SunMay12011
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9
In a Sentence: The message of Easter is a source of hope. It is a reminder to us that life is more powerful than death; that light is more powerful than darkness; and, in the end, love will overcome hatred.
New Testament Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith — being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Prayer: Our gracious and loving God, a fearful group of disciples met the risen Christ one evening in an upper room in Jerusalem on the third day following his crucifixion, and their lives were never the same. A religious fanatic named Saul, later called Paul, met the risen Christ one day on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus and a life filled with hatred and a desire to destroy, was transformed into a life filled with compassion and a desire to redeem. What Paul on that Damascus road and those disciples in that upper room and countless others down through the centuries had in common was an encounter with the risen Christ. The presence of the Church in every country, in every corner of the world today, gives witness to the power of the resurrection. While we cannot duplicate the experience of others, may we on this second Sunday of Easter encounter the resurrected Christ, we ask. AMEN.
A New and Living Hope
Hamilton’s sermon last week was built around two words from the Easter story in Matthew, “feet” and “other.” The latter part of his homily dealt with the “other” Mary, the one less known, a bit neglected, sort of second class. I didn’t think too much about it at the time, but as this week progressed, I began to think of myself as the “other” minister, the one who preaches on Sunday’s like the Sunday after Easter.”
I became aware of that, when I looked at the lectionary readings for today and realized that I have preached 4 or 5 sermons on the gospel passage from John 20. It is a primary lectionary passage for the Sunday after Easter, which tells the story of the first disciples’ encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the Sunday evening after his death.
I must confess that I was tempted to dig up one of those sermons from 8 or 10 years ago, dust it off and repreach it this morning. While wrestling with the temptation, a little voice, the voice of my homiletics professor from my seminary days nearly 40 years ago, was whispering in my ear, “Any sermon, to be repreached has to be reborn.”
And so, after prayerful pondering, I was led to a second of the lectionary passages for this morning, the one from 1st Peter.
Many New Testament scholars believe the letter of 1st Peter represents some of the earliest New Testament writings. Attributed to Peter, one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus, it was likely written from Rome during the mid-sixties of the first century. That would place its authoring in the period when Christians were being severely persecuted by the Roman Emperor, Nero, a persecution which began around A.D. 64. According to early church tradition, both Peter and Paul were martyred during that time.
So, 1st Peter was a letter written to churches in the provinces surrounding Rome at a time of increasingly severe persecution. In his message to them, Peter is endeavoring to encourage the believers, to offer words of support and hope. “Do not be surprised,” he tells them, “at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you….” (4:12)
At the heart of Peter’s message lies Easter, which we celebrated a week ago today, the promise of resurrection. Sprinkled throughout his letter, we find words like: “he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” from our text for today; (1 Peter 1:3) or references to the “God, who raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.” (1 Peter 1:21) Later he speaks of baptism, which is symbolic of the resurrection, of our being buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. (1 Peter 3:21)
A Theology of the Finite
A few years ago Donald Berry, a professor of philosophy and religion at Colgate University, wrote an article entitled Seeking a Theology of the Finite, which appeared in the Christian Century magazine (September 29, 1982, p. 953).
In the article Dr. Berry writes of how our Christian faith is deeply rooted in who we are as physical or finite beings. He speaks of the images or clues “that we must deal with if we are to attend seriously and honestly to the concrete actualities of our embodied existence. We are reminded not just of our strength but of our weakness as well; not just of glory but also of misery; not just of pleasure but also of finitude; not just of warmth and the coming-to-be of the self in relation with others, but also of limitation and isolation; not just marriage but divorce; not just trust but betrayal and desertion; not just good feeling but pain, suffering, daily reminders of mortality, impermanence, the inevitability and the necessity of death….
“We are not who we are without our bodies,” Dr Berry continues. “But our bodies do not define or exhaust who we are. The body is the locus of meaning for us, but being or becoming a full, self-expressive person is independent of the limits of the body in some way. “
Yesterday afternoon here in our chapel I was privileged to officiate at a memorial service for Betty Cunningham. Betty’s daughter, Pam Johnson and granddaughter, Amy Baker, are active members of Federated. Betty was a sister of Bob Rickert, who preceded her in death 7 years ago.
In an email written shortly before Betty died, Amy describes how she and Pam saw her three weeks ago, April 10, a Sunday, and she was having a good day. The weather was beautiful, so they took her for a spin outside in her wheelchair to see the flowers and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. She was alert, lucid, and content. They had a great conversation and shared memories from the past. When Pam and Amy left, they thought she was making a comeback.
The next day she took a sudden turn for the worse. When they saw her on Tuesday morning, she was awake, but mostly confused and very uncomfortable. Suffering from renal failure, she was experiencing many of the related symptoms -- fatigue, agitation, confusion. She was just so tired, Amy wrote, and her organs were shutting down.
“She has a deep faith,” Amy continued in her email, “and she is ready to take this journey. She's not afraid at all, but maybe a little bit sad at the thought of the things and people she will miss seeing here. There is a big welcoming committee awaiting her arrival in heaven though, and she talks about how much she is looking forward to joining them. We just hope for a smooth, easy, comfortable transition for her….”.
Six days later on Monday, April 18, Betty Cunningham, mother and grandmother, gardener and musician, beloved child of God, made that pilgrimage of which the Psalmist spoke as he prayed: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
She was able to face that journey with courage and hope, in part because of the truth of which Peter wrote in his letter. To paraphrase Peter’s words, God had given Betty a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for her.
Hope: The poet Emily Dickinson wrote of it as
…the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Hope is not something you can put your finger on, yet it is something that can make all the difference in the world. In his letter to Christians in Corinth the Apostle Paul spoke of it, along with faith and love, as one of the three things that endure in life. It is pure gift, or as Dickinson refers to it, “the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul.” You can’t reason your way to it. Money won’t buy it. You can’t take it by force.
Rabbi Marc Gellman tells of his dying friend David, who always wanted to hear the Yiddish story of the foolish men of Chelm who one night saw the reflection of the moon in a rain barrel and decided that it would be a very valuable item for dark and stormy nights. One clear moonlit night they sneaked up on the rain barrel, saw that the moon was in the barrel, and threw a cover over it. So pleased were they that they had caught the moon that they called the whole village together on a dark night to open the barrel and light the village. After opening it, they sadly discovered that the barrel was full of rain but no moonlight. After a lengthy consultation they concluded, “We were not quick enough to catch the moon.”
“Not quick enough to catch the moon,” David said to Gellman on his last visit to the hospice. That night he crossed over to a place where the answers to all questions are clear. To answer some questions, you need intelligence, cash, power, and patience. But for other questions, you need an open heart and you need to be fast enough to catch the moon.”
The message of Easter is a source of hope. It is a reminder to us that life is more powerful than death; that light is more powerful than darkness; and, in the end, love will overcome hatred.