Ears, Feet and Hands

Sunday, March 27th, 2005
Easter
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 28:1-10, James 1(17- )22(-25)

1After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. 4For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come; see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ 8So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

This is it. This is THE defining story of our faith.

This is what sets us apart. This is unique to Christianity.

We speak of Jesus’ death. More than that, we admit to it. But it’s not so much that we do it today. It is that it was done that way from the beginning. In first-century Palestine, it wasn’t … desirable to begin a new religion by proclaiming the actual human death of your Savior, much less, have the initial proclamation of that Savior’s resurrection be carried out by women. There is a radical-ness to that combination of events that is lost on us today, however entrenched we may be in a male-dominated somewhat chauvinistic society, that still finds it very easy to objectify women and belittle the relevance of faith to human existence, over the last 20 centuries we’ve gotten used to the story that women were the first bearers-of-good-news, the first evangelists. We’ve become immune to the unbelievableness of it.

That the four Gospels contain the story of the empty tomb is to be expected, but that they differ from each other makes the story even more tantalizingly believable. Think about it. Take, for example any given modern conspiracy, any given movie, or television crime drama involving a group of people involved in a crime and trying to hide it. What is the first thing the conspirators do when they decide to conspire? They get together on their story. The thinking is that if their stories all agree, it is more believable.

The Gospel writers couldn’t even get together on that. How many of us, if we were to all witness a car crash here at the corner of Mulberry and History Land Hwy, would all tell exactly the same story, down to the smallest detail? In the varying accounts, there’s a sense of them saying ‘I saw him first! No, I did!’

The Gospel of John has Mary as the only named woman coming to the tomb, and on finding it empty, running back to find Peter and “the other disciple” and then they all go to the tomb. Luke has two men in dazzling clothes meeting ‘them’, an unspecified number of women and men. Mark has three named women – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, going to the tomb, and there they encounter a single young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting “on the right side”. The amount of detail begs you to ‘remember with me, don’t you?’

Rather than weakening the story, it speaks more to independent traditions, and reinforces the likelihood that the details on which they DO agree are true.

Just as there is diversity in the telling of the appearances of the resurrected Christ, there is a corresponding diversity in the way we each experience Christ today. How we encounter Christ can change dramatically within each of our individual lives over the course of the years, much more so from one person to another.

Brian Stoffregen, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, in Marysville, CA, writes:

There are those who experience Christ in a radical transforming, "born-again," event in their lives. There are those for whom Christ as been such a reality throughout their lives that they can't think of a moment when Christ wasn't present to them or when there was a great turning point in their lives. How the risen Christ comes to people differs from person to person.

And that’s where we come in. It is THE Gospel story, and in the beginning, all we can do is hear it. We hear it, of course, with our ears. And if the time is right, and the Spirit moves, we also hear it with our hearts. When we do that, it becomes OUR story. We each make this story our own, when we step into it, by stepping out on faith.

Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary (and Salome, and however many men there may have been with them) stepped through the early morning light and made their way to the tomb. The same feet that took them to what they thought would be a continuing point of sorrow in their lives became instead feet that ran them joyfully and fearfully back to tell the disciples and all who would listen that they had encountered the risen Lord.

So on a morning that may well have been very similar to this one, likely having had very little sleep if any, the story began to spread. So it is for us to take up the story and tell it.

We can use words, if we have to. But we don’t have to. Know this, however. Whether we verbalize it or not, we tell the story. We tell the story in the way we live out our lives. We are telling the story whether we realize it or not. We tell the story of what Christ means to us, what Christ has done for us, what Christ IS to us. Sting put together a set of phrases in a song several years ago, “every move you make, every breath you take, every claim you stake, and every vow you break”, the concluding phrase may be applied from a different perspective by us here today “I’ll be watching you” Sting has said of the song that it is a dark song about obsession, we can look at it today from the perspective that … we are the walking Gospel corporately, as the body of Christ, but also individually, our lives tell the stories that we believe.

The question is: what Gospel story is our life telling?

James speaks to that:

17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

We can sit and hear, but unless we go beyond that, the Gospel means precious little to us. Hearing, we believe, and believing, we act, and by acting, we either claim or disclaim the truth of the Gospel.

The question for us today is, if I truly believe the Gospel to be true, that God raised Jesus from the dead, and in so doing He vanquished sin, death and the devil. Does my life reflect that?

So we’ve heard the central story. Now for the central act that proclaims our faith. Maybe it would be better to call it the seminal act of our faith, the ‘seed-act’ of our faith. When we join together at the communion table, we are in fact proclaiming the Gospel. Because we are proclaiming Christ’s death until he returns.

The invitation is open. Your response is what will transform you.

Your ears hear the invitation, your feet will bring you forward, and your hands will take the bread and the juice to your lips.

May your ears always hear the invitation, may your feet always be ready to carry you forward, and may your hands always be ready to be put to work for the Kingdom.

(communion)