Cathedral Sermons
Easter Day, April 4th 2010
Readings: Acts 10:34-43; Romans 6:3-11; Luke 24:1-12
Even when it’s embarrassing and difficult there’s power and healing in revealing the truth, as is happening with the release of reports about the dealings of Finance companies and their need to be accountable.
I’m glad that the Gospel writers included the embarrassing fact that many didn’t believe the news of the women that Jesus was alive. We are familiar with the disbelief of the establishment when those of lesser consequence reveal uncomfortable truths, rather like the women over recent years in police abuse cases who have had to cope with media and public scepticism. The problem here is not so much that their testimony was initially doubted, but that with growing evidence and verification they were disbelieved for so long!
I must confess to being someone who is likely to be sceptical initially of things that seem far fetched and I have some sympathy for the dismissive attitude of the disciples…after all they had seen Jesus buried with a huge rock covering the entrance to the tomb.
Indeed I find a measure of comfort in knowing that from the beginning disbelief has a place in the Easter story along with wonder and joy. For me, the inclusion of disbelief heightens the credibility of what’s being told. I can identify with disbelief, and that puts me at least in some relationship to the story of Easter – I’m not totally out of the picture. Who knows, so long as we continue to struggle with the issues rather than dismiss them, there may be more of the drama that will unfold, convince us and change our attitudes and response.
Scholars have long argued over the authenticity of the verse in Luke, which tells of Peter running to the tomb to have a look for himself. [In some versions it’s part of the main text, in others it appears as a footnote]. Many think that the early church was so uncomfortable with Luke saying that the disciples dismissed out of hand what the women told them that it added a face-saving verse. The writer of Luke thought it was very significant that even for those closest to Jesus, the response to the news “He is Risen” was disbelief. Thomas wasn’t the only doubter amongst the disciples. Yes, even Easter people know what it is to doubt!
Whatever the authenticity of Peter running to look in the tomb, his response is amazement rather than belief. The Women and Peter were initially perplexed that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. Easter people know what it is to be perplexed. However what was it that moved the disciples and might move us from perplexity to faith?
The key for that movement seems to be the question, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’
If our doubts are about a God who lives, who is ‘with you always,’ perhaps it’s not a tomb but in the midst of life that we should seek to encounter the ‘risen Christ,’ the God who is incarnate among us. The story Luke tells of the couple on the Emmaus road, while other disciples were fearful and hiding behind locked doors, emphasises that it’s in the midst of life that we’ll experience the Christ’s peace, power and presence.
There’s hope in that. Think what it means that the God who created us, who calls us to be partners, who through Jesus shows us how to live as persons loved and loving, who prevails over all – even death- is alive and well and active in the world.
We hear that preached, but these words may seem to us, as to the first disciples, an ‘idle tale’, if we never engage with God working within us and through our relationships with others.
I take the resurrection story and this festival of Easter as the ultimate sign of God’s desire to establish on earth the life seen in Jesus. The powers of oppression said ‘no’ to this life: they crucified Jesus. God says ‘no’ to such obstruction and ‘yes’ to the power of the living Christ being with us today, tomorrow and always. That’s God’s Easter promise to us, a promise that enables us to see the suffering and brokenness that plagues the world with sober yet hopeful eyes.
We can see the hungry to be fed, the oppressed to be liberated, the sick to be comforted, the stranger to be welcomed, the abused to be made whole, and the lonely to be befriended. We can see that more needs doing than we have the strength to do, but as we do what we can, we have the promise of the Risen Christ, “I will be with you,” and find in that presence a strength beyond our own.
There’s a joy that this world can neither provide nor take away when in faith we trust God’s love and feel God’s strength.
A contributor to the publication ‘Weavings’ writes: ‘ Jesus invites us to be his Easter people, to do for others what we need to have done for us; to be for others what we have not yet become; to give to others what we have not yet completely received ourselves.’
We experience the presence of the Risen Christ when we are confronted with a situation which calls for us to dare to offer what we doubt we have to give.
Have you known some time when you have made some awkward effort, some hesitant outreach, some stammering statement, some tentative commitment in order to share the abundance of life with others, and God has honoured that? The wonder is that time and time again what we offer does make a difference. God does use us as agents of grace and reconciliation.
The transforming power of God as seen in Jesus the Christ can be at work in us too. When we least expect it we may be aware of Christ’s presence. In ways beyond our knowing, events happen, lives change.
It’s in that experience that we come to know the meaning of Easter. In spite of us and yet because of us - Christ is made present.
Christ is risen, alleluia!
Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!