“As the Father has sent me …”
John 20:19-29 (April 7, 2024)
Our scripture reading today continues the resurrection story. Which is important for us to hear in this season of Easter stretching all the way to Pentecost. Easter is certainly more than just a single day. The resurrection of Christ is an ongoing reality in our world. But it can take a while for disciples of all sorts to catch up.
Early, on the first day of the week, the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene. She, in turn, announced to the other disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” But where do we find those friends of Jesus at the end of Easter day? Are they celebrating? No. Are they full of joy? They are not! They are huddled together like a flock of frightened sheep. The room is dark, the doors are locked, the atmosphere is suffocating.
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Do you remember those very early pandemic days when we entered “lock-down”? Aren’t you glad we’ve moved beyond that? It was necessary, I suppose, given the arrival of a deadly virus that we knew nothing about. No one wanted to catch it, or to spread it. So we stuck to our own little cohort, staying indoors where it was safe. We rarely ventured out in public places except for good reason: to pick up some groceries or other essentials.
The disciples in our story are stuck inside. And this really is a lock-down, because we’re told the doors were locked, for fear of the Jews.
The disciples were afraid. They thought if Jesus was killed, who knows – maybe they’d be next. Wouldn’t the authorities be looking for them too? So best to keep a low profile. It’s not the time to announce your presence to the world.
Ah yes, the world can be a scary place. Think of all those things that make us uneasy or feel insecure. Think of danger in the streets: crime, drugs, theft. Think of scammers that make you afraid to answer the telephone. Think of wars and rumours of wars. And problems everywhere.
But don’t think too much about all of that. Because when we do, it makes it even worse. And we become like little children, scared of all the monsters hiding under the bed. Or maybe we become like these disciples, shivering together and trying to hold the world at bay.
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And then, perhaps, we may come to an astonishing realization: That we are not as alone as we thought! There, in that locked room where the disciples have propped up furniture against the door, and shut the windows and pulled the blinds … suddenly they sense there is a presence.
“How many of us should there be? One, two, three … hold on! Who are you, and what are you doing here?” No one thinks for a moment it could be Jesus.
You want to know the Good News of Easter? All the padlocks and latches and dead-bolts in the world cannot prevent the risen Lord from entering our lives! Didn’t Jesus say he’d come like a thief in the night? So there he is, standing in the living room.
But how many of us want Jesus to be so close? Consider these disciples: Things have not gone well in their relationship with Jesus these last few days. Peter, has denied him – not just once but several times. Truth be told, none of the disciples were all that courageous. When it came to the crucifixion only a handful remained.
Now suddenly Jesus appears, and what are they feeling? Embarrassment? Guilt? Shame? How can they face him? What will he say?
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Having the risen Lord in our midst should set us all a-trembling. It is an awesome thing! The one who made us and calls us – right here in our midst? Yikes!
I think the disciples were afraid, not only of those hostile authorities outside the house, but of the supreme authority inside the house! Some fall on their knees, perhaps. Others break out in a cold sweat. But do you know what Jesus says to them?
“Peace be with you.” That’s right, the first word spoken by the risen Christ to the gathering of his brothers and sisters is a word of peace. “Shalom,” in the Hebrew language. It can be a simple greeting. Or it can be packed full of meaning, if we care to remember the biblical witness.
Shalom means inner peace – peace of heart and mind. A gentle breathing out of all the accumulated tensions in our lives.
Peace! Close your eyes, relax your body, breathe in deeply. Now let it go. Give it a try. I mean it! No one’s going to think you’re weird. What do you come to church for anyway? Isn’t it to let go of your worries? To know the peace of God which surpasses understanding? (Philippians 4:7)
“Peace be with you,” Jesus says. And still says.
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But inner peace is only the beginning. The peace we read about in scripture is full-fledged. Shalom. Not just inner peace but outer peace as well. A peace that makes life good for everyone, bringing plenty to all. So that no one is in need. And there is no cause for conflict or battle or argument or war. Can you imagine?
This is God’s kingdom vision, that moved Jesus to give his life for the world in sacrificial love. The vision that God now affirms by raising him from death to be Lord of all creation. “Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess …” (Philippians 2:11)
Am I preaching to the choir? Do Mennonites know everything there is to know about peace? Or do we still have more to learn? At the very least, I think we can be reminded.
“Peace be with you.” Three times he says it in our scripture reading for today. So how can we forget?
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Jesus shows them his wounds, confirming that he is real. The disciples respond with joy! And then … he sends them out.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” It’s time to put your jackets on! You’re not meant to be cooped up inside. Somebody, please, open the door!
The church is not meant to be stuck in this place. Though I’m afraid that’s often what we end up being. We prefer the company of one another over strangers. We get comfortable in this place. Where all is familiar. And we know exactly what to expect. No surprises. No challenges either.
We domesticate the church. We build it, inhabit it, and rarely venture from it.
But when the church is at its best, it’s a scattered church. It’s a church engaged in mission. It’s a church that’s “out there” beyond these walls. Caring for neighbours. Loving, befriending, serving, bearing witness to Jesus our risen Lord. Holding up a vision of God’s amazing kingdom life.
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“As the Father has sent me …” You know that Jesus was sent. He came from God’s very dwelling place to be here among us. He came from heaven to live on earth.
He came to bear God’s light. To give sight to the blind. To feed the hungry. He came to serve with compassion and care. He came to bring forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. Most of all, he came to love.
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples ….” (John 13:34-35)
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” This is what the risen Lord is saying to us.
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So now, let me ask a difficult question. I don’t expect you to have an answer right away. But I’d like you to think about this: When people see us, do they see Jesus?
Are we living in his image? Are we walking in his way?
I ask because the church does not always have that reputation. We think we’re warm and friendly. But why, then, have so many been wounded, disillusioned or are just plain indifferent to the life we live in the community of faith?
The truth is it’s hard to live his way. Really hard. I mean it. I’m thinking of myself now and the mixed messages I send to others. To people who know me and to people who don’t. I don’t always reflect an accurate image of my Lord.
“As the Father has sent me …” In the same way we are being sent by Jesus. Every day our lives are meant to glorify God. We are meant to bear his light and embody his love. And I want to do that. I really do. I hope that you do too!
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As Jesus sends his disciples into the world, there’s one more thing he does. And this is what gives me hope. “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
It’s like a mini-Pentecost, I think. Jesus knows what a challenge it will be for us. But now the risen Lord sends us in the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not go alone. There is a presence and power that will be with us. It is the same Spirit that enabled Jesus’ ministry.
“The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14:26-27)
The Spirit strengthens us. The Spirit transforms us. The Spirit gives us life. The Spirit make us into God’s new creation.
The image of Jesus breathing the Spirit upon his disciples reminds me of the creation story in Genesis, when “the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)
So once again I invite you to pause, right where you are, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Breathe in the life of God. Let Jesus gift you with the Spirit.
We need that Spirit. Without it we are nothing. But with it we are agents of God’s new creation.
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So now, in a few minutes, when our service is finished, the doors will be open. And we will be sent by Jesus into the world. Your world, my world.
Well, what did you expect? We can’t stay here. We’re not in lock-down. We are disciples of Jesus, called to follow his way.
We are sent by the risen Christ. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are invited to be God’s people in the world. Believing, loving, forgiving, serving.
We are not afraid. We live boldly in God’s kingdom way. That will look different for each one of us. But if we are faithful, it will always look like Jesus. May it be so!
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“Christ among us, the new covenant”
Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 12:20-33 (March 17, 2024)
Throughout this Lenten season we’ve been thinking about covenants: relationship and promise between God and people. We’ve read several covenants mentioned in the Bible: God’s covenant with Noah – never again a flood. God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah – descendants and a promised land. God’s covenant with Moses – keep these commandments, and you will be my people and I will be your God.
The problem is that, for our part, these covenants are not easy to keep. Part of us resists living in loving relationship with God and neighbour. Put simply, we’re not very good partners. We find it hard to be faithful.
We may start out with good intentions. But soon we have second thoughts. Powerful forces pull us in another direction. In this Lenten season we acknowledge that we have not always been, and are not even now, the people God intends us to be. I mean, honestly, I’m not even the person I want to be! Thank goodness that God is merciful and gracious. And that God keeps calling us back, inviting us to make a new beginning.
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Jeremiah is one of the major prophets of the Bible. We sometimes call him the “weeping prophet”. The book that bears his name is full of sorrow and lament.
It was Jeremiah who predicted his nation’s time of exile in Babylon. But he could also see beyond that catastrophic event. He saw a new covenant, a new beginning in our relationship with God.
“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31)
And this covenant will not be like the ones that went before. Not like when God rescued people from slavery in Egypt. Remember all those commandments? Well, ten core commandments, written on tablets of stone and given to Moses in dramatic fashion on the cloud-covered heights of Horeb.
They were such strong and righteous words meant to guide God’s people in the way of life: Life with God, life with others. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, by the time Moses clambered down the mountain with those tablets in hand the people were already in full-fledged rebellion, partying before a golden calf.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Synagoga_Hartmanice_04.jpg" width="226" height="79" />“You know these people are bent on evil,” explained Aaron sheepishly. What did you expect?
It was enough to make Moses smash the tablets in white-hot anger. That was not a very promising beginning, was it?
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God desires right-relationship with God’s people. God desires to give us life. But what about us? We’re hell-bent on our own un-righteous way.
It’s the story of all our lives, not just those ancient Israelites. We have this fierce independent streak that gets us into trouble. We make our own gods and bow before them. The covenant is broken almost before we begin!
But this new covenant, says Jeremiah, is not like that. “It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.” (Jer. 31:32)
Listen. “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts …”
So then, not an external law, with stone-hard commandments imposed from somewhere distant up on high. Rather, imagine this: the finger of God gently giving shape to the inner life that guides you. God within, leading you in God’s way. God within the community of God’s people, shaping us all from the inside out!
“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. 31:33) Now that’s relationship! And what a promise!
“No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” Try to take this in: The knowledge of God will be within us. Within all people who bear God’s name.
And “knowledge” here is more than just academics. More than facts and diagrams and human-concocted theories. This is knowledge in the biblical sense of awareness and intimacy. A deep knowledge that comes from “being with”, abiding in the presence.
It's like what two life-long partners are meant to be after years and years together. You know what the other is thinking, without them even saying a word.
Why, how? Well just because you know. There’s a comfortable familiarity. A lovely sharing between two friends. Have you ever known anyone like that? Do you know God like that?
Well God will always be God – beyond our knowledge. But God will also reveal God’s self to us in love.
“I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” The barrier that keeps us apart from God – our rebelliousness and iniquity – this very thing God will overcome! “Forgive us our trespasses,” we pray. But God has promised to do this, even before we ask.
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In the Old Testament way of thinking, the heart is the centre of our will. If the heart is committed to something, it’s bound to happen. So tell me, what is the condition of your heart? 
Is it rock-hard, rebellious, dead-set against God? Or is it God-shaped, God-directed, and brimming with new life?
My mom, in her later years, had congestive heart failure. That organ, so vital for our existence, was not functioning properly, not moving the life-giving blood where it needed to go. She had no energy for anything. I recall visiting her one evening, while she lay on the couch exhausted, barely able to carry on a conversation.
Some time later she had an operation. She barely made it through, so depleted was her condition going in. But over time she healed and regained strength. That change to her heart was life-giving. The doctors had performed a miracle! And those of us in her family were so very grateful.
Jeremiah speaks of an inner renewal. A re-shaping of our hearts. A new lease on life in our relationship with God in which love and justice will flourish. A New Covenant.
Obedience to God will seem the most natural thing on earth. We won’t have to wrestle ourselves toward it. God’s life-giving Spirit will be pulsing through our veins. Seriously, don’t you long for such a day as that? I would jump at such an opportunity! I would snatch it … in a heart-beat!
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Today is St. Patrick’s Day. I wore my green tie in honour of that, even though I’m not Irish. This day is so much more than green beer and fiddle music.
Do you know Patrick’s story? He was born in the fourth century, the son of parents living in Roman Briton. As a teenager he was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave. They put him to work there in that foreign land, herding sheep.
During his captivity, Patrick turned to God in prayer. One day he managed to escape. He fled to the coast and found some sailors who took him back to Briton, where he was reunited with his family.
Now you’d think he would have had enough of those Irish – after what they’d done to him. The years they’d stolen from his life. If it was me, I’d never want to set foot in that country again!
But Patrick was given a dream in which he heard the people of Ireland calling out to him, “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.”
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Patrick_Catholic_Church_(Junction_City,_Ohio)_-_stained_glass,_Saint_Patrick_-_detail.jpg" width="142" height="152" />Years later, after Patrick became a bishop, he was sent to take the gospel to Ireland. Talk about irony! He spent the rest of his life working there among the very people who had previously captured and enslaved him.
There was something going on in Patrick’s heart that enabled him to do that. Some work of God. Patrick turned his former enemies into friends. His was a ministry of reconciliation.
Did you hear that? Could Patrick have been an early Anabaptist? A peacemaker, a risk-taking disciple of Jesus, willing to give his life for others?
The people called Anabaptists didn’t arrive on the scene for another thousand years! Then again, isn’t peace-making meant to be part of every Christian’s life?
Last year when we had our service at Bethany Manor I got talking to one of the greeters at the door. He mentioned that my name didn’t sound very Mennonite.
I told him my family had come from a little-known colony of Mennonites in a remote corner of the Scottish highlands. He looked at me for a moment, as he considered the possibility. I think he almost believed me! Then we both had a good laugh. I need to say how thankful I am for the Anabaptist witness to the larger church of peacemaking and reconciliation which is so important for our world.
What’s the condition of your heart? Is there transformation going on? Are there any signs of God’s New Covenant being formed within you?
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In our Gospel reading, Jesus compares his life to a grain of wheat that must fall into the earth and die in order to bear much fruit. That was a perfect image for first century Palestinian people living in an agrarian society. It’s a pretty good image for Prairie people too.
We know exactly what Jesus is talking about: Losing life – his life, our lives – in order to gain life. Something within each of us has to die.
What is it? It’s that self-centred, wilful, disobedient, hard-hearted life. That part of ourselves that could care less about our neighbour, let alone our enemies.
Yet as we die to that part of ourselves and turn to God, we find new life beginning to emerge. The “Christ-life” that glorifies God and cares for others. A life that’s moved by sacrificial love. A life that will spend itself for the healing of the world.
It's a life that St. Patrick lived. And on this day, as we remember him, we are invited to live that life as well.
On the night our Lord Jesus was betrayed he took the cup and blessed it and said to his disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (1 Corinthians 11:25) A new relationship. A new life. Jesus’ death and resurrection will make us new.
Sometimes I wonder, when? How long, Lord? The answer is that every one of us will be made new as we allow God’s holy, life-giving Spirit to move within our hearts. To soften us and change us. Rework us from the inside out …
To plant God’s law within our heart. God’s knowledge deep within. God’s will directing us, moving us in this moment of time.
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All through Lent we’ve been talking about Covenants. And as I look back and reflect on this it seems to me that two truths emerge.
One is the truth of our human story, which is failure to live God’s way.
And the other is the truth of God’s story: God keeps coming to us with mercy and grace, inviting us into right-relationship. Calling us back to the rich soil of Eden.
A New Covenant. A new beginning. Again and again and again! For this great Good News we lift our hearts to God, saying “Thank you!” and “Amen.”
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“Christ among us, showing justice”
Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22 (March 3, 2024)
Did you ever see the movie: The Ten Commandments? Made in 1956, starring Charleton Heston as the Hebrew Moses and Yul Brynner as the Egyptian Pharoah, it’s one of the most famous movies of all time. It continues to be played on network TV every year around Passover and Eastertime.
That movie offers us an iconic image of Moses leading the people out of slavery in Egypt. And later receiving the commandments etched in stone on the mountain of God.
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All through this Lenten season we are talking about Covenants. These ten commandments represent the terms of God’s covenant with the people of Israel.
The stone tablets are placed in a box, called the Ark of the Covenant. That box is kept in the most holy place in the house of meeting. Which is to say, this covenant is at the very heart of Israel’s life with God.
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To put these commandments in context, our passage begins with this reminder: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
The commandments are given to a people who’ve been saved from a miserable existence as slaves. They’ve crossed the waters of the Red Sea. They’re headed for a new and promised land. Now they’re reminded who God is, and who God intends them to be.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Synagoga_Hartmanice_04.jpg" width="232" height="78" />Notice the commandments are given to a people already saved. A people who are already in relationship with God. A people who are now being instructed in the shape of their new God-given life.
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And the first thing they’re told, the very first commandment they’re given, is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
This is meant to be an exclusive relationship. In much the same way that we enter a marriage. Once you’re committed to that other party, there’s no fooling around. No, it’s you and God, God and you – in a loving, faithful relationship that will last your whole life long. (And beyond, actually. But that story is for another day.)
In the wilderness, before they enter the promised land, the people of Israel are getting to know this God of their ancestors. It is a kind of honeymoon time, if you like, when they begin to build a life together.
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So what does that life look like? Well it’s the exact opposite of what they’ve experienced under Pharoah. God’s freedom is as far from Pharoah’s slavery as you can imagine.
The commandments begin with a focus on God: “No other gods before me. No idolatry, no graven images. No bowing down to anything or anyone that is not God.” God alone is to be served.
It is, writes OT scholar Walter Brueggemann, an affirmation that the world – [their lives,] our lives - are under new governance, a new regime that is contrasted with the brutalizing regime of Pharaoh.”[1] The old order of things is finished. A new way has come.
All through history there have been rulers just like Pharoah. But the Reign of God is different. The reign of God brings emancipation and freedom. The reign of God brings fulness of life.
So, instead of having to produce bricks on demand, seven days a week, God instructs us to keep the Sabbath. The LORD took six days to make heaven and earth, and on the seventh day God rested.
So go ahead, take a break! Your body needs to rest. You need to get out of the rat-race of constantly producing and consuming, day after day, world without end. That is not a healthy way for any of us to live.
No more slavery, says God. No more forced labour and exploitation. No more concentration of wealth in the hands of one powerful ruler. God rules, not Pharoah. No more taking advantage of these ethnic non-Egyptians. All people matter to God! Wow, this really is different, isn’t it?
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And what follows is a whole list of things about how we are to treat our neighbour. How to love and respect one another. Not stealing. Not always looking over our neighbour’s fence and wanting what they have for ourselves.
Not killing one another when we have our differences. We are so quick to retaliate. We build up huge stocks of armaments – the more powerful, we think, the better. It's madness, isn’t it – the suffering and destruction we bring?
Humanity has built enough nuclear weapons to destroy everyone on the planet several times over. And the blasphemous part of it is we actually talk about using them! Who do we think we are?
The commandments we read this morning point in a different direction. They teach us to honour and respect. To care for our neighbour.
Do not bear false witness! In other words, speak the truth. It sounds so simple. But our propaganda machines thrive on distortion, bending the truth, moulding it to serve our own desired end.
Keep these commandments, says Moses to the people, so that you might live well in this new land. “For I am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” Yes, we are all familiar with this. The mistakes of one generation having consequences for those who follow.
But listen to this: Here is a God who “shows steadfast love – covenant love – committed, faithful, enduring love, to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Four generations of consequence. A thousand generations of blessing for those who live God’s way! You see, there is no comparison.
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The commandments point to life. What did the Psalmist say? They are more to be desired than gold. Sweeter also than honey. “The ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
Our sermon title this morning is “Christ among us, showing us justice.” I find it helpful to think of justice as more than rigid adherence to a rule of law. Rather justice points to the goal of every law and every commandment: That we might live in right-relationship with both God and neighbour.
The commandments, in and of themselves, do not have the power to create those kind of relationships. But they describe what those relationships look like.
Some of you have been part of our Lenten Bible Study, where we’ve been looking at the Lord’s Prayer. And it strikes me that, there too, we find this same two-fold division. The first part of the prayer focusses on God. Just like the first few commandments.
And then the prayer turns to us and our needs – for things like daily bread and forgiveness. In the same way, the second half of the ten commandments turn to various aspects of neighbour-love. How to live with one another in ways that are just, righteous and good.
Relationship with God. Relationship with neighbour. Both of these matter deeply. When these relationships are broken or distorted, there is no justice. And we do not have abundant life.
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Which brings us to our Gospel reading. I want to mention it briefly. Because, as you know, Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it abundantly!
When Jesus went into the temple, he created quite a stir. He made a whip out of cords and drove out the animals and the people selling them. He overturned the tables of the money-changers. Why would he do such a thing?
Jesus was determined that nothing, absolutely nothing, should get in the way of our relationship with God?
Those animals occupied the outer court of the temple, the place reserved for non-Jews, for Gentiles. Is God’s house not a house for all people?
And what if the business of buying and selling and making sacrifice became an end in itself? Getting in the way of God, instead of leading us to God? “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” said Jesus.
“Christ among us, showing us justice.” Christ among us, bringing right-relationship with God and people. He comes that we might have life, and have it abundantly.
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Now, back to the commandments. Can they bring us life? No.
We need a power beyond that to fundamentally change us from the inside out. A power to forgive our sins, and set us right, and make us part of God’s new creation. We need the cross and resurrection. We need God’s holy, life-giving Spirit.
But these Ten Commandments can show us what that new life looks like! They can remind us of what’s important in our living with God and others.
They teach us about God’s justice. A justice that goes far beyond rule-keeping, as good and necessary as those rules may be.
They teach us about relationship. Right-relationship. Where God alone is worshipped. And where each and every person has their needs met, and more than met, with generosity and love.
Pharoah’s old rule is finished. A new life lies before us. And we, like the children of Israel, are invited to enter a new and promised land.
This too is the journey of Lent, as we shift our loyalties from Empires of old and turn to the beloved community of God’s people. Love for God. And love for neighbour, living together in the Reign of God. May it be so! Amen.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, “Strategies for Staying Emancipated,” March 04, 2018. http://day1.org/8145-walter_brueggemann_strategies_for_staying_emancipated, Accessed Mar. 1, 2018.
