Tag: Resurrection

The Episcopal Church: The Original Discovery Channel

An inclusive and authentic community of faith ought to stand by us and encourage us through all the stages and struggles of faith. I am reminded of this every year on the Second Sunday of Easter when we always read the account of the experience of St. Thomas the Apostle with the Risen Christ (John 20:19-31). This incident shows us that even the most empirical evidence is incomplete without the evidence from personal experience. One role of a faith community is to be a safe place where we can explore and seek understanding of all our experiences, especially those that puzzle and confound us. While the biblical revelation is primary in our faith journey, we believe tradition, reason, and experience are necessary lenses through which we discover the way forward together.

What are the five senses without experience? A scientist must rely on experience of the evidences that are seen, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled in conducting an experiment. How is the experience of the presence, the love, and the power of the living Christ in a person’s life any less real? No experiment is complete or valid, no philosophical argument is authentic, apart from the existential fact of human experience. After all, the words experience, experiment, and expert all have their origin in the Latin word experimentum, from experiri, which means to “test” or “try.”

One of my seminary professors used to say, “One can neither confirm nor deny in the armchair what has been established in the laboratory of the human soul.” Without experiential evidence, faith cannot survive and the doubts that live on the edge of our lives will consume us.

I’m grateful to be in a Church that recognizes that doubt plays a role in the quest for truth. Honest doubt is the forbearer of discovery! A questing spirit is normal and necessary in the development of a growing person. Thomas expressed his doubts in the security of the community of those whom Jesus had called along with him. He could have chosen other friends. Instead, he chose to remain among the friends of Jesus.

Never did one of them say, “Thomas, you’re through here. Out you go. You can’t stay in our midst because you are a heretic, a skeptic, and an unbeliever.” The disciples stood by Thomas in his struggle to believe.

Fundamentalism has gained a stronghold in our culture and, I suspect, driven more people away from faith than it has attracted. Our Church offers a healthy alternative. My friend Bill Cherry described The Episcopal Church this way: “Here's the deal about being an Episcopalian. You get to tinker with what you're taught until you get a personal encompassing belief that you're comfortable with. Meanwhile, your Church doesn't scream at you that what you've just done is the work of the devil. Consequently, you love being an Episcopalian and can't imagine being anything else. I'm one of those.” Me too!

If you have doubts about the Resurrection, about your relationship with God, about life eternal, take heart! You are not the first and you will not be the last. You’ve come to the right Church. All are welcome here in the company of others who have been lovingly guided through doubt to faith. It’s the original Discovery Channel.

I’ll see you in Church!

P.S. Join us for a Discovery Weekend, either May 8-10 or June 12-14.

April 15, 2015
Sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole ~ April 5, 2015

Easter Day

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April 5, 2015
Many Paths to Easter Faith

How do you feel about your faith this Easter? St. John’s account (John 20:1-18) of the experiences of those first disciples on that first Easter morning offers an important message: not everyone takes the same path to faith in the Risen Christ. In this account of the resurrection, the responses Simon Peter, the "Beloved Disciple", and Mary Magdalene are carefully interwoven. In their responses, the writer is able to show how faith in Christ's resurrection is generated in different ways.

Some people come to an Easter faith on the basis of evidence. And the process of gathering external evidence can take time! Peter arrived at the tomb second, but entered it first, looked around, saw everything and yet nothing. Then, he left. There is no evidence that what he saw generated any faith in him at all. All Peter took away from the empty tomb was a personal confirmation that indeed, Jesus' body was not present, just as Mary had reported. It took some time for Peter’s faith to develop because he required the additional evidence that came as the Risen Christ appeared to the Apostles over the next few weeks.

Other people come to their Easter faith in a relational way. The disciple whom Jesus loved ran with Peter to the tomb and arrived first, but he entered the tomb after Peter. He saw the same things Peter saw but his response was different. When he entered the tomb "he saw and believed." But he did not know what to do with his belief. He, like Peter, returned home. He believed Christ is risen. But what are the implications of the Resurrection for him? He seems to have come to understand the implications as he participated in the community of believers. Some think that it is this "beloved disciple" who wrote the gospel attributed to St. John. This gospel is characterized by both an understanding of love divine that is both deep and broad. Long after the first Easter, this writer remembered that Jesus had said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," and "love one another, just as I have loved you…I have told you this so that my joy will be in you, and your joy might be complete."

Mary Magdalene represents faith formed yet another way. The empty tomb, rather than even hinting resurrection, saddened Mary with the thought of Jesus' body being stolen. Even the appearance of two angels does not break her sorrow. In fact, the voice and the appearance of Jesus do not at first stir her to belief. Only when he speaks her name does she believe. Mary comes to faith through the word of Christ and by that word she must be sustained. She cannot resume her old relationship with her Lord. When Jesus says to Mary, "Do not hold on to me," he wants Mary to understand that "the past is prologue." There is much more to faith than what has gone before. Mary’s path to an Easter faith is no more normative than any other. We don't know whatever happened to her, but we do know what happened to her message. It spread around the world until it reached us.

Not everyone takes the same path to faith in the Risen Christ. There is not one normative way. Some respond to a word, others to evidence, and others to a relationship. But whatever the path, and whether sudden or slow, it is always faith that removes the distance between the first Easter and our own.

I’ll see you in Church!

April 1, 2015
Holy Week: A Time to Remember Who and Whose We Are

In Baptism, we are incorporated into the Paschal Mystery. That is, we are incorporated into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His life is our life. His death is our death. His resurrection is our resurrection. It is for this reason that Christians observe Holy Week every year. It is a commemoration intended to put us in touch with that life which the world can neither give nor take away. It is a time to look at the Paschal Mystery and to recover our true identity, our authentic self, in him.

Five hundred years before Jesus rode into Jerusalem, Zechariah prophesied that the Messiah would be a king. Since the time of the Exile, no Jewish ruler had borne the title of king. “Look, your king is coming to you. Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion” (Zech. 9:9). The time was just right and the people were happy that day to acknowledge it.

They wished to crown him their king. In their enthusiasm, they missed the paradox. They saw the glory but overlooked the shadow. But Jesus was conscious of both.

He knew who he was so the acclamations of the crowd did not impress him. He saw that their palm branches cast the shadow of a cross. He sensed that the kingly crown they were offering to him that day would become a crown of thorns by the end of the week. Jesus knew that the identity the world offered was not a secure identity, not a legitimate identity, and certainly not a dependable identity. No, for Jesus, the only true identity is consciousness of who we are in the eyes of our Creator.

To the disciples, on the next weekend, it must have looked like the world’s biggest failure, a cruel joke. Imagine being sucked in to a group like “the Twelve.” To them “the Way” must have appeared more like a primrose path. Because they were still so dependent upon the things of the world for their sense of identity, they had to be the most embarrassed people around Jerusalem.

Then came Easter. Out of the tomb came the Risen Messiah with his identity still intact. “He is risen” is shorthand for Jesus message of resurrection, “Behold, I have overcome the world. Behold, I died and I am alive. Behold, who you are need never again depend upon who you know, what you wear, where you live, what you do, how much you possess, or even what people say about you. Because I live, you will live also. You will experience new life in me and you will be able to face the popularity contest the world is running with confidence that you don’t really have to enter it in order to find out who you are. Here is my crown. It is yours! Take it! And believe me when I tell you that this crown of glory, which is both mine and yours, will never fade away.”

Who and whose we truly are – that’s what Holy Week and Easter are all about.

I’ll see you in Church!

March 25, 2015
Sermon at Christ Church Cranbrook ~ November 10, 2013

Sermon for November 10, 2013 ~ Proper 27C

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November 10, 2013
Sermon at Christ Church Cranbrook ~ November 4, 2012

All Saints' Sunday B

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November 5, 2012
Enemies of Discernment: Control

Some people need to have an inordinately high level of power and control, over their own lives and over the lives of others. We often find that such persons who don’t get those needs for power and control met in other places in their lives seek to have them met in churches and other voluntary associations. Their involvement in the life of the community of faith often becomes not only disruptive but also destructive. Out-of-control needs for control represent a common obstacle to spiritual discernment.

Look what happened to Moses when he showed off by striking the rock with his rod to make the water flow out. That isn’t how God told him to do it. His behavior interfered with his discernment in a way that suggested he was in control of the situation instead of God. Consider David’s affair with Bathsheba, which resulted in his scheme that got her husband, Uriah the Hittite killed. That was a very destructive expression of control on David’s part.

Jesus chided the Levites and the Pharisees for their need to control things and pointed out to them that their role as spiritual guides was misguided because of the interference of their control issues. Eventually, of course, it was their lust for control that put Jesus on the cross. Maintaining control was for them a life and death situation. The resurrection, of course, was the ultimate assertion of God’s control over life and death.

St. Paul certainly had a tremendous need for power and control. As a Jew who was devoted to the Law, he persecuted followers of Jesus. He liked to believe his motivation was driven by a vision of Judaism perfectly guided by God’s Law. Christians represented a threat to that vision. In Paul’s encounter with the Risen Christ on the Damascus Road, he was blinded and lost control. This experience lasted long enough for him to have to rely on the inner vision given to him not just by Christ, but through an intermediary, Ananias. Paul’s control issues interfered with his ability to discern God’s true purpose in his life. When control was taken away from him, he experienced grace and was liberated from his obsession with legalistic control of his life and the lives of those around him. He became able to discern God’s purposes and his witness gave light and direction to the Church he had formerly tried to destroy.

In his farewell address to the disciples, Jesus promisee to provide ways to keep their need for control out of the way of true discernment of God’s direction of the mission entrusted to them. He promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide them. He gave them the commandment to love one another. He told them that he is the vine and they are the branches. When a branch becomes disconnected from the vine, it ceases to be able to bear fruit, it withers, it dies, and is cast away – it's useless. Therefore, followers of Jesus must remain connected to him and submit to his life-giving control so their lives can be fruitful. He also reminds them, “You did not choose me but I choose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name” (John 15:16).

Placing ourselves under God’s control is a necessary element of spiritual discernment. It is a way of finding humility, getting ourselves off our hands, and becoming instruments in the service of Love Divine in our relationships with others. My prayer for you today as you enter into discernment is that you will surrender your need for control so you can draw life and love and strength from the Vine rather than attempting to distort discernment in ways that make you think you need to retain control.

John Greenleaf Whittier’s hymn, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, reminds us to manage our need for control by surrendering to the One who can clothe us in our rightful mind.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still small voice of calm!

September 5, 2012
Eternal Life and Perfect Freedom

Each summer, Calvary Episcopal Church and First Christian Church of Ashland, Kentucky join together to offer a Vacation Bible School, open to children throughout the community. This year's theme is "Adventures on Promise Island: Where Children Discover God's Lifesaving Love." We will meet on the evenings of July 16-19 to assist the children in discovering some of God's promises:

• July 16 – The Story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – God's promise: I am with you.

• July 17 – The Story of the Raising of Lazarus – God's promise: I care about you.

• July 18 – The Story of Jesus' Resurrection – God's promise: I will save you.

• July 19 – The Story of Paul and Silas in Prison – God's promise: I will answer you.

Last night we had a meeting with the VBS teachers to review these four scriptures from an adult perspective in order to help them think about ways they will present them to the children. First Christian's Pastor Ike Nicholson and I took turns providing exegesis and commentary for the teachers.

In the course of our discussions, I was struck by how each of the four readings involves liberation. For example, King Nebuchadnezzar has the hands and feet of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bound before they are thrown into the firey furnace. When he looks into the fire, he sees them (and a fourth figure who looks like a Son of God) walking around freely. They emerge from the firey furnace completely unsinged. Then, when Jesus calls Lazarus forth from his tomb, he instructs the bystanders to "Unbind him and let him go." Likewise, Jesus leaves tomb and the grave clothes behind when he is raised from the dead on the first Easter. During the earthquake, the chains the hold Paul and Silas are broken and the gates of their cell are opened so that they can go free. In each case, the miraculous liberation provides an opportunity for God's message to be shared – the message of a kind of freedom that can be found only in our relationship with the Living God.

It was an epiphany! God has been at work delivering people from one form of slavery or another for ever. When God reigns in our lives, we are completely liberated. Whatever binds us and holds us back is removed so that we can live with a freedom we can't find any other place.

Today is the feast day of St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea. Basil knew and boldly expressed that unfettered liberty when the emperor Valens passed through Caesarea in 371. Valens demanded Basil's theological submission and Basil flatly refused. The imperial prefect expressed astonishment at Basil's defiance, to which Basil replied, "Perhaps you have never met a real bishop before." His freedom was derived not from a temporal ruler, but from the Sovereign of the Universe.

This collect from the office of Morning Prayer expresses it very well:

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our children need to know that God gives them the freedom to be who God wants them to be and to follow God's leading in their lives no matter what happens. We need to impart that message to them in the words we say and the lives we live. God, liberate from whatever attachments may interfere with our ability to freely represent you to the children you have given into our care!

June 14, 2012