"Pillars or Caterpillars" April 21, 2013

John 10:22-30 Acts 9: 36-43 Would you rather be seen to be a Pillar, or a Caterpillar? The one is a stalwart part of the community, seen to be holding up the ideals, whose words and ideas shape the future, and who as an individual is remembered. The other is a bug. Oh but what an industrious bug! Like an inch worm constantly moving, digesting all of life, transforming everything with which it comes into contact, be that on the ground, under the ground, or up in the trees, ultimately forming a cocoon and transforming itself into a butterfly to fly, traveling thousands of miles to pollenate flowers and trees on differing continents. Our readings from the Bible this week tell the story of several different individuals, some of whom are Pillars others Caterpillars. First there was Saul, a leader among the people, who had persecuted the Christians inciting others to stone them to death for espousing dangerous ideas. Saul who had a conversion experience, in which he recognized that what he was doing wounded God, and changed he was baptized as Paul. Paul came among the disciples and was feared and rejected, until Barnabas stood up in solidarity with him. Together Paul and Barnabas traveled all the known world preaching, healing, starting churches, and spreading the good news. Paul we remember as a Pillar of the Early Church, yet Barnabas his companion, a Greek who often got Paul out of trouble, is all but forgot. Peter, whose name had been Simon, Andrew's brother, one of the 12, is recorded here and elsewhere healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching the Word of God, carrying on the ministry of Jesus. Among those in our story are Aeneas, Tabitha, and Simon. All we know of Aeneas of Lydda was that he had been bed-ridden paralyzed for 8 years. Peter looked upon Aeneas, commanded Aeneas to get up and make his bed, and he did! Not the Mayor of a City. Not a great Military Hero, Aeneas was a man who was suffering, and all his family and friends suffered with him, until one day he was able to rise. In similar fashion, when Jesus had been preaching in a crowded house, a group of friends wanting a paralyzed man to be seen by Jesus, had gone up on the roof of the house, with shovels and picks they had dug through and opened the roof, then tying his pallet to ropes, they had lowered the man down, suspended before Jesus. Seeing the devotion of the friends, Jesus had told the man to take up his bed and walk, and he did. Of that man, we know not what happened to him, neither how he had become paralyzed nor where he went, what he did once healed, even his name we do not know. But the devotion and commitment of the friends, or the healing power of Jesus we might not know, except for this man like Aeneas. Tabitha had been a leader in the community. She was compassionate, caring, a woman of good works. She was a knitter, and seamstress, making clothing for all in need. But the reason she is in this story, the cause of Tabitha, also called Dorcas, being remembered at all, is that she died. Once dead, her friends sent word to Peter, who came to Joppa. Hearing their mourning and the testimonies to her life, Peter called her by name and raised her from death to life. What she did afterward, how she felt about this experience, what she saw, how long she lived, we have no account, only that her life, her acts of compassion and caring for others were so fondly remembered that her friends had petitioned Peter to come to her. Then there was Simon the Tanner, who gave Peter lodging. A Tanner took the carcasses of dead animals and butchering the meat, skinned the animal, and using harsh chemicals and sharp blades worked the hide into leather. Being surrounded by death, regularly handling blood and flesh, Simon would have been ostracized as unclean, a sinner. Working with chemicals and smoke, no one would have wanted to be near him. Yet, just as Jesus ate with Tax Collectors, and healed and preached to prostitutes and sinners, so also Simon Peter stayed with Simon the Tanner. Pillars are routinely remembered for what they have said, what they have done, it may be positive, it may be negative, but as individuals they embody that part of our community. The Pillars of our community may be the pioneers and first settlers. Our Pillars often were Captains of Industry, Politicians, those immortalized in stained glass windows of churches. With cultural fascination, we have also made markers, pillars, of the Oklahoma City Bomber, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, now the two who planted bombs at the Boston Marathon. Little about Caterpillars is remembered, often not even their name, but relationship with them, daily life at their side, changes our world. So often, while the Governor or the Astronaut may be the one whose name we remember, the ones who make a difference are the Police Officers in a Suburb who go without sleep for 48 hours straight. Or the firefighters and first responders who rushed into a factory fire to rescue others. This passage from Jesus' life is odd for the season of Easter. According to the passage, everything about this setting was controversial, with people expecting schism. Thousands of years later, we remember Chanukah as that season like Advent with the spinning of the Dreidel top. But after Alexander the Great and the Greeks had conquered the world, Alexander died, and governance of the conquered territories was divided between his Generals. The Seleucids had dominance over Jerusalem and Palestine. Their leader not only erected a statue of himself in Solomon's Temple as if he were a God, but also had a pig roasted on what had been the Jewish altar for Burnt Offerings. Judah Maccabeus had led an uprising among the people, a revolution to overthrow and remove the Seleucids. Chanukah was celebration of that revolution, celebration and Rededication of the Temple. At the season of Chanukah, Jesus was in Jerusalem, walking in the Temple of Solomon, and the people came putting him to the test. In our English Translations of the Bible, the sentence is “How long will you keep us in suspense?” Actually the Greek word translated here as suspense, is “psyche”, so the their question was “How long will you undermine our psyche?” What they were asking was are you like the General who claimed himself to be God, or are you like Maccabeus who led revolt against foreign occupation? To which Jesus says “Neither, but like a Shepherd.” You listen to voices that say what you want them to say. You listen only to yourselves and are unwilling and unable to listen. My sheep attend to my voice. They know me and follow. In Philosophy, we learned from Descartes: “I think therefore I am” as proof of our existence. But in terms of faith and motivation, ethics and values, the opposite is true, our existence, the things we do shape our ideas and ideals. If you want to make changes, do not talk about it, get involved and do. Ultimately, this is a passage about Election. Election and Salvation are not about the after life, not about what happens to us when we are dead. If in this life, all we are concerned with is success, amassing possessions and reputation, we live our lives as if finite. Like Adam, we live as mortal creatures, and we die. If we live, searching, following, creating and redeeming, then life is ever moving and alive, and so also after this life. Years ago, a woman came to me planning for her husband's funeral She wanted him described as A Pillar of the Community. David had been the inventor of an industrial process by which plastic pellets came flowing down one tube and were heat vacuumed into the particular shape and color of a bottle, filled with liquid product, and a cap formed, all without the bottle collapsing or the contents being changed. David's creation had revolutionized the world as now everything from Pasteurized Milk to Liquid Plumber could be produced in a bottle without the cost of glass, without being as fragile or heavy as glass. Yet sixty years later, when he died, there was a good deal of controversy about how to recycle all the plastic bottles. About the same time, in that community, we had a terrible epidemic. The epidemic was not bacterial. Among the High School students there came a feeling of hopelessness. Oddly some were among the brightest and most successful, who felt as though they had already accomplished everything. Others felt as though home life was a disaster, so how would their lives as adults be any different. In a matter of days, we had had a horrible number of suicides. As a local pastor, I went to the school and met with the Guidance Counselors. They suggested, let's invite anyone who knew those who had died and are grieving, and those who have thought about taking their lives, to gather for an impromptu assembly over lunch. The entire student body filled Gym instead of going to lunch. The Guidance Counselors formed the students into small groups to talk and to listen to one another. For the remaining four months of the school year, we gathered for all who wanted to talk and to listen and to be heard and valued by one another. So tell me, Inventor or Guidance Counselor, who changed and transformed the world? Which were the Pillars and who are the Caterpillars?