Easter Day, April 4th, 2010

Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalms 118: 14-17, 22-24
Acts 10:34-43
Luke 24: 1-12

Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen in truth. Alleluia. Alleluia. Christ is risen. AMEN.

Happy Easter! On this day, the Lord has acted. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Luke in both Acts and the Gospel sets Easter is as historical context as he can. What day was it? The first day of the week. When was it? Early in the morning. Why were they there? They'd prepared and were bringing spices to the tomb. What next? They found the tomb, but the stone had been rolled away from the door. How did they feel? Perplexed. Who was there? Two men in dazzling clothes. Then how did they feel?  Terrified. What did they do? They bowed their faces to the ground. Did the men speak? They did. What'd they say? Why do you seek for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

Who is the "they through this narrative" Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary mother of James, and the other women. Did anyone else come to check out the empty tomb? Peter did. What did he do then? He went home. How did he feel? He felt amazed at what had happened. What did he say later about his experience in Acts? He said that he and his companions were witnesses of what happened both in Judea and in Jerusalem. What was he witness to?

They- a different they, this they is the authorities- put him to death, but God raised him on the third day, and allowed him to appear not to all but to those of us chosen by God as witnesses. Why to some but not others? God didn't say. What did those who did see him do? They ate and drank together, as they had done before he died. Did he tell them what to do? He told them to preach to the people that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. This could be a demonstration of journalistic building details to anchor an account of a strange event with as many details as could be packed in. Luke salts his narrative with he kind of details inquiring minds want to know.

But why did Jesus only appear to some but not others?  It was God's choice. That's not a helpful answer. Given Luke's care to answer as many questions as he could answer, with details of fact, feeling, and reason, he gave as full an answer as he could come up with. Neither his audience/readership then or now has found that enough, plausible or even a fair answer.

He wrote both narratively in the Gospel and then continued in reporter style, telling what Peter did in Acts. He had two chances from two points of view, and he had no explanation. Even being there, and speaking from the inside knowledge of the witnesses, he had no answer acceptable to anyone, them or us.

Luke tells the story twice because he'd known, heard from, and accepted the record of a number of witnesses. That is indeed

the way we learn to trust in an event we can't otherwise verify. It is also the way we learn something as truth. (As I've said annually the Orthodox response to "Alleluia, Christ is risen" is "In truth he is risen Alleluia." We, with Luke's assistance, list off, check out, count on, as many facts and deeds as we can find, to reach our conclusion that "In deed" Christ is risen, has risen, has broken the chains of death and that we accept the witness of the many people. We count on the deeds of walking, talking, eating, traveling and assuring his friends that he is risen from the dead.

There is another way to know of Christ's rising. People came to know that, by believing by faith and in truth. Partly they, we, learn from these details and assertions, but partly they, we, have come through faith to believe and have our own experience of this mystery. Hear the poem by Gunnella Morris someone offered for today's mediation to our e-list, offered to all and which I happily take to read:

Plenty

Having shared our bread,

we know that we are

no longer hungry. It is enough

that you see me for myself.

That I see you for yourself.

That we bless what we see

and do not borrow, do not use

one another. This is how we know

we are no longer hungry...that

the world is full of terror, full of beauty

and yet we are not afraid to find solace here.

To be bread for each other. To love.

And the person who offered this poem observed that "This is Easter" in case we didn't hear the wonder of this poem.

It's  "to be bread for each other. To love" that leads to the mix of how we believe with that we believe. Our experience from our history tradition as well as our experience through our own prayer life and time in and with a faith community persuades us. When the thrill of the light and sound's return at the Vigil get to us, we hope and believe that the wonderful events were real and true. We practice believing with patience. Our present poet laureate, Kay Ryan, writes on "Patience, explaining that "Patience is/wider than one/once envisioned." We practice our faith together week by week, day by day. The poet asserts the result of that kind of life-spent patience. She writes:  

"Who would

have guessed

 it possible

that waiting

 is sustainable-

a place with

its own harvests.

 Or that in

 time's fullness

the diamonds

of patience

couldn't be

distinguished

from the genuine

 in brilliance

or hardness."

"Time's fullness" is "to be bread for each other, to love" and that's the mystery we celebrate. Whether we know that Christ is risen in deed or in truth, we celebrate "Alleluia, Christ is risen. Indeed, in truth, Christ is risen. Alleluia" Good news.

© Katharine C. Black, Easter Day, 4 April 2010