"Low" Sunday

 

This is “low” Sunday. The Sunday following the hype and excitement of Easter has generally been a Sunday of low attendance and quiet services. People stay away, whether tuckered out and recouping from Easter celebrations or taking a weekend to enjoy spring-like weather. Perhaps people feel so filled up that they feel no need to go to church.

 

I think that the designation “low” Sunday is a good one, for another reason.

Through the season of Easter our first readings are from the Book of Acts, and second readings are from 1^st  Peter. I really like these readings. It is not the resurrection stories that I get excited about, as much as these snippets from Acts and Peter. The texts follow the early church who is applying the resurrection to their daily lives and communities. We witness the church figuring out the Jesus story – Jesus’ death and resurrection – and the cataclysmic change taking place at that time because of it.

 

Low Sunday  - the disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection hole up in an upper room. Grieving and scared. As we follow believers in Acts, we notice that there are highs and lows. This fledgling movement starts in Jerusalem. Moving out from there, we hear stories from what are now, communities in present day Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. As the Apostles go out, preaching and teaching the good news, there are

low days when nothing happens. There are low days because they are persecuted, scared. not knowing what to do. They sit in jail or defend themselves and their faith before authorities. Yet, in the low, resurrection moments, miraculous experiences, and extreme spirit events, surprise everyone. There are stories: of crowds coming to hear them preach. Thousands of people at one time believing in Jesus and being baptized. Converts unexpectedly and immediately changed, when hearing the gospel, freee their slaves and have their households baptized. Others who leave everything to follow in Jesus’ ways.

These experiences -with hype and glamour, excitement and far-spreading news- begin and end in a “low” Sunday.

 

When I go on my daily walks I take note of peoples’ flowerbeds. Snowdrops are out and crocus are opening. They have been resurrected. One can see the green beginnings of daffodils and tulips, and the sprouts on forsythia bushes. For these it is not yet time to bloom. To a viewer they are in a “low” period, but much is going on under the surface as they get ready to bloom.

I think conversion, faith, and belief take time – the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection has to settle into hearts and minds – a ‘”low” period where greening and growing are happening undercover. And then in a bold moment, “low” bursts into full bloom. Full bloom could be a big event, an influx of seekers, adults requesting baptism, an overwhelming number of newcomers. Full bloom is a church, a faith community, in a moment of transformation, transition, resurrection, … whatever you want to call it.

It is a time that is: Exciting. Fear inducing. Hopeful. Encouraging. And Daunting.

 

On this “low” Sunday the death and resurrection of Jesus is settling into our bones. There is stuff going on that is not visible. In this state we hear stories from the Petrine and Pauline traditions that shared the gospel and were the church at the end of the 1^st century in the Roman Empire. We witness the highs and the lows. We witness a church that rapidly expands, faces persecution, and struggles in their social and cultural situations. We witness communities applying and living Christ’s resurrection as they wait for Christ’s imminent return.

 

Two thousand years later the church waits on a “low” Sunday, where imminent return is still in the making. Be not hasty to turn to doubt, just because it appears as if nothing is happening. Under the surface resurrection is percolating.

 

In 28 years of pastoring, much of my ministry has been working in the “low” times. Planting seeds, tending hearts, shepherding faith, fertilizing spirits. This has been your work too. We don’t always get to see the full bloom of resurrection.

 

Walter Bruggemann a theologian and influential Old Testament scholar, wrote, “The prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.”

In the readings from Acts and Peter, we learn that this is how the early church applied and lived the death and resurrection of Jesus. They spoke truth, grieved, and expressed hope. They spoke into a world lost in illusion, denial, and despair.

Consider the world we live in. Is it not lost in illusion, denial, and despair?

 

We are like the early church, having experienced the high of Easter Sunday, we set to work figuring out how to apply and live Jesus’ death and resurrection. We speak truth, grieve, and express hope. All of these are done in “low” time – with the expectation that our work will radically change, transform, invigorate, gladden, enliven, convert, redeem, renew; and YES resurrect, - people, communities, societies, cultures, and the whole world. This we believe.

 

This is how Easter people live. We believe that much is happening in that which is considered “low.”

We expectantly, and with great anticipation, await big Easter moments of resurrection.

And so, we carry on resurrection as we address illusion, denial, and despair by boldly telling the truth, grieving openly, and expressing hope.

 

Thanks be to God. Amen.