John 17:1-11

Not much is known about Ignatius of Antioch…whose life straddled the first and second Christian centuries.

• We do not know the year of his birth.
• He died in 108 in Rome…Italy.
• We know two things for sure:
• He was the leader of the Christians in Antioch of Syria…
• And as he wrote his letters to various Christian house churches…
• He was being escorted to a horrible death on account of his faith.

Ignatius was an episkopos…a Greek word that literally means overseer.

• It referred to the slave whose job it was to supervise the other slaves at their
• However…at some point…the early Christians…who considered themselves slaves of Christ Jesus…
• Began to call their leader and fellow slave of Christ the
• That word is now translated as bishop and we get the word Episcopal from it.
• But in the early part of the second Christian century…
• Bishops had nothing to do with wearing a special hat and colorful robes.
• The office seems to have been a combination of pastor…preacher…hospitality coordinator…travel consultant…financial manager…shepherd and organizer.
• Ignatius was worried…because soon he would no longer be there to shepherd his flock through life’s storms in a hostile Roman Empire.
• That is because having been tried as a Christian…
• He had been condemned to death by being torn apart by wild beasts for the amusement of cheering crowds.
• But it would not happen immediately.
• He had to be escorted to Rome…
• So…his execution could take place before a cheering audience as part of a public exhibition of cruelty.
• The Lord be with you…

Along the way he and his guards stopped at several cities in Asia Minor…

• Where Ignatius had the chance to meet with other Christians…
• And afterwards write them letters thanking them for their hospitality.
• He also wrote ahead to the Roman Christians to let them know he was coming.

His letters modeled today’s passage from John’s gospel.

• Ignatius…aware of what horrors awaited him…
• Nevertheless…turned his attention away from himself…
• For the thought of his death paled compared to the fear that his church in Antioch…as well as other churches…might fall apart.

Ignatius wrote: Love unity. Flee from divisions. Become imitators of Jesus Christ…echoing Jesus…

• Who in our text for today…prayed…Holy Father…protect them in your name that you have given me…so that they may be one…as we are one.

Today’s passage comes from the farewell address Jesus delivered to his disciples after their last meal together.

• Jesus modeled for Ignatius his own concern for the unity of his disciples…rather than his own impending death.
• For Jesus…it begins in that upper room with an act of service and slavery.

Often…we use a word like slaving away as an idiom for working harder than we are used to.

• This is disrespectful to our ancestors who were actually slaves…
• As well as to those who suffer today under modern-day slavery.
• Hard work is not slavery…because we can walk away whenever we want to…
• And afterwards we can settle down to a good drink of water…a large meal and an evening of falling asleep in front of the TV.
• Slavery is toiling under duress in the most degrading of tasks with no control over the conditions.

As that fateful evening began…Jesus modeled slavery when he girded himself with a towel…

• And stooped to wash the feet of his disciples.
• It was such an audacious act that it startled them into stunned silence…
• Except for Peter…who insisted this was wrong.

Washing feet was a task reserved for slaves…

• And in the ancient world there is no record of someone who is superior washing the feet of an inferior prior to this action of Jesus.
• And this was the kickoff for the longest continuous speech in the gospels…
• As Jesus reminded his disciples that if they were to be faithful to him after he was gone…
• They would be known by their love for each other…and by their unity.
• As he said: I give you a new commandment…that you love one another. Just as I have loved you…you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…if you have love for one another.

Then…in a sudden breathless transition…we find ourselves outdoors.

• Jesus looked up into heaven and prayed for his disciples in front of them.
• With this sudden shift in focus…we join the disciples on the Mount of Olives as we hear Jesus pray on our behalf.
• This is his Garden of Gethsemane.
• He will be arrested within minutes.
• But instead of agonizing about the horrible death that awaits him…Jesus prayed for us.

Jesus prayed not only for his disciples to be one…

• But also…for the Antiochenes…the Philadelphians…
• And all the other early Christians that Ignatius served as a slave overseeing the other slaves…
• And for us as well…that we also might be one.

We…too…hear Jesus pray for us…as his crucifixion nears…

• And his concern is for us…not himself.
• And like the early Christians…we too find our unity threatened by false gospels and political discord.
• So…in this…Jesus sets us an example for these polarizing times.
• In the face of his great need for strength and determination for himself…
• During this last act of love and service…
• When he will die a horrible death reserved for slaves…
• Jesus put us first.

If there is one lesson to take away from this Easter season…as we prepare for Pentecost and the season of Pentecost…

• It is that God came to earth to reign as a slave.
• Remember what Jesus said after washing the feet of his disciples:
• I have set you an example…that…if I…your Lord and Teacher…have washed your feet…you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
• Instead of standing as gate keepers casting others out because they do not measure up to some sort of worldly orthodoxy…politically…socially or economically…
• We should be seeking more ways to serve each other in difficult circumstances…whatever the cost to our dignity.

Remember that Jesus washed the feet of the one he knew would betray him…

• And broke bread with him as well.
• Unity is not based on getting our own way…
• And unity is not based on people sharing our worldly beliefs.
• Unity is about sacrificial service in the name of Jesus.

OK then…let us pray for each other.

• Let us serve each other and the world.
• Let us be known as those who love each other.
• We are one in the Spirit…we are one in the Lord…
• And we pray that all unity will one day be restored…
• And they will know that we are Christians by our love.
• We are in this together…with Jesus.

John 14:15-21

Remember the first time:

• You walked home alone from school.
• You are left alone at home as a child.
• You are allowed to be alone at home in the evening without a baby-sitter.
• Your parents are away overnight or for a weekend and the house is all yours.
• Strong moments…scary and exciting!

 

Remember sleeping away from home for the first time.

• The first dance.
• The first kiss.
• Learning to tie shoelaces (before Velcro).
• Learning to tell time (before digital watches).
• Learning something by heart.
• Learning the news of a death of a pet or friend or parent or grandparent.

 

I’ll never forget the first time I…

• Is followed by stories about getting your first real job…
• Or getting your driver’s license.
• Or finding out you are pregnant with your first child.

 

The moment when something of importance happens to you for the first or only time is a liminal moment.

• The phenomenon of liminality.
• Liminality and threshold moment mean the same thing.
• From the Latin root limin…meaning the centerline of the doorway.

 

Liminality is the moment of crossing over.

• It describes the transitional phase of personal change.
• Where one is neither in an old state of being…nor a new state of being.
• And not quite aware of the implications of the event.
• All stages of life include liminality.
• Life is nothing but moments of crossing over.
• Stitching these moments together into the comforting quilt of wisdom is the task of one’s later years.

 

And this is where Jesus meets his disciples and us in the gospel of John this morning.

• In a state of liminality.
• A threshold moment.
• A moment of crossing over.
• A state of being with Jesus physically.
• To a state of not being with Jesus physically.
• And because of this liminal moment…Jesus gifts his disciples…he gifts us…
• With the comforting quilt and gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

The four of us met during our graduate school/teaching days at Northwestern Lutheran Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

• John and I were students.
• Susan and Darlene taught at the same elementary school near Como Park.
• The day Susan and I moved into the seminary’s married student housing the door to our apartment got stuck on the carpet on the threshold (yes…a threshold moment).
• The door was propped open to get our belongings in.
• And having no tools unpacked yet…John and Darlene saw us struggling with it.
• They came up with tools and helped us get the door free so that we could close it.
• They lived a half of flight of steps down from us.
• We have been wonderful friends ever since.
• Through the years we have been with one another as we have gone through the ups and downs of life.

 

During our student/school teaching days we ate ice cream at Bridgman’s Dairy.

• We went camping together.
• We ate many meals together.
• We raised Tilapia Mozambique fish together…they were mouth breeders.
• We hung out together.
• John played college football and I grew up in Green Bay…so we were both NFL buffs…
• The first Monday Night football game took place that year…
• We watched football while our wives watched the fish in their tanks.
• We even went to Charlies Restaurant in Minneapolis during the Christmas holiday season.
• You know…one of those swanky places where they brush the crumbs off the tablecloth between courses.
• And after…we saw the new Christmas Carrol movie with Albert Finney.
• That movie is no longer new…this was 1970.
• It was snowing that night!
• We held one another up in the wake of rocky times.
• This was all BC…before children.
• And then we went on internships…John and Darlene first and then Susan and me a year later.

 

And then we began birthing children.

• Even though we moved to different places.
• We continued to be there for one another.
• In good times and bad times.
• We knew that help…support…a listening ear and understanding were only a phone call away.
• Always honest and frank.
• Always loving and forgiving.
• Never judgmental.

 

We celebrated one another’s liminal/threshold…coming of age moments.

• Graduations
• And more graduations and weddings and babies and baptism.
• You get the picture…our children become best friends too.
• We would meet between Christmas and New Years at a great big Holiday Inn halidome in South Bend Indiana.
• We supported one another as we coped with our experiences of death and loss.
• Funerals and memorial services.

 

Last July…we suffered the loss of our son Jason…

• And John and Darlene were right there with us.
• The soothing ointment of super-friends in the deep pain of loss and grief.

 

We are older…grayer and wiser since that first meeting at our front door 56 years ago.

• But the experiences we have shared and the memories we cherish make our friendship as strong and as real as the day it first took root more than a half century ago.
• Shared memories that bind us together.
• Shared memories are what bind friends together.

 

A similar memory binds us together as a Church:

• The memory we share and celebrate in the event of Jesus.
• A memory that is as real and as enduring among us today…
• As it was for the Twelve that Holy Thursday night in the room in which the Last Supper was held.

 

The Spirit of truth…the Paraclete (parakletos: called alongside) …is the creative…living memory of the Church.

• The Spirit/Paraclete unites us and energizes us as we come together to share…
• Our liminal/threshold moments together.
• Our moments of crossing over.
• And because of our liminal moments of crossing over…
• Jesus gifts us with the comforting quilt and gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

The Spirit of truth…the Paraclete…is a living presence among us who makes of us a community of faith.

• A family…a circle of friends who offer Christ’s love…support and compassion to one another…to our community and to the world.

John 14:1-14

I would like to share a love story with you this morning…

In those days when you married you did not build a new house or rent an apartment…

• What you did was you built onto dad’s house…
• And if you were a young woman you went to your husband’s dad’s house…
• Dad’s house would have been called a house complex…or insula…

 

It was built around an open courtyard…

• A place for kids to play…
• You could cook there…
• You…also…would have had animals and pets there…

 

To each side were housing complexes…

• With a large room in the middle…
• The original house…

 

Now the oldest son got married and so he adds an addition and that becomes his house…

• And then the next son….
• And then the first grandson…
• And another and another…
• A whole series of houses connected to each other…
• That eventually became the family house complex or insula…

 

When it was time for a young man and a young woman to be married…

• Now she married at 14 and he married in his mid-20’s…
• The two families would get together…
• They would negotiate the bride price…
• And when the bride price was settled…
• They would exchange a glass of wine…
• And that would seal the deal…that would seal the bargain.

 

They were now committed to be married…

• At that point the young man would say to his bride:
• I’m going to go home to my father’s house and prepare a place for you.
• And when I’ve prepared a place for you …I’ll come back and take you to be with me…as my wife.
• In other words:
• I’ve got to go home to my father’s insula and prepare a place for you.

 

Now at that point the young woman had no idea when the wedding was going to be.

• It might be 6 months…
• 9 months…
• 1 year…2 years…
• She just had to be ready at any given moment.
• She was called one who had been bought with a price.

 

Paul uses that to describe us…

• He says:
• You are bought with a price.
• You are a bride to be.

 

You must be faithful to your bridegroom because he’s going to come back for you.

• Where is your bridegroom today?
• He’s preparing a place for you.

 

The son was now very anxious to come back and get his bride…

• He wanted to be married…
• That is what the whole thing was all about…
• So…he probably went to his dad and said:
• Well dad…how about today?
• Oh…come on son…No.
• This is your wedding!
• You cannot just run out and leave a half-finished house.
• Finish it and get it right.

 

Somebody asked Jesus:

• When is your Second Coming?
• When will you come back for your bride…the church?

 

And Jesus says:

• No one knows the day or the hour of my return (Matthew 24:36) …
• Not the angels in heaven…
• Not the Son…
• Only my Father.

 

Eventually…of course…it is finished.

• So…the son goes to dad and says:
• Dad…is it ready yet?
• Dad says: K.

 

So…the son gets all his family and friends…

• And he goes to the young woman’s house and they blow the trumpet…the shophar…
• To announce the wedding…
• And every maiden in town thought:
• My wedding!

 

Of course…it was only one young maiden’s wedding.

• But every young woman had to suddenly rush around.
• Get her bride’s maid dress ready.
• The bride had to get her wedding dress ready.
• Get all her stuff together that she had prepared…
• You remember Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids…
• Some were ready…
• And some were not.

 

They would gather in the courtyard of the groom’s family house complex or insula…

• The groom and the bride would go into their newly built house.
• The best man would stand by the door and wait while they consummated the wedding…their marriage.
• And the guests all stood and waited.

 

And when it was consummated…the best man would come into the courtyard.

• He would get everybody’s attention.
• And he would shout…
• They’re married!
• And the guests would all cheer and clap!
• And then the reception would begin…
• And we all remember the wedding at Cana…
• When 150 gallons of water were turned into wine just to keep the party going…

 

John the Baptist says:

• The friend stands at the door listening for the bride groom’s voice and John says:
• That privilege is mine.
• I’ve heard his voice.
• And so…John is Jesus’ spiritual best man…

 

John does not say he’s married yet.

• Because Jesus was only here for the engagement the first time.
• John says:
• I heard his voice.
• He’s here!

 

Jesus comes and engages himself to us!

• He says:
• “I love you.
• I’ll pay the bride price.
• His own life!

 

Then he said to us:

• In my Father’s house are many rooms…
• Large house complex…BIG insula!

 

• If it were not so I would have told you.

 

• I’m going to go to my Father’s house to prepare a place for you!
• And I will come again and take you to be with me forever!

 

And I will come again and take YOU to be with me forever!

• We are in one BIG insula!
• We are all going to gather around one great courtyard!
• We will all be together with the Christ of God!

 

 

We all move through the valley of the shadow of death…

• And now and then…we ask:
• Is it done yet?
• Is my house done yet?
• Is my room ready yet?
• Daddy…Abba…is it ready yet?

 

And our heavenly Father says:

• K.!
• It’s ready!

 

And so…heaven in the Bible is described like an engagement…and a wedding and a wedding reception:

• Jesus used down to earth things to describe his heavenly home…
• A huge insula…courtyard…where our souls will all gather.
• And the best news is that we will be with our bridegroom…Jesus…
• The Christ of God…
• An awesome thing…
• It will just be the beginning for us…
• A beginning which has no end!

John 10:1-10

In Jesus’ time and place thieves and robbers were everywhere…

• On roads and in hidden places…
• Waiting for victims (parable of the Good Samaritan…Luke 10…Jericho Road).
• And there were wild animals eager to get one’s sheep.
• And then there were the grifters…
• Those who pretended to be friends and helpers…
• But…were only seeking to steal.
• And so…staying inside at night behind locked doors was all important (persistent friend-Luke 11).
• Predators were everywhere…even in the Temple.
• And if one had sheep…they needed to be carefully watched.

 

Being a shepherd was the lowest of occupations.

• Tending sheep was minimum wage…
• And unpleasant work…
• But essential to the economy of the ancient middle east.

 

Clearly…a hired shepherd was not the same as the one who owned the sheep.

• And so…an owner would lay his life on the line to save his sheep from thieves and robbers and predators.
• The owner-shepherd would fight to his death to protect his sheep.
• If he was a false shepherd – a hired hand – he would flee…leaving the sheep behind…
• Leaving the owner-shepherd disgraced and victimized.

 

In Jesus’ time there also were hired prophets of which we have an abundance today.

• These prophets made big pronouncements…proclaiming their visions and revelations as coming from God.
• But when things got dangerous…they fled.

 

But Jesus had no vested financial interest here…

• Jesus said: Foxes have holes…the birds of the air have nests…but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
• Jesus had no ulterior motives.
• He was not a hired shepherd of the sheep…
• But the one who would lay down his life for them.

 

At night the entire town kept their sheep in a large fold without a roof.

• This fold or corral was surrounded by walls to protect the sheep from wolves…bears and thieves…
• And to keep the sheep from straying.
• There was a single entrance to this enclosure through which all the sheep had to pass…going in and out.

 

The shepherd slept at the entrance so that he could be awakened by the approach of a thief or a wild animal.

• No one…no one…entered…except the owners of the sheep.
• The owner could gather his sheep from all the other sheep simply by calling them…
• Because the sheep knew the voice of their own shepherd.

 

Each sheep was named and bore the ear mark of its owner.

• A shepherd who took care of a large flock of sheep had to know the marks of all the owners whose sheep were in his care and keeping.
• So…when the owner approached the large flock…he would call his sheep by their names…leading them to pasture.
• Only his own sheep would follow him.

 

So also then…the good shepherd…Jesus… protects those who belong to him.

• He also affirms the fact that not all the sheep are his…
• Because not all of us are trusting of him…of his voice.

 

Who has a right to the sheep?

• This was the essential question Jesus was posing.
• His claim is obvious.
• He and he alone has a right to the sheep in the pen.
• He is the Master…and his sheep know his voice…
• And answer his call because he feeds them.

 

Now here’s the thing: Jesus does not condemn the sheep who belong to other shepherds…

• Who hear other voices…
• Who follow others’ leading.
• That is not the problem…
• The problem is with those who would claim sheep which do not belong to them.

 

Jesus was concerned about how sheep were being attacked and ravaged by thieves and robbers…or were led away by deception.

• And so…Jesus’ comments were an attack on the religious establishment.
• In short…he was calling the religious leaders fakes and grifters.

 

Today we find ourselves confronted with the same problem as then…

• Not as shepherds or owners of sheep…
• But as sheep.
• Matthew 9:36-38: When he saw the crowds…he had compassion for them… because they were harassed and helpless…like sheep without a shepherd.
• There are many voices calling us here and there…
• Voices of promise:
• Preachers…politicians…financial wizards…peddlers of stuff.
• Saying: Come and follow me…I am your good shepherd.
• You can trust me…I am honest…
• I have your welfare in mind…
• I have your back.

 

Our electronic devices are filled with voices crying for money to support multi-million-dollar budgets to build vast empires in the name of the Good Shepherd.

• The voices are telling us that there are many false voices…and that we should beware of them.
• And the sheep become confused.

 

Nine hundreds of them followed their leader to their deaths in Guyana in 1978.

• And in the 1940’s they followed their leader to the destruction of an entire nation…
• Through the doors of gas chambers and crematoriums.

 

The most powerful of all the false shepherds…though…

• The one with the most punch…
• Is not all that obvious and visible.

 

Our most powerful and insidious false shepherd is our own fearful self…

• That…selfish…self…that would lead us to believe…is freedom from pain…trouble and difficulty.
• A life without hurt…without the discomfort of growth and fulfillment.

 

Our own self…I…ME…

• We are always being plagued with the voice…of our own voice…
• Urging us to get what comes easy…and what seems to be most comfortable.

 

But most fortunately…in all of us… there also is the desire…

• Hidden as it often is…
• To be with God…
• To follow the Good Shepherd out of the pits of dread and foreboding and fear.
• Saint Augustine of Hippo said: You have made us for yourself andour hearts are restless until they can find rest in you…

 

When we are free to hear the pure call of the Holy Spirit…

• Jesus is telling us….
• The natural…inborn response for all of us is to recognize that higher power…
• That of truth…and love and God…
• And follow Him…our Good Shepherd.

 

The sheep know my voice…Jesus said…and they follow me.

• They follow because something inside tells them that this is the Shepherd who will do what is best for them.

 

Psalm 23…

• No doubt Jesus had this psalm in mind when he told this story.
• Beside the still waters…
• Through the valley of the shadow of death…
• And with the Good Shepherd leading the way we also can say:
• I will fear no evil for thou art with me…
• Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me…

1 Peter 1:17-23

When Susan and I are in Munich Germany visiting our family…we try to live like a local…by buying pastry and coffee each morning…

• But early on we nearly bankrupted the bakery by paying with a 50-euro note for cinnamon rolls that cost less than two euros.
• My Canadian friend…while in Tokyo…on business…wanted to show respect with a polite bow…and ended up in a slow-motion bowing contest with a senior executive…until a secretary stepped in.
• My friend from the UK…while in Rome…asked for a penna (pen)…but accidentally requested penne…and got a plate of pasta which she did not need…and not the writing utensil which she did need.
• OK then…when you live in a foreign country…you quickly learn that what’s obvious to everyone else may not be obvious to you.

It’s not easy to live in a country not your own…surrounded by languages you do not speak…customs you do not understand and value systems that do not quite align with your own.

• What is really irritating is that you must pay twice as much for Captain Crunch than you would were you shopping in the US at Winn-Dixie.
• And yet managing this friction of being foreign…the apostle Peter says…is precisely how exiles ought to live.
• The Lord be with you.

Some expats embrace their foreigner status with curiosity and humility.

• But others can never shake the feeling that they do not fit in.
• This sense of alien-ness renders them unable or unwilling to adjust…and so…
• If they are American…for example… they may insulate themselves inside little bubbles of American culture…
• English-speaking restaurants…satellite TV…social clubs and gated communities.

However…Peter writes…exiles live as foreigners here…in reverent fear.

• Exiles do not retreat into comfort or insist on control.
• They learn to dwell attentively in the tension between who they are and where they are…
• Dealing with the unsettling sense of cultural dislocation with humility and hope.

First Peter was written for people who understood this feeling of exile…

• People living out of sync with the dominant culture.
• They were not tourists passing through.
• They were resident aliens marginalized for their faith…scattered across Asia Minor…
• Clinging to a strange hope in a resurrected Jesus.
• Peter is speaking to Christians scattered across Asia Minor…modern-day Turkey.
• Many of them were literal foreigners:
• Jews living outside Israel.
• Or Gentiles newly converted to a faith their neighbors did not understand.

Peter opens by calling them exiles of the dispersion in Pontus…Galatia…Cappadocia…Asia and Bithynia…who have been chosen and destined by God.

• The word exiles or strangers is a reminder of their status:
• Not fully at home in the culture around them.
• Not fully understood by neighbors.
• Living under the rule of Rome but belonging to the kingdom of God.
• Ever feel like this?
• Well…Peter does…so…he explains how his readers can live and thrive in this tension.

When you live in a foreign country…you learn not to hand over large bills for small purchases in Germany.

• You figure out the right way to bow in Tokyo.
• You memorize polite phrases in the local language because you respect the culture you are living in.

And so…Peter says…remember you are living in God’s world now.

• God’s culture is the culture you honor.
• God’s language is the dialect you speak.
• God’s way is your way.
• And that means some things will feel strange…even awkward…to the people around you…
• Because…you are a person who:
• Chooses forgiveness when revenge would seem more appropriate.
• Practices generosity in a world obsessed with getting more.
• Lives with integrity when cutting corners would be easier.
• Holds on to hope when many people are cynical.

Foreigners usually stand out…and so should God’s people.

• And they do it (we do it) in fear…Peter says.
• That is not fear as in terror.
• It is rather a deep respect for the One who has called us to live in this earthly sphere.

And Peter says it’s to be practiced…during the time of your exile…

• Evoking the imagery of the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews in the fourth century BCE.
• Peter is reimaging the Exile in which Christians live out their faith while living under the thumb of Nero of Rome…rather than Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
• For example…if the world says:
• Assert yourself…we say…Deny yourself.
• If the world says: Climb higher…we say…be servants of all.
• If the world says: Build your brand…we say…Bear his name.
• If the world says: Seek comfort…we say…Take up your cross.
• If the world says: Fit in…we say…stand apart.

Think again of being an expat.

• You are careful to learn the customs…not because you are afraid of being arrested…
• But because you respect the people and the place you have come to call home.
• In the same way…to live in fear means we live with the awareness that every choice we make…
• Reflects on our Lord…whose kingdom we represent.
• It is a holy mindfulness in which we honor the Lord Jesus who gave up his life for us.
• We are mastering the art of not fitting in…
• Even though we are living and working and setting up a household in a foreign place.

Talk to an expat and he or she will tell you that the expatriate life is never static!

• You are always learning…adjusting and frequently longing for home.
• This mirrors our experience as Christians in the world.
• There will be trouble as we journey toward our true home.
• There will be missteps and adjustments that take time.
• But the pilgrim has one asset that Peter says will surely assist us in this in between time…
• Through him you have come to trust in God…so that your trust and hope are in God.
• Living between here and home requires hope.

If you have ever been lost in a foreign city…you know the relief of having someone step in to guide you…

• To point you in the right direction…to make sure you get home safely.
• Peter’s message is that Jesus has done exactly that for us.

So…live as a foreigner here.

• Stand out…do not worry about not fitting in.
• Rather…embrace it.
• Practice the customs of the kingdom.
• Let our lives be a living translation of the gospel in a land that does not yet speak its language.
• Because one day…we will walk through the gates of our true homeland…
• And the awkwardness will be over.
• We will be home…fluent in the language of love…and welcomed by our heavenly Father.

John 20:19-31

Listen…to this verse in our gospel I just read:

• Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.
• Oh really? Would just a couple more stories have been too much for John…who wrote this Gospel?
• What I mean is this: If you are a Gospel writer and Jesus did a bunch of other wonderful things…
• That you did not bother to write down because your quill broke or your hand cramped up…why even mention it?
• Why didn’t John just keep it to himself?
• And all week…my mind has wandered back to this verse wondering what John left out.
• But then I considered this: When it comes to scripture…the blank spaces are just as important as the ones that are filled with words.
• The blank spaces are waiting for us to step inside with our own stories…our own questions…our own imaginations.
• The Lord be with you…..

So…this morning let’s…together…imagine and wonder about the blank spaces of today’s Gospel reading.

• What we know is that on the same day that Mary found the tomb empty…
• The disciples locked themselves in a room.
• It’s not a stretch to imagine them stewing in their fear and their shame.
• When suddenly…without even knocking…or bothering to use the door…Jesus is there.
• OK…when I even vaguely suspect someone is mad at me…if I find myself in the same room as that person…
• I tense up and get this awful feeling in my stomach.
• So…when the disciples saw Jesus standing right there…
• I wonder if their shoulders tightened up waiting to get what they deserved.

But what we know is this…to those who were closest to Jesus…

• And who abandoned him in his greatest hour of need…
• Jesus says to them…peace be with you.
• Then he breathes holiness into them and says…go tell people that forgiveness is real.
• A tender moment indeed.

But…as John tells us…Thomas was not there.

• Thomas missed the whole thing.
• We are not sure why…
• Where there might be an explanation there is only a blank space.
• The church has nicknamed him Doubting Thomas.
• But in that space that was left blank…I wonder if it was really doubt.

It is entirely possible Thomas had not abandoned Jesus when other disciples did.

• What I think is this: That Thomas saw what happened to Jesus’ body with his own eyes.
• In the spaces left blank in his story I imagine that Thomas had an unusually deep sensitivity…
• And was so traumatized by the brutality of what he saw happen to Jesus that he just was not ready to be around other people.
• Every time Thomas closed his eyes…he saw the crown of thorns digging into Jesus’ brow…
• And he could not get the sound of the hammer and nails out of his head…
• The violence having been etched into his memory with the image lingering in his eyes and mind and heart.

Good Friday happened and it was real and Thomas was not willing to pretend otherwise.

• What we know is that the other disciples came back and said…we have seen the Lord.
• And Thomas said: Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side…I will not believe.
• But that wasn’t doubt.
• Instead…it was that Thomas refused to believe in anything that papered over the pain.

And then…a week later…what we know is that Jesus shows up again.

• But this time Thomas is there…and Jesus offers Thomas exactly what he needs…proof of the pain.
• Jesus offers himself for the touching…as if to say…the violence was real Thomas.
• Violence had no victory that day.
• And Jesus knows how hard it is to believe that violence has no victory…
• If the pain is not at least acknowledged.

So…I need the living word of God.

• I need a story that is bigger than my pain but does not ignore my pain.
• I need a story that is bigger than what I can see…
• I need a story that is bigger than what I fear…
• I need a story that is bigger than what the Internet and social media and the algorithms are trying to convince me of every day of my life.

In fact…he whom I have now renamed Thomas The Brave and Deeply Sensitive Disciple…

• Was so very much called into this story of Jesus that he ended up proclaiming it everywhere he went.
• All the way to Kerala India where…for 80 generations St Thomas Christians have also not stopped proclaiming it.
• Which means the story is still unfolding all around us and nothing can stop it.

Nothing will stop the story of Jesus and us…his faltering friends.

• The story of how the God of Easter keeps reaching into the graves we dig ourselves…
• And loving us back to life.
• The story that Love will always conquer hate…
• And that death has no sting and forgiveness is more powerful than violence…
• And that despite it all…it is always…always…worth it to love God and love one another.

This is more than a story we intellectually assent to.

• This is more than a story we believe in…
• This is a story we belong to.
• This is the sacred story we belong to.
• It has room for us in every blank space.

And it has sustained 80 generations.

• And it will sustain us too.
• Thanks be to God. Amen

John 20:1-18

On that first Easter…early in the morning…everyone had left…all had gone…but not Mary Magdalene.

• Mary showed up…she came and saw the emptiness of the tomb…and was afraid…
• And then she saw Jesus standing there… and…
• Well…she thought it was a gardener.

I have this funny notion…in my head…that Mary never lived it down.

• If her friends were anything like my friends…for the rest of her life…
• Her friends would say something like…
• Hey Mary…remember when you mistook Jesus for the gardner? That was hilarious!

I believe the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest story ever told.

• But it’s not a story about Easter baskets and candy and spiffiness.
• Easter is really a story about flesh and dirt and confusion…
• And it’s about the way God never seems to stick to our expectations.

OK then…when Mary Magdalene…this imperfect woman…stood at the tomb…

• She did not encounter some perfected radiant glowing Jesus that morning.
• No offense to gardeners…but Jesus could not have been looking all that tidy and impressive if she mistook him for a gardener…
• And here’s the thing: I like to think that Mary Magdalene mistook the resurrected Christ for a gardener…
• Because Jesus still had the dirt from his crucifixion under his nails.

Of course…the depictions of the risen Christ never show dirt under his nails.

• They make him look more like a wingless angel than a gardener.
• But then what we end up with is a distorted idea of what resurrection looks like.

So…let’s begin from the beginning.

• Way…way back in time…the God of the Universe was sick and tired with being on the receiving end of all our human projections.
• The Lord God was tired of being nothing more to us than what we thought God should be:
• Angry…showoffy…defensive…
• Insecure…in short…the vengeance-seeking tyrant…we would be…if we were God.

So…at that time…over 2,000 years ago…God’s Loving Desire to be Known overflowed the heavens…

• And was made manifest within the womb of an insignificant peasant girl named Mary.
• And when the time came for her to give birth to God…
• There was no room in our expectations…
• No room in any impressive or spiffy or safe place.
• So…God was born in straw and dirt.

He grew up…this Jesus of Nazareth…left his home…and found some…let’s be honest…rather unimpressive characters to follow him.

• Fishermen…Tax collectors…people from humble backgrounds and neighborhoods.
• You may read it for yourselves in the Biblical record.

So…with this little band of outsiders…Jesus went about the countryside…

• Turning water to wine…eating with all the wrong people…casting out demons…
• Angering the religious establishment and insisting that in him the kingdom of God had come near…
• That through him God was coming right to us.
• He touched the unclean and used spit and dirt to heal the blind…
• And said crazy things like the first shall be last and the last shall be first…
• And sell all you have and give it to the poor.

And the thing that really cooked people’s noodles was not the question…is Jesus like God…it was…what if God is like Jesus.

• What if God is not who we thought?
• What if the most trustworthy way to know God is through a person.
• What if the most trustworthy way to know God is to look at how God chose to reveal God’s self in Jesus?
• Because that changes everything.

If what we see in Jesus is God’s own self revealed…

• Then what we are seeing here is a God who would rather die than be in the sin accounting business.
• A God who would not lift a finger to condemn those who crucified him…
• A God who would go to the depths of Hell rather than be separated…even from his betrayers.
• A God unafraid to get his hands dirty for the ones he loves.
• This is the God who rises to new life with dirt still under his nails…
• And chooses a woman with a past to tell everyone else about it.

God is not about making us snazzy.

• God is about making us new.
• And new does not always look perfect.
• New still has dirt under its nails.

New looks like recovering alcoholics and addicts.

• New looks like reconciliation between two family members.
• New looks like every time I manage to admit I was wrong.
• New looks like every time I manage to not mention when I am right.
• New looks like every fresh start and every act of forgiveness.
• New looks like every moment of letting go of what we thought we could not live without.
• New looks like…somehow…living without it anyway.
• New is the thing we never saw coming …never even hoped for…
• But ends up being what we needed all along…
• Because God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity…
• And pulling us out of the graves we dig for ourselves through our sin.

And God keeps loving us back to life over and over.

• So yes!
• Christ is risen from the dead.
• Trampling down death…by his death.
• And to those in the tombs…being given the gift of new life…
• Believe it with me.
• He is risen.
• Halleluia

Matthew 27:11-54

Abraham Lincoln was said to have dreamed one night that he was walking through a strangely darkened White House…

• Quiet sobs of grief echoing in his ears.
• He came to a room in which a coffin lay in state.
• Who has died? he asked…and someone told him…The President.
• Soon afterward Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth…
• Shot…as it happened…on Good Friday.

Well…it’s not always clear if one of our dreams is a divine messenger or just our subconscious telling us what we already know…

• Or only a jumble of stuff plopped out of our brain…without any real meaning.
• But in Matthew’s Gospel…though…it is especially important to listen to dreams.
• The life of the young Jesus was saved (if you will) on several occasions.
• To begin with…despite Joseph’s doubts about his fiancée’s pregnancy…
• He listened to his dream and did not divorce Mary…
• Increasing the likelihood of her baby’s survival!

After the birth of Jesus…the Magi came from the east…seeking the newborn king…whose star heralded his birth.

• Seeking help at Herod’s court…
• They agreed to tell the paranoid king where this new infant king might be found…
• Never guessing his murderous intent.
• But having been warned in a dream to go home a different way…
• Avoiding Herod…they did so.
• Jesus’ life saved…literally.

Likewise…Joseph was warned in yet another dream to flee Bethlehem for Egypt with Jesus and Mary…

• And Jesus’ life was saved when Joseph obeyed the dream.
• And then…Joseph was informed in yet another dream that Herod had died and it was safe to return.
• He then used his common sense and bypassed Bethlehem for Nazareth.
• Not all the Herods were dead yet.

That is an impressive string of dreams.

• Notice that the dreams are sent not only to Joseph…a member of God’s people…
• But also…to the Magi…who came from outside the faith…
• But were drawn into God’s audacious plan to save the world.
• The Lord be with you…

But here’s the thing…Matthew also tells about a warning dream from God that was ignored.

• It happened later when the Roman Governor…Pilate…considered just what was going on with this Galilean prophet…Jesus…
• Who was accused of treason against the Roman Empire.
• Amid the confusion…a message arrived.
• While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat…his wife sent word to him:
• Have nothing to do with that innocent man…for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.
• That’s how our reading for today puts it.

Nothing is known about Pilate’s wife…other than these few words.

• Over the centuries…though…Christians not only gave her a name…Procia or Procula…
• But in the Ethiopic and Coptic churches…she is celebrated as a saint.

Matthew was intentional when he chose to use the same Greek word to describe both her dream…

• And the dreams granted to Joseph and the Magi.
• Matthew’s implication is clear…
• Just as God spoke to Joseph and the Magi through dreams…
• God spoke to Pilate through his wife’s dream.
• And why his wife…and not directly to him?
• I guess because Pilate did not seem to have listened to the better angels of his nature.

A mid-level civil servant with a lackluster record…

• Pilate made several big mistakes during his service in the province.
• Judea was exempt from the requirement of displaying the Emperor’s image in public places…
• Because of the commandment against graven images.
• But Pilate decided that he knew better.
• One of his first edicts was to put the Emperor’s image on display in Jerusalem…
• Leading a number of Judeans to gather in a public place…bare their necks…and threaten to commit mass suicide.
• Pilate backed down.
• He also put on display imperial shields which were also offensive…and those…too…had to be removed.
• He also used money from the Temple treasury to pay for the construction of an aqueduct.

Yet…in Pilate’s defense…his decade-long tenure made him one of the longest serving governors of Judea.

• But…after slaughtering a group of Samaritans…he was recalled to Rome…
• Where he either retired from public service or took another posting.
• No one is certain exactly what happened to him.
• It is doubtful if any but the most attentive scholars of the Roman Empire would ever have heard of Pontius Pilate…
• Were it not for his involvement with the trial of Jesus.

He had the opportunity to release Jesus.

• He seems to have wondered…at the very least…if this Galilean…by the name of Jesus…was innocent.
• We do not know if Pilate ever listened to dreams…but apparently…he listened to his wife…
• Because the dream was sent to her.
• He could have taken his wife’s word…which he seems to have trusted…
• For that is where God channeled the message…but he did not.

Clearly…Pilate was troubled by this whole Jesus situation.

• Something just did not seem right to him…something seemed

At the least…Pilate was troubled enough to offer the mob a trade.

• Jesus for Barabbas…a real…honest to goodness revolutionary troublemaker.
• But the mob said…No dice.
• So…despite his doubts…and the likelihood that this mob was a set-up.
• (For heaven’s sake…what were they doing there the day after Passover bright and early in the morning…screaming against a popular preacher?)
• And despite his wife’s dream.
• Pilate decided due process was not worth the bother.
• Better to give in…and give up.

But this is not about Pilate.

• There is nothing we can do about him…two thousand years later.
• My question is this…
• Is God speaking to us? And are we listening?

God speaks in many ways…as the Letter to the Hebrews attests:

• Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets…but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son…Jesus the Christ of God.

And so…I invite us to hear this dream…listen.

I have a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood.

I have a dream that one day the heat of injustice…sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that little children will one day live where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that one day little children of all races will be able to join hands with one another.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted…every hill and mountain shall be made low…the rough places will be made plain…and the crooked places will be made straight…and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed…and all flesh shall see it together.

John 11:1-45

Few of us get very far in life without having to make the mournful visit to a funeral home…

• Or some other place where friends and family of a loved one or friend have gathered.
• This gathering goes by various names: visitation…calling hours…wake.
• These gatherings can sometimes be awkward experiences.
• Many of us live lives largely unanchored from certain social conventions our ancestors knew all too well.
• Great-grandfather and great-grandmother knew what to do and say and wear to such solemn occasions…far better than we.
• The most social and extraverted among us fall into unusual silence crossing the thick funeral-home carpet…
• Into the mortuary chapel where people are standing or sitting on chairs…silent or quietly visiting.

Fortunately…for the ill-at-ease…the bereaved family has thoughtfully provided a conversation-starter.

• In the smartphone age…we have no shortage of photos to display.
• More than anything else in the visitation room…
• It is the pictures that summon the memories…and that’s a good thing.
• These photos evoke and arouse a treasure-trove of memories.

It is good to remember…as we recall again the names of people we have known and loved.

• Other reflections come back to us…a voice…a laugh…a twinkle in the eye…the gentle touch of a hand.
• It is good to remember…but remembering can also be painful.
• If the loss is recent…it can be hard to even hear the name without a tear coming to the eye.
• And this is how it should be…this is how we grieve.
• And grieving takes time and it is different for everyone.

It’s said that time heals all wounds…but that’s not always true.

• Many of us know firsthand that some memories are not so easily healed.
• Some memories deliver fresh pain as soon as they come to mind…even if they are years old.
• Wouldn’t it be great if painful memories could be stripped of their ability to cause pain…
• As a florist strips a long-stemmed rose of its thorns?
• The Lord be with you.

It was not a memory that was very old…in today’s Gospel reading…

• But…for Mary and her sister Martha…it was like an open wound.
• Their brother…Lazarus…had been on his deathbed.
• Mary and Martha had sent an urgent message to their friend…Jesus…
• To come with all haste and make Lazarus well…but Jesus had not come
• Lazarus…their beloved brother…breathed his last.
• They bathed his body and wrapped it tightly in strips of linen cloth…
• Soaking each layer with fragrant ointments and oils…as was the custom.
• They laid the body on a stone shelf in the family tomb and rolled the heavy stone to seal off the opening.

Not long after that…Jesus finally showed up.

• Martha saw him first…and each sister in turn said the same thing to him:
• Lord…if you had been here…my brother would not have died.
• Ouch!
• Martha then says something more hopeful:
• But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.
• Martha and Jesus then engage in that famous exchange about life and death…in which Jesus says:
• I am the resurrection and the life.
• Do you believe this? he asks her.
• Then…Jesus asks for directions to Lazarus’ tomb.

We all know how the story unfolds from there.

• They walk to the tomb…a crowd of curiosity-seekers trailing behind.
• He gives the order to unseal the tomb.
• He does it over Martha’s objection that this is crazy…the body’s going to stink.
• Jesus orders: Lazarus…come out!
• And he does…Lazarus stumbles out of the darkness.
• And it is then…that Jesus utters the words: Unbind him…and let him go.

Lazarus is living and breathing once again…

• But he needs his community of family and friends to take hold of those tight-wrapped linen strips…
• And gently peel them away from his now-living flesh.

Unbind him…and let him go.

• This is what we do for each other…
• When one of our fellow travelers on life’s journey is incapacitated by grief or shame or loss.
• It is a vitally important mission of the Christian community.
• We reach out to a person whose life is bound up tight by bitter memories and begin the process of healing.

One by one…each cloth strip must be unwound.

• With each successive layer…a little mobility returns.
• The suffocating sensation of tightness goes away.
• The feeling of panic that comes from having one’s arms strapped tight against the body disperses.
• Finally…the last winding-strip falls to the ground.
• There’s the sensation of a soft breeze caressing the skin.
• What had once seemed to be nothing but rot and decay…
• Has been transformed into unbinded and unbounded life.

That’s the gift Jesus gives to us.

• The raising of Lazarus is but a hint…a foreshadowing…
• Of a far greater raising yet to come.
• That is…if you hold a light beneath a piece of paper with this story written on it…
• You will see the resurrection of Jesus shining through.

The novelist William Faulkner wrote:

• The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
• That’s the perspective of a Southern novelist of the early 20^th
• Faulkner lived in a land of decaying antebellum mansions…
• Of sharecroppers supposedly emancipated who for all practical purposes remained enslaved…
• Of once-great landowning families who had fallen from their former glory…never to regain it.
• To Faulkner…the past was a linen winding-sheet…confining…constricting.

Jesus’ word to us is different.

• We who trust him and call upon his name can graciously discover that the past is indeed dead…
• And has become truly past.
• Before us lies a pathway to the future…
• With our Lord walking beside us on the journey.

How can we accompany him…how can we keep up…

• If our legs and arms are still bound tight by painful memories?
• With his help we truly can learn to let them go.
• Jesus wants us to be free.
• He invites us to become whole.
• Whenever we gather at his table…he is the one who will be broken:
• This is my body…broken for you.

John 9:1-41

Today’s gospel…shows us…what Jesus said to correct the view…of many in his day…that the cause of physical disability was the sin of one’s parents.

• Jesus said…that the man’s blindness was not the result of sin…at all.
• It was not punishment.
• It was…in fact…a manifestation of grace.
• Through his blindness…this man would come to God…and others would follow Jesus.
• The Lord be with you.

 

This miracle story tells us something about the nature of faith.

• There is an idea floating about…that faith is warm and fuzzy…and naive.
• That people who have faith are susceptible to ideas which go against common sense.
• But here’s the thing:
• The healing of the blind man is showing us that faith is actually the result of accepting the facts of our own experience.
• Faith is the product of honesty…not being naive.

 

OK then… Jesus gives the blind man his sight.

• And then we see the inevitable reaction of the world:
• A person who has had a faith experience may assume that the world will be interested in hearing about it…and affirm it.
• More often…though…those around us move in to persuade him…or her…that they are mistaken.
• That they have misunderstood the facts.
• The world does not encourage spiritual awakenings.

 

And then…we see the man’s faith take shape…when he confirms his own experience…simply by refusing to lie about it to himself.

• The man who had been given his sight refused to be convinced that he was a victim of some kind of mirage/pink elephant.
• The man’s honesty enabled Jesus to reveal himself to him.

 

All of us…who have a faith relationship with Jesus…have a personal life-story…made up of significant experiences.

• Many of our experiences are so personal…that when they are told to others…they tend to lose their power.
• They may not be at all that dramatic to others.
• These experiences forge the facts upon which our relationship with Christ is based.

 

It was 1998…our son…Jason had just graduated from Luther College…in Decorah Iowa…

• Together…Jason and I drove his car out to Monterey California…
• Where he would be a graduate student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
• On our way…the car just stopped in the middle of the road…
• In the middle of Nevada…
• With absolutely nothing around…and absolutely no traffic…nothing.
• Not even a one-arm bandit.
• I mean…it was desolate.

We later found out we had burned out the alternator.

• In a state of utter helplessness…we sat in the meager shade of the car…and I thought to myself:
• Well God…how are you going to get us out of this one?
• No cell phone…not much food…not much water.
• OK God…You say you will always provide…but it looks like I’ve got you this time.
• In a strange way…I was enjoying the situation.

 

After about 20 minutes or so a lone car drove up…it was a Hispanic couple with their two children in the back seat.

• The father…apparently afraid of us…rolled down his window two inches and handed me his cell phone.
• I called Triple A…and thanked him for stopping to help us.

 

The tow truck came thirty minutes later.

• The driver was a young man and said this:
• After the war…my grandparents decided to move out to California to build a motel and service station.
• They were from Minnesota…Lutherans…of course.
• On the way out to California their car broke down right here…exactly where your car broke down.
• And in those days…there was nothing around here…it took them days to get back on the road.
• In fact…they never did get back on the road…
• You see…because there was no help available…
• They decided to stay and build their motel and service station right here…
• And today it has become a little town not far from here.
• The young man towed us to that little village where his motel and service station was to get the car fixed.
• And we were on our way the next day.
• To this day…and many years later…I remember this experience as a vicarious intervention of God on our behalf.

 

This experience is part of my own personal…spiritual…story.

• And if I were to agree that it was only a coincidence…I would be lying to myself.
• A moving forward of faith requires that we honor facts as we have witnessed them.
• It requires that we do not deny our own experience.

 

Here we go then…the Pharisees wanted the man who had received his sight to deny his experience.

• Their attitude shows us how people of the world…while claiming to respect facts and objectivity…
• Are in reality…highly prejudicial and subjective.
• They are only willing to integrate facts which accord with their prevailing bias.

 

Speaking personally for a moment:

• There have been those times in my life when I have experienced doubt and uncertainty.
• At such times faith has never been restored to me automatically.
• Faith has been restored to me by taking a survey of my personal life story with Christ.
• This has taken the form of a recounting…of all that has happened to me…in my faith relationship.
• Did I…in any way…invent the things that happened to me?
• Did I misguide myself…or were the feelings I had clear and definite…
• And as far as I could honestly say…not of my imagining?

 

So…thinking through my faith journey leads me to say this:

• I cannot prove the existence of God.
• But…because of my own experience…if I were to say: God does not exist.
• I would feel…deep down…in every fiber of my being…that I was lying.

 

So…like the neighbors and Pharisees in our story…the world will try to get us to lie.

• Not only the world…but our own worldly self…which is conditioned and socialized and trained to conform.

 

There is satire here:

• It is comical…the way the Pharisees insist on denying an undesirable fact…that has presented itself in an undeniable form.
• Jesus told his followers in various ways that the kingdom is not unknown or mysterious.
• But…that it remains invisible to us only because…deep down…we are determined not to see it.
• We see here that there are forms of willful blindness that result from basic dishonesty.
• Dishonesty of this kind comes because of having enough sight to see what we do not want to see.
• The blindness of being unaware.

 

Christ gave this man his physical sight.

• But it was his honesty that allowed Jesus to reveal himself to him as his Lord and savior.
• Faith does not ask us to believe the incredible.
• Faith asks only that we believe our own eyes…ears…and experience.
• If we have that kind of honesty…then…Jesus has a footing to communicate with us.
• He has a way of reaching us.
• He has a way of making himself real to us.
• To have faith then…is to open our eyes…to what is really going on.