What We're Really Like: A Sermon on Luke 7:1-10

OK, so, has this or has this not been the longest election year on record? I was talking to a friend in DC, and they don’t even hold their primary for two more weeks. Seems like that was years ago here!

I guess it’s true other years, but I’ve noticed it more this year, how utterly black and white the candidates are portrayed. Now this is universal, whether you support Trump or Clinton or you’re still holding out for Sanders, one candidate is portrayed as the knight in shining armor, America’s only hope for salvation, while the other candidate is portrayed as the absolute worst thing that has ever happened to this country, ever. Total absolutes, no room for discussion. Maybe it’s my millennial inclination to be skeptical of anyone who claims absolute certainty, but regardless of your candidate of choice, this sharp declaration of hero and villain feels untrustworthy to me. The world always feels more grey than that.

I actually came across a funny internet meme that captured this idea pretty well to me. The meme had the phrase “How you see your candidate” and a picture of Obi Wan Kenobi, you know, the sage elder from Star Wars. The one who took Luke Skywalker under his wing. Then the phrase, “How you see their candidate,” and a picture of Darth Vader, the great villain, holding out his arm and looking foreboding. And then, underneath both images, the phrase, “What both of them are really like,” and a picture of Jar Jar Binks, that super annoying alien character from Star Wars Episode 1, making a thumbs up sign with his tongue hanging out. The point of course being that for all we might glorify or vilify one side or the other, both are really just goobers.

Much of the polarization of this election has been blamed on mainstream media. And I’m not saying that media coverage is not to blame, but I wonder if mainstream media is not itself the cause of the polarization, but itself also a result of something else. I wonder if this desire for the simplicity of clear cut answers, the urge to be able to place everything in a category of right or wrong, black or white, hero or villain, is in fact part of our human nature.

I got to thinking about this desire to assign things into good or bad categories as I was reading commentaries for our Gospel reading this morning. All the commentaries I read talked about how centurions would have been classified as “bad guys” in the Gospels. A centurion was a high-ranking officer in the Roman army. He would have been in charge of a regiment of around a hundred men, thus the title centurion. And as my best friend pointed out when we were discussing the text earlier this week, one did not rise to power in the Romany army by being a fluffy bunny. And since the story takes place in Capernaum, this particular centurion was probably under the service of King Herod, which would have made him sort of doubly villainous, because instead of being under the command of faraway Rome, this guy would have been enforcing the brutal policies of the ruler right in their own neighborhood. Nothing about this guy by title says “someone Jesus should care about.” He is a villain, through and through.

But wait! protest the commentaries. This guy wasn’t like a normal centurion. This guy was a good centurion. First off, he valued his slave highly and wanted him to be well. This clearly shows a respect for the humanity of his slave, seeing the slave not as expendable but as a person in his own right. Then, instead of approaching Jesus directly, he honored Jesus’ position as a religious leader by sending emissaries to intervene on his behalf. First the Jewish elders, who showered the centurion with praise. He loves our people, he built the synagogue, he is worthy of having his request granted. And then, when Jesus went to the centurion’s home, the centurion sent friends out in yet another great show of humility, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof… But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” The commentaries reveled in how the centurion respected Jesus’ authority, relating the centurion’s command of his troops to Jesus’ own power over illness, and in how by keeping Jesus from entering his house, the centurion respected that by entering the home of a gentile, Jesus could be made ritually unclean, and so not wanting Jesus to come to him was a sign of respect for Jesus’ religious traditions. And look, the commentaries proclaimed, Jesus acknowledged the centurion’s worthiness, by telling the crowd, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” This centurion is clearly a Gentile to be honored, a model of humility, respect, care, and compassion that us gentiles should follow. Despite the title centurion, he should be placed in the “good guy” category.

Well, I took the commentaries glowing description of the centurion to the Wednesday Bible chat groups, and I have to tell you, they were not buying it. Did the centurion really value his slave’s life? Or were slaves just expensive and he didn’t want to have to pay for a new one? Was the whole “you can heal this guy from a distance thing” a show of respect for Jesus’ authority or a test of Jesus’ power? And him not wanting Jesus to come into his home. Was he really looking out for Jesus’ ritual cleanliness, something Jesus himself seemed to show absolutely no regard for in any part of Luke’s Gospel. Or was his motive a little closer to home? As a centurion under the command of the feared, and not particularly mentally stable, King Herod, was the centurion maybe more afraid of having word spread that he had allowed Jesus to come into his home? What sort of retribution Herod might want to inflict on someone who welcomed a wanted political rabble-rouser into his home? And then of course there’s the general violence and cruelty that would have come with being an officer in the Roman army. Remember, this guy did not become a centurion by rescuing kittens. The general consensus on Wednesday was, show of humility or not, the group was not ready to place the centurion in the hero category.

And at first I wanted to push back on them about this. But wait, I kept saying, look how he cares about his slave! But does he really, someone would ask. He is keeping the guy as a slave. Well, look what good things he did for the community, he built the synagogue. Did he build it? Or did the now dying slave build it? I tell people I’m building a new kitchen, but you don’t see me holding a hammer. Well, thinking to myself, here’s the closing argument, they won’t have a case for this one; look at what Jesus said about him. Jesus said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Jesus thought he was a good guy. They still weren’t having it. Why did Jesus say he had great faith? Nothing in this story says great faith to me. What does Jesus even mean by faith? Oh no, I thought. I have taught them too well, they have learned to read deeper into the text and have started to question my sage wisdom.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, they were probably right. Because weren’t the commentaries and I doing to the centurion the exact same thing that the internet meme was doing with the presidential candidates. Weren’t the commentaries and I painting the centurion as this one in a million Obi Wan Kenobi hero of a man who was totally and completely worthy of Jesus’ healing presence, when really he was probably just Jar Jar Binks. The more I thought about, the more I realized the whole thing was probably more complicated than that. The centurion very possibly was worried about the health of his slave AND was worried about the potential financial loss. He may very well have been humble, and cocky enough to brag about his humility. He possibly respected Jesus’ religious obligation to not enter the home of a gentile and would rather not be too closely associated with someone who so aggravated Herod. The truth is all of those things, all at once, could, and very likely were true. Because the centurion was not a one sided character, he was a person. Just like you and I. And just like you and I, he was complicated. Think about it, if we’re honest with ourselves even our most generous deeds have a hint of self-service in them, and our most cruel actions a tinge of misunderstanding. I won’t say none; but precious few actions are all good or all evil, almost everything is shades of grey.

The centurion’s motives may have been convoluted, but Jesus response to him was clear. The centurion came to Jesus with this whole twisted mess of whatever, and Jesus said, “not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Because that’s what Jesus does. That’s who Jesus is. That is the relationship that Jesus has with humanity. Faith is not about motives or actions or efforts. Faith is a gift from Jesus to us, no matter what mess of complexity we might bring to the table. And that, I think, is the real healing in this story. The slave’s healing in verse ten is almost an afterthought, the real climax of the story is Jesus declaring the completeness of the centurion’s faith in verse nine.

We don’t know what happened to this centurion after his encounter with Jesus. We don’t know if he left the Roman empire and became a disciple, or if he packed up his now healed slave and went back to the work of barberry and warfare. And really, I don’t think it matters. Because what this story promises us is that Jesus comes to us again and again, even as we might try and hold him at well-meaning arm’s distance, because Jesus authority is more powerful than presence, and declares in us faith. And if you follow the development of the disciples throughout Luke and Acts, as you heard Paul describe in his letter to the Galatians this morning, being set apart by God over and over and over again, being called through his grace, having God revealed to us, changes us. We always, no matter how hard we try, we always come to God imperfectly. And God, who is perfect, always meets us with faith. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Conversation Points for Luke 7:1-10

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The theme of the section of Luke we will read this week and throughout the month of June centers around the idea of Jesus as the one who continues the work of the prophets and fulfills their words, and yet is greater than all the prophets.
• A centurion was a professional officer in the Roman army. Because this healing takes place in Capernaum, this centurion was probably serving Herod Antipas (who, if you remember, was a puppet ruler for the Roman Empire) rather than the Empire directly.
• The back and forth messages of the text, the centurion sending first Jewish elders and then friends to intercede to Jesus on his behalf rather than approaching Jesus directly, demonstrates the good relations among this centurion and the Jewish community. In addition to the story’s own value, it also prepares the reader for the conversion of the centurion Cornelius in Acts 10.
• The centurion’s parallel of his own status to Jesus’ status underscores the authority of Jesus.
• The centurion’s petitions to Jesus through others, and Jesus’ answering of that requests, demonstrates that the Lord hears the prayers of the faithful and encourages us to believe that when we turn to God, our requests too will be answered.
• The centurion also serves as a role model for Gentile believers, to care for those around us, even slaves, and to be generous to others, as the centurion helped the Jews build their synagogue. He respected that a Jew might not want to enter the home of a gentile, and even though he was a powerful man himself, he sought not to trouble Jesus with his problems.

Works Sourced:
Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Conversation Points for John 16:12-15

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This section focuses on the functions the Paraclete will hold within the faith community, to guide the community in truth.
• The word “to bear” bastazo refers to the physical act of bearing a heavy load. Here Jesus uses it metaphorically to describe the struggles the disciples will face in the future. The disciples cannot anticipate what their future will hold, so Jesus cannot yet teach them the lessons they will need to get through their future. Bultmann writes, “The believer can only measure the significance and claims of what he has to undergo when he actually meets it. He anticipates the future in faith, not foreknowledge.”
• The title “Spirit of truth” demonstrates that the Paraclete is trustworthy and connects the Paraclete to Jesus who is the truth (John 14:6; 18:37).
• The word used for guide in 16:13a is hodegeo, which is a compound of the roots of “way” (hodos) and “lead” (ago), so John 16:13a literally reads “lead in the way of truth.” There’s a sense of teaching and journeying contained in this phrase.
• The word translated “to declare” means to speak what has been heard. So when Jesus said the Spirit will “declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13c), this does not refer to prophecy or prediction. The Paraclete does not predict the future, rather the Paraclete will proclaim to them the same teachings of Jesus in the new and changing circumstances of the world.

Works Sourced:
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.

A Pentecost Sermon on John 14:8-17; Acts 2:1-21; and Romans 8:14-17

As has sort of become a theme in these last few weeks of Easter, once again this week we have a Gospel text where one of the disciples asks what seems to be a completely logical question, and Jesus convolutedly answers a totally different one. This week, it’s Philip, who asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” To which Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time Philip, and you still do not know me?” If I was Philip, my internal monologue response to this would be, “I know who you are Jesus, but you’re not talking about you anymore, you’re talking about the Father. You’ve already said you’re leaving, and I’m supposed to know the Father, and then someone else is coming, and none of this makes any sense!” At least, if I was Philip, I hope that would be my internal monologue, and not one of those awkward times when I end up saying my thoughts out loud, because that would be embarrassing…

It’s confusing, this thing that Jesus is saying. And what Philip wanted, and I totally get this, because it is what I always want too, what Philip wanted was just the assurance that he was on the right path, proof that he was going in the right direction, a road map, a guidepost, a scorecard, something, anything, to help him figure out who is who and what is what.

I totally get where Philip was coming from, because I want that too. We’re engaged in this process of Redevelopment here at Trinity, and I so want there to be a map or a plan or a guide that I’m supposed to follow as your Redevelopment pastor. I want to plug in the magic formula that will cause us to grow as a church. And, like Philip, I have asked. Not, “show me the Father, and I’ll be satisfied,” but I’ve asked the synod, I’ve asked staff at the churchwide office, I’ve as colleagues in the area, how am I supposed to do this? How are we supposed to redevelop our congregation? What are growing, thriving congregations doing that we’re not, that we should be? Show me the plan for successful church redevelopment, and I will be satisfied. And you know what they’ve told me? No joke, this is an actual quote from someone at churchwide, “We’re not really sure what you’re supposed to do, but when you figure it out, we’d like you to tell us, so we can teach it to other people.” Guys, here’s the crazy, terrifying, but also awesome and exciting truth about where we are right now in the life of our church. Trinity was on the ground floor of church redevelopment. We have one of the very first redevelopment grants issued in the ELCA. We are it, we are the trailblazers, we are the ones who have been called to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. On my bad days, this scares the living daylights out of me, but on my good days, I am blown away with the honor that we’ve been given, that the wider church feels the spirit moving so much in this place that they have entrusted us with this privilege of getting to lead the attempts to bring to birth a new direction in the future of the church.

And this isn’t just a Trinity phenomenon. Do you feel like the whole world seems kind of out of control right now? Like the church, not just Trinity, but Christianity, isn’t what you remember? Churches are struggling, and don’t even get me started on politics, and is there or is there not a war on religion, and who really is being persecuted? Fox news claims one thing and CNN another, and both sound more like an article out of The Onion than any actual news story. And you just want to shout, Lord, just tell us who’s right, give us a clear path. “Lord, [just] show us the Father and we will be satisfied.”

The fact of the matter is, we are in the middle of a great cultural revolution. We are in the middle of a restructuring that is bigger than just Trinity, bigger than just the Lutherans, bigger even than the whole church. Everything about what it means to be human, from religion to technology to travel to communication, everything is changing right now. But here’s the comforting news, as unsettling as it is to be in the middle of this time of cultural upheaval, that we are going through this is not unusual. Looking back at history shows a clear pattern, just about every five-hundred years, the world goes through a massive change just like the one we are in the midst of now. Five-hundred years ago, in October of 1517, Martin Luther hung his Ninty-Five Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenburg and started the Reformation. Five-hundred years before that, the Great Schism of 1054 split the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic church. Five hundred years before that, the fall of the Roman Empire ended the imperial church and ushered in an era of monasticism. And five hundred years before that was the event we celebrate this morning, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. History cannot predict the future, but it can assure us of this. The thing that is coming on the other side of this will look totally different from what it is today, but there is something coming on the other side of this. Life, faith, church, the good news of Jesus Christ, continues. We don’t know what the church will look like in fifty years, but we know there will be church.

So let’s take a look at that first great shift in what it meant to be a follower of Jesus that took place two thousand years ago. Last week in Luke we heard the resurrected Christ tell the disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they had “been clothed with power from on high.” How anxious must they have felt, cooped up in Jerusalem, waiting for this thing to happen that they could not understand, explain, or even know what exactly what they were waiting for. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem on the evening after his resurrection, so Easter evening, and Pentecost literally means fifty days, so for fifty days, they were just sitting around in Jerusalem, waiting for something to happen, having no idea what that something could be. Twiddling their thumbs, biding their time, wondering what they were waiting for, how they would know when it occurred, whether they would miss it when it came, if they’d even understood the directions correctly in the first place.

As they waited, I wonder if they reflected back on those words Jesus had said to them that we heard in our Gospel reading this morning, that Jesus would ask the Father, and the Father would send them another Advocate, who would be with them. This word translated “advocate” is the Greek word paraclete. And there’s no really good translation to English, so there are a lot of different ways it gets translated. The NRSV we heard today uses Advocate, but other translations you might come across are comforter, counselor, friend, guide, or spirit. All of these concepts are tied up in the Greek word paraclete. And all of these concepts, comforter, counselor, advocate, friend, guide, all of these are roles that Jesus had held for the disciples while he was with them in the flesh. So, as they waited for this other advocate that Jesus had promised would come, I wonder if they found themselves asking why they couldn’t just have the original paraclete back. Why Jesus couldn’t have just come and stayed with them, and once again fulfilled for them the role of advocate, guide, friend, counselor, and comforter.

But then, the Holy Spirit showed up and things got all kinds of crazy. Because the Holy Spirit, like Jesus’ responses to the disciples’ questions in the Gospel of John, is not so much an answer as it is an invitation to wonder even more broadly about just how expansive is the love of God. As our Acts reading announced, “when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” Now, just to clarify, this isn’t speaking in tongues as it is often portrayed today, where people speak in languages that cannot be understood. And hear me out, this is not me knocking that, while it is not a form of worship that works for me, I fully embrace it as an important form of worship for other Christian traditions. But, what the crowd that surrounded the apostles experienced was each of them hearing the good news of Jesus told to them in their own native language. In their mother tongue, in the way that spoke most deeply to their heart. To put this in context of modern worship conversations, that meant that the people for whom speaking in tongues was how they worshiped, they heard people speaking in tongues. For people who hear God in silence, they heard silence. People who love contemporary Christian rock heard contemporary Christian rock. Lovers of the old green hymnal; heard the old green hymnal. Each heard the same timeless message of God’s overwhelming love for them, but they heard it in the unique and varied ways that spoke best to their soul.

But wait, some in the crowd protested, and, let’s be honest, how familiar does this protest sound to how we tend to react to those whose way of experiencing God is different from our own, how can it be, that each hears God in their own native tongue. “They are filled with new wine.” Translation, they are drunk.

But Peter got up and assured the crowd, ““Men of Judea… these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel…that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” This is what Jesus told us would happen. When he was opening the scriptures to us, when he was teaching us along the way, when he said he was going to the Father, but another was coming. This, this miracle where each of us hear the promise of the expansive goodness of God in the words that speak most deeply to us, this is the very thing that Jesus had told us would happen.

The presence of the Holy Spirit means that all the roles that Jesus held when he was on earth in the flesh, as teacher, as comforter, as guide, as advocate, as counselor, as friend, all of those roles are still filled today. We still have Jesus with us in all the ways the disciples had him two thousand years ago in Galilee. The only difference is the flesh in which we feel his presence. The Holy Spirit is within us, so the body of Christ is now our body, the voice of Christ is our voice, the physical space which Christ takes up on the planet is our physical space. If you want to see the Father, look around you. If you want to touch Jesus, touch a friend. It is crazy, expansive, hard to comprehend good news, but the Spirit of God is alive in this world, the Advocate whom Jesus has promised is here, is in our very midst, is in fact, in us.

The world is changing, things are different. But history has shown us that while the Spirit is always present, every five hundred years or so the Spirit really shakes things up to get the church prepared to be God’s presence in God’s every-changing creation. These are big words and big promises, but as Paul assured the church in Rome, we did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back in fear, but we have received a spirit of adoption. So let us go forth with the hope of Christ’s presence. Because the Holy Spirit is loose in the world, and when the Holy Spirit shows up, things get all kinds of crazy. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Conversation Points for John 14:8-17

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The work the disciples are to do is linked to the work Jesus did. The disciples’ work is dependent on Jesus’ return to the Father, because only by returning to the Father will Jesus’ work be completed. The disciples’ work will be greater than the work of Jesus because it happens after Jesus’ work is completed. So the disciples’ work is to reveal the full story of the Word made flesh. The disciples’ work is greater because Jesus’ work is finished.
• The works that the disciples will do are really Jesus’ works done through them. They will be powered by the love that fuels Jesus’ own works.
• Verse 15 is not a conditional clause, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” It is two parallel clauses, to love Jesus is to keep his commandments, to keep his commandments is to love Jesus, the two cannot be separated from each other.
• Verse 16 is the first use of the word paracletos in John. The word has a wide range of meanings, and in various translations is translated as “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Friend,” “Guide,” “Advocate,” and “Spirit.” All of these resonances are in the sense of the word. Some translations use the word Paraclete here, to allow for the depth of meaning that favoring any one English word would not.
• The use of the word “another” in verse 16 seems to suggest that Jesus thought of himself also as a Paraclete. Paraclete then seems to be not just another name for the Spirit, but a particular way of describing the functions of the Spirit, functions which Jesus also held. Though Jesus would be gone in the flesh, the work of Jesus would remain in the presence of the Spirit.

Works Sourced:
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Why we can't find Jesus with a telescope: An Ascension Day sermon on Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11

OK, so here’s your dorky fact about your pastor tidbit for the day. I was the astronomy club president in high school. My high school was one of only two with working planetariums in the state of California, so we did have pretty cool stuff as an astronomy club, but it was still not exactly a position of great status in the complex social system that is high school. I ran for the position hoping I would get to learn how to run the planetarium. Unfortunately, as soon as I was elected our faculty advisor left for maternity leave, so my responsibilities instead consisted of organizing snacks for our one and only “star party”, which consisted of me, two of my friends, and the super creepy science nerd kid, along with our fill-in advisor, the other science teacher, trying and failing to locate anything in his ancient telescope amid the ambient light of the town surround the old junior high soccer field. Alas, president of the astronomy club was not exactly a shining moment of my high school achievements. But even today, I find space fascinating. Not just because of the science involved, but because of the questions of faith that the study of our universe provoke. A few months ago in Bible study I shared an article I’d read about a Jesuit priest who is a cosmologist at the Vatican observatory. He told a story about being in the lab one day and suddenly finding proof that a theory he’d posited about the nature of black holes was true. “I am one of maybe five people in the world who care about this data,” he said. “So when the proof of it flashed across my screen, it felt like a little gift from God. Like God was saying to me, great work on learning about my creation, as a reward, I’m going to reveal a little more of myself to you.”

Like this Jesuit priest, I’ve never seen science and religion as contradictory. In fact, I’ve seen them as complementary, each answering questions the other cannot. Theology teaches me the depth of God’s majesty, shows me the why of God’s creative works. Science helps me marvel in the ever-increasing complexity of God’s handiwork. The more I learn about some aspect of God’s creation, the vast expanse of the universe, the complex interworkings of a human cell, the balance of genetic diversity, the more in awe I find myself of the God who not only created the world out of nothing, but who did it with such precision that we can research it, that we can study it. I see God’s handiwork in the meticulous order of creation.

I actually find it a little strange, and funny in a sad sort of way, that science and religion have become so adversarial because science started because of religion. People began studying science as a way to come to a deeper understanding of God by learning about the world God created. Early astronomers fixed telescopes to the sky in hopes of getting a glimpse of Jesus who ascended into heaven. But as telescopes became more and more advanced, as we could see further and further into the universe, as we can even send astronauts into space, somehow, for some people, the fact that we never found Jesus in space became proof that Jesus did not exist.

I see this as a failure of imagination, not on the part of the people who find themselves questioning, but by the church. Throughout history, the church has seen scientific discovery as a threat to power and have silenced voices that might make us question our firmly held convictions and think more deeply about the nature of God. From the excommunication of people like Galileo and Copernicus, to the modern uproar of what can and cannot be taught in public school science curriculums, I think we as the church have stifled wonder, and in doing so have stifled God.

But as our texts for this Ascension Day remind us, God will not be stifled. We read the texts a bit out of order this morning, reading Luke before Acts. Luke and Acts are part of a two volume set, Luke telling us about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ while he was on the earth, and Acts telling of how the Holy Spirit powered and directed the followers of Jesus to move from being disciples, students under a master, to apostles, those who are sent to share all they have experienced.

In the text from Luke, we already start to see this expansion occurring. The reading started, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.” But wait, you might say, what does Jesus mean by “that I spoke while I was still with you.” He is, after all, with them, in the flesh in these post resurrection appearances. That is what we proclaim when we speak of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He is with them, and yet in some ways, he is already gone, because his work has been completed. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the single central task of his ministry. Everything he did, and in fact everything that had happened in all of human history led to that one moment. All that God was, is, and will be was revealed in the love and the power and the glory Christ manifested in dying on the cross. Salvation is complete; God’s glory is at hand. And then, because the disciples who are now apostle still didn’t quite get it, Jesus opened the scriptures to them. I love that detail because I think it draws attention to just how much faith comes to us from God. Faith is not something we muster up on our own, so that God will bless us. But faith, and her sassy sister doubt, are gifts from God to draw us closer into relationship. And when Jesus opened the scripture to them, he did not just explain the past, he described for them the future. “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,” past, “and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem,” future.

But even though they are now apostles, they still don’t quite get this whole description of the future. In Acts we read they asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Again, they’re stuck on this limited earthly power. Jesus is offering them the universe, but all they can see is Jerusalem. So in that not quite answering the question way that Jesus has, he told them, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” We lose the nuance in English, but the word “power” here, is not the political power they are asking about. This is power in the sense of having new capabilities that allow them to accomplish tasks that would have before been impossible to them. In community organizing terms, this is the power to act. It is power with rather than power over. Think about it this way. What if there’s a task the church needs done, and I know how to do it and you don’t. Let’s use a really simple example, like cleaning the bathrooms. For some reason, let’s assume you’ve never in your life cleaned a bathroom before, but it needs doing and you are the person to do it. Now, we could sit in my office, and I could order you to clean the bathroom. I could even explain the whole process to you, tell you where all the cleaning supplies are, maybe even draw you a map of the closet. And you could do it, because I told you to, and you would do an ok job. But what if instead of ordering you, I showed you. I worked alongside of you, I helped you get the supplies, explained what they did as we used them, I answered questions as we went along. The bathroom would get cleaned a lot faster, right, and a lot better, and you’d do a better job next time and could even teach someone else. That is the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had taught the disciples what to do, and now he was sending them with the Holy Spirit, who would show them, coach them, guide, and direct them, so that they could be witnesses to the glory of God.

And then Jesus ascended into heaven in a cloud of glory, and the apostles stood gazing up at the place where he had gone, and then comes what is quite possibly my very favorite line of scripture. Suddenly two men in white robes appeared beside them and asked, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” I find the men’s question in some ways the most unnecessary question imaginable. A person has just ascended into heaven on a cloud. If you saw this happen, I’m willing to bet you too might spend a bit of time gaping at awe into space. I know I would. But in another way, the men’s question makes a lot of sense. Because it serves to draw the apostles from focusing on Jesus in a spatial sense to understanding his ascension in a cosmic sense. The disciples are not going to see Jesus by staring up into the sky. Even the most powerful telescope humanity will ever create will not give us the power to look beyond the reaches of the cosmos to where God dwells. God’s glory is too expansive for that. The two men redirect the apostles attention to the world where they will see Jesus, in the Holy Spirit who sends them out to be witnesses to God’s presence in their lives.

So, it’s Mothers Day today. And to build on this idea of the expansiveness of God in all of creation, we’re going to break away from the carnation tradition a little bit. We are still passing out plants, but this one is a live plant. And when you get your plant, you can do a couple different things with it. You can keep it, plant it in a pot or in your yard, care for it, tend it, watch it grow. Marvel in it, learn about it, watch it grow. Let it encourage and remind you to marvel, wonder, and learn about God’s good creation. You can give it away to someone. Jesus told the apostles they were to spread the message of God’s love to all nations, you could use this plant to spread the message of God’s love. Give it to a mother, yours or someone else’s, someone who has mothered you, someone who you’ve seen mother others. And let’s not get too caught up in gender-specifics here either, if Jesus can describe himself as a mothering hen, then mothering traits certainly do not need to be confined to any one gender. Whatever you choose to do with your plant, may it remind you that we cannot find God by looking too narrowly in any one direction. The promise of the Ascension is that Jesus Christ dwells above us not in a spatial sense, but in a spiritual one. As we read in Revelation a few weeks ago, Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. We see God in the vast expanse of the universe and in the hug of a friend. Because Christ is the highest, Christ is as close are our breath. Thanks be to God, who in dwelling above us, dwells with us. Amen.

Conversation Points for Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
Luke 24:44-53
• The final verses of Luke’s Gospel provide closure for what came before, as the author had set out to do in 1:1, “to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,” and set the stage for what will unfold in the book of Acts.
• Verse 44: “while I was still with you” highlights the in-betweenness of this section. Though he is with them in the flesh in the resurrection appearances, he is also already gone. He invites the disciples (and the reader) to recall his passion predictions (Luke 9:22, 44: 13:33; 17:25: 18:31-33).
• “Opened,” dianoigo, appears in v. 45 as it had earlier appeared in the road to Emmaus story. Understanding scripture does not come on one’s own, but through being opened by Jesus, which can only happen in the light of Jesus death and resurrection.
• V. 47 the message goes from reflective to active, the repentance achieved through Christ’s death and resurrection is now to spread outward. From here on out, the mission of the church as portrayed in Acts, is to fulfill scripture through spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
• V. 47, “all nations, beginning from Jerusalem,” what was once a very Jerusalem-centered message now turns its attention outward. Scholarship tends to identify Luke as a second-generation Christian, not one of Jesus’ original disciples, but probably a missionary and traveling companion of Paul. Because the locations in Palestine are often imprecise, he was probably not from Palestine. Also, he had a stronger grasp of Hellenistic Greek language then the other Gospel writers, which strengthens the case that Luke himself was not from Judea. So this idea of the good news of Jesus going beyond Jerusalem to the world would have been especially important to Luke and to the community to which he was writing.
• V. 48, what it means to be a “witness” begins to shift here. Witness moves from being an eyewitness to being someone who can testify to the significance of Jesus. This shift is what makes Paul a confessing witness, though he never saw Jesus, and what makes us able to read ourselves into this story as taking up the mantle as witnesses.

Acts 1:1-11
• The ascension of Jesus signals the completion of Jesus earthly ministry and the installation of the ministry of the disciples.
• The Holy Spirit becomes a central character in Acts. It is through the Spirit’s power and direction that the apostles are able to fulfill their new vocation as fulfillers of Jesus’ ministry.
• Acts presupposes the reader has knowledge of Luke. For example, “the apostles whom he had chosen” is a reference to the “elected” Twelve in Luke 6:12-16.
• The “disciples”, from the Greek mathetes, meaning “pupil” or “apprentice,” in Acts become “apostles” from the Greek apostello, meaning “to send.”
• V. 3, “forty days” – many theories exist as to this elongated series of resurrection appearances. “Lengthening the speed of the account at the end of Luke, stretching it out to get closer to Pentecost, the theological significance of the number forty in scripture.
• The role of the Holy Spirit in acts is functional rather than soteriological (related to salvation). Salvation occurred with Jesus, now the Holy Spirit comes to move the action outward.
• “Power” (v. 8) is not political power, but is new abilities that allow them to accomplish the tasks ahead of them.
• Acts follows the same pattern laid out in v. 8. “In Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), in all Judea and Samaria (Acts 8), and to the end of the earth (Acts 9-28).”
• The ascension into heaven connects to other prophetic heroes who ascended never to die, like Elijah, Enoch, and others.

Works Sourced:
Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Powell, Mark Allan. Fortress Introduction to the Gospels. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.

Wall, Robert W. “The Acts of the Apostles.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume X. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002.

Dearly Beloved: A Sermon on John 14:22-29

So, important question before I begin, did Pastor Sprang quote Prince for you during his sermon on Sunday? I didn’t think so, but figured I should check, because judging from some of the preachers I follow, Pastor Sprang and I are just about the only preachers in America who did not quote Prince last week. Don’t worry team; you won’t be left out from the rest of the country, I will quote Prince this morning. The opening line from the opening track of his 1984 classic Purple Rain album, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life.”

I love this line, because isn’t this really what Jesus is doing with his disciples in the section of scripture where our Gospel reading for today comes from. This passage is from what is known as the Farewell Discourse, Jesus’ final teachings to his disciples before his crucifixion. What he’s really doing in these chapters of John is saying to his disciples, dearly beloved, I’ve gathered you here today to help you get through this thing called life.

Jesus and the disciples were gathered together for a meal on the night before the Passover. There was talking and laughing, fellowship and camaraderie, it was the easy banter of friends who have known each other and traveled together for years. And then Jesus stood up, wrapped a towel around his waist, and began to wash their feet. And Peter was like, woah, Lord, I don’t think so, you’re not going to wash my feet, remember that from Maundy Thursday. And then we heard the part from last week, “Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. Where I am going you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” After giving the new commandment, Jesus kept talking, about how he was going to prepare a place for them, how God would send the Holy Spirit to be with them, how the disciples would not be left orphaned. And finally Judas, not Judas Iscariot, who had already left by this time to betray Jesus, but the other Judas, asked Jesus, “wait a minute, how is this possible?” “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” There’s this temptation to read this as a litmus test for what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If you do what Jesus tells you to do, you are a follower. If you do not, well, you are not. But remember what’s about to happen here. In just a couple of hours Peter will be sitting before a charcoal fire in the courtyard of the High Priest, and he will deny he even knew Jesus. Just a couple of hours from these words right here, that happens. Peter loved Jesus, but he did not keep his words. And yet, who were some of the first people Jesus showed up to after he had risen from the dead? Peter and the other disciples. And Peter especially, at the breakfast by the beach, is singled out by Jesus to be the one to follow Jesus in the care for Jesus people. So I don’t think we can say that Jesus used Peter’s actions as a litmus test of whether Peter was loved by God, and whether God would make God’s home with Peter. I think Jesus is more describing a cause and effect relationship, what Martin Luther referred to as the happy exchange. This was one of the big arguments that Luther got when he started going around and preaching that grace and forgiveness were a free gift from God, and that there was nothing anyone had to do, or could do, to earn God’s forgiveness. Instantly the church was like, wait a minute. There have to be some consequences here. If grace is free, and if you just get it because of Jesus, and your actions don’t matter, then where is the incentive for people to behave correctly. If grace is free, and all you have to do to receive God’s forgiveness is ask for it, then people are just going to run rampage, doing whatever they want, and then asking for forgiveness, and then doing it again. It will be chaos! And Luther’s response was that grace is transformative. Those who get grace, who get forgiveness, who have truly experienced the depth and the breadth of Christ’s love, the only response to that love is to act in ways that reciprocate God’s love. Those who love Jesus, those who have been loved by Jesus, they, we, cannot help but keep Christ’s word. The experience of being loved by Jesus is so all-consuming that there is other response but to live out that love. Those who love Jesus, those who have been loved by Jesus, will keep his words; that’s just the way it works.

But wait, you might be wondering, if that’s true, then what about me? If that’s true, then why am I not loving and giving and caring and wonderful every second of every day? If that’s true then why do we do confession and forgiveness every Sunday? Why is there still sin, why is the world still broken? It’s because we’re human. It’s because a fact of our humanity is that we do not get it right all the time. We are sinful, we are broken human beings. Last week we heard that lesson from Acts about how Peter totally got that the good news of Jesus was for the gentiles too, and he was like leading the charge for spreading the gospel. I have to let you know, that was not the last word on the subject from Peter. If you keep reading in Acts, he will back down from that a bunch more times, and Paul was constantly coming forward and challenging Peter to continue to live into this all-inclusive welcome that Peter himself had proclaimed. It was an on-going struggle for Peter; he’d have moments of total openness, and moments of shutting down, closing out, thinking only of himself. Because there is always a gap between our understanding and God’s grace. There is always a gap between the overwhelming, all-consuming, unconditional love of God and our ability to comprehend that love. And that is where the Holy Spirit comes in. Jesus told the disciples, “I have said these things while I am still with you,” while I am still here to remind you of God’s love, to in my physical presence fill that gap in your understanding for you. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” See in the absence of Jesus, that gap between who we are and who God is, that gap is filled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into the broken, empty places in our lives, the mistakes we make, the fears we have, and fills those gaps with the breath of God.

And the Holy Spirit does this in many and various ways. I referenced Paul and Peter, I think their relationship is a great example of the Holy Spirit at work. Paul traveled the known world spreading the gospel of Jesus, Peter stayed in Jerusalem strengthening the headquarters of the church at its birthplace. Paul needed Peter to keep him grounded, to provide anchor, to be the holder of their collective memories. And Peter needed Paul to challenge him, to push him forward, to show him a greater worldview then Peter himself could imagine.

And we too do this for each other. That’s why we gather as community every Sunday morning. We don’t gather because God needs some sort of critical mass in order to feel appropriately worshiped. It is totally true in theory that you can be a Christ follower; you can worship Jesus all by yourself. But in practice, we find it doesn’t work that way. When we are alone, it is too easy to lose sight of where we’re going, to lose track of the path. We gather as a community every Sunday because we need each other to challenge us, to comfort us, to lift us up and to move us forward. Judas asked Jesus how Jesus would reveal himself to them and not the world, Jesus revealed himself to them, because they, because we, reveal him to the world. In this time after Christ’s ascension into heaven, we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, are the ones who reveal the mystery and the majesty, and the wonder of God’s love to the world. We do that. Not because we have to, but because, like we were talking about, we who have been loved by God cannot help but showcase this love to the world. Not perfectly, sure, but we practice.

In fact, we practice it every Sunday. Jesus told the disciples, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” This is not peace like the world thinks of it, right. We think of peace, we think, “I’d just like some peace and quiet,” right. Peace is like calm, stable, complacency, maybe even a little bit boring. But Jesus’ Peace is an active word. Jesus’ peace is a peace that moves us forward. Jesus’ peace is not the absence of struggle, rather Jesus’ peace is the assurance that even in the midst of struggle we do not go alone because God has made God’s home with us. Remember in just a few hours, the disciples will watch Jesus go to the cross. The peace Jesus is giving them does not let them avoid the fear and the pain and the grief of that reality. Rather Jesus’ peace is the promise that this thing that is about to happen, the worst thing that could happen, will not be the last thing that will happen. Jesus’ peace is the promise that, even though they do not understand it yet, resurrection waits on the other side of death.

Do these words of Jesus sound like anything we do every Sunday in our worship? It’s the passing of the peace, right! The passing of the peace is not, as much as it kind of feels like it, some sort of weird liturgical intermission. No, it is a chance for us to greet each other with a sign of Christ’s peace. To say to each other, to remind each other that peace, that Christ’s peace is with you. That whatever you are going through, whatever you are facing, peace, Christ’s peace, goes with you, and you do not face it alone, because the Holy Spirit, in the form of the gathered community, is right here with you. Dearly beloved, God has gathered us together today in order that we might get each other through this thing called life. May the peace of our God be with you. Amen.