He Is Risen

Luke 24:1-12

 “He Is Risen”

27 March 2106 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

We’re here. After a 40 day Lenten journey we are here at the tomb. We started with ashes, reflected on tough Scripture, sat in the darkness of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday. Now we stand here at the tomb, but he isn’t here.

HE IS RISEN!!!!

            From the very beginning, Christ’s life is full of surprises. A future king that was born in a manger, not in a palace. Fully human yet fully divine. A refugee, even though he was God. A carpenter turned rabbi who studied at the very feet of God and called unlikely students to follow him. God hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and all kinds of assorted outsiders. A teacher who answered questions with questions, such that two thousand years later people are still scratching their heads trying to make sense of it all. And now, an empty tomb.

            And no one saw it coming. For if they did, the women wouldn’t have been perplexed at the sight of an open tomb. They wouldn’t have assumed his body was stolen. Perhaps the sight of the two men in dazzling clothes would have been expected instead of so terrifying they put their faces to the ground. Peter might have actually believed their story instead of second guessing their testimony.

We cautiously peer into an empty tomb two thousand years later still perplexed and doubting the testimony of these faithful women. For if we truly believed this first testimony of Christ risen, we’d all (including yours truly) live markedly different lives.

Do our lives testify to the Risen Lord? What testimony are we giving with our actions, for we know they speak much louder than words, bumper stickers, or symbols we wear?

Martin Marty in describing testimony pondered, “What do witnesses do when they testify? They put their lives on the line.” We have all witnessed God in our lives. We have all been invited into the story. We are all called to be a living testimony to the Risen Lord. What testimony are we speaking? Does our testimony put our lives on the line?

Now, we won’t all share the same testimony, because Christ invited us into the story at different times, different places, in different ways. Maybe we are like these unnamed, yet vital women who point to the empty tomb saying, “he isn’t there” and are told by other unnamed men to quit looking for Christ among the dead. Because he is among the living, among us with a living and growing faith.

Our testimony could be one of small acts of charity that become spectacular when viewed over the course of our lives. It could be putting our lives on the line for the righting of an injustice. Some of us will testify through spending time with children, patiently helping them explore their faith each week for years. Perhaps our testimony is silently supporting those in the spotlight, keeping them focused on finding Christ among the living and not in the tomb.

We must always remember that testimony is never easy. Just look at the first testimony to the living Christ. The women were perplexed which makes sense as Christ confounded culture then and continues to do so all these many years later. Next, as the truth was revealed to the women, they bowed their heads in fear. Not in an modern definition of fear like we are expected to react to the word terrorism, but a deep respect and acknowledgement of the fact that they are in the presence of the Great I Am.

Their testimony is one of action, not sitting around pondering the beautiful truth of the resurrection. They are told to look among life for true life, so they go and tell the disciples their new story, inviting them into the one story that matters, explaining what they have experienced over the last few years. Testimony invites others in and inspires their testimony inviting yet even more into the story.

But, not everyone wants to hear the story. We, like these women, may not succeed at first and people will doubt the story into which we invite them. Sometimes truth is harder to believe than fiction. So not everyone will believe without the proof they require. That didn’t discourage these women. They lived the story. Peter needed immediate confirmation and sought it, then stood there amazed at what he saw. We aren’t to worry about the reaction of others to the story, we are called only to tell the story that “He is Risen!”

However we share our testimony, we have one because we have witnessed Christ in our lives and the lives of others. Part of that testimony is to invite people into the empty tomb. We need to enter the tomb to know that Christ was there in the darkest corners of life and death and that, despite that, his light overcame and will always overcome. As perplexing as it seems, we need to enter Christ’s tomb to be led out of our own tomb by his light.

The light of Christ leads us from the dead to the living. Our own resurrection occurs on that journey, something we physically enact during a full immersion baptism where we spring forth from the depths clean and full of a new life. In this light, the question of our mystery men, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” comes to life and is still worth asking all these many years later.

Where are we looking for a living God among the dead? Where do we see past the living God because we think something or someplace is dead?

Those aren’t easy questions to answer and as I reflect on them myself, I know there are many areas in which I need to shift my gaze. In fact, they are questions that spur other questions and deeper reflection. But, that’s a good thing, that’s a sign of the Spirit working in and through our lives. That’s proof of a living God on the loose and free from the tomb.

He is Risen!

Now let us go forth and live like it.