April 10, 2016: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard.  Amen.

There was something someone posted on Facebook a few weeks ago – a common post –  that said, “If you think your religion is telling you to hate people, you are doing it wrong.”

Isn’t that the truth.

The news these days have been filled with terror attacks by religious extremists, anti-gay legislation in states seeking to “protect” religous freedom, and politicians using God’s name, professing to be people of faith, and marginalizing and denigrating immigrants, gay and transgendered people, and women.

I think some of these folks need to get knocked off their religious high horse, which is what we heard in one of our readings happened to a guy named Saul traveling to Damascus.  But to be clear, this type of divine smackdown isn’t about punishment, but about redemption, about love.

It’s about us.

In the reading from The Acts of the Apostles, where we get this story about Saul, and true also in the Gospel of John today, we get some real examples of redemption!  Yes, redemption.  That funny word that we like to avoid in nice neat Episcopalian-ese – holding quite closely to our frozen chosen identity.  After all, isn’t that sin and redemption stuff for those pesky fundamentalists?

And besides, some of you may be thinking – we are no longer in Lent, so what’s up with all this sin and redemption talk – lighten up a bit, right?  It is Easter. That is true, and Easter is not something that, for a Christian can be confined to the days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost.  By the way, I saw a picture of a church sign posted on Facebook – I won’t say the denomination – but it said “Pretend it’s still Easter and come to church this Sunday!”  Pretend?  Folks – we all know it still IS Easter!  It always is for us really.  Easter is who we are as a people – we are a resurrection people.  And inherent in being a resurrection people, is an experience of death.  We must first die to all that holds us back from feeling the fullness of relationship with God, that we may truly live in God’s all abiding love and grace.  That is what sin & redemption is all about – resurrection from our spiritual death.  A death so many feel in the world today.

Of course, I’m sure some would argue that they experience death and resurrection in worship every Sunday – dying a slow death during the sermon, and rising to new life at the dismissal, but let’s not go there.  Instead, let’s go to what we heard in our scriputure this morning.

Now, in the first scripture reading from Acts, Saul from Tarsus is merrily going about his way – doing all he can to persecute the followers of Jesus.  In fact, in the previous chapters to what we heard today, Saul stands and guards the coats of the folks stoning our first martyr – the Deacon Stephen, and then, because well, that wasn’t enough blood letting, seeks out more folks he can persecute.  Acts 8:3 says “…Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.”  What a guy!  I think he likely won’t win Mr. Congeniality among the folks in Jerusalem.  But let’s put ourselves in that time and space for a moment, if we can.

As I mentioned during a sermon back in Lent, Saul was no ordinary Jew, but a Pharisee, one of the temple elite – and by his own admission later in his letters, of the tribe of Benjamin, a man of passionate faith.  He believed deep in his heart that anyone who would challenge the temple authorities, as Jesus had done, cannot be good, and his followers must be rooted out to keep the faith on the right track. So, he was trying to do what he thought was the work of God.  But he was not on the right path. His view of how to live his faith was inspiring him to hate others – he was doing it wrong.

Jesus quite literally stops Saul in his tracks.  In blinding him, he opens his eyes.  Saul was denying who Jesus was, and Jesus helped him to “see” the light, to walk “The Way” of Christ. He is given new work to do – bringing others into relationship with Him.  This type of story is so life changing, so incredible, it leaves such an impression.  It is a story of transformation.  And even today, when people experience a major transformation or conversion, it is often referred to as a “road to Damascus experience.”

But, while it is often thought that this was a conversion story of Saul to Christianity – that is not true at all.  Saul was born, lived and died a Jew…just as Jesus was a Jew.  “The Way” was not Christianity, but a movement within Judaism that, through Saul’s encounter with the risen Christ, broadened out beyond the bounds of the Jewish faith.  Still, it was this transformation, this redemption of Saul by the risen Jesus, that forever changed the world.

Now, let’s set aside Saul for a moment, and do just a quick recap of the gospel…some of the boys, after having seen the resurrected Jesus, continued on with their daily lives, and went out fishing all night.  They caught nothing.  When daylight came, Jesus stood on the shore, told them to cast the nets on the other side of the boat, and then they hauled in loads of fish – that’s a whole other sermon right there folks.  They went ashore, and Jesus had a nice breakfast waiting on a charcoal fire.  And then Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved him, and after each profession of love that Peter gave, Jesus told him to feed his lambs, tend his sheep, and then feed his sheep. What is up with that?

Well remember, around a different charcoal fire, Peter already had denied Jesus – three times before the cock crowed?  When Peter sees the resurrected Jesus he is feeling the sting of what he had done. In this encounter, Jesus redeems him by having him emphatically state three affirmations of his love of him.  Jesus opens the door to forgiveness for Peter, something I suspect Peter desperately needed.  And in no less a way than Saul, Peter is transformed as well.

All of this is great news for us, because it means we can be transformed too, because if we think God calls only perfect people, only loves those without faults, then why are we here?  Because the truth is, we all fall short.  Even within a faith community, intentionally or not, we can fail to see the Christ in one another, and in our unwillingness to see Jesus in the eyes of others inside and outside of these walls, we are denying him in no less a way than Peter. Jesus is everywhere!  Sometimes we not only don’t recognize him, we persecute him like Saul.  You don’t have to be hauling folks out of their homes and stoning them to deny and persecute Christ.  Denial and persecution comes in all forms, but one of the harshest is refusing to see a person – and worse still – to deny someone’s humanity.

As I say so often, Christ is in the friend – and the stranger.  In the ones we love, and the ones that drive us nuts.  In the rich, and in the poor.  In women and men.  In Democrats and Republicans.  In the citizen and in the undocumented.  In gay, straight, and transgendered people.  In people of all races, cultures, and languages.  And Christ is also in the mirror.

When we forget to love one another as ourselves, and to love God – when we forget to love and serve as Christ taught us – we deny him in ourselves and in those whom we harm, or refuse to see.  But just as wrong is our failure to forgive when others fall short.  If we are to live as Christ lived, then we must open our hearts to forgive those who have wronged us, remembering always that forgiveness is not about forgetting, but about not allowing what has pained you to imprison you.  Forgiveness sets you free, and opens the door for others to follow you on The Way. Remember that later in this Saul story, the first apostles had to forgive Saul to be able to work with him in ministry – and that was after he was directly involved in their persecution. And perhaps hardest of all, is to forgive ourselves, and it is then that we must remember that nothing “can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ”…and you know who said that – Paul – the transformed Saul of our story.

It is Easter – and we are a resurrection people called to walk “The Way” of Christ in the world – a world who walks in darkness – a world in need of light, love, and new life.  As Saul was called to walk in a new Way – the disciples to fish in a new Way – we are called to live in a new Way.

Living the way of Christ will sometimes be difficult, and take us to unexpected places – emotionally, spiritually, and perhaps physically. It is our life work – what we are called to do, and to be sure, it is work that never involves hating anyone, or persecuting anyone…if we think it does, we are doing it wrong.  But, it may involve standing as the body of Christ in the world today against the misguided Saul’s of the world who do, and through love and example, taking the scales off of their eyes.  And we may from time to time feel tired and lost, even denying intentionally or not, Christ in others, and in ourselves.  But, the gospel, the good news, is this: Jesus will return, redeem, and re-commission us for our life in Christ.

In our baptism, we are brought into a relationship with Jesus that is never ending. Jesus never gives up on us.  Jesus will always come back for us, as he did with Thomas in our gospel reading last week, and as we hear now he does with Peter and Saul.  Jesus will always forgive us, and Jesus will always re-commission us for ministry within these walls, and far beyond them.

Because Christ is risen, we are never lost forever.

Because Christ is risen, there is always hope.

Because Christ is risen, we the imperfect, are renewed to be the people of The Way – a way of love that will feed God’s hungry sheep.

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below:

The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
April 10, 2016
Second Sunday in Lent – Year C
1st Reading – Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)
Psalm 30
2nd Reading – Revelation 5:11-14
Gospel – John 21:1-19