Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Yr C Jan 30 2022

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Yr C Jan 30 2022

Jeremiah 1:4-10, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30, Psalm 71:1-6

 

On a Saturday afternoon, when I was in elementary school, all of us would load up the yellow school buses, our moms and maybe our dads, and all the kids, would head downtown Minneapolis for the Shrine Circus. What an adventure, people squished together to get in, people squished together in their seats. The smell of cotton candy wafting through the air, hot dogs, and cracker jacks. All of those light up whirring toys tempting us, calling to us, and our moms saying no. At least my mom saying no. But it's the trapeze that I am imagining today. The men and women climbing all the way to the top of the big top, swinging the swings back and forth. One person on each swing, swinging back and forth. And then the flyer, hands clasped to the swinger, swings back and forth, until it's time to let go and fly. That's it, right there, flying through the air, exhilarating and frightening all at the same time. 

 

That's the place Jesus puts us. That's where this story puts us. It continues the story we began to hear last week, Jesus takes up the scroll in his neighborhood synagogue, the place he grew up, the place he crawled around on the floor as a kid, the place he played with his friends, the place he learned to read. His friends and his parent's friends in the synagogue were thinking, this is Joseph's son, isn't he a nice boy. And he knows his Bible so well. 

 

And then as Jesus is reading from the prophet Isaiah, he claims that he himself is in the line of the prophets. He is a prophet like Elijah and Elisha. This is an important theme in Luke’s gospel; the main identifier for Jesus in Luke is as prophet. And no prophet is welcome in their hometown. Just like that the story takes a dramatic shift. The old story had always been told about events in the future, the messiah will come, the messiah will be a political event, and all of a sudden the tense changes from Messiah's fulfillment in the future, to now, this is happening now. It gets really tense. And it surely doesn't look anything like any of them had imagined. 

 

And that's where we are, like the trapeze flyer, we have left one swing behind, and have not yet grasped the other one. We live in this place of exhilaration and fright all at one time. We live in this presence that Jesus gives us. The past has been, the future is yet, and Jesus pulls us squarely into the present, and claims that God's love and grace are available to you right here and right now. Not only is it available to you, it is available to everyone, God's love knows no bounds.

 

And the reading from first Corinthians shows us what we are doing while we are flying. We are loving. And if we are not loving, we are falling. 

 

The good news though, might actually be about the net, the net that is always there under those flyers. Now, you may think the net is there to catch you when you miss the connection, and that is helpful. But I would suggest it's even more than that. I suggest the net is there to help the flyers be bold and courageous, to help us be bold and courageous. Without the net we tend to be timid, and you can't be timid and fly, the net helps us to love boldly and courageously. The net helps us to let go and live the life of love that Jesus invites us to live, not in the past, not in the future, but right now. 

 

Love is patient and kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love wins. 

 

And the net reminds us there is a cost to flying, there is a cost to following Jesus. Because the Word of God is for all people including the poor and the oppressed, the outcast and the sinner, those we love and those we hate, you and me, the Word of God threatened and continues to threaten those who are in positions of power. Jesus tells stories that show God’s grace, available to all, not to just some. Like rain, God's grace falls touching all – Gentiles as well as Jews, insiders as well as outsiders. To speak and act in God’s name sets one apart, and sets one up for ridicule, sets one up to be thrown over the cliff. 

 

And the net also reminds us that forgiveness is about living boldly and courageously. Loving, loving as first Corinthians encourages us to love, does not mean that we get it perfect or even right. But not loving, not even trying, is to not even live at all. We may miss our mark, but you can't miss if you don't fly, you can't miss if you don't Love. The net reminds us that when we miss, God's forgiveness and grace is there to catch us. 

 

When they realized what Jesus was saying, they got angry, is this not just Joseph's son? Who does he think he is? They led him to the cliff so that they could hurl him off. Now, in all those Marvel Universe movies I watch, the hero, gets hurled off the cliff, and somehow the hero flies, or is rescued. But Jesus doesn't get rescued in a dramatic sort of way, instead, he passes through the midst of them and goes on his way. And that too is bold and courageous.

 

Jesus is in our midst, Jesus is fully and completely present with us. Jesus didn't get somehow whisked off the cliff, and Jesus doesn't get whisked off the cross. That's not the way the story goes. After some pain and suffering, Jesus dies on the cross. Pain and suffering are a part of living and loving. The new life that is offered goes through the cross, not around it, and Jesus is not magically whisked off of it or out of it. 

 

Nor are we. We might fall or fail when we are living and loving boldly and courageously, and as we hit the net there's nothing that guarantees that we don't get hurt, it may even kill us. But that's not the end of the story, because you and I know that Love wins.

 

The claim that Jesus makes, that God's kingdom is fulfilled in the present, in our presence, is transformational. We are partners with Jesus in kingdom building, and we have our roadmap in Corinthians, "And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." And as partners with Jesus we love boldly and courageously. We remember that love is not a way we feel, but that love is what we do. It seems to me, in these days, loving boldly and courageously is hard work. But we've already acknowledged there's no guarantee for easy. This call is to live and do mercy, compassion, and justice. There is so much injustice happening in the world around us. God's love calls us to do it differently. And God's love helps us to fly. Let's fly together. Amen.  

Second Sunday of Easter Yr A

Video

2nd Sunday of Easter Yr A

Acts 2:14a,22-32, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31, Psalm 16

Alleluia! Christ is risen: The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Can you imagine…. Just think of it, you go to the place where Jesus is buried, and he is not there. You see someone you take for the gardener, and when he calls your name you quickly recognize him as the teacher. You run to tell your friends that you have seen the Lord. And then, when it was evening on that day, you gather with your friends in fear and trepidation, and Jesus shows up again. Jesus says, Peace be with you, he shows his hands and his feet, and then breathes on you, receive the Holy Spirit he says. But Thomas isn’t there. When you tell Thomas that Jesus was there with you in that room, Thomas laments missing the unbelievable appearance, who knows where he was, probably out getting snacks and beverages, and Thomas wants to see Jesus too. Jesus hears Thomas’ lament, and shows up again, in that very room where you and your friends were staying.

That’s all Thomas needs. That’s all any of us need, isn’t it? In this story, Thomas is the courageous one. Thomas is the one who is willing to say, I need to see Jesus too. Thomas is not so different from me, or even you. I need to see Jesus too, and feel that breathe of Holy Spirit on my face, in my hair, relieving my fear and anxiety. You see, Thomas is not asking for proof, he is asking for what he needs, Jesus was there with all the others, Thomas wants the same. And what Thomas wants is the promise and the reassurance that they have not been abandoned. Thomas wants this relationship; Thomas must wait a week, but Jesus still shows up. You and I want this relationship, and Jesus shows up.

For a moment, let’s look back at John’s gospel, so that we can establish our place in it today. We know that John’s gospel contains signs and wonders. The word miracle is not used by John, very purposefully the word is sign. Signs point us in a direction, we read and follow them because we want to be on our chosen path. The signs in John’s gospel do that, they point us in the direction John wants us to look. John’s seven signs begin with turning water into wine at Cana and conclude with raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. We know however there are many more than just seven, we just heard that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 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.

That relationship is what courageous Thomas wants, and needs. I think that relationship is what we want and need as well, us courageous followers of Jesus. And as Jesus holds out his hands to Thomas, and invites him to touch his sides, Jesus offers himself to Thomas, fully human, fully God, and in that moment, Thomas realizes he doesn’t really even have to touch Jesus. Thomas breathes out, my Lord and my God. Thomas expresses all of our hope and all of our fear.

John points to Jesus. Fleshy, bloody, incarnate. Jesus eats, sleeps, is prone to anger and capable of deep compassion and sadness; his heart breaks and he cries at his friend Lazarus’s death. And Jesus turns water into wine, makes sure 5000 people are fed, and raises Lazarus from the dead. John’s gospel invites us, you and me, into a relationship with this, this God in the flesh, Jesus. Jesus is fully human, and being human means being born to die. What becomes incarnate, fleshy and bloody, must die, Jesus, you, and me. And Jesus weeps for death, for his own, for his friend, and for us. And yet, Jesus rises. Death cannot keep Jesus in the tomb. The reality John’s gospel points us to is the reality of relationship. Courageous Thomas shows us this lord and God who reaches out to us to offer grace, compassion, and abundant love.

And there it is, the reality in which we live. In the midst of whatever we are feeling in these days, pain, suffering, grief, isolation, Jesus also lives, Jesus shows up. Jesus reaches out to us, with fleshy and bloody hands, and a compassionate grief-stricken heart, and offers abundant love and grace. Grace upon grace, grace that flows from blood, sweat, and tears. Grace that infuses our bodies with the healing possibility that makes new bodies. Grace that flows forth with living water, that cleans and refreshes. Grace that creates in us the body of Christ.

Courageous Thomas shows us Jesus, who shows up in the muck and the mess of life. Courageous Thomas shows us Jesus who is fleshy and bloody – otherwise known as fully human, and Jesus who is God. Courageous Thomas gives us the gift of hope, hope in a dark and fearful time, hope when living is behind closed doors, hope when we just don’t know what comes next.

Courageous Thomas shows us God’s grace upon grace and God’s abundant love.

Courageous Thomas shows us Spirit that breathes peace and forgiveness on us, spirit that revives our weary bones, spirt that that makes us new creations.

You have seen God’s grace and love at work in your places. What does that look like?

You have been God’s grace and love at work in your places, this is Jesus showing up.