Easter 1: Luke 24:1-12
Who
is missing in the gospel reading?
Jesus…
Where
is he?
How
do you know?
Where
are the disciples? Not at the tomb.
(Despite Jesus having told them.)
The
women go to the tomb and there are two men there, messengers, who tell them
that Jesus is risen. That he is living- no longer entombed, but alive and out
and about…
They
go back to tell the disciples what happened and the disciples shout,
“Hallelujah” and build a church.
The disciples immediately fall to their knees and thank God. The
disciples immediately get out a scroll and begin to put together the Apostles’ Creed.
Or…
instead… the disciples… the people who knew Jesus best, who knew best what he’d
said, who’d loved him and had been praying for the events of the last three
days to NOT be true. They said the women were full of … baloney. The English
translators protect us from the weight of the Greek. It’s not that the
disciples thought it was an idle tale… It is that they thought the women were
crazy, delirious, insane and were feeding them a line of sugar.
How
is it that the disciples did not believe them? And, lest you hurry to defend
Peter, some of the early translations of Luke don’t have verse 12. Many just
end with “to them, it was b… an idle tale.”
If
the disciples were not able to believe right away, why do we expect that of
ourselves? Faith in the
resurrection… of Jesus and of ourselves in Christ… faith in the resurrection is
not magic. It’s a miracle.
We
who still feel the sting of death… who see pain the world… who wrestle with
injustice… that we would believe in the resurrection is truly a miracle. That
the church would last is a miracle. That people who sometimes are so aggravated
with each other can embrace and say, “Peace be with you.” It’s a miracle.
That someone who watched their spouse struggle and
die after a long illness can find love again… Miracle.
That someone can get out of bed again after the
death of a child… Miracle.
That a child can be born one month, two months,
three months, four months early and live and be well… Miracle.
That people in this room right now have survived
cancer, divorce, miscarriages, broken hearts, heart attacks, major surgeries,
deployments, discrimination, betrayal, unemployment, loss… and yet you are
here… believing that forgiveness is possible, that hope is strong, that
resurrection is true… Miracle.
We
are here now because eventually what seemed like an idle tale… became clearer,
more obvious, more trustworthy, more inspiring, more believable. What is true
is true… whether or not we believe it- however, sometimes we have to grow into
that belief. We have to experience the miracle for ourselves. And it is a slow
process.
Easter
is a season- not a day. We have to wrestle with the idle tale… test it… and keep
our eyes open for where God is encountering us. Jesus was not in the tomb that
first Easter. We do not know where he was until later that evening. But he was
somewhere. He was then as he is now… encountering people in acts of kindness,
acts of grace, acts of mercy… things are small miracles in themselves.
You
see, for God… a God that is all-powerful, all-loving, a God that is forgiving
and merciful… raising Jesus from the dead was nothing. That is not hard.
Helping us to believe in it… that’s work. That is the work that only God can
do. Faith is a gift that only God can give. And that we would act on that
faith… that we would show kindness… mercy… forgiveness… that work in us could
only happen through the Holy Spirit.
It
is because of God’s work in helping us to believe in resurrection… of the body,
of relationships, of creation… that we are able to work for justice, for
healing, for equality, for release of captives, and for peace among people. It
is because of God’s work in helping us believe that we are here today… doing
things that look crazy… but are meaningful because of what we have been helped
to understand is true. True today and forever. Miraculous today and forever.
What
if you don’t believe or you struggle with believing or even you sometimes
wonder just a little? Does it mean God isn’t at work in you- that God hasn’t
given you faith? Do you think God is done with you? The disciples… pillars in
the faith… had to wrestle with what seemed like an idle tale. And Jesus met
them, each in different ways, with forgiveness and healing. And, Jesus does no
less with each of us as we live out our life’s Easter season in learning the
truth of God’s work in the world.
Faith
in the work of God isn’t magic and it isn’t easy. It is a miracle and it is
work. To make a body disappear- any magician can do that. To bring a body to
life again- we know some ways that happens. To bring a body to life as a sign
of hope and forgiveness, of renewal and future expectation, and to help people
trust in that resurrection… that’s a miracle. The miracle of grace. The miracle of Easter.
Christ
is risen.
He is risen, indeed.
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