Sermon for April 26

The readings

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.                          Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me.                                                                
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.                                                                              
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.

1 John 3:16-24

 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.  And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God;  and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

John 10:11-18

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away--and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay 

 it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

 The message

When we were growing up, my brother and I watched our dad rebuild the house.  The place was what people called a handyman special. The property was cheaper than most of the other houses in the area but the place was neglected for many years and needed a lot of repair. We spent several years living with some parts of the house always being a construction area and piles of tools and supplies all over.  My dad, with some help from my uncle from time to time, redid the floors, walls, ceilings, plumbing, electric, kitchen, windows, and basement.  If there was a particular project he did not know how to do, he would simply read about it, try it out, or ask someone for advice.  In all senses of the word, my dad was a do it yourselfer. There was never a reason to pay a professional to do something you could figure out for yourself and there were very few things you couldn’t figure out for yourself.   My mother, grandmother and most of the people who cared for me as I grew up, all felt and lived by that same rule, if you could figure it out for yourself, you should figure it out for yourself.          

In many ways, I saw, learned and inherited this same sense of self-sufficiency, of being responsible for taking care of whatever needed to be done. Even today, I do not like to ask for help (even when I probably should).  Of course, I am not unique, today there are a lot of people who celebrate figuring things out for themselves. Many people I know turn to the internet to be their own doctors, to diagnose their medical or health problems, entering their symptoms and finding out they have anything from the common cold to a super rare illness or anything in between. I know many students in all different schools and levels who refuse to ask for help and struggle through a particular topic or project. I also know people who have gathered together groups of friends to replace roofs and handle other jobs much better left to skilled, insured and trained professionals. There is a sense of pride in declaring “I figured it out” and I always hear people I know boast that they managed to repair their own car, fix their own computer, taught themselves a language or learned a new skill on their own.   There is a feeling of being capable and a deep sense of independence and accomplishment that comes from knowing “I did it myself”.    

That is why it can be so difficult to really hear and really understand what our bible readings are about.  Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, a day the church sets aside to focus on the metaphor of Jesus as the good shepherd.  Jesus original audience were farmers, fishermen, shepherds, and people who lived closely connected with the land,  water, animals and crops. They would have instantly understood the meaning of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  That is not true for many of us.  I grew up in Brooklyn and have spent my life living in a large city.  I have visited a farm once or twice, never met an actual shepherd and my only encounters with sheep have been the cute, wooly ones at the petting zoo and the collection of plush ones Jen and I have accumulated over the years. This limited experience with sheep is probably true for many of you here today as well. I mean, we understand the main idea, shepherds watch over and protect sheep, Jesus watches over and protects us, but this metaphor of the Good Shepherd is much deeper and scarier than that.  The sheep depend on the shepherd to survive.   Sheep are definitely not do it yourself type animals who figure things out.  They need help. 

I learned this about sheep from a professor at the seminary. She was the only one I have ever heard talk about Jesus as the Good shepherd who actually knew anything about sheep. She had served several rural congregations in Montana prior to graduate school.  There, her communities and congregations had actual shepherds, people who earned their living by raising and caring for sheep.  She showed us all a new depth to the story of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  Sheep often get trapped in places that they cannot get out of and have a very limited ability to avoid danger. Jesus role as the good shepherd is more than just watching over and protecting us. Through Jesus God does what we cannot figure out or do for ourselves.

In this case it is a matter of salvation.  The story of God’s communication of love with the world is one filled with God’s disappointment, divine anger, forgiving love and human failure.  Before Jesus, our scriptures and history are filled with examples of God calling people back to relationship with God and faith, God trying to pull people away from the gravity of sin and power of death. People are punished severely for disobedience, they are rewarded greatly for faithfulness, they are forgiven for unthinkable acts of faithlessness, given kingdoms, beautiful cities and great temples,  have kingdoms taken away, beautiful cities left in ruin and great temples destroyed, they are given victory in wars they should never have won and 400 years of slavery.  They are given prophets to perform signs of God’s power and announce God’s message.  None of these attempts at getting people away from sin, death and all the things that separate us from the life God wants for us, really worked, at least not for any real about of time.  Salvation, freedom from sin and death is something we just cannot do for ourselves.  That’s when we get to Jesus, the good shepherd, the one who lays his life down for the sheep, who sets us free from sin and death. This is God’s work, God’s grace.         

 

That is the heart of our faith. We are saved by grace, God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. This is the comfort that Martin Luther longed for and saw missing from all the rituals and rules of his church.  Of course, we are human, we want to do it ourselves, we always fall back into thinking surely we can save ourselves by obeying the law, by doing good works, by making the decision for Jesus. We often think there needs to be some do it yourself way of salvation, some path we can take and works we can perform to save ourselves.  With all of the things we can do and all of the things we know about the world, there simply must be some way for us to save ourselves.  We want to be the Good Shepherd, the one with the power and faith to make things right.  We start to see Jesus as a helper, someone who enables and strengthens us to be do it ourselves, who provides the guide, who gives us a little push and lets us walk back to God. That is not the story, “you are not the Good Shepherd”, “I am not the Good Shepherd”, we are the sheep, and our salvation is not something we can earn, figure out or create for ourselves

Sermon for April 12, 2015

Sunday April 12^th, 2015  The Second Sunday after Easter 

Acts 4:32-35

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."  But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."  Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, 

the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The Message

The situation in the early church that formed right after Jesus resurrection is really remarkable. We heard a description of this community in Acts 4. We learn that the whole group of Jesus followers were of one heart and one mind, they sold and shared their possessions, everyone was provided for according to their needs and there was not a needy person among them. This is a profound example of what living out Jesus teachings looks like. Part of the reason behind this commitment and faithful way of life with God at the center of all things was that many of the people there believed the world would be ending and Jesus would return within a few years.  As time goes on and people realized Jesus return was not imminent, things change.   This community rooted in extreme faith, does not last too long.  Things fall apart quickly and so far in church history, have never been the same.

The collapse of the community happens fast. In fact, immediately after today’s reading in Acts 5, we get to the uncomfortable story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, This couple is part of the church community. They sell their property, turn over some of the money they gained and secretly put some aside for themselves. Ananias comes in, donates the portion set aside for the church and lies about it to the group, saying that is all he made from the sale. After being questioned and repeating the lie a few times, he falls down dead.  A few hours later, his wife Sapphira, comes in, without knowing what happened to her husband. She tells the same lie about the amount of the sale. Again after repeating it a few times, she falls down dead.  Here was the end of giving everything and holding all things in common.   

Being of one heart and one mind disappears quickly as well.  This early group of followers starts to be divided by different understandings of God’s work in the world. This initial harmony is followed by almost 2000 years (and counting) of arguments, disagreements, conflicting interpretations of Jesus teachings and different understandings of the resurrection. Along with the 1000’s of little things that separate God’s church, there were large disputes over things like if you needed to become Jewish before being baptized, if Jesus was truly human, if Jesus is truly God, the role of saints, the role of icons, homosexuality, the literal or allergorical reading of the bible, how are sins forgiven, what actually  happens during communion, do we baptize infants or adults,  the role of women, and conflict or agreement with science and what we know about the world.  I wish I could say that, at least, the great proclamation of Easter, that Christ is risen from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins, is something we could be of one mind and one heart about but we cannot even seem to agree about that and what it means for the world.  A church that started out as and celebrated one heart and one mind has become millions of angry, divided hearts and disagreeing minds.    

In the early church, people in need also start to show up and go away empty. In his letter to the church in Corinith, Paul spends chapters condemning the mockery they are making of the Lord’s supper when the rich eat huge feasts while the poor celebrating among them have very little.  Today, this division remains. We have the recent scandal of a German bishop’s forty million dollar private palace.  It’s only a few people in that category but those are the stories people remember and make the millions of leaders in the church who are doing the right thing look very bad.. So much for everyone sharing everything in common.

We have gone very far from being a community of one mind and one heart, who care for each other and share what we have. I really think it is amazing, a miracle that we have a faith which has survived so many centuries of very bad behavior, attack, laziness, abuse, criticism, wrong ideas and competition.  To understand how that is possible, I look at the story of doubting Thomas in today’s Gospel reading. One of the few things that we are of one mind and one heart about is doubt. We have all been there.  I have barely ever spoken to someone who has spent their whole lives sure of anything, including their faith. The few times I have, I often wonder if they are telling me the truth. Thomas, shows us the church is supposed to be a safe place to wrestle and struggle with faith, to be critical, to ask hard questions, to be honest about what we believe and open to new perspectives, to change our minds, to change our traditions to help others experience God’s love, to realize we are an imperfect, human church, held together by the Holy Spirit and hopefully trying our best.         

The real reason Thomas helps explain how the church has survived, is that after he sees the Risen Christ, after his doubts are answered, he acts.  The rest of the disciples have spent all of the their time locked away and hiding in a house. They are scared and do not know what to believe or do. They have seen the Lord but it has not changed them, it has not sent them out to share the good news.  Thomas openly doubts but he is the first to really get it, he declares that Jesus is My Lord and my God, He is the first to recognize what God has done through Christ. He is the first to realize that at Christmas, God was born as one of us, becoming incarnate, in the flesh. He is the first to realize that on Good Friday, God hands God’s self over to death. He is the first to realize on Easter, God is Risen from the dead, that sin and death have been defeated.  Thomas is the first to really experience the joy of Easter, his doubts, worries and fears are wiped out by the news, Christ is Risen from the dead.  Thomas is also the first to accept the responsibility of Easter.  Immediately after the encounter with the risen Christ, Thomas does not stay in the room, he leaves and goes out to tell the world. According to traditions and reports, Thomas travels further then anyone else, bringing the news that Christ is Risen from the dead all the way to India. 

We are far from being that ideal community in Acts 4, being of one mind and holding all things in common but we remain a community of faith changed by the joy of Jesus resurrection and maintained by the responsibility to go and tell the others.   

Sermon for April 5 (Easter)

Easter 2015

Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines. And the Lord will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.  It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,  through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.  For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.  As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.  But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."  So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.

The message

 

Last week, I experienced Easter. I was at a coffee shop in Woodside and I had my worries and doubts interrupted by the good news that Christ is risen from the dead.  That is really what Easter is about. A moment when God's love breaks into the world and interferes with our fears.   It is a time for joy and responsibility.    

I was at the coffee shop to meet someone and talk about a few new projects in the neighborhood. He was dealing with an emergency situation and running late. While waiting, I was anxious about all the different things that needed to be done to prepare for Holy Week and Easter.  I figured I would use the extra time to work on my Easter sermon. I had three and a half Easter sermons started at home, none of which I really liked. It just didn’t feel as though any of them really captured what Easter was about in any clear or meaningful way.  Easter is the most important day of our faith but honestly it can be very difficult to talk about and prepare for. I had no idea where any of those three and a half Easter sermons were going and that was starting to bother me a lot. 

That morning in the coffee shop, I decided to start fresh and make a list of everything  that came to my mind when I thought about Easter. I had some religious things on the list like the cross, a full church, the empty tomb, and Jesus. I also wrote down some not so religious things like Bunny, candy, vacation, and eggs. All of a sudden, I heard “Christ is Risen from the dead” coming through the speakers at the coffee shop. At first, I thought that I misheard, but then it was repeated again and again: “Christ is Risen from the dead”.  It turns out that the owner of the coffee shop had just put on a Christian music station and most of the words in this particular song were “Christ is Risen from the dead.”

Now when a pastor goes to a coffee shop, learns that the person he is supposed to meet will be delayed, continues to struggle with an Easter message and out of nowhere hears the words “Christ is Risen from the Dead” that is too much of a coincidence to ignore. All I could think was that this is Easter, this is God actually working in the world, announcing God’s presence and love through Jesus death and resurrection.  I felt better right away.  I was no longer anxious or worried. I knew that I wanted to talk about this experience on Easter.  It was a moment of joy and responsibility. I suddenly took notice of God’s love happening around me and remembered that I needed to tell people about it.  

I saw a neighbor trying to help someone dealing with a crisis.   

I noticed a person in the café offering a free drink and snack to the always ignored man digging in the trash outside 

I realized the group walking together in suits were consoling each other after a funeral at the church down the street. I paused to say a prayer for them in their time of grief.

I realized that the coffee shop was not selling fair trade coffee and local, sustainable foods to make more money, they were doing it because of their faith and care for the world around them

Things looked and felt different because Christ was Risen from the dead.  My Easter experience that morning reminded that today is about joy and responsibility.  That theme comes up again and again in readings.

Our Joy that comes from trusting the prophet Isaiah’s words, “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces” 

Our responsibility to speak those words to the unbelieving, anxious and scared.                                           

Our joy of knowing what was revealed through scripture, that Christ died for our sins and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.                         

  

Our responsibility to study, know, struggle with, look to and share those scriptures.                 

Our joy in Paul’s declaration “But by the grace of God I am what I am”, of knowing that God works through all of us in different ways.                  

 Our responsibility to actually celebrate those differences in creative, innovative, and faithful ways.    

 Our joy of hearing “Christ is not here, He is Risen from the dead.” when we really need to            

 Our responsibility to show and tell people “Christ is Risen from the Dead”, when they really need to hear it.    

Now of the two, of joy and responsibility, Joy is the more important. That is the one that God and only God can give us. The joy of knowing that Christ is risen for the forgiveness of our sins allows us to fulfill our responsibilities. That is the lesson of the Easter story in Mark’s Gospel.  The women walk to the tomb to anoint Jesus body in accordance with their religious traditions.  It is dangerous and even a little foolish. Dangerous because Jesus was killed as a political and religious rebel. If the women passed anyone on the road who knew what they were up to, they could be harassed, attacked, arrested, put on trial and end up on a cross just like Jesus.  It was  foolish because a large, very heavy rock they could not possibly move was placed in front of the tomb.  There would be no way for them to do their planned anointing. For these brave and faithful women, the dangerous and impossible cannot stop them. What does stop them is the good news, the joy of the angel’s words “He is not here, He has been raised”.  That is when they are seized by terror and amazement.  The Joy that they encounter at the empty tomb sends them running away shy, quiet and scared. 

In many ways, we are just like the women in this story, we often do okay with the responsibility part: we sort of keep the rules, do what we need to do, and try to help. However, the joy makes us shy, quiet and scared.   

Finally, I invite you to be ready for Easter experiences, to let your pain, sadness and anxiety be interrupted by the news, Christ is Risen from the dead.  I invite all of you to sit with the joy of Easter and let it change and direct you. Like Mark’s Gospel,  I end with our greatest joy:  “Christ is Risen from the dead” and our greatest responsibility “Go and Tell the others”.