6 Easter
22 May 2022
Mysteries seem to be a popular form of literature. There is certainly great variation in the genre; with some of the best fiction writers devoted to it. I have been a fan of the “who-done-its” since before I was an adolescent. The classical murder mystery centers around just that question: who killed Col Mustard? I am sure it was Mrs. Peacock using a candlestick. Yet the best writers create memorable characters: Sherlock Holmes, Ms. Marple, and Philip Marlowe are among the most famous names in all of literature. Nan likes several contemporary writers and Jack Reacher is one of her favorite characters. Me, I like Nevada Barr’s character Anna Pidgeon, a National Park ranger who always manages to get herself in and out of trouble and has all the outdoor skills I wish I had learned. Then there is my all-time favorite trio: Mrs. Murphy the cat, Tee Tucker the corgi, and Mary Haristeen the human. Yes, light reading I admit, but who can resist a corgi and a cat who talk to one another and solve mysteries?
Whatever your flavor in mystery novels, or for that matter any good or great novel, the draw is in the unexpected twists and turns. If I want bland predictability, I will watch Hallmark TV shows. There is a time for Hallmark, especially when we simply need a feel-good story. Most great novels are not feel-good stories. They are stories of the unexpected, just as are great mysteries. In the best mysteries, the clues are there but often obscure. So it seems with the life and work of Jesus. We think we know the stories and can follow the clues, but everything is unexpected. It is like me hunting for morel mushrooms; I know where I should find them, but they are not there. I always find them in unexpected and unpredictable places, like the middle of my yard.
Jesus does not try to delude or fool us, but he certainly surprises us. All of scripture is full of surprises; God does unexpected things. Just when we think we have it figured out, in walks Miss Marple to tell us why we have it all wrong.
While our faith may be founded on some rock-solid assumptions and beliefs, those certainties are but a small part of what constitutes Christianity. I realize that many denominations lean heavily on certitude, and it does make it easy if you follow a formula or set of rules of practice knowing the prize will be yours in the end.
I would much rather embrace ambiguity and expect the unexpected AND be willing to change my assumptions about what constitutes the reign of God.
Paul was, I believe, a fanatic and a radical, but not someone who would never admit he needed to change courses or even change beliefs. For that matter, even Peter knew when he was being called to a bigger and broader mission. Last week we heard all about his vision and how he came to understand what he expected (salvation for Jews) was not to be the full mode of operation.
Paul has a vision: head to Europe. The message needed to be delivered there. Don’t wait for folks to come to you (and I suspect that means don’t count on them walking in your church doors) but rather go to them and do what we could call a needs assessment. So Paul, and his companion (who is the narrator in the first person), head off on a great adventure. Christianity enters Europe, only it was not called Christianity but rather The Way. So they scope the place out and come to understand they need to go down to the riverbank. Now I must hand it to Paul and his companion, they do not voice any trepidations about talking to a group of women. Go Paul!! He has already learned that the Spirit moves in ways he does not always discern and Paul has no issues working with women. He gets a bad rap about the role of women in the church from later writings that were not even his.
Everyone is standing on the riverbank and Lydia, who already worships the Hebrew god, has her eyes further opened and she has her own come to Jesus moment. I keep thinking about O Brother, Where Art Thou. The wandering prison escapees come to the river where a mass full immersion baptism is taking place and one of them becomes so filled with the spirit he jumps in and the preacher hauls him under the water. Meanwhile Alison Kraus is belting out I Went Down to the River to Pray. Maybe something like that happened for Lydia and Paul. The conversion took hold mightily; Lydia’s home became the first church in Europe, and she steadfastly supported Paul. The later church conveniently forgot much of what Lydia did and that she was, for all practical purposes, the leader of the church in Philippi. It was Paul’s favorite and most special place; one of the few where serious problems did not occur. Lydia was a wealthy Roman woman called by God and who help found a church where classes mixed, very unusual for Roman society. Expect the unexpected and always be open to the Gospel in new ways.
Now the man who was sick for thirty-eight years either had a great deal of patience or no imagination, or both. Our version of the Bible read today (NRSV) omits something that I think is crucial to understanding the problem: The King James says , “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” You would think, after 38 years, he would have found some way to make it into the pool. Jesus knows what he wants, the question in rhetorical. But he does not lift him into the pool; he does the unexpected: heals him on the spot. As usual it was the Sabbath and the rule keepers said to the man, “You are breaking the rules buddy; you can’t carry your bedroll.” Now I ask you, why aren’t they amazed that someone who was an invalid for 38 years is walking and carrying his bedroll? God will always be doing the unexpected when it is an act of mercy, justice, or love.
That’s not the end of the unexpected in today’s readings!! Revelation, the misunderstood book not of the end of the earth and the salvation of a few but of heaven and earth restored and the place where heaven and earth meet and creation, as it is portrayed in the second chapter of Genesis, is restored. Revelation is a book of hope.
What is your vision of heaven? John of Patmos says the city comes to earth from heaven. There is no need for a house of worship because Godself and Jesus are there. There are 12 gates, not one but twelve, and the gates are always open. I repeat, always open. No, not everyone may enter, and it seems over the centuries lots of pundits have been quite sure they knew who was in and who was out. Pretty sure Domitian, the Roman emperor at the time the book was composed, was not on the party list. Otherwise I think we had best leave the guest list to God and the Lamb.
We are now experiencing heaven on earth, full of water and fruit to sustain life and with leaves for healing of all the nations!! No night, no need for a lamp because God provides all the light that is needed.
Jesus, and God, are always doing something unexpected and it is all Good, with a capital G. You don’t have to figure it all out; all you must do is practice love, justice, and mercy and the rest will follow, although never in the way you plan.
Amen.
댓글