"Just Idle Talk?"

Utter nonsense. Foolishness. An idle tale.

Every year we begin our Easter celebrations with shouts of joy: “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” we cry. “The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!”

As we make this joyful proclamation, we may think we are echoing the words with which Jesus’ followers greeted that first Easter so long ago.

But that is not the case. The gospel tells us that there was no immediate joy on that first Easter morning. No “alleluias” rang out from the lips of the women and men who knew and loved Jesus, and mourned his death.

Confusion. Terror. Fear.

Those were the immediate reactions of the women who went early that morning to anoint Jesus’ body and prepare it for burial, and instead found an open and empty tomb.

Even when angels appear and tell the women what has happened, the gospel does not say that they rejoiced. Instead they run to tell the men what they have experienced.

And the men’s reaction?

“These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

An idle tale. Rumor. Delusion. Rubbish.

That’s what the disciples thought of reports of the resurrection.

Even when Peter goes to the tomb to see for himself, and finds it as the women described, the gospel says that he went home, “amazed at what had happened.”

Not joyful, not believing, but amazed – perhaps even skeptical.

On this Easter morning, almost two millennia later, there are still plenty in the world who say that the news we have come to celebrate is just an idle tale.

If we’re honest, most of us here today have at some point questioned the truth of this story. I heard someone say recently that daring to believe – as in trust – the Easter gospel is, perhaps, the hardest things Christians are asked to do.

We know, of course, that those first disciples – both men and women – moved from their initial fear and skepticism to rejoicing and belief.

It didn’t happen immediately. Over the next seven weeks we will hear stories of their encounters with the risen Christ. They see not just an empty tomb, but what one commentator calls “credible evidence of Christ alive.”

They will see him, touch him, talk and eat with him.

And as they come to trust that Christ is risen, is still alive in this new way, their lives are changed.

Peter, who cowered in fear and denied ever knowing Jesus the night of Jesus’ arrest, will become a bold proclaimer of the Gospel.

Other disciples, who often acted as if they had no idea what Jesus was talking about or doing, will go out to do the work he gave them to do – preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, lifting up the lowly, loving and serving all God’s people.

They, who were so afraid, do these things without fear, many at the cost of their own lives.

Those first disciples had an advantage over us, or so we might think. They got to see the risen Christ. They had that first hand, tangible, credible evidence.

What about us? What credible evidence do we have that Christ is alive? How can we trust that the resurrection is real – not only for Christ, but for ourselves?

The evidence for resurrection is all around us. Not in ancient texts, or in intellectual arguments, or church doctrine.

The evidence is in changed lives.

We have the lives of the martyrs and saints throughout history, who have put their trust in the risen Christ and accomplished things they never dreamed possible.

That includes saints of our own day, like Martin Luther King Jr., killed this day 42 years ago. Like El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, also martyred for his faith. Like Mother Teresa, and Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks.

But we also see changed lives among ordinary people doing extraordinary things like feeding the hungry, taking care of the sick, overcoming addiction, persevering through dark times, reconciling with enemies.

Or in the large percentage of Americans and others around the world who have contributed money to relief in Haiti.

It is these things that help me believe that the resurrection is more than an idle tale.

Many of us who are here this morning undertook some kind of Lenten practice this year. For the past 40 days we gave up something we enjoy, abstaining from desserts or alcohol.

Or we took on some kind of discipline – we read scripture more often, prayed more frequently, examined our lives to see where we fall short of what we are called to do and be.

Lenten disciplines are good things. But I suggest this year that we take up an Easter discipline – that we look each day for examples of new life and resurrection in our own lives or in the world and people around us.

That we look for credible evidence of the risen Christ.

Our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says in her Easter message to the Church that “we are not born with the ability to see resurrection everywhere we turn.

“We practice our faith because we must – it withers and atrophies unless it is stretched. We must continue to give evidence of the faith that is in us.”

Sometimes it is easier said than done. There are times in our own lives, or in the life of the world, where darkness predominates, and any hope of new life seems distant, indeed.

A dear friend whose husband struggles with Alzheimer’s e-mailed me late last night to ask how Holy Week was going. And she had a request to make for the Easter sermon.

“Please acknowledge that not everyone experiences resurrection on Easter,” she said. “Often the transition from Good Friday to Easter is a very long one.”

I know that she is not the only one who is feeling that way on this Easter morning.

I think of the people of Haiti, whose Good Friday has lasted a very long time already, and will last for years to come.

Haiti’s Episcopal Bishop Jean Duracin met with his clergy this Holy Week, leading them in the renewal of their ordination vows, and anointing them with oil, pressing the cross of Christ into their foreheads to given them strength in their overwhelming work.

After acknowledging the physical hardships, the grief and mourning and despair, he added, “This IS our new creation, and we must make the most of it.”

It occurred to me as I read over the Easter stories in scripture that the only time the risen Christ appeared to an individual was John’s account of his appearance to Mary Magdalene in the garden.

Every other time Christ appears to a group of disciples. The risen Christ appeared most often in a community. It was together, as a community, that the disciples came to realize that the reports of the resurrection were not just an idle tale.

That is what the church should be all about; why it is important for Christians to not live in isolation, but to be an active part of a community of faith.

“The Christian community is about shared hope in resurrections,” Jefferts Schori says. “We are meant to be a mutual hope society, with each one offering courage to another whose hope has waned, insisting that even in the darkest of nights, new life is being prepared.

“That work is constant – it will not end until the end of all things. And still the community persists, year in and year out, in times of earthquake and war and flood, in times of joy and new birth and discovery.

“Together we can shout ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen!’ even when some among us are not quite so confident as others,” she says.

“For indeed, the body of Christ is rising and risen when even a small part of it can rejoice and insist that God is renewing the face of the earth.”

It is up to us, as it is for every Christian generation, to make sure that the risen Christ is not just another “idle tale,” to make sure that we can rejoice and say:

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Back to Top

Readings

The first lesson: Isaiah 65:17—25

Thus says the Lord God: I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

The second lesson: 1 Corinthians 15:19—26

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

The Gospel: Luke 24:1—12

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were 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 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 his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But 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.

Back to Top