Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

As we move into a time when more people are getting vaccinated and we can again begin to gather in-person, one of the things I am truly looking forward to is baptizing the children who have been born in our midst during this pandemic.  Walter and Brenda Kopf’s grandson, Garrett, will be baptized in two weeks, and Mark and Molly DeHate’s son, Luca, will soon be baptized.  As many of you know, I find baptisms to be one of the most meaningful things I do as I live into this call to ministry because in baptism we are shown how deeply and unconditionally we are loved by God, something that is communicated in all our scripture readings on this day.

In today’s reading from Acts, Peter is astonished to discover the Holy Spirit falls even on those who are Gentiles, those considered “other.” He then understands Gentiles cannot be denied the cleansing waters of baptism, new life, and God’s unconditional love.  And, in our second reading, the writer of 1 John tells us the unconditional love that comes from our Creator Parent, expressed through the person of Jesus and through the Spirit, is born in us as we obey God’s commandment to love.  Then, in today’s reading from John’s gospel, we find a continuation of the words we heard Jesus speaking last Sunday, and he again speaks about abiding in the love that is splashed all over us, love that will make our joy complete. 

This whole section of John’s gospel is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse because he is preparing the disciples for his death.  He knows he is going to die, and he knows he will be leaving them.  In John’s gospel, these words are some of the last words Jesus speaks during his earthly life, and his last words are all about love.  Jesus speaks of his love for the disciples as he calls them friends.  And, by extension, he speaks these words to each one of us saying, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you, and so you should love one another.”

In our culture, the word “love” is highly ambiguous.  However, in Greek, there are many different words for different types of love.  The big challenge for us is that these multiple words become translated into English as just one word, simply the word love.  In today’s passage, the word that has been translated as love comes from the Greek word agape.  Agape love describes the excellence of character that is God’s very nature.  It is all about relationship and it is the kind of love we find characterizing the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity.  It is the kind of love in which we participate through sheer grace.  Agape describes the Father’s love for the Son and it describes God’s love for us.  Agape is all gift – a gift from God.  Agape is not a feeling or inclination.  It is the kind of love that responds as obedience to God’s commandment to choose to love others as God has chosen to love us.  Agape love is always primarily interested in the good of the other person, rather than one’s own self.  It is never a love that attempts to possess or dominate others.  The concern is always for others and agape is never domineering, manipulative, possessive, or subordinating.  Agape love always allows authentic, genuine space for others to be and become and grow.  And, it is always offered without reserve.  

We live in a culture that is extremely individualistic, self-focused and self-serving, a culture in which love takes on possessive characteristics.  In fact, there is frequently a tendency to view love as a commodity, even something that becomes a scarcity as some people begin to think others are receiving more love than they are.  This is never what love is about.

We as a people have become very selfish, and far too often self-interest is placed at the top of any list of priorities.  In fact, we have become a nation that has increasingly exemplified the characteristics of narcissism, as in America first, something that I pray is beginning to turn around. We tend to be people who talk about love as this warm, euphoric feeling inside, a feeling one has when one is with some special person.  We talk about “making love.”  We throw the word love around and use it in cheap ways as we talk about loving objects like our house or our car, or something we want to get or possess.  Quite honestly, what we claim to love is often borne out of a consumer driven culture.  But, when it comes to people and relationships with others, we can be rather stingy and self-serving about our love. 

So, today it is fitting that Jesus’ words break into our lives with a message of love, the love God has for this world and for all people. The love God calls us to live into every day is a very different kind of love.  The nature of this love is giving.  In fact, one might even say giving until it hurts.  That is the love Jesus was talking about and that is the love he lived.  Jesus not only gave until it hurt, he gave himself over unto death on a cross, all for the sake of love. 

When we live into this kind of love, it is a choice.  We choose to love, and it becomes a way of life through which we become changed.  To love in this manner means obeying Jesus’ command to love.  Agape love is a disciplined habit of care and concern, one that we work on perfecting over a lifetime as the living Word changes us, continually challenges us, takes us to new places, and continually makes us new.  The love God shows toward Jesus is a demanding love, but it is also full of presence, promise and immeasurable joy.  It is a love that prunes, cleanses, challenges, molds, and forms us.  It is that kind of love that carried Jesus throughout his ministry. And, guess what, my friends, it is that kind of love that carries us and holds us, and it is that kind of love we are called to live.  

The love of God that we are invited into is a love without limits.  It is a wasteful love.  It is love that is selfless and thus produces and enhances life.  In fact, this love we see in the person of Jesus Christ is a love that invites us into a whole new dimension of what it means to be human, a love through which we become more fully human and whole.  When we live this kind of love, all those boundaries that establish status and power are reversed. When we live this kind of love, the boundaries that have been created to separate us from those considered “others” are obliterated.  This love is a servant love that truly cares for all others. 

Friends, God is defined as love.  The love of God, the love we are called to live, is not an entity so much as it is an all-pervading, penetrating experience.  It is experienced when we discover that God’s love embraces us as we are, and God’s love embraces all people as they are.  We discover that we cannot create this kind of love, we can only receive it and then share it. This is the love that binds us to God and one another.  And, this love is the very meaning of Jesus. 

There is a story about Karl Barth, one of the great theologians of the twentieth century. Toward the end of his life, Barth made a tour of the United States, where he had the opportunity to speak at several of our nation’s top universities.  During a question/answer time following one of his lectures, a student posed what seemed to be an impossible question to answer.  The student asked, “Dr. Barth, you have written extensively on every aspect of theology and church history.  I’m wondering if you could sum it all up in a short sentence or two.”  The room fell silent.  Dr. Barth just stood there for a moment, carefully considering how to respond.  Some of the professors and students who were there clearly began to feel awkward that such a minor question would be asked of such a brilliant scholar.  Finally, Karl Barth turned toward the student and succinctly replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Today, Jesus’ last words to the disciples and each one of us are, “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me.  Make yourselves at home in my love.  If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love.  That’s what I’ve done – kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.  I’ve told you these things for a purpose:  that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.  This is my command:  Love one another the way I loved you.  This is the best way to love.  Put your life on the line for your friends.”

Americans are known for having a fierce sense of independence, freedom, and self-identity, and we have taken pride in promoting freedom for people, not only here but also around the world.  However, as we have seen throughout this Covid-19 pandemic, there is in this country a growing interpretation of individual freedom that has morphed into something that is unhealthy, toxic, and malignant as we now see people who feel their individual freedom is more important than their responsibility to and for the care of neighbor. This growing vein of thought has become a cancer in our culture, and it is also something that runs completely contrary to Jesus’ teaching.  If you claim to be a Christian, and if you claim to follow the way of Jesus, such thinking is the antithesis of the way you are called to live.  Today, our scripture readings teach us just how contrary such thinking is to what Jesus actually teaches.    

I love what Nadia Bolz-Weber says as she reflects upon people’s sense and perception of individual independence, and the challenge we find in today’s gospel reading.  She writes:

I’m nothing if not independent.  Reportedly my first sentence was “Do it self!”  Yes, I will do it myself, thank you.  See I want choices.  And I want independence….What I wish Jesus said is: “I am whatever you want me to be.  And you can be whatever you want to be: vine, pruner, branch, soil….knock yourself out.”  What Jesus actually said is: “I am the vine.  My Father is the vine grower.  You are the branches.”  Dang.  The casting has already been finalized.  Vines, and branches off of vines, are all tangled and messy and it’s just too hard to know what is what…Not only are we dependent on Jesus, but our lives are uncomfortably tangled up together.  The Christian life is a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled mess of us and Jesus and others.  Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self!” set.

Yes, Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self” set.  And, nowhere does Jesus teach more clearly that we are not independent do-it-yourselfers than here in today’s gospel reading.  You see, nowhere does Jesus demonstrate more clearly that we cannot go it alone, that we cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps when life puts us down, and that it is completely unreasonable to expect anyone else to either.  Today’s gospel reading is all about being connected to the vine, remaining connected and staying connected throughout this life journey we all are traveling together.  It is not about individual, personal independence.  It is not about doing it alone, thinking “me do it myself,” or I can do anything I darn well please.

As we enter today’s gospel, we find ourselves back on that evening of Maundy Thursday in John’s account of the Jesus story.  Jesus knows he is about to die and leave the disciples behind.  So, he urges them to remain in him, stay connected to him, and remain in fellowship with each other.  Jesus is clearly saying to the disciples and to each one of us, “Stay connected.  Live in relationship to me.  And, stay connected and live in relationship to each other.  Make your home in me just as I do in you.  Continue on in my teaching and example and remain in fellowship with each other.”  And, he gives us this wonderful image of the vine and branches.

Now, if we think about wild grapevines, or any vine for that matter, one thing we soon realize is that vines and branches are tangled and messy.  They are invasive, they can take over trees and even pull branches of trees down.  They can become a very tangled, destructive mess when in the wild and untended.  Yet, when we look at a cultivated grapevine, we can see that the vine grower has put an anchor to the main vine.  The branches are sorted out, trained and even disciplined.  There is a wire structure that supports the vine from below and from above.  All the dead branches have been removed.  And, the vines and branches that are cultivated end up producing large quantities of grapes.

With this image Jesus shares, he shows us that Christ is the source of all life.  Our very existence is dependent on God, who nurtures and cultivates us.  We are not and cannot be the vine that gives life to all.  Neither are we the vine grower, the one who cultivates, stakes, supports and yes, prunes the branches, though sometimes we try to claim this authority.  We are the branches and, if we are to flourish, we need to stay connected to the vine, abide, and remain dependent on the vine.

To abide is all about remaining, staying, taking up residence, and making one’s own self at home.  It is about living in the community of Christ, participating in the life of that community, and staying connected to that community.  When we abide in Christ, God’s love is perfected in our lives.  When we abide in Christ, love grows in us, casting out fear and hatred, and empowering us to act boldly.

Abiding in Christ means admitting that we are not independent, do-it-yourselfers who can boast saying, “Me do it myself,” or “I did it my way,” or “Having freedom means I can do whatever I want, regardless of how it affects my neighbor.”  Abiding in Christ means accepting that we are dependent on Christ and on each other.  It means graciously receiving the support Christ offers us, most often through the caring of our brothers and sisters.  It also means consenting to be pruned.  It means letting go of the things that hinder our growth in love, things like fear, hatred, greed, jealousy, grudges, resentment, shame, guilt, and all the other invasive, vine-like, tangled things that mess us all up.  And, abiding in Christ is always about belonging, belonging to the One who gives us life, life that truly matters.  You see, this abiding in Christ is all about relationship.

The relational connectedness Jesus is speaking of is a connectedness that is only found through experiencing life together within the context of a faith community.  And, yes, living in this kind of relationship, abiding in Christ, and staying connected to Christ the true vine, means it is not always going to be comfortable or easy.  It can be difficult.  Living in relationship with others requires give and take.  Such living requires us to be vulnerable.  Living in relationship with others means there will be ups and downs as we travel this journey together.  You see, living life together in community means we have to put up with real people, some who are nice and some who are not, some who want things their way and others who don’t want to challenge the status quo.  Quite frankly, life together means having to put up with people who are sometimes jerks.  And, we must be very honest about something – it also means recognizing and having to admit that sometimes we are the ones who are being the jerks.  The truth is, real, authentic community is something we often would rather shy away from because it can be uncomfortable, and it goes against our malignant perception of independence and individual freedom.  And, because we do not like to be uncomfortable, we are sometimes like a little child who says, “Me do it myself, I don’t need anyone else.” 

However, today Jesus invites us to be real, to be deeply connected, to be planted in the very life of God and live in intimate relationship with him and with each other.  Jesus invites us to be honest about who we are and what we are.  Jesus invites us to come together and confess our hopes and fears, to share our dreams and disappointments, to be honest about our accomplishments and our failures, to be open about our blessings and our sin, and to be dependent on Him.  In Jesus, we are invited into deep, authentic relationship with one another so that we can discover we are accepted, loved, and forgiven by God who loves this whole world enough to send God’s own Son. 

It is by being connected, being planted in God, and participating in Christian community, that we learn what real love is all about.  When we stay connected to the vine and live together in authentic Christian community, the love that happens and is born enables us to then love all others – not just some, and to love our neighbor as we ourselves have been loved.  It is that kind of love that brings others in and grafts them to the vine.  And, it is that kind of love that sends us out to make a difference in people’s lives both here and around the world as love and life that truly matters become the fruit of living in relationship to God and all others.

This past Thursday was Earth Day, and for people worldwide who are part of the environmental movement, it was and continues to be not only a time for reflection on the goodness of creation but also the many ways in which we have abused the good creation we have been given.  And, for the church, it’s the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Easter is the season throughout which the church is continually reminded of the resurrection of Jesus. All our Bible readings throughout this season focus on new life – the Easter life – that God promises for the whole cosmos.

Again, on this past Earth Day, environmentalists have reminded us that plastic waste continues to kill ocean life, our planet’s ice is melting even faster than we thought, climate change is bringing more and greater disasters each year for which we inevitably find humanity unprepared, and species from snails to bats to lizards have been declared extinct, never to be seen on Earth again.

As we think about these things, just listen to a version of Psalm 23, written by jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin and dedicated to his mother:

The Lord is my shepherd I have all I need She makes me lie down in green meadows Beside the still waters she will lead She restores my soul She rights my wrongs She leads me in a path of good things And fills my heart with songs Even though I walk through a dark and dreary land

There is nothing that can shake me She has said she won’t forsake me, I’m in her hand She sets a table before me In the presence of my foes She anoints my head with oil And my cup overflows Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me All the days of my life And I will live in her house forever Forever and ever.

 We cannot help but hear in this Psalm promises of green earth and clean water, the promise of abundant food and wine and oil, and the promise that this planet is made for goodness, and for mercy, and for home, our home and the home of all living things.

The psalmist writes famously “The Lord is my shepherd.” And centuries later, the writer of the gospel of John attributes the same imagery to Jesus when we hear Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd.” These images of shepherd and sheep show up a lot in the Bible, and the imagery can be complicated.  It’s complicated in part because most of us don’t have a ton of direct experience with the practice of sheep-keeping. But more than that, shepherding can get sentimentalized into this sort of mushy idea of a Jesus who’s just super wise and gentle, with soft hair flowing in the breeze and a gentle beam of sunlight on his dark skin.

Yet, we know that Jesus is many things.  The gospels tell us that Jesus is not only gentle but also fierce, Jesus is bold, and at times offensive. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd,” but we also call Jesus the “Lamb.” The imagery is messy and complex.

Truthfully, we’re not the first ones to idealize shepherding – by the time Jesus lived on earth, shepherding was actually no longer the central economic practice.  However, there was this collective memory of a time when nomadic ancestors roamed the countryside and kept sheep as a source of life. The ancestral connection to sheep and shepherding carried over so that when the people wanted to talk about leadership, someone who was responsible for the well-being of a group, it made sense to talk about shepherds. Throughout the ancient near east, kings and deities are compared to shepherds, and the royal scepter is said to have evolved from the shepherd’s crook.

Jesus reminds us there are many different kinds of shepherds. It wouldn’t have been hard for the hearers of John’s gospel to imagine what Jesus meant in today’s reading when he talked about the hired hand.  From what Jesus say about the hired hand, we can picture this person as a quasi-leader who sort of acts like he or she cares for the flock, but then as soon as things get serious, it becomes clear that leader was actually only in it for the money!   This is the kind of leader who doesn’t have any sense of care or common belonging with the flock but leaves the flock to be hurt by the forces of evil and death. That kind of leadership isn’t hard to imagine because we’ve experienced it.  Sometimes, it is harder to imagine what it would look like for world leaders, or people in positions of authority, to be good, wholesome, ethical people who truly care about and for all people. So, the gospel of John provides us this image of the model shepherd:

• Someone who would risk personal harm for the sake of the group’s well-being.
• Someone who belongs to the flock, and the flock belong to him or her.
• Someone who loves and takes care of the sheep.
• Someone who notices the other sheep also, and is always gathering the “others” in.

Friends, good shepherds are good not because they have some special skills that the hired hand doesn’t, but because of relationship. The reason good shepherds don’t sell out is because they are connected by this deep mutual knowledge, creature to creature, that each one’s life only makes sense when we’re all safe.

As we continue to think about this earth, care of the earth, and Jesus saying that he is the Good Shepherd, make no mistake; God is not only the good shepherd of human earth-creatures. God is also shepherd of literal sheep and all living creatures, including the earth itself!  God is shepherd of the mountain goats, and of the snails, bats, and lizards, and God is shepherd of the green pastures, and of the still waters and all their insects, and of the ice caps and the atmosphere. That is the way that God relates to each created thing in the cosmos, with deep knowledge of our wild creatureliness, with deep care for our well-being, and no creature is left out of that care.

Throughout the Easter season, we continue to learn more each day about what it means to trust in God’s abundant new life. Proclaiming that abundant Easter new life is not easy. It’s not simply idealism. It doesn’t mean pretending that the forces of the cross and grave aren’t as real and harsh as we know they still are. Instead, it is a fierce clinging to God’s promise. Proclaiming Easter means insisting week after week that God’s future will not be just a far-off dream, God’s love will not be imprisoned to the realm of word or speech, but God’s future and God’s love will be made real in truth and action.

In an era of scarred landscapes and lead-poisoned water, Easter is green pastures and still waters that feed the body and soul. In the midst of malignant individualism and the far too often violent enforcement of the status quo, Easter is pointing to restoration, mercy, and the way of good things. And, when it becomes difficult to imagine that we might ever emerge alive from the depths of shadow and despair, God shows us a future – not without valleys or wolves – but a future in which we are not alone and never abandoned by the one who is good.

God teaches us that we are beloved, cherished, and invited to God’s cosmic party table overflowing with food and drink for all. When we come to that table, that cosmic table, we begin to notice that we’re not alone anymore, but part of a much bigger flock that stretches out beyond borders and across species to the whole of creation.  God cares for all of creation!  And, that should invite us to work diligently for the care of creation and restoration of creation in all that we do. The Easter message tells us that no longer is abundant life obscured. Now we can perceive clearly the one who is leading us always towards our home, which is abundant, restored life. Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

It seems to me that over the past few years we have faced more than our share of shocking, explosive events.  And, as we again have just seen yet another murder, by a police officer, of an African American man, I simply pray that we take a good look at ourselves as people and address our own issues which are multiple.  Almost all the shocking events that take place in our country are rooted in racism which is truly America’s original sin, and we must face this and work for change.  Shocking, explosive events often bring about change, change to both people and communities, and hopefully they bring about the kind of change that makes for better communities and societies.  Hopefully, we can be the kind of people that work for the kind of transformational, healing change that needs to take place. 

As we continue to celebrate Easter, we gather because of a shocking, explosive event that changed the world, the resurrection of Christ.  In today’s readings we hear about shocking, explosive events.  In our reading from Acts, a shocking event has drawn the people to the temple, a shocking event that centered around healing.  A crippled beggar who was a constant presence at the temple’s Beautiful Gate had been dramatically and unexpectedly healed in the name of Jesus.  In response to this event, an astonished and puzzled throng of Israelite people pack into the area of the temple known as Solomon’s Portico, pressing around Peter and John, the men who seemed to be the source of the miracle.  So, Peter takes this opportunity to give a short sermon about Jesus.  Peter says, “You’ve got it wrong.  Do you really think that it was our power, our clever wisdom that healed this man?  This is not about us.  This is about God.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the one true healer.”  Peter tells them it was Jesus’ name itself that healed the lame man.  And guess what?   The people do not understand.  Then Peter proceeds to tell them that their public rejection of Jesus before Pilate was the reason Jesus was killed.  Peter is very candid and asks the people to take a close look at themselves.  Peter bluntly declares Jesus was killed because they had rejected him.  And then, after saying this, Peter does something astonishing, I would even say shocking.  Peter communicates the good news of the life-giving grace of God as he lets the Israelites off the hook and says God was in charge all along.  He goes on to bear witness to the Risen Christ.  He bears witness to an Easter world where “the healing and forgiving power of God is as pervasive and present as sunshine and rain.” (Feasting on the Word, p. 410)

Peter bears a powerful witness to the Risen Christ because he, himself, had experienced an astonishing, explosive event, the healing and forgiving power of God’s life-giving, gracious presence.  He, himself, had experienced the major, disruptive, life-changing grace of God when Jesus had let him off the hook. Peter himself had been eastered, as Walter Brueggemann would describe it.  Remember, Peter was the one who had denied Jesus three times and then deserted him during the crucifixion.  And, in today’s gospel reading from Luke, we are told that after the resurrection, Peter and the other disciples lived in fear behind closed doors, afraid that the authorities would come after them.  There had been some strange reports of “Jesus sightings” by the women and those two disciples who had journeyed to Emmaus, but the rest of them still had trouble believing what they had been told.  As we heard last week, they gathered in Jerusalem and remained behind locked doors, immersed in fear while experiencing a gamut of emotions.  They undoubtedly felt guilt, doubt, anxiety, suspicion, distrust, and maybe even terror.  Their leader was dead and his bloody and wounded body was missing!  Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Jesus had appeared in their midst saying, “Peace be with you.”  And, even then, they simply could not believe.  The writer of Luke’s gospel says, “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering….!” 

Well, it had taken more than a simple appearance by Jesus to convince Peter and the other disciples that Jesus was truly alive.  This news was so shocking and explosive they simply could not absorb what had happened.  They had wondered if they were seeing a ghost, so Jesus did something truly astonishing.  Jesus asked them if they had anything to eat.  The writer of Luke seems intent upon making it very clear that the raised Jesus is truly a bodily Jesus.  They offered him a piece of broiled fish and he ate it!  Now, a supposed ghost does not eat food.  Then, the disciples finally realized that this post-resurrection Jesus indeed was flesh and blood and bones!!   This astonishing, explosive event really eastered the disciples, and they were forever changed!

After eating, Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to further understand the scriptures and then commissioned them to proclaim the good news of repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all the nations.  Jesus then told them, “You are witnesses of these things!” 

Through these experiences of the forgiveness and grace shown to them by the risen Lord Jesus, Peter and the others finally believed and understood.  They had been eastered!  Jesus had opened their minds and hearts and, in doing so, set them free from their fear and all that held them captive.   And, released from his fear, Peter began to bear witness to the Risen Christ.  He began to bear witness to the Risen Lord and, as we heard in our reading from Acts, he communicated the same forgiveness and grace that Jesus had given him.  He communicated the grace of the Risen Jesus and people began living into an Easter world.  The people were eastered!

So, I ask you today, what holds you back from bearing such witness?  Is it fear, or guilt, or anger, or a sense of not feeling adequate?  What imprisons you in a locked room?  Have you seen and experienced the Risen Christ in our midst? The Risen Christ is present to each one of us and is saying, “Peace be with you.”  And, God invites each one of us to live into an Easter world, just as he did Peter.  God invites us to be witnesses to all that God is about – God’s intention to bring peace, unity, harmony, love, compassion, grace, justice, and mercy to a world that is so broken and sinful.  Today, I ask that each of us think about what our communal response to Christ’s presence in our lives looks like, both here in this community, and also in the greater world?  Just as Jesus commissioned the disciples, Jesus commissions us to declare the presence and power of God in the depth of not only our brokenness but also the world’s brokenness. 

Christ makes God’s own self known to us in ways that are large and small.  The good news to us is astonishing!  God, in the risen Christ, has defeated death and we do not need to live in fear!  This is explosive, life-giving news!  And, as people of faith, we are each called to bear witness to the Risen Christ.  We are called to be witnesses to Christ’s presence among us, not only through the words we speak, but also through our deeds, through the actions we take and the way we live in relationship to all others, to those who are different from us, to those whose ethnicity is different from ours, to our African American sisters and brothers, to immigrants who come simply seeking safety. To be a witness to the risen Christ is to give our whole lives as evidence. Priest and author Henri Nouwen suggests that at the end of each day we ask ourselves these questions: “Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love?” “These are the real questions,” Fr. Nouwen writes. “I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.”

Friends, we have been eastered!  We are called to be Easter people.  Our faith demands nothing less.  Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

I love the questions our youth often feel free to ask.  In fact, I wish more adults would feel as free to ask similar questions.  Anyway, on multiple occasions, I have received questions from our young people regarding faith, the life of Jesus, questions about the existence of God, and questions that show they have doubt about many aspects of faith.  I truly encourage these questions because that is how we learn, that is how we grow, and that is how we are taken to new places.  Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, once said, “Live the questions!”  I truly believe that is the best way we learn.  I also believe that as Christians, when we ask questions, we need to be honest about our doubt.  Far too often the church has discouraged doubt.  However, doubt is really a healthy aspect of faith.  In fact, theologian, Paul Tillich, said doubt is a very necessary element of faith.  And, theologian, Frederick Buechner, writes these words about doubt, “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep.  Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith.  They keep it awake and moving.” (Wishful Thinking)    In other words, doubt is not only an element of faith, doubt becomes the process through which faith grows and faith is deepened.  Vibrant, living faith is nurtured and born in the mix of a rich environment where we have the freedom to ask questions, voice our doubts, articulate our wonderings about this person we call Jesus, and let go of old even elementary images of God.  For all of us, there is a real need for our old understandings of Jesus and our old understanding of faith to die.  Our old understandings need to be eaten away by doubts so that a new and deeper faith may be born. 

In today’s gospel reading, questions and doubt come to the forefront in the story of Thomas.  However, the truth is that all the disciples were questioning and experiencing doubt.  It is the day of the resurrection and here we find the disciples sitting in a room behind locked doors because of fear, doubt, and quite likely more than a little shame.  They have blown it completely, they are hiding in fear, and they are doubting everything their master had said.  And, what is so fascinating is that, in the gospel of John, when Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection, nobody, not one person, initially recognizes him.  Notice in the beginning of today’s reading, the disciples do not recognize him until Jesus shows them his hands and side.  They doubted him!  They doubted it was Jesus!  It is only after Jesus shows them his hands and side that the disciples rejoice because they have seen the Lord.  While the other disciples also doubt, for some strange reason, only Thomas gets labeled “doubter.” 

Far too often we judge Thomas because of his doubt.  We need to cut him some slack and give him a break.  In Thomas we find the yearning of one who desperately wants to see with his eyes and touch with his hands that of which he has been told.  He has real questions, real concerns, and a desire for a real encounter with the risen Lord.  I think the story of Thomas captures our hearts and minds because we, too, were absent to the Resurrection experience two thousand years ago.  When faced with the mystery of the Resurrection, the story of Thomas names that part in each of us that wants to scream out, “Show me!”

Thomas has just had a very harsh encounter with reality.  Reality had hit hard in the form of a cross when his dear friend had been crucified.  And, when he fled that horrible scene, not only had Jesus died, Thomas’ hopes and dreams had also died.  Jesus’ crucifixion had destroyed his hopes for the future and very poignantly reminded him that there is an end.  And, it is the same for us.  When the harsh realities of life hit us – whether it be the death of a family member, the loss of a job, an unexpected illness, a broken relationship, aspects of this pandemic, or whatever – reality deeply cuts into our hopes, our dreams, the very fabric of our relationships, and we are reminded that there is an end.  There is an end over which we have no control as we feel we have been taken captive by an extremely cruel conqueror. 

The reality that sliced into Thomas’s hopes and dreams left him emotionally bleeding and broken.  As he again joins the community of disciples, within the context of those who proclaim Jesus is alive, Thomas lays bare his doubt.  He is very honest about his doubt as he says, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  In the depth of his despair Thomas articulates his doubt, and it is in that place where he is now confronted with the risen Christ.  It is in that place of despair that Thomas is greeted by the risen Lord whose presence exudes forgiveness and grace as he hears the words, “Peace be with you.”  In that moment, Thomas knows he is in the presence of God and he believes. 

Theologian, David Lose, describes the experience of Thomas in this way:

When Thomas is greeted by the forgiveness and grace embodied in the words, “Peace be with you,” he instantly believes and makes the great confession of John’s gospel: “My Lord and my God!”  In a heartbeat Thomas knows that he is in the presence of God, has been saved and redeemed by that God, and that he will never be the same again. 

Thomas lays bare his doubt which takes him to this encounter with the grace of God, embodied and enfleshed in the risen Lord Jesus.  Doubt drives him to question and it takes him to this place where he is encountered by the risen Lord and his entire reality is changed.  Wow!!  Did you get that?  Reality itself has changed.  The despairing Thomas does not escape from the real world and there is not a break from the tangible reality of the world.  No.  But, there is something very different, something very, very new.  God’s grace and God’s kingdom have invaded the real world, transformed it and nothing will ever be the same again. 

I think Thomas experiences Easter in the way many of us begin to experience it.  Thomas finally gets Easter when he brings forth his questions. He wants to see and touch. He wants tangible proof and needs his own encounter before he can trust the story.  It is doubt that compels Thomas to ask the questions and it is doubt that takes him to the place where he is looking for what is really real and what truly matters.  You see, without doubt, our faith is shallow and rootless.  We fail to go down deep.  Doubt is a sign of a healthy and deep-rooted faith, though most of us are taught to believe the opposite. And, when doubt takes us to the deeper places in faith our reality changes.  We are transformed and our perspective on all of life changes as we live into a new reality.

This is what Easter is all about and what Easter means for each one of us.  This new reality is a way of life, expressed as we come together to worship and be fed by the very life of the Risen Christ.  We participate in the work of our risen Lord and live into this new reality as we see the hungry in this world and work for change, whether it is by distributing bags of food to Okemos families so they can have an Easter dinner, by filling our micro pantries, or working with the refugees who are living in the Parish House as we help to provide for them a life of hope.  We live this new reality when we intentionally work to end extreme poverty, racism, and work to bring healing and wholeness to the environment and the profound brokenness in this world God so deeply loves.

As the community of faith gathers and we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, voice our doubts and ask our questions, Jesus does appear.  The community of faith is not the place where we have and know all the answers.  It is a place where a searching faith can develop and become authentic and alive.  Such an environment creates the space for an authentic encounter with God as the risen Christ appears.  The story of Thomas, his questions and his doubt, is one of the most compelling, believable, realistic stories in the Bible because it is our story.  Doubt and the questions that arise are the very heartbeat of our faith!   And, the risen Christ is always breaking into our doubt and our questions and working to make us new.  Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

I am sure some of you remember the closing theme song on the PBS show, Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, hosted by puppeteer, Shari Lewis.  It was called “The Song That Never Ends.” Here are the words: “This is a song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend….”  At the end of each episode, the puppets and children would sing several continual verses as the song just keeps repeating and repeating in a loop, while Shari Lewis would try in vain to get them to stop singing.  It really is one of those songs that just kept playing over and over inside your head.  The Song That Never Ends.  Well, today we come to celebrate another song that never ends…the song of joy and of hope, the song of the resurrected Lord.  And, this is a song that keeps repeating in our very being, in our individual lives, and among the body of Christ for the rest of our lives. 

The beginning of the end in Mark’s gospel is very much like the other gospels.  It is early on Sunday morning and the women are headed to the tomb while it is still dark.  In their grief, they are carrying spices to embalm Jesus’ body because they had not been able to do this when he was wrapped in linen and placed in the tomb. On that horrible Friday afternoon of Jesus’ death, the Sabbath was about to begin, and even anointing a body was forbidden work on the Sabbath.  So, the women arrive at the tomb and they are astonished when they discover the massive stone that had blocked the entrance has already been rolled away.  And, equally alarming to them, is the stranger they find in the tomb, a man dressed in white, who tells them, “Do not be afraid.  Jesus, who was crucified, has been raised.  He is not here.  Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee…just as he told you.”  Well, if the trauma and horror of the past days had not been enough, this stranger now tells them to not be afraid and go back and tell the others Jesus has been raised and will meet them in Galilee!  And, it is here where Mark’s gospel, which by the way was the first gospel to be written, is very different from the other gospels.  Mark’s last words to us are, “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.” 

That’s it folks!  That is all we get!  That is all Mark gives us. In fact, the risen Jesus never actually makes an appearance in Mark’s gospel.  We have a resurrection scene without Jesus that seemingly ends in failure. The women not only fail miserably as they leave in terror, they also say absolutely nothing to anyone!   This is quite a cliffhanger to say the least! 

Now, it is true that most of you will find in your Bibles a few additional verses to Mark’s gospel.  However, those additional verses were added a few hundred years later by monks who found Mark’s ending so unsettling and unfinished they had to “fix it.”  Yet, the stark reality and truth we face on this Easter morning is that Mark’s gospel, the first gospel written, concludes by deliberately not concluding!  Theologian, Tom Long, describes this unfinished-ness so well when he says the writer of Mark’s gospel finishes the story of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “by dangling something incomplete and unsatisfying before the reader in the final verse….. Not only does this verse fail to provide proper narrative closure, it also lurches to an awkward grammatical stop because a more literal translation of the Greek would actually read, ‘To no one anything they said; afraid they were for...’  That’s it, folks!  It is almost as if the author of Mark had suddenly been dragged from his writing desk in midsentence.” Mark’s gospel story ends very abruptly, unfinished, and the risen Jesus never appears.

So, why would Mark end his telling of the Jesus story in this manner?  What gives?  What is going on?  Well, Mark was not only a good storyteller, he knew exactly what he was doing.  If we look at the opening verse in Mark’s gospel, Mark 1:1, we find these words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  The entire gospel of Mark is only the beginning of the story.  Mark uses a cliffhanger to invite us into the story.  Mark’s gospel really ends unfinished because the gospel story is always beginning again, anew for every person, in every time and place.  This open-ended gospel that threatens to end in failure places us where the women left off.  We are invited into the story to go and tell the good news that this person, Jesus of Nazareth, has been raised and is going ahead of us to meet us, just as he promised.  And, did you notice where Jesus is going?  The man in white tells the women Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee!  That is where they will meet him.  Galilee was home, the place where Jesus and the disciples were from, the place where they lived their ordinary day to day lives.  This is significant because, as we hear this story, we are told Jesus will meet us in the ordinary places of life, those places where we spend our day to day lives. 

Joan Mitchell, in her book Beyond Fear and Silence, suggests the three women who left that tomb in terror and silence in Mark’s narrative, bring each of us, the readers and hearers, to our own thresholds of faith, to the limit of words to speak the unspeakable….and to the limit of human experience to trust Who or What is beyond death….the narrative still calls the disciples of each new generation to speak for themselves, and bring the gospel into dialogue with our very lives. (p. 115)

Yes, we are called to bring the gospel Good News into dialogue with our own lives.  That dialogue happens in the depth of human pain and suffering as we discover the crucified, risen Christ is present to us.  That dialogue happens when we find ourselves in the depths of failure, when we fail miserably and discover the crucified, risen Christ is present to us.  That dialogue happens in the depth of the pain of this horrible pandemic, as we have discovered the crucified, risen Christ is present to us!  In the depth of such pain and despair, in the messiness of our own lives, in those places and times when we just do not know what to do, when we have no words to describe the pain, and when we do not know how to go on, we meet the crucified, risen Christ and we discover hope.  Today’s gospel tells us that we meet real hope that is rooted in the love of a very real God who walks with us and meets us in the depth of all the messiness, all the mixed-up-ness, all the joys, all the sorrows and the real “stuff” of our everyday lives.  And, the song of the crucified, risen Christ becomes our song because that unending pattern of dying and rising is the story of our lives.

We live in a world where we like closure and happy endings.  When we read books and see movies, we want closure and happy endings. However, when we finish reading a book with a happy ending, we put it down and simply say, “Great story!”  The gospel of Mark, with its unfinished ending, is very different because you cannot put it down, even if you want to.  The gospel good news is the never-ending story, the never-ending song!  The crucified, risen Christ walks with us as the Jesus story continues to be written in our own lives, and as we joyfully sing out the victorious song that never ends!  Today, we celebrate the hope we have been given as a community of Faith, hope rooted in the love of the risen, universal Christ who lives among us!  We celebrate the hope of the never-ending story, the song that never ends, the song of the risen Christ who is always, always, always bringing life out of death.  We celebrate the hope of the risen Christ who goes before us and is drawing us into a new future, making us ever new!  Christ is risen!  He

Over the past year, due to this pandemic, many of us have had to face situations where we have been forced to move beyond our comfort zones.  Moving to online worship is an example of how we have been forced to go to a place that was initially beyond our comfort zone.  It took us a while to adjust to this new reality. Wearing masks, maintaining physical distance from others, and following public health guidelines have also forced people to move way beyond their comfort zones.  I find it is fascinating to watch people’s actions and behavior when forced to move beyond their comfort zones.  Quite honestly, when people are forced to do this because of circumstances, they often react adversely. We have seen this in extreme examples over the past year.  When we step outside of our comfort zone, it always tends to produce added stress and anxiety.  And, when this happens, people react – often unpleasantly.  So, the gospel reading on this night is captivating because we see the disciples having to move way beyond their comfort zones.

In biblical times, the washing of feet was a non-religious, ordinary part of everyday life. It was as ordinary as brushing your teeth or washing your hands before a meal. It was a secular practice that routinely took place after entering a dwelling, especially if you would be sitting down and preparing to eat a meal.  After all, peoples’ feet would get very dirty from all of that walking in those sandals on dusty roads. Furthermore, this foot washing was always done by the lowliest of servants.  So, when Jesus gets up from the table and begins washing the disciples’ feet, his action is truly shocking. In fact, it is disgraceful and scandalous, and it moves the disciples to a place of real unease.  It moves them beyond their comfort zones.

Reactive Peter, always the outspoken one, always a work in progress, knows that servants wash the feet of their master.  Masters do not wash the feet of their servants. This is just NOT how the world works.  So, certainly Jesus, the one they see as the Messiah, should not be the one touching their feet!  Peter’s world is structured by domination, power, hierarchy, and tradition. Foot washing revealed the societal pecking order. It was usually done by slaves, children, and women, those who had no standing in society. The lower class washed the upper class. Now, I have to say, our world is not so different from Peter’s. Those who have power, wealth, intelligence, beauty, and position are the ones who are washed, they make sure they get the best of everything and hire others to do the menial work. Those who don’t have power, wealth, intelligence, beauty and position – well, they are the washers.

But this night is different, this foot washing is different. Once again Jesus is breaking the rules and the social order is being realigned as Jesus forces the disciples to move beyond their comfort zones.  In the middle of supper Jesus gets up from the table, removes his outer robe, ties a towel around himself, pours water into a basin, and he begins to wash the disciples’ feet. With this action, the boundaries that establish status and power are reversed, and all human images of protective barriers that provide security are removed. And what is the result? Turmoil fills the room.  Peter is alarmed.  His world is being changed.  This is truly uncomfortable.  Peter does not like it and he does not understand it.  

As we ponder Peter’s reaction, I ask you to think about this past year, about how your world has changed and how you have felt threatened by that change. Think about the last time some circumstance forced you to move beyond your comfort zone.  Even when it’s for our own good we often resist, get angry, or fight back. At a minimum, we grumble under our breath or vent to a trusted friend. So, Peter responds saying, “You will never wash my feet!  I am hanging on to what I know, to what I have. I don’t want you messing with my world. This is just not right and definitely not comfortable.” Today in the church we might respond, “We’ve never done it like this before and we’re just not really interested in starting now.”

Jesus is always setting before us one example after another of what God’s life in the world looks like.  Friends, God’s life in this world is always going to shake us up and move us to places that quite frequently seem uncomfortable and downright risky.  For Peter, Jesus’ action looks like nothing he has ever seen or done before.  As he reacts, I wonder if he might be pondering, “If this is how the Messiah acts, what will be expected of the Messiah’s disciples? Whose feet might I be asked to wash for the love of Christ?”

Well, as Peter objects and wonders, he hears Jesus say, “You also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master.” Jesus is essentially saying:

Peter, do not resist the freeing power of divine love through which I am calling you into a new dimension of what it means to be truly human. Here status needs are not relevant. Those rules apply only in the world of consistent human yearning, the world of human becoming.  I am a doorway for you into being itself.  Come through me and you will become more fully human.  I am inviting you into an experience that will make you whole.  If I do not wash your feet, you cannot be part of the God I am revealing and of the humanity I am offering.  (John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic)

In the gospel of John, Jesus is always calling us into a new way of being, new life that matters. And, tonight, we see Jesus sets before the disciples and before us an example of love, servant love. That is the kind of love he has lived and that is the kind of love he calls us to live.  By doing this, Jesus has washed away the old ways of domination and hierarchy. He has replaced those old ways with something new, communion and love. There are no feet excluded from God’s love, and God’s very self is defined as love. There are no feet unworthy of being washed. Even Judas’s feet were washed.  And, the unconditional love of Jesus always means moving beyond our comfort zone and going to the places where Jesus goes.

Think of all the feet that pass through our lives in a day, a month, a year, a lifetime. What have we done with those feet? What will we do with them? Maybe we ignore them. Maybe we have stepped on them. Maybe we have received them into our lives and maybe we have not.  So many feet. Young, old, tired, lost, angry, hurt. There are all sorts of feet. Feet that have walked through the muck of life. Feet that have trespassed into places they shouldn’t have gone. Feet that have stood on holy ground. Feet that have carried the message of good news. Feet that dance to a different beat or walk a path different from ours.

Those are the very feet Jesus washed. They are the feet of the world. They are the ones he commands us to wash.  And, guess what?  They are no different from our own feet. We too have walked through the muck of life. Our feet have trespassed into places they shouldn’t have gone. Our feet have stood on holy ground. Our feet have carried the message of good news. Our feet have sometimes walked a unique, if not strange, path.

Well, still feeling the discomfort of this situation, Peter hears Jesus then say, “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.”

Jesus, through his action of washing the disciples’ feet, has just taken on the role of the servant.  He is showing the disciples that love means serving others, all others!  The love he has for them also means providing routine physical, even intimate care for others.  Jesus subverts the religious expectations of the moment by turning this non-religious deed into an act of humility, service, and love. And, he moves his disciples way beyond their comfort zones.  Yes, that is where love will always take us. That is what love does because love always takes us to the cross.

Tonight, Jesus comes to each one of us and, through his very humble deed, shows us and teaches us what love is all about.  The self-giving love of Jesus connects us to the very source of love, God’s very self.  It is a love we will see lifted high on a cross. And, it is that self-giving, healing love that empowers us to move beyond our comfort zones as we share God’s love for the sake of a very broken world. 

If you missed the Palm Sunday service, you can listen to the entire service! 

Many of you know that I am a huge proponent of systems thinking.  I truly believe understanding systems and the way they function is vital if we are going to understand the many processes that take place within any organization or community of people, whether it is within society, within the church, within our families and even within our very selves.  Systems thinking is the process of understanding how the actions of various people or entities within systems, influence other components and affect the whole.  Systems thinking can be applied to many facets of life.  Our families are considered systems, government is a system, politics is a system, education is a system, healthcare is a system, we have a financial system that drives the way we live, religion often becomes a system, and faith communities function as a system.  The way we use power and authority can become a system.  Unfortunately, such authority often turns into a system of domination where power is leveraged over others in a very unhealthy manner.  The list of types of systems goes on and on….   Each system is often made up of multiple smaller systems composed of inter-connected parts.  And, the connections within a system cause behavior of one part to affect all others.  Every day, each one of us is a player in multiple systems as we navigate our waking hours.  Some systems can be very helpful, while others can be very harmful.  One thing we soon discover about systems is that they are created to be self-perpetuating.  Consequently, it becomes very difficult to break a system, to change systemic functions, or break free from a system.  And, today, in John’s gospel, we are going to learn about a system.

As we begin the last two weeks of our Lenten journey with another reading from the gospel of John, we discover our focus is increasingly directed toward Jesus’ crucifixion and the work of the cross.  The writer of John’s gospel has a large and very dramatic understanding of the work of the cross, an understanding in which the cross becomes the hour in which the Son of Man will be glorified.  This “hour” represents the completion and fulfillment of Jesus’ mission.  And, in today’s reading, John tells us that Jesus’ crucifixion judges “the world” and drives out the “ruler of the world.”

Last week, the Greek word translated as world referred to the cosmos, to all of creation.  However, this week, the Greek word translated as world is not synonymous with God’s creation.  Instead, it is a Greek word describing the fallen realm that exists in estrangement from God and is organized in opposition to God’s purposes, in opposition to God’s dream for this world.  The word world in today’s reading from John, would better be described as a superhuman reality, a reality concretely embodied in structures, institutions, and systems that aggressively shapes human life and holds human beings captive.  Today, the word we see translated as world would better be translated as “the System” with a capital S, the system of sin.  And, in the gospel of John, this System of sin is driven by a spirit or force, “the ruler of the world,” whose ways are violence, domination and death. In fact, theologian, Charles Campbell suggests that in today’s reading, “the crucifixion could be interpreted as an exorcism in which the System is judged, and its driving force (‘ruler’) is ‘cast out’ by means of the cross.”  The cross of Jesus shatters the System of sin. (Feasting on the Word Year B, Volume 2)

On Sunday mornings when we speak the words of Confession and Forgiveness, we frequently say, “We are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.”  Those words describe our captivity to systems through which we are taken down the path of death rather than life.  In our culture, many systems hold us captive.  We are held captive to the system of consumerism as we consume and consume, all the while knowing that our consumption is killing others around the world, others who work in sweat shops so they can feed our insatiable appetites.  We are held captive by hierarchies of winners and losers, systems that shape our behavior and thinking from birth to death.  We are held captive to structures and systems that perpetuate racism, something we are presently seeing as crimes against Asian Americans are on the rise.  We are held captive to structures and systems that perpetuate misogyny, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, xenophobia, nationalism, and downright hatred.  Just note the murders in Atlanta this past week. We are held captive by myths that shape our thinking and culture, myths that promote what some call “redemptive violence.”  In fact, theologian Walter Wink has suggested that “redemptive violence” is the primary myth of the System as we try to bring order out of chaos through violently defeating any we consider “the other.”  This myth is everywhere in culture – in video games, in movies, in the rhetoric I hear spoken among people, in our response to any kind of threat, in our response to any who are unlike us!

Yes, we are held captive to systems, especially the System of sin that becomes a system of domination within our very selves.  And, Jesus, throughout his ministry and journey to the cross, enacted freedom from systems and systemic myths by refusing to respond to the domination and violence of the System.  Theologian, Marcus Borg, in his book The God We Never Knew, wrote: “The point is not that Jesus was a good guy who accepted everybody, and thus we should do the same (though that would be good). Rather, his teachings and behavior reflect an alternative social vision. Jesus was not talking about how to be good and how to behave within the framework of a domination system. He was a critic of the domination system itself.”  In fact, Jesus’ freedom from systems of domination and his rejection of violence is what distinguishes his way from the way of the System of sin.

In the gospel of John, Jesus’ death is not a matter of sadness.  The cross is the purpose of his entire life, it is his mission, and his entire ministry is driven by this mission.  And, that cross stands before us as a mirror, as Jesus exposes the System for what it is.  As we look to the cross, we begin to see ourselves for who we are and the world, the System with a big S, for what it really is, the way of death.  It is then that we can begin to find ourselves liberated and set free from the System’s captivating ways.  As we look to the cross, we are set free to die to a life that has been shaped by the System so that we can live fully into the way of Jesus, the way of eternal life, the way of life that truly matters.  And, as Jesus sets us free, the new covenant that Jeremiah describes is truly written in our hearts as God’s love transforms our hearts and our entire being.

Today, John’s gospel tells us Jesus’ hour has finally come.  The writer of John’s gospel tells us Jesus has finally come to the cross, the purpose and mission of his life.  And, as we continue to journey with Jesus to that cross, death is something we do not want to face.  In fact, death is something we fear and do not even want to talk about.  However, God is taking us to the cross, taking us to the purpose for which Jesus came.  God is taking us to the cross, so we can see the act of ultimate love for all of human existence.  It is in the cross that we discover the source of love that truly sets us free.  It is the cross and the love of Christ that is shown in the cross that sets us free from the System of sin that imprisons us.  And, it is in the cross where we discover that this love of the Crucified One is drawing all of humanity to God’s very self.

As we come to the middle of March, I am loving the smell and feel of spring in the air and the increasing sunlight with which we are gifted each passing day.  But, I am so tired of this pandemic experience, and my entire being is hungry.  This is not a hunger for food.  It is a deep hunger within my very spirit. My entire being is increasingly hungry and yearning for life-giving, in-person relationships with people, with all of you, for in-person relationships with the community of the body of Christ.  And, I am especially hungry for those in-person times I relish with our kids and grandkids.  I know the time is coming closer when this will again happen, but the hunger for those special moments is just gnawing away within me. 

The context for today’s gospel reading is the story of Nicodemus, a man who comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, and he is hungry.  He comes to Jesus during the night, and he has a deep spiritual hunger that is gnawing away at him.  He has a hunger deep within, a hunger he cannot fully identify. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, so he comes during the night when he will not be seen.  Yet, he comes wanting to find out more about this person called Jesus and what he is teaching. 

Spiritually hungry Nicodemus does not understand the things Jesus tells him, so Jesus turns to a strange Old Testament story to make his point.  By the way, this old story would have been very familiar to Nicodemus, good Pharisee that he was.  Jesus reminds him of the Israelites who, during their forty-year wilderness wanderings, had sinned.  You see, after wandering in the wilderness for so long, after they also had at times experienced hunger, their seemingly endless journey was leading to considerable dissension within the community. In fact, dissension began growing in the ranks and the “Let’s Go Back to Egypt Committee” got wound up yet once again. (You know, that is like the “But We Have Always Done It That Way Committee” you tend to find in most churches!)  Anyway, the Israelites grumbled about Moses and grumbled about God, and they faced punishment. In part, the punishment was being bitten by deadly snakes.  So, the Israelites then cried out to God for deliverance and God used the strangest thing to save them.  Moses formed a bronze serpent, mounted it on a pole, and hoisted it upward.  And, when the Israelites looked at it, they were healed; they were saved from death that was the result of poisonous snakebites.  Strange as it seems to us, the Israelites were instructed to look upon this bizarre symbol of redemption to be relieved of the suffering they had brought upon themselves by their rebellion against God. 

Anyway, as Jesus talks with Nicodemus, he connects this strange story to himself.  He draws an analogy between the “lifting up” of the Son of Man and Moses “lifting up” the bronze serpent in the wilderness.  Jesus says that, in like manner, the Son of Man must be “lifted up” so that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  And, as he attempts to feed the gnawing hunger within the heart of Nicodemus, Jesus speaks words that have become one of the best-known, best-loved verses in all of scripture – John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” 

“For God so loved the world….”   For God so loved the world?  When I think of the world, I see a small planet in the vastness of space.  And, this insignificant, miniscule dot of a planet that is our world is so deeply, tragically broken.  On this planet, millions of people have died and are dying from this pandemic.  Racism plagues the fabric of our society and is present in every institutional structure.  White supremacy groups, hate groups, and militias are growing and becoming more prevalent and destructive in our culture. The spread of domestic terrorism and the evil horrific acts these groups commit create increasing fear and reactivity in this country.  In the developing world, more children are dying of diarrhea and infectious diseases than die of malaria and HIV/Aids combined.  One in five children around the world do not have access to life saving vaccines and they consequently die.  In sub-Saharan Africa, 7 out of 10 people lack access to electricity, the key factor that imprisons them in extreme poverty.  Economic injustice is growing, here and abroad.  And, what human beings have done to bring destruction to this planet we call home is mind boggling and sinful. Yes, the world is so very, very hungry!  Yet, God so loved the world?

Yes.  God so loves this world!  And, in the gospel of John the word for “world” refers to the cosmos – to everything!  God so loves everything – the entire cosmos, the entire creation, this little, insignificant, miniscule planet that is hardly a speck in the vastness of space, all the people, the land and the oceans, the animals, the bugs, the world’s goodness, and its evil.  In the person of Jesus, God embraces it all and takes it into God’s very self, even the profound brokenness of this world.  The gospel of John tells us God so loves the entire creation so much that the entire creation can find its home in God.  Yes, God so loves the world with an immense, redeeming love.  This is a love that disturbs us, gnaws at our hearts, creates within us a hunger for God, unsettles us, grasps us, and draws us into the very arms of God’s love where we become forever changed and transformed.  And, once we have been grasped by this love, we find it is a love that will never ever let us go.  When that happens, we discover that our true home, the home of all creation, is truly in God.  Yes, God so loves the world, and it is in turning one’s face toward Jesus and looking to that cross where we finally find the love and grace that fills the gnawing hunger in our hearts.  There we discover the beloved One whom God gave to the world out of love for the cosmos.   There we begin to know the breadth and depth of God’s redeeming love for God’s people.  There we find the One who takes into God’s very self not only all of the wonder, goodness and beauty of creation but also all of the brokenness and pain of this world.  That is the way of Jesus, that is the message of the cross, and it is God’s redeeming love that changes us and causes us to then respond to the needs of the world.  When God’s redeeming love fills our hungry souls, we are then compelled to work for peace, equity, reconciliation, and justice in this broken world. 

In the early days of Jesus’ ministry, Nicodemus came by night and had a gnawing hunger within himself.  He came to Jesus, seeking to fill a hunger he did not really understand.  Nicodemus was invited into the way of Jesus, into eternal life which means life that truly matters lived in the present of our daily lives.  He was invited into the love God has for the world, and he did not initially understand what Jesus was saying.  However, it is likely he grew in understanding and was transformed because, when we get to the end of John’s gospel, we find out Nicodemus did not abandon Jesus.  It was Nicodemus along with Joseph of Arimathea, who cared for Jesus’ body after the crucifixion.  I have to think he was captured by the love God has for this world and he finally understood what Jesus had tried to tell him three years earlier.

 As we gather online this morning, and as together we share the bread and wine, we receive the very life of God that will fill the gnawing hunger we feel within our hearts.  In Jesus, the one who died on the cross, God has shown us the greatest love the world has ever seen.  And, every time we gather and feast at God’s table, we are again nourished by the love God has for this entire world, a love that holds each and every one of us and will never ever let us go!