Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

Sunday, April 04, 2010
Easter

Luke 24.1-12

 

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.  2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  3but when they went in, they did not find the body.  4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.  6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."  8Then they remembered his words,  9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.  10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.  11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.  12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

But ...

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!

We do not know who the person was who wrote the account of the portion of the Gospel you just heard, the person we call Luke.

What we do know is the story that he (or she, or maybe they) wrote down somewhere in the last decade of the 1^st Century … the story as this author told it, the story of Jesus of Nazareth … the story told to convey to the listener/the reader a compelling tale of faith and trust … faith and trust in the God to whom this Jesus pointed his entire existence … a God whose nature was to save and rescue, redeem and liberate all creation, all creatures, all humanity.

Around this author we have been gathering ourselves in this liturgical year which began back on the last Sunday in November of 2009.  Luke is a great storyteller as we found out at Christmastime … Luke is a powerful narrator whose words capture us, pull us, compel us into the story so that we find ourselves within that story more than just observers … we become participants … and participation, we learn, is the whole purpose of the story of faith.

All the parables, all the tales of healing, all the questions, all the doubts, all the relationships with the followers of Jesus … all these parts and parcels of the story engage us (the reader/the listener) in such a way that we find ourselves learning again that the story is not only about us, it is for us … the story is a gift.

We discovered that most intensely just a week ago on Palm Sunday when we engaged in the reading of two of the last three chapters of Luke’s powerful writing; we discovered, that is, by our taking part in the reading, especially when we the congregation read the script and took upon ourselves the role of Jesus … discovered that the story was/is that gift about and for ourselves.

We, you see, are the body of Christ, the living branch of the tree of faith!

Inadequate … oh, yes … insecure … much of the time … hesitant … certainly … often lacking in the things we think religious people must have … to be sure … but still, always, we are it!  There is no one else to do it‽ It’s not the work of angels … this living and following Jesus and sharing the love of God in this world … it’s not a task that we can farm out to someone else … there are no mercenary soldiers of fortune we can hire to do what we are compelled to do once we hear the story and become a follower of Jesus … not it’s us!

Oh, you say … I can’t … I’m not up to it … I don’t have a lot of faith … I don’t know theology … I can’t read Greek and Hebrew … I’m just someone who showed up this morning because it’s Easter Sunday!

All that may be true … and still, here we are you and I engaged in the story and that engagement is just enough to let us know that it is not by our devotion of thinking and reasoning and calculating that we become the living part of this story … it is because we have been given a gift … and the gift is everything, it is a matter of life over death.

We are this morning the women, as Luke relates the tale … When last we left them they had watched the one in whom they found the presence of God, the full love of God, the forgiveness of God, the understanding of God, the hope of God … they had watched him die, and had gone to see his body placed into a cave, a tomb sealed by a boulder so that no animal could enter and destroy the body of the one they called Yeshua (Jesus).

And then they went back to their homes, because it was Shabbat (the Sabbath) and they like Yeshua (Jesus) were devout Jews and the law of the tradition forbade them to do anything else than go home and mourn.

It was over, says Luke, it was all over and the best they could do was wait until Shabbat was ended and then come back to anoint the body with spices according to their custom.

And that is where we left the women, when last we told the story again.  We were with them in their homes, grieving, mourning, thinking it was all over.  We were them/we are them … so often coming to a dead end street in life, finding ourselves worn out by the vicissitudes of living, hearing another story of sadness, receiving another message, another email of a friend who is ill, maybe even dying … perhaps it is ourselves … the overwhelming business of living is often too much it seems, too heavy a burden to carry one more step … That is where we left the women … we with them, they with us … engaged in the story, because it is a story after all about us and for us.

And then the Gospel Writer Luke does an amazing thing … after telling us that “On the sabbath they [the women] rested according to the commandment.” … resting and mourning and grieving and maybe sleeping a bit perhaps through the night … Luke the Amazing Gospel Writer introduces the very next paragraph, the one we just read, the Easter Gospel According to Luke … introduces it with one small word … it’s only two letters in the Greek language (delta + epsilon) … it’s a word that often isn’t even translated (and in many of the versions of the Bible you can buy and read it isn’t ‽) … sometimes it’s just there in the sentence without much to do, just filling in a space … and yet these two letters, this delta + epsilon is translated “But” …

That’s right, it’s the word “But” … it’s the word that changes everything …

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb …”

Had they stayed home …?

Had they simply been overwhelmed with sadness that they could not move …?

Had they never gotten out of bed …?

Had they turned away from the story that they believed was God’s story and had become their story …?

Had any of that taken place, or not taken place … ?

… you see … we would just be gathering together for Springtime Festivity with pretty decent food this morning and rather good Lutheran Coffee to boot … that’s all it would be …

But …

But … they came to the tomb … and everything changed.

We know the rest of it, don’t we … each of those other Gospel Writers tells it a little differently … Luke says the boulder is rolled away from the opening, they look inside, no body, two men in dazzling clothes stand beside them (they are angels), the women are scarred to death, but the angels comfort them to life … and being comforted in a heart-pounding kind of way they go back and tell the rest of the followers of Jesus … and some take it on their word and others don’t and Peter takes off on his own and runs to the tomb and is himself (I love the way Luke puts it) “amazed at what had happened” … what an understatement.

And then there is us … the ones who engaged in the story, caught by the story, wrapped up in the story … the women, the men, the children, the practiced and the newcomers, the old and the young, the faithful and the doubters, the rebelling and the steadfast, members of the body forever and visitors who just appeared … us, the varied complex all-inclusive us … we become the ones who take this story into which we have walked, which has been breathed into us, which has bought and paid for us … and make it a word, a verb that goes into the world with healing, with solace, with compassion, with love, with forgiveness, with peace, with love … that death is not the conclusion of human existence, despair is not the conclusion of human living … but life, always life. 

That is the Easter Gospel.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM