We Had Hoped. Past Tense.

Luke 24:13-35

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then 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?” He 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, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But 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. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and 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. Some 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.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But 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. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They 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?” 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!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

 

Two disciples walked to Emmaus… or maybe they were walking AWAY from Jerusalem?  Either way they walked and talked about all the things that had happened.  Not only about Jesus’ brutal death, but also about their deep, devastating sadness.  Their hopes and dreams for the nation that they loved had just been put to a brutal death as well.  Ugliness had won.  Vulgarity had won.  Corruption, might makes right, and cruelty… cruelty seemingly just for cruelty’s own sake… had won.  Violence and hatred had won.  Death itself… had won.  “We had hoped…” they said.  Are there any more tragic words than that?  “We HAD hoped.”  Past tense.

When I was a kid, I lived four miles from the gate to the largest Air Force Base in the country.  We did not learn “duck and cover” at school like some of you did during the Cold War.  We never learned it because everyone knew… even us kids knew… that when Soviet warheads hit American soil, one of the first would hit our neighborhood.  In a flash our eyes wouldn’t even have time to register, the world would end.

Over the last fifty years or so I had become more and more convinced that would not be the way the world ended.  Hope for my country and our world had grown.  But on Easter Sunday, the President put out a message threatening that an entire civilization would die… on Tuesday.  To this military brat raised in the Cold War, only one thing could end an entire civilization on a Tuesday.  Tuesday morning, another threat.  I found myself praying that the 24 year old lieutenant with the launch key would have the courage to refuse the order.  No offense to 24 year old lieutenants, but counting on that didn’t ease my mind.  Church leadership was at best silent and at worst, worked into a lather about where they would sit at an upcoming event where they could be seen.    

Ugliness was winning.  Vulgarity was going unchecked.  Corruption, might makes right, and cruelty were growing to a civilization ending level.  Violence and Death itself… felt unstoppable.  I had hoped.  HAD hoped.  Past tense.  

Tuesday ended without nuclear devastation (so that was good) but the insanity continued to grow.  This past Sunday, Orthodox Easter, the President railed at the Pope and posted a picture of himself as Jesus.  Here was a man with nuclear codes and profound mentally illness… still in power.  HOPE remained for me, a “Past Tense” commodity.  

Then I sat down to write this sermon and Jesus met me along the way, “Oh, Erik, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!  You’ve even forgotten what you, yourself preached on Easter Sunday!”  “Alright,” Jesus said.  “Let’s go through it all one more time, from the top.  Creation.  You remember God made everything for humanity and it’s not all just good, but VERY good?  You remember that, right?  Remember the Moses thing at the Red Sea?  Yeah?  How about Ezekiel and the Dry Bones?  Remember that one?  Good, yeah?  How about the Fiery Furnace?  Daniel and the Lion’s Den?  David and Goliath?  All good, right?  Then what was it that you, yourself preached on Easter Sunday?”  Easter Happens.  “What was that?  I couldn’t hear you.”  Easter Happens.  “Again.”  Easter Happens.  “One more time.”  Easter Happens.    

This Emmaus Road story is about a disciple named Cleopas and an unnamed disciple.  That “unnamed” disciple is a feature of this story, not an oversight.  It is there for us to stick ourselves into that “unnamed disciple slot” whenever we find ourselves “Having Hoped”… past tense.

This past week it was Cleopas and Erik, walking away from Jerusalem.  This past week it was Cleopas and Erik that HAD hoped… past tense.  This past week it was Cleopas and Erik that Jesus caught up with along the way.  Cleopas and Erik who got a little good natured ribbing for their foolish forgetfulness and Cleopus and Erik who were reminded… AGAIN of all that God has done, is doing, and promises yet to do.  We were reminded until our hearts, which “had hoped” past tense, began glowing once again, then turned into flames, then began to burn so that our eyes were once again opened, and we could finally see and remember… Oh yeah!  In spite of even THIS!  Easter Happens!  

I tell you that story about Cleopas and Erik because one day it will be Cleopas and you… walking away… Having Hoped… past tense.  WHEN that day happens… (Sadly this is a WHEN thing, not an IF thing) WHEN that day happens and you find yourself walking away having hoped, past tense, Jesus WILL catch up with you in a way you likely won’t recognize straight away.  You’ll get a bit of good natured ribbing, and be lovingly reminded… AGAIN… how God has baked into creation one particular ending for every story ever told… Easter Happens.  Jesus will remind you… AGAIN… we need never again be people who “had hoped”… past tense… because Easter.  Always.  Happens.  Amen. 

Old Man Yells at Cloud

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

 

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

In the Diocese I have become known as a Curmudgeon.  My Diocesan nickname is…  Grumpelstiltskin.  This is largely because I have an aversion to “going along to get along.”  That’s actually not entirely accurate.  The truth is… I’m physically incapable of going along to get along!  But the thing that has genuinely cemented my reputation as a Curmudgeon is that I am completely incapable of hiding it!  I do NOT have the face of a politician or a poker player.  Whenever I get even the slightest whiff of an individual or systemic demand to “go along to get along” my face shows it!  But it’s even worse than that.  I also can’t help myself but to say it… out loud… to others… “No!  I will NOT just go along to get along!”   

Thomas is also known as a Curmudgeon in the Church.  He too has a nickname… Doubting Thomas.  What did he do to get this nickname?  He also refused to “go along to get along.”  He refused to settle for the shallow, easy, cheap, certainty the other disciples offered him.  Even with ten other disciples staring him down, he refused to budge… for a whole week!  To the world that made him Doubting Thomas.  To me though… that makes him Steadfast Thomas!  Unflinching Thomas.  Resolute Thomas.  True-blue Tried-and-True Thomas! 

You see, he wasn’t stubborn for stubborn’s sake.  He was resolute, because I think to Thomas, his Faith genuinely mattered.  Believing… really, deeply, genuinely mattered.  And when it came to things that mattered that deeply, Thomas was unwilling to take shortcuts.  Faith was serious business… FAR too serious to just copy answers off your friends!  To Thomas, the business of “Believing”… THAT wasn’t the place to fudge it!  Thomas took Believing… he took the Faith… he took Discipleship…  very, VERY seriously.  

At this point we need a quick aside.  Because when you and I think about the word “believing” in our modern/post enlightenment minds, we immediately think about it as an intellectual accent… being convinced of something or wrapping our minds around some thought, idea, or doctrine.

NO ONE in Thomas’ day thought about “believing” that way.  Before 1600, the word “believe” did not mean agreeing that creeds, ideas, teachings, or doctrines were true in our heads.  In Thomas’s day, “Believing” always had a DIRECT OBJECT and that DIRECT OBJECT was ALWAYS personal.  Believing was about WHO you were following… WHO you were committing yourself to… WHO you hooked your wagon to.  When the ten disciples told Thomas “we have seen the Lord” they were offering him a cheap impersonal shortcut… a vision without substance… a disembodied hope.  What Thomas needed, however… what Thomas Curmudgeonly insisted upon, was the PERSON… not a shortcut!  Nothing short of an encounter with the PERSON of Jesus, complete with the wounds from the nails and the spear, would do.  Short of that, Thomas was determined to sit, however uncomfortably, however long, in the uncertainty and unknowing and endure whatever pressure his friends brought his way.  

After a week of waiting in uncertainty, Thomas was given what he needed… an encounter with the Risen Christ… the PERSON… “My Lord and My God!”  That encounter didn’t iron out the doctrinal kinks of Christianity.  It didn’t harmonize the contradictions in Scripture.  It didn’t give even the tiniest sliver of absolute certainty to his Faith.  It actually just called Thomas more deeply into the mystery.  But for Thomas, the ideas, doctrines, and certainty meant NOTHING compared to the transformational encounter with the PERSON.  The PERSON to whom he could hitch his wagon… the PERSON in whose footsteps he could now follow… the PERSON who would be the direct object of his belief and his life… the PERSON he could walk through life with, through times of both clarity and confusion.  

I think that’s what Thomas hopes for us today.  That we not sell ourselves, our belief, or our faith, short.  That we not settle for cheap, easy answers… tidy doctrines of certainty, or claims about the Divine that can be wrapped up neatly and made to do our bidding.  I think that Thomas is hoping that we too embrace our inner Curmudgeon and hold out for more!  Much, much, more.  Not settle for the easy, the plastic, the impersonal, the inauthentic!  But hold out through uncertainty and discomfort for nothing less than a transformational encounter with the Risen Christ, wounds and all.

What will an encounter with the Risen Christ, wounds and all, actually look like for you or me?  How long will we need to wait?  Honestly?  No idea.  But if you, like Thomas, are serious about your Faith… if you, like Thomas, do not take “believing” lightly, then wait for it.  Wait for a transformational encounter with the Risen Christ… no shortcuts… no cheats… no going along to get along.  And when it comes… and I believe it  does come, over and over and over again throughout our lives… don’t worry… you’ll recognize it just like Thomas did, and in that moment you too will exclaim, “My Lord and My God.”  Amen.  

Baked Right In

Matthew 28:1-10

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

For those two Marys it never occurred to them that it WOULD happen.  It never even crossed their minds that it COULD happen.  After everything they saw on Friday… after the horrors, suffering, the death… After the oppressive darkness of Saturday filled with overwhelming grief, there was nothing to indicate that it SHOULD happen.

But the two Marys set out to do the next right thing anyway, which was visit Jesus’ tomb, and in doing the next right thing… it just

happened… 

Easter                                   happened!  

After all they had seen… after days of darkness and anguish… as they walked to the tomb because… well…  that’s just what you do when someone you love is dead and buried…

There… right in front of them… just sitting on the rolled back stone… was an angel who said…     

“Do not be afraid”                                   and… 

Easter happened! 

Easter happens!  Not JUST that first Easter and not just every year on the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.  Easter CONTINUALLY happens.  

Kings and despots come and go… 

Easter Happens. 

Countries and empires rise and fall… 

Easter happens.  

Wars are started, rich men plot, markets tumble, regimes march in and get chased out, natural disasters blow and shake and burn all around the world and still… 

Easter happens!  

In the bright light of the most noble of human endeavors…

Easter happens. 

In the deepest darkness of humanity’s evil and horrors…

Easter happens.  

Whether the nations be led by masterminds or morons… the upright or the unethical... the compassionate or the malevolent

Easter happens!

THAT’S the message for today. 

Easter happens.         ALWAYS!       

Easter ALWAYS Happens.  

Whenever we find ourselves in Good Friday times… personally, professionally, nationally, or globally… whenever we are confronted with humanity’s inhumanity… whenever we are plunged into suffering, grief, oppression, injustice and all the rest… up to and including death itself.   

Easter happens!

Whenever life is overwhelmingly, oppressively dark… whenever we find ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually in those horribly unnerving, deeply disorienting times of deep darkness...  The sort of darkness that festers and foments horrible anxiety… panic about tomorrow and worries for the years to come.  Even in those darkest of times…  

Easter happens!

On the upside, the daily horrors we face are usually not literal crucifixion.  On the downside, the darkness we endure seems to go on a lot longer than just three days!  The Herculean efforts we make when the world feels like it is ending for us, to try and do the next right thing... those aren't visiting Jesus’ tomb, BUT into this and EVERY OTHER kind of Good Friday experience… into this and EVERY OTHER seemingly endless length of Holy Saturday darkness that we endure…

EASTER HAPPENS!

Easter happens… because, you see, life, death, and resurrection is the pattern that God has baked into every molecule of creation.  Life, death, and resurrection is the way the world was made to work!  God knew that setting humans loose into this world with Free Will would inevitably end in painful Good Friday moments and dark Holy Saturday times… which is why God also baked into creation one specific, particular ending for… well… everything… 

Easter happens!  

The story that begins in grief, will always end in JOY.  

The story that starts in darkness will always end in LIGHT!  The story that begins in death, will always, somehow, in ways that will be as unexpected as a man being raised from the dead… end in NEW LIFE!  God has made Easter the ending to literally EVERY story… EVER.  

So, if this particular moment in your life is NOT an Easter moment.  If for you, this time in our National life is not an Easter feeling time.  If this period of life feels oppressively dark, horribly inhumane, violent, hopeless, and maddening for any reason or every reason… 

Might I humbly suggest you try what those two Marys tried on that very first Easter Sunday… get a friend... get out of bed... and do the next right thing.  No matter how small and insignificant it might seem... even when it feels like that won't do anything at all.  Then… as you're walking  toward that next right thing... keep your eyes open… Because

Easter Happens.  

Easter ALWAYS happens.  Amen.   

Remember to Practice

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

How many times per day, on average, do you wash someone else’s feet?  I do it once per year IF (and ONLY if) I’m NOT in charge of the Maundy Thursday liturgy and the pastor/priest/bishop who IS in charge INSISTS on putting foot washing in the service.  Honestly, it creeps me out!  It's so unusual!  It feels like a boundary violation.  Back in Jesus’ day, that was not the case.  People washed each other’s feet multiple times per day, every single day.  Nobody wiped their feet on a doormat, they all got their feet washed every time they came in the door.  That happened every time, for every person, in every home… as routinely as we stomp off the snow and wipe our feet. 

THAT, I think, is why Jesus chose to pair the mindlessly routine practice of foot washing, with the uncommon Spiritual practice of Loving One Another.  By connecting the two, Jesus was trying to get us to understand that Loving One Another wasn’t meant to be something we only do once a year or only for special people.  Jesus meant for Loving One Another to become for his Disciples as extraordinarily common… as extremely regular… as mindlessly routine... as continuously ongoing as washing someone's feet was for them when someone came through the door!    

By making foot washing into a once-per-year, extraordinarily rare, extremely unusual practice, I think we as the Church have literally undone one of the things Jesus intended to put into place that night!  Jesus intended, I think, to link a physical practice, so common, so easily done by rote, something so almost mindlessly routine… to Loving One Another, SO THAT the disciples would become trained to Love One Another in that same common, rote, automatically routine way.  That way, Loving One Another would become habit and then, EVEN when their entire world came crashing down around them, they would just automatically go on... Loving One Another.  

Jesus made this connection for his disciples so that when the world looked like it had come to a horrible end they wouldn’t lash out in violence or look for revenge.  They wouldn’t look for someone to blame or stay in bed with the covers over their heads.  They would instead, as part of their learned, everyday, habit... just keep on Loving One Another with the same sort of automatic routine as people in those days washed one another's feet.  No higher brain function required… no calculations needing to be made…just automatically… habitually... Love One Another.  

In our world, washing feet is no longer the routine, everyday practice it was for those disciples back then.  Two thousand years of time, paved roads, and dramatic shifts in cultural practice have deconstructed what was supposed to be a Spiritual workout routine, strengthening muscle memory day by day to Love One Another automatically by pairing it with a physical thing everyone also did automatically.  These days foot washing has become the opposite of that.  It is now a once per year, ritualized event that mostly brings to mind Jesus’ humility.  

Jesus was certainly humble, and humility remains a excellent quality to possess and to share in this world overrun with arrogance, pride, and self-importance.  But humility was not the practice Jesus was trying to teach that night.  Humility was at best, an aside.  The main lesson was… and I think remains… that we are being called to train ourselves, so that the life giving practice of Loving One Another becomes second nature to us... automatic... habitual.    

If you and I want to learn what Jesus was really teaching that night, we will need to first find something that we do as easily, routinely, and automatically as they washed people's feet.  Maybe tying our shoes?  Stopping at a red light?  Pushing “GO” on the coffee pot first thing in the morning?  THEN we will need to practice bringing to mind "Loving One Another" every time we do that easy, routine, and automatic thing.  That way... eventually… Loving One Another... will become not something we do with our conscious minds, but will become something we do out of habit.  Loving One Another would simply become HOW WE LIVE automatically, in every moment, day after day.  

If washing feet is not a practice that helps brings to mind for you Jesus’ command to Love One Another multiple times each and every day, then what is?  What is that mindlessly routine thing you do multiple times each day that you can pair with Jesus’ command to Love One Another?  Maybe it is tying your shoes?  Or stopping at every red light?  Maybe it could be opening the refrigerator door?  Because, by pairing something that you actually do multiple times each day with Jesus’ command to Love One Another, you and I can train our Spirits day by day so that eventually, Loving One Another becomes OUR automatic response to whatever this world throws at us next.  Then, even when our world looks like it is crashing to an end, our automatic response will be… just as Jesus hoped it would be... to Love One Another.   Amen.