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Sermons preached each Sunday and at special services are archived on this page. Sermons are listed below by date preached, from most recent to least recent. You can search the full text of the sermon archives with the search feature, or filter sermons by preacher, liturgical season, or a specific date.
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Nailed!
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Title: Nailed!
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning is special for me because it’s one of those wonderful occasions that only happen when someone serves for as long as I have in a parish. Over 20 years ago, on March 12, 1990, I presented Carrie for Confirmation. A few years later she became the Senior Acolyte, and almost 3 years ago, on September 22, I officiated at her marriage to Tony. And now, this morning, I will have the privilege and joy of baptizing their first child. And as it happens, our first reading this morning is about baptism, so let’s begin there:
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
This first sentence is an excellent summary of what it means to be a Christian― having received Jesus, we live our lives in Jesus, rooted in Jesus, built up in Jesus, and abounding in thanksgiving. And not only is it a wonderful summary of what it means to be a Christian, it’s also a straightforward sentence. Unfortunately, the rest of this passage isn’t straightforward at all! So, because this is a sermon and not a seminar, I’m going to get to the heart of it.
“See to it that no one takes you captive. . . .” We don’t need to go any further with this sentence. The Gospel is about liberty, not captivity, especially when it comes to forgiveness, as we are about to see. Paul puts it this way in Galatians 5:1: “For freedom, Christ has set us free” (5:1).
“For in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily―”
Here Paul is referring to the incarnation. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the incarnation this way: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (5:19). And of course the classic description of the incarnation comes from the Gospel of John: “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14)
― “and,” Paul continues, “you have come to fullness in Jesus. . . .”
Think of it! It should leave us breathless! God is fully in Jesus and we are fully in Jesus. Years ago, when I was in Father Hanner’s Confirmation Class, he explained it like this: “You can’t add 1/2 and 1/3― you need a common denominator; and Jesus is the common denominator between God and us!”
The rest of the passage is extremely difficult, so I’m going to give you a totally inaccurate translation of the words, but a totally accurate translation of their meaning:
“In Jesus also you were crucified with a spiritual crucifixion, and you died in the crucifixion of Christ; and so when you were buried with Jesus in baptism, you were also raised with Jesus through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in your sins and the not-yet-crucified reality of your existence, God made you alive together with Jesus, when he forgave us all our sins, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.”
In other words, while the soldiers were nailing Jesus to the cross, Jesus was nailing our sins to the cross.
And what that means is this: every sin that you and I have ever committed, and every sin that you and I will ever commit, were all nailed to the cross and forgiven before we were even a gleam in our parents’ eyes!
Baptism is the Sacrament that God has given us so that we can say “Yes!” to what Jesus did for us on the cross. And this morning, on Jacob’s behalf and for Jacob, we will say “Yes!” to what Jesus did on the cross for Jacob, and for us.
So now let’s turn our attention to the Gospel.
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”
The first word of the Lord’s Prayer is Father. Or, to be more accurate, Abba, the Aramaic word Jesus used when he prayed to the God. The closest English equivalent to Abba isn’t “Father”― it’s “Papa,” or “Daddy.” Abba is a word of intimacy between a father and his child, a word of love and affection. And Jesus tells his disciples that they, too, are to call the Creator of heaven and earth, Abba.
And then we have five petitions or prayers, and all of them ask Abba to do something.
The first two petitions are in the passive voice, because they are based on an ancient Jewish prayer which was developed at a time when it was considered presumptuous to ask Abba directly to do something. These two petitions ask Abba to make his name revered throughout the world, and to establish his kingdom in the world.
The last three petitions are in the active voice because Jesus urged his disciples to ask Abba directly for what they needed: “Ask,” Jesus said, “and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
William Barclay, in his commentary on Luke, notes that these three petitions cover the whole of life: present need; past sin; and future trials.
Of all of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, which is the only one that Abba has already answered unconditionally? {{Congregational Response}} [Forgive us our sins]
And the only petition that Abba has already answered unconditionally is also the only petition in which we do something. After asking Abba to “Forgive us our sins,” we declare and assure him “for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
In a little while we will hear the familiar invitation, “As our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,” and we will pray the Lord’s Prayer. When we ask Abba to “Forgive us our sins,” will we really be ready to say, “for we ourselves― right now― forgive everyone indebted to us”?
Here’s what Robert Farrar Capon writes about forgiveness and the Lord’s Prayer in The Parables of Grace [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1988), pp. 70, 71]:
“The Gospel truth is that forgiveness comes to us because God in Jesus died to and for our sins― because, in other words, the Shepherd himself became a lost sheep for our sake. . . .
“We pray in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are forgiven in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we forgive others in Jesus’ death and resurrection.”
So now, let’s baptize Jacob into the death and resurrection of Jesus, and into the community of the Lord’s Prayer.
Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 07/25/2010 |
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Choosing the Better Part
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Title: Choosing the Better Part
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today at the Nine O’Clock Service we are celebrating our first Mass on the Grass for this summer. Does anyone want to guess when the very first ever Mass on the Grass was held? {{Congregational Response}} [the story is in this morning’s lesson from Genesis.]
“The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.” We can certainly appreciate what “the heat of the day” means with our recent sweltering temperatures! And we can also imagine the oak trees and the grass leading right up to Abraham’s tent.
“He looked up and saw three men standing near him.” Christians have traditionally seen the three men as an intimation of the Trinity.
“When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’”
Offering hospitality was an even greater virtue and value in the ancient world than it is today with all our hotels and motels ready to welcome us at the end of a day’s travel. In Old Testament times, travelers had to rely on the kindness of strangers to give them lodging.
The story is told that one day Abraham invited a wayfarer into his home and offered him the same lavish hospitality he offered the three strangers. But later that evening he discovered his guest worshiping a pagan idol. Abraham was so outraged that he threw him out of his tent and chased the man away. No sooner had he done that than the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him: “I’ve been putting up with that man for years and years and years, and you can’t put up with him for one night?!” So Abraham immediately went out and searched for the man, and brought him back to his tent and redoubled his hospitality. [from The Torah, A Modern Commentary, W. Gunther Plaut, ed. (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981), p. 125.]
“And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.”
(It’s interesting to note that the three men are eating milk and meat together! In other words, the Lord and his two companions aren’t keeping kosher!)
“They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’”
Notice the traditional social arrangements. Abraham is free to be seen in the public spaces― outside his tent― as well as within his own tent, but Sarah must stay in tent. So the three visitors talk to Abraham about Sarah, but they never see Sarah nor talk to her directly. And it’s only because Sarah overhears their conversation that she learns that she will have a son.
What a contrast to the situation we find in this morning’s Gospel!
“Now as they went on their way, [Jesus] entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.”
Martha is the head of this household, something very rare in practice and almost unthinkable in principal in New Testament times, let alone the Old Testament times of Abraham and Sarah. And as the head of her household, she welcomes Jesus into her home, just as Abraham had welcomed the three strangers. As unsettling as it may be that Martha is the head of her household, it gets even worse!
“She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.”
Listen to what Tom Wright, the New Testament scholar and Bishop of Durham, England, has to say about this passage
“. . . Mary was behaving as if she were a man. In that culture, as in many parts of the world to this day, houses were divided into male ‘space’ and female ‘space,’ and male and female roles were strictly demarcated as well. Mary had crossed an invisible but very important boundary within the house, and another equally important boundary within the social world.
“The public room was where the men would meet; the kitchen, and other quarters unseen by outsiders, belonged to the women. . . . For a woman to settle down comfortably among the men was bordering on the scandalous. Who did she think she was?
“. . . to sit at the feet of a teacher was a decidedly male role. . . . To sit at someone’s feet meant, quite simply, to be their student. And to sit at the feet of a rabbi was what you did if you wanted to be a rabbi yourself. There is no thought here of learning for learning’s sake. Mary had taken her place as a would-be teacher and preacher of the kingdom of God.
“Jesus affirms her right to do so” (N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p 130-131.
“But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’”
During the past several weeks the Church of England has been preparing and then meeting for its Synod― which is like our General Convention. The major question before them was whether it was time to allow women to be consecrated as bishops and to serve as bishops in the Church of England. In the lead-up to the Synod, our own Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, was invited to preach at Southwark Cathedral, just south of the Thames in greater London. Word came from Lambeth Palace, which is both the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the national church’s central office, that our Presiding Bishop could not wear her mitre― the distinctive bishop’s “hat” which looks like a flame― when she preached. Presumably this was in order not to offend the opponents of women bishops just before the Church’s Synod was meeting to discuss the question. The resulting furor in both the Church and secular press in England was soon known, predictably, as “Mitregate!”
After two long days of debate, the Synod voted this past week to allow women bishops. Now it’s up to the individual dioceses in the Church of England to ratify the decision.
It’s already late Sunday afternoon in England, and it will be interesting to see how some of the English preachers handled this morning’s Gospel!
For us, for whom the issue of woman bishops is fairly settled, the challenge of this morning’s Gospel will be different: For me, the challenge is this: what is distracting me from listening to Jesus and choosing the better part, and what am I going to do about it?
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 07/18/2010 |
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Hello, this is God calling
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Title: "Hello, this is God calling"
Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter
Texts: 1 Kings 19: 15-16, 19-21
Luke 9: 51-62
Cell phones have become an indispensable extension of most of our lives. Because we usually carry them in a pocket or purse, they have the power to interrupt and disrupt our lives. (preacher's cell phone begins to ring.) Suppose one day your cell phone rang unexpectedly, and it was God calling. The ringtone doesn’t identify the caller, so if you’re like me, you check the display to see who’s calling. But the display only says: OUT OF AREA. If you’re in the middle of a meeting or driving on the expressway (or preaching a sermon), you may decide not to answer the phone - not to let the phone interrupt what you’re doing - you assume if the call is important the caller will leave a message. But what if curiosity gets the better of you, and you actually answer God’s call. Then you may really wish you had let the call go to voice mail, because now you’re forced to respond. Unlike many cell phone calls, you can be assured that a call from God will disrupt your life!!
Both of our readings this morning tell of lives being disrupted by a call from God. In our reading from the Book of Kings, Elijah had become discouraged and had even deserted his post after King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, had tried to have him killed. But God calls Elijah again and mobilizes him from his despair by giving him new marching orders. Elijah is told to return to Damascus where his life would surely be in danger, and to alienate the king even further by helping to overthrow him. Elijah is instructed to anoint a new King for Israel as well as a new king for the Arameans, Israel’s not-so-friendly neighbors to the North. God tells Elijah that only after that mission is accomplished will he be able to anoint a new prophet as his successor. What God is asking Elijah to do is downright dangerous. He is not calling Elijah to preside over a couple of ceremonial enthronements. God is asking Elijah to initiate revolutions in two kingdoms. Elijah wants to retire (some of us know the feeling) and God agrees that it is indeed almost time for Elijah to lay his mantle upon a new prophet. But God disrupts Elijah’s retirement plans for one last assignment. “Start two revolutions; then you can retire.”
Our first reading ends with the interruption and disruption of yet a second life. Elisha receives his call from God second hand. Elisha, a farmer, is plowing his field when Elijah throws his mantle over him. His life of tilling the soil has become forever disrupted, for he is soon to assume the authority once held by Elijah. Elisha responds to God’s call by saying farewell to his parents and preparing a sacrificial meal which he then distributes to his neighbors. His life as a farmer is suddenly over as he prepares to become Elijah’s heir - a position fraught with all the dangers and disruptions to his life that his mentor, Elijah, had endured.
Our gospel continues the theme of lives being disrupted by a call to serve God. Jesus has “set his face” toward Jerusalem. His route from Galilee to Jerusalem is through Samaria. No hospitality greets him in that land. It is a dangerous and hostile journey. It is his last journey, his death march. And on this final journey, three men come forth to join him - three lives with the potential of being disrupted by God. Each of their responses illustrates how human beings can “waffle” in response to God’s call.
The first would-be disciple represents the person who gives an immediate and reckless response - but with no conviction. Without counting the cost of his response, the first aspirant blurts out: “I will follow you wherever you go” but whenJesus replies that he will need to give up home and security, the cost of discipleship proves to be too high for the first responder.
The second would-be disciple invokes the “family responsibility”excuse. The Torah was clear that one is required to honor “father and mother” and so the second aspirant expressed his obligation to home and family. His life can’t be disrupted now - maybe some time in the future when his parents are no longer living, but not now.
The third would-be disciple’s response is conditional - it is a “yes, but” response. It is a “sometime in the future when it’s more convenient” response.
The responses of these three would-be followers illustrate how often we too find plausible excuses when God calls to disrupt our lives. How often are we enthusiastic about serving God until we realize how costly our response might be. Soon after I had left academia to go to seminary, a former colleague said to me, “I wish I could have entered the ministry, but I couldn’t give up the security of tenure for such an uncertain future.” I refrained from asking him if he thought I had been given a different choice!
And how often do we let work or family commitments take precedence over making a major commitment to the Church. We rationalize such choices, but the bottom line is that we’ve responded, “yes, but” to God. “Yes, we intend for our children to attend church school each Sunday, but not until after the soccer season is over;” “Yes, I intend to tithe to the Church, but not until I get my children through college,” “yes, but. . .”
Can you imagine Stephen consenting to address the Council, providing he wouldn’t get stoned? Or Paul and Barnabas responding that they would gladly go to Iconium but only if God would guarantee that they wouldn’t be arrested? Or Jesus “setting his face toward Jerusalem” expecting a different outcome? Unfortunately, when God calls to disrupt our lives, our response has to be unconditional. Jesus’ response to the would-be followers in today’s Gospel seems harsh, but the demands of participating in God’s reign present us with a higher loyalty than our commitments to careers or obligations or even family responsibilities.
In the very last line of today’s Gospel Jesus likens this challenge of unconditional discipleship to that of a farmer plowing a field behind a single horse-drawn plow. One can only produce a straight furrow by looking forward to the distant goal. If one turns around and looks back - even for a second - its impossible to maintain a straight line!! And even if we have our eye focused on the goal, we may never reach that goal. For God’s disruptions in our lives are often part of God’s preparations for a future we’ll never know. That’s what trust and faith are all about.
When that call comes and it’s God on the line, what will be your response? Will you send God’s message to voice mail until it’s more convenient to respond? Will you answer, “yes, but”? Or will you have the courage to have your life disrupted by God and reply, “I will follow you.” One thing is certain. You will receive that call!
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 06/27/2010 |
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Radical Gospel
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Title: Radical Gospel
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Text: Galatians 1:11-24
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Paul is being attacked. Paul is being attacked because he is too radical. Paul is being attacked because he says things like this:
“. . . we know that a person is justified”― put right with God― “not by the works of the law [of Moses] but through faith in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 2:15).
And because Paul believed that, Paul also believed this:
“There is no longer Jew or Greek [Gentile], there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
Even today that’s a radical statement for some people, so imagine how radical it was 2000 years ago!
Paul is being attacked, and so Paul is fighting back. That’s what Paul’s letter to the Galatians is all about.
Here’s the background. Galatia was a region in what today we call Turkey. Paul went to Galatia, founded a Church which included both Jews and Gentiles, and then moved on to other places.
Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, some members of the Church, when they heard what Paul was doing, were infuriated because these Jewish Christians believed that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians, and that included being circumcised and keeping kosher.
So they sent their own missionaries to the Church in Galatia to undermine Paul’s authority. They said that Paul was a second-hand Christian because he learned the gospel from Peter and James in Jerusalem. They said that Paul was a second-hand apostle because he was under Peter’s and James’ authority. And they said that Paul was an impostor apostle because he preached a radical and false Gospel. When Paul heard that, he wrote his letter to the Galatians.
Please take your lectionary insert and turn to this morning’s reading from Galatians:
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it”― by Peter, James or anyone else― “but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Paul then goes on to describe why he was the most unlikely person to have believed in Jesus, and the most unlikely person to have given a free pass to Gentiles:
“You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.”
But then a most remarkable thing happened:
“. . . God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. . . .”
The literal translation of “God, who had set me apart before I was born . . . so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles” is this: “God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb . . . so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. . . .”
The reason I wanted you to know the literal translation is because Paul was referring to two Old Testament prophesies. The first is from the prophet Jeremiah (1:4-5 lxx): “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the Gentiles.’”
And now from the prophet Isaiah (49:1, 6 lxx): “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. . . . [And] he says, ‘I will give you as a light to the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’”
Whatever else Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus may have been, it was not a call away from Judaism, but a prophetic call to fulfill Judaism by bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Paul continues, “Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother.”
Who is Cephas? {{Congregational Response}} [Cephas is Aramaic word for “Rock” = Peter]
Listen to Paul’s confrontation with Cephas in the next chapter of Galatians (2:11-14), and to Paul’s description of his enemies:
“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
One of the current buzz words in the church today is “radical hospitality.” But Jesus invented “radical hospitality” 2000 years ago when he welcomed sinners and ate with them, when he healed the sick, and fed the hungry, and forgave even those who nailed him to the cross. And Jesus called Paul on the road to Damascus to be the church’s champion of “radical hospitality,” to make the Church a welcoming home to Jew and Gentile alike.
None of us can aspire to Paul’s greatness; but each of us can aspire to his “radical hospitality”― a “radical hospitality” we can practice every Sunday when we greet visitors and newcomers at the beginning of the service; a “radical hospitality” we can practice when we pass the peace to one another in the middle of the service; and a “radical hospitality” we can offer after the service wherever we may go in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 06/06/2010 |
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Volcano!
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Title: Volcano!
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Texts: Romans 5:1-5; St. John 16:12-15
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please take out your lectionary insert and look at the Collect.
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
That has to be the clunkiest Collect in Christendom! Just to take one example: what on earth does it mean to “worship the Unity?” Worship God, yes. Worship Jesus, yes. Worship the Holy Spirit, yes. Worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yes. But worship the Unity? Worship a concept? How does a prayer like this get written?
Think of a volcano, like the one that recently erupted in Iceland. There’s lots of fire and ash and then lava starts flowing down the side of the volcano. Then, as the lava flow gets further away from the fire at the top, it begins to cool, and then solidify, and then finally it’s just cold rock.
When Jesus erupted from the tomb on Easter and the fire of the Holy Spirit fell on his disciples on Pentecost, the Church was like that Icelandic volcano! The Church was on fire! It was such an exciting time!
When people have that kind of powerful experience three things happen. First, they want to understand it; second, they want to celebrate it; and third, they want to live it.
So the first thing Jesus’ disciples wanted to do was understand their experience, but this was difficult for them because they were Jews, and as Jews they believed there is only one God, and that made them a peculiar people because everyone else in the world believed that there were lots of different gods.
When Jesus called God “Abba” or “Daddy,” that wasn’t a problem, because “Daddy” was just Jesus’ breathtakingly intimate way of praying to and talking about the one God whom the Jews had always worshiped. But when his disciples looked back on Jesus’ life, and death, and resurrection, they realized that the reason Jesus called God his “Father” was because Jesus was, somehow, God’s Son. And then, when the disciples experienced the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit, they realized that this Spirit of God, this Spirit of Jesus, was also God.
This volcanic experience of God is reflected throughout the New Testament, including in this morning’s readings:
In Romans we read, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. . . .”
And in John’s Gospel we read, “When the Spirit of truth comes . . . He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine.”
So these volcanic Jews, who believed in one God, had to figure out how God could be the transcendent Father who created us; and the Incarnate God who walked among us, and the power of God within us; in other words, how the one God could be God above us, God with us, and God in us.
Eventually, the Church decided that this volcanic experience of God could only be understood by a made-up word, Trinity, a word which combines the word for three― Father, Son, and Holy Spirit― and the word for Unity― one God.
But when experiences are turned into words, the lava is already beginning to cool, and when the words become prayers like this morning’s Collect, the lava is cold indeed!
Not only do we want to understand our experiences, we want to celebrate them, too. Jesus himself told us how to celebrate his life, death, and resurrection. So we take the bread and wine and thank the Father for it, and then we ask the Holy Spirit to sanctify it so that the bread becomes Jesus’ Body and the wine becomes Jesus’ Blood.
And when we want to celebrate because the Church has new disciples, we baptize them “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
But after a while the volcanic celebrations may cool, and get cold, and solidify, and then our worship becomes lifeless, and boring. . . .
And finally, not only do we want to understand and celebrate our experiences; we also want to live them. Those first volcanic disciples wanted to live like Jesus lived, and love like Jesus loved, and heal like Jesus healed, and feed people like Jesus fed people, and forgive like Jesus forgave. But sometimes the lava becomes cool, and then cold, and we’re not living very much like Jesus anymore, and we’re not loving very much like Jesus anymore, and we’re not healing many people, or feeding many people, or forgiving many people anymore.
And suddenly, like a spent volcano, we become dormant. And the question is, “how can we get active and volcanic again?” One answer is by following the same 5 Steps Jesus gave us in last week’s Gospel― Believe Jesus, Work for Jesus, Love Jesus, Receive the Holy Spirit, and Receive Jesus’ Peace.
Believing Jesus and Working for Jesus go hand in hand, in the same way that you can’t learn how to ride a bike or swim without first believing your teachers, and then actually getting on the bike or into the water! Loving Jesus, Receiving the Holy Spirit, and Receiving his Peace also go hand in hand, and it all comes together in this morning’s reading from Romans:
“Since we are justified”― put right with God― “by faith”― by believing―, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”
“Sharing the glory of God”― there’s a volcanic motivator!
Paul continues: “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings. . . .”
The sufferings Paul is talking about are the sufferings that happen when we work for Jesus. Just as Jesus suffered when people were threatened by the kinds of people he was healing, and the kinds of people he was feeding, and the kinds of people he was forgiving, and just as Paul suffered when he preached Christ crucified, so we too may suffer when we work for Jesus.
But even so, we too can “boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” And God’s love is the most volcanic power on earth!
The final key to being a volcanic disciple is being open to the new things that God wants to do in our lives. That’s what Jesus means in this morning’s Gospel when he tells his disciples― and us― “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. . . .”
Thanks be to God!
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Sun 05/30/2010 |
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Losing his cool
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Title: Losing his cool
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Text: St. John 14:8-17, 25-27
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In this morning’s Gospel Jesus loses his cool: “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me?”
Have you ever felt like Jesus? Have you ever wanted to take someone by the shoulders and shake him or her and say, “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me?!”
This is one of the few passages in John’s Gospel where we see Jesus at his most human, and who can blame him? His disciples have been with him for three long and intense years. They have heard him preach and teach; they have seen him heal people and even raise Lazarus from the dead.
And now, tonight, he’s running out of time. It’s the Last Supper. It’s his last chance to prepare his disciples for what’s coming, and suddenly he realizes that his disciples don’t even know the basics! “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me?”
But having vented his frustration, Jesus gets right down to work, and gives his disciples― and us― 5 Steps to knowing him.
Step Number 1: Believe me.
“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves” (14:11).
When Jesus says “Believe me” the real meaning is “Trust me.” Of course then as now, words may be cheap, so Jesus tells his disciples to trust him if not because of his words then because of his works― his healing, his feeding, and his forgiving.
Step Number 2: Work for me.
“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (14:12).
Jesus’ work is now our work because he is “going to the Father.” Now it’s up to us to heal, feed, and forgive. And yet, somehow, even though people are being healed, and fed, and forgiven through us, it’s still Jesus who’s doing it:
“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (14:13-14).
Step Number 3: Love me.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (15).
Notice that Jesus does not say “If you keep my commandments, you will love me.” We can’t prove our love for Jesus by keeping his commandments, but if we love Jesus then keeping his commandments will naturally follow because all of his commandments are summed up in this one: “love one another as I have loved you” (13:34).
Step Number 4: Receive the Holy Spirit.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (15-17, 25-26).
To “receive the Holy Spirit” does not mean a kind a passive receiving, but like a receiver grabbing a football out of the air. We need to embrace the Holy Spirit so the power of the Spirit can break forth in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is often called “the Advocate” in John’s Gospel. The word is a Latin translation of the original Greek word for someone who is called alongside to intercede for another person, to plead for another person, or comfort another person.
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “another Advocate” because Jesus is also our Advocate, as John assures us in his First Letter: “If anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1b-2).
The Holy Spirit is also called “the Spirit of Truth” not because the Spirit is truthful, though of course the Spirit is, but because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus who is the Truth.
If you’re ever tempted to act in an unchristian way, and suddenly remember the inconvenient truth that Jesus wants us to love one another as he loves us, that’s the Holy Spirit reminding you.
Step Number 5: Receive my Peace.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (14:27).
Peace is Jesus’ last bequest to his disciples before his death, and peace is Jesus’ first gift to his disciples after his resurrection: “Peace be with you.”
So those are Jesus’ 5 Steps to Knowing Him:
Believe him.
Work for him.
Love him.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
Receive his Peace.
“Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me. . . Bill?”
I don’t know about you, but my shoulders are awfully sore.
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Sun 05/23/2010 |
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"Do you want to be healed?"
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Title: "Do You Want to be Healed?"
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Text: Revelation 21:10,22-22:5; John 5:1-9 (King James Version)
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This is our third Sunday healing service. Did anyone catch the reference to healing in the first reading from Revelation? {{Congregational Response}} [“the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”]
This morning’s healing service, like most church healing services, is focused primarily on individual healing, whether spiritual, physical, mental, or emotional. But our societies also need healing, our cultures need healing, our Wall Street businesses and our Main Street businesses need healing, and our churches need healing.
And that’s why one of the prayers in our Litany of Healing is this: “Restore to wholeness whatever is broken by human sin, in our lives, in our nation, and in the world.”
And now, because this morning’s healing service is focused on individual healing, let’s turn our attention to the Gospel.
Jesus is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, where the sheep enter Jerusalem on their way to the Temple to be sacrificed. There is a pool in the area― actually an upper and lower pool, divided by one of the five porticoes mentioned in the reading. The other four porticoes are along the perimeter. The pool is fed by underground springs, and occasionally fresh water enters the pool, causing the water to tremble or bubble up. The notion took root that an angel was stirring the water, and if you got into the water in time you would be healed.
Jesus sees a man who’s been there for thirty-eight years, and he knows he’s been there a long time, so Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?”
I don’t know about you, but on the face of it I think that’s a pretty dumb question. I mean, here’s a man who’s been paralyzed for thirty-eight years, and Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” Well, duh!
Except. Except that the sick man doesn’t say, “Yes! Of course! I’d love to be healed!” Instead, he just tries to explain why he’s still there after all this time.
So maybe Jesus’ question isn’t so dumb. Maybe it’s a really smart question.
“Do you want to be healed?” may seem a straightforward question with a straightforward answer, but sometimes the answer is more complicated. As a fictional case in point, consider last week’s episode of the television show “Lost.” One of the characters is a doctor, Jack Shepherd, and another is his patient, John Locke. John Locke is confined to a wheelchair, but Jack Shepherd thinks he has a good chance of healing John with a new surgical operation. But John refuses even to consider it. He doesn’t explain why he doesn’t want to be healed, so the viewers can only guess.
Here’s one possibility. The reason John is paralyzed is because his father threw him out of a window. So if John gets healed, he’ll have to change the way he relates to his father. John won’t be able to be his father’s victim anymore, and he won’t be able to nurture his anger toward his father the way he used to.
There’s another possibility: John is married to a wonderful woman, who loves him and takes care of him. So if John gets healed, he’ll have to change the way he relates to his wife. He’ll be more independent, and she won’t need to take care of him. And what if the reason she’s taken care of him all these years is not so much because she loves him but because she feels sorry for him? Will she leave him now that he’s healed?
These may seem strange reasons not to want to be healed, but the medical profession has known for a long time what it describes as the secondary benefits, or secondary gains, of illness. For example, consider this from Wendy Beal:
“. . . we all use illness for secondary gains—consciously and unconsciously. . . . When someone waits on you tenderly and takes care of all the chores as you languish in bed, you are enjoying a secondary gain. When a child escapes a day at school by claiming a stomachache or sore throat, this is a secondary gain. . . . Some are so driven that they cannot allow themselves time off or rest from work or family duties unless illness strikes them down. But chronic illness is where benefit of secondary gains can become truly disabling for the patient and exhausting for the caregiver.”
Some of you will remember that my mother was often emotionally abusive when I was growing up. This culminated in her refusal to come to Ingrid’s and my wedding, and she told my dad that if he went to the wedding, she’d divorce him. So he didn’t come to the wedding, and a year later she divorced him anyway.
When I went to seminary, I realized that if I were going to be a priest, preaching about God’s love, that I’d need to deal with my deep anger and even hatred toward my mother. Fortunately, Bob Shahan, a priest on the staff, was a wise counselor, although he was infuriating in his own way. For example, one day in total exasperation I told him, “You make me so angry!” To which he responded, “I had no idea I was so powerful! So now,” he said, “‘Be happy!’”
On another occasion, when I was talking about how badly my mother had hurt me, he said, “Well, Bill, you can hurt all by yourself almost indefinitely, but if you bring your hurt to the Body of Christ, you can be healed.”
In other words, he was asking me, “Do you want to be healed?” And I knew that if I said, “Yes,” that I’d have to change the way I related to my mother. I’d have to forgive my mother and give up all the secondary benefits of my justified anger, of my being her victim, of my being hurt.
One of the other things Bob told me was this: “When the pain of not being healed exceeds the pain of being healed, then you’ll be ready.” By that time I was ready, so I forgave my mom. And that’s when I discovered that it’s possible to have a good relationship with someone even when the other person doesn’t reciprocate.
For twenty-eight years I had a good, one-sided, relationship with my mother. And then, three years before she died, my mother changed. She apologized for some of the ways she’d treated me, and even, for the first time I could ever remember, initiated telling me that she loved me. And so, for the last three years of her life, my mom and I both had a good relationship with each other. So, on this Mothers Day, I am glad that, all those years ago, I said, “Yes,” when someone asked me. . .
“Do you want to be healed?”
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Sun 05/09/2010 |
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A New Commandment
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Title: A New Commandment
Preacher: The Rev. Dennis E. Lietz
Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” — That you love one another — love one another. Those three words are the essence of the statement and by themselves constitute this new commandment. They are such simple and familiar words. We all have heard them many times over and perhaps read them many times as well but how many of us have given much thought to just what they say? How many of us have simply listened to them and just glossed over them as being rather obvious? We say to ourselves, “That makes good sense. I can easily do that.”, then go on with our daily lives contentedly thinking that we love those around us as a matter of course. But do we really love one another?
This question came into my mind with sledge hammer force recently as I was watching one of my favorite television programs, Frontline, on PBS. This particularly issue of this magazine type television show concerned itself entirely with the topic of vaccinations of children. Now as many of you are aware, I am sure, vaccination of children is a somewhat controversial topic for many people at present so allow me to state up fornt that it is not my intention to favor either side at this time. There are many expert scientists at work on this issue and I am not one of them so I will try to refrain from throwing fuel on the fire. But there was one short episode depicted on that show that really caught my ear and it is that small bit that I wish to focus on.
There is a small community in Oregon named Ashland with a population of around 20,000, not a particularly large town. But it has a couple of characteristics of interest. First off, it is a college town with a large percentage of the population college educated. Secondly, it promotes tourism, not only through its scenic location but with a world-renowned Shakespeare festival. Consequently, there is substantial travel to and from this community with many visitors coming from foreign countries. But it also enjoys a statistic that is of interest to us today. It has so many unvaccinated children that it occupies a prominent position somewhere near the top of the list of communities in this country with high percentages of unvaccinated children. Parents here are a significant force in the resistance to vaccination. These parents, just like most of us, really love their children and will do all that they can to protect these children from dangers, real or perceived. In that regard they are commendable parents but there is a larger issue here that was touched upon on the show.
We watched as an Ashland public health official met with several mothers and talked with them about their feelings toward their children and to the greater public. There was unanimous agreement among the mothers that their concern was solely the protection of their children and that the public health problem was the concern of only the public health department. They stated that they would combat the spread of disease by keeping their children from contact with people who are diseased and that it was also the responsibility of people with any of these diseases to refrain from contact with others. They felt that by these actions their children would be protected. Unfortunately, there is another factor involved that these parents seemed unaware of or chose to ignore. This is something called herd immunity.
Herd immunity, also called community immunity, is that type of immunity that occurs when a sufficient proportion of the population is rendered immune, thus reducing the pool of unprotected people to a size insufficient to spread the disease. For the common communicable diseases, this proportion of the population varies from around 80% to 95% depending upon the disease. When the immune portion of the population falls below that level, the community is susceptible to an outbreak of disease. This has happened in many of our communities and they have been stricken with measles outbreaks and measles is a disease that is considered by public health officials to be no longer indigenous to the United States. Ashland, Oregon is below the threshold levels now and is ripe for a disease outbreak with measles being the most likely.
That is the factor these parents don’t seem to be taking into account or choose to ignore. They are doing what they believe best for their children and they want the public health department to take care of the public problem. Their love for their children is very strong and commendable just as that of a parent should be. But where is their love for others? Are they heeding the commandment of Jesus to love one another?
This whole problem of failing to love one another is something we all must face. We make decisions every day based largely on what is in our best interest but we fail to take into account just how our decisions might impact others. We tell ourselves that we love others but just how far does that love extend? Do we love illegal aliens or strangers? How about gay people? How much do we love that obese person who just squeezed into the airline seat next to us? Does our love reach as far as the lower income level people or the homeless? It is easy to say that of course we love all of them but do we really? How do we act toward them? It is not our statements but our actions that determine the strength of our love.
We have an outstanding example of love for others in Jesus. He really did not want to go to Jerusalem but he did. He did not want to go to the cross but he did. He could easily have said, “I can’t do this.” and left town but he rejected this plan for it would have meant abandoning all of mankind. His love was so strong that he gave his life that we might live. Jesus should be our goal even though we are probably much more like Peter who insisted that he loved Jesus, even to the point to expressing anger when asked three times if he loved Him. But when the chips were down, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. But he mustered sufficient love afterward to serve mankind and become the leader of this tiny group which would grow and later become known as Christians.
So as we go about our daily acts let us keep in mind both Jesus and Peter. Remember that Jesus set the goal for us but we are like Peter, weak human flesh but capable of much more than we often are aware. May our actions show our love for others. Thanks be to God.
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Sun 05/02/2010 |
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Brokenness into Brightness
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Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Title: Brokenness into Brightness
Texts: Acts 9:1-20; John 21:1-19
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let’s get some preliminary questions out of the way.
Our first lesson is from the book of Acts. What’s the full name of the Book of Acts? {{Congregational Response}} [the Acts of the Apostles]
And who wrote the Acts of the Apostles? {{Congregational Response}} [St. Luke]
And who is Saul? {{Congregational Response}} [St. Paul. Paul had two names, Saul, a Jewish name; and Paul, a Gentile name. When he was with fellow Jews, he went by Saul; when he was among the Gentiles, he went by Paul.]
The story that Luke tells about how Paul came to believe in Jesus is pretty remarkable. It begins:
“Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way. . . .”
Who are the people Luke describes as “belonging to the Way?” {{Congregational Response}} [Those who follow Jesus, who told his disciples, “I am the Way.”]
“. . . so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’”
Luke knows how to tell a good story, doesn’t he? But we don’t have to rely on Luke’s storytelling because Paul writes about it, too, in his letter to the Galatians:
“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for . . . I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. . . . But when God . . . was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, . . . but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus” (1:11-17).
What really fascinates me in Luke’s story is what Jesus says to Paul: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” It’s a profound idea that when we persecute a fellow Christian, we are persecuting Jesus. And that idea must have made a huge impression on Paul, as we can see by one of his letters to the Christians in Corinth: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it”; “If one member suffers, all suffer with it” (1 Corinthians 12:27, 26).
Now let’s turn to this morning’s Gospel. And again, there is a preliminary question: “What is the Sea of Tiberias?” {{Congregational Response}} [the same as the Sea of Galilee. Tiberias was the largest town along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, so it was also called the Sea of Tiberias.]
Like St. Luke, St. John is another wonderful storyteller. After the disciples try fishing all night, John tells us that “just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach.” Just as Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene at daybreak on that first Easter Day, so now Jesus appears to his disciples at daybreak.
There are two other wonderful details. First, Jesus has bread and fish to feed the disciples. Do you remember another story in John’s Gospel when Jesus has bread and fish? {{Congregational Response}} [the feeding of the 5,000 by the Sea of Tiberias; see chapter 6.]
Second, Jesus is grilling the fish on a charcoal fire. Do any of you remember the only other scene in John’s Gospel that features a charcoal fire? {{Congregational Response}} [In the courtyard of the high priest, where Peter denies Jesus three times.]
Jesus reverses Peter’s three denials by asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” And each time Peter answers, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you!” Jesus gives Peter something to do: “Feed my lambs.”― just as Jesus fed the 5,000 and has just fed the disciples― “Tend my sheep.”― and we remember that Jesus said “I am the Good Shepherd (see chapter 10) ― and a final time, “Feed my sheep.”
And just as Paul always remembered Jesus’ words to him, so Peter always remembered Jesus’ words to him, as Peter wrote in this letter:
“Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it— not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away” (1 Peter 5:1-4).
Paul and Peter were two very different people, but they shared three things in common― Jesus appeared to them even though one had persecuted him and the other had denied him; Jesus asked them a question they never forgot; and Jesus transformed their brokenness into brightness for the sake of the world.
We may not have much in common with Peter and Paul, but we do share one thing in common with them― Jesus also wants to transform our brokenness into brightness for the sake of the world.
And that’s why I love these words from Henri Nouwen, the late Dutch Roman Catholic priest and writer, words I first heard sung by an Emerging Church band from the Church of the Beloved in Edmonds, WA:
You are broken, I am broken, everyone is broken
You are broken, I am broken, intimately broken.
. . .
Stay. There is peace beyond anguish,
life beyond death, love beyond fear,
and we all have to suffer to enter our glory.
. . .
Bless. Bless and do not curse.
Pull your brokenness far from the shadow of curse.
Put it under the light of the blessing.
Praise, praise to you, Lord
for I never realized
broken glass could shine so brightly.
Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 04/18/2010 |
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You are My Witnesses
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Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter
Title: "You are My Witnesses"
It used to be that news of natural disasters, wars or other world events would take weeks or even months to become known around the world. Now, thanks to satellites and world-wide television, global communication is almost instantaneous. We can literally view a natural disaster as it unfolds; we can watch and listen as a reporter announces, "I am standing where a few hours ago was downtown Port au Prince. . ." or "Live to you from Kabul, Afghanistan." Eye-witness accounts have become commonplace and expected; as live television draws us into the event. It is almost as if we become an actual part of the event - as if we were really there - as if we had magically become eyewitnesses.
Among those closest to Jesus, only the women and the beloved disciple John were actual eye-witnesses to Jesus’ crucifixion; the others had all fled. Unlike Lazarus who had emerged from the tomb still wearing his burial cloths, no one actually witnessed Jesus leaving his tomb. At first there was only what might be called "circumstantial evidence." The stone had been rolled away; the body was gone; the burial cloths had been abandoned; two strangers told the startled women that Jesus had risen. But then a series of eye-witness accounts of seeing the risen Lord began to circulate: Matthew records that Jesus appeared to the women shortly after the angels had told them he had risen; Mark and John both record his appearing first to Mary Magdalene; Luke tells the story of his appearing to two disciples as they walked along the road to Emmaus; and according to John in this morning’s Gospel Jesus also appeared to the disciples in the house where they were hiding.
But Thomas had not been an eye-witness to that appearance of the risen Lord. He had been hiding by himself, grief-stricken and fearing for his own life. When he finally joined the other disciples, he did not believe their eye-witness accounts. He wouldn’t have made a very good jury member, for he refused to believe the evidence - even first person evidence. And so Jesus appeared to Thomas to reassure him and so that he, too, could become an eye-witness. Then Jesus empowered all the disciples as official "eye-witnesses" to spread the news of his resurrection and to continue the work he had begun: the work of reconciling the world to God. Jesus said to the astonished disciples, "As the father has sent me; so I send you."[John 20:20] He also instructed them, "you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." [Acts 1:8] Jesus called upon his disciples to tell the Resurrection story. And he also told them that he was counting on them to tell the world of their experiences of him - to tell the stories of his teaching and healing and miracles.
The book of the Acts of the Apostles is really the story of these first Christian witnesses. And in today’s reading the disciples’ witnessing has already gotten them into trouble. They have challenged the Jewish authorities, holding them accountable for Jesus’ wrongful death. And the authorities have responded by placing the apostles under a "gag order." But Peter will not be silenced. He responds by offering God’s mercy even to those who had opposed Jesus "that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." And after Peter has told the authorities once again the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, he concludes by announcing that "we are witnesses to these things." As we read further in the Book of Acts, we realize that Peter’s witnessing has only just begun!
You and I are also called to be witnesses. Although we did not experience the resurrection event, we are nevertheless eye-witnesses to experiences of the risen Christ in our lives. There are many people is this world (some of them our friends and neighbors) who really want to believe, but like Thomas they need to be convinced. When they ask us about our faith, they don’t really want to know the doctrine and theology of the Church; they aren’t really interested in squabbles among members of the Anglican Communion. They are asking us to tell them something about our experience of Christ - something that might lead them to a similar experience. When people have questioned me about whether I think prayer "works," I often tell them of my very first experience of the power of prayer. I was only nine years old. A neighbor had taken me to church that Sunday morning, because my mother had been called to the hospital. My newborn baby sister had contracted pneumonia and was dying. When I tearfully told my Sunday school teacher about my baby sister - that doctors and the medicine couldn’t make her well - her response was to say, "then we’d better ask Jesus to heal her." She had our class hold hands, bow our heads, and ask Jesus to heal my baby sister. Later that afternoon Mother returned home with a smile on her face and the good news that my sister’s fever had broken, she was breathing on her own, and the doctors were now confident that she would recover. Mother seemed a bit startled when I responded, "I knew that. I knew that she would be healed." I was only nine, but I had already become an eye-witness to the power of prayer; an eye-witness to what happens when we call upon Jesus for healing.
There have been many more such experiences in my life. And many of you have similar stories of the unexpected ways in which Jesus has come into your life: the healing of a loved one; a life turned around, the lifting of guilt as Jesus offers forgiveness, the mending of a broken relationship.We are all "eye-witnesses to these things" - eye-witnesses to the risen Christ in our lives.
Christians are often called "Easter people" because we are the people who have heard and believed the resurrection story. But we are also "sent people" because we have been sent by Jesus to tell others - to share our Emmanuel moments and points of Pentecost - with each other and with the world. You and I have stories to tell of Christ’s love, Christ’s healing, and Christ’s forgiveness. And so let our witness begin as we proclaim the Easter message:
Christ has died;
Christ is risen;
Christ will come again!
Alleluia!
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 04/11/2010 |
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