Easter 3 C sermon

Conversation and Sermon on Acts 9:1-20 and John 21:1-19

Does anyone here have a special radical conversion story…when your life changed completely?  For how many has it been a gradual process?

Personally I can identify several incremental steps in the process of my conversion…and it still is not complete.

Today I am doing something out of the ordinary.  It is the story about a friend…Irwin… and his radical conversion experience.  Some people have already know his story.  I was given permission to share his story by Elaine and his children at his funeral.  Today I would like to share his conversion…as it was told to me.

He lost his father at age 15, and did not have the mentoring leadership he need during this important time of life.  He had a difficult time trying to cope with difficulties and set backs.  And for years he struggled with alcohol addition.  This addiction created an even heavier load for him.  He struggled trying to serve two masters… hating the destructive one… which continually seized control of him… while wanting the loving master who he abandoned.  In halting steps Irvin work toward freeing himself.   

But while Irvin was weak and unable to free himself… while he continued with his sinful self-destruction… while he was feeling unworthy of God’s love … at the right time God was at working preparing for Irvin’s return and reconciliation.  God continued sending people into his life challenging him, to change.  It wasn’t until someone saw through the excuses and told him; “If you don’t get honest, you will never get it.”… And Irvin finally got it…and he was reconciled to God. 

Even if it had to be the hard way…when Irvin finally got it, he learned so much…  Suddenly Irvin was able to see the world with a new perspective.  When Irvin finally got it, and began to trust in God to get him from one day to the next… life became easy.  He became a devoted husband… a caring father… and an adoring grandfather.  Instead of worrying…he became a dispenser of wisdom.  

When he finally got it… the news about his cancer… did not throw him into complete despair.  When he finally got it, Irvin was able to see his cancer as an opportunity to enjoy everything possible…during the time he had left.  Shortly after receiving his final diagnosis… Irvin told me; “God has always treated me fairly…and I don’t expect that will change now.”

In today’s lessons we are privileged to hear two radical conversion stories. 

The first is about Saul…later named Paul…who grew up and was well schooled in the Hebrew faith…  According to his own words… he advanced in the faith beyond most other people.  Along with other leaders of his faith…Paul regarded Jesus and anyone following him as imposters…  Therefore he did everything possible to discredit and even persecute those who followed Jesus.  Today he is breathing murderous threats against them…wanting to imprison anyone who belonged to Jesus.  But at the very moment when Saul is most hostile and least open to Jesus…God goes to work… Jesus appears knocks him down on the road…and speaks to him…  And within day he changes from a persecutor to a staunch defender of the Christian faith.  According to God’s plan Paul responds to Jesus… He proclaims Jesus in the synagogues saying; “He is the Son of God.”

Second we have Peter… Without much thought…Peter becomes one of the early disciples of Jesus… He leaves his fishing boat…his primary means of income…to follow Jesus.  This in itself…leaving his family…his fishing boat…and everything which is familiar to him…must have been a huge life changing experience… But it is not his defining moment of true conversion… His defining moment happens much later…

As a disciple of Jesus…Peter is sometimes very perceptive and at other times is just dense…but he also learns a lot.  He has watches and hears Jesus teach and debate…and gains knowledge about God’s plan…  After the death of Jesus though…Peter is in a quandary about what he should do with the rest of his life.  Even though Peter has had all of the advantages of being present with Jesus for many miraculous and amazing occasions… without Jesus to lead… he is lost and unsure… Peter decides to go home…back what he knows… and returns to his old life as a fisherman.

But Jesus is not satisfied with Peter’s decision… and does not allow Peter to slip and disappear back into his old life.  He has been preparing much more for Peter… Jesus follows him out to the lake…and re-issues his call… not just to follow but to work for God…and Peter responds becoming a dedicated apostle for Jesus.

While to us these are water shed moments… it is quite evident that they most often don’t just happen…in isolation.  In almost all amazing conversion stories…God has been at work long before the actual event.  And when we examine each story carefully …even our own stories… we must admit…if God was to work only for those who deserve it… none would qualify.  However, despite whether we are like Saul the persecutor, or like Peter unsure and in a quandary, or like us whoever we may be God works to changes us… long before we are ready to change.

For most of us…God begins this work of changing us very early in life… Today we are here celebrating the baptism of Brenda.  At our baptism we hear how important each of us is to God.  We hear that even if we are forgotten by everyone around us…God will never forget us.  We also hear that we are loved sons and daughters of God.  At our baptism we become members of God’s kingdom.

But God’s work does not begin or end with our baptism.  God continues working in our lives from beginning to the end.  As the hymn says; God is with us the moment we are born…and when we are old… the day we are baptized… the day we have a child’s faith…but God is even with us when we wander off where demons dwell.

God’s work certainly does not end with us knowing about God being with us… and God’s love for us.  God’s plan is so much more… As Peter is called to feed my sheep…and as Paul is called to proclaim Jesus to the world… we to are called into a complete conversion…  We are called to respond by participating in God’s work.  We are called to proclaim God’s love.  We are called to be loving as God is loving.  We are called to work for conversions of people who are for the moment fighting against God.

So let us respond to God…who has done this great work for us…and live out our conversions and live out our baptism.  Let us respond to God’s call for us.  Let us participate in God’s work of loving and redeeming the world.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

Read Full Post »

Easter 2 C Sermon on John 20:19-31

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. 

 Conversation Time

What are our biggest fears? For ourselves? For our children and grandchildren?

Are there any particular people or group of people that we are afraid of?  Why?

What would our fears be, if we were a citizen of, or soldier serving in Afghanistan, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan?

Do we have any fears about God? Why are we afraid of God? Should anyone be afraid of God? If so who should be?

Sermon

The doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Fear seem to be a very strong feeling in most people’s lives.  I am reminded of the story of the single mother in Moose Jaw, who recently won ½ million dollars.  I don’t remember the details about how she became a single mother.  According to the story she has only ever purchased one lottery ticket…this one…and it is the winner.  She says that the win will not change what she does…to a great extent… She will still live in the same house…and she will still go to work cleaning the Coop store after hours… She told all about how hard she and her two children had to work to survive.  The boys worked along side their mother… If they wanted to spend time with their friends they had to help first or the friends helped out…  They even came home from University on weekends to help. 

For me the most interesting part of the interview came close to the end.  She began talking about her fears… Surprisingly she was not afraid during the time when she had very little… when she had to work so hard to survive and raise her children.  She was also not afraid when she was sick for months and unable to work…and her sons and friends pitched in to help.  When all the assets available to her was her job and having to go out to work every day to live she was never afraid… 

Strangely though… now that she has money…she is afraid.  She is afraid that her windfall will disappear.  She is afraid that someone may come along and defraud her of it.  She is afraid about how to invest it and preserve it for her retirement… and is there enough?

I am presently reading a book about slavery in the USA.  It is told through the eyes of an African girl who is snatched from her home and brought to South Carolina.  What is most interesting is who and why people in this story are fearful.  At home in Africa this young was an only child of a very liberated family.  At age 10 and 11 the girl accompanied and learned the mid-wife trade from her mother.  Her father…a devout Muslim… taught her that daily prayers and how to write Arabic symbols.  This young independent minded girl… never seemed to be afraid…even when she lost everything important to her.  She wasn’t afraid on the ocean journey.  She wasn’t afraid when she was forced to work.  She wasn’t even afraid when she was raped by her owner.

However, the people most afraid were the slave owners.  They were filled with fear about loosing the assets… who made them rich.  Fear caused them beat and humiliated their slaves into submission.  Slaves could never look their owner in the eye… They could not talk proper English… Fear caused owners to beat them for being uppity… Fear that others would follow…caused slave owners to cut off fingers and toes of runners…  Slave owners always lived in fear of a revolt… and cruelly suppressed any attempts.

Of course fear is familiar to everyone including us.  Older people are concerned about end of life issues… As we age we become fearful when the hospital is far away…or when doctors leave the community… People who are concerned about creation and future generations… are often fearful about how the products and bi-products of industrialization and technological advances… damage the environment.  We are fearful about living in a damaged polluted the world.    Canadians citizens are often fearful…because citizens new to our country… don’t look as familiar as they used to…and we are fearful that their religion don’t proclaim the same values.  Young parents are often fearful about the type of world their children are inheriting.  We are afraid of loosing cheap fossil fuel… We are afraid of loosing Jobs… We are afraid about declining commodity prices for the products…which help us prosper… whether the commodity is potash, oil, wheat, or meat.  We are fearful about dying… and we are even fearful about our God when we meet on the other side.  Fear is common to everyone… rich or poor.

Fear is a paralyzing and self destructive force… Fear consumes the disciples for three days after the death of Jesus.  They live those three days in fear that they will be next…they don’t want to die.  Fear has them trembling and locking themselves into a house…away from the prying eyes…of the authorities… Remembering… how they have been unfaithful and have deserted God’s Son… to face trial and the crucifixion on his own… causes them to fear God’s reaction… Fear…causes them to imagine only an angry God… and fear keeps them from seeing what God is actually doing…and God’s real desires for the world.  Fear keeps them from living joy-filled and contented lives. 

 But today in the resurrection of Jesus God reveals the real plan and God’s real desires for the world.  And what God wants is revealed in the very first words which the risen Jesus’ says to these fearful people.  Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  In case they miss what God wants for them he repeats the words again; “Peace be with you.”  And then he tells demonstrates how God offers this peace.  Jesus breathes on them and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Receiving the Holy Spirit in it completeness gives a clear understanding about the next statement of Jesus about how forgiveness and peace are entwined into God’s real plan for the world.  According to God’s wisdom peace can only result from forgiveness.  So Jesus says… When we for give the sins of any they are certainly forgiven…and peace can flow from that forgiveness… If on the other hand; We refuse to forgive their sins…they will certainly know that they are not forgiven… and peace will never come out of an unforgiving situation.  Through Jesus God make the first move… Jesus offers peace and forgiveness when it is not deserved…when the disciples are locked away in fear… when they are filled with guilt because of their desertion.  Our God who is ultimately in charge of forgiveness…forgives even though it is undeserved.  This is God’s real plan and real desire for each of us. 

But God plan doesn’t just end with the disciples…and it doesn’t just end with us either.  God does not want just the disciples or us to be forgiven and live in peace.  God wants that for the whole world…so Jesus enlists the disciples and us also into God’s plan.  After offering bestowing peace to the disciples Jesus continues; “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  We become an important part of God’s plan through the work of the Holy Spirit.  As God has sends Jesus to bestow peace through to forgiveness of sins… through the Holy Spirit… we are call to be God’s messengers of forgiveness and peace to the world. 

So let us receive the Holy Spirit…and God’s forgiveness.  And let us live in God’s peace.  Most of all let us join in on God’s mission to bestow peace and forgiveness to the whole world by having forgiving hearts.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

Read Full Post »

Easter C Sermon

Easter C Sermon

Sermon on Luke 24:1-12

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

   We have a special place in our hearts for people who have died…especially if they are close to us.  We honor and remember them…in a memorial service.  We remember their lives with a eulogy.  We keep their letters… and their pictures to remind ourselves… We keep their body or ashes in a special place …and we plant flowers… cut the grass… and place stone monuments over the place where they are buried.  To ensure that their final place of rest will be cared for… we pay the cemetery a fee for perpetual care.

 This special reverence for the dead is common to all cultures.  I am reading a historical fiction book in which an eleven year old girl is snatched from her African village.  She is put on a slave ship and sent to America.  The conditions on the ship were deplorable and appalling.  Disease and poor nutrition caused many people to die.  The girl was horrified when the captors…with no ceremony or even a moment’s pause heaved their bodies over the side of the ship.  She closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears not wanting to see or hear the splash.  In the face of this horrifying tragedy…and lack of dignity…she wondered how their souls could ever find rest… or their way to God… She could not believe that anybody could have been so callous and thoughtless about the life of another person.

 Similar to us and to this eleven year old girl…the women closest to Jesus are respectful and want to honor him.  They are on their way to the tomb on the third day.  He died on the afternoon just before the Sabbath… The women had watched when Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross… and followed to the tomb… where Jesus was hastily placed.  There was no time to do anything special for him prior to the Sabbath.  According to the Sabbath Day commandment they have rested the next day.  But now, the day after, they are taking spices to do the proper thing for Jesus their teacher and their friend.  They are determined to make his burial respectable and honorable… according to their tradition.

When we go to visit a family member in the cemetery…we have certain expectations.  We expect that the grave marker will be in the same place.  We expect the concrete cover to be still as it always was.  But about once each year…we hear a news story about vandals… who have entered a grave yard and toppled headstones or broken monuments.  We are angered and confused about how anyone could be so insensitive and disrespectful.  But we would be even more perplexed… if when we visited the grave of our loved one…it was standing open and the casket lid was gone and the body was missing.

Such is the case for the women who come to visit Jesus’ tomb.  It is standing open.  There is no body…it is empty… They are perplexed about what could have happened since they were there the night before last.  When we are already more than a bit confused… it isn’t very hard to imagine how terrifying the sudden appearance of the two young men might be. 

When people die…we do one very well.  We remember.  We remember their roots… their parents …their children and grandchildren…their close friends.  We remember the things that are important to them…and their passions.  If they were gardeners…or loved animals… or loved fishing… or love knitting or quilting… we remember.  We remember stories about them some humorous and some serious.  We especially remember the really important things that they have told us.

 Today the two young men ask the women to remember… They could remember how he walked on water or stilled the storm.  They could remember how he feed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish.  They could remember healings.  They could remember Jesus’ love for little children…or how he ate and hung around sinners… But the two young men ask them to search their memories about the really important things that Jesus told them.  “Remember,” they say, “how he told you while still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”  Sure enough they remember and they believe the young strangers.

But believing without seeing is a very different story.  How many times have we heard or even said this; “If I hadn’t seen it for myself…I would never have believed it.” Or, “Seeing is believing?”  We are never really sure whether we can believe a witness to an event.  People always bring their own biases to anything they hear or see.  Some see all the details… while others see only the big picture… Some may exaggerate in order to make the story sound better…

 When the women return to the other disciples with the news that he is no longer dead but is risen…their story seems like an idle tale…and because they have not seen themselves they do not believe all that the women tell them.  Hearing that Jesus is no longer among the dead…but is among the living is more than they can comprehend.  Even though Jesus told them three times that it would happen…everyone knows people, who die, just rise again, not in ancient times and not in our times either… Besides if Jesus actually did rise from the dead… it would be most logical that the eleven chosen disciples get the news first…before anyone else?  Certainly not to these women first.

Even though he finds the women’s story an idle tale and impossible to believe… We are not sure of his motivation … but Peter has to test it out for himself.  He has to prove for himself …whether they are wrong for sure.  Possibly he remembers Jesus’ stinging rebuke… a short while before when the subject of his death and resurrection comes up.  In any case Peter runs to look for himself…and he is amazed that everything is just as the women have told him.

 We who are so much more distant from the resurrection of Jesus…separated by the span of 2000 years find it even harder to believe this wondrous story. And even if we are sure it happened back in history…we find the motivation behind it to be hard to believe.  We cannot believe that God would walk in our shoes…that God would die to save us and bring us peace.  And we find it hard to believe that God is still actively doing these things for each one of us every day of our lives. 

But it is true God truly loves every part of God’s creation… even us.  And God’s work is to offer us repentance and the forgiveness of sins.  Through Jesus this work is achieved. Jesus is sent not to condemn the world…but so the world will be saved.  So today let us believe in our risen Lord… believing that Jesus is still an active part of God plan to bring peace for everyone.  As the women shared the Good News on that first Easter morning… let us also be actively involved in proclaiming the resurrection and God’s desire for peace in the world through repentance and forgiveness.  Amen

Read Full Post »