Stories to Tell

 

Stories to Tell

 

This Bible passage refers to events on the same day the women found the empty tomb.

Two people walking down the road, talking about what had happened.

I wonder what it was like.

Being with Jesus

Seeing the crucifixion

The empty tomb

The wondering

What happened to the body

What now???

 

….

 

I love stories, well I love good stories, stories can be a powerful way of helping us to see truth and beauty, love and grace.

 

Something about stories I should mention; just because they are called stories doesn’t mean they are made up.  Also, because we see and experience life differently, our stories will be different; that is OK, each of us will bring something different to the conversation.

 

We are people of story. while the Bible has lots of stories, there is also an overarching story.  There are stories that tell us of something of God's interaction with the world, and how people have interpreted the world around them. There are stories from prehistory of creation and ark; there are stories of war, famine, exile, return; there are poems, speeches, letters, and a travelogue or two. 

 

There is also an overarching story, a story of a God who is involved with all of creation, a God who loves so much, that God will become human to show us how much we are loved.

 

Through this story, we are connected to people through many generations and around the world, people who have heard and told and retold and lived these stories. Stories transcend time and space, yet we read them in our particular time and place.

 

We each have a story, stories that tell about our birth, our family, our culture, our faith. This congregation also has its own story, probably more than one story; stories that tell of how this congregation came into being, of how different people have joined this congregation; of how and why people have left this congregation; of the various ministries of the congregation, past and present.

 

Part of what we do each time we gather together as a community of faith, when we come together to worship, and in other ways, part of what we do is to remember who we are in God's eyes. We again hear the stories of our faith, the stories written in the Bible, and also stories of our life together, stories of how God is still speaking to people today, of how God is still interacting in our lives today.

 

In the Easter address by the Moderator, Simon talks of the gospel story that helps us make sense of the world, of pain, and brokenness, and suffering and struggle, and joy and hope.

 

Around Anzac Day we hear stories, stories of mateship, and of the ones who did not come home; we hear of heroes, human and animal. We are now starting to hear the stories of those who return so damaged by war, by what they experienced, that they retreat to alcohol or drugs or die by suicide.  

 

In the video from Uniting World, we see how the gospel is life giving.

 

The stories I see in the media about Africa, Asia and the Pacific are not usually the inspiring stories we will see and hear this week as part of Seven Days of Solidarity.

 

It is the same locally, we hear of bad teenagers, but not those who study hard, work hard and are a delight to be around.

We hear of people born overseas, or with darker skin, who get into trouble with the Police, but we do not hear of the stories of all the people who look different to us, who work and love their family and pay their bills and are kind to their neighbours and patrol our beaches.

Because good news isn’t newsworthy.

 

We live in a society where people are labelled as “them”, as other, because of skin colour or ethnic background or the part of town people live or work in.

 

The stories we tell are powerful.

The stories we tell can wound or heal,
tear down or build up.

The stories we tell can harm or help,
inspire or lead to further despair.

What stories do we tell?
In our words and actions.

 

One thing I appreciate about the stories of Jesus is the way he weaves Scripture and life together. As Jesus walked with, and then ate with, the two travellers he spoke of Scripture and how it connected with what had happened. He connected their life at the time with Scripture in a way that helped them understand what was going on.

 

Can you see where the God story connects with your story?

Can you help someone else see where God has been active in their life?

To help someone see how the Gospel helps make sense of their life, of their struggle, their pain, their confusion.

 

We are people of the story,

the best story ever told,

a story of presence in the most difficult of circumstances

a story of life,

a story of hope,

a story of grace,

a story of peace offered,

sins forgiven,

life renewed.

 

We are people of story

The Bible includes stories of floods and droughts and wars and families and brothers that deceive and sisters swapped during a marriage ceremony and food shared.

Stories of plagues and illness
stories of healing

stories of real people living real lives

imperfect people, just like us.

The Bible is a full of stories, very human stories, stories of people interactions with God, and God’s interaction with people.

 

We have a story worth telling

a story of peace and hope and joy and love and grace

we have a story to tell,

a story about a God who creates and recreates

a story of a God who was born and lived and healed and taught and forgave

a story of a God who dwells within us, who sanctifies and inspires.

 

What story do you tell, with your words and tour actions.

 

Resurrection: Belief or Follow?

 Luke 24:1-12

Some things to note in Luke’s account of the Sunday morning.

The women go at first light, really early, maybe even pre-dawn.

They were following the customs of caring for the body.

The tomb was empty, then two men in dazzling clothes – reminiscent of the people in dazzling clothes at Transfiguration [maybe] – appear.

 

The women tell the men.

The men think the women are talking nonsense.

Peter goes and checks it out and doesn’t know what to make of it.  

 

Some ancient texts do not have the verse where Peter goes and looks in the tomb, the story ends with the women not being believed.

Now that would make for an interesting ending.

The women came and told the disciples the tomb was empty, they didn’t believe the women.

End of story.  

 

And the biggie - Jesus does not appear!

That’s right, in Luke’s Sunday morning account, we have women and spices and an empty tomb and men in white dazzling clothes, but no Jesus.

 …..

 We sit here this morning celebrating resurrection, yet on the Sunday morning of that first Easter, there was mystery and possibility.

The ones dressed in dazzling clothes spoke of what Jesus had said before his death, and the women remembered.

There is a slow realisation of what is happening.

 I wonder if it is like a seed being planted, most of what it needs to grow into a plant is within it. during the time a seed germinates it looks like nothing is happening, but much is happening under the soil. When we are faced with major changes to our thinking, we too need time to see how this new experience fits into our world.

[I will have seeds for people as they leave]

 A major change in our world view takes time, not a click of our fingers. All the clues Jesus had given in his life did not make sense to the disciples, or the others who followed Jesus. Now, following from the words of the ones dressed in white, they begin to sift through their memories.

 The women showed courage to go to the tomb on Sunday morning. Jesus was executed because he upset the religious leaders, what would they do with women tending to his body? But the women go, as dictated by tradition, the body needed to be prepared properly for burial, and this would be done, even though he had already been placed in the tomb.

 Notice no-one says I told you so, no-one says we knew this would happen, no-one shouts Hallelujah. No-one was expecting this to happen, even though Jesus had told them about it beforehand.

 The men in dazzling white ask: Why are you looking in the place of the dead for someone who is alive?

I imagine the women thinking: But he was dead, we saw his body taken form the cross and paced in the tomb, and dead people stay dead, well expect for Lazarus, but that was a miracle, and ….

I understand why the women scratched their heads; I understand why the eleven thought they were talking nonsense; the idea of someone rising from death, even Jesus, takes a while to get your head around.

 I sometimes wonder if the gospels and in particular the story of resurrection is so amazing that we don’t think too much about it, because if we did it would create too many questions for us.

 Each of the Gospel writers includes different accounts of Jesus appearing after the resurrection, including:

• ·       Jesus appearing behind locked doors, so maybe a ghost
• ·       but then Jesus eats in other stories, so not a ghost;
• ·       in some of the resurrection appearances people recognise him instantly,
• ·       and in others they do not recognise him.

 

It seems so easy to say the words I believe in the resurrection. But can you explain that to someone who has not experienced Jesus?

 Yet I know that the resurrection is real, not because I can explain it, not because I understand it, but because of the new life I have been offered.

 I believe because of my experience, because of times when the presence of God is all that kept me breathing; because of times when I have been aware of something happening in my life, of a warmth, a glow, a voice. I don’t understand any of these things, but they happened to me, and still do; and the Christian gospel is what makes sense of those experiences for me.

 The Gospel isn’t just about God and me, sure there is the personal relationship that we have through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; but there is more to it than that.

 Believing is one thing, but the call of Jesus is not to believe, but to follow. Not just about what is in our head, or even our heart, but our hands, our voice, our life.

Will we listen to the voices of women speaking about violence and harassment without discounting their experience because it is not our experience.

Will we listen to experience of people addicted to drugs without condemning them to prison.

Will we listen to the voices of our indigenous brothers and sisters without discounting their experience because it is not our experience.

The Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT is encouraging people to sign a petition based on a decision of the Synod meeting in 2019, in support of the Statement from the Heart and the establishment of a Makarrata (Truth Telling) Commission.  If you would like to more know, talk to me, and I can provide you with further information, or look at our Facebook page.

Once the gospel is about more than me and Jesus and heaven;
once we read the gospel as a manifesto to change the world,
to rid the world of terror and violence and oppression and poverty;
the gospel becomes more uncomfortable.

 Because if I am honest, the transformation Jesus is asking us to work towards, a kingdom of peace and justice, is at odds with my lifestyle. The transformation Jesus is asking me to work towards, the transformation not only of my heart and my life, but the transformation of the community and nation, is about more than me.

 It asks for my voice, just like the women used their voices, even when not believed.

It asks me to add my voice to the voices of the Pacific Islanders being disposessed because of climate change, even if it means limiting my petrol and energy usage.

Resurrection tells me that

•  the impossible is possible;
• ·       that renewal is possible;
• ·       that we already have what we need for the next step in our journey,
  when we look deep within ourselves

 

Resurrection, new life, a new Kingdom is about

• ·       justice that transforms not retribution
• ·       peace that is abundant life not stifling
• ·       hope based on trust, not wishful thinking.

 

Resurrection can be life changing, will we let it be transforming?

Will we work for the coming of a new kingdom?

Are you open to new possibilities? 

Resurrection Go and Tell

the one who died is now alive

the tomb, sealed and guarded

is now empty

resurrection
new life
death conquered by love

A quote:

“The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb,

but the full hearts of his transformed disciples.

The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave,

but a spirit-filled fellowship.

Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.”

(Clarence Jordan).

Today is a day to celebrate the wondrous “yes” of God despite all that the world tries to do to stifle that affirmation[i]

resurrection happens whenever oppression is turned into freedom

resurrection happens whenever injustice is turned into liberation

resurrection happens whenever someone has found the space

to love after being hurt,

resurrection happens whenever someone has found the courage to begin again when it seems life has ended[ii]

.…

This passage again has angels

Mary was told not to be afraid when an angel told her of God’s plan for her to have a child.

Joseph was told in a dream not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.

The Shepherds were told don’t be afraid when the night sky lit up with angels announcing the birth of Jesus

It seems that angels must be scary, every time they speak to someone, the first thing they say is ‘don’t be afraid’.

Or maybe it is because no one expects to see an angel.

And the women who went to the tomb were certainly not expecting what happened that morning.

They were not expecting an angel,

or an empty tomb,

or to meet Jesus.

The women had seen what had happened on Friday,

the crucifixion and burial,

they were coming to mourn.

Some gospels mention burial spices,

but not Matthew.

Matthew has the women going to see the tomb,

maybe they hoped to feel close to Jesus there.

But,

something happened that morning,

something extraordinary and amazing and earth shattering.

An earthquake, Matthew records 2 earthquakes, one as Jesus dies and one of Sunday morning.

Death and new life are earth-shattering events.

……………..

I wonder what it was like for the women that morning,

Going to the tomb, my guess is sad, and maybe concerned about getting into trouble for even being there.

Then when an angel rolled the stone away, and spoke to them?

And then when Jesus spoke to them?

Then they grabbed his feet and worshipped him.

They went to grieve at the tomb,

and end up worshipping Jesus.

Sometimes the best things in life are surprises J

Every so often something happens in our lives that is life changing, and in my experience, that is often accompanied by pain or fear, or both J 

I wonder what this story has for us today, most of us have heard this story, or variations of it from Mark, Luke and John, many times over. 

I have a cartoon that reads: “Look at that! Brilliant! You kill the leader and you nip the whole movement in the bud.”

And then just a few days later, the leader isn’t dead anymore, and the movement …

The movement has lasted another 2000 years.

What shape is the Jesus movement in today?

Where do we see signs of resurrection in our own lives and in the world?

Both the angel and Jesus tell the women: don’t be afraid, and then ‘to go and tell’.

Don’t be afraid, go and tell.

Tell the story of Jesus –

The story of compassion,

of grace,

of inclusion,

of acceptance,

of healing,

of liberation.

Tell it in words and actions

Tell it with your time and your money,

with your voice and your hands,

tell the story of love with your life.

Don’t be afraid, go and tell

---

[i] Spill the beans

[ii] Based on May the Resurrection Come by Cheryl Laurie, on [hold this space]. holdthisspace.org

Who are you looking for?

Our long journey through the Easter story, Hosannas and foot washing, arrest and trial, humiliation and death, ends for the disciples with Jesus body being placed in a tomb.

Mary went to the tomb on Sunday morning, John doesn’t tell us why.

She finds the tomb empty and goes to tell the others. Notice in her conversation with the two disciples, ‘angels’ and ‘the gardener’, Mary shows no indication that she thinks Jesus has been raised from death, she says: They have taken the Lord from the tomb.

Mary thinks the body of Jesus has been stolen.

What if it had been?

Would it matter if there was an empty tomb, but no encounters with the risen Jesus?

What would Christianity look like without resurrection? 

I suspect it would have finished with a group of frightened disciples in the upper room, hiding from the authorities.

The religious and political leaders would have been right, you kill the leader, the whole thing falls down like a house of cards.

Resurrection means more than an empty tomb about 2000 years ago.

We can hear this story, and all the Easter story, and hear it as a historical drama.

Does this story have anything to say to us today?

Does this event have any impact on our living?

We live in a world where there is still death and despair, oppression and slavery.
We live in a world where there is still violence and betrayal.
There is still unrest in the Middle East, and it looks like we are walking into another Cold War.
We live in a world where millions of people are displaced or seeking refuge.

Closer to home, about one woman each week dies at the hands of their partner, or ex-partner;
There is still a gap between the health and education outcomes for our indigenous brothers and sisters and other Australians.

We live in a world where money speaks
We live in a world where violence and retaliation are seen as the answer We live in a world where children die from lack of food

What does resurrection have to say in this world,
in this world of hunger and greed and violence?

…….

Who are you looking for?

This is the question Jesus asked the guards as they came into the garden to arrest him: Who are you looking for?

It is the same question Jesus asks Mary at the tomb: Who are you looking for?

Mary hopes this man has some information for her, but when he says her name: Mary, life changed.

Mary knows it is Jesus.

She was looking for the body of Jesus, and now she has been found by the risen Lord.

Can you remember a time when you realised you were known, and loved?

Maybe Jesus looking like a gardener, is a link between this new creation with the first creation?[i]

Resurrection offers us new life. Not the same life over again, but a new way of living. A way of living defined by love, sacrifice, humility, liberation and forgiveness.

We don’t have to justify our existence or prove ourselves. God loves us.

………….

Maybe the answer to hunger and greed and violence, is relationship.

Relationship with each other and relationship with Jesus.

From my experience the answer to the question: Who are you looking for?
Is often ourselves, our true self, known and loved by God;  
not the persona we hide behind, so we don’t get hurt by the power plays of the world.

Who are you looking for?

Is it your true self? Come and be found in the love and grace of Jesus.

Who are you looking for?

Come to the one who knows you and calls you by name
the one who forgives you and offers you peace
the one who takes away your sin
the one who thinks you are an amazing person,
the one who heals the pain of broken relationships and betrayal
the one who offers you new life.

Come to the one who seeks you.

And then live out the resurrection life

By loving and forgiving
encouraging
seeking justice and reconciliation
living out the new life you are offered in Christ
so that others might also have life and food and peace.

This Easter I encourage you to think about your experience of resurrection, the ways in which Jesus has and is transforming your life.

---

[i] Working Preacher podcast, https://www.workingpreacher.org/narrative_podcast.aspx?podcast_id=1001

Ecumenical Easter Sunrise

Today is the day, as Christians, we want to celebrate,
to sing and shout hallelujah.

But…

I think we get ahead of ourselves.

If you follow the last week through Mark’s gospel, we have heard of Jesus riding into Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna!
cleansing the Temple;
Jesus being anointed by an unnamed woman;
the Last Supper;
prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane;
betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, death and burial.

and then the section we heard this morning:

Three women went to the tomb, to do what was necessary.
The body was buried quickly, and now they body needs to be prepared properly,

The women are carrying the spices with them and wondering how they will roll away the stone.

These women weren’t setting out to change the world that Sunday morning, my guess is they would have been disheartened. Jesus, who they thought was going to change the world is now dead and buried:
what was going to happen now?
what was the past few years all about?

They are doing what they can, going to the tomb to prepare the body, and hoping that somehow the stone can be moved.

I wonder this morning:
What are the worries we carry with us?
What stops us from living out our call from God?

In the midst of fear, in the midst of despair, at times we just carry on as best we can, putting one foot in front of the other, doing what has to be done without any enthusiasm or energy. 
Worried about the ‘what ifs’;
worried that we won’t be able to make it through the day;
worried that something else will complicate life even further. 
some days, and weeks, are like that.

I am guessing that is how the women felt.
They were friends of Jesus; executed as a criminal.
their hopes for a new world dashed.

The worry about how to move the stone, however, wasn’t enough to deter them from their task. They continued; together.

Then when they see the stone has been moved, and the tomb is empty, they are utterly amazed. To their despair is added disbelief and astonishment. After their encounter they flee from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and too frightened to say anything.

The women were faithful in going to attend to the body,
but in their shock they run away speechless.

Mark finishes the story in an unlikely place, but it allows us to write the next part of the story with our lives. We get to live the resurrection. In the midst of pain, despair, fear, or terror; we can look for the signs of God’s presence, the signs of resurrection and live into the hope we have as Christians. 

“Christianity is the only world religion that confesses a God who suffers. It is not all that popular an idea, even among Christians. We prefer a God who prevents suffering, only that is not the God we have got. What the cross teaches us is that God’s power is not the power to force human choices and end human pain. It is, instead, the power to pick up the shattered pieces and make something holy out of them – not from a distance but right close up.

…. That is the power of a suffering God, not to prevent pain but to redeem it, by going through it with us.”

[From Barbara Taylor Brown, God in Pain]

This is a story of hope in the midst of fear;
this is a story of transformation in the midst of tyranny.
In my lifetime I have seen the Berlin Wall fall and the end of Apartheid.  Both things considered impossible. People who dreamed of a new way of living and didn’t let hate or fear get in the way.  People who practised resurrection living, in the everyday. People who trusted God would act. 

  

Today is a day of celebration,
celebration of new life
celebration of hope
celebration of the power of love.

Not because there is no more suffering or pain,
not because there is no more evil
but because our God has taken the evil and the pain and the suffering of the world and lived through it and died with it and redeemed it.

We have a God who knows suffering,
who knows rejection,
who loved the world, the whole world and each individual, enough to live in our pain, to bring new life and new hope.

And we get to join in with resurrection life;
trusting that God will change the world;
participating with God in that change;
looking for where God is active and getting involved.
That may mean taking some risks,
facing our fears,
finding life in new places.

The tomb was found empty,
from death comes new life.

Where are you finding new life?

Paying attention

One article I read about the resurrection this week is headed: If It's Not Hard to Believe, You're Probably Not Paying Attention!. (1)

Most of us have heard the resurrection stories so many times they all merge together. This year we have heard from the gospel according to Luke. Luke who begins the gospel with Elizabeth and Zechariah and the birth of John; Joseph and  Mary and the birth of Jesus, the angels appearing to the shepherds, telling the good news of the birth of the saviour. And on the day of his blessing in the temple and the words of Simeon and Anna.

In the part of the story we heard today, more women and angels - the women make sure they know where the tomb is so they can go back after the Sabbath and anoint the body according to their traditions.  Notice that Luke names 3 women and adds as well as the others, so at least 5, maybe more.

Luke is a great storyteller, in this passage the thing that stood out for me is the action and emotion.

• they were perplexed at the empty tomb
• they were terrified when the angels suddenly appeared
• they remembered his words
• returning from the tomb
• these words seemed to them an idle tale
• Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in
• Amazed

Notice no-one shouts Hallelujah, or says I told you so. No-one was expecting this to happen, even though Jesus had told them about it beforehand.

This could make a great thriller – who stole the body, the guards? The religious leaders? Did Pilate change his mind and put it back up to decay as was normal? Then the appearance of angels, and the disbelieving disciples and Peter’s amazement. Then to find out the body hasn’t been stolen, Jesus is alive?

If you read further in chapter 24, there is conversation and meal with Jesus.

If It's Not Hard to Believe, You're Probably Not Paying Attention!.

I wonder what Easter means for us today, a long weekend, chocolate, the Easter show.

I sometimes wonder if the gospels and in particular the story of resurrection is so amazing that we don’t think too much about it, because if we did it would create too many questions for us.

Between the gospel records we have Jesus appearing behind locked doors, so maybe a ghost but then Jesus eats in other stories, so not a ghost; in some of the resurrection appearances people recognise him instantly, others do not.

I have no idea about the nature of the resurrection body, I don’t know how it was done; would I have remembered Jesus words on that Sunday morning if I had been one of the women, I doubt it, overwhelmed by grief, scared of the guards reaction, and all too aware that dead means dead.

Yet I know that the resurrection is real, not because I can explain it, not because I understand it, but because of the new life I have been offered.

Why do I believe, in Jesus, in Resurrection, in salvation? I believe because of my experience, because of times when the presence of God is all that kept me breathing; because of times when I  have been aware of something happening in my life, of a warmth, a glow, a voice. I don’t understand any of these things, but they happened to me, and still do; and the Christian gospel is the what makes sense of those experiences.

Believing is one thing, but the call of Jesus is not to believe, but to follow. Not just about what is in our head, or even our heart, but our hands, our voice, our life.

If It's Not Hard to Believe, You're Probably Not Paying Attention!.

I wonder if we want the Gospel to be easy, to be about comfort and forgiveness, to be about God and me. But the Gospel isn’t just about God and me, sure there is the personal relationship that we have through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; but there is more to it than that.   I wonder if we want the gospel to be personal and warm and easy, so that we don’t struggle with what the gospel asks of us.

 

Believing in the resurrection means not only saying yes to Jesus, but also saying no to those things that destroy life. It means committing ourselves to living in ways that are sustainable for all people, not just ourselves.  It means opening our lives to the new life we are offered, and living that out every day.

Jesus, all through Luke’s gospel is breaking down barriers, against women, gentiles and anyone considered to be a sinner. Believing in resurrection means living out that inclusion, welcome and respect for all people.

In Resurrection God is reconciling the whole of creation, sure we know it isn’t completed yet. but we also play our part in the reconciliation of all things, working as part of the new order of resurrection, not the old order of judgement and selfishness.

If It's Not Hard to Believe, You're Probably Not Paying Attention!.

Poem by Ann Siddall (2)

For those who first went out

into the early dawn, when the sky was grey,
taking spices to the tomb,
there was terror, and surprise.
.......

 What parts of today’s story do you find hard to believe?

What difference does resurrection make in your life?

 

(1) an article by David Lose

(2) http://stillpoint.unitingchurchsa.org.au/