We see Jesus in each other, we see Jesus in the wine and bread. Have we truly come to believe because we haven't seen him? 

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley. 

April 23 - 2nd Sunday in Easter

"Seeing Jesus".  Text is from John 20:19-31 

Click here for sermon audio 

---

Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God. 

Easter, at least the season of it, has only just begun. Even though we're a week after the Sunday of the Resurrection, we're only now beginning to talk about Jesus's post resurrection appearances and how he is beginning to live into this amazing gift he's given to us, first to the women at the tomb, and then to those they'd met, the disciples. Here in the upper room. And although there were on 10 of the remaining twelve  there, frightened about who might be coming for them, Jesus nevertheless appeared and ate with them and showed them his wounds and blessed them and gave the holy spirit to take with them to bless others. 

We don't know where Thomas was that first night that Jesus came to visit. There are so many possibilities. It had been a frightening time for the disciples who felt as if they must go into hiding, and perhaps, of all of them, Thomas had some place else to go. Maybe Thomas had made a friend ijn Jerusalem and hadn't told anyone about them. What remains with us, though, throughout this set of passages, is that Thomas did not see and therefore, did not believe until Jesus showed his face once more. 

So we know how this next part goes. Thomas tells the others when they recount what happened that he refuses to believe what took place, that Jesus actually broke bread with, and blessed his fellow disciples; and will not believe unless he places his hand within the wound at Jesus' side. So they all got together the next week in the upper room, and this time Thomas was with them. And of course, Jesus appears already knowing that Thomas has openly doubted his other disciples, telling him to touch his hands with his fingers and to put his hand right here in his side where the spear had touched him. That is enough for Thomas, he believes saying, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus asks Thomas (and what we may consider, the rest of them) if they believe because they have seen him? Well, blessings on those who have not seen and who have come to believe, Jesus adds. 

So we have the gospel reading. A reminder that those who have come to believe who have not actually been first-hand witnesses to the miracles following the resurrection, the appearances of Jesus after he had risen are truly the ones who this mission is aimed at.  Or maybe it's a bit different. There's a fairly interesting textual variation that happens here in verse 29 that makes a little bit of a difference in the reading of this text. Our translation reads ,  "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." There I a common variation that reads, "blessed are those who have not seen and yet continue to believe," that I just as common in the old text as the one which reads, "come to believe." 

The thing about the old texts and the ones we use for modern texts I that we have absolutely no way of knowing what version was meant to be in the original. Whether it be a scrivener's mistake or someone turning around and correcting what they clearly believed to be a mistake in the previous version, differences in readings of old texts about, and some are granted more authenticity because of things like how old the texts are that use it, how reliable is the source text, how common I the variation. In this case, it seems that either "come to believe" or "continue believing is just as common.

But is there anything wrong with that? Are you someone who needs to find a way to believe better, to relieve your own personal doubts? Or are you someone who has a measure of faith and need to be reassured of it on a regular basis, like an affirmation that your believing in the risen Christ is the decision that God wants you to have? 

I do know, my sisters and brother that faith is, indeed, a gift, and tat new have been given this gift from the hands of God without reservation. But there can always be circumstances within our lives that test that faith. We know that we'll lose people close to us, that happens to everyone. But when it finally does happen to us, we wonder where God's plan is in all that. We may get frustrated because we know that God loves us and wants the best for us but we may struggle to make ends meet, or find employment that keeps us happy and well maintained. We may have difficulty looking for adequate housing and want to give up frustrated, but still aren't sure whether God wants us to give up or if that new place I just right around the next corner. 

Our faith gets tested over and over again, and it's in the miracle of that believing that we find the depth of how much God cares for us. We shouldn't really uplifting Thomas as some object lesson in doubt, because he simply voiced the fact that without the benefit of these signs, how could he have believed what the others were saying? But he did show up at the next gathering, the next eucharist, despite his skepticism, despite his misgivings that the other disciples had been trying to trick him into a believe, he loved his community and what Christ taught them enough to be there again. And when Jesus does appear and tells him to put his hand in the wound, what does Thomas do? Simply declare "My Lord and my God." He doesn't need to touch Jesus to believe that he is there. No more than any of the other disciples.

First Mary and Mary, and the others, and then Thomas, all get to sit within his presence a few last time, and all of them had the possibility to doubt that Jesus returned, without having seen him first. But they were fortunate enough to believe as a result of seeing.

Do we do the same? We see Jesus in one another. We see Jesus in the work of the church. We see Jesus in the eucharist that we celebrate at the table here. I don't know how to not see Jesus. And so am I blessed? IN seeing Jesus in all those places, I am fortunate enough to be able to believe; even if I have not shaken hands with him or touched his wounds.

The good news, my sisters and brothers is that there is nothing wrong with doubt. That when we feel doubtful, those are times that we can take to see what our lives would be without God in them, and whether it would be worth it to us to lose our faith. For me, the love of a community of God is worth keeping it and praying about it during those moments of doubt that I inevitably have. It is at those times I find Jesus, and continue to believe, and quite possibly coming to believe with a renewed faith. 

We give glory to God, and praise the risen Christ with Halleluias. God sends the holy spirit upon us that we may have tronger faith and be more able to engage with his work in the world. And that gift of faith that we earned on Christ's death and resurrection empowers us to proclaim the good news in the world for him. 

Amen

Christ died. Christ arose. Christ wasn't just some political victim executed for expediency, profiled and 

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley. 

April 16 - Sunday of the Resurrection

"For all".  Text is from Matthew 28:1-10

Click here for sermon audio 

---

Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God.  Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God. 

This is indeed the day that our God has made! This day, more than any other, is one of praise and joy. The light has finally conquered darkness and overcome it. No longer is the body of Christ hidden away in a lonesome tomb but he is with us, alive and glorious. 

Today's Easter reading comes from the book of Matthew and is so full of wonderful imagery that we can so easily imagine that we were right there with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who scholars generally agree is the mother of Jesus. 

They alone sat vigil outside of the lonely tomb, along with soldiers standing watch, lest someone come and take the body from the tomb, or worse yet, rob the body of Jesus of some relic. This was a man executed by the state and reputedly performed miracles, and the word was most definitively out there, it was certainly within the realm of possibility that someone would seek to profit off of that fact, and the state did not want anything like that to happen. So guards were positioned outside. 

This angel who tells the women to not fear, and to see that Jesus was no longer in the tomb but had been raised anew. This angel, shining brightly as lightning and clothed in the purest white, gave these women instructions to tell the disciples that Jesus would meet the disciples in Galilee. 

Mary and Mary, for their part, ran immediately to seek the disciples out, and along the way, encounter Jesus himself, who repeated the same thing, to tell his brothers and sisters that he would be in Galilee and there they would meet again.  

And it is perhaps why Matthew doesn't emphasize Mary's role as Jesus' mother that we are able to see her in a different role, that she and Mary Magdalene are the first of the post-resurrection disciples, the first to steward the message of Jesus and bring the good news to others. 

And this account that begins with fear, not only on the part of these soldiers who are just there doing their job but also on the two women who had been morning ends with an overwhelming joy, one that could not be surpassed. Mourning to Fear to Joy.

And in some ways this is a perfect ending to the gospel of Matthew, which began with a man, Joseph, who was afraid to marry his disgraced fiancé, wishing to put her away quietly until an angel told him differently, should end with a moment of high joy. Jesus Christ, who was thought to be dead, was now risen anew. God is alive. 

I'm left wondering what happened with these soldiers? To have this duty, watching over the grave of a political prisoner, only to be forced to tell their commanders that they failed in their duties. Would they tell the truth? That a being of light and energy moved the stone out of the way and there was no body to be found? The disciples were blessed to believe the words of the two Mary's, but what about the Romans in command? Would they be branded as lunatics or liars? And how could these men do anything but believe beyond that point, after witnessing the miracles surrounding the disappearance of this man executed for political reasons. After hearing the good news proclaimed right from the top of the tomb.

This is the glorious culmination of the long season we have been traveling, fasting, praying, giving alms, contemplating where we are going. It is this moment, more than any other that gives reason to life. There were a few of us who attended the joint Good Friday worship, where our confirmation students read the passion from the Gospel of John. Interspersed between the readings was Taizé music and instrumentals, and the entire service was touching and moving to everyone who attended. And one cannot help but feel a sense of tragedy in living in the mood, knowing the nature of the death of Jesus, knowing that all of the people were at fault and understanding that we, even though we didn't live at the time, would have been included in "all the people".  And the Good Friday service ends there, in quiet. 

What a tragedy would this be if it ended there. 

I have seen this one post that has been floating around Facebook, which described Jesus as if he were a criminal, charged with a crime, explaining him as consorting with undesirables, stirring up a political storm, using a particular media spin. I understand the desire to point it out that way, because it is there to make us think, if the Romans viewed Jesus in this light, then certainly the way that we can change the way we view people who are held as criminals, or people who are protesting or people who are profiled.  But for me, the failure of that forgets the fact that Jesus died for all. 

Breakers of the law and keepers of the law.

Protestors and the status quo.

The poor and the rich.

The hungry and the well fed.

The angry and the content.

And not only did he die for all, he was raised up because of who he was. Not an ordinary man, not a simple victim of a political stand-off between the people of Israel and their Roman overlords, but because he was the Son of God the Creator. The prophesied Son of Man. 

This morning, another pastor posted the following on Facebook: "In Roman times, empty crosses littered the landscape. Empty tombs, not so much."  While there continue to be people executed unjustly, both here in the United States as well as abroad, that there continue to be governments who treat their citizens unfairly, there was only one Jesus Christ, only son of God, one savior who died and in dying abolished death for all who believed, and in his blood cleansing all of us from sin, and in God's raising him up, gave for us a king, not of earth, but over earth. 

And while we may have tragedies in our lives, we have this one joy that overcomes all, that no matter what the circumstances, no matter what may befall us, and what may transpire against us, that we too can glorify God, through the incredible story of how his son, Jesus, born of the betrothed of a humble tradesman, raised in the sticks, baptized in the Jordan, taught others to love God, and made himself known through miraculous feats of healing, who died because of the world's sin but did not stay dead, but defeated death, the devil and the power of the grave, to cleanse all sin and raised in order that we that believe may share his everlasting life. 

This, my sisters and brothers, is the heart of the good news. This is the glory of our God. 

Amen

Don't make assumptions. People get resentful about it. They want you to know who they are, they want you to notice them, but only reveal who they are to a point. The rest is for Jesus. 

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley. 

March 26 - 4th Sunday in Lent

"Seeing".  Text is from John 9:1-41

Click here for sermon audio 

---

Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God.

This morning's gospel reading is a pretty long one, one of the longest in our lectionary outside of Christmas and Easter. And it has another remarkable thing about it. Look here, we first have Jesus giving this man eyesight, and then he is brought before the Pharisees, questioned mercilessly... his parents are questioned, they tell them that he's all grown up, he can speak for himself, and then they question him once more and finally when they don't get the answers they want, they expel him from the synagogue. 

And after all that, Jesus seeks him out, and finds him.  And with all that happens in the interim, it is the longest absence of Jesus in the entire gospel, with the exception perhaps, depending on how you look at it, of the Easter Narrative. 

But there is also one other little detail I think I really need to point out. At the beginning of the reading, Jesus's disciples ask him if the man was blind because he or his parents were sinners.  Jesus responds, "No, neither they nor he sinned." That's just not the reason that this fellow is in the condition that he is in.  

But Jesus says something next, and this is one of those places that our bible translation is just being a little bit too helpful. It reads, "He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.  We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work."  If that sounds I little problematic, that God made this man blind so Jesus could come across him at this moment and have a miracle occur, it's important to note that the original Greek doesn't actually have, "He was born blind." That's something the translators here thought to include to help with what they perceived to be ambiguous.  

But here's another fact.  The original Greek texts from which we have gotten our translations, do not contain any punctuation. We add that later on so we can read it.  And so sometimes we have the ability to look at words, particularly ambiguous ones, that may refer to one thing and may refer to another.  Bearing that in mind, we can read that like this: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned.  In order that God's works might be revealed in him, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. This man was born blind, because... he was born blind.

It was not a moral failing on the part of his parents or a curse on their house or a setup for Jesus to come along and fix him right up. No, he was a man born blind and happened to be at the right place and at the right time for Jesus to come along when a miracle was needed.  

And while "never before had anyone seen a person born blind have their sight restored to them," we cannot say the same now, because thanks to modern medicine, this miracle takes place regularly...if you were born with the right kind of blindness.   And while we are focused on the miracle itself, it might not always be easy to read what else is in the text.

This man has his sight restored but as for all of the other problems. The only thing he knows how to do in this world is beg. He cannot go back to that but fully grown, he doesn't have a trade.  And whereas he had a community of people before...his family were members at the synagogue...he himself was apparently a member, he's been thrown out of it now.  And he still has all the aches and pains and prejudices and personality quirks that some might call character defects, others might call them defense mechanisms.  This man, despite being able to suddenly see still has all that. 

And because he is faulty, because he is subject to failure from time to time, because although his blindness was not a result of any moral deficiency, this man is altogether too human, just like the rest of us, he still needs a savior.  And passage has everything in it, the incredible transformation of blindness into seeing, the failure to recognize and acknowledge the man's identity, the rejection of him from the community of the synagogue...Jesus doesn't leave him to figure everything out by himself, he gifts him faith.

No longer is this mean expected to contend with a transformation that comes from without, because he is now able to see, and yet, this wonder of new sight, for the incredible worth that it is, does not effectively change who this man is.  He is still an ordinary man, just now able see around him, and in being able to see, he is suddenly seen as well. Because before he was just generally cast aside and ignored, he was in a world consigned to begging, even his parents wanted nothing to do with him. Now to the Pharisees, he is a threat, a danger, evidence of the mastery that Jesus Christ has in the world...Jesus...A man who was able to perform miracles, even on the Sabbath! 

This man's savior is here... a Messiah, who is able to show him a love that knows no limit, real transformation begins. It is the blindness of the Pharisees that becomes underscored at this point. And here, blindness is now figurative. In their "seeing" they presume to know more about the Messiah than the man before him, the one who told the blind man that he was the Son of Man. Because Jesus lays bare who people are. 

One of the biggest struggles in my life has been the realization that I do not know everything about everyone. And it has been literally eye-opening for me to have conversations with people who are not lie me in some way or another and to learn what makes them tick. And sometimes, quite inadvertently, what ticks them off. 

But I think the worst way to interact with someone is to speak with them while making assumptions about them. It doesn't matter whether the assumptions are based in fact or imagination, people don't want to offer up information that they themselves have not provided. And it is then I have the eye-opening experience of someone's resentment or anger. 

But we are revealed to ourselves by the miracle of Jesus' healing. We become the people we are meant to be, discovered and seen by Jesus' healing touch. Once baptized by water and spirit and now anointed by mud and breath, the scales fall from our eyes and we see the lord God and know that all is good. That despite the perceptions of those around us, someone sees us for who we really are, not how we seem to the world to be, nor how we sometimes cover ourselves with our own illusions. Jesus takes the things blocking our vision and we truly see. 

And we become his disciples and share this good news with all of those around, in order that His Gospel be proclaimed. We worship God because of all that God has done for us. The Holy Spirit enters us and we become Jesus's evangelists, doing his good works in the universe, while proclaiming Christ our Savior. And we live with him as our king. 

Amen

Jesus knows all of our secrets. There's no point in hiding from him. We become vulnerable whether we like it or not before Christ, our God. The living water is a gift that changes our lives and gives us reason to live. 

 This sermon is quite a bit different from how it was written, therefore, please listen to the sermon rather than read it.  The sermon notes which are included for convenience.  

Sermon delivered at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley. 

March 19 - 3nd Sunday in Lent

"Laid Bare".  Text is from John 4:5-42

Click here for sermon audio 

---

Good morning to you my sisters and brothers in Christ, saints and sinners, children of God.

The narrative of the Samaritan woman at the well is gorgeous, and so full of possibilities in its own right.  We have Jesus walking in Samaria, and he comes to this city and conveniently, while his disciples are away getting food, he stops at Jacob's Well, where he encounters this woman. To understand the tension, it helps to know a little bit about the different characters.  While Jesus is a Galileean, he is nevertheless specifically Jewish, just of a rural variety. And furthermore he is, at least to his disciples, a rabbi, a teacher, kind of a holy man. Samaratans like this woman are of a different breed of people altogether. It's not that they're that different from Jews, their religion stems from worship of the same God that the Jews worship.... Yahweh. But for the Jews, Yahweh is at the Temple in Jerusalem, and all worship must take place there. For Samaritans, the worship takes place on Mount Gerazim. The other major difference belongs to the distinction of the Old Testament, because the Samaratans were the ones who remained in the land of Israel during the Babylonian exile, and believed that their version of the face remain uncorrupted from Persian and Babylonian influences. 

And from these minor differences comes a major break, because the Jews considered the Samaritans, in many ways, worse than Gentiles. For a holy man such as Jesus to be speaking with a Samaritan woman was simply unheard of, particularly on his own. It was a violation of several laws and more significantly, social customs. 

So this encounter with Jesus was all the more important and significant because of the differences between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.  The fact that Jesus would ask her to draw him some water what have raised many eyebrows among the people of the time.

And then the dialog between the two of them gets even more intense.  Jesus mention something called living water and this excites the woman.  As soon as he mentions it, this is all she wants.  She has no idea what Jesus talking about--she didn't even know she was thirsty.  But Jesus mentions the living water and that's all she can think about.

And then the dialog gets provocative.  Jesus asks her about her husband, almost as if having her husband there what have made the entire dialogue but much more acceptable.  But she responds, "I have no husband." Jesus, of course, knows this.  She has had five husbands, count them, five.  And the one she has now...  This one is not her husband.  Yes, the woman is living with the man with whom she is not married.  Oh, me, Oh, my.  What a scandal we have here.

At that moment, the woman knows that the man she is speaking with is more than she originally thought.  She sees him now as a prophet.  Oh, but Jesus is so much more than that.  Her mind opens up like a flower, the words that he is saying to her are incredible.  He tells her who he is, and she believes.

Finally, the disciples return, and they see Jesus speaking to her.  They are astonished, they can't believe that Jesus is speaking to this lowly Samaritan woman.  But they don't say anything - I think it's better that they don't say anything, don't you?

My sisters and brothers, this is the moment in the Gospel of John that opens up the possibility that God might be more than simply the god of the Israelites.  In Jesus's openness to speaking to a woman who is not of his people she has opened the doors to proclaiming that God is the god of all people.  Well, at least the god of the Israelites and the Samaritans.  But that is saying something.

But what I find more compelling here is that the person that Jesus is speaking with is not just someone who is the wrong gender, not just someone who was the wrong ethnicity, but is also someone who is living in a state of, and may I be indelicate here, at the very least, an inappropriate household situation. This woman, whose history but we don't know, after all she's been divorced five times, which must make for a difficult living situation, this woman has to live with someone to help her make ends meet. What of it? Yes, Jesus comes to her and lays her secrets bare before God. This gift of living water doesn't come to people who are hiding from God, it's for the people who have to come to the well to make their own ends meet. It's for people who move through the shame of what life has to throw at them.

The gift of living water is for people who need to have a conversation with Jesus.  The gift of living water is for people ready to learn from Christ.  We come to Jesus and all our secrets are laid bare.  He knows who we are, who we are underneath the brave exterior we put out there.  He knows us who cheat on our taxes.  He knows us who drink a fifth before midday.  He knows us who sometimes wish we didn't have children.  He knows us who have thoughts that disturb us.  Jesus...  God knows all and sees all and in spite of that the living water is a gift to us.  Whether we have shame in our hearts or maybe our lives are on the open no secrets from anyone.

This living water that Jesus offers and is offered without conditions.  But  see how the Samaritan woman went in proclaims the good news to all the villagers.  The Samaritan woman is the first female disciple.  And she is the first non jew disciple.  And she is our template for how we are to go out and live when we are called by Jesus having drunk of this living water.  

This is how disciples are made. This is how we affirm our call to God. In that affirmation of his baptism, our brother, Dana will, in just a little bit, be, committing to being a representative of that promise that God made to us. Showing us what it means to be forgiven and showing us what it means to love God through loving one another. 

And we, the people of God, are the bearers of this good news, through Christ, and by God's grace. 

Amen