Witnesses

 

3 Easter              Church of the Redeemer             The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

          The Pew Research Center recently reported some statistics on atheists in America. According to them, 98% of atheists say religion is not too or not at all important in their lives and only 4% said they found life’s meaning in spirituality.” (Xian Century, p.10, April 2024) More than one-quarter of Americans now identify as atheists, agnostics, or religiously “unaffiliated,” according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.“(Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, 04/2024)  And according to a Gallup poll taken in 1982, one third of Americans, who were questioned at that time, didn’t believe in life after death. In that same year, I probably was one of them. Matter of fact, at that time I was so consumed with life that I didn’t have time to think about death, let alone life after death.

I remember Easter of 1982 quite vividly. Our daughter Megan was 1 ½ years old, and our son Brian had just been born. Life was good. Unlike this past year’s winter, it snowed considerably on that Easter eve in Walpole, and Paul’s parents had come to visit us at our home. They were delighted with the birth of their second grandchild, and what they considered to be the one who would carry on the Gossling name.

Paul’s father, lovingly called Grandfather, made a huge Easter bunny out of the snow. Like our daughter, Grandfather was a doctor, who mended not just bones, but also people’s lives. He was a man of great faith, who loved life so much that in 2001 he was incredibly angry about losing it. Too soon for all of us!

To be honest, I didn’t think much about God until our children were born. I was a Christmas and Easter kind of Christian, showing up at church for the holidays. No matter the house, there was always a holiday routine. We would dress up in our Sunday best, go to church, and then celebrate with good food, plenty of wine, and a great deal of laughter.

Fortunately, for Paul and me, having babies wasn’t hard. We decided that it was a good idea, and then it happened. Raising our children, however, was a different matter. As they say, babies don’t come with instruction manuals. It’s on-the-job training with lots of “do-overs” and “I wish I hads or I wish had-nots” mixed in. Of course, Megan and Brian will tell you that raising us was no easy matter either.

Our struggles in life come in many packages, sizes, shapes and forms, don’t they? And we all have them, no matter how young we are, how old we have become, or how happy the holidays may appear. The truth is that these challenges will test our endurance, strengthen our resilience, and cause us to wonder about life, about death, and how to make sense of it all. It is at these turning points in our lives that we may turn towards God, or given to despair and cynicism, we may turn away from anything that is not materially evident. Faith is not a matter of proof. It involves witnesses.

I love the Easter stories about the disciples hiding in that room after the crucifixion of Jesus. They are described as afraid. And wouldn’t you be? If your leader had just been condemned and killed by powerful religious and political authorities, and you were one of his disciples, wouldn’t you fear for your life as well?

And yet, it wasn’t those human powers that knocked on the door that day. It wasn’t immigration officers or government officials demanding you turn over your documents. It wasn’t your rector or a military official bringing you bad news about a relative. No, instead it was Jesus who was knocking at your door, asking you if He might come in. Looking through a spiritual peephole, you’re shocked to see someone, who you thought was dead, standing on the other side. Hey, it’s me, Jesus said to his friends.

Now supposedly, on that Sunday after his crucifixion, Jesus miraculously stepped into the room where he found his disciples cowering in fear. They had only recently denied, betrayed, and abandoned their leader. To think that Jesus might hold a few grudges against them, and harbor a little anger and resentment towards them, isn’t a far stretch for anyone’s imagination.

Emotions were running high after Jesus’ death. There was plenty of name calling, blaming, and shaming to go around and plenty of need for forgiveness. There was plenty of need to let go of some anger and resentment. There was plenty of need for peace. And I imagine there was a strong desire to “move on” and forget the whole bloody mess.

But Jesus wouldn’t let them. After only three days’ of absence, He steps right back into their lives, and meets them where they are. He shows them his scars. “Touch and see me,” He said, “and believe that I am not a ghost.” Look at my hands and feet, and you will know me, resurrected to new life. You’re not imagining me; so give me something to eat. How about some lamb and red wine? Some broiled fish and a little bread?

In a sermon by Josh Stott, a pastor of GracePointe Church in Nashville, Tennessee, he writes about the scars of Jesus, and how they tell, like our own scars, some of our stories. Scars mark those moments in our lives that shape us, identify us, and leave their traces on us physically, mentally, emotionally, and even psychically. They mark those turning points in our lives when we may think about life and death, about God, and about the choices we have made. We may want to change how we live.

Pastor Stott wrote, “Jesus’ scars tell a story. They paint a vivid picture of a human being committed to a vision of God and God’s kingdom that is just and generous, with an embrace wide enough for anyone and everyone. It is a story of a God who sees everyone as valuable, a story of refusing violence in favor of peacemaking and returning love in the face of hatred.” (Xian Century, April 2024) 

When Jesus steps into our rooms where our hearts are pounding with fear, he tells us not to worry. “Be at peace” he says to the anxious and afraid. “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is” me. Remember what I told you when I was still with you? That all these things would happen, and now, “You are witnesses of these things.”

We use lovely metaphors to explain the resurrection. We talk about flowers pushing through softened soil or melting snow, how caterpillars become butterflies after a long and necessary struggle, and how memories of our loved ones will remain in our hearts forever. And yet, as St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

You know how life can intrude on our best laid plans, right? How our Lenten promises to amend our lives, and to forgive others as we have been forgiven, are hard to keep for 50 days, let alone a lifetime? How, like Peter, we promise never to deny, abandon or betray those we love? But then the risen Christ appeared to Peter in that room and his fear became faith.

In today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter reminds the Israelites of their mistakes, “I know you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” You killed an innocent man, but God raised him from the dead and “by faith in his name” miracles do happen.

In his fear, in his shame, and in his disbelief, Peter met the risen Jesus in that room, and his life was changed forever. So too were the disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, St. Paul on his journey to Damascus, and the disciples on the beaches of Galilee. And on that Easter morning Jesus appeared to Mary in the garden. According to our scripture stories “hundreds of people saw the risen Jesus” after his crucifixion, and lives were changed and transformed after that.            

When Grandfather made that Easter bunny 42 years ago, I did not believe in the Resurrection. I was too young, too human, and too consumed with my life. All good things, to be sure! Today, I believe in the Resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. I also believe that one day I shall sit down again with Grandfather for good food, plenty of wine, and lots of laughter. How did this happen? By the grace of God, some personal spiritual experiences, and the witness of others. Through faith, hope, and love, I came to believe.

Andrew Garnett once wrote, “When we truly grasp the meaning of the resurrection, we are motivated to change both our hearts and our lives.” (www.d365.org)  Blind see. Lame walk. The oppressed are set free, prisoners are released, and to this we are witnesses. So live joyfully, peacefully, and lovingly until Resurrection comes knocking on your door.

             Acts 3: 12-19                    Luke 24: 36b-48