"Let Down, Raised Up, Salvation" April 17, 2016

Acts 9:20-43 Psalm 23 John 10: 22-30 Revelation to John 7:9-17 I struggle with this morning's Biblical texts, for three reasons. First that, when we have a passage from Acts with Saul being let down in a basket between Heaven and Earth; and Peter raising up Tabitha from death to life; The Gospel has Jesus describing “God the Father and I are One;” Psalm 23's symbiotic relationship between the Good Shepherd and the Sheep; and the Revelation to John revealing Eternal Life in the Resurrection; instead of paying attention to the Word of God in each, we begin searching for what the Lectionary Committee intended by selecting these passages to go together, which tells us more about the Committee than about the Word of God or what that Word means for Faith. Second, because in 21st Century North America, we have been so influenced by the Enlightenment, by Thought, and the passing of 2000 years since Jesus' resurrection that we have difficulty with the Book of Revelation. Do we simply believe in our own deaths and resurrections, or in Salvation, with a Judgment Day and “those who have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb.” In order to hear this text faithfully, we first have to de-mystify it, and separate the Bible from all the Sale of Indulgences and Dispensationalism of the Left Behind series, as well as personal atonement theories that are not Biblical. Related to this, when I went to Seminary, the Mainline churches (The Presbyterian, lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist) had such fear of change and such institutional commitment as to believe anything necessary we could create a program to address, that the faculty struggled with using the words “Salvation” or “Evangelism” and often referred to “The S of E Words.” Which has all become far more intensified by ISIS and that corruption which believe that by their suicidal killing of others, they automatically attain Salvation, which is somehow both holy, pure and sexual, being awarded 144 virgins. Ironically, when this our third Sanctuary was designed in 1890, every element of the Sanctuary was intended to represent SALVATION, to represent something from the Book of the Revelation. The gems and jewels and light, flowers and pearls, the Alpha and Omega, and outdoors on the Tower: the four living creatures. But third, our expectations of the World, of the Church, the role of the Preacher are different today than in the 1980s, 1890s or in the 1st Century of the Roman Empire. We have a retired minister and Presbytery Executive, who has been part of this Church having grown up in Skaneateles. He shared with me, that 1900s congregations used to send their Newsletter articles to the Board of Global Missions, who then typeset these with nationally syndicated articles by theologians and Church historians, creating a weekly Church Newspaper. Whereas earlier generations were accustomed to listening for hours at a time, and over weekly radio broadcasts ministers preached to millions, where those who in War had converted from careers like Engineering or Science to preaching Salvation, and churches ran programmatically; today most of us do not come to worship to be Saved, to be Evangelized, or even to be Taught. We come to Worship to be comforted, to be challenged to forgive and be forgiven. We live stressful lives in a broken world and we seek to be inspired. Programs, Institutions no longer work in our world, meaning, faith, salvation all I believe are inspired and taught by relationship. As the mouthpiece of the church, as ordained representatives of God, Preachers bears responsibility for healing, and for asking you for forgiveness when life and circumstance disappoints not always because we did something wrong but because we cannot go on without forgiveness. I believe what our Scriptures this morning offer, is that a part of Salvation is: We are not alone. We are part of that 12 x 12 x 1,000 brought through the Great Tribulation who are gathered round the throne and Slaughtered Lamb. We are claimed by one another before God. The Gospel reading from John probably would have been more dramatic, either of the last 2 weeks, than today, when it is 70 degrees. The Gospel begins “It was Winter and Jesus was on the portico of Solomon's Temple.” Historically, this was where the King of Israel announced Divine Judgment, this was a place of pronouncement. While it is possible for it to snow in Jerusalem, I think this identified: It was dark and overcast, people were cold damp and did not want to wrestle with obscure teachings/parables. “Tell us plainly, are you the Christ or not?” The Messiah they anticipated was a human emissary, like John the Baptist, Isaiah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel, a political leader to restore the Nation and Religion of Israel. Instead, Jesus replied to “Tell us plainly” saying: “God and I are one!” which is true but not the answer they anticipated. So, while this may be historic, why did the evangelist of John include this, it is not a parable, not a miraculous teaching, not a healing story? While cultures are different, and thousands of years have transpired, I think people in John's community were not so different from us. Some believed in God and participated in the body; Some had children and adult children who chose to not believe in God, nor to live a faith-filled or ethical life, which is personally hard for us to accept. As much as we want to believe that our convictions determine our actions; human behavior demonstrates just the reverse, that our behaviors actually shape our commitments and beliefs. Unconsciously, we tend to justify our actions by shaping our convictions and identities to support what we do. So, those who believe in Jesus are part of his flock and follow him, and those who follow him are those who believe in him... If we were allowed to put political sins in our yards, we would become more adamant, because we need to justify putting out the signs. The other day someone asked me how we teach spiritual development? Back to that Programmatic, Institutional mindset. Truthfully, we have done a better job of developing people's faith by encouraging people to volunteer at the Food Pantry, or Presbyterian Manor or support the work at the Clinic in South Sudan, than has ever happened in any Christian Education program. We have done more with those experiencing Cancer wrestling with God, than those in any Confirmation class. Christianity is not a philosophy. If anything, faith in God is a Contact-sport. The Book of Acts is actually “The Acts of the Apostles” and is the only book in the Bible written by a Gentile! Acts of the Apostles begins in The Upper Room at Jerusalem, and along with the faith spreads through all the known world, ending with a challenge to the Capital of the Roman Empire. Acts describes a host of little scenes of belief and believers' relationships, images of Salvation; as faith grew from the teachings of 12 disciples to development of churches throughout the world and thousands of believers. Like scenes out of Political Cartoons you have Saul who was an over-the-top Zealot of Judaism, arresting and killing Christians, who when he converts to be a Christian, must then be an over-the-top Zealot for Christianity. He is the 1st person in the whole Bible, other than the Centurion witness to the Crucifixion in only John's gospel, to profess Jesus to be “The Son of God!” Saul, who would become Paul, is so loud and flamboyant in his faith, he regularly gets into fights, crowds riot against him, and his disciples rescue him by lowering him in a basket. Imagine for a moment, to be that wild and that helpless, to be the contents inside a basket suspended between heaven and earth completely trusting others not to drop you. For Paul of Tarsus, the remainder of his earthly existence is about being in that Basket, like the infant Moses being rescued, like the Animals of Noah in the Ark, no longer inside the gates, and not yet safely on the ground, but living life in the in-between. Next, you have two Pillars of the Church, who could always be found and relied upon, the one because he had been bed-ridden for 8 years. The other cared for the widows and orphans, who lived out what they believed and everyone depended upon. In that ancient world, with its caste system and power structure, where a woman had no rights, these Pillars of the Church were a Bed-ridden Man named Aeneas, and a Woman named Tabitha who died. And Peter visiting each, proclaimed “rise up” and they did. I said previously that Christianity is a Contact-Sport, imagine the struggle of Aeneas with muscles and joints that have atrophied over 8 years, rising up to stand. As if that is not amazing enough, that Tabitha would no more be mourned as dead, but celebrated! Finally in Acts of the Apostles, you have the reality that in Joppa, Peter stayed with Simon the Tanner. What greater outcast could there be, than this Simon? A Tanner made leather out of animal skins. His home would have been filled with dead and decaying carcasses of animals, assorted acids and a smoky fire for curing the skins. Imagine that stone house in the City, on a hot day in the Middle-east. Simon was filthy dirty, smelly, unclean, a social exile, whom Peter chose to stay with when he raised Tabitha from death to Salvation. The Revelation to John, is different. In the Bible there are three Palm Sundays and this is the REAL Palm Sunday. In the time after the Old Testament and before the New, the Greeks tried to eliminate Judaism and outlawed Jewish worship. In the Book of Maccabees there is description of the revolt, which concluded with the people carrying Palm Branches for a ReDedication of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, after it had been desecrated. This was a Military Victory. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the children are recorded as having stripped Palm Branches because in one part of the City, Pontius Pilate and his Army were parading in a show of Military force, and in contrast the Messiah of God was greeted with an army of children singing. In Revelation, those in robes with Palm Branches know what happened on Good Friday, and know what happened on Easter, and here in the Kingdom of Heaven they gather for a celebration. This is not a Military Victory or Military Challenge, this is not a show of force, here the Palm Branch becomes a culmination of everything from Genesis to Revelation, as every tribe, every nation, every language stand before God's Throne, before the Sacrificial Lamb: Jesus. Years ago, there was a woman in the church, who described Worship should be our Language Club! Language Class is where you learned the grammar and vocabulary. But Language Club we practice the customs and language and foods of a future time and place, that being Judgment Day, in Heaven, with God. Our ancestors gifted us with a marvelous experience! Where some envision the Judgment Day as the Unknown, or a day of fear and torment; we have been surrounded with the images of the Revelation, all of our lives. Images of bounty and grace, a new heaven and new earth, with all peoples, all tribes, all Nations gathered together in love and thanksgiving to God with Christ.