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What Do You Do with an Empty Tomb? (Easter 2015)

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There are few claims of Christian theology more audacious than the bodily resurrection of Jesus. And any citizen of the 21st century who doesn’t doubt such assertions is probably in need of a good head examination (or a reduction in their AMC viewing…). Dead bodies don’t return to life. Not as ghosts. Not as zombies. And certainly not as itinerant preachers. And yet…

On what would later be known as “Easter” – somewhere around the year 30 C.E. – a group of despairing Jews (who had no expectations of resurrection) went to mourn at the gravesite of their friend and found his tomb…empty.  And they had no idea what to make of that fact.

In this episode we look at the reactions of Jesus’s most intimate followers as they came to grips with events they never expected.  

Before a single Christian declared that “He is risen!” (which many eventually will exclaim), there was much confusion, doubt and a struggle to consider that sometimes the laws of nature don’t get the last word.

Ultimately it was not the “proofs” of theologians and philosophers that brought them to believe that Jesus is alive, nor was it the arguments of historians and logicians…it was encounter.  

Belief in the resurrection came from seeing and hearing (not the empty tomb, but Jesus himself). And so it is today. Reports from reliable sources of an empty tomb can get our attention and – hopefully – open us to consider the  the crazy possibility that Jesus has conquered even death! But faith requires an experience of new life.  And, it turns out, that is not so hard to find as one might think…

 

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), April 5, 2015 (Easter Sunday). To learn more about Canvas, click here!

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Loving God 101, Part 12: Contemplation “Lab” (Palm Sunday 2015)

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Having – hopefully – made the theological case for contemplation (as St. Ignatius of Loyola describes it), in this episode our pal, Jon Saur, gives a short example of the practice.

This sermon was preached on Palm Sunday 2015 and thus uses the traditional story of Jesus’s “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem as the gospel text to be contemplated.

If a short refresher is helpful, the goal of Ignatian contemplation is encounter, not “exegesis.”  That is to say, in contemplation we read the scriptures so as to find ourselves within them (vs. writing an academic/interpretive commentary that explains the author’s intended meaning).  As we read the story (particularly stories from the gospels), we try to identify the perspectives and experiences of the original participants.  In this case, what was it like to be in the crowd as Jesus entered?  How would a 1st century Jew have interpreted the events?  How would a Roman soldier? How would one of the 12?  (Clearly this requires a good bit of exegetical/interpretive background to be able to answer and thus we spend a lot of time in other sermons on this!)

As we move around the scene – viewing it from various perspectives (like scene in a movie being shot from the vantage point of different characters) – we ask:  Where am I (in this moment in time) in this story?  (And we know the answer might be different tomorrow.)  And having identified ourselves we then ask:  What does God have to say – through this story – to someone in my position?  And what might God, then, be saying to me?

Because such reflections are deeply personal, they obviously are not the stuff from which doctrinal theology made (or, at least, ought not be!).  And – as Ignatius regularly reminds us – if the direction we receive in such moments of prayer feel dramatic or at odds with our current course, we need very much to discuss them with wise counselors before acting.  But as a habit of prayer, contemplation has done me – and many, many before me – a tremendous amount of good!

 

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), March 29, 2015. To learn more about Canvas, click here!

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