March 27, 2016
Easter - 10:30am
Luke 24:1-12
(prayer)
We might think of the New
Testament gospels as narrative accounts of the "life of Jesus". But they are really stories about Jesus'
death and resurrection... with long, drawn-out introductions.
The literal structure of
the first four books of the New Testament show this. Fully one-fifth or more of the texts describe
only one week of Jesus' life. This is
true of each gospel.
//
Luke (which we read from
today) reserves five of 24 chapters for the events of Palm Sunday onwards.
Matthew: eight of 28.
Mark: six of 16 .
John: ten of 21.
//
When it comes to the Easter
narratives, all four gospel accounts begin with a heavenly messenger at the empty tomb with some words of exclamation
and hope for the first visitor(s).
Do
not be sad and afraid.
You
are looking for Jesus.
He
is not here.
He
has been raised!
//
One theme that is common
among the gospel accounts is that the angelic messages and even one-on-one
first-hand resurrection appearances of Jesus are hard for others to believe.
This is how Luke puts it in
this morning's reading: The [women's]
words seemed to [the rest of disciples] to be an idle tale.
The gospel of John lays out
the dilemna in the most explicit way.
You
believe because
you
have seen.
What
a blessing it will be
to
have not seen,
and
yet come to believe.
//
//
Now, here we are at Easter
2016.
What can we believe about
the first Easter and the absolute
conviction of the early church leaders that death did not hold Jesus?
What can we believe about
resurrection?
I mean that question to be much broader than... what we might think about
the historisity of the various resurrection stories in the New Testament.
Beyond what we might think
about the various stories in the NT, is there room in our hearts, minds and
souls for faith in a living Christ?
Do we have enough
'spiritual curiousity' to consider that Jesus is more than a wonderful figure
of history for us, but a real living presence in our lives here and now...
today?
//
And so, I invite us to
think about how that story is known for us today in the context of Luke
24. We only read the first 12 verses
today, but I love the broader story of Luke's account of Easter. Personally,
Luke is my favorite Easter narrative.
In those first twelve
verses, we heard about at least five women who had gone with spices to honour
Jesus' body with a ritualistic burial anointing and (instead) saw an empty tomb
and angelic messengers. Their excitement
and wonder was short-lived because no one believed them.
If we had read on, we would
have heard about two other disciples unknowingly walking and talking with Jesus
along the road leading out of Jerusalem.
They, later, welcomed this stranger into their home in Emmaus only to
perceive (after he was gone) that it must have been Jesus! The woman's tale did not seem so idle to them
anymore.
The Emmaus disciples were
emboldened to discover (after they returned to the others in Jerusalem) that they
were not the only ones - another disciple (named Simon) had claimed to see the lord as well.
But the really interesting
part is that, even when Jesus appeared to the whole group shortly after, they
still struggled with how real this
whole experience was.
I find it wonderfully
encouraging to realize that resurrection was hard to grasp... even for those
who were there!
//
The truth is that - in life
- normally, we see things in terms of a series of events - overlapping groups
of beginnings and endings - rather than one unending experience.
There are cycles in life:
seasons, days, sands through the hourglasses that (when completely fallen) are
upturned and reset on their journey again.
Life is a series of
overlapping endings and beginnings.
The 'stuff of life' is what
happens along those various paths.
This is what brings us joy
and worry, excitement and sorrow.
Our
being has
meaning because we are impacted by the cycles of new life: endings and
beginnings.
//
When we have closed off one experience of
our life, it can be hard to re-enter a part of our lives that we thought was
over.
It can be very difficult when we are
unable to experience some peace and closure to the endings in our lives.
//
Jesus' disciples were shocked and
deeply saddened when the events of Holy Week turned so quickly from festival to grief. They had seen Jesus
die. It was an undeniable fact. A fact they couldn't ignore, just because a
couple of them claimed to had a vision of angels telling them differently.
Jesus was gone. They needed to accept that.
//
Our thinking is (for the most part)
logic based. Even the most intuitive
among us need things to make sense (at some level) to be believable.
//
Resurrection was not believable because
the disciples were only focusing on death: on the end of a chapter in their
lives. Even confident words from trusted
friends that something miraculous had happened still made it hard to break that
barrier.
So strong was the desire to move on
from the death of Jesus, even their own eyes couldn't fully erase the lingering
doubt in any miracle.
Luke's narrative includes the Risen
Jesus appearing to the whole group of disciples and allowing them to touch him
an examine his wounds to prove he was real
(and not a vision or a ghost). Even
after that, Luke writes that in their joy, they were [still] disbelieving and still
wondering. (24:41)
Think about that: the firsthand
experience of resurrection was joyful, but still hard to believe.
//
At the empty tomb, the angel had asked
the women why they were looking for the
living among the dead.
That gets me thinking.
Can we really grasp the notion of a
Living Christ, if we are stuck at Good Friday?
As long as the disciples were focused
on the death of Jesus (examining his wounds), they couldn't fully embrace the joy
emerging in their midst.
//
Sometime Christians put a lot of focus
on the death of Jesus.
If all that matters is that Jesus died for me or for my sins, why would we need to worry
about resurrection?
If all that matters is that Jesus died,
why would Jesus rise?
The gospel narratives could have ended
with Good Friday.
But they don't.
The tomb messenger invites us to put
our focus on life... not death.
To
find Jesus,
the angel says, don't focus on death...
look where life is!
//
Faith in Jesus-Resurrected is faith that the mission and ministry of Jesus
is active and relevant in the land of the living.
Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said:
"Some people are so heavenly minded
that they are [of] no earthly good."
In his life, Jesus spoke a lot about
what God's Realm was to be like. But he
wasn't talking exclusively about a future eternity with God. Jesus longed for people to experience the
nature of God's realm in this life.
To be immersed in God is not just a
hope for the dead, but a promise for the living.
A belief in a living christ will
naturally cause us to be concerned with how we live now.
//
We see our blueprint for this in the
life (not the death) of Jesus.
//
Easter People will live the goals of
the Realm of God here and now. We will
take seriously the Prayer of Jesus
that desires for God's "kingdom [to] come" and for God's "will
[to] be done earth".
Using the imagry of the Lord's Prayer,
Easter People will be concerned with:
²
Daily
Bread,
²
Forgiveness,
²
Resisting
the lures of selfish temptation, which are the face of evil in our world.
In the land of the living, Easter
People will be the evidence of a Living Christ as we work to see that those
things that sustain this life are not absent from anyone. When we pray for daily bread, we long to have enough to be able to advance our lives
for this day.
In his life, Jesus practiced a radical
welcome to his tables of sustenance. He
resisted the barriers of exclusion.
Some people are quick to create excuses
of worthiness, so that the blessings of nourishment for body and soul can be
hoarded for a select group. But Jesus
consistently lived a different example.
The ones whom others labeled as
sinners, Jesus called friends. The
response was forgiveness, not isolation - welcome, not rejection.
For me, when I pray the Lord's Prayer,
I always see the two lines about trespass and forgiveness as one
statement. I seek forgiveness for my
trespasses as well as offering forgiveness to others. It has to be both or it can't be either. I am honour bound to accept the imperfections
of others alongside my own desire to become a better person each day.
//
Another example: when children longed
to be heard and not just seen, Jesus brought them - front and centre - into his
circle.
//
And... when restrictive rules and rituals
blocked a path to God, he ignored them. The sabbath was made for people, not the
other way around.
//
There is no one unworthy of the
compassion and welcome of God. God is
not waiting for us to become perfect before loving us. The Realm of God
is to be a present reality as much as it is a future hope.
Easter
People
believe that we are all embraced by the deep love of God - now... in the land
of the living.
"Thy Kingdom come on earth
(as it is in heaven)".
//
In a few minutes, we are all invited to
nourish body and soul in the sacrament of Jesus' radical welcome - we will
model a faith in the Living Christ at the table of communion where none should
feel excluded. All are invited. Both...
-the bothered and content;
-young and old;
-faithful and doubting;
-healthy and ailing;
-certain and confused;
-female, male and gendre fluid;
-addicted and abstaining;
-deeply spiritual and searching;
-straight, gay and bisexual;
-friend and stranger;
-happy and worried;
-glutton sensitive and wheat tolerant;
-a regular at this church and those who
are just visiting...
We are one in the Living Christ.
//
//
Most importantly, we show the world
(and each other) that Jesus is raised by moving away from this table with the
same spirit of welcome and inclusion that we profess within these walls.
How can others know that Christ is
Risen?
They will see this in how we live when
we are not in church.
They will not see perfect people
(definitely not), but they will see us struggling to be faithful - learning and
evolving as disciples of Jesus, each day.
They will see us strive to make Jesus'
spirit of compassion real in this world... even as we rely on the same spirit
to forgive and renew us along the way.
//
//
Easter becomes real when we look for (and
find) the Risen Christ among the living.
//
Let us pray:
We thank you God for new life in
Christ. We join the choir of voices
throughout the ages proclaiming... 'Hallelujah'. Amen.
*** offering ***
