Author: Linda Rozumalski

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. ²Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. ³Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.

5 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Psalm 23

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

³⁰The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. ³²And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, ⁵⁵and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Biblical commentator, Elizabeth Webb, gives a good introduction to the highly edited reading of the day: “A lot happens in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark,” she writes. “Jesus is rejected in his hometown. He sends the twelve disciples on a mission trip. John the Baptist is killed. Jesus feeds the five thousand and walks on water. These are all major events in Mark’s narrative, so much so that the passages appointed for today pale in comparison. Sure, Jesus heals a lot of people in the end, but otherwise these pericopes seem to have missed the dramatic boat.”

She continues: “But in fact, the passages that make up the Gospel reading today serve in important ways to advance Mark’s central concern: the inauguration of the kingdom of God in Jesus. These verses emphasize Jesus’ identity as the true, divine shepherd, who will guide his sheep into the kingdom; and the nature of that kingdom, through healings that disrupt the economy of this world.” 

Okay. As you might have caught, the feeding of 5000 people and Jesus walking on water are the missing creamy center from today’s Oreo reading. I’ve mentioned that I am challenged by the Revised Common Lectionary and the way it chops up readings with some grand plan for preaching. The problem is that it doesn’t tell us what that plan or point is, and so pastors do a lot of head scratching. I may regret this summer experiment, but I’m trying to stay the course and take what each week gives us. So, here we are, with the next 6 weeks hopping over to the gospel of John to tell the parts of the story we’re skipping today. Today, we are pressed to think about these few somewhat boring verses. The disciples and Jesus are busy, pursued, they get no rest, barely time to eat or sleep. The crowds are ever present.

It’s interesting to read this description of Jesus attempting to move around the countryside being mobbed wherever he goes. We have similar current versions of the phenomenon. The crowds who attend the former president offer us a view of what it might have been like. Swifties – those fans who do just about anything to attend Taylor Swift concerts – are another good example. European football teams often garner similarly devoted followings – occasionally with deadly mob crushes resulting. 

I am mystified by the impulse to crowd, swarm, mob, or press in. Imagining it gives me the willies. I hang back by the open spaces of even the small theological conventions I attend, sometimes standing in the back, instead of getting a good seat at a table in the midst of the throng where I could actually read what is projected on the slides. I don’t willingly put myself in the middle of a close crowd, so this is foreign territory to me. 

Is it the organic energy of a crowd itself? – that “we’re all in this together” vibe – the “you and me and we and us” smuush?   Is there some pleasure I’m missing in getting lost, in literally losing yourself, to a mob mentality?    Is it wanting to be part of something bigger than yourself, wanting to be included in the orbit of this popular person –  becoming, by extension, more than who you normally are?      Or is devotion to the person the motivation, and the crowd is somewhat irrelevant, a by-product of the virtual intimacy that one is seeking?   I don’t feel those things in a crowd. I feel anxiety. I identify more with Zaccheaus climbing a tree, or those who no doubt straggled at the back of the crowds described in the gospel, observing more than participating.

Whatever the draw or dynamics of the crowd, Mark tells us about Jesus’ reaction to it. He has been wanting to get away, trying to find a place apart, by himself, for at least three chapters. He just can’t seem to manage it. I don’t want to  give too much power to this tangent, but it is important to note the things that Jesus (the indwelling being of God) can’t do. God’s power is limited in ways and it’s important to acknowledge that. I’ve made a note for another sermon, for another day, so store that away in the wondering part of your brain for now.

We can imagine the rural, open terrain of Palestine of Jesus’ day. They don’t have woods like we have here. The expression, “you can’t see the forest for the trees” does not apply. I imagine even his small inner circle moving around the barren hillsides or on the open roads between villages would be easy to spot from a distance. And “where two or more are gathered”… more will come and they will bring their sick and sorrowful with them, hoping for a touch, a word; hoping to be held in the gaze of the Son of God. Jesus tries to get his disciples away for a short retreat, a respite, but it’s no good. The crowds have spotters. Jesus’ comings and goings are noted.

Instead of yelling at the crowds to leave them alone or refusing to do the godly work expected of him, we are told Jesus feels compassion. The commentaries on this passage want us to be aware of this word. Emotions in our culture are primarily ‘thought’, but with a little encouragement, you’ll realize that we feel emotions in our stomachs, in our bowels – butterflies, anxiety, fear – these are things our bodies recognize before our minds interpret them. The word compassion in Greek is a gut word. Their need affected him. Looking at them, seeing the flock crowding around seeking a shepherd, Jesus felt their longing in his belly and melted. That is another part of the Greek understanding of passion. One’s insides melt.

The healing and teaching activity of today’s reading is a continuation of what was happening earlier in the chapter. Last week was an aside. Herod heard of the activities and success of Jesus and his disciples, of the thousands following them, and Herod became afraid. Mark wants us to make the same comparison that Herod perceived between the one with real power and the poser. He first saw it in John, and then an increase in Jesus. We have been told that Jesus taught with authority unlike the scribes and rabbis – the traditional teachers of scripture and God’s law. He healed conditions the physicians could not cure, but rather made worse. Jesus possessed authentic power given by God, not by government or wealthy benefactors — Herod knew, and his fear grew.

I think the lectionary omits the two miracle stories from this pericope so that we don’t miss the ongoing work, the actual mission of Jesus. He came to teach of the ways and will of God. He came to be an opening, an interface, with the kingdom of God. Approach Jesus and you are near the kingdom, touch even the hem of his garments and you have touched the splendor of God’s glory and have been changed. 

We can get distracted and overawed by the miracles. We can get hung up on issues of faith – is faith a prerequisite to healing? Did people then – do people now – come to believe because of miracles? Is that what Jesus is about? Not according to today’s reading. Instead of signs and wonders, Jesus was intent on showing the everyday, always present, earthly concerns of God for life. Food and healthcare and justice. Compassion and welcome. “What does the Lord require of you, O mortal, but to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with our God,” said the prophet Micah. That message was enacted by Jesus, and still holds true today.

And we are still, perhaps always, a people without a shepherd. That’s another reasonable reason to postpone the miracles for a week…so that we can consider our drifting, longing, shallow-rooted lives. I mean, we’re not hopeless and pathetic, we have strengths and resilience and plans and capabilities, but still, deep down, we also have wounds, fears, griefs that our abilities can’t fix. We, too, come to Christ for a reason that is more than tradition or duty. Justice, food and healthcare are evidence of the world working according to God’s design of abundant, thriving life for all creatures — but well fed, healthy, prosperous people still have deep need for a relationship with, a sense of being within, the being of God.

How do we address that? How do we access a relationship or presence with God’s spirit? I wish there was a personal, physical being to touch, a relic to kiss, some tangible, reliable ‘thing’ that would imbue us with certainty, with healing for the wounds we carry. Connecting with an essence, a spiritual awareness is less reliable. It leaves too much room for distraction and doubts. 

Actually, there is a personal, physical body, but we have to create it. This gathering becomes our ‘crowd’. Gathering for communal worship, praying together in word and in song, checking in with one another, shaking hands and making eye contact, sharing a meal hosted by Christ, promoting justice, living into kindness and mercy, providing food — these are all ways we become that body of Christ for one another and for ourselves. We give and receive the power of God if we condition ourselves to see it, to meet it here time and time again, in good times and bad, in ordinary and calamitous days. It may be the intention and repetition that allows us to receive God in all things, even in this small crowd clamoring for Jesus’ touch.

Pastor Linda

As we shift from the Narrative Lectionary to the Revised Common Lectionary, we pick up optional companion readings from the Old Testament or Epistles. Today’s first reading comes from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, the 4th chapter.

¹³But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke” —so we also speak, ¹⁴because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. ¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Here ends the reading.   We will sing Psalm 138 responsively by verse.

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Last week we began nearly six months of “Ordinary Time” in the church liturgical calendar where the readings emphasize the gifts and callings of living out the gospel. The word “ordinary” here does not mean “routine”. Rather, it refers to the “ordinal numbers” used to name and count the Sundays (such as the Third Sunday after Pentecost). It is “ordered’ or “measured” time during which we will move, mostly, through Mark.

This gospel was written during (or just after) the Jewish revolt against Roman imperial occupation, and that conflict, along with Rome’s subsequent destruction of the Jewish temple in the year 70AD, made everything in Mark’s world seem stark, severe, and godforsaken. His prose is sharp and cryptic, the action is swift (his favorite word is “immediately”), and the big ideas that drive the narrative forward are bold and striking: though it seems that evil has the upper hand, in fact, the tide has turned: the Kingdom of God has come near!  The messiah is neither a military conqueror nor a conventional king. Instead, he is a prophet, a healer, and a teacher pointing to an even deeper form of liberation and wellbeing. In a contrast to the way Jesus is portrayed in John’s gospel, in Mark, Jesus’ primary mission is to suffer, die, rise, and redeem – sending his disciples out to proclaim the good news of God’s salvation “to the whole creation” As Jesus bursts onto the scene, a new era of hope, renewal, and restoration has begun.

Mark 3: 13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, ¹⁵and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Then he went home; ²⁰and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ ²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ ²³And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— ³⁰for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ ³³And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

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Jesus went up the mountain – to a thin place, the place of epiphanies. It’s a place far away from the crowds, a good stiff climb apart – and he called to himself those whom he wanted, and they came. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, 
to be with him,
to be sent out to proclaim the message, 
to have authority to cast out demons and to heal.

Usually, Jesus’ followers are called disciples, but here he names them apostles. Is there a difference? There is, actually.   A disciple is a student, a follower who sits at the feet of his or her teacher asking questions, learning the lessons. An apostle is one who is sent forth, who goes out from the teacher bearing the message and the authority of the teacher. An apostle might be thought of as an apprentice, practicing the skills of the kingdom of God… under supervision. 

That’s interesting for us to think about all these years later. A first thing to notice is that there were more disciples than apostles. Being an apostle is a steeper climb. But these are two categories of Christian response to the Good News, to the working of the Holy Spirit, even today. 

It can be challenging enough – or rather, it is challenging – to be a disciple. It’s difficult to put ourselves at the feet of Jesus, to ratchet down our ego, to really listen, truly take in the Word of God…… because, it is going to enter our life as a critique. As a critique of our lifestyle, our values, our position of privilege, our preconceived opinions, and traditions – even our relationship to grace. 

To be a disciple is to be transformed by the teaching. It is daily confession and repentance and growth – opening ourselves to change – and we all know what a challenge it is to change.  How many of us listen to this Living Word of God expecting it to be a corrective?  Don’t we more often come to the word of God looking for support, looking for a word of encouragement that we’re on the right path? I think this response must be wired in as a defense mechanism. We look for and are drawn to the parts that affirm us, that support what we already believe or do. And we find those parts or directives to be authoritative.

But, being a disciple could mean we need to take to heart the teachings that challenge and irritate us at least as often as we turn to those that comfort. The word that tells us to get up and do something about it, not simply listen and think about it, pondering in our hearts. Inner awareness, leads to change and is often, then, the stimulus to outer transformation and renewal, recommitment.

And then it gets worse! We might somehow realize we’re being called to be an apostle! 
to be sent out to proclaim the message, 
to be given authority to cast out the demons that cripple and enslave the people of God.

Do you think meeting demons is unlikely? Any number of death-dealing forces today are experienced as “possession” or being “caught up” in dynamics beyond our intention and control. Think of how addiction overwhelms individuals and families; how racism, gender bias, sexism are so pervasive and invasive we often don’t realize we’re participating in degrading other human beings, our siblings in God’s love. Think of how anger consumes; how envy devours; how lies and conspiracies distort. We may or may not call addiction or racism or lies or the objectification of women “demons,” but they are most certainly “demonic.” They move through the world as though by a kind of cunning. Evil may not be personified, but it is personal. These forces seem to resist our best attempts to uncover and overcome them.

As we see from the gospel (and our daily news) the authorities of the status quo will be unhappy about our efforts to change the system. The Pharisees and scribes have made up their minds that Jesus needs to be stopped. They didn’t set out to oppose the kingdom of God. They don’t recognize that that’s what they’re doing, but they also aren’t open to the prophetic promises of their scriptures unfolding around them. They can’t recognize their view of the realm of God in what Jesus is doing because they’ve shrink the kingdom into a much less inclusive, expansive form. Even Jesus’ family is trying to reign him in, bring him home, settle him down. 

Publicly acknowledging and practicing a religious faith (whether as a disciple or an apostle) is a tricky thing. Christianity has been co-opted into belligerent slogans and judgmental movements that Jesus would never recognize or claim on the one hand, and been privatized and watered down into good feelings devoid of the edge of justice and action on the other. Discerning a public, faithful path between these with integrity and genuine hope is tricky. 

Our families might think we’re talking crazy, acting in ways that are embarrassing to them or dangerous to us. Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Theresa are icons of this spiritual path.   Binding the strong man is a dangerous, difficult calling.

Being an apostle is a calling to resist all that works against God’s good will for the common good. And, doesn’t that sound vaguely familiar? Just a couple weeks ago, Mercy and Johanna affirmed their baptismal faith with very similar words.

“Merciful God,” we prayed, “you have called these young women to yourself, enlightened them with the gifts of your Spirit and nourished them in the community of faith… to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” And you all agreed when I asked if you renounce the forces and powers that defy God, forces that rebel against God and lead us away from that holy love. And there is Micah’s prophetic definition: “What does the Lord require of you, O Mortal, but to do justice, to enact God’s steadfast lovingkindness, and to walk humbly with God.”

So, even for us commoners, being a disciple easily morphs into being an apostle. Being a ‘hearer of the Word’ leads to being a ‘do-er of the Word,’  a ‘bringer of the Word’ through the nudging of the Holy Spirit. Each time the Gospel is taken out of the book and shared in living color, each time the gospel is enacted in love toward others, toward creation, toward the enemy ~ that person is responding to the apostolic nudge. Each time the gospel is presented in a way that opens doors, opens hearts, is characterized by the love of God and the opposition to all that robs God’s children of abundant life, it is being presented by apostles. We are all commissioned and sent out with the message to share in the mission of Jesus for justice and courage and kindness. We may not have the impact of the big names of this calling, but ordinary lives are changed one by one in just this way until each one – everyone – has found a home.

Jesus expands the concept of family from biology to community. We find our identity and kinship in and through the relationship we share in God. All those who live in and work for God’s kingdom are family.

Again and again in Mark’s gospel Jesus breaks down barriers and breaks the rules about who can associate with whom, inviting more and more people to join his family, his fellowship, his new community – and, as we’ve seen, it’s often the most unlikely people who accept this invitation and come in through the door, not the expected ones. It becomes a family formed not by biological birth but by rebirth in the Spirit of God, in the fellowship of the beloved community of saints. Christ’s is a family formed of love, called together, to gather, and then be sent out as apostles…. Like seeds of a dandelion. 

May you, too, be dandelion-ish. Bearers of a tiny seed afloat on the breeze of God’s spirit, that, when it lands, roots deeply, strongly enough to break up hard ground, sending up life giving leaves even through cracks of concrete, that provides brilliant spots of color, sweet scent and beneficial pollen. A super plant, a powerhouse of life; a tiny, ubiquitous seed. Thanks be to God for apostolic dandelions and dandelion-like apostles!

Pastor Linda

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There are several readings this morning to come at the Trinity from different directions.

The gospel of John stresses the one-ness of God in the Father, Jesus, and the Advocate or Holy Spirit, sent by God through Jesus.

²⁶‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.      John 15

¹After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, ²since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth for your word is truth. ¹⁸As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.     John 17

In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus, he describes the actions, the ways of being of God that later became formulated as the Holy Trinity.

Ephesians 3:14-19

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

And one more unlikely verse — from Matthew, chapter 13: Jesus said,  ⁴⁵“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

The gospel of the Lord…… thanks be to God

The Sunday following Pentecost is designated as Trinity Sunday. I don’t suppose it’s on your calendar or on any greeting cards, but the Trinity is an ancient doctrine of the Christian church. It is the formulation that was set out in the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds as the formal understanding of the triune (three-part) nature of God that developed as the Christian church evolved into the third and fourth centuries. 

The formula of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” was primarily a teaching tool, a way of talking about the nature of God and the inter-relation between Jesus and the Spirit of God in a way that would create a measure of orthodoxy, or ‘sameness’. It was needed because, as the early Christian community grew and spread, different schools of thought developed and each had a variation. It’s like the children’s party game of telephone, where you whisper something in one person’s ear and they whisper what they think they heard to their neighbor and by the time it goes around the circle, the message is hardly recognizable. 

The variations of belief and teaching in the early church, meant, for example, that some were taught that Jesus was never really a human but just appeared to be human and so never really died, because how could God die? Some were taught that Jesus was only human, not truly God, but was adopted by God – in the same way the prophets were used for a time and a message. But then how could Jesus save?  In sorting out these and other conundrums, the trinitarian formula was developed to talk about the interpersonal nature of God, that God is one in three – three distinct, but united persons, all in one and one in all. The reason we recite the Apostle’s or Nicene creed and why they are part of the Baptism and confirmation services is to hold the community to this core of Christian faith – whatever else the pastor may say (or forget to say), whatever innovations or extracurricular songs or readings find their way into the worship service, this we hold to be true – that we worship God who is made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord and savior through the working of the Holy Spirit; one God, one faith.

So, the creeds are the tangible result of a confounding concept, but the Trinity didn’t start out as doctrine.

It began with early Christians trying to describe and put words to their experiences of the ways in which God appeared to them — and comes to us, still.

Engaging Jesus was somehow encountering God directly — and at the same time, Jesus spoke of God as both distinct from himself (like when he prayed to God, or spoke of his Father as the One who sent him) and yet somehow “one” with him. There was in some way both a “two-ness” and a “oneness”. In the same way, the earliest disciples experienced the Holy Spirit within their own beings as an encounter with God, promised by Jesus yet separate from him.  And so over time, the church’s doctrine of the Trinity developed — the idea that God is properly conceived as Three ‘persons’ in One. Not three Gods because there is intimate unity within them, and not simply One because that wouldn’t account for the multiple ways God is revealed in creation, in the world, in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. 

So, far from being a stogy detail of church dogma, the doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately about a world saturated with divine presence — creating, redeeming, and sustaining creation at every turn, in and with and under every unfurling leaf and fragrant blossom… and a God “in whom we live, and move, and have our being” as it says in Acts (17:28).

The formulaic “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”, is firmly embedded in our liturgy and hymnody, as you either know or will notice if you are being made aware of it this morning. It is so ever-present that I have intentionally veered away from it over the years, substituting other words to wake us up. There is something both comforting and numbing about rote phrases. We cease to think. My job is to comfort and afflict, and so I push against the formula, while, I hope, maintaining the doctrine, because, I don’t imagine you think in trinitarian terms when you pray, or invoke the triune name of God… I expect that you do what I do when I’m out and about on my own. We pray to or converse with some version of God, some image that connects to us personally. Having a proper orthodox teaching is important; but having a proper relationship with God most likely rules out orthodoxy. And I think that’s okay.

I think it’s okay because of Hildegarde of Bingen who was a German mystic who lived from 1098 to 1179. Hildegard has her own day in the church (which means she’s official) and she said God was Verditas, ‘greening growth’. The last two weeks of quickly bursting change from spring buds to fully leafed out luscious green helps us understand what she meant. Hildegard didn’t mean that God was responsible for the greening, or the creator of greening things, but that God is Greening. It’s an interesting image for God. So when we’re gazing out the window at our bird feeders and watching the flutter of colored wings, hearing those sweet trills and songs against the backdrop of intense green, we are not experiencing God in nature, but are experiencing the nature of God. 

Or there is Julian of Norwich who said love is our Lord’s meaning, all is love only for love – all love is Love. So when we love, we are knowing Christ and yes, she includes in her meaning the ‘biblical way’ of knowing. Pretty racy for a nun during the Middle Ages.

Or there is Jesus himself who said he wished he could be a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings. He also called himself the good shepherd who seeks and finds and saves the lost, a vining branch producing fine grapes for fine wine, a spring of living water flowing from the heart of God.

Or Job who said God was a cheesemaker.  “Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?” he asks, disgruntled, of God.

Or images in the Bible of God as a knitter, a weaver, a baker, a house builder, a woman in labor, a winemaker, an eagle, a potter, a bride. 

One of my favorite images is God as a garment. Psalm 104 begins, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment.”   Job complains, “God, you bind me like the collar of my tunic.”  Paul says in baptism we have been clothed with Christ.  Julian again: “I saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us: He is our clothing that for love wraps us, clasps us, and all encloses us for tender love, that He may never leave us; being to us all-thing that is good.”

This is probably why I like the mystics and heretics, because they have latched onto these other ways of thinking and imagining God. Their images might not be as orthodox, but I think without them we limit what and who we consider when we think about the realm and nature of God. What if we were to take these other images as seriously as we take Christ as a shepherd, for example? Where are the stained-glass widows of God at a loom weaving the fabric of life, or God as a calf kicking up his heels? I’m still hoping to discover “Christ the Hen Lutheran Church”.

My point in all of this is to say that the images and language we assign to God matter, and that the more we use, the broader the place and space we open for God in our lives. I don’t think “Father, +Son and Holy Spirit” will expand our view. Your experience of God trumps the doctrine.

God is Trinity, but it’s a big trinity. Expansive. A verb, not a phrase.  God in three persons does things — God heals, saves, comforts, prods, inspires, confounds, overwhelms, loves … us. It’s not enough to say we believe that God is, but we say, we profess, that God acts.

So, finally, to the last scripture reading.

Matthew 13:45-46. Jesus said,  “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Contrary to how we usually hear it, I’m going to suggest that this parable is not about us finding the value of the kingdom of heaven hidden in an unlikely place or form.

The parable says that it is about God – God who is like a merchant – a buyer and collector of pearls and things of value and beauty – who is searching, sifting through bins of gems, and baskets of discarded oyster shells at the rummage sale, and finds a magnificent specimen. Pearls in the ancient world were more valuable than gold. The merchant finds  –  you, a pearl of great value, and, to obtain it, sells all that he has. All of God’s godliness, power, and might were given up, and being in human form, being born into humble rank and powerlessness, even that life was given away – ransomed –  so that you, the pearl, could be obtained. 

God so loved the world, that he sent his only son. 

God acts – in three persons – searching, finding, listening, coming, comforting, saving in ways and images enough to fill our lives with hope in every dark corner. Christ in a cup of coffee? The Holy Spirit in a loon’s song? The power of God in a greening wood. God hanging on a cross, the Spirit of God nudging you in a random moment of compassion.

The mystics knew God, and knew God was all around us, and in the midst of every activity, and beyond all our imaginings, and in spite of our fears and doubts. God is and God acts and God comes. For you. Use your words. Use your experiences. Use your gifts and use your needs – describe the nature of the God you love. And come to trust that within the triune realm of Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Guide you have place of great value, you are a pearl beyond price.

 

John 15:9-17 continues the reading from last week. Jesus is consoling his disciples, promising that – even in death – he will be with them, like a vine is connected to the branches.

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

I am actively avoiding political news because I just don’t need all that crazy, but the world news is hard to avoid, hard to ignore, even though I have no influence or ability to help, and even though it hurts my heart to know there is such hatred and arrogance and dehumanizing, debilitating, overflowing venom within the collective human being. It is evident in so many realms – environmental, cultural, global militarization, politics, civil wars, border wars. We almost get used to it, expect it, normalize it – which is a terrible realization. The current campus protests are giving a new dimension to the ‘forever war’ that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bringing a distant conflict a bit closer.

It might seem there’s no clear side to champion in the Israel/Hamas tension. How far back in history does one go to find the instigating event? It began, I suppose, with Moses, with God telling Moses and Joshua to clear the Canaanites out Canaan so it could be their land of milk and honey. 

But, in that case, it began with Abraham being led from his homeland in Iraq to start a new people and populate a new land. That went well enough, sort of, until there was a famine and they had to leave and got waylaid in Egypt and lost their placeholder in the intervening generations. The Jewish people survived and thrived, even landless, forming communities maintaining a religiously based culture in whatever land they found themselves. Until WWII. And then the British government ‘gave’ them (already occupied) Palestine, in a reboot of God giving the land to Moses. It’s a lot more complicated than that, obviously, but that religious backstory is still mixed up in the current heartbreak. 

Today, the situation is too enmeshed in wrongful actions, and intermingled religious politics, and money, and strategic military interests to take a righteous stand on either side. Except, as Christians we have a calling and the example of Jesus to stand with the suffering. That’s what is clear. And there is suffering on both sides, and both sides have caused the suffering. So, the sides don’t matter so much, the need is what matters, the need is what we are to address – to clothe the naked and feed the hungry and shelter the homeless and comfort the suffering. To invite them to the table and serve ‘skivers and medisterpolse. To love as Jesus loved – beyond all borders and boundaries, to draw the outside, straggling, struggling in to the center of love and care on those long, reaching tendrils of the vine. To ignore their religion and operate out of the values and mandates of our religion. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Just that. But how? 

It’s easy to be against the terrorist actions of Hamas. And it’s easy to be against the over-the top retaliation of the Israeli leadership and military forces. Destroying Hamas by killing the Palestinian people won’t provide the security Israel seeks. And they do deserve safety, as do the Palestinians. And so in the end, we’re left feeling compassion for the people, for all the suffering, and being angry with the rulers and religions that create the “sides” in the first place.  Which for some reason makes me think about the way Jesus loved. Not the part about laying down his life, but about all the stories in the gospels of how he continually crossed borders and boundaries. That was how he loved. It wasn’t just “his own”, there was always some separation that needed to be bridged, some obstacle that needed to be set aside. Gender, morality, class, purity, illness, ethnicity, culture, faith, doubt – those are the stories recounted by the gospel writers. Every one of those characters had a reason (according to the rules) for being excluded. Everyone with whom Jesus had an encounter, an intervention, was in the “against” column. “Love your enemies,” Jesus says in Luke’s telling, “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…Do to others as you would have them do to you…and you will be children of the Most High; for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.    Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.”   (Luke 6:27 ff)

“God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Isn’t that in interesting line? ” Love one another as I have loved you.”

I wanted, intended, to write a sermon about Æbleskiver and how great it is to have a community event that we work so hard at, and how everyone comes to chip in, and how enjoyable it seems to be for the diners, many who come every year and who stay around well past their meal taking in the vibe and the buzz. I thought I would be weaving in the baptism of this precious little child for whom we have prayed as a tiny premie, and for Caitlin and Kyle in their anguish and fear and joy all twisted together.  Those things, too, are expressions of love that are valid and real and very worth celebrating.  

But, I worry about being so siloed, insulated, self-contained as we are in this little community of faith — and of preaching the commandment to love one another after a successful Æbleskiver dinner, when we are seriously feeling the love of community. It’s not that we should feel guilty, or not celebrate the fun and camaraderie because the world is suffering,— but, we probably shouldn’t conflate an Æbleskiver high with God’s love, or our exhaustion with Jesus’ commandment to love as he has loved. I think we are to be filled, to have our inner resources topped off with the fun stuff, the communal warmth, so that we have ourselves to offer in the hard work of living active, engaged lives in the world away from West Denmark.

Loving your enemies (if you have them), loving your neighbors in ways that show, in ways that they might recognize and benefit from, loving beyond your borders — that is more to the point and more costly. Praying for the other side. Going out of your way. Offering help where it’s needed, not necessarily where you want to give it. Crossing boundaries of comfort. Taking risks. Stirring up a bit of holy trouble. If these things sound more exhausting and threatening than pulling off another Æbleskiver Dinner, then we might be on the right track. I’m not pushing hardship or misery as holy orders — Jesus did mention to love in this way so that our joy might be complete – but we all know that actual love is costly, it takes work and takes something from us as much as it gives and fills. God is love — and is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. I mean, looking a human history, that’s an impressive understatement.

Abiding in Jesus’ love, dwelling in the mystery, aligning ourselves, somehow, with the vision that all people — all of creation — is on equal terms of importance and value with our own livelihoods and wishes and rights  — that might be enough of a challenge for today. What is the height and depth and breadth of love as Jesus loved? Hold yourself in that tension, and don’t let it go, don’t let it resolve. Stay in the tug and see what happens.

John 15:1-8 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

The gospel of the Lord…………thanks be to God

Hymn: We come to the hungry feast

Some of you may actually know about grape vines – the kind Jesus was talking about – vineyard vines. But, instead, you have to listen to what I know. I know about wild grapes and Virginia creeper. And I kind of like the difference between the official vineyard practices, and the way wild things grow. 

Until they needed to be cut down for the parsonage re-siding project, I tended wild grape vines. I suppose it was less tending and more like enabling. I strung clothesline under the eaves, around all three sides of the porch and let them go. Wild grape vines grow fast and branch out and tendril themselves onto everything they can reach – the screens, the clothesline, the hummingbird feeder, the siding of the house whenever they find a little flaw to hang onto. Every fall I cut them back to just the main vine and a few hearty branches, and by mid-summer they filled in the upper third of the porch walls in a thick leafy garland. They provided shelter to bird’s nests and tree frogs. During rain showers, song birds and butterflies tucked in under the natural umbrella, and once the grapes formed our cats were scandalized watching mice climb up in the dark to eat the fruit. Grape vines create their own ecosystem buzzing with life. I don’t understand how tendrils know there is something out there, just beyond their reach to stretch for, but they seem to. Sometimes they end up latching onto a sister tendril and twine themselves together into a rope going nowhere until they catch the tip of a shingle, or maybe an updraft, or the edge of thought. That seems to be all they need. 

At our place in Washburn, Virginia creeper is busy creeping through the edge of the field by the driveway and sauna. I know it can climb – trees, buildings, barns, tractors – but ours is mostly content to act as ground cover. I spent the better part of a day last summer pulling it out of the space I’ve designated for a future garden. I picked up a section of stem and started walking backwards, and kept walking and walking, watching this vine pull branches from about eight different directions. Not knowing what else to do with it, I took it down the middle of the driveway. It was over 50 feet long when I finally had to cut it. It had branches branching from branches and dividing all over the place, zigzagging and doubling back on itself. It, too, is a native species and has small berries that look like wild grapes, also enjoyed by songbirds, deer, squirrels, skunks, mice and other little nibblers. 

These wild vines are tenacious, creative, adaptive and egalitarian. Grape vines winding their way around one another in intricate patterns of tight curls make it impossible to tell where one branch starts or another one ends. If you pick up a visible loop of a Virginia creeper, there’s no knowing where it will take you – maybe you’re close to the growing end, maybe in the middle, maybe near the main stem – but you’re bound to find another dozen vines woven in and under and around and through that stem if you keep trying to pull it up. There’s no hierarchy or orderly arrangement. There never seems to be a main stem or mother root. It’s just a maze. A web. A community. A collection of growth, binding themselves together and to the earth. They root as they go – not deeply, just enough to draw up moisture and nutrients, to suckle and send. This was the model of discipleship Jesus intended.No hierarchy, a web, a community, a collection of growth, bound together and to him.

Jesus said, “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”The fruitfulness of a grape vine depends entirely on the connection of the branch to the vine.

 “I am the vine; you are the branches,” he said. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus is comforting the disciples during the long night before his arrest. He is leaving them – and where he goes they cannot follow this time, but – he is not really leaving them because they are connected, they are one as a vine and it’s branches are one.  They abide in him, are tendril-ed together to one another and to him through love, and through the Spirit of God that will soon dwell within them. “As the Father has sent me so I send you,” he will say as he blows the breath of God into them. The connection with his disciples will be organic and integral and intimate: the disciples’ very lives will be signs of that connection, just as the life and fruit of a branch are signs of its ongoing connection to its vine. 

 I like this imagery, this metaphor, and I get how powerful and comforting it would be for Jesus’ original disciples, and for that next generation that the gospel was speaking to. They required a close, intimate association and the continuing presence of Jesus. They were on a steep learning curve. No one knew how to be a Christian since there weren’t any yet. What was it about Jesus’ teaching and modeling that they needed to hone in on, to practice, to remember and pass along? They needed the intimacy and twining connectedness of each other for support, but, also so that they stayed true to the message. They needed the vine for course correction to pull the tendrils back in if they seemed to go off on their own. They needed to keep the stories and memories coalesced. We see that in the book of Acts as it tells of the disciples going out and coming back, gathering converts and bringing in the core teachers, Peter and James. Paul was an outsider and needed to be part of the group before they could trust him or his teaching. Throughout the early years of the Jesus movement, the disciples continued to go out on missionary trips and then come back to re-sync, to weave themselves back into the community. That is the model of a vineyard. A true vine, trusted to be the right cultivar by the vinegrower God, who has branches spreading out and tendril-ing together, producing the good fruit of communal life of radical inclusion, fellowship, teaching, and compassion. Intense growth and attention to details produced the fine wine that became a living word and, gradually, a religion.

However – I think I am grateful for Virginia creepers. They are part of the grape family, they share many of the characteristics of their wild grape cousins and of cultivated, domestic, vineyard grapes, but with important differences. 2000 years later, the Christian church of our age would be unrecognizable to the early disciples. And, to be honest, we don’t have much of it right. We aren’t living the radical love that Jesus did or taught, we don’t live on the edge the way they did. We don’t feel that urgency. They would be dismayed that Christianity has become empire, has turned a blind eye to injustice and oppression and suppression. We all know that. We (most of us) live a diluted form of what Jesus preached. We fit it in around the other things going on. Faith is important, maybe even a key feature of our lives, but we have the luxury of a life that makes it doable. We have options. We – most of us – leave turning the world upside down to others. We are as distant a cousin to Jesus’ first followers as Virginian creeper is to a chardonnay. And yet, we are still connected, still stronger when tendril-ed to a faith community, still fed and enlightened, sanctified and loved by God the gardener as we follow in the Way of the True Vine.

And so, I think the Virginia creeper is a more accurate metaphor for the current state of the church. As I said, it is in the grape family, but it has the advantage of those little roots that sink in wherever they contact the ground. Its many branches don’t have to depend on the main vine for life and sustenance and continuity. If I cut out section of a branch with my loppers, both the proximal and distal portions will continue to grow. They don’t need absolute connection. A branch can become a new main vine by sending in those roots all along the length. So my ground cover might be one plant, or it might be many plants living intermingled and independently. Like all of the little Lutheran churches in the county, and the other denominations – intermingled and independently we each do our particular bit, live out our calling as a community of faith the best we can with our resources. We get some of the calling right – to feed and clothe and house and include; to love justice and practice kindness. And we miss other parts, but those might be picked up by another congregation. So that, like ground cover, taking all of us together as a people of faith, we produce the fruit God envisions and desires.

Virginia creepers are an important source of winter food for little wild animals and songbirds. It’s not fine wine from big luscious grapes, but it is what is necessary in our habitat: tenacious, creative, adaptive and egalitarian. We need everyone, we function best when all are invited in, rooted and grounded in God as the ground of our being, and the source of love.

Virginia creepers come with a warning in the native plant book: “Be sure to site it appropriately as it is so vigorous it may be too much for small spaces and envelop other nearby plants. And while it is most vigorous in full sun, it also does fine in partial shade (and tolerates heavy shade), in almost any type of soil.”  In other words, beware: once planted, it is there to stay.

What if Christian community needed to come with the same warning: so vigorous they may be too much for small spaces and envelop others nearby.  Vigorously spreading acts of love, accommodating to sun or deep shadow; growing well in rocky, hard-packed, sandy or fertile soil, producing fruit of the same species, but not necessarily the same plant, growing and thriving where it comes in contact with good earth, capable of climbing to great heights, of stabilizing fragile terrain, of covering barren spaces, and producing food for the empty months… that’s not a bad description for a life in Christ.

The other thing about these various vines as images of the church or Christian life, is that, as branches of the vine, they are indistinguishable from one another. Grape vines don’t have individual gifts. Virginia creeper tendrils aren’t rugged individuals (well, they are sort of). They all look the same, function the same, share the same responsibilities, bear the same burdens, achieve the heights together in a bundle of interconnected tendrils. There’s a undeniable humility in their inclusive equality. That, too, is a valuable image. It’s all for the sake of the fruit. That’s all. Grow to bear fruit. We bear fruit because we are extensions of the vine, tended and pruned by the gardener-God who wants us to be fruitful and to be drawn into the unity of the Father and Son. And in John’s gospel, the fruit is acts of love. That’s all. That’s all we are to be about.

It is a simple, but very difficult calling.

John 21.1-19

Lake Galilee

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ²Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. ⁴Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. ⁷That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. ⁹When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

___________________

This is a good reading for Earth Day Sunday. The sun rises on a shining and blueLake Galilee. The story brings together an abundance of fish, splashing, happy people, (wonderful and weird details of Peter, wanting to appear properly dressed before his Lord, yet too impetuous and amazed to wait) and the earthiness of God’s presence and glory. Jesus presents the bread and fish for breakfast as proof of his bodiliness and as a reminder of God’s outlandish abundance, recalling both the last supper and the feeding of 5000. The charcoal fire gives a nice visual – crackling and snapping to the early morning light – and it’s almost olfactory – as we imagine the sizzling fish.  It’s a lovely setting for the last appearance of the risen Lord. And his commissioning of Peter, in referencing the sheep and lambs, brings to mind psalm 23 and green pastures beside still waters. All verdant and gracious. The reading lends itself well to a celebration of the Earth.

My association with Earth Day is two fold: first, picking up trash along the roadsides – something I’ve done since 1971, beginning in 7th grade with the Youth Group of the United Methodist Church of the Pines – and the second association is an internal soundtrack of feel good nature songs – the Danish hiking song with it’s blue skies calling and gentle wind blowing could be a new addition, joining such classics as the “59th Street Bridge Song” (slow down, you move too fast, you gotta make the morning last kicking down the cobblestones feelin’ groovy), or “Everything is beautiful in its own way” (from Ray Stevens) under God’s heaven, the world’s gonna find its way, or Lois Armstrong thinking to himself of the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, and what a wonderful world it could be. Last week we sang Morning has broken, that’s a good one, too, (the confirmation kids all made note of it in their sermon notes). I’ve got a long list.

It is good and proper to celebrate Earth Day in worship – and this church’s lovely design with the clear windows overlooking a lake is almost as good as worshiping outside – and quite a bit more comfortable and with reliable sound.  

However, there always seems to be a “however”. The older I get the more complicated things seem to be. I can’t just give myself over into celebration of this beautiful setting and my easy relationship with nature. I still feel that, but it is tinged, stabbed through with the rest of what I know to be true.

Many of my feel good songs came out against the backdrop of the Vietnam war and Agent Orange and the civil rights movement of the 60’s and 70’s and that absurdly on-going struggle for dignity and equal human rights. Feeling groovy was not a prerogative for a whole lot of people.

Earth day was inspired by a huge oil spill. Prior to 1970, there were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect the environment. Remember acid rain? A factory could legally spew black clouds of toxic smoke into the air or dump tons of toxic waste into a nearby stream. On January 28, 1969, a well called Platform A, drilled by Union Oil 6 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara blew out. More than 3 million gallons of oil spilled, killing more than 10,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin was inspired to create Earth Day on seeing the 800-square-mile oil slick from an airplane in the Santa Barbara Channel. As a reaction to this disaster, activists were mobilized to create environmental regulation, and environmental education. On the first anniversary of the spill, January 28, 1970, Environmental Rights Day was created, and the Declaration of Environmental Rights was read. Twenty million Americans demonstrated in different U.S. cities, and in December 1970, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was born. 50 years later, the topic is still controversial. Pollution is big money, and people’s livelihoods on one hand, and health and well-being on the other are invested and in conflict.

The mention of a charcoal fire in the reading also reminds us of the high priest’s courtyard and Peter’s three denials, even as three times Jesus now asks Peter if he loves him and commissions Peter for the work of shepherding and feeding the flock.

And Peter, chatting with Jesus, wasn’t getting groovy news. He wasn’t going to snuggle the lambs. He was supposed to feed them, like Jesus, who gave his body, laying down his life as the good shepherd protecting the sheep. Peter and the others are to continue what Jesus had begun. He was to be a good shepherd for the people – all the people. Both Jews and Gentiles means all people. Those are the only two categories of people. Jesus tells him he will be bound and lead where he does not want to go. His fishing days are over — this last amazing catch has nothing to do with fish.

Barb, Mike and Al were just in Kansas City getting arrested in an Earth Day protest for trespassing on forbidden earth, the grounds of the Kansas City National Security Campus where workers manufacture a range of electrical, mechanical, and engineered materials essential for nuclear weapons designed for a global nuclear war. Talk about forbidden fruit. 

Celebrating Earth Day it seems, is less about gathering daffodils and picking up trash, and more about protecting the earth and all creatures from the ravages of our economic and militaristic consumption. It’s about racial and economic justice, it’s about integrity and sustainability. It’s a lot harder and more dangerous and consuming than a day in the sunshine pulling trash out of a river, or collecting household toxins, or emptying the garage of the winter’s recyclables. It’s a lot more like Jesus asking Peter (three times, out loud) if Peter loves him. Can you feel that terrible entrapment of love and fear? It’s a lot like asking for your life – to be changed, given; for your plans to be laid aside; for love to be real, not intellectual or flirty or flippant. Real and acted on. Love for the earth. Love for the people negatively affected by our wealth and prosperity. Love for the animals whose homes and habitats we destroy in complicity and for the sake of more stuff. Love for air and water and soil – sacred creations, each of them. Earth Day is not a poster to hang on the wall. It is an existential challenge and commissioning.

God sent Jesus into the world, not to condemn it, but so that the world might be saved, redeemed, brought into focus.  Jesus was rejected and killed for this work, and so will Peter be, and others of the disciples, for trying to bring God’s ‘love beyond borders and boundaries’ to light, for trying to teach the completely radical nature of God’s way of abiding love for ALL LIFE. Like the ancients, we assume God’s favor for us over others, we create hierarchies of value and enshrine them in liturgical text like psalm 8 with all things under the human’s feet. The birds and trees and fireflies might offer a correction for that assumption. 

What do we do with the dual nature of our natures? How do we become less comfortable with our creaturely comforts? Less reliant on blind complicity as an excuse? How do we become AWARE? And do you dare?

I don’t know how to do it, or if I’ll find a way, but I’ve been thinking about how I might preach a non-human-centered world view as a small way into this problem.  I’ve been wondering what the gospel might mean for my cats or the chipmunks or the eagles who sing from that corner pine tree.  What can animal and soil life, wild life teach us about the voice of God spoken directly to them? Why would we assume that God’s word is only in a human frequency? The creation waits, Paul wrote, groaning in travail until the revelation of humankind. Until humans grow into the image of God that God intended for us. Until we take seriously our limitations and responsibilities and possibilities as part (and only part) of the whole creation. 

I will continue to sing to myself about feeling groovy, dappled and drowsy in the morning sun, or planting gardens inch by inch, row by row – I can’t seem to help it, but I can’t now not see what I have seen of the suffering of the world and her creatures and her children, I can’t not worry about the world our children and grandchildren will grow into, and Earth Day celebrations need to encompass all of it and extend beyond a day of each year, becoming a full-in commitment to life.

Peter, do you love me? Jesus asked. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep and follow me.

John 20:17-31 

“Mary!”

She turned and said, “Rabbouni!” (which means Beloved Teacher). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”    

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them what he had said to her.

 It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy.  

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Thomas, the twin, the one called Didymus, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. The others told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”  But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more doubt. Believe!” Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”

Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. 31 But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name.

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That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid .., Jesus came and stood among them. 

We’re back at Easter night, the first day of the week, the day creation began. Or re-creation. Or our creation. The first thing I noticed is that the disciples have regrouped. Three nights before, at Jesus’ arrest and trial, they scattered like quail in the face of danger. But, by Sunday evening, they are back together. No texting or tweets, those who loved Jesus just knew to go back to the last place, go back to the house, lock the world out, gather all the bits together, compare memories, and grieve. Jesus created a new family at the foot of the cross with his mother and the beloved disciple, but his love and the disciples’ loyalty have joined them together, too. Fearful, but together. Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit onto/into his disciples is a second creation reminding us of God breathing life into the first human beings. The image of new life provides an important link with Jesus’ announcement that those who believe in him receive new life as children of God. The Holy Spirit is the breath that creates and sustains this new life, like it did long ago, in a garden called Eden.

Thomas, the twin, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. The others said to him, “We’ve seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Doubting Thomas. Some days are more Thomassy than others, for me… Some days the wounds of the world or ourselves would swallow us whole, and believing in the goodness and power of God’s love is difficult. Some days I would dearly love a little solid proof, a little less mystery, less reason to wonder.

To believe in Jesus is not to say you believe in the truth of the story. To believe in Jesus is to say, “I abide in you, my Lord and my God, and you abide in me.” It affirms an on-going, whole body, mind and spirit relationship between Jesus, the Word of God, and you as the believer. It’s not factual truth that we’re believing in, it’s more real than facts or proof.

Jesus’ first resurrection appearance is to Mary in the garden, she runs back to the disciples saying, “I have seen the Lord!” But they don’t say “Great! That’s amazing!” Instead, Jesus finds them huddled together with the doors locked in fear. They, too, could be thrown out of the synagogue, they, too, could be crucified or stoned.

Jesus appears to them and they rejoice when they see the Lord in his death-revealed body. They repeat Mary’s exact words to Thomas when he comes, but, like them, Thomas also requires a personal encounter. Actually, we all do. That’s how faith happens. I can’t teach faith in confirmation class. I teach a bit about the Bible and how Lutherans interpret it. I teach a bit about the communal nature of worship and service and fellowship. But the experience of God has to be theirs at some point if it is to catch hold. When the Samaritan woman left the well and ran back to her townspeople telling of her meeting at the well, they went to Jesus themselves.  They said, “It is no longer because of what you said, but we have heard for ourselves.” This isn’t a slight against her. Believing in Jesus is not about believing in someone else’s experience. Belief is in having your own encounter with the Word made flesh. Belief is not aimed at eternity, it begins with the fullness of life and grace here, now. An actual experience, an epiphany of God in your own life.

Because, the resurrection is not just the resurrection. Jesus said, “I AM the Resurrection and the life.” God is both glory and earthly. Belief and life are synonyms in this Gospel, and together they form the groundwork for a relationship that sustains and sends out disciples of all times and places and styles.

After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”…
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side.”

Thomas wanted to touch the wounds; to see and feel, and experience for himself. We get that.
But, have you ever wondered why Jesus still had wounds?

It doesn’t seem to occur to Thomas and the others that the risen Lord should now appear to them perfect, whole, unblemished.  That’s interesting.  Unlike his other signs and healings that were characterized by restoration and wholeness, the resurrected Jesus is not pristine. He still bears the marks of death.

It is this wounded Savior, then, who is the standard for the coming kingdom of God. Through Thomas, we witness the wounds of the body of Christ. And, actually, of course, they are all around us. 

Too often, in our real lives, we don’t want to see them, we don’t want to touch them. We don’t want to get that involved, or be that vulnerable.  We usually try to ensure that marks of imperfection and pain (ours and those of others) be kept covered, as if such “not seeing” will help in some way, will preserve dignity or prevent embarrassment at being seen for who we are, as we are.  

But, if Jesus is raised with wounds, maybe that – and not perfection – is what God prefers to work with; maybe our wounded-ness is where transformation and transcendence can take root – like a seed falling on soft, broken ground, not onto hard-packed, perfected ground. Seeds need the soft earth to open. Earth needs seed to fall, to become something new.

Jesus’ bodily appearance is full of mystery – how did he walk through locked doors, yet allow Thomas to touch his physical wounds? But, we see in this story the tender compassion of the living word of God. Jesus knows his disciples are afraid for their lives—he grants them peace. He knows they need his continued presence and power—he breathes the Spirit into their flagging hearts. He knows they have lost their way, their sense of purpose—he commissions them to a ministry of witness and reconciliation. He knows they can hardly believe their eyes that he is their Jesus, the same one who was nailed to the cross—so he shows them his wounds. He knows Thomas is missing—he comes back the next week to make sure the Twin is not left out. He knows the last thing they need to hear is that they failed him miserably and he is disappointed—he utters not a single word of recrimination, but grants them the kingdom.

It is not surprising then, that in the presence of such immense tenderness, the reading says the disciples rejoiced.  Easter, in these terms, is the breaking-in of a new age to come in which there will be only compassion, peace, restoration and love like this, love for all the wounded and broken, for the afraid, believing, skeptical, strong, and faithful – love for all. It is ours to practice this living, this loving of imperfect, ordinary – to become Easter people, rising anew and going out into the world with joy and good news. 

Christ is risen. Alleluia

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran… and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 

Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,  and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;  for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.  

Then the disciples returned to their homes. 

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb;  and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni!” (which means beloved Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

In the beginning . . . was the Word. 

“Woman why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” 

In the beginning was the Word. 

“Mary.” 

In the beginning when darkness covered the face of the earth and the world was a formless void…. The word of God brought light into the darkness and life out of emptiness. 

In the beginning there was a garden, and on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went there in grief.

John presents us with a narrative that, in its end, circles back to its beginning – that circles back to creation, to incarnation, to the coming of God in Jesus to bring light to our darkest days and life to the emptiest places and love into the void of despair. 

We know this story. We watch as Mary discovers Jesus’ tomb – the tomb that should be filled to overflowing with death and burial spices and linen shrouds and grief, the tomb that should be sealed, should be cold, dark, stone – is open…is empty. We see Peter and the other disciple run to see that what the woman has told them and they find that is indeed true – the stone has been rolled away. Why? By whom?  John tells us that the beloved disciple “saw and believed.” But, he saw nothing – no angels, no body, so what did he believe? Perhaps simply that Mary was correct — that someone had stolen the body of their crucified teacher, that the tomb was empty. 

Peter discovers the linen burial wrappings and notices the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head has been rolled up and lies in a place apart, by itself. These are not yet clues to the greatest masterpiece of all mysteries. They are simply the facts. The tomb is empty.

Having felt this void, this kind of darkness and hurt in our own lives, we understand their confusion and anger, their disappointment and doubt. Why is this tomb empty? Who would do this?  Why must they now endure this new burden added to their defeat? 

When there is no body, there is no closure. When there is no body, there can be none of the comfort that can be gained from the certainty of death. When there is an empty grave there is no location for grief to dwell.               Unenlightened, the two of them go home. 

Our focus returns to Mary. Neither Peter nor the other disciple have offered her words of comfort or encouragement. They have not persuaded Mary to return home with them. So she stays.

Weeping, she looks into the cave. She hears an echo from within the tomb and from behind her – from the place of death and endings and shame, and from the garden of new life … “Woman, why are you weeping?” 

Really? Well, let us repeat the litany of grief, guilt, and heartbreak that fills our human frames, that marks our earthly days.    Death, betrayal, abandonment, illness, anxiety, failure, fear… how’s that for a start?

“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” 

“What are you looking for?” These were the first words Jesus spoke in this gospel, way back in the beginning, when a few of John the baptist’s disciples followed him.  “What do you want?” Jesus asked them, and then invited, “Come and see.”

Jesus asks Mary the same question, “Who are you looking for?” 

Well, what – or who – are you looking for? You’ve come here for a reason – – presumably for more than breakfast. Whom do you seek? What is it you hope to find here? What do you need to find – and hope it might be found here?

There is work here that needs to be done… you probably didn’t come looking for work. 

There is sickness and death and birth and growth and friendship here; there is fellowship among the saints; good food is shared here, peace is shared, stories are shared and heard.  There are a few noisy children underfoot (when we’re lucky). There’s curiosity, and laughter, and prayer, a bit of sarcasm now and then. There is encouragement and nurture, a lively concern about injustice and the future of the planet. There is music for our souls.  There are various vocations being lived out in important, intentional, and earnest ways. There are memories to hold, traditions to build on, and a future to imagine our way into.   These are thing you might discover and share. 

Did you come seeking them? If so, you’re welcome to them. Although, since they aren’t commodities, engagement is required.

What – or who – are you looking for? 

I can’t promise that you’ll find God here, or that you will be warmed or enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that here you will find the One in whom your soul finds its rest and goal. I can’t conjure God. But, I can promise you welcome at Christ’s table of grace and mercy. I can promise you an opportunity to search your conscience, offer confession, and receive release for the burdens you carry. I can promise that whether or not you find God, you can be known – fully, truly, and forgiven and loved by this gardener God, this Savior, this Christ among the crocuses. And I can promise you that it is good news of great joy for you.

With a word, Mary realizes her mistake. This is not a gardener, nor a thief.  “Rabbouni,” she says –  a term of endearment for a much loved teacher. She might as well have called him Good Shepherd, for she turns at the sound of her name. She turns toward Jesus in a moment of recognition that encapsulates all of the joy, all the expectancy, all the incredulity of resurrection. 

I’m still thinking about those fragrant burial spices – 100 pounds of fragrance now scattered on the ground? Was it trailing out on the disciples feet, were the angels sitting on it? A hundred pounds of scent filled the morning where the tomb was empty. It had to be a heady accompaniment to a mystifying encounter.

In the beginning . . . was the Word. 

“Woman why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” 

In the beginning was the Word calling her by name.     “Mary.” 

In the beginning when darkness covered the face of the earth and the world was a formless void…. The word of God brought light into the darkness and life out of emptiness, and even now, the darkness has not overcome it.

In the beginning there was a garden, out of which God sent Eve and Adam to know death and grief, to work and toil, to live (not in the absence of God, but) estranged and apart.

In the beginning there was a garden, and on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went there in grief. We know that garden, that pre-dawn chilling darkness.

But from this Easter garden Mary Magdalene is sent out rejoicing.

This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Life wins. God reigns: rains down mercy, sprinkles down hope, pours out possibilities…where none seem to exist.  The Word has spoken through the ages, spoken through the dark night, has broken through the stone wall – the Word has spoken…. a name –  your name, my name, and has turned our death into life. 

Jesus, who was crucified, who was buried, has been raised! He has ascended to his father and to yours, his God and to yours, so that where Jesus is, there you may be also.   Alleluia!

John 19:28-42

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said, “I thirst.”  A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.  When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.” And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.” 

38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. 

39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

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The gospel of John narrates Jesus’ death with simplicity, dignity, solemnity. Here there is none of the turmoil or violence of the other gospels – no jeering crowds at the trial before Pilate, Jesus carries his cross bar by himself to Golgotha and without the crowd looking on. There is no conversation with crucified criminals or mocking by soldiers. Jesus does not cry out to God or make a loud cry at the end – in fact, the Synoptic gospel’s quotation from psalm 22 – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” is a theological impossibility for Jesus of this gospel. He and God are one from the beginning, united in work and in love. Their unity is strengthened, not broken, at Jesus’ death. The natural world perhaps pauses, waiting – but does not shake or moan or give in to the darkness. 

There is poignancy and sadness at this scene, but there is not despair, not abandonment. Jesus is the mystical, incarnate Son of God, the one sent by God into the world to save the world by revealing God’s love. And this is Jesus, the man who dies on a cross, bleeding from his wounds and pierced side, wrapped in linen cloths and laid to rest in a garden tomb. In his death, Jesus lives out the life for which he was born and into which he was sent by bearing ultimate witness to the truth: that through him we are given what is most precious – true incorporation (being brought bodily into) the love of God. 

The abundance of scriptural cross references confirm that this death is part of God’s plan for salvation from the beginning. His unbroken legs lead us to the psalter (psalm 34), his pierced side to Zechariah, but they also prove that he is truly dead… “and at once blood and water came out.” The emphasis on the eye witness is to confirm to readers that this actually happened…. and it is physiologically accurate of a chest wound after crucifixion. 

The significance of water and blood is only partly for proof. The context from Zechariah (12:10) is both mourning and hope. In the midst of death God pours out “a spirit of compassion and supplication to the house of David, so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps for a firstborn.”  In citing this passage, John both implicates those who remain blind to the presence of God, and offers hope, that even in death, when we look on the one who was pierced we see God’s only child, the firstborn of creation, who transforms death in love into life. 

Jesus told the Samaritan woman he is the source of living water – in death, life flows from Jesus’ wounded side; his blood – linked to the original Passover – is not for forgiveness of sin, but to provide life – as blood from the original Passover lamb saved the Israelites from the final plague of death.

John is a master of evocative language – with words that conjure the imagery of salvation history in promises and hope.

Hope may seem a strange thing to be talking about on Good Friday, but it is true for this gospel.

We’ve been singing a few Advent hymns in Lent because they are appropriate for this gospel’s telling. Here’s another one: “All earth is hopeful, the Savior comes at last, furrows lie open (for the seed to be planted and grow) for God’s creative task; this, the labor of people who struggle to see how God’s truth and justice set everybody free.”

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are the characters of this struggle to see. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin – the Jewish Supreme Court – and a secret disciple of Jesus. He represents those who fear losing political power and influence within the synagogue and community if they openly confessed belief in Jesus. At Jesus’ death, however, Joseph is emboldened by the truth he now believes and makes his faith public. He embodies the risk, and openly claims discipleship. This was a hugely significant challenge for John’s original audience – the cost could involve being shunned, stoned, or killed as we know from the apostle Paul’s story and Stephen’s stoning.

The willingness to bury Jesus is seen by John as a confession of faith. Nicodemus first came to Jesus at night and left very much in the dark about Jesus’ identity. He later stood up for Jesus on the basis of fairness in hearing him out in a discussion among the pharisees. But here, now, Nicodemus abandons neutrality and secrecy and acts out of love and with great reverence.

The prodigious amount of burial spices – 100 pounds – could be again seen as a proof offering – it would be enough to keep Jesus pinned down … but consider its fragrance.  100 pounds of myrtle, of myrrh, of sweet aloes. That fragrance would have filled and overpowered, and out-flowed this newly carved cave like the excess of pure nard that Mary poured over his feet, anointing them with her hair. This is an act of utter devotion and all-in love.

Joseph, Nicodemus, and Mary prove themselves to be true disciples as they live out of love. Jesus’ body is handled with care and dignity in its preparation. John makes note that it is the Day of Preparation – on one level it is the day before sabbath begins at sundown, on a higher level, it is the day Jesus is prepared. Linen burial cloth was normally accorded only to those of wealth and high standing, the pristine condition of the garden tomb adds to the dignity and beauty of their treatment of Jesus’ body. 

The scent of burial spices, the scent of earth, fresh clay, the garden setting pull us back to the beginning. “In the beginning, when the world was a formless void…” pull us back to the beginning -“In the beginning was the Word….and the Word was with God in the beginning and through him all things were made… In him was life… 

It is over, but it’s not. There is sorrow, but also the new beginning, deepening commitment, growing awareness of the scope of God’s involvement and presence. How are we to live in this love? 

There is no single or simple answer.

 But there is this story of Jesus’ life and death, and the characters who fill it, who, in one form or another all live within us. These gospel characters are part of each of us. Their motivations and fears and excitement and hesitancy, doubt, blindness – are ours as well. To this story we come back to again and again in the words of liturgy, in song, and faith. 

Through the story of God’s love for the world – often hostile and apathetic – Jesus’ love comes as a glimmer of what it means to be community, what it means to beloved,  what it means to know God in the midst of life and struggle, pain and death. 

“From his fullness we have all received… grace upon grace.