Wellspring UMC; Second Sunday in Easter; April 15, 2007; “Believe it? Show it!”:
-Psalm 150 (UMH 862; Mark 16: 9-15, 19-20
Growing
up I remember sitting with my brother and watching the TV show, Ripley’s
Believe it or Not. I found myself
mesmerized by the images and stories shared, and that creepy voice of Jack Pallance only made it more
intriguing. As a kid I was drawn to the
oddities. Part of Ripley’s is the modern
day equivalent of the freak show, where the anomalies of life are displayed,
but the more recent additions are simply ways in which people do weird things,
like sculpt celebrities out of chewed gum or cover themselves with
tattoos. It is fascinating to observe
the ways in which nature had taken a side road or people were able to do things
that seemed impossible, stupid, or inane.
As a child there was something intriguing about believing that which was
easily doubted...believing that which could more easily NOT be believed than
believed.
I
will admit, that I am still drawn to such things, but as an adult the draw is
centered in more than just the oddity factor.
As an adult I find myself led to ask questions. Questions like how or why the anomaly
happened or what pushes people to do incredible and unique things. Maybe it’s the preacher in me, but in
the midst of those questions God always pops up. I find myself asking what God thinks about a
2 headed turtle or someone who grows their finger nails to more than three feet
long. I ask questions of myself and where
God is in the mix of my life. Where God
is as I experience my own perceived anomalies, and I find myself wondering if
others perceive aspects of my life and my way of viewing the world as odd.
The
interesting thing about Ripley’s is that it is one thing to hear about it, it
is another to see it. It is one thing
for someone to tell you that they can make a paper clip float on top of the
water, it’s another thing to actually experience it. It’s one thing to hear someone describe the
women of
Let me read for you again this passage from Mark’s Gospel. When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week. Now before I go any further, there are some important things that Mark is lifting up to us. The first may seem obvious, but it says, “Jesus rose,” and for you non-morning persons, notice that he rose EARLY! “Jesus rose early on the first day of the week.”
Mark’s gospel is believed to be the earliest of the Gospels, and in fact Matthew and Luke use this Gospel as the basis for their own. It was written sometime around 60-70 AD, a time when the church was organizing and figuring out who God needed them to become. What was evolving was the understanding that worship was to take place on Sunday, the first day of the week, rather than Saturday, the last day of the week, as with the Jews.
So first, Jesus rose – He overcame death and came out of the grave, and secondly, it happened on the first day of the week. The day when His followers worshiped.
He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, the one out of whom he’d driven 7 demons. Now if you were Jesus and had a message to send, wouldn’t you go to someone who knew you? Even better, wouldn’t you go to someone whose life you’d changed? He witnessed to one to whom he had witnessed before the crucifixion. And what do you think her reaction would be? Joy and excitement, because if there was anyone she wanted to see again, it was the one who had changed her life.
So Jesus meets with Mary Magdalene, and she believes, so strongly in fact that she heads out to the ones who are grieving because of his death. She has Good News to share! “The Lord is risen! I’ve seen Him,” was her message.
But what happened? When they heard Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they didn’t believe it. It’s one thing to be told that something is true, it’s another to see it yourself.
Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them walking in the country, possibly this is the basis for the resurrection account in Luke of Jesus meeting the folks on the road to Emmaus, These returned and reported it to the rest, but they didn’t believe them either.
Okay, I’m sensing a pattern here, don’t you? It seems that those post-resurrection people of the Bible just didn’t get it, did they? Here these eyewitnesses show up and give them the best news they could possibly receive. They’d seen it with their own eyes! These, reputable disciples, their brothers and sisters saw Him, but when they return to tell... Believe it or not, they didn’t believe it.
Hmm. Remember watching Ripley’s? There were some things on those shows that
came up that we didn’t believe, but there were also things that came up that we
believed but were skeptical about. In
fact, we had a hard time discerning whether we fully believed it or fully did
not believe it, but the desire for it to be true pushed us to the side of
believing, even if it didn’t seem right.
Of course, the opposite is true as well.
In thinking about those unbelieving disciples, I must say that I don’t fault them for it. After all, it’s pretty unbelievable, and yet my hunch is that they had that same feeling of wanting desperately to believe while at the same time knowing that it couldn’t be true. The result of that wrestle was that they just couldn’t suspend belief for what we now know is the truth.
But later,” Mark says, “Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating (eating being a sacred time where God was specifically believed to be present; eating being a time when they would have remembered that Last Supper together; eating being a time when they would have been together licking their wounds) he appeared and rebuked them for their lack of faith and refusal to believe those whom He sent.
When I read this I see Christ showing up and giving them a dose of reality. Believe it! I can envision the author writing to the people of the early church, saying, “Believe it, even thought it may be hard to believe. It may be hard to believe because if you claim this Resurrected Lord, then it may get you killed. It may be difficult to accept because most of you didn’t see him while on earth and didn’t see Him when He came back, but believe it.
But hear again what Jesus says, “He rebuked them for not listening to the eyewitnesses.” If we think about the audience, few if any were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life, death, or resurrection. Wouldn’t they need to hear this word?
But then comes the shift. Once Jesus has established the fact that he was raised he says, “I sent my witnesses to You that You might believe. But what did you do? You didn’t believe. Now, I send you out to be my witnesses, and you know what will happen? Most of those you go to they won’t believe either. But despite their unbelief, go and preach the good news to all creation.” He gave them their marching orders, and then ascended to heaven, and then... The disciples went out and preached EVERYWHERE, and then listen to this, the Lord worked WITH them and confirmed his word by signs that accompanied them.
Jesus comes out of the tomb, and everyone who gets a first hand look at him, not only believes, but THEY GO OUT TO TELL OTHERS. And when they do, the Lord worked with them and confirmed the Truth with signs and wonders.
Time
and time again this week, I have heard many of you share how meaningful this
Lent and Easter was. For many it was
truly a time of change. It was a season
to dig deep into our faith, ask questions of ourselves and God, and cling more
strongly than ever to that which we say we believe. And the result has been that many of us were
blessed to see the Resurrected Christ among us and present in our lives.
Oh,
we might not have seen Christ in the way you see me standing before you today,
but did you see Christ in a sense of peace that came if just for a brief
moment? Did you see Christ in the look
or the touch of a friend which came unexpectedly and at just the right
time? Did you feel Christ in a time of
quiet meditation or in feasting on the Word?
Did you experience resurrection in the midst of worship, where the music
or sermon or prayer hit home in just the right way? Did you recognize the living Lord in stepping
out of your comfort zone or giving something up for Lent or taking the risk to
share love in a different way? Where did
you experience the Resurrected Lord?
Last Sunday after all was said and done, the doors were locked and lights out, I found myself a little disjointed and disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, the worship experience of Easter was wonderful, but things had not settled. The change I sought and hoped for from Lent was not complete. That same sense of dis-ease continued until Wednesday evening.
Wednesday our Leadership Development team met, which is the committee which takes seriously the call that every one be nurtured to become Christian Leaders. At the end of that meeting I threw out some questions which centered around how Lent was and where changes were being felt.
At first their was silence, then after a few minutes I opened up and shared my sense of
class=Section2>where Wellspring is. I told them that I feel God moving and leading us, but as your pastor, I have little sense of where God is leading, which can be disconcerting. I also shared that I feel that personally and that I get the same sense from us as a Body, but that I have not heard that expressed by the body and would love to see if what I sense is where many of us are.
The committee members began to respond, and they felt the same way, but that that was okay. The response was that we are being invited to dig a little deeper into our faith and choose the road that will take us to the next level. But, they expressed, it felt right, because it is transforming us past being people who add God as another component of life, to becoming people who find true life in God.
Despite my questions, despite wondering where we were going, despite trying to push God to give a solid direction, it had affirmed for me that we’re all moving together at God’s pace, which is exactly where we need to me. For me, that was my Easter.
That night I was reminded of the many times you witness to me by saying, “I’ve seen him!” I was reminded that at times I’ve believed you and at other times been a bit more skeptical. But even more importantly, Christ showed up that night and said, “Believe those messengers, believe yourself, and trust me. More importantly, forget the doubt, but go and share the Good News with everyone. If you do, I’ll be with you.”
Wednesday was my Easter, and it convicted me. How did your Easter convict you?
Do you believe it or not? If so, trust God, then go out and show it. And the great good news is that if we believe and share it with the world, He’ll be with us, revealing the same to those we meet and confirming to all that He is Risen for all! He is Risen indeed. Alleluia!