Big Biblical Buts

Luke 24:1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

This Easter Gospel from Luke begins with the word “But” and it’s a REALLY BIG “But”… It might actually be the biggest “BUT” of all time! Because on Good Friday it was finished…But. He was dead…But. The ride is over…But. The miracles have come to an end… But. The teaching is done… BUT! I’m obsessed with that little word! What can I say? I like biblical “BUTS” and I can not lie!

BUT... the “But” that starts today’s story isn’t actually the first Holy Week, biblical “but.” Because we just read before this how all the people who had gathered for the spectacle of Jesus’s death went home… BUT... the women stayed.  They stood at a distance watching everything. They saw Jesus’s body hang until it was dead on the cross. They saw it taken down and wrapped in cloth. They saw it placed in the tomb. They left KNOWING that he was really dead…BUT… when they returned on Sunday to care for Jesus’ body, it wasn’t there! It HAD been there, BUT… They saw it wrapped for burial… BUT… They saw it laid in the tomb… BUT.  

In this version of the story, no one actually sees the resurrected Jesus. All they saw were a couple of very shiny guys who only added to the mystery and to the size of this giant biblical “BUT”! The women raced back to tell the disciples… those women were the first preachers of the resurrection… BUT…when they told the disciples the greatest story ever told, instead of believing them, the “boys” had to man-splain to them how death works. And to THAT, the women said, “BUT!” 

So Peter went to see for himself.  He ran up to the tomb, looked in and was amazed.  He hadn’t believed the women’s crazy story before…BUT.  He didn’t get to see the resurrected Jesus either AND… like the women and Peter, we too don’t get to see him or hear him or touch his side either… BUT… we DO get exactly what they got on that first Easter Sunday… and what they got that day was… a possibility.

In that little word “BUT” we get the possibility that everything we have ever thought was written in stone might actually turn out to be written only in dust. In that little word “BUT” every certainty the world has ever thrown in your face, is thrown right up into the air and is blown away. Limits become limitless. What was final isn’t finished. If death on a cross does not always, always, always lead to being absolutely, positively, permanently and perpetually dead. If death itself can lead to a “BUT”… then what other absolutely, positively, perpetually, permanent things are now open to new life too?

THAT is the promise of Easter.  That there is not one thing, not one situation, not one relationship, not one person, not one town, not one ANYTHING that must remain absolutely, positively, perpetually, permanently buried in a tomb, stuck there forever in darkness where the world put it.  And now, because God, on that first Easter Sunday, has shown us God’s Divine and Holy “BUT", you and I and all of creation have been set free to rise from whatever tomb… whatever darkness we’ve been trapped inside.  Because of this Divine “BUT” we have been set free to rise to new life and really, really, really begin to LIVE… and not just in some sweet by and by either BUT… to live an abundant life starting right now!  

What is your tomb?  What’s the tomb that the powerful, hateful, prejudiced, and broken parts of the world have thrown you into?  What’s the situation that the world tells you, you will never rise above?  What have they told you about yourself that you’ve begun to believe?  What is it that you’ve come to believe you will never escape?  What is that limit the world has rolled in your path like a giant stone that says you will NEVER experience an abundant, meaning, dignity, and joy filled life?

The message of Easter is that whatever it is that has conspired to bind you and bury you, trap you and wrap you, demean you and drain the life out of you… Whatever that is… God proclaims to you today, “YOU are my beloved child, and ALL of that has been rolled away like a stone from a tomb!  So, RISE UP!  COME OUT!  It’s time to LIVE more deeply into the new and abundant life that God created for you to live!!  THAT’S the promise of Easter!  No BUTS about it!  Amen. 

Multiple Choice

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Four friends gathered around a table with Jesus. Jesus had just raised one of them, Lazarus, from the dead and that made Jesus more than just annoying to the Romans. It made him a leader… and a leader with a following… and that was something the Romans simply couldn’t tolerate. Everyone in that room knew that the next time Jesus walked into Jerusalem, he’d be killed. The multiple choice question asked of those four friends that night was what were they going to do with this horrible thing they clearly saw coming?

Lazarus sat in stunned silence. Martha ran around in a panic, trying to push the reality from her mind by being busy. Judas tried to change the subject… to stewardship, of all things! So you know he was desperate! And then there was Mary. Mary chose to lean in. She went into the bedroom, found a jar of perfume and anointed Jesus not on his head, as you would a King, but on his feet as you would a corpse. Jesus was walking toward the cross and Mary, with complete clarity of what would happen next, chose to walk with Jesus anyway. Why would she do that?

Why would anyone walk into a horror like that on purpose? I think the “Why” for Mary basically boils down to her desire to walk toward the Kingdom of God. But then as now, the path to God’s Kingdom… the path to the reality designed by God from the beginning, where there is enough food, shelter, healing, dignity and purpose for ALL people... is a path perpetually strewn with endless obstacles and far too many horrific plot twists. So how do we do now, what Mary chose to do then? How do we walk through the horrors of the world toward God’s Kingdom?

A couple of weeks ago when we gathered in the wake of our community’s tragedies, Rabbi Liz Hirsch sang the Psalm we just sang. “Those who sow with tears, reap with shouts of joy.” She sang it over and over again, inviting us into the song with her. She did for us, what God’s people have always done for one another as we walk this path. She helped us remember what God has done before, and then asked God to do it again for us now. Today we heard another story like that. Our God is the One who makes a way through the sea, a path in the mighty waters. Our God is the one who parted the Red Sea.  The God who extinguished chariot and horse, army and warrior… like the wick of a candle…to make a way for God’s people. 

THAT is how we walk toward the Kingdom of God, even with the horrors of the world that are always in our way. We tell these stories and sing these songs… to help us remember… to clear the fog of it all… so we can see more clearly, the Kingdom of God.  We tell these stories and sing these songs to give one another direction... to give one another enough HOPE to take one more step.

You and I are more fortunate than those original four dinner guests.  We have one additional story to tell that those four dinner companions didn’t have.  We have the story of Easter. Like the Psalm and like the first lesson, the Easter story reminds us that God has fixed it, so that… every… single… solitary Good Friday type horror the world can throw at us, is always, always, ALWAYS followed by Resurrection which is why we proclaim the mystery of faith! Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again! 

ALL of those stories are there (the Easter story included... even in Lent) so that we might have HOPE in the face of whatever horrors we encounter along the way. This is not a baseless wish or an impossible dream... this is HOPE! HOPE that the God who has ALWAYS been there for God’s people before, will be right there for us again, telling us one more time, “I am about to do another new thing! It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the wastelands. So much water the wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’… drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself.”

Our take home for today… is THAT God… the God who created ALL things… THAT God, has a vision for this world. It’s a vision of a creation forged in divine, perfect, self-giving love. A creation made to function fully and solely out of that same kind of love and not out of fear. It’s a reality where everyone has enough, where the sick are healed, the hungry fed… peace, justice, compassion and joy are lived out in our individual lives AND on a world wide scale!  

God continues even now, bringing that vision into reality.  God will continue to provide a crossing through any sea that blocks your path forward.  God will continue to bring water to your every desert, and will continue making a way for your to harvest joy in place of every tear that is sown. God WILL continue to do ALL OF THAT and anything else that is needed, up to and including raising the dead, in order to get God’s way of love to work in all of creation.  

And that, leaves THIS group of friends, gathered in a around THIS table, very much like Lazarus, Mary, Martha and Judas were all those years ago. Like them, we look outside and clearly see… things are not going as we had expected or would like them to go. And we too have the same multiple choice question. Will we sit in stunned silence, paralyzed in fear like Lazarus? Will we run around in a panic, trying to drive the outside world from our minds with our busyness like Martha? Will we desperately try to distract ourselves from the reality of the world by any means, like Judas? Or… will we lean into it and walk the Jesus Way like Mary?  If you’re up for THAT sort of walk, I’ve got a book full of stories that promise you have every reason to have HOPE along the way. Amen.  

Don't Skip It!

Luke 19:28-40

After he had said this, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 

As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” 

Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are very much like some of our favorite trilogies. That’s because Jesus’ life, death and resurrection serve as many of their inspirations! The Star Wars Trilogy… the Lord of the Rings trilogy… they follow that same story arc of a journey through darkness into new life. In all of them… Biblical, Science Fiction and Fantasy… the first episode sets the characters on their journey and introduces the conflict. Then, in the middle episode, you have the dark, seemingly inescapable rise of the antagonist and then finally, in the last installment, we see the victory of the hero against impossible odds.  

Over the last few months, I’ve stood in the aisle on Sunday mornings reading the Gospel. With those lessons, we’ve been working our way through the first episode of the Jesus’s “Kingdom of God” trilogy. We’ve heard of the improbable origins of Jesus, born in miraculous circumstances, into an oppressive world, an early brush with the “Dark Side” in the wilderness and then his journey filled with teaching, preaching, healing and casting out demons, all the while building more and more tension against the Dark Side’s earthly forces. 

Today, with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we end Episode I and in just a few minutes, at the very end of this service, we’ll get the trailer for Episode II in the form of a shortened version of Luke’s Passion. But that will ONLY BE THE TRAILER! It’s no where near like sitting through the whole thing! The FULL Episode II is called “Holy Week” and then, next Sunday we’ll gather for the epic, climactic, Episode III, which isn’t called The Return of the Jedi (although it could be) and it’s not called The Return of the King (although it could be called that too). Episode III is called… The Resurrection of the Messiah: Easter Sunday!  

But today, I’m here to wrap up Episode I and share with you the trailer for Episode II. Like any good trailer, my hope is to inspire you to come see ALL of Episode II this coming week! Because to miss “Holy Week”… to miss the critical Episode II of this, the Foundational Trilogy of all other trilogies… it would be like… well, skipping The Empire Strikes Back and just going from A New Hope to Return of the Jedi. It would be like reading the Fellowship of the Ring, skipping the Two Towers and going straight to The Return of the King? Would you ever consider doing that? Of COURSE not!  

You wouldn’t do that, because it’s HEARING Darth Vader say, “Luke, I am your father” and seeing Han Solo frozen in Carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back… it’s that decent into that trilogy’s darkness, that allows Episode III, the Return of the Jedi, to be so powerful! It’s the overwhelming armies of orcs, ring wraths and the seemingly invincible powers of Sauron and Saruman in The Two Towers that makes the overcoming of ALL of that so AMAZING in The Return of the King! 

In the same way, it’s sitting through the telling of the betrayal at the last supper and the cruelty of the cross and that stone sealing the tomb in an impenetrable darkness, shutting off all hope during Holy Week that allows The Return of the Messiah… that allows Easter… to be for us infinitely more than just colored eggs and chocolate bunnies. It’s that full force, full stop, horrific and impossible death that connects Jesus’s story with our story no matter how dark our story can ever become.  It’s hearing that decent into darkness that allows us to see that Jesus’s path is OUR path too! Because we see in Episode II there is no darkness which Jesus does not know, Episode III is not simply a story on a screen it a galaxy far, far away... It is OUR story too, about OUR darkness being transformed, however impossible that might feel, into the abundant lives God created us all to live as well!

So this year… Come to Holy Week! Come and absorb the darkest depths of Episode II and I promise you that in the Easter Vigil and on Easter Sunday you will understand with new fullness, new light, new joy… the brightness of God’s light! It is a light that no darkness can overcome!  It is a light that reaches each of us no matter how dark life might be.  Amen.

Sing It!

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in Adonai; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory. “There is no Holy One like Adonai, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for Adonai is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. Adonai kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. Adonai makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are Adonai’s, and on them he has set the world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. Adonai! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. Adonai will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.”

Let me catch you up on the story behind “Hannah’s Song” which I just read.  Elkanah had two wives.  Peninnah had children.  Hannah didn't.  Elkanah still really loved Hannah and thought that giving her extra food at the annual Temple meal would get God to give her a child.  He was actually trying to help… but he’s a guy, and you know how guys help... so Hannah knew more was needed.  She went to the Temple to pray and promised if she had a son she’d give her son to serve God.  Well, her prayers were answered with the arrival of her son, Samuel.  When Samuel was just a little bit older, she brought him back to the Temple to be a servant of God with the priest Eli.  

As she left the Temple, THIS was the song she sang into the darkness of the world.  You see, the world in which Hannah lived sang a very different, loud, and obnoxiously insistent song.  A song that told women they had no worth and women without children were worth even less.  A song that demonized the poor and hungry.  A song that demanded that might makes right and those with the might, decide what’s right. The lyrics to the world’s song in Hannah’s day said:  You don’t matter.  You don’t belong.  You’re worthless, hopeless, and meaningless.  THAT was the soundtrack that played through the lives of the people of Hannah’s day.

But coming out of the Temple, Hannah sang a different song!  And she sang her song right into the face of the world’s song!  And even when the world tried to drown her out… Hannah just cranked up the volume and sang her song even louder, even longer and even stronger… because she sang her song… as a duet with God!  The world’s song was no match for that!  

The soundtrack of Hannah’s day… the lyrics she heard the world sing then… they're all too familiar, even today.  The lyrics the world sings in our day still insist the poor don’t matter, the hungry should get a job, refugees should go home, and lying is fine if it gets you what you want.  You know the lyrics to the world’s song.  You can’t help but know them! They are the most horrible sort of ear-worm… shouted, broadcast, remixed and Tweeted everywhere, everyday in ALL CAPS.  

So, as the world insists on singing it’s same old horrible song,  we… God’s people… like Hannah, are are called to sing OUR SONG into the darkness of OUR world!  So, what song will YOU sing?  What are the lyrics to YOUR song?  What is the song that you will sing louder, longer, and stronger than ANY song the world could ever hope to sing, because you will sing it as a duet with God!?  

For one of my Episcopal colleagues, Rich Simpson, it’s something from the prophet Bruce… Springsteen.  It’s the song, “Into the Fire.” “May your strength give us strength.  May your faith give us faith.  May your hope give us hope.  May your love give us love.”  Now, just between us, for Rich, it’s not just that one song.  It's actually the Boss’ entire body of work!  “Badlands” and “Rocky Ground” and “My City of Ruins” and… well, you get the idea.  But hey, a playlist works!  If you’ve got a playlist… sing the whole playlist into the darkness as a duet with God!  

For my wife Kelly, her go-to song is “I Shall Be Released” sung by Bette Midler: “I see my light come shining.  From the west down to the east. Any day now, any day now.  I shall be released.” But like Rich she has more of an extended playlist and her's leans distinctly in the direction of Broadway!  “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen.  “You Are Not Alone” from Into the Woods.  “Defying Gravity” and “For Good” from Wicked… lots of Broadway!  But for her, a Broadway playlist is the perfect thing to sing with God into the darkness of the world!  

For Pam, who owns the Bookloft in Great Barrington, her song is “No Rain” by Blind Melon:  “I just want someone to say to me, oh.  I’ll always be there when you wake, yeah.  You know I'd like to keep my cheeks dry today.  So stay with me and I'll have it made.”  For my friend Cynthia Wade, who suggested I make a Spotify list of all the suggestions (which I did and is still out there), it’s “Born to be Loved” by Lucinda Williams: “You weren't born to be abandoned.  You weren't born to be forsaken.  You were born to be loved.  You were born to be loved.”  

Others tell me they sing, “What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love” or “All You Need is Love” or “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”… a love themed play list!  Perfect!  Still others sing “Imagine.”  Rabbi Jodie sings “Turning of the World.”  Others sing “All Good People” or “A Soft Place to Land."  Some play classical music by Mozart, Bach or The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughn Williams into the darkness.  For our daughter Maggie it’s a song in Swedish called “Snooza” whose words insist we stand up to this society, which allows the Tempter to be so effective in telling us we have to always rush and work and never rest.  We stand up to the Tempter by hitting “snooza” on our alarm clocks and tending our relationships first… a very Shabbat sort of idea I think.  

For me it’s a Bob Marley tune sung full on with a Jamaican accent, mon!  “Rise up this morning.  Smiled with the rising sun.  Three little birds.  Pitch by my doorstep.  Singing sweet songs.  Of melodies pure and true, saying, ‘This is my message to you.’  Don’t worry about a thing.  Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”  

So what’s YOUR song?  Any genre, style, tune… a single song or a whole playlist... It all works!  And God is there to sing it all with you!  God is there to help you sing it longer than the long song of injustice that the world sings.  To sing it louder than the loudest shouted songs of hatred the world can shout and stronger than the deepest darkness the world can sing.  

What’s your song?  What song do you sing to push back the darkness?  Think about that and then look around.  You know these folks?  They want to know your song.  They really want to know, so that when you forget the words, they can help you remember… so when the world is so dark that you lose your voice, they can sing it for you, full out, into the darkness, for as long as it takes until your voice returns.  That's who we are.  We are God’s people, gathered to sing a different song... to sing each other's songs, head on, full force, into the darkness of the world... until the day comes when the dark songs of the world are all drown out, and all that creation will be able to hear are the songs we sing together with God.  Songs of Teek-Vah… hope. Songs of Hesed… steadfast love.  Songs of Shalom, O-shel, and Chai… songs of peace, joy and life for all.  Amen.