These words then are not intended to boost our egos as believers, but to give comfort and assurance of relationship. If these words are used for a basis of self-assurance and pride then such an interpretation is a lie foreign to the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit, the advocate, the one who is given so that we may remain in relationship with Jesus Christ, who is one with God the Father, is the Truth as Jesus is the Truth, because all are one and God in relationship in truth and love. Remember the commands Jesus gives are summarized in the command to love one another, spoken at the beginning of this speech of Christ’s that he gives just before he is arrested, which we heard weeks ago on Maundy Thursday. The assurance of these words is that in all that is going to happen in all the confusion that the followers of Jesus are not being left without relationship to Jesus and to God, who is trinity. The Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, are all the truth, we are to relate in love to the truth and obey the truth out of love. This truth should bring us to love one another and neighbor, because truth is a person, and the truth is to be in relationship with the God of Jesus Christ.
All our passages are about truth because God is the truth, the god revealed to us in Jesus Christ who is raised from the dead. There is no other God, but this God, no other full revelation of this God than in the incarnation of the Son as Jesus of Nazareth. This truth as such can only be received in relationship. This isn’t about my experience or my truth this is about the Spirit of Truth who is given to those who enter into relationship with God through the one who is the incarnation of God and thus died and rose from the dead. This is not faith in me as a preacher, or us as Christians or the Church as separate from Jesus Christ, but faith in the Raised one Jesus Christ. Through faith we enter this relationship. By God’s saving acts in Jesus Christ we are made holy and made to be priests. We are to handle ourselves our words about the truth, which is God, and those who demand an answer to why we have hope and faith with reverence and gentleness. We are to be gentle, to act out of love, to hold all things reverently. In so doing we both acknowledges that in various cultures and religions there is some truth and that there is only one complete revelation of God. There is only one who has the whole truth and that is Jesus Christ, because Jesus is God. All other knowledge experience and understanding of God, is partial and thus also an ignorance. But we are to show forth the love, to show that truth is a person, with whom through the incarnation we can have a relationship. We then as Christians as members of the Church, the body of Christ, are possessed by the truth we do not posses it. We only can proclaim what we have received, we are made holy not by our having something but by the act of God in Jesus Christ through Baptism. Salvation is about being in relationship with God. From this relationship come the proclamation and the truth claims of the Church. Everything is bound up with Christ, the one risen from the dead, as the full revelation of God. God came in our midst to reveal God’s self to us and save us through that revelation because without it we only had our ignorance, our meager groping after the truth and God. In the end all other truth claims even ones that get it partially right are ignorance in comparison to knowing and having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who is the truth, and who give us the Spirit of truth, which is expressed and given in gentleness love and compassion.
Monday, April 28
Saturday, April 26
Reconciler Update 4/26/08
Dear Friends,
I want to tell you about something exciting that happened recently.
Larry and I, along with Pastor Monte of Immanuel Lutheran and Pastor Gabi of St. Elias Christian Church, took part in a panel discussion at the National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) held in Chicago April 14-17. Tripp Hudgins, our former Baptist pastor at Reconciler and part of the local planning committee of the NWCU, introduced our panel.
Through slides, DVD, and conversation, we gave the audience an overview of each congregation, then talked about the ecumenical work we are doing together. We conveyed the joy of our joint worship services, and our positive collaboration on a recent adult ed forum on interfaith dialogue. We talked about our joint mission statement (a work in progress) and our continuing exploration of where God is calling us as three faith communities on one campus of discipleship. We shared our belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as Monte wrote in a recent letter to his congregation.
Gabi, Monte, Larry, and I spoke to a small but enthusiastic group that peppered us with thoughtful, energetic questions. Folks wanted to hear about Gabi's experience leading an Arabic Christian congregation. What was Monte's experience as "host" to two other congregations? Someone asked why we chose the name "Jesus Christ, Reconciler" -- what are we seeking to reconcile? Another asked us how sharing space and worship is changing our congregations. How does each congregation maintain its individuality within unity? And is this type of collaboration the wave of the future for the larger church? There were many other questions -- 50 minutes of them!
I offered a vignette about how our congregations are affecting one another. When Gabi invited me to preach at our joint worship service in Advent hosted by St. Elias, some members of St. Elias expressed reservations. They had never had a woman preach to their congregation. Gabi stood firm and said "She's going to preach." I preached, and Gabi shared that the response was very positive. A couple of other ways we are affecting each other: I remember the first time I heard Gabi chant the liturgy in Arabic, and feeling tears well up in my eyes -- it was very moving. And getting to know people at Immanuel has been wonderful for many of us at Reconciler.
Though there have been some growing pains, the pastors perceive that our work together enlarges our separate communities in ways that are healthy and strengthening. It is a gift when people of different backgrounds come together in harmony and build up the body of Christ.
Helen Lambin, a writer and long-time member of Immanuel, accompanied us to the Workshop and is submitting an article about our panel to The Lutheran newsletter. David Skidmore, canon for communications in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, attended our presentation, and we may read something about it in the Anglican Advance. We were asked to offer another panel discussion at a seminary in Hyde Park in the fall, and are excited about that prospect.
Hearing the incisive and enthusiastic questions from the audience, listening to my colleagues' answers, and finding my own, was illuminating for me. Helen shared that as an observer, it was clear that we as panelists liked one another, something that can't always be taken for granted, even among Christians.
May God continue to bless and guide Immanuel, St. Elias, and Reconciler as individual congregations and as partners in mission.
Yours in Christ,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
For more information about the National Workshop on Christian Unity, go to www.nwcu.org
If you can help Laura set up for this Sunday's worship service, she would be very appreciative. Drop her an email or give her a call if you can.
Next Social Justice committee meeting is May 5 at 7:00 with a gathering at 6:30. Check with Jeremy about location.
Next Search Committee meeting is May 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the 'Nidge.
On Pentecost Sunday, May 11, following our worship service, we will have a celebration to commemorate the birth of the Christian church, as recorded in the book of Acts.
The Fair Trade panel discussion, sponsored by the Social Justice committee, is scheduled for Thursday evening, June 5th, from 7:00 pm. to 9:00 p.m. in the Immanuel sanctuary. Mark your calendars.
Reconciler will again participate in the Celebrate Clark Street and the Glenwood Arts Festivals this summer. Talk with Larry or Laura if you would like to help set up or staff our booth, display your art, or participate in some other way. These festivals are a fun way to do outreach to the community, and spend quality time with your fellow Reconciliarites.
Immanuel is seeking interested volunteers from Reconciler to serve on the altar guild and property committees.
I want to tell you about something exciting that happened recently.
Larry and I, along with Pastor Monte of Immanuel Lutheran and Pastor Gabi of St. Elias Christian Church, took part in a panel discussion at the National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) held in Chicago April 14-17. Tripp Hudgins, our former Baptist pastor at Reconciler and part of the local planning committee of the NWCU, introduced our panel.
Through slides, DVD, and conversation, we gave the audience an overview of each congregation, then talked about the ecumenical work we are doing together. We conveyed the joy of our joint worship services, and our positive collaboration on a recent adult ed forum on interfaith dialogue. We talked about our joint mission statement (a work in progress) and our continuing exploration of where God is calling us as three faith communities on one campus of discipleship. We shared our belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as Monte wrote in a recent letter to his congregation.
Gabi, Monte, Larry, and I spoke to a small but enthusiastic group that peppered us with thoughtful, energetic questions. Folks wanted to hear about Gabi's experience leading an Arabic Christian congregation. What was Monte's experience as "host" to two other congregations? Someone asked why we chose the name "Jesus Christ, Reconciler" -- what are we seeking to reconcile? Another asked us how sharing space and worship is changing our congregations. How does each congregation maintain its individuality within unity? And is this type of collaboration the wave of the future for the larger church? There were many other questions -- 50 minutes of them!
I offered a vignette about how our congregations are affecting one another. When Gabi invited me to preach at our joint worship service in Advent hosted by St. Elias, some members of St. Elias expressed reservations. They had never had a woman preach to their congregation. Gabi stood firm and said "She's going to preach." I preached, and Gabi shared that the response was very positive. A couple of other ways we are affecting each other: I remember the first time I heard Gabi chant the liturgy in Arabic, and feeling tears well up in my eyes -- it was very moving. And getting to know people at Immanuel has been wonderful for many of us at Reconciler.
Though there have been some growing pains, the pastors perceive that our work together enlarges our separate communities in ways that are healthy and strengthening. It is a gift when people of different backgrounds come together in harmony and build up the body of Christ.
Helen Lambin, a writer and long-time member of Immanuel, accompanied us to the Workshop and is submitting an article about our panel to The Lutheran newsletter. David Skidmore, canon for communications in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, attended our presentation, and we may read something about it in the Anglican Advance. We were asked to offer another panel discussion at a seminary in Hyde Park in the fall, and are excited about that prospect.
Hearing the incisive and enthusiastic questions from the audience, listening to my colleagues' answers, and finding my own, was illuminating for me. Helen shared that as an observer, it was clear that we as panelists liked one another, something that can't always be taken for granted, even among Christians.
May God continue to bless and guide Immanuel, St. Elias, and Reconciler as individual congregations and as partners in mission.
Yours in Christ,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
For more information about the National Workshop on Christian Unity, go to www.nwcu.org
If you can help Laura set up for this Sunday's worship service, she would be very appreciative. Drop her an email or give her a call if you can.
Next Social Justice committee meeting is May 5 at 7:00 with a gathering at 6:30. Check with Jeremy about location.
Next Search Committee meeting is May 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the 'Nidge.
On Pentecost Sunday, May 11, following our worship service, we will have a celebration to commemorate the birth of the Christian church, as recorded in the book of Acts.
The Fair Trade panel discussion, sponsored by the Social Justice committee, is scheduled for Thursday evening, June 5th, from 7:00 pm. to 9:00 p.m. in the Immanuel sanctuary. Mark your calendars.
Reconciler will again participate in the Celebrate Clark Street and the Glenwood Arts Festivals this summer. Talk with Larry or Laura if you would like to help set up or staff our booth, display your art, or participate in some other way. These festivals are a fun way to do outreach to the community, and spend quality time with your fellow Reconciliarites.
Immanuel is seeking interested volunteers from Reconciler to serve on the altar guild and property committees.
Sunday, April 20
Fifth Sunday of Easter- The Way The Truth and The Life
Sermon preached by Jorge Sanchez
New Testament: Acts 7:55-60
Psalm: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
Epistle: 1 Peter 2:2-10
Gospel: John 14:1-14
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me": one of the most memorable, most poetic, and most often quoted verses in the Gospels, maybe in all the Christian Scriptures. And I find it terrifying.
When I first got the invitation to preach, I was told that I could choose from among a few Sundays, but that this Sunday, today, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, was the Pastoral Team's first choice of when I was to preach.
I looked up the lectionary readings, saw this Gospel, and immediately thought, "Well, that Sunday's out."
Yet as I read the other lessons for other Sundays, this Sunday and particularly this Gospel kept harassing me. After some thought, I decided to accept the challenge and the call God was issuing me through the Pastoral Team's preference.
The Pastoral Team's preference was just that —a preference— but I think God took it over to make it a call to wrestle with the Scriptures.
As I am sure is the case with many, if not most of you, I find this verse greatly troubling. It is a seemingly exclusivist statement; therein lies the great stumbling block for me. No Jesus equals no God equals no heaven, as the rest of the chapter explains or at least implies with its mentions of the many dwelling places in the Father's house.
Exclusivity, in general, does not sit well with me. So much so that for a few years in college and a few after I was a practicing Baha'i, and shortly after Hank was born, when I was beginning to sense a call to ministry and a deeper connection with God, I though of answering that sense of call within the Unitarian Universalist tradition. While I feel certain of what the Truth is, I am not comfortable with that Truth becoming a barrier; indeed, I do not think the Truth is a barrier, the way so many mis-use this verse to make it a litmus test as to who is and who is not, who may and who may not call themselves children of God.
So there I was, thinking about preaching for the first time, and I could choose to look at this verse —this scary verse that made me very suspicious and defensive— or I could choose another. So, as I
am a fool, I chose to preach tonight.
And before I begin reflecting on tonight's lessons, I hope that, if nothing else, you realize the necessity of grappling with passages of Scripture that are troubling, confusing, seemingly uncharitable and exclusive. While in our own personal study we may be able to say, as Marilynne Robinson says, "One wishes it were not so," we cannot in our witness to the church and the world. Too often those who identify as progressive/liberal/pick-your-label Christians simply pass over these passages about sex, or vengeance, or patriarchy, or exclusivity with a dismissive "Oh, the Spirit says something different now," or "Well, it's clear that's just wrong." That's not enough.
So, once I tried to figure out what this Gospel meant I looked at this passage in context, both of John's Gospel and the lectionary.
Something I had never noticed is that Jesus says this after the washing of feet. Jesus says this right before he dies. Judas has ducked out of the party early, and the Apostles know something is up. Thomas asks, "Where are you going?" Phillip pleads, "Show us the Father." They all look at him and, with their eyes, they say, "Throw us a freakin' bone here, Jesus. Things are getting weird. Things are getting scary."
And Jesus gives this perplexing, baffling, challenging, non-answer: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Jesus is saying here the Incarnation is sufficient for knowing God: "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do." If you want to know God, Philip, do the works that I do, because I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To know God do the works I do.
And here is a new challenge this presents: the one who does the works of God knows God, whether we agree with that one or not. That includes Christians we disagree with as well as non-Christians who are doing the work of God. With a seemingly exclusive statement, Jesus includes all those who do the work of God and thereby know God. Jesus healed and consoled and guided, but he also prayed quietly in the Temple and included and, yes, rebuked people, pushing them closer to the truth of their lives to hopefully push them closer to the Truth of the Gospels.
We the many members of the Body may not always understand each other, may not always agree with each other, but the multi-faceted even idiosyncratic witness we give is the very Incarnation itself: it is the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except by finding and accepting one's unique vocation, right here, right now, both short-term and long-term: it might be changing baby diapers or adult diapers or dealing with the crap we get from a person who's hurting or scared or lost or drunk with power or willfully oblivious to the needs of others.
Take Stephen. Poor Stephen! A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a deacon, chosen and set aside to serve —to do the works of discipleship, to take care of the most marginalized of the marginal, the widows and the poor— he walks the Way, the Truth, the Life, and less than sixty verses later it gets him stoned! That stinks! Discipleship sucks! The Way is hard! Thank God for those dwelling places, otherwise Stephen is S.O.L. So associated has Stephen been with his martyrdom that he is often depicted in artwork with those fateful stones floating around him or even resting on his tonsured head.
What does this mean for us? The stewardship we expect to be our vocation might not be what we are remembered for; our witness might be associated with some rather unpleasant rocks. I say this because our vocation goes beyond social justice. It is easy to think of serving those who are economically or politically disenfranchised, but this is a diverse neighborhood in many ways. Part of this church's ministry might be to minister to the spiritually lost and poor, a ministry I find somewhat distasteful. I grew up Roman Catholic, so the focus on solidarity and service to the poor runs deep, but I wonder if sometimes we are also called to minister to those who are poor in hidden ways.
But take note, even in that hard, hard moment of martyrdom, putting his money where his mouth was, taking his last stumbling Steps, Stephen prays for those who stone him. Not condescendingly, not self-righteously, not smugly, but in love, in the love of the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
And yet First Peter consoles us, as if the two poles of the Way are martyrdom and consolation: long for the spiritual milk of fellowship, of love, of the good in the world. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people." We are to live as a body of priests to serve God and God through God's people. You —like Peter, Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene, Thecla, Junia— are not perfect, often fearful, sometimes sinful, but good enough because we are children of God through the Incarnation.
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." The Way is hard but it is do-able, scary, but be not afraid because we are up to the task.
Andrew Marr of Saint Gregory's Abbey quotes another monk, Sebastian Moore of Downside Abbey, as saying "Fear keeps the show going the way we know it and prefer it."
Marr explains that the "show" referred to is "the tendency to keep our society going by making a point of excluding some people s o that we can define ourselves by what we are not rather than we are. In the risen life, [in the life of an Easter people] we define ourselves by who we are —children of God.
Christ is risen. Let us walk the Way, proclaim the Truth, and embrace the Life as children of God, gathering around the Table and inviting everyone —everyone— in.
New Testament: Acts 7:55-60
Psalm: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
Epistle: 1 Peter 2:2-10
Gospel: John 14:1-14
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me": one of the most memorable, most poetic, and most often quoted verses in the Gospels, maybe in all the Christian Scriptures. And I find it terrifying.
When I first got the invitation to preach, I was told that I could choose from among a few Sundays, but that this Sunday, today, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, was the Pastoral Team's first choice of when I was to preach.
I looked up the lectionary readings, saw this Gospel, and immediately thought, "Well, that Sunday's out."
Yet as I read the other lessons for other Sundays, this Sunday and particularly this Gospel kept harassing me. After some thought, I decided to accept the challenge and the call God was issuing me through the Pastoral Team's preference.
The Pastoral Team's preference was just that —a preference— but I think God took it over to make it a call to wrestle with the Scriptures.
As I am sure is the case with many, if not most of you, I find this verse greatly troubling. It is a seemingly exclusivist statement; therein lies the great stumbling block for me. No Jesus equals no God equals no heaven, as the rest of the chapter explains or at least implies with its mentions of the many dwelling places in the Father's house.
Exclusivity, in general, does not sit well with me. So much so that for a few years in college and a few after I was a practicing Baha'i, and shortly after Hank was born, when I was beginning to sense a call to ministry and a deeper connection with God, I though of answering that sense of call within the Unitarian Universalist tradition. While I feel certain of what the Truth is, I am not comfortable with that Truth becoming a barrier; indeed, I do not think the Truth is a barrier, the way so many mis-use this verse to make it a litmus test as to who is and who is not, who may and who may not call themselves children of God.
So there I was, thinking about preaching for the first time, and I could choose to look at this verse —this scary verse that made me very suspicious and defensive— or I could choose another. So, as I
am a fool, I chose to preach tonight.
And before I begin reflecting on tonight's lessons, I hope that, if nothing else, you realize the necessity of grappling with passages of Scripture that are troubling, confusing, seemingly uncharitable and exclusive. While in our own personal study we may be able to say, as Marilynne Robinson says, "One wishes it were not so," we cannot in our witness to the church and the world. Too often those who identify as progressive/liberal/pick-your-label Christians simply pass over these passages about sex, or vengeance, or patriarchy, or exclusivity with a dismissive "Oh, the Spirit says something different now," or "Well, it's clear that's just wrong." That's not enough.
So, once I tried to figure out what this Gospel meant I looked at this passage in context, both of John's Gospel and the lectionary.
Something I had never noticed is that Jesus says this after the washing of feet. Jesus says this right before he dies. Judas has ducked out of the party early, and the Apostles know something is up. Thomas asks, "Where are you going?" Phillip pleads, "Show us the Father." They all look at him and, with their eyes, they say, "Throw us a freakin' bone here, Jesus. Things are getting weird. Things are getting scary."
And Jesus gives this perplexing, baffling, challenging, non-answer: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Jesus is saying here the Incarnation is sufficient for knowing God: "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do." If you want to know God, Philip, do the works that I do, because I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To know God do the works I do.
And here is a new challenge this presents: the one who does the works of God knows God, whether we agree with that one or not. That includes Christians we disagree with as well as non-Christians who are doing the work of God. With a seemingly exclusive statement, Jesus includes all those who do the work of God and thereby know God. Jesus healed and consoled and guided, but he also prayed quietly in the Temple and included and, yes, rebuked people, pushing them closer to the truth of their lives to hopefully push them closer to the Truth of the Gospels.
We the many members of the Body may not always understand each other, may not always agree with each other, but the multi-faceted even idiosyncratic witness we give is the very Incarnation itself: it is the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except by finding and accepting one's unique vocation, right here, right now, both short-term and long-term: it might be changing baby diapers or adult diapers or dealing with the crap we get from a person who's hurting or scared or lost or drunk with power or willfully oblivious to the needs of others.
Take Stephen. Poor Stephen! A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a deacon, chosen and set aside to serve —to do the works of discipleship, to take care of the most marginalized of the marginal, the widows and the poor— he walks the Way, the Truth, the Life, and less than sixty verses later it gets him stoned! That stinks! Discipleship sucks! The Way is hard! Thank God for those dwelling places, otherwise Stephen is S.O.L. So associated has Stephen been with his martyrdom that he is often depicted in artwork with those fateful stones floating around him or even resting on his tonsured head.
What does this mean for us? The stewardship we expect to be our vocation might not be what we are remembered for; our witness might be associated with some rather unpleasant rocks. I say this because our vocation goes beyond social justice. It is easy to think of serving those who are economically or politically disenfranchised, but this is a diverse neighborhood in many ways. Part of this church's ministry might be to minister to the spiritually lost and poor, a ministry I find somewhat distasteful. I grew up Roman Catholic, so the focus on solidarity and service to the poor runs deep, but I wonder if sometimes we are also called to minister to those who are poor in hidden ways.
But take note, even in that hard, hard moment of martyrdom, putting his money where his mouth was, taking his last stumbling Steps, Stephen prays for those who stone him. Not condescendingly, not self-righteously, not smugly, but in love, in the love of the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
And yet First Peter consoles us, as if the two poles of the Way are martyrdom and consolation: long for the spiritual milk of fellowship, of love, of the good in the world. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people." We are to live as a body of priests to serve God and God through God's people. You —like Peter, Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene, Thecla, Junia— are not perfect, often fearful, sometimes sinful, but good enough because we are children of God through the Incarnation.
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." The Way is hard but it is do-able, scary, but be not afraid because we are up to the task.
Andrew Marr of Saint Gregory's Abbey quotes another monk, Sebastian Moore of Downside Abbey, as saying "Fear keeps the show going the way we know it and prefer it."
Marr explains that the "show" referred to is "the tendency to keep our society going by making a point of excluding some people s o that we can define ourselves by what we are not rather than we are. In the risen life, [in the life of an Easter people] we define ourselves by who we are —children of God.
Christ is risen. Let us walk the Way, proclaim the Truth, and embrace the Life as children of God, gathering around the Table and inviting everyone —everyone— in.
Monday, April 14
Sermon: The Happiest Place on Earth
4 Easter, April 13, 2008
Gospel: John 10:1-10
Preacher: Laura Gottardi-Littell
+++
What do you think is the happiest place on Earth?
(listen for responses)
Those are all interesting responses but I happen to know for sure what the happiest place on earth is.
Give up? Why it’s Disneyland of course.
How do I know? Because I was there last week, with my family, and there were several signs in the park that said it was the happiest place on earth. And when one kid was whining, his dad reminded him: “This is the happiest place on earth, for crying out loud.”
So I wonder --- what goes into making it the happiest place on earth? Because on some level it is. Our first day in the park we gladly followed our friends around – they knew the best rides and shortest lines – and I didn’t care much what we did, I felt carefree and ready to go with the flow. It felt magical just to be in Disneyland for the first time. The way I felt in London, Paris, and Athens ---- wow, I’m actually here. You know the feeling, when you find yourself in some special place you thought you might never make it to. We saw the fireworks in the night sky, even saw Tinkerbell live and flying through the air. We rode as many rides as we could until the park closed at 11:00 p.m. The other mom and I were getting pretty silly toward the end. We were having fun and deconstructing the experience at the same time. She mentioned some pink Tinkerbell pajamas her family had seen in a gift shop and wanted to buy for her. And how she found herself craving them. And I started craving them just hearing about them.We were enjoying the experience and making fun of it at the same time. “If this is mind control I think I like it!” I said and she laughed “I never knew a frontal lobotomy could feel so good.”
In college, my popular culture professor talk to our class about theme parks and try to get us to deconstruct them.
There’s a dark side to Disney. Many Disney films for children are excessively violent. A disproportionate number of them feature girls and women with waist sizes too small to be healthy. And the whole princess thing – we could spend hours on a feminist analysis of that. The movies also are usually very Eurocentric, very white, although there’ve been some recent attempts to correct that, like the Lion King and Pocahantas. Disney is also a huge corporation with theme parks and merchandise and movies sold all over the world. A true venture in global capitalism. It’s a small world after all.
A small world. A controlled world. And the shadow side of all that. Let’s see…who else in history was interested in controlled environments….could it be Hitler? Disney is not Hitler by a long shot, but you see what I’m saying…there is a shadow side in controlled environments, in crowd control, in gated communities. E. L. Doctorow in his book The Book of Daniel compares Disenyland to a concentration camp, He writes: “The problems of mass ingress and egress have been solved here to a degree that would light admiration in the eyes of an SS officer.”
At Disneyland, there is much to enjoy and and admire and also much to deconstruct. Many ways to experience it.
Being there got me thinking about Jesus.
What does Disney have to do with Jesus? How does a Christian deconstruct Disneyland? What happens when a priest goes to Disneyland? Well….
I’m very glad that I have Jesus in my life. That I don’t regularly live in Lala Land, am not stuck in a permanent Disneyland.
Yet in the process of deconstructing Disneyland, I also found myself deconstructing the church. Because the church, has some Disneyland aspects to it. Much of the Church is wonderful and beautiful and even fun, like Disneyland. But it too has a shadow side -- a history of violence, racism, and sexism. It too can try to mediate reality to people, to pre-program reality for us. It can be a controlled and controlling environment, Even if it is often a pleasant one. It too has its stories that often seem fantastical. And if we as church are not willing to integrate the insights of the larger world, we are in danger of living in a fantasy land and shutting out many people. We create a small world for ourselves. A Christian enclave. A Christian theme park. A ghetto, as Larry says.
Take the stories of our faith…lovely and strengthening. Deep within our psyches. we learned them in childhood, along with the Disney stories. Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath… My kids are starting to ask me “Are those true stories? How did that happen?” And I have to pause. My children know the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I tell them about how some stories may not have happened exactly like they’re writen, but they are true stories because they point us to deeper truths. I have a certain level of comfort with miracle stories – I believe God can do many strange things. But I’m concerned about telling my kidssome of these storis are factual. Like the story from Daniel about the three men who stand in a fiery furnace and live. What if they try that at home?
So I tell my kids that when Genesis says the world was created in 7 days that’s a way of saying it was created in God’s time, which is different than our time. 7 days is symbolic . And I think they get that. And it helps them deal with what they learned at the Field Museum which is that the earth was created 4.5 billion years ago and that humans, homo sapien appeared about 200,000 years ago.
I worry that we may lose the deeper truths of Christianity if we insist on the literal truth of our stories. If we shut out what we know from science and culture, we risk making Christinaity an enclave or ghetto. We make our Disneyland, a world distinct from reality, a gated community that limits our awareness and keeps others out. A small world.
I don’t think Christianity should be a controlled environment. Where you check your brain at the gate. I don’t think it’s that kind of gate, or that kind of enclosure.
Today’s gospel tells us, that Jesus is the gate and the good shepherd through which we enter a place of green pastures, and there we can safely graze.
Thank God there is this gate and this shepherd. For there are a lot of gates that lead to unhealthy places. Where we can be lured by bad shepherds or by life’s difficulties. We can go through gates that lead to self-centeredness, self-hatried, addictions, isolation, depression, anxiety, cruelty, ennui…places that ultimately lead only to emptiness and pain.
So yes it is so incredible that we have a shephered who is good, who will lead us to paths of righteousness and lead us beside still waters. Thank you God for that.
As a young adult I felt a compelling need to go in just the right gate – which for me meant making a choice for Chistianity. But part of the beauty is that it was a free choice., even if heavily shepherded by God. And once I’m in the gate I don’t want to stop making choices. I don’t want to be separated from the rest of reality. Jesus says in today’s gospel that he came that me have life more abundantly, not more narrowly.
The pasture should be broad and wide.
And part of this wideness means making room for culture and the insights it can offer us as church.
In my ideal Chrsitianity there’s room for listening to music that’s not Christian – because it’s good music or just because we like it. There’s room for having colelagues, friends and family who are non-Christian. For taking seriously the wisdom gleaned by science and philosophy and history. For enjoying Disneyland. For living in the whole world and not comfining ourselves to an enclave.
I think this is because I understand Christ as part of the world. God entered the world and lived in the world. Christ did not intend to found a church that would be over and against culture, replace culture, or dictate culture to us. Jesus came that we would have life more abundantly, not more narrowly. Jesus repeatedly reached out beyond the structures of the organized religion of his time.
Louis Dupre, who teaches philosophy of religion at Yale says that as Christians, our job is to integrate the sacred and the profane. Our western culture no longer integrates Christianity into the rest of life for us. In our postmodern world, Christianity is simply one story among many other equal stories. Jesus is no more the way than the Buddha or Mohammed,or Mickey. So it becomes our individual task to integrate our faith into the rest of our life. And one way to accomplish it is to have an interior spiritual life – a life of prayer, to become a Christian from within . To have a personal response to the Divine.
Dupre says its up to us to integrate the fragments of meaning we see around us. And not to be at war with culture. A secure Christian allows society and culture to be what they are, without being defensive, because our spiritual strength comes from within us. (Louis Dupre, The Christian Century, July 16-23, 1997, pp. 654-660).
There’s a book called Christ and Culture by another theologian, H. Richard Niehbuhr. Niehbuhr speaks of several different types of relationships Christians can have with culture, including “Christ against culture,” and “Christ Over culture.” His preferred relationship is that of Christ transforming culture. Not only are we as Christians to interact with culture, we are to critique it. And ultimately help transform it.
So maybe it’s OK that I was at Disneyland, interacting with it, enjoying it, and also critiquing it, with an eye to what it was missing. And perhaps its OK that I love the church and also critique it, with an eye to what it is missing and how we might help transform it.
Many people at Disneyland could benefit by being reminded – or hearing for the first time – of the deep truths of Christianity. That there is a God larger than Mickey who offers more to them than materialism and Tinker Bell pajamas.
At the same time the church needs to allow for other realities without seeking to impose only its own reality.
This is what happens I guess when a priest goes to Disneyland.
The happiest place on earth? I’m not sure where that is. But I think it may be a place in our hearts that comes into being when we have listened to our shepherd’s voice and entered the gate, but not put a lock on the gate or barbed wire on top of it. When we have made and continue to make a personal response to God, when we have an interior spiritual life. When we help others come into that pasture, and give them room to move about within. An internal place where we know Jesus, and out of that secure knowledge, interact with society and culture, help transform them, and allow ourselves to be transformed by them. So that both church and world come to look less like a fantasy land, gated community, or concentration camp, and more like a green pasture with goodness and mercy for all.
+++
Gospel: John 10:1-10
Preacher: Laura Gottardi-Littell
+++
What do you think is the happiest place on Earth?
(listen for responses)
Those are all interesting responses but I happen to know for sure what the happiest place on earth is.
Give up? Why it’s Disneyland of course.
How do I know? Because I was there last week, with my family, and there were several signs in the park that said it was the happiest place on earth. And when one kid was whining, his dad reminded him: “This is the happiest place on earth, for crying out loud.”
So I wonder --- what goes into making it the happiest place on earth? Because on some level it is. Our first day in the park we gladly followed our friends around – they knew the best rides and shortest lines – and I didn’t care much what we did, I felt carefree and ready to go with the flow. It felt magical just to be in Disneyland for the first time. The way I felt in London, Paris, and Athens ---- wow, I’m actually here. You know the feeling, when you find yourself in some special place you thought you might never make it to. We saw the fireworks in the night sky, even saw Tinkerbell live and flying through the air. We rode as many rides as we could until the park closed at 11:00 p.m. The other mom and I were getting pretty silly toward the end. We were having fun and deconstructing the experience at the same time. She mentioned some pink Tinkerbell pajamas her family had seen in a gift shop and wanted to buy for her. And how she found herself craving them. And I started craving them just hearing about them.We were enjoying the experience and making fun of it at the same time. “If this is mind control I think I like it!” I said and she laughed “I never knew a frontal lobotomy could feel so good.”
In college, my popular culture professor talk to our class about theme parks and try to get us to deconstruct them.
There’s a dark side to Disney. Many Disney films for children are excessively violent. A disproportionate number of them feature girls and women with waist sizes too small to be healthy. And the whole princess thing – we could spend hours on a feminist analysis of that. The movies also are usually very Eurocentric, very white, although there’ve been some recent attempts to correct that, like the Lion King and Pocahantas. Disney is also a huge corporation with theme parks and merchandise and movies sold all over the world. A true venture in global capitalism. It’s a small world after all.
A small world. A controlled world. And the shadow side of all that. Let’s see…who else in history was interested in controlled environments….could it be Hitler? Disney is not Hitler by a long shot, but you see what I’m saying…there is a shadow side in controlled environments, in crowd control, in gated communities. E. L. Doctorow in his book The Book of Daniel compares Disenyland to a concentration camp, He writes: “The problems of mass ingress and egress have been solved here to a degree that would light admiration in the eyes of an SS officer.”
At Disneyland, there is much to enjoy and and admire and also much to deconstruct. Many ways to experience it.
Being there got me thinking about Jesus.
What does Disney have to do with Jesus? How does a Christian deconstruct Disneyland? What happens when a priest goes to Disneyland? Well….
I’m very glad that I have Jesus in my life. That I don’t regularly live in Lala Land, am not stuck in a permanent Disneyland.
Yet in the process of deconstructing Disneyland, I also found myself deconstructing the church. Because the church, has some Disneyland aspects to it. Much of the Church is wonderful and beautiful and even fun, like Disneyland. But it too has a shadow side -- a history of violence, racism, and sexism. It too can try to mediate reality to people, to pre-program reality for us. It can be a controlled and controlling environment, Even if it is often a pleasant one. It too has its stories that often seem fantastical. And if we as church are not willing to integrate the insights of the larger world, we are in danger of living in a fantasy land and shutting out many people. We create a small world for ourselves. A Christian enclave. A Christian theme park. A ghetto, as Larry says.
Take the stories of our faith…lovely and strengthening. Deep within our psyches. we learned them in childhood, along with the Disney stories. Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath… My kids are starting to ask me “Are those true stories? How did that happen?” And I have to pause. My children know the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I tell them about how some stories may not have happened exactly like they’re writen, but they are true stories because they point us to deeper truths. I have a certain level of comfort with miracle stories – I believe God can do many strange things. But I’m concerned about telling my kidssome of these storis are factual. Like the story from Daniel about the three men who stand in a fiery furnace and live. What if they try that at home?
So I tell my kids that when Genesis says the world was created in 7 days that’s a way of saying it was created in God’s time, which is different than our time. 7 days is symbolic . And I think they get that. And it helps them deal with what they learned at the Field Museum which is that the earth was created 4.5 billion years ago and that humans, homo sapien appeared about 200,000 years ago.
I worry that we may lose the deeper truths of Christianity if we insist on the literal truth of our stories. If we shut out what we know from science and culture, we risk making Christinaity an enclave or ghetto. We make our Disneyland, a world distinct from reality, a gated community that limits our awareness and keeps others out. A small world.
I don’t think Christianity should be a controlled environment. Where you check your brain at the gate. I don’t think it’s that kind of gate, or that kind of enclosure.
Today’s gospel tells us, that Jesus is the gate and the good shepherd through which we enter a place of green pastures, and there we can safely graze.
Thank God there is this gate and this shepherd. For there are a lot of gates that lead to unhealthy places. Where we can be lured by bad shepherds or by life’s difficulties. We can go through gates that lead to self-centeredness, self-hatried, addictions, isolation, depression, anxiety, cruelty, ennui…places that ultimately lead only to emptiness and pain.
So yes it is so incredible that we have a shephered who is good, who will lead us to paths of righteousness and lead us beside still waters. Thank you God for that.
As a young adult I felt a compelling need to go in just the right gate – which for me meant making a choice for Chistianity. But part of the beauty is that it was a free choice., even if heavily shepherded by God. And once I’m in the gate I don’t want to stop making choices. I don’t want to be separated from the rest of reality. Jesus says in today’s gospel that he came that me have life more abundantly, not more narrowly.
The pasture should be broad and wide.
And part of this wideness means making room for culture and the insights it can offer us as church.
In my ideal Chrsitianity there’s room for listening to music that’s not Christian – because it’s good music or just because we like it. There’s room for having colelagues, friends and family who are non-Christian. For taking seriously the wisdom gleaned by science and philosophy and history. For enjoying Disneyland. For living in the whole world and not comfining ourselves to an enclave.
I think this is because I understand Christ as part of the world. God entered the world and lived in the world. Christ did not intend to found a church that would be over and against culture, replace culture, or dictate culture to us. Jesus came that we would have life more abundantly, not more narrowly. Jesus repeatedly reached out beyond the structures of the organized religion of his time.
Louis Dupre, who teaches philosophy of religion at Yale says that as Christians, our job is to integrate the sacred and the profane. Our western culture no longer integrates Christianity into the rest of life for us. In our postmodern world, Christianity is simply one story among many other equal stories. Jesus is no more the way than the Buddha or Mohammed,or Mickey. So it becomes our individual task to integrate our faith into the rest of our life. And one way to accomplish it is to have an interior spiritual life – a life of prayer, to become a Christian from within . To have a personal response to the Divine.
Dupre says its up to us to integrate the fragments of meaning we see around us. And not to be at war with culture. A secure Christian allows society and culture to be what they are, without being defensive, because our spiritual strength comes from within us. (Louis Dupre, The Christian Century, July 16-23, 1997, pp. 654-660).
There’s a book called Christ and Culture by another theologian, H. Richard Niehbuhr. Niehbuhr speaks of several different types of relationships Christians can have with culture, including “Christ against culture,” and “Christ Over culture.” His preferred relationship is that of Christ transforming culture. Not only are we as Christians to interact with culture, we are to critique it. And ultimately help transform it.
So maybe it’s OK that I was at Disneyland, interacting with it, enjoying it, and also critiquing it, with an eye to what it was missing. And perhaps its OK that I love the church and also critique it, with an eye to what it is missing and how we might help transform it.
Many people at Disneyland could benefit by being reminded – or hearing for the first time – of the deep truths of Christianity. That there is a God larger than Mickey who offers more to them than materialism and Tinker Bell pajamas.
At the same time the church needs to allow for other realities without seeking to impose only its own reality.
This is what happens I guess when a priest goes to Disneyland.
The happiest place on earth? I’m not sure where that is. But I think it may be a place in our hearts that comes into being when we have listened to our shepherd’s voice and entered the gate, but not put a lock on the gate or barbed wire on top of it. When we have made and continue to make a personal response to God, when we have an interior spiritual life. When we help others come into that pasture, and give them room to move about within. An internal place where we know Jesus, and out of that secure knowledge, interact with society and culture, help transform them, and allow ourselves to be transformed by them. So that both church and world come to look less like a fantasy land, gated community, or concentration camp, and more like a green pasture with goodness and mercy for all.
+++
Friday, April 11
Reconciler Update
We are now three weeks into the Season of Easter. For some this may be a difficult juxtaposition. We as the church are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ. We are singing joyous songs and talk about the joy and triumph of the Resurrection. Yet it maybe that some of us are still stuck in circumstances of life more in keeping with Holy Week or Good Friday. We are often still struggling with what we were struggling before Easter. Life and the church year don't always agree. We may not feel like rejoicing. This uncomfortable juxtaposition though is itself part of the journey of faith, it is part and parcel of the experience of the church. We rejoice at the Resurrection but are left with seeing Christ and having him disappear from view. We have the signs of God's presence but God as often as not seems distant or absent. The Resurrection has occurred but we wait the final consummation of the work begun in Jesus Christ. We celebrate the victory of Christ over Sin Death and the Devil, and yet we see the continued signs of those three things at work in the world. Our joy, our Easter joy then does not come from the circumstances of the world and our life. This is the difference between joy and happiness. We can easily confuse the two especially in a country that has lifted up the pursuit of happiness as a great good that should be unimpeded. But our happiness depends on circumstances. Joy is not dependent on circumstances.
As we hear the stories of the Resurection and the beginning of the church the circumstances remain largely unchanged for the Apostles and Jesus' followers: the leaders of the Jewish people did not come around and admit Jesus to be the Messiah, the persecution that the disciples feared did come. The Resurrection did not convince the powers to step aside and accept Jesus Christ, and embrace the Kingdom of God as the way things are. No, the logic of violence and death, remained entrenched. So then what good is Jesus' resurrection? What comfort is there in Easter and the proclamation of Christ risen? Our comfort is that violence, death, the powers of the world, the politicians (religious and secular) do not have the last word. And our hope is not in politics, wars, and the ways of the World. The Resurection of Christ is the sign that all these things have been judged as wanting, and that there is another word, God's Word. Suffering now has meaning if it is joined with and identified with Christ's sufferings, if it is seen as part of the redemption of the entire cosmos. If things seem unchanged it is because God desires to draw all things into this other Word, this other way. By death Christ beat down death, that is God overcomes the world not by conquering it but by passing through its evil and overturning the world's verdict about what is real and true.
So yes, God is slow, and at times the Resurrection seems to have no effect on us or the world. And yet, we are signs of its effect. Through faith in Christ our suffering can become our joy, as we see God transforming us and the world in the midst of its and our own failings. Through faith in Christ our struggles and sufferings can add to and fulfill Christ's own sufferings, as we join ourselves to the redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ. So we may not always be happy or free of pain, but we can know that God is with us in and through our suffering and hardship. We can know that God is one who is acquainted with grief because of the incarnation, and God in Jesus Christ has overcome the world and all its suffering and hardship. Our suffering is not and will not be the last word, but the Resurrected Christ is the last word, because Jesus is God's Word. Easter Celebration and joy are to communicate to us that we are to rest in this last word and hope in the Resurrection as the sign that God is truly making all things new.
Announcements-
The blog has been quiet for the past few months as Laura and Larry have acclimated to Tripp's absence. However, Laura has posted here last several sermons and Larry had a manuscript written for his last sermon this past Sunday. So, come visit the blog if you haven't in awhile or missed a recent Sunday service.
Laura and Larry are presenting a seminar with the Pastor Gabi Aelabouni of St Elias Christian Church and Pastor Monte Johnson of Immanuel Lutheran Church at the National Workshop on Christian Unity this Tuesday, April 15th. We are presenting on the joint work our three congregations are doing and what we hope for the ecumenical and multicultural relationships between the three congregations.
Our Monthly congregational council meeting is this Thursday, April 17th 7:30 PM at the 'Nidge. All are welcome to attend.
The next Social Action Committee meeting will be Monday April 21st. For details talk with Chrissy Swanson or Jeremy John.
Our summer outreach will again to be present at the Clark Street Festival and the Glenwood Arts festival. Look for more details in the coming month. If you are an artist (visual, music, fabric, etc.) talk with Larry about being part of our booth and the Glenwood Arts Festival(We plan to reserve a larger one than we had last year.)
Our Search Committee for our next Baptist pastor had its first meeting this past Wednesday its next meeting is schedules for Thursday April 24th.
As we hear the stories of the Resurection and the beginning of the church the circumstances remain largely unchanged for the Apostles and Jesus' followers: the leaders of the Jewish people did not come around and admit Jesus to be the Messiah, the persecution that the disciples feared did come. The Resurrection did not convince the powers to step aside and accept Jesus Christ, and embrace the Kingdom of God as the way things are. No, the logic of violence and death, remained entrenched. So then what good is Jesus' resurrection? What comfort is there in Easter and the proclamation of Christ risen? Our comfort is that violence, death, the powers of the world, the politicians (religious and secular) do not have the last word. And our hope is not in politics, wars, and the ways of the World. The Resurection of Christ is the sign that all these things have been judged as wanting, and that there is another word, God's Word. Suffering now has meaning if it is joined with and identified with Christ's sufferings, if it is seen as part of the redemption of the entire cosmos. If things seem unchanged it is because God desires to draw all things into this other Word, this other way. By death Christ beat down death, that is God overcomes the world not by conquering it but by passing through its evil and overturning the world's verdict about what is real and true.
So yes, God is slow, and at times the Resurrection seems to have no effect on us or the world. And yet, we are signs of its effect. Through faith in Christ our suffering can become our joy, as we see God transforming us and the world in the midst of its and our own failings. Through faith in Christ our struggles and sufferings can add to and fulfill Christ's own sufferings, as we join ourselves to the redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ. So we may not always be happy or free of pain, but we can know that God is with us in and through our suffering and hardship. We can know that God is one who is acquainted with grief because of the incarnation, and God in Jesus Christ has overcome the world and all its suffering and hardship. Our suffering is not and will not be the last word, but the Resurrected Christ is the last word, because Jesus is God's Word. Easter Celebration and joy are to communicate to us that we are to rest in this last word and hope in the Resurrection as the sign that God is truly making all things new.
Announcements-
The blog has been quiet for the past few months as Laura and Larry have acclimated to Tripp's absence. However, Laura has posted here last several sermons and Larry had a manuscript written for his last sermon this past Sunday. So, come visit the blog if you haven't in awhile or missed a recent Sunday service.
Laura and Larry are presenting a seminar with the Pastor Gabi Aelabouni of St Elias Christian Church and Pastor Monte Johnson of Immanuel Lutheran Church at the National Workshop on Christian Unity this Tuesday, April 15th. We are presenting on the joint work our three congregations are doing and what we hope for the ecumenical and multicultural relationships between the three congregations.
Our Monthly congregational council meeting is this Thursday, April 17th 7:30 PM at the 'Nidge. All are welcome to attend.
The next Social Action Committee meeting will be Monday April 21st. For details talk with Chrissy Swanson or Jeremy John.
Our summer outreach will again to be present at the Clark Street Festival and the Glenwood Arts festival. Look for more details in the coming month. If you are an artist (visual, music, fabric, etc.) talk with Larry about being part of our booth and the Glenwood Arts Festival(We plan to reserve a larger one than we had last year.)
Our Search Committee for our next Baptist pastor had its first meeting this past Wednesday its next meeting is schedules for Thursday April 24th.
Sunday, April 6
Sermon Third Sunday of Easter
Third Easter RCL year A
Sermon text Luke 24:13-35
Rev. Jacki Belile in her sermon last Sunday encouraged us to see that in the Resurrection and the appearances of Jesus Christ there was space for us to have our doubts--Space for our questions. In our Gospel today we find questions and doubts once again on that first Easter: Cleopas and his companion have many questions. They are puzzled. The world and the recent events don’t make sense. They have decided to get away just a few miles but about a day’s walk. We are not told why they left Jerusalem, and the Apostles those gathered around them. But it may have been simply to get away from the bustle and all the confusion. To get away from all the theories and probably a good bit of arguing about what it all meant and what to make of an empty tomb. Jesus raises from the dead and still, everything remains unclear and uncertain.
I suggest that Cleopas and his companion are more analogous to us 2000 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection than the doubt of Thomas the Twin. I say this because Cleopas’ and his companions encounter with Jesus is liturgical. For it is in Scriptures and at Table that Cleopas and his companion find Christ and are transformed by the encounter with the risen Christ.
As these two disciples are on their way in the world, at first all they have is their experiences and their set hopes and expectations. Yet their hopes and experiences alone don’t give them any answers. If they were left with their doubts and their own experiences and their own interpretations, they would never have seen the Risen Christ or understood what had happened. They are not left on their own Jesus comes along side them and begins to ask them what they are discussing. Jesus gets them to tell him their sense of what has happened and their interpretations. They are somewhat flabbergasted that someone could be ignorant of the events that have just transpired. However they answer that the prophet Jesus who had done great deeds and had great renown was given over to the Roman authorities for execution by crucifixion. The source of their grief and confusion isn’t only that he was prophet and friend but they had hoped he would be the one who would redeem Israel. This Jesus was not only a prophet but would be the one to bring the end of Roman rule over the people of God. They were expecting a restoration of the kingdom of Israel as the holy people of God with King and temple. Yet then add, Even more puzzling is that there are reports that the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth is empty and the claim of the women who found it is that the resurrection has happened. All of this and their entire experience of Jesus does not makes sense. Nothing about it computes, not the possible resurrection nor the crucifixion and the betrayal of the Jewish leaders through handing over Jesus to the Romans makes sense with their expectations of who Jesus was to be.
Is it really a wonder then that they do not recognize Jesus Christ when he is raised? They did not quite know Jesus before his death and resurrection. Their experience and expectations failed to provide the interpretive framework to make sense not only of what happened but also of Jesus himself. Their experience told them that Jesus was a prophet whom they hoped would be the messiah. On their own with their own experience and reason they could not see what had always been right before their eyes.
Jesus then shows them how the Scriptures actually are fulfilled by the death and resurrection of the messiah, himself. Cleopas and companion listen, intrigued but they still don’t see that it is Jesus who is interpreting the events for them from the Scriptures. Luke does not tell us explicitly what Jesus said, but then all four Gospels are filled with references to the ways in which the life, ministry death and Resurrection of Jesus fulfill the Scriptures. Even as Jesus finishes up and pretends to go on ahead, they still just think of him as a stranger, and they invite him to stay with them. After a long days walk they sit down for a meal, and Jesus takes the bread, blesses it breaks it and gives it to them. And then it all falls into place, at the table with Jesus they see. At that moment of recognition Jesus disappears from their sight. In the breaking of the bread it all makes sense the interpretation of the scriptures, crucifixion and resurrection their own failure to see what was right before them because they did not have all the elements, because their experience had failed them. They needed more than just their own reasoning their own interpretations of scriptures and events. What they needed was for the Scriptures and an encounter with the risen Christ to interpret their experiences and opinions and openness to being transformed by that encounter. So they were and they recognize that the transformation had begun on the way as Jesus interpreted their experiences of Jesus from the Scriptures. Now having seen they realize that their hearts began to burn, what had been cold and lifeless had begun to come to life.
In response having now seen and understood they return the way they came and find the Apostles and those with them a buzz with the news that Jesus is raised from the dead. That is they return to the church the gathered faithful that group Jesus had formed. There they find that they are not alone, others have encountered the risen Christ with everything reinterpreted from that encounter. They have one thing to add that the breaking of bread of the last supper is the place of continual encounter with the Risen Christ.
You might recognize this phrase breaking of the bread and this story from the Eucharist liturgy especially the opening lines of the Covenant liturgy I use most Sundays when I preside at table. This is an important connection between this story and our liturgy and worship. In this story we are to see not only an event that happened two thousand years ago but what is to happen can happen is happening in our worship from week to week. The continual transformation and turning cold hearts warm again and again.
We come to worship in the midst of our lives at times they can be difficult and confusing. We sing and pray, but we also hear the Scriptures both the Hebrew Scriptures and their interpretation in light of Jesus Christ crucified and raised again found the New Testament Scriptures. These scriptures not only show us what God has done but are to interpret our experiences in light of Jesus Christ. Yet the Scriptures remain powerless without the encounter with Jesus around the table in Bread and wine. It is here for us that we meet and encounter the risen Christ and are able then to see and encounter Jesus and God in a world, which is a confusing and ambiguous and not infrequently an evil place. Our lives don’t make sense of this liturgy and the scriptures and the Eucharist. We come with all our lives the ups and downs: we come with our joys sorrows doubts and hopes. Then gathered around Word and Table in order that our lives are interpreted and given meaning by the liturgy and our worship. Sometimes some of us will be more able to see and so we come together also to encourage each other, but through reminding each other that it is here that we know we have encountered Christ. Gathered together in the midst of our journey we hear the scriptures and their interpretation and meet Jesus in bread and wine so that our lives take on a meaning beyond what we can experience and interpret on our own. So that our hearts may be kindled with warmth and life. On our own we our like Cleopas and his companion earnest, faithful but puzzled and confused, not knowing what to make of the world we find. In the liturgy we discover that it is God who gives meaning to life, and we encounter the Risen Christ, and he is made known to us in the breaking of the bread.
We then are Cleopas’ companions on the road to Emmaus on the way to encountering Christ. We come to our worship with the experiences of the previous week perhaps having lost sight of Christ and God. We hear the Scriptures to allow them to interpret our experiences and ourselves and to hear again what God has done in Jesus Christ. This begins to transform us and then we come to break bread and drink wine where we find Christ and are fed by him. In this we are transformed. In this is the transformation of the world as we who have gathered around Jesus seeking again and again to encounter him as the one through whom God has overturned the ways of the world. The way to Emmaus is the road of transformation; it is the path of Christian worship found in the liturgy it is the meaning of Holy Communion. The way of Emmaus is the place of our encounter of the risen Christ. It is only through this encounter that we are able to see God and Christ in the world; in the poor, the suffering, the oppressed and the stranger. It gives us sight and warms our hearts to new life.
Sermon text Luke 24:13-35
The Resurrection and the Worship of the Church:
On our way to Emmaus
Are you on your way to Emmaus? Are we all companions of Cleopas on our way? Are we trying to make sense of the world and our place in it yet struggling to figure out how it all fits together? What is this journey to Emmaus in which Christ interprets our experiences through the Scriptures. What is this encounter of Jesus that is both hidden and revealing? What keeps us from seeing Jesus, and what allows us to see him in the world and in our presence here?On our way to Emmaus
Rev. Jacki Belile in her sermon last Sunday encouraged us to see that in the Resurrection and the appearances of Jesus Christ there was space for us to have our doubts--Space for our questions. In our Gospel today we find questions and doubts once again on that first Easter: Cleopas and his companion have many questions. They are puzzled. The world and the recent events don’t make sense. They have decided to get away just a few miles but about a day’s walk. We are not told why they left Jerusalem, and the Apostles those gathered around them. But it may have been simply to get away from the bustle and all the confusion. To get away from all the theories and probably a good bit of arguing about what it all meant and what to make of an empty tomb. Jesus raises from the dead and still, everything remains unclear and uncertain.
I suggest that Cleopas and his companion are more analogous to us 2000 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection than the doubt of Thomas the Twin. I say this because Cleopas’ and his companions encounter with Jesus is liturgical. For it is in Scriptures and at Table that Cleopas and his companion find Christ and are transformed by the encounter with the risen Christ.
As these two disciples are on their way in the world, at first all they have is their experiences and their set hopes and expectations. Yet their hopes and experiences alone don’t give them any answers. If they were left with their doubts and their own experiences and their own interpretations, they would never have seen the Risen Christ or understood what had happened. They are not left on their own Jesus comes along side them and begins to ask them what they are discussing. Jesus gets them to tell him their sense of what has happened and their interpretations. They are somewhat flabbergasted that someone could be ignorant of the events that have just transpired. However they answer that the prophet Jesus who had done great deeds and had great renown was given over to the Roman authorities for execution by crucifixion. The source of their grief and confusion isn’t only that he was prophet and friend but they had hoped he would be the one who would redeem Israel. This Jesus was not only a prophet but would be the one to bring the end of Roman rule over the people of God. They were expecting a restoration of the kingdom of Israel as the holy people of God with King and temple. Yet then add, Even more puzzling is that there are reports that the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth is empty and the claim of the women who found it is that the resurrection has happened. All of this and their entire experience of Jesus does not makes sense. Nothing about it computes, not the possible resurrection nor the crucifixion and the betrayal of the Jewish leaders through handing over Jesus to the Romans makes sense with their expectations of who Jesus was to be.
Is it really a wonder then that they do not recognize Jesus Christ when he is raised? They did not quite know Jesus before his death and resurrection. Their experience and expectations failed to provide the interpretive framework to make sense not only of what happened but also of Jesus himself. Their experience told them that Jesus was a prophet whom they hoped would be the messiah. On their own with their own experience and reason they could not see what had always been right before their eyes.
Jesus then shows them how the Scriptures actually are fulfilled by the death and resurrection of the messiah, himself. Cleopas and companion listen, intrigued but they still don’t see that it is Jesus who is interpreting the events for them from the Scriptures. Luke does not tell us explicitly what Jesus said, but then all four Gospels are filled with references to the ways in which the life, ministry death and Resurrection of Jesus fulfill the Scriptures. Even as Jesus finishes up and pretends to go on ahead, they still just think of him as a stranger, and they invite him to stay with them. After a long days walk they sit down for a meal, and Jesus takes the bread, blesses it breaks it and gives it to them. And then it all falls into place, at the table with Jesus they see. At that moment of recognition Jesus disappears from their sight. In the breaking of the bread it all makes sense the interpretation of the scriptures, crucifixion and resurrection their own failure to see what was right before them because they did not have all the elements, because their experience had failed them. They needed more than just their own reasoning their own interpretations of scriptures and events. What they needed was for the Scriptures and an encounter with the risen Christ to interpret their experiences and opinions and openness to being transformed by that encounter. So they were and they recognize that the transformation had begun on the way as Jesus interpreted their experiences of Jesus from the Scriptures. Now having seen they realize that their hearts began to burn, what had been cold and lifeless had begun to come to life.
In response having now seen and understood they return the way they came and find the Apostles and those with them a buzz with the news that Jesus is raised from the dead. That is they return to the church the gathered faithful that group Jesus had formed. There they find that they are not alone, others have encountered the risen Christ with everything reinterpreted from that encounter. They have one thing to add that the breaking of bread of the last supper is the place of continual encounter with the Risen Christ.
You might recognize this phrase breaking of the bread and this story from the Eucharist liturgy especially the opening lines of the Covenant liturgy I use most Sundays when I preside at table. This is an important connection between this story and our liturgy and worship. In this story we are to see not only an event that happened two thousand years ago but what is to happen can happen is happening in our worship from week to week. The continual transformation and turning cold hearts warm again and again.
We come to worship in the midst of our lives at times they can be difficult and confusing. We sing and pray, but we also hear the Scriptures both the Hebrew Scriptures and their interpretation in light of Jesus Christ crucified and raised again found the New Testament Scriptures. These scriptures not only show us what God has done but are to interpret our experiences in light of Jesus Christ. Yet the Scriptures remain powerless without the encounter with Jesus around the table in Bread and wine. It is here for us that we meet and encounter the risen Christ and are able then to see and encounter Jesus and God in a world, which is a confusing and ambiguous and not infrequently an evil place. Our lives don’t make sense of this liturgy and the scriptures and the Eucharist. We come with all our lives the ups and downs: we come with our joys sorrows doubts and hopes. Then gathered around Word and Table in order that our lives are interpreted and given meaning by the liturgy and our worship. Sometimes some of us will be more able to see and so we come together also to encourage each other, but through reminding each other that it is here that we know we have encountered Christ. Gathered together in the midst of our journey we hear the scriptures and their interpretation and meet Jesus in bread and wine so that our lives take on a meaning beyond what we can experience and interpret on our own. So that our hearts may be kindled with warmth and life. On our own we our like Cleopas and his companion earnest, faithful but puzzled and confused, not knowing what to make of the world we find. In the liturgy we discover that it is God who gives meaning to life, and we encounter the Risen Christ, and he is made known to us in the breaking of the bread.
We then are Cleopas’ companions on the road to Emmaus on the way to encountering Christ. We come to our worship with the experiences of the previous week perhaps having lost sight of Christ and God. We hear the Scriptures to allow them to interpret our experiences and ourselves and to hear again what God has done in Jesus Christ. This begins to transform us and then we come to break bread and drink wine where we find Christ and are fed by him. In this we are transformed. In this is the transformation of the world as we who have gathered around Jesus seeking again and again to encounter him as the one through whom God has overturned the ways of the world. The way to Emmaus is the road of transformation; it is the path of Christian worship found in the liturgy it is the meaning of Holy Communion. The way of Emmaus is the place of our encounter of the risen Christ. It is only through this encounter that we are able to see God and Christ in the world; in the poor, the suffering, the oppressed and the stranger. It gives us sight and warms our hearts to new life.
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