Destination Galilee?

Easter 2009, April 2009

Mark 16:1-8 with I Corinthians 15:1-11 and Isaiah 25:6-9 in the b.g.

The women were looking. Nor was their looking mindless. They were also feeling, thinking, remembering – him. But he had been killed – in such a way, with such haste – literally ripped from their hearts and minds. Now because they love him, they are on their way to his tomb. They are going to do what needs to be done, what they so desperately wanted to do, the only thing they still think they can do. They are bringing spices. They are going to personally care for his dead body.

 

Have you ever been on that kind of a journey – doing what little you could  – all that you could for a friend who was dying, for a loved one whose mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter has died? Have you ever been on that kind of a journey to be with one you deeply care for – whose marriage has just ended – or whose job has just been eliminated? Friends, people who care, make those journeys whatever their personal feelings,  thoughts – because they care. Friends, loved ones, seek out the others who are in pain, who are suffering loss, whose cherished ones have died.

 

So, in the wee hours of that morning the women – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome are making their way to Jesus' tomb. They haven't worked it all out yet. How can you? The power of death is like that. It opens whole new realities for us – and closes, no, literally slams other doors shut. They would never hear his voice again, feel the touch of his hand on their face, meet his eyes – observe him eating with others, that they would have kept away from… Now they are nearing the tomb. Practical questions begin to emerge. Who will roll the stone away from the entrance? No answer. There are so many unanswerables. Still, they keep on moving – because they are looking for him, doing what little they can.

 

Now they are there, at the tomb. Finally, if only for just a moment they look up. Amazingly, the stone has been moved. They can enter. They can do what they have come to do. What a relief. They step forward. But He isn't there! His body has vanished. Instead, there is a young man, clothed in white. He already knows why they have come. "Don't be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus, who was crucified." Yes, all of that's true! The young man proceeds –with words that resonate in the depths of their being: "He has been raised. He is not here!"

 

Do we dare look – I mean really LOOK?

 

What are you looking for in life? Success, ease, friends, purpose, hope, merely survival, a warm-weather holiday? I cannot and do not  know what you are looking for. You may not even know yourself.

 

But the women know. They come out of love to this place of his death. Their hearts are broken. They had hoped – and their hopes have been dashed. Jesus had been killed, eliminated by an empire and people that did what empires, nations and many people have always sought to do. If someone gets in your way, espouses something that threatens you or your security, your place in the scheme of things – overcome them; and if they persist eliminate them. Ah, yes death- be done with that person and move on! Ah yes, but doesn't death and its power come to all of us claiming us in so many ways – and eventually, ultimately?

 

That's what the women thought. They weren't dumb. They knew about life. In spite of their love for Jesus he had been killed. He is dead just as surely as they are alive. And so, they come with spices looking for Jesus' dead body.

 

We aren't dumb either. Most of us know a thing or two about life. At some level we realize that even though we may attempt to avoid the power of death and death's agents of hatred and greed, it's forerunners of closing ourselves off from vulnerability and love, that sooner or later death will come and place it's claim on us. We try so hard to avoid death. We are tempted to run towards any kind of promise aimed to make us look younger, even sometimes towards surgical procedures. Entire industries are devoted to our attempts to deny the reality of death. Regardless, DEATH STILL COMES.  And that's it….

 

The women knew this too. At least until that morning when love compelled them to look for Jesus' dead body. That young man gave them the most incredible news. Some still cliam that his news was and is far from credible. He proclaims it anyway: "Jesus is not here. He has been raised!"

 

Could the women take this in? Even as they were standing there, even as we are sitting here, can we take such news in? The young man moves beyond the incredible to call the women to action. "Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him, just as he told you."

 

Now their minds and hearts must have been racing. Galilee – that place where so many of their group had come from. They are to go back there and see him? How can, how could any of this be true?

 

Mark gives us the women's immediate reaction. Who could blame them? Who knows if we would have acted any differently? "So the women went out and fled from the tomb, for TERROR and AMAZEMENT had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid". Nothing, nada, squat!

 

Terror had seized them. What if it was – what if it is true? Jesus has been raised from the dead! Then the powers of empire, of all the powers that wreak hatred and death, hopelessness and despair, that shout might is right and do as I say or die struggle, none of these powers individually nor collectively could hold Jesus. Oh, yes they conspired to kill him. In that regard they succeeded. BUT, they couldn't hold him. He couldn't be kept forever in that death holding container. Now He goes ahead of the disciples back to where they came from, back to where they need to live and move and have their being. If they dare go there, they will see Him.

 

Do we dare go to Galilee? Galilee isn't only north of Jerusalem. Galilee is also in Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver Island. Galilee is in our homes and places of work. Galilee is Darfur, Iraq and the Downtown East side. Galilee is where our marriages, our relationships with those we love, with those we so terribly struggle with are lived.

 

Jesus is no longer dead. God has raised Him. Because Jesus is alive God wants us to look for him, to follow him, to trust him in all that we say, do and think. Death – our own death and the death of those we love; the powers of death that seek to claim us and our relationships, that try to convince us that neither we nor anything can change, all these powers still kick and scream trying to have their way with us. However in raising Jesus GOD DEFEATS SUCH DEATH giving us a foretaste of the feast to come. Even now God is working to ultimately defeat the powers of death.

 

So, God calls us to trust Jesus, to keep on looking for him, not as one who is dead, or who was only an amazing historical person –but as the risen living God in the flesh who reaches out to care for and free all people and all creation from the powers of death right now. 

 

This morning if we are only looking for things that don't have the ability to go at least 6 feet under, if we are hoping to keep things the way they are, we are of all people most to be pitied. Listen to the young man in the tomb. Dare to go to all our Galilees. We are promised that as we go trusting the One who has been raised, that we will meet Him. He is alive! Because He lives we too can live.

 

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! ALLELUIA! 

Cross Eyed

 

Good Friday, April 10, 2009

(John 19; with Isaiah 52:13-53:12 & Hebrews 10:16 – 25 as b.g.)

 

John 19:16 – 18 - Then they handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him with two others, one on either side with Jesus between them.

 

 

Handed over to violence. So it was with Jesus. It wasn't atheists, people who don't believe in any God, who hand Jesus over to such violence. It wasn't only people engrossed in the worldly realm of politics and the military that hand Jesus over. It was both groups TOGETHER.

 

Nor are the accounts of Jesus' death mere history. They are also very much accounts about us, you and me. As Barbara Brown Taylor (a very fine preacher) puts it, Jesus' crucifixion places us directly in front of a mirror. While in the company of the religious leaders of Jesus' time and place we also see ourselves. They don't want change. They love things the way they are. They have rules and regulations in which they have invested themselves. They are convinced that such rules and regulations have come from God. During the process of Jesus' trial and crucifixion we see that the religious leaders will do anything to maintain their privileged status. In John's Gospel we hear them directly telling Pilate that they have no king, no lord, no number one authority other than the emperor/Caesar. They are even willing to turn their back on God to maintain the status quo. Such action is reprehensible.

 

But, do we see any part of ourselves in them? Do we allow others to experience violence or neglect while we invest ourselves in maintaining our privilege? Do we turn our backs on Jesus, so that others will not think of us as being weird, odd or different? For what or for whom will we die? We are so quick to parade our sports teams, maybe even our political allegiance. But dare we tell others of Jesus and his deep abiding love FOR THEM?

 

Do we ourselves seek to know Jesus and his deep abiding love by developing the discipline it takes to actually know someone. Knowing someone involves spending regular time with them in conversation, both listening and speaking. And if we do any of that are we then open to God's Spirit writing on our hearts and minds, doing a makeover in which we will be moved to show and tell others of this great God, of God's love for them? Would we be willing to sacrifice at least some or all of our comfort and ease so that others too may experience the very deep love and provision of God for this world?

 

My God, don't we realize that even now sons and daughters of God are being killed or at the very least given over to violence in streets and parks, at home and other places in the world?  Some of these sisters and brothers dare to decry their abuse, who have the audacity and courage to try to change it are frequently given over to further violence themselves, sometimes on trumped up charges.

 

Today of all days we must see that Jesus is handed over to violence. In John's Gospel Jesus carries the cross by himself, to The Place of the Skull. For John absolutely no one but Jesus is capable of taking on the forces of darkness, evil, hatred, and death without resorting to them himself/herself. So it is that Jesus goes out carrying the cross by himself.

 

We need to thank God that He does. But shame, shame on us, that even now Jesus still needs to carry the cross by Himself.

 

Please look closer. It is on that cross Jesus carries that the Word of God, the Light of the world, the Good Shepherd is executed Be quiet. Watch. Listen. Absorb

 

John's gospel tells us: "When Jesus had received the wine, he said, 'It is finished.' Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

 

Finished! Is this THE END? In some ways it is, absolutely, the end. Jesus has come into this world to shine God's blinding light: God's light of love reveals the darkness both within ourselves and beyond ourselves. This light of God hanging on the cross, handed over to the power of violence, hatred, greed and fear, illumines our desperate need to be freed of all of that. If we are to love and care, to trust and obey God in sharing this love, this forgiveness, an abiding hope in the face of the powers of darkness and death regardless of the personal risk, we need to be freed. In hanging on the cross Jesus shows us, gives us, all people and all creation such love, such freedom.

 

St. Paul conveys this when he says that NOTHING, not anything in life or death or in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. We need to behold Jesus on the cross to believe this. God refuses to exempt God's self from our suffering or any suffering. As followers of Jesus neither will we.

 

In all these ways as Jesus dies He has fulfilled his calling. Thanks be to God!

 

But violence, death and evil, selfishness and greed – all these things within us and beyond us, are still "kicking", still trying to defeat God, still working to convince us that Jesus' way of emptying himself, of being willing to suffer and die, to actually love the world and all its people as God's Son can not be the way for us. These powers that the Bible calls "darkness" seek to have their way with us. Too often they do. They want us to give up, to deliver Jesus, to allow his sons and daughters His creation over to violence, to the path of least resistance, to the snares of darkness and ultimate death.

 

Do we dare stand, kneel, fall at the foot of the cross today? By God's grace we can! It really matters that we do. As we do, we glimpse Jesus. He hangs there for us and for the world. From His cross, He reaches out to our minds and hearts, claiming them. Someday his mission will ultimately be fulfilled. He will draw all people to Himself. But in the meantime may we be among those who are drawn, who by God's grace follow and trust him. We do not need to be given over to violence or to allowing the powers of darkness and death to paralyze us. At the cross of Jesus we begin to see that the last word, the lasting Word, is neither death nor life – but God, who inspite of ourselves reaches out to embrace us!    Amen.

Marking our Calendar

Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2009

Lessons: Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26 and John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sitz im leben – Horrible earthquake in Italy. At least 150 people have died. There are over 70,000 more who are homeless. Locally the murder of Ms. Ladner-Beaudry in Pacific Spirit Park hovers over our consciousness. Continually there is the ongoing reality of homeless people all over Canada and the world. There is the ongoing reality of relationships gone bad, breaking of trust. And there is the reality of economy, of G20, of the IMF and the World Bank. In whom do we trust?

Tonight we are in the Three Days.

 

Time – is a 5 letter word. I wonder, can you tell time? Of course you can! But how do we "tell" time?

 

In the Exodus reading God commands the people of Israel to become very intentional about their "telling" of time. Listen in: "This month shall mark for you the beginning of months, the first month of the year for you".  The month referred to is the month of the Passover. But God, here speaking to Moses and Aaron, through the collective memory of oral tradition isn't just naming January or February or even Nissan as the first month on a calendar so that we can tell time by flipping pages of parchment. Oh no! Here the people of Israel are being told, even commanded to remember their beginnings, to continually know and be reminded of what comes first, what takes priority in any and all of their telling of time.

 

They and we need to know that the Passover, the deliverance of the people of Israel from any and all slavery and bondage in Egypt is not something that the people accomplished. No! The deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt is something God does, completely and totally on God's own initiative.

 

Nor is this Passover to be only a historical remembrance. The people of Israel are being called to remember that God alone is the One who delivers them from slavery – any and all kinds of slavery. Such slavery, such bondage can take on many different forms. It can be political or military in its origins. It can also be economic, initiating feelings, a compulsion to always see more, as if we don't ever have enough. Such slavery can even be spiritual including the fear of or obsession with death and its many forms. We may even be seduced into denying for now the power of death. 

 

It is in the midst of this reality, the human condition, that the people of Israel are commanded to begin their calendars by remembering and retelling God's deliverance of them in the Passover. This remembering is not just an intellectual act of memory. In the retelling of God's action upon their lives in the Passover they are actually to reflect on what God's deliverance means for them now! It is through such "remembering" they will be enabled to actually read life.  And life begins with God's deliverance!  

 

How about us? How do we, how are we telling time? In digital seconds? By flipping pages on a calendar or mentally numbering years, decades, even centuries? If that's the way we tell time, we can so easily find ourselves in big trouble. Through such simple marking of time we will observe and experience both wonder and awe, excitement and depression, hope that fades, as well as terrible disappointment. Historically we must note that every empire regardless of its size has crumbled. Even now more are crumbling, both international political, military and financial empires.

 

Tonight we gather as  followers of Jesus to hear of his ancestors being told by God how they are to tell time. For them telling time is always to begin with remembering God's deliverance of their people from slavery in Egypt and then to reflect on how even now God is working to deliver them. They are to "tell" time together as a community, sharing food and while telling the story of God's deliverance of them. The lamb is to be eaten completely. No one is to be excluded or go hungry. How counter-cultural such a command is  to our individualism, to our propensity to gravitate towards the "survival of the fittest".

 

In our second lesson we hear St. Paul chastising the Corinthian Christian community because in their celebration of the Lord's Supper they were excluding people.  Not everyone received the same amount of bread or wine. In such practice the Corinthian Christians were acquiescing to the surrounding culture. That culture proclaimed loudly and ever so clearly that some are more important than others. Paul says that in Jesus Christ, and His death, this is not true! The power of the Lord's death is part and parcel of what joins us to each other in His body. There everyone is very important. 

 

And finally in our Gospel lesson we see Jesus do what in his time is the unthinkable. He washes others feet! Here is literal truth. Here also is deeper truth in metaphor. Jesus commands His followers to love each other even as He loves them. As He says this He rises to try to show them how deep His love is.

 

In John's Gospel  Jesus is viewed as the Passover lamb. Through Jesus God works to deliver all people from the many forces of evil that work to enslave and kill. These are the very powers of death.

 

It is Maundy Thursday. As the body of Christ we are commanded to work at telling time by who Jesus is and by what He does. He is to be the One who defines, starts, enables and brings to completion all times as we know them, in such a way that we are delivered from the powers of death being agents of His new life! May we obey his commands to tell time in this way. By God's grace we can continually experience the grace of Christ's deliverance and so be enabled to love each other.  Amen.