Luke 24:1-12, 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 Panzer Liturgical Service
If you asked most people what their favorite holiday is,
most would say Christmas. I’m sure everyone has a favorite childhood Christmas
memory, and some as adults, too. Especially here in Germany, the Advent and
Christmas seasons are as wonderful and over-the-top as you would ever want them
to be, filled with beauty and joy, and celebrated with friends and family in
wonderful ways.
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| Meteora, Greece (c) Deb Luther Teagan |
Luke 24:1-12 (paraphrased) As the women of his group went to the tomb to prepare his body for its final rest, they were astonished and frightened to find that his body was nowhere to be found. Instead, the stone was rolled away and the cloths in which his body had been quickly wrapped on Friday were laying in a pile. Men in dazzling attire asked the ultimate rhetorical question: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here – because he promised that he wouldn’t be.” And when the women went to tell the disciples the news, they didn’t believe them. Instead, Peter and probably others ran back to the tomb to see for themselves the new truth… “He is not here – he is risen.”
I can’t even tell you how many people have told me that the
resurrection is the hardest part of the Jesus story. Since the mid-17th
century, we have become a world where seeing is believing. Today we often hear
that science and religion conflict with one another. But the father of modern
science, Galileo Galilei, even though he was knocked down again and again by
the Church, never lost faith in God and Jesus Christ.
So if you are wondering how to reconcile your understanding
of Jesus’ story with a world of scientific discovery, I ask you to consider
hearing the story this way. The resurrection of Jesus is a miracle that is
impossible to understand. We don’t know how it happened. But the real question is not about how, but
why Jesus was raised from the dead. And to find an answer to that question, we
have to look at the whole story.
The bible is filled with amazing stories – sometimes like a
crazy soap opera. Even so, it’s easy to think of the bible as a rule book or
etiquette guide. But it’s so much more than just that. It’s the story of God interacting with his
creations for generations. And in this story, God tries everything he can think
of to help us live in harmony with him and one another.
He creates this amazing garden – with everything that
humanity would need to live a perfect life. But God also created us with personalities
and the ability to make choices and decisions for ourselves. It was a risk, but
without choice, he understood that what we have with him is not really a
relationship.
And so when the first couple made bad choices, there were
consequences. God was true to his word. But he also did not cut them off. He
continued to be present with them, calling prophets to warn people and share
the good news of who God is. But eventually, the old story played itself out.
And a new story – a new prophet… a new savior – came into the picture. God
turned the page and made a personal appeal to the people he created… and Jesus
said, “Come and follow me.”
The world that Jesus was born into was not a model society.
The Jews had been returned to the promised land from exile and slavery, but
they were not in control. The Greeks and then the Romans were in charge. The
Jewish leaders were given some authority to keep the religious sects in hand.
We saw in the events of Holy Week that these leaders were dedicated to keeping
their own status high by crushing small rebellions that popped up. Messiahs
were a dime a dozen in their eyes. But Jesus was different, in more ways than
one.
The resurrection, and therefore our celebration of Easter,
is a pivotal moment in God’s history. Every Sunday we profess the belief that
death does not have the last word over life. Two passages help us to cling to
the resurrection story and believe in it even when we don’t understand it. The first has to do with faith. The writer of Hebrews 11 says, “Now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… By faith, we understand that the worlds were
prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was made from things that are
not visible. (v1,3)” That means that we have to be willing to know something
with our hearts and faith, even if we can’t fully understand it.
In some ways, sermons on Easter are hard. They are
theologically and philosophically oriented. Today’s epistle lesson is
remarkably concrete. The people who followed Jesus were awed by the things he
did… healing, feeding, and loving people, no matter who they were. But here
Paul is telling us that Jesus wasn’t just important in the flesh… if that’s all
we focus on we are missing the point. And he isn’t just important to us while
we are in our flesh. Jesus’ resurrection, while unexplainable, changes
everything for us. And Paul makes this point by connecting Adam and Jesus to
us. He says - Just as Adam’s humanness makes us human, Jesus’ rising from the
grave gives us the gift of new life, eternal life in him. And even more so,
Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t just destroy the power of rulers and authorities
over him but also flips on its head the concept that death will always have the
last word.
At the beginning of this letter, Paul is quick to point out
how hard it is to wrap our brains around this. He explains, "For the message
about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved, it is the power of God… For
Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser
than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1
Corinthians 1:18, 22-25)
It is not just that the resurrection doesn’t make sense, but
also that Jesus, who is God, would die a horrific and shameful death. In the end, faith is about believing in the
wisdom of God, which might not make sense to the world, and trusting that God’s
weakness is stronger than human strength.
Easter is the best reminder that death does not have the
final say – and that while we don’t know what this gift of eternal life will
look like, it is a promise that we can count on. When we are young Christians,
we can start out thinking that Easter and resurrection are an insurance policy…
protection from struggles and hardships. We worry about following the rules,
but eventually, we can’t keep up. When that realization comes, we can either
give up or get a new outlook on what a life of faith should look like.
It’s a good day when we realize – and internalize – the
understanding that Christ did not intend for our lives to be grounded in fear.
Instead, he instructs us to live as reflections of his love and grace in the
world. This happens day by day, minute by minute, one act of love at a time. It
means choosing Christ daily and recommitting our lives, over and over, with the
knowledge he always chooses each of us.
Many of us were brought to the water and baptized before we
knew who Jesus was. That was the start of our Christian lives. Many of us went
through Confirmation classes and reaffirmed our baptismal vows before our
family and friends. But in reality, we renew those vows a remarkable number of
times in our lives. Every time we attend someone else’s baptism or
confirmation, we are asked to reaffirm our vows. When we come to the Eucharist
each week, we answer the call of Christ when we affirm that we love God and
seek to live in peace with one another, offering a prayer of confession and
absolving one another from sin. We gather at a common table where everyone is
equal. And we go into the world to serve God and one another in peace.
We come to worship in relative calm, but some people worship
Jesus knowing that it is dangerous, putting their lives in jeopardy. If we
think back to that first Easter morning, the women went in great fear because
of all that happened the week before. But their love for Jesus was greater than
their fear. And so they went.
It is always my hope that people will hear the story of
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and see a place for themselves in his
story. The journey of faith starts with one step…and continues with another and
another, until one day, we are living a life we never imagined. At its core,
this means living a life defined by love. Perhaps Mother Theresa has said it in
a way that all of us can understand: “Not all of us can do great things, but we
can do all things with great love.”
Let this be the prayer of our hearts. Let this be our Easter story. Let this be our
everything.
Peace, Deb
(c) Deb Luther Teagan April 2022
See Holly Hearon, “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:19-26,”
April 17, 2022, Working Preacher,
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/resurrection-of-our-lord-3/commentary-on-1-corinthians-1519-26-5
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