Completing the Ending

How does the Easter story end? If you're reading Mark's gospel, it ends very strangely. So much so, in fact, that someone added another ending to it! My Easter sermon might make you think about what the best ending to Easter Sunday is -- and whether you're part of it.

It’s not a very good ending to an Easter Sunday reading, is it? “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8) That’s the original ending of Mark’s gospel. That’s where Mark left it, with fear and trembling and silence. The extra 12 verses that are in our Bibles were added sometime later, by an early Christian who didn’t like Mark’s ending any more than we do! He – or maybe she – didn’t want the story to end so abruptly, in the middle of confusion and bewilderment. That ending probably doesn’t seem right to us, either, because we all know the story of Easter morning! The women who have gone to the tomb should meet the risen Christ. Their encounter should end in joy, not fear and silence! I recently read a story of a scripture reader on Easter morning – a congregational member, like those of us here who read the morning scriptures. She was supposed to read the same text from Mark’s gospel that we just heard; and it was supposed to end the same place that ours did. But that reader was using the large pulpit Bible that many churches use, not just a copy of the morning’s text. She got to the last verse, paused for a moment, looked twice at the bulletin, and continued to read. After she had read several additional verses, the pastor got up, tapped her on the shoulder, and said, “Thank you. This morning’s reading ends at verse 8.” The reader sheepishly muttered, “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought the bulletin had a misprint.” She couldn’t imagine that the Easter story would ever end with fear and silence!

I wonder whether Mark was reflecting his own times when he stopped his gospel so abruptly. He was, after all, writing at a time when the Christian church was being persecuted. And they were being persecuted both by the Jewish community, who believed that Christians were heretics; and by the Romans, who were afraid that Christians would try to overthrow the Empire. That seems ridiculous to us today, but remember that we call Jesus our King. The Romans were always on the lookout for a threat to the Empire; and these Christians certainly seemed to be one! If we lived in a society like that, we might be afraid and bewildered, too. And we would undoubtedly be afraid to proclaim the Easter message for fear that we might end up thrown to wild beasts in the arena! Oh, there were good reasons to be afraid and keep silent when Mark wrote his gospel.

But in the end, Mark’s gospel couldn’t end the way that Mark ended it. Jesus’ resurrection does confuse us! Let’s face it; resurrection is something completely foreign to us. We aren’t experts on bringing life out of death; quite the opposite, in fact. We only know how to bring death out of life! And when we’re faced with the reality of resurrection, we’re befuddled by it because we don’t expect it any more than we expect to see a unicorn trotting down Main Street! Yes, we are confused and bewildered, just like the women at the tomb. But we don’t stay that way; because when we’re faced with the reality of resurrection, we encounter the risen Christ! And that’s what the early Christians added to the ending of Mark’s gospel. They knew very well that any experience of resurrection goes beyond hearing about the resurrection. Oh, hearing is the first step, of course. Just like the women first heard about the resurrection from a young man in white robes who was at the tomb, we first heard about it from our parents, or a Sunday school teacher, or a good friend. But hearing is only the first step! At some point, we meet the risen Christ ourselves. And meeting the risen Christ means being transformed from bewilderment and silence into joy and proclamation!

Listen to the revised ending to Mark’s gospel (verses 9-20).

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Now, the reason that many people believe that this ending wasn’t written by Mark is that the vocabulary and the grammar in this text isn’t like the rest of the gospel at all. It’s as different from the rest of Mark as Hamlet is different from Huckleberry Finn. But it really doesn’t matter who wrote it. You can believe what you like about that. And this text makes some pretty outrageous statements about what Christians will be able to do. None of us here are snake handlers – at least, none that I know of. I don’t think that any of us speak in tongues (although many Christians do). And I certainly hope that nobody adds poison to their green bean casserole at the next carry-in to test the truth of the verse that says, “When they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all.” You might not choose to believe all those claims. But what I hope you do believe is that when we meet the risen Christ, we’re changed. When we met our Lord, we begin a transformation into someone that we never expected to be; and we end up doing things that we never expected to do! We may be bewildered when we leave the empty tomb; but when we meet the risen Christ, our fear disappears, our hearts sing with joy, and we can’t wait to tell everybody that we know about what has just happened to us! Easter just doesn’t end in fear and silence.

On this Easter morning, where are you as we leave the empty tomb? We’ve all heard about the resurrection. We wouldn’t be here this morning if we hadn’t. But maybe you haven’t met the risen Christ yet. Maybe you’re still wondering about the meaning of that empty tomb. If that’s the case, that’s OK. You’re still farther along than the disciples were. At first, they didn’t even believe that the resurrection was real! If I’m describing you, I hope that one day soon – maybe as you’re on your way home, or eating your dinner, or watching TV – maybe even today – that you meet the risen Christ, and experience the transformation that he has to offer! And if you have already met the risen Christ along the road of life, then – alleluia! You know what I’m talking about! We may not understand resurrection with our heads, but we know that it’s real in our hearts, because we’ve experienced it for ourselves! And our lives will never be the same again!

My Easter prayer this morning is that all God’s children might meet the risen Christ, so that someday, the story that was begun so long ago will finally be complete. Amen and alleluia!

The Lamb of God

What is the meaning of the crucifixion? That question has been debated for over 2,000 years. It is clearly one of the focal points of our faith, but how do we interpret it? Many people claim that  it is somehow payment to God for the sins of humanity. I don't understand it that way. I see the crucifixion as the ultimate evil that humanity could do; but God absorbed it and transformed it into the ultimate good. With that in mind, I offered this sermon at a recent Good Friday worship service. May it bless you.

The Lamb of God. That’s what John the Baptist called Jesus: the Lamb of God. (John 1:29-31) According to the gospel of John, he is the one who takes away the sin of the world. He is The Sacrificial Lamb, the one who will reconcile the whole world to God. But there were lots of sacrificial lambs before Jesus came along: thousands, maybe millions of them! And it all started with Abraham. You remember the story of Abraham and Isaac. God told Abraham to kill Isaac, his only son, as a sacrifice to God; and Abraham was willing to do it! But at the last minute, even as Abraham’s hand was raised, ready to plunge a knife into Isaac’s heart, God stopped him. Instead of sacrificing his son, Abraham sacrificed a ram that was caught in a nearby thicket. A ram was offered up as a substitute to the son.

Then we fast forward to the days leading up to the Exodus, when God’s people had forgotten that they even were God’s people. On the night before the very last plague of Egypt – the death of the firstborn sons – the plague that freed the Hebrews from slavery – God instructed all the Hebrew families to sacrifice a lamb and smear its blood on the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of death would see that blood and pass over those doorways, saving their families from destruction. (Exodus 12:21-23)

That sacrifice, offered up each year, was only the beginning. When the Israelites travelled to Mt. Sinai under Moses’ leadership, God gave them the Law. Sacrificing animals was a big part of that Law. The book of Leviticus describes all kinds of sacrifices – sin offerings, thank offerings, guilt offerings, peace offerings, and fellowship offering. (Chapters 1-7) But all of those sacrifices were intended to bring the people closer to God. By offering an animal from their own flock, they acknowledged that they depended on God for all the blessings that they had; and they expressed their thankfulness for all that God had done for them.

But after a while, those sacrifices lost their meaning. Priests told the people that the more sacrifices they offered, the happier God was. Sacrifices turned into insurance policies to keep God on the side of the Israelites! The whole system became a machine built on slaughter. By the time that Jesus was born, lambs were sold in the Temple at inflated prices to fill the pockets of corrupt priests. A system that was intended to bring the people closer to God had been so infiltrated by greed and corruption that it didn’t benefit anyone but the priests who ran it. Almost everyone had forgotten what the prophet Micah had said (6:6-8):

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow down before the exalted God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

And then… Jesus was born: the Lamb of God. But this Lamb wasn’t one of the millions of lambs that had been sacrificed over the years since the Exodus from Egypt. This Lamb was God’s own son. This Lamb was the only one who had ever fulfilled God’s requirements to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk with God in humility and obedience. And in that spirit of humble obedience, this Lamb protested the corrupt sacrificial system. He went into the Temple and overturned the tables of the money changers. He released the lambs that the priests were selling, roaring, “This is my Father’s house! Stop making it into a market place!” He told the people that God didn’t care about rituals and laws, but about love and mercy. He told them to stop trying to buy God’s favor, and trust him with their lives. I’m sure you know how that went over. Jesus was telling the people in authority that instead of sacrificing lambs to benefit themselves, they should sacrifice their greed, their traditions, and their power instead. And they weren’t about to sacrifice those lambs! So they sacrificed the Lamb of God instead.

Isn’t it ironic? The gospel of John tells us that Jesus was hanging on the cross at the very hour that the Temple priests were sacrificing the hundreds of lambs needed for the Passover celebration. Over the years, millions of lambs had been sacrificed in God’s name, fattening the pockets of the priests who were offering them up in a corrupt system. And the Lamb of God was nailed to a cross because the people in power wanted to keep it that way.

Now, we all know the Good Friday story. We know what happened on that day. But have you ever thought about what might have happened? God never asked for this sacrifice! Crucifying Jesus was our idea! When we nailed his son to a cross, God had every right to step in and punish us. Why, God might have squashed us like bugs. God could have brought the world to an end, right there and then! It certainly would have been just if God had punished us for killing his beloved Son!

But God doesn’t react that way. If Jesus taught anything, it is that God’s very being isn’t violence and revenge, but love and forgiveness. God knows that we believe we are perceptive and wise and shrewd. God also knows that we are really blind and foolish and clueless. Long ago, God had declared through the prophet Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways.” (Isaiah 55:8) And so, instead of returning violence for violence – instead of continuing the sacrifices – God stopped the whole process, as he had stopped the hand of Abraham so many years before. On Good Friday, God said, “Stop it! No more sacrifices. No more violence. No more bloodshed. I’ve had enough.”

And now, as the light of Good Friday dims and the long night begins, the Lamb of God is taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed tomb, and all creation holds its breath. What will God do in response to this injustice? Will our foolishness and selfishness and greed get the last word after all? Well… God delivered the Hebrews from Pharaoh on that very first Passover night; and God will deliver us, too – deliver us from sin, deliver us from ourselves, and even deliver us from death! We just have to hang on until Easter morning.

The Once and Future King

On Palm Sunday, we welcome Jesus as our king. But what kind of king? The people of Jerusalem had expectations for him that were based on his title "The Son of David." What did that mean to them? This sermon explores those expectations -- and ours.

“Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the Son of David! Hosanna!” That’s a greeting not just for anybody. That’s a greeting for a king! The Son of David was the title given to the kings of Israel, the men who were descended from King David himself, the greatest king that Israel had ever known.

We don’t know much about kings here in the USA. We don’t have a king; we have a president. But the job of a king isn’t really that different from the job that our president has. When a newly-elected president takes the oath of office, that person promises to defend our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic. In other words, the job of the president is to care for the people. That means leading us in times of war, making sure that all the citizens are able to get what they need to survive, and generally keeping our country healthy. Kings do the same thing; but you can’t get rid of a king once he is governing. There’s no way to vote him out. When you have a king, you’re stuck with him.

That’s why the biblical text contains warnings about kings. The book of I Samuel, in particular, doesn’t like the idea of a king at all. When the people of Israel asked the prophet Samuel to anoint a king for them so they could be like all the other nations, he warned them that they didn’t know what they were asking for. “This is what the king who will reign over you will do,” Samuel said. “He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses. Some he will assign to be commanders, others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your wine. The best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks; and you yourselves will become his slaves.” (I Samuel 8:11-17, selected)

Oh, yes – having a king can be a problem. But we all know that there are kings… and there are kings. Sometimes, there are kings like the great King David. Oh, David had his faults. In particular, he got mixed up in that sordid affair with Bathsheba; and it messed up his own family for the rest of his life. But all things considered, David was a very, very good king. He united the twelve tribes of Israel into one unified country. He protected Israel from the threat of the Philistines. He even brought the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence, to Jerusalem. And if that isn’t enough, the Bible calls David “a man after God’s own heart.” Why, the name “David” even means “beloved.” No, there never was another king like David. He set the bar pretty high. But one day – one day the Messiah would come. He would be like David, a man after God’s own heart. He would be as good a king as David had been, but without David’s faults. He would be the king to end all kings!

Those were the hopes of all the people who waved palm branches on that first Palm Sunday. They were waiting for a king who would care for them like David did. Actually, they were waiting for a king who would take care of them even better than David did! And the man riding into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday turned out to be exactly that man. Like the king that he is, Jesus cares for his people. In fact, Jesus did everything that David did, but better! Jesus united not only people of Israel, but people all over the world into one family of God’s children. Jesus protects us not from the Philistines, but from the threat of death itself. And we no longer need an Ark of the Covenant, because Jesus himself is in our midst. He lives not only in our midst, but also within the life of each person who puts their faith in him. Through Jesus, nothing can ever separate us from God’s presence! Jesus took caring for his people to a whole new level!

And he is far from the selfish, domineering monarch that Samuel warned the people about. To those who are in his kingdom, he grants fullness of life like we’ve never even imagined it! Like the kings of old, Jesus takes our sons and our daughters. But he doesn’t take them to be his slaves. He takes them to be his friends and his partners. He doesn’t demand our possessions, but asks us to lend them to him. And they are not used for war, but to spread his kingdom of love and mercy throughout the world. And what he asks of us is not even for his own use! It is for the use of the war-torn and the refugee, the ill and the suffering, the lonely and the unloved. No, Jesus is no king like any other on earth! And we could have predicted that just by looking at the way he came into Jerusalem. He didn’t ride a war horse or carry a sword. He rode on a donkey with empty hands – empty except for the blessings that he offered to all who followed him. He wasn’t dressed in armor with a helmet and shield. He wore the simple robes of a peasant. He didn’t have an escort of well-armed troops who marched in step to his commands. He was surrounded by a crowd of the most ordinary people. But Jesus is the king that conquers all other kings, cares for his people like a father cares for his children, and calls us to care for each other the same way that he cares for us.

There is an old legend in Great Britain. Some of you may have heard of it. It involves King Arthur, the first and some say the greatest of all the kings that Britain has seen. You know about King Arthur.  He called knights to live in his court, to sit at his round table, and to fight for justice for all people. Legend has it that when Britain most needs him, King Arthur will reappear to fight again for the good of his people. T. H. White wrote about him in his book The Once and Future King. We have a king like that, too; one who comes to us when we most need him; but his name isn’t Arthur. His name is Jesus. He is our once and future king! He died for us on Good Friday; he rose for us on Easter morning; and he lives for us today. He is greater than King Arthur; greater even than King David!

Hosanna!

Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the Son of David!

Blessed is Jesus, our once and future king!

Belief and Unbelief

What do you really believe about God's healing power? Does God always heal us when we ask for it? Is it because our faith isn't strong enough? Maybe the answer lies with what we choose to call "healing." This sermon will help you think about that.

If someone asked you, “Do you trust in God for healing?” how would you respond? Think about that for a minute. “Do you trust in God for healing?” Every Christian knows the “right answer” to that question. Jesus healed multitudes of people during his lifetime; and he promises to continue to heal us today. Of course we trust in God for healing! But I’m also sure that most of us have a little kernel of doubt, tucked way back in a corner of our faith where it’s hard for other folks to see. Do we trust in God for healing? If we’re honest with ourselves, the real answer might be “not always.” The reason, is that all of us have prayed at one time or another for a healing that just didn’t happen. Maybe we’ve asked that Grandma might have a few more years of life as she struggled with cancer; but Grandma died after a few weeks. Where was the healing that Jesus promised us? We can’t help but wonder why healing didn’t happen when we asked for it.

Now, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our faith isn’t strong enough when the healing we pray for doesn’t happen. The story that we heard this morning seems to support that idea. (Mark 9:14-27) “Everything is possible for the one who believes,” states Jesus; and the sick boy’s father responds, “I do believe! Help me overcome my unbelief.” But is that what really happens? Does Jesus keep a faith tally for all of us and only offer healing to the ones with the most faith points? That doesn’t sound like Jesus to me! The Jesus that I know offers healing to anyone who needs it. So let’s look at the father’s cry for help a little differently, and see if it might suggest and answer as to why we don’t always receive healing when we ask for it. Let’s start by considering healing itself. We usually think of healing as a process that our bodies undergo – a leg that heals after being broken, for example. When we pray for healing, we tend to focus on physical illnesses that we may have. But the reality is that there are all kinds of healing in addition to the physical.

Consider Tony, for example. Tony was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was only three months old. He was a very smart and persistent little boy; and although he was physically nearly helpless, he never gave up trying to do what was asked of him during his therapy sessions. He had a beautiful smile and a winning way with everyone he met. But his parents – his mother, in particular – had difficulty coping with his needs. Although she was a member of a prayer group in her congregation that tried to support her emotionally, Tony’s mother became progressively more bitter about his condition and angry with God. One day when Tony was a teenager, his mother burst into the house very excited. “We’re going to a special healing service!” she announced. “The lady who invited us said that all things are possible with God! Her friends are going to lay hands on you, Tony, and your cerebral palsy is going to be cured!” The healing service was beautiful. But Tony’s condition didn’t change. Tony’s mother claimed healing in the name of Jesus, and asked all her friends to pray for a miracle. But weeks went by, and nothing happened. The more his mother prayed, the more depressed Tony became. He attended his church youth group; and the young people there, too, prayed for a miracle. But during all these prayers, Tony would sit grimly, staring straight ahead; and his medical condition remained unchanged. Then one day, Tony accepted an invitation to another youth group in a different part of town. The group was friendly and welcoming. No one prayed for him. In fact, no one treated Tony any differently than the other group members. Tony began attending that youth group on a regular basis. One night during a small group discussion, Tony said that he wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He didn’t want to be anyone exceptional, he said. He simply wanted to be loved for who he was. The other youth spontaneously began to pray for Tony – that he would be certain of God’s love; that he would find the peace that Jesus promises us; that he would find a true sense of self-worth. When the prayer was finished, something about Tony had changed. He radiated peace and joy. The smile on his face was an image of the one that he had smiled as a little boy, and that he had lost as he had grown older. Four years later, Tony attends a community college. He drives a car and lives independently. He has a steady girlfriend. Oh, he still has cerebral palsy, but it no longer defines him. In fact, his friends hardly notice it because of the rich, full life that Tony leads.

Was Tony healed? Not physically. But the desire for Tony’s physical healing had been so great that any other need for healing had been ignored. Miracles do come in all shapes and sizes, after all; and so does healing. Sometimes our minds need to be healed. When we are dealing with a situation that seems to have no solution, an “Aha!” moment can be healing. Frequently our relationships need to be healed. When two dear friends who have been estranged for years are reconciled, a powerful healing has taken place. And often, like Tony, our hearts need to be healed. When we don’t believe that we are worthy of love, it is a wound that can infect our whole lives.

God offers us all kinds of healing for these wounds that we suffer: physical and otherwise. Let’s not focus only on our physical wounds when God wants to make us well and whole in every possible way! My prayer today is that you believe that God has healing to offer you. Perhaps that healing is physical; but it might be something else. I invite you to say, together with the father in Mark’s story, “Lord, I believe! Help me overcome my unbelief.” May nothing stand in the way of God’s healing for you.

Worth Dying For

What is worth dying for? That's a good question to ask ourselves during Lent. After all, Jesus died for us on Good Friday. What are WE willing to die for? This sermon will make you think about that question.

“If anyone would come after me, that one must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) That is one of the most difficult commands that Jesus gave us: “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” It’s not just difficult to do; it’s difficult to understand. What did Jesus mean when he told us to take up our crosses? Surely he didn’t mean that we are to literally carry crosses around! But what is it that he wants us to do?

Over the years, that question has been answered in all kinds of ways. For example, some people have believed that when Jesus said this, he meant that we should suffer intentionally. Many devout Christians became convinced that through suffering, we could identify with Jesus’ own suffering on the cross; and some of them took that idea to the extreme. Some refused to wash for years at a time. They wore filthy rags and lived with matted, insect-infested hair. Others went without sleep for days or even weeks; and when they did sleep, they did so in the most uncomfortable places they could find – on beds of rocks or exposed to the elements of nature. Still others flogged or mutilated themselves. You may not realize it, but when we give up something that we enjoy during Lent, we’re following in their footsteps. We’re denying ourselves in small ways, and identifying with the suffering of Jesus.

Now, a little denial isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But I don’t think that Jesus ever meant for us to suffer just for the sake of suffering. After all, Jesus said, “I have come that [you] may have life, and have it in abundance!” (John 10:10) Denying oneself to the point of misery doesn’t seem to me to be the way to an abundant life! And in fact, in his next words, Jesus pointed to that abundant life. “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it,” he said, “but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35) That’s a puzzling comment. We die by saving ourselves; and we live by dying. It’s a paradox. What did Jesus mean by that? Maybe we can make sense of Jesus’ words by examining what it meant in Jesus’ world to carry a cross. In the Roman Empire, anyone who was carrying a cross was on the way to be executed. A condemned criminal carried the wooden crossbeam to the place of his own crucifixion. Anyone who carried a cross was ready to die. Maybe Jesus meant we should be ready to die at any moment for the gospel. But what does it mean to die for the gospel? Well, what is worth dying for? The prophet Micah suggested an answer. He told us that God wants us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. And in the end, that is the good news of the Gospel: that God loves us so much that he offers us both justice and mercy, and invites us to walk with Jesus every step of the way. Justice and mercy. Are those things worth dying for? Let’s consider that question by looking at justice and mercy one at a time.

Most people would agree that justice is worth dying for. Remember, for a moment, those brave men and women who worked for civil rights in the 1960s. Remember Medgar Evers, who set up local chapters of the NAACP in the Deep South, organized boycotts of discriminatory businesses, and was assassinated in 1963 at the age of 37. Remember James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three young men who were helping Blacks register to vote in Mississippi. They disappeared on the night of June 21, 1964; and they were later found murdered. Remember the peaceful marchers of Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. On that “Bloody Sunday,” those marchers were brutally attacked by police officers using tear gas and billy clubs. In fact, remember all the men and women who peacefully demonstrated and were attacked with fire hoses, tear gas, and police dogs because of their efforts to secure justice for all Americans! Yes, God calls us to be just. And Jesus follows in the footsteps of the prophets who proclaimed that unless there is justice for all, there is justice for none. Certainly justice is worth dying for.

But if we are ready to die for justice, then we also have to be ready to die for mercy. We all know what that looks like; and we admire those people who die in the cause of mercy. The Good Samaritan who stops to assist a stranded motorist and is herself hit and killed by an oncoming vehicle died in the cause of mercy. But when we agree that mercy is worth dying for, we have taken a step into territory that makes most people very uncomfortable. When we are ready to die in the cause of mercy, we give up our right to decide who is worthy of our sacrifice. Think about that for just a minute. In the cause of mercy, we must be ready to die for anyone. When a lifeguard sees a swimmer struggling in an ocean riptide, she doesn’t have the luxury to decide whether or not that person is admirable or not. In the cause of mercy, the lifeguard risks her life by going out into the water after that swimmer. It was Jesus himself who set the example of dying in the cause of mercy. When he died on the cross, he didn’t die just for the good folks. He died for all of us – good folks, bad folks, people who are worthy of our love, and folks who have earned our contempt. Like God’s love, mercy doesn’t pick and choose who is worthy of it.

A few weeks ago, I saw a performance of the opera “Dead Man Walking” at the Schuster Center in Dayton. Some of you may have seen the movie of the same name. It tells the story of Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun who has been the spiritual advisor to a number of prison inmates on death row. That opera brought the audience face to face with questions of good and evil, justice and mercy, suffering and revenge, life and death. In one scene, Sister Helen was trying to form a relationship with a condemned murderer who was facing his own execution. She expressed her compassion for him, and she bravely declared that she would stand with him throughout his prison ordeal. At that point, he looked her straight in the eye and asked, “Would you die for me?” That, friends, is the question that mercy asks all of us. “Would you die for me?” Are you ready to die for a sinner as well as for a saint? Are you ready to die for a condemned murderer as well as for your own child? Your answer to that question is your answer to Jesus’ question, “Are you ready to die for the sake of mercy?”

If we claim to be ready to follow Jesus, then we also have to be ready to carry a cross. And there are crosses enough for all of us. Some of those crosses are very small. You can carry a cross of that size and hide it in your pocket when the going gets tough. If that’s all you can do, that’s OK! It’s a starting point! Most crosses are medium sized, because I believe that most of us really are ready to die for something that we believe in strongly. Those crosses can be difficult to carry. But there are crosses that are even larger than that. Those are the ones that the martyrs carry every single day. Jesus himself carried the largest cross of all. He died in the cause of both justice and mercy – justice for those who had none; and mercy for those who needed it. And in the end, that’s all of us.

“If anyone would come after me, that one must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it.” It is only by being willing to die for the sake of justice and mercy that we find the abundant life that Jesus offers to all of us. It is only by being willing to die that we will truly live!

Like a Child

What did Jesus mean when he told his disciples that they would have to become like children to live in God's kingdom? It's a puzzling passage of scripture, but one that we might want to ponder as we begin the season of Lent.

We all started our lives as children. And in Jesus’ opinion, we should have stayed that way! (Mark 10:13-16) Now, Jesus never meant that we shouldn’t get older. We don’t have any choice about that, anyway. Not one of us remains a child forever like Peter Pan. But Jesus did mean that in some ways, children are more ready to receive the Kingdom of God than we older folks are. We’re too wise, too worldly, too sophisticated. In fact, those are the very behaviors that keep us on the outside. We adults often behave like visitors to Kings’ Island who spend the day just walking around the park. Children would never do that! When children visit an amusement park, they ride the rides, enjoy the shows, and indulge in corn dogs and ice cream! Why do we rejoice that we’re saved, accept God’s offer of citizenship in his kingdom, and then just stand on the outside and look in? There are blessings in there that God wants to give to us!

Here’s what I mean. In the Kingdom of God, we’re invited to be honest – honest with ourselves, honest with the people around us, and honest with God. But, let’s face it, being honest is threatening; so we try to fool people into believing that we’re better than we really are. We keep our problems to ourselves. We surround ourselves with “stuff” that makes us look good. We act as though we don’t need anybody’s help, and that we can get through life all by ourselves. But let’s face it, we mess things up on a regular basis; and because we do, all of us have secrets that we wouldn’t reveal for all the tea in China. But children are a lot more honest than adults are. With a child, what you see is what you get. Author Kathleen Norris tells of a little boy who was invited to write a poem. He titled his poem “The Monster Who Was Sorry.” “He began,” says Norris, “by admitting that he hates it when his father yells at him: his response in the poem is to throw his sister down the stairs, and then to wreck his room, and finally to wreck the whole town. The poem concludes, ‘Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, “I shouldn’t have done all that.”’” (From Amazing Grace, 1998) Now that’s honesty. This little boy admitted the depth of his anger in a way that most adults would never think of doing; and because he did, he was able to move through his anger to repentance. In the Kingdom of God, we’re invited to be honest, not so that we can be judged and found wanting, but so that we can face our problems and move through them to a better place! “…the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Children aren’t invested in their own power, either. That’s because they don’t have any power! Children are little in a world made for big people, and they often feel lost and alone. They are laughed at for their foolishness, and criticized when they lack experience. They have no natural defenses; and they know all too well that they are dependent on others for everything that they need. But adults delude themselves into thinking that they are in control of their own lives. That’s why so many people drift away from the church when they grow up. They don’t think that they need God! After all, they went to college, and they have a good job, a Roth IRA, and investments in the stock market. They are ready for anything – or so they think! But when the doctor sits down across a big mahogany desk and says gravely, “I’m sorry. It’s cancer,” suddenly the job and the IRA and the stock investments don’t mean very much. We’re not in control of our own lives. We have to deal with all kinds of problems that we didn’t want and don’t deserve! But in the Kingdom of God, we can always rely on God to meet our needs. We may lose our jobs, and the stock market might tank; but God will walk beside us forever, giving us the strength to face whatever life throws at us. Trusting God like a child means knowing that whatever happens, God will be there for us. “…the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

But maybe the most important thing about children is that they are open to new things! They have potential – loads of it – even though they often don’t realize it until years later. Children can be taught, because they don’t yet think that they know it all. In fact, adults tell them all the time that they really don’t know much of anything! And so, children absorb knowledge like a sponge. Adults, on the other hand, are pretty sure that they already know what makes the world go around. The trouble is that the world they know about isn’t the Kingdom of God. It’s our world, with its greed and its hate and its mixed-up priorities. If we adults want to fit into the Kingdom of God, we have to learn some new things. We have to learn that the most expensive things are sometimes the least important. We can drive a BMW, own a 30-room house, and have 7 figures in our bank account; but without love, none of it counts for a hill of beans. We have to learn that behind our skin color, religion, nationality, and ethnic background, we’re all the same. Children already know that. Put a random bunch of children in a room, and they’ll make friends with one another: black, white, Christian, Muslim, British, Russian, Israeli, or Palestinian. It’s the adults who eye each other with suspicion just because “those people” are different. And we need to learn that we have to die before we can really live. Yeah, that’s a hard one for both children and adults. But it’s the foundation of Jesus’ teaching; and if we aren’t open to at least consider it, we’ll never make it in the Kingdom of God. “Anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. …the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we have to earn our way into God’s Kingdom by behaving like a child. We don’t need any Golden Ticket to get in. God’s Kingdom isn’t like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory that only admits a few select people. On the contrary, we’re all invited to come into the Kingdom with no strings attached! Jesus has opened the door to everyone, everywhere, every time! But the truth is that most of us don’t want to come in. We would rather hang on to our greed, our prejudices, and our misplaced priorities; and none of those things have any place in God’s Kingdom. Only those with the heart of a child will run right in shouting, “Yay! What a neat place to be! And I get to stay here forever!”

During this season of Lent, maybe we could practice being like children again. Maybe we could try being honest with ourselves. Our lives aren’t what we want them to be. But with God’s help, that can change. Maybe we could face up to the fact that our lives are pretty much out of our control. But they aren’t out of God’s control. Maybe we could try one more time to turn our lives over to God. And maybe we could even admit that all the wisdom of the world has only led to war, famine, and suffering; and we could try some of Jesus’ wisdom, instead. “…the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” That’s us, folks. So let’s start living like children – like God’s children.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Where does Jesus have authority? Only in the church? Or maybe in some other places, too? This sermon considers where Jesus can "make things happen." You might be surprised where those places are.

Once upon a time, there were three… Three what? Well, I guess it depends on the story that I’m telling. It could be three little pigs. You remember them. They built houses in an attempt to escape from the Big Bad Wolf. Or it could be three bears – the ones who owned the “just right” bed that Goldilocks slept in. Or it could be the Three Billy Goats Gruff. If I remember right, they had an encounter with a troll under a bridge. It could even be three clergymen! We all know at least one joke about a minister, a priest, and a rabbi. Lots of stories involve three characters. This is especially true of folk stories, those tales that have been told over and over again around campfires and kitchen tables. Maybe the number three is easy to remember. But whatever the reason, sets of three show up in lots of stories: three little pigs, three chances to win the hand of a princess, three wishes granted by a genie.

The first healing story about Jesus in Mark’s gospel is a story like that. It has three parts to it; and last week; we heard the first part (Mark 1:21-28). You may remember it. While Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he cast out a demon from a possessed man. With just a few words, he freed that man from bondage and transformed his life. That healing is the first of three that Mark tells us about in the first chapter of his gospel. And this week, you heard about the other two. One involved Simon Peter’s mother who was ill with a fever. We saw Jesus go to her bedside, take her hand, and help her out of bed. We saw the fever leave her immediately so that she was able to resume her duties as hostess (Mark 1:29-31). In the second, Jesus healed a man with leprosy (Mark 1:40-45). When the man begged Jesus for help, Jesus healed him – immediately. Because he did, Jesus got such a reputation that he couldn’t even go into town! So many people followed him the he had to stay in what Mark calls “lonely places.”

Three different people… three different healings… three different places. What is Mark trying to tell us in this story that has so many sets of three? Well, he might be telling us that women as well as men deserve to be healed. The second person who needs healing in this set of three is a woman, Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus heals her as quickly as he heals the two men. That was a bit radical in Jesus’ time. Men held all the power, while women were… expendable. In that society, women were like taxicabs. If you missed one, another one would always come along. But Jesus gave Simon Peter’s mother-in-law the same respect that he gave the two men. Mark might very well be telling us that all people, men and women, are valuable in Jesus’ eyes. Or Mark might be showing us that Jesus can take care of all kinds of problems that plague us. In the first story, he casts out a demon. In the second, he cures a fever. And in the third, he cleanses a leper. Those are very different kinds of activities: exorcism, healing, and cleansing. There seems to be nothing that Jesus cannot do – and that may be just the point that Mark is trying to make.

But there is another aspect to these stories that I find interesting. Did you notice where Jesus’ healings took place? The first was in a synagogue; the second was in a home; and the third was outside, in a “lonely place.” Here, there, and everywhere – that’s where Jesus has authority. His power to change us isn’t confined to the interior of our sanctuary. Jesus can transform lives any time and any place! But that’s no news. Even the children know that wherever we go, Jesus is there. We all know that Jesus can do anything that he wants to! Sure, we all know that – but do we believe it?

If we’re honest with ourselves, it’s hard to see Jesus’ work in the world. That work isn’t always obvious. Sometimes it’s even hard to believe that Jesus is working here in the church; and the church is where we expect Jesus to have the most authority. After all, he is the reason for the church’s existence! Every Sunday we celebrate the power that raised him from the tomb on Easter morning, and raised us to new life right along with him. But people in the church behave the very same way that people outside the church do; and that can be very disillusioning. Mary stops speaking to Martha because Martha brought the wrong dish to the potluck dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are irritated because someone had the nerve to sit in “their” pew one Sunday morning. Peter has his knickers in a twist because the choir hasn’t sung his favorite song for six months! Now, I know that no one in our congregation would ever behave like that. But there are churches where this kind of thing happens all the time. So, where is Jesus? Can’t he do something to change things? Well, he can… and he frequently does. When a tragedy strikes Mary’s family and Martha is the first one to phone her with an offer of help, the two women not only resume their friendship, but their love for one another is stronger than ever. That’s the spirit of Jesus working – even in the church.

And how about our homes? Does Jesus have any authority there? Of course, he does! After all, Jesus specializes in repairing relationships. He not only restores bodies and transforms souls; he heals hearts, as well. And let’s face it, home is where we are the most often wounded. Ask any therapist. My guess is that most people need a therapist not because of the behavior of their boss at work, but because of the behavior of someone at home – a husband, a wife, a child, or a parent. Our close relationships have the most potential to hurt us because they have the most potential to bring us joy! And Jesus certainly knows what a good relationship is like. Jesus is in an eternal relationship of mutual love with the Father and with the Spirit – and Jesus wants us to have relationships like that, too! As we are being individually transformed into his image, Jesus offers to transform our relationships into the image of the love that Father, Son, and Spirit have for each other. Jesus has told us how to help him make that happen; but it takes some hard work on our part. If I remember correctly, Jesus said a few things about relationships. “Love others as you love yourself,” he tells us. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And we all know what St. Paul said: “Love is patient and kind; it is not arrogant or rude; it protects, trusts, and hopes.” If Jesus has the authority to transform relationships outside our homes, he certainly has the authority to transform relationships inside our homes! He’s ready to help us if we’re ready to let him.

Jesus has authority even in the “lonely places” of our lives. We’re usually comfortable in church… and we’re usually comfortable in our homes… but all of us have lonely places in our lives where we’re not comfortable at all. We don’t talk much about those places. But we all have them. Sometimes on those nights when we just can’t sleep, and we lie miserably awake in bed, those lonely places bubble up in our minds; and it’s all we can do to shut out the images. Sometimes we can’t shut them out; they cling to us like SuperGlue. There are people who would give everything they own to get rid of their lonely places. I have them myself; and I won’t even guess what yours might be.

The theologian and author Frederick Buechner wrote about one of his own lonely places as he remembered the suicide of his father. “We didn’t talk about my father with each other; and we didn’t talk about him outside the family either, partly because suicide was looked on as something a little shabby and shameful in those days. My father had tried to keep it a secret himself by leaving a note to my mother in a place where only she would be likely to find it, and by saying … that there was something wrong with the Chevy’s exhaust system which he was going to see if he could fix. His suicide was a secret we tried to keep as best we could; and after a while, my father himself became such a secret.” (Telling Secrets) Dealing with the suicide of a loved one is a very, very lonely place.

But Jesus has authority even in those lonely places. We may be afraid to face the shadows and the wild animals and the demons that live there, but Jesus isn’t. If you ask him, Jesus will come and stay with you in your lonely place. Like a mother whose child is frightened by the boogie man under the bed, he will hold your hand, and shine a light into the darkness, and reassure you that nothing can hurt you while he is there. You might even find out that the lonely place isn’t nearly so lonely when Jesus is there with you. In the same book in which he confesses his father’s suicide (Telling Secrets), Fred Buechner ponders how members of Alcoholics Anonymous cope with living in their own lonely places. He writes that they are a varied bunch: men and women, young and old, educated and illiterate, Christian and Jew and atheist. But they have one thing in common. “They all believe that they cannot live fully human lives without each other and without what they call their Higher Power. They avoid using the word God because some of them do not believe in God. What they all do believe in, or are searching for, is a power higher than their own which will make them well. Through prayer and meditation, through seeking help from each other and from helpful books, they try to draw near any way they can to God or to whatever they call what they have instead of God.” These folks may not call their alcoholism a lonely place; and many of them don’t believe in God. But when their lives are transformed by their Higher Power – and I’ve seen it happen – I’m convinced that it’s Jesus at work. He is always ready to go into our lonely places with us and help us to face whatever terrors they hold.

It is indeed good news that Jesus can transform lives wherever he finds them – in church, at home, or in our frightening lonely places. He healed a demon-possessed man in the synagogue; he healed Peter’s mother-in-law in her home; and he healed a leper in a lonely place. Jesus has authority here, there, and everywhere!

So, now we know the end of the story that I started at the beginning of my sermon. Once upon a time there were three… places where Jesus had authority. And he still has authority in all of them today! Thanks be to God!