Faith for Confusing Times

Rev. Bradley K. Walker

Deuteronomy 30:11-20; Matthew 28:1-10

Central Presbyterian Church, Mobile AL, March 30, 2008

You’ve seen it before. I’ve seen it before. Many of us have experienced it, ourselves.

The bride and groom have arrived at the moment of their wedding, and stand on the threshold of a lifetime of marriage. It is a moment that is filled with fear and great joy.

Such were the emotions of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when they arrived at the tomb on the Sunday of Easter morning. Of course, they didn’t know that it was Easter. They only knew that it was Sunday, the first day of the week, and that Friday had been awful, and so was Saturday.

The gospels tell us that when they arrive at the tomb, the stone has been rolled away, and Jesus is gone. The tomb is empty. I don’t know about you, but the day that I go to the cemetery and a tomb is open and empty – great joy will NOT be my first emotion. I believe that if I received some appropriate and helpful information I could probably get to a place of great joy, but that is not how I would start out. I would start out like the women did – AFRAID.

In one of my earlier bible studies on this, one woman said that she would have been angry. Putting in all that work preparing the spices, getting up early, and then not being able to anoint the body. I hadn’t thought of that angle.

But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are caught off guard by the open tomb, and the angel who is sitting on the stone.

Typical of one of God’s messengers the first thing out of his mouth is “Do not be afraid.” It’s what the shepherds heard from the angels at Jesus’ birth. It’s what Jesus tells the disciples when he walks to them on the water. It’s what Jesus tells these women and the disciples when he finally sees them after he has risen. “Do not be afraid.”

Fear is to be expected, but nothing else is. Tom Long says that somewhere between home and the cemetery the women “left one world and entered another. Without even knowing that they had crossed the border, they left the old world, where hope is in constant danger, and might makes right, and peace has little chance, and the rich get richer, and the weak all eventually suffer under some Pontius Pilate or another, and people hatch murderous plots, and dead people stay dead, and they entered the startling and breathtaking world of resurrection and life.” (Long, Tom; Matthew Westminster Bible Companion Series, pg 322, 1997 Westminster, John Knox Press, Louisville, KY)

“Jesus of Nazareth, who had been dead as a doornail on Friday afternoon, was not in his tomb that morning, and the world – theirs and ours – has been turned upside down ever since.” (ibid. pg. 322).

It is a confusing event. A time when the women are not sure of what has happened. Of how they got themselves into such a predicament, and probably wondering how they should respond to this message.

The angel said this had happened. Jesus had told them it would, and now the evidence seems to confirm it. He’s not dead, but alive. Can this be true? Has it really happened like Jesus said it would? If it has then they really have left one world and entered another. This really is the greatest news they have ever heard, or will ever hear.

Their own emotions are mixed – they leave with fear and great joy. The news will not be received by the others blindly, immediately or even pleasantly. And they will be on the women’s side. The whole situation is filled with confusion, and the women will have to have faith that this story is real and true enough to eventually be accepted by people who will hear it.

All of these people have an advantage over us, because they saw Jesus. They knew what they had seen, and their testimony was credible enough that others began to believe them, even though they had not seen. Those who came after Mary Magdalene -- Mary, Peter, James, John, Lazarus and Thomas had to lean on faith, both in the testimony that they had received was true, and that others would believe their testimony when it was their turn to tell the story. That situation could bring great fear – for one thing, there came a time, and still is, when you could be killed for that story. But it could also bring great joy, when people accepted this story, which takes a person from the old world and brings them into the new one, where everything has been turned upside down ever since.

But it’s not just the story that makes a difference. It’s the lives of these followers as well. After Jesus rises from the dead, he begins to appear to his disciples, and to others. He doesn’t talk about his death. He talks very little about his resurrection. He talks about two things: 1) Having faith, and holding fast to what you have seen and heard, and 2) reminds them that they are to be a community. A new community, who now lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, more than in the visible presence of Jesus.

The gospels are not the only places where this happens.

Many of you are engaged in a challenge to read through the Bible this year. Tom told me about this, so I decided to use these passages today. Everything is ending today. The gospel of Matthew, Deuteronomy and Romans.

What is interesting is that as Deuteronomy ends, Moses makes his final speech to the Israelites as they stand on the threshold of entering the promised land. They are probably all standing there with some familiar mixed emotions.

You mean we’re here? This is it? The land we have heard about all this time? I’m so excited! Great joy – almost certainly accompanied by some level of fear. But Moses has told them to remember who they are, and who their God is, and what God has done for them. They are in this together as the children of Abraham. It is time for faith, and time to choose for God and all the things that God stands for: life, righteousness, good and not evil. Life in this new land will be confusing, so it will be important to remember that they have chosen for God. They will need to remember that what God demands from them is not far away. It is not up in Heaven, nor is it beyond the sea; it is written in their hearts. It is near to them.

The choice now is not confusing; but the days ahead will be. Choose Life, and choose to obey God, and it will provide the faith you need to do what is before you.

They are a community, and the ways of their community are to be an example to others. God will be seen not only by how they live together, but by how they treat the stranger among them.

Paul has written some of the deepest theology we have in the Bible in the first half of Romans; but as he finishes, he spends a great deal of time telling the church in Rome, how they are to live together in love and mutual respect. Their faith in Christ is what they have in common. Some were Jewish Christians, others were Gentile Christians, but they had all believed the story, and become Christians. It would be important that they would find ways to live as a united people. Not uniform in faith, but united in Christ.

What I found interesting while looking at your next set of readings for April; is that the kinds of things you read at the end of Matthew, Deuteronomy and Romans, are the exact things needed by the community of the faithful in Mark, Joshua and I Cor.

You too are a people of faith. A people of faith who are brought together to be a community. Sometimes it’s confusing being a community. It’s difficult too. And when you take a stand for something important in this city, it could be dangerous, as well.

It’s hard to know who’s in the community, and who should be, and who should not. Sometimes it’s hard to even have faith in a church. Sometimes that is all we have.

But no matter what, it is important that we choose God, and in God, the things that make for life. To hold fast to our faith, and to each other as a community of faith, and that the love we learn how to express be shared with all the other pilgrims that may choose to journey with you.

The song says they will know we are Christians by our love. That may be true, but they will really know that we are Christian by our love for strangers, and sojourners, and foreigners, and the least among us. Community is a great sign of the church. Hospitality opens that community to others that God leads our way.

Even that can come with mixed emotions. It can be one of those times when things might seem confusing, or frightening, but those are common feelings.

The women left the tomb with fear and great joy.

The Israelites stood looking over the promised land with fear and great joy.

The bride and groom stand before God and all those who love them with fear and great joy.

A visitor grabs hold of the handle on front door of the church with fear and great joy.

A spouse arrives home with the new of the promotion that will mean a relocation for the family.

A five year old gets in the car to ride to her very first day of school.

A high schooler from Huntsville moves into the dorm at the school of Math and Science.

Jesus asks us to help make all these people part of his community of pilgrims.

Sometimes we don’t do it very well. And sometimes you do.

And in your case, it’s often more than a vision statement.

L’Arche / Family Promise / Summer Arts Camp / Korean Church / Boy Scouts / Computer Literacy programs / South Alabama Cares.

Someday you’ll embark on a new program that welcomes other pilgrims. You may stand on the threshold confused because of mixed emotions: fear and great joy, Have faith – and take that step, – or should I say - that leap.