April 4, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Acts 10:34 -42 + Psalm 118 + 1 Corinthians 5: 6-8 + Luke 24: 1-12
This is the Day the Lord has Made, Let us rejoice and Be Glad! At first it was eyewitnesses whose experience of the risen Christ moved people to faith in the resurrection. We shall tell their stories in the next few weeks. But those eyewitnesses one by one died leaving no one who had actually seen the risen Christ. Those who came to faith by the testimony of the eyewitnesses were left with a different circumstance and perhaps a greater challenge. They could not claim to have seen the Risen Lord as had the older ones. Their testimony had to rest on something else. We who celebrate this Easter might pause to think about just how it is we came to our faith in the Resurrection. I have done just that in the past few days during the Triduum. I have wondered how I came to this faith that gives me such courage, such joy, and so much hope. I doubt that my experience is unique, which all the more gives me reason to trust this faith and the experiences that have led me here. It can hardly be different for you. I know that I came to faith in the resurrection from a handful of witnesses none of whom claimed to have seen the risen Christ or to have discovered an empty tomb with men dressed in white robes. Their lives were hardly that exceptional.In fact, calling them “witnesses” might evoke a laugh from one or two of them.
They never stood up in church, on a street corner, or a class room and preached a sermon. They simply lived good and faithful lives marked by charity, patience, kindness, forgiveness and gentleness. Don’t get the impression that they were pious and spent more time in church than anywhere else. They didn’t. On the contrary, they were passionate, sometimes angry in face of injustice, and impatient with evil and wrong-doing. But they never judged people, only behavior. They were grateful people and simple never expecting anything when they gave. They never pushed themselves forward in line, but kept looking back in case someone needed to get a head of them. The only time they looked down on anyone was to lift them up.
What I have come to understand is that in seeing these people, in living with them, and enjoying their company and friendship, I was reminded of things that Jesus said and did. These people made me remember Jesus.
Before we can believe, we have to remember.
Luke tells us that those visitors to the empty tomb were told by the two men in dazzling garments that they should “Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee.” And then Luke says, “They remembered his words.”
Then it starts, story after story, pointing to the fact that until they remembered what he said and what he did, they did not understand or believe.
My dear Easter friends, before we can believe, we have to remember: Remember what he said, and Remember what he did. And so we must know the Scriptures not like a study-guide for countless classes of bible-study, but as the Living Word of God which creates and forms us. We can study it all our lives, but until we begin to live it, it will not give us Life. Once we do begin to live the Word, forgiving, healing, reaching out to the forgotten, challenging systems and ways of thinking that lay heavy burdens on others, we will have remembered and we will have come to believe and we will have life. I am beginning to understand from this Gospel that it is not breath that gives us life, but Faith that gives Life.
Resurrection faith is an invitation to remember what Jesus said and did. It was not the empty tomb that brought Peter and the others to faith. It was not necessarily the news those women brought to them either. Not until Peter and the others remembered did they come to believe. That is what happened to those men walking to Emmaus: that stranger opened the scriptures for them and invited them to remember.
Today we remember, my friends. We remember what Jesus said and what he did. It is far more important than remembering an empty tomb. We remember what he left us, what he called us to become, and what he gave us in the Holy Spirit; a new relationship with God and with each other. Our best and greatest hope must be that what others see in us will help them to remember what Jesus has said and done. Our best and greatest hope is that by remembering, they too will come to faith in the resurrection as we have come to faith. What came out of that tomb was love – the one and certain thing that death cannot destroy. We who have lost loved ones know this to be true because in spite of death, we can still remember; and that is all those two men in dazzling garments suggested: Remember. When we do, we will believe; and as long as we remember, our faith will never be shaken. Only when we forget do we get into trouble and