I Have Seen The Lord!

“I have seen the Lord!”
John 20:1-18
March 23, 2008
Easter Sunrise

During the last seven weeks leading up to today, we have been busy preparing to celebrate the pivotal point of our faith. We call this holy collection of moments Lent. It is a time that is pregnant with symbols. Ashes are placed quietly on foreheads. Penitent acts of sacrifice such as fasting are accomplished. Additional devotional studies take place. Palm branches get waved. A meal of wine and bread is shared. Feet get washed and feet with nails driven through them are remembered as the collective memory of broken hearts is experienced.

All of it leading up to a radiant sunrise; an empty cross and an empty tomb. This is Easter… the day of resurrection.

However, all of the preparation… and none of the symbols mean a thing… without developing a relationship with the one they point to - Jesus Christ. The symbols are empty if we fail to experience what the "new" covenant through Christ is all about.

Quite simply… It is about God's unconditional love for us.

And when we grasp the reality of God’s unconditional love we become whole. We can become, as Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, "a new creation."

"...If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation...”

I would offer that no one else in scripture has experienced with such depth the one we call The Christ, and no one else in scripture has understood how transforming, God’s unconditional love can be, than Mary Magdalene. Here was a woman who had experienced Jesus first hand. She had been healed of demons, cared for and fed Jesus and the disciples, even paying their expenses. She suffered with Mary the mother of Jesus as the Christ was nailed to the cross. Followed as Christ was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb, returned to discover that death had been beaten and was the one to whom Christ first appeared.
Oh, to have been her!

To have experienced a fraction of the emotions and to have witnessed even one of the miracles that she had experienced in knowing Jesus. What a transforming event that would be.

Mary Magdalene - now there is a name that conjures up a variety of images! Hair that is long and in total disarray, clothes that are too revealing and usually torn, or at the very least a little dirty. Hollywood and Sunday school classes have done a real number on her image, building upon years of speculation and unfounded interpretation. Through those years, she has gotten the reputation of being a whore, and one who is wasteful of precious perfume. She has been offered up as the kind of person that we would just as soon not be around. At least… not if any one else might find out about it.

It's interesting, and quite sad, how we attach certain stigmas to people, without really knowing them. Interesting, also, how we place people in a role or group, assuming we have an insight as to their worth. We judge their financial, intellectual, or even spiritual worth, without even speaking to them. It is kind of like carrying around a black box in our heads, into which we drop either a white marble or black marble, voting yes or no to accept them. Trying to keep it secret how we voted, but making it very clear by our actions toward them that they don't quite fit into our world concept.

I happen to think Mary, the woman from Magdela, has gotten a raw deal from the press and from us. Nowhere, in the Bible, does it say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. In point of fact, the Bible really doesn't say much at all about her. What we have done is assume certain stories are about her; like the story of the woman in Luke 7:36-39.

Luke 7:36-39 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner."


Another story also accuses a Mary of wasting precious oil, pouring it on the feet of Jesus. It can be found in John 12:1-8, but that is Mary the sister of Martha. You may remember that they are the sisters of Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead. You can read about Lazarus in John chapter 11. It is the Bible's version of "Return of the Mummy." But it doesn't shed any light on the Mary we are seeking to know.

The fact is we have no idea who Mary Magdalene was, or what she has been. The glimpse we get, however, through a few short comments found in the scripture, is who she has been freed up to be.

Matthew records those who kept vigil, while Jesus hung on the cross: None of the male disciples were present, but chapter 27 verse 55 reports "There were many women there...among who were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee." In Mark 16:9 we read that after the resurrection, "[Jesus] appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons." And in John 20:18, part of the reading for today, "Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, `I have seen the Lord.'"

We may not have a clue as to her previous identity, but we are given some very powerful images of how she lived out her faith, after having experienced the One-who-transforms.

In all of the stories about that first Easter morning, and the events leading up to it, Mary Magdalene is the one constant presence throughout Jesus’ ordeal. Yes, she saw Jesus. But even more important is to realize that no matter what had occurred in her past - real or imagined by others, whether there had been seven or seven hundred demons, Jesus saw her. Jesus saw her. Jesus accepted her and trusted her enough to come to her first, as the risen Christ. Trusted her enough, to send her to the others and proclaim that God was not dead, but alive!

Oh, to have been her!

But wait a moment.

Aren't we in the position to experience Jesus with the eyes of Mary Magdalene? Aren't you and I modern day Magdalenes having struggled with our own demons? Some of us have battled far more than seven demons. Some, if not most of us, are still struggling? Haven't we too battled the assumptions and preconceived images of who we are that have been placed on us by others and even by ourselves? And aren't we continually being offered God's accepting, transforming Grace, through Jesus Christ?

Even though the others at first didn't believe her, Mary was the absolute best one for the Risen Christ to first appear to. She could share the Good News because she had lived it. She had lived the relationship that the symbols point to.

What about you? Have you experienced the relationship that these symbols point to? Have you experienced the Good News of God's accepting Grace? Have you experienced the power of the resurrection? I tell you today that your sins are not only forgiven - they're forgotten. The stone blocking you from a life of wholeness has been moved.

The full impact of the Easter message can only be shared with others by someone who has lived it, someone who has lived the story like Mary of Magdela… someone who has lived the story like you and me. Reminiscent of Mary we too are being sent to others to share the message that Jesus lives and because Jesus lives we too can live! Like Mary Magdalene, we too can say that “We have seen the Lord.” We too can share in the joy of the risen Lord.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, Jesus lives!

It's Friday

Are You Amazed?

March 20th Sermon
Holy Thursday
John 13:1-15

We are here to tonight to remember the one who transformed all of creation through a love that was amazing. A love that was amazing, because it so completely disregarded conventional ways of being in relationship.

The amazing love that Jesus lived ignored the hierarchal relationships that nations and businesses so relied on to keep people subjugated… controlled.

The amazing love that Jesus lived overlooked the patriarchal relationships that would treat women and children as chattel to be used or abused at the discretion of the head of the household.

The amazing love that Jesus lived confronted the notion of a ruler who would take unhealthy advantage of leadership and transformed it into the concept of the servant leader.

Jesus completely disregarded the conventional ways of being in relationship that placed power over another as the ultimate goal and offered a relationship of love that gave up any pretext of power. Are you amazed?

Here is how the story goes:

On a Thursday, less than a day before the harsh sound of nails being pounded into a rude cross were heard around the world, Jesus gathered with his closest followers in a large, borrowed, upstairs room, somewhere in the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The machinery of murder was already moving toward an isolated garden overlooking Jerusalem. Judas had already committed himself to a path different than his fellow sojourners. Common people, sniffing the winds of rumor with animal accuracy, were not ignorant of the hostilities roused by Jesus of Nazareth. The man was a fugitive and those who followed him put themselves at risk.

Yet they still gathered together during the tenuous security that night offered, to break bread together, to worship, and to continue learning amazing things from this fugitive.

Over their roughly three years together, this irregular group of miscreants had indeed been amazed. Wonders beyond imagination had taken place. The religious elite had been exposed for the hypocrites they were; outcasts had been welcomed into a community that really cared; leprous untouchables were touched in ways that made then whole; even the dead had been brought back to life and everyone was amazed.

So what words would Jesus share with them on this holy night? What insights might be gleaned from this rebel, as together they shared in the paschal feast and remembered how God delivered the Jews from bondage, so long ago. Would they too be delivered from the yoke of persecution and was this indeed "The One" - the Messiah? How would they be amazed in that “upper room?”

The Bible suggests that Jesus knew everything rested on the way he might respond to the disciples on that momentous night. The Bible suggests Jesus knew his hour of humiliation was near, and that he knew his hour of glory was near. Awareness like that can be dangerous and cause a person to be filled with pride. It would have been easy for Jesus to turn the revolution in another direction - a direction that even Judas would have approved of. The officials could still be avoided and the mass of people in Jerusalem, directed to destroy Rome. There was still time to misuse the power of the times in conventional ways: to control.

Power can be a dangerous commodity and Jesus knew that his teaching on this pregnant evening would have its most profound effect. So… filled with the knowledge of the power and glory that were his; aware that he could control and use the anger of the other twelve in that borrowed, upper room; poised with the knowledge that could make him the King of all kings...

...he washed their feet.

That's right; Jesus washed his disciple’s feet! At the moment he might have had supreme pride, he had supreme humility. At the moment he could have used absolute power for absolute gain, he became the absolute servant. The same night in which he was betrayed he cared for the needs of others. Confused? Does it seem like a contradictory action? Are you amazed?

Then you are not unlike the others gathered around the table that night.

The love Jesus expressed is utterly unaccountable - except that he is God and God is love. It has no cause in us. It reacts to, or repays, or rewards nothing in us. It is beyond human measure, beyond human comprehension. It is amazing.

That night, so long ago, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. And they were amazed.

Sometimes we feel that to be a Footwasher is beneath us. The disciples certainly felt that, but not Jesus. Even knowing that he was Lord of all he washed his disciples’ feet. What a lesson for the disciples and for us. It's just not the lesson the disciples were expecting and it's not an easy lesson for us to put to practical use.

You see, it's hard to be a foot washer in this world. It ranks right up there with changing sheets in a nursing home or spending time with aids patients. It is smelly and at times dangerous. It is a job that has low reward, low status, is hard work, and puts you too darn close to the rest of humanity. It is work that no one wants to do because it tends to put people in either a one up or a one down position.

Foot washing is the intentional reaching out to others in service. Not because you want to feel better about yourself, or because you deem yourself to be superior. Not because you have been a victim and don’t know how to change. Foot washing, is only effective when done as modeled by Jesus – when it is done with love that is both intentional and authentic.
More uncomfortable than being a Footwasher, however, is having your feet washed by someone else. Just ask tough ole Simon Peter. He wasn't nicknamed Rock just for the heck of it. Strong, secure in who he was, capable at whatever he set his mind too, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound - you know the type. The Rock was a regular superman. No way was he going to allow Jesus to just wash his feet - that would imply a dependency on someone else; a weakness. He would do more than what was asked which would show his strength.

So, in response to Jesus' saying, "Either this or nothing," Rock had to boast, "Then wash my hands and head too." You see he wasn't going to be outdone; it was like being double-dared. Rock was going to show Jesus just how loyal he was. Rock was going to show Jesus that he regarded him as the Christ and would do anything for the kingdom. Rock was going to show Jesus just how much power Rock possessed.

But Simon Peter was letting his own agenda get in the way. He was letting that old record play over and over. "I need to be the one in control, can't let anyone appear more capable than me." Sound familiar?

Peter just didn't seem to get it. Didn't seem to understand what Jesus was doing. Wouldn't, in fact, understand where the real source of power was until a few days later. Simon Peter, "The Rock," had to experience Jesus washing his feet, had to experience his own denial of Jesus, had to experience the empty tomb, and had to experience the unconditional, accepting love of Jesus the Christ, before he could finally understand true power. Peter was then amazed.

How about you? Are you amazed by the experience of Jesus in your life?

Tonight we re-enact that Foot washing event, as we wash each others hands, and we remember the "Mandatum Novum" or new commandment that Jesus gave to Peter... and us:
"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

I invite each of you to find a relationship of strength and peace with Jesus Christ. I invite you to be amazed.

Nourishment

nour·ish·ment /ˈnɜrɪʃmənt, ˈnʌr-/ [nur-ish-muhnt, nuhr-] –noun
1. something that nourishes; food, nutriment, or sustenance.
2. the act of nourishing.
3. the state of being nourished.
4.a process, system, method, etc., of providing or administering nourishment: a treatise on the nourishment of international trade.
[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME norysshement]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Nourishment is more than just caring for the body. There is also nourishment for the soul. That's why I love cooking. When I cook it becomes nourishment for both the body and the soul. And not only for me, also for those I cook for. It's the total package.

This is a picture of tonight's supper. Portobello stuffed, pep-a-dew pepper ravioli on a bed of blanched yellow, green, and red peppers with a pesto of cilantro, pecans, and garlic. The slaw is cabbage, carrots, ginger and Robusto Italian dressing.

The creative side of me was nourished as I cooked and plated the food. My need to care for my wife Sue was nourished as I watched her enjoy the meal. My body was nourished as I enjoyed the meal. And my soul was nourished as I listened to jazz, sliced, diced, and let go of the angst of life.

Cooking is, for me, the total package and my sabbath. My nourishment.

“Miracles Beyond Reason or... Living With Noisy Stones”

March 16th Sermon
Luke 19:28-40

You know, there are some events in life that are just so remarkable and so joyous and so needed, that no matter what reality might say to the contrary, they are going to happen.


Take the story of eleven year-old Angela, as told by Hanoch McCarty:

“Angela was stricken with a debilitating disease involving her nervous system. She was unable to walk and her movement was restricted in other ways as well. The doctors did not hold out much hope of her ever recovering from this illness. They predicted she’d spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. They said that few, if any, were able to come back to normal after contracting this disease. The little girl was undaunted. There, lying in her hospital bed, she would vow to anyone who’d listen that she was definitely going to be walking again someday.

She was transferred to a specialized rehabilitation hospital in the San Francisco Bay area. Whatever therapies could be applied to her case were used. The therapists were charmed by her undefeatable spirit. They taught her about imaging - about seeing herself walking. If it would do nothing else, it would at least give her hope and something positive to do in the long waking hours in her bed. Angela would work as hard as possible in physical therapy, in whirlpools and in exercise sessions. But she worked just as hard lying there, faithfully doing her imaging, visualizing herself moving... moving... moving!

One day, as she was straining with all her might to imagine her legs moving again, it seemed as though a miracle happened: The bed moved! It began to move around the room! She screamed out, “Look what I’m doing! Look! Look! I can do it! I moved, I moved!”

Of course, at this very moment everyone else in the hospital was screaming, too, and running for cover. People were screaming, equipment was falling and glass was breaking. You see, it was the San Francisco earthquake that occurred a few years back. But don’t tell that to Angela. She’s convinced that she did it. And now only a few years later, she’s back in school. On her own two legs. No crutches, no wheelchair. You see, anyone who can shake the earth between San Francisco and Oakland can conquer a piddling little disease, can’t they?”

Beyond reason Angela was able to walk again. It was a remarkable, joyous, irrational event that needed to happen. It was a miracle beyond reason.

And isn’t that what we celebrate today. Hear us shout! Because of a remarkable, joyous, irrational event that occurred thousands of years ago we can be victorious in life today. A king with no apparent power, riding a donkey into the most powerful city of the time, set the stage for the most transformational and controversial event of eternity.

Without a doubt this was the moment that the people Israel had been waiting for. The messiah had arrived. Gathered outside the city on the Mount of Olives, the celebration began. As the procession wound down the mountain the crowd increased in number and in anticipation. Then, entering the gates, the frenzy of adulation became overwhelming. The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem could not be stopped.

The joy of the people, anticipating all that surely was going to happen with their new king could not be silenced. Now the Romans would get what was coming to them. Control this crowd? No way. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were crazy!

No one can stop the joy that comes when a person feels the release of one’s soul. No one can put down the elation felt when those imprisoned by the circumstances of life are offered even the slightest sense of hope. And the hope that was offered by Jesus to a people who were at the point of losing all hope caused such a joyous response, that if there was an attempt to stifle the words and actions of the people, it would seep out from even the lifeless rocks and stones. The very rocks and stones themselves would ooze joy and would start to sing! Hosanna! Hosanna!

In the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, Freeman Morgan is serving a life sentence for murder. He utters a line that speaks volumes to Tim Burton who is also serving a sentence for murder and is relatively new to the prison: (Show clip)

“Hope is dangerous for a prisoner.” A reference to the fact that for the “lifer,” hope would only cause insanity. Cause you ain’t getting out! For some, this world is a prison. A prison every bit as harsh and as filled with hopelessness as Shawshank Prison. When you see your circumstance as a prison... hope IS dangerous. When you live your life as a prisoner... hope IS dangerous.

But we are not prisoners, as Christians we know better. We are not prisoners....We are not “lifers...” We are “livers.” We have been given hope. We can live to the fullest because God’s presence through Jesus Christ has transformed us. Filled with the Holy Spirit we can wave our palm branches today even more fervently than those early believers because we know the entire story. While they could only celebrate an earthly king, we can celebrate the inspiration of hope given to us by a heavenly king.

Try as we might to be somber during this time of lent; try as hard as we can to grieve the one who died on the cross; try, with all humility, to bow our heads in sorrow as the stone is rolled across the tomb; we just can’t be made silent. We are the noisy rocks. The joy in our lives can’t be stopped from being expressed. Jesus is king. Hosanna! The Messiah is here. Hosanna! “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna! “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Hosanna!

The message that God loves us... is very much a part of us, gives us hope... can never be quieted. I know. I tried to quiet that message in my own life. In high school I felt called by God to somehow share the good news that Christ offers us. I was going to be a minister. A short way into my first year of college I tried to squelch that feeling. For thirteen years after that I hid the palm branches behind my back. For thirteen years I denied that Jesus was my king and had a use for me. But even in the lifeless stone that I had become, the noise and the joy had to come out.

There’s no way God will let us remain silent. There’s no way God will let us stagnant. There’s no way God will allow you... or me... or anyone else... to stop celebrating “The Life” in our lives. And at the point someone tries to tell us otherwise... why... even the very stones God created, will be pulled into the act of celebration.

That is why we exist as a church. We are called to shout the joy of Jesus Christ. We are called to become a church that is so remarkable, so irrational, so joyous, and so involved in sharing the good news that people can’t help but be transformed. Beyond all reason we exist and are here waving our palm branches. Hosanna.

We are in the midst of a miracle... Let me rephrase that. We are in the midst of miracles... remarkable, irrational, transforming, noisy rock miracles. The miracle of living, the miracle of relationship, the miracle of salvation in Jesus Christ, and today... gathering together as believers in the ministry of Jesus Christ, we are participating in the miracle of hope.
We are here to shout out the ways that God has blessed us through the presence of Jesus Christ... here to shout out the ways we have been blessed in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are here to give tangible evidence of the blessings of God. We are the noisy rocks and stones singing out the hosannas.

A Thin Place of Community

I'm sitting at a round, barstool-style table at Panera's Bread on a Friday morning. I'm writing this on my laptop while across from me, putting her laptop to creative use, is my wife Sue. Feels a bit like we are playing "Battleship."

I have long been a student of the coffeshop/cafe' movement. I experience it as a manifestation of the Kingdom of God. People, all sorts of different people, gathered in loose community. There are different agendas of course, but the low buzz is a comforting sound of relationships happening and wanting to happen.

What I wonder, as I observe the movements of life-interaction here, is why the Church struggles so to offer similar sanctuaries of comfort? It feels, at times, that our spaces to house our "religious" activities or way too much of a straight-row, dress-up, quiet-down, don't-enjoy-too-much, Sunday-morning-only, space. As opposed to being a "thin place" where the "veil" between the holy and the ordinary is thinnest.

Mindie Burgoyne writes: "Thin Places are ports in the storm of life, where the pilgrims can move closer to the God they seek, where one leaves that which is familiar and journeys into the Divine Presence. They are stopping places where men and women are given pause to wonder about what lies beyond the mundane rituals, the grief, trials and boredom of our day-to-day life. They probe to the core of the human heart and open the pathway that leads to satisfying the familiar hungers and yearnings common to all people on earth, the hunger to be connected, to be a part of something greater, to be loved, to find peace."

What if we were to marry the concept of the Church with that of the coffee cafe'? What would it look like if there was a thin place to stop for awhile and share in both the hopes and the travails of the journey with others?

Could it be the Church?

Just a thought,

P.C.

The Spirituality of The Blues

I find that some of the music of the blues shares a profund insight into the experince of the Holy. It is a viseral, intimate, get-down-in-the-dirt recounting of the experience of God.

Here are the lyrics for When Love Comes To Town - Written by U2 and performed by U2 and B.B. King

I was a sailor
I was lost at sea
I was under the waves before love rescued me.
I was a fighterI could turn on a thread but I stand accused of the things I've said.
When love comes to town I want to jump that train when loves come to town I want to catch that flame.

Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down but I did what I did before love came to town.
I used to make love under a red sunset I was making promises I was soon to forget.
She was pale as the lace of her wedding gown but I left her standing before love came to town.
When love comes to town I want to jump that train when loves come to town I want to catch that flame.

Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down but I did what I did before love came to town.
When I woke up I was sleeping on the street I felt the world was dancing and I was dirt beneath their feet.
When I looked up I saw the devil looking down but my Lord he played guitar the day love came to town.

I was there when they crucified my Lord I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword.
I threw the dice when they pierced his side but I've seen love conquer the great divide.
When love comes to town I want to jump that train when loves come to town.
-U2

So what is your story before love came to town? Who were you before you grabbed hold of the experience of God?

Just a thought,
P.C.

What Do You Thirst For?

Jesus said "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them." (John7:37-38)

I would suggest that there is in all of us a thirst for an experience of The Other. Our soul yearns for refreshment that can only come from God. Yet, we try and try again to get by with only that which we can provide ourselves. It is analogous to drinking from a stagnant pool that has no source of fresh water coming into it. We get sicker the longer we block the true source. Our resources dwindle.

As we enter more deeply into this time called Lent, allow the floodgates to be opened and invite the Holy Spirit to fill you... refresh you... renew every cell of your being with God's Presence.

Just a thought,

P.C.