Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Easter: "Alive, not Undead"
Better late than never! I completely forgot to post this sermon from Sunday. Here you go!
Sermon for Sunday, 3 April 2016
2nd Sunday of Easter
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer,
Jerusalem
The Rev Carrie Ballenger Smith
***
Grace and
peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last
Saturday evening, when the sermon and other preparations for Easter Sunday were
finally wrapped up, my husband and I grabbed a snack and sat down to watch a
scary movie.
It was
called “JeruZalem.”
With a Z.
It was set
in – you guessed it – Jerusalem, and featured many shots of Damascus Gate and
the Western Wall and the streets of this city we know and love.
Of course,
the main characters also stayed in a “Jerusalem guest house” called “Fauzi Azar
Inn”, which some of you may recognize as being located in Nazareth, not Jerusalem.
And it was obvious to us that most of the movie was actually shot in that Old
City, not this one.
It was
really a terrible movie.
 |
| Fauzi Azar Inn. It's in Nazareth -- I promise! Photo by Robert Smith |
And it
wasn’t scary at all, in spite of the many creepy shots of Old City streets, ancient
dark tunnels, and zombies!
“JeruZalem”
the movie was full of zombies. Dead-eyed, hungry, merciless zombies. We
couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that the one thing that brings the three
religions and two peoples of Jerusalem together (at least in the movies) is a
fear of the undead.
Admittedly,
it was a strange thing to watch the night before the Feast of the Resurrection.
Or maybe it
wasn’t.
Maybe it
isn’t so strange, because actually those scenes of a Jerusalem populated by
zombies are a perfect contrast to the Easter proclamation that came out of
Jerusalem.
Fear of what
lurks around the corner is very different from the fear the Marys felt when
they could not find Jesus’ body.
Empty eyes of
the undead are very different from the empty tomb.
For we do
not proclaim Jesus revived, or Jesus resuscitated, or Jesus the “undead”.
We proclaim
Jesus resurrected, Jesus alive, Jesus who through death has defeated death!
Alleluia,
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!
It is not an
undead Jesus who comes to greet the disciples in a locked room on Easter
evening – and again one week later.
It is Jesus
of Nazareth.
It is Jesus,
born of Mary.
It is Jesus,
teacher and healer.
It is Jesus the crucified and risen.
“When it was evening on that day, the
first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met
were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his
side.”
 |
| My grandfather Bill Nelson, fixing a family lawnmower |
Are there
people in your life you could identify by their hands alone? I remember very
well the hands of my Grandpa Bill Nelson, whose job as owner of a small-town hardware
store included cutting glass for windows and fixing lawnmowers and chainsaws. I
remember sitting at the table with him, watching him make a cheese sandwich,
and counting how many of his fingers were still whole fingers. The answer was: not many. His hands told the story of
his life’s work.
In the same
way, Jesus’ body told the story of his
life’s work. I suppose Jesus could have shown the disciples his feet –
pierced by nails, and dusty from walking the roads of Galilee with them. He
could have shown them his back, whipped by the soldiers. He could have shown
his shoulders, strong from carrying the burden of a sinful world.
But he chose
to show them his hands and his side, pierced by nails and by the sword.
Jesus was
risen from the dead, and the proof was
his body—a body that sat at the table with sinners,
A body with
hands that heal,
A body that hung
alongside criminals,
A body that
bore the stripes by which we are healed,
a body who was
standing in the room with them,
Speaking
with them.
Breathing
upon them.
Being with them. Emmanuel, God-with-us, even after
the cross.
I just can’t
get past the earthiness and the intimacy of this post-resurrection encounter
with Jesus. So often, the Christianity of today feels very “other-worldly.”
Many
Christians focus on reaching the after-life, and ignore the reality and
sufferings in this one.
Others enjoy
drawing distinctions between our beliefs and the beliefs of others:
We are the
religion of peace, and “they” are not.
We possess
the facts and the truth, and “they” do not – whoever “they” are at this moment in
the political cycle.
Viewed in
this way, Christianity seems to be something that exists “out there”, or in the
thought world. A head trip. A prescribed system to be swallowed whole and
defended at all cost.
And yet: Jesus
did not walk through that locked door and hand the disciples a gospel tract.
He did not
bring them volumes of systematic theology.
He did not
begin an academic debate, or start a culture war, or make anyone promise his or
her vote.
He simply stood
among them. He spoke a word of peace. He showed them his hands and side. He breathed on them.
Dear sisters
and brothers, children of the resurrection, we
do not proclaim that Jesus’ ideas were raised from the dead.
We proclaim
that Jesus’ BODY was raised from the dead.
The Good
News of the resurrection is Good News of
the body,
And for the body,
Every body.
Alleluia,
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!
This is such
a critical message for today, because like those disciples who were locked away
in the room for fear of the people outside, often we also are locked up and
afraid.
We are afraid of bodies.
Sadly, there
is a long Christian history of being afraid
of our own bodies – a wound to God’s good creation which sadly is not yet
completely healed.
But today, the fear that holds us tight, the fear causing
so much hatred today, the fear which keeps us locked behind doors, the fear
that keeps us from living the Good News of the resurrection, is the fear of other bodies.
This is
Jerusalem after all, and while we are not afraid of zombie bodies, we are often
afraid of bodies in riot gear and armed with machine guns.
We are
afraid of bodies bearing knives.
We are
afraid of bodies carrying bombs at airport security.
We’re afraid
of any body of a different religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation,
ability, age, race, or size.
Maybe this
is why we are so attracted to zombie movies. Zombies look like us, but are
different. They were once like us, but now they have changed. Regardless, they
are out for blood. They must not be trusted. They must not be touched. If you
see one, run the other way as fast as you can. Kill them if you can!
This plot
feels familiar. This plot even echoes the platforms of a few political
candidates.
This plot
allows us to fully embrace the fear inside us:
Lock the
doors!
Be afraid: of
what comes next.
Of what
lurks around the corner.
Of the
things we don’t know.
Be afraid of
them.
Be afraid of
death.
But my
friends, this is Easter. This is Jerusalem (with an s, not a z). This is the
city of resurrection, and Jesus has come to stand
with us—in the flesh!
He is not
dead – he is alive!
He is not undead – he is alive!
Jesus is the
living God.
He is
wholeness.
He is
perfection.
He is love
incarnate.
His bodily presence
with us and among us, from the cradle to the cross,
On the road
and at the table,
Outside the
tomb,
And inside
every one of our locked rooms,
Is a witness
to the sacredness of all life, everywhere,
Of all bodies, everywhere.
He comes to
bring us peace.
He comes to
abolish fear.
He comes to
fill us with the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of resurrection and life.
Because he
is risen, body and all, we know that the resurrected life is not lived behind
locked doors, or in our minds, or in theology books,
But is lived in our bodies, and with
other bodies:
The resurrected
life is:
Bodies
running for freedom of movement on the streets of Bethlehem,
Bodies of
mothers caring for babies,
Bodies of
children going to school,
Bodies of
friends caring for each other in times of need,
Bodies of
enemies seeking peace and reconciliation,
Bodies of
doubters, kneeling to pray anyway.
As the
Father sent Jesus, so he now sends us – bodies and all – with all our
imperfections, with all our failings, with all our doubts, to a world still clinging
to zombie stories, to a world still hungry for the real Good News of the
resurrection. He sends us out, that all may come to believe, and may have life
in him.
As St.
Teresa of Avila wrote:
“Christ has
no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes
through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which
he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the
world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his
body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen
indeed, Alleluia!
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