Alpha & Omega

5^th Sunday of Easter; Yr. C, April 28, 2013

Acts 11:1-18;  Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

            Today we will begin reading Richard Rohr’s book called “Falling Upward”.  In it Rohr talks about what he calls the two halves of the spiritual life.  The first half being the time when we build what he calls, “the proper container” for our lives.  We answer such questions as “what will I do”, “who am I”, “how do I support myself”?  That first half of life is primarily concerned with issues of life, success and security … externals.  The second half of life, he says, is more concerned with what fills us.  It takes into account the fact that we are part of a community.  We’re concerned about what feeds us, but also about how our life affects others.  We acknowledge ourselves as part of a community.

            In Revelation, God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”  God sees all time in one fell swoop, not in halves.  God sees us as a baby at our mother’s breast and lying in our bed close to death … all in the same instant … in all its completeness.  We see in linear time, and so beginnings and endings are discreet events, like the gun shot at the start of a race, and the checkered flag at the finish; alpha and omega exist at two ends of the spectrum.  We can only live one moment at a time even if our minds jump ahead to the future or get stuck in the past. 

A Story Rewritten for Us

This sermon wasn't written in full, so the text is limited.  In conversation with the congregation we "wrote" it together from their memories and ideas.  What you have here are my initial notes.

3^rd Sunday of Easter; Yr. C, April 14, 2013

Acts 9:1-6, (7-20);  Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

            Thomas Troeger wrote a reflection about the reading from John in Feasting on Word.[1]  He says that the story John is telling in today’s gospel echoes other stories in the gospel, stories the people would remember.  Let’s take some time and look at it again … maybe some of you don’t even need to.  What phrases or images remind you of other stories we know in the life of Jesus? 

Doubt It

2^nd Sunday of Easter; Yr. C, April 7, 2013

Acts 5:27-32;  Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

            The disciples are brought before the high priests.  They’re called in for a tongue lashing.  “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.”  The Jewish leaders went to great lengths to discredit Jesus, and to dismantle his growing religious faction in Jerusalem and beyond.  They took him to Pilate and Herod.  They did everything in their power to get him convicted of treason.  When that didn’t work, they stirred up the crowds to get him crucified.  It was better for one to die, then for all their lives to be put in jeopardy.

            But Jesus didn’t die.  At least, he didn’t stay dead.  He started appearing to people, showing up in upper rooms and on the beach.  Talking to them, walking with them and eating fish with them.  Tongues of fire came down from heaven and rested on the disciples and they could speak in languages that weren’t their own.  The high priests hadn’t counted on any of that.  How could they?  Who would have imagined anything like this happening?  Who wouldn’t doubt something like that?   

He is risen! Really?

Easter Sunday; Yr. C, March 31, 2013

Isaiah 65:17-25:12;  Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-12

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

            Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The Lord is risen indeed!  Today is the day we celebrate Christ’s continuing presence in our lives, and not only our lives, but in the life of the world.  Today we hear the story of Christ’s escape from the tomb, and the absolute incredulity of his followers to that fact.  In John’s version, no one believes the women.  Only Peter heads off to the tomb to check things out for himself.  Everyone else is quite sure that such a thing as resurrection … literally coming back from the dead … is impossible.  It doesn’t make any more sense to us either, but at least we have the witness of Peter to go on.  Peter ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves.  Jesus was indeed gone, but had he truly risen?  Was he really alive again?