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Third Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 4th, 2014click here for past entries
Bishop’s Message to share with MNO Synod congregations (written by Bishop Elaine Sauer and edited for use on Sunday, May 4, 2014)
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Scripture Texts: Acts 2: 14a; 22-32
1 Peter 1: 3-9
John 20: 19-31
Grace and peace to you through Jesus Christ who gives us a new birth into a living hope. Amen
During the opening service of convention, delegates and visitors heard a message of struggle and hope for the future. We know that in the last biennium there have been many changes within our synod- from congregations choosing to exile themselves from the ELCIC, to loss of congregations and ministries as workers with us in the kingdom of God here in our context, to new initiatives that have brought hope to our work here as partners in the gospel. We give thanks for your continued support of the ministry we share- our work with Luther Village, the Lutheran Urban Ministries (The Urban, Winnipeg), the Lutheran Community Care Centre (Thunder Bay), Lutheran Theological Seminary (Saskatoon) and our global work through the National Office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Canadian Lutheran World Relief, as well as many local ministries that give us opportunities to share the good news of the risen Christ.
In our gospel reading today, we heard that the disciples experienced fear and doubt and pain and confusion, and in particular in this story, I wonder if they are also feeling some shame. Here they are hiding out in a room, behind locked doors so no one can reach them. They have barricaded themselves from the outside world, fearful of the Jewish leaders, those who persecuted the people of the Way. They are wondering what God has in mind for them now that their leader, Jesus, is dead. They are probably concerned for their future. And what of their own feelings about how they behaved as Jesus is tried, convicted and crucified while they stood by, some even denying they knew Jesus? What shame to carry for not being the perfect disciples of Jesus!
Why should we be surprised by this? As we journeyed with Jesus from the time of the calling of the disciples to the cross, the disciples have been a bit confused, thick headed, but also determined. In the end they run away and hide. At times they are not reliable; sometimes self- concerned. Within this story we meet Thomas, who some say is the doubter. So, in this merry band of disciples their imperfections are quite visible. They seem to need constant reassurances from Jesus as well.
Are we so different? Even after hearing the story of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter, we are sometimes anxious about our lives, our congregations, our place in community. Are we focused on our own security as a congregation rather than the risky mission we have been called to?
Last summer I was given the gift of sabbatical, a time away from the office of bishop, a time to refresh and renew my spirit. I left office with quite a sense of hopelessness. In my daily work I could not see past the conflicts in congregations, the lack of commitment in people, the losses of congregations, the grief of knowing individuals and congregations wanted to sever their relationship with us as a synod and as a church, that they would turn their backs on those of us left behind. Even finances seemed to be thinning out and we had to work harder with less money to accomplish God’s mission. I will even admit to a sense of shame that I as a leader would carry this hopelessness within me and that it would diminish the work that God has in mind and has called me to.
As I spent time in prayer and reflection, I found God showing me signs of hope, some comical and some inspiring. I began to write them down in a hope journal.
One of the goals of my sabbatical was to get more physical exercise, so I decided to try a round of golf. I am not much of a golfer and during one particularly frustrating hole near a pond, I consistently sliced balls into the water. I am also a little cheap, so I went in search of the balls. Unable to find my own, I plucked out a pink one and there written in bright italics was the word HOPE. Rather comical at first, it helped me see a sense of humour in the midst of my despair. On a number of occasions God was able to show me ways to see Hope in my world and in the world around me. It didn’t stop me from falling back into a negative pattern but occasionally it helped me see beyond the despair and to recognize that in my humanness there is a capacity to fail, but a capacity, with God’s help, to change and grow from those barricades of fearfulness and anxious moments.
The disciples are behind closed doors but Jesus will not be stopped- not by physical barricades, nor the disciples own fears and insecurities or shame. Jesus comes, not to judge and give retribution to the disciples but to speak peace and breathe into their anxious lives the breath of the Holy Spirit.
When we are down and discouraged, feeling hopeless, Jesus comes not to rebuke and call us faithless, but to comfort and guide. While our faith is being tested, God, through Jesus Christ, is reminding us that he is still with us, breathing new life into us. Jesus makes use of flawed people, forgives them their failures and restores them as representatives of the good news.
Within the world there is an understanding that Christians are to be faithful, loving of each other, without conflict, without pain. The reality is much farther from this image. We are in fact a people who seek control; inflict pain on one another; judge others who do not meet our own expectations and fail to love as God loves us.
In the giving of this grace, Jesus encourages us to step forward and give the same grace to those around us. It’s not easy but the Holy Spirit is given to us so that we can be guided to the truth, that God dwells in us, flawed human beings and God expects us to carry on the mission begun in Jesus Christ, to love and to bless the world that God loves.
When we are shamed by our inadequacies, the Holy Spirit enables us to speak and to work in our lives to transform us. We are like gold, being refined, tested, purified and made genuine.
I recently saw the movie “Heaven is for Real”. It’s the story of a confident Christian man, a pastor in a church. He is much loved by his people; they love his sermons and his ministry among them. As the story unfolds he breaks his ankle, followed by an incredibly painful bout of kidney stones and to top it off, his son almost dies. He becomes this broken man, seeking and yet not finding, what he does not know.
His four year old son, while hospitalized and on the operating table, experiences a sense of heaven and when the child returns home, he begins to talk about his visit to heaven. It is so real and eventually the father comes to believe in this witness of his son. When the father describes his son’s experience of heaven, both informally to his friends and in a sermon, people begin to doubt him and he almost loses his job.
Finally he admits to his lack of understanding, his weakness- that he doesn’t have all the answers. He cannot handle his failure to meet his own expectations as a pastor and father, nor the expectations of the congregation and his friends.
What is exceptional in his experience is that he finally realizes that he can only rely on God, that what he says and does can have some impact on the lives of those around him and his own life, but it is God who will bring understanding and answers. It is God working through the Spirit who will bring about understanding and knowledge because in God only are things possible.
In Acts, Peter reminds the people that God is at the right hand so that we will not be shaken. In God there is hope and in God it will be known to us the ways of life. It will not happen through our own efforts but through the Spirit working in us to accomplish what God has in mind for us, for our world.
In this new life we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for us, even in the midst of our failures and our pain. We ARE receiving the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. In 1 Peter it does not say we MAY receive. It says we ARE receiving salvation. On this we can rely. On this we can continue to do the ministry for which we have been called in our congregations, in our work and play, and in our neighbourhoods. For with God’s grace, all things are possible. Amen
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