God Raised Him - Luke 24:1-12 (Easter C)

Hallelujah! I didn’t hear you - hallelujah!

I just needed to get a few more in there this morning, it’s a great morning! 

It’s been pretty quiet around since Friday night - and all day Saturday, but here we are… Jesus is risen! Hallelujah! Thank you all for being here on what seems to be the second-most popular day of the year, since the marketing machines haven’t found a way to monetize this holiday - yet. 

Anyway - We have our familiar story… Luke is a classic text that I’m sure most of you are familiar with, and if not, then… I hope you enjoy this sermon I’ve prepared for you today, and hopefully it may inspire you to want to come back next week. 

So we start out early in the morning, when it may have still been dark or light was just breaking over the horizon, kind of makes you think of the story of creation. Although Jesus was dead, God still commanded the sun to rise. God raised Adam and Eve out of the dirt, and raised them up in their image, as it says, and now Jesus has been raised out of the same dirt, buried behind a sealed tomb. 

Our scriptures from Luke tell us that it was women from Galilee who came to the tomb that early Easter morning. They wanted to follow the rituals, be faithful and obedient. But in so doing, they found a mystery. So - they’re walking to take care of what they wanted to before but ran out of time. They may have been in a hurry because they’re embarrassed; embarrassed that it couldn’t have all been done at once, because Jesus is such a loved and revered figure. Who knows if there was a different feel to the air, given all the strange occurrences over the last couple of days - earthquakes and darkness - they weren’t quite sure what to expect any more. Then they saw the tomb. I’m sure once they saw the stone rolled away, their mouths ended up just as open as the doorway. 

In their confusion and contortionist facial expressions, SUDDENLY two men in dazzling clothes - where they came from? No one knows - stood beside them. Then the women were terrified. Hmmmm… there is much to be said here, but again, it seems instinctual that they are obedient, that they drop down to the ground. Fear has rattled them to the core. They have no idea what to expect next. 

But in knowing and having heard this story every year since we were small, maybe some of that gets lost. These unimaginable circumstances - this is still of God. The women expected just to be able to go back and have their rituals and give honor to the teacher and friend who just was killed. God demands the impossible from us sometimes. That cannot be lost in this story. Luke seems to highlight the women even a little more than the other gospels. In our cultural imagination, I know we sometimes just like to think of just Mary Magdalene and maybe one other, but honestly, it would have had to have been more… just remember, they were going to have to roll the stone away… do you think the soldiers would have done it for them? 

Back to our story - when the angels speak, they get right to the point, saying, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” I can imagine these women, getting up, turning around and saying, “Excuse me, what did you just say? What do you mean, living?” They need a minute with this… I’m sure. Even in our modern age, we want to hold on to what we know, like death, instead of looking for something new, even impossible. We live within our own heads and what we perceive is possibility. But remember friends, God’s ways are not our ways. God works in amazing and sometimes imperceivable processes and methods. Just because God is not acting in a way or seems silent, doesn’t mean that he is not working in other ways for our benefit. This is completely human though, we are stuck in the realm of possibility than imagine what could be possible if we just could look beyond our own limitations. For example, we look to former versions of ourselves or even our churches and see it through a light of “times were so much better then”… but you know, there was some difficulty then too. We can hang on too tightly to, refusing to allow them to change, to breathe on their own, to become bigger, smarter, or stronger. We allow our status quo to remain because we are scared of what happens when we let other people in. So - we stay in our buildings or in our heads that “things were better when…” but you know, those are only memories. To imagine new life sometimes means letting go of what was for new possibilities. It definitely is uncomfortable, and who wants to feel out of control? But before all of you have a collective panic attack, just remember that as long as you’re breathing, possibility for growth is still there. Allowing things to breathe means that we can grow. We may have to dig deeper into our motivations and our vision for the future to be able to dream and imagine what’s possible, but that could be ANYTHING! This man who they laid in a tomb on Friday was dead… but now he’s ALIVE! ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! HALLELUJAH!! 

Which means - we need more than ever to tell the stories of Jesus Christ to those around us. Not in a way that tricks people, or even to get more people to attend Bethany Church, although - don’t get me wrong - that’d be nice too. Our sermon theme for the next month or so is “We are Witnesses”, and so we need to share our testimony and witness of what Christ means to us. Does this mean we need to put up a tent on the corner of Rothman or St. Joe Road to shout at oncoming traffic? No. But that is to listen to the Holy Spirit when conversations happen in your normal life - as the spirit leads you, lean into the unknown faith discussions. You’ll feel uncomfortable at first, but if we don’t have those conversations, how are we going to move closer to our mission of creating disciples for Jesus Christ for the TRANSFORMATION of the world? 

Part of understanding this is in the words of the angels who were in the tomb with the women: “Remember how he told you..” In our times of crisis, uncertainty, and even desperation, we can be so deep in grief that we forget the words of loved ones. But yet the angels are here reminding us of what Christ said would happen. Jesus was there in the past, and knew what was to happen. But now Jesus can help us in the present with resources for what he has shared in the past. This is why we celebrate his whole ministry - the meals, the healings, the parables. He was very human - and yet here is Jesus living beyond the restrictions of being human. 

These women who experienced this - they went back to tell the disciples what they had seen - they witnessed to them! They were the first ones proclaiming the good news in the mystery of faith - Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again! - The excitement about what happened to Jesus is as central to today as the actual events too! They proclaim what they saw, but they were dismissed by those closest to Jesus as an “idle tale” - this is a polite way of claiming that the message was garbage. But again - the group here is working with the knowledge they have. Their world has already been turned upside down, but the resurrection turns it in a whole different dimension. As Anna Carter Florence wrote, “if the dead don’t stay dead, what can we count on??” 

So what does that have anything to do with our theme this coming six weeks, “We are Witnesses”? Well - being here today, whether you came on your own or not, you witnessed a miracle. The dead were brought to life, the world is different now that Jesus Christ has defeated death! We will be continuing the story in Acts, because as we know this is not the end, but this is a whole new beginning! We witness to the work Christ has done in our lives, and how we can share our experiences with those who may need the hope of redemption in their lives. The disciples didn’t know the rest of the story. We have the benefit of knowing more than they did, at least with this one, but each of us is writing our own story of how the risen Christ and to live that witness daily. The story is not only about life after death, but about life before death as well, or even life in the face of death. It is our life, the life where we stand for God’s justice, mercy, and righteousness, that bringing hope to those who seek it and glory to whom all things are made new. We are witnesses, now and forever.

In closing, let me read a poem by Ashley Johnson - 

It is around kitchen tables swelling with food, 

On worn porches, 

During easy road trips, 

And in the hum of barber shops or hair salons

That we experience the Divine

As we linger long enough to hear, really hear, the stories of others. 

Your life matters.

Your life matters and your stories matter. 

So, testify. Tell your story. 

Or someone else will. 

Amen.