Insignificant Irritations

Easter 3

John 21:1-19

This morning, as I was tying my shoes, my brand new glasses fell apart.  Completely unprovoked, the right stem just fell off.  This was just the most recent in a string of irritations this week.  I admit, these irritations were insignificant compared with the great problems of the day, and the challenges many people face.  But they were still frustrating.  We all have weeks like that.  Weeks where nothing seems to go right.  Not major setbacks, but just lots of little things that grind away like grit in the gears.  So often, we talk about how our faith speaks to the big stuff in life:  sin, death, and the reality of evil in our world.  But what does our faith say about the grit?

Right after my glasses fell apart, I read this week’s Gospel Lesson and wondered, “what does this text have to say to me, given the week I’ve had?”  I pondered that for quite a while.  Maybe it said nothing.  It was about bigger things –  death being defeated in Resurrection, and showing our love for Jesus by feeding his sheep.   My insignificant irritations seemed a long way from that beach on the Sea of Tiberius.  But, the more I reflected on it, the more I saw connections.  Fishing was, after all, Peter’s daily work before he crossed paths with Jesus.  Now, I’m not into fishing, but from my childhood fishing experience, I know that fishing all day and not catching anything happens.  (It happened to me a lot – which is why I’m not into fishing.)  Peter must have been frustrated by the futility of his efforts.  Maybe even irritated.  But then, Jesus is there.   The presence of Jesus turns Peter’s frustration at empty nets into the joy of abundance.   Jesus’ presence turns Peter’s irritation into irrelevancy, as he pulls on his pants, dives into the sea and swims to greet the Lord.

So, what does that have to do with my broken glasses?  Everything!  The truth of the Resurrection, I think, puts everything in it’s proper perspective, whether that is empty nets, broken glasses or the reality of sin, death and evil in our world.  Knowing that Christ is alive helps us roll with the daily irritations, helps us see abundance where others see scarcity, and gives us the courage to face the big stuff that tears at our world.  Knowing that Christ is alive gives us the grounds for loving God all the more and the strength to feed the sheep who graze in our neighborhood. 

Oh…  and it only took the optician a couple of minutes to fix my glasses.   

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading!

Faith is Not Knowing

Easter 2

John 20:24-31

There are a lot of things I don’t know.  (No surprise to those who know me…)   The more I learn, the less I seem to know.  The older I get, the more I discover the limits of my knowledge.  I have spent most of my adult life around universities and with people dedicated to expanding and deepening the field of knowledge in their particular academic discipline.  I have always appreciated academic pursuits and the life of the mind.  Knowledge and learning are vitally important and I regularly bemoan the fact that their value seems to be declining in our society.

But faith is not knowing.  Faith taps into something deeper than knowledge.  Faith is rooted, not in the mind, but in our relationship with the Transcendent.  In our relationship with God.  With God, who is always closer than our next breath.  In its simplest terms, faith is about trust.  As the writer of Hebrews puts it, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  (11:1) Faith is not something we do, or conjure up on our own.  It is not about knowing the right doctrines or behaving the right way or practicing rituals rightly.  No.  Faith is pure gift.  It is about being able to trust because God is trustworthy.  It is about being able to love God because God first loved us.  Faith “saves” us, not because we “do” it but because it “does” us.   What does Jesus say?  “You did not chose me but I chose you.”  (John 15:16)

Jesus tells Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29) In speaking those words, Jesus blesses all of us who don’t know a lot and who struggle with doubts, questions and uncertainty.  Jesus blesses those of us who live by faith, not by knowledge.  Jesus blesses the women at the tomb, the disciples locked in fear in the upper room, Thomas and all those who have a hard time getting their heads around the truth of the Resurrection, and the promise that Death has lost its grip on humanity… and somehow manage to believe it anyway.

A wise woman once told me that she is part of a community of faith so that, when she is filled with doubt, others can believe for her, and that when she is filled with certainty, she can believe for those who are struggling with doubt.  She prays for them when they cannot pray, and is confident that they pray for her when she cannot find the words or the will. 

There are a lot of days I am very grateful for the Church.  In spite of all our shortcomings, failings and proclivity for missing the point, God continues to love us and walk with us and do some pretty amazing things through us.  God continues to foster faith in us, even when we cannot see through the fog in our minds.  The scriptures are filled with stories that confirm this powerful truth, including the story of the one who is the Truth, and who rose from the dead to prove it.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading!

Among the Tombs

Resurrection of our Lord

Luke 24:1-12

I find graveyards and cemeteries fascinating.  Tombstones tell a story.  I visited an old cemetery in eastern Oklahoma many years ago.  In one corner of the cemetery, there were a number of small graves marked by simple stones.  All of them belonged to children; a grim reminder of an epidemic that swept through the tiny town.  During a call interview I was taken to the community graveyard.   As we walked among the tombs, they told me the story of their town, the story of their people, they told me who they were.  I took a “cemetery tour” in New Orleans and looked at the ornate and elaborate tombs of the wealthy.  Many were truly works of art.  A little later in that trip, we visited a graveyard in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.  There, in unkempt crypts, old bones were often pushed aside or even removed to make room for a new body.  The contrast of the two cemeteries painted a striking picture of the long history of injustice and racial and economic divisions that are part of that city’s story.

In Luke’s story of the Resurrection, we find ourselves walking with three women among the tombs.  Those tombs told a story too.   A story of kings and exile, of wars and occupation and tyranny, of prophets and faith, of God’s steadfast love and promises.  But, on that day, the story that was uppermost on the women’s minds pertained to one particular tomb:  the tomb of their beloved teacher, Jesus.   Crushed by the terror of his death and the shattering of their hope, they came to do what needed to be done.

But he was not there.

Two men in dazzling clothes questioned them,  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  And then offered them startling Good News,  “He is not here, but has risen!”

Too often, I think, we humans prefer to walk among the tombs.  We prefer to live in the past, and dwell on the tragedies and deaths, large and small, that define so many of our lives.  Worse, we scrub out the tragedies and the death and just remember how good things used to be.  We conveniently forget that yesterday was just as full of sorrow, struggle, suffering, injustice and death as today. 

But, as Easter people, as people who supposedly ground our lives in the Good News of the Resurrection, why do we go on looking for the living among the dead?  Why do we go on living as if death is more powerful than life?  That death is more powerful than God? 

A walk among the tombs can be both instructive and insightful but, only if we remember that “He is not here, but has risen!”  The Good News of Easter helps refocus us on the enduring power of God’s life and love.  People of Easter faith need to be constantly vigilant in looking for empty tombs and signs of resurrection life.  People of Easter faith need to be committed to bringing that resurrection life into the dark and death-filled places that so many still inhabit – even if our efforts are dismissed as idle tales. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

I pray that you have a blessed celebration of the Resurrection this weekend, and that the Spirit of Christ fills you with Resurrection life!