Luke 19:1-10 / The Message
“Zacchaeus”
Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. There was a man there, his name, Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.
When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.” Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”
Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”
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Psalm 23 / English Standard Version Anglicised [Today was another discussion sermon] The word is that even in the midst of our confusion this is no need to fear. We may not know where we are going right now -- but God, our Shepherd -- does know -- and that is the main thing we need to remember.
I've included three different translations of Psalm 23 today. The first is closest to the King James version that many of us may have first learned as children. The second and third are from more modern translations. While they say basically the same things -- they sometimes allow us to see from a different angle -- and give new life to older concepts that have lost some of their impact through sheer repetition. True to your word, you let me catch my breath somehow puts a new slant on "he restores my soul." You care for all my needs ..... filling my cup again and again with Your grace is a wonderfully rich way of saying "my cup overflows." I don't know about you all, but I am feeling a little stressed by the questions and decisions we are facing. Spending time hearing these ancient promises of care and guidance -- in whatever language -- brings me to a sense of peace with their reminder that we are not in this alone. It is God who calls us to a new thing. Therefore, God will guide us through it. I don't have to know our ultimate destination -- I just have to recognize and follow my shepherd. Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, 10-13 (New Century Version) Today's sermon was a Congregational Discussion sermon. We are embarking on a process of re-visioning ourselves. We are a small but passionate congregation which has found itself, like many churches in recent years, spending more and more of our time, energy, and funds maintaining a building which is too large for our needs. We have come to believe that this is distracting us from the work God is calling us to do, which is to be, in some way, out in our wider community, serving the needs of God's people. We do not know what form that ministry will take but we are praying and listening and talking together. Today is only the first of several such conversations -- but one thing is clear already: Whatever we do, wherever we go we will do it together, with God's help. These are the questions we used as conversation starters. I quite frankly stole them from the Hope/Mission Pathways webpage: 1. What is God up to in the world? We will continue the conversation next week.
John 14:8-17, 25-27 (New Life Version) “THE HELPER” Today is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is the Greek name for a Jewish harvest festival commemorating God’s giving of the 10 Commandments to Moses and the Hebrew people. The Jewish feast – Shavout – takes place 50 days after Passover – hence the pente (meaning fifty) in the Greek name. Since Passover and Easter coincide – Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection taking place as they did during Passover -- our Christian celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit 50 days after Easter also bears the name Pentecost. We all pretty much know the story of the first Christian version of Pentecost. Jews from all over the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world – people speaking many different languages – were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Shavout. Peter and some of the other Christians were taking advantage of their gathering to do some preaching – telling the Good News of the risen Christ – when suddenly a wind came up and flames appeared and all that gathering of foreigners began to hear Peter and the others speaking to them in their own native languages – not to mention the bit of comic relief when they were accused of being drunk at nine in the morning! It’s a heck of a story – so much color and drama it can’t help but make an impression on us. But you probably have noticed that it is not the reading I chose for today. It’s such a dramatic story ... but God’s Spirit did not come among us just for this one dramatic moment, and I think sometimes we get lost in the spectacle and the miracles and we lose sight of why the Spirit was sent to live in and with us. All throughout scripture the Holy Spirit is known by many names: Comforter / Counselor / Advocate / Teacher / Intercessor / Witness. In the Old Testament the Spirit is associated with Sophia or Wisdom. The Spirit is the Breath of Life or Ruach that breathed out over the waters of chaos at the moment of creation. But in the reading I chose for today, Jesus has another name for this spirit: “the Helper.” I will ask My Father and He will give you another Helper. He will be with you forever. He is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot receive Him. It does not see Him or know Him. You will know Him because He lives with you and will be in you......The Helper is the Holy Spirit. The Father will send Him in My place and he will teach you everything and help you remember everything I have told you. He will teach us -- and obviously Helpers are here to help. He will help us do what? Well, Jesus has the answer to that, as well: I tell you, whoever puts his trust in Me can do the things I am doing. He will do even greater things than these...with “the Helper” helping.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I find that statement to be both exhilarating and terrifying. I am supposed to do even greater things than Jesus did? And then we get the real kicker: If you love Me, you will do what I say. So – first we are told to do impossible things – and then we get the emotional blackmail to make sure we don’t try to back out – If you love me, you’ll do this. Now, again, I don’t know about you but I am entirely clear that Cherie Marckx cannot do such things. Most assuredly I cannot do them alone. And that, in a nutshell, is exactly what Pentecost is all about. That is why the Holy Spirit has come to live within and about us here and now. It’s not about the spectacle, and it’s not about flames on our heads or speaking in tongues. It is simply that we have work to do here – work that is impossible for us to manage on our own – crazy stuff like building the Reign of God, feeding the hungry and nurturing the sick, fighting for justice for everyone, not just the rich and powerful -- and so Jesus has left us the gift of his own Spirit to be with us and enable us to do the work God calls us to do – the work that Jesus began and left unfinished so that we have been called to finish it for him. And, if you will recall, Jesus himself did not embark on his ministry in the world before seeking the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. It was at his first public appearance, his baptism in the Jordan at the hands of his cousin John, that “a form like a dove” descended upon him and a voice from heaven blessed him. Only with that blessing did he begin to preach and teach around Galilee. Repeatedly Jesus spoke about emptying himself so that the Spirit of the one he called Father could fill him and work through him. “Not I, but the Spirit working through me.” Even in our reading today, Jesus says: What I say to you, I do not say by My own power. The Father Who lives in Me does His work through Me. If even Jesus recognized his need for this in-filling, why should we find it odd to be called to empty ourselves and let God’s own Spirit come in? And if we let that Spirit work in us, why should we doubt that we, too, can do great things? Not things for ourselves but the work of God’s church -- reaching out to all God’s people – not just singing and praying – but serving and building and teaching and feeding and loving. Serving the God who lives in all who share this world with us. We have no idea what we can do with the Spirit of God working in us until we actually allow it to happen. Are we willing? Come, Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful. Guide our hands and tongues and hearts in your love and your service, always. Amen. John 17:20-26 (New Life Version) “MAY THEY ALL BE AS ONE” A couple of weeks ago we heard the story of St. Peter’s vision of the sheet being lowered before him – a sheet filled with animals of all sorts, clean and unclean – and a voice, saying “Take, Peter, and eat.” As we looked into that reading we found that, in the symbolic language of scripture, it was telling us that Jesus’ message of invitation was meant for everyone – Gentile and Jew – no one was to be excluded as unworthy or unclean. The week before that, on Earth Day Sunday, we were reminded that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,” and that when God reached the sixth day of creation he pronounced it ALL to be “very good.” And now today, we have Jesus’ impassioned prayer that “they may all be as one.” The one-ness -- unity – it would appear – has been God’s plan for us all the way from the first moments of creation, through the last moments of Jesus’ teaching among us. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. Earlier in the 13th chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus tells us: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. This became one of the primary teachings of the emerging Christian faith and the letters of the New Testament are filled with exhortations to be as one in Jesus’ name, such as this, from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians: Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas," and, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? We could go on all day finding New Testament references to the call to unity – but I won’t – you get the idea. This is what Jesus asks of us: Love one another as I have loved you; This is what he prays for: that they (we) may be one.
Jesus doesn’t just want this in some strange “Can’t we all just get along and hold hands and sing Kumbyah?” request. Our unity is to be the ultimate witness to the world. Through our unity, the whole of creation will see God’s truth, God’s reality: I am in them and You are in Me so they may be one and be made perfect. Then the world may know that You sent Me and that You love them as You love Me.....I have made Your name known to them and will make it known. So then the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them. This is what God wants. This is what God has always wanted for this world, created in such love and beauty. This is how it was always supposed to be from those very first moments when God looked and proclaimed it all very good. (Even though we managed to screw that one up in no time at all.) This is what the prophets came to tell us. This is why Jesus came to live among us. This is why early missionaries spread Jesus’ message over all the earth – all that we may one day be in that moment when God is truly all in all throughout the earth. And the only way we ever get there is to get there together. So why is this so hard for us to manage? Why do we just not seem to get it? It seems, especially lately, that instead of recognizing our one-ness, we just go on finding more and more ways to divide ourselves – more and more way to see ourselves as somehow ‘better than,’ ‘other-than’, ‘superior to’ someone else. Forget Republican/Democrat, black/white, gay/straight, right/wrong, smart/dumb, man/woman, liberal/conservative, Christian/Muslim/Atheist – those of us who claim to be Christians can’t even manage to just be Christian - oh, no, we have to have names to show how different we are from other Christians - how much smarter we are than all the others – we have to be liberal-Christian, Evangelical-Christian, Bible-believing-Christian, Southern Baptist-Christian, Lutheran-Christian, Catholic-Christian, even Post-Christian-Christian - and on and on and on ..... and every one of those groups believes they are somehow more right than any of the others. Sometimes our scriptural reading requires some unpacking – like Peter’s Vision. That one required some historical setting, some cultural context to make sense. We had to know how things had been before we could understand the magnitude of the change of view-point that God was demanding from Peter and the other early believers. But that’s not the case with today’s reading. All that is required here is that we simply LISTEN to what Jesus is saying. I pray for those who will put their trust in Me through the teaching they have heard. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. May they belong to Us.....I want My followers You gave Me to be with Me where I am.....Holy Father, the world has not known You. I have known You. These have known You sent Me. I have made Your name known to them and will make it known. That’s what Jesus wants from us and for us: that the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them. It’s really pretty simple. Just listen to Jesus. Make us one, Lord, please – in spite of ourselves. Amen. John 5:1-9 “DO YOU WANT TO BE MADE WELL?”
This is a story about healing – physical healing. A man had suffered – he was blind, crippled, paralyzed – the story doesn’t specify exactly what his ailment was, but he had suffered with it for thirty-eight years! For thirty-eight years he sat there by the pool, knowing that others were being healed, but unable to reach that healing for himself, until one day Jesus came by and saw him. Try to imagine what must have gone through his mind when Jesus stopped to speak to him. Whether blind or lame or whatever, he could never manage to make it into the pool at the magical moment of healing because there was never anyone who seemed to care to help him and he couldn’t make it on his own. And now, “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asks. We might think: “What kind of question is that?” He’s been waiting for thirty-eight years – of course he wants to be healed! But does he? He has lived this way for – at least – the better part of his life. Do you suppose he even remembers what any other way of being might be like? Obviously, he has accommodated himself to his ailment by this time. He has managed to survive with it for a lot of years. It may not be much of a life by our standards, but it is a life and it’s what he’s used to. It’s what he knows. When you come down to it, it’s a pretty good question after all: Do you really want to be healed? Are you familiar with the old saying: Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know? I recently read a more modern version of this same expression. This one is by Bill McKibben, who is an environmentalist leader and 21st century philosopher. He puts it this way: "There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it's not really there." Have you ever stood at a cross-roads point in your life where something nudged at you that this was the time to take a new road? Maybe it was subtle – almost subliminal – or maybe you were faced by a clear, obvious choice between a disliked, but familiar, known path, and another new path – totally unknown and thereby frightening, even while it might hold wonderful possibilities for you? I suspect we have all been there at one time or another. And we all make different choices as to which path we decide to follow. Sometimes we might be willing to try any new turn in the road, convinced that the road behind us is just too miserable to tolerate anymore. Sometimes the road ahead may be too shrouded in mystery – it might lead somewhere better, it might lead somewhere worse – and we find ourselves immobilized with fear, and so we settle for the devil we know. We stand at the crossway and pretend it isn’t really there. We stay with the job we hate and tell ourselves it’s at least secure – it’s a paycheck. We stay in bad relationships because we are too afraid to start from scratch again with someone new. Or, conversely, we keep jumping from relationship to relationship because we are too afraid to ever fully give ourselves to any one relationship. We put off going to the doctor because we’re afraid of what she might find. We dream big dreams about our lives and our talents, but we let our fears speak too loudly and we never do take a chance and act on those dreams. Sometimes we know full well that the choices we have fallen into are sucking us dry, consuming our souls, but we’re still afraid to turn onto a new way. We stick our heads deep down in the sand. So, it’s not such a silly question after all: Do you really want to get well? Are you willing to step out and take a chance on a whole new life? Jesus could have healed the man in the story at any time, but he wanted the man to make his own decision. This man has been defined by his affliction for years. No one expects anything of him because, well hey, he’s just that blind guy, or that cripple over there. Healing will bring a whole new world of expectations to him. So Jesus asks him – Is this what you really want? Are you prepared to leave your limitations behind you and are you ready to step into something basically unknown to you? I suspect that for the sick man – and for every one of us – it comes down to a question of whether or not we trust the one asking the question. Healing, we have learned, does not always take the form that we want it to take. When God offers healing or puts a new possibility in front of us, do we trust God enough to step out in faith? Do we really believe that Jesus is there to catch us if we stumble? Back when I used to do Youth Ministry, the kids would ask: But how do I know if this is the right thing? And I still believe in the answer I gave them way back then: Pray about it. Give the question your best thought, looking at pros and cons. Seriously ask God to guide you. Listen the best you can for God’s answer. Then make a choice and go with it – knowing, that even if, somehow, you still haven’t chosen the best path, God will not abandon you there – God will still make it work for the best for you – if you ask God to be in this with you. We face difficult crossroads all the time in our personal lives. This church may be facing a difficult crossroad. But God has not and will not abandon us. God is with us every step. Do you really want to be made well? Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. We do. Make us whole, in your love and mercy. Amen. Acts 11:1-18 (The Message) The news traveled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it—heard that the non-Jewish “outsiders” were now “in.” When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?” So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: “Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in. “Then I heard a voice: ‘Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, Master. I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher.’ The voice spoke again: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky. “Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, ‘Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’ll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.’ “So I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as it did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?” Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!” At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus speaks almost exclusively of being sent for the children of Abraham and most certainly not to any Gentiles. It isn’t until he has been traveling around the neighboring countries a bit that his understanding seems to grow to include those outside of Judaism. One of the most striking instances of this, for me, comes in the seventh chapter of Mark with the story of the Syrophoenician woman: At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus speaks almost exclusively of being sent for the children of Abraham and most certainly not to any Gentiles. It isn’t until he has been traveling around the neighboring countries a bit that his understanding seems to grow to include those outside of Judaism. One of the most striking instances of this, for me, comes in the seventh chapter of Mark with the story of the Syrophoenician woman: This always struck me as a purely nasty thing to say, and I still have a hard time fitting it into my image of Jesus. She comes to him for help and he calls her a dog. But this woman doesn’t give up that easily – in fact, she teaches Jesus a little about his mission: She answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Apparently, even Jesus had to grow into a fuller understanding of his own mission from God. By the end of his human life he is speaking quite freely about coming to call ALL God’s people into the kingdom.
Consider the parable of the great feast, found in both Luke and Matthew. When the invited guests can’t bothered to show up – and even harass and kill the servants sent to deliver the invitations – more servants are sent to comb the streets and back alleys inviting anyone at all who will bother to accept the invitation – a clear metaphor for blessings originally intended for the Jewish people, but offered then, to the Gentiles when the Jews refused to receive them – and a clear shift from Jesus’ earliest language. If even Jesus himself had to grow into this broader understanding, it shouldn’t surprise us too much that his followers took even longer to get there. The Jews of this time had a clear vision that God was “their” God and no one else’s. Creation, salvation – everything was about them and them alone. Just like a lot of Christians today who feel that Jesus came for them and no one else. Even the best of us struggle to avoid dividing the world into “people like me” and “everyone else” – “us” and “them”– good people and bad people – smart people and dumb people. For the Jewish people of Jesus’ day, taught for centuries to see themselves as set apart from everyone else by God, it was understandably difficult to see that God might have any interest in anyone else besides themselves. Paul was doing a lot of talking about expanding the “good news” to the Gentiles, but then Paul was sort of an outsider himself. He may have been trained as a pharisee but he was born and raised way up north there in Tarsus. He wasn’t really one of them. All good Jews were taught all their lives that they couldn’t/shouldn’t share food with outsiders. Their dietary laws were very strict and one of the primary things that set them apart from the rest of the world and defined who they were. Some foods were clean and others were unclean – ritually impure– and forbidden. This prohibition was so deeply ingrained in them to the point they would be repulsed by the thought either of eating certain things or of eating with outsiders. That would be an “unclean” thing to do – and the early Christians whole worship practice, such as there was, was to gather together and share a meal. How could Paul or anyone expect them to do that? But Peter, now, it wasn’t so easy to shrug off Peter. No ... it wasn’t easy to shrug off Peter at all. Peter was one of them. And he was Jesus’ chosen leader. And Pete, now, was telling them they had to expand their missionary teaching to include Gentiles - basically, to reject all those centuries of purity laws. There was no quick resolution to this problem. Some early Christians followed Peter and Paul and accepted the change. Others resisted as hard as they could. Reading Paul’s various letters we hear him constantly complaining that he set up churches on one set of teachings, and then other “Christian teachers” followed along behind him and contradicted the Good News he had taught. Eventually, many of the early believers fell away and returned to Judaism rather than extend any of God’s grace to Gentiles. They just could not be that open. Couldn’t do it. We pride ourselves here on being open – but who is it we would have a difficult time following to our table? There’s bound to be someone. How welcoming would we be to a skinhead? An avowed homophobe? A known wife-beater? There are so many seemingly legitimate, justifiable reasons to judge others -- but you know, and I know that is not what Jesus has asked of us. God loves all God’s children–all God’s creation. Our actions often grieve God, I’m sure, but they don’t stop the love or God’s deep desire for all of us to come home and live as one. God’s message to Peter – and through Peter to all of us – is that God is not going to be limited by our smallness – not held to our ideas of in and out. We will not bind God to our choices of us and them. God’s plan is much bigger than we are, and God will not be hindered by our inherent smallness. We here are among the Gentiles, you know, and we are called to grow in love and faith ourselves, and to share the blessings we have received, and to show others the face of Jesus through the love and faith and inclusion to which we have come through him. Let it always be so, Lord. John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was LIFE...” Today is Earth Day Sunday. Tomorrow, April 22nd, is the actual celebration of Earth Day in most western countries, and today is the nearest Sunday. Earth Day itself is a non-religious celebration, but most people of faith have little trouble with seeing it from a religious point of view. If we believe God created all that is then it seems entirely appropriate that we celebrate that gift in gratitude. At the very least, we should be always prepared to thank God for this wonderful world. And I’m thinking it is entirely reasonable to look today at just how we treat this gift. In the rare moments when I have some time, I am a quilt maker. I love the personal creativity that goes into making a quilt: designing a pattern, choosing the colors, cutting and sewing carefully to make something that is, at one and the same time, utilitarian and beautiful – warming to the body and pleasing to the spirit. And crafted to last. To maybe be passed down a generation or two. I pretty much only make these for the people I love, so I have to tell you I don’t know how I would respond if I ever put all that love and hard work into a quilt, and then found a few weeks later that it was being used as the dog’s bed, or a grease rag in the garage – or if I found it had been sold in exchange for some ready cash. I would certainly be deeply hurt. And probably angry. Really angry. And I would not go out of my way to do anything nice for that person again. Luckily, I’m not God – God is. And God is so much more loving and forgiving than I will ever be – but that does not mean that I have any business continuing to dis-respect God’s gifts to me, just because I expect to be forgiven. Why would I want to mis-use and abuse a gift made for me in love? Because that is what we who live here on this planet are doing– we are dis-respecting and mis-using this glorious gift – this creation – this life – that God has given us. Unfortunately, Christian understanding of scripture has too often taught us that we – humans – have been given the earth and everything in it to use. It’s all for us – and for us to do whatever we want with it. I was once told–in absolute seriousness–that Jesus is coming again soon and when he’s through with the earth he’s just going to destroy it anyway, so we Christians don’t need to bother with taking care of the earth. That, my dear people, is what we in theological circles call hog-wash. We are told in scripture to care for creation. We were told we could use much of creation for food – but we were never told we could trash it all just out of greed or laziness. We are told to be good stewards of the earth. Do you remember Jesus’ parable of the talents? The one where three servants were given money to use any way they wanted, but they had to make it worthwhile? Jesus praised the two servants who used the money well, but he was not at all kind in describing the one who misused the gift he was given. How are we using this gift God has given us? After all, this is the biggest gift of them all – this is life itself. This is home and livelihood and nurture – and it is all these things not only for humankind but for ALL of creation. Any good reading of scripture makes it clear that God loves ALL of creation – not just us. Unfortunately, we too often read scripture with our minds already made up as to what it says – and subsequently we miss things it really does say. This jewel of a world is God’s love and passion and creativity made flesh and rock and fin and leaf. Mount Everest to a rose petal to a sea urchin to a newborn baby – the whole shebang. How are we treating it? How are we doing at being good stewards? Questions of the environment have been so politicized in recent years that it has become almost impossible to have a rational conversation. Those who have a financial or political stake in maintaining the status quo have convinced many that thinking in environmental terms is a waste of time and money – it’s all a plot – by somebody – to take away your rightful stuff. They have convinced themselves – and too many others – that making money and having more stuff is what really matters in this life. Get the latest electronic gadget! And if we have to destroy a wilderness area to get you more electricity for your gadget – have to inadvertently wipe out a species or two – oh, well – it’s your right! Really? It’s your right to destroy this world that God made for us? If we view this as a faith issue, I believe it suddenly becomes much simpler. How are we taking care of God’s incredible creation? Are we loving it as God loved it into existence? Or are we buying into a system that tells us we have to have industries that spew carcinogenic pollutants into the air? Are we really OK with higher rates of cancer worldwide? Do we tell ourselves that God really doesn’t mind if we destroy a whole mountain range and the plants and animals – and humans – that once lived there – just because someone discovered a money-making mineral underneath it? Do we really think God doesn’t care? Is it really so necessary for us to have a TV as big as a wall that we don’t mind polluting an entire watershed to produce it? Do you really need more stuff? I love the cable commercials that show people moving from room to room without missing a line of TV dialogue because there seems to be a TV in every room, including the garage. Really? You might want to re-read Jesus’ story of the rich man who had so much he built vast granaries to hold it all, but then died that very night – leaving all his stuff behind him. I think these are valid theological questions for people of faith. Are we willing to stand before God and take responsibility for the damage we create so we can have our life-styles? Or could we perhaps do with just a little less? Can we take the time to look into the cost of the choices we make? Maybe investigate other ways to live here on this earth? Like pay a few pennies more for locally grown produce rather than having our lettuce shipped halfway around the world at who-knows-what environmental cost? Take responsibility. Educate ourselves – (and don’t just look at sources we know will tell us what we want to hear.) We can change. Some change is huge and overwhelming, but many things are small and not that hard and really do make a difference. Can we respect God enough to care for creation? Love the life God gives us enough to try to take good care of it? Do we really value it? Can we try? (This was a Discussion Sermon where questions were posed and the congregation shared their own responses -- not necessarily limited to the questions asked -- they are only conversation starters. I gave some background and context for the story told in the reading then opened the discussion. How would you respond?) Acts 5:27-32 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." Scripture background: • We are jumping ahead in the Easter story to look at the effects of this Easter event • Pentecost has already happened at the point of this reading • The Apostles have begun preaching from the Temple steps -- telling everyone what they have seen and experienced. • Peter and John have been arrested and brought before the Jewish ruling Council and ordered to knock it off, but as soon as they are released, they go right on preaching and sharing • Peter has healed a crippled beggar – and after that, the other Apostles heal folks, also. • And they go on preaching • Peter and John are arrested again and locked up this time, but an angel of the Lord comes and opens their prison doors and they return to the Temple steps to preach some more • They are brought once more before the Council, and once more they are told to knock it off • This reading is their response • The Council wants to kill them – as it killed Jesus – but a Pharisee named Gamaliel convinces them to leave it to God to stop them or not • After this they are flogged and released • They go on preaching QUESTIONS:
1. This is Peter and John’s response, back then, to Christ’s rising again. What is our response today? 2. Easter obviously made a huge difference in their lives – does it make a difference in your life? How? 3. I don’t want theology -- looking for feelings, for effects on you -- not Sunday School lessons 4. Who are you and what are you that is any different because of Easter? 5. Does Easter have any meaning outside the walls of this church? John 21:1-14 After Jesus had passed through the dark door, his friends returned to what they knew best, Galilee and the sea. One evening Peter said, “I am going out to weep.” But they thought he said, “I am going out to fish.” So they went with him and they wept and fished the night away, catching nothing but their tears. With the dawn came a fire on the shore and the smell of fish across the water. Through the mist a man was crumbled over coals. He rose like an arrow from the bow of the earth, like an open hand in a time of war, like the smoke of an undying sacrifice ... and turned. “Come and eat your meal.” No one, John says, presumed to inquire, “Who are you?” They knew who it was. (Taken from Stories of Faith © 1980, John Shea, The Thomas More Press) John 21:15-17 (NRSV) When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” I read this reading another time just recently - on Maundy Thursday. I chose to use it again today instead of the straight biblical version because there is something about this story-poem by John Shea that, for me, just tells this story so much more fully than the simple recitation of events given us by the writer of John’s gospel. We will hear directly from the scripture in a little bit, though because there are really two lessons in today’s reading. Shea’s poem only addresses the first half.
We looked last week at the longer term effects of the resurrection on Jesus’ followers. Today we’re hearing one of the more immediate reactions. There are several “sighting” stories in the various gospels – today’s reading is the fourth – and last – of them recounted in John’s gospel – and my favorite. According to John, Jesus has been seen three times already – but he keeps disappearing again – he won’t stay put! And, apparently, the disciples still have no idea what they are supposed to be doing in this new topsy-turvy world in which they find themselves. They’ve bounced from despair to joy and back again so often they don’t know up from down any more – so they revert back to the one thing they know – they go out fishing. They fished before they knew Jesus and they can still go fishing. These are simple men – they were pretty good at following when Jesus led them – but he’s not around to lead them now and they are pretty well lost. At least they’re no longer cowering behind locked doors – maybe they’re too confused to even be able to bother with being afraid anymore. They’ve been out fishing all night – but – as often happens with fishing – they have caught nothing. As they head in toward shore they see a stranger on the beach, who calls out to them to throw out their nets one more time “over there.” Having nothing better to do with their time they do as he suggests and this time they pull in so many fish they are in danger of swamping their boat. They pull in to shore again – fully laden -- and now they really look at the stranger and they recognize Jesus – calmly tending his fire and calling them to come join him at breakfast. Just when they have given up on him again, there he is – right there with them in their ordinary, workaday, fishing world – perfectly at home – looking like he has been there forever – cooking them breakfast -- serving them. And this, I believe, is the point of this first part of John’s story here: Jesus has been there forever, and he will be there forever – right there with them – wherever they are. He may appear to come and go but in reality he is always here. Right here with them, right here with us – wherever we are. In our ordinary lives – whether we can see him or not – with us -- always and forever – ready with whatever it is we need at that moment. Not sitting on some heavenly throne, way out there, not somewhere else so we have to beg him to come be with us – but always and forever, here – wherever here is right now. That sounds like very good news. [read 2nd reading] With this second half of our reading from John, Jesus makes it clear that he has more on his mind than just reinforcing his presence among us. With this 2nd part he has a question and a demand. A question asked three times, and a demand made three times. In Jewish numerology, three was, like seven, a number denoting completeness, encompassing beginning, middle, and ending; yesterday, today, and tomorrow – or, in other words, eternity. Three is a wholeness. So anything said three times in the Bible demands our attention. “Peter, do you love me?” then “feed my sheep.” There is one more really important point about this thrice-asked question: back in the 18th chapter of John’s gospel, after Jesus’ arrest, Peter, pointed out to the crowd as a follower of Jesus, denied him – denied him three times – three times, to his own shame and despair. And now, the risen Jesus, knowing that shame that Peter carries for those denials, asks him three times: Do you love me? He gives Peter three times to reply: Lord, you know I do. Three affirmations to wipe out three betrayals. And three times he makes it clear that in spite of past betrayals he forgives Peter and trusts him to carry out his work: Feed my sheep. It really could not be any clearer. If one is going to make claims to love Jesus, one action and one alone is required. Like its fellow commandment – that we love one another – this one encompasses all that Jesus wants us to know – all the commandments are contained here in three words: Feed my sheep. Care for them, take care of their needs – ALL their needs. Feed their bodies and their minds and their spirits. Give them food, yes, food – but also give them hope and opportunity and kindness and forgiveness and trust and love. Lead them safely home. And since, while we are called to do these things we remain sheep ourselves, we need to feed ourselves with all these things, too. Give ourselves and each other some kindness and hope and forgiveness. Feed all our starving souls. We’re called to feed Jesus’ sheep on the knowledge of Jesus and the divine one he called Father. Give them understanding that we are – each of us – all of creation – created for more than work and suffering. We are made to care and to lift up – to bind up wounds and heal broken hearts. Feed my sheep. Tend my lambs. Love one another. To say we love Jesus and not do these things would be simply ludicrous. If we look at Jesus – if we experience Jesus in our own lives, and love what we see, then we can only seek to be like him – any other response is unthinkable. If we truly love Jesus then we have to do his will – and if his will is to serve our creator-God - then that must be our will, as well. “If you really love me you’ll feed my sheep.” We do, and we will, Lord, with your help, with your grace. Continue to show us your way. Amen. |
Rev. Cherie MarckxArchives
April 2025
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