April 8, 2007

""For the trumpet shall sound (TRUMPET), and the dead shall be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For what is perishable must be changed into what is imperishable, and what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal... then the scripture will be fulfilled:

"Death has been swallowed up in Victory.

Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?' "

The Apostle Paul writing in I Corinthians 15:52-55.

Fear not fellow skeptics, even the disciples thought this far fetched upon first hearing. Even the disciples who had walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus, and had been forewarned by Jesus that he must suffer and die and on the third day rise, which was a pretty big clue, paid little attention at first hearing of the Resurrection news.

As Luke tells it, it was the women who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus. Don't ask me how they thought they were going to get into the tomb, for it had been sealed with a stone, which they witnessed, but they go on faith and upon arriving they discover the rock is rolled away. So they enter the tomb and find it empty. Nobody is there. No body is there. It is gone. Two men appear "in dazzling apparel" and ask, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" And remind the women how Jesus told them the Son of Man must suffer and be crucified, and on the third day rise.

"Oh, right" they might have said, "but we didn't know He was the One! We thought he was just preaching," and they rush to tell the disciples. According to Luke, "It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James ("the Younger," who was the son of Alphaeus and one of the twelve disciples, I point out to you there were two disciples named James) and the other women with them who told this to the disciples."

Now get this: "but these words seemed to them (the disciples) an idle tale, and they (the men) did not believe them (the women)."

Can you imagine? The disciples are so unimpressed with this Resurrection report they interpret it as "an idle tale." Which means, they don't even get up. They just keep watching the ball game with beer in hand, reaching for another chip.

Which is perhaps a little harsh. To be honest, they are hiding. This is what the disciples are doing - they are hiding out. They are in fear of being arrested for their association with Jesus. Which is maybe why it is the women who go to the tomb. A little less suspicious. The disciples can't go - they are hiding out in fear.

So for them, to hear the news, "He is risen," is "an idle tale." Which is to say, their fear is stronger than their faith. Which is consistent with what we know of the disciples, and, let's be honest, what we know about ourselves, as well.

The disciples, like us, had great difficulty with faith when faith involved risk or sacrifice. I mean, they preferred faith as a free ticket to the top, as a blanket of security, and as a way to avoid trial and tribulation.

You need to know, a semi-redeeming verse follows. Though you also need to know this verse only appears in some of the ancient manuscripts. Other ancient Bible texts do not have this verse, meaning it is likely a later insertion by a sympathetic scribe.

But here it is, Luke 24:12: "Peter got up and ran to the tomb, where stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home wondering what had happened."

So impulsive Peter at least does something, although he still doesn't get it, does he? "He goes home wondering..."

Peter doesn't have a clue. Peter, "the rock," upon whom the church is to be founded, is unrocked by the Resurrection. It might as well be "an idle tale." He goes back to watching the ball game.

To create more mischief here, it must be said the reason the men are not impressed with the message is because of the messengers. You must remember this took place in a far different time, back before "the movement," when men still dominated society. Women were not taken seriously when it came to serious matters, like witnessing a Resurrection. There were no women news anchors back then.

So the empty tomb was one of those good news/bad news deals. The good news was the tomb was empty. The bad news was it was the women witnessed it. Which led the disciples to interpret this as an "idle tale." So much gossip. Hysteria.

Even the additionally inserted verse about Peter by the male sympathizing scribe could not save the embarrassment. For it is reported in all four gospels that it was the women who were the first to witness the empty tomb.

It is amazing, and a credit to the church, that more scribes did not get in there and edit the story to their cultural liking. Why didn't the early church fathers play down the role of women, and elevate the enlightenment of the disciples?

There is only one reason. The church, at its best, knows it is not here to conform to the world. The church, at its best, knows it is not here to please the world. The church, in obedience to the teachings of Christ, is here to change the world. And one of the first changes was to remove the distinctions of class and race and gender that allow some people to lord it over other people. For this is God's world, and we are all God's children.

In Christ, the church said, there is a new humanity, "a new heaven and a new earth," as John the Revelator wrote (21:1), where, as Paul puts it, "there is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus." (3:28)

So Luke states boldly the women were there first to witness the Resurrection. All the gospels do. The disciples were not there. They forsook Jesus & fled. The disciples did not witness the empty tomb. The women did. They were there throughout.

As Luke tells us, "The women stood at a distance to see all these things." It was the women who were there at the crucifixion. It was the women who were there when Jesus' body was taken down from the cross. It was the women who followed while Jesus was carried to the tomb. It was the women who went to their homes to prepare the anointing oils for Jesus' body. It was the women who returned to the tomb early in the morning following the Sabbath to discover the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.

Guys, we have got to deal with this. But not today. It's a holiday!

There are two parts to the Easter story. We read about both in each of the gospel accounts.

Each Resurrection narrative tells about:

1) the discovery of the empty tomb;

2) the resurrection appearances of Jesus.

There is a great variety of testimony about part two, the resurrection appearances. Quite a bit of discrepancy, to be honest, among the gospel stories - differences in how the appearances happened, when they happened, where they happened, to whom they happened. Suffice to say, these were powerful out-of-the ordinary experiences, and when people later recalled viewing the living Christ, and struggled to put the experience into words, they came out with different views and different words. The same would be true today.

Which is OK, for it gives us preachers more sermon material to work with during the seven Sundays of Easter-tide. Regarding part one, the empty tomb, it must be admitted as well, as we have been studying this closely in Bible study, there is discrepancy also, relative to which women showed up and who was there to greet them, angels or men, and how many. But there is great unanimity, unusual for the gospels, for the core of the declaration. They all agree, the tomb was found empty, as discovered by the women.

We may think it an idle tale, as the disciples first thought, but the Church says it was not. In fact, the Church stakes its existence on the empty tomb. This was the original proclamation of the church. The Easter greeting, with which we began this morning's service: "Christ is not here. Christ is Risen!"

This was the stunning news, which split western history in two, B.C. and A.D., before Christ and anno Domini, which means, "in the year of our Lord." Time started anew with Christ. The world, upon first hearing the claim, tried to dismiss it. They said, "The disciples have taken his body in order to perpetuate their proclamation." Right! Let me tell you, the disciples were in disarray. They were defeated, depressed and disorganized. They weren't pulling off any cunning scheme. They were hiding in fear.

Think about it. The very claim, that Christians had stolen the body, is further evidence at least everybody agreed the tomb was found empty. Even the non-believers admitted this. They just preferred a more plausible and less disturbing interpretation.

That the world's claim did not stick testifies to its lack of evidence in proving its case. It had none. The tomb was found empty, to the amazement of the women, who themselves, even though "they had stood and watched it all," were confused and fearful, and who ran to tell the disciples, who did not believe it either.

This was not a human plot. It stunned and upset everybody. Even those who followed Jesus and were told by Jesus this would happen. It was just too extra-ordinary. And it remains so today.

So doubt all you want, you're in good company. But don't miss the message. For the proof of the Gospel is not in thinking about it, but in giving witness to it. We cannot explain the Resurrection. The Resurrection explains us.

Easter is the story of God the Creator, who has the power to recreate. Is this so surprising? Easter is the story of God, the maker of heaven and earth, who chooses to redeem and renew God's people. Is this so difficult to accept?

Easter is the story of the God of love, who is willing to enter into creation, take upon human flesh, and die that we might get the message of what life is supposed to be about. That we are to love one another, not kill one another. Wouldn't you do this if you were God?

Easter is the culmination of the story of our God, who from the very beginning creates covenants with us, with Noah, with Abraham, with Jacob and Moses and Jeremiah, and does so again. Isn't this in keeping with God?

The cross and the empty tomb are signs of God's everlasting covenant, which the worst of us cannot crush. Jesus, who takes upon our sins, is the incarnation of God's love. "For God so loved the world, God gave his only begotten son..." (John 3:16)

This means Easter is "good news" for two significant groups of human beings.

1) Easter is good news for those who are dying, which includes all of us, that life is greater than death. That life doesn't end at a dead end, blotto, nothing, nada, zero, zip, a pile of compost. Rather life ends with victory, new life, re-born into the love from which life comes, at-one in the end as it was in the beginning, able to taunt, "Death, where is thy victory? Death, where is they sting?"

Which is a truly great assurance. Take comfort and rejoice. Easter enables us to live, free of the fear of death. Easter also enables us to bear the pain, though not gladly, of our loved ones departed, which none of us can escape either.

2) Easter is good news for those who are living, which includes most of us. Easter is God's message that God intends us to have life in its fullness. Easter is God's statement that God will not leave us to our shortcomings and failures, but will redeem us from whatever it is that keeps us from the gift of life that God intends for us.

The Resurrection is God's Word "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord." Paul in Romans, Chapter 8. (Romans 8:31-39, selected)

Which means, we are free to function. As Job said, who had a tough go of it as you might recall,

"If only man might die and live again, I could endure my weary post until relief arrived." (14:14, trans. Moffatt).

Well, our Easter claim is in Christ, humanity died and lived again, that we might endure our weary posts.

As Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher of the first half of the last century presented it in one of his famous Easter sermons: "There are only two basic philosophies: Easter and anti-Easter. Anti-Easter says that nothing in the universe lasts...that all is fugitive, transitory, discontinuous, beginning nowhere and coming out nowhere, the whole cosmos a ?gigantic accident consequent upon an infinite succession of happy flukes.' Some of us cannot believe that. We have tried, but we cannot. It is too great a strain on credulity. We turn to Easter, for Easter says this universe has meaning, and that involves the conviction that something here abides, carries through, and comes out somewhere, and that eternal element must be in the spiritual life we know in persons. All investments made there are made in a bank that will not break. Easter is a great philosophy to come home to at night and start out with in the morning."

My friends, Easter is the good news that in spite of everything, we might have life, and have life abundantly. Which is exactly what Jesus said as to why he came, "I come in order that you might have life, and have life abundantly." (John 10:10)

So, brothers and sisters, go out and claim it. For as the early church father, Iraneus (Bishop of Lyons, 3^rd century), said way back in the two hundreds, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive."

Here is to life and a HAPPY EASTER!

AMEN.