Sunday: 3rd Sunday of Easter
Reading: Luke 24:36b-48
Preacher: Peter C. Lane

"While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering." That has got to be one of the great sentences in the scriptures. "While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering." It is a description of an Easter faith: joy, disbelief, wonder all muddled up together, impacting one another. Joy and wonder change disbelief. They don't eliminate it, but they transform it. There is the crucified Jesus standing right in front of you. You can't believe it but a smile comes across your face, your eyes brighten and the glow of joy and wonder makes disbelief fade. An Easter Faith.

Luke gives us our third resurrection story in so many weeks. Story. The gospel readings on these first three weeks of Easter haven't been teaching or parables or apocalypse but stories. On Easter Sunday we had Mark and the brutal honesty of the women fleeing from the tomb in fear. Last week, Dan preached on the Gospel of John and Thomas' "Sure and the Nigerian bank emails are legit" response to the news of the resurrection. And for the final stop on our tour of the gospels' resurrection stories we have Luke and his joy, disbelief, and wonder.
Luke tells a great resurrection story. The women find the tomb empty and report it to the disciples. Peter, of course Peter, sprints to the tomb to check the story out. Then Luke give us the story of Jesus' cloaked conversation with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. We pick up the story this morning with the disciples sitting around talking about that-how amazing it is that Jesus was revealed in the broken bread. Well, no need to be amazed at that story because Jesus shows up in their midst. "Peace be with you." They must have been relatively new Episcopalians because they didn't realize that the appropriate response there is "And also with you." Actually they were startled and terrified. It was one thing to talk about the amazing, outlandish story of the resurrected Jesus. But to see him... things were getting weird. Is it a ghost? Jesus unhelpfully asks, "Why are you frightened?" Golly, Jesus, why do you think we're frightened? The guy we thought was the Messiah, the one we thought would fulfill our hopes and bring peace to earth goes off and gets himself crucified?! We're all wondering if the Romans won't string us up next. You show up in costume with our friends on the road to Emmaus and then-poof-appear here like-a ghost-trying to say you are a normal flesh and blood guy. That's scary. You ask why doubts arise in my heart? You've overturned the most basic assumption of my life. I even just paid my taxes, but you make me question death. It's unsettling.

Actually they didn't say that. They said nothing. Silence. Their demeanor does seem to change when Jesus shows them his wounds, suggesting embodiedness. Seeing his hands and side they move from startled and terrified to disbelieving, wondering joy.

An Easter faith. Let's look at the elements. Disbelief. And here I am not thinking of historical factual disbelief-was the boiled fish Jesus ate Halibut? I'm thinking about disbelief in the promises of God. Like what Mary says at the beginning of Luke's Gospel: God will lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things. Or what John the Baptist says in Luke's third chapter, "Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth." Or Luke chapter four, when Jesus reads Isaiah in the synagogue claiming to be anointed to bring good news to the poor...release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and the freeing of the oppressed. It is hard for me to believe these divine promises. God will lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things. Sure-see Darfur. The crooked will be made straight and the rough places smooth. Yah-see justice department torture memos. And release to the captives? Only if you are talking about ICE dumping undocumented Mexicans back across the border. Disbelief.

Wonder. Some of you might have been following the saga of the four South Side mental health clinics that were threatened with closure. A few of us went to a meeting/rally about it a month ago. Some more committed folks protested and raised hell. I have to say, I thought that protesting was good, clean fun. But I didn't think it was going to work. It worked. On the day before they were slated to close, a sit-in was held at Mayor Daley's office and the execution was stayed. That fills me with wonder.

Joy. How can the father of two sons not be filled with joy? How can a Southside Cubs' fan not be filled with joy that Fukudome is hitting again? How can a priest not be filled with joy over the outpouring of support around Mikaela's birth and surgery? Many of you know the wonderful story. Mikaela was born with a heart condition that not many years ago would have been fatal. Today she lies in Comer hospital with a repaired, functioning heart. Alleluia. How can I not be filled with joy at the idea that death does not have the final word? Praise God for Dr Mora. But even more, you should have seen the way the community responded to Mikaela's birth. Compassion abounds. Darksome clouds are dimming-yonder glorious morning ray. Good Friday gives way to Easter. Joy.

Of course, Mikaela is not totally out of the woods. Joy and wonder temper disbelief, but they don't eliminate it. The world is a fallen place. Sometimes it seems there is too much to bear. It is hard not to disbelieve that death has the final word. I learned this past week that a friend of mine's father has gotten mean. His ALS has gotten the best of him. A young person we met at the youth retreat last week had lost a father and a brother and had a sister in a coma. It is tempting to retreat back into considered indifference, to be like Camus' Stranger and nonchalantly smoke a cigarette when faced with death. Disbelief can take over.

Those of us who proclaim "Christ is Risen" can't give way to that disbelief. Personally speaking the commitment of the community of believers and my experience of a faithful God fills me with a joy that holds disbelief at bay. I got to live that out at the Easter Vigil hearing St. Chrysostom taunt hell. "O death, where is thy sting?╨ O Hell, where is thy victory?" The organ blared, we made raucous noise and we sang. Like the disciples gathered on Easter morning we can move from being terrified and startled to having our disbelief transformed by joy at the sight of the risen, wounded Jesus.

We worship a crucified and risen Lord. When faced with terrible heart conditions, intractable city government, the horrors of Darfur, remember God's promises. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. Let that joy and wonder lighten our disbelief.