No Idle Tale Luke 24:1-12

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! And we are here to celebrate that good news, because it is very good news indeed! This is the good news – that Christ has died for our sins; Christ has defeated sin and death; Christ has been raised into eternal life; and we can live into that eternal life now by grace through faith as the disciples of Jesus Christ!

Millions of people in this country, and billions around the world, have gathered to celebrate the victory of Christ over sin and death. They have gathered to sing the great hymns of resurrection, to affirm their faith, and to rejoice in the assurance that their sins are forgiven and their new life is received.

But we live in a world where there are many people for whom this day is nothing more than a day to have brunch with family or friends. It is nothing more than a day to dress up in new spring clothes as they celebrate the changing of seasons. It is nothing more than a visit to see a large bunny in a mall for pictures. It is nothing more than an extended weekend for a spring break trip. For many of these people, the story of Easter is nothing more than an idle tale, a fool’s hope, a childish story of “pie in the sky when I die.”

I stand before you this day, and every Sunday, to confess that this is no idle tale in my life. This congregation has been in this community for nearly 200 years declaring that this is not a foolish hope we proclaim. The Church has been proclaiming this good news for nearly 2000 years because we believe Christ has offered us so much more than “pie in the sky when we die.”

I shared earlier in Lent that part of my morning devotions includes reading online cartoons. It is only a very small part of my devotions, but it is a part. The point of this practice is to remind me that I am not God, that I can’t save the world by my own efforts, no matter how engaged I am or how hard I try or how sincerely I believe. By taking a few moments to read cartoons, I acknowledge this. True humility and faith means that occasionally we should engage in activities which are not meant to be productive.

That is not the same thing as working hard at something which ends up looking like it was unproductive. We are called to be faithful, even when we can’t see any success in our efforts. That’s just another way we get reminded that we are not God. Instead, reading cartoons is, for me, about trusting God to run the world even if, and especially if, I am not trying to run it myself. There are few things in life as unproductive as reading a few cartoons online.

But now, I have to confess something. I am going to refer to one of the cartoons I read this week, which means that I was, on some level, thinking about sermon illustrations and work while I was supposed to engaged in a nonproductive activity. I’m not sure if that was a failure at a discipline, or God intervening as the One who is more important than my discipline, but that is a reflection for another time.

How many of you are familiar with the cartoon, “The Dinette Set”? It is a one panel cartoon that gives us a glimpse into the lives of a close-knit family of clueless people who share their version of suburban wisdom with each other. It began in alternative newspapers under the name “Suburban Torture,” changing the name when it got picked up for national syndication. The artist retired last November, so it is now in reruns. This past week, one of the regular characters was starting to relate a piece of gossip that had been shared with her by a particular person at work. She was interrupted by her husband before she got to the actual gossip. He said, “Just say ‘somebody told me.’ The point of good gossip is its unknown origin, so it can’t be verified.”

The husband’s point was that nothing should get in the way of a good story – not the facts, not the source, not the truth. Knowing who told the story might call the story into question, if that person has ever been wrong or unreliable before – and the truth is, that would be pretty much all of us at one time or another. If we can disconnect the story from the teller, we can start to disconnect it from other things as well – like facts. If we can disconnect the story, we can believe the story is true, even if all the evidence is to the contrary.

In other words, the idle tale known as gossip was more important for confirming the husband’s world view than actually knowing the facts of a story. Knowing who told the story would not help. It might even make the story less believable.

That panel was from over 10 years ago, but it could have been written for today. There are magazines and politicians who regularly resort to “unnamed sources” for stories which confirm their world views, even when it can be verified that these stories are nothing more than idle tales.

You don’t have to take my word for that. You can check out that observation for yourself by thumbing through the tabloids at the checkout counters of stores like Walmart. It turns out that there is a lot of profit to be had by sharing idle tales about celebrities and public figures. Pick up any issue, at any time, and you can count on stories of stars who are getting divorced, going to rehab, cheating on their spouses, going bankrupt, suffering terminal diseases, hiding evidence of spectacular crimes and evils, and so much more – and almost all of it will be disconnected from sources and facts. Almost all of it is nothing more than idle tales.

The names in the stories change based on whoever the publishers think will get the most attention, but the stories are always the same. Unnamed “insider sources” have the “real story,” as the “in house experts” speculate on what one clue taken out of context might mean for someone’s secret personal tragedy. And even though we know, in our better moments, that these are idle tales, we still buy these magazines.

We buy them because they confirm our world view that these rich and famous people do not deserve to be rich and famous, so we think it is only fair that they suffer and are miserable. I’m not sure if that is a failure of our discipline, or God intervening as the One who is more important than our disciplines by having us engage in a completely unproductive activity, but that is a reflection for another time.

I was struck by this cartoon because today is Easter, and the story of Easter is quite a tale. For many people today, it is nothing but an idle tale, based on unnamed sources and insider experts and details that can’t be verified 2000 years after the story takes place. For these people, there is no reason to have the story mean anything other than some unproductive entertainment. To these people I say, it is time to listen to the story again.

Early on Sunday morning, several women who had been among the followers of Jesus were at the tomb to properly prepare his crucified body for burial. There hadn’t been either time or safety to do it before, with the anger of the crowds, the oppression of the Romans, and the requirements of the priests for celebrating the Passover holiday which began shortly after Jesus died.

When the women, some of whom are named, get to the tomb, they find that it has been opened and that the body is missing. They don’t know what these means, but the obvious choices are all horrible. As they considered possible further desecrations of the body by the enemies of Jesus, they were startled by two men in dazzling white clothing.

These men, who are not named or otherwise identified, assure the women. “He is not here, but has risen.” They then help the women remember how Jesus had told them that all this would happen – the betrayal, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.

The women then returned to the other disciples and tell their story. But to the apostles, to the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples, it sounds like an idle tale. It’s a good story, but it can’t be verified. If what the women said was true it would confirm their world view that Jesus was indeed the messiah, and that sin and death are not the final word in the battle with evil. But there is just too much of this story that can be dismissed by these men to take it as anything other than an idle tale.

Much like we approach tabloids, these men approached the story of the women. It could be dismissed by them because it was women telling the story, and women had little authority or respect in that culture. It could be dismissed by them because logically an empty tomb is not proof of resurrection, only that the body is not there. It could be dismissed by them because realistically dead people tend to stay dead, except in zombie and cursed mummy stories, and (spoiler alert) we know those aren’t true.

If this were only an idle tale, the story would have died out then and there. Oh, it might have popped up at other times, in other places, with other names being lifted up as the one resurrected. Idle tales have a way of repeating themselves, if only with different names and place. But this is not an idle tale, and Jesus is still the only one who has been resurrected.

We know the names of the women at the tomb. These names can be verified by other ancient records from that day, as people who were known to the community. This is not an idle tale. We know that Jesus would appear to the disciples later that day, in both Emmaus and in Jerusalem, and these people would share their stories. This is not an idle tale. We know that Jesus would appear to Thomas and the disciples behind closed doors a week later, with the scars in his hands and side still visible. This is not an idle tale. We know that Jesus would appear to many others over the next forty days. This is not an idle tale.

This much evidence and support should be enough to assure us that this is not an idle tale. But the witness does not end there. We have the witness of Paul, who aggressively tried to stomp out the movement of Christians. We have the witness of the early martyrs, who were tortured and killed for believing in Christ. We have the witnesses of Augustine, and Martin Luther, and John Wesley – each of whom in their own eras shared the importance of knowing the Risen Christ.

This is not an idle tale. We have the witness of the saints in our community. We have the witness of the saints in our families who loved us. And I am here to tell you that this is my witness as well. I know that Christ is risen, and it affects and changes everything in my life. Some might say that this is a failure of the world to discipline me, but I believe it is God intervening as the One who is more important than all the disciplines of the world. This is not an idle tale. Jesus of Nazareth lived among us, died for us, and was raised for us on Easter morning. This is not an idle tale. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sent us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost so that we would know the coming of Christ into our lives even today. This is not an idle tale. This witness is verified, and the witnesses are named, and we know the story is true. We know it is true, not because it confirms our world-view, but because it confirms God’s view of the world.

The world will know it is true when we forgive their sins, freeing them to love as Christ has loved us. The world will know it is true when we show mercy, relieving them of the need to continue to hate. The world will know it is true when we live into the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, where “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for [we] are all one in Christ Jesus.”

We are here to celebrate that good news, because it is very good news indeed! This is the good news – that Christ has died for our sins; Christ has defeated sin and death; Christ has been raised into eternal life; and we can live into that eternal life now by grace through faith as the disciples of Jesus Christ!

Would join with me in our witness to the world that this is not an idle tale? Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

UMH 322 “Up from the Grave He Arose”