Jiminy Cricket: April 22, 2018

Year B, Easter 4                                                            
1 John 3:16-24                                                                                 

Most of us have probably heard the phrase, “Let your conscience be your guide.”  It comes from the film Pinocchio, which is about a wooden puppet who wants to be a boy.  He must prove himself worthy by showing that he is brave, truthful and unselfish.  To help guide him in this quest, he has a little cricket named Jiminy Cricket who is the voice of his conscience.  One of the famous songs is, “Give a little whistle.” 

The first lines are:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-margie/2068063834

When you get in trouble and you don't know right from wrong-- Give a little whistle!

When you meet temptation and the urge is very strong--Give a little whistle!

If only it were that easy…if we could simply determine the right thing to do by whistling.  (Of course that would be a problem for people incapable of whistling.) We are bombarded in our culture with advice like “Let you conscience be your guide.”  “Follow your heart!” “Listen to your heart!’ “Go with your gut.”  It’s this idea that somewhere inside each of us is wisdom and truth and if we can become in tune with that part of us, we will discover the right path.

            I am not sure that is true.  Because our hearts can sometimes lead us astray.  Our gut or our feelings are usually based on our own best interest, which might not always be the best interest of everyone around us.  Thankfully, as Christians, we have this handy book (the Bible). The Bible is full of wisdom and guidance. Unfortunately, it can be a little harder to discern the wisdom of the Bible than it is to follow our gut or google something on the web.  Calling on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit requires more than a whistle. 

While the Bible can be difficult to decipher, especially if we are looking for an answer to a specific problem, there are consistent truths in the Bible.  I know it is hard to sit down and just read the Bible.  Most people think that they have to start with Genesis.  However, if you want to read an entire book of the Bible and you do not have a lot of patience or time, consider 1^st John.  By the end of the Easter season, we will have read from this book every Sunday for 6 Sundays.  There are only 5 chapters in the whole book (which is also a reason it’s a good book to start with). 

One of the reasons I think our lectionary spends so much time on 1^st John is because it’s emphasis on love.  You might think, well the whole Bible is about love.  That is true, but  1^st John is dense with love.  Despite the fact that it only has 5 chapters, the word love appears more often in this book than any other book in the New Testament—except the Gospel of John which is four times as long. First John is dense with love.

As I was reading the lessons for today, I kept coming back to one line. “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”  In the Episcopal Church, we use a specific translation of the Bible called the NRSV. I found the NRSV translation for this verse tricky which led me to read through other translations.  Another reliable translation reads, “ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart.”[1]

It’s not just that our hearts can be unreliable at times, sometimes our feelings can be destructive.  We can be plagued by doubt, fear, anxiety and guilt.  Occasionally those things that plague us are based on very real experiences.  However, sometimes it’s not a real experience. There are some of us who are simply more inclined to experience feelings of doubt and anxiety than others.  It’s just the way we are born.  And even if we are one of those people who are fortunate enough not to be inclined toward those feelings of guilt and doubt, everyone can experience those emotions under strain and stress. 

Let’s assume that you are inclined toward guilt and while you know that God has forgiven you (in theory at least) it’s still hard to get past it. It still affects how you think and act. When you feel guilty all the time, it’s harder to be in relationship with God.  That is one way our heart can condemn us. 

Another example might be the way society tells us that what we have or who we are is never enough.  Every marketing campaign ever created is based on the idea that you need the thing that is being sold and you need it because you lack something, something that other people have.  On social media, we see the best of other people’s life, which means that despite the fact that we are more connected than ever, people feel more isolated, lonely and inadequate. Any time of the day or night, we can find someone who seems to be doing better than we are.  As a result, we become more self-focused and less inclined to be in relationship with God and one another.  That is another way that our hearts condemn us. 

The good news is that God is bigger than our heart or the ability of our heart to condemn us. John goes further to say, “Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God…”  If we have boldness before God, that means we can be honest and free.  We can consider our faults and our failures and we can move past them.  We can be free to act in love, to show our love in truth and action. That is another big point of this reading from 1^st John.  We don’t just talk about love, we demonstrate it. It’s a lot easier to show love when you are not riddled with doubt, fear, anxiety or any of those corrosive emotions.

This is all fine and good, but whistling would still be easier. Having a talking cricket at our side would come in handy.  While John doesn’t give us a catchy song he does provide the heart of the Christian message succinctly.  John writes, “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”  Even if that is all you can remember, that would be enough. Believe in Jesus and love one another.

You know the interesting thing about Jiminy Cricket?  Apparently back in the day, people would use the phrase when amazed or afraid.  It was said in place of Jesus Christ so people could avoid using the name of the Lord in vain. It is not a surprise that Walt Disney would choose a variation of the name of Jesus Christ for the voice of wisdom, conscience, and friendship. 

While I think it would be extremely helpful if we could call upon the wisdom of Jesus with a whistle---and be even be better yet if we all had our own personal animated insect following us around serving as the voice of reason--- we have something and someone better.  We have God as a constant companion.  At the end of our reading, John writes, “All who obey his commandments abide in him and he abides in them.”  Abide means to stay, or make your home in something or someone.  God sent Jesus and then the Holy Spirit to make a space within each of us where he/she[2] could rest.  That means, we don’t have to whistle or depend on someone on the outside providing wisdom.  We have the Spirit within. 

---

[1] New Kings James Version

[2] The Greek word translated to Holy Spirit is feminine, which means it’s ok to refer to the Holy Spirit as she…but I did not say this in my sermon, as that would have been a bit of a detour.

So What? April 15, 2018

Luke 24: 36-48                                                                                   
Year B, Easter 3                                                                                 

 

Alleluia. Christ has risen

The Lord has risen indeed. Alleluia.

So what?  That is what I want to ask sometimes.  Our liturgy offers such succinct and elegant ways of articulating what we believe.  This liturgy has been honed over 100s or even 1000 years.  The benefit is that it’s a constant.  We can always fall back on the words of our liturgy and the words of the Book of Common Prayer.  When we do not have the energy or perhaps even the faith to create our own prayers, or talk to God, we can always turn to what we have in front of us.  But the problem is that we do not always think about what we say.  We say it because it is written and we have always said it that way.  Sometimes I wish we could adlib a little and after  you say, “The Lord is risen indeed!” I could say, “So what?”  Why does it matter that he is risen indeed?

Let’s consider the way the disciples reacted to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We know that after his death they ran and hid.  They thought it was over.  They were probably just trying to figure out where to go next.  They could not stay in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the scene of failure and death.  It was the end of a movement that they had dedicated their life to.  And while Jesus had told them he would be back, they did not know what he meant by that.  Thus their initial reaction to the empty tomb and accounts from those who claimed to have seen Jesus alive was doubt and incredulity.  Those are fairly logical reactions to news that a dead person is back. 

In today’s reading, the disciples aren’t just dealing with an empty tomb or stories of the risen Christ, they are actually seeing Jesus alive in front of them.  He came to where they were. He opened with a greeting that should have eased their anxiety.  “Peace be with you.” That is the kind of opening you would expect from Jesus.  They did not break into tears. They did not run to him and fall at his feet. They did not say, “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!” They were startled and terrified.  They could not process what they were seeing.  He was supposed to be dead. 

Jesus’ first reaction to their stunned silence was to ask why they were frightened. He knew why they were frightened, but he still had to ask.  The next thing he did was a little strange.  He showed them his hands and feet.  Now most of us do not identify people by their hands and feet.  If we are trying to recognize someone, we look at their face.  Or we can identify someone by their voice…but the hands and the feet.  That’s just odd. 

Of course we have all seen portrayals of the crucified Jesus. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross.  We know that.  Most likely his disciples would have known that  as well.  But why would Jesus want to draw their attention to his wounds?  He could have turned water into wine.  He could have transfigured before them as he had before.  He could have made them believe.  There were so many things he could have done that would have been a lot more divine and godly.  But no…he showed them his wounded hands and feet. 

The crazy thing is that was fairly effective…mostly effective.  They reacted with joy and disbelief.  They were joyful because they really recognized him.  They knew this was not some mirage. This was the man they had lived with…the man who was tortured and killed, the man they loved.  Yet despite this recognition, they could not quite believe because it was too much…too much to take in at once. 

Jesus understood this and so he did another odd and undivine thing—he asked them for some food.  “Have you anything here to eat?”  This line amuses me every time I read it because I picture Jesus looking around at these bewildered men trying to make them understand the unfathomable.  I imagine ideas running through his head…what can he do to make them believe and his solution is to ask for some food. Is that the best he can do??

There are theories about why Jesus chose this moment to eat some fish.  Most assume it was so he could show them that he was flesh and blood—not a ghost.  Yet I wonder if it was something less cerebral.  Perhaps he really was hungry or maybe he was just doing that thing you do when you get together with friends, you share a meal together. He let them take care of him---take care of one of humanity’s most basic needs (food) which is amazing given that the disciples had done such a horrible job of caring for him when he needed them the most.

Ironically, it was Jesus’s humanity and vulnerability that helped his disciples believe and see him, finally see him for who he was, not just any god, but the God. The God who suffered like all humans suffered, suffered even more than most suffer, the God who still carried the wounds of that suffering, the God who forgave them despite the fact that they had abandoned him, the God who loved them to the end, the God who died and came back from the dead just to see them again.

I can be fairly certain of how you would react when I say, “Alleluia, Christ is risen!”  We will be saying that every Sunday during the Easter season.  I hope that during this season, you will consider how you would react if Jesus actually came to your home and said, “Peace be with you.”  Would you know it was him?  Would you want to see his hands and feet or would you want to see him perform a miracle? Would you want to fix him dinner, or would you want some evidence that this really was the risen Christ? 

I believe that the way Jesus interacted with his disciples is exactly how he wishes to interact with all of us today.  He wants to be real.  He doesn’t just want to show us his scars.  He wants to see ours.  He wants to know our joy and our pain.  He wants to be part of our everyday activities, like eating and spending time with friends and family.  I love our liturgy--the beauty and majesty.  Our liturgy is a wonderful way to worship God and God wants to be worshipped.  God wants this time with us when we are entirely devoted to him.  But God also wants to see us when we aren’t wearing our robes and Sunday best.  God wants every part of us.

Why does it matter that Jesus was resurrected? He was resurrected to prove that death is not the end--that while he was the first one to be resurrected, he will not be the last.  Living the reality of the resurrection does not mean that we forget the crucifixion.  Our faith is one that embodies the whole human experience.  It is anxiety and peace.  It is pain and joy.  It is death and resurrection. It is real. It matters that Jesus was resurrected because it gives us hope that we will see the risen Christ and when we see him he will open our eyes to all the mysteries of life and faith.  Then there will be peace, real peace and it will be real.

Just Beginning: April 1, 2018

Year B, Easter                                                          
Mark 16:1-8                                                             
            

            I like happy endings.  If I learn that a book doesn’t have a happy ending, I don’t read it.  If I accidently read a book that has a bad ending, I feel betrayed and angry.  I want a neat and tidy ending.  I know that life is not like that.  Our problems aren’t resolved in 250 pages.  Sometimes they are never resolved, which is why I need it in my books.  Therefore, I have always found it strange that I am so fond of the ending of the Gospel of Mark.  The last line is: “So they went out and fled from the tomb for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.”  If you read this in Greek, which was the language in which it was originally written, the last sentence is incomplete.  Mark didn’t even finish the sentence.  It’s like his pen ran out of ink or he decided he needed a snack and just forgot to add the conclusion.  It’s that abrupt.

            In the other three Gospels, Jesus appeared in bodily form to the disciples and the women who came to the tomb.  In the Gospels of Luke and John, Jesus shared a meal with the disciples.  He even did a little fishing.  In Mark, we end with an empty tomb and a strange man telling the women that Jesus had been raised and was going to meet them in Galilee.  But no one actually saw the risen Christ. If that was not bad enough, the last line said the women ran away and said nothing for they were afraid—which means that they never told the disciples.  They never shared the good news. 

            For centuries, people have struggled with the ending of Mark.  In the earliest translations, there is no evidence of verses that come after verse 8 (which is where we ended today).  However, within less than 100 years of the writing of Mark, there is evidence that additional verses were added. The theory is that people were uncomfortable with the ending because there was no real conclusion. It essentially ended on what we would now refer to as a cliff hanger.  If it was a TV show, you would hear a voiceover that said, “Did the women ever tell anyone about the tomb?  Did Jesus show himself?  Was he really resurrected? Find out next week on the Jesus Story!”  Yet there was no next week.  The story just ended. 

            Because that was such an unsatisfactory ending, someone added a few verses. That is why if you look at most Bibles, there will be an option for a shorter ending and a longer ending. There is an additional 12 verses that uses text from the other Gospels to fill in the gaps and show Jesus Christ risen and interacting with his disciples.  What this proves is that even the earliest Christians were desperate for a good ending—which is completely understandable.  The early Christians were building a movement. They needed something that they could lift up, a narrative that would provide hope for those Christians who were being persecuted.  An empty tomb and people running away scared isn’t exactly a rallying cry. 

            But what if we look at it a different way?  Instead of it being an unsatisfactory ending, what if it is an opportunity for a new beginning?  To try to put an ending on this story…to edit the story so that it could be more palatable, is a mistake. Because this is not our ending to control. We don’t get to decide how this part of the story is told.  What we do have, is an opportunity to be a part of the new beginning.

            One of the awesome aspects of the Gospel of Mark is that it is a Gospel of expectation, of what is to come.  That is what our church is about. When we look at the church calendar, we see many beginnings.  Advent, which is the season before Christmas, is the beginning of the church year.  It is a season of expectation for the birth of Christ.  Lent is also an opportunity for new beginning.  We talk about the need to repent.  Repentance is not just saying “I am sorry” and moving on, it’s about a complete change of orientation.  It’s the act of turning around and starting over.  Then we have Easter, where Jesus defeats death and comes back to life, for a new beginning.  After Easter we enter the season of Pentecost which marks the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the church.  Every season of the church offers a chance for a new beginning. 

            Some people criticize the church as being stuck in the past or being overly concerned about guilt and judgment.  That could not be further from the truth.  Yes, we honor the past and hopefully we learn from the past.  We also admit our guilt in our confession every Sunday.  But those things are only part of the story.  If the story of our faith ended with guilt and condemnation, that would make for a horrible ending.  But it doesn’t, because with every season and every Sunday, we have an opportunity to start over.  Our faith is a faith marked by new beginnings.

            When the women saw the empty tomb, they were understandably confused.  There was an angelic visitor there who told them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has been raised; he is not here…But go, tell the disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”  It’s odd that he mentioned Peter by name.  The angel told the women to go tell the disciples.  Peter was one of the disciples.  Why did he have to be specifically named? 

            One theory is that he was mentioning Peter because there was a very real chance that Peter felt bad about the fact that he had denied being a disciple of Jesus.  Peter might have thought that he had ended his relationship with Jesus because of his denial.  Perhaps he thought that if Jesus really was back from the dead, he did not want to see the man who had denied him.  That was what I would have thought if I was Peter.  That is why the angel specifically mentioned Peter. Jesus had not just risen for a select few…a select few who deserved to see him again.  He rose for everyone.  This was a new day and a new beginning. 

            Maybe you are here today for the first time in awhile and feel a little uncomfortable about that. Guess what? We are all starting over, so you are not alone.  It is never too late to come back to faith or rekindle your relationship with God and the community of faith.    Jesus rose for you.  He lived, died and was resurrected for every person here, even those who do not deserve it, which is everyone by the way.  No one deserves God’s unconditional love, but he gives it anyways.

            As I said at the beginning, I like the way Mark ends.  However, I am not sure I would have if I was hearing it told in the first century and if I had not heard the other Gospels.  I would have liked some certainty and clarity.  While it might not be the ending we want, it’s the ending we all need.  Because it forces us to enter into the story, be part of the ongoing story of Jesus Christ.  We aren’t just reading the story, we are participating in it.

          We have an opportunity to live in the promise Mark made so long ago---the promise that we will meet the risen Christ.  Remember, the angel said that Jesus was going ahead of them…ahead.  That is why we continue to move forward and sometimes start over.  We do that so we too can meet the risen Christ.