4th Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2020
Thanks to the Team
Music, Shonda & Ben
Readers, Sandra, Mary Hall, Deacon Mike, & Buddy, the candle blessing
Homily & Eucharistic Prayer, John Cade
The Magic Zoom makers, Mike & Becky & Ben
The Final Blessing & sharers of Vows, Rosemary & John
Readings:
Acts of the Apostles, 2, 14, 36-41, Then Peter stood up and proclaimed.
Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want (a good one)
1 Peter , 2, 2-25, To this you have been called.
John 10, 1-10, Whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate….
The Brain Center
Reading 1
A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles
Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out: “All Israel, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.”
Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?”
Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized each of you, in the name of Jesus the Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our God invites.” He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”
That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
Our word for today.
Brain Center??
Reading 2
A Reading from the First Letter of Peter
My sisters and brothers: If you’re treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.
This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Jesus lived. He suffered everything that came his way, so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.
He never did one thing wrong,
Not once said anything amiss.
They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross, so we could be rid of sin—free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing.
You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.
Our word for today.
The Lord be with you. A Reading from the Gospel of John
Jesus said to his followers: “Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen, instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate, the gatekeeper opens the gate to him, and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out. The sheep follow, because they are familiar with his voice. They won’t follow a stranger’s voice, but will scatter because they aren’t used to it.”
Jesus told that simple story, but his listeners had no idea what he was talking about. So, he tried again. “Listen. I’ll be explicit. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—they’re sheep stealers. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life—more of it, and better than they ever dreamed of.
The Good News of John
Birthdays this week, Cole, 11; Patricia, 74; Ron Senter, Warren Philip Wittek, 5
Anniversaries:
Bill & Patty Hammond, 52nd
Joe & Marsha Farmer, 36th
Stack & Rosemary, 15th
Please Remember these special people:
For all the medical personnel struggling to treat the tsunami of sick people, in particular locally, Cindy's staff at Presby; For John & Connnie's good froends, Bob with cancer & his wife, Judy; For Joe Hogan with cancer, For Loretta's aunt Alicia; For Ryan, Rosemary's nephew, who had surgery; For Bill Hammond, For Sydney & her dear Husband, Hugh, who just moved to the Other Side, & For Sir Charlie recuperating from surgery; Shonda's mom; For Gilberto recuperating from his gall bladder operation: for Michelle; For a friend, a neighbor, & a doctor, Karen, with brain cancer; For Rick Turner searching for a kidney donor, Type O neg; For Meredith, cancer free.; For Hue; For John O'Donnell; For Dee, and for her daughter, Lisa; For John Schanot's continued health; For Anthony & Sabrina; For a young man who is suffering from depression; John Cade's mother in law, Kalliopi Piskiouli and Lambrini;
Alexa for Geezers:
John Cade's Homily on Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew and the Jewish Synagogue—Talk Six
For Matthew the Easter moment is the climax of his story, God’s ultimate revelation.
Before we consider the many contradictions in the Biblical accounts of the resurrection, let’s see where there’s agreement. They all say that the Easter experience forced them to see Jesus with a radically new understanding. Whatever Easter was, its effects on those who live in time and space were real, even measurable. E.g., the behavior of the disciples was changed: Those, who at the moment of Jesus’ arrest had forsaken him and run off, suddenly demonstrated major courage. They showed a willingness to go anywhere and do anything that would support the reality they had come to know. Also, following their Easter experience the disciples found they had to alter their understanding of God. The concept of the oneness of God, so central to Judaism, had to be stretched to the place where Jesus could be included in that God definition.
[In the New Testament, Paul was the first to speak of this when he said that somehow the reality of God had been met and engaged in the life of this Jesus (2 Cor. 5:19). He and others began to try to explain how it had happened that “God was in Christ.” Paul says that, whatever Easter was, God had somehow brought Jesus into the very meaning of God (Rom. 1:1-4). Next, Mark suggested that at Jesus’ baptism, God had infused the human Jesus with the divine presence and reality. Then Matthew, and soon after, Luke, suggested that God had entered Jesus at the moment of conception (Matt. 1, 2 & Luke 1, 2). Finally, John, the last gospel, suggested that there never was a moment in time or in history when Jesus was not part of the reality we call God.]
The New Testament is clear about the nature of the Christ experience being some kind of God experience, one that is transcendent. This raises a question: Can an experience be real if the explanations of that experience are inconsistent and divergent? Spong certainly thinks so, and explains it as a human language issue. There is no “objective language” or “God language.” We have to talk about our experiences of God in human language. And every word human beings speak is a subjectively understood symbol.
There is agreement in the New Testament about the reality of the Easter experience, but there’s a wide divergence in explaining that reality. The New Testament provides us with five story themes that put the Easter experience into words. There is little consistency in them.
1st Example: Paul knows nothing about the burial tradition with Joseph of Arimathea. The Joseph character is not introduced until Mark’s gospel. Mark calls Joseph a “ruler of the Jews” (Mark 15:43). Matthew calls him “a rich man” (Matt. 27:57). Luke calls him “a good and righteous man” (Luke 23:51). John calls him “a disciple of Jesus” and adds that together Joseph and Nicodemus performed the burial, and made the burial quite elaborate with “about a hundred pounds” of “myrrh and aloes” (John 17: 38-40).
2nd Example: Paul has no story of a tomb, so no one visits or finds it empty. The women coming to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week enters tradition in Mark, though there’s no agreement about who they were, except for Mary Magdalene. Mark names Salome (Mark 19:1); then Matthew, writing with the Mark Gospel right in front of him, omits Salome (Matt. 28:1). Luke adds Joanna and “some other women” unnamed (Luke 24:10). John insists Mary Magdalene was alone (John 20:1). And did the women see Jesus at or near the tomb? Mark says no. Matthew says yes. Luke says no. John says yes; but only Mary Magdalene and only on her second visit. Of course, these inconsistencies are a literalist’s nightmare.
3rd Example: Where were the disciples when they experienced all this? Paul gives no place or setting for his list of those the Christ appeared to. Mark has a “messenger” (an angel) simply announce the resurrection and has the women tell the disciples to go to Galilee and “there you will see him.” However, Mark never describes that appearance (Mark 16:8). Matthew says it was in Galilee that the disciples saw Jesus, and he describes it in detail (Matt. 28:16-20). Luke says that appearances of the raised Christ were never seen in Galilee by anyone, only in or near Jerusalem (Luke 24). Luke adds that Jesus’ appearances continued “for forty days” and then came to an abrupt end. John says the original appearance of the resurrected Jesus to the disciples was in Jerusalem the evening of the first Easter in an upper room. He also says this experience was repeated in almost identical form eight days later (John 20:19-29). John’ also says there was another Easter experience in Galilee, but much later.
4th Example: Who was the first to “see” the resurrected Jesus? Paul says it was Peter. Mark never has the raised Christ appear to anyone. Matthew says it was the women at the tomb. Luke says it was Cleopas and his companion in the village of Emmaus. John says it was Mary Magdalene alone.
5th Example: Was the resurrection physical? Paul seems to say no. He says that “what is raised is imperishable” suggesting something that is no longer subject to death and decay (1 Cor. 15:42). He adds “it is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1Cor. 15:44). Also in Paul Jesus does not rise; he is raised. So who or what raised him? Into what was he raised? Paul writes: “It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God (1 Rom. 8:34). The implication is that Jesus was raised not back into the life of this world, but to the right hand of God.
There are three stories in the Hebrew scriptures of people being raised into God that could have supplied Paul with the image of resurrection that he appears to hold—a resurrection that is “real”, but not physical?
First, Enoch, known as the father of Methuselah and grand-father of Noah, was introduced with a line in the Book of Genesis: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him” (Gen. 5:24).
[Interest in Enoch led to the Book of Enoch, written about a hundred years BCE. It became listed as an Apocryphal O.T. book (so not in the Catholic Bible). It was lost in the late 4th century and re-discovered in Ethiopia in the 18th century. Enoch’s story included the part that, as a reward for “walking with God” on this earth, he was said to have escaped death to live in the presence of God.]
Second, there is Moses, to the Jews God’s greatest prophet. In Deuteronomy it says only God was present with Moses when he died. (Deut. 34:5, 6). A common story was that Moses didn’t really die, but rather God raised him into the life of God.
And third, Elijah; it was said he was raised from life on earth to life in God. His story was quite dramatic. He was transported into the presence of God by a magical fiery chariot, drawn by magical fiery horses (2 Kings 2).
These three O.T. resurrection stories would be well known by Paul, and by Matthew, since they were part of the Law of the Torah, the scripture scrolls read in the Synagogue in their entirety, each and every year. Any one of these, or all three, could have shaped how the resurrection of Jesus was understood in a Jewish context.
On the other hand, we also can see the resurrection story evolving and becoming more and more physical. Mark never has the raised Christ appear to anyone; in his story the women fled in fear and said nothing to anyone. Matthew, contrary to Mark, his source, has the women grasp the risen Christ, taking “hold of his feet”. This is the first hint in the Easter narratives that ‘resurrection’ was beginning to be viewed as the physical resurrection of a deceased body. Of course, by the time this physical aspect of resurrection appeared, it was already the ninth decade, about year 82 CE, 52 years after Jesus’ death.
Luke is the gospel author who does the most to transform ‘resurrection’ into something understood as physical resuscitation. The raised Jesus can walk, talk, and eat, all physical accomplishments. And Luke has the story of the appearance of Jesus to Cleopas and his travel companion. Jesus suddenly, out of nowhere, began to walk with them, unrecognized. At the end of the story “he vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:29). He just de-materialized! So even in the physical understanding of resurrection in Luke’s story, there was a mysterious non-physical reality.
The resurrection narratives are contradictory and confusing, but all of them were written out of the conviction that the boundary between God and the human, between heaven and earth, between life and death, had been broken in the life of this Jesus. The early followers of Jesus had tried to use words to explain what was beyond words. Their stories were later literalized in Christian history so much that ‘resurrection’ came to be seen as a literal, objective miraculous event. Claims were made that violate everything we know about how the world operates and how death functions.
A body deceased for three days came back to life. A heart that had not beaten from Friday till Sunday started to beat again. Brain cells, deprived of oxygen for at least thirty-six hours, were restored to fully functioning health. Flesh that had already begun to smell of decay, was rehabilitated. The natural world was turned upside down by the invasion of the supernatural world. Literalism produces disturbing, irrational narratives.
It’s no wonder why Christianity, presented in literalistic terms seems to more and more people in the modern world to be unbelievable! Can the resurrection of Jesus be real and yet the explanations of the resurrection be nothing more than mythical language? Should mythical language ever be literally understood? Our answers to those questions may actually determine the future of the Christianity itself.
Next week, the final chapter—a pulling together of how the Matthew Gospel was written as a liturgical document; how it was told against the background of the liturgical year of the Jewish synagogue; and how Matthew wrote it as an interpretation of the teaching and the meaning of Jesus himself.
Community Finances, May 3, 2020
Expenses: $1835.00
Outreach: $2350.00 (often Souls Harbor, Legacy, etc.)
4/28/20 we donated $1500 to Souls Harbor via N.T. Giving Day (the amount was matched that day)
5/3/20 we also donated $2000 to Souls Harbor because of a generous contribution via B.T. Giving Day (also a matched amount)
This is our best week of income in a couple of months. Very humbling. Thanks, Everybody.