An Interrupted Birthday Party

Friday was my sister’s birthday, 

         and we went out to dinner with dearly loved friends at Anthony’s.

We chose the place and the time so that we could linger over dinner

         until the Fourth of July fireworks began,

                  seated on the deck where we had a wonderfully unobstructed view.

It was perfect!

 

And then only seconds into the display the fireworks stopped,

         and then we saw people running, heard sirens 

                  and knew that something had gone terribly wrong.

The manager of the restaurant called those of us on the deck 

         to come back inside the restaurant

                  and then he locked the doors.

Those of us in the lock down speculated about what had happened.

         a fireworks malfunction?         an active shooter?         a bomb threat?         

 

Everyone was checking their cell phones.

The atmosphere was tense; people were edgy and afraid.

 

I prayed for the first responders and that no one was trampled.

And I thought to myself, 

         this fear and threat of violence has reached even here.

 

While I am very grateful that the incident and the panic it created

         did not cause damage or injury,

I also experienced my own upset internally.

         Some of those around us were in shock.

Just viewing this caused trauma.

 

This is a time that seems precarious, an unsettling time 

         full of confusion, uncertainty, fear and even despair.

What had been loved, what we had relied on and counted on

                  seems to be slipping away

         and society itself appears to be breaking down.

 

But here we all are, here within the walls of this church building

         as our gathered faith community.

We come for comfort, for hope, for discernment and guidance,

         and for strength to meet new challenges in our daily lives.

 

So here is some comfort – in the scripture readings for today.

         We have everything we need right here, right now 

                  for dealing with the world around us.

 

The passage from Isaiah is what  Richard Rohr in his book,

                  The Tears of Things, calls the third stage of the prophet’s mission.

The first is to see the problem and exclaim over it.  Woe to us!

The second is the lament, the grieving over the catastrophe, 

                           the tragedy of what human sin has caused.

And the third is comfort and hope, the assurance of God’s steadfast love.

 

And in the Isaiah passage for today,

                  we find a tenderness of love, like a mother for a precious child,

   showered on a people traumatized by the Babylonian exile and captivity.

 

The nature of God is revealed to us as abundant in mercy,

                  never giving up on us.

 

Now the Gospel reading – I want to bring out something that perhaps

                  may seem like a new reading of it,

but, trust me, I believe it is there.

 

This is about Jesus sending out 70 of his followers,

         not just the 12 who were specifically called 

                  and commissioned later to become the Apostles.

Jesus is sending them to places where he himself was about to go.

         The Greek does not say “where Jesus intended to go,”

                  but “where Jesus was about to go.”

 

Here are the instructions in preparation for their mission.

“You will be like lambs sent to wolves.”

         In other words, you will be vulnerable, 

         but you will also be food/nourishment for those you meet.

How can I say that?  Because the word for lamb here 

         means specifically the lamb that will be sacrificed and eaten.

                  This is the only place it appears in the Gospels,

                  so its use here was deliberate and specific.

 

His instructions continue about traveling without provisions,

         not even sandals!                  barefoot?!

That means that when you arrive at your destination,

         you are going to enter that town as a beggar.

The people there will have to take care of you and provide for you

                  as though you were children.

         As though you were children!

 

That is a cue to look at what comes before today’s text in Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 9:46-48

It is about the argument that arose among the disciples about who is greatest.

Jesus takes a child,

         “Whoever receives this child in my name, receives me…

         the least among you is the greatest.”

So they are to present themselves like children, the least,

         so that when the townspeople receive them,

                  they are receiving Jesus.

 

What’s the connection?

The instructions from Jesus continue: when you arrive say, 

         “Peace to this house!” as they enter it.

 

The translation gets too loose here,

         and therefore misses a key point in the passage.

“…if anyone is there who shares in peace, 

         your peace will rest on that person…”

rather         “…if there is [the] son of peace there,

         your peace will rest on it [the house]…”

 

Who is this “son of peace”?  -  Jesus!

Jesus is going ahead of them by the Spirit;

         he does the work of preparing hearts, opening the way.

 

So in actuality, if we are to follow up with this passage,

     to engage in sharing the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

         it will be done by the Spirit of the Risen Christ.

 

Jesus goes before us and is present in each of our attempts

                  to proclaim the Kingdom/the Reign of God at hand.

It’s his work, not ours, BUT we are to be like life-nourishing lambs.

 

I am talking about this because now more than ever

         those of us who call ourselves Christians need to be those

who are channels of life-giving sustenance for a desperately hungry world.

 

Where we go, Christ goes ahead, 

         the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Presence of Christ precedes us.

 

But now, what about us being fed, being strengthened?

 

It is now more important than ever before

         that this house of God be a sanctuary of peace.

May our homes be grounded in peace.

May our conversations be motivated by peace.

 

This peace is NOT quiescence, being inactive or submissive.

This peace is a sense of solid grounding in what is unshakeable:

                  which is God’s love for us,

                  God’s presence with us

         that empowers us for Spirit-led action for the good of ALL persons.

 

There is no enemy to fear or hate,

         only that agape love, that perfect love that casts out fear,

                  that calms the soul, that delivers realistic hope in a time of unrest.

 

A good source of this Peace that passes all understanding

         is in the Eucharist.                  Come eat peace here at this table.

The source of Peace is also in our daily prayers and spiritual practices,

         and it comes in caring for each other – now more than ever

                  so that people will say, “See how these Christians love one another.”

 

Now, if you need more instructions on how to care for each other,

  you might want to  re-read the Epistle for today.      (Galatians 6:1-16)

That’s your home work.

Resurrection Got-cha Events

 Today we have two accounts of resurrection appearances

         each of them focused on the response

                  of the two most prominent apostles,

         how each of them was encountered by the risen Lord,

         and how each responded:

                                                      Peter and Paul.

Here are two very different apostles,

         but both of them very much in the grips of

                  the commanding spiritual power of the Resurrection Jesus.

 

Let’s look at them 

         and see if we can see anything of ourselves and our world in them.

 

Paul first, or Saul as the name he was first known by:

 

I have always wondered about Saul,

         a good, religious person,

         a very highly observant Pharisee,

         scrupulous in conforming his life to Torah, 

                                                      the commandments of God.

What was it that caused him to become such a zealot

         and in such opposition to this new budding sect of Jesus followers

that he would resort to violence and jihad,

that he would pursue them and seek them out

         in order to harass and imprison and even kill them?

 

We see too much of such religious extremism today,

         such intolerance and exclusiveness in dogma and right belief.

Saul, the terrorist.

But God’s mercy and love is so incredibly great

         that instead of waging war on the terrorist,

God’s wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, 

         as it says today in Psalm 30  -  the briefest nanosecond,

but God’s favor/God’s grace/God’s mercy/God’s love 

                  goes on and on for a lifetime.

 

And the Resurrection Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus,

         an appearance like what Peter and James and John must have seen

                  on the Mount of the Transfiguration,

a resurrection appearance so blindingly brilliant

         that it sears Saul’s eyeballs.

 

And I always have a special fondness for Ananias,

         a disciple of Jesus put in a very difficult position when he is told:

“Go and minister to the very enemy who is seeking to do you harm.”

 

And Ananias reaches out to Saul 

         calling him brother and offering him healing,

“and immediately something like scales fell from [Saul’s] eyes…

         and he got up and was baptized…

         and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus…”

 

Whatever it was that had been behind Saul’s extremist religion and terrorism,

         was reconciled, forgiven and healed in this resurrection encounter.

 

Well, it’s easy now-a-days to point fingers at other groups 

                  and to call them extremists and terrorist,

         THEM and not us.

But don’t think for one moment 

         that there isn’t a latent terrorist buried beneath your skin too.

The potential is there.

Every act of domestic violence, 

         every occasion of verbal abuse even,

                  shows us how close we are to becoming terrorists ourselves.

 

But our risen Lord intervenes in our lives with mercy,

         and oftentimes through some modern day Ananias,

someone who doesn’t play the “them and us” game,

         who returns evil with love.

 

Watch out.           Maybe we too will be called upon by Resurrection Jesus

                                    to be Ananias to someone we are on the outs with.

 

Now for the other resurrection appearance,

         this in a more peaceful setting:

Peter going fishing with his old buddies.

 

Well now, have you ever wondered why Peter suddenly wants to go fishing?

 

Sure, he was a fisherman, that was his occupation, so it seems natural,

         but is that the sort of thing you would expect of someone

                  who had been through the whole events of Holy Week

                  and who had seen the risen Lord

                  and upon whom that risen Lord had breathed Holy Spirit

                           and entrusted to them the ministry of reconciliation?

 

Did Peter just say to himself, “Well, that was an interesting experience.

Now I might as well go back to what I was doing before all this began.”?

 

I wonder if Peter might still have been feeling remorse 

                  for his denial of Jesus that fateful night, 

         if he felt that he had so blown it 

                  that he no longer had the right to consider himself Jesus’ disciple.

He better just go home.

                                    And, notice, he wasn’t alone.

 

But this professional fisherman and his fisherman colleagues

         apparently had lost the knack, 

         couldn’t do what they had done so often before,

         couldn’t go back to the way things were.

 

And so this resurrection appearance comes with 

loving, and even maternal, compassion and caring on the part of Jesus:

         with a touch of humor 

                  – try throwing your net on the other side of the boat -

         and then directing the fish to come swimming right up to them,

         and having breakfast waiting for them on the beach.

 

Jesus meets them where they are 

         in their confusion and difficulty in recognizing him.

 

Yes, this is something we can more readily identify with.

How often do we experience confusion in our faith about 

                  who Jesus is,

                  where is God, 

                  why is this happening to me, 

                  how am I then to live?

How difficult does it seem at times to recognize the risen Lord

                  present and active in our lives?

 

But if we were to pause at frequent intervals and say to ourselves, like John,

                           “It is the Lord!”

what might be revealed to our hearts, 

         how would the eyes of our faith be opened to us?

 

But this Gospel story doesn’t stop here.

Peter is led right back into discipleship

         with dreadful resoluteness by Resurrection Jesus.

He may not have been struck blind like Saul was on the road to Damascus,

         but he too was experiencing intervention in his life

                  so that he would never again deny he knew Jesus,

                  so that he would be a faithful witness to the Resurrection,

                  so that he would be faithful even to a martyr’s death.

 

Three times Peter had denied knowing Jesus,

and three times Jesus asked him, “Do you love me?”

         Three opportunities for restoration…

 

The passage contains a number of subtle references

         to the process of calling a disciple.

Peter is being called again into discipleship with Jesus,

         a fresh start, a new beginning

                  in the new creation of resurrection.

 

And this is not just so that Peter can get it 

         that he is restored to right relationship with Jesus.

Discipleship with Jesus is for a purpose, a job, a ministry,

         and Peter’s is pastoral leadership among the followers of Jesus.

 

Okay, where are we in this story?

Do we want to be considered as disciples of Jesus?

Are we afraid about what this might entail

         if we were to let ourselves really answer that call?

 

Are we confusing discipleship 

         with being active church members?

You know, much of what we do as “ministries” around here,

         is simply sharing the chores.

Discipleship ministry goes out from this safe, comforting space

         and engages us in reconciliation in the world,

                  in our homes, in our workplace, in the marketplace,

                  in our associations,

                  in our outreach and volunteer activities in the community.

 

And do we understand that discipleship includes, indeed, is mainly 

                  being a witness to the Resurrection?

 

Being a witness to the Gospel good news that there is new life,

         a new creation possible in each of us,

         an abundance of love to be experienced and to give.

Resurrection Now

 Welcome to all families visiting from out of town and to all guests!

When I look out at you sitting there in the pews today,

         I don’t know all your stories, all your history,

but I do know that you have chosen to be here today,

         and that lets me know first of all that this has importance for you.

No matter how each of you may be feeling at the moment

         that either encouraged you to be here or did not deter you from coming,

                  you are here.

This I do know:  that you are each uniquely created beings

         who are so valued by your Creator, so loved, so deeply known 

                  that despite whatever we may have ever said or done,

                           grace has touched our lives.

You are love,                    and I respect that and I thank God for you.

 

So at the time for Communion please don’t hesitate to join with us                                                                         in the receiving the bread and the wine.

         Wherever you are in your journey of faith, you are welcome at this table.

 

Today, Easter Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection

         and not just for today, but for the Great 50 Days of the Easter Season.

 

Christians are sometimes referred to as the Resurrection People.

         The emphasis is on Resurrection.

So liturgically in how we worship, we need 50 days of Easter

         - and notice that this is longer than 40 days of Lent. 

 

We need 50 days to celebrate and practice living in Resurrection Life

                  to foster being open to realization of Resurrection

                           as a present reality and potency of life

                                                               right here and now

 

But notice, this Resurrection is not just about one person raised from the dead,

         but ALL of us given the opportunity to experience Resurrection Life NOW,

                  even before we die.

 

Resurrection Life is realized life, 

         a quality of life revealed to us in the present moment

                  when we recognize the Holy One  present with us,

                  when we experience joy and wonder in Creation around us,

                  when we know that our love for others 

                                    is taking us beyond ourselves, outside of ourselves.

 

These are Easter moments

At these times, which we may consider “special”

         we are tasting the Eternal quality of Life,

                  that part of life that has a timelessness about it,

                           a fullness about it.

 

Take a moment right now to search your memory, something recent, 

                  or something farther in the past,

         those moments when what I am describing was something you tasted.

 

Maybe that is what you long for right now.

You might recognize 

         that our longings come out of what we have previously experienced.

When you recognize that this is so,

         then you have proof that you have tasted this Eternal quality Life.

You have tasted something of the Resurrection.

 

But let’s take a pause here to see how the great Spiritual Truth of Resurrection

         was initially experienced.

In the Resurrection story we just heard read

         the women come to the tomb seeking the corpse

                  to do it service and honor as respects the dead.

In that dark cave of a tomb as they fumble around searching for the body,

         instead they suddenly encounter right beside them 

                  two men in dazzling clothes that flood the tomb with light.

That’s enough to make you jump right out of your skin!

But it’s the question they ask which is the most important:

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

 

Let me share a quotation with you from the late Bill Ellis,

         who had been dean at St. John’s Cathedral here in Spokane.

He wrote this to address that provocative question the two in the tomb had posed.

 

Our catechism tells us that 

         “By his resurrection Jesus overcame death 

         and opened for us the way of eternal life.” 

Were we to content ourselves with [this]…, 

         we would draw the reasonable conclusion 

                  that the resurrection of Jesus is not particularly relevant to us 

                           while we are alive on this earth; 

         it becomes important only when we die …

And thus, as far as our present existence is concerned, 

         the resurrection is like an exit from a very large building.  

It is nice to know it is there, but we won’t need it until we are ready to leave.

 

[end of quote]  This is helpful for all of us, 

      as we deal with our own mortality and of those we love, 

                  but it is not enough.  

 

A religion that deals only with what happens after we die 

         is a religion for the dead, not the living. 

What difference does the Resurrection make to us right here and now?

 

For all of us, from the least of us to the greatest theologians,

         our understanding of the resurrection 

                  is much too small, too limited, vastly incomplete.

Resurrection is far more than life after death,

         far more than an idea about heaven.

 

We say in the creed we believe in the resurrection of the body.

         But what sort of body is this?

The women in the Gospel story for today come to the tomb,

         and even before the stone is rolled away, the body is gone.

That’s some sort of body! a body that can dematerialize,

         and then rematerialize in a room where the way in by the door is barred.

 

Yet it is a body that can be touched, 

         a body that can take in food, eat and swallow,

                  not like Marley’s ghost whom Scrooge could look through

                  and see the waistcoat buttons on the other side.

What kind of body is this?

The bodies we are familiar with die and decompose and return to dust.

 

But resurrection is more than a body, a physical body or a spiritual body.

Resurrection came after the death of Jesus,

         a death into which Jesus has perpetually taken all our sins, 

                                                      all our suffering, all our deaths.

He died our deaths.           He died our deaths for us.

 

Resurrection is the New Creation.

 

With his last breath, the last breath of the One who is the Word of God,

         who spoke all creation into being,

         now in this last breath he takes with him all beings,

                  back into that realm of Uncreated Light,

                  the realm of the undivided waters over which the Spirit was hovering,

                  back into the Source, back to God,

and now he brings to life, lifts up all that the Father had entrusted to him.

 

And so now everything is New Life, new life sustained in the resurrection.

It is all the New Creation, 

         continually and eternally sustained in the resurrection life of Jesus.

 

Now we can begin to see what difference resurrection means to us 

                                    right here and now.

 

We are living in resurrection.

If we had eyes to see this, we would be able to recognize

         the newness of every moment,

         the incredible wonder of life, of breathing, of growing,

         the love which sustains all life new every moment,

                  despite all the strife, contention, warfare, and suffering.

 

We would see the abundance of goodness.

We would see through our attitudes of scarcity.

We would see through our fears for what they are.

 

If we had eyes to see the resurrection

         we would see in each other the image of Jesus the Resurrected One.

 

We would see Jesus in each and every one of us,

                                                      in all living beings.

We would bow down in awe and love before one another.

If our awareness of present resurrection were to expand,

         this would have great implications on what we would do.

 

It could shift our priorities, reorder our attitudes,

         change our emotional reactivity,

         reorient our aims and purpose in life,

         and energize us for participating more fully in life.

It would send us out as agents of resurrection,

                  lights sparked eternally 

                           from that ultimate Paschal candle

                           of Uncreated Light at the Source,

                           the creating Word of God himself,

                           the Resurrection Lord.

 

So that group of devoted women left the tomb

         and reported to the disciples and everyone all that they had seen and heard.

And the disciples’ response was not the joyful response we give when we hear

                  Alleluia! Christ is risen!

not

                  The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

 

They dismissed the women’s testimony.

         Easter Day was not yet a celebration for them.  They would be in hiding.

Still, Peter, at least, went to check out the report.

         But don’t go looking for the living among the dead.

 

May we not be so slow to believe, to accept the joyful Gospel good news.

 

Alleluia.  Christ is risen…