Wellspring UMC; Second Sunday in Easter; March 30, 2008: “What Does Resurrection Look Like?”

-I Corinthians 15: 51-57; John 20: 19-31

“What Does Resurrection Look Like?”

There are many options for putting bulletin covers together. Sometimes I’m led to add a graphic, sometimes a poem, and sometimes a quote. This week I felt led to find a quote. So I headed to the web and googled “Resurrection Quotes.” A long list of links popped up, the first of which was on “Brainyquote.com,” the name of which I found intriguing. So I clicked there and began to look for something that spoke to me.

There were quotes from Van Balthasar, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Victor Hugo, Martin Luther, as well as the quote from Chuck Swindoll which is on the bulletin today. There was even one from Liberace (“You can have either the Resurrection or you can have Liberace. But you can't have both.” What does one do with that one?). However, there was one quote that caught my attention, not just for what it said but also for who said it. It is a quote from the late journalist, Peter Jennings. He said, “I was raised with the notion that it was OK to ask questions, and it was OK to say, I'm not sure. I believe, but I'm not quite so certain about the resurrection.”

“I believe, but I’m not quite so certain about the resurrection.” How does that sit with us? One can receive this quote in many levels. Certainly it’s important to learn to ask questions, then it’s important to ask them. Also, it is vital for growth to learn to settle into that sometimes unsettling statement, “I’m not sure.” And it is great to hear and proclaim for ourselves, “I believe...” But then that chink in the armor hits... “but I’m not quite so certain about the resurrection.”

As good and faithful followers of Christ, we shy away from such statements. We proclaim resurrection language and move forward with it, despite whether or not we are 100% sure. We claim that we fully believe, and yet I’d venture to say that there is always an edge of doubt with our faith. There is a percentage or two of wondering. I’d even be so bold as to say, that Jenning’s quote might fit the reality of our own beliefs, if not all the time, at least some of the time. And what’s amazing and wonderful about this, is that that’s okay.

The great theologian Paul Tillich once said, “Doubt until you doubt your doubts.” What a great statement of faith, that in the midst of our belief, in living out our faith, it’s okay to doubt. It’s okay to wonder. It’s okay to acknowledge uncertainty, and it’s okay to live into whatever God throws our way.

I remember discussions in seminary about the resurrection. That was the first time I realized that no one witnessed the resurrection. We have witnesses who saw the resurrected Christ, but no one knows what the act of resurrection looks like. I remember us turning to the Gospel stories and analyzing the few descriptions there are in the Bible about the Resurrected Christ.

We noted that Mary didn’t recognize Him at the tomb. Instead, she thought he was the gardener. It wasn’t until He spoke that she knew. We looked at the account read today of Jesus among the disciples. Here they recognized Him immediately, though remember they did probably expect Him. But did you catch the beginning? The doors were locked. There was no way in, and yet He appeared to them, and not just as a ghost. No, on the second visitation He offered Thomas touch His wounds, something only a bodily being would be able to do.

We looked at Luke’s Gospel, and found the story of the encounter on the Emmaus Road, where Jesus walks with the disciples, but they didn’t recognize Him. How Jesus talked with them on the road, even explaining how from Moses to the Prophets God was preparing the world for His coming. They still didn’t see who he was...until he sat with them at the table, broke the bread, and gave thanks. THEN they saw, but then He disappeared in front of their eyes.

This resurrected Jesus could walk through locked doors, while also having a body which could be touched and could process bread and fish. And in each account, until Christ was ready to or until they were ready to see Him...they did not recognize who Jesus was. What an odd thing? What does Resurrection look like? In seeking the answer, we run across a lot of uncertainty, little clarity, and realize things do not always make sense.

Many of us have heard the story I read early from John’s Gospel, this story out of which originates the term “doubting Thomas.” We’ve heard of the faith of those first gathered, and the doubt of the one who was not with them. We’ve even heard sermons or even believed in giving Thomas a bad rap. And yet, I’m not sure that’s all that fair. After all, one can’t really put a face on resurrection.

Instead, the only things one CAN say about resurrection is that there first has to be a death, a separation, and ending, then there is a period of despair and disbelief, whether three days or more. But then there is a shift, a change, and new hope, new life becomes real...Jesus shows up, and though He might not be what we expect, maybe not even what we want, He does not forsake or leave us, but He comes and solidifies that God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is with us, making a way for God’s Body, the Church to be strengthened and to fulfill God’s

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mission. Most importantly, however, the one thing about the resurrection that we hold onto is that in the middle of it, God is with us making all things new.

What great Good News! Think about that! No matter who we are or where we are. No matter what is going on or what we go through. No matter if we believe 100% or if we, like Peter Jennings, say, “I believe, I’m just not certain...,” God is with us, making all things new. This is news to proclaim, and it is news to hold onto. I invite you to hold onto this Truth, as I share with you some recent developments in my life and the life of the church.

Some of you have been members of the UMC for a long time, but many come from other denominations. We are a unique church in that we are connectional. That means that across the globe the UMC is connected one to another. That connection includes sharing financial resources, which is lived out through apportionments, being united as congregations on district, Conference, even global levels, and in terms of how pastors are assigned, we are not called by any local church but sent by the Bishop and Cabinet.

I have to share with you that I have received a phone call from the cabinet inviting me to move to another appointment, and I have accepted that appointment. At the end of June my family and I will be relocating to a new community of faith, and on July 6^th, another pastor called by God to lead you to God’s next stage of ministry will be preaching from this pulpit.

I know that you might not hear much, if anything else I say today, but I have felt over and over again, that God is in the midst of this. I have felt the Spirit’s affirmation that this is not a political move or done on a whim, but God guided the hearts and minds of the cabinet to make this change. The Spirit continues to assure me that as hard as it is for me, my family and for you, with all the doubt, in the midst of the grief, disbelief, pain, and wondering, that resurrection is Truth. If God called me here to be your shepherd and spiritually leader for five wonderful years, so we live in faith that God will bring a new shepherd and spiritual leader to continue that toward which Wellspring is becoming as disciples who care as Jesus cares.

Even more wonderfully, God does not leave us where we are. Instead, God brings hope and new life. God walks with us and leads us to fulfill God’s greater purpose, not just for Wellspring or you or me, but for the Kingdom of God.

In the wake of such news, the question remains, “What does resurrection look like?” Though it doesn’t always make sense, it’s not easily recognized, that it comes in the midst of doubt and hits us when we least expect it, that it leaves room for doubt, the assurance of resurrection is that no matter what, it is God’s way, God gift to us, and that which brings hope and new life. The bottom line, through this process, God brings resurrection, for God is with us, loving us, leading us, teaching us, filling us, and showing us who we are, whose we are, and where God needs us to go.

My prayer as we live into the future is that we will continue to ask the question, “What does resurrection look like?,” so that on the other side, we can proclaim to each other and the world, “THIS is what resurrection looks like, and it is amazing, for God is good.” Amen.