Year B, 5th Sunday of Easter (May 6, 2012)

·         Acts 8:26-40

·         Psalm 22:25-31 (27)

·         1 John 4:7-21

·         John 15:1-8

This letter of John's is maybe the hardest reading in the New Testament. "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also."

Well, to be honest, I don't say I [SQG] "love" God. I don't think I've ever said that. Like John said, I've never even met the guy. I know the writings, I know how I perceive God in my life and in my heart, but I can't say exactly that I [SQG] "know" God, as a person. It's like the late Jack Layton, former leader of the NDP. Actually, I did meet Jack Layton once. I have a photo of me and Jack. He was a great leader to our party. But I never had lunch with Jack. I never had a personal conversation with him. I respected him as a leader, but I can't say I ever knew the man, really. Same with God. I respect God. I accept him as a leader. But do I know God personally? Have I played a round of golf with God? Is God my friend on Facebook? No.

So I don't say I love God. It would be more accurate to say that I seek the Lord.

So what about my neighbour? Someone told me a while back "the love of God shines through you." Well that's very kind of her. Clearly I'm doing a good job of hiding the sad fact that I don't even like my neighbour. My neighbours make noise. They smoke tobacco, weed and crack, and I can barely breathe in my own apartment. They litter. They idle their vehicles for hours even when it's warm. They're shoddy workers and dishonest employers. They're ignorant and inconsiderate. They make too many demands on my time. They're bad parents. And what I hate the most is, they're so very, very stupid. Like George Carlin said, if you think about how stupid the average person is, you have to realise that half of them are even stupider than that. And I can't stand stupid people.

But hey, apparently I'm doing a good job of hiding it, at least as long as I don't get into a political debate. Still, I always wonder. I seek the Lord, I serve him, but so help me, I just don't like people. So does that mean that the Spirit does not abide in me? Am I really one of the goats? Am I doomed to the utter darkness?

I think not. Well, at least I won't be in the outer darkness, because I'm saved. That's one thing I love about being a Lutheran: explaining to my non-Lutheran friends that God is not gonna smite me, because I'm saved, by grace, through faith. Thank you Lord for that, because I sure wouldn't get saved on my own merit, especially if I have to like my neighbour.

But the other comforting thought is that I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot. Martin Luther King himself, who seemed like a pretty fine upstanding Christian, said it's lucky for us God didn't ask us to like our neighbours. So I guess Martin Luther King had the same problem I do with liking people.

Now you might say, how can you love your neighbours if you don't even like them? Well, it's actually quite simple. In our modern society, we're misunderstanding love. We think those who love us are the people who make us [SQG] "feel good about ourselves." That's a very useless concept, if you think about it, but we don't really have time to think about it in this sermon. What we can think about though, is that nowhere in the Bible does it say we need to [SQG] "feel good about ourselves." It's really not one of the ideals that God has for us.

What does the Bible tell us about love? Hundreds of things. If you actually read the book, there is more of God's love than God's anger. And Saint Paul summarized the whole thing in 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

So, by the grace of God, we know that love is not defined by what we feel, but what we do. You may have heard parents say about their children, "I love him, but I don't really like him." In fact, you might say the greatest love is that we show the people we don't like. It's easy to do things for someone you like. Why wouldn't you do something for them? They're your friends. You like them. Maybe you actually know you like them by the fact that you willingly do things for them. When you start getting fed up with doing things for them, you start to notice you don't like them as much. They're too demanding. They're inconsiderate. They don't do anything back for you. You don't like them very much after all.

Doing something for someone you don't like is much harder. If my neighbour needs his car boosted, I'll boost his car. But if it's the neighbour who's always trying to cause me trouble, then I don't want to boost her car. I don't like her. Plus she's trying to do me harm, so why would I help her? But that's exactly whose car I should be boosting. That's the one that the Lord cares about. The Lord knows I'll boost a hundred cars if I have to. What he wants to see is whether I'll boost the car of the person who's trying to do me harm. Because that is love.

Now I might do it because I seek the Lord. Because I know the Lord wants me to do it. If I do it for the Lord, can I still say I am showing my neighbour love by boosting her car? Well, maybe not. But then again, didn't the Lord tell us, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40) So does it really matter, whether I do it for the Lord, or because I genuinely like my neighbour as a person?

Remember the greatest commandment:

"The first (commandment) is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' These is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31)

So if you don't like your neighbour, serve them as you would serve Jesus Christ himself, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, for the love you bear the Lord, or at least for the love the Lord bears you.

And if you can't serve your neighbour even for the love of God, well, then thank God Almighty that even so you are saved, by grace, through faith.

Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Year B, 4th Sunday of Easter (April 29, 2012)

·         Acts 4:5-12

·         Psalm 23 (1)

·         1 John 3:16-24

·         John 10:11-18

That's a good question John asks. "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?"

And then he goes on: "let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action."

So, we're back again to my old leitmotif: do something. Do something material. Do something with the world's goods, to be of help to a brother or sister. Take what you have and give it to someone who needs it. If you have money, give it to someone who is poor. If you have time, give it to someone who is overwhelmed. If you have strength, lend your strength to someone who is weak.

Now you might say, if you're always giving your money to the poor, your time to the busy, your strength to the weak, and so on, they'll take advantage of you. If you share your home with the homeless, they'll trash the place. If you share your food with the hungry, there won't be enough for you.

Well, you're right. But so what?

Yes, whatever you give, people will ask of you until you have none left, and some more. And?

Is that not what Paul calls being "poured out"? Was not Jesus's life poured out for us? If you give until there is none left for you, what of it? Didn't many before you pour out even more? Not only in the church, but in revolutions, in labour action, in the civil rights movement, in suffragism, in non-violence, in war, in countless other ways?

The first line of this reading from 1 John was "we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another." Are you asked to do this? In twenty-first century Canada, practically never. So couldn't you at least give of what you have until there is none left for you? Shouldn't you at least give that much?

It's dreadfully inconvenient, making oneself available to others. A person in a heavy power wheelchair asked me to help her through a door when I had a broken wrist. A person left a child with me for nine days and I didn't even have a bed to put her in. A person kept me up half the night for four days telling me her troubles. A person needed a prayer when he was drunk and I was supposed to be at work. To say nothing of my sponsored children in the Third World who need money I could really use for myself in a hundred different ways. To be perfectly honest, people inconvenience the crap out of me. I don't have the time, I don't have the money, I don't have the patience, I want to blow a big pile of cash on books and sit alone at home with a cup of expensive coffee reading them and ignoring the world.

And?

How does God's love abide in me, if I do that?

It doesn't. If I did that, the love of God would not abide in me. But it's really the other way around, isn't it? If the love of God didn't abide in me, I couldn't help others. I'd be too tired, too broke, too frustrated. And I am. I am tired, and broke, and frustrated. But by the grace of God, because the love of God abides in me, I can still help. I can keep on giving when I don't want to, when I don't think I even could. Not because of my merit, but because the love of God that abides in me will not relent. And not only I can do it after all, but I can do it all with a smile. Not I, but the love of God that abides in me.

What I do for my brother or sister, I do not do it myself, out of my own virtue, but by the grace of God. By the grace of God, I can. In fact, I could barely stop myself if I tried. When I see a brother or sister in need, the grace of God moves me to their help, whether I am tired, angry, frustrated or just terminally lazy. Does it take something out of me? Yes it does. But in the void left by what I have given, I find again nothing but the love of God that abides in me.

By my own merit I am nothing. But by the grace of God, through faith, I can give my brother or sister anything I have to give, and more. Give your life to God, and he will pour you out for your brothers and sisters. And why not? He gave you your life, and he redeemed it for you. Your life belongs to the Lord, and yet he gives you this choice: to let the spirit, the love of God, abide in you, and pour you out for Him and for his sheep, or not. And the Lord will not stand in the way of your choice, but remember again one of my favourite scriptures, Mark 8:34-38:

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Let the love of God abide in you. Let it pour you out to help your brothers and sisters. What have you got to lose? Your earthly treasures? You're storing up treasure in heaven.

For today's hymn we will sing #583, Take my Life, That I May Be.

Year B, 3rd Sunday of Easter (April 22, 2012)

·         Acts 3:12-19

·         Psalm 4 (3)

·         1 John 3:1-7

·         Luke 24:36b-48

Some days, the lectionary makes you wrack your brains for hours trying to come up with something somewhat coherent and didactic. And other days, the lectionary says exactly what you wanted to say, in so many words. This is one of those days. But to make it clear what the message is, we have to back-track a little in the Acts and start from 3:1 instead of 3:12.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognise him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

Let me read a third time what Peter said: "why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?"

Notice that Peter and John never prayed over this man. Here is what Peter said to him: "what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." It's not a prayer, it's a command. Peter doesn't even ask God anything, let alone tell God. He tells the paralytic himself: stand up and walk. It's not prayer that heals the man, and as Peter points out, certainly not his own power or piety. Now if Peter doesn't think he can heal people through prayer and piety, by what strange flight of fancy does any of you figure you can do it?

What heals this man, in reality? "What I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." The paralytic beggar is healed the same way you and I are healed: by grace, through face. And I'm rather tempted to say "duh" because how else would Peter heal a paralytic? By works? How would Peter do that? He's only human. By asking Jesus with fancy canned formulae like "we ask this in Jesus's name"? He didn't ask Jesus anything. He commanded the paralytic in Jesus's name. He didn't compel Jesus with prayer; rather, Jesus compels the paralytic.

If you think you can heal people, then do it right. Do it like Peter did it. "What I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." Can you do that? I can't do that. I guess I don't have faith the size of a mustard seed. I can't tell a terminal cancer patient "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." I can't get my dog to do anything in the name of Christ. And I'm quite sure neither can you. Now Peter could do it through faith alone; even he couldn't do it by prayer. So if you can't do it by faith, why do you think you can do it by prayer?

There is only once I know of that Jesus used prayer for healing, which was in the case of a boy with a spirit. When he was done, the disciples asked him "why could we not cast it out?" and Jesus answer "this kind can come out only through prayer." (Mark 9:14-29) It wouldn't actually have occurred to the disciples to try to cast out a demon by prayer. But even so, Jesus still commanded the unclean spirit, and it still depended on faith. Even Jesus doesn't do things by sitting on his hands asking his father. Being God himself, he can create what he declares, which is handy for him, I suppose. But still though he can anoint the patient with all kinds of grace, he also needs the patient's faith.

All right, so what is needed to heal is faith and the grace of God. Prayer? Not even. So how about getting people jobs, boyfriends, new houses, what not?

Good question. Because you know what, at no time in the New Testament does anyone miraculously get a job in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Or a girlfriend. Nobody even thinks of asking Jesus for jobs and boyfriends. They ask for healing and casting out of demons. Nothing else. It just wouldn't even occur to anyone to bother the actual flesh-and-blood Jesus Christ of Nazareth to get them a job. So why are you bothering to pray for these things?

You can pray with your friends when they are afflicted. Use some psalms, or Job, or some other scripture they enjoy. Don't pray for your friend and tell yourself, much less tell them, that you're doing something productive. If you want to do something for your friend, then literally, do something. Prayer isn't "doing something." Neither Jesus nor Peter nor anyone else in the book uses prayer as a substitute for action. Pray with your friend, or do something for your friend. Don't confuse the two.

By the grace of God, through faith, someone may be healed, physically or emotionally. Not by your works or your prayers. Same with jobs, relationships, money, anything you can name, it will not come by your prayers. So if you want to help your neighbour, do something. Because it's simply not gonna get done by you harassing God about it. If Peter couldn't do it, neither can you.

Praise be to God, the Provider, the Withholder, the Eternally Besought, the Patient One.

Back to the wilderness

It's ridiculous how far behind I am. I've been getting really busy with worldly things, some of which serve the Lord, and some of which have a lot more to do with Cesar. So, I haven't been finding time to write sermons. Therefore, this weekend I'm making time. I'm not seeing anybody all weekend. Period. And I will continue spending my weekends in the wilderness until I am caught up on sermons.

Truth be told, I like it in the wilderness. It's peaceful and you can talk to God.

Year B, 2nd Sunday of Easter (April 15, 2012)

·         Acts 4:32-35

·         Psalm 133 (1)

·         1 John 1:1 - 2:2

·         John 20:19-31

Today the lectionary tells us what the disciples did immediately after the Resurrection of Our Lord.

·         They did not claim ownership of any possessions.

·         They sold what they owned and gave the proceeds to the poor.

·         They gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

·         They believed.

There is something here that they didn't do, and that I have been telling you over and over not to do. They did NOT sit and make lists of what they wanted the Lord to do for them.

Why? Because they were doing what Jesus told them to do.

Mark 10:21: "go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

John 20:27: "do not doubt, but believe."

Acts 1:8: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Where, in the whole book, did Jesus teach people to give the Lord grocery lists? Nowhere. In fact Jesus said quite the opposite. Matthew 6:5-13:

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

As we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial,

But rescue us from the evil one."

In fact, if you read through the entire Bible, I don't think you'll find one person praying in the modern way, going on and on about the many things God is gonna do for them. When and how did this fashion start? I have no idea. But it isn't how the Lord taught us to pray, from the very beginning to the time of the first disciples. The Lord made it clear that this isn't pleasing to him. What is pleasing to the Lord is for a Christian to do this: believe, testify, renounce material possessions, give to the poor. And this is what Christians began doing from the very beginning. This is what the people who heard the Lord with their own ears, saw him with their eyes, and touched him with their hands, undertook to do from the very beginning. If any of them sat on his hands asking for loot, he certainly didn't make much of an impression, because he isn't recorded anywhere in the Acts or the letters or anywhere else. We have no known record of a disciple of Christ sitting down after Easter or after Pentecost, hoarding his wealth to himself, and praying devoutly to the Lord to give him more and more loot.

People give me all kinds of arguments why this is righteous and pleasing to the Lord, and why it's perfectly worthy to sit on one's hands asking for loot. None of those arguments come from the scripture. None of those arguments hold any water even on plain logic.

Praying for loot with many words is not pleasing to the Lord and it is not what Jesus Christ taught us to do. Believe, witness, renounce your possessions, give to the poor. It's really pretty simple.

Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Year B, Resurrection (April 8, 2012)

·         Acts 10:34-43

·         Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 (24)

·         1 Corinthians 15:1-11

·         Mark 16:1-8

There is something I don't understand about the Resurrection. Well, I suppose there are many things I don't understand about the Resurrection, but the one that troubles me is: why?

Why would God promise us eternal life?

More specifically, why would God promise us eternal life after he booted us from Eden to keep us from getting eternal life? It is written in Genesis 3:22-24:

Then the Lord God said, "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" – therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

What changed? What makes it acceptable to God that we should have eternal life now, when it wasn't acceptable in the beginning?

Is it because we've grown? Because we've learned? Because of the way our relationship with God has evolved? Does God trust us now more than he did then? Do we deserve that trust?

One difference that stands out, between then and now, is the way in which we can acquire this eternal life. In the garden, we could have gained eternal life willfully, by disobeying God. In the Covenant of Christ, we can gain eternal life not by disobedience, but by obedience – Christ's obedience on the cross, and our obedience in following him. We hear this in Mark 8:34-38:

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

We can consider also, what kind of eternal life is being promised. In Genesis, there are no details of what God is concerned about, but it seems that by eating from the fruit of the tree of life, man would simply live on forever as the same creature he is now. What good could that possibly do? Who would even want such a thing? Many people in our society cling desperately to lives devoid of meaning, joy or usefulness. Why? I cannot fathom. But I think that is the eternal life we would gain by eating from the fruit of the tree of life: as Qoheleth said, "vanity and chasing after wind." (Ecclesiastes 1:14). We would continue to get up in the morning, chase after money all day, and go back to bed just as poor, materially and spiritually, as when we got up.

Instead I love to read Revelation 4:1-11:

After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God; and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,

"Holy, holy, holy,

The Lord God and the Almighty,

Who was and is and is to come."

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,

"You are worthy, our Lord and God,

To receive glory and honour and power,

For you created all things,

And by your will they existed and were created."

This, indeed, is a worthy and comfortable way to spend eternity. And this, I believe, is the eternal life that the Lord our God is offering to us through Jesus Christ. Not vanity and a chasing after wind, but to praise his name eternally. Not what we can gain for ourselves through wilfulness, pride and disobedience, but what Jesus Christ has gained for us through suffering, humility and obedience. By the grace that Christ gained for us, we are saved, not from physical death, but from an empty life of vanity and chasing after wind. We are resurrected to a glorious life of praising the Lord forever. And it is not at the time of our physical death that we are saved and resurrected to this glorious life, but at the time that we choose, like Yeshua and in obedience to him and to Our Father, to die to sin and be reborn truly as children of the Lord, obedient, good, loving, merciful, and always singing his praise. Indeed we are resurrected, not after our physical death, but from the moment that we truly leave sin behind and willingly take up our cross and follow Jesus Christ.

And so, as we celebrate our resurrection in Our Lord, let us sing the hymn of the living creatures who stand around God's throne praising him forever, night and day without ceasing:

Hymn of the day - #413 Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty

Year B, Passion Sunday (April 1, 2012)

·         Isaiah 50:4-9a

·         Psalm 31:9-16 (5)

·         Philippians 2:5-11

·         Mark 14:1 - 15:47

The Eucharist is the central rite of Christianity.

Let me say this again: the Eucharist is the central rite of Christianity.

Finding fault with everyone's conduct, legitimising authority, and asking the divinity for loot, is done in every religion, as far as I know. But only Christians have the Eucharist. So we ought to understand it.

The institution of the Eucharist begins with the celebration of the Passover, so let's look at the first Passover.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: "Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, "Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord, as you said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And bring a blessing on me too!"

The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. That was for the Lord a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations.

(Exodus 12:1, 3, 6-13, 29-32, 40-42)

First, this gives us the context for the events of Jesus's last night. They have dinner, which would be roast lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, and then they are keeping a vigil for the Lord. In hindsight, this turns out to be also a death watch for Jesus, but the disciples don't know that. As far as they know, this is just the regular Passover vigil. And they're not doing a particularly good job of it, because they're complacent. With hindsight we say Jesus was preparing himself and the disciples let him down by not waking and praying with him, but they didn't know that. I don't know that Jesus himself knew this was his last night. As he always said himself, about the time and the hour no one knows but the Father.

Second, there is a point about the blood of the lamb. In our Christian jargon, we have many terms that are references to Judaism as Jesus knew it. We use these terms often with very little meaning and no understanding of their origin. To a Jew, we probably sound like a bunch of noobs when we use all these terms. The blood of the lamb, on the night of the first Passover, was used to mark the jambs and lintels of the doors of the houses were the Hebrews were, so that the Lord passed over those houses. Now we say we are washed in the blood of the lamb and this washes away our sins, but in reality the blood of the lamb doesn't "wash" anything, it is only a mark for God to recognise his own. A mark we choose and put on ourselves, incidentally. We choose to identify ourselves with a sign, to be recognised as the people of God. Nowadays we do this with baptism and cross-shaped ornaments, but originally it was the blood of the lamb that marked God's people.

Third, it is interesting that Jesus and the disciples are out of doors, in the garden at Gethsemane. This may seem like a detail, but on the night of the first Passover it was a matter of life and death. The Hebrews stayed in the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, and lived. The Egyptians were out and about, and the firstborn of Egypt died. And on this night, Jesus and the disciples go out to a garden instead of staying in the house, and Jesus, who was of course a firstborn himself, dies. So that creates a very interesting parallelism. On the first Passover, the firstborn of Egypt were killed to free the Hebrews from the Egyptians. On this Passover, it is the Lord's firstborn son who is killed. Who does he free, and from whom? As before, he frees those people who are marked with the blood of the lamb – those of us who choose to identify ourselves as God's people by making his mark on ourselves. But from whom are we freed? We routinely say it's from [SQG] "the devil." Well, Jesus is not the son of [SQG] "the devil", so there is no analogy there. Jesus is the firstborn of the Lord and a Hebrew woman, so we can see it two ways. Either Jesus frees us from the Hebrews, that is, from the Law, or he frees us from God himself. But either way it comes to the same thing, really. Jesus frees us from sin. Not from the Law or from the Lord, but from our obsession with the idea that anyone who transgresses the Law will be punished with eternal torture. Jesus frees us from the retributive, oppressive aspect of the Law, and frees us, as I always say, to do what he called us to, which is serve others.

And fourth, I kept this point for last because it will take the most explaining, we have to look at the institution of the Eucharist. And of course we always say that the death of Christ and therefore the Eucharist also are sacrifices of atonement for our sins, so let's look at what the sacrifice of atonement was. On the one hand, there is the regular sin offering, which people offer for their own sins that they know to have committed. The sin offering is a bull for the high priest or for the congregation of Israel, a male goat for a ruler, a female goat or ewe for an ordinary person, or two turtledoves or pigeons if you can't afford a goat, or a grain offering if you can't afford two turtledoves or pigeons. On the other hand, there is the Day of Atonement offering, which is for the sins we are not aware of, and is a bull for the high priest, a ram for the people, and two goats, one to be sacrificed and one sent off into the wilderness to carry away the sins of the people.

The procedure for sin offerings is described in Leviticus as follows:

(The priest) shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull; the bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord. The anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord; and the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. He shall remove all the fat from the bull of sin offering: the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is around the entrails; the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins; and the appendage of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys, just as these are removed from the ox of the sacrifice of well-being. The priest shall turn them into smoke upon the altar of burnt offering. But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, as well as its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung – all the rest of the bull – he shall carry out to a clean place outside the camp, to the ash heap, and shall burn it on a wood fire; at the ash heap it shall be burned.

The priest who offers it as a sin offering shall eat of it; it shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches its flesh shall become holy; and when any of its blood is spattered on a garment, you shall wash the bespattered part in a holy place. An earthen vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken; but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and rinsed with water. Every male among the priests shall eat of it; it is most holy. But no sin offering shall be eaten from which any blood is brought into the tent of meeting for atonement in the holy place; it shall be burned with fire.

(Leviticus 4:4-12, 6:26-30)

Now the sin offering for the congregation is one of those for which blood is brought into the tent of meeting, therefore none of it is eaten: it is burned entirely. So if we say that Jesus is a sacrifice of atonement for all of us, that is, for the congregation, then his body cannot be eaten. And second, Jews absolutely do not eat or drink blood. It is absolutely forbidden to them. So how would Jesus tell his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood, if he is supposed to be a sacrifice of atonement?

On the other hand, there is a passage in Numbers that I didn't even know about until I actually read the whole Bible myself, which is as follows:

(When) you make an offering by fire to the Lord from the herd or from the flock ... to make a pleasing odour for the Lord, then whoever presents such an offering to the Lord shall present also a grain offering. ... When you offer a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice ... then you shall present with the bull a grain offering, three-tenths of an ephah of choice flour, mixed with half a hin of oil, and you shall present as a drink offering half a hin of wine, as an offering by fire, a pleasing odour to the Lord.

If you unintentionally fail to observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses – everything that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day the Lord gave commandment and hereafter, throughout your generations – then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, the whole congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, a pleasing odour to the Lord, together with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the Israelites, and they shall be forgiven; it was unintentional, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their error.

(Numbers 15:3-4a, 8-10, 22-25)

The requirements for the grain offering are described in Leviticus:

When you present a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be of choice flour: unleavened cakes mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. If your offering is grain prepared on a griddle, it shall be of choice flour mixed with oil, unleavened; break it in pieces, and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. If your offering is grain prepared in a pan, it shall be made of choice flour in oil... You shall bring to the Lord the grain offering that is prepared in any of these ways; and when it is presented to the priest, he shall take it to the altar. The priest shall remove from the grain offering its token portion and turn this into smoke on the altar, an offering by fire of pleasing odour to the Lord. And what is left of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord. No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you must not turn any leaven or honey into smoke as an offering by fire to the Lord.

(Leviticus 2:4-11)

So. Let's get back to our gospel reading. "While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said 'Take; this is my body.'" (Mark 14:22) Again, being the night of the Passover, this is unleavened bread they're eating, therefore acceptable as a grain offering with a sin offering. And he blesses it and breaks it like a grain offering.

"Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.'" And this is a cup of wine, therefore acceptable as a drink offering with a sin offering.

Therefore to come to my point at long last, it makes no sense to say that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ offered as a sin offering, because that would be anathema to a Jew, which he was. But to say that the bread and wine are the grain offering and drink offering with the sin offering makes perfect sense. And by having the Twelve eat and drink of it, Jesus is creating them into priests. (As we know, the word of God creates what it declares.)

Is this contrary to Jesus's statements? I don't think so. I don't think Jesus said, literally, "this is my body" and "this is my blood", because that would have been crazy, especially for a Jew.  The gospel of Mark, as far as we know, appears to have been written for Christian gentiles around 70 C.E., that is, forty years after the fact, and for people who didn't know the practices of Temple Judaism. The actual words of Christ were probably not remembered exactly 48 hours after the events, let alone 40 years, and now it needs to be made intelligible and catchy for the gentiles. So what got written down is one thing, and what was actually said was probably a longer, more technical statement that the bread and wine are grain and drink offerings along with the sin offering that is Christ's body.

There are several further analogies with the sin offering: Christ was offered as a sacrifice by the chief priests, his blood was poured out, his body was taken to a clean place outside the city, and it was entirely taken up to Heaven so that none of it remained. So the concept of Christ as sin offering is perfectly clear within the Temple Judaism tradition, and so is the offering of the bread and wine, but not the concept of transubstantiation, consubstantiation, real presence, or even symbolic meaning. The bread and wine are not the body and blood of Christ and do not represent the body and blood of Christ. They are simply additional offerings that are required with the sin offering that is Christ.

One last reason why I see it this way, is that it would be absurd to repeat the sacrifice of Christ in any way. If we have to do it again, then it didn't work the first time. And if it didn't work the first time, it's certainly not gonna work by being re-enacted. But of course it worked, and we're not doing it again. We're doing the grain and drink offerings, in remembrance of Christ, as he asked us. And in partaking of the grain and drink offering, we are identifying ourselves as priests of Christ.

Thank you for your patience with this lengthy sermon.

Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.