Jim Kenney
WOW!
Posted on: 04/22/2011 18:38
My sermon for Easter Sunday. I still need to work on the conclusion.
Message: WOW!
The Moderator story
We might laugh, or groan, at what children believe or know about Easter, but the reality is that we don’t know for sure what happened, or even if it happened. What we do know is that the followers of Jesus had an experience of the risen Jesus that shocked, upset, and encouraged them. They had the Ahha moment of ahha moments, and the world has not been the same.
The foundation for our uncertainty and certainty is found in the gospels and in the letters in the Christian scriptures of the Bible.
Let’s consider the foundation for uncertainty, beginning with when. According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus and the disciples shared a Passover meal after which Jesus was arrested and tried, and then he was crucified on the Friday and the empty tomb was found on the Sunday. According to the Gospel of John, he was executed on the day before the Passover, which would have been Wednesday, and we are not sure on which day the empty tomb was discovered.
The next uncertainty is who were the first witnesses, in what order, and what did they witness? According to Paul in his letters, Peter was the first witness. According to all four gospels, the first witnesses were women, but each names different women. According to the Gospel of Mark, all that was witnessed was an empty tomb and an angel telling them that Jesus had gone ahead of them to Galilee. The other three gospels describe encounters in Jerusalem with the risen Jesus.
These uncertainties offer several choices to us: we can believe the whole story was made up, and there are many supporters for this view.
We can believe that one of the evangelists got it right, probably either Mark whose version was first, or John whose version was last, and the others got it wrong.
Or we can believe that what happened was so extraordinary and surprising, none of the witnesses had language that could adequately describe their experience, and they had to resort to stories using ordinary language to highlight the parts of the experience that were most meaningful to them.
My choice is to believe the last possibility, that they had an experience beyond the limits of their understandings and language. I also believe people today continue to have experiences of God that are not easily described or understood, experiences that expand their sense of the mystery of God.
Out of this choice, consider the reading from Matthew which even has its own contradictions. The two Marys are told to tell the others to meet Jesus at the prearranged mountain in Galilee; then Jesus meets all of them. They grab his feet, and he tells them to go to Galilee.
Today we experience that same contradiction. The focus for many followers of Jesus today is celebration of his resurrection, both in church, and as families and friends later today in family Easter Dinners. But we are also expected to go to Galilee to meet Jesus. Galilee was home for the disciples, the place where they made a living, had connections, had roots. Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we are expected to take our experience of Jesus to the places we work, shop and play so that we can encounter him in our relationships with others.
Jesus invites us to do so with a sense of awe, of hope, and of confidence. Our story includes a mystery that cannot be proved, contradictions that warn us against dogmatic claims, and the wonder of how a shattered, despairing group of followers found the confidence and courage to put their lives on the line for the sake of sharing his story.
On that first Easter, there were probably fewer than 2 or 3 dozen followers to share that Easter experience. According to Paul, Jesus appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters after appearing to Peter, and the twelve.
Today there are close to 1 billion people celebrating his resurrection. WOW!
If widespread ignorance of many things about our faith, contradictions within our story, attacks from the beginning, and widespread disbelief have not succeeded in silencing our story, consider how much power our story has, and its potential to keep changing the world. Be glad for our story, and let it lead you with confidence and courage.
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