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Long Before This Winter’s Snow, We Knew…=
!
Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 24:1-12
The women came to prepare the
body…they found the stone rolled away…and out of nowhere these =
two
men, bathed in a strange light, spoke to them…they were
terrified…there was no body…later they told their story to
Jesus’ followers and no one believed them…Peter ran to the tomb=
…looked
in…and went home amazed.
What had the men =
said
to the women? “Why are =
you
looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up.
Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to=
be
handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?=
221;
The women were terrified! The=
y had
come to have a funeral, they were prepared with all that was necessary for =
the
funeral rites, and there was no body. Were they terrified of life?
Wouldn’t th=
at
be something, to arrive at the funeral home where all was prepared for the
funeral, but the body was no where to be found? Would it ever occur to us t=
hat
it had anything to do with new life? After all, we are so good at doing dea=
th!
We aren’t so good at incorporating death in a healthy way as a part of
life. But we are very good at the rites surrounding death. I once overheard=
a
conversation about a preacher who was in deep trouble in his congregation, =
and one
person made the comment, “But he is good at doing funerals! I had a
telephone conversation a few years back with the chair of an Interim Search
Committee for a large church in a retirement community, and the first quest=
ion
asked was, “Can you do a good funeral? We have a lot of them, you know.&#=
8221;
I wondered to myself, what is a “good” funeral? Well, I suspect=
it
is more than being able to remember the name of the deceased and some wonde=
rful
stories of the person, which are all in the past tense. What if the preacher
can proclaim hope in the midst of death; some reason to live a positive and
energetic life in the midst of the present darkness, hope in the present te=
nse;
that might be a good funeral?
Hope in the prese=
nt
tense…The prophet Isaiah, when Israel was in a time of deep darkness,=
in
exile, a long from home, brings a message from the Lord: “Pay attenti=
on
now: I’m creating new h=
eavens
and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos and pain are things of the
past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m
creating…” Ah! God has promises to keep!
Do you remember t=
he
name Michael Brennan? He came=
from
an upper middle class family in New London, Connecticut. Started using drug=
s at
13, dropped out of school, drove a taxi cab, spent time in prison, and then=
spent
nights sleeping in the Old Burial Ground, a cemetery near Harvard College.
“It was the only green and quiet place around,” he explained.
He spent days and=
evenings
in the Boston Public Library reading books on how to become a free lance
journalist. Imagine this unkempt scrubby guy going about his business every=
day
as any other scholar in the place. Finally he was ready to write, and his f=
irst
major article was purchased by a local newspaper for $1,000.
One day he was
walking around the Harvard campus and came across a room full of computers.=
He
asked a student if it would be all right to sit down and try them out. He
borrowed software from another student and soon was doing his writing on
Harvard computers. He says: “I figured if John Harvard didn’t m=
ind
my sleeping on his grave, in his cemetery, he wouldn’t mind me educat=
ing
myself at his school, even if I couldn’t afford the tuition.” He
says this was the crucial experience in his recovery…”I was very
fortunate to connect with people from many different arenas in life who
accorded me that basic respect which is really grace. Grace wears a human
face.” God’s grac=
e;
there is power in the words of the men at the tomb, “He is risen and =
has
gone before you into Galilee.”
Walter Bruggeman
reminds us of the deep, unvoiced unrecognized practice of death in our cult=
ure.
The brutality of war, neighborhood violence in every major city with its th=
irst
for even more guns; lack of compassion in healthcare delivery, with the poor
turned away; the mad pursuit of things and stuff without a care for the
environment; wholesale outsourcing so benefits are owed to no human being. =
In
the midst of this sits the Church of Jesus Christ bound to the God of life.=
In
the midst of the church is the preacher who is expected to proclaim loudly,
“Christ is risen!” And an all too timid congregation is to resp=
ond:
“He is risen indeed!” To say it over and over again, until we
really believe we were created not to adjust to death!
The Easter hymns =
and
sermons in which I was nurtured as a young child had a very simple
message: “The tomb is e=
mpty,
Jesus is raised, and now we will all go to heaven!” As a child I didn=
’t
want to go to heaven. I didn’t know why anyone wanted to. I hadn̵=
7;t
heard one thing about it that appealed to me. I did begin to wonder, if the=
end
of the journey is new life, then shouldn’t something be happening bet=
ween
the beginning and the end? If the end is life, doesn’t that change wh=
at
goes on in between the beginning and the end? Doesn’t it mean that we=
are
no longer to make room for despair, apathy, and loss of hope in the
darkness? Shouldn’t we =
be
doing something about all of that – whether it be in our personal liv=
es,
the life of the city, or the church?
Could we give the grace of God a human face? My goodness, could we
become Easter Christians who are not afraid of the prospect of new life?
I get the distinct
impression that all of a sudden people believe that we have been cast into =
the
depths of darkness, as though it is a new thing. And what we are waiting for is a w=
ord of
hope, a word of hope from Wall Street, a word of hope from the Federal Rese=
rve.
The word we hope for is the word that will fill our pockets will more money=
and
our houses with more things and allow us to play all over the world. People=
are
not looking for the result of Easter. Christ is risen! William Willimon rem=
inds
us, The result of Easter, the product of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is
the church – the community of people with nothing more to convene us =
that
that the risen Christ came back to us. That’s our only claim, our only
hope.” Are we as clueless as Simon Peter, shocked and utterly unprepa=
red
that the Risen Christ appeared to a loser like him?
Think about it. W=
hat
did the Risen Christ do? Where did he go?&=
nbsp;
wouldn’t you have thought he would have headed straight to
Pilate’s palace, and say to Pilate:&=
nbsp;
“Look at me now Pilate? Look at how wrong you were, what a cow=
ard
you were. Now do you know who is king? Now do you know what truth is. Truth
stands before you!” But he didn’t go to Pilate, the seat of Rom=
an
power, or the White House, the Kremlin or Downing Street. He went to Galile=
e. No
one of any importance lived in Galilee, nobody except his followers. Jesus =
went
to his followers, frayed, weary, hopeless followers, the ones who had failed
him, disappointed him, fleeing into the darkness. He knew what they could n=
ot
have imagined, that they were the ones who would proclaim the resurrection,=
this
advent of new life, not because they saw the resurrection – no one di=
d-
but because Jesus came to them. The risen Christ appeared to the. Christ rose for them! In the force=
of
his Spirit, he returns to us. We are the people who have had something happ=
en
to us that the world has not yet known. In one way or another, you are here
because Christ has sought after you, caught you, chased you, grasped you and
thrust you into the service of God. He saves you from living only unto
yourself. He delivers us from any longer having to adjust to the culture of
death. We are to bring life i=
nto
the middle of the journey, not saving it for some ethereal ending. It is getting the power of the res=
urrection
between the beginning and end of our life journey!
The story of God’s people is that we have known the whole journey is about life. <= o:p>
Long before the a=
ngel
of death spared the first born sons of the children of Israel in
Egypt…Israel knew the journey moves with life and freedom from oppres=
sion.
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse =
and
the rider he has thrown into the sea.”
Long before the 40
year trek of the Hebrews through the hot sands of the desert…she knew=
the
journey headed for the land of Promise.
Long before we
abandoned the children in our cities and children began killing children wi=
th
the guns of their elders,..we knew the journey ends in a city of rejoicing,
where “people shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,̶=
1;
says the Lord.
Long before the
terrorists of September 11, 2001, struck deep into the heart and soul of
America, leaving an ache that does not want to go away…we knew the
journey would be one of healing, learning, coming to new understandings that
would propel us toward the stranger, helping us place our wounds in the gra=
ce
and mercy of God.
Long before this
winter’s snow, we knew…the journey does not end in spring; that
winter with its cold, dark and gray; its losses and its pain; its
disappointments and its hurts, journeys into the light, warmth and compassi=
on
of the God who has promises to keep, even when we journey through the darke=
st
hours of our lives, and whenever we enter the valley of tears. For we wait =
not
for the end, but for the Church of Jesus Christ to proclaim hope in the pre=
sent
tense: Christ is Risen! He is=
Risen
indeed!