Why Do You Look for the Living Among the Dead?

 Transcribed from the sermon preached April 8, 2007

 The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

 Scripture Readings: Isaiah 65: 17-25, Luke 24:1-12

 "... on the first day of the week, in deep dawn, they come to the tomb." Two nights have passed since Jesus was crucified - since one in whom they had hoped - had been hung up as a bloody example of the real ways of the world, the ways of empire. Now the night was coming to an end, but one could not tell from the color of the sky, or their hearts. The women take spices to anoint the body.

          They were in deep dawn-dark, for not only was it night, they had they lost a beloved friend and the one who had given them hope in a better world.

          When Jesus was alive, it had been possible for them to imagine a world in which children did not die of starvation, where people lived full lives and were able to enjoy the work of their hands without being exploited or dispossessed by the powerful. They could imagine building houses and inhabiting them, planting vineyards and eating the fruit.

"When he spoke", says Barbara Brown Taylor,

It had been possible to imagine a world in which women were worth talking to, lepers could retire their bells, and people with nothing in the middle of nowhere could find themselves at a picnic for five thousand, with twelve baskets to spare.

It had even been possible to imagine a world with no Romans in it -- patrolling the streets in their metal breastplates and pointy helmets, barking their orders, demanding their taxes. If God was in charge, then God had a funny way of showing it. For all practical purposes, Caesar was Lord --- keeping peace through military power, using fear to stay in control. There were benefits of course, at least for those who supported the imperial agenda, but the problem with eating at the emperor's table was that you got addicted to his rich food.

(Barbara Brown Taylor, Cannon Chapel at Emory University, April 16, 2006)

This was the hope of these women --- peace, healthy justice and love of God incarnate: that is until Friday. The followers of Lord Caesar knew that just distribution would mean they would lose much. A god who cared for the poor and dispossessed was not a god they wanted to be alive. They enjoyed inhabiting houses built by another, and drinking wine from vineyards not their own. They favored their gods, who sanctioned the way things were, for they were on top, or at least could associate and identify with those on top. And they would like to think they could climb a little higher on the Roman ladder. So Jesus had to die, and to make a point, he was mocked, tortured and his bloodied body hung on public display. Then the cold dead body was placed in a tomb. On the third day, the women came to the tomb in deep dawn, the darkness of grief, of having lost someone dear, and the deep darkness of hopelessness. To their surprise, when they went in, they didn't find the body of their Lord.

          They did see two glowing men or angels who remind them that this was part of the plan of Jesus. He would be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day rise again. This hope Jesus was preaching would shine even in the deepest darkness. Even from the most hopeless corner of reality, God's light would break out and live.

          Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. "He is risen," the angels say to the women.

          Recently a few archaeologists have claimed he is there. In March 20, 2007 Christian Century reports that some are claiming the bones of Jesus might have been found. Simcha Jacobivici has written a documentary, which aired on the Discovery Channel entitled, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Archaeologists found a tomb with bones apparently belonging to people with the common names of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Jude. DNA evidence showed that Jesus and Mary were not related, which means it is likely that they were married. The ossuary marked "Jude" is said to have contained the bones of their son.

          Say the Century, "One has to be suspicious of archaeological projects funded by publishers and movie producers and announced with sensational headlines in search of ratings. Real archaeologists toil away for years and submit their findings to peers for review before they call in Hollywood." Most scholars are extremely dubious about Jacobovici's claim since, among other things, Jesus, Mary and Joseph are very common names in the first century Israel.

          But the idea raises an interesting question: would the discovery of the dead body of Jesus mean that Christianity was dead? That Christian hope must return to the darkness of the tomb? We know that the resurrection of Jesus was something more than a physical body coming back to life. Whatever the form he rises in, the disciples have a tough time recognizing him, and he does strange things that a regular human can't: he disappears suddenly and walks through walls. Even as Paul argues for the bodily resurrection he also calls it a spiritual body. Still we don't want to disembody the spirit too quickly. The claim to the bodily resurrection is a claim that God's love and grace will overcome the powers of sin, sickness, evil and death in this life. This body in this world matters to God. Jesus Christ is risen is not a claim we want to give away.

          While archaeology has done a great deal to help us understand the world of scripture, and we want scientists to continue to shine light on history, the Gospel tells us we shouldn't look for the living among the dead, for ultimately the empty tomb doesn't tell us much either. The oldest version of Mark ends with the women leaving the empty tomb. Empty tomb leaves the verdict open, but doesn't finish the story. Not finding bones doesn't confirm the resurrection; experiencing the living Christ does.

          We look for the living among the living. And so the disciples recognize Jesus when they are talking with the graveyard gardener, when they are walking with a stranger down the road, when they gather together to break bread, when they have a good day at work and come in to cook a meal, and share it with a stranger, when they have been living sinful, evil lives and suddenly experience a force of truth that cleanses and radically changes their ways, when they share their goods with one another and care for widows and orphans. The empty tomb and the angels open their minds to think about what they couldn't fathom before his death, that death was a part of the plan. But it is in relationship, in doing what they did with him before the crucifixion where they discover he is risen, that the darkness of life and death are no longer so deep, that a new day of hope is upon them, that neither death, nor life, nor rulers nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Harvey Cox of Harvard, in his study of resurrection stories in Hebrew scripture found that they are not merely about individual immortality. " They did not spring up from a yearning for life after death," he writes, "but from the conviction that ultimately a truly just God simply [has] to vindicate the victims of the callous and the powerful." Barbara Brown Taylor notes, "To restore a dead person to life is a to strike a blow at mortality, but to restore a crucified man to life is to strike a blow at the system that executed him. (When Jesus Came to Harvard, Houghton Mifflin 2004, page 274)

"For God to bring a dead man back to life meant that God's reign was very near. And if God's reign was very near, then the reign of the callous and the powerful was very over, in truth if not in fact." (Barbara Brown Taylor, Cannon Chapel at Emory University. April 16, 2006)

          So today we gather to proclaim that Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! We gather as people who are sinful, frightened, depressed, grieving, members of the violent empire, consumers and polluters of earth's resources, whose hope has been mocked, crucified and buried in a tomb. We come in the deep dawn, yet we discover on this day, that even darkness is not dark to our God. We are a people with hope for ourselves and hope for the world. Realized hope, hope in the present tense, a living hope. A hope that was realized and embodied the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and lives still with us today.

          I leave you with two poems:

The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry

Poppies
Mary Oliver

The poppies send up their
orange flares; swaying
in the wind, their congregations
are a levitation

of bright dust, of thin
and lacy leaves.
There isn't a place
in this world that doesn't

sooner or later drown
in the indigos of darkness,
but now, for a while,
the roughage

shines like a miracle
as it floats above everything
with its yellow hair.
Of course nothing stops the cold,

black, curved blade
from hooking forward—
of course
loss is the great lesson.

But I also say this: that light
is an invitation
to happiness,
and that happiness,

when it's done right,
is a kind of holiness,
palpable and redemptive.
Inside the bright fields,

touched by their rough and spongy gold,
I am washed and washed
in the river
of earthly delight—

and what are you going to do—
what can you do
about it—
deep, blue night?