The Fifth Sunday of Easter ----- 29 April 2018

(I preached this sermon at both Trinity Anglican Church and St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, both of Aylmer, ON. I 'ad-libbed' a few things regarding the recent tragedy in Toronto and the newest information from the Koreas. I can't remember what I said, so...)

John 15:1-8

 (Jesus said) "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.  He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

·       I have a “brown thumb.” By that, I mean the opposite of the proverbial “green thumb.” People with a green thumb seem to be able to make anything grow and flourish. In contrast, brown thumb people can turn a lovely green plant into compost with hardly any effort. I… have a brown thumb. Please don’t trust me with your beloved flowers. So much for what I know about plants and gardening. I’ve actually had to have people tell me the names of some of the plants growing around us, the farm crops in particular. It was and often is one of the many things I don’t know much about.

·       Jesus lived in a farming culture in his time. People knew and saw plants, crops, vine and branches daily. He used the very familiar vine-and-branches example to teach about how his disciples are attached to him and what it takes for them to grow and flourish. To flourish as a branch attached to the vine… or as Jesus would put it, “abiding in” the vine… means to bear fruit, not just grow bigger. Things can grow all for themselves without bearing fruit for the future… or for the planter.

·       Jesus also speaks of ‘abiding.’ Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. “Abide” has come to mean accept or tolerate, but it means first and foremost to live. To abide means to live somewhere.

·       In this passage, Jesus says Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. When we live in Christ and when Christ lives in us, then there will be growth and there will be fruit. How much fruit and what sort of fruit is immaterial; there will be fruit no matter what form it may take.

·       Bearing fruit and abiding. One seems active and the other appears to be less so. To abide can mean to remain, something that sounds to our ears to be static and maybe inactive. To bear fruit sounds so much more active and lively. The two ideas sound very much like opposites. How could they both apply to the live of a disciple?

·       In the grace of God, they can. To live the life of a Christian disciple, we must be rooted in Jesus. To live the life of a Christian disciple in this world, we are called to bear fruit. Faith in this sense is both receiving and giving. We are to abide and stay rooted in Jesus and grow out and actively bear fruit at the same time.

·       It may appear contradictory as we see it at first. We live and “walk” by faith and that faith-defined life is expressed in the fruit we bear in our life in Christ. Our lives of believing and of doing must be rooted in Christ. Then the branches joined to (“abiding in”) the vine will bear fruit for the proclamation of the Good News and for salvation. At Matthew’s Gospel puts it Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Mt. 7:16-20)

·       The reference to pruning and the removal of fruit-less branches may sound frightening. Those of you who are gardeners and/or farmers know the necessity of pruning for the health of the entire plant. Whether we take this as the stripping away of unhealthy or un-fruitful parts of ourselves or similar influences within the Church, the pruning will be done for the sake of the whole and it will be done by none other than the Jesus calls the vinegrower - the Father.

·       So do we mourn for that has been pruned away? Do we grow angry with ourselves because we don’t have a green thumb when to come to bearing fruit in God’s grace? Do we struggle over believing and doing? It is God who gives the growth and it is God who brings out the fruit. It is the grace of God that plants and grows faith in us. Remaining connected to the “Jesus vine” is the vital thing for us… and this is done in grace and by grace-filled attention to the Word of God as it comes to us in many ways and by attention to the world around us that so needs the fruit we may bear for the life of Christ within us.

Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. …My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter ---- 22 April 2018

John 10:11-18

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

I am the good shepherd.

·       The depiction of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is quite often found in Christian iconography or, more simply, image making. The image of Jesus as a young man with a lamb over his shoulders has been found in the catacombs of Rome dating back to as early as 325 A.D. Since then, it’s everywhere; on book covers, greeting cards, posters. It’s a favourite of Christians everywhere… as far as I know. At St. John’s, we’ve discussed the image of the Good Shepherd at some length and I’m glad to say I learned a lot from those discussions.

·       The image of God as shepherd is not entirely new to the Jewish people. Psalm 80 begins with these words:

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim,

shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
and come to save us! 

·       Of course, our minds go immediately to Psalm 23 - The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

·       I finally met an actual shepherd a while back. He brought a few lambs to a re-enactment we were both involved in. He cared for those little lambs very tenderly and took pains to see that they were penned up while we all did other things on the property. They were also quite noisy and he readily admitted that. I must admit that to this day I can’t really see this fellow as a symbol of Jesus, probably because I know him from other times and places. Still, he was a good shepherd; he really truly cared for his flock.

·       That’s what makes the difference. Jesus calls himself the “Good Shepherd” and compares that image to that of the “hired hand” who care more for his pay than the flock. When trouble appears, he disappears while the Good Shepherd would sacrifice himself for the good of the flock. Of course, identifying himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep would make John’s readers (and us) think of the Cross and all that it means. Jesus goes further, saying I lay down my life in order to take it up again. Besides referring to the Resurrection, it also lets us know that his ministry as the Good Shepherd is not ended. Jesus ministry continues as he remains our good shepherd.

·       As Jesus is and remains our Good Shepherd, it is important that we realize that he does this not out of any sort of obligation, but because he wishes to in accordance with the will of the Father.

·       Jesus told those who were listening to him that For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. His desire was to do the will of his Father, knowing that it could – and would – cost him his life. This is what he chose to do; It was not thrust upon him by something like fate or circumstances. Ultimately, it is what he decided to do.

·       In the same way, the decision then is reflected in his decision now to remain our Good Shepherd.

·       The friend I spoke of earlier who is a shepherd only has a small flock – a few sheep and their lambs. He still cares for each one.

·       Jesus does the same even though his flock is much, much larger. Each of us is known and cared for. He is our shepherd, not our manager, our supervisor, or our ring master. He is our shepherd. He cares for us as we are and as we will be. He knows us, inside and out, as a shepherd knows his sheep, for as Luke’s Gospel puts it even the hairs of your head are all counted.  (Luke 12:7)

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

the Third Sunday of Easter --- 15 April 2018

(Southwestern Ontario was pounded by what was called "an historic" ice storm on Saturday and Sunday. Because of that, the leadership of both Trinity Anglican Church and St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church cancelled services for today. I think it was a wise move. Still... this is the sermon I WOULD have delivered this morning.)

Luke 24:36b-48

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

"Have you anything here to eat?"

·       This seems to be a very simple request. Maybe Jesus was hungry after all he’d been through. As true as that may be, the real reason was to prove to his stunned disciples that he was real. Some thought he was a ghost or some other being of pure spirit with only the appearance of a body. To eat something – a chunk of broiled fish in this instance – proves that Jesus is there in his physical body, with the shape and form and function of a physical body. People with bodies eat and spirits or ghosts do not… despite what you might have seen in certain movies. The Resurrection Luke is showing here is a real bodily one and not a wishful memory or a fevered delusion or an apparition of some type or other.

·       After all, what did we hear Jesus saying to Thomas last Sunday? “Put your finger in the marks of the nails and your hand into my side. Doubt no more, but believe!”

·       There is a ‘double helping’ of the Good News here. The joyful Easter cry of “Christ is risen!” lets us know that our Saviour is risen from the tomb and is victorious over death. That would be a wondrous thing and we’d still have to ask what that wondrous thing for Jesus would mean to us.

·       The second point – the ‘second helping’ – is the Good News that where Jesus leads, we all will follow. The Resurrection is not simply for Jesus alone, but it is a pledge and promise to us. The second letter to Timothy says this: The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him (2 Timothy 2:11-12)

·       Following the same line, the book of Revelation calls Jesus “the first-born of the dead” (Rev. 1:5), a title that could mean that he is the first to go the route of resurrection and the first among so many who will follow on that way.

·       If then the Resurrection is something that has a real physical-ness about it, it tells us something about our faith. The Christian Church has been clear that our faith is not simply about ideas and concepts and tenets to be believed. We are not saved through some idea or word of secret knowledge. We as Christians do not hold to a spirituality that seeks transcendence from a sinful and evil physical world to be free to travel in realms of pure thought and consciousness freed from any sort of physical body. Our faith is tied up the visible, touchable, taste-able, smell-able, hearable creation in all its beauty and all its terror. The whole of creation is referred to here, including what we cannot see or perceive.

·       Doesn’t the book of Genesis say God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.?

·       John’s Gospel says For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. The word “World” mean all of creation, not some spiritualized part of it. The promise of the Resurrection, the promise of Easter is the renewal of all that exists, of all that is created. It is the promise of new life and sign of new hope.

·       The preaching of this hope of resurrection to all nations and the call to repentance and forgiveness has been the Church’s mission since that Easter night that Luke tells of. It is our mission today. That hasn’t changed through the years.

·       Isn’t it odd that the act of eating a morsel of broiled fish could show so much of the plan and the love of God? It really is a good thing.

While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"

The Second Sunday of Easter --- 8 April 2018

John 20:19-31

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

(This is the sermon "as written." I 'ad-libbed' quite a bit at the end.)

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

·       Let’s “wonder together” for a bit.

·       Have you ever wondered what you would do in Thomas’ place? Would you dive into belief despite the clear evidence of the death of Jesus?

·       Have you ever wondered if we are too quick to blame Thomas for a natural human reaction to the news of the resurrection of Jesus? How would any of us react? Would we run to the tomb to see for ourselves? Would we sit and sulk? Would we laugh it off or say “That’s not funny!” to the person carrying the news?

·       Have you ever wondered what Thomas felt when he finally saw Jesus? Did he feel joy? Did he say the Biblical equivalent of ‘Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!’? Was he too stunned to speak? He did not even ask for the proof he originally said he wanted.

·       Have you ever wondered how the other disciples took what Thomas said: Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe. Were they angry? Frustrated? Hurt? I find it interesting that Thomas remained part of the community of the disciples of Jesus. He was not thrown out despite his obvious scepticism about the Resurrection.

·       Have you ever wondered why John included this incident in his Gospel? He takes pains to have his readers understand why he is writing - But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. Maybe there were those in the church John knew who did not believe in the resurrection or had questions and needed something more. The example of Thomas – who in another place suggests that the disciples follow Jesus to Lazarus’ burial place that we may die with him. (John 11:16) – could sooth troubled consciences of those who wondered. There is no condemnation or shaming of those who wonder, only an urging to believe, even if it is a process of coming to faith. John says to his readers that you may come to believe which sounds like a word to those who do not believe or do not believe completely as yet.

·       Faith for John might be more of a way of following than an instant decision. People have to “come to” faith. In John’s Gospel, Nicodemus, the woman-at-the-well, and the man-born-blind all came to believe through questions and an experience of Jesus.

·       We have questions, even today. Many of our question are answered or at least acknowledged by the Gospels, all four of which were written so that you may come to believe. We can have an experience of Jesus through faith, through the community of believers, and through both Word and Sacrament. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus even says that we and believers like us are given a gift: Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.

·       In the first letter of John, the author writes to his readers we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. It appears that unity among the disciples of Christ was important.

·       So we wonder… and we believe… and we gather in the name of Jesus to celebrate what he has done for us and to support each other in faith. We might even take some comfort and encouragement in the fact that John was writing his Gospel with us in mind. Maybe not “us” individually, but “us” as believers yet to come, people who would come to faith without seeing the nail wounds and touching the spear wound in Jesus’ side.

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Easter Sunday/The Resurrection of our Lord ---- 1 April 2018

Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

·       Mark’s Gospel concludes with the passage we’ve read today. Our Bibles contain further verses, but no one is sure where they came from. To play it safe, the church keeps it to the rather abrupt ending of Mark’s Gospel as it was found in the oldest texts.

·       In his writing, Mark seems to take pains to note that the three women came to the tomb on the first day of the week. This is not simply a calendar reference, giving the date and time of their actions; it places what they did in a very special light.

·       In the book of Genesis, creation begins on the first day of the week. It might be better to say that the beginning of creation defines the day of the week. In any event, when God begins to create light and darkness are separated and there is the first day. The first day of the week is the beginning of creation.

·       The Gospels say that Jesus’ resurrection took place on the first day of the week and this is not simply a pointing out of the day, but a linking of the resurrection to the act of creation. Resurrection means a new creation and new life. The crucifixion took place on Friday and Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried before sundown, the beginning of the Sabbath. (Even the Creator rested on the Sabbath, Genesis tells us.) It’s often been noted that Jesus sacrifice is tied to the Passover as well. That being the case, the entire event – the crucifixion and resurrection are tied to the creation and to the freedom celebrated in the Passover.

·       In both of these references from the Hebrew Bible, God acts powerfully, decisively… and mysteriously. What is done in creation, at the Passover, and in the days of the event we call Easter is beyond our understanding and leaves us in awe in the middle of such a tremendous mystery.

·       The young man dressed white that the women saw in the tomb told them you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. He also says they are to tell the other disciples and Peter that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee. Mark wrote that the women fled and that they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

·       We don’t seem to have the whole story here. They must have told someone since Mark wrote all this down.

·       There’s more of the story that we don’t have. If this is the start of the new creation, then the old order is starting to pass away. The struggle we know is real, for the old and the new – within us and outside of us – struggle for control and domination… and all of us know this struggle.

·       Just as God brought order from chaos in the story of creation, just as death could not hold Jesus in its grip and in the tomb, the new creation cannot be stopped. It will be for us, around us, and within us. We are caught up in it and we are part of it. As disciples, we are to tell of this in words and in actions.

·       Just as the phrase, on the first day of the week holds more meaning than first meets the eye, so our Easter greeting carries more than it appears.

·       Christ is risen… and we are free.

·       Christ is risen… and death is defeated.

·       Christ is risen… and the world is new.

·       Christ is risen… and so shall we.

·       Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

The Easter Vigil ---- 31 March, 2018

as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

·        Tonight we take part in a vigil. There was a time when this vigil would last all night and the darkness would be filled with hymns, poems, readings, and talks. There might be processions and people might come and go at times.

·        All this would be done to await the dawn – the age-old symbol of the Resurrection of Christ – and the rising of the sun in the east would remind the worshippers of this Resurrection.

·        I suppose we’re not the people our ancestors in the faith were. We’re not any less, but the world and how we find ourselves in it have changed. There are still some who hold vigil all night and there are some who wake early to greet the dawn on the shores of the lake here in our area.

·        The point is we wait and we continue to wait. The point of such a vigil is to wait for what we know will come. Any such vigil is an exercise in hope.

·        Our Gospel reading tonight tells us that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb with no hope of seeing Jesus and maybe no hope of anything. She came to mourn and to sit in her loss. She didn’t expect anything but a closed tomb. To find the tomb open still did not impart hope to her since the body might have been stolen.

·        Peter and the “disciple that Jesus loved” were without hope as well. They did not understand what Jesus has told them. They did not comprehend what had been told about what would happen to Jesus. The crucifixion dashed their hopes and the hopes of all the disciple.

·        None of them expected the Resurrection. We however know the entire story and we know the end. We hold vigil to remind ourselves that we are part of this story of the empty tomb and the surprise of the resurrected Jesus.

·        The story of Jesus Resurrected does not end with the conclusion of any of the Gospels. The Gospels end as written works; the Good News goes on through our lives. Just like those disciples on the first day of the week – the day of the New Creation, we don’t understand the Scripture either. There will come a time when we will understand. Until then we wait in vigil, although it is a vigil of joy rather than despair.

·        Once again, we know how the story ends. And we will understand. You know when that will be? When we can say what Mary Magdalene said to all the disciples that first day of the renewed creation – “I have seen the Lord!”

·        Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.