The Fellowship and Relationship Found Within The Trinity. A Homily for May 26, Trinity Sunday from JOHN 16:12-15

Trinity Sunday

Homily for 5.26.13

John 16:12-15 

Year C

Today, the Church offers us the opportunity to celebrate the mysterious expression of the GOD who is there and who is not silent by thinking-through that which theology has termed the Trinity. In the text before us, therefore, coming again from the Upper Room Discourses, the interplay between the Father, the Son and the Spirit of Truth becomes evident, and is the theme where we place our focus.

We begin with a question: How are we to understand the Trinity? 

To ask this is to answer it. We know we will never truly understand the Trinity, for it is, perhaps, the greatest mystery of all. But, if we look beyond the philosophical and ontological discussions and come to see how the Scriptures portray the interaction within the Divine Nature, we can hope to comprehend something of the fellowship and relationship found within the challenge that is this expression of the GodHead.  

Note, first, the understanding and relationship Jesus describes within Trinity found in the words of today’s text:

Pentecost Empowered for Kingdom Living. A Homily for May 19, Pentecost Sunday, from JOHN 14:15-16, 23B-26

Pentecost Sunday

Homily for 5.19.13

John 14:15-16, 23B-26 

Year C

Today is Pentecost Sunday! Today we celebrate the reality of GOD’s holy presence in the here and now, both in the world and in the church. And, perhaps now, in this present moment, more than in many years, we need to recognize this, the reality of the ever-present-Almighty, who is the third member of the Trinity. 

I say this because we live in the time of clashing and convulsing civilizations. These clashes have always occurred to be sure, but now with mass communication and sophisticated armaments, we are all of us certainly in more danger. This old world is falling apart. The old world that most of us knew is at war with itself, by which I mean the world, in its heart of hearts, struggles with the forces of good against the forces of evil. Of course, by this definition the world has always has been at war with itself. But, something is also different this time. 

In general, one way to describe this conflict is the way St. James defines it:

1 Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? 2 You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. 3 You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 Adulterers! Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:1-4)

In fact, earlier in the letter James tells us the heart-root of this conflict:

14 ...Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15)

That is, James would have us know that what the world is experiencing is a spiritual crisis. The world struggles between a living faith in the God who is there and who is not silent, and the absolute rejection of this God, even while using God’s name. And, the consequences of this struggle are clear -- either a civilization of God’s love and truth, based upon life and the heeding of the community’s responsibility toward each person will win out, or a tyranny of hate and oppression, including a hated of God and his church will win out.

In today’s pericope, the Lord Jesus himself, still speaking from the Upper Room, offers his disciples the ultimate response to this world at war with itself. And, it is a response as timely today as when it was first given, perhaps even more so. For here, Jesus promises the Advocate and the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit.

The Ascension of the True & Living King. A Homily for May 12, Ascension Sunday, from LUKE 24:46-53.

The Ascension of the LORD

Homily for 5.12.13

Luke 24:46-53 

Year C

Today is Ascension Sunday. Today the church remembers how the human Jesus of Nazareth -- crucified and risen -- left earth’s soil and was received into the presence of the LORD GOD, the Almighty. In fact, you will probably recall Jesus explaining to his disciples in the Upper Room Discourse how he would soon be going to the Father. Well, the Ascension describes, in part, that going and that event.

Of course, the Ascension is an oft confused event. New Testament scholar Dr. N.T. Wright -- whose work I am closely following here -- explains how the Ascension is seen today as either an embarrassment to the faithful because of the ridicule of post-modern skeptics -- both religious and non-religious, or an interpretation of foolishness through a flat-literalism by the fundamentalist, who believe Jesus the first spaceman, launched somewhere into outer space. 

But, I would assert, even in the face of such confusion, there is nothing foolish being described here. And that, in fact, we have before us a moment that is deeply important to our understanding of the person of Jesus and the present and future reality of the his Kingdom.

The Ascension of Jesus, therefore, presents us with a unique perspective on the person of Jesus, explaining who he really is to us and to the watching world. 

Seeing the World From The Perspective of the Christ. A Homily for May 5, the 6th Sunday of Easter from John 14:23-29

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Homily for 5.5.13

John 14:23-29 

Year C

I love these days of the Easter Season Celebration. How joyful are these weeks of sifting through St. John's Gospel for clues to the real, abundant life Jesus offers us in himself. Truly, there is something compelling and securing in St. John's words, even to we who are so long removed from his original hearers. In part this is true because we know these insights come from the sage experience of an often tested apostle, and they offer a thickness of thought that somehow balances the troubles and cares of a world so willingly at war with itself.

Today's pericope is no exception. We continue listening in on what has been termed Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse -- those brief hours of instruction the LORD had to prepare the disciples for his imminent departure because of death. We still hear the echos of last week's text: 

"My children, I will be with you only a little while longer...love one another..."

You see, the LORD knows in his heart-of-hearts that these men are not ready for what will happen to him; he knows they are not ready for his public humiliation and state execution. How could they be? How could they know that the ideas they possessed about his Messiahship had almost nothing to do with the reality of Jesus' true calling and ministry?

Still, in the end, Jesus offers them a clear and confident assurance that, though they will be scattered, they will eventually be preserved through the ministry of the Holy Spirit:

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you,"

This means, therefore, that Jesus leaves them and himself with true peace:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid."

These words encourage us. They lift us from the mire of loss and grief -- “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” Here, we are allowed to see the world from a new, different perspective. Here we see the world as it really is, not only though the lens of the present human condition, or what may be termed the human predicament, but we are also allowed to see the world from the perspective of the victory of the cross, the achievement of the resurrection and the new humanness found in the living, risen Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Or, to put a fine point on this idea, and based upon today’s text, we see here:

PEACE BEYOND CHAOS  

LIFE BEYOND SELF

TRUTH BEYOND EXPERIENCE

Here Is True Love; Here is True Humanness. A Homily for 4.28.13, the 5th Sunday of Easter, from JOHN 13:31-33A, 34-35

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Homily for 4.28.13

John 13:31-33A; 34-35 

Year C

Today, we celebrate the 5th Sunday of Easter, and we do so with the pericope that offers us the primary description and the must be statement of Christian discipleship.

What the Lectionary presents to us this morning is the beginnings of the upper room discourse, which of course must be viewed by us as sacred and holy ground. The time for Jesus to leave his own has come, what would the Master say to these men, his men, as he prepares them, and himself, for his own execution?

Can't you hear his words:

"My children, I will be with you only a little while longer,"

spoken with both the sigh of regret -- so much to do and so little time, and the concern for what his own will experience-- these men were not ready for what was coming. Even then, even before the coming onslaught of the garden agonies, Jesus' heart was clearly in conflict.

What could he say to them? What could he say that, at this late date, would make a difference? Nothing really. Jesus knows these men are ill-prepared for the crushing weight of the cross and its aftermath. He knows their hearts will be broken and their spirits will be scattered. So, instead of trying to talk them into readiness, he shows them the path. That is, Jesus demonstrates what this life he offers really means. 

How? What demonstration? 

The GREAT-GOOD Shepherd. A Homily for 4.21.13 from John 10:27-30

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Homily for 4.21.13

John 10:27-30 

Year C

Today is the fourth Sunday of the church's Easter-Season celebration, and in today's pericope we are invited into the majestic presence of the Great-Good Shepherd, the one who knows his own flock and cares for them to the uttermost. This text calls for us to think-through the character and the work of the Great-Good Shepherd -- who is Jesus, the one who was dead, who now lives forevermore and who holds in his hand the people he loves.

The text reads, 

"My sheep hear my voice; I know them..." 

which is a coded way for Jesus to let his hearers know that the true and faithful ones of the Hebrew nation will recognize him as the one, true Messiah, and therefore the genuine King of Israel. At once, this must be understood as a political message: Jesus is the Shepherd of Israel, not Herod and not Caesar. But, notice also, underneath,  we also find a path to true life, new life, and a new way to live. 

That is, Jesus has followers; has those who have offered themselves to him. And how will these true and faithful ones of the nation be recognizable? The text reads: 

"they hear his voice," 

and 

"they follow me..." 

That is, they follow the Jesus-way. 

This thought actually pushes our attention to, among other of the Jesus-teachings, the Sermon on the Mount, where the Teacher confronts the nation with the true reality of his Kingdom and the genuine way Kingdom-life is to practiced. 

Notice how the sermon ends with these powerful words:

21 "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' 23 Then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.' 24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" (Mt.7:21-27)

The primary emphasis of this above text is found on doing the will of the Father and on hearing and doing the teachings of Messiah, King Jesus. OK. So, what is it to do the will of the Father? I am arguing here that to do the will of the Father is to hear the words of Jesus and to do them -- to actually practice them -- and that this is what it means when Jesus says, 

"Follow me," 

both in today's text and beyond.

But, what must be quickly added, as many have pointed out before, the Sermon on the Mount was not only Jesus' teaching of true Kingdom-living for those who believed him to be the true Messiah, but it was an actual and accurate description of how Jesus himself lived his life as well! 

Turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and loving your enemies 

are the most cogent examples from the sermon of how Jesus practiced what he preached! 

So, besides offering the Hebrew nation the path to its true Messiah, what this sermon and Jesus' own practice of the sermon also means to show us is the true path to a true humanness, the path on which the Father wanted us to travel all along. But, sadly, this is the path -- this narrow way -- that we continually missed through our own choices, our own selfishness and our own false-self, which we have built up around our own soul's protection.

Therefore, Jesus, the Great-Good Shepherd offers us the way out of the trap that is the self, and as such he is our model of genuine humanness. To truly follow Jesus, therefore, means we become truly human and part of GOD's ultimate reclamation project of his good world now marred, but it is also to discover the purpose and meaning of life that we have always longed to find but failed because we always foolishly searched in the places of addiction and vice and selfishness. 

This thought is deeply underscored in how the text presents to us the life-giving work of the Great-Good Shepherd:

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand." 

For we who live in the fear of death and scarcity, just how precious, then, is the promise of the Great-Good Shepherd, who offers us the gift of security found in eternal life:

• This gift of eternal life begins in the now and extends beyond that moment when we face the eternal and living King.
• This gift is what no one else can offer to us. 
• This is the gift found in the fount of the resurrection of Jesus’ life giving power whom we celebrate today.

The text read and the LORD says 

"They shall never perish (!)" 

Never perish? Never? Yes, never. 

• Never will those who have died in the LORD be separated from his hand. 
• Never will those who have left us in death -- if they found faith in Messiah, King Jesus -- truly be separated from us. 
• Never can we count our story over and done with because eternal life is the gift -- "I give them eternal life" -- Jesus offers us.

So, think about it in this way: What is the greatest enemy we face? 

It is the terror of death that haunts us, of course. But, what Jesus here tells us is that nothing, not even the great enemy death, can snatch us out of his hand! Yes, think of it! Those on the Jesus-way are held in the hand of the LORD, kept in the hands of the Father, secured for that glorious moment of the revealing of the King, who comes to complete and finalize the work of the Father.

When I think in this direction I am always reminded of the death of my own father. He was a man of simple faith. He was delivered from alcohol by the living Christ and that reality was enough for him. As far as I know he never doubted the reality of Christ's power or love. When his health failed him, and when it became clear to him that he would not get better, I think he did what I have seen many others do, he simply dismissed his spirit. That is, his faith was so strong in the life-changing, life-giving power of the LORD that he simply gave his life back to the Almighty, knowing for sure that Jesus waited for him. 

There, before me as he died, was such a security, such a serenity and such a peace that I shall never forget what I witnessed, and I have seen many, many deaths. Said differently, I would say that the last lesson my father left me was perhaps an understanding of how many a Christian believer, who is not in pain -- dies: Softly, in serenity, at peace. 

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”

To which we say, Amen and Amen.

________________________  

JOHN 10:27-30

Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice;

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one can take them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,

and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

The Father and I are one.”

PETER’S STORY: RECONCILIATION AND RESTORATION BEYOND CYNICISM. A Homily for 4.14.13 from John 21:1-19

Third Sunday of Easter

Homily for 4.14.13

John 21:1-19 

Year C

Of the many moving parts in today's pericope, the most prominent comes under the rubric of reconciliation and restoration. We have before us the very moving story of Peter's return to the LORD after his three denials of the Master. 

These ideas of reconciliation and restoration are not only critical to the life-blood of the Christian faith -- that of the second and third chances found with GOD, but they also speak of the movement from the selfish, false-self to the true-self GOD intended for us all along, which cannot occur apart from reconciliation and restoration. 

But, as with so many of our Christian concepts, there is a problem in communicating these important realities. The idea of second chances and true-selves has become so skewed today by the culture of conspicuous confession, where the ideas of reconciliation and restoration have become only crude caricatures of the real thing.

Far too often we usually see men, men of power, politicians mostly, but sometimes preachers, standing before the microphone, confessing marital infidelity, their wives by them, stoic, somber and miserable. We know what all this means, of course. It's most often about political redemption -- sometimes adorned with religious accessories -- bent on finding a way back into the public eye beyond the shame of getting caught. 

Does this assessment seem cynical? Perhaps. But we are all of us far to familiar with the reality that human conduct is motivated by self-interest. 

Or, we could think of the problem of post-modern of reconciliation and restoration in this way, using F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous quote: "There are no second acts in American lives," by which he means to say, we only repeat the first act over and over again. 

So, how do we break-through this crusty cynicism? How do we come to believe at this late date that true change is possible? Or, said differently, what makes Peter's story different? I confess I struggle with these questions. 

For example, I have in mind here a televangelist in the 1980’s who fell for TV-grace because of his being caught with a prostitute. He has now reinvented himself and owns a satellite television network! What should we make of this? I really do not know. I confess I am cynical, but I must also confess I do not know his heart. 

How, then, do we find the way to a true reconciliation and restoration?

Sent by the LORD, Indwelt by the Spirit & Given New Life. Homily for 4.7.13 from John 20:19-31

Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy) 

Homily for 4.7.13
John 20:19-31 

Year C

This Homily is revised and republished from a Homily first posted on 4/9/12 8:17AM

"On the evening of that first day of the week," reads the text. You know, that first day, that new day, that day when the hinge of history turned, when the promises of Hebrew history came running forward into the resurrection of Jesus, or the promises the Hebrews thought of as future came flooding backward like a great sea of hope settling over the land. You know, that first evening.

Well, on that first day of the week the risen Jesus makes a home visit to his disciples, who were locked up tight in hiding for fear that they might be the next to find discover the agonies of a Roman cross. These disciples were hiding, but they could not hide from Jesus. 

The text reads:

Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you...

Jesus comes to his disciples offering to them the reality of his resurrection -- "he showed them his hands and his side" -- and then he offers them what they needed most of all -- peace. That is, they needed to know that even in the very eye of the storm all would be well no matter what happened next. They needed to know that no matter how ferociously evil darkness and all-powerful empire threatened, they no longer had to worry. And they needed to be reminded of Jesus words from several days earlier -- "Because I live, you shall live also."

But one of them was missing. Thomas happened not to be with them on the first day of the week. So, when he returned and the disciples told him that they had truly seen the risen LORD, Thomas said to them:

"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail-marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Far from a fantastic request as he is sometimes accused, this was asking only to be included in what the other disciples had already seen, and besides, this is far less than what we post-moderns would have probably requested as proof. 

Holy Week Homilies, 2013: Good Friday & Easter Sunday

Linked below are two homilies, one for Good Friday and the other for Resurrection Sunday.

Good Friday Homily

JOHN 18:1—19:42

Resurrection Sunday Homily

LUKE 24:1-12

RESURRECTION SUNDAY. Homily from LUKE 24:1-12 for March 31.13

Homily for 3.17.13Resurrection Sunday 
LUKE 24:1-12
 (see below)
Year C

Hear, O Church, the celebration of the ages proclaimed! 

Hear, O Church, the ringing bells of joy and hope! 

Hear, O Church, as our proclamation sounds the death knell of death and sin! 

Hear, O Church, the ripping open of the graves who no longer have the power to hold the dead in Christ! 

For, today, we announce that salvation has burst on the heads of the human race! 

Today we proclaim the joy and hope of new life, the resurrected life found in the Son who is Savior and LORD of the world!

Today we celebrate the risen Savior, who is not merely in my heart, but who has ascended to his rightful place as sovereign King of the world!

“At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.”

What the these women found was unexpected. They found the grave stone removed, but they did not find the body. They found the grave clothes left alone, but they did not understand what happened and they were therefore amazed. And they found these men in dazzling clothing, because they did not remember Jesus’ words.

The angelic question which was the response to the amazement of the women: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” 

And this question confronts us, still, even today, and especially today. Let us therefore allow this angelic question to pierce our heavy hearts, so heavily they sag, weighed down by the cares of this life and the griefs of lost loved ones:

“Why do you seek the 

living one among the dead?”

Why, indeed?! For, this is the question especially addressed to this post-modern world of institutional agnosticism and selfish faithlessness. 

But, first, we must beware. This is not the question for the men and women of the baser sort (Acts 17:5), those of the lewd and human-less-ness disposition, those who have chosen so long not to hear the call of GOD that they now cannot hear it all. Those who have so degenerated through their own choices that they have finally, and willingly chosen to forfeit the image of GOD in themselves.  

But, this is a question for the rest. It is a question for the confused and the disquieted, for the seekers of they know not what. Hear it again, therefore: 

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” 

Why seek the beauty of true human life among the decadent and the decaying? Why continue to walk without the high hope of life now and life promised? Why endure life bleak and broken without the promise of joy and future?

Where is he, then, this one dead but now alive? 

“He is not here, but he has been raised,” declared the angelic messengers at the tomb. Imagine that reality! Imagine that joy they found in the those empty grave clothes and the angelic declaration! Or, as St. John was to declare at the close of his life 

“...he is the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come, the Almighty One. He is the faithful and true witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the commander of all the rulers of the world. (Revelation 1)

Before us alive is the promise of abundant and eternal life fulfilled! Jesus, the sacrificial model of humanness, has now become the first-fruits of new life and a new human way to live. Think of it! Good News! Good News!  

Jesus the LORD and King offers this same human life to all who hear, to all whose hearts are strangely warmed by him, to all who trust and dare to walk the Jesus-way -- the narrow way. Beginning with believer’s baptism, then, and ending with the call of the blessed hope, the Savior -- the Redeemer -- brings this hope of life and this promise of human reunion beyond the grave to each individual and to each community who will heed and walk the way.

Or, to say it differently, GOD is not the man in the sky. By no means! GOD is the invisible but personal and ever-present Spirit who never once gave up on us. GOD is the personal and ever-present love that is so moved for the plight of his world that, in order to reclaim this good world now marred, this GOD became part of the brokenness of the human condition in Jesus -- including death -- and now offers the fruits of that supremely human life to all who hear and heed! Here, then, before us is the culmination of the incarnation where the movement of the nativity is now made full and complete in the utter defeat of sin and of death! 

“O death where is they sting; O grave where is thy victory?” 

 writes the Great Apostle, to which we reply with Easter joy...

“Where, indeed?” For here at the face of the empty tomb we are reminded that those who build their lives on the rock that is Christ -- which is believer’s baptism followed by the trek on the narrow way -- find real life, abundant life now, and the joyous renewal of life with the eternal Father. 

So we ask, how are you building your life? We ask are you still seeking the living-way among the dead ideas and grave clothes of a dead-end world-view? Listen to the words of Jesus as he opens to us the two choices we have upon which to build our lives:

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

And, so, we end where we began:

Hear, O Church, the celebration of the ages proclaimed!

Hear, O Church, the ringing bells of joy and hope!

Hear, O Church, as our proclamation sounds the death knell of death and sin!

Hear, O Church, the ripping open of the graves who no longer have the power to hold the dead in Christ!

For, today, we announce that salvation has burst on the heads of the human race!

Today we proclaim the joy and hope of new life, the resurrected life found in the Son who is Savior and LORD of the world!

Today we celebrate the risen Savior, who is not merely in my heart, but who has ascended to his rightful place as sovereign King of the world!

_____________________

LUKE 24:1-12

At daybreak on the first day of the week 

the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus 

took the spices they had prepared

and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;

but when they entered,

they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were puzzling over this, behold,

two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.

They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. 

They said to them,

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?

He is not here, but he has been raised.

Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, 

that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners

and be crucified, and rise on the third day.”

And they remembered his words.

Then they returned from the tomb

and announced all these things to the eleven

and to all the others.

The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;

the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,

but their story seemed like nonsense

and they did not believe them.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, 

bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;

then he went home amazed at what had happened.

GOOD FRIDAY HOMILY, from John 18:1-19:42 for March 29.13

GOOD FRIDAY
Homily from
JOHN 18:1—19:42

Have you ever given some thought to the rather strange tradition of hanging crosses in our sanctuaries and around our necks. It is rather like commemorating a death by electric chair, for the cross, after all, is an instrument of state execution. We understand why we act in this way, of course, doing so out memorial and devotion. But, still, it doesn’t hurt on this night of Tenebrae to remind ourselves of the rationale and the power behind what we are remembering.

The individuals who surrounded the final days of Jesus of Nazareth’s -- the high priests Caiaphas and Annas, Malchus, who lost an ear and had it returned, Peter the denier, Barabbas the true rebel, Pilate the Governor of weakness, Mother Mary and even Joseph of Arimathea the tomb provider -- all play a part in this deadly drama which we call to mind this evening.

Of especial import for our understanding of the cross on this Good Friday Eve, I want us to think about the exchange between Jesus and the Roman Governor found in today’s Gospel Lectionary reading from St. John’s Gospel. Jesus is summoned to Pilate who asked, “Are you the King of the Jews?” To which Jesus answered:

“...My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting  to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world,  to testify to the truth.

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright reminds us that we must be very careful in how we understand this particular exchange. When Jesus says, “My kingdom does not belong to this world,” he is not saying My Kingdom is not of this world, but rather my Kingdom is not from this world. That is, the origin of Jesus’ Kingdom is from beyond this world, but is certainly meant to impact this world. 

Or, letting Dr. Wright speak for himself:

“...Jesus’ kingdom, in fact comes from elsewhere but is meant to take up residence in this world.” How else are we to understand when Jesus pray: “...thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?

That is, when confronted by the representative of the most powerful regime of that time, and when put under trial by the thoroughly corrupt religious leaders of his day, Jesus confronts them with the reality not of his innocence -- which was obvious to all, but rather of his own competing and conflicting Kingdom:

“If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting  to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”

By this he means to say, my Kingdom is a different kind of Kingdom. My Kingdom is a Kingdom of sacrificial love and reconciling forgiveness. My Kingdom is militant only in its love of the other and its allegiance and reverence to the GOD who is there -- truly there -- and who is not silent.

The Cross as the Hinge of History. Homily for 3.24.13 from LUKE 23:1-49 for Palm Sunday of the The Passion of the LORD

Homily for 3.24.13
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the LORD
LUKE 23:1-49
 (see below)
Year C

The Lectionary Gospel reading for today takes us from Jesus’ show trial, to Golgotha and the cross -- the moment of truth for both the Hebrew nation, the Roman Empire. 

But, this is not all. 

Surprisingly, this moment of truth falls even to us, we who live so far away that first century. Yes, that's right. It's difficult to imagine, I know, but those events so very long ago on that hot dusty day in Jerusalem not only bore significant consequences for that generation, but continue to bear significant consequences for this present generation as well.

Because you are here this morning, I suppose I do not have to convince you of the truth of this statement. Still, I would appreciate it for a moment if you would think-through the import of what is being said.

We who are so far removed from the ancients and their ways often think of ourselves as more wise, more sophisticated and more informed than they, and in some ways this is true. But that should not be viewed as admission of their irrelevance. On the contrary, the events of that particular day so long ago -- and may I add the following Sunday as well -- are actually the hinge of history, where everything turns and upon which everything hangs.

An audacious statement? Yes, quite so. But I stand by in none-the-less.

On that day of grief when Jesus joined the exclusively human club of the cognitive experience of death, there was actually more occurring than the death of the one human being, Jesus of Nazareth. To be sure, part of what was happening was his very personal and very frightening death, but there was also the movement of the Almighty GOD within the execution of Jesus, a movement meant to absorb both the ancient evil of sin and the terrible powers of darkness, bringing to the world the knowledge and full exposure of forgiveness, a new humanness, and finally, the resurrected life.

To aid in our unpacking of St.Luke's account of the cross, therefore, I want us to examine four ideas:

THE POLITICS OF THE CROSS

THE REJECTION THROUGH THE CROSS

THE SACRIFICE OF THE CROSS

THE RESPONSE TO THE CROSS

A Lenten Story of Mercy & Purity - The Adulterous Woman. Homily For 3.17.13 from John 8:1-11 for the Firth Sunday of Lent

Homily for 3.17.13
Fifth Sunday in Lent
JOHN 8:1-11
 (see below)
Year C

The Gospel offering from the Lectionary reading for today brings us to a primary Lenten moment of truth. Exposed here, right before our eyes, is the blatant sin of a woman taken in the very act of adultery. I take this to mean they burst in on her and jerked the covers off of her. She is truly guilty, of that there can be no doubt, but she is not the only one who carries guilt in the story, as St. John just as clearly wants us to see.

This text embodies the true Lenten message. The woman is unnamed, happily, but her experience of finding the LORD’s mercy remains one of the most encouraging stories found in Holy Scripture.  

Many of the oldest manuscripts do not have this story as part of their gospels, bringing some doubt upon the veracity of this account. In fact, some manuscripts even place it in St. Luke's Gospel. I have chosen not only to believe it to be true, but also to believe that we have here a profound gift from the Holy Spirit in the preservation of GOD' s message of reclamation to the church and to the world.

Like last week's story of the Prodigal, this text is a wide-open feast for the preacher. And, as we shall see, the Lenten themes reach deep and wide within its truths. For our purposes today I want us to focus on four lines of thought which I trust will take us to the heart of the story for a Lenten observance.

THE REALITY OF SIN 

THE EXPLOITATION OF THE POWERLESS 

THE BLINDNESS OF THE POWERFUL 

THE MERCY OF THE LORD

Discovering Lent With The Prodigal Son. Homily for 3.10.13 from Luke 15:1-3, 11-32, the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Homily for 3.10.13
Fourth Sunday in Lent
LUKE  15:1-3, 11-32
 (see below)
Year C

The Lectionary Reading for this, the fourth Sunday of Lent, offers us a preacher's paradise. How else can one describe Jesus' story of the Prodigal Son other than biblical material for which homilists dream.

We should add that this is obviously an extremely appropriate pericope for the Lenten Season, as well. If Lent is about a soul-searching return to the LORD, and if it concerns the call for the Son to again become the first-love of our hearts, there is no more fertile textural ground on which to till such a harvest.

However, to find the Lenten homily in this story, we must first discover Jesus' intention for the parable. And to do that we must see it both in its immediate context - it is one of three parables that Jesus tells (the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son), and we must see the occasion for Jesus speaking these parables in the first place, which the texts provided:

"Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people -- even eating with them! So Jesus used this illustration..."(Luke 15:1-3)

The context of the parable means us to know that Jesus had come to reclaim GOD's good world now marred by sin, and that his reclamation project included those whom the religious leaders deemed unworthy -- the sinners. Therefore, we must somehow come to see that GOD, the Father Almighty, looks on sinners as wayward sons, and that these sinners include both those who walk away and those who stay at home!

A LENTEN MESSAGE OF REPENTANCE. Homily for 3.3.13 from LUKE13:1-9, the 3rd Sunday of Lent

Homily for 3.3.13
Third Sunday in Lent
LUKE  13:1-9 (see below)
Year C
(some of this material also appeared here)

Today’s Lectionary Gospel reading bristles with the potential movement of GOD’s judgment. As such it is a fitting text with which to sense the heaviness of the Lenten season, for as much as Lent is a time of taking stock in one’s own spiritual house, it is just as much a season of warning as well.

Following here the understanding of N.T. Wright, we see in today's pericope that Jesus is being confronted by the question of his own safety -- “Will you really go to Jerusalem? Look how Pilate slaughtered the Galileans so that their blood ran red and mingled with the sacred blood of the sacrifices?” And, second, Jesus’ original hearers are wondering -- “You’ve been talking about judgment all along, is this it?”

Jesus’ answer reveals what is at stake. This exchange is not about final judgment at all, rather it is about the the judgment Jesus has been predicting all along. That is, if the chosen people fail to heed GOD’s warning then they would perish just like the the Galileans. Jesus said to his hearers:

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  

 And if you think that you will escape GOD’s judgment, think again because just like buildings fell on those eighteen people who were killed when the tower fell, buildings will fall on you as well.

This is hardly a message of joyful living, you know the usual preaching fare of three easy answers to five difficult problems. Much more seems to be at stake in this text than how to have a full and meaningful life.

So, what gives? What is here for us? Or, may we disregarded this pericope and view it as only necessary for the first century?

MEETING JESUS IN A LENTEN TRANSFIGURATION. HOMILY FOR 2.24.13. THE 2ND SUDNAY OF LENT FROM LUKE 9:28B-36

Homily for 2.24.13
Second Sunday in Lent
LUKE  9:28b-236 (see below)
Year C

The Lectionary Gospel reading for today, for this the second Sunday of Lent, takes us up the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and the inner circle of disciples -- Peter, James and John. Of course, this is a high moment in St. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’ identity, but what must be noted is how these events come on the heels of Jesus’ prediction of his own death.

He said, "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:22-23)

That is, Jesus’ earlier exposition of his coming state execution will directly inform and impact the events on the Mountain top with Moses and Elijah.

Eight days after Jesus’ passion prediction Luke tells us, 

“Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.”

It is always stunning to me to read of the Master’s prayer life. So used are we to thinking of his over-powering divinity, that the prayer needs of the LORD seem somehow out of place, until we realize the depth and reality of his humanity. 

But, Jesus is a man, a true human being.

This understanding offers the most stunning of all the Lenten movements, as we follow Jesus into the snare of the desert where he becomes weak, tempted, and vulnerable. But, think about it. What happened just prior to his desert sojourn of fasting and temptation?

His baptism and the voice of the Almighty. 

Therefore, it is interesting to think about the Transfiguration, -- including the voice of the Almighty -- as maybe being more for Jesus’ benefit than for the disciples or for us.