How Our Advocate Helps Us 5/17/20 Easter 6A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

How Our “Advocate” Helps Us

5/17/2020    Easter 6A

Our group studying the book SAILBOAT CHURCH (by Joan Gray) has really appreciated and enjoyed what she has to say, reminding us of the work of God’s Spirit with us in the church. Jesus, in our text we just read, talks about that same Spirit   and uses several interesting names for how God’s spirit helps us.  I know we all can affirm the doctrine of “God in three persons, blessed trinity!” like in the hymns I posted for today, Hymn Holy, Holy, Holy.   In the traditional language of our Creeds, we affirm  I believe Godthe Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his son our Lord….and onto I believe in the Holy Spirit, but that’s a short part, and goes on to the holy Catholic church and more.  We don’t talk a lot about the Spirit unless we’re trying to sound like we’re affirming the trinity, God as three-in-one.  We’re good Methodists and good Presbyterians, structuring our lives with method and order, left-brained and valuing our thinking; God forbid we should sound like holy rollers and be all emotional.  Although, to be fair, our hearts are strangely warmed and we value ardor processed through our order.  So we have emotions, we’re just not ruled by them.  Something about the Spirit sounds like it may be beyond our control.  Of course it is!  God is beyond our control!  God is beyond our understanding, except a few things we comprehend like the commandments that Jesus says…..and I’m not sure we really understand the depth and breadth of those either.  Walking with God is walking by faith, as the Spirit seeks to teach us to walk by faith and not by sight.  

Interestingly, the Spirit is one place that people have often seen a feminine energy in God.  In the Hebrew language, the word for Spirit, or breath or wind, takes a feminine article, and people have wondered about that.  If you remember the book and movie called The Shack, you might recall that the Spirit was represented by a female figure.  And the figure of Holy Wisdom, too.  Actually, the figure of God was shown as a woman and a man in that movie, depending on how God was relating to the bereaved dad.  That was actually pretty cool, although there was a lot of discussion about it in churches.   Wisdom is personified as a woman in the book of Proverbs and actually the book of Wisdom in the intertestamental books as well. The Roman catholic church found the feminine energy of God in Mary, who is pictured as Queen of Heaven in much artwork from the 13th century onward - and finally decaled Queen of Heaven by Pope Pius XII in 1954.   Early mystics of the church often spoke of God using metaphors from both male and female imagery, as the Scriptures of both testaments do contain  metaphors of both.  After all, God is not human, so doesn’t have to be male or female...and when humanity was created in God’s image, humanity was created make AND female.  The historic church has had trouble with that in its teachings…..  Fortunately in this generation, our English language has broadened so we women don’t have to assume we are included in the concept of “man” and “mankind,” and language has become more inclusive of humankind and all people.  Many theologians have also worked on language about God that also moves towards the inclusivity within God.  I like the conception of the holy trinity that speaks of function, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer - all one God. 

Okay, a little digression.  Actually, Jesus himself uses a good many illusions to the figure of Divine Wisdom in his words, and especially in the gospel of John.  John seems to point out that Jesus as the “Word” or Logos of God, has a continuity with the figure of Hokmah, the Hebrew“Wisdom” of God.  I think that’s interesting. And it’s Jesus who compares himself to the mother hen who would love to gather all her chicks under her wings, when he looks out at the city of Jerusalem.  So I’m comfortable with imagining God as encompassing all we might try and divide into female and male gender-wise.  Some folks have criticized that this makes God genderless - difficult to think of.  I suggest that perhaps we think of God as gender-full, encompassing all we know of human energies. 

            Yes, we’re talking rather metaphorically and mystically about God - but...you know, this is the mysterious and God who is ultimately beyond our understanding - yet the God who knows us intimately.  In fact,     Jesus’ remarks in this passage of John are rather mystical in the union that he proposes between God who he calls Father, and we might call Creator; himself who he refers to as the Son and we may also think of as the Redeemer; and this Spirit of God who comes to dwell in each of us, and binds us in an invisible but real unity with the whole of the Godhead.  (Now there’s a weird word - Godhead - trying to refer to the three persons/parts/aspects as one.) 

            Is this all confusing?  In my language, I use the word “God” to refer to the whole Trinity, in both the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures.  Maybe I err a bit on the side of the oneness of God, and not perhaps separating Father, Son and Spirit as much as others do.  I think of this as a corrective - many people get hung up in the threeness of the trinity, and try to assign this to Jesus/Redeemer, and that to the Spirit/Sustainer and this other to the Father/Creator.  I think we need to remember the unity, the oneness.  When the Spirit indwells us, that is Godself.  God is with us.  When Jesus is born, he is God with us, Emmanu-el, the Immanent God. 

            This is religion, folks - it’s mystical and it’s metaphorical.  It’s trying to express the hugeness of the Divine and Holy in the limitations of language, and for the limited human brain.  None of it can be taken literally, although it expresses a truth - when we come to follow Christ, somehow the very Spirit of God becomes a part of us, binding us to God and into the mystery of the Divine. Christ calls us sisters and brothers - part of the same family. We become part of the body of Christ, another expression of us becoming part of Christ, and therefore, God. 

Jesus is telling his followers that even if he dies, he will not leave them.  The translation I read today translates it, I will not leave you orphaned.  The King James translation said, I will not leave you comfortless.  In modern parlance we might say, I am not abandoning you.  You will not be alone.  There’s been a lot written about abandonment, whether intentional or unintentional, and what it does to children and even adults.  Leaving - loss - a parent dying while a child is young is experienced as abandonment - unintentional, but still the feeling of the child is of being left abandoned; the loss of an intact family when parents divorce is experienced as abandonment; a significant relationship broken by death - the loss is still felt as abandonment.  A preacher leaving us may be experienced as an important person abandoning us.  I’m sure that now the loss of the use of our buildings has also felt in some way as an abandonment - we are alone in a confusing place on our own, a center of stability gone.  Nobody wants to be abandoned - it’s scary. Even if we like solitude sometimes, when  we go to it ourselves, that’s seeking alone time.  When somebody leaves us and we are alone, it feels different.  

God knows how these followers will feel after Jesus is physically gone - so Jesus says, I’m not abandoning you - my Spirit will be here now.  Physically I’ve only been with you a few years - the Spirit of God will be coming, you won’t be left like orphans. 

Jesus uses an interesting variety of words to describe this Spirit - Advocate, in more recent translations.  The King James says Comforter, to match saying I will not leave you comfortless.  Eugene Peterson’s The Message uses the word “Friend” for the coming Spirit.  Advocate is probably the more correct translation.  I used to think of Advocate as a legal thing, like someone who would stand with me and interpret me to God’s court, so God would be more lenient to me.  That’s a pretty judgemental way to look at God, isn’t it?  Like part of God has to say to the rest of God, Well, look at what she was working with, or something excusing or explaining.  Like God is going to throw me away if the Advocate doesn’t make a good enough case for me. 

We need to turn that image around - switch who’s being advocated for and to - perhaps the Spirit advocates for God to us, explains God to us, helps us understand more about God like Jesus did, brings verses we’ve learned and experiences we’ve had back to our memory, as we reflect on new circumstances. That’s actually more in line with what the scriptures say the spirit does, bringing what Jesus said back to recall, reminding us of God’s love and God’s presence, reminding us that God is here in our times of need.  There is that verse that says the spirit intercedes for us when we have no words for our prayers, so in that case the spirit translates for us - sounds like the Spirit enables communication all around...

Jesus also uses the term Spirit of Truth, God’s truth, reality, the way it is, revealing where we are being defensive or equivocating, or trying to find loopholes - or honestly misunderstanding.  I remember growing up with the old english of the King James version of the Bible and trying to understand it.  I had it in my ears a lot, you know, like many of us here. I got to the place where the sense of the words, the intention of the words, often interpreted the actual words I was reading... I later thought this must have been the spirit, communicating what the intent was, what the larger sense was, and then I could see how the words went together.  Communication again.  Listening to that mysterious and mystical union that is us and God. 

In Sailboat Church, Joan Gray reminds us that even though the Spirit has been a part of our theology from the beginning, that Spirit often gets overlooked in our day-to-day noticing and appreciation.  If the Spirit is about God’s abiding presence, God’s truth and two-way communication with God, perhaps we need to find methodical and orderly ways to acknowledge the need for the spirit’s work in our lives and our church. And acknowledge that the Spirit more in our prayer, our decision-making, and in the practice of our Christian living.  Gray’s book discusses deliberately seeking the direction of our Advocate as we make decisions in our personal lives as well as in our communal life as a church.  Not just a token prayer to open or close a meeting, but in a larger way of prayerful discernment.  She reminds us that our own spiritual life and walk with God is what undergirds our church’s life and walk with God, and thus the importance of our own relationship with God, calling on our Advocate to help lead and teach and direct. 

You may recall I asked for volunteers to form a prayer group or two and begin to pray for our congregation, and all the capital-C Church in this time of learning to cope without our buildings.  Like many clergy, I’m seeing that this may be our new reality for a while, and we need God’s Spirit to lead us to being church in a different situation. Many of us are thinking that this may be the renewal that the Capital-C Church has needed, and lead to a better witness all around.  I would love for folks who feel a tug of interest in this to email or call me and let me know, so we can do this.  Meanwhile, I’m assuming we all will be praying for the church in these current conditions, as well as the world, which will experience some large changes in the coming months and years.  And our government, and other nations.  And specific families we know that are affected.  And your pastor, who was never trained to be a pastor in a pandemic and is learning as fast as she can. 

And may the spirit of Truth, our Advocate, Comforter and Friend, be with us.  AMEN.

God's Spiritual House 5/10/2020 Easter 5A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

God’s Spiritual House

Easter 5A 5/10/2020    1 Peter 2:2-10

 

            1 Peter has never been the text for a sermon I’ve done, yet the last few weeks in the lectionary have contained some wonderful images of faith, God and church.  It’s not a long letter, just 5 chapters, with some rather historically limited views of women in ch 3….  However, this chapter starts with a wonderful and feminine view of God as mother, telling us to be like newborns and long for that true spiritual milk - because we’ve tasted that God is good. We know how infants want to be fed, sometimes looking so desperate as they root for that milk - it’s good, it satisfies their innate instinct to suckle, and satisfies their hunger.  It's a very strong and visceral imagery of believers hungering for God.  In a letter by the apostle Paul, he urges more mature believers to move onto the meat of the faith, again using human and eating imagery for our need for God.

            (ASIDE - There are only a few feminine images for God in the Scripture as it has come down to us. Several are distinctly mothering metaphors: this one, God as a hen gathering her chicks, God crying for slaughtered children like Rachel cried over hers; the labor pains of the world striving to bring forth the new creation.  The figure in Proverbs of God as Wisdom, personified as a woman who calls out to people to learn from her, is feminine yet not maternal. There are also occasions of women acting for God, like if you’re reading the Bible through on our Jamesville reading Plan, you’ve run into Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives in Egypt who lied to the Pharaoh about how the boy babies lived; of Deborah the Judge in Israel; of Huldah the prophetess who recognized and reinstated the rediscovered scrolls of the Law; of Rahab who saved the scouts Joshua sent into the promised land to scope it out; of Sarah, of Moses’ spouse Zipporah and sister Miriam; of Jesus’ followers who were the first to proclaim resurrection, Mary and Martha, Lydia the seller of purple who hosted a church in her house.  They’re there, the good women of faith, although not mentioned as often as men are, in both Testaments.  And images of God in the feminine are there, too, although once again not as common as male imagery.) 

            The writer of this 1st letter of Peter, written to believers scattered in the Mediterranean area, moves quickly to another imagery - that of rocks.  From human metaphor to mineral metaphor in one sentence to the next!  Well, I guess it’s really a metaphor of building structures - Christ as the cornerstone, the rest of us as the building, taking our direction and guidance from that cornerstone.  Yet the writer says this is a spiritual thing - Christ is a living rock, and we are spiritual stones, together being built into a spiritual house. A church, in other words - not a literal church building with literal rocks, but built into a spiritual house with spiritual stones. So we as believers make up the spiritual walls, floors and roof; we together are the structure of the house of God.  A living house, a living structure - and all based on Christ.

            I like that image of a spiritual house - it speaks to what we were talking about before this covid 19 crisis hit - that the word “Church” means the gathered believers, wherever they met - whether in a house, in a catacomb (which were underground burial areas, remember), in the Temple when Christ-followers were still mainly Jews; in separate buildings with sanctuaries, in storefronts, at camping trips or mission trips - and now, online!  Because WE are the church; and wherever we are, Christ is in our midst.  We are God’s spiritual house on earth.   

You all may have discerned the reason I was preaching about this truth back in Jan  & Feb as part of our Interim work - it was to remind us that our lovely building here at 6300 E Seneca Turnpike is just the place we use for certain purposes - that our mission is out there in the community and the world, to those who need to hear, to those who are suffering, to those who are hungry or sick or poor or mistreated or oppressed or held captive - to proclaim the message of love and forgiveness and restoration and good news to all people like Jesus our leader did.  I wanted us to think more of our own call to reach out and do the works of Christ, and less about how to get people to come into our building.  I wanted us to remember, in our confusion and fear after losing a long-time pastor, that EACH OF US is a disciple, EACH OF US are called to be witnesses, that EACH of us are gifted by the Spirit for ministry, that EACH OF US is a priest in this holy priesthood - and that God values EACH OF US as much as God values a pastor - we can each pray, we can each discern what the Spirit is saying, we can each grow in our relationship to God, we can each tell the good news that we are hearing daily in God’s presence.  Our great building is a good place to meet and train ourselves, to worship together, to train our children, to encourage one another - but that our ministry and service start when we leave through the doors and go out into the world God also loves and desires to have faith.

In a strange way, perhaps this giant change of the Covid-19 crisis in our lives and our worship right now can be a teacher for us in how to be that spiritual house that this passage describes.  Not that I am saying that God "did this to us' in order to make us better Christians - I don't see God like that.  I see God more as a gardener who knows how to compost broken, dead and thrown out things into something that enriches life. God is a God of recreation, resurrection, and new creation.  God is a God of love, and who is always bringing new life from whatever happens. God is a God who, like we read last week in the 23rd Psalm, who is with us whatever comes in life - even the valley of the shadow of death.  

I get excited thinking about how God may be composting this experience of physical isolation, working from home or being furloughed.  You know, at the beginning we were frantic about all the abrupt changes; then most of us went through a time of being overwhelmed, tired and perhaps exhausted.  That's where I've been the last couple weeks, and from the posts I read online, many pastors and others were feeling the same things.  Right now I'm feeling almost like I've adjusted somewhat, and am beginning to wonder how God may be calling us to be that spiritual house in the midst of this crisis.  

I have prayed for years that the church of the 50s, that style of doing church that most of us Boomers grew up in, and which is shrinking and not reaching our communities, and in which most people are ageing and feeling depressed that younger folks aren’t coming in to step into leadership - I’ve been praying that that 50s style of being church would evolve, would develop, would rediscover who we are, would re-enliven and learn to listen to the new life that the Spirit wants to lead us into.  I have prayed to catch a glimpse to help lead to that future when I’ve felt discouraged; with no real vision emerging for me except to pursue the inner spiritual life. I have prayed for this next generation of Christ-followers coming along to bring new life and new vision, and promised God that I will listen to, encourage and support the vision of the folks coming along.

So I'm wondering if perhaps God can use this awful time of suffering and death, and as we ponder our mortality, as we re-learn just who it is who is essential, as we re-learn to value science, as we learn to act in love for the sake of others despite the inconvenience to ourselves, as we ponder what God may be leading us to do and be in this time…. well, perhaps this could be a turning point for the Capital-C Church and our local group here as well.   

There are many conversations going on about how things may change in the way we are the church during and after these months (years?) of the pandemic.  I myself hope that things don’t go back to “normal,” as it were, and that people don’t just put this all out of mind and memory in a kind of fantasy-land amnesia, like some of our leadership seems to be doing.  The world is suffering and grieving a great number of deaths, which is creating breaks in supply chains of manufacturing and agriculture.  The mental health aspects will affect us for a long time.   The financial aspects will affect us for a long time.  We don’t know, and no one can really predict how many times the virus will rebound, whether we will have immunity… it’s kind of a wait and see thing.  Although our Council has been talking and praying about how and when to regather in person, and what that might look like, it’s not imminent in our state, and many congregations are deciding that, whatever their governors say, they’re waiting until July or so and taking another look.  Now that we’re learning that singing together in a closed place for an hour is a really good way to spread the virus, many of us are disheartened about worship being like it was any time soon. 

So I think we need to sit and consider how to be the church, the holy priesthood, the spiritual house, right now.  This week, next week, and the next weeks and the next months. This, today, is the situation in which we are to serve God and serve our community.  We need a new vision,or  a transformed vision, or a stretched vision, or a tweaked vision - God’s Spirit is alive and working, we are not powerless even if we are physically isolated.  Maybe we can’t do the potlucks with special local speakers that our Transition Team was planning right now.  So we need to do things differently, or do different things.

Our Lenten book study on Sailboat Church has been a moving study for the group that’s been involved.  It has strongly reminded us of the need for our own personal spiritual development as a vital need for seeking a communal spiritual development, and to seek the wind of the Spirit through prayer and discernment.  Praying over all big decisions in order to discern what the Spirit is saying, has been a major emphasis of the study.  

I need your help in thinking and praying about this situation we find ourselves in, so I hope to set up several small groups to pray for our congregation, as well as our denominations and the Capital-C Church.  To pray for at least these areas - pray for vision and direction for t he whole Capital-C Church, for vision and direction for our local congregation vision, pray for the inner growth of each of us, pray for a renewed mission-oriented view of church, and pray for concrete ideas.  I will put out a list of our elected Council members and Trustees, so they might be prayed for as our leadership.  I may give the groups some Scriptures to ponder at some point - we’re creating this as we go, friends - this is a unique situation that seminary offered no class in, too.  I see these groups gathering weekly to check in and talk about what you’ve heard, felt, experienced, and are thinking about re this prayer and this spiritual house.  Some groups could gather at noon and eat lunch together virtually! Or brunch... Or pancakes.  Everyone who agrees to be in a spiritual house prayer group will agree to pray on these points (if not others that come to you) on a daily basis.  Meetings could be on Zoom, or conference calls, or any other modern techie ways we know.  Maybe our youth would like their own group?  Let me know.

I want to know who feels a tug in their heart to do this; and I will also call some folks, too, because I know that volunteering doesn’t always come easily.  But really, if you feel that tug of interest, let me know, okay?  That’s the way the Spirit nudges us; recognize it and respond. 

If you are feeling that tug about your own spiritual development, there are paths for that.  The Jamesville Bible Reading Plan is posted on Facebook, or I can email it. Mike and Lynn have been doing it for a month or more now, and Greg is doing it too.  Maybe we could start a support group for those who want to do it, where they can check in and bring up moving passages & weird passages they run across.  Martha, Tim and I are attending a group Zoom study that our Methodist district is leading, on a book about the importance of lay ministry - our thought is that we can offer this study in our congregation after we go through it - certainly lay ministry and discipleship is important in these days.  Olivia has agreed to help do a video about all our graduates to post on Facebook so we can all celebrate their achievements.  Lorana organized a phone tree, with Jean B, Jean C, Tammy, Alison, Louise S, Martha & I doing weekly calls to an  assigned group. Our Trustees organized a way to do our spring clean-up - Kurt came and spread the gravel back over the parking lot and picked up all the stacks of branches I made clearing the trail to the picnic tables behind the church, and Louise S has come up and cleaned the insides of the sanctuary windows.  There’s a list on the front door for folks to sign when they’ve completed one of the tasks - if you’ve done something and I didn’t mention it, let me know.  Our Facebook group  has some good sharing going on, too.  

These are all supportive and strengthening things we’re doing within our own congregation. Our outreach through the Food Bank has been to share their request for money, so they can purchase what is needed.  I know many of you are reaching out personally to your neighbors and friends to check on them and respond to needs.   

            Well, this is longer than I usually preach… I wanted to thank everyone for continuing to pitch in, continuing to worship, continuing to give, and living your faith with your neighbors.  And I wanted especially to begin an intentional prayer effort for us to look into our future as God’s Spiritual House.  AMEN.   

Small Steps 4/26/20 Easter 3A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

4/26/20   Facebook Live  Easter 3A

Small Steps -----Luke 24:13-35; 36-49

            This has been a very difficult week for me, and I imagine for many of you as well.  The urgency of the initial weeks to get something going for us online, keeping us together, then redoing all the plans for Holy Week and Easter - this focused me and took a lot of energy for all of us to move to the more virtual world of learning what were for many of us, the new skills of Facebook and Zoom.  We’ve worked hard together to switch our church fellowship to this other way of being; we’ve all pitched in and learned together, and been really good sports about it all. 

            This week I’ve been exhausted, tired of having to be at home and alone so much; wondering how we will handle the Transition we were working on as an Interim time - or if that’s too much while this other national crisis and transition is ongoing.  I’ve heard all the rhetoric about reopening businesses so the economic impact of this will be less; and then the other voice warning of consequences in more deaths if we do.  I’ve wondered what our congregation should do, if our governor does start to reopen things - which I don’t think he’ll do anytime soon, actually.  We are fortunate to have a governor who is stepping up to the plate as a real leader in the midst of so many other voices.  Pray for him.

            I’ve wondered and feared how long this will go on and what the long-term consequences will be.  It’s really impossible to know - I am overwhelmed by information, and long to know the answers - at least to know what to do in the short term, what might be the smartest things to do now to prepare ourselves.  Those of us alive now have never faced something like this. 

            I am proud of you all here, that your ability to empathise with the struggles going on in other places, and stay home.  This virus hasn’t touched us hard in our county so far,  and our local hospitals are not in the same crisis as those in major cities.  We’ve had deaths, yet not of the proportion of, say, NYC.   Yet we have been able to realize the connection of the country, and the world - so that we are willing to do our part.  Just because we are currently okay doesn’t blind us to the suffering of so many. 

            Into this current crisis comes the words of the gospel of Luke, two stories really, linked together because they are about the risen Christ.  I often quote from the first part of this text when we celebrate communion, about how Christ is recognized in the breaking of the bread, which is now a required part of observing this sacrament.  The second part has the risen Christ again with the group of disciples and followers, where he again says “Peace be with you,” and again refers to the coming of the Spirit.  I will read for us now. 

     ¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” ¹⁹He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”    

 ²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. ²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” ³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

            ³⁶While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look 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.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence. ⁴⁴Then 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.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

           

            A commentator on this passage this week reminded me of a phrase I learned just last year - Solvitur Ambulando.  It comes from St. Augustine, who would walk and wrestle with his pondering of Scripture, and talk with God while walking.  The phrase means, “It is solved by walking.”   Many people have found that taking a break from pouring over a book or a project seems to refresh the mind, open us to thoughts popping up from our unconscious - or we might say, letting us become aware of what the spirit is whispering.  I do that myself - looking at the world, the trees and sky, the animal life around, feeling the breeze, letting go of the tension.  Often I can then come back to what I’m working on with a different spirit.  It is solved by walking. 

            The two followers of Jesus have left Jerusalem where all the drama of crucifixion has taken place, and are returning to their own village called Emmaus.  They’ve evidently heard the story of the women who found the tomb empty and heard an angel say Jesus is alive.  They don’t seem to know what to make of that.  Or of any of what has gone on.  They are just walking home, their hopes in Jesus dashed.  One step in front of the other, returning to their village to see what comes next.  When a fellow traveler falls in step with them, they talk about what’s on their hearts. And they find that their fellow walker has a lot to say, helping them to see the truths of their scriptures that obviously they hadn’t seen before. He changed their frame of reference, reframed the events of the past days in terms of Scripture and God, which is a lot how the Spirit does for us when we pray, too.   As good hospitable people, they invite him to stay for a meal together before he goes on.  Then, in a special moment as he breaks the bread and blesses it, something they’ve seen Jesus do before, actually an everyday kind of motion, they suddenly recognize Jesus.  Just a regular action at a meal, but it’s enough - Mission accomplished, Jesus disappears.  When we have communion, I like to say “may Christ be known for us, too, as we break this bread and pour this cup.” These two tired disciples realize they need to be back together with the others - they get up and walk BACK to Jerusalem so they can tell the others, and find other revelations are happening as well. 

            A friend posted a poem that spoke deeply to me, a truth I’ve learned at other times of grief and loss and confusion, and really needed to hear again this week.  Let me read it for us -

Limping to Jerusalem       April 18 at 2:00 PM ·    ~~Elena Mikhalkova~

"My grandma once told me:

In hard times, you move forward in small steps.

Do what you have to do, but little by little.

Don't think about the future or what can happen tomorrow.

Wash the dishes.

Remove the dust.

Write a letter.

Make some soup.

"Do you see?

You are moving forward step by step.

Take a step and stop.

Get some rest.

Praise yourself.

Take another step.

Then another one.

You won't notice, but your steps will grow more and more.

And the time will come when you will be able to think of the future without crying."

            Beautiful simple words, and a simple thought for surviving awful events.  Step by step.  Small steps, when we can’t imagine the future, doing the daily things.  Take one step.  Then take another.  We will be moving forward, we will get there.  Simple trust. Simple small steps. 

            Now I like to know how things are going to end...sometimes I’ve jumped to the end of a novel instead of reading it straight through, because the tension of not knowing gets to me.  (Are you like that?)  Our country is in this tension - there are cries for the economy to be restarted despite the human consequences - and in a way they have a point, because economic consequences will be a human consequence, too - - there are cries to stay shut down longer until there are adequate tests available, which makes a lot of sense to me.  There are the cries of people tired of being in their homes, lives stalled.  Then there are cries of the healthcare people in the overwhelmed hospitals.  What is the best thing to do?  What will history say was the best thing we did or should have done?

 The wisdom of moving forward in small steps is the wisdom of a people who have survived other hard times.  It is a trust in God, and in Life, to unfold.  Not panic, not desperation- - but small steps - steps of hope. Love one another.  Call one another.  Shop for those who can’t.  Take what measures for safety that we can.  Buy take out from the local restaurants if we can. Start the car periodically.  Plant gardens.  Do lesson plans.  Prepare sermons week by week.  Participate in a book study if you have time.  Love your children.  Love your spouse.  Check on your neighbors and friends.  Go to work if you're not laid off.  If you have the income, give to the food bank, the church, and other charities for those not as fortunate.  If you don’t need your stimulus payment, look for a way to make it work for good.   Cultivate your prayer life.  Walk and exercise.  Get up and get dressed, face the day; look for small steps.  That’s how we get through when we can't imagine the future. 

I think we may be like those two folks walking from Jerusalem and then back - as we are walking, Jesus will walk with us and reframe things for us, help us see the bigger picture.  And hopefully, like those 2, we will see Jesus in our midst even in that small, everyday action of breaking bread.  Because God is with us always.  It’s OUR  eyes that need to be opened.  AMEN. 

New Life Starts in the Dark 4/19/20 Easter 2A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
4/19/ Easter 2A

New Life Starts in the Dark

            Well, we’re going on to about a month of this new way of staying inside, not traveling, defining essential workers, limiting grocery runs, wearing  masks and new communicating and worshiping with media and technology.  This is our 4th Sunday of FB Live….

            I imagine that, like me, we’re all getting tired of the changes - although we are also adapting, and on some level perhaps getting more used to it - getting our routines down, learning to teach from home and have our children around  more.  I’ve seen many jokes on FB about having to be the mean mommy or daddy & make kids do lessons that the teachers send.  Children are learning, perhaps, to be more self-guided in their studies….  There have also been a lot of jokes about wearing pjs all day, especially the pants part, as Zoom and other platforms mainly see the top halves of people!  And jokes about eating everything in sight, drinking more...

      We joke about it so we don’t explode in frustration, I expect.  It’s not easy, all these changes - if we couldn’t poke fun, we might be crying.  We encourage ourselves that we are making these changes because of love and care for the more vulnerable among us, and want our medical persons and resources to be able to cope. 

            A friend from my former congregation in rura SC called this week - their local towns have maybe 1 or 2 cases; our Onondaga cnty has what, 462 cases and 11 deaths (as of Friday) - The crises going on in the big cities, like our own NYC, Detroit, Atlanta and New Orleans are not our experience, although we read first-hand accounts about the terrible insufficiencies of personal protections and equipment, and suffering and deaths, and the toll on health care workers in those places.  In world-wide charts, virtually every country in the world has infections now - our United States now leads the rest.  We are all competing for supplies.  This is what a pandemic is - an epidemic that pans the whole world.  What the future holds as far as prevention, treatments, vaccines, and the economic impact and recovery, no one knows. 

Although we might long for it all to be over, this is going to be a major change in the world, even if the impact is not yet felt in every cnty equally.  Even when the curve flattens & begins to go down, doesn’t mean it’s over, despite what some folks say. Right now we’re all guessing when we try and predict the changes.

Again, the Scripture texts chosen for the Sundays following Easter are wonderfully appropriate.  In the time of Jesus, those who followed Jesus and had their hopes pinned in him, they are suffering a HUGE letdown; grief over their loss of dreams and hopes is intense as they are gathered behind locked doors in fear of repercussions.  No, it’s not a pandemic - however, I do hope that we can feel their fear and their very real loss of hope, direction and normalcy.  And I hope we can anticipate, with our knowledge of what happens historically after this,  the magnitude of the change that has just begun. 

Today’s text is based on the very Sunday of the resurrection, when the news is brand new and brought by the few women who have gone to Jesus’ tomb to do burial rites, who instead find an angel announcing the good news that Christ is risen.  A few disciples have run to the tomb and also found it empty except for discarded grave clothes.  Nobody knows what it means.  It must be overwhelming and confusing, like huge changes and traumas always are. 

In the trauma of severe loss and change, like Jesus’ followers then were in, and we are in now, too --- parts of our brain seem to shut down, because we can’t take it all in at once.  Anxiety is high; our coping skills and our resilience are tested.  We may react in different ways- from depression to acting out anger. We aren’t able to process everything. Children and adults as well will ALL need time to process, come to grips with things.  Think of the variety of ways people grieve a loved one -  Some close down, others act out in anger and frustration, some refuse to think about it, some go on auto-pilot to keep small things done.  Some begin to function in a can-do mode, and end up overfunctioning and then being exhausted. 

“We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel,” is a deeply moving expression of the loss of hope.  On top of this comes the news from the Mary’s that they’ve talked to an angel who says Jesus is risen, whatever that means! We can imagine the FURTHER shock and lack of comprehension.  We can we’ll imagine why they have locked the doors of the room they’re in. 

We can imagine them reeling from shock when the risen Christ just appears out of thin air. Have we totally lost their minds?  Are we hallucinating, all at the same time?  No wonder Thomas, who has hidden himself somewhere else, doesn’t believe it!  Are they able to understand what it means when Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit?”  They probably need years to understand what that entails - that the whole situation of the entire world has suddenly and profoundly changed. 

We still don’t totally understand the extent, the depth or the breadth of that change.  The change of even God being born in flesh - the Incarnation, we call it in theological terms - we are still learning what that means.  Now the death and resurrection, Christ’s appearance as the first of a new creation - we are still learning what that means.  And again, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the breath of Christ, the breath of God (which REALLY explodes on the day of Pentecost) - we are still learning what that means as well.  It’s that big of a change - 2000 years later humans are still trying to comprehend the change in the world that this means.  The risen Jesus tells those gathered there that they are now sent to the world, just as Jesus was sent - and by God.  That’s a huge thing to take in as well. 

I’d like to point out a few things about the whole story of Jesus’ resurrection that may help us in our current crisis: 

New life starts in the dark.  Lots of our resurrection illustrations have the empty tomb with a bright light shining from it, and maybe even a glowing Jesus standing there… that isn’t how it happened.  The women arrived at first light, as it now wasn’t the sabbath any more, and they could give Jesus’ body the right rituals.... and that body was already gone.  It had happened in the dark, and no one noticed it until it was day again.  Like seeds that fall into the ground and die, the apostle Paul later says, there in the darkness of the soil, they sprout.  Like all kinds of new starts and new ideas, they come without a lot of fanfare, unremarked at first.  Like our human infants, who we don’t even know have started growing inside our bodies until they begin to cause changes in us.  We don’t remark the turning point of new life until it’s further along, and beginning to manifest. The roots go down BEFORE the stem comes up.  New promises of hope may well already be started in our hearts and our world.

Whatever God is doing in the world has probably already started, without fanfare and notice.  Whatever God is doing in our congregation and all congregations, the seeds may well already be planted.  God is always working.

We can’t take it in yet.  We will be working out what this means in our history and in our children for a long time yet.  We will need time and space to process, intentionally to talk about it. While the new life is started by God without our help, we need to comprehend what it means.  We need to process the trauma.

We need to lean on the Holy Spirit, the breath of God and Christ, for our future.  What if the disciples had said, “Well, that’s over, so let’s get back to the way we were….”???  Actually, they did go back to fishing - we’ll see that in another text - and the risen Jesus finds them there and recharges them with ministry.  We also find ourselves saying, “when things get back to normal…”  Friends, we might try to deny that this happened and try to recreate the way things were, but it’s not gonna ever be the same - especially for the next generation.  This is an opportunity for us to rethink, reimagine, look at what wasn’t working, look for where God is bringing new life - be ready to be adaptable, to respond to what’s new.  It’s the Spirit that will lead us, guide us, show us the way - we need to be open and ready for God’s guidance, actively seek out the voice of God’s Spirit, praying for our sensitivity to the Spirit, listening for the Spirit. 

We need to be prayerfully prepared for seeing, recognizing and following the new life God is bringing.  We need to pray that this be so.  One of the interfaith clergy groups I follow online is actively pondering what changes in worship, ministry and service may emerge because of this virus and the consciousness it’s raised.  We now know more about the world’s interconnection, the value of the really essential workers, the importance of the wisdom of science, the importance of preparedness, the need for good leaders.   Our congregations are learning  - well, maybe more like “coping with”-  the ways that technology may be harnessed and used for the gospel.  Our hearts may well be more sensitive to the mission needs in the parts of the world that we think of least. 

I think we’re still in the confusing part of grief and loss, and just beginning to imagine the future - maybe a lot like those Christ-followers who gathered over the next weeks as the news of the risen Christ spread.  Confused, perhaps, feeling vulnerable, stressing over the changes, wondering what is going to happen.  Trying to still be alive and hopeful, our indomitable spirits caring for others worse off than we are, trying to maintain the goodness of life despite the current restrictions.  unfortunately, we may at some point be among the actively grieving - we’re going to be dealing with this virus for quite a while.  Predictions as to a vaccine say maybe in 2021….

We tell our Easter story in a week, but really, you know, things take a long time.  The gospels weren’t written down until some 60 years later - it took a while to process and understand.  Later, our history books may talk about this first real major pandemic on one page….those of us who live through it will know it took a lot longer.  Our  Easter message is a message of hope, and a message of God recreating life while it’s still dark - let’s hold on to that hope, and trust in God.  AMEN.