Loading...When I look through my old scrapbook, I can see photos of a simpler place a time, for example, rural, western Massachusetts in 1977. There’s a mom with two young children standing outside an old stone church. She’s wearing a knitted poncho depicting all the astrological signs of the zodiac calendar. (Remember that was the Dawning of the age of Aquarius). The children are wearing gingham jumpers. The girl’s jumper is decorated with Minnie Mouse and the boy’s jumper is decorated with Mickey Mouse.
Not pictured but remembered, the photo is taken by the father who is wearing a searsucker suit. All apparel featured in the photo has been hand-sewn by that mom. What the photo doesn’t show is that while working full time as a registered nurse she would not only sew apparel, but also can vegetables and bake bread —from grain she ground herself. Of all the responsibilities she juggled, the one my mother took most seriously is tending to what were we wearing.
Over forty years later my mom still sews with needle and thread, and she still asks me what I plan to wear to special events. However I would not call these times nor this place simple. The same question is pertinent: Of all the many responsibilities you juggle, which responsibility do you take most seriously?
I want to turn that question on God. So far as you can see, what responsibilities does God take most seriously? Let’s look at that question under the light of today’s selections of Holy Scripture from the assigned lectionary. In the first reading from the book of Acts we read about brand new Christians coming to terms with the newly poured-out power of the Holy Spirit. That Holy-Spirit-power empowered Peter, who takes his preaching seriously.
Mostly people are crowding him because of the vitality of his healing, hoping that even his shadow would touch those in need. So when their friend Tabitha dies, the widows of Joppa must have a hunch that Peter, being in nearby Lydda, just might….just might what? Scripture doesn’t say. It just says after they had washed Tabitha and laid her in the room upstairs they asked Peter to come without delay.
Now what is the point of inviting Peter unless they are taking the Holy-Spirit-power seriously. If you only read the verse about the clothing Tabitha had made you might think Peter was motivated by her mad sewing skills to do what he does next. Maybe it was her mad sewing skills. Whatever the motivation, he says a prayer and God raises her from the dead.
Next, we have the passage from the Revelation of St John the Divine. The heavenly vision is both weird and wonderful. John sees a lamb who is also a shepherd. The Lamb-Shepherd is seated on a throne surrounded by an uncountable multitude who are worshipping him while they wear robes which are white because they have washed them in the blood of that same lamb.
If you like mixed metaphors, heaven is the place for you. The lamb takes his job seriously to shelter those around the throne, guide them to springs of living water and wipe away their tears. Best I can tell is that everyone in that vision is someone who takes the lamb seriously enough to come through a great ordeal and that’s how they washed their robes in the lamb’s blood. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and I am going to take St John seriously because life has taught me that God works in weird and wonderful ways.
Lastly, we have the passage from the St John the Evangelist. Jesus is on the defensive because he recently healed a man born blind. This healing aggravated the leadership whose paradigm didn’t include the healing of people born blind. According to the paradigm of Pharisees, people born blind don’t get healed. Nevertheless, the healing cannot be denied and their paradigm cannot be shaken. The awkward result is that the Pharisees try and squish Jesus into their paradigm and ask him if he are the Messiah or not.
The Pharisees are really serious about the Messiah matching their paradigm and less serious about God’s plans and purposes being fulfilled by a man who cares more about blind people than political posturing. When they corner him, Jesus makes a sheep reference — there is something about heaven and the Ovis Genus that is important to God — but focuses on his Father.
For Jesus, the Messiah is someone who is obsessed, infatuated, seriously serious about his Father and fulfilling his Father’s mission which in this case is protecting sheep from death and giving them eternal life.
Today might be the kind of day you are looking through scrapbooks or shoe boxes of old photos. Take note of what you see and don’t see. Like a photographer, Holy Scripture takes seriously all the little details of salvation. This place and time may or may feel simple to you, but salvation is simple: God is love and desires everyone to live with Jesus in heaven forever.
The heavenly journey includes all kinds of details like Holy-Spirit-power, a bloody lamb with a beautiful choir, and paradigm-ruining healing. You can manage it! Like a loving mother juggle it all and then pick one thing to take seriously, God’s love for you.
