Psalm 4

Luke 24: 36b-48

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Eugene Peterson)

Psalm 4

            ¹When I call, give me answers.

            God, take my side!

Once, in a tight place, you gave me room;

Now I’m in trouble again:

grace me! hear me!

²You rabble—how long do I put up with your scorn?

How long will you lust after lies?

How long will you live crazed by illusion?

³Look at this: look

Who got picked by God!

He listens the split second I call to him.

⁴Complain if you must, but don’t lash out.

Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking.

⁵Build your case before God and wait for his verdict.

⁶Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.

“More, more.”

I have God’s more-than-enough,

⁷More joy in one ordinary day

Than they get in all their shopping sprees.

⁸At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,

For you, God, have put my life back together.

Luke 24:36b through Luke 24:48 (TMNT)

Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷They thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death. ³⁸He continued with them, “Don’t be upset, and don’t let all these doubting questions take over. ³⁹Look at my hands; look at my feet—it’s really me. Touch me. Look me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn’t have muscle and bone like this.” ⁴⁰As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was too much; it seemed too good to be true.

He asked, “Do you have any food here?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of leftover fish they had cooked. ⁴³He took it and ate it right before their eyes.

⁴⁴Then he said, “Everything I told you while I was with you comes to this: All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. ⁴⁶He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! ⁴⁸You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses.

Softly As In a Morning Sunrise

By Sigmund Romberg

Softly as in a morning sunrise
The light of love comes stealing
Into a newborn day

When I think of Resurrection Day a morning sunrise comes into my mind.  There it is:  dawn “in the garden.”  The stone is rolled away.  The women come.  They are surprised.  But gradually it “dawns” on them what has happened.

The scripture lesson we read today actually takes place in the evening.  The two disciples who recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread at Emmaus have gone back to Jerusalem to tell their friends the good news.  And then Jesus appears!  But even with Jesus present their friends didn’t seem to get it.  As Eugene Peterson expresses it in his translation:

 “They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing.  It was too much; it seemed too good to be true.”

            We’re not much different from those disciples.  The Resurrection news is still “too good to be true” for us.  We come to church and sing the songs.  We pray the prayers.  But, if we are honest, we have trouble with Jesus, all that he stood for, and all that he was.  But the sun still rises.  And the Son has risen.

Those of us who read People Magazine were surprised last week when we started to read about our favorite Hollywood stars and then came upon a full page advertisement in red and black:

“If you think getting up

Sunday morning

 is hard, try

Rising from the Dead.”

That’s what God did on Resurrection Day. 

Now it just has to sink in….

Get Happy

By Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen

After it sinks in, the good news of the Resurrection gives us a reason to “get happy.”  On Easter Sunday we pulled out the stops and sang:

“Jesus the Lord is Risen! 

Alleluia! Alleluia! 

Jesus the Lord is Risen Today! 

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Today we are continuing to sing “Alleluia,” only this time with the jazz music of Henry Wiems.

Even though it took a while for those dense disciples to finally get it.  They did get it.  The risen Christ became real for them, and they did “get happy.”

Last week we read about the Resurrection Community:

“The whole congregation of believers was united as one --- one heart, one mind!..  They shared everything.”

If you read further in Luke today you would come upon the last sentence in this Gospel:

“They returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy.”

“Forget your troubles c'mon get happy,
you better chase all your cares away.
Shout hallejulah c'mon get happy
get ready for the judgement day.”

Those are the words Judy Garland first sang back in the 1930s.  But we can still keep singing them in the 21^st Century.  Because of Resurrection Day Judgement Day is not a day to be feared, but a day to be anticipated.

C’mon, get happy.

So What

By Miles Davis

The fellow who wrote “So What” was one of the most famous jazz musicians of the last century.  He liked to say that lot of other jazz musicians were wearing suits because they had worked for him.

If you were one of those jazz musicians working with Miles Davis and earning enough money to buy a new suit, you often heard him saying:  “So what.”  “So what” was his stock phrase.

As others see us standing “in the morning sunrise” and beginning to “get happy” they might ask:  “So what?”  So what if Jesus was raised from the dead?

What difference does the Resurrection make in your life?  Do you live as if Christ has risen?  Or do you live as if Christ is still in the tomb?

When the risen Christ appeared to the scared disciples he gave them at least two good words:

“Peace be with you.”

“You’re the witnesses”

            Peace is something all of us wish for ourselves and this world.  Unfortunately peace is as hard a commodity to come by as it was in Jesus’ day.  Personal peace.  And communal peace.  Here is our joy and our challenge ----- to let the “peace of Christ” live in us and then share it.  To be peacemakers in our families and in our world.

            One way we live this Resurrection Life of Peace is being witnesses.  The early disciples witnessed by speaking and doing.  People like Peter and Paul preached powerfully of how Christ had changed their lives.  But ordinary Christians also got in the act.  Through their lives they witnessed to the Resurrected One as they shared and sacrificed and sang “Alleluia.”

            Today the witnessing continues. One of the pictures you see on the screen shows witnesses joyfully working together assembling packages for Clark County’s Christmas Angel project.  Another shows witnesses from the Confirmation class scrubbing down a wall at a food pantry in Milwaukee.  There are many other witnesses not pictured ---   leading worship, praying for the sick, teaching our youth, making cards, fixing meals and much more.

            So what?  That’s what.  The Resurrection life begins right here and it never ends.

Amen.