Will the Laughter Continue?

April 15, 2007

            Last Sunday the Resurrection got us to laughing and that laughter has continued.  Some of you have suggested we should have a weekly joke published in the Messenger.  Many of you have come to me with jokes of your own… most of them with a religious twist.  For example, have you heard about the pastor and the rabbi in a small community who were seen putting up a sign on the edge of town.  The sign said, “Danger ahead!  Turn around immediately to avoid disaster and death!”  As the rabbi held the sign and the pastor pounded it into the ground, a car went whizzing past, the driver shaking his head at their foolishness.  Apparently these two pastoral-types were known for their religious zeal.  Seconds later, when they heard a loud splash, the rabbi said to the pastor, “Maybe it would be better if the sign simply said, “Bridge out!”

            And for you golf enthusiasts who didn’t know if you should come to church for Easter services or watch Tiger Woods in the Masters last Sunday, I’m sure you heard about the time when Moses, Jesus, and an old man went golfing together.  Moses teed up and took his first swing.  It was pretty good but a little short.  As the ball began to skip across the water hazard, the water parted and the ball rolled across dry land to within just a few feet from the hole.  Then it was Jesus’ turn.  He stepped up and took his first swing.  It too was a pretty good shot but was falling short and about to land in the water when two small feet popped out of the bottom of the golf ball and it walked safely on to the green.  Finally, it was the old man’s turn.  He stepped up to the tee and took a hard swing.  His ball went careening down the fairway, ricocheting first off a tree on one side and then a tree on the other.  The ball was then caught by a squirrel who, carrying it in his mouth, ran out onto the limb of still another tree.  At that exact moment, a thunderstorm moved through the area and the tree was struck by lightening causing the squirrel to let go of the golf ball which fell from its mouth and directly into the hole below.   A hole-in-one!  Amazed by what had just happened, Jesus high-fived the old man and congratulated him, saying, “Great shot, Dad!”

            Last week we left here laughing because in the Resurrection, God has once again upended the usual order of things, reversing our expectations.  Jesus is victorious over sin and death.  God’s love is ours.  God’s grace is real.  New life in Christ is possible.  In the Resurrection, God has the last laugh.

            So why, we might ask today, are the disciples hiding away?  In the reading from John’s Gospel, we find the disciples hiding behind locked doors in fear.  According to the story, it was Easter evening.  The disciples had heard the news of the Resurrection but they were hiding away in fear.  With our twenty-first century understandings, we don’t get it.  We are still basking in the glow of Easter morning.  All week long, you have graciously commented to me about the beauty and power of Easter worship. We are still captivated by the Resurrection.  We don’t get it.  Why were the disciples hiding away in fear?  Why weren’t they out in the streets shouting the Good News of the Resurrection?

            Bishop Will Willimon, in a sermon based on this part of the Gospel of John helps us understand.  He reminds us, first of all, that “it is quite natural when you have suffered some trauma in life, when you have been violated by some injustice in life, to lock yourself away.”*  Secondly, Bishop Willimon reminds us that the disciples were hiding away behind locked doors at night and night is a “dangerous time in nearly any city, but the city of Jerusalem, after the weekend of terrible violence worked against Jesus…” meant that the “…disciples {had} lots of reasons to be fearful.”*  Finally, Bishop Willimon offers that “…perhaps they were also fearful of the scorn of their friends and families... no doubt they were fearful of the mocking scorn of all those who said, ‘Some Messiah!  Where is your Lord and Savior now?’”*

 On that first Easter evening, the disciples were still dealing with the trauma of Jesus’ death.  According to John’s Gospel, the way they chose to cope with their own fear and disappointment and maybe even embarrassment… was to run back home and hide.  They locked the doors against the outside world and tried to re-group!  Of course, we who read this story today recognize that it wasn’t their so-called enemies who were trying to get past those locked doors that night.  It wasn’t soldiers looking for followers of Jesus.  It wasn’t angry religious leaders looking to put a stop to any movement that might have started.  It wasn’t even friends and family members looking to say “I told you so!”  According to John’s Gospel, it was Jesus trying to get through the locked doors in order to forgive them and bless them and empower them to live new life in his love.

            It really is no small matter that those who closed the door and locked the locks that first Easter evening were Jesus’ own disciples.   You see, “this is not a story about all the ways the world locks its doors against the claims of the Christian faith.  This is a story about the ways that those of us who are Christians lock our doors.”*  This is a story about us. 

            This really hit me this week.  It has been a long time since I have preached on the Sunday after Easter.  I’ve got to admit, what I really wanted to do this week was hide away.    I’m tired and I don’t know if I have anything new to say.  And, we are entering the post-Easter church attendance slump!  As funny as the comment was last Sunday, when John, during Children’s Time at the second service, asked the children what was different in the sanctuary… what were signs of new life… and one boy eagerly said, “MORE PEOPLE!”… as funny as the comment was, it hit’s home for me.  My own sense of self-worth and success needs this place to be Easter full every Sunday and all week long I have known that today it would be just us trying to figure out how to keep going after Easter!  With less people are we still alive?  Can we still be faithful?  Is the slump my fault?  Hiding behind locked doors sounds pretty darn good to me!

            And, you know, I really don’t think I’m alone in this.  As people of faith, I think lots of us aren’t exactly sure how to boldly live our Christian faith in the world today.  For some of us, we aren’t at all sure that we agree with many of the proclamations of popular Christianity.  We find ourselves wanting to distance ourselves from those Christian pronouncements that appear to be more exclusive, seemingly less loving, and ultimately at odds with our own faith perspectives.  For those of us who believe in our heart of hearts that following Jesus isn’t just a “me thing” but must also be a “we thing,” we find ourselves wanting to hide behind locked doors when popular Christianity speaks only of personal salvation and ignores societal transformation.  Living here in one of the most un-churched regions in the U.S., sometimes I don’t even want people to know what I do for a living, for fear of being categorized as one of “those people.”  As a person of faith who believes that Christians do not have an exclusive claim on God’s love and grace… that we are not the only ones living faithfully in the world today… that we don’t have a corner on eternal life… sometimes I find myself wanting to lock the doors and hide. 

            But today’s Gospel story calls us to unlock the doors and come out of hiding.  Those locked doors were no problem to Jesus anyway!  This is the good news of Easter.  This is the promise of the Gospel.  This is the power of this story.  We can try to lock ourselves away but the Risen Christ will still come to us and call us to get up and engage the world with the powerful, loving, grace-filled, accepting, inclusive transforming message of the Gospel.  As Eugene Peterson observes “We cannot get closer to God by distancing ourselves from the mess of history.”**  We need to jump into the middle of the mess and live as followers of Jesus Christ.  We’ve got to come out from behind those locked doors and live as Easter people.  The good news today is that we are not alone.  Like the disciples on that first Easter

            Every year, in this week after Easter, in my own devotional life, I return to the words of Clarence Jordan in his book, The Substance of Faith.  His words challenge me to come out from behind the doors I have locked thinking that somehow I am safe.  His words proclaim the good news of Christ’s presence with us.  He writes, “By raising Jesus from the dead, God is refusing to take humanity’s ‘No’ for an answer…The resurrection places Jesus on this side of the grave – here and now –in the midst of life… He is standing beside us, strengthening us in this life…he has risen and comes home with us… The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples….”*** 

            In the Resurrection, God laughs.  God has once again upended the usual order of things, reversing our expectations.  Jesus is victorious over sin and death.  God’s love is ours.  God’s grace is real.  Will we be forgiven and blessed and empowered to live a new life in Christ’s love?  Will we continue the laughter?

*From “Lockout,” a sermon by William Willimon in “Pulpit Resource” Volume 35, No. 2, Year C

**From Christ in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology by Eugene Peterson

***From The Substance of Faith by Clarence Jordan