An Idle Tale (Easter Sunrise) - Luke 24:1-12


Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, when the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat at a window sewing…
Wait…wrong story…
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Wait…wrong story again…
Hey guys, we went to that tomb that Nick and Joe buried Jesus.  When we got there we saw that the stone was moved.  We went in to look around, relieved that we were not going to have to move that huge rock.  We were ready to pour out the burial spices upon Jesus’ body, but his body was not there.  We were trying to figure out what was going on…maybe we were looking in the wrong spot or even had come to the wrong tomb…could someone have stolen the body.  We even wondered if maybe one of y’all had moved it.  It was then that two men suddenly appeared right there amongst us.  They were just about glowing…Peter, it reminded me of what you said it was like when y’all saw Jesus with Elijah and Moses.  They near ‘bout scared us to death.  Wouldn’t that have been a fine thing, to die in the tomb where the body was missing.  Then they started talking to us.  They said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.  Don’t you remember he told y’all he was going to be arrested, crucified, and then he would rise again on the third day?”  Just as soon as they disappeared we took off…we had to tell you guys.
Some of you here may be a little uncomfortable this morning.  What am I doing equating the story of the Resurrection with Snow White and Star Wars?  The thing is, though the disciples would have had no idea who Prince Charming or Luke Skywalker is, there are kids today who think that Snow White and the Dwarves or the stories of Kylo Ren and Rey are more real that the disciples thought the story of the women who came from the tomb.  Luke tells us, “Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James,a Dan the other women who told this to the apostles.  But theses words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”  It was a fairy tale…it was science fiction.
Yet, just like a Disney fairy tale or the Star Wars epic, the seed of hope was planted in one of those eleven men.  It grabbed hold of him and rooted down.  While the other ten were still likely making fun of the women’s story, Peter couldn’t take it any more.  He jumped up and took off for the tomb.  There, he discovered, the story of the women was not any idle tale, but non-fiction truth.
We are gathered here this morning to attest to that truth.  If the resurrection of Jesus were nothing but an idle tale, then we all are to be pitied for getting up at “0”-Dark-Thirty and coming out on this cool Sunday morning when we could be like others around here, tucked tightly in our beds, sound asleep.  Paul later says (when some in Corinth are questioning the truth of the resurrection), “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain…If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those who have died in Christ have perished.  If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Then in the next breath he writes, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is no idle tale, no fairy tale, no piece of science fiction…it is fact…and we are here to proclaim that fact…Jesus has been, is, and always will be resurrected from the dead.  We gather this morning to proclaim that the eternal light has broken through the darkness and to declare that death can no longer lay any claim upon us.  As Christ was set free, so have we…and with that comes the promise that we can truly, in the only way possible, live happily ever after.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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