March 31, 2002—9:00 Worship
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco
Before many of you here were born, America was fighting another war. You can say that it was “my war” because during Vietnam, I was in high school and college and eligible for the draft. By the end of this war, an estimated 3 to 4 million Vietnamese and over 58,000 American soldiers died.
Although the Vietnam War has been 27 years ago, there are still many sophisticated archaeological digs in Vietnam employing state-of-the-art forensic techniques that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars a year. The workers are looking for bones.
Not famous bones or even ancient bones, but some very specific bones—namely the remains of American servicemen missing in action in Vietnam. The United States is determined to discover the fate of every single serviceman still missing—estimated to be over 2000. For Vietnam, the estimate is 300,000 Vietnamese unaccounted for.
These workers are bone collectors. In 1999 they found 36 sets of remains. In 2000, another 24, and by midyear 2001, they had recovered 23 sets. They plan to keep working until all 2000 MIAs are identified.
For all of us today, we really don’t have to look back 30 years ago to think about bone collectors in the leech-infested jungles and murky swamps of Vietnam. We have bone collectors at ground-zero in New York City. Up to 2,830 people are believed to have died at the World Trade Center but the remains of as many as 2000 of them have not been identified. After removing 1,460,980 tons of debris in 99,715 truckloads, bone collectors are still working around the clock. According to the paper this past week, almost 3000 body parts have been discovered since March 1.
Stealing Bones
On that first Easter morning, the original bone collectors were busy at work. The chief priests and Pharisees were worried that the disciples would sneak in and steal the bones of Jesus, so Pilate posted more guards to make the tomb secure. The religious leaders and the Roman soldiers were making sure that their collection of Jesus’ bones was in a safe place. They knew that if the bones were lost, they would have a big problem.
After the sabbath on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb, to check out the body, to pay respects. No one had any earthly idea to suspect that the corpse would not stay put.
After all, death is death. The end. The crucifixion made sure of that. The final curtain of the last scene of the play is drawn closed. The disciples have had their last dance with Jesus. Once in the grave, bones don’t tend to move—for hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of years. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped the body in a clean cloth and laid it in a new tomb. A great stone was rolled in front of the tomb to seal it for a long time. Jesus was dead.
Until God decided to do something about it.
Suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled back the great stone and sat on it. The angel said to the women, “He is not here. He has been raised.”
Jesus left no bones and no body. This is good news for believers and bad news for the bone collectors.
Bones of Contention
If there’s no bones to be found in the tomb, so why, like some of the early disciples, do we feel a sense of doubt and disbelief?
For many of us, the resurrection story itself remains a bone of contention. We argue about its validity. In a country in which we spend millions of dollars to determine the fate of every single American serviceman still missing in Vietnam, we simply are not comfortable with mysteries. We want rock-hard facts—empirical evidence, DNA matches and carbon 14 dating. We’ve got a few bones to pick with the story of the empty tomb.
First of all, there’s a bone of perception. None of us was present to feel the Easter earthquake or hear the angel or see the tomb where Jesus lay, so we wonder whether the story in Matthew 28 could possibly be true.
But we forget that the resurrection is a faith event. Although I didn’t have to go to Vietnam, I still believed that it happened. Whether an event happen 30 years ago or 2000 years ago, we believe it’s true because we want to believe.
For most of us, we believe things to be true when we can test things out with our senses. But relying on our five senses for truth is problematic too. Scientists tell us that the earth is spinning on its axis at a speed of over 1000 miles per hour—at this very moment. Yet we don’t have the sensation of this motion. At the same time, the earth is soaring around the sun at a speed of 66,000 miles per hour. But we don’t feel anything.
Our planet is moving at an incredible speed, but we do not perceive it. One time Albert Einstein made this point by striking two consecutive blows with his fist and saying, “Between those two strokes, we traveled 30 miles.” Incredible motion with no perception! Yet we accept by faith that it is nevertheless true.
Although the resurrection cannot be perceived by our five senses, that does not make it any less true than the fact that our earth is now spinning on it axis and soaring around the sun.
Secondly, we have a bone of pluralism. We wonder, “How can an infinite God have revealed himself in just one man, Jesus?” There are so many religions, and so many spiritual paths—how can we claim Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life?
But the need to broaden our horizons should not get in the way of sharpening our focus on Jesus Christ. Regardless of how God is encountered in the other religions of the world, we are people who have discovered that God has come to us quite clearly in Jesus Christ.
Our challenge is to conform our lives to what God has done in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We don’t need to make a case on how Jesus fit into all the other religions of the world. Rather, we strive to love our neighbors and even our enemies—because this is what Jesus did so powerfully in his own life. We sacrifice for each other and our family because the cross of Christ shows greatness in self-giving. We believe new life can happen even in defeat because the resurrection reveals the power of God over everything that threatens to destroy us.
Pluralism is not a problem for Christians, because we already know who we are, and more importantly, whose we are. We are children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, people who have discovered a quality of life that cannot be found anywhere else. Since nothing can change this, our response to diversity should be dedicated discipleship—showing the world through our words and deed that we are part of a loving, forgiving, and hope-filled family of faith.
After all, history reveals to us that it wasn’t arguments that attracted the first converts—it was loving actions. People did not first understand the faith and then decided to become Christians; instead, they saw how the Christian community lived and they wanted to be a part of it.
The final bone of contention that we have about the empty tomb is the bone of passion. We hear about the women racing in full-speed from the empty tomb, caught up with this feeling of fear and great joy to tell the disciples. When was the last time, you ran out of this sanctuary to tell someone what you heard? We confess that we rarely experience this level of intense passion.
Maybe we have heard the story so often. Perhaps we are satisfied with life the way it is. We are comfortable with the status quo and we don’t see any reason to complicate it with a fresh commitment to Christ.
But listen to what the angel told the women at the tomb, “Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” Jesus is going ahead of us, always ahead of us. He’s not waiting around to see if you have enough passion to catch up.
If we do not follow him with some enthusiasm and passion, we may never discover where he is leading us. We may never discover the kind of people he desires us to be.
No Bones to be Found
Last Sunday, Leslie Hirata and Nick Chan were baptized. They have seen the Christ and decided to follow him while Jesus leads them on their faith journey. Mel Fong and Paul and Peggy Chew have seen how Christ has been working in their lives and now God is calling them to use their gifts and talents in this church.
We can go through life saying to God, “I have a bone to pick with you.” We can say, “How can there be an empty tomb?” There’s no empirical evidence that shows he is risen. We might say, “What makes Jesus so special anyway?” We even doubt the resurrection because we lack the passion to follow Jesus just to see where he might be going.
Maybe it’s time to stop collecting bones. Time to toss out the tools you normally use in your dry and dusty search for facts and figures. We’ve been looking for the risen Christ with the wrong tools. The tools of DNA matching and carbon 14 dating will not produce the transforming power of the resurrection life.
We need, instead, to pull out the tools of faith to believe in what we might not see. We need to set aside those academic exercises of “what ifs” and to affirm that God has come to us in Jesus Christ whom we have known as a baby. We need to have passion and commitment to want to follow after Christ for he is going ahead of us—showing us how to live in peace and justice.
Let’s stop collecting bones because there’s no bones to be found! Make no bones about it: Jesus Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed!
Let us pray.
O God of Easter morning, when we have been fearful and doubting, bring us new life. When we have been hardhearted and unforgiving, bring us new life. When we have sown discord and wounded others, bring us new life. When we have been selfish and greedy, bring us new life. When we have been tired and confused, bring us new life. When we have collected bones, lead us to believe that Christ has risen! He has risen, indeed! Amen.