The Power of the Penis

Mary Magdalene, Apostle

John 20: 1-2, 11-18

In the Gospel text we see a woman is given divine authority to speak. Mary Magdalene is the apostle to the apostles. The apostle Paul doesn't mention this at all. Paul talks about the resurrected Jesus appearing to Peter and John, the 12, the 500 and then himself. The Gospels agree that Mary is the first one to whom Jesus appeared. Jesus commissioned Mary Magdalene to proclaim his resurrection to the male disciples, the brothers.

Jesus tells her not to hold on to him, or cling to him, and this is important. All too often men hold on to Jesus and use His authority to hold on to the Church. The papacy is a good example of how Jesus' authority is used to control others...who can commune and who can't. When the Pope was "crowned" he presided at a communion service outside St.Peter's Basilica and standing next to him was a Patriarch from the Orthodox Church...they have penises. The message there is that that the Orthodox Christians are "OK;" they are really Christians. The rest of us are baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but that is as far as the connection goes.

Seizing hold of Jesus sandals and all is taking the authority of Jesus and using it as a stick to beat other people with it. This is all about control and controlling the Means of Grace and can mostly be seen in communion. When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper He took the bread and passed it and did the same with the wine, he passed it and the disciples passed it to each other. It is seen that I and the assisting minister are the ones in control of the consecrated elements, but in reality we are just the hands that are passing them.

This is about the trusting the Gospel. The power of the message, the Word is to be trusted and if we don't trust it then we create legalistic power to control others.Communion is and individual experience with Jesus. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he excommunicates someone in his letter exercising his apostolic authority. When it came to communion practices he told them that they would receive it to their own condemnation, but he did not exercise his authority to tell them directly what they should do or not do.

The painting of Jesus in the Book of Revelation have it wrong when they depict Jesus with a sword in his mouth like a pirate. The image is that the Word of the Lord is mightier than a sword. It is the power and authority, the sword of rule. Trusting in the Gospel is to trust in the authority and power of the Word Made Flesh and not to hold on to it.

John The Baptist

Luke: 1

67 Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: 68‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. 69He has raised up a mighty saviour* for us in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, 73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 78By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon* us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ There are some calender events I want to talk about today. June 25 is called the Little Christmas. It is six months before Christmas and is John the Baptists Birthday. According to Luke's Gospel, Elizabeth is six months pregnant when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is going to give birth to Jesus. June 21, the first day of summer, we commemorate Onesimus Nesib, translator and evangelist in Ethiopia. Onesimos was the name of the slave in Paul's letter to Philemon. Philemon became a Christian but did not baptize and free Onesimus so he ran away to Paul. Paul baptised him and Onesimus returned with Paul's letter that was going to be read in the assembly where Paul speaks of hoping to visit there and requests a place to stay. Onesimus of Ethopia was also a slave and a missionary paid for him and freed him. He learned the Holy Scriptures and later translated them and became a leader in the Ethiopian Christian Church. Terror: phobia, an irrational fear, devoid of reasoning. It seizes us and takes control of our minds and makes us act unreasonably. The government tells us to be afraid and gives us color code that never reaches green to tell us how afraid we are supposed to be. There are four steps to peace that take away all fear: knowledge of salvation to the people; the forgiveness of sins; to give light to those who sit in darkness; and to guide our feet into the way of peace...then we can serve God without fear. The color scale seems to have replaced the doomsday clock of yesteryear. We were told after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 to go shopping. It was the governments call to victory through shopping. This is not a Christian or Christ like arrangement. What does the angel say? "Fear not! only believe." This is a spiritual solution set apart from our worldly superiors. The government wants us to depend on the state to make us feel safe and free from terror. The clock is ticking on the powers that be. Today as we commemorate St. John the Baptist, we understand that the the time is up on fear. Jesus makes us free.

Holy Trinity

Romans 5:1-5 5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 5:3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 5:4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5:5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

What is our relationship with God like? A better translation of verse one would be, "Let us have peace with God." In Genesis it is clear that all of humanity is jealous of God, we want to be like him and will risk death to achieve it. When all done, the blame game began and Adam accused God because He gave him the woman, Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent.

Paul is saying let us have peace with God, since God already justified us through Jesus Christ. When you suffer, have hope and boast in it. Do not blame God nor be jealous of God. Be at peace with God.

Last year at a college reunion I was talking with a former college mate of mine who gave up his pursuit of a PHD to become a lawyer. I told him that I was going to preach to about the Holy Trinity. I did that; didn't I? He shook his head and said that there is a lot that goes into that. There is a lot of foundation to laid and a framework to be built to teach the Holy Trinity--or is there?

In the Holy Trinity we see a completeness of sharing--a turning outside of God's whole self to share in all things. When we see the Holy Trinity as a unity of sharing and that we are a part of that through Jesus Christ then we should have pity on God who has to deal with us. We don't share and we don't have a unity in all we do. Yet, God continues to love us and continues to hold us dear to Him.