Fish, Sheep, and Diving Right In

The Third Sunday After Easter Jesus meets the disciples on the beach - and cooks breakfast for them! As he has always done, for them and for us, Our Lord provides much more than physical sustenance. In his post resurrection visits and time spent with the disciples, Jesus instills something greater than reassurance or confidence in these, who will continue to serve in his name, long after he has ascended into heaven. There is the conviction that as he was sent by the father, he is now sending his disciples out, tasked to love, serve, care for, teach, and preach the good news.

Now they know who Jesus is. Now they know what Jesus wants of them. Now Jesus prepares them to be sent out in his name.

Our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the very Word of God, has come into the world, bringing light and life. For those who are oppressed, suffering, outcast, this is very good news and the transformation that Jesus brings is remarkable. For those of us who are comfortable and who want to hold on to our comfort and maintain the status quo, this news brings fear and even anger.  Both groups fall into the camp of Jesus' sheep - and Jesus bids his disciples to feed and care for his sheep.

On this Third Sunday, the youth of Grace served in leadership roles throughout both services. They presented the gospel and reflected on it through a sermon skit:

JESUS ON THE BEACH – A POST EASTER VISIT

Narrator:   So, after Jesus died and then rose again from the dead, he appeared to his disciples, to help prepare them for carrying on his ministry of love. He knew he would soon leave them to ascend into heaven. The third of these appearances happened when Jesus showed himself again to his disciples by the sea of Tiberius.

Narrator:   Gathered there were Simon Peter, Thomas,

Narrator: …. Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,

James and John, the sons of Zebedee,

and two other disciples.

Simon Peter:   I am going fishing.

All Disciples:  We will go with you!

Narrator: So, the disciples all went to the boat, got in, and cast off the dock. They fished all night but caught nothing.

The disciples are having no luck catching fish – they throw nets over the side of the boat and pull up empty nets time after time

Narrator: Jesus appeared on the beach and though they could see him, none of them recognized Jesus or knew who he was. But soon they knew him.

James:   Do you see that guy on the beach?

John:   Yeah – who do you think it is?

Thomas:   I’m not so sure it is a guy.

Simon:   Thomas, what in the world are you talking about?

Thomas:   I’m just not sure I believe what my eyes are seeing

Nathanael: Oh, Thomas, you are such a doubter!

Rest of the Disciples: Yup, that our Doubting Thomas, right there!

Simon: Oh, that!

John: Now that we are closer and the sun is brighter, NOW can you see him?

Jesus: Children, have you no fish?

Thomas:   Not only see him, but HEAR him!

Disciples all talk: No we don’t have any, we haven’t caught anything all night, etc. etc.

Jesus: Cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some!

Disciples cast net just as Jesus told them. The net is now full of fish, and they struggled to haul it into the boat.

The disciples pull, and strain, struggling to pull the net in..

Narrator: Suddenly, John, who is known as “the disciple Jesus loved,” REALIZED who this person was. He exclaimed:

John: It is the Lord!

Narrator: Fishing is messy business, and so Simon Peter had removed his clothing while they worked. Now he put his clothes back on, jumped into the sea, and swam to shore. As the other disciples brought the boat to shore, dragging the net full of fish, Jesus built a charcoal fire and made them all breakfast.

Simon Peter puts on some clothes, and swims to the shore.

Simon Peter: Oh, my Lord!

Others bring the boat to shore, dragging the net full of fish.

Jesus builds a fire and makes them all breakfast with fish and bread.

Jesus: With this fish and bread I will feed these disciples, that they may be strengthened for service in my name.

Simon Peter Trying to drag the now-full net. This net is so heavy, I can hardly move it yet it is not torn! Nathanael and Thomas rush to help.

James & John (alternating numbers): 1…5…3….7….. (together) 153 fish!

Jesus: Bring some of the fish you have just caught.

Jesus: Come, all of you, and have breakfast.

Jesus takes bread and fish and hands it out to the disciples.

Jesus turns to Simon Peter.

Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Simon: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

Jesus: Feed my lambs!

Narrator: A second time, Jesus asked Simon Peter:

Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Simon: Yes, Lord, you KNOW that I love you.

Jesus: Tend my sheep!

Narrator: And yet another time, Jesus spoke to Simon Peter:

Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Simon: Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you!

Narrator:   The disciples looked at each other. What could it mean that Jesus had to ask Simon Peter, the one who was their de facto leader, the same question about love a third time!

Jesus said to Simon Peter and all the rest:

Jesus:  Very truly I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go…. Follow me.

Narrator:  We might ask what this story means and why the evangelist John told it. A clue might be the commission Jesus gave his disciples a short while before he was taken away to die. They are to work for him. They are to love him and in turn love others. Their lives are to be marked by this love.

Nathanael:    That’s right! They are to be filled with God’s breath and sent into the world as Jesus had been.

James:  And really, like we all are.

Narrator:   But you know, if they try to do it their own way, without relying on Jesus, God’s very own Word, they’ll come up empty.

Nathanael:   Yea, like the fishing nets.

Narrator:   Right. They can work and strain and cast those nets in time and again and they will get nothing – nada – nietz.

Simon Peter:    But when they do things GOD’S way, the way of love,….

Narrator:   When they listen to Jesus,….

John:    And do what he says,….

James:   Then, who KNOWS what they might achieve.

Narrator:   So, stand in your mind’s eye with the disciples in the boat. Imagine the things, the relationships, the jobs and work you are laboring over,

Simon Peter:    Struggling over,

Thomas:   Stressing over,

John:   and getting nowhere.

Narrator:    and watch for the dawn. Watch for the figure on the shore. Listen to his voice, and then do whatever he tells you.

All together: AMEN!!!

 

Holy Joy, Holy Laughter

Psalm 150

Surprises give us the twin gift of joy and laughter, and today is a day for surprises. The Easter story is full of surprises, and as the weeks after Easter unfold, additional surprises pile up. Now, we don’t always like surprises, do we? It seems a few weeks back we might have talked about some of the kinds of surprises that we don’t really care for. But the revelations of Easter are the good kind of surprises, and they often bring the kind of joy and laughter as this story I heard last week:

Perhaps you’ve heard about the elderly woman who had just returned home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled, "Stop! Acts 2:38!"
(Which reads, “Repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.”)

The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done. As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you."

"Scripture?" replied the burglar. "She said she had an ax and two 38's!"

Ba Da Boom. Welcome to Holy Humor Sunday!

I have another story for you:

There was a woman who was doing some baking for her Easter dinner on Holy Saturday. There was a knock at the door. She went to find a man, dressed in shabby clothes, and looking for some odd jobs. He asked her if there was anything he could do. She said, "Can you paint?" 
"Yes," he said. "I’m a rather good painter." 
"Well," she said, "Go into my shed - there are two gallons of green paint there and a brush, and there’s a porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I’ll pay you what the job is worth."
He said, "That’s great. I will be done quickly."
She went back to her baking and did not think much more about it until there was a knock at the door. She went, and it was obvious he had been painting for he had it on his clothes. She asked, "Did you finish the job?"
He said, "Yes."
She said, "Did you do a GOOD job?" 
He said, "Yes. But lady, there’s one thing I would like to point out to you. That is not a Porsche back there. That is a Mercedes." 

It was only last year that I heard about Holy Humor Sunday, this particular designation for the Second Sunday of Easter.

When I first heard about it—I honestly thought it was a modern, creative solution to the after-Easter blues - For that “low” Sunday after Easter when the once full sanctuary is back to the regular crew, minus a few, who are on vacation; when the pastor, the organist, and the lay leaders are all beat from the activities of Lent, Holy Week and Easter, and people are just coming out of a chocolate Easter bunny coma…

I thought Holy Humor Sunday was another Easter surprise, a new way to lighten things up a bit, focus on something other than the Thomas story we hear every year, a way to remember the joy, exuberance and laughter with which we have greeted the Easter Good News:

                                      Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

                                                He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Well, I was wrong; At least about the ‘modern’ part.

It turns out that the Greeks started Holy Humor celebrations in the early centuries of Christianity, celebrations now being resurrected—pun intended—in American congregations.

For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter was observed as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.

For hundreds of years, churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other during this week and on this Sunday, drenching each other with water, telling jokes even if nowhere near April Fool’s Day, singing and dancing.

The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians like Augustine who argued that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.

Risus paschalis – “the Easter laugh," the early theologians called it.

So, one more time…..

A Sunday school teacher was teaching the Ten Commandments to her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to ‘honor thy father and thy mother’, she asked, ‘is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?”

One little boy shouted, “Thou shall not kill”

There you go, a taste of Holy Humor on this Sunday—to honor and celebrate the gift of joy and delight God has given to God’s people and, in the words of Augustine, a day to give thanks for the great joke God played on the devil when God raised Jesus from the dead.         

While we often turn to scripture with great seriousness and holy respect, both of which are appropriate, it’s also true that the scriptures proclaim and encourage joy and laughter and singing and dancing. Take our psalm reading from this morning, for instance.

It’s as if God knew we would too often take ourselves too seriously, and would need to be reminded from time to time, to let go, let God, and lighten up.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the words of Psalm 150, where the imperative is given to faithfully reflect God’s desire for joy and praise and adoration. – Hallel u Yah! Praise God!

This psalm draws the entire psalter to its conclusion –– through a dramatic call to praise that is unambiguous: it summons “everyone who breathes” to praise God.

Coming just a week after Easter Sunday, with the glorious sound of brass and bells and voices raised in song and “alleluia” refrains still fresh in our minds, Psalm 150 reminds us that the effects of the resurrection of Jesus remain and continue.

What joy this good news brings to us. Our gospel lesson assures us that Easter was not just a dream; the risen Jesus appears to his disciples and assures them that he has conquered death through his resurrection, and is still with them.

Jesus assuages the doubts of all of them, and finally of Thomas, that it really, truly is he, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, who stands before them, still bearing the wounds of his crucifixion.

On this Sunday, Psalm 150, with its imperative to praise God, is paired together with that old story of doubt and faith while the unmistakable intention of God rings out over and over again through the repetition of this command at each the start of every line of the psalm: Praise God!

Praise God in his sanctuary; but not only in this sanctuary; Praise God in the mighty firmaments! The “firmaments” include everything under the dome of the sky for the Hebrew people – in other words, Praise God from every place throughout the entire universe!

The psalm plays out in four parts –

WHO is to be praised? God is to be praised.

WHY God is to be praised? Because God is mighty and God is of unsurpassing greatness.

HOW is God to be praised?

With unsurpassing brilliance of sound – from trumpet all the way to clashing cymbals, with every instrument then known to humankind, with great cacophony of sound, with enthusiasm and even with dance; God is to be praised. With our whole voice, body, brain, being, God is to be praised!

WHO is to DO the praising? The Scriptures reflect the Hebrew idea of completion here – the entire creation, for all that breathes, God is to be praised.

          Psalm 150 begins and ends with Hallel u Yah (in Hebrew, Praise YHWH). So, we remember that this praise is not about us – it is about God.

          Today we come together to praise God who is Creator, Comforter, Savior, and Sovereign. For that is how we experience this God whom we praise and glorify.

          For the beauty which surrounds us this day, the flowering trees, the greening grass, the singing birds, the rain-soaked fields, the deep, broad ocean, the vastness of the sky; we praise God who is Creator.

          For those of us who have experienced the unbearable loss of a child or a spouse, or a parent or relationship; for those who are facing medical or financial challenges yet cope by grace they cannot fully comprehend, God the Sustainer and Comforter is known and experienced in the deep dark night of doubt and fear. Ever-present, ever-sustaining God be praised.

          For all those times we have fallen short, have felt mired in failure, have known that on our own we can never “know enough” or “do enough” – and yet are loved to worthiness by Jesus, we praise God the Savior.

          And for the broad experience of our lives and of our world, for the gifts of creation, salvation, love and mercy, joy and laughter, we praise God as Sovereign over our lives and all that blesses us and besets us. 

Old Testament scholar and teacher Walter Brueggemann, reflecting on this psalm, writes, “the expectation of the Old Testament is not finally obedience but adoration.”

So it is that on this Holy Humor Sunday, in the lightness of our hearts, in the midst of laughter and joy reflected in our alleluias –we are invited to raise our praise and adoration to the eternally surprising God, the mighty and blessed one, who defeats evil and death, and reconciles the world to Godself through scarred and holy hands and feet, an empty tomb, and the message of the ages – Praise God.

We are invited to laugh at what once held us bound, knowing that in Christ we are now set free.

Each Sunday, our Easter celebration continues as we bask in the truth of the resurrection and we Praise God, knowing that the Good News of this day comes in the form of the ever-living God we can trust, who is faithful and just, who is the loving and redeeming Lord of all creation. Hallelu Yah! Hallelu Yah! Hallelu Yah!

The beauty of Psalm 150 -- which calls everyone and everything that breathes to praise God with trumpet, cymbals, and dance, in any and every way possible -- is that it frees one to praise loudly, with clanging and clashing, both in times of triumph and in the day-to-day challenges of life.

In humor and laughter, in joy and song, let the Easter refrain play on, for Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

Amen.

           

           

The WOW! of Faith

Easter Sunday

May the joy of the empty tomb, the blessings of the risen Christ, and the wonder of the Easter mystery be with you, that daily renewal in the promise and power of Jesus Christ to transform your days and your nights and remain with you always. Amen.

            Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

            WOW! Happy Easter! Today is an AMAZING DAY! It truly is the day that the Lord has made! Let us REJOICE and be GLAD in it!

Okay, so I can tell that for some of you, that’s way too much exuberance to be shared, and IN CHURCH of all places, even if it is Easter Sunday!

Excitement in worship is a little uncomfortable for some of us. It’s a little un-Lutheran-like. It’s not very refined or sophisticated. It’s as though the eleventh commandment should be “thou shalt not laugh, clap, cheer, dance, or shout in worship.” Yet, when you think about it, what better place to express over-the-top joy and excitement than in church, and on Easter Sunday no less?!

How did it come to be that so many of us learned that along with folding our hands to pray, bowing our heads and following along in our bulletins, faithfully singing the same songs we have always sung, that church should be all about minding our Ps and Qs and sharing only the most restrained responses to prayers? Today I invite you to let go and let loose with joyful shouts and gleeful alleluias. For Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

What better place to share an entire range of emotion as we fully engage in the story of our faith and build up our witness to the spectrum of our lives as Jesus followers and witnesses. It is together as community in Christ that we laugh and cry, celebrate and mourn, dance and kneel, bearing witness to the presence of God in the entirety of our human experience, through Jesus.

God loves us as we are – silly, giddy with excitement on a day like today, sometimes serious, sometimes sad or reflective, sometimes doubting or searching. Jesus embraces it all. God gave us a wide range of emotion to help us truly experience life and enjoy our relationships and share our lives with one another.

A full range of emotion has been shared in the Holy Week story we’ve heard about in just this past week, and the last three days, in particular.  

Just a week ago, Jesus was honored and acclaimed as he entered Jerusalem on the back of a colt, an event we recalled on Palm Sunday.

During the course of the past three days, Jesus shared a meal one last time with his disciples, giving them the command to love and to serve, and leaving them with a lasting remembrance in the Lord’s Supper, which he instituted at that Last Supper.

Jesus bore fear and dread to the Garden where he prayed, was arrested, beaten, tried, convicted, sentenced to die. Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, where he was hung like a common criminal. He was laid in the tomb. And on what we now know of as Easter morning, in came the women, disciples and friends of his. 

Whether you have journeyed through Lent, step by step preparing for this day, or find yourself drawn to the majesty and tradition of Easter alone, the excitement of this day is a shared experience. So it is by Christ’s invitation, and so it has been for thousands of years.

It is an invitation to new and everlasting life through Jesus Christ. This is the WOW of our faith.

The Good News of this day is that it is for everyone. – WOW! Christ came that all might have new life, eternal life, abundant and true life, and Jesus accomplishes this for us all through his resurrection from the dead. FANTASTIC!

Today we feed on the Good News of this resurrection.  And yet, it is news that is met with amazement, and not just a little bit of doubt.

For many of us, the story brings confusion, not clarity. Like the disciples who first heard the claim of the women who excited came to tell them all that has happened, there are times when we wonder, if Jesus really is the incarnation of God, why did he have to die? If he really did die, then how did the resurrection happen? Why does the story at the center of our faith seem so outrageously fanciful?

The Gospel says that when the women came rushing back and went into that room where the disciples were holed up, sharing their story of an open, empty tomb, and talking angels who reminded them of Jesus’ predictions and then shared a message, the disciples did not respond, “WOW!” or “THAT’S AMAZING!” or “ALLELUIA!”

The disciples thought the women’s story was nothing but an idle tale; Made up or imagined by hysterical women. So you could say there is good precedent for our doubt; even the disciples struggled with this story! They didn’t expect it. They didn’t understand it, and wrapped in grief and fear, the witness of the women was easier to deny than to accept.

But something struck Peter. While he had his doubts, they were mitigated by just a smidgen of curiosity or remembrance – and hope. And so Peter made his way to the tomb. In fact, he ran to see for himself just what had occurred. When he saw what he saw, or rather, didn’t see, he ran back to the others in excitement, amazed by what had happened.

The truth is that many of us hang out in that place located between belief and disbelief. As post-enlightenment generations labeled Great, Baby Boomer, X, Y, or Z, faith is a challenge to our sensibilities. As post-Enlightenment Christians, we like our faith to be tangible, practical, and most of all rational. But there is nothing tangible, practical, or rational in the resurrection story, is there?

The resurrection calls us from our old belief in death to new belief in life.

We get death. We see it all around us, in stark images and sorrowful experiences. Resurrection? Not so much. It is not within the scope of our experience on this side of the cross. Like the disciples we remain wrapped in grief and fear – and doubt. And yet, my friends, while Easter is perplexing, and to believe in the resurrection is not easy, today we are invited to do just that.

To believe in the resurrection takes a lot of faith and courage. In the place of the bad news that surrounds us, stories of death and destruction, bombs and terrorists, floods and disease, hunger and drought, to cling to hope takes a lot of faith and courage.

In the midst of our struggles and failures, the bad news we hear and the bad experiences we have, the Easter story invites us to believe that none of that will have the last word, because Jesus indeed broke the bonds of death and overcame the power of the tomb to hold him. Such belief shines new light and new life in the midst of our doubt and fear. It is this kind of new life that causes us to exclaim Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Easter raises us up above the chaos of our world  because of the sustaining power of God, who brings life out of death and reconciliation out of conflict.

Opening the door to belief in the power of the resurrection and the victory of Jesus over death opens the door to new life for all the world. New life in the power of the resurrection leads to acts of love and reconciliation for the world. Easter marks the beginning of a new creation.

Today, we follow in the footsteps of Peter. We have heard the rumor that Jesus is alive and to see for ourselves; “What if it is true? What if death is real, but not final? What if Jesus truly does have the last word over death? What if Jesus is not merely past but present? What if Jesus were to meet me here? What would life be like then?” Life would be – WOW!

Easter continues far beyond the beautiful music and flowers and prayers of Easter Sunday. It is celebrated every Sunday when we come together as community; it is at work in every instance of healing and forgiveness and reconciliation; we can see it in every sign of new life around us.

As the Body of Christ, we remember and celebrate this mysterious, miraculous resurrection every time we come together at the Eucharistic table, where we meet Jesus once again and are fed with his body and blood – WOW – given and shed for loving and serving and sharing and proclaiming the Good News of resurrection life. PRAISE BE TO GOD!

The only appropriate response to such a gift is an enthusiastic, no-holds-barred, exclamation of WOW! ALLELUIA! AMEN!

It is that exclamation that I hope you can embrace and shout out whenever you come to receive communion. When you hear the words spoken to you, “the body of Christ, given for you,” I hope your response can reflect over-the-top excitement and gratitude for this Easter day - WOW! AWESOME! AMEN! Or PRAISE BE TO GOD! Let this space ring out with your joy and gratitude.

For Christ is risen from the dead! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Wow!