In the Way
Christ gets in your way and invites you, calls you, transforms you, to walk in the Way and join God’s children in healing the world.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Third Sunday of Easter, year C
Texts: Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 30; John 21:1-19 (plus 20-22)
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Followers of the Way in Damascus probably prayed Psalm 30 a lot that week.
Word had gotten out that Paul, known better by his Hebrew name, Saul, was on his way to do in Damascus what he did in Jerusalem. He was an enforcer for the Council leadership, finding, arresting, and bringing back in chains those who proclaimed Jesus as Messiah. Luke says he “breathed threats and murder” against the faithful Christians. And now he was on the way to Damascus. Surely they all prayed “don’t let our enemies triumph over us,” from this psalm.
And Christ Jesus, risen from the dead, answered that prayer. By confronting their great enemy with love and invitation. Christ, who taught them to pray for and to love their enemies, said, “Here’s what I’ll do with those who hate you. I’ll love them over to our side.” Ananias and the others were understandably doubtful. But Jesus said, I’ve chosen him to be my instrument to bring my name – the Good News you all proclaim – to both Jews and non-Jews.
That’s the way of Christ: transforming hatred with love, for the healing of all.
And the risen Christ believes sinful people are absolutely necessary for this Way.
As tremendously daunting as the world’s problems are, with systemic sins like racism and sexism and classism, and deeply embedded patterns of violence and hatred as a common human way of living, God in Christ has a simple plan: change people one at a time, inviting them into the Way, and eventually all will be healed. The Dalai Lama once wrote, “Although attempting to bring about world peace through the internal transformation of individuals is difficult, it is the only way.” [1]
Christ couldn’t agree more. The healing of all creation will come by transforming the human children of God in it, to bring about the wholeness and life of all things.
And it’s the sinners, the broken ones who keep breaking things, the embedded, intransigent ones who perpetuate oppressive systems, the oblivious ones who benefit from the pain of others without knowing it or seeming to care about it, these are who Christ needs to transform.
People like Paul.
Vengeful, violent, and zealous for his cause, Paul is a notorious persecutor of the new community of those who trust in Christ.
Rather than violently stopping Paul, Christ looks at one of the best-trained Jewish people of his day, an exemplar Pharisee, brilliant in the ways of the Jewish faith, and says, “that’s one I could use to reach non-Jewish people, and bring my Gentile and Jewish children together, if I can change his heart.”
No one but God would think that way. So, Christ got in Paul’s way on the road to Damascus, and asked, “Why do you hate me?” Then told him to go to the city and people who he’d been seeking to destroy would help him. Paul went, and he and the world were never the same again.
Christ needed people like Peter, too, whose problem is the opposite of Paul’s.
Peter isn’t breathing threats and murder. He succumbed to his fear after boldly saying he’d never leave Jesus, denying him three times the first chance he got. Peter seems to us to stumble more than walk, overstep more than wisely act, one who at the test failed miserably.
Christ looks at this clumsy, impulsive, fearful follower and says, “there’s a leader. That’s one I trust most to lead my apostles.”
No one but God would think that way. So, Christ got in Peter’s way, sat down with him at breakfast and asked, “Do you love me?” After three painful asks, Jesus each time said, “take care of my sheep. Feed my lambs.” Peter did, and he and the world were never the same again.
Do you realize Christ needs people like you to walk in the Way, too?
The healing of all things will only happen when individuals are transformed from within. And sinners like you and me are critical, because we’re part of the problem. Changing us takes away that part of the problem and makes us part of the solution. Whether you’re breathing violence like Paul or running away like Peter, or in between, the risen Christ sees something in you that you can bring for the life of the world.
Maybe no one but God can see that. No one expected Paul’s transformation. Nothing Peter had done inspired trust he’d be a leader. But Christ saw who they could be, and got in their way, calling them into his Way.
What will that look like for you? God knows. But somehow Christ is going to get in your way to invite you to walk in his Way. Maybe on the road. Maybe at breakfast, saying “do you love me? Then I’ve got a job for you.”
And Peter had another lesson you could learn: don’t compare yourself to others.
After this conversation with Jesus, Peter wondered about his friend John. What would happen to him? Jesus said, “don’t worry about him. You do you, I’ll handle the others.”
That’s good wisdom. You aren’t expected to be Paul or Peter. Or Mother Teresa or Mary Magdalene. Nor are you to worry about whether others are having their conversation with Christ.
But you’ve already come here today to worship the Triune God and hear God’s Word. Essentially, you’ve said to God this morning, “can we have breakfast and talk?” You’re ready for it.
So, listen to what Christ says to you. Because there are lambs to be fed and sheep to be tended. A creation to be healed, God’s children to be brought into life and justice and peace. Christ has a role for you.
Don’t worry what others are doing. And trust that Christ has the utmost confidence you’ll be able to be and do what God sees in you. So that one day, all things will be healed through the Way of Christ.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
[1] In the foreword to Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh (New York: Bantam, 1991), p. vii. Cited in From Cruelty to Compassion: The Crucible of Personal Transformation, Gerald G. May (Fetzer Institute, 2003), p. 1
Worship, May 1, 2022
The Third Sunday of Easter, year C
In our worship we meet Jesus, like Peter and like Paul, and have a conversation where our Lord invites us into a new Way.
Download worship folder for Sunday, May 1, 2022.
Presiding and preaching: Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Readings and prayers: John Meyer, lector; Consuelo Gutierrez Crosby, assisting minister
Organist: Cantor David Cherwien
Download the readings for next Sunday for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.
The Olive Branch, 4/27/22
What’s At Stake?
If you, like Thomas and the others, can find trust that Christ is risen, it will truly change your life and the life of the world you are in.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Second Sunday of Easter, year C
Texts: John 20:19-31; Acts 5:27-32
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Thomas has a lot at stake in seeing Jesus for himself.
Whether Thomas can trust his friends isn’t academic. This isn’t theological doubt that has no impact on how you live your life. If Jesus is alive, everything is changed for Thomas. If he’s dead, nothing that used to matter matters. He’s been living in a fog, like the rest of them, since that terrible Thursday and Friday, but now he’s had to hear the others’ excitement and joy for a week, still in a fog himself. What Thomas asks is simple, and fair. I’d like to see Jesus myself.
A risen Jesus, for all of them, is a reality question, not a theological one. Jesus was their friend, their teacher, they believed he was from God. They saw him dead. For real. And no one rises from the dead, except those Jesus raised. If Jesus is dead, it’s all over.
But if he’s alive, everything he taught is real and true and matters. If he’s alive, their lives change forever. If he’s alive, nothing is the same.
That’s what’s at stake for Thomas.
Do we have anything close to as much at stake in what happened?
To start with, for us Jesus’ resurrection is old news. 2,000 years of people have either believed in a risen Christ or not. I’ve heard “Christ is risen indeed!” every year of my life for nearly 6 decades. How can any change hinge on whether you trust Jesus is truly risen and living in the world if you’ve always known it?
And for hundreds of years the Church based all its evangelism on only part of what Christ’s resurrection means, life after death. That is a joy, a truth, a gift, but it’s not the only gift, joy, or truth. It’s a great promise. But once you trust it, life could go on as usual.
Life as usual was never an option for these disciples. A dead Jesus means lost hope, a sense of abandonment by God, a bleak future. A risen Jesus means life, and hope, and joy. God is with you, life has meaning, God’s love fills you and the world and transforms all things.
Can we perceive the resurrection with as much at stake?
Jesus said we who didn’t see this are blessed when we trust without seeing.
John reminds us of that, and says he wrote this whole Gospel as an eyewitness to you and me, to any who read it, to see for ourselves what these people saw and trusted, hoping in that seeing we’d find the same trust.
John’s promise jolts you and me into understanding the raised stakes. He says if you can trust Jesus is the risen Messiah, the Son of God, you can have life in his name. Abundant life, as Jesus promised and wants for all. Life here. Life with hope and purpose, life filled with the Spirit of God. Life-changing life that changes the world.
That’s what’s at stake. Those two Sundays Christ offered a new life to those women and men. Now he offers the same to you.
First, into the disciples’ fear, unstopped by locked doors, Jesus gives peace.
Luke and John say Jesus’ first words the Sunday night of his resurrection to the whole group of disciples were “Peace be with you.” Then he breathed God’s Spirit into them. The next Sunday, when Thomas was there, Jesus’ first words were “Peace be with you.”
That’s what the risen Christ offers you. Peace. Christ breathes the Holy Spirit into your lungs, into your body, God’s Spirit in your spirit, and says, “Be at peace.” So, we heard today, Peter and the others stand before the same council that condemned Jesus and defy the command to be silent about the resurrection. We’re going to obey God, not you, they say. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they had inner peace even when their lives were threatened, because God’s Spirit was in them. All these believers lived with this peace as they spread the Good News of God’s resurrection life.
Christ is alive. Risen from the dead, he gives to you the peace he promised on the night of his betrayal, breathing the Spirit into you, to give you life as he promised.
That’s why for centuries the Church has included Christ’s giving of peace at every Eucharist. We don’t want to risk forgetting this immense gift that changes our lives, no matter what happens in them – tragedy or joy, mourning or dancing, life or death. We share Christ’s peace with each other and so keep giving the gift.
Second, Jesus gives a life with purpose.
There’s more to this second gift which we’ll hear next week from John 21. But that Easter night, after giving peace and breathing God’s Spirit into them, Jesus sent these women and men out, making them all literally apostles, sent ones. They were sent to forgive the sins of others. To be God’s forgiving love that Jesus showed on the cross.
That’s their purpose now. It’s your purpose, too, your meaning to life. You, as God’s anointed in Baptism, are sent to forgive others for their wrongdoing. Not only those who hurt you. Jesus sends you to offer God’s forgiveness to all, no matter who they’ve wronged. To live a life that proclaims God’s final answer to all sin and brokenness is forgiveness and love.
And if you hold on to, retain, the sins of others, Jesus says, you keep forgiveness from them. Not ultimately – no one has the authority to prevent the Triune God from forgiving anyone. But if you don’t offer God’s forgiveness and love to others, Jesus says they will feel as if they don’t have it at all.
That’s Incarnation. Because humans don’t tend to assume their gods are forgiving, the true God needed to show us in a human, concrete way. The Triune God comes to us with a face – Jesus – to forgive and love us in such a way that we can’t miss it.
And now you and I and all who live in Christ are sent out as God’s forgiving love in the world. So no one doubts God’s grace and love for them. That’s your purpose.
Everything changed with Jesus’ resurrection for these women and men.
They had peace in God’s Spirit within them. They had a purpose, doing Jesus’ job of proclaiming God’s forgiveness. They began to live into Jesus’ promise on the night of his betrayal, that he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Now they have a Way to live and walk, because Jesus is risen. The Way of Christly love and grace and forgiveness, living in their Risen Lord who is their Way.
Now they have a Truth that changes everything for them, because Jesus is alive. Not a doctrine of resurrection. A living Truth, God’s love Incarnate, death-breaking, life-giving, peace-pouring Truth to fill them with the Spirit and center their reality in a world of deceit and lies.
And now they have a Life to live, in the Risen Christ who is alive and in the world. A life with meaning and purpose. Abundant life that seeks to bring God’s abundance to all.
That’s what’s at stake, if you can trust that Jesus is God’s risen Christ, God’s Son, the Way, the Truth, and the Life for you and the world. Then you will find everything these disciples found, and more.
And nothing will ever be the same.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
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