Allegedly

What follows is a transcript of the emergency meeting of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, Tammuz 15, in the Year of the Consulship of Ocella and Sulla, otherwise counted as 786 Ab Urbe Condita¹ from a recording made on an Uher 5000 reel to reel tape recorder.² Those present were the rulers, elders, scribes in the presence of Annas, the High Priest as well as Jonathan, his son, and Alexander Unknown - all members of high priestly families and respectable men.

Elder 1: (Speaking to the detainees – by name Peter and John, and including the formerly crippled man) By what power and what name have you done this?

Peter: Rulers of th…

Elder 2: I’m sorry to interrupt…

Elder 1: Yes? Yes?

Elder 2: But what is the question under discussion here this morning?

Elder 1: What?

Elder 2: Is it the question of the healing of the crippled man…

Scribe 1: Alleged healing…

Elder 2: Yes. Alleged healing. Or is it the question of their heretical doctrine, namely the resurrection of the dead?

Scribe 2: Alleged resurrection.

Elder 2: Yes. Alleged Resurrection.

Elder 1: What?

Peter: Rulers of th…

Elder 1: The detainee will keep silent until he has been addressed. Now, what is the question?

Elder 2: Exactly.

Elder 1: What?

Elder 2: What is the question to be addressed here this morning? Is it the healing… alleged healing, or is the question of the questionable doctrine of the alleged resurrection?

Elder 1: What does it matter? We’re not here for questions; we’re here for answers. Now (to the detainees again) Why haven’t you answered my question?

Peter: Rulers of th…

Scribe 2: Could we have the question repeated for the record?

Scribe 1: I believe it was, “By what power and what name have you done this?”

Elder 1: Yes. Yes. That was it. By what power and by what name? And we are still waiting for an answer.

Peter: Rulers of th…

Scribe 2: Could you speak up? So we can hear your words and record your answer.

Elder 2: Yes. Do speak up.

Peter: Rulers of the people and elders! If you are questioning us about an act of kindness…

Scribe 1: Alleged act of kindness.

Peter: If you are questioning us about an act of kindness to a crippled old man, if you’re asking us how he was healed, then you all should know, that it was in the name and authority of Jesus of Nazareth – whom you crucified …

Scribe 2: Allegedly

Peter: …. and whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands on his own two feet before you today. Of all the given names in this world given to men, there is none other by which we can be saved.

The detainees were excused for the moment, sent back to the holding cells still bearing their fetters.

Elder 1: Your excellencies, what are we to do with these men? They are uneducated to be sure, but they are aweless and unafraid.

Ruler 1: Perhaps it is because they are uneducated that they are so audacious; they have not learned the proper respect for our position, or for theirs.

Elder 1: That may be so. We know them to be associates of the criminal Jesus, who was, like them, untrained and uncredentialed.

Elder 2: However that may be, the man has been healed.

Scribe 2: Allegedly.

Elder 2: Oh, lay off. We all know he was. We’ve all seen him in the court of beggars. We’ve seen him lying there for years. And now we’ve seen him standing in front of our eyes. And what is more, it’s obvious to everyone in the city that he’s been healed. These men are exciting the casual inhabitants of the city – the dockworkers, porters, hawkers, costermongers and the like. If we don’t silence them now, then all the bookbinders, clock-winders, and tailors in the city will be talking about this miracle.

Scribe 2: Alleged miracle.

Elder 2: Shut it, you old fool! You just saw him yourself.

Annas: Gentlemen, please. We are losing ourselves here.

Jonathan: Yes, father. You are quite right. Quite right.

Annas: What we want is stop this report from spreading any further.

Elder 2: And again, I am sorry, my lord, but which report is that?

Annas: What?

Elder 2: Are we trying to stop the report of the healing or the report of Jesus’ resurrection.

Scribe 2: Alleged resurrection.

Annas: Oh, for heaven’s sake. Call the detainees back in and warn them in the sternest terms possible not to speak of this or in this name to anyone ever again.

Jonathan: Yes, father. You are quite right. Again, quite right.

The detainees were called in before the members of the Sanhedrin once more and their shackles were removed from their wrists and ankles.

Elder 1: Gentlemen, you are hereby and forthwith ordered to stop all promulgation and proclamation in, of, about, or concerning the name of one Jesus of Nazareth, who was recently hung upon the executioner’s tree in this very city. You will, pursuant to the orders given by this governing body as incorporated under the authority of the emperor in Rome, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, cease and desist from all reckless speech and discourse, both here in the city of Jerusalem, and in the land of Israel and all her territories.

Elder 2: Now, what say you?

Peter: You are the judges, and you will judge what is right and proper. But we have seen what we have seen, and we know what we know. Is it right and proper for us to listen and to obey you, or to obey the voice of our Lord God?

John: We cannot and will not stop proclaiming what we know to be true.

Elder 1: I warn you again, I warn you most sternly: say no more to anyone about this or you will not fail to face the consequences. The next scream you hear may be your own.

John: And what, good sire, would those consequences be? What punishment is proper for the healing of cripples and restoring them to health?

Elder 1: …

Scribe 1: (Whispering) My lord, we have no chastisement we can give for this. I’m not even sure, my lord, if this can be described as a criminal action.

Elder: (to the detainees) Depart. And go with this warning.

The detainees, including the formerly crippled man, were escorted from the building.

Scribe 1: My lord, I forgot to ask earlier, but it’s important for the records: how old was the man who has been miraculously cured?

Scribe 2: Allegedly cured…

1July 2, 33CE 

2By a strange twist of asynchronicity it was the exact same Uher 5000 reel to reel tape recorder used by President Richard Milhous Nixon as part of his White House taping system. It slipped through time and space and wound up in the possession of the High Priest. It's presence in first century Jerusalem remains unexplained.

Cunningly Devised Fables

Oh the rich, dark, irony of the American Evangelical willfully, belligerently following President Donald Trump, the compulsive, serial liar.  "...for we did not follow cunningly devised fables...," they might say. And in this, they would be right. He is anything but cunning or clever...

(2 Peter 1:16)

Biblical Limericks: I Think We Have Time

Peter said the end of all is near,
but you and I, we aren’t ones to fear;
it’s been quite a long spell
so I say, ‘what the hell,
I think we have time to share a beer.’

1 Peter 4: 7

And - if you like the biblical limericks that I've been writing for a couple of years now, take note:  I am working on, and nearly finished with a book length collection of them. I'll have it to my publisher by the end of this month, and it will be available sometime not long after that.

Biblical Limericks: Never Say Never

Peter avowed that, whatsoever
the others might do, he would ever
be firm, no matter what.
And this is noble, but
Peter, you should never say never.

Matthew 26: 33

UnJesus Calls Simon Out

One day as UnJesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the people crowding around him and listening to the words he said, he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything…”

Then UnJesus said, “Really? You worked hard all night and didn’t catch anything? You didn’t catch a single thing? What’s wrong with you? Maybe you weren’t trying hard enough… Maybe you shouldn’t really be a fisherman. Maybe you’re not qualified to fish. You really just need to work harder to prove yourself.

UnLuke 5: 1 – 5

Stephen King Blows the Death of St. Paul

I've been reading (and re-reading) my way through the works, old and new, of Stephen King. I like his books; I like them not in spite of, but precisely for all the schlock and the horror, for all the vulgarity and mayhem. I like them because they are intelligent books, and filled with deep insight and humor.  And hope. There is a good deal of hope in King's horror.

But occasionally good Mr. King blows it.

This morning I'm careening towards the conclusion of one of my favorites, 'Salem's Lot (1975) and find the following (mis)statement:

"It's as old as Macedonia," Father Callahan said, "Hanging the body of your enemy or betrayer upside down so that his head faces earth instead of heaven. St. Paul was crucified that way, on an X-shaped cross with his legs broken." (332)

Whoooops!

According to Christian tradition, St. Paul was tortured and then beheaded. According to the early church historian Eusebius, Paul was killed during the reign of Nero ca. AD 65 - 68. (Eccl. Hist. 2.25.5).  It was St. Peter who, according to tradition, was crucified upside down. And it is St. Andrew who is usually associated with the X-shaped cross.

Biblical Limericks: Dorcas... Giggle

Tabitha’s work no one could surpass,
always helped those of low social class;
when she drank from death’s cup
Peter raised her back up,
but I just laugh at her name: Dorcas.

Acts 9: 36 - 43

Through the Dark, Toward the Dawn (a sermon on John 21)

“I’m going fishing,” Peter said. What else do you do when you’ve lost everything, but go home? What can you do when the way is blocked, the future dark? You go home, back to what you know, or what you knew, or what you thought you knew.  “I’m going back home, back to fishing.”

Peter hadn’t read Thomas Wolfe’s novel or he might have known, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame…back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.” (Wolfe)

You can’t go home again, not really. But who could blame Peter for trying? “I’m going back to fishing, back to what I know, back to where I know or where I knew or where I thought I knew who I was and what I was doing.”

And the others with him: Thomas (the Twin), Nathanael (from Cana), the Thunder Brothers-James and John (the sons of Zebedee) and two others said, “We’ll go with you. What else have we got to do? What have we left to lose?”

Jesus, their rabbi, their teacher, was gone. Jesus, their friend, was dead. Killed in a grisly execution. And the three years that they’d followed him were gone. All that time lost. Wasted. So they went, or tried to go, back home, back to Galilee, back to fishing, back to the smell of the wet wooden boat, and the wind off the water, the smell of leather aprons and the fleshy smell of fresh caught fish. They went back to hands calloused by flaxen nets (Hanson) and muscles sore from the repetitive motion of throwing out and drawing in the heavy sodden nets.

And there on the Sea of Tiberias (an overblown name if ever there was one for that lake, 13 miles long, 8 miles wide and less than 200 feet deep) Peter and his friends spend a long night fishing.  They fished at night because it was cool, and throwing and drawing the nets was hot, sweaty work. They fished at night because that’s when the fish were more active and more easily caught. (Brown 1069)

But perhaps they also went fishing at night because it was dark. Because it was easier to hide. They could hide in the dark out on the lake the same way that they had hid in that closed and locked room in Jerusalem, hiding in fear of the Jews. Hiding because maybe they knew, without having read Thomas Wolfe’s novel, they couldn’t go home again. Maybe they were familiar with the Greek philosopher Heraclitus’ cryptic utterance, “Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers." - No man ever steps in the same river twice; no one ever fishes in the same lake twice. Everything changes.

Would there have been a chorus of “I told you so” greetings from former friends and family members they had left three years prior to follow that itinerant rabbi from Nazareth? Would there have been scorn and mockery? “Here come the ones who thought they would change the world? What happened to all your idealistic talk about peace, and love, and the Kingdom of God?” Would there have been, perhaps, a measure of fear as well?  After all, if their rabbi and master had been arrested and executed as a common criminal, what could be said of these, his followers, skulking back into town?

So Peter and the others went back to what they thought they knew, back to Galilee and back to fishing, back to calloused hands and tired backs and spent the night fishing on the lake in the dark. But, as sure as you can’t go home again, Peter and the others couldn’t go back to fishing. Not really. They fished all night and they caught nothing. Nothing. Not a thing. Each and every time they threw out the net they hauled it back into the boat empty. They blistered their hands and strained their muscles for no reward.

Perhaps it should be noted that we never actually read in any of the four canonical Gospels of the disciples catching any fish except with Jesus’ help. (Brown 1071)

I usually try to refrain from using clichés in my sermons, but sometimes they prove helpful. The proverbial statement that “it’s always darkest before the dawn”[1] isn’t exactly true scientifically; it is darkest at the midpoint between dusk and dawn, when the half of the earth experiencing night time is facing 180° from the sun. It may not be physically true, but it feels right. In a metaphoric, poetic sort of way it is true. Things just can’t seem to get any worse for Peter and the other disciples. Everything is lost and broken; the past is gone and the future is dead. But then comes the dawn. Then comes the light of the rising sun, an appropriate symbol for the risen Lord.

Dawn finds our dejected disciples about to give up. There’s nothing left for them, not even fish. It’s then that they are hailed by a strange figure on the shore, his features obscured by distance and early morning fog. “Boys, you haven’t any fish, have you?”

The disappointed disciples answer, “No.” And the stranger on the shore, a mere one hundred yards away, told them to throw their net on the right side of the boat, that there they would find a large catch of fish. This isn’t necessarily a miracle. It was common practice for fishers on the Sea of Galilee in their boats to use a spotter on the shore to help point out large schools of fish. The disciples, as exhausted as they were, threw the net out one more time, on the right side and, just as the stranger said, they found the fish. The nets were full and straining, but did not rip. They were unable to pull the net into the boat they caught so many fish.

This may not have be a miracle, in the same way that water was turned to wine, or the way the royal official’s son was healed in Capernaum, or the paralytic was healed at Bethsaida, or the crowd was fed on the Galilean hillside. It may not have been a miracle in the way that Jesus walked upon the waves of the sea of Galilee or the blind man was made to see at the Pool of Siloam, but something in this event, something in the unexpected catch of fish triggered in “the disciple that Jesus loved” a sudden recognition: “It is the Lord!”

The risen Jesus is strange and unrecognizable Lord. Even when seen he is unseen, unrecognized. Mary Magdalene in the garden early Easter morning saw him, spoke to him even but did not see him. Not until he called her by name. Then a sudden recognition came to her. And again sometime later, as the disciples prepared to come ashore with nothing in their nets and nothing in their lives, they saw and spoke to the risen Lord, but did not see him. Not until the sudden catch of fish. And even then they’re not really sure.

On the shore they share a meal with the Lord of fresh cooked fish and bread, cooked over a charcoal fire, but even they as they are sitting at his feet, sharing a communal meal with their rabbi, their Lord, they still not quite see him for who he is. This is so strange that none of them dared to ask, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. They saw, but couldn’t see. They knew but couldn’t understand. “They recognize him, but are puzzled and unsure. The Jesus they knew has undergone transformation in becoming the risen Lord” (Brown 1076).

This is how the darkness is broken and dawn blooms over the horizon, how light breaks in and spills over the lake and their lives. It is a sudden recognition, a sudden (but still incomplete) understanding. Jesus meets with his confused and disconsolate disciples with an intimate meal on the lakeshore. They’d shared a meal of bread and fish with him on alongside this lake once before (John 6: 1- 15). He’d shared with them the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven. He’d shared with them the kingdom of God and as he shared that simple meal on the shoreline with them they slowly began to understand.

The light of dawn does not come all at once, it grows in intensity and brilliance till the morning is bright and clear. And an understanding of the Kingdom of God – with peace and joy and confidence – does not come all at once to the disciples (or to us), it grows in intensity and fullness. It comes in fits and starts, with the occasional sudden realization-an a-ha moment (It is the Lord!)-and with slow gradual understanding (They dared not ask him, “Who are you?”).

Moments of darkness and doubt and confusion, long dark nights of the soul when all seems like loss, and waste, and death will be part of our Christian life. This is unavoidable. We will have times when, despite all our effort, we come up empty and unfulfilled. We may want to give up and go home, go back to what we thought we knew, and who we thought we were. But the way (and we are followers of the Way) is forward through the dark, toward the dawn, from loss and despair to renewed joy and comfort in the risen Lord.

  

Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John xiii-xxi: Introduction, Translation and Notes. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc. 1970. Print.

Hanson, K.C. “The Galilean Fishing Economy and the Jesus Tradition.” Biblical Theology Bulletin Vol. 27. 1997.

Wolfe, Thomas. You Can’t Go Home Again. New York: Harper and Row. 1940. Print.

---

[1] Which may go back to Thomas Fuller’s 1650 work A Pisgah Sight of Palestine. 

Biblical Limericks: Ambiguous Pronouns

Peter, do you love me more than these?
Jesus, tell me which do you mean please:
more than disciples true?
or more than they love you?
or more than I love fishing the seas?

John 21:15

Biblical Limericks: Rebuked Him as Satan

He told them he would be forsaken,
rejected, despised, his life taken.
Simon Peter said, “No!
To this end you can’t go.”
But Jesus rebuked him as Satan.

Mark 8: 31 - 33

Biblical Limericks: Noah Was a Jerk

Peter called him a preacher righteous,
but Noah, he seems rather lifeless.
Abram, at least, argued,
would Sodom have rescued;
Noah left the world as detritus.

2 Peter 2: 5

I’m not overly fond of Noah.  God says, “Hey, I’m going to destroy the world.”  And Noah says, “I’m cool with that.”  What a jerk… 

One Ear – Four Sermons

Mark 14: 46 – 49

46 Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. 47 But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 48 Then Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 All of them deserted him and fled. (NRSV)

In the dark of the night, (note that in Mark it’s not a garden; it’s the “place of Gethsemane” (14:32)) the crowd has come to arrest him.  Led by Judas, the crowd sent by the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders (14: 43) has come armed with swords and clubs.  They violently seize Jesus and a melee breaks out!  Bodies are pushing!  Arms are flailing!  A sword is swung – it’s a clumsy attack by “a certain man” it’s unclear who.  But – Mark never uses “bystanders” for the disciples – and the only ones described as having swords in this scene are the members of the arresting crowd.  In the chaos, one of those who has come to arrest Jesus, has cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant.

Jesus stops the fight and criticizes the crowd, “Am I a bandit that you come with swords and club?  You could have arrested me any time in the temple.” And then you can almost hear the sigh of resignation to what he knows is to be his fate, “… ah, but let the scriptures be fulfilled.”

Then all of his disciples desert him.

Matthew 26: 50b - 56
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. 51 Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. (NRSV)

Mark’s unnamed bystander has now become an unnamed “one of those with Jesus.”  One of those who heard Jesus say, “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” (5: 39) now lashes out with violence to resist Jesus’ arrest. 

Yet Jesus stops the violent melee and turns it into a teaching opportunity.  He tells them that he could have called upon the Father to send twelve legions of angels(in post-exilic times it was thought that one could pray for God to send angels to assist in such manners – II Maccabees 15: 22 – 23).  He upbraids the disciples for failing to understand his teachings.  “All who draw the sword will die by the sword.”  And then, as so often the case in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus affirms that this happens to fulfill the scriptures.

 Jesus also criticizes the arresting crowd as well, “Have you come with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit?  And he affirms to them as well that even his arrest fulfills the words of the prophets. 

Then all of his disciples desert him.

Luke 22: 49 – 53
49 When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?” 50 Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? 53 When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!” (NRSV)

In Luke, the disciples are quick to realize that things are turning ugly and they ask Jesus, “Should we strike with the sword?”  Jesus has already spoken to them about swords this evening.  When he sent them out for mission once before they took neither purse, nor bag, nor sword, but tonight he warned them that they should have everything they need: purse, bag, sword.  And they (like us) didn't quite get it (for it is a confusing passage) and said, “Look, here are two swords!” to which Jesus said, “Enough of that!”

Now the moment of violence approaches, “Lord should we strike now” and even before the question is fully out of their mouths one of the disciples (still unnamed) lashes out and strikes off the high priest’s servant’s ear.  Jesus stops the violence, “No more of this!”

In Luke Jesus has been given the power of the Lord to heal (5: 17) and as he does so often in Luke’s gospel, Jesus changes this moment of violence and suffering into a moment of healing.  He touches the servant’s ear and heals him.

Then he castigates the arresting crowd – the chief priests, the officers of the temple police and the elders who had come for him “Have you come with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit?”  But even in this he surrenders himself to them for their hour, and the power of darkness.

John 18: 3 – 11
3 So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” 5 They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.”Jesus replied, “I am he.”Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, “I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.” 10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. 11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” (NRSV)

In John the previously unnamed disciple with the sword now becomes Simon Peter – and the unnamed high priest’s servant now gets a name as well: Malchus.  Peter – who frequently acts first and thinks later (maybe) lashes out with the sword that he has handy (but where has this sword come from?  This is the first time John has mentioned it…) and strikes off Malchus’ ear. 

Jesus commands Peter to put the sword away, put it back in its scabbard.  In John’s gospel Jesus knows what is coming. He seems to know everything. He is not surprised at his arrest.  He’s the one who went out to meet the crowd.  And he will not shrink from drinking the cup that the Father has given him.

Later, Simon Peter will be confronted by a relative of Malchus – but there instead of lashing out to defend Jesus, he will deny ever knowing Jesus.

Biblical Limericks: A Fish Story

In Capernaum Peter was asked,
“Does Jesus pay the two drachma tax?”
Jesus said, “Bring to me
a fish caught in the sea;
he’ll have coin to get them off our backs.”

Matthew 17: 24 - 27

Biblical Limericks: Yeah, I Don’t Understand Him, Either...

Brother Paul writes notes of instruction
that confuse as if t’were their function;
they’re hard to comprehend
and some ignorant men
do distort them and cause destruction. 

2 Peter 2: 15 - 16

Biblical Limericks: No Double Dipping, Jesus!

Jesus brought the meal to a full stop
when word of his betrayal did drop.
Peter, who sat close by,
asked, “Jesus, is it I?”
“It’s the one to whom I give this sop.”

John 13: 21 – 26 (KJV)

A Blessing for Those I Have Offended (And Who Have Offended Me)

I know that I have rubbed people the wrong way. I know that some who read my words are offended, and some of those have been upset and even angered.  And some of those who have been angered have said mean-spirited things, have accused me of lying, of being unable to see reason,  of creating chaos, of delighting in making fun of others, and of generally not being a good person.

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. – 1 Peter 3: 9

May God bless you;
this is my honest prayer
                without (as far as I am able)
                malice, spite, or rancor.
May God bless you.

And when the Spirit moves
may She move through you.

And when Jesus calls
may He call to you.

And when the Father runs
may He run to greet you.

May God bless you;
this is my honest prayer:
May God bless you.


And if that's not to your liking I will (with a wink) steal the Rabbi  from Fiddler on the Roof's blessing for the Tsar.

It Is Good To Be Here, But We Cannot Remain

Today is Transfiguration Sunday.  In the Church liturgical calendar this is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, the last Sunday before the season of Lent which begins on Wednesday – Ash Wednesday.  It marks a transition both in our worship and in the life of Jesus as described by the gospel writers.  The transfiguration of Jesus upon the mountain top marked a turning point, of sorts, in his ministry path.  From that mountain he turned from teaching and healing in Galilee towards the confrontation and rejection he knew he must face in Jerusalem.

In many churches today is the last Sunday until Resurrection Sunday when any “Alleluias” will be sung. Alleluias are ‘put away’ during this season that the church focuses on penitence; they won’t be sung until the Easter morning’s glorious announcement, “He is risen from the dead!”   Transfiguration Sunday is a day of transition, a day of both dazzling displays of blindingly brilliant glory and also a day fraught with the heavy foreshadows of death. 

The story, as we have it in Luke, begins “now about 8 days after this…” - And at this we should begin to take notice, we who have read through the story more than once.  We will know that the eighth day is the resurrection day.  If Jesus was crucified and buried on the day before the Sabbath, and he was in the tomb all during that seventh day’s rest, it was on the 8^th day that he was raised up.  But, we who have read through the story more than once know this.  The disciples who followed Jesus then didn’t yet understand these things.

So, about 8 days after Peter’s confession that Jesus is the “Christ of God,” Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountainside to pray. Neither Mark nor Matthew relates that point in their telling of this story, (and John doesn’t tell this story in his gospel) but Luke does.  Jesus took his friends up the mountain in order to pray.  Prayer is significant in Luke.  In fact, Jesus prays more frequently in Luke’s gospel than the others. 

At his baptism, Jesus prays and the Holy Spirit descends upon him (Luke 3:21-22).  Before Jesus chooses his disciples he spends the entire night in payer.  (Luke 6: 12 – 16) When Peter makes his confession that Jesus is the “Christ of God,” it is after a time of private prayer. (Luke 9: 18 – 20) 

And now, Jesus is taking three of his disciples, three of his closest friends up the side of the mountain to pray.  It isn’t certain which mountain Jesus and his friends were climbing, but according to Christian tradition it was Mount Tabor in lower Galilee - an isolated hill rising abruptly from the surrounding landscape. 

But whether or not it was Mount Tabor or not is not strictly important.   Just as today, Transfiguration Sunday, marks a transition from one Church season to another, mountains are places of transition from the earthly below to the heavenly above.  They are places where one can meet with God, places where one can leave the world of the natural and the mundane and to ascend into very heavens. Jesus is not merely taking his friends on a nature hike so that they can appreciate the splendor and beauty of the landscape below them; he is taking them to a place where they can experience the divine presence away from the cares and troubles of the world below.

And there, atop this holy hill, Jesus prayed.  And as he was praying something happened. His appearance was changed – his face, his clothes were altered.  He was (to borrow a word from Matthew and Mark’s gospel) transfigured.  His face shined.  His robes were dazzling white.  He assumed the appearance of the glory of heaven.  And there were two men with him, speaking to him, Moses and Elijah.

(as an irreverent and irrelevant aside – I’ve always wondered how the disciples recognized them?  Did they recognize Moses and Elijah from their photographs?)

And we who have read through the stories of the bible a time or two are going recognize something here as well, well several somethings, really.  Luke has almost overloaded this story with connections backwards and forwards.  Not only is this mountain a place in which one can move from earth to heaven, but in Luke’s telling of the story it becomes a place to move backwards and forwards through the history of the people of God.

Here in this mountain top experience Jesus meets with two heroes of the faith – men, for the Jewish disciples, Peter, James and John, would have represented the nearly the whole history of their faith – Moses and Elijah,  the messengers of old, representatives of the Law and the Prophets.  And these two men, as well, had experienced their own mountain top encounters with God: Moses on Mount Sinai as he received the tablets of the ten commandments, and Elijah on Mount Horeb where he stood with his cloak pulled over his face as the Lord passed by and spoke to him in that “still small voice.” 

And they were speaking to Jesus about his “departure” that he was to accomplish in Jerusalem- in Greek that is, his “exodus.” As I said, Luke has made this mountain top a place where time and space have become thin.  This place, this event connects both backwards to the exodus in which Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and forward to Jesus’ death in Jerusalem. 

And the disciples?  What of them?  What were they doing during all of this?  They were sleeping.  As Jesus spent the night praying atop the mountain, his disciples, his friends were sleeping – just as they will when Jesus prays atop the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem the night of his arrest.  Time and space are thin atop the mountain the story connects forward and backward.

But Peter and the others awaken enough to notice that something is going on.  They see Jesus’ transfigured appearance, they see him speaking with Moses and Elijah, and they are overwhelmed by the glory of the moment.  And Peter, as he so often did, blurted out without thinking, “Master! It is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses, and one for Elijah…”  Let’s build a shrine here on this very place.  Let’s preserve this very moment in time.  But Peter did not really know what he was saying.

As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and the six of them entered into the cloud – Jesus, Moses, Elijah, and Peter, James and John.   Time and space are almost irrelevant here.  Booths and tents cannot mark or preserve this moment.  In this cloud we are in the presence of God. The cloud that led the people of Israel through the wilderness, the cloud that covered the mountain as Moses met with God, the cloud that settled upon Solomon’ Temple.  We are in the presence of God.  Overshadowed by his presence.  And it is not insignificant that Luke has used the word “overshadowed” here.  It is the same word he used when the Spirit of God overshadowed Mary (and these are the only two times the word is used in the NT.) 

And they were afraid as they entered the cloud.  How could they not be afraid?  They are moving through time and space into the timelessness of God’s presence. Moving out of mere chronos clock time and into kairos .

The Greek language has two words for time, chronos and kairos.  Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time, the tick, tick, tick, of the clock hands one moment following after another.  Kairos signifies a time between, moments of indeterminate time in which something special happens. Chronos is quantitative and measurable.   Kairos is qualitative and cannot be measured or marked or preserved.  It can only be experienced.

“Jesus took John and James and Peter up the mountain in ordinary, daily chronos; during the glory of the Transfiguration they were dwelling in kairos.”  [i]

And there in the timeless they experienced that transcendental oneness with God.  They heard the voice of God speaking to them , “This is my son, my chosen.  Listen to him.”  The voice encouraged them to hear Jesus the same way that they would hear Moses and Elijah, to receive him the same way they would receive the Law and the Prophets.  To follow him as they would those messengers of old.

And they were overwhelmed by this experience.  They were afraid.  How could they not been afraid?  When it was all over they told no one about it? How could they?  Kairos time isn’t quantifiable, isn’t measurable.  It must be experienced.  And those who have not shared the experience will not be able to understand.  How could they have told anyone about the things they heard and the things they saw?  They barely understood them themselves.  It wasn’t until after Jesus’ resurrection that they were able to put words to the experience.

“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”  (2 Peter 1: 16 – 18)

But those moments of kairos time are fleeting.  We cannot live in them.  The regularity of Chronos reasserts itself and we are brought back into the ‘real world.’   We cannot stay on the mountain.  The cloud dispersed and Peter and James and John were alone with Jesus again.  And he led them back down the mountain into the cares and concerns of the world. 

Almost immediately he was mobbed by the crowd and by the man, desperate for his son, and by the feckless disciples.  He and his disciples had just experience that intimate oneness with God, a holy and sacred experience with the Divine, and now he’s confronted by the petty, and suffering, and the obtuse, and the ordinary.  Is it any wonder that Jesus sounds so exasperated when he says to them, “O you unbelieving and perverse generation! How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” (Luke 9:41)

But we cannot stay in those mountain-top experiences.  The world below calls us, needs us.

I think is significant, also, that the two men who spoke with Jesus in that experience were great leaders of unfinished works.  Moses led the people out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, led them right up to the Promised Land, but died before he could enter it. His work was carried on by Joshua.  And Elijah, the great hero of the Jewish faith did many miracles in Israel, but left his work to his disciple, Elisha, who did twice as many as his teacher. 

So too with Jesus.  He began a great work – but left it for his followers to continue.  We must come down off the mountain to continue that great work – to share the good news of the kingdom of God and to make disciples of all people.

We must come down from the mountain top experiences and face the concerns of this world; we must meet with the father whose son is desperately ill.  We must face the rejection and persecution that must come.  We must move forward through the ordinary and painful experiences – but we can do this because we have been changed.

We have been changed.  We have been transformed, reborn.  We have been altered. In that encounter with God we have been transfigured.  And we carry within us the dazzling display of his glory.  It is this glory that we are to take with us into the world.

It is good for us to be here on the mountain, but we cannot remain. 

---

[i] L’Engle Madeline Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, North Point Press, New York, NY, 1980. Pg. 93

How Many Different Audiences? Preaching from Acts

I’ve been working on my sermon for this Sunday – from Acts 3: 12 – 26.  It seems like a pretty straight-forward kind of text. Peter and John have just healed a man crippled from birth and an excited crowd has gathered around them.  Peter uses the opportunity to tell them that the healing came from faith in Jesus’ name – the same Jesus that they (the crowd) had recently repudiated and handed over to Pilate to be killed.  Peter then called on them to repent so that the times of refreshing could come and led the crowd through the words of the prophets to convince them to repent.

Simple, right?

Well, yes and no.

This is what has struck me:  There are several different audiences submerged in this text – and each different audience may be receiving a different message.

The first and most obvious audience is the crowd – the “Israelites” – those early first century Jews in Jerusalem.  Some of them may have been Jewish pilgrims from far parts of the Empire who’d come to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.  Many of them may have been witnesses to Jesus’ arrest, trial, and execution (that seems to be implied in Peter’s accusations.)  What did Peter’s speech mean to that audience?

The second audience is less obvious; the readers of Luke’s two part work of gospel / acts of the apostles… This is a largely “imaginary” audience.  I say “imaginary” because we really don’t know who they would have been. Were they Jews or Gentiles or both?  Were they in Rome?  We don’t really know.  And so it is difficult to say what Luke might have intended this submerged “imaginary” audience to understand.

The third audience is impossibly unwieldy:  the universal church.  How has the Christian community through the millennia and around the globe understood this text? How has it been used and abused?

The fourth audience is more personal (yet still unwieldy) – what does it mean to me? 

And my fifth (at least fifth, perhaps there are still more) is my congregation.  And this one is, in some sense, imaginary as well.  What do I think, what do I “imagine” that this text will mean to those who will hear me speak on Sunday morning?  As Peter’s words flow through Luke, and church history and commentators and scholars and exegetes and, finally, through my unworthy voice, what will they hear?

The Fear of Easter

Mark 15: 42 – 16: 8


Darkness. It always follows the day. The sun sets slow behind the horizon and the light of day is replaced with twisting shadows and the concealing darkness of night.  Darkness always follows the day.

The Sabbath had ended at sunset.  It was now early morning.  Still dark.  Three women went out into the darkness to purchase aromatic oils for the anointing of the body of Jesus, the one they had thought to be the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God. Mary of Magdala, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome donned their cloaks and gathered their purses and went out into that darkness. And even though the moon was full and stars filled the sky, the streets were draped in obscuring shadows. Strains of conversation and shots of laughter drifted out of windows as they hurried the city.

The events of the past weeks and months and years played over and again in their minds as they walked those gloomy streets. There had been so much conflict in the life of this one who preached peace. So much strife. And all for what? A criminal’s death. Made an example of what happens to those who stir up trouble. So much conflict. So much pain.

He struggled his whole life. He struggled against evil. He struggled against misunderstanding. He struggled against those who would misunderstand his mission. His three years of teaching were filled with one confrontation after another, his final week a blur of angry shouts, and it all ended with his brutal and violent death.

“You [God] will keep him in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” So said the prophet Isaiah (26:3) Is this peace. Is this Shalom?  His life and death were painful toil; is this perfect peace?

After Jesus' death, Joseph of Arimathea went boldly before Pilate to request the body. It was customary for the bodies of crucified criminals to hang on the cross until decay set in – as a gruesome example to others. Their bodies, or what was left of them, were then flung to the ground to be devoured by vultures and wil dogs.  Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus had expired so quickly. Death did not come swiftly to those on the cross, but when the centurion confirmed that Jesus was indeed dead, Pilate gave the body to Joseph who laid it in a tomb and rolled a large stone over the entrance.

There, the body of Jesus lay wrapped in a linen shroud. A prisoner to death. Shackled by the grave.

In the darkness the women entered the garden to find the tomb, and the body of Jesus. But they hadn’t thought this through.  As they passed some of the other tombs they realized they would be unable to anoint the body – for they would not beable to roll away the large stone that sealed the tomb's entrance.

Who will roll it away for us? They asked each other. They walked on through the darkness; their eyes downcast, their hearts broken.

Perhaps they could have asked the disciples, but those men had all fled the scene. They were faithful to follow Jesus during his life, but were unable to come to terms with his death. They abandoned their fallen leader.

As the women rounded the final bend of the garden path their feet slowed to a stop. And very slowly they looked up.

The stone. The very large stone had been rolled away. Someone had already rolled the stone away from the entrance of the grave. In fear the women ran inside the tomb – not noticing that the sun had begun to rise.

Inside the cavern they found the unexpected. Instead of the dead and wrapped corpse of of thier murdered teacher, they found a young man dressed in white.


“Stop being afraid,” he said, “there is no need for amazement.
You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth; who was crucified.
He is risen… He is not here!
Look, See! Here is the place where they laid his body.
But you must go and tell his disciples
          and Peter
he is going ahead of you to Galilee, that is where you will see him.”

Turning, they stumbled up out of the tomb, pushing and shoving, trembling and shaking, and  they ran away. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were terrified.

And that’s where Mark stopped writing his gospel. The verses that follow (9-20) are not found in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the good news of Mark, but were rather, later additions, possibly by someone uncomfortable with the abrupt ending – “they were afraid” (in Greek - ephobounto gar)

Some good news, right?   Jesus leads a life of conflict and confrontation.  He is killed.  And he is abandoned by all of his followers.  How is this gospel?  How is this good news?

Mark’s audience knew terror, and they knew fear. They lived in a time of increasing conflict between governments, increasing conflict between religions, increasing violence, and increasing death.  The final brief sentence of Mark “For they were afraid…” is a summery of the very emotional context that produced the writing of Mark’s gospel.

Perhaps they were tempted to abandon the faith. Perhaps some already had. They lived in terror. They lived in fear. They lived in darkness.

If the original readers were startled by Marks’ abrupt ending, and his lack of resurrection stories, perhaps it is because they were meant to be terrified. But they would have also known that the ending at verse 8 was not really the end of the story.  Perhaps Mark didn't feel the need to write the ending because he counted on the knowledge of his readers to complete  the story.

But mark’s startling conclusion (or lack of a conclusion) demands a reaction from us. If the “un-ending” of verse 8 bothers us - if the failure of Jesus' closest friends and disciples and the terrified silence of the women disturbs us, it’s because we are to supposed to be disturbed by it.

Silence is inappropriate
Silence is inexcusable.

We no longer need to cringe under the tyrannical rule of death and violence and fear. We are free. Christ was raised up out of the darkness of the grave so that we too, may be raised up from the dead – raised up to eternal life with God the Father, the Creator of all that exists. We cannot be silent about this.

Our focus has often been like that of the women who went through the darkness to the tomb that morning. We have too long focused on the cross, on the death, instead of the resurrection. In our Salvation Army song book we have twice as many songs about the suffering and death and bloody cross as we do the victory of the empty tomb. Have we run away in silence and fear?
The miracle didn’t happen at the cross. Jesus died there, as humans have the habit of doing.
The miracle came on that third day when God raised a dead lifeless body up out of the grave into an everlasting life – breaking the bonds of death, the grave, and sin forever.

We have hope. We are to live in that hope. We are to live knowing that death is not the end, that evil is not the ultimate power. Even though the world around us may be living in the darkness of fear and violence and death and destruction – we who share in Christ's resurrection are to live in hope. Hope should be behind everything we do as Christians.

“In the cross he showed us how we are to bear suffering, in his resurrection he showed us what we are to hope for.” -Saint Augustine

But he rose from the dead
and mounted up the heights of heaven
when the lord had clothed himself with humanity
and had suffered for the sake of the sufferer

and had been bound for the sake of the imprisoned

and had been judged for the sake of the condemned

and buried for the sake of the one who was buried

he rose up from the dead

and cried with a loud voice:

Who is he that contends with me?

Let him stand in opposition to me.

I set the condemned man free

I gave the dead man life

I raised up the one who had been entombed

who is my opponent?

I, he says, am the Christ

I am the one who has destroyed death

and triumphed over the enemy
and trampled Hades underfoot
and bound the strong one

and carried off man to the heights of heaven

I, he says, am the Christ!
          -Melito of Sardis 195 A.D.