Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
What a Difference One Day Made
Psalm 118:1-2,14-24; Matthew 28:1-10
Easter is the best day of the year. The best day of all days ever. So says our morning prayer on that festival day of Surprising Great Good News.
In a sense, though, every Sunday -- in the Christian tradition -- is a kind of Little Easter.
We worship on the first day of the week instead of the seventh exactly because it's the day the resurrection happened. The day of rich ripe promise that life, not death, is God's last word about the nature of things. "Jesus lives and so shall I," says the Reformation chorale. If you really believe that, you have to celebrate it as often as possible. At the top of each week ain't bad at all.
Actually, every waking morning -- whether Sunday, Tuesday, whatever -- is a Little Easter.
To all appearances, except the breathing part, your sleeping body lies in death until your eyes open up again. Your brain, unless it's dreaming coded messages from God or simply flushing away a day's worth of scattered impressions, might as well be dead. And then -- shazam, voila, and hallelujah -- comes the dawn and there you are: alive again. For better or for worse.
And even on the worst of days, we never quite quit believing it's really for the better.
The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer starts each new day by quoting 1 Peter 1:3 -- "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Then it teaches us to pray -- "Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." That's resurrection life, one day at a time.
So... Here we are 4 days after the Biggest Sunday of the Year. And I'm just getting around to posting the sermon MP3. But, know what?
Happy Little Easter!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:36 PM
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
From Triumph To Turmoil
Psalm 118:1-2,19-29; Matthew 21:1-11
Jesus on a unicycle? You gotta be kidding!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
6:55 PM
Monday, March 17, 2008
Harry Hears, That's Who!
My grand-dog Harry went suddenly deaf on us a few weeks ago.
A visit to the vet's for some ear wax removal went south somehow. Not in the procedure, which worked just fine. But in the meds he had to take afterwards. Next morning, poor Harry was dazed and confused by the proverbial sound of silence that echoed inside his little head. (See my March 4 post for the whole story.)
Well, folks, God is good all the time -- even if a deaf dog never gets to hear again.
But I'm here to tell you our little Harry has his hearing back. Hallelujah and amen! It's nowhere near 100%, but good enough that he's his usual responsive loveable self again.
What a great relief I feel for Sharon and Victor, whose hearts were torn over their little guy's affliction. His recovery just now, at the top of Holy Week, has the feel of a mini-resurrection.
Thanks be to God.
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:06 AM
Thursday, March 13, 2008
How To Beat the Devil, Again
Psalm 30; Matthew 26:36-46
I grew up in New Jersey. [We pause here for one cheap joke of your choice.]
In elementary school assemblies, we gleefully sang "My Garden State." The landmark in a little park two blocks from my house was a huge dark rock whose plaque said that George Washington and his troops once camped right there on their way to some other place more famous.
When I was a teenager the state opened a new toll road, landscaped much of the way with medians so wide they appeared to be meadows, even little forests now and again. Well, at least once you got south of the urban glut sprawling between Newark and Philadelphia.
One distinctive feature of the Garden State Parkway, then and now, was the spacing of its toll booths. Instead of picking up a ticket as you enter the freeway and paying as you exit, a driver pays small tolls here and there all along the journey. You leave one toll booth, quickly resume cruising speed, and sail merrily along. Just long enough that you almost forget about toll booths. And then, suddenly, wham! Here comes another toll booth just ahead! [Visualize Groundhog Day's interminable repitition, with no chance you'll ever "get it right" enough to stop the repitition.]
I think of this now because Sunday's sermon was about Jesus praying his heart out in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before Judas handed him over to some Roman soldiers with a bitter little kiss.
You might call that episode "the last temptation of Christ." Together with his initial forty days of temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), it sets the boundaries of our Lenten retracing of Jesus' journey towards his date with destiny in Jerusalem. This one last time, the Devil doesn't show up physically to work on Jesus. Instead, he's invisible there in the dark cold night, whispering, "You don't need to die, you know. There are better ways to get what you're after. Why go through all that suffering and shame when you really don't have to?!"
At least that's what I think was going on between the lines of Jesus' sweaty prayers that night. "If it's possible," he said three times to God, "let me live!"
How many other times, do you suppose, between that first round of temptations and this last assault on his willingness to do God's will, did Jesus have to say No to the Devil? Or to his own human nature, which, left to follow the line of least resistance, would lead him down a very crooked path?
I imagine Jesus' spiritual journey must have felt something like driving through the Garden State Parkway's pop-up toll booths. Stop and pay the price of temptation... Teach and heal and spend quality time with God... Attain a high level of grace and peace and joy... And then, wham! Repeat the process, world without end, amen.
I don't know. Maybe I just don't like that parkway the way I should.
But I do like the way Jesus handled this last temptation.
For one thing, it's a great example to you and me who, in our better moments, really do want to do what God wants us to do. Want to be who God wants us to be. Want to have a hand in God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Want to be like Jesus, and here we see how possible that really is. Because he's so much like us -- temptations and all.
More important, it's the great guarantee that you and I really can live like that. Because Jesus did, until the moment he died. For God, of course. For himself, yes. And for people like you and me, which is absolutely amazing! For once, in all of human history, somebody somewhere lived exactly the way God wants us all to live. The curse is broken. The price has been paid.
You may now resume cruising speed.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:02 AM
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sinking Down Into Doubt
Isaiah 43:1-3; Matthew 14:22-33
Working my way towards Sunday's sermon, I got all-too-timely word that my grand-dog Harry had a serious new problem. It would have made a powerful preaching illustration, but I didn't know how to talk about it in public.
Let me explain.
The message focused on Jesus' miracle of walking on the water during a night-time storm on the Sea of Galilee, and pulling Peter out of the surging waves just in the nick of time.
Jesus had sent the disciples on ahead by boat after a long hard day doing what Messiahs do. Teaching, healing, and feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fishes. He stayed behind to pray by himself a while, then he headed out to meet the boat the hard way -- by walking on the water!
When the disciples recognized him Peter called out, "Lord, if that's really you, let me walk out there and meet you partway!" And that's what Jesus did.
Peter couldn't believe what he was doing. Defying the law of gravity, for God's sake! And by God's power. In fact, he stopped believing it.... He felt the force of the wind, stared at the waves, and thought, "Wait a minute. I can't do this! Nobody can walk on water."
And he began to sink.
Then he prayed the world's most effective, eloquent prayer -- "Lord, save me!" Which Jesus did, right then and there.
So, the point was: No matter how stormy life gets, Jesus will always show up to help you through.
Now, that idea got started way before Jesus ever came on the scene. It's there in Sunday's other Bible passage, too. Isaiah 43 assures the people of Judah, exiled far from home in Babylon, that God will always be with them -- even when their path leads through the hottest fires and the deepest floods. Come hell or high water, so to speak, God will always show up to help them.
Okay. But what about Sharon and Victor's terrier Harry?
If you've been reading my blog, you'll remember that my daughter Sharon and her husband Victor Hernandez experienced two tragic losses in 2007. (See my December 31 post.)
In August, Sharon suffered a miscarriage at the 5-month point of gestation. They'd wanted so much to have a child, but now their hopes and dreams lay shattered. Then, 2 days after Christmas, their 20-year-old dog Pepper was euthanized, releasing her from a host of sicknesses. But extending Victor and Sharon's season of suffering by much too much.
And now, just a few days before I would preach on life's storms and Christ's saving presence, Harry suddenly went deaf. It had to do somehow with a routine ear-cleaning at the vet's office. Maybe it was the medication prescribed to follow up the procedure? Whatever, and why ever, my grand-dog couldn't hear anymore! And now, days later, he still can't hear a thing.
How confused and frightened he must be. How worried and angry his mom and dad are. How very very sad I am.
All of us know the Lord is here, strong and wise and kind to help. Come hell or high water, so to speak, God in Christ knows exactly what we're going through and goes through it with us. Every step of the way. All the way.
Even so, it still hurts. Like hell and high water.
I'm tempted to ask God right now, "How much do my kids have to suffer? In such quick succession? And what's next?" Tempted nothing. I am asking it.
There. That felt good.
The answer I hear is very unspecific. But good enough to sustain us for now -- Sharon, Victor, my wife and me, and Harry too, if dogs understand the Bible....
On that dark and stormy night Jesus told Peter and his pals, "Don't be afraid. It's me. I'm here with you." And when Peter reached out for help, Jesus picked him up and got him back in the boat. The wind died down, and the sea was as smooth as glass again.
So we won't be afraid (for long, or only). We look and listen for signs that Christ is with us. To know our stormy problems... To experience them with us... To give us just the help we need... Just the way we need it... Just when we need it most.
God knows, I want that to mean our little Harry will hear again.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:05 AM
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