What It Means to Be Who We Are

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marhsall, Texas on Sunday April 29, 2012, the 4th Sunday in Easter, also traditionally called "Shepherd Sunday."

Podcast of "What It Means to Be Who We Are" (MP3)

Acts 4:5-12

Psalm 23

1 John 3:16-24

John 10:11-18

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

I just finished reading a memoir by a gentleman named Dale McCurry.[1] In the introduction he talks about his life in the Ozarks in the 1990’s. He had a good business, a lovely wife, and two beautiful children. They lived in the dream house that they designed with the big porch, bay windows, and dormers; all on 37 acres with a river bluff view. They were living the kind of life that every successful businessman wants for his family.

In the book, McCurry discusses things people have called him over his life. He laments that he never had a “good nickname” like “Butch.” He was always just Dale.  Then seven months after the birth of his daughter, he became Da-Da, soon followed by Daddy. Daddy evolved into Dad and when the kids were playful he became Daddy-O. His children gave him his next name, his grandchildren who call him Pop.

But all too soon, the good life came to an end. He uprooted his family and moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1998. He calls it a time “in exile, a refugee from a good life gone bad in Southwest Missouri.”

He fled the good life because what had begun as “a rather inventive method of raising venture capital” degenerated into a Ponzi scheme. His life went from running an environmental company to putting out little financial brush fires and bigger investigative queries.

Beginning in late 1999 McCurry was incarcerated in a series of prisons in Forrest City, Arkansas and Beaumont, Texas. Not long after he began his stints in these big houses, McCurry pitched a crazy idea to a new weekly newspaper in Eureka Springs called The Lovely County Citizen. He proposed to write columns for the paper called “Letters from the Pen.” McCurry says the intent of the column was neither an inventory of sins nor a tale of remorse. Instead he saw it as a tale of redemption, a process of self discovery. The book is the collection of these columns.

One column notes that while he was in prison he got some new names. One of them is the number that followed him from his time in the penitentiary to the half-way house and finally in supervised probation. Other convicts gave him other names. There was the generic “Dawg.” To other Ozark denizens he was “Homie.” Some of the younger convicts looked at his gray hair and took “Pop” away from his grandchildren. Since he taught GED classes in the prison library he was also known as “Teach.” Readers who could not remember his name addressed letters to McCurry as “Jail Guy.”

He also received the name “Curly MacRed,” an anagram of Dale McCurry, because federal convicts can’t have a newspaper byline. Who knew?

Each of these names parlayed a different meaning. They were the same man, but in different roles, different phases of life. Some names referred to a young man, some to an older man, some to a free man, some to a man in prison. Some names transcended life phases, others were terribly specific. Each of these names helped define who he was and what it meant to be him at any given moment. This is true of the names we all carry in our daily lives. Wonderfully, this is also true of our Lord.

We’re used to hearing “the Good Shepherd.” In this case when we hear the word “good” we have a feeling that it means more than just “average” or “adequate.” In this case, the Good Shepherd means more than “the great” or “the wonderful” or even “the stellar” shepherd. This is the exemplary shepherd. This is the shepherd par excellence. We use phrases like King of kings and Lord of lords to describe Jesus. In this same vein it is proper to call Jesus the Shepherd of shepherds.

There are few images more beloved in Christian scripture than the Good Shepherd. Of course we love the shepherd. The shepherd is the one who cares for the sheep; the sheep belong to the shepherd’s fold. And as we are told here in John’s gospel, the shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know the shepherd.

But still, given the status shepherds had in ancient society, this isn’t much of a complement. Comparatively, in our culture, to call someone the Good Shepherd—even the Shepherd of all shepherds—is like calling someone the exemplary migrant worker.[2] In the day the shepherds were the youngest and dirtiest of the little boys. So to call someone a shepherd is to call someone a menial laborer with no status or standing, not the family patriarch. Certainly not the Son of God Almighty.

One of the things shepherds bring to mind is the Children’s Christmas Pageant. This reflection on the pageant comes from Ralph F. Wilson, Director of Joyful Heart Renewal Ministries.

Angels are clean. Angels are beautiful. They seem almost otherworldly, since girl angels always seem to know their parts better than boy shepherds do. The angelic satin stuff goes pretty well in most Christmas pageants. The problems come with the shepherdly burlap part.

Wilson continues:

Do you know what real-life shepherds were like? Townspeople looked down on them. “Herdsmen!” they’d huff derisively. Shepherds would work with sheep all day, sleep outside with the animals at night and then come into town dirty, sweaty and smelly, like the boys they were. Tradesmen in the marketplace would be polite enough. Shopkeepers would wait on them, but everybody was happy when they moved along. Burlap fits the part.

Angels get clouds and the Hallelujah Chorus. Shepherds get a stable. Maybe cattle lowing has a bit of romance; but don’t forget to conjure up the smells and the filth. This is no stainless steel dairy palace; it’s a crude cave of a barn, with good reason for straw on the floor. Not exactly the setting you'd choose for a birth if you had the luxury of planning ahead.

Angels seem appropriate to the birth of God's son. Straw and sweat and burlap don’t seem to have the same place, but they are actually more appropriate for the birth of the young boy named Jesus.[3]

As connected as we are to the imagery of the shepherd, we must be connected to not only its beloved image, but its scandalous one too. Shepherds were boys, they weren’t men. They were young and not honored. They had a very dangerous job. The pens they guarded were without gates as we know them; the boys themselves formed the gate. When a predator comes to get the sheep, they have to go through the boys first.

This is where comparing the shepherds to migrant workers falls apart. The migrant is a hired hand who moves on to the next crop after the harvest. Putting your life on the line is not expected of the hired hand.

Fighting off the wolf at the door is not mercenary territory. If the workers are in it just for the denarius, they won’t be willing to put themselves on the line when crunch time comes. Someone working for coin can never be expected to put their life on the line. When the demon is at the door, you don’t want the butler to answer, you want family. This is the importance of the son as the shepherd. This is the importance of the Son of Man as the Good Shepherd.

In biblical times, many different shepherds would pen their sheep together overnight.  When it came time to separate the flocks to take them to their grazing areas, the shepherd would call out and his sheep would follow. The sheep wouldn’t follow a shepherd they did not know. The Good Shepherd tells those with ears to listen that they are not the only sheep in his fold. He tells them “I have other sheep that are not of this pen.”

Jesus the Good Shepherd, the image is forever in our minds, but it’s time to look beyond our idyllic vision and see that it means more. Jesus tells the world that he is here to care for, not to be cared for. Jesus protects and defends his flock, not vice-versa. His work involves getting dirty, not being put on a shelf or worse a pedestal. Where in fact shepherds call their own sheep, in truth Jesus calls all of the sheep to his pen, the single pen that is not too small to hold the world. This is who Jesus says he is. To Jesus, this is what it means to be the Good Shepherd.

So who are we? Well let’s begin with something that might be disturbing to Christians, Jesus was not talking to “people like us” in our reading today. The people Jesus is addressing are named in John 9:40. With his discussion of the Good Shepherd and the sheep fold, Jesus is responding to the Pharisees. Israel is the sheep who know the voice of the Good Shepherd. The people who are Jesus’ own are the Jews, not us. 

So often as Christians we think of ourselves as the Lord’s first love, and we are not. We are the “other sheep that are not of this pen,” at least that’s who we are right off the bat.

We aren’t the first, but with thanks and praise to the wondrous loving faithfulness of our Lord, we are next. It is together, not as separate peoples or different denominations but as the assembled children of God that we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. When we hear the voice of the Shepherd we come together as one flock. 

And it is for the shepherd’s love for his flock that he lays down his life. Every time the shepherd fills the gate, he protects the sheep from predators, predators that would think nothing of a skinny little boy before getting to the fat sheep. From the Easter story, we too know how this pertains to us. On his own accord, with his own power and authority, Jesus lays down his life for us and picks it up again three days later.

We sing to the wondrous loving faithfulness of the God who comes and walks among us as a simple man; the God who voluntarily empties himself of his glory and takes upon himself the dangerous work of the shepherd; the God who not only lays down his life, but picks it up again for us. God incarnate lays down and picks up his life again voluntarily. He does this as the father has commanded. The Son of God and the Son of Man does as the lowliest shepherd boy, he does as his father commands, even unto death.

The Hebrew word for the love of God is hesed. Hesed is bold and unpredictable. It is unorthodox and unbound by convention and culture. It is a love which only God is capable; it is a love we are called to imitate and follow. We are called to be immersed in the hesed of the Lord. Only by first being immersed in this wondrous loving faithfulness can we share it with others.

Biblical scholar Carolyn Custis James writes hesed is “driven, not by duty or legal obligation, but by a bone-deep commitment—a loyal, selfless love that motivates a person to do voluntarily what no one has a right to expect or ask of them.”[4]  By the wondrous loving faithfulness of Jesus Christ we are saved; saved by who he is and what being who he is means.

Our reading from 1John reminds us that as Christ laid down his life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for one another. Our response to God’s hesed, God’s wondrous loving faithfulness, is expressed by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin who said “duty calls only when gratitude fails to prompt.”[5] We are to faithfully respond to the love of God in thanksgiving.

A review of “Letters from the Pen” begins, “[This book] has nothing to do with correctional facilities or the experience of being held in a correctional facility. It is about being held as a prisoner, but the prison can be constructed of anything that ails us.”[6] Dear friends, we are all trapped in our own little prisons of what ails us. The only way to escape the penitentiaries of our own making is to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls us from our self inflected pens, and upon hearing the voice following.

That’s another important thing to remember: Sheep are led by a shepherd who goes before them. Jesus is the exemplary shepherd which means there is no one else worth following. We are the sheep and that means we are the followers. Let us follow the shepherd who knows and calls us by name, because only in Christ can we ever know what it truly means to be who we are.

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[1] McCurry, Dale, “Letters from the Pen.” Eureka Springs, AR: Boian Books, LLC, 2007

[2] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor Eds.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, pages 448-453.

[3] Ralph F. Wilson, "Burlap, Boys, and Christmas," The Joyful Heart, December 23, 1997, www.joyfulheart.com found at HomeliticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1661, retrieved May 2, 2009.

[4] Custin James, Carolyn, “The Gospel of Ruth, Loving God Enough to Break the Rules.” Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008, page 115.

[5] Coffin, William Sloane, The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years, Volume 1, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 354.

[6] Krotz, Dan, review of “Letters from the Pen” found at the Boian Books website review page, http://boianbooks.com/reviews.shtml, accessed April 28, 2012.

Voices of the Martyrs

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 22, 2012, the 3rd Sunday of Easter.

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Acts 3:12-19

Psalm 4

1 John 3:1-7

Luke 24:36b-48

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen 

Martyrs are seen as a different breed of people, a different breed of Christians in particular. There is a lot of truth in this statement. The list of Christian martyrs is long and storied. Stephen is recognized as the first Christian martyr. In the year 34, months after the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord, Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin unjustly charged with speaking “blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”[1] At his trial, the Chief Priests and the Elders asked him the first great question of faith, the Easter question, “Is it true?”

Stephen’s answer did three things. He began by recounting the great history of the faith. Stephen affirmed the magnificence of what all Jews believed. From his lips he told of the greatness of the Patriarchs. He spoke of the words and deeds of Moses. He ended these words with the splendor of Solomon and the temple.[2]

This brings us to the second thing Stephen’s answer did for his judges, they were appeased. He was speaking the truth in words they understood and with the deference they expected to hear. So far, so good. The judges were undoubtedly pleased with Stephen’s words and more relaxed that he was not speaking blasphemy.

This is when Stephen dropped the hammer. After sharing the history of the faith and putting his earthly judges at ease Stephen began his diatribe at human rulers who would neglect the Lord crying “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised.” He declared these rulers to be just like their ancestors, men who sought the power of their own works and wisdom over the power of the Lord. He accused them of resisting the Holy Spirit, murdering the Lord Jesus Christ as he accused their ancestors of killing the prophets who predicted the coming of the Righteous One.

This is the third and literally the last thing Stephen’s words did, he told the Sanhedrin exactly who Jesus was and who they were, sealing his fate. For this, he was dragged out of the city and stoned to death.

There is an old joke among bible study groups. It’s not very funny, but not all old jokes are. When considering the spiritual gifts, the least popular gift is martyrdom, but that’s because you only get to use it once. Like I said, it’s not very funny, but on top of that, it’s a misunderstanding of what being a martyr means.

The word martyr is adapted from ancient Greek. It means witness, that’s all. Its ancient root comes from a word that means “to remember.” So basically, a martyr is “one who remembers.” Massaging this a little more it means, “‘one who has knowledge of something by recollection, and who can thus tell about it,’ i.e., the witness.”[3] In the language of the day, a martyr was a witness in a legal proceeding of course, but this word has a more general usage too.[4]

In its broader use, to be a martyr also signifies “the proclamation of views of truths of which the speaker is convinced.”[5] This way, a martyr can be a witness to something that cannot be proven by observation or scientific experimentation. This doesn’t stand up in any court of law, but in the church it is very important. Scripture teaches us “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”[6] Understanding faith as confidence in what cannot be proven by observation or scientific experimentation is being a witness, a martyr to the Lord.

As we heard in last week’s gospel reading, those who did not see Christ’s physical presence, those who did not see his deep wounds; those who do not have the experiences of the first disciples and still believed, they are blessed.[7]

In short, there are two kinds of martyrs, those who are witnesses of events and facts, and those who are witnesses in the sense of evangelical confession.[8]

If you are wondering where this is leading then wonder no more. Jesus told his disciples, “You are witnesses of these things.”

Our reading doesn’t seem to be very important as resurrection experiences go. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of drama in it. This passage begins with the disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus returning to the place where the disciples were staying to share the Good News of his appearance. While sharing the Good News of the resurrection, Jesus shows up on his own with that wonderful offer, “Peace be with you.”

They were startled and frightened, and who with any sense wouldn’t be startled and frightened. They thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus asks, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself!” While the English is clumsy, the disciples did not hear Jesus say “It is I myself.” They heard him say “I AM,” invoking the name of the Lord to declare his presence.

Then comes a piece, a fact, evidence that Luke the Good Physician would value highly, “Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones.” This is the kind of witness a physician can get behind.

With this they were filled with joy and wonder and disbelief. Let’s face it, this isn’t the combination we expect, but it is true. So Jesus, again in a way a doctor would understand, asks if anyone has a bite to eat.

Literature and cinema have recently been on an “undead” binge. There have been a ton of books and movies and TV shows about vampires and zombies.[9] There has been debate about the dining habits of these characters in real honest-to-goodness academic study. (So some people have too much time on their hands… what can I say…) One of these great debates is currently coming down on the side of saying that these undead have neither human digestive needs nor working human digestive systems. In short the undead do not eat like we do.

Jesus breaks bread. Jesus shares food. Christ is not reanimated. Christ lives.

Over a simple meal, Jesus opens the minds of the disciples. Jesus shows them how his life and death and resurrection fulfill the scriptures. He tells them that they are witnesses of these things.

They are witnesses of truth. They are witnesses who have seen with their own eyes. They have seen the events of history and prophecy unfold in their lifetimes. They are now witnesses of historical events and evangelical confession. They, more than anyone else, are equipped to testify that Jesus is Lord.

The word Jesus uses to say they are witnesses is the same word we use to get our word martyr. Jesus has appointed these disciples to be the first martyrs. Their words are the first voices of the martyrs.

As I said, we cannot be witnesses in the “witness of events” form of the word. We are left with evangelical confession. To live into Christ’s gospel, we need to be witnesses. We need to add our voices to those of the martyrs.

The current issue of “The Christian Century” begins with Editor John M. Buchanan’s comment called “Life after resurrection.” In his editorial, he writes that one of the lessons of the resurrection is that “goodness and truth are not ultimately overwhelmed by evil and untruth, regardless of what is transpiring at any particular historical moment.”[10]

He is more than willing to accept that at any given moment of history this sounds “far-fetched, unrealistic, and naïve.”[11] There are days when the definition of martyr goes beyond simple witness and moves all the way into that more common view; the witness who shares the truth into peril and death.

The first century was a particularly difficult time for Christ’s followers. Of the original disciples, Christian tradition has only one of the twelve facing a death not wrapped in violence. Of the twelve, only John was thought to die of old age. The remaining disciples were crucified, stoned, flayed, beheaded, clubbed, skewered, and axed to death.[12] Judas gets special mention for his suicide. The witness of their lives; their witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ; almost without exception ended violently.

But not all stories of martyrdom end like this.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian Lutheran/Anglican pastor, who had worked with the underground church in Romania after it was taken over by the Soviet Union in 1944. It wasn’t easy being a Christian behind the iron curtain. Among the tricks he taught believers is that when you carried bibles into countries that forbid sharing the Good News, walk backward. That way, when the police tried to track you, if they weren’t careful they would end up going the wrong way.

One night, after the Soviet invasion of Romania Pastor Wurmbrand stood up for Christ at a community meeting. Consequentially he was imprisoned for fourteen years. He was freed only after a ransom was paid for his release.

In 1967 he founded The Voice of the Martyrs, an international alliance of Christian mission organizations. These missions aim to raise awareness about the many thousands of Christians annually who are killed, tortured, imprisoned or harassed for their beliefs. Funded through donations of supporting churches and individuals, these organizations also provide practical assistance to persecuted Christians throughout the world. [13]

I said that there is a lot of truth in saying that martyrs are a different breed of people, but as true as this is, there is also truth that the voice of the martyr is as common as fresh air and refreshing as cold water. So how do we live into our commitment to a life of being witnesses to Christ in the world?

Tom White, the current Director of The Voice of the Martyrs offers these suggestions:[14]

·        First and foremost, we need to pray. We need to pray that the Holy Spirit give us specific people, situations, and things to pray for. We need to learn about those who share the witness of Christ crucified with the world and lift them.

·        We need to continue to meet together to stand in unity with those who risk their lives by meeting together.

·        We need to share the gospel. Support missionaries. Support the work of bible translators and bible distributers. Remember that love and encouragement may not spend the same way a dollar does, but the blessings can last longer for those who send and receive encouragement.

·        Write, write, write—Share the Good News and the work of those who share the Good News with elected officials, appointed officials, newspapers. Shoot, share this news with Georgia so for the church newsletter because evangelism, sharing the Good News, begins at home!

·        Share the Good News with your friends and neighbors.

In my opinion, this last one is the sticky one. It’s easy to do those first things from our computers and from the comfort of our homes. This last suggestion puts us out in the community with our faith on our sleeves. We get to remember that not everybody is blessed with the same gifts; the Lord does not expect everyone to be a great orator. I expect the Lord doesn’t want everyone to be a great orator because all talk and no action is not the Good News.

We need to live our lives as a witness to the reality, the importance, and the implications of the resurrection. We need to live knowing that we can never be good enough to go to earn God’s love. We need to live knowing that if we wait until “we’re right with God” before living a life worthy of God we will never live a life worthy of God. We need to live knowing that a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when that picture is a life lived in the peace of Christ, a peace offered when Jesus comes to us.

Remember this lesson from this resurrection appearance, we don’t go to Christ, Christ comes to us.

In the words of The Christian Century’s John M. Buchanan, “then came the resurrection! For the disciples, this meant that his ideas were true, that working for their realization would always be holy work, work worth living for and dying for.

“Everything is different because we now live in a world where death did not have the final word, where truth and goodness and love are the final realities, and where a resurrection has happened.”[15]

On a final note, let me add this note of encouragement from The Voice of the Martyrs. The book where I got the story about Pastor Richard Wurmbrand is from a collection that took its title from the Jesus movement of the 1960’s and a popular Contemporary Christian song from 1995, “Jesus Freak.” Tom White ends his introduction with these words of support: “The greatest encouragement I can give my fellow Jesus Freaks is that you are never alone… Continue to set your light—Jesus Christ—on a hill.”[16]

With this advice, all I can add is “amen.”

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[1] Acts 6:11, 12

[2] Acts 7:2-47

[3] “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” Gerhard Kittel, Editor. Vol. IV. Grand Rapid, MI: Eerdmans, 1967,  page 475.

[4] Ibid, page 477.

[5] Ibid, page 478

[6] Hebrews 11:1

[7] John 20:29

[8] Ibid Kittel, pages 489, 492.

[9] I wanted to add “You can’t swing a dead cat without it coming back to life.” but that joke would have been for me and not the glory of God. Hooray for the endnote!

[10] Buchanan, John M., “Life after resurrection” in “The Christian Century.” April 18, 2012, Vol. 129, No. 8. Page 3.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Apostle (Christian), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Apostles#Deaths_of_the_twelve_apostles, retrieved April 21, 2012.

[13] Voice of the Martyrs, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_the_martyrs, retrieved April 21, 2012 and dcTalk and the Voice of the Martyrs, Inc (VOM, Inc.), “Jesus Freaks, Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus: The Ultimate Jesus Freaks.”  Tulsa, OK; Albury Publishing, 1999, page 12-13.

[14] Paraphrased from Ibid dcTalk and VOM, Inc.., pages358-361

[15] Ibid. Buchanan

[16] Ibid dcTalk and VOM, Inc, page 13

Signage and Its Purpose

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 15, 2012, the 2nd Sunday in Easter.

Podcast of "Signage and Its Purpose" (MP3)

Acts 4:32-35

Psalm 131

1 John 1:1-2:2

John 20:19-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

The District of Columbia was created to serve as our nation’s permanent capital in 1790. Within the District, a new capital city was founded in 1791 to the east of the settlement at Georgetown. The original street layout in the new City of Washington was designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant.[1]

A planned city, Washington was modeled in the Baroque style and incorporated avenues radiating out from rectangles. The District itself is divided into four quadrants. The axes separating the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building. In most of the city, the streets are set out in a grid pattern with east-west streets named with letters and north-south streets named with numbers.

One of the oddities to the city’s layout is that there is no J Street in any quadrant. Legend has it that J Street was deliberately omitted by L’Enfant because of a dispute with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay over The Treaty of Enmity, Commerce and Navigation.[2] In truth the probable reason is more mundane. It is far more likely that the reason there is no “J” Street is because in the Gothic writing style popular until the mid-nineteenth century, the letters “I” and “J” were indistinguishable.

One of the better narratives explaining this is found in an episode of NCIS. At the conclusion of the episode Assistant Medical Examiner Jimmy Palmer shared his take on why there is no J Street with Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. He said it was because the founding fathers did not want anyone to get lost.[3]

One very important purpose of signage is so people do not get lost.

In my opinion, Thomas, or “Doubting Thomas,” gets more abuse than he deserves for being skeptical. I find his tendencies to speak his mind and to ask questions when he doesn’t understand admirable. Thomas was not a man to be persuaded willy-nilly.  In John 14[4] when Jesus says “And you know the way to the place where I am going;” Thomas is the one who says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” If we truly believe there is no such thing as a stupid question, then Thomas belongs in the Hall-of-Fame.

I imagine Thomas was a man of home spun wisdom. He had a “Show-Me” mentality that would have been popular here when Marshall was the Confederate capital of Missouri-in-Exile.[5] He was deliberate and he was cautious. He has questions and he wants them answered. He has doubts and he wants them vanquished.

So it was the evening on the first day of the week, the day of Jesus’ resurrection; and the disciples had locked themselves in the house where they met. Not detoured by physical barriers, the Lord entered the room and offered them his peace. He showed them his hands and side and the disciples were overjoyed. In the next moment, they received their vocation, their directions; they were pointed in the direction they were to take so they would not get lost. They were also given the most important thing they could take on their journeys; by the breath of Christ, in the wind of God, they received the presence of the Holy Spirit.

As for Thomas, scripture doesn’t say why he was not with the other disciples; only that he wasn’t. So when the others finally see Thomas, he got an ear full. “We have seen the Lord!” they proclaimed loudly and joyfully. They weren’t rubbing it in his face, I think they were rejoicing and wishing he had been with them to share the glorious gifts they had received.

The Missouri Mule spirit that had served Thomas did not desert him. He knew all about the crucifixion and he knows dead is dead. He seemed willing to believe some sort of apparition, a Holy Spirit, but the physical presence of the Lord in the glory of his resurrection body struck him as unlikely. He had to see the Lord Jesus for himself. He had to touch him. He needed it before he would believe it was true.

Sure enough, a week later they gathered for fellowship. Give Thomas credit, he wasn’t sure about the resurrection, but he still believed and still worshiped Jesus. Then just like the week before, Jesus came into the closed room, stood among them, and said “Peace be with you.”

Quoting John’s gospel, “Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas, answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”

Then, as a word for the world to come, Jesus blesses the generations that follow the original apostles and disciples. This first generation believed because they saw. The next generations, including those who hear and read this gospel then and now, they believe only because of these words and by the witness of the lives of the disciples that have followed since.

We live in a world where we, like Thomas, did not receive the Holy Spirit along with the disciples on that first Easter Sunday so long ago. Like Thomas at the beginning of our reading, all of humanity longs to see Jesus, behold the glory of his face, and touch his hands and side. Like Thomas, we can find the resurrection difficult because we have not personally seen the person of the resurrection. Like Thomas we all want to stand before the Lord and worship crying, “My Lord and my God.” We want to sing out adoring God in the happy chorus begun by the morning stars.

We’re looking for miracles; we’re looking for signs to point us toward belief. We are looking for signs of assurance.

In one way or another, one of the great questions of life is “What size miracle are you looking for?” In a society where bigger is infinitely better, the land of the super-size, we want big-big miracles with a big-big crunch. We want “burning-bush” and “loaves-and-fishes” sized miracles. Of course, as is usually the case, we should beware what we ask for when we ask for big-big miracles.

One of my favorite miracles is a big-big one. It comes from Numbers 11. The people of Israel are in the desert and they aren’t happy about it. They have been so long with only manna to eat that they have begun to grumble and long for “the good ol’ days” when they were in Egypt eating fish and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic and ate them at no cost. No cost except for their freedom, but they were so bored with their food and their journey that they longed for the regular hours of strict manual labor under the whip.

Moses hears the grumbling and fears for his life, not a bad reaction if I say so myself. Moses asks the Lord “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?”

I wonder if this isn’t a big question among all overwhelmed leaders. 

Moses even tells the Lord “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.” He finally says if he can’t get relief he would rather die at the hands of the Lord than the crowd.

So the Lord tells Moses to assemble the leaders of Israel and tell them this,

“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

Beware what you ask for, because you just might get it.

People look for miracles. People look for signs and it looks like the people of Israel missed one. It looks like they blew through the “Yield” sign to me. In the parable of the vine and the branches John’s gospel would translate “Yield” as “Abide.” But for our purposes and the purposes of the people in the desert, it appears that Israel blew through a “Yield” sign.

Of course, the witness of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and all human history shows us that on the whole humanity has a tendency to blow through the “Yield” sign. And “Stop” signs for that matter too.

Another very important purpose of signage is to warn people and give them direction.

Everybody looks for signs and in our reading everyone gets the sign they need. The disciples saw the hands and side of Jesus and they believed. Thomas not only wanted what the other disciples got, he wanted to touch Christ’s rich wounds too. In the end though, seeing Jesus was enough. When he saw his Messiah he declared his faithfulness crying “My Lord and my God!”

In this world, people want their own “resurrection appearance” miracle. Everybody wants to see Jesus just like the disciples, but scripture says that’s not for everybody. So what kinds of signs and what kind of miracles should we be looking for?

Last Saturday there were a lot of little miracles wondering around the lawn. To see the smiles of the kids as they were having their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny was joyful. It was a sign of new life and the promise of what can be.

Last weekend there was a little boy who arrived late and was only able to find one egg on the ground. There were also several teenage boys who made pouches out of the front of their t-shirts that they filled with eggs. (Why t-shirts? Take it from a former teenage boy, baskets would not do.) When they saw the sad little boy they dropped eggs where he could get them. This little boy went from dejected to elated because he found eggs, enough eggs to fill his basket. Leaving greed behind in the name of sharing is always a miracle. Just like it was in the time of the early church as we heard from Acts this morning.

As for the disciples, they were asked to share forgiveness with the world. Now that’s a miracle as small as a smile and as big as a burning bush. This was tough because the disciples knew that only God could forgive sins, and they knew that even with the Holy Spirit they were not God. Yet they received the power and responsibility to forgive or not forgive people who had hurt them and others.

Their power was not to limit or empower God. Their power was given so that they might no longer be bound to anger and vengeance. God forgives, but unless we forgive we bind ourselves to the past. We don’t forgive so others can go on with their lives, but so we can get on with ours.

Let me add that if you have ever tried to get over such harm on your own, you’ll know it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to do the job.

Here’s the final sign we need, the green light. We need to be the miracle. We need to live so that others can see that our God lives. We need to live like the disciples of every time and age before us who lived so we could believe. Our lives need to show those who see us that our God lives so they can believe. It is our call and our vocation to live lives worthy of Christ so that they can believe and become Christ’s disciples.

In this case, the purpose of signage is to move people off the mark; going where they are supposed to go.

So, what size miracle are we looking for? Here is the biggest one of all. Here is the miracle we are to share with the world. We were created by the Triune God who loved so much that he created life. The Lord not only created matter to love and care for, our God created a race of people who could choose to love the Lord God back. (Risky move that is.) We are loved by a God who loves us so much that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This by the grace and peace given freely by God in Christ.

Signs have their purpose. They make sure we don’t get lost, they assure us, they warn us, they give us direction, and they get us going when we are supposed to go. On the whole, this is a worthy vocation Jesus sends us into the world to share.

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[1] Much of these first paragraphs are taken and adapted from: “Streets and Highways of Washington DC.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_and_highways_of_Washington,_D.C.

[2] “No J Street in Washington DC,” http://www.snopes.com/history/american/jstreet.asp

[3] “Jimmy Palmer,” The NCIS Database” Wiki. http://ncis.wikia.com/wiki/Jimmy_Palmer. The episode is called “Broken Bird.”

[4] John 14:4-5

[5] Marshall, Texas,  The Republic of Texas and the Civil War (1841–1860) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall,_Texas#The_Republic_of_Texas_and_the_Civil_War_.281841.E2.80.931860.29

Hope Springs from our Losing Battles

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 8, 2012, Easter Sunday.

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Isaiah 25:6-9

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11

Mark 16:1-8

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

Our reading this morning is distinct among the gospel accounts of the resurrection. In Mark’s version we hear a most unlikely resurrection story. It’s a resurrection without Jesus. We’re left with an empty tomb, everything is left up in the air. Later editions of Mark’s gospel add stories of Jesus with Mary Magdalene and the apostles. There is another piece that adds a version of the ascension.  But these verses, the verses following the eighth, were added at least 250 years later. This oldest, most reliable version of Mark’s gospel leaves us with an empty tomb, but that is not how it begins.

It begins with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome with spices, spices they would use for their Lord’s burial. Now, why bring the spices? The spices were to prepare the body and should have been used before Jesus was placed in the tomb. But I ask then, why the spices at all? The purpose of the spices was to preserve the body. The preservation of the body and the aromatic quality of the spices would help keep down the wretched smell of decay. After the three days from Friday to Sunday, a corpse that was not handled properly would begin to stink. We learn this from the death of Lazarus and he was placed in the tomb properly. Even from the sealed tomb, there would be an odor.

Friends, these three women knew they were about to fight a losing battle with the spices. From their combined experience they would have known that when they reached the tomb what they were prepared to do would have been at least ineffective and at worst a waste of time. Still they went, not out of obligation, but out of love.

They also knew that once they reached the tomb, opening it would have been nearly impossible. The stone was probably round like a millstone. To seal the tomb it would have rolled and dropped into a groove carved out for it. It would have been fairly easy to roll in, but very difficult to roll out. They knew, they even said to one another that this was going to be a losing battle. From their combined experience they would have known that when they reached the tomb what they could do would have been at least ineffective and at worst a waste of time. Still they went, not out of obligation, but out of love.

Earlier this week I read a little nugget of wisdom about human endeavor in scripture. This piece of wisdom was that scripture is filled with human failure. It’s kind of demoralizing to say, but it’s true. It doesn’t require a close study to see that people mess things up. Sometimes messes are caused by disobedience. Other times it’s circumstances playing themselves out. This is an example of the latter; there was really nothing these women could do at the tomb. They were on a fool’s errand. But I say again; they went, not out of obligation, but out of love.

When they arrived, they found what they were not expecting. They found the tomb open. They did not find a stench. They found a young man in a white robe and they were alarmed. Friends, we know how this ends so we can smile in the firm and certain knowledge of what has happened; but at this moment these women did not. Being “alarmed” would have been the only responsible reaction to what they found at the tomb.

So the young man cries out “Do not be alarmed!” (Yeah, right, sure…) Then he tells them while they were still alarmed and on their way to being afraid, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen!”

The Reverend Doctor Michael Jinkins wrote: “Over seventy years ago, a young minister named Karl Barth addressed a group of ministers and told them why people came to church.  His words became a clarion call to his generation and they still echo today.  He said that on any given Sunday morning, when the bells ring calling the people to worship, there is in the air an expectancy that something great, something crucial, something momentous is going to happen.  People, he said, come to church wanting to know the answer to one question above all else: ‘Is it true?’”[i] This ending of Mark’s gospel causes the reader to ask that very question.

Mark’s gospel has none of the meticulous precision of Luke’s. Matthew’s many references to the Jewish Law are missing too. Mark makes us ask questions—and this ending makes us ask the questions, “Is it true? Did Jesus rise from the dead?” Today we testify, “Yes, he is risen.”

This is a bold statement of faith. It doesn’t come to us by scientific method, but that’s not what a faith statement does. Faith is the “firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”[ii]

Our faith is founded on the truth of the freely given promise in Jesus Christ, the Messiah given to us in the word written and proclaimed, the promise that he is with us through the ages. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s own spirit, we are able to interpret the word finding God’s loving kindness toward us as Jesus continually intersects our lives.

Our faith cannot be founded on what we do because to find faith in our failures is futile, and this is the Good News. If our works are in vain then our hope can only come through the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus. This morning we read of three women who approach the Lord with hope, hope that their impending failure will have any effect at all. They go to fight a losing battle, but by showing up, they see that by Christ the battle is won.

Hope springs from their losing battles, hope springs from our losing battles because our failures give God room to work miracles.

Through faith and hope we find the Lord at work in our lives. Through faith and hope we become free to live in the truth of Jesus Christ. Through faith and hope, we can become sure of the meaning of our own existence, our own humanity.  Through faith and hope can we say “He is risen.”

We testify our faith in Jesus as our risen Lord using the words of the Apostle’s Creed. But the creed is not about our faith, it is about the one in whom we have faith. The words describe the triune God as the church understands each of the three persons. The creed reminds us Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried; and on the third day he rose again from the dead.[iii] The words of the ancient church for over 1,800 years, the creed has helped us state what we believe about the triune God.

We bear witness to our confidence in the faith through the sacraments, the outward signs instituted by God to convey inward grace.[iv] One of the marks of the true church is the right administration of the sacraments.[v]

In the waters of our baptism we are born, cleansed, and live. The waters provide refreshment for our bodies and our lives. Baptism initiates us, brings us into the body of Christ. Jesus rose from the waters of the Jordan and when we come from the water we are new in Christ. From the tomb of the waters and from the tomb of the grave, He is risen.

As we journeyed together along the road to Golgotha this week we are fortified with the meal of grain and vine, the bread and the juice. “Through this bread, there comes about what we see in the gospel: a fellowship of pilgrims, a fellowship gathered around the apostles, a fellowship of a meal that includes everyone, a fellowship of one single pilgrim path to God.”[vi] This is the meal we share until Christ comes again in glory.

People of faith and people seeking faith want to know, “Is it true?” Mark leaves the question up in the air. Being told “he is risen,” in the last verse of the gospel, the women who came to prepare Jesus’ body left the tomb terrified and amazed. Barth frames our quest this way: “They reach, not knowing what they do, towards the unprecedented possibility of praying, of reading the bible, of speaking, of hearing and singing of God.”[vii] For us, God is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to answer Barth’s question with hope and confidence.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome left the tomb afraid to speak to anyone. They were told to spread the news of the empty tomb, Jesus is returning to Galilee. We are called to spread the good news too. Through the hope of God’s loving kindness we can live a life of faith daily. We proclaim, we confess our faith using the words of the creed. Through the sacraments, we participate in the outward signs instituted by God to convey inward grace.

Through the water, the bread, and the wine we share in the elements Jesus used to identify himself with the community. We become the body of Christ as the church, through these elements of thanksgiving. Through the word, faith, hope, and the sacraments we answer the question. This is how we show the world what we believe. We do this not out of obligation, but out of love. This is how we say, “Yes, it is true. He is risen. He is risen, indeed.”

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[i] Jinkins, Rev. Dr. Michael. Transformational Ministry, Church Leadership and the Way of the Cross.  Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2002, page 33.

[ii] Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, McNeill, John T. Ed., Volume III, Chapter 2, Section vii.

[iii] PC(USA) Book of Confessions, 2.2

[iv] Augustine

[v] PC(USA), 3.18, 5.134

[vi] Rahner, Karl, in Eucharist, A Source Book, Liturgy Training Publications, 1999, Chicago, page 19

[vii] Ibid. Jinkins

The Ultimate April Fools Prank

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 1, 2012, the 6th Sunday in Lent, Palm Sunday.

Sorry, no podcast this week due to recording failure.

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Philippians 2:5-11

Mark 11:1-11, 15:1-41

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

In 1992 the morning team at Denver’s NewsRadio 850 KOA reported that former Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler had signed on with the Denver Broncos. In a live interview with the Colorado Morning News team on the Denver Bronco Radio Network flagship station, Stabler said how excited he was to come out of retirement and play for such a storied organization as the Denver Broncos.

I heard this announcement and interview live on the air while driving to work in Lamar, over 200 miles from Denver. From that distance I could hear the Bronco faithful from all over the Rocky Mountain region go completely insane. In a time before cell phones were handy and affordable, the 850KOA switchboard lit up with a white hot passion.

I remember this from twenty years ago because I can remember what kind of stupid move I thought this was. Stabler had retired seven years earlier after a final stint with the Saints. He retired because his knees were French, wheat, rye, and Melba—they were toast. On top of that, Stabler was hated not just in Denver, but all over the AFC West because of his propensity to win games late. Bronco quarterback John Elway may have been the Comeback Kid, but the Snake did it first. Thus, Kenny Stabler was absolutely, bile splittingly hated in Denver. I thought to have him, his reputation, his years of rust, and his lousy knees suddenly on the Denver bench would be a recipe for disaster.

For you Dallas Cowboy fans, it would be like the ‘Boys bringing former Washington Redskins QB Mark Rypien in 2010 while Tony Romo was the undisputed king of Cowboy Stadium. Actually, bringing Doug Williams in 2000 to play opposite Troy Aikman would be a better example for many Cowboy fans.

I don’t have any idea who would fill in these blanks for Saints fans.

Then it dawned on me. You see, it wasn’t “nearly” twenty years ago, and it wasn’t “almost” twenty years ago, it was exactly twenty years ago. It was twenty years ago to the day making this in my opinion one of the best April Fools pranks ever. As the network flagship station KOA had impeccable credibility. Stabler cooperating with the prank and doing the call-in interview was spot-on. The whole thing was done so incredibly well that the city of Denver and Bronco faithful within earshot fell for it.

The response was huge during the days of “dime-a-minute” long distance. Imagine how it would have blown up in this time of free long distance, sports blogs, smart phones, twitter, facebook, and other social media. This could have easily gone from drowning the KOA switchboard to crashing their website and the Bronco site too. As pranks go, it was just that good.

I’m happy to say I figured out it was a prank before I got to work, but they had me hooked long enough to formulate the “what a stupid move” response I just shared with you. If I had a smart phone I might have pulled over to send a text and join the fools. It was a great joke.

On this April Fools Day, this Palm Sunday, this is what I want us to think about, Jesus pulling the ultimate April Fools prank on creation. He rode in like a king, but he wasn’t the king the people thought he was. The king they thought he would be would be the one who would free them from the tyranny of Rome. Instead, Jesus frees us from the slavery of sin and death.

Mark describes a scene fit for a king. Jesus sends his disciples into town to get a colt that has never been ridden. The word used in the Greek version of Mark’s gospel describes any young animal used for riding or burden. It could have been an ass or a burro or a donkey or a horse. It’s also traditional to translate this word “colt” because of the “never been ridden” qualifier. The word means an animal that is old enough to be useful in the city and fields, but for whatever reason, this one had never been ridden.

Yet, this colt that had never been ridden might have been a young steed whose rider of worth had not yet been found. Albeit young, this could have been a horse of majesty Jesus rides in on. If not, maybe the people saw such majesty in Jesus that the colt took on a grander presence. Especially a mount covered in cloaks.

The point I’m making is that Mark’s gospel could be showing us a majestic charger, the kind of horse that would be ridden by a general or king entering battle. It isn’t the same humble donkey and her colt we read about in Matthew’s or John’s gospels. This year, Mark’s gospel describes the possibility of a grander beast bringing Jesus into Jerusalem.

So as Jesus prepares to mount this colt, not only did the apostles put their cloaks on the mount, but many revelers have put their cloaks down over Jesus’ path.  This act invokes a royal welcome reserved for the coming triumphant Kings of Israel.

Scripture mentions this in 2Kings 9. In this chapter, Jehu is made King of Israel. In verse 13 the people put their cloaks under his bare feet after he tells them he was anointed king. Jehu and his fellow officers then go to Jezreel to face Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah. Jehu eventually kills these kings and Jezebel. His triumphant entry is complete.

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem, many knew what this act proclaimed in Roman controlled Palestine. They were remembering the story of Jehu when they placed their cloaks before Jesus. They knew that they were proclaiming a military and political messiah who would save them from their plight with their Roman overlords.

Of course I’m sure there were others were simply too wrapped up in the revelry of the Passover to notice the signs. They showed up because everybody loves a parade. I am convinced that where ever you go, some folks just show up for the show; first century lookie-loo’s if you will.

We know what happens next, the crowds begin to sing out:

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Then he entered Jerusalem and he went to the temple. He looked at everything, but seeing it was already late, they went to Bethany.

I love this phrase, “it was already late.” The New Living Translation gets a little more specific, it says “he left because it was late in the afternoon.” This was probably accurate too, but I prefer the simple phrase “it was already late.”

To say “it was late in the afternoon” is to talk about appointments and who is in town and who is not. It talks about Jerusalem and about the time of day. It’s true as far as facts go, but I believe there is a truth that goes beyond the facts when Jesus says “it was already late.”

To declare it was already late puts an urgency and intentionality into Jesus’ acts which a time of day cannot convey. When Jesus says it’s late, he’s saying that there is still much to do to prepare his disciples for the events of the week to come.

In our reading from John last week we established that all of the dominoes had fallen into place. All was ready for the end of this part of Jesus’ ministry, but with the end coming there was a sense of urgency. There was still much to do and Jesus had much to teach.

This teaching included what it meant to be the Messiah. This teaching meant what it means to live in the coming kingdom of our father David. It meant that it was time to leave the childish ways of human enterprise behind and open themselves to the most holy of holies.

It meant what Paul wrote to the Philippians about being in the same mind as the Christ Jesus. It means emptying themselves as Jesus emptied himself of Godly form, honor and privilege. It meant taking on the nature of a servant. It meant humbling themselves, even to the ultimate price for the holiest name of all names. It means the same to us too.

It means we are not to revel in what we think we deserve. We are not to flex the muscle of Christ so that we may gain. It is to empty ourselves of what we think is important so that we can seek, discover, and do what the Lord thinks is important to do.

How’s that for an April Fools joke? The people in this passage celebrate the triumphant entry of a political and military Messiah who is not The Messiah. The people see a warrior, but not God Incarnate; a king, but not the Lord who is prophet, priest, and king.

On top of that, it’s an April Fools joke on us today. We aren’t important because of what we think is important. We aren’t important because of folks who hold us in esteem because of our jobs or houses or cars. Some might even fear us because of who we are and what we can do. What creation thinks is important usually is not. Our importance is in our relationship with our heavenly Father.

We’ll see just how far this prank goes as Jesus the Christ goes to dinner on Maundy Thursday, the cross on Good Friday, and remains in the tomb on Holy Saturday. Then we’ll see what happens on Easter Sunday. We’ll watch as Jesus says “April Fools” to the world.