First Reading: Acts 17:22-31

²²Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,
 ‘For we too are his offspring.’
²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Psalm: Psalm 66:8-20

 ⁸Bless our God, you peoples;
  let the sound of praise be heard.
 ⁹Our God has kept us among the living
  and has not allowed our feet to slip.
 ¹⁰For you, O God, have tested us;
  you have tried us just as silver is tried.
 ¹¹You brought us into the net;
  you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
 ¹²You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water,
  but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
 ¹³I will enter your house with burnt offerings
  and will pay you my vows—
 ¹⁴those that I promised with my lips
  and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
 ¹⁵I will offer you burnt offerings of fatlings with the smoke of rams;
  I will give you oxen and goats.
 ¹⁶Come and listen, all you who believe,
  and I will tell you what God has done for me.
 ¹⁷I called out to God with my mouth,
  and praised the Lord with my tongue.
 ¹⁸If I had cherished evil in my heart,
  the Lord would not have heard me;
 ¹⁹but in truth God has heard me
  and has attended to the sound of my prayer.
 ²⁰Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer,
  nor withheld unfailing love from me.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:13-22

¹³Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, ¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; ¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. ¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Gospel: John 14:15-21

 [Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹⁵“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
 ¹⁸“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. ¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

CHILDREN’’S SERMON

         Today, to wet our thinking for the text, let us think of words that start with “A” that we might use to describe God.  Please share for a moment.

Let us pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

         During our Easter Season we have traveled from the hallelujahs off Easter Sunday and shouts of “The Lord is Risen” to the testimonies of people who saw the risen Christ as they sheltered behind locked doors that evening – scared.  We looked at testimonies from others who encountered Christ through the Word he opened to them after they left Jerusalem walking home to Emmaus, just overwhelmed by all the events that took place that day.  We reflected on being his sheep and recognizing his voice as he calls.  We were challenged last week not to just listen but to believe the voice of the risen Christ because he is God, is preparing a place for us, and because he has a perfect track record of doing good and going before us to show us the way, the truth, and the life.  Today we come to another imperative.  We not only listen and believe but we must also act on our beliefs.  Faith is not just a brain rush and a hope but it is a way to live.  Let us look at the text.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

         The foundation of our relationship with God is love, not fear of punishment.  He deals with us not as an authority keeping track of our good and bad moments but as a parent with a beloved child.  We love our kids when they have poopy diapers even if we hold our nose.  We care about our friends even when they are angry with us.  We pray for friends when they are not with us and are struggling.  We rejoice whenever we get a love note and “keep the faith” when they are silent.  Keeping God’s commandments is based on love and trust that this unseen deity loves us too.

         The word “commandments” carries the connotation of law.  In fact we call the 10 Commandments, The Law.  We often think of them as holding up a mirror of perfection that drives us to acknowledge our need for God and that drives us to our knees crying for mercy.  Today “The Man” is often portrayed, as an authority figure to be despised who has no empathy for the plight of a person’s situation. It is easy to think of God as “the man.”   We just didn’t see that stop sign.  We are planning to fix the broken light.  Circumstances and the other guy drove us to do what we did.  Please understand and have mercy!

         I am guilty of thinking of God as an ultimate authority.  My husband has encouraged me through the years to think in terms of guidelines and not rigid laws.  The 10 Commandments are like the operation manual telling us how life works best.  If we don’t kill by murder or hate, if we don’t spread lies or covet and if we honor God then life will flow much better.  There will still be trials and problems but we will weather them better by turning to God and following his guidance.  God’s guidelines are based on his love for us!

A#1:  Advocate

¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate”

         Advocacy is a big word in our culture today.  We march.  We speak truth to power.  We write letters and sign petitions.  We want to believe our voice is heard.  Others advocate through their actions.  Bethany has a garden and provides a daycare for young children.  Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to be not only with us but also in us.  He is not off marching in Washington for fairer laws.  The Holy Spirit lives in us, revealing truth to us to live our lives.  But the Spirit is also an honest mirror that reflects through our conscience the truth about ourselves and where we need to change so we can be our better selves.  The Holy Spirit interprets our prayers when we are so lost in a dilemma that we do not even know how to pray.  That is advocacy with empathy!  That is a love relationship and not just a popular cause that is being promoted.  God cares and advocates for us.

A#2:  Abandonment–Adoption

¹⁸“I will not leave you orphaned”

         One of the big words in our family is “adoption.”  My husband was a war baby and adopted at two months.  That defined his life as his new parents carried him to Kenya, East Africa.  The abandonment of his birth mother and the adoption by his parents defined him!  We adopted two abandoned Kenyan orphans and that defined their lives.  It threw them into the confusion of a bicultural and biracial family and resulted in identity crises that many do not face.  Jesus promises that he will never abandon his followers, his children.  He did not promise us happy-ever-after.  He has adopted us and we are his and that defines our future.

         I would suspect that one of the hardest aspects of trials and problems is the sense of aloneness and the voice that says no one cares.  That is the voice of the evil one who is “the father of lies.”  Community, the body of Christ, is so important to all of us at all points in our life story.  We pledge prayer and support to that baby being baptized.  We witness vows of faith at confirmation.  We rejoice at weddings, graduations, and grieve together at funerals.  At those horrible moments like divorce or job loss or moving, we throw arms around each other and remind ourselves that we are not abandoned by God who walks with us into the unknown future.

         I must ask us to pause for a brief moment and ponder if there is someone we know who is going through a transition that needs our support?  Or, perhaps we have been reluctant to ask for the support we need for the trauma we are facing.  If you are like me, a hug goes a long way to relieve those hard times and remind me of God’s presence even as the sunrise and sunset do.

A#3:  Adore

”I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

         I deliberately am choosing to use the word “adore” that starts with A.  The word “love” has been cheapened by movies, by false promises of people who have betrayed us, and leaves a bit of a flat taste in my mouth.  It is so easy to respond, yeah, God loves me as long as I obey, keep his commandments, but what about the days when I go to bed giving myself a big F for mouth in motion, forgetful memory of an important occasion or or or.  My mind wonders how God can love me when I am such a failure.  That, my friend, is worldly wisdom.  We are in the Easter season and the cross is certainly a symbol of a world religion that rejected the messiah they were anticipating, of demanding crucifixion of the man who had healed and fed them, and the horrible humiliation of exposure to the crowds.  To the world, Jesus got an F.  In God’s wisdom that we do not understand, Jesus got an A at that moment that he showed his love, his adoration for his creation.  He did not abandon and did more than adopt, he adored us enough to walk through death and open access to God.  We say he died for our sins, that’s advocacy.  Easter continues the truth with resurrection that speaks to our adoption and continued connection with him – not abandonment.  Christianity speaks of a God who adores us even when we are not our better selves.

         Jesus says that not only does he love us but he will also “reveal” himself to us.  I’m going to call that A#4: Available.  We do not have to be afraid that God is on a conference call with the angels in the Middle East or Ukraine/Russia, getting the latest news.  Jesus says that in his love, he will reveal himself and be transparent.

         I love those sappy DVDs about the mail order brides who travel from the East Coast to the lonely widower who needs someone to help with his children and “make a difference.”  The two people gradually reveal themselves to each other and need turns into love and committed relationship.  Part of that growing story is the willingness to open their hearts about their past pains and the willingness to be available to the future pains relationship involves.  Jesus promises that God will reveal his reality to us and I think that means with all honesty.  He lets us know what upsets him and what pleases him about the situations we get ourselves involved in.  His love is not just a contract of commitment but also a relationship of availability.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

         So where does that leave us today?  It is Easter season and we know the Lord is raised.  People saw him.  He fulfilled the prophecy of Scripture.  He is a Good Shepherd calling to us to follow him.  He knows us by name and we can learn to recognize his voice.  We can believe and trust him.  We can walk the talk.  God loves us and gives us commandments to show us how to have a good life.  He is our Advocate, not Abandoning us but Adopting us, and he Adores us and is always Available.  That’s a pretty good report card of A’s!!  He walks with us through the tests that confront us this week.  WOW!

Let the people of God say, “AMEN!”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 First Reading: Acts 7:55-60

⁵⁵Filled with the Holy Spirit, [Stephen] gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ⁵⁷But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. ⁵⁸Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

Psalm: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

 ¹In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame;
  deliver me in your righteousness.
 ²Incline your ear to me;
  make haste to deliver me.
 ³Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are my crag and    my stronghold; for the sake of your name, lead me and guide me.
 ⁴Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me,
  for you are my tower of strength.
 ⁵Into your hands I commend my spirit,
  for you have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
 ¹⁵My times are in your hand;
  rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
 ¹⁶Let your face shine upon your servant;
  save me in your steadfast love.”

Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:2-10

²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
 ⁴Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture:
 “See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
  a cornerstone chosen and precious;
 and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
 “The stone that the builders rejected
  has become the very head of the corner,”
⁸and
 “A stone that makes them stumble,
  and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
 ⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
 ¹⁰Once you were not a people,
  but now you are God’s people;
 once you had not received mercy,
  but now you have received mercy.

Gospel: John 14:1-14

 [Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. ²In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴And you know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
 ⁸Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. ¹²Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

To help us dig into our text today, let us first do a minute of groupthink.  How do our ministry of Bethany Gardens speak to the world and us about our faith?  What do we believe as we start our growing season?

Let us pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.  Amen.

SERMON

         Today is the fifth Sunday in the Easter Season.  The glow of Easter Sunday has faded and we are squarely back into the reality of life with all its challenges.  We know these moments.  The wedding and all its celebration is over and we have to face the reality of a real 24-7 relationship.  The retirement celebrations are over and we now have to build a meaningful future without that daily structure work provides.  Perhaps the funeral is over, friends have left and we have to go forward.  Six weeks into college courses, we face midterms, tests, or papers and the thrill of independence from home is fading.  After the mountaintop experiences, we inevitably return to normal life with its challenges.  Easter has not given way to Pentecost yet.  We are still grappling with, “The Lord is Risen,” the chant of Easter, and how we know that is true.

         We have read and pondered the testimonies of others who saw Jesus on Easter, the women at the tomb, the followers that evening, the two on the road to Emmaus.  We pondered the promises of the Good Shepherd and the analogy of Jesus as “the gate,” “the voice” that calls us forth into our present life and future.  We are his sheep but often like sheep we are a bit dense.  We listen for God’s voice in our life but God seems to be busy in Ukraine or the Middle East.  Surely Jesus knew the faith challenges we would face in believing he is risen and so we turn to his last words of advice that he gave his disciples as they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Surely there is more to Easter reality than listening to the testimonies of others or following a shepherd we cannot see anymore and whose voice speaks in so many different ways.  Let us ponder some of Jesus’ last words and how they might help us on this journey.

“Believe in God, believe also in me.”

         Our text begins as Jesus and the disciples leave the upper room from the last supper and start heading to Gethsemane.  Jesus opens with the word “believe.”  Last week we were encouraged to “listen” to the voice of the Good Shepherd.  Between listening and receiving knowledge comes the step of believing.  When I was at Bethany, I listened to the lectures about warm weather plants and cold weather plants but I am not a farmer nor was I from the Midwest when I was with you.  I could have argued that I wanted to grow strawberries for my cereal but I had to trust the leader about the proper time to plant them.  I want to be a happy and productive Christian but I must believe the words I hear from Jesus.  He tells me to forgive those who hurt my feelings but that does not happen automatically.  Tithing in an economy that challenges all of us is hard.  Attending church when I’m tired makes no sense.  I must believe God’s word and take it from head and make it action.  I must weave my beliefs into real life.

         Jesus goes one step further, though.  We do not believe just because some guru gave wise words back centuries ago.  Jesus says we are to believe because he and God are one.  Jesus pulls out his credentials, pulls rank on all other authorities and says we can believe when we can’t see him that he personally was God incarnate.  Phillip is not so convinced and asks to see the Father.  It might be like me, an ignorant farmer-wantabee questioning the instructions from Bruce about the gardening and demanding to hear from the pastor.  Ooops, no pastor yet and the one who comes might come from the Minneapolis seminary and not be a farmer.  We must believe, trust, the words of the leaders of the program even if it is not apparent how the seed will grow or when or where.

         We do not follow Jesus because he’s smart, or wise, or gives me all my wishes, or heals all my wounds, or makes me wealthy.  We follow because we believe He is God.  That does not seem to be a point of debate…but we do debate his authority in our lives, don’t we.  People often live life as if elections are coming and Jesus’ leadership, his shepherding of our lives is up for election if things don’t work out as we think or if he takes too long to answer.  We are prone to look at other authorities or denominations and consider our alternatives.

         Let us take a moment and take our faith temperature.  Is there a pre-nuptial agreement and escape clauses that we need to acknowledge and eliminate?  Jesus calls us to follow him when we cannot see and do not understand because he is God of the universe and he knows the way through the wilderness of this life.  He is alive, he is raised, and he is going before us.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

“…a place for you…”

         Jesus not only grounds us in faith that he is God but he also promises us a place.  The Bible opens in the Garden of Eden and closes in the New Jerusalem.  Jesus assures the disciples that he is going to prepare a place that he will take them and us to.  For the gardeners in the congregation, it sounds like the offer of gardening space, prepared and ready to be used.  Jesus is not offering a theory about heaven, practice lessons to be a good heaven resident but he is preparing an actual place.  Bethany Gardens is a model garden, a course, but it is also a real place that produces real food for the gardeners and the needy. 

         Like Thomas or perhaps like people new to our program, we might ask, where is this garden?  Where is my spot?  Bruce says, “Follow me, I’ll take you to your spot.”  Jesus is preparing a tangible place that he will return to take us to.  And like Aslan in Chronicles of Narnia, Jesus will be there with us.  Jesus is the way, tells the truth, and is the life.

“…believe me because of the works themselves…”

         For those of us who aren’t quite sure what Jesus being God means, and are not interested in being heavenly gardeners but would prefer to join the heavenly choir, Jesus points us to his track record.  Bethany Gardens has an outstanding track record.  Produce has increased yearly.  More food is donated to the hungry each year.  And Bethany Gardens has won several awards, recognized by Purdue University.  Let us consider Jesus’ track record.  He healed the blind and did not make people blind.  He fed the hungry.  He walked on water.  He knows the pain we experience only his pain was crucifixion, humiliation and rejection.  He knows not only as God but also as true man the situations we face, the discouragements we wrestle with and our doubts.  I might question whether our politicians truly understand the plight of ordinary people in the trenches but as I read the gospels and the stories recorded, I know that Jesus walked the talk.  People at Bethany Gardens have proven their expertise and we can trust them.

And so what?

¹²Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

         I suspect that if I were a fly on the wall, I would hear that a goal for Bethany Gardens this year is to surpass the food production of last year.  Each year the program has grown.  Bethany Gardens is a garden and does produce food, and does teach and help people but it is also a ministry to bless others.  Jesus incarnated as man claiming to be God, laid the foundations for those who would follow, and demonstrated the truth of his claims.  He could say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus concludes, though, by prophesying that his followers will change the world.  They will bless the nations as promised to Abraham.  From that small group of followers that huddled behind locked doors on Easter evening, who walked away from the chaos of Jerusalem questioning what they had seen, and from people living in a culture where they knew they could face crucifixion and persecution, came a spread of what came to be known as Christianity.  How was that possible?  Jesus, true man and true God returned to heaven and represents us and answers our prayers.  He is risen, alive and active.

         Let us be clear.  We do not make the seeds we plant.  We do not make the rainfall that waters those plants.  We receive the energy and the wisdom to tend those plants.  The credit does not go to our wonderful leaders as wonderful as they may be nor does the credit go to the followers of Jesus.  The credit and glory goes to God.  Prayers are not always answered the way we want.  There are droughts or horrible storms or plagues we did not anticipate but that does not mean God is not present.  Jesus promises that he will be actively involved in answering all prayers to him.  He is not just a listener.  He is active even when we don’t understand.  We are invited to ask, to dream, and to have wonderful goals that will bring glory to God.

         In this passage, our text calls us to the reality that “The Lord is risen,” not only because of testimonies, not only because the teachings are proven in reality but also because we can believe Jesus is God so he speaks the truth, shows us the way, and is our life for eternity.  We believe!

The Lord is risen!

Let the people of God say, “AMEN!                 “