The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for April 15, 2006 (Easter Sunday)

Texts: John 20:1-18/Acts 10:34-43

Title:  “The Very First Believer”

              It all happened so fast no one really had time to prepare.  Had they enjoyed the luxury of time they may well have done things differently.  Things were going along just fine, but then they suddenly veered off track. Did I mention that no one had time to prepare?  What passed for normalcy was yesterday’s business, and today was a new day.  Emotions that were sound and healthy in the hours preceding were now frayed in a jumble of loose ends.

              No one knew where to turn.  The landscape looked so unfamiliar. Decisions had to be made, but everyone was in too much shock to make them.  All anyone knew was that tomorrow would be a very different day, but if different were on the ballot it wouldn’t even have make the runoff. Everything was so disorienting, and no one was prepared to say when things might right themselves.

              Does any of this sound familiar? Perhaps?  Well let me take you back to last Sunday.  Loud fanfare greeted Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem.  Enthusiasm built as a rather small group at first, but then others, gathered. Could it be, as some were claiming, that this was the long awaited king come to seal ancient promises made to Israel that her king, heir to David, would come to Jerusalem to establish his reign on earth?

              A spontaneous uprising in Jerusalem, and many got caught up in the excitement.  Things were going along just fine, but then suddenly in four days time they veered off course.  Word spread through the streets late one evening that Jesus had been arrested and taken to the residence of the high priest. Rumors running rampant, no one could verify the exact nature of the charges.  It was reported, however, that one or more of Jesus’ followers had mixed it up with the soldiers who had come to arrest him. Not a good sign at all. 

              Hours passed bringing new reports. It seems the high priest had turned Jesus over to the Roman procurator Pilate, a development that was very troubling, for Jews faired very poorly in the Roman courts. Soon word began circulating that Pilate, as a favor to the high priest, had sentenced Jesus to be flogged and crucified.

              How suddenly things veered off course.  Life was right where it should be, no complaints at all, when word that the “king of Israel,” had come just as the prophets said he would, riding on a colt.  Jubilation.  But then out of nowhere the foul winds began to blow. No time to prepare.  No time to do anything. There was a hasty trial, and a sentence was passed.  Nothing to do but hunker down and wait to see what would happen.

              The followers of Jesus maintaining their vigil at the cross through a long, sleepless night sought to console each other. The dark night did pass, as most dark nights do.  But daylight brought little relief, indeed the light of day was harsh, exposing the torn and jagged edges of the hopes Jesus followers sought so stridently to hold on to.

              The dark night passed for Jesus’ followers, but the light offered no clarity, no answers.  The mocking cries of Jesus’ executioners still rang in their ears, “You would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross.” 

              Jesus was dead.  There would be no building in three days or three thousand days.  Without Jesus there would be no building at all. No building at all, at least in their frame of mind, no building at all. Survival was all those followers of the crucified Jesus had in mind.  Who knew what the next day might bring?  There were rumors that the authorities had plans to round up any and all persons who might be identified as Jesus’ followers.

              Things had been going along so well, and then they veered off on a course to who knew where.  No one was prepared, and stricken with grief and anxiety all anyone could do was live out the day.

              We who saw life veer off course so dramatically in August are much better placed to understand the plight of these followers of Jesus than we were on this day a year ago.  Living day to day amid great change, no one is predicting when things will get back to normal, whatever the new normal might mean.

              In the hours following Jesus’ death the followers of Jesus were too stressed and grief laden to think clearly.  No one was making plans, and why make plans anyway when everything was in flux? Death is a great flux creator.

              Mary Magdalene was no less caught up in the turmoil that descended on the community than the others, however, Mary at least found a way to cope with her stress. Her coping device, one many of us have adopted in similar circumstances, was activity. Up early on the first day of the week, before daylight, Mary went to the tomb where Jesus had been laid.

              Rocked back on her heels to discover that the tomb was empty, Mary quickly left the tomb to announce the news.  One of the first recipients of Mary’s news was a quite obvious selection, the other less so. 

              One of the unresolved riddles of John’s Gospel is the identity of the second disciple who received notice that the tomb was empty, the so-called “one whom Jesus loved.”         During the events immediately leading up to and following Jesus’ death and resurrection the “one whom Jesus loved” plays a prominent role.  In fact, he, in a very real sense, supplants Peter himself as Jesus’ primary confidant. Who do you think, in fact, took Mary, Jesus’ mother, into his own home after Jesus was crucified?  A very special guy, this disciple “whom Jesus loved.”

              Informed that the tomb was empty, Peter, and the other disciple, “the one whom Jesus loved,” set off on a footrace to the tomb. “The one whom Jesus loved” was the swifter of the two, arriving at the tomb ahead of Peter.  Though first on the scene, Peter was the first of the pair into the tomb, only after that did the other disciple enter. Appended to the information that he had entered and reconnoitered the space, John informs us that the unidentified disciple “saw and believed.” 

              Jesus was gone, and “the one whom Jesus loved” was the very first believer.  John leaves a very significant question open, however.  What did the disciple believe?  We might infer that that his belief was established on Jesus’ resurrection, however, in the very next verse John informs us that the community did not understand “the scripture that [Jesus] must rise from the dead.” Perhaps “the one whom Jesus loved” was the exception, comprehending fully that the empty tomb meant Jesus had risen from the dead. Or, perhaps what he “saw and believed,” merely confirmed that the tomb was empty as Mary told them.

              He was the very first believer.  But what did he believe?  His legs had got him to the tomb ahead of Jesus’ most celebrated disciple.  Did his faith likewise out-distance Peter and the other disciples?

              It may well be that John meant nothing more by the observation he “saw and believed,” than that the disciple simply confirmed the tomb was empty, but I personally am persuaded that John wanted us to know that the “one whom Jesus loved” was the first to embrace a resurrection faith. I believe that John wanted us to know that at least one member of Jesus’ close associates understood and took to heart the many references Jesus made throughout his life on earth to the life he, and they, would live beyond the grave.  I therefore believe that this disciple, “the one whom Jesus loved” was the very first to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.

              He was the very first believer, and whether you want to attribute a resurrection faith to him or not, it is significant that his faith didn’t emerge from out of nowhere. The faith of “the very first believer,” or any believer, really, emerges out of circumstances in which faith can take root and grow.

              No, faith to believe in the resurrection is not sprinkled on us like so much fairy dust, but is formed over time in communities like this one where we gather under the cross, hearing the Scriptures read and interpreted, praying with and for each other, and devising mission strategies to take what we learn into the world. 

              Not by some sudden gush of illumination, belief is nurtured where people of common mind and purpose meet week in and week out, year in and year out. It may be a time consuming and tedious process to build faith this way, but it gets the job done. 

              He was the very first believer, but he didn’t have to go it alone.  Resurrection made sense to him because what he learned in the community surrounding Jesus established him a place where it could make sense. Resurrection makes senses to us for the very same reason.

              The very first believer didn’t have to go it alone, and we don’t go it alone. We celebrate the hope and freedom of the resurrection as a community who celebrates each others joys and bears each others burdens together. 

               Resurrection as a life-giving, life-renewing force holds new meaning for us against the backdrop of death in which we have carried on our lives since the storm. Not only the literal death of friends and family within the church, death is something we confront daily in the city landscape, jobs and opportunities lost, hopes disappointed, in plans put on hold. Much has been taken away, to be sure.  Yet, yet, we have blessed to receive much in return.

              These last several months have seen offers of help arrive from all over the country.  You have been introduced to a number of people who felt New Orleans’ recovery, shall we say “resurrection,” significant enough to allocate time to come down here to help out. Delegations from Palisades Presbytery, Barre, Vermont, Brookfield Wisconsin, Monroe, Louisiana, and students from the University of Tennessee, a total of approximately 200 people have visited our church as work teams or to enjoy our hospitality.  Smaller teams from other churches have come to assess our situation as a first step in defining strategy to assist us.  We have welcomed visitors from churches in Venice, Florida, and Sun City West, Arizona, and on Monday of this week a pastor and four laypeople from Grace First from Long Beach, California visited with us. These folks arrive strangers and they leave friends. People we didn’t know before, but each one of them nurtured in the faith as we have  been.

              Resurrection was an event in time that changed the world, but it is also a metaphor for the hope and new life that springs forth as you and I place our lives in God’s waiting hands.  We are living in a resurrection context, as work teams visit our city and churches and individuals reach out their hands to help.  We are living a resurrection experience, the dead parts of this city are being reclaimed, less rapidly than we might wish, but they are being reclaimed.  The headline in Thursday’s Times-Picayune read, “Finally, Rules for Rebuilding, those rules are a significant step for our city.  Resurrection is occurring around and within us.  That which seemed unmanageable weeks even days ago, proving less burdensome day to day. But never forget that we are able to experience the full force of the transformation because the faith to which we lay claim is grounded in what Christ did, a victory we celebrate not merely on Easter Sunday, but each Sunday the community gathers.

              He was the very first believer, but he never had to go it along.  He was part of a community, a community that lived with the Lord, a community who maintained a desperate vigil after his crucifixion, a community that, as the lesson in Acts makes clear, became in a matter of weeks after Jesus’ death a vigorous resurrection celebrating community of believers.

              He was the very first believer, but his claim on a reality others didn’t see was not his reward for personal virtue, it was a gift made available to him by a God who loved him, loved and nurtured him a community, a community not unlikely this one. And who is the head of the community?  Jesus, our risen, and reigning Savior.  To his name be all honor and glory unto the end of the age. AMEN      

PRAYER

              O God, who never breaks a promise, we remember promises made with Abraham that you would make him a great nation.  We remember promises made with Moses that you would not depart from his side as he led your people to the Promised Land.  We remember promises made to David that you would never remove his steadfast love from him.  O God who never breaks a promise, we remember promises renewed again and again, even as we spurned your will and went our own way.  O God who never breaks a promise, out of your love for the world and each of us you sent Jesus, your son, the Christ, as the first fruits of a new creation where sin is forgiven, death defeated, and life is lived in the pure light of your presence.  Grant us grace so to live, we pray, that no earthly attachments we establish may ever divert and co-opt us

                 O Christ, our Lord, the long night is passed, and the morning has dawned to expose an empty tomb.  The bonds in which you were held have been broken.  You are free, and because you are free we are also free. Yet we have not explored the vastness of our freedom.  We live with one foot in the tomb, unable to fully extricate ourselves, unable to enjoy the full fruits of what your redeeming grace secured for us.  Though we use the language of grace and freedom we lack the confidence to embrace those gifts as our own. Still, possessing the confidence to which we can lay claim, we have come here today, a people, not of perfected faith, but a people of faith seeking greater understanding.

                We gather, O Christ, as a church family bound together through our mutual commitments to you, a community of support, a community through which our faith has been shaped and formed, a community that has helped us bear our burdens, stood with to celebrate and to mourn.  A single community, O Christ, we gather with the thousands of communities like ours whose allegiance is grounded in you, those thousands of communities forming one great church. 

                 As we celebrate the great victory Jesus won over sin and death we pray, O God, that you will prosper the church. The challenges we face are great, but your strength is greater.  May the confidence that you will not give us more than we can manage bring quiet and peace to those preyed upon by fears or undone by anxieties. Faced with great challenges in the neighborhood we serve, grant us wisdom as a congregation to make the critical decisions ahead of us pertaining to our buildings and the character of our ministry.

               The faithful witnesses to Jesus’ death who were forced underground after Jesus’ crucifixion, were so transformed by the resurrection experience that, defying those who sought to silence them, they courageously met, help goods in common, broke bread together with thankful hearts.  We are here owing to their steadfastness, and to the faithfulness of generation upon generation of believers who emulated them. On this resurrection Sunday we pay our tribute to the great cloud of witnesses who remained faithful to you under adversity and trial, praying that the same faith that sustained them will take shape in our hearts.

              Holy Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace, world peace seems so unobtainable that no one takes the prospect seriously.  Instead we take defense strategy seriously, pouring billions of dollars into arming ourselves against those who would do us harm. What a puzzle it is that the irrationality of war and the death and destruction it breeds is accepted as the “way things are,” even as activists for peace and disarmament are viewed as being naïve and out of touch.

Scripture reveals, O Christ, that you were viewed as being out of touch by those who exercised power and authority. Out of touch, the world couldn’t tolerate you being out of touch, in the end nailing you to a cross. Forgive us, O God, for the many ways our behaviors mirror those of the people who killed you.  In your mercy deliver us. May our confidence in the powers you released at your resurrection so strengthen us that day by day that we rise to the stature we were created to have.

              In our church, in our homes, in our hearts, O God, may the new possibilities inaugurated in the resurrection of your son become realities not in some distant future, but today, now, in the midst of this community gathered.

              In the name of Jesus we pray, using the very words he taught us….