LAYING THE FOUNDATION A Sermon for the First Sunday after Easter, 2010 On the Text: Propers for the Day By the Reverend Deacon Randolph Constantine If you start counting days beginning with today and you number today, the First Sunday after Easter as day number 1, then the 43 rd day will the be Sunday called Pentecost. If you had started that count with Easter as day 1, then Pentecost is day number 50, which is what its name means, the fiftieth day. What we are going to be looking at in all our Epistle and Gospel lessons, beginning with today, will be the activities and sayings of Jesus and the disciples during those 49 days after the Resurrection. It is during this time that the eyes, ears, and minds of the disciples are opened and the foundation for the Church is laid. Wait a minute, you say, what about all of the material in the four Gospels that talks about the events before the Crucifixion and the Resurrection; didn t that lay the foundation? Wellll, yes and no. Yes, Jesus told the disciples directly, and us through what was recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in their Gospels, what should have been enough, that anyone who could read and had access to the Bible should have been converted. But we know that that does not seem to be sufficient. Reading just does not seem to do what is needed if reading is all there is. People need to hear the Word, and they need to hear it from someone who is speaking directly to them. Preferably that someone doing the speaking should be someone who is an enthusiastic and godly believer. What our Gospel lesson for Easter told us is that on that Easter morning, the disciples were anything but enthusiastic. They were in a blue funk. They could not even remember that Jesus had told them directly at least three times that He would be killed and would rise from the dead on the third day. They couldn t remember that, and they couldn t recall the Scripture that prophesied it. Mentally and emotionally, they were in no shape to go forth and
CONSTANTINE/Easter +1, 2010, Laying the Foundation 2 build Christ s Church. They needed for Jesus and the Holy Spirit to build them up and make them into something more than they had been. Jesus had picked them carefully mostly ordinary people: fishermen, tax collectors,, some Gentiles, such as the Canaanite woman. Few were from the upper crust of society, but there were some, such as Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus. Notice that I am speaking of the disciples, not just the Twelve Apostles; but the Twelve were just as bad off, Peter and all the rest. Some were extraordinary in that they came from the lowest strata of society, beggars, lepers and even some who had been possessed by demons Mary Magdalene was one of those. They thought their world had come to an end until Peter and John met Mary Magdalene coming from the tomb and went and looked into the tomb for themselves, but even then there was some doubt because they had not yet seen Jesus for themselves. And when Peter and John went back and told the others, many of them doubted what they had been told. That first Easter was not really a bright day in the history of the faith of the disciples. We really need to start over again with the readings for Easter, at least the Gospel reading from St. John s Gospel, and then look at the Gospel lessons for Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday, and a couple of others as well. Now with us being a Reformed Episcopal Church in which any sermon that is more than 25 minutes is considered to be waaay to long, I know you are not ready for a 45 minute sermon; so I ll compress it by not reading all the relevant Bible pieces, instead reading just a sentence or two. If you want to follow along in a Bible, your own or a Pew Bible, I ll give you the addresses: Book, Chapter and Verse; and for the ones that are in the PB, I ll give you the page number. First let s look at the end of the Gospel for Easter Sunday, which is in St. John, 20: 1-10, which is in your PB on page 164. The verse numbers are not given in the PB, but the ones we
CONSTANTINE/Easter +1, 2010, Laying the Foundation 3 are interested in are verses 8 and 9, which say: John 20:8-9 8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. This just flabbergasts me: 9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. They knew not the Scripture! Didn t they have ears?! They had been following Jesus for three years, all over Israel, up to Galilee, through Samaria, up to Tyre and Sidon, up to Caesarea Philippi. St. Matthew tells us that right after the Transfiguration, he told them this: Matthew 17:9 9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. St. Mark records three separate instances in which Jesus said essentially the same thing each time, predicting that He would be killed and after three days he would rise. At the first, right after St. Peter says He is the Christ, at Mark 8:30-31, we read 30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. 31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. The other two places in St. Mark s Gospel are 9:31 and 10: 34. In that second instance that St. Mark records, he tells us that they did not understand and were afraid to ask Jesus to explain what He said: Mark 9:31-32 31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. 32 But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him. St. Luke records only one instance of Jesus saying the same thing. At Luke 9:22 where Jesus is speaking 22 Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
CONSTANTINE/Easter +1, 2010, Laying the Foundation 4 Interestingly enough, although these are things that Jesus said, St. John does not record that Jesus said this. We can guess, but it is only a guess, that because St. John s Gospel was written at least 20 years after the last reasonable date for any of the other three gospels, that he had probably read the other Gospels and decided not to repeat what they said. So, all that we have in St. John s Gospel concerning any prophecy about Jesus rising from the dead is what is in that Easter Gospel lesson, and that it after the fact. Since the word, Scripture, to them meant the OT, the scripture St. John is referring to is either Psalm 16, verses 9 and 10, or Hosea 6, verse 2. Still, I am astounded that they don t remember something that Jesus said until after He has risen; they remember it only when prompted by an angel at the empty tomb as St. Luke tells us in Luke 24:4-8 4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: 5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 8 And they remembered his words. They remembered His words, but only after they were reminded by an angel. The best explanation for this seems to be that the disciples and Apostles did not understand that they were being prepared to be sent out into the world to preach the Gospel because they expected that Jesus would be with them for the rest of their lives. They had no idea that in less than 50 days He would ascend into Heaven, leaving them with the work of spreading the Gospel and building the Church. They were happy to follow in the train of this great and holy man and be a part of what He was doing, and have arguments about which of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. They were in for some rude surprises.
CONSTANTINE/Easter +1, 2010, Laying the Foundation 5 The first rude surprise was the Crucifixion. Jesus was so obviously the Messiah, and they knew that the Anointed One of God, the Son of God could not be killed; but He was. Then came the darkness, spiritual darkness, and probably what we would call depression. From the time the tomb was closed on Friday and all through Saturday, the Sabbath, they were essentially housebound, and by Jewish law could go no farther from where they were staying than a Sabbath day s journey, about 2000 cubits, or 1000 yards, a little more than half a mile. They had to wait until what we call Sunday, the first day of the week, to go and see the tomb and possibly anoint Jesus body, that Sunday being the third day from Friday, when beginning the count with Friday as 1. Then came the next surprise when the angel jogged their memories. To get the full picture of all that happened to the disciples in the first few days after the Resurrection, we need to read all of the last chapters of each of the Gospels. In Matthew and Mark, we find that Jesus tells Mary Magdalene to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, that they will see Him there. Now Galilee was about 50 miles to the north and somewhat farther than that by the roads and paths, about 4 days journey on foot; but St. Luke tells us in chapter 24 of his Gospel that Jesus appeared to two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus that day, that those two return to Jerusalem to tell the others later that day. The account of the appearance of Jesus to the two on the road to Emmaus is the Gospel lesson for Easter Monday, p. 167 of the PB, and then His appearance that evening to the Eleven and others that immediately follows in chapter 24 is the Gospel lesson for Easter Tuesday, p. 169 of the PB. Each of these is a lesson we need to read every year, because even with our new church building, we don t have services on those two days; few could attend if we did. When we read all of these, the picture we get seems a little confused. From St. Luke and St. John we see that the meeting that Sunday afternoon or evening at which the doors are closed
CONSTANTINE/Easter +1, 2010, Laying the Foundation 6 takes place in Jerusalem, not in Galilee where they were told to go. However, we find that there was unbelief at the message that Jesus was alive, even from the two who had eaten with Him in Emmaus. Did they ever go to Galilee? Yes, as described in chapter 21, the last chapter of St. John s Gospel. So, what s the point of all this? That it only took one thing, though certainly not a small thing, but something they should have known from Scripture, that Jesus the man, the Messiah, could and did die; and that was all it took to shake the faith of the disciples and even the Apostles, the men who had followed Him for three years and seen innumerable miracles. We all tend to have moments of weakness, moments when we ask why?, moments when we forget things we have been told, things we know are true, or were told to do; but we just flat forget. The disciples were human, just as we are. In that sense they were no better than we are. Sure, they were called, directly, by Jesus; but we have been called too. I shall continue to repeat that favorite verse of mine until every member of this congregation can recite it in their sleep. It is John 6:44. Jesus is speaking in the Bread of Life discourse in the 6 th chapter of John and says: John 6:44 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. You are here; you have come to Jesus because you were called to do so by God the Father. Realize from the start that just like that World War 2 recruiting poster with Uncle Sam pointing his finger out of the poster, that God wants you. Realize also that just because we have been called, we are not therefore perfect far from it. We too have to build a foundation of faith, just as did the early disciples. Realize that through inattention, laziness or despair, part of that foundation can crumble, just as happened to Jesus disciples; and when that happens, we have to rebuild the foundation in ourselves, just as Jesus had to rebuild it in the disciples. St. John tells us in today s Gospel lesson, p. 167 in the
CONSTANTINE/Easter +1, 2010, Laying the Foundation 7 PB, that He said to them: John 20:21-22 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: We know that this was not a full helping of the Holy Spirit because they did not receive that until Pentecost. St. Luke tells us that Luke 24:44-45 in the Tuesday Gospel lesson: 44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. He gave them the understanding of the scriptures that he gave to the two on the road to Emmaus. He may have given them other things as well, but he did this because He thought and thinks that it was important for them to know the Scriptures, just as it is important for us to know the Scriptures as well. Jesus had to rebuild their foundation of faith and to strengthen it with knowledge of Scripture and with the help of the Holy Spirit. Forty-nine days after that meeting in that room with the locked doors, the Holy Spirit was sent into the world to be the helper of all believers. Whenever a foundation of faith is in need of repair, there are only three things needed to put it back in order and to strengthen it: the reading of scripture, prayer, and worshiping together. These will bring to us the Holy Spirit Who will help us in our understanding of Scripture and in praying for us when we do not know what to pray and strengthen our faith. As St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Read, Pray, and Worship; and your foundation cannot be shaken. AMEN.