Today we will be with Jesus in Paradise
The Rev. Aron Kramer Last Pentecost Sunday, November 25, 2007
Our journey always begins with our trip to the Inn. After days of waiting and hearing rumors of a miracle in Bethlehem, we go to the Inn, but God is not there, they say God is in the stable out back.
We leave the Inn and go to the stable; there the shepherds say God is not here, God has left with his family to go to Egypt.
We leave the stable and go to Egypt, but the people there do not know God and we return to God’s birth place where God’s family says God is in the Temple.
We go to the Temple, but God, the people say, is out in the country and by the seaside, making apostles out of some.
We go to the Apostles to find God, but God, the Apostles say, is not with them, God is at the outskirts of town, with the poor, the lame, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed.
We go to the outskirts of town, to find the poor, the lame, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed, some say they have been healed, others ask us, since we know God, to heal them, but they all say God is no longer with them, God has been taken by Roman soldiers to the Roman Courts.
We leave the outskirts of town and go to Jerusalem, to find the Roman Courts. In Jerusalem, the Roman authorities sneer at us and say, God is not here in the courts, God has been condemned to death upon a cross.
We follow the noise of the crowd and the trail of blood and bone all the way to the cross, but God is not on the cross, God has been taken down from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea says, and taken to a tomb.
Still in search of God, we go to the tomb, only to discover the stone barricading the tomb and sealing God within it has been rolled away and tomb is empty. Some women running from the tomb tell us God is not there.
So we go back to the Inn, back to the Inn to wait for God to return there, not realizing, that by staying at the Inn we leave no room for God’s family to rest their heads.
Jesus, remember me, when you come into to your Kingdom. Simple words, words that I would have been hard pressed to come up with hanging on a cross, about to die. Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom. Jesus’ response is one I think we gloss over, one we do not truly hear. Jesus says to the thief hanging on the cross next to him, “TODAY you will be with me in Paradise”.
At our core we are seekers, we are constantly seeking. Not many of us can claim that we have discovered the truth of God or of Jesus or of the Holy Spirit and are so confident in our faith that we cannot be shaken, nothing in the world could cause us to doubt our faith in God. This need for seeking, for discovering is important, as the two men crucified with Jesus shows us, we always want to have a choice, we want to be able to choose to accept or to deny. One of the men next to Jesus derided him, asked Jesus to save him, the other, repented, out of fear, out of desperation, out of sheer faith, we do not know, but he repented, he turned to Jesus and did not say, Save me, he simply said remember me.
Memory is something very important, not just to remember how things have been done over the years, not just to pass on institutional knowledge to maintain the traditions of old. Memory is important because it brings meaning, it brings deep understanding of how our ancestors lived, of how our ancestors made mistakes and recovered from those mistakes. This weekend, for Thanksgiving, my brother and his new wife returned from Vermont to celebrate their wedding with the Minnesotans who were not able to make it to Vermont for the wedding. One particularly important thing happened over the course of this holiday, that was the gathering of the siblings and their wives as well as some of the cousins to talk about our family, we talked about growing up, we talked about the crazy uncles and aunts, we talked about our life together as young children, it was amazing, it was fun, and it helped bring new meaning to old relationships. Remembering is salvific, it is saving, it is meaningful and it is important. Memory strengthens our faith.
I was listening to a new radio program called Radio Lab the other day about the subject of memory and forgetting and they were talking about how uncertain our memories truly are. They even went so far as to say, if you were to sit three or four people down in a room who experienced a particular event and asked them to retell their stories, none of them would be the same. They would all be different depending on who had spoken to them, how well they are able to actually put together memories, all sorts of factors play into the development of memories. There is little more clear evidence of this phenomenon than the Gospels. We have four distinct stories, four particular memories about Jesus, four different narratives that incorporate various similar themes and ideas, but tell the same story of Jesus very differently.
At first glance this might seem heretical; it might seem as if we have no direction, as if we, as the people of God are wayfarers lost in a land of doubt with no idea of the way home. It may seem that at our core, we are simply seeking, never faithfully grounded in God. However, we must remember always, that faith without doubt is not faith at all. The televangelists we see all over the place would have us believe otherwise, that doubt is the seed of the devil, that doubt is so insidious it will destroy us completely. This is far from the truth, doubt is the threshold to belief, without passing through our doubts, our beliefs would never be strengthened, would never be founded in any kind of truth. And if our beliefs were not strong or founded in truth, our faith would be nothing, it would not be able to move mountains; it would not be able to plant trees in the middle of oceans. Without doubt, we cannot grow more deeply into our relationship with God.
Our relationship with God is the most important relationship we have, it is more important than the ones we have now, it is more important than the ones we have had and the ones we will have as we grow older. Our relationship with God is the one thing that can never be shaken, can never be destroyed, and can never be taken away. Our relationship with God is at the center of our heart, the heart itself is the seat of God in our very own bodies, the place where God goes to work calling us, shaping us and forming us. Why is it then, if God is at our center, why is it that we look for meaning outside of ourselves, outside of our communities? Is it because we know God has moved on from this place, that God does not reside in this building? Is it because we do not believe that God is alive and active in our lives right now as I am speaking these words?
We go from place to place, from Inn to stable, from cross to tomb, always returning to the Inn, always seeking God, always seeking that sign from Jesus that will bring us calm, that will bring us peace. We go from place to place seeking and looking and trying to discover, maybe it is time to realize that as we go from place to place, there is no longer any need to seek; there is no longer any need to find. For God is not hiding from us, God is not running from us, God is walking with us, God is here, God is now, calling us to live a life that is transformative, that is filled with joy and hope, that is faithful, but that understands that God is present now, and instead of following hot on the trail of God, all we must do is look to our left and our right, look into the faces and eyes of those we love, those we worship with and discover that we are already walking with God that God is with us wherever we go that we are co-creators, partners with God in the world. Today, we will be with God in paradise, today the Kingdom of God is here.
Our journey always begins with our trip to the Inn. After days of waiting and hearing rumors of a miracle in Bethlehem, we go to the Inn, but God is not there, they say God is in the stable out back.
We leave the Inn and go to the stable; there the shepherds say God is not here, God has left with his family to go to Egypt.
We leave the stable and go to Egypt, but the people there do not know God and we return to God’s birth place where God’s family says God is in the Temple.
We go to the Temple, but God, the people say, is out in the country and by the seaside, making apostles out of some.
We go to the Apostles to find God, but God, the Apostles say, is not with them, God is at the outskirts of town, with the poor, the lame, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed.
We go to the outskirts of town, to find the poor, the lame, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed, some say they have been healed, others ask us, since we know God, to heal them, but they all say God is no longer with them, God has been taken by Roman soldiers to the Roman Courts.
We leave the outskirts of town and go to Jerusalem, to find the Roman Courts. In Jerusalem, the Roman authorities sneer at us and say, God is not here in the courts, God has been condemned to death upon a cross.
We follow the noise of the crowd and the trail of blood and bone all the way to the cross, but God is not on the cross, God has been taken down from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea says, and taken to a tomb.
Still in search of God, we go to the tomb, only to discover the stone barricading the tomb and sealing God within it has been rolled away and tomb is empty. Some women running from the tomb tell us God is not there.
So we go back to the Inn, back to the Inn to wait for God to return there, not realizing, that by staying at the Inn we leave no room for God’s family to rest their heads.
Jesus, remember me, when you come into to your Kingdom. Simple words, words that I would have been hard pressed to come up with hanging on a cross, about to die. Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom. Jesus’ response is one I think we gloss over, one we do not truly hear. Jesus says to the thief hanging on the cross next to him, “TODAY you will be with me in Paradise”.
At our core we are seekers, we are constantly seeking. Not many of us can claim that we have discovered the truth of God or of Jesus or of the Holy Spirit and are so confident in our faith that we cannot be shaken, nothing in the world could cause us to doubt our faith in God. This need for seeking, for discovering is important, as the two men crucified with Jesus shows us, we always want to have a choice, we want to be able to choose to accept or to deny. One of the men next to Jesus derided him, asked Jesus to save him, the other, repented, out of fear, out of desperation, out of sheer faith, we do not know, but he repented, he turned to Jesus and did not say, Save me, he simply said remember me.
Memory is something very important, not just to remember how things have been done over the years, not just to pass on institutional knowledge to maintain the traditions of old. Memory is important because it brings meaning, it brings deep understanding of how our ancestors lived, of how our ancestors made mistakes and recovered from those mistakes. This weekend, for Thanksgiving, my brother and his new wife returned from Vermont to celebrate their wedding with the Minnesotans who were not able to make it to Vermont for the wedding. One particularly important thing happened over the course of this holiday, that was the gathering of the siblings and their wives as well as some of the cousins to talk about our family, we talked about growing up, we talked about the crazy uncles and aunts, we talked about our life together as young children, it was amazing, it was fun, and it helped bring new meaning to old relationships. Remembering is salvific, it is saving, it is meaningful and it is important. Memory strengthens our faith.
I was listening to a new radio program called Radio Lab the other day about the subject of memory and forgetting and they were talking about how uncertain our memories truly are. They even went so far as to say, if you were to sit three or four people down in a room who experienced a particular event and asked them to retell their stories, none of them would be the same. They would all be different depending on who had spoken to them, how well they are able to actually put together memories, all sorts of factors play into the development of memories. There is little more clear evidence of this phenomenon than the Gospels. We have four distinct stories, four particular memories about Jesus, four different narratives that incorporate various similar themes and ideas, but tell the same story of Jesus very differently.
At first glance this might seem heretical; it might seem as if we have no direction, as if we, as the people of God are wayfarers lost in a land of doubt with no idea of the way home. It may seem that at our core, we are simply seeking, never faithfully grounded in God. However, we must remember always, that faith without doubt is not faith at all. The televangelists we see all over the place would have us believe otherwise, that doubt is the seed of the devil, that doubt is so insidious it will destroy us completely. This is far from the truth, doubt is the threshold to belief, without passing through our doubts, our beliefs would never be strengthened, would never be founded in any kind of truth. And if our beliefs were not strong or founded in truth, our faith would be nothing, it would not be able to move mountains; it would not be able to plant trees in the middle of oceans. Without doubt, we cannot grow more deeply into our relationship with God.
Our relationship with God is the most important relationship we have, it is more important than the ones we have now, it is more important than the ones we have had and the ones we will have as we grow older. Our relationship with God is the one thing that can never be shaken, can never be destroyed, and can never be taken away. Our relationship with God is at the center of our heart, the heart itself is the seat of God in our very own bodies, the place where God goes to work calling us, shaping us and forming us. Why is it then, if God is at our center, why is it that we look for meaning outside of ourselves, outside of our communities? Is it because we know God has moved on from this place, that God does not reside in this building? Is it because we do not believe that God is alive and active in our lives right now as I am speaking these words?
We go from place to place, from Inn to stable, from cross to tomb, always returning to the Inn, always seeking God, always seeking that sign from Jesus that will bring us calm, that will bring us peace. We go from place to place seeking and looking and trying to discover, maybe it is time to realize that as we go from place to place, there is no longer any need to seek; there is no longer any need to find. For God is not hiding from us, God is not running from us, God is walking with us, God is here, God is now, calling us to live a life that is transformative, that is filled with joy and hope, that is faithful, but that understands that God is present now, and instead of following hot on the trail of God, all we must do is look to our left and our right, look into the faces and eyes of those we love, those we worship with and discover that we are already walking with God that God is with us wherever we go that we are co-creators, partners with God in the world. Today, we will be with God in paradise, today the Kingdom of God is here.
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