Raise your voices, Easter people, Christ is Risen!
It is a beautiful spring day here in Fallon, Nevada, and I am still feeling the glow of Easter worship. I hope you are, too. I hope that you have a wonderful, life-giving, Christ-centered church home where you feel welcomed, challenged, and deeply loved both by God and by the people who worship with you. If you haven't found a church like that yet, you are always welcome at Epworth UMC! If you are reading this from farther away than would be practical, then you are always welcome to reach out by email (pastor@eumcfallon.org), or by phone at 775-423-4714, and join us via Facebook live for the sermon every Sunday at 9:30am PDT. And in the meantime, I will pray that you do find a great church home...there is really no substitute for that. :-)
When I was a kid, I was fascinated with the Holy Grail, and all things King Arthur. I loved the romance and adventure of it, the whole "long, long ago" aspect of it, and especially the idea of this wondrous object stashed away somewhere that people could follow clues and actually *find*! There are all kinds of medieval paintings and stories about it, and it's always described (or painted) as golden, surrounded by light, sometimes with jewels and ornate handles, looking a lot like the golden chalices used to serve Holy Communion in enormous old cathedrals. There are relics all around the world that claim to be the Grail, some of them pretty old, but True Grail Enthusiasts know better. There were several times in my young life when I decided that when I retire, I would spend all of my time in dusty libraries and museums and churches around the world and search for the real Holy Grail. And honestly, I still think it would be an outstanding hobby.
Still, even as a kid, as fascinated as I was with this whole thing, there were aspects of the legends that I thought were pretty weird. I mean, for one thing why would anyone save one of the random cups used at the last supper? Where did Joseph of Arimathea get it, and why would he have it with him at the crucifixion, and why on God's green earth would he think to catch Jesus’ blood in it? Why would it be all ornate and jewel encrusted, and why would it gain magical powers to provide eternal youth and happiness, and restore blighted lands to prosperity (although the symbolism of that last does kinda fit with the return of Jesus)? And so when Indiana Jones came along and correctly pointed out that something like that would never have been the cup of a poor carpenter, I felt an instant respect for Indy.
It is a tendency of human life to get things backward. To misunderstand and turn upside down everything that God has done and said so that it better fits our expectations. The Bible is full of the ways, starting from the very beginning, human beings have sought glory for ourselves and have been drawn to every shiny object thinking it will satisfy us, bring us happiness and prestige, defeat our enemies, shield us from every problem. Over and over and over God draws his people to real, true, full, wonderful life by obedience…teaches us that what we seek is found in prayer, worship, generosity, forgiveness, love and kindness to friend and stranger…and over and over and over God’s people reject that idea for the false sense of security provided by shiny objects.
This season at Epworth, we have been following Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke, which has sometimes been called the Gospel of the least, the last, and the lost. In it, we have been noticing together the ways that Jesus interprets the Law and chooses people, and describes God, and says and does things in the ways that we least expect it. That he prioritizes the poor, the ordinary, the outcast and rejected…and he calls the religious ones, the supposedly righteous and faithful ones, the sinners who need healing. Even his closest disciples didn’t get it, and up to the very last day, at the Last Supper, moments before Jesus’ arrest, they were STILL arguing with each other about who was the greatest among them, who would be in charge, who would sit at Jesus’ right hand when he came into his kingdom. Undoubtedly they still imagined a kingdom of this world, where Jesus would conquer his enemies, restore Israel to being a great and prosperous nation, where Jesus would sit on a throne and wear a golden, jewel-encrusted crown with these his favorites by his side to rule with him. But, as we have been noticing together this season, the Kingdom Jesus was referring to, the Kingdom God is building in and through him, is not that kind of Kingdom at all. It is an upside down kingdom, where the king is born in a manger and attended by shepherds and lives the simple life of a carpenter and a traveling preacher…where the last are first and the first are last, where the greatest of all must be the servant of all…where the wounded find healing and hope and love, and the powerful are humbled and healed, too.
When Jesus was arrested, every one of the disciples fled in terror. Peter followed Jesus for awhile, hiding in the shadows, but then of course Peter betrays Jesus too. This was not how the story was supposed to go. Maybe they hoped Jesus would miraculously defeat his enemies, even now. But he didn’t. At least, not in the way they expected. Later in Luke’s gospel we hear about their despair and confusion and fear, and their eventual shock and wonder when Jesus appears to them, but here all we know is that at Jesus’ death these faithful disciples aren’t there. Just the women. The women are there.
Which makes no sense at all. Except in the upside down Kingdom, where it makes perfect sense.
Most of the women aren’t named, the ones who have prepared the spices and waited impatiently for the very first moment they could go and care for Jesus’ body while not breaking any law about working on the Sabbath. The different Gospel accounts each name slightly different women who went to the tomb in the early dawn, but all of them name Mary Magdalene. Mary of Magdala was a nobody, and partly it is her name that tells us that. If she were married, usually she would be called Mary wife of so and so. If she had children, she would be called Mary mother of so and so. But she’s not. Just Mary, from Magdala. When Luke introduces us to her in Chapter 8, he tells us that she has had 7 demons driven out of her. We don't know anything about that period of Mary's life, but we do know that things we might see as mental or physical illnesses were described in the Bible as demon possession, and so if nothing else we can guess that Mary exhibited some problematic behaviors before those demons were driven out. We can guess that Mary's neighbors remembered her as someone who was troubled. Strange. Maybe this explains why she does not seem to be married, and does not seem to have children of her own. She was a nobody. And yet, in this upside down Kingdom of God it is this nobody -- this single woman who people probably don’t think very highly of -- who is the first person to discover that Jesus has been resurrected.
In Luke’s gospel, Mary and the other women see angelic messengers who tell them that Jesus has been raised, and are instructed to go and tell the others. In each gospel the details are a little bit different, but in every story when the women go and tell the disciples, the disciples don’t believe them. Peter (and in John’s gospel, the unnamed beloved disciple with him) eventually goes to check things out, and all of the disciples meet the resurrected Jesus in the coming days and weeks. They become convinced by this incredible, impossible miracle that God has the power to overcome death, and that Jesus is the son of God come to earth, their long-awaited Messiah. But at first they didn’t believe. It was an idle tale, they thought. Because these were women, and they couldn’t be trusted really. And Mary of Magdala, the one who used to have 7 demons and who they remembered as being not quite right, she couldn’t be trusted either. They weren’t the ones to announce the resurrection. They couldn’t be.
In Luke’s gospel, Mary and the other women see angelic messengers who tell them that Jesus has been raised, and are instructed to go and tell the others. In each gospel the details are a little bit different, but in every story when the women go and tell the disciples, the disciples don’t believe them. Peter (and in John’s gospel, the unnamed beloved disciple with him) eventually goes to check things out, and all of the disciples meet the resurrected Jesus in the coming days and weeks. They become convinced by this incredible, impossible miracle that God has the power to overcome death, and that Jesus is the son of God come to earth, their long-awaited Messiah. But at first they didn’t believe. It was an idle tale, they thought. Because these were women, and they couldn’t be trusted really. And Mary of Magdala, the one who used to have 7 demons and who they remembered as being not quite right, she couldn’t be trusted either. They weren’t the ones to announce the resurrection. They couldn’t be.
But they were. Because in the upside down kingdom where the last are first and the first are last, where our human definitions of who is good enough, who is worthy, who is welcome are turned upside down and inside out and cast aside altogether, of course they were.
Every one of us is affected by this story, by the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we accept it and take it deeply in, every one of us is changed by it, because there is something miraculous, something healing, some life-changing truth in it for every one of us.
For the least, the last, the lost...for you who are hurting so deeply that you are afraid you won’t ever feel whole again...for you who have made mistakes that you aren’t sure you can ever come back from, this is the good news for you: you are not as lost as you think you are, you are worth more than you can imagine, and God loves you more than you think you deserve. Your story is not over. For every mistake you have made or think you have made, you are forgiven. God promises you healing, hope, and even joy, and will show you the way to find it.
Remember the thief on the cross next to Jesus, remember the people who mocked and beat and crucified him, who Jesus prayed for and forgave even in the midst of it.
Remember the prodigal son who rejected his family and lived a life of excess and selfishness, who returned home in despair hoping only to be allowed to work as a servant in his father's house, who God in the person of the son’s father ran to meet overjoyed and welcomed home with overflowing love.
Remember all of those outcasts that Jesus fed, and healed, and welcomed, and loved.
Remember the flawed, doubting, fearful disciples who were Jesus’ closest friends.
And know the miracle of the resurrection: in his death, Jesus allowed all of the forces of evil to do their worst, allowed human beings to do all of the very worst things they could do, and defeated them. Because though evil deals in death, God is LIFE and life is stronger, and love always, always, always wins. Your story is not over. In Jesus, you are free.
Remember the thief on the cross next to Jesus, remember the people who mocked and beat and crucified him, who Jesus prayed for and forgave even in the midst of it.
Remember the prodigal son who rejected his family and lived a life of excess and selfishness, who returned home in despair hoping only to be allowed to work as a servant in his father's house, who God in the person of the son’s father ran to meet overjoyed and welcomed home with overflowing love.
Remember all of those outcasts that Jesus fed, and healed, and welcomed, and loved.
Remember the flawed, doubting, fearful disciples who were Jesus’ closest friends.
And know the miracle of the resurrection: in his death, Jesus allowed all of the forces of evil to do their worst, allowed human beings to do all of the very worst things they could do, and defeated them. Because though evil deals in death, God is LIFE and life is stronger, and love always, always, always wins. Your story is not over. In Jesus, you are free.
For you who already know all of this, who know your own value and are already first in this world in so many ways, this is the Good News for you: you are free. You are more loved, more precious than you can imagine. You are free from the world’s expectations on you, definition of you, demands on you, and your demands on yourself to be the master of your own universe. You are free to be last, to take your place in the upside down Kingdom where you will find the way, and the truth, and the life.
You are set free from slavery to all of those shiny objects. You are set free to use all that you have been given to seek out the least, the last, and the lost and set a table for them in the name of Jesus Christ.
You who have been healed, you are set free to be God’s instrument of healing to someone else.
You who have plenty, you are commissioned to be the builders, the makers, the cooks, the enthusiastic welcome-givers, the foot washers at the Lord’s table.
You are set free from the pride, the greed, the self-righteousness that blinds you and stops up your ears, so that you can hear the Word of God and rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit even when it comes from the most unlikely people and places.
You are set free from slavery to all of those shiny objects. You are set free to use all that you have been given to seek out the least, the last, and the lost and set a table for them in the name of Jesus Christ.
You who have been healed, you are set free to be God’s instrument of healing to someone else.
You who have plenty, you are commissioned to be the builders, the makers, the cooks, the enthusiastic welcome-givers, the foot washers at the Lord’s table.
You are set free from the pride, the greed, the self-righteousness that blinds you and stops up your ears, so that you can hear the Word of God and rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit even when it comes from the most unlikely people and places.
In 1962, the famed theologian Karl Barth was on a speaking tour of the United States. He had written thousands upon thousands of words about the Bible, about the nature of God, about Jesus, about the meaning of the cross and the resurrection, and about how we human beings should live in response to all of that. On at least one of his stops, in Richmond Virginia, he was asked if he could summarize all that he knew and wanted to teach the world. He answered, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." And that is truly the Good News for all of us, the door through which we can enter the Upside Down Kingdom and the foundation and mortar and bricks with which we can help to build it: Jesus loves us. God loves us. And we are free.
Raise your voices, Easter people, Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Pastor Dawn
Click the link below for a really good contemporary version of the children's hymn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysxtpdnQfxY
Raise your voices, Easter people, Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Pastor Dawn
Click the link below for a really good contemporary version of the children's hymn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysxtpdnQfxY
