Easter Season - Year A -- 2014
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Easter Year A
Acts 10: 34-43
Psalm 119
John 20: 1-18
Christ is Risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Louder please
Christ is Risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
We are an Easter people.
The best explanation I can find for worshipping on Sunday, instead of Saturday, which is actually the “Sabbath”, is that the earliest Christians gathered to worship on Sunday, the day of resurrection, before they went to work.
We are an Easter people!
We can call ourselves such because we worship a God of light, of hope and of possibility. We are given this basic clue into God’s will and character when we open our Bibles to the beginning verses of Genesis - God said, “Let there be light, and there was light!” Because of God’s character and nature, light is allowed to happen, light becomes normative for creation.
Jesus is recorded as having said, “I am the light of the world”.
The resurrection of Jesus can be seen as the triumph of light over darkness - unless the physics and science I learned in high school has changed, darkness is neither matter nor energy, it is simply the absence of light.
Sometimes, we think that this world is being controlled by darkness but on this Easter Sunday 2014, I would challenge you with this: if it seems that way, that the darkness is running things, it is because of the failure of the light to overcome it, it is not the power of the darkness!
We are a people who proclaim that in the resurrection, God once and for all, showed that light is more powerful than darkness, life more powerful than death.
We must live as children of the light, as people who believe that life wins - that the things that Jesus of Nazareth taught and lived for will be those things that can banish darkness and let the light shine forth into the most hopeless and remotest corners
And once we believe it we must live it with every fibre of our being.
This is not good news from the past, but Good News for the present - and every day’s present!
Christ IS Risen!
Christ IS Risen indeed!
Amen!
Acts 2: 42-47
John 10: 1-10
Today is usually observed as Mothers’ Day, at least according to the secular calendar. For those of you observing that today, have a very happy mothers’ day! May your mother feel loved and appreciated and may those of you who are mothers of young children get a bit of a break from those things they appreciate you for. I hope your “breakfast in bed” did not come with too much of a mess for you to clean up!
The tradition in the church for at least the last 40 years has been to refer to this as Christian Family Sunday.
What is a family? Some would say that it is a mom and dad and 2.35 children (or whatever the average number of children is these days). Some would argue that a family can be headed by a single adult. Some would say that a couple of the same gender can form a family and raise children. Some would say that a family does not even need children, that any group of people living together and loving one another can be a family.
All of this is true, but when we say, “Christian Family Sunday” we do not mean one of those above kinds of families that also have the practice of going to church on Sunday. It is the collection of people who go to church that is the Christian Family. On this Sunday we are not thinking of the family that lives together in the same house, related by blood or adoption; we are talking about all of those who in their desire to follow in the way of Jesus, choose to gather together for worship, fellowship and outreach. In church on this second Sunday of May we gather to celebrate Christian family.
When I baptize a baby, I remind the parents that their child already has a name, Sarah Gayle Marie, was the most recent one, and I, on your behalf, will formally bestow another name: that of Christian. We used to call it Christening, and it meant the same thing: not the bestowing of the given names but was that sacrament of becoming and belonging, a ceremony becoming part of a body of believers who are “in Christ”.
When we look to the New Testament for guidance about the family of the faithful we find the passage read today and we find letters from Paul addressed to communities who had gotten off track and needed some guidance to get back to the way God had called them to be.
You see it was not easy to be Christian family in those early years, just as it is not easy now.
North Americans in the 21st century have taken the concepts of independence and private property to extremes. We put these things under lock and key, buy insurance so we can replace the stuff if something happens to it, some of us live in gated communities where the whole neighbourhood is by invitation only, and we have convinced ourselves that we deserve the stuff we have and we should not be compelled to share it.
One of the primary concepts of Christian stewardship is that we live in a relationship of grace to God and to one another. We are not self-made; we are not solely responsible for our wealth, our health, ot the opportunities that come from the fact that we were born in one of the richest countries in the world, at least in terms of natural resources.
What if, what if, we lived in a world where everyone received what they needed and no one took too much.
That may sound like a pipe dream, but in Christian community we can live out some of that in our day to day, or weekly, activities.
When I was younger I heard the lament from the generation who have now passed on, that “people didn’t visit anymore”. Yes, people have, by and large been freed from the more menial tasks of keeping a household running and have taken that time to do other things, mostly away from the home. Christian community is harder to find, at least on Sunday morning, as parents must decide between sports and church. The expense of raising a family leaves little for charity, especially in this recession we seem to be caught up in.
Yet, in the days of the early church the average person lived from hand to mouth. Many were day labourers and earned only enough for meeting the day’s needs - yet they were able to form communities which saw their lives as interconnected and dependant upon one another. I continue to be amazed that often the most generous are those who have the lest to give; perhaps they are the one who know that they live by grace and must respons in kind.
So on this Christian Family Sunday let us seek to become more and more the community we were called to be. Know that the Spirit will accompany us each step of the way.
Amen!
Acts 7: 55-60
Psalm 31
1 Peter 2: 2-10
John 14: 1-14
I’m not sure this is the place to tell you, or not - but you like a friendly bunch! Stephen was stoned because of a sermon!
Basically Stephen engaged in what we preachers call “theological reflection” and he drew a parallel between his hearers’ own rejection of Jesus and his message and their ancestors’ rejection of the prophets of old. If I were in his audience I don’t think I would have liked the sermon very much either! That’s just the nature of the preaching task when the preacher feels called to be prophetic!
Preachers and prophets don’t fare well in most of the biblical story; or anywhere else, for that matter! The history books are full of the sad tales of those who stuck their necks out to speak truth to power and paid the price.
The early church began in struggle; they struggled against the political powers and they struggled against the synagogues, out of which many of the earliest communities of “Jesus Followers” had emerged. Eventually this struggle became a fight for survival and many new Christians were the losers.
When any struggle becomes a fight for survival people become entrenched in their opinions and when they become entrenched they can come to see nothing but the rightness of their own views and the wrongness of those views held by others. Human nature being what it is, violence seems to often be the next step.
So when Stephen, in the certainty of a new convert, lobbed his criticism at those synagogue leaders, they were seen as “fighting words” and they exploded in violence and anger.
We don’t tend to think that mob violence is a part of our culture, though there are notable exceptions. The most recent one I can recall occurred in Vancouver in 2011 when, fuelled by alcohol and hockey loyalty, drunk and enraged fans went berserk in the aftermath of the loss of the coveted Stanley Cup to Boston in Game SEVEN. People were seriously hurt, over 4 million dollars in damage was done to private and municipal property and police laid many charges.
Generally speaking though, when a fan of one team encounters the fan of another, there is little more than good natured jabbing and people can agree to disagree.
There is nothing sadder though than a church fight. While church people, at least in this country, tend to use words as their weapon, wars are waged over correct beliefs, people are hurt, and the gospel of Jesus is dishonoured because in the midst of such a dispute the very foundations on which the church rests can be forgotten.
The problem for Stephen begins with the certainty with which he lobbed his criticism at those equally certain members of the synagogue who opposed the followers of the way of Jesus. The problem escallated as they responded with an equal or greater amount of certainty, tempers flared and stones were hurled, literally.
It seems to me that the teachings of Jesus, taken as a whole, give us ample reason to guard against this kind of blinding certainty and polarization of the kind that can lead to violence. In the teaching of Jesus we find an alternate vision and calling.
The passage from the gospel, one I often read at funerals, “can” be seen as excluding those who are not Christian, in its claim of Jesus as the only way to the Father. In the beginning of the passage, however, the words of Jesus imply that God’s house has many rooms and ample space for all.
I wonder what would happen if we truly saw the way of Jesus as a way of open mindedness and mutual respect? He was always getting in trouble for welcoming people, not because he shut people out! What is Jesus’s is one of loving, rather than, believing? What if we are being told to get over our differences and learn how to live and work together in love?
Perhaps we don’t need to worry as much about those who follow other paths as we do about the health of the household of Christ to which we belong, and the others with whom we seek to work. That’s a big enough task!
The United Church of Canada is the result of a number of amalgamations of both similar and quite diverse reformed churches. 1925 was not the first Union that brought our denomination into being! There are churches and denominations which are the results of splits and fractures and some have gone through more than they care to count.
Comedian Emo Phillips has taken this tendency to a humorous extreme in the following somewhat “off the wall” dialogue I found on the internet a while back:
“I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!"” "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" He said, "Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said,"Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and then I pushed him off the bridge.(Pause)
We need to develop ways to embrace diversity, rather than seek to drive it out, or belittle it - or the people who hold thoseopinions. Most churches have an “all welcome” sign out front, or in the bulletin, but we all know that this is not always exactly true. We are all old enough to remember the controversy which threatened to destroy our denomination in 1988 - and it was one of inclusion or exclusion of people as much as it was of theology - its almost impossible to separate the two.
In any difference it is all too easy to get on our “high horse” and claim the side of the “right” and say the other is “wrong”, or somehow “misinformed” The problem is that this kind of “reaction” does nothing to further the cause of the Gospel.
I do think that we have a mandate to speak, and speak strongly, when others are being hurt by the actions and speech of those who define the gospel in very different ways but we must do so with grace and in a way that opens, rather than closes, dialogue.
As Stephen lay there dying from the wrath of the angry mob, we are told that the keeper of the coats was a young man named Saul. We know that he later this young man would came to know and believe in the Risen One and would himself eventually die for his faith. Whata did he learn from this event? There is a big difference though between being willing to die for something one believes in and being prepared to kill for it. How do we seek the abundant life that Jesus promised to all his followers; that’s probably the hardest task.
I guess the real question is, “Who is Jesus for us?” How will we follow in a community where not everyone will agree and in which some will strongly disagree.
Can we find a way to dwell in the house of God with God’s other children, despite our differences? In a time when church commitment is important to fewer and fewer people it is an increasingly crucial question. In the post 9/11 world, no question is more critical.
As we seek to be the Christ’s people let us proclaim the life we have found in his name.
Amen!
Acts 1: 6-14
Psalm 68
John 17: 1-11
One of the places I go every summer is to the ‘encampment’ at Berwick Camp, in the town of Berwick Nova Scotia. Hundreds upon hundreds of us gather, under the shade of mighty hemlock trees, as we have for 142 years. Minister’s and their children, moving frequently, have discovered in it a place of stability and grounding, in their ever-changing lives. In this time of instant messaging and social media we are able to keep up with one another’s lives in ways that would have not been possible even 20 years ago, let alone all 142.
Apparently, one current Berwick camper announced to her parents, when she was still a child, that she was getting married at Berwick Camp. She did and she and her husband now have two children. And they now run the Vacation Bible School.
Some campers have been there every year of their lives and some, like me, are relatively new to the experience. 2014 will be my 16th year. One older camper remembers her grandmother, who was at the first meeting under the hemlocks.
For many Berwick Camp is an important part of their Christian community. Some of us will have begun the countdown to Berwick 143 as soon as they drove out of the gates last August. Each year, as the last day approaches, though, I think we all have much the same experience, “we cant be done already, we just arrived here”. As we approach that last day it can seem as if the ten days have melted away and are gone in a flash. Yet, in another way, when you are there time stands still. Berwick time is just one of those “thin” places where the boundaries between the holy and earthly are very blurry. Berwick time is holy time, holy ground.
I think the end of Berwick - or of any time apart, is a bit like what the disciples experienced when the realization sank in that Jesus was leaving, and at then end of their “second chance”, after the resurrection appearances, it must have hit them like a ton of bricks,“it cant be time for him to go, yet. We have so much to learn, especially when we are still trying to figure out what he was really talking about. Stay with us a little longer Jesus.”
Yet 2000 years later we are left, not with Jesus himself, but with the teachings he left behind and the practice and legacy of those who have followed since.
A few years ago WWJD bracelets were popular among the younger Christian crowd. The bracelets remind the wearer to ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” Since our world is so very different from the one in which Jesus lived, I often re-frame the question, “What would Jesus have us do?”
Like never before, we live in a “global village”, a term coined in the 1960's by Canadian philosopher and writer Marshall McLuhan. 30 years after his death even he might be surprised at the speed and pervasiveness with which social media sends news items around the globe. Remember the Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days? We saw the progress on our nightly news!
A home security camera recorded the family cat running off a dog who had attached a child, and the video was posted to you tube. As they say, “it went viral”. The clip has been viewed over 1,959,000 times since May 14. A politician makes a gaffe and it’s on the internet for all to see! I’ll let you recall which politician and which gaffe, but it should not be hard because there is a long list.
Yes, there are more edifying things on the net. Two recent reports centring on the Roman Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, show us how the media, including social media can draw people together and challenge our assumptions. One of the most fractious and controversial conflicts in the world is in Israel and Palestine. On a recent visit to Israel the Pope publically embraced Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Muslim leader Omar Abboud at the “wailing wall”. This wall, the last part of Solomon’s temple left standing is a holy site for Jewish people and over it hovers The Dome of the Rock, a Muslim Mosque. The sight of these three leaders embracing gives many people hope that the peace process will one day produce concrete results. More controversial though was the Pope’s later stop along the separation wall that keeps Palestinian out of Jewish areas and often separates their residences from their crops. Crossing this wall takes much time and hassle, each and every day. Its very existence is a real barrier to peace and to justice; to make matters worse most of it is built on Palestinian land, well within the mutually recognized "green line" and it is seen by many, if not most, others as another part of the "land grab" of the state of Israel. The Pope stoped there to reflect and pray and this action then garnered much criticism. That’s where the social media kicked in - as an online petition was circulated through facebook and twitter and people all over the world signed the petition to support the actions of the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics. He reminds us all: there can be no true peace without justice.
There are so many in our world who continue showing us the heart of Jesus which is a heart of compassion, love and unity.
Unity is not, as some would have us believe, uniformity. Unity is not a cookie cutter producing a product which is uniform and indistinguishable. Unity is focussing on what we have in common rather than letting what divides us, tear us apart. Unity is working together and celebrating the differences which add richness to our lives together.
The protestant churches have, over time, been very good at focussing on that which is divisive. The old minute books of a congregation I once served record the departure of some members when an organ was purchased to lead the singing. A colleague of mine came to the United Church from a more conservative denomination because in that church ministers were not allowed to be divorced. It was not really all that long ago that deaconesses had to be unmarried and that the words working mother and minister did not go together. We as a denomination have been growing into our vision; we did not begin at full bloom. In 1925 the United Church was created, bridging some significant theological differences, as a sign that unity was possible in the midst of diversity. We lived in a vast country with a lot of space in-between; we could not afford the luxury of three little churches in every rural village. We are entering a new age in which more “getting together” will be necessary in order for those who choose to walk with us to be able to minister and serve the cause of Jesus, the Christ.
As in the past, we must once again remind ourselves of what is most important; we must focus on our journey with Jesus rather than the particular things that make one community stand out from another. We can be informed by our current leadership and by our recent past but I think we need to continue to go back to this image of Jesus, praying for the unity of those who would eventually become the church. It was his last wish for us that we be one in the same way that Jesus was one with God.
Jesus last words, meant to be for his followers, were to a community with the ability to make a difference if they could focus on what brought them together rather than what kept them apart. Let us focus on unity as we seek to give glory to God and to follow in the way of Jesus of Nazareth.
Amen.
Acts 2: 1-21
Psalm 104
1 Corinthians 3b - 13
John 20: 19-23
As an introit this morning we sang the hymn, “Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness”, but don’t let the first lime fool you, the Spirit, while described in this hymn as “gentle”, is ALWAYS a force to be reckoned with.
Let us look for a moment at the images in the hymn, before we go on to look at the passages for today. As I review the imagery in this hymn, I count references to no fewer than 8 biblical stories as well as numerous themes which run through more than one passage of scripture More specifically, we sang about the Spirit’s work at creation, the call of the Spirit to the people in the wilderness who were finally free from bondage but learning how to enter into a relationship with the God of their ancestors, and to the numerous prophets who were given the task of calling the people back to faithfulness. By the Spirit Mary was called to be the mother of Jesus and it was the Spirit who strengthened him as he hung on the cross. The Spirit was alive in the people as the crowds heard the good news in their mother tongues on the day of Pentecost. Today is the day we especially celebrate that “rush of the wind”!
The point I want to make, and part of the point of this hymn is that, far from being “invented” or even “coming out of the woodwork” on Pentecost, the spirit can be found throughout the Old Testament as well as the gospels. This Pentecost event is often regarded as the “birthday of the church” because fear- filled disciples huddled together in fear for their lives became faith filled and fearless proclaimers of the gospel.
Before the church changed the meaning of Pentecost because of this event, it was a Jewish festival that was celebrated a certain number of weeks after Passover, which was why there were so many Jewish people, by birth or by conversion, in Jerusalem at this time.
As we can see the people who heard them speaking accused them of being drunk! There had to be some kind of logical explanation and this was before LSD and X! The disciples were quick to counter this accusation.
The text is a little fuzzy about whether or not the miracle was in the speaking or in the hearing - in other words were the people from all of those places with strange sounding names hearing their own languages or was each disciples actually speaking a different tongue?
Perhaps that doesn’t matter; what seems clear to me is that the work of the Spirit is to seek understanding and overcome barriers. The Spirit seeks to bridge gaps among people of different backgrounds to bring them to common ground. Back in the beginning chapters of Genesis, there is the story of the tower of Babel where differences among nations was seen as God’s punishment for excessive pride.
Here, at Pentecost, Babel is reversed. The Spirit which had been experienced in a new and powerful way, by followers of Jesus of Nazareth was a Spirit of unity, not of division.
As I indicated in another sermon recently, it is not a Spirit of uniformity but of the unity that comes from overcoming barriers and working together in the midst of differences.
It seems to me that the kernel of the message this day is that the Spirit’s work is for the dreams and visions of a better world to come about. I’m not talking “pie in the sky” but a real world of flesh and blood people on planet Earth. What if there was no more poverty, no more illness, no more violence. What if in this world true justice ran down like Niagara Falls and was so plentiful that no one could imagine a world where this was not the case.
Those are the dreams and visions of a world made new by people who are aware and led by the gentle yet persistent, gusts of the Spirit.
Amen!