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Rez is a community where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you.
Life Together In The Goodness Of God
You may be seated. Good morning everyone. We are still in Easter Tide. This is actually the fifth week of Easter Tide. Thank you for the whoop. That's the right kind of energy that we need in Easter Tide. And something I always really love about this season is we have these strange readings, sometimes that aren't like celebratory party readings like the stoning of Stephen. And it's actually the appropriate time for us to make sense of a story like that within Easter Tide. And that's the work that we're going to do this morning. Even in the midst of a celebration we have tough things that we actually have to make sense of. And isn't that true for real life? We don't show up to Easter Sunday with no problems, right? Just easy to celebrate. No. Real life is complicated. It's troubling. There are moments in life when especially we feel like everything begins to close in on us. Things aren't working out. Life is tough and yet it is still Easter Tide. When the weight of what's happening in the world may be in your body, in your family, in your relationships, in our city, sometimes it just feels like too much to carry. And Easter Tide doesn't sort of pause until we situate that, right? We're carrying all that stuff even in the midst of proclaiming that yes, Jesus has risen just like we did. Could be a diagnosis that you didn't see coming. Or a bill that you're struggling to pay or maybe can't pay. Or a relationship that's quietly coming apart in your life. Maybe it's, for me, the creeping sense that institutions that we trusted to protect us are now taking advantage of us. Despair is not always dramatic. It creeps. The darkness sort of creeps its way and it finds its way into our lives and it arrives quietly like on a Tuesday afternoon. Nothing spectacular. And it whispers things to us like this is just going to get worse. Nothing's ever going to change. The darkness is permanent. There's no way through. And yet it's still Easter Tide. What do we do with that? There's this strange and stubborn testimony running throughout all of Scripture, if we can pay attention and maybe recognize it, through the lives of the saints, through the lives of this community that says something like this, in the company of God, even in the worst moments, something breaks open. Not an escape from reality, not some sort of spiritual bypass to all the troubles of the world, but a clarity, a light, maybe even a relief that we sense. That the way forward exists even when we can't see a way forward. How old of a story is that in Scripture? Think of the Exodus in Red Sea, where there was no way, somehow God made a way. God has prepared a place. God has called a people where there was once not a people, right? This morning, this is what I want to consider, in the midst of Easter Tide and the troubles of our world, that there is a way of liberation breaking through the night in our lives. Thank you. And this is what I see, by the way, I love it when you all talk to me. Thank you, Cassie. Leading the way a little bit, get a little conversation, running some laps up here, my man. So what we see in Stephen, I think in Stephen's life, in this reading from Acts, we read that in the midst of him being stoned to death while the crowd is loud, the rocks are flying. Can you imagine that scene? Absolute mayhem. If I was a disciple experiencing the stoning of Stephen, I'd be like, is Jesus risen? What is this? What's happening? And in that moment, the worst moment that Stephen perhaps experienced in his life, he looks up and sees the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, and then he prays this prayer. It's stunning to me. It's sort of startling. Lord, do not hold this sin against him. Who does that sound like? You could tell that this man's been in the company of Jesus, it seems, right? Those same words, that same forgiveness, that same release of the outcomes to the care of the Father, right? We recognize that. I want to consider with you this morning, how does something like that really happen in our lives? You guys, just like free-range children. That's totally fine. Rez can handle that. Just make yourself at home. How does that happen? How do we calm the kinds of people? Up here, guys, up here. We can do this. One, two, three, eyes on me, right? I don't know how they say it. How does it happen that people, how does it happen that people are so around Jesus enough that they begin to speak like him and feel and love and think like Jesus? Especially at the points where it's the hardest, right? How does it happen that someone like Stephen, experiencing a stoning to death, somehow is resembling Jesus of Nazareth? I think John 14 has the answer for us this morning. I want to look at it. Jesus is in the upper room the night before his death. That context is really important. The disciples are frightened and confused. Thomas says, we do not know where you're going. And I really love this moment because I think I would have said the exact same thing. How can we know the way, Jesus? Where do you think you're going? And Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. We know this, this passage, right? This is famous. And then Philip says, just show us the Father. And that'll be enough. And Jesus responds with something that sounds almost offended or a little bit hurt. Have you not been with me this whole time? And you're going to ask me this. Philip, do you still not know me? Have we not been sharing company for so long and you still do not know who I am? Whoever has seen me, Jesus says, has seen the Father. Philip, I can relate to, he's looking for a grand vision. I think a theophany, a burning bush, a sign, a voice from the cloud, something dramatic like that. To show up in a way that is unmistakable and overwhelming. And if you've ever carried doubts in your faith, you know this kind of desire, this kind of craving. God, just give me a sign, please. And that will be enough. And Jesus says, I have been standing right in front of you this whole time. Not even the sign of Jonah will be enough from you, for you, right? The Father's house that Jesus describes, that he goes to prepare a place for us, is an invitation to us, not so much to a destination that we arrive to after death. It's a communion. It's a life with God, a relationship, a way of being known and loved by God and to God. I'm going to be polite here. Do you all know the point of the whole Christian faith? Like, what's the whole point of this, right? Do you ever ask yourself on a Sunday morning, like, why am I, what are we doing? Let's just go to brunch, right? Do you know that the entire trajectory, the point of the Christian life is for us to be with God? And not then, but now. Do you know this? The whole mission of Jesus of Nazareth, as the prophet said, cleared a highway for us. Why? To be with God. Well, what's so great about being with God? It's life to the fullest. It's liberation, it's freedom, it's breathing with both lungs. It's life. And without that end point, without that vision in mind of what this is all about, this isn't going to make any sense. What is this? This is life with God. The baptism waters, life with God. It's all about entering into being with God. And now, once we come into these sacramental moments, the rest of our lives is learning how, now, to be with God. Y'all tracking with me? This is beautiful. I think Stephen learned how to be with God. And we see the evidence of that even in the midst of his stoning. So Jesus, he makes this promise to us about, I go to prepare a place for you. It's a promise that he, I know Jesus extends this to knowing that his disciples have troubled hearts. He extends this promise to us, not because everything is fine, that things are easy. Remember, the cross is hours away for Jesus when he makes this promise. He makes this promise because the communion between the Father and the Son is unbreakable. And Jesus is inviting his disciples into the midst of that very unbreakable communion, AKA life with God. We don't know if Stephen had ever met Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh. We don't know that. Scripture doesn't tell us. But he had been formed by that early Jewish community, that early church. Stephen had been formed by a people who had been with Jesus in the flesh. And somehow, through that community, the life of Jesus had worked its way into him, to the extent that even when we see him being martyred, he smells and talks and acts like our Savior. Jesus had it, you could say, inhabited him, had maybe set up a dwelling place in his life. The Father's house, I think, is a way to put that. Jesus had taken up residence within Stephen and held him when nothing else could. That's the promise that you and I have today. I think this is what Jesus meant when he says that whoever believes in me will do the work that I do and in fact do greater works than these. Remember when Jesus promised his disciples this? No greater in the sense of more impressive, not greater, not greater in the sense of something just more flashy or like undeniable, then I'll believe. Not that kind of greater. Greater in the sense of wider, the same love, the same forgiveness, the same laying down of one's life, now flowing through his disciples by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Greater. And this is why what we do here matters every Sunday morning. This is why you get up early on the weekends to be here, is to be with God and to be with God's people, to be with God and learn to be with God, to hear the news from someone who gets up here and tries to announce to us once again in this very noisy world, God loves you and to truly live is to be with God. Oh man, that's good news for me to hear. Sometimes I hear it when it's coming out of my own mouth. You know what I mean? I need that. This is why we come here and what we do matters. And I've been, and I need to sit with this when things go wrong in my life or in my community or in the world, I've been sitting all week with the Supreme Court's decision to dismantle the Voting Rights Act and feeling that creep of despair as the powers redraw lines around who counts or at least gives way for that to be done. And it is already being done. The power is getting to determine who gets to participate in their own governance, rolling back a history of civil rights. It's an old story, but it still sucks. It's what Micah called the failure of justice and mercy, and it is exactly the kind of reality the church cannot look away from. Because Jesus in John 14 talks about a life with the Father, a life like Stephen, a life of communion with God, and God cares about these things. Stephen is such a beautiful example of a deacon. He's considered the first deacon of the church, and it's a person who gives himself or themselves for the community, their life, laying down their life for a community. And especially in those moments where the powers overlook or sort of push out or ignore some, the deacons step in and say, not so. Gustavo Gutierrez reminds us that the diaconate means both serving the vulnerable and the overlooked and raising your voice to denounce what harms them. Wow. Even when, can you hear this? Even when it frustrates or upsets people. Uh-oh. And by the way, once a deacon, always a deacon. You've got three deacons here. But the diaconate is not just a holy order that some get to have and some don't. The diaconate is a calling that all Christians share in that work. We're talking about you too, folks. And when we speak up, and sometimes people don't like that, and we are doing our best to announce the kingdom of God and the justice and mercy of God's way of doing things, we find ourselves in the midst of a God who's dwelling with us, a community in whom the Father's house has truly taken up residence and cannot stay quiet when its neighbors are being told that their voices do not count. Rez, even beyond that, that's just one of the big heavy things that I've been carrying around all week. Even beyond that, closer to home, in other ways, the way you give, the way you serve, the way you show up here on Sundays, and yes, even the advocacy and the speaking up that you're all called to do in your own ways, in your own gifts, these are all good deeds. I'm sorry, these are not just good deeds that we perform in order to make our way into the Father's house. It's actually the other way around. These acts, the giving, the serving, the loving our neighbors, are the evidence that the Father's house has been built up in us. That we are now dwelling places of the goodness of God in this world. The evidence. How do we then maintain, keep up, allow, receive that indwelling to the extent that our lives have that aroma like Stephen's? How do we do that? It's not rocket science. Actually, I think that Jesus sort of just bangs this drum constantly with disciples, and I'm just like them. Say it again, Jesus. Jesus is saying, stay close to me. That's how. Stay close to me. The moment you feel like a departure, like maybe you should take matters in your own hands, or do it your own way, or give in to the ways of the world, Jesus says, hold on, hold on. Stay close to me. You know me. Have I not been with you this whole time? I am the way. That is not the way. I am the way. That is not the life. I am the life. That is not the truth. I am the truth. And Jesus promises to meet us continually again and again in all the troubles of this life, even in Eastertide, in all of our troubles. Jesus meets us on our knees in our confessions, in our repentance. Jesus meets us in the embrace of our neighbors when we share the peace in just a moment. Jesus meets us in the waters of baptism when we are received into the household of God. Remember that? And Jesus meets us when we come to this table and gives us his own body and blood to consume and thereby be consumed by. All of this is about a life with God. All of this is about celebrating the one whom God raised from the dead who with the Spirit still lives and still reigns now and forever. Amen. Let's take a moment of silence