SERMON OF APRIL 26, 2009

M. Bruce McKay

Pilgrim-St. Luke's United Church of Christ

"You are Witnesses!"

Luke 24:36-48, I John 3:1-7

 

It was 15 Easters ago and I was driving with our two sons to Florida, for our annual visit with my parents.

After church on Easter Sunday, the festive, joyous mood of the morning gave way to a flurry of last minute packing and loading the van for the 20-hour trip.

As we drove down Richmond Avenue and passed the church, Micah suddenly said, "Dad, Dad."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I know Jesus rose from the dead on Easter. But I've got a question. What happened after he died the next time?"

My effort to assure him that he didn't die again led to a second question.

"Well, then, where is he now?"

My attempt at explaining the ascension and reign of the Risen Christ and my assurance that Jesus was now in heaven and on earth, left Micah with a quizzical look that seemed to say, "Here you go again! Talking like a minister! When are you going to use language I understand?"

As we try to understand what happened to the disciples on that first Easter evening, we find them feeling like Jesus may have already died again, even though they’d just received word that he’d risen.

Today’s text begins with the words, "While they were talking about this..."

The two traveling to Emmaus had just returned to the 11 disciples and their companions huddled behind closed doors in a Jerusalem home. They'd told what had happened on the road and how they'd encountered the Risen Jesus in the breaking of bread. The disciples then told them that he'd also appeared to Peter.

It was while they were talking about this that Jesus himself stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

But the last thing they felt at that moment was peace.

"They were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost," Luke tells us.

Now that tells me that somehow the message and meaning of the resurrection hadn't fully sunk in. Despite the witness they'd heard, the disciples in some sense felt that even if Jesus had risen from the dead, he'd already died again.

For why else would they think they were seeing a ghost, when at least three of them had just finished saying that they'd seen him alive?

For those of us who've envied, at one time or another, our first century sisters and brothers to whom the Risen Christ appeared, there follows a sobering word.

"Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?"

No one, not even our first century sisters and brothers to whom Jesus appeared on that first Easter evening, lives their life free of fear and doubt.

 

 

No one, then or now, can believe in the power of God witnessed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, without some measure of doubt and some semblance of fear.

That’s how it is and was and always will be for Easter people living in a Good Friday world.

In his short novel, A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean tells the story of a Presbyterian family growing up in Montana. The father is a minister. He and his wife have two sons. One is the author of the story and the other is his younger brother, Paul. The men in the family all love to fly fish, but Paul is the best fisherman and the freest spirit. He’s a gambling, hard-drinking reporter for the local paper who’s often in trouble with the law.

The police find Paul in an alley beaten to death. Little was known about the circumstances of his death.

Maclean writes: "After my brother’s death, my father never walked very well again. He had to struggle to lift his feet, and, when he did get them up, they came down slightly out of control…He could not shuffle in a straight line from trying to lift his feet…`Are you sure you’ve told me everything you know about his death?’ he asked. I said, `Everything.’ `It’s not much is it?’ `No.’ I replied, `but you can love completely without complete understanding.’ `That I have known and preached ,’ my father said." (p. 111-112)

We too, like Norman Maclean, his father and the first disciples can love completely without complete understanding as witnesses to the Risen Christ.

Now that's not to say that the first century disciples didn't have a few advantages over us.

"Look at my hands and feet; see that it is I myself," said Jesus.

"Touch me and see; for a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

It wasn't their imaginations that Jesus appealed to but their senses.

"Look at my hands and feet....touch me and see."

Then the text says he showed them his hands and feet, still marked by the nails that held him to the cross. "See these wounds. Look at this evidence of my love for you."

Yet even then, in their joy, the text says, "In their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering..."

Disciples then and now aren't asked to live without doubts and fear but rather to love as fully and live as faithfully as they can - despite their doubts and regardless of their fears – staying anchored always in the world we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell.

"Have you anything to eat?" Jesus asked.

And before you know it, it's more like Friday night in Buffalo than Sunday night in Jerusalem -- "They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence."

It was this experience, this encounter with the Risen Christ, confirmed by their understanding of God’s Word revealed in Scripture, to which the first disciples were called to witness.

"You are witnesses of these things!" Jesus told them and Jesus tell us — "You are witnesses of these things!"

 

 

Witnesses. The Greek word translated witnesses is martyrs. That’s right. The transliteration of the Greek word for witnesses is our word martyrs.

"You are martyrs!" Jesus told his first disciples.

Can I get a witness? Can I get a martyr?

Being a witness of our Risen Lord has always been risky business. Even if we aren’t Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Oscar Romero, or Sr. Karen Klimczak being a witness has always been risky business.

Jesus didn’t show his first disciples his halo. He showed them his hands and his feet. He showed them the wounds he received because of his great love for them and for the world – because of his great love for you and for me.

The first of the Dalai Lama’s Instructions for Life is this: "Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk."

In Alan Paton’s novel Cry the Beloved Country a pastor describes a dream that he had of appearing before God after his death and being asked, "Have you no wounds?"

The pastor replied, "No, I have no wounds."

And God said, "Was there nothing worth fighting for?" (Quoted in Journey Toward Home by Joyce Hollyday, p.178)

Jesus knew that living the love of God involved great risk – a risk he was willing to take because he knew that there was nothing more important to fight for – to pursue with passion - than being a witness to the depth and breadth of God’s love for all creation and all people.

Like Jesus we are all wounded witnesses. And like Jesus our wounds themselves can become signs of blessing.

The word in French that means to wound is blesser. Wounds can become blessings when they reveal the presence and power of God in our lives – a presence and a power that is able to bring healing out of any brokenness, hope out of any despair and life out of any death.

Witnesses are those who have had a personal experience to report on – to communicate to others.

When Jesus says to his first disciples, "You are witnesses of these things," he’s not only speaking to them. He’s also speaking to us. For we too have had personal encounters with our Risen Lord, many of which are not unlike those of the first followers of Jesus.

We too have had personal experiences of God, some of which have involved seeing the wounds of love in someone we love – some of which have happened in the sharing of food – some of which have happened when our minds have been opened through the study of Scripture.

Some of our personal experiences of God have happened in other ways as well. It’s these personal experiences, in whatever form they take, to which we are called to witness not only with what we say, but with what we do – not only with our words, but with our lives.

When I was on retreat a week ago at the Abbey of the Genesee I had the opportunity to speak with an 82 year old Trappist monk. He’d been a student of Thomas Merton and the Abbot for the Abbey of the Genesee for 30 years. He now lives as a hermit on the grounds of the Abbey.

 

 

Once a week he comes in to the retreat house to speak with those who are on retreat for an hour and then meet with those who would like to see him alone.

The day before hearing him speak I was reading a book in which he described why many people leave monastic life. He said, "For it to work properly, you have to have had a personal experience of God that means more to you than anything else." (Soul Searching – The Journey of Thomas Merton edited by Morgan C. Atkinson, p. 54)

Meeting privately with him the next day I mentioned this quote and asked him about his own personal experience of God before entering monastic life.

He told me that he’d been engaged to a woman he loved very much. He’d gone to Notre Dame and then to medical school at Georgetown. His fiancée was coming for his graduation. He felt like he’d known the blessing of human love, but only begun to know the blessing of God’s love.

When his fiancée arrived he told her that his experience of God was leading him to a life devoted to deepening his relationship with God. He told her that he was planning to become a monk and asked her to consider becoming a nun, which she did. He’d just received an Easter card from her. He’s been a Trappist monk and she’s been a nun for nearly 60 years.

If Micah were to ask me again, when I see him next month at his college graduation, "What happened after Jesus died the second time? And where is he now?" I wouldn't go into an elaborate explanation about the Christological complexity of resurrection theology or theorize on how Jesus rose from the dead.

I'd simply say something like this: "Micah, Jesus didn't die again. He stayed alive. And he's both in heaven and on earth. We find him in the world we live in. The world we experience though our five senses.

We see him in the lives of people who are both kind and courageous – people who know that some things are worth fighting for – people who have had a personal experience of God and are passionate living their life based on that experience.

You know how passionate you are about the Sabres and the Cubs? Some people are just as passionate about deepening their relationship with God and pursuing the life Christ is calling them to live.

I’ve tasted some of that passion myself and hope you too can one day say the same. You have your mother’s creative spirit and her passion for art, along with your own passion for music.

In pursuing these passions my prayer is that you will have first hand experience of God’s presence in your life – so you’re not left to trying to understand God based on what someone else has to say – including me.

The first musician to capture your heart was Ben Harper - someone I would have never known or listened to if it weren’t for you.

So to help you understand where Jesus is now I’d ask you to listen again to a song Ben Harper wrote and sang about being a witness.

It says what I’d like to say to you and to all those I love about how grateful I am for personally experiencing the living love of God in my life and for the opportunity to be a witness to our Living Lord.

 

 

 

"Blessed To Be A Witness"

Corcovado (the huge stone sculpture of the Risen Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro) parted the sky

And through the darkness

On us he shined

Crucified in stone

Still his blood is my own

Glory behold all my eyes have seen

Have seen

I am blessed - I am blessed - I am blessed to be a witness

Some have flown away

And can't be with us here today

Like the hills of my home

Some have crumbled and now are gone

Gather around for today won't come again

Won't come again

I am blessed - I am blessed - I am blessed to be a witness

So much sorrow and pain

Still I will not live in vain

Like good questions never asked

Is wisdom wasted on the past

Only by the grace of God go I

Go I

I am blessed - I am blessed - I am blessed to be a witness."

Amen!

 

(Followed by listening to a portion of Blessed to be a Witness)