LOOKING FOR THE LIVING

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. 

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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?

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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We see our blueprint for this in the life (not the death) of Jesus.

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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.

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Another example: when children longed to be heard and not just seen, Jesus brought them - front and centre - into his circle.

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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.

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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)".

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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.

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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.

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Easter becomes real when we look for (and find) the Risen Christ among the living.

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Let us pray:

We thank you God for new life in Christ.  We join the choir of voices throughout the ages proclaiming... 'Hallelujah'.  Amen.

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