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Remember How He Told You
James S. Lo wry
Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tennessee
Luke 24:1-12
The promise is
that there will be joy and gladness.
It says so right here in the first chapter of Luke.1
If the promise is joy and gladness,
the fulfillment of such a promise,
I suppose,
is happiness and laughter…
not the happiness and laughter,
I am sure,
of the cocktail circuit
nor of the pie-in-the-face comedy routine,
but happiness and laughter
that comes welling up
from that deep place where we are able to believe…
happiness and laughter
that are both spontaneous and genuine…
and infectious.
The Easter question is this:
How do you get from the promise of joy
to the fulfillment of happiness;
and how do you get from the promise of gladness
to the fulfillment of laughter?
The mystery men
said to the women of Easter,
“Remember how he told you.”
Last week
was a good week
here at the church.
Holy Week is almost always a good week for the church…
not a fun week;
but a good week.
It would be almost unholy
to try to make Holy Week fun.
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It would be more unholy to make Holy Week anything less than good.
The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the proud will be scattered in the imagination of their hearts. Right after that, the gospel of Jesus Christ promises that the hungry will be filled with good things to eat.
Like joy and gladness, it says those things right here in the first chapter of Luke.2
If the promise is a scattering of the proud, the fulfillment must be widespread humility. If the promise is good food for the poor, the fulfillment must be widespread generosity.
The Easter question is this:
How do you get from promise to fulfillment… how do you get from pride to humility… how do you get from greed to generosity?
The mystery men said to the women of Easter,
“Remember how he told you.”
Last week we worshipped more than the usual number of times here at the church. Holy Week is a week when the church should worship a lot.
Most of our worship was centered around remembering. On Thursday night, for example, we gathered here to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It was Maundy Thursday. In our worship we read the story of the Thursday night before Easter how Jesus took the bread and broke it and said, “This do in remembrance of me.” Then we acted out the Lord’s Supper to jog our memory even more.
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After that we read the rest of the story of the awful things that happened on the Thursday night before the first Easter:
Betrayal; Arrest; Religious trial; Denial.
It was a dark night; but an important night… a night to remember important things.
The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that you and I, if we choose, may do what is right. Furthermore, the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that if ever we have chosen to do what is wrong we may now, if we choose, live with the certainty that our sin is forgiven.
It says as much right here in the first chapter of Luke.3
If the promise is that right shall be done and wrong shall be forgiven, the fulfillment of such a promise, I suppose, is truth and sanity.
The Easter question is this:
How do you get from the promise of doing right and forgiving wrong to the fulfillment of truth in our world and sanity in our lives?
The mystery men said to the women of Easter,
We kept the vigil on Friday, you know. It was only a handful of us,
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but we kept the vigil. It is part of our Holy Week worship. From 12:00 noon until 3:00 p.m. we came in groups to this place of worship and we remember the hours that Jesus was on the cross. On the hour and on the half hour, we read the story so the church will be remembering how he told us. And on Friday night more of us gathered for the darkest of all dark worship. We gathered and, in a service of extinguishing lights, we heard yet another account of the story of crucifixion and death so the church would not forget how he told us.
The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that light will shine on those who sit in the dark shadow of death. And More. The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that there will be peace in our lives and peace in our world.
The Easter question is, how do you get from promise to fulfillment… from the shadow of death to the light of life… from war of soul and war of world to peace of soul and peace of world?
We had yet another worship service here during Holy Week. Unplanned. Last Tuesday. Three in the afternoon. Funeral. Twenty years old. Late at night. Auto accident. On her way home from work. Must have gone to sleep.
We have pictures of her here at the church clowning around with the youth fellowship on the back seat of the church van and on the ski slopes. We also have pictures of her in our home
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clowning around with our daughter, Anne.
Most of the worship services of Holy Week aren’t very crowded. We had a packed house at the funeral. When a young person dies, there is almost always a crowd for the funeral. For many young people it is their first brush with their own mortality.
Up front, of course, there were her parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins… fiancé. Then, just behind her family in both balconies it seemecUo me, with only a few of their seniors dotted here and there, there was a sea of young adults in their late teens and early twenties.
By one standard, I did a good job with that funeral. One of the preachers from an Episcopal church was here to help. He said I did a good job. A Methodist preacher was here to help at the grave side. She said I did a good job. Some of you were here and several of you were nice enough to say I did a good job. Most telling of all, Martha, my wife, was here and she said I did a good job. I suspect if my old professors of Bible and theology and worship had been here they would have been right proud… maybe even surprised.
But by another standard, and I suspect by a standard more pressing than the other, I failed at that funeral.
Oh, to be sure, I probably did about as much as could be done in that setting
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for her parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles. But when I looked out at that sea of young adults, I saw nothing so much as grief;
except, more even than grief,
Like on the women of Easter, I saw on those young adults the blank face of perplexity.
They were listening; but I could tell they were not hearing.
After the grave side service, daughter, Anne, who was home from college for the occasion, came for a hug as much, I suspect, to comfort me as to be comforted.
“I’m sorry, Anne, I didn’t do that well. The young people didn’t hear.
I hope your old man didn’t embarrass you in front of your friends.”
Then, with wisdom that no longer surprises me, Anne said,
“You did it right, Dad, it’s just that most of them are not in the church. They didn’t have any idea what you were talking about.”
The mystery men said to the women of Easter,
when you were still in Galilee… remember what he told you before.”
You know what I should have done at that funeral…
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at least for that sea of young adults, do you know what I should have done?
I should have told them how once a long time ago a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. Then I should have told them how Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea; and how he was tempted in the wilderness; and how when he was baptized the heavens opened and God said, “This is my son.” and how he took little children on his knee and said, “Of such is the kingdom of God;” and how he taught us to turn the other cheek and to love neighbor as self; and how he made sick people well and crazy people sane; and how when the disciples were in trouble he walked to them on water; and how he fed a multitude with five loaves and two fish… never mind that they are not apt to believe such wild stories as those just so long as they know the stories; and I should have told them the story of the Prodigal Son and of the Good Samaritan; and the Lost Sheep. And I should have told them how he demonstrated that dying for someone else’s sin is the love that will keep the world from self-destructing.
Do not misunderstand. I don’t think for one minute I should have pressured those young people to believe the story. Rather I should have made sure they know the story.
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…on the first day of the week, at early dawn, (the women) went to the tomb, taking spices which they had prepared. …when they went in they did not find the body. …two men in dazzling apparel said to them, “remember how he taught you when you were in Galilee.”
That means, if ever we are going to experience the hope of Easter we must remember what he taught us before Easter
I don’t know anyone who first believed in Easter hope and then believed in Jesus.
Everybody I know who believes in Easter, believed in Jesus first.
The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that light will shine on those who sit in the dark shadow of death. And More. The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that there will be peace in our lives and peace in our world.
The Easter question is, how do you get from promise to fulfillment… from dark shadow to light… from war to peace?
The Easter answer is, remember what he taught you.
NOTES
1 Luke 1:14
2 Luke 1:51 and 53
3 Luke 1:75 and 77
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