He is not here! He is risen!

Alleluia!

Remember when?  I'll bet your family has some great stories which start with 'Remember when.........' and get told again and again. These are the memories which get us laughing or leave us pensive or taste a little bittersweet.  They are our stories; they make us one.  Family members know the story and those who know the story are considered family.

Children love these kinds of stories, especially when Mom or Dad are the main characters and were young and did something silly .....you know, they acted like the children they were.  My children always loved to hear about adventures from 'when they were a baby' including all the ways they managed to fracture the English language as they learned to talk.  I only get nervous when my children are telling stories to one another and I have absolutely no recollection of the 'incidents' being described.

Sharing stories after the death of a loved one helps us place this moment in the context of an entire life lived.  The stories connect us and give us a sense of belonging while at the same time carrying us along the current of inexorable time.

When we read the stories about Jesus, we get to listen in on the disciples' story telling.  Remember when.....he fed all those people on the hillside?  Remember when.....he made that terrible storm go away?   Remember when.....he ate that last supper with us?

Remember when.....we thought he was dead.........but he wasn't?  The earthquake!  The angel!  I couldn't believe it.  I wanted to, but it was too incredible.  I told Mary and Peter told me and then I spoke to Thomas and then......it was amazing.

He is not here!  He is risen!  Who could imagine that?  What can I say?

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

When healing is just the beginning......

It makes a great deal of sense that when  you are burdened with a physical/mental/spiritual/social problem......that absolutely no one seems to be able to solve.......that should healing come, should you experience wholeness once again........you will be filled with gratitude.  I expect for days you will find it hard to actually believe that the long wait and all the worry are over.  Before the healing, you could only look down the road one day at a time.  Now a whole future stretches out before you.  There are all kinds of possibilities.  I think this is rightly called HOPE.

Yet let us consider that the gift of healing is only the beginning.  It offers to each of us the opportunity to start again.  Now that the great burden of our broken bodies or spirits is no longer our reality, we have a chance to begin again with a new reality, and to live out that reality in new and different ways.  That is, the gift of healing is also the gift of a new tomorrow......and that tomorrow could and just maybe should be different from today.

Because after today, you will be a person who once was oppressed or imprisoned by a problem that was beyond this world's ability to solve. Now you will be a walking example of the unpredictability of grace, poured out on you and your life.  You might even call this salvation.

And you just might want to tell someone else about this miraculous, life changing, life giving experience.  You just might want to tell someone else about how it all came about.  In the case of the three people healed by Jesus in the 8th chapter of Matthew, each one just might end up telling their story of new life.....and pointing to the Jesus who made it all happen.  Those who were healed would now also be witnesses......to the salvific power of Jesus, to the joy of restoration, to the gift of unexpected healing.

Healing takes many forms:  a broken relationship restored, a disease which disappears, an invitation to an outcast, a meal for the hungry, a mind which is whole again.  Any and all of these can turn our lives in a new direction, one of gratitude but also a life of witness as well.  The verb  sodzo is Greek and is translated as 'to heal' 'to make whole' or 'to save'.  In this one word is wrapped all these notions of release from disease, wholeness of body, mind, spirit and the new life that is discovered in the end.

Healing is the beginning of a journey of salvation: new life that springs up like living water in those who have been made whole through powers unknown by mere humans.  Sure, some of that healing comes to us through modern science and practice.  That doesn't make it any less amazing, or, to think about it, leave us any less thankful.

From healing to witness.  New life springing up.  Salvation lived today.  Forgiveness that takes the broken and makes it whole.   I bet you have a story about how your life has been changed.  If we share that story with others, they just might reach out to the one who wants to heal them as well.

Faith: origins

If faith is a relationship, then faith is about trust.  That in which you put your trust is the God in which you have faith, so says Martin Luther.  This applies to lower case 'gods' as well.  Some of the stuff we trust is nothing more than the ephemeral trappings of life, status and money.

So where does this trust come from?

If we talk in human terms, we learn about trust from our first relationships, generally with our parents.  We cry; we are comforted.  We are hungry; we are fed.  They are bigger than we are; we look to them for safety and protection.

That is the most basic of trusting relationships and it is forged right out of the womb.  But it grows.  Don't worry, this won't hurt.....and it doesn't.  Come on, jump!  I'll catch you....and they do.  I wouldn't tell you something if it wasn't true....and well, most of the time that one works out as well.

As we grow, and our relationship with parents and friends and strangers grows, we learn about the depth and limits of trust.  Humans are not all powerful; they are not perfect.  Not all humans are to be trusted.  Into every life comes some disappointment, hurt, loss, anger.

Our relationship with God begins in a different way.  God is reflected to us - we watch our parents' interaction with this unknown 'God'.  We listen to the stories about how God has acted throughout history (Bible) and how God is active in the lives of folks around us (testimony or witness, generally over coffee). We participate in faith rituals (worship, sacraments, service projects, funerals) where the rituals help shape us and our understandings.

We begin to ask questions. The questions grow as we do.   Is God bigger than the tallest tree?  How does God know when I am praying?  Where is God when I am hurt - physically or emotionally?  Lord, why do you feel so far away?

We begin to listen for answers.  Not just the answers that others around us offer, but we begin to listen for God's voice in our life - leading, correcting, assuring...even weeping with us.  We begin to understand that the answers are not always easy.

The witness of others is critical to our growing relationship with God, a relationship that has all the usual ups and downs.  Without the witness of the saints, we wander and wonder looking for a framework for our decisions and our lives. Some find that framework in the NFL, some in fashion, some in industry, etc.  For Christians, Christ crucified is the frame by which we lead our lives.

Luther teaches that it is the Holy Spirit who calls us to faith.....through the witness of faithful saints all around us.  We become the reflection of God to others, their guide to this God we have found....or should I say, who has found us.

I'd love to hear the story of how God found you.  Stop by for a chat....and some coffee.

For Luther references, check out the Small Catechism, Apostle's Creed, article 3 and the Large Catechism, Ten Commandments, Commandment #1.

Faith: witness

Have you ever been a witness in a courtroom?  The closest I've come was testimony before a Grand Jury.  It was a bit intimidating.  I knew that there would be consequences to my testimony; not only a trial but a jail sentence was a real possibility.

So what we say when we give testimony....what kind of witness we bring to the proceedings is very important.  We must be clear about what we know and clear about what we do not know.  We can't say Yes just because we want it to be that way.  We must stick to the truth and trust the system to work it all out.

Our witness to our faith is equally important.  Each person of faith is a reflection of the God s/he calls on.  We witness with both our words and our deeds.  Let's start with words.

Tell your story.  Tell us how God found you.  Tell us about all the questions you have had, all the situations when you turned towards God and insisted on a better explanation.  Tell us about the Aha! moments and those moments when your breath was taken away.  Witness to what you know, what you have experienced with this God of creation.

Stick with your story with God and leave out all the grander explanations and churchy sounding pronouncements.  Resist the temptation to pontificate on matters.  Try not to speak for God unless you are using God's own words, and even then, a great deal of humility is called for since we have amazing skills at twisting what God is saying to our own ends.

No two of us experience God exactly the same way - and yet your experience will help me find my experience.  I understand the power of a sunset; the relief of being healed; the fear of losing a loved one.  I understand the terror of the night and the arrows that fly by day.  I understand that sometimes the pain is so great that I will not be able to hear or see God, and God will wait alongside of me until I am able.

Find a passage of scripture that helps explain what you have experienced.  The Psalms are the perfect locale, but many of the stories of the Bible are equally powerful.  Hannah, childless and yet faithful, cried out to God for the gift of a son.....and her prayer was answered, and her answer was to dedicate that child to the Lord's work.  (1 Samuel)  Moses was in trouble with the law and couldn't speak effectively in front of others....and yet God called him to head his people out of slavery and into relationship with this God. (Exodus)  Dorcas was so dedicated to serving others through the beautiful garments she made that when she died, her companions held up those same beautiful garments as examples of God's love flowing through her.  (Acts 5)

Tell your story.  God is at work through your story; through you others see and come to know God.

Now that God has found you, let everyone else in on the story.

Ahhh, the Ethiopian eunuch, or being the odd man out

Acts 8.26-40 is the story of the "Ethiopian Eunuch" -

Let's address the Ethiopian portion of this: when Jeremiah and portions of the nation of Israel fled to Egypt in about 600 BC, an Israelite community developed on the coast of Africa and many remained.  There continues to be a Jewish presence in both Egypt and Ethiopia.  (how much I'm not sure; google it if you're interested).  Although lots of nations are mentioned at the Pentecost gathering (Acts2.9-11) no Ethiopians are named; so as an Ethiopian he represents those who are geographically and ethnically far away. 
This 'man' had been to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home.  He was reading the prophet Isaiah and was unsure whether the prophet was speaking of himself "like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, like a lamb silent before its shearer" or if Isaiah spoke of someone else.  Philip had the honor of introducing this man to Jesus, and once again witnessed to him about the gift of Jesus the Son of God.  The Ethiopian wanted to be baptized immediately, and so it was accomplished.

Why the big deal about this man being a eunuch?  Couldn't the whole story be told without mentioning this detail?  And what is a eunuch anyway?  (Frankly, if you want the details, google it.)

 A eunuch was a man who in his youth was rendered impotent in order to eliminate any possibility that he would 'stray' into forbidden territory.  You can see why the male who was in charge of the harem would be a eunuch and often court officials with access to money were as well.  Being a eunuch pretty much eliminated other career possibilities for the man.  It set him aside socially as well.  The eunuch was always 'the odd man out.'   Religiously, eunuchs were excluded from participation in Temple rituals and from full admittance, as proselytes, into Israel's community.

So the one that was rejected by the social order (although made that way in order to serve society's purposes) is the one who receives a special, personal word of enlightenment, a witness to Jesus and the acceptance of baptism.  The one who was seeking a higher meaning for his life was given the ultimate gift of being included. 

Lots to think about here ......

By what power or by what name?

Or as my mother would have said it, "By whose authority?"

I like the reply attributed to Peter, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed...."

Notice how quickly the 'authorities' jumped over the wondrous healing of this man, a crippled beggar who can now walk (see 3.1-10).  Little time is given to thinking through this miraculous occurrence.  Little time is given in prayer to listen for God's guidance in view of this miraculous healing.  Instead, Peter is taken prisoner so he can account for his actions!  You would have thought he was a thief, a murderer, even a blasphemer.  But not a healer, or why would the authorities be so hostile?

No, they jumped right to an examination of credentials.....and the tone is clearly hostile.  Peter acknowledges that when he poses his question.

Now this is NOT the primary reason this text has been chosen for Sunday, April 29th.  The text has been chosen because of Peter's subsequent testimony to the power of the risen Jesus Christ.  Peter never points to himself, but points to Jesus and through Jesus to God, the source of all healing.  We too are called to this kind of witnessing.  But that is for another day.

Today I want us to pause and think about the last time we leapt over the miraculous and amazing in order to pick apart the details.  It is so easy to do since the miraculous upsets the world as we know it; it upsets the given order which includes my place in the order.  It frightens me because it may leave me in a *lower *worse *unstable *unknown position compared to where I am now.  So I ask, "Who are you?' and "Where does your power and authority come from?" and "Why should I listen to you?" 

And we do all of this without first listening for God, wondering with God what the message here could be and what new pathway God might be opening for us, our neighbor, the world. 

As limited as we are in the task of witnessing, we are even more limited in the work of listening.  Perhaps if we listened more, we would find witnessing a greater source of joy, and easier as well.