Easter Season - Year A -- 2022
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Easter Year A
Acts 10: 34-43
Psalm 118
Matthew 28: 1-10
It was Lent of 1986. The congregation in which I had been doing a “field placement” for my course at Atlantic School of Theology was preparing for Easter. Unlike every other Easter Sunday in their memory, this one was special, it was very special. We were going to be on CBC’s Meeting Place. You may remember that as a tv program which broadcast Sunday worship services from a church somewhere in Canada. Usually the show was recorded, edited and broadcast with a bit of commentary from the host - a week after it was recorded. However we were going to be doing it almost live because “Easter” Sunday could not be a week late, really! We did have the advantage of being on ADT; the Maritimes has always had an hour on most of Ontario!!!! and this worked to our advantage sometimes! In this case there was an hour to play with and have the techy people “get it right.”
Changes had to be made and everything had to be looked at from the vantage point of a television broadcast. One of the things they did was to cut a piece of plywood to fill in one of the gothic windows in the balcony and covered it with blue fabric which matched the rest of the fabric in the sanctuary. The handbell choir could then perform in the balcony and still be seen on camera; the expected bright sunshine would not be in competition! We practised and we planned and we planned and we practised some more. The choirs did more of that than anyone else! People were asked to donate lilies which would all be ordered from the same florist. The sanctuary was going to be beautiful!
On Saturday we gathered at the church for the final practice. The flower shop delivered all of the lilies, in several big boxes. There would be a mountain shaped tower of lilies in front of the pulpit. I saw the organist’s face as he opened the box to find the proper number of gorgeous, similar sized lilies, BUT NOT ONE WAS OPEN! There were ABSOLUTELY no BLOOMS. I’m was afraid he would have a stroke! After a few tense phone calls he got into his car and drove around the city buying lilies until he had enough for our planned display.
Sunday morning came and the camera crew showed up, dressed much more respectably than they had been the day before. (I seem to remember one of them had a large hole in the back of his jeans!!!!) In the end, I think the service was practically flawless. BUT, because something had to be cut out in order to make it a little shorter than the hour, to make room for the commentary and other things, the CBC in it’s wisdom decided to cut the entire performance of the handbell choir, instead of, let’s say, a regular hymn! I felt badly for them because this group of folks had spent so much time on their piece; playing handbells isn’t exactly easy and it was to be on national television after all.
I had to borrow a robe that was deemed to be a more appropriate colour than the one I usually wore and there had to be a change in the person offering the Communion prayer which had been written by my student colleague. At the last minute it was decided that our supervisor should be the one to say it in the service and in the process of a quick edit the CBC got it wrong and the students name was removed altogether! The more that 35 years since that day have dulled my memory of all of the details but in the immediate aftermath it was all too easy to focus on those small or even large disappointments. In the end they were not really all that important to a worship service to mark the most important Sunday of the year or to the central proclamation of the Christian faith.
What is the essence of the Christian faith? What is our central proclamation? Jesus lived, died and was crucified and buried.
We, no, not completely! It’s about so much more!
The women went to the tomb and it was empty.
Well, you are getting closer but aren’t quite there yet! It’s about so much more!
The disciples experienced the Risen Christ.
Well, that’s closer, but it’s still about so much more than events of the past.
The Christian faith is about the presence of the Risen Christ in the daily lives of his first followers, in all the centuries since and into the present.
YES! That’s it!
We have come to church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Last Sunday we read of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, complete with a sort of re-enactment of the hero’s parade he received. We shouted “Hosanna” and waved palms.
Well, WE actually waved palm crosses because by Friday of the original Holy Week, even some of his closest friends had deserted him, or worse, betrayed him. He died by one of the most painful methods of execution there ever was and was hastily buried in a borrowed tomb. His followers, still afraid of the authorities, went into hiding - in bewilderment and deep grief.
On Sunday morning, after the rest everyone took on the Sabbath, Matthew’s gospel tells us that the two Marys went to the still guarded tomb and some angels came and rolled the stone away. We are told that the sight of angels and the ensuing earthquake caused the hardened guards to pass out from fear. We are told that the very first people to receive the good news were two women, referred to as Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary”; two women. On their way to tell the disciples, Jesus appeared and they fell down and took hold of his feet in fear, in awe, in amazement and they worshipped him. At this point they were told to keep going on their way and to tell the disciples what had occurred.
Or, at least this is how Matthew tells it! Of course, each gospel writer has a slightly different account as they often had when they wrote of other events in Jesus’ ministry while he was alive. I am told that the police are suspicious when the accounts of eye witnesses to an accident, or other event, are identical. It is feared that they might have colluded, to get their stories straight and avoid spilling possibly incriminating facts!
2,000 or so years later we have gathered in a far away land that Jesus did not know existed to proclaim the message of Easter, “Christ is Risen”.
You see, the empty tomb proves nothing. There are plenty of ways to explain that. The belief of Jesus’ followers really proves nothing either; they could have concocted the story!
The proclamation of Easter is not about past events - but about a present reality - which is why our proclamation is in the present tense. We are not talking about a past event when we come here on Easter morning; we proclaim, “Christ IS risen” as a present reality in our lives.
The crucifixion was about the attempt of the authorities to put an end to everything that Jesus preached. The power of love. Concern for the poor. The value of the foreigner. The value of women. The upside down world of the Good News where might is not right; in giving one receives and one must become the least to become the greatest. The resurrection is God’s vindication of the way of the Gospel and proving, once and for all that life wins over death, ALWAYS.
In the days that followed the resurrection the gospels record a number of appearances. One of them has always been very powerful for me. On the way to a village called Emmaus some followers encountered a stranger who “played dumb” when they told him they were upset because it had been the worst week imaginable. After telling him their story they invited him to eat with them and in the breaking of the bread they realized that he was the stranger and that the Risen Christ had been in their presence for the entire journey. They reflected, “were not our hearts burning within us.” In my experience it is often later on that we realize that we were in the presence of the holy; the presence of the Risen Christ.
I have been in the room at the time of a death and upon reflecting on it later realized that we had not been alone. The Risen Christ had been in our midst holding us in love and reminding us of life.
In the early part of the last century, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was a powerful Russian Communist leader was also fiercely opposed to Christianity. One day in 1930 he addressed a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. During his hour-long address, he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity- hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.
When he was finished he looked out at what seemed to him to be the smoldering ashes of the people’s faith. He felt very proud of himself. "Are there any questions?" he demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium UNTIL one man approached the platform and stood behind the lectern near the communist leader. He paused. He surveyed the crowd, looking first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting well known to Christians all over his country: “CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse, the crowd rose to their feet and as one, responded with "CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!"
All of us have times of doubt; times when we cannot feel that presence or when we cannot bring ourselves to believe in what seems impossible. Yet, it is perhaps in our looking back that we realize that we were not alone; that a presence accompanied us - in our lowest times.
The message of Easter is that we are not alone.
The message of Easter is that Christ is Risen,
Hallelujah! Christ is Risen.
Acts 2: 14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
John 20: 19-31
A church had a sign out front on which they advertised the upcoming sermon title. It was most often the same title parishioners would see in the bulletin. One week it was “The Absolutely Best Ever Sermon On Sin!” The entire congregation was expecting great wisdom from their minister. They also wanted a list: what was a sin and what was not! The minister stood up at the appointed time and said, “Sin: don’t do it,” and then he sat down. The sermon was over!
Really, what else can you say!
Holy Humour Sunday has been seen by some as God’s great joke on the devil - God got the better of the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.
(This joke assumes a certain response from the congregation) I have a question for all you good church folks who have been to Sunday school, and all that! Why did Moses not go fishing when they were on the ark? You thought, “I know that one, I was listening to the skit!” BUT NO - First of all, Moses did not have an ark? It was Noah! Well then, why did Noah not go fishing when they were on the ark? “Well, he only had two worms!”
Did you hear about the Pentecostal preacher that married the Amish woman? He drove her buggy!
Sister Mary Ann, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting shut-ins when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, an gasoline station was just a block away.
She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The attendant told her that the only gas can he owned had been loaned out, but she could wait until it was returned. Since Sister Mary Ann was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.
She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, Sister Mary Ann carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.
As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two Presbyterians watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "If that car starts, I'm turning Catholic."
A woman went out to a nearby farm to get two big buckets of manure for her garden. When she got home, her little boy asked her: “What’s that for?”
“It’s for the strawberries,” she answered.
The little boy stared at the manure for a moment, then asked, “Can I have mine with whipped cream?
Now, it’s confession time. I went out to a bar on Friday night. I knew I was over the limit so I did the responsible thing, I took a taxi home. Now I have this taxi in my driveway. What am I supposed to do with it?
Another confession! I splurged this past week and I signed up for a Christian humour newsletter. I can now use the cartoons nd jokes in sermons and for the church bulletins. So watch out.
Have you seen the movie Patch Adams? Played by the late Robin Williams, Dr Adams was a brilliant medical student with a flair for humour. He is not just a movie character but a real person, a real doctor. He is a contributing editor to the newsletter to which I just subscribed. He founded the Gesundheit Institute! I’m not sure if he still does but he used to lecture about 300 days a year. He reminds us, “And, finally, remember Proverbs 17:22 – “A cheerful heart is a good medicine.” The rest of the verse says something about a downcast sprit drying your bones!
While serving on my first Pastoral Charge, I tried to put a funny story or a joke into most of my sermons. I had four congregations, three a week, and one of them NEVER, EVER laughed at my jokes while the other congregations sometimes laughed and were, at other times, in stitches! Since the telling of the same joke in different congregations would be slightly different I asked someone what I was doing wrong and I was told. “Nothing. We just don’t laugh in church.”
Laughter and joy are closely connected. Easter is a time of overwhelming joy as is the entire Christian message. We think that humour cannot be serious, but it can. We often think of religion as serious business, and it is, but because of the joy that is attached to it. Sometimes it takes a lot to get people laughing, sometimes it takes a lot to get folks to smile - but seriously, what is more joy producing than Easter.
I catch up with many of my friends through Facebook. Many of them post pictures of their children or their grandchildren. There is nothing quite like the joy of children - and when we capture their joy and laughter on camera we are reminded of simpler times in our own lives, of the first time we saw or did something special and at how children can teach us to take joy from simple activities.
Laughing Jesus, one of a set of four drawings by Willis Wheatley which were distributed to every United Church many years ago, is on my office wall. Imagine Jesus laughing at a joke, first he giggles and soon his head is back, his mouth is wide open and he laughs till his sides ache.
Christ is Risen. What else could give us such joy!
We can pray, “Give to us laughter, O God”.
Amen.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116
Luke 24: 13-35
Welcome to the third Sunday of Easter! There are many things in the life of the church that you can’t explore fully in the one day set aside for it, nor even in a life time. We typically think of Christmas day as a once a year event, but liturgically minded churches like ours tell you that Christmas has 12 days for your celebrations, observations, insights and devotions.
Similarly, Easter is not just a single day, but 50. The church has historically referred to this post-Easter time as “the great 50 days.” There are so many stories and so many questions packed into the one day we call Easter, we need more than one day to let those passages seep into us and startle us into faith. The story of the “Road to Emmaus” takes place as the sun sets on that momentous day. Come on a journey of discovery with me, if you will.
We were told that the first people to proclaim the resurrection were the two Marys but that their good news was dismissed as “nonsense,” or in the words of an older version, “an idle tale”. I just love that phrase, “idle tale.” Think about that for a minute! They dismissed it as a story concocted by someone with too little to do and too much time on their hands! For today’s passage, the scene changes and we find two of that previously huddled group heading out for the nearby village of Emmaus. They were about the same distance apart as Nipawin and Codette. Neither of these are one of those disciples whose names we memorized in Sunday School. One is Cleopas but the name of the other has been lost, even by the time Luke put pen to parchment and wrote his gospel.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to ask us all to imagine that the other disciple that day is YOU (or me) so insert your name in the story “Cleopas and I” were going to Emmaus! Please no jokes about how many were going to going to St Ives!
Walk with me please! It had been such a long day; a long weekend, actually. As we walked we were thinking to ourselves, and aloud, going over the things that happened, over and over again, trying to get the story straight, if only just for ourselves.
We went over the events of Jesus last days, again and again. It did not make sense that the one in whom we had found new life, was killed. Then it made no sense that he was alive again; that just does not happen!
We had been so afraid. As we walked to Emmaus we were still afraid. Now that Passover was over for another year we decided to go home and lie low for a while; it might help. The Romans could not find us all if we disappeared!
Well we might have been safe, but we would never be the same again! We are so angry at the Romans, but really, Jesus let us down. Why did we get our hopes up that he was the ONE. Why would we think that after all those centuries we would be the ones to actually experience the fulfilment of those age old promises! If he really was the Messiah, he would not have let himself be arrested and executed! How could we have been so naive.
Then as we were walking, having a really good pity party, trying not to cry but not succeeding very well! , we realized we were not alone, someone walking alone must have hurried to catch up with us. He asked what we were discussing? Crucifixions were not uncommon and he may not have realized that we had a direct connection to the one that happened just before Sabbath. So we took deep breaths and told him everything. We told him how Jesus had changed our lives. We told him our hopes, our disappointments and the crazy rumour that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Peter had confirmed the crazy story the two Mary’s were telling but still, WE SAW HIM DIE.
Then, it was as if this stranger was TEACHING US. This stranger taught us about our scriptures and how this Jesus fulfilled all those promises. It was very confusing, but somehow we were excited at the same time.
Finally, sore and tired, we arrived home. This guy seemed to have further to go but we wanted to hear more; and if Jesus did teach us one thing, it was kindness and generosity when it came to food. We invited him in and prepared what little we could buy at the market that late in the day. As we finished the meal this stranger, who still hadn’t told us his name, broke the last piece of bread, not casual like, but deliberately and said a blessing and ALL OF A SUDDEN IT HIT US. We KNEW who this was.
And then he disappeared. In that instant we realized that we knew this stranger was different even when we were talking and walking. In that instant we recognized that this stranger we had welcomed in was the Christ.
We were so excited that we had to tell someone, so wired that we set out again for Jerusalem, even in the danger of darkness. We had to tell our people, our friends, the ones who had known Jesus when he was alive.
Life WILL never be the same again! Who would want to go back to the way we were before. Who would want to go back to a life searching for meaning and not finding it. The proclamation of the Marys was ours. Peter’s proclamation was ours. Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen Indeed.
Pause
You may remember that I have told you that sometimes I read a passage for the thousandth time and I see something or realize something that has never dawned on me before! While we talk about the so-called “last supper” in our communion prayer, these two people - Cleopas and the un-named disciple were not there. As we read the story we remember that this last supper was set for only 13; Jesus and the 12.
Think about that for a minute.
(Pause)
There must have been something about the way the human living Jesus broke bread with others that connected them with this stranger at this house in Emmaus. On this day his bread breaking pointed to other times when Jesus broke bread with others in a feast of abundance (no matter how much there was to eat). It pointed to other instances where people left, filled to the brim with lots of leftovers. It pointed to instances of being filled but still needing to come back for more and more from the one in whom they saw the holy as they had seen it in none other.
The Easter Experience is so big that it takes a long time to plumb its depths and seek to explain it. It can take a lifetime. But it really cannot be explained, only experienced; and bit by bit; not all at once.
For the first disciples who were there and for us, 2,000 years later, it is a constantly unfolding series of revelations and realizations. The Easter experience can, and perhaps should, become our lives.
In the biblical view there are two kinds of time. One is Kronos time: a specific time that something is set to happen. You make an appointment for your haircut, or your car repair, and you go and receive that service. There is another kind of time that also guides much of our lives and that is Kairos time. Kairos time cannot be nailed down to a day or a date beforehand but it is the “right time” for something to happen. Some cultures have a lot more Kairos time than we do. In particular many First Nations people operate by doing things at the “right time,” not necessarily the time settler culture thought it would happen. Expectant women are given a “due date” but there is some leeway in the physician’s prediction because, if all is going well, the baby will come only when baby and mom are ready. There are benchmarks in childhood development, but they are only a guideline. Teachers are taught how to cope with different abilities in children of the same grade and know that a cookie cutter approach toward education does not work.
I wonder what it was about that late afternoon that the disciples were said to have been kept from recognizing Jesus? Perhaps they were not ready? Perhaps it was just the wrong time. I remember watching a tv show in which a man proposes to a woman whose response is, “I would not marry you if you were the last man on earth.” After the commercial they were standing in front of the minister, getting married. I personally know couples for whom it was “love at first sight” and others for whom it took a long time to see in the other the person they were looking for.
Perhaps these disciples had to sit (or walk) a little longer with their disappointments so that they could see the truth about Jesus. Perhaps that readiness was reached in the act of articulating to someone else what their hopes had been and their disappointments were.
As I was reading the comments of others on this passage I came across one that was very intriguing, Sometimes stones are rolled away but we stay in the tomb. Easter does not always come in three days.” Pause
The other thing that seems more and more obvious in this story is the value and importance of hospitality. The kind of hospitality that is spoken of in the scriptures is risky. Normal hospitality goes back and forth and strangers are rarely invited to people’s houses. You see, when it comes to strangers, things are a little different. Often, we are reluctant to eat with strangers. We feel vulnerable. Breaking bread together is risky. They might not take off their shoes and leave muddy prints on our new carpet. They might not like my favourite “company meal.” They might vote the wrong way! They might break my great-grandmother’s china. Or they might steal something - or be casing out the place for a later break-in.
Admittedly, our Matthew 25 program is a risky event for our church. We throw open the doors to anyone, even if they had no money, and we feed them the same meal that those who do make a donation, receive. We have a relief fund and some of us worry if our generosity invites people to take advantage of us.
Perhaps what we do not like about hospitality is that it means that we have to give up some of our control over a situation. I remember my mother inviting a friend of hers from college and her husband and grandchild to our home for dinner after church. They were all sitting in the living room and he picked up a toy which he proceeded to show to his grandchild. It was a ceramic “Care Bear” rocking chair and it belonged to my sister. Protruding out of the back was a wind up knob, like you would find at the back of a music box, and from the bottom front edge was a little T shaped piece of metal that went back and forth and gave the chair a rocking motion. He may have asked if he could wind it up, I don’t remember, but you would think a grampa would know how to wind such a toy! HE DID NOT ! He took a hold of the rocking mechanism and in half a second snapped it off! I was never able to fix it to my sister’s satisfaction. We probably all have similar hospitality stories but I hope we all have good stories as well.
The people who were Jesus’ closest followers and their supporters were all grown men and women. No doubt they had experienced their share of hopes dashed and grief that seemed only to grow. Occupied by garrisons of soldiers who interfered with their lives at every turn they knew how fragile the peace was. They knew how fragile life was. Then Jesus was killed.
Into the aftermath of these real and terrible events came an experience or a realization they could hardly explain. The only way they had of talking about it was the mystical language of resurrection - affirmed by equally mystical words from the prophets of old. These realizations and experiences came most often in their time of desperate need and their times of gathering and sharing stories about the one who had meant so much to them in life.
These revelations and realizations became the basis of a small group that first called itself, “The Way”. The way of Jesus became in time the Christian Church and stretched around the globe. The way of Jesus was centred in the certainty that God’s power that they experienced in him could transform their lives and the world.
So when we break bread, when we despair that there is no hope, be open to the stranger and you just might discover the one you have known and loved.
In life, in death and in life beyond death, God is with us. Thanks be to God.
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed.
Amen!
Acts 7: 55-60
Psalm 31
John 14: 1-14
At the beginning of the movie, The Green Mile, a retired prison warden, centenarian Paul Edgecombe, and a friend are talking and he shares the story of the prisoner who changed his life many years before. John Coffey, a black man, had been convicted for the murder of two white girls and sentenced to the die in the electric chair. During his time on death row, known as the “green mile,” the prison staff discover that this massive man, with a very low IQ, who towers over everyone else, has amazing healing powers. They determine that this man’s special powers are a gift from God. He can heal diseases and even restore the dead to life, if he reaches them in time! One night almost all of the guards on duty smuggle Coffey out of the prison to heal the warden’s wife, who is terminally ill. Even though there is ample evidence to exonerate him, he does not protest his execution but because of him, the lives of all of the guards are forever changed.
In today’s passage from the book of Acts, appears a sentence that you might think does not really belong there. If this was a stand alone news article, any editor would likely have cut it. In this story of the stoning of Stephen we are told that those throwing the stones laid their coats at the foot of a young man named Saul. No further description is given of this man and he does nothing but, presumably, watch over the coats that the men throwing the stones had needed to remove!
But, of course, this is not a stand alone story, and this is not a seemingly casual mention of a bystander. We are meant to pay attention, for Saul is part of a much wider story. We find out later that Saul is a Pharisee who is intent on rooting out all of the people who follow in the way of an executed criminal, Jesus from Nazareth. Later on he has a powerful experience of the Risen Christ and becomes one the most well-known apostles in the church.
This story tells us that Stephen’s death is both like, and unlike that of Jesus. Obviously, it was not a crucifixion but a stoning.
You may remember the story of Jesus intervening in the stoning of a woman caught in adultery. Similarly, this young man had caught the attention of the leaders of one synagogue, for his preaching about the recently executed rabbi from Nazareth, named Jesus.
Even under Roman occupation, it seems that mob rule was allowed to take matters into their own hands with respect to punishments for “religious sins” such as blasphemy and adultery. It reminds me of the stories I have heard of public lynchings in days gone by and reminds me of why criminals are escorted to court by sheriffs who protect the prisoners from the angry public as much as they prevent them from escaping.
A little background might help us here. Who was this Stephen, anyway? Any new organization experiences growing pains. With the preaching of the gospel came many converts and the community grew rapidly. One of the ministries of this community was the provision of food to the widows who had no other source of income. The Hellenist, or Greek speaking, widows complained they were being neglected in the distribution of food and the Hebrew speaking widows received too great a share.
The apostles decided they were too busy preaching to “wait on tables” so they chose and commissioned 7 men of “good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to attend to this, freeing them for their ministry of preaching and prayer. One of them was this young man named Stephen. It seems, though, that he did not stick to serving at table and obtaining the food, but dabbled in preaching and it was this that got him into hot water!
He died “a Christ-like death,” with words of forgiveness on his lips. He obviously believed that his message is worth dying for, had a visible trust in God and a level of forgiveness that can only come by grace.
We must remember that while Stephen is seen as the first Christian martyr, he was most certainly the last. Legend has it that each of the remaining 11 disciples also died as martyrs as well as, that young man named Saul.
While attaining the status of martyr was not recommended, it became much more common than the community wanted. Perhaps this story gave them one example of “when push comes to shove, how to die a Christ-like death.”
More importantly though, I think the story of Stephen is more relevant for us when we look at it as an example of how to live a Christ-like life.
Stephen is portrayed as a prophet who spoke truth to power. He did not give up his integrity to “get along,” but spoke his truth regardless of the consequences. In this case it was the power of the religious leadership who had “gotten things wrong,” according to Stephen. Stephen’s witness upset some people, but rather than admit defeat, they hauled him before the religious leaders, on trumped up charges.
Stephen was in good company. In the Hebrew tradition, prophet after prophet spoke truth to power and many were persecuted for it. Stephen, and Jesus before him, lament out loud that the people had a remarkable tendency to “shoot the messenger”. The problem was that they KNEW how to live in justice and faithfulness but did not; they “talked the talk” but did
Perhaps they had become adept at devising a form of righteousness that built themselves up and did not cost them. They laid burdens on the backs of others that were not burdens to them, mostly because of their social class. Jesus called them on that and in so doing challenged the fragile house of cards the leaders had constructed in order to get along with the occupying Romans. Eventually the Romans would turn on both the church and the synagogue.
Others in their tradition had been prophets who walked on the edge. The great prophet Elijah was hunted by Queen Jezebel and had to flee for his life. The prophet Nathan told David an artfully written story and bravely had king David convict himself with regard to his actions with Bathsheba.
True prophets are people who speak often uncomfortable truths to people with the power to either change or “Shoot the messenger”. True prophets are not the people who preach “tidings of comfort and joy.” There is a place for that, to be sure, but the speaker of those words is not a prophet.
Some people would rather that the church stay out of politics and the economy but that is really a false division. Some people would like the church to focus on “safe” moral issues that don’t really trouble the economy at all, but we cannot separate our faith life from our economic and political ones. While we should not expect the state to favour one religion or denomination over another, I believe we have the right to challenge the state on principles of mercy, fairness and justice. In Canada we can do so without fear of imprisonment, though some governments do not like it at all when such work is done by churches! Not that long ago we were told to stick to helping the poor rather than trying to eliminate poverty because one was seen as religious and the other was seen as political but it seems to me that trying to get rid of poverty, hunger and homelessness (for example) is very much following in the way of Jesus of Nazareth!
When it comes to identifying today’s prophets we are treading on tricky ground. I have in my hand a United Church bulletin from 1970. The picture is of Niagara Falls, completely dry!
I’ve been to the Falls only a couple times but other than the quality of the photograph the key sign of the photograph’s age is the cars parked in the parking lot. I see a VW Beetle speeding along and a number of what I used to call “boats” - you know the huge family cars with V-8 engines and room inside for a soccer team! The text on the back of the bulletin tells us that The Ontario Water Resources Commission has turned off the flow of the falls in order to conserve water. Every time I have been there the full power of Niagara Falls is on display and I feel that nothing could stop that water!
The text on the back of this bulletin indicated that UNESCO had predicted in 1968 that within 20 years the world would be showing signs of “succumbing to pollution”. In case your math is faulty that clock ran out in 1988!
But that long ago prediction is chilling! Perhaps it took more than 20 years but it’s something we now hear about every day. Climate change. Wacky weather. Increasingly ferocious storms in coastal areas, particularly in the global south. Once in a century storms are becoming much more frequent than that.
We once believed that the world was so big that human beings could not possibly alter the climate, but perhaps that was before there were 8 billion of us.
Calls to change our lifestyle are a part of daily life, but most often we do not change unless we are forced to do so!
When I was in high school there was a specially equipped RV that went around taking thermal images of businesses and residences to show where heat was being lost and more insulation should be installed. I think it was a federal government program. Back then, energy efficiency was about saving money; as I recall it wasn’t really about pollution. Stopping pollution was for big cities, not the quiet and beautiful Maritimes.
I recall the professor at Mount Allison University who had this United Church issued posters on his office wall, “We must learn to live more simply so that others may simply live,” and “Justice, not Just us”. Around that time there was also another poster I saw with a quote, by a Catholic archbishop from Brazil, “When I give food to the poor they call me a saint; when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
These days we are encouraged to recycle as much as we can, so the stuff that can be re-used does not end up in landfills. We are told to walk as much as we can and not drive short distances, to combine our trips, to car pool, to turn down our thermostats so that we will help save the planet. If we save a little money in the process that is a bonus but the primary goal is to try and combat climate change.
Many people are promoting electric cars and charging stations are even coming to Nipawin but it remains to be seen if they are workable in our climate and with the distances we feel we need to drive. I am continually amazed by the ways in which people here have had to see a “three hour drive” as a short distance. It is a complex issue but will not be solved by the attitude of those cartoon monkeys, “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil”. Another of my professors has this same statue - except that the figures were three Pink Panthers!
There has been a migration crisis playing out these last few years, in North America and in Western Europe. Large numbers of people, “illegally crossing borders” end up in places where they are largely unwelcome. We forget, that unless we are First Nations, we are ALL immigrants, or settlers, living on land that we more or less just took when it suited us! The treatment of the Aboriginal peoples in all parts of the so-called, “new world” tells a story of genocide and theft of land and natural resources. Reconcilliation with their descendants will also be a large part of our work in the future!
Stephen made the religious leaders fume when he said he saw Jesus at the right hand of God. Stephen was claiming that this rabble rouser named Jesus was at God’s right hand - that he had been vindicated by God and by implication, that his teaching had been vindicated! That was just too much for them. More effort would be needed to stamp out this movement and restore their comfortable status quo.
On this lovely warm day in May of 2023, (I hope it’s not cold or raining) does the story of Stephen give us a challenge: “For what are we prepared to live, or perhaps even, for what are we prepared to die - what are we prepared to give up so that “All may have life and have it in abundance”?
Amen.
Acts 17: 22-31
Psalm 66
John 14: 15-21
Collections of English poetry are filled with poems about love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways” while the well known Scottish poet, Robert Burns penned,
“O my Luve is like a red, red rose that’s newly sprung in June;” his was a love that would last until, “a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, and the rocks melt wi’ the sun;”
William Shakespeare wrote of star-crossed lovers in his play, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliette,” which ends with the deaths of the two young lovers and concludes with the assessment, “For never was there a story of more woe than this of Juliette and her Romeo.”
We tend to think of love in terms of romance: roses and chocolate, candle lit dinners and long walks on a tropical beach, but in the biblical sense, it is an all encompassing matter - certainly not limited to romance.
I attended a presentation by a professor who currently teaches at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, from which I graduated quite a while ago, who emphasized that “God IS love.” Not God loves! But God IS love. Think on that for a moment.
When I was going through all of the required interviews to become a minister in the United Church there was one older minister who usually asked the candidates a question about love. One of my friends, a year ahead of me in school, came back from her interview absolutely flabbergasted with the report that this big, barrel chested, man had asked her, “speak to me of love”. You kinda do have to know that he was from the southern USA! Georgia perhaps, and had that musical and distinctive accent. Of course the group that sat around the table at those interviews was very intimidating to those of us who had to earn their stamp of approval in order to be ordained.
Love is perhaps one of the most over-used, and even mis-used, phrases in our language. We use it for our feelings for our life partner, our parents and children and grandchildren, our cat or dog and even our favourite restaurant or restaurant meal. My aunt told me one day that I would not be my father’s daughter if I did not love ice cream! Not sure if it is nature or nurture, but, I think a big bowl of ice cream every day would be just great.
You don’t go to a fancy coffee shop any more and order a simple coffee! You may order a cappuccino, an espresso, a skinny latte, or maybe an iced caramel macchiato? You may want yours with soy or some other dairy substitute! And the list goes on, and on. Similarly, our main confusion when reading the biblical texts about love is that the Greek language, in which the New Testament was written, has about 6 words for love.
Eros was that sexual passion kind of love that could be dangerous because, sometimes, it caused one to “lose control.”
Philia was the kind of love one would have for a a close friend or a comrade in arms, in a time of war.
Storge was the love of a parent for a child. In both of these cases one would die for the other.
Ludus is a kind of playful affection between young children or teens.
Agape is selfless love; a love for all people even strangers. When translated into Latin it became caritas from which the word charity comes. Christian writer, C.S. Lewis describes this as the highest form, as “gift love”. This is the love that enables us to have empathy for people we have never met, people who are different from ourselves.
Pragma is long-standing love. It is the kind of love that holds marriages together and is the kind of love between those who have been intentional friends, or marriage partners, for 50, 60, 70 or more years. Pragma is about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance with mistakes and idiosyncrasies. A prominent psychoanalyst has said that we spend too much energy falling in love and not enough in sustaining a loving relationship.
Lastly there is Philautia which is love of self. There is the self-centred kind but there is also the healthy kind, the kind of love that enables one to be secure enough in one’s self to be able to love others fully.
In today’s reading from the book of Acts we find Paul speaking in front of the Aeropagus, which was a kind of court or council, and at first he seemed to compliment them on their religious devotion. Keep in mind the stark difference between the strict Judaism of Paul’s upbringing and Greek society. Since the time of Moses, the Hebrews had ONE God and they were not permitted to make physical representations of this God. This God was creator. This God was the one who sent day and night, sun and moon, rain and sunshine, summer and winter. This God brought victory or allowed defeat in battle for the faithful or unfaithful, as the case may be. This God was, basically, responsible for everything.
Contrast this with the so-called pagans of Greece, who looked at all the forces beyond human control, such as thunder, love, war, wisdom and on and on and thought there was must be a god or goddess attached. There was an entire pantheon, or hierarchy, of gods. Some were obviously more important or more powerful than others. I have read that Athens, a prominent city, had tens of thousands of statues, or idols, promoting the worship of these gods.
A colleague and mentor of mine, posted a sermon on his Facebook page a few days ago saying that Paul’s sermon essentially said, “You are all very religious, but, really, your god is too small; your gods are all too small.” Paul was aching to talk to them about the God of Jesus, the God of heaven and earth, whose power and love encompassed everything that was, is and could be! This was the God, as Paul says, “in whom all of creation lives and moves and has its being.” Those of you who remember the ten commandments you memorized in Sunday school know that idols are “forbidden”. That commandment is, on the one hand, a reminder that we do not worship many gods, as the pagans do, but one God, who cannot be represented by something created with human hands, even a beautiful, intricate idol. But it also reminds us of something far more insidious than worshipping something we might call a god or an idol; it reminds us that we should never call “holy” anything that is temporary, created by humans, and may, in fact, be dangerous or “un-holy” if not kept in a proper perspective.
I know someone, actually a member of the clergy, who I am sure worships his car. Seemingly, it is waxed and polished and protected like nothing else in his life. He grew up poor and I think that having a nice car shows that he “has arrived”. I know a body-builder who worships his physique. I knew of a teenager who was never comfortable in his own home because his mother insisted on it looking like a magazine spread, every single day!
The people of Athens had a god for everything and an idol as a symbol of that devotion. There would probably have been idols or altars to gods such as: Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus.
Apparently there was also an altar to an “unknown God”. It seems to me that this altar was a “catch all,” so that a god they had forgotten would not feel slighted. I can relate! Sometimes, if I am praying for family members at a funeral, I throw in the phrase, “other family members,” if I have the niggling suspicion that I might have forgotten someone important! Perhaps it is like a small child praying for relatives at bedtime, who lists all the ones he can possibly think of and then ends with, “God bless everybody”.
Paul is not having any of this; he is, after all, the consummate evangelist, speaking of the God and father of Jesus of Nazareth. As he ends this little “mini-sermon” or “apology” for his faith and actions, he proclaims the God he had known since his childhood, the God of Everything. This God created. This God called. In the context of today’s gospel, this God loves. This God loves and called others to love.
In a way it was easier for Paul to add Jesus, God’s son, to his devotion because it was the Hebrew tradition that hoped for a messiah, for a prophet to fulfill age old promises. The other religions of their world had a bigger leap to make. Paul was not abandoning his faith; the men and women of Athens may have thought they were if they converted and were baptized.
While love of God was always part of the Hebrew faith, Jesus seemed to emphasize it in a new way. Over the centuries since Moses, the Hebrew tradition had developed explanations and expansions of their tradition so that people would find it easier to follow the 10 commandments and other parts of the Law and these “explanations” became very important!
Jesus boiled them all down to a kind of “meta commandment:” LOVE. Love God with all that you are. Love your neighbour as yourself. Perhaps the hardest one is, “love your enemies!”
We are probably of the opinion that we cannot command love; love comes from chemistry, comes by happenstance; one can “fall in love” and, I suppose, fall out of it! But one cannot be forced to love!
Well, NO! That may be true for romantic love but it does not have to be. There are many cultures where marriages are arranged. The families often make careful matches and the people in those marriages must decide to make it work through years of kind deeds, compromises, and hard work. Their love grows and develops.
In researching this sermon I read a news report that “love of the other” is on the decline. These days people in general are finding it harder to love strangers not to mention people they don’t like. But I believe that this is exactly why Jesus gave us this commandment. I might not particularly like the people who cheer for the wrong hockey team, or vote for the wrong party, or blow cigarette smoke in my face as I walk by, or people who made it more difficult for me to enjoy my property with a restrictive by-law, or who are the wrong ethnic heritage, but that does not give me permission to treat them badly. It does not excuse me from wishing the best for them. If we love someone, we desire the best for them and we act in ways that promote or add to their well being even if, and perhaps, especially if, they would not do the same for us.
I can act in love when I don’t particularly like that person and I can work to make the best happen for them. Let us not forget that the Spirit helps us to love and to act in love.
The COVID restrictions brought out the worst in people these last few years; not only did some people simply disagree, they disliked those who disagreed!
Politics always brings out division but I think it has gotten particularly bad these last few years. It would seem that politics these days is becoming more polarized. It used to be that “attack ads” were common only in American politics They have arrived in Canada. Instead of saying what good things Party A will do if they win, the ads now seem to focus on how bad Party B has been.
The card stores and society in general is promoting this day as “Mothers Day”. For a long time though the United Church has promoted Christian Family Sunday. Nothing wrong with mothers day but it does not appeal to everyone because of their own family history. Why not honour mothers on more than one Sunday and why not honour other things that women do and are, besides being a mother!
Our Christian family, on the other hand, is that group of people who gather under the umbrella of the love of God in Christ - as members of God’s family in Christ. Some days it was mighty hard to love my sister or brother (some days it was a different brother than tried my love) but I had to. Sometimes it is mighty hard to love a sister in Christ, but that is our calling. The ones who worship with us here in this building, or the ones in other denominations may sometimes rub us the wrong way, or drive us crazy, but here we are, commanded to love.
In some ways our individual denominations are like the altars of the Athenians; each emphasized a different aspect of the power we cannot begin to understand. But along comes Paul and reminds us of the God of everything; the God who has become known to us in Jesus of Nazareth, the God who not only calls us to love and be loving, but who us love itself.
Amen!
Miscellaneous articles that might be interesting to readers of this sermon. I referred to a friend in my sermon; here is his sermon, Hugh Farquhar’s Sermon
Here is an article on the many words for love.
6 Words for Love
Acts 1: 6-14
Psalm 68
John 17: 1-11
I read a story long ago of a minister who was sent to prison for preaching and saying things that the military government of his country did not like. A few days later, one of the guards said to him, “all of your friends are over at your church praying for you.”
The guard’s tone left no doubt that he thought prayer was a useless task, and he wanted to be as discouraging as possible. But his plan backfired. The mere knowledge that people were risking their freedom to gather in public and pray for him, gave him courage and strength and a renewed sense of God’s presence. It spoke to him of the truth of faith and the power of God to bring hope from despair and life from death.
Today’s Gospel passage ends with the first half of what we minister types call, “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.” This text begins with Jesus engaged in conversation with his disciples and it ends in a prayer, spoken in their presence, I’m sure, with the hope of having them overhear the hopes and dreams he has for them. Its complex sentence structure makes it sound very “highfalutin”; it sounds very much like the kind of prayer that might have been given at the King’s recent coronation. As he taught his disciples, once again, Jesus begins the prayer by addressing God as “father”, the source of his being and his power, the one to whom he addresses his requests.
A theologian by the name of Rebecca Blair Young had said: “The prayer describes Jesus’ relationship with God as well as his relationship to the world into which God has sent him.” Feasting on the Gospels- John v. 2
This prayer has a large teaching component to it. Think for a minute about the kind of prayers offered in regular service of worship. Normally, I do not need to indicate why I am praying for the loved ones of a person who has died. Those of you who are listening can easily fill in the blanks; you have all been there! You know what mourning a loved one is like. During COVID I would add, “especially those who could not travel to attend the service”. We all remember how disruptive COVID was to our normal activities of mourning! As I pray, the words draw you into the prayer and, it is hoped, the prayers become yours!
I might pray for a person, or a group of people and note the reason for the prayer and, in addition to the prayers becoming yours, they may stimulate positive action on behalf of those for whom we pray. We pray for others because our faith prompts us to look outward, to the needs of those around us and those further away. I may have told you that an elderly professor of mine once warned against the type of prayer that was totally self-serving.
“God bless me and my son John his wife, my wife, us four, no more. “
The prayer you heard today is one of a couple of Jesus’ prayers where he mentions his closest followers. His words that seems to suggest it is really designed to be overheard by his disciples; it is really a prayer FOR them, and for those who will follow them. I believe that he wanted them to know that he was praying for them. He intended that they would know what his wishes for them were. When we pray for loved one, I believe that it is important that they know we are praying for them.
The complication in this case is that the mourning disciples will have a job to do. The Spirit sent them to Jesus for a reason and after his death they will have a calling to take up, a mission to fulfill, all without the physical, human Jesus, to guide them! If there was uncertainty about Jesus’ identity and mission before this day, there should be none now!
However, what does it really mean to be believe that Jesus is the messiah? What does it mean to recognize him as the “son of God”? What does it mean to refer to him as saviour? While it certainly does NOT mean that those who follow will, “have it made in the shade,” Jesus’ words should dispel all of their doubts that the God who has called them would be with them in the trials to come! It is a prayer designed to teach them something, to help them to remember something.
Some of the language ond images of this prayer reflect a pre-scientific view of the world. They thought of heaven as “up”. Up was God’s dwelling. “Down here,” was where people were. The earth was flat and the sky, a bowl, most of the time, keeping the rain out. They knew little or nothing of the stars they saw every clear night and nothing of far away galaxies, but the image of looking up “toward mystery” is still valid. We know a fraction of what is “out there” while the rest is still mystery despite the number of probes, satellites, space telescopes and missions that are on their way to far away planets. The people of Jesus day believed all sorts of things about the world that we now know are not true, but it does not lessen the power of the images offered - if we understand their limitations. If we look at the stars and see mystery that is not inconsistent with either faith or science. Looking up, or closing our eyes, both help us to focus on the mystery that surrounds us all and helps us, at least temporarily, to shift our focus away from our own needs and desires. Looking up reminds us that the many things we cannot know far outstrip the things we do know.
This passage also points out a division that existed in the thinking of the early church. Reality could be divided in two - the church and the world. The language seems to draw a division between two kinds of people: the people who follow Jesus and everyone else! The church was the believers. The people who were not believers were not the “world though”. The “world” was almost a mystical entity, an entity that was hostile to the things that were “of God.” I do not believe that it justifies a division between “us” and “them”, if by them we mean the people who live in poverty in developing countries. Or if we mean the non Christians. Or if we mean the extraordinarily wealthy who could not care less about others. Many people are attracted by the ways of the world: might is right, having more money means you are more successful, the end justifies the means, hate those who are different, and especially, hate your enemies. Justice and mercy are signs of weakness. Everything is fair in business, and so on.
The role of those who proclaim the gospel is to present an alternate to the world - the way of Christ. Indeed in a well loved verse in John’s Gospel, God’s love for this world is the reason Jesus came in the first place! Praising God. Forgiveness, Love for enemies. Care for creation, not exploiting it. Look out for others, not just #1.
I believe that God intends for all people to live in safety and unity. Sadly, reality does not measure up to God’s intention. Even among Christian denominations and even within denominations there is much division. I’m a member of the 44th General Council of the United Church (the 4th to which I have been elected) and it was the first where we met online only. During these meetings it is apparent that some people can be open to differing viewpoints and some cannot. I recall the words of the Executive Secretary of Maritime Conference when we had our training for the second General Council I attended which was, I believe, in BC. She said, “please remember who you are and whose you are”. I think she meant: Remember your manners, Remember that we are all disciples of Jesus, the Christ, remember that Commissioner who holds an opinion opposed to yours is not your enemy!
As people of faith we must not only believe with our hearts and souls, but live our faith into being with our actions, live out, “that all os us are one”.
Jesus’ prayer is expansive, both outward and forward looking. In this prayer Jesus prays for his disciples and all who will one day become followers - and that includes those of us who gather here 2,000 years later!
According to a Native American legend, one day there was a big fire in the forest. All the animals fled in terror in all directions, because it was a very violent fire. Suddenly, the cougar saw a hummingbird pass over his head, but in the opposite direction. The cougar was astonished that the hummingbird flew toward the fire!
Cougar did not stop running away. Moments later, the cougar saw the hummingbird pass again, this time in the same direction as the cougar was running. He observed this coming and going, until he decided to ask the bird about it, because it seemed very bizarre behaviour.
"What are you doing, hummingbird?" he asked.
"I am going to the lake," he answered, "I drink water with my beak and throw it on the fire to extinguish it."
The cougar laughed. 'Are you crazy? Do you really think that you can put out that big fire on your own with your very small beak?'
'No,' said the hummingbird, 'I know I can't. But the forest is my home. It feeds me, it shelters me and my family. I am very grateful for that. And I help the forest grow by pollinating its flowers. I am part of her and the forest is part of me. I know I can't put out the fire, but I must do my part.'
At that moment, the forest spirits, who listened to the hummingbird, were moved by the tiny bird and its devotion to the forest. And they sent a torrential downpour, which put an end to the great fire.
The Native American grandmothers would occasionally tell this story to their grandchildren, then conclude with, "If you want to attract miracles into your life, do your part."
God loved the world and sent Jesus - and the followers of Jesus.
Amen.