In-Between Times

Second Sunday of Easter

John 20.19-31

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

With this being the last Sunday I will be with you for 111 days—but who’s counting?—I find that I view today’s Gospel reading in a new light. We hear this particular story every year on the Sunday after Easter Day. The story that has come to bear the erroneous and unfortunate monicker of “Doubting Thomas.” How many times can one preach on and seek to debunk the implication that Thomas lacked faith? I state emphatically, he did not. On this particular day, which by my reckoning is about the 17^th or 18^th time I have preached this Gospel, I welcome viewing this story through the lens of my—of our—impending Sabbatical. Hopefully giving new insight into what was going on with Thomas and the remaining disciples during those early days following Christ’s Resurrection. And, in so doing, offering a perspective with which we might view this time of Sabbatical we begin as of tomorrow.

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A Tale of Two Resurrections

Easter Day

John 20.1-20

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook page

 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

We have just heard John’s account of what happened on Easter morning. While there are differences in specific details, each of the Gospels tell basically the same story. How on Easter morning, women go to Jesus’ tomb and find it empty. Each account unfolding to reveal something about the resurrection and about the Risen Lord. John’s account, while also accomplishing this, goes one step further. This account takes a deeper dive into the responses the disciples have upon finding the tomb empty and the resulting effect of the resurrection on those closest to Jesus. Thereby providing a means by which we might view our own responses to the resurrection and its effect on us and our lives of faith.

 

While the Gospel account we just heard is most definitely a unified whole, in some ways, it is actually two stories. Each with its own response to the resurrection. Responses and reactions which are very different from each other, and yet are held in tension with one another; one flowing from the other. The juxtaposition of the two informing how we ourselves might view and relate to such a mysterious and unexplainable event. Explaining how such a mysterious and unexplainable event as the resurrection is, nonetheless, the centerpiece of our religion, of our collective and individual lives of faith.

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Boldness

Good Friday

Isaiah 52.13—53.12; Hebrews 4.14-16, 5.7-9; John 18.1—19.42

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook page

 

Our liturgical commemorations for Holy Week are bracketed with an extended reading of the Passion Narrative. On Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, we hear the Passion Narrative from one of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, or Luke, depending on the year). This year it was Luke. Then, on Good Friday, we always hear the Passion Narrative from the Gospel according to John. While the substantial facts of the narratives are the same, there are differences (aside from the timeframe reported). I specifically refer to differences in how the actual Passion is portrayed: Jesus’ arrest, the trials before temple authorities and Pontius Pilate, and his crucifixion.

 

Comparing the Synoptic accounts (primarily Luke) with John’s version of the Passion reveals some stark differences. Not so much in the chain of events and details surrounding those events. After all, these are reported by different people viewing events from different perspectives; and even then, based on second-, third-, or fourth-hand accounts. So differences in reported details are understandable. And generally speaking, they are all consistent. With one significant exception. That is in how Jesus comports himself throughout his Passion. How he behaves and particularly how he responds, throughout. That difference is telling.

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Circling the Wagons

Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year C)

John 12.1-8

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook page (beginning at 14:35)

 

Sometimes being a loving, caring community takes its toll. On those charged with the leadership and care of the community, as well as on the individual members comprising that community. This is something we are currently experiencing here at St. Gregory’s. In the space of 26 days—not even a whole month—we have experienced the loss of five beloved members of our community. Two of those occurring just this past week, on Wednesday and Thursday. This in a week in which we also had the funeral service for David Feit-Pretzer, our previous, long-time organist and music director, and the first of those to die just four weeks ago. Even though some of these dearly departed may not have been known to many of you, the collective loss experienced by those who did know them, and the resulting collective loss experienced by the parish community, is numbing. Each subsequent death adding to the cumulative numbness. Each subsequent death subtracting from the vitality of the community. I feel it acutely. And I know a number of you do, as well. Questioning, what is happening here? Not that there is any real answer. And yet, in times like this, in times of even one loss, let alone so many, we seek something to help us cope. Something to help us get through the grief, the sorrow, the sense of being diminished as a body, and the resulting sense of numbness and disbelief.

 

Today’s Gospel reading just happens to provide some insight, some guidance. A healing balm, not unlike the perfume Mary uses to anoint Jesus’ feet.

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