Sixth Sunday in Easter: Pick up your mat....

5/26

Ready for worship

It's a sunny Memorial Day Sunday as I head to Good Shepherd Faith. Folks are talking about the holiday. And Fleet Week. And the Yankees...Pam starts the service by playing "Eternal Father Strong to Save," the Navy hymn. And I think of my father, and what  that  hymn mean to him. After the scripture is read, it's time for my reflection, or "prompting," as they call it here.

So it's been  a busy  week in the city.  Graduation week. The streets uptown were filled with Columbia blue robes. The subways with NYU purple. And all around Times Square with sailors in their dress whites and marines in khaki and blue. Fleet Week. Not sure why, but I always enjoy this annual visit of the navy ships to our city.  And now, Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial beginning of summer. And the beaches are open. And we are here, still in Eastertide. Alleluia! Christ is risen. (Christ is risen indeed!)

I chose this passage this morning because it's a weird one. And I wanted to wrestle a bit with it.

We're at a pool in Jerusalem ,at a time of an unnamed festival. Beth-zatha, probably the same as 'Bethsaida'or even "Bethesda." Meaning "House of newness" or "house of kindness." There's a back story here you don't have. The tradition was an angel would stir up the pool and the first one to make it into the water would get healed. We don't know exactly what was wrong with this man except that he'd been ill for 38 years.

Apparently he gets beat out every time he tries to get to the water. No wonder he sounds bitter. It's perhaps the strangest of Jesus' healing stories. When Jesus asks him "Do you want to be made well?"  you expect, as is usually the case, to hear an affirmation of faith followed by either a statement of Jesus about faith or forgiveness followed by a healing.

But what do we get? A complaint. No one will help me..And how does Jesus respond? He says
"Stand up, take your mat and walk." And  he does. Our lectionary ends with Now that day was a sabbath. 

If you're paying attention, that means trouble. Because pretty soon Jesus will be accused of healing on the sabbath. Which was forbidden.  And there's no note of gratitude on our man's part. Never even bothers to say thanks, just goes on.

And later, when confronted by the authorities for carrying his mat on the sabbath, he tries to deflect the blame back on Jesus whose name he didn't even bother to ask.  When he learns Jesus' name, he immediately goes to tell the authorities. Maybe hoping they'll leave him alone.

On the one hand, it's the nature of living under occupation. It reminds me of the  popular current Broadway play  "the Ferryman" where the IRA (no worse than the British) coerce and manipulate people into informing on each other. In the East Germany, during DDR years, some 260000 people were recorded as being informers. One never knew who to trust. Likewise with Palestinians today and their Israeli overlords.

This healed person is the least heroic, let alone faithful, loyal or even thankful of all Jesus' healings. So what's up here?

A simple answer might be that Jesus is promiscuous in his love....not just for the worthy or deserving, it's for all.

But maybe there's something deeper going on here. Three images come to mind:
* First, I remember John Lennon singing "War is over if you want it"....sounded overly simplistic, but.... that's kind of how it starts.

Or the lesson I learned  that if you want to play music, the only way to do that is to play music.

Or the exercise I've seen in retreats and you're in a group and they tell you to imagine you are surrounded by an invisible box then are asked how do you get out of the box. There are usually overblown strategies or dead silence. The answer of course? Step out of the box...

So Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and walk. And he does. It's that simple. No faith has made you well. No sins are forgiven. Just  "Stand up, take your mat and walk." And it works...

So what do we see here? Sometimes the answer is right in front of us. And we can't see it because we believe theres no there there. And so we keep on waiting for someone to carry, drag or pull us down to the pool. Or take us out of the box. So we refuse to take the first step or even try because you know, we can't, right?  And 30 years or more go by and we're still bitter, lying there beside the pool. Waiting.

And Jesus says, "Yes you can, pick up your mat and walk."
Where have we been stuck? What are we waiting for? Are you ready to take that step?
"Stand up, take your mat and walk." 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! (Christi is risen indeed...)

Amen.


We talk. Neil, who does flower arrangements, says it's often the ones who get something for free that are most demanding and least appreciative. We talk about gratitude, how important it is to get us moving. And how hard that step can be. And about the Jewish Passover story that the Israelites had to go into the water up to their noses before God parted the waters. We finish by singing "How beautiful for spacious skies" and I mention the irony that this much beloved hymn, as someone reminds us, was written by Kathy Lee Bates. How conservatives don't even realize it was composed by someone who could so clearly fit that general category of queer. And of course, the conversation turns to Ray Charles....

                                                       Ray sings it....


Gospel John 5:1-9

1After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed. 4, 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 7The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." 8Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Game of Thrones: One last word

5/23

...all about the throne....

Last  Friday night, the lines started  forming outside Yankees Stadium hours before the gates opened. The lines would continue well into the game.  "Game of Thrones Night." Everyone hoping for the special edition Yankees GOT T-shirt. 

Inside the stadium, the line to sit in the Iron Throne curled up the ramps all the way to the top of the stadium.

The Throne

Some folks would spend half the game in line. Though theYankees early spring training like lineup would come back to win dramatically in the bottom of the 9th, clearly the game itself was an afterthought for many fans. Game of Thrones fever had come to Yankee Stadium.

Sunday it all came to an end. And soon enough the reviews would start coming in and the world of social media express its disappointments.  A week ago, a petition drive had begin to rewrite the story.

Look, endings are hard. it's hard to let go. HBO's record is hit and miss in this area. From near perfection with the "Leftovers" to the fan frustrating and still debated Sopranos to the Deadwood finale that has taken 20 years to come around. That's the way it is.

I won't go into al the critiques but to mention only two....Khalesi's WWE style heel turn was no surprise. It had been telegraphed for weeks like the best of wrestling story lines with hints that direction all the way back. Though one reviewer referred to her "Nuremburg-like" triumphant manifestation, that's the wrong analogy. Stalin may be a better referent. Her vision was an honorable one of breaking the wheel, not brute dominance and power.

The point about Khalesi is even to the end, she believed she was being a liberator who would bring a new and better day. Like any liberator turned tyrant she continued to believe in her own goodness. Believing in your own goodness can have pretty bad results for many other people. From the French revolution to Ronald Reagan to Daniel Ortega it's an old sad story.

Most chilling was the incineration of an already surrendered city. Like the napalming of Vietnam. Or more disturbingly, the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US who knew they had already won.. We know now that Japan was already on the verge of surrendur.  Already defeated. Ring the bells....

Drogon the dragon makes one of the  most important points of the series (and I'm surprised so many didn't get this. ) After watching Jon Snow kill his "mother" Khalesi, the dragon turns its fire not on Jon Snow but the Iron Throne itself, melting it. Not Jon Snow but the quest for that damned throne was what had ultimately killed Khalesi. 

So the main theme was clearly the corruption of power and futility of war. 

But there was another theme as well. Redemption. From Theon to Jaime to Tyrion each has the opportunity to face themselves and become moral agents once again. Tyrion especially grows from the hedonistic family wastrel to being the moral compass of the narrative.

Much to reflect on, criticisms aside. All in all, it's been a good ride, worthy of our attention. So let's say thanks, and let it go at that. And perhaps take time to move from vicarious adventure to working on becoming more the subjects of our own history.

Third Sunday in Easter: Feed my sheep

5/5

Beverley Church

On a cold and rainy day, the walk to Beverley from the subway station is no fun. As I arrive, I find my pone is dying and with it my sermon. Thankfully, Irina the accompanist has a charger and I don't need to freestyle...

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! (I'm trying to get them to learn this exchange for the whole of Easter..)

Today our Resurrection celebration continues....

This is another of my favorite resurrection stories. Former Episcopal Bishop Spong of Newark used to say he believed this was the first story of the resurrection.   Let's be clear on what's  going on  here.

It's clear that the disciples have given up. Jesus is dead and gone. It was a nice run, a good  run. There had been hope, excitement. But it's all gone now. No use crying over spilt milk. Time to move on. And go back to their old life. Back to being fishermen as if nothing had ever happened. And when Peter says he's going fishing, they all follow.  And they fish all night. And catch nothing.

When Jesus tells them to try the other side, they get so many they can barely haul it in. (As to why 153? Don't ask. No one knows...) Stop right there. Sometimes we keep on doing what we've always been doing with no results. Jesus says Try the other side. That's what he always does. Gets us to see what we haven't seen before. Try what we haven't tried. And then????..they get so many they can barely haul it in. 

John, the one who loved him, gets it immediately and cries "it's the Lord" and jumped in. Maybe it was Jesus' voice that got him, just like Mary on Easter day. Peter, hears John, but doesn't know, and like Adam in the garden, feels embarrassed and puts his clothes on. (Swimming  naked would have been easier..)

It's what happens on the beach I love. Notice they had not recognized him. No glowing body, no halo. Nothing fancy. Just like Mary thought he was the gardener, the resurrected Jesus looks ordinary. (Warning....he still does that ...shows up when least expected...and so ordinary looking you don't recognize him at first...)

There's a charcoal fire going. And he puts some fish on the fire. Stop a minute. Close your  eyes. Imagine the beach. The feel of the morning sun. The smell of salt in the air. (Or not, it's actually a lake...But I like the smell of sea air..)..the smell of charcoal...then of the fish starting to cook.....

(Throughout Lent when I was growing up, every neighborhood church had a fish fry every Friday...I associate that smell with Lent...)

And Bishop Spong says here is where they know he is with them...not through some spectacular resurrection display, but in the simplest of acts, something they had done a 100 times before, breakfast on the beach, and in the smell an the taste and the presence of each other around the fire, they know he is there with him. And my friends, that's how we know he is risen..in our presence, here in this place,  with each other, we feel it, know it, he is in our midst.

But my friends, if you know he is alive, there are consequences. Demands. And that's what now faces Peter. He's got to be filled with guilt. When he pulled his clothes on, he felt guilty as Adam. He had after all, denied Jesus three times. So Jesus gives him three chances to un-deny him. By the the third time, Peter's starting to feel hurt.

Now I'm one who believes you all can understand the Bible by reading it yourself, with discipline, with regularity. With prayer. And the leading of the Holy Spirit. And community, with each other. You don't need a seminary degree to get it.  But here's where we ministers help.

Jesus asks Peter "do you love me"  with the word "agape" ..self-giving  love...and Peter answers with "philos"....brotherly love...he's still holding back, you see? And Jesus' answer is pretty clear...if you love me, tend my lambs, feed my sheep..

That's it, right there.

Look, it's our call  to extend grace to each other. But the fact is, in human relationships, you can exhaust another's patience and run out of grace. Believe me, I know.  But not so with Jesus.

I'm willing to bet that like Peter, everyone of us in here has denied Jesus (and not just in words) at least 3 times...some of us might be feeling that this morning...

And the point is, our Easter story, our resurrection story is that he's ready to take us back again. Even today. BUT....
you can't just tell Jesus you love him. The way you let him know you mean it is you tend his lambs, you feed his sheep. Believe me, he'll know.  And on this rock, Peter and all of us Peters, the church is built...


After this he said, Follow me...

Let those with ears to hear, hear..
Amen.

                                                    ****


Three  postscripts..yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the Kent State/Jacksom State shootings. A day that changed my life...Pete Seeger's 100th birthday.  Throughout his life Pete tended the lambs and fed the sheep and kept us going in dark times ...we give thanks to God for his life and witness..

Today is Cinco de Mayo. No it's not Mexican independence day. It's when a badly outnumbered Mexican army unit defeated the French at Puebla. Thus preventing the French from aiding the US Confederacy. What we're really celebrating is the ongoing contribution of Mexicans to US society and culture. We do that by opening doors and embracing brothers and sisters, not building walls. No one who doesn't support immigrants should have a shot of tequila or Corona, lime or no lime.
Tend his lambs, feed his sheep.



Gospel John 21:1-19

1After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." 6He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." 11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."