Reflections on “Transitions: From Death to Life”; John 20: 1-18; Easter Sunday

 A great day of worship.  the music was terrific.  Almost back to pre-covid numbers worshipping in-person.  On the one hand, not hard to find the theme for Easter Sunday (can I hear you say, "Christ is Risen! he is Risen indeed!).  On the other hand, how do you speak of God's act of resurrection, which in so many ways defies any explanation we can offer?   

“Transitions: From Death to Life”; John 20: 1-18; SAPC, Denton; April 17, 2022; Easter; Richard B. Culp 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[b] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Introduction: As many of you know, we have spent Lent reflecting on transitions in the biblical text and transition in our own lives.

The empty tomb points to the greatest transition in the biblical text and in all of history.

Empty tomb points is about more than a transition,

The empty tombs announces a radical disruption of human history.

How do we characterize what God has done?

The Reformed theologian Karl Barth liked to say that “God has spoken.”

in the empty tomb God speaks

God speaks about our hope.

God speaks about the Ukraine

God speaks about the power to resurrect.

God speaks about brokenness.

God speaks about new life.

God speaks about divisiveness.

Listen to what God says:

move 1: God speaks:   “in the darkness, you will find me and my power to resurrect.”

a.  In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene comes to the bomb, “while it was still dark.”

1.  In the Gospel of Matthew, the day is  “dawning” as the two Mary’s arrive.

2.  In Luke, the women arrive “at dawn.”

3.  In Mark, the women arrive at the tomb “when the sun had risen.”

4. But in John, Easter begins in darkness.  

No glimmer of light.

No glimpse of hope shining through the darkness.

Just darkness.

All the hope,

all the power,

all  the promise of Jesus that had died on the cross, and it is still hidden in the darkness of the morning as Mary arrives.

But in the darkness, Mary finds the stone has been removed.

The darkness of the world cannot thwart the God of resurrection.

b.  During seminary, I spent some time at the Presbyterian church in Sun City, AZ (one of the first older adult communities in the country). I got to spend some time with the founding pastor (Davis Illingsworth).  he told me stories about the church.  

His favorite memory was the first Easter,  They met in a movie theater because they did not have a sanctuary. Good Friday, they finished in the darkened theater.  No light leaking in from the windows.  Total dark.

Easter morning, the theater was still in darkness.  People made their way to the seats.

“I can’t see the lillies”  “Did someone forget to turn on the lights.”

the sat in uncomfortable darkness.  then, the minister announced, “Christ is Risen!” and all the lights came on.

“Now that was an Easter service,” he told me.

b.  You may remember in 2019 the fire that severely damaged the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. 

1.  happened on a Monday. 

2.  not just a Monday, but the Monday of Holy Week.

3.  It seemed an affront to Holy Week.

4.  how could this tragic event take place with Easter about to arrive?

3.  But David Davis notes, “the truth is that fire, destruction, and devastation happen somewhere, someplace, pretty much Every Monday. Every Monday there are folks whose lives are turned upside down, who world is rocked, who are standing knee deep in ashes far way from any Easter morning trumpet blast.” (Journal for Preachers, Vol XLV, Number 3, Easter 2022, David A. Davis, “Easter Preaching in Secular America,” 7).

4. We arrive at the tomb knowing the darkness of the world.

5.  A war and humanitarian crisis continue in Ukraine,

but the tomb is empty.

6.  Your loved one is near death, 

but the tomb is empty.

7.  Your relationship is broken,

but the tomb is empty.

8.  You next step in life seems scary,

but the tomb is empty.

9.  You are desperately seeking something more,

the tomb is empty.

God has spoken - in the darkness, you will discover my power to resurrect.

Move 2:  We also hear God say, “you cannot hang on to the past.”

a.  Mary’s immediate response to discovering th Risen christ standing next to her was to cling to him.

1.  Understandable - he is the one she had been following

he was the one whose teachings had made sense to her

he was the one who had performed miracles before her very eyes.

2. she wants to grab hold of him and hang on for dear life.

Never let him go.

3. she remembers who he was and wants to go back.

back to what she knows.

back to when life seemed safe.

b. But the world has changed.

2. Jesus has been raised from the dead.

3.  she cannot hold Jesus and stop what God is doing in the world.

4.  She has to let go of the resurrected one and follow him into the world doing with God’s power to resurrect.

b.  Sometimes we hang on to the past.

1. We cling to what we know.

2.  Sometimes even the dissatisfaction of what we know seems better than the unknown.

3. But did you notice that when the prophet Isaiah shares the vision for that God is going to “create new heavens and a new earth;”

God immediately announces:  “the former things shall not be remembered”

the past is the way of the cross; the future is the way of resurrection.

the Risen Christ says to Mary, “let go.”

and then “Let’s go” into that future the God of resurrection has for you.

Move 3:   From the empty tomb,  we also hear God say, “You are called to live resurrection.“

a.  God has shown the power to do a new things throughout the history of God’s people.

1. God again and again does a new thing.

2. We hear the prophet Isaiah this morning describing how God was going to do a new thing.

3. the wolf and lamb feed together.  Really?

3. Jesus standing before Mary at the empty tomb might be God’s greatest new thing, but not God’s last new thing.

b.  Jesus sends Mary to tell the others about what she has seen here at the empty tomb.

1.  It is the clarion call to join with him in what is yet to be done.

2.  Our call to participate in resurrection in our world.

c.  The empty tomb gives us the tool by which to examine  our actions - do the words we speak, do the actions we take, reveal the God of resurrection?

1.  Are we giving hope to people?  

Or, are we holding people back?

2. Are we freeing people to do a new thing?  

Or, are we binding them and keeping them down?

3.  Do we act in ways that reveal God’s desire to give new life and do a new thing?

or, are we dragging people down with the past 

4.  Are we living into resurrection power?

or, perpetuating the ways of earthly power that lead oppress and suck the life out of people?

5.  One Great hour of Sharing - those fish;

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Hunger Program

Self-Development of People.

6. no mistake - the special offering we collect on Easter goes to provide support in crises in the world; 

goes to feed the hungry; 

goes to help people transform their lives.

7.  .  Brian Blount, president of Union-Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA calls us to “Live resurrection in the present like you are certain resurrection is coming in the future.  Fight the resurrection fight.” (Journal for Preachers, Vol XLV, Number 3, Easter 2022, David A. Davis, “Easter Preaching in Secular America,” 7).

As we leave the empty tomb and go into the world, a world that desperately needs to be transformed, we are called to be people of the resurrection.

Conclusion:  The resurrected Christ called Mary by name.

The God of resurrection disrupts the world, but also knows you by name.

God speaks.  Are you listening?

Reflections on “Transitions: From Bread and Wine to Body and Blood; I Corinthians 11: 23-26

This sermon was preached at the Maundy Thursday service.  We followed the sermon with communion, as would be expected.  I preached the sermon from the Lord's Table, which meant my sermon notes were waist-level, but the cameras for those livestreaming are at balcony level.  thus, I spent most of the time looking up and not at my notes.  What was preached was not as closely tied to the written text below as it often is.  In fact, I never said the words "transubstantiation" or "anamnesis," so the listeners were spared!

 “Transitions: From Bread and Wine to Body and Blood; I Corinthians 11: 23-26; SAPC, Denton; April 14, 2022; Maundy Thursday; Richard B. Culp 

I Corinthians 11: 23-26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for[a] you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Move 1:  We have been reflecting on transitions during Lent, and will continue that practice through Sunday.

a.  tonight might be the most concrete transition,…sort of

1.  Bread and wine/juice transitioning to body and blood of Christ.

1.  Not a story we make up, but how Jesus describes what is happening that night at the Passover.

2.  not something the disciples could grasp in the moment.

3. maybe even after they saw the resurrected Christ, they still struggled with how to understand the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

b. As we read, the Apostle Paul describing what happened at the Last Supper, we hear the party line of the Christian church on the LoRd’s Supper developing.  

1. Words of instruction that will be repeated from behind this Table for generation after generation.

2.  but, even hearing Paul’s words for the umpteenth time, I think,  “now how exactly does that work.

c. Reformation era led to some differing views on what happens at the Lord’s Table

1. Transubstantiation - Catholic view that somehow in the consecration, the bread and wine still may look like bread and wine, but it is literally the bones of Christ and the blood of Christ.  Christ has come down from heaven to be physically present in the elements of which we partake.

“This is my body, broken for you.  this is my blood, shed for you.”

While we might not be able to make the substance change work, we understand 

2. Some Reformers approached explaining communion  as anamnesis - memory; what we do is just remembering Jesus.

  Jesus saying, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

c. Presbyterian tradition that grows out John Calvin’s reflections - real presence; 

Christ may not come down physically from heaven to be in the bread and wine, but the bread and juice are more than just a trigger by which we remember Christ.    

Christ’s real presence is found at the Table bringing us a means of grace.

Move 2:  All this talk about substance reminds me of a story I shared with the Presbyterian women a few years ago.

Jan Childres, in column in Presbyterian Outlook, 4/5/2010:  “Canadian theologian Stephen Farris tells the story of a young pastor celebrating the Lord's Supper at a new charge for the first time.  The new pastor was an earnest young guy, intent on making good.  He arrived early that morning to prepare the elements. The bread was located easily enough, but the grape juice was nowhere in sight. Finally, with a sigh of relief, he came upon a box of purple powder.  Ah, he thought as he mixed it up with water and poured it out into the little cups , this is the way they do it here.  He set the trays in the fridge and went back to the sanctuary to practice. Ninety minutes later when the deacons arrived to set the table, the young pastor trailed them into the kitchen chatting, getting acquainted, making friends.  As it was that he was standing right there when the trays were pulled out of the fridge – glistening and jiggling in the kitchen light – full of grape Jell-O. 

a.  with all our questions, with all uncertainties, with our lack of complete understanding, we dare to approach our Lord’s table at his invitation.

b.  the table that marks the transition in Christ, who moves from being at table with his disciples in the flesh; to being on the cross dying for us; to being resurrected;  to joining with God in heaven anticipating the heavenly feast that waits for all of us.

c.  Coming to our Lord’s table takes us back, points us to the future, and calls us to act in the moment.

somehow, at this Table the Risen Christ finds us and fills us.  

we cannot fully explain it, but we can remember what God has done in the passover centuries ago for the Israelite, and we can remember Christ’s death and resurrection.

We can look forward to when Christ comes again.

We can meet the Risen Christ, right here.

Amen.

Relfections on "Transitions: Palms to Passion" Luke 19: 28-40 and Luke 22: 39-48 Palm Sunday

In what has become an almost annual tradition, Dr. Patterson and I preached a joint sermon.  We have done it in different ways over the past six years with movement some years, but this time we stayed in the lectern and pulpit.  St.Andrew follows  recent trend of having a Palm/Passion liturgy on Palm Sunday - we start worship with a palm processional and conclude with "stripping" the church and covering the chancel with black.  Although it makes Maundy Thursday seem like we are moving backward in the story, it provides a good opportunity for worshippers to have a "passion" experience, if they are not going to participate in the Good Friday Tenebrae service.  the whole worship service, which began with a palm procession and combined music from the adult, youth and children's choirs, plus handbells and had a Litany of Palm and Passion at the end worked well.

“Transitions: From Palms to Passion”; SAPC, Denton; April 10, 2022; Palm Sunday; Lisa Patterson and Richard B. Culp

Luke 19: 28-40 and Luke 22: 39-48

Richard:  28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

Lisa:  9 He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him.

Richard:  29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 

Lisa:  40 When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”[g] 41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” [[43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]][h] 45 When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”[i]

Richard:  35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,

“Blessed is the king
    who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
    and glory in the highest heaven!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Lisa:  47 While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; 48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?”

Introduction: We continue our Lenten preaching reflections on transitions in the biblical text and transitions in our own lives. 

This week, we explore the transition from palms to passion.

Christ’s journey in these two texts certainly moves from palms to passion, but for the bystanders and followers of Christ’s perspective, the transition might be more like excitement to betrayal.

As Lisa and I read the two scripture lessons in tandem, perhaps you noticed (as you flipped pages back and forth wondering what we were doing) perhaps you noticed how closely related the palm sunday story and the passion story are.  

Excitement to betrayal.  

Lisa:  Palms to passion.

Move 1:  

Lisa:  Richard, what do you think it takes to move from excitement to betrayal, from palms to passion?

Richard:  For those in the crowds  - not much; 

 

They show up for the parade; they experience the excitement of the day; they feel the surge of energy and optimism

 

As the religious and Roman authorities confront Jesus and put him on trial,  the mood of the crowds shifts.  

Just like that.  They show how easy it is to move from excitement to betrayal.

LBP: How would the crowds react to the One leading this parade? They could simply watch as the parade passed by with the unlikely king in the lead. They could turn and walk away. They could celebrate but then move on making no commitment.

 

The crowds were looking for something by attending and some even participating in the parade, because a parade is a spectator sport. It is entertainment. Maybe a moment of relief in a difficult day or life. The parade was pageantry. The crowd could participate – shout Hosannas or lay their cloaks on the road for Jesus, the king. Or the crowds could choose to passively watch Jesus as he and the parade passed them by.

 

I want to share part of an account of Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem from the book, The Last Week, written by Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg. You might have read an excerpt from the same book in our Lenten devotional for today.

 

The authors note that, it is likely “Two processions entered Jerusalem on that day in the year 30. It was the beginning of the week of Passover, the most sacred week of the Jewish year.”  They go on to describe how they imagine the first procession – 

 

It entered the city from the west. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. It was the standard practice of the Roman governors of Judea to be in Jerusalem for the major Jewish festivals. They did so not out of empathetic reverence for the religious devotion of their Jewish subjects, but to be in the city in case there was trouble which there often was, especially at Passover, a festival that celebrated the Jewish people’s liberation from an earlier empire. The procession was a visual display of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. The sounds of the marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. The swirling of dust.

 

the first chapter of the book The Last Week ends this way:  “Two processions entered Jerusalem on that day. The same question, the same alternative, faces those who would be faithful to Jesus today. Which procession are we in? Which procession do we want to be in?” (7) FPC, Troy, Palm Sunday, 2008; disocvered through Lib McGregor, University Presbyterian Church, San Antonio 

 

Lisa For the crowds – from excitement to betrayal.

Richard For Jesus - to move from palms to passion is a bit more challenging; 

When we were talking about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey one year, a confirmand commented to me:  That’s not the first time Jesus rode a donkey.  His first ride was in Mary’s womb when she rode a donkey to Bethlehem.

Now here comes Jesus, riding another donkey, this time  heading to Jerusalem - heading to the cross. 

It is not an easy journey for Jesus.

 we hear him at Gethsemane asking or pleading with God: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me;” 

His sweat drips off him like drops of blood.  To move from plans to passion demands a lot of Jesus.

But he is on the path that began on that donkey ride long ago - the path to become born as God in flesh now leads to Jerusalem, one step closer to redeeming the world.

LBP Our breath prayer awakens us to the reality of Jesus’ journey and our part in it.  “God of celebration and betrayal, do not cast me away.”

Move 2:  

Richard:  We are on a  journey.

 

Lisa: for crowds, it is easy to get off track; to become distracted; they don’t want to miss the excitement or are scared by the coming conflict.

The journey is hard; too often, we do not stay on the journey with Jesus, because we don’t understand the journey or the journey’s destination. The crowds were hoping this king riding an unbroken colt was the one - the one who would liberate them from Roman rule. 

The crowds may have been hoping, that this was the long awaited Messiah. The One who would call the people of God back from where they had been scattered into one people.

They were hoping for, expecting, a king who was coming to rule for them, and they were right…and wrong. 

Richard: Jesus’ journey is less about his being king, and more about his steady, persistent movement toward the cross.

He is intentional about what he is doing, and whether people get it or not, Jesus gets it. 

Remember his words in the garden:  “not my will but yours be done.” An acknowledgment that Jesus understands his path is to do what God desires of him

I heard about a cowboy in West Texas who heard this Palm Sunday story about Jesus riding through the streets of Jerusalem.  

After hearing it, he commented, "Jesus must have had wonderful hands." 

Others did not understand what he was talking about: "What do you mean, ‘he had good hands.”

The cowboy replied:   " If Jesus could sit on a colt on which no person ever  sat, an untried, unbroken animal; if he could soothe it and control it and  guide it while people were shrieking hosannas in its ears, waving the  branches of palm trees in front of its eyes, and throwing down clothes in  front of its feet, Jesus must have had wonderful hands!”

I like that image of Jesus - steadily moving through the streets, not just riding in a parade, but moving toward doing what he came into the world to do - save us.

Lisa:  Jesus is steady and persistent on his journey to the cross. The crowds can’t hang on and, and there is Jesus holding on…reaching out.

 

Richard: “God of celebration and betrayal, do not cast me away.”

Move 3:  When we see we have left the excitement and are in the midst of the betrayal, what do we do?

 

Lisa:  We see we have left the excitement of the parade and are in the midst of betrayal.

 

As Tom Long writes in Christian Century, “To live the Christian life is to assume the pattern of Jesus’ obedience, to allow the phrase “Glory to God! Peace on earth! Good will to all people! to become the drumbeat marking our own steps along the pilgrim way. For Jesus, obedience meant carrying the cross; for most of us, it means lifting a thousand little and daily crosses in the complexities and demands of our many relationships.” (Christian Century, online :Seasons Greetings)

 

As the crowds shout Crucify him! Crucify him! perhaps some stop and wonder – How did I get from hosanna to crucify?

Or better yet – How do I get back?

Richard:  For Jesus - his journey takes him to the cross, so he can get us back; 

Jesus may make his journey to the cross alone as everyone betrays and forsakes him, but he is not thinking about himself.

He is thinking about us.  

We may not know how we can get back from betrayal to excitement, but Jesus does.

He knows that God does not give up on us.

So Jesus comes back for us.

conclusion:  

Lisa:  But where will our journey take us? Will we throw down our cloaks with abandon and weep with grief on Good Friday?

 

Richard:  or will we turn away and hide 

 

Lisa:  or just simply watch as a spectator as others live their lives around us? 

 

Richard:  Excitement to betrayal.

 

Lisa:  We know what Jesus will do.  

Richard:  he will stay on the journey to come and save us.

 

Lisa:  Palms to passion