How Will You Be Remembered?

Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 13, 2016

            I imagine the beloved disciple, pen in hand, eyesight failing, joints aching, and bones tired.  He’s hunched, wizened, wrinkled.  How has he lived this long?  Easterly winds send a breeze.  His wild hair flows as he gazes at the ships that sail from the Aegean Sea into the Ephesus port.

The writer of the Gospel of John never says, “This was written by John.”  Others have come to that conclusion.  He does the Gospel was written by “the disciple Jesus loved.”  He also clearly says he was an eyewitness.  The Gospel of John comes from his memory.

            He arranges the story, not chronologically, but in order to help the reader come to faith in Jesus.  Everything in this account is meant to guide you and me to believe and have life in Jesus’ name.  This includes what he tells us about Mary the sister of Lazarus and the disciple Judas Iscariot. 

            The Beloved Disciple remembers the high priest, Caiaphas, was persuasive when he convinced other priests and Pharisees that Jesus’ claims were so revolutionary, he had to be killed for the good of the nation. 

            The beloved disciple sets the scene.  Caiaphas plots the undoing of Jesus at a council meeting, while in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, Jesus is another kind of meeting, a dinner meeting in the home of Lazarus.  This is the same man who had been dead, 4 days in the tomb dead.  Jesus brought him back to life.

            Lazarus has a dinner party for Jesus and the 12 disciples.  There are others around them including his sisters Martha and Mary.  The beloved disciple remembers all of this. 

            Martha was serving.  Those who reclined at the table eating were the men, Jesus, Lazarus the host, and the 12 disciples.  Mary enters and dumps a pound of expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus.  Social conventions dictated that she help Martha in the kitchen. 

But we’ve read the gospels.  We remember Luke 10 where Martha dutifully served, but Mary sat among the men because to her Jesus’ teaching was worth whatever scorn she would receive for sitting among the men.  Jesus commended her decision.  She has chosen “the better part,” he said, and it will not be taken from her.

In the previous section of the Gospel, John 11, Lazarus dies, and both Martha and Mary are upset with Jesus.  When he finally comes, Martha confronts him with a theological argument.  Jesus responds in kind.  Mary says the same words as Martha, but where Martha spoke out of her head knowledge, Mary spoke the same words through tears.  Jesus wept with her.

Now, the beloved disciple tells this story and once again Martha with apron on serves a meal fit for a king.  Mary is off somewhere and when she comes in it is to dump a year’s worth of income spilled out onto the feet of Jesus.  The Beloved disciples remembers this. 

I don’t remember smells.  However, when a powerful smell associated with an event from my past hits my nose, it takes me back there.  I cannot imagine the smell from my grandmother’s house.  But if I smelled it right now, I would feel great joy and sadness.  The joy would come from the memory evoked by the smell, all the laughter and love in that house.  The sadness would be because I can smell the smell, but cannot go there.  I cannot see her, not now, not yet.

The beloved disciple remembers that the house was filled with the fragrance of that perfume Mary poured on Jesus.  His memory associates her with absolute adoration of Jesus and with beautiful smells that fill the house.

He remembered Judas too, but it was a very different memory.  When he writes Judas’ name, he includes a parenthetical note.  Judas was about to betray Jesus.  The beloved disciple didn’t know it at the time.  Peter didn’t know it then.  Neither did Mary or Martha.  But looking back, they remember Judas as the betrayer.  The beloved disciple tells us Judas was the group’s treasurer and used to steal from the common fund.  We see in Luke 8 that a group of affluent women provided for Jesus and the disciples’ material needs.  Judas pocketed some of the money those women gave and he was able to do so because he was given the responsibility of managing their funds. 

On that breezy Ephesian shore as he writes his gospel, the beloved disciple remembers Judas and Mary.  One, in his memory, is a betraying thief.  The other worships so extravagantly the entire house is blessed by the aroma. 

How are we remembered?  Sixty years from now, someone from here will write the story of HillSong Church as a community that gave witness to the Kingdom of God in Chapel Hill in the opening decades of the 21^st century.  When that person remembers your part in the community, what will she remember?  What words will she associate with your life as a disciple of Jesus?

Judas and Mary are complex people.  All people are. Judas was far more than a thief and a betrayer.  The other gospels record Jesus filling all 12 with the Holy Spirit so that they had the power to work miracles and defeat demons.  He gave the power to Judas. 

And Mary made her mistakes.  The same qualities that allowed her to weep empathetically, to present her heart before the Lord, and to worship extravagantly also had a dark side.  She left a lot of the hard, banal work to Martha.  Yes, Jesus commended her for listening to his teaching and we should too.  But Martha’s efforts in the kitchen were needed by the community.  Sometimes dreamers like Mary need to take their turn washing the dishes. 

Judas had his good qualities.  Mary had her faults.  When the beloved disciple remembered her, he remembered joy in Jesus and wonderful smells.  When he remembered Judas, he remembered treachery.

He also remembered the way each of them elicited a response from Jesus.  Judas saw Mary dump the perfume and he snapped at her.  Something in him was missing.  He couldn’t appreciate her beautiful generosity.  And even though he was under the covering of Jesus’ grace, somehow, he couldn’t be in the sphere of grace.  Somehow, even when he was in grace, he wasn’t in it.

While she worshipped big and bold, he did math.  Was he truly concerned about money that could go to the poor or money that would go in his pocket?  Maybe both.  What the beloved disciple remembers is Jesus was quiet, until Judas snapped at Mary.  Then, Jesus sharply chided him.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus said.  How embarrassed was Judas at that point?  He tried to be logical but missed the outpouring of love and grace, and Jesus slapped him down.

The beloved disciple tells us what Jesus said next.  “She is honoring me before my burial.”  He remembers that Judas elicited a rebuke from Jesus.  Jesus responded to Mary by commending her for what she did. 

How will we be remembered, you and me?  And how does the Lord receive what we give?  There is a place for strategic thinking, like that of Judas.  Economists, finance people, logical thinkers, and strategists all have something to offer to the church and to the Lord in the work of helping the poor. 

But that offering does not take the place of fully committed worship.  When she broke that jug of perfume and it began pouring, that was full commitment, but she did not hesitate a moment because she was driven by love for Jesus. 

The phrase that has been most repeated out of this remembrance the beloved disciple shares is Jesus’ statement in verse 8.  “You will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  Christians have used this as an excuse to not give money to help the poor.  The ones using that excuse are not like Mary, using ridiculous amounts of money to worship God extravagantly.  They use Jesus words, but then do what Judas.  They keep their money in their own pockets.  They do not practice the generosity Jesus commended.

Or, others quote John 12:8 to explain why they give a little to compassion ministries, but not a lot.  Or others quote John 12:8 to explain why, even though they’ve given money and worked to eradicate debilitating poverty, the efforts have failed.  No matter how hard we work, they’ll say, we’ll never end poverty because Jesus said …  .

The beloved disciples wasn’t making a statement about what policies Christian should adopt in social justice ministries.  He was remembering.  He remembered beautiful smells and unrestrained worship from Mary, and he remembered that Jesus was grateful.  He remembered dishonesty and betrayal and hypocrisy from Judas, and Jesus was angry. 

We know followers of Jesus are called to help people and helping people includes fighting against injustice, disease, hunger, inadequate housing, unfair practices in business and the justice system, and poverty.  We know that we are to fight these things because we follow Jesus.  We’ve read Luke’s gospel.  We know this.  We’ve read James.  And the prophet Amos.  And Isaiah.  And the book of Deuteronomy.  And the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.  Well, all of Matthew’s Gospel.  And Galatians 6.  And … well, you get the picture.  Followers of Jesus help people and give generously.  That’s not in question.

In the memories of the beloved disciple, it is clear to me that what we do and how we do it is completely related to how we stand in relationship to Jesus.  Do we worship with abandon or restraint?  Are we driven by our love for him and what we can give to him, or by more self-serving desires? 

How we answer these questions is irrelevant.  People don’t remember what we say.   They remember what we do.  When we do give to the poor and help people are we acting out of our love for Jesus and in response to his call?  What memories will people have of our actions, taken today?  What do those actions say about how we feel about Jesus and about who we are in relation to Him?

Mary was a follower.  She followed Jesus.  She worshiped him.  She loved him.  She obeyed him.  She didn’t do it all perfectly, no one does.  But her heart was driven by passion for God and she knew Jesus was the one to bring her to God. 

Do we?    

Are we free enough to pour ourselves out before God?  Or is something preventing us from coming to the Lord in unrestrained, free, fully committed, ridiculously God-indulgent worship? 

My guess is, most of us have something that blocks us from truly free expression of our love for God.  Contemplate that.  Are you able to pour yourself out before him? 

AMEN

Easter Sunday - 2015

Easter Faith (John 20:1-18)

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015

            Upon seeing the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene ran to the disciples and said, “They have taken the Lord” (20:2).  Could Jesus really be taken somewhere He did not want to go?  She knew he had power other men could not even dream of having.  But she watched him die.  Yes, a corpse could be dragged about, used by one group for its purposes and by another for theirs.  But, if he was a corpse, could he be “the Lord?”

            Mary reacted before thinking things through and before remembering things Jesus had said, including that he would die and then rise. 

            This morning we will look at the way three of Jesus’ disciples responded to his resurrection.  I do include Mary in the group of Biblical disciples.  A disciple is a passionately devoted follower of Jesus.  That Mary Magdalene came to the tomb after Jesus was dead and buried shows her devotion.  That she grabbed hold of his resurrected body to worship him by hugging his feet shows her passion (Mt. 28:9).  Mary Magdalene was a disciple. 

              The Gospel of John tells us three came to the tomb on Sunday morning, first Mary Magdalene and then Simon Peter with the Beloved Disciple.

            Mary arrives first, sees the stone rolled away, and runs to the disciples.  She follows them back to the tomb and hears their report that the tomb was empty save for Jesus’ burial cloth.  They inspect, and then leave.  She lingers and looks in.

            It is not empty!  Two angels in white are sitting there.  Because angels appear often in Bible stories, we may think people in those accounts were accustomed to visits from divine beings.  They weren’t.  The appearance of angels shocked them as much as they would you or me.  Except, not Mary.  Mary continued worrying about “they,” whoever they are.

            “Woman, why are you weeping?”

            “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.”  And she turns away from the angels.  What about asking them what happened?  They are messengers from God.  Couldn’t she say, “Hey, where is Jesus?” Nope, not Mary.  Most people in the Bible drop to the ground in fear when they meet angels.  Mary just turned away.

            Turning from the tomb, she bumps into one she takes to be the gardener.  I don’t know why she could not recognize Jesus.  Was his appearance altered?  Were her eyes blinded?  I don’t know. 

            She thinks he is the gardener.

            “Sir,” she says, “If you have carried him away, tell me where and I will take him away” (20:15).  She loved Jesus, who she was sure had died, and she wanted to keep on loving him.  She didn’t really think about how she would move a corpse around. 

            When he spoke her name and she realized it was him, she grabbed him.  If this account lines up with Matthew’s, then Mary literally grabbed Jesus feet with such enthusiasm that Jesus had to tell her “Do not hold onto me” (20:17).

            In her reactions on resurrection morning, Mary demonstrated a very hasty Easter Faith.  She jumped to conclusions at seeing the tomb empty and those conclusions led her to a series of missteps that were only cleared up when the resurrected Lord spoke her name.

            As hasty as she acted, she was also quite faithful.  She did not flee but instead stood at the cross, staying with him as he died.  She did not hide, but went to the tomb to honor him one last time.  The resurrection shed light on different aspects of Mary’s character that show flaws but more importantly show her to be a true follower of Jesus.

            It had a similar effect on Simon Peter.  Here we stick to the way John’s gospel presents him.  He was extremely outspoken.  When crowds abandoned Jesus, Jesus asked the 12 if they too wanted to leave.  Peter was the disciple who pledged to stay.  He said, “Lord, to whom [else] can we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).  It was a shining moment for Peter, one of the rare times that insight matched the words his mouth blurted.

            At the foot washing, Peter was the one who initially refused to let the master was his feet.  He would not have his Lord stoop before him.  When Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Peter asked that his entire body be washed. 

In the garden of Gethsemane, the soldiers came to arrest Jesus.  One of the disciples attacked one of the soldiers, cutting off his ear.  Only John tells us the disciple to do this violent act, antithetical to the way of peace and love Jesus taught, was Peter.

It was Peter who, when Jesus predicted all the disciples would abandon him, promised to stay true.  Then in John 18, we read that Peter not only ran, but when confronted, denied knowing Jesus. 

  John presents a blundering, act first, think later (or think never) man in Simon Peter.

            The morning of the resurrection, he and the beloved disciple heard Mary’s report that the tomb was empty and Peter did not hesitate.  He ran to the tomb.  When he got there, Peter kept right on going.  The other disciple waited, but Peter barged right into the empty tomb.  He surveyed the contents: linen wrappings, the head cloth intentionally rolled up, and no angels, and no body.  Neither Peter nor the other bumped into a familiar but unrecognized gardener.  They came, they saw, and they went home. 

            If Mary’s Easter faith was hasty but also faithful and true, Simon Peter’s was blundering but also bold.  His tendency to act first got him in trouble plenty of times, but Jesus loved him for it. 

After the resurrection Peter declared he was going fishing and six other disciples followed his lead.  They were out in a boat, and they saw a man walking on the beach.  The beloved disciples recognized that it was Jesus.  Peter, true to form, dove in, literally.  He swam to Jesus, his Lord whom loved so much.  Hasty and faithful, blundering and bold, the resurrection brought the true Easter faith out of both Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter.

            There was a third player on the day of the resurrection.  Mary reported the empty tomb to Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved.  It does not say his name was John.  Neither does it say that when it reports he was was the only disciple standing with Jesus’ mother Mary at the foot of the cross.  The gospel is called ‘John,’ and the gospel’s author identifies himself as Jesus’ ‘beloved disciple.’  Thus early church historians put the two facts together and came to associate the Beloved Disciple with John.  But the Gospel itself does not do that, ever.  So I will refer to him as the Gospel does, as the Beloved Disciple.

He could just as easily be called the timid disciple. When they are gathered with Jesus at the last supper and he predicts one will deny him, Simon Peter nudges the Beloved Disciple.  Ask him who he means.  Who will be the betrayer?  Acting at Peter’s initiative, he asked, and Jesus answered (John 13:24-26).

Again on the morning of the resurrection, the Beloved Disciple was hiding out until Mary Magdalene reported the tomb empty.  He and Peter, not he on his own, got up to check on things.  He outran Peter so that upon arriving at the tomb, he was there, for a moment, alone.  In that moment he just waited.

After Peter, huffing and puffing to catch up, arrived and barreled right into the empty tomb, only then did the Beloved Disciple follow.  The Gospel of John is his autobiography even if he makes himself a minor character and refers to himself in the third person.  He tells us he saw the empty tomb and believed and at the same time did not understand.  What does that mean?

It could probably be a fitting way to describe a lot of disciples, maybe many of us.  We read the story and we say we believe that Jesus rose from the grave and is the son of God and is the Savior of the world whose resurrection makes it certain we will be resurrected.  We say we are sure of this, but do we understand it?  The beloved disciple admits that even standing in the empty tomb, he did not.

That same evening he was with the other disciples and he was holding up behind locked doors as they all were.  Even with what he had seen, he was still plagued by fear of the authorities.  In his heart, he believed Jesus has conquered death.  His brain was having trouble catching up.  Resurrection is so paradigm-shattering, even we who live after the event and after the ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, even we who live with a couple thousand years of brilliant Christian history and thought which gives great depth to our theology, even we have a terrible time aligning our heart beliefs with the logic our brains construct.

The Beloved Disciple owned up to his own timidity.  He did not try to make himself out to be a star in the Gospel he wrote.  Just the opposite; he was so self-effacing, he never mentioned his name.  He was not worried about scholars spending 2000 years debating about who wrote the Gospel.  He wanted them and us to focus on the Jesus we meet in the Gospel, not the author.  Yes, his was a timid faith, but it was a humble faith.  We do well to imitate this and we can when our lives point people away from ourselves and to Jesus.

So we have an empty tomb, and examples of Easter faith; it is faith that is hasty but true and faithful.  It can be blundering and clumsy, but also courageous and bold.  It is timid and unsure, but it is a humble faith that exalts Jesus.  Were we to look deeper into John’s Gospel at more disciples, we’d find Nathanael.  His faith started out uncomfortably blunt, but he was steadfast. 

We’d meet the Pharisee Nicodemus who began with a careful faith that stayed hidden and conformed to the expectations of the temple insider crowd.  Nicodemus was afraid of how it would injure him socially if he were seen with Jesus in the light of day.  A few years of watching Jesus transformed Nicodemus from this unimpressive caution to a man who risked all he had earned in his life in order to honor the Lord.  He went from careful to risky faith. 

Of course it is in John that we meet Thomas.  The resurrection brought his doubts.  If we go through the Gospel carefully and imaginatively, we see that Thomas whose doubting faith was exposed in the resurrection was perhaps the most rational of the disciples.  His faith, relying upon reason, may be as helpful as any we study in our post-enlightenment age. 

What kind of faith does the resurrection inspire in you?  Do you resonate with one we’ve explored or touched upon briefly?  The tomb is empty.  Let this settle in your mind.  Put yourself there.  What does it mean?

Try to explain to people who think Christianity is just a fantasy or nothing but garbage that actually it is a faith based upon this man who rose from the grave.  Try to imagine yourself attempting to convince nonbelievers that this story is absolutely true, is the best news ever, and is their hope for salvation.  The resurrection can be difficult to embrace even when we believe it without question.

What faith does it create in you?  However we answer, from our predecessors in the Bible, we know the faith we have won’t be perfect.  Our Easter faith will be hasty or blundering, timid or blunt, careful or doubtful.  But the resurrected Jesus will love us right where we are, right there in our flawed faith.  The risen Christ will make our faith steadfast and bold, rational and risky.  He does this because this story is His and he invites to inhabit it.  He calls us to resurrection faith which, because of His grace, ends in us being resurrected and living forever. 

Is this hard to believe?  That’s OK.  Believe it as best you can with the faith you have.  Jesus will carry us from here into life, life everlasting.

AMEN