Dimensions of Life

PROPERS: BURIAL OF THE DEAD, RITE I

TEXT:       JOHN 6:37-40

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The mystery of eternal life is beyond our understanding of medical life.         

 

            I suspect many of us here would yearn for many years ago.

 

            I would, and I suspect you would too.  Not for an idealized time – because that time didn’t exist.  Not for a time absent problems, worries, and among some of us, aches and pains.

 

            I am talking about a yearning for people now gone to their reward.  Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandmothers, grandfathers, and other special people.

 

            I recall when I first came here in 1993, there was a remarkable group of what I would call Elder Saints. They were a group of folks that at that time didn’t even include Rae and Leonard Brandon.  Rae and Leonard then would be my contemporaries today!

 

            But they were a remarkable group. As time marched on, their numbers diminished – one by one. And others succeeded them as Elder Saints. They touched our lives in remarkable and transformative ways.

 

            We yearn for those folks today.

 

            I remember a conversation with one particular member of that group of octogenarians.  She had been alone for some time.  Her husband had died years ago. She wondered.

 

            “I just don’t understand why I am still here,” she said.  The conversation was quiet. Her words hung in the silence.

 

            My attempts to comfort her were awkward. “Because of what you mean to others… the way you touch lives… Remember your children.”  They were my best effort, but I am sure they fell short.

 

            We reach the point where we yearn for the other side.  That place where others have gone before us.  That place of promised divine mystery.  A place of rest. The place where there is neither suffering nor pain, neither sighing, but life everlasting. We get to the point where we thirst for that place which Jesus pointed toward.

 

            I have been asked about eternal life… life after death… many times.  It is, after all, a wondrous concept.  I had a theology professor who said that, despite our best efforts, we cannot have a theology of life after death because we have never experienced it.  And we can speak only about those things we have experienced.

 

            I have a good friend who formerly served at St. Paul’s Church in Corinth. He’s an English priest and his name is Tim Jones. He now serves the church in Wales. In discussing life after death, he told me that we define life too narrowly.

 

            God bless Leonard, Steven, and Emily and others who practice medicine, but Tim may be right.  We have a good understanding of medical life and death, but we have no idea of what transpires before or after our worldly existence.  It is a mystery.

 

            Jesus tells us in the gospel today that everything that the Father gives him will come to him. Being given to him comes with eternal life. That is a promise that we have.  It is a promise that Rae has realized in full. We are left with the mystery beyond the promise.

 

            I think the poignant point of faith takes us into that realm – the realm where our bodily life ends, and we enter into that sphere of being that brings us more fully into the divine presence. The added dimensions of reality are unfolded before us.

 

            We only have a vague sense of what awaits us and what Rae has come to know. Hymn 685 describes it so well. “When I rise to worlds unknown and behold thee on thy throne.”

 

            Our sister Rae now knows that mystery well.  We still see in a glass darkly, albeit with faith. She now sees face-to-face. 

Loved as a Child

PROPERS: 3 EASTER, YEAR B

TEXT:       1 JOHN 3:1-7

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The joy of being God’s child is not burdened with the aspects of our human relationships.

 

            Being a parent is not easy. Neither is being a child.

 

            I speak from experience, having been both a child and a parent.

 

            I know that the respective roles of parent and child are frequently idealized.  But let’s be honest – sometimes those roles are complicated by extraneous factors. Rabbi Edwin Friedman dealt with that tendency in his excellent book, Generation to Generation.

 

            Sometimes the relationship between parent and child is placid and ideal. There are no outside factors.  To be sure, we love our children… maybe even in spite of ourselves.

 

            But sometimes there are outside influences – influences handed down from our parents, grandparents, and generations before.  The brokenness that has infected earlier relations seem to magically show up in our relationships.  It’s not evil – it’s just normal to us.  It is what we experienced in our formative years.

 

            Sometimes those tendencies are benign or maybe even beneficial.  The tendency to be studious. A striving toward outstanding performance academically, athletically, or relationally. We treasure and value those tendencies.

 

            However, there are darker tendencies that we hand on from generation to generation. Genetic health issues. Problems with anger. Issues with intimacy. A tendency toward addiction.

 

            As a friend observed, “We come here prewired.” Maybe. Maybe not.

 

            So all of that burdens the imagery we see in the First Letter of John today – we are called children of God, for that is what we are.

 

            With the complexities many of us have known as children, we don’t know what that means.  We don’t know how to see ourselves as children. And the metaphor of God as Father or Mother is loaded, because of earlier relationships.

 

            I must admit that my relationship with my parents was not ideal.  I brought some baggage from that experience to the role of parent to my two children. I love them, but I am not ideal.  It was hard for me to see myself as a child of Godthrough the experiences of being a child or being a parent.

 

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            Then I had a bolt from the blue – 11 years ago, and nine years ago.  The birth of two grandsons – Wilt and Harris. (Wilt has asked if I ever mentioned him in a sermon, now I can tell him I have!)

 

            Those of you who have grandchildren and those of you who are grandchildren know what I am saying.  There is utter delight in those two boys. I am always glad to see them.  Our relationship is uncomplicated.  There is absolute joy in their existence.

 

            It struck me that that is how God views me as his child – a delight in his eyes.  A joy in my existence.

 

            That is how God views each of you, as well. Regardless of what you have done.  No matter your successes or failures. The roads you have traveled, the broken relationships – they do not matter.

 

            God loves you as a child. Never forget that. 

Every Good and Perfect Gift

PROPERS: 2 EASTER, YEAR B

TEXT:       ACTS 4:32-35; JOHN 20:19-31

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The message of Acts is couched in time and culture; the point is for us to return a portion of what God has given us.  

NOT PREACHED – EXTEMPORANEOUS INSTEAD

            There is an interesting contrast in choices on two lessons today – the first lesson from Acts or the gospel reading from John.

 

            We are probably much more comfortable with John.  It is a familiar story. The early Christian Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit to the frightened disciples, and the story of Doubting Thomas. That is pretty familiar and comfortable stuff.

 

            On the other hand, is the lesson from Acts and the account of sharing goods and wealth.  There is no private ownership of property and wealth. To state the obvious, there are no PERS,  401(k)s, or 403(b)s.  It is all part of the community’s coffers.

 

And, seemingly worse than that is that this lesson is a precursor to the story of Ananias and Sapphira.  They were the couple who sold some property and did not give all the funds to the church. When confronted with their duplicity, they both died!

 

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            I suspect most of us get uncomfortable with the annual every member canvass. I’ve heard it called the fall begathon. I once had a stewardship chairman – not here -- who was so squeamish about it that his chosen theme for the canvass was “Pony-up for the Lord.”

 

            Giving all goods and wealth to the Christian community is a pretty radical notion. It sounds like a system that was tried half a world away between 1917 and 1989. 

 

I suspect that if I chose to preach on that lesson, some would say that I “have gone from preaching to meddling.”But preach on it I will.

 

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            I would offer a few observations.

 

            First, keep in mind the difference in cultures. We are 2,000 years removed from that community. There is no way to comprehend the difference in the culture in which we live and the culture of that time and place. And keep in mind that the church in those days – those who followed a small movement called The Way – were a tiny, threatened sect of a population of Jews oppressed by the Roman empire.

 

            The sharing of goods was for a purpose: the care of the community. Since these followers of Jesus were largely a poor minority, the community was concerned that essential needs were met.  It was not a means to garner power or wealth for a few.  That would come later, as the church became a dominant institution.  That tendency would launch the Reformation of Martin Luther 15 centuries later.

 

            As you can see, the sharing of goods and wealth was grounded in needs of a struggling community with a high calling – caring for one another. It was not a political doctrine.

 

            Yet there is a truth in this lesson from Acts which echoes down through the millennia. We express that truth when we receive the weekly offering at the altar: All things come of thee, O Lord. And of thine own have we given thee.

 

            We are recipients of divine blessings.  If we look honestly at our possessions, we can see that they originate with our maker.  We may have striven for what we have, but at the core, our ability to strive has been given to us. Everythingcomes from God.

 

            What we do on a weekly basis is to return to God and God’s work in this community a portion of those manifold blessings we have received. It is by your offerings that we seek to be God’s hands and feet in this community.

 

            Think about the many aspects of the church’s ministry that are enabled by your free gifts. Your gifts have practical, multiplying effects on our community. Our joint ministry is continuing. 

Revelation to the Unexpected

           

PROPERS: EASTER DAY, YEAR B (Principal Service)

TEXT:       1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-11; JOHN 20:1-18

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        Revelation to the unexpected.    

 

            My homiletics professor at Sewanee had simple advice on how to preach: Tell the people what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you said. Simple enough.

 

            But today I am going to tell you what I am not going to say. This.

 

            A friend at a large Jackson Church was preaching at the principal Easter Day service. Hundreds of people were present.

 

            After the Easter gospel was read, he stepped to the center of the transept.  He preached a three-word sermon: “It’s all true.” That was it.

 

            You can probably get away with that once per decade.  But not on Easter Day.

 

            So, that will not be my sermon today.

 

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There is a curious inconsistency in our second lesson and the gospel today. It could be just a matter of our translation, but still…

 

            The second lesson is from Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Corinth, the 15^th Chapter.  Our translation, the New Revised Standard Version, begins this way: “Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters…”

 

            The odd thing is that the biblical text, in Greek, says simply, “Now I would remind you, brothers…” No mention of sisters.

 

            Compare that original textual exclusion by Paul to the accounts of the resurrection, on that first Easter Day, in all four gospels.

 

            The first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus were women.  In each of the gospels. They discovered the empty tomb.  Especially Mary Magdalene – she conversed with the Risen Christ.

 

            And go back further – to the crucifixion on the rugged hillside outside the city of Jerusalem, the place known as Golgotha. The disciples had scattered to the four winds.  They were afraid. The women stayed… and watched the unfolding horror.

 

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            The question occurs to me: To whom is the gospel revealed?

 

            I flash back to the Sermon on the Mount.  It was on a grassy hillside, descending into the Sea of Galilee. It was, of course, in Galilee, a rural area we might consider the biblical equivalent of Kemper County.  The thousands gathered on that hillside listening to the Beatitudes were known in the Hebrew as the am ha’aretz – the common, ordinary people, unknowledgeable and unobservant of the religious law.

 

            I think, too, of the early Christians – mostly slaves and people without power.  There were exceptions, but they were few.

 

The early Christians hid to observe their Christian rites.  They largely moved furtively and stayed in the shadows until the Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in A. D. 312 – nearly 300 years after the resurrection.

 

            If you read the accounts of Jesus’ meandering ministry across Galilee, Samaria, and into Judea, you will see that the Christ had his mission aimed at the least powerful – tax collectors, fishermen, common folks, prostitutes, and the like. He mainly butted heads with the rich and influential – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the High Priests, and others.

 

            It was his challenges to the existing power structure and the religious hierarchy that led to a common criminal’s execution on that Friday outside the walls of Jerusalem. A thief on each side. They could do no worse to him.

 

            So, to whom did the resurrected Christ first appear?

 

            It was not to the wealthy, the powerful. It was not the people who hear sermons about prosperity gospel. It was not to people who gather in massive auditoriums to hear flashy preachers.  And, honestly, it was not people like you and me.

 

            The gospel of hope – of sick being visited, prisoners being released, the grieving being consoled – is given to you and me.  And the gift of eternal life is ours, too.

 

            But, first, it was given to the streets… to the back alleys… and to the ghettos of the cities.

 

            And, ultimately, it is given to us.  Given to us to share return – to the poor in spirit, the grieving, the lost, the hopeless, the hungry, the sick, and the prisoners.

 

            When we see them, we will encounter the risen Christ.

The Eve of a Great Gift

PROPERS: MAUNDY THURSDAY, YEAR B 

TEXT:       EXODUS 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26; JOHN 13:1-17, 31b-35

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        This evening commemorates the ongoing salvific acts of God – even to this day.      

 

            The Jewish Passover, which occasionally coincides with this day, includes a sacred, family meal which dates from the 12^th Chapter of Exodus.  That meal begins with the youngest member of the family posing this question: “Why is this night different from others?”

 

            Indeed, we could pose that same question. But we have layer upon layer added to our response. And being good Episcopalians, we know that our Book of Common Prayer expresses our theology.

 

            Our theology is so clearly and concisely explained in the Sacrament of Baptism, specifically in one of my favorite prayers in the prayer book – the Thanksgiving over the Water on page 306. That prayer says the following:

 

We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water.
Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage
in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus
received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy
Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death
and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.

 

We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are
buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his
resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his

fellowship those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in
the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

 

That simple prayer highlights the saving acts of God down through the millennia of Holy History. The Passover, when God liberated the Hebrews from hundreds of years of bondage Egypt. The Red Sea, when God brought the Hebrews through the Red Sea on dry land, and swallowed-up the pursuing forces of Pharoah in the returning tides. 

 

The Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, foreshadowing the rite of initiation that we share even today.  And, finally, the Cross and the Empty Tomb, giving us eternal hope of deliverance from the bonds of death and the grave.

 

We add to that prayer in the lesson from 1 Corinthians tonight, when Paul recollects the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples – and beckons us to continue that sacred meal.

 

The Bible we used in Honduras on our medical missions to that remote village in the Central Mountains was entitled Dios Habla Hoy – God speaks now. In delivering his people – 3,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, and today – God speaks now.

 

            We recall those saving acts, and we bring them to mind this night – on the eve of his greatest gift. 

The Peace of Palm Sunday

PROPERS: PALM SUNDAY, YEAR B 

TEXT:       MARK 14:1 – 15:47                              

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The Peace of God transcends the losses of human nature.

 

The story we just heard read so dramatically is inarguably the climax of the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Today we heard Mark’s account of the Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Trial, and the Crucifixion.

 

In spite of the Pascal Celebration we will all enjoy next Sunday (along with the joy which accompanies it), the Resurrection is not the central point of the gospels. Matthew, Luke, and John mention it prominently.  Mark, the earliest of the four gospels, gives it passing reference.

 

It is clear that the four evangelists who compiled the four gospels considered the truth we heard today as the climax of the story. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world…”

 

We need to sit with this story.  We need to reflect on it.  We need to recognize the love it represents. And we need to not fast forward to next Sunday.

 

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            My favorite hymn is Hymn 661. Interestingly, it was written by a Mississippian, the Greenville poet, William Alexander Percy.  The hymn is entitled, “They cast their nets in Galilee.”

 

            All of the lyrics are powerful.  The tune is beautiful. But the full theology – so meaningful and so poignant – is in the fourth verse:

 

“The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing – the marvelous peace of God.”

 

            That hymn seems to summarize this week so well. The message from that week so long ago transcends the ages and echoes through two millennia. The message is that nothing can obstruct God’s movement over the arch of history and in our individual lives.

 

            And what that says to us here today is that, like the apostles John and Peter, we may experience the trials and vicissitudes of human existence.  Judas, Pilate, and the cross cannot stop what God is doing, in your life and mine. But there is nothing that is more valuable to us than the peace of God. The marvelous peace of God. 

What Kind of Power?

 

PROPERS: FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR B 

TEXT:       JEREMIAH 31:31-34; JOHN 12:20-33                             

PREACHED AT RESURRECTION, STARKVILLE, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2024 

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The concept of the gospel as power is a heresy; it is a call to servanthood and death.

 

Not far from our home in Fairhope is a billboard for an FM radio station – 88.5, I think. Its symbol is a cross, emitting bolts of lightning.  The station calls itself “Power 88.”

 

That image… that message… that sign is a heresy. Pure and simple.

 

In seminary we learned of the ancient heresies: Gnosticism, Arianism, Patripassionism, Docetism, Adoptionism, and dozens of others.  My favorite was Quartodeciminianism. 

 

But the heresy represented by that billboard is uniquely modern. The cross as a source of power.

 

Sadly, that is a source of the church losing its meaning today.  As Jesus, facing the cross, told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

 

The heresy involves the belief that Christianity is a source of worldly power, and it should be used to coerce others into believing and behaving in a certain way. That philosophy led to the Crusade’s failed attempt to hold the Holy Land for Christians and the disastrous last battle with the forces of Saladin at the Horns of Hittim.

 

That approach led to the Swiss persecution of Anabaptists in the 16^th Century and the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in the 17^th Century.

 

Sadly, that temptation to meld Christianity with the lust for worldly power is never far away.

 

Christianity is not about worldly power. It IS about the power of the cross, but an entirely different power – the power and willingness to love and lay down one’s life.

 

My father used to tell me about an old, perverse saying: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

 

That seem to be the approach of many – pummel the concept of Christianity into people. Make them believe. Make them toe the line.

 

The prophet Jeremiah, writing 2,500 years ago, said the conversion would be of the heart. Hear his words he conveyed from the Holy One:

 

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

 

The life God calls us to follow will not be forced.  It will be written on the walls of hearts. Not through worldly power, but the power of love.

 

We follow that way through Jesus’ call to self-giving and self-sacrifice.  Hear his words today from John’s Gospel:

 

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”

 

The temptation of worldly power violates the second of the Ten Commandments we heard two weeks ago.  A week from now we will hear proclaimed the eternal truth of our faith – that giving of self overcomes all power – even the power of death.