Church of the Open Door:  First Christian Church, Ukiah
like us on facebook!
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • News
  • Out Reach
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Church History

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

3/27/2016

0 Comments

 
Luke 24:1-12

At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared.  They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in.  But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.

They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this.  Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there.  The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship.  The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a graveyard? He is not here, but raised up.  Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?”  Then they remembered Jesus’ words.

They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest.  Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, just thought they were making it all up.
​
But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb.  He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all.  He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.

The Easter Story is being read in Christian churches all over the world this morning.  In many of those churches they will hear the version given in John’s gospel account.  Since that gospel doesn’t have a year to itself in the rotating three-year lectionary cycle it gets plugged in on many of the major feast days.  It is probably also the most poetically written of the four Easter accounts.

But this is Luke’s year in the cycle and the Easter story we just heard comes from Luke’s gospel and I suspect it may be the most true version, in terms of human emotional responses.

I think I can safely guess there is not one of us here in this room who has not survived at least one major loss in their life.  Whether it was a separation of some sort, a death  – sudden or one we’ve known was coming -- there is still that awful numb period just at first when we try to wrestle with a reality that says this really happened, the loved one really is gone, and there’s nothing anywhere we can do to un-do that.

When our son died this year, I was numb.  I know I got up and moved around, I went through the motions, but in reality I just existed for quite  awhile as my brain tried it’s damnedest to reject a reality in which my son could conceivably be dead.  My husband, on the other hand, went into non-stop motion – he made an entire quilt, start to finish in one week – busy, busy every moment, working to create something new, something whole in place of the brokenness he felt.  We all respond in our own ways to such losses but all those ways come from the same human place of disbelief and the rejection of a painful reality.

Luke’s Easter account is not about Jesus – he doesn’t even appear here except as the subject of everyone else’s conversation.  Luke’s version is the story of those left behind, those who loved Jesus who are now caught in that numb, just going-through-the-motions state of shock.  The men are in shock – grief and fear and pointlessness fill the air around them.  They are numb – doing nothing – just existing right now. 

The women no doubt felt the same, but they did what women the world over have always done – they got up the next morning and they did what they had to do.  They tended to the children, they fixed breakfast – they did whatever their daily needs were there – and then they faced the unpleasant job of preparing their Master’s broken body for a proper burial.

And here is where the story finally turns.

They gather their oils and spices and go to the tomb expecting to find death – and they find - nothing – just an empty grave.  Now this is a mystery, a puzzlement, a worry – but not yet any reason to suddenly expect glory.  Until the angels appear.  And suddenly it is a whole new story.  Angels, it appears, have a way of changing a story rather abruptly.  Numbness is gone, disbelief is gone.  Now, I’ve never spoken face-to-face with an angel (except those who come in human form) but I’m pretty sure one does not remain numb after such an encounter.  In just a few short minutes the women go from numb to vibrantly alive again. 

The women are wide awake and excited and eager as they run back to share what the angels told them -- to be met with a roomful of men who are so deep in denial and disbelief and despair that they can’t hear a word the women are saying.  They brush it off as just “women’s gabble.”  No angels have yet spoken to them.  They are still stuck at numb.

Except for Peter.  Peter, who can be so hardheaded and so dense.  Peter, who so often got Jesus all wrong but once in a very great while got him so very right – Peter gets up, driven by who knows what, and goes to see for himself.  He finds an empty tomb, all right, but no angels are there to greet him.  He looks around – and then he returns home, puzzled as usual but with no clear picture yet of what is going on.

It isn’t until much later that day, after the two disciples who encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus return to Jerusalem to tell their story, it isn’t until Jesus himself stands in their midst and speaks to them that they finally start to get it.  They are so human, after all.  Ordinary humans caught up in something much bigger and wilder than the world they think they know – that same world we think we know.

And this is exactly the point of the Easter story where I get a little crazy with excitement and wonder.  The disciples  – and we here today – and all believers everywhere – we are all just human – so very ordinary.  And at just this point in the story – having come all this way – Jesus, risen, basically leaves the story.  There will be a few more appearances but very soon now Jesus will rise to heaven and leave his whole story behind him in the hands of just such ordinary everyday human beings as those first disciples – and us.

Jesus has done what he could to prepare us – to show us the way – to show us the possibilities.  He even promises his Spirit will stay with them.    “Here, this is what I can do,” he says, “Now go and do likewise.”

“Christ is risen,” we say.  “Alleluia,” we say, almost as if we actually understand what we are saying.  “Jesus rose from the dead.  God has done something amazing.”   Well, yes, God is amazing.  When you stop to think of it, why should we be amazed that God is god-like?  How could God be anything else?

The truly amazing part of all this is that God does this amazing thing for us.  And even more mind-boggling is that God then hands it to us and appears to say, “Here - you take care of this now.  I trust you.”  This is the wonder and glory of Easter – not just that Jesus defeated death and failure and envy and greed but that God expects us to go out and do it too.  God created us to do just that.  You and me.
​
Christ is risen.  Go and do like-wise.  Alleluia.

0 Comments

FOLLOWING JESUS

3/20/2016

0 Comments

 
PART ONE:  Luke 18:31-43

Jesus took the Twelve off to the side and said, “Listen carefully. We’re on our way up to Jerusalem. Everything written in the Prophets about the Son of Man will take place. He will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, made sport of, and spit on. Then, after giving him the third degree, they will kill him. In three days he will rise, alive.” But they didn’t get it, could make neither heads nor tails of what he was talking about.

He came to the outskirts of Jericho. A blind man was sitting beside the road asking for handouts. When he heard the rustle of the crowd, he asked what was going on. They told him, “Jesus the Nazarene is going by.”

He yelled, “Jesus! Son of David!  Mercy, have mercy on me!”

Those ahead of Jesus told the man to shut up, but he only yelled all the louder, “Son of David!  Mercy, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered him to be brought over.  When he had come near, Jesus asked, “What do you want from me?”

He said, “Master, I want to see again.”

Jesus said, “Go ahead—see again!  Your faith has saved and healed you!” The healing was instant:  He looked up, seeing—and then followed Jesus, glorifying God.  Everyone in the street joined in, shouting praise to God.

PART TWO:  Luke 19:28-40

After saying these things, Jesus headed straight up to Jerusalem.  When he got near Bethphage and Bethany at the mountain called Olives, he sent off two of the disciples with instructions: “Go to the village across from you. As soon as you enter, you’ll find a colt tethered, one that has never been ridden.  Untie it and bring it.  If anyone says anything, asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say, ‘His Master needs him.’”

The two left and found it just as he said.  As they were untying the colt, its owners said, “What are you doing untying the colt?”

They said, “His Master needs him.”

They brought the colt to Jesus.  Then, throwing their coats on its back, they helped Jesus get on.  As he rode, the people gave him a grand welcome, throwing their coats on the street.

Right at the crest, where Mount Olives begins its descent, the whole crowd of disciples burst into enthusiastic praise over all the mighty works they had witnessed:

     Blessed is he who comes,
         the king in God’s name!
     All’s well in heaven!
         Glory in the high places!

Some Pharisees from the crowd told him, “Teacher, get your disciples under control!”

But he said, “If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise.”
​
Today is Palm Sunday – a day that can be a preacher’s nightmare.  For this year I’ve narrowed it down to two readings – one from chapter 18, one from 19, but there is in these two chapters alone enough material to keep a preacher busy for at least three months’ worth of Sunday sermons.  Whatever is chosen, so much important stuff is being left out.
​
I’ve chosen the first reading here for several reasons.  The first is the hopefully obvious one that here Jesus himself tells his followers exactly what is going to happen:
    “Listen carefully. We’re on our way up to Jerusalem.  Everything written in the Prophets about the Son of Man will take place.  He will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, made sport of, and spit on. Then, after giving him the third degree, they will kill him.  In three days he will rise, alive.” 
​
Of course, they didn’t get it, but then, I’m pretty sure that none of us would have “gotten it” either at that point.  They were following Jesus because they were caught up in the triumph of it all, that this man who could do miracles was living and acting and teaching, not among the rich, but right there with ordinary people.  They had seen things that had changed their lives – changed them forever.  He was promising them vindication for all their sufferings, pay-back for all they had lost.  Regardless of what Jesus actually said, what many of them heard was "freedom from Roman rule." 

These people had hope again after a long hope-less drought.  I suspect they literally could not imagine failure of the sort Jesus was describing to them.

The second point I see is that, after he healed the blind beggar, the people “followed Jesus, glorifying God.  Everyone in the street joined in, shouting praise to God.”  This sounds to me like a mini Palm Sunday procession – almost a trial run – in some unnamed village – but not yet in Jerusalem.  Just an interesting point.

The third point is the question of just who all these people were?  This is the biggie for me today.  There are clearly more than twelve people here, and if we listen closely we hear a difference in vocabulary in these stories.  In many places the gospels speak of Jesus’ “disciples” but in other places it is “the twelve.”  We know that the twelve specifically “called” disciples traveled with Jesus, but it is also clear there are often many more people than that.  In many places in Luke’s gospel account, Jesus speaks to the disciples but then later pulls the twelve aside for some private talk.  There is a clear distinction made between disciples and the twelve.

We know that people came out to see and hear Jesus wherever he went – and some of them, apparently, never went home again afterward.  These are the disciples, the ones who “left home and family” for his sake, to follow – to walk with him wherever he went.

Now we move on to the second reading, the one from chapter nineteen– the “real” Palm Sunday procession – except that in Luke’s retelling there are no palms and no one anywhere is singing ‘hosannas’ – and they aren’t actually in Jerusalem yet, either, more still out in the suburbs somewhere, because right after this reading Luke tells of how Jesus wept “when Jerusalem came into view”.

Luke places a couple of important stories in between these two readings, while Jesus and his followers are presumably on their way to Jerusalem.  First is the story of Zacchaeus, the little man in a tree – where Jesus stops and invites himself for a meal.  The second story – which this translation says Jesus told “while he had their attention” is that of the talents and our requirement to use them wisely rather than burying them out of sight somewhere.

And then they reach those suburbs.  And then the crowd follows Jesus cheering and softening his journey for awhile with their cloaks on the ground.  This is not a crowd of strangers – this is that crowd that has followed Jesus wherever he led them.  New people -- locals -- may have joined them, but these are largely the ones who have been with him all along.  And now they are getting ready to enter Jerusalem at last, praising God and singing.

These people believe they are participating in a triumphal procession – and, of course, from our position centuries later, we know that they are – but it is no triumph that they will be able to recognize for a long time.  Instead, it will feel like loss and failure and betrayal until they come to re-define just what triumph they are actually celebrating.

And this, of course, is where it all gets sticky – when their triumphal march turns out to be a death march – when the excitement and wonder that has them all turned-on and ready for freedom and miracles and vindication falls apart and turns as ugly as anything they could imagine.  Within a few days this one they’ve been following will be dead, and so will their hopes and dreams and all that beautiful promise.

Oh sure, again from our position in history we know that it all comes around and ends in glory – at least we think it does, we believe it does – but there is so much “ugly” in this story before we get there.  There is still so much ugly in the world – then and now.
These same people, lifted so high by hope and then beaten so low by failure had to somehow rise up again with a new vision.  It is tantalizing to wonder how many of those present that day bailed out and ran back to obscurity and how many actually stuck it out, or at least came back to the new vision, the one they finally realized Jesus had been talking about all along.

And it should be humbling for us to wonder which side we would have stood on had we been there back then.  After all, for 2000 years the world has continued to enslave and slaughter each other.  “Ugly” is where a whole lot of the world still lives everday.  Knowing this, do we, today, still have the courage to join the procession and continue to sing, in spite of all appearances to the contrary:
    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Glory to God in the highest!


Can we, in the face of failure and loss, still keep believing, still keep proclaiming our faith and our belief?  Can we – do we still follow the one who still leads us on unexpected paths?  The one we trust to show us the way, God’s way – the way we were born to follow, whether it is the way we think we see or not?  Do we still follow him?
0 Comments

JUST SOME THOUGHTS

3/6/2016

0 Comments

 
​Luke 15:1-3, 11b-24

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story.

“There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’

“So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

“That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

“But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.


Luke 15:25-32

“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

“The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on prostitutes shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

“His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”
This was a "discussion Sunday" so there is no message, per se, to share.  We began by reading the scripture passage aloud.  First the Younger Son's story and then that of the Elder Son.  Next, I read an excerpt from Rob Bell's Love Wins, which is one of my favorite books -- specifically the last chapter and his take on the story that we all have about our own lives -- and how that story differs from God's version of our story.

I have to admit that for a very long time -- probably until I read Love Wins -- I had tended to side with the Elder Son and felt that he had a right to his resentment at his father's easy forgiveness of the younger brother.  My intellect understood that forgiveness was right, my somewhat over-developed superego thought it was all unfair.

We had a "lively" discussion about where our sympathies fell on the Younger Son/Older Son scale and hearing ourselves we realized how each of us read this story from the bias of our own life experience.  We recognized that we were hearing entirely different stories.  We learned that even though we were all sitting in one small room together we all heard differing versions of the same scripture reading.

Recognizing there was no one "right" version we were finally able to hear the possibility of God's version -- which is simply "love" -- and begin to accept its possibility in our own lives.

It was a wonderful learning experience.

0 Comments
    Picture

    Rev. Cherie Marckx

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    RSS Feed