The theme for this Easter Sunday is 'Easter Honesty" The texts are, from the Prophet Isaiah: "Celebrate! Sing and dance-for God has come to our rescue and set us free!" From Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians: "Questions about biology end with the body that is buried, because while it is a physical body, the body that will be raised is a spiritual body. According to the scriptures, the first human being, Adam, was given life in his body. The ultimate Adam, Jesus Christ, is a spirit who gives life to the body!" And, from the Gospel of Luke: "Peter bent down and peered into the tomb. All he could see was the linen grave clothes lying there by themselves-and he went home scratching his head, with no idea what to make of it all!" Let us pray . .

**************

In his book Resurrection: Myth or Reality? the Right Reverend Bishop John Shelby Spong (or should I say the Left Reverend) makes the following observation-one that I have found extremely helpful as I have wrestled over the years theologically with my own understanding of the Resurrection. Spong writes, "Theology is a mental exercise engaged in by people who have two feet. It is always moving, never static, always changing, never fixed, and certainty and security can never be its goals. Integrity and honesty, not fixation and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire!"

So what would happen if we aspired to be honest with each other today about this crazy event called Easter in the midst of all of its big hats, and bunny hops, and buried history? What if we were to speak with integrity about all of the contradictions and confusions around this first century happening-an event that is meant to be at the very life-center of our faith? Let's give it a try-for what do we do with all of the women who come to the grave in the array of Easter gospel accounts? Mark's gospel names Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome as the first early-morning tomb visitors. Matthew's gospel names only Mary Magdalene and the other Mary in its Easter story-line. John's gospel states that it is Mary Magdalene alone who is present at Jesus' grave, while Luke's gospel covers all of the bases by stating that Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Joanna, and some "other women" were present and accounted for on Easter morn. And what are we to make of all of the different Easter event announcers-we've got Mark's young boy dressed in white, and Matthew's lightening laden, pure-as-snow angel of God, and Luke's dazzlingly robed seraphs, and John's two heavenly messengers who somehow morph into Jesus himself. And lets cut to the chase--for how in God's name do we reconcile all of the wide-ranging descriptions and images of a de-entombed once dead man now alive again- images like Mark's no-bodied Jesus who goes ahead of us into Galilee, or Matthew's apparitional Jesus who offers roadside greetings to those passing by, or John's soon-to-be-ascended don't-touch-me Jesus who appears among the lilies as a ghost-like gardener, or Luke's unrecognizable Jesus who walks and talks and wines and dines on the outskirts of Emmaus and then vanishes into thin air?

Yes, if we are going to be truly honest with each other this morning I have to tell you that I feel a bit like the conflicted and confused Peter from our lectionary Gospel lesson-who, after staring into the empty tomb, went home Easter morn scratching his head with no idea what to make of it all! Please tell me that that is where you are this day as well! Because you see, if you have come here today to hear about the literal, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus, if you have come here to have all of the Easter story versions melded into one neat and tidy narrative, then you have come to the wrong place and you are listening to wrong preacher! But if you are here because you want to be part of the resurrective story, if you are here because you want to approach the Easter event with faithful honesty, then I am glad to have you with me on the journey!

A writer I deeply cherish is a man by the name of Bruce Bawer. I like him not only for his clear cultural critics but also for his passionate honesty. Like many of us, Bawer fell away from Christianity in his early twenties but came back to the church in his late thirties-bringing with him all of the still nagging questions he had about Christiany's religious truth claims-all of those touchy topics which you were not suppose to inquire about! "Here I was, back in the pew" Bawer writes, "and while I didn't feel compelled to take the virgin birth literally the resurrection was different. It was Christianity's central tenet, and for me it was a sticking point. I felt compelled to believe that Jesus had come back to life in exactly the way described in the Gospels-and this exactness wasn't an easy thing to grasp given all of the different stories. If honest with myself, I had to admit that a lie detector would register a lie if I said I believed in the literal resurrection-and I wondered if that was true of other people . . .Was it true of the person sitting next to me in the pew? Was it true of my pastor?"

Yet even with these questions in mind, Bawer still struggled to believe that Jesus had walked out of his tomb and talked with his disciples. He he felt he had to, because everything else about Christianity, as he understood it, made beautiful sense. "Every Easter morning" Bawer writes, "my church would be so crowded, and the music and the liturgy so glorious, and the congregation's shout that "The Lord is risen indeed!" so fervent-every aspect of the worship service, in short, would come together so sublimely to proclaim the all-transcending love of God-that for a precious instant it seemed impossible that such beauty and devotion could exist unless the stories of the Resurrection were literally true. In that moment (or so, at least I told myself) I actually did believe. But during the rest of the year, the struggle to maintain that feeling was exhausting-and, usually, doomed!"

Like Bawer's struggle, it is easy to feel exhausted-and our efforts are doomed, I think, if we try to literalize and physicalize the resurrection of Jesus. Our efforts are doomed-and I dare say-destructive to our faith if we try to fix and secure the Resurrection in place and in time. But hear me on this! This is not to deny that something extraordinary happened in the very midst of the exhausted, demoralized-and as some would say-doomed lives of Jesus first followers. This is not to deny that a profound illumination filled up the very hearts and minds of Jesus' once frightened but now fervent disciples. But what form that illumination took-whether a ghostly gardener, or a moving apparition, or a roadside greeter, or a spirit gone ahead into Galilee-ultimately doesn't matter! For what matters is that this life changing, world shattering, bondage breaking illumination opened the disciple's eyes to the truths implicit in the way Jesus had lived, and loved, and led people into newness of being. What matters is that this life freeing, earth altering, justice seeking illumination opened the disciples' hearts to the eternal love of the Divine-a love that neither class, nor condition, nor crucifixions could alter or cause to be absent.

So do you see? If we are forced to accept the resurrection as a fixed and physical event, then that makes Jesus' life and teachings ultimately irrelevant-as if Jesus, throughout his ministry, had just been killing time until the Main Miraculous Event. But if we are set free to see and to sense the resurrection as an illumination that grew out of everything Jesus demonstrated through his words, and witness, and wasteful love, then suddenly the Resurrection becomes full of meaning because we too can be part of the living, illumined, resurrective body of Christ in this place and time!

And if that sounds somehow contrary to accepted belief-so be it. For if we, as a community of faith, can live and love as Jesus' illumined, resurrective body here and now, then we can go forth and tell the world that it is not an idle tale to honestly believe that people can be healed of their hurts, or freed from their fears, or relieved of their pain. If we, as a community of faith, can live and love as Jesus' illumined, resurrective body here and now, then we can go forth and tell the world that it is not an idle tale to believe that a person's race, or class, or gender, or sexual orientation will not always determine that person's future share of happiness and well being. If we, as a community of faith, can live and love as Jesus' illumined, resurrective body here and now, then we can go forth and tell the world that it is not an idle tale to believe that the Church can be broken open and freed of its non-inclusive practices and prejudices. And if we, as a community of faith, can live and love as Jesus' illumined, resurrective body here and now, then we can go forth and tell the world that it is not an idle tale to believe that peace is more powerful than war, that hope is more mighty than hate, and that people, who have been too long divided because of class, or creed, or condition, can, and will, one day sit down together at the table of equity, and of love, and of justice. For ultimately-and amazingly Paul writes this, "Jesus is the spirit who gives life to our body" and his resurrective presence in our lives ever-challenges us to live honestly and to love fervently in all we say and do.

Is living a resurrective life easy? Not at all! Like believing in the literal, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus, it, too, is a struggle. But you know what? It is an honest struggle-a struggle to embrace and embody something radical and true-the resurrective presence of Jesus himself! And if that is not worthy of a "Halleluia" I don't know what is! AMEN.