"Scandal, Insecurity, Hope" April 3, 2016

Revelation 1:1-8 John 20:19-31 Acts 5: 27-32 On Tuesday, our Business Administrator came in saying “ I cannot believe Easter is over! Easter came so early this year, happened so fast, don't you almost want to go back and do it all over? Except now we have to get back to normal, get to work and routine, because life goes on.” Confrontations with Normalcy; New Experiences of the Truth rubbing against What we knew to be Certain, these are uncomfortable places where we build our faith. We live in a world of scandal and disturbance. We are fascinated by who got caught doing what with whom, police chases, celebrities stumbling off their pedestals to be brought lower than the rest of us. If global reality were not scandalous enough, we have created entertainment with scripted situations to shock and involve us in fictional scandals. This being a fourth year, we are being entertained with the scandals surrounding the coming Olympics, and the scandals of those competing for President. Yet, we have been taught to pretend we are perfect, where no one has ever had to deal with damage control from situations threatening life, reputation, success. One of the things I never anticipated when being ordained was how much of the ministry would be involved in helping people cope with scandal. Bible Study, Preaching on Sunday mornings, Moderating Meetings, Mission Trips, Fellowship, Weddings, Baptisms, Confirmations, and Funerals was what we were trained for in years of Seminary. But our little Village and Township have been rocked over and over by gossip and rumor, Secrets, Abuses, Business loss, Addictions, Divorces, Affairs, Depression, Drunk driving, Deaths. On a bright sunny September morning in 2001, we in North America went from believing we were perpetually safe and secure, our nest eggs growing, our homes appreciating, our marriages lasting happily ever after, our children going to college finding fulfilling career paths, with everything protected by the family dog that licks the hand of strangers; when everything changed. For several days, the world was in shock, denial, disbelief. As the new reality began to sink in, that we were vulnerable, that we had been attacked, that our economy was built on the greed of those who steal a buck to win. Then, we did what humanity has routinely done, we looked for those with fresh vulnerabilities, new scandals, that we could attack, because preying upon others' misfortune and scandal allowed us to make ourselves feel better, or hide our feelings. The Bible consistently offers a different alternative. The Gospels tell of the Greatest Scandal of human history. God looked and saw Creation was no longer “Good,” as Sinful and marching toward Death. God loved humanity unconditionally, and attempted as God always has to Forgive, to Save us; except this time, by becoming one with us, in this way becoming vulnerable. But rather than the world turning to follow and accept, to love and to serve, Jesus was killed, lynched upon a tree, executed by the State, by Religion, by the abandonment of those he most trusted and loved. In the most painful, dehumanizing, public way, humanity killed God, killed our Savior on the Cross. After watching him suffer and die, they took his lifeless corpse down from the cross and laid the dead body in a borrowed tomb. Not even the honor of a permanent grave, but a place where one day his bones would have to be put aside for someone else. Making certain the scandal was sealed, the tomb was blocked with a stone. Everything the disciples thought they knew, now became scandal: He was Savior, but he could not save himself. His parables seemed like nonsense. Loving others/serving others, foolish when the ones you unconditionally love all abandon and betray you. When his last mortal words were screamed at God: Why Have You Abandoned Me? Part of the purpose of weekly Sabbath, is to reflect on everything that has taken place for six days. To add to the scandal, several of the mothers of disciples had gone to the tomb to pray, to offer comfort to one another and instead they found a greater scandal the tomb desecrated, the body gone, the last vestige of humanity stolen. I am so thankful the Gospel did not end with the Empty Tomb! On the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were afraid, filled with fear, hiding in the last place they had all been together, in the Upper Room, but now behind a locked door, locked for fear. Here, Jesus appeared to them, he stands with them. He offers to them what we all need most at times of scandal: PEACE, Assurance that all will be right with God again. In our anxiety, in our fear, when overcome with doubts, what we need more than anything else is Peace. Jesus then offers the only true way of coping with scandal. Jesus does not deny what happened happened. He does not blame. He does not avoid the issue. He does not dismiss their fears. Instead, he shows them his wounds, he permits and encourages them to touch and to feel what he felt, to touch his death and to handle his atonement of our sins. What I love about this is that Jesus describes as fact what happened, what God did in raising from the dead, and that Jesus is waiting for Ascension to be with God forever. When scandal happens it feels as though time stopped this is The End, there can be no future, Getting Fired, Presented with Divorce Papers, Your Name in the Paper, feels like everyone knows your secrets and life is over. That is what the Crucifixion was supposed to do. Not only kill the body, but so scandalize as to kill the following. But the Crucified and Risen Jesus is proof that this is not over, there is more after death, after life. What I ask of you this morning is perhaps the hardest of things. When scandal happens, we retreat, we hide. By doing so, we make ourselves more isolated. Throughout the last two weeks it has happened again and again that people have apologized for crying in worship! I think there could be nothing better! Not that I am a sadist, trying to make you weep in pain and suffering. But what could be more real, more faithful than for us to be in touch with our pain and our love in Church before God? Recently I heard an author, who describes that the hardest thing about writing a story is when you get stuck. Realizing that is one of the hardest life as well, he was asked what he does? He said “I start a new chapter. Sometimes I begin again by recapping by retelling the story.” This Easter-tide is the time for transforming from the story that led to death and resurrection by God; to a new chapter of the meaning of resurrection for us. In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, the character of Jean Valjean struggles with his circumstance, in so needing to feed his family he would steal a loaf of bread. For which he is caught, found guilty and put into prison. Years later, when released he came to the home of an old bishop. Having been rejected by everyone in life, Valjean cannot understand the generosity of the Bishop, so when his back his turned, Valjean steals the Silver plates from the Bishop's cupboard. The next day, when he has been caught and brought with the stolen goods to the Bishop, the Bishop instead retells the story, that he had given the plates to Valjean as well as Candlesticks which Valjean had left. Released by the Police, the Bishop holds Valjean for a moment to say, “You no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and give it to God.” That is what the Disciples struggled with as well. After this they were preaching in Jerusalem about Jesus, when they were arrested by the same Sanhedrin who had arrested Jesus! They put the disciples into prison for the night until they could decide what should be done with them. Can you imagine the fear of the disciples? The Scandal? I had a friend whose Grandmother used to say: “The Gossip Committee is always more willing to kill again by spreading a story, than to create by getting the story right.” Caught, in Jail, Tried by the same Court who tried Jesus and killed him. When they were transported to freedom. The disciples continue preaching the revised story of Jesus, and of course are arrested again. This time, when brought before the Sanhedrin, they speak truth to power, they tell their story to the ones with authority, but among these is a leader named Gamaliel. Not the Evil Wizard of the Smurfs, not the deformed self-absorbed Hobbit of Lord of the Rings consumed by “My Precious,” Gamaliel describes to the High Court that the most faithful thing would be to allow the disciples to go free. Because killing them, you make them martyrs, setting them free their movement may die out, unless they are actually on the side of God in which case the courts may actually be against God. So they whip them and beat them, but let the disciples go. Scandals feel like you have had a beating, and been allowed to escape free. After a scandal resolves, you are still unemployed. After a scandal you are just as divorced. After the Scandal, you still have had Cancer. But the point is not being left isolated, alone and hopeless, neither to go back to reality as it was, hiding and knowing you will be caught, but instead living life different because of what you have experienced and believe. The Revelation of John has confounded the Church for centuries. As early as 210 AD, Gaius the Presbyter of Rome outlawed public reading of this text, because of the Revelation's ability to create turmoil among people, interpreting their own ideas. William Barclay described Revelation as the “Playground of Religious Eccentrics!” Much is mysterious, much is symbolic. What is known is that this came from a time of Roman persecution, for Christians caught in the scandal between a Culture out of control, filled with fear and blame for the world's problems, pagan values, unenlightened ideas; versus their own personal faith in the power of God. It was a time with false promises of National security and safety of the Empire, the only cost of which is your soul, your convictions and beliefs. Even if Hurt and Evil seem to be winning, the Battle for God has already been won. Years ago, I heard a story from a minister who described they had been at a conference on Revelation, and on their way home, a truck rounded the curve in front of them taking his half out of the middle. When they came round the bend they found two motorcyclists without helmets who had had an accident. Their bike was wrapped around a telephone pole. The one pastor used his cell phone to call for help. As he waited for the ambulance, he saw his companion, another minister, kneeling on the ground beside the two, stroking their hair and talking to them softly. After the police arrived, the two ministers drove on, the woman had blood on her hands and face and clothes, and the other asked “I saw you talking to them. They clearly were unconscious and the police say they were dead. What were you saying to them?” She responded: “I just kept repeating over and over, “PEACE: The worst is over, the healing has already begun.”