Author: Chip Salzgeber

John 3:1-17

Well…as we look at today’s gospel reading…we come across a verse that has kind of become a cliché.

• It is probably the best-known Bible verse ever.
• While many people may know very little of scripture…they know John 3:16.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

OK then…our basic school-age understanding of John 3:16 goes something like this:

• God created us and all that is…but because the first woman ate something she should not have we are messed-up for all of time.
• And since we are all so terrible at following rules God needs to punish us.
• But here is where Jesus comes in.
• Jesus is God’s only son…and God only had one child.
• And he loved that child very much.
• But he had to kill that little boy because we stole a candy bar and lied to our mom and used swear words.
• (Mom didn’t need God to Punish me).
• The important thing to know is that God killed his little boy rather than punishing us.
• Because someone had to pay.
• And we should feel so grateful about all of this so that we believe and we behave.
• But the good news is that if we believe all of this and if we try hard to be good…
• Then…when we die…we get a special all-inclusive vacation package called Eternal Life.

 

So…here’s the thing…That version SO misses the point of what Jesus is saying.

• That version has instilled fear in people’s lives.
• That version has created a religion that is permeated with judgement.
• Judgement that Christians impose upon others.
• Far too often…this passage has promoted an understanding in which the story of Jesus is about God having to be pacified.
• Or a God having to be persuaded to forgive.
• Far too often we carry around within us an image of an angry…unforgiving God.
• And a loving…forgiving Jesus.

 

Quite honestly…that understanding of God has been used as a tool to scare people out of hell by promoting what is known as decision theology.

• Ironically…these very words that Jesus was speaking to a rigid and legalistic Pharisee named Nicodemus…
• Trying to help him see salvation more expansively…
• Have become the very symbol of conditional love instead of unconditional

 

God is not someone who sends Jesus in order that Jesus might be punished so that our sins will be wiped out.

• God is not the angry monarch…seeking vengeance or retribution for our sins.
• No…God is more like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son…
• Who is not happy until his wandering children have come home.
• God is love…love is the essence of God’s being.
• So…let us understand this verse for what it is.

 

First…in the gospel of John…the word for “world” refers to the cosmos…to everything.

• And…when John uses the words “eternal life” he is not only talking about life after death.
• John’s use of the words “eternal life” means the same thing as Matthew’s use of the words… “kingdom of heaven” …or Luke’s use of the words… “kingdom of God.”
• “Eternal life” is about the “reign of God.”
• In John… “eternal life” is something that we are already living.
• It is living life that truly matters right here and right now.
• It is living life to the full.
• With that in mind…let’s take another look at today’s reading.

 

In the beginning…God…the source and ground of all being…

• Set the universe into motion through sound and breath and self-giving in a love song.
• God so loved the world that he gave his own breath to speak into existence that which was not.
• And then…God so loved the world that he gave his own breath at another time…
• Breathing into dust to create humanity.
• Through dust and the very breath of divine love we were created.
• In the image of the Songwriter…we were created.
• And we too were given voice and language and breath and song.
• And that love song of creation continued.
• But we tended to create our own melodies in another rhythm…in another key…in our own key.

 

So…there is the song of life which rings through eternity.

• And then there are human-generated temporary alternate songs.
• With our own breath…language…voice…
• We still tend to create our own rhythm and melodies.
• That we think will save us…songs of domination…violence…greed…and power.

 

And so once again…God’s breath was given to us.

• Through sound and self-giving.
• Only this time…the sound interrupted the confused noise of the Roman empire.
• This time…God’s divine love song was heard in the cry of a newborn baby.

For God so loved the world that God gave his own self to it in the form of a son.

• This was such a big deal that angels sang back up.
• The heavenly hosts joined in the divine love song interrupting our regularly scheduled program of soldiers and taxes and purity codes.

 

God so loved this corrupt world of empires and victims and violence that God gave his own self to us.

• God so loved the world that he came to us in the most vulnerable and fragile way possible.
• God so loved the world he created that he walked among us as love.

But not our kind of love.

• Our love is limited by self-interest…biology and time.
• No…God’s love takes no account of opinion or history.
• But insists on ignoring information we think of as important.
• Data about worth…beauty…status.
• God’s love has quite ignored the Kelly Blue Book Value on us.

 

For God so loved the world.

• For God so loved soldiers and prostitutes and traitors and unwed mothers and soccer moms and CEOs and ex-cons and Burger King janitors…
• That God gave of his own self in the form of Jesus.

 

And Jesus was like a clearer set of lyrics so that we might be saved from the noise of sin and self-preservation.

• So that we might not perish.
• But be reminded again of the true beat…the real rhythm…the clear lyrics of the song of creation…
• And salvation that is life and that is eternal.

And those who heard this tune…began to sing it to others.

• They expressed it in Gospels and hymns and art and hospitals and colleges and universities and camps and conference centers and social services ministries.
• And we who are gathered here…hear it for ourselves.
• And we know it is life and it is right here.
• It is eternal life and it is for us.

The love song that God has been singing from the beginning of time…is the song of life for all eternity.

• Sometimes…it is drowned out by the white noise of the world.
• But…this love song will never…ever…leave us.
• Yes…God so loves the world with an immense…redeeming
• A love that holds us…and a love that will never let us go!

John: 15:26-27;16:4b-15

Earlier in my ministry…a near-by Lutheran church gifted Bethany Lutheran church (a church I was serving) …a full set of used paraments.

• Bethany Lutheran church was like every other church’s little sister.
• So…they got a lot of hand me downs.
• As a group of folks went through those beautiful altar cloths…
• They came finally to the red set and found one with an image of a descending dove…
• With completely crazy eyes and claws that looked like talons.
• Yup…it was as though the Holy Spirit was a raptor.
• “O MY…someone said…we cannot use this one. It makes The Holy Spirit look dangerous.”
• That was some completely sound advice.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Yes…The Day of Pentecost IS a dangerous story.

• The story opens with that small group of believers isolating themselves as the text says: all together in one place.
• They were afraid of outsiders…so they all stayed together.
• Well…they were in danger but not from outsiders.
• The danger they were in…as they huddled all together in one place…
• Was from a God who is about to crash the party and bring in everyone they were trying to avoid.
• So then that red parament with the crazy taloned raptor dove is an apt image for the Holy Spirit.

 

The Spirit…while called the comforter…does not bring the warm chocolate chip cookies kind of comfort.

• The Spirit brings the comfort of the truth.
• So…let me tell you a story.

Way back in the 1970’s…at Bethany Lutheran Church in Siren Wisconsin…

• On the 17^th of December…the phone rang…and a voice at the other end said:
• “This is Marie from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.
• I want to confirm the arrival of your Laotian family on the 19^th.
• They leave Hong Kong tomorrow morning and will arrive at Minneapolis International airport Monday at 11:22 am.”

 

Silence greeted the woman from my end of the line.

• “Are you certain you have the correct party?” I finally managed to say.
• “Is this Bethany Lutheran Church Siren Wisconsin?”
• “Yes.”
• “Sir…I have several pieces of correspondence with Pastor DeSota, one as late as November 3^rd.”
• I was the new pastor at the church.
• Pastor DeSota was my predecessor.

 

Why I did not tell the nice woman it was all a terrible mistake and that she would just have to find someone else to house the family…I didn’t know.

• But I didn’t.

 

For five minutes after I hung up…I sat in shock.

• Then I made two phone calls, confirming a hunch.
• The arrival of the six Southeast Asian refugees was not a total surprise to everyone.
• A few of the younger families had been consulted.
• Though everyone assumed that the former pastor had “canceled the order” when he left in November.

 

On Sunday evening I called a meeting at the church to decide what to do.

• The fellowship hall was packed.
• At first the group was in chaos.
• No one seemed thrilled over the prospect of locating a family just a few days before Christmas.

 

The meeting was approaching its second hour before one of the older members asked me what I thought.

• “There is a great deal about this situation that I do not understand” I began.
• What I do know is this: tomorrow morning six human beings…through no fault of their own…will be arriving at the airport without food…clothing, housing…or friends.
• A Wisconsin winter is hard enough to face under the best of circumstances.
• I intend to be at the airport tomorrow. I intend to be their friend. Do any of you plan to help?”

 

After a moment of silence…the room nearly exploded with excitement.

• No longer did people begin their sentences with “If this family comes.”
• Instead…they said: “When they come…”
• During the next 90 minutes…teams were formed to find food and clothing.
• And a woman in her 80’s…offered her house to the family until a permanent residence could be found.
• Later that evening…I fell exhausted into bed…pleased with what had happened but still apprehensive about what was to come.

 

The next morning the welcoming committee was near to the airport before it dawned on them that they would not be able to understand a single word this family would say.

• As it turned out…they need not have worried.
• When the family of six…a mother and a father in their mid-30’s…two girls…12 and 11…a boy…4…and a grandmother…
• Stepped off the plane…they communicated wonderfully in the universal language of gesture…smiles…handshakes…and even a tentative hug.

 

The next five days were hectic:

• The phone rang constantly.
• People offered food…clothing…and transportation.
• On Tuesday a house was located that needed fixing.
• And several volunteers quickly stepped forward to begin the necessary repairs.
• On Wednesday a pickup pulled into the church parking lot…filled with furniture.
• On Thursday an interpreter was found.
• One of the young women coming home from college brought an international student with her.
• At last…people would not be limited to pantomime for communication.

 

Bethany Lutheran Church…on Friday, December 24^th…normally reserved and silent…was buzzing.

• People who ordinarily entered quietly and sat in their pews until worship began…
• Were in the aisles talking and shaking hands.

 

At precisely 7 pm the church grew quiet…not because the acolyte had lit the candles…or the choir had begun to process.

• But because six people…led by an 80-year-old woman…
• Had entered the church and found their way to the very front pew…right in front of the pulpit.
• When the service began…the church shook with singing.
• I beamed.

 

I read the Christmas Gospel…and when I finished the beautiful poetry from the first chapter of John…I paused.

• “Dear friends” I said. “A great deal has happened in this church in the past few days.
• In a way it is very much like the story of the first Christmas…
• Where room was discovered for our Lord on the night of his birth.
• A night when he and his family were refugees.
• What has happened is that the Holy Spirit of God has broken into our lives.
• Just as he broke into the lives of a people nearly 2000 years ago.
• With a phone call and the arrival of six strangers…the Holy Spirit has interrupted our lives and brought us here together.
• May Christ be with us all.”

 

And that…my friends…is the work of the Holy Spirit.

• And it did not feel like a chocolate chip cookie…at first.
• You see…we are the very people to whom God sends the spirit to mess everything up.
• The very people God loves enough to send that crazed bird with bared talons and a predatory beak to come and snatch out our stony hearts.
• And replace them with the comfort of God’s own heart.

 

That is the thing about the Pentecost Spirit of truth:

• It feels like the truth might crush us.
• And that is right…the truth crushes us.
• But the instant it crushes us it puts us back together into something holy and real.
• Because the mysterious and dangerous thing the Spirit does has always been to form us into the Body of Christ.

John 17:6-19

In today’s gospel Jesus is praying.

• He is not talking to the disciples.
• He is not talking to us.
• He is not teaching.
• He is not giving instructions.
• He is praying.
• And we are listening in.
• And what a prayer it is.

 

What do we hear in his prayer?

• I am not just asking about what he prays for.
• I am asking about what is behind his prayer.
• What is going on in him?
• What is his prayer really about?

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

I ask those questions because one of the things about prayer is that we never simply offer our words.

• Our words are really an offering of ourselves and the circumstances of our lives.
• There is always more going on than the words we say.
• Our words are just the tip of the iceberg.
• An outward and audible sign of some inner substance.
• And that is true for Jesus in today’s gospel.

 

It is the night of the last supper.

• Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet.
• A final meal has been shared.
• He has told his friends he is leaving.
• The end is near.
• Judas left the table and went out into the night.
• John says that Jesus is “troubled in spirit.”

 

Jesus knows his friends will abandon him.

• “You will leave me alone” he tells them.
• Peter will deny him three times.
• Thomas does not know the way.
• Philip wants to see the Father.
• And Jesus feels the world’s hate.

 

No wonder Jesus’ prayer is rambling and meandering.

• Confusing and repetitious.
• And hard to understand.
• It is less about the prayer and more about what is going on inside of Jesus.

 

We have all had moments like that.

• When our prayers were rambling and unclear.
• Back and forth…contradictory.
• I mean…moving all over the place.
• Like those crazy little ants on the kitchen counter.

 

I think this happens on those nights when it seems everything is on the line and we cannot tell if things are falling into place or falling apart.

• They are those circumstances that call everything into question.
• They are times when we wonder what we have really accomplished.
• Did we make a difference?
• Was it worth it?
• What is my life really about?
• They are times when we are overwhelmed by joy.
• They are times when we are devastated by loss and grief.
• They are those times when we are trying to get clarity about ourselves.
• They are those times when we are trying to come to terms with our life.
• Who are we?
• What do we do now?
• Do we have what it takes?

 

They are the transition points.

• Thresholds…moments…and circumstances when we are trying to make sense of ourselves and our life.
• Moments and circumstances when we are working out our life.
• And struggling to be authentic…faithful…and whole.

This is what we see and hear in Jesus’ prayer today.

• He is not as different from us as we often think.
• Or sometimes want him to be.
• Today we see the human Jesus standing in solidarity with us and our humanity.
• Today we see the human Jesus working out his life.
• And all of us here today know what that is like.

 

I was driving…on my way to see a family.

• It was 1974.
• I was 26 years old.
• It was my first parish.
• It was my first death in the first church I was serving in my ministry.
• It was 50 years ago.
• I was scared to death.
• And here I was…supposed to minister to a now grieving wife…amid her husband’s death.
• And my meandering prayer rose to God as I drove to that sorrow-filled home.
• O…MY…GOD…!
• I AM WAY TOO YOUNG TO DO THIS THING THAT YOU ARE ASKING ME TO DO.
• HELP…ME…!
• I…AM…TERRIFIED…!
• I…CANNOT…DO…THIS…!
• I…AM…NOT…UP…TO…THIS…!
• O…LORD…HELP…ME…IN…MY…DEPAIR…!

 

And I went into that home…and I sat with them in their grief.

• I helped my mournful friends make phone calls.
• I ministered to them in the planning of the funeral liturgy.
• They were a Swedish family.
• Their name was Nelson.
• So…we drank coffee and ate cake.
• And it was enough.
• And I was a blessing to them.
• And they were a blessing to me.

 

So then…what are we working out and struggling with today?

• And what does our prayer look like and sound like in all that?

 

Today’s gospel offers us a way forward.

• And it is not what Jesus does.
• But it is what he does not do.
• He does not isolate.
• Or close in on himself.
• He does not get angry or resentful.
• He does not resist or fight back.
• He does not run away or try to escape.
• He does not complain about…
• Or deny the reality of what is happening.
• He does not blame others.
• He does not give up.
• He does not search for an answer to fix it all.

 

Instead…he faces his life.

• He is doing his own inner work.
• He acknowledges what has happened.
• He names his reality.
• He stays in touch with his humanity.
• He speaks from the heart.
• He feels what he feels.
• He grieves.
• He weeps.
• He gathers with his friends.
• He is concerned for others.
• He prays.
• He lives…and dies…with an openness to a future he cannot control.

 

What about us?

• What if we took our cue from Jesus?
• What would that look like in what we are working out and struggling with today?

John 15:1-8

Jesus’ metaphor of the vine and the branches challenges our notion of self-identity.

• I am nothing…if not independent.
• When we are infants…one of our first early phrases is: “I can do it myself.”
• “Yes…I will do it myself…thank you very much.”
• OK then…we want choices. And we want independence.

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

So…what I wish Jesus had said is:

• “I am whatever you want me to be.
• And you can be whatever you want to be:
• Vine…pruner…branch…soil…knock yourself out.”

 

What Jesus actually said is: “I am the vine. My Father is the vine grower. You are the branches…now deal with it.”

• The casting has already been finalized.
• All these countless vines and branches are all tangled and messy.
• And it’s just too hard to know what is what.
• Not only are we dependent on Jesus…but our lives are uncomfortably tangled up together.
• The Christian life is a vine-y…branch-y…jumbled mess of us… and Jesus…and others.
• Christianity is a lousy religion for the “I will do it myself set.”

 

Nowhere does Jesus teach more clearly that we are not independent do-it-yourself-ers.

• Nowhere does Jesus demonstrate more clearly that we cannot go it alone.
• That we cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps when life puts us down.
• That it is completely unreasonable to expect anyone else to either.

 

Now see in your mind’s eye a wild grapevine growing around an

old wall.

• We can see that the vines and

branches are all tangled and messy.

And it is just too hard to know what is what.

• Sometimes our lives look like this.
• Maybe our families feel like this.
• Maybe the places we work or

study or play are a lot like this.

A vine-y…branch-y…jumbled mess.

 

Now see in your mind’s eye a cultivated grapevine.

• The vine grower has put posts up to anchor the main vine in place.
• The individual branches have been sorted out…trained and disciplined.
• They rest on a wire structure that supports them from below and from above.
• All the dead branches…all the non-

productive branches…

• And anything else that does not

contribute to healthy growth has been removed.

 

Grape vines and branches that have been cultivated end up producing masses of grapes.

• They look quite different from that wild grapevine growing around that old fence.
• This is what God wants for us.
• This is God’s desire and promise for each one of us.
• For this community of faith…for all people everywhere.

This is what God will do with us if we are willing.

• This is what God is already doing with us if we have the eyes to see it.
• The image of the vine and branches shows us that Christ is the source of all life.
• The one through whom all things have come into being (John 1:3).
• Our very existence is dependent on God.
• Who nurtures and cultivates us.
• We are not and cannot be the vine that gives life to all.
• Neither are we the vine grower…the one who cultivates…stakes…supports and prunes the branches.
• Even though all too often we act like we have the knowledge and right to hack at the branches around us.

 

We are not the vine…we are not the vine grower…we are branches to whom God has given a choice.

• We can choose to abide in Christ…or…
• We can choose not to abide in Christ.

 

Jesus tells us what is at stake in making that choice:

• Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.
• Neither can you unless you abide in me.
• Those who abide in me and I in them…bear much fruit (John 15:4-5).

 

• To abide is all about remaining…staying…tarrying somewhere…taking up residence…making oneself at home.
• Jesus teaches us that there are many abiding places…many places to be at home in God’s house.
• In fact…he is preparing a special abiding place for each one of us (John14:2).

 

Jesus teaches us that in choosing to abide in him…we are giving him space to

make him at home in us (John 14:23).

• Today we hear that those who abide in love are the ones who are abiding in God.
• And in whom God abides (1 John

4:16).

 

Abiding in Christ means admitting that we are not independent…do-it-yourself-ers…who can boast “I did it my way.”

• Abiding in Christ means accepting that we are dependent on Christ and on each other.
• It means graciously receiving the support Christ offers us…
• Most often through the caring of our brothers and sisters.
• It means consenting to being pruned.
• To letting go of the things that hinder our growth in love.
• Things like fear and hatred…greed and jealousy…grudges and resentment…shame and guilt…
• And all the other vine-y, branch-y tangly things that mess us up.

 

Abiding in Christ is not always comfortable or easy.

• But abiding in Christ is always about

belonging.

• Abiding in Christ is always an affirmation of our capacity to make a positive difference in the world around us.
• If we so choose.

 

John 10:11-18

Once a year in the season of Easter we get these Good Shepherd texts…and we say the 23^rd Psalm.

• And every single year I struggle with saying something new and profound because I find these rural…pastoral…images in the Bible to be difficult.
• It would just be so much easier if Jesus’ illustrations were about the characters on social media.
• If Jesus were saying…I am the good friend or I am the good cross country walking guide or I am the good kayaking coach…I would have something to relate to.
• But no. We get…I am the Good Shepherd.
• The problem is that friends and guides and coaches are things I have experience with.
• But I have no experience with shepherds.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

So…here it is…the truth about sheep:

• A sermon by someone who does not know anything about sheep.
• But knows a little about humans and only a tiny bit about God.
• But is going to take a shot at this anyhow.

The truth about sheep is that I do not want to be one.

• The sheep I have seen up close have been the sad and dirty ones on the byways and in the adjoining fields of Scottland and Israel and Ecuador.
• Given the choice I would be a wolf or maybe a shepherd…but never a sheep.
• Sheep are stupid and docile and easily manipulated.
• I want to make my own choices and go my own way.
• Even… (I need to be honest here) …if those choices and that way is killing me.

 

So…the truth about sheep is that sometimes we are rebellious.

• We are the sheep who adopt dark contrarian elements…black clothes…black hair…black eyeliner…black nails…dark hoodies.
• We are the ones who stay as far to the edge of the flock as possible so we can try and pretend we are free agents.
• We are anti-shepherdtarians.
• Our insistence that we are not like other sheep keeps us from the one thing we really want.
• Which is to belong and feel safe.
• And it is the complete lack of belonging and feeling safe that has made us turn instead to stand even closer to the margins of the heard.

 

But the truth about sheep is that we want nothing more than to belong.

• And yet never felt we have belonged.
• Some of us are needy sheep.
• We give pieces of our hearts to any shepherd shaped thing that comes our way.

 

We are also sometimes the big sheep…the bullies.

• We try to be sheep in wolves clothing.
• Contending with the shepherd.
• And yet us big sheep are really just scared and afraid.
• We are just pretending to be big bullies so no one will know the truth about us.

 

The truth about sheep is that we have terrible hearing.

• We are the sheep who cannot hear the shepherd because his voice is silenced by the clamor of our self-critique.
• I wish I were taller.
• I wish I were shorter.
• I wish my wool were as white as hers or as curly as his.
• We are the sheep who deplore our sheepness and so we search for our belonging in things that do not really matter.

 

We are the sheep who filter out all the good messages about ourselves and our place in the flock.

• And choose instead to only hear confirmation that other sheep get more attention.
• And that everyone else is having more fun and that we do not really belong after all.

 

But at times…we can shine as sheep… we can shine like the son.

• We are the sheep who do unbelievably tender and perfectly sheeply things for our fellow sheep-mates.
• We show them where the best grass is.
• We nudge them with our noses helping them stand back up when they fall.
• We know when to stop baaa-baaaing so that we can hear the shepherd call us.
• We are the sheep who love and listen to the Good Shepherd.
• And are so often our very best selves.

 

While I wish Jesus had said I am the Good Friend or the Good Guide or the Good coach.

• Because I would rather think of myself as a friend…guide or coach.
• There is nothing wrong with the fact that I am a sheep of God’s keeping.
• And you are sheep of God’s keeping.
• Because…the truth is that we are petty and deceitful and heroic and loving and filled with grace.
• There is nothing wrong with any of it.
• Because it is the truth about sheep.
• And we should not fear the truth because it is the thing that Jesus said would set us free.

 

So…see the truth of who we are.

• The truth of our jagged edges and our icky hearts and our fragile need to belong is nothing to be ashamed of.
• No amount of our rebellion and smallness and bigness and self-sorrow can ever change our belongingness to our shepherd.
• And none of the ways we seek belongingness to lesser shepherds and wolves can ever change our true belongingness to The Good Shepherd.

 

When we wander off and try and get our needs met through all the wrong ways…

• And allow others to be our shepherd.
• And when we let the wolves in.
• And when we do all the other things sheep just do.
• Well…it does not mean we are not worthy to have a Good Shepherd.
• It just makes it all that much better news that we have a good shepherd.

 

The needy…proud…distant…rebellious loving…vain…glorious…kind of sheep are the ones who belong to the Shepherd.

• And the Shepherd loves this mess of sheep.
• This means that the Shepherd’s care and unfolding love is not subject to the sheep being the right kind.

 

The Good Shepherd never holds auditions.

• The Shepherd never bases his protection and love and concern for the sheep on how the sheep look or feel or behave.
• Those are just things we created as a basis for belonging.
• Because grace is just too offensive.
• Grace is just too hard to take since we think that if it’s free it must be worthless.
• But the truth is…grace is priceless.

 

The truth is…the Good Shepherd calls us by name.

• We know the voice.
• It is always there…under the clamor of insecurity and the cry of wolves and the murmurs of our own feelings of unworthiness.
• The voice of the one who lays down his life for us is always right there saying:
• “You belong to me.”
• “You belong.”
• “you”.

Luke 24:36-48

Easter lasts for 50 days for Christians.

• Most of the culture thinks it is over when we have vacuumed up the long thin ribbons of green plastic Easter basket grass from the floor.
• But long after the kids return to school following their “Easter Break” the church is still celebrating Easter.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Our Gospel reading for today finds the disciples gathered together three days after Jesus died.

• All they knew was that their friend and teacher and Lord were dead.
• And in the face of loss…they were scared…and they were doubting.
• And this is understandable.
• And it was here that Jesus suddenly stood among them.
• And in their fear and disbelief he does not judge them.
• He does not rebuke them.
• He does not try and convince them of the truth.
• He just offers himself.
• See my hands…touch my feet.
• I am here. Do not be afraid.
• Let’s eat some broiled fish.

 

Today Jesus makes it clear to the disciples that you cannot know him at a distance.

• You cannot know Jesus through idealizing him as being otherworldly.
• Because the Jesus we read about today turns to his disciples and asks them:
• “So…do you have anything to eat?”

 

This reading is teaching us that if we get all transcendent and otherworldly…

• We may just miss Jesus all together because that’s him over there at the snack table.
• Jesus just stands there eating broiled fish with his bare hands…wounds and all.

Reading this story this week takes me back to when I was a student chaplain at the University of Minnesota Hospital.

• And how terrifying it was to think that I would be expected to come up with a satisfying answer to why a families loved one was on life support.
• A motionless woman in her 60s was on an operating table.
• A nurse was hooking up things while a doctor was putting on gloves.
• And I was thinking:
• Everyone seems to know what their job is but what am I doing here?
• The nurse looked at my badge and said:
• Your job is to enable us to be aware of God’s presence in the room while we do our jobs.

 

Well…it just didn’t seem like enough.

• Then later in the little family conference room with just enough space for four love seats.
• And as many boxes of tissue.
• I sat with the family in their loss.
• I stood by and witnessed the heart-wrenching emotional process we call grief.
• And I had no answers.

 

I brought them water…make some calls for them…kept asking the surgeons to give us more information.

• But words of wisdom I had none.
• But I soon learned that all I had to offer was my presence.
• A glass of cold water and a granola bar.
• Only later did I realize…that is just what Christianity is.

 

While talking to the family I found I just did not have much to say.

• And I had to fight the urge to say something.
• Even if it was trite.
• Just so I could feel like I had said something.
• OK…you hear a lot of things in hospitals and funeral homes.
• You know what I mean…like: God had a plan…we just don’t know what it is. Maybe God took your daughter because he needs another angel in heaven. When God closes a door…he opens a window.

 

These things are said because we simply cannot allow ourselves to entertain the finality and pain of death.

• So instead…what we say turns it into a Precious Moments greeting card.
• In moments of grief and loss we are afraid and doubting and we want answers just like the disciples did three days after Jesus died.
• But all anyone can really do is make some casseroles.
• And come over and sit with us.

 

And when that is all we have to offer it can feel like not enough.

• But the truth is…this is Christianity.
• Presence and stories and meals and defiantly believing that death is simply not the last word.

 

Reading today’s gospel we may look at it this way.

• Christianity is not spiritual…it is material.
• You cannot even get started without a loaf of bread some wine and a river…or a lake…or a pool…or a font of water.

 

Jesus comes to his followers…then and now…in our grief and loss and does not give answers.

• In our fear and disbelief…he does not judge…he does not rebuke…he does not try and convince us of the truth.
• He just offers himself.
• See my hands…touch my feet. I am here. Don’t be afraid. Let’s eat.

 

As the Body of Christ this is what we do for each other and for the world God loves so much.

• It is a witness to a God who promises to be with us.
• And in those prayers…we do not offer any answers.
• We just claim the promise as our own.

 

Jesus is made known when we gather and tell the story and share food at his table.

• And share food in the fellowship hall.
• It is common.  It’s simple. And it really…really…is

John 20:19-31

It is kind of odd how we have named Thomas “Doubting” Thomas.

• We don’t give the other characters in the New Testament little nicknames.
• Like needy Nicodemus or Co-dependent Martha.
• But poor Thomas is stuck with Doubting Thomas.

 

Yet the fact of the matter is this:

• When Jesus encountered Thomas…hedid not judge him.
• Jesus did not label him “Doubting Thomas.”
• He came to Thomas just as he was…doubts and all…and offered him…not judgement…not name calling…but peace.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

I think our gospel text for today is about God taking us just as we are.

• I mean…just a week before was the night of the first Easter.
• And I suspect that having denied…betrayed…and abandoned Jesus…
• The disciples were really wallowing in their shortcomings.
• Wondering…what had they done.
• It would not be a stretch to think they were passing around blame and justification for the death of Jesus.

It really was the fault of the Priests who condemned him.

• Or…there just was not enough room for them at the foot of the cross with all those women there.
• Or maybe if that shady Judas had not sold him out this would not have happened to begin with.
• And on and on and on.

 

It’s kind of what we do when we know we have really blown it.

• Because the truth of our own shortcomings is often too much for us.
• So…we either tend to make our faults about someone else.
• Or we try to make everything about our faults.
• Both of which are just two different forms of vanity.

 

But anyhow…there they are a few nights after Jesus died in their cozy little locked room.

• Blaming themselves…blaming others…and trying to figure out what in the world that oddball Mary Magdalene meant by:
• “I have seen the Lord”.

 

And it is here…in the middle of doubt and fear and locked doors…

• In the middle of blame and justifications…that the disciples encounter the risen Christ.
• It is here that Jesus chooses to appear to his beloved Christ deniers…
• Those he loves…who abandoned him.

 

Because notice that the text does not say:

• “And when they had repented of what complete idiots they had been.
• And when they had perfected their faith and the purity of their doctrine.
• And when they had achieved the right condition of personal morality.
• THEN they were worthy of receiving Jesus.”

No. There they sat. Fear…doubt…betrayal and I suspect more than a little shame.

• But it takes more than shame and locked doors to keep Jesus out…you see.
• In fact…when we are at the point in life when our failings and shortcomings are so raw.
• When we are at the point in life when we have blown it completely.
• It is then that God comes to us just as we are.
• Bringing us peace and even forgiveness.

 

It is just like God to barge in uninvited through our fear and locked doors to remind us…like it or not…

• That we are more than the sum total of our bad choices.
• And that we are even more than the sum total of our good choices.
• You see…God is always saying an insistent “I love you” to all our polite insistence of pushing him away.

 

One week later their friend Thomas…who missed it all the first time…was with them in that same room again.

• He had said a polite “no thank you” to the news that Jesus has risen from the dead.
• It is something we have all done and yet we call him the doubter…
• As though it makes him somehow marked.
• As though Thomas doubts…and we do not.
• The only way this would be at all fair is if we all shared his name like:
• Oh…there is Doubting Pastor Chip.
• And Doubting Bill and Doubting Marilyn.
• Well…we are all doubters.

 

And it is not something to freak out about.

• Because doubting is not theopposite of having faith.
• It is a componentof having faith.
• Doubting means that we have not forgotten the story.
• Doubting means that we do not have it all figured out.
• But the best thing about doubting is that…at least it is honest.

 

So…if you are a doubter like me…then it’s ok.

• But you should be prepared for something.
• I experience it all the time.
• It is this thing I call tests of doubt.
• Not tests of faith…but tests of doubt.
• And we should all watch out for them.

 

You see…when I was sure that this whole Jesus thing had nothing to offer me.

• When I had gone through a severe period of skepticism.
• When I had been so clear about my dislike for organized religion.
• When I thought I had unwavering rock-solid doubt.
• I wandered into a church that challenged all my certainties I had about the Christian faith.

 

This was my great crisis of doubt.

• When I was welcomed into a campus ministry Lutheran parish in Decorah Iowa.
• And was so freely given absolution and grace and a literal chunk of bread.
• Which I was told was Jesus and it was for me.
• I slowly began to lose my doubt.
• So…watch out for this…watch out.

 

Because whether doubt is something that we fear or something that we foster.

• Be prepared for it to be tested again and again by the Christ of God who rudely barges through locked doors.
• A God who takes us just as we are.
• A God who is always saying “I love you” to all our polite insistence of pushing him away.

Mark 16:1-8

A chocolate bunny went to his therapist.

• The therapist asked: “How have you been doing lately?”
• The bunny said: “I don’t know…doc.
• I’ve just been feeling so hollow inside.”

 

For 364 days each year…we tell children not to eat anything they find in the dirt.

• Then…on Easter…we say: “Go ahead…kids: Search on the ground for candy!”

And…of course…you know the Easter Bunny’s favorite music…don’t you?

• Hip hop.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Easter jokes are part of an ancient tradition.

• For hundreds of years in Germany…Lutheran pastors would begin their sermons on Easter Day with a joke.
• The custom even had a formal title:
• It was called “the paschal joke.”
• The empty tomb and resurrection were seen as God’s great joke on the world.
• And you know that since every good joke requires a surprising punchline…
• The end of the paschal joke included the biggest shock of all: Jesus … has been … raised!

 

The problem with today’s resurrection story is that it lacks the punchline of an appearance by Jesus.

• Mark tells us that on Easter morning…Mary Magdalene and two other women encounter a cold and empty place when they show up at the tomb.
• They have suffered the crucifixion of their friend and teacher Jesus…
• And they are mourning his death deeply.
• Now they go to his tomb to pay their respects…and what do they find?
• A deserted place.
• After seeing a young man and hearing about the resurrection…they go out and flee from the tomb.
• Terror and amazement have seized them.
• They say nothing to anyone because they are afraid.

 

The poet Robert Frost captures their emotions well when he points out that the most frightening of empty places are always close to home.

• He writes: They cannot scare me with their empty spaces / Between stars — on stars where no human race is. / I have it in me so much nearer home / To scare myself with my own desert places.

 

Mary Magdalene and her friends certainly know what he is talking about.

• And each of us…at some time in life…must struggle with an empty space…a desert place.
• We feel it when we get the message that we are being laid off from work.
• Or when we open our mutual fund statement and discover that our investments have tanked.
• When we realize that we owe more on our mortgage than our house is worth.
• Or when we open the email from the college admissions office and learn that we have been rejected.
• When we receive the call from the doctor…saying the biopsy has come back with a cancer diagnosis.
• When a spouse says she is leaving.
• A boyfriend says he wants to break up.
• A partner says there is no future in the relationship.
• These are desert places.

 

When Mary and her companions enter their desert place…they retreat into silence.

• They feel like they have traveled to a space between stars…where no human race is.
• Yes…it is true that the mysterious young man in the tomb says:
• “Do not be alarmed…you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth…who was crucified. He has been raised.”

 

This is good news…the Easter morning good news of resurrection life.

• But the women cannot grasp it.
• They hear what the man is saying…but it falls flat.
• He says: “Look…there is the place they laid him” …the empty space.
• But it doesn’t work as a punchline.

 

OK then…we are ready for an Easter laugh…an upbeat report…a story that lifts our spirits and gives us hope.

• But day after day…we keep hearing news about empty spaces and desert places.
• Like the chocolate bunny…we feel hollow inside.
• More emptiness than fullness.
• More decline than increase.
• More fear than joy.
• More failure than success.
• More separation than reunion.
• Mary Magdalene felt it when she went with her friends to the tomb of Jesus.

 

But when we least expect it…there comes an unexpected Easter punchline:

• Jesus “is going ahead of you to Galilee…there you will see him, just as he told you.”
• The young man in the tomb says that Jesus is alive and is moving ahead of us…always ahead of us.
• He appears when we least expect it…and surprises us with his resurrection life.
• There is nothing predictable about the way that the Risen Jesus will behave.
• He is going to sneak up on us.
• You never see the big laugh coming.

 

Jesus revealed himself first on Easter morning.

• But then he continued to appear…again and again and again.
• Paul’s message to the Corinthians…this morning…is that the resurrection is not a one-off.
• Resurrection reversals continue to have an impact…as Jesus reveals himself over and over to people who know him.

 

What does Jesus look like when he appears in our lives today?

• Jesus shows himself most clearly in places where his life and teachings are followed.
• He appears in places where disciples are exemplifying Jesus with their hands and feet.
• He appears in the world through those who extend hospitality and grace to others.
• He appears when we serve a world in need and work for reconciliation among all people everywhere.

 

Today…many are living in empty spaces and desert places.

• Loneliness is on the rise.
• Community organizations are breaking down.
• People have a void inside them that needs to be filled with Christ’s resurrection love and grace.

We try in vain to fill our hearts with everything around us:

• But more stuff does not help…since this infinite abyss can be filled only with the Holy.
• Life apart from God is empty.

 

Our emptiness will not be eliminated by a new career…a new spouse…a new house…a new car…a better salary.

• Instead…the hole in our lives will be filled by following the resurrected Jesus into the future.

 

The good news of Easter is that Jesus is alive!

• And we can laugh because God is full of surprises.
• Full of reversals.
• Hitting us with the news that Jesus is raised from the dead.
• He is moving ahead of us…always ahead of us.
• Filling our emptiness and leading us into the future.
• That’s God’s joke on the world…with the greatest of punchlines.

Mark 15: 1-39

Well…it’s Palm Sunday…and Holy Week begins.

• When I was a kid Palm Sunday was just Palm Sunday.
• But now it’s Palm slash Passion Sunday.
• This is because people were not showing on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
• (It was easier back then when businesses and schools all shut down on Good Friday afternoon).
• Anyway…we were going from the triumphant “Hosanna” (adoration…praise…joy) of Palm Sunday to the glorious “He is Risen” of Easter Sunday.
• Without going through the horrifying “Crucify him!” of Good Friday.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

So…the church started making today into Palm slash Passion Sunday so that people would hear the scripture readings of the Passion of our Lord.

• Otherwise known as the betrayal… denial…insulting…spitting…beating, suffering death of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Think about it…who does not want to go from glory to glory.
• And just skip the messy condemning stuff in the middle.

 

It seems reasonable that people want to go from the big processional to the Empty Tomb.

• And skip the other processional of Jesus’s slow…agonizing walk to Golgotha.
• We desire to skip the uncomfortable stuff:
• How Jesus ate his last meal with the people he loved most.
• All of whom would betray…abandon and deny him.
• That these friends could not even stay awake while he prayed in the garden.
• That the crowd would strike and taunt him for not living up to their expectations.
• That the people would shout crucify him!
• And twist into him a crown of thorns.
• That passersby would shout “for God’s sake…save yourself”.
• So…if we could just go from the Palms of the parade to the lilies of Easter.

 

When we go from glory to glory and skip the cross…

• We get ourselves into a big mess.
• Because…we then…begin to think the cross is about us and not about God.

 

The big mess starts when we think we can know who God is by just looking at who we are.

• And then projecting that up hugely large.
• We are vengeful so God is vengeful.
• We are power-hungry so God is power hungry.
• We want to smite our enemies…so God wants to smite our enemies.
• That is why it is hard to get our arms around this.
• That God would willingly choose to be poured out for us on the cross because…
• Well…we would…never…do a thing like that.

 

Albert Einstein said:

• “The same thinking that created a problem cannot solve the problem.”
• We cannot be saved by a God who is just like us.
• A bigger…badder…version of the worst of us.
• Or…a bigger…better version of the best of us cannot save us.

 

Here is the good news!

• There is a way to honestly know about the nature of God.
• And it is never to look at ourselves.
• It is always to look at Jesus.
• God says: “Look at Jesus…this is how I want to be known.”

 

The way to know the Father is through the son.

• Anything else ends up being about us and not about God.
• We can see who God is in a humble cradle and a human cross.

 

From his roughhewn cross Jesus looks at the world and no one escapes his judgment:

• Those who betray him…those who execute him…those who love him…those who ignore him.
• From the cross the pronouncement is made…and the judgment is:
• “Forgive them Father for they know not what they are doing.”

 

From his cross Christ loves the betrayer…the violent…the God killer in all of us.

• And he will not even lift a finger to condemn those who put him up there.
• Because it is only a God unlike us who can save us from ourselves.

 

The suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross is not about us.

• It is for us.
• God is so for us that there is no place God will not go to be with us.
• Nothing separates us from the love of God in Jesus.

 

So…two parades or processions are in focus today:

• In the first…we welcome Jesus into our city and…for a moment…
• Dare to dream of the completion of God’s Kingdom of justice and peace here and now.
• The second is Jesus’s slow…agonizing trek to Golgotha.
• The Via Dolorosa…the street through which Jesus walked to Calvary.

 

The processions of today are re-enacted every day in our own lives:

• The first invites us to hope and possibility.
• The second makes us cringe with embarrassment.
• We are players in every passion story.