Not So Fast!

Technically we are still in the season of Easter and I continue to be obsessed with thoughts about both Christ's crucifixion and his resurrection. What does it all me for us, today? I know what I have heard; I continue to read and reread the scriptures....but what does it mean right now for me as an individual and our community? What difference does it make, what beliefs, thoughts, feelings and actions does it change for us today in real time?

As far as I can tell, John 12 is the most thorough recounting of what Jesus had to say about his own death. It also gives us a glimpse into the thought life of Judas - which has resulted in endless speculation over the years since. You'll remember that in the beginning of the chapter Lazarus (recently raised from the dead) and his sisters had Jesus over for dinner in their home. Martha served. Mary came in and anointed and massaged Jesus' feet with a pricey jar of aromatic oils - and Judas complained about the expenditure, suggesting that this money would have been better spent on the poor.

John does not leave us to wonder about the motivations of Judas because he adds, "He (meaning Judas) said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them." (John 12:6, The Message). This clears up any confusion we might have about the motivations of Judas!

Jesus rebukes Judas and explains Mary's actions like this: "Let her alone. She's anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You will always have the poor with you. You don't always have me." Ouch. Again, John 12:7-8, The Message

Here is what we know: Jesus is not clueless. He understands what is about to go down. "She's anticipating and honoring the day of my burial." He is also capable of prioritizing values within the framework of context. Jesus time and again teaches us to care for the marginalized, the neglected, the downtrodden, the imprisoned. And. He continues to need to guide his disciples and those who love him into the light. Jesus is not 'cause' driven so much as he is committed to his relationship with God, his father. And. He has choices.

He could choose to consider his own impact so vital that he does what it takes to hold onto his life and public ministry OR he could continue to remain faithful to the message his father asked him to deliver. We know what he chose.

I personally love that God breathes life into dry, dead bones. But this harder truth is still true - God also asks us to sacrifice, lay down our life for a friend, take the road less traveled. In a world that increasingly values individualism and loving those who agree with us, how can we ignore the road Jesus chose? He suffered. He suffered for people who were not willing to join him in suffering. Lazarus, who kept dipping his fingers into the offering plate. The crowd who chose to crucify Christ over the thief; his followers who shrunk back in fear once Jesus' fate became apparent. Peter, who for all his bravado ultimately denied Jesus three times. This is not who "they" are, this is who "we" are.

What's our next move?

A Word of Encouragement

I want to encourage you with the encouragement that has been offered to people from Jesus...by example and exhortation and through story. There is nothing in the gospel about being successful. Preach him crucified. The confounding mystery of the resurrection - God breathing life into dry, dead bones, continues to be mysterious. God does not show us everything. But way beyond our capacity to know and see and understand and articulate is this true thing: God can work with whatever we give him. He takes our weakness our fear, our trembling and says, "I can work with that."

But let's not get but so excited about this. We do not what a sneaky form of heresy to slip in among us. We do not want to confuse God's mysterious work of resurrection with a form of narcissism that claims that God's power to save us includes God's willingness to make us rich or better than those "other people" - you know, the ones who sin. Not our sins, but the BIG sins. (Please know that this is sarcasm.) The gospel message is not one of "I was once dead but now I am alive and that makes me able to decide who the real sinners are among us." That is not the story.

So you ask - what do we do? What does it mean for us to live Jesus crucified? Here is all I have to offer. We try. We do the best we can with what we have to work with. We use the resources we have to figure out what that means. WE JUST SHOULD NOT KID OURSELVES INTO THINKING THAT WE KNOW WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON. (A paraphrase of Barbara Taylor Brown from her sermon, "In Weakness and Much Trembling".) If no one else will tell you this, hear me loud and clear: some of our most dismal failures please God very much. And I want you to know that in our community, we will be known and maybe criticized for who we love and that's ok. We know that we do not know what we are doing and that no one really knows what this resurrection life really means, wrapped as it is in the grand mystery of God. So even if we are dead wrong - God loves to bring dead things back to life.

Jesus was a huge disappointment in his day. So was Paul. So are we all. There will always be someone who is disappointed in you and me. But here's what I want us to join together as a community and preach: that when people hang out with us, in spite of all the ways we are a disappointment - no handbell choir, no stained glassed windows, no fancy preachers, in all those limitations here is one thing we do: we welcome the stranger. We offer the gift of hospitality. We do not kid ourselves into thinking that we know what is really going on but we never forget that God works with whatever we offer Him.

More Easter Musings…

Officially the Easter Season this year runs from April 04 to May 23, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday - with Pentecost celebrated on the 50th day from Easter Sunday to commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and followers of Jesus. 50 days of Easter. There is also the Christian calendar of 40 days after Easter called Ascension - which marks the ascent of Jesus into heaven on the 40th day of his Resurrection. And so, with these Christian holidays in mind, I have continued to think about this Easter Season and what it might mean for those who follow Jesus.

Scripture serves as a guiding light in all things for me. Sometimes it shines like a soft warm glow, barely discernible with just enough glow to allow me to take one next step. Other times, it's like the bright light of an interrogator's lamp, pointing out my limitations, exposing my pores and the ugly little blackheads where dirt has crept in and made itself at home in my skin.

Nonetheless, I do love it. And no matter how many times I return to a particular book or even passage, I find new things to sharpen my vision. Usually, the context of my life overlays the reading of the word, and I think that partly helps keep the word itself alive and fresh for me.

Take for example the apostle Paul when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 :

"When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn't come preaching God's secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified."

To preach him as crucified. To preach him as crucified. To preach him as crucified.

Now this is interesting, right? Because crucifixion does not fill the pews. Or even zoom calls. It's the resurrection we thirst for, right? It's the resurrection, especially during Easter, that seems to me should be our lead story...IF OUR WORK IS TO WIN SOULS FOR JESUS AND FILL THOSE PEWS!

So what do you think the point of all this is? Paul says, "preach him as crucified." What does that mean for your personally?

Evidence

"Each time we love again after having our love rejected, we share in the power of the resurrection. Each time we hope again after having our hope smashed to pieces, we share in the power of the resurrection. Each time we pick up the pieces, wipe our tears, face the sun and start again, we share in the power of the resurrection." East Indian Jesuit Pratap Naik

In the meantime, we do not know what it'll mean, we just have evidence that it is so. And this evidence inspires us to respond to the breath of God on our dry, dead bones. Reviving us after tragic loss. Renewing our hope. Giving us a vision for how to carry on after destruction and death and ruin. On May 2nd our community will begin opening up again after over a year of pandemic zooming. We have no idea what it will look like, all the different feelings that this change will bring up for each of us. There will be all sorts of different reactions. But what we must do, we who want to be faithful, is learn to trust God's resurrection strength. In any form it arises.

"Let us rise up and build"

Nehemiah 2:18.

Resurrection is Out-of-the-Box Believing

None of us are familiar with resurrection, are we? Dead people do not come back to life except in horror movies. This is entirely unnatural. But as unnatural as it is, every time I return to this story I find new things to confound and inspire me. In a sermon preached by Barbara Brown Taylor, she says this, "A resurrection is a miracle of another order. There is no continuity with life as we know it. The spark is utterly extinguished. The heart stops...Death occurs, beyond a shadow of a doubt. The living withdraw to get on with their lives and the silence is complete. Then, when everything is over, something entirely new begins. What was cold becomes warm again, and what lay still sits up. Creation occurs all over again - not a spark rescued from the ashes but a whole new fire kindled out of nothing - the gracious act of the only one who can make life out of dust, not just once upon a time, or even at the end of time, but over and over again."

And here is the point that I want to emphasize in the midst of this Easter season. Life is more than what we can experience. Jesus did not die to rescue us from God, Jesus died the way he did so that we would understand that the God we worship knows what suffering and death is like and we are never alone. Jesus rose again, so we know that death is not a final ending, but a new beginning. Now, there's a lot we do not know. God keeps things invisible - like the resurrection - and these invisible truths are more important than anything we can fact check. Paul says in Corinthians that if we do not believe the resurrection "our preaching is useless and so is our faith." (1 Corinthians 15:14). He's a good one to speak on the subject since he witnessed first hand God's mighty power on the road to Damascus. Because here is the thing...

We no longer have to believe that it is up to us keep things alive. Not our children, not our parents, not our spouses or even ourselves. Because we know this - "God has never forgotten how to breathe life into piles of dust."

BTB

In my life, I confess that I have felt a strong pressure to keep struggling or dead or dying things alive. No more. This is God's work. But it is encouraging to know that He works in this way. What have you spent too much time and energy trying to "keep going"? What pressures have you put on yourself that you need to release?