Go and Tell for I am already ahead of you

Sermon given Easter Sunday, April 1st at Sydenstricker UMC

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^NRS Mark 16:1 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. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" ⁴ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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." ⁸ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. ⁹ Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. ¹¹ But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. ¹² After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. ¹³ And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. ¹⁴ Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. ¹⁵ And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

Don and Rick were best of friends and loved to play golf. They would have played every day if their jobs had not gotten in the way. In fact, they would play every day except Sunday. You see, these two men were also devout Christians who attended church regularly and were active in their church in ministry. Often they would play together and when playing with others they would discuss their faith lives in non-threatening ways to whomever they were playing with. Well as you can imagine, they had one of those heaven questions. We all have them. Is such and such going to be in heaven when I get there? Are there animals in heaven and will I see my favorite dog, cat or whatever when I get to heaven? I have even been asked if there will be NASCAR in heaven. Honestly, I cannot quite see that one but hey, God is bigger than anything I can think of. So anyway, as the story goes, Rick passes away. Well weeks and months go by and Don was missing his friend as many of you can probably relate. One night there at the foot of his bed stood his friend Rick. Well Don was shook up at seeing him so he asked him if he was real. Of Course, said Rick. However, I have to tell you I have some good news and some great news. Well give me the great news first, Don said. Well I know you are curious, as we have wondered aloud if there is golf in heaven and I can tell you that there is. In fact, some of the most beautiful courses you can imagine are here. Well, Don said, what is the good news? You and I have a tee time next Tuesday.

The truth of the story is that there is no bad news. Like the criminal in the cross, the knowledge that we leave this physical world to be in a world of joy and celebration in the presence of Jesus is only good news. We as human beings live in a world where we become accustomed to bad news, to sad tidings and to adversity in the world around us. However, the good news of this morning is that the tomb is empty and Jesus has already gone on before us to prepare a place at His table.

To truly understand what today is, we need to understand who Jesus is. His story begins in the Old Testament where God creates the perfect humans and places them in the perfect setting. If not for their desire to be greater than they think they are, we would still be there in a place called paradise or the Garden. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, which means that they were created to be in relationship and to love one another. An image of love is always and will always be the perfect creation story. But truth is that image got flawed not by God’s hand but by forces that would have us believe that perfect is something other than being in a relationship that is centered on love and obedience. So God set in plan a new creation that is yet to come to fulfillment! God promised a new perfect human whom we would learn from and who would lift us up. That is the story of Jesus we have come to love and to focus on. God’s promise begins in the very first book of the Bible where he proclaims at the first punishment that there will be one who will come who will win the victory in the end. That theme threads its way throughout the story of humanity. Abraham is promised a great nation and David is promised that one will come and sit on his throne forever. The Prophets are promised that the coming Messiah will bring peace and salvation will conquer the forces of evil in the world and the lion and the lamb will live in peace together again. This is the eternal promise of God and everything that God has been doing in the world has been toward achieving that promise, both in the world and in the lives of people like us who live in the world. Yet we mess it up by wanting something different, something unattainable, and something we truly do not need. We do not need to be the creator in order to enjoy the world that we live in. But that sin runs deep in us, so deep in fact that it is an infectious wound that grows and churns its way straight into our hearts where it destroys the love that we were designed to feel and share. God’s promise in the Old Testament story was to send a new Adam who would find a way to fix that.

At Christmas, we celebrated the birth of Jesus. The Son of God who was sent into the world to bring an end to the pain and suffering that our sin has caused. God in human form came into the world to share with us what perfection looks like lived out. That is part of the story of this loving relationship of God. God walked among us as God had in the very beginning. However, this time, God’s loving nature-spent time healing and teaching, showing us what living in this creation could look like if we desired it. We each have the opportunity to be in this type of relationship with each other, loving rather than hating, caring rather than discarding and healing one another rather than harming one another. That is the essence of what Jesus showed us when He came and spent time among us two thousand years ago. He did not differentiate in color of skin, nation of origin or even the path that we had taken as he walked, healed, taught, and fed those around him. Jesus was already ahead of us all the time in understanding, healing and loving. Jesus taught us how to have relationship.

But the best part is yet to come. Jesus went to the cross that we might have freedom from our very natures. That we could escape death itself, not the physical death that will come to us all, but eternal death where we exist knowing that love was available and we gave it up for a new car or new home or mid-life crisis. Even now, Jesus is already preparing the table for us as we share these moments of life. Already Jesus is preparing a place for us just as He promised. Jesus wants us in relationship and wants us to be loved and to love one another. He said that is how the world would know us, that we had love for one another regardless and unconditionally. Jesus even wants us to know to what extreme He will go to share that with us. He went to His death for us. When He came back risen and alive, Peter was high on His list. Peter denied Him three times and Jesus forgave him three times. I believe the emphasis in the scripture is because of that denial that Jesus told Mary, go and tell the disciples and Peter. So that we would know that even when we have denied Jesus, Jesus offers us His love.

Jesus told Mary to go and tell. Jesus is telling us to go and tell. We are to be witnesses throughout the world to the power of God’s love. Jesus wants us to share unconditional love with all the world just as He shared it with us on the cross. Jesus wants us to share through witness by example and teaching that God so loved the world, that God gave us God in the form of Jesus who gave His life so that you and I might live eternal lives with God. What a great message. Jesus is already ahead of us in showing us that love. Jesus is already ahead of us in preparing our eternal homes. Jesus is asking us not to look at the future but to live in the Kingdom right here and now. Peter denied Him three times and Jesus forgave Peter three times. Peter was lost after the death and resurrection but Jesus, already ahead of Peter, met him right where he lived and gave him love. How many times are we Peter? Every time we fall, Jesus is already ahead of us picking us up and loving us. Jesus is preparing a table for us. Would you come to the banquet of God? 

Have We missed it?

Sermon given March 31st at Sydenstricker UMC

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Luke 19:29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" ³² So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" ³⁴ They said, "The Lord needs it." ³⁵ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸ saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" ³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." ⁴⁰ He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. 'That laundry is not very clean', she said. 'She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap' her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: 'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her how?' The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.' And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

I wonder how often we see without seeing. Have you ever been driving along the road and remarked on that new sign or new storefront only to have your spouse say, it’s been there for a while, where have you been? Obviously not in the kind of awareness one needs to be in to notice new things. I have shared with you before that experts are those people who we either love or hate. Expert in fact is defined as X is a has been and xpert is a small drip under pressure. People present themselves as experts all the time and yet we know that they can and often are wrong. Thomas Edison once remarked that his moving picture invention was all but useless and would never amount to anything of value.

The experts of Jesus day were none other than the scribes and Pharisee’s that moved among the people, regaling them with their knowledge and making people feel inferior. That is what experts do. I remember some years back an environmental engineering company spent the day with me. We walked around the plant and he pointed out things that we would need to look at, each time saying to be with sarcasm, but you already knew that didn’t you. If I already knew then I wouldn’t need him. Anyway at the end of the day I thanked him for his time and observations and then told him we would not be needing the services of one who was too wrapped up in his own ego to work with the likes of us. His boss called the next day and I assured him with experts like that on his staff he would probably go broke.

The Pharisee’s and Scribes came to check out Jesus. Now remember, they are the leading authority on Biblical prophecy and such. So Jesus decision to ride into town on a donkey should certainly have got the attention of the knowledgeable experts. Why? Because one of the prophecies concerning the Messiah from Zechariah 9:9 is that he would come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Never happened before and yet they refused to believe that Jesus was who he said he was. I mean, really, how could they miss the one thing they have been trained to observe for hundreds of years, the signs of the prophecies being fulfilled.

Maybe the reason that they missed it is because they are trained to see the predictable. We spend our lives being taught to see the normal, the predictable, the ordinary and so when the extraordinary happens we often miss it. I think it is why modern day political parties cannot seem to understand the desire of the populace; they are so enamored with their status quo. So the Pharisee’s were looking for David to come on a white horse beating back the Romans. Hmmmm. Maybe they had forgotten to read the story of young shepherd boy who comes and slays a giant with a rock.

Jesus is a son of a carpenter from a no count little town called Nazareth. And you know what they say about Nazareth, nothing good ever came from Nazareth. I mean really, this Jesus fellow doesn’t even have a high school diploma and most certainly is not one of the favored students in the synagogue like that Saul fellow. In fact, it is most clever that he has such an understanding of the Biblical text since he was never trained with the best of the best like the rest of us. Ellsworth Kalas says, “We have to concede that Jesus doesn’t fit their profile.”[i]

If we dig closely into the story we can see an important truth here. God does not choose who we expect and God does not work in the ways we expected things to happen. I mean look at the stories of who God chooses to change the world. God chose Jacob over his older brother Esau, breaking the whole inheritance thing. Joseph was chosen special over all of his older brothers. David was a lowly shepherd boy who God thrust into the limelight. Moses had killed in anger. And the list goes on. God chooses those who are willing to let go of their own ego’s, let their guard down, submit themselves to a higher will and do the bidding of God, not their own.

If we acknowledge that the Scribes should have immediately picked up on the fact that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy it was their job to watch out for and yet missed it, then what about us? Is it possible that the reason we don’t see God or acknowledge the presence of Jesus is that it doesn’t fit our mold? I mean really, if we cannot see it, touch it, feel it with our fingers, then it cannot be true. Don’t believe me; ask Thomas who refused to believe that Jesus was resurrected until he placed his fingers in the wounds. What if God is working right here amongst us? Would we refuse to see because we too cannot put our fingers in the wounds?

I imagine that if we close our eyes we can see the hundreds of people who lined the streets to get a glimpse of Jesus. Here He comes now! Riding in the city gates on the donkey, the young foal, just as the prophetic message told us He would. Among the people are those who have probably seen Him performing miracles, others who heard the stories and yet others who have come to see what all the excitement is about. Among them are the Pharisee’s who are angered by all this because it upsets their sensibilities and they are concerned what Rome will do with all this excitement. Meanwhile the city is filling up with people who have come for the Passover celebration.

Who would we be? Are we those who had come because we had heard about Jesus and wanted to see them? Are we those who had come because Jesus upsets our sensibilities about life? Maybe we too would rather He did not ask us to be different and upset the delicate balance of blending in with our culture and our world. But then I wonder what would happen if we were suddenly confronted with a living Jesus? How would we feel if we suddenly had in front of us His outstretched hands with the holes where the nails had been? What would we feel? How would we respond?

It’s Saturday night and we are in the midst of the Holiest part of the year. Thursday we shared bread together in the celebration of Passover as we will today. Friday we came to celebrate or mourn depending on your perspective the events of that Friday at Golgotha. Tomorrow we will celebrate the gift of God through resurrection and eternal promise. But how will we celebrate the remaining the days of the year? Will we struggle with believing or will we lift up our voices in witness and praise to the God who loves us so much that God will go to His death for us? The choice is always ours. Passover is coming! Are you ready for the wilderness? Are you ready for the cross? Are you ready to be a disciple?  

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[i] Kalas, Ellsworth, Preaching the Gospel, 2004, Westminster John Knox Press, page 48

The Last Supper

Sermon given March 25th at Sydenstricker UMC

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^NRS Genesis 40:1 Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt. ² Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, ³ and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. ⁴ The captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he waited on them; and they continued for some time in custody. ⁵ One night they both dreamed-- the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison-- each his own dream, and each dream with its own meaning. ⁶ When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. ⁷ So he asked Pharaoh's officers, who were with him in custody in his master's house, "Why are your faces downcast today?" ⁸ They said to him, "We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them." And Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me." ⁹ So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, "In my dream there was a vine before me, ¹⁰ and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and the clusters ripened into grapes. ¹¹ Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand." ¹² Then Joseph said to him, "This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days; ¹³ within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. ¹⁴ But remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place. ¹⁵ For in fact I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon." ¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, "I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, ¹⁷ and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head." ¹⁸ And Joseph answered, "This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days; ¹⁹ within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head-- from you!-- and hang you on a pole; and the birds will eat the flesh from you."

^NRS Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

You might ask why I choose this passage from the Old Testament today. I love prophecy. I love to hear it interwoven into the fabric of God’s message for us all. Joseph has been thrown in prison, falsely accused and shares his time with two other prisoners, one good and one not so. Sound familiar? It should because it becomes a very different story when on the cross. Joseph becomes if you will the salvation for the Hebrew people during a time of great famine. He has been enslaved because God has given him the power of interpreting dreams and his brothers did not like his interpretation very well. Joseph must interpret the dreams of these two and he does. One, the chief cupbearer, is told he has three days and then he will be restored by the King to his job. The other, the baker, is told that in three days he will be put to death. I cannot help but wonder at the three days. In three days, Jesus was put to death and rose again because God intended it that way. In three days, Satan who held great power would lose all of his power at the hands of the resurrection. Jesus becomes the cup of God’s redeeming power and it is through the cup that we are reminded of the sacrifice of blood. It is through the giving of His body that Satan’s power is taken away. Hmmmm! Could it be, cupbearer restored as the cup restores our lives, baker put to death as the body of Jesus is given to death for us?  

This weekend we celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem where He has come to die. He arrives in great fanfare with palms, the ancient symbol of victory, waving and people shouting. In short order they will give Him up to be crucified. But before that happens He will share a meal with His disciples. A meal like no other that has come before Him and a meal shared by millions after. For those who know the history of this event you know that it happens on the Thursday night before Passover, which this year began at sunset on March 30^th and will continue to sunset April 7^th. This event celebrates the story of the passing over of the Hebrew people in Egypt by God. That significance for us is important to our understanding of the communion table today. Jesus and the disciples came together for the purpose of sharing a meal. As we understand it, it was one day prior to the beginning of the Passover celebration. What we find intriguing in all this is the Passover requires a sacrifice of an unblemished lamb around twilight and the blood spread on the doorposts of the entranceway into their homes. If we follow the custom of Passover with the life of Jesus, we begin to see parallels between this ancient story and the events of Easter. We come on Easter to celebrate the sacrifice of the perfect human, known to us as the Lamb of God that occurred on the day, which celebrated the passing over of the Hebrew people, his body removed and buried at twilight as Passover began, with his blood on the wooden cross, the new entranceway to heaven.

But on this night, the day before, the disciples came together for a meal. They had no idea of the events that would transpire over the next 24 hours, but Jesus did. And his knowing created anxiety for Him we can be assured as He focused His attention on the teaching of the disciples. For He knew that they would soon be alone in their ministries and it was important that they understood what they were to do. And it was also important that they understood who they were to be. Do you know what your purpose is and who you are to be? Jesus brought them together and scripture tells us that they broke bread together and shared grapes from the vine together in their drink. And we also know that the custom was for the leader to bless the bread and wine. Jesus did that and we will share in that celebration a little later.

But what purpose did the table have? The most important reason for the disciples to be there that night was for Jesus to finish the teaching of their role and purpose. And so He brought them together. Each one would develop a new role as a result of their teaching and Jesus example. Judas thought to force Jesus hand, Peter denied him and the others dispersed among the city in hiding. All thought themselves at this point that they were being loyal to God. Jesus knew that of each of them on this night would betray Him in the events that were about to transpire.

There are three important reasons for the gathering that night. The first is that we now have a service where we can be in communion with Jesus. A place where the Holy Spirit is present in the elements, where the Holy Spirit is present with the participants and where we can come and seek and receive forgiveness for the sins committed in our lives. A place where we gather as a community sharing in the joys and sorrows of each others lives. A place where we come to support each other and lift each other up for the good of the community, the church as defined and led by God. When we come together to this table, we come remembering the sacrifice that God made for us and we restore the relationship with God that we desire to have.

When we come to the table we come together reminding ourselves of Jesus life, death and resurrection. In those moments when we participate in the table, we reflect on what it meant to be Jesus and what his life means to us. I believe that Jesus intended this as one of the major focuses of the table. It tells us in scripture that he took the towel and water and began to wash their feet. In the first century when folks would gather at the table for a meal, they typically would have walked to the location and their feet would be dusty. The host would provide servants or children to wash the feet of the honored guests. If you have ever participated in a feet washing, you know that it is easier to wash someone else’s feet than to have yours washed. It can be a humbling experience. But what is important is the lesson that Jesus teaches. If the leader can become the servant, then what does leadership really mean? Peter struggled with this aspect of the washing. Jesus wants us to know what our purpose is and how we are to live our lives. Serving others! Simply said, it means that we are to spend our lives witnessing our faith through our actions, words and deeds. In those examples that we set for the world, they will see Jesus in each of us. We are to reach out to the world by leading as servants, not asking others to do menial chores, but rather leading others through example to do them. Not asking others to sacrifice of themselves for others, but rather leading the sacrifice of ourselves as an example to others of how we shall live. I spent most of my life leading others by my example of working towards the American dream, big house, nice cars, and a nicer paycheck. Then Jesus said to the disciples, come, follow me. And each of us begins to focus our attention on being there for one another. It doesn’t mean that prosperity is not still attainable for Christian people. It simply means that it becomes secondary to fulfilling the service to others through witnessing and living the will of God.

We come to the third aspect of what the purpose of the table is. It is to remind us of the greater commandment of Jesus. ³³ Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' ³⁴ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." ³⁶ Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward." We are to leave this place today and every time we participate in the table remembering that we are to love one another. It is important that we focus on the loving grace that comes from God and then share that with the world around us. No longer focused on differences or on how others might not share the same ideas that we have, but rather focused on how we can share with them through our own lives the wonder and beauty that God has created. The world is all about focusing on the betterment of humanity one individual at a time, whether all get to share it or not is not the important point, rather, who has the most toys when they die is. With God, we focus on the betterment of humanity one person at a time as a result of community and the greater good is when no one hungers, no one suffers alone and no one goes without essentials. Some years ago I shared a class with a young man from Nigeria. He was asked if there were rich people in his community. The question rocked him a bit and he pondered it in front of us. What he said next reminded me why we come to this table. HE said that when no one hungers and no one is without the necessities of life, then the community is rich. But if even one is hungry, then the village is poor. You see in his way of life, there is only community, not individual. Jesus is reaching out to each of us today asking us to join together in this place in order that we become community. He is asking us to come together as a community that focuses on service to others, a community that focuses on sharing the message of God and a community that loves one another. Let us join together in the way of God, in his grace and love, spreading his message through our actions, words and deeds and sometimes using words.

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and he started his journey. When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Once again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word. As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!" Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." But before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected." This story highlights a beautiful illustration of what communion really means. It is a meal with God. And God is present with us as we gather together to enjoy this meal of bread and juice.