Immediate Word

For April 12, 2020:

• Easter Dawned by Tom Willadsen — Speak to the people who did not roll out of bed this morning and shout “Christ is risen!” Speak to those who are addled by sleep and confused by not finding what they expect to find when they go to the tomb..
• Second Thoughts: Business Not as Usual by Chris Keating — Alone, isolated, and weeping, Mary discovers the truth that because of Easter, things will never be business as usual.
• Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Ron Love, Chris Keating, Bethany Peerbolte.
• Worship resources by George Reed that focus on impartiality and confusion.
• Children’s sermon: Do What Now? by Dean Feldmeyer — Since God loves us all equally, all the same, God has made it so we all have to figure out how to get along and help each other.

Easter Dawned
by Tom Willadsen
John 20:1-18

In the Scriptures
John 20:1-18
Mary Magdalene is the character who drives this account of the resurrection. It is she who changes the most, whose assumptions and expectations are most confounded. Mary goes to the tomb very early in the morning on Sunday, before sunrise. The body had been placed in the tomb hastily as the Sabbath was approaching Friday afternoon. Sunday morning at dawn would be her first chance to care for the corpse of her beloved teacher and friend. Elsewhere in the gospels we learn a fair amount about Mary.

She is present in the resurrection accounts in all four gospels. She is the first one listed among Jesus’ female followers. There are eleven other women named among Jesus’ followers in Luke’s gospel. She is likely from Magdala, a city on the Sea of Galilee about 80 miles from Jerusalem. “Magdalene” is not her last name, rather it is her hometown, and it distinguishes her from other Mary’s in the story, especially Jesus’ mother and Mary the mother of James and John. Usually in the New Testament women are identified by a family relationship, “Mary, the wife of Cleopas,” or Mary, the mother of James and John,” for example. In the eighth chapter of Luke’s gospel we hear that Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary Magdalene and that she and several other women provided for Jesus and his disciples out of their resources. There is a good chance that Mary Magdalene is unmarried, perhaps widowed; it appears that she is more independent than other women in first century Palestine. There is a traditional belief that Mary was a woman of low character, a conspicuous sinner. In fact, Pope Gregory in the sixth century declared that she was a prostitute. The text does not support such a reading.

The premise of “The Da Vinci Code” is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, they had a child together and the Church has suppressed knowledge of this child for nearly 2,000 years. “The Da Vinci Code” is a work of fiction.

Mary from Magdala was neither a prostitute nor Jesus’ wife. She was one of his closest followers. In John’s gospel she stood near the cross, with Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and another woman. In the 15th chapter of Mark, she watched the crucifixion with Mary, the mother of James, and with Salome. We know she was the first one at the tomb on Sunday morning.

It was dark, but she found that the stone that had sealed the tomb had been rolled away. She assumed that someone had stolen the body, though she did not look into the tomb. She ran to tell two disciples. She returned to the tomb and wept. When she looked in she saw two angels. (This may be the only time in scripture that angels appear and they do not say, “Don’t be afraid!”) She told them she was weeping because, “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they laid him.” Then she turned away from the open tomb and the angels.

When she turned from the tomb, Jesus spoke to her, asking the same question the angels asked. She saw Jesus, but she doesn’t see him; she assumed the man she saw is the gardener. She held onto the idea that the corpse has been taken. That’s what she told Peter and the other disciple. That’s what she told the angels. That’s what she told Jesus. And this assumption made perfect sense: Jesus’ body was put there Friday afternoon. She watched him die. Mary was devastated by the death of her friend and had gotten up early on Sunday to offer the only kindness she could offer; she wanted to care for his body; she wanted to give him a decent burial. She loved him. She was one of his most devoted followers. She watched while the others who were close to him scattered when he died on the cross.

Then her friend called her by name, “Mary!” and it says, “She turned and called him “Teacher!” But that last turning is not a physical turning. Earlier she had turned to look in the tomb and turned when leaving the tomb. This time she’s facing gardener/Jesus. She doesn’t turn; her eyes are opened. Her heart turned when she was able to stop clinging to the idea that Jesus’ body had been taken away. When Mary stopped clinging to death she was able to embrace a new, stunning reality: Christ is risen!

In the News
Covid-19. That’s the only thing that has been in the news for the last month. We are in the middle of an economic disruption like we have never seen. There is no discussion among economists about whether we are in a recession. The only discussion is when the depression will start. When the economic depression will start, I should say. Many people are suffering from depression and isolation. The inequities in our society are exposed in a way that they have never been before.

On March 24 President Trump stated that “he would like to see the country ‘back to work’ by Easter, or Sunday, April 12, as he considers easing stringent social-distancing guidelines put in place to stem the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak across the US.”

Asked if it’s possible for the country to return to normal by Easter, Trump said, “I think it’s absolutely possible. Now, people are going to have to practice all of the social distancing and things we’re doing now.... But we have to get our country back to work.”

Trump doubled down on the Easter deadline during a separate Fox interview after the town hall.

"Wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full?" he said. "You'll have packed churches all over our country. I think it’ll be a beautiful time."

He later admitted that there was no medical basis for the resumption of normal business activities on Easter, just that it would be nice symbolically.

The president changed his mind when he realized that his chances of being re-elected would be damaged if the economy were opened prematurely:

President Donald Trump was persuaded against trying to reopen the US economy by Easter only after seeing polls showing widespread support for continuing coronavirus lockdown measures, The New York Times reported Monday.

In a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Sunday, the president announced that a federal lockdown advisory would remain in place through April.

The announcement was an abrupt U-turn by the president, who just the week before was touting the possibility of having normal American life restart at Easter — which falls around mid-April — despite warnings from public-health officials.

The Times reported that Trump's change of mind was prompted not just by projections of the number of infections that could be caused by lifting restrictions too early, but also by polls showing widespread public support for continuing lockdown measures and opposition to reopening the economy too early.

Trump's campaign officials also told the president that if guidelines were lifted too early and death rates rose, it could be more damaging to the president's chances of re-election in November than the economic damage caused by continuing them, The Washington Post reported Monday, citing two officials with knowledge of discussions.

The impact of the crisis on his re-election chances has been on the president's mind from the outset, according to multiple reports.

The Washington Post reported last week that Trump wanted to restart the US economy as soon as possible because he feared the tanking stock market would hurt his re-election chances.

There are two other news stories that are being shaped by Covid-19: The number of churches who are holding worship services streaming over Skype, Zoom or YouTube has skyrocketed since the first of March. It seems that the number of charts showing the exponential growth of coronavirus cases and the increase in people filing unemployment claims could be matched by the number of worshiping communities who have plunged into the 21st century. The church I serve began streaming worship on Facebook on March 22. We kept the number of people in the building under ten, including people running the audio and video. We have reached many more people in three weeks of streaming than we had in three months of people attending worship in real life. The physical distancing urged by public health professionals has not diminished the emotional, social connections congregations like the one I serve are working to strengthen in this trying moment.

There have been a number of churches that have conspicuously and defiantly continued to worship in person. One pastor, Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of The River Church in Tampa, Florida was arrested March 30 for unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules.

Cases like this will turn into hotly contested debates over the free exercise of religion clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution. The question will come down to where to draw the line between “right” and “good.” In my opinion, there is a decent chance that the clergy who defied public health rules will not be convicted; they will stand on their firm belief that local governments went too far in banning assemblies of a certain size. (In my state, the upper limit for public gatherings is currently ten people.) While it is certain that faith leaders who continue to conduct worship in large gatherings are acting recklessly, they, and their congregants are acting with full knowledge of the danger of their actions. It is not good that worship takes place in this circumstance, the leaders and their followers are acting with full knowledge of the consequences of their actions. They do, however, have the right to make unwise, selfish decisions.

Enough about context, let’s talk about the…

Sermon
I have always been troubled by Easter worship services that start too quickly, too loudly, with too much brass and too many lilies. Easter dawned. The good news of the resurrection unfolded. Those who were the first visitors to the tomb on Sunday morning were confused or silent or terrified. Only the Beloved Disciple in John’s account of the resurrection “saw and believed,” but then he didn’t tell anyone.

Speak to the people who did not roll out of bed this morning and shout “Christ is risen!” Speak to those who are addled by sleep and confused by not finding what they expect to find when they go to the tomb. Only the Beloved Disciple “got” it right away. Most of the people who are watching your live streamed worship Easter morning are not going to be like him. They are sitting with their second cup of coffee, lamenting that they are not there to smell the lilies and hear the brass.

And in this moment, you may want to call attention to the physical distancing message that Jesus leaves Mary with, “Do not hold onto me….”

The first Easter was not a grand, celebratory pageant. The first Easter was a whole lot of scared, broken, confused people who could not believe that God had turned the shadow of death into daybreak. Preach that hope, that turning today. The people need to hear it, even if you’re only talking to a video camera in an empty sanctuary. The news is real. Confounding, but real. Thanks be to God!


SECOND THOUGHTS
Business Not as Usual
by Chris Keating

It won’t be business as usual this Easter Sunday — in fact, it will likely be the first time the church has ever shuttered its doors on Easter Sunday and nearly uniformly proclaimed to people, “The Lord is Risen. Stay at home.”

Lilies ordered in February will still be delivered, and preachers will still be preaching, but the virulent spread of Covid-19 means faith communities are scrambling to find new ways of gathering. It’s a worldwide problem, of course, which has impacted not only Christianity, but other faiths as well. Saudi Arabia has closed access to Mecca, interrupting the pilgrimages of faithful Muslims. Rabbis have relaxed rules surrounding foods and technology in advance of a socially-distanced Passover. One Orthodox rabbi reminded members of his community that Passover emerged from surviving a plague.

“When confronted with life or death, Jews must always emphatically choose life. This has been the Jewish way since the beginning of time,” wrote Rabbi Avram Mlotek. “And remember the mantra, the trope that has accompanied our people since Passover days: Nevertheless, Jews persisted.”

Passover, Ramadan, and Easter will all happen, whether or not we’re sheltering in place. But as clergy have learned in the last month or so, our celebrations will be very different.

I joked the other day that there are more microphones inside our sanctuary than there were in Nixon’s Oval Office. The chancel now resembles a television studio, with cameras, lights, cords and stands. In an instant, in a twinkling of an eye, the church has moved online. Our church vocabularly includes new, more energetic-sounding words like “streaming” and “Zoom.”  

It what might come to be known as the Pandemic Pivot, Christians are realizing the truth behind what so many have been saying for so long. The church, it seems, must change. It must change quickly, or else it will become nothing more than a relic of pre-coronavirus history.

It’s a problem for institutions that have placed their stock in trade in unchanging, unwavering traditions. A stunning example of this resistance could be Cardinal Raymond Burke, a conservative Roman Catholic known to be critical of Pope Francis. Despite living in Italy, where the outbreak of Covid-19 has been particularly deadly, Burke announced a couple of weeks ago that Catholics “must be able to pray in our churches and chapels, receive the Sacraments, and engage in acts of public prayer and devotion, so that we know God’s closeness to us and remain close to Him, fittingly calling upon His help."

In contrast, Pope Francis marked the beginning of Holy Week with a Palm Sunday mass inside an empty St. Peter’s Basilica.

Change began earlier in Lent. Remember how things were, way back in February? We dropped handshakes in favor of fist bumps, and encouraged congregants to stand a bit further apart from each other. We passed on potlucks and fried fish dinners, and invested in extra hand sanitizer. For most churches, however, in person worship came to a screeching halt by mid to late March. But that was the only thing to stop. In the transition to online worship, pastors clocked extra hours and earned do-it-yourself degrees in technology and digital transformation.

By and large, it has worked. It’s not been easy and there have been plenty of gaffes and blunders along the way. We’ve dropped audio, erased video and pointed cameras away from speakers. Grace abounds, however, and most churches have found ways to adapt.

We have learned new ways. We are guided not only by the necessity of the moment but primarily by the reminder of the resurrection. The promise of our faith is that when it comes to resurrection, there is no such thing as business as usual.

It’s the lesson the disciples learn as they race to the empty tomb on Easter morning. Mary went there in the early morning, expecting to find things the way she’d had seen them on Friday. Her trek to the tomb was in keeping with ordinary practices and customs, but what she found turned those customs on their ear. If we cannot count on the dead staying dead, then what else will change?

Later, after the men have seen the empty tomb, she is alone, isolated in her grief. She is weeping, perhaps because her world has changed and she isn’t equipped to handle the new circumstances. Perhaps she is also exhausted and emotionally drained by the trauma. Perhaps she is uncertain how she’ll make the move from disequilibrium to stability.

In that moment, Mary’s experience offers hope. Alone, isolated and weeping, Mary hears the voice of Christ. It’s not “business as usual,” but instead it is just like Jesus said to them. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”


ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Chris Keating:

Acts 10:34-43
Viral hatred
Peter bears witness to the ever-spreading news of the gospel, making it clear that the resurrection is God’s gift to all people, regardless of nationality. That’s quite a contrast to the xenophobic message many have attached to the novel coronavirus. Asians have borne the brunt of these attacks. Some have called this a time of “two pandemics,” a blending of racism with Covid-19.  News accounts of bigoted verbal and physical assaults, with the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council reporting a 50% increase in the number of coronavirus related discrimination news stories.

Many of the incidents include reports of perpetrators using the coronavirus to harass and attack Asian women. One scholar characterized their troubling incidents as “the coronavirus being weaponized.” In one incident, an Asian American woman in Los Angeles was followed by young men who made inappropriate comments and asked, “Do you want to give me the coronavirus?”

A Florida high school student produced a four minute film “Coronavirus Racism Infected My High School,” which explores how the virus has caused xenophobic fears, rumors and bigoted stereotypes to emerge in recent months.

* * *

Jeremiah 31:1-6
Someday there’ll be dancing again
Jeremiah is quite clear that the families of Israel who endure will one day find grace in the wilderness, and that one-day God’s steadfast love will offer them reason to celebrate and make merry. Congregations will be yearning to hear that promise this Easter. With sanctuaries shut down, Easter egg hunts cancelled, and church programs switched to virtual formats like Zoom and WebEx, church members will soon be itching for fellowship and worship.

Take note of the actions leaders in New Jersey took to close famed stretches of the state’s shore. In Avalon, NJ, the mayor closed the town’s beaches, boardwalk and recreation areas, and suspended all special events through Memorial Day. “There will be a time when properties can be rented, and visited freely, but that time is not now,” the mayor of Avalon said. “I’m asking every property owner and rental platform to strictly adhere to these painful but necessary executive orders and directives as health and safety are our only priorities at this time.”

* * *

Colossians 3:1-4
Will anything change?
Paul’s proclamation of Christ’s resurrection is a witness to his own personal transformation. It is that sort of transformation that is invoked in Colossians 3:1-4 with admonitions to “seek the things that are above.” Transformational change is the result of resurrection — which makes some wonder what sort of lasting changes the pandemic may create.

Historian Nancy Bristow, who specializes in researching the 1918 influenza pandemic, says that history tells us not many of us will make lasting changes in behavior. Aside from changing habits like frowning on public spitting (obviously the author has never spent much time at middle school camp), Bristow notes that the influenza epidemic did not result in a push for national health insurance, even though 675,000 Americans had died. About 1 in 4 Americans caught the disease, but “the pandemic did not disturb the social economic inequities it made visible.” It’s a reminder that perhaps Paul’s instructions may be worth exploring in order to see these experiences as producing transformational change.

* * *

John 20:1-18
The great empty
Mary embarks on her early morning mission expecting “business as usual.” Since the dead normally stay dead, she is naturally surprised by what she finds. When she returns with Peter and John, they are astounded by the emptiness they find.

Last week, photographers from the New York Times were sent across the world to document empty streets and barren monuments. Instructed to find images of once-bustling plazas, and normally crowded public places, the photographers found what the Times called “the great empty,” or “a present emptiness,” which is somehow eerily beautiful and hopeful. Like the resurrection, the great empty suggests that hope remains.

 “(The) present emptiness, a public health necessity,”  writes Michael Kimmelman, “can conjure up dystopia, not progress, but, promisingly, it also suggests that, by heeding the experts and staying apart, we have not yet lost the capacity to come together for the common good. Covid-19 doesn’t vote along party lines, after all. These images are haunted and haunting, like stills from movies about plagues and the apocalypse, but in some ways they are hopeful.”

Initially Mary fears that Jesus’ body has been moved, but the great emptiness of the tomb eventually guides her to the promising hope of resurrection.

* * * * * *

From team member Mary Austin:

John 20:1-18
Confusion, Distress and then Resurrection
In John’s telling of the resurrection, Mary gets confusion, grief and pain before she gets the experience of seeing the resurrected Jesus. There’s no experience of new life without having the old life disintegrate first. Bud Welch experienced that disintegration in his life when his daughter Julie was killed in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Julie was in her first job after college, and her dad had planned to meet her that day for lunch. After the explosion, he sat by his phone for two days, waiting for her to call and say she was ok. Finally, Bud says, “I gave up my sleepless vigil and drove downtown. Because I had a family member still missing, police let me through the barricade. Cranes, search dogs and an army of rescue workers toiled among hills of rubble, one of them a mound of debris that had been the Athenian restaurant. Mangled automobiles, Julie’s red Pontiac among them, surrounded a scorched and broken elm tree, its new spring leaves stripped away like so many bright lives. Julie, where are you? Rescuers confirmed that everyone else working in that rear office had made it out alive. The woman at the desk next to Julie’s had come away with only a cut on her arm. But, at exactly nine o’clock, Julie had left her desk and walked to the reception room up front, to escort her first two clients back to her office. They found the three bodies Saturday morning in the corridor, a few feet from safety.”

Bud says, “One small event did stand out among the meaningless days. One night — two months after the bombing? four? — I was watching a TV update on the investigation, fuming at the delays, when the screen showed a stocky, gray-haired man stooped over a flower bed. “Cameramen in Buffalo today,” a reporter said, “caught a rare shot of Timothy McVeigh’s father in his…” I sprang at the set. I didn’t want to see this man, didn’t want to know anything about him. But before I could switch it off, the man looked up, straight at the camera. It was only a glimpse of his face, but in that instant I saw a depth of pain like — like mine.”

Oh, dear God, I thought, this man has lost a child too. That was all, a momentary flash of recognition. And yet that face, that pain, kept coming back to me as the months dragged on, my own pain unchanged, unending. January 1996 arrived, a new year on the calendar but not for me. I stood at the cyclone fence around the cleared site of the Murrah Building, as I had so often in the previous nine months. The fence held small remembrances: a teddy bear, a photograph, a flower. My eyes traveled past the mementos to the shattered elm tree where Julie had always parked. The tree was bare on that January day, but in my mind I saw it as it had looked the summer after the bombing. Incredibly, impossibly, those stripped and broken branches had thrust out new leaves.” Bud realized that the execution of his daughter’s killer would not heal his heart, and he stopped lobbying for the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh. People were curious about that, and invited him to come and speak.

“One invitation, in the fall of 1998, three years after the bombing, came from a nun in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo…what had I heard about that place? Then I remembered. Tim McVeigh’s father. Reach out. To the father of Julie’s killer? Maybe Julie could have, but not me. Not to this guy. That was asking too much. Except Julie couldn’t reach out now. The nun sounded startled when I asked if there was some way I could meet Mr. McVeigh. But she called back to say she’d contacted his church: He would meet me at his home Saturday morning, September 5. That is how I found myself ringing the doorbell of a small yellow frame house in upstate New York. It seemed a long wait before the door opened and the man whose face had haunted me for three years looked out. “Mr. McVeigh?” I asked. “I’m Bud Welch.” “Let me get my shoes on,” he said. He disappeared, and I realized I was shaking. What was I doing here? What could we talk about? The man emerged with his shoes on, and we stood there awkwardly. “I hear you have a garden,” I said finally. “I grew up on a farm.” We walked to the back of the house, where neat rows of tomatoes and corn showed a caring hand. For half an hour, we talked weeds and mulch — we were Bud and Bill now — and then he took me inside and we sat at the kitchen table, drinking ginger ale. Family photos covered a wall. He pointed out pictures of his older daughter, her husband, his baby granddaughter. He saw me staring at a photo of a good-looking boy in suit jacket and tie. “Tim’s high school graduation,” he said simply. “Gosh,” I exclaimed, “what a handsome kid!” The words were out before I could stop them. Any more than Bill could stop the tears that filled his eyes.”

Bud says, “Bill and I keep in touch by telephone, two guys doing our best. What that best will be, neither of us knows, but that broken elm tree gives me a hint. They were going to bulldoze it when they cleared away the debris, but I spearheaded a drive to save the tree, and now it will be part of a memorial to the bomb victims. It may still die, damaged as it is. But we’ve harvested enough seeds and shoots from it that new life can one day take its place — like the seed of caring Julie left behind, one person reaching out to another. It’s a seed that can be planted wherever a cycle of hate leaves an open wound in God’s world.”

New life comes, growing from the seeds of confusion and despair.

* * *

Acts 10:34-43
Community Through Face Masks
As Covid-19 sweeps through communities, one of the places people are joining together is through, oddly, face masks. Everyone wants to do something to help, and there’s not much for most of us to do. With the CDC recommending face masks, and with professional grade masks needed for health care workers, people have been making their own. Instructions abound for making masks at home. “Making your own mask keeps official protective gear available for health care workers who are dealing with shortages of personal protective equipment. Wearing a mask when you need to be out of your house is an act of community solidarity, showing people around you that you care about protecting them as much as keeping yourself protected. And it’s an empowering chance to exercise creativity and personality during a time of uncertainty.”

People’s stories about the power of masks include things like, “I am so impressed with Tacoma quilters and sewers! A friend's daughter works for Youthcare in Seattle and after seeing the mask I sent his mother, asked if it was possible to get 100 masks for their staff serving homeless kids on the streets. That was Tuesday. By Wednesday evening, I had collected 75!! Youthcare staff were grateful. And now I have more orders to deliver. Neighbors just being neighborly and serving a need. #Tacoma Strong!”

Experts advise “think of a mask as like underwear: It needs to be washed after each use. "You don't take this dirty mask off, put it in your purse and then stick it back on your face," he says. "It's something that once you put on, is potentially either touching your coughs, sneezes or the spray of your speech, or protecting you from the coughs, spray, speech of other people. And now it's dirty. It needs to basically be either discarded or washed." So if you're wearing a cloth mask, put it into the laundry basket immediately. If it's disposable, throw it away. It's a big no-no to pull the mask down to eat a snack, then pull it back up: You've just gotten whatever dirty stuff is on the mask on your hands and into your mouth.”

A mask shows that we care — that we are interested in building up community.

* * *

Acts 10:34-43
A Call to Younger People
Our younger friends are much less worried about Covid-19 than older people, figuring, as one young man famously said, “if I get it, I get it.” In his speech in Acts, Peter says, “in every nation anyone who…does what is right is acceptable to him.” Amal Cheema, an M.D. candidate at the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, class of 2023, urges her fellow healthy young people to do what is right. She says the risk to people may not just be physical health, but that “we also risk our moral character in how we chose to respond to the pandemic.”  

Soon-to-be-Dr. Cheema adds, “Two fundamental virtues — benevolence and justice — can be embodied by us all. How can our actions during this pandemic attest to our moral character? Social distancing is benevolent because it will benefit others and prevent avoidable harm. Fulfilling the needs of the elderly and those isolated — people who are immunocompromised, undocumented or underinsured — is just. And, what underlies these virtues is our shared responsibility in this public health emergency: to put the needs of others before our own.”

Like Peter, she appeals to her listeners, “I'd like to appeal to my peers: If there has ever been a time for altruism, for self-sacrifice, this is it. Our communities and countries need us in overcoming one of the biggest crises of our lives. This is an opportunity for us to rise to the occasion and lead the charge through small ways with a significant impact.”

Doing what is right in this time is a mark of faith, and it builds up the web of connection between God’s people.

* * *

Jeremiah 31:1-6
Returning to Life
For those celebrating an almost-Easter this Sunday, not feeling the typical joy and celebration, the prophet Jeremiah offers a hopeful word. Where congregations are separated, and people are enduring hardship, this is powerful. Speaking through Jeremiah, God says, “Again I will build you, and you shall be built.” For churches with members who are out of work, or displaced and living with relatives, we hear God promise, “Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit.”

People like Kary Wayson need a promise to carry them forward. “Early spring is always a slower time at the Seattle restaurant where Kary Wayson works. She'd been a waitress there for almost 16 years when her city became one of the first epicenters of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. She says, reflecting, “all of a sudden, Seattle itself took a nosedive, and the restaurants were just truly empty.” There were no theater shows, no cruise ships, no sporting events, and her restaurant cut back hours, and then cut back menu items. Wayson says, “I walked through empty Seattle streets, which is known for its horrendous traffic — nobody, no cars, small business after small business on my way with, you know, hand-lettered signs in the windows, saying, closed.” Now her restaurant is closed, too, with an uncertain future.

“Another group that's been hit hard are truck drivers in the Port of Los Angeles. It's a shipping hub for Chinese imports. As coronavirus quarantines idled Chinese factories, port truck drivers like Neftali Dubon have been losing work.” Dubon says, “In the five years that I've been working at the Long Beach and LA ports, I've never seen what I'm seeing now. Places where the containers — we just have stacks of containers. It's just now empty, you know?” “Dubon is an owner-operator, meaning he's considered his own boss. So technically, he's still employed and does not qualify for government assistance. He gets paid for each load he picks up from the port and drives to a warehouse. He says he needs at least five or six runs like that a day to make a living. He's now doing one or two, meanwhile still paying down a loan on his trucking rig insurance, storage fees — a total of over $2,000.”

All of these people, and so many more, are waiting for the day that God promises through Jeremiah.

* * * * * *

From team member Bethany Peerbolte:

Acts 10:34-43
Get the Word Out
Even before the Covid-19 virus we knew we lived in an information age. We accept the 24-hour news cycle as the norm. We also expect the news to highlight the scary and anxiety driving stories. It is no different during this pandemic. The first week I was obsessed with finding out what was going on and would constantly look for updates. It was draining. Literally every second of the day held the potential for catastrophic news. I have since made a personal rule to only check the news for one hour a day and to seek out positive reports when they don’t naturally come across my newsfeed.

Thankfully there are people out there feeling the same way as me and have begun to collect the feel good stories into one place. My favorite has been actor John Krasinski who started a weekly update called “Some Good News.” He looks at ways people are supporting each other while physical distancing and how companies are stepping up to help those on the front lines. He has a great style that takes the pandemic seriously with a little humor and a lot of enthusiasm.

I think Paul would be proud of the way the church is stepping up to also be a source of good news through the pandemic. Churches have risen to the occasion of providing worship, pastoral care, and community connection in news ways for our new world. While leadership finds a way to take things online, church members have also gotten creative about how they meet spiritual needs in their community. One congregation circled a nursing home, 6 feet apart of course, to hold a prayer for the residents. The members knew some were sick and some were scared and hoped the prayer would ring some peace and strength. The Church has been doing what is asked in this Acts text even with the added hurdle of a pandemic. The Church is still witnessing and proclaiming the word of God to the world.

* * *

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Who do we listen to?
This psalm is helpful to reaffirm one’s trust in God. It speaks of the steadfast love of God, help in times of need, and victories being won while God is by one’s side. Many of us feel surrounded by the virus on all sides these days and these words can help us dream of a day when we will say we have won the victory too. This psalm reminds us that God has won victories for the people before and that God will get us through this battle too. God is worth putting out trust in because God is a seasoned partner through times of trouble. God was there before, and God will be here now.

Looking at God’s track record gives us hope. This can also be a good tool when choosing who to listen to for information about the Covid-19 pandemic. There are individuals jockeying for position as “the” expert to listen to and every news station wants to be the most informed. We can follow recommendations from the CDC or WHO. Dr. Fauci comes with an impressive track record, but even he is being told what he can and cannot say. Knowing who to listen to and who to trust is a daily struggle. In a time where it can be hard to know who to trust this psalm can center us and give us perspective. A history of truth and a helpful track record will be the most useful when deciding what to choose, who to listen to and who to put our trust in.

* * *

John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10
Empty
The tomb was empty. No one expected to find it empty. It took Mary a couple of very odd encounters to finally realize what had happened. The disciples struggle to grasp the reality for days. The tomb was empty, and that was great news!

We have seen a lot of emptiness these past few weeks. Certain shelves on grocery stores are still empty. Schools sit empty. Popular tourist attractions are empty. Churches are empty. The emptiness brings a lot of pain like the fear of what will happen to the economy. Teachers are lamenting not seeing their students again. While everyone understands why these measures are needed the emptiness is hard to process.

This Easter we will understand a little better the reality of emptiness. The fear that arises when we think something has been taken from us. The anger of not knowing why. The sad and helpless state Mary must have been in as she tried to solve the problem of an empty tomb. We will understand empty, but Easter also helps us redefine what empty can mean. It can mean new beginnings, it can mean life, it can mean good news for all people.

* * * * * *

From team member Ron Love:

I am 68 years old with the underlining condition of leukemia. This makes me the most vulnerable to death by the coronavirus. I am also autistic, which means I live every day as an anxious day. This means the constant news coverage of the pandemic only increases my anxiety. I have Asperger’s, which is on the autism spectrum, which means I lack social skills but I am brilliant in one area. My area of “brilliance” happens to be theology. But Asperger’s also means I live in isolation. I have no family and or friends. I never leave my home except to go to the post office, because I get all my mail at a PO box, as I don’t want anything in my yard as a means of self-protection, and I go to the grocery store. I do all of my shopping online, so only on rare occasions do I actually need to go to a store. As I live in isolation, this time of “social distancing” affects me the least of anybody in society. Yet, I am still scared. I am very scared!  

I was a Virginia State Trooper. We described our job as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. I could recount those many moments of sheer terror to the reader, but I am sure you can imagine what they were. But in those moments of terror I could see my enemy. I could deal with my enemy with the power of my badge. I was always in control.

From being a trooper, I became a United Methodist minister. For health reasons — autism — I had to leave that profession. While I was a minister, I served in the United States Army for a number of years as a chaplain. I was assigned to a Forward Field Hospital; the reader would better know this from the TV series M*A*S*H. Unlike the Civil War, World War I and World War II, where you knew those in front of you were the enemy and those behind you were your friend, I only knew the safety of the spot I stood on. Fear? Yes, fear! But again, in training, like it was when I was a state trooper, I could see my enemy. And I was in control with air support and artillery support.

But we are now at war with an unseen enemy. It is a war, as much as the World War II was a war and Vietnam was a war, and as much as there was a war on poverty and a war on drugs. But again, in those wars we could always see our enemy. In those wars we were in control.

This is no longer the case as we fight an unseen enemy. I spend hours to make sure every illustration I write is accurate and presents all the background information needed to be understood. I have no desire to make that time investment now as I share this. I read that one of the best virus movies ever made was Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman. In that movie (I am paraphrasing) he said we are fighting an enemy that is one billionth our size. An unseen enemy. And that is why we are afraid. That is why I am afraid. We are not in control!

Social distancing has made no difference in my life style since I live a life of social distancing. Yet, when the UPS man comes, I wonder. When the mailman comes with junk mail, I wonder. When I have to go to the post office, I wonder. When I have to go to the grocery store, I wonder. When I go for my daily walk with my dog Shadow, always to an open field where she can run free and unrestrained, I wonder.

This is not an apocalyptic moment in our lives, as television evangelists want us to believe. As a student of history, this is just a part of the course of human history. We will survive this and recover from this. The unknown is how much destruction the unseen enemy will cause? How much devastation? How many lives and families will be destroyed? How many people will be economically ruined? The unknown — will I die? 

So, where is our answer? Where is our hope? We begin — as Christians — knowing that the God of creation is still in control of the universe. We begin — as Christians — knowing our faith will sustain us. We begin — as Christians — knowing we will assist others whenever and wherever we can. We begin — as Christians — knowing that others who are the members of the body of Christ will support and care for one another. We begin — as Christians — singing the first century hymn as recorded in Philippians 2:6-11:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.


* * * * * *

WORSHIP
by George Reed

Call to Worship:
Leader: O give thanks to God, for God is good.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: God is our strength and our might.
People: God has become our salvation.
Leader: This is the day that God has made.
People: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

OR

Leader: Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
People: Christ is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Leader: The darkness does not last.
People: In the morning the light shines upon us.   
Leader: Give praise to God who brings life out of death.
People: We praise our God who is our Eternal Life.

Hymns and Songs:
The Day of Resurrection
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELW: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159/160   

The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done
UMH: 306
H82:
PH: 119
AAHH: 277
NNBH:
NCH: 242
CH: 221
LBW: 135
ELW:
W&P: 290
AMEC: 162 

Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
UMH: 312
H82: 214
NCH: 260
W&P: 323

In the Garden
UMH: 314
AAHH: 494
NNBH: 116
NCH: 237
CH: 227
W&P: 300
AMEC: 452 

Christ Is Alive
UMH: 318
H82: 182
PH: 108
LBW: 363
ELW: 389
W&P: 312
Renew: 300

Be Still, My Soul
UMH: 534
AAHH: 135
NNBH: 263
NCH: 488
CH: 566
W&P: 451
AMEC: 426 

Hymn of Promise
UMH: 707
NCH: 433
CH: 638
W&P: 515

Wonderful Words of Life
UMH: 600
AAHH: 332
NNBH: 293
NCH: 319
CH: 323
W&P: 668
AMEC: 207 

This Is the Feast of Victory
UMH: 638
H82: 417/418
PH: 594
ELW: Service Music
W&P: 315:
Renew: 199

I Come with Joy
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELW: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195

This Is the Day
CCB: 13   

We Will Glorify
CCB: 19
Renew: 33

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship

Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is life eternal:
Grant us the grace to accept your offer of new life
as we struggle through dark and scary times;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We bless you, O God, because you are life eternal. In you there is no darkness and no death. Help us to turn to you in faith that we may find new life in the midst of our dark and scary times. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our seeing death as the end.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We see death as the greatest enemy and the one we really need to fear. We forget that you are the God of life eternal who has conquered death for us. We celebrate Easter but rarely apply its lessons to our daily lives. Grant us the courage to trust in you and your resurrected Christ as we face the uncertainties of life. Amen.

Leader: God is life eternal and brings life to all creation. Receive God’s grace and life and share its joys with others.

Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because you are the source and foundation of our very lives. In you we know life eternal.

(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)

We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We see death as the greatest enemy and the one we really need to fear. We forget that you are the God of life eternal who has conquered death for us. We celebrate Easter but rarely apply its lessons to our daily lives. Grant us the courage to trust in you and your resurrected Christ as we face the uncertainties of life.

We thank you for all the blessings of this life and for those blessings which never die. We thank you for your guidance and help in times of trouble and for your joy and delight in good times. We thank you for family and friends and our sisters and brothers in the Church.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are sick and those who are dying. We pray for those who are lonely and scared. We pray for those who are risking their own health to help others.

(Other intercessions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:

Our Father....Amen.

(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)

All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Children’s Sermon Starter
Plant some seeds in cups of soil. Bean seeds or grass seeds work well. Talk to the children about how these seeds don’t look alive but there is life in them. Water the cups and place them in a sunny spot. Tell the children you will show them the cups and how the seeds grow into plants as we move through the fifty days of Easter. God always has a plan for life and joy for our lives.


* * * * * *

CHILDREN'S SERMON
Every and Anyone
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 10:34-43

“God plays no favorites. It makes no difference who you are or where you're from — if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.” Acts 10:34b-35, The Message Bible.

You will need: A map of the world and a map of the world showing the distribution of coronavirus or Covid-19 cases. These are available via Google Images or Bing Images.

Say:

(Showing the map of the world.)

Do you all know what this is a picture of? That’s right! It’s a map of the world we live in, isn’t it? Where do we live, can you point it out? Right, there, in (insert country name, here). So, what are these other places? That’s right, they are other countries. Other people live there, right? People live pretty much everywhere on this map. Even down here in Antarctica, the coldest place in the world, there are some people living there. You can go anywhere in the world but you just can’t get away from people, can you?

(If you are able, some slides of people of other countries and races in different kinds of garb could be shown, at this point.)

So which one of these countries is God’s favorite? Which one do you think God likes best? Which one does God like the least? Really? You think so?

(Showing the map of coronavirus distribution.)

How many of you have heard about the coronavirus?

Yes, that’s right. There’s this virus that’s going around and it’s making people sick, isn’t it? You can get it from other people who have it. That’s why we’re all staying at home. Are you all staying at home? I hope so. Becaue you don’t want to get sick and we don’t want you to get sick. And we don’t want to make other people sick, because we could have this virus and not even know it and we might give it to other people and make them sick and we don’t want to do that, do we? No.

So we stay home, right? Good.

Now this map shows everywhere that the coronavirus has been. Looks to me like it’s been just about everywhere, doesn’t it? Our country, other peoples’ countries. Just about everywhere, anyone and everyone is effected by the virus, aren’t we?

See, what we read this morning from the Bible is that God does not play favorites. God doesn’t say, “Well, I like these people so I’m going to not let them get coronavirus and get sick but those other people over there, I don’t really like them all that much because they live in the wrong place, or their skin is the wrong color, or they have funny ways of talking. So they can get sick.” No, God doesn’t say that. God doesn’t play favorites. It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from. God loves us all the same. And God hates it when we get sick. It makes God sad no matter who we are.

And when Jesus rose from the grave on Easter morning, he brought good news to ALL God’s people, didn’t he? Not just to some.

So, it looks like, since God loves us all equally, all the same, God has made it so we all have to figure out how to get along and help each other. If we do that we will get through this coronavirus thing. And when we get through the coronavirus thing we’ll see that every day is Easter!

Close with a prayer that thanks and praises God for showing no partiality but loving all of God’s people the same, and promising that we will all work extra hard to take care of each other because we’re Easter people, and that’s what Easter people do. Amen.


* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Immediate Word, April 12, 2020 issue.

Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.