St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Easter Sunday: Witnesses to God's forgiveness (Luke 24. 1-12; Acts 10. 34-43)

A group of twelve of us went to New Orleans two weeks ago to assist with the Episcopal Church's rebuilding effort in still ravaged post-Katrina New Orleans.

We arrived early, early, early Friday morning and spent two days ripping out dry wall and plaster and ceilings in flood damaged homes.

When the houses were bare to the studs, they were ready to be rebuilt, or at least be in a condition where the homeowner could make the decision of whether or not to rebuild.

After only two days of work we were really, really tired.

We knew we'd go worship somewhere on Sunday before returning to Houston.

Because we were ready to get back to our homes and families, we decided we'd find somewhere to worship early on Sunday and drive back home right afterwards.

For some of us, it was as if worship were something we needed to check off our to-do list.

Then our associate rector, James, in his wisdom, reminded us of something.

That going to church on Sunday was part of our mission trip.

That worshipping with our brothers and sisters in New Orleans was as important a part of the mission as ripping out walls and ceilings.

Through our presence in worship, we would be witnesses to our brothers and sisters in New Orleans that someone cared about them.

Witnesses that people were still praying for them.

Witnesses that the victims of Katrina were not forgotten.

Witnesses that people were there to help them rebuild and that people would continue to come and help to rebuild the city.

I was willing to accept James' instruction, but I was not totally convinced that this was all that important.

After all. It was a year and a half post-Katrina!

On Sunday, we were the first people to arrive at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church for their 8 am Eucharist.

The church was still locked, and we wondered if they'd cancelled the early service.

After a short wait, the rector, Susan, opened the door and welcomed us into a stuffy nave.

Fifteen minutes later, when the worship started, the space had begun to cool down and a dozen to 20 other people had joined us in worship.

The rector preached an very good sermon about hope in the midst of despair.

Of God doing a new thing in the wilderness.

Of what God wanted to do in a post-Katrina world.

I was somewhat surprised that the rector was still preaching about life after Hurricane Katrina.

And that people seemed to need to hear that message of encouragement and change.

But it confirmed what James had told us about being witnesses.

After worship, we mingled among the members.

We were warmly, warmly welcomed.

Not just a parishioner/visitor welcome, but the welcome given to someone who is bringing hope, comfort, and encouragement. Very, very humbling.

I chatted with the rector.

She told me about losing her home and living with relatives.

She said that the first year after Katrina everyone in New Orleans was surviving on an adrenalin rush.

But this year, the second year, with so very little progress made, a spirit of depression covered the city.

She told about a friend who was very proud and very depressed and that she finally was able to convince her friend to see her doctor about getting an antidepressant.

That when she went to the drug store to pick up her prescription, there was not an antidepressant to be found in the New Orleans area.

In fact, she had to wait a week for her prescription to come in.

In the three days we were in New Orleans, we received countless smiles and kindnesses by citizens who were grateful just to see us there in New Orleans.

With our meager, humble gifts, we were witnesses to God's love and presence in New Orleans.

Being a witness through our words and actions was what we had to offer.

In our gospel this morning we only have witnesses.

There is no resurrection to be seen: Jesus is not present, alive or dead.

There is nothing to prove that Jesus has risen.

All that we have in our gospel is the witness of the two dazzling men who witness that Jesus is not dead but risen and to be found among the living.

The women, although they have not seen the risen Jesus, are witnesses.

They go and tell the 11 remaining apostles about the empty tomb they have seen and the witness they have heard from the two dazzling men.

What we don't hear in the portion of our gospel we heard today is the response of the 11 to the women's witness. That's the next two verses.

The women's witness isn't believed. The 11 apostles think that the women's witness is nonsense.

Only Peter decides to check things out.

He goes to the empty tomb, but he is not ready to be a witness. We are told that what he sees leaves him amazed and with more questions than answers.

Because seeing an empty tomb is not enough to inspire Peter to believe.

Would it have been enough for us?

Between our gospel today and when we hear about the post-resurrection Peter in our lesson from Acts, something has changed in Peter.

He has somehow experienced that Christ is risen in such a life-changing way that he can leave his close-minded, Jesus-only-came-for-the-Jews theology, to actually going and witnessing what he has experienced to the enemies of his people. In our lesson in Acts, Peter is speaking to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his family.

It would be as if an American soldier goes to the home of Iraqi insurgents and proclaims God has no favorites; God accepts all people.

Peter witnesses: It makes no difference who you are or where you're from-if you want God and are ready to do as God says, the door is open.

Peter witnesses to what he has experienced.

For Peter, who denied Jesus three times, who left Jesus when Jesus needed him most, the touchstone of his witness is that those who believe in Jesus will receive forgiveness.

Now he doesn't say believe in Jesus as if being a Christian is a magic talisman that unlocks the forgiveness door.

I believe that what he says is that only those who believe Jesus, and maybe only a little bit, that there is nothing we can do, if we only ask, that can't be forgiven by God.

If we don't believe that Jesus can do that, forgive, how can we receive his forgiveness?

Peter, who has received forgiveness, reminds us that accepting and giving forgiveness is the foundation of being a witness to Jesus.

On our Saturday in New Orleans, the family whose house we were stripping to the studs was present; they lived in one of those small FEMA trailers that cover the front yards of so many homes in New Orleans.

In conversation with the wife, and then the husband, I was struck at how betrayed the people of New Orleans felt-by engineers and civil servants who said that the levees and bridges would keep them safe from flooding.

By the people who dallied so long in responding after the flood.

By the people who still haven't figured out how to rebuild the city and to get money, money that is available, to those who are ready to rebuild.

By people like us who have gone on with our lives as if the lives of the people of the Gulf Coast, and other people who struggle in the aftermath of personal and natural disasters, are yesterday's news.

I am struck how much the people of New Orleans will need to forgive and to be forgiven if they are to be able to heal from the tragedies of their lives.

I am struck how much all the people of God need to forgive and to be forgiven if we are to be witnesses to the power of the risen Jesus in our own lives. The denying, disbelieving Peter, through for

giving and being forgiven, was so transformed that he was able to go and witness the gospel to the people who had murdered Jesus.

The best that we can do to prove that Christ is risen indeed, alleluia, is through the witness of his presence in our lives-we who have never seen him in flesh and blood.

We who believe that Christ is risen is because we have heard other people's witnesses of the presence of Jesus in their lives. The foundation of our personal witness will be for us to be forgiving people-to forgive and to be forgiven.

For if we are honest, despite praying the confession almost every time we come to worship; despite receive God's absolution every time from the priest, every person here may have some little place (or not so little place) in our hearts where we need to be forgiven and/or we need to forgive, maybe even to forgive the unforgivable.

How can we completely forgive and completely be forgiven?

I'm going to preach about that next Sunday.

Next Sunday I will witness how I've come to understand God's absolute, impartial forgiveness for all who are willing to believe that yes, God has shown us through Jesus, who on no less place than when he was dying on the cross forgave those who betrayed and executed him, that there is nothing we can do that cannot be forgiven, and nothing any person can do to us that we are not able, with Jesus' help, to forgive.

This week: do an inventory of whom you may need to forgive; of whatever may be in you that needs to be forgiven. Next Sunday, the second Sunday of Easter, I'll witness to how Jesus can wipe both slates clean.

AMEN

St. Mary's will be collecting an offering for the rebuilding of those places affected by Hurricane Katrina in April; we plan to go on another mission trip next fall.

In the meantime, for how you can be part of the rebuilding of New Orleans, go to: http://edola.org/odr_main.php