RESURRECTION POWER

Last Saturday, a father discovered the bodies of his 33-year-old daughter, her husband and their three young children in their Maryland home. His son-in-law, burdened by depression and debt, had killed his wife and children before turning the gun on himself.

Last Monday, police found the bodies of a 59-year-old man, his wife and their two daughters in a hotel room in Towson. The man, a tax and estate lawyer from New York, apparently strangled his wife and two daughters before killing himself.

Last Wednesday, the 41-year-old acting CFO of embattled mortgage giant, Freddie Mac, was found in his basement - dead from an apparent suicide. He left behind his wife and five-year-old daughter.

Who knows what really goes on behind closed doors?

We live in a society that encourages us to wear masks. Even if our world is falling apart, for most of us the automatic response to “How are you?” is “Fine, thanks.” So, while we may not resort to hiding behind closed doors, we are taught to hide behind polite words and gentle smiles. Our fear, our despair, our longing remain hidden – sometimes even from those closest to us.

Imagine the masks that the men who took their lives and the lives of their families may have felt they had to wear.
Imagine how long they may have been wearing them.
Imagine what it may have been like to drop the mask – and, in the process, to decide that death has to be better than life.

While most people in financial distress do not decide to take their own lives, the fact is that money worries are often a huge cause of stress for many people. Virtually no one has escaped the impact of the current economic crisis. Many people have lost their homes, many have seen their retirement savings dwindle, many have lost their jobs. And if it’s not financial problems, it’s likely to be something else that comes at us and forces us to our knees. When we feel out of control, fear can take hold of us, tightening its grip around our lives – after all, fear is no respecter of persons – young and old, gay and straight, black and white, Republican and Democrat, male and female – fear is no respecter of persons.

Who can people turn to when their world is falling apart?

Three Fridays ago, the world was falling apart for another group of people. A 33-year-old man was wrongfully accused, viciously beaten, and brutally murdered – dying one of the slowest, most painful deaths known to humankind. His death left friends and followers stunned – stunned that something so tragic could happen to such a good and decent human being.

How can they make sense of the awfulness of that experience? Imagine all the emotions that they may have been feeling over the last few days – fear, anxiety, anger, frustration – they need healing, lots and lots of healing. And it is into the midst of their pain and confusion that Jesus comes.

“Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.”

Jesus knows that, even when folks want to believe him, to believe in him, it’s hard to think clearly when we are consumed by fear. It’s as though fear takes on a life of its own – everything looms larger than it is, we become overly focused on the thing we fear, and we often lose sight of the bigger picture.

But Jesus, but Jesus, but Jesus. Jesus is always seeking us out, coming to us, inviting us to take a second look.

How has Jesus come to you in the midst of your fears, your despair, your longing?
How has he invited you to take a second look?
To see that, in spite of how things may seem, he is real?

Although he initially adds to their anxiety by sparking their fear that he is a ghost, Jesus’ first action is aimed at calming their fears. Even though he greets them with the common greeting among Israelites, “Peace be with you,” imagine how sweet the word ‘peace’ might sound in times of distress. He then shows them his hands and his feet, and he then asks for something to eat.

Can ghosts eat?
Can they digest food?
If not, is Jesus a ghost?
So, if he is not dead, and if he is not a ghost, then, could it be that he rose from the dead?

If the worst that Rome could do could not hold Jesus down, what does that mean for them?
And what does that mean for us?
Does that mean that life is stronger than death?
That death does not have the last word?

What happened behind that stone that sealed the tomb – what happened behind that closed door – can and does change lives.

But it can’t stop with them – or us. So Jesus prepares them for the next step – to go out and tell others – he interprets scripture for them, reminds them of what he had said earlier, and he reassures them that his death and resurrection were expected. Imagine their relief – their renewed faith that Jesus really is in control – when he reassures them that neither his death nor his resurrection caught him by surprise.

Isn’t it comforting to know that, when life seems out of control, someone is in control?

In a recent article in the Alban Institute’s publication, Congregations, pastor Nancy Wood shares how a visit to the home of one of her elderly parishioners, Eleanor, changed the way she thought about evangelism forever. During that visit, Eleanor told Nancy that the thing she wanted most in the world was to be a mother. Although she and her husband waited and waited for a child, one never came. Eleanor recalls grieving deeply for “the child she couldn’t conceive and for the death of how she thought her life was going to turn out. She wasn’t sure that life was worth living without the family she so desperately wanted.” But, through prayer and worship at her church, Eleanor began to feel “Jesus as an intimate presence in her life. She realized that Jesus had come to meet her in the death of her dream. She realized that God’s unending love wasn’t just a nice idea – it was a power that could bring life out of death.”

And that’s what it did. As Eleanor believed that, even though her dream died, she would experience resurrection, she began to “pour out her love into the children in her community.” Her work as a teacher flourished, and she did many innovative, creative things with her students. At that point in their visit, Eleanor pulled out a notebook filled with names. She told Nancy that, every year at Halloween, she would ask trick or treaters who came to her door to sign their names before receiving their candy. Through that book, Eleanor showed each child how much she cared, and, over the years, parents would bring their children to show them their signatures in Eleanor’s book. Eleanor’s life had become filled with the resurrecting love of God, and she simply wanted to share that love with others.

What might it be like for people who are depressed, desperate and despairing to hear stories of how God brings life out of death?

What resurrection stories live inside of you?

Who needs to hear them?