Thankful 2003

R= 20;Looking for Jesus?”

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I= saiah 65:17-25

A= cts 10:34-43

L= uke 24:1-12

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I= ntroduction. An eighty year old couple was havi= ng problems remembering things, so they decided to go to their doctor to make = sure nothing was wrong with them. When they arrived at the doctor's office, they explained to her about the problems they were having with their memory. Aft= er checking the couple out, she told them that they were physically okay but m= ight want to start writing things down, making notes to help them remember thing= s. The couple thanked the doctor and left.

Late= r that night while watching TV, the husband got up from his chair and his wife ask= ed, "Where are you going?"

&= nbsp; He replied, "To the kitchen."

&= nbsp; She asked, "Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?" <= /p>

&= nbsp; "Sure."

&= nbsp; Then his wife asked him, "Don't you think you should write it down so you c= an remember it?"

&= nbsp; "No, I can remember that."

&= nbsp; "Well, I also would like some strawberries on top. You had better write that down cause I know you'll forget that," his wife said.

&= nbsp; "I can remember, you want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries."

&= nbsp; She replied, "Well, I also would like whipped cream on top. I know you will forget that. You had better write it down."

&= nbsp; With irritation in his voice, he said, "I don't need to write it down, I’ll remember." He went into the kitchen.

Afte= r about 20 minutes, he returned from the kitchen and handed her a plate of bacon and eggs. She stared at the plate= for a moment, clearly irritated at the whole situation, and said, "I told= you to write a note! You forg= ot my toast!"

M= ove 1. Memory is important, isn̵= 7;t it? Memory, of co= urse, is remembrance of past events, but which also helps us live well in the present.

Reme= mbrance is what the women who go to the tomb early Sunday morning are encouraged to= use by the two men in dazzling clothes, presumably angels. “Remember,” they say t= o the women, who have a risen Jesus as the furthest thing from their minds. “Remember how he told you th= at the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the thi= rd day rise again.” Ah, yes. The memory of those words return to the women, as they begin to put 2 and 2 together.

Memo= ry is what Peter uses in the scripture from Acts today, in his retelling of the greatest story ever told. Ind= eed, the recollection of past events is crucial to helping Peter’s listene= rs understand who Jesus was and who Jesus is.

Memo= ry is what brings us together here today. The remembrance of the Easter story, in particular, connects us with Christ, and with one another. Not just on Easter, but every Sunday, the mem= ory of God’s story, especially as told in the Bible, connects us with millions of people of faith over thousands of years, and makes us part of t= he story.

Memo= ry is, of course, important in many aspects of life—family, work, recreation. And it is absolut= ely crucial in our meditation upon, in our sharing in, the Christian faith.

M= ove 2. But some people live in their memories. Some people live in= the

memo= ries and forget about the present, much less the future.

The = women who come to the tomb are in danger of clinging too tightly to memory. They can be forgiven by us, of cou= rse, because they are experiencing the grief, the “hour of lead” as Emily Dickinson called it (William Willimon, Pulpit Resource, April, May, June 2004, p. 16), over the one who loved them unconditionally. But they are not given such kind treatment by the angels, who speak sternly to them—“Why do you = look for the living among the dead?” Well, maybe the women should have remembered that Jesus would rise, = as he told them he would. But th= ey probably are still in a state of shock, or overwhelming sadness.

Some= people, at the death of loved ones, continue in this “hour of lead” for years, maybe even for the rest of their days. A man about whom I recently heard,= with a wife and children, built a kind of shrine in the family home, to his brot= her who had died. Two years after= the brother’s death, the man was getting ready, not to remove the shrine,= but to do an addition onto the house to accommodate its growth (heard on the Dr. Laura Show, a radio program, sometime in March or April 2004). Yes, many people today look for the living among the dead.

Peop= le do not have to experience the death of another to get caught up in the past. Some people remember the carefree,= glory days of childhood or high school a bit too fondly, and are unable to move i= nto the new challenges of adulthood. Distance can make the heart grow fonder, and some can’t seem to form new relationships when a best friend moves. Some people even have such feeling= s for cars or homes or other inanimate objects, grieving over them for years after they are wrecked or sold.

Peop= le can, understandably, cling tightly to their memories, to what was, and what could have been, to their old lives.

M= ove 3. Through the resurrection, Jesus us= hered in new life. He was the same,= sort of, as he was before his death…but “he did not return to normal life….He appeared and disappeared at will, moving in and out of human perception of his presence.” He helped those he appeared to remember the past, but did not let th= em stay there for long. Instead,= he called them into new life.

A fr= iend of mine recently told me about someone she has known, who

I wi= ll call John. John was a young man wi= th a wife and family. He was in go= od shape, healthy. He held a ste= ady job, supporting a good life for himself and his loved ones. But one day, John had a heart attack. He was given CPR by h= is wife until the ambulance arrived, but was clinically dead when he arrived at the hospital.

By s= ome strange twist of fate, maybe a miracle, John was revived several minutes af= ter he had died. Of course, he was John, but he wasn’t quite himself, when he came back. He had forgotten how to do physical tasks like picking things up, and had forgotten even how to speak. He relearned much over the years, = and has even remembered his past life. But he has not regained his short term memory, and so instead of hol= ding down a full-time job, he has learned to write notes to himself, and he has taken up carpentry, to supplement the income his wife has earned.

John= could have cursed the day of his heart attack, but instead he has viewed each day= as a gift. He could have gone ba= ck to live in the past, when his memory was solid and his life was more normal, b= ut instead he has moved into new life, similar to how it was before, but different.

R= 20;Through the resurrection, Jesus moved into the existence of eternity,” not confined to time or space anymore, no longer the Jewish messiah alone but t= he messiah of the world. And he = called his followers to tell about him, to baptize in his name, to accept others, = to forgive and love everyone.

M= ove 4. Well that’s good news, isn’t it? It’s go= od news, indeed, that Jesus is risen! Or is it? The thing ab= out good news is that it can terrify us.

No n= ews at all is what the women who go to Jesus’ tomb expect--Jesus’ body, wrapped in linens, no different than when he was placed there a few days before. Their discovery that = Jesus is not in the tomb is certainly news. But rather than frightening them, that news instead perplexes them, makes them wonder where Jesus has been moved or if they have the correct tomb. But good news is what t= hey are confronted with by the angels: “He is not here, but has risen!” And the good ne= ws terrifies them.

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Now,= small pieces of good news are fine—the “A” on the report card; = the raise at work; grandma’s coming for a visit. Good news of this sort is almost a= lways welcome, no terror involved.

But = big pieces of good news often involve a disruption of the normal

rout= ine, or it might mean that how we’ve always done things won’t work

anym= ore. The good news is that a young pers= on gets accepted to a

wond= erful college. The terrifying news = is that it’s 6 states away from home.&n= bsp; Does this good news create more anxiety for the child or the parents? The good news is tha= t the Soviet Union collapses. The terrifying news is that our former enemy’s at-one-time controlled nuc= lear materials are now not so safe from thievery and underground sales. The good news is that Jesus is not= in the tomb. The terrifying news= is that Jesus is not like everyone else, is not someone that we can put in our little box and control, for now it is he who is in control.

Good= news means that the world’s ways that we are so used to, of grudges and ha= tred and death, simply do not have the last say. And good news, if we receive it, m= eans that our lives might wind up changing—that we might become the followers of Jesus who are asked to tell about him, to accept others, to forgive and love everyone. An= d, given that we humans can be reluctant to change, that can be scary, terrifying.

M= ove 5. If we can work through our te= rror, if we can begin to think about

the = fact that Jesus is no longer in the tomb, then--where in the world do we find him? We are sometimes told, “All you need is Jesus,” but where do we look?

We c= an look for Jesus in our past. Many o= f us remember growing up in church and in Sunday School, and remember the Jesus = we learned about. Some have wond= erful memories, and indeed, sometimes come to church on Easter Sunday and other Sundays solely because of those memories, hoping beyond hope to recapture t= hose sentimental feelings of long ago, to be reborn through memories. On the other hand, some have horri= ble memories, having experienced judgment and guilt way more than the forgiving Jesus who hung out not with the righteous, but with sinners. In either case, hopefully we can t= ake our past, and learn from it, without dwelling there. We probably won’t find the l= iving God there.

We c= an look for Jesus in the future. We r= ead from Isaiah today that

God = is about to create new heavens and a new earth, where suffering and pain will be no more. “At a public meet= ing in the early days of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia,” the people hea= rd exalted claims “about the society the revolution would usher in: ignorance would be overcome, …sickness banished, and all human proble= ms solved.” Then a person asked a question “from the floor: ‘= ;All very well, but what are you going to say to a mother whose child is killed = in a street accident?’” After an awkward silence, the person received the “response: ‘Come the revolution, there will be no street accidents’”= (Christian Century, April 6, 2004). = We mostly find this kind of talk to be wishful thinking. We know it sounds great, and we ca= n put our hope in the new heavens and earth promised by God. But can we find Jesus somewhere a = bit more close at hand?

Mayb= e. We can look for Jesus here, right = now, in the present. We hear the a= postle Peter in the lesson from Acts today saying this: “God raised Jesus on= the third day and allowed him to appear to us, …who ate and drank with him after he rose from dead….Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” You see, when we look into the emp= ty tomb, as we are doing today, we are mostly perplexed like the women, maybe amazed like Peter, but we do not find Jesus there. He is risen! We find Jesus when we gather in love—at the communion table and at church, certainly, but also at oth= er times; we find Jesus when we share what we have with others; we find Jesus = when we forgive others, when we ask for and receive God’s forgiveness, and learn to live life to its fullest, the way God intends for us to live.=

We m= ay look for Jesus each day that is given us. Sometimes, we find him, we see him clearly, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we are= found by him. But know this—we probably won’t find him in the past, nor by trying to peer into the future, though he will undoubtedly be there. We look today, here, now, in the gathered assembly of a fallen yet forgiven bunch of followers who need of G= od in our lives each day. <= /span>

C= onclusion. Let us pray. Almighty and ever-loving God, we a= re creatures who cling to the gift of life, yet know that we must die. Our lives slip gradually from us, = and we know there is nothing that we can do about our mortality. What we need is some hope outside ourselves. What we need is a = future not of our own creation. What= we need is saving, now, from the grip of sin and death. What we need is resurrection.=

On t= his great, bright day of days, you promise us to give us what we need. Jesus has burst the bonds of death= and shown us the way from death to life. Jesus has gone on before us, and is with us today, that we might live abundantly. Alleluia! Amen.

A= pril 11, 2004

R= ev. Dave Hedgepeth

F= irst Presbyterian Church

L= ogan, Utah