From my sermon on April 15, when the roads were iced over:
After six months here, I thought it was time I took a vacation, so I went back to Washington, DC to stay with one of my best friends. It’s the city I moved to after I finished college and even after I moved to New Jersey for seminary and after I moved here to be with you all, it still feels like home. That Sunday morning, my friend and I walked into the narthex of our gorgeous Victorian Gothic church there, with her tall bell tower and her gardens and her stained glass windows. And as always, there was a table with nametags and sharpies and a plate of mini muffins so that the first thing visitors see when they come in is our hospitality and so that we can greet each other by name. So I took the top off a purple sharpie and wrote my nickname on a sticker…and I was home again. That one little act was so familiar that it instantly reminded me of every other time I’d walked in those doors. And just for a little while, everything was not just okay but beautiful. I understood where I was in the story. It was just like before.
While I was on vacation, I also spent a couple nights on an air mattress in the dorm at the seminary where I lived for three years. The president of our seminary usually preaches in our chapel several times a month and his sermons are, hands-down, some of the best I have ever heard. My friend in the dorm and I started talking about our favorite sermons of his. I remembered that in his second chapel sermon, President Barnes told us about how he and his brother grew up being assigned passages of scripture and the psalms to memorize. One night, when they were young adults, they were caught in a storm. To distract themselves, they started quizzing each other and the sound of the wind fell away from their ears as they proclaimed the gospel in the midst of that storm. That one little act was so familiar that it instantly reminded them of every other time they’d recited scripture. And just for a little while, everything was not just okay but safe and sound and warm.
Jesus rose from the dead and came back to us for a little while longer, but no matter how many times He had told His friends that this was going to happen, it seems like He spends a lot of time convincing them that yes, it really is Him. He really is back from the dead. He really is real.
Jesus told them, “‘These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about Me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things’” (Luke 24:44-48).
When Jesus comforts His friends, telling them not to be afraid, telling them that He, Himself is with them no matter what, telling them that they are witnesses to His resurrection, He is speaking words so close to a passage from Isaiah, that He is almost reciting scripture in the middle of a storm like my seminary’s president and his brother.
But now thus says the Lord,
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
You are My witnesses, says the Lord,
and My servants whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe Me
and understand that I am [God].
(Isaiah 43:1-3, 5, 10)
In the same form, Jesus more or less says:
Peace be with you, for My death has redeemed you;
I greet you by name, you are My friends.
When you passed through the crowds at My execution, I was with you;
and through the darkness of the night, you were not defeated;
I walked through fire so that you should not be burned,
and death not be the end of your story.
For I am Jesus your Lord,
the Messiah of the earth, your Saviour.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
You are My witnesses, says the Lord,
and My friends whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe Me
and understand that I am God.
That one little act of hearing Jesus speak scripture was so familiar that it instantly reminded them of every other time they had heard Jesus teach. And just for a little while, everything was not just okay but exactly as it should be. The scripture was fulfilled. They understood where they were in the story. It was just like before, only better than anything they could have ever imagined.
shalom and agape,
Rev Leia Rose Battaglia