In our Old Testament reading, we heard about a burned out and dejected prophet Elijah who seems to have lost his way in the face of threats from Queen Jezebel. In the Gospel, we hear about three potential disciples whom Jesus seems to brush off as He sets His face to Jerusalem and His Good Friday cross. We’re not prophets like Elijah. We’re not potential recruits for discipleship. We’re baptized believers in Christ. We have been given to follow Jesus. Our struggle is not with the Jezebel’s of this world, though it may seem to be that way at times. Rather, our struggle is deep within us, a spiritual struggle of Flesh and Spirit.
The driver of the car in front of me was attempting an impossible - and quite illegal - left turn. In the opposite lane, another driver was attempting an equally impossible- and just as illegal - U-turn. Gridlock ensued. I sat and watched the melodrama unfold in front of me.
The little guy came into the sacristy with a question.
"Pastor," he said looking up at me as I adjusted my stole, "Does church have to be boring?"
"Yes," I replied with a smile. "That's because church isn't Disneyland and Jesus isn't Mickey Mouse."
He nodded politely with a look of understanding mixed with confusion and went back to his parents in the pew.
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God" (Psalm 42)
It was supposed to be just a short hike on a warm, sunny day. I left the ubiquitous water bottle in the car and was soon sorry for that decision. The warm dry air quickly dried out my mouth and throat. I was uncomfortable the entire time and missed much of the beauty of that little hike - the song of birds, the rustle of leaves, the smell of grass, the view.
We thirst for God, and in that thirst we miss the beauty that is all around us in nature, in our family, friends, and neighbors, in the world. Our thirst turns us inward on ourselves and our misery. It consumes our entire attention and robs us of the joy of the journey. The "thirst-quenchers" of this world, laced as they are with spiritual sugar and salt, just leave us thirsting for more.
Welcome to my Pastor's Blog. This is a space where I will post things of interest to our congregation, whether devotional, news, commentary, or just something that is on my mind at the moment. I will try to update this at least weekly to keep things current and in tune with the seasons.
We are…
Jesus arrived by boat in the region of the Gerasenes, opposite Galilee. It was country. The goyim, the uncircumcized. Outsiders to Israel. He came to seek and to save the lost, even the lost outside the house Israel. Waiting on the shore to meet Him was homeless and naked man possessed by a “legion” of demons, living among the dead in the catacombs. The local authorities had seized him and bound him in shackles and chains, but he always managed to escape and flee back to the wilderness.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit.
Today presents a bit of a challenge for me as a preacher. My challenge is that today is Holy Trinity Sunday, the Sunday that begins with the liturgical verse “Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity," enough of a paradox to make your head explode. Three divine Persons, one divine Being. As Dorothy Sayers once wrote: The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, the whole thing incomprehensible, echoing somewhat sarcastically the ponderous Athanasian Creed we will attempt after I’m done preaching. Needless to say, Dorothy Sayers didn’t think much of the doctrine of the Trinity. She didn't deny it, but she thought all this verbage was the invention of theologians with too much time on their hands, something that had little or nothing to do with the practical life of faith.
In Nomine Iesu
Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. Where were you, that Easter evening? Out with your twin brother? Hiding somewhere? We hear nothing from you since the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed, and then you didn’t know where Jesus was going or the way. Before that, you pessimistically suggested that they all go with Jesus to Jerusalem to die, which was more correct than you imagined? But where were you on the evening of that first day of the week when the news came from the women and Peter and John that Jesus had risen? Why weren’t you in that upper room with your fellow disciples? Why did they have to go out and find you? Why didn’t you believe them when they said, “We have seen the Lord?”
What surprises about the Easter gospel is all the surprise over Jesus’ resurrection. The women are surprised to find an open, empty tomb. The disciples are surprised, and don’t initially believe the news. It’s not as if Jesus hadn’t told them. At least three times in advance He said that He would be crucified and on the third day rise again. Three times. And still they didn’t believe it. The women were going to the tomb to finish a hasty burial not look for a risen Jesus. When they heard the news from the angel, “He is not here, He is risen,” they were surprised. When they saw the risen Lord, they were surprised. In John’s gospel, Mary doesn’t even recognize Him. She thinks He’s the gardener. She wants to know where the body of Jesus was. No one believed Him.
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
John the Baptist first uttered this sentence pointing to Jesus as He emerged from His Jordan baptism. We sing it at in the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. Look! There He is! Behold! God’s Lamb. In John’s Gospel, Lamb of God is an image that never gets fully developed. Jesus is the Light of the world, the Bread of Life, the Good Shepherd, the Door of the sheep, the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, the Life, the true Vine. But we never hear about Lamb. Not until the end. And then it is hidden beneath the sound of all the Passover lambs in Jerusalem being slaughtered, their cries are the background for Jesus’ “it is finished.”