JUST, a bad habit. (Easter 5B)

Some people who run have a very bad habit. I was one of those runners.

Runners are often asked, “How far did you run today?” “Or what is your next race?”  Runners with the very bad habit say, “I just ran 5k today.” Or, “My next run is just a half.” –referring to a half marathon, 21k.

The very bad habit is the addition of the apologetic, qualifying, embarrassed encompassing word, JUST.

Consider: JUST a half.  21k is a race unto itself, as is a 10k, or a 5k. Each distance has its peculiarities, specific skill set needed, and nuances to running the distance well. Each distance although seemingly ordinary during much of one’s training, can get complicated on race day and pose eons of surprises.  Running or walking any distance is not JUST anything.  Any of these distances is exercise, work well done, and an accomplishment; often ordinary, yet, filled with potential.

Some people who are Christians have a very bad habit. From time to time I am one of those Christians.

Christians are asked, “How did you share the Good News today?” Or, “where is your next mission?” Christians with the very bad habit, either don’t have a reply, or respond, “I just go to church.” “I just make prayer shawls.” “I just try to be a good person.”

The very bad habit is created as Christians assume various cloaks – humbleness, meekness, servitude, martyr status – sometimes the cloaks are so thick Christians fail to realize their contributions to bringing God’s kingdom and sharing the Good News.  JUST loving a neighbour, just going to church, just praying, just consoling a friend, just feeding someone who is hungry, giving someone a glass of water, just visiting the prisoner, the sick, just holding the hand of someone suffering.  Each item in this list has its peculiarities, specific skill set needed, and nuances to completing the tasks well.  Each item although seemingly ordinary during much of one’s day to day living, can get complicated from time to time, and pose eons of surprises.  These items are not JUST anything.  These items – those things that grow out of loving God and loving neighbour – though often feeling ordinary, are full of potential.  They are sharing the Good News, being missional, and bringing God’s kingdom.

The Psalmist writes Psalm 22, part of which we read earlier, as just an ordinary expression of an individual, who in suffering feels abandoned. Until, that is, there is a surprise in the ordinary– the section we heard. The understanding of the world at time of the Psalm was that the dead do not praise the Lord.  In the difficult Hebrew at the end of this reading, the words press on the understanding of the time and provide a vision of what is possible.  Here something happens.  People are given a new understanding, as the psalmist has the sufferer bear witness to a vision of beyond, of salvation – in this, dying is brought into the realm of God’s reign, such that in the throes of death and suffering the person can do no other than praise the Lord. Just an ordinary day, and ordinary event, is not so ordinary after all.

Many of you have heard the song, Ordinary Day, by Great Big Sea;

The song presents the listener with an attitude for viewing an ordinary day.  The lyrics reflect on goodness:

a smile on one’s face, the sun in the sky, water, and four walls around- shelter; there is an acknowledgement of sorrow, and reminder there is a tomorrow. And then repeated is the chorus:

And I say way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day
And it's all your state of mind
At the end of the day,
You've just got to say... it's all right.

It’s JUST an ordinary day.

This might have been true, until the ordinary day, when the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body and found the tomb empty.

This might have been true, until the ordinary day, when the disciples were behind locked doors and Jesus appeared among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

This might have been true, until the ordinary day, when followers were on the road to Emmaus, talking with a stranger, who opened scripture to them, and in the breaking of bread recognized it was the risen Christ.

It’s just an ordinary day.

This might have been true, until the ordinary day, when the resurrected Christ was resurrected for us, in us around us, to us, or through us.

It was just an ordinary day, for Philip.

Now ordinary had taken on new meaning after Jesus’s death and resurrection.  Ordinary was no longer spending his days, and often his nights, with eleven other men hanging off the words of Jesus; following Jesus around; watching Jesus debate, teach, heal, pray, and do normal things like eat, sleep, work a little, or go fishing.  The Easter event changed ordinary.

Ordinary now included living a life that was shaped by a community of believers who were trying to figure out and put Jesus’s words and vision into practice. Just an ordinary day, involved articulating the story of Jesus’s life and death and resurrection; and in telling the story being careful because it caused persecution, trial, or imprisonment.  Just an ordinary day, had Jesus’s followers watching out for each other, sharing their resources, eating and praying together. 

For Philip, just an ordinary day, quickly became an exercise in being pushed out of Jerusalem, on his way through Samaria, where each day he was led to new people and new places to share the Good News. The author of Acts, has Philip, on a number of occasions, moving the Gospel beyond the originally intended audience. Just as Jesus had suggested, the message was to move from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

On what had become, the new “just an ordinary day,” the potential in the day exploded into surprise.

William Willimon says it well, “it is the angel whom we see first, ordering Philip around, ordering him to do an absurd thing --- travel down a deserted road at noon! This is not the first nor will it be the last time in Acts that someone will hear a seemingly absurd order from the Lord.”

Philip listens to the angel and travels into the wilderness, where he just happens upon an Ethiopian eunuch sitting on a chariot reading the book of Isaiah. At the nudging of the Spirit, Philip goes over to the Ethiopian official and discusses the scripture with him. Discussing scripture was an ordinary part of Philip’s life, remember, one of the practices of the Apostles has been articulating the Good News.  What makes this event more than JUST an ordinary day is that the Ethiopian – a person considered exotic; this particular one, powerful with significant influence- is that he is a foreigner. Philip’s, “just an ordinary day,” where he moves farther from Jerusalem bringing the kingdom of God, became a world that much bigger than a moment before.

Each movement in the story of Acts, has the potential of the day exponentially increasing: the Ethiopian official asks to be baptized, the Spirit provides the presence of water – in the wilderness of all places, and then Philip is spirited away and finds himself in Azotus on the Mediterranean Sea.

Just an ordinary day in Philip’s life, unexpectedly exploded into surprise, and opened into its full potential, having Philip in the oddest of places with the most interesting of people.

There are no ifs, ands, or buts, about it – living after the Easter event – participating in the Easter event, changes everything.  There is no such thing as “just an ordinary day.” Resurrection has infused so much potential – hope, grace, love- in each moment, each action, that a sentiment of JUST, JUST doesn’t cut it!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, describes it this way: “Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.” 

God demonstrated the ultimate act of love, -suffering, dying, rising- giving us the extraordinary promise that every human life, -including you, including me – is of inestimable value. 

God loves. We love. You love. I love.

This love opens our hearts and beings, to have attitudes that welcome the unexpected surprises in the potential of each day. In fact, to crave, even seek out resurrecting hope and extraordinary promise, through sharing the Good News and bringing the kingdom… in the actions that “just” define the moments of our lives.

Because of Easter, just an ordinary day, is simply a gift – a day- full of potential where angels and the Spirit have us in the oddest places with the most interesting of people. May we open our hearts to see these places and people, to share the Good News and bring the kingdom in all that we say and do; for the love God, from the love of God.  Amen.