Turning Things Around - Dr. John Fiedler

Of the four accounts of the empty tomb, John’s is my favorite. It is so poignant to me that Mary is weeping in the face of the unthinkable: the death of Jesus and the seeming death of his ministry. Mary has it right, sometimes crying is the absolute proper response in the face of tragedy, heartbreak, and loss.   The loss of her teacher is too great to bear so that when a man dressed as a gardener asks her why she is weeping, she springs into motion and demands that he tell her where he has placed the body of Jesus. But then Mary turns and recognizes Jesus.  The word “recognize” means literally re-cognition or “think again.” Some times we see things or people and don’t make the proper association for them. Mary first thought that Jesus was a gardener….then she sees him for himself.

While this comprises just a scant few lines in the gospel, it speaks volumes for the nature of Christian living.  Braced by the power of the Easter moment, we look again at the same mundane circumstance but we see more…so much more.  This great reversal of tragedy inspires in us a renewed reverence for the gift of life and the presence of people around us. It reminds us of the presence of God.

Easter is a time for “re-cognition” or “think again” for all of us. Let us embrace the power of this High Holy Day and watershed moment to turn ourselves toward God and God’s abundant transformational power.

A Most Significant Day - Rev. Tom Downing

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:18-20a, 4:6
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison,²⁰who in former times did not obey... For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.

Believe it or not the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter, a day when not much on earth seems to have happened, was believed by the early church to be a most significant day. Adam Hamilton, author of this year's Lenten Study 24 Hours That Changed the World, explains it this way:

What was the spirit of Jesus doing on this second day? Did he rest on the sabbath as his body lay in the tomb; or did he, as affirmed in one version of the Apostle’s Creed, descend “into hell”? This doctrine, known in medieval English as the “harrowing of hell,” held that at his death Jesus descended to the place of the dead-what the Old Testament calls “Sheol”-then set free the righteous dead so they might ascend to heaven and preached the gospel to all who had never heard it. The scriptural origin of this idea may be found in 1 Peter 3:18b-20; 4:6... Scholars debate the meaning of these verses, but they may point us toward what Jesus Was doing on that Saturday. He may have done in the realm of the dead what he sought to do in his earthly ministry: “to seek out and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This doctrine and these verses would point to the depth of the passion Jesus Christ has for reaching people who have been alienated from God.

This idea of Christ seeking out and saving the dead is a very old tradition. It can be found in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter which dates from about 200 A.D. In it the risen Christ leads a cross shaped procession of the dead from the tomb. In the Odes of Solomon, poems which date from the end of the first century, the dead cry out to Christ for pity and Christ says:

                                 Then I heard their voice,
                                 and placed their faith in my heart.

                                 And I placed my name upon their head,
                                 because they are free and they are mine.

Notice that in these traditions we are not just talking about Christ saving the righteous dead, as Hamilton suggests. We are talking about Christ saving all the dead who seek forgiveness and new life from God.

In our part of the country it is fashionable to condemn those who have "died in their sins" to eternal torment in a fiery hell. You can certainly find scripture verses which can be interpreted this way. But I believe this is to miss the point of the message of Christ who tells us:

Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. - Luke 6:35-36

In other words, Jesus tells us to love our enemies because God loves his. If, as Paul says at the end of Romans 8, "Neither life nor death nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord," then it follows that even in hell one cannot hide from the pursuing love of God, that God continues to seek and save the lost even after death.

This is not a new idea. Listen to the words of Psalm 139 (KJV) from the "Old" Testament.

                        Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
                        or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
⁸                        If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
                        if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

⁹                        If I take the wings of the morning,
                        and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
¹⁰                        Even there shall thy hand lead me,
                        and thy right hand shall hold me.

If there is hope even for those who choices have made hell of the lives of others and their own lives fit only for hell, how much more so is there hope for you and I, who still can devote ourselves to sharing with others in this life the love Jesus came to show to all humanity.

The Crucifixion - Rev. Tom Downing

Scripture: Mark 15:25-32

²⁵It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.²⁶The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”²⁷And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.²⁹Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,³⁰save yourself, and come down from the cross!”³¹In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.³²Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

Adam Hamilton, author of 24 Hours That Changed the World, our Lenten Study for this year, writes this about the meaning of the crucifixion known in theological terms as the atonement:

The Atonement was not about changing God or making it possible for God to forgive us. It was, rather, about changing you and me. Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection constitute a divine drama meant to communicate God’s Word to humanity, to make clear to us our need for redemption and forgiveness, to show us the full extent of God’s love and lead us to repentance. John’s Gospel begins with a prologue in which he speaks of Jesus as God’s Word. Jesus was God’s vehicle for communicating with us, his Word made flesh. In Jesus, God’s divine nature was united with human flesh to reveal his character, his love, and his will for humanity... He has set an example for us of a kind of love that alone has the power to save humanity from its self-destructive ways. Sacrificial love transforms enemies into friends, shames the guilty into repentance, and melts hearts of stone. The world is changed by true demonstrations of sacrificial love and by selfless acts of service.

How does this change of our hearts occur? Leslie Weatherhead, Pastor of City Temple in London during the blitz, put it this way:

See the power of the cross! Here is love indeed! You may take the physical expression of that love, you beat it, you lash it, you crown it with thorns, you nail it to a cross - and then? You cannot do anything more than kill the body in revolting circumstances. When you have crucified God, you cannot do anything else but sit down and watch him there. Probably you will break down and become changed. Few eyes could see the agony of God with any insight and remain unchanged. From the cross God reigns all-powerful, for love is the only all powerful force. And carry our heads as high as we may, they will bow before him at last. Believe as fiercely as we may that his methods are impractical and that our methods of force, our "practical" methods, are making the world sweet and clean, free and safe, and we shall realize at last that all such methods collapse and break down. We shall find that love that keeps on loving never breaks down. It may suffer all the signs of defeat, but it is never defeated. It haunts the mind and the conscience afterward and meets people in their thoughts from which no violence and no locked doors can keep it; and because God has made us as we are, it can find, quietly hidden in the-depths of every person's nature that which would bring him to say, "I'm sorry" and to change his life. This is the way in which God wins. Thus he achieves his purposes. This is the secret of power, a power compared with which that revealed in the solar system is as nothing and that which fills the heavens with stars is as the power of a child rolling marbles along the nursery floor.

But perhaps, the poet expresses it best. Here are the words to one of the anthems our choir is singing at the Good Friday Tenebrae Service:

                            Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see Him dying on the tree!
This is Christ, by man rejected; here, my soul, your Savior see.
He’s the long expected Prophet, David’s son, yet David’s Lord;
by His Son, God now has spoken:  He’s the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, all who hear Him groaning, was there ever grief like this?
Friends through fear His cause disowning, foes insulting His distress;
many hands were raised to wound Him, none would intervene to save;
but the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that justice gave.

You who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great
here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate.
See the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load;
It’s the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Men and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation, here the refuge of the lost;
Christ, the Rock of our salvation, His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt! 
None shall ever be confounded who on Him their hope have built.

Hallelujah! Amen.

Maundy Thursday - Rev. Jay Cole

Maunday Thursday is the traditional English name for the Thursday preceding Easter.  It has several liturgical purposes; one is the commemoration of the Lord's institution of the Eucharist (or Holy Communion) at the Last Supper.  I invite you to read the passages in the synoptic Gospels and in 1^st Corinthians about the Last Supper.  For this blog I was especially intrigued by the following two verses from Luke: "When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him.  He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  (Lk 22:14,15)

The words, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;" are a fascinating addition by Luke to the story.  Christ eagerly desired to eat with them.  It does not say that Christ condescended or felt obligated to eat with them; nor does it say that Christ took his place at the table and they served him since he was the Messiah and was about to suffer tremendously without much support from them.

Jesus is the embodiment of servant leadership.  By definition, Jesus was the leader; and yet, he eagerly desired to serve others even in the direst of circumstance.  We profess Jesus is God incarnate (embodiment of God).  There’s a lesson here.

 
The persons with whom he eagerly wanted to share his last intimate meal in the solitude of the upper room were not those with power and wealth—the mayor of Jerusalem, the religious leaders who admired his work and witness, or one or more of the wealthiest families.  As best we can tell, the socioeconomic status of his disciples was very modest, and a couple of them today would be considered potential criminals and possibly enemies of the state. These were the people who would establish the church.  Who were the majority of people that settled the United States of America?   

Lastly, a new United Methodist mantra is, “Engaging in ministry with [not for] the poor.” The transformation of the world will come when we eagerly desire to engage, really get know, truly work with, serve and allow ourselves to be served by—all people.  Amen?

Betrayal - Rev. Tom Downing

Scripture: Mark 14:10-11

¹⁰Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.¹¹When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

Notice that Mark, the first Gospel written, does not attribute a particular motive to Judas. Matthew, Luke and John, all written later, speculate on what his motive might have been. They seem to think it was for money, but Mark says that Judas volunteered first and then the priests offered to reward him. Chances are Judas, human as we all are, is not purely a villain, but was trying to do what he believed was right. Some scholars have speculated that the name Judas Iscariot is a transliteration of Judas Ish Sicarius, literally Judas Man of the Knife. These Men of the Knife were the first suicide terrorists we know of. They were Jewish patriots that carried sicarii, long thin knives designed slip between the joints of Roman armor. They would mix in with crowds of Roman soldiers or collaborators and stab as many as they could before they themselves were hacked to pieces. Evidently, Jesus had recruited Judas and Simon the Zealot from the ranks of revoltuionaries, and sought to bring them to a new understanding of what the kingdom of God was all about. One wonders if he had to sleep between them and Matthew Levi the tax collector and known collaborator with the Romans' puppet government.

It is altogether possible that after Jesus had refused the efforts of the crowd to make him king, Judas had finally given up on Jesus leading a successful revolt. Perhaps he thought the arrest of Jesus might still lead to a popular uprising, and when it only led to Jesus' humiliating death, Judas gave up all hope for change and even life itself.

Adam Hamilton, author of 24 Hours Which Changed the World, the book we have been studying this Lent, has a question that we Christians need to deal with: "What if Judas had lived?" If he had not killed himself, if he had waited 3 days and met the risen Lord, what might have happened. Wasn't Jesus the one who preached about loving our enemies? How would he have dealt with Judas?

Love, as the Gospel presents it, consists of three parts - compassion, nurture and liberation.
Compassion seeks to understand who the beloved is, their needs, their hopes, their dreams. Nurture tries to fulfill these needs. Liberation seeks to free the beloved from what is holding them back from fulfilling their hopes and dreams and to enable them to love as they have been loved.

Surely Jesus' compassion for Judas would have enabled him to understand one who dreamed of living in the land of the Zealot's motto, "No king but God." He would have understood all Judas' motives, misguided as they might have been. He would have shown Judas how following the way  of sacrificial love would fulfill his dream of a new world. And surely Jesus would have sought to liberate Judas from the guilt which drove him to suicide and forgiven him just as Jesus had forgiven those who directly tortured him to death on the cross. Imagine, Hamilton says, what a powerul witness Judas would have made, even more powerful than Peter, telling the story of his betrayal and forgiveness.

And Hamilton leaves us with one last question, "If Jesus would have forgiven Judas, can he not forgive you?"

You know the answer.

"If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." - 1 John 2:1-2

Conflict in the Temple - Rev. Tom Downing

Scripture: Mark 11:15-18

"Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
   But you have made it a den of robbers.’ 
And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching."

The turning over of the tables of the money lenders was only the first of a week of conflicts in the temple. That was Monday. On each of the next few days Jesus returned to the temple to teach and conflict followed. The headings in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible list one conflict after the another: "Jesus' Authority Is Questioned" by the chief priests. He tells them "The Parable of the Wicked Tenants." The Pharisees and the Herodians ask "The Question about Paying Taxes." The Sadducees ask "The Question about Resurrection." One of the scribes asks him about "The First Commandment." Jesus answers "The Question about (the Messiah being) David's Son." "Jesus Denounces the Scribes" for exploiting the poor. Jesus praises "The Widow's Offering." Finally, "The Destruction of the Temple is Foretold" and the plot to arrest Jesus by stealth becomes the primary goal of his detractors.

This is no "gentle Jesus meek and mild" of the saccharin paintings and poems. This Jesus is a physically imposing, working class man taking the part of the poor and oppressed with lighting wit and rabbinic wisdom. And yet, he already must know that this is a contest he cannot win by strength or wit or sheer rightness of his cause. The deck is stacked against him by the respected, the wealthy and the powerful. The courage it takes to continue the fight, on his own terms, returning good for evil, love for hate, healing for violence, is beyond human understanding. It is only possible with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the constant voice which tells him, "You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased. Love my people as I have loved you."


The time will come, just as it does for all of us, when he can no longer hear that voice. The test of character will come, just as it does for all of us, when he has to continue through the valley of shadow of death where sight fails and faith alone can guide. Pray that we might remain as faithful to him as he was to us.

From Triumph to Tragedy - Rev. Tom Downing

Scripture:  John 12:12-15

“The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

Recently, Dr. Roy Heller, Professor of Hebrew Bible at Perkins School of Theology, spoke to us about the Torah’s description of the ideal king. Here is the passage he quoted: (The bullet points are his.)

“When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community. Even so,

• he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You must never return that way again.”
• And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away;
• also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.

When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests.

• It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God,
• diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes,
• neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left,

so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.”

            - Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Dr. Heller pointed out that kings in the ancient world performed three functions: making war, establishing alliances and accumulating a treasury with which to finance these projects. To make war in the ancient world, one needs horses for chariots and cavalry. To establish alliances, the king must marry wives from the royal families of other kingdoms. To finance these projects the king must acquire silver and gold in great quantity. Deuteronomy seems to forbid all of these, so what is the king supposed to do? The king is to study the word of God until it is written on his heart, to observe the law in his daily living, and refrain from exalting himself above the community. In other words, the king is to rule by being an example of doing the will of God, which the Torah summarizes as to love God with all your heart, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

When Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the people hail him as a king.

The palm branches they wave are the closest thing they have to a national flag, since they are not permitted to make graven images. They cry, “Hosanna!” meaning “Save us!” just as they cried to their Maccabean kings who saved them from Syrian oppression. They want a king, but not the king from Deuteronomy. They still think of kings, like Caesar, who are skilled at making war, establishing alliances and accumulating gold for the greater glory of the kingdom. The fact that Jesus rides a donkey, the symbol of peace, rather than a warhorse, is the beginning of their disillusionment.

It is little wonder that by the end of the week another crowd is crying, “Crucify him!” He is not going to lead them in a revolt against the Romans. Others will do that and eventually lead to the destruction and exile of Israel. He is not going to make alliances and compromises with the kingdoms of this world. It was an alliance with Rome against Syria, that originally brought Israel under Roman rule. He is not going to encourage them to buy their way into greater security. Wealth will not save those who have turned their backs on the poor. The Zealot revolutionaries will burn the tax rolls and slaughter the aristocracy.

Jesus is there to be the King set forth in Deuteronomy, to lead by example, to show them what a life lived in love with God, neighbor and even enemy looks like, to show them what a kingdom without boundaries of race, class or belief looks like, to show them that with the power of the Holy Spirit, the law written on his heart, what at first may look like tragedy, will become in the end a triumph.

Prayer: Lord, you are a king who rules by love not force. Be my king. Help me to live your example of love in all that I do. Amen. 

Standing Tall for Failed Causes - Dr. John Fiedler

24 Hours That Changed the World: "The Burial"

I’m not sure that Joseph of Arimathea gets enough credit in the midst of all the Holy week observances. It may seem like a mundane detail that he stepped forth and requested the body of Jesus be taken off the cross so that he could give him a decent burial…..but it’s not.  Being the clever creatures that we are, we know when a cause is lost and how to shrink away so as to minimize collateral damage through association.  We watch political candidates announce the end of their campaigns as if they were euphoric  and pleased rather than an announcement of defeat.  The disciples who of all people knew and followed jesus had fled and abandoned their leader. Judas had betrayed Jesus and Peter denied being a part of his ministry.

But Joseph calmly stepped forward and “owned” that he had a deep love and abiding respect for Jesus and he was willing to take on whatever persecution from government or Sanhedrin that might come his way as a result of providing a tomb for Jesus.

What are the bare bones basic values of your faith that you will stand for in the face of any and all adversity?  When have you been tempted to “cut and run” and how has your faith given you the courage to continue?  Joseph had no guarantee of the resurrection of Jesus. He was simply determined to do the right thing.