We Are Bearers of the Peace of the Risen Christ

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Easter 2 – 23 April 2017

Text: John 20:19-31

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Happy Easter! It is still Easter today, and, in fact, for several more weeks we will be in the Easter season. Over this Easter season, we will spend time looking at the ways Christ is with us – exploring the theme of Christ’s presence with us.

Today’s Gospel lesson is one of two stories of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances that we hear this Easter season. Next week, we’ll hear about the risen Jesus meeting some people on the road to Emmaus. Today, we have the story of Jesus appearing to his disciples who are hiding away behind locked doors on Easter evening, and then, he appears to them again, a week later.

Today’s Gospel lesson from John 20 picks up the Easter story from last week. At this point, Jesus has appeared to the women, who’ve passed on the message of the resurrection to the other disciples. The text puts us in the evening of the first day of the week, so the evening of the resurrection. The disciples are hiding behind locked doors because their Teacher and Lord has been executed, and they are frightened that the authorities may come for them, too.

And then there’s the matter of them not really knowing or understanding what the women have told them about seeing Jesus, risen from the dead.

You can see why they might be afraid, and hiding behind locked doors.

Then, there is Jesus, standing among them. He bids them his peace, and they are filled with joy at seeing him again. There is then a beautiful moment of commissioning, as Jesus breathes on them – literally in-spiring the Holy Spirit into his disciples – breathing the Holy Spirit into them.

Thomas isn’t there on that evening, and so later, when the disciples tell him they’ve seen Jesus, he has his doubts. A week later, Jesus shows up again, and this time, Thomas gets to see Jesus himself.

If something is too good to be true, it probably is, right? We are taught to be suspicious - or at least very careful – especially in our day and age of email scams and other nefarious activities. Exercising caution can be a very good thing, at times, but I wonder how our suspicion affects our faith? How did Thomas’ suspicion affect his faith? Maybe Thomas had just been hoodwinked one too many times to believe that Jesus had really risen from the dead.

But as much as we like to cajole Thomas as the doubter of the group, the text shows that Jesus lovingly gives to Thomas exactly what he needs in order to move from doubt to faith. Thomas needs to see Jesus, and to touch Jesus, so – there Jesus is, in the flesh. When Jesus says to Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe,” this is an invitation by Jesus – an invitation for Thomas to step deeper into faith.

And Thomas does just that, calling Jesus “My Lord and my God!” – a true confession of his true faith.

For us, then, one of the lessons of this story is not how to have perfect faith, but rather that Jesus meets us wherever we are in faith, and lovingly breathes the Holy Spirit into us, so that we may have relationships with God that are meaningful and fruitful. Martin Luther said it beautifully in his Small Catechism: “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him…” He goes on to explain that this belief – our very faith in Jesus – is the work of the Holy Spirit in each of us, and even throughout the whole Christian Church. It is the Spirit’s work.

One of the real challenges for us is that we don’t have Jesus here, in the flesh, the way Thomas did. We can’t physically place our hands into Jesus’ wounded side or put our fingers into the nail holes in Jesus’ hands.

But Jesus calls us “blessed” for that very reason. In talking with Thomas, he says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” That’s us! We don’t have the same proofs of faith experienced by those first disciples – yet we have their witness, and the witness of countless others. We also have the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion – acts wherein God meets us in water, bread, and wine. And we have each other, and we have the witness of brothers and sisters in faith all over the world.

Consider the witness of Coptic Christians in Egypt. On Palm Sunday this year, they gathered for worship as is the custom of Christians all over the world. In two of their churches, bombs inside and nearby killed scores of people. And yet, the very next Sunday, they gathered again to remember the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Surely the risen Christ is with them as they begin to recover from tragedy. Surely the Holy Spirit is with them as they offer their witness to the world. They walk by faith – faith in a risen Christ who has destroyed death by dying himself and being raised to new life again.

“Peace be with you,” Jesus says to his disciples on that Easter evening, and he says that to us, too. Whenever we come to the table to receive his body and blood, we are his guests, recipients of the very love of God. “Peace be with you,” Jesus says, but he doesn’t stop there, he continues by saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, and elsewhere, we are the bearers of the peace of the risen Christ.

We have peace because Jesus is risen – it is peace that surpasses all human understanding at times, but that peace is ours because Jesus is risen. Alleluia.

Amen.

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Everyone is Somebody to God

Lent 3 – 19 March 2017

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

So asked the poet Emily Dickinson, musing about the difference between being a Nobody and being a Somebody. The world is full of Nobodies and Somebodies, it seems, and in this world, the woman at the well who meets Jesus is a Nobody. We don’t even get to know her name!

At the time of Jesus, this woman – as a woman - would’ve had no real power over her life – certainly not over her marital situation. She didn’t have any control over being born a Samaritan, either, and that she was a Samaritan made her even more of a Nobody. Samaritans didn’t follow the True Religion – which made them automatically suspect – so, on the basis of religion, she was a Nobody, too.

So, there is Jesus, traveling along through Samaria, and he decides to take a rest by Jacob’s well. This Nobody woman comes along, and Jesus asks her to draw up some water for him to drink. The fact that Jesus even speaks to her is tremendous. To us, it is no big deal. He’s thirsty – why not ask for a drink from the person who has the bucket? But in speaking to this woman – especially in speaking to her alone – Jesus is crossing gender, ethnic, and religious boundaries.

But Jesus doesn’t stop with asking for water. They begin conversing, this Jewish teacher and this Samaritan Nobody – all about springs of water gushing up to eternal life, and about her marital history, and in all this, she begins – slowly, at first – to see the truth about Jesus. She realizes finally that she is speaking with the Messiah, the One promised by God.

This is when the story is getting good!

But then the disciples come back, and the text tells us that they are astonished to see Jesus speaking with a woman. But they don’t say anything to the woman or to Jesus, and the woman does just as these men have done when they became disciples of Jesus – she leaves what she has (her bucket of water). As one of my seminary professors wrote in her commentary about the book of John: “The woman doesn’t get a husband, but instead gets a new job.”[1] She runs to the city and begins to tell people all about Jesus.

And then the text gives us a gift – especially for those of us who’ve had our ministry questioned because of our gender or ethnicity. The text gives us a gift by saying: “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”

Because of her testimony, many Samaritans come to believe in Jesus. And in the Gospel of John, belief isn’t just a head thing or even just a heart thing – belief is a relationship thing. To say that the Samaritans believed in Jesus has more of the sense that they began their relationship with him as his disciples. Because of her testimony, Jesus stays with them for a couple of days – which shows this relationship that is developing between Jesus and this group of Nobodies.

Our story today wraps up with the Samaritans declaring, “We know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

And they could’ve added – “The savior of the whole world, even us, the ones who’re called ‘Nobodies.’”

This story, then, is a living-out of what Jesus has just proclaimed in John 3: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” This story also humanizes a group of people who were largely despised in the First Century: the Samaritans. It humanizes them by showing Jesus’ willingness to talk with them, listen to them, spend time with them, be in relationship with them – in the flesh.

And God uses the testimony of the woman at the well to do all this work.

There are times in my life when I’ve received the word of God from a surprising source – maybe words of forgiveness spoken by someone I’ve hurt, or words of assurance spoken at a time when I was faltering, or words of peace spoken into a time of conflict, or words of truth spoken in the midst of lies. At other times, even before I was a pastor, I was the one whom God used to speak those surprising words to someone else – words of forgiveness, or assurance, or peace, or truth.

Just imagine that to which God may be calling you. Now, maybe going out and talking about Jesus willy-nilly to strangers isn’t your gift. But you can show yourself to be a person of faith, and as a person of faith, you can bear witness to Jesus through your words and actions. As a person of faith, you can be the one to offer surprising words of forgiveness, or assurance, or peace, or truth. As a person of faith, each one of us has something we can share or show about God’s love. There are no Nobodies – not one.

God’s vision is so much bigger than our own vision, and God’s love is bigger than our own love. “God so loved the world…” even those whom the world calls “Nobodies,” for everyone is Somebody to God.[2]

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[1] The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of John. Published by Morehouse Publishing, p. 62.

[2] The “Nobody”/”Somebody” language came from Deborah J. Kapp’s essay for this Sunday in Feasting on the Word, Kindle Location 20029.

By Contrast...Let Us Be Guided By The Spirit

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 13, Year C – 26 June 2016

Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-25 and Luke 9:51-62

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Our lesson from Paul’s letter to the Galatians today includes one of the most famous parts of the New Testament: the list of the fruit of the Spirit. They are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

But before we get to this list of the fruit of the Spirit, Paul writes about the flesh. When Paul talks about “the flesh” he is referring to our sinful selves – that part of each of us where we are self-focused and self-absorbed. Paul gives a whole long list of the works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.

Paul makes it clear that while we have the freedom to do these things, these are not the types of behaviors that build others up. These are not behaviors that show our love for our neighbor. Since loving our neighbor is to be a priority, Paul urges the Galatians toward the fruit of the Spirit instead. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Generosity. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self control. This is the fruit that is borne when we are guided by the Spirit, and following the Spirit’s ways.

Contrast the fruit of the Spirit with the enmity shown in our gospel lesson today. Jesus is traveling with his disciples and he’s going through Samaria. Luke says that the Samaritans refuse to host Jesus because his face is set toward Jerusalem.

Please realize that the Samaritans were religious people who just happened to practice their religion differently than the Jews. The Samaritans mixed Jewish religious practices with pagan practices. The Temple in Jerusalem that Jesus is so determined to reach isn’t a holy place for the Samaritans. Their temple is located right there in Samaria.

Luke 9 gives us a little view into the strife between these two peoples.

On one hand, the Samaritans don’t want to host a religious leader who’s heading toward a sacred place that is not their own. On the other hand, when Jesus’ disciples hear this, they ask Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

Now, Jesus was a Jew. He could’ve said, “Sure! Let’s do that.” But instead, Jesus turns and rebukes his disciples. And then, they travel on. And no one is consumed by fire from heaven.

The few verses of this story show us that if it is left up to us, our very human desire can be to wipe our enemies off the face of the earth.

I’ve talked before about one of my favorite TV shows, “The West Wing,” a political drama that was on about fifteen years ago. In one episode, one of the staffers is meeting with a Russian delegation, preparing for the U.S. President to travel to a summit where he will meet with the Russian President.

Tensions over this meeting are very high. One of the topics to be discussed is the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. And as the U.S. President’s staff is trying to figure out how to raise concerns about Russia providing nuclear weapons to other countries, the Russian President sends a message through his staff to the U.S. government: “We must lead the way and stem the tide of nuclear proliferation and we must start with ourselves, for why should two nations still possess power to destroy each other ten times over; surely, once is enough.”

In this fictional story told from a secular point of view, what the Russian President is urging is moderation. He’s suggesting that they meet in the middle of the extreme feelings of fear that are felt on both sides. This restraint stands in contrast to suspicion and panic.

It seems to me that this restraint is what Jesus is going for, too, in today’s gospel story. Sure, we can call down fire upon the heads of our enemies. But the kingdom of God that Jesus is ushering in – this kingdom isn’t brought about by cruel subjection, and it’s not brought about by wiping anybody off the face of the earth. The kingdom of God is a reign of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Paul says that there is no law against these things, and, in fact,  he says that the law is summarized in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Martin Luther used to describe sin as being curved in on oneself. In Luther’s view, when we are curved in on ourselves, we use every gift that God has given us only to benefit ourselves, only to build ourselves up. When we are curved in on ourselves, we contemplate only ourselves, whether an individual, a group, or an entire nation. What is best for me? What will make me feel the best about myself? What will best eliminate my fears?

“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit,” Paul writes.

Paul understands that to live by the Spirit is steadfastly in juxtaposition with how we want to live ourselves, and certainly with how the world wants us to live. That’s why he starts off with the two words, “By contrast…” When we curve in on ourselves, we don’t see others, we don’t care about others, we can’t love others. When we follow the Spirit’s leading, we see others, we care about others, and we love others.

When everything around us says to live our lives according to the fear, hatred, anger, and jealousy of the world, by contrast, let us be guided by the Spirit. Let us love as we are loved. For Jesus’ sake, and in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Loving our Enemies

The shrine above Abraham's tomb in Hebron.

A Epiphany 7 – February 23, 2014

Text: Matthew 5:38-48

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Grace and peace be with you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On our recent trip to the Holy Land, one of the many places we visited was the city of Hebron. Hebron’s importance lies mainly with its connection to the patriarchs and matriarchs, including Abraham, who bought a cave there[1] to serve as his family burial plot (so to speak). And there in Hebron, underneath a building which houses a mosque and a synagogue – divided from one another by walls and bulletproof glass – lie the graves of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah.

The city itself is a divided city – without going into too much detail here, suffice to say that the Palestinians and Israelis live with this division in a somewhat tenuous peace. There are many restrictions on who can travel where within the city – restrictions that have all but shut down the commerce – which is in many ways the heartbeat, the life of Middle Eastern culture - in certain areas of Hebron.

On the day we traveled to Hebron, we took with us a native of that city, someone who, by virtue of his Palestinian heritage, is not allowed to travel all the way down a street upon which his family once owned a market. If he tries to travel all the way down this street, his way is barred by young soldiers holding huge guns.

If I hadn’t been standing there myself, watching the man being turned away by the soldiers, I’m not sure I would’ve believed it. What do you mean, he can’t just walk down the street?

After he was turned away, we turned away from the growing number of soldiers collecting in the street and we went back through one small checkpoint, past the tombs of our forefathers and foremothers. This was followed by another, larger checkpoint, where the guards waved us through and the tall, metal turnstiles spun around. We huffed and puffed our way back up the steep hills to our bus and tried to put the whole unpleasant affair behind us.

At dinner each night, we had a group conversation about our day to process the day’s events. At dinner that night, it became apparent that our group had been unable to put the unpleasantness behind us because we kept talking about our guide and the fact that he can’t simply walk down the street, and the young soldiers with their big guns. What we encountered that day is a city that is training people to become enemies with their neighbors.

My comments to our group that night went something like this:

I won’t speak for everyone here, but – for myself - I don’t really know what it’s like to live alongside an enemy. In Austin, we had this neighbor behind us who had these two annoying little dogs – dogs that would bark incessantly at the slightest bit of noise. We’d unlock the back door, and when the dogs heard the dead bolt click in the door, they’d start barking. If the wind blew, they’d bark. Their owner refused to do anything with his dogs – he refused even to see their barking as a problem. But – as much as he made me angry and frustrated me – he wasn’t my enemy.

Back to Hebron - to live in a place that is so divided – so torn apart by strife and fear – to live as enemies with the people across the street – literally! – well, that is the sort of environment that makes Jesus’ words today about loving our enemies even harder to stomach.

Love our enemies, Jesus? Are you kidding? You must be kidding. It would be so much easier if we could just remove them – so that I don’t have to try to love someone whom I have been taught to hate from the very beginning of my life. And to try to love someone who has been taught to hate me from the very beginning of their life.

And that is the hard part about being a beloved one of God. As beloved ones of God, we are called by God to do the hard thing of loving our enemies. Any old yahoo can love a friend, Jesus says, that’s easy. But we are called to love the very ones whom we want to hate, and we are called to love the ones who hate us, even.

And then, just to up the ante a little, Jesus ends today’s lesson by giving us one more admonition: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

It’s really enough for me to want to throw up my hands, give up, and walk away from it all. Because I know I can’t be perfect – and I certainly can’t be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect – he’s – well – he’s perfect! Except that the word translated here as “perfect” means something closer to being whole or complete.

We met many on our trip for whom trying to live alongside an actual enemy is an actual reality. But in spite of their enemies – and in spite of a society that teaches them to be enemies one to another - there are many who are committed to ways of peace. We met many who have seen that violence and hatred actually rip away at us and at our humanity – they make us less than complete. We met many who are actively trying to teach others to choose peace over violence and love over hatred. It is not the easy way at all – but they are committed to the hard work of loving their enemies and praying for those who persecute them.

So, what’s the take-away? I will not speak for you, but I still don’t know what it’s like to live alongside or across the street from an enemy. Our neighbors are pretty quiet and friendly. And I don’t really want to make enemies of them, just so I can have enemies to love.

So, the take-away for me is the hope in the stories of people who are committed to finding peace: the hope that hatred isn’t going to get ratcheted up and up and up – spinning out of control in a never-ending cycle. In finding hope in the most unlikely of circumstances, I am myself am led to seek peace – to pursue peace – all the more in my own life.

These encounters also cause me to think about who I am trained to think of as being my enemy – or who I want to consider an enemy because of how they treat me. And then, looking at Jesus’ words today, I am led once again on pathways of peace – pathways of loving my neighbor and praying for my enemies. These are not easy pathways to take, but it is the path I am called to take as one who is baptized and beloved of God.

Let us all, therefore, seek peace, and pursue it, and let us remember with hope those who are doing the same, all over the world.

Amen.

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[1] cf. Genesis 23

Grace be with you, Part 1: Galatians 1:1-12

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Lectionary 9 – 2 June 2013

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.[1]

This morning begins a sermon series that will continue throughout the summer. I’m calling it “Grace be with you” because that phrase and similar ones are commonly used in some of the books of the New Testament, specifically in the epistles – or letters – of the New Testament. Because so much of the New Testament is made up of these letters, I thought it would be good to spend some focused time looking at them together.

Our lectionary helps us with this. In our assigned readings this summer, we have over a month of Galatians, then several weeks of Colossians, then several weeks of the book of Hebrews. These are the three books, then, upon which we will focus this summer.

In looking at these letters, it is important to remember that we are, essentially, reading someone else’s mail. Just like if we are to read a letter actually written to someone else, there are things in the New Testament letters that don’t necessarily make sense to us right away because they aren’t addressed to us individually or to our church community.

An illustration of what I mean is found in one of my commentaries on Galatians. The author tells the story of some “poor friars who planned to raise money for a new bell tower by selling flowers from the friary garden. Their business became so popular that it adversely affected the trade of the local florist, who tried by various means to get the friars to sell honey or bread instead. Finally, he hired the local thug, Hugh McNails, who beat up the friars and persuaded them to close their flower shop. The moral of the story is: Only Hugh can prevent florist friars.”[2]

If this wordplay seems familiar to you, it’s because it’s reminiscent of a popular public service announcement which many of us in the United States have heard over and over: “Only you can prevent forest fires,” says Smokey the Bear. However, it is important to note that, outside the United States, this slogan is virtually unknown. A European hearing the same story about Hugh and the florist friars would probably not groan or laugh the way some of us did.[3]

So it is when we open the mail of the Christians of the First Century. There will be parts that make perfect sense to us – ideas that need little explanation. But other parts will need more work for us because we live at a much different time and in a much different culture than the ancients did.

For starters, their letters begin differently than ours do. Verses 1-5 are Paul’s salutation. Where we might start off with “Dear brothers and sisters,” and then jump right in to the rest of the letter, Paul begins by identifying himself. And not only identifying himself as the author of the letter, but as one who can speak authoritatively about Jesus Christ because he has been sent by God. This is Paul’s mini-resumé.

Now, normally, in his letters, Paul would include next some words of thanksgiving for the readers. But not in Galatians! He launches, instead: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”[4] What’s going on here?

This is a baby church – one started by Paul very early in the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. One of the biggest issues facing these earliest Christ-followers was the issue of inclusion. Remember that the first followers of Jesus were largely Jews – people of faith who had a whole system of religious beliefs and practices already well established. Problem is, that Holy Spirit fell out upon a bunch of non-Jews (aka Gentiles), and so one of the biggest questions of the day was: do non-Jewish Christians have to follow the same religious practices as Jewish Christians in order to be Christian?

Apparently after Paul had left Galatia, some other Christian teachers came and said that the gospel Paul preached wasn’t quite enough – that there would be more required of them, as it turned out, in order for them to be true followers of Jesus. These other teachers were trying to impose some of these Jewish practices onto their non-Jewish brothers and sisters, and they were calling it the true gospel. These other teachers, then, were causing great confusion among the Christians in Galatia.

Paul, meanwhile, is so strongly opposed to what these other teachers are saying that he actually says they should be “accursed!”[5] This is strong language from Paul, and to our ears, it sounds like he’s being a bit of a jerk. But his strong language is meant to convey his point strongly – that the gospel of Jesus is a gospel of freedom. A gospel of grace. A gospel of peace. And much of this letter, we’ll find out, reinforces these ideas of freedom, grace, and peace.

We may be reading mail that is addressed to someone else, but the message is here for us, also – the message of freedom, grace, and peace. How often do we wonder if we’re doing all the right things so that God will love us? How often do we hear blame assigned – that these bad things happen because of someone not following God strictly enough? How often do we question if God’s love really is big enough, or strong enough, or deep enough to reach to wherever we are and to lift us up?

The message is here for us, also, and we need it as much as those “foolish Galatians”[6] did almost two thousand years ago. We need God’s words of freedom and grace and peace, and not only for ourselves, but also to proclaim this message the world – a world that may not know about God or care about God but that desperately needs to hear words of freedom and grace and peace. Let us, then, be the messengers of this gospel – this good news.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.[7]

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[1] Galatians 1:3-5

[2] Karris, Robert J. New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Galatians and Romans. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2005.

[3] Ideas, ibid.

[4] Galatians 1:6-7

[5] Galatians 1:8 and 9

[6] Galatians 3:1

[7] Galatians 6:18