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Easter Sunday April 12, 2009 "An Idle Tale" Luke 24:1-12 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 4/14/2009 10:37 AM | I learned about the power of resurrection when I was a teenager.
One day the front doorbell rang. I went to answer it and when I opened the door I saw a tall, broad, rather rough looking guy wearing a United Auto Workers jacket. Now, neither the roughness or the UAW jacket was out of the ordinary in my neighborhood, but when he asked if Dorothy Conely lived there, I was a bit surprised.
I asked him to wait a moment, closed the door and went and got my mother. I described who was at the door, that he had asked for her using her maiden name. She looked a little concerned and said, “stay behind me.”
She opened the door, and said, “Can I help you?” and the man responded, “Hi Dorothy.” My mother looked a little perplexed for a minute than suddenly cried out, “Oh, my gosh, Bob Hill!” She pushed open the door and he held out his arms and enveloped her in the biggest bear hug I have ever seen.
Now, I did not recognize the man at the door because I had never met him, but I sure knew who Bob Hill was. My mother grew up in the same house I did and Bob Hill was one of her best friends from the neighborhood. I had heard stories about Bob Hill and my mother’s twin next door neighbors, Victor and Anthony Pagano, my whole life.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Oh, I took mother to a doctors appointment downtown and she wanted to come to the old neighborhood. I had heard that you were living here again, so I thought I’d take a chance. My mother’s in the car, do you want to say hello?”
My mother rushed out to the car, helped Mrs. Hill out of the car, and arm and arm they came into the house. For the next two hours I was absolutely spellbound as this big bear of a man and his little wisp of an elderly mother told me stories of my mother’s misspent youth. As they told stories I had never heard, stories that I never would have believed, one that actually involved police officers, my mother at first looked a little embarrassed and then just gave up the façade and laughed along with Bob and his mother.
As they reminisced, names of the other neighbors came up, including Anthony and Victor Pagano. I knew their story well. Immediately following high school graduation, Anthony and Victor had enlisted in the Army and gone of to Europe to fight the Nazi’s in World War II.
One day, the worst thing imaginable happened. Two uniformed Army officers, one an Army chaplain, came to the Pagano’s door to inform them that Victor had been killed in action.
Heartbroken, the family had moved out of the neighborhood soon after that, and my mother had lost track of Anthony.
As they sat and talked my mother said, “I think about Victor at least once a week. To die like that, so far from home. I think about Anthony, too, and wonder where he ended up.”
Bob and his mother, exchanged glances and Bob was the first to speak.
“So you don’t know?”
“Know what?” my mother asked.
“Victor is alive. About two years after he was reported killed, he was found in a German prison camp, in none too good a shape, but alive. He had lost his dog tags so the Red Cross had no record of him. One day, he just showed up on his parents front doorstep. I didn’t know it for several years, until he showed up at my father’s wake.”
I could see the confused look on my mother’s face, and saw the tears start to well up in her eyes.
“Where is he? Does he still live in Detroit?”
“Yeah, he lives on the east side. Do you want to call him?”
My mother fairly leapt out of her chair and cried, “You have his phone number? Yes, call him!”
They went to the kitchen and a few minutes later, my mother came flying out to the living room, headed for the coat closet, and turned to me. With tears streaming down her cheeks she said, “Tell your father I’m going to see Victor Pagano. I’ll call later and let you know what’s going on. I won’t believe it till I get a chance to see him and give him a hug.”
With that, the three of them piled into Bob’s car and were gone. And that day, I witnessed the power of resurrection, and not only that, but the confusion and bewilderment that resurrection can hold for those looking in from the outside.
The followers of Jesus felt lots of that bewilderment and confusion. It is easy to see why. Resurrection from the dead? Nothing they experienced could help prepare them for that. They were like us, like my mother: it is hard enough to absorb the fact that someone you love is dead, but it is well beyond the realm of our capabilities to comprehend that the dead have come back to life.
So, when the women went to finish the job of preparing the body of Jesus for the final burial, they could not understand why the tomb was empty. But angels came to them and reminded them of what Jesus had told them during his ministry in Galilee: that the Son of Man would be crucified and then, three days later, would be resurrected. The women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, James’ mother Mary and several other women heard the news and remembered the words of Jesus and they believed. They still had not seen the resurrected Jesus, but they believed.
When they went and told the apostles, all except Peter stayed where they were, because, as Luke tells us, they thought it an idle tale.
And the one who did not just stay put, Peter, ran to the tomb, found it empty and went home.
Went home? An idle tale? What was going on there? What was going on was that human beings were being human. And it is what is going on to this day.
My mother had the word of one of her oldest, dearest friends, but still she said, “I need to see him.”
The apostles had the word of the women who loved Jesus enough to risk ridicule and even harm by tending to his body for burial, yet still they said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
We have the word of our holy scriptures, and still there are times when we say, “But I need proof.”
Large numbers of people who refuse to believe that God came to earth in the form of a man, lived with us, died for us, and was resurrected so that we might know the power of God’s presence. “It’s impossible,” they say. “It’s impossible because I cannot comprehend it.”
You know what? It doesn’t matter if we comprehend it. It doesn’t matter if the proof we seek is somehow lacking. It didn’t matter that the apostles needed visual confirmation of the resurrection.
That is not what we need to dwell on. Humans being human will doubt, they will seek proof, they want to understand. But in the end, what really matters is that it happened.
It happened whether any human being could wrap their brains around it or not! It happened and it is up to us to accept it our not.
My mother alluded to something very similar to this a few days after she reconnected with Victor. “You know,” she said, “I was thinking about all the time that was wasted because I didn’t know Victor was still alive. I was thinking that I had been shortchanged somehow. But when I really think about it, I realize that just because I didn’t know doesn’t mean it was wasted time. Victor has been alive all these 30 years, living his life, having an impact, affecting peoples lives. It doesn’t matter how it affected me. But now it’s up to me as to what I do with it.” I didn’t fully understand what she meant then, but I think I do now.
Jesus lived.
Jesus died.
Jesus was raised from the dead.
Whether we were there or not. Whether we saw it or not.
The women didn’t see Jesus come alive. They didn’t even see his body. The resurrection took place at a time when NO ONE saw it. But it still took place. God didn’t need the witness of the followers of Jesus to raise him from the dead.
his is one of the big lessons of the resurrection: God made it happen, whether we understand it or not. The resurrection speaks to God’s power to do anything, ANYTHING, in our lives and in the life of the world.
Another big lesson of the resurrection is that because it happened, it happens again and again and again.
Look at the amazing creation that God created. All around us we witness the blooming of spectacular plants that just a few short weeks ago were dormant, seemingly dead. But in the amazing cycle of life, we enjoy their resurrected beauty.
Look at the work that is being done in our trauma centers and our hospitals in this city and around the world. People dying of disease and because of accident are healed through the power of medical science. The knowledge that our doctors and nurses acquire deals with understanding more and more of the intricacies of the human body, the human body that God designed. And because of their skill and knowledge, resurrection happens.
Look at the people who have dedicated their lives to ministry among those of us who have fallen into the grip of addiction. Through organizations such as Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous; through the work of clinics and counselor in many places, our addicted brothers and sisters are helped to loosen that grip and live free of it’s power. There return to a vital life is nothing less than resurrection.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we understand that all types of resurrection are possible.
When I wake up every morning, one of the first things I do is thank God for another day, another day to get it right. Because of the resurrection, because we know that God is with us, and gives us second and third and fourth chances, we can fall on our knees, ask forgiveness and know that we can be resurrected, too.
Resurrected to a life empowered by the example and the grace of Jesus Christ. Resurrected to try again.
My mother had it right: the biggest question for us surrounding resurrection is what we do with it. We can be overcome when we witness the power of resurrection all around us, but how can we faithfully live into the power of resurrection?
It will be different for each of us, but it starts with looking at the life of Jesus and what he taught. Love your neighbor. Hate injustice. It continues with the lesson of his death: forgiveness is always possible, if we will simply ask.
Love and forgiveness. Two of the strongest messages that Jesus brings us are love and forgiveness. We are to live in love, and because we are forgiven, we are to forgive.
Truth be told, the most amazing resurrections I have every witnessed revolved around the practice of love and forgiveness. Too often, relationships are broken. It can happen for any number of reasons. We have all been there. But when someone decides to reach out in love and forgive, relationships can be restored. Resurrected, if you will.
That is the lesson of the cross. Humanity had broken off it’s relationship with God, walked away, decided they could do it on their own. But through the love of God represented in Jesus’ life and the forgiveness of God represented in Jesus’ death, the relationship between God and humanity was resurrected.
We are called to do the same. First, we must recognize that God will never leave us. The empty tomb taught us that. Second, we must recognize that we have the power to resurrect broken relationships in our lives through the power of love and forgiveness. The cross at Calvary taught us that. Third, we must understand that we are the body of Christ, bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and it is up to us to live our lives in a way that reflects that good news. People who need to feel
Christ’s presence are watching us.
In John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene is the first person to be in the presence of the resurrected Jesus. When she goes to tell the others, she does it simply and to the point: “I have seen the Lord.”
We may not have been in Christ’s physical presence, but if we will simply open our eyes and our ears and our hearts and our minds to all the possibilities we will find ourselves amazed at Christ’s very real presence all around us. In all the beauty that surrounds us. In the miracle of new life as we stare into a newborn baby’s innocent face. In the power of the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. In the strength gained by being part of Christ’s church. In the peace that comes from letting go of our worries and letting God help us shoulder our burden.
An idle tale? Hardly. We have seen the Lord.
All because, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
Let us pray: Our hearts are full, and it is because, loving God, we are overwhelmed at what you have done for us, in a garden outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago, and in our lives today. Because you love us, we know the beauty of new life, we feel the power of resurrection, and we know the full weight of your presence with us. Empower us to move forward to let others know what we have seen, what we have felt, and the reality of your presence in our lives. For we have seen the Lord all around us, and for that we give thanks. In Christ’s holy name we pray. Amen.
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