Sermon preached by the Reverend John E. Kitagawa at the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Sunday, 4 April 2010 (The Feast of the Resurrection), at St. Philip’s In The Hills Parish, Tucson, Arizona

EMBOLDENED TO PREACH THE RISEN CHRIST

Acts 10: 34-43; I Corinthians 15: 19-26; Luke 24: 1-12

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is risen, indeed!

Jeffrey Hart, Professor Emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, reflects the sentiments of many people today.

That Jesus rose on the third day remains very hard to believe. Not least is the fact that a body dead for that length of time would decay considerably and would have to be fully reconstituted in order to appear alive[1].

Paula Fredrickson, Professor of Scripture at Boston University, in a recent PBS documentary on Peter and Paul said,

Forget any other miracles—the fact that Apostles were emboldened to preach the Risen Christ and would thereby change the world is the greatest one of all. I know in their terms what they saw was the raised Jesus. … I don’t know what they saw. But I do know that as a historian that they must have seen something[2].

It is interesting to note that Jeffrey Hart is the author of Ten Reasons the Resurrection Really Happened. He cites evidence “ranging from the Shroud of Turin to the location of the nails on the cross”[3]. To the dubious, Hart declares the empirical evidence is better than we think. Paula Frederickson, on the other hand, points to the influence and impact emanating from the apostles’ behaviors and actions, namely what she calls “the miracle of preaching the Risen Christ” to hostile and friendly people in places far and wide.

All this can sound like a boring esoteric professorial argument. Assure you, there is something significant going on. Each in his or her own way is working to make the Resurrection relevant to our lives today. They both understand that if Easter is “merely a wonderful event that happened long ago—the way God once worked, but not since,[4]” then the Resurrection has little meaning or relevance to life today. Experience informs me that argumentation, however sophisticated, does little to convince anyone of the truth and relevance of the Resurrection for their lives. So, I call your attention back to Frederickson’s assessment that the disciples were “emboldened to preach the resurrected Christ” because “they must had seen something.” I am going to share a story to further illustrate this line of thought:

During the Civil War, a chaplain happens upon a wounded soldier. The chaplain asks him if he'd like to hear a few verses from the Bible. "No," gasps the wounded man, "but I'm thirsty. I'd rather have some water." The chaplain gives him a drink, then repeats his question.

"No sir," says the wounded man, "not now -- but could you put something under my head?" The chaplain does so, and again repeats his question.

"No thank you," says the soldier. "I'm cold. Could you cover me up?" The chaplain takes off his greatcoat and wraps the soldier in it. Afraid now to ask, he does not repeat his question.

He makes to go away, but the soldier calls him back. "Look, chaplain, if there's anything in that book of yours that makes a person do for another what you've done for me, then I want to hear it"[5].

Clearly, seeing something in the his actions, the wounded soldier wanted to learn about the chaplain’s motivation and inspiration.

At its heart, Easter is not about official, doctrinal or even Biblical correctness. Easter is about being touched by God in ways that give us hope when there was none; that give us peace when there has been nothing but conflict, anxiety, or chaos; that give us new life when there was only despair and/or fear. This is what Paula Fredrickson thinks happened to the apostles, and compelled them to reach out and bring others into the fellowship of faith, even in the face of opposition and persecution. T. S. Eliot spins it this way:

The greatest proof of Christianity is not how far a Christian can logically analyze reasons for believing, but how far in practice he or she will stake his or her life on his or her belief[6].

Believing Jesus is resurrection and life happens in profound and life-changing ways when “at a few precious moments … [we] have found [Christ] to be in [our] own small deaths and resurrections”[7]. Those who see this at work in us, and those who experience it become authentic communicators of the relevance, meaning, and power of the Resurrection. To experience Easter is to find hope when there was none. It is to accept new truths in the place of old truths. It is to embrace and celebrate God’s desire, will and power to “make all things new” (Revelation 21: 5).

The Feast of the Resurrection—Easter—comes around yearly on the liturgical calendar. Your Easter may not correspond with calendar. Today may not be it for you. But, the life-changing experience of Easter can happen at any time, and all the time. A perfectly reasonable question is just what does one do when like the disciples we have seen or experienced something life-changing?

I have another story that helps me talk about living as Easter people.

Solidarity in Poland proved that Jesus' way could be lived under circumstances of Communist oppression and martial law. People said to one another, in effect, "Start doing the things that you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.”

Do you believe in freedom of speech? Then speak freely.

Do you love the truth? Then tell it.

Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open.

Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.

This behavior actually caught on, leading to "an epidemic of freedom in a closed society." By acting as if Poland were already free, Solidarity created a free country. The "as if" ceased to be pretense, and became actuality.

Note this story is not about talking points or a sanctioned theology. It is not so much about beliefs, but about the effect of acting on those beliefs. I share this story as a metaphorical bridge to understanding how Easter people are to live in the world. Solidarity’s basic premise was to:

Start doing the things that you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.

Let us reframe that to fit the context of living as Easter people.

Start doing the things that Christ is calling you to do, and start being what will make the kingdom of God a greater present reality.

Today, we baptize Alexis, Anthony, Jazzmine, Maxwell, Noah, Ian, Decio, Duncan, Elijah and Zoey. We share their journey as we go back to basics, and renew our baptismal vows. Ask yourselves, what would it mean to go beyond mouthing promises with good intentions? Think about what you promise. In the days ahead, pray about the promises you are about to make. You will promise with God’s help:

to continue in the apostles’’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers
to persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord.
to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.
to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.
to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being[8].

I concede that it is a little frightening, but consider what it would mean to apply the “as if” principle to these Baptismal Promises, and what would be the effective result of grounding all of our actions and decisions in these principals. Try to imagine what it would be like to live “as if” these are more than promises made, that they are promises kept and adhered to. It would be “as if” we had taken up residence as permanent citizens of the kingdom of God. What would be the costs and losses? And, what would be the benefits and gains? For, our lives would surely be different. Our priorities and goals would change. I suspect participation in St. Philip’s would change as you discover or initiate opportunities to join with others in living out these promises. Our living the “as if” principle would also spill over and affect our families and friends, and the Tucson communities in which we minister. I do not know whether or what kind of epidemic we might cause. At the very least, we could elicit the kind of response the Civil War Chaplain, in the end, got from the wounded soldier. There is plenty of evidence that people are drawn to the faith by the authentic practice of faith by individuals and communities. At the very least, we could alleviate a little more poverty, feed a few more hungry mouths, and affect a new measure of justice for the oppressed.

I believe more would happen. When the expectation of deadliness is the norm, and hopelessness is endemic, something powerful happens with the experience and knowledge of Christ raising up new life. Perhaps this is the ultimate meaning of the Resurrection—the power that took Jesus through death and beyond gives us the capacity to triumph over all the “spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God, that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, and that draw us away from the love of God”[9]. With that kind of power freely given to us, just what is getting in the way of living as if we are permanent citizens of the kingdom of God?

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is risen, indeed!