OUT TO PASTOR

April 26, 2015

Easter 4

Psalm 23

John 10:11-18

(prayer)

Within the original text of the 23^rd Psalm is a title: mizmor le-david (דמִזְמוֹר לְדָוִ) - psalm of David or more precisely, melody of David.

Actually, technically (if my memory serves), in Hebrew, when you put to nouns together the word “of” is implied.  For example if you wanted to write house of cards in Hebrew, you’d, only use two words - house cards. Melech melechim: king kings = king of kings.  If you want to see this in action, turn to a copy of the King James Bible.  Part of the way text is presented in the KJV is that if the translators had to add in an English word that wasn’t actually in the Hebrew so that it would make sense to an English reader, it has that word in italics.

Although the preposition ‘le’ in le-david can mean ‘of David’, if that is what the author meant (“of”) - because the noun mizmor preceded it - le is redundant.  Mizmor David means Psalm of David.

The truth is that le is more ambigious: it can mean of or by or for or to or about depending on its context.
So, as we read the title of Psalm 23, it is unclear whether mizmor le-david means Psalm by David or Psalm for David or Psalm to David or Psalm about David or Psalm of David. 

Also, the Hebrew  language has no direct article, so a fair translation of all of these phrases is “A Psalm of/by/for/to/about David”

Actually, the more I think about it (even though ‘of’ is not a direct translation of ‘le’), it is the best English word we can use, because to say that the 23^rd Psalm is ‘of David’ captures the ambiguity of the original title.  “Of” could imply any of to, for, by, about. 

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David is described as a musician in the book of 2^nd Samual; he is described as the ‘hero of Israel’s songs’ (2Sam23:1) - the rabbinic and midrashic tradition is that David was a composer.  Many bible readers simply assume that the 74 Psalms that bear David’s name were written by hymn and there are even ancient traditions that David wrote (or at least compiled and edited) all 150 of the Psalms: even those who have other names in the title or have no title at all.  Even, I suppose those that were obviously written after David was already dead (i.e. Ps139).

I have no crisis of faith in saying that David may not have written every psalm in the Bible.  It does not bother me or damage my spirit if someone wants to claim that David never wrote a psalm in his life.  But - in my gut - it makes sense to me that the harp strumming king likely offered praise to God in poetry and song.  

I have no hard scholarly evidence to back me up, but “I” like to assume, in spite of the ambiguity of ‘le-david’, that King David poured out his heart and soul into (what we now know as) the 23^rd Psalm.

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David was not born to be king of Israel.  He was not part of royal family.  In fact, Saul was the first ever king of Israel and he reigned during David’s life time.  The king was appointed by God.  A prophet of God, Samuel, was instructed by God, to anoint the one whom God had chosen.

When God became displeased with Saul, Samuel received divine guidance to anoint a new king from among the sons of Jesse.

Maybe you know the story (1Sam16) of Jesse parading his seven oldest sons before the prophet who proclaimed that none of them were the one God had chosen.

Are these all of your sons?

There is also the youngest - but he is keeping the sheep.

David - the man who would be king - was a shepherd boy.  It was seen as a small task by his father: too simple for the older boys. 

Maybe it was just his age, or perhaps his father had a low opinion of him, but David was not invited to the feast with Samuel.

And yet, we he was sent for, Samuel knew (at one look) that David was the one whom God had chosen to anoint as king.

It would be many years before David would formally succeed Saul, but the divine decision had been made and sealed with overflowing oil.  David would become a warrior for Saul.  He would defeat enemy after enemy for his king.
Saul’s own son would become David’s best friend.

Before he was acclaimed king, David’s whole life up to that point made him a leader in the eyes of the people and a faithful servant in the eyes of God.

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So, I like to imagine that it was that same shepherd-king who penned the belov`ed words:

לֹא אֶחְסָ יְהוָה רֹעִי

Yah-weh   ro-‘i,

lo’  ’e-chə-sar

God, my shepherd.

I Lack nothing.

The king - the one who guides the nation - the one-time shepherd boy - writes that all he needs is for God to be his shepherd.

I like that.

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As we read the 23^rd Psalm, we are actually witnessing two separate thoughts that have been combined together.  I don’t think it is necessarily the case that two separate poems were joined together by a later editor. 

This psalm may have intentionally combined two streams of thought of its author.

It is easy to see these separate streams of thought.  Most obviously, the Psalm starts off by speaking of God in the third person, and then it suddenly shifts to second person in verse 4 and then ends again in the third person for verse 6.

He makes me lie down becomes your rod and staff and then (at the end) the house of the Lord forever.

Secondly, God is described in two distinct ways during these six short verses: the guiding shepherd and the generous host.

In spite of these differences in content and style, the psalm still works on the whole because these themes seem to belong together.

I shall not want and concludes my cup overflows are not that different. 

It’s the same message - God provides!

The one who guides me through life - in the good and bad - in the safe and dangerous - leads me to a banquet where I find every-flowing grace.

I even like the change of grammatical subjects (from 3^rd to 2^nd person).  Along the journey, God seems distant - as much as rely on the shepherd, there is a disconnect between shepherd and flock, but at the banquet, when we take that seat of honour, it becomes more personal - we are not just following anymore, we are socializing.

God is guide and host.  We progress along the way in the depth of our relationship with God.

I don’t know if that is what David was trying to say using third and second person - or if he just combined two trains of thought and didn’t think to edit the language to make it consistent.  Even if it was an accident or an oversight, it is profound beyond the words - art can be like that; poetry can be like that.

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Psalm 23 is a work of art for the people of God as much as it was a prayer of thanksgiving for a grateful king of ancient Israel.

I think that is part of why it translates well from 1000 BCE to 2015 - even for those of us who have never ranched or never been the guest of honour at a big party.

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We have to assume that Jesus - like all of the faithful people of his culture knew this Psalm of David we have been talking about as well as other similar references in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The metaphor of God as the people’s shepherd is not limited to Psalm 23.

As we heard today, John’s gospel has for us an expanded teaching on the old metaphor - the value of good shepherding - value for the sheep!

We are meant to identify with the flock when Jesus speaks about being the good shepherd who protects the flock - with his own life if necessary.
We are the ones protected by the commitment and grace of Christ!

Jesus invites us to think about the difference between the good shepherd and the hired hand.  I think that is similar to comparing a person who loves their job and believes in the value of what they are doing and another who is just in it for the money (at most).

In our experiences in this world, in our connections with others in workplaces and marketplaces, I am sure we have run into both of these types: the one who cares for something more than
themselves and the one who is only looking out for number one.

Jesus’ audience would have understood that comparison as well, because experiences with selfishness have been part of human history since our species’ first breaths.

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And I am sure that each of us can imagine a situation where - when the wolf arrives - our instinct might be to run as well.  As I was reading Joh 10 this week, I found myself thinking about that Seinfeld episode where George was at a child's birthday party.

Jesus is not George Costanza!

The good shepherd is committed and persistent.

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My father’s generation had a saying - when the going gets tough, the tough get going.  I have to admit that, as a child, I thought that mean that when things got tough, tough people ran away - probably quickly because they were so strong.

But that’s not what the saying means.  It is about persisting through hard times; not giving up just because there is resistance to an easy success.

A generation later - people might have been heard saying; just keep on, keepin’ on.

Time moves forward - and so should we - in spite of obstacles along the way.

Messages like this are still readily available - just search for ‘persistence’ in Google Images and you will find dozens of memes seeking to motivate you to not give up.

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King David controlled the greatest tracks of land Israel had known before his time.  He commanded strong armies.  But he realized that this is not enough - maybe even irrelevant.  David sang about God guiding and leading him through dark valleys - so dark it is as if he is enveloped in death’s shadow.

The psalm’s melody invites us to trust that we are not alone, whether it be by the still waters and lush fields or in the dark valley in the midst of enemies.

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The promise David shared was that, we are of deep value to our God - that we are followed and honoured all throughout this life.

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For the early Christians, Jesus was guide and grace as well.  The source of goodness and mercy.

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Each of us live within that legacy and promise.

May we find the courage to proclaim from deepest valley and highest meadow:

We are not alone.

We live in God’s world.

Thanks be to God.

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Let us pray;

God, restore our souls. Lead us on right paths. May your mercy and your goodness be
our companion each and every day. Amen. 

#835VU “Praise to the Lord”

UNLOCKING THE DOOR

April 12, 2015

Easter 2

John 20:19-31

Acts 4:32-35

(prayer)

We are one week past Easter Sunday, right now.  But - in terms of our bible reading - it has only been a matter of a few hours.  It is still Easter day!

So when we hear today’s reading from the gospel of John, we need to appreciate it is the evening of the same day that Peter and John had confirmed (to the rest of the disciples) what Mary Magdalene had told them: that Jesus’ body was missing - that the tomb was empty.  It is the same day that Mary came rushing in again later in the morning and proclaimed that she “had seen the Lord”.  She told them about seeing angels; she told the disciples about meeting Jesus himself outside the tomb after John and Peter had left; how she had assumed he was a gardener - until he spoke her name and she knew it was Jesus.  Mary told them that Jesus said that he “[is] ascending to [his] Father and [their] Father, to [his] God and [their] God.”

All that happened earlier on the same day as what we heard from the second half of John chapter 20 today.

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If you were here last week, I mentioned that (in the various gospel narratives) a belief in resurrection seldom happens right away.  We see that clearly in today’s reading.

It’s even in the first part of chapter 20, which we didn’t read today - but was read as part of the 8:30am service last week.

Belief in Resurrection seems to take time.

So, it is a good thing that - in the calendar of the church year - seven Sundays make up the season of Easter.

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When Mary (and Peter and John) saw the empty tomb, there is no indication that they concluded that Jesus was raised from the dead.

In John, chapter 19, it implies that the disciples had placed Jesus’ body in a nearby tomb hastily on late Friday afternoon because the Sabbath day would begin at sundown and dealing with a dead body on the Sabbath was prohibited by the Torah.
They probably used that tomb without permission.
So, most likely, when Peter, John and Mary saw that the tomb was empty on Sunday morning, instead of resurrection, they believed that someone had discovered that they had highjacked the tomb and took Jesus’ lifeless body away.

Mary was certainly grieving Jesus’ unexpected death but the indignity shown to his corpse had Mary in tears.  When John and Peter left the tomb, Mary stayed nearby and cried.  Maybe, she couldn’t bring herself to leave... just yet.

I have seen this dozens of times at cemetery services.  It is hard for some people to walk away.

The next thing that the gospel of John tells us happened is that Mary took another look in the tomb and saw (what the text calls) ‘two angels in white’ but whom Mary doesn’t seem to treat
in anyway special. 

They ask her, “why are you weeping?”  And she tells them about the fact that someone has “taken away [her] Lord, and [she does] not know where they have laid him”.

Then Mary turns away from the tomb and sees someone else standing there - the gardener, she assumes.  He says the same thing the angels did (why are you weeping?) and she responds the same way (my Lord has been taken away but I not know where they have laid him).  She goes on and asks the gardener directly “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away”.

But it was not a gardener, it was Jesus… raised.

And Mary ran back to the disciples with her belief in resurrection: “I have seen the Lord”.

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But… it doesn’t appear that Mary’s faith was contagious.  It may have been - as the gospel of Luke reports - that the others thought it was just an “idle tale”.  If they did have some spark of new faith, it certainly was weaker than the fear they had that the authorities might still be coming after them. 

On the evening of the same day that they had discovered an empty tomb and the same day that Mary had proclaimed that she had seen the Lord, the group of Jesus’ followers we hiding behind locked doors.

Even Peter, who had once confessed that he thought that Jesus was the Messiah, was having difficulty believing that this meant anything now that Jesus was dead. 

All of their hope and promise was tied to the life of Jesus.
In the shadow of Jesus' death, there was only room for a skeptical fear.

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Jesus' disciples were afraid, huddled behind locked doors.  And… Jesus came and stood among them.  He said “Peace be with you” and he showed them [the crucifixion wounds on] his hands and his side.  It is at that point that the disciples shared in Mary’s joy from earlier in the day. 

It was 'then' that they rejoiced, [for] they [too had seen] the Lord. 

Jesus told the disciples to go (as he had) and preach a forgiveness of sin.  He says that this was a divine instruction - God was sending them as God had sent Jesus; they would be filled with the Holy Spirit to do this mission.

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When Thomas returned later in the evening, the group told him what had happened: that they had seen the Lord.  Like they all had doubted when Mary shared that same goodnews earlier, Thomas could not believe any truth in what they were saying on their word alone.  "Unless I see [for myself], I will not believe."

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At this point I imagine God-in-heaven saying "at this rate, this is going to take a long time."

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John's gospel doesn't tell us about anything that might have happened over the next several days.  There is no indication that the disciples took any steps towards living out the new mission the Risen Jesus had given them on Easter evening.

What we do know is that, one week later, on the following Sunday, the disciples' situation was unchanged - they were still in the same place - stilled huddled behind locked doors - presumably still afraid for their own safety.

Jesus appeared again and repeated the words he had said one week earlier: Peace be with you. See the crucifixion wounds on my hands and side.  The text of John 20 doesn't say it explicitly, but let's assume that Jesus also repeated the call to preach a gospel of forgiveness. 

This time Thomas was there.   And - as it was for the others - seeing was believing.

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I may be reading too much in to the text, but I notice that Thomas' proclamation seems to go further than the others. After Mary and the others had seen Jesus, they proclaimed "I have seen the Lord". 

Nowadays, we tend to use the word Lord (almost exclusively) as a divine title, but it has much broader roots.  It is a title of authority and respect - used for God (yes), but also for people.  Jesus was these people's rabbi, their teacher; he was their leader and master.
Calling him Lord does not mean they saw him as divine.

I have seen the Lord just means I have seen the master.

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It is Thomas who says to Jesus: my Lord and my God.

Good ol' Doubting Thomas may have ended up with a 'deeper faith' sooner than the rest of them.

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I was reading this week that - in Latin - the word for 'believing' is credo (it is where we get the word 'creed' from - a creed is a list of one’s beliefs).  What I read was that behind the word credo (believe) is cor (heart).  Belief and heart are related… at least in word play.

I like that. 

I have often said that faith is more like an emotion than a thought.  "Belief is more than intellectual assent; a person who believes give's one's heart - their whole self to something." (SeasonsFUSION Lent-Easter 2015, pg 128).

In Thomas, we have an example of this - faith in the heart.

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In the end, believing in the resurrection (thinking that Jesus has been raised - either by our own experience or trusting the word of others) is not as significant as what we feel about who the Post-Easter Jesus is. 

What is in our hearts?

Can we, like Thomas, call Jesus, Lord and God? 

Can we feel the presence of a living Messiah, even when the risen Jesus is not present?  An important question because Jesus said to Mary that he was not raised to stay physically with them, but that he would be ascending to God.  Whatever that means it sounds like these resurrection appearances would not last long.

In the end, Mary, Thomas and the others were left with the challenge of whether or not they would unlock those doors at some point and leave the safety of their sanctuary to proclaim God's compassion and mercy - will they live out the mission that their Lord gave them to share God's forgiveness and renewal?

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If we had time, I would have liked to have read John, chapter 21 as well.  In that part of the story, the disciples go back to Galilee, but Peter (at least) does not seem to embrace the new mission.  "I'm going fishing", he says.  He seems more ready to go back to his life before Jesus rather than embrace a new life after Jesus.

You may know the story about Peter - after Jesus had been arrested - denying that he was one of Jesus' followers or that he even knew him. Not just once but three times.

It is never said explicitly, but it is possible that Peter felt unworthy of Jesus' new call.  Instead of continuing to fish for people, he would be a simple fisherman again.

So in John 21... Jesus makes 'the call to preach forgiveness' tangible for Peter.

In a final resurrection appearance in John, Jesus speaks to Peter directly.  A straightforward question: 
"Do you love me?"

"Yes, Lord, you know that love you."

"Then, care for my sheep."

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This question and answer pattern repeats two more times.

Three times, Jesus asks Peter, "do you love me".

Three times, Peter says "yes".

Three times, Jesus says "care for my sheep".

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I know that there are slight variations in the phrasing of each question-and-answer and (in the Greek language of New Testament) that the verb used for love changes the third time the question is asked.  But
setting all that aside, there is an obvious simple significance in what Jesus is doing in this conversation with the one he nicknamed 'The Rock'.

Earlier, Peter had denied Jesus three times.

Now, Peter was given the opportunity to express love for Jesus three times.

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This is confession and assurance.

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And Jesus' response?  'Carry on my work'.

Forgiveness opens to the door to deeper and more meaningful connections.

Peter was being shown the power of forgiveness: the power of relieving someone of a stifling burden so that they are able to embrace a new future.

Knowing what it feels like to receive forgives and renewal, perhaps Jesus was hoping that Peter (and the others) would want to share that goodnews.

The rest is biblical history.

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Jesus calls his followers to be a forgiven and forgiving people.

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In six weeks, when this season of Easter is concluded, we will acknowledge another significant date on church calendar.  
Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem for the Passover festival when he was arrested and killed.  In the first century hebrew calendar fifty days after Passover was the Festival of Weeks - celebrating the spring harvest.  Although 'Weeks' did not draw the huge number of pilgrims that Passover did, it was still a time when people were draw to the temple - to appreciate new life and the first fruits of the land. 

The story goes (as we will hear on May 24th this year), that Jesus' disciples were again together in Jerusalem but this time they were making noise in the streets rather than hiding behind locked doors.
That first Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection (as the Festival of Weeks was also known) is often interpreted as a time of rebirth of the Jesus Movement.  We could say that locked doors were flung open wide and the Church of Jesus Christ emerged.

Somewhere in that 50 days, the compassion, mercy and forgiveness of God re-energized this group of fearful, dejected followers.

We see the impact of this new life in our second reading this morning from a part of Acts, chapter two that immediately follows that Pentecost story.

Forgiveness and acceptance set the tone for life within the early church, where compassion reached beyond a person's individual needs and considered the health of the community as a whole.  Great Grace was known among them.

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Imagine the state of our communities today if this attitude was honoured more deeply.  
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Sometimes, we are told that the flipside of an Acts 2 approach is 'personal responsibility'.  Actually, I see Acts 2 as being all about personal responsibility. Do "I" accept some responsibility for the well-being in of my community?  How do I respond to the great grace in which God envelopes me?

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Jesus begins this mission with his followers with words of reconciliation… “Peace be with you”; in other words: peace be among you; let peace be your context. 

Out of peace comes deeper relationships, where grace can grow and forgives of others (and of one’s self) can lead to a renewal not only of a single soul, but whole communities.

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Let it be so with us.

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Let us pray:

Risen Christ, breathe on us so that we may feel the grace of your peace.  Help us to grow in love for you and others.  Amen.

#154MV “Deep in Our Hearts”

AFTER BEING TOLD

April 5, 2015

Easter Sunday - 10:30am

Mark 16:1-8

1^st Corinthians 15:1-11

(prayer)

If you were part of the early Easter service at 8:30am this morning, please bear with me because I want to lay the ground work for this later service’s ‘message’ with some similar words I was used two hours ago - but you don’t need to start reading your tweets, I will take things in a different direction in a moment or two.

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There is a fair bit of variance between the different gospels.  A few parts of the story of Jesus have been preserved in all four gospels - some things were retold by two or three gospel writers (mostly because they copied from a common source).  Although, in several cases, they disagree on some details.  And there are many parts of our basic story that are unique to only one New Testament writing. 

That does not have to demolish our faith - worried that God is giving us mixed messaged for some reason.  Let us always remember that - although we find holy truth and the touch of God in these ancient writings - they come to us from human hands… with all of the diversity and poetic license that different authors employ.  Even when they share a common source, we can see each writer’s style, theology and worldview in the precise words they choose.

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One of the areas in the gospels where there is a lot of overlap is... in the stories of Jesus’ passion - the Holy Week stories do vary from gospel to gospel, but there is basic narrative that we see over and over.

Especially, when it comes to the discovery of the empty tomb.  They all talk about women going to the tomb early on the Sunday morning and not finding Jesus' body there .  How many women were there, what were their names, why were they going to the tomb, did they see the stone rolled away or just discover it that way?  Those details vary, but they all report that the women found the tomb empty and (in three of the gospels) that they saw a brightly-clad angelic visitor (or two in Luke and John) who told them that Jesus had been risen from the dead and (except in John) to go tell the other disciples that they will see Jesus when they return to home to Galilee.

 It is after the women leave the empty tomb where the real variety in the gospels telling of the Easter story begins.

Each gospel seems to have its own accounts of people encountering the risen Jesus (resurrection appearances).

ÿ  Talking to Mary Magdalene in the garden by the tomb.

ÿ  With two disciples on the road to Emmaus;

ÿ  With his disciples in Jerusalem;

ÿ  On a mountain in Galilee being told to baptize the nations.

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The most unique Easter narrative is also thought (by scholars) to be the first one written down.

Not many people (even regular churchgoers and bible readers) realize that Mark’s gospel originally ended without mentioning any resurrection appearances. 

We know this because archeological discoveries have found versions of Mark that end at chapter 16, verse 8. 

Others have been found with an additional eleven verses that seem to be a short summary of resurrection stories that we can read in the other three gospels.

And there are some discovers that have different verses 9 and 10 from the longer, most familiar ending of Mark.

[okay, 8:30am folk, we’re back on track now]

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This morning, we heard the version of Easter morning from Mark’s gospel that ends without seeing Jesus raised but only being told that He Is Risen.

This brings a challenge into the faith of the followers of Jesus - that existed from the second generation of Christians on:

Can we believe in Jesus’ resurrection if we haven’t seen proof of it for ourselves?

Is it enough to simply be told the message?

I wonder how the early church that read Mark’s original draft of his gospel - So the women went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them.

No story of Jesus appearing to Mary or Cleopas or Peter or Thomas or anyone.  Just an mysterious messenger saying that Jesus was raised and they will see him, but not here.

I wonder how did the church respond to that?

I mean, I am guessing that there were ‘resurrection appearance stories’ floating around.  What about that angelic promise that the disciples would see Jesus risen in Galilee, did that happen?  Why doesn’t the gospel say anything about that?

More so, Mark must have really confused his audience even more with his last line: And the women said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

If they said nothing to anyone, how do we know any of this?

Think about it.  It is an odd detail to add to a story about an event that (obviously) had spread.  I can offer only one guess as to why Mark would include such a confusing statement: that the story they all knew so well was not told by the ones who first heard it.

That must be how it happened.  Why would he make up such an out-of-place detail?

Forget about any story of the Risen Christ being seen for a moment.  Assume the oldest version of Mark is all you have.

The women did not hear the angel’s promise (of a Risen Jesus on his way to Galilee) and then find it inspiring or hopeful or faith developing.  It did not lift the shroud of their grief - it confused them and left them more afraid than ever.

So much so that (for a while at least), they didn’t want to talk about it at all.

After being told, they didn't run out and start preaching that the Lord is Risen.  They were too afraid to know what to believe.

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I had occasion to watch the movie Killing Jesus on the National Geographic channel the other day.  I will openly (and proudly) admit that I am not generally a fan of Amercian political pundit and Fox News Network star, Bill O’Reilly, but I found the movie version of his take on the story of Jesus kind of refreshing - the movie is based on O’Reilly’s novel (which I have not read).

I liked that the movie producers cast a muslim actor to play Jesus - the authenticity of his look and his accent was very good and effective.  I liked that the miracles and healings of Jesus were portrayed not so much as ‘magic’, but as great ‘turns of events’.  The movie (like Mark) did not have any resurrection appearances - it ends with an empty tomb and Peter catching a boat-load of fish - but no Jesus seen in the flesh - not even an angel telling them what happened.

The one thing that disappointed me was the reaction of the disciples in the empty tomb.  When they discovered the linens in the grave without any sign of Jesus’ body, their confused looks only lasted a few seconds before they began to smile and say hallelujah - indicating that they knew Jesus was raised almost instantly.

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As sojo.net pointed out this week: Jesus is on TV a lot these days.  There are conversations being held about what we can say about Easter from an historical and from a faith perspective.

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In spite of Bill O’Reilly’s movie ending, what I get from reading Mark, chapter 16 (ending at verse 8) is that faith in the resurrection does not necessarily happen instantly or easily.

And... it is not like seeing the Risen Christ makes that 100% easier.  Next week, we will read about Jesus appearing directly to his disciples on the first Easter evening and how a week later, they were still huddled behind locked doors too afraid to live out what they might have been beginning to believe.

Earlier this year, I preached about a few curious words in the last section of Matthew’s gospel.  In chapter 28, (which tells about the post-easter Jesus meeting his disciples on a mountain in Galilee) it says that - even there, in the very presence of the Risen Christ - “some doubted”.

Easter faith (from the very beginning) has been a progressive faith more than it is an instant one.

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If that was true for those who were supposedly there and saw and experienced things first hand - how can it be any less true for us - two millennia further down the road.

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The real ‘mark’ (lol) of faith out of today’s gospel reading is going to be defined by 'what can we do' - 'what will we do' - after being told.

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I actually find the reaction of the disciples in Mark's gospel quite encouraging - that it is not unusual or unexpected to have times of confusion -- even fear.

As I said earlier, faith, for most people, is a progressive endeavour.  Confusion can evolve into deeper clarity.

I like the way the early Christian author Paul describes his experience.  When he first heard the Christian gospel, it outraged him.  He saw these followers of a 'Risen Messiah' as corrupters of faith, rather than practitioners of it.  From the book Acts, we are told that Paul enthusiastically helped the Temple authorities round up the so-called Christ-ians.  By his own admission, Paul was a persecutor of the church, not an Apostle.

And yet, he points to key moments where he progressed toward a different belief.  Paul never describes this turn around directly in his letters other than to claim (as we heard from First Corinthians fifteen) that he had his own mysterious experience of the Risen Jesus.

In retrospect, as he writes this letter, Paul sees all of this... as acts of grace from God - his faith (and the ministry he has because of what he believes) is a gift from God.

Paul is sharing his faith with the hope and promise that - by the Grace of God - it might help advance the faith of new generations of believers.

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We have been told.  We may not have seen,  but we have been told that God's love and grace (embodied in Jesus) is not so frail as to be stopped by any moment in time... even a moment of defeat or death.

The love and the grace of God endures beyond all attempts to quell the call to love our neighbours and to erase the lines between the welcomed and the outcast.

Eventually, the terror and amazement that greeting the first Easter morn evolved in a faith that would be shared in city squares and country roads.

Grace can be infectious.

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The last prayer offered at the Good Friday was:

When we cannot see,

when we do not listen,

when we remain silent,

when we harden our hearts,

when we fail to act...

God, you love us still.

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The promise of Easter begins with God's enduring grace and compassion enveloping us, even if we are not quite able to respond in kind.

Hallelujah, for God is patient.

Hallelujah, for God is good.

Hallelujah, for Christ in risen!

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Let us pray:

God of new life, hear our joyful cries of hallelujah, for we need no longer look for you in death, the tomb is empty. We need no longer seek you in the empty tomb, you are alive. We witness you in life: abundant and bountiful life. Hallelujah! Amen.

***OFFERING***