Episcopal Church of Our Savior

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The Rev. Ajung Sojwal Easter Sunday, Year C, Sunday April 8, 2007 Luke 24:1-10 The Mishna, which is the first recording of the oral law of the Jewish people, says this about women witnesses: "From women let not evidence be accepted, because of the levity and temerity of their sex." A lawyer knows that the success of a case depends much on the account of eyewitnesses, so it is crucial to make sure that the eyewitnesses are viable and trustworthy. My question is, knowing what they knew about the attitude toward women as witnesses, why did the Gospel writers not eliminate the women as being the first witnesses? [PAUSE] After all, there were enough and more male disciples who encountered the risen Lord in order for them to put forth the case of the empty tomb as more than just the absence of Jesus’ corpse. It is also interesting to note that the women were the only ones who encountered the men in dazzling clothes in and around the tomb and all the Gospel writers chose to keep that account in. In the latest Newsweek edition, there is an article titled: Is God real? The writer of the article brings two people Rick Warren, a religious leader, and an atheist, Sam Harris to get into a sort of debate to answer that question, is God real? On why he is an atheist Harris says, “I no more believe in the Biblical God than I believe in Zeus, Isis, Thor and the thousands of other dead gods that lie buried in the mass grave we call ‘mythology,’ I doubt them all equally and for the same reason: lack of evidence.” Indeed, it is a perfectly reasonable argument, after all, we do depend on evidence to make many of our choices in life. In our Gospel today we read, On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Why do you look for the living among the dead? This is the question that should always be at the back of our minds in our lives as Christians. We may not be as bold and as vocal as Harris (the atheist I referred to earlier in the Newsweek article), nonetheless, we sink into doubt ever so often about our risen Lord Jesus. And many times doubt overcomes us when we look for the evidence of the resurrected Lord in the wrong places and “among the dead". We look for God and the resurrection with prescriptive eyes, hoping for what we consider evidence strong enough to bolster our beliefs. But what are our beliefs? Is it that God should take away all our diseases? Is it that we should win the lottery because we happen to be going through a tough time? Or is it that He should strike all atheists, liberals, conservatives or fundamentalists and prove once and for all that I was right in what I believed all along? As was the cultural norm, the women went to the tomb with spices hoping to anoint the body of Jesus. When they saw that Jesus’ body was not there, they looked for it, obviously in the tomb itself. As they stand there confused two men in dazzling cloths appear out of nowhere and instead of proclaiming “alleluia! Jesus has risen!” they ask the women a rhetorical question that sounds more like a chide. After the question the two men say to them “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." In a way Jesus had already given the disciples a description of the resurrection, and I am sure the disciples believed all that he had told them. But, they still went to the tomb to anoint him in the tomb, as was the custom for the dead, and when there was no body they still continued to look for that which they knew. Their belief about Jesus rising on the third day was probably something like the one Martha expressed about her brother Lazarus’ rising from death. When Jesus said to her, “your brother will rise again” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Whatever the belief might have been of the disciples about Jesus rising again, it was nothing like what they had expected, it was certainly not the dead living on in our memories nor like the physical rising of Lazarus from the dead. It was a totally new form of life, unexpected and impossibly true, without precedence, shattering every human understanding of life, death and beliefs. The resurrection of Christ is the culmination and justification of all human hopes. We might like to hold on to the resurrection of Christ as a very personal experience with God, but the fact is, that it is never meant to be a private affair. The resurrection of Christ is an act of God, meant to be experienced and lived out in all of God’s creation, regardless of whether I believe it or not. The resurrection of Christ is the wonderful and fearful sign of God’s sovereign presence in His creation. Not only does it speak of the divinity of Jesus, it also emphasizes the humanity of God, which is His decisive indwelling in and amongst us. The Resurrection is *NOT* a call to search for evidence, rather it is a testimony to God’s redeeming as well as His judging presence in the world. The purpose of the risen Jesus is *NOT* to justify our risk of faith, but instead it is to confirm that which has already taken place, which is God incarnate amongst us. It is the transcendence of God in our experience of life and death and it is also the challenge to our understanding of truths that we have derived from history and nature. Resurrection of Christ is the enduring hope of those that have seen and understood the devastating truth of human sinfulness and folly, and yet continue to believe in God’s redemption and transformation. The women bearing witness of the risen Lord with boldness even in the midst of skepticism was the sign and power of the Resurrection. It is what makes possible for the social, cultural and intellectual bondage to be shattered and transformed to that which gives freedom and life. Death in all its layered meanings cannot destroy us because our Lord has won the victory over death. Our risen Lord is there to be found among the living always. In the strength and courage of the downtrodden, in the struggle of the oppressed to gain freedom, He is there with the thief and the murderer in changing their lives of hate and bitterness to one of love and hope. He is there every time we pick up the pieces of broken relationships so that we can rebuild stronger and more meaningful ones. With God all that we deem implausible and all that escapes our imagination becomes possible and true. It is in God’s very nature to create, re-create, redeem and transform. Like someone said, “To believe in the Resurrection of Christ is *NOT* to claim that we Christians are somehow right in our belief but rather to assert that by that Resurrection we are judged and thus saved …” God’s offer to us of His love, presence, peace and hope have never been about evidence. God is not subject to standing in our court of evidence and reasoning. As Newsweek writes The Rabbi Abraham Jacob Heschel once said, “God did not make it easy for us to have faith in him, to remain faithful to him. This is our tragedy: the insecurity of faith, the unbearable burden of our commitment. The facts that deny the divine are mighty, indeed; the arguments of agnosticism are eloquent, the events that defy him are spectacular….Our faith is fragile, never immune to error, distortion or deception. There are no final proofs for the existence of God, Father and Creator of all. [PAUSE] There are only witnesses.” Ultimately, the Resurrection has to do with looking for God and His transcendence in the right places, finding it and bearing witness to it. And by its nature resurrection can be found only in the context of death and hopelessness. Let us remind ourselves today that death is not the end, that God has not forsaken us to our wickedness and destructiveness. May the brilliance of the light that emits from the empty tomb clear the fog and darkness that persistently arises around us. May we rejoice in the presence of God in our midst, for Christ has risen! Alleluia! Christ has risen.

The Rev. Ajung Sojwal

Easter Sunday, Year C, Sunday April 8, 2007
Luke 24:1-10

The Mishna, which is the first recording of the oral law of the Jewish people, says this about women witnesses: "From women let not evidence be accepted, because of the levity and temerity of their sex." A lawyer knows that the success of a case depends much on the account of eyewitnesses, so it is crucial to make sure that the eyewitnesses are viable and trustworthy. My question is, knowing what they knew about the attitude toward women as witnesses, why did the Gospel writers not eliminate the women as being the first witnesses? [PAUSE] After all, there were enough and more male disciples who encountered the risen Lord in order for them to put forth the case of the empty tomb as more than just the absence of Jesus’ corpse. It is also interesting to note that the women were the only ones who encountered the men in dazzling clothes in and around the tomb and all the Gospel writers chose to keep that account in.

In the latest Newsweek edition, there is an article titled: Is God real? The writer of the article brings two people Rick Warren, a religious leader, and an atheist, Sam Harris to get into a sort of debate to answer that question, is God real? On why he is an atheist Harris says, “I no more believe in the Biblical God than I believe in Zeus, Isis, Thor and the thousands of other dead gods that lie buried in the mass grave we call ‘mythology,’ I doubt them all equally and for the same reason: lack of evidence.” Indeed, it is a perfectly reasonable argument, after all, we do depend on evidence to make many of our choices in life. In our Gospel today we read, On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

Why do you look for the living among the dead? This is the question that should always be at the back of our minds in our lives as Christians. We may not be as bold and as vocal as Harris (the atheist I referred to earlier in the Newsweek article), nonetheless, we sink into doubt ever so often about our risen Lord Jesus. And many times doubt overcomes us when we look for the evidence of the resurrected Lord in the wrong places and “among the dead".

We look for God and the resurrection with prescriptive eyes, hoping for what we consider evidence strong enough to bolster our beliefs. But what are our beliefs? Is it that God should take away all our diseases? Is it that we should win the lottery because we happen to be going through a tough time? Or is it that He should strike all atheists, liberals, conservatives or fundamentalists and prove once and for all that I was right in what I believed all along? As was the cultural norm, the women went to the tomb with spices hoping to anoint the body of Jesus. When they saw that Jesus’ body was not there, they looked for it, obviously in the tomb itself. As they stand there confused two men in dazzling cloths appear out of nowhere and instead of proclaiming “alleluia! Jesus has risen!” they ask the women a rhetorical question that sounds more like a chide. After the question the two men say to them “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." In a way Jesus had already given the disciples a description of the resurrection, and I am sure the disciples believed all that he had told them. But, they still went to the tomb to anoint him in the tomb, as was the custom for the dead, and when there was no body they still continued to look for that which they knew. Their belief about Jesus rising on the third day was probably something like the one Martha expressed about her brother Lazarus’ rising from death. When Jesus said to her, “your brother will rise again” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Whatever the belief might have been of the disciples about Jesus rising again, it was nothing like what they had expected, it was certainly not the dead living on in our memories nor like the physical rising of Lazarus from the dead. It was a totally new form of life, unexpected and impossibly true, without precedence, shattering every human understanding of life, death and beliefs. The resurrection of Christ is the culmination and justification of all human hopes. We might like to hold on to the resurrection of Christ as a very personal experience with God, but the fact is, that it is never meant to be a private affair. The resurrection of Christ is an act of God, meant to be experienced and lived out in all of God’s creation, regardless of whether I believe it or not.

The resurrection of Christ is the wonderful and fearful sign of God’s sovereign presence in His creation. Not only does it speak of the divinity of Jesus, it also emphasizes the humanity of God, which is His decisive indwelling in and amongst us. The Resurrection is NOT a call to search for evidence, rather it is a testimony to God’s redeeming as well as His judging presence in the world. The purpose of the risen Jesus is NOT to justify our risk of faith, but instead it is to confirm that which has already taken place, which is God incarnate amongst us. It is the transcendence of God in our experience of life and death and it is also the challenge to our understanding of truths that we have derived from history and nature. Resurrection of Christ is the enduring hope of those that have seen and understood the devastating truth of human sinfulness and folly, and yet continue to believe in God’s redemption and transformation.

The women bearing witness of the risen Lord with boldness even in the midst of skepticism was the sign and power of the Resurrection. It is what makes possible for the social, cultural and intellectual bondage to be shattered and transformed to that which gives freedom and life. Death in all its layered meanings cannot destroy us because our Lord has won the victory over death. Our risen Lord is there to be found among the living always. In the strength and courage of the downtrodden, in the struggle of the oppressed to gain freedom, He is there with the thief and the murderer in changing their lives of hate and bitterness to one of love and hope. He is there every time we pick up the pieces of broken relationships so that we can rebuild stronger and more meaningful ones. With God all that we deem implausible and all that escapes our imagination becomes possible and true. It is in God’s very nature to create, re-create, redeem and transform. Like someone said, “To believe in the Resurrection of Christ is NOT to claim that we Christians are somehow right in our belief but rather to assert that by that Resurrection we are judged and thus saved …”

God’s offer to us of His love, presence, peace and hope have never been about evidence. God is not subject to standing in our court of evidence and reasoning. As Newsweek writes The Rabbi Abraham Jacob Heschel once said, “God did not make it easy for us to have faith in him, to remain faithful to him. This is our tragedy: the insecurity of faith, the unbearable burden of our commitment. The facts that deny the divine are mighty, indeed; the arguments of agnosticism are eloquent, the events that defy him are spectacular….Our faith is fragile, never immune to error, distortion or deception. There are no final proofs for the existence of God, Father and Creator of all. [PAUSE] There are only witnesses.”

Ultimately, the Resurrection has to do with looking for God and His transcendence in the right places, finding it and bearing witness to it. And by its nature resurrection can be found only in the context of death and hopelessness. Let us remind ourselves today that death is not the end, that God has not forsaken us to our wickedness and destructiveness. May the brilliance of the light that emits from the empty tomb clear the fog and darkness that persistently arises around us. May we rejoice in the presence of God in our midst, for Christ has risen! Alleluia! Christ has risen.