PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
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Easter 2
April 27, 2003
Isaiah 26: 2-9, 19
Ps. 133
Acts 4: 32-35
1 John 1:1 - 2:2
John 20: 19-31
If the first Sunday after Christmas is "Second-String Sunday," (let the associate pastor preach) then the first Sunday after Easter is "So What Sunday." After having set up folding chairs to handle the crowd; after trotting out all the choirs, all the flowers, all the best linens and all the preacher could do -- so what? So what has happened? So what is different? If something has happened, and something is different, why don't we need to set out folding chairs this Sunday? What has happened is that the congregation has heaved a corporate sigh of relief and will progressively abandon worship for summer fun.
It wasn't originally that way. Our Scripture lessons remind us that the force of the resurrection was to bring people together in a powerful way. "Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in." (Isaiah 26:2) "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'" (John 20:22-23) "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common." (Acts 4:32)
Power -- the resurrection powered the opening of the gates of heaven. It opened the gates for the gathering of the saints on earth.
Power -- the resurrected Lord gave the church a franchise on divine judgment. If it were outrageous to the Jewish leaders that Jesus presumed to forgive sins, what must it have seemed to them for the church to do the same. Does it seem any less outrageous to us today?
Power -- the resurrection commanded such a consuming loyalty that people transferred all their financial assets to the church and its mission thereby welding their future to that of the church.
How did this power devolve into "So What Sunday?"
In our zeal to cover the globe, we have traded depth for breadth. Embracing Western culture has meant adding scientific thinking and market capitalism to our credo. The empiricist would be as stunned as Thomas, if invited to put his/her finger in the wounded side of Jesus. Not having seen the risen Lord, however, we don't believe and therefore miss the blessing of Jesus. The capitalist would be horrified by the idea of liquidating and renouncing personal capital. The ideal is to make yourself rich and the church dependent on you, not the other way around.
The church has consigned itself to the role of making people feel better in a world ruled by technology and economics. The prophesy of Isaiah is still true, "the lofty city he lays low... The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy." (Isaiah 26:5-6) Whose feet make miserable the once glittering cities of this wealthy nation? Where was the church when national policy once again turned against the poor? Where is the church today? The church is a mile wide and an inch deep as it flows into the twenty-first century.
What an opportunity for the Gospel! People are desperate for community deep and true. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to be the most loving of bodies, one that forgives sins. (The power to withhold forgiveness is authorized but not inspired by the Spirit of Christ, Jesus who even forgave those who killed him.) People need this fellowship but seek it in vain. It comes at a price. When we risk everything on the truth of the resurrection and the mission of the church, then we live in the community created by the resurrection.
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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