God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. ~Genesis 1:31

Image: Union Presbyterian Community Bicentennial Art Project, 2019-2020. Copyright Union Presbyterian Church. All Rights Reserved.

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
        and they shall prophesy.” ~Acts 2:17-18

Image: Spirit Cloud. P. Raube. Copyright Union Presbyterian Church, 2020. All rights reserved.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ~Acts 1:8-9

Image: Norton, Jay. Ascension, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54144 [retrieved May 10, 2020]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996904@N00/351895142/.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus, in John 14:15

Image: Schmalz, Timothy P.. Begging Jesus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56182 [retrieved May 10, 2020]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/3386644334.

Thomas is the one who is always ready to go.

Each time we meet Thomas in the gospel according to John, he is either expressing a readiness to go, or a willingness to go, or he has already gone…

…So, it come as no surprise to us that, on the evening of that that long resurrection day—that day full of reports of Jesus and appearances of Jesus—on that night, Thomas is not holed up in the locked room with Jesus’ disciples. He was never one to sit around. He was always ready to go. He’s gone.

That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!”
~Luke 24:33-34

Image: Jesus, Judas, and the Others, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54139 [retrieved April 11, 2020]. Original source: Flickr Junkie, Flickr Creative Commons.

Sometimes, you just need to be at home.

It is still Easter. For us, it’s still Easter season, for six more weeks. For the disciples in our story, it is still Easter day. But they don’t yet know what that means.

And so two of them set out from Jerusalem for a long walk home, seven miles. And Jesus comes alongside them, to walk with them.

But they don’t know it’s Jesus…

This is such a weird story.

Which, I suppose, makes it perfect for a pretty weird Easter.

Image: “Resurrection,” by Jacopo da Pontormo (ca. 1525), Certosa del Galluzo, Florence, Italy. Public Domain.

Having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the end…

Jesus was always gathering around the table with friends…

This day brings us right into the heart of our faith. Right into its deepest mystery.

We begin with a procession. Not a very big or impressive procession. It’s the week leading up to Passover, so pilgrims from all over the known world are streaming into the holy city, Jerusalem.

Jesus is among them.

Jesus shared meals with his friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. He stayed with them. He loved them. But now, one of them was ill. And—the logical thing was to go, right away, wouldn’t you think? But Jesus, especially Jesus as we meet him in John’s gospel, has other purposes that are even higher than being with the people he loved. Jesus was intent on showing the glory and the power of God.

As he walked along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” ~John 9:1-3

In a way, the history of our faith is told in stories about water, from creation, to liberation, to the life of Jesus and beyond. Each time the church pours the water of baptism over a child of God, we hear those stories.

I probably should have given up Twitter for Lent.

It’s an interesting website, and I find that it’s a good spot for breaking news—often reported, which is to say, tweeted, by the individuals who are making the news. But it’s not a great place in times of turmoil and anxiety. It tends to take anxiety and multiplies it exponentially.

But every so often you find real beauty there.

Image: JESUS MAFA. The Sermon on the Mount, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48284 [retrieved March 11, 2020]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact).

I am convinced. Nicodemus is us. The story of his relationship with Jesus is the story of those of us who see Jesus, who are drawn to him, and who want to know more. This is a lifelong path. And, like every path, it begins with birth. And birth, while a natural process, isn’t always an easy one.

Here, in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is imparting to us his best recommendation for our prayers.

He is not telling us to set aside an hour, or even a half hour each morning.

He is not telling us to purchase a lovely leather-bound prayer book.

He is not telling us to take a class on prayer, or even, to listen to a sermon.

He gives us… this. Such a small prayer—only 58 words in the original Greek (69 words in English)![i] So few words. Jesus says, pray like this.

Image: Prayer Emoji. Raube.

Each of us, at some point in our lives, will find ourselves in a wilderness. We will find ourselves isolated—by sickness or sorrow; by oppression or depression; by time or distance. And there in that wilderness we will probably find out who we are.

Imagine this wilderness: You are a twelve-year-old girl. You are an African American slave, held by a wealthy plantation owner. You have none of the rights enshrined in our Bill of Rights—no right to free speech, or religion, or liberty, or justice. You don’t have the right to your own life. Even your parents have no rights were you are concerned (unless, of course, your father happens to be your owner).

Imagine that wilderness…

As we begin our Lenten journey together this Ash Wednesday, we hear a familiar passage from Matthew’s gospel about three of those activities we think of as “the Lenten disciplines”: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In a few minutes, we’ll be asked to take those on, along with self-examination and meditating on scripture. Finally, we will be asked to receive ashes, a sign that we understand what the human condition is: frail, vulnerable, not permanent—at least, not in a physical sense—and entirely dependent on others.

Ashes are a sign, among other things, that we need one another. We need each other like a baby hippo needs a 130-year-old tortoise.

It seems we need a Sunday to act as a hinge for us, between two great and beautiful and important seasons. One season is Epiphany, the season of the light of Christ shining for us, the stories of his baptism and early ministry still bathed in the glow of a shining star. The other season is Lent, when we join Jesus on a six-week-long journey towards the cross. During Lent, everything Jesus says and does is seen in the light of that journey.

So we need a hinge Sunday, a step away from Epiphany, and a step towards Lent.

This is that Sunday, and it’s good to be here.

Image: MAFA Jesus, Cameroon. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Folks, I know Jesus talks about four different things in this morning’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount—he talks about Anger, Adultery, Divorce, and Oaths.

And, if I could give you a sweeping observation on how he talks about them, I believe he goes straight to the relationships that undergird the law, that are its foundation—our relationships with God and with one another.

But today, we’re going to focus on anger, because I believe we must. As children of God living in the year 2020, anger is the toxic cultural stew we are all swimming in. It seems, everyone is angry. Somehow, we must come to terms with that.

Image: Supuni, Amos. Reconciliation, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57340 [retrieved February 7, 2020]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconciliation_Amos_Supuni_Woerden.jpg.