Koinonia

The Christian doctrine that is least developed in most denominations and most disputed by all branches of the church...is that of the church itself. Obviously the older denominations—the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches—have the most elaborately developed teachings about the church. They depend chiefly on the unbroken line of succession of bishops from the apostles and the preservation of apostolic teaching. Most Protestant churches claim to have rediscovered the true apostolic teachings, in the form of the New Testament writings. The Episcopal church, considering itself both catholic and protestant, claims both apostolic succession and apostolic faith. Through the 1999 agreement Called to Common Mission, this is true of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as well.

There is no way we can in the time allotted comprehensively look as all the various doctrines of what the church is and how it should be. But let's touch on some of the Biblical roots of what the church should do as found in today's reading from Acts. We are looking at the church right after Pentecost. Acts 2:42 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostle's teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.” This is a seminal verse. We are given 4 identifying characteristics of the church. Let's look at each.

We are told that the first converts were devoted to the teachings of the apostles. And what were they? Despite what popular authors say in order to sell books which give different and sensationalistic accounts of what the early church believed, the oldest actual documents are not hard to find. They are the 27 books of the New Testament. True, we also have numerous later books but over the first few hundred years of this era, Christians discussed them all and what we have in the Bible is the firm consensus they reached. The canon of the New Testament was not decided on by Constantine at the Council of Nicea. Rather the council simply ratified what had already been hashed out over the centuries. The so-called “gospels” of Thomas, Judas and all the other touted alternatives weren't even close to getting in. If you want to read the ones that almost made it, google The Shepherd of Hermes (or click here) or the letters of Clement (here) or Barnabas (here).

Throughout Acts, Luke gives us summaries of early apostolic preaching. Scholars have derived from these a basic outline they call the kerygma, which is Greek for the “preaching,” or the “proclamation.” Basically the apostles concentrated on how, in fulfillment of the Old Testament, Jesus died for the world's sins, was resurrected and thereby revealed as Christ and Lord. Those who therefore repent and put their trust in Christ will be forgiven. You see passages in Paul that also mirror this. You can even see how it was incorporated into the creeds. The creeds are really just synopses of the story of the Bible. They evolved from the questions asked of candidates for baptism. They need amplification to be fully understood but they are great summaries of what we believe.

There were ethical teachings, too. Prominent among them were Jesus' teachings to love one another and to be one as he and the Father are one. And so we get to the second characteristic of the early church and the first converts. The Greek word is koinonia and it's usually translated “fellowship.” Sadly, we've taken that word and reduced it to the time we spend eating and chatting after the worship service. That's just a small part of it. For the Greeks koinonia meant a spirit of community that is the opposite of selfishness. So they used it of business partnerships, of marriage and even of the relationship we seek with God. At its heart koinonia means generosity, sharing, participation, partnership with each other, and through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, partnership with God. The church was not just about listening to the sermons of the apostles; they shared—everything.

One of the ways they did so is scandalous to this day. But we will get to that a little later.

The next thing Luke mentions is another manifestation of sharing. From the beginning, the presence of Jesus was known in the breaking of the bread. In the first century, the eucharistic feast was an actual communal meal. But it wasn't merely a potluck. The highlight was the consecrated bread and wine, a sharing of the gifts of God with and among the people of God. Paul wrote, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation (koinonia) in the body of Christ?” According to the Didache, an early church manual, one version of the eucharistic prayer went, in part, “As this piece [of bread] was scattered over the hills [as grain] and then brought together and made one, so let your church be brought together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.” Thus the body of Christ on earth comes together to be nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ and made one with each other and with Jesus.

Finally Luke lists the early church's devotion to prayer. All religions have prayers. How are Christian prayers different? For one thing, we pray through Christ. He is the one mediator between God and humanity. He knows our weaknesses; he has firsthand knowledge of our suffering. He was tempted in all ways as we are and yet did not sin. We do not pray to a God who is utterly unlike us but to one who has the experience of living and dying as one of us. That is a tremendous incentive to pray. It is also a great comfort.

Nor do we pray to a distant God, whom we cannot hope to understand. Because we have the Holy Spirit living in us. Thus we have a deep connection to God, that allows us to communicate with him in ways beyond words. As we said last week, Paul tells us that when we don't know how to pray as we ought to, the Spirit pleads our case with groans or sighs inexpressible by us. We can go to God and know that our inability to articulate what we really mean is not a barrier, for the Spirit of Christ in us is making our deepest feelings known to God.

Participating in the Spirit led to manifestations of koinonia that were new and surprising even then and whose existence bothers us today. I'm not talking about the signs and wonders or speaking in tongues. I'm talking about a different economic model. Acts 2:44-45 says, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Staunch capitalists will not be happy that one of the first things the earliest Christians did was invent communism. Secular communists will probably be uncomfortable that those involved in the “opiate to the masses” invented their system. In fact, Karl Marx was born a Lutheran and some scholars think that Marxism is a materialistic Christian heresy.

This early Christian communism didn't last. Just 3 chapters later, a husband and wife sell some land and lie about giving all the proceeds to the fellowship. Since it was their property to do with as they wished, their sin was not in holding some back but in lying about it and accepting the praise for giving it all to the community. We don't hear of the experiment again. So did this kind of koinonia come from the Spirit or not? If it was, why did it go away? If it wasn't, why was it mentioned at all?

The ephemeral nature of this form of economic sharing leads some to the conclusion that we should ignore it and definitely not emulate it. But that is way too dismissive of something that the Spirit led Luke to include in God's word. Maybe we get too hung up on the specifics of this particular manifestation of Christians participating in a new kind of koinonia. It turns out there are at least 2 lessons we can learn from this.

First, following Jesus should change how we live our lives in practical ways. It seems that this experiment was seen as a way of dealing with the inequalities in the Christian community. Some of these believers had land and goods, and some didn't. The early church obviously considered this a valid Christian way of dealing with poverty. It called for self-sacrifice on the part of the richer Christians. It called for humility on the behalf of the poorer Christians. And it called for tremendous faith in God. There are a lot of so-called Christians whose lives are no different than those of non-Christians. They really don't try to change the world, not even in small ways. But God wants to redeem and renew all of creation. If we are participating in his life, we need to be doing our share in turning the world upside down, which is to say, right side up.

Secondly, God honors efforts to serve him even if we fail in the eyes of the world. If failure is not an option, people won't try anything new. Bureaucracies don't innovate because people are not rewarded for taking risks but they are punished for failing. But if you look in the Bible, you see that God is constantly calling people out of their comfort zones to take bold actions. He calls Abram out of the earliest civilization into a lawless land to start a special nation. God calls Moses, a fugitive, to return to Egypt and lead his people to freedom. God calls a frightened Elijah out of the wilderness with a mission to confront a regime which wants his blood. Some of their efforts do not go according to plan. God promises Abraham a son through his wife Sarah. But after decades of sterility, Sarah tells Abraham to father a child by Hagar, her servant. And though the child is not the one God promised, he nevertheless makes a great nation of Ishmael, too.

Conceived in the aftermath of Pentecost, this small scale communism doesn't continue as a feature of the church but neither is it condemned. It is preserved in the book of Acts as a challenge for us to try new ways of participating in the divine life and manifesting his redemptive love in community.

Because in the final analysis this is what God is working towards; this is why Jesus came: to make us into a new community, created in his image, a community that is fit to work with God to create a new world and to someday rule it under him. In the words of 1 Peter 2:9, which we will read next week, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people....” None of those are reasons to feel superior. We were chosen, yes, but to do this work. Holy in this context simply means set apart for God's purpose. We may be kings and priests but we are also his servants. It is an honor but nothing to brag about. After all, we all started out as rebels, who had to surrender to God, accept his pardon and let him re-create us.

The church is a work in progress. It does not yet fully reflect the glory of God. Some bits of it even seem to be regressing. Too often we try to emulate the world rather than Jesus. Frequently we capitulate to the world rather than change it. We are rife with factions which are more concerned with their own rights than with feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick, visiting those in prison, and welcoming the foreigner. Yet, in various places, Christians are renouncing themselves, taking up their crosses and sacrificially following Jesus.

And we must not despair. Jesus says in John 14:12 that the one who trusts in him will do greater works than Jesus did. How that is possible I do not know. But with that promise ringing in our ears, we should get started. We should start trying out things that embody the koinonia of the Spirit, no matter how idealistic or un-P.C. they are. Remember the parable of the talents. God is more concerned that his servants use the talents entrusted to them to bring in some return than that they play it safe and just conserve them. God wants us to take risks. He wants us to rethink how things are done, always in the Spirit of what he has done and said.

As N. T. Wright says, the Bible is like the first 4 acts of an uncompleted 5-act play. The story and the themes are laid out. We just need to improvise the last act in harmony with what has gone on before, keeping the story's resolution in mind. Not all of our ideas will pan out. We don't know beforehand which ones will succeed and which won't. But actors know that the worst thing to do when improvising is to just stand there. The key is to jump in. Act boldly. Stay in character. Work with what the other actors give you and be generous with them in turn. Don't worry about failing. Ignore the critics. The only opinion that matters is God's. And he says it's going to be a big hit. 

Return Trip

My wife and I have found yet another British detective series on Netflix. It is a procedural as are most of these shows and as usual it's all about the discovery and arrest of the murderer. Then they expect you to accept that the evidence presented is sufficient to convict the lawbreaker and that he or she is going away for a long time. Only a few detective series even touch on the trial phase, such as Law and Order. One of the best depictions of how the trial can go quite differently than one expects is the second season of Broadchurch.

Since I am chaplain at the jail, I see the punishment phase up close. I got curious about the history of punishment and imprisonment and decided to do a little research. In primitive tribal cultures, you don't have jails--for obvious reasons. Punishment for breaking the rules could be the forfeiture of property, shunning, exile or corporal punishment, such as beatings or even death. As civilizations arose, all of these, with the possible exception of shunning, are seen in the earliest law codes. These codes primarily use the principle of lex talionis or the law of retaliation. Punishments are supposed to be proportional to the crimes committed, ie, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. Imprisonment was used in Athens as an alternative for those citizens who couldn't afford to pay fines. But the Romans were among the first to use prison on a large scale for punishment. They put their prisoners to work doing hard labor and they used slavery as a punishment as well. We still do. The 13^th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery and involutary servitude, except as punishment for a crime! I highly recommend watching the documentary 13th on Netflix for an eye-opening exploration of how slavery in the US never completely went away.

It wasn't until we get to the ancient Greeks, like Plato, that we get the idea of trying to reform the lawbreaker, to make the bad guy into a good guy. At least so far as secular history is concerned, that is. In regards to God's moral laws, that idea had already been around for centuries among the Hebrew prophets. Much of their message was to urge people to repent, literally “ to turn back or return” to God. When you are going in the wrong direction, the only logical thing to do is to turn around and go back. God is less interested in punishment than in seeing in us a change of heart and mind that leads to a change in our behavior. As it says in Ezekiel 18:21-23, “But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”

The call to repent is a mark of a prophet. Thus John the Baptist and Jesus begin their messages with the call to repent. And in our passage from Acts, Peter says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) Repentance is the beginning of the process. It's the realization that the pit you've dug for yourself is way too deep and you need to stop digging and start looking for help getting out. Essentially it is like the first 3 steps in a 12 Step Program, which were summarized by a friend in AA as: I can't; God can; I'm going to let him.

But you don't hear the word “Repent” in most mainstream churches except when it pops up in the lectionary. Probably because we think that repentance is for people who commit horrible crimes or the more disreputable sins, the ones folks can't reasonably deny. But John never says, “Repent your grossest sins!” Jesus never said, “Repent your most obvious sins!” Peter doesn't say, “Repent only the sins that really bother you!” We are to repent all the ways that impede our ability to love God and to love other people, including the ones we kinda like and the ones we rate as trivial. Killing people is wrong but so is crushing their spirit by continually putting them down, which Jesus also condemned. (Matthew 5:21, 22) Lying is wrong but so is spreading malicious gossip, even when true. Adultery is wrong but so is controlling your spouse by destroying their self-esteem. Denying God is wrong but so is using his name to manipulate people to do your will.

We also often believe that repentance is a one time thing, the part that kicks off becoming a Christian and then is discarded, like the first stage of a rocket. But that's like thinking that once you get a medical check up, you needn't ever do it again. Step 10 of the 12 Step Programs is about continuing to take a personal moral inventory and promptly admitting when you're wrong. Think of how an athlete reviews every performance or game to see what they did right, what they did wrong and what they can do better. I find that last part the key: one may not be able to reach perfection in this life but one can always do better; one can always improve. Because what is essential to repentance is not feeling bad or sad but changing direction, changing your mind and your behavior.

What comes next? After you decide to reverse the direction you were taking, then what should you do? What are the next steps in returning to God? Peter says, “...be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven....” If you were to confess to a crime to earthly authorities, our criminal justice system would offer punishment. When we repent and confess our sins to God, we are offered forgiveness and grace. And we access that by being baptized. Originally a rite by which Gentiles came into the covenant community of God's people, the Jews, John the Baptist repurposed baptism as something Jews also could undergo to show their repentance and willingness to start over with God. For Christians it is both a sign of divine forgiveness and an entrance rite, by which one becomes a citizen of the Kingdom of God and a member of the body of Christ. In the early church, its form was that of immersion of the whole convert. But the word was also used of cleansing things like tables, which are unlikely to be immersed. So it can also mean having liquid poured on something. Paul used the picture of immersion to explain how through baptism we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection. As he was buried, we are immersed in water and as he rose again, we rise out of the water, a new creation.

Along with becoming one with Christ, we are anointed with the Holy Spirit. Peter speaks of it as a gift because our reception of the Spirit is, along with our salvation, unearned. God graciously gives us his Spirit to remake us, to equip us and to unite us with him and with all other Christians. And indeed, as sincere as our repentance may be, we cannot follow Jesus without the Spirit to empower us. Again the 12 Step Programs tacitly acknowledge this when the person seeking help admits that he or she is powerless over whatever substance or behavior is making their life unmanageable and turns their will and their life over to God. (After all, AA got a lot of its ideas and principles from the Oxford Group, a Christian movement.)

There is another thing the Spirit does for us. If you've ever worked for a large company or organization, you realize how little communication there is between the average person and the man or woman at the top. In some organizations, you are discouraged to talk to the big boss and must go through your immediate supervisor or manager instead. But that is not how it is with God. The Spirit is our link to Jesus and to the Father, enabling us to communicate with God and God to communicate with us. Paul even tells us that when we don't know how to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us, communicating what we feel or need on a level too deep for words. (Romans 8:26) God expresses what we cannot.

Our passage from Acts got us talking about repentance, baptism and the gift of the Spirit. What surprised me was that in our Gospel for the day (Luke 24:13-35) brings in two other essential elements of the journey back to God. In this passage, the risen Christ joins two disciples heading to Emmaus. They express disappointment in the death of Jesus which invalidates his being the Messiah in their eyes. And Jesus responds to this mistaken idea. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” (Lk 24:27)

Remember no New Testament existed then. Jesus is using the familiar Hebrew scriptures to give them a new perspective on what happened. And that is another part of being a Christian. Including the New Testament, God left us a lot of words wisdom to work with: about 773,692, more or less. We need to study them, think about them, and discuss them with fellow Christians. And as Jesus demonstrated in this passage, we need to keep our eyes open for Christ in the scriptures, even the ones in which he is not explicitly mentioned. In Jesus we see what God is really like: loving but just, demanding but merciful, forgiving but not a fool, opposed to evil but willing to die to save sinners.

While we don't have the details of what Jesus pointed out in this instance and throughout the next 40 days, we can make educated guesses. In the Torah, there is the Passover lamb whose blood saves God's people from death. Moses speaks of a prophet who will come after him yet who will be greater than he. Isaiah, the book Jesus quotes more than others, speaks of God's suffering servant who takes on the iniquity of the people and by whose wounds we are healed. The prophets talk about a descendant of David who becomes an eternal king. The psalms talk of the son of God, God's anointed, the good shepherd and give chilling descriptions of Christ's death. I imagine the two on the way to Emmaus felt a bit like Detective Kujan at the end of The Usual Suspects: the clues and the person they were seeking were there all along if they just looked at things properly. Afterward they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:32) We too should have our eyes open as we study the written Word of God in order to find the Living Word of God.

In the twilight, the disciples don't perceive that it is Jesus who is talking to them. They invite him to stay with them. And it says, “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him....” (Lk 24: 30-31) Later they tell the other disciples “...how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” (Lk 24:35) The literal meaning of the word “companion” is “one who breaks bread with another.” Just as Jesus was both a fellow traveler and one who broke bread with the Twelve, he is both to us. Through his Spirit, he accompanies us on all our journeys through life, and in the Eucharist we break bread and drink wine with him. In fact, he is our food and drink, our spiritual nourishment. We come together as the body of Christ to share the Body and Blood of Christ. In this act, as Paul says, “...you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

As Christians, we need to examine our souls regularly, like those who examine themselves for breast or testicular cancer. When we find something amiss in our spiritual health, we need to tell it to God and if it is our fault, confess it and repent. We need to make sure we do not quench the Spirit we receive at our baptism. We must search the scriptures for what God is saying to us, keeping an eye out for Jesus. And we need to regularly break bread and share wine with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Their encounter with the risen Jesus lit a fire under the disciples. They could not keep from sharing the good news with all they met. We need to do the same. After all, the good news is that whatever is wrong with us or with society, it is not hopeless. However set we are in our ways, we can change. However dirty we feel deep down, God can cleanse us. However helpless we feel, the Spirit is there to empower us. However often we have heard God's word, there are surprises in store for those who search it. However empty we feel, Jesus is there to fill us up and nourish our spirits. Whatever we need, we can trust God to provide it. We just need to step out in faith and let Jesus, our companion, lead us home to God.

Words of Life

Recently I got an email from a woman who said that she was at the scene of my accident and that she tended to me until the EMTs arrived. I didn't know about her before, mainly because I was unconscious. But I thanked her for coming to my aid. For that matter I don't remember the deputies or EMTs who treated me at the scene, or the surgeons who operated on me that night. Nevertheless I am immensely grateful to these people whom I really don't know.

The reason I bring this up is that I was struck by a sentence in our passage from 1 Peter (1:3-9): “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy...” Last week we were talking about how essential to the spread of Christianity was the fact of the resurrection as well as all the witnesses to the risen Jesus. Christians today are in the same boat as the folks who received this letter: people who never met Jesus. However, the original recipients of this letter at least had a connection with a living witness to Christ. We do not.

But that's not, on the surface, much different than our relationships to past historical figures whom we admire: Abraham Lincoln, Aristotle, Isaac Newton. Not only are they dead but so is everyone who ever knew or even saw them. If you go on You Tube you can see a clip from the old show “I've Got a Secret,” which features 96 year old Samuel J. Seymour, who was in the Ford Theatre when Lincoln was assassinated. He was 5 in 1865 and died 2 months after his TV appearance in April 1956. He was the last living witness to Lincoln.

Weirdly, two grandsons of President John Tyler, who was born in 1790 are still alive. But they never met their famous grandfather. He had their father, Lyon Garner Tyler, in 1853, when the former president was 63. Lyon likewise had his sons late in life, when he was in his 70s. They are descendants, but not witnesses to the 10th president.

My granddaughter will grow up in a generation that will see all living witnesses of the moon landing die off. The difference is that video documentation of the event will, we hope, continue to exist, although the original tapes of that have been lost. And just as historically uninformed people say Jesus didn't exist, conspiracy theorists have pointed to the lost tapes as further evidence that the moon landing was faked.

So is that all we have of Jesus? Historical documentation? Well, we do have that and we have more of it than we have for most ancient people. Plato died around 347 BC; the earliest fragments of copies of his writings date back to the 2^nd to 4^th century AD. That's 500 to 700 years later. The earliest complete manuscripts of Plato date to about 900 AD. That's a gap of about 1250 years. In contrast, Jesus was crucified around 30 AD. The New Testaments books and letters were written between 48 AD and 95 AD. The earliest fragments of the New Testament belong to John's gospel and date to somewhere between 117 and 138 AD. That's within a century of Jesus' earthly life and within 20 to 40 years of the composition of John's gospel. We have at present 18 manuscripts of the gospels and epistles from the 2^nd century and one from the first, comprising 43% of the New Testament. In addition we have found more than 5800 copies of the various books of the New Testament and 24,000 early translations. Plus we can construct the entire New Testament, except for 11 verses, just from quotations in the early church fathers. And while some of the copies vary, scholars agree they are 99.5% identical, meaning those who copied them took special care in doing so. Most of the variants are spelling errors. We are more sure of what Jesus said and what the witnesses said about him than we are about Socrates, Plato, Julius Caesar, Herodotus or any other ancient figure in history. (BTW thanks to Wikipedia and Dave Armstrong's Patheos blog for the statistics.) 

This doesn't prove that what Jesus or the New Testament said was true, just that we can trust that we do have their actual words. But these words validate themselves in our lives. A lot of people find truth in the writings of the past. But they rarely change their lives in radical ways. I love the wisdom of people like Aristotle but not everything he wrote has turned out to be true, nor will I try to work out an entire way of living based on his writings. 

But everyday people are discovering Jesus and deciding to try to follow him in all they think, say and do. His words resonate with huge numbers of people in a way that even the most esteemed philosophers don't. And that's because his words aren't mere words. As he says in John 6:63, “The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Jesus' words communicate more than just meaning; they communicate life and the Spirit.

How is that so? Words are a way of changing your mind. If I say “Purple panda,” I can be reasonably sure that you are picturing exactly that. In fact it is impossible for you not to picture a purple panda. And now you are imagining purple pandas playing patty-cake! I have just taken something in my mind and put it in yours. I have immaterially changed the physical connections between certain synapses in the part of your brain that constructs visual images. If I say, “the next time you find it hard to keep your eyes from closing while driving, pull over and take a nap,” I have implanted lifesaving information into your brain. If I give you detailed instructions on how to do CPR, I am enabling you to save someone else's life. Ordinary words can change minds, which in turn can change lives and save lives. How much more can the word of God do!

Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” God's words don't just transmit information about spiritual matters; they communicate the things themselves. Again, here's an example of an analogous situation. I read of an oncology nurse who discovered she had a weird power over her patients. Often before going to their radiation or chemotherapy sessions, they would ask her if she thought that they would be nauseated after the treatments. And she found that if she said that she didn't think so, they wouldn't. Now mind you, the idea behind either of those cancer treatments is to give you something toxic and hope that the rapidly multiplying cancer cells would absorb more of it than your healthy cells. So, objectively, it should cause a reaction and nausea is a common one. But this nurse discovered that her words could counteract the body's physical response to something toxic. Her words gave them a measure of wellness.

God's word gives life. New life. His life. Jesus didn't die just to give us more life but a different kind of life: the divine life shared by the Triune God. By opening our lives to God's word, we are being included in the life of the God who is love.

What exactly do we mean by life, though? According to Wikipedia, “The definition of life is controversial. The current definition is that organisms maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, and reproduce.” Now obviously this is a definition that applies to physical, not spiritual life. But as Jesus found parallels to spiritual things in his agricultural society, I think parallels to our spiritual life can be found in this biological definition of life.

For instance, homeostasis is the ability of an organism to maintain internal balance and consistency in things like body temperature, internal pH, electrolytes, and blood glucose, despite changes in the environment, what it eats and what it does. And certainly a healthy spiritual life requires maintaining an internal equilibrium. There are certain essential beliefs and processes that should not vary wildly, such as our trust in God's love, his justice, and his mercy as embodied by his son, Jesus Christ, and made manifest in us by his Spirit. Our commitment to daily prayer, study of his word, participation in a community of Christians, worship, stewardship, evangelism and obedience of his commandments to love God and love other people have to remain firm. Drastic imbalances in these aspects of faith and practice indicate that something is wrong in our spiritual life, in much the same way that a fever, or a skyrocketing blood pressure, or plummeting blood sugar are symptoms of major problems in one's biology.

All physical bodies are composed of cells and had the microscope been invented, I'm sure that Paul would have incorporated that into his metaphor of the body of Christ. Paul compares us to the parts that make up the body, each with a different function. Swap out cells for larger parts and the parallels hold up. And the point is that unity does not negate diversity of appearance or function. Imagine a church made up of nothing but preachers, or where everyone was a treasurer, or where no one thought of practicalities like coffee and food. A healthy spiritual life means finding your space and functions within the body of Christ and both ministering to others and being ministered to by others.

Metabolism is basically converting food into fuel and into the building blocks of the body, as well as the elimination of waste. We need to nourish our spiritual life just as we do our physical life. In both we need a variety of healthy sources of nutrition. To remain spiritually healthy we need to consume the Bible, as well as good books and articles, not just on Christianity but on the world and people that God loves so much that he sent Jesus. We also need to feed our spirits with worship and prayer and communion. Just as exercise is important to physical digestion and elimination, we need to put our faith into practice in our lives and in the world, which will help us discard from our spiritual life unhelpful approaches and untrue assumptions.

Physical organisms grow and so should we spiritually. And this is not just about becoming larger souls but also about becoming more knowledgeable, wiser and more skilled. In this way, spiritual growth is like the intellectual and social growth of a child. We need to be able to better understand and interact with and work with God and humanity.

Living organisms can adapt to their environment. While a healthy spiritual life requires an internal constancy and balance, it also requires an ability to adapt to the world in which we live. One difference between a sailor and a convincing wax statue of that sailor is that one will be able to remain standing by shifting his balance and footing on the rolling deck of a ship and the other will eventually topple over. Christianity would not have been successful had we all opted to do what the Amish do and pull out of the world and the flow of history. In fact, we won't have much impact on society if we refuse to interact with and adapt to changes in the world. Christians have usually be early adopters of communication technology and in the same way we have to adapt to the language and forms in general use in the world. For instance, in the past we didn't have specialized ministries for single parents, or for victims of human trafficking, nor did we have chaplains for those who work in factories. One reason the church has survived for nearly 2000 years is that we have adapted to the changes in the world by changing how we express the unchanging gospel of God's transforming love in Christ.

Living organisms respond to stimuli. You know where I got that wax statue idea? When my wife and I went on our honeymoon in the UK, we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. I was surprised that most of the statues were not roped off from the public. So you could go right up to them and see how lifelike they were. But they also had a few "prank" statues that were made to look like a museum guard and a tourist waiting in line. You didn't notice them at first but thought they were live people. The giveaway was that they didn't blink or respond to anything around them. To have a healthy spiritual life you need not only to be aware of what's going on around you but you need to respond appropriately. 

Of course, we live in a very stimuli-rich world and you can't react to everything, so we do need to filter. For instance, there are lots of videos on the internet of cats freaking out when they see cucumbers. Perhaps they think they are snakes. But the church has been just as bad about responding to things that aren't in fact threats. In my lifetime, comic books, miniskirts, hairstyles, video games, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other cultural artifacts have been denounced by some figures in the church as grave threats to the soul. And to be sure some people go overboard on such things and let them take the place of God in their lives. But we really need to distinguish between false and genuine threats and not just react like dogs barking at everything that moves and setting off all the other dogs in the neighborhood. We need to respond to stimuli appropriately.

Finally a healthy organism should be able to reproduce. Not every individual within a species needs to do so but if the majority don't, the species dies out. And having a healthy spiritual life should beget an interest in helping others develop a healthy spiritual life. However, you don't want to be like the vegan who berates all meat-eaters at every opportunity but rather act like the person who has had a good doctor or therapist change your life for the better and recommends him to anyone who is looking for that kind of help. A lot of people think that growing the local body of Christ should be the primary responsibility of the clergy but as a bishop once said, it's the sheep that make more sheep, not the shepherd. Again if only a few reproduce, extinction looms for all. So as St. Francis is supposed to have said, we all need to be proclaiming the gospel all the time, using our words if necessary.

While Jesus is no longer walking this earth in the flesh, he has left us his word. And this enables us to trust and love him. If we let his word and his Spirit into our minds and heart, he will change us and give us new life. Maintaining that spiritual life in a healthy fashion is essential. We have become new creations in Christ and that means we will meet the one who saved us face to face one day in his new creation. And I'm as sure of that as I am that you are picturing a purple panda in a pink paisley dress driving a Prius.

Where's Jesus?

Recently my granddaughter was looking through a Bible and found some maps at the back. Lately she has been obsessed about maps, probably because of the singing and talking map on Dora the Explorer. So she showed me the map of the Holy Land and I was pointing out the cities and towns: “There's where Jesus was born. There's where Jesus grew up. There's where Jesus died...”

“Jesus died?” she asked, sounding surprised. She knows about death because recently the family's cat and last remaining sugarglider died.

“Yes, on the cross.” And I pointed at the cross behind the altar.

“The cross?” she said, pointing at it.

“Not that cross. We have that to remember what Jesus did for us.” I showed her our stations of the cross, some of which were done by her father when he was in Sunday School. We got to Jesus being laid in the tomb. Then, not wanting to leave it there, I said, “But he didn't stay dead. God raised Jesus to life again.”

“He brought him back to life?”

“Yes,” I said, pleased that she grasped the resurrection.

“Where is he?” she said, looking around the church. “Outside?”

And that's where you realize that teaching a 3 year old the most basic theology is going to be a lot more challenging than you imagined.

But one thing I realized is that this was all new to her. She didn't know that Jesus had died nor that he had been raised. For us it's old news. To her it's new information.

It's hard to remember that the same conditions applied to the people who discovered Jesus' empty tomb that first Easter. None of the events that happened that weekend was expected. The idea that God's Messiah would die, and on a cross of all things, was new and hard to accept. The idea that he would be raised to life again long before the general resurrection of the dead was unprecedented.

And then there are the purely human reasons that resurrection would be hard to believe. We have all had loved ones who died. We may have actually been there when they died, or we saw them after they died. We saw them buried. Now imagine that someone told you they were alive again. Let's say the person telling you this was someone you knew quite well, someone you spent a lot of time with, say on the road or working on a project. It would still be difficult, if not impossible to believe them.

And sure enough, that is what we see in the gospels. When they find the tomb empty, the women do not believe Jesus is risen but that his body was stolen. Even after seeing the angels and the risen Christ, they are not able to convince the male disciples. When Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, they thought he was a ghost, according to Luke. Even seeing his wounded wrists and feet doesn't do the trick. Luke says “...they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement...” (Lk 24:41) In other words, their first reaction was that it was too good to be true. It might be an hysterically happy hallucination. Jesus has to eat a piece of fish to make them realize that he is real. So we should not fault Thomas for doubting; he wasn't with the others when Jesus first appeared. They all doubted, and rightly so, until they actually encountered the risen Jesus.

How strong was the natural rejection of this new reality? Matthew says that after the resurrection, on the mountain in Galilee, “When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.” (Mt 28:17) Even then, they were having a hard time believing that a man who they knew had died was alive again. So we are not talking about credulous people who accepted whatever they were told or even whatever they saw. They were normal human beings who had a hard time wrapping their minds around what they were experiencing.

But the next generation of Christians accepted the resurrection blindly, right? Not according to Paul. In his first letter to the Corinthians he addresses the problem of people not believing in the resurrection. And in the process he gives us the earliest account of Jesus' appearances after he rose. “...he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.” (1 Cor 15:5-8) This letter was written sometime around 55 AD, about 25 years after the resurrection of Christ. Again people are skeptical. And even though Paul could say, “I saw the risen Christ,” he emphasizes that 500 people saw Jesus at one time and that most of them are still alive. He's essentially saying, “If you don't believe me, ask one of them.”

In fact, the reason that the gospels were written later than the letters of Paul was probably due to the fact that for 40 years there were still living witnesses to what Jesus said and did. Once apostles like Paul and Peter and others began to be martyred under Nero, Christians probably thought that they must get their testimony on parchment. It makes sense that Mark, who worked under both Peter and Paul, would produce the earliest gospel, a rough and breathless account of what he heard them say about Jesus' life and ministry. Then Matthew and Luke, an associate of Paul's, added the information they had. And lastly, John fills in details that the others didn't have.

The most convincing evidence for Jesus' resurrection is the fact that those who knew the truth died rather than renounce it. If I made up a story and could save my life by simply admitting it, I would. Why die for a lie? But if I saw Jesus alive again, if my earlier perception that he was the Messiah was completely vindicated by his resurrection, I would likely lose my fear of death. Jesus' talk of eternal life wouldn't be a mere hope but a palpable reality. And nobody could stop me from telling others about him, even if they threatened to kill me.

Michael Grant, an historian who specialized in classical Greek and Roman history, admitted that it is hard to understand how Christianity survived the death of its founder and spread so fast and so widely without positing the resurrection of Jesus. It's difficult to explain why we are here now, nearly 2000 years later, if Jesus had not risen from the dead. He said a lot of good things but some of them make no sense without the resurrection.

His admonition, “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also,” (Mt 5:39) is a good recipe for getting beaten up or even killed. “Take up your cross and follow me.” The cross was an instrument of death. The only people carrying crosses then were condemned men and women going to die. Jesus tells us to count the cost and follows that up with “...any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Lk14:33) Back in 1 Corinthians Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Cor 15:17-19)

Imagine how differently you would play a video game if when your character died, that was it. No more lives. Game over. No do overs. That's the one and only time you get to play that game. Everything you invested in that world would be done and over with. The game would cease to be an adventure. You would play it very conservatively. Who would take risks? Who would make major changes in the in-game world if opposed by powerful enemies who could take you out for good?

After the disciples got over their natural skepticism, it was replaced by joy. And courage. They rejoiced that Jesus was alive. And the fact that he defeated death encouraged them to live brave new lives. Taking up the cross was no longer a dreaded idea but a liberating one. Because just as Jesus had turned other perceptions about the world upside down, so did his resurrection.

We think this world will outlast us. It was here before we were born; it will be here after we are dead. But not if what Jesus said is true: that trusting in him leads to eternal life. This world is not eternal. The sun will burn out one day. This will be a cold rock orbiting a dead sun. But we will live on. God will not only bring us back from the dead but the universe as well. The climax of creation is the new creation: new heavens and a new earth. An eternal habitat for eternal people.

C.S. Lewis said, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” If we live only for 7 or 8 decades, then how we live won't matter much, at least to us. One day it will be “game over” and the damage we have done will be someone else's problem. But if we live forever, then the trajectory of that life is of supreme importance. Is that life moving us ever closer to the God of love, or ever farther from him? Are we expanding in response to his warmth and light or are we shrinking and becoming colder? If we do not course-correct, will we not end up in the outer darkness?

Believe or not, no matter how much it moans about death, this world needs it to keep us docile. It needs us to think that this life is the only one. Because then we will not want to risk it to change the way things are done. Because then we will settle for the amusements and distractions it sells us and consider the bad things that accompany them as necessary evils. Because then it will not matter how we treat others or whom we deem it OK to exploit or even to kill. They were going to die anyway and they are not coming back. And if, when we die, we have avoided the consequences of our bad behavior, we need not worry about justice afterward. And those who make huge sacrifices for others can be seen as having wasted their one and only life.

But if we and every person we meet are so valuable to God that he will not let us go, that he will not give up on us, that he will bring us back, then the logic of this world is turned on its head. It does make sense to risk it all to confront and change what is evil in this world. It does make sense not to indulge in everything that promises pleasure if it diverts us from everlasting good. And how we treat others is essential, in part because the consequences of our words and works will catch up with us, if we did not turn around the direction of our lives. But mainly because the person we affect is a fellow immortal. We are horrified if someone damages or destroys some ancient work of art—Michelangelo's Pieta or the Acropolis or a statue of Buddha; how much more terrible is it to try to damage or destroy a person created by God and destined to live forever?

But God is the only one who can decide if a life is truly over. When he lived among us, his works were to focused on bringing life and health to all. He turned water into wine and a handful of loaves and fishes into enough food for 5000 plus hungry people. He gave sight to the blind, speech to the mute, hearing to the deaf, the ability to walk to the lame, freedom from continuous hemorrhage to this woman, a functional hand to that man, freedom from seizures to this boy, and life to a young girl, to the son of a widow from Nain and to his friend Lazarus. And when his creatures murdered his son, God gave his life back to him.

We worship the God of life. As Paul tells us, nothing can separate from the love of God in Christ, not even death. And the resurrection of Jesus verifies that. In this world, everything ends, everything dies, everything goes away. But God will not allow us to go away. Jesus died to save us. And as God raised him from the dead, so he will raise those who are in Christ. The God of life gives us new life. And that is the good news the apostles were so fearless in spreading.

My granddaughter just learned that Jesus died and that God brought him back to life. She pretty much accepts what we say. But the men and women who first had to accept this news were rightly skeptical. Dead men just don't get up and leave their tombs. They knew that. And then nearly 2000 years ago, they had to unlearn it. Because of the resurrection, they had to accept that Jesus was the Messiah after all and that his mission was not to liberate some people from being subjects of some political empire but to free all people from their subjection to sin and death. Because of the resurrection, they had to accept that the things this world uses to enslave us are our masters no more. Because of the resurrection, we need not fear death and that frees us to do all that God wants us to do. To love others, even our enemies. To forgive all wrongs done to us. To stand up to the powers of this world and work for justice, peace, mercy, health and reconciliation for all people.

That's what I want my granddaughter to learn. That the powers of this world tried to use death to stop Jesus and shut him up in a tomb. He blew the door off that tomb and strode out into the world and everyone he touches awakes to new life. That's what I want her to know—firsthand. That Jesus is not just outside but inside as well. As Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23) Or as Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) So when we proclaim Jesus' resurrection, we are not merely stating an historical fact but an ongoing reality. Christ lives in us. We are his body. We are the temples of his Spirit. We are his presence in the world today. So let's live like it.

Be fearless. Death is defeated. Christ is risen! 

He is risen, indeed!

For Others

For those few of you who don't know, last year I was in a head-on collision. I broke both legs, both wrists, my sternum, 6 ribs, collapsed a lung and did a lot of internal damage. I spent 40 days in the hospital, including 2 stints in ICU, and 100 days in a rehabilitation center learning to walk again. During the worst of it, when I had pain, when I threw a pulmonary emboli, when physical therapy had me in tears, my attention pretty much focused on myself. Pain gives you tunnel vision and all you can think about is how to make it stop.

I am here to preach on Jesus on the cross. And right off the bat, I want to say that I am not comparing my suffering to his. For one thing I was given fairly powerful pain meds. Immediately after the first of my 5 operations, I was put into a chemically induced coma for a week. So I did not suffer a 100^th of the pain Jesus did.

Plus those directly in contact with me were working to save my life and make me better. Those directly in contact with Jesus' body were trying to make him suffer and die.

People who came to see me gave me emotional support. Many of those who came to see Jesus mocked and taunted him.

Finally, I did not deliberately put myself in harm's way, nor did I do it for others. Jesus took on the cross like a suicide mission and he did it for you and me.

The reason I started out telling you about the times I did feel pain was to emphasize how it makes you turn inward. You don't care about anything or anyone else, just your pain and when will it stop. And once again Jesus was totally different in this regard. As he hung on the cross he felt pain; he felt thirst; he felt exhaustion and air-hunger. And yet he was able to focus on others throughout his ordeal.

After they crucified him, after they stripped him naked and nailed his wrists to the cross beam and lifted it onto the upright and dropped it in place, and then bent his knees, turned his legs to the side, skewered his ankles with a long nail and hammered it home, he should have rained down curses on their heads. He should have asked God to strike them all dead. But instead, Luke 23:34 writes that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Could you do that? Based on my reaction when a hospital transporter banged my broken right foot into the side of a doorframe, I couldn't. And he hurt me inadvertently. The soldiers harmed Jesus deliberately. The transporter didn't want to cause me pain. The soldiers wanted Jesus to feel dreadful pain and then die. And yet he prayed for them.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) And how many of those listening to him then said, “Yeah, sure.” They probably thought he was naive to say such things. But while his enemies are actively torturing him to death, Jesus prays for them. He asks God to forgive them. Though they know they are killing a man, they are ignorant of the fact that they are murdering God. And yet Jesus prays for them. Despite his pain, he is thinking of their spiritual well-being.

The men being crucified on either side of him are acting as we would expect. The pain brought out the worst in them. Perhaps to take their minds off their own suffering they lash out at Jesus. They join in with Jesus' enemies who are saying, “If you are the Messiah, save yourself.” “And us!” chimes in one of the men. But perhaps because of Jesus' lack of ire in return, one of the criminals rethinks how he is spending his last hours on earth. Perhaps he heard of Jesus before and now sees how he conducts himself during his long and drawn-out death. He reprimands the other bandit, pointing out that they are just getting what they deserve. But what he sees in Jesus tells him this man is not a criminal like them. In fact, what he sees tells him that Jesus is what the crowd jeeringly calls him: the Christ, the Messiah, the king God promised to send. So he says to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Instead of a world-weary, “Sure thing, buddy” Jesus says, “I tell you the truth: today you will be with me in paradise.” That robber is the only person in the Bible who receives that assurance from Jesus himself. That Jesus was able to pull himself out of his own misery to give that promise to a man who earlier had been mocking him is astounding. Despite his pain, Jesus thought of the man's eternal well-being.

John's gospel tells us that Jesus' mother and his beloved disciple are at the cross. It must have been horrible for Mary to see her first-born, dying in shame and agony, as the crowds jeered him and the soldiers indifferently gambled for his clothes, which she probably made herself. And if Bible scholar Ben Witherington of Asbury Theological seminary is correct, the beloved disciple was Lazarus. (John 11:3) Imagine how hard it was to see the man who restored him to life die.

Jesus notices the two but more than that, he realizes his mother's situation. She is a widow and poor. Perhaps she is estranged from Jesus' brothers, who used to mock him and thought he was crazy. (John 7:3-5; Mark 3:21) Lazarus was well off, as evidenced by the tomb he was able to afford and his sister Mary being able to buy the expensive perfume with which she anointed Jesus' feet. Jesus is able to, at the time he is dying in horrible pain, think of a way to provide for his mother. So he says to her, “Woman, behold your son,” and to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” John tells us the disciple took Jesus' mother into his home from that day on. Despite his pain, Jesus thought of his mother's physical well-being.

When I was in pain it was really hard to think of others. As my mother declined I was glad my brother was handling things because I physically and emotionally couldn't. But Jesus did what he could to make sure his mother would be taken care of and did so while nailed to the cross.

Jesus was able to think of others while fighting pain, exhaustion, blood loss and air hunger. And yet we Western Christians, living in the richest country on earth, think mostly of ourselves. We live in a world where millions needs help, such as our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Middle East, the birthplace of Christianity. Some are being sold into slavery; some are being beheaded; some are literally going to the cross for their faith. Others are fleeing and trying to get to more stable and more democratic nations, which are increasing turning their backs on them.

What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do from the cross? Why did he go to the cross? To rescue us. Out of love. What should our response to him be? What should our response be to a world God loved so much that he sent his son to die so we could live?

Let us pray:

Oh, Jesus, you did this for us. I am amazed and ashamed and grateful. As you took up your cross for us, help us take up our crosses daily for others. Help us to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Help us to remember that what we do or do not do to the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the threadbare, the foreigner, the sick, the imprisoned, the least of your brothers and sisters, we do or do not do to you. Help us to show your self-sacrificial love in all we think, say and do to all people so that they may know you through us, the body of Christ, the ongoing embodiment of your love for the well-being of all those created in the image of God and for whom you died. Amen.

Politically Correct Reasons for Killing God

Much has been made of Pilate's seeming reluctance to crucify Christ in the gospels. We know he was a brutal military man who was not a very good politician and who did not get on well with the people he was supposed to govern. Philo, a contemporary Jewish writer, described Pilate as vindictive, “inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness,” with a “furious temper.” Some scholars figure he would have killed Jesus, a potential revolutionary, without a second thought. Why the hesitation we see in the gospels?

People act differently in different circumstances. And Pilate's behavior was influenced by his situation and by the people he interacted with. One person that probably is most responsible for Pilate's behavior in this case was Caiaphas, who was appointed High Priest by Pilate's predecessor. When Pilate first entered Jerusalem, he did not do what his predecessors did and remove the insignia and effigies from the army's standards. The Jews saw these as idols and staged demonstrations, asking they be removed. After 5 days' deliberation, Pilate had the demonstrators surrounded by his troops and threatened them with death. Which the Jews were willing to undergo rather than violate the 2^nd Commandment. Eventually Pilate stood down. A similar incident later led to a reprimand from the Emperor Tiberius. Pilate had no love for the religious leader of the Jewish people.

It was quite likely, therefore, that when Caiaphas came early on the Day of Preparation for the Passover with a man he wanted Pilate to execute that very day, Pilate was suspicious. As High Priest, one would expect Caiaphas to be, not at the Antonia fortress, but at the Temple. And the crowd of Jews calling for Jesus' blood should have been there, too, having their lambs sacrificed for the feast. Obviously it was not a random gathering of Jewish citizens; the mob was probably made up of Caiaphas' supporters and his servants.  So Pilate could see that Caiaphas wanted this execution badly. Since Caiaphas had never done Pilate a favor, Pilate would be reluctant to help him. In fact, if he could determine that Jesus was no insurrectionist, but merely a religious rival to the High Priest, he might release him just to serve as a thorn in Caiaphas' side. To him, Jesus was a pawn to use against a man Pilate hated.

Joseph Caiaphas was a consummate politician. He was High Priest before Pilate came and he remained High Priest for most of Pilate's term. When he heard that Jesus was growing popular and had raised Lazarus from the dead, his reaction was not to wonder if the Galilean carpenter was indeed the Messiah; he saw him as a potential threat. At Passover, Jerusalem filled with Jews from all over. It was a feast celebrating God liberating his people from Egypt. The parallel with the Roman Empire wasn't hard to make. Jesus had said nothing political but he had entered Jerusalem on a donkey, which could be seen as fulfillment of a prophesy in Zechariah 9:9. Jesus had driven out of the Temple the moneychangers, an easy target for discontent because of they enriched themselves using unfair exchange rates. The Sanhedrin, the supreme council of Jewish leaders, was already afraid of Jesus' popularity. They said, “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will take away our place and our nation.” (John 11:48) But Caiaphas had done the cold-blooded calculation. “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (John 11:50) Caiaphas didn't care that Jesus was performing the same signs as a prophet. To him, Jesus was a problem to be eliminated.

In his effort to not do Caiaphas a favor, Pilate sends Jesus across town to Herod Antipas, who rules Galilee. After all, Jesus falls under his jurisdiction. Earlier Herod had been afraid that Jesus was somehow John the Baptist risen from the dead. Herod had arrested John for calling his marriage to his sister-in-law incestuous. He couldn't bring himself to kill John and listened to the captive prophet despite the way he made Herod squirm. Then Herod had been tricked by his spouse and adopted daughter into beheading John. Now he was finally getting the chance to see and hear Jesus for himself. But Jesus won't play along. Herod can see he is not John and has no interest in killing another popular religious figure. He is however grateful for the Roman governor recognizing his authority over Galilee and they become friends. To Herod, Jesus is a curiosity and more importantly, someone else's problem.

When Jesus gets kicked back to Pilate, the governor has one more trick up his sleeve. He has Jesus flogged as a punishment and shows the people this bloody, beaten man. Then he offers to pardon one prisoner for Passover. Who do they want—Barabbas, a real insurrectionist and murderer, or Jesus, whose followers, the Nazarene astutely points out, are not fighting to free him? To Pilate's surprise, the bogus crowd requests Barabbas. And they shout that since Jesus claims to be King of the Jews, if Pilate pardons him, he is no friend to Caesar. And Pilate may not survive another Imperial reprimand. So he washes his hands of the responsibility and lets Jesus be crucified.

Pilate was a military man playing politics badly. Caiaphas was a religious leader playing politics expertly. Herod was an unpopular puppet of the Empire. And then we have Jesus. Jesus was a king but his kingdom did not come from this world. You belong to one of the kingdoms from this world by simply being born into it. Or because your kingdom was conquered by another. But citizenship in the kingdom of God is totally voluntary. No one is there against his will. You have to be born again, born from above to be a part of it. You have to ask God to enter your life in order to enter his kingdom.

The kingdoms of the world were all established by spilling the blood of the conquered. And that blood and the death of soldiers and citizens benefited the king or emperor or premier or president.The kingdom of God is established on the spilt blood of its king, Jesus. And ultimately the death of Jesus benefited the lives of the citizens of God's kingdom. He gives up his life that we might have life eternal.

The kingdoms of this world all end. The pharaohs no longer rule Egypt. Assyria and Babylon are history. The Roman Empire fragmented and fell to barbarians. The kingdom of God is everlasting. The reigns of leaders of the kingdoms of this earth also come to an end. Pilate's patron, Sejanus, second in power only to the Emperor Tiberius, was arrested and executed. Pilate was removed from office after the Samaritans wrote to the Emperor protesting his violence against them. Caiaphas was removed as High Priest a year before Pilate's downfall. Herod Antipas was accused by his nephew of conspiracy against the Emperor Caligula and died in exile in Gaul.

Jesus was crucified, a punishment reserved for slaves and traitors. Yet God raised him on the third day and his name and his movement has spread throughout the world. These other 3 men are footnotes to history, known primarily because of their interactions with Jesus.

To Pilate, Caiaphas and Herod, Jesus was a problem to be dealt with. None of them cared who he really was. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” As Pilate cynically said, “What is truth?” They didn't care. They only cared about the political realities of the moment. The Son of God was not killed because of who he was or what he preached. He was killed because of other considerations.

What about you? Do you in times of crucial decisions take into account only what will benefit you and yours or do consider who Jesus is, what he has done for you and what your response should be? Do you try to sideline the Son of God so you can continue with business as usual in your life? Do you treat Jesus as an inconvenience or as your Lord, your Savior and your King now and forevermore?

Let us pray:

Lord God, Heavenly Father, King of the Universe, so often we confuse the ephemeral with the eternal, the trivial with the important and the important with the essential. Too often we put more emphasis on the things of this world than the matters of your kingdom. Change our perspective, Lord. Help us to see all things through your eyes and act accordingly, regardless of how it looks to the rest of the world. May we never be ashamed to show our allegiance to you and your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray and who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Cleaning Up Messes

I have been giving confirmation classes recently and I was trying to explain the sacraments. Some churches say there are 7; we only accept 2, baptism and communion, because they are the only 2 Jesus actually commands. But if I were pressed to nominate another act of Jesus to be a sacrament, I would be tempted to say, “footwashing.” Jesus actually said, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:14-15) That's almost a commandment.

We do practice footwashing on Maundy Thursday. It feels weird because it's not really a part of everyday life, as it was in Jesus' day. But it was weird then, too, because Jesus was doing something relegated to the lowest slave. People didn't wear shoes and socks but open-toed sandals. And the streets weren't usually paved, nor were they cleaned regularly. And they didn't have sewers. So folks' feet were nasty. But that was the point. When you love someone, you do what needs to be done for them, even if it means you have to get your hands dirty.

I don't think you could be an effective parent if you had rupophobia, the fear of dirt, filth and feces. Likewise you would have trouble taking care of a child if you had emetophobia (fear of vomit), quenliskanphobia (fear of spit or saliva), hemophobia (fear of blood) or mysophobia (fear of germs). As a nurse, I can handle anything provided I am wearing gloves and a paper gown and sometimes a mask. But most parents realize you don't always have a hazmat suit available; you do what you have to do with what you have at hand. And you do it out of love.

Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin word for commandment. That refers to what Jesus says in John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Love is messy and Jesus is showing us both how much he loves us and how much we should love one another.

So what kind of messes should we be willing to deal with when expressing Jesus' love?

Besides physical messes, there are emotional messes. We all know people who have been an emotional mess at some time. And some folks are an emotional mess more frequently than others. Usually we try to distance ourselves from such people. We may fear being drawn into the drama or just feel unable to help the person. I get exposed to all kinds of messy emotions at the jail: anger, despair, jealousy, remorse, and on rare occasions, false hope. What I do is listen. Sometimes all the person needs is someone to vent to. If you let them talk long enough, they might even suggest a solution to the problem. The real difficulty might be facing the unpleasant truth. They may just want someone to confirm what they already know they must do but really don't want to. Sometimes they just want someone to say, “That sucks.” And it helps when they realize how Jesus also faced a choice and course of action that sucked but which he accepted for our sake. When I pray with them, I restate what they said about how they feel and they are moved and relieved that we could be that honest in presenting it to God.

Keep in mind that Jesus stripped himself of his tunic and wrapped a towel around his waist. If you are dealing with a mess, you don't want to get any more of it on you than necessary. Crying with those who cry is fine but you don't want to get enraged with someone who is in a rage or panicky when the other person is panicky or hysterical with someone who is already hysterical. A nurse washes her hand before touching a patient. Ask God to help you keep your head and stay calm and helpful while dealing with the mess. And just like a nurse strips off the gloves and gowns and washes her hands again after cleaning up the mess, you need to shed as much of the debilitating emotions afterward and spent some time getting yourself back on an even keel. Ask God's Spirit to cleanse, refresh and restore you. Get sleep; exercise; eat well.

Protecting yourself from the chaos is especially important when dealing with the financial messes people find themselves in. I am grateful that my contract with the jail forbids me from handling money or doing business for or with the inmates. Sometimes I wish I could help them deposit a check and pay their landlord so they don't lose their place to stay while in jail. But that would open me to a lot liabilities and I might mess things up because I am not a financial worker. I try to see if they can call a friend or relative. (And, sadly, I have found that usually they have no one in their life they can trust.) Probably the best thing you can do is refer someone in financial trouble to an expert and keep them from making fiscal decisions while in emotional turmoil.

If the person is a spiritual mess, you should definitely refer them to The Expert: God. You may need to assure them that God can forgive anything and is willing to hear their cry. This is a situation in which it is important to have some passages of scripture memorized that can help. Hopefully, some of them are verses that have helped you. The main things that keep people from God are guilt, shame and fear. I have found that doubt is a very distant fourth on this list. They wouldn't have turned to you for spiritual help if their doubts were that strong. Again you must be very empathetic, even if the person seems a bit blasphemous. A lot of it has to be discounted as the pain and despair talking. Feel free to call me in if you sense you are out of your depth. And maintain your spiritual hygiene. To shift the metaphor, drowning people are panicky and will grab for anything, including a rescuer and take them under as well. Experienced lifeguards know how to approach such people so that they don't both drown. To shift the metaphor once more, remember to have your oxygen mask on first so you can be able to help the other person with theirs.

People are messy. Their problems are messy. And our master Jesus the Messiah, the son of God, is willing to strip down, put on a towel, grab a basin and clean up people and their messes. As his students and followers, we need to do what he has done. It is how we love one another as he loved us.