My Lord and My God

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May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Our gospel lesson today picks up where last week’s gospel left off.  It is the day of Jesus’ resurrection.  And according to John, the disciples were locked away in the house for fear of the Jews.  For John it's very important that the doors be locked - it makes a statement - not even locked doors can keep Jesus out.  Jesus comes and stands among them.  He speaks to them - "Peace be with you." And he shows them his hands.  And they believe.                      

Except for Thomas - where was Thomas that evening?  We don’t have a clue where he was, but this meant that Thomas had to hear about this second hand.  Rumors…   Gossip…   Idle chatter…   Pipe dreams…   Speculation…  who could believe such a thing?

I worked with Father Jim Morgan in Huntsville for 6 years and he was always repeating something that someone had told him. One day something he said struck me as somewhat outlandish - and I turned to him and asked…"Do you believe everything you hear?"  He stopped and pulled back and looked at me.  Then he said, "I guess I do."  A regular "mister gullible" there…  And on the other extreme is my husband, Sam - "mister skepticism himself!"  Questions everything you tell him.  He and Thomas are like two peas in a pod.  

The word "faith" is not used in this passage - but it certainly is implied.  Faith is defined as a firm belief in something for which there is no proof.  And I guess it depends on what you call proof when it comes to believing in God and in Jesus.  Thomas wanted proof - the same kind of assurance that the other disciples had already received.  He’s not asking for anything different.

By not being there that first night, Thomas missed out on so much - .  He missed out on affirmation - seeing Jesus – now that’s not like missing out on seeing friend Joe when he stops by the office…  “Oh yeah, you just missed Joe…,”  “Oh that’s alright – I’ll see him tomorrow.”  No, Jesus had died, his stopping by the office was a big deal – he wasn’t supposed to even be alive!  And at that point, no one knew if he would ever show up again.  

The second thing Thomas missed was peace, Jesus offered the disciples peace – peace of mind, peace in their heart, peace in their very soul.   Peace may very well be the first ingredient in experiencing God.  When you are anxious or afraid, or active, you are not in a receptive frame of mind.  Jesus can be standing right there beside you and you might never know it.  When that peace comes over you, you know that Jesus is near!

The third thing Thomas missed was the sending out – the authority to go out in the name of Jesus and to tell the world the story of Jesus.  How he came and lived among the people – how he walked the dusty roads – how he touched the people to heal them and to drive out demons – how he died, and how he rose again.  But Thomas missed it – how could he tell the story of resurrection when he had not witnessed it?  Where was his authority?

And the fourth thing, Thomas missed out on the receiving of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, receive the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus in our day to day lives.  The Holy Spirit is that voice that might tell us, where to go… what to do…  and it provides those moments of inspiration, of insight – those times when you hear something come out of your mouth and you know its true (or at least feel sure it’s true) and you don’t have a clue where it came from, because it had never been a conscious thought in your mind.

People have a tendency to berate Thomas for his questioning - his doubts.  But there are valid reasons for examining our faith.    Tell me, what kind of a faith do we have if we simply believe everything we are told?  I fear that is when we end up with tragedies like the 1978 Jonestown mass suicide when more than 900 members of the People's Temple drank poison because their leader The Rev. Jim Jones told them to do so.  

Or closer to home is the Waco standoff between the Branch Davidians and the FBI where David Koresh and 74 of his followers were engulfed in flames.  Koresh apparently believed that he was the returning Jesus - the Second Coming.  Reading our lesson from Revelation reminds me of my friend Leah's commenting, "My Jesus will return in a cloud of glory, not a blaze of gunfire."  I think that Jim Jones and David Koresh's followers were examples of what happens to people who go on blind faith - who don't wrestle with what they believe.

Faith that has wrestled with the harder questions has a much better chance of standing the test of time and assaults.  I really like Robin Williams "Top Ten reasons for being an Episcopalian," especially the one that says, "You don't have to check your mind at the door."  We invite discussion, we invite questions, we even invite differences.

God knows it's hard to come to faith - remember the man that came to Jesus and exclaimed, "Lord, I do believe - help my unbelief."   I invite you to grapple with your faith - to come to a firmer understanding of what it means to be a Christian.  I invite you to examine your faith.  Paul tells us in Philippians to "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."  And he continues with, "For it is God who works in you, to will and to act according to his purposes."  

It's okay to ask for proof - just as Thomas did.  But when you receive that proof - just as Thomas did - then accept it and embrace it with everything you have - just as Thomas did.  "My Lord and my God."  It is God's faithfulness to give us what we need - for us to come to faith in him.  Faith itself is a free gift from God.  

Jesus will always meet us where we are, and he invites us to live into what we do believe, and when we are ready, He will come and expand our experience of him and he will make himself known in our life, in our church and in the world around us.

Christ is risen!

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A number of years ago, while I was still in seminary, Sam and I happened to be driving by a cemetery the week before Easter.  There was a huge banner over the front entrance proclaiming, “Easter Sunrise Service Here on Easter Sunday.”  My first thought was, “What a strange place to have an Easter Sunrise service.”  But then I remembered that the first Easter took place at sunrise – in a cemetery – and it all made perfect sense.

In Jerusalem there are two separate locations claiming to be the tomb of Jesus.  That’s not unusual – there are two locations claiming to be most of the places that are associated with Jesus.  Yesterday I read a sermon, the whole of which discussed which tomb was the right location – I thought what a waste of a sermon.  The location itself is not so important – but what happened there is!  

The two locations are the Garden Tomb and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  We visited both while we were in Jerusalem.  The church of the Holy Sepulchre is a huge building covering an area larger than most city blocks - and the last five stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem are inside the church.  

You go to one chapel to see the place where the cross was – and another to see where they gambled for his clothing, etc.  There are a lot of side chapels, and then you stand in a long line waiting to go into the little grotto where the tomb is supposed to be.  That was in the news recently because it was closed off to the public to be refurbished.  It reopened several weeks ago to be ready for Easter.  The church is a busy place with lots of people and a lot of ambient noise.  There is really no place to go and be still and just absorb what it is all about.

A story is told about one of the keepers of the Holy Sepulchre who was found sitting on a bench at the Garden Tomb.  A worker at the Garden Tomb knew who he was and asked why he was there.  The man answered, “I know we have the right location of the tomb – but the garden here has the right feel.”

Picture yourself – early in the morning you are grieving the loss of the one your love, the one you have pinned all your hopes and dreams on.  It is early spring – the flowers are beginning to come out and the birds and bees and butterflies are flitting around – and yet you wonder how life can go on.

Every gospel interpretation of the empty tomb is a little different.  Matthew’s gospel is an apologetic – Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are both listed as witnesses to the crucifixion and death, the burial and the resurrection.  

In this way Matthew refutes stories that the disciples stole the body, and that Jesus didn’t really die.  In Jewish law, there must be two witnesses to establish any fact.  Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were both witnesses and they vouch for the certainty of death, of the burial, of the empty tomb, and of the risen Lord.  

Matthew wants to be sure that we understand that Jesus did not raise himself.  There was an earthquake – that served to open the tomb, but Jesus was already gone.  There is an angel but he is simply the messenger – he did not raise Jesus. God and God alone raised Jesus from the dead.  God validated and vindicated Jesus – his life, his message, his ministry.  

The empty tomb is important – and the message of the angel – both served to give them hope, but the women didn’t really understand until Jesus met them on the path – and they were able to touch him. Even though the angel told them he was risen – it is the witness with their own eyes in which they experienced truth.

Part of the power of the resurrection is in its unexpectedness.  Yes, Jesus had predicted it, over and over, but none of them had understood it – therefore they did not expect it.  They went to the tomb to be near and to mourn and to weep.  And when they arrived, they found joy to replace the tears – they found hope to replace despair.

The angel told them, “Go quickly and tell…”  When Jesus met them on the path, he told the women, “Go and tell.”  They went – and they told.  

Why do we still remember a man (a backwater preacher/teacher) who lived 2000 years ago – who never held a government position or conquered a nation – who never traveled more than 100 miles from where he was born?  The reason is because those who were witnesses went and told others who also told others.  That telling has come down through the centuries to us.

One minister ended his sermon on Easter Sunday saying, “Maybe you came here this morning looking for Jesus – sorry, he’s not here….”  I understand the sentiment – but argue the fact.  

Jesus is here!  Any time two or more people gather in his name, he is in the midst of them.  Turn around and look at your neighbor – the person next to you.  Look around at everyone who fills this place and know that – not only has Jesus risen from the dead – but because he is risen,  Jesus is here today.   Because he is risen, we have hope for the future.  Because he promises that we will rise also, we know that our lives have significance beyond the grave.  Because he is risen we can share in his kingdom both here on earth and in heaven.  Because he is risen, we are called to continue the story - to go out and tell others:

Jesus Christ is alive.  He is risen from the dead and he stands among us.  He brings the certainty of life after death.  Certainty that this world is not our ultimate home, but that there is something more waiting for us beyond the grave.  Christ is risen!

Walking with Jesus thru pain and suffering

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Palm Sunday always bothers me – it moves too quickly from the joyful, triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the sorrowful, dumbfounding ordeal of the trial and the crucifixion – how are we supposed to move between those extremes of emotions so quickly?  How does one fall from grace so quickly.  But it happens all the time – all it takes is making one mistake – look at the number of movie stars or politicians who are on top of the world one day and fallen from grace the next.  

In his book, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis talks about finding joy in a small toy garden made of sticks in a biscuit tin.  For Lewis, joy is not fun or happy times when things are going right, but an instant when you see beyond the thing in front of you and receive a glimpse of some greater truth beyond the thing itself.  For Lewis, it was not the sticks, dried leaves and dirt of the toy garden that caught his imagination, but a yearning or longing - a momentary vision of something far more desirable.  The crucifixion of Jesus is something like that – for it points to a far greater truth, that if we understood the depth of love involved in that one voluntary act, we would be humbled, brought to our knees by the knowledge.       

That’s what our second lesson is about.  Christ Jesus had equal status with God, but he didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to that status no matter what and he never exploited it - instead he took the form of a human, and made himself obedient unto God.  So many people today feel the need to make sure that everyone know who they are and what they have done to deserve honor or power, or attention.  That seems to be part of human nature, but Paul warns us against the temptation to boast. 

We must remind ourselves that we must suffer with Christ in order to be raised with him to newness of life.  As much as we would like to skip the whole crucifixion and dying part of the story and go directly to the resurrection, it is the dying part that is most important.  Without the death of Jesus, there would be no resurrection, no Easter Sunday, no churches, no Christians…

It’s not what we do that saves us, no decision we make (other than to follow Jesus), no good deed we do, will bring us that saving grace – only this gift of Jesus – the gift of his life given for us, so that we might live. 

One year, during a Lenten program, my congregation was challenged to a new idea of what it might mean to suffer – and that was to carry a burden for something.  That year during Lent, I carried an emotional burden that helped me understand the very real emotional pain some people suffer.  The next year I carried a physical burden of a broken wrist and I still have the cast that the kids of my congregation gladly decorated with colored pens on Easter morning.

Holy week is most important for us, because it gives us hope – hope that after the pain and agony of our life, we too might find resurrection.  

There is a story told about the factory worker who bought a single lottery ticket every Sunday and waited all week for the drawing on Saturday night.  When asked why she wasted her money like that, she answered, “One dollar is not too much to pay for a week of hope.”  That is what this week is about – it is a week of hope – knowing that resurrection follows the pain and suffering.

There’s a song – 

Helping you go was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, 

Watching you walk to a place of pain broke my heart in two – 

The fragrance of you lingers with me after you’re gone; 

the words that you spoke, and the way that you laugh, and I cry.  

But the sun’s gonna shine, just wait and see; 

Spring’s gonna come, I can feel it in me, can you?  

Life has a way of becoming so real, if you want it to.  

You know the thing that you said and the things that you did, 

they brought you where you are.  

But the sun’s gonna shine, just wait and see.  

Spring’s gonna come I can feel it in me, can you?  

To find your life, you’ve got to loose you’re life, so you say.  

Well, it’s hard to believe, but in your life – I see it working that way.  

You know the sun’s gonna shine, just wait and see; 

Spring’s gonna come, I can feel it in me, can you….

No matter what we do, or where we go, if we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died for our sins, there is hope at the end of the trial – and resurrection always follows death.

Hope for our generation

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Ezekiel was one of the Israelites taken captive at the fall of Jerusalem 

and moved from his home in Jerusalem to Babylon. 

Basically his world has been destroyed - his home ransacked 

- his career as a priest crumbled when the temple was demolished 

and he was carted off, along with thousands of others, 

Most sent to Babylon.  

So instead of being a priest leading the people in temple worship, 

he became a prophet - seeing visions from God 

and hearing the words of the Lord: 

bringing messages to the people of God 

in their foreign land.  

In this visitation of the Lord, Ezekiel is transported to a valley 

and the valley is filled with bones - dry bones – 

that seem to have been there for centuries.  

And the Lord asks him, "Can these bones live?" 

 Well, what would you say?  

Ezekiel, says, "You know" - implied in that is 

"How should I know?  You're God, you tell me."  

And God tells him to prophesy - prophesy to the bones.  

And I can see Ezekiel thinking, "wait a minute, 

these are bones - they got no ears to hear – 

why should I waste my time?"

Ezekiel looks out over that valley of dry bones – 

hopeless, unredeemable.  They represent all that is lost in Israel – 

the destroyed temple, the lost homes, 

the broken and bleeding people, the lost jobs, 

all the hopeless and helpless situations that can 

go along with the aftermath of a conquered, 

defeated people.  

What are the hopeless situations - the dry bones in our lives today?  

So many possible out there - a bankrupt business, 

a failed marriage, a broken relationship, a flooded house,

unfulfilled dreams, lost jobs, lost loved ones, 

illnesses, cancer, death, and disappointment.

Ezekiel envisions all that and more as he looks at 

this immense graveyard representing total desolation – 

but he follows what the Lord tells him to do 

and he begins to prophesy - and as he does, 

an amazing thing happens, 

what he prophesies begins to come true.  

The bones begin to rustle - they come together and 

sinew and muscle appear and flesh covers it all.  

But there is no breath - and so God tells him to 

prophesy to the breath - the winds - the spirit – 

and that breath (or spirit) comes and 

enters the bodies & they live & stand &

they are more than Ezekiel can count.

You know, I was at a Eucharist once - and it was just me and the priest – 

it's only a side note that it was my birthday – 

it was just that it was a weekday Eucharist here at Grace

and I was the only one who showed up.  

So the priest invited me to come 

and stand at the altar with him.  

As he began the Eucharist – 

I became aware of a whole host filling the church, 

communing with us - if I turned and looked down the nave, 

it was bare, empty - but from my peripheral vision 

I could see this happening.  

it was like every angel and every person who had ever worship in

this place were gathered to join us.

So I have an idea what Ezekiel might have felt like at this point – 

a very surreal experience that makes you wonder 

what kind of parallel universe you've fallen into.

And God says, "This is the whole house of Israel and they say, 

'Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost'."  

But God has an answer – "I am the Lord and 

I will open your graves and raise you up.  

I will put my spirit within you and you shall live."  

God brings hope and life out of the 

hopeless and helpless situations in our lives.

This is the hope of Israel - the resurrection that the Pharisees claim – 

here is that starting point for the kind of faith 

that God is calling for.  This is the hope of the nation – 

the whole house of Israel. This is a communal hope – 

not an individual hope.  

I think maybe it's not unlike the hope of our nation 

as we watched the events of 9-11.  Out of the rubble and ashes 

of the twin towers came the determination of a diverse people 

- out of the symbol of defeat, came a unifying hope of a nation – 

That we would rise again.  

What Ezekiel reported seeing 

gave hope to a defeated nation – 

the hope that they would indeed live again. 

 Some people find our current political situation almost as hopeless -

But God is even in the midst of it and he can bring

hope to a hopeless generation.

God does not leave us in those barren, dry, parched places – 

crying over those dry bones.

Our world cries out for that kind of hope – 

the kind of hope that brings life and resurrection.  

If you have seen the Harry Potter movies 

I don’t remember which one but there was one

– where Professor Dumbledore’s bird - a phoenix – 

wilted away, burst into flames and became a pile of ashes.  

Harry was devastated at having witnessed this scene – 

but the professor assured him that this was a part of life 

and that the bird would indeed rise again out of the ashes.

Many years ago Sam & I saw the movie "Flight of the Phoenix" – 

In this classic tale, a plane goes down and is lost in the desert.  

It seemed like a hopeless situation with insurmountable odds 

- and yet hope arises from unexpected places.  

It's a story of faith - faith which almost crumbles when they find out 

the person designing the escape aircraft isn't exactly 

what they think, but only a model airplane designer.  

But out of hope and necessity, 

they pull together and overcome the odds to live again. 

These stories demonstrate a desperate need for the story 

of resurrection out of death – 

the need of the people for the kind of hope 

that is presented in our lessons this morning – 

the understanding that we can live again.  

We need to understand that when things seem the darkest, 

we can have still have hope because God is here with us.

We find the same kind of situation in our gospel lesson, 

just a smaller scale.  Here is not a valley of dry bones – 

here is a single person, in the grave four days.  

The 'four days' seems strange to us – 

especially since we find Jesus himself was raised in three days.  

But four days is significant - the Israelites believed that 

the soul or spirit of a person stayed in the vicinity 

for three days before rising up to heaven.  

So the four days means the soul has departed – 

making the miracle even more unlikely.

Jesus was late – 

and what do we do when God doesn't come through 

when or like we think he should?  

Mary and Martha berated Jesus - "

Lord, if you had only been here..."  

God doesn't always act in the way we expect – 

and how do we handle that.  But you see, Jesus had come  -  

Jesus calls forth life even amid  the conditions of death.  

Just as people looking out over that valley of dry bones 

would call it hopeless - so the family of Lazarus 

called the loss of their brother hopeless.  

And Jesus comes - not when they wanted him to, but he does come – 

and he comforts them, his presence is tangible – 

he weeps with them at their loss.  

Although Martha tells Jesus that she believes 

that God will give him whatever he asks for, 

she doesn't believe that this is possible – 

the spirit has already left that place.

"Lord, if you had only been here - our brother would not have died..."  

In our darkest hour, Jesus comes.  Jesus calls us forth 

from the tomb of broken hearts and disappointments, 

from the tombs of rejection and loneliness, 

from the tomb of self-loathing and meaninglessness. 

As humans, we fix our eyes on a goal, 

quite often to the exclusion of other possibilities.  

As humans in this world, we too often want what we want, 

when we want it, the way we want it, 

because we've been convinced by the world 

around us that we are in control.  

But the truth is that we are not in control 

and sometimes our hopes and dreams must die 

before we become capable of accepting a new idea 

or a new dream.  

Sometimes we don't see or even look for the window of opportunity 

that is open for us until the door we are so focused on 

is slammed shut.

Jesus comes to open new doors, to cry with us when we are devastated 

and then to help us to new understanding and new life.  

He comes to restore the spirit that has left our bodies.  

Out of the conditions of death and devastation 

can arise new life.  

Jesus calls forth life even amid the conditions of death.  

Can you hear his call?

I am a recovering smoker.  I smoked for 30 years.  

After my first year in seminary, 

Jesus called me out of the tomb of destruction – 

I had been diagnosed as borderline emphysema 

but I continued to smoke. Then I was having to use my inhaler 

two or three times a day – 

pre-cursors of the conditions of death – 

and yet I kept smoking.  

God finally told me that if I was going to live 

to proclaim his good news – 

I was going to have to come out of that 

tomb of death and destruction and walk in life.  

I quit smoking.  Recovering alcoholics and 

recovering drug addicts can tell you the same story, 

Jesus calls forth life even amid the conditions of death.  

Please pray with me.

Lord, open our hearts and minds to hear you when you call, 

To follow you where you lead us

And to trust you to restore our spirit

And to bring new life and hope in all the situations

And circumstances of our lives.

Amen.