“Because I Live…” – Rev. Tony Romaine – May 31st, 2020
 
I woke up this morning the same way I have woken up the past few mornings, in a cloud of despair and wondering whether or not our world would still be in one piece.  For the last few nights I have been falling asleep watching our city, our state, our country burn in protest of a broken system, in protest of the murder of a fellow human; rioting and looting which had nothing to do with the protests, and a world filled with chaos and unknown.  But then something marvelous happened to me this morning as I was awaking, the sermon I had been planning on was pushed to the side and God told me it was the morning to talk about what it means to us that Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live.”

"Because I Live"

“Because I Live,” you are not alone.  We are not left to the illnesses and pains of our current struggle.  We are not alone in our journey to find ourselves amidst the disorder and destruction of our broken world.  We are not alone in our fight for equality, for justice, for peace, for love.  Because Jesus lived, we are not alone, because our Savior is right here with us through everything.  This will not make anything we have to experience any easier.  In fact, it may make some of the things we experience even harder.  But what it does, is give us a lamp in the darkness to light our lamp from, it gives us the hope amidst the darkness from which to restore our hope, and it gives us solace to remember and know and trust that our God has not abandoned us to the currents which might sweep us away; but has forever guaranteed that we are saved to a life much better than our current state through the sacrifice of the Cross.  How do we know though, how do we know!

"Because I Live"

“Because I Live,” I have sent you an Advocate.  It is so stunning to me the language of Advocate that Jesus uses to describe the “Spirit of Truth;” what we later on begin to call the Holy Spirit.  See an Advocate is more than just a silent partner who fills you with strength and is with you in spirit.  An Advocate fights for you, an Advocate goes before you, an Advocate is right there beside you, and an Advocate is pushing you from behind when you do not think you can carry on.

An Advocate, our Advocate, the Holy Spirit, God’s Eternal Flame, is not just a whisper in the wind, but is the life-force which is filling us now today.  The Advocate is not some silent partner who remains on the sidelines of our lives while we are forced to live alone.  No, our Advocate is with us, within us, and through us in everything we encounter.  For those who have studied Job, they will remember that Job prays for an advocate to come and fight for him.  Well my sisters and brothers, we have that Advocate thanks be to Jesus Christ, thanks be to our God who has forever given us the intercessor who will never give up. 

Do we still have to experience our lives and the degradation of our communities, bodies, and spirits?  Apparently so, but we are not alone in our struggle and we are not alone in our fight for this world to know the love of Jesus Christ.  Our Advocate is currently, right now, in this building, in your building, wherever you are, currently working within you to inspire you to do better, be better, work better, love better, and if we just listen and go, the world will get better!

"Because I Live"

“Because I Live,” you also should live!  Jesus uses the present tense language because we need to use the present tense language.  Jesus is not dead.  Hear me say that again, Jesus is not dead!  Yes, Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected.  But this means that Jesus is not dead, He is alive and well in and through our lives and our actions.  That puts a lot of onus on us, and I used that play of words on purpose, because what it means is that how we live our lives is how people will know if Jesus is alive or not. 

If we go around and degrade people, put people down, treat fellow humans as sub-grade and not even human, then Jesus does not live, but is downgraded along with all of humanity.  Every person we murder, kill, or allow to die because of our senseless need for more and more, is another time that Jesus has to suffer and die upon the Cross.  Now this may sound harsh, but sometimes we need to be awakened to the true result of our actions; sometimes the community needs to be reminded that a sin against one person is a sin against the whole community. 

Now, all that being said, Jesus lives and because he lives so do, we.  This means that every time we lift another up, every time we do to our neighbor as we would have them do to us, every time we work for equality and justice in our communities and lift up even one person in our lives; we lift up the whole community and we live, because we are the living Christ to one another in how we treat one another!  And when we stumble and fall and sin again, Jesus has already paid the price for those sins.

But that does not mean we acquiesce and accept the sin and go on sinning, no, it means we clean up our act, we clean up our streets, we clean up our systems, we clean up our brokenness, we clean up what we can clean up, and we live!  Jesus was the epitome of the price one person sometimes has to pay to correct the narrative, the price one person seemingly has to pay so that others will notice, the price the world had to pay in order to see the error of our ways; and the price that no one now would ever want Jesus to have to pay.  It is time we stop making innocents pay the price for our sins.

"Because I Live"

“Because I Live,” the world may not know you, the world may not know me, the world may wonder where I am, and the world may need you to remind them.  Folks, it is 2020 and we are still waging the very same societal struggle that Jesus himself fought against.  It is 2020 and we still murder people based on the color of their skin.  It is 2020 and we still force people into indentured servitude based on their economic status.  It is 2020 and we still fear our neighbors so much that we design weapons of war to destroy them; hiding ourselves behind a thin veil of trust in our own strength, rather than trusting in God’s call to love.  It is 2020 and we still destroy and erode our planet for personal gain and fail to recognize the warning signs until it is too late.  It is 2020 and we are still talking about how we need to care for orphans, widows, the poor, the downtrodden, the lonely, the sick, the stranger, all those who need our help.  It is 2020 and we still do not get it.

When will we begin to tell this world what Christianity is all about?  When will we stand up to the world and let them know that false Christianity, false Christian religion, false Christian teaching does not represent the Christianity we ascribe to; the Christianity of Jesus Christ, the great gift of Love?  When will we stand up to the world and say that ours is a message of hope, ours is a message of peace, ours is a message of love, and ours is a message that Jesus lives?  Jesus was right, our world does not know him.  His world did not even know him. 
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It is about time we use St Francis of Assisi’s advice and preach the Gospel wherever we go, and if necessary, use words.  It is about time we use the Rev. Dr, Martin Luther King Jr.’s advice and not be afraid of trying and failing, for, “when you stand up for justice, you never fail.”  And it is about time we let this world know that our Savior is alive and well in and through us!
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"Because I Live"

We cannot change the injustice that has already happened, we can only change our future.  What do we want historians to say about this people that was tested in 2020?  What do we want people to say about this religion called Christianity when they were put to the test?  When the world declared their religion dead through its actions; when the world declared their movement over through their inaction?  What do we want our children and our children’s children to say about us for generation upon generation? 

I can only answer for myself and say that I want my future to be one filled with life.  I want the future generations to look back and say we tried.  I want the future of Little Falls, of Minneapolis/St Paul, of Minnesota, of the United States of America, of our world to say that one day we finally had enough of dying and we finally got to living!  And I want future generations to look back at this time and mark it as a day not of victory, but of systemic change, a moment in time when we finally had enough and changed for the better.  A time when the world was tired of seeing headlines marred with names of people taken way too soon, of George Floyds, of Ahmaud Arberys, of countless others.  The time when Christians around the world finally understood that Jesus only lives when we live.

"Because I Live"

“Because I Live,” I have already given you all the tools you need.  We are like those disciples from millennia ago right now.  We have long been awaiting the Holy Spirit to rush in and fill us and make a loud wind-like noise and fill our tongues with language and our hearts with Spirit.  We are like those disciples who were waiting and waiting not knowing what to expect.  Except we are different in one important way; we already have the Holy Spirit with us and we have been given awareness through the teachings of our tradition and Jesus Christ himself.  The question is, what are we going to do with it? 

Now I understand we are tired and worn down and we cannot all go and protest or help people out in the streets of Minneapolis; I get that, in fact it is probably wise for most of us not to do that during this time of Covid-19.  But what I am calling us to do is to examine the places in our lives where we feel the Holy Spirit filling our hearts with the flames of action, and then I am calling us to act.  In the simplest way, we can have a great effect through how we interact with one another on a daily basis.  In the simplest way, we can have great effect by who we vote into office.  In the simplest way, we can have a great effect by praying and calling and sending love to our world.  And if so called, in the simplest way, we can have a great effect by joining in the efforts to build a better society through the physical use of our hands and feet.  And when we think we cannot do anything, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus sent us the advocate, the Holy Spirit, all the strength we need, and God gave us the tools; we just have to use them.

"Because I Live"

“Because I Live”, you don’t have to be perfect!  We don’t have to do everything the way everyone else is doing it, we are called to do things the way we would do them.  And we will try and fail, and try and succeed.  But it is through trying that we learn and through trying that we find our place where we are called to be the living Christ to one another.  But not trying is complete failure and our world has done that enough already.

I awoke this morning tired, angry, sad, and scared…and then I was reminded that I am not alone, I have an advocate, the world needs me, I already have all the tools I need, and I don’t need to be perfect.  I was reminded that because Jesus lives, I live, you live, we live…and it is time to live!  The only way our world will ever truly know that Jesus lives is through you and me.  Make today a turning point, make today the day you decide to try, make today the day you live… “Because I live, you also live,” Amen!
 
 
 

​Complete – Rev. Tony Romaine – May 24th, 2020
 
A brief research on the internet reveals that 58 countries have various monuments to unknown soldiers, spanning from Argentina to Zimbabwe.  I’ve selected some for our purposes, especially since this weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we remember and honor those who gave their lives.  The idea to memorialize and remember an “unknown soldier” began out of the ashes of World War I, and then again after World War II.  Two wars in which millions of soldiers lost their lives.  Wars which rendered lives incomplete, and all for what reason?

As a pastor, advocating for peace is not only something I consider my duty as a professional, but something I consider our Christian duty.  As a historian, I look to learn from history to see why these wars were fought and for what purpose.  From this standpoint, and from the perspective of history and being able to look back, we can talk honestly about how these wars could perhaps have been prevented.  How even the atrocities of genocide and mass-murder of millions of innocents could have perhaps been avoided.

For instance, World War I could have been prevented, perhaps, if national pride was not more important than human interest.  If alliance with another country was not more important than the actions of said country.  If imperialism and colonialism and the allure of power and wealth were not more important than the dignity of every human being and sovereignty of the freedom of all people.

Or take the bloodiest war in the history of our young country, the Civil War, a war which pitted a people against their own people; this war probably could have been prevented if economies were not built on the backs of innocent people, if money was not the driving force behind our national pride, if the pursuit for the common good did not exclude anyone, any race, any Northerner or Southerner, and if a group of colonies which had only recently in terms of world history had formed a country, could have thrown off their colonial and imperial genetics to examine and understand what it takes to live in a republic such as we have now.

And while this is only a cursory evaluation of major conflicts and certainly does not cover all the intricacies of what leads up to war and the perceived need for conflict; tasks a sermon even as long-winded as this one cannot truly accomplish; at some point, is it not in our best interest as humanity to evaluate and remember the reasons, the steps, the entrance points to these wars, so that we do not have to repeat them?  Is it not our duty to the unknown and known who gave their lives to protect our “freedoms” to not put those freedoms at risk again; to not have to war over the same things again and again? 

And while I am a person who strives for peace, I am also fully aware of the need for those with the ability to do so, to step up and protect the innocent and fight for those who have no rights.  Certainly, we honor the sacrifice of all of the known and unknown soldiers who “paid” for this country we have now.  But, does it honor those who died if we remember their memory only to forgot what they were fighting for?  No, in fact it dishonors the sacrifice of all those who paid the ultimate price; of all those who died to give us life, if we live our lives negligent of our duty to learn from the past and create a better future.

Complete

There was once another “unknown” soldier.  One who people asked about and struggled to believe that this person was part of their tribe.  A soldier not of war, but a soldier of peace.  A soldier who taught and demonstrated that the greatest thing we can do for one another is to lay down our lives for each other; but not in terms of weaponry or wars, in terms of placing one’s life on the altar of peace and acting humbly so that all of the great things about life itself can be enjoyed by you and me.

Of course you know the “soldier” I am speaking of is Jesus Christ.  Many have misappropriated the teachings of Jesus to justify their bent toward war and fighting.  Many have justified their actions by using the very same quote I used above from John 15, where Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Without remembering Jesus’ sacrifice, what he did and how he did it in order to give us the complete gift of life eternal. 

Jesus’ self-sacrifice came without fighting, without guns or bombs, without raising a fist in violence.  In fact, remember when the soldiers and authorities came to arrest Jesus and Peter lopped off the ear of one of the soldiers, Jesus took it and put it back on and told Peter that this is not the way.  And when we use Jesus and his message of peace to justify our own human ways, our own human greed, our own human penchant for war; then we once again do a disservice to the greatest gift we have ever been given.

This does not mean that we roll over and take the world as it is and let bad people off or injustice to reign.  But what it means is that we work and strive for a world in which war is not necessary.  It means that we strive for a world where no one is hungry so no one need fight over food.  It means that we strive for a world where all people are given the same chance at a full and vibrant life so that no one need or desire more than they have.  It means that when the world grows crazy and people begin to lean toward war more and more, the voices of peace and prosperity lean heavier and remind everyone of the painful lessons we have had to learn through war.  

And it means the world holds people accountable, not by force or might, but by the almighty teachings of Jesus Christ, that we treat each other as we would want to be treated, and that we do not interpret God’s Word for our own validation; but live by God’s Word of love for all creation, love for all God’s children, and love for neighbor.  

Striving in this way is not easy, just look at what Jesus endured.  So yes, we will suffer and struggle, that is part of being incomplete and finite beings.  But when we do so on account of Jesus, when we suffer and are put to trial because we long to live as Jesus taught us to live; then we are not unknown, we are not incomplete, for we are perfected through the sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross and through our baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We are made complete by the sacrifice that God made for all creation who trust and believe in the promise of the Cross.  We are made complete when we strive for the peace Jesus sought, when we put our trust in God, when we lift up our neighbor and long for them to have what we have.  We are made complete when we give over our lives to Jesus and trust that God, yes, I know it is difficult, trust that God’s will and wisdom and way is better than our finite human thinking.  We are made complete, even in our imperfection, because God loves us and longs for us to learn and grow and trust completely.

And let me say one thing about our current trajectory in the United States and the world: We are dividing ourselves once again.  We are creating greater and greater gaps in prosperity, wealth, economy, freedom, food, and care.  We are forgetting the lessons of our past and moving toward a place where extremism rules and moderation is seen as weak.  We are not progressing, but regressing to a place where we put our trust in weapons, money, and nation; rather than, God, each other, and love.  We are not working to lift our neighbors up, rather we are striving to get ahead at whatever cost to our neighbors.  And we are fast moving toward a world which will soon again sacrifice innocent lives with the underlying motif of doing so for the “greater good.”

Why; because as history teaches us, nations come and go, power grows and wains, and the only thing that seems inevitable is that innocents pay the price for our failures to grow and learn.  See, all of the unknown soldiers whose memorials we briefly saw at the beginning of this message had not always been “unknown.”  They had a mother and a father, they had friends and colleagues.  They were known as something more than a soldier before they became the unknown and countless who so often perish for humanity’s inadequacies.  They were known as teachers, doctors, students, police, fire-fighters, teenagers, children, friends, brothers and sisters; before they became an example for us all to take a breath and examine our histories, our motives, and our ethics.  So take a moment and think about your child, your grandchild, your great-grandchild, your brother, your sister, your friend, or even that nice stranger who smiles at you when you get gas or coffee.  We are not too far away from them becoming the next “unknown.”

But this message today is not all doom and gloom; for we are not there yet.  And we have the incredible human ability to shape our future for the better.  So that the promise of hope for today and for our future is that we would remember the sacrifice of all those who we memorialize today.  That we would honor their life and their duty and their willingness to answer the alarm.  That we would do them the honor of living full and vibrant lives helping others to live full and vibrant lives in the peace that they paid for with flesh and blood.  That we would honor our Savior by remembering how he lived, how he died, and how he completed our lives through the resurrection.  Not for us to throw away for worldly gain or power, but to lift others up so we could all become complete.

What an incredible hope indeed!  My how we could truly honor and memorialize our known and unknown.  And when the world seems to be awash with pain and suffering and everything seems to be running toward more pain and more suffering, remember the words of 1 Peter, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.  If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.”
So let us, the completed humanity take heart in the message of peace.  Let us who suffer now from isolation, anxiety, and the “unknown,” take heart that our God does not abandon us.  And let us indeed follow what Jesus told those disciples millennia ago, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”  May we ask God for all we need, trust in God’s providence, and rejoice in the complete joy of Jesus Christ.
 
Complete
 
The inscription that engraves the United States Unknown Soldier memorial says, “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.”  Our world does not need more statues or memorials; our world needs more memory.  Let us indeed honor all those we remember this weekend and live into the completeness of our Savior.  So that their sacrifice, Jesus’ sacrifice, would not be in vain; but would be known to all through the living of our lives, through the peace of our hands, and the complete love of our hearts, Amen!
 
 
 
 
 

Fishing – Rev. Tony Romaine – May 17th, 2020

Today is Rural Life Sunday, and while we do not necessarily celebrate and bless the fields and our farms and the areas of our rural life like we used to by fasting or abstaining, etc, it is important to recognize and thank God for the blessings of the fields, the farmers, the small businesses and every part of what truly is the backbone of a great society.  So what does this have to do with fishing, other than we can go fishing in rural areas?  Well, fishing is all about trust, faith, hope, and being content and that has everything to do with rural life!

Fishing

In our Gospel for today, after a long night of fishing, the disciples had not caught anything.  Perhaps it was a sleepless night, wondering to themselves about all of the things that had recently taken place.  Perhaps they were going to try and fill nets with fish to provide for this struggling community that was grasping at the loss of its rabbi and teacher.  Perhaps they just wanted to get away and go fishing.  In any event, they had not caught a single fish until daybreak when a stranger appears on the shoreline and tells them to try the other side of the boat.  I wonder if they were thinking to themselves, “Try the right side?  Don’t you think we would have done that already!”  But nothing could be worse than their empty nets, so they try the other side of the boat and alas, nets full to almost tearing.  In this moment they realize it has to be Jesus and they rush to shore.

Perhaps you are like these disciples, tired after the long night of no success.  You have been fishing in the dark and long night for something to grasp ahold of, something to give you hope that there is still life in these waters, something that could fill your net and bring you life.  Perhaps you are just floating in a lake wondering at what direction you should take.  Remember in this boat is not just Peter and John, but also Thomas, who once doubted but now believes.  Thomas who is about to go on missionary trips that span all the way to India, about to take the Word of God and share it with the world.

Perhaps you are how I imagine Peter to be in this narrative, as he was the first one to speak up about wanting to go fishing.  Perhaps you just want something that seems normal, something that seems restful, something that seems doable.  And so, as Peter goes fishing, you also seek to do something that you know you can do well to take your mind off of our current times.

And yet, even though this “something” you are trying is a practice you have honed over the years, is something you have found success in many times before…nothing happens.  Until Jesus comes along and tells you to try the other side, try it my way, try to recognize that the very lake in which you are travelling, in which you are fishing is the very same lake I am using to transform you.  Try the other side, try fishing out of the waters that I provide.  Not the waters of despair and unrest, but the waters where the weary can come and rest and the lost can be found.

And while most commentators will tell you this passage is about discipleship, trusting in Jesus, following God’s call to go and make disciples and our churches will be full; I think this passage has a lot to say about finding ourselves where we are and just how to live our lives.

See, we say to God, “I’ve already tried that, I’ve already fished those waters, I’ve already put my nets out in that deep dark emptiness of the world and every time they come back empty.”  But God calls us to try the other side, take a new perspective, trust in God and put our nets in the waters that are filled with fish ready for our nets.  Waters that run deep and true.

Fishing

Fishing is about hope and subsequently requires faith that when I cast my nets, or when I cast my line, there is something out there.  We have all been fishing for a while in the night.  We are all tired of social isolation and the emptiness of the nets of our lives.  We are all tired of having to figure out new things, new pathways, new ideas, new, new, new.  When all along, have we been truly taking the time to fish where we are?  Have we taken the time to cast those lines, those nets, in the waters we know and seek out fulfillment where we are?

Remember our passage from Job, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.  Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?  In God’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.”  Have you tried the other side?  Have you looked where you are for fulfillment where you are?  Have you given God thanks for being in the place you are instead of wishing you were somewhere else?  Have you given thanks to God for the things you have instead of wishing for the things you do not?  Have you cast your net into all the waters of your life seeking the fish in the place you are, or are you only trying one side because you think you know best?  Do you doubt that God has a plan for you or for the world?  Is not every living thing in God’s hand?

Fishing

This is not to say that we have not done as the disciples did, that we have not fished every part of what we know to only come back empty.  That we should not try new things or find new ways or long after something different.  Rather, what we need to be cognizant of is when Jesus calls us that we are ready to indeed try to go fishing again.  That even after the long night, hope comes in the morning.  That when we slow down and take the time to listen, however long that might take, that when we do hear the word of God beckoning us to try the other side, that we willingly cast our nets regardless of how many times we have already tried.

For when we realize the beauty of the place we are, the blessedness of what we have, the love that surrounds us, then we will be filled with riches at the bursting nets found in our presence.  That’s what the author of 1 Timothy is trying to tell us when it says, “Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” 

Now, how many people do you know who would be content only with food and clothing?  Honestly, not many of us would be; and while that is just a basic interpretation of what God provides; what 1 Timothy is trying to key in on, is the very same thing that Job speaks to, and also the foundation of what Jesus is building upon in our Gospel passage today.  Until we are content with what God has provided us, where God has placed us, what gifts God has given us, our nets will always be empty for nothing will be able to fill them. 

That is until in gratitude, humility, and love we trust that Jesus has us, that God has a plan for us, and that our God loves us so much that when we stop, slow down, listen, take the time, and cast our line in the faith of Jesus Christ, we will have more than we could ever imagine before, we will have so much our nets will be on the verge of tearing, we will have so much that we will want to jump out of our boats and swim ashore to thank God for the bounty…but more so, we will thank God for being present!

Fishing
 
See, I used to go fishing with a purpose in mind; with a need to catch something.  If I did not, I left that fishing hole and went to another.  Until one day I was fishing a small river and I was struck by the beauty of the trees, the energy of the flowing water, the colors of the twilight sky, and just reeled in my line and stood there amidst God’s creation.  I had not fished in that way before and in that moment my life would be forever changed, as if I had been told to fish in a different way, perhaps to try a different side, perhaps to be content that I am a part of God’s creation, and whatever may come will come.  Regardless of whether I caught anything at all…going was the purpose, fulfillment found in being content where I was, that I was provided for and trusting in God’s creation.

There is definitely something about the exhilaration of feeling the line burst with life, with energy that you might have something on there…that hope fulfilled, that faith renewed, the dedication and hard work we put into our craft rewarded, and the prospect that indeed this river, lake, or sea is not empty but life still exists here!  What hope we have that wherever we go with Jesus, wherever we are with God, our nets will be filled, our lives complete.

So let us dream dreams, let us cast nets, let us farm fields and sow seeds of small towns; of rural life; of being pleased, of a life in praise of where God has led us; in praise of our Savior, Amen! 

The Rock – Rev. Tony Romaine – May 10th, 2020
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In the song called “The Prayer” written by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster, and sung by Celine Deion and Andrea Bocelli, we hear these touching words:

“Can we touch the soul of heaven
Can we unite a sacred lesson
Every child creates a skylight of beauty
Can you hear cathedrals falling
All the universe is calling
Cry a single cello from your heart
Since the world has lost her way
Loneliness journey, endlessly
Yet the promised chance remains
Gift of what could be”
 
Gift of what could be.  This is the rock that the church is indeed built upon.  See, well before Peter would become the rock which Jesus calls to build the church upon, well before we would envision a strong and vibrant Christian church touching billions of people around the world; there was a tiny pebble in the grand scheme of things which God used as the foundation for the church.  This tiny pebble which would bear the Son who becomes the rock that was prophesied, the rock that was rejected , the rock that would become the cornerstone of a movement that would inspire us to be better, live better, and love better.  Yes, I am talking about Mary, The Rock.

In our Gospel passage today, we hear the story we always hear at Christmas, but should be reminded of this day celebrating the mothers in our lives.  A story we should be reminded of more often about how a human being, a humble Mary; as the old hymn says, lowly and pure, became the Rock upon which God would build the Church.  And what a stone to build upon! 

But therein lies the power of this story and the reason for me to spend our sermon time today talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Because before she was the mother of Jesus, we do not know much about her.  Some authors have tried to piece together fragments of her life, but there is little historical evidence to say one way or another who she was, other than what we know from our Gospel reading today and other tidbits from early Christian authors.  Moreover, here is an interesting fact for you, Mary is mentioned more in the Quran, Islam’s Holy Book, than our own Holy Bible!

I bring this up not to shame us Christians for not recognizing the importance of our own mother of Jesus, although, seriously early Gospel writers, we could have used more information!  No, I bring this up to actually highlight the obscurity of Mary before she was known as the mother of Jesus, before she became the saint of all saints, before she became the Blessed Virgin Mary, or whatever title we want to ascribe to her.  The obscurity is where the power of her being the Rock we speak of today enters in.
 
The Rock
 
Mary, the unknown, is the one that God chose to send the angel Gabriel to, that God chose to send the Holy Spirit to, the one whom God chose to bear God Incarnate.  And we might ask ourselves why God would choose Mary.  Why wouldn’t God have chosen someone of higher esteem, someone well known throughout the known world?  Why not choose someone who is older or wiser?  And if we do not listen closely, we might not hear why God chose Mary. 

Sure, she begins with questioning like many might if Gabriel appeared and told you how you would bear a child.  So it is not surprising then that Mary responds with her physiological question asking about how all of this is possible.  But when the angel responds and tells Mary how anything is possible with God, here is where we see why God chose Mary, for she responds with, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Now I know I am painting over the fact that she is in the lineage we hear about that Jesus would be born into and the correct genealogy following the Davidic line and all of the fulfillment of the prophetic lineage that holds true because Mary falls into that proper heritage.  And do not get me wrong, this is very important for continuity and for purposes of hereditary and prophetic fulfillment.  However, the immediate trust in God, the immediate recognition that God could choose anyone whom God desires, and that God indeed can do anything…that is why Mary was chosen.

It is very much the same with us in our lives, and if you have not gotten there yet, this is the reason I bring this up today on Mother’s Day.  Anything is possible with God.  And sometimes we might not even know what great things we have been chosen for until we completely and totally trust in our Mother God who called us into being.  We might not even know the impact we have or how we will touch others.

For instance, the Prayer of Confession today was an adaptation of Rachel Field’s Ave Maria.  However, this itself is an adaptation of Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria which he actually wrote for an excerpt from the poem “The Lady of the Lake” by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).  In fact, Schubert originally called his piece “Ellen’s Third Song,” and as best as can be translated into English it actually says this:

“Ave Maria! Ave Maria! maiden mild!  Listen to a maiden’s prayer!  Thou canst hear though from the wild, thou canst save amid despair.  Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, though banished, outcast and reviled –Maiden! Hear a maiden’s prayer; Mother, hear a suppliant child!  Ave Maria! Ave Maria! undefiled!  The flinty couch we now must share shall seem this down of eider piled, if thy protection hover there.  The murky cavern’s heavy air shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled; then, Maiden! Hear a maiden’s prayer; Mother, list a suppliant child!  Ave Maria! Ave Maria! Stainless styled!  Foul demons of the earth and air, from this their wanted haunt exiled, shall flee before thy presence fair.  We bow us to our lot of care, beneath thy guidance reconciled; hear for a maid a maiden’s prayer, and for a father hear a child!  Ave Maria!”[1] 
 
This is a far cry, as was our Prayer of Confession, from the Ave Maria we familiarly know as:

Hail Mary, full of grace, Mary, full of grace, Mary, full of grace, Hail, Hail, the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, thy womb, Jesus.  Hail Mary!  Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners, pray, pray for us; Pray for us sinners.  Now, and at the hour of our death, the hour of our death, the hour, the hour of our death, the hour of our death.  Hail Mary!

Even Schubert was shocked as we hear in a letter from Schubert to his father and step-mother where he says: “My new songs from Scott’s Lady of the Lake especially had much success. They also wondered greatly at my piety, which I expressed in a hymn to the Holy Virgin and which, it appears, grips every soul and turns it to devotion.”[2]

The Rock

You see, each of us either have that rock in our lives or are the rock in someone’s life.  Whether it is our own mother who was the rock who is perhaps obscure and not very many may know; whether it is those among us who are mothers and are impacting their child’s lives in ways beyond our fame and fortune; whether it is those whose mothers were not great rocks in their life and so had to find stability and solidity in other places, or themselves, and are now rocks for their children; whether it is those who could not bear children despite every desire to do so, but are rocks in the lives of so many they may not even know; whether it is those who chose not to have children, but are motherly rocks to children beyond their biological bloodlines; anything is possible through God, and all things are possible through you, the chosen ones of God!

I’m not sure how you feel today.  Perhaps Mother’s Day fills you with joy, perhaps it fills you with sorrow, perhaps it brings tears to your eyes, perhaps it brings a smile to your lips.  But know this, you are here because God chose you, you impact the lives of so many around you, and your Mother God, the Mother of all Creation, the Mother who breathed life into you, is making all things possible through you…the question is will you trust in that Rock, the Rock, our Mother God telling us to not be afraid, for nothing is impossible to God?  Will you answer as Mary did in complete trust and awe?

At the end of the song I quoted from called “The Prayer” it says this: “If you could trust with your heart one more time, Sweet angel conceived, You have forever and always believed.”
 
You are the Rock God has chosen,
You are the Gift of What Could Be,
You are enough just the way you are,
The sweet angel chosen by God…now trust and believe, Amen!


 


[1] http://conradaskland.com/blog/ave-maria-lyrics-franz-schubert/.
 

[2] Ibid.

It Must Be Jesus – Rev. Tony Romaine – May 3rd, 2020

This painting you see here on your screen is from James Tissot and is title, “The Pilgrims of Emmaus on the Road.”
 
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Pilgrims_of_Emmaus_on_the_Road_(Les_p%C3%A8lerins_d%27Emma%C3%BCs_en_chemin)_-_James_Tissot.jpg)
 

And for those who cannot see it, there are two pilgrims talking with Jesus, although we know from our Scripture that they do not know it is him yet.  The moment captured in the painting is of Jesus telling them everything about the law and the prophets and about himself.  What is intriguing to me is the consternation on the faces of these travelers, these disciples of Jesus, these people on the road to Emmaus as they process what they have just experienced, are visibly still thinking about the prophecy told to them.  Only again to have this traveler tell them about Moses, the prophets, and Jesus.
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It Must Be Jesus

What made me think  about this in connection with the Road to Emmaus Gospel we have for ourselves today is the idea that these disciples, people who had been in the presence of Jesus, had walked with Jesus before, had travelled many roads as part of Jesus’ chosen ones; these disciples were so caught up in thinking about what had just happened and so concerned about what was to come, that they could not even slow down enough to recognize their hearts burning inside of them and they could not hear that it was Jesus unveiling the Scriptures to them.  If these two disciples who had physically walked with Jesus perhaps even touched Jesus when he was alive could not recognize and slow down and listen and realize that they were once again in the presence of their Savior…then what chance do we have!

What are we missing out on right now…right now as we hurry through our days with nowhere to go.  Right now as we worry through our days with anxiety and fear.  Right now as we come together and worship and yet are already thinking about what we are going to do today, tomorrow, this week.  Right now as we are journeying with Jesus through life and yet cannot recognize our hearts burning at the sound of His Scripture, at the presence of His being, at the table we are about to share.

It Must Be Jesus

We live in the 21st Century with all our modern gadgets and gizmos, to be able to do church via the internet, telephone, television, etc. and yet we still imagine our church being a confined space limited to walls and a roof.  We have the ability to be the church through a telephone call, through the power of prayer, through the presence of sending a card or letter; and yet, we still think we must be able to physically be next to someone in order for them to know how much we care.
Do not get me wrong, I am as social a being as anyone; I miss seeing you all on Sundays in person, shaking your hands, sharing a moment of fellowship over coffee or water or juice.  But what Jesus is reminding us as we journey along our road with Him is that physical presence is less about physically being next to one another than what we do with that space.  In other words, what good is it to be next to one another if we are also not the church when we are apart! 

Sure there are things we are limited in doing.  We cannot be open to groups or meetings or events or things of those nature.  But our hearts are burning in other ways.  For instance, there are more people coming to our services now than we have averaged in a long, long time.  This means that more people are connecting to church now that we are closed than when we were open!  People are checking in on each other much more frequently than ever before, and not just others that would be considered “friends,” but people in our Church community who might not ever have spoken with one another are reaching out and connecting.  We are becoming the church that Jesus longs for us to be all the time, not just on Sundays! 

I understand this pandemic is wearing on us all.  Trust me, I know how daunting this seems when I think about all the stresses and difficulties that come from being closed for another month.  But also trust me that if we only focus on the negatives, we miss out on all the wonderful positives that we are currently experiencing as a congregation; all the ways we are being called to slow down and feel our hearts burning inside of us!

It Must Be Jesus

The reason I keep hammering on about all of the ways we are being the church outside of meeting within our building is because there will come a time when we can meet again, when we can be physically together once again, when we will be walking side-by-side with each other along our journey once more.  And when we come to that time, we must not forget the lessons we learned while we were apart.  We must not forget that our care for one another is not limited to physical space, but to the vast realm of the Spirit, where we can pray for one another, care for one another, and send love to one another in even more powerful ways than hugs, handshakes, or fist-pounds. 

We must not forget when we can come back together to slow down and be present with one another, to take the time to listen and care for each other by truly seeking to understand and love one another.  We must not forget that when we return to a time of ease, and our physically close selves feel fulfilled by attending Sunday worship in our church once more, that we are called by Jesus to be the church every day of the week.  That our Christianity is not limited to the presence of Jesus Christ with us, or our presence with each other, but is eternal, everywhere, and unlimited; that wherever we go, whoever we are with, we are the hands and feet of Jesus.

And if this all sounds exhausting, if this sounds like a dream which is too daunting, if all we can feel now is grief or sadness, then we must also experience those emotions and take those to God as well.  For the loss we feel right now is true grief.  The inability to extend a caring hand of love or an embrace of tenderness is difficult.  The road we are on is not easy and the walk we are amidst is troubling and filled with unknown, fear, and doubt. 

But remember, this is where Jesus met these pilgrims too.  They had just experienced the physical, extremely physical, departing of Jesus from their lives through His sacrifice upon the Cross.  They had just lost the physical representation of their rabbi, friend, and brother.  And yet at the same time had heard news that Jesus was resurrected.  They were processing all the cynicism and optimism all at the same time; and the grief they must have felt is almost unimaginable.

But in this grief, this place of confusion, they did something at the end of our Gospel for today which is remarkable.  They knew the road was dangerous and that this traveler must not travel through the dark.  And so they invited him in to share a meal, spend the night, and be safe until he could travel during the day.  And in that moment, although they had not yet realized this was Jesus, they were the church beyond their rabbi, they were the church beyond their closed rooms, they were the church by extending care and concern for a stranger, and showing compassion even if they did not know if was their Savior.  And in the breaking of bread and sharing of cup at that table along the road to Emmaus, all suddenly became known to them, in the burst of a moment, in an epiphany of light.

          We are all pilgrims on the road to Emmaus.  We are weary travelers worn down by the journey.  We are struggling with grief, the knowledge of prophets, the unknown of the future, the experiences of our fellow travelers.  And Jesus meets us where we are to be with us through bread, cup, and time on the road to remind us that we are so much more than we could ever imagine.  Listen, slow down, pay attention to your heart afire…for you are Jesus to those around you in more ways than you know.  And when in doubt, when you are not sure; trust that within you, It Must be Jesus, Amen
 
   

"The Gate" – Rev. Tony Romaine – April 26th, 2020
 
When I was a child in Elementary school, I can remember lining up by the doors to go outside for recess.  I remember the anticipation of wanting to get out and get to the bag for the ball I needed, or to be the first person to race to the swing and get the best of all the swings.  I remember the excitement I felt at being freed for even a little bit during the school day to go and run and play and be happy and joyful with my friends.  And I like to remember that care-free, child-like nature when I hear this Gospel today about Jesus being our Gate.

But before we can talk about Jesus being the gate, we must also speak about Jesus as Shepherd.  Why does Jesus make such a good shepherd?  Because he is both at once the lamb and the shepherd.  He is the one who will die to take away all of our sins, the innocent lamb that was led to the Cross in order to pay the ultimate price for our degradation of the gifts God gave us.  He is, in the words of 1 Peter for today, the one who committed no sin and spoke no deceit.  And he is the one who suffered greatly and did not answer back violence with violence, but peacefully laid his life down for all our salvation.

But at the same time Jesus did this, He was also the Shepherd who would lead us into the blessed fields of eternal life.  The Shepherd who looks after His flock with unending watchfulness.  The Shepherd who would go searching for the one lost sheep, the Shepherd who wants all of His sheep to be in the fold, and again, the Shepherd who puts His own life up against all odds for the sheep in His pasture.

This is why the metaphor of the gate is so wonderful.  Remember from our Gospel, Jesus says, “I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  Where once there were locked doors that disciples were hiding behind, now we have open gates.  Where once we could not possibly know the way and the truth and the light, now Jesus is our gate and begs us come and find pasture.  Where once we were lost and tumbling in a whirlwind of sin and greed, we are now saved through an open door to freedom.

But let us take this metaphor of Jesus being the gate even farther.  In the beginning of creation itself, we were given everything, we lived in pastures of green and in the Garden of Eden, we had it all.  There was not a gate closed to us at all, except as we know, the one tree we were not supposed to eat from.  When we, through our own free will given to us by God, sinned and were forced to leave the garden, the gate was locked and we were not allowed to re-enter the garden ever again.  This is not to say that God did not want us there in the garden, that God did not want us to be in pastures of providence, that God did not want us to be safe and in relationship with Him; but we had committed a sin which would forever taint our humanity and that meant the gate must be closed.

Let us fast-forward though, because to me it seems at some point after thousands of years of trying to get the point across to humanity that we must pursue God with all our heart, mind, body, and soul; that we were given free will to choose God; that after years and years and years of humanity still trusting in their own capacities and their own power and their own wealth, thinking that they were the ones who provided it for themselves; it seems at this point that God had a revelation of sorts. 

God realized that because of the creation event and the gift of free-will, humanity will inevitably sin and not always choose the right and holy path.  Thus, a new covenant had to be made, one based on pure grace where humanity would be saved not through destruction and re-creation, but through a gift from God of forgiveness and mercy; through the gift of an open gate and a forgiving God.  As it states in Jeremiah 31:34, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  It was as if God was saying to humanity through the prophet Jeremiah, “Yes I know you are bound to sin from time-to-time, yes I know that there is goodness in my creation, and so in order for the goodness to shine I must be the one to forgive, the one to be Holy, the one to be almighty, and in return trust that through a gift of grace my creation will turn toward me.”  This completely free gift of grace thus leads to the gate being opened and Jesus being our gate!

Theologically I cannot say whether that means we will return to Eden or if Revelations is correct and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.  However, one thing I am sure of is that because God’s grace has shone through Jesus into our lives, because of God’s grace upon the Cross where our sins have been paid for by the ultimate price, the sacrificial lamb of Jesus, God Incarnate; that wherever that pasture of green and plenty is for us, the gate has been forever opened and can never be closed again.

See, this is the new covenant we talk about when we take Communion, when we take from the cup of the blood of the New Covenant; that we are forgiven by the sacrifice of Our Shepherd, and in that moment, the path is made clear for our eternal salvation.
Which is why the text from Acts for today is so powerful.  When the people of ancient Jerusalem and the surrounding areas heard those words condemning them as the ones who had crucified the living Christ, they immediately were ashamed and heartbroken.  So it should be for us when we hear these words, when we hear at what cost our lives have been paid, when we understand what it took for us to be given an open gate to an eternal pasture.

But, just like those Israelites of old that Peter was preaching to, so should we hear this lesson today not as a condemnation of our souls, but as a call for us to repent and to turn toward God; a call to re-commit our lives as sheep who have been given an open gate to the greenest of pastures.  That through our baptism, we have received the Holy Spirit and through that baptism, we are baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That with, and by, the power of the Holy Spirit, we can proclaim the resurrected Christ to the world and call the world to be a place of love where all God’s children can be welcomed into God’s eternal fold.

But more so for our present day and age, we can offer a tender message of comfort amidst adversity; of God coming alongside a lost generation, of God coming alongside his Creation and being there to walk through the pains and ills and abuses of life.  For this is truly one of the most powerful pieces of our Trinitarian belief, that Jesus was God Incarnate, our open gate, and so was completely human at the same time.  Which means that Jesus felt the same pains we feel, caught the same illnesses we catch, and certainly felt the loneliness we all feel. 

Furthermore, Jesus suffered the same way we suffer, perhaps he suffered even more than we can know what suffering is; because, while we suffer from the anguish of physical and emotional pain, which Jesus surely suffered from also; Jesus also suffered as God knowing that his was the price to pay as Our Great Shepherd to open the gate for us.  That this sacrifice was His and His alone, and that we to this day would still be, as our Gospel states, misunderstanding what Jesus was teaching us.

And what is Jesus teaching us today?  “I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  Jesus is beckoning us, as the Good Shepherd He is, to come and be saved, to come and find pasture, to enter in and to go out.  Jesus is calling us to never forget the cost it took to open that gate, to be that gate; but Jesus is also calling us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to share this Good News of the open gate with the world. 

And like children who rush through the doors of the school, who race to the swing set or to the jungle gym or to the basketball court; like children who run free with arms wide open feeling every part of their creation, Jesus is calling us to come in, to go out, and to find that blessed pasture where we can roam forgiven and freed, Amen!
 
   

A Living Hope – Rev. Tony Romaine – April 19th, 2020
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As I did yard work this week and pruned things and organized things and readied the yard for the Spring, I thought of what preparation people who are more talented at gardening than myself do to ready things this time of year.  How they till the soil, they turn the soil and the nutrients to increase the flow of oxygen and nitrogen, they fertilize to increase those nutrients that bring life, they clear away the death and decay from a long winter, and they being to imagine what life can be planted anew.  And then eventually they plant seeds or bulbs in hope of glorious gardens to come; gardens that will take time, patience, determination, and love; gardens who need someone to tend to them and care for them and nurture them along in a living hope.

A Living Hope

The title for today’s sermon comes from the passage in 1 Peter where the author says that we are given a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that although we have not seen Jesus, we love Him.  It is just amazing to me how the Scriptures truly match up with our current season.  Now, as a pastor, I think that the Scripture matches just about every week, but recently we have been able to really parallel with the Gospels and the other readings.  A lot of this has to do with our season of isolation and distancing as we effort to reduce the spread of Covid-19.  But in this manner, we are much like the disciples who were feeling alone and isolated from their Rabbi; from Jesus.  The disciples who were left to try and remember all Jesus’ teachings, who were left to deal with the geo-political state of affairs that were resultant after the crucifixion and death and burial of Jesus, and who were left to be the future for this small movement which we now know as Christianity. 

Furthermore, they had to do all of this at the very same time they were grieving the loss of Jesus, their teacher, their guide, their brother, their son, their everything.  So it is no wonder they locked themselves away out of fear of persecution.  It is no wonder they were separating themselves from a society which just crucified Jesus, and it is no wonder they were huddled with one another trying to figure out what the next steps would be and to care for one another amidst their grief and turmoil.

Thus, we can empathize with those disciples of the locked doors, can’t we?!  We are struggling in our homes and wondering why we are left to be in this state.  We have to worship via computer or phone or tablet or whatever device we have instead of being able to sit in person in our church.  We are isolated so as to not be infected and die of an invisible disease, an invisible pandemic, which strikes all ages, and as of yet, has no cure.  We are left to represent to a world the hope and faith one must have in times such as these, while also representing that our hope and faith is not dependent upon a building or gathering in person.  That we can be intelligent human beings gifted by God to think critically and trust in our scientists and doctors, while also representing a faith that is solely dependent upon God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  And we are left to grieve without our Risen Savior here to physically comfort us, without our family here to comfort us, without our friends to comfort us; as we journey through this season of fear and despair.

See, we are right there behind those very same locked doors as the disciples of so long ago.  But here is the Good News for today and for all time…Jesus came and stood among the disciples despite their locked doors, as not just an aberration or some non-physical being, but stood there so they could touch and feel it was truly Him.  And in so doing, Jesus did two things right away for those huddled disciples, and subsequently for us. 

First, he spoke a word of peace for them.  Peace be with you, or in the Greek it could be translated as to you, or for you, or at you, but regardless, God’s peace be here with you.  “Calm your hearts, take a moment, slow down, abandon the world to the world for a moment and just be present with me, Jesus Christ, as I come here to help you to understand.”  Jesus came and stood among the disciples and offered them the peace to know that He was resurrected; “see here are my wounds,” as he shows the disciples.  Jesus came and stood among the disciples to offer them the peace to see that all he had said would happen indeed came true; to visibly show them so they could believe and trust, and hope, and live in the peace that Christ offers and to know we are forever His. 
And Jesus came and stood among the disciples and offered them peace to be their comfort in their time of need.  To be the peace they needed to ease their grieving souls, to be the peace they needed to get through this terribly difficult time, and to be the peace that would carry them through the next very important moments in their young journey; a peace we are also offered now as we isolate and must be the living hope for our world.

The other thing Jesus did for the disciples right away, is to breathe the Holy Spirit upon them.  We are used to talking about this at Pentecost, but we all too often paint over the importance of the Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed into the disciples at this moment.  For in so doing, Jesus grants the disciples the power to forgive sins, while also enlivening them with the very breath of God to go and be the disciples Jesus longs for the world to see.  Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, “Why breathe the Holy Spirit and then only share that the disciples can forgive sins? Why not also share all the other wonderful things we know about the Holy Spirit; like life-giving strength, the very breath of God, the ability to speak in tongues, and the list goes on?” 

For one simple, yet very important reason: The disciples would never have been able to take the message of Jesus to the world if they could not first forgive the world which crucified Jesus.  Those disciples would have remained huddled in that room, behind those locked doors, and would have just kept this wonderful message of a God who loves beyond death, a God who forgives all sins, a God who can breathe life into us whether we see it or not; the disciples could not take that message out without the Holy Spirit and all the great things that come from the breath of God, but they also would not have offered that to the world had they not been commanded to forgive.  And in that moment, when Jesus appeared and offered peace and the Holy Spirit, our living hope began!

A Living Hope   

As we now huddle in all the places where we are left to be the living hope to this world, it is important to hear this Scripture and how it still speaks to us today.  See, we are too in need of Jesus to come and offer us the very same peace the disciples were given.  We are in need of knowing that we can be upset, we can be scared, we can be afraid, we can not know what the next step is…and we can bring it all to Jesus, to God, in a moment of peace and surrender ourselves at the foot of the Cross.  The living hope, the peace that comes through knowing that no matter what our world throws at us, we are alive in Christ through the resurrected and Risen Savior that is Christ.  And that Jesus is real and is with us through the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, when all is said and done, we need to be able to forgive our world and to trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us through our next moments.  Perhaps though, we also need to be able to offer ourselves some grace too; to offer ourselves the grace to experience and feel, and dare I say doubt, as we feel all the emotions that are human and makes us who we are!  Which is why the next part of our Gospel is included in this great message of a living hope; the doubting Thomas narrative, the seeing and believing or not seeing and believing narrative, the Jesus returning once more to ease the disciples narrative.  Because, this is us also! 

We are inspired by the living hope through the resurrection, we are alive every year anew when we celebrate Easter and sing those great hymns about Jesus Christ being Risen Alleluia!  We are awakened to remember that our faith is a living hope in the one great day when Jesus will return and our world will be turned upside down and we will be part of the new earth and the new heaven.  We are all of this and more, but we are also very much a “see it to believe it” kind of people.  And perhaps more this year than other years, we are feeling the strain of being alone in our world, of being distant from God, of having to be a person of faith and hope in a time of unending news cycles about Covid-19, about death, about isolation and emptiness.  We ask God to send us a sign, to give us something tangible, to be with us so we can see and know and hope for that new day. 

And in this moment when we need God the most, we must fall back on that living hope which requires us to water it, to gently till the soil, to plant the seed, to nurture with kind words, to grant us grace when we sin and do harm, to live in the wonderful moments when life blooms anew, and to remember the resurrection and hope when all seems lost.  And through our Scriptures, we receive our help, we hear something that goes unsaid in the Gospel, but speaks louder than words: Jesus had already appeared to the disciples once, but He came back again just for Thomas, just for you, and just for me!  And just as Jesus again offers peace to those disciples who are still huddled, just as Jesus turns to Thomas and offers him the love of a Savior, so too are we offered yet again the living hope…

Wow, these Scriptures today, do you feel them speaking to you?  What do they say?  What peace do you feel?  What does the Holy Spirit breathed into you feel like?  How does it feel to know that Jesus came back just for you?  How are you going to be the living hope today?! 

I love the way our Gospel ends today, with John telling us that Jesus did so much more than this, but that he wrote these specific things down so that “through believing we may have life in Jesus’ name.”  Like a gardener planting a wonderful seed in a freshly prepared soil.  Having watered it and gently cared for it, given it light and nourishing life, now we may live.  So live in the peace of Christ, receive the life of the Holy Spirit breathed into you, and live in that blessed hope of our resurrected Savior, Amen!

Revealed! – Rev. Tony Romaine – Easter Sunday, April 12th, 2020
 
I must admit I am a huge fan of those shows on HGTV where they take a house and remodel it and then surprise people with all the renovations and improvements; and the Big Reveal, as it is called in show business is always priceless and unexpected.  Well, how surprising would it be to those who were expecting a closed tomb, a body to bury, and yet now they see an empty tomb and no body!  If they pulled back the apron, pulled back the curtains, rolled back the stone…and there was nothing, we might not think that much of a reveal, and certainly in our day and age of modern television, that would be the antithesis of a Big Reveal.  However, this emptiness, the empty tomb of Jesus was a bigger reveal than anyone could possibly know!
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Revealed!

This morning, we are just as surprised, for we too are mourning an emptiness right now.  As we worship here today, our church is mostly empty, our favorite places mostly empty; and perhaps, our own souls and spirits running dry from a long Lenten season.  But just like the empty tomb was filled with meaning, our empty church is serving a different purpose for us this Easter morn.  Sure, our church is not full of the hum and buzz of physical energy, but something new is happening here today, some big reveal is on the brink.

I said when this whole Covid-19 thing started that we would one day get to celebrate Easter as a resurrected people, and that we would wait for that day when we could be together physically in this place, our church, once more.  But my eyes have been opened to something amazing; indeed God has revealed and reminded me that we are a resurrected people right now, that we are always a resurrected people when we partake in Jesus’ love for one another, Jesus’ love for the world, Jesus’ desire that the Church exist; and that love cannot be confined to a space or a place.  When we do all these things, we live into the resurrected selves we are and create connections that are stronger than death, stronger than Covid-19, and are strong enough that distance and space cannot keep us apart.

And when we celebrate our resurrection, when we look into the tombs of our lives and realize they are just empty spaces, when we roll back the stones of our hearts, and see that our Savior is with us always, for we are His resurrected people, who must proclaim that Good News; well then, we live revealed, we live anew, and we can remind this world that something exciting and new is happening.

“How can it be?,” you might ask.   “How can we celebrate something new when all of what was normal is seemingly lost?”  “What could God possibly be revealing to us in this broken season?”  It seems like so long ago now, especially in the difficulty we are currently experiencing, but at Christmas time, God burst forth into our world.  And in so doing, when Jesus was born, God revealed something entirely new, did something entirely new, and did something that was completely unexpected.  Fast forward to today, Easter Sunday, and here we are at the empty tomb once again hearing the Scripture that has become so familiar to us, hearing the words of John and the story of Mary and Jesus in the garden!  And we hear about God doing something else entirely new…Resurrection! 

In doing this, God revealed something entirely new to us, that God who loved us so much as to create us, who knows us so well; knows that we are sinners who are unable to come close to perfection, who sent Jesus to teach us, live with us, guide us, and then die for us; God revealed to us that the unconditional love which we heard about from Jesus was true, and the amazing grace that would grant us life eternal would forever change our lives.

“Yes, but what is new about that?” you might ask, “what is new that I haven’t heard before?”  “How are our lives forever changed, what has been revealed?”  Well, it is true that we can come close to understanding the resurrection and how our lives are changed by God’s grace, but there is another important “reveal” that has changed our lives that we often overlook.  Listen again to the words from Colossians 3:3-4, “3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”  I bet you are all like, “well now that is clear, huh!”

No…well what the words from Colossians are getting at is that our lives are directly tied with Christ.  And so, we are born into Christ, we die with Christ, and we live a life eternal thanks be to the revealed Christ!  Moreover when we reveal our life in Christ, or in the words of Acts; witness to all that Jesus did, our true nature, our true reality, our lives will be revealed for all to see!  The Easter message we have been hearing for so long, which comforts our souls and reminds us we are saved thanks to Jesus; is less about how Jesus died for us and actually a revelation of what we must do to live; an entirely new way to live; a life in which everyone around us knows who we are in Christ through the way we love ourselves and the world…through the Risen Christ revealed unto the world!

And just like Jesus revealed something entirely new to the world in His birth and His life, so too we are being opened up to entirely new realizations about how we can come together as people during this difficult time by being tied to Jesus in His death and resurrection.  Yes, our Church is empty and our world has been shaken to its core.  Yes, we would rather have Easter with our loved ones and be able to share brunch, or Easter candy, or just the pleasantries of being near to one another.  But let us not look past how our lives are still resurrected even if we are far apart.  Let us not overlook the ways in which we are being transformed this Easter to be a resurrected people, to remember we are resurrected people!

Over these past few weeks, we have connected with one another in new and exciting ways, we have made more phone calls than perhaps ever before; and interestingly, even though we are isolated, we have spent more time lately thinking of how to be with one another, how our neighbor is getting by, how our fellow church members are doing during this challenging time, than we probably did when we could physically be with one another.

In this paradoxical manner, we are mirroring how Jesus is in our lives now.  We no longer have the physical connection with our God who came and lived among us, walked among us, and died among us.  Just like we currently do not have the physical connection with one another in our lives.  And yes, the tomb is empty and we feel the emptiness, as a loss of not only that physical connection between us and our Savior, but between us and God.  Just like our church lay empty and our isolated souls feel empty at the loss of connection within four walls and a roof.

However, we all too often forget that Jesus, while resurrected and no longer on earth, is within our hearts each and every moment and is with us through the Holy Spirit.  We forget that no matter how far we may be from one another, we are never too far to pray for one another, call one another, send a card or letter to one another…and when we spend time connecting, taking time out of a schedule that during “normal” times might be too jampacked to even take the time, then we are being Jesus to that person through the very same holy Spirit that connects us with God.

And that is when the Big Reveal happens, that is when we suddenly realize that we are a resurrected people who are gathered together through time and space.  We are a resurrected people who may see an empty church or feel isolated within our own environs, but let us feel the fullness of the revealed Christ within us and the warmth and closeness of God through the Holy Spirit.  And it is in that revealed, resurrected state that we then make a new normal, one in which we no longer take our friends, family, or congregation for granted; rather, we connect, we contact, we pray, and we live in the Holy Spirit as resurrected people joined by our Holy God; joined through the sacrifice of our Savior, joined in a love beyond love!

And in that emptiness, when everyone is watching and all they see is an empty tomb, an empty church, an empty world…It is up to us to fill it with the life and light of Jesus Christ in whom we are a revealed, resurrected people blessed by the grace of Christ to witness to the world; to share with the world the Biggest Reveal of all; that an empty tomb is not completely empty, that an empty church is not completely empty, that as a resurrected people we are full of the revealed Christ.  Happy Easter, Christ is Risen indeed, Amen!
 
 

“Empty” Rev. Tony Romaine – Palm Sunday – April 5th, 2020
 
For whatever reason this week when I was thinking about my sermon, I kept coming back to a time when I was driving literally on fumes and thought for sure I was going to run out of gas, until I finally came to an exit with a sign for a gas station.  Well, I had to drive about a mile out of my way to get to the gas station, only to find out that it was closed.  I then had to go back to the interstate and continue on to the next possible gas station, which made me even more fearful that I was going to be stranded in the middle of the night all alone.  I eventually made it to an open gas station and, by some miracle, did not run out of gas.  And yet, I have also had times in my life where I did run out of gas and had to either walk to a gas station, or hitchhike to a gas station, or wait for someone to come and help me.
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Empty

I can only imagine what Jesus must have felt as he reached the Mount of Olives and stared down into Jerusalem.  He had come all this way and now sat there looking at the place of his eventual persecution, crucifixion, and resurrection.  Not but days before having yet again told all the disciples that he was going to be beaten and mocked and have to die and would be resurrected.  And now here he stands looking at the town where all of this will happen.  Jesus the fullness of life, our God incarnate, could have easily gone a different way and our narrative would be different.  Jesus could have gone on healing and prophesying and performing miracles out in the desert.  But he decided to empty himself, as our passage from Philippians states, he decided to empty himself for our fulfillment; God’s fulfillment, and our eternal life.  Jesus, who was God, did not take that as something that should be flaunted or held above anyone else.  Rather, being God allowed Jesus to do something so much more important, he could empty himself out for us.  And so it makes me wonder, what being empty is truly all about?

We get to hear all the time of our cup over-flowing, of Jesus filling us up, of how we should fill others with the outpourings of the Holy Spirit.  But in order to do all of this, at some point we must be emptied.  At some point, if we do not pour ourselves out for others, we will not need to be filled again.  And this is the emptiness which is so metaphorically appropriate for us today. 

Many of us nowadays fill our cups with all sorts of things.  We fill our cups with convenience and the gadgets and gismos of our current age.  We fill our cups with worry about what others might think or what our neighbors might say.  We fill our cups with cars and trucks and boats and hobbies and busy-ness so that we don’t feel empty inside.  And we fill our cup with idols of celebrity, fame, other people’s lives, or purported heroes/role models.

Until our cup is so over-filled with all of life’s idols and procurements, that our cup cannot fit in anymore of what is important.  Our cup is so filled with the go, go, go of our modern civilization, that our cup has no room for friends, family, or even God.  And in being filled with everything else, instead of being satisfied, we actually feel even more empty inside.

Certainly, right now in our lives we feel empty.  Our church sits empty, our place of work perhaps sits empty, our favorite restaurants where we used to go sit empty.  And we feel the isolation drying our souls and closing in on us; making us not only feel empty, but scared and without hope.  In these times of isolation and physical distancing, we feel emptied of all normalcy and having not enough to quench our thirst for social interaction.

But if we look more closely, we can see how our lives are not actually empty at all.  Yes, we are isolated, but we now have a chance to take our empty cup and fill it at a different source.  Not our source of all of what we think is right and true, but at God’s eternal foundation who emptied Himself out for us; Jesus.  And here are three things to fill our emptiness as Jesus would fill us:

1. Love: God loves you.  God loved you into creation, has provided for you along your way, and watches over every step of yours.  This does not mean that life will necessarily be easy or free from pain; in fact, because of love, life is often times more painful.  But what this does mean is that in this season of social emptiness you need to turn to God and be filled by a love which never ends!  Seek out God’s love by taking your empty cup back to its source, back to the headwaters of creation, back to our God who never lets us run dry and loves us amidst even our most anxious and fearful states.
2. Love: We have established that God loves us, and in so doing, now we remember that God sent Jesus for us, so let us remember why.  Jesus came and lived among us to teach us and remind us that we are God’s beloved children.  Jesus came to die for our sins and be resurrected so that we would know that nothing, and I mean nothing, in this world has power over death.  And Jesus came to demonstrate that through the giving of his life, of emptying himself out to our world, of paying the ultimate cost upon the Cross, we would be forever filled and never empty! 
3. Love: Sensing a theme here!  And so if we are filled and never empty, then that love that our cup should always be filled with must be shared so it can be filled again.  It may be a spouse, it may be a sibling, it may be a parent, it may be a cousin, it may be a friend, it may be a recent acquaintance, it might even be a stranger; but fill your heart by connecting with them however you can in these times and feel the shared love that comes through kinship and friendship; that comes through helping someone; that comes through sending a card or a note; that comes through having a phone conversation; that comes through sitting in silence with someone; that comes through random acts of kindness.  And as I write this, I am well aware that I have given this advice over and over again during this season of Covid-19.  But I do so, because we need to keep emptying love into our world and filling up and emptying that love again.  That is what we are supposed to do with the love God fills us with; share it with our world!

 
You see, Jesus emptied of himself to fill us, so we could empty of ourselves to be refilled again and again and again at the fount of eternal springs, at the feet of our Savior, at the very table and cup of the blessing of our God.  And when we come and are filled there; however empty we may feel; however tired and lonely and afraid we may be; when we come to fill ourselves at the cup of the New Covenant, we are never alone, we have nothing to fear, and are filled with life beyond anything we could ever imagine.

I know, normally I would talk about Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, or how he rode a donkey not some brilliant stallion, or how he was still misunderstood among the people as merely a prophet, not the full measure of God whom he was.  But this season, today in particular, I think it more important to focus on what Jesus did despite his feelings of emptiness, his loneliness, his despair for Jerusalem and its wayward ways.  What Jesus did out of his love for us when he in all his humanity, decided to ride that donkey into Jerusalem and empty himself upon a Cross.

Jesus, God incarnate, could have very easily said, “Nope!”  He could have very easily said, “This is too difficult.”  He could have very easily maintained God-like distance from us, and not interacted or sacrificed for us.  But Jesus did the exact opposite in emptying himself for us.  He gave up everything; everything earthly, everything comfortable, everything that comes with fame or fortune, everything that the world values as powerful; and emptied himself by pouring out a portion of God to fill our cups, our tanks.

Trust me when I say I understand your feelings of emptiness.  My cup is running quite dry, my tank seemingly on empty, but even an empty cup is filled with air; and even when we think our existence is without hope, our lives without purpose or meaning, all the things we used to love gone or changed; let us remember that we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit. 

I wonder what I would have done…sitting there on that hill above Jerusalem.  I wonder if I could have emptied myself for complete strangers, for criminals, for sinners, for the lost and weary, for the outcast, for the weak, for the poor, for disciples which do not understand, for the foreign peoples, for the stones that are rejected and the ones who must be freed; if in my empty state, I could empty myself even more…The easy answer is that God is perfection and none of us could do that, the more convicting question is to ask ourselves what Jesus is calling us to do when he rides into Jerusalem to never ride out again!

When my gas tank in my car was running on fumes and I thought I would be stranded alone forever in the wilderness; I prayed and prayed and prayed I would make it to the next gas station.  In fact, every time my tank is on empty, I pray and pray and pray that I will make it through this wilderness and not run completely dry.  But even when I did run completely empty, help always came.  Sometimes through the strength of walking miles to get gas, sometimes through the kindness of a stranger, sometimes through little miracles of making it through beyond scientific explanation; but help always came…and in my emptiness, in our emptiness, we are filled once again.
 
Empty
 
Perhaps there is a reason for our current emptiness, perhaps we should think about where we are filling ourselves up, perhaps it is time we look at that city so full of people, our lives so full of false idols, our existence so full of everything but God; and realize that we are not truly empty when we fill ourselves with the self-emptying, all-loving, humbled perfection, and eternal grace of Jesus Christ, Amen

Flesh and Bones – Rev. Tony Romaine – March 29th, 2020
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There is a plant called the Rose of Jericho which is more commonly know as the resurrection plant.  This plant has the genus name of Anastatica which is fitting, for this genus stems from the Greek word Anastasis, or resurrection.  The Rose of Jericho can be dried up and seemingly dead, lying dormant for years during dry seasons until rain comes and the roots take hold and then it sprouts to reveal tiny white flowers ready for pollination.

In the Valley of Dry Bones Ezekiel is facing a scary thing.  He is in a valley filled with those who have seemingly died.  Not only that, but for a Jew, this place would be highly ceremonially unclean, since to touch someone who had not been properly prepared for burial and was just left out in a valley to die would be taboo.  However, in this prophetic vision where God is preparing Ezekiel to prophesy to Israel, God is asking Ezekiel to imagine something that would be beyond normal human thought.  And so when God asks Ezekiel if he thinks God can “make these bones live,” Ezekiel answers, “O Lord God, you know.”  And then a most amazing thing happens, God breathes life into the bones, or as it says in some ancient sources, gives them spirit.

We read this vision from Ezekiel and hear of God doing this to the dry bones of the valley for a very important reason during Lent, and one that has become even more important to us now in the season we are in.  Because the second part of the prophecy after God indeed creates life out of dry bones after Ezekiel shares the Word of God, is that God tells Ezekiel this will be what will happen to Israel.  While now it is a people who think they are forgotten, they think of themselves as dry bones in the desert, void of life, void of breath, void of spirit; God is going to do great things with these people.
We are in a season of great doubt right now.  We are those who feel like our lives are dry or at the least; parched.  We are those who if asked to prophecy that God can and will indeed bring us back to life as a church again, might scatter messages of doubt.  But God is indeed breathing life into us and sending us the Holy Spirit.  Even in the most arid places, we are still loved by our Creator and God will not abandon us to the desert or the dry valleys.  This arid place of social isolation and not being able to be present in our church is just a temporary exile for us, a temporary season, from which we will one day rise again and join in worship with one another.

How do I know?  Flesh and Bones

Our God loves us so much as to take on the form of flesh and bone, to send Jesus to come and save us for all eternity.  And why would God do such a thing for us.  For a people who cannot help but sin, a people who doubt the resurrection even after we see it or learn about it, for a people who are resolute sometimes to do everything contrary to Jesus’ teachings, to God’s teachings.  Why would God sacrifice so much to save us? 
Look at your hand right now, I mean take a good look.  What do you see?  You see skin, perhaps scars of a reckless youth, or misshapen fingers due to old injuries or arthritis.  You can see tendons which because of muscle and strength can move fingers about.  You see blood vessels which carry the life force to your capillaries and back again to your heart.  You may even see a birth mark or wrinkle or two!  But what you cannot see is the atomic level of your hand.  The life which is moving so rapidly in the form of atoms and molecules that it has made your hand hard enough to form a fist or soft enough to receive the hand of your loved ones.  What you cannot see is the chemical compounds that are at work within your hand right now.  The bacteria that is there and the cells and antibodies within your hand fighting to fend off infection.  Now many of you are probably asking why I am going on about your hand…

Well, there is one more thing you cannot see in that hand of yours but has been there all along; God’s hand.  You see that hand of yours is not technically yours.  Alright, now Pastor Tony has gone off the deep end!  No, that hand is yours and attached to your arm alright, but your flesh, your bones that is God’s.  God created your hand, every little intricacy that we have already mentioned, and you are God’s creation in every way, shape, and form.

That is why God did so much to save you.  That is why God breathed life into your dry bones, that is why God sent Jesus to demonstrate to us all that there is a power at work in our world that is greater than death, that can conquer our greatest fears, and that can save and resurrect even those who we think have died.  Because the God who created our flesh and bones loves us as the Creation that sinned and left the garden, as the creation that has been dry for so many years, and as the creation that is now in need of being watered and given roots once more.

We may not be able to worship together right now in a physical location.  It may seem like we are tossed about and scattered as seeds in the wind.  But we are together, we are always together, for God’s flesh and bone within me, is also the flesh and bone inside you. 

We do hear in Romans Paul saying we are not in the flesh, but are in the Spirit together.  So why would Paul say that to the church in Rome?  Perhaps he wanted them to stop all the vices and sins of the flesh which would prevent them from recognizing the Holy Spirit at work within them through Jesus Christ.  Perhaps he wanted them to stop focusing so much on the Roman ways of satisfying every physical need. 

But I think more so Paul wants the church in Rome to truly know what it means that when we are connected by the Holy Spirit, by God our Creator, that in that Spirit we are made one through our mortal bodies.  And that if we are conjoined by the Holy Spirit then distance, time, or the ills and sins of our flesh cannot separate us from the love of God.  Moreover, when we die to the superficiality of parts of our human existence, the things of our world that are of this world but not of God, then we will truly gain life with the Spirit and a new perspective on how we can truly live within our bodies.  As Paul says in verse eleven, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”  
 
Flesh and bone

This now brings us to our Gospel passage for today.  If anyone ever doubted that God became incarnate through Jesus Christ, this passage where Jesus weeps at the loss of a friend and feels the very human grief which we all feel when someone close to us dies, is prime example of the human part of Jesus.  Yes Jesus knew he could raise Lazarus from the dead.  Yes, Jesus knew all he had to do was say the word and it would happen.  But there was a part of Jesus that just could not move beyond the grief without taking the time to weep, a part of Jesus that was so tied into the flesh and bone that when it came time to go and see the place where Lazarus lay, even Jesus wept. 

Who knows what he must have been feeling at that time?  Perhaps he was feeling a physical separation from the distance between Him and Lazarus?  Perhaps he was weeping at the loss of a friend.  Perhaps he was weeping because he knew yet again, he was going to have to perform a miracle for this stubborn people to believe.  Or perhaps he was weeping at his own callousness of when he said that Lazarus had to fall ill, even die, so others would believe.

Regardless, Jesus is still “very disturbed” when he reaches the tomb and Lazarus is definitely dead, in fact he has been for at least four days, and when Jesus cries out to him, he comes out and Jesus commands him unbound.  The flesh and bone that had no life was breathed life into it via Jesus and the dry bones of a dead Lazarus were resurrected, so that all who would witness would believe.  And in this moment, Jesus did not deny the pain of human existence, or the discomfort and grief that comes with illness and death.  No, in this moment, Jesus fighting back the disturbed-ness within himself, works God’s will in the world and demonstrates that those who believe will be given a new life; our flesh and bones which wither and crumble, can gain new breath; our old normal, given a new and amazing future. 

The question I am left with trying to tackle then is why?  Why put Mary and Martha and himself through all of this?  Why not go to Lazarus right away and heal him and just skip the whole “raising from the dead” part?  The answer is not perhaps what you might think; well partly!  Yes, it is so those who do not believe would believe and those who needed to see it for themselves would believe and so the Pharisees could not just say that Jesus was another magician or prophet who heals, but one who actually can conquer death.  That part is well ingrained in us.  The other part is so that we proclaim just who Jesus was, what Jesus did, and just how far Jesus is willing to go. 

We get this from the part of the Gospel when Lazarus comes out from the tomb and Jesus says, “Unbind him and let him go.”  Go where?  Do what?  Run to Jesus and thank him for another chance at life?  Perhaps, but whatever Lazarus does, his life itself is a proclamation to the world that Jesus indeed is God.  And whether or not Lazarus became a great proclaimer of the faith we do not hear of, but what we do know is that in the very next chapter of John, the chief priests plot to kill Lazarus!  The very existence of flesh and bone that had been saved, that had been resurrected, that in and of itself could preach, without even saying one word, about the conquering of life over death was so dangerous to the chief priests, they plotted to get rid of the flesh and bone that demonstrated the power of God!

See, our very existence whether we are a million miles apart or just feet from each other, is a testament to the will of God.  Our flesh and bone are so important that Jesus was sent to save us.  And our flesh and bone is so important because it is God’s, that no matter what, whether we are ill and die, whether we are dry bones in the desert, whether we are buried in body or ash, whether we can physically be next to one another or must live through this season of distance as exiled people…our God loves us beyond death, beyond life, beyond all human limitations.  And what this world needs to know is that we, who are connected by the Holy Spirit are of one body which cannot be dashed by the Coronavirus or misled by poor governance.  That regardless of a lack of date of when or where or how, we know our God will come and call out to us through the doors of our houses, calling us to “come out,” to be unbound and set free to go…

Flesh and bone

One spectacular thing about the resurrection plant…in some particularly dry seasons, it rolls itself up into a ball and can blow around like tumbleweed awaiting its next place to set root, its next place to be watered, its next opportunity to bloom and be pollinated and seed and disperse into the world again.  We may be rolling about now in a dry season, a season of unexpected change, a season of doubt and confusion.  But do not despair, for the God who breathed life into the dry valley, who joins us in the same Spirit, who loves your flesh and bones, will one day place our roots again in deep soil and water us from the eternal spring; and on that day, we will indeed bloom brightly once more, Amen!