Jesus Without Borders

Text: John 20:19-31

                 “Do not be afraid!” That is what we heard last week, when we read the Easter gospel, “do not be afraid!” Do not be afraid, the angel said to the women at the tomb, I know you are seeking Jesus, who was crucified, he is not here, he has been raised, as he said he would be. Now go, and tell his disciples.

                And as the women named Mary ran to tell the disciples, Jesus himself met them, and said to them, “Do not be afraid!”

                It is the gospel message again and again: the scripture resounds with the message: Fear Not! For I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name, you are mine. You shall not fear the terror of the night or the arrow that flies by day. Do not be anxious about what you will eat or drink or wear, or about where you will sleep. The Lord is your God. No fear! Do not fear, even death cannot harm you.

                On that Easter day, where were the twelve? Hiding. For Fear.

                Fear has a terrible effect upon the body, mind and soul. Fear triggers that fight or flight syndrome, and the disciples, apparently, chose flight. The brain chemistry of fear is pretty simple: in preparation for flight or fight, the body redirects its energy from the cerebral cortex, where we do our reasoning, to the brainstem, the center of the autonomic processes—to keep your heart beating and your lungs breathing.

                William Sloane Coffin once said: "As I see it, the primary religious task these days is to try to think straight....You can't think straight with a heart full of fear, for fear seeks safety, not truth. If your heart's a stone, you can't have decent thoughts--either about personal relations or about international ones. A heart full of love, on the other hand, has a limbering effect on the mind."

                A heart full of love has a limbering effect on the mind.

                A head full of fear has a hardening effect on the heart.

                Those twelve disciples, filled with fear, set a boundary around themselves and the rest of Jerusalem. They hid behind the walls of the house, hid behind locked doors, for fear. They didn’t get the message, that Jesus lives, because their hearts were hardened and their minds closed by fear.

                But the good news is, Jesus knows no boundaries. He never did in his lifetime. He was always crossing the boundaries. People complained that he didn’t respect the boundaries that they saw, between the righteous and sinners, between Jews and Samaritans, between men and women and children. In his resurrection, he certainly wasn’t going to let any wall keep him from his people. He came to save them from their fear. He came to send them out from their hiding places, with his message of forgiveness.

                In the United Church of Christ, we believe that God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship. One of the joys of discipleship is knowing that we are God’s beloved children forgiven, loved and free-- and so is everyone else. Among the costs of discipleship are the consequences of living that truth. It is not enough to pray for a world in which children live in peace and safety, and everyone has enough to eat. We are called to live the way we pray. Sometimes, that means putting our bodies between the victim and the perpetrator of violence. Sometimes that means ignoring the boundaries that are supposed to divide us. Sometimes that means literally giving people something to eat.

                Not everyone can do that. Not alone, anyway. That is why we have Justice and Witness Ministries in the United Church of Christ. Justice and Witness Ministries helps local congregations by keeping us aware of the poor, the hungry, those who are victimized around the world. This Sunday, Justice and Witness Ministries is calling “Immigrant Rights Sunday,” to draw our attention to the struggles of immigrant families and to the human rights crisis on our southern border.

                Even though we don’t live on that border, we can listen and learn, and advocate for justice. So I encourage you to listen and think with an open heart and mind. Do not give in to fear. So much of our political dialogue is frenzied with fear. Listen with love, listen with faith that banishes fear.

[Sermon preached May 1, 2011.]

Fearless!

Easter Sunday, 24 April 2011

Matthew 28:1-10

               

                This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. And a beautiful morning it is. New life blooms where hopes lie buried, in fact as well as figuratively. Those crocus bulbs we planted in the fall have bloomed and blown, and hyacinth are emerging, and daffodils and tulips soon to come. It is a festival of spring, new life emerging.

                Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the spring festival with his disciples-- the spring festival of Passover, which is also a festival of new life. We were once slaves in Egypt, and God brought us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and led us across the Red Sea waters, and through the wilderness, and brought us across the flowing Jordan, to the promised land. The festival of Passover and the festival of the Resurrection, Easter, are both about the power of God to raise a people up, from death to life.

Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover, a celebration of freedom for a people who were, at the time, not so free as their oppressors would like them to imagine. Yes, they were in their promised land, the land that was given to their ancestors, but it wasn’t theirs anymore. It was an outpost of the Empire, and the people were, in a sense, exiles in their own land.

The good news of Jesus, according to Matthew, began with an angel’s announcement. “Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid, Joseph, to take Mary as your wife, because the child she will bear will be Emmanuel, God-with-us.” Here we are in the final chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, and it ends as it began: Do not be afraid!

                Do not be afraid, the angel said to the women at the tomb. Do not be afraid when the earth quakes. Do not be afraid when the tomb is empty. Do not be afraid, because God is doing what God always does, making a way out of no way, bringing freedom to the oppressed, and courage to people who seem to have the least reason to be courageous.

                Look at the contrast between the women at the tomb, and the armed guards at the tomb. For fear of them, the guards shook and became like dead men. The angel’s message brought courage to women, and brought the brut squad to their knees. Beautiful!

                And then Jesus appeared to the women with the same message, a command, “Do not be afraid!” Fear is for Herod, who was frightened, and all of Jerusalem with him, when he heard of Jesus birth. Fear is for religious authorities who would have arrested Jesus sooner, but for their fear of the crowds who followed him. Fear is for the mighty. You, who follow Jesus, do not fear!

                Between the first and last chapters of Matthew’s gospel, between the beginning and the end of the story, Jesus said it over and over again. Do not be afraid for what you will eat or what you will wear. Do not be afraid when people mock you and slander you. Be not afraid!

                Jesus was repeating the lessons he learned as a student of the Hebrew scriptures: Do not fear, is what the Israelites learned in the wilderness, when God provided bread from heaven. Do not fear, Joseph learned when he was sold into slavery in Egypt. Do not fear, is what God said to David when he was hiding from Saul and to Elijah when he was hiding from Ahab. Do not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name, you are mine. The message circles round through the scriptures.

Do not be afraid. Unless you are Herod. If you are a Herod, be afraid, be very afraid. Do not be afraid, unless you are Pharaoh. If you are a Pharaoh, be afraid, be very afraid, for God has promised to come with justice for the oppressed.

Though you may feel like a slave, though you may feel like you are trying to make bricks without any straw, do not be afraid.

Though you may feel like an exile in your own land, do not be afraid.

Though you may feel you have no strength, and no voice, do not be afraid.

In Jesus, God has come to us as a slave, and an exile. In Jesus, God seemed to have been silenced and beaten. The power of God and the mercy of God and the hope of God’s people seemed to have died on the cross with Jesus. End of story.

But that was not the end of the story.

On that Easter morning, our story begins again, as it first began, “Do not be afraid. God is with us.” Emmanuel—God is with us, even to the end of the age.

This is the resurrection experience: the courage to live without fear.

Say it with me, Christ is risen. CHRIST IS RISEN. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.

What's a Witness to Do?

On Easter Sunday we celebrated the resurrection, and in my Easter sermon I gave some examples of where I have seen the risen Christ. HowI have seen the risen Christ in the pictures from Haiti-- Christ in the faces of those who had suffered, Christ in the joy and laughter of the people who had been entombed in the rubble and yet still they rejoiced, and danced and sang. Weeping lingered for the night but joy came with the morning!
I explained last week that I have seen the risen Christ in the church basement, serving and being served through the Interfaith Hospitality Network. An infant Christ napping on a cot in the Sunday school room, a Christ serving hot dish. I have seen Christ in the kindness, Christ in the courage, Christ in the love of people giving and receiving hospitality.
I have seen the risen Christ in you. I have seen the risen Christ in church, slipping into a rear pew after the first hymn. I have seen the Lord in the breaking of the bread, here in the sanctuary and downstairs in the fellowship hall, and at the soup kitchen at Temple Baptist Church, and on the job site with Habitat for Humanity. I have seen the risen Christ at your neighbor's house, visiting the sick, comforting the afflicted.
I have seen the risen Lord, and I am confident that you have too. Maybe you didn't recognize Jesus at the time, maybe like those disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke's story, you didn't realize you were talking with Jesus until after he was gone from your sight.
We are witnesses. We have seen the Lord. Now, what's a witness to do?

What is a witness to do?

That is what the second volume of Luke's gospel is all about. Unlike the other gospels, Luke doesn't end with the resurrection, or even with post-resurrection appearances. Luke wrote a sequel which we know as the Acts of the Apostles. It is the "what next" part of the story. Jesus has ascended into heaven and what next? The Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles on Pentecost and what next? Believers live together and share all things in common and there is not a needy person among them and what next? What is a witness to do?
According to the story, the first disciples felt an urgency to tell it like they saw it. That's what a witness does. If you are sitting on your front porch and you see a car speed by and then you hear that horrible sound of horns and tires and metal against metal and broken glass, you have an obligation to tell the officer what you have seen and heard. That's what the first disciples did. They went to the temple where they were sure to find people to tell and they told their story. And it got them into a lot of trouble.
Which is why some of us hesitate to bear witness. The first disciples were thrown in jail. When they were sprung from prison by a miraculous intervention, instead of going home, they went right back to the temple and picked up where they left off, telling everyone what they had seen and heard about Jesus. And when the arresting party asked them, "Why do you keep doing this?" They said, "We must obey God. Rather than human authority." That is dangerous territory. But dangerous territory became home to the first Christians. Regular law breakers, they were. The first Christians did a lot of jail time, as a consequence of bearing witness to their Christ encounters.
Like Nelson Mandela, who bore witness to the Christ who shows no partiality, but expects justice from and for black and white alike, the disciples went to jail. Like Mary Benson, who bore witness to the Christ who rejected violence and preached love of enemies, the disciples went to jail. Not everyone had to suffer such severe consequences for their testimony, but thank God for those who were bold enough to do so.
So, what is a witness to do? That is what we continue to discover together, as a church. Like the first disciples, we are called to bear witness, simply to tell what we have seen and heard. As we worship and meet together during this Easter season, let's try to help one another answer that question. How do we best bear witness to the presence of Christ in our midst, in this world today? How do we tell the story in ways that people can understand what we are talking about?
Let us tune our ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church. Amen.

Christ is Risen

We begin where the gospel lesson ends. We have come to church this morning because we have heard of an empty tomb, and we stand amazed, like Peter, not sure if we dare believe the unbelievable. Like the disciples that morning, we have only the women's word that they found the tomb empty, and they had only the word of strange angels, to explain the shocking absence of a body in the tomb of the crucified Jesus.
"But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." A disciple said to a stranger on the road to Emmaus, later that same day. The disciples dared to hope in Jesus, they thought he might be the messiah, the king promised in scripture, the one who would end Israel's sufferings once and for all and reestablish the reign of King David. All the signs were there! He was a prophet, the spirit of God was with him. We saw miracles! The lame walked, and lepers were cleansed, and the blind discovered their sight. We saw him feed a multitude on a few loaves and fish. "We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel."
But instead of victory, his disciples witnessed his death. Jesus was betrayed, and he was arrested, and he was tortured, and he was crucified. Jesus died, and his body was placed in a tomb.
At sunrise on the first day of the week, the women went the the tomb and found it vacant. "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he has been raised. Remember, he told you this would happen."
So the women ran to tell the disciples, but they considered it an idle tale. The mad ravings of hysterical women. And they did not believe it.
Can you blame them? They had been through a lot in the previous week, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the clearing of the temple, the Passover meal and celebration. And then the horror. The dark night in Gethsemane, the betrayal, the police and the angry mob. Jesus was beaten and crucified to death, and Peter and the other disciples could do nothing to stop it. They had been high and they were brought low. Could they dare to believe? Would you, would I, would we dare to believe?
Good news: their disbelief did not negate the truth of the resurrection. Their disbelief did not disqualify them from later witnessing their risen Lord. Their disbelief did not invalidate their discipleship. Believe it or not, death is defeated, Christ lives. Christ is risen, indeed.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Christ lives.
Despite wars and rumors of war, Christ lives.
Despite heartbreak and separation, Christ lives.
Despite poverty and sickness, Christ lives.
Despite even death, Christ lives.
Despite all the powers of hell at work in our world today, Christ lives and walks among us, and is seen in everything that is true and beautiful and good. I have seen the risen Christ in the photos that Joey Halvorson took in Haiti-- Christ in the doctors and nurses who cared for the sick and the wounded, Christ in the faces of those who had suffered, Christ in the joy and laughter of people who had been through hell, and still they rejoiced, and danced and sang, and lived and loved.
I have seen Christ in the church basement, serving and being served. Christ napping on a cot in the Sunday school room, Christ serving hot dish. I have seen Christ in the kindness, Christ in the courage, Christ in the love. Christ died, and Christ is risen, and Christ comes again, and again.
The resurrection means that death is defeated. Because death is defeated, nothing can stop us from living fearlessly, loving lavishly, even laying down our lives for our friends, confident that life is restored.
Do not be afraid to live, to love, to serve God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, because your life is yours, given to you as a gift, as an everlasting gift. Rejoice and be glad, for Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia! Amen.