“Digesting the Truth of God”,A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, November 14, 2010 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York
9“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. Luke 21:9-11
For I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. Isaiah 65:17
There is a saying attributed to German theologian Karl Barth, that a preacher should always prepare a sermon with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Certainly if one does that in our modern world, there are uncanny similarities between what we read in the newspaper and the strange predictions that Jesus speaks of in today’s reading from Luke. Nation will rise up against nation – the war in Afghanistan continues, with casualties on all sides, not the least of which are the women and children victimized by the poverty and the war. Peace negotiations in the Middle East seem hopeful one minute then once again unravel, and a numbing sense that the violence in the land so many of us call “Holy” will never abate. The economy continues to recover so very slowly that for many Americans, the financial squeeze and the worry and anxiety that joblessness or underemployment brings with it eats away at their sense of security and well being. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues. Cholera breaks out in Haiti where thousands of people continue to live in tent cities without appropriate clean water months after the earthquake devastated that small island nation. Pakistan is ravaged by floods and violence.
I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind, says the prophet Isaiah. Here at Ascension, the search committee and vestry work hard to move this faith community in ways that will prepare it for significant changes as the transition to new and long term leadership continues. Long term, faithful members of the congregation die, their families mourn and the entire community grieves the loss of good people and the good times that were associated with them and their contributions to the church community. What the “new heavens and new earth” will look like for Ascension is yet to be revealed, and the uncertainty that goes with that is unsettling. Everything feels disjointed, chaotic, sometimes ominous, sometimes just wearyingly different, challenging everyone to remain centered and optimistic when the portents around us are unsettling.
It is in the context of this chaotic and topsy-turvy, nothing-is-the-same-anymore world that we hear today’s texts, an apocalyptic text from Luke’s gospel and the prophetic words of Isaiah to an exiled people. Apocalyptic biblical texts usually puzzle us because they seem so weird and bizarre. And yet, in the context of the daily news, they begin to sound altogether too familiar. “Nation will rise against nation…there will be famines and plagues…not one stone will be left upon another.”
In our collect today, we thanked God for having caused the Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, but texts like this one from Luke are harder to feel grateful for than some others! Where, after all, is the good news in all this doom and gloom talk? Can these apocalyptic texts help us through the scary times in which we live? The gospel of Luke was written around 85 A.D. some 15 years after the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. The destruction of the Temple was a cataclysmic event for the Jewish people, because the Temple was where the Holy of Holies was kept, it was the center of their religious and cultic life. Luke was writing at a time of extreme unrest, when the old was passing away, namely the Temple and the culture that surrounded it, and something new was emerging, i.e. the nascent Christian community as a sect within Judaism and ultimately a separate religion standing on its own. Luke’s readers were intimately involved in the upheaval that was going on and they were trying to make sense of it.
The prophet Isaiah was writing to the Jewish community after its return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, when the world they had know before the exile was gone and they were faced with rebuilding and starting over after years away. The prophet offers words of hope and promise to weary and fearful people who felt overwhelmed at the task of rebuilding that they saw before them.
The destruction of the Temple, was, for the ancient Jews as upsetting and disorienting as the destruction of the World Trade Center nine years ago has proven to be for us. Just as our culture lost a central symbol of its identity as an economic and financial power on that fateful day, and just as the towers represented the best of our people’s high ambitions and engineering expertise, so did the Temple represent the best of what the ancient Jews believed about their culture. We are lucky to have the Holy Scriptures which were “written for our learning” and now, more than ever, we need to take seriously our duty to “hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them” in order to know how to see the face of God in the midst of our chaotic world.
In periods of disruption, unrest, or transition, apocalypticism tends to flourish and false prophets and false messiahs spring up, claiming to know THE TRUTH and trying to attract vulnerable people into their sphere of influence. This was so in the first century, during the medieval era and is still so today. Never is it more important for us to pray and to study Holy Scripture than in times like these. Finding God’s truth amidst the cacophony of our human conflicts is critical for the survival of all of God’s creation. Like babies graduating from mother’s milk to cereal, times like these ask us to digest the truth of God, which may be harder to handle than anything we’ve known before.
On All Saints Sunday we renewed our baptismal covenant. Those baptismal promises are probably more crucial to our survival now than they have been in many a year, if we stop to think about them in the context of this crazy world in which we are living out our faith. One of those promises is to be faithful in the study of Scripture and the “apostle’s teaching.” As we continue to live in unsettled and anxious times, we need to keep the Bible at the ready, as we hear the news reports, face the crises of human life and look towards a promising but unknown and unfamiliar future as a faith community in transition.
In our baptismal covenant, we promise to persevere in resisting evil, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being. These words may too often fall easily from our tongues but in unsettled and transitional times, particularly times such as these where fear drives so much of what we hear and see in the public media, some of those promises become harder to say and may seem impossible to keep. We promise to persevere in resisting evil, even as we live in a world where the evil we encounter comes at us from different sources – foreign enemies, disease, financial uncertainty and the real poverty that many suffer because of the economic downturn that doesn’t seem to be abating as quickly as pundits claim it is.
In the context of a similarly unsettled and tumultuous culture in first century Palestine, Jesus offered his followers some instructions on discipleship. He exhorted his disciples to be cautious, not to follow every hip cult of the day and not to be led astray by false prophets. Disciples need to persevere in living out the truth that they know, which is different from that proclaimed by their culture. Jesus tells them that in the midst of famines and plagues, of war and destruction, of nation rising up against nation, they must take such times as an opportunity to witness to him. He says that these dangerous times become an opportunity to testify and cautions against making up our arguments in advance. “I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” Jesus tells his followers to stand fast, to endure so that they may gain their souls.
Jesus’ words to his disciples and the crowd in the Temple are as important for us to hear as they were for those first century listeners. We desperately need God’s wisdom as we move through these days of struggle and conflict. We are called to be peacemakers even as we engage in war. We are called to love our neighbors, even as we find ourselves feeling more suspicious than loving towards some of them. We are called to embrace optimism as we seek to redevelop our church community and to live hopefully in tough economic times. In many ways, our baptismal covenant calls us to make hard choices. For example:
• In a materialistic culture, we are called to live simply.
• In a culture that praises, honors and rewards the beautiful, the powerful, the intelligent, the successful, we are called to honor and respect the outcast, the poor, the oppressed, the lonely, the misfit.
• In a culture that reveres hard work and rugged individualism, we are called to be merciful, to feed the poor, house the homeless, shelter the persecuted, embrace those whom the culture rejects, visit the prisoner, to give away rather than acquire.
• In a culture that demands scientific proof for every reality that it accepts, we are called to be mystics - to honor and embrace the mystery of God, which we can never prove with a scientific instrument.
• In a culture that seduces us with various means by which we can control our lives, we are called to relinquish control and flow with the movement of God’s Holy Spirit, letting God direct our lives, our loves, our passions, our work, and yes, even our politics.
• In a world where we fight real and dreadful evil, we are called to acknowledge our own sinfulness and to repent and return to God.
• In a culture that teaches us to fear those who differ from us we are called to love our neighbor, to see in the face of Christ in all sorts and conditions of people.
What does Jesus say to people consumed with anxiety and fearful about the future? He says that the cost of discipleship will be high, but the reward is that we gain our souls. He assures us, “not a hair of your head will perish” despite the fact that some will be put to death. He encourages us to use these times of adversity as “an opportunity to testify” to him and the truth he represents. The prophet Isaiah calls us to embrace a vision of optimism and hope, even as we look at situations that feel heavy, tired and bleak. Both Isaiah and Jesus call us to walk forward in hope, confident that God is in the midst of the chaos of our personal and corporate lives and trusting that something new and wonderful will emerge for those who are faithful to the covenant with God. “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest these holy words. And then leave this church and go forward into your world as witnesses to that hope. Amen.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Ascension Update, Nov. 8
Dear Friends, November 8, 2010
Yesterday, Rev. Denise preached on Resurrection Life, which can be found by clicking on this link to our blogspot: http://ascensionroch.blogspot.com/ Please do visit this weekly feature to reflect on her words. But it is so much more fulfilling to hear them in person! Please make it a point this fall to be in church regularly; or if you are weighing whether to make God's community important in your life, try coming for several Sundays in a row...
Please keep in your prayers all those in need of healing, and those who serve in our military forces. Kindly also pray for the Search Committee and their work in this time of search. To assist in your spiritual life, Forward Day by Day booklets are $.85 each in the back of the Church [Tower Room].
We mourn the loss of Marge Barrett on Saturday. Her service will be on Wednesday, Nov 10 at 10 AM at the chapel of the DREIR-GILTNER FUNERAL HOME, 1717 Portland Ave [Portland and Ridge Rd E]. Please keep her family in your prayers.
If you are a member who has not yet responded to the 2011 Stewardship Appeal, now is a great time to do so. Just as each of us must plan our lives, finances and volunteering, so must the Church plan. God asks us to grow in his love and service and support. A bright future awaits us when we reach up and out!..
Reminder - Rev Denise is offering each Tuesday Noon of November an interfaith education series, in the library. Call the Office 458-5423 to reserve an outline - and please bring a bag lunch, to be fed in mind, spirit and body.
If we want to grow, we must love God, love our friends and then speak openly to them. A congregation grows starting with each faithful person. God will help us share the Bread of Life.....We never know how ready a friend may be to hear a word of encouragement in faith. We never know when God will bring someone to speak to us, and enrich our own life.
Next year will be the 125th Anniversary of the founding and of the ministry of Ascension. In preparation, let us draw closer to God's Spirit in the Season of Pentecost - to remind us of the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit to counsel, energize and sustain us all.. We honor our long history, but it is our future that must command our attention and energy.
The Ascension Piecemakers Quilt Group is offering a gorgeous queen-size quilt. Why? To prepare our beautiful church for the future, the Wardens and Vestry have plans to point the masonry of the Bell Tower. To help get this under way, the Quilters invite you to buy coupons. The quilt would be a handsome addition to any decor! Coupons are $2 or 3 for $5. All proceeds will go to the Bell Tower Restoration Project. You can see the quilt and get more details each Sunday at Coffee Hour.
Thanks to our teams of Chefs, Servers, Helpers and Planners [and special thanks to Abbott's for having donated dessert treats!], we enjoyed a delicious Roast Beef Dinner on Saturday evening! And there are more memorable dinners and other parties upcoming.
Sunday. December 12th, 2010 CHRISTMAS PARTY after the 10 AM service
Saturday. March 5th, 2011 SPAGHETTI DINNER
Saturday. April 30th, 2011 CHICKEN & BISCUIT DINNER
Friday. June 3rd, 2011 LOBSTER DINNER
PLEASE MAKE NOTE!!! Gourmets everywhere are dreaming of these events!!
As we plan our own holidays, let us remember and support all those served by the MEEK food cupboard, by shopping ahead for our MEEK friends at Christmas - frozen turkeys, stuffing mixes, cranberry sauce, one-pound hams, cake mixes, coffee....MEEK distributes at least 75 food baskets at Christmas. If you can buy or store a frozen turkey, please call to advise and receive details. Can you volunteer to help? Jan Wills - 621-3900 or Sally Green - 865-1125.
The Ascension Women's Group annual Christmas Luncheon will be December 9 at Rick's Prime Rib House. Details available from Jan Wills - 621-3900. Spouses and guests welcome.
YOU CAN HELP RESETTLE A REFUGEE FAMILY.
Please call Debbie Lanceri of Catholic Family Center 546-7220 ext 4621 for details. This is an exciting new interfaith opportunity.
Here is how to recycle all those spare calendars that come in the mail! - calendars are needed, and also Christmas cards, for our friends at Aaron Manor. Give them to Ellie Swarts or leave in Office. Thanks!
Coffee Hour is a wonderful opportunity to greet friends, old and new, and catch up on news. There are opportunities to host Coffee Hour in the weeks ahead. Won't you help this ministry? If not sure how to host the Coffee Hour, you may call Nancy Lennox at 663-5805 or Stu or Gene Denison at 663-0988. To sign up - see list in the back of the church or call 458-5423.
Please visit or call a friend who is not able to get out or whom you've been meaning to contact. There are many who would love a call and an invitation to church or an inquiry as to when you might pay a visit. We can invite friends to accompany us to church - and take them out for brunch afterward!
Altar flowers are a captivating ministry of beauty and love. Will you take up this ministry to the glory of God and to our spirits? To donate altar flowers, please contact Laurie Phillips, 865-2802 or email LBP@rochester.rr.com There are openings on several Sundays upcoming. Soon it will be time to order Christmas poinsettias
If we wish to grow as Christians and share our love of God, we need to know the stories of the Bible. Thursday Bible Study is in the Library at 9 AM. Please 'Come and See'. In this season, the lessons confirm what we are to do as disciples. There is food for thought and often refreshments to share. The study is of the Gospel Lesson for next Sunday, found below. No Bible Thumping, just good conversation!!
The Rochester Interfaith Jail Ministry asks your ongoing help - by donating through United Way or directly by check to R I J M, 2 Riverside St., Rochester, NY 14613. This will bring books of healing and group sessions to those needing to start lives anew. Remember the Good Samaritan... Please answer this call. To volunteer, call 254-6790. The invitation to help is ongoing, so you are not late to the party! Someone recently made and ongoing United Way designation for R I J M. Many Thanks!
When we see new people on Sunday or at an event, let's introduce ourselves and make them welcome. An invitation to chat at Coffee Hour is a great ice-breaker. So is sitting with a new person and even inviting them to brunch after church. This is a part of God's work for each and every one of us.
Do you have a pocket card to hand to a friend who asks about Ascension? Cards are on the table in the back of the church. Please take a few, and be ready to share. We have pocket crosses in the table drawer to hand to those who answer the call to "Come and See"..
If you have a new or better email address for yourself, or know someone who might like to receive this weekly e-letter, please email me that information.
Blessings,
Dyson
D. Dyson Gay
585-317-4039 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 585-317-4039 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
P.S. Next Sunday, we will sing Hymn 371, Thou Whose Almighty Word Here is a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t3xNRJqJsw
P.P.S. Please see below for this week's recipe - as many are trying for more fruits and veggies, here is a quick and healthful vegetable soup. And don't forget to share with a friend or neighbor!
If you have a recipe you would like to share, please send it in!
*******************************
The Gospel for next Sunday is:
Luke 21:5-19
21:5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said,
21:6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
21:7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"
21:8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.
21:9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."
21:10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
21:11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
21:12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
21:13 This will give you an opportunity to testify.
21:14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;
21:15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.
21:17 You will be hated by all because of my name.
21:18 But not a hair of your head will perish.
21:19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.
Yesterday, Rev. Denise preached on Resurrection Life, which can be found by clicking on this link to our blogspot: http://ascensionroch.blogspot.com/ Please do visit this weekly feature to reflect on her words. But it is so much more fulfilling to hear them in person! Please make it a point this fall to be in church regularly; or if you are weighing whether to make God's community important in your life, try coming for several Sundays in a row...
Please keep in your prayers all those in need of healing, and those who serve in our military forces. Kindly also pray for the Search Committee and their work in this time of search. To assist in your spiritual life, Forward Day by Day booklets are $.85 each in the back of the Church [Tower Room].
We mourn the loss of Marge Barrett on Saturday. Her service will be on Wednesday, Nov 10 at 10 AM at the chapel of the DREIR-GILTNER FUNERAL HOME, 1717 Portland Ave [Portland and Ridge Rd E]. Please keep her family in your prayers.
If you are a member who has not yet responded to the 2011 Stewardship Appeal, now is a great time to do so. Just as each of us must plan our lives, finances and volunteering, so must the Church plan. God asks us to grow in his love and service and support. A bright future awaits us when we reach up and out!..
Reminder - Rev Denise is offering each Tuesday Noon of November an interfaith education series, in the library. Call the Office 458-5423 to reserve an outline - and please bring a bag lunch, to be fed in mind, spirit and body.
If we want to grow, we must love God, love our friends and then speak openly to them. A congregation grows starting with each faithful person. God will help us share the Bread of Life.....We never know how ready a friend may be to hear a word of encouragement in faith. We never know when God will bring someone to speak to us, and enrich our own life.
Next year will be the 125th Anniversary of the founding and of the ministry of Ascension. In preparation, let us draw closer to God's Spirit in the Season of Pentecost - to remind us of the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit to counsel, energize and sustain us all.. We honor our long history, but it is our future that must command our attention and energy.
The Ascension Piecemakers Quilt Group is offering a gorgeous queen-size quilt. Why? To prepare our beautiful church for the future, the Wardens and Vestry have plans to point the masonry of the Bell Tower. To help get this under way, the Quilters invite you to buy coupons. The quilt would be a handsome addition to any decor! Coupons are $2 or 3 for $5. All proceeds will go to the Bell Tower Restoration Project. You can see the quilt and get more details each Sunday at Coffee Hour.
Thanks to our teams of Chefs, Servers, Helpers and Planners [and special thanks to Abbott's for having donated dessert treats!], we enjoyed a delicious Roast Beef Dinner on Saturday evening! And there are more memorable dinners and other parties upcoming.
Sunday. December 12th, 2010 CHRISTMAS PARTY after the 10 AM service
Saturday. March 5th, 2011 SPAGHETTI DINNER
Saturday. April 30th, 2011 CHICKEN & BISCUIT DINNER
Friday. June 3rd, 2011 LOBSTER DINNER
PLEASE MAKE NOTE!!! Gourmets everywhere are dreaming of these events!!
As we plan our own holidays, let us remember and support all those served by the MEEK food cupboard, by shopping ahead for our MEEK friends at Christmas - frozen turkeys, stuffing mixes, cranberry sauce, one-pound hams, cake mixes, coffee....MEEK distributes at least 75 food baskets at Christmas. If you can buy or store a frozen turkey, please call to advise and receive details. Can you volunteer to help? Jan Wills - 621-3900 or Sally Green - 865-1125.
The Ascension Women's Group annual Christmas Luncheon will be December 9 at Rick's Prime Rib House. Details available from Jan Wills - 621-3900. Spouses and guests welcome.
YOU CAN HELP RESETTLE A REFUGEE FAMILY.
Please call Debbie Lanceri of Catholic Family Center 546-7220 ext 4621 for details. This is an exciting new interfaith opportunity.
Here is how to recycle all those spare calendars that come in the mail! - calendars are needed, and also Christmas cards, for our friends at Aaron Manor. Give them to Ellie Swarts or leave in Office. Thanks!
Coffee Hour is a wonderful opportunity to greet friends, old and new, and catch up on news. There are opportunities to host Coffee Hour in the weeks ahead. Won't you help this ministry? If not sure how to host the Coffee Hour, you may call Nancy Lennox at 663-5805 or Stu or Gene Denison at 663-0988. To sign up - see list in the back of the church or call 458-5423.
Please visit or call a friend who is not able to get out or whom you've been meaning to contact. There are many who would love a call and an invitation to church or an inquiry as to when you might pay a visit. We can invite friends to accompany us to church - and take them out for brunch afterward!
Altar flowers are a captivating ministry of beauty and love. Will you take up this ministry to the glory of God and to our spirits? To donate altar flowers, please contact Laurie Phillips, 865-2802 or email LBP@rochester.rr.com There are openings on several Sundays upcoming. Soon it will be time to order Christmas poinsettias
If we wish to grow as Christians and share our love of God, we need to know the stories of the Bible. Thursday Bible Study is in the Library at 9 AM. Please 'Come and See'. In this season, the lessons confirm what we are to do as disciples. There is food for thought and often refreshments to share. The study is of the Gospel Lesson for next Sunday, found below. No Bible Thumping, just good conversation!!
The Rochester Interfaith Jail Ministry asks your ongoing help - by donating through United Way or directly by check to R I J M, 2 Riverside St., Rochester, NY 14613. This will bring books of healing and group sessions to those needing to start lives anew. Remember the Good Samaritan... Please answer this call. To volunteer, call 254-6790. The invitation to help is ongoing, so you are not late to the party! Someone recently made and ongoing United Way designation for R I J M. Many Thanks!
When we see new people on Sunday or at an event, let's introduce ourselves and make them welcome. An invitation to chat at Coffee Hour is a great ice-breaker. So is sitting with a new person and even inviting them to brunch after church. This is a part of God's work for each and every one of us.
Do you have a pocket card to hand to a friend who asks about Ascension? Cards are on the table in the back of the church. Please take a few, and be ready to share. We have pocket crosses in the table drawer to hand to those who answer the call to "Come and See"..
If you have a new or better email address for yourself, or know someone who might like to receive this weekly e-letter, please email me that information.
Blessings,
Dyson
D. Dyson Gay
585-317-4039 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 585-317-4039 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
P.S. Next Sunday, we will sing Hymn 371, Thou Whose Almighty Word Here is a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t3xNRJqJsw
P.P.S. Please see below for this week's recipe - as many are trying for more fruits and veggies, here is a quick and healthful vegetable soup. And don't forget to share with a friend or neighbor!
If you have a recipe you would like to share, please send it in!
*******************************
The Gospel for next Sunday is:
Luke 21:5-19
21:5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said,
21:6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
21:7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"
21:8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.
21:9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."
21:10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
21:11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
21:12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
21:13 This will give you an opportunity to testify.
21:14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;
21:15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.
21:17 You will be hated by all because of my name.
21:18 But not a hair of your head will perish.
21:19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.
Quick Vegetable Soup
low in calories, tomato-based; many vegetables - fresh, frozen or canned - meat is optional
Ingredients
- 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
- 1 (11.5 ounce) can tomato-vegetable juice
- 1 cup water [or more stock/broth - or add to H2O some low-salt soup base or bouillon powder]
- 1 large scrubbed potato with skin, diced
- 2 carrots or more, sliced/diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes and their liquid
- 1 cup cut green beans
- 1 cup corn kernels
- salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
- dash of hot sauce to taste
- if the spirit says to, you could add a 10 oz tin of chicken or 1/2 lb cooked, drained ground meat
Directions
- In a large stock pot, combine broth, tomato juice, water, potatoes, carrots, celery, tomatoes, green beans and corn.
- Add the optional meat, if any.
- Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste and hot sauce to taste.
- Bring to a boil; then simmer for at least 30 minutes or until all vegetables tender and flavors well melded.
Sermon, November 7, 2010
“Resurrection Life”, a Sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York
36Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection….(Luke 20:36) …38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”(Luke 20:38)
We Christians are an odd lot. Did you ever consider how bizarre it must seem to outsiders, that Christians revere, as the central symbol of our faith, the cross – an instrument of capital punishment? Think about it for a moment. We wear it as jewelry, we adorn our churches with it, and yet it was, in its day, an instrument of torture and death. When the Emperor Constantine rose to power in Rome, his sword, shaped like a cross, became the central symbol of the Christian faith. Would we not think it bizarre if some group of people wore little gas chambers around their necks, or gallows, or electric chairs? Why on earth do we Christians do this? Are we morbidly obsessed with pain and death? What does this strange choice of religious symbol say about us?
Then, think about what we do every Sunday morning. We gather to celebrate a festive meal together wherein we proclaim that we are partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In the earliest days of the church, non-Christians thought that the Christians were cannibals because of what they heard about this ritual meal. You must admit, to the uninitiated it would sound distinctly odd to hear talk of consuming body and blood. I know from my interfaith encounters that the language of our Eucharistic prayers, particularly those we use in Rite 1 that speak of consuming flesh and blood, sound decidedly grisly to people outside our religious tradition.
Today’s gospel hints at the answer to the puzzle of the cross. Jesus talks about people who are “children of the resurrection” who, he says are “like angels in heaven”. Children of the resurrection, he suggests, see things differently than the rest of the world. As Christians, of course, we want to think of ourselves as “children of the resurrection.” We revere the cross because we see beyond its historical earthly use to something transcendent and enduring to which it points. We live with the paradox that something that was in its day a symbol of torture and death was transformed into a symbol of hope, new life, renewal and victory. In our celebration of the Eucharist, we participate in the resurrection life of the Risen Christ, believing in a sacred mystery we cannot explain, but we know to be real. Jesus invites us to be resurrection people, with a distinct vision of our world and our lives that differs markedly from that of the rest of the world. In these dark days of war, terrorism and violence, in a world where many people go to bed hungry while others suffer the ills of excess consumption, in a time of continued economic uncertainty and distress, our resurrection vision is particularly important, indeed crucial, for the survival and transformation of our world.
We live in a world where religion and politics, religion and science, religion and psychology all live in tension one with the other. Our modern ability to study and analyze our world with a depth and breadth not possible in earlier generations has tended to erode our ability to suspend disbelief and let our spiritual ways of knowing and perceiving the world inform how we live and move and have our being. Belief in resurrection is one of those religious beliefs that is hard to reconcile with our western, Enlightenment, rational way of thinking. Today’s lections remind us of the centrality of religious language and religious symbols, religious ritual and religious practice to the process of transformation and healing of the world, what our Jewish cousins call the process of tikkun olam.
Central to our faith is our conviction that God brings new life, new hope, resurrection out of the ashes and despair of death and destruction. When the world around us suffers from human brokenness, when we witness the brutal destruction and pain of terrorism and war, bioterrorism and disease, we look at the cross and remember that God brings new life out of death. God is always making something new out of that which has been destroyed. As we all learned in middle school science, matter is neither created nor destroyed. It is simply transformed from one form to another.
The cross is our visual reminder of our resurrection perspective. The paradox of the cross reveals that we are a people with a different way of perceiving reality. This resurrection perspective invites us to endure suffering, pain, grief, and loss, with faith in God and hope for the future. Resurrection in all its nuanced meanings also calls us out of our own individual struggles to engage in the common struggles of the larger community, the nation and the world. It is a vision that calls us to see beyond that which seems hopeless in this world, to imagine something beyond, something different, that “great reversal” that the author of Luke so relentlessly foretells.
In Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees they ask Jesus a technical question arising out of their interpretation of a minute point of Jewish religious law. They pose the question to trick Jesus, hoping to back him into an intellectual corner on the basis of a technical interpretation of a Jewish religious custom in light of an emerging religious belief that was not at that time accepted by all Jews. The Sadducees were a sect that rejected the notion of bodily resurrection, while other sects, including the Pharisees, accepted it. In Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, he reveals that God’s agenda is not the same as our human agenda and God’s vision is not as myopic as ours. Things that may seem important from our limited perspective are irrelevant in God’s kingdom. That which seems impossible in the world we inhabit are completely possible with God. To see with the eyes of the resurrection is to see another dimension of reality, to see what truly matters in the scope of God’s eternity and to discern what is merely temporal and not of enduring importance.
Theologian and author, Frederick Beuchner says:
The Bible…speaks of resurrection. It is entirely unnatural. Man does not go on living beyond the grave because that’s how he is made. Rather, he goes to his grave as dead as a doornail and is given his life back again by God (i.e. resurrected) just as he was given it by God in the first place, because that is the way God is made.
Resurrection, you see, is something about God, not about us. God is always at work on us, making something new out of the old, taking the dead parts and recreating something entirely different from the ashes. In the story from the prophet Haggai, the ancient Israelites, having returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, face a temple destroyed, their lives in ruins, their homes long since gone. They are called to look forward into a future that seems cloudy at best and to act on faith that things can be, will be better. The task before them - rebuilding the temple – requires that they make real and concrete their faith that God is fashioning something new and hopeful out of their experience of exile and destruction. Even as they look upon the ruins of Solomon’s majestic structure, as they wonder how they could possibly rebuild and recreate that sacred space, Haggai calls them to be people of hope and vision, to see beyond what looks like an impossible situation and imagine a culture restored and renewed. He focuses their gaze forward even as they keep turning their heads backward.
Some people are able to embrace a resurrection approach to the world, and some simply refuse to do so. Those who do not see through death to resurrection remain dead, figuratively, if not literally. I’m sure we’ve all known some “dead people” in our day. These are the ones for whom everything is miserable, the past was always better, it was great way back when, but now everything is awful. Any new idea or suggestion is met with a sigh of resignation, a pronouncement that whatever it is simply cannot work. The world is painted black for these folks, and nothing will get them to budge from that position. The cross is simply a tool of capital punishment and death. The Eucharist is just a nice ritual with no eternal reality to it at all. Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives has a term for such people - “cynical realists.” They are the ones who will shoot down any hopeful vision for the future with some version of “it’s unrealistic” or “it can’t be done” or “it’s been tried before and failed.”
Then there are those people who have learned to embrace resurrection vision. These are people who have journeyed to the darkest places of human existence and somehow managed to cling to a kernel of hope, rather than permit themselves to be drowned in despair. Nelson Mandela sitting in that prison cell for decades was a child of the resurrection. He could see a new South Africa even when everyone told him he was crazy to believe that apartheid could be ended. In our day to live by resurrection vision is to believe that the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, that nations and peoples can be persuaded to alleviate the plight of the poorest of the poor, that gender equality can become a reality across the globe, that children can all receive a basic primary education, drink clean water, be vaccinated against preventable diseases like malaria and look forward to a healthy adulthood. Just yesterday at convention we heard from a SVP at ERD who told of the hundreds of thousands of lives being saved in Africa each year as a result of the Nets for Life program at ERD, which started as someone’s resurrection vision a few years ago. For Ascension, resurrection vision is manifested in the commitment of those who wish to see this congregation redeveloped and revitalized, dreaming a new future even as you grapple with harsh present realities. Jesus’ belief in resurrection as he tried to explain to the Pharisees is about much more than what happens to individual people’s bodies upon their death. It has to do with the kingdom of God, the world as God wants it to be and with our willingness and courage to be agents of that world working with God to make all things new.
This is what resurrection people do. We are blessed with a unique vision, a second sight that enables us to see through the darkness and despair of human failure, of war or terrorism, of destruction and violence, of disease or loneliness, to the possibilities of a new world, a new hope, a new life. Children of the resurrection are called to cling to the cross as we proclaim the gospel of peace and reconciliation in a war torn world. We have a mission to confront the tragedies of our time with creativity, to embrace the paradoxical and to see the world from God’s perspective, rather than our limited human vision. We serve the God of the living, not of the dead. Thanks be to God.
“Resurrection Life”, a Sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York
36Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection….(Luke 20:36) …38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”(Luke 20:38)
We Christians are an odd lot. Did you ever consider how bizarre it must seem to outsiders, that Christians revere, as the central symbol of our faith, the cross – an instrument of capital punishment? Think about it for a moment. We wear it as jewelry, we adorn our churches with it, and yet it was, in its day, an instrument of torture and death. When the Emperor Constantine rose to power in Rome, his sword, shaped like a cross, became the central symbol of the Christian faith. Would we not think it bizarre if some group of people wore little gas chambers around their necks, or gallows, or electric chairs? Why on earth do we Christians do this? Are we morbidly obsessed with pain and death? What does this strange choice of religious symbol say about us?
Then, think about what we do every Sunday morning. We gather to celebrate a festive meal together wherein we proclaim that we are partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In the earliest days of the church, non-Christians thought that the Christians were cannibals because of what they heard about this ritual meal. You must admit, to the uninitiated it would sound distinctly odd to hear talk of consuming body and blood. I know from my interfaith encounters that the language of our Eucharistic prayers, particularly those we use in Rite 1 that speak of consuming flesh and blood, sound decidedly grisly to people outside our religious tradition.
Today’s gospel hints at the answer to the puzzle of the cross. Jesus talks about people who are “children of the resurrection” who, he says are “like angels in heaven”. Children of the resurrection, he suggests, see things differently than the rest of the world. As Christians, of course, we want to think of ourselves as “children of the resurrection.” We revere the cross because we see beyond its historical earthly use to something transcendent and enduring to which it points. We live with the paradox that something that was in its day a symbol of torture and death was transformed into a symbol of hope, new life, renewal and victory. In our celebration of the Eucharist, we participate in the resurrection life of the Risen Christ, believing in a sacred mystery we cannot explain, but we know to be real. Jesus invites us to be resurrection people, with a distinct vision of our world and our lives that differs markedly from that of the rest of the world. In these dark days of war, terrorism and violence, in a world where many people go to bed hungry while others suffer the ills of excess consumption, in a time of continued economic uncertainty and distress, our resurrection vision is particularly important, indeed crucial, for the survival and transformation of our world.
We live in a world where religion and politics, religion and science, religion and psychology all live in tension one with the other. Our modern ability to study and analyze our world with a depth and breadth not possible in earlier generations has tended to erode our ability to suspend disbelief and let our spiritual ways of knowing and perceiving the world inform how we live and move and have our being. Belief in resurrection is one of those religious beliefs that is hard to reconcile with our western, Enlightenment, rational way of thinking. Today’s lections remind us of the centrality of religious language and religious symbols, religious ritual and religious practice to the process of transformation and healing of the world, what our Jewish cousins call the process of tikkun olam.
Central to our faith is our conviction that God brings new life, new hope, resurrection out of the ashes and despair of death and destruction. When the world around us suffers from human brokenness, when we witness the brutal destruction and pain of terrorism and war, bioterrorism and disease, we look at the cross and remember that God brings new life out of death. God is always making something new out of that which has been destroyed. As we all learned in middle school science, matter is neither created nor destroyed. It is simply transformed from one form to another.
The cross is our visual reminder of our resurrection perspective. The paradox of the cross reveals that we are a people with a different way of perceiving reality. This resurrection perspective invites us to endure suffering, pain, grief, and loss, with faith in God and hope for the future. Resurrection in all its nuanced meanings also calls us out of our own individual struggles to engage in the common struggles of the larger community, the nation and the world. It is a vision that calls us to see beyond that which seems hopeless in this world, to imagine something beyond, something different, that “great reversal” that the author of Luke so relentlessly foretells.
In Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees they ask Jesus a technical question arising out of their interpretation of a minute point of Jewish religious law. They pose the question to trick Jesus, hoping to back him into an intellectual corner on the basis of a technical interpretation of a Jewish religious custom in light of an emerging religious belief that was not at that time accepted by all Jews. The Sadducees were a sect that rejected the notion of bodily resurrection, while other sects, including the Pharisees, accepted it. In Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, he reveals that God’s agenda is not the same as our human agenda and God’s vision is not as myopic as ours. Things that may seem important from our limited perspective are irrelevant in God’s kingdom. That which seems impossible in the world we inhabit are completely possible with God. To see with the eyes of the resurrection is to see another dimension of reality, to see what truly matters in the scope of God’s eternity and to discern what is merely temporal and not of enduring importance.
Theologian and author, Frederick Beuchner says:
The Bible…speaks of resurrection. It is entirely unnatural. Man does not go on living beyond the grave because that’s how he is made. Rather, he goes to his grave as dead as a doornail and is given his life back again by God (i.e. resurrected) just as he was given it by God in the first place, because that is the way God is made.
Resurrection, you see, is something about God, not about us. God is always at work on us, making something new out of the old, taking the dead parts and recreating something entirely different from the ashes. In the story from the prophet Haggai, the ancient Israelites, having returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, face a temple destroyed, their lives in ruins, their homes long since gone. They are called to look forward into a future that seems cloudy at best and to act on faith that things can be, will be better. The task before them - rebuilding the temple – requires that they make real and concrete their faith that God is fashioning something new and hopeful out of their experience of exile and destruction. Even as they look upon the ruins of Solomon’s majestic structure, as they wonder how they could possibly rebuild and recreate that sacred space, Haggai calls them to be people of hope and vision, to see beyond what looks like an impossible situation and imagine a culture restored and renewed. He focuses their gaze forward even as they keep turning their heads backward.
Some people are able to embrace a resurrection approach to the world, and some simply refuse to do so. Those who do not see through death to resurrection remain dead, figuratively, if not literally. I’m sure we’ve all known some “dead people” in our day. These are the ones for whom everything is miserable, the past was always better, it was great way back when, but now everything is awful. Any new idea or suggestion is met with a sigh of resignation, a pronouncement that whatever it is simply cannot work. The world is painted black for these folks, and nothing will get them to budge from that position. The cross is simply a tool of capital punishment and death. The Eucharist is just a nice ritual with no eternal reality to it at all. Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives has a term for such people - “cynical realists.” They are the ones who will shoot down any hopeful vision for the future with some version of “it’s unrealistic” or “it can’t be done” or “it’s been tried before and failed.”
Then there are those people who have learned to embrace resurrection vision. These are people who have journeyed to the darkest places of human existence and somehow managed to cling to a kernel of hope, rather than permit themselves to be drowned in despair. Nelson Mandela sitting in that prison cell for decades was a child of the resurrection. He could see a new South Africa even when everyone told him he was crazy to believe that apartheid could be ended. In our day to live by resurrection vision is to believe that the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, that nations and peoples can be persuaded to alleviate the plight of the poorest of the poor, that gender equality can become a reality across the globe, that children can all receive a basic primary education, drink clean water, be vaccinated against preventable diseases like malaria and look forward to a healthy adulthood. Just yesterday at convention we heard from a SVP at ERD who told of the hundreds of thousands of lives being saved in Africa each year as a result of the Nets for Life program at ERD, which started as someone’s resurrection vision a few years ago. For Ascension, resurrection vision is manifested in the commitment of those who wish to see this congregation redeveloped and revitalized, dreaming a new future even as you grapple with harsh present realities. Jesus’ belief in resurrection as he tried to explain to the Pharisees is about much more than what happens to individual people’s bodies upon their death. It has to do with the kingdom of God, the world as God wants it to be and with our willingness and courage to be agents of that world working with God to make all things new.
This is what resurrection people do. We are blessed with a unique vision, a second sight that enables us to see through the darkness and despair of human failure, of war or terrorism, of destruction and violence, of disease or loneliness, to the possibilities of a new world, a new hope, a new life. Children of the resurrection are called to cling to the cross as we proclaim the gospel of peace and reconciliation in a war torn world. We have a mission to confront the tragedies of our time with creativity, to embrace the paradoxical and to see the world from God’s perspective, rather than our limited human vision. We serve the God of the living, not of the dead. Thanks be to God.
36Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection….(Luke 20:36) …38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”(Luke 20:38)
We Christians are an odd lot. Did you ever consider how bizarre it must seem to outsiders, that Christians revere, as the central symbol of our faith, the cross – an instrument of capital punishment? Think about it for a moment. We wear it as jewelry, we adorn our churches with it, and yet it was, in its day, an instrument of torture and death. When the Emperor Constantine rose to power in Rome, his sword, shaped like a cross, became the central symbol of the Christian faith. Would we not think it bizarre if some group of people wore little gas chambers around their necks, or gallows, or electric chairs? Why on earth do we Christians do this? Are we morbidly obsessed with pain and death? What does this strange choice of religious symbol say about us?
Then, think about what we do every Sunday morning. We gather to celebrate a festive meal together wherein we proclaim that we are partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In the earliest days of the church, non-Christians thought that the Christians were cannibals because of what they heard about this ritual meal. You must admit, to the uninitiated it would sound distinctly odd to hear talk of consuming body and blood. I know from my interfaith encounters that the language of our Eucharistic prayers, particularly those we use in Rite 1 that speak of consuming flesh and blood, sound decidedly grisly to people outside our religious tradition.
Today’s gospel hints at the answer to the puzzle of the cross. Jesus talks about people who are “children of the resurrection” who, he says are “like angels in heaven”. Children of the resurrection, he suggests, see things differently than the rest of the world. As Christians, of course, we want to think of ourselves as “children of the resurrection.” We revere the cross because we see beyond its historical earthly use to something transcendent and enduring to which it points. We live with the paradox that something that was in its day a symbol of torture and death was transformed into a symbol of hope, new life, renewal and victory. In our celebration of the Eucharist, we participate in the resurrection life of the Risen Christ, believing in a sacred mystery we cannot explain, but we know to be real. Jesus invites us to be resurrection people, with a distinct vision of our world and our lives that differs markedly from that of the rest of the world. In these dark days of war, terrorism and violence, in a world where many people go to bed hungry while others suffer the ills of excess consumption, in a time of continued economic uncertainty and distress, our resurrection vision is particularly important, indeed crucial, for the survival and transformation of our world.
We live in a world where religion and politics, religion and science, religion and psychology all live in tension one with the other. Our modern ability to study and analyze our world with a depth and breadth not possible in earlier generations has tended to erode our ability to suspend disbelief and let our spiritual ways of knowing and perceiving the world inform how we live and move and have our being. Belief in resurrection is one of those religious beliefs that is hard to reconcile with our western, Enlightenment, rational way of thinking. Today’s lections remind us of the centrality of religious language and religious symbols, religious ritual and religious practice to the process of transformation and healing of the world, what our Jewish cousins call the process of tikkun olam.
Central to our faith is our conviction that God brings new life, new hope, resurrection out of the ashes and despair of death and destruction. When the world around us suffers from human brokenness, when we witness the brutal destruction and pain of terrorism and war, bioterrorism and disease, we look at the cross and remember that God brings new life out of death. God is always making something new out of that which has been destroyed. As we all learned in middle school science, matter is neither created nor destroyed. It is simply transformed from one form to another.
The cross is our visual reminder of our resurrection perspective. The paradox of the cross reveals that we are a people with a different way of perceiving reality. This resurrection perspective invites us to endure suffering, pain, grief, and loss, with faith in God and hope for the future. Resurrection in all its nuanced meanings also calls us out of our own individual struggles to engage in the common struggles of the larger community, the nation and the world. It is a vision that calls us to see beyond that which seems hopeless in this world, to imagine something beyond, something different, that “great reversal” that the author of Luke so relentlessly foretells.
In Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees they ask Jesus a technical question arising out of their interpretation of a minute point of Jewish religious law. They pose the question to trick Jesus, hoping to back him into an intellectual corner on the basis of a technical interpretation of a Jewish religious custom in light of an emerging religious belief that was not at that time accepted by all Jews. The Sadducees were a sect that rejected the notion of bodily resurrection, while other sects, including the Pharisees, accepted it. In Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, he reveals that God’s agenda is not the same as our human agenda and God’s vision is not as myopic as ours. Things that may seem important from our limited perspective are irrelevant in God’s kingdom. That which seems impossible in the world we inhabit are completely possible with God. To see with the eyes of the resurrection is to see another dimension of reality, to see what truly matters in the scope of God’s eternity and to discern what is merely temporal and not of enduring importance.
Theologian and author, Frederick Beuchner says:
The Bible…speaks of resurrection. It is entirely unnatural. Man does not go on living beyond the grave because that’s how he is made. Rather, he goes to his grave as dead as a doornail and is given his life back again by God (i.e. resurrected) just as he was given it by God in the first place, because that is the way God is made.
Resurrection, you see, is something about God, not about us. God is always at work on us, making something new out of the old, taking the dead parts and recreating something entirely different from the ashes. In the story from the prophet Haggai, the ancient Israelites, having returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, face a temple destroyed, their lives in ruins, their homes long since gone. They are called to look forward into a future that seems cloudy at best and to act on faith that things can be, will be better. The task before them - rebuilding the temple – requires that they make real and concrete their faith that God is fashioning something new and hopeful out of their experience of exile and destruction. Even as they look upon the ruins of Solomon’s majestic structure, as they wonder how they could possibly rebuild and recreate that sacred space, Haggai calls them to be people of hope and vision, to see beyond what looks like an impossible situation and imagine a culture restored and renewed. He focuses their gaze forward even as they keep turning their heads backward.
Some people are able to embrace a resurrection approach to the world, and some simply refuse to do so. Those who do not see through death to resurrection remain dead, figuratively, if not literally. I’m sure we’ve all known some “dead people” in our day. These are the ones for whom everything is miserable, the past was always better, it was great way back when, but now everything is awful. Any new idea or suggestion is met with a sigh of resignation, a pronouncement that whatever it is simply cannot work. The world is painted black for these folks, and nothing will get them to budge from that position. The cross is simply a tool of capital punishment and death. The Eucharist is just a nice ritual with no eternal reality to it at all. Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives has a term for such people - “cynical realists.” They are the ones who will shoot down any hopeful vision for the future with some version of “it’s unrealistic” or “it can’t be done” or “it’s been tried before and failed.”
Then there are those people who have learned to embrace resurrection vision. These are people who have journeyed to the darkest places of human existence and somehow managed to cling to a kernel of hope, rather than permit themselves to be drowned in despair. Nelson Mandela sitting in that prison cell for decades was a child of the resurrection. He could see a new South Africa even when everyone told him he was crazy to believe that apartheid could be ended. In our day to live by resurrection vision is to believe that the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, that nations and peoples can be persuaded to alleviate the plight of the poorest of the poor, that gender equality can become a reality across the globe, that children can all receive a basic primary education, drink clean water, be vaccinated against preventable diseases like malaria and look forward to a healthy adulthood. Just yesterday at convention we heard from a SVP at ERD who told of the hundreds of thousands of lives being saved in Africa each year as a result of the Nets for Life program at ERD, which started as someone’s resurrection vision a few years ago. For Ascension, resurrection vision is manifested in the commitment of those who wish to see this congregation redeveloped and revitalized, dreaming a new future even as you grapple with harsh present realities. Jesus’ belief in resurrection as he tried to explain to the Pharisees is about much more than what happens to individual people’s bodies upon their death. It has to do with the kingdom of God, the world as God wants it to be and with our willingness and courage to be agents of that world working with God to make all things new.
This is what resurrection people do. We are blessed with a unique vision, a second sight that enables us to see through the darkness and despair of human failure, of war or terrorism, of destruction and violence, of disease or loneliness, to the possibilities of a new world, a new hope, a new life. Children of the resurrection are called to cling to the cross as we proclaim the gospel of peace and reconciliation in a war torn world. We have a mission to confront the tragedies of our time with creativity, to embrace the paradoxical and to see the world from God’s perspective, rather than our limited human vision. We serve the God of the living, not of the dead. Thanks be to God.
“Resurrection Life”, a Sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York
36Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection….(Luke 20:36) …38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”(Luke 20:38)
We Christians are an odd lot. Did you ever consider how bizarre it must seem to outsiders, that Christians revere, as the central symbol of our faith, the cross – an instrument of capital punishment? Think about it for a moment. We wear it as jewelry, we adorn our churches with it, and yet it was, in its day, an instrument of torture and death. When the Emperor Constantine rose to power in Rome, his sword, shaped like a cross, became the central symbol of the Christian faith. Would we not think it bizarre if some group of people wore little gas chambers around their necks, or gallows, or electric chairs? Why on earth do we Christians do this? Are we morbidly obsessed with pain and death? What does this strange choice of religious symbol say about us?
Then, think about what we do every Sunday morning. We gather to celebrate a festive meal together wherein we proclaim that we are partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In the earliest days of the church, non-Christians thought that the Christians were cannibals because of what they heard about this ritual meal. You must admit, to the uninitiated it would sound distinctly odd to hear talk of consuming body and blood. I know from my interfaith encounters that the language of our Eucharistic prayers, particularly those we use in Rite 1 that speak of consuming flesh and blood, sound decidedly grisly to people outside our religious tradition.
Today’s gospel hints at the answer to the puzzle of the cross. Jesus talks about people who are “children of the resurrection” who, he says are “like angels in heaven”. Children of the resurrection, he suggests, see things differently than the rest of the world. As Christians, of course, we want to think of ourselves as “children of the resurrection.” We revere the cross because we see beyond its historical earthly use to something transcendent and enduring to which it points. We live with the paradox that something that was in its day a symbol of torture and death was transformed into a symbol of hope, new life, renewal and victory. In our celebration of the Eucharist, we participate in the resurrection life of the Risen Christ, believing in a sacred mystery we cannot explain, but we know to be real. Jesus invites us to be resurrection people, with a distinct vision of our world and our lives that differs markedly from that of the rest of the world. In these dark days of war, terrorism and violence, in a world where many people go to bed hungry while others suffer the ills of excess consumption, in a time of continued economic uncertainty and distress, our resurrection vision is particularly important, indeed crucial, for the survival and transformation of our world.
We live in a world where religion and politics, religion and science, religion and psychology all live in tension one with the other. Our modern ability to study and analyze our world with a depth and breadth not possible in earlier generations has tended to erode our ability to suspend disbelief and let our spiritual ways of knowing and perceiving the world inform how we live and move and have our being. Belief in resurrection is one of those religious beliefs that is hard to reconcile with our western, Enlightenment, rational way of thinking. Today’s lections remind us of the centrality of religious language and religious symbols, religious ritual and religious practice to the process of transformation and healing of the world, what our Jewish cousins call the process of tikkun olam.
Central to our faith is our conviction that God brings new life, new hope, resurrection out of the ashes and despair of death and destruction. When the world around us suffers from human brokenness, when we witness the brutal destruction and pain of terrorism and war, bioterrorism and disease, we look at the cross and remember that God brings new life out of death. God is always making something new out of that which has been destroyed. As we all learned in middle school science, matter is neither created nor destroyed. It is simply transformed from one form to another.
The cross is our visual reminder of our resurrection perspective. The paradox of the cross reveals that we are a people with a different way of perceiving reality. This resurrection perspective invites us to endure suffering, pain, grief, and loss, with faith in God and hope for the future. Resurrection in all its nuanced meanings also calls us out of our own individual struggles to engage in the common struggles of the larger community, the nation and the world. It is a vision that calls us to see beyond that which seems hopeless in this world, to imagine something beyond, something different, that “great reversal” that the author of Luke so relentlessly foretells.
In Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees they ask Jesus a technical question arising out of their interpretation of a minute point of Jewish religious law. They pose the question to trick Jesus, hoping to back him into an intellectual corner on the basis of a technical interpretation of a Jewish religious custom in light of an emerging religious belief that was not at that time accepted by all Jews. The Sadducees were a sect that rejected the notion of bodily resurrection, while other sects, including the Pharisees, accepted it. In Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, he reveals that God’s agenda is not the same as our human agenda and God’s vision is not as myopic as ours. Things that may seem important from our limited perspective are irrelevant in God’s kingdom. That which seems impossible in the world we inhabit are completely possible with God. To see with the eyes of the resurrection is to see another dimension of reality, to see what truly matters in the scope of God’s eternity and to discern what is merely temporal and not of enduring importance.
Theologian and author, Frederick Beuchner says:
The Bible…speaks of resurrection. It is entirely unnatural. Man does not go on living beyond the grave because that’s how he is made. Rather, he goes to his grave as dead as a doornail and is given his life back again by God (i.e. resurrected) just as he was given it by God in the first place, because that is the way God is made.
Resurrection, you see, is something about God, not about us. God is always at work on us, making something new out of the old, taking the dead parts and recreating something entirely different from the ashes. In the story from the prophet Haggai, the ancient Israelites, having returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, face a temple destroyed, their lives in ruins, their homes long since gone. They are called to look forward into a future that seems cloudy at best and to act on faith that things can be, will be better. The task before them - rebuilding the temple – requires that they make real and concrete their faith that God is fashioning something new and hopeful out of their experience of exile and destruction. Even as they look upon the ruins of Solomon’s majestic structure, as they wonder how they could possibly rebuild and recreate that sacred space, Haggai calls them to be people of hope and vision, to see beyond what looks like an impossible situation and imagine a culture restored and renewed. He focuses their gaze forward even as they keep turning their heads backward.
Some people are able to embrace a resurrection approach to the world, and some simply refuse to do so. Those who do not see through death to resurrection remain dead, figuratively, if not literally. I’m sure we’ve all known some “dead people” in our day. These are the ones for whom everything is miserable, the past was always better, it was great way back when, but now everything is awful. Any new idea or suggestion is met with a sigh of resignation, a pronouncement that whatever it is simply cannot work. The world is painted black for these folks, and nothing will get them to budge from that position. The cross is simply a tool of capital punishment and death. The Eucharist is just a nice ritual with no eternal reality to it at all. Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives has a term for such people - “cynical realists.” They are the ones who will shoot down any hopeful vision for the future with some version of “it’s unrealistic” or “it can’t be done” or “it’s been tried before and failed.”
Then there are those people who have learned to embrace resurrection vision. These are people who have journeyed to the darkest places of human existence and somehow managed to cling to a kernel of hope, rather than permit themselves to be drowned in despair. Nelson Mandela sitting in that prison cell for decades was a child of the resurrection. He could see a new South Africa even when everyone told him he was crazy to believe that apartheid could be ended. In our day to live by resurrection vision is to believe that the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, that nations and peoples can be persuaded to alleviate the plight of the poorest of the poor, that gender equality can become a reality across the globe, that children can all receive a basic primary education, drink clean water, be vaccinated against preventable diseases like malaria and look forward to a healthy adulthood. Just yesterday at convention we heard from a SVP at ERD who told of the hundreds of thousands of lives being saved in Africa each year as a result of the Nets for Life program at ERD, which started as someone’s resurrection vision a few years ago. For Ascension, resurrection vision is manifested in the commitment of those who wish to see this congregation redeveloped and revitalized, dreaming a new future even as you grapple with harsh present realities. Jesus’ belief in resurrection as he tried to explain to the Pharisees is about much more than what happens to individual people’s bodies upon their death. It has to do with the kingdom of God, the world as God wants it to be and with our willingness and courage to be agents of that world working with God to make all things new.
This is what resurrection people do. We are blessed with a unique vision, a second sight that enables us to see through the darkness and despair of human failure, of war or terrorism, of destruction and violence, of disease or loneliness, to the possibilities of a new world, a new hope, a new life. Children of the resurrection are called to cling to the cross as we proclaim the gospel of peace and reconciliation in a war torn world. We have a mission to confront the tragedies of our time with creativity, to embrace the paradoxical and to see the world from God’s perspective, rather than our limited human vision. We serve the God of the living, not of the dead. Thanks be to God.
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