Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 29, 2018

• Acts 8:26-40  
• Psalm 22:25-31  
• 1 John 4:7-21  
• John 15:1-8

"Not Waiting," Pastor Kinsey
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch in his royal chariot. 
 
How we interpret scripture, or any truth, can make all the difference – and Philip, as he sits beside the African – in his, Lexus Coupe of a chariot – begins to open his eyes to how God is moving, in new ways, through the risen Christ. 
 
On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, a week after Good Shepherd Sunday, a deacon, Philip, is out doing the preaching and bible study, even though that was supposed to be the Apostles job.  Philip was interpreting an Isaiah passage about, ‘one like a sheep who was led to the slaughter; like a lamb silent before its shearer, who does not open his mouth.’  Philip is on the main road down to Gaza, the trade route to Egypt and Africa – while the appointed Apostles sit cloistered up in Jerusalem. 
 
The 12 apostles, are supposed to be the interpreters, leaders for the Word, and the Prayers.  That’s all they can handle, they decided – and they had an official meeting not long ago to appoint 7 other new leaders to ‘serve at table’ for their fellowship meals.  And along with Philip, Stephen, most notably, is one of those chosen to be a deacon of table fellowship.  Yes, that Stephen, who then gave a beautiful, and movingly detailed sermon – again, not called to preach the Word! – but a sermon about how Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets, and was crucified for it, and how all of them were responsible for that.  But, because God raised him up on the 3rd day, they all had a new chance – to repent, to be liberated, to start anew, and be a follower! 
 
And yet, for his eloquence, his truth telling, and his witness to the faith – Stephen was stoned to death by his fellow Jerusalemites!  And one Saul, of Tarsus, was there, and ‘approved of their killing him,’ it says.  Yes, that Saul, who later was called by the Spirit of Jesus, and, as St. Paul, became the greatest evangelist, and wrote all those letters that are in the New Testament! 
 
So, we have the 12 apostles, called to bring the word, the message of, the death and resurrection of Christ, to the world, stationed and sitting in Jerusalem.  We have 7 deacons, anointed to serve at ‘the table fellowship meal,’ which was the early church form of Holy Communion.  So, why aren’t they doing what they’re called to?  Stephen the deacon is preaching, as powerfully as Peter and the 12, or more so.  And Philip, one of the other 7 deacons, has already been to Samaria sharing the Word, and now has been directed by ‘an angel of the Lord,’ to where the Ethiopian eunuch was traveling back home, to be his interpreter of the Word! 
 
The Holy Spirit, I think we could say, is not waiting around for the institutional church to go to work.  God is just making things happen through the believers who are ready! 
 
Before 1988, none of us heard this story in church.  That’s one thing the church got right!  It included this story, of excluded people, into the 3 year lectionary, for the first time.  Now, 20, and 30, and 40 year olds, take this story for granted, because they’ve grown up with it, in church. 
 
The story is about a black man, from Africa, who comes to Jerusalem to worship – he is either a diaspora Jew, living outside Israel, or a proselyte, converted to Judaism.  For his day job, he’s the Queen’s Treasurer, no less, a very high official!  The biblical region of Ethiopia, is not the same as the present day country, but, from the perspective of the Mediterranean people of the Roman Empire, was thought to be on the far edge of the known world, beyond Egypt somewhere.  And, he is a eunuch.  He may have been born that way, we don’t know.  But it was also a common practice for elites serving the King or Queen, to make them impotent, and thus more trusted, around the royal harem - perhaps, his previous job. 
 
Unfortunately, the Levitical rule for eunuchs was to be cut off from full participation in Temple worship.  But that did not keep him away… keep him from traveling such a great distance.  And later in the book of Isaiah, from which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading in his chariot, there was also Isaiah’s vision of an honored and fruitful place, for faithful eunuchs, in the Lord’s house. 
 
And it is this hope, that the deacon, Philip, fulfills, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as he joins the Ethiopian, on his trip back home. 
 
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch in his royal chariot. 
 
"How can I, unless someone guides me?" he replied.  
He was reading from Isaiah 53:
"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its     shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
  In his humiliation justice was denied him.
        Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."
The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" 
 
Isaiah may have been talking about either the nation of Israel, or its leaders, or possibly himself, the prophet.  But those Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah, newly interpreted this passage as referring to the risen Jesus.  He too, especially in Luke’s gospel, was silent before his accusers at his trial, and was humiliated.  Justice was denied him by his generation, his contemporaries, and they took his life away from the earth.  But God judged his as innocent!
 
We don’t know most of what Philip told the Ethiopian Treasurer that day, but we know his interpretation, understood that Jesus was the person the prophet Isaiah was referring to.  And, we also know he intentionally left out the verse about the sacrificed person being a substitute for the people of the nation.  Luke is not interested in going there – to the doctrine of atonement.  Luke’s interpretation is that, we’re all complicit in Jesus’ death, but because God raised him up, we have been given a gift, the free gift of love and forgiveness – despite our defensive and warring nature, despite our whimsical desires to pick up a stone, like St Paul did, and participate in the demonizing or destruction, of innocent victims. 
 
God has given us a new day of creation, the 8th day, the day of resurrection, and life beyond death.  God has given us grace!
 
God does not wait for the church, and our imperfections, to act.  If it is not acting according to the Holy Spirit – not spreading the good news, not preaching the Word outside its walls – God will send the next in line, to go.  God will find those who have not been invited before – like Philip, and the Ethiopian eunuch.  God includes those on the farthest margins of our social consciousness. 
 
So, who is welcome, according to God’s Word?  Clearly Africans, as well as Hebrews!  And LGBTQi are welcome; Gentiles are welcome; male and female.  All are welcome!  The stumbling-block has been removed! 
 
But if they are not here, in our gathering, it may include some work on our part – to go out there – and develop a relationship with those not previously on our radar, those from beyond the margins of our little church, or work-world. 
 
But, if God can go there, why can’t we? 
 
God’s grace is awesome!  It can do wonderful works before our very eyes, and put us on important roads.  For those, with this kind of faith – whether you’re a pastor, deacon, or, newly baptized – you’re ready to be an interpreter of the Word.  God is calling you!

Readings for Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, April 22, 2018

• Psalm 23  
• 1 John 3:16-24  
• John 10:11-18

We Are All Sheep, Rev. Fred Kinsey (with thanks to Rev. Dr. Kim Beckmann)
One Saturday morning some time ago, my friends Chris and Laura –both pastors- awoke to the sound of their four-year-old son, Smith, instructing his two-year-old brother Caleb, with a tone of voice that Chris recognized, from his own Children’s Sermons. 
 
Smith was telling Caleb:   “God is the good shepherd, and God loves us.  We are God’s sheep.  I am God’s sheep.  You are God’s sheep.  Miriam is God’s sheep.  We are all sheep.”
 
When Chris and Laura heard their son Smith’s innocent testimony and trust in God, they were moved to join their hands under the covers, and think about this gift of love.  They heard Smith continuing on: “I am God’s sheep, you are God’s sheep, Miriam is God’s sheep”
 
And then, after a brief pause, Smith added:
“But, we don’t have fur.”
 
This is pretty much the take-away, for this Good Shepherd Sunday:  Smith’s trusting confidence; his awareness, of God’s relationship to us; and his sharing of that message with his brother – a brother by blood, and by baptism.  
 
Today we baptize Joanna Kathy Kusserow.  God is the Good Shepherd, we tell her.  And God loves us.  We are God’s sheep.  I am God’s sheep. You are God’s sheep.  We are all sheep.  We will mark the cross ☩ and brand of Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God, on her forehead.  In her baptism into Easter life, we trace the up and down portion of the cross with its movement, through death to life.  We remember that Joanna’s life has come from God, and is going to God – just as we did two years ago for her older sister, Genevieve.
 
In the rite of Baptism, we will pray with Joanna’s parents, Justin & Jessica, that they will ever rejoice in the gift of her love in their lives.  And that they will nurture Joanna in these ways of love, through faith and prayer, so that she might learn to trust God.  We pray that they will learn from her, their sister in Christ, the gift of sweet confidence, and that together, they’ll learn to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd throughout their lives.
 
Then all of us --her extended family, her sponsors, and the whole congregation-- will pledge that we will keep teaching each other:  God is the Good Shepherd. And God loves us. We are God’s sheep. 
 
And not just those of us here in this congregation, but the people we encounter every day – in school, in our workplace, in the marketplace and neighborhood – all are God’s sheep.  People whose lives we touch, even other sheep we don’t even think are in the fold – whoever it is we can’t quite get our hearts around to accepting, that the Good Shepherd already recognizes and loves – we are called to reach out to. 
 
As we gather at the font, and follow Jesus’ invitation to approach still waters, to rest here a moment in safety, and drink in these words – we cherish these moments, like we did at the Easter Vigil with Ronald, to live among God’s faithful people, hear the Shepherd’s voice, and be reminded of God’s covenant of love with us. 
 
We also covenant to look outward.  To proclaim the good news through our words, that we are God’s sheep – and in every deed, serving all people, following Jesus’ example, to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.
 
And as sheep of this Shepherd, this also means entering, the world-as-it-is – for this way of life that baby Joanna takes on with us, is dynamic, and interactive, and the valley of the shadow of death is all around.  But as sheep, who are a baptized people, we are being carried in a passage from death to life, which is our hope – a table prepared and planted defiantly in the presence of our enemies, as Psalm 23 reminds us.  When the Chaos monster stirs the still waters in the valley of our lives, the Good Shepherd carries us on his shoulders – even as that chaotic power washes through the highest offices in our land. 
 
A hired hand will run, if the wolf is at the door, leaving the lambs defenseless.  But the Good Shepherd, who knows the voice of the sheep, is present with us always. 
 
I picture the sheep in this story, jumping in the Shepherd’s arms and hanging on for dear life. Then I picture the Shepherd engaging in extreme sports for their sake.
 
Jesus literally running with us in his arms, beating off the wolves with his rod, and scooping up scared sheep and lambs with the staff.  Running with all of us – who are a rather unwieldy burden, a squirming mess – carrying us from death to life.  Being held, even as our Shepherd attends to getting dinner on, and fending off danger, and going about the business of getting daily needs met, and nourishing both body and spirit.
 
Being nurtured in this way of life, learning through faith and prayer, to trust God, having confidence we’re in good hands, even with all the jostling and confusing chaos and terror of even ordinary days, makes a difference in our lives. It gives us a firm basis as we participate in the extreme sports of the vocation of parenting, and daily raising our lambs…
 
…And as we engage in the joys and challenges of our most intimate relationships; in our friendships; in making it work with roommates; and even the challenges of living with ourselves in times of solitude.
 
And when it sometimes seems like the wolf of cancer, and other life-threatening and debilitating diseases of body, mind and spirit, are forever howling at our doors and gaining on our heels – we’re being carried from death to life by the one who laid down his life for us – God’s sheep.
 
That’s a reality changing declaration for our lives!  It’s a declaration of love!
We are God’s sheep. And God loves us.
 
 “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech,” John says in his Epistle, “but in truth and action.”
 
And because this way of life can be scary for us – facing the powers and the threat of death while reaching out and helping those in need – God is sending us the Spirit of Jesus – the Spirit of love, the Spirit of life, and the Spirit of the Lamb, to help us. 
 
That Spirit is alive in our gathering here, especially in the baptism of Joanna, where we will hear God’s declaration of love for her, a reality changing declaration for our lives and the life of the world. 
 
God is the Good Shepherd, and God loves us. 
 
We are God’s sheep –  I am God’s sheep.  You are God’s sheep.  Joanna is God’s sheep.  We are all sheep. 
 
But we don’t have fur. 
 
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Gospel Reading for April 15, 2018, the Third Sunday of Easter
Luke 24:36b-48

No More Us and Them Dining, Pastor Fred
It was a scramble coming up with a restaurant to go to with our friends Kurt and Adrian on Friday. They wanted to treat Kim for her birthday, somewhat belatedly, the first opportunity we could all get together in the last 3 weeks.
 
Should we go to a classic Mexican restaurant downtown, or an old-fashioned Wisconsin style supper club for fish fry?  Or we could go to a Ravenswood brew-pub and order from a food truck?  Or to our favorite Indian place?  But finally we settled on the comfort of Sapori Trattoria.  Delicious Italian comfort food, which was delightful, and they even gave us free Tiramisu for Kim’s birthday! 
 
Whatever your ethnic background, or your adopted favorite cuisine is, each has its traditional meals that bring people together.  We all come together around the dinner table, whatever culture we identify with.  Food is a unit-er, and meals are opportunities to show hospitality! 
 
And certainly that was true in the Gospels!  Jesus and the disciples unite around meals many times.  Mundelein professor, Eugene LaVerdiere’s book, “Dining in the Kingdom of God” is all about the 10 meals of Jesus that make up the Gospel of Luke.  Five of them are Symposium meals, he says, and five are Hospitality meals.  And in all of them, Jesus transforms the traditions, by how they are related to the Eucharist, he instituted, our sacramental meal of thanksgiving. 
 
Symposium meals, were the meals of Plato, and many other Greek and Roman elites.  They had some set characteristics, like the couches the invited guests would recline, or lounge in, while eating.  Jesus dined with Levi the tax collector and a bunch of his tax collector friends, in this way.  But in doing so, got lots of flack from the Jerusalem authorities – why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners, they derided him!  Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; Jesus tells them, I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance! 
 
Early Christians didn’t entirely give up this elite style banquet – and, BTW, Symposium literally means, drinking party – but they transformed such elitist and hierarchical banquets, by allowing women, children and slaves to take part as equals, in its communal and newly worshipful dinners.  Like Jesus, they too risked being criticized, but aimed at including, even the rich, to become followers of Jesus, as well as working class disciples. 
 
In native Palestinian culture, meals of hospitality by contrast, were much less formal.  They arose spontaneously, as the occasion to entertain visitors presented itself.  And Jesus, the itinerant traveler, occasioned such meals regularly.  Middle-eastern hospitality was gracious to any and all visitors, including the offer to wash their weary feet, before a Meal - and was expected of everyone, rich or poor, in the ancient tradition that still holds today. 
 
Jesus’ meals also expanded, on this Palestinian hospitality.  He dined at Mary’s house, with her sister Martha, and lifted up the listening to God’s word, even higher than the gift of the hospitality-meal itself.  Word & Meal are central to our worship even today.  And Jesus dined with Zacchaeus, another tax collector, much richer than Levi, who was so delighted to be in Jesus’ company that he pledged to give away half of all his wealth!  And repentance, forgiving, and offering back from our wealth, are all part of our worship today.
 
The last 2, of the 10 meals in Luke’s gospel, are also Hospitality meals – the two meals Luke reports which took place on Easter Day! 
 
Just before our Gospel reading today, is the long story of the road to Emmaus where two unnamed disciples meet Jesus as they walk away from Jerusalem, confused and dejected about all that’s taken place.  But they finally recognize Jesus when they have dinner together, and he breaks the bread in communion fashion, just like he had only days earlier, at the Last Supper with them. 
 
But then Jesus vanishes!  And not being able to contain their excitement, the two decide to high-tale-it back to Jerusalem, even though darkness has fallen, risking the possible bandits on the road, just to tell the disciples.  And so, when they arrive, they tell their story about breaking bread with Jesus, and also hear that ‘he appeared to Simon and is risen indeed.’  In typical macho fashion, though, the women’s story of resurrection, has been discounted as ‘an idle tale.’  But now, as all of them, women and men, children and slaves, are together ‘talking about this,’ suddenly ‘Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you.’ 
 
But, they feel anything but peaceful, for they thought they were seeing a ghost!  Thankfully, antiquity has tests for disproving ghosts!  One could check the obvious bone-y places – like, hands and feet – or eat some food.  And that’s what Jesus did.  In fact, if the disciples weren’t so startled, they would have offered the hospitality of washing his feet and preparing food, for this stranger who un-expectantly stopped by!  But in their disbelieving joy, as Luke says, Jesus has to prod them.  And having no Tiramisu dessert to offer, they produce a piece of broiled fish, the ethnic dish of Galilee where they’re all from.  And Jesus took a bite, and as they stared, he ‘ate it in their presence,’ and the room picked their jaws up off the floor! 
 
That wasn’t much of a meal though, more like a midnight snack, I guess!  But the important part is the Word, at this gathering – like the meal with Mary and Martha.  ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you’ says Jesus, and he ‘opened their minds to understand the scriptures, … Thus it is written, he said to them, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, You are witnesses of these things.’
 
LaVerdiere draws a curious distinction here: “One might be an eyewitness by accident,” he says, “but to be a witness one had to be called.”
 
In other words, the disciples had been eyewitnesses to everything Jesus had said and done, and now also to his resurrection.  But Jesus is also calling them, at this final hospitality meal, to be faithful witnesses to others.  He opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and now he calls them to proclaim this good news to all nations, beyond Jewish Israel, to all the Gentile peoples. 
 
For Jesus, there is no ‘us and them.’  Or as Paul said, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, be we are all one in Christ Jesus.  For the followers of Jesus, Symposium meals would no longer exclude 2nd class citizens.  And Hospitality meals, would include the sinner and the demonized, in a radical forgiveness, in a meal of thanksgiving and unity. 
 
We know this Meal in Holy Communion, every Sunday.  We’re also exploring it in Food for the Soul, our new outreach, which itself is patterned on these early Christian meals of hospitality. 
 
And our world today, needs this more than ever – to break down the oligarchy of the few rich families, increasingly in charge of our democracy, elites that are creating a worldwide, 2 tiered, ‘us and them,’ system, which is a kind-of, Symposium partying, a never-ending, never-satisfied gluttony, eating up the eco-system of mother earth, threatening our very existence. 
 
We need Jesus to show up and scare them like a ghost! – which means, through us.  We have been called and sent by Jesus to tell the  good news story and share in meals of hospitality that prioritize the “us” of the kingdom and realm of God – to break down the dividing walls, and end the swampy-ness of elitist rule. 
 
As followers and fellow disciples, we must ‘suffer and rise,’ again and again, that the opportunity of ‘new life’ is offered in the radical ‘repentance and forgiveness of sins,’ in the unity of “us” – if it must be shouted from the rooftop, or shared one person at time, ‘with all peoples.’  We must continue to dine with Zacchaeus in meals of Jubilee celebration, so that the risen Jesus is alive in all our gatherings. 
 
So, out we go – no more us and them – ‘we are witnesses of these things!’  Not just neutral eyewitnesses, but passionate tellers, and sharers, of the good news… of the unity we have in Christ Jesus… which is, Food for our souls.  

Readings for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 8, 2018

• Acts 4:32-35  
• Psalm 133  
• 1 John 1:1-2:2  
• John 20:19-31

Passing the Peace, Pastor Fred
We love passing the peace!  Right after the Prayers; before the Meal!  It’s, one of the benefits, of a smaller church.  Or as we like to call ourselves, an ‘intimate’ congregation – which is not just a euphemism, but holds true, both because of who we are, and the space we inhabit.  Our sanctuary is small, by Chicago standards.  The pews are close together.  And instead of, long and narrow, we’re more in-the-round or equal-lateral.  And with our wrap-around-balcony, the intimacy continues in our undercrofts with our Prayer Spaces and Gallery. 
 
But sharing the Peace can be intimidating, especially for our first time guests, and probably looks like a bit of a free-for-all.  People crossing the isles, shaking hands, hugging or sharing the kiss of peace, not just with those close by, but with everyone! 
 
It’s shocking initially!  And if you came to worship and would rather be anonymous, this joyous peace sharing can be rather disruptive, and not feel very, peaceful, frankly, more like a 5th inning stretch!  A chance to get up and move around! 
 
I’m wondering too, how did it feel during Lent?  For those who attended one of the  5 services in Lent, what was it like when we shared the Peace around the font, in the back Gathering area, in the beginning of the service?  Did it have a different feel? 
 
What does ‘The Peace’ mean?  What is it for?  Why do we have it in the service? 
 
When it was evening on the first day of the week, our Gospel begins, that day that Jesus had appeared to Mary in the Garden, the disciples were still locked in the house they had used for the Last Supper.  And it was locked up tight!  Remember, the disciples had fled from the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.  And were nowhere to be found, when he was crucified on Good Friday – except for John, ‘the disciple Jesus loved,’ who was there with Mary, Jesus mother. 
 
When he was on trial, where were they?  Peter was out in the High Priest’s courtyard and denied knowing Jesus, three times.  When it was time to carry his cross, where were they?  Jesus was exposed and all alone, bearing his burden.  When he was crucified between two criminals, dying a shameful death, where were they?  When he bowed his head and gave up his spirit, where were they, as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus stepped up and made sure he at least had a proper burial? 
 
Apparently, they were mostly holed up in the house, hiding behind locked doors!  John says they were still there on the 3rd day, the day of his resurrection, because they feared the Judeans.  Which is understandable, because if the Judeans had managed to get their Roman overlords to condemn and crucify Jesus, might they not also do the same for his leaders, the Disciples, who were next in line? 
 
Yet, the Disciples didn’t run back home to Galilee.  They at least decided to stay, to see what would happen next.  They were cautiously fearful, maybe even appropriately hiding out, just to regroup and plan their next step. 
 
Maybe they were still of the mindset that the Messianic new age would come through armed confrontation?  The risen Jesus, or maybe one of them, would rise up to lead them, like a new King David?  But why then had Jesus told Peter to put his sword away at Gethsemane, and angrily asked them all, why they still didn’t understand his arrest, suffering and death, was all part of the plan of his Cup, the New Covenant?! 
 
And then, just this morning, there was Mary’s testimony - she had reported that she had seen the Lord, in the Garden outside the tomb.  And she also shared Jesus’ instructions with them: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”  Which, admittedly, isn’t much to go on!  What did that mean exactly?  Yet, just that he was alive, had risen, was amazing! 
 
And that’s when, suddenly, Jesus came and stood among them – though the doors were locked.  And Jesus has a new word, in addition to Mary’s, that he brings: “Peace be with you.”  And after saying this, he shows them the nail holes, and the spear wound in his side.  And seeing the marks of his execution! gives them a strange sense of, calm, and joy!  It confirmed, that this was their crucified, but also risen, Lord!  Haleluia! 
 
And a second time, Jesus says to them, “Peace be with you.  ‘Of whomever you forgive the sins – their sins are forgiven to them; whomever you hold fast, and embrace, they are held fast.’
(cf. Commentary on John 20:19-31, Mary Hinkle Shore, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3619)
 
Now, they can’t wait to tell Thomas, who was out getting lochs and bagels, or whatever, and completely missed it.  But, you know, how when a friend tells you they saw the greatest concert, or a movie, you thought would be just ok, and they think is the #1 event of the year – and you just have a hard time sharing in their excitement, because you weren’t there?  I think that’s how Thomas may have felt.  So he’s sort of resentful and cranky, but wants to see what they have seen, in order to have a chance at the joy! they’re all of sudden, basking in.  What was it, Thomas wonders, that made them change so dramatically?
 
And sure enough one week later – which is why we always have this story on the 2nd Sunday of Easter – Jesus returns and Thomas is with them.  “Peace be with you,” Jesus says a third time!  And knowing that Thomas wants to see the wounds and touch them, Jesus shows him, and invites him to touch his side.  But suddenly, that seems not as important as seeing what he’s seeing, experiencing the risen Jesus – and all he can say is, “My Lord and my God!” 
 
‘Peace’ and ‘forgiveness,’ is what the wounded Lord offers!  The Peace of Christ, is what changed the fearful, and guilt-ridden disciples, into Apostles and leaders, on fire, to go out. 
 
When just a week ago, they were stuck in the old ways of vengeance, of winners and losers, and afraid for their lives, plotting how to survive and strike back – Jesus, the wounded healer, brings them a message of radical forgiveness and peace. 
 
Is this just the peace of a simple greeting – or a deeper peace – a total acceptance of the disciples, with all their flaws and fears?  Is it a greeting of peace, like, good-morning, or have a nice day – or is it a deeper peace, of healing and reconciliation?
 
The disciples had fled Jesus at his most needful hour, had betrayed and abandoned him, had pulled out their swords, as if Jesus was the next Barabbas or Bar Kochba.  And still Jesus came in peace, a powerful peace of forgiveness. 
 
I will remember your sins no more, the prophet Jeremiah had said.  Not that God lost God’s memory!  No, but your sins will be to me as forgotten, says the LORD, in order to completely forgive you, and offer you a chance to start over, begin anew. 
 
This is the message, finally, that seemed to dawn on the disciples.  God’s radical grace and love, was the sharp sword, the Word, unsheathed from Jesus’ New Covenant, that they were meant to take up, for the sake of the world.  “As the Father has sent me,” Jesus tells them, “so I send you,” with the gifts of forgiveness and Peace!
 
Can a small handful of followers, transformed into leaders, change the world?  What would it take?  What weapons, and what tactics, have we received?  Are we good enough?  Well, were the disciples?  Are we committed enough?  Jesus consecrates us saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit; Peace be with you!” 
 
Let us pass this Peace of Christ to one another, here in this Sanctuary, to our neighbors, and the world.

Readings for the Resurrection of the Lord

• Isaiah 25:6-9  
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24  
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-11  
• Mark 16:1-8

Fleeing the Scene, Pastor Kinsey
Long ago when I was a young teenager, growing up in the first collar suburbs, my friends and I got in trouble with the police.  We tried to flee, and one did get away, without a trace! 
 
The infraction that the neighbors called the police for was – well, it was the 5th of July, and we still had some 4th of July fireworks, left over!  My parents were away, and had trusted me and my younger brother, Dave, to behave.  But when Danny, my older next door neighbor came by, and Craig, my basketball buddy, well, one thing led to another.  We went from firecrackers, to M-80’s, and very soon after that, the Police Cruiser showed up. 
 
As Danny took off running back home across the hedge-row, I thought about running too, except, where would I go, I was in my own backyard!  I looked over my shoulder where Craig had been standing, but he was nowhere to be found.  Later he told me, he saw it all coming, and fled, just before the Police could spot him. 
 
Me and Dave were left, bare-naked, holding the evidence.  Without a 2nd thought, we pretty much, ratted out Danny – After all, he was the one who brought the M-80’s, and escalated the public nuisance we had become – And, because, at that age, I could not tell a lie, and was actually shaking in my tennis shoes, this being my first offense, and all.  And the cops told us, they had seen Danny run away, and I wasn’t doing jail time for him!
 
Having also given the police our phone number, we knew there was no fleeing the consequences with my parents when they came home, so we spilled the beans!  Dave and I were grounded, but Danny, next door, worse than us!  While Craig got off, scott-free (but learned his lesson)! 
 
Fleeing the scene of a crime is a natural reaction, you might say.  Jesus overcame his fear of it, in his agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.  And fleeing usually doesn’t work, anyway.  Sometimes with the direst consequences, with your life, as with the victims memorialized in our Gallery quilt exhibit, called, “Gone But Not Forgotten.”  Even in our, rather, juvenile case, in my privileged neighborhood, only one out of four of us, managed to get away. 
 
The disciples were lucky that the authorities were only interested in arresting Jesus on Maundy Thursday in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though they feared for their lives.  But when they fled, it was not so much from the police, as from Jesus.  And as we know, they weren’t able to flee his mission, all together! 
 
After his crucifixion, when the 12 hear from the women disciples, what they saw and heard at the empty tomb of Jesus, they begin to rethink their position.  What the 2 Mary’s and Salome had witnessed was, ‘a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side of the tomb,’ and they were amazed and terrified! 
 
6But [the stranger] had reassured them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”
 
Now, the thing I keep stumbling on, is who this ‘young man dressed in a white robe’ is?  And how does he know about Jesus and what happened to him, on this first day of the week, the third day after his crucifixion?  Was this, mysterious person the one who rolled away the stone? 
 
Actually, there has been much speculation and debate about this young man’s identity over the years.  Here, in Mark’s resurrection account, he is not identified as an angel of the Lord, though his white robe, was an indicator.  And his response to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, “Do not be alarmed,” is the usually greeting of angels, to those who encounter them un-expectantly! 
 
But there is another, more creative answer too. Turns out, there’s a direct connection between the young man, or neaniskos in the original language of the text, and the one other time Mark uses this term, which is earlier, on Maundy Thrusday, in the fleeing scene of the disciples at Jesus’ arrest.  It was after the disciples scatter, that a certain “young man, neaniskos, was following along. All he had on,” oddly, was a linen “bedsheet,” says Mark.  “Some of the men grabbed him but he got away, running off naked, leaving them holding the sheet.” (The Message trans.)  How embarrassing is that!
 
Is this the clue that Mark wants us to see?!  Could this be the same ‘young man’ who greeted the women at the empty tomb?  Maybe!  But, even if that’s true, it still begs the question, why is the young man running away in the first scene, and now calmly sharing the good news of Jesus’ raising on Easter morning?
 
Mark leaves another clue here too, in his wardrobe, the embarrassing loss of his linen cloth, or bedsheet, in the first scene, and the new white robe he wears on the day of Resurrection, a garment of angels, to be sure – but also, the robe of baptismal candidates in the early church.  And I have personally seen the recently excavated stone baptristies in Palestine, built for adult catechumenates, who would walk down naked into the waters of the ancient pool of water, and having been dunked 3 times, would then walk up and out the other side, gasping for the breath of new life, which was when they were immediately clothed with a white robe.  It was a baptism made to experience the joining to the death and resurrection of Christ – a fleeing from the old, to their new life! 
 
And so, what if this is Mark’s way of witnessing to his own transformation in the faith?  Could he be telling us about himself?  His confession of fleeing Jesus, being exposed and feeling naked, in his fear – and then having found his courage after the crucifixion, was baptized, and now helps others overcome their fears, inviting us to discover Jesus, who walks ahead of us, into the freedom of God’s gracious new life?!  An auto-biography in miniature, within his Gospel?!  Yes, the women saw an angel messenger at the empty tomb.  But Mark is a kind of angelic presence too,  a convert and follower, someone who shares the good news, with all the joy and passion, of a newly baptized believer. 
 
“Don’t be afraid,” says the young man.  “I know you’re looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the One they nailed on the cross. He’s been raised up; he’s here no longer. You can see for yourselves that the place is empty.  Now – on your way!  Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You’ll see him there, exactly as he said.” (The Message trans.)
 
Mark could not flee forever.  He alluded the cops, but not his own conscience, and not the good news, which ended up changing everything for him, like it did for the 12 disciples, the women, and all Jesus’ followers since. 
 
So, for Mark, the truth, is in the journey.  Following Jesus’ path, is a road worth traveling.  It is not a popular one, and today, I have to say, has been distorted by American Evangelicals, at least those who have given up every valid belief to follow a President who is the opposite of what Jesus has passed on to us: loving your neighbor as yourself, identifying and casting out the evil ones, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger.  And so, our following is all the more important, though more vulnerable and dangerous. 
 
For Mark, the resurrection of Christ is the end of his printed story, but clearly points ahead to a new beginning, with a directive from the young man, who reminds us what Jesus had told them on Maundy Thursday at the Last Supper: ‘after I’m raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see me.’ 
 
What is Galilee?  Galilee is the place on the margins of every society, the place where Jesus enacted God’s new age to come, by healing the sick, raising up the brokenhearted, casting out the evil characters attacking us, and celebrating jubilee meals of great joy!  Galilee is where God’s mission is happening, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 
 
Galilee is the place where disciples and followers, young men and women, gender-fluid and trans, and all the white robed baptized, are raising up more and more followers, having been raised by Jesus themselves. 
 
Jesus’ resurrection is living the new life God promises. 
 
--  Alleluia!  Xt is risen!