Addressing Mumblings about 'Easter Nonsense'

Addressing Mumblings about ‘Easter Nonsense’ 

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, April 4, 2021 

Psalm 16:8-10; Luke 24:1-12

    If you noticed today’s sermon title, or saw it advertised earlier this week, did it get your attention?  If so, mission accomplished.  When I first mentioned some weeks ago that the Easter sermon title would have to do with “Easter Nonsense,” I was asked to elaborate and explain myself.  After all, it does sound sort of contradictory to what Easter is all about, doesn’t it?

Well, if you listened closely to the scripture reading from Luke’s gospel, then you have learned where the idea for the sermon title came from.  But just in case you missed it, here it is again.  The scripture text from Luke’s gospel says that when the women who had gone to the tomb of Jesus told the Eleven disciples and others all they had seen and heard, “they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:11 NIV).  So, there you have it.

When I read Luke’s account of the Easter story again a few weeks ago from the New International Version of the Bible, those words jumped out at me as a possible starting place for an Easter message.

The stories that developed about Jesus coming back to life two days after being crucified and buried in a stone tomb did seem like “nonsense” to those who heard them.  A bloody, disfigured body brought back to life and walking out of a sealed, stone tomb – who had ever heard or dreamt of such a thing?  Had we been among those followers that morning, many or most of us, upon hearing the stories the women told about a resurrected Jesus, likely would have thought it nonsense as well.

Now, Easter means many different things to different people.  Some people take the Easter story literally in every sense of the term.  Others interpret the Easter story metaphorically or believe it seeks to describe an indescribable reality beyond our comprehension.  I do not intend to wax eloquent or in a definitive manner about what really happened on that first Easter morning.  In other words, I am not going to tell you what your beliefs about Easter or the resurrection should be.  If I can’t explain to you how a tiny acorn that fell upon the ground many decades ago and became this large oak tree now standing beside our Chapel over the Memorial Garden, how could I ever hope to explain to you the mystery of that Easter day that changed the world?  Whatever you bring to Easter is okay with me; as long as you afford me the same benefit.

But here is the point: regardless of how we might interpret the Easter story, Easter speaks of marvels and mysteries and possibilities outside the norm or realm of everyday experience.  Easter speaks of life, the mystery and miracle of life, and the hope of some form of life or continued existence after death.  I love the way that 14^th century poet Hafiz puts it:

God / Has written a thousand promises / All over your heart / That say, / Life, life, life, / Is far too sacred to / Ever end. (“God’s Bucket”)

You know, over the centuries, a lot of ideas were floated that were considered nonsense.  The Wright Brothers’ idea that humans could fly – nonsense!  The idea that a person could carry on a conversation with someone across the Atlantic Ocean – nonsense!  The idea that people could carry a little phone in their pocket and talk to someone no matter where you might be – nonsense!  The idea that every home could have a personal computer and you might talk to people on the other side of the world through that computer -nonsense!  You get the idea. 

Well, those first followers of Jesus on Easter morning said the ideas the women were espousing were nonsense.  But just because we can’t explain something or can’t envision it doesn’t rule out the possibility of it being or becoming reality in some fashion.  Easter is the day that celebrates the indescribable, the unexplainable, the if-we-choose-to-believe, it is attainable.

Yes, taking the Easter story literally may seem to many to be nonsense, as it was to those followers of Jesus.  But the truth of Easter can be so much more a literal reading of the story, as Easter and resurrection speak to the marvels and mysteries and miracle of life, unseen potential and possibilities, and hope even in the face of death and despair.