A sermon by the Rev. Michael Poage
(COPR.2008 BY M.POAGE)

Fairmount United Church of Christ,
Wichita, Kansas

March 30, 2008

Scriptures:
John 20:19-31

According to the powerful words of the group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, one thing we can count on: “God’s going to trouble the waters. And God invites us to wade right into those waters. God’s going to trouble the waters.” Count on it!! Christ is risen!!
“Christ is risen, indeed!!”
For centuries those words have been the traditional Easter greeting in the days and weeks after Easter within the Christian church. We follow that tradition in greeting each other in such a manner this morning. But what I want to lift up – that’s a resurrection “pun” – is the theme for this sermon in the words of a much more recent writer, Thornton Wilder, who is quoted at the beginning of the bulletin: “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love.”

That theme, in my opinion, is fundamental to the gospel reading from John for today. John’s resurrection story has the same function as in the Synoptic Gospels – those other three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke: the empty tomb certifies that Jesus is not among the dead, even though he has already been extravagantly anointed and buried. We do that all the time in this world, this society. Before certain people who we variously identify as “not like us,” as “scary,” as “ill,” as “uncontrollable,” as “controversial,” – we anoint them and bury them often before they have had a full breath of the good air, of the goodness of life. The transformation of Jesus after His resurrection also has implications for His disciples, for you and me, and for all of God’s world. Jesus enters rooms locked by fear, because the power of his life drives away fear and brings peace. He shows his wounds so that his friends may know that the one who lives is also the one who was murdered, and that he bears forever on his body the marks of wounded humanity. We lock the rooms behind us because of fear, we lock the rooms of our hearts because of fear, we lock the rooms of our minds because of fear, we lock the rooms of possibility because of fear…even when we hear, somewhere drifting across the prairie or down these very streets, the words: “Perfect love casts out fear.” So in the midst of our desires to crucify what is most alive and to live our fears that cause us to lock out the very source of life, let the theme for this day seep into the pores of our skin: “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love.”

Now, let us step carefully onto that bridge. If you have been watching or listening to the news much at all over the last two weeks you know that the United Church of Christ has been caught up in a complex struggle, much of it over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the recently retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on the south side of Chicago. It is the largest UCC church in the country. I have tried to follow the news around this issue as closely as possible for your sake and mine. I don’t have all the answers and, believe me, no one completely understands the intricacies or the directions of what CNN calls: THE SITUATION ROOM. I have had contact, as have many other pastors and lay persons, with the national church and am assured that steps are being taken. I was asked by a friend on the national staff what I thought should be done…maybe that doesn’t give you much confidence in the national UCC, but it is reassuring to me and hopefully to you as well. Many people are hurting. Some of you know Edith Guffey, a very talented leader at the top level of the UCC, and today she is visiting Trinity to help with their hurt, anger, and questions. That is reassuring to me. She is helping Trinity as they wade through the troubled waters.

But the main concern for me at this moment is the pastoral legacy of the Rev. Wright, who served Trinity for 36 years, helping it to grow, to extend into the community of Chicago and globally with over 70 different ministries. My main concern for the moment is from one pastor to another and how the media and general public react and respond. Rev. Wright’s has been a prophetic ministry, sometimes speaking strong words on behalf of those without voice. He has struggled to bring the oppressors into God’s court to give validity to the proclamations of justice and mercy powerfully present in the Hebrew Scriptures and the good news of the gospel. Sometimes one has to speak – from the freedom of the pulpit – loudly and forcefully to get the hearing of the powers and principalities. Part of my concern is the concentration on Rev. Wright by the media. And in most of what I have seen the media shows such an extreme shallowness, or ignorance, when it comes to the merging of civil society and religious life. One commentator on a major television news program criticized the Rev. Wright because he did not preach “the standard gospel.” Thank God, and what is the standard gospel anyway? It’s the land of the dead!!

Even though my main concern at the moment is pastor to pastor, the issues in this current news story are not about one man or one church, they are about all of us, our nation, our neighbors, and we need this debate. But I would ask that we elevate the conversation (another resurrection pun?), lift the conversation off the newsroom floor and even the church floor and take it into the market place. Bear and Stearns, the Pay Day Loan businesses, the 3 trillion dollar war, wade into the troubled waters, and not fearfully lock our doors behind us, but dare to walk that bridge of love between the land of the living and land of the dead. I agree with our conference minister, David Hansen when he says: “The question for me is not who does or does not agree with a sermon Rev. Wright preached in 2003. That’s an interesting question but it is not likely to change anything or anyone. But ask the question of how we can serve the ‘still speaking God’ in this unique moment to bring the light of the Gospel to bear on the urgent matters of reconciliation and transformation, ask that question and you have asked a question that will change everything and everyone.”

I want to close with a remembrance. We’ve heard a lot recently about “controversial” and “incendiary” preaching. But I urge us to go back to the 1950s and 60s to another era – one that should not be allowed a quiet moment, a time that should fill us with restlessness and courage and hope. This time the preacher was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and this Friday, April 4th, marks the 40th anniversary of his assassination. He did not preach “the standard gospel.” He was loudly denounced as an “outside agitator,” a communist, too zealous, controversial and incendiary in his preaching, speaking, and in his non-violent leadership and actions. He was investigated by the FBI, his home bombed, the lives of him and his family threatened, and finally, shot dead at 39 years old. Let’s lift the conversation off even the assassin’s floor. It’s time, it’s past time. God’s going to trouble the waters, we can count on it. But let us wade into the waters, nonetheless, with that same controversial and loving God.

Hear the words of the good news: “Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’”

Amen.