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Well, itís the first Sunday after Easter ñ so I was going to talk about resurrection. Itís also Earth Day ñ so I wanted to talk about global warming. Resurrection? Global warming? I couldnít decide between the two, so Iím going to talk about both. Yes, I know, itís incredible! Itís a tremendous stretch. But remember you saw it attempted here first. Donít try this at home!
We Christians make an extraordinary claim: “Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!” The resurrection stands at the core of the Christian faith. For, as Paul reminds us: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, than Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, thenÖ[our} faith has been in vain.” (I Cor. 15:13-14)
And yet, in spite of the central importance of the resurrection, or maybe because of it, I must confess that I struggle with it. It does not fit comfortably into my modern worldview. Itís not part of my everyday experience, at least not in the same way that it appears to have been part of the disciplesí experience.
When loved ones of mine died, they certainly have lived on in my memory. At times I may have felt their presence in some spiritual sense. And I have dreamt of friends and family members who have died. But I have never had the experience of a loved one, or Jesus Christ for that matter, appearing to me, speaking to me, eating with me, inviting my touch.
So, just what do we mean when we say that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead? Is resurrection the same as resuscitation? I donít think so. Somehow, itís hard for me to imagine the angels in the tomb performing CPR on Jesusí lifeless body, yelling,“Clear”. And then shocking him back to live like some episode of ER. But if resurrection is not the same as resuscitation, in what sense are we talking about the resurrection of the body? What is Jesusí resurrected body like?
On the one hand, it appears to be physical. The resurrected Jesus can be seen, heard, and touched. His resurrected body still carries the wounds of crucifixion. The resurrected Jesus can walk, and talk, and eat. But on the other hand, the disciples donít always recognize the resurrected Jesus by his physical appearance. Nor do they always recognize his voice when he speaks to them. Whatís more, the resurrected Jesus seems to be able to appear and disappear at will. Now you see him, now you donít. One moment heís there, the next moment heís not. And locked doors seem to make no difference at all. The resurrection is a phenomenon that is shrouded in mystery.
In this sense, the resurrection is disturbing to our modern sensibilities. It is difficult for us to get a handle on it. For some, the resurrection is a claim that just doesnít seem credible. It appears to fall in the category of hocus pocus and superstition. It becomes a stumbling block to Christian faith instead of a building block.
In our own day, scientists, too, are making extraordinary claims. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored group of hundreds of scientists, says that the earth is growing warmer. Its most recent report projects that global temperatures will increase by 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years. The adverse effects likely to occur as the climate changes include a rise in sea levels by about 34 inches by the year 2100 and an increase in extreme weather events.
Global warming was the subject of a Time magazine cover story earlier this month. Perhaps you saw it. The graphic on the cover pictures the earth as the yolk of an egg frying in a frying pan. The cover story lead-in goes like this: “Except for nuclear war or a collision with an asteroid, no force has more potential to damage our planetís web of life than global warming.”
Back in the first century, when the disciples were first confronted with the evidence of the empty tomb, they had trouble believing it.
We tend to think of Thomas as the doubter, but thatís a bum rap if you ask me. The scriptures tell us that all disciples had doubts about the resurrection ñ all the male disciples that is. The women disciples were believers from the start. After all, they were first on the scene of the empty tomb.
The gospel of Luke tells us that the women returned from the empty tomb and told the apostles what they had seen, but the womenís words seem to the apostles “an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” Even when Jesus appears to the apostles themselves, “they were startled and terrified,” Luke says, “and thought that they were seeing a ghost. [Jesus] said to them. ëWhy are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.í And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feetÖ. in their joy they were disbelieving and still wonderingÖ”
The gospel according to Mark tells us that when the disciples heard that Jesus was alive and had been seen by Mary Magdalene, they would not believe it. Continuing with John 16:12, “After this he [Jesus] appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.”
And Matthew, too, reports that when the eleven disciples saw Jesus “they worshiped him; but some doubted.”
So if you have trouble with the idea of the resurrection, take heart. Youíre in good company. The apostles themselves had doubts about the resurrection, and they were there! They didnít believe Mary Magdaleneís story about seeing the resurrected Jesus. And when they themselves were face to face with the risen Jesus, they still had difficulty believing it.
Today, in the twenty-first century, when we are first confronted with the evidence for global warming, it also may be hard to believe. “Just a decade ago,” says Time magazine, “the idea that the planet war warming up as a result of human activity was largely theoretical. We knew that since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, factories and power plants and automobiles and farms have been loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping gasses, including carbon dioxide and methane. But evidence that the climate was actually getting hotter was still murky.”
“Not anymore,” the Time article continues. “As an authoritative report issuedÖ by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes plain, the trend toward a warmer world has unquestionably begun. Worldwide temperatures have climbed more than one degree Fahrenheit over the past century, and the 1990ís were the hottest decade on recordÖ Glaciers, including the legendary snows of Kilimanjaro, are disappearing from mountaintops around the globe. Coral reefs are dying off, as the seas get too warm for comfort. Drought is the norm in parts of Asia and Africa. El Nino events, which trigger devastating weather in the eastern Pacific, are more frequent. The Artic permafrost is starting to melt. Lakes and rivers in colder climates are freezing later and thawing earlier each year. Plants and animals are shifting their ranges pole ward to higher altitudes, and migration patterns for animals as diverse as polar bears, butterflies, and beluga whales are being disrupted.”
There are very few scientists who have challenged these findings, and their work is well funded and publicized by large corporations that oppose the IPCCís conclusions. As a result, news reports that try to present “both sides” of the issue make it seem as though there is much more disagreement among climate scientists than really exists.
Now we come to Thomas. In the resurrection accounts, the story of Thomas appears only in John. As weíve seem already this morning, all of the male disciples had trouble grappling with the resurrection. So in singling out Thomas, I do not believe that the writer of John intended for Thomas to go down in history as the only doubting disciple. Rather, I believe the gospel writer intended Thomas to be representative of all the doubting disciples.
Thomas, we read, was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them. So the disciples tell Thomas what happened, and Thomas does not believe them. He wants physical evidence. He wants incontrovertible proof, who wants to know that the resurrection is real.
A detail about Thomas that is sometimes over looked, is that he was called the Twin (Didymus in Greek). Presumably, he was called the Twin, because he had a twin, though the gospels tell us nothing about him or her. I canít help but wonder if Thomas had had an identical twin. It would make so much sense. If Thomas had had an identical twin, he would have known firsthand that appearances can be deceiving. How many times might he and his twin brother have been mistaken for each other? His lifetime of experience with mistaken identities would explain why he was so adamant that he be able to see and touch Jesus himself before believing in the resurrection.
The story resumes a week later, in the same house. The disciples have gathered together again behind closed doors, and this time Thomas is with them. As before, Jesus comes and stands with them and says to them, “Peace be with you.” Then he turns to Thomas and says to him, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hands and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Jesus does not rebuke Thomas for his disbelief. Rather, Jesus gives Thomas what he has asked for. He stands before Thomas and invites Thomas to touch his wounded body. Thomas responds immediately: “My Lord and My God!” He realizes that the stories he has heard are true ñ Jesus Christ has risen! He has risen indeed! In that moment, Thomas moves from doubt to belief.
I canít tell you exactly what happened on that first Easter Sunday. But I can tell you that something did happen ñ something so extraordinary that it transformed the disciples in profound ways. Before the resurrection event, the disciples were huddled together, hiding behind locked doors, afraid for their lives, worried that they might be next to be arrested and crucified. After the resurrection event, the disciples went out from Jerusalem and willingly risked their lives, boldly preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. The resurrection event, whatever it was, moved the disciples from doubt to faith, from fear to courage, from despair to empowerment, from passivity to action.
When it comes to news about global warming, I think weíre a lot like the disciples before the resurrection event ñ huddled in that upper room, disbelieving, despairing, and dis-empowered. A New York Times editorial last October said that in the U.S. Congress “all but a few members have adopted an ostrich-like attitude towards global warming.” Both we and Congress need to take our heads out of the sand. We need to be transformed as the first disciples were, if we are going to make the changes necessary to address the challenge of global climate change. We need to move from doubt to belief, from fear to courage, from despair to empowerment, from passivity to positive action.
Our country is by far the biggest polluter on the planet. We comprise of only 4% of the worldís population, yet we produce 25% of the worldís greenhouse gases. Thatís why there was such an uproar from the international community, when President Bush abandoned the Kyoto treaty to combat climate change. The United States bears more responsibility than any other nation from causing global warming. It ought to be the leader of international efforts to address global warming, not the principal spoiler of such efforts. We need to conserve energy and to use more energy-efficient technologies. The energy-hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda get 45-70 miles per gallon of gas and produce 40% less emissions than standard cars of the same size. We need to make more use of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power, which donít produce any greenhouse gases. And planting trees helps, too. A single acre of forest can absorb 5.5 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
One other thing about the resurrection: it shows us the ultimate power of God to overcome evil, sin, and death. God would not let Jesusí crucifixion be the end. God would not let evil, sin, and death have the last word. Instead, God brought new life out of death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Godís goodness ultimately triumphs over evil. That is the resurrection hope.
And so when we are faced with a situation that is overwhelming, a problem that seems insurmountable (like global warming), and we feel discouraged and despair whether our meager efforts can make any difference, the resurrection offers grounds for hope ñ that good will ultimately triumph over evil and that life will win out over death. May it be so.
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