Third Sunday of Easter, 04/15/2018

Sermon on Luke 24:36b-48, by Beth A. Schlegel

³⁶As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” ³⁷But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. ³⁸And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.⁴¹And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate before them.

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

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Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

“You are witnesses of these things.”

That’s the bottom line for today’s Gospel.

These things:

What Jesus had said and done in his ministry
What Jesus went through when he was betrayed into a farce of a trial and executed.
His public crucifixion, his death and burial,
The empty tomb,
And now his bodily appearing in their midst. Bodily –

with wounds, and an appetite, Death is where sin gets us; but to go to Jesus means turning away from sin.We cannot continue in sin and live. They are two different paths.Jesus rose from the dead not to give God’s blessing to human nature but to reshape human nature to God’s life.
This tendency of human nature – even within the church
Such a thing is upside-down, inside out and backward!
Human nature wants God to be conformed to this world, giving divine blessing to what we consider to be good, acceptable, and perfect.
And yet, even in the church, the Lord’s mission --- to proclaim repentance, turning away from sin and toward the Lord for forgiveness-- has been overshadowed by human insistence on calling the shots.
As St. Paul put it in Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
The good news is that Jesus gives life by joining us to his victorious body–
And now he lives the life God wants us to have. God wants us to live the resurrection life!
He suffered our suffering and died our death – the suffering and death we right now are destined to undergo for our sins.
It doesn’t say that Jesus died and rose so that acceptance and tolerance for all beliefs and behaviors might be proclaimed in his name.
Notice that this mission of Jesus, is for repentance and forgiveness of sins to be proclaimed.
life is where God gets us, starting with the risen Jesus, the new Adam.
That is what Jesus came to do.
The Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
“And in so doing, he fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures – the Torah and the prophets and the Psalms and completed the divine mission to redeem sinful humanity:
Resurrection is bodily, incarnate. Jesus appeared as himself, alive, body and soul.

to overturn the Gospel to serve its own ends, is nothing new.
Pope Alexander VI, of the notorious Borgia family in the 15^th c., misused his churchly position to bless deceit, fornication, incest, abuse of power, and murder.No wonder his family was cursed, as the historians spin it, by violent death – they persisted in sin and did not turn to Christ as Savior. Let the Borgias be an example to us of the consequences of insisting that God bless our desires. As we confront the issues of our day, let us take care that we don’t decline the new life of the resurrection so that we can have fun for now. For when we do, like the Borgias, there will be consequences for us to pay – for the end of that line is death.Life comes only through Jesus Christ. Jesus appeared bodily to his disciples so that they would know the truth and the truth would set them free to be witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. – and not just any future, God’s future: Eternity, reconciliation with God – peace.You are witnesses of these things. We are witnesses of these things. Yes, you and I!
Jesus appeared risen from the dead so that the disciples could see another destiny for themselves – hope for the future

You have seen the Lord forgive the sins of the repentant and give new life to the dead in spirit, washing them in his own blood of redemption. .
you have seen the Lord – you have eaten and drank with him, bodily.
You have heard his voice speak through the Law, the prophets, the Psalms, the preaching and the hymns. You have seen and heard the risen Lord Jesus call you to change direction and live with him! And each day, each of us gets to answer “Yes” to his call to turn from our sin and toward the Lord and his life. Our future lies with God – and God has made us to be witnesses of his marvelous grace in Jesus Christ. We have nothing better to share than that good news. And we have no better place to share it than starting here in North York, on Saturday May 30. Can we see ourselves as filled with the Spirit and going out as tongues of fire for the Lord?
That’s the day before Pentecost this year!

It is as witnesses to Jesus Christ alive and well that we go out –
It is as witnesses to the truth of God’s victory over death that we go out.
It is as witnesses to the power of the Holy Spirit to bring life to this world that we go out.
It is as witnesses to the love of God that raised Jesus from the dead that we go out,For Jesus lives for each and every one of our neighbors – and he lives for us.
Amen
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
There is no better news to share than that!

The Rev. Beth A. Schlegel
York PA 17404
E-Mail: pastorschlegel@live.com

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