Sermon at St. Thomas, Easter Main Service, April 8, 2007 by Lynn E. Cunningham. Acts 10:34-43; Colossians 3:1-4; Luke 24:1-10.

1.         Let me ask you this Easter morning to enter into my meditation on what may have happened among town folk living near Bethlehem when first they heard of Jesus’ crucifixion. I name the town Dubois as a reminder that people living long ago in a town near Bethlehem of Judea were much like people in our Dubois today.        

2.         My reconstruction takes you back to a time before the Gospel narratives or other things had been written down. How people then responded in those first days gave rise through years of reflection and prayer and discussion to what was later written down in our New Testament Gospels, in the Book of Acts, in the letters, and in the Creeds. Our own responses today to the Crucifixion connect with how Jesus’ followers first responded back then, just as those writings often deepen our connection to the Holy in Jesus.

3.         My reconstruction invites you to see more clearly the risen Jesus today.

4.         As I say, imagine our small town named Dubois located not so far from Bethlehem of Judea.

5.         Townsfolk in Dubois still talk about the night many years ago when a great light was seen shining in the night sky. Old timers then liked to tell all kinds of stories. Three shepherds, now old men, sometimes told of their experience of seeing that light. Without fully understanding what was happening, they left their flocks to follow the light to nearby Bethlehem. One of the shepherds, Amos, always wept when he told about holding the baby in his rough hands. Grazing close by the baby, Amos later told, the camels, sheep, and the oxen seemed soothed by him.

6.         About five years later one of the women in the town became ill and began to hemorrhage. She became deeply ashamed of her condition. As can happen with serious illness, her life was undone. She had to bathe by herself in the river, cut off the enjoyable companionship with the other women and men.

7.         Still, village life continued. Dubois townspeople traveled little beyond their fields and the nearby markets. They tended their sheep, their fields, their families. Harvests followed planting. New babies came as well as the passing away of beloved elders. But they had heard from people passing through the town of a young man, that he was named Jesus, and that he had preached and healed in the surrounding villages. Anyone living in Dubois would certainly remember some of the things that he preached. Amos even wondered if he were the baby whom he had held in his arms thirty years before.

8.         Then one fall day at harvest time, the young man first came to the town. The woman with the hemorrhage joined the crowd around him. She swallowed her shame, and summoned the courage to reach out to touch the hem of his garment. Immediately, she healed. Jesus turned, saw her, and said something strange to her ears. Later she always remembered what he said as, your faith has healed you!

9.         And, that the evening, he asked many people to join him for a meal. As if his preaching and his visiting the sick were just one part of him. There had to be a meal, a shared meal. Like a feast day meal. He asked the woman who had been healed to sit right next to him. No one had made her feel so welcomed and so accepted for a very, very long time!

10.       He asked others to join in the meal as well, including some considered dangerous or strange by most townsfolk.

11.       Jesus did not stay long, but the people did not forget him and his special presence in the town. They did not know where he went after he left Dubois. But, then, people in the town did not hear much about what went on beyond their fields and nearby markets.

12.       One spring, about three years later, in the middle of the day, the villagers felt the earth tremble, as in an earthquake. The sky turned black. A loud sound seemed to rip the very sky in two. The children cried and ran to their homes. The elders and everyone wondered what this mid-day darkness and earthquake might mean.

13.       A traveling merchant happened into the town late that evening, out of Jerusalem. Tears choked his telling. The young man had been taken. Riot was brewing. Groups of Roman soldiers pushed in. Other young men taken, too. People, several people, beaten, arrested, tied up with ropes, led off somewhere. Then, trial in front of the governor. The young man sentenced, beaten bad by soldier batons. Put to death, out in public, on a tree. For what, he did not know.

14.       Stunned silence took the town. Then, tears took over. Horror. How could it be? People never had understood about soldiers and authorities or why they did things.

15.       Stark sadness darkened the day. Air hung still and listless. Maybe birds ceased singing. Returning tears wet many eyes long into the night. We remember the camels and sheep and oxen lost interest in chewing.

16.       About a week later, another report came from Jerusalem brought by another traveler. My cousin, Thomas, the traveler said, told me how a few of the women found Jesus’ tomb empty on Sunday. Something about angels at the tomb, but not Jesus. Later in the week, Thomas touched the young man, touched, yes, and and felt his wounds. Doubt left Thomas, that it was his friend, Jesus. The villagers’ young man was alive after his death. It made no sense. Yet, and yet, sudden smiles appeared. The camels and oxen and sheep stood up again, began moving around, eating.

17.       Dubois people knew little, what to make of this second report. Talk among villagers asked, how Jesus could be crucified, yet alive. Alive, but never would return to Dubois.

18.       As confusion filled the day, the healed woman gathered a few of the other women around her. She asked those who had eaten with Jesus during his first visit, to organize a simple carry-in dinner for the whole town. Assembling the meal, the working motions of women in sharing simple tasks calmed spirits among all, comfort for men, women and children.

19.       Now, the woman rose slowly, began to speak, at first shyly and hesitantly, to the gathering circle of guests.

20.       What was it Jesus had said when he was with them? This bread I am sharing with you, this is my body. This wine we are sharing, this is my blood. I am always with you, had he not said? Then all remembered the words. The people fed each other. Some began to sing.

21.       They could never be quite sure that what they had heard about the young man was true, or maybe not. They were sure that Jesus had brought into their town what had not been before. He departed, yet not entirely. Sharing the simple meal that he had shown them, brought everyone strangely closer to him, but to each other as well. Jesus came with each morsel of bread passed from hand to hand.

22.       Early the next day, the woman who had organized the meal saw a neighbor who had shunned her for many years during her hemorrhaging. Friends again, the two and the other women went down to the river to bathe. How refreshing the cool water!

23.       Do we not know Jesus in ourselves today, as well?

            a.         In his words passed on to us by those strangers of long ago?

            b.         Do we not know him In the breaking of the bread together here in church or elsewhere?

            c.         Do we not discover him in loving self and neighbor in ways unexpected?

24.       He is risen indeed!

25.       Amen.