Dr. Rev. Jim Antal provides the sermon to Faith Lutheran Church in Okamos, Michigan on April 24, 2022.
This is a special musical performance of Rain Down by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos Michigan.
This is a special musical performance of Gaelic Alleluia by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran church in Okemos, Michigan.
John 20:1-18
There is so much chaos in today's scripture passage.
We don't like chaos.
We like our scripture to be neat, straightforward and tidy
Just how we like our schedules and our plans for the next great thing
Just how we like ourselves, smart and on top of things
Just how we like God, predictable and in control /
But on this Easter morning, in the story of Jesus' resurrection
Our likes are challenged as we're thrown into chaos and unknowing
We zoom in on Mary Magdalene and enter the messiness of her reality
Friday she witnessed the horror of the crucifixion of her friend, her teacher
Her beloved
He was cruelly crucified and discarded
Saturday she honored the Sabbath as best she could
Perhaps out of a chaotic mixture of obligation, fear, devotion and desperation
And this morning, while it is still dark, she leaves her home for Jesus' tomb.
Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons Jesus cast out
Mary Magdalene, Jesus closest companion
Mary Magdalene, who's been up all night with blood-shot eyes and tear-soaked bed sheets
She's like us, wanting to create order in the midst of chaos
She’s like us, preferring to control situations
She has been waiting to DO something about this mess
So, she plows through her grief-laden, exhausted, and fearful fog
And goes to the tomb
Alone
In the dark
An act of resistance with great risk,
To anoint Jesus' body. / /
When she arrives she sees that things aren't as she expected
The stone is rolled away
So she runs to get some others - and they run to see... out-running each other
All this running adds to the chaos of this early Sunday morning
They run full-out and find the tomb empty
With the burial cloths left behind
We glimpse the perspective of "the other disciple" - who wasn't even named here
He had faith, he believed - and went back home with Peter
His perspective would offer a much neater and tidier ending
The other disciple demonstrates the predictability we prefer
But the story plunges us back into chaos
with the perspective of Mary Magdalene
Who stayed \ \ and wept
She didn't find faith in the empty tomb - she only found tears
When I think about Mary Magdalene, I wonder about the seven demons that Jesus cast out of her.
I wonder if they were like the demons we struggle with today?
The demons that hang out inside our minds and our culture
Demons like unworthiness,
Maybe shame
Fear
Maybe a bit of self-justification,
Control
Or the longing for power \ \
I wonder if these demons were gone forever
Or if maybe, like with us, they crept back into Mary's mind when she was not at her best
I wonder if Mary believed that she was healed
Or if she gave all the credit to her incredible teacher and friend, Jesus
As she clung to him.
She followed him around, learning all she could, hanging onto his every word
Because he made her better
I wonder about these demons because we all struggle with demons
And, like faith, healing isn't straightforward, neat or tidy
So this morning we zoom in on Mary Magdalene in the midst of this chaos and she seems stuck / / entombed
Entombed in her disbelief
Entombed in her grief
Entombed in her hopelessness
Entombed in the old, well-worn paths of those seven demons
It doesn't seem like she believed that Jesus is God,
Who conquers all things, including death
As she sat and wept / /
She knew Jesus best,
She was one of his closest companions
And yet here she sits, crying and entombed in her old thinking / /
The chaos continues as Mary turns around and sees a man,
maybe the gardener
She doesn't recognize him
He asks her - why are you crying? Who are you looking for?
Then Mary challenges him,
In spite of her tear soaked cheeks she finds a bit of courage and says
"Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Mary wants Jesus back.
Mary is willing to do whatever it takes to be near him, to touch him one more time
To cling to him
This situation is so chaotic and she's grasping for anything to regain some control
With Jesus things weren't so chaotic
With Jesus her demons couldn't take up much space inside her head
With Jesus it seemed she was on top of things
With Jesus Mary didn't have to believe because the schedule was packed and they were on to the next great thing
"Mary!"
He calls her name
"Mary!"
She turns and says "Teacher!"
You can imagine the mixture of emotions in her voice
It's him!
The chaos continues to swirl in this moment twisting tears, grief, joy, laughter, confusion and recognition into this single word
Teacher!
Mary longs to hold onto Jesus… yet
Jesus tells her "Do not hold on to me...but go"
But go
Jesus knows the society and culture Mary lives in, with its domination and oppression
Jesus knows the risk he’s asking Mary to take, as a woman
Jesus knows Mary’s past and present, all the things that hold her back
And he tells her to Go
Her healing is not about the person of Jesus whose every word she clung to and every act she observed
It's about the One to whom Jesus pointed
It's about the One Jesus reflected
It's about the One Jesus embodied
It's about God, Jesus the Christ, the Holy Spirit within which all things are possible
And in this moment, I think Mary Magdalene was truly healed of her seven demons
Because before she didn't believe she was whole
She gave all that credit to her amazing teacher, Jesus
But now Jesus tells her not to cling to him
/ / Friends, we are Mary / /
We become entombed in our old thinking
We cling to ideas and people - things we think make us better
Things like power and control
Things like dependence and the limitations of the way things are
Our demons continue to race around inside our minds
As we hurry on to the next great thing
Today, we are Mary
We doubt that God heals us
We doubt that God frees us and raises US
We doubt that God calls us
We doubt that God sends us \ \
On this Easter morning God is calling us into wholeness
God's love and grace and fullness are all ready with us,
all ready given to us, God has conquered our demons so they no longer define who we are
This is what it means to be Christian
The embodied church in the world
Easter people! \ \
So what are you clinging to?
It’s time to let go
This morning God is sending you out, in all of your beloved wholeness
"But go!" / /
Today Mary Magdalene believed
And she went, and risked and she proclaimed
In freedom, wholeness and authority given to her by God
She became the disciple to the disciples
"I have seen the Lord"
Happy Easter
This is the recording of the Good Friday service on August 15, 2022 at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
On this Maundy Thursday, listen and reflect as we prepare for Jesus' death and resurrection.
Today, join us for Palm Sunday service as we prepare for Easter.
This is a special musical performance of Lenten Love Song by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir.
…Beyond the sacred page, I seek you Lord; my spirit waits for you, O living Word. ELW 515
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19
A Way in the Wilderness
It is hard to get out of my mind the pictures of crushed and burned out apartment buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine ...or the bodies, both Ukrainian and Russian, lying in the streets or on the roads of that war-torn country. In this fifth week of the Russian invasion, it is hard for me to see how this beleaguered nation could soon, if ever, be restored….so many people dying, so many hungry and thirsty and cold and homeless.
All I have, all we have, is faith in a faithful God who will abandon neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian people, whether in life or death, whether in victory or defeat. Only faith in a faithful God can see God, can see Jesus, can see the Holy Spirit at work in the trouble minds, frightened souls, bitter and hardened hearts of the people and the leaders of both countries.
All we have, all we are given is trust in a God who suffers and dies and rises again for all the nations of the world, for all, humans and animals alike:
I will make a way in the wilderness. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise…
A way in the wilderness, created anew in us each day, enables us to see beyond the present darkness both in our country and abroad, enables us to give generously of ourselves, of our time, of our financial resources to alleviate some of the spiritual, emotional, and physical suffering in our own homes and communities and in countries like Ukraine and Russia.
I am about to do a new thing… Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, has been resuscitated and in overwhelming gratitude this family puts on a dinner for Jesus. God in Jesus has brought a dead person back to life, made a way through the wilderness and the barrenness of death.
I am about to do a new thing
Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with costly nard valued at 300 denarii, equivalent to a year’s wages. Mary wipes his feet with her hair. an extravagant, “over the top,” expression of love. But, as we often find in John’s gospel, acts like this have a double, deeper meaning: nard was used in the preparation of a body for burial. Mary’s radical act of love is not only in gratitude for bringing her brother back to life but also given in anticipation of Jesus’ death. In Mary’s heart God is surely doing a new thing.
Thus Mary’s act of love is a sign of what Jesus would do not only for Lazarus but for the whole world. Jesus would soon suffer and die for the people of Ukraine and Russia. Jesus would suffer and die for us in this room and for those worshiping with us online. And on the third day Jesus would rise from death so that all people, all of creation, could also rise from death, all could be delivered from all the fearsome forces and faults of life that would separate us from joy and peace with God and with each other. In and through Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection God was doing a new thing, a new thing that would transform the wilderness of our earthly journey, the dangerous but necessary journey for all who would come to know and trust in the life-giving power of this ever gracious, ever watchful, ever forgiving God.
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert…
St. Paul was forever changed by his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. [Acts 9] Before this encounter, Paul (Saul) lived an exemplary life of scrupulous adherence to the law of Moses. In his own words, he was “as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” He prided himself on his zeal for keeping the letter of the law, which also meant harsh judgment and persecution of those who broke the law as he understood it. In his understanding the Christian movement, the church, was clearly heretical, false, and blasphemous. Clearly it needed to be purged from society, violently if necessary… [cf. Acts 7-8:1]
But when Jesus appeared to him, asking “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” his life was changed forever. In the Second Reading for today Paul writes, “Whatever gains I had [in my former life], these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ...I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”
What happened to Paul was a whole new understanding of the new thing God was doing in Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ life and suffering and death and resurrection, God’s law had been fulfilled. Now what mattered above all was to believe in, to trust in what the Lord Jesus had done for him and for the whole world. His righteousness was not his own by striving to keep the law but rather the righteousness of God imparted to him and experienced by him through trust, through faith in Christ. Now what mattered, all that mattered, is that he, a daily forgiven sinner, strove to live by the law of love and compassion, love for God, love and kindness for all, all for whom Jesus had died. For Paul that meant in every way possible, with as many people as possible, to declare the new thing God had done for them in Christ.
Once, many hundreds of years ago, God had set free God’s children from slavery in Egypt through what we call the exodus. Many years later, when God’s children had been forcefully taken from their homeland, living for some 70 years as exiles in Babylon, Isaiah declared that the Lord would again deliver them, would make a way for them through the wilderness. They would be chosen anew to be bearers of praise for God’s faithfulness and blessings and promises of deliverance for the whole world. This would be a new thing, a new exodus.
And now in Christ, yet another exodus has been given to us. Through faith in Christ, through the faithfulness of Christ, all of can be set free from our bondage to sin and death and the power of the Evil One. Now, in the wilderness of our lives, in our damaged and broken world, in the devastation of warfare in Ukraine, in the destruction caused by cyclones and years-long droughts in nations like Madagascar, in the worldwide spread of diseases like the Omicron BA-2 variant, the Lord is about to do a new thing. Through acts of extravagant generosity like Mary did in gratitude for what Jesus had done for her brother and for her family, and for what Jesus would do for all people through his death on the cross, we too can, with thankful hearts, show the world that God is about to do a new thing, making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, giving the water of life for all God’s children.
This is a special musical performance of Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.