Trinity Church in the City of Boston
May 4, 2025
Easter 3, Year C
- Acts 9:1-6, 7-20
- John 21:1-19
- Psalm 30
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
God who is with us
in the locked room, in the empty nets, in our inner conflicts,
help us to embrace our vulnerabilities, we pray.
May we allow ourselves to be naked with you,
all our weaknesses and flaws laid bare before our Maker,
the One who knows and loves us best of all.
Be our strength and our guide,
as we determine how to place one foot in front of the other.
Provide us with what we need for the journey:
for our bodies, minds and spirits,
and grant us the right companions
to accompany us on the road.
Amen.1 https://www.spiritualityofconflict.com/readings/365/third-sunday-of-easter
This year was the first year where I experienced that divine astronomical occurrence… When the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox aligned with the same weekend as the Sunday before the third Monday of April. Otherwise known as Easter Day occurred directly before the Boston Marathon Monday. The pinnacle of the Christian faith and a massive event in the Boston and running community.
It was a THING.
And because of this THING, the algorithms in my social media were broken open with cheesy Christian memes and all things running. And the theme continues still today…..
From cheeseey Jesus jokes about BRB to silly sign recommendations at the marathon like “Lamest parade ever”
Even two weeks post these major events I am still getting this theme running through feed.
One short clip had me laughing and thinking a bit further……
The reel (a 45sec video clip with words or not words) proposed “What if”2 https://www.tiktok.com/@mitchscott2022/video/7382758433168035114
What if the relay baton was not a slim cylindrical metal tube.
(Now as a distance Runner, Sprinters have always amazed me… They finish quicker than I can actually lace my running shoes. In college, the distance runners actually willingly ran a relay. We only ran it once. We ran a Race of 4x10k. Our teammates who were sprinters were not amused. It was long, it was boring, and seriously holding onto a baton for 6.2miles is ridiculous- and you can rest assured that this will never become an olympic event) so with this mindset I leaned in… what are these sprinters going to do?
What if the baton was……a bunch of balloons
What if it was a traffic cone
What if it was a watermelon
What if it was a HUMAN
With each one, you saw the word before the person came running onto the screen with the item.
The typical baton was passed seamlessly between the two athletes who were serious about their task. They just did it.
The Balloons – the hand off was exquisite.
Wind resistance was real.
The Traffic Cone- awkwardly passed with a small delay….forcing the person who would carry it forward to turn a different way.
The watermelon—- the hand off included almost a granny throw and carry blindly behind the person (also it fell and splattered)
The Human…. involved a third REAL person who held themselves very very rigid and they literally passed the person along, also resulting in a tumble and a lot of laughter.
I was struck by the person who always carried it forward and the person who always received it…… no shock, no delay, just carrying things forward as best they could.
Easter’s Empty tomb has been empty for 2 weeks and here we are..
The JOYFILLED algorithm of God’s love is still in our minds, still in our memories, still popping up when we see the flowers around us, the days are beautiful and the challenges persist, the message of this journey still with us and also the unexpected as we process where God has met us in our midst. Where God calls us to carry forward the baton of hope that a broken open empty tomb gives us.
Today is one of those days where we have an abundance of riches in our scriptures to read, mark and inwardly digest. Stories of transformation, stories of God’s love and life carried forward in the most unexpected ways, the message of hope and love handed off to the next person in some of the most puzzling instruments. The normal is broken open into the next chapter.
We begin with Saul – fresh and breathing threats and murder against the disciples- being passed the baton of love… not hate.
Join them do not fight them.
God striking Saul down literally, physically- passing a message of new chapter of his life. Persecution transformed into proclamation. I am pretty sure Saul did not see that coming as he passionately set about his day.
Coupled with Ananias, the faithful man called to go and care for the very man the newly forming Christian community lived in fear of coming to their door. Ananias, also called by name to step out of his threshold, receiving the same message of God’s love to care for this murder breathing man, to carry the baton of love and then share it with the community around him.
And like the two runners in the reel- seamlessly Saul and Ananias do it. In the midst of the awkward, “the who woulda thunk to do that?” God created a new way and they carried the message forward…..
Today is a day where we hear that God interrupts and engages, and in so doing, disrupts and creates a whole new pathway.
While it is a-w-w-kward….. anxiety mixed with hope…..
the forward movement continues.
And if Saul and Annanias weren’t enough, in our gospel reading today we hear about Peter and the disciples doing what they know best.
What are you doing in these past few days since those last days of Jesus’ life, since the tomb has been cracked open and found empty? The range of emotions are the roller coaster you are living in….disciples, what do you do?
You do what you know to let your mind body and soul find some peace.
They aren’t runners, they are fishermen.
They go fishing.
Go back to the water
Go back to know what you know.
Dropping the nets, watching the sunrise, sweating, doing something you knew how to do…..
And in all that ordinary known-ness- Jesus appears.
Waving from the coastline….
Annoyingly, he asks “Did you catch any fish” (FWIW, You can literally SEE if a boat has caught fish by how high it is sitting in the water….. didn’t we talk about seeing and believing last week?)
Finding their audible confession of No, Jesus says,
“Do it again, this way.”
Sigh……I can hear the exhaustion of the disciples….You want me to do what?
And trying that new and different way, they achieve more than they can imagine.
The fish are so abundant that the nets are breaking, the boat is swollen with the catch. While they met Jesus with fatigue and doubt, their joy and re-energized demeanors had Peter jumping out of the boat in wild abandon.
They broke bread together.
Breakfast on the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee.
And Peter’s thrice denial is transformed into a threefold affirmation to leave fishing and be a shepherd-care and feed the sheep.
Jesus is passing the baton of love, of God’s call and accompaniment on this journey, the gift that we in turn are to pass along too. The awkwardly creative, new pathway creating, passing of worthiness and wholeness that no other can provide.
Today is a day of things being passed along and cracked open.
The old way re-envisioned and carried forward.
The love of God changing the ordinary and being shared with the unexpected.
Being broken open within community.
Being affirmed in community
Being cared for in community.
Being offered in new and different ways inviting each of us to carry the baton together.
Today we (will) bless those in our community who are graduating this year and celebrate with them as they begin a new chapter in their lives. As their world of “known” are broken open in the next chapter and new ways are presented to know and be known.
My words to them and to you are the same- to be broken open reveals God’s presence in our lives, even when we are exhausted, even when we feel unworthy, even when we have made the most horrible mistakes, even when what we are being asked into is so different- God says to us -”Do it Again” (a little like Yoda, there is no Try- Do”)
“Go and care for”
“Be with”
To every “what if or Even when” God says “And”
AND Saul gets a new name AND new community; he gets credit for writing even more letters than Dear Abby.
AND Ananias did not die, he gained a friend, AND survived.
AND the disciples caught more than they could carry
AND Peter was forgiven, affirmed, reincorporated,
AND commissioned to lead.
AND you, too, called by name, are invited to have your own heart broken open to receive the sometimes awkward, always creative, reliably present, love of God.
AND to go and pass the baton to those whom you encounter.
Be Creative. Be Loving, Be Kind. Be Unexpected.
AND know that in each moment of being broken open, there – too- is the Easter moment, that the story is not over, we keep on this journey together.
Like the bread we will share soon, in being passed the broken bread, we too receive forgiveness, affirmation, AND call to the hope that all is being transformed by the love we have received and we will too, will pass along to those we encounter.
We too are called by name in the unknown times to share this baton, to let the algorithm of love govern our actions…..even if it seems the world is topsy turvey and stacked against us.
Lace up your shoes and receive the love of God that has been passed from person to person since the beginning each time in a new and creative way.
Amen.