Jesus Shows Up

​Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
The Rev. John Taliaferro Thomas
 
“But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”  The women did not believe what they had seen.  The men blew them off completely, thinking it was some sort of wishful thinking.  Not sure how that went for them.  Nobody used the word resurrection because it had not been invented yet…. Because such things don’t happen.  Dead people stay dead.  The whole tale is a little nuts.  Ridiculous!
 
These people lived in a world without AEDs, EKGs, and maps of the human genome.  But they knew what dead was.  They knew it happened when a person’s blood poured out of them.  They knew the pallid look of modeled flesh.  They knew how death smelled.  And Jesus was dead.  He had been cleaned, anointed with sweet smelling balm, wrapped in white, and placed in a stone sealed tomb.
 
We will hear the rest of the story in time.  Jesus shows up to a couple of sad sacks on the road to Emmaus.  Jesus shows up in a locked and guarded room, in the flesh, for Doubting Thomas and many others to see.  Jesus shows up and makes a fish breakfast for the disciples turned back to fishermen on the lake.  There are even more tales, but the central plot but they all share one central detail: Jesus shows up, and they do not recognize him at first.
 
In more time, the cockamamie story spreads, crazy talk many still think.  With none of the modern inconveniences the story continues to by word of mouth.  There are no printing presses, nothing beyond hand written scrolls and letters, and, of course, there is a 98% illiteracy rate with the two percent literates being folks who would like this story to go away.  Transportation happened on foot, by donkey, or in slow and frighteningly tiny ships of trade.  Most never traveled more than a fifty of sixty miles from where they were born.  There is no Twitter or Instagram.  How would Jesus tweet others? @Sonof God or @theRealJesus or, simply, @Savoir?
 
It took years for the story to get to Greece and Rome, told at great peril to the tellers, as sole allegiance to emperor types was mandated.  The fact that Jesus’ story survives is a miracle in and of itself.  The story’s wildly illogical plotline runs counter to reason, basic biology, and the survival of anyone telling it.
 
Over time, groups gather, feast, and celebrate Jesus showing up.  Others are moved to tell the story and live in particular ways in its light.  Christ followers gather to take council, establish a consistent written record, develop calendars and rites, and ritual.  Still later, people build soaring Cathedrals and tiny village churches.  Of course, the groups, being full of humans, bend and twist and coopt the message, missing the mark, and fitting their own needs for power and control.  When people get involved, faith, empire, and material stuff can get all twisted together in ways that do not resemble the basic and humble person and work of Jesus.
 
And still, in every generation from then to now, people have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus.  And here we are.  We may be here by obligation, arm twisting, sentimental attachment, curiosity, habit, and the promise of a great brunch, an world class egg hunt, and a larger than normal spread at coffee hour.  We may be here for reasons historic, affiliative, associative, or thoroughgoing, daily, big deal faith.  Nevertheless, we are here.  No scoffing is allowed because for this story to be told, divergent perspectives are necessary.  In the family of God, there are no guests, there are no right answers, no easy explanations.  We deal more in question marks than periods.  But why?
 
Through all of the illogical, biological, epistemological, legendary, and apparent impossibility, we are here because the story gets us.  Perhaps, it is because we would love for Jesus to show up, maybe as a blinding light, a voice from heaven, or mystic sign like the face of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the stump of the Emmanuel Oak would be nice.  What we seek tells us more about us than it does about Jesus.
 
But allow me to step out on a limb of the deep-rooted tree of life, in the faith I have deep in my bones.  Jesus is always showing up, as he says he will.  Here.  Now, in the intergenerational love we attempt to practice at Emmanuel (God with us).  In the bread we break and the cup we offer, not just at Eucharist, but at coffee, picnics, dinner parties, Bread Fund, and Disciple’s Kitchen.  Jesus shows up as we go, in the many hands that make things work here from ushers to Altar Guild, flower people, setter uppers and taker downers.  Jesus may be easier for me to name as showing up here, but this is just practice to see Jesus showing up out there, at the gas station, the grocery store, in the carpool and in the peace and quiet of the dawn.  From before our momentary birth and after our inevitable last breath, Jesus shows up.
 
Whether we see this as Jesus, God, Spirit, Higher Power, or Love, the showing up shows us clearly and simply that we belong in this world, and that we are being held by some Larger Force. In that, life feels okay and even good and right and purposeful. This is what it feels like to be “saved.” (paraphrased from Richard Rohr on salvation in Breathing Underwater).
  
Jesus’ Resurrection is an old story, told from many different perspectives even in our own sacred texts.  We cannot prove that and more than we can prove a parent’s love for our children, which is very real.  But something happened.  That something that has captured hearts, minds, imaginations, art, music, creativity, across all generations.  Somehow, we remain joyful, though we have considered all the facts.  We remain hopeful, though we have been disappointed often.  We love, and give, and love some more, because we find that in the end, love is the only permanence ever meet.
 
We are not here because the Resurrection happened.  We are here because Resurrection happens.  Look out!  The world will Easter up on us when we look for it.  Jesus shows up.  Amen.