Spiritual Growth :: Sermons
Easter 3C, 2004
The Rev. Tricia de Beer
April 25, 2004
Some years ago one church conveyed the power of Easter with a service that began a bit sedately, only to have two women suddenly burst through the back doors of the sanctuary, flailing their way down the aisle even as they screamed, "He’s alive!" This then was the cue for the choir to jump to its feet in a rousing anthem, accompanied by all the brass the church could muster. There is also the drama of the Cathedral Easter Vigil service, which I love, which starts with the church drab and undecorated and still in its Lenten coverings until the Easter acclamation: "Christ is risen" then hoards of children and adults come running down the center aisle carrying flowers and the velcroed covers for everything are ripped down and Easter glory appears everywhere. And yet it is a bit odd that in the gospels themselves there is an amazing knack for understatement of this pivotal moment in Christian history. Mark ends with silent terrified women fleeing the tomb. The other Gospels say a bit more, but even so, the stories are so common and mundane.
A stranger walks up from behind and casually inquires "What’s up?" A man mistaken for a gardener, shuffles up behind Mary to ask, "Why are you crying?" In today’s gospel a stranger appears along the crescent of a lake’s shoreline, cupping his hands around his mouth as he shouts, "Catch anything?" In these stories there are no bright lights, no angel bands, no brass, no cheering throngs. Instead Jesus is recognized when he does or says something the disciples had seen before. Like breaking bread, or sounding Mary’s name.
In this story too it is so very ordinary. Even after they catch the abundance of fish, he gets them to come in for a breakfast on the beach. There are still no trumpets. Instead there is a vaguely awkward scene. Peter looks somewhat ridiculous, having mindlessly put his clothes back on, before jumping into the water to get to Jesus. No one knows quite what to say—living life that shows Jesus is alive, is confusing—it breaks old patterns and we don’t know how to do it by ourselves. Jesus had already appeared to the disciples twice, but they didn’t know how to live with the reality he was offering, so they went back to what they knew. They were going through the motions, half alive and he wanted them to understand that a new thing could happen in them and among them. So he came among them and asked them a question. "How are you doing?" Like his many other questions, he called them to be present to what was really happening in their life. And acknowledging that they weren’t producing the fruit that they wanted, they were open to a new direction. "Try the other side" the voice came back. And they did, and they discovered a whole new abundance. It was Jesus all right , but with a difference. He came to find them in the ordinariness of their lives yet again, to guide them and to feed them and to share with them a new capacity for being fully alive
The risen Christ often comes to us in events that are so very ordinary we might miss them if we weren’t expecting them. I went with a parishioner to her last chemotherapy appointment. We walked into the office and my friend greeted each person with a cheerfulness and a respect that was contagious. There had been some errors in the billing and she presented the list of payments made and outlined the amounts which had not been acknowledged by the doctor’s office, but there was no edge to her voice. Then we waited for a while to be ushered into another room and a nurse came in. Here again there was humor and a mutual respect and care. It seemed that the person I was with knew at least as much about the nurse and her family, as the nurse did about the patient! I felt like I was in the presence of the risen Christ. It was so amazing and yet so ordinary: simple cheerfulness, simple attention to others even when one’s own plate might have seemed overwhelming. There was human connection with the staff who probably needed some encouragement, after the line of long faced patients. I felt as though I were being nudged just being around her... What would it be like if I could see each person as a child of God and treat them that way even when I was carrying my own burdens, what it would be like to shine with God’s love like that even when others were messing up and complicating my life!
Jesus comes to the edge of our consciousness in so many ordinary situations and calls us from our dulled state of mind to the possibility of being fully alive. Like when a child says to us "Mommy are you angry with your brother?" and we know the question also comes from God. Or we start approaching a task at work with a different attitude because of the support you received from a colleague. Somehow there is an invitation to move out of a rut we are in, we get a glimpse of being 100% alive, and fully responsive to our deeper call.
Like Harry, an emergency physician, who had delivered hundreds of babies. One day a woman came in and it was too late for the obstetrician. The baby was born immediately and Harry laid her along his left forearm. Holding the back of her head in his left hand, he took a suction bulb in his right and began to clear her mouth and nose. Suddenly, the baby opened her eyes and looked directly at him. In that moment, Harry stepped past his technical role and realized a very simple thing: that he was the first human being this baby girl had ever seen. He felt his heart go out to her in welcome from all people everywhere and tears came to his eyes. Harry had delivered hundreds of babies, He had always enjoyed the challenges of delivery, the excitement of making rapid decisions and feeling his own competency, but he says that he had never let himself experience the meaning of what he was doing before. He feels that in a certain sense this was the first baby that he had ever delivered. He says that in the past he could have been so preoccupied with the technical aspects of the delivery, assessing and responding to needs and dangers, that he doubts he would have noticed the baby open her eyes or have registered what her look meant. He would have been there as a physician but not as a human being. How many times do we go about our work in a technical manner trusting in our own competencies, forgetting to be present to the deeper God given life in us and around us.
Jesus came to the disciples asking them to do something different. They had done life focused on their own goals, and methods, and now he had a new direction, a new motivation for their lives. And their obedience, their listening to his call and responding made all the difference. In fact, obedience comes from the Latin word "audire", which means to listen. Every true call is a call to obey God, or to listen to God. The concept of obedience is not a very popular one in our culture. It reminds us of the tyrant who demands senseless conformity to a will not our own. I was talking to one group about obedience to God and they said, it reminded them of being children and powerless and it was uncomfortable. It struck me that the reason the notion of being obedient to God’s call is so difficult for us is that we don’t have much faith in the one who is calling. It helps me to remember that the one who calls me is Jesus--the one who knows me and loves me. The one who was giving the disciples directions, and asking uncomfortable questions is the one who kept coming to feed them. When Jesus says "If you love me you will keep my commandments," It is because those commandments are how we live in harmony with him and with life itself. But the obedience Jesus wants is a lively one, one that comes out of our relationship with him, one which Paul refers to as "obedience from the heart." It can never be mechanical or impersonal.
So, Jesus stands on the edges of our work, our families, our lives, and calls to us. He asks us to do our tasks and engage our lives with a different heart. -- One which is open and continually listening for the small voice which comes to us in the most ordinary of situations. He comes with a desire for us to be free to try something, free to do it differently. "Try the other side" he says and he fills our nostrils with the smell of a breakfast that will nourish our souls. There is love here and more life than we have ever known. Thanks be to the Risen One who keeps turning up to show us a new way and a new life.
