May we bring up into our minds images of teaching, preaching, baptisms, serving, universities, colleges, hospitals, shelters, fire stations, and ambulances?
      In the reading on this Sabbath, two Sabbaths after Resurrection Sabbath, we take another look at the resurrection of Jesus.  We look through the eyes of Luke and begin to see that the resurrection opens a door onto a new stage of faith.  For both the faithful who seek to serve Jesus and the disinterested who may not know or care about Jesus of Nazareth, the world is different because of the resurrection.
    Jesus breaks into our world as one raised from the dead.  In spite of his profound wisdom, he does not rest his authority on wisdom.  Neither does Jesus’ transforming power in human society rest on authoritarianism.  Jesus’ actions are transparent, not depending on secret wisdom or mysterious spiritual power.  Jesus’ power, while indeed as mysterious as is our living God, is freely available to all.  Followers are free to disagree with one another and even to question God.  But in that freedom resides a unifying spirit that leads always to new insight and common understandings.
    Those who have served Jesus over the centuries have created institutions of all kinds to serve Christ’s purposes.  Some of these institutions guard health, some promote teaching and research, and others protect children and free them to learn.  Still others minister to the abused and seek peace in the family, the community, and the world. The ministries created by the gracious spirit of Jesus may or may not seem overtly religious.  Yet they are rooted in Jesus, the one raised from the dead.
    You and I are gathered here, regardless of our piety or lack of it, because of Jesus Christ.  We have come to hear again and remember again the stories that mediate to us the Holy Spirit that challenges a world of self-interests.  We are the church.  The raised Christ is entrusted to us. He is the head of the church.  But how do we respond to the idea of resurrection?
    Some of us respond by making the resurrection a test of the faith of others.  Some regard as heresy any questioning of the literal resurrection of the body. We use the resurrection to assure our correctness and our personal salvation.  Conversely, some prefer not to talk or think about the resurrection at all, seeing Jesus as a great teacher and the church as a positive influence in society.  Some leave the discussion of the resurrection to the more religious.
    In between are many of us who love to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection.  We enjoy deeply the enthusiasm, the bells, the flowers, the symbols and the music that accompanies the day.  We may even shout with others: “Christ is risen!” with the accompanied answer: “He is risen indeed!” and still are not quite sure what the resurrection was or is.
    The portrait of the risen Christ that Luke’s Gospel paints is challenging.  There is no doubt that for Luke, the resurrection is physical and real.  But Luke forges an identity between the church and the eleven disciples, plus a few who stood talking together when the risen Lord appeared.  We are invited with them to an open examination of Jesus: “Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (24:39).  A wondering line follows: “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering . . .” (24:41), Jesus ate some fish.  We might easily affirm the absolute reality of physical resurrection if it were not for the sudden way Jesus appears and disappears.  This is not the same as walking on in some play.  Jesus did not return as one of them.  He did not resume normal life.
    But Luke is willing to say no more about the specifics of resurrection. The ambiguities of his reporting are left for us to ponder.  Instead, the focus in Luke turns to the reason for Jesus’ return.  I believe Jesus returned to open our minds to understand scripture.  It is important to Luke that Jesus has not been raised to create a new religion.  Jesus affirms his place in Hebrew Scriptures, and affirms God just as the pre-resurrected Jesus affirmed God.
    Jesus had come to fill the disciples with power and courage.  Jesus’ description of the work to which they are called is much more to the point than any possible disagreements over the details of the resurrection.  Jesus asks them to overcome prejudice against others – “go into all the world.”  Jesus challenges their parochialism.  He asks them to proclaim forgiveness of sin.  Guilt is to be removed so that people are free to receive new life.  Jesus equates this new relationship with God as a consequence of the suffering he has endured.  Jesus asks them to be witnesses to Christ as affirmed in resurrection.
    We also are charged, then, to go out today and celebrate the Risen Lord.  If we do not understand or cannot explain the resurrection, we know that we are in a company that includes the disciples of Jesus who were there!  But know that we are empowered to affirm and give energy to the love, compassion, and graciousness that the Risen Christ has let loose in the world. 
      My grandmother sent me a poem, which I recorded in my King James Version Bible many years ago back in the 1950s.  It is still legible. {Although often shared without the poet’s name, this poem was written by Charles D. Meigs.}

     
      In the actions of our faith, our graciousness, our giving, and our service, God will continue to create a new world, in the name of Jesus, the Christ. 

PRAYER:
      Holy God, we confess that too often we have been less than we should be.  We forget that we are your servants, called to look to the interests of others.  Help us to see that through your Spirit we can be the church, a church in which people are loved, empowered, forgiven, and inspired.  Good teacher and healer, we remember today all the teachers and those in the healing and helping professions who serve others and you in many ministries.  Help us to help others to be whole we pray in the holy Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.