Then They Remembered!

Text:  Luke 24:1-12

Theme:  “Then They Remembered”

The Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord/Easter Sunday

March 27, 2016

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Hallelujah!  It takes a word from Jesus, this time vouchsafed by angels, to jog their memory.  Allow them their fear for the moment – these women who went to the tomb motivated mostly by a massive emotional intermingling of grief and love.  Then they heard it:  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee; The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”

“Then,” says St. Luke, “they remembered his words.”

They remembered the words of Jesus.

Forgetfulness.  It happens all the time.  It happened with them; it happens with us. We’re supposed to remember something important – just can’t remember what it was.   We don’t make a note of it.  We don’t write it down.  We don’t tie a piece of string around our finger.  We don’t repeat it to ourselves a half dozen or so times.  We neglect to key it in, type it in, cut and paste it into our cellphone’s “daily planner”, highlight it in – take your pick of colors – in our Nooks or Kindles.   We grow up hearing:  “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times.”  It’s all their in our minds, we are told by medical scientists, but we can’t access the information when we need it. 

Somehow or another, that statement of Jesus – about rising on the third day – went from front and center in the “inbox” deeply into the “spam” file of their brains.  But at the angels’ words, it was moved from Spam to front and center.  Put a hashtag on it!  He is risen!

Of course, this news is just too incredible to sit on, so the women hurry back to the larger group of disciples with the report from the empty tomb and with their memories being refreshed!   They men aren’t buying it; they thought it was “nonsense”, reports Luke.  “But Peter, however, ran to the tomb.”  Wallowing around in various and sundry nonsensical mutterings was not for him; bless his gregarious heart!    He ends up wondering what happened when he sees the empty tomb and the grave clothes lying there.

With “#HEISRISEN!” as a festival banner in our minds and hearts, I wish to follow the goodly example of the Easter angels and invite you to remember with me. There are two things:  the mission of Jesus and the mission He gave to His disciples.

First, rewind to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  He had been baptized; for forty days He was tempted in the wilderness.  Then, after a short stint of preaching and teaching, He returned to his boyhood synagogue, His “home congregation” (if you will), and participated in the service.  In it, He spelled out HIS mission.  Today, on the anniversary of His glorious resurrection from the grave, let remember His mission.

Jesus said, quoting Isaiah: 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

“I’m that guy,” Jesus was saying.  “I’ve been anointed; I have good news for the poor, release for prisoners, sight for the blind, freedom for oppressed, and a message that the favor of God rests on all people.” 

Take that with me and run with it, like Peter, for a moment.  Where are the poor, imprisoned, blind, oppressed, un-favored people today?  Think of Muslims trying to escape from men in black with guns and tanks and knives and suicide bombs; they want to live in peace – even with people different than them; think of displaced Syrian refugees in vast tent communities – acres upon acres!

I’ve heard the claim put forth that our “religious liberties” are being infringed in America. Really?  Seriously? What about Coptic Christians in Egypt whose homes have been marked for eradication and churches bombed out?  What about the Wycliffe Bible translators who were beheaded?  What about those with different religions?  What about those who make less money than we do?  What about those whose skin color is different? What about that person who sleeps under a tree right next to this chancel right over there?  What about those suffering from mental illness and poly-substance abuse?  Texas is ranked 49^th in the country in assisting that community.  Denton county is ranked last in Texas.  But we sure can build bigger prisons!   What about the LBGTQ community?  They, too, have spirits and souls.  Has Christianity somehow forgotten that?  Put a rainbow banner of welcome behind #HEISRISEN! Perhaps it’s time to remember the mission of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ!

“If that is so,” someone might rightly ask, “why all this about crosses and empty tombs?”  It’s because the mission of Jesus was met with massive resistance.  The religious and political establishment at the time could not stand such a mission; they had to get rid of it.  “If you let Him go, you’re no friend of Caesar!”  You’re no friend of POWER!  Pilate caved.

We are in a season, right here and right now in America, where we are about to elect what we call “the leader of the free world”.  Many are looking for a powerful personage, essentially, to “buy us back”, to redeem us from the many problems the nation faces.  We yearn desperately for redemptive power!

Yet, at the heart of the mission of Jesus Christ and His good news, is not redemptive power.  It’s redemptive suffering.  That is what redeems:  redemptive suffering.  People may or may not accept that, but God did.  And that’s why we’re here today.  He was raised from the dead by the glory of His Father! 

Fast-forward to forty days after the resurrection of Christ!  He took His disciples to a mountain in Galilee.  His mission completed, He gave them theirs.  “When You arrived to where I send you, make disciples of all nations – baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to keep everything I commanded you.  And surely I will be with you always – even to the end of the ages.”

The church’s mission is to share and embody the mission of Jesus – to welcome all people, to be an invitation (by the way we live our lives) for people to find themselves and their value in this world that so tries to disintegrate, atomize, and obliterate them.  To let people see the joy of the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. To let people see a table set for them in the wilderness of this earthly life.  “Do this in remembrance of Me,” He said.

There are many “church members” in the world.  You go for an hour on Sunday, cut your check (weekly, monthly, yearly) as a kind of quiet eternal life insurance premium, and go about your business.  What Jesus invites us to is a discipleship of working with His Spirit to make more disciples; he invites to be lifelong learners and participants in His teachings and Sacraments; we keep them in order to give them away!

As disciples, then, our mission synchronizes beautifully with the mission of Jesus. 

“Then they remembered.”  My hope is that this meditation has helped to jog your memory, as the angels did with the women at the tomb – to jog your memory about this holy day, about the mission of Jesus, about the mission of His followers then and now, and how those missions synchronize as one. 

In Brussels, Belgium, where suicide bombs devastated both metropolis and nation, thousands gathered in the town square just a few days ago.  An orchestra was gathered there, and, on cue, they struck up with the playing of Ludwig Von Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. 

“Then they remembered.”  May our lives be odes to joy, for He is risen indeed!

Amen.

For Want of Grapes...

Text:  Luke 20:9-19

Theme:  “For Want of Grapes”

5^th Sunday in Lent

March 13, 2016

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

9 He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12 He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’

14 “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”

17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

“‘The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone’[a]?

18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

There are actually two Gospel readings on deck for this the 5^th Sunday in the season of Lent.  You just heard the parable of the tenants from Luke, chapter 20.  The reaction to that story only turned up the pressure on the storyteller, our Lord.  Luke reports:  “The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they new he had spoken this parable against them.  But they were afraid of the people.”

The question here – as in so many other areas of life -- is what to do with Jesus.  “We want to throw him in jail, but that might cause a riot.”  They didn’t know what to do with Jesus. They knew what they WANTED to do, but, like certain kinds of medications advertised on TV, that option had a list of negative side effects.

As I mentioned, there are two Gospel readings.  So, keeping a finger at Luke 20, we flip ahead to John, chapter 12.  Verses 1-11 give us the lovely account of Mary – the sister of Martha and Lazarus – pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet.  This particular perfume, pure nard, was not something you might today find on the bargain aisle at CVS or Walgreens.  If it were there, it would, at the very least, be under lock and key.  One scholar has suggested that, factored for inflation and in today’s currency, the pint of nard would cost roughly ten thousand dollars. 

Nard was distilled and derived from an herb called “Spikenard” which comes from the Valerian family.  It grew in the foothills of the Himalaya mountain range.  The scent of nard has been described as “intense, warm, fragrant, and musky.”  For hundreds of years, nard was thought to evoke the smell of the lost Garden of Eden.  And eventually, it came to refer to any perfume “as long as it was exquisite.”

Not so exquisite is the reaction to this usage of nard on the dusty, dirty feet of Jesus.  In ancient literature, Horace offered to send Virgil an entire barrel of his very best wine in exchange for a tiny vial of nard.  Jesus’ feet got a whole pint of it, and Mary wiped it with her hair.  Judas Iscariot, a disciple who would later betray Jesus, sees the goings on and declares:  “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?”  It sounds reasonable to me.  After all, who of us hasn’t had a mother or someone else tell us, when we were kids, not to “waste anything.”  John reports what was really going on.  Judas “did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief….”

In Luke 20’s parable of the tenants, the pressure came from the “chief priests and teachers of the law” – the religious establishment.  In John 12, it came from a member of Jesus’s own inner circle. 

You may remember that Mary’s brother, Lazarus, was raised from his grave.  Some think that Jesus was there in Bethany celebrating with Mary, Martha, and the resuscitated Lazarus.  John reports that a crowd had come not only to see Jesus but Lazarus as well.  Then, finally, John ends of the account of the proceedings in that lowly, little world which was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus:  “So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going to Jesus and putting their faith in him.”

When the pressure is on for you, where to you put your faith?  Or, stated differently, who do you trust? 

In a wonderful sermon on John 12, the Rev. Prof. Blair Monie declares:  “Judas kept the bag, but Mary broke the box.”  When the pressure is intense, do you “keep the bag or break the box”? 

In Luke 20, it was all for want of grapes.  That’s what the vineyard owner wanted:  grapes!  Actually, that owner was entitled to them.  He or she owned the vineyard; he or she rented it out to farmers.   Everyone was on the same page; each had his role and responsibility.  Therefore, it was a given; it was understood and expected that, periodically, the owner would want his/her grapes.  That’s the way it worked; that was the harmony; that assured the well-being  -- if not the paychecks -- of everyone involved. 

However, the vineyard owner was not there.  I wonder if Jesus alluded to this at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus when he said:  “The poor you will always have with you, but you won’t always have me.”

The owner reaches out for want of grapes.  He sends a servant.  That did not work out.  The tenant farmers beat that servant and sent him away empty-handed.   Owner gets wind of this, and – curiously! – sends another servant.  This one gets the same nasty treatment and even worse.  A third servant is sent and it’s the same outcome.  The vineyard owner, for want of grapes, appears to be insane; he keeps doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

Finally, the vineyard owner – in the shocker of all time – sends his own Son for want of grapes.  “I love my Son; surely they (the tenant farmers) will respect Him.”

It didn’t work out that way.  The tenant farmers see the owner’s son coming.  “This is the heir,” they say.  “Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”  They threw him out and killed him.

It’s not difficult to line up who is who in this story.  The vineyard owner is God.  The servants he sends that the tenant farmers reject are all the leaders and judges and prophets that God sent to His people down through the years.  More often than not, they were rejected.  The Son of the vineyard owner is the Son of God – even Jesus Christ.  And the tenant farmers are the religious establishment.  They think that the inheritance, the good gifts of God, belong to no one else but them. 

When the pressure was on for them, the last thing they could do was look at things differently.  They did what they always did; they held on to what they thought belonged to them alone:  the inheritance.  They held on to the bag, but didn’t break the box.  They trusted only in themselves – in their morals, their good works, their ethics, their devotion to God.

When the pressure is on, when the powers that be want us to produce the grapes, we resent that; we think we don’t deserve to be under such stress; we’re “entitled” to so much more. 

But Jesus – friend of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; son of the vineyard owner and Son of God – will have his nard and will have his grapes.  His desire is not to hold on to His inheritance but to give it away.  He is not motivated by resentment but rather by love. 

With him we can let go of the bag and break the box.  The aroma of Christ, the pure nard of the Gospel – intense, warm, fragrant, an musky, will dissipate, permeate, and overcome the pressure.   With Him, as our crucified and risen Lord and best friend, we can produce the grapes – grapes that produce a vintage that gladdens the heart of God and all of God’s children.

Amen.