January 25, 2004 - Third Sunday After Epiphany - Father Barry Woods

FIRST READING: Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10

PSALM: 19

SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a

GOSPEL: Luke 4: 14-21

Please, this morning, do not be surprised at anything that might happen. My day started off with the fact that my collar pins wouldn't function properly, and I couldn't get my clerical collar on. The day continued with putting the mike on my belt here, as we usually do, and it fell off; and I had to get completely undressed again to get the darn thing back on. I was late out there to greet, and all this follows up on the fact that, last Sunday, I was scheduled to be here and blew it. So who knows what is going to happen!

Would you please try with me for a moment this morning to imagine what it must have been like in that synagogue in Nazareth, long ago. You know, the Jewish nation, at that time, was not a nation anymore. Israel had not been independent for almost 600 years. The Jewish people had been under the domination of one power or another for six centuries - no longer independent, no real nation at all, simply a province of the Roman Empire - and the personal lives of the people were filled with the oppression of the Romans, the Romans who tried to rule every aspect of their lives, and who taxed them into poverty. It was a very, very, very bad time to be a Jew in the first century. Not only was it difficult in life - National life and personal life - but it was also very difficult for them because their religion was of very little comfort to them, at this time. The religious authorities of Judaism in the first century had decided that all of Israel's misfortunes were due to the fact that the people had not obeyed the laws of God carefully enough, and so the Jewish religion, at that time, had grown to a cold and hard and legalistic thing, providing very little in the way of comfort. And yet, despite all of this, still the people went to synagogue on Sabbath. They still went. They went to hear the old Scriptures, the stories of the old days when things were better, when Israel was a powerful and independent and wealthy nation. They went to hear the promises of a prophet in the hope that, in those words, they might find hope for their lives. And, on this particular day in that obscure little synagogue in an obscure little town, one of their own people stands and reads the great words of comfort from the prophet Isaiah, words delivered some 600 years before - words that warmed their hearts, as they always had, because of the promise and the hope that they gave - and then, He says, "Today, these Scriptures are fulfilled in your hearing." In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, all of the ancient promises are fulfilled. The poor have good news preached to them. The blind have their site restored. The oppressed go free, and the favor of the Lord is proclaimed. And all of this happens in the person of one man, Jesus of Nazareth. It must have been a great day for them, and we would be mistaken if we thought of it only as a past event. The operative word is "today". Today, these Scriptures are fulfilled in your hearing.

Today.

The reminder that this is true comes from the second lesson. "You are the Body of Christ and, individually, members of it." And that reminds us that, in us, today, these Scriptures are being fulfilled. Today. It is happening around us. We all know the bad news that we are surrounded by, but there is also the good news. Every day, thousands of people are hearing the Gospel of Christ and accepting it. Every day, blind people are being able to see life in a new way. Every day, around us, the oppressed are being set free from the powers of all kinds of terrible addictions. The Scriptures are being fulfilled around us today, and those Scriptures are being fulfilled in us. Each of us can go back to some time in their life when your heart was set free; your eyes were opened; and you heard the Gospel and the Good News. The Scriptures are being fulfilled today in us. Most importantly of all, I think perhaps, the Scriptures are being fulfilled today, not only around us, not only in us, but through us. We are the members of the Body of Christ, and, through us, His fulfillment of the Scriptures continues to be broadcast and spread in the world.

Today.

In a few minutes, this service will be over, and we hope that many of you, all of you, will come and attend with your 10:30 brethren - those strangers that we don't know - will come and attend with them the annual meeting. And it will be a little bit boring; at least most annual meetings usually are in every Parish I have ever been in. You know, the elections aren't all that exciting, and people usually run unopposed. So, there is no excitement going on in the elections. The reports of all the groups are interesting, and we should listen to them, which is good. And, of course, the financial matters will be discussed, and that is always a little bit boring and difficult. But it would be a vast mistake if we thought of this annual meeting this morning as some kind of small company stockholders meeting. That is not what it is. It is another reminder. It is another reminder that we are members of the Body of Christ. It is another reminder that, around us, in us, and through us, the ancient, powerful promises are being fulfilled.

I hope you are there.

February 29, 2004 - First Sunday in Lent - Father Barry Woods

FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

PSALM: 91: 1-2, 9-16

SECOND READING: Romans 10: 8b-13

GOSPEL: Luke 4: 1-13

There is a devil. He has a name. The litany and the collect and much of the New Testament call him Satan. There is a devil, and he has a name; and his mission in the world is two-fold. He comes into the world and into your life and into mine as, indeed, he came into the life of Jesus long ago in the wilderness, and he comes with two missions. He comes, first of all, to convince you and me that what is wrong is really right, and he comes to convince us that the ends justify the means.

There is a devil. There are some people who like to believe and tell others that evil is not real, it is only the absence of good. I don't believe that. I don't think they take life and evil seriously enough. I think it is naïve and dangerous. There is a devil. There is some power - I am not trying to scare anybody or evoke images of those terrible movies that we all know of - but there is something real in this world that is evil. And it is not the absence of anything, it is the devil.

And the devil has a name. Much of the New Testament, as I have said, calls him Satan, but whatever name he is called by, the point is that the devil is very personal. Sure, there are corporate sins and corporate temptations and corporate wrongdoings; but, make no mistake, the devil is very real, and he is very personal, and his first mission is to convince you and me that what is wrong is really right.

Look at the temptations in the Gospel this morning. Jesus knew that it was wrong to do the bidding of the devil, but the devil tries to make it seem right by saying, "If you will do this, then hungry people can be fed." He takes what is wrong and tries to make it look like it is right. Jesus knows that it is wrong to worship the devil, but the devil tries to make it seem right by saying, "If you will do this, then all the world will call you King and Lord." Jesus knows that it is wrong to put God to some kind of test, but the devil makes it seem like the right thing to do because, if He does put God to the test, then He will be borne up on the wings of angels. The devil is here in your life and in mine to take what is wrong and make it seem right. The devil does not tempt us to do wrong. He tempts us to think that what is wrong is really O.K. The devil comes to convince you and me that the ends justify the means.

When you look at the three temptations of Christ closely, and you know the full story, you will realize that Jesus winds up doing all the things the devil asked him to do. He does not turn stones into bread, but He takes five loaves and two fishes and feeds 5,000 or more people. He was tempted to be Lord and King, and, today, He has accomplished that. Countless millions of people all over the world call Him Lord and King. He wound up doing what the devil asked Him to do. He did not throw Himself down from the temple, but He went to the Cross and allowed Himself to be nailed there and suffocated and bled to death on a garbage heap overlooking the town. So, He did not throw Himself down from the temple, but He did something much worse. And what happened? On the third day, God raised Him up, and, at the Ascension, He was borne back to the right hand of the Father.

The point here is that Jesus wound up doing all the things that the devil tempted Him to do, but He did not do them by the means the devil tempted Him with. He did it with the power of God, the power of Love, the power of grace and forgiveness. You and I are early in our Lenten journey, a time that is supposed to be devoted to rigorous self-examination, and, as we begin and continue in that journey, it is well that we understand and remember and remind ourselves that there is a devil. He has a name, and he is trying to convince you and me that what is wrong is right. He is trying to convince you and me that the ends justify the means.

By the grace of God, by exposure to the Word of God, by the strengthening of the Sacraments, and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the devil will be defeated. He will be defeated in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

April 25, 2004 - Third Sunday of Easter - Father Barry Woods

FIRST READING: Acts 9: 1-20

PSALM: Psalm 30

SECOND READING: Revelation 5: 11-14

GOSPEL: John 21: 1-19

We look for the resurrection of the dead.

Every Sunday morning, we say those words - we look for the resurrection of the dead. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead. And, if those words are to be something more than just words, then maybe this morning you and I can reflect on what we mean when we say we look for the resurrection of the dead. And, if we are to get some clarity about what we mean, then we need to look at those resurrection appearances - those times that the resurrected Lord appeared to His disciples after He was crucified.

John, in the Gospel this morning, says, "This is the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after He was resurrected." But, the New Testament records many appearances. Some are duplicates of others, but there are many, many recorded appearances of Jesus to the disciples after He was resurrected. And, if we take all of those appearances - if we take them all, and we line them up in front of us, and we look at them in their totality, all of them - then we are going to come up with three things that the resurrected Lord was about.

First of all, He had a body. He had a body that could see and hear and speak. He had a body that ate. He had a body that He invited people to touch to make sure that He was real. The resurrected Jesus, first of all, was resurrected in His body. This was not some spirit that floated around in the universe someplace. The same God that had become a man and had been killed, came back in His body.

The second thing that seems clear from all of the appearances is that, not only did Jesus come back in a body, He came back in His body. He was recognized. It was the same Jesus that the disciples had known before the crucifixion. It was the same guy. This is not the immortality of the soul that decides to inhabit different bodies. This is not reincarnation. This is resurrection. He didn't come back as somebody else. He was resurrected in the body as Himself, the same identity that He had before He died.

And, the third thing, I think, that these resurrection appearances show us is that, not only did He come back in the body, and not only was that body recognizable as Jesus of Nazareth, but, thirdly, that body was different, somehow, than it had been. It was better. He was not always immediately recognized. Sometimes, it took them a while to see that it was the Lord, so there was something different about this body that He came back in. He was not immediately recognized. And, not only was this resurrected body different, but it was also better. Gone were all of the terrible effects of his torture and crucifixion, except for the wounds, themselves. Gone was all of that. Gone was all of the weakness, all of the terrible sapping of strength that occurred before He died. The body was different, and it was better. It was capable of things that it had not been capable of before. It could come through locked doors to appear to the disciples, and it could travel great distances in relatively short periods of time. The body was different, and it was way better.

And, if we take all those appearances, and we put them all together and give them all equal weight, then it seems to me that we come up with those three things that we believe when we say we look for the resurrection of the dead. We look for a resurrection of the body, not some immortal soul floating around. We look for the resurrection of a body that is identifiable as us and a body that will be different and better.

So what? Well, the so-what is that you and I are going to die. That is the so-what - we are going to die. And then, some day, Jesus is going to come again, and we are going to be resurrected, just as He was - just exactly the way He was. And, on that day, what we are looking forward to is the fact that our bodies will be resurrected. You know, the body is the way you relate to people. That is what you use to relate to people. You have to have a mouth to talk to them. You have to have ears to hear them. You have to have hands to touch them, to hug them, whatever. We relate to other people in the body, and we look forward to a time when we will be resurrected in the body. We will be able to take up again all those relationships with ourselves and with our loved ones who have gone before us. It will all be the way it was. We will be able to have relationships.

And, number 2, it won't be the relationships with some stranger who has some different body than he had before. It will be us, and it will be them. It will be the same folks that we have lost, that we miss. It will be us; it will be them - identifiable, continuity with the past and the way we knew them.

It will be in the body, and it will be identifiable as us and them, and then it will be better; it will be different. Gone will be all sickness and weakness, all hunger and pain, all the things that dehumanize people now and make them less than they should be - all those things will be gone. In a couple of minutes, we are going to say, one more time, we look for the resurrection of the dead. Don't let those be words that roll off your tongue, and you say, "Thank God the Creed is finally almost over". Don't let it be that. This is the fullness of our faith. This is why we are who we are.

Because we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, in the body, as us, only better.