Freedom of Religion based on Acts 5:27-32

On January 6, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a speech enumerating four basic freedoms to which every American is entitled. Soon afterward Norman Rockwell painted a series illustrating these freedoms. Among them was the freedom of religion. Rockwell’s painting, you may remember, has eight people, men and women, all praying in different ways. The Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths are all represented, as well as black and white, old and young people. At the top is a caption “each according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

Freedom of religion goes back to the European settlement of America. Some of the original 13 colonies were founded by those who felt restricted back in Europe. Though the Protestant Reformation led to the development of different expressions of Christianity, by and large governments held on to the notion that they should determine the religion of their people. Prussia was Protestant, France was Catholic, England’s monarch was the head of the Church of England – but the politics and the religious distinctions were messy. New groups of dissenters always popped up, and many times they were violently persecuted. We all know that the Puritans came to New England with hope that on this side of the pond they could be free to set up community life according to their understanding of the Christian faith. Maryland was founded as a refuge for Catholics. Rhode Island became a providential haven for Roger Williams and others who found themselves persecuted by the Puritans. Later when the newly constituted country produced it’s first amendments freedom of religion was at the top of the list. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

One way we can see how America’s protection of religious freedom is playing out today is by looking at the work of Harvard Professor, Diana Eck who has been the head of the Pluralism Project. This project “explores and interprets the religious dimensions of America's new immigration; the growth of Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, and Zoroastrian communities in the United States; and the new issues of religious pluralism and American civil society.” One result of her study is a fascinating book; A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation, published in 2001.

But even as the diversity of religious expression has increased in the United States, mainline Protestant and Catholic congregations have been decreasing. For decades now many other sociologists like Boston University’s Peter Berger have been tracking the growing secularism of our culture. Those of us who still attend worship regularly don’t need sociologist to tell us that our churches have been in decline for the last 40 years or more. It seems that what started out as freedom of religion, has for many become a freedom from religion. Or the freedom to dabble in different religious traditions; taking a little from here, and a little from there like a potluck supper until one has his or her own unique belief system. In the 1980s sociologist Robert Bellah dubbed this phenomena “Sheilaism” in his book Habits of the Heart. As Bellah worries, such freedom, when taken to extremes can dramatically weaken the power of faith in American culture.

Today’s reading from Acts, in contrast, shows the power faith when the world gives Christians no guarantees of freedom. It takes place just a couple of months after the first Easter. Like the punch line of a joke, we need to know what comes before it to really understand what it going on. Acts picks up where the gospel of Luke leaves off, starting in Jerusalem and then expanding out to Samaria and the ends of the earth. Robert Wall calls the first part the Jerusalem Mission. If you flip back to chapter 3 you will read how Peter and John went to the Temple to pray, and on the way they stopped and healed a lame beggar in the name of Jesus. This act caused a crowd to form, and Peter took the opportunity to preach the gospel to them. This greatly annoyed the priests, Sadducees and captain of the temple. So they arrested Peter and John and brought them before the Sanhedrin the next day. Peter started preaching again and the authorities ordered them to stop speaking in Jesus’ name. Peter responded that they could not stop speaking about what they had witnessed. The crowd was very supportive, and was still praising God for the healing, so the officials warned them again and let the apostles go.

When Peter and John returned to the others and told their story, the congregation prayed for strength to continue to witness to God’s wonderful deeds in Jesus. “And now, Lord,” they prayed, “look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” As a result they felt stronger, filled with the Holy Spirit and went out again to speak the word of God with boldness.

So the high priest took action again. This time he arrested all the apostles and put them in prison. But during the night the angel of the Lord came and let them out. Rather than running way to a safe house, the apostles went right back to the Temple and continued to preach in Jesus’ name. This bold action was not just the apostle’s bravado – for the angel gave them instructions, “Go, stand in the Temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.”

Finding the apostles back at it, the captain and the temple police arrested them again and brought them, once more, before the Sanhedrin. This is where today’s passage picks up. The high priest, probably quite annoyed by now, said, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are trying your best to blame us for the death of this man.” And Peter, rather than using legal arguments to defend himself, began to preach once again. It seems that the apostle’s mission to spread the gospel was unstoppable.

It seems to me that the legal freedom of religion, though good for us, is not as powerful as the freedom God gives followers of Jesus Christ to witness to his gospel regardless of the social/political climate. Freedom of religion can make us so relaxed about our faith that we become complacent, lukewarm, ho hum. It can lead us to feel that it doesn’t really matter if we are part of a congregation, or which one we are part of, or how committed we are to practicing our faith. Though I won’t argue that it would be better for us to live under religious persecution, it is clear that the church often grows better and faster under persecution – look at China today.
Perhaps we need to think more deeply about what freedom really means. In a culture that values the individual so highly we often assume that freedom means each one can do whatever he or she wants all the time. But such narcissistic individualistic freedom lacks any oomph or power and we find ourselves floating along in circles in our own little paddle boats in isolated little meaningless ponds.

But the freedom God gives to his people is a freedom with power and strength. It is the freedom to stand up against those who would put us down, a freedom to persist even when arrested, even when imprisoned, and sometimes even unto death. It is the freedom, which Rosa Parks and Dr. King found when they joined together with a community of believers to witness to the equality of human beings as God created us. It is the freedom of Corrie ten Boom and Deitrich Bonhoeffer to join the Christian underground opposing the Nazi party and protecting as many Jews as they could. It is the freedom of Desmond Tutu to lead South Africa to face the truth after apartheid, and move toward reconciliation. The freedom we are talking of is the freedom, which comes when we remold our individual desires to be in alignment with God’s will for our communal life. Such freedom is found in Christian community when we all get on the same boat, lift up our anchors and open our sails to the power of the Holy Spirit ready to move together in the direction that the Spirit is blowing.

The angel of the Lord didn’t free the apostles and let them run away to safety. No, the Lord instructed them to go right back to the task of bearing witness to Jesus Christ in the epicenter of the conflict – the Temple in Jerusalem. God liberates us for a purpose – to spread the gospel so that others may also know freedom in Jesus Christ.

In a nation where we are granted freedom of religion, it may be more difficult to see what is holding us back from being effective witnesses to God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. What serve as anchors to our boat? What are the ropes which bind our sails? Perhaps we don’t want to seem judgmental or self-righteous of others who have a different faith. And thus become fearful of proclaiming the good news we have found in Jesus. Perhaps our freedom tempts us to divide our time and attention, giving only a fraction to God. But I think it is safe to assume that whenever followers of Jesus Christ find ourselves just floating along, with a lack of direction or power in our ministry, there has to be something holding us back, some kind of anchor that is keeping us tethered, some kind of rope that is binding our sails, preventing us from catching the Spirit.

I stand here today offering a situation for us to ponder. We all need to work together to figure out the solution. What specifically do we need to do to receive the powerful freedom experienced by the apostles? a freedom where people experience healing, and are attracted to join the church of Jesus Christ? At the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church an additional promise was added to the membership vows taken when one joins the church – to support the local congregation with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and our witness. But how do we begin to witness. What will that look like for us? Joe and I tried door hangers in the neighborhood last spring, and a praise concert. We tried International Delights last fall. We are making use of the free publicity offered in the Medford Transcript and we are working on a web site. How else could we join forces and witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ here at Wesley church?

The scriptures do give us a place to start. When Peter and John were released from prison they returned to the community. Together they remembered who God was, they sang hymns praise, and they prayed. “Lord, grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” I believe that this congregation can grow if we will only begin to witness to Jesus Christ, and Bible study, worship and prayer are the way to begin.

Why Are You Weeping? based on John 20:1-18

“Why are you weeping?” This question in the gospel of John jumps out at us today. Though we generally think of Easter day as a time of great celebration and rejoicing, this question reminds us that for Mary Magdalene, and the other disciples, the day started out in deep sadness. I suspect Mary awoke that morning, so soon after the crucifixion, with a heavy heart. Though John doesn’t tell us so, I imagine she wiped her tears with the edge of her dress even as she made her way to the tomb. Sadness may have been temporarily replaced by alarm when she saw the stone rolled away. And she may have felt afraid while she ran to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple. But by the time she returned to the tomb the overwhelming emotion she felt was despair. And so she stood there, weeping, and as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb.

How surprised Mary must have been when she saw two angles sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying! They were the first to ask her the question. “Why are you weeping?” Shouldn’t these messengers from God know the situation? But she tried to explain, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” They gave no reply.

Then she stepped out of the tomb, turned and saw a man. And he asked her the same question. “Woman, why are you weeping?”

In the drama of the story John doesn’t stop to tell us why Mary is weeping. But I would like us to consider the possible answers to the question. Why did Mary weep? What could be the source of tears for any follower of Jesus, like you and me?

Of course it is normal to weep after the death of someone we love dearly. Mary had followed Jesus for a long time. They had traveled many miles together with the other disciples. She had learned much from him, and he had given her a kind of respect that few men gave to women at that time. The feelings of loss; the bleak realization that the loved one who has died will no longer be there to share a meal, or tell a joke, or embrace can be overwhelming. Such grief can last for a very long time, and just when we think we are over the worst of it, we hear a song, or come across the persons’ favorite food, or their old comfy sweater and we find the tears welling up in us all over again. And we weep. Why are you weeping? I am weeping for grief, for loss of a special relationship that is forever changed by death.

Why are you weeping? Another possible source of Mary’s tears could be stress. The last few days had been particularly stressful. It was the time of Passover – and big holidays like that with lots of food to prepare can make a person exhausted. Besides all of the work of cooking big fancy meals, there is the added pressure of trying to make the holiday just perfect. John doesn’t say who prepared the meal that Thursday night where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and gave them final words. But we can be pretty safe to assume that the women, including Mary Magdalene, did most of the work. ˜ When the meal was over Jesus and the disciples went to the garden, I imagine that Mary stayed behind with the other women to clean up. Perhaps they were just putting away the last dishes, and hanging the towels to dry, ready to finally get off of their tired feet when the distressing news came that Jesus had been arrested, and taken to the high priest. At this point Mary’s tiredness would have escalated to full-blown stress, which only got worse as the events unfolded on Friday. She witnessed the angry crowds yelling “Crucify him!” and she heard the nails driven into his hands and feet, and she stood before his cross and watched her beloved Jesus suffocate to death. Being witness to such violence causes humans to develop posttraumatic stress disorder. And weeping is a common result of such exhaustion and stress.

Why are you weeping? When we put ourselves in Mary’s position we can understand that besides being stressed and tired, she also must have been feeling very confused at this point. Jesus was her leader. He had made many promises and performed many miracles. Not only had he fed 5,000, healed many sick and walked on water, but he had raised Lazarus from the dead. That procession they had into Jerusalem last week – didn’t they do that because Jesus was the Messiah – a new leader of the people of God who would establish a new government? He had raised so many hopes for the future. Hadn’t she been following the Way, the Truth and the Life? But now Jesus was dead, and those hopes and dreams had died with him. What had happened? How could things have gone so wrong? With no leader what would the disciples do? They had become sheep without a shepherd. They felt lost and abandoned. All good reasons to weep.

Many of us can identify with Mary’s situation. We start out on a path, which we believe is the right one. We think we are following Jesus and we catch a glimpse of a bright future ahead, and devote our efforts to moving toward it. But then something terrible happens, a flood, an earthquake, a nosedive in the economy, a rejection letter. We loose our home, our job, our life savings, the things that we were relying upon to bring us happiness. The very thing for which we have been preparing is ripped away. It leaves us feeling lost, confused, dazed. It’s enough to make us weep.

Why are you weeping? The events of the past few days put an exclamation point on the degree of danger involved with being a follower of Jesus. The religious authorities thought he was leading a rebellion that had to be put down with violence. And the Roman officials seemed willing to sacrifice Jesus’ little band to pacify the majority. The disciples had recently become frightened enough that some, like Peter, started carrying swords. If the authorities would kill their leader, surely it was dangerous to admit to being his follower. Isn’t that what led Peter to deny Christ three times before the sun rose Friday morning? The world is a fearful place. Who can be trusted? How can we make sure we are safe? When the fear of danger becomes overwhelming we also respond like the disciples, keeping a low profile, locking ourselves away in an upper room, and weeping for fear.

Why are you weeping? Finally, there is the whole injustice of what they did to Jesus. ˜ Jesus, who carried no weapon, Jesus, who healed the sick, fed the hungry, welcomed children. Jesus was kind and loving and did nothing to harm anyone. ˜ Yet his enemies had him destroyed. At the end of his so called trial, when Pilot could find no reason to justify capital punishment, he chose to wash his hands of the matter rather than defy the angry crowds and serve justice.

We, like Mary, can see injustice all around us. Even if it doesn’t seem to affect us directly we cry out when we see brothers and sisters treated unfairly because of their ethnic background, gender or race. When innocent people suffer because of institutional racism. When all immigrants to America are treated with suspicion and prejudice in response to the few who actually seek to do our country harm. When the corporate executives retire with their huge golden parachutes paid for by taxpayers who are still unable to get modest business loans or mortgages. When federal and state budget cuts affect the children more severely than anyone else, it’s enough to make us weep.

Why are you weeping? Is it from grief, exhaustion and stress, feeling lost, afraid or due to injustice – or some mixture of all of these things? The good news is that the Lord meets us in our sorrow, listens to our concerns and stands ready to exchange our tears for Easter joy.

When we weep tears of grief, the risen Christ meets us and offers us the gift of eternal life. It is true that after his death nothing would be the same. Jesus explained that things would not go back to the way they were. “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father,” he said. Christ is alive, but his journey up from the grave continued up to his place beside God the Father in heaven. Because Christ rose, we can have faith that those who believe in him will also have a place in heaven, the gift of eternal life. “Where I am going, there you will be also,” he promised. In this we rejoice.

When we weep tears of exhaustion and stress, the risen Christ meets us and offers us the gift of the Holy Spirit. As he promised the Holy Spirit is our comforter, our counselor and our advocate. Even as Christ ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit remains with us to renew our strength, to carry our burdens and to lead us into new life even in this world. In this we rejoice.

When we weep tears out of confusion, feeling that our way is lost, Christ meets us as the Good Shepherd. Just as he promised, Jesus the Good Shepherd knows his sheep by name. As soon as she heard his voice call her name, “Mary!” she recognized him and her heart leapt for joy. The risen Christ continues to lead us, even when the path leads through the valley of death. Though we might not be able to see the way, we can trust that our Lord is the Way and the Truth and the Life and continue to follow our Good Shepherd. In this we rejoice.

When we weep tears of fear, Christ meets us and offers us the protection of the Heavenly Father. Jesus gave a message to Mary, he asked her to tell the other disciples that his Father is our Father, his God is our God. Just as Jesus prayed at the Last Supper, God our Father protects us in times of danger. Our father will guard us so that not one will be lost. Even when the world hates us, we can dry or tears and take courage that the Lord will keep and protect us. In this we rejoice.

When we weep tears of injustice Christ meets us and invites us to gather at his table, not as Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, but as equally beloved children of God. Though Christ is our Lord and master, he taught us to reverse injustice by taking the form of a servant and washing his disciples’ feet. And he taught us that we also must practice justice by serving one another, lifting up the lowly. As his followers we are strengthened by this meal to look our oppressors in the eye, and to stand up for our neighbors who are oppressed. The risen Christ gives us strength to live, not according to the world, but according to the just and righteous way of God. In this we rejoice.

As Mary left the garden to carry the message of the risen Christ to her brothers and sisters, I imagine that she was still weeping. But now her tears were transformed from tears of grief, exhaustion, confusion, fear, and injustice to tears of joy. May we all find ourselves overcome with such joy this Easter and in the days to come. Amen.