Sermon for 3rd Sunday of Easter: 19 April 2015
Sermon for the 3rd Sunday
of Easter
19 April 2015
The Rev. Carrie Smith
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Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen
indeed, alleluia!
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| Holy fire procession through Jerusalem's Old City streets Orthodox Easter 2015 Photo by Carrie Smith |
Today, the 3rd
Sunday of Easter, we are still processing the resurrection news. Like Thomas
and the disciples to whom Jesus appeared, we are still working out what life
post-cross and post-empty tomb means for us. Christ is risen, he is truly
risen. And now what? What does it mean
to be people of the resurrection? Who are we, the Christians?
Sadly, Christians
are the ones who were thrown overboard from an immigrant boat on the way to
Italy this week.
We are also
the ones who did nothing about the Holocaust until far, far too late.
Christians are
the ones whose heads were removed by terrorists in Libya.
We are also
the ones making headlines for refusing to bake cakes for gay weddings in the
United States.
Christians are
responsible for the Crusades, but we also played a part in pressuring South
Africa to end its apartheid practices.
Christians have
been both oppressed and oppressor, both agents of the empire and the voice of
the people.
This
complicated history shows that it hasn’t been easy for the people of the
resurrection to live out the Good News of Easter. We haven’t always gotten it
right! We have not been perfect witnesses to the resurrection.
It’s also
easy to see how we can be misunderstood by our neighbors. After all, the world
does not really know us.
Of course,
this is nothing new. I remember learning in church history class how outside
observers believed early Christians must be cannibals, maybe even cannibals who
practiced infanticide. There were rumors that the recipe for communion bread
included some shocking ingredients! After all, how else do you explain the
strange practice of sharing bread while saying the words, “This is the Body of
Christ”?
The same
confusion about Christian identity exists today. In various places across the
world, the label “Christian” is synonymous with the establishment of safe
schools and much-needed medical clinics. We are known for running soup kitchens
and homes for the blind. We march for civil rights and monitor checkpoints and
stand for peace with justice in Israel and Palestine. At the same time, “coming
out” as a Christian in some contexts means we are branded as backward vestiges
of a bygone era—anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-gay, anti-woman; as well
as pro-gun, pro-patriarchy, and pro-status quo. Some of these labels are unfair.
Some are completely justified.
It’s no
wonder the world doesn’t know what to make of us! The confusion of our
neighbors reflects our own struggle to answer the question, “Who are we, the
people of the resurrection?” With so many claims on our time, attention, and
allegiances, we are left grasping for something definitive.
The current
precarious situation for Christians in the Middle East has caused some of us to
respond by claiming a perceived minority status as a flag of honor. This is
what we see happening in Christian majority places, where interest in and
sympathy for persecuted Christians is growing, but unfortunately active
interest in helping is not. Christians who live in the luxury of religious
freedom enjoy changing profile pics to honor suffering sisters and brothers in
far off places, but are mostly unwilling to risk comfort or privilege for their
sake. We’d rather point and click—and feel part of a special group—than challenge
our governments to stand in true solidarity.
Of course,
another response to feeling misunderstood or misidentified is to impose our
beliefs on others. You don’t know who we are? Let us show you! We’ll make you
like us! This is what we see happening in the United States, where some politicians
want to make the Bible the “official state book” and efforts are increasing to
make the culture conform to a certain interpretation of the Christian faith. But
a quick look at world news reveals how this same impulse to create a
“righteousness zone” or a “circle of similarity” is also behind the xenophobic
attacks in South Africa, the tragedy in Yarmouk refugee camp, and recent violence
against journalists and Jews in Paris. Claiming power over others—and imposing our
identity on others—is hardly a path to mutual understanding. When we fall into
such thinking, we resemble the terrorists more than witnesses to the
resurrection.
So who are
we, the people of the resurrection?
Our 2nd
reading today, from 1 John chapter 3, was written to the early church to
address this very issue. They, too, were having an identity crisis. They, too,
were misunderstood by the world around them and were suffering persecution. It
seems that they, too, were having internal community conflicts about what it
means to live out the Good News of the resurrection. In fact, some had already
left the church, frustrated over the question of the relationship between faith
and action in the Christian life. Those who remained were understandably
concerned about the future of the community. Who were they now? In response,
the author of 1 John writes:
“See what
love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and
that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not
know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been
revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him,
for we will see him as he is.”
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| Sculpture, Mamilla Mall, Jerusalem Photo by Carrie Smith |
“We should
be called children of God; and that is what we are.” Dear sisters and brothers,
God’s Good News to our Bad Identity Crisis is that first and foremost, above
and beyond any other identity, we are members of God’s family. This belonging
is no result of our own efforts. We
didn’t become God’s children by our history of good behavior or excellent
theology or political savviness—as one look at church history will remind us.
We are God’s children because in great love, God claimed us as God’s own. We
are God’s children because God sent Jesus to walk with us as and share in our
joys and sorrows. We are God’s children because Jesus suffered death, even
death on a cross. We are God’s children because Jesus was raised from the dead,
giving us all the hope and promise of eternal life with him.
This is the
Good News: that God’s love for the world extends all the way to the cross, and is
even powerful enough to move the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. “See
what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are!”
Alleluia,
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Thanks be to
God, we know both who we are and whose we are, even if others do not.
But the
author of 1 John chapter 3 continues:
“The reason
the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s
children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is
this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
This Scripture
text is daily encouragement for all of God’s children who, in gratitude for the
love and the adoption into God’s family we have received, strive to live as
witnesses to the resurrection. First, we ought not be surprised when we are
misunderstood by the world. “The reason the world does not know is that it did
not know him.” After all, the Christian witness has been counter-cultural from
the start. Where the world values individuality, the Gospel values community.
Where the world values wealth and privilege, the Gospel values sacrifice and
sharing all things in common. Where the world values self-protection,
self-interest, and self-esteem, the Gospel values self-emptying love for the
Other. We don’t always get it right, but we should not expect that our efforts
to live into the Good News of the resurrection will be met with accolades and
awards and pats on the back. We cannot count the success of our witness in
dollars or shekels or seats of power. The witness of the cross and the empty
tomb can never be identified with empire. Just as the resurrection defied the
status quo and turned the expectations of the world upside down, so does the
Gospel in action defy and upset the systems and institutions of the world.
This is an
especially important message in this time when Christians are being persecuted
in real and dramatic ways in many places around the world. Because we are
people of the cross, we do not see persecution or opposition or unpopularity as
signs of weakness or failure. And because we are people of the resurrection, we
have hope even when we face the sword. This hope is what empowered our
twenty-one brothers, members of the family through baptism, to stand firm in
their faith before their executioners in Libya. This hope is what keeps Bishop
Jean Kawak, of the Syrian Orthodox church in Homs, ministering to the last
Christian families left in town. This hope is what strengthens our Palestinian
Christian sisters and brothers to continue working for peace based on justice
in this holy land, in spite of a seemingly unending occupation of their homes.
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| Some of God's children, making silly faces after church Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem Photo by Carrie Smith |
As children
of the cross and the empty tomb, we know that nothing—not even death—can take
away our identity as beloved children of God. Nothing can separate us from the
love of God we have in Christ Jesus—no amount of churches burned, no number of
Christian villages destroyed, no sword, no unjust law, no wall, no evil thought
or spoken word. For "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you
and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:11) and
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to
despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always
carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be
made visible in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)
My sisters
and brothers in Christ, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should
be called children of God; and that is what we are.” Be strengthened. Be encouraged.
Be witnesses of these things to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Alleluia,
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!
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