March 31, 2013
Easter Sunday - Glory
- Luke 24:1-12
- Dr. Teri Thomas
As many of you know, I lost a very good friend last December.
Cindy was in the hospital and the doctors had told her the end was near.
I flew out to be with her and we talked about dying.
The strong faith she’d had all her life somehow seemed inadequate now.
We talked about Jesus and about resurrection and about a new life.
That was the last conversation we had and the next day she died.
Cindy had asked me to take care of all the funeral arrangements.
I met with the funeral director he said he would get the doctor to sign the death certificate
and then take Cindy’s body to the crematorium. She died on Wednesday.
He said I would need to come to the crematorium on Friday and identify the body in person before they could cremate it.
I spent the next two days tending to some of the other countless details that surround a person’s death and Friday afternoon arrived at the funeral home to handle that task.
I walked in and introduced myself to the receptionist and said I was there to identify the body of Cynthia Bolbach. The receptionist said, she is not here.
What do you mean, I asked. Where is she.
I don’t know, but she is not here.
Well, would you please find out?
Almost immediately a funeral director appeared from behind a closed door.
I am sorry to tell you, but Ms Bolbach is not here.
What do you mean she is not here? She is dead. Where else could she be? Who screwed up?
It took about 15 minutes and several phone calls to discover that the body was still in the hospital morgue waiting for the doctor to sign the death certificate.
That evening I was at a gathering with many of Cindy’s church friends and I was telling them about the screw up and my dismay at arriving at the funeral home to discover her body was not there. Somebody asked- Did you ever wonder for a minute if maybe she had been raised from the dead? I had to be honest. The possibility never entered my mind.
No one expects resurrection.
This is certainly the case in the story we read from Luke.
The women come to the tomb expecting to anoint Jesus’ dead body.
They found the tomb empty. They were perplexed. Confused.
Is this the right tomb? Did someone move him? Did his enemies take the body?
Instead of an apologetic funeral director two men in dazzling clothes appeared.
Ok, that is enough to make you expect something out of the ordinary.
They remind the women that Jesus talked about this, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.
They remembered his words.
But there is still no indication they thought it might actually have happened. They simply went back to where the rest of the disciples were gathered and told them what they had seen and heard. The reaction of the disciples?
The reaction of those who had been with Jesus for years?
The reaction of the ones who had heard his prediction of death and resurrection
over and over and over again? The reaction of the faithful?
Cow manure!
That’s one way to translate the Greek word the disciples used to describe the women’s story
it was an idle tale, utter nonsense, a bunch of hooey. Resurrection never entered their minds as a possibility. And who can blame them?
Resurrection breaks all the rules, and while most of us will admit that the old rules aren't perfect – and sometimes are downright awful – at least we know them. They are predictable, a known quantity, and in this sense comforting. And resurrection upsets all of that.
As Anna Carter Florence says, if the dead don’t stay dead, what can you count on?
Resurrection throws off the balance, upsets the apple cart, throws our neat and orderly lives totally out of whack.
Which is why I think that if you don’t find resurrection at least a little hard to believe, you probably aren’t taking it very seriously! And, I suspect that’s where most of us are.
We’ve heard the story of resurrection so often it hardly makes us blink,
let alone shake with wonder and surprise. We are really just like those first disciples.
They couldn't bring themselves to believe it at first. They were intrigued, but not convinced.
Curious, but not persuaded.
I can’t really blame them. They were still living in the darkness of the previous week.
They were still in a place where hope could not be seen or imagined.
You’ve been in that place.
The place where a great grief lies heavy on the heart, a place of unsettling fears- large or small,
nagging guilt or regret or shame, corrosive bitterness, in a tomb of debilitating doubt.
We don’t expect Easter when we are in those dark places,
those places we go when someone says- sorry we’ve got to let you go,
or the test results came back – they were not good,
or I just don’t love you anymore.
We don’t expect Easter when our hope has been crucified and the darkness is overwhelming.
Resurrection is the last thing we are expecting. And that is why it terrifies us.
This day is not about bunnies, springtime and girls in cute new dresses.
It’s about more hope than we can handle.
As difficult as it may be to believe, this day is huge, and when it sinks in and lays hold of you, absolutely everything looks different.
When we can believe in the resurrection we can believe that God has a future in store for each of us. And that anything is possible with God.
The world is a different place because of this day:
the world is a theater of God’s grace and love and reconciliation; a world full of God’s surprises;
a world–where it makes sense to keep working for peace and justice;
a world where it makes sense to hold on and never abandon hope;
a world no longer in the grip of the power of evil and death,
but a world suddenly, surprisingly, beautifully new, and full of endless possibilities.
Easter is really not about Jesus body.
It is about us, and our lives and how we live them– for however long we are given to live.
It is about love more powerful than death.
Promising us God is in charge.
No matter what
God is creating, recreating, chastening, challenging,
cherishing us with fresh surprises.
No matter what
hope always has the last word.
God’s love is in charge.
Christ is Risen.
He is Risen Indeed.
Alleluia.
Alleluia.
Alleluia.
Amen.