These words that Jesus said to his twelve disciples: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes God, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – none of these will lose their reward.”

Once upon a time, the sun and the wind got in a fight about who was stronger.

God is elemental. Fire, air, water, earth. Before everything else that was, WAS, there were these raw ingredients, and the God of Creation living in them.

In the 40 days following Easter, the disciples had a number of experiences of the risen Jesus. He walked with some to Emmaus. He came to them in the upper room in Jerusalem.

(Note to the reader, the sermon as delivered is different in a number of places from the text provided here. Please listen to the audio recording for the complete sermon.)

In the days and weeks following that first Easter the disciples were afraid and uncertain about what was going to happen to them.

The Creation Story

Sometimes, I can’t believe Jesus was operating fully 1,950 years before the advent of television. He was such a master of the small screen. In the Gospel of John, the Easter story plays like an episode of the old British farce Benny Hill, with people running on and offscreen in what amounts to hospital johnnies, just missing each other and the truth. Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter and the disciple called “Beloved” scamper hither and thither, seeing and not seeing and wondering and being afraid while the audience laughs, because they are in on the joke. Jesus finally sneaks up behind Mary, who is crying because she can’t find his body. Woman, why are you weeping? Jesus asks her, even though he already knows the answer.