(6) Easter Thursday

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Easter Thursday, originally shared on April 16, 2020. It was the sixth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Last Sunday was Easter Sunday. It was celebrated differently throughout the world as the result of social distancing, stay at home orders, and the resulting reliance upon technology.

    Two thousand years ago, on the original Easter, telling others about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ depended only on witnesses. Today, Christians do the same. We just use different media. Today is the Thursday after Easter and we’re going to talk about what Resurrection is and what it is not. We’ll be looking at Matthew 28:1-8.

    Have you noticed that when comedians on TV tell a joke from their socially isolated home, it just seems flat. Do we need social signals to laugh? To think something is funny?

   Last Monday I read a headline from the Christian satire site www.babylonbee.com, “Roman Authorities Investigating Jesus for Violating Stay-In-Tomb Order”. Did you laugh? Maybe we need a little context for laughing, so I brought this gizmo. (red sound box with laugh button).

   BabylonBee.com is a Christian Satire site. It tilts a little to the conservative side politically and to the Evangelical/Calvinist side in church language, but it skews all sides enough that everyone can find some humor in it. Satire is not necessarily funny, especially if it satirizes something you like.

   Here are some recent headlines. Some are funny, and some are straight on satire, but everything’s funny in the right context.

 Babylon Bee headlines:

Trump Announces He Has Hidden 5 Golden Tickets Among Stimulus Checks.

Man Assures Wife He Will Get Around to Fixing The Leaky Faucet During The Next Global Pandemic

Local Man Intentionally Mangles Bible To Indicate Frequent Use

President Trump’s Self-approval Ratings At All-Time High

Local Man Pursuing Long-Distance Relationship With Girl Across Street

Search For The Two Best Candidates for President Concludes

Many Glad to Know Job That Fed His Family, Paid His Rent Is ‘Non-Essential’

Facebook to Award Everyone Printable Medical Degrees

Americans Excitedly Anticipate Getting Paid With Their Own Money

Study: 92% of Christians Get All Their Theology From Bumper Stickers

 Matthew 28:1-8

   Theology is the academic study of God and of religions belief. Greek: Theo =God and logos=reasoning/order, the philosophical backbone of Greek life.

   The Rev. Dr. Bill Lesher, who was president of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary when I was a student there, told us a story about his first days of ordained ministry. He said that he was in his first week of his first call when he received a phone call from one of the church’s members to alert the pastor that Uncle Henry had just died and would the pastor come over. He learned from the secretary that the call had come from a house just down the street, so he decided to walk.

   When he arrived he found that Uncle Henry had indeed just died and was still sitting in his favorite chair in the living room. He and his church member decided that it would be more dignified for Uncle Henry if he were in his bed when the authorities arrived.

   So, with the church member lifting the legs and Pastor Lesher lifting the shoulders, they took off with the pastor walking backwards, until he stepped back on a throw rug on the polished wood floor. The rug slipped out, the pastor lost his balance, the member lost her balance and they, all three, fell to the floor with a crash!

   The crash, however, started Uncle Henry’s heart beating and, when the medical personell arrived, they were able to revive him!

   You should have heard, Dr. Lesher told us, the rumors that went around that church about their new pastor!

   But, that’s not resurrection, that’s resuscitation.

   A caterpillar spins a cocoon and emerges as a butterfly.

   But that’s not resurrection, that’s metamorphosis.

   Easter lilies are bulbs that lie buried in the earth and then burst out of the earth and become beautiful flowers.

   But that’s not resurrection, that’s photosynthesis.

   Resurrection is life from death.

   It is a historical event. Jesus appeared to people in a body that could suddenly appear in a remote location, like the star trek transporter, but that could also want to eat. That is the basis for our sure and certain hope in Jesus Christ.

    I’ve heard it said that we are living in uncertain times, but are events in any time certain? What can we hold on to that is sure?

   We are, we are told, now in the midst of the deadliest part of the contagion. Where is our hope?

   Our hope is in God, who is full of grace and gives new life even when it is not apparent.

   If I were to fill a glass to its midpoint with water, would it be half-empty or half-full?

   Technically speaking, it would be neither. I would either be full of water or full of water and air.

   The resurrection means that our glass is always full. Like streams of living waters, we are filled with the living presence of the living God.

   Death is dead because of the fully given life of Jesus Christ.

   He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia.