Kahu's Manao

Second Sunday of Easter
Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika

“Resurrection Witness”
Acts 5:27-32 & John 20:19-23

It has been said that God created human beings because of our love for telling stories. We tell stories through art and music, hula and chant. We also tell our stories through the spoken word and the written word.

Eliezer Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in what was known at the time as the Kingdom of Romania. His father was an Orthodox Jew of Hungarian descent; his mother was also Jewish and was from a village near to the place where he was born. Today, we known Wiesel as a writer, a professor at Boston University, a political activist, a Nobel Laureate and a Holocaust survivor. He is also a storyteller.

The best known of his 57 books is Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps of World War II. He was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz and later to Buchenwald.

Night is the terrifying account of his memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence and his despair over the horror of those years. The book has been translated into thirty languages and was first published in English in 1960. By 1997 the book was selling 300,000 copies annually in the United States.

On February 13, 2006, Night was number one on The New York Times bestseller list for paperback non-fiction. By the following month it was estimated that a total of over six million copies were sold in the United States alone since it was first published.

Among his other books is the 1966 publication of The Gates of the Forest. Given the depth of the despair he experienced Wiesel would recount a tale, a story if you will that has been told time and time again.

Baal Shem Tov, “foreseeing misfortune threatening the Jews, would make his way to a certain part of the forest where he would light a fire and say a special prayer, after which the misfortune would be averted.” (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

“Later, according to the story, his disciple the Magid of Mezritch also foresaw a calamity threatening the Jews. (So) he went to the same place in the forest and prayed, ‘Master of the Universe I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer,’ whereupon the new disaster was averted.”

“Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in an effort to save his people entered the forest and said, ‘I don’t know how to light the fire and I don’t know the prayer, but I know the place, and this must be sufficient,’ and it was.”

“Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. He said to God, ‘I am unable to light the fire, I don’t know the prayer (and) I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, and this must suffice,’ and it did.”

“For the rabbis who followed, this story illustrated the gradual loss of knowledge about practice, but it also demonstrated that keeping memory alive was sufficient to ward off calamity.” (Op. cit.)

As we continue through this season of Easter it could be said that the stories of the resurrection of Jesus are accounts not of calamity and loss but of hope and the promise of new life. Our reading from The Gospel According to John includes one of those stories.

The debate over whether or not the resurrection of Jesus occurred began the day after he was buried. Concerned that the disciples would go and steal the body of Jesus from the tomb and declare that Jesus had risen from the dead prompted the chief priests and the Pharisees to insist that Pilate seal the tomb.

Pilate put the burden back on the chief priests and the Pharisees. He said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” (Matthew 27:62-66) And so they did.

There are other stories in the Bible of those who were witnesses of the resurrection. We were not at the tomb when Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid him in the tomb. But we know the story.

We were not there when Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna and the other women saw Jesus. But we know the story. (Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8)

We were not there when Jesus appeared to two disciples and later to all eleven. But we know the story. (Mark 16:12-18).

We were not there when Thomas reached out and touched his finger in the mark of the nails and put his hand in Jesus’ side. But we know the story. (John 20:24-29)

We were not among the other disciples and the five hundred other witnesses who saw him. But we know the story. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)

We were not on the road to Emmaus when the disciples encountered Jesus along the way. But we know the story. (Luke 24:1-27) We were not there when he ate a piece of broiled fish in the presence of the disciples. But we know the story. (Luke 24:36-43)

We were not there when Paul heard the voice of Jesus call out to him. But we know the story. (Acts 9:1-9)

That we know the stories and that we continue to tell the stories keeps the promise of the resurrection alive. We may not have been at the tomb or on the road. We may not have seen him or heard him or eaten with him or touched him.

But we know the stories of those who did – and in their stories we see not only our own fear and doubt, our own anxiety and despair - we also see our own hope and joy, our own peace and courage. During this Easter season, we are called once more to bear witness to God who raised Jesus to life.

We give thanks that the gifts of peace and the Spirit were given to Peter and the other disciples, to empower their witness of the risen Christ. We pray that these gifts will give us the strength and courage to do the same.

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