On Full Display, John 17:6-19

Posted on May 13, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley, May 12, 2024.

Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels.com

Years and years ago, what feels like a lifetime ago, I was a martial arts instructor. I just loved to fight! Every year, there was a karate tournament held in Atlanta called The Battle of Atlanta where several thousand martial artists came from all over the county and competed. I had made it to the quarter-finals in my age group – mid-high school – and was simply having a great time. My match got called up and my opponent and I bowed to the referee and then towards each other and we each took an on-guard stance.

Things were going well, and we began the second round. Crowds of people were around the mat watching what was going on when it happened. A martial arts uniform is called a gi. It has a loose top for ease of movement and baggy pants secured by a cord that goes around your hips. No sooner had the ref said, “Fight!” than my pants came untied! Now, both of my hands were in gloves which prohibited me from reaching down and grabbing them. Every inch I moved to the left or the right, I could feel my gi pants slip a bit further until they just hit the floor. Just try to imagine what a sophomore in high school would be feeling and thinking at that point. Surrounded by people with my opponent on the floor laughing, I was on full display to everyone with my bright blue boxer shorts with my pants around my ankles and I couldn’t do a thing! Finally, the ref came over chuckling, bent over pulled my pants back up, retied them, smirked at me, and said, “Fight.”

Yeah, about that. It didn’t go so well.  I didn’t do well that afternoon. I just wanted to quietly disappear into the crowd and hide.

Our text this morning is one where Jesus is on full display with those who mattered the most to him. He’s fully revealing himself and his purpose to them. No longer were there parables for the disciples to figure out. No longer were the crowds of followers jostling to see Jesus and his miracles or to hear his teaching. It was just Jesus and his closest disciples gathered together for the Passover. It was intimate, emotional, and a brutally frank gathering on what was about to happen.

Our Story today is from the Gospel of John. John takes five biblical chapters to cover one entire scene of his Story the night before Jesus dies. He wants his readers and listeners to pay attention, so he slows the action down by spreading the scene out. The essence of John’s gospel is wrapped up in these five chapters and it’s in our portion for today that many feel is a concise summary of who Jesus is, what he came to do, where he is now going, and what the disciples are to do next.[1] Jesus’ identity, purpose, and plans are on full display.

I am going to be reading from The Message Bible, written by the late Presbyterian pastor/scholar/author Eugene Peterson. He wrote this translation and paraphrase when he was a new church development pastor in Maryland, so his members might better understand the Bible and its meaning. I encourage you to go ahead and open your Bible for reference, but feel free to close your eyes and listen to the Story from John 17:6-19. We are picking up in the Story when Jesus is praying out loud. It’s often been called “The Great Priestly Prayer.” Jesus is having this intimate conversation with his Father and allows his disciples to overhear what he is saying. It’s almost like a parent praying over his or her children while they listen in. It’s a wonderful rhetorical technique John is using in this instance because we are invited to listen to Jesus, in effect, pray for us. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

John 17:8-19

6-12 I spelled out your character in detail
          to the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
          then you gave them to me, and they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
          and they took it, and were convinced
                        that I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world
          but for those you gave me,
                        for they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
          and my life is on display in them.
For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world;
          they’ll continue in the world
                        while I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
          that you conferred as a gift through me,
                        so they can be one heart and mind
                                      as we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
          in the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a lookout.
          and not one of them got away,
                        except for the rebel bent on destruction
                                      (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

13-19 Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
          so my people can experience
                        my joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
          the godless world hated them because of it,
                        because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
                                      just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
          but that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
          than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
          I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
          so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. [2]

If you listened closely, you heard four critical truths.

Jesus reveals with utter clarity that he is the living, tangible expression of the inexpressible infinite God whom he calls Father. It’s the great “scandal of the Gospel” that causes so many to squirm and struggle with regarding our Christian faith. As Christ-Followers, we believe the laws of physics, as we currently understand them, are broken and that what makes Jesus different from other religious figures is that in their very essence, Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus is more than just a prophet like Moses or Jeremiah; Jesus and God are wired together. There is this dynamic, flowing, interconnected, fly-wheeling reciprocity between Jesus and the Father. Jesus is the very essence of God who has been living, laughing, crying, arguing, and loving among the people. “Everything of mine is yours, and yours mine,” Jesus prays. The Gospel of John has been hammering home that Jesus is both 100% divine and 100% human being. To be less of either throws all the calculus off.

Second, Jesus reveals it is time for him to pass on the baton of gospel declaration – his ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing – to the women and men gathered as his disciples. In his prayer, he tells the disciples he is going home to be with his Daddy. I have a colleague in ministry named Simeon Rogers who, when he prays, he prays to Papa. Jesus is letting his closest followers know he is going home to Papa and that they will continue his work in the world on his behalf, on his Papa’s behalf, too.

Next, Jesus reveals that as his disciples, we will be exposed. In other words, we are going to be vulnerable to the powers of evil and will be hated by people in the world. It’s interesting to notice that Jesus in his prayer speaks reflectively, “The godless world hated them” because they followed the humble way of the Cross and lived counter-culturally to the world’s ways. It’s not that the world will hate them, future tense, but it’s that the world has already hated them, past tense. The world hates us still! Why?

I believe the world hates, dislikes, disrespects Christians and the Church because we are a mirror that reflects back to the world what life together is supposed to be like. It’s a community that is to love one another, get along with one another, helping one another. Christians should be countercultural and different. Christians should be iconoclastic in tearing down the values of injustice, war, and prejudice.

That’s the way it’s supposed to be at least. Instead, people are leaving the Church in droves because many churches in America are not reflecting the character of God back into the world; they are bringing the world’s character into the church! On the contrary, article after article reveal people are leaving the church, criticize and mock the Church because we Christians are perceived as hypocritical, intolerant, patriarchal, discriminatory, non-accepting, closed-minded, or politically too far right or too far left.[3]

Finally, Jesus clearly reveals that his disciples, i.e. you and me, are to put him on full display in how we live our lives. In the Bibles we typically use, verse 10 has Jesus say, “I am glorified in them.” Peterson translates that to say, “And my life is on display in them.”  Think about that for a moment: My life, your life, this church’s life puts Jesus on display for all to see. And this is what I want to leave you with today.

Next week we will gather for communion. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are to examine our spiritual walk and take the temperature and blood pressure of the depth and quality of our walk in God.[4] To help us do that, I invite you to join me in a spiritual exercise called The Examen – an intentional reflection on the state of things spiritual. And this is the question I want us all to use in our reflections: How does my life put Jesus on display? Does it?

In the Name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, New York and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Lance Pape, Connections: Year B, Volume 2: Lent through Pentecost (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) by Joel B Green. See https://a.co/j1DCSMq.

[2]  All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

[3] See, for example, The New York Times article, America Is Losing Religious Faith, Aug. 23, 2023, By Nicholas Kristof. A version of this article appears in print on, Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Americans Are Losing Their Religious Faith. See https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/opinion/christianity-america-religion-secular.html

[4] See 1Corinthians 11:17-29.

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Peter’s Conversion, Acts 10:44-48

Posted on May 7, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

Actually, It’s the Story of Three Conversions

A Sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on May 5, 2024

Have you ever walked up to a group of people and all you hear is the punchline of a joke? Everyone around you begins cracking up and you stand there thinking, “I don’t get it.” This describes what the lectionary organizers did this morning with our text from Acts. We pick up in the story at the punchline which makes absolutely no sense because we didn’t hear the rest of the story.

Turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 10. Acts 10 is like a play with 5 acts and we’re walking in on Act 5, Scene 2. So, let’s briefly catch up.

Act 1 begins in verse 1. We are introduced to a Roman commander named Cornelius. He is wealthy, powerful, has servants, is a leader of soldiers, and is also known as a God-fearer. A God-fearer was a person who worshiped the Jewish God and who supported the synagogue, but who had not taken the final step to be Jewish with circumcision. We meet Cornelius who is startled because he had a vision from God to go find this guy named Peter. Cornelius immediately sends servants and a devout soldier to go find him.

Act 2 finds Peter in the seacoast town of Joppa. It was about noontime, and he was on the rooftop patio feeling a bit peckish. While waiting for lunch, he had a strange dream of a large sheet descending from heaven with all types of animals in it and he heard God say, “Kill and eat.” Peter refuses and tells God, “I’m not going to eat any unclean animals that are forbidden to eat by our Jewish Law!” God then tells Peter, “Don’t call things unclean or impure that God has made clean.” This happens three times. It seems God remembers Peter is a little slow on the uptake and has to make sure he got it!

Acts 3 and 4 describe Cornelius’ men finding Peter and imploring him to travel to Caesarea some 30 miles away and meet their master. He does. Peter meets Cornelius who immediately falls on the ground to worship Peter and Peter tells him to get up, “I’m just a regular guy like you,” and he listens to Cornelius’ vision about being told to bring him to Caesarea.

Act 5, Scene 1 has Peter beginning to preach and share the Story of Jesus with Cornelius and all his household and we pick up in Act 5, Scene 2 which begins with verse 44. Hear the Word of the Lord.

Acts 10:44-48

44While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days. [1]

At first blush, we are struck by the events and think this story is about Cornelius’ conversion and it is, sort of. Yet, as I zoom out from the text and see it from a different vantage point, I realize this is just as much about Peter’s conversion as it is about Cornelius’. Cornelius converted from being a pre-Christian on the fringes to become the host of the first Gentile Christian church in Caesarea. Peter was converted from being a Jewish/Christian isolationist who had all the answers to a man who was humbled by the Holy Spirit to be accepting and loving of others. And it’s then I saw the third major conversion in our Story. The very Church itself underwent a conversion.  We read in verse 44 that all who heard the Word were filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke didn’t say, “Cornelius and his family” but all who heard the Word, and that includes Peter’s Jewish companions who came up from Joppa. The church walls were shattered by the Holy Spirit’s power and the church in the first century had to make room for the “other” in the world. No longer was it going to be a secret enclave of Jewish worshippers who embraced Jesus as Messiah; from now on, the Church was transformed to be a living community of and for all people with Jesus in the center.

Pastor and Professor Alan Roxburgh describes conversion as involving three profound shifts in a person or community. First, there is a shift in how we see people and the world around us. Second, there is a shift in how we speak about the world and others. Because we see the world and others differently, we speak and behave differently than we did before. Finally, Roxburgh says there is a shift in our relationships and community. As a result of seeing and relating to others and the world differently, we form different relationships with others who see and speak of and into the world as we do.[2]   As we look at our biblical Story, we see these shifts in Cornelius, in Peter, but also in the community at large called the Church. Remember, Peter did not go alone to see Cornelius. Our text reminds us that many Jewish, circumcised brothers went with him and were astounded by what they witnessed there. I encourage you to go home later and read Acts 11 because it describes what happened when Peter went back to Jerusalem and told the Jewish Christians there what happened with Cornelius; the Christian Jewish brothers and sisters were literally speechless.[3]

My friends, the Church has forgotten its own conversion Story! It has developed amnesia with regard to this easily overlooked demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power in tearing down walls of segregation. For the last 2,000 years, the Christian Church has appeared hell-bent on creating rules and structures, guidelines and dogmas that define who is authentically Christian and who is not. We Christians tend to demonstrate we have forgotten the whole great commandment to love one another as Christ loved us through our excluding others who are different from us theologically, denominationally, ethnically, politically, socially, or sexually. Distorted evangelicalism of the last 60 years in our country has promoted a Christianity of exclusion more than inclusion. As the song written some 30 years ago says, the church needs to –

Draw the circle wide, draw it wider still.
Let this be our song: no one stands alone.
Standing side by side, draw the circle, draw the circle wide.[4]

UCC Pastor Rochelle Stackhouse writes that love is the most important charism and gift from God to us. It’s an identity marker of a genuine Christian community. She says, “As an identity marker, love defines the attitude, behavior, and norm by which the Christian community takes account of its life.”[5] She goes on to say that our loving God and our neighbor is the practice by which our churches undergo testing to determine whether or not they have remained as isolated communities defined by Law or have they become living, dynamic communities driven by the Spirit centered on Christ in love. As a Presbyterian, I am grateful that as a church, we are a community that is marked by love and inclusion and has dared to draw the circle wider and wider still. Our identity markers are not that we are pro-white or black, straight or gay, rich or poor, American or immigrant – our DNA is we are loving each other!

The love that Jesus talks about in John’s gospel lesson for this morning, what today’s epistle reading in 1 John is all about, is agape love. Agape love is inconvenient, willful, difficult, costly, sacrificial, and demanding. It’s a love that arises from the very heart of God, channeled through the Holy Spirit, and dynamically directed to all those Corneliuses, “those other people,” out in the world.  If it’s not, we cease being the Church.

Beloved, who are the Corneliuses of our world today? Who are the Corneliuses to you in your life? In our country’s history, it used to be Indigenous and African Americans. Then it became the Communists and Socialists. Then it was those people who contracted AIDs. Then it was those who were gay or Trans. And today, in our own country we view with suspicion those who are Republicans and those who are Democrats. Church, Jesus needs the Church to do better than that. The Church is a microcosm of the larger world and culture. If the Church can’t figure this out and get it right, there is not much hope the world or larger culture will.

If Peter can acknowledge the salvific work of Jesus is vital to a gentile Roman Centurion, in effect the enemy of the people, a gentile of all gentiles, and, if Cornelius, a Roman Soldier who pledged fidelity to Lord Caesar but now risks it all and pledges fealty to Lord Jesus, then maybe the Church in America can make room in the pew for people who are different from us. As your pastor, I am grateful that as a congregation, you have! All to the glory of God! Let’s not stop. In the name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801, and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org.

[2] These are from notes taken during my doctoral work at Drew University in the late 1990’s.

[3] Acts 11:17-18.

[4] By Gordon Light, Music by Mark Miller. See https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-draw-the-circle-wide.

[5] Rochelle Stackhouse, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 4: Season after Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ) (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) by David L. Bartlett,  Barbara Brown Taylor

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We Are Children of the Eighth Day, Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17

Posted on April 25, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered April 21, 2024, Earth Care Sunday, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls

His name was Iron Eyes Cody and to this day, some 54 years later, his image is burned into my mind. He is a Native American fully dressed in leathers slowly paddling his birch bark canoe down a serene river of the likes we have around our beautiful home. As we follow him in his canoe, the river grows larger, more industrial, and now his canoe is skimming over trash that others have left. In a scene that looks like the Hudson River down state in the city, he comes to shore and pulls his canoe onto a trash-hewn waterside. His face slowly pans his surroundings, and we see high smokestacks polluting the air, a trashed river, and cars screaming down a road. As Iron Eyes Cody is watching the cars, some guy throws out a bag of trash that hits at his feet and scatters everywhere. The camera pulls into his his face and as he turns, there is a single tear flowing down his face. A voiceover begins to say, “Some people grew up and have a deep and abiding respect for the natural beauty of our land. Others don’t. People start pollution. People can stop it.”[1] Do you remember seeing that ad?

 I recently pulled it up and watched it again after all these years and though the music is overly dramatic, the image has never left me. Even as a 10-year-old I had the sensibilities to realize the tear coming down Iron Eyes Cody’s face was as much a theological statement as it was a public service announcement for the American Ad Council: Our earth, our water, mountains, the oceans, our rivers are all given to us by God. Humankind in all of its brilliance or cleverness cannot even think of creating such a thing as the Adirondack Mountains. Even Thomas Jefferson described Lake George as the Queen of the American Lakes.[2] This beautiful place we are blessed to call home was created by Someone Other than us. As we will hear from scripture, our home is a gift from a very gracious God. Turn in your Bible to Genesis 2. I am reading verses 4-9 and then 15-17. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Genesis 1:4-9, 15-17

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.  In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’ [3]

Genesis chapter one describes the creation of the Cosmos and the systemic order of the universe. Chapter two begins to zero-in on humankind’s place in that order. Old Testament Scholar, Walter Brueggemann, points out that immediately following this majestic creation story in chapter one, our text from chapter two, “Focuses on human persons as the (both) the glory and central problem of creation.”[4] Brueggemann points out that people are inheritors of God’s gracious gift of creation. Our world is not our making; it’s fully God’s. God places humankind in the world to care for the earth and the creatures in it. “The destiny,” Brueggemann says, “of the human creation is to live in God’s world, with God’s other creatures, on God’s terms.”[5] Whereas out culture has read the first two chapters of Genesis through the lenses of evil/fall/sin/death/sex/murder, at its most basic level, this part of the Bible is talking about relationship: God’s relationship with creation, including ourselves, as well as how we live responsibly as community within God’s creation.

 In verses 4-9, three things quickly happen. God forms a creature from the mud that is entirely dependent upon God. God plants a garden as a good comfortable, nourishing place for humankind to live. Finally, God identifies two trees which provide the framework for humankind’s future relationship with God. And then verses 15-17 further set out the parameters for our relationship with God and with creation.

 Verse 15 shows us God gives us something to do – a vocation. We are asked to till and keep the garden God made. The words ‘till’ and ‘keep’ have subtle meanings as so many Hebrew words do. The word for ‘till’ literally means to be in the service of it. Humankind serves the creation. It can also mean to hold it in adoration as we would in worship.  The word ‘keep’ is not to be taken as a possessive. The word actually means to set a watch over and guard. Those two words sum up our vocation as it relates to God’s creation: You and I are to be of service to the earth and environment and we are its sentinels and have been given the responsibility to guard it.

Verse 16 is another expression of God’s grace to us: We are given permission and freedom to fully engage and enjoy the creation in the garden. This granted freedom to us is then followed up with the setting of a boundary in verse 17: There are two trees in the garden. We can eat from one but not the other. The temptation as readers is to begin focusing on the trees such as, “Why did God put two trees there in the first place if we can’t eat from it?” If that is the line of questioning we take, then we are totally missing the point. You see it’s not about the trees; it’s about our obedience in following God’s prohibition and honoring God’s boundary.

God has given us a job to do and that is serve the land and guard it. We have permission to enjoy the creation and what it provides us. We are also given a boundary not to step over.  Brueggemann goes on to say, “The primary human task is to find a way to hold these three facets of divine purpose together,” i.e. vocation, permission, and prohibition. “Any two of them without the third is surely to pervert life. It is telling and ironic that in the popular understanding of the story, little attention is given to the mandate of vocation or the gift of permission. The divine will for vocation and freedom has been lost. The God of the garden is chiefly remembered as the one who prohibits. But the prohibition makes sense only in terms of the other two.”[6]

Yup. That’s a problem, isn’t it? We see and hear in the story what we want to see and hear in a story. For centuries preachers and teachers have focused solely on the “Thou shalt not eat of the tree” and have entirely glossed over our vocation to serve our environment and guard it. We have read the word “to keep the earth” as to have dominion over it which in our mind is use it up and consume it the way we want to. Look how far that misreading and misunderstanding a biblical text has gotten us.

Prior to moving here last September when I lived in the self-acclaimed, “The Venice of America,” I remember the ocean water off the coast of Fort Lauderdale was consistently reaching over 100 degrees. I remember on April 12th last year 26 inches of rain fell in 18 hours flooding the city. On the days I wanted to do anything in the water around there, I remember having to use an app that reported the fecal coliform in the Venice of America’s canals, waterways, and beaches. All this occurs as a result of our not serving the environment and guarding it.

Look at this winter up here. People cannot sell their snowmobiles fast enough because the winters are getting warmer. The Ice Festival in Lake George is more of a water festival. All this occurs as a result of our not serving our environment and guarding it.

The Environmental Protection Agency has tested a third of the US water systems and have discovered that 70 million people are exposed to toxic chemicals in our drinking water. It’s on pace to indicate that 60% of our nation’s water is contaminated with forever chemicals like microplastics and PFAs.”[7] All of this occurs because it is indicative of our not serving our environment and guarding it.

Years ago, playwright and author, Thornton Wilder, wrote a book entitled, The Eighth Day. Aside from being a murder mystery, the story reflects Wilder’s religious conviction in that it references the biblical story of the seven-day creation of the world. The novel begins when one of the characters, a Dr. Niles, declares, “That the world is in the eighth day of creation when man (sic) is left to continue to make progress.”[8]

Let the irony of that comment sink in a moment.

Beloved, we are the children of the eighth day. God has given us a job to do. God wants us to enjoy the world God created but God has set boundaries for us to follow in doing so.  It’s time for us to start daily doing the job we were given as children of the eighth day. Today, in whatever small way each of us can, let’s live as children of the eighth day and serve the land and guard it as our scripture demands us. In the Name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1] See https://youtu.be/h0sxwGlTLWw?si=gXwqh538E6t1gSy1.

[2] See https://visitadirondacks.com/about/adirondack-lakes#:~:text=Lake%20George%20was%20nicknamed%20%22the,home%20to%20nearly%20186%20islands.

[3]New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org.

[4] Walter Brueggemann, Genesis (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 41.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid, 46.

[7] The Guardian, February 20, 2024, “At least 60% of US population may face ‘forever chemicals’ in tap water, tests suggest Federal tests of one-third of water systems find 70 million Americans exposed to PFAS – suggesting 200 million affected overall.” Accessed on April 21, 2024. Please see https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/20/pfas-us-drinking-water-tap.

[8] See article at the T. Wilder Society at https://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-eighth-day/.

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What Story Do Our Scars Tell?, Luke 24:36-48

Posted on April 16, 2024 by patrick h wrisley
Duccio, “Christ Preaches to the Apostles,” ca. 1310 (photo: Public Domain)

Turn in your Bible to Luke 24:36. Now in Luke’s Story, we are joining the action on the first Easter evening. The Story immediately preceding ours this morning is the Story about two forlorn disciples walking home from Jerusalem to their village of Emmaus, some 5 to 7 miles outside of Jerusalem. They had been in the city that day and heard these fantastic tales that some women claim to have seen Jesus alive, and the city was all astir. While they were walking home, a stranger sidles up to them and joins their conversation about all the strange things happening that day in Jerusalem. The stranger begins to open up the scriptures to them so they can understand all that happened to Jesus was already spoken about in the Hebrew scriptures. They reach Emmaus and press the stranger to join them for the evening and as they were eating, the stranger took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and immediately their eyes were opened – it was none other than Jesus! And then the two disciples immediately went straight back to Peter and the others in Jerusalem and told them they had seen the Lord. This is where we pick up in the action. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Luke 24:36-48

36While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate in their presence. 44Then he said to 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.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things.[1]

I really want us to try to put ourselves into the narrative; what might have you felt and experienced if you had been there that night?  Luke paints a loaded picture of the scene. Unlike with the two from Emmaus when he gently revealed himself, Jesus just pops in while they are all gathered in this highly charged, deep discussion and more or less says, “Hi y’all!”  He greets them with the traditional Hebrew greeting shalom aleichem which means, “Peace unto you.”

I wonder what happened then? Did the room go quiet? Could you hear a pin drop?  Luke indicates four movements took place. First, the disciples were literally scared to death. Next, the disciples’ fears turn into a combination of utter joy and “I can’t really believe this is happening.” Third, we are told Jesus opens their minds to understand what is going on in light of the Hebrew Scriptures. And finally, the disciples are given a job to do. As I mentioned, Luke has written a tight, loaded scene.

Those gathered that late night are really no different from you or me. They weren’t expecting Jesus to be alive any more than we would have been, and so Jesus had to prove it was really him. What did Jesus do that got them to start believing? He showed them his scars. He let his scars tell the Story of what happened to him.

Our scars tell a story. What story do your scars tell? I can look over my body and see the scars I’ve been accumulating since I was four years old. The scars on my right palm and wrist are so profound that my hand surgeon who did my carpal tunnel surgery asked me about them. I told him that when I was four or five, I was standing on a stool washing the dishes with my mom. In front of the sink was a large window into the backyard and I watched as a neighbor’s dog began attacking our dog. Before my mom could do a thing, I was tearing out of the kitchen into the yard and that’s when the neighbor’s dog took a bite out of my hand and made quite a mess of it.

There’s this scar on my right forearm caused by a hard scrape on some scaffolding I was erecting during one of my college jobs.

Then, I’ve got this scar just to the side of my right eye from the time I went out with a buddy on Christmas vacation from college one year. It was like two in the morning as I was headed home after having too much to drink and spun my 1962 VW Beetle three times before it rolled over as many more times landing between two large oak trees. The car was totaled. I was so fortunate no one else was around that time of night. I was blessed to only have received bruises and a slice along my right eye.

I also have a twelve-inch scar running down over the top of the left knee from where Dr. Frankenstein did a total knee replacement because of sustained sports injuries from when I was younger.

This little bump on my nose is from the two broken noses I got back when I was fighting full-contact martial arts.

My latest are the two slices on both sides in front of my hips from where I had bilateral hip replacement over the last five years. Here, I’ll show you! Ha!

Each of my visible scars tells a story about certain times in my life. Each one describes an event or moment that I can give a full accounting of as well as the lesson learned from the instance it happened.

My hand reminds me never to try to get in between two dogs in a dog fight to break them up.

The bump on my nose reminds me that when in a fight, you must keep your hands up to protect your head because if you don’t, they give you the stupid nickname, The Nose, around the dojo instead of a cool one like Lightening Hands.

The scar along my eye is a vivid reminder that you just can’t fix stupid, and you should never drink and drive.

The knee scar makes me grateful my children never played high school football.

My hip scars daily remind me that your body does get worn down the older you get, and you better take care of it.

So, tell me about your scars? What story do they tell? What lessons have your scars taught you?

And yet, not all scars are visible ones, are they? Some of us have hidden scars no one can see because they are emotional or internal scars. These are scars from physical, emotional, or sexual trauma that were thrust upon us. These wounds are every bit as real as visible scars and yet they are not visible to others. These are scars suffered silently and in isolation.

Years ago, I took communion to a man in his late 80’s who fought in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. He got caught in a firefight and barely got out of the way of a grenade tossed at him by a young German soldier. Following the explosion, he got his bearings and saw the same soldier shouldering his rifle to finish him off. The man I was visiting shot him first. He told me to go to his dresser and pull out a box for him. He opened it up and carefully unwrapped a piece of dark metal. “This is the shrapnel they pulled out of my leg from that day. Preacher, the person I shot was just a boy! I can’t get the image of his face out of my mind! Will God ever forgive me?” For over fifty years, this man silently carried with him the scars of war he never shared with anyone before, and before he died, he wanted absolution. Who was I to deny that from him?

Pastor/author Josh Scott from Nashville made an astute observation. He said, “Jesus’ scars also tell a story. They paint a vivid picture of a human being committed to a vision of God and God’s kingdom that is just and generous, with an embrace wide enough for anyone and everyone.” Jesus’ scars tell the tale of a man who dared to stand up against the religious, political, and cultural Empire to proclaim all people are precious in God’s sight. His scars tell a story of refusing to be sucked into violence and hatred by taking the hard way of humility and trying to demonstrate life-changing reconciliation through the Cross.  Scott says, “The truth is the scars by which Jesus’ disciples know him encapsulate the very essence of the life he lived that led the disciples to him in the first place.”[2]             

Beloved, the disciples came to recognize Jesus by his scars. It’s when they see and touch the scars their incredulity turns into joyous belief. What do your scars say about you? How have those scarring moments shaped who you are as a man or woman of God? Have the causes of those external or internal scars made you angry, bitter, vindictive? Or have you, like Jesus, redeemed the pain that caused those scars in the first place?

Author Scott Peck’s classic book, The Road Less Travelled, begins with this line: Life is difficult. Life is difficult, isn’t it? As Christians, we realize the antidote to this difficult life is given to us at Easter. God entered into this difficult life, endured its injustices, violence, and hubris, physically suffered, and died – just like you and me. Jesus did not play victim to those injustices, violence, hubris, and suffering, he redeemed them. He chose to reimagine and redefine life and death and provide a path to follow so that we can do the same.

The power of Easter is that it gives us freedom to have born in us a new way of seeing life, no longer as victims but as conquering pioneers. Our Easter faith lets us see and experience our scars afresh, inviting us to make a choice on how we are going to interpret our suffering.  Jesus chose to redefine what it means to live and die and has the scars to prove it. So, each of us gets to choose if our trauma and scars define us or does Easter’s hope and promise redefine our scars. What exactly, is the Story your scars tell? Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801, and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org.

[2] Josh Scott, “April 14. Third Sunday of Easter”, The Christian Century, April 2024, p 25.

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What Does Doubting Thomas Teach Us?, John 20:19-31

Posted on April 9, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on April 7, 2024, the Second Sunday of Easter, Year B

Former foreign secretary of Great Britain, Lord Halifax, once shared a railway compartment with two prim-looking older women. A few moments before reaching his destination the train passed through a tunnel. In the utter darkness, Halifax noisily kissed the back of his hand several times. When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat, and in a gentlemanly way told the women, “May I thank whichever one of you two ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident in the tunnel.”  He exited the train and left the two ladies glaring at each other wondering what had happened.[1]  

Have you ever felt on the outs of something?  It seems like everyone knows what’s going on and is clued in except you. Well, just imagine how Thomas felt being the only one of the Twelve disciples who did not see Jesus on the first Easter.  For some reason, he was not with the others when Jesus came to the Upper Room that first Easter evening. Turn in your Bible to John 20.19. 

Our text this morning picks up right where we left off last week.  Listen for the Word of the Lord!

John 20:19-31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name (NRSV).

Thomas. Poor Thomas.  He’s been ragged on for being the group’s nay-sayer for over 2,000 years.  He’s been given the nickname “Doubting Thomas.”  He’s been held up as the Christian Poster Child for being slow of heart.  This morning, I want us to look at Thomas and gain a deeper appreciation for him and make note that he has something to teach us about our faith.  

Let’s begin with what we know about Thomas. One way to do that is to see how much “airplay” he gets in the scriptures.  He’s mentioned some 11 times, six of which are in John’s gospel.  The first time we meet Thomas is in John 11.16.  Jesus is traveling about, and he is sent word that Lazarus, his dear friend, is terminally ill.  He is talking with his disciples about going to Bethany to heal him and the disciples are arguing with Jesus not to go because they are fearful something might happen to him if he goes back to Jerusalem. During their discussion Jesus…

Told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.  For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.  But let us go to him.”  Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Thomas turns and tells his colleagues, “I’m in!  Let’s go and die so that we might have deep, abiding belief!”  Thomas, it would appear, has the other disciples’ ears. 

The next time we meet Thomas is in John 14.5. This scripture is in the midst of what’s known as John’s farewell discourses extending from chapters 13 through 17. Chapter 14 begins with Jesus talking about the disciples’ beliefs. He says, “Believe in God, believe also in me.” We read in verse three:

And I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you will also be.  And you know the way to the place where I am going.”  Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

It would seem that Thomas is putting to words the question all of us at one time ask, “How can we know the way?”  You know, we teach our kids, “There’s no such thing as a dumb question.”  Well, Thomas adheres to that.  He wants to know.  He wants to poke, probe, handle, turn, and understand everything he can about his faith.  The way to do that is to ask questions. 

The final place we meet Thomas is in John 21.  Seven of the eleven disciples are out fishing.  John lists Peter and then Thomas as second in the Story.  Typically, ancient writers would order names in stories according to the importance that person played in the overall story and community.  In John’s eyes as the author of the gospel, Thomas is seen as vital to the community.  His critical faith has room in the household of Christ-followership and Christianity.

What else do we know about Thomas? We know that his name, “Thomas”, in Aramaic means “Twin.” In Greek, Thomas is Didymus. It’s written like this, “The Twin, also called, The Twin.” The constant reminder of what Thomas’ name means in John’s gospel shouldn’t go unnoticed.  We are reminded over and over again that Thomas is a twin.

It makes me ask what does John want us to see reflected in Thomas?  As I have studied the text, my beloved, I believe he wants us to see ourselves.  Thomas the twin is the reflection, a mirror, of you and me.  We are important to the story.  We are the ones asking the tough questions.  We are the ones who may not always get it but are in the trenches trying to understand.  Thomas, my beloved, is our twin.  He reflects you and Me in three different ways.

First, he shows us that people come to faith in Jesus Christ in different ways.  If you’ll remember, Mary at the tomb believed when she heard Jesus speak her name.  Ten of the disciples believed when they saw the risen Lord.  For Thomas, our Twin, he wants to touch and feel the Risen Christ.  As we see in our story, Jesus honors each of these ways to belief – hearing, seeing, and touching.

People come to know the saving, healing, and restoring Easter power of Jesus in many ways.  For Thomas, it was to be able to touch the wounds. 

For the Apostle Paul, it was a dramatic conversion experience.

For the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts, it was hearing Philip tell the stories of Jesus. 

For Timothy, it was by having his mother and grandmother teach him the faith since his youth. 

For some of you, it may have been while lying on a hospital gurney awaiting a life-saving procedure and you came to see the face of God. 

For some of you, it may have been while you were hunkered down in a foxhole covering your head as enemy fire and tracers were ripping the vegetation up around you. 

For some of you, it may have been while you were at a camp or retreat, and you had time to quietly pray and reflect upon the life of Jesus. 

For some of you, it may have been after years of comparing the Christ-following faith to other faith traditions and realizing that after all those years of searching, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

For others, it may have been while you hammered nails for a Habitat House.

For some of you, it might be you feel the touch of Jesus while you’re gathered in a Bible study.

The point is this:  There is one way to God and that is through Jesus.  How we get to Jesus will be different from one person to the next and that’s okay.

How else does Thomas reflect us? Second, he shows us that it’s okay to ask questions in church.  It was all right with Jesus that Thomas kept asking questions.  We see, though, that Thomas asked those questions in the community of faith.  He and his questions were accepted there.  He was counted as one of the valued disciples even though he always asked the Rabbi the tough questions.  Jesus always left room for the searching disciple to hunt and seek answers in the gathered community.  How else would they learn?  How else might they be changed and empowered by the Spirit of Christ if they weren’t allowed to ask questions?  The Christian faith has withstood the battering of questions for over two millennia.  It beckons people to come and learn.

Third, Thomas reflects us in that he shows us that it’s okay to struggle and wrestle with our faith.   Thomas shows us that doubt and disbelief are not the same thing, and that indeed, a little doubt keeps the edges of our faith sharp as we seek to wrestle God in and through it.  Author Edward Westcott wrote in 1898 a wonderful aphorism. He wrote, “A reasonable amount of o’ fleas is good fer a dog – keeps him broodin’ over bein’ a dog.”[2] Pastor/author/Vermonter the late Frederick Buechner similarly said, “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”[3]

Doubt, my beloved, is not the same as disbelief.  Doubt is not the same as throwing the faith out.  Doubt means wrestling.  Doubt means engagement.  For all of you who have come to me and have said, “Preacher, my life is hard right now.  I have doubts,” I want you to hear that it’s okay!  God invites you to wrestle with the faith – you’re in good company!

Abraham and Sarah wrestled with doubt.

Moses amid the Exodus doubted his mission.  

Judge Gideon kept asking God for sign after sign to make sure God would be with him and the Hebrews in Battle.

King David throughout the psalms raised his hand to God and cried, “Where are you, God?  Have you forgotten your promises to me?”

Mary, Jesus’ very own mother, is to have stood outside where he was teaching and claimed that her son was out of his mind and crazy.  

My friends, Jesus invites you to enter the ring and wrestle with God.  You will be in great company!  God would rather you be in the ring wrestling with your doubts than walking away from the community of believers where the Spirit of God dwells.   Remember, our faith doesn’t grow unless it’s stretched and pulled. Over lunch, talk with those you’re with about those times you have doubted and how it has shaped your faith today. Let us pray…

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, New York, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission.  All rights reserved.

[1] Bits & Pieces, May 27, 1993, p. 22.

[2] Edward Noyes Westcott, David Harum: A Story of an American Life, (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1898), 284, as taken from Len Sweet, Homiletics, “Fleas of Faith”, April 18, 1993.

[3] From Brian D. McLaren’s, Faith After Doubt. Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021), 13.

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