April 27, 2014 – Acts 2:14-24
Acts 2:14-24
Jesus’ Body and the Body of Creation
Second Sunday of Easter – April 27, 2014
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Finally, finally – I got out my bike this week and went for a ride!
It was lovely.
The sky was blue, the sun was shining, you could smell spring, the sun was warm on my face,
the sound of the wind in my ears so good.
Tuesday evening was beautiful, a perfect spring evening.
The kind of day the gardener of all creation – the resurrected Jesus – could be proud of.
Tuesday happened to be Earth Day, and so it was a good day to enjoy creation and
call to mind the goodness of the creator.
But Earth Day is also a day to call to mind the ways in which we humans have not
tended creation in the way we were first intended to.
Being gardeners of the garden of creation is our first vocation, our first calling as human beings.
For the first man and the first woman were first set in the first garden to tend and keep it.
But we have not done too well at this our first vocation.
The December 2013 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights
alarming and accelerating rates of carbon emissions.
It warns of the disruptions this entails for nature.
It warns even of the disruptions this could cause to our food supply.
And of course it already has: many of the poorest and the most vulnerable on the planet
have been suffering from food scarcity, drought, extreme weather patterns,
flooding, and increased diseases due to climate change.
In Acts today, Peter warns of the disruptions to the natural order in the last days.
He’s preaching just after the event of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter Sunday.
He’s speaking of how Jesus’ giving the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost,
has the power to undo the disruptions to creation that have occurred.
But first he speaks of the disturbances in wild apocalyptic terms: portents and signs in
the heavens and the earth of blood and fire and smoky mist.
He speaks of the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood.
And this is when you begin to think: this imagery: it sounds familiar.
Where have we heard it before?
And then you think: we hear it on Good Friday, in Luke’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion.
When Jesus suffers in Luke’s account, all creation suffers: darkness covers the land and
the sun’s light fails.
In a striking way, it’s amazing that Luke holds humans responsible for the death of Jesus while
we know that humans are responsible for the degradation of the environment.
In Luke’s view,
the violence done to Jesus’ body is connected somehow to the violence done to nature.
It’s as if in putting Jesus to death, Jesus participates in the violence done to nature.
I have said many times that Jesus’ death on the cross connects him to
all suffering everywhere.
And here, in Luke and Acts, it seems as if Jesus’ suffering on the cross caused by humans is
connected to the suffering of nature caused by humans.
We cannot separate the suffering of Jesus from the suffering of the creation he has gardened,
for he himself has joined himself to it forever.
It’s not easy to draw a neat line between our bodies and the body of creation, right?
What affects nature is ultimately going to affect us: we know this.
Aboriginal peoples know this and the Bible knows this.
And here, today, in Peter’s speech, we discover, I think, that it is not easy to
draw a neat line between Jesus’ body and the body of creation.
After all: when we bring elements of creation forward at the offering –
bread made from grain and wine made from grapes –
elements that convey God’s grace to us, what do we call them?
Right: the body of Christ.
Every week in Holy Communion we affirm that there is a holy communion between the
body of Christ and the body of creation.
Just so: the suffering of Jesus and the suffering of creation are somehow joined together in
accounts of the crucifixion and in Peter’s proclamation today.
I said both on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday that on the cross Jesus joined
himself to all suffering everywhere, including your suffering.
And that is good news, because now there is no place that Jesus cannot be present.
Even, maybe especially, in suffering.
That means that Jesus has now joined himself to all creation.
In the debates that raged around whether or not Jesus was present in the bread and wine
at communion, Luther had this to say:
Jesus is present in the bread and wine because Jesus is present in my cabbage soup!
The crucified Jesus has joined himself to all creation.
There is now no place therefore where the resurrected Jesus cannot now be found.
What we do to one another, we do to Jesus.
What we do to the vulnerable we do to Jesus.
As Pope Francis tweeted yesterday morning, what this means is that
none of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice.
What we do to the hungry, we do to Jesus.
And what we do to creation, we do to Jesus.
But if Jesus’ crucifixion has joined God’s self to the suffering of creation and
the disruption of nature,
Jesus’ resurrection must somehow include a restoration of creation.
The good news today is that Jesus’ resurrection is not only about our human renewal,
but involves the renewal of a disrupted creation as well.
The good news is that we cannot separate his resurrection from participation in the renewal and
restoration of the creation he has gardened,
and so Peter speaks of Jesus giving the Spirit at Pentecost as having
the power to undo the disruptions done to nature.
I spoke of the Jesus as the gardener of creation on Easter Sunday.
And of the risen gardener’s calling us by name to turn to him.
Today, with Earth Day having just passed, the gardener calls us still to turn to him,
and tend the garden of creation with him once again empowered by
the Spirit of the gardener.
To participate in the restoration of creation.
To remember and take up our First Vocations as stewards of creation.
Now I have to tell you that I hesitate to preach on things that we as a community are
unwilling or unable to do anything about.
As a preacher I am well aware that words are cheap.
I used sometimes to feel awkward preaching here on God’s care for the vulnerable
until we committed ourselves as a community to Food Bank, and Community Meals,
and Kids Club and all the rest.
But there is a time for preaching on the absolute fullness of salvation that God intends in
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and in the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost.
There are things we can do and that individually I know many of you are doing.
We use these [reusable water bottles], and these [recycling containers],
and these [bicycles] – among many other things I know you are doing.
As a church community we are committed to recycling and we are committed to
good stewardship of our resources and to not using disposable plates and cups and
cutlery whenever possible.
What you also need to know, though, is that you are part of a much larger witness on this day.
You are connected in the Spirit to a church that is committed to large signs and
large actions that counteract the disruptions humans have caused to nature.
Our National Bishop Susan Johnson and Archbishop Fred Hiltz of the Anglican Church of
Canada issued a statement on Earth Day that
raises awareness of some of the many things our churches are doing:
Anglican and Lutheran Youth have taken up the challenge of raising awareness of the “Right to Water” through a joint National Youth Project. Our churches commend the UN effort to reach a global treaty in 2015 to secure a global agreement on a zero emissions goal. . . . Our churches are committed to learning about responsible resource extraction and the effects on environment, health, Indigenous peoples, communities and economies. . . . We advocate for responsible and ethical investment and actions by individuals, faith communities, corporations, and governments both in Canada and around the world.
Jesus is present in a disrupted and suffering creation, and that is good news, because
there is nowhere that Jesus cannot now be at work bringing restoration and new life.
And the risen Jesus is present in you, having breathed into you his Spirit at your baptism,
renewing his image as the gardener of creation within you,
recalling you to your First Vocation as a gardener and tender of creation.
So let us recall that first vocation.
Let us recall that what we do to creation we do to the body of our Lord.
And let us live in hope as we work and as we tend a disrupted creation, the deep hope that
God intends the resurrection and restoration of the whole world that God dearly loves.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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