Sheer Grace! 2nd Sunday of Easter

EASTER 2

SHEER GRACE, SUCH MERCY

PSALM 16; 1Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

— Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 21 (1563)

What is true faith?

True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ’s merit.

Let’s pray.

I’ve told you this story once before but its so lovely, I have to tell you again.

In 2012, Caroline Van Hemert and her husband set off from Bellingham on a 4,000 mile human-powered journey to Kotzebue, Alaska, far above the Arctic Circle, almost to eastern Russia, in their hand-made canoe. She writes, “I’d left on this expedition not because I was looking for an escape, but because I needed to find my way home.” She had worked for years on a PH.D in biology, but was farther away then ever from the actual land and water of our beautiful earth.

As they trekked deeper into the land of caribou, they began to use the paths and walkways these majestic creatures had created with their mass migrations every spring, herd’s of 50,000 to 500,000 caribou. Hemert writes, ‘near the end of our trip, we were paddling our canoe on the Nosatak River where we spotted lots of brown sticks.” As they watched, the brown sticks rose up from the water, it was the Caribou.

When you watch a National Geographic show of this migration, it all looks so choreographed. But Hemert says, “backstage with the dancers, instead of an orderly procession, the migration felt jumbled and jostling...like a school yard full of kindergartners.” They pulled their canoe out to wait and watch, just feet away.

At the river crossing there was a bottleneck—each Caribou had to decide to jump 6 feet into the river or move to another spot upstream. She watched mother cows with calves clinging close to their side get ready to jump and at the last minute, change her mind. Other male Caribou made room for the mom and calf to try again. Never once was one shoved or pushed. Hemert’s lesson? Quote: “Grace abounded that afternoon as my husband and I sat shoulder to shoulder in awe of this migration dance. We learned something important that day—there is always a way forward; faith exists in the unknown; beauty when you least expect it; the visceral relief of bearing witness to something much larger than myself. Community is everything.

She finishes, “to survive together, we must be brave. We must be compassionate. We must learn when to step forward as leaders and when to step aside so others can pass safely. I believe, we too, can find a way.” Unquote.

If you go to Dr. Van Hemert’s website, there are stunningly beautiful photos of this and many other trips. Note that she and her husband simply sit and watch the caribou do their dancing, choreographed by long memories of survival together, deep care for one another, and watching out for the least and the little. Huge herds care for each and everyone. Quote: “Grace abounded that afternoon -there is always a way forward; faith exists in the unknown; beauty when you least expect it; the visceral relief of bearing witness to something much larger than myself. Community is everything.” Unquote

Bearing witness, grace, beauty and transcendence. This is at the heart of the mystery of our faith. Let’s all go watch the caribou, for they have something to teach us.

In this Easter season of 50 days, we are called to live INTO this mystery, a problem our minds cannot solve. ‘Jesus was slain for the sins of the world and now He is risen, He is risen indeed.’ It is a FACT of faith—if there is such a thing. It runs right up against what we know to be true: There is nothing more certain in life than our own death, our minds uneasily grasp this notion, for we have lost the ones we love so deeply. The sting of death is not so far away. He rose from the dead? Our minds demand evidence, our hearts beg for reassurance. Is this true? Is Jesus raised from the dead? Unless I put my fingers in His wounds, Thomas declares on our behalf. This is not doubt, this is disbelief, we must touch the wounds, draw a fingerprint of blood, see Jesus wince as His new scabs are still tender. Sheer Grace.

Jesus does not shame Thomas/us for our disbelief. Like how He lived before He died? He offers caring respect and regard for the depth of the questions: You need something more than Double M’s magnificent testimony, “I have seen the Lord” a second-hand report of My Resurrection? Sure, I get it. Here, touch my wounds. Yet, Do not hold onto your disbelief, for it will corrode My peace. I give you this peace from the Father, and the Holy Spirit, Triune God, your rock and your fortress. What I want from you is for you to abide with Me. Peace I leave with you as My permanent gift. Let Me breathe on you like the God given breath filled the lungs of Adam and Eve, like the dry bones rising up to dance again.

This is not what the world offers in its manifestations of hatred and chaos. The Crucified stands smack in the middle of the harm and hurt and reveals God’s deep and abiding compassion. We live in the neighborhood of Golgatha, the shadowed cross still visible, our need for redemption so clear, especially the part of the mystery called forgiveness. Salvation has come and we are saved.

This logic of faith is rooted in our creation - that is, we are hard-wired to think for understanding yet our tender hearts and soft souls seek comfort in our believing. We are the ones who have NOT seen yet still believe. The power of the breath of the Holy Spirit still moves us closer in to Christ - as Paul writes in Romans13.11 - salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Right. So having faith, holding faith, clinging to faith, in the midst of the chaos of our crowded minds, is not solely dependent on our conjuring up some power to express the mystery of Christ. Rather, we can rest in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit whose job it is to sustain our faith.

In the beginning was the Word, John writes in chapter 1, verse 1. Now at the end, chapter 20:30-31, he finishes the story - ‘Jesus did many other signs, in the presence, in the visual presence of His disciples, about 500 women and men saw Him post-resurrection, which are not written down. But these are! So you, all of you, might come to believe, that is abide in faith, Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and the gift He gives us is this: here, have life!!

What is this life He gives? A life of community, visceral witness to transcendence, beauty, grace and mercy. In the midst of a fallen world, a world defined by horrendous and unspeakable violence and terror, Jesus calls us out to a broader plain, to see life beyond the immediate, to look up and experience wonder and awe. This gift, filled with joy, is the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!

Sheer grace. Amen

Two Days Later...Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Two Days After…

Jeremiah 31:1-6; Col. 3:1-4; John 20:1-18

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!

This simple exclamation runs on past the borders of our imaginations. There is risk and there is promise in this small sentence. As Fred Craddock, a delightful preaching prof says, quote: “It’s a small headline, below the fold, right hand corner of the front page of the newspaper. It’s reported in Jerusalem today, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.” Unquote.

What? What? We shake our heads, pull back a little, screw up our faces in thought. Resurrected, alive? I don’t have a category for this within the intellectual structures of my thinking. Alive?

Whispered witness, He’s alive. Mary Magdalene told us. She has seen the Lord!

O she sure has. Double M has been round the block more than once with Jesus. Part of His traveling entourage for 3 years, she provides out of her means for His well-being, along with some other women, also named Mary, and Joanna and Susanna. Double M had been possessed of demons and experienced her own kind of resurrection at Jesus’ touch. Later, she is labeled a prostitute, a symbol of faith in her repentance, Christian history says. Women can be virgins or prostitutes or nuns, they can’t be witnesses. But the Bible doesn’t say it quite like this. Double M is our exemplar for she was last at the cross and first at the tomb. “I have seen the Lord!” The first Christian sermon ever preached. By a woman no less. Two Days Later

There is a question that rises up: it is a simple statement, as well. ‘Is it true?’ Is it true that God so loves the entire world, He sent His only Son to bring the entire world back to His own heart? After the enmity of Eden, first humans claim their own ungodly power, their garden destroyed, their fall into sin, their hubris, our own, as if we can make it on our own. No need of God nor community. I think, therefore I am, existence defined only by the power of the mind. Prove it. Prove it! Prove that Christ is risen from the dead. Where’s your evidence? I will decide what is truth.

This is the thing.

There is no science that offers proof, no data points, no algorithms, nothing like that. There is only powerful, strong, historical witness - Christ is risen, He is risen indeed - repeated person to person, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, communities gathered each week to tell the stories, sing the songs, pray the prayers, break the bread, all over the world. It all begins with this Easter event, everyone running to the tomb and then running back to say the same thing: He is risen.

What can be discovered by a deep glance at Jesus’ life, death and now risen, is this: Who He is, What He says, and What He does, is absolutely coherent, top to bottom, inside out. It is extraordinary for it is singular, unknown, no where else found. He gathers in the ones left out - tax collectors, lowly fishermen, shepherds, women, both adulterers and prostitutes and devil possessed, demonic’s, foreigners, illegal immigrants, the unlovelies as they are known. He sits at table, eats and drinks and laughs with them. He enjoys their company. He respects their personhood. He listens carefully. His table only more crowded every day. Everyone is welcomed, truly welcomed!

He brings heaven to earth in His body. Remember He was born a baby, down a birth canal like the rest of us. He was a toddler, a child, a teenager, a young adult, as we categorize today. His humanity is deeply connected to His Divinity. He is the completion of God’s salvation history. From the very beginning representative Eve & Adam, are thrust out, broken, ashamed for their sin, naked. God’s lovely gift after their betrayal? To sew them clothes.

But God was not about to turn His back on humanity forever. She has a plan, it started with the covenant of Sarah & Abraham, through slavery in Egypt, freedom, yet in the wilderness for a very long time, prophets yelling at them ‘come back, give up your idols, you idiots!’ And then a sweet word to a young woman, ‘Mary, you’ve been chosen. Will you carry this baby?’ Her yes engages the cosmos with a backwater village in Galilee.

Jesus confronts personal sin, structural sin, all the injustices imagined, all the evil violence, hatred, everything, everywhere, all the time. He claims redemption through His shed blood, forgiveness a permanent gift, always available, simply one step back.

And this is what gets Him killed. For the narrowed viewpoint of religious leaders in cahoots with the power broker political oppressors of Cesar. They don’t want redemption for everybody. They want to maintain their grip on power and to make sure everyone stays in line, to conserve the institutions, keep them just the way they are.

Two Days Later…

And it is theologically true, that Jesus had to die as part of the whole plan of redemption. He bore the sin of many, He was wounded for our transgressions, the weight shattering His life. All of us have gone astray, we turn to our own way over and over again. God laid all of this on Him, His Beloved; Jesus becomes slave, humbled, obedient, all the way to death, even death on a cross. We claim great is the mystery of our faith - Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again -in our communion liturgies. And it is true, we do not have capacity to fully understand what shed blood, last scapegoat, final sacrifice, actually means. This is the risk and the promise of faith, that we lay down our arrogance and pick up our humility. We lay claim to believe. Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! Amen