First Presbyterian Church
Believing and Doing
Sermon for April 8, 2007
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Listen for the word of God as it is found in Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24.

1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!

2 Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever."

12 They surrounded me like bees; they blazed like a fire of thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off!

13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me.

14 The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; 16 the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly."

17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.

18 The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD.

20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.

21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

23 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

This ends our reading from the Psalms.

The Jews praised the God of steadfast love. Jesus' followers had seen the works of Jesus as signs of God's steadfast love. Imagine their disappointment at the crucifixion. Our gospel reading happens after Joseph of Arimathea has taken Jesus' body down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb before the Sabbath began. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee watched all this, and prepared spices and ointment. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Luke 24:1-12.

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."

8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.

11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

This ends our reading of God's word.

Anthem

Most of us associate Easter with spring. It's easy for us to think that “resurrection is as natural a thing as grass coming up green, as eggs cracking open to reveal chicks, as butterflies crawling out of cocoons.” 1 But we have to remember that there is nothing about resurrection that is natural. Seeds look dead, but aren't. People look dead, and are. People don't just suddenly come back to life.

Except sometimes they do. This February, I was with someone who came back to life, as many of you know. It was such an extraordinary experience for me, I had to talk about it on Easter. I was taking Joan to the hospital, and her heart stopped just as we walked through the doors. The emergency room staff whisked her into the ER, put the paddles on her, and started her heart back up. She made a full recovery.

Now, just because Joan came back to life doesn't mean that we treat her like Jesus. It doesn't mean that God loves her more than the rest of us; it doesn't mean that the ER staff are an especially pious and faithful group who deserved to have this miracle at St. Elizabeth. It means they have learned how to treat hearts and they have the right equipment. They are people of faith, and they know the science of medicine.

For some people, science and faith go together. For others, science and faith are at odds. Scott Atran is one of those people.

He's an anthropologist who “tries to explain behavior by how it might once have solved problems of survival and reproduction for our early ancestors.” 2 He and other scientists search for an evolutionary explanation for why belief in God exists. They ask “are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?” 3

That is what most fascinated Atran. “Why is God in there?” he asked.

He and other scientists wonder if belief was adaptive or just an evolutionary byproduct, a consequence of some other adaptation. For example, blood being red isn't adaptive, it's just a byproduct of the trait that is adaptive, having blood that contains hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is red, so blood is red.

What would belief be a byproduct of? Making up stories about natural events helped us humans make sense of the events. Imagining someone is there when there isn't keeps us on our guard. Being able to guess by peoples' behavior what they're thinking helps us predict their reactions. Maybe believing in God is just a byproduct of being able to do all those things.

Or maybe believing in God is somehow adaptive. Some scientists explained that religion's role is to help humans deal with death. They think believing in God and the afterlife lets us make sense of our short existence on earth. They say “Religion can offer solace to the bereaved and comfort to the frightened.” 4

I think we are hard-wired to believe in God. We have a built in sense of awe in the face of something majestic: the view from the top of a mountain, seeing the land stretch out for miles; or in the presence of something never ending, like watching the waves on a beach; or at the sound of something especially breathtaking, like an orchestra concert. And then there's the overwhelming gratitude we feel when danger is averted, like when someone almost dies, but doesn't.

That sense of awe and thankfulness is a longing for God, a hope that we matter. When we recognize that longing, we can explore religious ideas, study scripture, and think about the hard questions. As we do that, our faith deepens and we can choose to live so we can feel God's presence.

When we dismiss that longing for God, when we don't recognize the hunger in our soul, we are vulnerable to superstition because it seems to answer our need for God.

Scott Atran is an atheist. But even so, he crosses his fingers if there's turbulence on an airplane. He knocks on wood to ward off a bad event. Where does that behavior come from? He thinks it's just evolutionary baggage. He says he “faces an emotional and intellectual struggle to live without God… He fights it because he is a scientist and holds the values of rationalism higher than the values of spiritualism… Nevertheless, he said that the comforts and consolations of belief are alluring even to him and probably will become more so as he gets closer to the end of his life.” 5

I'm guessing that he hasn't found a way to believe in God that allows him to rejoice in his scientific work. He has a pretty limited idea of what faith is about. My faith doesn't just help me deal with death. It doesn't just help me make sense of my brief life; it doesn't just comfort me when I grieve. Those may be adaptive behaviors, but they're not what my faith is about. My faith is about Jesus.

Justin Barrett, another anthropologist, responded to Atran's ideas by saying, “Christian theology teaches that people were crafted by God to be in a loving relationship with him and other people. Why wouldn't God, then, design us in such a way as to find belief in divinity quite natural? Having a scientific explanation for mental phenomena does not mean we should stop believing in them. Suppose science produces a convincing account for why I think my wife loves me — should I then stop believing that she does?” 6

Science asks how. Religion asks why. A theologian, John Haught, testified in a court case about evolution and intelligent design. He said that “there are different ways of explaining the boiling of water. One could say that water boils due to rapid vibration of water molecules…. Or one could say that it boils because someone [wants] tea. Both are legitimate responses. It's a mistake to bring up the subject of wanting tea when studying molecular movement.” 7

Which brings us back to Easter. Why was the tomb empty? Is it because Jesus' body was gone or because death and sin could not hold Christ?

Jesus lives. He's no longer confined to flesh and blood, time and space. In other words, Jesus is loose. Jesus got out. Jesus appeared later to believers; some saw him, some didn't. Some could hear him, some couldn't. Some believed without seeing; some had to see.

The people who followed Jesus didn't follow him because it was adaptive; the way of the cross didn't make their lives in the Roman empire easier; they were persecuted by Caesar and his kingdom. Following Jesus did help them recognize that Caesar was not Lord; Jesus was. They followed the way that Jesus taught them: feeding the hungry, curing the sick, helping the poor, serving one another, forgiving one another. They did this knowing that Caesar did not have the ultimate power; God did. The state may be able to persecute Christians; it was able to crucify Christ. But the resurrection showed that even death wasn't enough to hold Jesus. Jesus is loose.

And what does that mean for us today? It means we don't have to live as if we are afraid of dying. We can go ahead and dare to do what is right, even if it isn't in our own interest. We can find courage to choose activities that promote life and love, rather than wealth and power. We can challenge all prejudice, including racism, and injustice and greed. We can learn to forgive people who have hurt us, and not hold grudges. We can rejoice in dying to our old self and being born to a new self.

After Joan was revived, I wondered how ER nurses can hold life in their hand like that. How can you every day, face life or death? What was I going to do with this experience? I did what the women at the tomb did. I told people. I told family, church members, friends and strangers about the amazing thing I witnessed. And Joan is still around as evidence that I told the truth.

That first Easter, when the two Marys and Joanna told, they weren't believed. In that time and place, Women weren't considered reliable witnesses; they couldn't give legal testimony in a court case. Peter didn't believe them, until he saw the tomb. But the women told the story anyway, that first Easter. And Christians keep telling the story.

We old Christians are used to the familiar story of Easter. But Easter is about life and death. We Christians hold the news that Jesus of Nazareth, the man from Galilee who preached good news to the poor, is risen. We do not have to be stuck in sin, miserable and afraid. We are not bound by our biology. We do not have to resign ourselves to the status quo. We do not have to settle for a faith that just comforts us. We get to live into a faith that challenges us, that gives us courage and hope and energy about God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Alleluia!

1 Wardlaw, Theodore J., “Living by the Word, “ Christian Century, March 20, 2007, p. 19.

2 Henig, Robin Marantz Henig, “Darwin's God: Heavenbound” A scientific exploration of how we have come to believe in God.” New York Times Magazine, 3-4-07.

3ibid

4ibid

5ibid

6ibid

7 “Century Marks,” Christian Century, November 15, 2005, p. 6, quoting from York Daily Record, Oct. 1.