The Logic of Love

The scriptures referred to are 1 John 3:16-24.

My granddaughter got a kitten this week. It is very young and just weaned. She kept bringing it toys and I told her that it is a baby and it has just been taken from its mom and siblings and familiar surroundings. So I asked her how she would feel in the same situation. And she said, “Sad. And lonely. And scared.” I said, “Right. So you need to make her feel loved and safe, so she will trust you and come to see you as her mommy and feel a part of the family. Right now, she needs you to just hold her and pet her.”

Life has always been a matter of learning whom to trust and whom not to. A fortunate child has parents he or she can trust. This gives them the confidence to try and to do things, secure in the knowledge that their parents are reliable and have their best interests at heart. But eventually you go into the wider world and find out not everyone can be trusted. And, unfortunately, some kids learn that they can't trust their parents and this also shapes the way they approach the world.

The same principle applies to machines, systems and institutions. People become attached to certain products because of their reliable performance. Some folks have had a system work well for them. Some people have grown up in churches which gave them comfort and inspiration and community and a sense of purpose.

But again not everyone is so fortunate. Somebody said that a computer is the most expensive thing you will ever buy that you just expect not to work right at times. And so some people, having had a bad experience with them, distrust them and avoid using them if they can. Some people have had bad experiences with the justice system or some other branch of government and consequently do not trust them. Some people have had bad experiences with their church and, sadly, do not trust any other church or religious persons in general.

Trust affects behavior. If you trust a friend who recommends a restaurant, you will probably go there for a meal. If you trust an expert, you will take their advice. If you trust a news source, you will believe their reporting on a subject.

So what is crucial is whether the person or system or institution is trustworthy. And we usually determine that on the basis of our experience, our history with them, or with someone or something like them. A person who is burned when investing in one venture may be reluctant to ever invest again. A person dumped by one person they had a relationship with will be wary of entering into another relationship. Now that can be fine if the venture was a scam and you learned the telltale signs of a scam and how to distinguish it from a sound business venture. And if the other person in the relationship was a sociopath or narcissist or abusive, it can be a good thing if you are now able to spot the signs and symptoms of that kind of person and then find someone who does not have a personality disorder.

But often people overgeneralize their experience. People raised in trustworthy environments may be too naive and uncritical when they encounter predatory people and groups. And those who grew up in chaotic circumstances can have a hard time learning to trust others. “Once burned, twice shy,” as the saying goes.

We are seeing this play out in our country and in our world. Scandals and abuses have damaged the trust people have in government and other institutions. So we have a lot of people who do not trust the vaccines that have been released. People of color remember the Tuskegee study in which black men with syphilis were told they were being treated but they were not, in order that the course of the disease could be observed. Trust is built up or demolished by the history of a relationship.

Trust is vital to every relationship, from the one with the person you trust to cut your hair properly, and who trusts you to pay them for it, to those you love. It is difficult, if not impossible, to work with someone you don't trust. Because trust affects how you behave with them.

Trust, which is also called faith, is therefore at the heart of our relationship with God. And our history with God shows us we can trust him. It begins with his love for us, demonstrated in the fact that Jesus laid down his life for us. As Paul pointed out, it is rare for someone to give his life for a good man, yet Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:7-8) The whole logic of our passage in 1 John derives from this fact.

You would trust somebody if they merely risked their life for you. If a firefighter went into a burning building, found you and said, “This way!” you would follow him. Jews trusted Gentile friends who hid them from the Nazis during the Holocaust because, if found out, the Gentiles would be sent to the death camps as well. And indeed some, like Corrie Ten Boom and her family, were sent to the camps and some, like her father and sister, died there. The Jews they hid and did not betray were saved, however. You can trust someone who puts their life on the line for you.

Jesus is a unique case in that he did die for us. Usually you would be grateful to such a person but their death would preclude any further relationship. But Jesus rose again and so we can continue our relationship with him and we can trust him more than anyone. Which means when he says that “this is the way to live,” we should follow him.

John is focused on something we see all too often in the church: people who say they believe in Jesus but their actions show that they don't. Not really. And we are not merely talking about those who talk righteously but do wicked things which are explicitly condemned by Jesus. It can also take the form of affirming what Jesus said but not actually doing anything about it. The example John chooses is the person who supposedly is the recipient of God's love but who doesn't do anything practical to help someone in need. If Jesus gave his life for us, it is only appropriate that we his followers give self-sacrificially out of love for others. And in most cases we are not asked to give up our life, just give up stuff in our life to help the lives of others.

“Little children, let us love, not in word and speech, but in truth and action.” Jesus told a parable in which a man asks his 2 sons to go into the vineyard and work. One says, “No,” but later changes his mind and does go. The other says, “Yes,” but doesn't actually go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” asked Jesus. And the answer is the first one. (Matthew 21:28-32) Words are cheap. Proof of love is found in what you do, not what you say.

And yet the church gets very invested in words. It has divided many, many times over words. Not God's Word so much as our words seeking to explain God's Word to our own satisfaction. And, yes, there are parts of the Bible that are difficult to understand. But that shouldn't distract us from the parts that are crystal clear. Like Jesus' commands to love others, including our enemies. Like his command to turn the other cheek and not repay evil with evil. Like his explicit statement that what we do to the less fortunate, to the hungry and thirsty and underdressed and sick and alien and imprisoned, we do to him, for they are his family members. Like the fact that he said the world would be able to identify his disciples by their love for one another, not, you'll notice, by their theology or their politics or denominational labels nor even by being excessively and ostentatiously righteous. In other words, not by the things church people so often think are the mark of the saved.

My mom read the Bible to us at bedtime, but I didn't read it for myself until I was a teen and I read a modern translation. And I was impressed by how often the word “love” appeared in the Bible. 969 times in all its forms, according to openbible.info. That's way more times than the words “holy” (686) or “righteous” (581) or “righteousness” (284) or “pure” (104). Or even “faith” (514). It's not that those things aren't important. But we tend to talk even more about stuff that it is essential not to forget. And God's Word talks about love a lot. Which makes sense since, as it says in 1 John 4:8, “God is love.”

All the other virtues come from love. If you are indifferent to other people, you do not care about justice for them. Or peace. Or forgiveness. Nor do those things matter if you hate other people. But if you love people, you want to see them treated fairly and justly. You want them to be well and live in peace. You are willing to be merciful and forgive them. God loves us and that why he wants those things for us. And why he demands them from us.

Everything follows from the logic of love. And love acts when those we love need action. When your child or your spouse or your best friend needs help, you provide it or find someone who can. You don't stand around mouthing pious platitudes or wishing them well. You act. And that's what John is saying. “Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and in action.”

And again, if you really love someone, you care about the truth. You don't want a doctor lying about your loved one's diagnosis or prognosis. You don't want your loved one to lie either. And you know that if you lie to them it is a betrayal of the trust that upholds your relationship. The truth is not always easy but lies and falsehoods poison relationships.

Another thing that love does is motivate you to help your loved one be the best version of themselves. You want your child to be a good person. You want to be married to a good person. You want to be friends with a good person. So if you see them doing or contemplating destructive or self-destructive actions, you speak to them and encourage them to be better than that. You may even have to be blunt at times, if they don't respond to gentler language. You may love them regardless, but certain actions and words can damage and cripple the relationship and nobody in love wants that.

Ultimately John summarizes it thus: “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.” That is what Jesus requires of us in a nutshell. First, that we should put our trust in the essential nature of Jesus, the Son of God, who is his Anointed One. If God is love, then Jesus is love incarnate, love embodied in a person who is both fully human and fully divine. Jesus both knows and understands what it is like to be human and he can also use his power to help and to save us. And that why we can trust him.

But while we are saved by his grace when we put our trust in him, we are also to reflect his nature in our lives by loving others. If God is love and we are created in the image of God, we are most like God when we love. And the recovery of that image of God in us is a big reason Jesus came to us and did what he did. If we do not love, it would be like Superman discovering his powers and then not using them to help the world, but just using his heat vision to make popcorn. Worse, 1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” A Christian who does not love others is a contradiction in terms.

But who, apart from God, can love everyone? Nobody. Not unless we have God's Spirit living in us and through us. We receive his Spirit at baptism and we are to grow in his Spirit. However, as Paul reveals, one can quench the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) One can ignore his voice and his urging as did Jonah. So we can resist God's Spirit within us. But if we do not obey his commandments, how can we say we are his followers?

If you trust someone who has more knowledge than you, you do what they say. God knows everything, as our passage reminds us. So we do what he says. And he says to put our trust in Jesus and love one another. That's the only thing that will really change the world in the way God wants it to be changed.

People try to change the world with force and intimidation. If those don't succeed they use manipulation and deceit. Those things can change the world but not for the better. One study found that violent movements only succeed ¼ of the time. Non-violent movements succeed twice as often. And as for lies, they are eventually exposed.

We are to show our love in truth and in action. Like the first Christians who showed God's love to the poor (Acts 4:34-35), to the sick and disabled (Acts 5:16; 8:7), to those in prison (Acts 16:22-34) and to people of all races and nations (Acts 8:26-37). The church went on to build hospitals and schools. The abolition movement was begun by Christians as was the civil rights movement. Today churches run homeless shelters and food pantries and literacy programs. Local churches provide space for AA and other support groups. National churches help immigrants get settled. They are often the first to respond to disasters through their relief programs. By acting together, we can fulfill Jesus' words that we will do greater works than his. (John 14:12)

But that doesn't excuse us as individuals from showing love to the people we meet in ways, big and small. Our witness is crucial. We are made in God's image, which Jesus, the very image of God, came to restore. And our goal is to grow and become more Christlike every day. We may be the only Christ some people encounter. And while we may not yet offer a perfect reflection of the God who is love, we should at least not introduce distortions into our reflection of him. We need to be trustworthy and loving.

People, like kittens taken to a new home, can be sad and lonely and scared. They need a place where they feel safe and loved. They need people they can trust and who make them feel a part of the family. And if they find this faith and love they will also find hope—hope of a new life with their loving heavenly Father and his Son who loves them enough to die for them and the Spirit who pours out his love into their hearts for all eternity.

No Conspiracy

The scriptures referred to are 1 John 1:1-2:2 and John 20:19-31.

I just finished watching the HBO documentary Q: Into the Storm about the conspiracy theory that seized the imaginations of so many for the last 3 years. And while the preponderance of evidence is that it was started as a LARP, or Live Action Role Playing game on the internet, before being taken over by a pornography website owner and his son, what is most disturbing is how many people accepted the idea that the world is run by a secret cabal of baby-eating Satanists. As Joseph Uscinski, University of Miami Associate Professor of Political Science, points out, people who believe in one conspiracy theory tend to believe in others. And so Q Anons also bought into other preexisting ideas of certain people pulling the strings behind the curtain of global and national affairs, ideas that came from white supremacy, antisemitism, right wing extremists and Christian heresies. And what is dismaying is how widely this melange of far-out ideas spread. Though it started in the US, Q has followers in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Latin America. It is a worldwide cult.

As someone said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” And with the internet, it can make it all the way around the globe. I like the internet. I use it extensively to check facts and sources, like that quote which I erroneously thought was said by Mark Twain. The website Quote Investigator tracks the original version of the saying to Jonathan Swift in 1710. The internet is a great tool for discovering the truth about something. So it's ironic that Q would drop hints and ambiguities and ask riddles, causing its followers to do the “research” to figure out just what the heck the messages meant. No wonder they pulled in so many disparate and bizarre ideas.

What is upsetting is how many Christians got dragged into it. Many of my colleagues found themselves trying to educate members of their congregations on what the Bible really said, much as medieval bishops had to tell their people that Jews did not eat Christian babies for Passover.

One appeal of conspiracy theories is letting people think they know some big dark secret others don't. Another is they claim to explain what's wrong with society or the world and who's responsible. And it takes contemporary conflicts—between countries or political parties or religious groups or ethnic groups—and turns them into manifestations of a great cosmic war between good and evil. And so those whom the theorists disagree with are cast ultimately as agents of Satan. And that gives those who identify as being on the side of God an excuse to do whatever it takes to root out evildoers.

And unfortunately Christians who see things this way tend to frame events in apocalyptic terms. They see themselves as part of God's army whose job is to fight those on the other side, often literally. Which means they haven't really read the apocalyptic passages in the New Testament very closely. Christians are never shown as or told to be warriors for God. They are commanded only to be witnesses to the gospel of Jesus, and, should it come to that, martyrs. God fights his own battles.

Jesus also lived at a very tense time. His people saw the Gentiles, and especially the Romans, as Satan's agents and some were all too ready to revolt against the empire. Which they did a few decades later—disastrously. So at the beginning of all 3 gospel accounts of his apocalyptic talk, Jesus says not to assume that this is the end of the world. “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginnings of birth pains.” (Mark 13:7-8; cf. Matthew 24:6-8 and Luke 21:9) And as any parent knows, birth pains start long before the actual event.

Jesus is also concerned about people falling for false Messiahs. “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them.” (Luke 21:8; cf. Mark 13:5-6 and Matthew 24:4-5) And “Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or “There he is!' do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:23-24) Jesus, and only Jesus, is the Messiah, as our passage from the gospel of John reminds us. (v. 31)

Written during a time of persecution, the first letter of John seeks to correct problems that churches were having on three essential issues: beliefs, behavior and belonging.

First, John emphasizes that he knows who he is talking about: Jesus. He is speaking as a companion of Christ—“we have heard”...”we have seen with our eyes”...”touched with our hands...” Jesus is not imaginary or an illusion. He calls Jesus “the Word of life.” This harks back to the first few verses of John's gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God....In him was life and the life was the light of mankind...Now the Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” (John 1:1,4, 14) Jesus is the Word, the flesh and blood expression of who God is, the God of life. In his words and actions he revealed the nature of God.

John then reveals the reason for writing his letter: “we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you may also have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” In other words, I am writing this so you can share in our fellowship and in the fellowship between Jesus and his Father. And then he goes on to show just how to do this.

First, we have to recognize that “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” In other words, God is good and true and holy. Darkness hides what is false and what is evil. God does not ask us to deal in evil or spread falsehoods. And anyone who does is not acting in God's name. One interesting thing in the Q documentary is how its followers would try to explain away or ignore predictions that did not come true. The Wikipedia page has a list of some of the major predictions Q got wrong. Why didn't Q being wrong tip people off that it wasn't true?

It turns out people have an amazing ability to not deal with facts that contradict their beliefs. They dismiss or diminish their significance. In fact, studies show that being confronted with facts that challenge your deepest beliefs won't necessarily weaken them but can actually strengthen the hold of such beliefs. I recently ran into a nurse who believed that the vaccine is really an attempt to put a microchip in us. I said, “Why? We already have things that monitor where we are and what we do and say: our cellphones. And we say 'yes' to all of those service agreements that ask if an app can use our camera and microphone and have access to our location and contacts. Why would anyone go to the trouble of creating a fake virus just to accomplish a less easy way of doing those things?” I don't know that I convinced them.

John is especially interested in the contradiction between our beliefs and our behavior. “If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true...” No Christian should be leading a life in which they are deliberately doing what is evil or anything that must be kept in the dark because it goes against what Jesus told us not to do. Part of the reason that less people are identifying as church members these days is because of the exposure of prominent Christians who abused their positions to cover up sexual and financial sins. You'd think they would have heeded Jesus when he said, “Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known. So then whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.” (Luke 12:2-3) And in the information age, every misdeed will appear on every device in the world. It's bad enough when a beloved actor, comedian, writer or filmmaker is exposed as an abuser; how much worse it is when a Christian leader is revealed to be a hypocrite who harmed those they were supposed to help!

John says, “...but if we walk in the light as he is himself in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Sins that are not dealt with disrupt our relationship not only with God but with each other. Because the person has put their own personal concerns and desires over the commandments to love. Remember that Jesus linked the commandments to love God and to love others. Why? Because, as John says later in this letter, “For anyone who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must love his brother and sister.” (1 John 4:20-21) Or as Sister Claire Joy put it, “...love God above all, and then prove it...by loving your neighbor as yourself.”

Of course, in this life we are not perfect, which is why John goes on to say, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Never trust anyone who claims to have never made a mistake or to have never done anything wrong. Every time I see a meme online about never apologizing, never listening to other people's criticisms, or never letting anyone stand in the way of your dream, I feel there should be a disclaimer: “Does not apply to narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths and the arrogant.” The world has suffered too much from people who wouldn't listen to others or take constructive criticism or admit they were wrong. You need to acknowledge your sins. If you don't tell the doctor your symptoms or pretend that nothing is wrong, he can't help you. And if you do not confess your sins to God, he can't help you either. Because it means you either don't trust him enough to admit your sins to him or you don't trust him to forgive them once he hears them.

But next John says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John assures us that he will forgive us our sins and what's more, he will cleanse us from all of them, not just some. Sometimes, when Jesus healed someone, he would say, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5) He never said, “A few or some of your sins are forgiven.” Jesus wants us to be totally well spiritually as well.

John goes on to say, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” Of course, he wants us to avoid spiritually and morally unhealthy thoughts, words and acts, just as a doctor wants you to avoid physically unhealthy habits. But it would be unrealistic to think we will always do that. So he adds, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous...” Jesus is on our side, advocating for our forgiveness and restoration.

And we know he takes our salvation seriously because “...he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins...” Jesus poured his life out on the cross for us. As John says later in the letter, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16) Everything Jesus does demonstrates his love for us. He wants to be in fellowship with us and so we know he is motivated by his love to advocate for us when we fall.

Nor is his love limited. John says, “...he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Remember that the gospel of John famously says, “God so loved the world...” Which means so should we. And we need to spread the good news of that love at every opportune moment.

Which is the opposite of what a conspiracy theory does. It singles out a group or groups of people that are so evil that we must stop them by whatever means necessary. Including extermination. It's what Hitler did. It's what all would-be demagogues do: designate one or more groups as scapegoats and blame everything that is wrong with society on them. Which implies that the favored group is not at fault, or, in other words, without sin, which John says is a lie.

In the passage from Isaiah we read in Holy Week, he says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; every one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) All have gone astray, every one of us. No group, no individual is innocent. We are all in the same boat and we all need God's grace. Yet we are like people on death row pointing fingers at each other. We all need mercy. We all need a pardon. Jesus provided it at great cost and it is free to those who admit they need it.

Yes, there are conspiracies out there. And the reason we know this is because someone in them blabbed! Someone always does. As Ben Franklin said, “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.” Ironically that's one reason we know that the disciples weren't part of a conspiracy. Chuck Colson, Nixon's hatchet man, who came to Christ and started the ministry Prison Fellowship, said this: “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

As John says, we saw him; we heard him; we touched him. We know what we are talking about. We know who we are talking about and with whom we share fellowship. And we know this: that God is love. Not hate. Not blame. Not condemnation. Love. And those who know God love one another and want to spread that love to others. It's not a deep dark secret. It's the good news and it's for everyone.

Life and Death

The scriptures referred to are 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.

Whenever someone tells you we don't need religion because science has the answers, ask them what the scientific consensus definition of life is. Because there isn't one. There are many attempts to come up with one but as it turns out, on this planet alone not every creature fits all of the criteria. The definition has to fit not just animals but plants and fungi and protists, which are neither plant, animal or fungus, plus bacteria. Oh, and it would be nice to determine if viruses are alive or not. And one day what about robots with artificial intelligence? If the person does even a half-way decent job with a scientifically rigorous definition of life, then ask him what consciousness is.

We are not even sure what death is. Is it the cessation of all biological functions? Then what do we make of tardigrades? These creatures, half a millimeter long, are practically the most resilient animals on earth, able to survive on mountaintops and at the bottom of the sea, in mud volcanoes as well as in Antarctica. They can survive extremes in temperature, pressure, lack of air, radiation, and starvation. They can survive in outer space. They have been dehydrated only to be restored to life a decade later. So can you kill a tardigrade? Yes but you really have to work hard at it. Just recently it was found that while they can survive being boiled for an hour, if you keep them in water at 104 degrees for 2 whole days, you can kill them. Well, half of them. However, if you gradually warmed them up in two hour increments, 72% of those who were allowed to acclimate to higher and higher temperatures survived the hot water for longer than 48 hours. Still, though previously thought to live until the death of our sun, it seems that global warming might permanently kill off these nearly indestructible creatures.

But with human beings the differences between life and death are clear, right? Well, what about a person in a coma with a pacemaker keeping their heart going and a respirator keeping them breathing and a feeding tube delivering nutrition? Are they alive? Or has their dying simply been drawn out? But what if a person wasn't hooked up to machines and died? That's permanent, right?

There is a rare medical phenomenon called Lazarus Syndrome, where the heart spontaneously returns to a normal cardiac rhythm after attempts at resuscitation fail. A 66 year old man had a heart attack. They gave him shocks from a defibrillator and chest compressions for 17 minutes before pronouncing him dead. 10 minutes later, the doctor felt a pulse. He was treated and full recovered with no lasting physical or neurological problems. The world record for recovering from clinical death is held by Velma Thomas whose heart stopped 3 times during treatment and was finally declared clinically dead after going without brain activity for 17 hours. 10 minutes after life support was discontinued she revived and recovered.

My point is that the lines between life and death are fuzzy, especially nowadays. But whatever detours our life takes it inevitably leads to death. And in Jesus' day, there was no CPR, nor machines, nor anything we would call effective medical procedures to save your life. If you stopped breathing and/or bled out, you were dead. And if you were whipped, beaten, forced to march a fair distance, then nailed to a piece of wood and hung on a tree for hours, and finally pierced in the heart with a spear, you were definitely dead. If the Romans knew one thing, it was how to make you dead. When Jesus' mutilated body was wrapped in linen, placed in a tomb, and sealed behind a rock door, that should have been the end of him.

It wasn't, of course. And I needn't go over the events of the first Easter; we just read them. What I want to think about are the effects his resurrection had, not only on the disciples but also on the world, right up to today.

The disciples were not fools. They knew Jesus was dead. And the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, didn't say much about resurrection. Yet, aside from the Sadducees, most Jews accepted that everyone would be resurrected on the last day of the present evil age, kicking off the Messianic age. There was no idea that the Messiah would be resurrected, especially not himself alone. So the disciples didn't know what to do with Jesus' teaching about being raised on the third day. It was unprecedented. Which is why they were skeptical about the first reports of his resurrection, just as we would be.

But once they were convinced, by which I mean, once they met the risen Christ, it changed everything for them. Whereas Jesus found them cowering from the authorities in a locked room, when he ascended into heaven, they went out in public and fearlessly proclaimed a unique message. It was all about how Jesus had been executed on a cross but God had raised him from death. And they were eyewitnesses. And the only conclusion to be drawn is, as Peter put it on Pentecost, that “God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36) If there was any question that Jesus was the Messiah, his resurrection dispelled all doubt.

So encountering the risen Jesus gave them courage to spread the word and defy those in power, the same ones that handed Jesus over to Pilate. Peter had chickened out after Jesus' arrest and denied knowing him 3 times. Now Peter couldn't shut up about Jesus. And he did at last die for Christ, many decades after he had told Jesus he would.

And that was probably because he no longer feared death. Nor did the others. Death and the fear of death makes people compliant with the injustices of the world. Why have people endured tyranny, slavery, caste systems, racism, sexism, exploitation of the poor by the powerful, the glorification of war, colonization, all of man's inhumanity to man, if not for the fear of death? People stand by and watch as other people are victimized because they are afraid that if they speak up or do something about it, the same will be happen to them. Anyone who tried to save Jews during the Holocaust was at risk of going to the camps themselves. During the civil rights era here in America, white people who marched with Martin Luther King or tried to sign up black voters were also in danger of being beaten or even killed. And Jesus and his disciples knew the story of how, when Herod the Great died, and the capital of Galilee, Sepphoris, revolted, the Romans came in, destroyed the city and crucified 3000 men. Fear of death kept the Romans in charge. Fear of death keeps injustice going and its perpetrators in power.

But if death is no longer the final word, then what is to hold people back? The disciples preached the good news of how God through Jesus dealt with the evil we unleashed upon the world, reconciled us to himself and overcame the ultimate consequence of evil—death. If you had met a person who had defeated death and who offered to do the same for all who followed him, could you keep that a secret?

This knowledge emboldened generations of Christians to not only proclaim the good news but live out its implications. They were inspired to take care of plague victims and lepers, to free slaves, to shelter Jews under the Nazi regime, and to stand up to oppression. The good news that Jesus frees us from not only sin but the fear of death changed people and they in turn changed the world.

The earliest Christians faced death simply for calling Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords rather than the “divine” emperor. Missionaries took the good news to foreign and warlike tribes despite the dangers. Reformers who recovered the good news stood up to the church at the peak of its political power despite the risk of martyrdom. Christians became abolitionists and were part of the Underground Railroad and defied the Fugitive Slave Act. If death is not permanent but just a phase we pass through on the way to resurrection in a new heaven and a new earth, then the power of death and the power of those who wield it is broken.

The Bible tells us that death is the consequence of sin. We depart from God's way and that separation can become permanent. But God sent Jesus to seek us out and bring us back and end that separation between God and us. And he also ends that separation that sin causes between humans. And by doing that, he restores communities and families.

Not merely fear of death but death itself separates us from those we love. We are still living through a period in which death has taken so many. Covid-19 has killed 2.8 million people worldwide, more than a half a million in the US, making it the 3^rd leading cause of death last year, after heart disease and cancer. And most cruelly it has separated us from our loved ones before death, quarantining them in their last days and hours. Most, like my mother, died without being surrounded by family. Neither my brother nor I was able to be there for her at the end. I am still awaiting the day when it becomes safe for my brother and his family to come down with her cremains so we can give her a proper funeral. I hope I hold up better than when I did the service for my dad.

Jesus' triumph over death not only ends our separation from God but our separation from those who have gone before us. When Jesus healed people he restored them to the community of God's people from which they were separated. A healed leper could once again worship in the temple and embrace friends and family and live with them again. Resurrection is the ultimate in healing and it will restore us to God's people not just in this life but for eternity.

When we talk about someone playing God, we mean that they are deciding matters that can spell life or death for others. We forget that death was not God's original plan for us. He is the God of life, the One who causes all things to be. The Bible says we brought death into the picture. And, indeed, the leading causes of death in the US—heart disease, cancer, lower respiratory disease, stroke and unintentional injury, to which we have to add Covid-19, temporarily we hope—are largely preventable. By reducing obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse and by driving safely, wearing seatbelts, wearing masks, social distancing and getting vaccinated we could easily prevent more than a million deaths each year. Plus in the US we have a much higher rate of homicide than 22 other high income countries. In the first covenant God makes in the Bible, our part is not to shed the blood of people made in God's image. And then when God comes in person to tell us to love one another, we shed his blood. We are not playing God; we are betraying what God intended humans to be.

But there is hope. And that is what today is all about. In Jesus we see that God the lifegiver triumphs over death. In Jesus we see that God the healer undoes the ultimate result of disease. In Jesus we see that God the creator has begun work on his new creation, where mourning and crying and pain and suffering and death are no more. Earthly life is superseded by eternal life. It begins with Jesus and, as C.S. Lewis put it, like a good infection it spreads from him to the disciples, to the Jews, to the Samaritans, to the Gentiles, and finally to the world. But unlike Covid, this infection doesn't come into you uninvited. You must open your heart to it. You must embrace Jesus, not keep him at arm's length. You must breathe in his Spirit. And you want to pass on this good infection, this new life. And some day, soon we hope, we will be able to spread it without all the precautions of this pandemic. Because nothing is too hard for the God who banishes disease and restores health and who brings life even out of death. Jesus said that with God nothing is impossible. And on Easter he proved it. How can we keep such good news to ourselves?

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

It Is Finished

The scriptures referred to are John 19.

We don't get just one single version of Jesus' life in scripture; we get 4, each evangelist noting different details. The first 3 gospels, the synoptics, are nevertheless very similar. John's gospel, the last canonical gospel written, seems consciously to be filling in the details not found in the synoptic gospels. Only John lets us know that before he died, Jesus said, “It is finished.” But even John doesn't tell us what was finished.

And obviously it was important. Crucifixion put the condemned man into a position that made fully expanding his lungs difficult. To get his breath, Jesus would have had to lift himself on his pinioned feet. It was an excruciating way to get a gulp of air. To then spend that precious breath on any speech tells us that this was not an idle utterance.

But what was finished? Jesus' life? No surprise there. Jesus was a dead man already, unable to do anything, except feebly struggle against the inevitable. His life was, for all intents and purposes, over. Why waste his breath stating the obvious?

What was finished? His movement? Again, that seemed a sure thing. Jesus wasn't the first “would-be” Messiah to die, nor would he be the last. As New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out, we know what the followers of failed Messiahs do when their leader dies. Provided they haven't been caught and executed as well, their disciples either latch on to the next candidate for Christ, or retreat back into a quiet private life and never speak of their folly again. Jesus' disciples were cowering behind locked doors. No daring new missionary initiatives were coming out of there. And, anyway, what leader wants to shout to the world that all his efforts have come to naught?

So what was finished?

There is a clue in the word used here. In Greek, Jesus' entire statement is one word. And it means to bring to an end. It could be translated “It is completed.” Whatever was meant to be accomplished by Jesus was done. But what could he have achieved, nailed to the cross like a butterfly pinned to cardboard? All he could do was die.

Maybe that's what he meant. John's gospel says that Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation, the first day of Passover, which began, in Jewish style, the previous evening. The meal featured a lamb, in remembrance of the lamb whose blood on the original Passover was shed to save the Israelites. And as the Passover lamb of every Jew in Jerusalem was spilled to commemorate God liberating the his people from slavery in Egypt, so the blood of the Lamb of God was being poured out to liberate all who put their trust in him from their slavery to sin. As the pascal lamb's blood on the doorposts caused death to pass over God's people, so the blood of Jesus protects us from the second death: eternal separation from God, the source of all goodness.

Is that a lot to read into Jesus' statement, “It is finished?” Look at it this way: the same Greek word was used in business. It was written on a bill when a transaction was completed. In that context, it meant “Paid.” It meant a debt had been totally discharged, that the obligation had been completely satisfied. When Jesus shouted “It is finished,” it meant “It is paid.” It meant the price of our redemption—another financial term—has been paid. It means we are free from our obligation to pay with our lives for what we have done to ourselves and to others. It means we are free to be the people God created us to be.

Really? Why is there still sin, then? Why, if our redemption is accomplished, do we still see people enslaved to self-destructive ways of living? Why, if our salvation is secured, do we still struggle with arrogance, lust, laziness, greed, rage, envy, gluttony and all the other evils that come from our hearts and manifest themselves in how we act toward God, toward our fellow human beings,and toward ourselves?

The Jews of Jesus' day believed that the Messiah would come, end the present evil age and only then inaugurate the kingdom of God. So one day the world as evil; the next all was good.

The problem is that nothing starts that way. We weren't all flying the day after the Wright brothers flew for 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk. But the age of flight had begun. The time when humans couldn't fly was over.

When Edward Jenner first vaccinated an 8 year old boy with cowpox, smallpox did not vanish the next day. But the era when smallpox meant inevitable death and disfigurement was over. Its dominance was broken and today smallpox is eradicated.

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves in the South were legally free. But even after the war, it took African Americans a while to realize they could leave their masters, and to shake off the effects of slavery and make their freedom a fact.

Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God as a seed. It begins small. It seems to die. Its outer shell is breached, a small shoot emerges, and eventually it becomes a huge tree, offering shelter and bearing fruit.

When Jesus died on the cross, it's like the seed was planted. And if you've ever gardened, you know you don't see the results at once. You need faith. But eventually the green shoots break through the dark earth and something new has entered the world and is growing.

Planting time is not harvest time but the winter is over. It is finished. That's what Jesus was shouting about.

The time when we were dead in our sins, frozen by our fears and slaves to our desires—it is finished.

The era when we could say, “I'm helpless to defeat the evils that dominate my life”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “I'm merely the product of my environment or my genes; I cannot act differently”—it is finished.

The epoch when we could say, “That's just the way society is; you can't change people”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “You can't fight city hall; you can't change the system”—it is finished.

The period when we could say, “Doing the right thing is too hard; resisting the tide of evil is futile,”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “One person cannot make a difference; the sacrifices I make will do no good”—it is finished.

The age when we could say, “God is indifferent to our suffering; he doesn't care or understand my pain”—it is finished.

The time when we could say, “God hates me; my life is hopeless; evil always wins; you just have to accept it”—it is finished!

Jesus paid the price for the damage we've done. God has taken the brunt of the harm we've unleashed. The cause of our callousness, our cruelty, our catastrophic separation from God has been crucified with Christ. He has defeated disease, degradation and death. He has taken them, not us, to hell.

That is why Jesus gathered the last ounce of his strength, the last measure of his energy, and forced the muscles of his trembling legs to push up, pulled the muscles of his screaming arms against the nails, scraped his raw back against the rough wood of the cross, to lift his torso, to draw air into his burning lungs, to draw back his cracked and bleeding lips and shout his triumphant “IT IS FINISHED!”

Are we listening? Have we heard? Are we acting on it?

Let us pray:

Lord God, King of the universe, loving heavenly Father,

We stand in awe of the love you displayed in the person of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

We stand aghast at the price he paid for the evil we have done and the evil done on our behalf, for the harmful thoughts we've hatched and the helpful thoughts we've let die, for the destructive words we've released into the world and the constructive words we've been too afraid to utter, for the terrible actions we have done and the wonderful actions we have not.

We stand in humble gratitude at the foot of the cross on which your Son did all that was necessary to establish your kingdom, to plant the seed, to kick off your new creation.

We hear his voice of victory: “It is finished!” We know that we are no longer under the sentence of death, under the domination of sin, under the tyranny of fear. We know that we are free: free to respond to your grace, free to trust in your love, free to become your children and grow into the likeness of your Son.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may act on what we have heard, that we may be fearless in confronting evil, hopeful in reaching out to those still laboring under the mindset of being slaves to sin, and patient in nurturing the seeds of the gospel, the good news of your mercy, self-sacrificial love and transforming power, in ourselves and in the world about us.

Send us out, good Father, to see Jesus in all we meet, to be him to all we encounter, and to bring them into your eternal love and life.

We ask all these things in the name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and through the power of your Holy Spirit, who live and reign with you, Father, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. 

In Remembrance

The scriptures referred to are Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

Every day, under my shirt, I wear a little cross. It is a staurolite, a crystal that naturally forms a cross. They are popularly called fairy crosses. My mom gave it to me and I wear it in memory of her. It is a concrete reminder of her love.

God made us as both spiritual and physical beings. We are, as C.S. Lewis said, amphibians, at home in both realms. The things we used to think were unique about humans—communication, toolmaking, etc.—we share with other animals. What really sets us apart is that the human is the only animal who worships. We have not only physical needs, desires and fears but spiritual ones as well. And we often express our spiritual longings in physical ways. And so God communicates spiritual truths to us in physical ways as well.

We see that in covenants. These were treaties and agreements made in the ancient Near East, usually between a high king or emperor and the vassal kings under him. A covenant was not made but cut. Usually there was a sacrifice. Sometimes sacrificial animals were literally bisected and the parties walked between the halves, symbolically saying, “May this happen to me if I break the covenant.” Incredibly, when God cuts his covenant with Abraham, it is God in the form of smoke and fire who passes between the halves, essentially incurring a self-curse if he doesn't fulfill his covenant.

Covenants were usually celebrated with meals. In today's Old Testament lesson, we read of the first Passover. Each Israelite household was to kill an unblemished lamb, drain the blood, and paint it on the door posts so God would pass over the house during the plague of the death of the first born. The lamb was roasted and eaten with unleavened or flat bread because there would be no time for bread to rise before the Israelites would be told to leave Egypt. The meal became an annual commemoration of the original Passover, when God's people were liberated from slavery and led out of Egypt to the promised land.

In tonight's New Testament reading, Jesus is taking elements of the Passover meal and repurposing them for the new covenant he is inaugurating. By this time though, the lamb was sacrificed at the temple, before being taken home to be roasted and eaten, and its blood was not smeared on the door frame. Also 4 cups of wine were added to the ritual meal. They are said to represent the 4 promises of deliverance that God makes in Exodus 6:6-7. He says, “I will bring out,” “I will deliver,” “I will redeem,” and “I will take you to me as a people.” Some also think the 4 cups might have to do with the Roman custom of drinking as many cups of wine as there were letters in the name of the chief guest. In Hebrew, God's covenant name has 4 letters.

The unleavened bread was called the bread of affliction, by which the Jews identify with the poor and suffering. At this particular Passover, Jesus takes this bread, gives thanks, breaks the bread and gives it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Thus Jesus identifies himself with the least of these, his siblings, the materially and the spiritually impoverished. He came, not as aristocrat but as a poor man, a working man, a man who served the sick and fed the hungry. His body communicates that God has fully become one of us, not metaphorically but literally. And in less than a day his body, like the bread, will be broken.

Then after the supper, he takes the last cup of wine and gives thanks to God using the traditional prayer, “Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu, Melech ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen,” “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.” Then Jesus passes the cup to the disciples, and says, “This is cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” In scripture, wine is sometimes called the “blood of the grape.” (Deuteronomy 32:14) But on this occasion using the word “blood” would have recalled to his disciples the blood of the Passover lamb that protected God's people from death. They would later recall how John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God.” (John 1:29, 36) Indeed in 1 Peter, the readers are reminded that they were ransomed from their empty way of life “by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ.” (1 Peter 1:19)

And just as the yearly celebration of the Passover feast would give Jews who weren't then alive a taste of their ancestors' liberation from slavery, so our celebration of the Lord's Supper communicates in a concrete way God's love extended to us through Jesus' self-sacrificial death. Taking both our spiritual and physical natures into account, the Spirit channels God's grace to us through ordinary things like bread and wine, giving what is physical, meaning and giving what is spiritual, form. He who created our senses speaks through those senses—touch, sight, smell, taste—as we hear the words of Jesus echoing down the millennia: “This is my body, given for you...This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you...Do this in remembrance of me.”

Celebrations of the Eucharist have been going on for the better part of 2000 years. In fact, since the faith has spread to every part of the globe it is probable that at every moment of every day Christians somewhere are continuing to do what Jesus did in an upstairs room on a night like this. In almost every major city, and in many villages and rural communities, in homes, in cathedrals, churches and chapels, in hospitals and nursing homes, in airports, on cruise ships, naval vessels and boats, outdoors in National and State parks and amphitheaters, in camps grounds and trailer parks, in refugee camps and homeless shelters, in workplaces and factories, in schools and universities, people are reciting Jesus' words and sharing bread and wine in remembrance of him. Always and everywhere the body of Christ is nourishing itself on the body and blood of Christ. And in a few minutes it will be our turn to join in.