This is a special musical performance of River in Judea by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As many of you know, Ken and I now have seven grandchildren, three of them having entered this big, beautiful world in the past eight months.  And, I must say, I love being a grandma.  I love watching the little one’s grow, and I marvel at the rapid changes in their lives, changes that are daily taking place.  One of the things I find so fascinating is the independence that begins to develop at a very young age.  It does not take long for a little one to begin saying, “Me do it myself!” That self-will and determination set the stage for many challenges as children want to do multiple things for themselves, some of which are not always healthy and wise.  That fierce sense of independence and the development of self-identity is something that we as Americans hold dear.  Independence of self and the “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” mentality is a treasured aspect of American identity.  However, it is also something that runs contrary to Jesus’ teaching, especially today. 

I love what Nadia Bolz-Weber says as she reflects upon the challenge of today’s gospel reading.  She writes:

I’m nothing if not independent.  Reportedly my first sentence was “Do it self!”  Yes, I will do it myself, thank you.  See I want choices.  And I want independence….What I wish Jesus said is: “I am whatever you want me to be.  And you can be whatever you want to be: vine, pruner, branch, soil….knock yourself out.”  What Jesus actually said is: “I am the vine.  My Father is the vine grower.  You are the branches.”  Dang.  The casting has already been finalized.  Vines, and branches off of vines, are all tangled and messy and it’s just too hard to know what is what…Not only are we dependent on Jesus, but our lives are uncomfortably tangled up together.  The Christian life is a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled mess of us and Jesus and others.  Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self!” set.

Yes, Christianity is a lousy religion for the “do it self” set.  And, nowhere does Jesus teach more clearly that we are not independent do-it-yourself-ers than here in today’s gospel reading.  You see, nowhere does Jesus demonstrate more clearly that we cannot go it alone, that we cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps when life puts us down, and that it is completely unreasonable to expect anyone else to either.  Today’s gospel reading is all about being connected to the vine, remaining connected and staying connected throughout this life journey we all are traveling.  It is not about independence, do it alone, and “me do it myself.” 

As we enter into today’s gospel, we find ourselves back on that evening of Maundy Thursday in John’s account of the Jesus story.  Jesus knows he is about to die, leaving the disciples behind.  So, he is urging them to remain in him, stay connected to him, and remain in fellowship with each other.  Jesus is saying to the disciples and to each one of us, “Stay connected.  Live in relationship to me.  And, stay connected and live in relationship to each other.  Make your home in me just as I do in you.  Continue on in my teaching and example and remain in fellowship with each other.”  And, he gives us this wonderful image of the vine and branches.

Now, if we think about wild grapevines, or any vine for that matter, one thing we soon realize is that vines and branches are tangled and messy.  And the truth of the matter is that our lives, our families, and our places of work or study or play are all messy places.  Life is just that way.  And, sometimes, as Nadia says, it is just too hard to know what is what.  Life is just a vine-y, branch-y, jumbled, tangled mess.  Yet, when we look at a cultivated grapevine, we can see that the vine grower has put an anchor to the main vine.  The branches are sorted out, trained and even disciplined.  There is a wire structure that supports the vine from below and from above.  All of the dead branches have been removed.  And, the vines and branches that are cultivated end up producing large quantities of grapes. 

With this image that Jesus shares, he shows us that Christ is the source of all life.  Our very existence is dependent on God, who nurtures and cultivates us.  We are not and cannot be the vine that gives life to all.  Neither are we the vine grower, the one who cultivates, stakes, supports and yes, prunes the branches, though sometimes we try to claim this authority.  We are the branches and, if we are to flourish, we need to stay connected to the vine, abide and remain dependent on the vine.

To abide is all about remaining, staying, taking up residence, and making one’s self at home.  It is about living in the community of Christ, participating in the life of that community, and staying connected to that community.  When we abide in Christ, God’s love is perfected in our lives.  When we abide in Christ, love grows in us, casting out fear and hatred, and empowering us to act boldly.

Abiding in Christ means admitting that we are not independent, do-it-yourself-ers who can boast saying, “Me do it myself,” or “I did it my way.”  Abiding in Christ means accepting that we are dependent on Christ and on each other.  It means graciously receiving the support Christ offers us, most often through the caring of our brothers and sisters.  It also means consenting to be pruned.  It means letting go of the things that hinder our growth in love, things like fear and hatred, greed and jealousy, grudges and resentment, shame and guilt, and all the other vine-y, branch-y, tangled things that mess us all up.  And, abiding in Christ is always about belonging, belonging to the One who gives us life, life that truly matters.  You see, this abiding in Christ is all about relationship.

The relational connectedness Jesus is speaking of is a connectedness that is only found through experiencing life together within the context of a faith community.  And, yes, living in this kind of relationship, abiding in Christ and staying connected to Christ the vine, means it is not always going to be comfortable or easy.  It can be difficult.  Living in relationship with others requires give and take.  Such living requires us to be vulnerable.  Living in relationship with others means there will be ups and downs as we travel this journey together.  You see, living life together in community means we have to put up with real people, some who are nice and some who are not, some who want things their way and others who don’t want to challenge the status quo.  Quite frankly, life together means having to put up with people who are sometimes jerks.  And, let’s be very honest about something – it also means recognizing and having to admit that sometimes we are the ones who are being the jerks.  The truth is, real, authentic community is something we often would rather shy away from because it can be uncomfortable.  And, because we do not like to be uncomfortable, we are sometimes like a little child who says, “Me do it myself, I don’t need anyone else.” 

However, today Jesus invites us to be real, to be deeply connected, to be planted in the very life of God and live in intimate relationship with him and with each other.  Jesus invites us to be honest about who we are and what we are.  Jesus invites us to come together and confess our hopes and fears, to share our dreams and disappointments, to be honest about our accomplishments and our failures, to be open about our blessings and our sin, and to be dependent on Him.  In Jesus, we are invited into deep, authentic relationship with one another so that we can discover we are accepted, loved and forgiven by God who loves this whole world enough to send the Son. 

It is by being connected, being planted in God and participating in Christian community, that we learn what real love is all about.  When we stay connected to the vine and live together in authentic Christian community, the love that happens and is born enables us to then love others as we have been loved.  It is that kind of love that brings others in and grafts them to the vine.  And, it is that love that sends us out to make a difference in people’s lives both here and around the world as love becomes the fruit of living in relationship to God and others.

This is a special musical performance of Love is Come Again performed by the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance of Psalm 23, adapted and performed by Ryan & Addie Thompson

This is a special musical presentation by the Joyful Noise Childrens' Choir of the songs: Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land and Lord, I life Your Name on High. 

This is a special musical Flute solo presentation by Gwen Kadrofske of Songs Without Words by Felix Mendelssohn.

Pastor Ellen:

The 23rd Psalm is probably the most beloved and most well-known Psalms in scripture.  It is frequently the scripture passage families choose to be used for funerals of a loved one.  It is one of the go-to-texts for connection with God in times of trouble, tragedy and concern.  Many people know this Psalm by heart and the first three verses, describing peaceful, pastoral images, seem to provide enormous comfort to people.  So, I think it is fitting that on this Earth Day, we are given a scripture passage that describes this beautiful pastoral scene.

Natalie:

We 21st century earth dwellers live in a world of pavement and concrete, a world of hustle and bustle, a world of traffic and long indoor work days. Our waking hours are often filled with stress. On our time off many of us seek refuge, if only for an hour or two, at parks or other places with green pastures and still waters. The imagery of the 23rd Psalm leads us mentally to a place where we can experience earth in its calmer natural state so that we can rest and be restored, sit beside bodies of water, lay in a pasture of green grass, or walk and play in such places that provide the tranquility of creation. In a sense, this Psalm poetically transports us to the peace and quiet of the Garden of Eden in our minds, to places where we are protected from the din and bustle and hardships of life.

Ellen H:

Psalm 23 serves to bring us closer to God, and to remind us that with God we can know and understand a great measure of peace, that there is something bigger than us, the power of the universe, a power that cares so much for our seemingly little beings, that it desires our tranquility.  Indeed, that creating power intended such places for us, and will, if we let it, lead us to them. God, the maker of the vast universe, has time and lovingly cares deeply for us.   We can actually sense this in the psalm.  It creates for the reader of any faith a rare written portal, a thin place of words and images, which can bring us to experience God.

Warren:

It’s great to hear and experience in Psalm 23 a closeness to God and be transported to a greater sense of God’s presence through it.  However, we sell Psalm 23 short if we fail to take time to notice it is also rich with other meanings and lessons and Godly calls. Psalm 23 can teach us much about God and us and this little place called earth that matters to God in an expansive gigantic universe.

On this Earth Day, we come together and set aside this time to honor, revere and consider this amazing planet, this incredible, abundant, beautiful biosphere that we inhabit. Psalm 23 honors and reveres the earth too. In addition to the call to return in our minds to images of Eden and the great and wonderful connection with God, we can also hear in this Psalm an ode to God’s earth . . . creation.

Marla:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  The Hebrew version of that phrase, “I shall not want,” isn’t about our not wanting, as modern Americans hear it. That is, it’s not about our every desire being fulfilled with God as our shepherd.   The Hebrew words translated as “I shall not want,” are much better translated into modern English as “I shall lack nothing.”  The point is not that we will get everything we ask for or desire, but rather God will provide all that is needed to live securely.

Tammy:

In Psalm 23, “God as our shepherd” is meant to imply that we are God’s sheep.  That should be obvious.  And, the green pastures, that is the healthy earth God leads us to and gives to us, is a tranquil place where we can safely lie. We tend to get that. But what we miss, and what is also meant in this Psalm, is that the green grass is intended to be a place with enough food and clean air.  Sheep eat green, that is, new grass. A green pasture is to lambs what a prepared table and overflowing cup is to humans. It’s a banquet of abundance. The Psalm’s reference to green pastures needs to be heard as God providing enough air and sustenance, our daily bread, and guiding us to it.

Similarly, still waters are not just a healthy place where we can stop to rest and enjoy the water.  While still waters are created to be that, we need to also hear that good water provides the rest for what a shepherd’s flock needs from the earth; good, clean, safe water.  Sheep drink best from still water, there’s less risk of falling in.  When there are still waters, it is also easier for the shepherd to watch the flock and insure the water is clean and calming.  And, that same shepherd keeps us on the right paths, so we do not get hurt by dangerous things, or hurt ourselves, or others, or creation.

Tula:

It’s important to note that God leads us to these things, to green pastures and still waters, and to follow on right paths. We are to follow. And following a lead requires effort. This Psalm, from an Earth Day perspective, is not about God magically fixing things!   You see, shepherds work hard, and they do not bend the natural law to fix what wanton sheep might sully. They also do not do all the work.  Shepherds lead, and sheep follow. This Psalm is not to be heard as God doing all the work to protect us from our own refusals to follow, or from our actions or inactions which lead us not to green pastures or still waters or right paths.  When we choose actions or inactions that get us off the good path, such actions lead to desecration of the water or pastures or air, and we hurt ourselves, others or creation. When we do our part and follow the good shepherd, God gives us good things. And God wants us to have them. They are what we need. But, we have to do our part. If we as sheep show up, get off the good paths and turn the grass brown, or stir the water up with pollution, that is not God’s doing, and it is not what God wants or leads us to.

Cecelia:

Creation is presently in danger and, regardless of whether we think there are catastrophic consequences on the horizon, we need to be worried that we might not be properly tending to the green pastures and still waters and clean air that God wants for us.   We need to be concerned that we might not be properly tending to this gift of creation that God has given, one intended for us to be led to and to lead future generations to.

Jack:

Theologically, Earth Day can be understood as a secular reflection of our wanting those poetic images in the 23rd Psalm to be there for us and for posterity in real forms – places we can really go for the tranquility and peace addressed in the Psalm.  The Lord is our Shepherd.  This Psalm calls us to follow God’s lead down paths of righteousness for all creation, and for generations to come.  And so, as we reflect this day on God’s creation around us and the work that lies before us, we know that in this task we are not alone. We know that God walks with us, that the incarnate Christ joins the earth in groaning for the healing of all creation, and that there is a way out of the dark valley if we can allow ourselves to be led by the trustworthy voice of the Good Shepherd.  May we be equipped to distinguish and heed this voice, one that guides, cajoles, urges us to follow the paths of goodness and mercy. May we recognize the goodness of the earth’s complex, beautiful systems and feel mercy for those who suffer disproportionately from the effects of environmental degradation. And, may we have ears to hear the voice of the earth, one that has been speaking all along and desperately needs our attention.

For those of you who either read her book or were able to come and hear Jacqueline Bussie in February, you will remember she talked about the many unspoken “rules” or “laws” Christians so often feel they must obey, rules that are often more harmful than helpful.  Bussie urges us to be Outlaw Christians and break some of those rules.  She describes Outlaw Christianity as a new, life-giving faith for those who ache for a more authentic relationship with God and other people by no longer having to hide their doubt, anger, grief, scars, or questions.  Jacqueline says that one of the unspoken laws people tend to follow is this:  Don’t doubt.  Doubt is faith’s opposite and is therefore sinful.  She suggests most people have grown up believing this very harmful rule.  Bussie then reminds us, as theologian Paul Tillich did, that doubt is a very necessary element in faith.  In fact, a living faith includes doubt and such doubt requires risk and courage.  Bussie, when talking about doubt being a good and necessary element in faith, writes:

How can doubt, rooted as it is in uncertainty, be a good thing, or at the very least an acceptable thing?  For starters, we should acknowledge and name the doubt within us because, much like snot and passing gas, doubt is natural and human – that is to say, embarrassing and unwelcome but real and impossible to be healthy without, much as we want to pretend otherwise.  But more than just natural, doubt is also necessary, healthy, and good for our faith life.  Doubt functions as a robust spiritual virtue, rather than faith’s wimpy opposite. (Outlaw Christian, p.50)

Well, in today’s gospel, we come face to face with doubt.   And, while doubt comes to the forefront in the story of Thomas, the truth is that all the disciples were experiencing doubt.  You see, it is the day of the resurrection and here we find the disciples sitting in a room behind locked doors because of fear, doubt, and quite likely more than a little shame.  They have blown it completely, they are hiding in fear, and they are doubting everything their master had said.  And, what I find so fascinating is that, in the gospel of John, when Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection, nobody initially recognizes him.  Notice in the beginning of today’s reading, the disciples do not recognize him until Jesus shows them his hands and side.  They all doubted him!  They doubted it was Jesus!  It is only after Jesus shows them his hands and side that the disciples rejoice because they have seen the Lord.  While the other disciples also have experienced doubt, for some strange reason, only Thomas gets labeled “doubter.” 

Far too often we judge Thomas because of his doubt.  We need to cut him some slack and give him a break.  In Thomas we find the yearning of one who wants to see with his eyes and touch with his hands that of which he has been told.  He has real questions, real concerns, and a desire for a real encounter with the risen Lord.  I think the story of Thomas captures our hearts and minds because we, too, were absent to the Resurrection experience two thousand years ago.  When faced with the mystery of the Resurrection, the story of Thomas names that part in each of us that wants to scream out, “Show me!”

Thomas has just had a very harsh encounter with reality.  Reality had hit hard in the form of a cross when his dear friend had been crucified.  And, when he fled that horrible scene, not only had Jesus died, Thomas’ hopes and dreams had also died.  Jesus’ crucifixion had destroyed his hopes for the future and very poignantly reminded him that there is an end.  And, it is the same for us.  When the harsh realities of life hit us – whether it be the death of a family member, the loss of a job, an unexpected illness, a broken relationship, or whatever – reality deeply cuts into our hopes, our dreams, the very fabric of our relationships, and we are reminded that there is an end.  There is an end over which we have no control as we feel we have been taken captive by an extremely cruel conqueror.  And, we usually experience doubt!

The reality that sliced into his hopes and dreams left Thomas emotionally bleeding and broken.  As he again joins the community of disciples, within the context of those who proclaim Jesus is alive, Thomas lays bare his doubt.  He is very honest about his doubt as he says, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  In the depth of his despair Thomas articulates his doubt, and it is in that place where he is now confronted with the risen Christ.  It is in that place of despair that Thomas is greeted by the risen Lord whose presence exudes forgiveness and grace as he hears the words, “Peace be with you.”  In that moment, Thomas knows he is in the presence of God and he believes. 

Theologian, David Lose, describes the experience of Thomas in this way:

When Thomas is greeted by the forgiveness and grace embodied in the words, “Peace be with you,” he instantly believes and makes the great confession of John’s gospel: “My Lord and my God!”  In a heartbeat Thomas knows that he is in the presence of God, has been saved and redeemed by that God, and that he will never be the same again. 

Thomas lays bare his doubt which takes him to this encounter with the grace of God, embodied and enfleshed in the risen Lord Jesus.  Doubt drives him to question and it takes him to this place where he is encountered by the risen Lord and his entire reality is changed.  Wow!!  Did you get that?  Reality itself has changed.  The despairing Thomas does not escape from the real world and there is not a break from the tangible reality of the world.  No.  But, there is something very different, something very, very new.  God’s grace and God’s kingdom have invaded the real world, transformed it and nothing will ever be the same again. 

I think Thomas experiences Easter in the way many of us begin to experience it.  Thomas finally gets Easter when he brings forth his questions. He wants to see and touch. He wants tangible proof and needs his own encounter before he can trust the story.  It is doubt that compels Thomas to ask the questions and it is doubt that takes him to the place where he is looking for what is really real and what truly matters.  You see, without doubt, our faith is shallow and rootless.  We fail to go down deep.  And, quite honestly, if we do not express doubts and have only certainty, it closes us off to the newness that we so long for.  Doubt is a sign of a healthy and deep-rooted faith, though most of us are taught to believe the opposite.  And, when doubt takes us to the deeper places in faith our reality changes.  We are transformed and our perspective on all of life changes.

The story of Thomas and doubt is one of the most compelling, believable, realistic stories in the Bible because it is our story.  Doubt is an element of faith because it gives birth to the questions that arise which take us to the deeper places in life.  So, be honest about your doubt.  Doubt functions as a robust spiritual virtue, rather than faith’s wimpy opposite.  In fact, doubt and the questions that arise are the heartbeat of our faith!   They enable us to be open to the newness of the risen Christ.   And, the risen Christ is always breaking into our doubt and the questions we ask, transforming our lives and making us new.  Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

This is the special music, Festival Introit for Easter sung by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is the special music, Now is Christ Risen by Handel and Hopson sung by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

I am sure many of you remember the closing theme song on the PBS show, Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, which was hosted by puppeteer, Shari Lewis.  It was “The Song That Doesn’t End.”  “This is a song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends….”  At the end of each episode, the puppets and children would sing several continual verses as that song just keeps going on and on, and Shari Lewis would in vain try to stop them.  It was one of those songs that just kept repeating inside your head.  The Song That Never Ends.  Well, today we come to celebrate another song that does not end…the song of joy and of hope, the song of the resurrected Lord.  And, this is a song that keeps repeating in our being for the rest of our lives.

The beginning of the end in Mark’s gospel is very much like the other gospels.  It is early on Sunday morning and the women are headed to the tomb while it is still dark.  In their grief, they are carrying spices to embalm Jesus’ body because they had not been able to do this when he was wrapped in linen and placed in the tomb. On that horrible Friday afternoon of Jesus’ death, the Sabbath was about to begin, and even anointing a body was forbidden work on the Sabbath.  So, the women arrive at the tomb and are astonished when they discover the massive stone that had blocked the entrance has already been rolled away.  And, equally alarming to them, is the stranger they find in the tomb, a man dressed in white, who tells them, “Do not be afraid.  Jesus, who was crucified, has been raised.  He is not here.  Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee…just as he told you.”  Well, if the trauma and horror of the past days had not been enough, this stranger now tells them to not be afraid and go back and tell the others Jesus has been raised and will meet them in Galilee!  And, it is here where Mark’s gospel, which by the way was the first gospel to be written, is very different from the other gospels.  Mark’s last words to us are, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

That’s it folks!  That is all we get!  That is all Mark gives us.  In fact, the risen Jesus never actually makes an appearance in Mark’s gospel.  We have a resurrection scene without Jesus that seemingly ends in failure. The women not only fail miserably as they leave in terror, they also say absolutely nothing to anyone!   This is quite a cliffhanger to say the least!

Now, it is true that most of you will find in your Bibles a few additional verses to Mark’s gospel.  However, those additional verses were added a few hundred years later by monks who found Mark’s ending so unsettling and unfinished they had to “fix it.”  Yet, the stark reality and truth we face on this Easter morning is that Mark’s gospel concludes by deliberately not concluding!  Theologian, Tom Long, describes this unfinished-ness so well when he says the writer of Mark’s gospel finishes the story of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “by dangling something incomplete and unsatisfying before the reader in the final verse….. Not only does this verse fail to provide proper narrative closure, it also lurches to an awkward grammatical stop because a more literal translation of the Greek would read, ‘To no one anything they said; afraid they were for...’  It is almost as if the author of Mark had suddenly been dragged from his writing desk in midsentence.” Mark’s gospel story ends very abruptly, unfinished, and the risen Jesus never appears.

So, why would Mark end his telling of the Jesus story in this manner?  What gives?  What is going on?  Well, Mark not only was a good storyteller, he knew exactly what he was doing.  If we look at the opening verse in Mark’s gospel, Mark 1:1, we find these words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  The entire gospel of Mark is only the beginning of the story.  Mark uses a cliffhanger to invite us into the story.  Mark’s gospel really ends unfinished because the gospel story is always beginning again, anew for every person, in every time and place.  This open-ended gospel that threatens to end in failure places us where the women left off.  We are invited into the story to go and tell the good news that this person, Jesus of Nazareth, has been raised and is going ahead of us to meet us, just as he promised.  And, did you notice where Jesus is going?  The man in white tells the women Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee!  That is where they will meet him.  Galilee was home, the place where Jesus and the disciples were from, the place where they lived their ordinary day to day lives.  This is significant because, as we hear this story, we are told Jesus will meet us in the ordinary places of life, those places where we spend our day to day lives.

Joan Mitchell, in her book Beyond Fear and Silence, suggests the three women who left that tomb in terror and silence in Mark’s narrative, bring each of us, the readers and hearers, to our own thresholds of faith, to the limit of words to speak the unspeakable….and to the limit of human experience to trust Who or What is beyond death….the narrative still calls the disciples of each new generation to speak for themselves, and bring the gospel into dialogue with our lives. (p. 115)

Yes, we are called to bring the gospel into dialogue with our lives.  That dialogue happens in the depth of human pain and suffering as we discover the crucified, risen Christ is present to us.  That dialogue happens when we find ourselves in the depths of failure, when we fail miserably and discover the crucified, risen Christ is present to us.  In the depth of such pain and despair, in the messiness of our own lives, we meet the crucified, risen Christ and we discover hope.  Today’s gospel tells us that we meet real hope that is rooted in the love of a very real God who walks with us and meets us in the depth of all the messiness, all the mixed-up-ness, all the joys, all the sorrows and the real “stuff” of our everyday lives.  And, the song of the crucified, risen Christ becomes our song because that unending pattern of dying and rising is the story of our lives.

We live in a world where we like closure and happy endings.  When we read books and see movies, we want closure and happy endings. However, when we finish reading a book with a happy ending, we put it down and simply say, “Great story!”  The gospel of Mark, with its unfinished ending, is very different because you cannot put it down, even if you want to.  The gospel good news is the never-ending story!  The crucified, risen Christ walks with us as the Jesus story continues to be written in our own lives, and we joyfully sing out the victorious song that never ends!  Today, we celebrate the hope we have been given as a community of Faith, hope rooted in the love of the risen Christ who lives among us!  We celebrate the hope of the never-ending story, the song that never ends, the song of the risen Christ who is always, always bringing life out of death.  We celebrate the hope of the risen Christ who goes before us and is drawing us into a new future, making us ever new!  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!