The Good Shepherd and our re-dedication

      I warned 8 o’clockers that my sermon might sound like it was different at 10:30am.  Essentially, the message will be the same, but I do have the advantage at this service of having the Baptismal liturgy to remind better of some of what Jesus is teaching us today, informally known as Good Shepherd Sunday.  No doubt you could see all the references in our readings today, but Jesus’ instruction in John’s Gospel is almost as hard to miss as Psalm 23.

     The reading from John takes us back a few weeks into Lent.  Immediately preceding this instruction, the last instruction of those in the crowds in John’s Gospel, is the healing of the man born blind from birth.  Good, I see nods.  Jesus famously heals the man born blind as a testimony to the glory of God and to Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, the six of seven miracles included by John to convince us that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing in Him we can have life eternal.  The leadership throws the healed man out of the Temple, their version of excommunication, because he dares to lecture them about what Jesus has done.

     Though this takes place in the very next chapter, we are skipping ahead in time about three months.  We do not read the identifying verse in the way our lectionary editors break up this reading, but we learn in verse 22 that this all happens during what we think of as Hanukka or festival of Dedication.

     For those of us unaware of that Festival, it is the only festival of the intertestamental period, that time between the Old and New Testaments.  In the 160s BC, Israel, like most of the eastern Mediterranean, was under the control of influence of the Greeks.  Such had been the case since the time of Alexander the Great.  Some of the Jews were synchronists, meaning they wanted to get along with the ruling power, not unlike the Herodians who mostly defended Roman rule in the time of Jesus.  The oppressors had completely defiled the Temple in the eyes of many Jews.  Idols had been erected in the Temple of God; pigs had been slaughtered; and, in general, those in power sought to convince Israel not to worship their God.  That God was silent during this period made it a bit easier than normal for Israel to be led astray.

     In the 106s BC, though, there was a Maccabean revolt.  In 165BC, led by Judas Maccabeus, the revolt was largely successful and the Temple was rededicated.  Hanukkah is the Hebrew word that means dedication.  In the course of this rededication, those who were purifying the Temple discovered they had oil only for one day to keep the great Menorah and the Holy of Holies candelabra lit.  God keep the oil supplied for eight days, and the Maccabeans were able to convince Israel to add a memorial Festival marking God’s provision and favor at the effort to return to Him.  That is the cultural and historical background to the Jesus’ new instruction.  It is important to us today, and especially to Kai’s family as they vow in a bit to lead her to a right relationship with God.  But we will talk more about that in a minute.

     We also need to understand that Jesus is drawing on God’s prophesy in Isaiah 40 and in Ezekiel 34.  In the former, God uses the imagery of the shepherd to describe HIs relationship with His people Israel.  Shepherds were well known in the ANE, and kings used that cultural knowledge to describe their relationship with their subjects.  The kings wanted their people to think they needed the king for protection, for economic growth, and for general social stability.  God did want those for His people, and he used that image to describe His relationship to His people.  Ezekiel’s prophesy, however, was a woe to those who did not shepherd His people.  If you ever take the time to read the chapter, imagine yourself as the object of God’s criticism in that passage!  It should make any king or prophet or priest or anyone in Israel want to repent and treat people as instructed by God.  All of that is background to Jesus’ instruction.

     Jesus points out that that shepherds enter through the gate.  Anyone entering by any means other than the gate are thieves and bandits.  Whether the flock is family sized or corporate sized, those who own the sheep, or rightfully hired by the owner, enters through gates.  They are the shepherds.  Jesus goes on to remind those listening that the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd.  Then Jesus describes the intimate relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.  The shepherd calls the sheep by name and leads them out.

     We live in a society that has mostly forgotten our agrarian roots and wisdom.  Most of us would be shocked to think that sheep, which we think are stupid animals, would know their owner’s voice.  I see nods.  I think I have shared at small group gatherings but I remember a great test of this from my time in seminary.  There was an article or commentary that was speaking to a recent Israel bombing and taking over of a village in Gaza.  A widow approached the pen where all the animals of the Palestinian villagers were being kept.  She asked the soldier on duty if she could collect her flock, telling them she had fled for safety during the attack.  The soldier had probably heard a similar sob story several times and told the woman there was nothing he could do.  The animals collected and herded in the pen were too numerous and mingled.  There was no way to find a couple dozen sheep in the midst of such a collection.  The woman went on to explain how her husband had died and that the flock was the means of support for the widow and her son.

     The soldier showed her some sympathy, but there was nothing he could do.  There was no way she could prove she owned the sheep.  The woman sheepishly (I know, bad father joke) asked if she could prove the sheep were hers, would the soldier let her take them home.  The soldier gave her the modern equivalent of a “sure, lady, if you can prove it.”  The lady gestured at her son.  He took out a little flute-like instrument and began to play.  All of a sudden a head went up and then another and another.  Before the son had finished the song, her flock had responded to the melody.  The soldier opened the gate for her and allowed her and her son to lead the flock back home.

     These types of stories have been tested again and again on youtube.  If you get bored some day and want to plumb the depth of Jesus’ teaching on sheep and shepherd, search and watch them.  She respond to the music or voice or however they have been taught the identity of the shepherd, and most avoid or ignore those who are not doing it right.

     Jesus’ audience does not understand the teaching.  Verse six tells us it is an example of a type of speech, rather than a parable.  The crowd needs clarification.  So Jesus spends the next set of verses describing His identity and the function of the Good Shepherd in the verses we do not include today.  Jesus identifies Himself as the gate.  One does not get to the sheep, nor does one lead the sheep out into the pastures, without first going through the gate.  We hear Jesus teach us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that no one comes to the Father except through Him, and other such teachings so often that we likely miss how this would have sounded in the ears of His audience 2000 years ago.  But the gate separates; the gate protects; the gate frees.  The gate describes Jesus’ work, right?  When we pause for a second and think, it makes sense.

     There are other parts to His instruction in the next several verses that speak to His identity that we miss or forget.  For example, the Good Shepherd leads His flock from the front.  The Good Shepherd is not sitting in the back pointing where the flock needs to go.  The Good Shepherd leads them safely, always keeping an eye out for good water, good pasture, and predators.  The Good Shepherd keeps the flock out of the briars, from falling in crevices, and from stumbling into the lair of a predator.  

     Perhaps most importantly to us, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep and always goes looking for the lost sheep!  The Good Shepherd does not count the cost of defending the sheep from a predator and say to Himself, “the wolf can have that sheep so I can get the rest of the flock to safety”.  The Good Shepherd uses His crook, His sling, whatever is available to protect the sheep from the bear or the wolf or whatever predator.  More amazingly, the Good Shepherd searches for the stubborn sheep that has left the safety and security of the flock to pursue its own desires, its own perceived needs, and returns the sheep with celebration and cheer.

     Ultimately in this section, Jesus will instruct His audience and us that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  For us, 2000 years later, the image is clear.  Jesus literally lays down His life that we might be restored to right relationship with our Father in Heaven.  By virtue of His Death and His Resurrection, you and I are assured of our Father’s love of each of us, of His care for us, and of His promise that we who call upon Him will one glorious day be united with Him and all who claim Him as Lord for eternity.  Because we know ourselves, our sins and need, we know our Father’s love for us in the Good Shepherd’s willingness to die for us.

     Which brings me back to our liturgy today.  In a few moments, baby Kai’s family will present her to be baptized.  Because she is an infant, her parents and Godparents will answer for her.  They will promise to raise her to know the depth of God’s love for her, to remember the need to attune herself to God through study and prayer, and, when she sins, to repent and return to God.  Notice the liturgy does not say “if.”  It says when.  Such was the Good Shepherd’s love for Kai that He willed Himself to hang on that Cross 2000 years ago in Jerusalem that she might have hope and abundant life 2000 years later.  It is a remarkable promise, a promise that can be made only by One with power over death and a love that transcends time and space.

     On this day when we remember the Festival of Dedication, her loved ones will promise to dedicate themselves to teaching her these truths.  We as the witnesses to all these things will commit to doing what we can to support her and them in this work.  In a real way, this is a Hanukkah moment for all of us, a moment of re-dedication.  We remind ourselves intentionally of God’s promises to us as that water is poured over her head, we remind ourselves of the love that He bore for us, and we reaffirm and rededicate our lives to Him again.  With the family we celebrate the grace of God at work in Kai and in ourselves.  Then we come to the altar to be nourished by His Body and Blood, remembering His Death, re-proclaiming His Resurrection, and head back out into that world to do the work He has given us to do until our deaths or His return, trusting that the Good Shepherd will equip each of us with the tools we need, the words we need, the actions we need in order to draw the world into His flock.

     And though Kai’s baptism is special in the eyes of her family, for her wider family, that is the Church, it is a wonderful moment of renewal in our own lives.  We have been reminded of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us.  We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd serves as the gate.  We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd is, indeed, God, who promises He will lead us through dark valleys in the shadow of death, who promises He will see us watered and fed, who promises to seek us if we find ourselves lost, who celebrates when we are rejoined to our flock, and who promises one Day we will dwell with Him, hearing our names on His lips, and following Him as He leads to those amazing places He prepared for His flock, as we share one with another the stories of His care for each one of us, from our most mature to little Bella and even those who come after.

In His Peace and His Care,

Brian+ 

We are witnesses . . .

      Sometimes, I have these wonderfully confirming moments of where I am called to preach.  This weekend happened to be one.  I was rather uninspired about preaching on Doubting Thomas again.  In years past, I have reminded you that the name is unfair to Thomas, who was willing to go to Jerusalem and die with Jesus and, as we know better than many at Advent, who answered James’ and God’s call to travel from Jerusalem to India to plant churches there.  Talk about a long walk and risky sailing requiring faith!  I landed in Acts and then NT Wright had a nice proposal yesterday that made me think I was not crazy about where I should be preaching.  So, turn in your Orders to Acts, if you want to follow along.

     The passage is a part of the pericope of Peter’s speech at Pentecost, so we are peeking ahead about five weeks.  The Apostles and disciples have stayed in Jerusalem, per Jesus’ instructions, to await the gift of the Holy Spirit.  That has happened.  Everyone hears the Apostles in their own language, and many have suggested the Apostles were drunk.  I cannot speak for everyone, but I know when I get drunk I speak in slurred English.  The idea of mastering a previously unknown foreign language while drinking would seem very unlikely to me, which is not to say a nice wine or beer might temper the frustrations that come with learning new languages.  Y’all are laughing, so I am guessing you share similar experiences or understandings.

     Peter begins his speech by reminding those present that it is only 9am on the morning of Pentecost, far too early for the Apostles to be drunk.  I can only assume, given Peter’s conviction, that they had never before heard of a Breakfast of Champions in that day.  Those of us who had secret societies or fraternities or sororities in our backgrounds might disagree with Peter’s assumption, but that is a sermon for another day.

     Peter ties their experience to the prophet Joel, who wrote that God would one Day pour out His Spirit upon His people.  Young and old, male and female, Joel’s people would begin to prophesy.  This is that day is the essential beginning of Peter’s sermon to the crowd in Jerusalem.

     Peter goes on to declare that Jesus of Nazareth is responsible for the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, but he reminds them of their role in it and God’s sovereignty.  Jesus was attested to them by God with deeds of power and wonders and signs.  Those in Jerusalem knew many of those signs.  Some had seen the signs themselves.  As the hive mind of the crowd would begin to consider this, they would begin to rattle off in their own minds or in conversations with those around them that Jesus of Nazareth did those signs that would mark the Messiah.

     But Peter is not finished.  Peter reminds them that those in the crowd handed Jesus over to those outside the law, you and I would call them Romans, to be killed.  Peter tells them that this was all done according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, but they had a role in it.  Curiously, if they consider the prophets seriously, they will see more of the prophets’ foretelling in their own actions, their own betrayal.

     Then Peter gets to the really important part: God raised Jesus up, having freed Him from death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.  Though it will be three centuries before the Church officially recognizes the sinless nature of Christ, Peter already understands, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that Jesus of Nazareth was not subject to the power of sin and death!

     Peter then cites David and the Psalms as proof of Jesus’ uniqueness in God’s plan of salvation history.  The use of David would cover another thread of Messianic expectation.  Some thought Elijah might return to rule for God; others envisioned a heroic king or warrior figure like David, breaking Rome’s hold over Judea.  Of course, everyone present would recognize that David was a king and heroic figure and heir to the covenant made by God that his descendant would sit on his throne for ever.

     That last part is even more important as Peter reminds them that David was not the Messiah.  David died.  David’s tomb was still with them.  From Peter’s, and our, perspective David had to be speaking about the Messiah when he prophesied that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.

     This Jesus God raised up, and all those in the crowd, as well as all of us who read this passage in Nashville, Tennessee nearly 2000 years later are witnesses.

     But there seems to be a big problem.  None of us were present to those events described by the Gospel writers.  We did not get to see the fear, confusion, struggling, and joy of the Apostles and Disciples play out as they wrestled with the news that Jesus was no longer among the dead but alive.  We did not get to see the Apostles burn with fire as Jesus opened their minds to the Scriptures.  We did not get to hide with them in the locked upper room or the closed upper room and see Jesus enter, hear Jesus’ words of comfort, and prepare ourselves for the Pentecost moment we touched on this morning in Acts.  Few of us even have the advantage of being untimely born like Paul, and still have encountered the Resurrected Jesus.  How can we witness to these things as well as those who came before and saw or heard these things?

     It is a fair question.  Christians have wrestled with it for centuries.  Liturgical Christians, though, have the answer baked into the way they worship.  We know, because those witnesses taught us, that Jesus instructed them that it would be to their advantage for Him to leave so that He could send the Holy Spirit.  That advantage, of course, is that Jesus would no longer be the locus of God’s power on earth.  All those in whom the Holy Spirit abides would be able to accomplish God’s will in the world around them.  When you and I experience those Holy Spirit moments, we know the truth of God’s power and will every bit as well as those about whom we read in the Scriptures.  Had Jesus not ascended to be with the Father and to send us the Spirit, we would not have those experiences.  Because we do, we know He did.

     Notice that our experiences do not prevent us or our ancestors from falling under our sin time and again.  Peter is the spokesman for the Church in Acts.  We know that Peter became the rock upon whom Christ founded His Church.  But Peter makes mistakes.  Peter misunderstands.  Peter walks on water with Jesus until he remembers what he is doing.  Then he sinks.  Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah, but, as we reminded ourselves a couple times last week, Peter denies our Lord three times before the cock crowed.  Peter does not stay at the Cross as His and our Lord dies.  Peter does not know what to make of the women’s testimony and instruction, nor does he understand what he sees when he reaches the Empty Tomb.  Heck, Jesus has to continue to teach Peter for Peter’s whole life.  Peter has to learn about the dietary instructions and about circumcision just to name a couple.  And these are not shared to pick on Peter.  These are shared in Scripture by God to remind you and to remind me that, through Him, we can accomplish amazing things, glorious things, miraculous things.  They are shared to remind us all that through obedience and repentance God will be glorified in our lives and that we will share in that glory!

     How have you glorified God in your life?  What moments has the Holy Spirit reminded you of as I spoke this morning?  What empowered or enlightened moments have left you without a doubt that God is with you?  I suspect we have as many answers as we have people here today.  There are a million things you could be doing on this, Low Sunday as we like to call it.  You could be watching the Masters.  You could be sleeping in.  You could be doomscrolling or reading the Tennessean, depending upon your age.  But you are here, giving thanks to God for what He did in Jesus Christ our Lord!  I suspect everyone has at least one great story of God’s Spirit acting in their lives.  Some of us have far more!

     But even if the best reason you have to be here today giving thanks to God is more corporate in nature than individual, you still chose to be here!  You chose to give thanks to God in ways that Jesus reminds Thomas and all of us that you are truly blessed.  Even though you have not seen or experienced, you still believe.

     But maybe you have seen more than you realize.  Perhaps you have served the homeless among us through Room in the Inn.  Maybe you have heard the thanks of those whom we fed and kept warm in obedience to Jesus.  Maybe you have heard their squeals of delight at a particular meal or dessert or our efforts to put important sporting events up for their enjoyment.  You have treated them as one created in the image of God, and they have expressed their surprise and gratefulness for your effort.

     Perhaps you have met some of those whom we serve through Insight.  Our country has a horrible fight about medical care.  We have some many healthcare professionals among us that we all know the negative impact of the Big Beautiful Bill on those around us and those in far more rural communities of Tennessee and the nation.  Mental health care folks can only hope to get to the poor level of physical health care in our country.  And, yet, we make it possible for those suffering from mental health concerns to get affordable care.  And we hear the thanks from time to time.  People will remark how easy it is for others to understand heart attacks and cancer, but how they were able to get help for anxiety, for trauma, for who knows what thanks to our commitment.  We are heralds of healing in their midst, whether you recognize it or not, whether you hear it or not.

     And the low hanging fruit, sometimes literally, is Body & Soul.  By far and away those volunteers hear and see the fruit of their work frequently.  They hear the sob stories when people confess they never thought things could get this bad, that they would fail their families in this way.  They hear the excitement when they have comfort food for those whom they serve, and, at some point, begin to realize that all kinds of food serve as comfort food in God’s created order.  We may even find someone this weekend who finds comfort in cooked cabbage!

     But we all know Hilary & Nancy & me and all the volunteers.  We all know that we are not smart enough to divide our money up to get those various food items.  Heck, we do not have enough funds to cover the cost of feeding 6100 individuals each month last year, let alone the increase this year.  And yet, day after day, week after week, month after month, we feed people in Christ’s Name, reminding them that He loves them that much and hates their food insecurity.  We remind them that He calls them to the Feast where they will buy the choicest foods and drinks without money for ever.  And we recognize that only God can explain some of our insights as we answer the questions of those whom we serve, that only God can cause someone to share those stories of failure and thanksgiving with us, that only God can cause us to figure out how we might serve a beloved daughter or son a bit better, how we might alleviate their hurt or distance with a book or item of clothing or whatever.  My list could go on, much like John’s Gospel reminds us today.

And that's where Wright's reminder that we are in a season, not a day but a season, that intentionally delights in God's creative power. Fresh off reminding ourselves intentionally of our need of a Savior and of recognizing that Christ died for each one of us, Easter calls us forth to delight in the creative, or re-creative, power of God. What can we do that we have not done before? How might we serve in ways that we have never served before? How do we communicate to a world shrouded in darkness the possibilities offered through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead in ways that allow those out there to hear or to see or to feel the truth of our proclamation and our lives? The possibilities are limited only by us, by our lack of imagination or understanding.

     I have given you a few examples to remind us all that we are witnesses to these things.  We know the Resurrection of our Lord is true because we have experienced the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  And so, nourished by His Body and Blood, we are sent back out there, out into the wildernesses of our lives, to proclaim in our lives and to profess with our lips those things He has done, that all might be drawn into His saving embrace!

In His Peace and Power,

Brian+

On the Perspective, Power, and Comfort of Christ's Resurrection . . .

      I have to confess, I worried way more about the Children’s homily than I did about this one.  If you are visiting and wondering about the laughs and whispers, some are probably making a joke about the fact that I have seven kids.  I know, what priest with seven kids struggles to connect with youth?  I usually connect well with kids one on one or in small groups, but sermons geared toward the youth are a different animal.  The other issue at play, though, is the desire we clergy have to make the sermon on this day memorable.  It is no secret that lots of folk show up to church on Christmas and Easter who barely grace the doors of church any other time of year.  Pastors hope that we can connect with them and inspire them to seek God more.  If we say the one right phrase or have the most engaging sermon, maybe they will return?  Fortunately for all of us gathered here this morning, this my 22 Easter sermon.  I know I am not charismatic and I know, absent God doing something amazing, some of you will already be tuned out.  But maybe, just maybe, if I can have a youth remember chocolate carrots from the Gardener, I might say something today that reminds us adults of God’s love and desires for us.

     Why are we all here this morning?  Some might rather be lounging in bed doom scrolling.  Others might wish they were on a golf course or puttering around the house.  As I suggested to the youth, some of us are probably here because someone made us.  Maybe a mom or a grandmom or someone else literally forced some of us to attend church this day.  We like the family meal that is planned, or maybe we like some of the distant family members that will be present and the shenanigans that they bring.  Maybe we just like the ritual.  Perhaps we like the petit fours or the mimosas that these crazy Adventers enjoy when they celebrate Easter.  There are probably many different reasons that we come.  Hopefully, maybe in a deep place we are not yet aware, maybe we think we need the comfort of a the story, just as the youth expressed they enjoyed from Good Night Moon or Dr. Seuss or Narnia or whatever favorite book memory they named or of which you thought when you were answering that question for yourself.

     We live in a world that seems crazy.  The rules which we were taught do not seem really to apply.  Adulting, as my older kids like to say, is hard.  We Americans like to think we are the good guys in the world.  We defend the democracies and condemn the despots.  But those of us who have watched the wars in Ukraine and in Iran are realizing that does not really describe us.  Heck, we are supposed to think of war as a last resort; many of us, however, have become accepting to what we thought were unimaginable events or atrocities.  When is the last time we even thought of what it must be like to have drones and missiles falling around us, opening up craters around us only a little smaller than the potholes that form in Middle Tennessee over the winter?

     I know one of the matriarchs of the Armenians that will meet here in a couple hours has become so used to the war in Ukraine that she does not fear for her extended families’ survival like she does for her sister in Iran.  That is emphatically NOT a criticism of her worries.  It is an acknowledgement, though, that we sometimes allow the world to change our perspective, how we see things.  Her extended families in both Russia and Ukraine have survived more than three years of that battle.  They have expressed to her their patterns of response.  Plus, she can communicate with them nearly all the time via internet or phone.  The confrontation in Iran, though, is new, just a few weeks old.  And she is unable to check in with her sister, even though she can see the house on some of the major news networks’ reporting.

     We understand that de-sensitization on some level, though.  We have all been through a pandemic.  We understand the fear, the isolation, the economic issues, and the attack on sanity that human beings experience is such crises, even if we do appreciate the fact that some of our friends or coworkers are not as quick to expose us to the newest virus like they were six years ago.  To be fair to the family members, most of them expose us before they recognize they have been exposed, right?  But for a while, we thought of all that accompanying the pandemic as “the new normal.”

     Speaking of economic issues, at least we do not have to worry about those.  It’s not like we are paying $4 at the pump here in Nashville for gasoline or higher prices for our necessities of life which, as it turns out, depend on trucks and airplanes to make it to our houses and apartments.  But at least we live in a city where the cost of housing is reasonable, and the next generation can easily afford to move out of our homes into their own because of the availability of high paying jobs, right?  Given the chuckles and elbows, maybe some of you because you enjoy sarcasm.

     Then there are the personal things that are crazy, in addition to the big picture things.  Some of us are dealing with job difficulties.  Some of us are dealing with health issues and perhaps even scares.  Some of us are probably dealing issues of frayed or broken relationships.  Maybe some of us are dreading today because those issues will rear their heads once again?

     All of us are dealing with death.  Well, maybe I should say we are all dealing with the consequences of death to be more accurate.  We have all buried loved ones.  Some of us have buried classmates and coworkers.  Some of us have had our own dance with death as we struggled with cancer or heart attacks or whatever serious illness.  There are people, people important to us, whom we see no longer, to use the language of the BCP.  Some of them were those people in our lives who helped make us feel secure, loved, or comforted when we were younger and not expected to be the ones providing that to the generations after us yet.

     None of this, absolutely none of this was likely on our radar as we read those books with loving parents or grandparents or aunts or uncles in our lives in our youth.  And to be absolutely clear, we need to remember that not everyone had that loving support upon which our youth today and many of us were reflecting as we considered our favorite bedtime rituals.

     All of that makes today’s Gospel lesson that much more important.  Matthew’s account is simple.  Matthew begins his narrative with the fact that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were going to the tomb of Jesus as dawn approached on the day after the sabbath, on what we call Sunday.  Suddenly there was a great earthquake and the stone was rolled back.  This is not the first seismos of Matthew’s Gospel.  At the death of Jesus, the same happened, and the bodies of saints came out of their tombs and appeared to people all over Jerusalem.  The angel descends and rolls back the stone covering Jesus’ tomb and sits on the stone.  We know these details well.  Some of us know them well enough to know the differences between Luke’s version and Mark’s version and John’s version.  Scoffers claim those differences mean the experience was a fabrication rather than a story based on peoples’ recollections and perspectives.

     The first important detail to notice is the angel.  When did an angel first appear in Matthew’s Gospel?  The announcement to Mary.  Way back, nine months or so before the birth of Jesus, Mary is asked by the angel if she will consent to bear the Son of God, the Messiah.  Mary understands biology well enough to understand that she cannot bear a son because she has not yet had sex with Joseph or any other man, and she challenges the angel.  The angel reminds her that all things are possible with God, and she consents.  Matthew’s story, in other words, is framed or bookended by the angels’ appearances.  One announces the birth, the other announces the Resurrection.  Everything in between is focused on the life and person and teaching of Jesus, the Son of God, His Beloved.  

     Want to know what God expects in a situation?  Read between the angels, read about Jesus.  Need to be reminded that God understands your hurt, your fears, your sufferings, your privation, or you?  Read about Jesus.  It is really that easy.  We call Jesus the Living Word because He lived the torah on our behalf.  We were able to see how God was calling us to live in the life of Jesus.  No longer did we have to read those instructions or commandments in the torah to understand the life to which God was calling each and every human being.  We were reminded by Jesus Himself that our call, those of us who claim Him as Lord and hope to one glorious day share in the experience described by Matthew this morning, is to love the Lord our God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  It sounds simple, but it is incredibly hard, as we each find out as we grow up.  All of that instruction is contained between the angels’ announcements to the Marys.  And we are called to read, learn, and inwardly digest that, if we are going to call ourselves His disciples.

     Notice a lesson some of us skip.  Who receives this message from the angel?  That’s right, the ladies.  The ladies are shown the empty tomb and told to go and tell the disciples that Jesus is raised from the dead and will meet them in Galilee.  That’s right.  The supernatural event is for the benefit of the women.  It makes sense, right?  They were present when Joseph of Arimathea placed Jesus’ Body in the tomb and when Nicodemus wrapped the Body in strips of cloth and about 100 pounds of spices.  And they were there when the stone was rolled in front of the tomb.

     The stone is not rolled away so that Jesus can be resurrected!  That has already happened!  Nothing could interfere with God’s power, not the stone nor the guards.  The stone is rolled away so that the Marys can see the tomb is empty and begin to understand what has happened.  Notice, as they leave to go and tell the disciples that Jesus is raised, per the instruction of the angel, they have fear and great joy.  They do not yet fully comprehend what has happened, but then who could?  This is a new experience for all of them.

     Speaking of the guards, notice the humor of the author here.  If you do not know the story well, the guards are there on the orders of the chief priests.  Once Jesus was buried on Good Friday, the chief priests and others approached Pilate and asked him to place a guard around the Tomb of Jesus to prevent His disciples from stealing His Body and pretending that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Good, I see nods.

     Have you ever noticed the ironic twist in that part of the story?  Living tough guy guards are sent to guard the Body of a dead Rabbi and blasphemer.  At the appearance of the angel, though, the formerly dead Rabbi is no longer in the tomb they are guarding, and they are frozen, like the dead, in fear!  I sometimes think Matthew was having a bit of fun with this scene.  As a former tax collector, he likely had guards to enforce his collections.  He knew what they were like, how they behaved, and how they talked.  Now, in the face of the activity of God they act like dead men!

     Finally, the angel reminds us that Jesus has been raised.  In English, we would say this is a passive verb.  Someone else has raised Jesus.  Clearly, given the context, it is God.  God has raised Jesus from the dead as a final vindication that Jesus was and is who He claimed to be, that all of His teaching and examples were truly of God!

     My job as a preacher and teacher of God’s holy mysteries is to remind you that these stories which took place almost 2000 years ago and 6500 miles away, have significance to our lives today, in this place.  This may be the easiest day for that task.  You are here.  You want to know or to believe.  All of us want it to be true.  Why?

     The first consequence of this comforting story is that our perspective is changed.  Up until this point in the story, some can dismiss Jesus of Nazareth.  Some wanted to limit His role to that of a poor, unheralded Rabbi.  Some viewed Him as an unsanctioned prophet.  More perceived Him as a blasphemer, because He dared to name Himself the Son of Man and the Son of God.  Aside from a few insiders, both men and women, no one thought Him the heroic Messiah for whom they were looking to fulfill God’s promises to the patriarchs and matriarchs.  And it took a lot of reflection even for those insiders to understand that the oppressor from which they were being freed was not Roman, but that of sin and death!

     But in this event, this act of raising Jesus from the dead, the perspective of all the people of God was changed!  Sin and death, both of which had oppressed human beings since the days of the Garden of Eden were conquered.  Jesus, God’s Resurrected Son, made it possible for human beings to be restored to that intimate relationship with the Creator and Maker of all things!

     For you and me it is a reminder that war is not what God intended, privation is not what God intended, illness was not what God intended, estrangement was not what God intended, and death was not what God intended.  In the work and person of Jesus of Nazareth, you and I are reminded of the love for which God has for each one of us.  It is one thing to remind ourselves that He stamps His image in each one of us as we are created, but it is glorious to realize that, no matter the mess we have made of ourselves and others, He loved us so much that He condescended to become one of us, that He was willing to suffer the torture and humiliation of what we call Holy Week, that He was willing to be betrayed by friends, and that He was willing to die for us, that we might be able to become, to be re-created to use the fancy theological words, the children He intended us to be when He breathed our soul into each one of us!  Now we know, if God is calling us to anything, we can accomplish it.  We may lack any number of skills or strength or who knows what, but because He is the One sending us, our effort will not be in vain.  And even if our effort seems to be futile and lead to our deaths, He has the power and desire to redeem us.  

     Perspective, of course, is not the only change we notice because of this Easter event.  Power is the other.  That one unconquerable foe, death, is overcome by God!  Human beings waste fortunes putting it off or trying to dodge it.  I don’t doubt today that some are trying to figure out how to plant human brains in robots or androids.  We go to great efforts to avoid it because death seems the end of us.  But this day reminds us that God conquers even death.  Better still, He promises each one of us who believes in His Son that He will raise us from our own death, that Jesus is just the first fruits of that re-creation that is to come.  One glorious Day, we, too, will experience that power at work in us.

     But the Gospel News is always better and more, much like that scene in Narnia’s Last Battle!  For now, because of Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, we have access to that power to glorify God in our lives.  We can feed the hungry, we can clothe the poor, we can shelter the homeless, we can heal the sick, we can testify to others, even the powerful–we can do all those things to which He calls His people to do.  That the hearts of so many can be turned to such tasks is miracle enough, but He still does more.  Volunteers at Body & Soul can attest to His miraculous provision in that work, now going on almost eight years.  Some of us have seen or even experienced healing that our doctors cannot explain.  And many active Adventers can now express in their own words how they have been glorified in Christ by their thank offering and obedience to God’s call on their lives.

     The reason we gather here today, I am certain, is at least in part for comfort.  Each one of us attending here today wants that time of innocent comfort we had were we fortunate to read stories with our loved ones in our youth.  A few want that comfort that we were able to share with our children or grandchildren when the roles for us switched.  We know the world in which we live is hard.  Things are not the way we thought they would be in our youth.  Work hard, do the right thing, and things will work out is not how this world works.  Thankfully, this is not our world!  Our citizenship lies elsewhere.

     Hopefully, as I have been preaching and teaching today you are reminded of the comfort and joy this story gave you when you first heard it.  The call of God should be the ultimate call of comfort.  The Resurrection teaches us that God has power to redeem all things, even death.  More importantly, the Resurrection reminds us that God wants to redeem all things in our lives.  By virtue of our Baptism into His family, by virtue of us declaring that we want to serve and honor Him in our lives, you and I are promised the most amazing comfort imaginable.  In fact, it is unimaginable because we cannot truly grasp the offer.

     God has chosen to use us, ordinary people like you and me, to share His story with the people around us.  We get to invite people into comfort that none of us can truly describe.  Our Father in heaven, the One who created each one of us, who stamped each one of us with those characteristics of Him that we were called to demonstrate to the world, wants nothing more than for all of humanity to want to sit at His bosom and share the amazing stories of what He did in our lives, smiling knowingly at each one of us, like we smile at our children’s or grandchildren’s wonder at Peter Rabbit or Goodnight Moon or whatever stories they loved to read with us.  We will again get to experience that comfort we had when we share that time with our loved ones, even those taken from us untimely early, who also claimed Him as Lord.  And unfathomable as it sounds in these fleshy ears, we will share in that comfort with Him and one another, not for a few years, but for eternity.  We will get to share those stories with our loved ones and listen to their stories, and all that in the presence of our loving Father in heaven smiling as we soak it all in.  This story reminds us of His promise and power to make that happen, no matter what is happening in the world around us or even to us!  And so we give thanks for His promises and His reassurance.  Best of all, nourished by Christ’s Body and Blood, we head back out into that world to share His story of salvation!

In His promise,

Brian+

On our offering of His Sacrifice for our sin . . .

      We are now in the middle of what the Christian tradition has understood as the Triduum.  On Maundy Thursday we remember the institution of the Eucharist by our Lord Christ and His betrayal.  Today, Good Friday, we remind ourselves again of the perverted trial that found Him guilty and sentenced to be crucified and to die.  Tomorrow, we will focus more on the fact that He died and was in the tomb for three days before our Father raised Him from the dead, vindicating Him and all He taught and did as the Messiah.  For those of you new to the liturgical style of worship, these patterns are repeated so that we do not forget, that we better each time when we gather for worship and remember His Death, proclaim His Resurrection, and await His Coming in glory.

     Like all the days this week, I sometimes am tempted not to preach and teach.  What more needs to be explained in our readings, particularly in our reading of the Passion twice this week?  Sometimes, I am crazily tempted to let us sit in silence for some significant time and to wait on the Holy Spirit to pull out for us those things we need to know or to inwardly digest.  But after very little work this week, I found myself drawn to the 4th Servant Song of Isaiah as the focus of this homily.  I worry that part of it is because I did exclusive preaching from the Gospel Lessons this Lent, but I will let you all be the judge whether I discerned God well this day or not.

     Isaiah, for those of us who have forgotten, Isaiah was called to prophesy by God around the 700s BC.  Isaiah is sometimes thought by Christians as the first significant prophet, probably a combination of biblical illiteracy and the size of his book.  Isaiah is often credited as being the first prophet who foretells the coming of Messiah and as the lucky prophet who gets to tell Israel that it will be carried off by the Assyrians.

     Our reading today is known, as I said, as the 4th Servant Song of Isaiah.  Isaiah has four songs that speak of the Suffering Servant as the one sent by God.  Early Christians were quick to not how the songs, but especially this song, pointed to the work and person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Those of us who participated in the Stations of the Cross over Lent and those of us who have been to worship services this week can no doubt see the reasons why.  There is the double meaning of the Servant being lifted up in 52:13, just as Jesus was lifted up both on the Cross and by God for His faithfulness.  Jesus was held of no account by so many of the powerful in 1 Century Judea that 53:3 seems explicit enough.

     Some of the verses are more familiar to us because of their use this week or in liturgies like Stations.  Verses like 53:5, 6, and 7 certainly fit that description.  And those of us who have studied the Gospels or paid attention to the Passion narratives this week have heard that the trial was a perversion of justice.  What horrible thing or things did Jesus do?  He gave Bartimaeus back his sight.  He raised Lazarus from the dead, causing the powerful to want to kill both Jesus and Lazarus in John’s Gospel.  To make quick work of it, Jesus has given everyone those signs that the prophets, including Isaiah, had used to describe the future Messiah or Son of Man so that the future generations would recognize Him.  That we are here today remembering His Death on the Cross, we know it was a miscarriage of justice and that most of those in power failed to recognize Him.

     For the most part, the verses use 3rd person singular verbs and pronouns,and 1st person plural verbs and pronouns.  He was this, and he was that.  We esteemed Him not, and He was wounded for our transgressions.  In fact all but verse 53:10 uses those pronouns and verbs, which makes that verse stand out all the more, even in English.  When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.  On this day, as we remember the Death of the Lord, we are reminded that His death was not without purpose.  We are reminded that we are making an individual choice to make His life an offering for sin.  We choose ourselves to make that offering.

     One of those divisions which keep the Church separated in various denominations is the question of how we are saved.  Some denominations argue that our salvation is worked out in community; other denominations argue that salvation is an intensely personal event.  In fact, we can say that one of the great separators of the Western Churches and the Eastern Churches includes this understanding.  The East argues that salvation takes place in the corporate setting.  In the West, the argument is far more personal.  Have you accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?  Those of us in Anglicanism, unsurprisingly, realize it is a bit of both.  We may not be sure of how the percentages are divided, but we are confident that everyone needs to make a public declaration of faith, what we call baptism, and work out that walk with God in community.  We will restate those Baptismal vows in a few short weeks, so there is no need to do so today.

     Isaiah apparently realizes the danger of the he and we language and the importance of the I language.  Most of this song speaks of our need for Christ to have died for our sins, that Christ suffered because of us all.  If we skip verse 10, we miss the fact that is was my sin, your sin, and the sin of everyone we meet in the world that necessitated God undertaking salvation in this way.  But make no mistake, my sin and your sin caused this event to be needed.

     Wondrously, Jesus thought you and I of such value that He underwent that false trial, He experienced the shame and humiliation, He felt that guards punch as we read just now, He lived through the pain of those nails being pounded into His skin, He heard the mocking cries of those whom He came to save, and He determined to hang on that cross until His death, that we might offer His Body and His Blood as THE offering for our sin, as THE offering that restored us to our Father in Heaven.

     Of course, the Gospel being the Gospel, our choice to offer His sacrifice for our sin offering individually also does more.  When we choose to make Him our sin offering, He sees His us as His offspring, He realizes that the will of the Lord is prospering, that His death was full of purpose.  Individually, through all of those choices we make for ourselves, a community or family is created.  He sees us as His own; He gathers us in that saving embrace from that terrible Cross; He makes us righteous and able to stand before our Lord.

     Certainly, as we remind ourselves of the teaching of Isaiah and our Lord’s love of each of us, this day rightly drives us to our knees.  Our Lord died for each one of us that we might become children and heirs, to use the Apostle’s words.  Reminded of that wonder and desperate need, you and I are being made ready to celebrate with joy God’s Resurrection of Him that glorious Easter morning.  But for a couple days, we intentionally remind ourselves of our own need of a Savior and God’s willingness to send One, and we rightly marvel that He thought us worth this suffering and death, and that He called sinners like us into a community at this time and in this place, to proclaim His message of pardon and peace to those around us.

In His love,
Brian+

That we might become wells of living water . . .

      I am certain my sermon this week was based a bit upon things happening in the wider world.  In our communion, there was a great deal of discussion about how Anglicans relate to God as the Gafcon folks became GAC.  Some of their criticisms about TEC were fair, as Presiding Bishop Michael shared during his visit to Tennessee during the end of his tenure.  Other parts, though, embraced Reformed theology far more than our spiritual ancestors thought wise.

     In the wider Church, there has been great discussion about the effort of some in the war with Iran to cause Jesus to return, as if human beings can force God to do anything.  And then there’s the whole discussion about whose “Christian” theocracy should determine the Christian principles that should guide our government’s dealing with economic, social, and other aspects of life.

     And I had to laugh a bit at God as I was getting ready on this, my least favorite day of the year when we give up an hour of sleep to “spring forward.”  There is a local evangelical pastor who does a bunch of 30 second spots.  This morning, he ran one that, if I heard it correctly, asserted that if we evangelize in the wrong way, we are condemned to hell just like the non-believers.  I chuckled because I knew the pericope we were reading from John’s Gospel today and how Jesus’ method would have apparently earned Him condemnation in the mind of this pastor.

     One last note of encouragement, ladies, if you are engaged in conversations with those who do not know what to do with your role in our church, this is another one of those arrows in your quivers.  The story takes place after Nicodemus’ nighttime visit with Jesus.  When Nicodemus leaves, we are not sure where he stands in his relationship with Jesus.  By the end of John’s Gospel, we know Nicodemus argues that the Sanhedrin should not violate its own laws to put Jesus to death and that he provides the spices for the women to prepare Jesus’ Body for the tomb.  Contrast the end of Nicodemus’ visit with the Samaritan woman, though, and ladies should be encouraged how Jesus invites women as well as men to the work of God.

     John’s story picks up as Jesus and the Apostles and disciples are traveling through Samaria.  Whenever I bring up the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans, people always ask for more information, so I will try to anticipate many of the questions today.  Samaritans were despised by those from the Southern Kingdom because they ignored the clear instructions of God.  Remember way back when there was a Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom?  Good.  I see lots of nods.  One of the efforts of the Northern Kings was to diminish the role of the Temple in Jerusalem.  It is hard to get your citizens to believe that you are ruling in accordance with God’s will when your citizens have to travel to the capital city of the Southern Kingdom to worship God properly.  Sounds like modern politics, huh?

     The Northern kings did a couple things to make sure their people did not think the Northern kingdom was dependent on the Southern kingdom.  The big move was the building of alternative worship sites in Bethel and Dan.  Right below that, though, was the removal of the history books, the prophetic books, the wisdom books, and everything else in what we call the OT except for the Pentateuch, the five books written by Moses.  Again, it was a kind of propaganda.  If your people do not know what the prophets are saying about Jerusalem, they will not know its import to God.

     Of course, kings may plot and plan, but so do High Priests.  If you know the history of the two kingdoms, you also know that the High Priest in Jerusalem brought an army and burned those alternative worship sites in the Northern Kingdom.  We live in the South 150 years after our own burning, so we can all easily imagine how the Samaritans felt about that.

     To complicate matters and relations, Assyria rolled through the area and conquered the Northern Kingdom.  Most of the citizens were carried off to distant lands of the empire.  We modern people like to think ancient peoples were stupid, or rather we are much smarter, but governments were pretty shrewd.  Whenever a nation was conquered, most were carried off and placed in other conquered nations as a distinct minority and other conquered peoples were imported to and settled in the newly conquered area.  The idea behind all this was to keep the possibilities of riots and revolts low.  If everyone in a city or town spoke a different language, it would be hard for them to organize and plot together.  Add an oppressive law enforcement and a few soldiers, and one had the recipe for oppressive peace.

     Even as Assyria carried most of the residents in the Northern Kingdom off, it imported others to the Northern Kingdom.  2 Kings tells us that the five nations imported into the Northern Kingdom by Assyria brought with them five gods, though sharp readers will recognize they brought the worship of seven gods with them.  More on that in a couple minutes.  The residents of the Northern Kingdom eventually began to marry the sons and daughters of those who had been imported into the territory.  We all know that Israel was forbidden to marry outside the tribes, so the residents of the Southern Kingdom used this as yet another reason to look down on their brothers and sisters who remained in the North.  That’s the quick background for today’s Gospel lesson.

     Jesus and His disciples are heading north.  Usually, good Jews would avoid Samaria and travel around it, but Jesus led His disciples through it.  When He gets to the well, He needs a rest.  Were we reading this during the season of the Incarnation, I might speak of His humanity more in this passage.  John tries to remind us that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.  He can do great works of power, but He also gets tired and rests, just like us.

     Jesus remains at the well while the disciples go looking for food.  That was a bigger challenge than we might expect because they will be as uncomfortable eating food prepared by Samaritans as Samaritans will be to sell Jews food they have made, unless it is not fit for them to eat.  A woman approaches in the noonday sun to draw water.  Much hay is made about this.  She should have been doing it at dawn and at sunset like any good Mediterranean woman, but here she is, fetching water in the heat of the day.  That fact has provoked a number of teachings and assumptions that simply are not in the text.

     Jesus asks her to give Him some water.  She is shocked that He speaks to her and voices her incredulity.  Jesus responds that had she known who He is, she would have asked for living water, and He would have given it to her.

     I do not know that I intentionally remind us of the value of living water enough to have impressed upon you Jesus’ offer here.  Living water, water that comes from bubbling springs and rivers and streams, was needed for purification.  Water was valuable in an arid region like Ancient Israel, but living water was altogether far more valuable.  The Samaritan woman at this point has no idea who Jesus is.  But He is offering her something no self-respecting Jew would ever offer to a Samaritan woman.  So she reminds this Jewish man that Jacob, himself, dug this well and left it for his family and flocks.  It is a not-so-subtle way for her to claim the same ancestry as this man sitting on the well and speaking to her.

     Undeterred, Jesus points out that whoever drinks from the well will be thirsty again, but that whoever drinks from His living water will never thirst again.  The woman, whose job it is to get water every day, is focused on the practical rather than the symbolic or spiritual.  She asks Him for that living water so that she will never be thirsty nor need to come to the well to draw water.

     Rather than explain Himself to her at this point, Jesus shifts gears in a way that would drive the pastor from the commercial this morning nuts.  Jesus tells her to go get her husband.  The woman responds that she has no husband.  Jesus acknowledges the truth of her statement and what she omitted, that she has had five husbands and the man she is with is not her husband.  Again, much hay is made over this woman and her five husbands.  We do not know why the woman has had five husbands.  Is she widowed?  Is she divorced?  If the latter, we do not know why she was divorced.  In the pericope, she clearly knows a good deal about the Samaritan and Jewish history.  One of her underlying claims is a practical one.  We are no different than You.  We come from Jacob.  More importantly, she recognizes that Jesus is a prophet.  There is no way an ordinary Jewish male would have come to know this about her–an ordinary Jewish male would have had zero interest!

     This is a word from Brian and not necessarily God.  But I wonder, given the symbolism in this encounter, that her five husbands are symbolic.  Those who know the history of Samaria well will know that the nations settled there by Assyria brought with them five gods.  As we will see, Jesus will patiently explain to her that she has limited knowledge.  She worships what she does not know, but the Jews worship what they know!  Their confusion is not only caused by the fact that they accept only the Pentateuch but that they have been introduced overtly and subtly to idolatry by the intermarrying.

     Now she gets to the practical heart of the division between the two nations.  They both worship the same God, the God of Jacob, but the Jews insist that proper worship has to happen in the Temple.  Jesus instructs her and us that the time is coming soon when the Temple and High Places will not matter.  Sometimes, we like to think of this as yet another prophetic utterance regarding the destruction of the Temple in AD70.  I suppose it could be, but I think it misses the real point of what Jesus is instructing.  Thanks to His upcoming Cross and Resurrection and Ascension, this is John after all, we rightly worship God wherever we are!  We pray that we do not proclaim Him only with our words but in our lives!  And we remind ourselves again and again that He has sent the Holy Spirit, the Living Water of this conversation, to us, that we might glorify Him in our lives.

     The woman acknowledges her need of Messiah to explain all things.  And in one of those great self-identifications of Jesus, He tells her He is the Messiah.  I know y’all get tired of me trying to convey the meaning of the Greek, but there are some newer to us who have not heard it.  The Greek ego eimi, I am, is the name used in the Greek OT, known as the Septuagint, as the Name given by God to Moses from the burning bush.  Whenever Jesus uses the ego eimi, it has the full force of that cultural understanding and significance behind it.  The Greek speaking Jews hear is as the voice from the Burning Bush.  For this Samaritan woman, whose culture only accepts the five books of Moses, the significance is unmistakable.  Jesus tells her the one speaking to her is Messiah and God!

     Yes, there is lots more to the pericope, and we will talk about it again in just three years.  The disciples return and are shocked at Jesus’ willingness to talk to the woman.  For her part, as the disciples get an agrarian image to describe evangelism, she returns to the village and invites everyone to come and meet Jesus.  The end result is that these two cultures, usually like Ancient Hatfields and McCoys from my world, intermingle for two more days.  The disciples share what they have seen and heard.  Jesus Himself instructs the Samaritans.  And, because of Jesus’ instruction, the Samaritans confess to the woman that they believe He is truly the Savior of the world.

     I felt called to focus on the Living Water and the right worship today, as I mentioned earlier.  We Christians love to fight about right worship with each other.  We are Episcopalians and Anglicans, and so we think liturgical worship is inherently better than the smoke machine and laser light shows of some evangelical worship.  I could joke and state that our worship clearly is, but would those watching online or maybe visiting understand it a joke.  Truth be told, in some contexts, it is far more serious.  Some Christians like the liturgy in a language they do not understand; others think worship is simply gathering and praying.  I could go on and on and leave us all wonder who is right.  The word for worship is used eleven times in the Gospel of John.  Nine of those uses are in this pericope we read today.  As a Lenten practice, maybe go back and read the story from today and pay attention to those nine uses.  What is God instructing us about right worship today?

     First and foremost, right worship needs the Holy Spirit.  As I mentioned above, living water was Jesus’ symbolic description of the Holy Spirit.  John makes sure that we understand that the Ascension of Jesus is as important as His Death and His Resurrection.  Jesus’ Ascension makes it possible for us to receive the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to worship God correctly and to understand when we are worshipping incorrectly the need to repent and try again.

     The challenge comes when we try to figure out right worship.  Jesus uses the image of water, in part I think, to describe the amorphous nature of water.  If water is poured into a waterskin, it takes the shape of that skin.  If it is poured into a clay vessel, it takes the shape of that vessel.  If it is poured into a bath or fountain, it takes that shape.  So it it is when the Holy Spirit is poured into us.  We pray often about God dwelling in us and us in Him, but do we really pay attention to what we are saying?  We are all made in His image.  And when His Spirit is animating us, we are representing Him well in the world around us.  What does that look like?

     For us Episcopalians, it looks in part like a Rite 1 or Rite 2 liturgy.  It can be spoken or sung; it can have music and a choir.  But that is only part of our worship.  We remind ourselves again and again, but especially during Lent, that we give up ourselves to His service.  We ask Him again and again to equip us and remain with us as He sends us out into that parched world to do the work He has given us to do.  We remind ourselves again and again that He gives the meaning to our work.  Those who served at Room in the Inn last night know they likely are not going to end homelessness in Middle Tennessee, right?  I know, most went home to sleep instead of worshipping with us this morning.  Trust me, they know.  Yet, month after month they show up.  They make beds, cook meals, collect socks and underwear and other clothing, they clean up, and they engage those men in conversation.  The point of their work is to give the men they serve a break from the cold in the world, to give them an opportunity for connection,  and to remind them they are loved by God.  Of course, with God at work in this, other blessings happen.  Sometimes our volunteers are inspired by the faith of those whom they serve.  They come away amazed and exhorted to do the work God has given them to do that much more.  The same happens with Body & Soul, with those whom we serve through Insight, those whom we serve with Discretionary funds, with most of what we do to the glory of God!  The ministries are different.  Often the people serving in the ministries are different.  And yet, God is often glorified in our work.

     In addition to the corporate ministries, though, many of us have individual calls.  We have tutors among us, we have individuals who gather groups to deal with a particular concern or addiction or injury, we have individuals who serve as shoulders to cry on, or as welcomers to all kinds of situations, we have individuals called to a robust prayer life and others who are able to fund the work knowing they are important to that particular work.  We have spiritual matriarchs and patriarchs, women and men whom we recognize  as particularly attuned to God, from whom we can seek Godly advice for our particular challenges, fears, or difficulties.  The Living Water, the Holy Spirit, looks and sounds and feels like us and all our differences because we were all created in His image and redeemed by His work on the Cross making all that possible.  The locus of worship is where we are, where our lives are proclaiming what we say with our lips!

     Of course, the best news about all of this is that we who have drunk from the Living Water that Christ has provided us are called to be springs of living water ourselves.  We are called to be those in whom the Living Water wells up for those around us who thirst!  We are not called to be isolated ponds or wadis or something mundane.  We are called to be those vessels through whom God reaches others.  Make no mistake, only Jesus redeems them; only Jesus makes it possible for that Living Water to well up in us.  But we are invited into that relationship with Him that He might use us for His glory.  Unlike the Samaritan woman in the story, we know who it is that offers the drink.  We know His desire and willingness to work through us.  And, since we are in John this morning, we know that because He has ascended to the Father He can provide us with the Holy Spirit, both as a reminder to us of His enthronement and as an enabler of accomplishing the Will of God in our lives!  And so we do the work He calls us to do, trusting He will use us to His glory and redeem our failures.

     My friends, this Living Water that gushes up in us thanks to Jesus’ work on the Cross and in our lives, is exhilarating and terrifying.  We get to be the people who introduce others to the Savior of the world.  We may not think of ourselves as good ambassadors, nor even good brothers and sisters, but that Living Water gushing up in us transforms us into the witnesses we need to be.  And reminded of His purposes, His Will, and His desire to fill us with Living Water, we are sent back out into that parched wilderness to invite others into the Life for which He created them!

In His Name and His Peace,

Brian+