Evi-Dance

Luke 24:1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Two weeks ago a pastor friend of mine went to do the interment of a member’s ashes in the Stockbridge cemetery.  It’s the road department who digs the graves in Stockbridge and that day it was raining, so the crew had covered the small hole with a large piece of wood to keep the water out.  When my friend lifted up the wood, he saw it was actually a road sign.  But not just any road sign.  This sign said… “Dead End!”  The family and my friend, thankfully all had the right sort of faith and the right sense of humor for that particular moment.  But all too often the world out there really does feel an awful lot like a real “Dead End.”

That’s what the world looked like for the women who watched as Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb on Friday.  That’s what the world looked like when they came out on Sunday morning to properly finish his burial and found what we read in today’s Gospel.  Luke lays it out all nice and neat, describing the stone rolled away, the body missing, the shining young men, and the linen cloths over in a corner… Luke does it so well you might be tempted to say, “See!  This is the proof that there's no Dead End.”  But here’s an awkward question for you on an Easter Sunday.  Where’s Jesus?  Look again at the story if you need to, but there’s NO Jesus!  Alive, dead, or any other way!  With no Jesus, is there even a case for the Resurrection?

Kelly’s dad, Fred, was a police detective.  One of his best stories was about a series of burglaries which all had the same, very well used MO of one particular, very well known, gentleman in town.  Fred brought him in, laid out all of the very familiar hallmarks of these most recent burglaries that perfectly matched those of the burglaries this man had been convicted of in the past.  Then Fred asked the man what he thought.  The man thought for a second and then said, “Well Cap’n Davis, that’s a good THEORY, but you ain’t got no evi-dance.”  Fred loved the way the man said “evi-dance” and it always made him laugh out loud.  Then, Fred would say, “He was right.  I didn’t have any hard “evi-dance” it was all just a THEORY.”

 

And really, that’s where we are with today’s Easter Gospel.  The open tomb, the shining guys and the linens in a corner make a good THEORY for the Resurrection, but if we’re honest, this story leaves us with no evi-dance!  Why in heaven or on Earth would Luke do us this way on Easter morning?  The women, you, me… we’ve all been left hanging since the Dead End sign of Good Friday… so why the tease, Luke?  Why not just give us Jesus in the flesh right here and now like John does?

I don’t really know why Luke chose to tell the story this way, but I do know this story, which is long on THEORY and short of EVI-DANCE, feels an awful lot like the world feels these days.  A pandemic that refuses to just GO AWAY once and for all!  Horrible legislation like the “Don’t say Gay” and anti-trans bills spreading throughout the county, and new discriminatory voting restrictions.  Not to mention the world teetering on the brink of World War III.  Like those women who came to the tomb on the first Easter, when we look out our window in search of hope, it just doesn't seem like there's a lot of EVI-DANCE.

But if Fred were here, and I suspect he is, he’d remind us that even though we don't have hard EVI-DANCE for hope in this story or in our world for the moment, we've actually got a lot more than nothing.  He’d say to us, “When you come out of your house in the morning and the road’s wet, the yard’s wet, the roof, trees, car, and driveway are wet, it’s true, you can’t PROVE that it rained last night… but you know it did.”  It’s not enough to close the case, but it’s enough to keep you walking down the road of the investigation.  Maybe that’s what Luke was doing with this lesson that’s big on theory and short of evidence.  Maybe Luke is reminding us that even in those times where there is not yet an air-tight case for us to have HOPE, if we look around, there’s always enough to at least keep us walking along the Way. 

For this Easter, that’s what I needed to hear.  Hopefully it’s what you needed to hear as well.  I needed to hear that even though the world is not yet as God created it to be, there are clues along the way to give me hope.  Like the laughter of that family and friends gathered for the interment in Stockbridge.  Like the open tomb, the shining men and the linens in the corner.  Like the little corners of kindness we create in our community, the small acts of caring we do for one another when we’re down.  Like the food we share with each other, which in church is an absolute expression of love! What Luke does for me with this story is to keep me walking and noticing and gathering up all those clues.  Clues that I know for now only give me the THEORY that a better world is possible.  But those clues are enough to keep me walking, seeing, and gathering those clues all down the road, because in Luke's Gospel, it's a little place just down the Emmaus Road where the theory we're holding onto now, evolves into the solid evi-dance we all so desperately need!   

In our world today, hope often feels like "Just a Theory." The fear, anger, hate and suffering we see all around us does not give us much in the way of hard "Evi-dance" for hope.  But the promise of Easter is that as we all walk together in love as Christ loved us, the hard evidence will unfold before us as we walk the Jesus Way of living with love, compassion, generosity, and peace just like it did for those disciples on the Emmaus Road in the very next verse that follows the lesson we read for today.  

May we walk together on this road, because at times it is truly overwhelming to walk alone.  May we encourage each other along the way to live our lives as Jesus did... with love, compassion, and peace.  And may we all continue to collect and share with each other even the smallest bits of evidence that there is absolutely reason to hope.  And may we all do that for one another until we are met in person by the risen Christ along the Way.  Amen.