EASTER 3 - B

Earth Day – You Have Been Witnesses

Introduction

I guess it is fair to say I am a bit of a science fiction fan. I have read most of the classics, and definitely seen most of the movies. What I really like about science fiction is that because most of it happens “in the future” they can write about whatever they want… what I mean by that is that sci fi writers can tell the truth more than people who write about what is happening right here and right now.

George Orwell and HG Wells before him wrote stories of what life would be like in a hundred years. They predicted a lot of things, like submarines, and rocket ships, and the internet…

The scarier science fiction is the stuff that is written about the environment, or about disease, or about hunger… and predicts that we are going to destroy our planet. Even something as simple as the Hunger Games, which is amazingly popular right now, simply predicts a time when food becomes scarce… and wonders what would happen.

Well – wondering about what is next is a part of our religious task, and something that the disciples knew a lot about…

Story Time – The World as an Apple

1. Think of the earth as an apple./ Slice an apple into quarters and set aside three of the quarters. These three pieces represent the oceans of the world. The fourth quarter roughly represents the globe's total land area.

2. Slice this "land" in half. Set aside one of the pieces. The portion set aside represents the land area that is inhospitable to people (e.g., the polar areas, deserts, wetlands, very high or rocky mountains). The piece that is left is land where people live, but do not necessarily grow the foods needed for life.

3. Slice the 1/8 piece into four sections and set aside three of these. The 3/32 fraction set aside represent those areas too rocky, wet, cold, steep, infertile to actually produce food. They also contain the cities, suburban sprawl, highways, shopping centers, schools, parks, factories, parking lots, and other places where people live, but don't grow food.

4. Carefully peel the 1/32 slice of the apple. This tiny bit of peeling represents our arable land, the land upon which we depend for our food. Estimates suggest that we loose 25 billion tons of precious topsoil each year from erosion, yet we must feed an additional 71 million people each year on this diminishing resource.

Bringing the Dead to Life

During worship last week, the gospel reading brought us to the moment where Jesus appeared before his disciples… Those first moments after the resurrection when no one quite knew what was going on… so there were times of shock, and disbelief, and wonder…

Today, we fast forward a little bit and see how those disciples respond as they try to understand how the one they saw dead is now alive. Not only that, but this Jesus guy, who they knew was crucified and buried, is now sitting and eating fish with them.

It is not only a dramatic turnaround; it changes everything… so here are the disciples asking themselves, “How can that be? What does this mean?”…

I don’t think it is too much of a stretch for me to say that the “now what” question is always with us. I also do not think it is too much of a stretch to say that it always has to do with the world around us.

The Genesis story talks about God giving Adam and Eve a garden and then asking, “Now what?” The story of Moses and the Promised Land, same thing, “you got us out of Egypt, now what? You got us to the Holy Land, now what…”

In each case the response is, ‘What are you going to do with what has been given you…’

Jesus has come back; life is stronger than death, now what?

Simply answering that question required a massive shift in the way the disciples thought. First off, their leader was dead and the movement was over, right? Then, they were followers not leaders, right? Well, no, and they had to get their heads around the miracle that things change overnight.

Biologist Elizabet Sahtouris uses the familiar image of a butterfly as a sign of hope for our age.

She says that within each chrysalis a miracle occurs. Tiny cells that biologists actually call “imaginal cells” begin to appear. They are completely different from caterpillar cells. At first, the caterpillar's immune system perceives these new cells as enemies and attacks them.

This is not unlike the way that new ideas in science, medicine, politics, and religion are first perceived. But the new cells are not deterred.

They continue to appear in even greater numbers, recognizing one another and bonding together to form clumps. With enough clumps, the caterpillar's immune system is overwhelmed.

The caterpillar body then becomes the perfect environment for the growth of the butterfly. And we all know what happens when a butterfly emerges from a cocoon. It flies off to embrace its new world.

See, resurrection, Easter, Spring, new Life… it is all the same theme. We just have to learn to see it as part of the way we live life… we are called upon to recognize the new things happening in our midst, and to embrace them, and allow them to change us.

If that sounds a little new age hippy like, let me put it into old fashioned religious language: We can be raised up with Christ, and filled with that same creative spirit of God that was in Jesus.

Conclusion

The disciples succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

I like to think it is because they became so passionate about the idea of new life that it became contagious.

Too often all we hear about is the bad stuff, oil spills and global warming, floods and death and destruction… Maybe what this world needs is a little more carrot and a lot less stick.

Everything is possible, we have all we need right here, God has given us every good gift and If you look around, you will discover that new life is all around you. Embrace the possibility. Amen.