Now the Real Work Starts

Acts 2:14, 22-32
“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses” (Acts 2:32). Peter’s words to the crowds in Jerusalem on Pentecost are appropriate for the day after Easter because they remind us of the good news of the resurrection, but also of the responsibility that we now bear for sharing that good news with the world. The truth is, if we think that Easter has somehow brought us to the end of something, we are wrong; Easter is, in so many ways, only the beginning.

Think of the empty tomb as a pebble dropped into a pond. From the point of impact, ripples move outward across the water until the entire pond has been stirred. As people of faith, we play an important role in transporting the gospel, conveying the message of Jesus’ resurrection further and further through time and space. It may be by you or me that others are stirred from their placid apathy into lives of discipleship. It may be our actions or our attitudes that help others recognize Christ at work in their lives, that awaken them to the possibilities that God is offering in grace.

Because of the cultural aspect of this holy day–the egg hunts, the new clothes, the candy-filled baskets–Easter may seem somehow to be a culmination or a fulfillment; what it represents, though, is a starting point. We may have put the decorations into storage until next year, but if we are paying attention we will recognize that the real work is just beginning. Oh, but what joyous, life-affirming work it is.

Prayer: Lord, may the season of Eastertide bring us new opportunities for service and growth as we seek to follow our risen savior. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

It’s Not About Us

Romans 6:1-11
Paul offers us words of great hope this morning in his letter to the Romans. “For if we have been united with [Christ Jesus] in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.…The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:5, 10-11). In the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we have been freed from the power of sin that once overshadowed our present and our future and are now able to live toward the will of God and what God is doing in the world. When we embrace this truth, when we accept it as reality, we find it to be a colossal shift in the meaning of life. No longer is it all about us. Our failings, our shortcomings, our faults are not what define us. We are now defined by the will of God and what God is doing in and through us. We are freed to move beyond our fears and regrets and to walk in the light of a new hope and a new future.

It isn’t easy, of course. We still feel the tug of our former lives clutching at us to draw us back to what we once were. But now, since we have new life in Christ, we also have ample reason to make the effort and to face the challenges. There is reason to hope; it is the certain knowledge that we live by the grace of God who claims us as God’s own and who experienced death for our sake and for the sake of the world. If we have a share in the death of Christ Jesus (and Paul assures us we do), then we most certainly have a share in his resurrection from the dead. So not only does life have renewed meaning—freed as it is from the darkness of sin—but death is no longer to be feared, for with it comes our final restoration in the life eternal, when, by grace, it still won’t be about us, but about God and God’s majestic glory. Our lives, then, belong to God, now and forever.

Prayer: God of all time and space, by your grace you have freed us from the power of sin and death and allowed us to live in and through your will. Bless us today in all that we do, that we may serve you with joy and be a blessing to others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Men In White

Acts 1:1-14

Do you ever read one verse or a passage of scripture and find yourself thinking about another? That happened to me with our reading from Acts for this morning where the writer shares with us the events surrounding Jesus’ ascension. “While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:10-11). Keeping in mind that the author of Acts also wrote the gospel of Luke, I found myself reflecting on verses from that gospel’s account of the resurrection. “While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen’” (Luke 24:4-5). In each case two men dressed in bright robes suddenly appear to offer insight into the events that have just taken place and to draw the attention of Jesus’ followers back to present moment.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

“Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Yes (the men are saying) you have witnessed something transcendent, but now it is time to get back to living as God’s people and sharing the good news. Don’t remain focused on what has happened here, but take what you have learned and carry it with you so that others may come to understand.

We, too, may be tempted to remain focused on the mountaintop experiences, the emotionally charged events of our lives, but at some point we must move along. At times like these the men in white remind us to redirect our gaze toward the world around us, a world in need of good news.

Prayer: Lord, keep us always moving forward in the faith focused on serving you by serving others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Where Faith Meets Life and Death

Galatians 2:11-21

Just yesterday it was my honor to conduct a service in witness to the resurrection and in thanksgiving for the life of a member of the church I serve. While I would not say that I enjoy funerals, I do appreciate them and find them to be among the most meaningful things I do as a minister because they are centered on the most profound aspects of the faith we profess as Christians.

In my meditation yesterday I said that we had not gathered because the deceased had died, we were there because though she died, she lives. And we were there because in Jesus Christ she has been freed from sin and death in the light of Easter. And we were there because though she is no longer with us in body, she is most certainly a part of that great cloud of witnesses. We were, I said, gathered at the place where the believer and the one in whom she believed are united in the light of glory, at the intersection between death and the one who defeated death, between the loss and sorrow we feel at the death of a loved one and the great joy that claims those who have gone to their eternal rest.

In Galatians Paul also speaks of an intersection of sorts. “I have been crucified with Christ;” he says, “and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19b-20). To be united with Christ in his death is to be completely changed. No longer must we fear death, no longer must we face the future with a sense of dread, no longer must we live as though we are lost. It is no longer we who live! It is Christ who lives in us, the same Christ who gave himself for us and was raised to eternal life.

The relationship between believer and Jesus Christ is one of the great mysteries of the faith. But there is no doubting the love of God at work in and though us nor the hope that we have been given through faith and by which we are able to live and––perhaps most importantly––by which we are able to die.

Prayer: Lord, help us to live in this day in faith, and to trust in your promises for the days to come. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

It’s a ‘Third-Day’ Thing

Exodus 19:1-16

Any time something is said to have happened “on the third day” it catches my attention. Our passage from Exodus is no exception. “On the morning of the third day,” we read, “there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). In this context the significance of the third day is that the people have been purifying themselves and their clothing for two days in preparation for the appearance of God on the mountain. When the third day arrives the people are warned to stay clear; any human or animal that sets foot on the mountain at that time is to be killed (v. 12-13). Elsewhere in scripture Jonah is also said to have had a “third day” experience: it was the day he was finally spewed up by the great fish (Jonah 1:17; c.f. Matthew 12:40 with its reference to “the sign of Jonah”). And of course Jesus stepped from the tomb on Easter Sunday, the third day.

I don’t want to make too much out of this. The number three carries weight in the Judeo-Christian tradition for several reasons, but sometimes three is just a number. (I recall King Arthur in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” continually confusing the numbers 3 and 5; sometimes numbers are just numbers.) But to be God’s people is to live on the third day, a day of divine power and authority (as in Exodus), of redemption and salvation (as with Jonah), and of an utterly profound transformation (which we find in the resurrection). We have been living all these years and yet on the third day we find ourselves truly alive for the first time, whether we are journeying in the desert, fleeing God across the ocean, or staring at an empty tomb. Wherever we are, faith is a “third-day” reality in many ways.

Prayer: Lord, help us to embrace your grace and truth and to live the joy and meaning of the third day all our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

The Lord of Leftovers

Luke 24:36-53

"While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence" (Luke 24:41). It is tempting to make some significant assumptions based on these few verses. After all, this is an account of the risen Christ appearing to the disciples. And in the face of their wonder and disbelief Jesus goes so far as to ask for food. Can a resurrected person actually eat? Would he or she need to?

We can leave those very interesting questions for another time. What strikes me today is the relative mundaneness of the event - as mundane as a risen Savior can be. Any number of things might have happened, and a number of important things did, but the resurrected Jesus is Lord of more than just the big stuff, the healing and the storm-calming. Jesus is also the Lord of leftovers, of broiled fish eaten among friends. Whatever that piece of fish may have meant at that moment it was still fish. Someone had caught it, someone had cleaned it, someone had cooked it, all in ordinary, everyday ways. And now Jesus was eating it, and the sacredness of the everyday took on a new clarity. Or maybe we can look at it this way, that the same man who fed a multitude with just a few fish ("big stuff") is not above eating a little fish himself ("small stuff").

Whatever may be going on in your life, whatever issues you may face, they are neither too big nor too small for Jesus' attention. Even the leftovers.

Prayer: Lord of all creation, both great and small, both cosmic and earthbound, your love is offered in our most profound moments of wonder and awe and in our seasons of forgetfulness, of disregard, of self-importance. Help us to recognize your presence. Help us to see the sacred potential in every person and event and that we are constantly on holy ground. In the name of the risen Savior. Amen.

A Matter of Life and Life

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Acts 3:11-26

John 15:12-27

There is a fascinating theme running through our three readings for today. In Ezekiel 37:1-14 the prophet tells of a valley of dry bones restored to life. This is an image both of resurrection (the raising of the bones) and of inspiration (the granting of breath), one suitable for both Easter and Pentecost. But it also speaks of life before and after death. In the book of Acts we read Peter’s words to the crowd in the temple. Speaking of Jesus he says, “and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14). Here again there is reference to both resurrection and inspiration, for it was by the name of the resurrected Jesus that Peter and John were able to heal a lame man. But again there is an emphasis on life before and after death, because Jesus, who was crucified, is the “Author of life” and the source of life eternal. In John’s gospel we read Jesus’ familiar words, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Here Jesus points to his death as the source of life for others, inspiring his disciples to live his message of love even in the face of death because death does not really end life; it leads to resurrection. John’s gospel ties it all together nicely.

It is this last passage that is referenced in the Walt Disney film “The Jungle Book.” There Bagheera the leopard offers this eulogy for his friend Boloo the bear. “But you must remember, Mowgli, ‘Greater love hath no one than he who lays down his life for his friend.’ When great deeds are remembered in this jungle, one name will stand above all others: Our friend, Baloo the bear” (“The Jungle Book,” Walt Disney Pictures, 1967). These are “inspiring words” when offered in the film’s context; Baloo has died––Bagheera believes––while saving the life of Mowgli. But in the original context of John’s gospel they are more than inspiring because they point to the life that comes after death.

The season of Eastertide in which we find ourselves is about more than resurrection OR inspiration. It is about life, and the life that comes after life. It is a time to rejoice that Jesus was willing to die, and to remember that God continued to act, even through that death. Like the valley of dry bones and the man born lame, Jesus, too, was raised up. We may look forward to being raised up as well, may hope in the life that comes after death. And we may thank God that Jesus was willing to die for friends, a term which refers to us. Truly, Eastertide is a matter of life and life.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for your work in raising us up to share in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.