Sermon Preached By Rev. Patti M. Smith - April 22, 2001

I have among my treasures many photograph albums and many more photos not yet in albums. They are filled with snapshots of my history and heritage. Several are burned into my memory as if they were etched into the back of my eyes. Me at about two years of age in my little white fake fur coat standing in our yard. My brother, Ramon, and me in the same yard holding our Easter baskets. when I was about two. Here are the two of Grandma and Grandpa Bennett sitting on the running board of their car. Mother and Dad standing by a fountain. So many memories are in these pages. Things I could not or would not remember if there were no snapshots to help me. In addition to the pictures, I have the stories told to me by my mother and my grandmother. What a richness it is to have snapshots, both pictures and stories, to help us remember the important people and events of our lives. An important part of my history, my family heritage, is in these snap shots. When my brother and I look at the pictures and talk about the events, we remember different things. Our experience, while in the same family, same Mother and Father, is different because we bring different perspectives. Different things were important to us.

I have another book. The Holy Bible. It holds all the snapshots, the stories, the wisdom, the heritage of our faith. These snapshots belong to all of us. They record for us God’s mighty acts of salvation. It’s not just history, but OUR history. It tells the Story of Jesus. It gives us our blueprint for a life of joy, of love, and of service to others as the people of God. Every Sunday we have a different snapshot to look at. These weekly scripture lessons give opportunity to remember a different part of God’s story. We seek to understand the reading, to look at its time and place in God’s revelation. We explore the ancient text to discover and extract the wisdom and truth therein. It is always our hope to be able to unlock the truth inside. Sometimes it takes many unlockings to begin to understand. But most of all, we want to discover what these ancient words have to do with us right now!

John’s gospel gives us a snapshot of Jesus’ disciples on the evening of the day of Jesus resurrection. Mary Magdalene’s grief had taken her, weeping, to the tomb where she expected to find her master’s lifeless body. Instead she found it empty. She was disturbed that someone had taken his body somewhere else and she knew not where. When she saw a man whom she supposed to be the gardener, she inquired of him as to where Jesus’ body may have been taken. We can certainly identify with Mary Magdalene’s sorrow and perplexity. We see a woman to whom Jesus had given new life. A woman who saw before her very eyes, this same Jesus, dearest friend, brutally killed and entombed in a borrowed grave. And now, to make it even worse, his body was gone from its resting-place. What an unbearable moment that must have been. Then the picture makes a dramatic change. The man to whom she spoke was not the gardener as she surmised, but was indeed her beloved friend and teacher! And there could be no doubt that it was truly he because she could never forget his voice and she had heard him, just now, standing in front of her speaking her name. At his direction to go and tell his disciples, she must have flown to the room where they were gathered. I can see her vividly in my mind, robes flying and feet barely touching the ground. Her announcement was simple but dramatic and to the point: "I have seen the Lord".

It was shortly after this announcement and the telling of her experience that we find ten of the eleven remaining disciples locked in the house where they were staying. Here they were, a group of grown men, locked in a house fearful that the Jews would come for them next! What a sorry sight they must have been. Can you not feel the floor shake as they trembled in their sandals? Then the Gospel simply says, "Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’." Now that is spooky! Locked room, bunch of fearful men who are still can hear Mary Magdalene’s message ringing in their ears, greeted by a man who came right through the locked door, was unmistakably their leader, whom they themselves had seen killed. But there he was in their midst, very real. They, like Mary, saw and believed! John gives us a part of the story not recorded in the other gospels. The story of Thomas. Thomas was not with them, he had not seen and he could not believe. When he joined them later, perhaps he saw himself to be the only sane one for what he was hearing them say simple could not be so. You and I owe Thomas a debt of gratitude. He asked our question. How can this be? Until we experience the risen Christ we can not believe.

Just how do we do that? In the face of a mother caring for her child. In the faces of young parents presenting their children for Holy Baptism, promising to teach the their sons and daughters, by word and example, what it means to be loved by God. Unconditionally. What it means to belong to God. In the faces of the poor and marginalized of this world. Those who live on the edges of society barely hanging on. In the face of the repentant sinner. In the face of the person sitting next to you in the pew.

This same John, the writer of Revelation, when the very young church was under severe persecution by the Romans, reminds the believers of the power of the risen Christ and of his promise to come again. He gives them encouragement to endure the pain because, what ever happens, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. We need that same encouragement. We need to be reminded again and again of the truly important things of this life. Sitting here today in the safety of our beautiful sanctuary, we find it hard to believe that there are places in our world today where Christians lives are in peril. Yet we heard such stories right here just four weeks ago. Perhaps our own peril comes in our hesitation to witness openly to our faith.

Our snapshot from Acts looks in on the same disciples whom we saw cowering in a locked house a short time earlier. Just look at the change which has come over them after meeting the Risen Christ and being empowered by the Holy Spirit. They have now been hauled before the High Priest and the Council and admonished to cease and desist from teaching nonsense in the name of Jesus. For after they received the power of the Spirit they began preaching and healing throughout the region. The Council was so enraged they wanted to kill them all! A voice of reason belonging to Gamaleil, a Pharisee in the council, spoke.

Remember, he said, there was another man earlier who had claimed to be somebody. He too had followers. We killed him and his followers scattered and nothing came of his teaching. There have been other cases that had the same fate. Leave these men alone. If this movement is of human origin, it too will fail. But if it is of God, there is nothing we can do to stop it.

Thank God for wise and courageous men and women of every generation who continue to speak truth even in the face ridicule or death.

All of these stories, these snapshots, speak to us of what is truly important and what needs to be first in our hearts and lives.

There was once a teacher who wanted to make her point in a visual way. She took a one-gallon wide-mouth jar, set it before her students and began to place large rocks into it. When no more rocks would fit she asked her class, "Is the jar full?" Yes, they replied. Then she took some small pebbles and poured it into the jar. Once again she asked the question, "Is the jar full now?" A timid reply came in questioning voice. "Yes?" Next the teacher poured sand into the jar. "How about now?" The students were on to her now so they ventured a "Probably not." Finally, the teacher took water and poured it into the jar along with the large rocks, the pebbles and the sand. She declared, to the relief of her students, "The jar is full now. Do you know what I want you to learn from this exercise?" The students offered a variety of answers. "This jar represents our lives. The rocks represent the truly important things in life. The gravel, the sand, and the water are all small trivial things that in the long run amount to nothing. The point is unless you put the big rocks in FIRST there will be no room. AMEN.

THE CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Most Holy God, it is with joyful hearts that we enter into the sanctuary in this season of Easter. We sing our Alleluias and shout our praises. We offer our profound thanks for the risen Christ whom we serve. In the presence of such holiness, we feel the low estate of our humanity. We frequently fail to choose words, and actions which reflect our commitment to Christ. We resemble the culture rather than the Christian community to which we are called. Yet, in your grace you accept us as we are. You forgive us, love us, and continue to provide us with many opportunities to be faithful disciples in our daily walk. Help us, O God, to be the people you have called us to be. Amen.