Saturday, April 22, 2017

“It's a Brand-New Day”
John 20:1-18
April 16, 2017

Mark S. Bollwinkel

My hunch is that everyone in this room this morning has some kind of list of things they would like to change about their lives; lose weight, make new friends, do better at school, find a new job, pay off the credit cards...the list is long, I would imagine for every one of us.   Yet for all of the energy we put to thinking about needed changes, how many of us can actually follow through?

A pastor friend of mine once shared this illustration at a clergy meeting:

"Roughly 600,000 people have heart bypasses a year in America.  These people are told after their bypasses that they must change their lifestyle.  The heart bypass is a temporary fix.  They must change their diet.  They must quit smoking and drinking.  They must exercise and reduce stress.  In essence, the doctors say, "Change or die."  You would think that a near-death experience would forever grab the attention of the patients. You would think they would vote for change.  You would think the argument for change is so compelling that the patients would make the appropriate lifestyle alterations.  Sadly that is not the case.  Ninety percent of the heart patients do not change.  They remain the same, living the status quo. Study after study indicates that two years after heart surgery, the patients have not altered their behavior.  Instead of making changes for life, they choose death. "1

Change is difficult.

Pastors often hear the concern from parishioners that they are afraid of changes at church.  This is especially true in worship.   Add a new wrinkle to the order of the liturgy, pastors wearing 'civilian' dress rather than clergy robes or singing new hymns rather than the old, familiar ones and we'll get all sorts of expressions of anxiety.   The mere talk of changing something in the sanctuary can keep people up at night!

I'll never forget the tour Bonnie and I received of the parsonage at a new assignment years ago by members of their Board of Trustees.   The master bathroom was so small Bonnie and I could not get in it at the same time.  When I went in to look at it, one of the Trustees blocked the door, looked me in the eye and warned me "Whatever you do don't change the time of the 10:30am worship service!"   Believe me I got the message...I wasn't going to leave that bathroom until I calmed the anxiety of my new church member!  What an unforgettable first impression!

A scholar has suggested that at the heart of our fear of change is really our fear of loss, the anticipated grief that what we have counted on and trusted won't be there for us in the future.2 Even if our use of tobacco or alcohol or compulsive overeating is bad for us, along with a physical addiction, it meets a deep seeded need that would have to be met in some other non-apparent way.   Its absence would be a loss as well as a huge adjustment.

No wonder change is so hard.

Easter season is a time when we ponder the possibilities of change.  It’s a time when we embrace the potential of creative transformation in our lives and in the world.  The Creator God of the Universe so loves us that God will share our life and death with us.  Knowing that love cannot die, even in the face of brutal reality, we are freed from all that holds us bound to the past brokenness that so often defines who we are and what we might become.  On Easter it’s a brand new day!

That a man rises from the dead to proclaim that love cannot die may be the biggest "change" in history!   There is a "metamorphosis" (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2) in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.   We think of the chrysalis to butterfly, the seed to the flower, the birth of new life whether chicks, lambs or babies as profound Easter metaphors for they illustrate the possibilities of creative transformation. 

That is not what Mary was looking for when she came to the empty tomb on Easter morning.  But that is what she found.  Seeing the tomb empty was the last thing she expected to find.  She had come to finish preparing the body for burial not to find the beginning to eternal life. She must have been in shock as were the male disciples.
           
They had lived with Jesus for 3 years.  They had seen the miracles, heard his sermons.  He had clearly said that he would suffer and die in Jerusalem to be raised from the dead.  But fear and doubt had taken over when the soldiers came to arrest their Lord the night of their last supper.  All but John and the women abandoned the Master on the cross, running away to hide.
           
In our gospel’s version of Easter morning, it is John, the beloved disciple, who is the first to run to the tomb after hearing the women’s report.  He sticks his head in the tomb but doesn’t enter.  For him seeing is believing.  The slimmest evidence convinced him that the Master’s teaching of new life was real.  That was all John needed to come to Easter faith.
           
For Peter, the empty tomb wasn’t enough.  For Peter, who entered the tomb and examined the burial clothes, faith wouldn’t come until later.  Not until the risen Jesus confronted Peter as he fished on the Sea of Galilee.  It wasn’t until Jesus challenged Peter to “feed my sheep” (John 21:40-19) that the fisherman believed. Peter, like so many others, didn’t know the risen Lord until he went out to serve, until he went out to share his experience of this Jesus with others.  For many of us, we will only find Easter faith when we make the commitment to “feed the sheep”.

Seeing isn’t always believing.  Mary doesn’t believe because of the empty tomb, or conversations with angels or even a face-to-face encounter with the risen Lord.  Mary couldn’t see through her tears.  It is not until she hears her name called that she finally believes.  It was Jesus’ word that moved Mary beyond her despair into Easter faith.

There isn’t only “one” way to faith.  Some of us will believe on the basis of Jesus’ teaching.  Some will find the risen Lord through service and compassion for others.  And for many it will not be until times of despair and confusion overwhelm us, that we will hear our name called.
           
Mary and the disciples came to the empty tomb to find out what to believe…to make sense out of the turmoil in their community and within themselves.  Are we really that different from them this morning?   Although we each come to faith in a different manner, don’t we each confront the same conclusion?

The tomb is empty.  Death cannot contain this Son of God.  We keep running into him, in a garden, in a boat, in a locked and darkened room.  This Jesus is alive and the world…our world…will never be the same again.  On Easter it’s a brand new day.   It’s a faith that can transform a life forever.

Not too long ago, Perla Martinez Goody was recognized as the “Child Advocate of the Year” for the state of Oklahoma.3   She was selected to show appreciation for what she does to “free women and children from abusive situations, to support and strengthen the family and meet their fundamental needs” according to the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.   Ann Salazar of the Institute said Ms. Goody “goes where other people don’t want to go and does with passion what other people don’t want to do.”

Ms. Goody grew up during the 1950’s in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a poor and violent neighborhood.   Her parents emigrated from Mexico.  She was the 17th of 18 children, eight of whom died before the age of five; “My father let alcohol get the best of him.  When he was drunk, he would beat me and my mom and my siblings until the blood came.  There were many times when I thought I couldn’t get up off the floor….”

She was one of those kids who looked forward to going to Sunday school and church each week but her father didn’t want her to go.

“A van from the Mennonite church used to come, and if my father was still out drinking and playing poker, my mom would let them take us to church…but when my dad was around, all of us hid and didn’t go to the door.   One Sunday morning when I was about six, the pastor knocked on the door while my father was whipping up on us.  The pastor asked him, ‘Don’t you know your children are a gift from God?’  That set my father off and he beat the pastor up.  The next Sunday the pastor knocked on our door again…bruises were all over his face.  My father went to the door.  The pastor looked him in the eye and said firmly but calmly, ‘Mr. Martinez, I’m here to teach your children about Jesus Christ.’   He must have gotten through to my father because soon after that he stopped drinking and was sober for the next ten years.”3

As she grew up, left home and married, she and her husband became members of the First United Methodist church in Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma.  There she became a certified United Methodist Local Pastor and worked with the church developing an outreach ministry to Hispanics in their community.           Along with preaching, Ms. Goody has developed an English-as-a-Second language program at her church along with the Good News Medical Center which provides free health care for people in need.  She conducts Twelve Step Programs for people addicted to alcohol and drugs and sponsors a support group for spousal and child abuse victims.  “Perla’s roots in God’s compassion and grace are deeper than the hardships [she has faced in life]…she has love, faith and hope” says her pastor.

A survivor of childhood abuse and violence grows up to dedicate her life to serving those just like her.   Somewhere along her journey Perla Martinez Goody embraced change.  Somewhere along her journey she heard Jesus call her name.  

Here in Carmel we have a lovely children’s clothing store called “Heaven”.  In fact it’s just a few doors down from us on Lincoln Street.  That’s right, our church is just a few doors down from Heaven.  Last year when the City was repaving Lincoln Street but the sidewalks remained open, the store owners placed a makeshift sign on the tree outside that read “Heaven is Still Open!”  Which made me feel great…there might still be room for me!

The phone number at the store is 831-624-6550.  The phone number at Church of the Wayfarer is 831-624-3550.   It turns out that when I wrote the salutation to my office email, along with name, title, mailing address, I mistakenly recorded our phone number as 831-624-6550…the number of the store.  A few weeks ago I learned that a number of people who had been receiving my emails and had tried calling using that number.  The calls went like this; “Hello, this is Heaven.”  “Is Pastor Mark there?”  “No, he’s at that other place…”

On Easter we think of the theme of Eternal Life and the promise of life after death.  And well we should, it’s an essential part of the story.  But Easter isn’t only about “getting into Heaven”   In fact, the gospels tells us in significant ways that we are called to live in the spirit of that future promise right here and right now in this life.   The love, peace and justice of the future is available to us today and can shape and direct our living.  That’s what it means to be “an Easter People”.  It’s not just about a pie-in-the-sky salvation but about way of life that can redeem.

It's not just another day.  And it’s not just another Easter.   Now it is you and me who stand before the empty tomb. 

Some will believe upon seeing.  Some will find it through compassionate service.  Yet more of us will believe only after the tears are all gone. 

Resurrection begins by embracing gratitude for each and every day.  It begins when we are embraced by the one who longs to call our name.   And that truly is a brand new day.

                        Amen.


1 Simple Church, Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger, 2006, page 229, footnote, Alan Deutschman, "Change or Die," Fast Company 94 (May 2005), pp. 54-62.

2 Ronald Heifetz, Leadership on the Line, pp. 26–30

3“Hispanic Minister Practices Wesleyan Principles”, Boyce Bowdon, Response, Feb. 2008, pp.33-35



The Jesus Parade
Mark 11:1-11
April 9, 2017

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Why do we call Jesus "King"?   We sing it in our hymns.  We find it in our scriptures.

When the Magi come to the manger scene in Bethlehem they are searching for "the new born king of Israel" (Matthew 2:2).  When he dies on the cross they hang a sign above his head saying in three languages so all could understand "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" (John 19:19).   At Caesarea Philippi Peter calls him "messiah" which means "king" (Mark 8:29).  When translated into Greek, the language of the written scriptures, it comes out as "Christ".   “Jesus Christ” literally means Jesus the King.

There are few kings left today.  We look at royalty as remnants of a quaint past, objects of our personality cults.  The notion of divine authority handed down by inheritance was swept away during the American and French revolutions hundreds of years ago.  Democracy continues to spread throughout the world based on the principal that governing authority resides in the people not in despots with lots of guns.

Today on Palm Sunday we remember when Jesus entered Jerusalem to shouts of 'hosannas' to the king.   The donkey, the cloaks on the ground, even the palm branches were all Hebrew symbols fit for a king.

What does that mean for us?   We elect presidents.  We don't have kings.

The triumphal entry of Jesus and his disciples into Jerusalem mark the beginning of his last week of earthly life.

Historians suggest that in first century Palestine it was the tradition of the Roman Governor during Passover week to leave his palace on the coast and come into Jerusalem with a legion of troops to keep the peace.  Passover was the most important celebration in the Hebrew calendar and Israel longed for freedom from the oppression of the Roman occupation.  Nationalistic passions went hand-in-hand with the religious observance.  Grassroots insurrections broke out with some regularity all over the Empire and especially in Palestine.   Later in the story of this last week we will find Jesus' life held up against the life of Barabbas a Zealot who had killed a Roman soldier in just such an uprising.

Pontus Pilate would have come up the coast road and entered the city by the north gate.  He would have been at the head of a huge parade of armed soldiers with banners, flags, battle horses and signs of the power and terror of the state.  Trumpets and drums would have blared.   It was a clear reminder of who was in charge, who was in control.

It is not unthinkable to imagine that on the same day or maybe even at the same time, Jesus came in on the Bethany/Jericho road gate, on a borrowed colt as was prophesied by Zechariah (9:9).  When the people threw down their cloaks and palm branches, calling Jesus “Lord” and “son of David”, they were suggesting that Jesus was the long-awaited messiah of Israel or its new king.  In Luke’s version of the story, Pharisees warn the crowd about saying such things out loud and Jesus replies, “if these people were silent the stones would shout out.” (19:40). It was a clear reminder of who was in charge, who was in control.

In his book, Sacred and Profane (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1987) Mircea Eliade, a philosopher of comparative religion, describes the sacred significance of doorways and gates.   Whether in a home, a temple or a city, doorways and gates have been decorated with religious sign and symbol since the beginning of history, in all cultures.  These portals divide space between the sacred safety of "home" and the dangers of the outside world.   This was and is especially true of Jerusalem where every gate into the city has its own name, its own traditions and importance.

For the people of the gospel story we will know whose side they are on in just a few days.   Jesus dies on a Roman cross.   How about for us readers today?   Where in lies our hope?  To which kingdom do we owe allegiance?

As Jesus and Pilate enter their respective gates at the beginning of Passover the contrast between two different views of power, two different views of the future, couldn't be clearer.   And the people will have to choose that day into whose power and future they will invest their hope.

As he begins his ministry Jesus proclaims, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the good news."  (Mark 1:15)   In the gospel of Luke Jesus says, "...the kingdom of God is within you..." (Luke 17:21) In his interrogation by Pontius Pilate in the gospel of John shortly before his death Jesus is asked if he is indeed "the king of the Jews" to which he answers, "My kingdom is not of this world."  (John 18:33-37)

Scholars suggest that the promised future of God as outlined in Hebrew Scriptures is a "realized eschatology" (Raymond Brown, et al) in the life of the believer.  In other words, we don't have to wait until the end of the world to start living hope filled lives in this one.   The spirit of God's intention for love, peace and justice to reign in the world lives in the heart and lives of those who follow Jesus as disciples.  We live in the present as if God's future were now.  That is one reason why Christian disciples are so committed to acts of love, peace and justice in this life.  Not to earn our way into heaven, but to live even if imperfectly in its spirit right now.

Bob Dylan sings in his song "Gotta Serve Somebody" (1979):

You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it might be the devil or it might be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Well, Ila served the Lord.

I buried "Ila" a few years ago at a memorial service near Fresno.   As a young woman, she was abandoned by an angry drunk of a husband.    She insisted that if possible her married name never be used.   Without formal education, she began working as a cook at a local elementary school.  By the age of 65 she retired as the head of food services for the public education system of Arizona.

When I left her church as its pastor in 1995 she made me promise to come back to do her funeral.  We had become dear friends as we worked together in ministry.  Ila died at the age of 98, surrounded by her loving family.

She took meals to those sick in the congregation.  She headed up our prayer teams.  She baked and sold pies each Sunday to raise funds to build a Christian education building for our growing church.   She organized fund raising dinners for hundreds of people.   When we expanded our worship services to include guitar singing and hand clapping she was the first one to support the change.  When we opened our facilities for Korean and Mong congregations to join us, she championed the possibilities, and in Clovis that had definite political and social consequences.

Ila was a force of nature and a deeply committed Christian.  Her memorial service was a celebration of a life well lived.   And a celebration of one who served the Lord.  For Ila Jesus was "King".  She was a member of the Jesus parade.

When we join a United Methodist church we make a vow to support it with “Our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness”.  That means:

-we show up for Sunday worship when in town
-we pray for the congregation's care, our community and the world
-we make a commitment to learn more about our faith
-to participate in small group experiences
-to participate in hands-on mission projects to serve the community or the world
-to dedicate and give a proportion of our annual income to the work of God through the church.

Six simple expectations that can be lived out at your own definition and time.  No one checks on you, no one is keeping track.  We just know that for those who make such a commitment to join the Jesus parade will grow closer to God and to each other.

Does that make us spirituality superior to someone else?  No way!  It’s just puts us on the road to discover what it means to "serve the Lord"; to make days like Palm Sunday more than an annual ritual.

To call Jesus "King" is to suggest that God's promises of love, peace and justice rule our hearts and frame our living.

As on the first Palm Sunday as two parades entered Jerusalem describing the choice between two very different kingdoms, each and every moment we are offered a variety of paths to follow.  Joining the Jesus' parade can make all the difference in the world.

It certainly has for me.


Amen.