May 4, 2025 3rd Sunday of Easter Luke 24:36-53

             Buddhist monk and author Jack Cornfield famously wrote in his book A Path with Heart, “Life is a test – it is only a test.  If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do.  Remember, this life is only a test.”  I am not an expert in Buddhism, so I will not be too critical of a statement like that.  However, I will use it as a stepping stone to help us understand our gospel reading for today.

It seems that in the minds of many Christians life is indeed a test by God.  If you pass the test then you get to go to heaven where there is eternal joy and bliss.  If you fail the test then you go to hell where there is extreme torment for all of eternity.  Some passages in the Bible can be used to support such ideas, so I will not say they are completely unfounded in Christianity.  However, overall that is not Christian teaching.  If it were, then God would be a cruel being who liked to play games with helpless subjects.  If life is a test that bears such severe consequences, then we definitely need God to give us further instructions on where to go and what to do.

It also has another impact that is far more subtle.  Many people seem to think that God gives us subtle nudges and clues as to where to go and what to do.  That idea is hardly better.  Why would God make life into a game to see how well we could follow subtleties?  What if we missed something?  What if we misinterpreted something?  And if God truly loves us, then why make getting life right so difficult?  And also, maybe the nudges and subtle clues idea works for humanity’s smartest people, but if we’re somewhere below average in intellectual ability how are we supposed to then recognize God’s instructions?

That whole collection of ideas don’t fit though.  God is not a cruel being who lies to play games with helpless subjects.  God does not do things in a way that favors the intelligent or the inciteful.  The wider truth revealed throughout the Bible is that God created the world, and its rich and diverse life, because God is creative.  God loves variety.  God loves dynamic things.  And in human beings, God has created a creature which has been endowed with the power to respond to God’s love.  God wants the authentic relationship of trust that comes from that.

Life is not a test.  Life is not a series of clues to be solved.  Life is a generous gift from God, with the invitation to live it in loving trust with the God who created you.

I think we’d all like to have more proof from God, and we’d like to have more clear instructions about what to do with life’s difficult decisions.  Those desires are understandable.  However, think of it this way.  If God gives you a clear and unmistakable instructions then you’d better follow them!  When God does not give you clear and unmistakable instructions, then God is giving you the freedom to respond in whatever loving way you feel like doing; and what is best.  God gives you not only life and creativity, but also forgiveness for those unavoidable times when your decisions go wrong.

In our gospel reading we see Jesus giving the disciples several things.  They are given forgiveness for their recent failings, they are given clear proof of the resurrection, they are given understanding to strengthen their relationship with God, and they are given clear instructions about what to do next.  Let’s briefly touch on each.

The forgiveness comes at the beginning when Jesus says, “Peace to you.”  They were startled and terrified at the sudden presence of the resurrected Jesus.  Remember that in the midst of their wonder and confusion about it all there was also a great sense of guilt.  They had all failed Jesus just a few days before.  All of them -every last one of them- fled when Jesus was arrested.  I’m not just talking about the twelve male disciples but also the women.  Even Peter, who had directly promised that he would never deny Jesus, shortly afterward did that very thing three times.  If they all fled and forsook Jesus, then seeing him alive and back again was a troubling prospect.  What punishment were they going to receive for their failure?

So Jesus starts off with, “Peace to you.”  They’re not in trouble at all.  They don’t need to worry.

If you call to mind the birth story of Jesus at Christmas you’ll remember the angels said a similar thing to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” 

God knows that any relationship with his creation has to be built upon peace – not fear, not warfare, …not playing games to see if the humans can manage to figure it out.

With peace proclaimed to his followers Jesus goes on to the next step – giving them proof of his bodily resurrection.  He invites them to see him and touch him.  He eats a piece of fish in their presence as additional proof.

This is finally the kind of thing we want to have with the resurrection stories.  You’ll remember that on Easter Sunday two weeks ago we had the story of Easter morning; the empty tomb.  The followers of Jesus discovered that the tomb was open, the body was gone, two men in dazzling apparel said he had been resurrected, and yet the resurrected Jesus never makes an appearance.  Last week we read a story from early Easter evening.  There the resurrected Jesus met two followers who were walking to Emmaus.  We were told that their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus until the very end when he broke bread with them.  Then as soon as they recognized him he disappeared from their sight.  It felt like a cruel tease.  Why couldn’t they have spend joyous time knowing they were with the resurrected Jesus?

Now this week we read later in the evening when the resurrected Jesus does appear to his followers for an extended time.  They felt joy and ongoing disbelief, but it least it was a real and meaningful encounter.  It is what they needed.

It is what we need too.  If life is to be a relationship with God, then God knows we need real interaction.  If this life and this whole universe are not just some sort of test, then we need God to show that God does indeed value it.  God shows he values it by coming to live a lifetime as Jesus.  And God shows the promise of eternal life with Jesus’ actual real physical resurrection.  Jesus may come and go suddenly.  He may not be bound by normal physical limitations, but he is still real.  So the disciples get this proof.

With the disciples getting peace and then proof, they are ready to receive greater understanding about what has been going on all along.  Jesus opens their minds so that they can see God’s big plan has been at work all along, and everything continues to go according to it:

God created.

God revealed things through Moses and the prophets.

The Messiah had to suffer because it reveals the nature of God’s love, which is the foundation we need for relationship with God.

The resurrection had to be real to prove that death is not the end, and to reveal that God does indeed have the power to make good on his promises.

Finaly, the disciples are given clear instructions about what to do next.  This is the kind of thing we think we want from God.  But their instructions are to stay put and wait for further empowerment.  That’s not the kind of instructions we want to get!  These instructions were not long-term, however.  We know the stories.  Fifty days later the Holy Spirit comes upon them dramatically and they are sent out into the world.

The disciples are given instructions for what to do.  We are given the same instructions.  We are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations.  That means that the good news is not to be limited to just our friends and families.  It is not a limited commodity to be hoarded.  It is something good to be shared widely.

It is a sad thing that so few want to hear it and live it in our land today.  People would rather indulge in cheap temporary thrills rather than have the deep lasting relationship that comes with diligence and commitment.  That is their loss.  We, however, are inspired by the truth, and can live meaningful lives in confidence.

God wants us to live in confidence and freedom, being in a genuine relationship with him, and then mutual relationships with each other.  Ultimately we are called forward towards God’s promise of eternal life, which is a promise that gives us enduring joy. 

April 27, 2025 2nd Sunday of Easter Luke 24:13-35

 Whenever I read the story of the two followers of Jesus walking to Emmaus my mind wonders to why the guys didn’t recognize Jesus?  Could they actually not recognize who he is until suddenly their eyes were opened when Jesus breaks bread with them?  The text says that their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  That’s in the passive voice in Greek, which means that it is God who is keeping them from recognizing him.  All of that feels unfair.  I ask myself why is God playing games with them?  And wouldn’t their whole experience be better if they’d have recognized Jesus right from when the first met him, then spent hours knowing they were talking with him before he disappeared?  That’s what I’d want.  But this not recognizing Jesus until he is revealed and then he suddenly disappears is just frustrating!

All of those are fair frustrations to have with the text.  We’ll come back to that.  But in those frustrations we don’t want to miss the situation of these two men.

They had put their faith in Jesus.  They had believed in him.  They thought he was the one who would save the nation and bring about God’s long-promised kingdom.  He was, or was becoming, the center of their lives.  But then it all fell apart strikingly fast.  Jesus was celebrating the Passover just like everyone else, and then suddenly he was arrested, tried, sentenced, and executed; all in less than a day.  It so sudden and so fast they could hardly wrap their heads around it.  They’d put their faith in the wrong person.

Then the women report the stone of the tomb was rolled back, the tomb was empty, and two men in dazzling apparel appeared.  They said Jesus wasn’t there but was resurrected from the dead.  The story went from shocking to ridiculous.  The whole thing must have felt like a fiasco; with the women just desperate for a happy ending.

The two men on the road to Emmaus are like many people in our society today.  They don’t know what to believe in.  They don’t know who they are.  They don’t know what their purpose in life is.  They don’t where they are going.  Like the two men walking to Emmaus, they are just wandering along towards a temporary destination but with no real purpose.  Everything seems confusing and unsteady.  They tried to believe in something – they’d tried to believe in Jesus – but it had failed.  So now what?

I said a moment ago I thought this identity crisis is something many people in our society today are feeling.  That’s probably an understatement.  It’s actually dominant.  It’s like the whole society doesn’t know who they are, where they’re going in life, or where we’re going as a nation.  There’s no national identity and no national purpose.  And, despite that polls say that most people believe in God, and they have largely Christian morality structure and worldview, they do not have a functional fear of God.  By fear of God I do not mean paralyzed trembling at the fear of eternal damnation.  I mean a healthy respect that we are all dependent upon a Being who has created us but we have no means of controlling.  You find taught throughout the Hebrew scriptures that there is nothing we humans can offer to God that God can’t get better elsewhere.  And so we are forever dependent upon a Being for whom we can offer nothing, yet upon whom we absolutely depend.  That’s the kind of fear and respect I mean.  But instead, people in our nation seem to believe in a god who thinks just like them – has the same morality and the same views.  And, a god who is willing to allow excuses for their every moral slip.

So, with no real direction in life, and no fear of God, people are living life lost and trying to find meaning by consuming things.  We consume more food, more creature comforts, more entertainment, and endlessly more technology.  Instead of people having a sense of purpose based upon their labors and how their efforts contribute to their family, their neighborhood, and their nation, they try to find a sense of purpose by posturing for image in social media, through virtue signaling with their purchases and social beliefs, and through consuming things.

This Wednesday the Men’s Breakfast will be watching the video The Rise of the Pavement Princess.  It’s about men in society today struggling to have a place and a purpose, and so they buy a “pavement princess”, which is another way of saying a big macho looking offroad luxury pickup truck that never actually does any real work or leaves paved roads.  Those ridiculous shows of masculinity, that never actually do anything, can easily cost more than four years of college at a public university.  They are a symptom of something much deeper and much bigger.

It feels to me like most people in our society are just as lost in life as the two men walking to Emmaus that Easter evening.  They are consuming pointlessly and exhausting themselves accomplishing nothing and going nowhere.

Let’s recognize that it is in the midst of their lostness that the resurrected Jesus comes.  That goes for the two men heading to Emmaus and for people today.  In both cases they cannot see Jesus in their midst.  They do not understand.  Perhaps it isn’t God blinding them so much as it is that in every input their senses receive they just interpret in a way that refuses to see God at work.

On the road to Emmaus Jesus explains from scripture all the things about himself.  The two men don’t understand.  We’re not told exactly why they can’t understand so we shouldn’t speculate too much.  If I put it into today’s situation I imagine a grandfather trying to talk to his granddaughter about the Bible and faith in Jesus.  The conversation is polite but doesn’t go anywhere.  The grandfather is anxious and finds his granddaughter isn’t interested at all.  The granddaughter tries to be tolerant but finds her grandfather’s faith talk to be quaint, irrational, and out-of-touch with her own “enlightened” world view.  And so the conversation goes nowhere.  The risen Lord is not made visible.

            What are we to do?  The world is lost but doesn’t believe it.  People don’t want to hear the truth that saves them.  Jesus is there but never seen.

            The risen Lord is revealed to the eyes of the two men in the breaking of the bread.  This is not exactly the same as holy communion, but we would be right to realize there are parallels.  In classical Greek drama the meal scene is the anagorisis – the recognition scene.  The anagorisis often involves the recognition of someone to whose identity one was previously blind.  Aristotle, whose works are the foundation for poetry, rhetoric, and literary theory – wrote that recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge.  The recognition might bring about affection if it is between friends, or it may bring anger if it is among enemies.  Recognition may be based on visible signs, memory, or reasoning, but as Aristotle says, the best kind is, “that which arises from the actions alone.”  (Aristotle, Poetics 1452a-1455a)  If that is what Luke has in mind as he’s telling this story, then he’s crafted to anagorisis here to be from the actions alone.  The two men recognize Jesus when he breaks bread with them.

            It would be wrong to say that spreading the gospel is as simple.  No, there are a number of things at work here that we do well to pay attention to.

            First is that the risen Jesus meets the men where they are, even as they are heading aimlessly away without any real hope.  Second, Jesus stays with them.  He listens to their situation and understands it.  I think that’s where a lot of evangelism efforts fail.  People want to talk rather than to listen.  We need to listen.  We need to understand the lives of those we want to reach.  We need to realize the complexities of their lives.  Few people find themselves lost or not knowing their life’s purpose from only one thing.  Many factors are contributing to our current societal mess.  You don’t necessarily have to understand them all.  But you have to show that you understand at least some, and that you truly care.

            Jesus travels with them.  He listens to them.  Only after quite a while does he speak.  He explains things to them even as they don’t understand.  Jesus does berate them a bit for being foolish and slow of heart, but he immediately goes into an explanation.

            Then, only after all of that, does he break bread with them.  The turning point is his actions, but his actions come after all of that preliminary work.  I believe the same is true for our lives and our faith.

            That means that we too need to know who we are, what our purpose is, and where we’re going in life.  If we don’t know that we have a hard time showing someone else!  The answers to all of those vary for each of us, but all of them are based on Ephesians 2:10.  That says we are created by God for good works.  By good works I don’t mean being a bleeding heart giver to everything that comes along.  I mean working for the good of others.  Life’s purpose and value comes through work; and by no other means.  In other words, a life of comfort and luxury is a life that is pointless and going nowhere.

            With our purpose established, and with care-filled listening, we set the scene where the risen Christ can be seen in our actions.

            Certainly we ourselves want our own proof, or we want more proof than we get.  But that is part of the authenticity of faith.  Spreading faith is not one person who knows it all with absolute confidence telling it to another.  Spreading faith is the shared life of wonder; and questions and doubts about God.

So, it’s our:

1-purpose established,

2-care-filled listening,

3-meaningful shared actions,

4-and shared wonder

that genuinely spread the kingdom of God, and reveal Christ’s presence alive and among us.

April 20, 2025 Easter Luke 24:1-12

 If there were a security camera in the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection I wonder what it would have shown?  Would it have been mostly hours and hours of just a corpse lying there before something happens?  (And from that perspective consider how absurd it would be!  Why would you put a security camera in the tomb of someone who was dead?  I suppose if the person had been buried with a lot of treasure, and you were hoping to catch some grave robbers, you might just do that.  Otherwise no.)

If there were a security camera there in Jesus’ case I imagine a great Monty Python sketch could be inspired by it.   They could create something where Jesus would be arrested for the resurrection.  The district attorney would say, “Jesus of Nazareth, we have security camera footage that proves beyond all reasonable doubt that you did not stay properly dead after being duly executed.  How do you plead?”  Of course it’s absurd, but we’ll come back to that later.

What would a security camera show?  Would it be Jesus waking up, taking off the wrappings, folding them and laying them to one side, pushing back the stone, and walking out of the tomb?  Or would the camera image be obliterated by a blinding flash of light from a great energy source and then reveal the grave cloths lying there and the tomb empty?  Perhaps the energy source would be so great that the camera itself would be destroyed.  Or perhaps there would be no blinding light, simply the disappearance of the body in a blink of time.  But if that’s the case, how was the stone moved aside?

Along those lines, was the stone rolled aside to let Jesus out, or to let the women in?  In the account of the resurrection in Matthew’s gospel the women see the stone rolled back, but Jesus is already gone.  How did he get out?  But that’s a different story.

In our age of fake news and social media distortions of just about everything, it is understandable that we want solid undeniable proof of something; especially something as outrageous as the claim that a man who was publicly executed does not have enough common courtesy to stay dead and in his tomb!  But the gospel writer Luke isn’t giving us the clear proof that we want.  In fact, Luke tells the resurrection story in a way that makes the whole thing all the more confusing.

Luke is an excellent storyteller.  If I were sitting around a campfire at night I’d want to hear Luke tell stories.  Unlike most people who start a story by giving you the background information you need for the story to make sense, Luke dives right into the action.  This often leaves us scratching our heads until sometime later when Luke gives us the background information.  That happens in today’s gospel reading.

We should note that what we read today actually begins in the middle of the story.  Not only does it begin with the middle of the story, it begins with the middle of a sentence!

Luke 24:1, where be began reading goes, “But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb carrying the spices that they had prepared.”  That’s the second half of the sentence.  The first half of the sentence is the final verse of Chapter 23, which we did not read.  That verse goes, “On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment, …but on the first day of the week….”

Okay, so maybe our gospel reading should have started earlier in the story.  But even if it had, Luke is still hanging on to many details we need.  For example, though we are mid-story Luke hasn’t told us who these women are and how many of them there are.  Luke will tell us who they are later on, but at this point we’re left to wonder.  We can’t picture the scene too crisply.  Is it two women?  Is it 32 women?

Whatever the case, this unnamed, unnumbered group of women come to the tomb and find the stone rolled away.  We’re familiar with that part of the Easter story so we’re probably okay with it.  But if we’d read earlier in the story we wouldn’t be okay with it!  You see, Luke hasn’t mentioned this stone before.  All he’s told us is that Jesus has been put into a tomb and the women saw it.  Only now do we find out about a stone being put across the opening.  And somehow – we’re not told how – it has rolled away from the entrance!

We’re also not told how the women felt about the stone’s movement.  Apparently they feel confident enough to venture inside.  That may make us scratch our heads.  Tombs are very small things – they’re incredibly cramped.  But somehow this group of women of unknown number has gotten inside.  And then, suddenly, two men appear in the tomb with them!  We the readers are left to wonder, “How big is this tomb that all these people can fit inside?” 

Among the many things Luke isn’t telling us is who these two men are.  We’re just told they’re dressed in dazzling clothes.  That’s a clue though.  You’ll remember that two men in dazzling clothes also appear at the Transfiguration.  They’re Moses and Elijah.  Also, later on two men will appear to the disciples at Jesus’ ascension.  Luke doesn’t tell us clearly, but it’s safe to say he wants us to think these are the same two men all along.

The women are understandably terrified.  It’s creepy enough being in a tomb, let alone having two men in dazzling apparel suddenly appear!  The men ask, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.”

It’s as if the two men are teasing the women for being there.  That’s not fair!  Exactly how were the women supposed to have anticipated Jesus not being there?  They saw him die and be buried, after all.

            You could say that they should have known because of what Jesus had taught them beforehand.  In fact the next sentence from the men suggests that answer.  The men say, “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

            There’s a problem with that though.  That’s not an entirely accurate statement.  You have to be picky here, but unlike the other gospels, in Luke Jesus never actually predicts to his disciples that he will be crucified.  He did indeed tell them that he would handed over to sinners, and be killed, and on the third day rise.  But he never actually tells them he will die by crucifixion.  That’s significant for how Luke wants us to understand the reactions of the women and later the disciples.

            In those days Jews believed that being crucified was a sign that that person was cursed by God.  Jesus’ crucifixion takes his followers completely by surprise because not only is their leader dead, in their understanding he must have also been cursed by God.  Clearly they had put their trust in the wrong man.

            So then the resurrection comes as an even bigger surprise to them.  Luke tells us though that the women did then remember Jesus’ words.  They returned from the tomb and told all of this to the eleven remaining disciples. 

Only now does Luke give us the names of some of the women who were there.  He never does tell us how many there were though.  It’s an odd move for a storyteller, but the disjointedness of the story and the uncertainty Luke has been creating in our minds all through this is part of the confusion he wants us to feel about the whole situation.

The disciples do not believe the women.  We can understand why.  Our English translations tell us the disciples thought the women’s words were an idle tale.  But the English word “idle” is perhaps not a good choice for translation.  The Greek word there is a technical medical term that means “delirium”.  The disciples dismiss the women’s message because they think the women are delirious.  We can understand why the disciples thought that.  Think of what the women have told them: a stone that somehow rolled back of its own accord, two men in dazzling apparel who suddenly appear in a tomb, a body that was clearly laid there that has somehow disappeared without a trace, and yet the linen wrappings are left there in an orderly way.  And of course, where is Jesus!?!

All of this gives us a resurrection story for Easter Sunday that is weird.  Keep in mind that Luke is an excellent storyteller.  If the story feels disjointed and weird it is because Luke crafted it to feel that way.  We know the resurrection story from the other gospels.  We might easily smooth over all the weirdness and never even realize it.  But I think it is important to realize what Luke has done.  It’s for a purpose that we don’t want to miss.

We want to have clear, high quality security camera proof of Jesus’ resurrection.  We want it to be crisp, solid, and well defined.  We tell ourselves that having that would strengthen our faith when we have doubts and uncertainties.  But the truth is that a life of faith seldom fits into crisp, solid, and well-defined actions.  Is that God playing games with us?  Why can’t God give us what our faith needs?

Because that is not the nature of faith; especially faith in the resurrection.  Faith in the resurrection can never fit into crisp, solid, well-defined things.  Resurrection itself does not.

 I raised earlier the ridiculous idea that Monty Python could have done a comedy sketch about Jesus being criminally charged for not staying properly dead.  That’s just it.  When death is not the end where are the rules?  What are the boundaries?  What is failure?  What is success? 

How do you punish someone who’s been executed but won’t stay dead?  You certainly can’t sentence them to death again.  They’d just come back?  And if you can’t keep them dead, then you can hardly expect prison or house arrest to do anything at all!

You see, the resurrection upends everything we count on in life.  It just doesn’t fit.  It is absolutely wonderful, yes.  But by its very nature, its reality cannot be clearly defined.  Luke’s inconsistent, confusing, and quirky way of telling the story of the resurrection reflects its very reality: wonderful but undefinable by any means we can understand.

I think C.S. Lewis captures a bit of this in the final paragraph of the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia series.  If you’ve never read the series I hope I don’t spoil it for you by saying that at the very end of the very last book everyone dies.  Then Lewis concludes, “But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

That is the great yet undefinable promise that we are given in Christ’s resurrection.

April 13, 2025 Palm Sunday Luke 19:28-48

             Ever called anybody, “dumb as a rock”?  It’s not a compliment to be sure!  We usually use the word “dumb” to refer to a lack of intelligence.  (Rocks certainly lack intelligence!)  But of course the word dumb really means the inability to speak.  Perhaps a person is unable to speak because they lack the intellectual ability to do so.  It should be noted that it does actually take quite a bit of mental power to be able to: form thoughts, translate them into language, and then have the muscle coordination to be able to create recognizable sound patterns called words.  (Although given how much many unintelligent people have to say, one could wonder how much brain power speech actually does need!)

            We should note that highly intelligent people may be technically dumb.  The late Stephen Hawking was brilliant scientist, but disease rendered him wheel chair bound and unable to speak for much of his life.  I had a neighbor growing up who was probably a genius, but he frequently spoke with a stutter.

            Whatever link there may or may not be between intelligence and speech, we can all agree that rocks don’t talk.  They are truly dumb in every sense of the word.  Or are they?
            When Jesus comes in to the city of Jerusalem on that Sunday centuries ago a crowd of disciples welcomed him in by spreading their cloaks on the road and spreading palm branches.  They cried out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”  Some Pharisees took issue with this.  They told Jesus to tell his followers to stop.  But Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

            But of course stones don’t shout out!  Yet let’s note that stones play a role quite often in Luke’s gospel.  Jesus mentions stones crying out right here.  Later in today’s gospel reading Jesus will be lamenting the future of Jerusalem and say, “…they will not leave one stone upon another.”  Indeed, almost 40 years later the Romans did completely level the entire city.  In Luke 20:17 Jesus says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  And there also, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush everyone on whom it falls.”

            In the gospel reading for next Sunday we’ll encounter the stone that seals Jesus’ tomb.  We’ll discover that that stone acts in a very un-stone-like way.

            Near the beginning of Luke’s gospel we read about the ministry of John the Baptist.  John said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” 

            We know full well that stones can’t talk, as Jesus said they could.  And we certainly know that stones can’t become children to Abraham, as John the Baptist said they could.  Yet Luke is making a point about God’s power here.

            Let’s also note that stones show up twice in testing of Jesus by the devil in the wilderness.  There the devil tempts Jesus to do a major spectacle by throwing himself off the temple with the quote, “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

            And finally, the devil says to Jesus, who is famished after not eating for 40 days, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”  After all, the wilderness is full of stones.  What’s one more or less?  Who will know?  Well, if we consider the perspective of Luke’s gospel, the stone will know!

            As we consider all these stones that have the power to: talk, become children, crush things, or become a loaf of bread let’s remember the story from Exodus 19 where God meets the people of Israel in the wilderness after they’ve left slavery in Egypt.  Moses is commanded by God to go up Mount Siani.  Limits are set all around the mountain so that no person or animal approaches it lest they die.  On the day Moses is to go up there is thunder and lightning as well as thick clouds.  The mountain trembles and quakes with the presence of God upon it.  It is as if the very molecules the mountain was made of were trembling with their proximity to God.

            Reformation theologian Martin Luther was not a pantheist.  Pantheists believe that everything is God; or that God is everything.  He was, however, what we’d call a panentheist.  That is, that God is present in all things; or all things bear God’s presence.  This is certainly true as we remember that to exist is to be in God’s presence, for apart from God existence is not possible.  Stones are the presence of God.

            Certainly stones cannot speak.  That’s a scientific reality.  They also cannot think.  They do not have brains.  And yet, as Luke suggests to his readers, stones do bear God’s presence …with a certain sensibility.  The stones along the road the day Jesus entered Jerusalem recognized the presence of the Savior of the universe entering the city.  The stones that the city was built with, all of which would be thrown down into rubble forty years later, recognized that God incarnate was there.

            How about the Pharisees who witnessed the praises of the crowds of disciples Jesus as he entered the city and told them to be quiet?  How about the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people as they look for a way to kill Jesus?  How come these intelligent, highly educated, well-spoken experts in theology didn’t get it?  Were they dumber than rocks?  Apparently so.

            Perhaps the better question to ask is, are we?

            The religious leaders who opposed Jesus had a lot on their minds that week.  Jerusalem was jam packed with people for the Passover holiday.  The place was bursting at the seams.  Pontius Pilate, who preferred to be at his sea-side home on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, had probably come into Jerusalem some days before with perhaps a legion of troops as a show of force, and to keep the peace should the Jewish crowds become unruly.  If you were a Jewish religious leader you feared a riot.

            You also feared unorthodox teachings.  You feared that the strong and strict teachings that preserved Jewish faith and identity would be forgotten or watered down.  Keeping faith strong was an ongoing battle.

            And then you have Jesus of Nazareth, an uneducated itinerant preacher from up north somewhere unimportant, who comes riding into down with disciples proclaiming him Lord and king.  He’s known to have teachings that are questionable.  Then, as Luke tells it, as soon as Jesus gets into Jerusalem, he heads into the temple and starts driving the merchants and money changers out calling it a den of robbers.  From that perspective, what would you do?

            When you hear of tariffs and stock market tumbles, what occupies your mind?  When you think of inflation and interest rates, what world view dominates your thoughts?  Federal workforce restricting, tax rates, immigration, wildfires, climate change, mass extinctions, floods, earthquakes, wars in: Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and many other places, instability in Haiti; not to mention your own personal overstressed: finances, schedule, medical needs, and who knows what all else…

            I think we could rightly claim that all of that is important.  None of it should be shrugged off or ignored.  And yet, in the midst of all of that; and in the midst of all of our education and talents and abilities and intelligence, could we recognize the presence of Jesus entering?  Or are we also dumb as rocks?

            I suspect we very well might be.

            There is good news for us.  All four of the gospels record the crucifixion of Jesus.  Of the four only Luke’s gospel records Jesus saying from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  He doesn’t say it to anyone in particular.  I think he meant it for everyone – even people who are as dumb as rocks.

            Quite likely the stones that pave the church parking lot, and the concrete under the carpet that is under our feet, or the foundation of the home you are in for those of you who are watching online, would do a better job of recognizing Jesus than we can.  But our God loves us.  Jesus didn’t die to save the stones.  They’re smart enough not to sin.  Jesus died to save us.

            We can live and move and be with a sense of joy and delight, despite our failings.  We should live with the perspective that all things that fill our minds are relatively unimportant clutter that keeps us from recognizing Jesus.  We are stronger, and we are more loving, when we keep God truly at the center of our lives, and we can build from there.  And maybe, just maybe, we’ll even be smart enough to be like the stones who can recognize the presence of God and respond.

April 6, 2025 Miracles and Grace Luke 8:22-56

             Today’s gospel reading is a quite a collection of miracles:  A storm is calmed.  A man who is violently demon possessed is cured and a herd of pigs is drowned.  A woman is healed.  And a girl is restored to life.  In these miracles Jesus shows he has power of the forces of nature.  He has the power to cure people’s mental and physical problems.  He even has the power to bring people back from the dead.  It’s enough to make us jealous.  Why can’t we have such things in our lives today?

            In the first book of the Harry Potter series Harry is told by Hagrid, a failed wizard, that he has magic powers and is to go to school to be trained on how to use them.  Harry asks that if there are still magicians everywhere why do they stay secret?  Hagrid replies, “Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems.  Nah, we’re best left alone.”

            Indeed, I would go for magic solutions to life’s problems.  I’d love to be able to wave a magic wand and have someone be cured from a painful ailment.  I’d love to have some magic that would make the check engine light go off in my car when it comes on.  It would be great to be able to fix a broken glass or clean up a mess with an incantation and the wave of a wand.  Also, wouldn’t it be great to be able to prevent earthquakes, calm hurricanes, and put out wildfires?

            I think we have every right to look at the biblical stories of Jesus’ miraculous powers and wish we could experience them ourselves.

            There have long been attempts to dismiss Jesus’ miracles.  For centuries rational thinkers have dismissed them as made up stories or wishful thinking.  They point out that many people in the ancient world across many faiths have been credited with miraculous abilities.  Jesus is just one more of them.

            They make a good point.  And yet, many critically thinking scholars do point out that given the diversity of sources and the variety of miracles Jesus is credit as doing, there has to be at least some measure of historical reality behind them.  In other words Jesus really did have the power to perform miracles.

            So our jealously is well founded.  When we see others hurting, or when we’re hurting ourselves, we want help.  Perhaps the problem has been caused by our own greed or stupidity.  That’s one thing.  We can accept that we’re not going to get help from God.  We’ll learn our lesson the hard way.  But there are too many things that are not at all our fault.  I’m reminded of the news story recently about a Rochester area high school senior who was hit by a drunk driver who was traveling at a high rate of speed.  The car was so badly damaged that it took emergency crews over an hour to get him out of the vehicle.  The boy was severely injured and went into surgery.  He is expected to recover fairly well, but he’s a track star and had received an athletic scholarship to a Division 1 school.  Those days are over.  The accident has ruined his athletic career and will impact the rest of his life.  If God has miraculous powers, where were they?  Why didn’t God prevent the accident?  Why didn’t God tweak the circumstances so he wasn’t injured as badly?  Or why didn’t God fix his injuries fully and completely?  And why should he suffer so much pain when it is in no way shape or form his fault?

            Even if we weren’t the recipients of miracles, wouldn’t credible stories about them strengthen our faith?  Wouldn’t it be great if living a faithful life made a measurable difference in a person’s health, well-being, standard of living, and all of that?  At best you can reach some slight conclusions to that effect, but you can also argue that authentic Christian faith is just living by healthy life-principles, and so statistically you could expect marginally better lives for people who live that way.

            Let’s put a philosophical twist on this.  We’ve traveled down this path in sermons before.  We’ve all been born.  There’s no debating that.  And somewhere along the line a sense of consciousness developed within us.  We know that we exist, and we can think about what it means to exist.  We also know that we are individuals, but in community with individuals.  And then like Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, God has given us a sense of time and eternity.  We know that the world existed before us.  It will exist after us.  We did not create it.  Something or Someone has created this universe and us in it.  We have no power over any of it.  We just came to be without any say so on our part.  But is there existence after death?  Is there eternal bliss?  Is there eternal damnation?  How do we please God so as to be sure God will be good to us?

            Good luck coming up with sure answers about any of that!  From a critical thinking perspective, we know we owe our eternal existence to a Being we cannot understand, control, or even influence in any certain way.  Yet all of this is ultimate for us!  Eternity depends upon it!

            Our American society today is a mess beyond all measure.  I’m not talking about the world of politics.  I’m saying that our society is a secular, wealth-oriented, shallow, pleasure-seeking pit of filthy over-consumption.  In the midst of this septic tank of vileness that we swim in, how do we know what is right and what is wrong?  Our society no longer has roots for meaningful ethical conversations.

I recently heard an interview with a former politician.  He was asked what he thought of President Trump undermining so much of current environmental protection policies.  He said it didn’t really matter all that much because we’ve never had meaningful environmental policies.  We just do token things to make us feel better about ourselves and ignore the mess we make.

So, how do we even know what is right?  How do we even know what God wants?  We regularly pray, “Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done,” but what does that mean?  How do we live that out?  Martin Luther’s morning prayer in the Small Catechism includes, “I ask that you would also protect me today from sin and all evil, so that my life and actions may please you.”  But what does that mean?  With our limited knowledge and the complete mess that we are as a species, how can we even begin to know that we are pleasing God?

Yes, we have every right to want miracles, and to want clear teachings from God.  And we have every right to be scared or mad because of the absence of them.  But unless you have an inside track into the mind of God that I don’t have, we’re all in the same boat here.

So thus enters the real truth that we need.  It is the truth of God’s grace.  God knows our needs and our yearnings.  God knows they are deep and that they are ultimate for us.  And yet God, in God’s infinite wisdom (or perhaps foolishness depending on your point of view) does not give us magic solutions to our problems.  Yet God does not let us wallow around abandoned in our mess either.

Grace is defined as unearned, or unmerited favor.  If God gave us miracles to turn us to Him, we’d be missing the whole point.  We’d turn to God because we wanted more, not because we felt loved.  And if God gave us clear answers to everything and the will-power to do it all on our own, then we’d be able to earn our way into deserving God’s love.

The only way our faith can be truly authentic and not coerced, is if it is based on grace.  Ironically we need to realize that we are in a mess that we cannot get out of.  We need to know that we are absolutely deprived of the ability to reach God or to do things that God wants.  If we could do those things we’d pat ourselves on the back for how good we are, or were capable of being.  But as it is, the only thing we can say for sure about the human condition is that we can mess things up particularly well.

What God truly wants from us, and what truly brings about God’s kingdom is not a righteous set of actions or a superior ethic, or a truly good environmental protection policy.  It is a relationship with God based on knowing that the goodness only ever flows one way – from God to us.  In the midst of our powerlessness, God invites us to trust in the power of his love.

Miraculous solutions to problems only builds a shallow consumptive love and a weak faith.  Crying to God in helplessness opens us to the amazingness that God loves us unconditionally.  If you plan to exploit that unconditional love you’ve missed the point.  If you can be in awe of it, then it becomes powerful in your life.  It is a source of true life and energy.

Yes, on one level I deeply want miracles to happen all around me.  But at a deeper level I’m glad they don’t.  Jesus performed miracles to prove that he indeed was the Son of God.  He was both divine and human.  But he did not perform miracles in order to convert people.  Over and over again he rejected those who wanted miracles and deeds of power from him.

Instead, well, you know the story well.  Instead he died in the midst of the mess we people make.  There was nothing miraculous there.  It is actually the powerlessness of our faith that is the strength of our faith.

So, cry out to God with the broken mess we live in.  Use that as a foundation to receive God’s grace.  And then, discover what it is to be truly fully human and alive.