What are you going to do about it?

The following is a sermon I preach on Easter Sunday (March 23, 2008) on the scripture passage John 20:1-18:


Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed!
What are you going to do about it?

I think that must have been the question of the day. What are we going to do about it? Imagine the disciples, after the death of Jesus. They’re all mourning the loss of their teacher, their friend. But more than that, they’re mourning the loss of all their hopes and expectations, all their dreams of what the future would look like with Jesus in their midst. And now, with the painful reality of Good Friday still fresh on their minds, they’re faced with the tomb, and the penetrating question, what are we going to do?
While the others are wondering what to do, Mary visits Jesus’ tomb. So early on Sunday morning Mary goes to the tomb. But instead of finding things as expected, Mary is confronted with an empty tomb. She runs to the other disciples and says “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him.” Her words and her urgency seem to be calling the other disciples to action and it seems she’s really asking, “What are we going to do about it?”

In response, Peter and the other disciple run to the tomb, and inspect it. They find the tomb empty, with only the grave cloths left behind. After inspecting the tomb and finding Jesus’ body missing, the disciples return home to ponder, what are we going to do? Scripture tells us the disciples still did not understand that Jesus would rise from the dead. In the midst of the chaos and the pain of their grief, the disciples still didn’t understand what was happening. It would seem there was nothing they could do at the tomb so they return home.

Yet, Mary remains at the tomb, consumed by her grief, still plagued by the question. Mary in her grief and her pain yearns to do something, anything. She wants to do something so badly that she wants to find the body of Jesus and bring it back, even if she has to do it by herself. Mary can’t bear for things to end this way.
When faced with the empty tomb, Mary and the disciples, think it’s the end of the story. The two disciples return home, and Mary remains at the tomb consumed with her grief. How could it have ended this way? Wasn’t it bad enough that they killed him? Did they have to steal his body too? The disciples had given up everything to follow Jesus and now the end of the road has come. The end has come and they’re left with nothing, not even the body of Jesus. And the question remains: what are we going to do?

Most of us get to this part of the story and think to ourselves, how could the disciples not know? How could they have spent all that time with Jesus, seen all the miracles, heard all the parables, shared all those meals with him, and still not know? how could they have gone through so much with Jesus, and still not know that an empty tomb wasn’t really the end? Jesus had repeatedly predicted his death and resurrection. How is it they could possibly think the empty tomb was the end?

We chastise the disciples for thinking the crucifixion was the end, and yet many of us act as if the resurrection is the end. We have the benefit of hindsight. We know that when Jesus talked about his death and resurrection that he meant he would be raised from the dead. And when we hear of the empty tomb, we automatically think of the resurrection. We know that God has triumphed over death and evil and as the story is read we wait with anticipation for Mary to realize the person she speaks with in the garden is not the gardener but the resurrected Jesus. We celebrate with the disciples as they learn that Jesus is risen! With triumphant joy we shout, Christ is risen! That’s the story most of us come to hear and most of us end the story there.

The disciples made the mistake of thinking of the crucifixion was the end, and most of us make the mistake of thinking the resurrection is the end. It’s such a common mistake that many people in our society believe that to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior is an ending. We act as if it's one more thing we can check off our list and then get on with the rest of life. But what we see in the gospel story is just the opposite. Belief in the risen Lord is not an ending but a beginning.

As soon as Mary recognizes Jesus, he sends her to the other disciples. Mary becomes the first person to proclaim the good news of the resurrection. Mary’s realization that Jesus has risen, is not the end of the story. Instead Jesus commissions her to go forth and share the good news. This story begins to answer the question, what are you going to do about it? This story marks the beginning of the disciples’ witness to the world. Likewise, Jesus’ appearances to the other disciples are also marked by him calling them to service. When Jesus appears to the disciples in the locked room, he sends them forth. When Jesus appears to Peter, he commands Peter three times to care for his sheep. Each appearance of the Risen Christ implicitly asks the question, what are you going to do about it? Each appearance of the Risen Christ involves the disciples being called to witness to the resurrection.
It is a witness that happens not just in word but in deed. The disciples are called to live their lives in such a way that everything they do points to the resurrection of Christ. They are called to love one another, to offer forgiveness, to share with one another, and to be a community in which the presence of God is made known. Once the disciples encounter the resurrected Jesus their whole purpose in life changes. They realize that Jesus really is the Son of God. They realized that the crucifixion wasn’t the end, and neither was the resurrection. Instead the resurrection was just the beginning of God’s work in the world and their new life in God.

The same is true for us. When we encounter the risen Lord we too are commissioned to proclaim the good news of the resurrection with our words, but more importantly with our lives. When we believe in Jesus, we find ourselves with a new purpose in life. We have received forgiveness for our sins and the times we have hurt one another. But we have also been called to extend that forgiveness to others. As a believer, we are called into community with other believers and we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. We are called to be a part of God’s work in the world. God is actively at work to bring healing and wholeness to the world and we are called to be a part of that process.

We, like the disciples, are asked the same question this morning, what are we going to do about it? This morning the Risen Christ calls us. This morning the Risen Christ calls us each by name. This Risen Christ calls us to proclaim the power of the resurrection and the work of God in the world. The story of Easter, and our own personal experiences of the risen Lord, are all beginnings that draw us deeper into relationship with God, and deeper into God's mission in the world.

This Easter morning is not too different from that first Easter morning. The question of the day is still, what are we going to do about it? Yes Jesus is risen. Yes, death has been conquered and our sins have been forgiven. But what are we going to do about it? Are we going to choose to live in the reality of the new life God has given us? Are we going to act as if nothing has changed?

Christ has risen!
Christ has risen indeed!
What are we going to do about it?

How is that Good News?

Here's a question for you to ponder. If you are willing to share your thoughts that would be great and hopefully we can help one another come to an answer. Here's the question:

The word Gospel literally means "good news." In all four of the gospels, we hear Jesus calling the disciples to a radical new life. It is a new life in which we are held to a higher standard of the law than before, we are called to show hospitality to all, we are called to love even those that despise us. We are called to live more simply, so others may simply live. In other words, we are told to give up those extra material things so we can use the money we would have spent on those items, to help feed the hungry and heal the sick. We are told that we will be blessed when we are persecuted for our faith. In short, the Gospels call us to a life of self-denial and suffering. So how it is, that this call to suffering and self-denial is Good News?

So love

The following is a sermon I preached this morning on John 3:1-17.

“For God so loved the world…”

Have you ever stopped long enough to ponder what “so love” is?

“For God so loved the world…”

So love is hard to define, but it’s easy for us to recognize. To help us understand so love, I want to share a few stories with you.

There was a young girl who was sick and needed a blood transfusion. Her slightly older brother had the same blood type so the parents and doctors gently explain the situation to the boy and asked if he would be willing to let them take blood from him to give to his sister. The boy silently pondered the situation for several moments and then with a resolute look on his face, agreed. The doctors performed the transfusion while proud and hopeful parents looked on. Afterwards the boy timidly asked the doctors “how long till I die?” The boy thought he had to give all of his blood to his sister. “So love.”

During WWII in the Nazi death camps, if one prisoner escaped 10 others were randomly selected and executed. On one such occasion one of the 10 men selected cried out that he had a wife and children and begged for his life to be spared. Much to the shock of the prisoners and guards, a fellow prisoner stepped forward and willing died in place of the chosen man. “So love.”

A son gently told he must be humiliated, tortured, and eventually killed for the sake of all, even those that despise him. After much anguish he obediently gives him self for others, and father and son weep together. “So love.”

“So love” is hard to define, yet easy to recognize. We have all heard countless stories like these. We have all heard countless stories of “so love” because humanity, made in the image of a so loving God, is also capable of “so love”. And as I came to this realization I began to wonder, not whether or not we so love, because we all so love. But I began to wonder what do we so love? For example:

There was a loyal husband and father of four who was convicted of embezzlement. It is the scandal of the small country church. The congregation whispered for months “Can you believe the finance officer has stolen thousands of dollars from our church?? From us?? Hadn’t we always wondered how he lived so lavishly?” Meanwhile the innocent wife and children slowly withdraw and eventually leave the church, completely unnoticed. What do we so love? Our money or our neighbors?

Untold numbers of men, women, teenagers, and children get hooked on drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling or countless other things every day because they are looking to fill a void. And we turn our back on them. We decide they aren’t the kind of people we want around. They might steal from us, or mess up our building, or perhaps we are worried that just by having them around somehow our own family and friends might be infected by them. What do we so love? Our comfort zones or our neighbors?

As you can tell from these stories, as well as the stories from your own lives, so love is an incredibly powerful thing. In fact, it is so powerful that it transforms us. Sometimes slowly and imperceptibly, little by little, and other times we are transformed quickly by leaps and bounds. But fast or slow, so love is transforming.

The verse doesn’t just say that God so loved the world, it says God so loved the world that God sent God’s one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Many wonderful, deeply religious, well-meaning, well-intending people have used this verse to tell others that if they would only believe in Jesus Christ all their sins would be forgiven and they would be able to escape hell and spend a blissful eternity in heaven. But to reduce this verse to simply what happens after we die is to miss the point entirely.

In the Gospel of John, eternal life is used to describe a change in life caused by belief in Jesus. Eternal life is used to describe not simply a long period of time but rather continually living in the presence of God. Eternal life isn’t about just about knowing where we go after we die, It’s about the here and now, it’s about being willing to enter into the presence of God and to live our transformed lives there. Eternal life starts now, in the present. It’s about being willing to accept the invitation to believe and to share in the life of a loving relational God.

The invitation to believe is an invitation to be transformed by so love. God intends to transform the world with so love. God intends to redeem the world with so love. That’s why God sent Jesus in the first place. That’s why Jesus’ ministry was so profound and provocative because he lived a life of so love. This transforming power of so love is why we try to emulate Jesus, it’s why we come to church, it’s why we put so much time, energy, and effort into ushering in the kingdom of God, it is because we hope to transform ourselves and the world through God’s so love.

The offer of new life that Jesus extends to Nicodemus flows out of God’s abundant love for the world. God so loved the world, and Jesus, the son of God, the incarnation and personification of God’s love also so loved the world. Jesus’ embodiment of so love is what made his life and ministry so profound. It is what makes his words still resonate with us even today.

But this offer of new life, is an invitation to new life that begins right now. We don’t have to wait till we die to experience the new life offered by Jesus. Because Jesus is more than salvation from death. Jesus is an incredible example of the transforming power of so love, right now. Just take a look around. See how far reaching the effect of his so love is. Hundreds of denominations created, hundreds of thousands of churches in existence, millions of lives touched in one way or another, a world in the process of transformation. And while none of us are the savior of the world, we all hold this transforming power of so love because we are all made in the image of a so loving God.

We all so love something. It’s a love that transforms us and overflows into the world around us. But here’s the thing. What we so love determines how we are transformed. When we so love money we become more and more like the tax collectors. When we so love theology we become more and more like the Pharisees. When we so love our comfort zones we become more and more conformed to society around us. But when we so love God, when we choose to be born anothen, to be born again and to be born from above, we become more and more like Christ. When we so love our neighbors we allow the love of God to permeate our lives so fully that it shines out of us and transforms the world around us.

During this season of lent, as you consider the things that tempt you, I encourage you to remember this: For God so loved the world. For God so loves us.

What do we so love?

Amen.

Homecomings

The following is a sermon I preached tonight at the Ash Wednesday Service on Joel 2:1-2, 12-17:

Homecomings

In recent years, I have begun to receive invitations to my High School reunions. And with those invitations to reunions, I have experienced the mixed bag of emotions that goes along with it. For some people, going to reunions is an activity that is eagerly looked forward to. They want to see all their friends, they want to catch up with people and be caughten up with. For others, reunions are preceded by intense dieting, strenuous exercise programs, frantic calls to find a date, and generally just large amounts of stress. They worry about what people will think of them and whether or not they lived up the expectations others had for them. But my guess is that most people, experience a mixture of these emotions. There’s excitement to see how people are doing, and the chance to reconnect with old friends. But that is also mixed with a bit of nervousness, a bit of wanting to impress people with how far you’ve come in life and how much you’ve accomplished. Reunions are indeed a mixed bag of emotions

These various emotions associated with reunions and homecomings are due to the underlying process of rediscovery. As we are intentional about gathering together and seeking out one another, we find that time and circumstance has changed us. We have each become new and different people than we were years ago. We have learned and grown, made mistakes, been hurt, our passions and priorities have changed and we are only a shadow of our past selves.

When we change, our relationships also change. The change in us changes the way we perceive others. It changes the way we understand the world around us, and this new perception and understanding alters how we choose to interact with others. But we often don’t recognize this change in ourselves, because it is gradual and happens over time, so we don’t realize how much we’ve actually changed until we get together with someone we haven’t seen in awhile. And then we find that the process of rediscovering who they are, leads us to rediscovering who we are.

This process of rediscovery is what we are invited to during the season of lent. Lent is a time when we are invited to be intentional about rediscovering God and ourselves. In Joel we hear God’s earnestly invitation for us to come to a reunion, we hear God earnestly calling us home. Listen again to verse 13: Return to the Lord your God, for [God] is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relents from punishing. What a wonderful invitation to return to God, to come to a reunion with God.

When Joel spoke these words to the Israelites, there was a famine in the land. People were hurting, and hungry. Some scholars believe the Israelites must have sinned and brought this destruction upon themselves, that this destruction is actually punishment from God. Other scholars point to the lack of any direct accusation of sin in the text to suggest that the Israelites sin is not to blame for this famine. The debate is not whether or not the Isrealites sinned. The Israelites were sinful to be sure. We all are. We all have moments where we don’t live up to the standards God has set for us. The presence of sin in this situation is not in questions. Rather, the debate here is whether or not this destruction, this famine, is punishment from God for the Israelites’ sin. Some scholars say yes, others say no. We certainly have biblical support for both sides of the debate. And we have support for both sides of the debate in our own lives. We know that our own brokenness and hurtful actions have consequences, that we hurt ourselves and those around us when we act in inappropriate and selfish ways. But we also know that not all destruction can be contributed to the sins of people. Sometimes disaster strikes in our individual and corporate lives and we are left wondering what is to blame. And we know the bad things certainly do happen to good people.

I personally think it’s a good thing that the text is ambiguous about the cause of the famine. It allows this text to touch and speak to more people. Whether or not the people’s sin has accounted for the famine, God sees the hurt and hunger of the people. And God calls out to them, inviting them to rediscover who God is. Regardless of if you are experiencing the hurt and brokenness that sin causes in your life, or if you are hurting from things way beyond your control, God calls you and invites you to rediscover who God is. God hasn’t changed. God is still gracious and merciful. God is still slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God hasn’t changed but the people have. The Israelites are not the same as they were last year, and so God invited them to come home, to rediscover who God is.

Like the Israelites, we are not the same as we were last year. We have changed and so our understanding of God and our relationship with God has also changed, even though God is still the same. So each year we are invited to intentionally rediscover who God is. We start our journey in lent with reflecting on our current understanding of God, because it is through knowing God, that we come to know ourselves. It is in rediscovering God that we rediscover who we are called to be. And it is through relationship with God that we are able to come to terms with the tension between who we are and who we are called to be.

As a result, Lent is also a time to reflect on who we have become. We are asked to be honest with ourselves about the areas of our lives that have changed. And in light of our new understanding of God, we are asked to be honest with ourselves about what areas in our life we need to change. Because all of us still have growing to do, all of us are still trying to rediscover and live into the image of God within us.

So as we set out on our journey of rediscovery, we are given a physical sign, a physical reminder of our identity to help guide us in the process. We are marked with a cross of ashes. The ashes come from burning last year’s palm branches. On the one hand, they remind us of our own mortality. They remind us that we are formed by God from the dust and one day our bodies will return to dust. But the ashes also remind us how quickly our Palm Sunday praises fade into shouts of condemnation. They remind us that we still have sin in our lives. That we still act in ways that are contrary to what God wills for us.

But the ashes also help us remember our baptism. Like the water or oil that was used in your baptism, the ashes are placed in the sign of the cross on our foreheads. The ashes make the cross visible for us to be reminded that we have been incorporated into the body of Christ. The visible cross reminds us that we children of God and we have been incorporate in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This visible cross calls us to be continually striving to live more fully into the image of God within us. These ashes are for us a visible reminder of the tension between who we are and who we are called to be.

So tonight, and during these six-weeks of Lent, I invite you to intentionally come home. Return to God and rediscover who you are.

Amen.