You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " You're Not From Around Here, Are Ya? " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Empty Tomb Witnesses, Resurrected Jesus
Seekers, Good News Bearers, Faith-Sharers,
The end of this year’s Easter season is
coinciding with a lot of travel for me.
In April I traveled to Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado; and in May,
before we get to Pentecost, I’ll be going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pentecost—which we celebrate on May 19th,
this year, was a celebration that brought Jews back to Jerusalem from
various parts of the world. For Jesus’
disciples, the stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances include a journey
from Jerusalem to Emmaus; and at least in John’s gospel, the days following
Jesus’ resurrection finds many of the disciples back in Galilee. …So I guess, Easter-done-right, has believers
on the road?
One of my favorite Easter images is that the
meaning of the resurrection is that Jesus is “loosed in the world.” Though Jesus was crucified and died, God
raised Jesus. He is not held by death,
but is given back to life and Jesus feely appears …well, anywhere! And now, like children at an Easter-egg hunt,
believers are put to looking for Jesus …well, everywhere!
Most of the New Testament contains writing and
stories that come AFTER Jesus was raised.
There are a handful of stories about the few weeks following the
crucifixion and resurrection, but most of the New Testament is in the form of
letters and stories that come YEARS after, and much of it, from believers who
are traveling far and wide from Jerusalem.
Whether it’s Paul, racing to set up “outposts” of faithful believers
first in Asia and then in Europe, or Peter who is visiting other communities of
Jewish believers and opening them to the fellowship with Christians, to the
hints of other nameless witnesses who are the readers of these letters and the gospels
as they get written down and distributed.
In fact, we are representatives who have received these same words and
stories and are still looking for Jesus today—separated not only by geography
but also time. We’re still chasing
Jesus.
The gospels share with us that for several
years, a group of believers followed Jesus, traveling from place to place,
witnessing acts of kindness and miracles.
In Galilee, in Samaria, along the Jordan, around the Sea of Tiberias
(the sea of Galilee), to Tyre and Sydon, Nazareth, Bethlehem—all the places
Jesus’ story visits. And then, Jesus is
resurrected—and he’s freed from the usual “confinements” of human life, he
passes through walls and doors, he’s able to move straight to different places
over distance, and it seems clear that Jesus is out in front of us, and we’re
always trying to catch up …finding the places he’s been already and appeared to
people and done thing …as if there were a Jesus trail of good news and good
works. We’re still chasing Jesus!
Pentecost usually marks the time in our culture
when we take to the open road, traveling to and fro to visit family or to
re-create ourselves by way of rest and relaxation. …Don’t forget to look for Jesus! And whether you’re traveling, or you’re in
the same place for a while …don’t forget to look for Jesus! He’s not stuck only in the things we’ve known
him to be, before—he’s loosed! He’s
slipped the bonds of human limitations and finds ways to enliven and
enlighten. So when you see him, make a
note, share the news, tell others!
“Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look! You will see him! …Go …and tell!”
It is my privilege
to remind you that Jesus loves you. So
do I. God wants the best for us and is
inviting us to fulfill our calling. Jesus
dies; but God raised Jesus in the Resurrection, and that changes
everything! Get ready. The tomb was empty. Christ is risen! And so are we! Find Jesus and tell your stories, of all the
places where you’ve seen and heard him.
So we can be amazed and encouraged and transformed together!
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " A Good Deed Worth Laying Down Your Life For " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " The Ghost of Jesus' Presence " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Can We Have a Witness " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " This is YOUR Resurrection, Now! " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the Gospel reading, a meditation, followed by a second reading, the solo, and the closing of worship with a reading of Psalm 88, by CLICKING HERE.
Cross Seekers, Empty Tomb Finders, Good News Bearers,
These days we celebrate Easter like
clockwork. While the date for Easter is
fluid …tied to the moon phases in relationship to when the Passover is—we look forward
to it every year. We count the days of
Lent (forty, plus Sundays); we anticipate Holy Week, lost eggs, marshmallow
peeps, Reese’s eggs, Cadbury eggs, and an empty tomb—as if all these things are
“normal.” We mark Easter, as if it’s
NORMAL!
As I shared with you last month, Biblical
scholar and preaching guru Thomas Long would remind us that Easter changes
everything!
“ …Easter …is instead the end of this word. Easter destroys the perceived world at hand, and before we sing about the joy of Easter’s new reality, it is crucial to feel the shock and to see the destructive power of the Resurrection on the old reality. ”
Everything about resurrection is disorienting—or
should be! From the fact that the dead
are raised, to Jesus’ walking through walls with real wounds from his
crucifixion, to expectations about our own demise and rising. In our world, the dead are supposed to remain
dead—the walking dead, is only a TV show!
But what are we to do when little seems to
really change about our lives? When the
“difference” in resurrection is mostly a story for us about the one who was
raised? When what we hope for, isn’t
what is seen? When Long declares that
the world was CHANGED BY GOD who does resurrection, what are we supposed to
experience? What should we be looking
for?
Death doesn’t win. This year marks 4 years of COVID. So many died.
But death isn’t the last word.
War in Ukraine drags on and on; there’s war in Gaza; there’s violence in
Haiti; drought and starvation and gang violence and broken government hold much
of Africa’s nations hostage it seems; there’s terrorism; violent rhetoric and
dehumanization …yet, death doesn’t win.
Sin, cannot triumph. The
victory—is God’s!
Honestly …I don’t know “how” this works. I must believe God’s promises, and what God
has done. God raises Jesus. God declares, we are raised, too. None …are lost. And yet, so many are lost in this life.
But this allows us to live our life for
others. This allows us to give fully of
ourselves as Jesus does. This allows us love
…with reckless abandon. This allows us to
live freely with the Kingdom of God in our heart, in our minds, in our
hands. So, this is not just Jesus’
resurrection …it’s our resurrection. It’s
our laying down the life of the world and taking up the life of the Kingdom of
God.
For Easter, God says: This world is finished;
our life together isn’t! …Goodbye old
world. Easter’s come and gone. Now it’s time to live like it.
It is my privilege to remind you that Jesus loves you. So do I. God wants the best for us and is inviting us to fulfill our calling. Jesus dies; but God raised Jesus in the Resurrection, and that changes everything! Get ready. The tomb was empty. Christ is risen! And so are we!
You can hear an audio recording of my sermon, entitled, " Power, Made Perfect ...in Weakness " being preached, and the reading of the Passion Narrative on Palm Sunday, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " A Good Day to Die " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Goodness, Gracious! Sakes of Fire, and Damnation " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Broken Promises " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Jesus Followers, Cross Seekers, Good News Bearers,
Well known preacher and teacher, Thomas Long,
begins a recent article in a preaching journal with a story about the gathering
of scholars who wrote the Westminster
Confession of Faith. He reminds readers
of this moment when one of the members of the Westminster Assembly raised the
question, “What is God?” But when none in
the Assembly had enough sand to try and offer an answer, they turned to the
youngest person in the room to give a formal answer, a young 30-something
Scottish Pastor named George Gillespie.
Unlucky enough to be called upon, “I need God’s wisdom,” he said, his
voice surely cracking. “Will you join me
in prayer?” And then he prayed:
“ O God, thou art a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. ”
Though Gillespie’s offering was simple and
majestic, the Assembly did what assemblies often do, beefing up the words,
piling on the descriptions, and trying to include every possible definition in
what seems like a William Faulkner-esque sentence. Good for them!
Long simply recalls that when Moses spoke to
the burning bush and asked who it was that was there, all he received was the
reply “I am who I am.” And then goes on
to quote theologian Robert Jensen’ s answering the question, “Who is God?” this
way: “God is whoever raised Jesus from the dead, having before raised Israel
from Egypt.”
Easter is coming—arriving before your next
newsletter! Easter is coming, and
Jensen’s radiant definition implies we need a new definition of God—that we
must refashion our understanding of God in light of what God did in the
Resurrection! What is God? God is what raised Jesus from the dead! This is Long’s way of saying, “Easter changes
everything!” He writes:
“ …Easter is not a way to get along better in the world as it is but is instead the end of this word. Easter destroys the perceived world at hand, and before we sing about the joy of Easter’s new reality, it is crucial to feel the shock and to see the destructive power of the Resurrection on the old reality.
“…The Resurrection …is instead the unmasking of the present reality, the world we assumed was permanent, the world of business as usual, the world of inevitable death. Easter is an earthquake destroying the reality we thought could never change, a world in which dead people stay dead and in which some little tyrant is always placing guards in the cemetery to make sure it remains that way. Easter is a lightening -bold illuminated flash forwarded to that time when “The Kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” That joyful good news of Easter is an obituary and a birth announcement combined: the old world has passed away and the new has come. ”
“ …Easter calls for a change of citizenship. The frightening demand, the more-astounding-than-can-be-imagined invitation, of Easter, is to leave the familiar but dying world behind and to enter the new, unexpected, and uncertain world revealed in the Resurrection. ”
Long suggests we cannot look at Easter in the
way we’ve been used to celebrating it.
It’s not a moment in which to cheer, “Up from the grave [Jesus] arose!”
or, to simply exclaim, “the tomb is empty,” as if, once again, “Jesus were the
reason for the season.” No. Instead, the world was changed by the God who
does resurrection. It is no longer the
world to which we are accustomed; it is the world God would make it to be
because …RESURRECTION!
That takes some getting used to. And …well, we’re not used to it!
It is my privilege to remind you that Jesus
loves you. So do I. God wants the best for us and is inviting us
to fulfill our calling. Jesus dies; but
God raised Jesus in the Resurrection, and that changes everything! Get ready.
Gird your loins. Easter is
coming. The journey was already started!
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Death and Life ...and Not Promised Nothing Extra " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " You're In the Arms of the Covenant " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of my sermon entitled, " A Fast That God Chooses " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of my sermon entitled, " Always Be Prepared ...to Listen! " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Proclaiming the Message " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Just an 'Ordinary' Sabbath Day " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Star-Followers, Jesus Followers, Good News
Sharers,
As we take a deep breath for a couple of weeks
in February—free of the Christmas exuberance and yet unfettered by the Lenten
disciplines that arrive mid-month—Jesus is being revealed for us in several lectionary
stories from the beginning of his ministry.
“Epiphany” is more familiar as a date on the calendar when we remember
the visit of the Magi as told in Matthew’s Gospel; but what is pivotal in
Matthew’s story is that the Epiphany is the first story in a series of stories
that reveal Jesus to be …in the world. Not
just as a baby!
Going a bit further in the gospel narratives, we
see Jesus revealed as a healer, as Jesus casts out unclean spirits and with authority
over demons, when Jesus touches the untouchable, feeds the hungry, restores the
broken, repairs the brokenhearted. Jesus
is in OUR WORLD, restoring human wholeness and righteousness. We witness Jesus became the living reality of
what the prophet Jonah testifies about God …that God:
“[is] a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.”
Jesus is the living manifestation of God. We see this in how he treats his followers,
how he speaks to crowds of people, how he reacts in the presence of those who
are broken, how he treats Pharisees and scribes even. Who he eats with. If he’s willing to touch someone. How Jesus responds to needs as they arise …in
a synagogue, on a mountaintop, along the roadside.
And yes, while we follow the Epiphany star,
while we confess Jesus as Lord and pledge to “follow him,” even when he says we
will “fish for people,” even when we may not fully understand, we are
graciously and generously being armed with powerful bits of “good news”:
God doesn’t leave us; God is with us. God doesn’t lose focus; God claims us.
God reveals to us the one who is anointed to share
good news with the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the oppressed and release to the captive, to proclaim the year of God’s
favor—so that we might also bear witness and share this good news! …We’re called to be followers—yes! But aren’t we also called to be sharers?
I don’t know about you, but I think the world
could use a bit more of grace, mercy, and steadfast love, so that it
contributes to less punishment and less anger.
Not that bad actors get a free pass, but that we help build the world’s
capacity toward resilience. Life is
already hard enough, without us trying to heap on more problems—like trying not
get angry by getting even.
As we encounter gospel stories where Jesus
begins to move about the Galilean landscape, as he walks and talks with
disciples and strangers, as he demonstrates his authority to change lives and
restore the life God intended for human beings—where are the moments in our own
lives, where we do the same? Where we “share”
by reenacting the moments where Jesus is Jesus?
In other words, a step beyond “What would Jesus
do?”—to get to, “this is what I saw Jesus do, so this is what I’m going to do.”
Remember.
We come on Sunday, bringing the world around us to God. And we leave worship to take God with us back
into the world.
It is my privilege to remind you that Jesus
loves you. So do I. God wants the best
for us and is inviting us to fulfill our calling. Jesus is born, he has been revealed in the
world, so that now he can also be revealed through what we do.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " A Fishing Story " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Baptism as a Birth Narrative " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled, " Star of Wander, Star of Words, Christmas Leading, Still Proceeding, Give to Us the Light of Life! " being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
