\nI tried to start writing this
\nsermon on Thursday (my normal sermon writing day). \u00a0This is one of
\nthe challenges of Holy Week: in order to prepare worship services and
\nsermons you have to be out of sync with experiencing it. \u00a0On Thursday
\nwe remember Jesus’ last night with his disciples. \u00a0In Matthew, Mark,
\nand Luke (the \u201csynoptic gospels\u201d), Jesus adds symbolism to the
\nPassover meal during in the Last Supper, which is the model for our
\ncommunion. \u00a0In John, Jesus instead washes the feet of the disciples,
\nmodeling for them the behavior he hoped would define their
\nrelationships after his death: that they would be known by how
\nlovingly they treated each other.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nTruly, I love remembering those
\nstories in Holy Thursday worship. There is a stillness to our
\ncelebrations, a knowing of what will come next, that I suspect
\npervaded the actual night Jesus sat with his disciples, but primarily
\nthere are blessings.\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nOn this Holy Thursday, as I sat
\nto write an Easter sermon, the news was shouting about the \u201cMother
\nof All Bombs\u201d being dropped for the first time in history. \u00a0It was
\na shocking amount of violence. I was still recovering from the shock
\nof not quite a week before when 59 bombs had been dropped, and from
\nthe chemical weapons that had been used days before that on
\ncivilians.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nIt wasn’t just the direct
\nviolence though. \u00a0As I sat to write on Thursday, I was thinking about
\nthe vulnerable people in the world and their struggles. \u00a0Many in this
\nchurch have been actively advocating for the care of our immigrant
\nsisters and brothers, and yet I keep hearing of young families torn
\napart. As many in this church have helped the clean up in Middleburgh
\nafter horrible floods, I was part of the clean up in the Southern
\nTier in 2011. \u00a0The increase in extreme weather has already impacted
\nso many lives, and yet in the midst of this crisis for human life on
\nearth, our country is doing less and less to prevent it. \u00a0Lives
\ncontinued to be lost and impacted by floods and droughts, mudslides
\nand major storms.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThere was more, all piling on
\ntop of each other on Holy Thursday. \u00a0I love our breakfast program and
\nSUSTAIN ministry (I think they embodies the command to be known by
\nhow well we love), but I hate that they are necessary! I’m so
\ngrateful to serve a church willing to discuss white privilege and
\nracism, but I’m sick and tired of white privilege and racism. \u00a0I’m
\ntired of fighting for fair and equal funding for Schenectady city
\nschools, which like most schools with mostly brown and black students
\nin New York gets the short end of the stick. \u00a0I’m exhausted fighting
\nfor LGBTQIA lives in The United Methodist Church, and just annoyed
\nthat homophobia still defines our church at large. \u00a0I am grateful for
\nmy co-teachers in confirmation teaching about sexual harassment this
\nweek, but as we’d reiterated how common it is, I was horrified but it
\nall, all over again. \u00a0That is to say, the pile of problems I was
\nattending to, while trying to write an Easter sermon, was pretty
\nlarge. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThat may explain why on Holy
\nThursday, when I sat to write and I asked myself the question \u201cwhat
\ndoes Easter mean today?\u201d in the depth of my mind I heard a small
\nand terrified voice ask \u201cis even Easter enough<\/i> given the
\nbrokenness of the world?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
It is very hard to write an
\nEaster sermon on Holy Thursday. \u00a0Luckily I had to put it down to go
\nthe Maundy Thursday service we shared with Emmanuel Friedans. \u00a0My
\nroles included reading the story of foot washing from John 13 and to
\ninviting those present to allow me to wash their feet. \u00a0The foot
\nwashing story is the narrative example of the command to the
\ndisciples at the end of chapter: that they would be known by how
\nlovingly they treated each other.
\n It is a defining moment differentiating the ways of the
\nworld from the ways of Jesus.
\n While \u201cimportant\u201d people in the world are served by those said
\nto be \u201cless important\u201d than they are, in the Jesus movement all
\nof us are asked to love and serve each other. Instead of dominating
\nothers, Jesus used his life to support them, and he asked us to
\nfollow in his ways.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nHaving heard the foot washing
\nstory explained when I was 13, \u00a0I desperately wanted to be a part of
\nit! \u00a0It started my call to ministry, this desire to be a part of
\nturning upside down the values of the world and what it looks like to
\nlive a life that matters. \u00a0I wanted to be part of a movement that was
\nknown by how lovingly it treated its own members (and beyond). I was
\ndrawn in. \u00a0Foot washing is one of the stories that grounds me in my
\nfaith. \u00a0So, while in the most hidden parts of my brain I was
\nwondering if Easter was enough, I stood at microphone and the story
\nout loud, and everything clicked back into place. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nSure, things aren’t great right
\nnow, and many of God’s beloved people are hurting. \u00a0Then again,
\nthat’s how it was during Jesus’ time too. \u00a0The vast majority of the
\nJewish people living in Judea and Galilee were struggling to survive.
\n The peasant class was about 95% of the population, and they tended
\nto die young, after a life of hunger and hard labor. \u00a0Families were
\ntorn apart by poverty and debt, because family members were sold into
\nslavery so that the remaining members could eat. Things REALLY
\nweren’t going well for the people, back in Jesus’ day. \u00a0The system
\nexisted to make the rich and powerful more and more wealthy, on the
\nbacks and the lives of the peasants. \u00a0The narrative of the Empire was
\nthat they were the peace bearers, and yet the reality was that they
\nwere the oppressors who kept fighting at a minimum because of the
\npower of their military might, and kept their military mighty by
\npaying them from the profits they reaped from the peasants.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nJesus’ life and ministry was
\nwith the peasants in Galilee (although he did take some side trips to
\nJudea and Samaria). \u00a0He saw the humanity of the peasants, listened to
\nthem and ate with them. \u00a0His healings were for them, and his
\nteachings designed to teach them. \u00a0He was known as a great teacher
\nand healer, but the stories in the gospels also indicate that his was
\na ministry of presence among the people. \u00a0He loved the people with
\nGod’s love for them. He showed them they mattered to him by being
\npresent with them.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe peasants were seen by the
\nEmpire as a means of wealth production, and at the same time as a
\npotential threat to the famous peace. \u00a0They were seen by Jesus as
\nbeloved children of God worth his time, energy, and passion. \u00a0As
\nhis fame grew and his ministry became well known, he continued to
\nspend his time with the people living in poverty. \u00a0His life showed
\nthat the people the Empire found expendable, God finds worthwhile.
\nIt may be that the most powerful piece of the story isn’t in any one
\nof the parables, healings, or teachings, but rather that they
\nhappened primarily among the peasants, reiterating God’s care for
\nall people. \u00a0One of the most significant pieces of Jesus’ ministry
\nwas his presence.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nEach Gospel tells a unique
\nEaster story, and Matthew is no exception. \u00a0The piece of Matthew’s
\nstory that strikes me this year is that he suggests that the women
\ncontinued Jesus’ ministry of presence for Jesus at the end of
\nhis life. They were at his crucifixion (27:55), they were at his
\nburial (27:61), and they were there on Easter morning. \u00a0They held
\nvigil. \u00a0They stayed, even when it was too late. They weren’t there to
\nchange things. \u00a0They were just with him. \u00a0Based on how clear the
\nGospels are about the women being present, I suspect that in
\nretrospect the disciples were grateful to the women for staying and
\nbeing present when they had run away. Jesus wasn’t alone in his death
\nand his body was cared for afterward, because the women continued
\nhis ministry of presence,
\na form of loving Jesus as Jesus had loved them.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nAnd then, in the midst of their \n<\/p>\n \nBoth the angel at the tomb and \n<\/p>\n \nFinally though, there is the \n<\/p>\n \nIt \n<\/p>\n \nThe ah-ha moment I had in Maundy \n<\/p>\n \nThe world, like the Empire of \n<\/p>\n \nEaster is God’s yes to the \n<\/p>\n \nIt doesn’t mean that we can make <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1<\/a>M. 2<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rev. Sara E. Baron<\/p>\n First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n Pronouns: she\/her\/hers<\/p>\n http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n April 16, 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nministry of presence, they are greeted by the angel. \u00a0As if that
\nwasn’t awesome enough, immediately afterward they experience the
\npresence of Jesus again! The NRSV says that Jesus \u201cmet them.\u201d It
\nmeans both that he \u201cjoined\u201d them and \u201caccompanied\u201d them.1<\/sup><\/a>
\n His presence was returned to them, and the Christian story ever
\nsince is that the presence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, has remained
\nwith us.<\/p>\n
\nJesus ask the women to convey to the male disciples that he’ll meet
\nthem again in Galilee. \u00a0This is especially significant. \u00a0First, it
\nreiterates that the presence of Jesus has returned. \u00a0Secondly, when
\nJesus says it he calls the disciples \u201chis brothers.\u201d \u00a0They had
\ndenied and abandoned him, and nothing that they had yet done had
\nchanged that reality. \u00a0They hadn’t repented, or apologized, or shown
\nback up. \u00a0Yet Jesus calls them his brothers, which was an upgrade
\nfrom their previous titles. \u00a0As it often is in the Bible, grace and
\nforgiveness come from God’s nature alone. \u00a0As Eugene Boring says in
\nthe commentary in the New Interpreter’s Bible<\/i>,
\n\u201cThe women become not only missionaries of the resurrection
\nmessage, but also agents of reconciliation.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a>
\nIt would be the words of the women that would call them back together
\nand start the process of the disciples living the ministry of Jesus
\nin the world. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nduplicated message to the disciples about going to GALILEE. \u00a0Why
\nGalilee? \u00a0Jesus was killed in Jerusalem, in Judea, where the final
\nphase of his ministry had occurred. \u00a0He was killed in the place he’d
\nrode into on a donkey, by the authority of those who saw his
\nindictment of the Temple. His body was placed in a tomb in Judea,
\nnear Jerusalem. \u00a0Why were the disciple to meet him back in Galilee?<\/p>\n
\nseems like there are three possible answers. \u00a0First, they were to go
\nback to the people Jesus had been in ministry with and continue the
\nministry of presence among the most vulnerable people. \u00a0(Those in
\nGalilee were even more vulnerable than those in Judea.) \u00a0Secondly,
\nGalilee was more DIVERSE than Judea, and in Matthew Galilee is
\nreferred to as Galilee of the Gentiles (4:15). \u00a0It was home to Jews,
\nand to the Gentiles. \u00a0This is one of Matthew’s references to the
\nuniversality of Jesus’ message, and that Galilee was the place to
\nexpand God’s love beyond its traditional boundaries with the Jews
\ninto all the world. \u00a0Third, and finally, to go back to Galilee was to
\ngo back to the beginning. \u00a0It was home, for Jesus as well as for the
\ndisciples, and it was where his ministry started and grew.
\nEaster marks the transition point, what had once been the ministry of
\nJesus supported by the disciples becomes, on Easter, the ministry of
\nthe disciples supported by Jesus.
\n They go back to Galilee to go back to the beginning and start the
\nstory again, to be God’s presence to the people once again. \u00a0They
\nwent back to continue the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of
\npresence, that the women had held up in the meantime.<\/p>\n
\nThursday worship was really pretty simple. \u00a0It is one I’ve had
\nbefore, even, I just had to remember. \u00a0The brokenness of the world is
\nvery real indeed, and unconscionable things are happening. \u00a0But
\ninstead of negating Easter, the brokenness of the world reminds us
\nof how much we need Easter! \u00a0Easter is, as Marcus Borg puts it,
\n\u201cGod’s yes to the world’s no.\u201d \u00a0Easter affirms the life of
\nJesus, who loved the people and was present to them, and Easter
\naffirms the commandment that the disciples continue his ministry and
\nbe known by how lovingly they treated each other.
\nEaster is the explosion of the ministry of Jesus from one life
\nto many, the expansion of love from one human to many.<\/p>\n
\nold, teaches us things that do harm. \u00a0It teaches us that there isn’t
\nenough for everyone, so we have to compete and we have to hoard. \u00a0The
\nworld teaches us that some lives matter more than other lives, and
\nthat since their isn’t enough we should take care of the lives that
\nmatter first. \u00a0The world teaches us about borders that aren’t allowed
\nto be crossed and separations that aren’t allowed to become
\nconnections. \u00a0The world teaches us to be afraid, and to be careful,
\nand to distrust those around us. \u00a0The world teaches us that the
\neconomy matters most, and keeps us alive. \u00a0The world teaches us to
\ntake care of ourselves and \u201cours\u201d first. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nworld’s no as well as God’s NO to the world’s YES.. \u00a0Easter denies
\nthe world’s fallacies and offers us alternatives. \u00a0Easter is a
\nresounding YES to the life and teachings of Jesus. \u00a0In the Gospel of
\nJohn, Jesus teaches us to be known by how lovingly we treat each
\nother. In \u00a0Easter, the
\nmessage of Jesus is passed on and expanded, given to us to live and
\nteach. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\neverything OK, at least not over the short run. \u00a0It doesn’t stop
\nweapons in in midair, reunite families, or reverse climate change.
\nBut it does mean that we have received the command to be known by
\nlovingly we act, and that being present to God’s beloved people is
\nnow our work (supported by Jesus). \u00a0Doing that will be plenty to
\nchange the world. \u00a0Easter, it turns out, is more than enough. \u00a0Thanks
\nbe to God. \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\n\tEugene Boring, New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VII: Matthew<\/i>
\n\tLeander E. Keck editorial board convener (Nashville: Abingdon Press,
\n\t1995) 500.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n