Text used – 1 John 5:9-13

• We’re going to full-circle everything this morning, all.
  • Last week à started the congregational conversation about renewal
    • Continuing that conversation after worship today → talking about how to reach out to the people who are already here = basically a discussion about developing discipleship
  • And this is yet another one of those funny little God-moments, y’all … one of those times when the sermon that I planned months ago falls so perfectly into the space and time that we’re occupying together that the timing of all of this truly had nothing to do with me and everything to do with a God who is not done with us yet.
    • In talking about reaching out to one another – about deepening our discipleship together – Percy: Disciples are learners. … In learning to live to the glory of God, our desire is to become more like Jesus in thought, character, attitude, behavior, and purpose; to live lives that are pleasing to [Jesus] in every way.[1]
      • Goes on to loops the congregation into that description: The church is a community of such people, everyone of them in process, beginning from wherever they are and moving in a new direction with a new purpose. Such people can only hope to reflect God’s glory dimly and with a great deal of refraction, but the process of drawing closer to God and being transformed is what the adventure is all about, and also what brings glory to God.[2]
    • And this morning’s Scripture reading is all about that exact thing – scholar: In these verses, we find four terms prominently repeated: believe, Son, life, and testimony.[3] → If, as Percy describes, we do indeed have a desire to deepen our discipleship and become more like Jesus in thought, character, attitude, behavior, and purpose, then this passage is the gateway to those depths.
• Context for 1, 2, and 3 John[4]
  • John Wesley’s descriptions of these particular books of Scripture: “How plain, how full, and how deep a compendium of genuine Christianity!”[5]
  • Author = unknown BUT scholars agree same author wrote all 3 letters
    • Possibly same author who wrote gospel of John
      • Share some similar phrasing: “love one another” comes up a lot in all texts
      • Share some similar particular word choices
    • Unsure about order in which these letters were written
    • Unsure about particular destination of these letters
      • Particular city/church a la Corinthians?
      • More general “Christians at large” → circulated from city to city?
    • Unsure about date of authorship
    • Somewhat unsure about particular genre of these letters
      • Scholars agree 2 and 3 John are personal letters similar to ancient letters of recommendation
      • But 1 John is, as one scholar put it, vexing. It doesn’t necessarily follow any of the general patterns of ancient texts so it could be an essay, or a treatise, a sermon or a manifesto, an encyclical or a circular letter, to name but a few proposals.[6]
  • But as we read through the text of 1 John, it becomes clear that this little epistle was written with a few major Christian tenets in mind.[7]
    • Speaks of the nature of God
    • Speaks of the communal context in which we hear and experience God’s word
    • Speaks of a tentative understanding of the end times without skewing highly condemnational
    • Speaks about who Jesus is and what Jesus does
    • Speaks about what Christian life should look like
    • Basically, this little book is all about deepening discipleship!
• Today’s passage begins with a reminder that it all comes from God: our efforts, our testimonies, our faith, our life, our eternity … it all comes from God
  • Text: If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son.[8] → For all intents and purposes, all, this is why we do our Glimpses of God on Sunday mornings: because as human beings, we don’t always reflect God as fully or as perfectly as we’d like to. As Percy put it, “people can only hope to reflect God’s glory dimly and with a great deal of refraction,” but we also believe that God is moving and working and dancing and sparkling and living in the world and the people around us. We believe that God is showing up in new and stunning ways each and every day. If we didn’t believe that, we wouldn’t be here. And our Scripture passage this morning assures us of that – that even when our testimony or the testimony of others around us fall short, God is still working and speaking and showing up! “If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater.”
    • Also want us to notice an intentionality in this phrase: “If we receive human testimony” → Gr. “receive” = hold, grasp, seize, catch, put on, choose, collect → This receiving of testimony is about more than just letting others’ stories and experiences of God go in one ear and out the other. This is about more than politely nodding our head when we hear that testimony before moving the conversation along. There is an intentionality about the way that testimony is received. We intentionally take it in – we grasp it, seize it, catch it, choose it – and we intentionally keep it in a way that is honoring and noticeable – we hold it, we collect it, we put it on like a favorite sweater or a well-loved t-shirt.
    • And just in case we either aren’t grasping that idea that God’s testimony is greater or we’re underwhelmed by that idea, let’s look at that for just a second. → Gr. “greater” = more in every sense of the word: wider, more intense, deeper, louder, brighter à God’s testimony is so much more that we cannot fail to see it! Praise God!
  • The good news according to our Scripture this morning: that testimony is already within you! – text: The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son.[9] → Thom Rainer, who’s done a lot of writing about church renewal: Membership in the church is not country club membership. It’s not about paying your dues and getting perks.
    • Cycles back to Percy’s idea that the “church is a community … in process, beginning from wherever they are and moving in a new direction with a new purpose” → I would hope that you’re here this morning because that word that God has written on your heart has drawn you to this place – because that testimony that God has sunk deep in your heart is one you want to explore and pray over and share. I would hope that you’re here seeking to deepen your understanding of God and your relationship with God through worship and through your active presence in this Christian community.
    • Nothing about this promises a perfect testimony or an eloquent testimony or a testimony that looks anything like anyone else’s … But it does promise that God is an active and inextricable part of that testimony because it comes from God in the first place.
  • And just in case you’re unsure about the core of that testimony, the writer of 1 John outlines it for us: And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life.[10] → At the end of this Easter Season in the church, this testimony is about the good news of the life everlasting.
    • Empty tomb = LIFE
    • Folded graveclothes = LIFE
    • All of those beautiful and baffling appearances Jesus made to his disciples after he was raised from that grave = LIFE
• And for us today, in the midst of all the chaos and pain and disfunction and fracturedness of the world around us, the good news is still LIFE!
  • “LIFE” means different things for each of us because we all have different places in our lives that needs that infusion of God’s good news: relationships, personal habits, daily routines, situations, experiences, moments from the mega to the mundane.
    • What this LIFE doesn’t mean = others are beyond God’s reach – scholar: Labeling others evil and ourselves as good distorts the complex reality of human nature and God’s unpredictable grace abound anywhere and everywhere in God’s created, groaning world. When we listen to the words of this author [of 1 John], we must be careful not to presume too much about our own righteousness as God’s chosen.[11] → Too often, passages like this that talk about how we find God through the grace of Jesus Christ get used as a weapon – against those who struggle with belief, against those who have been so hurt by the church that their belief has been shattered, against those who grew up with no knowledge of or access to the gospel message, against those whose life circumstances have wrung the faith out of them one excruciating and devastating heartbreak at a time. But the love of God and the grace of Christ are not a weapon.
      • Percy: The gospel is an invitation. While the gospel proclaims important news, its proper form is always an invitation … The thing about invitations is that they require a response in order to be activated.[12] → Your testimony is that response! Your own particular story about seeing God and hearing God, finding God and noticing God, following God and getting to know God better is your activated response to God’s own testimony in Jesus Christ. And our call as Christians – our call as this church … the Presbyterian Church of Oronoco here in this time and place – is to live into that testimony every minute of every day, not just for a couple hours on Sunday morning.
  • Definition of the church from my friend, Kara Root, pastor at Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church up in south Minneapolis: The times I feel my deep love for the church are when it’s transcendent, mysterious, and unknowable and when it’s messy, haphazard, and human. And my favorite moments of all are when it’s all of these at the same time. Church is a broken and messed-up collection of beautiful souls longing for the world to reflect the truth of God’s love. These people show up with each other, believed there is a reason to come, a reason to risk, a reason not to quit.[13] → What better testimony could there be? Amen.

[1] Harold Percy. Your Church Can Thrive: Making the Connections That Build Healthy Congregations. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 26.

[2] Ibid, 26-27.

[3] Nick Elder. “Commentary on 1 John 5:9-13” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/seventh-sunday-of-easter-2/commentary-on-1-john-59-13-6.

[4] C. Clifton Black in “The First, Second, and Third Letters of John: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, vol. 12. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 365-368.

[5] John Wesley quoted by C. Clifton Black, 365.

[6] Black, 370.

[7] Ibid., 374-376.

[8] 1 Jn 5:9.

[9] 1 Jn 5:10.

[10] 1 Jn 5:11-13.

[11] Bonnie Miller-McLemore. “Seventh Sunday of Easter – 1 John 5:9-13 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 540.

[12] Percy, 18 (emphasis added).

[13] Kara Root. The Deepest Belonging: A Story About Discerning Where God Meets Us. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021), 5.

Text used – John 10:11-18

• As I was thinking about this whole image of lambs and sheep and shepherd and Jesus this week, I have to admit that it was challenging.
  • Challenging because there’s almost an overabundance of sheep/shepherd/flock imagery throughout Scripture → speaks heavily to the culture in which these sacred texts were first spoken and written and shared
    • Culture rife with pastoral scenes
      • Sheep and shepherds occupying hillsides all around
      • Sheep and shepherds encountered going along the road from one place to the next
    • Religious culture rich with the importance of sheep → one of the main animals of sacrifice: “an unblemished sheep” or “the finest of the flock” were some of the most lavish sacrifices offered both in atonement and in thanksgiving
    • Other Scriptures speaking of sheep and shepherds (just a small sample, mind you)
      • Ps 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want[1] …
      • Ezek 34: The Lord God proclaims: I myself will search for my flock and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out the flock when some in the flock have been scattered, so will I seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered during the time of clouds and thick darkness.[2]
      • Jn 21: When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.” He asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was sad that Jesus asked a third time, “Do you love me?” He replied, “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”[3]
      • 1 Pet 2: Like shepherds, tend the flock of God among you. Watch over it. Don’t shepherd because you must, but do it voluntarily for God. Don’t shepherd greedily, but do it eagerly. Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock.[4]
      • Rev 7: They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.[5]
      • And as I said, these are only a few – a scant few – of the passages I could have pulled to illustrate this. Yes, Scripture is full of references to various aspects of our faith being like sheep … like shepherds … like flock. The sheep/shepherd language is everywhere.
    • Challenge presented by this overabundance of sheep/shepherd/flock language – scholar: The good shepherd is one of the most familiar images of Jesus and all the more demanding of theological attention, for the familiar too easily becomes routine and its range of meaning narrows.[6] → I think for today’s particular passage from John 10 – what is most often referred to as “The Good Shepherd” passage – this is particularly true. So after so many references and interpretations and sermons and devotional readings and everything else we’ve encountered about this passage specifically and about sheep/shepherd imagery in the Bible in general, I was struggling with how to come at this from a new vantage point.
• But then I stumbled across this piece written by a modern-day shepherd back in 2013. – “10 Things I’ve Learned from Lambs” by Craig Rogers[7] from the Modern Farmer website
  • According to bio at the beginning of the piece: Craig Rogers = owner of Border Springs Farm in Patrick Springs, Virginia
  • And as I was reading through these 10 things, I thought, “That could be a good way to approach this text, especially for those of us who haven’t grown up on sheep farms” (which I’m relatively sure applies to almost everyone in this room … am I right?)
    • Can’t tackle them all – 2 reasons
      • ONE: we’d be here all day because there’s a lot here
      • TWO: Frankly, the last 3 all deal with eating lamb, and sometimes an illustration can only go so far!
• Lesson 1: “A shepherd’s life is most humble: From the beginning of time, shepherds have been the proverbial ‘ditch diggers,’ the down-trodden, the disrespected. Hence, even the angels came to the shepherds, the lowliest of all men, to share the news of the birth of Christ, as the story is told. Over the centuries, nothing has changed much. From the shepherds of the hills of Scotland, to the shepherds of the new Western frontier, to the Basque shepherds who migrated from Mexico and became the shepherds of the far west and the emancipated slaves who headed west with prolific breeding sheep as their source of livelihood, all have been discriminated upon and viewed as a lowly class over the ages. … [Yet] I find great pride in doing the ancient work of caring for sheep, the humble work of caring for the sick, ensuring the health of each individual, providing feed and shelter and protecting the safety and health of the flock. Shepherding requires more hands-on work than most livestock farming. Lambing (the birthing of lambs) often occurs at night, in the cold, and is a solitary farming task where the reward is personal satisfaction in perhaps saving the life of a ewe or bringing a lamb into the world that otherwise would not make it. It is a personal satisfaction with few equals.”
  • The culture in which we reside seems pretty deeply focused on notoriety.
    • Think about YouTube, tiktok, FB/IG reels and all the other ways people share short, 15-second snip-its of anything and everything
      • Dances
      • Major life events
      • Personal opinion rants about whatever happened to cross their path in the last 5 mins.
      • Cute kids … puppies … kitties … turtles … fill-in-the-blank
    • Think about the entire job description of paparazzi: get the best picture you can of celebrities’ most intimate, unguarded moments … the juicier, the better, regardless of the privacy, wishes, feelings, and often even safety of the celebrities involved.
  • I think we can safely say that the photographers and journalists working for all the gossip rags out there aren’t actively seeking out random shepherds in the fields.
    • Position with few accolades
    • Position with little to no recognition
    • Position that requires long days, hard work, and plenty of very messy moments
    • Long days … hard work … plenty of very messy moments … I wonder if Jesus would have described his ministry that way? Clearly, there is humility in today’s passage. → Jesus speaks about the shepherd sacrificing for the sheep, particularly in ways the hired hand will not – text: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his.[8]
  • Work that we do within the life of the church is the same
    • Not work that we do for the recognition of it
    • Work that is often long … hard … even messy
    • It’s work that we do, not for the good of ourselves or our reputations or our bank accounts, but for the good of others.
      • Good of those around us in this space (Christian community)
      • Good of those whose lives we get to touch through our ministry here (mission and outreach)
• Lesson 2: “Sheep are smarter than everyone thinks they are. You just have to be smart enough to recognize it: Over the years I have often been told, generally by non-sheep people or someone with 10 or 20 sheep that are fed from buckets, how dumb sheep are. However, if you pay attention, you cannot help but be impressed by how smart they are to have survived domestication since 10,000 B.C. Although many think of their flocking instinct to be a sign of ‘dumbness,’ it is in fact a community-based survival mechanism where they have learned that their strength is much greater in numbers and their comfort and survival is enhanced as a group rather than as an individual. Not a bad lesson for all of us.”
  • This idea of “community-based survival,” as Rogers calls it, is the whole point of today’s Good Shepherd passage. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus speaks of the ability to gather the sheep to himself – to keep them together for the purposes of protection and prosperity, for the good of the shepherd’s purposes as well as the lives of the sheep.
    • Rogers’ point: the sheep stick together – the sheep “flock up” – for their own benefit
      • Safety
      • Warmth
      • Companionship
    • Jesus speaks to this in our passage today, too – text: I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them, too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.[9]
      • And isn’t that why we come here, friends? For safety for our spirits when we’re at our lowest and most vulnerable … for the warmth of seeking God and experiencing God together as the body of Christ … for the companionship of praying and worshiping and exploring and living out our faith together, no matter our current terrain? The whole idea of “church” is a place where we can embody that “community-based survival” together amidst the throes of life – the ups and the downs, the lost moments and the found ones, the green pastures and still waters and everything in between.
  • Lesson 3 rolls into this idea as well: “Tend to the flock, but care for the individual.: Shepherds, like the sheep themselves, learn quickly that the path to success depends on tending to the flock but caring for the individual. Providing clean water, ample forage and shelter to an entire flock is essential to maintaining the health of the flock. But the success of a shepherd or shepherdess is in the compassion they have for each individual. This means being able to identify a sick or injured sheep or lamb within a flock of hundreds or thousands of sheep. … The more concern the shepherd has for the individuals who are in need of health care, supplemental food assistance or individual attention, the healthier the flock and the more profitable the whole operation is. (This lesson applies to more than a flock of sheep.)” → In our passage today, Jesus speaks about the utmost lengths to which he’ll go to care for the sheep, and as Christians – when we choose to follow Christ to the point of bearing his name as part of our identity – we are called to act like Christ as well.
    • Caring for the sheep [re-read underlined portion]
    • Jesus’ familiar words in another sheep-referencing passage: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” Then the king will reply to them, “I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.”[10]
• No matter how we approach this idea of sheep and shepherds and flocks and faith, friends, nothing about this imagery suggests things are easy.
  • Not easy for the sheep
    • Constant threats (getting lost, predators, dangerous terrain, etc.)
    • Challenges of everyday life (finding food, lambing process, etc.)
  • Not easy for the shepherd → needing to protect the sheep in the midst of those same challenges
  • Certainly times when it’s easier to scatter – to try to go our own way because we think it will be better … safer … more abundant … more exciting
    • World of the church = in a time of scattering right now → It’s no secret that congregations are shrinking, no matter their starting size, and that the fastest growing religious group are the “nones” – those who have no religious affiliation of any kind.
      • Statistics that can feel scary … daunting … hopeless
  • And yet as sheep together, we hold to the compassion and care of the Good Shepherd. We tune our ears to the voice of the One who names us and claims us as his very own. Sometimes we scatter. But be assured, friends, that the Good Shepherd will always seek us out and bring us home … again, and again, and again. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] Ps 23:1.

[2] Ezek 34:11-12.

[3] Jn 21:15-17.

[4] 1 Pet 5:2-3.

[5] Rev 7:16-17.

[6] Stephen A. Cooper. “Fourth Sunday of Easter – John 10:11-18 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 448.

[7] https://modernfarmer.com/2013/12/10-things-learned-lambs/.

[8] Jn 10:11-12.

[9] Jn 10:14-16.

[10] Mt 25:37-40.

Text used – Luke 24:36-48

• Food … for some it is an art form. For some, an obsession. For some, a tool. For many, it’s something with which they have a complicated relationship. Yet no matter how we view food or explore food, use food or grapple with food, for all of us – for every living thing on this plant, be they human or plant, creature or organism – food is a necessity. Life cannot happen without food.
  • Human body can survive anywhere from 8 days to 3 weeks without food, depending on conditions and how healthy your body was to begin with
  • Access to food has driven societal and industrial development and mass migration
    • Potato famine in Ireland – often called “The Great Hunger”
      • Lasted 7 yrs. from 1845-1852
      • Killed 1 million people
      • Displaced another 1.3 million people
    • Makes food highly political → All you have to do is look at the headlines from day to day to see just how big a role food plays in the landscape of global politics.
  • No matter where you are in the world, food is central. It’s central to economies. It’s central to communities. It’s central to cultures. It’s central to families. It’s even central to religions.
    • “Friends, as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection until he comes again in glory. The table is set. The feast is ready. And Christ bids us, ‘Come.’” … Right?
    • Food is our gathering point. It is our common language. It is the way we share with and care for one another. It is a way we express ourselves – our lives and our dislikes, our personalities and our personal histories.
      • Hanging up on the wall in my kitchen = 3 framed recipe cards
        • Mom’s handwriting
        • Grandma Viv’s handwriting
        • Grandma Joanne’s handwriting
        • Not only is it their handwriting, but all three are recipes that they make or made frequently. You can tell by the food stains on the cards themselves.
  • With the inescapable, complex role that food plays in our lives and our everyday, it’s no wonder that Jesus reintroduces himself to the disciples post-resurrection using … food.
• BEFORE WE GO ANY FUTHER THIS MORNING – CONFESSION: As I was reading through Scriptures and planning sermons a few months ago, I read the context of this Scripture incorrectly. I made a mistake that lots of people make on a regular basis – I confused two very similar accounts from two different gospels.
  • Today’s reading = from Luke (context we’ll explore more fully in a minute because it’s important)
  • Other reading = from John’s gospel[1]
    • Resurrected Jesus reappears on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where the disciples have returned to the pastime they knew before: fishing
    • Jesus again helps them with their catch, reenacting his first appearance in their lives by telling them to fish from the other side of the boat → “and there were so many fish that they couldn’t haul in the nets”[2]
    • Disciples recognize Jesus and join him on the beach
    • A dawn fish breakfast ensues in which Jesus himself eats some of the fresh catch
  • When I was planning my sermons and I read this morning’s passage from Luke and mistook it for the passage from John … hence this morning’s title “A Beachside Breakfast of Fish … and Faith.” However, in Luke’s account, there is no beach. My mistake, all … just cross that word out on your bulletins for me this morning. Thanks.
• So if they aren’t on a beach … where are Luke’s disciples? → context within Lk’s gospel = crucial
  • Today’s text = very near the end of ch. 24 and the whole of Lk’s gospel
    • Only thing after today’s text = 4 short verses describing Jesus’ final ascension into heaven in which he blesses the disciples, the disciples worship and give thanks, then return to Jerusalem “overwhelmed with joy”[3]
    • The rest of ch. 24 = divided into 3 key pericopes (short stories)
      • 1-12 = Jesus’ initial resurrection (“The Empty Tomb”)
      • 13-35 = what has lovingly been referred to throughout the centuries as the “Walk to Emmaus” passage in which Jesus appears to 2 disciples as they’re walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus → Jesus spends time speaking with these disciples about recent events (i.e. – his death and resurrection) without the disciples recognizing Jesus for who he truly is → Jesus’ identity is finally revealed to them when they stop and break bread together (yup … food again, y’all!) → end of that account: They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!” Then the two disciples described what had happened to them along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.[4]
    • Leads into today’s encounter where Jesus appears to all the disciples together in Jerusalem – 1^st verse of today’s reading: While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”[5] → So while the disciples were standing there swapping stories about who had seen the Risen Christ where, POP! Jesus appeared there in their midst!
      • Jesus immediately tries to calm them: “Peace be with you!”
      • Clearly not a greeting that sticks the first time around – text: They were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost.[6] → Now, I find this interesting considering what we just read at the end of the Walk to Emmaus passage. The end of that passage said that the two unnamed disciples who encountered Jesus along the road to Emmaus “returned to Jerusalem” where “they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.”
        • Means that all of Jesus’ remaining former “inner circle” disciples were there (12 minus Judas = “the eleven”)
        • “the companions” of the eleven could be referring to the women who initially found Jesus’ tomb empty (yes … conjecture, but we’re told earlier in chapter 24 that, after they found the tomb empty, “they reported all these things to the eleven and all the others.” So the women certainly could have still been there.)
        • So that means that in the room were certainly Simon Peter who had his own empty tomb experience as well as the two disciples who knew they encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus and possibly the women who had had their empty tomb experience as well. And yet, when the Risen Christ appeared among them, they were still startled … afraid … even terrified. I just find it really interesting that despite the stories and eyewitness encounters that they had just been discussing, I don’t think they actually expected to encounter Jesus again. And yet all of a sudden, there he is among them.
• Three distinctive parts to this encounter
  • FIRST, Jesus calms and comforts
    • “Peace be with you!”
    • Further (in reaction to their fear): “Why are you startled? Why are doubts arising in your hearts?”[7] → I don’t hear Jesus saying this in an accusatory way or even in a disappointed way. I hear Jesus saying this in a pacifying way with a tone of voice meant to further placate and ease the disciples’ distress. With all that he’s been through with them and for them, at this point, I think Jesus is beyond admonishments.
  • SECOND, Jesus proves → not in ways that are ethereal or overly theological or esoteric but in ways that are grounded in the body … in the flesh … in Jesus’ own humanity
    • Text: “Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me! Touch me and see, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones like you see I have.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness, he said to them, “Do you have anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish. Taking it, he ate it in front of them.[8] → Jesus is trying to show the disciples without a shadow of a doubt that he is still fully himself.
      • Interview with the publication for The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology on the topic of “A Theology of Food and Body,” Rev. Kate Sweet (ordained Disciples of Christ minister): One of the most shocking aspects of the Gospel story is the claim that God had the audacity to take on human form, with all of its messiness and uncertainty. The Incarnation speaks to me of God’s total embrace of our embodied life. … I believe that God made us with bodies on purpose; it wasn’t a mistake. We are made in God’s image, and in some mysterious way these bodies of ours help us to glimpse something of what God is like. Because of this fact, I don’t think that it is possible to separate our faith from how we eat or treat our bodies. We enact what we believe about the world, about life, about God, through our physical life; there is no other way![9]
      • To reassure them … to prove himself to them … to bring them all back into the same space, back onto the same page … Jesus uses that universal language: food. He tries to show them his hands and feet (clearly it wasn’t just Thomas who doubted after all, right?), and when even that didn’t do the trick, Jesus asked them to share their food. He took the fish. He ate it. And that was that.
        • Interesting point – text (given as the reason Jesus asks for the fish): Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness[10] → I find this fascinating and refreshing and critical because in this little in-between verse, we are both reminded and reassured that doubt doesn’t always have to be mired in struggle and shame and fear and reprimand. Yes, the word for “disbelief” and “unfaithfulness” is here, but that striving to belief is couched in joy and wonderment.
  • THIRD and final phase of this encounter = Jesus returning to his beloved, well-known role: teaching
    • Scholar: Just when we thought the story is over, God had something to say. It has always been about God and continues to be so. Jesus did not launch into explanations about the mechanics of resurrection, nor did he provide an itinerary of his whereabouts since Friday. Instead, Jesus taught and commissioned: his whole life, death, and rising were about what God is doing in the world – reconciling the world to God’s self.[11] → So Jesus takes those last moments (at least some of the last moments that we know about) to teach the disciples more about God … more about Scripture … more about Jesus’ own role as the Christ … and finally, more about the disciples’ role as witnesses. Bodies renewed. Spirits renewed. Food and faith … hand in hand.
      • I want to leave you with the words of a lovely little memoir by journalist Sara Miles (from Take This Bread: The Spiritual Memoir of a Twenty-First-Century Christian[12]) Amen.

[1] Jn 21:1-14.

[2] Jn 21:6b.

[3] Lk 24:52.

[4] Lk 24:33-35.

[5] Lk 24:36 (emphasis added).

[6] Lk 24:37.

[7] Lk 24:38.

[8] Lk 24:39-43.

[9] https://theseattleschool.edu/blog/theology-of-food-and-body/.

[10] Lk 24:41a.

[11] Barbara J. Essex. “Third Sunday of Easter – Luke 24:36b-48 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B., vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 427.

[12] Sara Miles. Take This Bread: The Spiritual Memoir of a Twenty-First-Century Christian. (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007), xi-xii, xiii.

For this Sunday after Easter, we chose to honor the Myrrhbearing Women. The tradition of Myrrhbearers’ Sunday comes from the Orthodox tradition. You can read more about it here.

During our service, we divided our encounter with the myrrhbearing women into two parts: how the women enter the story, and how the women proclaim the story. Much of the service involved a variety of Scripture readings and a couple of reflections.

How the Women Enter the Story:

Luke 8:1-3

Luke 23:44-49

Luke 23:50-56 (because Joseph of Arimathea is also traditionally considered one of the myrrhbearers)

Matthew 27:55-61

Mark 15:40-47

John 19:25-30

John 19:38-42

1st Reflection:

The women came from all walks of life and had all sorts of relationships to Jesus. One was his own mother – that beloved Mary who’s initial “yes” to God’s seemingly-ludicrous plan was now reverberating throughout the towns and villages as God’s Son … her son … taught and healed and loved, as God’s Son … her son … gasped and bled and died. Others were the mothers of some of his closest followers. Some of the women were sisters of Jesus’ dearest friend – friends of the Messiah in their own right … in their own special way – while others were women whose lives had been changed by the words and actions of this Jesus of Nazareth, this itinerant rabbi who taught people and healed people and loved people in a way no one had ever seen before.

None of them loved Jesus better than another, but they all loved him in their own special ways. None of them followed Jesus more faithfully than another, but they all followed Jesus faithfully, even unto Jesus’ last gut-wrenching, heartbreaking moments and beyond. When things got dark and difficult, their devotion to him – their faith – remained. Even after all the others had betrayed him … had denied him … had deserted the pain and shame of the cross, these women stayed. They stayed in the midst of utter grief – stayed long enough to water the foot of the cross with their tears … stayed long enough to see Jesus’ broken, lifeless body taken down from that cross … stayed long enough to begin the ritual preparations for the dead before the beginning of the Sabbath.

And not only did they stay, but after the Sabbath, they came back. They returned to that place of grief … of hopelessness … of trauma thinking not of themselves and their own discomfort and agony, but of what they could still do for their beloved Teacher: give him the ritual burial that they thought he deserved.

Friends, things in our world are seldom as perfect and rosy and easy as we would like them to be. Our world is broken and flawed because humans are broken and flawed, and sometimes that makes it so incredibly hard to do what needs to be done. We are afraid. We are weary. We are wrung out in body, mind, and soul … just as those myrrhbearing women surely were. In the face of that physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion, those women let their love for Jesus lead them to the next step … and the next step … and the next step. It didn’t require an elaborate plan or a false smile or the impression that they had everything together. It just required their presence and their devotion to the one they had grown to love: Jesus, the Christ.

How the Women Proclaim the Story:

Luke 24:1-12

Matthew 28:1-10

Mark 16:1-8

John 20:1-2, 11-18

2nd Reflection:

So what’s the second lesson we can learn from the Myrrhbearers? They took the good news of the gospel OUT!! They proclaimed a resurrected Christ! They ministered! They didn’t let anything get in their way: fear of repercussions from the Romans who had just crucified their beloved Teacher; the disbelief of others … even some as powerful and influential as Peter … as some as intimate as themselves; not even societal expectations related to their gender and their abilities. I’ve said it before, friends … I just said it to my kids as we were hiking in the beautiful weather yesterday … and I’ll say it again and again and again: never, ever forget that the very first people to preach the gospel were women. And don’t let anyone else tell you different either.

          There are a lot of things in the world that try to get in the way of us living and sharing our faith. And there are a lot of things inside us that try to get in the way of living and sharing our faith. Sometimes we’re afraid. Sometimes we’re uncertain. Sometimes we’re intimidated or we think that we won’t find the right words … the perfect words … the “faith-i-est,” “holy enough” words. And as Mark’s account showed us last week, it’s okay to be in those moments of hesitation. Fear and uncertainty and even doubt are not markers of an inadequate faith. Fear and uncertainty and even doubt do not make you a bad person or a bad Christian. Even Jesus feared. Even Jesus experienced uncertainty and doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane on the cusp of his arrest. But 2000 years later, we are still telling the story of that Resurrection Morning … so somewhere along the line, we know that the strength of their faith and the power of the good news of a Risen Christ spurred the women to overcome their fear and uncertainty. Eventually, they told their story … a story we still get to tell today.

          No matter how they eventually came to it, the women ended up finding the words that morning – perfectly right and perfectly simple and perfectly faithful: “Christ is risen!” Sounds like a pretty good place to begin, don’t you think?

Christ is risen!

Text used – Mark 16:1-8

• It is Easter morning, friends! We get to declare to one another and to the world that Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! … Or … has he?
  • Of course, we know that he has because we’ve had the benefit of the other gospels accounts for centuries – stories of the women discovering the empty tomb and encountering first the stranger in white robes to tell them Jesus had been raised and later the resurrected Christ himself → But I want you to imagine for a moment that Mark’s gospel account – the Scripture that we just read – was the only account that we had of the resurrection this morning.
    • Remember, Mk’s gospel was written first – a full 10-20 yrs. before either Matthew or Luke → So for at least a decade, this was the only account that the early church had. And how does it end? – text: Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.[1] → Not exactly the happy ending we’re used to, is it?
• So let’s address the various endings of Mark’s gospel this morning. Because there’s more than one ending. In fact, there are three.
  • Pew bibles: p. 830
    • End of the full paragraph at the top of the p. = what we read today → ends the gospel with the women fleeing the tomb, terrified into silence by their unbelievable encounter → This is where the most ancient surviving versions of Mark’s gospel end.
    • Small bracketed section below that = “The Shorter Ending of Mark” → ends with two short sentences about the women relating their experience to Peter and the oddly cryptic statement: “And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”[2] → Note that even in this ending, there is no mention of a resurrected Jesus appearing to anyone.
    • Larger bracketed section that fills out the rest of Mk’s gospel on p. 830 = “The Longer Ending of Mark” → includes 11 extra verse that encompass Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, Mary going to share the news with the others, Jesus appearing again to the rest of the disciples, Jesus commissioning the disciples to “go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation”[3], and finally Jesus ascension into heaven → It’s an ending much more in line with the rest of the gospels, but some of the oldest versions we have of Mark that do include this section also include marking next to this whole section indicating doubt in its authenticity.
  • Essentially, this means that the oldest, most authentic testimony we have of that first Easter Sunday included silence … and fear … and uncertainty. Why? Well … I’m so glad you asked.
• As odd as it may sound, Mark’s version of the Easter resurrection story is probably my favorite exactly because it is so ambiguous. It feels more authentic. It feels more like real life. Because while it’s no secret that we all like happy endings the best, we also know that life isn’t always a series of happy stories all strung together.
  • Real life can be …
    • Hard
    • Frustrating
    • Painful
  • Real life involves …
    • Grief
    • Uncertainty
    • Fear
  • Sometimes the events of our real lives feel out of our control. And that’s exactly why I think Mark’s Easter account is such a crucial part of our overarching Story: because even in the ambiguous darkness of those early morning hours … even in the ludicrous audacity of the empty tomb … even in the terrified silence that strikes the final chord in Mark’s tale, the Good News endures. Mark’s gospel doesn’t end with a period. There is no full stop with this good news. Mark’s gospel ends with an ellipses – that simple punctuation mark of three dots that indicates an omission of words … or a pause … or suggests there is something left unsaid. Mark’s gospel concludes … with a continuation.
• And I find this sort of ending to Mark’s gospel powerful for two reasons.
  • FIRST: Mk’s ending is powerful because it bring the unmitigated grace and comprehensive salvation of a risen Christ into all our moments and experiences – the uncertain and broken ones as well as the happy ones
    • It’s not about us being perfect enough to share the good news. It’s about the good news overcoming any and all barriers … even us. – scholar: The women’s response also brings readers face to face with the mystery of faith. There are no heroes among Jesus’ followers. The hostility that puts Jesus on the cross has reduced them all to flight and fearful silence. … However imperfect our faith and however many times we remain silent when we should testify to the gospel, we can always return to the Lord. None of us can get so far away from Jesus that we cannot be touched by [God].[4]
    • Another scholar put it so beautifully, I just had to share her words with you this morning – scholar: It is finally a story in which we face the reality of God’s presence to us in the sturdy, raw facticity of history. God is present not only in the loud hallelujahs and glorious proclamations of a grand, churchly Easter morning … God persists as well in the midst of speechlessness, in death, in the outer regions of our own experiences and of our social lives, where life unfolds underfoot, as it were. Mark gives us a powerful account of God’s good news by giving us these traumatized, determined women as witnesses to God’s truth – it is not just pride or falsehood or arrogance or violent boasting that God redeems. It is also the nether regions of life where we are broken by violence and by love and by sheer exhaustion of the labor it takes to go on. Here, where we expect to find him dead, the tomb does not hold him … And with often unspoken force, grace abounds.[5]
  • SECOND: powerful because the open-endedness of Mk’s ending emphasizes what the “young man in a white robe” said to the women – text: He said to them, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. Go, tell his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.”[6]
    • Scholar: One of Mark’s unique claims is that Jesus is absent. Not only is the tomb empty (as each Gospel reports), but Jesus is not there—and nobody sees him. How can this possibly be good news? The other Gospels offer concrete assurances that Jesus is present with his followers even after the end of his earthly ministry. But in Mark there is no Paraclete to comfort them (as in John), no fellow traveler to explain everything (Luke), not even the promise “I am with you always” (Matthew). In Mark, the resurrected Jesus is not described as being “with you”; instead he is “going ahead of you.” If that is true, then death is stripped of its power. There is nothing Jesus’ followers will endure, no place they can go, that Jesus isn’t already there.[7] → Mark’s open, even uncertain ending to his gospel leaves that open space for Jesus to go on ahead – not just ahead of the disciples but ahead of us as well: into our shadowed moments … our uncertain moments … our fearful moments. Jesus goes on ahead through the grief that we think will shatter us … through the anxiety that we feel paralyzes us … through the desperation that we feel weighs us down. In those moments that seem wholly impossible to navigate, the good news of Mark’s gospel is that Jesus has already made a way for us. Ultimately, this ambiguous ending to Mark’s gospel is an ending of triumphant hope – hope that is raised, even if we’re too scared to declare it so … hope that exults over something even as seemingly-certain as death … hope that shines brighter than the dawning sun even in the face of all that would blot it out … hope that doesn’t negate or omit the most broken aspects of our lives but instead promises blessing in the midst of that brokenness.
      • Leave you with the words of Jan Richardson this morning – from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons: “Therefore I Will Hope” → This was written as a blessing for Holy Saturday – that time in the cycle of liturgical seasons between Jesus’ death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter morning. A Holy Saturday, or Easter Vigil, service is a service of waiting and grieving, but it is also the mirror image of the Good Friday service the night before – a service which begins in darkness, but as the evening wears on and Easter morning draws ever closer, the light begins to make its way back into the sanctuary.
        • Often includes baptism – a welcoming of others into the body of Christ even as Christ’s body is being resurrected again
        • Often held between sunset on Saturday, or sometimes even midnight, and concluded with a sunrise service on Easter morning
        • Often includes the relights of all the candles snuffed out during the Good Friday service
        • Holy Saturday is a liminal time within the cycle of our faith, just like the end of Mark’s gospel feels like liminal time – time that is in between … time that is both darkness and light … time that is weighty with both grief and joy, uncertainty and blessing. → [read “Therefore I Will Hope”] Amen.

[1] Mk 16:8.

[2] Mk 16 – “The Shorter Ending of Mark” (NRSV).

[3] Mk 16:15 (NRSV).

[4] Pheme Perkins. “The Gospel of Mark: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 8. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 733.

[5] Serene Jones. “Easter Vigil – Mark 16:1-8 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 356.

[6] Mk 16:6-7 (CEB – emphasis added).

[7] Audrey West. “Commentary on Mark 16:1-8” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/resurrection-of-our-lord-2/commentary-on-mark-161-8-9, accessed March 31, 2024.

Text used – John 12:20-33

• This Lent, we’ve been working our way through this series on the power of sacrifice.
  • Talked about sacrificing our grip on our own expectations and opening ourselves up to God’s guidance
  • Talked about the sacrifice of self-giving service
  • Talked about sacrificing those things in our lives that fail to bring us life in order to pour ourselves more deeply into things that do bring us life
  • Last week: talked about sacrificing our own comfort in order to lift up even the most broken and failing parts of ourselves to experience God’s grace in our whole selves
  • Talked a lot throughout the last 4 weeks about making choices and choosing sacrifices that result in us feeling more uncomfortable → At its heart, friends, the gospel is a call to “change our hearts and our lives” as Jesus declared in our first Lenten Scripture reading[1] this year. And more often than not, change – true, heartfelt, genuine change – is undoubtedly uncomfortable.
    • Author Susie Caldwell Rinehart: The world needs us to be fierce enough to see challenges as gifts, to express our unique selves, and to expand the limits of what is possible. The only thing getting in the way is that we get stuck trying to find our way out of pain and discomfort. There is no way to avoid uncertainty. There is no guarantee of safety.” → If we altered that a little bit to skew toward a Christian expression of faith, we could say, “God needs us to be fierce enough to see challenges as gifts, to express our unique selves, and to expand the limits of our belief. The only thing getting in the way is that get stuck trying to find our way out of pain and discomfort. There is no way to avoid uncertainty. There is no guarantee of safety. But God is there, too.” You see, it’s in the midst of that discomfort, we find ourselves seeking God more authentically, more fully.
• Picture painted by our Gospel reading this morning = double example of this leaning into discomfort for the sake of faith
  • Jesus = leaning into his own discomfort
  • Jesus = also encouraging the disciples to lean into their discomfort
  • Now, before we explore this idea further, we need some context for today’s passage.
    • Context within Jn’s gospel → I have to admit that we’re cheating a little bit this morning. We’re jumping ahead in the story. We aren’t quite reading the ending first … but we can safely say that if the gospel were a mystery novel, today’s reading would be the beginning of that final interaction that brings all the disparate pieces of the story together in one “ah ha!” moment that leaves your heart racing. [PAUSE] It would be the beginning of the end.
      • Today’s text = follows on the heels of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem[2] (which we’ll read Mark’s account of next week on Palm Sunday)
        • Description of placement of text – scholar: This text is situated dramatically in the context of the festival of Passover, preceded by events such as Jesus’ raising of Lazarus, Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet, and the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The responses to these events are intensely divided, as crowds of people form to heart Jesus, while others plot to destroy him, and some disciples become more reverent while within the heart of one of them, Judas, irritation escalates. Momentum builds in this narrative … as all eyes – including some of the Gentiles – strive to focus on Jesus. The scene is strikingly shaped for a powerful statement by Jesus to his disciples regarding not only what is to happen but also what it means. One more time he tries to tell them what his mission really is.[3]
  • So with the joyous, adoring praises of the crowd still ringing in the air and bolstering the hearts of the unsuspecting disciples, Jesus delivers these sobering, uncomfortable words.
    • Passage that begins innocently enough – text: “The time has come for the Human One to be glorified. I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their lives will lost them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever. Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be. My Father will honor whoever serves me.”[4] → sounds like a number of other parables Jesus told throughout his ministry
      • Parables of seeds and growing
      • Parables of fruit and vines
      • Parables of wheat and chaff
      • Surely, the disciples were thinking, “That last bit about losing and keeping lives was a little odd, but Jesus was always talking like that, right? This is just another one of his ‘lessons.’ After all, he included that bit at the end about serving him, and we’re definitely doing that. We’re good … right?”
    • But then Jesus’ words quickly take a turn the disciples weren’t anticipating. – text: “Now I am deeply troubled.”[5] → Alright, all … just a few short words into this portion of the text, and we need to stop and spend some time with this bit!
      • Passage often called “the Johannine Gethsemane” → nothing in the text tells us that Jesus is, in fact, in the Garden of Gethsemane BUT Jesus expresses similar sentiments to those we find him expressing in the Garden of Gethsemane portion of the passion narrative in the other gospels[6]
      • More nuanced struggle within this text than we even realize
        • First, the Gr: “troubled” = stir up, disturb, trouble, throw into confusion → Jesus isn’t just fretting a bit here, folx. What Jesus is describing is serious inner turmoil: worry, fear, anxiety … doubt.
        • Revealed even deeper when we understand that that his statement – “Now I am deeply troubled” – is actually a reference to a psalm – Psalm 6: Please, Lord, don’t punish me when you are angry; don’t discipline me when you are furious. Have mercy on me, Lord, because I’m frail. Heal me, Lord, because my bones are shaking in terror! My whole body is completely terrified! But you, Lord! How long will this last? Come back to me, Lord! Deliver me! Save me for the sake of your faithful love! No one is going to praise you when they are dead. Who gives you thanks from the grave? I’m worn out from groaning. Every night, I drench my bed with tears; I soak my couch all the way through. My vision fails because of my grief; it’s weak because of all my distress. Get away from me, all you evildoers, because the Lord has heard me crying! The Lord has listened to my request. The Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and completely terrified; they will be defeated and ashamed instantly. → The Greek visitors that had come seeking Jesus wouldn’t have recognized Jesus’ reference with his words because they were Gentiles, but the disciples were Jews like Jesus. This psalm was a part of their worship history and practice just like his. Did they recognize the words and all the weight they carried? While John’s gospel is written in Greek, Jesus would have spoken these words in his native tongue – in Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew – so his words would have had the same cadence and ring as the beginning of this psalm: a psalm of fear and hesitation, a psalm of powerful struggle and deep doubt, a psalm that cries out to God for strength beyond our own capability.
    • And yet, even with these doubts swirling like a torrent through his mind and his spirit, Jesus stays the course. Even more than that, Jesus chooses worship in the midst of the storm. – text: “What should I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? No, for this is the reason I have come to this time. Father, glorify your name!”[7]
      • Gr. in that last bit – “Father, glorify your name!” – more than a suggestion → The Greek verb here is rendered in the imperative. It’s a directive. It’s a command. It’s in the “do it and do it now!” verb form.
      • God obliges: voice comes down from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”[8] → crowd who’s heard this omnipresent declaration are divided – some believe it’s thunder while others believe angels have spoken to Jesus
    • Jesus’ final pronouncement (for the crowd? for the disciples?) in this passage: “This voice wasn’t for my benefit but for yours. Now is the time for judgment of this world. Now this world’s ruler will be thrown out. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me.”[9]
      • And a final parenthetical aside from the gospel narrator (just for the sake of the reader’s utter clarity): (He said this to show he was going to die.)[10]
  • Brandan Robertson’s characterization of this passage: In this brief passage, you can almost imagine Jesus’ inner dialogue: “Is this really worth it? Couldn’t I make more of an impact among the small fishing villages? Why do I need to stare power in its face? Am I really ready to give my life for this cause?” Who among us wouldn’t ask the same questions? And who among us wouldn’t turn back when faced with the death penalty? Yet, in this fragile moment where Jesus’ human nature is on full display, we see the profound divine strength and resolve that marked his life and ministry. “I am deeply anxious, but should I seek to be delivered from these consequences? No! This is the very reason I have come into the world. God, glorify yourself through me.”[11] → I think the questions Robertson poses – “Who among us wouldn’t ask the same questions? And who among us wouldn’t turn back when faced with the death penalty?” – are hard questions for us to ask and to answer honestly today because we live in a place where it is so safe to be Christians. Even in these divisive times. Even in this post-denominational time in which it can be hard to be church, we can still safely and openly practice our faith with no fear of persecution, oppression, or reprisals of any kind.
    • Brings to mind passage from Is – known as one of the “Suffering Servant” passages: [read Is 53]
    • Important for us to remember that that isn’t that case in many parts of the world – list from Open Doors[12] (organization started by a Dutch Christian known as “Brother Andrew” in 1955 when he started smuggling Bibles across the Iron Curtain into Communist Europe[13]
      • North Korea (most dangerous country for Christians): owning a Bible can get you killed
      • Libya: evangelism is a crime that carries the death penalty
      • Iran: speaking about Christian faith violates blaspheming laws
      • And so many more places.
• Final word from Brandan Robertson: As we walk this Lenten journey toward the cross, may we take time to reflect on the sacrificial bravery of Christ. May we remember that he is like us, often distressed and perplexed by the choices that lie in front of us, the choice to stand up and speak out or to remain complacent and comfortable. But in his moment of deepest distress, leaning on the strength of his Creator, he resolves to take the hard path. And in so doing, he transforms the world for good. May his bravery become our bravery, and may we heed his oft-spoken words to his disciples to “Go and do likewise.”[14] Amen.

[1] Mk 1:14-15.

[2] Jn 12:12-19.

[3] Margaret P. Farley. “Fifth Sunday in Lent – John 12:20-33 – Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 140.

[4] Jn 12:23-26.

[5] Jn 12:27a.

[6] Judith M. McDaniel. “John 12:27-36a – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Gospels – John, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), 93.

[7] Jn 12:27b-28a.

[8] Jn 12:28b.

[9] Jn 12:30-32.

[10] Jn 12:33.

[11] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 104.

[12] https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/stories/10-most-dangerous-places-Christians/.

[13] https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/about/.

[14] Robertson, 105.

Text used – John 3:14-21

• A little over a week ago, we took the kids to a concert up in the cities – the TobyMac concert.
  • TobyMac = long-time Christian recording artist
  • 4 other opening acts before Toby → each used a different part of the stage so the venue staff could continue to set things up while the opening acts were playing → In particular, there was one woman, Tasha Layton, who did her set at the front of the stage – the part closer to the audience – and did her set in a very stripped-down sort of way. It was just her, a few instrumentalists, and a spotlight.
    • Rest of the Target Center was dark while she was singing → Julia was fascinated by the spotlight as it cut through the darkness over our heads and illuminated the woman on stage
      • Powerful beam
      • Doused the singer in a bright white light (definitely an LED bulb in that thing!)
      • Lit up all sorts of unintentional things in its path from that spotlight stand to the stage → dust motes, mostly … maybe a few bugs
      • Julia kept turning around in her seat and looking for the source of that beam of light. I kept looking at the performer thinking, “Man, that bright light has to be blinding.” Such is the difference between childhood innocence and adult experience, I guess. Julia looked at the spotlight with wonder. I looked at it with discomfort.
• Our Scripture reading this morning not only speaks of light, but it also shines the spotlight of grace on us and for us – a spotlight that can be both wonderful and uncomfortable all at the same time.
  • (Obvious) acknowledgement: today’s Scripture reading includes probably the most famous passage in all of Scripture – John 3:16 – which says … [cue congregational recitation] Exactly. None of y’all needed to look at your Bibles or the text in the bulletins to recite that. But the thing about Scripture is it’s never just one verse. The word of God is words in context. You can’t pull one single sentence or one single verse out without looking at and considering the verses that surround it. Life doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and Scripture wasn’t written in a vacuum. Scripture builds layers upon itself. It references other passages. It tells the same stories from different angles. It weaves the same overarching message – the ultimate message of God’s love for all people – into so many different types of texts that the message becomes inescapable. So today we’re going to consider the context of that one verse that people like to pull out: God so loved the world that he gave is only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.[1]
  • So let’s back up.
    • Beginning of today’s passage: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.[2] → references story from First Testament – Num 21
      • Part of the story of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 yrs. after being turned away from the Promised Land for lack of faith
      • Text: They marched from Mount Hor on the Reed Sea road around the land of Edom. The people became impatient on the road. The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us in the desert, where there is no food or water. And we detest this miserable bread!” (referring to the manna that God had continually provided for them) So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people and they bit the people. Many of the Israelites died. The people went to Moses and said, “We’ve sinned, for we spoke against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord so that he will send the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and place it on a pole. Whoever is bitten can loo at it and live.” Moses made a bronze snake and placed in on a pole. If a snake bit someone, that person would look at the bronze snake and live.[3]
        • Formulaic story in the First Testament: people complain against God → God causes something terrible to happen → people repent → follow God’s instruction once again → Moses and others worship
        • Now, we may hear this story and think, “They’re worshiping the snake for healing them. This is idolatry.” But the thing is, it’s not about the snake. It’s about following God’s direction … following God’s plan … even when that plan is hard or it doesn’t make sense to us. – scholar: The point of the comparison between Jesus and this quasi-magical totem is that the serpent had to be lifted up so that the Israelites could see it and receive its life-saving benefits. So too the Son of Man must be lifted up so that those who believe might have eternal life.[4]
  • Rest of the passage speaks to how we go about seeking that eternal life – text: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.[5] → We’re going to pause on these two verses for a minute, friends, because they’re really, really important together.
    • God sent Jesus into the world for the sake of pure and unconditional love → love so strong and so unrelenting that God desires eternity with us to continue living into that love → “God so loved the world … the whole world … that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.” Whole. World. Everyone. All. Each. There are no parameters in this much-loved, often-wielded verse. There are no “except for the”s. There are no exclusions, no escape clauses, no parameters defining people that God doesn’t love.
      • Bumper sticker: God loved the whole world. No exceptions.
      • Sentiment reiterate by the following verse: God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.[6] → Here’s the thing, friends. If God sent his own treasured, beloved, holy Son into the world not to judge the world but to love and redeem it … what on God’s green earth makes us think it’s our job to do that judging? If God didn’t even send Jesus – God’s own Son, God’s own self incarnate – into the world to judge, what makes us think that God is calling us in all our broken, flawed, human imperfections to pass any kind of judgment.
• Basis of the rest of the passage – the part about judgment and belief, light and dark, actions and truth, evil and fear
  • John uses a lot of dark/light imagery throughout his gospel. It’s there in the very beginning – What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.[7] → idea introduced here that the ministry of Christ was a light to shine on the hearts and lives, words and actions of all = idea further developed in our passage today → It’s the idea that Jesus’ life and ministry and love and grace are the spotlight on our lives – a light that illumines our whole selves, hiding nothing before God.
    • Translation makes it sound simple enough: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil.[8] → And we think to ourselves, “Well, that can’t be us. Our actions aren’t evil. Evil is deep. Evil is intentional. Evil is a great big thing.”
      • Gr. is much more nuanced than that – “evil” = spoiled, vicious, painful, degenerate, arrogant, envious → There are plenty of subtle ways to engage in this “evil” that John speaks of – ways in which we chip away at the world around us, judging others without knowing or understanding their circumstances … celebrating (internally or externally) when someone gets “knocked down a “peg” because we feel they deserve to be “put in their place” … putting ourselves above others because we tell ourselves that we’re better in some way … causing pain to others, not necessarily in any big way, but in a thousand small, passive aggressive ways.
  • You see, friends, we know in our hearts that none of these things are the ways that Jesus would go about being in this world. We know that they stem, not from our faith, but from our brokenness. And it’s a whole lot more comfortable to keep that brokenness in the shadows so that other’s don’t discover it. Maybe we even fool ourselves into thinking that God won’t discover it if we keep it well-hidden enough. → 2 problems with that
    • FIRST, nothing is hidden from God → God knows us better than we know ourselves. There is not a part of our lives, our hearts, our spirits, or our minds with which God is not intimately familiar.
    • SECOND, trying to hide these things from God is only counterproductive because all we end up doing is hiding them from grace → One of my favorite phrases when it comes to Church life is “you can’t protect people from their own generosity.” It’s about presenting people with opportunities to give and to serve in unexpected ways because we can never truly know just how generous others are willing to be. Grace is similar to this idea in that we never truly know just how generous God is willing to be with grace until we present God with the opportunity to lavish that grace on our whole selves. But in order to do that, we can’t hold anything back. We have to bring it all into the light.
      • Brandan Robertson: This is the profound paradox of grace: in order to receive it, one must go through the painful process of exposing one’s inner brokenness and sinfulness. Until one’s sins are exposed, there is no reason to seek out grace. But stepping into the light, even with the promise of grace and forgiveness, is hard to do. … Lent is a season of owning our brokenness, taking an account of the impact our wrongdoing has on our lives, on our world, and on those around us. It’s a season when we set aside time to go through the painful process of bringing our dark and ugly parts into the light of God’s truth, allowing ourselves and others to see all the ways that we are in need of healing and grace. It’s a terribly difficult process, but it is also liberating. Once we step into the light of God with every part of ourselves exposed, we have the profound gift of hearing Jesus proclaim the words that he says early on in our Gospel reading: “I have not come to condemn the world, but to heal it!”[9]
• Want to end with the song that that opening act artist sang in one of her songs – picture her standing there on a dark stage in a dark stadium lit up by the dazzling brightness of that spotlight and belting out these words: “Singing in the Dark” by Tasha Layton[10]

https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/18rRb189sPhZJWzrJMHmNT?utm_source=generator

• Because in the end, even as we struggle in the darkness … even as we strive toward the light … even as we cringe away from all the light may reveal, the spotlight of God’s grace is the light of love … of hope … of forgiveness. It’s a light that keeps us singing praise … even in the dark. Amen.

[1] Jn 3:16.

[2] Jn 3:14-15.

[3] Num 21:4-9 (clarification added).

[4] Jouette M. Bassler. “Fourth Sunday in Lent – John 3:14-22 – Exegetical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 117.

[5] Jn 3:16-17.

[6] Jn 3:17.

[7] Jn 1:3b-5.

[8] Jn 3:19.

[9] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 103, 104.

[10] Tasha Layton, “Singing in the Dark.” Released Nov. 3, 2023 by Sypher Music.

Text used – John 2:13-22

• I spent a lot of my spare time on Pinterest this weekend looking up butterfly stuff because Julia’s decided she wants a butterfly birthday this year.
  • Butterfly cake
  • Butterfly party
    • Decorations
    • Snacks
    • Favors
    • Games
  • All butterflies … all the time. Such is the life of an almost-6-year-old girl mom, right? But really, there’s something almost magical about butterflies, isn’t there?
    • Delicate
    • Dazzlingly colorful
    • Watching a butterfly flit through your garden or dance across your lawn just sort of brings a smile to your face, right?
  • But what got me thinking about butterflies with our Scripture reading this morning has more to do with what makes the butterfly in the first place – the process a caterpillar has to undergo in order to become a butterfly.
    • Description of the process from Labroots.com: The chrysalis is actually part of the caterpillar’s body created by increased production of a hormone dubbed ecdysone, and once enveloped, a number of gut-wrenching processes occur to the caterpillar that transform it into a beautiful butterfly. For starters, the caterpillar’s outer coating separates from the body much like a snakeskin, and this creates the chrysalis. After the chrysalis forms, the body released enzymes called caspases that dissolve cells in the insect’s muscles and organs, leaving behind only the most vital life-supporting cells. It’s from this point that a group of specialized cells called imaginal discs get to work, developing the insect’s new body and wings in a short time period. When the fully developed butterfly emerges, it often leaves behind a gooey fluid in the spent chrysalis. This fluid is the waste that was produced during the transformation, including the bodily fluids that the butterfly won’t need anymore. Indeed, the life of a caterpillar is nothing much to write home about, but becoming a butterfly, on the other hand, it somewhat spectacular.[1] → Yup. In order for a caterpillar to become a butterfly, nearly its entire being needs to dissolve into goo, “leaving behind only the most vital life-supporting cells.” Destruction … that brings life.

• This morning’s Scripture passage = similar to last week → another one of those tough ones … another one of those not-easy, not-heart-warming, not-pick-you-up sort of passages
  • Text: [Jesus] found in the temple those who were selling cattle, sheep, and doves, as well as those involved in exchanging currency sitting there. He made a whip from ropes and chased them all out of the temple, including the cattle and the sheep. He scattered the coins and overturned the tables of those who exchanged currency. He said to the dove sellers, “Get these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a place of business.”[2] → Now, I know I can’t be the only one who finds at least some comfort in the fact that even Jesus – Emmanuel, God-With-Us, Son of God, Savior of the world Jesus – got table-flippin’ mad sometimes. Right?
    • Another window into Jesus’ humanity
    • Another element that helps us relate to Jesus → helps draw us deeper into a more authentic, open-and-honest relationship with Jesus
    • Of course, the whole point is why Jesus got table-flippin’ mad in the first place. It was all about why all those money changes and vendors selling cattle, sheep, and doves were even there in the Temple. → all related to the practice of worship in the Temple
      • Part of the right practice of Judaism as laid out in the First Testament (mostly Deut and Lev) = practice of animal sacrifice à various sacrifices required to cleans the people of various different kinds of sin
        • 5 basic categories of sacrifices (found in Lev 1-5)[3]:
          • Burnt: gift to express thanks, worship, devotion, commitment to God AND atonement for unintentional sin (important distinction) → VOLUNTARY → animal offering – completely burn all but hide which was given to the Levites (priests) who earned money by selling it
          • Grain: expression gratitude and thanksgiving God, recognition of God’s unearned favor and goodwill → VOLUNTARY → fruit of the field, generally in the form of a cake or baked bread and accompanied by drink offering of wine – usually given with a burnt offering
          • Peace: expressed thanksgiving with an emphasis on fellowship/relationship → VOLUNTARY → followed by shared meal → animal offering with various parts being designated for God, for the priests, and for the people
          • Trespass: atonement for unintentional sins committed against someone that required reimbursement or recompense → MANDATORY → always a ram – various parts designated for God, other parts shared by those giving the offering
          • Sin: forgiveness of intentional sins and cleansing from defilement → MANDATORY → tiers of offerings dependent on financial situation (common person: female goat, poor person: fine flour)
    • This last one, the sin offering, is the offering that most concerns our gospel story this morning. It’s these animals – the animals for the sin offering, the mandatory sin offering – that were being sold in the Temple that morning.
      • Scholar highlights why this whole tableau was so problematic: Entering the Temple precincts Jesus found little in the way of sacred space. The Court of the Gentiles looked and sounded like an open-air market. Cattle bellowing, sheep bleating, turtledoves cooing, people yelling, coins clanging. Ironically, the activity was necessary for the functioning of the temple! The temple tax had to be paid in temple coinage, so money changers were necessary. Because sacrificial animals had to be without blemish, sellers of sacrificial animals were necessary. After all, who could make it all the way to Jerusalem with an unblemished animal? All of this activity was in service to the temple, but … did these services have to be rendered inside the temple precincts? Was it necessary to rob the Gentiles of the one area in the temple precincts they were allowed to enter and pray?[4] → It wasn’t the practice of sacrifice that had Jesus flipping tables that morning. It was that this spiritual practice had been monetized and consumerized to the point of not just losing its own spirituality but interfering with the spirituality of others. As the church, this passage should cause us to examine our own practices and treasures as a body. Are there practices that we cling to that have become a stumbling block of others?
        • Not necessarily intentional → I don’t think the Levites and Temple officials set out to corrupt their faith practice with this commercialism. They just let one thing slide after another until the slippery slope had consumed the whole practice. So is there anything that we’re turning a blind eye to because it’s easier not to deal with it? It’s easier not to confront it and try to correct it?
• Challenge that Jesus receives from the Jewish leaders after his table flipping brings about another crucial point – text: Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things? What miraculous sign will you show us?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.” The Jewish leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?” But the temple Jesus was talking about was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.[5] → “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.” This is where the butterfly comes in.
  • Brandan Robertson: The author of the Gospel tells us that Jesus was cryptically prophesying about what would be done to his body in his inevitable crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. This may be true, but there is an even deeper meaning contained in this passage. Jesus is making a statement that is reiterated time and time again throughout the New Testament: that the Spirit of God doesn’t dwell in temples of systems or organizations, but rather in flesh-and-blood human beings. … So, when Jesus speaks of destroying the temple, as radical as it would have sounded to his listeners, he’s also hinting at a deeper reality: that institutions, religion, and hierarchies were not necessary at all, that God was available to all and through all, if we would only open our eyes and behold.[6]
    • Important distinction: religion faith
      • Religion: a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or groups
      • Faith: confidence or truth in a person or thing, belief not based on proof
      • “Religion” is the corporate adoption and practice of individual faith. At its best, religion is the body of Christ expressing and engaging with everyone’s individual faith together – living and praying and working and worshiping and believing together. But at its worst, religion becomes so concerned with “correctness” – correct practice, correct belief, correct conformity – that it forgets all about love and compassion and the moving and working of the Holy Spirit. The striving for correctness wrings all the authentic spirituality out of it. When that happens, it’s time for us to take a good, hard, uncomfortable look at our practices and figure out what we need to sacrifice to bring ourselves back into true, faithful relationship with God.
        • Scholar: [This] text pushes us to imagine Jesus entering our own sanctuaries, overturning our own cherished rationalizations and driving us out in the name of God. Surely we can be honest enough to acknowledge that often enough we put ourselves and our institutions at the service of powers that are decidedly less than God.[7] → Remember me saying last week that the gospel is meant to be uncomfortable? It is meant to bring us hope and comfort through the love and grace of God … but being comforted is not the same being comfortable. Being comforted lifts us up and gives us strength in moments of weakness and despair. Being comfortable leads to stasis. Being comfortable leads us to try to maintain our current state. But the gospel is not about maintaining and “holding steady.” It’s also meant to stir us to action and self-examination. It’s meant to bring about change – for ourselves, for our neighbors, for the world. And a lot of the time, change is uncomfortable. But today’s passage makes it clear that when it comes to living a life of authentic faith, the status quo just doesn’t cut it. So what do we need to shed? What part of our religious practices needs to dissolve into goo to let the delicate beauty of our true faith flit and dance through the world? What destruction do we need to enact in order to bring true life? Amen.

[1] https://www.labroots.com/trending/plants-and-animals/15714/here-s-happens-inside-caterpillar-s-chrysalis.

[2] Jn 2:14-16.

[3] https://firmisrael.org/learn/sacrifice-in-the-bible-5-types-of-offerings-israel-made/.

[4] W. Hulitt Gloer. “Third Sunday in Lent – John 2:13-22 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 93, 95.

[5] Jn 2:18-22.

[6] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 102, 103.

[7] Paul C. Shupe. “Third Sunday in Lent – John 2:13-22 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 94.

Text used – Mark 8:31-38

• “Get behind me Satan.” Brace yourselves, friends … this is not one of those easy, heart-warming, pick-you-up sort of passages. But we’re going to dig right in because that’s what we do.
  • Challenging beginning to this passage = Jesus predicting his own trial, death, and resurrection
    • First time Jesus will do this in Mk’s gospel but not the last
    • Interesting bit that we don’t get because of where the lectionary begins the passage this morning → verses leading up to this: Jesus and his disciples went into the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They told him, “Some say John the Baptist [who had been killed at this point], others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.” He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about him.[1] → So as we begin our passage this morning, Peter has just declared that Jesus is the Christ – the Messiah, the one come to save them all – so today’s passage is Jesus explaining to the disciples exactly what “the Christ” actually means: suffering, rejection, death … and finally, resurrection.
      • Clearly not what Peter wanted to hear: But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him.[2] → Peter is literally pulling Jesus off to the side and giving him a talking-to. “Jesus, this isn’t the message your followers need to hear. You can’t talk like this. This is going to freak people out. Ease up, man.”
        • Reveals the political climate of the day – scholar: While messianic expectations different among first-century Jews, the idea that the Messiah would deliver the Jews from Roman oppression was prevalent, and Galilee was the hotbed of revolutionary activity. That Jesus’ Galilean disciples would harbor such a view would not be surprising. Certainly no one expected a suffering and dying Messiah![3] → To Peter, Jesus’ words would have sounded defeatist – like he’d given up before their revolution had even begun. In his mind, Peter was trying to lift Jesus’ spirit – to get him to rally!
          • Same scholar paints the scene for us: Peter walks over to Jesus, puts his arm around him, and takes him aside to set him straight about messiahship. “Suffering, rejection, and death are not on the agenda. Prestige, power, and dominion are on the agenda. It’s David’s throne we’re after, ruling the nations with power and might. We signed on for a crown, not a cross!”[4]
      • But THAT was clearly not what Jesus wanted to hear because we then get those famous words: Jesus turned and look at this disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You’re not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”[5] → Now, I know we like to focus on that first sentence because it’s the punchy sentence. “Get behind me, Satan!” It’s dramatic. It’s evocative. But it’s really the second sentence that carries the weight of Jesus’ intent here. Jesus is rebuking Peter because he’s focused on the wrong thing. He’s focused on worldly power. He’s focused on meeting the expectations and fulfilling the desires of those around him instead of focusing on what God wants him to do. He’s living for himself, not for God.
  • Jesus doubles down on this message with the rest of the passage – those verses that are so hard to hear if we hear them through the filter of faith instead of through the filter of the world: “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.”[6] → Let’s not mince words this morning, friends. This is a call to action – faithful, gospel-informed, love-driven action … action, not for ourselves, but for others.
    • Brandan Robertson, who framed out this sermon series: Jesus’ call is to “lose their lives for the sake of the gospel,” which means lost their self-centeredness for the sake of manifesting the more beautiful world that God desires. This call is, in many ways, more difficult than the call to martyrdom. It’s one thing to physically die; it’s another to live a life in which one continually dies to one’s own self-interest for the good of one’s friends, neighbors, and even enemies.[7] → Friends, I have to say it this morning: this is where we are failing this morning – failing as the Church, failing as Christians, failing as human beings. This is a more dangerous country to live in if you are different nowadays than it was just 10 yrs. ago.
      • If you are not white, you are targeted
      • If you are not male, you are targeted
      • If you are not straight, you are targeted
      • If you do not identify with the gender on your birth certificate, you are targeted
      • In lots of places, if you don’t believe a very particular, narrow brand of Christianity, you are targeted
        • And yes, friends, this happens even here. → fire at Peace in Rochester 3 yrs. ago – targeted because of their inclusive message and ministry
    • And it both breaks my heart and boils the blood in my veins, friends, because we have the words of Jesus here: All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.[8] → Jesus is trying to get it through the disciples’ heads that it’s not about them! All that he was doing and teaching, all those whom he was healing and loving and including had nothing to do with power or prestige or wealth or “being right.” Jesus’ whole life and ministry was about being and doing for and loving the other. And if we truly follow Jesus, our life and ministry should be about setting aside whatever judgments we carry so that we can see others for who they are, not who we expect them to be.
      • Jesus’ last words in this passage: Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes to the Father’s glory with the holy angels.[9]
        • Bit that I found on online recently: In an interview with NPR, Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore said that multiple pastors had told him disturbing stories about their congregants being upset when they read from the “Sermon on the Mount” in which Jesus espoused the principles of forgiveness and mercy that are central to Christian doctrine. [Russell stated] “Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount – [and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liberal talking points?’” Moore added: “And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.’”[10] → Forgiveness is weak? Mercy is weak? Peacemaking is weak? Reaching out to someone who needs you is weak? Loving someone, not with an agenda to change them, but just because you are called to love them is weak? Speaking up for someone who’s being bullied just because of who they are is weak? No, friends. That is the gospel. That is the work that Jesus calls us to – to work that constantly forces us to think and grow and change and be uncomfortable for the sake of someone else. Let’s make this abundantly clear: if the gospel you proclaim places you above everyone else, that’s not the gospel. Jesus is pretty clear today. It is through self-giving, through service – to others, for others, with others – that we find the life that Jesus has promised. Not through ourselves. Never through ourselves. Amen.

[1] Mk 8:27-30 (with my own insertion for clarity’s sake).

[2] Mk 8:32.

[3] W. Hulitt Gloer. “Second Sunday in Lent – Mark 8:31-38 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville; Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 69.

[4] Ibid., 71.

[5] Mk 8:33.

[6] Mk 8:34-38.

[7] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 101.

[8] Mk 8:35.

[9] Mk 8:38.

[10] Posted by Clergy Coaching Network on Facebook, February 11, 2024, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=775406354619006&set=a.547725677387076.

Text used – Mark 1:9-15

• This doesn’t happen often, folx, but today is one of those days when I wish I had the capability to share a movie scene with you.
  • Movie that came to mind for this week → 1989 classic coming-of-age movie Dead Poets Society (and one of my favorite movies in high school)
    • Written by Tom Schulman
    • Directed by Peter Weir
    • Stars: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke
    • About an English teacher at a boys prep school in New England in 1959 who uses poetry and unorthodox teaching methods to embolden and encourage the boys in his classroom to break out of their shells, pursue their dreams, and seize the day
    • Particular scene that I was thinking about this morning happens relatively early in the movie

• • • • Keating begins lesson by jumping up an standing on his desk → explains to students, “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way. You see, the world looks very different from up here.”
      • Then challenges the students: “You don’t believe me? Come see for yourselves. Come on.” → invites the students to join him one by one up on his desk
      • Continues his lesson: “Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way, even though it may seem silly or wrong. You must try.”
      • Culmination of the lesson: encouraging the boys to bring their own thoughts, experiences, interpretations, and understandings to the situation
        • Situation in the classroom context = reading poetry
        • But as he is so powerfully adept at doing, Keating applies the same teaching to the situation of the boys’ lives: “Boys, you must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that. Break out. … Dare to strike out and find new ground.” → It definitely would have been a particularly radical thing to teach a room full of boys on the cusp of becoming young men in 1959 as becomes abundantly clear throughout the rest of the film. I don’t know … maybe it’s a particularly radical thing to teach today, too.
  • Last line – last 2 verses – of today’s Scripture reading is what had me thinking about that scene from Dead Poets Society: After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”[1] → “Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” This definitely would have been a particularly radical thing to preach to a people living oppressed by a foreign, hostile occupier back in 1^st-cent. Jerusalem as becomes abundantly clear through the life and death of Christ himself. I don’t know … maybe it’s a particularly radical thing to preach today, too. I guess we’ll see.
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call that rings out through the millennia from the moment Jesus uttered them more than 2000 yrs. ago to today and on into the future
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call that echoes Mr. Keating’s philosophy in Dead Poets Society
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call of the season of Lent
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call to sacrifice à theme throughout our Lenten worships this year
      • Main idea for this series from Rev. Brandan J. Robertson: In this Lenten series, we will examine the tangible ways that Jesus demonstrated sacrificial living in his day and age, and the powerful, world-shaking ramifications that his sacrificial life had on his society in his day, while posturing ourselves to imitate Jesus in our day.[2] → To put it in terms of the reference from Dead Poets Society, we’re going to spend Lent standing on our desks, changing our viewpoint and trying to look at the world around us from a different angle, and reflecting on where that new angle might take us.
• Today’s Scripture reading = perfect opening to this whole discussion of sacrifice and world-shaking ramifications and change → Mark’s version of Jesus’ baptism
  • First need to remind ourselves of the world of Mk’s gospel
    • Remember: Mk’s gospel was the first one written not that long after Jesus’ death and resurrection – makes it a more “quick and dirty” narrative of sorts → As Christianity began to take root, they needed a way to circulate Jesus’ story – to begin to share that “good news” in a way that was consistent and translatable.
    • Also remember: Mk’s gospel was written in a difficult and dangerous time[3]
      • Nero was Caesar = one of the most dangerous emperors for Christians → lots of persecution (led to violent deaths of a number of Jesus’ original disciples)
      • Lots of false prophets rising up, trying to fill the gap left by Jesus → see that reflected in lots of NT writings
      • Temple had just been destroyed for the 2^nd (final) time by the Romans as retaliation for a Jewish revolt → after 4 yrs. of war, in 70 C.E. Romans finally regained control of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, leaving only a portion of the western wall (Wailing Wall still stands in Jerusalem today)
  • Because of all of this, Mark’s gospel has an immediacy to it. It’s the “just the facts, ma’am” version of the good news. The word “immediately” pops up in Mark’s gospel all the time – Jesus and the disciples are always doing things and going places “immediately.” → while that word doesn’t show up in today’s passage, Mk’s version of Jesus’ baptism certainly gives off that feeling of immediacy
    • No crowds (that we know of)
    • No pre-baptism declarations of Jesus’ greatness from John (that we know of)
    • But there are a few things that I really love about Mark’s few sparse verses about Jesus’ baptism.
      • First= how completely normal everything seems → opening verse: About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River.[4] → There isn’t fanfare involved. There isn’t any added gravitas or ceremony or formality. Jesus and John found one another somehow – we’re not even told if Jesus sought John out or if it was the other way around – and Jesus was baptized. It just feels like this makes Jesus a more approachable Jesus … a more relatable Jesus … a more human Jesus.
      • Another thing I love = ambiguity of the Spirit’s declaration → not ambiguous in the words but in who hears them → A few of the other gospels make it clear that others heard the Spirit-dove’s declaration about Jesus being God’s Son and about God being pleased with Jesus. But Mark’s gospel leaves that uncertain. It just says: While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.[5] → Was it Jesus alone who heard those words (and then told someone else about the experience later … since it is included in all four gospel accounts)? Did John hear it, too? Was there anyone else around who saw and/or heard the Spirit-dove? Mark’s gospel has a tendency to leave us with more questions than answers, which when you think about it is a lot like faith – it’s as much about sitting with the questions as it is about seeking out answers … maybe even more so.
  • Today’s Scripture reading = also perfect opening to this whole discussion of sacrifice and world-shaking ramifications and change because it represents a significant moment of sacrifice and world-shaking ramifications and change in Jesus’ own life → These encounters – Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the wilderness, John’s arrest, and Jesus’ public call to “change your hearts and lives” – is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
    • Before that in Mk’s gospel = nothing
      • No childhood
      • No other formative experiences (e.g. – that time he was found in the temple teaching the teachers when he was an adolescent that we read about in Lk[6])
      • Nothing → Mark’s gospel begins with a short description of John the Baptist and his call, then dives right in with this world-shaking beginning of Jesus ministry – a ministry that brought about a change like no other.
• So let’s talk about that change. Jesus makes a pretty blatant call to change – “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” Throughout the season of Lent, we reflect particularly on that call. It is, after all, the call to repent.
  • Heb. “repent” = literally change direction, to return and to re-turn – to reorient your bearing → Throughout Lent, we try to reorient our hearts and lives, our words and actions, our whole selves back toward God and God’s call for us. It is a word whose very essence necessitates change.
  • Brandan Robertson has an interesting take on this: In almost any Christian context, the idea of repentance, especially tied to the proclamation of the gospel, has to do with asking God to forgive us for our moral failings. In a more progressive environment, repentance may be defined as turning from a damaging action or belief and choosing a better way. But the world translated “repent” here (which is translated as “change your hearts and minds” in our version of the text) … literally means “expanding your mind” – to work to move from our finite human perspective and expand to a broader, wider, diviner perspective. At the heart of the gospel is the call to change the way we see the world, to expand beyond our rigid boundaries and beliefs and begin to see things in a new way. … The way that Jesus invites us to respond to the news that there is a better, more righteous way to live and be in the world is to expand our thinking and to believe in the possibility of a more just and generous world that he demonstrates in his life and ministry. It all begins with the willingness to change our perspective, to see things differently, which is a sacrifice that requires great humility. True repentance means humbling ourselves to embrace a posture of empathy, a posture of listening, a posture of exploration, and a willingness to change the way we think, act, and live based on what we learn.[7]
    • Makes Jesus’ call a call to sacrifice, to be sure
      • Call to sacrifice long-held perceptions about ourselves and the world around us
      • Call to sacrifice our familiar perspectives in favor of another, more expanded, more Christ-like perspective
        • “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way. You see, the world looks very different from up here.”
  • Here’s the big question, friends. What if this “kingdom of God” that Jesus talks about isn’t something that we’re just supposed to wait and wait and wait for until it falls down out of the sky and covers the world like a fresh coat of paint? What is it isn’t something we attain through perfect prayer, perfect faith, perfect Sunday attendance, perfect piety? What if, as Jesus said, this “kingdom of God” is already here? What if the kingdom of God arrived with the birth of the Messiah and is simply waiting for us to change our hearts and lives … to repent … to reorient our whole selves to the love and work of God in this world? What if the kingdom of God is not a thing … not a place … but a way of living in the here and now?
    • Like Mr. Keating, call to stand on our desks … but we have to have the courage to take that first step up. Friends, you must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that. Break out. … Dare to strike out and find new ground. Dare to risk and find holy ground. Now is the time! Here is God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news! Amen.

[1] Mk 1:14-15.

[2] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 99.

[3] Pheme Perkins. “The Gospel of Mark: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 8. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 514.

[4] Mk 1:9.

[5] Mk 1:10-11.

[6] Lk 4:39-52.

[7] Robertson, 100.