3^rd Sunday of Easter

Today’s message is from the Book of Acts. This book is the second volume of Luke’s two-volume work, popularly known as Luke-Acts. After writing the Gospel of Luke, the writer later wrote Acts of the Apostles. The writer was a travel companion of Paul who recorded all his activities during his missionary journeys.    Like Luke, Acts is addressed to the unknown reader Theophilus, (1:1–2). The author most likely wrote between the years 80 and 90 AD.

Today’s message is a clarion call for us to look up to Jesus, whose hand is outstretched for us to rise and walk again from issues that make us dysfunctional. In today’s passage, we learn of a man who had grown accustomed to a particular way of life.  He was lame from birth. As we think about our infants who are beginning to walk and what joy it is as parents to see their children take their first steps, this man never did that.  His parents had to do things for him because he never learned to walk because his legs were deformed.

¹ Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. ³ Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

What do you find unbelievable?  If you are like me, you find yourself saying from time to time, “I don’t believe it!” Something really amazing happens, but we act like we disbelieve.

Just think of the technological changes that have happened over the past years.  In 1943 Thomas Watson CEO of IBM made the bold prediction “There’s a world market for maybe five computers” (Worst Predictions of All Time, Telegraph, 29 June, 2016).

Every once in a while, though, we hear a story, and it is too out of this world, and we don’t believe it at all.  It reminds me of a pastor’s small son that was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all that dirt.

He refused and complained, by saying: “Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That’s all I ever hear around this house, and I’ve never seen either one!”

Last week we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.  Without a doubt the most significant event in all of human history.  It is the lynch pin upon which Christianity hinges.  In other words, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, Christianity has absolutely no power.  The Bible even admits this. The Bible is brutally honest in admitting this.  In I Corinthians 15:17 the Apostle Paul writes this, “If Christ has not been raised then your faith is futile and you are still in your sin.” 

Another word for futile is pointless.  What’s the point?  If Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead then we should be just patted on the head and sent on our merry ways.  You know those gullible Christians.  Here’s the real problem, you are still in your sins. Read more…

Friends, I invite you to revisit the story in today’s scripture reading and see if you can find yourself in the scene that unfolds on that first Easter morning.  Particularly in the conversation between Jesus and Mary in the garden just outside the tomb – the rolled-away stone sitting off to one side, the linen cloths lying there, Mary so blinded by her grief that she’s completely nonplussed by the appearance of angels – something that usually sends folks in both testaments shaking’ in their shoes.

Put yourself in Mary’s shoes and listen again to Jesus’ words. First, “why are you weeping?”  Before Mary even knows who it is that speaks to her, Jesus meets her in her darkest hour.  “Why are you weeping?” says the One who heals to the one in pain.  Says the One who comforts to the one who grieves. Says Immanuel, God with us, to the one who is lonely and afraid.  “Why are you weeping?”  It’s a question for each of us.   For some the pain may be raw and open. Loss of a loved one.  Loss of a job, or a home.  Physical illness.  Other wounds are more hidden.  Anxiety.  Depression.  Addiction.  Strained relationships. We all have burdens to bear, for ourselves, for others.  “Why are you weeping?”  Do you see yourself in Mary?

And then, “who are you looking for?”  Does Mary even know?  It sounds more like she is looking for a ‘what’— a corpse, so she can get on with the business of preparing a body for burial.  She is not even really looking for a ‘who’ – her own dear friend Jesus, alive and well.  Or is she?  The touching irony of this Read more…

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke’s account of the last supper that Jesus ate with his disciples. It is a reenactment ceremony specifically designed to evoke spiritual connection to God’s liberation from bondage and Yahweh’s deliverance of the Jewish people from Egypt.

The night of the last supper, all was not well among Jesus’ disciples. Everyone was on edge. They all saw the handwriting on the wall—soldiers and swords, crosses, and nails. One of them had already sold Jesus to the authorities. Peter was boasting he would be brave and follow Jesus, even if it meant certain death.

The Bible says Jesus was aware of their fear and confusion. He loved them. He knew their hearts were in the right place, but he also knew he would end up alone. They were so frail. On the night Jesus was betrayed, they shared a meal. They gathered at a table. That is what they had always done. A large part of their three years together was spent at tables.

In Jesus’ ministry, the table was where things got real. When eating together they began to understand that God’s love for them was full of mercy, no matter who they were or what they had done. There they were, saint and sinner, rich and poor, all welcome to eat. The table was where truth got told. Jesus would tell them stories about invited guests who were too important and preoccupied to come Read more…