On A clear Day You Can See

On A Clear Day You Can See…<= /p>

Matthew 27:52-66=

John 20:1-18

“How do people resurrect?” asks Marcella Altheis-Reid. That question is outlined in sharp focus on this winter day in April! Forget about all the imagery of resurrection blooming flowers and gr= een leaves appearing on brown trees. It is poor imagery to begin with. “How do people resurrect from death? <= /p>

In this technological age I still do my brainstormin= g on yellow legal pads. This week my eyes wandered to the top of the pad, and the copyrighted name of the pad was named “Evidence”! Evidence – was there any evi= dence of Easter= Church, of Resurrection Life in the world last week? What was the evidence of resurrection life on the third day following Jesus’ death?

A lot of people search scripture for irrefutable evi= dence. The problem with that is what is one person’s irrefutable evidence is another person’s questions and doubts. The older I get the more I dou= bt there is anything closely resembling irrefutable evidence. For me scripture= is story, poetry, wisdom literature; scripture stirs the human spirit, and giv= es wonderful and challenging impressions of human life lived out within the presence of a living God.

Go search the resurrection stories in the New Testam= ent, and St. Paul’s impressions of the resurrection accounts. What you find is mystery; chaotic mystery, the very best kind of mystery! Was it Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that came to the tomb on the third day, or was it Mary alone? Was it t= hree women or a whole group of women? And what was discovered? Were there men, s= ort of like angels, outside the tomb who spoke to the women, or was there a man like an angel inside the tomb? Were they told by angels that Jesus had been raised and had gone ahead of them into Galilee, or was it that Mary encountered Jesus in the garden and knew who Jesus was = only when he spoke her name?

Did Peter run to the tomb, and return home in amazem= ent, or did Peter and John try to outrun each other to the tomb, then running to tell the other disciples that Jesus’ body was not there? Later in the= day there is that stunning story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and Jesus joins them as with sadness they give an account of the disappoint= ing days just behind them. It was only at table that they recognized him, and t= heir hearts burned within them. Paul says Jesus was raised a spiritual body. I have no idea what that means. He enters rooms through closed doors. He appears on the beach and cooks breakf= ast for the disciples and no one dares ask him, “Are you Jesus?” Th= omas demands to see the wounds from the crucifixion. There are all these wonderf= ully confusing stories in the New Testament! John Buchanan says the best evidenc= e of the authenticity of the biblical accounts is that they are chaotic, diverse= and contradictory. No managed news here. No fake news videos. No one went back = in to clean up the stories. I am absolutely convinced God just loves this kind of chaos! It gives so many wa= ys to tell the stories and to interpret the stories. It gives so many directio= ns in which our lives can move. It shapes life full of creativity and the excitement of the unknown. You just never quite know where the story will l= ead you. It presents so many ways= for new life to enter the universe. Too bad some people cannot handle that!

And note how modest the New Testament stories of resurrection. There is no note of loud celebration; no brass choirs; no Hallelujah Chorus; no Easter lilies. Rather there is fear, awe, surprise, d= oubt and wondering. Is there truth larger than human understanding, intellect and science? Perhaps there is in resurrection truth that transcends all human understanding, a truth that denies what we call reality. Perhaps it is truth more real than the violence of the society and community in which we live. = Last Sunday Pat and I heard the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s offering of D= eath and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss.&nb= sp; He composed this work when he was a young man. His attempt in this w= ork was to present, in the form of a tone poem, the dying hours of a man who had striven towards the highest ideals. He suffers deeply, as the music makes clear. The aims of his life, which he has not reached, pass before and with= in him, and as the hour of death approaches the transformation occurs in everlasting space, and he finds those things which could not be fulfilled in this life. The music begins to soar and become more hopeful. Six decades la= ter, as Strauss lay on his own death bed he announced to his daughter-in-law, “Death is just as I composed it.” Is it all about story?

That movement from death to where people resurrect; = it is about real story, real people.

Some people believe an empty tomb is irrefutable evi= dence, and if a tomb should now be found with human remains that cancels out the w= hole thing.

An empty tomb is no evidence at all. All it says is that the tomb is em= pty!

But for the disciples there was plenty to fear about= an empty tomb. And for the Romans there was plenty to fear about an empty tomb. There was a band of priests and religious leaders that went to Pilate after= the crucifixion, raising their fears. Pilate receives this delegation in the shadows, with the light mainly coming from the creased faces of these pious= old men, ordering that the tomb be made secure until the third day. Pilate says= to them, “Make it as secure as you can.” Ah, what is Pilate beginn= ing to see?

Can you imagine their faded old eyes becoming wide w= ith bewilderment? What had seemed so clear a few days ago was no longer clear. = That this Jesus should die no longer seemed clear. The day in fact was not clear= at all.

They had fear they had no courage to face. What if t= he man actually would be raised again? And what if in their crass literalness some mutilated body, or some new and terrible version of it would breathe again = and stand before them? For Pilate to say, “Make things secure as you can,= ” was to have the very earth pulled from beneath them. How does an old man ke= ep the sun from rising? How do soldiers secure the world against a miracle? It= is like trying to stop the wind with a machine gun, or the power of God’s Spirit with a thousand soldiers. No the day was not clear and they could not see beyond the fears of the moment.

Some years ago, Frederick Buechner posed a question = that has stayed with me. He asks, “Have you ever had the experience of bei= ng on a ship at night, looking for other lights on the horizon?” “= To do so,” he says, “is not to look at the horizon directly, but j= ust above it.” Perhaps that is a way to consider resurrection. How do peo= ple resurrect? Will, you don’t look straight into an empty tomb. You look just above it, in time and space. That brings some clarity to the day. You = look beyond a garden tomb; you look beyond the fears and the mystery and awe of disciples on that third day. You look at what was emerging out of this wonderful chaos.

Women and men discovered that something entirely new= was happening to them. Jesus̵= 7; words and presence were breaking in upon them in an entirely new way. Jesus= was coming into their consciousness, so completely seizing them, that the day s= uddenly became clear, and they could see…well, perhaps not forever, but maybe= it was forever! But for some very important and crucial moments, they knew and= saw clearly what they were to do, and who they were to become.

Tom Long says the resurrection story is not a script= for a Miss America contestant who wants to “just light one candle in the darkness and leave the world a better place.” He says: “The resurrection story comes to world where most of the candles have been blown out, if not all of them. It is a story about a new era that arrives like as storm, a revolution, and places upon us the urgent task of finding ourselve= s in the reality God is creating in the universe.” That is why the piece of Easter mu= sic most meaningful to me is Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, the Resurrection Symphony. I listen to it several times during Holy Week. Its soul-wrenching strength speaks of that storm, that revolution. Something extraordinary is happening to the universe! But the strength of the chorus in the 5th moveme= nt, takes the soul into a new world and universe. It proclaims a God who keeps promises still, even on the frayed edges of human failing and in the most unlikely of human prospects, which is who we all are.

How do people resurrect? It is a community experience, as Marcella Altheis-Reid reminds us: “Starting with Jesus’ resurrection, a whole community of people who suffered his loss when he was crucified, came back to life again. Their eyes were opened in the sense that death took on another meaning: the resurrection became the paradigm showing= us the durability and indestructibility of life and justice.” Resurrecti= on, a community experience, not just an individual happening; may it be so, eve= n in this place and in our time! F= or the world needs the church to be strong, creative and full of good news! Amen.