APRIL 16, 2006 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
ACTS 10:34-43; PSALM 118:1-2, 14-24; I CORINTHIANS 15:1-11; JOHN 20:1-18
Hearing Is Seeing Is Believing
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You remember that old 1950’s Home Ec phrase: the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. There are a couple of updated versions of that adage. A comedian, who was forced to change his eating style due to a heart attack, agreed that yes, indeed, the way for a doctor get a good look at your heart is through your stomach… Then, of course, there’s the feminist advice to “oppressed” women everywhere: By all means, slave away over a meal for your man…then sprinkle a little poison on it because, as they say, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach!
In matters of faith, though, which, as my wife would tell me, is a much more appropriate topic for this Easter morning, the way to anyone’s heart (male or female) is a little different. Another old saying gets us started on our path of discovery: seeing is believing. Our culture puts a lot of stock in that truism. How many times have you heard or said: I’ll believe it when I see it! Such assertions seem to say that the way to our hearts is actually through our eyes.
Next Sunday we’ll hear the story about the disciple Thomas who is the poster child for this visually-oriented challenge to faith. In fact, when his friends try to convince him that the Lord is alive, he says, Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe! So Thomas demands proof for two senses, both his sight and his touch before he will believe. The way to his heart is through his hands and his eyes: seeing and touching is believing.
Today’s Gospel story about Mary’s encounter with Jesus is a little different. You just heard the particulars: early in the morning she finds the stone rolled away from the tomb, runs to tell the disciples, then makes her way back once more after the men are gone. As she looks into the tomb through her vale of her tears, she sees two figures who ask why she’s sad. She explains her pain: someone has stolen the body of the Teacher. She has been denied his presence in her life…now she is being denied his presence in her grief. Seeing the empty tomb is believing that insult has been added to injury.
Sensing someone else close by, she turns and is asked once more, Why are you weeping? And for some reason, she fails to see that it is Jesus…Why? How could she not recognize the Lord? Any ideas?
Mary: -tears -grief -back light/sun -subconscious block
Jesus: -disguise (what purpose? trick? testing her faith/strength?)
For whatever reason, seeing is not believing for Mary. Something more is needed. In fact, it’s not until Jesus speaks to her, calls her by name, that the light truly dawns. Mary, he says, and in that moment, with that single word that she has heard so many times before, this hearing changes her world. Suddenly she is also able to see – Rabbouni!, she says – and believe. Mary came to the tomb in tears to bury the Lord. She leaves the tomb in joy to tell the disciples I have seen the Lord. Indeed, Hearing is seeing is believing.
This story demonstrates so clearly that our names carry a certain power. Within the snap of my fingers I can recall a time (or two!) when my name was spoken in a way that caused me some anxiety. Robert Scott Fuller – get in here right now! The full name was one clue, the tone of voice was another, my guilty conscience = a hat trick. I knew that I was in trouble.
The use of my name also causes some anxiety when I don’t recognize the speaker. The phone rings…I say Hello!...and then I hear, Hey, Robert, how’re ya doin’ today? His use of my first name is one clue (I’ve gone by Scott since my birth), his exuberant tone is another, the fact that nothing about his voice sounds familiar = a hat trick. I say good by and hang up.
Then there are special moments when my name is spoken with honest affection, with true concern about how my day is goin’, with a sense of familiarity that reveals the speaker just by the sound of their voice. The phone rings again…I say Hello!...and then I hear, Scott Fuller. That’s it… that’s all I need to hear…for I would recognize the voice of my good friend Pat Michel if he called me up and started reading the Want Ads!
That’s nice, you might say, but the question really is: How do we hear Jesus’ voice in a way that helps us in our walk of faith? And that is a very good question. But you know what’s interesting? It’s the same question that has been asked ever since that very first Easter.
Jesus didn’t go himself, but sent Mary to tell the disciples that he was risen from the dead. And that is the challenge for us: how can we hear Jesus speak our names through someone else’s voice? Isn’t that it in a nutshell? We’d all be thoroughly committed Christians if we could hear the Lord speak our names (or we’d be thoroughly committed to an institution!).
But this is the place where the Church becomes so important in the faith walk of people. When I was baptized as an infant, Mom and Dad asked Earl and Margaret Bonderud to be my Godparents. For over thirty years after that event, until she couldn’t write anymore, I received a card from Margaret on my spiritual birthday. Dear Scott…she would begin, and in that simple, ordinary address, she spoke my name as the voice of Christ.
In the same way, the Lord continues to speak our names through the people around us: pastors, youth directors and musicians; a friend who invites us to worship, a teacher who inspires, a parent who pushes and pulls and prods. So listen to these voices that speak your name – and trust that in them, you hear the voice of Christ himself. And further, through your own words and deeds, trust that the Lord is also speaking the names of all who feel lost and alone. This is good news for us all: Hearing is seeing is believing. Amen.