Sermon: Easter is Only The Beginning

Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

by The Rev. Vicki Hesse, Assisting

Easter Morning (Year B) April 1, 2018

Happy Easter! Jesus has been raised!

Our Gospel text for today,

the last critical words of the Gospel of Mark,

seem a little awkward, unsatisfying

and perhaps distressingly incomplete. 

What was the author thinking? 

As you may know,

there are other scriptures that give

more complete and “resolved” finishes. 

Yet in this story, we get that the women disciples –

after hearing the good news of Jesus death and resurrection, &

after being commissioned to go and tell –

they fail, leaving in fear and saying nothing to anyone. 

So it’s pretty much a lousy ending to the story.

And how many of us

feel like we are living in an unfinished story ourselves –

with questions about how our lives make a difference, anyway?  With pain and sorry, misery and loss, how will this end?

We have friends that are ill or dying, relationships are strained.

Our lives also seem to be incomplete. 

And the world seems to be in such a state.

The gun violence seems nowhere near the end of the story. 

The political wrangling never seems resolved and

government budgets seems always to take

from the poor and benefit those who already have so much.

So it’s pretty much a lousy ending our story.

But wait, what if the author of Mark actually knew

what he was doing?

What if the author of Mark

crafted an incomplete ending by design? 

Maybe the author of this Gospel knew

that no story about death and resurrection

could possibly have a neat and tidy ending. 

Maybe the author of this Gospel knew

that the gospel needs to have an open ending

in order to invite us to jump in

and take our part in continuing the story.

See, the story of what God is doing

in and through Jesus

isn’t over at the empty tomb. 

It’s only getting started!

Resurrection is not the end – it’s the invitation. 

Resurrection is not the end – it’s the invitation. 

And Jesus’ triumph over death, sin and hate

is not only what Mark’s gospel is about –

it’s about setting us up to live resurrection lives.

It’s about our continuing the story

of God’s redemption in the world.

It’s about going to school, to night clubs, to public events,

and not living in fear.

It’s about speaking truth to power and doing it with love

It’s about showing up in our most vulnerable selves

to our whole lives.

It’s about inviting God’s fresh ideas to say YES.

It’s about planting seeds of hope

in soul soil that has been packed down and dried up,

through our presence and our faith in each other.

And it’s about loving our neighbor as ourselves-

because God first loved us.

That’s Easter., as hinted at by the first line of this gospel:

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

That’s just as abrupt and awkward as the ending, really,

but like the hymns in our hymnal,

the first line is the clue that something more is to come!

For the Gospel is God’s love

as only the beginning and what God is still doing

through Jesus Christ. 

It’s only the beginning,

and we have a part to play in co-creating a new kind of world.  It’s only the beginning

and God is not done yet.

It’s on the beginning and this Easter,

God is calling us to get out of our seats and into the game,

because God promises that

all will in time come to a good end,

even when we can’t see that.

It’s only the beginning. 

And may we live into that Paschal mystery

That we are raised with Christ, every day, to newness of life.

Happy Easter! The Lord is Risen indeed!

Sermon: Contrasts

Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit

Palm / Passion Sunday

by The Rev. Vicki Hesse, Assisting

Palm Sunday (Year B) March 25, 2018

Listen on SoundCloud here.

In the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen+

Good morning! it is an honor

to share with you this morning, 

this special milestone in our life together called

Palm/Passion Sunday.

Today’s full ceremony

of prayer and readings,

tempts me to say nothing. 

The readings kind of speak for themselves. And, at the same time,

they beg for explanation. 

Today,

the contrasts and paradoxes of Holy Week

meet us as we journey to Jerusalem with Jesus.

The city of Jerusalem, in Jesus’ time,

with a population of about 30,000,

would swell to as many as 80,000

during the festival of Passover.

Because of the crowds,

the occupying Roman authorities

would get nervous ever year.

The Roman governor and

an extra contingent of imperial troops

would come to Jerusalem

in case things got out of control.

A visible sign of force and rule. 

As many scholars have written[1],

it is quite likely

that Jesus planned his entry into Jerusalem

specifically to contrast

the time that Pilate entered the city.

So “…that spring day in the year 30,”

two contrasting processions entered Jerusalem.

From the east, Jesus rode a donkey

down the Mount of Olives

in a peasant procession.

From the west, Governor Pontius Pilate

entered Jerusalem

in an imperial procession.

These two processions show

the central conflict and contrasts

leading to Jesus’ crucifixion:

his message of Love,

and his compassion and commitment

for the poor,

declare the already-present kingdom of God

over and against both

the Roman Imperial power and

the Jewish high-priestly influence.

So many contrasts!

·         The charismatic teacher

riding triumphantly into Jerusalem,

was also the one betrayed, abandoned and humbled, facing death.

·         The people’s adoration of him

giving way to cries for crucifixion.

·         His consolation for us

giving way to his anguish and uncertainty

before God.

·         His extensive message of compassion

giving way to an unnerving silence.

·         As human, Jesus was offensive and there were even contrasts in who rejected him: rich and poor,

conservative, liberal and revolutionary, pious and impious, enemies and friends.

So many contrasts!

And in our society today, we, too, see contrasts:

·         We yearn for peace and yet we go to war.   

·         We want to be a nation of great values, yet we use violence to control.

·         Our culture values vitality yet our bodies are frail.

·         School bullies get away with violence,

yet we know God calls us to love, anyway.

·         Leaders, from which we expect the best behavior,

stoop to the lowest moral responses.

·         Our bellies are full, yet our neighbors are hungry.

Our lives are full of contrasts.

Where is God in this mess?! 

Where, indeed?

In the 1^st century (as in the 20^th century)

it was not easy to recognize

this shockingly human person, Jesus

the son of Mary,

as the One who was also son of God,

God with us.

In the contrasting drama of his passion,

Jesus forced options. 

He didn’t manipulate behavior,

he stood before others in that tragic gap,

holding a silence, so that a response

could no longer be ambiguous.

His vulnerability revealed his divine power – and the leaders’ choices revealed their values. 

In his own moment of truth, Jesus gave his life. 

Those who were “keeping watch” saw, finally, who he was, God’s Son, with utter clarity.

They saw, along with the Centurion,

the One whose love for us

bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things and endures all things.

These contrasts exposed a Jesus who was

truly human and truly God,

and in that paradox

of the seemingly absurd but really true,

the contrasts shout out loud

that through Jesus, God’s love never ends.[2]

Why Palm / Passion Sunday for us, today?

Because we need to hear again

the enduring narrative of God’s story:

God’s radical life in the person of Jesus,

his unceasing presence with humankind,

and his claim on the divine reign

over the political and social

“powers and principalities.”  

We need to hear again the story that reveals Jesus’ vulnerability as a human

and power as God.

In the midst of our paradoxical time,

we need that story

to captivate our imaginations,

to help us make sense of the world, and

to guide us to recognize God’s presence.

And perhaps, through this drama,

Jesus’ humanity and divinity

“compels us - each - into

our own moment of truth.”[3]

Because, see, he was like us,

a multitude of both/ands at any given moment.

Showing us that

we can adopt what researcher and professor Brene Brown calls,

“a spiritual practice of belonging” –

one that originates from

the paradox of our lives. 

A spiritual practice of belonging means

being able to stand alone

when we are called to do so;

to straddle the tension of yes/and,

knowing we are part of something

bigger than us.

A spiritual practice of belonging means

When we are really struggling with someone,

we can get curious, get closer, ask questions,

try to connect.  Lean in.

·         We see this in the “march for our lives”

for gun control by those whose voice,

in a sense, doesn’t matter

(they are under 18 and not voters)

and yet their voice is what matters

for the future of our nation.

They stood unafraid of the powers of evil.

They resisted, held silence, and all

With the power of Love.

They are leaning in. They are getting closer.

Why Palm/Passion Sunday?

To save us, to save me, from ourselves,

from a world

that teaches that what matters

is mostly “what I want”

rather than seeing the possibility

that meeting my neighbor’s need

will also satisfy my own heart’s deepest desire.  

In the midst of these contrasts

we are compelled by God’s Love.

This is our moment of truth, in the contrasts

of Hosanna and Crucify him. 

In our moment of truth,

Jesus is present in the spiritual reality

of our inextricable connection.

This contrasting drama

draws us into that paradox of

God’s intimate, delicate last breath and

God’s powerful resurrection

in the person of Jesus Christ. 

So here we are, in this thin place,

where distinctions between time & eternity

fall away, where we proclaim how

the death of Jesus is integral to our life in God and where we journey with Jesus in the tension of both/and.

As we journey with Jesus this week,

May we know in the deepest part of our soul

God’s love for us on earth

as it already is in heaven.

Amen

---

[1] Marcus Borg, The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem, (HarperCollins, San Francisco, 2006), p. 2-4

[2] 1 Cor 13:4-8: ⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

[3] David J. Schlafer, What Makes This Day Different?: Preaching Grace on Special Occasions, (Cambridge, Cowley, 1998), p. 86