Sunrise Service Easter 2017

Easter, April 16, 2017, Sunrise John 20

In 1650, Thomas Fuller, English theologian and historian said in his travelogue A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the confines thereof “It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.” People have debated for hundreds of years whether this is a fact or just a thoughtful notation. But there is no debating that this phrase has captured the human imagination.

There is an element of truth within it that speaks to us on deep levels. We’ve experienced the darkness and we know it can seem the most overwhelming just before the light breaks through.

Mary began her journey in this passage surrounded by the darkness. While it was still dark, John tells us, Mary made her way to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed. The darkness she walks through may indeed be the darkest time of her soul.

She is going to the grave of a man who gave her everything. Jesus had healed her from seven demons. Jesus had given her a spot among the faithful followers, roaming the countryside, sitting at his feet, soaking up the joy of his presence.

What will happen to her now? What will become of the life she has been shown? How will she ever be able to move past the darkness?

I think this is when Mary is the most relatable to me on a personal level. I’ve battled with depression throughout my life. There have been times when the darkness seemed impenetrable. Times when I could not imagine ever seeing sunshine again.

I, like most of us here today, have felt the pain of losing a loved one to death. We understand how it feels to go to the graveside, in the darkness of our grief and sit and wait, gathering that darkness like a blanket around our shoulders.

In her grief, in the dark, Mary went to the final resting place of Jesus, and when she arrived she saw that he was not there.

He was not there. Jesus’ body was gone. I wonder if she took a quick step back and counted the graves, just to make sure she was at the right place.

This past January, I returned to New Mexico for my Aunt Joyce’s funeral and while we were there the family decided to visit my grandparents grave site as well. Only, we couldn’t find it.

I’m sure it looked odd to see close to sixty people walking around that small cemetery looking for a headstone. Each of us remembered that the grave was on the West side, with the name facing the road, one row in from the edge. But it wasn’t there.

Finally, someone spotted it, two rows in, with the name facing a different direction. The confusion was caused by an extra row of bodies being added since their passing in 1983 and 1997 respectively. But no one can account for the stone being turned.

This confusion cannot begin to compare to Mary’s. Jesus is not misplaced. She has not miscounted tombs. He is simply no longer there.

In her angst, while it is still dark, she ran back to tell the disciples. Peter and John, the beloved disciple, return to the tomb with Mary. They ran to the tomb and find it empty, just as Mary had said. They entered the tomb, found it empty and believed. Believed what exactly? I think they believed Mary. They believed that Jesus’ body had been taken. They believed the darkness. The next verse says, “for yet, they did not understand the scripture, that he must be raised from the dead.”

Peter and John return home, still in the dark, still unaware of what this might mean. Still bound to and by the darkness.

Mary could not leave the place she last saw Jesus. She began to weep outside of the tomb. She cried tears of frustration, of loss, of fear, of love. It was bad enough to have Jesus die, but to not know where he body was? To not have a concrete place to take her thoughts and memories? This was like losing him all over again!

She looked into the tomb and saw two messengers, angles, dressed in white, one at the foot and one at the head. And in her darkness, she didn’t even seem shocked or surprised. She asked to know where Jesus’s body had been taken.

She turned around from the tomb and bumped into a man. And supposing him to be the gardener she asked, “If you have carried him away please tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.”

In the darkness, she could not recognize who was speaking with her. In the darkness, her grief kept her blind. In the darkness, she was bound to earthly understanding.

In the darkness, we too sometimes do not recognize the voice of Jesus. In the darkness, we too allow grief and loss to keep us blind to truth. In the darkness, we are bound to earthly understanding.

“Mary” With a word the sun began to shine. With a word, the scales fell from her eyes. With a word the creator of the universe reminded Mary of who she was, and whose she was.

“Teacher.” She responds. In that moment, the sun shined out. In that moment, Mary not only identifies Jesus, she also identifies herself; for what good is a teacher without a disciple?

“Do not cling to me,” Jesus told her. Don’t cling to the old way of understanding. Don’t let the darkness, the past, hold you captive any longer. You are free of all that darkness now!

This is the message for us as well my friends. As the sun dawns brightly in our lives, let us set aside the darkness that clings so tightly. Let us be unbound, set free.

And when we have been unbound, when we have faced the dawn, let us go and boldly proclaim “We have seen the Lord!” Alleluia! He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Day 64: Love and the Least of these

Leviticus 19, 20 and Mark 9:30-50

These chapters give us the origin of Jesus’ greatest commandment, to love. They also chow us how Jesus turns things upside down with his teachings by elevating the least of these.

Leviticus 19

This section continues more prohibitions and rules for faith and practice. This is also where we get one of the most profound statements about the reality of God’s character. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love is a key aspect of God and as people who are seeking to become more Godlike we should seek to love. This verse specifically speaks to loving the alien in your midst.

Lending weight to the cultural verses descriptive for all times nature of some of these passages, in verse 20 we get a specific punishment for men who sleep with slaves that are not their property. They will not be put to death, because she was not free, not really a woman but property. It is hard to imagine that this is attempting to bring justice to a situation. The man is guilty and is to offer sacrifices, but the woman is not addressed. We hopefully see women as individuals, as creations of God, and as not property. Unfortunately, slavery is still alive and booming in our world, so would this section still apply to a person in these situations? I would say no, because even if someone else considers slavery acceptable we who profess in Christ’s lordship over all would have to find it detestable.

Leviticus 20

This chapter addresses punishment and penalties for those found to have broken statues. These include death for those who have sacrificed their children to other gods. These punishments serve to focus the people on the establishment of rituals and cultic practices unique to the nation of Israel.

Mark 9:30-50

Jesus speaks again here of his death and resurrection and the disciples do not understand. It makes me wonder how many times God tells me something before I actually believe it as truth?

There is an argument that starts about who will be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. This argument shows us a little bit about where the disciples thought things were headed. They expected a revolution and the positions of power that might come with a new regime. Jesus turns the table by telling them that the least of these is the greatest. Children had no special status in the ancient days, no value in and of themselves. I wonder who Jesus might pull forward today to demonstrate this truth to us?

Jesus then begins a litany of sins and actions. I don’t think Jesus is advocating self-harm or self-mutilation. I believe these are hyperbolic in nature. The idea here seems to be that we cannot acknowledge our sins and then do nothing to correct them. We must be prepared to make changes, even ones seen as drastic, to live kingdom lives.

Day 63: Vampires and Demons

Leviticus 17, 18 and Mark 9:1-29

These sections of scripture remind me of modern day horror obsession with vampires and demons. All the talk about blood leads me to imagine one of the vampires from a popular television series reading this chapter and deciding to become a “vegetarian,” and the casting out of a demon reminds me of other popular shows. Perhaps it is time for a “scary stories from scriptures” show.

Leviticus 17

Again, in Leviticus we are given rules dealing with the killing of animals. This is part of what leads scholars to believe that there are two sources for this particular book. His discussion of the slaughter of animals is twofold. It is placed here to keep people from the practice of idolatry. Apparently, people were sacrificing to other God’s in the fields instead of giving all honor to the One God. It is also to keep people from indiscriminately killing animals without plans to consume them.

This section then continues with the vampires prohibitions. There is to be no eating of blood. Period. Blood is the life source for living things and therefore sacred. Vampires aside, this practice was often associated with the worship of other gods. For someone who prefers all meat well-done, this is not a difficult prohibition to follow.

Leviticus 18

This scripture deals with sexual relations between people. There is an extensive discussion of incest, thirteen verses to be exact. This includes prohibitions of relationships between people related not by blood, but by marriage. I guess no one told soap opera writers about that little nuance.

Of course, the verse that in our day gets the most attention is verse 22. I really struggle to understand our inordinate level of interest in it. Some say that the use of the word abomination is what makes it stand out. I would beg to differ, as the word abomination is used over 100 times in scriptures and we do not have the same reaction to those issues as we do with male on male sexual activity. This word is applied to:

• Eating meat three days after sacrificing
• Egyptians and Hebrews eating at the same table
• Eating birds of prey
• Acts of idolatry
• Using false or unfair weights during exchange
• Mixed marriages

Very few of these things (idolatry perhaps, but only when its not about our own personal wealth or spending habits) get much play in the angry Christian rhetoric of our day. If we do not still hold to these as abominations, why does this one verse seem unchanged?

Proverbs 6:16-19 lists six things God hates and seven that are an abomination to the Lord. Guess what is not found in the list?

16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,
19 a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.

I think our obsession about this verse says more about us than it does about God.

Mark 9:1-21

Mark continues showing Jesus’ miraculous works as he journeys closer and closer to the cross. Here we have the transfiguration of Jesus, where three of the disciples see Jesus speaking with Elijah and Moses. Dear sweet Peter even offers to build them shrines to dwell in so that all might know of this miracle.

They engage Jesus in a discussion about why Elijah came first, which just seems odd to me. Jesus responds that the prophet came first to offer a way of seeing things as God does, but the people would not listen. Here he might also be referencing John the Baptist and his gruesome ends.

The disciples bring a boy to Jesus who has been held by a demon for years. They were not able to cast the demon out, even though they had successfully healed and cast out demons previously. Jesus’ response reminds me of those snickers commercials where the catch line is “you’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” This response of calling the disciples faithless and crying out about not being with them long seems out of character to the Sunday School Jesus we all know and love.

It is important to remember that Jesus’ ministry is only one year in Mark and very fast paced. JI believe Jesus is earnestly concerned that the disciples are not picking up what he is putting down.

It is here that we find my favorite verse in Mark “I believe, help my unbelief.” This is my prayer quite frequently. Jesus hears this prayer and is able to heal the boy. He later tells the disciples that this one could only come out through prayer.

Day 62: Ritual cleansing and the Ritual of Healing

Leviticus 15, 16 and Mark 8:22-38

These passages both tell us of ritual occurrences. Leviticus talks about the rituals associated with clean and unclean, specifically related to reproduction and reproductive organs. Jesus initiates an odd ritual to heal a man.

Leviticus 15:

This chapter deals specifically with reproductive organs and the laws associated with them. It is a hard section to read for many modern readers. The idea of blood and semen and other body excretions being ritually unclean is difficult. The ancients seemed to have equated the loss of these things with the loss of life, or potential life and therefore saw them as signs of death.

The discharge spoken of is an abnormal discharge, more than likely gonorrhea.

Again, with the iniquity! Men are “unclean” until sundown after ejaculating, as are the beds they are on, cloths, and any woman who is with him. Women however are unclean for seven days after their menstrual cycle. It is interesting that they can stay at home, clean and cook for others without the others becoming unclean during this time period.

Leviticus 16

In priestly theology, it is the transgressions that are willful or brazen committed by the people who make the Holy of Holies impure enough to be cleansed once a year. The priest gives an offering for his sin and other priests sin before offering up a sin offering for the people and a scapegoat for the transgressions of the people. The scapegoat carries the sins of the people away from the camp into the wilderness where they can no longer make things impure.

Mark 8: 22-38

Jesus again takes someone aside and heals them using a ritual that includes spit, and putting his fingers in their ears. Two things that are less than comfortable for this preacher to think about. He tells this individual to not even go back to the village. Jesus knows that his time is running short and each excited new believer gets him closer to hot water.

Jesus then talks openly with his disciples about his death and resurrect. Peter rebukes him and Jesus rebukes back. I wonder how often I have told God that God could not, should not behave in one way. I wonder if I am willing to admit to being rebuked.

Day 61: Homes and Yeast

Leviticus 14 and Mark 8:1-21

In Leviticus, we continue with the priestly orders for declaring people, things and homes clean or unclean. In Mark Jesus continues to try to teach his disciples that the kingdom of God is unlike anything they have reference for in their lives.

Leviticus 14:

This passage gives rites for purification of those suffering from scale illnesses. It also however addresses homes, specifically homes that seem to have some sort of disease, perhaps like mold. What is unique to me are the rituals for discussing cleanliness of homes. They only fall under the first set of steps to clean or rather declare clean. If the disease is not stopped by the removal of stones and plaster affected, then the house is destroyed.

This I’m sure is twofold. One, people are worth more time an effort to find clean. And, a house cannot make the sanctuary unclean because it cannot enter the sanctuary.

Mark 8:1-21

Here we have the account of the feeding of the 4,000 with seven loaves of bread. There are seven baskets left over. There is that number of completion once more!

As they are traveling in the boat Jesus tells the disciples to be wary of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. The disciples think he is mad at them for not having enough bread. I can almost see Jesus rolling his eyes and wanting to call them knuckleheads. He just fed 5,000 with 5 loaves and 4,000 with 7 loaves. Jesus has this bread thing down!

Day 60: One Day You're In, the Next You're Out

Leviticus 13 and Mark 7:14-37

These passages draw lines between in and out. That is to say, between what is acceptable and what is not. They both look at those who are out, or outsiders, and those who claim special in status.

Leviticus 13:

Let me confess that I do not like this particular part of Leviticus. As someone with eczema and psoriasis I find it extremely painful to read about being cast out, or seen as unclean because of such conditions. There are distinctions made between raw skin and flaky skin, and how to report, review and make reparations for these conditions.

It is important to note that priests are not physicians. They do not treat or heal. God heals and God alone. The priests are only to give witness to healing and to offer the appropriate responses liturgically for healing. The priest is also charged with making sure that those with conditions that could spread are kept out of the community until healing has been confirmed.

Mark 7: 14-37

Jesus teaches here about what comes out of a person making them unclean. He here seems to declare all foods clean well before Peter’s vision of the sheet coming down from the sky filled with unclean animals.

This passage has my personal hero, the Syrophoenician woman. This woman who by all accounts is outside of the chosen people still dares to stand in Jesus’ presence and claim a right to the love of God. His claiming heals her daughter. Too often people turn her into an object lesson, but I think she genuinely is a child of faith, unapologetically asking God for what she needs. I wish I was that bold.

Then we have Jesus healing a man who had been deaf and mute. Jesus takes him aside, takes him out of the city, and heals him completely. There is something interesting about Jesus taking him out of the city so that he can be welcomed back into society.

Day 59: Clean Hands and Dirty Hearts

Leviticus 11, 12 and Mark 7:1-13

This section of Leviticus begins the rules of clean and unclean. Clean in this regard is speaking about ritual cleansing, not washed in the way we think of clean. Jesus also talks with people about being clean in Mark. Jesus explains that clean doesn’t mean the same thing as people have made it seem.

Leviticus 11:

This chapter begins the discussion of clean and unclean. We get a list of what animals, birds, bugs, fish etc. are clean. I find it very interesting that there is such a specific list of birds that are unclean. I’m also surprised that crickets, locust, and grasshoppers are clean.

Leviticus 12

This chapter enters the more personal of the clean and unclean standards. I am perturbed that there is a different level of ritual cleansing from a male verses a female child. 7 days unclean for male, 14 days for female. They can be cleansed 33 days after a male and 66 after a female. We are not given the reason for these differences.

Mark 7:1-13

Religious leaders complain to Jesus that his disciples do not eat with clean hands. This accusation does not mean that they forgot to scrub well, it refers to ritual washing to be done before eating. Jesus points out how hypocritical this line of thinking is. While the rules may say, honor mother and father, there were ways around them by declaring things a gift to God. If these things were to be used as a gift to God, usually after one’s death, they could not be used now to care for loved ones in need. Jesus says that hearts that would allow such actions are unclean.