5-13-07

Ah, Mothers' Day! Or as we call it on our UCC desk calendar, "The Festival of the Christian Home." Which is just like us, making this day and our gathering more inclusive. Whether you have brought your mother or not, welcome!

My mother, as I have told you before, hated those sappy, syrupy sentimental sermons preached by chauvinistic white haired preachers on Mothers' Day. Though deceased nearly 40 years, it is not my aim to displease my mother on Mothers' Day. So we shift subjects. Saved!

You see, today is also the 6^th Sunday of Eastertide. There are seven. Then comes Pentecost. Before we slip into summer, I thought I would return one more time to the Main Thing. I think I hear my mother's approval!

Every spring we have the question, where do we go from here? Easter is past. The crowds subsided. The baskets are back in the basement. Where do we go from here? Or, what do we make of this Easter event? Does it matter, or make any difference, as world events continue to consternate us, and personal challenges persist?

Perhaps, and here is the fear, we have exaggerated Easter. I mean, not all eggs are colored and not all bunnies are chocolate in the real world. Every lily does not bloom. Perhaps we have exaggerated this Easter event.

Like the famous Mark Twain remark, after reading in the European newspaper the erroneous report of his death. He cabled back to the Associated Press in America: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Perhaps our reports of Easter are greatly exaggerated. You read the book, and you might conclude this. The Resurrection appearances as recorded in the four gospels are not only different, they are conflicting.

Some accounts say the Risen Lord appeared in Jerusalem, others say in Galilee, and another still on a road between the two, seemingly at the same time. One says this group of disciples was there, another says, no, this group was there, a few even say women were there.

Some indicate the Lord appeared in a bodily form, which could be touched, others imply he was a spiritual form who materialized through doors and walls, and could not be touched. Some report he could be recognized as the Jesus they knew, while others report his appearance as a stranger.

Strange, indeed. The gospels do not make it easy on us. Is Easter an exaggeration? Well, the answer is "yes" and "no."

Let's look at "no" first of all.

No, the Resurrection of Christ is NOT an exaggeration. It is, in fact, intentionally understated.

In the fourteenth century when the great Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, came back from the Orient, he told stories of the wonders he had seen and the marvelous cities he had visited. No one believed him, because his descriptions were beyond the imagination of the people. So they accused him of lying. They never did believe him.

When upon his deathbed at the age of 70, he was asked one last time to confess his lies, Marco Polo answered, "I never told you the half of it." He intentionally understated his experiences, which even then were not believed.

John says something similar to this at the end of his Gospel. In chapter 20, after recounting only two Resurrection appearances of Christ, John writes, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you may have new life."

In other words, John could have told us more, more miracles, more amazing stories, more Resurrection accounts. We wish he had. But he does not.

Why not? Well, why? What's the point? John gives us enough reasons to believe. Either we are going to believe and accept the "good news," or we are not, and all the stories in the world are not going to convince us otherwise.

Anyway, as we say, the Resurrection is not something we prove. The Resurrection is something we experience and live.

Like Marco Polo understating his travel experiences, our gospel accounts understate the Resurrection. There were other more exaggeration accounts of Jesus and the Resurrection floating around in the early church. But only the more understated accounts were accepted as sacred scripture.

Think about it. The whole story is understated. As poet, Joan Eheart Cinelli, paints the picture: "Any good Communications Expert would have told you it was a mistake.

If there's going to be a resurrection,

It should be on a mountain top

With saturation coverage, advance publicity.

A stand nearby to sell souvenirs,

And, up near the tomb, a special reserved section for VIPs,

Roped off from the pushing, noisy, eager crowd.

You can't just walk out of death, come back to life

In an empty garden early on a Sabbath morning

When the world is sleeping in,

With only one weeping woman to exclaim "Rabboni!"

Any good Communications Expert would have told you:

If you do it that way, no one will ever know."

No, the Easter story is not an exaggerated account. To the contrary it is modest, a miracle only in the minds of a few, frightened believers. Go figure!

And, "yes," the Resurrection of Christ is an exaggeration. You bet it is! The gospels are gloriously exaggerated.

Why, Jesus, himself was an exaggerator, in the tallest order and best sense of his Semitic culture. His exaggerations got him in trouble with the religious "realists" of his day.

He made outrageous claims, like:

"Forgive 70 times 7."

"The meek shall inherit the earth."

"Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains."

"Ask and you shall receive."

"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Pray tell, bold and exaggerated statements all.

The Bible is full of exaggeration:

God creating the universe in 6 days;

Moses parting the Red Sea;

David defeating Goliath;

Daniel surviving the lion's den;

Jesus walking on water, and feeding 5000 with five loaves and two fish.

Exaggeration! Religion is exaggeration!

Not exaggeration as false. Exaggeration as expanding one's faith, blowing one's mind, magnifying one's hope, multiplying the ordinary and enabling the extraordinary.

The world moves ahead on exaggeration. America was founded on the exaggeration declared in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," when they were not - not then. Only certain white males could vote and own property, and women are not even mentioned. The Declaration of Independence was an exaggeration.

Benjamin Franklin had the crazy concept that lightening was a form of electricity, an exaggeration laughed at when he presented it to the Royal Society in London.

Rowland Hill, in 1837, proposed the preposterous idea of a postage stamp for Great Britain, to replace the practice of cash payments upon delivery. But British postmaster Lord Richfield declared the idea "entirely repugnant to reason." You may feel so, too, as we prepare to raise our rates yet again tomorrow.

Orville and Wilbur Wright had the exaggerated notion that man in machine could fly. Everyone they presented it to shot it down, as indeed the first flights failed.

New ideas are often met with ridicule and scorn. It takes exaggerated effort on the part of the faithful few to overcome the opposition in our profane and prosaic world.

Yes, the Resurrection is exaggeration. God help us, it is the world's greatest exaggeration. Which is not to say it did not happen. This is to say the Resurrection is "more than." It is "more than" anything we know or have experienced before. Is this so hard to believe - there is more than we know?

The Resurrection is beyond us. It is an exaggeration beyond what we know of life and history, of space and time, of words and wisdom. The Resurrection is an "elastic event," like a slinky. That is, it is on the one hand an event back there in time, and on the other hand, it is out there, ahead of us in time, pulling us into a fulfilling future, like the slinky down the steps.

The Resurrection is the greatest exaggeration we have of life. The gospel author John, who was there, knew this. He knew he could not contain it all.

So he shares an admittedly understated account and says, "Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe." (20:29)

We need Easter.

Easter exaggerates life beyond death.

Easter illuminates light in the presence of darkness.

Easter lifts up hope in the face of defeat.

Easter magnifies joy in the midst of grief.

Easter takes us from the tomb and points us to the beyond, saying God is bigger than life.

As the writer/philosopher Wendell Berry says in one of his stories about a man who has been lost, but finds new life, he has the man saying, "Beyond the limits of (our) strength or intelligence or desire, or hope or faith, there is more."

This is the affirmation of Easter: "there is more!" And it is the business of the church to proclaim this affirmation every day in every way.

To repeat the quote I used in my Easter sermon, by Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher of the first half of the last century: "There are only two basic philosophies - Easter and anti-Easter. Anti-Easter says nothing in the universe lasts...that all is fugitive, transitory, discontinuous, beginning nowhere and coming out nowhere...'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 that 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. This is a great philosophy to come home to at night and start out with in the morning."

My friends, it is springtime. And all things are possible. You can thank Easter for that! Take baseball. We are back into another season. I recall a story from a few years back following that awful season ending strike by the ball players against the owners. Do you recall? The players just walked off and quit. The end. No season.

A story came out of Atlanta about a guy named Tom Lee. Tom Lee was a baseball fan. Or at least he used to be. As a kid growing up he was a baseball fan. As an adult he was a baseball fan. As a dad he was a baseball fan.

Tom Lee was understandably disgusted with the strike. He was disgusted with the owners. He was disgusted with the players. It ruined his year. So Tom Lee decided the next spring, when they were back playing ball, to never again attend a ball game. You, go, Tom! We feel ya, man.

Tom announced his decision to his ten-year-old son, Eric, with whom he went to the ball games as father and son. Tom Lee's wife, who could probably give a hoot about baseball, heard of her husband's decision, so shared with him a school paper fourth grade son Eric had written:

"I love baseball because I love going to the games with my dad. We wrap up hot dogs in aluminum foil and bring Cokes in a cooler. The smell of hot dogs makes my stomach growl on the way to the game. I love to cheer the Braves on, especially when they make a good play. I like to watch the fireworks when they win. I like to ride MARTA or ride in my car. Any way is OK with me, as long as I am with dad."

Tom Lee read his son's school paper, and he changed his mind about never again attending a ball game. As he says, for a moment he had forgotten what is important about baseball. Contempt for the owners is not important. Anger at the greedy ballplayers is not important. Striking back and hurting baseball is not important. Hot dogs and pop, good plays & fireworks are important. Family rides on MARTA and walking through the parking lot together are important. Being with his son. That is what is important about baseball.

Obviously baseball is not the point. It could be any subject. The point is the power of the human spirit to overcome contempt and anger, to break the endless cycle of revenge and retaliation, to rise above sickness and sin, and to get it.

Easter, that is! New life "filling us with a living hope," as Peter wrote. In this way Easter springs eternal, and our mothers are very happy.

AMEN.