Some
time ago, I was doing a hospital visit with someone in the ER. The patient was
quite scared, and asked me to stay with them until their family arrived. At one
point, the doctor came in, while the patient appeared asleep. The doctor
started speaking very quickly to me about tests and diagnoses and prognoses
and...
and
then we heard a rather perturbed yet Monty Python-esque voice from the bed:
"I'm not dead yet!"
I
laughed - this was typical for that parishioner - this was not a shy or
soft-spoken individual.
This
is not an atypical kind of response. Whether we realise it or not, we are often
finding ways to prove to people that we are, in fact, not dead: some will
answer "how are you today?" with "I'm on the right side of the
grass" or "I checked in the obituaries, and I didn't see my
name!" Some use humour, others may respond with other truths - "my
hip hurts too much for me to be dead" or "well, the doctors say I'm
alive."
That
is what doctors often do: they have ways to show to us that we are still alive.
They can do brain scans and blood tests and monitor our heartbeats. They can
find ways, oh so many ways, to prove that we are physically alive.
This
is not dissimilar to what Jesus does in Luke's account of this visitation. He
finds ways to prove to his disciples that he is not a ghost; that he is not
dead. He invites them into what were common tests in those days to determine
ghostliness: ghosts did not have hands; ghosts did not have feet to touch the
ground with.
Think
about Casper, the friendly ghost - he floats, without feet; he has arms but no
fingers.
But
for the disciples, not surprising, this is still too... strange. Too
supernatural. Too inconceivable. The disciples have joy - of course they do!
But they still doubt and fear and wonder. So - back to providing them with
proof, Jesus asks about food. Have you anything here to eat? This is likely not
that he was hungry; I don't think the resurrected Christ needed to have some
sustenance like that. Again, he as proving to them that he was alive, and not a
ghost - as (again, biblical era ghost-test) ghosts do not have the capacity to
eat, because they do not have a digestive system. Here he was though, eating in
their presence, to prove that he was NOT dead. Not anymore!
So
- he's alive. Wonderful.
But
that's just the preamble, this physical proof of life.
He
then proves that HE IS ALIVE. He is not existing, he is not just being, he is
ALIVE. Fully alive, in the spiritual sense.
This
proof comes with a bit of history, and a bit of the present, and the focus on
the future is implicit.
He
reminds them that his death was foretold in the scriptures, and that those have
now been fulfilled. The past is passed; the focus on death is no longer part of
the story.
He
opens their minds then, to fully understand the scriptures - the sacred texts
held near and dear for centuries, promising the redemption of the world through
the Messiah, the chosen one of God. This is the NOW for the disciples, their
present time, when they are brought into the joy of recognising the life that
is before them.
Then
Jesus addresses the future - that repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be
proclaimed in his name to all nations. For these to be proclaimed in Jesus'
name means that the disciples are to be the proclaimers: go forth, to
Jerusalem, and share the good news. This is the promise of what is to come,
that life will be shared and declared BY them, for all nations and all time.
These
folks are witnesses to life. They are witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. They
are witnesses to the miracle of being spiritually alive - and they share that
proof.
Imagine
if they had not gone out to prove themselves spiritually alive? Imagine if they
had not engaged in the spiritual practices to maintain that faith? But they DID
(thanks be to God) and thus the faith IS alive and well, as we can see from the
other readings we heard this morning:
The
Spirit of God lives: in Peter's encouragement that the Israelites live in
faith. He inspires them to put aside their doubt, and to embrace their belief.
He invites them to put their past behind them, and to live in the present, and
plan for the future - to continue proving to the world that they are alive in the
spiritual sense.
The
Spirit of God moved the lectionary creators to connect Psalm 4 to these
readings, with its message of comfort and intentionality. It is a prayer of
peace and security that can only come from trusting in the Lord - and that
trust requires a vibrant and active spirituality.
The
Spirit of God lives in John's first letter, speaking of the commitment to live
as God's children, in hope and in righteousness. John convinces all who read
this letter that the desire to be sinless is the desire to be fully alive -
"no one who abides in him sins" - so he calls for us to be
spiritually alive that we may celebrate our knowing and being known by the
living God.
The
scriptures prove that Christ is Risen - not as a past action, but a present
reality and a future promise. They invite us to share in this proof of life as
we live out our ministries, here at St John's, and around the world.
When
we come together in worship;
when we offer prayers for one
another and for the world;
when we break bread together;
when we read scripture with one
another;
when we overcome differences to
benefit our community;
when we give generously to support
the mission and ministry of this place;
when we choose to seek and support
the positive in the world around us;
when we uphold one another in our
hearts to minds;
when we choose to love and serve.
This
is how we demonstrate that we are spiritually alive, when we prove to the
community that church is not the bricks and mortar with a street address -
that's just one place where the church meets.
We
are called to be the church that is alive, a church that is vibrant, a church that
is not restricted to one location: we are called to be the church that has seen
the living and Risen Christ. We are called to be the church that has faith in
the ongoing power of the Spirit. We are called to be the church that proclaims
repentance and forgiveness of sins. We are called to be the church that, as
Luke says, is witness of these things.
Thus
we are the church, the gathering of disciples, that is called to embrace our
own spiritual liveliness. To know that we are, both physically and spiritually,
"Not dead yet!" And in that celebration of life we are privileged to
be called to witness to the world that the presence of God is real and is now, that
Jesus is Alive and always will be, that Christ is Risen, he is Risen indeed - Alleluia!
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