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Helpless Hydrangea 6:24

för 20 dagar sedan6:24

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Gillad

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Grumpy helps a reader choose the best hydrangea for their hometown. Plus, Grumpy’s gripe of the week. You can find us online at southernliving.com/askgrumpy Ask Grumpy Credits: Steve Bender aka The Grumpy Gardener - Host Nellah McGough - Co-Host Krissy Tiglias - GM, Southern Living Lottie Leymarie - Executive Producer Michael Onufrak - Audio Engineer/Producer Isaac Nunn - Recording Tech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

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1
Easter 7 – The End and the Beginning

för 21 hours sedan

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Rev. Doug Floyd Tree of Life Cross – 12th century Basilica of San Clemente (Rome) Easter 7 2025 Rev. Doug Floyd Revelation 22 Today, we come to the end of The Revelation. As we come to the end of The Revelation, we realize we are back at the beginning. In Revelation 22:13, Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” [1] Iin Revelation 1:8, we read, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” [2] The entire Revelation teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is and was and is to come. At every moment in our history God Is. The end of Revelation points all the way back to the beginning of Scripture. In the opening of Revelation 22, we read, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:1-5) This sounds similar to Genesis 1-2. A glorious world is created by the Word of the Father and the hovering of the Spirit. In his Gospel, John also tells us that this the Word is the Son of God, and all things are made through Him. The Triune God creates a world out of the abundance of His love. This world is good. Then when the Lord creates His humans, the world is very good. Man is set in the Garden of Eden and there is a river flowing from the throne of God, through Eden to the ends of the earth. God walks with man in the cool of the evening. At the end of The Revelation, we see this image of a garden, a river, and a tree of Life flowing out from the Throne. And yet, this is not Eden. For this is a New Heaven and a New Earth. Instead of Eden, we see the New Jerusalem. A city that is also a Bride. Just as in Eden, God and humans dwell together. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” [3] We are no longer in a Garden, we are in a city. We might say “the city.” This is the true city that fulfills all inferior human cities. Cities are amazing places. Humans live together and must cooperate with one another. Within this community, there is all sorts of activity, energy, possibility. St. Augustine sees the city as aspiring to be a community of friends. It is amazing what humans can do together. The Romanian Theologian, Dumitru Stăniloae said that the world was created in and through God’s love. Within this wondrous world, there is time and space: both allow for some type of movement toward love. I can move closer to you or I can avoid you. At the same time, I can share life and time with you or I could turn my heart away from you. He suggested that there are mysteries within creation that are revealed in the exchange of love. Think of science or art. These and other fields are built on centuries of exchange, centuries of learning from one another. Back to the city. Humans can create amazing things. We can find cures to diseases. We flew to the moon. We carry computers in our pockets, and my childhood dreams of Dick Tracy’s video phone have come true. And yet, humans can create bombs that will destroy millions, create poisons that will torment those infected. Humans can create all sorts of horrors that darken the mind and soul. St. Augustine said that we are not living in the city of God, but the city of man. Though we aspire to love and do well, we can collectively do awful things. Together, we can turn away from God and worship our creations and ourselves. In Revelation 21-22, we begin to see the true City of God, the true city of brotherly love. I first caught a glimpse of this city when I was young, and read the last story in the Chronicles of Narnia. The children had passed through death into a new land, but it was familiar. It was home. It was the true home they always longed for. We spend our lives longing for home, our true home. Jesus leads into our homeland. When we finally come home, our fears have flown. Tears are wiped clean. Joy rings out on every corner. We have stepped into the communion of love. Dumitru Stăniloae said that we will continue to behold the wonders of our God and the wonders of one another for all eternity. Endless delight. But the Revelation is not actually taking us out of this world. As we come to the close of the book, Jesus says three times, “I am coming soon.” “Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” [4] “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” [5] “Surely I am coming soon.” [6] And the people of God say, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” [7] The Revelation is not calling us out of this world into a mystical vision of what is to come. Jesus is calling out to His churches in the present. “Return to love that you had for me and one another.” “Be faithful unto death.” “Repent. Turn away from false teaching.” “Beware of idolatry. Turn away from it’s seductions. Hold fast until I come.” “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die. Remember what you received and what you heard.” “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have that no one may seize your crown.” “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” [8] He is speaking to churches who are weary, who are tired, who are suffering, who have strayed into false teaching, who have allowed idolatry and immorality, who have grown cold. He reminds them, “I am coming soon.” He promises to bless each of His churches with grace to face the challenges before them. He is not telling them to leave this world, but to stand fast. To love. To worship God alone. To rejoice. To trust Him. The church is called to live in history, in time and space, always turning toward Jesus, always moving toward love. Love God, love one another, love this world in desperate need of reconciliation. Yes, it will seem difficult at times. Some people may hate and even kill you. Consider our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, in China, in Iran, and in all the troubled spots of our world. Some face death daily. You may be tempted by teaching that goes beyond Christ. Don’t fall for it. This teaching will always lead you down a dead-end road. You are made to worship, so make sure you worship God alone. Don’t bow before angels, people, smartphones, or whatever else human ingenuity has created. The Spirit of God can lead us into all truth, into all worship. He can lead us into the love of the Father and the Son. Jesus is praying for the seven churches. He is praying for our church, the church across the world. Even the churches that you may think have given into to false teaching and idolatry. It is clear from the Revelation that He is praying for a pure and spotless Bride. He prays, 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Christ is our true home. Christ is the tree of life. He feeds us, sustains us and will lead us to glory. As we look with hope to that glory beyond the veil of this life, we life in this moment, watching for Jesus who is coming soon. Even in the brokenness of our world, we look around and behold, skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people going by friends shaking hands, saying, “How do you do?” They’re really saying, “I love you” And we think, What a wonderful world. Thanks be to God for His goodness and grace breaking in all around us. Jesus says to you and to me, “Surely I am coming soon.” And we reply, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! [9] Let’s try it again together: Jesus says to you and to me, “Surely I am coming soon.” And we reply, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! [10] [1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:12–13. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:8. [3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 21:3. [4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:7. [5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:12–13. [6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:20. [7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:20. [8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 3:20. [9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:20. [10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 22:20.…

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Easter 6 – Its Gates Will Never Be Shut

för 8 dagar sedan

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Rev. Dr. Les Martin Mosaic Icon of Creation Easter 6 – Its gates will never be shut Rev. Dr. Les Martin Revelation 21:25b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen As we continue our preaching series today, we we find ourselves in Revelation, Chapters 21 and 22. While concerned with the new heavens and the new earth more broadly, much of our reading focuses on the New Jerusalem, the holy city coming down out of heaven. What captivates me are the gates, which Chapter 21, verse 25 tells us “will never be shut.” This is as it should be, philosophically speaking, and also in terms of both our faith and our lives right now. If you think about it, gates- doors- are meant to be open. This is because they are for entry. Walls are boundaries, gates are portals. For a door to remain always closed- always locked- would be to make it part of the wall. If there is to be no going through a gate, all one needs is a wall. Doors are sometimes shut, sometimes locked to enhance safety or protection, but that doesn’t take away from their fundamental purpose: as an entrance. The gates of the New Jerusalem are always open. By the time we get to Revelation 21, John has witnessed to the defeat of Satan and the final judgment. We are nearing the end- both chronologically and in terms of ontology, or purpose – of all things. Christ is victorious, and so the gates are open. Why? Because it is safe. As New Testament professor, The Rev. Dr. Craig Koester reminds us: The new creation is marked, in part, by an absence of powers that oppose God and diminish life. Ponder that: no opposition, no threat, no darkness or damaged lives- no need to turn doors into walls. The gates are open to a city with no temple, at least as the old Jewish temples had been known. The redeemed of the Lord enter into a place where sacrifice has ceased. Striving has ceased. The work of fallen humanity, of trying to make ourselves acceptable to God and to others, is no more. What takes its place? As the book of Hebrews tells us: there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (Hebrews 4:9-10, ESV) The gates are open to rest- freedom from endless self-justification, sacrifice, and self-improvement. The gates are also are open to all. Surprisingly, the city attracts the nations of the world and their rulers. We see again here that the gates are not designed to keep the nations away but to provide them with access to God. Anglican Bishop and scholar NT Wright says the following: For most of Revelation, ‘the nations’ and their kings have been hostile. They have shared in the idolatry and economic violence of Babylon; they have oppressed and opposed God, his purposes and his people. But the earlier hints of God’s wider redeeming purpose now come fully into play. The witness of the martyr-church in chapter 11 resulted in the nations, which had been raging against God, coming instead to give him glory (11:13). Now here they come in procession, in the long fulfillment of scriptural prophecies…Here they come, bringing their glory into the city through the wide-open gates We can rightly ask, how can this be? After all, the nations and the kings have been in downright rebellion against God. Do enemies of God now just enter the Holy City? St. Paul, writing in 1st Corinthians reminds us to take a more humble- and hopeful- approach to the matter. He writes: And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11, ESV) Ultimately, the issue is not the idolatry, sin, and rebellion of the nations and their kings. The issue is Jesus Christ and his reconciling work. The nations have now seen the truth, turned and entered in through the open gates. In the end, the New Jerusalem is populated by even the very nations and kings that had opposed God’s rule and oppressed the church, here now pictured as redeemed citizens of the Holy City. The restored Jerusalem has trees whose leaves will be used for for the healing of the nations. It is finished, our Lord said from his own Tree, and the veil that separated holiness from sin was torn in two by means of his atoning sacrifice. Now all who will come are together at last: one flock, one shepherd. What can we say about what this means to us? Let’s start with a liturgical observation: Eastertide is beginning to wind down. In the church calendar, this Thursday we observe Ascension Day, when Christ returns to his Father’s side. In John 14:2-3, Jesus says I am going away to make ready a place for you. And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. (NET) This place Jesus is preparing for us is nothing less than what we have read about in Revelation today: a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem with gates wide open- safe, free from sacrifice and struggle, redeemed from sin. This is our hope- our promise as followers of Christ. As such, it is the case that our lives as Christians are properly lived eschatologically- with the end in mind- lived in such a manner that we actually live the future right here in the present. This is the “already-but-not-yet” nature of the Kingdom that Paul talks about. If it is true that, at the end of all things, we are safe, at peace, free from sin, then the closed doors in our lives can begin to crack open right here and now. You know, I didn’t have a key to my childhood home until the day I left for college. I didn’t need one- in my small Tennessee town, there just didn’t seem much reason to lock the door. However, I have locked my door every place that I have ever lived since. The world just seems less safe now, doesn’t it? We are so afraid that we will be harmed, so anxious that even what little we have will be taken away from us by force. Yet the actual truth of the matter is this: we are safe, beloved, because the Lamb has conquered. We don’t have to live in fear. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus says Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27, ESV) Whatever happens in this life, our future is secure. This means we can risk opening our hearts, and sometimes even our doors. We can love our neighbors, our enemies, the sojourner and the alien in our midst. We can choose to be vulnerable, loving, and open in a superficial, fearful and locked-up world. What’s more, if we have entered into a place where there is no temple, we can stop worrying so much about self-justification projects- both religious and otherwise. In his book, Seculosity, David Zahl reflects: Enough. Listen carefully and you’ll hear that word enough everywhere, especially when it comes to the anxiety, loneliness, exhaustion, and division that plague our moment to such tragic proportions. You’ll hear about people scrambling to be successful enough, happy enough, thin enough, wealthy enough, influential enough, desired enough, charitable enough, woke enough, good enough. We believe instinctively that, were we to reach some benchmark in our minds, then value, vindication, and love would be ours—that if we got enough, we would be enough. As a people, modern humans may be less traditionally religious, but we are still trapped in the rat-race of striving. We sacrifice so much to be found worthy- by God, our peers, and, most of all, by ourselves. Eventually, we can wind up just giving up in despair, and slamming shut the doors of our hearts. Yet there is no temple in the new Jerusalem. Sacrifices- and striving – have ceased. This invites us as people of faith to live in a different way. We do not have to build our personal Babels by means of our own strength. The British poet Joshua Luke Smith writes of the mystery of our way of life in a city with no Temple. He says: “The life that you long for is rooted in the life that you already live.” Let me say that again: “The life that you long for is rooted in the life that you already live.” When fears are stilled, when strivings cease, the gates are opened, and we have the opportunity to see who we each are created to be as a child of God. To accept it, embrace and enjoy it. And live into it, as opposed to spending all our time trying to become something we are not, or feeling worthless because we just can’t. Finally, I would call you attention to verse 27. It tells us that nothing unclean will ever enter the New Jerusalem, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false. Yet we will enter it, sinners that we are. This is perhaps the greatest open gate of all. Romans 8:1 proclaims to us that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s the ESV, the Contemporary English Version puts it even more plainly: “If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won’t be punished.” This is because of the work of Christ, not our own. I want you to remember that, right here and right now, we have a foretaste of this blessed reality: the work of the Spirit by means of Baptism and Eucharist, confession and absolution, and anointing for healing enable us to experience that freedom from sin, death, and condemnation presently, even as we remain paradoxically both justified and sinner. The Rev. John Newton, former slave-trader and author of the hymn Amazing Grace, testifies I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am Hear me clearly: That is true for us, here and now, just as it was for him. Beloved, life happens- it is scary and hard and painful. We do things we regret and are ashamed of. The doors of our lives and hearts close as a result. Yet the promise today is that the gates of the New Jerusalem are always open, they will never be shut. John the Divine offered this vision to his struggling churches that they might have hope, and so be able to overcome the way things seem to be by means of the promise of the way things actually are. By means of Holy Scripture, we are offered the same promise, the same hope here today. We are not condemned to merely living closed-up lives of fear and striving and sin. Not in the Last Day- and not now. We didn’t read Chapter 21, verse 5 today, but I wish we had. It says- in a nutshell- what I have labored to make clear this morning. It simply reads: And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” (NET)…

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Easter 5 – The Revelation 19

för 15 dagar sedan

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Rev. Doug Floyd Christ Pantocrator of St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai (6th Century) Easter 5 2025 Rev. Doug Floyd Revelation 19 Kelly and I were talking the other night about her job. She’s worked with the same company for many years. During that time, she’s come in contact and befriended people throughout the organization. She told she’s seen many people who once were passionate about their work have grown weary. They’ve lost their joy. I kept thinking of a B.B. King song about the joy being gone. Then I found it. The song is actually, “The Thrill is Gone.” It’s about a love relationship gone sour. The woman has cheated on the man. Now the thrill of this relationship is gone, and he faces a life of loneliness. I told Kelly, “Well, you just gave me my sermon for Sunday on Revelation 19.” B.B. King’s song “The Thrill is Gone” reminds me of a B.B. King collaboration with U2, “When Love Comes to Town.” And this is Revelation 19 all the way. It makes me think about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But more on that later. Let me back up a bit and look at our text. Revelation 19 is a completion of the narrative from Revelation 17-18. Last week, we read from Revelation 7. Our lectionary jumps from chapter 7 to chapter 19. We miss all the weird stuff: peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, earthquake, hail, fire, blood, a star falling from heaven, locusts with the power of scorpions coming out of the smoke from a bottomless pit, two witnesses, a beast that kills the witnesses, a pregnant woman clothed with the sun, and a dragon waiting to devour the baby when he is born. We’re just getting started on the weird stuff. Now if you are interested in the details of these strange stories, we will be exploring them in our study of Eugune Peterson’s book, “Reversed Thunder.” We’ll jump past most of that to one last strange image. In chapter 17, we see a prostitute or the Great Whore riding a beast with many blasphemous names. The beast has seven heads and ten horns. This woman is named Babylon, and she has a perverse chalice where she drinks the blood of saints. A mockery of our communion. The ten horns and ten kings join with the beast to devour the Great Whore. We hear the refrain, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. 3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.” [1] The kings and merchants and sailors and people of the earth cry out in agony at her destruction, but the saints rejoice. The Great Whore, Babylon is judged and the Bride of Christ has made herself ready for the marriage Supper of the Lamb. This gets us to today’s text in chapter 19, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” [2] Now before we go forward, we need to go backwards. After this, hopefully you’ll see why Kelly’s story about work connects with Revelation 19. The Great Whore is named Babylon. We recognize the name Babylon for the nation that destroyed Jerusalem and took the people captive to Babylon. The little nation of Judah is taken captive by a great and powerful war machine. Babylon makes its wealth through destruction of smaller, weaker tribal groups. The sheer size of the city and its monuments would have been overwhelming and intimidating to the Jews. The leaders of Judah turned away from the true worship of the Lord and were seduced away by the gods of other nations. The judgment for their idolatry is captivity in a land of idolatry: Babylon. In Babylon, the captives cry out, By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! 7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” 8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! 9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock! [3] The prophets connect idolatry with adultery. Judah turns from the Creator to created things and commits spiritual adultery. The act of adultery also includes sexual deviance and abuse of the poorer citizens. Idolatry is always oppressive. In this place of darkness and death, some of the Jews come face to face with the implications of their unfaithfulness to God. Idolatry always results in oppression and destruction. All this gives us images of what the Great Whore encompasses. We can go further back to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. King Ahab marries Jezebel. She is the daughter of the King of Tyre, a culture of Baal worshippers. She establishes Baal worship throughout the land and seduces the people away from the true God. Jezebel is presented to us as a great and evil seductress. She is also an image of the great whore. She is a seducer, an idolator, and she kills the prophets of God. Idolatry oppresses. The people of God suffer under the hand of idolatry. We go further back to the grand story of the ancient Hebrews: Egypt. The Children of Israel have lived in the land of Egypt for 400 years. At first, this place was a place of refuge where Jacob’s son Joseph served the Pharoah and saved the people and the kingdom from utter collapse due to famine. The Hebrews find a home in this place, and they prosper. But over time they become enslaved under the hand of Pharoah. These Children of Israel suffer under the weight and almost forget who they are. The culture of Egyptian idolatry oppresses and shapes them. Even as they are enslaved by Pharoah, they are enslaved by false worship. They learn a pattern of living that is alien to the ways of God. God sends Moses to bring his children home. He calls His children back to true worship. For this is truly what it means to be human: we were made for worship, and our worship will shape every aspect of our lives. False worship will ultimately swallow our true humanity and reduce us to slavery and beastly behavior: think Gollum. When the Lord rescues His people, He sends a series of plagues on Egypt. Pharoah refuses to release God’s people for worship. Ther Lord exposes the corruption and false power of Egypt. After the death of his first born, Pharoah submits and releases the Children of Israel. Through God’s power, they walk through the Red Sea to freedom. When Pharoah and his army try to follow them, they are destroyed. They are swallowed by the Red Sea. In Revelation, the evil powers that have conspired against God’s children are thrown into a lake of fire. Revelation details a series of plagues and eventually we see a multitude of saints worshipping of God. Now we see all these stories of deliverance from enslavement and idolatry fulfilled in Christ. Let’s think about this pattern. In Romans, Paul interprets this pattern of idolatry, adultery, oppression and enslavement as turning from the Creator to the creation, then humanity becomes enslaved by sin and death. When Paul writes, “ Do not be conformed to this world,” [4] he is talking about a world that is at odds with the Creator; a world infected by sin and death; where humanity suffers under this weight; where true God-shaped love is abandoned for false love, manipulation, and oppression. We are born into a world of sin and death. There is still beauty. God’s creation is not totally diminished, but humans can easily corrupt this beauty in the business world, the school system, the government, and sadly even the church and the home. In one way or another, we have all been wounded, damaged in a world where sin has so infected life. But we are not forsaken. Paul sees the cross of Christ in light of this enslavement. By his death, Christ breaks the bonds of death and slavery. We are buried with Christ in the baptism of His death, and we are raised to newness of life. This is when love comes to town. This is what we read in Revelation 19. Our Redeemer comes and defeats the powers that would crush our soul. The Great Whore is cast down. Babylon is fallen. B.B. King and Bono sing, When love comes to town I’m gonna jump that train When love comes to town I’m gonna catch that flame. In the song, “When Love Comes to Town,” Bono sings of being enslaved by sin and death. He and B.B. King sings, “I was there when they crucified my Lord I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword I threw the dice when they pierced his side But I’ve seen love conquer the great divide” Bono acknowledges his own and our own complicity in sin and death. We have been oppressed and sadly we have also oppressed others. Here we see the condition of the Hebrews in Egypt, the captives in Babylon, and those oppressed across history, they become part of culture of sin and death even as they rail against it. The Great Whore, Babylon is not simply a city or a government or a structure. It is the way of the world the infects humanity. Without the grace of God, our world would strip us of our humanity and reduce us to a beastly behavior: remember the great Beast that the Great Whore rides upon. Sin is the undoing of the human person, the undoing of creation. Thus, in this life and even in our beloved vocations and relationships, we may suffer because of our own mistakes and the mistakes of others. As Bob Dylan sings, “Everything is Broken.” Everywhere you turn, you will see weary people burdened by jobs and families and illnesses and struggles and loss. You will meet people who have lost their joy. And yet, Christ Himself is snatching people from the kingdom of darkness. His love is conquering the great divide. Yes, we all bear wounds caused by others and by our treatment of others. But He does not leave us to the Great Whore and the Beast. In Revelation 18, we hear a voice from heaven saying to God’s beloved children, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;” [5] He is rescuing His people from sin and death. In Revelation 19, this prophetic book suddenly explodes with Hallelujahs! Joy is bursting forth everywhere. True Worship is restored to the captives, those formerly enslaved by sin and death. They are singing. We are singing. For the first time in Revelations, all things culminate in shouts of joy. We are shouting. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We are wearing pure and spotless linens. In contrast to the Great Whore, the people of God from across the ages have become a pure and spotless bride welcomed to a feast: the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Hallelujah! In the opening words of The Revelation, we read, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.” [6] In one sense, this defeat of evil was accomplished on the cross: in the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. We experience it here and now. But not fully. We are still waiting for the Victory of Christ to be completely unveiled. This is a reality now and to come. As Amy Grant sang in 1984, “I’m caught in between the now and the not yet;” then she sings, “When He appears He’ll draw us near, And we’ll be changed by His glory, Wrapped up in His glory.” As we worship our Lord, we draw near to this glorious appearing. He refreshes our soul in the bread and wine, His body and blood. As worshippers of the Great Lover of our Souls, we go out into this world of struggle and reveal His love, His joy, and the great hope He gives us. Babylon has fallen and God’s glory will be fully unveiled. And all things culminate in song, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. [7] Amen. [1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 18:2–3. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 19:1–2. [3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 137:1–9. [4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 12:2. [5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 18:4. [6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:1. [7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 19:6.…

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Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday

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Rev. Dr, Les Martin Good Shepherd, Watanabe Sadao (1977) Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday Rev. Dr. Les Martin Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, Luke 10:22-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen The book of Revelation is a kaleidoscope of images that keep changing and changing. The appearance of Jesus has also been changing: in chapters 1 through 4, we have Jesus the priest, teaching John and his 7 churches. In chapter 5, Jesus appears both as the Lion of Judah and the Lamb that was slain, the one who conquers by his own defeat. Today, in chapter 7, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, we hear that the Lamb is also the Shepherd of his people. The idea of God as a shepherd was deeply embedded in the living faith of Israel, as seen in numerous Old Testament passages. It may be an unusual portrayal in our day and age, but it was electrifying for those who, after the resurrection, remembered how Jesus had spoken of himself: as a shepherd. For us, it is enough to remember that a shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. He leads them, and the sheep come out after him. Another image looms large in our Revelation reading today: a gathering of people so vast that no one could possibly count it. Who are these people? Chapter 7, verse 4 has told us that 144,000 have come out from the tribes of Israel- eschatological Israel is much bigger. In John 10:16, Jesus had said that he had other sheep that he would bring into the fold, so that there would be one flock, one shepherd. Here, we see them: gathered from every nation and tribe and people and language, they retain their beautiful diversity but acknowledge only one allegiance. They have come out, leaving behind the identities and situations that once demanded their loyalty. No tribe, no country, no politics, or custom holds sway with them any longer, they answer only to the the voice of the Shepherd. Where have these people come from? The elder answers John the Divine that ‘These are the ones who have come out of the great suffering.” We do well to take an expansive view of what this means. The 5th-century Archbishop Caesarius of Arles teaches us that: These are not, as some think, only martyrs, but rather the whole people in the church. For it does not say that they washed their robes in their own blood but in the blood of the Lamb, that is, in the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. As it is written, “And the blood of his Son has cleansed us. All who have gone through the valley of the shadow of death with only the Shepherd as their comfort are here. All who have found themselves at his table- but have also found it set in the midst of their enemies are here. Martyrs, yes, but also the the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, and those tired of corruption, those who are merciful in an ugly world, pure in a perverse world, peacemakers in a world of war, the persecuted, the insulted, those gossiped and lied about- all are here. Why are they here? Because of the Lamb, who is their Shepherd. It is he who has called them out of the great suffering. The garments of their lives have been stained in the world of sin and death. The sin and death done unto them, done by them. Washed in the blood of the Lamb- washed in Baptism- they suffer no more and are now before the throne of God, serving him day and night in his temple as a kingdom of priests. What are these people like now? The short answer is this: they are just fine. Having endured the valley of the shadow of death, now all that they have suffered is past. Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah: You will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in dark dungeons, ‘Emerge.’ They will graze beside the roads; on all the slopes they will find pasture. They will not be hungry or thirsty; the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them, for one who has compassion on them will guide them; he will lead them to springs of water. (Isaiah 49:9-10) There is perhaps one final question we need to consider as we reflect on our Revelation reading today: What difference does it make for you and me? Or, more plainly, so what? Let’s start with some Greek: the Greek word “ekklesia,” meaning church, is derived from two other Greek words “ek” (meaning “out”) and “kaleo” (meaning “to call”). The church, then, is “the called out ones.” The church is the sheep who are called out and led by the Shepherd. One of the problems in looking at Revelation- as a result of how our culture reads it, I think- is that we see it solely in terms of the future. We can read this lesson and say “Oh, look what happens for those people. Good for them.” We forget, beloved, that those people we see in Revelation chapter 7 are the church – those people are us. Having heard Jesus’ voice, his call, it is we who have come out. Called from the entire earth, brought safely through the valley of the shadow of this life, baptism washes us in the blood of the Lamb, and it is we who are made pure, and no one can snatch us from his hands. It is we who, one day, will have every last tear wiped away from our eyes by a nail-scarred hand as we sit by springs of living water. We are a part of this scene. We are in that multitude, it’s not some “other people” in the future. Honestly, in another sense, it’s not even future. The 4th century North African Church Father Tyconius would have us understand that it is also us in the here-and-now. He writes that the church does: …not hunger because they are fed by the living Bread. He said, “I am the living Bread who came down from heaven.” Nor will they thirst, for they will drink from a cup so excellent that it will be for them what the Truth said, “Whoever believes in me shall never thirst,”… He proclaims that the strength of his sacraments will be strong in those who belong to him and that they will not be vexed. Rich words, and a reality that we live in right now. If old Tyconius’ words are a little too complex, then perhaps Father Henry Baker’s hymn makes the reality of our life as the church more compelling to our ears and hearts: Thou spreadst a table in my sight; thy unction grace bestoweth; and oh, what transport of delight from thy pure chalice floweth! And so through all the length of days, thy goodness faileth never; Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise within thy house forever.…

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Easter 3 – Who Can Open the Seals?

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Rev. Doug Floyd Adoration of the Mystic Lamb from Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan Van Ecyk (1432) Easter 3 2025 Rev. Doug Floyd Revelation 5 John is weeping. He is not simply choked up. He is trembling. He is grieving. He is writhing with the grief of all creation because no one was found worthy to open the scroll. Why weep over a sealed scroll? Joseph Mangina writes, “If the scroll remains locked under its seven seals, there is finally no redemption, no relief for history’s victims, no salvation for the Jews, no hope for the Gentiles.” [1] Imagine a world with no justice. No hope of redemption. No righting of wrongs. Nothing but blind power and destruction. If we look around our planet today, we see many places where it seems that justice took the last train out of town. A trail of broken lives in the shadow. I was in college when Bono belted out, “I can’t believe the news today Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away How long, how long must we sing this song? How long? How long?” [2] He is crying out in the midst of the troubles, the bloodbath between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland: specific the bloodbath in 1972 when British Soldiers fired on unarmed civilians. As the song progresses, he joins his grief to the grief of the nations, “And it’s true we are immune When fact is fiction and TV reality And today the millions cry (Sunday, Bloody Sunday) We eat and drink while tomorrow they die (Sunday, Bloody Sunday) The real battle just begun (Sunday, Bloody Sunday) To claim the victory Jesus won (Sunday, Bloody Sunday) On Sunday, Bloody Sunday, yeah Sunday, Bloody Sunday” Again and again the refrain echoes, How long, how long must we sing this song? This is the kind of grief we hearing in the Revelation 5. The Revelation of Jesus Christ tells the story of a world gone wrong. We read about the Horseman of the Apocalypse: Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. These dread judges have been riding over the world since Cain killed Abel. The earth cries out under the shed blood. Bono has joined his voice with John, who weeps before the throne. Sin and death encircle our planet. The nations reel under the weight. If we pay attention, we hear these cries all through Israel’s history. The prophets speak of the horrific fall of the nations. Their grief is so great that they even lament for Israel’s enemies. Jeremiah cries out, “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” [3] Bob Dylan sings, “I was born here, and I’ll die here against my will I know it looks like I’m movin’, but I’m standin’ still Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from Don’t even hear the murmur of a prayer It’s not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there” [4] Artists help me feel my way into the ache of Revelation 5. We must come face to face and heart to heart with this grief before we can continue reading. The Scripture tells the story of the absolute collapse of humanity under the weight of sin and death. Israel reveals to us, our brokenness and exile into the land of shadows. I make a habit of reading the news of the world, so I can pray for the nations. It is painful. Where is justice? Where is love? Why do so many people suffer? And why do I live in this land of abundance? Even as John encounters the Lord of glory, he has seen some of his closest friends and relatives killed for the Gospel. It keeps happening. Todd Johnson, Professor of Global Christianity and Missions at Gordon Conwell estimates that 70 million Christians have been martyred over the last two thousand years. Now get this: over half of those martyred, over half, were killed in the 20 th century. Is our world getting better? Unthinkable. We join our tears and our cries with John. Who can open the scroll? One of the elders speaks to John and to us, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” [5] The conquering King has arrived. He will set the world to rights. As John hears this voice of the elders, now he sees: 6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. [6] The Lion of Judah is the Lamb of God. Seven horns speaks of His complete authority. Seven eyes speaks of His complete vision of all creation. Hans Urs Von Balthasar gives us a picture of this Lion who is a Lamb at the same time. He writes, “…the might of his supreme victory was to prove itself in his utter disgrace and defeat.” He continues, “For his weakness, would already be the victory of his love for the Father, reconciliation in the eyes of the Father, and a deed of supreme strength, this weakness would be so great that it would far surpass and sustain in itself the world’s pitiful feebleness.” Jesus the very embodiment of divine love faces off against all hate and death and darkness and injustice. Von Balthasar continues, “No fighter is more divine than one who can achieve victory through defeat. In the instant when he receives the deadly wound, his opponent falls to the ground, himself struck a final blow. For he strikes love and is thus himself struck by love. And by letting itself be struck, love proves what had to be proven: that it is indeed love. Once struck, the hate-filled opponent recognizes his boundaries and understands: behave as he pleases, nevertheless he is bounded on every side by a love that is greater than he. Everything he may fling at love— insults, indifference, con-tempt, scornful derision, murderous silence, demonic slander-all of it can ever but prove love’s superiority; and the blacker the night, the more radiant does love emerge from it. [7] The Lamb who was slain takes the scroll from the Father in heaven. All heaven falls before Him in worship, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” [8] Hallelujah! The liturgy continues, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” [9] This joy echoes beyond the halls of heaven to “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them.” [10] As Paul says, “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.” All creation explodes in joyful exuberance, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” [11] This is the answer to Bono’s grief, Jeremiah’s tears, the cry of the grieving mothers, the pain of nations broken by war and violence. The globe may reel with sin and death, but the power of sin and death has been broken and the cross assures all the grieving that the wrong will be made right in and through the One who has defeated death and is alive forevermore. This Revelation of Jesus Christ and our response in worship is the center of our lives and our world. Everything we do and say begins with our worshipful response to this Revelation of Jesus Christ. Our prayers, our serving in the community, our political involvement, and even our work begins in worship. This leads me right back to John in the midst of the heavenly liturgy. His revelation of Jesus Christ in chapter 1 and 4 and 5 begins in worships and culminates in worship. This is the heart of our walk of faith. In the early 1980s, the theologians Daniel Hardy and David Ford raised the question, “What is the biggest or most fundamental problem facing the Church today?” Think about that question for a moment, “What is the biggest or most fundamental problem facing the Church today?” They suggested,“The biggest problem facing the Church is …‘coping with the overwhelming abundance of God…’ We need a vision of the Lamb who was slain that is worthy to open the scroll. After He steps forward, the heavenly chorus proclaims a seven-fold blessing of heaven to the Lamb: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” [12] Seven. Completion. The Revelation opens our mind and heart to the beauty and glory of our risen Lord. As we read and worship through this text, I pray we might have eyes to behold Him who is worthy. And even today, we lift our voices in praise to the Lord of glory. [1] Joseph L. Mangina, Revelation , Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010), 86. [2] U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” 1983. [3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Je 9:1. [4] Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet,” 1997. [5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:5. [6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:6. [7] Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Heart of the World, Ignatius, 1979, 43-44. [8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:9–10. [9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:12. [10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:13. [11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:13. [12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:12.…

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Easter 2 – Do Not Be Afraid!

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Rev. Dr. Les Martin John’s Vision of Jesus by Eric Newton (1927) Easter 2 – Do not be afraid! Rev. Dr. Les Martin Revelation 1:17b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. At two years old, our son Isaiah is speaking much more clearly. As a result, our discussions are improving. He is able to articulate his needs in a way that we can understand. Moreover, he is also increasingly able to explain what’s going on inside his mind and heart. Over the last few weeks, a new subject has entered into our conversation: he can now let us know “I’m scared,” “I’m afraid.” It’s not something a parent wants to hear- that their child has fear in their heart. We do what we can to alleviate it – fortunately many childhood fears stem from uncertainty, unexpected loud noises, confusing images, and a lack of understanding. Still, it’s unsettling. How early we learn to fear. The disciples are afraid. Sometimes we forget, in the early readings of the Easter season, just how afraid they were. We know the outcome of a story that they are still in the midst of living: after the traumatic and horrible events of Holy Week, Eastertide is a disquieting time for them. The nightmare of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion is still very present. The reality of what has actually happened with dead Jesus dawns on them slowly. Today, they have gathered together and locked the doors of the room because they are afraid of the Jewish leaders. Based on the week they have just had, they have every reason to be. I think we also forget the fear that the church has experienced throughout the ages. By the time of today’s reading from the Book of Revelation, the church is in an perilous place. Rome remains the ascendant power of the world. The Gospel, it seems, has been proven a weak and ineffective force against unstoppable evil. Two generations after the euphoria of Pentecost, it appears to have been thoroughly discredited. How can you be Easter people in a cruel world? What hope is there now for churches threatened by persecution from without, by the temptation to assimilate into the larger culture, and by the complacency that always comes when the new and exciting becomes the familiar? Like the original disciples, they needed help making sense of their faith in the midst of such trying times, when being discouraged made better sense than being hopeful. We who are the church today face similar challenges. Our world and our culture are fractured. Sitting around this altar are myriad health conditions that make it hard to trust in the “Alleluias” of Easter. There are failed relationships that make it hard to see God’s triumph very clearly. There are those of us who know the truth of Christ’s resurrection, yet nonetheless have felt nothing but his absence for a very long time. Sometimes in the spring, I look out at the transformation of nature and I see Easter everywhere. Sometimes I look in the mirror, and I just see frustration and brokenness. We, too, have ample reasons to be fearful. And that is why we will turn to the Book of Revelation for our sermons this Eastertide, but- ironically- before it can be helpful, we need to overcome our fear of this book of the Bible. The Book of Revelation has always had a complex relationship with the church it speaks to. It was not altogether clear that it would be admitted into the Canon of Scripture. Martin Luther once bluntly stated he wished it had not, as he felt it dealt too much with “visions and dreams,” rather than the work of Christ. John Calvin wrote commentaries on every book of the New Testament except for Revelation. The churches of Eastern Orthodoxy do not read the Revelation in liturgical services at all. Now, all this shows that we are not alone in our ambivalence toward the last book of the Bible, such uncertainty has a long historical pedigree in the life of the church. However this historical overview does not, I think, explain our particular contemporary fear of the last book of the Bible. We live in East Tennessee- fertile ground for particularly apocalyptic and fervent forms of Christianity. That alone, contextually, explains some of our apprehension concerning the Revelation to John the Divine. The strange images of Antichrist, Beast, and Harlot. The mysterious sayings and obscure symbolism. All of this has been presented to us so often as a revelation of fear- and with fear comes the power dynamics of control exercised by various religious leaders. Add to that the bespoke interpretations of Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Branch Davidians, and Dispensationalists, and- one way of another- many of us are wary, fearful that we will be “Left Behind.” However, interpreted properly, it is the case that the Book of Revelation is, in fact, a revelation of hope. Even old Martin Luther belatedly acknowledged this. It is a revelation of hope because, as we will see over the next few Sundays, it is ultimately a revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In this book, Jesus is both the agent and the content of the revelation. John is in exile on Patmos. He is in church. This should not surprise us: it is, after all, the Lord’s day. Now- just as the Jews had understood the Temple- for John, church is where earth and heaven meet. He is, it seems, at the liturgy. There are lampstands and priestly vestments. As liturgical theologian Jean-Jacques von Allmen reminds us: “the place of worship is essentially the place where Christ is found.” This day, John finds Jesus at church in the most extraordinary way. He goes from seeing Jesus liturgically to seeing Jesus mystically. Turning to see a voice who is speaking to him, he encounters the Voice- the Word- appearing in manner familiar to any student of the Scriptures. Vested as a priest, echoing Exodus, the words he speaks appear as a sword, echoing Isaiah. Echoing the vision of Daniel, the appearance of his feet are as bronze. White hair and flaming eyes, suggest purity, power, and holiness. Jesus appears not as the Galilean rabbi we have known, but as the Alpha and the Omega: the all-powerful A-to-Z, the first and the last, literally “He the Is, He the Was, He the Coming One.” We might be forgiven for not recognizing him as Jesus at all. However, we can tell it’s Jesus from his message, right there in verse 17: “Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid. Why wouldn’t we? I mean, look at him! We are told not to be afraid, not because of how Jesus appears, which is strange and awesome, but because of who he is and the authority he possesses. Jesus is the one who lives. He was dead, but he is the one who lives, and who now holds the keys of death and the place of the dead- Hades. Death no longer has dominion over him- or us. Who is this Jesus for us? The faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the Kings of the Earth, the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. In other words, he is the living answer to all our existential problems. That’s why we shouldn’t be afraid. That’s why this is a revelation of hope – and of Easter. Our Gospel reading today emphasizes this point. When the disciples are locked away in fear, they discovered Jesus in their midst. The one who was dead and now lives shows them the wounds in his hands and side, confirming his ascendancy over death and Hell. He offers them his peace – freedom from fear. Extending to them his dominion over sin, he breathes on them his Spirit, and with the Spirit, the power to offer forgiveness of sins to those who are beleaguered, frustrated and broken. The power to prophetically retain the sins of the culture, the idolaters, and the kings of the earth. The Book of Revelation will show us that even this retaining of sins, this judgment, is meant to be restorative, not a retribution. As Revelation chapter 22 testifies, there is a future for creation, a healing of the nations. Resurrection, peace, corrective judgement, and forgiveness. A revelation of hope- and of Easter. When Isaiah is scared, he comes and sits in my lap. I will hug him, and attempt to reassure him with words, but it seems his greatest comfort is just sitting there, sheltered by the presence of his father. He’s not afraid when his daddy holds him. The exalted Christ that John sees in his vision holds in his right hand seven stars, representing the whole of the cosmos. He holds all things- and he has a plan. Christ is even now guiding his creation towards a new heaven and a new earth, and nothing will thwart him. Our own eschatological hope is equally as clear: the Book of Revelation proclaims that the Lamb will shepherd us, and lead us to springs of living water, to trees with leaves for the healing of the nations, and will one day wipe away every tear from our eyes. We are held, too. God once spoke through the Prophet Isaiah, saying: Till you grow old I am the Lord, and when white hairs come, I shall carry you still; I have made you and I shall uphold you, I shall carry you away to safety. (Isaiah 46:4, REB) It is not just at the end of all things that we are held, however. Christ holds us here and now as well. Much like John on Patmos, we come here to Saint Brendan’s on the Lord’s day, week after week, to seek comfort in our exile. Often, we are tired and full of fear. It’s hard to be Easter people in a cruel world. Being discouraged can sometimes make better sense than being hopeful. But because church is the place where heaven and earth meet, and the place of worship is essentially the place where Christ is found, we find that here we are held in his body as a foretaste of what we shall one day receive. Here our hope is realized, even if not completely and finally. Whether or not we have a mystical experience like John is irrelevant- the Alpha and Omega and the Living One is present for us. Here in the liturgy, Christ takes us up and holds us, comforts us, and strengthens us. The old African-American spiritual sings out the truth: he’s got everybody here in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands. And, so, we need not be afraid. This is the revelation of hope and the promise of Eastertide.…

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Resurrection Day

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Rev. Doug Floyd Christ and Mary Magdalene, a Finnish Legend by Albert Edelfelt (1890) Easter 2022 ( Updated from Easter Vigil 2016) Rev. Doug Floyd Back before. Before bombings in Ukraine. The bloodshed in Nigeria. Back before almost 100 million refugees and displaced peoples wandering the earth. Back before 24-hour news cycles. Back before never-ending political ranker. Back before Facebook and emails. Back before business lunches and late-night study sessions. Back before grandchildren, children. Back before first kiss. Back before family picnics and pool parties and dreams of growing up. Back before walking, before speaking, before breathing. Further back. Back before parliaments and presidents and kings and queens. Back before empires. Before nations. Before tribes. Further back. Back before Cain and Abel. Before Eve and Adam. Back before the wolves and bears and birds. Back before forests and grasslands. Back before thunderstorms and sun and moon and earth and sky. Further back. Earlier. Earlier. Back before something. Anything. Back before nothing. Before existence. First and only. Love. Father, Son, Spirit. The perfect communion of love. Perfect bliss. Perfect peace. Only love. And then unfolding mystery. The turning. Love poured out. God creating heavens and the earth. The Formless and void. Darkness over the face of the deep. The Holy Wild of God hovering, brooding over the waters. Father speaking. Spirit stirring. The Word making. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3) “And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.” (Genesis 1: 3) And God saw that the Light was good. Light. Water. Heavens and Earth. All bathed in Love. The Holy Wild of God dancing in His creation. The Father speaking. The Spirit breathing. The Son forming and filling all things. Land and sea. Seeds. Plants. Fruit trees. Sun, stars and moon. Sea filling with all kinds of wondrous and beautiful creatures. Skies filling with birds and songs. Animals walking the land. Man. Woman. Paradise. And it was very good. And it was all bathed in love. But then the tempter and the temptation. Man turning away from love. Away from Father. Turning away from the freedom of love. Turning toward nothing. Toward enslavement, brokenness. The horror of sin. The undoing of all good things. Cain killing Abel. Brother against brother. Sister against Sister. Husband against wife. Parent against child. Child against parent. Nation against nation. All manner of unrighteousness and evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. (Romans 1:29-31) A world created in love, grown cold and falling into the dark abyss of the loveless. No eyes for God. Walled against him. [1] Cursing him. Ignoring him. Dead to him. Dying to all things. Falling into nothingness. The Father will not abandon His world to nothingness. His love will create a new world in the midst of this world gone wrong. God’s love will enter the very heart of the world in the heart of His Son. The very of heart of healing. Into this prison of death, Love descends. The Word becomes Flesh. The Light penetrates the darkness. God enters the messiness of human history. Jesus, Son of God, born of woman. Fully God. Fully man. Eternal love descending into creation. Descending into humanity. Descending into the abyss of human sin and brokenness. Descending into sorrow and grief. He keeps falling. G.K. Chesterton writes, “Glory to God in the Lowest” “Outrushing the fall of man is the height of the fall of God.” God in Christ keeps falling. Falling under our iniquities, our lies, betrayals, denials, deceptions, destructions. Our petty sins. He keeps falling under us. Bearing the weight of the world, the sin of the world, the betrayal of the world. Falling fully into death. Our death. The death of all things. All hope, all life, all love, all truth. Falling into the undoing of all things. Falling, falling, falling into all hopelessness, all failure. Falling into the end of all things. The annihilation of all things. Falling into the formless and the void. As Von Balthasar reminds us, “He wanted to sink so low that in the future all falling would be a falling into him and every streamlet of bitterness and despair would henceforth run down into his lowermost abyss.” [2] On the cross, Jesus Christ the Word made Flesh dies. Into the great silence. (Pause) In this silence, love and the power of an indestructible life. The power of sin and death are taken captive. The Father calls. The Spirit breathes. The Son arises. He is risen from the dead! In the heart of all things, Jesus arises. He is risen. And we are rising in Him. The Resurrection and the Life lifts us up, up, up in the very heart of God, the very love of God. The pulse of love reverberates in us in and in all creation. Reverberating into the chaos, the undoing, the sin, the death that infected all things. Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life takes hold of you and me, lifting us up from the prison of death. Leading us through the baptismal waters of creation and recreation, of death and life, bathing us in the love of Father, Son and Spirit. We are made new. We are lifted up, Jew and Gentile, Male and Female, Young and Old, we are raised up into Christ and into the Holy Wild of God, the love unending of Father, Son and Spirit. We who were far off have been brought near. We who had no name have been named Beloved of God. We who were strangers and aliens and now sons and daughters. We are lifted up, a holy Temple unto God. In Christ, we are lifted up for all rulers and authorities, for all spiritual powers to behold the wisdom of God, the glory of God, the beauty of the Lord shining and through us. The Love of God pulsing in us, poured upon us, flowing through us. We cannot be separated from this love. neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39) In us, His love is pulsing outward, outward ever outward into a world of bombs and beatings, of lies and loneliness, of slavery and sorrow. His love shining in and through us into prisons of sin and death. Revealing His call to life, His redemption, His love that is patient and kind, that does not envy or boast, this is not arrogant or rude. That is not irritable or resentful. That does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. His love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. His love that never ends and never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) His love that overcomes all darkness and will relinquish every enemy, will cast down every power and stronghold. His love that brings all all powers in subjection even the last enemy to be destroyed, even death. The Lord has come. Christ has come. The Lord has come. He has shown mercy, revealed mercy, manifested mercy, acted in mercy, poured out His mercy into the heart of all things. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:3-5) All things made new. All things made new. All things made new. All things made new. Today we rejoice, beholding the Holy Wild of God in the flickering light, the sprinkling waters, the smoking wind. We rejoice for in Christ, All things made new. This Holy Wild of God revealed in our Resurrected Lord is greater than every fear. He is greater than every evil. He is greater than every terror. He is greater than every heart break. He is greater than every loss. He is greater than all chaos. He is greater than all knowing. He is greater than all hopes. He is greater than all joys. We turn to him who is all in all. Trusting. Rejoicing. Singing. We bring our failures and successes to him. We bring our hopes and fears. We bring our joys and sorrows. Beholding Him alone. Perfect love. As we behold our risen Lord, Dame Julian reminds us that sin does not have the final word, As she reflects on the pain and suffering caused by sin, she writes, “And it seems to me that this pain is something for a time, for it purges us and makes us know ourselves and ask for mercy; for the Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and that is his blessed will for all who will be saved. He comforts readily and sweetly with his words, and says: But all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.” [3] We cry out to our Savior in joy, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” [4] “… you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” [5] Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia [1] Inspired by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, “Heart of the World,” Ignatius Press, 1979 (p. 42). [2] Ibid (p. 43). [3] Julian of Norwich, Julian of Norwich: Showings , ed. Richard J. Payne, trans. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh, The Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978), 148–149. [4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:12. [5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:9–10.…

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Good Friday

för 6 weeks sedan

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Rev. Lindsay Mizell Christ on the Cross with Mary and St John by Rogier Van Der Weyden (1457-1464) Good Friday 2025 Rev. Lindsay Mizell I’m Lindsay Mizell and the pastor at Vineyard Springbrook and since the beginning of Saint Brendan’s, you all have invited us to be part of your Good Friday and we’re grateful for your patience with us when we don’t know your rhythms and customs is kind and gracious. Father Doug and Peter and Ash and I all are in book club. Not the same book club. They have a book club that is of elite intelligence, and I have a book club that tells too many jokes. But luckily, we’re on the other side of a wall and we can hear Doug laughing the whole time, which is the gift of every Thursday morning to all of us. A year or two ago, in my book club, we read a book that that no one really liked and was my favorite one that we’ve ever read. We came every week, and everyone hated it. I came every week so excited because I loved it so much. The book is called “The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty.” It had me at the title. The book it was written by a German luthier, so a violin maker. The book is about the progress of of him making a violin and then he talks about the things of God all throughout it. We begin the book and he’s in the woods. He’s in a forest picking out the perfect tree that he’ll cut down the tree that would become this violin. And he’s he’s a master luthier. People are waiting years and years and years, the best violinists in the world; waiting on these instruments. We find him in the middle of the forest, and he’s cutting down this tree and we follow him through the whole process. Finally, we get to this finished violin being played by a master. And all the while as he’s telling us the process, he’s riding about his thoughts on God and life and how these things intersect. It becomes this lovely journey through a man’s creation and also his theology. I think about this book all the time, like constantly, it is it is my Roman Empire. There is a time, though, when he gets the point where the violin is made, but before it’s made it, it’s only made for him for a little while. He calls it the closed sound of the violin. During this time, he’s the only one to hear it sound. And in the chapter when he’s talking about this this close sound, this this precious moment with this violin, just he and it, he speaks about suffering and God. He begins his chapter like this, “I once heard a wise Jewish saying that God has two chambers in his heart an outer and an inner. In the inner chamber, he hides his pain and weeping. Sometimes God lets us glimpse his inner heart, but he shrouds it in metaphors so that we can bear it. Sometimes God lets us glimpse his inner heart, but he shrouds it in metaphors so that we can bear it.” I’ve certainly found this to be true of God that when God allows me a glimpse into his inner heart, into his pain and into his suffering, he covers it with image and metaphor so that I can bear it. I meet with a spiritual director and and he says often that if we were to allow ourselves to see the world as God does, to see the world through God’s eyes, then we would spend much time with every life breaking our heart, including our own. In most of my life, I only see God’s inner chamber of grief and loss through image and metaphor. It’s in the loss that exists in creation when leaves fall off of trees, trees losing their leaves, waves, ocean waves when they come in and then they take everything they can out with them and and go away. The sun disappearing into the horizon. The groan of creation is very hard to miss and it points beyond itself to that inner chamber of God’s heart. I see it covered through songs and books and movies and art images that point beyond themselves to the inner chamber of God’s own heart. In more tangible metaphors, like lost jobs and lost love and lost keys, which happens far too often in my own life, these real things, these real moments, and yet they point beyond themselves into that inner chamber of God. Much of my life with God and my own prayer practice lives in image and metaphor. It’s one of the ways that God operates through the entirety of the scripture. He’s often described as like a fire, or like a light, water, a rock, a tower, a breath, a mother bird, a mother bear. It makes me think of how when God comes to Moses, he comes in a cloud or in our Old Testament lesson that Peter read to us earlier an angel who speaks on behalf of God sharing his heart. We humans require a shrouding or a covering, an image or metaphor clouds or angels, because the fullness of God’s presence is beyond what we can bear. If I’m honest with you, I think I can bear it. I think I can handle it. If I picture myself on Mount Sinai, God is coming down to give me, God is giving me the law. I just I don’t think I would need a cloud for him. I don’t think I would need a fire or I don’t need an angel to speak on behalf of God. I want him and all of his fullness wherever I can find him. I think that I could handle it in the other truth is that in my imagination, I have far more fortitude and fearlessness than is ever actually true. Because what I know is that I’m wrong about that. I know that I would need a cover a shroud, some sunglasses, and the way that I know that is because I get so uncomfortable on days like today. I get so uncomfortable when the practice of Jesus followers is not to jump to the resurrection, which I want to so badly, but to stay at the crucifixion. There is one moment in all of human history when God opened himself and showed the world the fullness of his heart, both the inner and outer chamber, in Jesus, God gives us his heart, and he wraps it in flesh and he sends it into the world. On the cross, he opens up that heart in all of its fullness. allowing the world to look at not just the outer chamber, but the inner one as well at the cross, we see the basis of all hurt, the basis of all despair, the basis of all sorrows, visible in Jesus Christ. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, it is finished, and then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit, or in the psalms, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? In a moment, the sorrow that fills the heart of God breaks into the world for the first time unshrouded, uncovered, and full. Other Gospel writers tell us that in this moment the Temple veil tears, uncovering God’s truest heart and the world shakes and darkness covers the land because even the earth can barely bear the fullness of that inter chamber. And God’s people, they see his sorrow uncovered in full for the very first time. And when we look, we see that one of the decisive characteristics of God’s love is in fact his sorrow. The Church Father, Origen said, “What is this passion which Christ in Jesus has suffered for us? He suffers a passion of love.” In Jesus, God poured the fullness of his love, and in the crucifixion, he removed the last bit of cover, and we see what is in his heart when it’s cracked fully open. And what we find in the inner chamber of God’s own sorrow is the saving power of love. I want to read from the violin maker one more time. He says in Jesus we are not dealing with the saving power of suffering, but with a saving love that is willing to suffer. Suffering does not have the power to save, but God’s love does, and love is ready whenever necessary to suffer. In the sorrow of the cross of Jesus, we find the vulnerable love of God willing to walk out the fullness of his sorrow and the fullness of his suffering and this requests of vulnerability from us. This day, Good Friday can’t be like any other day. We can’t sit at the cross and not be vulnerable ourselves. The vulnerability or the vulnerable fullness of God’s own heart requests the vulnerable fullness of ours in a vulnerable partnership. There’s a Christ song in in Philippians, too, that I think explains this vulnerability that the cross of Christ requests. It says, though he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited, but he empties himself, taking on the form of a slave being born in human likeness, and being bound found in human form, vulnerable human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus narrated for us what love required for God to do and modeled for us the vulnerability that it requests of us. This day should not be like any other day. It is a day for opening ourselves to what God has shown his people to treating that inner chamber with the vulnerability and reverence that it would ask the vulnerable mercy of God’s sorrow and his suffering the inner chamber of his heart on display for all of us. Today is a day to observe and to listen, to make room for what God has uncovered and to see how deep and wide he is willing to walk into sorrow and into suffering in the name of love you can stand. Thanks.…

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Maundy Thursday

för 6 weeks sedan

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Rev. Dr. Les Martin Washing of the Apostles’ Feet by Master of the Housebook (1475 and 1500) Maundy Thursday Rev. Dr. Les Martin Do you understand what I have done for you? John 13:12b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. In Judaism, during the Passover Seder, there’s a section at the beginning known as The Four Questions. The most famous one being the one asked by the youngest child who is able: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The four questions all have to do with the meal, at least on the surface. However, the answers point to how the meal brings to mind the time of the Exodus. Holy Week is our Exodus. The Triduum (trid-you-um) or three great nights of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, our Passover. It’s fitting, therefore for us to have a question of our own. Jesus asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” We might also ask it this way: what do we receive tonight? When Jesus gave the cup to his disciples, he said to them “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Our liturgy, drawing from a different text says, “ Drink this, all of you; for this is my Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins: Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.” The thing that is important for our purposes tonight is that word “covenant.” In Greek, it is diatheke, and if you look it up, the definition is perhaps more precise. It is a certain kind of covenant- one declaring a person’s wishes regarding the disposal of their property when they die. Like a Last Will and Testament. This is why the old King James Version says “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Now, if this meal is Jesus’ Last Will and Testament, what do we receive? An inheritance- and what an inheritance it is. He bequeaths to us his life, his perfect submission to the Law, and his merits, for we are accounted as adopted daughters and sons. The story is told of Paul Brand, a missionary doctor in India. When an epidemic of measles spread through the town where he lived, his daughter came down with a very bad case of it. Since he had no vaccine to treat her, Brand located a person who had recently recovered from measles. He drew blood from them and injected the plasma from their blood into his daughter. She was healed with blood that was borrowed from a person who had overcome the measles. We, too, are healed with borrowed blood. As Lutheran theologian and Pastor John Kleinig writes: Full remission! That’s what Jesus provides for us by the blood he shed for us and now offers us in his Supper. He grants us full remission from the spiritual sickness of sin, the malignant cancer that infects us in our souls and bodies, for which there is no natural treatment or human remedy. The wages of sin—its outcome and cost—is always death (Rom 6:23). Jesus reverses this by giving us his blood to drink in his Supper. Through it we have the eternal remission of all our sin. Free to live without condemnation, guilt or fear. That would be food enough. Yet, in this meal, we receive even more. In our Epistle tonight Paul asks us pointedly, “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16) It is not just that this meal grants us the inheritance of our remission from sins, it brings us into communion- a common union- with our Lord. “Just as by melting two candles together you get one piece of wax,” St Cyril of Jerusalem writes, “ so, I think, one who receives the flesh and blood of Jesus is fused together with him. And the soul finds that he is in Christ and Christ is in him.” In our eucharistic liturgy we pray for God to use the sacrament in this way, praying that we may “be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him.” God answers that prayer. As we take the Sacrament , what we eat is what we become- and that changes us gradually, from the inside out. We become more and more spiritually alive as we feed on Jesus. We draw our life from him as we remain in him and he remains in us. By the means of the bread and the wine we consume, we become his body. We grow up into him who is our head. At the end of the dinner, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. He does this, per his own words, as a teacher- showing us just what kind of a body we are now. We receive clarity as to the nature of our identity as the Body of Christ. It involves giving ourselves away in love, just as our benefactor and our head, Jesus did. After washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus says “I have given you an example – you should do just as I have done for you.”(John 13:15) Later, after the meal, he will be even more direct, saying: I give you a new commandment: love one another; as I have loved you, so you are to love one another. If there is this love among you, then everyone will know that you are my disciples. (Jn 13:34–35) To be Christ’s body is to love as he loved, to put into practice what he taught. Commenting on this, Anglican Bishop NT Wright says: …we should be looking away from ourselves, and at the world we are supposed to be serving. Where the world’s needs and our vocation meet is where we ought to be, ready to take on insignificant roles if that’s what God wants, or to be publicly visible if that is our calling. And, as with Jesus, the picture of footwashing is meant to serve not only as a picture of all sorts of menial tasks that we may be called to perform, without drawing attention to them. It also points towards the much larger challenge…the challenge to follow Jesus all the way to the cross, to lay down life itself in the service of God and the world he came to save. Now, none of this is earning our salvation. It’s also not a hidden catch in the deal – two things we receive and a command to get busy. It’s all one thing. As the three great nights of the Triduum are all pieces of one whole, just as the Lord’s Supper and and the Footwashing are one act of love, so it is that our inheritance, our identity as the Body, and our service in Christ’s name are all one piece. One inevitably leads to the next and to the next. Set free from sin, condemnation, guilt and shame, free from the need for power, esteem and control, made one with Jesus, what is there left to do but to wash feet, to be the physical extension of Christ’s body in the world? Now, perhaps, we begin to understand what it is that Jesus has done for us- and to us. What do we receive tonight? Love in tangible form. Body. Blood. Water. Hands. Towel. His love for us, love that we can trust in, rest in, take root and grow in. His love for the whole world, now expressed- however imperfectly- through us, inviting all the wayward sons and daughters to come home. Love that would go to a cross, love that will prove itself stronger than death. Such a love is why this night is not only different than other nights, it is also the beginning of all the days and nights to come.…

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Palm Sunday – The Fulfillment

för 6 weeks sedan

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Rev. Dr. Les Martin Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrina (1842-1848) Palm Sunday 2025 Rev. Dr. Les Martin Luke 23:1-49 Types and shadows have their ending, for the newer rite is here – Tantum Ergo Sacramentum, St Thomas Aquinas In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It was the week before Passover, and so the Jewish people were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. During the time of the Temple, the focus of the Passover festival was the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, eaten during the Passover Seder. Every family large enough to completely consume a young lamb or wild goat was required to offer one for sacrifice at the Temple and eat it that night in the ritual meal which looks back to the Exodus. It is, in a real sense, the story that makes the people Israel. It is both the occasion of their creation and their deliverance. The Passover remembers this. It is the reason behind the procession of the people to Jerusalem. Another procession is coming to the city as well. Too many of the restive Jewish people in one place often led to riots, and to political instability, and so Pontius Pilate is coming up from Caesarea Maritania. The soldiers of Imperial Rome are coming up with all of their Roman standards and weapons and might to just let everybody in Israel know that whatever their God did in the past, that was then and this is now. Rome is in charge- don’t mess with us. And then there is Jesus. He, too, is going up to Jerusalem. He is perhaps unconcerned with the festival- and with Rome- for his time has come. On the Mount of Transfiguration, he had spoken with Moses and Elijah about “ton exodon” – his exodus. The point of their discussion is now made clear: though Moses led a great exodus of the children of Israel out of sin and bondage, out of the house of slavery in Egypt, Jesus will lead a greater exodus in Jerusalem by means of the new covenant sealed by his blood. This exodus will liberate from sin and misery and death. This will be the climax of his vocation. Jesus knows well enough what lays ahead, and he has set his face towards Jersualem, to go and meet it head on. His announcement of the coming kingdom must now be embodied in his very flesh. The living God is at work to heal and save, and the forces of evil and death are also gathering in Jerusalem to oppose him, like Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt trying to prevent the Israelites from leaving. But this was to be the moment of God’s new Exodus, God’s great Passover, and nothing could stop Jesus from going ahead to celebrate it. When he gets near Bethany, which is a little village about two miles from Jerusalem, Jesus climbs upon the mount his disciples have brought him. Unlike Pilate, he rides no high horse, just a lowly colt. There are branches of leaves instead of swords. Strewn garments instead of shields. He chooses to enter a deadly situation without force or protection. He gives himself freely and without reservation. Though he is God, he empties himself, taking the form of a servant. This is a prophetic act, a sign of God’s vulnerable love, which risks everything and promises to gain all. In Jesus, God will create peace. The true might in the story lies not in the armies of Caesar, but with the simple Son of Man. Political and military might will ultimately fail. True holiness lies no longer in the Law, true sacrifice will no longer take place in the Temple, rather this itinerant rabbi is the center-point of both: the last remnant of Israel becoming the means by which the whole world shall be saved. In Holy Week, we move beyond the promises, types, and shadows of the Old Testament, and are now instead in the fulfillment and substance of the New Testament. In Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself. Jesus is making all things new. Now, mix Empire with religion, populism, and fallen human will, and you have a volatile situation. A showdown is, by this point, inevitable. The powers that be will not give in without a fight. Making all things new will prove costly to God. The week is busy. Pilate and his legions are trying to keep a lid on things. The Jews are busy with their preparations for remembrance: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday would have been consumed with finding accommodation, familial reunions and above all with selecting, procuring and preparing the sacrificial lambs. Jesus is busy, too. However, he is consumed, not so much with preparations for remembrance as with what is to come. He cleanses the Temple first off- and this is not simply mounting an angry protest about the commercialization of Temple business. Jeremiah and others have proclaimed that if the Temple becomes a hide-out for brigands, either literally or metaphorically, it will come under God’s judgment. Jesus the prophet now renders that judgment. His teaching and arguments with both the Temple hierarchy and the Pharisees over these days drive home his point: in a blunt and confrontational style, Jesus takes on the temple, the Jewish authorities, and the practice of the Law to make the truth of how things are abundantly clear. He adds in a discussion of the end times for good measure. No longer will God tolerate an exclusive covenant, managed by a compromised ethnic elite. Neither will he tolerate the ways of the lords of the Gentiles. Israel- embodied in Jesus- will be a light for all nations, whether they like it or not. As the mission of God is made plain, the mood begins to shift. On Wednesday, he is anointed for his burial in the home of an unclean leper, even as the plot to kill him takes shape. On the day preceding the first Passover seder, firstborn Jewish sons are commanded to celebrate the Fast of the Firstborn, which commemorates the salvation of the Hebrew firstborns. Jesus, himself a firstborn, instead of fasting, institutes the rite we celebrate even today. His body and blood, soon to be offered at Golgotha, are offered to his faithful in advance- a sign not merely of what is to come, but of what is now and ever shall be: God, with man, is pleased to dwell. Jesus, our Emmanuel. Jesus the priest offers us the sacrament of His Body and Blood. The lambs are killed at the Temple for the Passover feast. The scapegoat- the one who bears the sins of the people- dies outside the city. So it is with Christ the victim. During this week, he has become so much of a problem for Empire that Pilate orders his execution, all the while wondering about his innocence. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Strangely and wonderfully, something else is taking place within this tragedy, something that Pilate’s sign on the cross makes clear: the King of Glory begins to reign from his gory throne. Bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows, pierced for our transgressions, he is high, lifted up, and exalted. And soon, the world takes notice: centurions and Sanhedrin members convert, the Holy of Holies is opened to all, the dead are raised. Types and shadows- political and religious- have their ending. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. Jesus’ royalty- and the nature of his kingdom- shines out in his prayer and his promise from the cross, both recorded only in Luke. Unlike traditional martyrs, who died with a curse against their torturers, Jesus prays for their forgiveness. He then promises a place of honor and bliss to one who requests it- paradise for Dismas the thief. By his wounds, humanity is healed. The Jews were not wrong to look back to the Exodus at Passover. In some sense, that’s what we are doing in Holy Week too. Yet this week also invites us to be looking forward- to what is already, but also not fully yet realized- not just for Dismas but for all who are baptized into Christ: forgiveness and paradise. The Roman Christian poet Prudentius, captured the idea this way: We believe in thy words, O Redeemer, Which, when triumphing over death’s darkness, Thou didst speak to thy robber companion, Bidding him in thy footprints to follow. Lo, now to the faithful is opened The bright road to paradise leading; Man again is permitted to enter The garden he lost to the Serpent. Beloved, as we enter with joy upon the contemplation of these mighty acts, the lesson of this week is this: in Christ, because of Christ, we all get to come home. Let us walk with Jesus this week, for that is where he leads us.…

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