When God Keeps a Promiese Pentecost C John 14:8-27 Acts 2:1-21

There's a real difference between making a promise and delivering on that promise. In Acts 2 God carried through on his promise. He told his friends, before he died,

“If you love me, you will keep^f my commandments. ^16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,^g to be with you forever. ^17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in^h you.

^18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

f Other ancient authorities read me, keep g Or Helperh Or among The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version, John 14:15-18. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989.

In our day we are suspicious of promises; but faith in God means living on a promise. Jesus promised to be with his followers. He told them that they would never be alone, that help was on the way. Jesus comes into our lives over and over, just as he promised. He came in Holy Spirit at Pentecost and he comes today in Word, Sacrament, and Spirit into our lives.

Reading Acts 2 we can imagine the arrival of the Holy Spirit into the life of the early church. The believers were together. They had recently seen their Risen Lord or heard from other followers who had seen him in alive in the flesh even after death. They would have been in a state of awe and wonder to have seen him again. The Spirit flowed into and through that same group of believers. A noise like a violent wind πνοη̂ς βιαίας rushed in. Unimagined things started to happen. They were speaking in their own native languages and understanding everything spoken in other languages. And they asked a great question that has been wrestled with for 2000 years.

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”Acts 2:12 (NRSV)

So what does it mean, to have the Spirit come into the church. It means God is present. Some call Pentecost the birthday of the church. It was, but it wasn't the only moment of the Spirit's activity. The experience of God, active in Word and Spirit was not completed on Pentecost, God was just getting started. The challenge of our day is to give credit to the Spirit for all the gifts that we receive from God. There are numerous gifts of the Spirit but we mustn't over look faith and hope. Luther wrote

... if I have the Holy Spirit, I have faith, by which I cling to God. And if I believe in God, then I also have his love and I love God, foe, and friend. That is why Paul says: I can do all things through the Spirit of God [Phil. 4:13]. The Spirit does not come through fasting, praying, pilgrimages, running to and fro around the country; no, only through faith. So Christ bestows his gifts upon you without any merit whatsoever and what he did for him [i.e., Paul], he does for you also.

Luther, Martin. Vol. 51, Luther's Works, Vol. 51 : Sermons I. Edited by Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann. Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1959.

Jesus came to save. The Spirit comes to give life by revealing to is the promise made in the Word of God. Praise God for a Spirit who shows us light and life.

Praying with Jesus in John 17:20-26 Easter 7C

Jesus' prayer in John 17 stands out revealing some of his relationship with God the Father and some of his hopes and dreams for those who would follow him. We in the church try to live out his teachings and follow his example. Prayer was a key part of Jesus' life. He went away from his friends to pray, he taught them to pray, he prayed deep into the night before his death. Prayer was as much a part of Jesus life as eating and drinking.

A couple years ago there were bracelets with the letters WWJD popping up all around reminding people to ask the big question, "What Would Jesus Do?" It's a great question to wrestle with; not only in moments of moral or ethical decision but also in the little decisions about how we live and how we treat people around us. The question WWJD? is one way to think about prayer. There's no question that Jesus prayed.

Reading John 17 I am amazed by how focussed Jesus was in his prayer and how unfocused I am in my own prayer. Jesus prayed for his friends and for all who would come to believe in him. He prayed for the safety of his friends in the face of the enemy. Jesus asked for unity among believers and opportunity to reveal even more of God's love to the world. His prayer astounds me as I read it.

One thing I wrestle with as I read this prayer is my own prayer life. I've learned that I can't pray like Jesus. I am not a god. I am a man who comes to God in prayer and finds distractions and challenges all around me. We aren't gods. Yes, Jesus prayed deep into the night after supper but Luke tells us that his disciples fell asleep as he prayed. Yes Jesus prayed deep into the night for his followers, yes he prayed deep into the night for those who would come to know him through them, but sometimes we will be like the disciples, our prayers will fall short. Jesus is a model of how prayer can work. And yes we can follow his model; but we are still in need of a savior.

Following God's Lead to Macedonia Acts 16:9-15

In Acts 16:6-15 we see one of the heroes of the New Testament at moment of decision. The Apostle Paul was on a mission. He was taking a message of hope to the world. He was proclaiming new life in Jesus to everyone he encountered. Some loved what they heard and others burned with rage. He would know many troubles because of this message; but the troubles from chains to shipwrecks to beatings wouldn't stop him. He was inspired. He knew that this message wasn't just a fable. He personally knew the power of God. It's critical that we remember God's activity in Paul's life in Acts 9. Paul had first hand experience both of God's anger and frustration and of God's mercy and forgiveness. He carried this message with fervor. He personally knew the love and the power of God who he now served as a messenger.

Paul's travels brought him further and further away from the church in Jerusalem. Sitting in Galatia and he was at a cross roads and he started planning where to go next with the story. He had to pick a new direction. Either cross over to Europe or head east and go further in Asia. Paul decided his way. He planned to go on ahead and go east into Asia with the message of Jesus Christ. But somehow the Holy Spirit stopped him. At night in a dream he saw a man from Macedonia calling to him to come over across the water and to start sharing the Good News. Macedonia wasn't in Asia. Macedonia was part of the European mainland.

The call that Paul heard from Macedonia in that one dream changed everything. His plans were put aside for the sake of journey further on. There's mystery in God's plans. There's uncertainty and unpredictability; at least from the human perspective. God's up to something in the world. We might reasonably and rationally decide on one course of action and God might very well call us to do something very different. The Acts of the Apostles is filled with these moments of God redirecting Jesus' followers.

Discerning God's call apart from our own desires isn't easy in an age when self-fulfillment and self-actualization has become part of the popular religion of the day. In our individualistic age Paul's bold willingness to let God make the plans isn't easy concept to explain; but his model of faith is clear; sometimes we've got to take the detour.

Loving like Jesus John 13:31-35 Easter 5c

Keep your eyes on Jesus if you want to learn how he wants you to love.

Reading the Gospel for this week there's a new addition to an old commandment. Jesus is calling us to do something that was part of the law long before Jesus, when he says in John 13:34, “I give you a new command; that you love one another.” This command isn't new. But what he says next to give us a model for how to follow the old law is new...

Augustine wrote a millennium and a half ago,

But was not this already commanded in the ancient law of God, where it is written, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Leviticus 19:18”? Why, then, is it called a new one by the Lord, when it is proved to be so old? Is it on this account a new commandment, because He hath divested us of the old, and clothed us with the new man? For it is not indeed every kind of love that renews him that listens to it, or rather yields it obedience, but that love regarding which the Lord, in order to distinguish it from all carnal affection, added, “as I have loved you.” Schaff, Philip. The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol. VII. St. Augustin: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John Soliloquies. Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997. Page 317 Logos Index ECF 2.7.1.1.65.0 or its online at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701065.htm

If we only stop at the first part of the commandment we miss the model that Jesus has set for us. We are invited to follow him in loving others as he has loved. If we only catch the first part of the commandment we aren't hearing a new commandment at all.

How long will it take for us to fulfill this new commandment?

What Jesus models for us is a self-giving kind of love. English only has one word for love but Greek has four words that we translate into the one word love. Affectionate love (gk. storge, στοργη); love found in friendship and brotherhood (gk. philia, φιλια); romantic and sexual love (gk. eros, έρως) and finally the word that is translated as love from this section from the Gospel of John self-giving love (gk. agapē, αγαπη). C.S. Lewis has a wonderful description of the differences in the book The Four Loves.

Jesus spoke boldly in this new commandment agapē, αγαπη. It is a commandment for a lifetime. Love as Christ loved. Love as the one who healed lepers, love as the one who stood in the way of the stoning of a woman accused of adultery. Love as the one who died on a cross. John 13:34 is Jesus' plan for a whole life following God. “A new command I give you: continually love (ἀγαπα̂τε) one another. As I have loved and continue to love (ἠγάπησα) you, so you must continually love (ἀγαπα̂τε) one another.”

The Latin I've seen used for αγαπη (agape) is caritas the root both of cardiac or heart and charity. I think that charity in the contemporary sense, where most in our culture give only on occasion because of an emotional impulse to tragedy, doesn't carry the full weight of Jesus command. He wants us to love and to keep on loving. Whatever we say about this type of love being different from the other loves that we know I think that we also need to recognize that Jesus is inviting us into a new life shaped by love that doesn't stop but continues for the rest of our days.

Powerful Shepherd John 10:22-30 Easter 4C

Jesus stands out in the Gospel of John as a bold teacher who attracted crowds filled with those who believed what they heard and those who hated him for saying it. Look at how carefully the anger is detailed in John 10:31 as some in the were ready to take up stones against him. They tried to arrest him after he finished teaching but he slipped through their grasp in John 10:39.

Jesus greatest offense was declaring the love of God that had come to earth in him. He came to be the shepherd. Many in the crowd believed that he was sent from heaven. They'd seen blind people given sight. They'd seen daemon possessed people set free and they heard him speak words of hope like no one before. But others in the crowd grumbled deep in their souls as he spoke boldly about his calling to be the Shepherd and about his mission. Their rage grew when he declared that God the father had sent him. Of greatest offense was his claim in John 10:30, “The Father and I are one” Those in the crowd who wanted him dead were ready to grab stones at that moment and pelt him.

They wanted to stop Jesus' teaching because he threatened them like no one ever before had done. He didn't threaten them with swords or clubs. He threatened them with words of healing and love. Ideas ultimately are more powerful than any weapon. But power itself has always been intoxicating for human beings. We want it. We fight for it, its as old as original sin and the fight between Cain and Able. Power can bring out the worst in us. But Jesus revealed a new way to use power; as a servant of all. Jesus possessed all power but he chose to be shepherd who would us his power to protect and to heal.

Those who function from a position of power based in violence and force can do their worst to suppress those who serve a higher cause than power. But time has repeatedly shown us that power only works for so long. Fascism and communism have risen and fallen around the globe. But no powerful group have found a way to repress a people for ever. Ideas break through. And even more powerful than ideas are grace and love that come from God.

There is no doubt in my mind that if Jesus had been a quiet simple, unoffensive and politically correct teacher who said nothing against those in power in his day he would have had a quiet and remarkably unmemorable ministry. The Good News is that even Jesus' death didn't silence his rogue ministry of love and healing. He came to earth with a mission. He is the one who came from heaven in search of the lost. He said his sheep knew who he was. He He didn't come for those who knew they had earned a place in the Kingdom. He came for the ones who doubted that they could ever sit with God.

Reconciliation and Resurrection John 21:1-19 Easter 3C

We function in a world with rules and expectations. Death and taxes, we hear (repeatedly in mid-April), are unavoidable. There's fatalism in this kind of world view. It limits us only to things as they are and not as they could be. Such earthbound eyes see hurting people and see no possibility of hope. A person mired in sickness or addiction would be expected to stay in the muck in a world without reconciliation and resurrection. It's a brutal way of seeing life that ultimately says once we are dead we are supposed to stay dead. It's a tough way to live; to live like completely nothing new ever could happen.

The Good News breaks in on our earthbound views. Jesus rose and because he rose death isn't the end. His resurrection signals more than just the possibility of new beginnings. His rising announces that the new beginnings started 2000 years ago.

In John 20:19-31 Jesus comes to see his friends and reveals his new form. They tell one of their own, Thomas, who was missing and he dismisses them. Jesus came again and this time Thomas was there and Jesus didn't chastise him for his disbelief. Instead he invited him to come and see the marks from the nails and the speer.

In John 21:1-19 Jesus came to his friends again and this time he sat with them and ate fish. Then he sought out a moment to speak to one of them, Peter, who in the night of Jesus betrayal, had denied that he even knew him just hours after promising that he would go with him even to death if needed. Jesus sought Peter ought and he didn't dig into him or rip him apart with venomous words. He came with a question for his soul, “Do you love me?” Jesus asked him 3 times. And the first two times Peter said, “Yes.” But the Third time Peter spoke as a hurting soul who anguished in the question, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” John 21:17 (NRSV). Jesus chose to offer him a mission and not judgment that day. Peter was commissioned to feed the sheep and the lambs. Here the resurrected Christ offered reconciliation to Peter. He did not wipe away the past but offered something new to Peter, a new mission to proclaim the resurrection.

Resurrection didn't take away Jesus scars, nor does reconciliation hide ours. But we do, in Christ, have a chance to see new things happen. Jesus' rising from a tomb redefined everything. He rose and immediately started living boldly. He announced forgiveness and even sought out those who doubted and denied him. For what purpose? Only God fully knows; but in the love of the risen Jesus for Peter and Thomas we see the love that God chooses to reveal to all of us.

Don't beat up on Thomas John 20:19-31 Easter 2C

For as long as there's been a church there's been a struggle with Thomas. Some bad mouth him as 'doubting Thomas'. Other's indentify with him in their own doubts and faith. Still others type caste him as the first modern man, the one who demanded proof for everything he heard.

A few years back Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Cruise brought the phrase, "show me the money." to life on screen and we are still living in that same kind of culture. We still value evidence more than words. Rhetoric has a bad reputation these days. The church is not alone in receiving criticism for using words that have no substance. The challenge as people is to remember what we can show.



What sign can we offer? Even in Paul's day the world wanted to see something to prove our faith. What Paul wrote in First Corinthians still applies today. You can swap out different names for the groups but the argument is the same.

The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. 19As God says in the Scriptures,

"I will destroy the wisdom

of all who claim

to be wise.

I will confuse those

who think they know

so much."

20What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? 21God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him.

Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. 22Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. 23But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. 24Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen. 25Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else. (First Corinthians 1:18-25 CEV)

So what can we do to show our faith? Love. What we in the church can show is love. Love for God and love for all our neighbors. It is the most powerful kind of witnessing that can be done today. Maybe people will reject a carefully crafted speech about God's love; but it's hard for someone in need to turn aside the love and compassion shown by believers who serve in Jesus' name.

So what should we do with Thomas?
1) Don't beat him up anymore. He was a close follower of Jesus and yet he didn't believe what Jesus' close followers told him. So what. There's little new about disbelief among the disciples. In Luke the women who went to the tomb told Jesus' followers that they'd seen an empty tomb and the men didn't believe, Luke 24:11. They thought the reports of the resurrection were an idle tale.

2) Take occasion to admit your own doubts and to watch Jesus come for Thomas and you with open arms. Whatever has been said about Thomas be thankful for the love of God who came back in Jesus with arms open. Jesus was ready to welcome one who doubted like Thomas and one who denied like Peter. Jesus return with scarred hands outstretched proving his love all the more. He didn't leap out of the tomb ready to settle a score from the cross saying, "Boy am I pissed." He came with arms outstretched revealing his scars and his new life for many to see.

Easter and Evangelism Luke 24:1-12 Easter 1C

We have the best story in the world to tell. It's a story about life, and love, and God's triumph over sin, death, and the devil. It's a great story that has been handed down to us as gift. And my hope is that we don't hoard this gift; rather my hope is that we find new and unexpected ways to share this gift with the people around us.

The story of Jesus dying and rising has been told through twenty centuries. For me, and I hope for each of you who read this, this story is about hope and about what God can do. But for a third of the people who live around us in 21^st Century America the Good News of Easter isn't a source of hope; because they don't know the story. (If you want to debate these numbers please read George Barna's work.) We live in a nation that is ready for open dialog about the story of God coming to earth. The hard part for the institutional church is learning trust the people of God to tell the story rather than in our institutions.

We who serve in churches have to assume a position of humility in discussions of faith. Bishop and priest and pastor aren't respected professions these days. So we have to rely on a different kind of authority when we speak. Its a grave mistake to try and claim some old authority of power that's been removed by history, sin, and scandal. Humility is tough to swallow; especially if 2 generations ago people thought you were infallible. That's the real rub that's challenging the church. We need to have ideas and be able to articulate them in a language that works beyond pulpits or pastoral letters to believers. We have to figure out how to speak in the market place. And that's where the people who hear an Easter sermon come in. They are the ones who God has placed in all kinds of different vocations and gifted with unique abilities and relationships. They are the ones who can best tell the story.

The challenge as preachers on Easter is not just to tell the story, that's easy on Easter, and besides almost everybody in worship on Easter wants to hear it. Our mission is to help our people find their own voices so that they can tell the story too.

Jesus was killed and his body was placed in a tomb. A few women who cared very deeply for him planned to anoint his body with oil and spices. What they found that morning frightened them.

The details of how it happened are unclear (unless you want to speculate on Deutero-Canonical gospel accounts including the Gospel of Peter.) But what is clear is that the one who was dead was raised and that life will never be the same for him or those who believe that he is Lord.

There's a story to tell. There's a world ready to hear some Good News. Jesus was dead and he is risen. And all who believe will have life after death in him. This is the best story.