Last month Tammy and I went to Italy to visit Chelsea, our daughter, who is studying abroad this semester.  We finally got our pictures back and I am anxious to show them to you – except there is one problem.  They are out of order.  They could not have been more mixed up if the photo lab had shuffled them.  So we can’t show them to anyone until they are put in order.  Sorry.

I’m surprised that we are so particular about placing pictures in the order they were taken.  Our memories certainly don’t follow such rules.  For instance, this week I remembered when I was nine years old at the White Front Department Store with my Aunt Peg and Uncle Bill in Southern California.  I must have gotten on the toy aisle or somewhere near the baseball equipment and not noticed that they had kept going.  I have no idea how long we had been separated, I only know the sheer terror that I felt when I realized they were gone.  I ran all through that store and out the front door, panic increasing with each passing moment.  Finally as my tear stained face made its way back into the store they saw me and asked what on earth was wrong with me.  I told them I was scared because I was all alone.

Before that memory had played its way all through my mind another memory fought for my attention.  I was 29 years old, with my friend, Don, at Chain O Lakes Campground outside of Cleveland, Texas.  It was a neat place to fish, especially since it had alligators, which people from Ohio don’t often see at fishing holes.  One night I was casting a little Jitterbug lure on the water and gently reeling it back in.  The night was so dark that all I could do was fish by sound.  The jitterbug hitting the pond’s surface, the rippling sound of a top water lure being retrieved - waiting for the splash to indicate the strike of a big bass.  Don had wandered along the bank.  Then came a cast that caught a branch.  My line got all tangled up and in the silence I heard a rustling in the leaves.  All of a sudden a question emerged that I had never considered before, “Where do alligators go when it gets dark?” 

I gently whispered my friend’s name, “Don.”  There was no answer. 

I said it a little louder, “Don.”  Still nothing as I attempted to work out the tangles in my line.  The rustling in the grass grew louder and closer. 

Finally in desperation I yelled, “Don!”  He responded and I ran toward the sound of his voice leaving my rod and reel to the trees and the man-eating alligator.  Together we walked back to retrieve it.  I tried to retain some dignity by asking if he had a light to help me untangle my line that got caught in a tree.  I think he was on to me, given the look of terror in my eyes.

Memories seldom yield to our chronological ordering.  They just surface, like photographs all out of order.

Somehow I think that’s what God’s photo album looks like – not so much bound by when they occurred.  I want to show you three snapshots from the album of God and God’s people called the Bible.  Allow me to read them one after the other and then have a chance to address them each briefly.  They are found in Genesis 2, Revelation 21 and John 20.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

Genesis 2:18 – ¹⁸Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

Revelation 21:1-5 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; ⁴he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” ⁵And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

John 20:19-21 – ¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The Word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.  In these passages the Lord revealed the divine significance of human community.  Let us pray.

These are pictures for Easter, pictures that remind us why we get together with each other.  Easter calls us to community: Together again.

Community is one of the Core Values of A&M United Methodist Church?  It goes along with Compassion, Conviction, and Conversion.  Compassion is the call for us to care wherever, whenever, whoever.  Conviction is the belief that God has a plan, great expectations, for us. Conversion is the belief that God can transform us into the butterflies we were meant to be.  Community is the living out of our faith with one another, recognizing that God does not call people to be Lone Rangers in the faith.  Compassion, Conviction, Conversion and Community – these are the core values of A&M United Methodist Church.  Easter calls us to community: Together again.

Community overcomes aloneness. 

The Genesis story makes it quite clear what God thought about aloneness.  It is not good.  Everything up to this point in the scriptures had been positively assessed by God - but not this.  This was a situation that needed help.  The word, “helper” is a word most frequently used to describe God’s relationship with Israel.  God was their helper, saving them from difficult circumstances.  The man in Genesis 2 needs help, saving from his solitude.  Derek Kidner wrote in his commentary on Genesis, “This story poignantly reveals man as a social being, made for fellowship, not power, you will not live until you love, giving yourself away.”  This solitary man in the garden needed community to overcome his aloneness and God provided the remedy – a helper creating community in Paradise.

This past Thursday we had the opportunity to celebrate the life of such a helper.  Diane Welch provided community for so many people.  She was an advocate for children throughout Texas and Louisiana.  She was the best friend that many individuals ever had.  She was a partner in marriage and encouraging mother.  At her Memorial Service on Thursday, her friend Jayme Ponder, spoke of the joy she receives every morning as she looks out her window in the country and sees her friend’s house.  Many of you know what that is like.  You know the comfort and assurance it brings to be in the presence of a friend.  It is not good to be alone and community overcomes aloneness.  Easter calls us to community: Together again.

Community overcomes separation. 

As you are all too aware the experiment of community did not work out so well.  The residents of Paradise made a mistake, actually they flat out rebelled, and did what God told them not to do.  They blamed each other and things only got worse.  For centuries we have been doing the same thing – disobeying God, blaming each other, being selfish, and fighting.  However, God promises us that it will not always be like that.  Community, new in every way, will be given as a gift, coming down from heaven.  Heaven and earth are brand new, everything is new.  Heaven has always been a separate dimension from us.  God is in heaven and we are on earth.  Not so in Revelation 21.  Heaven comes to earth and God lives with us, right in the city with us.  Revelation 21:3 alone, makes this claim three times.  Look at the beautiful picture of this new community: God wipes every tear from God’s people’s eyes.  Death is no more, mourning is no more, crying is no more, pain is no more.  Separation is overcome by the new community.

But we are not there yet.  How painfully we were reminded of that early Thursday morning when horror struck Northgate by a violent struggle leaving one man dead, another hospitalized, and another man in jail.  It took place right outside of our church and my heart was saddened.  The night before, in our Home Small Group, we had just read a quote from Jurgen Moltmann, “Where freedom has come near, the chains begin to hurt.”  We talked about how the image of God’s vision of community, causes our distortions of it to bring us pain.  Thursday morning as I was awakened to a phone call informing me that a 22-year-old man was killed on Lodge Street, my heart cried out, “No more! No more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, no more separation from what God desires.”  I long for community. Easter calls us to community: Together again.  Community overcomes aloneness, overcomes separation and

Community overcomes isolation. 

I’m guessing the disciples had that same kind of response to the shattering of their vision for community that I expressed.  After their friend, leader, teacher, and savior died, they locked themselves in a room and had no idea what to do next.  They were afraid, behind locked doors, when the risen Jesus came to them on Easter Sunday.  Look at his first words.  They are not words of chastisement for their cowardice on Thursday and Friday.  They were not words of condemnation for the shallowness of their faith.  They were words that their souls craved, “Peace be with you.”  He showed them his wounded side and his pierced hands, proving to them that this was no vision, and he said it again, “Peace be with you.”  This time he added, “As the father has sent me, so I send you.”  As I read this scripture, I can almost hear Jesus saying, “Unlock the doors, community needs you.”

Thursday afternoon I received a call from a reporter from The Eagle, our local newspaper, wanting to know our church’s response to the murder in Northgate.  I really have no idea what I said, but I remember thinking, “I wish I had the time to reflect on this question, before responding,” but they had a deadline to meet.  Later that night, after the Maundy Thursday service, I walked to my car and saw the evidence of violence that had been sealed off earlier that day.  The reporter’s question would not leave me, though the reporter had gone to the next headline.  Later that night I emailed the reporter telling her that I had thought a great deal about her question and wanted to share with her our response.  But it was too late. There was another front-page story – something about a basketball coach moving from College Station, Texas to Lexington, Kentucky.  May I share with you, the congregation of A&M United Methodist Church, my answer?

“What is your church’s response to the murder in Northgate?” The Eagle reporter asked me.  I don’t know any of the men who were involved in a fatal confrontation in the wee hours of Thursday morning, but their blood stained the sidewalk of A&M United Methodist Church where little children walk on their way to the playground.  It wasn’t that long ago when these young men were children playing games and reading stories.  Now one of them is dead, one of them is wounded, and another is in jail. 

“What is your church’s response to the murder in Northgate?” Pain.  We hurt for the families of these young men, families that got turned inside out on Thursday morning, never to be the same again…“What is your church’s response to the murder in Northgate?”  Conviction.  We must make a positive difference in the community where we have been privilege to minister as a church.  We cannot be content to wait for the ‘Crime Scene Tape” to come down and return to business as usual…Jesus assured his followers that they would do the same kind of things he did.  I want this church to infect our community with health: non-violence, true love of others, service to those who are hurting, relevance to those who feel lost, peace that transcends understanding, grace (forgiveness, acceptance and belonging), community as God has always desired. “What is your church’s response to the murder in Northgate?” Commitment…We are committed to sharing the love of a God who overcame even death and promised peace.  We will work toward being the community of faith that makes a difference in the community that surrounds us.

Easter calls us to community: Together again.  It is clear to me at the beginning of God’s album, the end of God’s album and on the page where God’s Son rose from the dead – God desires community. Easter calls us to community.  The church is our chance to be together again.

●       Community overcomes aloneness – It is not good to be alone.

●       Community overcomes separation – God is with you.

●       Community overcomes isolation – unlock the doors, the world needs what you have.

Easter calls us to community: Together again.  Amen.