Resurrection of Our Lord Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-8

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
 
“Mary”
It’s amazing how much
can be conveyed with one word,
 with a name.
 
With that one word
Jesus turns Mary’s life upside down
in all the right ways.
 
 She goes from weeping in a garden
 near an empty tomb, talking to a gardener,
 to beholding the risen Lord,
her teacher and friend.
 
It’s been a long journey to get to this place,
 with plenty of ups and downs,
 
we don’t know much about Mary before her life following Jesus
 other than she was from Magdala,
a fishing village along the sea of Galilee
 and Luke tells us that Jesus healed her,
 casting out seven demons,
 
since then we know she’s been one of the group of women followers of Jesus
who traveled along as disciples
and who took care of Jesus.
 
 Her own experience aside
 Mary has seen and heard some amazing things,
she’s seen Jesus heal,
she’s seen him feed thousands with a few loaves of bread,
 she’s heard him teach and debate with scribes and Pharisees
 
 she heard him weep for his friend Lazarus
then saw raise him from the dead
she’s experienced the excitement of the crowds
as Jesus entered Jerusalem
could this be the long awaited messiah?
 
 
and then two days ago
 she saw Jesus arrested,
 put on trial
sentenced to death by crucifixion,
 
and even when many of the disciples fled,
 Mary and a few others stayed at the foot of the cross
 and witnessed Jesus die,
 
then watched as Joseph of Arimathea
took Jesus’ body down from the cross,
prepared it for burial
and placed it in a tomb in a garden,
with a stone covering the entrance.
 
And with that
 all that she’s seen and heard,
the hope for the future
that had built along the way,
the purpose she’s dedicated her life to
 is gone.
 
 Dead and buried.
 
She must go observe the sabbath,
 rest and worship away from this place
 but John tells us that early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark,
 as soon as possible
Mary comes back to the tomb,
 
 she’s so anxious to be near her Lord
 that she can’t even wait for daylight
 and when she goes into the garden
she finds that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb
 and that Jesus is not where he is supposed to be.
 
In a panic she runs and gets some other disciples
 telling them “they have taken the Lord out of the tomb
and we do not know where they have laid him.”
 
And having delivered the message
Mary fades into the background for a bit
while Peter and the other disciple race back to the tomb
and find the cloths that had been used to embalm Jesus
 lying in the tomb folded neatly
 
and while they still don’t know quite what to think,
 we who are hearing the story
 know that this isn’t a simple case of grave robbing,
grave robbers wouldn’t have unwrapped the body,
 
 and we know it’s not even a return to life like Lazarus
who was still bound in grave cloths
when Jesus called him from his own tomb,
 no something else is going on here
 
 but in the moment those present don’t know that,
 the two disciples return home
not sure what to think
 
and Mary,
 Mary stays in the garden weeping,
 all she knows is that Jesus is not there.
 
She looks in the tomb again then turns around
and there behind her is another person
and supposing he is the gardener
she asks him where Jesus is,
 
and that is when Jesus speaks her name.
 “Mary”
 that one word capturing all the moments of a life
 that have built up to this point,
that one word conveying the love and friendship between teacher and disciple.
 
And at last Mary knows who it is before her.
She recognizes the voice,
 the one who knows her intimately
and she responds in kind with a term of endearment, rabbouni.
 
So much conveyed with one word
and yet that is who Jesus is,
he is the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name,
 
 
they recognize his voice,
 the voice that they associate with care, protection, with love,
 that is the voice they will follow because they are known.
 
We all long to be known in this way,
to experience this depth of relationship,
sometimes we get a glimpse of this in the love of a parent or a partner or a friend.
I remember growing up listening to my mom answer the phone,
I could tell it was my dad on the other end
without hearing his name,
because the tone of my mom’s voice changed
from formal telephone voice
 to the voice of one speaking with someone known and loved
 
We recognize when someone knows us,
we hear it and we respond to it
even in the situations where we don’t expect it,
 
Mary wasn’t expecting the resurrection,
to paraphrase Monty Python, no one expects the resurrection,
and yet when Jesus says her name
 she knows who is speaking to her.
 
This is the miracle of Easter,
 that in those moments in our lives when dead is dead and gone is gone,
 Jesus says our name
and we know who is speaking to us,
even if we don’t recognize the person in front of us,
especially if we didn’t expect to find new life,
love and understanding in that moment.
 
Jesus the good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep,
 for us
and he rose from the dead and ascended to be with God
all so that there is a place for us
where we are loved and known,
So that we may have life and have it abundantly right now.
 
 And while we may as yet be in the garden weeping,
or staring at the empty tomb scratching our heads
trying to figure out what it means,
when we hear our name called
 we will know who it is that is calling
and we will proclaim with Mary,
 “I have seen the Lord.”
 
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31-35

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who comes to us in bread and wine. Amen
 
Tonight is a night of memories.
 
memories help tell us who we are,
 both as individuals and as communities,
 they are the stories that tell us where we’ve come from
 and point us to where we are going
 
and yet the calling to mind of these stories
is as fragile
as the stories are important,
 
we’ve all experienced the sensation
of walking into a room and completely forgetting
 why we came into that room in the first place,
 
 we’ve debated with others
what exactly happened that one time,
we’ve experienced the devastation
of dementia and memory loss in loved ones.
 
 Yet some things remain clear in our minds,
 our home telephone number from elementary school
or the snappy jingle
 directing us to a particular brand of breakfast cereal,
 
part of the mystery of living
 is that we don’t always get to choose which memories
 naturally stay fresh and clear
and which fade away.
 
But we have found that there are things we can do
 to help us remember,
 intentionally hold on to,
 the important stories.
 
We do this by telling the stories over and over again,
we attach rituals to the stories
where we act them out,
 we tie the stories to our senses
the taste, touch, smell, sight and sounds
all helping us to remember.
 
Tonight is a night of remembering,
calling to mind the stories that define us,
 stories so important
 that God has told us to remember them.
 
In our first lesson we heard God telling the people of Israel
how they are to remember the defining moment
 when God brought them out of slavery into freedom.
 
 Each year, God tells the people,
they are to reenact the exodus,
and in the eating of the roasted lamb
while dressed to travel at a moments notice
the story of what God had done
will come alive once more
and the people will remember
that they are people meant for freedom
 guided by a great and powerful God.
 
“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.” God tells the people
 
And that is what Jesus and the disciples are doing
 all those hundreds of years later
when they are gathered around the table
for what Jesus knows will be their last meal together.
 
And as they recall the foundation of their relationship with God,
 Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us,
who ate and drank with the disciples,
 healed and prayed, cried and celebrated
gives the disciples a way to remember this aspect of relationship with God
and the new freedom they are about to experience
through Jesus’ actions on the cross.
 
Gathered together at the table of remembering
Jesus takes bread,
the common everyday food
and he blesses it and then breaks the loaf
and gives it to the disciples saying this is my body,
do this to remember me.
 
And then Jesus takes the cup of wine,
 the drink of celebrations
blesses it and gives it to the disciples saying
 this is the new covenant, in my blood,
drink it to remember my promise to you.
 
In the future, Jesus tells the disciples,
whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup
you will remember what I have done for you.
 
On the cross in body broken and blood poured out
 Jesus frees us from sin and death.
 
At the table, in broken bread and wine poured out
Jesus forgives us,
 freeing us to move past our mistakes and our failures
 to the wholeness of new life in Christ.
 
 And what does that new life look like?
It looks like Jesus kneeling at the feet of his disciples
washing their feet,
 
an act of love and humility
that Jesus says they are to copy
 as they live out the new commandment of Jesus,
 to love one another just as Jesus has loved them.
 
This is the sign to others that you are my disciples
 Jesus tells them in the gospel of John,
the love that you have for one another.
 
Yes, we have two different stories of Jesus’ last night with the disciples,
 in Matthew, Mark and Luke we hear about the last supper,
in John we hear about the washing of feet and the new commandment,
 
 these were the stories, the memories
passed down in the communities where the gospels were first written
and while they are different,
and we might wonder at that
 
 both the stories are included in our holy scriptures
because ultimately we need both stories
 for our relationship with God.
 
we need the new commandment
that points us toward the future in Christ,
a future marked by love lived out in service to others,
and we need the forgiveness
 found when Jesus comes to us in bread and wine, body and blood,
after we have failed to love as Jesus loves
 
and we need to hear these stories again and again
as again and again we hear the command to love
and receive the forgiveness of God
living in the law of love and the grace of Jesus.
 
So we tell the stories when we gather,
we hand down memories in the telling, and acting,
 the taste and touch, the smells and the singing
 
these memories remind us of who we are,
people who live in freedom
because of the great acts of God,
 people who are to love and serve their neighbors,
people with a God who comes to us in bread and wine
to remind us that we are God’s children,
 fed and forgiven, freed to love. Amen
 

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:4-14
John 12:1-8

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who has made us his own. Amen
 
What is most important in life?
 
Times of transition
bring this question forward,
 
those times in life when we’re saying goodbye to the way things were
and hello to new possibilities
 we are often forced to consider
what to leave behind and what to bring forward with us.
 
Lent is coming to an end
 and as we look forward to Holy Week
 and the beginnings and endings that lie ahead
 our readings for today ask us to consider,
what is most important?
 
Paul is doing this reflecting in his letter to the Philippians,
he is in prison, probably in Rome,
which even as he hopes to be released
 still puts things in perspective.
 
 As he looks back
and considers his life
he concludes that very little matters
except for Christ.
 
Paul in his characteristic humble brag
 lists all the things that he could consider important,
 being part of the chosen people of Israel,
 strictly following the law,
all these things that conventional wisdom says
 are important especially for a relationship with God
 
but then he says: “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ...For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not have a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.”
 
Paul realizes
that whoever he is
and whatever he’s done,
 none of that will surpass what Christ has already done on the cross,
 
 and because of that amazing fact
Paul goes on “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on the make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
 
Paul wants to know Christ
, both the good- the resurrection-
 and the bad- the suffering
 and he feels secure in seeking this knowledge
because he knows that Christ Jesus
 has made him his own.
 
And that is really the crux of the matter,
whether Paul came from the right family
 and did the right things,
or whether he persecuted the church
 or is in prison,
none of that matters in the end
because Christ claimed him.
 
 And having been claimed by Christ,
Paul presses forward
 seeking to know Christ even better,
seeking to share this with all he encounters
even if it means that by the standards of the world
 he does some pretty odd things,
like letting go of status,
 obeying God rather than Rome,
willingly suffering for the sake of love.
 
In our gospel for today
 Mary wants to know Christ
and it leads her to do some odd things
by the standards of the world.
 
Once again Jesus has come to dinner,
 he’s been hiding out a bit
but now he is about to enter Jerusalem for the last time
 and on his way he’s stopped to have dinner with his friends.
 
Jesus is close with this family,
he’s had dinner here before,
that dinner where Martha asked Jesus to scold her sister Mary
 for not helping her and instead sitting at Jesus’ feet.
 
Jesus came here when Lazarus died
and Jesus wept over his friend
then raised him from the dead
 
and now he’s here one last time
together this group is facing the end.
 And Mary takes a jar of perfume
that costs about a year’s wages
and pours it out on Jesus’ feet, anointing them,
then wipes them with her hair.
 
The use of that much perfume is extravagant,
as Judas will soon point out,
and she breaks the social dress code and norms
by letting her hair down and touching a man
who is not her husband.
 
It’s excessive,
it’s scandalous,
 it’s following Jesus in a nutshell
 
 and Mary does this
because facing the coming ending
 Jesus is what is important to Mary.
 
Of all the people present at the party
 Mary is the one who has been most intentional
about spending time with Jesus,
 
sitting at his feet listening to him,
she has seen him raise her brother from the dead
 she more than anyone
is likely to believe Jesus
 when he tells his followers
that he is the shepherd who lays his life down for his sheep.
 So her abundance of ointment
mirroring the abundance of Jesus’ love,
she anoints Jesus for his burial,
 
she lovingly sends him out to do
what he says he needs to do.
She wants to know Christ,
she wants to join in his story
and when compared with all of that,
 what is some money?
And social norms?
They are rubbish.
 
Mary and Paul are exceptional in their abandonment
of all things that are not Jesus
but they are not exceptional in their desire to know Christ.
 
At one point or another
all of us have longed to know Christ,
even if we haven’t had the words
to understand that longing
 
 and true sometimes we are like Mary
making extravagant displays of devotion
 
 but other times we are Martha
who longs to know Jesus
and acts on that longing by serving,
continually moving around Jesus.
 
Sometimes we’re Lazarus,
 we long to know Jesus
 and we’re just grateful to be at the table
because even getting to the table with Jesus
is a miracle.
 
 And sometimes we are even Judas,
we follow Jesus because there’s something that catches us
but we are so preoccupied with our own gain
 that we miss the point of Jesus and those around him.
  
There is space for all of these characters in the story
and yet, whoever we are,
Christ has first claimed us as his own
and nothing we do will change that,
 
 joined to Christ in his death and resurrection
 God promises to treat us as if we were Christ.
 
 And so whatever questions are challenging us,
whatever beginnings or endings we face,
we press on
 claimed and loved by the most important one. Amen
 

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who wants all the children at the party. Amen
 
The story of the Prodigal Son,
 we’ve all heard it, at least a couple times
so we know what comes next
 when we hear the line “there was a man who had two sons”  
 
now these two sons are wildly different,
as often happens with siblings.
We hear about the younger son first,
 
 how he doesn’t want to wait for his father to die
to receive his inheritance,
 so he asks for it,
 and when his father gives him his half
he takes it and sets out,
 traveling to a distant country,
living in a way that uses up all his inheritance.
 
when a famine hits
the younger son finds himself starving without any money
so he finds a job feeding pigs
 
- remember pigs are religiously unclean animals
so we know that he’s hit rock bottom
when he’s hanging out with the pigs
 and the pig food is starting to look pretty tasty-
 
 and that’s when he realizes,
life in his father’s house is good, even for the servants
so he forms a plan to go home,
confess his sin to his father
and knowing he doesn’t deserve to be considered a son in the household
 asks to be considered as a servant.
 
He acts on his plan and heads home
 but before he can even get up the driveway
his father sees him and runs to him,
and before he can confess and lay out his plan
 his father is already throwing a big welcome home party.
 
And this is where we hear about the older son,
the older son who also received his part of the inheritance
when the younger son asked,
but stayed at home,
he did was he was supposed to,
carrying on the family business
working with his father.
 
So he’s coming in from working in the fields
and he hears a party going on,
 a party he didn’t know was happening,
 a party he clearly didn’t receive an invitation to,
 
so he asks one of the servants about it
 and only then does he hear that his younger brother has returned
and that dad is throwing an extravagant party for him.
 
At this he gets mad
and refuses to go in the house,
and when his father comes out to plead with him to come to the party,
 years of resentment and bitterness come pouring out,
 
 “I’ve been the good one,
I did what I’m supposed to,
I worked with you all these years
and you’ve never celebrated me,
 you’ve never thrown a party for me
and now your son
who told you he wished you were dead so he could have your stuff comes back
- without all that money you gave him by the way-
and you throw a party for him?’
and he refuses to come inside
 
 and his father reminds him that their relationship is intact
and that all that is the father’s is the older son’s,
his life is good,
but the father stands firm in his decision to celebrate the return of the younger son.
He loves both.
 
A man had two sons the story starts
and at the end it seems to ask us,
which is the better son?
 
Tradition would have us say
 the older son is the better son
but despite his honoring his father
 and the good life that he has
 he ends bitter and resentful at his father,
 
 feeling left out
that he wasn’t invited to a party in his own home,
 a place he was already and always welcome,
 and he ends up not looking so good.
 
The younger son on the other hand
shows personal growth,
sure he starts off looking pretty bad
 there’s no denying that he squanders the love of his father
and ends up hungry sitting in a mess of his own making,
 
 but when he considers the situation and realizes that life with dad was good
he repents hoping his father will treat him as one of the servants
because he knows that’s all he really deserves,
and he ends up humble and appreciative of life with dad.
 
In the end neither son is better than the other.
And yet, the father chases after both sons.
 He wants them both at the party.
 
He rushes to celebrate the son that returned of his own volition
and he goes out and pleads with the son
who refuses to come in
 reminding him that the grace and love of a father
 is not a zero sum game,
showing love for one son does not diminish the love felt for the other son.
 
God loves in a way that is hard for humans to understand,
so we apply our own standards
 
which means that whether we are like the younger son
 sitting in a mess of our own making
 
or like the older son
 filled with bitter resentment
 
 
 when we look across at our neighbor
 it doesn’t seem like they deserve God’s grace and love.
 
when we judge our neighbor our sin is exposed,
to decide who God loves is God’s role,
and if we’re honest,
 we admit that by any standards no one deserves God’s love
 but in Christ God has made it clear that God’s love is for all
 
Which is why Paul,
when writing to the Corinthians,
 instructing them in the way of living in Christ
says “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation everything old has passed away see everything has become new.”
 
In the waters of baptism Christ washes away our messes and our bitterness,
Forgiving us again and again
So that each day we are given new life.
 
 And Having been given new life in Christ
we are to look at others with the eyes of God,
we are to see others as God sees them,
 beloved children who God wants at the party. Amen