{"id":1019,"date":"2020-04-19T13:55:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T17:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2020-04-20T21:02:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T01:02:57","slug":"locked-down-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/19\/locked-down-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Locked Down Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 id=\"toc_0\">Locked Down Hope<\/h1>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1019-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a.easter02-2020-.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a.easter02-2020-.mp3\">https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/a.easter02-2020-.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<h2 id=\"toc_1\">A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<\/h2>\n<h2 id=\"toc_2\">by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor \u00a9 2020 All Rights Reserved<\/h2>\n<h2 id=\"toc_3\">Second Sunday in Easter\/A \u2022 April 19, 2020<\/h2>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=40#gospel_reading\">John 19:20-31<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Do you remember the story of the Three Pigs? It seems like a fable for this time. Three pigs go off to seek their fortune and build houses. Not long after, a hungry wolf comes by and blows down the house of the first and then the second. The pigs run to their brother who has built out of brick and hide, safe for the moment. When the wolf fails to blow down the house, he comes down the chimney but falls into a pot of boiling water the thoughtful third pig has placed in the fire. Three pigs locked down, scared of a wolf: it seems an appropriate image of where we are today, hoping that if the wolf does come down the chimney, scientists will have discovered a vaccine, a pot of boiling water, to stop the virus threatening us. It also mirror the situation of the disciples in the portion of John\u2019s gospel we read today. Just like the pigs, just like us, they\u2019re locked down, hoping the closed door can keep the danger outside.<\/p>\n<p>I know you can imagine them but we\u2019re in the same place these days. They\u2019re afraid the same authorities who killed Jesus will come after them. With us, the fear is that somehow someone will cough or sneeze or simply breathe and an invisible enemy will invade us, sicken us. I don\u2019t know about you but we have several friends who are sick. It gives all of us a lurking anxiety: \u201cAm I next?\u201d Like the disciples, we heard about the resurrection, but has it really changed us? They\u2019ve heard the same report we did. A few women have come back raving about an experience at the tomb, claiming to have seen an angel, claiming to have seen Jesus alive. Clearly they don\u2019t believe them. Do we?<\/p>\n<p>So we should pay particular attention to this story today. John sets it in the evening. The disciples are locked in. \u201cThe doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear\u2026\u201d [John 20:19b] That certainly sounds familiar, doesn\u2019t it? Then something amazing happens. Jesus appears to them, coming through the door as if wasn\u2019t there. Locked doors can\u2019t keep Jesus out. \u201cHe stood among them and said, \u2018Peace be with you.\u2019\u201d [John 20:19c], the common, customary greeting, the \u201chey there\u201d, the \u201csup\u201d, the \u201chello\u201d of his time. It\u2019s as if he\u2019s just been out on an errand, as if the terrible days of arrest and trial and crucifixion and tomb never happened. \u201cHiya\u201d: I\u2019m here. The disciples make sure it\u2019s really him and then they rejoice.<\/p>\n<p>I think, for me, that would have been enough. Would it for you? Think: you\u2019re grieving and suddenly you don\u2019t have to grieve. You\u2019re crying and suddenly you don\u2019t have to cry. You\u2019re angry and suddenly you don\u2019t have to be angry. I think for me, I would have been happy to just stay in that moment of recognition. I would have wanted to get out the leftovers from the funeral dinner, I would have wanted to just celebrate and stay there and stay happy and feel glorious and not ask too many questions. What about you?<\/p>\n<p>But Jesus isn\u2019t staying there. He never does. Last week we heard Matthew\u2019s version of more or less the same story and if you listened to that you may remember the first thing he said to the women who found him alive after \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid\u201d was go. It\u2019s pretty much the same here; it always is with Jesus. He\u2019s got a mission and it\u2019s why he\u2019s there. It\u2019s why he gathered them; it\u2019s why he calls us. So in the next moment, before there\u2019s even time to serve, much less eat, any cake, he says,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As the Father has sent me, so I send you\u2026Receive the Holy Spirit\u2026if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. [John 20:21-23]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He\u2019s handing out the Holy Spirit like peeps on Easter: just like that. You know, if it was us, we\u2019d have a procedure, we\u2019d have a form to fill out, we\u2019d have a disclosure agreement to sign. Not Jesus: no one has to be interviewed by the Board of Deacons to get the Holy Spirit, no one has to agree to pledge or volunteer, just like that: \u201cReceive the Holy Spirit\u201d. And then: your mission is to forgive sins.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of talk right now about starting up the country. I think most of us are getting tired of being home, tired of the same walls, tired of the inconveniences of life. Of course, the people who are sick and the ones dying and the ones grieving aren\u2019t tired of it. They\u2019re too busy suffering to worry about the economy. Dr. Oz cheerfully said we could sacrifice two or three percent of our children to get back to making money. The lieutenant governor of Texas said we can sacrifice grandparents. I\u2019ve done a lot of funerals over the years, I\u2019m not sure any of those families who were crying thought it would be ok to sacrifice someone they loved. It\u2019s wrong and it\u2019s not the approach Christians take. We believe everyone is a child of God.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re talking about starting up. But Jesus has something much more fundamental in mind: he\u2019s talking about restarting our lives. That\u2019s what forgiveness really means, it means recovering your life. Guilt and shame are like a terrible tomb in which we bury parts of ourselves and when we truly know ourselves forgiven, we come out of that grave like Lazarus. It\u2019s the same for us when we forgive, because holding onto anger and resentment sucks up our energy, saps our lives, and when we forgive, we have that energy, we have that life again. Jesus comes to give life: this is one way he means to give it and we are the instruments he\u2019s using. That\u2019s what the part about \u201cretaining the sins of any\u201d really means; it means if we don\u2019t do this, furtiveness doesn\u2019t happen. What we do makes a difference. What he means for us to do is nurture joy by practicing forgiveness.<\/p>\n<p>This time is a unique moment we\u2019ve been given. Locked down, we have the space in our lives to listen. It\u2019s hard to listen today. We\u2019re so plugged into our mental to do lists, our devices, our contact inputs that we usually don\u2019t have real quiet time. One writer said,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Noise is an inevitable aspect of civilization\u2026Stores and restaurants pip in background music, the ceaseless rumble of traffic reverberates\u2026Our cell phones regularly startle us with insistent bleeping and the prattle of television shoves our thoughts into oblivion.<br \/>\n[Rebeccas Burg, Sail With Me: Two People, Two Boars, One Adventure]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The lockdown time is offering a cure, if we will take it. Most of the errands that fill our lives are waiting. We\u2019re no longer in the stores she mentions and the traffic is less.<br \/>\nGlennon Doyle talks about learning to listen. Going through a difficult time, a friend sent her a card that said, \u201cBe still and know.\u201d [Psalm 46:10 &#8211; \u201cBe still and know that I am God.\u201d  So after her kids went to school, she sat down on a towel in a closet and tried to be still. She says,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I checked my phone every few moments, planned my grocery lists and mentally redecorated my living room..\u201d [Glenon Doyle, Untamed, p. 56]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But she kept at it: ten minutes a day. Eventually, she felt herself slip down into the silence.<\/p>\n<p>Since the chaos stills in this deep, I could sense something that I was not able to sense on the surface. It was like  that quiet chamber in Denmark\u2026where people can actually hear and feel their own blood circulating. ..It was a knowing. [ibid]<br \/>\nShe learned to listen and the listening helped her know herself as a child of God.<\/p>\n<p>Are you listening? It doesn\u2019t happen in a moment; it takes a little faith, it takes a little patience, it takes some courage to be quiet. But if we are quiet, when we are quiet, then truly we hear the spirit in the breeze of our soul. \u201cReceive the Spirit,\u201d Jesus says. He means you; he means me. What is the purpose? So that forgiveness can spread. It starts with us, it starts with forgiving ourselves. When we listen for God, what we will first hear is this: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d I know this because it\u2019s what every single angel says first thing. Every time God sends someone, that\u2019s the message. When Jesus is raised, the first thing he says is, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d We don\u2019t have to be afraid because when we truly listen, we hear God loving us. We hear we are children of God.<\/p>\n<p>So there\u2019s a great hope for this time. We started out locked down because we were afraid, afraid of a virus, afraid a disease was going to overwhelm all our technology, all our noise, all our smarts. It still may. But there is hope in this locked down time, great hope. It is an opportunity to go into your closet and be still; it\u2019s a chance to be silent and know. That\u2019s the whole verse from the card Doyle\u2019s friend sent: \u201c\u201cBe still, and know that I am God!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When we hear God, when we know God, then we can hope. Then the lockdown is something we\u2019re doing not in fear but as a gift, a way to help others. Then it\u2019s passing on the hope and help of God. Yes, Lord, I\u2019m willing to change how my life is lived because I know just as I\u2019m a child of God, so are all the others. That\u2019s locked down hope<br \/>\nI hope you will find a way to be silent this week. I hope you will find a way to see the hope beyond the fear. I hope you will be still and know and in the knowing, receive the spirit Jesus means to give, a spirit of love, a spirit of forgiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Locked Down Hope A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor \u00a9 2020 All Rights Reserved Second Sunday in Easter\/A \u2022 April 19, 2020 John 19:20-31 Do you remember the story of the Three Pigs? It seems like a fable for this time. Three pigs go off to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,3,2,69],"tags":[98,226,227],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter","category-sermon","category-worship","category-year-a","tag-hope","tag-john-2019-31","tag-stillness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1026,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}