Sermon delivered on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary texts: Acts 2.1-21; Psalm 104.24-34; Romans 8.14-17; John 14.8-17, 25-27.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

We can all relate to Philip’s request in this morning’s gospel lesson. Anyone who has ever shown any kind of interest in God would like to see God and this is confirmed consistently by Scripture (cf. Moses and the psalmists). In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, many of us would admit that we wish we had been a contemporary of Jesus because it would have been so much easier for us to follow him. He would have been around to answer all our questions and we could have seen Jesus in action first-hand. But even a superficial reading of the gospels proves this notion is mistaken. How many times did Jesus have to correct and rebuke his disciples, especially Peter? (Quite often.) How often did they get to share in Jesus’ mighty acts of power? (Not much.) No wonder we hear echoes of sorrow and frustration in Jesus’ answer to Philip (and to us when we essentially ask the same question in different ways in our doubts and fears)—“You know me and have seen all the works I have done. How can you say show us the Father? I speak and do the things I do only because the Father is in me. If you want to see the Father look at me. The Father and I are one (John 10.30).”

Then Jesus makes the most astonishing promise. He tells his disciples (and us) that those who believe in him will do even greater things than he does and it will be easier to know him than it currently is! How can that be? The answer, of course, is God’s giving of the Holy Spirit and this is what I want us to look at briefly this morning. Specifically, I want to set the story of Pentecost in its proper context, to look at why it is important for us to have the Spirit present in our lives, both collectively as the Church and individually, and then for us to look at some of the ways we can recognize the Spirit’s presence in our lives today because recognizing the Spirit’s presence and activities is not always as straightforward as it sounds.

Luke’s account of the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost reminds us that this particular instance of God’s gracious action among his people was no isolated event. Like everything else in the Bible, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost—itself an OT festival that came 50 days after the great Passover celebration—had a context. Ten days ago we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, an event that occurred 40 days after Jesus’ death and resurrection, events we have celebrated these past 50 days of Easter. On the cross, Jesus made atonement for our sins and reconciled us to God. He also defeated evil and the dark powers behind it. And in Jesus’ resurrection, God not only conquered the ultimate evil of death, he also ushered in his promised new creation, although not fully (cf. Romans 8.1-4; Colossians 2.13-15; 1 Corinthians 15.35-57). That’s why we, like Peter and the first disciples, still live in the last days. God’s new creation has not yet come in full and so we must wait for the final consummation. Now Jesus has ascended to the Father to take his rightful place at God’s right hand—NT code meaning that Jesus is ruler and Lord of all creation—and to intercede for us. There would be no more post-resurrection appearances (with the notable exception of Paul). So how is Jesus going to manifest his rule over creation? How are Jesus’ followers going to know he is still present with them if they cannot see him and interact with him as they had done prior to his Ascension?

Jesus provides us the answer in our gospel lesson this morning when he promises to send another helper, the Advocate. The Greek for another, allos, means another of the same sort rather than another of a different kind. In other words, Jesus promised that the Spirit would be another Jesus, but who would not be limited by space/time constraints the way the human Jesus was limited. The Spirit would therefore make it easier to know Jesus in this new mode, not harder, and the Spirit would be the one who would enable Jesus’ followers to do greater things than Jesus had done in his earthly ministry and to help us understand all that Jesus said and taught. The Spirit also advocates for us in our weakness to the Father and comforts and helps us in our trials and sufferings, not unlike how we are comforted by others in our grief and loss. This reminds us that even when we are given the Spirit to live in us, we are not promised to be immune from all the hurt, heartache, and suffering that exists in God’s good but broken world. Rather, what Jesus promises is that he will give us the needed resources to cope with and even transcend the world’s brokenness and our own. Paul says essentially the same thing in our epistle lesson when he tells us we are not given the Spirit to fall back into fear, but to transform us into the very image of Jesus so that we too can become God’s children. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is equivalent to God’s presence with his people in the wilderness in the pillars of cloud and fire and later in the Temple Solomon built at Jerusalem.

Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit was of course fulfilled at Pentecost, and in spades. No longer would the Holy Spirit fall on a select few like it had done with the OT prophets, e.g., Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, et al. Now the Spirit would be given to all believers of Jesus the Messiah to transform us into his very likeness. And it is through his Spirit-empowered and transformed people that Jesus will manifest his rule over all creation. This is what Paul means when he talks about us being joint heirs and rulers with Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 6.2). Let that sink in for a moment. We who are followers of Jesus and who are being transformed into his likeness by his very Spirit living in us are called to be joint heirs of the kingdom with Jesus. It truly boggles the mind; but it is quite consistent with God’s original intention for humans at creation (cf. Genesis 1.26-27).

But before we get too giddy over this mind-boggling promise, let us also consider the clause that immediately follows Paul’s promise about being joint heirs with Jesus. Paul tells us we will be joint heirs with Jesus if, in fact, we suffer with him. Uh oh. We are all about that joint heir thingy but not so red hot about the suffering part. But the fact is that throughout Scripture God shapes and equips his prophets and the followers of Jesus to become like him through suffering. Consider Moses, who had to endure the rebelliousness of God’s people for 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and who provoked him to sin so that God denied him entrance into the promised land. Or consider David, who after being anointed by Samuel, had to endure the wrath of Saul, who was determined to murder his God-appointed successor. Then there was Ruth, the Moabite woman, who suffered the loss of virtually all her means of support but who remained faithful to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and as a result found great blessing. The writer of Hebrews presents an interesting litany of suffering saints that is a powerful reminder that this is how the game is played for those who love God (cf. Hebrews 11.32-40). And of course there was Jesus himself, who suffered mightily for us, and not just on the cross. Consider his wilderness experience and the profound sorrow he must have felt at seeing so much need and injustice and oppression in his day, as well as a reluctance by most people to do what was necessary to be God’s people. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, our Lord learned obedience and was made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 5.8, 2.10) and so apparently must we do likewise.

More about that in a moment. But for right now as we consider the prospect of ruling with Jesus we must remember that he came to serve rather than be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The greatest in God’s kingdom will not be those who lord it over others but who serve in the manner of humble slaves and this is only made possible by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

So how do we recognize the Spirit’s presence in us? While he can sometimes enter our lives in dramatic fashion like the day of Pentecost, the Spirit more often than not comes to us quietly and gently. He never imposes himself on us so that we are forced to act against our will and it is entirely possible to quench his presence in our lives (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5.19). We see this poignantly illustrated in the wilderness narratives contained in Exodus and Numbers. Despite the fact that God is present with his people in the pillars of cloud and fire, they often rebel against him and fall into idolatry and apostasy. We wonder how this can be. But is it any different than those Christians who have the Spirit living in them but act as if they do not for whatever reason? God respects us and our relationship with him enough that he never forces us into a relationship with him. Neither does he force us to act in a certain manner because that would destroy the essence of a real relationship. But typically when we ignore his presence and act contrary to his wishes, we can expect him to withdraw his presence from us, just like he did with his rebellious people in the wilderness and later in the promised land when God withdrew his glory from the Temple and allowed it to be sacked and burned by the Babylonians. That is why Paul is adamant that we must put to death our sinful nature if we ever expect to reap the fruit and benefits of the Spirit’s presence. The Spirit will indeed transform us but we must put in the sweat equity and be willing to allow him in to help us become more and more like Jesus.

All this, of course, sometimes makes it difficult for us to recognize the Spirit’s presence in us and so we must learn to look for evidence of his presence. A good place to start is to look for the fruit of the Spirit in our lives—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. The Spirit is not like booze we pour into our bodies so that we come under its influence and lose control over our thoughts and actions. Instead, through prayer, study, and life circumstances, the Spirit will help suggest certain courses of action to take and then we have to decide if we will follow those courses of action. The following brief stories from C.S. Lewis illustrate this dynamic perfectly [read from The World’s Last Night]. We note two things about Lewis in these stories. First, he had to recognize the Spirit’s promptings and movement in his life and the life of others. This is only possible by cooperating with the Spirit and learning to recognize his voice. Second, he had to say yes to the Spirit’s prompting because he had the option to say no.

But perhaps the best indicator that we have the Spirit living in us is our ability to love, just as Jesus told his disciples. Biblical love is always the antithesis of the modern notion of love that seeks to give the beloved all that the beloved desires because the Bible recognizes that we are fallen creatures and our desires are inherently disordered. Rather, biblical love always seeks to act for the benefit of the beloved and this gives us continuing opportunities to assess how loving our behavior really is. Are we seeking to build up the other and point him/her toward Jesus? Are we looking out for others’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs without enabling the other? In other words, are we feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, praying for and forgiving our enemies and persecutors, etc.? Do we love others enough to warn them when we see their behavior is leading to death and/or destruction? Do we love God and others enough to be outraged by acts of injustice or anything that dehumanizes us? This, of course, is where our suffering comes into play so that God can use it to mold us further into the image of Jesus. As Jesus reminded his disciples, much of the world does not know him because it hates him and will therefore hate us as well for advocating kingdom values. As this happens remember that God is equipping you to be joint heirs and rulers with Jesus in the new creation even as he is using your efforts to exert his Lordship and bring the kingdom on earth as in heaven (cf. 1 Corinthians 15.58). Take heart and be encouraged by that so that the Spirit can help you bear your suffering.

Then, of course, we can also tell if the Spirit is living in us by how well we are imitating Jesus’ mighty acts recorded in the gospels. Not all of us are called to ministries of healing and certainly not many of us are called to raise the dead (but then apparently neither were the first followers of Jesus because the NT only records a handful of such acts). But still there are many examples of Christians doing mighty and miraculous acts of power in the Lord’s name. Take John Wesley and the 18^th century Methodists for example, who arguably saved England from social revolution because of their tireless efforts to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, minister to the sick, and fight against all that dehumanizes God’s image-bearers, from alcohol abuse to prostitution. If preventing a revolution is not miraculous, I don’t know what is. The Methodists were ordinary people who gave their lives to God and allowed him to work on them to transform them into Jesus’ image so that they could transform the society in which they lived. They were able to do this because they believed the promises of Jesus to never leave or abandon his children in the power of the Spirit so that he could equip them to do far greater things than he did in his earthly ministries. This very dynamic is exactly what our mission statement is all about.

And speaking of St. Augustine’s, I would also call your attention to our many ministries. Every time we visit Worthington Christian nursing home, we are being led by the Spirit. Every time we bear each other’s foibles and burdens instead of ignoring them or being hostile toward each other, much as we might like to, we are being led by the Spirit. Every time we feed the hungry at Faith Mission, we are being led by the Spirit. Every time we talk to others about Jesus and why he matters in our life, we are being led by the Spirit. Then of course there are the individual ministries that we all have, which we don’t advertise (but perhaps we should). Anytime we can think of examples where we act for the benefit or building up of others instead of ourselves at their expense so that the kingdom comes on earth as in heaven, we are being led by the Spirit. And all this is possible because we worship, pray, and study Scripture regularly to make a fertile place in us for the Holy Spirit to live.

So this week, if you want to nurture the Spirit’s presence, I encourage you to do two things. First, learn the fruit of the Spirit as well as the fruit of the flesh (Galatians 5.19-26) and then keep a diary of what fruit you are bearing. As you assess your behavior, ask the Spirit to help you accordingly and have confidence that your prayers will be answered because as you get to know the mind of Christ better, you will know better what to pray for, and surely God will answer those prayers just as Jesus promised. Then second, find a Christian friend, preferably from St. Augustine’s, to share your successes and failures on a regular basis so that you can learn to encourage and exhort one another as needed. As you do, you will surely learn to see more clearly the Spirit’s presence in your life and be reminded that you have Good News, now and for all eternity. Who knows? People might even ask why you’ve been drinking so early in the day.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon delivered on Ascension Sunday, June, 2011, for the future St. Augustine’s Anglican Church.

Lectionary texts: Acts 1.6-14; Psalm 68.1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 4.12-14, 5.6-11; John 17.1-11.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

This morning is the Sunday after the Ascension, which we celebrated on Thursday. A bit of background may help. Earlier in Acts 1, Luke reports that the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples for forty days from the time of his Resurrection and then was taken up into heaven as described in today’s NT lesson from Acts. Thursday marked the fortieth day from Easter and thus we celebrated it as Ascension Day since Easter is a movable feast.

To modern ears, the story of Jesus’ Ascension can sound a bit strange. What is going on here? Is Luke trying to tell us that Jesus has become some kind of cosmic spaceman who has basically checked out on us and gone away to be with his distant Father and God who is not particularly interested in us, or is there something else going on? As you might guess, there is indeed something else going on in Luke’s Ascension story and today I want to look briefly at what it might possibly mean for us today.

We humans have an unfortunate tendency to want to know the future, especially the end times, and can often obsess about it to the point where it distracts us from paying attention to the here and now. Harold Camping’s failed prediction that the Parousia would occur on May 21^st is a notable example of this sad fixation over the eschaton, a fancy word that refers to the end of the world (undeterred, Camping has now revised his calculations and predicts October 21^st to be the real date). We also see this unfortunate tendency illustrated in today’s lesson from Acts. Jesus’ disciples are apparently getting the sense that something else big is going to happen, that he is about to be taken from them, and they want to know about what the future holds in store for them and their beloved Israel. But Jesus will have none of it. He reminds them that the time and date for the eschaton is not for them (or us) to know.

That is precisely the point of the angels’ question to the disciples. “Why are looking heavenward when there is work for you to do here on earth right now?” While the angels do not say the latter explicitly, it is quite clear from the context that this is their intention. Before he ascended Jesus told his disciples that they are to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. In Matthew’s account of the Ascension (28.16-20), which omits the actual ascension narrative, Jesus tells his disciples that he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and that the disciples are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

It is clear, therefore, that Jesus does not want his followers to be engaged in some kind of introspective and otherworldly navel-gazing. No, there is quite a lot to do right here and now and we who claim to follow Jesus had better be ready to roll up our sleeves and get busy because it will be both immensely satisfying and terribly hard work. As today’s Epistle and Gospel lessons make clear, we will meet massive opposition in our work, both from the systems of this world and from the powers and principalities themselves, of whom Satan is the ringleader, and we dare not take that lightly.

When we understand that there is work for Christians to do right here and now in God’s broken and hurting world, we are ready to look at why the Ascension is important for us today. When Luke tells us that Jesus was lifted up in a cloud and taken to heaven, he is simply using language to tell us that Jesus has gone into God’s dimension or space, which is separate from our human or earthly dimension or space. Clouds in Scripture always indicate God’s Presence and we think immediately of God leading his people through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and the cloud that enveloped Jesus and his disciples on the mount of Transfiguration.

What Luke and the other NT writers are therefore trying to tell us is that the Ascension points us to a bigger truth. Jesus had to ascend to the Father so that he could assume his rightful place as ruler of the universe because God’s space is the control room for our space. That’s what the NT writers mean when they say that Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the Father. They do not mean that Jesus has left us to our own devices by going away to hang out with some distant and uninvolved God. Rather, the NT writers are telling us that Jesus is now in charge and he’s actively and intimately involved with us. He’s assumed his rightful place and he has sent his Spirit to help us do the work he calls us to do.

When Jesus returns in great power and glory to establish God’s New Creation, the new heavens and earth, God’s dimension and our dimension will be fused into one and all things will be transformed into New Creation. Our mortal bodies will be raised and transformed, never again to die or be afflicted with all the nasties that can beset our mortal bodies, and we will get to live directly in God’s presence forever in the new heavens and the new earth. This is our Easter hope and this is what the Resurrection and Ascension point to.

In the interim between now and then, what the NT calls the “end times” or “the last days,” we have work to do here on earth. Because we know that God loves his creation and intends to fully redeem it (and us), we are called to help Jesus in his work of New Creation. We do that by denying ourselves, taking up our cross each day, and obeying Jesus’ call to us, both as individuals and collectively as his body, the Church. We cannot do that on our own, however, and that’s why we need the Spirit’s power and Presence living in us. Neither can we be agents of God’s New Creation if Jesus really isn’t in control of all things or has checked out on us. That’s why the Ascension is so important because it reminds us that Jesus, while currently out of our dimension and out of our sight, really is in control and really is providing us with much needed help, both through his prayers for us and in the person of his Spirit.

So why is there still so much sin and brokenness in this world if Jesus really is the sovereign ruler of the universe? Because God has not yet finished the task of redemption, a task that only he can complete. Until that time, God in Christ has chosen to exert his sovereign rule during these last times through his people. He is sending us out to be his advance guard, so to speak, and because we are mortal and finite our work will necessarily be painfully slow and incomplete.

We see this illustrated plainly in today’s lesson from Acts and in the ending of Matthew’s Gospel. Those who follow Christ are to baptize new believers and then teach them, with the Spirit’s help, to obey their Lord. This is not unlike how yeast works in dough. The more disciples of Christ there are, disciples who truly love the Lord and are obedient to his commands, the more he can bring his healing touch to bear on his hurting and broken world.

If we think about this for a minute, we cannot help but have our breath taken away. God intends to use his human creatures to be the agents of his healing and redemption. What an awesome responsibility and opportunity for us! Talk about the potential to find real meaning and purpose in your life. This surely is it! None of us can say why God has chosen to restore his broken creation in this way but all of us can be thankful that God thinks enough of his human creatures to give us the opportunity to be his agents of New Creation until he returns again in great power and glory to finish the work he started.

And as our Lord reminds us in today’s lesson, we do not have to do this work alone. He promises to be with us always–even to the end of the age–in and through his Spirit. It is by his Spirit that we become his Kingdom workers. This is not of our own doing because left to our own devices we are part of the problem rather than becoming part of the solution. But when we are empowered by the Spirit, the sky’s the limit in what we can do for our Lord. We can also be assured that he will help us overcome anything the powers and principalities can throw at us and to empower us to be his Kingdom workers, to bring his healing love, mercy, and grace to a broken and hurting world that desperately needs it.

This is the promise of the Ascension. This is worthy of our time, our reflection, and more importantly, our obedience with the help of the Spirit. Are you ready for this kind of action? You simply cannot be an armchair quarterback if you are. The very God of this universe has work for you to do and he loves and respects you enough to give you the opportunity to do your part in his redemptive plan for this tired and broken old world. What a grand opportunity!

What is it that Jesus is calling you to do? If you don’t know, take your cue from the disciples in today’s lesson and start praying about it, both privately and in the fellowship of other believers. Whatever it is Jesus is calling you to do, when you understand that he is calling you to be his Kingdom worker, and when say yes to God’s gracious invitation to you in Jesus, you will discover that you are really have and are living the Good News, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is no need to doubt the literal nature of Christ’s ascension, so long as we realize its purpose. It was not necessary as a mode of departure, for ‘going to the Father’ did not involve a journey in space and presumably he could simply have vanished as on previous occasions. The reason he ascended before their eyes was rather to show them that this departure was final.  He had now gone for good, or at least until his coming in glory.  So they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and waited – not for Jesus to make another resurrection appearance, but for the Holy Spirit to come in power, as had been promised.

—Understanding the Bible, 103.

It is a pity that we call it ‘Ascension Day’, for the Bible speaks more of Christ’s exaltation than of his ascension. This is an interesting avenue to explore. The four great events in the saving career of Jesus are described in the Bible both actively and passively, as deeds done both by Jesus and to Jesus. Thus, we are told with reference to his birth both that he came and that he was sent; with reference to his death both that he gave himself and that he was offered; with reference to his resurrection both that he rose and that he was raised; with reference to his ascension both that he ascended and that he was exalted. If we look more closely, we shall find that in the first two cases, the active phrase is commoner: he came and died, as a deliberate, self-determined choice. But in the last two cases, the passive phrase is more common: he was raised from the tomb and he was exalted to the throne. It was the Father’s act.

—The Exaltation of Jesus’ (sermon on Phil. 2:9-11)

I was ordained as an Anglican priest five years ago today at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Fairlawn, OH by bishops Roger Ames and Frank Lyons. Bishop Lyons bopped me on the top of my head with a Bible (symbolizing my being under its authority) and it sounded like a hollow melon being tapped. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about that!

I remain astonished at God’s call to ministry and ever thankful for being part of the Anglican Church in North America, for our diocese and its leadership, for St. Augustine’s Anglican Church in Columbus, OH, and for our Leadership Team.

Sermon delivered on Sunday, Easter 5C, April 28, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary texts: Acts 11.1-18; Psalm 148.1-14; Revelation 21.1-6; John 13.31-35.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In this morning epistle lesson, John the Evangelist lays out for us one of the most spectacular and breathtaking scenes in the whole Bible—the wedding of the new heavens and earth. It is the culmination of God’s promised rescue plan for his good but fallen world and its creatures, a story that makes up the entire biblical narrative from Genesis 3 onward. In other words, the scene in Revelation 21.1-6 is about the promised new creation that was partially launched at Jesus’ resurrection and it is the only real antidote to fear, doubt, and despair. Try as we do to find the antidote to our doubts and fears in money, sex, power, security, and booze (or whatever else happens to be your favorite elixir), none of these will suffice in the end because none of them have the power to give life to the dead or call into existence things that are not. But the hope and promise of new creation is the real antidote to our fears and doubts precisely because it reminds us in powerful and poignant ways of God’s great love for his creation and creatures—a love that was poured out for us on Calvary—and God’s intention to rescue ultimately his people from our slavery to evil, sin, and death. And we know God does have the power to give life to the dead and to call into existence things that are not (Romans 4.17) because he spoke his creation into existence and raised Jesus from the dead.

New creation and all that accompanies it is why I have encouraged you to celebrate the fifty days of Easter wildly (how are you doing with that, BTW?) and it is worth our careful examination. But we must also remind ourselves that the consummation of God’s new creation is in the future and none of us knows when the Lord will return in great power and glory to finish the work he started in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. So what do we do in the meantime? This question is also worth our careful examination this morning because if the gospel is to make any real difference in our lives, it must also address our current situation, not just our hope and future, important as that is. But before we look at our present situation, I want us to look carefully at our future.

As we have seen in the resurrection narratives in the gospels, when God raised Jesus from the dead, he raised more than Jesus’ spirit or soul. God also raised Jesus’ body. And if at this point your eyes are rolling up in the back of your head and you are muttering to yourself how brilliantly I state the obvious, it is only because I am persuaded that the mainline churches have for years ignored the obvious or denied it altogether because bodily resurrection is just so hard for us to wrap our minds around. We have no other frame of reference except for Jesus. But God did raise Jesus’ body from the dead and the gospel writers and Paul are very clear about this. It is as if Jesus, after bearing the weight of our sin and the world’s evil himself on the cross, went through death and emerged on the other side, but with a transformed body that used the material of his mortal body as its basis but which was also something quite new. It could apparently function equally well in heaven (God’s space) and on earth (human space).

We see this illustrated in the fact that the gospel writers, especially Luke and John, tell us that after he was raised, Jesus ate and drank with his disciples and let them handle his resurrected body. But the gospel writers also tell us that Jesus could mask his appearance from his followers so that they didn’t recognize him immediately and that he could appear suddenly behind locked doors. All of this testifies quite powerfully to the fact that Jesus’ disciples were seeing no ghost. They were seeing how their future bodies would be patterned and it is absolutely essential for us to understand this if we are to ever understand how and why Jesus’ resurrection was a preview of God’s promised new creation that we read about in our epistle lesson this morning. Paul takes us to school about the nature of our future resurrection bodies in 1 Corinthians 15.35-57 and I encourage you this week to read and reflect on those verses.

Why? Because as John reminds us, when the new creation comes in full, the heavens and earth will not be destroyed but recreated. We notice first that the new Jerusalem (NT code for God’s dwelling place) will come down to earth, we won’t be taken up to heaven like some of the Rapture folks would have us believe. In other words, when God consummates his new creation, God’s space and human space (heaven and earth) will be merged into one and the clause in our Lord’s Prayer that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven will be fully answered. This means God’s people will get to live directly in God’s presence and because of this there can be no evil because God is implacably opposed to evil of any kind. That is where our resurrection bodies come into play because as Paul tells us, when our mortal bodies die we will finally be free of sin (cf. Romans 6.6-7; 2 Corinthians 2.11-13) and this also helps us understand why Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15.50). Whatever our resurrection bodies look like, we know they will be animated by God’s Spirit who gives life and our bodies will be equipped to live in the new heavens and earth.

Not only that, because our transformation will be so complete, all the hurts and wrongs and sorrows and brokenness we have to endure presently will somehow be transformed and healed so that they will never again bedevil us. We will be reunited with our loved ones who have died in Christ, never again to be separated from them. This is what John means when he tells us that God will wipe every tear from our eyes and death will be no more. And of course we earn none of this glorious promise. It is God’s gift given to us freely and graciously in and through the Lamb, Jesus himself. Resurrection and new creation are therefore not theoretical concepts. Instead, resurrection is a person and Jesus is his name (cf. John 11.25-26). We are offered these gifts because of God’s great love for us and his desire to rescue us from all that bedevils and dehumanizes us, thanks be to God! It is quite a vision and a hope!

But the new creation is our future. What about us and our lives with all of our problems right now? How does the promise of new creation speak to us right now? The answer is found, in part, in our gospel and NT lessons. Jesus tells his fearful disciples (and us) that in his death and resurrection, God will actually glorify him and as we have just seen, that’s good news for all his disciples. In the interim, Jesus commands them (and us) to love each other as he has loved them. The command to love was not new to Jesus. What was new is the fact that Jesus tells us that we must love each other as he has loved us. And what does that look like? It is a love that looks like the cross, a radical, self-giving love for others that has their best interest at heart. It is a love that is manifested in obedience to Jesus and his commands as seen in our NT lesson. Peter, being the good Jew he was, risked the scorn of his Jewish brothers and sisters in Jesus when he sat down and ate with Gentile Christians, something that was quite scandalous to any self-respecting Jew of Peter’s day. Peter did not do this to make a statement or to be “cutting edge.” Peter did it because his Lord commanded him to and Peter finally got it right. If we are not willing to be radical, cross-bearing lovers to the world, to love the least and the lost, the poor and the destitute, and especially the most unlovable among us (and you know who you are), we will never help build God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven nor will we be equipped to live in the new creation. As John reminds us in Revelation, when Jesus tells us he is making all thing new, he is implying there is going to be new work that needs to be done and without love, that work will be impossible because without love we cannot know God. And if we do not know God, how can we ever live directly in God’s presence? I am not talking here about following a bunch of rules to get our tickets punched into the new creation. I am talking about knowing God the way we know our loved ones, and that can only happen if we become cross-bearing lovers of one another in the manner Jesus commanded us and loved us.

Of course, we cannot be cross-bearing lovers on our own. We are too selfish and self-centered for that to happen. But God being the gracious Father and generous giver that he is, promises to equip us to follow his command to us to love one another as Jesus loves us, and we find out how he does that in today’s NT lesson as well. God gives us his Spirit to heal, transform, and guide us so that we gradually become more and more like Jesus in our ability to love God and each other. God promises us a glorious future in his new creation and in the interim, he lives with us and equips us to do the work he calls us to do and to be the people he calls us to be. That is why we need not fear. Do you believe this?

So what do we do with all this so that it really will make a difference for us this week in particular and our lives in general? First, if we are going to be the radical, cross-bearing lovers that Jesus commands us to be, we had better do the things that open ourselves up to the Spirit’s power so that he can do his work in us and transform us to become like Jesus. As baptized Christians we are part of God’s family in Jesus and that means we need to know our family’s story and be willing to talk to our Father regularly. Think about it. Who among us, if we care at all about our family name and history, would ignore the head of our family and other family members or refuse to listen to family stories so that we can have our identities shaped by them? It is a ludicrous idea! Likewise with our membership in God’s family. Simply put, without immersing ourselves in Word and prayer daily, we cheapen our identity as Jesus’ people and rob ourselves of the power to fight the enemy, and the enemy will pick us off. And if we don’t know what our future and hope is, how can that possibly sustain us now, let alone help motivate us to be cross-bearing lovers?

Likewise, we need to worship regularly and come to the Lord’s Table to feed on his body and blood or the same thing will happen–the enemy will pick us off. We must worship regularly because we are created to worship the one true and living God, not the gods of our own creation. And when we come to table regularly, we get a foretaste of the new creation by eating and drinking at Jesus’ future Table right here and now. There is no more tangible way to bring Jesus into our whole being—body, mind, and soul—than to feed on him literally each week.

So this week as you go about your business and are buffeted by the inevitable distractions and bad news that are part and parcel of living in a fallen world, do this. I have already encouraged you to read Paul’s writings from 1 Corinthians 15 about our future resurrection body. What I want you to do in addition is to commit 1 Corinthians 15.58 to memory because if you take Jesus’ command to love others as he loves you, and if you are like me, you will find this to be a great challenge and you will be tempted to lose heart. When you see that happening, recall 1 Corinthians 15.58 to remind yourself that your work in the Lord is not in vain, a work that must be driven by the love and power of Jesus in the Spirit. Then go and read our epistle lesson this morning to remind yourself of your future so that you will know that sin, evil, and death do not have the final say, that because Jesus has loved and claimed you from all eternity, you have a real future and a hope. Let that encourage and sustain you.

There’s more, but if you can do this regularly this week so that it starts to become a holy habit, you will have made great headway. And if you do these things, next Sunday I’d like to hear about how it went for you this week. Consider giving a quick report to us as to whether you were able to tap into a power that is not your own so that the world really can see you are one of Jesus’ people and not its own. There’s good and bad news in that because not everybody wants you to be a Christian or to bear Jesus’ light to them. But whatever happens in that regard, remember Whose you are and what you are working for because it will surely remind you in the power of the Spirit that you have Good News, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Pay attention. You might be surprised what you hear.

See what you think.

Sermon delivered on Sunday, Easter 3C, April 14, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary texts: Acts 9.1-20; Psalm 30.1-12; Revelation 5.11-15; John 21.1-19.

In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Most of us are very much like the first disciples of Jesus, which is to say that not only do we share their virtues, we also share their limitations. Most of us are like them in an area that for professed Christians, one would think we ought not to be in, we like them, have difficulty in recognizing the risen Lord.

It seems that we – like Peter and James and all the rest are all too often caught flat footed by the presence of Christ in our midst, we have a hard time catching on to the fact that he is among us, and then once we do get it figured out, we like they, have a hard time convincing our brothers and sisters in the faith that he is really here with us, that he has appeared and spoken to us.

Think of some of the resurrection appearances for a minute. Think about how the followers of Jesus failed to recognize him for the longest time and about how when they did finally grasped, how difficult it was for them to get others to believe that they had met him and at long last recognized him.

For example, the disciples refused to believe Mary Magdalene when she told them that Jesus had appeared to her in the garden outside the tomb he was buried in, in fact she herself for a period of time thought she had only met the gardener;

Then again there was the two disciples who took the road to Emmaeus and during that long walk from Jerusalem spent the better part of the day talking with Jesus without recognizing him, by the way it wasn’t till the supper hour, when he blessed and broke the bread, that they finally realized who they were with.

And then of course there is the story from today’s gospel reading about how, after Jesus had already been with his disciples on two separate occasions in the upper room, they end up failing to recognize him, at least right away, when they are fishing on the Sea of Tiberius and he comes to the shore and calls at them to let their nets down on the other side of the boat.

Why is it that the disciples do not seem to recognize Jesus right away? And why is it that they refuse to believe other people when they claim to have met the risen Christ? I don’t think it is good enough to say that the disciples were thick headed, although the evidence might tempt us to say so, nor do I suggest that disciples were dumb because, as I suggested at the beginning, we are like them.

I think that the answer lies elsewhere. I think that the reason that the disciples don’t recognize Jesus in their midst and the reason that we ourselves don’t recognize Jesus in our lives is that we don’t expect to see him, or  if we do expect to see him, we expect to see him only in certain kinds of places, and not in others.

I have met many people who feel that God is to be found and that Christ is to be found, only in special places; in places like this where there are people worshiping or prayer mountains, still quiet  places. As an individual where do you find the risen Christ? Where do you sense that God is? Where do you go to hear his voice speaking inside you and to feel his presence comforting you and giving you renewed strength for the mission that he calls you to?

We all need special places to go, places of quiet and of peace, where we can meditate and pray and think about what it is that God is asking of us, places where we find, without too much difficulty, our God present with us. We need this – but if we settle only for this, or think that we can only meet God in these places, we will end up missing the presence of Christ in all those other places where he is.

And that is sad – it is sad – because if we miss Christ in the ordinary  places of our lives then we also miss all that he can teach us there and all that he can do in us and through us there. Where do you find God?  Where do you encounter Christ? Let’s think of where Jesus was found after the resurrection,

• He was found in a cemetery garden
• He was found in a room that was locked and shuttered up a room, in which a group of men and women hid in fear for their lives…
• He was discovered on a dusty road outside the city
• And by the seashore cooking and serving a meal of bread and fish.

Some of these locations were special places we might think, but it is really only our thinking that makes them so, or rather  it is the presence of Christ there in those places that makes them special.

Consider too where Jesus was to be found before the resurrection. At a wedding, out in a fishing boat , in the village market place, at the temple teaching, at a well  talking with a Samaritan woman , and in many other places and with many types of people. Just to mention a few.

Jesus went everywhere and avoided no one.  Because of this fact some people said, before he was crucified that he could not be the Messiah, he could not be the Holy One of God because he was to be found in places where holy people would not go.

They missed recognizing Jesus and they missed the salvation that he offered them because they did not expect the Savior to be found in any places other than the special places they had identified in their own minds as the right kind of places.

How strange it would be if we, who now believe in him as the risen Lord,  end up missing his presence because we too think that he is only to be found in special places – in places like church, or our “favorite spots”.

God is everywhere, and our risen Lord is everywhere, his spirit is all around us, and if we pay special attention, we can see him and talk with him and serve him and be served by him  in all those places. The ordinary becomes sacred, it becomes sacramental when we are willing and able to see God dwelling in it when we are willing and able to allow God to transform it.

When you think about it for a moment, that is what a church building is all about, to those without faith it is nothing but bricks and a building, built in a strange way, an ordinary building.

But for us here today this ordinary building is a sacred place, a sacramental place, not only do we meet and serve God here, but in it, as well, God meets us and serves us, making us stronger and more at peace than the world that is around us. The ordinary becomes sacred because we meet Christ in it.

The disciples you know were only slow in recognizing Jesus.  Ultimately they identified him in and through all the things he did in their presence. He showed them where to catch fish, he helped them to get their living, and they recognized him and thanked him. He broke bread with them and they recognized him and were strengthened by him. He healed the sick and gave sight to the blind, and they identified him and confessed him as Lord. He taught with authority and commanded evil to depart and they perceived that God was working among them. He loved the unlovable and forgave those who sinned and they saw that God was working salvation in their midst.

Christ is here today in this place, and Christ will be with you when you leave, and Christ will appear before you as you go about and talk and work with the people around you. The test of our faith is this, will you see him wherever you go? Will you hear him calling to you in the words of the hungry and the lonely and see him working in the actions of the healers and teachers? Will you be in touch with him as you make your living each day and break your bread at each evening meal? Or will most of Christ’s ministering and loving presence be lost to you just because to you those people are ordinary people, those events are ordinary events, and those activities are ordinary activities?

The disciples were slow in recognizing the risen Christ. They did not think he would appear to them, and we are like them, in our limitations, but we are also like them in our virtues, and our virtues can, like those of the disciples increase day by day, if we, like they, remember to seek the risen Christ and to serve him in all the things we do, and all the places we go, in both those things we regard as ordinary and in those we regard as special.

We have been changed by God to make a difference for Him in this world. In the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy spirit. Amen

Check it out and see what you think.

We had a guest preacher at St. Augustine’s today and his sermon is not available. This sermon was originally preached on the second Sunday of Easter, April 11, 2010.

Lectionary texts: Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

This morning I want to develop the theme of the Resurrection changing everything for us. I want to encourage us, especially those of us who are struggling with our resurrection faith or trying to find one, to be bold in embracing the hope that is ours in the death and resurrection of Jesus because it gives us power to live our lives with joy and hope and purpose, even in the midst of all that can go wrong in our broken and fallen world.

Have you ever wondered what changed the apostles from being fearful cowards to bold apostles? In today’s Gospel lesson, John tells us that the apostles were hiding behind locked doors because they feared that the Jewish authorities would arrest them and they would end up like their crucified Master. Despite Jesus’ earlier promises to them that he would be raised on the third day, John gives us no indication that the apostles believed this (or perhaps in the midst of their grief they had forgotten Jesus’ promises). Whatever the reason, the apostles weren’t expecting to see Jesus that evening.

And we can surely relate to them because we are just like them aren’t we? We may not be afraid of arrest and execution like the apostles were but we often behave like they did that first Easter. We learn that we or our loved ones have a life-threatening disease and we become afraid. We lose our job or our retirement savings get virtually wiped out and we become afraid. We or our loved ones fall victim to addictions or destructive habits and seem to hurtle toward self-destruction and we become afraid. Whatever the fear and the situation that caused it, we shouldn’t be too hard on the apostles as they hid behind locked doors that night because we too know what it is like to be afraid.

Now fast forward the clock several weeks to Luke’s NT lesson from Acts this morning. Instead of seeing cowardly, fearful men we see bold speakers on behalf of Jesus. They are telling Jerusalem’s most powerful movers and shakers that they cannot obey their commands to keep quiet about Jesus. They have just spent some quality time in jail for Jesus’ sake and now they tell the high priest that they must obey God rather than humans, especially when humans have gotten it wrong. The apostles tell the Sanhedrin that God has demonstrated that Jesus is Lord and Savior, that they are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit. These would be stunning, blasphemous words to any self-respecting Jew or to any proud, arrogant person for that matter.

Our lesson ends here but it is not hard for us to predict the outcome of this interchange. The leaders of the Sanhedrin are furious and want to kill the apostles. Luke tells us that this didn’t happen but that the Sanhedrin did have the apostles flogged and this is where the story gets really interesting because Luke tells us that instead of complaining about this or being afraid or feeling sorry for themselves or renouncing Jesus, the apostles actually rejoiced that they had been found worthy enough to suffer for him! Imagine that. They rejoiced in their suffering for Jesus! Would you like to have a resurrection faith like that? You can if you will become weak so that Christ can become strong in you.

So what changed? What happened to these apostles that transformed their fear into boldness and courage? What allowed them to actually rejoice in their suffering for Jesus? Were they just secretly masochists who decided to come out of the closet? No! What had changed for them was the reality of the Resurrection. Knowing Jesus was alive and his promises to them were true made all the difference for the apostles.

John’s account of Jesus’ appearance to the apostles gives us insight into this transformative process. First, did you notice that Jesus did not castigate the disciples for deserting him, denying him, and apparently not believing his promises to be raised on the third day? Instead, Jesus appeared to them as they hid behind locked doors and offered them peace in the fullest sense, peace with God and reconciliation brought about by his very blood. Without telling them explicitly, Jesus was reminding them (and us) that because of him we are no longer God’s enemies. Instead, we are reconciled to God through Jesus’ cross. Jesus here is introducing them to God’s grace, wisdom, and love, which are manifested in the cross (cf. 1 Corinthians 1.18-31), and showing the apostles that they could count on that love no matter what. That love made all the difference in the world for them and it can for us as well.

Second, it should not surprise us that the apostles needed to see Jesus for themselves. Human beings are “show me” creatures by nature and the idea of the Resurrection was mind blowing and completely unexpected. Yes, many Jews believed in a general resurrection at the end time, but no one expected the resurrection of the dead to be a two-stage event in which God’s Messiah and Son was its first fruits. And so in this story we see God in his infinite wisdom and mercy granting the apostles an especial grace to seal their faith.

Even with this especial grace, it was apparently very hard for the apostles to understand what had happened. As Luke tells us in his account of this story, the disciples were terrified even after Jesus appeared to them. They thought they were seeing a ghost because they had no frame of reference to help them understand the very nature of the Resurrection that they were witnessing. Likewise, Matthew tells us that some doubted, even as others worshiped Jesus. From this we can infer that those who doubted had not seen the Risen Lord with their eyes.

And of course we see this need to see before believing poignantly epitomized in Thomas, don’t we? But note the encouragement Jesus gives him and the special blessing Jesus gives those of us who believe in him without seeing him. From this we understand that seeing Jesus physically is not in the Father’s good plan for us. We must live by faith and allow God to demonstrate his trustworthiness to us, just the way he did when he raised Jesus from the dead.

The Resurrection was, and will always be, a mind-blowing event. But as John tells us, to help his disciples further, Jesus breathed on them and gave them the promised Holy Spirit who would live in them and remind them of this truth after Jesus ascended to the Father. And like the first disciples, we too have the Holy Spirit living in us, testifying to the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection, and reminding us that he is alive and with us always, even though we cannot see him the way the apostles did. If we do not have this conviction that Christ is living in and with us, we can never hope to have the kind of resurrection faith the apostles had.

Third, in John’s and Luke’s accounts, we get a glimpse of Jesus’ resurrected body and we take note of that because when he raises us from the dead on the last day, we will have bodies like his. We note that he can appear suddenly, even when the disciples are in a locked room. But we also notice that Jesus has a recognizable body, that he can eat and be touched. There is continuity but there is transformation. Because death no longer has any power over Jesus’ new body, and because our resurrection bodies will be like his, neither will death have any power over our mortal bodies when we are raised from the dead. Moreover, as the author of Revelation reminds us in today’s Epistle lesson, we will get to live in the direct Presence of the Lord forever. All this reminds us what real life is all about. It reminds us that nothing in this world can ever separate us from God’s love for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing.

These things, among others, changed everything for the apostles. First, it allowed them to understand in a new way that their exile from God was over but not yet fully consummated. They understood that the alienation from God their sin had caused was put to an end by the blood of Christ. The apostles realized that in Jesus, God had borne their punishment himself and they were free to enter a new and life-giving relationship with him based on Christ’s merits, not their own.

Second, Jesus’ resurrection reminded them that God’s promises in Christ were trustworthy and true, that he was alive and that they could have a transforming relationship with him in this world as well as the next. As the Spirit testified to them, the apostles realized that life is more than mortal existence; it was about having a relationship with the Living God and his Son, Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Consequently, threats of punishment and death simply became irrelevant to them because they knew that regardless of what happened to their bodies, God was in charge and they were safely in Jesus’ loving embrace and Presence. They might not be able to see him any more but that did not make this Truth any less real for them because God had done what needed to be done to seal their faith.

So what does all of this mean for us? When serious illness or economic catastrophe or some other terrible thing strikes, how can our resurrection faith help sustain us and even help us overcome all the bad things of life? First and foremost we must learn to rely on God’s wisdom and power, not our own. And God’s wisdom demands that we become weak so that his grace can be made perfect in us. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, the cross is God’s wisdom and power but the world regards God’s wisdom as foolishness. Like the apostles learned on those two Sundays after the Resurrection, we can count on God’s love for us no matter what our circumstance. We may not understand why bad things sometimes happen to us or our loved ones but knowing that Jesus is alive and with us reminds us that God is in control even when we cannot apparently see it.

God in his wisdom has simply chosen not to share all his purposes and ways with us and asks us instead to trust him in any and every circumstance. If we are not satisfied with this answer, it is probably an indication that our pride is being offended. We want God to treat us as equals when in fact we are not equal to God. As God reminds us through the prophet Isaiah, his ways are not our ways nor are his thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8ff). When we learn to trust God irrespective of our circumstance, we are learning to rely on God’s wisdom and power as manifested in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Think about it in this way. Parents do not often share their ways with their infant children because infants are simply not able to understand why their parents do what they do with them. As parents we often tell our children to do something or not do something based on whether it would be good or harmful to the child. As they grow older, our kids often question us even when they don’t see the bigger picture or understand what we as parents are doing or why. Likewise with God and us. For whatever reason, God has chosen not to share with us why he allows suffering and injustice. Instead, he tells us to look to the death and resurrection of Christ and to trust him because he has demonstrated his trustworthiness when he raised Jesus from the dead.

Our resurrection faith therefore reminds us that no matter how things might turn out for us in our mortal lives, it really does not matter because God has secured our life and our destiny. Yes, our bodies die but we live because Christ lives. We no longer have to fear sickness or death or anything else because we have been redeemed from sin and death by Christ’s blood. We don’t deserve any of this, but we have life offered to us anyway because God loves us and wants us to live forever with him. We know this to be true because when God raised Jesus from the dead he confirmed that his promises to us are true. This doesn’t mean we are immune to hurt, heartache, or sorrow. What it does mean that in the midst of our sorrow we can have the basis for real hope and even joy because we know that suffering and death are only temporary and cannot ultimately hurt us.

Last, our resurrection faith helps us reorient our lives in radical new ways. Instead of making the things of this world our top priority, we make developing our relationship with God our top priority. We are bound to be disappointed when we make things of this world our priority because this world is finite and fallible. But when we make our relationship with God our top priority, our resurrection faith reminds us we will never be disappointed because God is trustworthy and true. Like the apostles, we can actually find joy in suffering for Jesus because he is the only thing that really matters. Like our Master, our suffering for his sake is our path to glory because his grace is made perfect in our weakness. Again, the only way we can learn this is to take the plunge and trust God, but it is the testimony of Scripture and countless Christians over time and across cultures that God does not disappoint when we focus on making our relationship with him our top priority. He did this with the apostles that first Easter and he continues to do that for us today.

The death and resurrection of Jesus remind us that God is good to his word and promises. He has rescued us from sin and death and promised us life forever if we will but put our hope and trust in Christ. Christ’s death and resurrection remind us to keep an eternal perspective on life and help us to remember that even in the midst of living in a broken and fallen world with all of its mysteries and hurts, God is in charge and working out his plan of salvation. For those of us who have put our full hope and trust in Christ, we are assured that we are part of that plan, not outside of it. Consequently we work to become the creatures that God created us to be so that we can live in joyful obedience and hope, even in the face of all that can go wrong in this world because we know that life is about having a relationship with the Living God, starting right here and now, and nothing, not even death, can break that relationship. There will be troubles in this world but fear not, because Christ has overcome the world. If you really truly believe that, you have power to overcome any adversity and good news, now and for all eternity. Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.