ROME IMPROVEMENT 04/25/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—John 10:11-21

This is Good Shepherd Sunday. We will talk about our Good Shepherd, but, as Dr. Karoline Lewis points out, this is part of the Man Born Blind in Chapter 9.

For years I have been trying to tell anyone who will listen that the reading of the man born blind is not about the blind man. It is about our relationship with Christ. It is about living with lost community and finding new communal living in relationship with Christ.

This week, at the end of the story of that reading, we hear Jesus telling the people that he is the door/gate of the sheepfold. The sheep hear his voice, and they follow him. The sheep will not follow a stranger but run from him. When the people don’t understand, Jesus tries again saying, “I am, I AM, the door/gate. Those who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am, I AM, the gate. Those who enter by me are saved and will come and go out and find pasture. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”

Noticing that the people still don’t understand, Jesus continues the metaphor saying, “I am the good shepherd.” Surely, the image of shepherd should be easier to understand than Jesus being a door/gate, but apparently not.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

“I am, I AM, the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep sees the wolves coming, leaves the sheep, and runs away. The wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because he does not care for them. I am, I AM, the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the father knows me and I know the father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock and one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my father.

“Again, the Jewish authorities and the people were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon! He is out of his mind! Why do you listen to him?’ Other were saying, ‘These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

I am sure that most of you have seen the picture or stained-glass window with Jesus in the foreground walking with a lamb over his shoulders and the flock of sheep in the background. Jesus looks so clean, doesn’t he?

The fact of the matter is that shepherding is a dirty, smelly job. And though the image of shepherd is initially attributed to royalty in Scripture, when Jesus uses this metaphor, the position of shepherd has fallen into disrepute. The testimony of a shepherd was not even allowed in the courts. In general, they were thought to be the lowest of the low.

Still, sheep were needed for sacrifices; the wool was still gathered; and, of course, the people still ate them; but the people’s dependence on them was not what it was when they were wandering in the wilderness before becoming urban dwellers. Those were the days when the life of the sheep and the livelihood of the people depended on one another. Clothing, food, milk, housing, carpets for the floor of the tents, manure for the fires all came from the sheep.

In those days, to be a shepherd meant something. David stood between the sheep and bears, wolves, and lions. In other words, he risked his life for the sheep. No wonder the position of king was associated with shepherding. David brought that job description with him.

This image of shepherd/king radically challenged the understanding of king in the world at the time. It is a lesson that Nebuchadnezzar is taught in the book of Daniel. We read that, in his humiliation, Nebuchadnezzar eats grass. He needs to learn the lesson of being a shepherd rather than potentate. In a world where the emperor is again claiming the place of potentate, Jesus comes reclaiming the title of shepherd/king; not the dishonest, degraded shepherd, but the Good Shepherd.

This position of shepherd is not the pristine shepherd of the stained-glass window. It is the dirty, sweaty, odoriferous working shepherd that is willing to give up his life for us. It is indeed, the beaten, bloody, thorns-crowned, cross-nailed, pierced-sided shepherd who makes salvation real for us. The one who opens our eyes to a new reality. It may be madness, but it is good madness.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

This conclusion of this extended story of the man born blind presents us with good lessons to learn. If we look to sin as the causation of our desperate lives, we will find ways of blaming and shaming. But, if we look to the circumstances of our lives as opportunities of seeing God’s work being revealed to us, then we can live lives of surprising joy.

If we live, looking for the approval others, then we risk alienation and shunning. But in relationship in Christ, we find inclusion, wholeness, and peace. This relationship we have in Christ is liminal; that is, Jesus is the door/gate to a new reality of hope. There are those who wish to make that relationship a legalistic club of abuse, trapping ourselves and others in prisons of judgmentalism, but, when we hear the voice of the one on the the cross, offering forgiveness, we pass through the door/gate knowing our shepherd’s voice, finding the way to green pastures. Indeed, it is the voice of the Good Shepherd.

HANGING THE TRIM

In this Easter season, we declare the mystery of our faith.

“Christ has died.                     [acknowledging the historic death]

“Christ is risen.                        [we claim the ‘isness’ of Christ’s resurrection; the 

                                                         presence of the Good Shepherd is among us today]

“Christ will come again.        [it is Christ’s ‘isness’ that gives us hope for the future coming]”

In this ‘isness’, we discover Christ’s business and follow in his way.

  

ROME IMPROVEMENT 04/18/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 2:1-12

This week, while the much of the Church is hearing about Jesus with his disciples in Luke, I am going to the place Jesus directed us on Easter Sunday—into Galilee, continuing our Epiphany journey from the Gospel of Mark. You may recall during the winter, Jesus coming out of the wilderness and saving the man with an unclean spirit and Jesus saving the man with a withered hand. Then, after Jesus has saved Peter’s mother-in-law and the whole city has shown up at the door of her house, Jesus went out to proclaim the good news to the villages in the area. In this week’s lesson, Jesus and the guys have now returned to Capernaum. A large crowd gathers around Jesus’ home. The crowd is so large that no one can get to the door. We are not told whether this crowd is friendly.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Coming into Capernaum again, after some days, the word went out that Jesus was at home. A flash mob appeared, and the place was packed; one couldn’t even get to the door.

Jesus was speaking the word to the people when four guys carrying a paralytic came to see Jesus. When they discovered that the crowd was so big that they would not be able to get to the door, they went up on the roof, removed the decking tiles and excavated the roof. When they had a big enough hole, they lowered the paralytic on his cot.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there having an internal debate with themselves. “Why does this man speak like this? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit the things they were saying to themselves; he said, “Why are you internally speaking to yourselves like this? Which is ‘more good’ to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say ‘Be resurrected! Take up your mat and walk’? Just so you know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins on earth, he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, be resurrected! Take up your mat and go home!”

The paralytic was immediately resurrected, took up his mat, and went out in front of all the people. They were all transfixed and glorified God saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

When we hear the angel’s words in the Gospel of Mark, “He has been raised. He is not here.…Go tell his disciples and Peter that he has gone ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you,” we can easily think, “But the disciples never go there.” To see Jesus in Galilee requires us to start reading Mark again. Once Jesus passes through the wilderness, Jesus is in Galilee. This Galilee place is not only a narrative place it is the world in which we live.

Galilee is that place on ancient maps that says, “Beyond this point, there be dragons.” In short, Galilee is that place where we say goodbye to safety and step into the uncertain world where God’s Good News needs to be heard. There is no guarantee that the world wants to hear that Good News, only that it needs it.

This Galilee world is a dismal place. It is filled with demons, deformities, disabilities, imprisonment, food insecurity, the threat of strangers, governmental oppression, false accusations, death, and disappointment. It needs the word of hope that comes from resurrection promise.

When the vassal of the king/queen is declared a knight, the courtiers hear, “Rise, Sir___.” The knight, now glorified,  rises out of his former status into the new place of favor of the king/queen and is never thought of as other than a knight again. He has been raised.

Jesus’ resurrection is more than a knighthood, but the way that we understand who Jesus is is similar. Once Jesus has been raised from the dead, we can never think of him as being other than raised. And when we see him again in Galilee, speaking with the outcasts of the world and with the leaders of his time, we can only see the one who has been raised from the dead.

This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is this resurrected Jesus that we see here in Chapter 2 of Mark. In Chapter 16 we witnessed with the women that the tomb is empty. We heard the words of assurance and commissioning, “Do not be afraid.…Go!” And now we are there.

Or is it here, in Galilee, back at the beginning? We are confronted with Jesus’ words and the scribes’ inner turmoil: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Of course that is who is sitting with them—God alone. And the one who is God alone asks which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven” or “Be resurrected.” Salvation is given in either case.

It is not the words of Jesus that create the tension in this story of the paralytic. It is our perception of who Jesus is. Are we willing to go to Galilee to see Jesus? Or are we still on a quest to discover the cross?

Are we looking for death and despair? Or are we looking for hope and wholeness in life? Our orientation makes the difference.

While we, and the scribes, are embroiled in our internal speakings, the paralytic takes up his mat and goes home. In amazement, we, with the people gathered, say, “We never saw this coming.”

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Each time I read this story I am impressed with the fact that it is not the paralytic’s faith that makes the difference. It is not the paralytic’s persistence that makes the difference. It is the faith, the trust, the confidence of the four who bear him that makes this resurrection wholeness possible.

Four people bring the paralytic to Jesus. When the crowd bars the way, they take him up onto the roof of the house. They remove the tiles and excavate the dirt under them to get to Jesus. Then, when the work is done, these four people lower the paralytic through the hole and put him next to Jesus. We are told that Jesus looks at the people who brought the paralytic and, seeing their faith, sees the paralytic himself. Jesus says, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

This work of putting people near Jesus makes the difference. With Christ in our midst, wholeness comes. When we are in the presence of Christ, we know salvation. In the relationship of trust, with the confidence of the four, and to the amazement of the people gathered, what was impossible becomes possible. The paralytic takes up his mat and goes home.

Like the crowd around the house, we, as a society, are unaware of the community of the physically disabled, creating a state of invisible death around it. While we have started to create a place at the table for those who live with physical disabilities, their status remains—they are dead to the world.

For example, the unemployment rate for the blind and visually impaired continues to hover around 65%. Among those who are employed, about 20% are under-employed. The unemployment rate for the deaf is better, but compared to the general population, people with physical disabilities, with all the gifts they have to offer, are significantly less employed. We have provided government supports for the disabled, but that financial support is marginal, far short of the cost of the accommodations needed for people with disabilities to fully participate in the able-bodied world.

People with disabilities need people who are first able to recognize the value of disabled people. They need people who are willing to bear them up, sometimes to the roofs, to get them justice. And then, they need to be resurrected, lifted up into a full relationship with their able-bodied partners in the body of Christ.

It is this faith that the four have when they bring the paralytic to Jesus. They have found wholeness in the body of Christ, and they want their friend to know that wholeness too. What we discover is that the signs of disability are not needed in the wholeness of Christ’s presence. There amazing things can happen.

We continue to witness this amazing relationship of wholeness in our baptisms where we hear that we have died to sin. As Christ has died, we too die. As Christ is raised, we too are raised up into the new life given. As the burdens of life surround us, Christ lifts them from us. In the community of faith, we are given the opportunity to bear each other’s disabilities and bring one another into that relationship of wholeness that only Jesus can give.

HANGING THE TRIM

Your sins are forgiven. Rise!

The deed of resurrection is accomplished by Christ, and Christ welcomes you into his justifying resurrection world of wholeness. Go home. Knowing that Christ also raises us and gives us our resurrection wholeness, it is now our turn to raise up those who are considered dead. Alleluia!

Rome Improvement 04/11/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—John 20:19-31

Here we are back to the Gospel of John. Mary has gone to the tomb. She has told a disbelieving group of disciples that the stone was rolled away and that “they” had “taken the Lord away and we do not know where they laid him.” In a demonstration of anxious energy, Peter and the beloved disciple have a foot race to the tomb where they discover that Mary might be right. At least the body is absent.

We are told, “Then they believed.”  What does this mean? Did they believe that Mary was right? Or did they believe that Jesus was raised?

Later Mary goes to the garden again where she meets the gardener and discovers that he is Jesus. Again, she comes to the disciples with news they find incredulous. She says, “I have seen the Lord.”

Now, at evening, the disciples are gathered where they can lock the door against those whom they fear would do them harm. For some reason, Thomas, one of the twelve, is not there. Forgetting that Jesus told them that he is the door of the sheepfold in chapter ten, they are hiding.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Now when evening of the day of resurrection had come, the disciples gathered in a place where the doors were shut. They feared the Jewish authorities. Jesus came and stood among them, greeting them, saying, “Peace to you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

When the disciples realized that the one who had penetrated their secure place was the Lord, they were glad that it was he and not the authorities they feared. Again, Jesus said to them, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, so now I send you.” And then he breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Breath. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain them, they are retained.”

Now one of the twelve, Thomas, called Didymus (twin), was not there when Jesus came. So, the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas said to them, “Unless I see, in his hands, the mark of the nails, that is, put my finger in the mark of the nails and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

After eight days, the disciples were again gathered, and Thomas was there. The doors were again shut, but Jesus came and again stood in their midst. He said, “Peace to you.”  He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Cast out your hand into my side. Do not be disbelieving but believing.”

Thomas responded, “My Lord! And my God!”

Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Now Jesus did a whole bunch of other signs in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and then, believing in his name, you may have life.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

It is important to note that today’s reading includes two separate stories. The first takes place on the evening of the resurrection; the second a week later. Each of these stories has its own import for us.

As Adam and Eve met God in the Garden, so Mary has met Jesus is the garden where the work of new creation has just begun. In the evening when God would come to talk with Adam and Eve, so now Jesus comes in the evening of the first day of the week to initiate the new creation. As the wind/breath of God breathes on the face of the waters in Genesis, so now Jesus breathes the Holy Breath/Spirit over the faces of the disciples. Though this breath is strong, it is a breath that brings peace, wholeness, confidence.

With this inspiration comes sending. As Adam and Eve are sent from the garden, so now, the disciples are sent from their enclosure. When Adam and Eve hid in the garden, abdicating their full relationship with God, God expelled them from the garden and set a door/barrier to the garden with a guard preventing entry. Today we see the disciples hiding from a full relationship with God behind a shut door. As Adam and Eve hid in fear, so now the disciples hide in fear. As God came and spoke to Adam and Eve in their fear, so now Jesus comes and speaks with the disciples in their fear.

As Jesus says, back in chapter ten, the door/gate is Christ himself. The very thing that the disciples have closed themselves away from is what opens a way to new creation. This way includes all rights and privileges of new creation living—both the forgiveness of sins and the ability to retain them. But, before the disciples should practice these privileges, they need to take responsibility for their own actions and recognize their places of grace. They have locked themselves away in fear just as Adam and Eve did. They have chosen a relationship with one another rather than a relationship with God. And in the evening, God has again come to forgive and send them from their place of safe hiding into the world.

When Thomas returns from wherever he has been, the disciples report that they have seen the Lord. As Peter and the disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene when she reported that she had seen the Lord, and they found it necessary to see for themselves, Thomas repeats the pattern; Thomas needs to see for himself.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Is the name Didymus mentioned for a purpose? In early Church history a teacher of theology in Alexandria is named Didymus the Blind. Could the designation of Didymus for Thomas refer to blindness? The name of Thomas already means twin. Why say it in again another language? When Thomas says that he needs to see Jesus by touching him, is he asking to see as blind people see?

There are many unanswered questions in Scripture, but, given the above information, I presume that Thomas is either blind or significantly visually impaired. The term “twin” may refer to the habit of those who are blind to hold onto another person while walking. In following another, the one who is blind “twins” the movements of the sighted person.

But setting that aside, the need of touch as an identifier of Christ’s resurrection continues to affirm that these appearances of Jesus are not phantoms, they are corporeal appearances. The body of Christ is something that has substance to it. We can touch it. We can smell it. We can hear it. We can see it. And in the eucharist, we can taste it. The resurrected body of Christ is completely sensual. Thus, our Nicene creed states, “We believe in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.” In our Apostolic creed we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

How are we able to be so certain? Our certainty comes from Thomas.  He demands incarnational proof. “I must be able to see in the way that I know the world. I must touch it.” The other disciples have seen Jesus through sight, heard his voice, and the smell of his breath upon them, but Thomas is upping the game. Thomas needs touch.

In an ironic statement, Jesus tells Thomas, “Do you believe because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” It may very well be that the unseeing Thomas believes because he cannot see. He is the one who sees while not seeing and makes way for the rest of us who lean on his tactile knowledge.

Many know this story as “Doubting Thomas”. This “doubt” is more “without belief” or “without trust”. If Thomas is blind, sighted people may have told him so many things over his lifetime that have been unreliable, that he, still in his grief over Jesus’ death, cannot depend on the testimony of the others.

Maybe, if the others have seen, Thomas needs to see too. And so, Jesus calls us all, with Thomas, to claim his resurrection for our lives, to say with confidence, “My Lord. My God.” Not as a personal statement of salvation but as an affirmation of what the other disciples have come to know.

HANGING THE TRIM

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Or maybe, “Blessed are those who cannot see and yet believe.” In the world of the totally blind, these words create a place at the table, a sense of inclusion in the body of Christ. There will always be those who can say, “I have seen the Lord,” but in touch, Thomas presents a relationship of intimacy that transcends sight. It is not better. It is different, and further demonstrates Christ’s willingness to meet us where we are.

Christ continues to stand in our midst and there are those who will see him, but his presence in known more fully than that. We know him through sound, smell, and taste, as well as touch and sight. Enter into the place where he is laid. Hear the music and the words. Smell the candles and the wine. Touch the bread and the hands of those around you.  Taste the goodness of Christ’s body and blood; let it become part of you. Then, encountering Christ as we are able, let us trust in his name. Let us go out to share the good news:  “’This is my body given for you,’ Jesus says. Peace to you.”

Rome Improvement 04/04/2021

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SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 16: 1-8

Well, the trial is over. The verdict is in. Christ is crucified, declared dead by the centurion; Christ’s corpse is taken down and laid in a tomb; and a large stone is rolled in front of the tomb to close it.

In the manner of all people, Jesus dies. Like the tide, the disciples who have drawn away from Jesus during the trial and crucifixion, now surge back to grieve, to question, to wonder whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. Was there something else that could have been done?

In the end, the disciples were not able to properly prepare Jesus’ body for burial. There were those conversations recalling the woman who poured the ointment of nard over his head, but that did not fulfill the requirements of respect and decency. The women will have to complete those duties after the Passover celebrations and Sabbath.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

When the Sabbath cycle had ended, Mary Magdalene, James’ Mary, and Salome went to the market for aromatics in order that they might go and anoint him. So, very early on the first day of the Sabbath cycle, they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were speaking among themselves, “Who will roll away for us the stone from the door of the tomb?” Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back. It was very large.

Going into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right dressed in white clothes. The women were totally freaked. He said to them, “Do not be so freaked. You are Jesus seeking, the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him? Go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. You will behold him there as he told you.” The women left the tomb and fled, for terror and the implications of the moment weighed on them. They were afraid and said nothing to anyone because…

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Yes, the Gospel of Mark ends with an incomplete sentence. The concern over this incomplete sentence has challenged believers and theologians from the beginning. We do not know whether the first hearers of this Gospel had a better understanding of the intent for this incomplete sentence, but we know that some later hearers of the Gospel story decided to fix what they thought was a shortcoming.

Today we see two distinct endings that follow. These endings put a ribbon on the end of Mark, they are clumsy and lead the Church down some roads best not traveled, like snake-handling, drinking poisons, and faith healing. I am not trying to say that snake bites are not survivable nor that poisons have not been consumed without effect. I am not even saying that faith healing does not occur.

What I am saying is, making these acts necessary signs of faith says that we can do something to receive salvation, that these marks of the church demonstrate your faith. This is inconsistent with the rest of Mark’s gospel. Faith is a quality of lifelong-living, not individual acts of proof. Faith is known by one’s care for the neighbor and speaking truth not flamboyant public acts that elevate the reputation of the person doing them. Faith is following where Jesus is leading.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

It has been about 1950 years since Mark’s gospel was written, and we are still trying to neatly end it. In our English translations, we have made the last sentence of (original) Mark a complete sentence where the sentence had been left incomplete. There continues to be a “Lady and the Tiger” quality about Mark’s ending—"They were afraid because…”.

In a sense, the Church has never adequately addressed Mark’s incomplete opus. We have not addressed the directions Jesus left for his followers. And so, we continue to come to our beautiful sanctuaries with the same questions the women had so many years ago. 

·        Now that we have Jesus locked away, who will roll the stone away?

·        Who will remove those impediments that continue to keep us from following where Jesus is leading?

·        Galilee? Where is that? I can find it on the map, but Jesus didn’t actually leave an address, did he?

·        How can I GPS him? Galilee covers many square miles.

·        The stone is very large; we find that we kinda like that stone. It is so precisely placed and has a certain aesthetic rightness about it. Do we really want to move it?

A couple of years ago, I attended a conference where Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove was the plenary speaker. During our last session, we heard a recorded address from Bishop William Barber asking if we would consider being part of the “Poor Peoples’ Campaign” (PPC). In the midst of the questionnaire he used, was the question, “Are you willing to be arrested?’”

The earlier questions had been concerned with getting information, being willing to support the movement, speaking to others about the goals of the PPC; I was right there. When we were asked to address the accumulated wealth of our nation and how it was accrued through the theft of the land and the theft of the labor of millions of Black Americans, I was a little uncomfortable, but okay. But, arrest? In my privileged, financially secure place, I was saying “No way.”

This is not the first time this has happened to me.  Fifty years ago, I was asked to be part of a demonstration at a church where the pastor would not commune Black people. I was not able to stand up at that time either. There have been several other times when I might have said something or done something that would have led to arrest, but I just could never bring myself to that point.

You see, I find the completed sentence of Mark to be reassuring. As long as I can make the terror, amazement, and fear the issue for Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, I am able to distance myself from their silence, judging them without having to judge myself. But when that sentence is incomplete, “They said nothing to anyone. They were afraid because…”, I myself need to finish the sentence.

Let us not be confused. We have equivocated long enough. Today, we are still amazed, terrified, and afraid. We want there to be a body. We want to see the crucified Christ before us. We want to know that he is arisen, but we want to see the body.

As Jesus-seekers, we do not want to hear that Jesus is not here. For if he is not here, then we are still being called to Galilee. We are challenged to complete the sentence. We are commanded to name our fear and recognize our shortcomings.

Still, the truth is clearly before us. He has been raised. See the table of sacrifice where we lay him and claim him weekly?

Go! Tell his disciples that he has gone ahead to Galilee. There you will find him. Complete the sentence; then proclaim, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Travel into the wilderness land of Galilee, into the land of lepers, withered hands, paralytics, tax collectors, widows, orphans, strangers, the blind, the lame, and the poor. There you will see him.

And as you listened to his teachings, listen to the stories of shunning isolation, of economic inequities and policies that are put in place to insure poverty for some and wealth for others. Listen to the stories of the thousands who are hungry, trying to make do with some bread and some fish. Let us listen to the grief of those who would follow but find no good news in the world around them because there is no one to lift them up in the name of Jesus.

Christ’s final conquest is over death, but the first conquest is over fear. It is only when fear is conquered that we are able to proclaim those Easter words that speak of the “beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.” Are we willing to be arrested for that proclamation?

HANGING THE TRIM

Alleluia! Christ is arisen! You are arrested in his body! There is no bail. This is the Good News. Alleulia!

 

The trial is o’er. The verdict is in.

Christ’s on the cross. Some taunt, some grin.

The veil rends within.

Alleluia!

Laid in the tomb, his body dead,

Now has the stone been rolled away;

New life begins on Easter Day.

And at the last,

temple curtain rends within.

Now has our savior conquered sin.