Jesus' resurrection is for bodies: easter 3 year b

The holy gospel according to Luke. (24:36b-48)

[³⁶While they were talking about this,]

Jesus Themself stood among the eleven and their companions and said to them,

     “Peace be with you.”

³⁷The disciples were startled and terrified,

     and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸Jesus said to them,

     “Why are you frightened,

     and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

          ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet;

               see that it is I myself.

                    Touch me and see;

                         for a ghost does not have flesh and bones 

                              as you see that I have.”

⁴⁰And when Jesus had said this,

     They showed them Their hands and feet.

     ⁴¹While in their joy those gathered were disbelieving and still wondering,

          Jesus said to them,

               “Have you anything here to eat?”

                    ⁴²They gave Jesus a piece of broiled fish,

                         ⁴³and Jesus took it and ate in their presence.

⁴⁴Then Jesus said to them,

     “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—

          that everything written about me

               in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures,

     ⁴⁶and said to them,

          “Thus it is written,

               that the Messiah is to suffer 

                    and to rise from the dead on the third day,

               ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed

                    in Their name to all nations,

                         beginning from Jerusalem.

          ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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A couple weeks ago, Rev. Beth Wartick, a colleague in this synod, posted on Facebook, “Friends: the resurrection is for bodies.”  The post was a bit unsettling at first, because I think I’ve gotten pretty used to making the resurrection into an exclusively spirit and soul-centered or even an intellectual reality, I like to talk about it, but I’m less sure about its physicality. Our resurrection accounts both last week and this week, however, provide us with ample evidence for her statement.

Last week we encountered Jesus in the gospel of John presenting hands, feet, and side to the slow-to-believe and fear-filled disciples, prompting Thomas’ great declaration of faith, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus’ presentation of Their actual resurrected body, wounds and all, speaks to the disciples in a way that no number of eye-witness accounts could have, and this week’s resurrection account is no different.

Jesus has just spent the day walking along the road to Emmaus with Cleopas and another disciple, explaining everything that Holy Week—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and that very Resurrection morning—meant.  Jesus had literally and figuratively walked them through all of scripture, interpreting it just for them.

But it wasn’t until Jesus sat with them and blessed and broke bread—the nourishment for their own bodies—that they recognized the Resurrected One.  And when Jesus shows up with the rest of the disciples in today’s reading, it is once again about the body: “³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have,” says Jesus.

Jesus knows the same truth as Pastor Beth: “The resurrection is for bodies.”  There is knowledge and wisdom in our bodies and embodied lives that our intellect can only ever grasp at futilely.  Jesus knows that our bodies carry in them the truths of our lived experiences, of our ancestors’ lives, and even the sparks of stardust that are scattered throughout the cosmos.

Each body comes from and is nourished by the dirt of the earth and is also made up of the stardust of that first Big Bang of life.  Each body reflects a piece of the image of God.  Jesus’ resurrection is about bodies because bodies matter to Jesus.  Bodies are part of our whole selves and when we create this false binary that divides souls from bodies, we fracture who we are.  We lose track of the fullness of our humanity and our belovedness by God.  We don’t just do this with words and ideas, we fracture the whole body of Christ, the image of God that we bear together, in physical ways as well.

Before moving to Iowa, I served as a pastor in rural southeastern Minnesota and I spent quite a bit of time with beloved children of God who worked on farms near town—not only those who owned or ran the farms, but especially those who make the oftentimes difficult and life-threatening trip north from Mexico and Central America to get up in the middle of the night to milk the cows, or early in the morning when it’s still below freezing to start harvesting the crops.

Their immigrant bodies, which carry so much of the burden and weight of feeding our country, are part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

The bodies of those who cultivate the earth on farms, in personal or community gardens, and even in potted plants are also part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

Your bodies, our bodies, weary from carrying us through decades of life, from backpacks full of school books, from the energy and demands of new babies and young children, or from the pressure to be or act a certain way are part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

The bodies that struggle with stairs, standing, or even eating are part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

The bodies of victims of violence, whether the violence happens in the confines of their home, at a party late at night, in the stares and fear of others on the street or at the coffee shop, across the world with chemical weapons and bombs in Syria, or anywhere in between are all part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

The bodies of refugees, fleeing violence, seeking hope and compassion, allowed in some countries and not in others are part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

The bodies around the world, in our fullest possible diversity—bodies that don’t look anything like yours and bodies that are so similar it isn’t possible to deny that you are kin—all of these bodies and your very own body are part of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Jesus loves them.

Bodies contain wisdom and understand truths that can be hard for us to grasp.  Jesus presents first a body with wounds—a broken, yet resurrected body—knowing that once the body understands the reality, the structure or skeleton, of the resurrection, then the words can give flesh to those bones.  Jesus’ words are good, but first Jesus’ body must convey the truth.

Jesus’ resurrection is bodily.  Jesus blesses and breaks bread.  Jesus eats broiled fish!  Jesus loves bodies.

And so a blessing from Pastor Beth:

“Friends: the resurrection is for bodies.

The resurrection is for: skinny bodies, fat bodies, in-between bodies.

The resurrection is for: brown bodies, black bodies, olive bodies, white bodies.

The resurrection is for: female bodies, transgender bodies, male bodies, tall bodies, short bodies.

The resurrection is for: undocumented bodies, citizen bodies, visitor bodies, immigrant bodies.

The resurrection is for: wrinkly bodies, smooth bodies, hairy bodies, swimsuit-ready bodies, sweatpants-ready bodies.

The resurrection is for: old bodies, young bodies, able bodies, disabled bodies, tired bodies.

The resurrection is for: any bodies, every body, your body.

Jesus loves your body enough to give it new life. Treat your body and your neighbor's body with the same respect you'd show to anything beloved by God.”

Amen.

The Holy Spirit Entangles us with Jesus: reformation 500

The other reading referenced is Romans 3:19-28.

El santo evangelio según San Juan (8:31-36)

³¹Then Jesus said to the Judeans who had believed in him,

      "If you abide in my word,

            you are truly my disciples;

                  ³²and you will know the truth,

                        and the truth will make you free."

³³They answered Jesus,

      "We are descendants of Abraham

      and have never been slaves to anyone.

            What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?"

³⁴Jesus answered them,

      "Very truly, I tell you,

            everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

                  ³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household;

                        the son has a place there forever.

                              ³⁶So if the Son makes you free,

                                    you will be free indeed.

El evangelio del Señor.

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As we celebrate the 500^th Anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, there has been a lot of reflection throughout our denominations on identity and meaning as people of faith.  Where is our identity rooted?  What does it mean to be Christian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Protestant?  Throughout the country and the world, Lutherans and Catholics especially, as well as a variety of people from different Christian denominations, have been gathering for ecumenical worship services.  Well, that’s old hat for us—we worship ecumenically every single week!

But as Jesus talks to those who believe in him—that is, us—in today’s gospel, the source of identity comes into play.  Jesus is talking to his community—his followers.  They believe in him, and yet when he questions their identity, they respond with the identity they’ve always had, “We are descendants of Abraham.”

They may believe in Jesus, and even want to follow him, to be his disciples, but their identity is not rooted in him.  It’s rooted in their ancestor, Abraham.  So then we are left to ask the question: what does it mean to believe in Jesus if it doesn’t reshape—or re-form—your identity?

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he focuses on the power of faith, using a phrase in the Greek that can mean both a faith in Jesus Christ and the faith of Jesus Christ.  Because the original Greek can be both, it lets us explore the potential meanings.  A faith in Jesus Christ is our trust in the Word made flesh who has come to abide with us.  And the faith of Jesus Christ is Jesus’ faith in and for us, a love for all of creation and a faithfulness to all of creation, even when we are unfaithful.

And as a Lutheran who cherishes the theology that affirms a both/and God who can hold paradox in tension together, even in the midst of our either/or world; and as a queer person for whom binaries, especially around gender and attraction, don’t fit, what I find most compelling is that Paul can mean both senses of the word.  It is not only our “faith in Jesus Christ,” but also and especially the “faith of Jesus Christ” in and for us that manifests God’s righteousness.

This divine entanglement of faith, where the two are entwined into informing each other, makes the difference between believing or trusting in Jesus and being entangled with Jesus so that our identity cannot be separated out, but must necessarily be rooted in Jesus, who makes us free.

As we are entangled with Jesus, we change.  Throughout this month we have been learning about different reformers throughout history and even into today.

One of the common characteristics of these reformers and others that we’ll name today during our communion liturgy is that their faith in and of Christ re-formed their identity.  As they took to heart Jesus’ invitation to “abide in my word,” Jesus also re-formed their identity, rooting it so deeply in Christ that they could live out of it, reforming the world and the church, Christ’s own body.  This divine entanglement re-forms not only individuals, but the whole body of Christ as well.

Argula von Grumbach, Catharina von Bora Luther, Katharina Schutz Zell, Marie Dentière (Dahn-tee-air), and Olympia Morata all challenged the common identities their cultures held for what it meant to be a woman as their identities reformed around faith in Christ and the liberating theology that the Protestant Reformation brought about.

Theologians and pastors like Jehu Jones, Vine Deloria Jr., Soren Kierkegaard, Mama Leo, and Darnell Moore were all informed by their faith to a deeper call and identity in Christ, which entangled them with others and the world in such a way that Jesus had to make change through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The list is endless.  And it raises our question again today.  Where is your identity rooted?  A great upheaval,      or reformation, takes place in the Church about every 500 years.  It is a time for us to dig deep and wonder about what our faith means, where our identity is grounded, and what needs to change.

This is the time to ask as individuals, as a community of faith, and as a whole body of Christ, who believes in the resurrection: what needs to die for resurrection to break in?  What parts of our identity are we trying to keep separate?  How is faith with Jesus entangled in our past, present, and future?

The Holy Spirit is alive and active in this community of faith.  I have seen her at work throughout these last two years as we have struggled together to make sense of where she is leading us.  The Holy Spirit calls us all to new things—to death and resurrection.

This 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation is the perfect time to take seriously our identities in Christ—identities entangled in the cycles of life, death, and resurrection.   

Identities not rooted in false ideas of the past or what could have been, but instead rooted in the liberating work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  

Identities grounded not in a specific building or location, but instead grounded in the way this community lives out God’s love for the world.   

Identities not held back by fear or anxiety about what the future might hold, but instead willing to risk for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is no guarantee of comfort or ease in our walks of faith, but there is a guarantee of Christ’s presence and faithfulness.  The Holy Spirit is calling us all into the death and resurrection of a life of faith.   She entangles us forever with Jesus, the One who makes us free.

Thanks be to God.

Christ the Resurrected and Wounded One: Easter 2a

The holy gospel according to John (20:19-31)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day,

      the first day of the week,

      and the doors of the house

            where the disciples had met

            were locked for fear of the religious authorities,

      Jesus came

      and stood among them

      and said,

            “Peace be with you.”

      ²⁰After he said this,

            Jesus showed them his hands and his side.

                  Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

                  ²¹Jesus said to them again,

                        “Peace be with you.

                              As the Father has sent me,

                                    so I send you.”

                  ²²When he had said this,

                        Jesus breathed on them and said to them,

                              “Receive the Holy Spirit.

                                    ²³If you forgive the sins of any,

                                          they are forgiven them;

                                    if you retain the sins of any,

                                          they are retained.”

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin),

      one of the twelve,

            was not with them when Jesus came.

                  ²⁵So the other disciples told him,

                        “We have seen the Lord.”

                  But Thomas said to them,

                        “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,

                              and put my finger in the mark of the nails

                              and my hand in his side,

                                    I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later Jesus’ disciples were again in the house,

      and Thomas was with them.

      Although the doors were shut,

            Jesus came

            and stood among them

            and said,

                  “Peace be with you.”

            ²⁷Then he said to Thomas,

                  “Put your finger here and see my hands.

                        Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

                              Do not doubt but believe.”

      ²⁸Thomas answered him,

            “My Lord and my God!”

      ²⁹Jesus said to him,

            “Have you believed because you have seen me?

                  Blessed are those who have not seen

                        and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,

      which are not written in this book.

            ³¹But these are written

                  so that you may come to believe

                        that Jesus is the Messiah,

                              the Son of God,

                  and that through believing

                        you may have life in Jesus’ name.

The gospel of the Lord.

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Every year on the second Sunday of Easter we encounter Thomas and the other disciples. Earlier in the day, Mary came and first said that someone had taken Jesus’ body and then later returned with more information to proclaim the Good News to the disciples: “I have seen the Lord.”

Having received this Good News, we then encounter the disciples that evening locked up in the house “for fear of the religious authorities.”

Every year, we hear this post-resurrection account in the Gospel of John, and it got me wondering: Why is it even in the gospel at all?  This question came up a couple times this week when I was talking to folks.  A lot of the time we ask ourselves what meaning a story might have or might be trying to convey, which is important to ask.  But one of the gifts in reading this particular resurrection account each year is that it gives us the opportunity to dig deeper into the story.  To wonder why it’s there, why the writer of John’s gospel chose to tell this story.  At the end of the account, it even says that more happened that isn’t written down, so why this one?

The story itself is a story of the disciples who, even after hearing the Good News from Mary that “Christ is risen!” remain scared and locked up in their house—most of them anyway.  Thomas is not locked up inside, but instead somewhere out in the community.

So why would a story of scared disciples be important to include in the Gospel of John?

The Early Church was a persecuted church.  Crucifixion, the capital punishment of that time, was a common tool of the Roman Empire to keep people in line—to enforce the Pax Romana.  This “Roman Peace” was not the true peace of free movement and expression that we might think of today.  Pax Romana was military power repressing any dissension, conflict, or perceived threat to the Empire.

So considering the Roman Empire’s terror tactics, and the religious authorities willing to work with them to exclude these Jewish rebels who are challenging the system that has been working “well enough,” there was plenty of reason for followers of Christ to be afraid.

But Mary has “seen the Lord!”  Last week we celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord—Easter Day.  We proclaimed that God in Christ is more powerful than these forces of evil!  And the Early Church was even closer to the Resurrection, so how could they be scared?

Well, we have the promise of Resurrection—of life that vanquishes death, but Christ was still crucified.  Ultimately, Jesus shows up for the disciples minus Thomas and then again for Thomas himself.  And Jesus doesn’t show up in a body the way many of us might think a resurrected body should look.

Jesus breaks into this locked and fearful room and his whole body reminds them of exactly why they’re scared to begin with!  This resurrected Christ still bears the wounds in his side, hands, and feet.  There’s probably still evidence of the mocking crown of thorns and lashes inflicted before the crucifixion itself.

Christ is risen! …and Christ is (still) wounded.

And a week later, when Thomas is with the disciples, they are still shut up in the house.  And again Jesus, the Wounded and Risen One, shows up in their midst, embodying the crucifixion and the resurrection.

And maybe now the disciples will venture out into the world.  Maybe this resurrection story is for a community in fear.  Maybe this story is meant to be both reassurance that the power of resurrection is real—alive and at work in the world—and reassurance that following Christ can mean both crucifixion and resurrection—it can still be scary and dangerous.

Yet Jesus proclaims again and again, “Peace be with you.”  Into the fear and anxiety, into the doubt and disbelief, Jesus speaks words of peace—not of protection from all harm, but of presence and purpose that is greater than any harm.  Peace that is hope, which rests in God’s love.  Jesus speaks peace that has purpose.

Jesus, in his wounded and resurrected body proclaims the peace that at times “surpasses all understanding,” and that at its heart, comforts and encourages those in the Early Church and us today.  Christ’s peace does not proclaim us protected from all harm or struggle.  It proclaims God’s presence with us in all of life—in our woundedness, in our joy, in our fear, and in our courage.  And it gives us another chance at faith.

This peace, proclaimed to disciples who take a while to embrace and embody the resurrection, gives hope to those of us for whom faith is a journey.  We have hope that if it takes the disciples a while to embrace the resurrection even in the face of fear, then it’s ok when our journey of faith is slow, when we hang on to our fears, our doubts, our disbeliefs. 

When the Early Church needs to know that the Resurrected One is also the Wounded One, then we all receive reassurance that our wounds—the parts of us that we might want to be “fixed” or “healed” might just be parts of us that, like the rest of us, God loves immensely.  They might be the parts of us into which Jesus breathes and brings “Peace be with you” the most clearly.

Thanks be to God.

resurrection breaks in: easter 1a

The holy gospel according to Matthew (28:1-10).

After the sabbath,

      as the first day of the week was dawning,

            Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

²And suddenly there was a great earthquake;

      for an angel of God,

            descending from heaven,

                  came and rolled back the stone

                  and sat on it.

      ³The appearance of the angel was like lightning,

            and its clothing bright as snow.

                  ⁴For fear of the angel the guards shook

                        and became as if dead.

         ⁵But the angel said to the women,

            “Do not be afraid;

                  I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

                  ⁶He is not here;

                        for he has been raised, as he said.

                  Come, see the place where he lay.

                        ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples,

                              ‘He has been raised from the dead,

                              and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee;

                                    there you will see him.’

                  This is my message for you.”

⁸So the women left the tomb quickly

      with fear and great joy,

            and ran to tell his disciples.

⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said,

      “Greetings!”

            And they came to him,

                  took hold of his feet,

                        and worshiped him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them,

      “Do not be afraid;

            go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee;

                  there they will see me.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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I need to confess that I have not been feeling Easter this year.  I have felt like I’m still in Good Friday, or even Holy Saturday.  Like these women—these Marys—I feel almost numb.  Every time I turn on the news or get online, there is another tragedy.  As I was working on this sermon, the news came out that we had dropped the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat in Afghanistan. 

And it’s not just what our and other governments are doing in other countries.  It’s in our corner of the world too.  Kids are still sick, people we love still die, Immigration and Customs Enforcement could come in and tear this community apart at any time, and domestic violence still haunts our community.

We know that the world both far and near is not how it should be.  And yet we still show up.  Like the brave women, the Marys, who show up at the tomb.  They bring nothing.  In Matthew’s account they don’t bring any spices to anoint the body, or anything at all really.  We don’t hear them worrying about how they’re going to get into the tomb.  They just go, walking numbly along the path to the tomb.  Maybe to sit and stare.  Maybe to sit and cry—if there are any tears left, that is.  Maybe just to not be alone with their grief.

The women show up and God crashes into their sorrow and grief.  God breaks in, literally rocking their world with the resurrection.  The folks guarding the tomb are lost in fear and become “as if dead.”

There is no denying the violence and pain that put Jesus on the cross and then into the tomb.  That violence is just as real today around the world: at the hands of our and other governments, as well as at the hands of individuals, like the pastor in San Bernadino who killed his estranged wife, a child in her class, and himself, and in domestic violence in our own community over the last few years.

Violence is real.  Jesus is still being crucified and in this reality the women come to the tomb.  Mary and Mary, these faithful women caught in despair, show up at the tomb.  They show up because even though they might not have a plan or hope, it is the faithful thing to do.   

The witness of these women—the first witnesses of the resurrection—would have held no legal standing in their time and they have been maligned throughout church history.  Yet these women show up, expecting nothing but a tomb and the bloodied corpse of the one in whom they had placed their hope.  The One they thought would change everything.

But this isn’t the end.  This is where we are with the world right now, and this is where Christ breaks in.  This is where the resurrection shakes the foundations of this world.

Bishop Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land points out that “The powers and principalities of sin and death could not overcome the love of God.  Yes they could crucify Jesus.  Yes, they could bury Jesus.  But they could not bury God’s love for this world.”

THIS is what Easter is. 

The women show up at the tomb, because it is the faithful thing to do and God breaks in.  Into their sorrow and confusion, the angel proclaims the message Christians have greeted each other with for thousands of years as the angel says, “⁶He is not here,” Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed.  Alleluia!

In the face of all the violence: resurrection breaks in!

In the face of sickness, death, and despair: resurrection breaks in!

In the face of broken relationships, lost lives, and hopelessness: resurrection breaks in!

In the face of every single thing that beats us down, discourages us, and gives us every reason not to believe: resurrection breaks in!

Resurrection breaks in no matter what!

The women respond “with fear and great joy” because resurrection breaks in.

These women show up today and throughout history.  Though they are not always named or recognized, women have been showing up forever.  They have known the secret that perhaps we who gather here today know deep in our souls, no matter what else we might think.  The women know: sometimes you just need to show up, even if you don’t want to or even if you don’t know why.

Because resurrection does break in!

And God, after all these years, still breaks into our lives, shaking the very foundations we’ve thought were so solid. 

Resurrection breaks in when executions are stayed, granting life in the face of death.

Resurrection breaks in when Muslims give blood to help Coptic Christians who were victims of violence.

God breaks in in surprising ways that don’t make sense.

Resurrections breaks in and changes us!

Resurrection changes our relationship with Emmanuel,

      who is God-with-us,

      and who is the God of life!

Jesus has vanquished death and the power it holds over this life. 

Despite all of the potential for evil, resurrection breaks in and Love wins.

Despite all of the reasons we might have to despair, despite our human capacity for death, destruction, and hatred, resurrection breaks in and evil doesn’t have the last word. 

Love is still stronger than hatred or fear.

Life still conquers death.

Because: Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Resurrection breaks into our lives!

Christ resists oppression and overcomes evil!

In the face of all that may come, we can trust that no amount of evil will ever be the final word.  No amount of evil will conquer.

Because life is different

Because resurrection breaks in

Because Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!