Threatened with Resurrection

April 26, 2009
Preached for the Third Sunday of Easter
Threatened with Resurrection
Reproached and rewritten from May 3, 1998 (there are other versions)
Revelation 7:9-17
Luke 24:36-48
For year B




It’s been what – 4 years now and I am still a Grey’s anatomy fan. It is my dream to one day write my sermons that way Shondra Rhymes writes her episodes. She always starts out with a theme in every day life, something that all of the characters are dealing with. They start their days off dealing with this issue, and then on to the hospital to see if come full blast. And at the end of the episode – there is always some resolution to the situation, but the issue still there. There is some comment about the issue and the introduction of some cool song – that everyone will go out and buy to think more about how that issue plays out in our lives.
The first episode this Thursday was a rerun – on how Izzy, one of the original medical students was recovering from an operation to remove a brain tumor - the whole cast – most of whom were her classmates stood around the operating room to see if she would be alright. The theme for the night was trauma – Trauma in our lives always leaves a scar no matter how much we heal – it follows us around in our lives. But the good thing is that it moves us forward. It edges us to go on, to move forward to something deeper in our lives.
That is the theme of my sermon this morning – trauma- and how it affects us and gets us going. That is the theme of Easter – the Sunday’s after Easter – dealing with the trauma of death, and betrayal, and misunderstanding. And yet still witnessing the beauty of God’s presence - and creating a beautiful life in the midst of it.
I am always amazed at how the writer of Grey’s anatomy is able to put all of life’s issues into one concise word – and then she says one or two sentences about that issue – and she has said all that needs to be said. How does she do that?
I am not there yet – I still have to preach a whole sermon to get my point across. But believe me I am working on it. But I also don’t have the luxury of thousands of actors to tell my story for me.
But anyway – back to the theme of trauma – and Easter. In the Luke passage for today – The disciples are devastated at the death of Jesus. They don’t know what they are going to do – until he appears to them and brings them peace and then sends them out into the world to witness to what they know about God. After the resurrection, there are several stories of Jesus appearance. They are so caught up in grief, they don’t recognize Jesus. But he doesn’t come to continue life as it has been, but to shake them up to realize this things have changed. Resurrection is the beauty of life, after the scars of trauma. Resurrection is the message that it is time to move forward.
The power of God came to earth- through the life of Jesus, but it was after the resurrection that power was let out into the world – to make an appearance at any time in any situation.
The Buddhist have reincarnation – which says that it it doesn’t matter if you die – because you will come back again to correct all of the mistakes that you made in this life. The Hindu’s have rebirth – which says that when you die, you will come back in another form based on the way that you lived your life. The Jews have stories of rescitation – there are even plenty of stories of people who have died, whom Jesus himself bought back to life – Resurrection the concept of experiencing death and decay – and then completely coming back to life as the person you always were - is a concept that is unique to Christianity . It is a special concept – because it stresses that we are all special and unique people to God. That life is precious and intended for a purpose. We only get one chance at life, and it is important for us to make the most of that one chance.
There is a human part of us and there is a divine part of us. There is a part of us that disappears when we die, and there is a part of us that lives on.
Resurrection acknowledges the trauma of life – and the push forward for us to heal and move on.
One of my most powerful examples of the definition of resurrection, and the power that it has for our lives – comes from a book that we had to read in seminary called - Threatened with Resurrection.
That seems like a strange title - threatened with resurrection. Threatened – resurrection is a promise not a threat. It is what Jesus promises us if we are good and we behave nicely. At the end of the world – we too will be resurrected like him.
Actually resurrection is not a promise of the future - but it is a promise of now. Of dealing with the trauma that we experience in our lives.
Threatened with Resurrection is a poem written by Julia Esquivel from Guatamala. In the 1950’s Guatamala was a country which was very oppressive and apparently very paranoid. They killed hundreds of thousands of their own people – because they thought they were conspiring against them. Soldiers would go through whole neighborhoods and ill everybody – even 3 month old babies. For many years – people were afraid of speaking out of this injustice.
Why do I tell you that story for Easter – because these people have one of the most powerful Easter faiths that have ever heard of. They realized that the soldiers and this dire situation had just threatened them with resurrection. They realized that no matter how many of them were killed that the soldiers could not kill the spirit of the community. They realized that no matter how much devastation that they had to face, that they would not become resentful. They would continue to love peace, to love God, and to love their enemies. They truly came to represent what it means to be resurrected. It means that you cannot destroy their soul – which was never a part of this world. What the world did not give them, the world could not take away. They came to realize that they were children of God – who would always prevail.

I tell you that story because there are still many communities which are being devastated in much that same way – every day. And we never hear about it, it we hear romantic stories about it. We hear the stories of pirates in Somalia – because it is romantic for Americans to hear that our Navy are protecting people from the bad guys – but we never hear that their country Somalia has been lawless and without proper government for years. We never hear about all of the people in Darfur who are still being persecuted, or that the Congo and Liberia have been in a civil war for years.

Even the missionary Janet Lehr Lewis talks of the Palestinians who are depending on their faith in an oppressive situation. There are many times when she will send an email to tell us the real story behind what we hear about in the news. There are many times when she will say in her email – that it is not safe for her to tell the truth about what she is going through - because she is not safe yet.

I tell you that story – because I am grateful to groups like the United Methodist Women – who are willing to uncover the truth about the world that we live in. Every year, they provide studies for us to look at a country or situation in a new and different way. The School of Christian Mission has been a profound part of my faith development. This year they are doing a study on Darfur – to tell people what it really going on. They tell us what we can do to help and to pray even when we are far removed from the situation. I had someone from another denomination, say that the United Methodist Women are the best kept secret of the denomination. If people were aware of what they were doing, they would definitely listen.

I tell you that story - because if they can be threatened with resurrection in such dire circumstance – that surely we too can become awakened to realize the role that resurrection plays in our lives.

A man went to a psychologist to complain about his brother in law who thought he was a chicken. The psychologist said it should be no problem to cure the brother in law of his delusion. The man refused, said no I don’t think I will be bringing him in – we really need the eggs.

There is a story that the disciple Peter was able to heal a man of his blindness. After being healed, the man gouged his eyes out-he had been making a lot of money as a blind man, and he wanted to continue to play his game.

In life, Jesus realized that many of us are just like that. The resurrection shows us that there is a better way of doing things, a healthier way to live. And want to go back to the old way of doing things. It makes sense to us. And in a lot of ways – we were so glad to have the eggs- they pay off – that we were no willing to think differently. Resurrection is truly a threat to us.

Things can change – things will change- things are intended to change. We have to accept it- but we also have to have faith that God will give us the strength to adapt to new ways. In spite of our resistance. We can give up bad habits, we can think about the future.

It is usually our fear of death that keeps us locked in our lives before resurrection. It is the fear of death that forces others to be oppressive and to kill others, it is fear of death that keeps us thinking about scarcity instead of abundance.

Jesus made a point to come to us to show us that death does indeed happen, but so does resurrection. Always. So there is nothing that we have to be afraid of.

The poem threatened with resurrection is a very long poem – not suitable for reading the whole thing in worship. But I wanted to read some lines of it.

There is something here within us, which doesn’t let us sleep, which doesn’t let us rest, which doesn’t stop pounding deep inside, it is the silent, warm weeping Indian woman without her husband, it is the sad gaze of the children, fixed there beyond memory, in the very pupil of our eyes which during sleep, though closed, keep watch, with each contraction of the heart in every wakening, what keeps us from sleeping is they have threatened us with resurrection. Because at each nightfall, though exhausted from the endless inventory of killings since 1954, yet we continue to love life, and do not accept death. Because in this marathon of hope, there is always others to relieve us, in bearing the courage necessary to arrive at the goal which lies beyond death.. Accompany us then on this vigil and you will know what it is to dream. You will then know how marvelous it is to live threatened with resurrection, to dream awake, to keep watch asleep, to live while dying, and to already know oneself resurrected. (reread the last paragraph)

None of us probably will ever know the feeling of living as persecuted people. That is not the point. That all of us should know the significance of living as resurrected people. People with the power to go on and move forward. People with the power to heal and to be healed. People with the power to know that life will always go on in any circumstance.

Trauma – trauma always leaves a scar on us- But it is that scar that can either hold us down – or move us forward. Depending on what we believe about the resurrection. God’s power to overcome it all.

Finally the quatamalan have a national bird – the quetzal – it looks like a small parrot. When caged – it dies. But when allowed to be free it lives for a very long time. But he is special, because even in the toughest of circumstances – it rises above and recreated itself and flies away to a new life.

What will the power of resurrection do for us?