Triumph or Tragedy? (Palm/Passion Sunday)

Mark 11: 1-11
Roger Lynn
March 28, 2021
Palm/Passion Sunday
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It’s funny how you can learn so much in one day, and not even realize what it is you’ve learned until years later. I was there that day – the day he came riding through the gates. I was in the crowd, shouting and waving branches, acting as if I knew what I was doing. But, it would not be until much later before I began to have even a glimmer of understanding about what I learned that day – about myself, about the world, about God, about how all those things fit together.

It’s difficult to describe what happened. Everyone was so caught up in the euphoria. The mood swept through the city like a flood, carrying along everyone in its path. It was amazing. I never really thought of myself as the fanatical type, but I certainly got carried away that day.

It has always confused me when I try to tell this story. I want to tell the whole thing at once, because to tell any one part of it is to tell it wrong. Starting at the beginning has always seemed so inadequate to the task, but I’ve never come up with a better way, so at the beginning is where we will begin.

Rumors had been filtering in to Jerusalem for months about a young itinerant rabbi named Jesus. He was wandering about the countryside with a small band of followers, preaching and teaching and, some said, even healing. The reactions to these rumors were mixed. Some said he was the long awaited messiah, come to save us all. Some said he was Satan, come to damn us all. There were a variety of opinions, but very few people seemed to be without some feelings on the matter.

Then one day the rumors began to change, or maybe I should say they began to grow. They sounded more first hand. They sounded closer. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem and he would be here very soon. The excitement built. The tension built. Street corner discussions became public debates. If I had been Jesus, Jerusalem is not where I would be coming right then. But still the rumors persisted.

Then came the morning of that day. People were running through the streets, shouting and screaming and waving branches. Jesus was right outside the city. He would be riding through the gates at any moment. God’s Messiah was coming to God’s holy city! Whatever dissension had been present in the days before seemed to fade into the shadows in the face of the excitement which was surging through the city. If there were folks who weren’t excited, I guess they just stayed off the streets that day. I soon found myself being carried along with the crowd and caught up with their enthusiasm.

I have heard others tell this story, both those who were there and those who have only heard it third and fourth hand. Often when it’s told, Jesus’ entry into the city is referred to as the triumphal entry. Over the years I have had very mixed feelings about that title. At the time, and for a few days following, it certainly seemed to be a triumph. Jesus had come through the gates and was welcomed by the accolades of the crowd. Shouts of “hosanna” were on everyone’s lips. It was a victory celebration! Even the skeptical were beginning to believe that this might really be the messiah, and the fact that Jesus was riding on a donkey instead of a war horse didn’t seem to cut into anyone’s sense of exhilaration.

Well, as I said, that sense of triumph lasted for a couple of days, but the mood of the crowd changed all too quickly. After they arrested him on the evening of Passover, people reacted very badly. I’m ashamed to admit that I was one of the many who were caught up in the “anti-Jesus” sentiment which was being encouraged by some of the Pharisees and other teachers of the law. After all, they were our spiritual leaders – the ones we looked to for guidance and leadership. It was amazingly easy to fall right in with this latest mood of the crowd. As we gathered in front of Pilate’s palace that night, shouting for Jesus to be crucified, I remember looking around and seeing many of the same faces who had been present the Sunday before when he came riding through the gates. The same voices were shouting again – only this time they were shouting in angry, hateful tones. And mine was one of the them. The sense of triumph was gone. Tragedy hung in the air like a fog, clinging to us so closely that we didn’t even realize it was there.

For a very long time after that I couldn’t understand how everything could have gone so wrong. How could someone who claimed to teach about God’s love come to such an end? How could such triumph end in such tragedy? How could we have misunderstood so badly?

And then one day, years later, something happened which brought all my questions and confusions into a sharper focus. I encountered Jesus as someone more than a wandering rabbi. I became more than merely one of the crowd. I met the Christ – and in that meeting many things became clear. As I said in the beginning, “It’s funny how you can learn so much in one day, and not even realize what it is you’ve learned until years later.” That day when he came riding through the gates really had been a triumphal entry. It really was God’s messiah entering God’s holy city. We had not been wrong – but we had not been right either. We missed it because we were looking for a different sort of messiah. We wanted a savior who fit our expectations, rather than one who fit God’s generous and grace-filled intentions. I learned that things are not always what they seem and yet, sometimes, they are exactly what they seem, for all the reasons we could never guess. I began to learn to let God be God, because only then will we begin to find triumph in the most unexpected of places.

I was there that day – the day he came riding through the gates. I was in the crowd, shouting and waving branches, acting as if I knew what I was doing.

Following The Light (Lent 5)

Exodus 34: 29-35; John 8: 12; Ephesian 5: 8-9
Roger Lynn
March 21, 2021
5th Sunday In Lent

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Each week during this season of Lent we have been exploring various aspects of what it means to journey through the wilderness of our lives. To make such a journey we require a guide – someone who knows the way we must travel. The scriptures for this morning all point to the image of light as one of the gifts we need for the journey. I invite you to listen for the good news of the light which we are invited to follow.

- Light in Our Darkness -

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was nothing. There was no sky. There was no earth. There was no light. There was no darkness. There was only nothing, and the nothingness was vast and complete. But in the midst of the nothingness, there was God. Then God began to create, which is what God does best, and then there was something where before there had been nothing. But darkness was everywhere, so God called forth light out of the darkness, and in many and various ways has been doing so ever since. For God is a radiant God of Light, shining into the darkness, illuminating the shadows, and shining ever outward.

After the light, God’s creation continued with the shaping of persons and breathing the breath of life into their nostrils, and human history began. It is the history of a created people’s encounters with a radiant creator God.

Our story begins with one such encounter, when a man named Moses went up on a mountain and there was confronted by the living, radiant God. That encounter was so intense that Moses himself took on some of God’s radiance, his face reflecting the Light of God. For you see, one does not encounter God and walk away unchanged and unaffected.

Moses came down from the mountain, shining with the Light of God, and he came before the people of Israel. But even this second hand light, this reflected glory, shining in their darkness was more than the people could bear. It showed them their darkness for what it was, and they would rather not been shown. So Moses covered the light from them so they wouldn’t have to be reminded.

And so the story goes, time and time again. Even after witnessing the Light and seeing their darkness for what it was, the people still persisted in choosing the darkness. They had convinced themselves that in their darkness they had freedom, for there they could do as they pleased and no one would object.

For years and years the story goes on, with God shining into the darkness and the people choosing the darkness nonetheless, until finally, God sent not a beam of light into the darkness, but the Light source itself. Of course that did not go over well at all. The people had been hard pressed to endure just the shining of that Light into their world. To put up with the Light actually being in the world with them, shining out of the midst of the darkness, was more than they were prepared to deal with. They had come to prefer the darkness and had even begun to believe that it was not really darkness at all. Then along came this brilliant, shining, wondrous source of Light, like a flash of lighting in the mist of the storm which they had long since stopped even thinking of as a storm, reminding them that they were indeed living in darkness, shattering their carefully constructed illusion.

These were a stubborn people, however. They chose to see in this Light a threat to their darkness rather than an inviting warmth calling them to new life in the Light. They chose to cling to their imagined freedom rather than give themselves over to the source of all true freedom. They chose to deny the existence of the Light, and so they extinguished the flame – or so they thought.

What they did not realize, or would not admit, was that this Light had shone in their darkness and their darkness could not put it out. They could close their eyes and pretend that it was not so. They could go into their houses and shut all the doors and windows against this Light. But this living, life-giving Light of God went right on shining in the world, illuminating the darkness wherever it came.

There have always been those who recognized that their darkness could not survive. And over time their numbers have grown. They come to see that bumping around in the dark is not freedom at all, but a kind of self-imposed slavery. They begin to open up the doors and windows. They begin to open their eyes. They give themselves over to the Light and let it shine forth in their lives. And yes, they find freedom in the Light.

So for years upon countless years the Light has continued to shine in our world – but the darkness has continued as well. It can be found in a variety of shapes and forms – in the pain and confusion which comes when we have been hurt and betrayed by someone we trusted; in the loss and confusion we feel at the death of someone we love; in the sickness which strikes our own bodies; in our stubborn insistence that we have everything under control. We find it in a variety of disguises, but the darkness persists wherever it can gain a foothold.

This is, however, a story of Light. The darkness cannot endure when the Light is allowed to come in. And since this is no ordinary light, but the Light of the living, radiant God, the God of creation who called light out of darkness and continues to do so even yet, this Light does more than simply drive back the darkness. It renews and restores and transforms all those into whose life it shines. It continues the process of creation until we recognize that we are a part of the Light source itself, shining forth into the darkness which cannot endure.

Then comes the freedom which we have so often tried to find in our darkness, the freedom to be who we are always being invited to become – daughters and sons of the Light.

And so begins OUR story!

New Life: Dancing Bones & Walking Corpses (Lent 4)

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 & John 11: 17-44
Roger Lynn
March 14, 2021
Fourth Sunday In Lent

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Back in 1981 (40 years ago) Stephen Spielberg made the first Indiana Jones movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It was a return to the adventure films of the past, with the added excitement of modern special effects techniques. It was a fun movie, but in all honesty it must be admitted that in the interest of making an exciting movie, Spielberg played rather fast and loose with scripture and the power of God.

The interesting thing is that scripture is plenty exciting and full of “special effects” all by itself, without any embellishment from Hollywood screenwriters. Take, for example, the two scriptures which were read a few moments ago. What more could Spielberg want than a script filled with bones that come back to life or corpses that emerge from tombs alive again?

The theme for this season of Lent has been one of journeying through the wilderness of our lives. We have talked about journeying with Christ as our guide. And we have talked about the need to begin this journey fresh, with none of our old baggage. The theme which we find in both scripture lessons for today is death. More specifically, it has to do with what God does with dead people. Our journey continues.

Whatever else might be said about it, Ezekiel’s vision, as reported in the 37th chapter of the book bearing his name, is bizarre and a little bit disquieting. We find a valley filled with dry bones which are called back to life. This is more than just the re-animation of a dead body. This is full-scale reconstruction. The bones come back together – muscle and tendon and sinew are added – skin forms to cover it all – and then there are people, where before there was only the last reminders of death long since past. Life out of death – indeed, almost life out of nothing – and it happens because life is called forth in the name of God.

Jesus receives word that his friend, Lazarus, has died. When he arrives in Bethany Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Jesus cries, but is not detoured from an amazing confidence in the power of God. He calls Lazarus forth from the tomb – and Lazarus comes! Life out of death – in the name of God!

In the end, however, we are still left with the question, what’s it all about? Surely it is more than merely the stuff of which Hollywood films are made. The point is something more than bones that dance and corpses that come back to life. What we are really talking about is God’s power and ongoing desire to bring life to even the most hopeless of situations.

In the case of Ezekiel’s vision, the bones did not represent actual physical death. They were the dead faith of the people of Israel. The spark of life had gone out of their faith and Ezekiel was sent by God to call them back to the path which leads to life. God is more powerful than dead faith.

In the case of Lazarus, we find ourselves faced with actual physical death. Here we find ourselves presented with a preview of the resurrection. The message would seem to be that even death, in all of its frightening, and even smelly, reality, is not beyond the reach of God’s grace.

The season of Lent reminds us that such journeying through the wilderness of our lives can be dangerous. For Jesus it was a journey which led to death on the cross. When we choose to follow him, we receive no promises that our journeys will be any different. But the message of Ezekiel and the message of Jesus with Lazarus is that death is never the final word with God. It is by God’s grace that we move through such reality to the deeper reality of life by the power of God.

Whether it is the death of our faith or the death of our bodies which we face, we are reminded that we can look beyond such lifelessness to new life which comes from God. And we are reminded in the final verse of the passage from John that we do not discover such new life alone. We are called to do so within community, helping each other to receive this new life. When Lazarus emerges from the tomb, he carries with him the old wrappings of the dead. It is to Lazarus’ sisters and friends that Jesus says, “Unwrap him – set him free!” It’s up to each of us and all of us together to support each other along the way.

From what death in ourselves can we allow God to free us? What old graves clothes can we allow our friends to help us remove? And to whom are we called to announce this amazing gift of new life? Who are we called to set free from the burdens which bind them? May such questions ring in our ears as we continue our journey through this wilderness towards the Light of new life!

The Kingdom Of God Supply Store & Wilderness Guide Service (Lent 3)

John 3: 1-17
Roger Lynn
March 7, 2021
Third Sunday In Lent
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I have a confession to make. “Born again” is not my favorite scriptural phrase. It has been so overworked and abused over the past few decades that I almost shudder whenever I hear it. It has been used by some folks in such simplistic terms that for them the entire Christian faith has come to be defined in terms of this phrase. The question, “Are you born again?” has become almost a password or secret code. That kind of thinking makes me nervous, because too many important issues have to be glossed over or ignored in order to get things down to such a simple level. That having been said, it is an important text and I believe it has something to offer us here in this season of Lent.

In this reading from John’s Gospel, we find a discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus concerning the kingdom of God. It is at one and the same time a very familiar text and a very foreign text. Is there anyone who has spent any time at all in church (and many who have never been to church) who does not know John 3:16? “For God so loved the world...” And who has not at least heard the phrase “You must be born again.”? Many of you may even be familiar with Nicodemus. I know the folks in my Bible Study group have heard of him. He shows up on three different occasions in John’s gospel. Here in chapter 3 he comes to Jesus “by night,” presumably because he didn’t want to risk his reputation by being seen with Jesus during the day. By the time the Gospel is finished, however, it is this same Nicodemus, along with Joseph of Arimathaea, who claims Jesus’ body for burial. One of the more dramatic stories in the whole of the New Testament, and it centers around a character who is mentioned in only a handful of verses in one Gospel.

But for all of our familiarity with the contents of this text, I suspect that it is still very foreign to most of us. For instance, how many of us remember that John 3:16 occurs within the context of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus? How many of us remember that it is a part of the discussion about being born again? And how many of us remember that John 3:16 is followed by John 3:17, “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that through the Son the world might be saved.”? Perhaps, even in this most familiar of scripture texts, there are still mysteries to be explored.

The season of Lent is about faithfully journeying through the wilderness experiences of our lives. If we take this journey seriously we find ourselves faced with the frightening realities of the human experience. We find ourselves faced with our own shortcomings and limitations. But we also find ourselves accompanied on the journeying by God.

It is appropriate, therefore, to deal with Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus. He comes to Jesus by night, because he is afraid to have even his questions about faith exposed to the light of day. How much like Nicodemus are we? Are there questions or issues which we who have grown up in the church are afraid to face? Would we rather leave well enough alone and flow along with the way things have always been? When we come to Jesus, how often do we do so “by night?”

But, regardless of when he comes, or the shortcomings of his motives, the fact is that Nicodemus does, in fact, come seeking to understand – seeking to grow. And Jesus responds. He tells Nicodemus something to help with that growth. Unfortunately, what he has to say doesn’t make much sense to Nicodemus. For that matter, if we are honest with ourselves, it doesn’t really make much sense to us. “What do you mean, be born again?” Even in the first century Nicodemus knew enough about medical science to know that such a statement made no sense. It isn’t physically possible to be born again. Does that mean it isn’t possible to comprehend the kingdom of God?

Of course we know the rest of what Jesus had to say, so we are never even tempted to hear Jesus’ words in the way that Nicodemus must have heard them. But I think our familiarity has brought us to the same end result. We often don’t understand what Jesus is talking about. “Born again” has become a catch phrase, divorced from any real meaning which it might once have held.

But what if we say it differently? What if we say it using terms related to journeying? Can we begin to hear Jesus’ words with new ears if we substitute the phrase “Fresh Beginnings”? You see, the problem Nicodemus had with understanding the kingdom of God was that he was trying to get there along the old trails he had already learned how to hike, using hiking techniques with which he was already familiar and hiking equipment which he already owned. What Jesus says is, “It won’t work that way. You’ll only end up in places you’ve already been before. The kingdom of God is a new place. You’ve got to get there by following a new trail, using new techniques, new equipment, a new map, and a new guide. You need to start over and begin fresh.”

The kingdom of God isn’t going to make sense to us when we try to think about it in ways we already understand. How could it? It’s the kingdom of God! But that doesn’t mean we can’t make the journey. It simply means we need help. We need a guide. And guess who runs the “Kingdom of God Supply Store And Wilderness Guide Service”? God’s Holy Spirit! And this amazing store has everything we need for the journey. There is bread and wine to sustain us. There is the official guide book, written by fellow travelers who have made the trip before. There is a gathering place, where we can meet others who are also planning to make the trip, so that we don’t have to travel alone. And best of all, there is a guide who blazed the trail in the first place. There is only one restriction to doing business at the “Kingdom of God Supply Store And Wilderness Guide Service.” You can’t get there by continuing down the path you are already on. You have to turn around. And the amazing thing is that as soon as you turn around you’ll find the entrance waiting for you, with the door wide open. You do have to leave your old maps and your old equipment at the door. But new stuff is waiting for you inside and your old stuff won’t do you any good on this journey anyway.

We are on a journey through the wilderness of our lives, and trying to make it on our own is fraught with danger. It is a journey that requires us to begin fresh. And it will mean trusting the grace of God to help us through. The supply store is open for business. Let the journey begin!