Oh Death, where is your sting?

The first lesson for the day, Acts 8:26-40, tells us an amazing story about Philip.  What we hear is that an angel of the Lord came to Philip, and said to him, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."  And then, Luke gives us a little aside that emphasizes to us what an odd request this is; he says, "And this was desert."  It's like he's trying to underscore the fact that this request of the angel to Philip is just plain crazy.  "Go, get on a desert road."  Crazy, right?  I mean, first off, the angel just says, "Go" with no explanation as to what he was going to do there.  And without an explanation for why one should go to the desert, Luke wants us to understand that this is ridiculously crazy.

John begins an exhortation to his disciples with the word "Behold!" or "Listen up!  All of you!"  He's doing this because it boggles his mind that God, the ruler of the universe, has adopted us as sons and daughters and called us "Children of God."  We're now part of the family, adopted as little children into a vast family of believers who call God Father.

Children are a Reflection of their Parents
Ever been to the mall, and seen a "Little Hellion" running around, wreaking havoc, destroying life, limb and who knows what else?  First thing you probably thought was, "Man, I wonder what his parents are like?"  We think like this.  We think like this because we know that one of the elements of parenting is bringing up a child in the way he should live.  If the child doesn't know or doesn't care, it probably means that neither do the parents.

The Gospel passage today excites us with the story of how Jesus came and stood among the disciples after being raised from the dead.  The context for this passage is almost immediately after we followed two disciples on their walk to Emmaus.  These two disciples have come back to be with the other disciples and are recounting the story of their walk.  Now on this walk, this man walking with them had opened up the scriptures to them, helping them to see the way that things had to unfold to bring about the salvation of mankind.  And they asked themselves, "Were our hearts not burning within us?"  As this man explained this to them, their hearts were overjoyed, full of fire and passion.  And then, as they finished up their walk, they asked this person to dine with them, and "in the breaking of bread," Christ was made known to them.  That is, in the breaking of the bread, they were giving the clarity of who Christ was; first he had opened up their minds and hearts with the scriptures, and then opened up their eyes to see him in a private Eucharist.

So we've just taken in the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Now there are a few more things that happen before the close of the service, all of which are intended to remind us of our duty as we leave this gathering of the saints.

Post Communion Prayer
The Post Communion Prayer is mostly self-explanatory, as it is easy to follow.  However, there are a few phrases that are important to remember.  The first is "...You have graciously accepted us as living members of Your Son..."  By believing in Him, allowing ourselves to be baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, we have been adopted into the Family of God, and so have become a member of one Body, the Body of Christ, or the Church, God's witness to the world.  We have been adopted as sons and daughters, through the Grace of God. 

In today's Gospel reading, we find the disciples of Jesus hiding in the upper room, we are told, "for fear of the Jews."  They had just lost their leader to crucifixion, and now they were holed away, in hiding, for fear that a similar fate might befall them too.  And then, suddenly, Christ stands in their midst, causing no small amount of uproar I'm sure.  And he tells them, "Peace to you."  Then he commissions them to go just as the Father sent him, and breathes on them to receive the Holy Spirit. 

Now, we are also told that Thomas was not with the disciples when Christ appeared to them, so when he comes back, they naturally tell him the exciting news.  But Thomas tells them, "Unless I see the nail holes and the hole in his side, I won't believe."  He wanted to see before he would believe.  And for this, we give him the nickname "Doubting Thomas."

One of the great men of faith, St. John Chrysostom, has an excellent Easter sermon in which he truly captures the essence of the Resurrection and our response to it.  I thought it would be good to share it with you today.  His name - Chrysostom - literally means "Golden Tongue," and we can see how this sermon preached in the late 300's still can bless us today.

At this point in the liturgy, following the Sanctus, we pray the Lord's Prayer together.  Obviously, we do this because Christ taught us this prayer.  In fact, the liturgy says, that "...now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray."

If Christ taught us this prayer, then we can assume that there is a reason He wanted us to pray it, and because he wanted us to pray it, we can pray it with boldness.  Figuring out why he wanted us to pray this way is as easy as reading the words.  While there is a great amount of beautiful theology in this prayer, the points that are important for us before taking the Eucharist are the parts that remind us about God's sovereignty.

The Gospel passage for this morning is one that always hits me pretty hard.  After all, in this passage we see Jesus in the Temple, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and the others there who are selling doves and sheep and oxen.  He was angry.  Really angry.

But why was he angry?  The disciples tell us that it was because it had been written about Jesus  that "Zeal for Your house will consume me."  And here, people had turned the House of God into a house of merchandise.  Jesus tells them to "Get out!  And take these things with you!" 

At this point in the service, after we have sung the Doxology, and sung the Sanctus, the priest begins with what is called the Epiclesis.¹   This portion of the Eucharistic Prayers is where the priest asks God to accept the sacrifices of the people, and to send the Holy Spirit to consecrate the sacraments.  During this time, you will see the priest bless the elements, generally when he is praying that God would make them "Holy by the power of Your Spirit."  It is an invocation, made on the part of the priest, for the people, and to God, that the bread and wine would become for us the Body and Blood of Christ.

As I read through today's Gospel passage, I was struck by Jesus' words when he said, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

Now, part of the reason I was struck by that is because that comment by Jesus has been twisted into a trite, banal phrase that we used for some silly situations:

- My children are misbehaving horribly right now.  I guess that's just my cross to bear.

- I have constant pains in my left pinky.  I guess that's just my cross to bear.

- My job stinks.  I guess that's just my cross to bear.

Those things are not our cross to bear.  Those are just life.