Easter Season 2007 Cycle C

This Marvel is the Lord’s Doing!

Holy Humor Sunday

Easter 2, April 15, 2007

Title: Holy Humor, Marvelous reversals

Speaker: Linda

Music: Ernie

Worship Leader: Carey

Texts: Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

Acts 5:27 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 5:28 saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. 5:30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 5:31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 5:32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

Psalm 118:14 The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 118:15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; 118:16 the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly." 118:17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. 118:18 The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. 118:19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. 118:20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. 118:21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 118:23 This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 118:24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 118:25 Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success! 118:26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD. 118:27 The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. 118:28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you. 118:29 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 1:6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1:7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

John 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 20:25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 20:26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 20:31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Contemporary quote:

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. --Mahatma Gandhi

Intergenerational:

So, why do we celebrate Holy Humor Sunday?

This is a Yes or No quiz….

--because it’s fun/good/healing to laugh, even in church: Yes/No

--because God wants us to rejoice and be glad in the day that God has made: Yes/No

--because one of our youth asked on Monday if we were doing it again this year: Yes/No

--because one of my Lenten disciplines this year was to laugh hard at least once a day and I want to make you do it too: Yes/No

--because unexpected surprises are at the bottom of most funny things…and the whole Easter story was one of the most unexpected surprises EVER: Yes/No.

I had a really unfunny unexpected surprise this week. But I though maybe you all could help me turn it into a funny event.

My dentist and my physical therapist ganged up on me and are making me wear THIS—for my own good, they say.

(Retainer: show them; put it in and lisp.)

I didn’t expect it to be so hard to talk with this—or that it would hurt. And I’m supposed to wear this thing all day and all night except when I’m eating or preaching….

Someone in my family said, “You have a lithp! Hahahaha!”

Someone in my family said, “You sound like Grandma talking without her false teeth!”

Someone in my family said, “I’m not laughing AT you, I’m laughing WITH you!”

I said, “But I’m not laughing!”

So, because it’s Holy Humor Sunday, let’s do something unexpected. Let’s have a REVERSE OFFERING. Instead of passing the offering basket for people to put something in, let’s pass out baskets with something for people to take out….(pass out Laffy Taffy)

Okay, I want everybody to jam your Laffy Taffy up against the roof of your mouths, a big wad right against your top front teeth….Right.

Now you know what my retainer feels like….Let’s sing, together, shall we?

How about I’ve got the Joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart….Ernie, can you lead us with Laffy Taffy in your mouth??

IF YOU AREN’T sure you can do this with out the joy—or Laffy Taffy--ending up down in your throat instead of in your heart, just try singing with your tongue jammed up against your top front teeth….don’t want anybody to choke….

Wow! You are awesome! I should let you all borrow my retainer to sing with any time! Or not.

Are there Laffy Taffy jokes you’d like to share? Or others that you’ve brought today?

Now we’ll have our regular offering…

Holy humor….marvelous reversals:

Introduction:

I want to tell you a Canadian story—it’s supposed to be true—about the gospel text for today. It highlights both the incredible moment of joy in this text when Jesus walks into their locked hideaway,

and the difficulties of translation.

Years ago, the bishop of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon was determined to translate the Bible into the Eskimo language. The team that he put together really wrestled with how to translate the word “joy” well; it was an important word, showing up in various forms in the several hundred times (it’s in our gospel text today where it says that the disciples “rejoiced” when they saw the Lord.). They did have 37 different words in their language for “snow”—but that wasn’t particularly helpful as that word shows up only 24 times in the whole Bible and only needs one word to translate it.

So, one day the bishop checked in on the group and found them arguing about this word again. He looked out the window and watched the sled dogs outside just being let out of harness, running around playing and obviously delighted to be finished with their day of hard work. (Do you know how a dog says “Let’s play!”? They go down on their elbows with their bottoms up in the air. If you do that with your dog, they immediately know what you are saying and most dogs will drop to their elbows, too, ready for a game of pounce and tumble. That’s what these huskies were doing.) Inspired, the bishop turned back to the translation team. “The word we want,” he told them, “is the word that describes the way those huskies are feeling right now!”

“Oh,” said the translation team, looking out at the joyful huskies; “now we have it!” A few months later, the Inuit Bible was completely translated and it was used for the first time for Easter at a local Inuit church. A woman got up to read the same Gospel lection that we have here today; the English equivalent of what the congregation heard was: “The disciples were in the upper room for fear of discovery and Jesus appeared to them. And when the disciples saw the Lord they wagged their tails!”

Guess the disciples had their place in the critter choir, too…some singin’ low and some singin’ higher…(From the offertory song, Bill Staines’ All God’s Critters got a place in the choir)

The irony of it all….

Printed in your bulletin is the lection from the book of Acts; if you’d like, take a look at this and let’s pick out some of the unexpected surprises in this particular bit of the follow up to the Easter story. Remember, in the Gospel we just read, the disciples are huddled behind locked doors “for fear of discovery”, thinking that the empire which has just struck down Jesus is drawing a deadly bead on them next, just part of the remaining mop-up operation.

And they are right, it is.

But something happens; there is a totally unexpected surprise.

In the John reading, Jesus breathes on them and says “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

In Acts, there is the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost,

which we will celebrate on May 27.

And this gift of the Holy Spirit in both the Johannine and the Lukan traditions transforms these scared, hiding disciples into fearless witnesses looking for crowds to address where they could share the unbelievably good news they hold….

This is an incredible reversal.

Who would ever have expected this?

Not the religious leaders who try desperately to shut them down—

because their own survival

and potentially the survival of the whole Jewish state are in jeopardy. They confidently thought that getting rid of the ringleader—Jesus—

would scatter the disciples and the whole issue would be over

before the Romans would crack down.

Even with the unexpected response of the now fearless disciples, the council is confident that this is in its last throes—in the mop-up phase.

Dangerous, but still manageable,

provided it’s all handled firmly enough….

So, when the disciples are arrested and hauled before the council

for the third time,

the High Priest is vehement;

he can’t believe that they don’t get the danger of their position:

"We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,

yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching

and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us."

Let’s think about it a moment….

Caiaphas was High Priest for 18 years during an approximately 50-year period of Roman rule where other high priests were deposed ruthlessly by the Romans every couple of years, even though Jewish Law demanded that High Priests were to be appointed for life.

He didn’t get his position and keep it that long without being a very astute political creature—and that shows in this text. Notice what he emphasizes here to Peter and the other apostles: "you are determined to bring this man's blood on us."

This is the same Caiaphas mentioned earlier in chapter 11 of the Gospel of John who leads the council meeting where the plot to kill Jesus begins; John puts the underlying issue as clearly as Luke does in today’s text from Acts: “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” And Caiaphas responds to his council equally bluntly: “It is better that one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” (John 11:45-50)

Talk about dramatic tension:

here is the carefully balanced collusion

between religion and empire

where religion has found a way to support and collaborate

with imperial power to ensure its own ongoing survival

at the expense of all else—

even the fundamental principles and values that define it.

This is exactly the same drive that motivates the empire itself:

all empires are built on the spilled blood of the grunts on the ground,

the inconsequential,

less-than-fully-human little cogs in the machine,

the ones who are expendable,

the little ones who can be sacrificed without thought

for the sake of the “greater”…

This is the diabolical spirit of slander and death that I talked about last week;

the tragic failure to recognize

each person created in the image of God as precious,

to be loved and treated

as one wants to be loved and treated oneself…

This failure results in small pox infected blankets

distributed to an “undesirable” population;

it results in state and religion sanctioned slaughters of the Tutsis,

the Muslim or Christian or Hindu or native minorities,

in crosses burned on southern lawns,

in the villages in Viet Nam that we had to “destroy to save.”

So, this diabolical spirit that crushes the least

without care or thought

crashes at last

headlong into a totally different spirit:

the Holy Spirit,

that same Spirit poured out on Jesus and on his disciples— including us, today.

This is the Spirit who transforms terrified, cowering people

fleeing, hiding for their lives

into grounded and fearless lovers of humanity

who refuse to “become the evil they deplore”….

who have all their narrow understandings of political reality

completely altered

to take in the vast landscape of God’s love.

These disciples, following their Master’s teaching,

proclaim that whatever we do to the very least among us

means that we are doing it to Christ himself.

So they heal, they share their possessions freely, they gather to praise God and rejoice in their new freedom…

They realize that the old system has crumbled;

that the fear of death itself which has been its power

has been broken in Christ’s resurrection.

As CS Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia puts it, “Death itself has started working backwards.”

Now the power of empire, of the diabolical spirit of slander and death,

quakes at the glimmer of an unseen possibility,

an unthought-of reversal:

If those insignificant little lives rubbed out in the pursuits of empire

are not truly gone,

if their voices are not dissipated like smoke,

but insistent and audible in a court of larger justice,

the rug has truly been pulled out….

the empire is stood on its head and collapsed in rubble.

All that is left is the mop-up operation.

Whew. Talk about being counter-cultural!

And Peter, his eyes and heart newly full of God’s vast landscape,

is as blunt as the council;

in the face of their demands to put up and shut up

he simply says, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

Conclusion:

So what are we to do in our contemporary tensions

between empire supported by self-protective religion

and our understanding of the radical demands of God’s kingdom

which so treasures the last, the lost, the least?

We can wag our tails in the presence of the Risen Lord!

We can rejoice in our freedom from the bonds that have coerced us

and share that joy with others as the early disciples did,

in healing, in sharing our wealth,

in walking together with praise and gratitude—

and in confronting the idolatries of the imperial systems around us

that still cling to the illusions of genuine power.

We can look beyond the pain and traumas of the moment

to the joy and freedom of God’s larger landscape—

and refuse to be held in captivity

by a failed system that clings to power only through fear.

The resurrection has happened;

the landscape has been completely changed;

now we’re in the mop-up operation.

I’ll finish with an in memoriam Kurt Vonnegut quote from a sermon that he preached at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in 1980,

“I would tell them, too, what I don't have to tell this particular congregation, that jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning-up to do afterward-and since I can start thinking and striving again that much sooner….”

And then Kurt finished preaching with,
”This has no doubt been a silly sermon. I am sure you do not mind. People don't come to church for preachments, of course, but to daydream about God.

“I thank you for your sweetly faked attention."