Resurrection Sunday

Introduction to Bible Readings

I invite you to connect with the resurrection reading using your imagination. Take a few moments to imagine how that morning might have engaged your senses of smell, sight, taste, touch, and hearing.

• What sounds might you have heard that morning?
• What scents and aromas would have been in the air?
• What taste might have been in your mouth?
• What might you have touched that morning?
• What sights would you have seen at the tomb?

Prayer of Illumination

Kia inoi tatou, Let us pray;

Jesus, we do not always find it easy to recognise you, especially when we do not expect you.

Help us to understand you now in the scripture.

Set our heavy hearts on fire with love for you, and send us on our way rejoicing.

In your name.

Amine/Amen

 

Text: Luke 24: 1-12 (Good News version)

Very early on Sunday the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, so they went in; but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood by them. Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them, “Why are you looking among the dead for the one who is alive? He is not here: he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life.’ “

Then the women remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all the rest. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; they and the other women with them told these things to the apostles. But the apostles thought that what the women said was nonsense, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; he bent down and saw the linen wrappings but nothing else. Then he went back home amazed at what had happened.

 

(short silence to ponder what we have heard the Spirit say during the reading of the Word – about 30 seconds)

Sermon ‘Jesus has gone! ?’

I know imagining yourself into a story is easier for some than others but I hope you were able to experience it more than think about what the words mean. Because one of the problems we have, especially in Protestant churches, is centuries of thinking about what bible stories mean instead of simply becoming part of the story. And so we miss the fact that these early Jesus followers didn’t understand what had happened that morning; were totally flummoxed by it all.

We are told the women are confused and frightened, that the apostles don’t believe them because their story is so outside their understanding and expectations. And even Peter, who at least decides to check out their story, goes home totally astonished.

We have grown up with the expectation of things being explained and so we miss the fact that on that long ago Sunday morning there were no reasonable responses for what Jesus’ friends discovered. We forget that the four gospels we now have in the bible were actually written as one way to try and explain it all.  All the other gospels that didn’t get into the bible were written for that reason too. Theologians like Paul wrote about it in his letters. Ordinary blokes like Peter wrote about it too. And two thousand years of academics and preachers have added their own interpretations too. All trying to unwrap the mystery of what Jesus’ resurrection meant then and now.

To compound the problem, I think we live in an age when Christians are supposed to have the answers – 5-second bite type answers. Where not knowing is seen as a lack of faith. Where the inability to have clear precise replies is called doubt and fought against.

Perhaps this is a result of the scientific world we have been brought up in, where measurable results are expected. Perhaps it is a way of bringing order into a world of uncertainty but many in the church feel the need to take the confusion and fear of that Sunday morning and make it all certain and clear.

But the danger with that is that the mystery of what happened to Jesus is lost. And we also lose an important process that his followers went through – that of not knowing. We need to taste the fear we are wrong, wrestle with the confusion of doubt on our way to believe the impossible. If we are only trained to regurgitate facts, to agree to anything our leaders say, our ability to believe in strange things and to make incredible stuff part of us is greatly weakened.

Sadly, such freedom to question and speculate is becoming rarer, especially sad to say in the Presbyterian church. It is a long time ago now since Lloyd Geering suggested this resurrection thing might not mean that Jesus’ body was actually brought back to life. He was declared a heretic by some for even daring to think such things. And yet have things really changed since then. Yes, Geering keeps asking controversial questions but are the rest of us allowed?

Sadly his attackers had forgotten that all the gospel stories make it clear that right at the beginning nobody knew what had occurred. What had happened was so far beyond their usual understanding it took time to come up with some plausible explanations. And yet He and subsequent questioners have been vilified for saying their doubts out loud.

Now I get that “deconstruction” – the art of pulling apart all we thought we knew and believed, is uncomfortable. And I strongly support coming to a place where I, we, can say “This is what I believe. This is what I would die for” But surely we should be able to express our uncertainties along the way?

And actually I’m not really talking about the problem of the empty tomb. A body being raised to life wasn’t that abnormal in that time. Look at Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son from Nain. Jesus is reported to have raised all of them. And there are even stories that this phenomenon can happen today. Yes, this moment on a Sunday morning was a little different in that Jesus seems to have brought himself back to life. But dead bodies becoming living, breathing people was not totally weird. So you could ask why were the disciples so confused?

And that’s before you consider all the other possibilities to explain an absent body. Like his body being stolen by the apostles or the priests or some other random group. Or he really hadn’t died on the cross but had gone into a death-like state, was later revived and was taken away to heal. And any number of other probable or flaky explanations.

Add to that all the teaching Jesus had given his followers about him rising from the dead and you actually have to wonder why they were so freaked out. In fact, was it less the dead becoming the living thing, and more the dawning realization that Jesus really was someone completely different to who they thought he was, that he had had a entirely different agenda than any they had imagined. And perhaps what really scared them was what might be coming next.

Because if this was a guy who was prepared to die to prove a point. If he wasn’t the sort of Messiah that they had assumed God was sending, then what would his next move be? Would he place himself in another situation where he would die, would he expect them to do the same? What else was he capable of and what might this new future look like?

Having all your belief systems upended. Having all your certainties shaken. Having your past experiences suddenly have a completely different meaning. Having your future altered beyond belief. All of that is going to make you very mixed up and deeply afraid. Exactly the symptoms Luke records for those first witnesses.

My plea this Easter is to embrace the uncertainty of the resurrection rather than try to come up with consistent, provable explanations. I don’t mean we can’t believe things but we need to hold those beliefs lightly to allow ourselves to look at the possibilities, to let the mystery of what happened fill our souls, to enable us to move from rigidity to openness.

We owe it to ourselves and others to be gentle with our convictions. Jesus had lived with and taught these people for three years and they struggled to comprehend what happened that Easter morning. Can we not be allowed to have some doubts too this far removed from the actual events? I think so.

Because not being sure is not the same as not following Jesus. Luke tells us that despite his doubts Peter runs to the tomb to see whether the women might be right. Yes, he doesn’t leave with any answers or certainty but he had enough faith, enough hope, and enough love to want to believe things could be different to what he thought they might be.

Stepping out in faith actually comes when we don’t know the answers, when we take the risk that we may be wrong, when clear paths cannot be seen.

Remember when those women went out before dawn that Sunday morning they had been up all night preparing spices to make sure Jesus’ body would be buried properly. The Sabbath that had cut short their preparations on Friday had finished at sunset on Saturday. After an all-nighter organizing their last gift to Jesus, they went to the tomb that they knew full well was covered with a stone they could not move.

Think about that for a moment – they went believing the impossible could happen. They went in faith. They went risking being wrong and the result was beyond their wildest dreams.

To me, this Resurrection Sunday is an annual reminder to grasp the mystery of our faith, to embrace the uncertainty of not knowing. For that is when God really starts to works with us. Scary – totally! Exciting – definitely! So, who wants to come for the ride?

(pause to ponder what the Spirit is saying)

Rev Stephanie Wells, 17 April 2022