St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - weekly talks

Luke 24:36f begins in Jerusalem in a gathering of bewildered disciples. They’re listening to the story of two disciples who, in complete hopelessness, left the city after the crucifixion. They recount the previous day’s encounter with a stranger on the road to Emmaus. Unrecognized at first, Jesus walks and talks with them, he’s listening to their dashed hopes and dreams, the empty tomb.

As they reach the village, he’s invited to stay and break bread with them. As Jesus broke the bread, gave thanks and gave it to them, their “eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.”

As Jesus appears in the middle of this retelling, they aren’t sure what they are experiencing. They thought it was a spirit, something visionary or immaterial occurring.

This scene brings into focus for us the real struggle of what happened at Easter. What kind of a resurrected body did Jesus have? Throughout his Easter appearances, how could it at the same time, be solid and real, with flesh and bones, able to eat baked fish, and also to appear and disappear, apparently at will, and at the end, to ascend into heaven?

Many Christians think that when they die, they go to heaven and that’s it … forever united with Lord as an immortal soul.

For others, resurrection is just a metaphor, or a spiritualized way of saying that Jesus lives, similar to the way we might say that Mozart lives through the interest in his music or the way Shakespeare lives through the universal devotion given to his literature.

Some may say that the cause of Jesus lives on through the many works of charity performed in his name.

But people don’t go to the ends of the earth, preaching and being martyred in support of a vague metaphor.

Others may see the Resurrection simply as a return to this life. Lazarus was raised from the dead, only to die again. His still belonged to the reign of death. When Lazarus came forth, he was still wearing grave clothes. He still belonged, in some way, to the tomb.

Friends, Jesus is not just a soul that’s gone to heaven. His resurrection isn’t a mere metaphor, nor as Lazarus, who was resuscitated only to return to the reign of death.

The Resurrected Christ, as Paul said, is the first fruits of a new life, a whole new species of human being, a whole new human nature has appeared and is making all things new.

So rather than thinking of resurrection as “life after death” or as “going to heaven,” Bishop NT Wright says that Resurrection is life after “life after death.” “Life AFTER “life after death.” What does this mean?

Going to heaven is not the final destination; it’s the intermediate state, until, the end of the present age, when Christ returns and effects in us what happened to him on that Easter morning … the resurrection of the whole person, the resurrection of the body.

When a Christian passes through death, he is transferred into the Lord’s presence (Philippians 1:23), awaiting the Resurrection of the body and final judgment (v. 10).

Revelation 20 describes the judgment of the dead, and then chapter 21 displays a new heaven and a new earth … the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

This is the final consummation of the Kingdom, the final answer to the request we make, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is the wedding of heaven and earth, new creation, and Jesus’ Resurrected Body is the first fruits, the very substance of this reality.

As we wait …

Jesus reveals himself in the breaking of the bread and causes our hearts to burn as we encounter him in the Scriptures

He opens our minds to understand the Scriptures …

He sends us out to be his hands, his feet, his voice, sharing the story of victory over sin and death through his atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and his resurrection over the power of death.

Luke 24:36f begins in Jerusalem in a gathering of bewildered disciples. They’re listening to the story of two disciples who, in complete hopelessness, left the city after the crucifixion. They recount the previous day’s encounter with a stranger on the road to Emmaus. Unrecognized at first, Jesus walks and talks with them, he’s listening to their dashed hopes and dreams, the empty tomb.

As they reach the village, he’s invited to stay and break bread with them. As Jesus broke the bread, gave thanks and gave it to them, their “eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.”

As Jesus appears in the middle of this retelling, they aren’t sure what they are experiencing. They thought it was a spirit, something visionary or immaterial occurring.

This scene brings into focus for us the real struggle of what happened at Easter. What kind of a resurrected body did Jesus have? Throughout his Easter appearances, how could it at the same time, be solid and real, with flesh and bones, able to eat baked fish, and also to appear and disappear, apparently at will, and at the end, to ascend into heaven?

Many Christians think that when they die, they go to heaven and that’s it … forever united with Lord as an immortal soul.

For others, resurrection is just a metaphor, or a spiritualized way of saying that Jesus lives, similar to the way we might say that Mozart lives through the interest in his music or the way Shakespeare lives through the universal devotion given to his literature.

Some may say that the cause of Jesus lives on through the many works of charity performed in his name.

But people don’t go to the ends of the earth, preaching and being martyred in support of a vague metaphor.

Others may see the Resurrection simply as a return to this life. Lazarus was raised from the dead, only to die again. His still belonged to the reign of death. When Lazarus came forth, he was still wearing grave clothes. He still belonged, in some way, to the tomb.

Friends, Jesus is not just a soul that’s gone to heaven. His resurrection isn’t a mere metaphor, nor as Lazarus, who was resuscitated only to return to the reign of death.

The Resurrected Christ, as Paul said, is the first fruits of a new life, a whole new species of human being, a whole new human nature has appeared and is making all things new.

So rather than thinking of resurrection as “life after death” or as “going to heaven,” Bishop NT Wright says that Resurrection is life after “life after death.” “Life AFTER “life after death.” What does this mean?

Going to heaven is not the final destination; it’s the intermediate state, until, the end of the present age, when Christ returns and effects in us what happened to him on that Easter morning … the resurrection of the whole person, the resurrection of the body.

When a Christian passes through death, he is transferred into the Lord’s presence (Philippians 1:23), awaiting the Resurrection of the body and final judgment (v. 10).

Revelation 20 describes the judgment of the dead, and then chapter 21 displays a new heaven and a new earth … the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

This is the final consummation of the Kingdom, the final answer to the request we make, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is the wedding of heaven and earth, new creation, and Jesus’ Resurrected Body is the first fruits, the very substance of this reality.

As we wait …

Jesus reveals himself in the breaking of the bread and causes our hearts to burn as we encounter him in the Scriptures

He opens our minds to understand the Scriptures …

He sends us out to be his hands, his feet, his voice, sharing the story of victory over sin and death through his atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and his resurrection over the power of death.

On that first evening of Easter, they are found in hiding, for fear of the Jews. The tense atmosphere is mingled with a collective sense of failure and bewilderment. All their hopes of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, proclaiming his kingship, turned sour. Jesus is crucified and they fear the same fate.

Behind closed, locked doors, Jesus appears.

Q. Where are you locked up and afraid? Anxious?

1. Access to Jesus is through his bodily wounds.

Jesus makes good his promise to come to them. This is the first fulfillment of his promise, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst.”

Peace [SHALOM]. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

When Jesus shows up, the atmosphere changes from despair and fear to joy. Shalom is his gift to them … the age of new creation has broken into the world of the dark forces, once ruling, now conquered.

How is this special peace introduced? What does he point to?

His wounds … his sacrificial death whereby the King of glory displays his signs of cosmic battle against evil.

The King has returned from the battle for all existence. His wounds are signs that the physical world matters; that our physical bodies matter and that as his body was physically raised and transformed, so our bodies shall be raised.

This peace is not a mere subjective state of calm or the absence of movement; this peace is the declaration and state of cosmic renewal, where Satan, sin and death once reigned through the first Adam, now victory over the powers and life everlasting reigns through the One man, the new kind of human being, Jesus Christ. See: Col. 1:19-20

2. Christ sends us, commissions us, to be his bodily presence on earth, participating in the new age of the Kingdom (his breath, the Holy Spirit) until he comes again.

Q. How does Jesus’ calling connect to your vocation? How do we carry on Jesus’ mission throughout the week, in the workplace, school, home? See: I Corinthians 15:22-26

He must reign … is a period where he builds his Church, his Body on earth and the gates of hell shall not prevail. On the cross, the decisive victory was won while we continue to battle with cosmic forces until the end. His breath is the presence of his Kingdom … righteous, peace & joy in the Holy Spirit.

3. We are sent to extend his peace through offering forgiveness.

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

We proclaim the prayer of Jesus on the cross …”Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” This total act of self-giving on the cross is for the sins of the whole world.

Part of our prayer is “Forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others.”

Q. Where do you intersect with broken relationships? How might you bring forgiveness, reconciliation to your world?

4. Jesus appears to redirect our doubts towards faith. Faith and doubt always co-exist. We know in part and we prophesy in part … we also believe “in part” … One’s certainty is not fixed but fluid on the same pole between faith and doubt.

The twin prayers of 1, abandonment (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?, and 2, of intimate resolve, (Father into thy hands I commit my spirit), both reveal that prayer is possible from the ‘far side of estrangement’, as well as from the ‘near side’ of intimacy.

Jesus, as vicarious humanity, voices our ultimate, existential concern in his cry of abandonment and resolves our common struggle with his prayer of resolve. We are represented in both sides of the struggle.

Have you identified where you’ve made peace with doubt?

On that first evening of Easter, they are found in hiding, for fear of the Jews. The tense atmosphere is mingled with a collective sense of failure and bewilderment. All their hopes of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, proclaiming his kingship, turned sour. Jesus is crucified and they fear the same fate.

Behind closed, locked doors, Jesus appears.

Q. Where are you locked up and afraid? Anxious?

1. Access to Jesus is through his bodily wounds.

Jesus makes good his promise to come to them. This is the first fulfillment of his promise, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst.”

Peace [SHALOM]. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

When Jesus shows up, the atmosphere changes from despair and fear to joy. Shalom is his gift to them … the age of new creation has broken into the world of the dark forces, once ruling, now conquered.

How is this special peace introduced? What does he point to?

His wounds … his sacrificial death whereby the King of glory displays his signs of cosmic battle against evil.

The King has returned from the battle for all existence. His wounds are signs that the physical world matters; that our physical bodies matter and that as his body was physically raised and transformed, so our bodies shall be raised.

This peace is not a mere subjective state of calm or the absence of movement; this peace is the declaration and state of cosmic renewal, where Satan, sin and death once reigned through the first Adam, now victory over the powers and life everlasting reigns through the One man, the new kind of human being, Jesus Christ. See: Col. 1:19-20

2. Christ sends us, commissions us, to be his bodily presence on earth, participating in the new age of the Kingdom (his breath, the Holy Spirit) until he comes again.

Q. How does Jesus’ calling connect to your vocation? How do we carry on Jesus’ mission throughout the week, in the workplace, school, home? See: I Corinthians 15:22-26

He must reign … is a period where he builds his Church, his Body on earth and the gates of hell shall not prevail. On the cross, the decisive victory was won while we continue to battle with cosmic forces until the end. His breath is the presence of his Kingdom … righteous, peace & joy in the Holy Spirit.

3. We are sent to extend his peace through offering forgiveness.

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

We proclaim the prayer of Jesus on the cross …”Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” This total act of self-giving on the cross is for the sins of the whole world.

Part of our prayer is “Forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others.”

Q. Where do you intersect with broken relationships? How might you bring forgiveness, reconciliation to your world?

4. Jesus appears to redirect our doubts towards faith. Faith and doubt always co-exist. We know in part and we prophesy in part … we also believe “in part” … One’s certainty is not fixed but fluid on the same pole between faith and doubt.

The twin prayers of 1, abandonment (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?, and 2, of intimate resolve, (Father into thy hands I commit my spirit), both reveal that prayer is possible from the ‘far side of estrangement’, as well as from the ‘near side’ of intimacy.

Jesus, as vicarious humanity, voices our ultimate, existential concern in his cry of abandonment and resolves our common struggle with his prayer of resolve. We are represented in both sides of the struggle.

Have you identified where you’ve made peace with doubt?

While the world "makes Easter easy," without Christ and his cross, the pathway to this new creation must run through his crucifixion. Only in suffering with him shall we reign with him (Ro 8). For us, it is only through death that his risen life works through us. Unless our grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, there is no fruit.

The good news of Easter includes the good news of the crucified God, Jesus Christ. Death has been trampled down by death. Christianity, therefore, is no "feel good" religion. Ancient Christianity calls the followers of Christ to take up personal crosses so the life of Jesus can be manifest to others.

While the world "makes Easter easy," without Christ and his cross, the pathway to this new creation must run through his crucifixion. Only in suffering with him shall we reign with him (Ro 8). For us, it is only through death that his risen life works through us. Unless our grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, there is no fruit.

The good news of Easter includes the good news of the crucified God, Jesus Christ. Death has been trampled down by death. Christianity, therefore, is no "feel good" religion. Ancient Christianity calls the followers of Christ to take up personal crosses so the life of Jesus can be manifest to others.

Dr. Pendleton reflects on sections of Isaiah 52 & 53.

Dr. Pendleton reflects on sections of Isaiah 52 & 53.

Today we enter the first day of Holy Week, the climax of the liturgical year. Yet, today is a perplexing, disorienting day called Palm Sunday. Its proper name is Passion Sunday because the story of Jesus’ suffering is always read.

At this point, we may not know exactly how to feel. We’ve been lifted up with festal procession, waving palms and singing our Hosannas only to get smacked in the face with the Crucifixion. On this Sunday, we participate with the crowd who hail Jesus as Messiah and King yet only to discover our own involvement in their demands, “Crucify him!” on Friday. It is not a day for the faint hearted. We learn that crowds both praise and crucify their heroes.

Everything changes when Jesus enters Jerusalem. Mark tells us that Jesus has been moving in secret, teaching in private, refusing to draw attention to his signs and speaking code language in parables. In Mark’s first chapter, he cleanses the leaper but warns, “See that you say nothing to anyone” (1:44). Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, but Jesus instructs him “to tell no one about it” (8:30), and after the transfiguration he “gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man should rise from the dead” (9:9). It’s a covert operation.

Jesus didn’t seek the power centers of Israel. For over three years, he’s been in the seedy, gritty backwater of Galilee and the insignificant parts of the region. He has not visited Jerusalem or the Temple. He’s been traveling on foot everywhere.

Palm Sunday, however --- this is no secret. What’s been hidden comes into full view. Jesus stages his arrival to the great city, is praised by the crowd, and heads straight for the temple. His mode of transport is highly symbolic. He rides enthroned on a donkey, as the crowds lay down a carpet of clothes and branches in his path.

1st Image: Jesus assumes the role of priest with his examination of the temple. He cleanses the temple and prophesies it destruction. According to Lev. 14, houses as well as people could contract “leprosy.” The priest would return a week later to see if the infection has spread. If the house is leprous, it has to be ripped apart (Lev. 14:45).

Jesus’ first visit to the temple is a priestly inspection, and upon his return the following day, he finds a spreading defilement. Rather than a house of prayer for all nations, it had been turned into a house of thieves. It had become a commercial enterprise.

Q. What is Jesus wanting to cleanse in you?

2nd Image – Mark 14:1f. The Passion narrative begins in Mark at the house of Simeon the Leper. An anonymous woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard.

She broke the jar and poured the perfume – signifying the extravagant cost of Jesus’ broken body and the outpoured water and blood of universal redemption.

Q. How can your devotion to Jesus become more extravagant?

3rd Image

After the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus illustrating what is about to happen, he concludes in verse 25 …

Verse 26 says … they sung a hymn

Consider a family visiting a member on death row.

Yet this is what we do every Sunday in the Eucharist … we proclaim his death until he comes with singing. Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Q. In which of the hard places of your life can you become more worshipful?

4th Image

We move to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows the deep sleep falling on his disciples … Verse 32 … sit here while I pray … He took Peter, James and John …

Jesus is betrayed by Judas and taken off to trail …

Verse 51 – a young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

The Greek word here is used for the white “baptismal garment” placed on the newly baptized.

Q. Where have you fled in fear of criticism, rejection or disapproval for following Jesus?

Today we enter the first day of Holy Week, the climax of the liturgical year. Yet, today is a perplexing, disorienting day called Palm Sunday. Its proper name is Passion Sunday because the story of Jesus’ suffering is always read.

At this point, we may not know exactly how to feel. We’ve been lifted up with festal procession, waving palms and singing our Hosannas only to get smacked in the face with the Crucifixion. On this Sunday, we participate with the crowd who hail Jesus as Messiah and King yet only to discover our own involvement in their demands, “Crucify him!” on Friday. It is not a day for the faint hearted. We learn that crowds both praise and crucify their heroes.

Everything changes when Jesus enters Jerusalem. Mark tells us that Jesus has been moving in secret, teaching in private, refusing to draw attention to his signs and speaking code language in parables. In Mark’s first chapter, he cleanses the leaper but warns, “See that you say nothing to anyone” (1:44). Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, but Jesus instructs him “to tell no one about it” (8:30), and after the transfiguration he “gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man should rise from the dead” (9:9). It’s a covert operation.

Jesus didn’t seek the power centers of Israel. For over three years, he’s been in the seedy, gritty backwater of Galilee and the insignificant parts of the region. He has not visited Jerusalem or the Temple. He’s been traveling on foot everywhere.

Palm Sunday, however --- this is no secret. What’s been hidden comes into full view. Jesus stages his arrival to the great city, is praised by the crowd, and heads straight for the temple. His mode of transport is highly symbolic. He rides enthroned on a donkey, as the crowds lay down a carpet of clothes and branches in his path.

1st Image: Jesus assumes the role of priest with his examination of the temple. He cleanses the temple and prophesies it destruction. According to Lev. 14, houses as well as people could contract “leprosy.” The priest would return a week later to see if the infection has spread. If the house is leprous, it has to be ripped apart (Lev. 14:45).

Jesus’ first visit to the temple is a priestly inspection, and upon his return the following day, he finds a spreading defilement. Rather than a house of prayer for all nations, it had been turned into a house of thieves. It had become a commercial enterprise.

Q. What is Jesus wanting to cleanse in you?

2nd Image – Mark 14:1f. The Passion narrative begins in Mark at the house of Simeon the Leper. An anonymous woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard.

She broke the jar and poured the perfume – signifying the extravagant cost of Jesus’ broken body and the outpoured water and blood of universal redemption.

Q. How can your devotion to Jesus become more extravagant?

3rd Image

After the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus illustrating what is about to happen, he concludes in verse 25 …

Verse 26 says … they sung a hymn

Consider a family visiting a member on death row.

Yet this is what we do every Sunday in the Eucharist … we proclaim his death until he comes with singing. Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Q. In which of the hard places of your life can you become more worshipful?

4th Image

We move to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows the deep sleep falling on his disciples … Verse 32 … sit here while I pray … He took Peter, James and John …

Jesus is betrayed by Judas and taken off to trail …

Verse 51 – a young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

The Greek word here is used for the white “baptismal garment” placed on the newly baptized.

Q. Where have you fled in fear of criticism, rejection or disapproval for following Jesus?