The traditional Easter greeting of the church.
L: He has risen!
P: He has risen indeed!
L: Alleluia!
P: Alleluia Amen!
24But on the first day of the week, at early dawn,
they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3but when they went in, they did not find the body.
4While they were perplexed about this,
suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground,
but the men said to them,
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen.
6Remember
how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
8Then they remembered his words,
9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James,
and the other women with them
who told this to the apostles.
11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb;
stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves;
then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Did you read in the newspaper this fall the story about the Assistant High School Principal who developed amnesia?
Actually it was a disorder they call psychogenic fugue, an extremely rare form of amnesia.
All of a sudden he could not remember.
His name was Joe.
He walked out his front door with his two dogs one morning last fall
a beloved husband, father, grandfather and assistant high school athletic director.
Minutes later, all of that — indeed, his very identity —
would seemingly be wiped from his brain's hard drive.
For a month, he wandered the streets of Dallas and its suburbs, a lost soul,
unable to remember his name, what he did for a living, or where he lived,
until, finally, a contractor who had done some work for Joe’s family
happened to recognize him.
By that point, Joe, 59 years of age, had somehow made his way to a suburb
about 20 miles from his Dallas home,
holes worn in the rubber soles of his canvas shoes.
He had lost 25 pounds,
and a full white beard covered the normally clean-shaven principal’s face.
Joe says he has now regained all his memories up to the point he wandered away, and is amazed at the outpouring of support he received from friends, co-workers and the hundreds of volunteers who helped search for him on the streets.
"Everyone believes that God brought me back for a reason, otherwise this might have ended differently," he says. "God wants me here to work with these students."
Joe is now back at the school, where the students had a big welcome home party.
He is under the care of a doctor who specializes in such cases.
And his wife has had a GPS tracking device added to his cell phone.
He says he still has only vague memories of those days on the streets of Dallas.
He recalls being stopped and frisked by police officers,
who were looking for a suspect in a holdup at a pizzeria.
There was also a smoky bowling alley.
He remembers waking up cold on a playground, wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
Another time, he says, he awoke under a construction trailer.
He says he cannot recall what he ate to survive.
But when he was found, he had jelly packets from a fast-food restaurant in his pockets
and half a stale bagel.
Witnesses and police accounts fill in a few other gaps in Joe's journey.
About two weeks after he disappeared, some people told searchers
they had seen a man matching Joe's description near a department store close to his home.
Over the next several days, he apparently crossed busy streets and interstate highways
to a suburb several miles north of Dallas.
Not long after that, he was spotted at a church carnival 5 miles north of Dallas.
He showed up at a large Baptist Church, where the secretary said
he told he had lost his keys and asked if he could search the bushes.
"He didn't look out of the ordinary at that time," said the secretary, adding that she assumed he was a member…”I thought he was with the Men’s Prayer Breakfast.”
His ordeal finally drew to a close after a month, in that Dallas suburb,.
Mike, a contractor who had done some work for Joe and his wife,
spotted a man wandering close to the site where he was working.
Mike thought the man might be Joe,
but with that long white beard Mike couldn't be sure.
"Joe, Joe!" Mike yelled, and then asked the man if he knew his name.
Joe replied “Well, my name must be Joe, since that’s what your was calling me.”
Did he know his last name? Mike asked.
"No, I don't guess I do," Joe said.
As the two men spoke, memories slowly came back, Joe says.
It took about two hours to come out of the fog.
"It wasn't instantaneous," Joe says. "Over some period of time I began to realize who I was."
Once before he had experienced a two hour period of this amnesia
and so his wife had an idea of what happened to him after he vanished.
She says that during the ordeal, she always believed her husband was alive.
Nevertheless, "there were days when I just wanted to give up," she says.
The Sunday before he was found was her lowest point.
"I said, 'Lord, I can't do this anymore. You just have to send my husband home,'" she says.
No one seems to know exactly how many others are afflicted with this type of amnesia,
or what the precise underlying causes are.
Victims may lose all memory of who they are,
but otherwise seem to function normally and can perform routine tasks.
Most victims eventually regain their memories, though it can take days and sometimes years. But for a time, they lose their ability to recall their own identity. [1]
II. So it is with the Gospel I think.
Not that Luke, here in this resurrection morning account,
is suggesting that the disciples suffered from psychogenic fuge….
but the disciples forget the truths ..that make up their core identity.
The work for them is in the remembering.
Being human, like you,… they forget the truths that makes up their core identity
Or distracted, …….we wander way from them.
Or discouraged….we lose faith with those truths.
And who wouldn’t have lost faith after the hurricane of horror that was Good Friday?
It was emotionally bludgeoning.
It was obliterating of whatever growing hopes the disciples may have had about Jesus.
It is always traumatic when death takes someone you love, ……..
and Jesus’ death was a violent death, which included the threat the disciples might be next.
Jesus was arrested and tortured to death.
So much for the special presence of God.
It seemed shattering of everything Jesus had been trying to teach them.
III. And Luke says …the men couldn’t even show up at first.
It’s the women who, on the Sunday after the Friday Jesus died,
Get up at early dawn, …..and come to the grave,
to perform the rituals of care these women are used to performing for their dead.
{The deep neurological patterning of the rituals of care are such
that they endure beyond even our identity.
We may not be sure who we are…but sister, we’re making coffee.
We may not have any good lead on how to put together a shattered life,
but one thing we know, the bed has to be made.
A sinkhole could have opened up and swallowed half the front yard,
But before we leave the house, look and see if we are leaving any dishes in the sink.}
And so….On the first day of the week, at early dawn,
The women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared
with which they intended to anoint his body as a part of the burial.
But when they arrived at the tomb
They found that the large stone which had been used to seal the entrance to the tomb
Had been rolled away from the tomb. And so they walked into the tomb,
but when they went in, they did not find the body of Jesus.
It was gone.
While they stood there, perplexed about this,
suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
The women were terrified ..and bowed their faces to the ground,
but the men said to them,
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen. Remember…….
Remember how he told you, that the Son of Man on the third day would rise again.
Then they remembered…..
The revelation for them, you see, is in the remembering.
Then they remembered!
This isn’t “remember” as in
“halfway out to the car John realized he had once again forgotten his keys.”
This isn’t remember as in
“Have I placed on the table everything I meant to for Easter dinner?”
Or “What’s her name?”
This is “remember” as in
“Different confusing events suddenly connecting themselves in an order,
and there is …understanding….recognition…”
The word translated here “remember” is in the Greek ….Mim-nes-ko
Which means: to bring to bear in the present, with power and deep insight,
It is used in a number of places in the scripture to refer to
the meaning of past actions and words in God’s plan of salvation.
Jesus used this word of the Last Supper: “When you do this…, remember me.”
{Your familiar with the same word having profoundly different meanings.
When I was 17, and was leaving my prom date, whose name I don’t recall, and said “I love you,” it meant something profoundly different than when Betty Wilkerson turned to Jim, her spouse of over 50 years and said “I love you.” When you walked in to the house after being at the mall and hollered out “I’m hungry” it meant something very different than when the small Haitian child with the distended stomach said in Creole to Mike Maddux “I’m hungry.”}
This is “remembering” like that scene from “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
The Jimmy Stewart movie
The scene where that sleazy old Potter has invited Jimmy Stewart to his office,
Because Potter understands that Stewart’s good character and care for the people
threatens to undermine Potter’s corrupt control of the town,
and so he beings to ply Stewart with fine cigars and wine,
and an offer to come to work for Potter at a handsome salary,
And Stewart is taking the bait, conversationally sliding into the possibility of the
comfortable if crooked life that Potter can offer,
And then suddenly, …he remembers!
“Wait a minute,” he says, backing up from Potter’s desk,
“Wait a minute Potter…I know who you are...You can’t buy me…..”
Min-nes-ko! He recognizes, ….he remembers,
and what he remembers is as much his own identity, his own character, as it is Potter’s.
What he really is saying is “I remember who I am!”
“Remember,”
“Remember how Jesus told you, while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered!”
What we typically focus on in resurrection is belief,
“Can we get enough evidence in our minds
to where we can verify credibility, give our assent?”
But here in this scripture
resurrection belief is more about remembering God’s faithfulness,
as a way of then leading to ….. trust, conviction, identity, Joy!
Remembering God’s faithfulness leads to your faithfulness.”
Memory is important for faith.
The women begin to understand when they remember Jesus’ words.
Those on the road to Emmaus recognize Jesus
when they remember his words and actions in the breaking of the bread.
The children of Israel are instructed to keep the Passover
as a way of remembering the faithfulness of God.
“Write it on your hearts” says Jeremiah.
“The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind,” says Isaiah
Remember, Thus says The Lord: I create new heavens and a new earth!”
This remembering, this is remembering as witness,
as testimony to the reality of God’s power over death.
“We are witnesses” says Peter in Acts, “to all that Jesus did. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear…”
“Resurrection faith concerns not a past event …but a present power,
not {just} an occurrence in the {historical} life of Jesus
but the enduring presence of Jesus, through the power of the Spirit, in the community.” [2]
“Remember,” …said the angels in the empty tomb,
“Remember how Jesus told you, while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered!”
IV. And that is what you are doing here this morning.
....working to remember…….
You thought you were here to show off your Easter finery!
(And indeed you do look glorious!)
But showing off pastels is not why you’re here.
You are here to remember who God created you to be.
That’s why you are here in such a large crowd, on a Sunday morning,
You are here to be reminded of who you are......
Ah, it’s effort.
Time and decay will work on these mortal bodies,
The world will reach out and try again and again to smother the truth about you
with it’s message of despair, and defeat and the power of fear.
You may feel like killing yourself.
But that is not the truth about you.
Remember who you are!
You are a people who belong to the Living God. God’s witnesses!
The resurrection is about Jesus
But it is also about who you are and your true destiny in Christ!
You are claimed by God’s love!
V. But of course, on your own, …..you won’t remember.
These mortal corruptible bodies fade.
I stood by the bed this week of one I love and watched as she fights to hold onto memory.
We watched on the news this week to learn in sadness of our friend,
who couldn’t believe who he really was.
And overwhelmed by sadness took his own life.
The sound and fury of terror and war can cloud us.
On your own, …..you won’t remember.
You are, …to quote the Apostle, ….“in a perishable, corruptible, body.”
Some of you acutely feel the aches and the pains even now.
On your own, …..you won’t remember.
VI. But the gospel you see, is not about your failing faith.
The gospel is about God’s faithfulness!
The Gospel is not about your mental capacity!
The good news of Jesus Christ is about the power of the Love of God,
Even over your forgetfulness, even over perishing, …even over suffering and death!
These women do not remember the faithfulness of God by their own volition!
Rather it is the angel of the Living God who commands them “Remember!”
This isn’t a question, “Don’t you recall what Jesus said?”
This is the imperative: Thus says The Lord, “I say to you: remember!”
Karl Barth said: “It is not the communities witness but Jesus himself who sees to it that He is not forgotten.” (CD III 2 452)
“We are witnesses” says Peter in Acts, “to all that Jesus has done. …
God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear…”
“Remember” …said the angels of the Living God
how he told you, that the Son of Man on the third day would rise again.
Then they remembered…..”
Thus says The Lord: “I create new heavens and a new earth!”
Remember…….
It is always the powerful, creative word of God that calls us into life,
It is God’s Word in Genesis that orders the chaos and brings the world into being:
“And God said….and it was so”
It is the Word, John tells us, that was with God in the beginning,
It was the through this Word that All things came into being,
and without this Word… not one thing came into being.
And What has come into being through him …is life…”
It is the life giving Word of God that Christ speaks when he says to the little girl who had died, “Tabitha Cum, I say to thee get up!”
It is the Word that Jesus speaks to Lazarus in the tomb, “Lazarus, Come out!”
It is the Word of God that the angel speaks to the Women that Resurrection morning: “Remember! ……Then they remembered!”
It is always the powerful, creative word of God that brings life out of death.
You are witnesses. Remember!
VI. But you will forget, ……..and your body will put on corruptibility
And your old bones will finally give out…….
(and you also will walk in the valley of the shadow of death).
And then …it will be the power of God’s creative love,
That remembers you………
It will be the power of God’s creative love,…That will come to you, even in death, and say:
“Arise! Get up!
Remember, I create new heavens and a new earth! I am the Lord!
Become whom God created you to be!
And then…. you will remember!
The resurrection is about your true destiny,
your identity as one who belongs to God in the fellowship of Christ’s love.
"Easter is the evidence of God’s power
and the assurance of God’s promise to make all things new."[3]
Even you.
Jesus isn’t in an empty tomb!
He has risen!
He has risen indeed!
And Christ’s resurrection is also about who we are … our true destiny in Christ.
Nothing and no one can contain the power of God’s creative love.
It burst forth from the grave and rises again on the third day.
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground,
but the angels said to them,
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
and be crucified,
and on the third day rise again.”
Then they remembered….
L: He has risen!
P: He has risen indeed!
L: Alleluia!
P: Alleluia Amen!
[1] Jan 26 Houston Chronicle
[2] Timothy Luke Johnson, Interpretation, 1992
[3] The Rev. Dan DeBevoise, 2007, in a personal Holy Saturday email.
