Wonder and Trust: the Early Jesus Movement and Forgiveness

That one time, at Golden Road, at FORMA...

Sometimes I wonder I wonder why in the world did the followers of Jesus after his arrest and trial and crucifixion why didn't they flee? If the person that I was following whose teachings about the abundant love of God had reshaped my life and if that person was executed as a revolutionary indicted and put down in a conspiracy of nervous leaders, I would be scared and preoccupied and anxious - ready to run. I understand hiding out for a night I can see sticking around long enough to properly care for this body that has been shamed. But otherwise I have to wonder why didn't they split up why didn't they get out of town? You and I all know plenty of people including possibly ourselves who would have flown the coop. Yet the disciples did stick around. 

From the story that John is offering us today of those days after the crucifixion and the resurrection this set of people who were steadfast - they were probably laying low. Still they need to go out at different times to get provisions to talk to safe acquaintances. On one of those days, it is Thomas who goes out carefully cautiously with a mission. While he's gone Jesus appears to this group of disciples in this room. I think a lot of us have been in a similar situation to Thomas. That fantastic epic day that all of your family or friends experienced and they're telling stories about the day and they're really excited about it And they forget you were not there. You were sick or you had to work. Maybe you've been the other way around where it's you who had the great conversion experience and you keep forgetting that your one friend Toni, she wasn't there. This huge world turning over shift has happened in your lives and you don't necessarily understand it, and your one friend Thomas who you love isn't sure he even can believe what you are going on and on about.  

It was probably an awkward week on top of a scared and confused time. What I love is that they remain in the community even with a difference of experience. It is their commitment to each other in Jesus name which is a way of love and reconciliation that way of life prepares them for the complex mission of the Jesus movement that is ahead of them. Within this story today is a story of finding forgiveness, signs of Easter reconciliation that are rooted in the testimony of the crucified and resurrected Jesus. Jesus who appears to Thomas, this is the holy one who is present with these disciples knows their strengths and their weaknesses is well acquainted with our dreams feels our disappointments, and loves us and forgives us remains with and for us in all of this complexity. 

Our readings also have an interreligious complexity we must pay attention to with the love for all we promise Jesus when we say we will follow him with God’s help. I went to sleep last night with news trickling in of another shooting at a place of worship. A hate crime by a person who attacked a synagogue in southern California because he belived that those people - killed Jesus. We must always remember that in the texts of the New Testament references to the Jews are just like if I were to be quite mad at megachurch pastors. The anger and frustration is with people who were co-religionists who experienced things very differently. Yes! I get frustrated and vitriolic at so-called fellow Christians who claim that if you are perfect and sweet and buy their slick pastors helicopters and mansions that God will fill your pockets just a bit more. That is not the Good News of Jesus. And to me they make the work of union and rescue that much harder.  References to the 'jews' require digging deep and smart contextualizing, and the command that they are our siblings and neighbors who we are called to love as God loves us.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - his priority is releasing the oppressed and welcoming the last the least and the lost with all we have. Jesus teaches that eternal life isn’t a golden gate in the sky but made real right here by letting go of all our whithering securities and exclusions. Eternal life is seeking union with the love of God and all creation. Pray for the people of this nation and the world. But also speak up when you see and hear hate crime sparking language. The way of Jesus is steadfast love for all, even those I disagree with. 

Jesus Christ is always leading his disciples toward New life - one that turns everything upside-down and towards union with God and all others. The disciples and the apostles are our elders and they passed on their experience they didn't stay in that room They didn’t ignore the complexity Keep it to themselves or get stuck in nostalgia - because that is the way of death. The way of life of Easter people is one of trust and courage, a way of wonder and paying it forward. I trust that God has a mission prepared for Grace Church and that Easter life will not leave you where it found you. Alleluia, Christ is risen!  

We are supposed to be Easter people and we are being led out of our tombs and toward being the Jesus movement of today. The sacred Storyteller of John is telling us a story about the first days of the Jesus movement, about a time of uncertainty that could barely imagine the reality that John's community was living in at least 60 years later. AND that storyteller told this Good News to us so that that this community of disciples could trust and serve and love as Jesus said. God calls us to trust the signs, trust each other, trust the Spirit. Doubts are fine. Questions are good. Lying in our graves, refusing to rise to the mission of lifegiving liberating love is not. Trust, share, welcome, go, and forgive in Jesus name. 

Easter 2 - RCL-C

April 28, 2019

Grace Episcopal Church

Pemberton, New Jersey

A week later the amazing author and blogger Rachel Held Evans died at a young age.  She did so much for so many and in her memory my commitment is to post more sermons and write more blogs for a world that is searching for Easter.  Thank you Rachel, we needed you and hear your love for us from the further shore.

Poetic Bread Slam - Daring Choices and Warm Bakedness

Eucharistic bread stamp

I am the bread of life I am the light of the world. I am the gate. I am the way. I am the vine. In the gospel of John Jesus uses I am statements 16 times. A person saying that they are material objects that they are physically not is art. It is a cooperative brain exercise of creative genius. It is theopoetics: God words in poetry. Like a singer-songwriter Who sings things Without singing the actual words That would define them. Theopoetics is an art form that can help us know God in ways that doctrinal definitions cannot. The creeds took over a hundred years To work out, And while they are foundational They are also only a ghost of a trace of a pale imitation of all that we experience in the one in three and three in one.

I am is such a basic statement. We say I am lonely, Or I am curious. Or I am going to mow the lawn. I am is both an everyday sort of thing And a whoa kind of thing. I am is being and essence and without I am there isn’t much to be much less to say. Here in our gospel text, it holds even more quiet potency. When Moses asks God’s name at the burning bush The response Moses gets is that God's name is I am what I am or and also I will be what I will be. The Hebrew is prismatic that way God’s name Is both foundational eternal essence and a future-forward endless essence. I am what I am and I will be what I will be. God’s stated name In the short form as it is usually translated into English is I am. 

The holy artist who is shaping this gospel is knee deep in the sands of the exodus. Jesus is the bread from heaven, like the manna in the wilderness but way more than the manna. If manna could be both deliciously in your tummy And future forward manna-ness, That is the manna Jesus says he is. I am and I will be forever filling essential good stuff. It is art, not an evidentiary statement. It is an invitation, not demand. Manna in the wilderness is about using our resources wisely. Bread in community Is about the commitment to each other because it is nearly impossible to make bread alone. Breaking bread is an act of care for one another, of resting and attending to friend and stranger across the table. It is hope, it is a conversation, It is laughter, it is tears. 

However, just like in the desert with Moses, there was grumbling around Jesus. We need to take a few minutes and unpack one of the most consistent problems with this gospel. The phrase the jews has led to so much hatred and bloodshed. We do well to remember that almost everyone, probably in the 95% range, Nearly everyone in these gospels are Jewish. From the time of Jesus’ teaching ministry There was excitement and new life, and plenty of folks who just didn’t get it, Or they got it And they were not going to accept it. 

The communities that nurtured the holy storytellers of the gospels are all wrestling with this anxiety and division and confusion. Why Jesus’ own community didn’t trust and follow him was disturbing and alienating. There are dynamics of displacement and frustration and fear of both the fragile power within the Jewish communities nd the cruel desperations of empire that press in on their safety from the outside. When we read of the ‘jews’ we need to recall that most of the time what our minds should hear is the Jewish neighbors who were in opposition to the Jesus movement. 

It isn’t as shallow as even the fiercest sports rivalry, It is more heart wrenching than the mutual distaste we experience between some churches. This is friends and family with a river of anxiety and distrust running between them. The opposition are the people we know and care for and who completely disagree with us. Connections where the power of empathy and candor have been weakened. I have those relationships, you probably do too. 

Somewhere in the I am poetry is a daring choice. Where instead of trying to win the argument, they set the table and invite the opposition into a feast. There is something about the smell of bread that is A mind-blowing allurement for me. I once had a wine intern roommate who in his spare time Was trying to learn To bake sourdough bread. When I would open the door to the house He would be practicing his banjo and bread was baking and it felt like a little bit of heaven. 

I think this wording in the gospel Is an artistic power play A hard to resist invitation. It is the smell of fresh baked bread and a warm kind light beyond a gate held wide open. Jesus is already there, Already where we are going. He is holding open the gate And is offering the cup of the vineyard. He stands in front of us with enticing bread (or warm fragrant rice) and we can smell it and we can imagine how it will taste and we follow it.

So, where is Jesus standing out in front of us and is that where we should be going? Jesus isn’t a word puzzle of incredulity, but instead an artists invitation that draws us into satisfaction for all. Jesus Is what he is and will be what he will be and is always already present wherever we are going. I am what I am and I will be what I will be: Light, freedom, sustenance, community, forgiveness. Jesus is out in front of us, offering us fresh hearty bread. What are you gonna do?

Grace Episcopal Church
Pemberton, New Jersey
August 12, 2018

Proper 14 RCLB Track 1