Loving in Truth and Action

About twenty-five years ago a couple of friends and I assembled an osprey nest on the beach along Narragansett Bay.  It was a birthday present for another friend whose property extended out to the water.  Although we had great fun driving the 18 foot poles into the ground it was a challenging and difficult task.  They had to be strong enough to support the platform for ospreys to build their next. The ground was soft, full of sand and marsh.  Erecting the supports for a nest required a lot of strength from each of us.  Naturally, building the actual nest was left to the ospreys.  Once we completed erecting the platform for the nest it took several years before these cautious and fearful birds trusted the site enough to settle in.  Now, for the past several years in the spring they have been laying eggs and hatching new osprey lives. This year they returned on March 22^nd.

The important point to note about this story is watching and waiting in hope that new osprey life will appear each year.  Watching these magnificent birds alighting on their new home, building a nest, and shepherding new life is an amazing experience.

I thought about this when I read a recent article in the Christian Century magazine. (Isaac Villegas, April 15, 2015) The author wrote, “The Christian life is all about nesting – about creating a home for the gospel, a shelter for hope and joy and all things good.  We are a people who build nests wherever we go, wherever we settle for a season.  We know that God has always been mobile, living in a tent, providing the people of God a sanctuary in the wilderness.”  As we read in the 23^rd Psalm, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me.”  We use our churches, God’s house to provide a refuge, a sanctuary, a secure nesting place apart from the often unsettling and stressful circumstances of our lives.

God is present with us and with all creation, including the ospreys as they build and settle in their nest and create new life.  The epistle we read from the First Letter of John asks, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?  Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”   Living in truth, acting out of love, being God’s love for others in their need is what matters.  “We find ourselves within God’s life when we are drawn into the lives of others, friends and strangers.”

One of the things I have observed in ministering with people who are finding it increasingly difficult to be independent is a reluctance to ask for help.  Being God’s love for others is not easy. There is a reason that Rhode Island has a statue of an independent man on the top of the State House.  We value our independence, what it means to be self-sufficient and self-caring.  We hate to be dependent on others because we feel it is always a burden for them.  We do not want to be burdensome or dependent.

On the other hand, what we do in truth and action reflects a genuine desire to serve.  If our caring for others is done in the manner of the good and caring shepherd, the young, the elderly, the sick, and the grieving people among us would not have to feel they are a burden.

The 23rd Psalm reminds us that it is the good shepherd's presence that gives courage to those who walk through the valley of the shadow of death, a valley that has many names: grief, addiction,  unemployment, broken relationships, worry for one's children, fear, disease.  We help by walking alongside and with those who suffer.  The people for whom we really care can experience the goodness of God shepherding them.  “Goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives.”  

When we are surrounded by people in need there is a table prepared for them.  It is a table spread with fellowship and communion, a table where God is present and where caring is evident.  I see it here at All Saints’ every week when the City Meal Site serves the guests who come seeking that fellowship and satisfying their need to be fed.  I see it every time we gather for worship and break bread and share the cup at the Lord’s table in Holy Communion.

The Christian Century article concluded by stating, “The Church is a nest where all are welcome to rest in God’s love.  It is a table where all are welcome to eat and drink God’s life.  In us, the body of Christ, God is made flesh.”  God’s love abides in truth and action. May we continue to love and care for one another and all whom we meet in truth and action.  Amen.

Resurrected Trust

The story about Thomas in today’s Gospel is about the promised Spirit of God binding all of Jesus’ followers together in a trusting relationship with the risen Christ.  When Thomas overcame his natural skepticism and came to his senses he stated his declaration of faith, "my Lord and my God." This statement, “my Lord and my God” identified the risen Christ for all time.  It was and is a word of hope for generations of later Christians.  Our doubts, our skepticism like that of Thomas, are an invitation to deeper faith and to unbelievable blessing.

We are told that on the evening of that first Easter Day when Jesus appeared to the disciples Thomas wasn’t with them.  Later, he heard a second-hand account of Jesus coming into the midst of the disciples and saying to them, "Peace be with you."  Thomas's absence from that meeting of Jesus with the disciples signifies the difference between the visible risen Christ on the first Easter day and on all of Jesus’ followers since that time.  John wrote his gospel to a community that had never seen Jesus or any of the first disciples in the flesh.  How were they able to believe?  How were they, and how are we able to trust, to have faith in something not seen?

The word “belief” as it is translated in the gospel is not a fully accurate translation of the Greek.  The Greek word in the text is pisteo, which means faith or trust.  To say I trust in someone or something is more like giving my heart to it rather than simply stating a belief.  We can believe at an intellectual level, but trust and faith are matters of the heart. Trust implies a greater commitment than a simple statement of belief.

Doubt and faith are two sides of the same coin.  To doubt is human.  Doubt is inextricably linked with faith.  You cannot have faith without also doubting.  Otherwise, it is not faith but rational or objective thought and scientific evidence.  The issue then is not whether we doubt, but what we doubt."

"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to have faith, to trust."  Thomas was not the weakest of the disciples because of his questions of doubt.  The other disciples had seen the risen Christ,  but Thomas had not seen and refused to commit himself.  The resurrection was too amazing, too awesome and miraculous an event to be taken simply at an intellectual level without the most concrete evidence and irrefutable proof. 

Thomas exemplified a mentality familiar to most of us.  When we are confronted with a claim that sounds incredible or outrageous and completely contrary to all the knowledge we possess, we ask whether there is some alternative explanation, something more reasonable or rational.  We can't base our facts on fairy tales or on improbable hypotheses.  So Thomas, in refusing to accept what his friends were saying, was being an honest and reasonable skeptic.

Besides that, he was still grieving the loss of a close friend.  Jesus had been killed.  He was dead and buried.  Although the body was missing from the tomb, Thomas had seen nothing to counteract his grief.  He was not interested in cheap consolation, and he did not want anyone to tell him that everything would be all right.  It wasn't.  For Jesus somehow to reappear as-good-as-new would make a mockery of his death and of Thomas's grief.  To erase the scars would make the suffering meaningless.  Thomas therefore had to see the evidence, the wounds in Jesus' hands and side, before he could trust the reports.

The question for us is whether we, like Thomas, can see in the risen Christ a wounded God who takes suffering seriously.  Think of an unjust or unexplainable tragedy you have known.  Perhaps it was a young friend or relative who died as the result of an accident or serious illness.  We all know about tragic deaths: tornadoes, car accidents, train wrecks and plane crashes.  Our response is often one of anger.  Why did it happen?  It was so unfair.  Pain and suffering and many deaths are wrong.  We are saddened and we grieve.  And God is saddened and sickened by such deaths.

The God who suffered and died is the God who is known in the risen Christ.  The God of Easter bears the power of life and the scars of death.  Christ is victorious over death, but the price has been paid.  The price of loving is pain; living involves suffering.

One thing the evangelists were certain of was that the community they belonged to was one whose chief legacy from Jesus was a peace the world cannot give. "Peace be with you."  As Jesus first greeted the disciples, reassured them and allayed their fears, so we should not be afraid of the awesome times in which we live.   

"Peace be with you."  Jesus greeted the disciples a second time and commended his ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation to them.  The message for us is that we are also called to be ambassadors of reconciliation, to be ministers of forgiveness, and to break down the barriers of race, class, sex, and religion that keep us from loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  As the prophet Micah stated we are to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God."

"Peace be with you." Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have trust.  We as followers of Jesus in this 21^st century affirm that we are able to love, create and seek meaning.  We are members one of another, and we know that in and through our relationships we are in relationship with God.  Let us trust in that relationship of love, peace and the joy of Christ’s resurrection.  Amen.

Amazed and Afraid

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed; Alleluia!

The young man dressed in a white robe said, “He has risen; he is not here.” And then the Gospel of Mark tells us the women were amazed and terrified as they fled from the tomb.  They were afraid and said nothing to anyone about what they had observed.

It is an abrupt ending to Mark’s account.  But what kind of ending is it?  “He is not here.”  But where is he?  What happened; what does it mean?

One of the most difficult and important events in ministry is to be present with family members and their loved relative at the time of the relative’s death. It is often a time of waiting, watching and listening, a time of quiet thoughts, prayers for the patient and care-givers, and concern for the surviving family members.

After a physical death has happened there are arrangements to be made for a funeral or memorial service and burial.  It is a time of preparation, contacting a funeral home, notifying other relatives and friends, planning a service, and mourning the person who died.  There is emptiness, a void, feelings of grief and loss. 

One of the more helpful things to do when a person dies is to share stories about the relationships family members and friends remember.  This is sometimes done while planning for a church service.  Or it may happen during a service with remembrances or a eulogy.

As the Gospel of Mark tells the story, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome were mourning Jesus’ death when they went to the tomb to anoint Jesus.  They were concerned about what they would do once they got to the tomb.  They had purchased spices and oils to anoint Jesus’ body, and they questioned who would roll away the large stone from the entrance to the tomb.  When they got to the tomb they must have been surprised when they saw that the stone had already been rolled back. They were no doubt puzzled as they decided to enter the tomb. Then, upon entering they saw a young man dressed in a white robe.  They were alarmed, amazed and afraid.  What happened?  Where was Jesus?

The young man saw their distress and said, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.…  So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

James Carroll, in his book, Christ Actually, writes, “The Gospel of Mark…is exceedingly spare in its description of the Resurrection, and there is a major clue in that for us…. Mark simply asserts, in the voice of the young man,…’He has risen, he is not here.’”  Then “the Gospel abruptly ends, with the women rushing from the tomb, ‘for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.’”

Carroll says the abrupt ending is full of implication. “That the story seems unfinished is fitting, since the finishing was going to happen not on the page, but in the lives of the followers of Jesus….As the followers of Jesus, while he was alive, expected to be led by him into the fulfillment of God’s restored realm, so, at his Resurrection, was that same expectation renewed.”

The resurrection is about Jesus of Nazareth entering into a new way of being, one that could not have been imagined prior to the first Easter.  Those who experienced the risen Christ on that Easter morning were fearful, in awe, and they struggled to explain to others what they witnessed.  We read about their experience and we restate the mystery of faith every time we celebrate the Eucharist:  “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”  There is only one resurrection, but by God’s grace, we are permitted to share in that resurrection.  By faith, we are united to the risen Christ.

Death and resurrection are mysteries; we do not and cannot fully comprehend them.  It is, however, in the proclamation and sharing of God's love with others, in the act of loving itself, that we can bring life where death has reigned.  And so it is that today we come to the empty tomb.  Jesus is not there. The Resurrection is not a one-time event.  It continues in the lives of Jesus’ followers.  Christ is risen into glory to bind us together in faith and hope for the future of all humanity.  Christ is risen.  Alleluia!  Happy Easter.  Amen.

The New Passover

When Jesus and his disciples gathered in the Upper Room to celebrate the Jewish Passover they were very familiar with the Exodus account that it was “a day of remembrance” of God’s deliverance from Pharaoh’s oppression.  The Passover was observed every year in the spring, normally in March or April.

The detailed prescriptions about the selection of the unblemished lamb or goat and its sacrifice reflect a careful liturgical formula.  The liturgy is to be performed in the home rather than in a public place.  The description of the blood on the doorposts may echo a very ancient rite used as a sign to ward off evil in the family dwelling.  In addition, the liturgical act provides life for the first born of the Israelites.  In this context, the term, “Passover” denotes protection and freedom to live.

The Israelites were instructed to roast the Passover lamb “over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”  This reflected the open fire of a semi-nomadic people, a people who are on the move when they need to be.  It was their custom to use unleavened bread and the wild plants of the desert to flavor the meat.  God commanded that they would eat this meal with “your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly.  It is the Passover of the Lord.”

The Passover meal Jesus had with his disciples in the Upper Room was not an ordinary Passover celebration.  In the book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, the author Brant Pitre says that Jesus saw the Last Supper as a new Passover. “In order for there to be a new exodus, there needed to be a new Passover….”

“Jesus reconfigured the Passover around his own passion…. By commanding his disciples to repeat what he had done he deliberately perpetuated this new Passover – both sacrifice and meal – down through the ages.  By means of these actions, he set the new exodus in motion.  What mattered now was not the flesh of the Passover lamb that had been slain in Egypt, but his own flesh and blood that would be sacrificed on the cross…. He offered himself as a sacrifice, because he saw himself as the Passover lamb.”

“Jesus’ identification of himself as the new Passover lamb is the only historically plausible explanation for what he said to his disciples in the Upper Room.”  He knew “that the Passover sacrifice was not completed by the death of the lamb.  It was completed by a sacred meal.  You had to eat the lamb.  And not just a symbol of the lamb – but its actual flesh.  Ultimately, that is the only way Jesus the Jew could have ever said to his Twelve disciples: ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’”

“At the final supper, Jesus miraculously transformed bread and wine into his own body and blood.  In doing so, he gave the disciples a share in both his bodily death and his bodily resurrection.  In doing so, he gave the disciples the ‘supernatural bread’ that would sustain them each day on their journey toward the new promised land of the new creation, a foretaste of the reality of the life of the world to come.”

Later, sometime after Jesus’ death and resurrection, St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Corinthians, that he “received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

Paul reminded his readers that the first Eucharist took place on the “night when [Jesus] was betrayed.”  The sacred formula of taking the bread or the wine, of giving thanks, of breaking the bread and offering the cup, of eating or drinking, and doing these acts “in remembrance of me,” suggests that the Eucharist occurs as a unified and communal thanksgiving to God.  There can be no discrimination in the sacrament of the Eucharist.  Those who offer “thanksgiving” to God as a community are to be united in love. 

The Eucharist is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” It is the love that belongs to everyone because of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  The death of Jesus represents a complete and selfless act of love for his followers.  Therefore, just as the Corinthians did, and as all Christians throughout the centuries ever since Jesus’ death have done, we remember his self-giving love in the action of sharing in this miraculous meal of bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ.  As a result of this action we are to treat one another and everyone with selfless love and compassionate concern.  Amen.