PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
THE McGREGOR PAGE is available free to your e-mail inbox. Send requests to subscribe, unsubscribe or comment to Roland McGregor (rmac.parti@ecunet.org) by clicking here.
Easter 3
May 4, 2003
Psalm 4
Acts 3:12-19
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24: 36b-38
Karl Barth liked Scripture passages that were in his words, "like sand between the teeth." It wasn't just that he was mentally stimulated by passages that refused to melt into commonplace platitudes. It was rather hope for revelation hiding behind difficult readings that attracted him. There is grit in each of the lessons for this Sunday that may also be grist for the mill.
Psalms 4:4 "When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent." It is interesting that silence is counseled rather than talking to (or at) God. Are there disturbances within us that should simply be pondered silently with the awareness of God's presence? What about the disturbance that Peter's speech set off in his listeners when he said, "But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses." (Acts 3:14-15)
Ponder that on your bed and keep quiet. How can one talk to God about killing the Son of God? I would want to process that a bit. Yet, Peter seems to say, "Never mind." "And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers." (Acts 3:17) Is ignorance a defense for the unspeakable crime he has just defined, defined without a hint of emotion? Or, does the resurrection set everything aside? Jesus asks God to forgive the Roman soldiers who hang him on the cross because they don't know what they are doing. They don't know whom they are killing, of course, but they know very well what they are doing to a fellow human being. Peter calls the coconspirators of the Romans, "friends." Subsequent generations of Christians will call subsequent generations of Jews "God killers." Something about the resurrection didn't reach the later generations of Christians.
1 John 3:6 "No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him."
Hmm. Then who, past the first generation of the church, has abided in him? Who knows him? Has something about the resurrection not reached us?
Luke 24:41-43 "While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence."
Now, let's see. Jesus can appear and vanish, but he can still eat. What happens to that fish when he vanishes? We like to divide things neatly into spirit and flesh. "We now commit his body to the ground, but his soul we commend to God who gave it." Not so fast. Is there something about the resurrection that we have missed?
These passages are all like sand between the teeth. That is why I have trouble knowing where to bite in. But, just because they won't melt, doesn't mean I should go on to softer food this Sunday. What about this idea that there are aspects missing to us from the resurrection experience, not the details but the substance, the holiness the transcendence? I might explore the mystery of Jesus' "resurrection body." He wasn't a ghost. He wasn't a resuscitated human being. He wasn't an example of anything in recorded history. He was unique. We will each be unique in our resurrection too.
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Click on the McGregor Page link below for a sermon starter essay to go with this Children's Sermon.
THE McGREGOR PAGE and CHILDREN'S SERMONS are available free to your e-mail inbox. To send requests to subscribe, unsubscribe or changes Click here
e-mail: seniorpastor@qwest.net
Webpage: http://www.webspawner.com/users/McGregorPage/
Webpage: http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/
 The McGregor Page |
| Official UMC Homepage |
| Lift Up Your Hearts |
| Sermons & Sermon Lectionary Resources |
| Clergy Resources |
Send E-Mail to: seniorpastor@qwest.netCopyright © 2002. All Rights Reserved