With Fear and Great Joy

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

March 23, 2008
Easter Sunday

Matthew 28: 1-10 and First Corinthians 15: 1-11

RESURRECTION STORIES BEFORE US AGAIN

The stories of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead are before us once again. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all include the story of the empty tomb, each with its own flair. And the Apostle Paul also: he refers four times to the appearance of the risen Lord to him.

Paul says that the report of Jesus’ appearances have been handed down to him, and from him, to the church in Corinth.

“Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

 “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.”

As Paul handed down the tradition about the resurrection of Jesus, so this story has been handed down to us, and we are handing it down to the next generations.

The Easter gospel is our heritage.

BELOVED HERITAGE

When my grandparents died, my great-grandfather’s pocket watch was handed down to me. It is a beautiful gold watch which still ticks for a few minutes when it is wound. I keep it in a little glass display box. I look up at it and I remember my grandfather Eugene, who inherited the watch from his father, Jonas; and I imagine my great-grandfather who moved to north central Texas with his wife, Lucy Ann in 1876 and homesteaded some of the last remaining dry-land acreage.

The watch is a beloved artifact. It does not function for the purpose for which it was created. But I am attached to it, glad to have it in my possession and I plan to hand it down to the next generation.

Are the stories of the resurrection artifacts? Have they been handed down to us by our fathers and mothers in the faith as beloved heirlooms, to be kept under glass, no longer serving any useful purpose except as reminders of beliefs we no longer find useful or even credible?

In the little community of Industry, Texas, in a beautiful grove of oaks, pecan and cottonwood trees---and one lost pine--- the Methodists meet every week to worship and have Sunday school in a building built in the 1950s. Right behind this structure is the old chapel, a white wooden frame sanctuary, held together now by cables, lovingly preserved. It has the same pews as when it was built in 1867. The church was established by German settlers. Many of the members still speak English with a faint German accent.

On Christmas Eve and on fifth Sundays, they worship in the historic chapel, even singing some of the hymns in German. This lovely tradition keeps the faithful connected to their roots and they are handing down to their children the heritage of their people.

Are the Easter stories traditions which we gather around for the sake of preservation? Do we hand on these stories so that our children will know the traditions we hold dear?

I love old things myself: furniture, books, long-playing records, coins, my Dad’s medals, pictures of days gone by. I think we all feel the need, in this fast-changing world, to hold on to some things of the past lest we be swept away like falling leaves in a flood.

It is not a bad thing to hold on to what has been handed down to us. On the basis of the character of the giver, we trust the gift. For many generations of Christians, such a belief gave them great courage in the face of persecutions and tragedies of their lives

THE BLESSINGS OF CREATIVE, ACTIVE RECEPTION

Though we may approach the stories of the resurrection of Jesus in this same way----as the gift of credible witnesses----I believe that it pays dividends to receive the resurrection accounts as active recipients. We do better if we do not just place these inheritances in a display case. We must wrestle with them, much as Jacob wrestled with the angel while camped alone at Peniel on his trip back home.

We can be blessed when we take hold of the stories of Jesus’ resurrection and appearances with both hands and not let go until we are blessed with enduring truth.

Somewhere I was given a three-step process for studying scripture texts: “Engage the text, hold it close, hand it down.” Such is what Paul is asking from his Corinthian brothers and sisters; such is asked of us now.

Some read the stories of Jesus’ empty tomb as if they were on the scene, watching what was happening. This is as it should be, for these stories were no doubt told and re-told for many years (from 25 to 40 years) by parents and elders before they were gathered up organized into what we call gospels.

Our mind’s eye comes into play: we walk with the women to the tomb, to anoint the body of our friend, Jesus, as was the custom; we are shaken by the earthquake, and then, of all things, an angel, with appearance like lightening, do the heavy lifting of the stone in front of the entry to the sepulchre. We see the guards keel over from fright. We hear the message that Jesus was not there; the instruction to tell the disciples this very thing; the women running to tell the disciples. Then Jesus himself appearing to them with a “Good Morning!” (The Message); the counsel of the angel and of Jesus to the women not to be afraid, even though they were overcome with fear along with great joy.

It is a wondrous story in itself. Imagine a Christian mother telling this story to her children who are gathered at her feet. It is captivating.

Some believers receive the story and must analyze it: the type of literature it is, the world-view of the first century (so different from ours); the differences in the various gospel accounts and the reasons for these differences; the meaning of the story in its cultural and historical context. Others read the stories and approach them as historians, with minds trained to ask what really happened and what is possible to have happened.

I have been blessed by the careful scrutiny of the Bible which I learned in college and seminary. I am grateful that, because of our belief in God, we are freed to examine the scriptures with all of the means at our disposal. But this is where we must be careful: Merely because we can analyze received tradition does not necessarily translate into being more faithful. I know many people who have never taken the stories of the resurrection apart, but they have taken the stories to heart and have lived exemplary Christian lives. Finally, after all is said and done, we have to ask what is God’s fresh word to us through the received traditions.

I do not know how you receive the resurrection stories. And I cannot do your wrestling for you. (This wrestling through the centuries has resulted in many creative endeavors, including poetry, prayer, music, painting, sculptures, letters, dancing, among others.)

FEAR AND GREAT JOY

In my wrestling with the resurrection, I identify with the women’s responsein the Gospel of Matthew: I have “fear and great joy,” both at the same time. Fear because the appearance of a person who has been dead for three days simply doesn’t happen in the world I live in. Fear because, if I dare to believe that the person Jesus is alive again by some means, my version of what is possible must be expanded. I identify with Thomas, the first Missourian: “Show me!” I do not go through life in the ordinary world expecting such events as this! What can this mean?

I also respond to the stories with great joy! For I love this man Jesus: the way he welcomed the outcasts and the little people; the way he told parables which tease me into new truths; the way he stood right up to those who would silence him. I love him for the hope that he gave for a heaven on earth and for everlasting life. If he is alive, his work---- among us and in the world--- is not over: it continues. My Lord, wouldn’t that be something!

Karl Barth wrote many years ago of the resurrection of Jesus, that it was “impossibility becoming possibility.” “The resurrection is the non-historical…relating of the whole historical life of Jesus to its origin in God.” (Epistle to the Romans, page 195) By this he gets at the heart of the matter as I see it. God our Creator has done something which does not fit our categories of “possible.” Thus, we cannot successfully place Jesus’ resurrection alongside other events and make our comfortable religion out of it. We can only get on board----or not--- set our sails, learn from the captain, and see where the Spirit will send us!

Will Willimon has written of a fellow student at Yale Divinity School who continued to raise the question to his professor regarding the creedal affirmation of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. The professor gently admonished him: “It is alright if you do not understand what is meant by the creed. Christians have worked through this for centuries. You have a whole lifetime to wrestle with its meaning. Just receive the creed as the gift of your mothers and fathers in the faith to you. It is a gift to be received and allowed to shape your life as ponder it.” (Not a verbatim quote! I cannot locate the publication.)

This is why we are here. We have not expunged the Bible of this impossible possibility, this narrative of the empty tomb and the appearances of Jesus! And so far we have not reduced the stories to mere products of wishful thinking---even though some seem to do so.

As Norman Perrin, eminent New Testament scholar has written, “In some way [Paul and other disciples] were granted a vision of Jesus which convinced them that God had vindicated Jesus out of his death, and that therefore the death of Jesus was by no means the end of the impact of Jesus upon their lives and upon the world in which they lived.” (The Resurrection, Fortress Press, 1977, page 83) Like Paul, we receive the story over and over again----we re-tell it in its various versions and we stand in fear and great joy like the earliest witnesses, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

STANDING UNDER

We do not so much understand the story as we stand under the story. For the news of a resurrected man, even a great and good man like Jesus, would not be deeply saving were it not for the experienced presence of this risen crucified One in our lives now, in our church and in our world. Yes, hidden, as God always is, because to look upon him would be more than we can bear. But real nevertheless.

####Christ is risen into our personal lives. When, by the gift of faith, we die to our old self with Christ, we bring ourselves just as we are to him, and receive his healing and forgiveness. We find “that we are all, each and every creature of us, embraced everlastingly by the boundless love of God.” (Schubert Ogden, The Reality of God, page 220)

We experience newness of life when we leave the burdens of our regrets and failures at the cross and face the future with confidence that nothing, not even death, “can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8)

####Christ is risen in the Church. When our faith is weak and faltering, it is the faith of our sisters and brothers that keeps us from throwing in the towel. When we cannot by ourselves make sense of the resurrection at all, in the little circles of prayer and scripture wrestling, where two or three or more are gathered, Christ the Lord enters our lives with fresh power and wisdom.

####When we have open minds to receive, new scientific insights can confirm our faith in a God who is yet creating, and whose movements are truly too marvelous to get our minds around.

####And, as Jesus told us would be the case, when we meet the real needs of the hungry, the imprisoned, those in tattered clothing and those sick in all of the ways in which sickness manifests itself-----when we help them directly or indirectly, we meet the Lord himself who lives in them. (See Matthew 24)

Jesus, meeting the disciples in Galilee, said he would be with us until the kingdom comes. And we find this to be true.

BELIEVING THE INDESCRIBABLE

When Paul tries to explain the resurrection of the body, he goes into great detail, speaking of physical bodies and spiritual bodies, seeds dying and then sprouting, celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies, the sun, the moon and the stars, sleep and waking, and trumpets! I think he is searching for words to describe the indescribable. It is Paul’s own account of “wrestling” with the appearances of Christ Jesus to him.

Finally, as he closes this section on resurrection, he writes what can only be described as a song:

“In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:

   ‘Death swallowed by triumphant Life!

   Who got the last word, oh, Death?

   Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now?’

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

 “With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.” (I Corinthians 15: 54-58, The Message)

Today, our language categories fail us, too. That is why we sing. And this is why we dare to believe, in concert with the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before:

The Lord is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed!