![](3D"ser-0517-09.wec_files/image002.gif")
<=
span
style=3D'mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>
The Easter People
John 15: 9-17 =
I John 5: 1-6
̶=
0;Of all
the Christian festivals, it is the Easter parade that demands the most faith
---pushing you past reverence for creation, through bewilderment at the ide=
a of
a virgin birth, and into the far-fetched and far-reaching idea that death is
not the end. . . . Whatever your religious or nonreligious views, the chanc=
e to
begin again is a compelling idea.”
Appro=
priate
to the day, these words come not from a theologian but a musician --- altho=
ugh
a slightly different kind than those who are sharing their musical gifts wi=
th
us today. They’re from an article written by Bono, the lead singer of=
the
band U2, which appeared on the “op ed” page of the New York Tim=
es
several days after he had attended an Easter Sunday service.
Along=
with
our Health Care Coordinator, Jane Givens, I recently visited a parishioner =
who
was to have surgery the following day and whose physical condition made sur=
gery
a much higher risk than normal. We talked a bit, we shared the 139th Psalm =
that
reminds us there are no places we can go where God is not already there, an=
d we
prayed. Reflecting on that vi=
sit
later in the day, I wondered how someone --- even someone of faith ---
processes the anxiety of knowing this might be their last night on earth and
how the Easter event speaks to them --- the “far-fetched idea” =
that
“death is not the end.” . . .
At Fi=
rst
Baptist Church this week, I attended a gathering of people who have spent t=
ime
in prison and are looking for support in their struggle to change the
life-styles that got them into trouble. Carol Birch from our Outreach Commi=
ttee
has represented our congregation in the development of this new ministry wh=
ere
people from faith communities will be recruited and trained to mentor, in
teams, those returning home from prison.
Befor=
e the
economic crisis mercifully suspended it, the building of prisons and the
incarceration of growing numbers of citizens had become --- to our shame ---
Michigan’s growth industry. There are serious challenges which face
prisoners as they try to make new lives when returning home, and those
challenges can be overwhelming. Among them may be housing, medical and
psychiatric care, even state IDs that have a different kind of picture and
number than the one they’ve recently had. Most of all, of course, is =
the
challenge of finding a job if they have crimes on their ‘record.̵=
7;
It=
217;s
small wonder that so many of them end up back in prison. The mentoring prog=
ram
--- about which you’ll be hearing more in the near future --- is desi=
gned
to give support and encouragement to released prisoners and help them become
successfully reintegrated into the community.
I joi=
ned in a
large circle of mostly strangers there who were telling of their determinat=
ion
to find a new life; the problems they’re confronting along that journ=
ey;
and sometimes the moments of success that can give hope to the others. And I
reflected on ways in which the Easter event might apply to them: what Bono
called the “compelling idea” that there’s a “chance=
to
begin again.”
Easte=
r, of
course, is not just a day; it’s a “season” of the church
year. The readings for this Sixth Sunday of Easter are among those in which=
the
early church was sorting out the implications for them of Jesus’ life=
and
death. Today’s perspective comes from what biblical scholars label the
“Johannine” community of believers who came to know Jesus throu=
gh
the lens of those writings attributed to that disciple whom, we’re to=
ld
in the text, “Jesus loved.”
Relat=
ionships
of love are the theme of today’s readings in both the Gospel and the
pastoral letter of John: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved
you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my lo=
ve,
just as I have kept my Father’s command-ments and abide in his love .=
. . This is my commandment, that you l=
ove one
another as I have loved you.”
Today=
’s
Gospel lesson comes from a chapter which begins with imagery used in our
communion liturgy: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Those
“branches” --- you and I --- have a purpose: we are supposed to
“bear fruit.” In other words, we’re to ‘not just be
good, but be good for something,’ as the saying goes. The kind of love
with which you and I are to love one another can only have its source in the
One who first loved us. As Jesus gave his life for us, we are to model for =
the
world a self-giving love that passionately and persistently seeks the
well-being of others and the wholeness of God’s creation. The biblical
language for that is the Kingdom of Heaven, or of God.
Meno,=
the
Greek verb “to abide,” which is used to describe Jesus’
relationship with his disciples: “abide in me as I abide in you,̶=
1;
is also used to describe the relationship of the vine to the branches, enriching the theological concept =
with
agricultural imagery.
Only =
when
connected to the vine which provides ongoing nourishment from the ‘Gr=
ound
of [all] Being’ in which the vine is rooted are we, the branches, abl=
e to
bear the fruits of love by which the followers of Jesus are to be identifie=
d.
While=
waiting
for the bus to get downtown one morning last week, I suddenly had the gut-l=
evel
feeling that the bus couldn’t arrive soon enough! As I arrived at my =
stop
on Duke Street, there was a loud voice coming from a man more than a block
away. My back was to him but as he got nearer I realized he was yelling
“hey, Duke,” and was probably yelling at me because I was stand=
ing
on the street he thought he was approaching. I also realized that, though it
was only nine in the morning, he sounded very drunk . . . and indeed he was=
! I
thought to myself: “This is going to be an interesting start to my da=
y. .
. . where is that bus????”
A bas=
eball
field is often my point of reference when determining approximate distances,
and as I turned around to face him, home plate to the pitching mound is abo=
ut
all that separated us. He wanted to know if it really was Duke Street he was
approaching, and after that was confirmed he asked which way was north and
which south. I answered that question at least four times in the course of =
our
brief discussion! He graciously offered me a drink of whatever remained in =
the
can he was holding, though the angle at which the can was tilted indicated
there wasn’t much left to share. I thanked him for his offer but told=
him
coffee was my preferred morning drink.
He ma=
y have
been forty, though people who have been unkind to their bodies over a perio=
d of
time often look older than they are. Since “drunk” usually means
unpredictable, I was sizing-up whether he posed a threat. Thankfully, the b=
us
appeared before that could become an issue. My inebriated companion headed
toward a nearby tree and literally collapsed against its trunk. He wished m=
e a
good day as I boarded the bus and I did so to him. . . . I’m guessing
that I had the better day --- although he may have gotten more sleep.
Refle=
cting on
that encounter from the comfort of a bus (that I knew was on Duke Street and
heading north!), I wondered what the drunk gentleman I’d encountered =
had
been like as a kid. What were the social and economic environments in which=
he
was raised. What was his family like? What were the circumstances of life t=
hat
changed a once-innocent and lovable kid into an adult from whom others wish=
to
keep their distance? How did the ‘little boy’ in him get damage=
d,
making him self-destructive and likely destructive of other relationships? =
As
with baseball-referenced estimates of distances, the special ministry I did=
for
many years with young people often provides the perspective from which I can
more readily see the humanity --- indeed the image of God --- in those who
otherwise appear unlovely and even unlovable. We are called to love even th=
ose
who are, in our eyes, the least among our brethren, knowing that God’s
sees with different eyes.
From
today’s passage we know that the early church thought of themselves as
“friends” of Jesus --- the friends for whom Jesus had laid down=
his
life and the friends who would faithfully follow his commandment: that they
love one another as he had loved them.
The C=
hurch
must be humble, however, when dealing with its understanding of God’s
love.
The l=
anguage
of today’s passage sounds more parochial than the more familiar and
inclusive proclamation earlier in John’s gospel that “God so lo=
ved
the world. . . .” Despi=
te
parables and other teachings about who separates the sheep from the goats or
the wheat from the weeds --- and it is not us --- some brands of religion s=
pend
an inordinate amount of fervor espousing their certainty as to whom God lov=
es
and whom God does not love. The world often hears religious leaders telling
their adherents who they should hate rather than who they should love.
It’s no wonder that many choose to keep their distance from instituti=
onal
religion.
We ar=
e,
indeed, to love one another within our faith community. And according to th=
ose
I visit in situations of need, our congregation does a pretty good job of t=
hat
most of the time --- not only through Deacons and Parish Nurses but through
supportive friendships you have developed with one another. We have some wo=
rk
to do in developing more effective ways of showing our love through hospita=
lity
to those who may be new in our midst, but we’re working on that! And =
at
last Wednesday’s “Celebrate the Vision,” Pastor Bill bega=
n a
conversation about ways in which this congregation will need to love and ca=
re
for a new pastor coming into our midst.
As me=
mbers of
his Body, the Church, we do abide in Jesus and he in us. We abide in one
another, as well --- connected like differing parts of a body as the Apostle
Paul describes it in his letter to the Corinthians.
But w=
e also
abide in the world --- in but not of it.&n=
bsp;
That means the love we share here must equip us to carry God’s
love out these doors and put it into practice wherever we go. It means doing
all those things highlighted in Matthew 25: feeding the hungry, clothing the
naked, visiting those who are sick and in prison. It means confronting the
powers of this world with the prophetic demand that justice and peace preva=
il
in all of God’s realm. But developing that vision and ability to do t=
hat
starts here. . . .
Towar=
d the
end of his reflections on Easter, Bono wrote:
I com=
e to
lowly church halls and lofty cathedrals for what reason? I search the
scriptures to what end? To check my head? My heart? No, my soul. For me the=
se
meditations are like a plumb line dropped by a master builder --- to see if=
the
walls are straight or crooked. I check my emotional life with music, my
intellectual life with writing, but religion is where I soul-search.”=
Let u=
s search
our souls and allow ourselves to be prepared to go forth from this place as=
the
Easter people.