Making the Vision a Reality

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

We live in a world filled with visions. Businesses will develop their vision for the company. Interviewers will ask prospective hires about their vision, where do they see themselves in 5 or 10 years? Politicians talk about having a vision for the country, state, or city. They will talk about where they see the country in 4 years and they try to dismiss their opponent’s vision. Often the two competing political parties have two very different visions and usually neither of them are really that good. Having a vision for the future has become so popular that churches have begun to develop visions; our DS asked all the churches in the district to develop vision statements. Visions are good things, they allow you to visualize a goal and work toward that goal. Visions are also easily communicable. When you visualize your plan then you can help other visualize it in the same way. This allows others to join you in your quest to make your vision a reality.

John the Revelator was also a man of vision. His vision was unique however because it was not about a business or a church growth plan, but it was about the end times, what will the end of this world be like and it even touched on the question of what will things be like after I die? John writes down his vision and it becomes the Book of Revelation. Tradition holds that John was exiled on the small island of Patmos, which is part of the Greek Isles on the Aegean Sea. He was exiled there because the early Christian Church was persecuted by the Roman Empire. While he was there God gave him a vision, a vision of what the end times will be like and also God gave messages to 7 Asian churches. God charges John with the writing and the keeping of these visions. So John is able to share his vision will not only those 7 churches but with the entire world for all times.

This vision is mysterious to say the least. It is filled with symbolism and metaphors that can confuse even the most seasoned theologian. However, it also gives us hope just as it did for the early Christian Church. We may not be persecuted like they were, but we still live in a broken, violent world. We only need to turn on CNN to find that out. So it gives us hope that in the end that God, filled with love, peace, and joy will reign forever and ever. We hold to that hope this morning. We hold to that hope in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of heartache, and yes even in the midst of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. We hold to the hope.

Our scripture lesson this morning is part of that hope we find in the Book of Revelation. In this part of his vision John sees a great multitude of people. The number of people is uncountable; the vast crowd stretches as far as the eye can see. The crowd is dress in white robes, robes that have been cleansed whiter the snow by the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Christ. The crowd might be dressed the same but their faces are different. The faces in the crowd show the diversity of the moment. People are there from all nations, all races, all colors, speaking all languages, not just English, but Spanish, Italian, French, German, Hebrew, Arabic, and on and on. There are people from America, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, England, and Israel and nation does not rise up against nation, there is no war and there is no fighting. All are united under God.

Scripture goes on to say that these people have come out of the Great Ordeal or the Great Tribulation. To some scholars and theologians the Great Tribulation will happen after what they call the Rapture where all true believers are taken up by God and those left behind have to face these troubles. Others would say that we are now living in the Great Ordeal, a time of natural disaster, violence, and persecution. I am not arguing one idea over the other but I do know that the world we live in now is broken. It is hurting and we are in need of this kind of vision. The world in which we live is so divided with new divisions coming everyday. We divide ourselves by race, by country, by language, by color, by political party affiliation, and by our location on the map. We will continue to divide ourselves to the point where we will be all alone complete separated from all other people.

This is not the case in the vision from John. All people are united together, as one unit, dwelling and interacting together. What force can bring all these different people together? What can bring former enemies to the table of peace where they live in harmony together? The answer from Scripture comes from verse 15 “For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple.” They are united together because their focus is not on themselves but solely and completely on God. They are in the very midst of God and they live and dwell with God. They are no longer worried about money, or power, or homeland security, or preemptive strikes, but their goal, their life; their focus is on worshipping the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God shelters them. There is no hunger; all mouths are fed by the true Bread of Heaven. There is no thirst; all drink freely from the River of Life, the Living Water. There is no sadness; all live in the very presence of pure joy. There is no anger or violence; all live in the presence of true love. There is no death; because it has been defeated by Christ on the third day. There is no stress, no pain, nothing but the joy and the love of God. All are united under the presence of God.

This is a beautiful vision isn’t it? This is the vision that gives us hope when this broken world creeps up and brings us pain. We hold to this vision in the hospital waiting rooms and in the funeral home chapels. There is a problem with having such a beautiful vision. The problem is that when we become so enraptured on the vision that we forget that there is work for us to do in this world. That we have a role to play in this world as blood bought children of God. We have a responsibility to this world. Some say that God will miraculously renew and redeem this world; he will wipe the slate clean so to speak. What if, however, what if we as God’s children, as the Body of Christ have a role to play in the redemption of the world? And if this is the case then the question that we must ask ourselves this morning is what can we do to make the vision of John, this beautiful vision we see in this Scripture, a reality? What part can we play in making the vision a reality?

This seems like an almost impossible dream and it is impossible without God, but with God all things are possible. All people working and living together, how does this happen? The answer is in the Scripture, the answer is in the focus of the people, and their focus was on God not on themselves. The Great Multitude realizes the wonderful, pure truth of the Bible, of the universe, that it’s not about you or me, but its all about God. That is where our focus should be, not on our selfish desires but on God. It is God who gave us life and sustains our life and it is God who should be our focus. The key to making this vision a reality is moving away from ourselves and moving toward God. We must let go of ourselves and trust more in God. When we do this our selfishness diminishes, the barriers, the divisions we place between ourselves and our neighbors melt away. When we focus on God we move toward making the vision a reality.

John Wesley talked about this. He called it sanctification or moving toward Christian perfection. Wesley called Christian perfection the perfect love of God and neighbor. In other words it is loving God and neighbor above and beyond ourselves. Jesus taught to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow him. Jesus taught that we should be the light of the world, a beckon of love and hope in a broken world. Jesus taught to seek FIRST the kingdom of God and all good things will be added to us. Because when we put God first in our lives, God takes care of us, when we release the stresses and worries of life and focus on God, God adds all good things to us.

We are called to do this as Christians. We are called to let go of ourselves and move closer to God. It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time, sometimes it takes a lifetime, but as we move closer the division melt away, our hate, our anger, and our stress melt away. God is going to make the vision of John a reality. We will be a part of this great multitude, the great heavenly choir, the great heavenly banquet. We will be set free from sadness. We will be set free from pain. We will be set free from violence. We will be set free from hate. It is a beautiful vision, and don’t we want to make this vision a reality.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reactions to an American Tragedy: Sermon Matthew 5:38-48

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

This is not the sermon I had planned to give. This is not the Scripture reading that I had planed to preach from this morning. However, things have changed. Things have changed less than a week ago the biggest worry on the campus of Virginia Tech was the impending final exams and everyone was looking forward to a long summer break. There might have been beach trips planned, summer internships to work at, or just plans for a long, lazy summer just hanging out. Things have changed. Things changed because Monday morning a young man with a sick heart and disturbed mind decided that today was the day he would commit the most heinous school shooting in American history. By Monday afternoon it was all over, but things had already changed and nothing would remain the same.

The tragic events on the campus of VT have left the country reeling because one place that we thought was safe; the place that millions of young people go every day was school. I was particularly struck because I am on a major college campus three times a week and because I have a friend from HS who attends medical school at VT. I don’t know if any of you know any persons at VT or not, but nonetheless we are all saddened and heartbroken by these events. We need to hear a word from God this morning. We come needing to be fed by God’s holy bread. I struggled with what to preach about this morning. My first thought was to talk about forgiveness for Seung-Hui Cho, but as I thought about it I realize it might be too early to talk about forgiveness, even though as Christians we must eventually talk about forgiveness.

Instead I want to talk about what our reactions should be in the face of such a crisis. Of course it is easy for us to talk about what we should do because we were not directly involved with this tragedy. However, it is important to speak about because it could happen here, it could be our family members next. Our first reaction once we get past the initial grief and shock is to demand revenge. We are still, in a lot of ways, an “eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth” society. We want to retaliate to those who have harmed us, we want to lash out and take from the guilty what has been taken from us. If you take something from me then I am going to take it back from you. If you hurt me then I am going to hurt you back. This doesn’t sound unfair, it sounds just, and it sounds right and fair. If someone acts against us then we retaliate with a counteraction. Our justice system is based somewhat on this system. Although there are some attempts at rehabilitation for the most part it is you do the crime you do the time. Those in prison must pay back their debt to society and some who have committed the most heinous of crimes must pay the ultimate price of their very lives. It sounds just, it sounds fair.

This was the mentality of the judicial and societal systems of Jesus’ time. Eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth was not only a political statement it was biblical, Exodus 21:23-25 to be specific. This was something that was understood by all people and was followed by most. Then this Jesus fellow gets in the way. Jesus, during his famous Sermon on the Mount, begins to preach a revolutionary idea. Instead of retaliation there is a turning of the other cheek, instead of striking back Jesus purposes that one should simply stand there and take it. This is an extraordinary idea, to turn the other cheek to respond with non-violence. Then Jesus goes further, if someone sues you for the very shirt off of your back, we don’t know anything about people suing to much do we, if they ask for the shirt from your back then give them you coat as well. If someone asks for your wallet then give them your watch as well. This idea is as radical in our society as it was in the time of Jesus. There is a name for it, it is called grace and it is the hardest teaching in the Bible. This is the hardest part about being a Christian.

What do the words of Jesus mean for us after the events of Monday? I think the Message version of the Bible says it best, “Let them [your enemies, the ones who do you wrong] bring out the best in you, not the worst.” I remember when I let a tragic event bring of the worst in me. It was after 9/11 and I was so filled with hurt and with anger that I said about all Muslims “Kill’em all and let God sort them out.” That was not Brad talking but my anger speaking instead. And although I am ashamed of those words I have learned from them. I learn that hate and retaliation solves nothing. I cannot help but to see the similarities between the heartbreak at VT and a similar incident in the Amish community only few months ago. A man walked into a schoolhouse and murdered 5 little girls and injured 5 more. I remember how it ripped that little community down to its very core and how it shook the nation. If it can happen to these humble people who have separated themselves from mainstream society then it could happen to anyone at anytime. Anytime young people are caught in the cold, icy grip of violence it chills us to the bone. This was not a unique incident, it has happened too many times, even in our own community 11 years ago at Richland High School. The unique aspect of this story was the reaction of the Amish. A leader of the community Jack Meyer said "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts." The Amish community has gone as far as to set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter and some of the fathers of the victims have offered help the shooters family. This amazing act of forgiveness and reconciliation almost shocked us as much as the news of the shooting itself. The Amish knew that hate cannot defeat hate, violence cannot defeat violence. Hate and violence are like a fire raging out of control and retaliating with violence and hatred is like throwing gasoline on the flames. It only causes the fire to burn hotter. The Amish did what we must, what the victims and the families of Virginia Tech must do, what our country and yes even the world must to in the face of such reckless hatred. We must do what Jesus taught, to respond to violence with peace, respond to hatred with love, respond to anger with kindness, and respond to evil with good. In the words of R&B singer Marvin Gaye “only love can conquer hate”.

This sentiment is not limited to national tragedies but for our everyday lives. How many times are we cut-off on the highways and byways? How many times are we short changed and done wrong? On the road, in the store, on the sidewalks, in the restaurants we must react to anger and violence with love and goodness.

The country might not be ready to forgive this young man for what he did Monday morning. I might be too soon to talk about it, especially for the families and there is nothing wrong with that. However, Jesus teaches us that we must always be moving toward forgiveness. We must always be moving toward love and away from retaliation because we are set apart as Christians. We are children of God, subjects in the Kingdom of God and the world looks to us for a reaction when tragedies occur. We have to reach out in love to those who are in need of it. We have to reach out in love to those who shut themselves in. The young man who committed these terrible crimes had been knocked down so many times. Please understand that I am in NO way condoning his actions. However, if someone had just reach out to him in love, had been willing to see the signs of a trouble soul and taken action this tragedy might have been avoided. We must not retaliate when we are wronged. It is the hardest thing in the world to do, it is something that I personally struggle with, but has we move closer to God we have to become more mature in our faith. Jesus said to “Grow Up. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Violence and hatred, anger and evil are circles. They cycle around and one act of violence perpetuates another. If we don’t make a change, if we don’t respond with love then the cycle of violence will continue and we will have more events like the one at VT. We must also remember that there are places where this kind of violence is commonplace. Places like Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and countless others. We, as Christians, as the Body of Christ must work to remedy these problems. We call our leaders and demand action in Darfur; we must reach out to those who might be hurting all over the world. One thing that is very powerful is prayer. I the Message Bible Jesus says “When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, ⁴⁵for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. We work in our God-created selves, our reborn selves, our Christ-centered selves when we pray. So when you feel a little steamed say a prayer, when you are frustrated lift it up to God, and respond to the world with love instead of hate. And let us hope and pray that the events of Monday will not repeat themselves.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rise Up and Be Transformed!: Sermon John 20:19-31

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

The Church and the World find themselves in what some have called the New Rise of Atheism. This new rise began with the publishing of several books one in particular called The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. In his book Dawkins tries to explain away any and all forms of religion and tries to show the world that there is no God and humans do not need any god to worship. This is not the first time these kinds of sentiments have been published by so-called intellectuals. Karl Marx a famous economist and philosopher called religion “the opiate of the people” meaning that religion only served to control the people not to free them. The Church uses superstitions and threats of eternal punishment to control the people just like a tyrannical government world by threat of death. In both cases the people are controlled and therefore they are not free. This kind of thinking runs rampant through atheist and agnostic thought. There belief is that the world we live is it; there is no heaven or hell, no supernatural mumbo jumbo, no God, no afterlife. The atheist is all about scientific evidence; you might even say they trust in science as much as the Christian trusts in God, and so they are all about proof. You claim God exists…prove it. You claim Jesus rose from the dead…prove it. You claim there is an afterlife…prove it.

Of course we cannot scientifically prove the existence of God, but as Christians we don’t need to prove it that is what faith is all about. We don’t have to prove that Jesus rose from the dead, we have faith in it and faith is the evidence of things UN-seen. Most atheists will concede that there was a man named Jesus who came from Nazareth and lead a small band of followers, and was executed by the Roman government; there is enough historical evidence that most will agree to that. However, that is where the story ends; they recognize Jesus as leader in social justice and morality, but not the Savior. Jesus taught to love your neighbor, but did not heal the sick, the blind, or cast out demons. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but not of a virgin. Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross, but did not rise again on the third day.

We as Christians can’t provide the world with physical evidence of the Resurrection, but we have something much more compelling…we have been transformed by the resurrected Christ. We can see this transformation in the actions of the disciples after their experience with the risen Jesus. They were all changed completely from the people they once were and they were never the same again. They were sent by Christ and they obeyed. These men left their homes and families to travel far and wide to proclaim the good news of the gospel. They proclaimed the gospel in all corners of the then known world. They proclaimed the gospel in the face of constant danger and persecution. Many of them were killed for their work. Stephen was stoned, Peter was jailed and then executed, but they still proclaimed.

Their opponents claimed that their words were lies and that they had hidden Jesus’ body and claimed that he was raised and it was all just a farce. But would the disciples have risked life and limb for a lie? Would the disciples have gone as far to die for nothing more than a farce? I do not believe so. The disciples were so transformed by their experience with Jesus that they were willing to sacrifice their very lives for the message that Christ is risen. We might not be able to prove scientifically that Jesus is the Christ, the risen Savior, but we know it is true because be have been transformed by it. Remember the words of Paul to the church in Corinth “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (NIV 2 Cor. 5:17) It is a transformation from the old ways of the world to the new way of Christ.

There are steps in the transformation and we can see them in our story for today. First, the disciples were told the good news. Mary had come to the disciples and proclaimed the good news. Remember she was the first evangelist, she said “I have seen the Lord!” Did they believe at first maybe, maybe not? It seems that if they truly believed that they would have been at the tomb waiting on Jesus to come out not hiding out somewhere in Jerusalem. Where you converted the first time you heard the story? Maybe, maybe not. I went to church for a long time before I became transformed by the message. The disciples did not believe at first and neither did Thomas, but poor Thomas has been vilified for it ever since. However, none of them fully believe and fully understood what had happened at first. However, this is the first step in the transformation. We are first told the story by someone else, someone who has already become transformed by Christ and must then proclaim the good news.

The second step is the most important aspect in the transformation progression. It is a personal experience with the risen Christ. The disciples needed a personal experience with the Christ in order to be transformed. Christ appears before them and shows them the scars on his hands and in his side. They rejoice because what has been told to them is true, HE IS RISEN, he is alive. The story becomes real it is no longer just a story but a real experience. Thomas was not there and did not have the personal experience with Christ, the story is not enough.

Then Jesus appears and Thomas believes and it seems as if Jesus is scolding Thomas when he says “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (29b) However, I think Jesus instead is making a prophecy about the future. The disciples had the blessing of seeing Jesus first hand, with their own eyes. We have not seen Jesus with our own eyes, but we still have personal experiences with Christ. Many Christians can tell their story about a personal encounter with Christ, they can tell about the feeling of love and grace, they might have even heard Jesus call their name in the midst of anguish. Every Christian has had in some way a personal experience with Jesus.

There is another aspect of the story. Jesus also gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Caregiver, the part of the Triune God that dwells within us and intercedes for us. This is also a personal experience. Can you remember a personal experience with God? John Wesley spoke of his heart being strangely warmed, others have felt a renewed sense of peace, I remember being brought to tears at a revival at St Andrews UMC and I, like the others, was transformed in that moment. The transformation might be instantaneous or gradual, it might take seconds or years, but it does happen.

Thomas and the rest of the disciples are transformed by their experience with Christ and the Holy Spirit. They are renewed in their strength and in their faith. Thomas immediately begins to proclaim the truth of the gospel that Jesus is “My Lord and My God”. There is ownership in that statement; there is possession and deeply personal feelings that Jesus is not just God but MY LORD and MY GOD.

This leads to the third and final stage in the transformation; the proclamation and the sending out. Through their transformation the disciples have a story to tell and Jesus sends them out “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” This was their responsibility as transformed people of Christ and it is our responsibility as well. We must go out and tell out story, not just with our words but by our actions, not just in what we say, but how we act. If we are transformed then we should act like we are transformed. We cannot stay on the sidelines of life, but get in the game. We must help where there is need. We must give all that we can. We must lead by example, as Jesus did. We must become a community, living and loving together not just a collection of individuals. We have to tell the story, but more than that we have to live out the story as transformed people of God.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rise Up and GO! Easter 2007 Sermon John 20:1-18

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

It was chilly that morning with Mary step out from the place where the disciples had been hiding. She wrapped herself up for two reasons one to keep warm and two so that she might not be recognized as she went to the tomb. The streets were almost deserted, no one was stirring much at that hour. She walked quickly through the streets and alleys of Jerusalem until she came out of the gate and down to the garden where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid Jesus three days earlier. As she walked she heard the chirping birds that were just waking before the sunrise in order to gather food for the morning. The grass was wet with dew and dampened her feet and the hem of her garment has she walked through the garden. Her face was also wet with the tears of sorrow; it had been that way since Friday afternoon when she stood in vigil at the foot of the cross. All of this description is not in the Gospel of John but in my mind’s eye this is the way I think it happened. The only description of that morning given by John was that it was dark, before the break of day.

It was still dark that morning just like it was dark that Friday afternoon, while the Son of God suffered on the Cross. The description of darkness by John is not an accident, but is continuous throughout the Gospel of John. Remember Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus, he had told Nicodemus that those who do evil dwell in the darkness because they do not want their actions seen by everyone. So this morning, while it was still dark evil though it still had the upper hand. It was dark outside, but it was darker in the heart of Mary Magdalene she was broken, grieving, he hope had been lost, she did not know what else to do so she came to the tomb to grieve. And when she thought that things could not get any worse, she saw the empty tomb. “Oh no” she thought, “They have desecrated his tomb and stolen his body.” Why couldn’t they just leave us alone, they beat and tortured him, they nailed him to a cross but that wasn’t enough they had to remove his body, they couldn’t let him rest in peace?

Have you ever been in a dark place? A place where there seems to be no light at all not even the faintest glimmer of light. A place in your life where doesn’t seem to be the slightest chance of hope, not the slightest chance that things will get better, no way that you were going to make it out. You might have been laid off from work with a stack of bills a mile high, you or a loved one might have been diagnosed with a disease; you might have even been in the valley of the shadow of Death standing at the grave of a close friend of family member. In what ever way it came the world seems to be closing in around you, the walls of your life shrinking around you and the darkest of evils are swimming about you. If you have been there then you know what Mary must have been feeling like.

She runs off to tell the others, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” I don’t know what the other disciples were thinking, they might have thought she was crazy with grief, others might have been in that same dark place. Peter and John ran to the garden. John was a younger and faster than Peter and so he got to the tomb first and he found out it was true, the tomb was empty. John didn’t know what to think about this and does not go in; when Peter gets there he immediately walks into the tomb. He sees the grave clothes neatly separated and folded at the head and foot of the tomb. In the Gospel of John, John claims that he immediately when in after Peter and saw and believed. Now this might be a case of the author patting himself of the back because he seems to be the only one at this point to believe that Jesus has been resurrected. Whatever the case John and Peter leave, but Mary stays behind. Perhaps she so gripped by grief that she could not move, perhaps she thought for a moment that it might actually be true.

After John and Peter had left she hears a rustle of the grass behind her and sees a man standing there, she thinks it is the gardener and says if you have taken him somewhere let me know and I will go and get him, and she does not recognize Jesus. She does not recognize him, until she speaks her name. Mary! The voice was so sweet that it broke the bitterness of grief. That voice was so sweet that it brought the light and drove away the darkness forever. That voice was so sweet that her heart that had been so heavy with sadness began to become lighter than air filled with Joy. That voice was so sweet that it could only be one person…it was Jesus.

Have you ever heard the voice of Jesus calling your name? You might be in that dark place we talked about a few minutes, you might be without any hope ready to break and then you hear that voice…Brad…Angie…Marvin…Linda…Patsy…and you hear that voice and the world that was once crushing you is moved away and you are blinded by the light of glory, the light of truth, the light of grace, the light of God. You might want to just jump up and shout with joy that Jesus has come. Jesus might tell you that whatever dark place you’ve been in, he’s been in a darker one, whatever pain you have he has felt it, however you have been forsaken by friends and family, he had been denied and felt abandoned by God, whatever you do or wherever you go the resurrected Christ has come and conquered death, hell, and the grave and there is nothing that can defeat him.

Mary then runs to Jesus and grabs hold of him, giving the term bear hug a whole new meaning. She is so happy and she simply wants to remain in that moment forever. She didn’t want to leave, she didn’t want to move on she wanted to be lost in this moment. Sometimes we get lost in the moments of life and we become complacent in our faith. We just want to go to church, come home, and do it all again next Sunday. Jesus is quickly to stop her though. He says “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father…” He then gives her the key word in this story “GO”. He say I know you want to stay here, but your work is not finished. He sends her out as the first evangelist of the Gospel.

This is a very strange occurrence for this time in history, a woman was the privileged first one to see Jesus raised and a woman was the first sent to proclaim the good news that he was resurrected. This is strange because women in the time of Jesus were very low on the societal ladder. Women were meant to be seen and not heard and where certainly not considered worthy to proclaim such an important message. Jesus changes that notion and sends Mary out to tell the others. He could have appeared to John or Peter but he chose Mary. Why? In order to demonstrate that all persons, male, female, black, white, fat, thin, short, tall, whatever can proclaim the good news of Christ. Jesus calls ALL of his followers not to become complacent in the moment, but to GO OUT and proclaim the good news. We do not have any excuse not to; we can’t say “well I’m not fit to do it”. Remember that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. He is saying to us this morning to GO OUT and proclaim the good news. She had to tell the good news of Christ’s resurrection and so must we. We cannot stay hold up in the church or leave out faith just for Sundays we have to GO OUT everyday and tell the world that He is Risen.

Jesus concludes his words to Mary by saying that he is ascending to “my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” In these words lies the true good news of the Resurrection. It is not just that Christ was brought back from the dead, but that through his death and through his resurrection we are brought back into community with God. We do not need a priest to intercede for us; we can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God is no longer distant or unapproachable he is My God and My Father our relationship is personal through the power of the Resurrection we are one in Christ and one in God. The Lamb of God is resurrected and all God’s children are redeemed.

This is the Good News, the Gospel. We have to do more than just sit on our hands and listen to a preacher preach we have to GO OUT AND TELL SOMEBODY. GO OUT AND TELL SOMEBODY that the Christ who was slain on Friday afternoon is Risen forever. GO OUT AND TELL SOMEBODY that we are reconciled to God through the blood of the Lamb. GO OUT AND TELL SOMEBODY that Death has been swallowed up in Victory. O Death where is your victory? O Death where is your sting? It is gone thanks to Jesus Christ. GO OUT AND TELL SOMEBODY that your God reigns forever and ever GO OUT AND TELL SOMEBODY that we have hope as sure and steady as the rocky mountain. Go out and tell somebody that He’s Alive and we are forgiven. And all God’s children said AMEN.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Holy Thursday Homily: John 13:1-17; 31a-35

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

If you are a fan of movies or television shows then you are familiar with the sneak preview. These are little snippets of the upcoming movie or episode that wet our whistles and creates in use a need to hear the rest of the story. This teasers might show the main character of a show in a perilous situation or making a particularly funny joke and we just have to put our money down or tune in next week in order to see the whole story and to know what happens in the end. The Gospel is full of these sneak previews. Jesus mentions many times what his mission is on earth and what he must endure to fulfill it. Our story today contains one such preview.

Jesus and his disciples have gathered into a room in Jerusalem in order to eat the Passover meal or the Seder as it is know in the Jewish tradition. The begin to eat the meal and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, they are hanging out, eating the special food of the Passover when all of the sudden Jesus gets up, takes off his outer robe and ties a towel around his waist. The disciples are looking around very puzzled at one another and then Jesus takes a basin and pours water into it and begins to wash one of their feet. Their feet are dirty and dusty from all the traveling they have done and they are stunned at this move by Jesus. The job of washing feet was usually left for the servants or the lesser members of the household. Jesus was their leader and not only this, but they had proclaimed him the Son of the Most High God and now here he was half-naked, on bended knee doing the job of a slave.

This is the first sneak preview. Jesus lowers himself from the status of their leader to that of a slave or servant. The next day, Jesus would lower himself from the Son of God and true King of kings and Lord of lords to a beaten, broken, tortured, sacrificed Lamb of God. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross becomes the ultimate act of servanthood and it begins with the washing of the feet of the disciples. The disciples of course do not understand this at the moment when Jesus is kneeling before them and washing their feet. They think it is the strangest thing they had every seen, we understand it because we know how the story ends, but they were living it out and although Jesus had told them time after time that this trip to Jerusalem would be his last, but they did not understand it. They thought that Jesus could not be any more of a servant than what he was doing right then, and that he could not lower himself any further, but that was before Friday afternoon.

Then Jesus comes to Peter and Peter has already decided that Jesus WILL NOT wash his feet. He will not allow such a thing to occur. Jesus comes over to him and Peter asks him, are you going to wash my feet, Jesus tells him that he might not understand it now, but soon he will. Peter vehemently refuses saying “You will never wash my feet”, in other words he is saying, “I know my place and I know your place and I know that this isn’t right.” It wasn’t right socially, it wasn’t proper. Peter has the older mindset, the pre-Friday mindset. Jesus then tells him that if he does not allow the washing then he would not longer be a part of Jesus’ group.

Why does Jesus say this to Peter? I think in one way Jesus was pulling Peter out of his comfort zone. Jesus knew that the commission that Jesus was charging the disciples with would put them all out of their comfort zones. We too must be willing to get out of our comfort zones to talk to people even if we are shy, to travel to far off places to do missions, to step out of our boxes for the kingdom.

Jesus tells them that since he is the teacher, the leader, the Son of God and that he has humbled himself to was their feet that none of them are too good to wash another person’s feet. Jesus is trying to change their mindsets. Remember no long before then the disciples were bickering back and forth about who the greatest among them was, who was the second in command after Jesus. Jesus told them that if they wanted to be truly great that they had to be the servant of all. This action that Jesus performs the night before he was to die reaffirms the lesson that Jesus was teaching them. If they wanted to be disciples, if WE want to be disciples of Christ we have to get out and serve everyone that we come across. There is not job too dirty, no person to lowly that we cannot help them. Remember in the ultimate act of servitude Jesus took up the cross, not just for the rich, or the middle class, but for all people and we have to, just as he did, serve all people.

Finally, Jesus tells them that the final commandment, the final order from on High is this to love one another, to love the world, just as he has loved them and they will be know by their love. Are you known by your love? Can someone tell that you are a Christian by your actions and words? Let’s leave from this place with a renewed since of purpose and that purpose is to love and serve all people, just has Jesus has loved and served us. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

New and Improved: Sermon Revelation 21:1-4 and 22:1-5

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

The title for my sermon this afternoon is New and Improved. New and improved we see that phrase everywhere we go, on billboards, on TV commercials, we hear it on the radio, if you do a Google search for the phrase new and improved it will bring up 218 million websites. Advertising specialists know that the words new and improved usually peaks our interest. Stores might remodel their interiors and facades to attract new cliental and companies might reformulate their products to give sales a boost. In fact sometimes all it takes is to make the container new and improved while leaving what goes in the container the same. We want to have new and improved bodies with countless diet fads and cosmetic concoctions that promise to bring out the new and improved you. Churches have followed the advertising world by remodeling church buildings, offering new contemporary services with a more relaxed dress code, and sometimes replacing the old pastor with someone new and improved. They do this in the hopes of drawing new visitors who will become new members who might become new tithers. I think all of us from one time or another have been drawn in with the claim of new and improved.

Our Scripture lesson this afternoon has to do with things becoming new and improved. After all the strange images that John the Revelator sees and after he sees the destruction of all things evil even the Devil himself, he then sees God making the world new and improved. John says that he sees a new heaven and a new earth and a new holy city of Jerusalem coming down to earth, the first earth and heaven have passed away and so things are new and improved. This was an important image for John to see and to write about because the world that John lived in was in desperate need of renewal. Tradition holds that John sees his visions on the island of Patmos and he is there because he has been exiled. He and most of the people who would later be called the Early Christian Church found themselves persecuted on all sides most acutely by the Roman government who wanted to snuff out this small group of believers. Congregations gathered in secret with joy, yes, but also with fear in the back of their minds, fear that they might be caught and punished. These people longed for Christ to fulfill his promise to return and for the world they lived in to become new and improved. So John has his visions and he writes them down so that the people might have hope in the midst of despair, these verses that we read today are filled with hope and with joy.

We hear those verses today sometimes in a funeral sermon when we are mourning the loss of a loved one when we cling to the hope that one day we will see them again. We are given hope in the midst of grief. We hear these verses when we deal with a long term illness that causes pain and agony and we cling to the hope that one day we will receive our new and improved bodies that are pain and disease free and we no longer have to worry about HMOs or Medicare prescription plans. We won’t need to worry about whether or not we will be dropped from TennCare or not because we will all be new and improved.

We need that hope today; we need the hope that God will redeem this world because we live in a world in need of redemption. I say redemption because the Scriptures say that God will make “all things new” not “all new things” this indicates redemption and not replacement. We wait and hope for the day when God will dry our tears because we have mourned so long at the brokenness of our world. We wait for the everlasting food from the Tree of Life because 30,000 children will die today not from war or disease but from hunger. We await for the day when the leaves from the Tree of Life will heal the nations because nation as risen up against nation for too long, there have been too many preventive strikes, too many shock and awe campaigns. We wait for the day when all pain and sickness will be taken away because 30 million Africans suffer from AIDS with thousands more infected with HIV each day. We wait for God’s new and improved earth.

However, there is a danger in waiting. There is a danger when all we do is wait. Some of us wait for this redemption these renewal and improvement without taking action. Some might say well God is going to renew the earth so why should we worry about conservation. We should use as much of the earth’s natural resources as we want because God will just renew our supply. We don’t need to worry about supplying money and medical supplies to Africa or Asia because God will redeem it all anyway. We should not worry about poisoning the earth with chemicals and toxic wastes because after all it will all be replaced anyway. Jesus is coming soon and the earth will be renewed so drink up and party hard because God will foot the bill and send in the heavenly custodial crew. Instead of this type of thinking we should ask ourselves will the Tree of Life grow in soil that is poisoned by chemical run-offs? Will the River of Life be clean as crystal with mercury and pesticides flowing in it?

The other extreme is just as dangerous. This extreme stems from being overwhelmed at the problems in the world. We see so many problems poverty, AIDS epidemics, pollution, violence and wars ravaging so many places in the world and we think there is nothing that can be done about this, where would we even start? We might start to think that Africa, Asia, Iraq, Central America, they are all so far away from Nashville that I can’t do anything, I can’t make a difference. We might feel that only God and God’s power can heal this broken world and only God can make things new and improved. There is a song today by a singer named John Mayer called “Waiting on the World to Change” and he sings “I’ll keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change”.

But Jesus has never been about waiting, he has always been about doing. Jesus was always on the move, doing and working not sitting and waiting. When Jesus spoke to Mary after his resurrection he said don’t hang around here hugging on me, but GO! And proclaim the good news of what you’ve seen. He told Peter sitting on the beach if you truly love me, you won’t sit around here on your hands, but GO! and feed my sheep. When Jesus had ascended into heaven and the disciples stood there with mouths gaping, staring at the sky, the angel asked them Men of Galilee why you standing there are staring at the sky, Jesus will come back the same way you saw him leave, but until then you’ve got work to do. Jesus told then to GO OUT to every nation and make disciples in my name.

Not it is up to us. We have to take the responsibility of being children of God, we cannot wait on the world to change, but we have to take the initiative and change the world. It might be overwhelming, it might seem impossible, but remember that Jesus said that he would be with us unto the ends of the Earth. Whatever we do God is with us and with God’s help there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

And one day the earth and heavens shall be redeemed and renewed. One day a new holy city of Jerusalem will come to the earth. One day all death and pain and sadness will be removed from the earth, all the old things will pass away and the newness of God will come upon the earth. Nation will not rise against nation, but turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. One day the river of life will flow with water so clear you can see all the way down the bottom, I can’t wait to jump it. One day the Tree of Life will bear enough fruit for all of God’s children and all people will live in joy and peace. One day there will be no Sun because the very glory of God will illuminate the entire world and we will live in presence of God, the presence of love, the presence of peace, the presence of Christ. ONE DAY IT WILL COME TO PASS. But until then, what part will you play in the redemption of God’s creation, what part will you play in the redemption of God’s people, the responsibility is ours, so what will you do?

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.