Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter, Emmanuel, Mercer Island

We have had a rough week.

First Boston.

            Then the little town of West, Texas.

Also from the news Thursday a suicide bomber

killed 15 and wounded 32 in Baghdad.

-       That’s farther away from us, but more died there than in Boston –

Remember Syria? – 327 killed there this last week.

And statistically there have been 322 homicides in the US last week,

            and 708 suicides.

Also statistically this last week there have been 1,706 reported rapes,

                        but this is only 15% of the actual rapes that have occurred.

We also have had a major earthquake in western Sichuan, China

            with at least 186 are dead and more than 6700 injured.

And I have not said anything about the negative impact

humans have had on the planet in the last week,

            remembering that tomorrow, April 22, is Earth Day.

As I said, it’s been a rough week.

The Gospel of John, chapter 10, the Good Shepherd chapter.

In this passage the Pharisees and religious leaders are trying to work with Jesus.

“When will you stop holding us in suspense.  Are you the Messiah?” they ask.

They are the good “church-goers,” the religiously upright folks,

            the ones serious about the observance of their faith.            BUT

They want from Jesus what fits their expectations, their hopes and their desires.

And Jesus won’t let them have that.

So many of the Gospel passages are about confrontations between Jesus

            and the Pharisees or religious leaders.

What Jesus is offering, what he came for

            is much more expansive than what they are asking for, what they want.

So their encounters with each other are confrontations.

Now always on the 4^th Sunday of Easter

                                    the Gospel lesson is about the “Good Shepherd.”

This year in the eucharistic lectionary we get the last section

            from this 10^th chapter of John.

It’s not the part we might really prefer hearing at the moment,

the part where Jesus says,

            "I am the good shepherd.

            The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” etc.

The image or metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd

            is tremendously comforting for many people.

It is always good to know that your Savior is compassionate and kind

            and cares for you and provides your needs and protects you.

But that is a rather limited view of what is implied here.

One big question that may arise for us in this selection about the Good Shepherd

            has to do with just who IS one of the sheep and who is not,

because Jesus says to these religious leaders,

                        “…you do not belong to my sheep.”

How much are we like the Pharisees? – good folks, here in church,

            leading decent lives, I assume.

We want from Jesus what fits OUR expectations, OUR hopes and OUR desires.

            The way we can accept him is in how he fits what we need.

We have our own ideas about what the Good Shepherd should be like,

            but – and I’m going to say something tough here –

            what we need to do in our own best interests spiritually

is to stop thinking of Jesus in that metaphor of Good Shepherd

                                                            in terms of what will be a benefit for me.

Stop this metaphoric talk about who Jesus as Good Shepherd is

            and what he is for

            and why he is valuable to me.

Let him do the revealing.

Let Jesus reveal himself to you.

People want to look at this metaphor of Good Shepherd

            as some kind of affectionate leader

            who is patting the sheep on their cute little wooly heads

            and leading them beside still waters

                        in pastures of lush green grass.

Look, folks, we’ve got to see what the sheep are for,

            because if you want Jesus to be your Good Shepherd

            then you gotta be one of his sheep.

The sheep are not there just to be taken care of,

            to enjoy the green pastures and still waters.

Why would someone own sheep?  --  for their wool and for their mutton.

            These sheep are for sacrifice.

            The sheep are food for the Life of the world.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, is sending them just as he was sent,

            to be food for the life of the world.

The metaphor of the Good Shepherd is about both the Shepherd and the sheep,

            their relationship to each other,

            and just as much about the sheep and their part in this passage.

The sheep are being called into Jesus and his life offered discipleship

            extending the ministries of Jesus and his truth

            as creative revelations of the Kingdom of God present and active.

In this Gospel reading Jesus says to the religious leaders,

            you do not believe the works I do in my Father’s Name,

            so you do not belong to my sheep.

This truth of the situation is obvious throughout the text.

It is about the Lamb of God, his being the Shepherd,

            and sending as he was sent.

But that understanding of the character of the sheep

                        – hearing his voice and following him –

            is excluded by the simple, sentimental, self-interested

                        and presumably democratic and just idea

            of why isn’t everybody included?

They are not sheep

because they can’t see or participate in this other thing:

             to be a sacrifice for the sake of food,

                                                            spiritual food in revelation of the truth.

So the question of the day is:                          Do you really want to be a sheep?

Are we open to being led by the voice of the Good Shepherd?

            Do we have ears to hear?

It is his Holy Spirit breathed into us that is that Voice.

            That is revelation in us.

We have had a rough week.

We need to take time to exam our own reactions to these occurrences this week,

            and then consider our response.

Can we be sheep of the Good Shepherd to the world?

What can we do to respond in Life-giving ways?

How can we provide ourselves, as the Lamb of God has, as food for the world?

We need a lot more people whose lives radiate love,

            who are vessels of the Holy Spirit,

            who are awake and aware and sensitive to the wounds and the needs

                        that are all around us,

            and who are willing to engage with others on the level of their suffering.

These are the sheep,

            the sacrificial sheep offered up like the Lamb of God,

            sheep who will feed others with themselves.

Now wouldn’t you really want to be a sheep?

May we be good sheep of the Lamb of God

            offering ourselves to a world in need of                                                                                                            comfort, healing, reconciliation

                                    and guidance to the streams of the waters of life.  Amen.

Easter Vigil Sermon at Emmanuel

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

This year with our vigil lessons from the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament,

            we did something a little different, if you noticed.

Jack had an idea:

“My thought (he said) was to combine the idea of "retelling our stories"

            with the way that we tell our stories seasonally –

            Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, etc. 

So, I chose four stories from the vigil selections and paired it with a season,             starting with Advent and running through Lent. 

The stories…had a …connection to …seasonal themes. 

Then, at the end of the story, we sing a hymn from that season…

What I like about the idea, from a musical perspective,

            is that by singing songs that everyone loves and has sung many times before,

            we really connect people emotionally to this idea of story telling.  

…Feeling the different feelings that arise with the songs of the seasons

            after one of the stories, I think, could be very profound.“

Well, Hunt and I liked the idea and were engaged.

And so what I want to do here in a very short time

            is run a thread through all the readings as a sort of short catechism

            describing the spiritual rationale of the Church Year,

and especially to help us be clear about what we are doing here and why.

                        So fasten your seat belts.  Here we go!

The first lesson: the Valley of Dry Bones

God said to Ezekiel “These bones are the whole house of Israel.

They say “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost…”

Therefore prophesy, and say to them,

I am going to open your graces, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.  I will put my spirit within you and your shall live…

then you shall know that I, the Lord have spoken and will act.

Advent is a time of hope and anticipation of what is coming. 

When the Holy Spirit was poured out to all those waiting in Jerusalem

            after the Resurrection on that Day of Pentecost,

the Holy Spirit came as the second advent of Christ, this time as Christ in us.

We have waited with advent anticipation

            for the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus to become incarnate in us.

Hope.

The second lesson:  The Genesis Creation Story

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

On the sixth day God said,

“Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them.

And God saw that it was good.

Each Christmas either as the Gospel reading for Christmas Day

            or for the first Sunday of the Christmas Season we hear the Prologue of John:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

All things were made through him,

and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of the world.

To as many as received him, he gave them power to become children of God…

And the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth;

and we have beheld his glory…”

In the Christmas season we celebrate the Incarnation, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Incarnation, when you come to think of it, is an act of self-creation.

The uncreated Light from the God-head, the fountain head, the Source,

takes form and manifests among us.

Resurrection, when you come to think of it, is also an act of self-creation.

Christmas – Christ in us, the hope of glory.

The third lesson: The Exodus Story

The story of God’s mighty acts that bring about the liberation of an enslaved people:

“Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians.

Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians.

So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord.”

Epiphany is the manifestation of God.

The parting of the Red Sea was another Epiphany/manifestation/a showing forth             of God’s power and glory in a long line of such manifestations.

The purpose of this story is for us to have an epiphany,

            a revelation, an awakening and get it that our salvation is an act of God                                     and we are liberated from bondage and death.

We are delivered from death through the waters into new life – Resurrection Life.

The fourth lesson: A New Heart

“Thus says the Lord God:  I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

Lent is a time of penitence and repenting,

but it is God who works the action of repentance in us,

            turning us around from the destructive ways we go when on our own,

                                                            the ways that complicate our own suffering.

God intervenes by putting a new heart in us,

            a heart that is open to turning to God,

            and a new Spirit, the Spirit of Resurrection Jesus.

And we are cleansed, purified and changed from stone to flesh

            so that we may grow into our full human potential, which is the image of God.

Lent:  God works in us the process of repentance into new Life.

Now, the Epistle Reading from Romans chapter 6:

            This is the quintessential choice for baptisms at the Easter Vigil.

These words contain the glorious and mysterious truth embedded in Baptism.

“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again;

            death no longer has dominion over him.

The death he died, he died to sin, once for all;

            but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

This is the definition of baptism, what has just happened for Ron.

Our task is to realize this truth of our being,

            not just as an intellectual idea, nor a liturgical ritual,

            but as a heart knowledge, an experienced reality,

            the ultimate answer to the question, “Who am I?”

And finally the Gospel.

The women come to the tomb, and hear from two strange men

            in dazzling bright clothes that the body of Jesus is not there.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

The women remember what Jesus had been teaching them,

            although the men won’t believe them and don’t get it yet.

This is only the beginning of the Resurrection story.

Notice that there is no actual Resurrection appearance by Jesus yet. 

We need to read the whole 24^th chapter of Luke for it all to make sense.

The story builds and builds slowly

            as the disciples are being prepared to grasp what has happened.

You must go read the rest of Luke 24.

May the recognition of Jesus in Resurrection build and build in us

            and come to fullness in our hearts, our inmost being.

There you have it, the Church Year as a deliberate progression of hope.

The Easter Season, the season of Resurrection,

            begins now and continues for 50 days, culminating on the 50^th day

                        with the ultimate Resurrection appearance on Pentecost.

Resurrection is the realization of our hope.

As it says in Colossians 1:27  Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Palm Sunday Sermon at Emmanuel, Mercer Island

I am going to read for you the next four verses

that come right after the Gospel description of Jesus riding into Jerusalem.

            All his followers were getting worked up

            as they related all the wonderful things about Jesus that they had witnessed

                        until they began acclaiming him as the coming king.

The Pharisees in the crowd were getting nervous

            and they told Jesus to get his disciples in order, to rein them in.

But it was too late, and besides

            ascribing kingship to him would be provocative enough for Jesus’ purposes

            to set in motion irrevocably the events that would lead to his crucifixion.

And if the crowd was silent, the stones would shout.

Luke 19:41   As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it,

42   saying, "If you, even you,

had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!

But now they are hidden from your eyes.

43   Indeed, the days will come upon you,

when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you,

and hem you in on every side.

44   They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you,

and they will not leave within you one stone upon another;

because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God."

This procession, down the side of the Mount of Olives

                        across the Kidron gulch and up the other side into the city,

            is feeding a state of delusion for the disciples.

This is no triumphal entry.

For Jesus it is a one way journey towards death.

The stones, the stones, the silent witnesses.

All through the history of the Hebrew Bible are stories about stones:

            Jacob with a stone for a pillow had a night vision

                        of a ladder connecting heaven and earth.

            Joshua and the Hebrew people freed from slavery in Egypt

            coming finally into the Promised Land

                        piled up stones by the River Jordan.

Stones were stacked in the locations of great events

            to be witnesses for those passing by

of the great deeds done there, of God’s intervention, of God’s saving power.

What would these stones say if they could speak?

            Would they speak of the mistake the crowd of disciples was making?

                        the mistake about the Kingdom of God,

                        how it does not come as a political kingdom,

                        but by the Holy Spirit indwelling in each one’s life.

            Would the stones speak about death?

                        Would they cry out for Jesus,

                        whose face had been set like flint toward Jerusalem

                                                and a final denouement?

These very stones would be torn done by the army of Titus

                        not many years hence,

            not one stone left on another

as witness to the blindness of this people.

“If you, even you, had only recognized on this day

the things that make for peace!

But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was not Jesus’ agenda,

            but what the Romans would do.

So now, today, we once again enter into the liturgies of Holy Week.

Now, today, we again have the opportunity

            to participate in the stories and events that are at the heart of our faith.

And we have the warning,

            lest “you do not recognize the time of your visitation from God."

I cannot stress enough the value of attending

                                                as many of the liturgies of the week as possible,

            as an expression of your devotion,

            as a means of spiritual formation for deepening faith and awareness,

            as an act of worship.


March 25: Monday of Holy Week  


6-7 p.m. Holy Eucharist


March 26: Tuesday of Holy Week
 

6-7 p.m. Holy Eucharist


March 27: Wednesday of Holy Week  


6-7 p.m. Holy Eucharist


March 28: Maundy Thursday
 

6-8 p.m. Agape Feast, Foot washing and Eucharist

the commemoration of the Last Supper, the foot washing, the stripping of the Altar and the prayerful vigil keeping watch in the garden


March 29: Good Friday
 

Noon Liturgy
, 4 p.m. Stations of the Cross

the Good Friday liturgy at noon, and the Stations of the Cross at 4:00


March 30 


8-9:30 p.m. The Great Vigil of Easter


lighting the Paschal Candle, The Easter Vigil, baptism and the first Eucharist of Easter

March 31: Easter Day
 

8 and 10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist,

Come so that you do not fail to recognize the time of your visitation from God.

Today and this week

         let us have the boldness of heart

                  to face all the suffering we experience or see around us

         and to place it all in the context of the Passion.

Walk with Jesus this week

         from the palm strewn entry into this Holy Week

         to that Upper Room where the disciples gathered

         and Jesus told them to eat him and to drink his blood

         to become him, to be transformed into his likeness

                  through this very earthy, very physically intimate process of eating.

Walk with Jesus this week

         out to the Garden of Gethsemane and keep vigil in prayer.

Draw near to the Cross

         and be present at his dying

         and be present in all our own dying and in all the grief and suffering.

We are invited this week to walk through death into life,

                  unspeakable Life, which is Light shining out in the darkness,

                           Life that brings light to all living beings.

In Luke’s Passion account

         Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Let us also place our lives in the hands of God.

Indeed this is the intent of the Epistle reading for today.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the Name that is above every name,

so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.