Ramblings

"When Images collide with Jesus" - June 21, 2020

This sermon was presented via the Zoom video conference platform to Nagoya All Saints International Church.  It is based on the Gospel lesson for that Sunday, Matthew 10: 24-39

A facilitator at a congregational workshop began her presentation by showing two images of a Jesus figure from contemporary US Christian artists.  The first was a painting by Stephen Sawyer, titled “Undefeated.”  See Here  This painting depicts a Jesus figure as a boxer standing inside a boxing ring.  In the corner, we find the word savior” printed on the protective padding of the corner post and hanging from the ropes are the boxing gloves with the word “mercy” written upon them.[1]

After a few minutes for the image to sink in, the speaker then followed with another image --- this one by Nathan Greene, titled “The Good Shepherd.” See Here  This image shows a Jesus figure holding a black lamb in a pastoral scene.

The speaker then asked the attendees, when looking at these images side by side, “What is your image of Jesus?”  The presupposition is and one I think is true, we all have images of Jesus.  While we may not always be clear as to what those images may be, we also may not realize how much these images may say about ourselves, how we grew up, our backgrounds, and our faith journey.  For example, whatever our image of Jesus maybe, we have no real physical description of him so whatever image we do have, has come via a cocktail of scripture, artist renderings and our own imaginations.

In my years as a pastor I have found that in general we aren’t always aware of our conceptions until something challenges our faith, like found in today’s gospel, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”[2]  Or the passage before: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”[3]

How do we integrate these words with our images or more importantly with our faith now?  Would it make any difference if we understood that the sword Jesus brings to us is not made of steel, but wood --- the wood of a cross?  Or that our worth before God is not economic or hierarchical?

I invite you to review with me today’s portion of the Gospel of Matthew more fully.

Scholarship suggests that the author of Matthew wrote around 85 CE.  Meaning this is composed in the context of a post-war period.  It follows the devastation of the Roman-Jewish War of 66-70 CE when blood ran in the streets of Jerusalem, the Second Temple was destroyed, and many are refugees.

The gospel of Matthew is a few years removed from the gospel of Mark, an earlier gospel seemingly transcribed from an oral presentation during or just after the devastation.  While Matthew's over-all “mood” practically speaking is not as dark as Mark's, Matthew was writing to an audience who were fragile, vulnerable, and under threat.  If Jesus himself has been accused of being a demon --- “they have called the master of the house Beelzebub” --- then even this charge is likely to be levelled also at Jesus' followers.

Why is it helpful to remind ourselves that the situation was quite serious for this early Christian community?  That the person you may have just shared communion with is being hauled before magistrates, or that one's own life may be in danger?

In verses 26-31, the disciples of Jesus are encouraged not to fear three times in five verses.  This is a message of hope and promise for people who feel under siege.  Despite the difficulties, this movement cannot be stopped, Jesus tells them.  Even if you go to prison, even if you are oppressed, the message will be revealed and “become known,” or as expressed in the biblical Greek “known” in the most intimate way, into one’s very core.

When Jesus says today --- “what I say to you” --- it is recorded in the present tense --- even if “in the dark.”  Now we need to be careful, particularly in this time of “Black Lives Matter,” for the English language is racialized, meaning that dark or black as evil can be construed in contrast to the light or white.  In this instance, “in the dark” indicates a community that must speak in whispers to each other from those who can “kill the body.”  Nevertheless, Jesus is saying, speak in the open --- “tell in the light.”  Yes, they were enduring political and social oppression.  Yes, they were under the boot of the Roman empire.  Nevertheless, do not be afraid to speak openly; what hard truths go unsaid among you?

Then encouragingly Jesus uses an image of sparrows.  Sparrows at the time of Jesus were one of the cheapest edible foods.  Two of them could be bought for one-tenth of a drachma, or one-sixteenth of a denarius.  Yet, “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”  Again, the exhortation from Jesus is not to be afraid because Matthew notes --- God cares for the sparrow so God cares for us.

Then the lesson moves to the opposing pole as a warning, and we return to the more challenging parts for many of us.  I will not delve into all the aspects of the verses rather to suggest a couple of things.

Jesus in quoting from Micah 7:6 --- “for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;  your enemies are members of your own household” --- is not advocating violence.  Jesus is a bringer of peace, and his disciples are to be “peacemakers.”[4]  Instead notice the generational pattern of the division.  In each case of comparison, it is the younger generation which is at odds with the older generation.  Jesus is suggesting that faith can sever the ties between a man and his father, and a woman and her mother.

Is Jesus somehow laying the groundwork of lyrics for the rock group the “Who” and the anthem “My Generation?”  The message of Jesus is about being formed by the future.  The kingdom of heaven is coming, a kingdom in which all relationships will be equal, not hierarchical, as they may occur even in a human family.  Jesus is telling the community that traditional power relationships will be upended, including that even within the family.  Jesus will go on to say, in chapter 12, that one's true family is the new community of Jesus. 

Earlier in Chapter 8, Jesus makes a comment to someone who wants to bury his father before he could follow.  Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead.”[5]  Harsh but a reminder that we are to step out from our limited sense of neighbor and live toward this new community.  These are “old wineskins” Jesus says later in chapter 9, and not able to hold the “new wine.”[6]  To love one's family “more than me” is to be in love with a table that excludes rather than a community that is alive.

This leads then into a further warning by Jesus in our gospel, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  I do not know about you but when I think of a sword, I think of long blade of steel, that has been forged and hammered into one wielded by a samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa.  And yes, throughout the Bible, we discover various references to swords as an instrument of a violent death as, for example, in Numbers: “And you will fall by the sword” (14:43).

And it must be said, following Jesus is not for the faint of heart, either before or after Pentecost.[7]  For example, later in 9:35–11:1, Jesus instructs what it means to follow him and alerts them to the many threats they will face, along with life-and-death choices.

Again, nowhere does Jesus support the use of a sword.  Instead these words to this beleaguered under threat community is that as they live into this new community, teach peace, and heal the outcasts of society, they will likely meet resistance and ridicule.  Doing the right thing produces division, putting us at odds with those who are close to us.  Furthermore, following Christ may even have an internal cost.  Perhaps we could use the sword metaphor further in that living out faith cuts in all different directions.

Jesus does not say “pick up the sword” but rather, “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  “Worthy” in biblical Greek means having sufficient weight to balance the scales.  Worth is less about moral judgment --- “I’m not worthy” --- as more in terms of the lyrics of the hymn “tried and found wanting.”  And what is the standard?  The audience like ourselves know where this is going.  Later in Jerusalem, Jesus will set an example of suffering, as a recent US church sign put it “man of color who claims God as Father, crucified by law and order.”  And as the followers are not greater than their master, such a fate may come to any follower. 

So on one hand, Jesus desires to fortify followers feeling the brunt of a hostile community and family and on the other, warns followers who are like those on the road to Emmaus.[8]  Do you remember those two disciples?  They were leaving the past behind, after the stormy days after Jesus had died in Jerusalem --- until they meet a stranger.  Who of us has not had the same feeling or desire?  This is the way of the world.  No matter how much we try, the cycle of suffering will just go on.  Let us leave Jerusalem.  Or perhaps cynicism holds us back especially when the going can get rough.

Jesus response is to both to empower and warn, resurrection does not come without death.  Scars do not come without suffering.  Truth does not come without vulnerability.

Whenever I come to these kinds of verses, I find myself thinking they should include a warning label, “Use as prescribed and keep outreach of children.”  They are a form of medicine, costly, to our images, visions, and faith.  Or as Paul puts in today’s second lesson, our lives in the present are marked and shaped by his crucifixion, just as our lives in the future will be marked and shaped by his resurrection.  Meaning, how will our lives be marked and shaped by the crucifixion this coming week?  How will our lives be marked and shaped by the resurrection this coming week?  Amen.

 

[1] Illustration is from www.HomileticsOnline.com

[2] v. 37

[3] v. 34

[4] Matthew 5:9

[5] 22

[6] 9:17

[7] Acts 5:41-42

[8]  Luke 24

The Expat Apostle Paul - May 17, 2020

Sermon presented to Nagoya All Saints International Congregation on May 17, 2020 based on Acts 17: 22-31 meeting in virtual community.

Are there blessings to being an expat?  An expat is simply the word used to describe someone who lives outside of their native country.  I came across a saying many years ago that I have found to be true: “The shortest way to yourself is living around the world.”  I believe we grow as persons and develop new parts of our identity and character as we experience new and different people and cultures.  The expat life lets us learn things about ourselves we would have never found out otherwise and opens our mind and broadens our perspective like no other experience. 

Of course it is double edged sword in that there are some painful aspects of expat life.  For me, the most tender is not being able to be physically present for my loved ones.  Although technology has made it so much better than many years ago when snail mail was the highlight of my day, and I had a stack of aerograms, I have noticed the pain of separation more acutely particularly with adult children who are now half around the world. 

For these and other reasons, we who are sensitive to the expat life may not realize that those life experiences do make a difference in faith.  As we are reminded in today’s gospel, the Holy Spirit is constantly refining but along with that, our life experiences open us to new perspectives on all aspects of faith.  For example, we can see how an expat life experience relates to one person in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul.

Paul born a Jew and a Roman citizen lived at time of Roman imperial power, yet he lived and worked in one foreign context after another as an expat.  Saul or Paul lived and studied in Jerusalem at the school of Gamaliel, a famous Jewish rabbinic “international boarding school.”  After his conversion, Paul went to Arabia for a length of time and engaged in several missionary journeys including, present day Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and Italy and perhaps even as far as present day Spain.  Paul did not travel with the intent of being a tourist but to share the faith while living and working as a tentmaker.  We tend to think that the people with whom Paul interacted where all the same, but that is not the case.  Although when traveling he would more often than not find a synagogue and fellow Jews, it is not that community alone with whom he interacted.

I lift all this for your consideration because it is with that experience as an expat that I believe drove part of Paul’s encounter in Athens.  In a cosmopolitan city known for its many gods, pursuits, ideas and pleasures, all drawn from the world around the Mediterranean, Paul will point out the religious impulse in people and redirect them to the “unknown God” who supersedes all the others.  Driven by the Holy Spirit and his life experiences, what is remarkable is Paul’s sensitivity to the people with whom he is living and working, a sensitivity that suggests that he takes their spiritual journey seriously.  That sensitivity comes with exposure to a variety of people and cultures.

Today’s first lesson begins when Paul is waiting for his companions Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, where we are told that he was “deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.”[1]  The pantheon Paul saw of gods and goddesses was well-known to him and the ancient world, for many of the same gods had been adopted and rebranded by imperial Romans as way to hold their varied and diverse empire together.  So it wasn’t what he saw, but their number and how the culture around him continued to appropriate new idols and gods.

Most of those gods of the past were linked with some aspect of life, be it romance (Aphrodite/Venus), reason (Athena/Minerva), war (Ares/Mars) or even messaging (Hermes/Mercury), but there were numerous others.  In addition to the stone visages of these various gods, philosophers were also present on the streets touting their ideas.  For example, the Epicureans were deists who believed the gods weren’t that involved in human life and, if they were, they wanted people to be happy.  Life for the Epicureans involved the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

The connections between our own experience living as expats in Japan and that of Paul and Athens aren’t exact parallels, but there are somethings we can glean from his distress to guide us.  Although Paul acknowledges what his audience’s spiritual and intellectual journey has found, he also believes that what he has found is worth sharing.

Translate that into our time and place.  As we know many in Japan are nominally and culturally Shinto and Buddhist, but like people around the world people have other quasi-religious leanings around a variety of aspects of life beyond those traditional faiths.

One idol I have noticed is busyness.  It is attractive because it does double duty, allowing us to feel like we are on the path of life while distracting us from other, less pleasant realities, like fear, doubt, uncertainty and death.  What is unique in this culture is how that busyness has been associated to the careful, planning and consensus-oriented decision-making process.  In this cult you are depending on how busy you are.

The other idol I have noticed is food.  Food can express the symbolic values of a people as it clearly does in this nation (i.e. rice).  Yet, when I see the camera focused on a TV personality eating something new, the hope is for a reaction to be near religious ecstasy.  What we are taking to work as our obento has become invested with the deeper meaning of life.  In this cult, you are what you eat!

Returning to our story in Acts, what is helpful for us to see is that Paul’s preaching about Jesus and the resurrection caused some of his listeners some level of discomfort, mostly because the truth he was proclaiming seemed to be about something “foreign.”[2]  The good news about Jesus will always seem foreign.  It did then, and it does now!

Like Socrates before him who was accused of a similar kind of religious disruption, Paul was led to the Areopagus --- the “hill of Mars” --- near the Acropolis where the Athenian court was located.  “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” they asked.  “It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”[3]  In response, Paul was about to tell them the truth that emerged out of a very old story.

Paul’s address to the Athenians is both courageous and courteous.  As I mentioned before Paul begins by acknowledging their religiosity.  “I see how extremely religious you are in every way,” says Paul.[4]  Paul doesn’t see the Athenians as far from God but as on the way to God; then he acknowledges his own faith journey and shares what his own search has found.  Paul respects his audience’s intelligence, convinces them that they themselves are within God’s story, and trusts that his vocation is simply to tell the truth as honestly and earnestly as he can, knowing that those who have ears to hear will hear.

That is helpful reminder for us that when people have a religious impulse, no matter where it’s directed, we are to acknowledge that they are moving in the right direction.  They’re seeking something and, like Paul, we can point out the real object of their search.  Paul directed the Athenians to the statue they had erected to “an unknown god” and then proceeded to fill in the blank.[5]

In other words, Paul doesn’t begin by saying, “You idolaters! You’ve got it all wrong!”  He begins with meeting people where they were, like a seasoned expat with a new job in a new city, while encouraging them to keep looking.  “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you,” Paul continues.[6]  He proceeds to talk about the one God, the Creator God, and the Lord of heaven and earth, who doesn’t dwell in temples or stones.[7]  This God is not served by human hands like the gods in the temples --- and the gods in our kitchens or offices --- who require constant maintenance.  God is the One who “give to all mortals’ life and breathe in all things.”[8]  This is the God who created humanity and the nations and God did it “so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though he is indeed not far from each one of us.”[9]

Paul even quotes from a local poet in order to show his listeners the truth about the God they don’t yet know.[10]  “For we too are his offspring” and since God is a living God, God is not the kind of god that can be characterized by materials crafted by human hands, no matter how artistic.[11]  This God, Paul says, sees all the intellectual capital of culture as “ignorance.”  Ignorance not from stupidity however; rather it is an unawareness that God has been working from the beginning --- a plan that doesn’t culminate in humans creating gods but in God becoming human.  “And of this he has given assurance to all,” Paul says, “by raising him from the dead.”[12]

What Paul does here is increasingly narrow the focus from creation to global humanity to Jesus.  Paul speaks about essential aspects of belief in Christ without embellishing through rose-tinted glasses, or as you may have noticed particular cultural lenses and without using scare tactics.

Rather, when we encounter the story of what God of creation has done for all humanity in Jesus Christ, it puts our gods into perspective.  We recognize how they fail us and how they are really a mask for covering our fear.  So, it’s little wonder that the listeners remained with Paul until Paul’s mention of resurrection which then prompted some to scoff and others to want to hear more.[13]  Then as today, it is the trust in the resurrection that is a stumbling block for many.

Being blessed as an expat, coming from different perspectives on life gave Paul the language of humility, respect and awareness for the people he met.  We are all blessed to live at this place, in this nation, at this time in history.  And this nation like any other has a pantheon of idols, old and news, with a people like us ready to hear a powerful story that can ring true to their human experience.  As expats, or with a global perspective, walking in the guidance of the Holy Spirit we are uniquely placed to speak with knowledge, humility and respect.  Paul felt compelled to tell his story as honestly and earnestly he could, with sensitivity similar to our own, knowing that those who have ears to hear will hear.  It is a blessing to be an expat.  Amen.

 

[1] v. 16

[2] v. 18

[3] vv. 19-20

[4] v. 23

[5] v. 23

[6] v. 23 

[7] v. 24 

[8] v. 25

[9] vv. 26-27

[10] Epimenides

[11] v. 28-29

[12] vv. 30-31

[13] v. 32

"Thomas the Truther" - April 19, 2020

On this Second Sunday of Easter I had the opportunity to preach and preside with the virtual community of All Saints in Nagoya, Japan.  I am very grateful to have been part of this worshiping community in Christ.  Below is the more or less what I preached based on the Gospel from John, 20: 19-31.  For more information on All Saints please follow this link: Link

There are some who believe that the US moon landings were staged; staged to look real in some undisclosed military hanger.   In a failed homemade rocket, there was the recent death in February of “Mad” Mike Hughes attempting to prove --- that the earth is flat.[1]  And today, as we gather virtually under the umbrella of global pandemic, “conspiracy” theories is not just an American phenomenon.  We have stories being shared of COVID19 starting in some secret military laboratory. 

Unfortunately, the 21^st century has seen a rise in conspiratorial thinking for with the good of the internet we have a downside: an unfiltered clearinghouse that breeds those seeking the “truth;” “truthers” who find “co-truthers” to explain and support each other in this pursuit.

As you can probably tell I do not have a high opinion --- not of the curiosity or healthy skepticism --- but of “truthers” who don’t trust governments, science, academics or anything else except for none other than what they deem to be true.  However, today’s gospel not only speaks to this present moment not only in the most famous death in history, the death of Jesus Christ, and the conspiracy theories around his death that have abounded for centuries, but we also see someone who is really trying to get at the truth.  This figure is no lonely outsider on the internet wearing a tin foil hat, but one of Jesus’ own disciples: Thomas, a “truther” someone we in fact mirror.

First let me back up.  The death and resurrection of Jesus from the beginning has long been the target of conspiracy theorists.  The general tendency of these quests is based on a view that the disciples acted in concert to claim that Jesus was alive when he really wasn’t; that he died and the disciples “helped” him become “alive” again.  Of course, why these disciples would do these seems to be a more elusive question not pursued.  Others have speculated that Jesus didn’t actually die but just fell unconscious or “swooned” on the cross and eventually staggered out of the tomb.  For whatever reason they did not trust the fact that --- namely the Romans ---were pretty good at the industrial application of the death penalty, the cross as an effective form of death, and the author of John furthermore tells us that Jesus was speared in the side (19:31-37).  That would have been quite a “swoon,” and Jesus must have been in really great shape to survive all that besides the flogging under Pontus Pilate!  And others have speculated that the disciples had a mass hallucination out of grief, or that they actually saw a ghost.

Well despite 2,000 years of theories, thankfully the testimony of the death and resurrection of Jesus is resilient.  Indeed, it seems as though the gospel of John itself embeds an answer to the “truthers” in the text, and one of the places we see this most clearly is in this account in the Gospel of John today.

 Let’s review our gospel.  After the death of Jesus, at least ten disciples and perhaps others including women --- yet without Judas who was dead and Thomas who was gone --- are hiding behind locked doors in the evening of the same day of the resurrection.  Although they had heard from the women --- in John from Mary Magdalene --- that she had “seen the Lord” all remained in confusion, doubt and fear.[2]

Suddenly Jesus appeared among them with the greeting, “Peace be with you” (v. 19) along with showing them the evidence of the wounds in his hands and side.  It’s a strange combination: Jesus is risen in a physical body and yet can also appear through locked doors.  It’s clear that this is a different kind of body, neither ghost nor flesh as we know it, but a body nonetheless.  What was the reaction after their shock?  We are told that the disciples “rejoiced” after seeing the evidence.[3]  Mary’s testimony had been vindicated.

Later, when the others recount to Thomas what they had witnessed, “We have seen the Lord” --- by the way you may have noticed that they are the same words used by Mary Magdalene --- he is skeptical.[4]  Thomas is not taking their story for gospel truth just yet.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”[5]  After all, they had the benefit of seeing scars.  Why shouldn’t he?

Thomas may have thought his fellow disciples were engaging in their own collective conspiracy theory.   We can summarize that Thomas was a thinker, a questioner.  For example, in John 14:5, Thomas pressed Jesus on his statement about where he was going.  It wasn’t that Thomas was afraid --- after all, in chapter 11 Thomas was the one prepared to go with Jesus to a dangerous place, even if it meant his own death.[6]  Rather it seems Thomas wasn’t going to buy into any kind of story, false information or wild speculation.

The church has often called Thomas the “doubter” following Jesus telling him “do not doubt but believe.”  I don’t like that label, because by labeling Thomas as the “doubter” supreme, it suggests reason and intelligence is somehow contrary to faith or that he was inordinately unusual.  Thomas simply wants the truth, not that much different than the other disciples or shall we admit it all of us who faithfully walk in Christ on this journey of faith.  Thomas doesn’t reject the idea of resurrection outright; he simply wants more --- the same evidence the other disciples had received, that Mary Magdalene had received.  In other words, Thomas wants to experience the risen Christ for himself.

And then, suddenly, Thomas has the opportunity.  The pattern repeats: an evening, a locked door, an appearance by Jesus.  Jesus somehow knows that Thomas had expressed some skepticism and offers the evidence that Thomas was looking for. “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.[7]

We like Thomas immediately notice, Jesus’ resurrected body retained its scars.  Not old scars.  Not faded scars signaling a long-ago accident on a playground, but freshly healed wounds still raw enough to allow an invitation for a truth seeking disciple.  Although the Biblical Greek in the gospel of John is not clear as to whether Thomas actually touched Jesus, if Thomas did, I can just imagine Jesus wincing at that pain.  The openness of wounds not only signaled real death and resurrection, the scars revealed real engagement, real presence.  The presence of the wounds spoke to the very question that troubled Thomas and for which he hungered for the most.  Christ is standing before him, before us unequivocally:  “I am here.  I am here with you.  I don’t float a few sanitized feet above reality; even after death, I dwell in the hot, searing heart of life.”

Let’s look again at the doubt.  Notice that Thomas’ qualms are about the reports of the resurrection.  Thomas has suspicions about the veracity of what he was hearing from the other disciples about the risen Jesus.  That helps us to understand what Jesus says to Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe,” he’s really saying, “Thomas, it’s me, in the flesh.  I am here.  I am present.  Believe in the testimony of the disciples and the women.”

Perhaps another piece of this event that we need to be reminded about is that what Jesus says to Thomas was being applied equally to all of the disciples.[8]  When Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,” these words are for all time and place.  In that time and place, all had the same predisposition, the same inclination.   All believed that Jesus was alive only because they saw Jesus in the flesh.  Like Thomas, the other disciples before him, both men and women, did not believe Jesus’ resurrection either; Thomas didn’t believe the report of the disciples, the disciples did not believe the report of the women.  They were all across the spectrum of doubt, “truthers,” and their reservations were only suspended when they saw Jesus alive with their own eyes.

So when I realize how the disciples are no different than Thomas or Mary before them it opens a window for me.  I will gladly admit I would rather have a resurrected Jesus visibly standing right here in this time of fear, confusion and doubt.  It would make this whole thing of belief so much easier.  And in actuality even if this time wasn’t challenging, don’t all of us have a bit of Thomas, willing to push back on what, at times, seems challenging particularly when in faith the going gets tough?

An additional piece for us to ponder I believe is, if we consider the evidence of when the gospel of John was written --- roughly 90-100 CE --- the audience was not that far different than our own contexts, those earliest small communities of faithful who had never met Jesus.  They were like us relying on the testimony of others.  In a sense, the gospel of John more than the other gospels is speaking as testimony to future generations who have not seen Jesus who hunger about the truth of the gospel.  The author of the gospel of John of all the gospels is strengthening us and asking us to believe, but not just on the basis of the evidence itself.  The author wants us to believe in the ongoing, unseen presence of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps that is why of the four gospels the author of John has such a strong focus on the Holy Spirit, the baptismal waters and Holy Communion.

Certainly, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is quite compelling from a historical perspective.  It’s not that the Gospel of John is suggesting that the evidence is unimportant rather in these recorded words of Jesus the author is laying the groundwork for futures Kierkegaard’s and our leaps of faith.

It is a good time for me to be reminded that I may sanctimoniously point out how I don’t wear a tinfoil hat and how assured I am that the earth is a sphere, a blue marble in a vast universe, I am in fact a “truther” who seeks the precense of Christ, in how the impossible had become possible and despite all kinds of fear, confusion and doubt, I listen to those who believed and wouldn’t shut up about it.  Thankfully I have the eyewitness testimony of the gospels against all that is arrayed against it.  I have as the author of John puts it later in the text: “these things are written so that you might come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (v. 31).  I have the witness of subsequent generations of believers.  I have this virtual community, along with hundreds of thousands around the world, who all attest to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And finally, when I recognize that I am a truther, perhaps grudgingly, thankfully, I walk in faith in today’s story where Jesus is at the apex of his resurrection victory displaying his recently healed wounds without shame or apology.  In those scars I am reminded of all that God has done, all that God has made possible and all that God will make possible through the resurrection.

Thankfully, Jesus himself recognizes this journey for as he calls blessed, it is so we are blessed when we live out this scarred testimony, blessed to live as the presence of Christ to other “truthers” with the testimony that Christ is risen.  Christ is risen indeed “truthers.”  Walk in faith.  Amen.

 

[1] https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a31077307/mad-mike-hughes-death-flat-earth-rocket-crash/

[2] vs. 18

[3] v. 20

[4] v. 25

[5] v. 25

[6] John 11:16

[7] v. 27

[8] v. 29

"A Trinity of Images" - April 12, 2020

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!

For Easter, I was invited to preach at a congregation that I served when we lived in Nagoya, Japan back in 2006-2010.  Because of COVID-19 and in consideration of the health and well-being of all, our worship was in virtual community using Zoom.  Below is the sermon I presented, again different than when spoken but similar nonetheless.  Blessings to all and have a blessed Easter.

p.s.- Thank you to All Saints International Church serving the greater Nagoya community for the invitation.  For more information please check out their website: All Saints International Church

Psychologists call them flashbulb memories.  A “flashbulb memory” is akin to our minds being in a dark room, illuminated for only an instant when a camera flashbulb goes off before we live in the dark again.  The question is what did we see and what do we remember from that moment of illumination?   That flashbulb image may tell quite a story.  It may include a point in time, it may include some context, and it may include images and feelings.

The prototype case used by psychologists to illustrate is the news that US President John Kennedy had been shot.  For those of that age, like my mother, she can remember where she was when she heard, what she was doing, who told her, how she felt about it.  And like many flashbulb memories, when she recounts that event it includes the prominent images from that moment, which for her was pushing a shopping cart and me being in the cart.

Flashbulb memories are all part of our lives.  I am too young to remember the shooting of President Kennedy, but I do remember September 11^th, 2001 where I was and when I heard about the plane flying into the first of the twin towers in New York City.  I have specific feelings and images etched into my mind.  In my case I had just finished a funeral service.  I had just settled into my car getting ready to leave, when I turned on the radio and heard the news.  In my case, the prominent images are the cemetery and car radio.^[1]

These flashbulb memories and the corresponding narrative with images included, causes me wonder what will it be for us living through the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020.  I suspect for some the event will include what many of us who live in Japan consider part of our natural wardrobes the “face mask.”  For others, it may be stacked urns or coffins with the cremains or remains of those who died; it may be the tired faces of medical staff.  It may be virtual worship, a church as a screen with boxes.

Now, just think of flashbulb memories in the context of those first witnesses on that first Easter; the scenes captured and retold in our gospels and the images that correspond with the narrative.  Have you ever noticed all include the same three images: the cross, the tomb and the stone, that is, the stone that was rolled away to reveal an empty tomb.

Easter cannot be Easter without the cross, the tomb and the stone.  So although each gospel has its own nuance of how Jesus died, his subsequent burial, and resurrection, they all share that same set of three images.  Remove one, and the value and significance of the others disappears like smoke in the wind.  Not only are these images important for the memory and the narrative story of Easter; the cross, the tomb and the stone are integral gifts to strengthen us today.

Tradition has it that the True Cross was discovered by Saint Helena a few years following her son’s remarkable victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312.[2]   Since then, pieces of the purported True Cross have multiplied like Jesus’ five loaves and two fishes, and fragments of the True Cross now reside in reliquaries around the world, including a church in Texas.  Whether those slivers are part of the true cross on which Jesus was crucified is beside the point.  Rather the cross image has been re-created in a cornucopia of icons, oil paintings and tattoo’s and are so universal that the cross appears from earrings to wall hangings.  But this is cultural stuff.  

Instead what we are remember is that it is safe to say that if had Jesus not died on a cross, there would not be cross tattoos or cross jewelry, for prior to Jesus’ death, the cross was just a means of execution --- nothing more.  What transformed the cross from an execution’s tool to a stunning declaration as an image of unconditional love, ultimate sacrifice, and victory over human brokenness, death and the evil ---is the flashbulb image from the first witnesses on that first Friday.

Meaning that the reason that the cross is such a powerful image is that in the words from his pastoral exhortation, Pastores Gregis, Pope John Paul II --- the cross is the tree of life!  The cross is the seed that falls to the ground and dies, later to come to life.[3]  For without the Easter tomb, the cross itself fades to nothing more than a story in which a dissident, prophet, teacher, or rabbi was killed.  Why can we not retell the event without the cross and subsequent tomb?

Because the tomb is where we place those who have died and Jesus was dead.  Jesus didn’t faint or swoon or lay comatose.  Jesus did not have an out-of-body experience and come back to write a book about heaven being real that stayed on the Bestseller List for 113 consecutive weeks, the profits of which guaranteed a sunny financial future for him and his mom and extended family for generations to come.

Rather, the tomb is imprinted into the narrative for those first witnesses because Jesus truly died on the cross.  And dead people in Jesus’ times were put in tombs.  And that is where they stayed until they faded into dust.  If Jesus wasn’t dead and in a tomb, then the cross alone was just pieces of wood, no more than a gurney is a bed in a hospital in Milan or New York.

Furthermore, similar to the transfiguration mountaintop event earlier in Jesus ministry, the tomb is also the place where the dead Jesus underwent a transformation.  For when we encounter the resurrected Christ, we discover a Jesus not just alive, not just with a body, but with a glorified, otherworldly form.  Barbara Lundblad, Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, puts it this way: “Jesus is not resuscitated from clinical death.  In John’s gospel, Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from death.  Lazarus did come walking out of the tomb, and Jesus asked his friends to unbind him.  Lazarus was resuscitated; he came back to life as he had known it before.  He wasn’t more alive than he had been before, and he would someday die.  But the earliest witnesses bear testimony to Jesus who was transformed --- who was alive in a new way beyond the limits of time and space.”  The tomb is the place where something amazing happened that prefigures our own transformation at the great day of resurrection at the end of time, or as the Apostle Paul puts it: “For this perishable body must put on imperishability and this mortal body must put on immortality.”[4]

This leads to the third of this trinity of images --- the stone that sealed everything, this chunk of stone hewn and shaped to fit snug against the opening of the tomb.

The stone becomes part of this trinity because the stone is witness to the fact that nothing can contain the Son of God or resist the unfathomable power of God.  After Jesus had been placed in the tomb and the stone as customary was placed there, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate and requested support to make sure the body was not stolen: “Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.”[5]  Now the guards posted at the tomb had one job to do.  No one, but no one, moves the stone.  The tomb is sealed.  Keep it that way.  And yet, come Easter morning, in some powerful way, the stone was rolled away. 

On that first Easter the tombstone becomes a touchstone.  What is a touchstone?  From ancient times, assayers --- those who tested the value of precious metals like silver or gold --- would use touchstones to determine the purity and value of the nuggets miners brought to them for inspection.

Since precious metals are comparatively soft when a piece with silver or gold is scraped across a much harder touchstone, it leaves a mark behind.  Expert assayers could tell from that mark the nature of the mineral, but also make an informed guess as to what degree of purity it was.[6]

The stone rolled away from the entrance of Jesus’ tomb functioned for those first witnesses as a sort of touchstone.  Like the cross and the tomb, in and of itself, the stone is unremarkable.  A cast aside stone whose only value was for what it was supposed to keep out, now reveals the greatest of all treasures, signifies the power of God and reveals Easter in all its glory.

This trinity of images caught in a flashbulb memory continues to reverberate 21 centuries later.  The editors of Christian Century this week described it this way in a piece on why it is so challenging to move to virtual worship: “Christianity is, at its heart, an incarnational faith.”  For example, they write: “worship embodies the belief that God’s grace comes through physical contact: water trickling down a forehead, bread dissolving on a tongue, wine tickling the back of a throat, one person’s hand squeezing another’s.”^[7] Virtual worship is a challenge but if there is anything that the last couple of months in this pandemic have taught us is it’s easy to be united in fear of what tomorrow will bring.  So, when we are gripped by fear when we hear someone say “not to be afraid,” we are likely to feel more inadequate and fearful than we all already are.

But that’s why today’s images of the cross, tomb and stone are important to reconsider because when we are told not to be afraid in scripture, those words also come with the assurance that we are cared for.  The words come with the promise that even through suffering, we will emerge as conquers.   The Cross, Tomb and Stone are incarnational images of that promise.  We who follow in the steps of those first witnesses have the cross, tomb and stone as stepping stones through these very dark moments as profound images of God’s love and power.

If we were selfish we wouldn’t care about the world around us and we for example, would gather physically in worship.  Instead we have these incarnational tools of cross, tomb and stone to help us navigate in faith.  A global pandemic is laying bare what the church has long confessed: that all people are deeply and inextricably connected to one another, like branches on a vine. 

Thankfully, these flashbulb images from those first disciples are ours and are ours not only for those moments of joy but as well when our vision may become nearsighted, or only accustomed to the dark.  The angel in Matthew’s Gospel account foreshadows this incarnational dynamism when the angel said: “Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’” [8]  The cross, tomb and stone are those steps from “he has been raised from the dead” to “he is ahead of us.”  The cross, tomb and stone is what carried those first witnesses on that journey.  It is what carries us.  Death and brokenness has been conquered and a cross, a tomb and a stone are witnesses to Christ risen.  Amen.

 

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/001002777790018X

[2] “Shrine of the True Cross.” Truecrosschurch.org.

[3] http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_20031016_pastores-gregis.html

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:53

[5] Matthew 27:61-66

[6] “Touchstone (assaying tool).” Wikipedia.org.

[7] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/editors/staying-connected-during-covid-19-pandemic

[8] Matthew 28:7

Hi everyone-

As some of you may know, our daughters were going to come visit us in early March. The church in Nagoya where Charles served from 2006-2010 just finished building a new sanctuary. Our whole family was invited to attend the dedication ceremony which was going to take place on Sunday 8 March. However, due to the uncertainties surrounding the novel coronavirus, aka COVID-19, the congregation has postponed the event. We were pretty disappointed that the girls aren't able to come visit after all.

The church is not the only organization postponing or canceling events. Other gatherings such as job fairs, community events, receptions, and sporting events have also been affected.

Yokosuka is just a bit south of Yokohama where the Diamond Princess cruise ship was docked for several days. What's concerning Japanese officials at the moment is the recent trend of COVID-19 diagnoses appearing all over the country with no connection either to the cruise ship or to travel to Wuhan, China. According to the experts we've been following on NHK (Japan's PBS), the next two weeks will be critical.

People often wear masks here in the winter and now they are ubiquitous. It is virtually impossible to find them in stores as they have been sold out for weeks. There's a big push to wash hands frequently, use alcohol wipes, avoid crowds and admonishments to stay home if feeling ill.

Please know we are fine and doing what we can to stay healthy.

As always, thanks for your prayers!