Acts 1:1-11 Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven​
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In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

     This is one of those great little readings that remind us that the Gospel of Luke and Acts are a product of inspired human creation. That is easier to remember in the letters that Paul wrote to churches. We call them Epistles (which means letters). Paul wrote his letters to churches to address issues and ask for support in ministry. There’s a purpose. Luke and its sequel Acts are written for a purpose, too. We know that because the opening part of both books says they do! In Luke, it says, “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”

     And, as we heard today from our reader, Acts is also written to Theophilus: “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles who he had chosen.” Then, like any helpful storyteller, the author gives a summary of what happened in Luke. It’s like when a tv show begins with a little recap of the episode before. Sometimes, if the story is long enough or happened a while ago, it’s good to have a reminder of what happened.

     Remember, Acts is the second half of a series intended to help teach someone who wants to follow Jesus. Marion Soards, in notes on Luke, and Christopher Matthew, in notes on Acts, both point out that Theophilus may be an actual person who is a member of a church or a name that is just supposed to be a stand-in for anyone seeking to know more about God. You see, the name Theophilus means “beloved of God.” It could be a person’s name! Or, it could be that this message is written to you and me. The message- you don’t know when you’ll see Jesus again, but you will be empowered to testify to his work in this world- is certainly one useful to an ancient ancestor in the faith as well as anyone in the pews right now.

     Today is the last Sunday of the Easter season and a special Sunday where we commemorate the part of Jesus’ story called the Ascension. That story is told in Luke 24: 51 and summarized here at the beginning of Acts. The Summary says that after Jesus told them that he would empower them, “he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” When I read that, I thought of Eeyore the donkey floating into the sky with a balloon on his tail or when the Care Bears drove through the sky in their cars made of clouds, though the author of Acts didn’t know anything about Eeyore or Care Bears. Instead, the scholar Gilberto Ruiz thinks the Ascension is probably supposed to remind us of stories from the older parts of the Bible where prophets would appoint someone to follow them in their work. In 2 Kings 2: 9-15, Elijah ascends into heaven, similarly, giving his mantle (a piece of clothing) to Elisha and also giving him his spirit. Another example is when Moses decides to appoint Joshua as the next prophet leader in Deuteronomy 34:9, Moses lays hands on Joshua and Joshua becomes “full of the spirit of wisdom."  Too bad Moses didn’t get to float in the sky like Jesus and Elijah did. The Care Bears make it look pretty fun.

     Cheryl Lindsay, in a commentary on the longer Ascension story in Luke, invites us to remember that transition is a vital part of following God. The transition from Jesus’ presence in bodily form to Jesus’ presence in Spirit opens up the opportunity for the next era of the kindom of God. She says, “Just as each era before their life eventually concluded as Moses (Law) gave way to the Psalmists’ composition (Wisdom) which led to the ministry of the Prophets, the Incarnation birthed the empowered ministry of the Church.” These transitions, releasing some from work and commissioning others to take it up, connect us to the ones who came before us and help us look forwards to the ones who will follow. Dr. Lindsay says that “The church testifies to the already-not yet reality of the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven.” The Spirit is moving right now. We are in the midst of the foundations for the reign of God. But, God’s hopes for the world are not fully realized yet. We are invited to be a part of that. That is why Jesus empowered his followers. To be a part of the not yet but will of God being done all around us.

     Two figures showed up after the Ascension, just as they had at the tomb when the women arrived to find that Jesus wasn’t there. Just as those two helped the women understand what his going on, these two help the disciples figure out what’s going on. “Galileans, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” In her commentary on this text, Mitzi Smith points out that the two figures in white seem to not want the disciples to just stand there and stare at the sky. They point the disciples back to earth, the world around them. This is where they will live out their faith. Dr. Smith says, “We are born here and given a vocation here on earth and that calling is not to be always gazing into heaven, indifferent to the injustices and needs of our neighbors, but to be busy sharing and being good news to humanity.” Jesus never asked us to sit around and wait for his return. He did ask us to continue his work of healing, compassion, and justice.

     You might have noticed one important difference from the Moses and Joshua and Elijah and Elisha stories and the Jesus and the disciples stories. Ruiz points out in his commentary, that the earlier prophets are empowering one person who will continue their work. Jesus empowers many. Ruiz offers an important question for us today: if we as a whole group of people are invited into servant leadership by Christ, how do we make sure that all parts of the Body of Christ are offered the opportunity and responsibility of leading right now? How to we train ourselves to pay attention for the ways that the Spirit is present in each other in ways that may look different from person to person and group to group? We don’t have one Joshua or one Elisha. We have all of us. May we look to the world all around us to see where this Spirit is calling us. May we recognize the Spirit working in each other. And, may we, beloveds of God, take seriously the empowerment we have been given. Now is not the time to stare into the sky waiting for something. It is time to walk forward into the “already-not yet” with the Spirit as our Guide.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Marion Lloyd Soards’ notes on Luke in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Christopher R. Matthews’ notes on Acts in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Gilberto Ruiz: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ascension-of-our-lord/commentary-on-acts-11-11

Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-opened-minds/
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Mitzi Smith: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ascension-of-our-lord/commentary-on-acts-11-11-3

​Acts 16:9-15 Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi (New International Version)

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 

After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

     I want to know more about these women, the women gathered at the place of prayer down by the river. It appears that they weren’t just hanging out on the beach when Paul encountered them. In his notes on the text, Christopher Matthews points out in the broader Jewish Diaspora in Ancient Rome, it seems like many Jewish synagogues would have been built near water. What has probably happened is that Paul, upon receiving this vision to go to Macedonia, headed to the Jewish community in the first good-sized city where he and his compatriot Silas traveled. Matthews notes that Phillipi was an important city in Macedonia. It was a city largely populated with former Roman soldiers who had been discharged from the army and received grants of land to settle there.

     It was the Sabbath, so, of course, the Jewish faithful have gathered. The men aren’t mentioned at all, did you notice that? This is a gathering of women, both Jewish women and Gentile “worshippers of God.” “Worshipper of God” isn’t simply a description of a religious person. It is, according to Matthews, a specific term for people who were not yet Jewish but seriously considered converting. They usually were learning a lot about Judaism and regularly worshiping in Jewish community. Mitzi Smith points out that there are two other “worshipers of God” with prominent stories in Acts- the unnamed Ethiopian eunuch in chapter 8 and the centurion Cornelius in chapter 10.

     The Eunuch, though faithful, was never going to fully be able to convert given the prohibitions on having people with his particular gender identity be active in their community. Philip, though, was moved by his faith, and welcomed him to follow Jesus. The eunuch asked to be baptized and Phillip said yes, making him the first Gentile follower of Jesus in Acts. Cornelius, too, was welcomed to the Body of Christ, this time by Peter. Remember, Peter had a vision showing that you didn’t have to be Jewish to follow Jesus. He had this vision while interacting with Cornelius. The book of Acts is mostly about Jesus’ earliest followers figuring out how to be the church without having him physically with them. They rely on the Spirit for so much. And, the Spirit keeps showing them that the divisions they thought were vital for maintaining safety and a sense of shared identity were, in fact, not the most important parts of building the body of Christ. Philip learned from the eunuch. Peter from Cornelius. And, now, Paul from the women and Lydia.

     I want to know more about the women in the crowd, but we are mostly told just about one of them: Lydia. She is, as I said, a Gentile and is from the city of Thyatira, in what is now Western Turkey. Matthews notes that Thyatira was known for its dye industry. Lydia worked in that industry, specifically as a dealer of purple cloth. Gail O’Day points out in her commentary on Acts that purple cloth is a luxury item in this era. Creating the dye involved processing fluid from a particular kind of sea snail. I read that it took 12,000 snails to create 1 gram of dye. I’m not sure if it’s accurate, but the same article said that one pound of that dye would cost something like $66,000 in today’s money. Lydia was likely quite wealthy herself.

     Women in much of the Bible are not described as owning their own business or as owning their own homes. In her commentary on this text, Choi Hee An points out that Lydia is described as doing both, with no mention of other significant adult men (like spouses or fathers or grown sons). She is the head of the household and has the power to direct the spiritual life of her household. When she is moved by Paul, she asks to have herself and her whole household baptized. And, he does it. Whatever resistance he had to baptizing Gentiles is gone, thanks to the Holy Spirit and the very obvious faith of Lydia.

     Whatever spiritual seeking she had been doing, she has found something meaningful in the Gospel as shared by Paul and Silas. Her new insight into the nature of God leads her to discern a call to use her resources to support the ministry that is meaningful to her. This is the hope of all ministers: that people will hear the Word and be moved to act on it. She has many resources to share and chooses to share them. She says to Paul, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my house.” This hospitality, which was foundational to the Jewish practice she had been learning, was also central to Christian faith. You can’t have Christianity without welcome. Lydia learned that lesson fast.

     Paul will meet more people in Phillipi, including another woman, well, a girl really, whom he will help. But, not everyone will see the work he and Silas do as a gift. Very shortly after today’s reading, they encounter some other wealthy people. They are not moved by Paul and Silas’ work, and, in fact, are threatened by it. They use their power to target Paul and Silas for violence at the hands of the government. Wealthy people who worry about protecting their money can be dangerous, even for a citizen of Rome like Paul. Silas had even fewer protections. With God’s help, they would get out of the city alive. But, only just barely.

     When we hear a good word from strangers, may we be like Lydia and embrace it. When the Spirit invites us to reconsider who we believe is worth saving, may we be like Paul and go where the vision points us. Like Silas, may we be solid partners, even when the journey is hard. And, like the women who gather at the river, may we come together in hopes of catching sight of the Divine. In this Easter season, may the Spirit gather us up, and send us out. May we be confident that those who need to hear what we say will hear it.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:

Jennifer T. Kaalund: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sixth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-169-15-4

Mitzi Smith: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sixth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-169-15-3

Christopher R. Matthews' notes on Acts in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Gail R. O'Day, "Acts," The Women's Bible Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998)
Choi Hee An, "Sixth Sunday of Easter," Preaching God's transforming justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, eds Dale P.  Andrews, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, and Ronald J. Allen (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2012)
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More info about purple dye: https://historyfacts.com/world-history/fact/purple-became-the-color-of-royalty-because-the-dye-was-so-expensive/
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Acts 11:1-18 Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem
(New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
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Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”  Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me. So I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.  I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’  But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’  But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’  This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were.  The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’  ​And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

     It is probably not fair, but every time I read this scripture I think of one scene in the movie Mean Girls. The movie is about a girl named Cady to moves to a new high school. She’s been living abroad and feels out of place because she doesn’t understand the culture of her high school. While at first she makes friends with some pretty regular artistic kids, she eventually falls into a group of popular but mean girls whose friend group is called “The Plastics.” The Plastics have developed a rule of behavior that guides whether or not they deem someone worthy to spend time with them. For example, they only wear their hair in ponytails once a week, and they only wear jeans and track pants on Fridays.

     Cady ends up getting in some shenanigans that involve pitting the Plastics against one another and some of this comes to a head on a Monday when the most powerful Plastic, Regina George, dares to sit down at lunch while wearing sweatpants. Gretchen and Karen, the less powerful Plastics, who have had Regina use the rules to keep them in line, turnaround and demand that Regina follow them like they have had to. “You’re wearing sweatpants. It’s Monday,” Gretchen says. Karen continues, “So that’s against the rules and you can’t sit with us.” Regina, not used to having the rules she largely made up used against her, argues that they are just made up, but Karen, who has been made to leave the table for breaking them does not buy it. Neither does Gretchen, who screams over the din of the cafeteria, “You can’t sit with us!” That’s the thing about rules. They can be used for good things. Or, they can be used for bad things. The people who make rules up for bad things almost never think those rules will be turned back on them.

     I want to be clear: the religious rules that are being discussed in today’s reading are pretty different than rules that the Plastics made up. The Plastics made up rules to give Regina power in their social hierarchy. Jewish religious laws were ethical principles that bound a community together, demonstrating their commitment to God and helping to provide social cohesion for ethnic group that was often trying to remain intact in the face of attacks from more powerful empires. Sometimes rules help you figure out how to be one people together. If someone breaks those kinds of rules, it can feel like a threat to a whole group of people.

     My friend and colleague Rev. Dr. Tijuana Gray, when writing about today’s scripture, points out that “The believers at the church in Jerusalem want to do the right thing. They want to follow Jesus. They also want to honor their traditions, namely the distinction between the circumcised and the uncircumcised.” This is one of the rules Jesus and his first apostles all followed. They were Jewish and he was Jewish, and they all had gone through the ritual of circumcision. Even when more people than just the first twelve began to follow Jesus, they were still generally Jewish. At this time, there isn’t yet a distinct religion called Christianity. When most people who follow Jesus are Jewish and following Jewish laws, it begs the question: must someone follow Jewish religious rules to follow Jesus? This starts with a question about spending time with uncircumcised men. But, it leads to questions about other religious rules.

     As Dr. Gray notes, “the message of Jesus was spreading beyond the Jewish community. To strangers. To outsiders. People who did not follow or even know the Jewish customs. That could be a little unsettling. A little scary.” It makes sense that those who had followed Jesus longer and who also followed Jewish religious law, would ask Peter, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” You don’t spend time eating with people who don’t share your allegiance to your religious laws! Or, if you do, you have to have a good reason. Dr. Gray wonders and I’m inclined to agree that even though the text says they “criticized” Peter, is it possible that there was also some curiosity there along with a little nervousness. Peter was, after all, the chosen one, the rock that the church would be built on. Gray points out that “he wasn’t leading the way that they thought he should.” So, what was he trying to do? And should that change what they were trying to do to follow Jesus.

     Jesus often opted to share a story rather than give a direct answer. Peter seems to follow in his footsteps here. He describes a vision he had when he was in Joppa, the home of Dorcas:
“I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. - all things that were forbidden to eat under the law, and yet - I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’” Remember, as I said, Jewish religious law covered (and continues to cover) many aspects of life, including ethical eating. Some foods are simply off limits. The rules have been ingrained in him, and there is no way Peter would dare to eat these things. “’By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’” Peter knows what he is supposed to do and what he shouldn’t. And, he knows he shouldn’t eat those animals. God is gracious. God answers from heaven, “‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’” This interaction is repeated three times:

     Eat that.
     No, it’s not allowed.
     That food is ok to eat.

     Dr. Gray says, “Sometimes we need the message repeated before we learn the lesson. And then we may need to live it out, to feel the truth of it, before we really get it. Some of those lessons, we have to learn over and over.” Even if we’re Peter, the one Christ called the Rock. In this case, the lesson he needed to learn was that purpose of religious laws was to foster connection and to build a life around honoring God. In the course of this vision, he learned that he could do both of those things in a new way.

     From what I understand from historians, it can be challenging to figure out when “following Jesus” became something distinct from being Jewish. I think you can make a solid argument that the moment that Peter received a revelation from God concerning food traditions is the moment that Christianity begins to branch away from Judaism. Paul would also be led to understand that it was not necessary to be Jewish to follow Jesus, and that Jewish and Gentile believers could be one body of Christ in fellowship with one another.

     What does that mean for us modern inheritors of their traditions? I hope that we can look at Peter’s example and see someone who is willing to have his ideas about who is able to be included in Christian community changed by the calling of the Spirit. As Mitzi Smith notes in her commentary on this text, the interaction between the faithful in Jerusalem and Peter is a response to the conversion of Gentile believers, particularly Cornelus, a centurion. Peter could have chosen not to baptize him because he wasn’t adhering to the same religious laws. But, God helped him see that Cornelius and the other Gentiles had a heart for Jesus’ message and were willing to be moved by it to live differently. Peter realized that the Spirit can surprise and invite us to build relationships that we once thought were impossible.

     The Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber shares a story, I believe in her book Pastrix, about a change that started happening in the gritty little artsy Lutheran church she helped found in Colorado. It started with a bunch of folks who had often found themselves on the outside of mainstream Christianity- they were LGBTQ folks who had been forced out of other churches, people in recovery from addiction, artists, impoverished folks, and people with more than a few tattoos. Once their broad welcome and generous church spirit became known, some other people started showing up... respectable people. People with regular jobs and very few tattoos or body piercings. She calls them “normies.” The church actually ended up having to do some real soul-searching when people who they didn’t expect to show up did and wanted to be a part of what they were doing!

     Perhaps this a lesson for us today that the church must continually be open to the Spirit reminding the church that the definitions of “us vs them” that we are clinging to can always be upset by one vision that comes at just the right time. The boundaries that can be of use in one time and place may prevent us from developing faithful relations in another. May we never be so certain that we know which “them” to exclude from “us” that we miss out on the relationship Christ is calling us to. May we never find ourselves yelling “You can’t sit with us,” when we could be saying “God gave them the same gift that he gave us.”

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Rev. Dr. Tijuana Gray shared a sermon with me that she wrote on this scripture. It was very helpful!
What are the Mean Girls Rules?

• A clip where Gretchen describes the rules: https://youtu.be/akbCmxb_w8s?si=KGgzR4MOdA4bBtsu

• an article about Mean Girls: https://screenrant.com/mean-girls-plastics-rules/

Mitzi Smith: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-111-18
Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint (Jericho Books, 2014)

Scripture: Acts 9:36-43
 
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 

About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 
Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room.

All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.

Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” 

She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.  He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet.
Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 

This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.  Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

     Mathetria... that is the feminine form of the Greek word for “disciple.” Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, was a disciple in a place called Joppa. We know she’s a disciple because, well, for one, it’s stated explicitly in the text, but also she does disciple stuff, namely doing good and helping the poor. In commentary on the book of Acts, Gail O’Day points out that while we know that women were among the people who became disciples of Christ after the first twelve, only Tabitha is singled out and referred to with the specific feminine translation of the word.

     Mitzi Smith, in a commentary she has on Tabitha, points out that we don’t know a lot of specifics about her life, like how she came to have the money she uses to help people or if she is from the area or moved there to do ministry or what her family looks like. We do know that she is special, and that she is loved. In fact, she is so beloved in the Christian community in Joppa that when she dies, her disciple friends send two men to find Peter the apostle in the next town over. Peter had just healed a man named Aeneas. Maybe they hoped he could do something for Tabitha. Maybe they just wanted him to know that a beloved disciple had died.

     Resurrections are not everyday occurrences, even the Gospels. Jennifer T. Kaalund notes in her commentary on this text, in the Gospel of Luke and its sequel Acts, there are three resurrections before this story and one of them is Jesus’. Kaalund goes on to describes miracles as “demonstrations of the power of God” and “guideposts, leading people to God.” She also writes of miracles as “fuel for our faith” which can help people come to believe. Because so many of Jesus’ miracles and the miracles done through the power he provided his disciples are healings, I also think we should follow the work of Wil Gafney who says that each miracle is an epiphany, revealing something to us about the nature of Christ. What is revealed to us in this miracle, once again, is that healing is central to Christ’s mission, whether he or a disciple is the one doing it. And, we see that you don’t have to be the Messiah to be worthy of a restored life. Three resurrections happen before Tabitha, and two of them are regular people (the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of a man named Jairus). Sometimes, when you restore one person’s life, you restore a whole community.

     The women who Tabitha helped bore witness to her legacy after she died, as they waited for Peter. What we know about her good works largely comes from them. The widows take Peter up to the upper room when Tabitha’s body is being tended to, and they show him the clothes that she had made either with or for them. Mitzi Smith notes that verb here could indicate that Tabitha created and provided the clothes to the women, or that she made the clothes with them. It is possible that, like Lydia, who we’ll learn about in the next couple weeks, Tabitha had worked in the textile business and used those professional connections to provide for widows who needed extra support. However Tabitha helped the women, whether she made the clothes or provided the materials to make them, it is a testimony to her good work that they had them and used the clothes to show Peter just how much she had meant to them. May each of us be so blessed to have others be able to demonstrate our legacy of care this clearly.

     If you are familiar with some other resurrection stories, I imagine aspects of this story might be familiar. For one, it takes place in the upper room, which is an upstairs part of the house. In her commentary, Mitzi Smith notes that throughout scripture, important things take place in upper rooms. Jesus and his disciples regularly met in upper rooms in people’s homes (Mark 14:15, Luke 22:12, Acts 1:13). In addition to a place of prayer and teaching/preaching (Acts 20:8) in Christian scriptures, in Hebrew scriptures, healing takes place in upper rooms. Elijah and Elisha perform healings in upper rooms (1 Kings 17:19, 2 Kings 4:8-37). And, it appears to be a place where you might prepare the body of one who has died, or spend time mourning the death of a loved one (2 Sam. 18:33). Given that Tabitha was wealthy enough to financially support other people, it may even be in her own home that people gather to tend to her body and mourn her death. How poignant is it to gather in her home, in a place set aside for mourning, healing, fellowship, and teaching, and then restore her to the people who loved her most?

     The tending of her remains by a group of women evokes the women who went to Jesus’ tomb. Like the women who found the tomb empty and testified to the resurrection, these women testified to Tabitha’s generosity. Smith argues that Tabitha’s good deeds are intended to be reminiscent of Jesus’. While we know that Peter has been empowered to do good deeds following Jesus’ model, these widows make clear that Tabitha, too, cares for those whom Christ loved. They are the ones who would share news of Tabitha’s resurrection, as Jesus’ women friends did his. The people who came to believe in Joppa likely did so because of the widow’s testimony.

     Peter’s actions mirror closely Jesus’ actions in two other Gospels: Lazarus’ resurrection in John and the little girl’s resurrection in Mark 5:35-43. Both Gafney and Smith note that the words Peter says to Tabitha “Tabitha qumi” - Tabitha, get up- are very close to the words Jesus says to the small girl he raised “Tali-that qumi”- little lamb, arise. In the Lazarus story, people come to get Jesus to bring him to Lazarus, like the two disciples came to Peter, and he was definitely dead, as Tabitha was. While the person who wrote Acts was not the same person who wrote John or Mark, given that all the stories about Jesus existed before they were written down, since multiple Gospel writers tell a version of a story where someone is restored to life in this way, it probably means that multiple early followers of Jesus were inspired by these kinds of stories, and they thought we can find guidance in them, too.

     What does discipleship to Christ mean? Tending to the vulnerable. Offering healing. Making space for mourning. Showing up when people ask for help. Testifying to the legacy of our friends. Using our resources to restore life to those who need it. The core of discipleship is healing and serving. Our reading today offers us two fine examples of it, Peter and Tabitha. May we be like Peter and show up in the places where death has come to call. And, may we be like Tabitha, devoted disciple and lover of God and neighbor. Let us relieve suffering where we can and share the stories of new life when we see it. This is what Christ empowers Tabitha and Peter to do. We can do it, too.
​
Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Jennifer T. Kaaland: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-936-43-6
Mitzi Smith:

• https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-936-43-3
• "The Many Faces of Tabitha," I Found God in Me: A Womanist Hermeneutics Reader (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015)

Gail R. O'Day, "Acts," Women's Bible Commentary, expanded Edition with Apocrypha, Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998).
Wil Gafney, "Epiphany VII," Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2022)

Acts 9:1-20 The Conversion of Saul (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 

He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 

Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 

So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

     Can you finish this sentence: May the Force.... be with you! What movie universe is that line from? Yes! Star Wars. That is one of the most well-known lines in the first three set of Star Wars movies that came out starting in 1977. Did you know that people loved those three movies so much that they ended up creating not just a bunch more movies, but also tv shows, video games, and tons of books. Some are written by the original writer, George Lucas. But many aren’t! He said once “[t]hese were not stories that I was destined to tell. Instead, they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided.” I imagine that it must feel pretty good to write a story that so many people love that they want to keep writing, reading, and watching more about the world you created. And, they come to know the world so well that they work to create more of it with you.

     Now, I’ve seen a lot of Star Wars movies and tv shows. I also married someone who really loves Star Wars. Here’s some lessons I’ve learned from Star Wars:

1. Just because someone is cute and cuddly looking, it doesn’t mean that they can’t eat you. (see Ewok: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ewok)
2. Just because someone speaks in a way that is different than lots of people around them, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t wise. In fact, they can be a very good teacher. (see Yoda: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Yoda)
3. Sometimes people who have done many good things can also make big mistakes with consequences that harm people. It is important for them to take accountability for those actions. (See Luke Skywalker especially in The Rise of Skywalker: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Luke_Skywalker and Sol from The Acolyte: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Sol)
4. Good leaders are willing to make sacrifices, even really big ones, to save the people they care about. (See Admiral Holdo: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Amilyn_Holdo)
5. Just because you are taught to hurt people from the time you are little, that doesn’t mean you have to keep hurting people. You can listen to that small voice in your heart telling you to stop. (See Finn: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Finn)
6. It is better to be inspired by love than hate. The world you build will be stronger for it. (See Rose Tico: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Rose_Tico)

     The fans of Star Wars get pretty creative, too. They hold conventions where some of them dress up in home-made, elaborate costumes that they spend hours and hours crafting. They write stories that they share among each other and make their own art inspired by the whole Star Wars universe. They even decided that May the 4th, because it sounds like “may the force” could be a good day for fans everywhere to celebrate this world that they love. Since I know some preachers who planned to bring in a little Star Wars into their services, I decided to try to, too.

     So many of the fans are inspired by what they love. But, a lot of them also get really angry about choices that the writers and directors in more recent Star Wars movies and shows have made. And, a lot of them get mad about how other fans respond to Star Wars. They go online and say mean and cruel things about writers, directors, actors, and other fans. I am most disturbed by how frequently the critiques come from fans who don’t like that there are more women characters and characters played by people of color in the newer movies and shows. Some actors who have played characters in Star Wars movies and shows have shared that their own health has been impacted by the racist and sexist bullying they’ve received from angry fans. Oftentimes, their bosses don’t even stand up for them to try and stop the harassment. Other actors who have been harassed will, and sometimes actors who haven’t been targeted will, too. But, it can make it really hard to enjoy your job when thousands of people are being so cruel to you, and working together to make your life harder.

     When on-line discussions of Star Wars get really cruel, fans target other fans, too. They can intentionally try to hurt them because they have the gall to like something that the meanest fans don’t believe belongs in Star Wars.  Women, LGBTQ people, and people of color in fan spaces are often targets organized campaigns of cruelty. I myself don’t participate in some fan stuff that should be fun because I’ve seen people who claim to love this story about an underdog rebellion fighting an evil empire turn around and act just like the villains in the movie. It feels a lot to me like churches that say they want to follow Jesus and, then go be cruel to poor people, immigrants, and women, and celebrate people being imprisoned. Of course, some people might not trust Christians if the loudest ones they hear are awful. Of course, some people are wary of Star Wars fans when they’ve seen some of them behave so badly.

     Today’s scripture is a story about someone who cares deeply about his faith. He’s passionate in a way that is familiar, isn’t it? He is sure he understands something the right way and is prepared to go after people who understand it the wrong way. And, he will use everything he has, which includes the privileges of Roman citizenship and his intense education in his religious traditions, to help punish people whom he is sure believe the wrong thing. Amy Ogden, in her commentary on Saul’s conversion, points out that he’s not just a persecutor for persecution’s sake. He is targeting people who believe fundamentally misunderstand their shared traditions. The choices to interpret the sacred stories differently than he does feel like a threat to him. So, he feels justified in harassing them. As Ogden says, Saul is “someone trying to do the right thing in order to strengthen the people of God.” The problem is that he is driven more by his hatred of what he deems bad interpretations than his love of neighbor as required by God.

     Thank goodness the risen Jesus shows up like the ghost of a Jedi to tell him that this is not the way. Jesus instructs him to give up this violent quest for purity, and instead recommit to their shared religious values of love of God and neighbor. The Spirit Jesus makes clear that Jesus’ particular interpretation of the faith isn’t a threat to Saul’s beliefs. Instead, Jesus offers a new way to live out the most foundational parts of the faith. Saul, who is devout in a way that makes it hard for him to try something different, has to be convinced to change in a dramatic scene involving a flash of light and temporary blindness. It sure seems like science fiction. But, as we know, some of the most powerful stories are ones with elements we can’t fully explain. Nevertheless, they show us something true. I can’t explain what exactly happened to Saul on that road any more than I can explain what a midchlorian is, but I can understand that Saul needed to change, and when he had the right lesson, he chose to.

     One lesson I hope we carry with us on this May the Fourth is that we can be passionate about the things we love without harming people that love them differently. Sometimes, when we think we’re being “defenders of faith,” we just might be bullies. May we never be inspired by our ideas and interpretations in ways that make us hateful. Instead, let us live in a spirit of generosity and grace befitting the Christ we claim to love, and build the reign of God on this kind of hope. Saul changed his name to Paul when he realized this was the way. Let us follow Paul in this way, building in hope and acting in love.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
I am grateful for the work of these two pastors in developing liturgy and resources incorporating Star Wars into a typical Sunday Service:

• Jeremy Smith:
  • https://hackingchristianity.net/2025/04/star-wars-liturgy-for-may-the-fourth.html
  • https://hackingchristianity.net/2014/04/order-of-worship-for-starwars-sunday-may-the-fourth-be-with-you.html
• Mitchell Young: https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/may-4-2025-third-sunday-of-easter-year-c/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ95hNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFsRk12MTZzcTBiekVyNzZaAR49DxzqcaK2WYve83ygvl8R132dtbADQjgt_M74ECg2mHdFn4blfHQ0rOdAZQ_aem_iBSdn3D0M9vAq-1X-PkWZQ

​Amy Ogden: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-acts-91-6-7-20-4

​Some general Star Wars stuff that was useful:

• This list of quotes: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/quotes/
• This background on what used to be called the Extended Universe (this is article with the Lucas quote): https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Legends
• Wanna make your own Star Wars intro-style crawl? https://starwarsintrogenerator.com/

An article about the racist bullying of cast: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/08/30/past-star-wars-actors-support-amandla-stenberg-after-the-acolyte-cancellation/

​Luke 24:1-12 The Resurrection of Jesus

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. 

While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’
 
Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 

​But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

     Garbage. Hooey. Nonsense. Hogwash. Gibberish. Malarkey. That’s what the first people to hear testimony of the Resurrection thought: Baloney. Those women are telling an idle tale. I am not totally surprised that the men disciples wouldn’t believe women disciples about what they saw. I have been a woman for a long time now and am fully aware of how our testimonies even about our own bodies are often dismissed. Did you know that it can take seven and half years to get diagnosed with endometriosis? That’s from the moment a person tells their doctor about what has likely been chronic pain since they were a teenager to the time when they finally are diagnosed appropriately. Cisgender women can share the truth, with evidence! And, it can take a long time for people to listen to them.

     I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call, as Katherine Shaner does in her commentary, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women who went to Jesus’ tomb the first preachers in our tradition. The core work of the Christian preacher is to speak of Resurrection, and that is what these women did! They went to their friends and told them about the tomb that no longer held Christ and the two men in dazzling white, and they reminded them that Jesus said that the Son of Man would rise again on the third day. The eleven men, their friends, called their words “an idle tale,” which is apparently a polite translation of the original Greek, which calls their story garbage. As Craig Coester says in his commentary, the disciples knew that the dead nearly always stayed dead. Any story that stated otherwise was nonsense.

     The last several days had been difficult on so many levels. The disciples had watched as Jesus, betrayed by Judas, was arrested. They waited as he was questioned by the Sanhedrin and Pilate and Herod. Then, as they watched a ways off in the distance from their friend, they saw Romans kill him. There was one man from the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea. He made sure Jesus’ body was wrapped in linen and placed in a tomb, a small measure of grace on a mournful day. He assured that Jesus’ remains would have a measure of respect in burial. And, then, the women disciples would make sure that his body was tended to, a job that Katherine Shaner points out usually fell to the women. In doing the thing expected of them, they would be empowered to do the unexpected.

     What is it about Peter that lets him believe that checking out the tomb is worth it after the women testify? You might remember that Peter’s behavior after Jesus’ arrest was quite suspect. Jesus knew that Peter would betray him. But, Jesus also seemed to know that Peter would try to do better, too. Cheryl Lindsay, in her commentary, wonders if that’s why Peter is more willing to listen to the women than the other men are. She says, “...[f]or Peter, this revelation must have reached him like answered prayer offering him an opportunity for personal redemption and restoration.” Peter, who had never believed that he would betray Jesus, knew something impossible was happening. Maybe this impossible thing would be redemption rather than betrayal. When he got to the tomb and saw that all that is left is Jesus' burial clothes, Luke tells us that he is amazed. 

     The preaching professor Anna Carter Florence once said that is story of the Resurrection from Luke might be here to show us that just because our hopeful testimony is incredible, it doesn’t mean that people will believe us when we share it. This is a wild and radical story, and she thinks if you’re preaching it in a way people don’t hear as an idle tale, you might be taming Jesus too much. We need to preach about new life in a way that will amaze even Peter, the one who really messed up when he needed to be brave. It is a wild and impossible resurrection that will help him return to the mission that Christ called him to in the first place.

     Cheryl Lindsay speaks about the resurrection as a transition point in Jesus’ story. She says, “Resurrection is both ending and beginning.” She points out that Jesus does not appear at the tomb in Luke. He will appear to two of the disciples who are walking to Emmaus, but, he’s not at the tomb. There it is just angelic messengers and devoted disciples: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women, and eventually Peter. Lindsay argues that this shows us that the author of Luke understands the Resurrection to be the point where the followers of Jesus shift into leadership of the earliest Jesus movement. They are the ones who will carry his message forward. We know that they have grown into the Spirit-led power that Jesus gave them when new people hear them testify and choose to become part of the ministry.

     Peter becomes the test case for the power of sharing a good word about the resurrection. He is the first to hear and become curious. He is the first to consider that this radical tale of new life is worth exploring. When he runs to the tomb, he runs back to his commitment to Christ. The women pick up the mantle first. Then, Peter. Eventually, we, too, follow them to witness for ourselves what resurrection might look like.

     One thing it probably won’t look like is an easy path. As Lindsay notes in her commentary, the new leaders of the Jesus movement will find plenty of obstacles in their path, especially from powerful people who are challenged by early Christian commitments to share money in a common purse, care for the marginalized, and build relationship across ethnic and class differences. Jesus’ followers themselves will be tempted by the power that comes with allegiance to the state, too often abandoning care for the marginalized in exchange for power to coerce people into following our demands. It is wise for us to return to the testimony of the first preachers, the women who were not believed, and remember just how wild this faith calls us to be. May we be willing to speak to the power of Renewed Life, even when our audience refuses to listen. And, when we hear a word of shocking resurrection, may we have the curiosity of Peter that allows us to find our way back to the mission where Christ calls us. Let us not miss our second chance to love as bravely as Christ did.

Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here, on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, and into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope--
Good morning.
— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning” excerpt https://poets.org/poem/pulse-morning

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
An article about endometriosis: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicebroster/2020/08/27/why-it-takes-so-long-to-be-diagnosed-with-endometriosis-according-to-a-expert/
Katherine Shaner: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/resurrection-3/commentary-on-luke-241-12-11
Craig R. Koester: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=558
Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-at-early-dawn/
Anna Carter Florence

• http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2249
• http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4016

​

​Luke 19:28–40 Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” 

So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
 
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

     It’s been clear that Jerusalem was going to be important from all the way back in the temptations in the wilderness. In today’s story, Jesus finally arrives in a makeshift parade with a borrowed donkey. There’s even talk of shouting rocks. This story is much like some ancient prophecies while also being very different than what people expected. Because of that, it will teach us something important about how Jesus will be a Messiah.

     Jesus going into the city on a donkey happens in all of the Gospels. But they tell the story differently. In Luke, there are no palms. The people simply lay down their cloaks. Also, nobody yells hosanna (even though we’re gonna yell Hosanna in worship). In Luke, the people gathered aren’t just random people, they are Jesus’ closest disciples who knew him the best. Also, there’s only one donkey in Luke. There are two donkeys in Matthew. This version still takes place during Passover, like the others. The city would have been tense with all the preparations for the festival and with increased military presence.

     Who here has heard of Passover before? Scholars remind us that Passover was a commemoration of God's liberation of the Jewish people from Egyptian rule. Jewish people continue to celebrate Passover. In fact, they started celebrations last night. In the time that Jesus was alive and teaching, the scholar Michael Joseph Brown reminds us that Jewish people were living under a different terrible ruling empire. So, liberation from bad rulers would have been on their minds. The bad rulers knew it, too. So, they’d send extra soldiers to the city to try to scare people who might be thinking about revolution. Leaders like Pontius Pilate might even enter into the city in a parade, riding a big warhorse, surrounded by their soldiers, trying to look scary enough to keep people in line.

     In some ways, Jesus’ little parade will be about showing his power, too. But, it’s not power like a soldier is powerful. In Luke, Jesus’ entry into the city looks just like a prophecy about the Messiah from Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion, shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.” Even though Jesus is on a donkey, which aren’t fancy at all, he’s supposed to remind us of that king from Zechariah. This is who is supposed to lead their people, not the Roman guy on the fancy horse.

    I read something a while ago from a teacher named Elisabeth Johnson. In a commentary about this text, she pointed out that the people gathered, in this case, the disciples of Jesus who knew him well, shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” This is almost a direct quote from Psalm 118, but with one important change. The Psalm says, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” The disciples, or the author of Luke, added “king.” The people who are celebrating Jesus’ entry into the city are making in clear that they understand him to be more than just a teacher. They believe he will stand up as an alternative to the cruel power of the Roman Emperor.

     It matters that the people at the parade in Luke are actually a small group of his disciples. Kathryn Matthews, in her commentary on this text, points out that these are the people who know him best and have been following him for the longest. They cheer for him because they have been healed by his love, have seen his miracles, and heard his wise teaching. There will be a time later in the story when people turn on Jesus. That is not these people at the parade. At this very moment, they get something right: They celebrate Jesus as Jesus has been telling them that God celebrates them. They celebrate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem because they know his peace is so very different than the so-called peace of the empire.

     Remember a couple weeks ago, when some Pharisees try to warn Jesus that Herod was going to come after him? I think they are trying to warn him again in this story. They tell him to get his disciples to quieten down. It seems reasonable to think that they are once again trying to save him, this time from Pilate. Remember, you would be in danger if Rome thought you were trying to get people to rebel against them. Pilate might get mad if he hears people call Jesus “king.” Elizabeth John notes in her commentary, the Pharisees knew their scripture well. They would have understood all the ways that Jesus’ entry into the city was like the entry of a king in Zechariah and that the Psalm had been changed to make it celebrating a king. Pilate, if he thought any one Jewish person could get people to rebel, might end up targeting all the people. Powerful people could come after them. In a few days, powerful people... The Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate... will all come after Jesus.

     Jesus knew, though, that the people needed to celebrate and tell the truth about what they were seeing. That's what he meant when he said if that the people were silent, “even the stones would shout out.” The celebration must happen, even if it leads to unwanted attention. Teresa Lockhart Stricklen notes that in the book of Habbakkuk, in chapter 2, verse 10-11, it says that the stones will cry out demanding justice from the divine when wicked people have shamed themselves by being cruel to many people. Jesus, who loved the poor and outcast and knew that God does, too, must have remembered this text. He must have been clear that all of creation, even the rocks, know of Holy Love that is the foundation of divine justice and true peace. When you see something so good, you have to say something about it! Even if you’re a rock!

     A lot of big and sometimes scary things will happen in the next parts of the story. Jesus will share that he is sad for his people. He’ll also drive manipulative people from the temple. He will be betrayed and sent to trial. If you look closely, all of these bad things and more are on the horizon. It is good, then, for there to be celebration to bolster him as he enters the city. It is good that he is surrounded by people who knew him and were confident in his mission. May we never forget that love and celebration are vital to the mission that Christ has given us. May we forever be like the rocks who cannot help but shout about God’s love and justice. Hard times are just around the corner. The joy we cultivate together will help us get through it.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Elizabeth Johnson: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4022
Michael Joseph Brown: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2801
Karoline Lewis: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5311
Teresa Lockhart Stricklen, "Sixth Sunday in Lent (Liturgy of the Palms)," Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, Dale P. Andres, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, and Ronald J. Allen, editors (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012).
​Kathryn Matthews: http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_march_20_2016
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​John 12:1–8 Mary Anoints Jesus

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

 few days ago, I learned that Mass General Brigham in Boston is laying off six full-time chaplains. Most have already been laid off. One, who trains student clergy in the Mass General part of the system, will be laid in August when the current class of students finishes their program. This kind of program, called Clinical Pastoral Education, is a part of the training that many religious leaders receive before they can be ordained. That program is being closed completely. The program in the Brigham side of the system has been reduced from two trainers down to one. What this means is that the whole system is not only losing the six full-time professional chaplains, they are losing chaplain interns and residents as well.

Counting the student chaplains with the professional chaplains, this is a lot more than 6 front-line patient and staff support positions being cut. And, that doesn’t even take into account the staff from other departments that have been laid off, like the director of domestic violence programs at Brigham and Women’s. That person is gone, too. I’ve watched similar patterns to this happen across lots of healthcare systems during my professional life. When money is tight, even when they are doing their jobs well and provided the standard of care in their discipline, spiritual care staff is often among the first staff to be cut. When crisis is looming, attention to matters of the Spirit can go by the wayside.

This story came to mind while I was reading today’s scripture because I think you can make the argument that what Mary is doing for Jesus is spiritual care. And, at least one person in the story thought it to be unnecessary and wasteful in the moment. This was the day before Jesus would finally enter Jerusalem for the last time in his earthly life. People are already talking about ways to get rid of Jesus, some even planning his demise. I can’t image that the tension would have escaped the disciples. It certainly didn’t Jesus.

A version of this story is shared in Mark, Matthew, and John. Emerson Powery, in his commentary on this text, points out that John is the only one who describes the woman anointing Jesus as being Mary, one of Jesus’ close friends (not Mary his mom). This is Mary, the sister of Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead just a few chapters earlier in John, and Mary, devoted disciple who sat at Jesus’ feet to learn in Luke. Mary and Lazarus’ sister Martha is present, too, and her actions are described as “serving.” The Greek word for the verb “serve” is the root-word for our modern word “deacon.” It would be fair, I think, to consider Martha an early deacon. The siblings’ household was a deeply faithful one, likely celebrating Jesus’ miraculous return of their brother.

Lindsey Jodrey, in their commentary on this text, notes that anointings like the ones described in today’s reading usually happened for two reasons: coronations and burials. We who know the rest of this story might understand this moment to be a bit of both. Brave and devoted Mary is preparing Jesus for whatever comes next. The perfume she’s using nard, or spikenard, is expensive, especially in the amount she uses... she spent a year’s worth of a day laborer’s salary. And, the anointing itself was quite a production, with her using her own hair as a towel. It is not small thing to offer love and care so publicly and so lavishly.

In his commentary on this text, Eliseo Pérez-Álvarez also points out that, with coronations in particular, powerful men usually did the anointings. Mary was from the countryside, a common woman with an uncommon faith who had saved enough money to offer vital care to a friend who was in a precarious spot. Gail R. O’Day, in her commentary on John in the Women’s Bible Commentary, compares Mary’s actions to the men’s actions that follow.   In washing Jesus’ feet, she foretells of Jesus’ own action of washing his disciples’ feet as an act of service and invitation to mission. Jesus will also tell his followers, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” This anointing is a sign of the power of Mary’s love and a model of how to love without limit. And, finally, after his death, the men who will anoint his body will do so in secret because they are afraid to announce their faith. Mary anoints Jesus in the daylight, for all to see. O’Day argued in her commentary that Mary, here, is the model disciple. I’m inclined to agree.

So, what do we do about Judas? Is he making a valid point about the money? Couldn’t they have used the money for other things, like helping the poor, which is one of the lynchpins of Jesus’ ministry. The author of John seems to think we should disregard Judas because Judas was not making this point in good faith. Generally, disregarding critiques that aren’t made in good faith is a pretty good idea. Interestingly, Jesus does respond. He defends Mary’s actions. Maybe Jesus knew he needed some care that day. Also, this is John. Jesus loves signs that make greater points about his identity in John. Mary anointing him as though for a coronation or for a burial is a pretty complex sign of what is to come. Either way, she needed to do this, and Jesus needed it done.

The last line of the reading, though, can be tricky. Some use to justify cutting aid to the poor or ignoring impoverished people altogether. Lindsey Jodrey points out in their commentary that sentence could just as easily be translated from the Greek as “have the poor with you always” or “Keep the poor with you always.” If that is a better translation, then Jesus is saying “it’s not either love the poor or love me... it is love the poor AND love me.”  I think it’s an interesting point, though I’m not sure that makes more sense in context than the translation we heard read today.

Jodrey also notes that Jesus could be offering a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 15:11: “there will never cease to be some in need on the earth…. I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’” Pérez-Álvarez’ references that Deuteronomy passage in his commentary, too. Whether or not Jesus was referencing Deuteronomy, I think it would be a poor reading of the Gospel as a whole to read this one line as a dismissal of care for the poor. Instead, I’m inclined to read with Pérez-Álvarez: this is a kind of farewell. This is Jesus making sure his friends know that he may not be with them much longer. He is recognizing the confrontation that is on the horizon and accepting the care that will help him face it. He’s accepting help offered him in a hard time. I hope it lifted his Spirit.

As someone who is dealing with lay-offs in a different hospital system that are affecting my medical care, I hope the administrators of Mass General Brigham assure that their patients get the holistic spiritual care they need. In challenging times, like hospitalizations and scary diagnoses, spiritual care is an important tool for healing. Even Jesus needed his spirit tended to sometimes.  May we not forget the value to tending to the Spirit in the midst of a crisis. May we not fall into the trap of thinking we have to choose between loving Jesus and loving the people Jesus loved. The road into Jerusalem will be dangerous. Tending to our Spirit will prepare us for the road ahead.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
The article about the staff cuts: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/02/business/mass-general-brigham-layoffs-patients-chaplains-counselor-abuse-smoking-specialist/ 
Gail R. O'Day, "John," The Women's Bible Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998)
Emerson Powery: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-john-121-8-5
Lee H. Butler, "Fifth Sunday in Lent," Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, Dale P. Andres, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, and Ronald J. Allen, editors (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012).
Lindsey Jodrey: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-john-121-8-4 
​Eliseo Pérez-Álvarez: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-john-121-8-3 

     Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock calls this story “The Parable of the Loving Father.” It’s most often called “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” with an emphasis on the return of the foolish son.  In his commentary on Luke, Craddock points out that the story doesn’t start with the son. It starts with the father: “There was a man who had two sons.” I noticed when reading it to prepare this sermon that the father has the last words in the parable, too: “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” This probably means we need to pay attention to what he does first. What he does is love fiercely and joyfully.

     Today’s reading is the third in a series of parables about joyful recovering of that which is lost. Jesus tells these parables to a crowd that has come to hear him teach. The beginning of chapter 15 tells us that tax collectors and sinners and Pharisees and scribes were all a part of the crowd. This means that people who were understood to on the opposite ends of righteousness and respectability scales were all listening to Jesus at the same time and in the same place, along with everyone else in-between. Jesus decided to tell all of them about the joys of recovery of the lost.

     A quick note about who the tax collectors and sinners were. The tax collectors were hated because they were understood to be collaborators with Rome against their own nation and also people who used their power to steal extra money for their own gain. As to the term “sinners,”   Craddock argues that sinners is a specific term for people who are known in the community to not be following Jewish religious laws. According to Craddock, these folks’ flouting of the law was so widely known that they would not be welcome in the synagogue. It is not surprising that the Pharisees and scribes, people understood to be respectable community leaders, would be suspicious of Jesus hanging around with these kinds of people. Part of me wonders who needed to hear the parables of joyful return more: the people who knew they were living outside of the covenant with God or the people who weren’t sure that there was a path of return for them.

     The first two parables are about a shepherd who sought out his one lost sheep and a woman who turned her house upside down to find an important coin. In both of those stories, the response of the seeker is to celebrate finding the lost. The third parable, today’s reading, has a party for the lost, too. In this story, there’s a father who loves his son who makes bad choices and there’s the son who realizes he made a mistake and wants to come home. There’s a third figure in the third parable: another son, a good son, a pharisee and scribe kind of son. And, his feelings about his brother’s return need to be addressed, too. What gift does their father give him?

     A very smart colleague of mine, the Rev. Dr. EC Heath, once preached a sermon on this scripture that is one of my favorite sermons about this story. In their sermon, Dr. Heath noted that so many times when they’ve heard this sermon preached, it’s not been a sermon about the prodigal who comes back but about the annoyed son who had stayed and been responsible. Dr. Heath wondered in their sermon if this response says more about the kind of churches that they have found themselves in than it does the actual scripture.

     Those churches have been filled with responsible, stable people... people who try hard, and often succeed, in living up to the best values of their faith. They are Pharisees and scribes in the best possible sense... they are people invested in living lives that reflect their commitments to God and to their families. And, they’ve been trying hard for a long time. They feel like part of their call is to be responsible. And, when you try to be responsible, to not disappoint your family or you church or your God, when you’ve mostly tried to do the right thing, it can really hurt when someone who has not tried so hard gets celebrated or gets centered in a story. Jesus knew that. But, he also knew that his ministry is not just to the responsible and the upright. His ministry, and God’s love, is for the lost and the cast out.

     We know that different people hear different things in Jesus’ stories. I think the message for the respectable people who are grumbling about the presence of sinners is probably one about helping people find a way back. The respectable people of Jesus’ time, and our time, too, need to tend to our resentments and our suspicions if we’re really going to engage with Jesus’ ministry. If you are someone who has generally been understood to be right and righteous, it matters that you know Jesus makes space for those who have been called wrong.

     Dr. Craddock points out something in his commentary that is worth remembering. Notice that the father in this story crosses his threshold twice. Twice, he goes to a son and reiterates his love and care for that son. Most of the time, we just talk about the way he rushes forward and embraces his younger, desperate, and often foolish son, the son who has come home hoping for little more than the station of a slave. We talk, in wonder and befuddlement, about his great grace in welcoming this son home. Because this son was lost. In the same way that the shepherd celebrates finding the lost sheep and the woman the lost coin celebrates find it, the father must go to lost son and throw a party to welcome him home. But, he doesn’t stop there. He crosses again, to the second, to help him learn something about joy.

     The father doesn’t let him stay outside, fuming, while the party goes on without him. Just as the first part of the, the generous father leaves his home and goes to his child. He pleads for him to come inside. He takes the brunt of the responsible one’s anger, listening when he shares his frustration at how he had always worked, even comparing himself to a slave who never feels appreciated for his steadfastness. We don’t know if the father never really expressed gratitude or if the responsible son was super entitled. What we do know is that there is a rupture now, in this moment. And, the generous father wants to repair. He’s showing this son a way back, too.

     He goes to his son and says, “you are always with me,” a statement that says as much about the depth of their bond as it does about the elder son’s individual choice to stay, and then he says, “all that is mine is yours,” affirming that he will honor his responsibility to his eldest while also noting that what he has would be impossible without his son’s work. In this lovely bit of mending, the father tells his responsible son that he sees him and appreciates him. This moment isn’t just about the elder son. It’s about the elder and the younger. Their father can love them both.

     In her commentary on this text, Amanda Brobst-Renaud states, the father cannot imagine a celebration without both his sons. On a night that was about celebrating restoration, both the elder and the younger needed to be present. Celebration is not just for the ones who have never strayed. It is for the ones who have come home. This celebration could have never happened had the elder son not worked so hard to help his father flourish in the younger son’s absence. The celebration literally could not have happened without him. He should be there to enjoy it and reconnect with his brother. Because the elder son lost something when the younger left, too.

     The celebrations in all three parables seem extravagant, maybe even foolish, particularly the celebration in the third. Why have a party for a man who hasn’t proven that he’s going to change? Why would Jesus, who was living in a time of increasing tension, take time out to preach a good word to both the sinners and the righteous? I think especially in times when danger is ramping up and when powerful people benefit from keeping everyone else isolated from each other, Jesus knew that he needed to make time to teach about grace, restoration and celebration. Craddock points out that this parable continues to challenge listeners 2000 years later, in part, because we’ve been taught that “there must be losers if there are winners.” If the younger son is celebrated, it must mean that the elder has been forgotten.

     There’s been a quote going around for a while that says: “Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It’s not pie.” That might be the fundamental message of this parable. Christ’s love for the sinners doesn’t mean less love for the scribes. It’s not pie. It is the task, then, of our current body of Christ to love so boldly as he did, not hoarding away our welcome and care for those whom it is easy to love. May we not hesitate to celebrate restoration. May we work to mend broken relationships. May we never forget that Christ has offered us a way back. May we welcome all manner of people to walk alongside us on it.

Resources:
​Amanda Renaud-Brobst: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3992
EC Heath: https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2016-03/enough-about-other-brother?fbclid=IwAR1kwvrh_qNk3iQMHqxrCSf4rlmNQ3glnHpSajFeqrbMZzSyR6NMTAGgpqs
​Fred Craddock, Luke (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press: 1990)

     ​Who is to blame? That is often the question when something goes wrong. Who is to blame? What did they do to deserve whatever bad thing happened to them? We begin our reading today with a politically motivated disaster and some people wondering if the people who suffered and died due to the disaster were at fault. If only they had planned better... if only they had deferred to Rome more... if only they’d annoyed God less. Who is to blame for what happened to them? Did they bring it upon themselves?

     Today’s reading backtracks a little from last week’s hens and foxes. Remember, Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem.  The journey to Jerusalem takes from chapter 9 to almost the end of chapter 19 in Luke. Along the way, he’s doing a lot of teaching and he’s also trying to give people warnings. This part of the Gospel shows the rise in tension around Jesus’ work. It is clear that Jesus knows that equipping the saints isn’t just about teaching them how to do stuff or how to follow him. It is also about preparing them for challenging times ahead. Jesus doesn’t want them to be surprised if and when something bad happens. They need to be prepared. If they are going to keep doing the work, they can’t be stopped by a surprise disaster. But, they have kept the disaster in perspective. Not everything that happens to them is something they deserve. But, they still have the responsibility to create good conditions for growth, even in the midst of threats and danger.

     In the first part of our reading, we and the original hearers are invited to interpret the meanings of two disasters, one political and one infrastructural. Debra Mumford points out in her commentary on this text that we aren’t given many details about the political disaster that befell some group of Galileans. Scholars have been trying to figure out what Pilate did to these Galileans since at least the time of the historian Josephus, who lived between 37 CE and 100 CE. That being said, Mumford notes that while scholars differ on what precisely happened, they generally agree that some group of Galileans was killed by the Roman government, likely because they were involved in some kind of revolutionary activity against Roman oppression. People stood up to a repressive empire and were punished for it.

     We don’t know exactly how people who were not targeted are talking about this political disaster. I bet we can imagine some things that people might say. They were fools to go against Roman, who was so powerful. Or, that this was obviously not the right time to try to fight back. Or, maybe someone would say they planned poorly. Maybe some would even say that they shouldn’t have tried to fight Rome at all. Remember, in plenty of parts of the Bible, losing a battle was interpreted as God making you lose. If you were crushed by a more powerful force, God must have wanted you to lose. Mumford points out that Pilates’ action of mixing the blood of the dead Galileans with the blood of animals sacrificed for religious reasons would have just compounded the spiritual pain of this battle. Not only did Pilate kill people, he made a mockery of their religious rituals with their own remains. How angry must the Galileans have made God for that to happen?

     Jesus quickly says that any interpretation of that battle that concludes that God ordained the Galileans’ death as punishment for their sins was a bad one. He did not blame Rome’s victims for Rome’s violence and blasphemy. We would do well to learn this skill from Jesus. He points to a second disaster, this one an apparent accident, to make is point further. Eighteen people died when a tower fell on them in a place called Siloam. Those people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were not particularly sinful and therefore deserving of punishment at that time.

     It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want to talk about sin. He’s talked a lot about sin, which is separation from God, in this reading. He firmly believed it’s a thing that all people did and do! But, in this moment, as Mumford notes in her commentary, Jesus says that a person or people’s suffering is not a sign that they are sinful. We do not have to believe that either the harm intentionally done to us by the powerful or that accidentally happens to us through a tragedy is a chastisement from God. That doesn’t mean we won’t be held accountable for our actions and for the ways we disconnected ourselves from our promises to God. It just means that we can stand on the outside of someone else’s suffering and assume that they did something to deserve it. And, we shouldn’t assume that our own suffering is retribution from God.

     With that in mind, how then should we think about our actions and responsibilities as Christians? Jesus understood human action to have consequences and taught his followers that certain behavior was expected of them. And, when they/we fall short of those expectations, Jesus expects his followers to repent, that is, reorient themselves back towards God’s covenant of love and justice. But, Jesus knows that you have to build up the conditions to make repentance possible. You have to tend the soil, as it were, to let repentance and renewed life flourish. He told a story about a man and a tree to make his point.

     There is a man who is wealthy enough to own a vineyard, where he plants a tree. After three years and multiple checks-ins, the man grows angry that the tree has not produced a fig. He is so angry, he is ready to chop it down because it is wasting space. He is the one who sees destruction as a necessary response to unmet expectations. And, he is in the wrong in this story. His employee, a gardener, knows that you must do more than plant a tree if you hope to have a harvest. He asks for a measure of grace in the form of time... time to tend the soil, to make the conditions for growth more favorable. As Quinn Caldwell notes his entry on this text in the Into the Deep devotional, fruit production is about more than just the tree. It’s about all the things the tree needs to thrive: water, light, pollinators, and good soil.

     As Jesus’ followers felt the mounting tension around him, it is interesting that Jesus is telling them that, despite the risk of danger, despite their shortcomings, despite the fact that they still have more to learn from him, there is still time to tend to their growth so that they can produce good fruit. Fred Craddock calls this “God’s mercy” still being “in serious conversation with God’s judgement.” I like to think of it as an encouragement to work on what is pulling you away from that which Christ is calling you. It is clear what can happen to an untended tree: no fruit. Jesus says, you have the power to tend to this tree and grow in love and justice. You have the power to live and grow differently if you want.

     In her commentary on this text, Cheryl Lindsay points out that fig trees are pretty robust trees. They can withstand a lot of harsh treatment and are pretty hardy, growing in places where other fruits might not flourish. They can even survive fire, coming back lively and prolific from something that would destroy many trees. They need fewer nutrients and water than many other species as well.  And, importantly, they can be heavily pruned and still produce fruit. In comparing them to a fig tree, it sure seems like Jesus actually had a lot of faith in his followers. Jesus understands them to be capable of producing a harvest of love and justice, even in harsh conditions. How much more could they do with all the soil, water, bugs, and light that they need!

     In this time of uncertainty and looming destruction, let us remember these resilient fig trees. May we find the nutrients we need to grow in love. May the light of God’s justice help us thrive. And, may we convert the sustenance we receive into fruit that benefits those around us. The conditions may not be ripe for flourishing. Suffering is all around. Let us tend this soil. May we bear fruit for the good of the world. Or, barring that, open up space for those who can.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:

Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-cut-down/

Debra Mumford: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-luke-131-9-6

Quinn Caldwell's devotional entry called "Soil" in the Into the Deep devotional from Pilgrim Press: https://thepilgrimpress.com/products/into-the-deep-2025-lent-devotional
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Fred. B. Craddock, Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009)