Acts 4:32–35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1—2:2
John 20:19–31
Year B
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
As of last month, I have started my 10th year as CtK’s pastor. I have begun reciting a refrain that begins, “I’ve been here long enough that…..” and then I fill in the blanks.
For example, when I volunteer at the Birch Hill Elementary School library, shelving picture books for Mrs. Vaughan, there will be 2nd graders there and one of them will say, “Hi, Pastor Keyl,” and I’ll look and I’ll see a former Chapel School student beaming at me. “I’ve been here long enough that I bump into preschoolers who are now in elementary school.”
I walked into a Brass rehearsal two weeks ago, as they were getting ready for Easter here. I looked up into the balcony, and remembered brass groups from the early 2000’s. There was Randy Otte on trombone and Sue Hansen on trumpet, who were blowing away now as they did years ago. And with them now were Daniel Lynn who has graced our community with his gifts in the past couple years, and Richard Otte and my son Gabriel. I caught my breath, thinking that “I’ve been here long enough that this reconfiguration of a Brass Ensemble for Easter has new faces, including Richard and Gabriel who were this high when I first came to CtK!
I’ve been tracking a college student, Matt Giguere, as each year Kari and I make our way to a conference at Valparaiso University. In fact we are going there tomorrow. Each year we would pick Matt up from the dorm and take him one day out for breakfast. The first year, without a cell phone, he lamented that he had run out of minutes on his calling card. So I gave him mine. He asked for a doggie bag to take back the ginormous breakfast he had snarfed down. In his senior year, when we met for breakfast, he was talking about his trip to Japan and his keen interest in journalism, as he was writing for the school paper. Matt was a camp counselor at Calumet for many years, and I was pleased for write a letter of reference. Just one month ago, Kari and I went to an Valparaiso alumni dinner in Massachusetts, full of old timers like us that graduated twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years ago, including Matt’s grandfather who graduated in the 1930’s. And there at the dinner was Matt, with his name tag saying class of 2007, wearing a suit and tie and looking every bit the part of a young adult. I’ve been at CtK long enough to see Matt Giguere grow up.
Things change. Life goes on. And here we are in another fifty-day celebration of Easter, and you may know that 50 for the biblical world means a really long time.
Here we are in the fifty-day Easter season, Eastertide, Paschaltide, and celebrating change, and new life, all around us. In First Communion kids who model the death and resurrection of Jesus by eating and drinking the meal of heaven. In nine adults and four children who are entering into this Easter as those who have rubbed shoulders with this Spirit-filled body of believers and are so excited to be here, to claim the identity of Christ followers with us at Christ the King. I’ve been here long enough that I know that those newly enthused about faith are vital to keeping a congregation that is passionate about its mission and common life together.
Imagine a group of people on fire because they know and understand that Jesus ushered in a new way to be, and in that excitement and new found sense of freedom take risks, make decisions, and act in ways that others whom they meet think were pretty cool and liberating, while others feel threatened.
Take today’s First Reading from Acts with the Gospel from John as bookends for contrasting responses to Easter life.
First the first reading.
In the Book of Acts, there is this wave that swells up. People do not clutch to their assets or net worth, but pooled their resources to strengthen the church. It says that the activity of those living that Spirit-filled life was grounded in shared testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Don’t you want a taste of that? Can you imagine this community so intent on our life together that everyone pitched in, and there was enough, and no one was lacking. And can you imagine everyone buzzing with how the resurrection of Jesus gave them a whole new perspective?
Okay, contrast that with the gospel. The very first week of Easter has the disciples, those who walked and talked and ate and drank with Jesus huddled up in someone’s house. And the prevalent feeling was not joy, but fear. There was not this wave of forward movement, but instead this stuckness. Each week, the risen Jesus comes in the flesh and each time as he comes he says, “wassup?” Actually, he says, “Peace.” In Arabic it’s alaam. In Greek it’s Erene. In Hebrew it’s Shalom.
So what’s the difference between the first reading and the Gospel reading? It’s interesting, I think that the Holy Spirit breaks the fears of the disciples, while the Holy Spirit in Acts comes like a steamroller. I think it’s interesting that while the disciples in John have the body of Jesus live and in person, the followers in the Book of Acts do not, and it is the followers without Jesus’ coming through locked doors to get into their faces that foster growth in the community of the baptized. I think it’s really interesting that the disciples are more like old timers that are stuck than like the neophytes in the Book of Acts that come up with ideas to get out into the neighborhood and invite those that they know and those that they meet to live that Easter life.
Dear friends, I’ve been here long enough that I do not want to be stuck. I do not want fear to be our guiding emotion for life after Easter. I want forgiveness to be real. I want peace to be offered. I want to continue to see what gifts are offered by those who are receiving first communion who with us taste see that the Lord is good. I want to allow those who have rubbed shoulders with us to step out in joy and with the Spirit bouncing around create a wave of excitement in what Jesus does.
Will you allow me to share some wisdom from a community-building document shared by monastic community, who like ours constantly and continually need to renewed in who they are and why they should share a life together. This version of the Benedictine Way of Living is called, appropriately for us living in Eastertide Always We Begin Again. Make these goals your own. Make them ours. See if they deepen your own sense of passion for a life in the Spirit for at least Fifty Days. Listen.
What is wanted is not that we should find ultimate truth,
nor that we should become secure,
nor that we should be without hurt,
but that we should live fully.
Therefore we should not fear life,
nor anything in life,
we should not fear death,
nor anything in death,
we should live our lives
in love with life.
It is for us
to train our hearts
to live in grace,
to sacrifice our self-centered desires,
to find the peace without want
without seeking it for ourselves,
and when we fail,
to begin again each day.
If we adopt an outlook of confidence and trust and perfect our experience by care for others, if we live in the certainty that we are heirs in the providence of the outermost mystery, we will begin to change into the persons that we have the potential to be.
I’ve been here long enough that I like sharing Easter joy and peace in Christ with you.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
| CtK Home
| Back to Pastor's Page
|