Prayer of Blessing: Tom Lyda Hymn of Baptism *Child of Peace, Come, Touch the Water* Tune: Stuttgart Witness of Scripture: Luke 24: 36-48 Anthem *Down in the River to Pray* Marc A. Hafso. Chancel Choir Sermon *You Are My Witnesses* David Spain
Recorded on April 7, 2024
You may know that the Sunday after Easter is sometimes called ‘low Sunday,’ which can refer to the number of people in worship as compared to Easter Sunday, one of the best attended Sundays of the year, and therefore presumably called ‘high Sunday.’ The designation of low and high could also refer to the enthusiasm, the music, and the spirit, and to be sure there is an energy on Easter Sunday that is rarely matched any other time. However, because Easter is not confined (by definition) to one Sunday but is instead the Eastertide of 7 Sundays, it is just as much Easter this Sunday as last Sunday.
In the spirit of Eastertide, First Christian Church Norman continues the good news of Easter with the celebration of the sacrament of baptism. This Sunday therefore, is more appropriately called ‘high Sunday part two’ or ‘high Sunday, too’ (as in also). We celebrate with these who, like Thomas before, have proclaimed ‘my Lord and my God’ and are pledging as the first disciples did, to continue Christ’s life of love and service in their lives, for today is a highwater mark.
After that first Easter morning, as Luke’s gospel tells the stories of what happened next, we hear the Emmaus Road story as Jesus comes alongside two weary travelers.Less well known is the story we heard this morning, as Jesus appears to the eleven disciples and their companions, along with the two who hurried back from Emmaus to Jerusalem. As it has always been, so it is again in his resurrection —Jesus takes the initiative, Jesus comes to those frightened, misunderstanding disciples offering peace, forgiveness, companionship, future.Easter’s wonder is not only that Christ is risen; it is also that he comes to the likes of them and even to us to raise them and us beyond the many fears and challenges that so often grip us.It is Easter’s very first hope —that our failures and our faults, our worst days and our worst moments, our locked doors and defensive positions, are not more powerful than Easter’s new life. Our worst moments are not more powerful than Easter’s best work.
As good as Christ’s initiative is toward us, resurrection is not limited to the wonder that comes to us. Jesus does more than make a guest appearance. He companions and comforts, he summarizes and sends. Faith is dynamic, faith is learning, faith is growing, faith is enacting, and Christ tells his disciples then and his disciples now that we all have a part to play in the story of resurrection. Josh Scott says it this way—“Luke doesn’t describe them as gathering in a room to argue the finer points of theology so that once they all agreed, they could really belong together. Instead, he says the testimony of the apostles of Jesus’ resurrection led to real, practical, life-changing action in the world…perhaps that is what Easter is actually all about, not theory but practice…To be an Easter people is not just to hold some specific theological convictions and defend them at all costs. To be an Easter people is to join in the work of stewarding a new creation that is already emerging, right here and now.” (newsletter@christiancentury.org, 4/7/24) In other words, we are Christ’s witnesses.
To be sure, Christ’s witnesses then and now encounter resistance. In Gregory Boyle’s book with the unusual title Barking to the Choir, he argues that contrary to culture always being hostile to Christianity, what culture objects to is “the inauthentic living of the gospel.”“There are those who refuse to be Christian because of Christians, because of what they see, or don’t see in the church,” writes Diane Roth. “But what is it they want to see? Do they want to see impossibly perfect lives? Do they want to see a kind of purity? Do they want to see us in our glory, drawing lines in the sand, excluding the unrighteous?” Roth concludes, “When we can no longer see Jesus, when those around us can no longer see Jesus, they are looking for him in our lives; they are looking for him in communities of faith that care for those who are needy, that sacrifice rather than hoard, that include rather than exclude, that listen before speaking.” (The Christian Century, April 2, 2018).
When Luke tells this story of Jesus with his disciples, there is a great line describing the disciples—“while in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering.” That description is not a problem of faith but an essential aspect of faith. Joy, disbelieving, wondering is the fertile soil from which courageous questions grow that can produce authentic and enduring faith. Each year when Donna Brown and I meet with our young people for the Membership and Baptism class, we ask for their questions…what are they wondering when it comes to God, faith, life, church? Each class is unique and wonderful, and this year’s group was both delightfully joyful and fun along with soberingly serious and honest. In fact, there was one 20-minute stretch when it was more intense than any other time since we have been leading, as everyone’s eyes and ears were locked onto each other as we all wondered and struggled with a question that had been asked. The question was, “Does God make or allow wars and why?” If we think our 5th graders and youth need to be entertained to come to faith, we are selling them short. They are asking hard questions and deserve our best, most courageous thinking for they want their faith to matter, to be authentic so that when people look to them, they will also see Jesus.
That was not the only question, as all total this group asked over 30 questions, and in their honesty and curiosity, their questions are worth our consideration.Their questions help work the soil of our faith. This group had several spirituality questions—“Why do we celebrate the Holy Ghost, Why do people speak in tongues, and How do you decide if water is holy?”We recalled that God’s Spirit is what abides with us just as Jesus promised, that there are varieties of ways to pray but one is never to presume arrogance when praying, and that anything God makes which is most everything is holy or sacred because God’s imprint is in it.They were also curious about the afterlife—“What happens when you die, How does God decide whether we go to heaven or hell, What does heaven look like, Why is there death in the world, and Why do we call some people saints?” Questions like these are humbling, and it gives adults the opportunity to say we don’t have all the answers which this group was okay with. Of course it is never enough to say we can’t answer every question—we must also say what we have come to believe so far; that sometimes over a lifetime our minds may well change; that God has not asked for anyone’s advice or assistance on heaven and hell consignment; that there are a variety of ways faith pictures heaven and the afterlife and that at least for me, it is a place of healing and comfort and renewal and continuing life with God whose love is pure and unbounded. Let’s say it again…our young people are asking deeply serious questions.
This group was also curious about creation or origin stories, so they asked “How did God create us, What language did Adam and Eve speak, God made Adam and Eve first, so why are we born as babies, How did Adam and Eve get their names, Why did God make giraffe’s necks so long, and How do we make sense of two understandings of the world?”, which essentially is asking about science and religion.Questions like these give us the opportunity to talk about different kinds of writing in the Bible and how something can be deeply true but not necessarily be factual (as an analogy we talked about Jesus’ parables), that the Bible is interested more in the questions of why and for what purpose while science and other disciplines are more interested in the questions of what and when and how. Each set of questions is seeking truth and understanding and all of that can help us lead a fuller, richer, more complete and caring life.We don’t have to pick and choose…we can learn from all sets of questions and that is very liberating. This group asked great questions about God--“How old are God and Jesus, What gender is God, Why do people think different things about God, Are Greek gods real, Did God create all languages, Where did God’s name come from, Why do people use the phrase ‘mother nature?’” So we talk about where various ideas from God originate and how Jesus gives us a way to think about God who is broader than the measure of our minds.They also asked the hardest questions of all—"Why do some people get hurt more easily, Why does God let bad things happen, Does God make or allow wars and why, Is there going to be a World War III, and How did Jesus feel when people wanted to kill him and were against him?” When questions like these are asked, we always say that for as long as people have had faith they have wondered about how God relates to the world, especially when hurtful or destructive things happen. No one has come up with a perfect answer; but however you answer hard questions like these, you can never go wrong with being caring, loving, and helpful especially when hard things happen, and that God is there through our empathy and care.Related but slightly different were these questions—"Why did God pick Mary, Why did God pick earth for humans, Is there a way we can know how God thinks?” That is the question that can help us respond to all the questions.
First and foremost, thank you for the questions, and thank you for being a church that not only welcomes but also seeks to live the questions. While we tried our best to answer each question, perhaps a general response to living an authentic faith might be helpful. May we endeavor to live a faith ruled not by fear but shared with compassion; faith not delineated in boundaries but expansive in practice; faith not riddled with vengeance but striving for reconciliation; faith not hammered into dogma but crafted by love. Now, there was one very practical, hits you where you live kind of question. “When we get baptized, is the water cold?” That is my question every year also. What I do know fully is that the waters are always inviting…of that we are all Christ’s witnesses.