2024.03.31 | And I Hope
“And I Hope”
The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, Senior Minister & Executive Director
Eden United Church of Christ, Hayward, California
Easter Sunday; March 31, 2013
Luke 24:1-12 | Español
Most of you know about my rural upbringing and that most of my relatives have been and still are engaged in agriculture. But what you may not know is that most of the women in my family have been teachers. And, much to the surprise of many of our contemporaries, some of us women have become elders and preachers in the church. True story.
My grandmother taught country school even though she only obtained an eighth grade education. My mother taught second grade before she was married to my father, even though she only completed two years of higher education. And she started teaching preschool when my sister and I were in high school, even though she did not have schooling in early childhood development.
Two of my aunts were teachers. One has been the go-to substitute teacher for the Garwin, Iowa school district. Another taught English at Iowa State University for the country version of students featured in “Welcome Back, Kotter.”
My twin sister went to college to become a high school science teacher. Her first teaching job was for the Tahlequah Nation in rural Oklahoma. Soon after, her children were born and she stepped out of the public school teaching for several years. When she went back, she switched from teaching the natural sciences to teaching English Language Learners. Now in “causi-retirement,” Professor Schwerin teaches ELL theory and methodologies to undergraduates and master’s degree candidates at a private university in Northwest Arkansas.
The classroom settings and the subject matters that my people have taught have varied, but all of them agree--and I concur--that reading and repeating stories to our children, from infancy to adulthood, is fundamental to brain development, language learning, and faith formation.
If we do not read to our children, they will never reach their full potential. They will have a much more difficult time learning to speak, and they may never fully come to know Jesus or the power or importance of the Easter message.
I know that I am not only “preaching to the choir,” this Easter Sunday, but I am also blessed to be preaching to a large number of people who have given their lives to the education of others. So I don’t have to wonder where there is agreement about the importance of reading and repeating stories to our younger ones. I trust that I’m getting an “Amen” on that. Amen?
II
I also trust that we have a large number of readers and story tellers in the house today, a broad number of people who have been read to, and many--maybe all--who have wondered whether the stories that were read or told to us were true. “Amen?”
Some of my earliest childhood memories include accounts of my mother and dad reading bedtime stories to my sister and me. One or the other of them regularly stood at our bedroom door reading us to sleep while the light from a low-wattage single white light bulb streamed over their shoulders.
For starters, they read nursery rhymes, Aesop’s Fables, and Little Golden Books. Later they read children’s series about Honey Bunch and Heidi, and then Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys’ mysteries to us as we drifted off to sleep.
Our grandmothers read to us, too--mostly from the Bible. Our Grandma Thomsen practiced her Sunday School lessons, and our Grandma Nehring read from her daily devotionals.
Quite often, when our parents would read to us, I would ask as they were closing the cover: “Is it true? Is the story true?”
I don’t recall their exact answers; but my recollection is that they tried to respond in age appropriate ways that reflected our growing awareness of literary genres and various kinds of truth. For example, as we matured, they and our pastors and other teachers helped us understand that TRUTH can emanate from a wide range of genres, including history, poetry, fiction, news, and science.
III
Have you asked the question, “Is the Easter story true?”
Maybe you’ve pondered it in your heart or your head, but have been afraid to ask it out loud for fear of being called a heathen.
Or maybe you’re not afraid to ask the question. Maybe you’ve got license plates with the word “Heathen” on them. (I know people who do.) They’re out and proud about their skepticism, and that’s OK with this preacher.
A lot of modern day skeptics, in my experience, act like they are the first people to have doubts, but the truth be told--as it is in the gospels--some of the biggest skeptics who have ever walked the earth are the twelve men who huddled around Jesus when he walked the earth and was crucified and buried. So if they had questions, why wouldn’t we?
Check out Luke 24 again, and note that Judas was skeptical. Peter was skeptical. The other ten were so skeptical they wouldn’t even go look for themselves when the women shared the good news with them that the tomb was empty.
Only Peter (according to Luke) had the desire and will to go and explore whether Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and James’ mother Mary’s report was true. The rest just said that the women were telling “an idle tale,” or as one translation explains, “a bunch of garbage.”
So what’s different about Peter? Why did he continue to grapple with the veracity of the Easter story when the others not only continued to doubt, but had thrown in the towel?
IV
My hunch is that Peter was more aware than the other men that there was truth in the story, even if he could not make complete sense of it himself.
Remember that Peter was an “early bird” sign up for discipleship with Jesus.
Remember that he jostled for a leading role in Jesus’ ministry.
Remember, too, that when the going got tough, he was among the first to get going.
Remember that somewhere between lights out at the Last Supper and dawn on Good Friday, Peter denied Jesus three times.
Remember that Peter was profoundly aware of his sin and infidelity.
Peter knew that his denials had led to Jesus’ arrest, imprisonment, conviction, sentence, crucifixion, death, and burial.
And so Peter also knew, better than any of the others, his need for confession, contrition, forgiveness, grace, and absolution.
Peter knew that his hope was dependent on the news that the Hope of the Hope of the Universe was not dead, but had risen as he had foretold.
So imagine Peter’s joy when after having run full throttle to the cemetery, he too (like the women) saw that the stone had been rolled away, the tomb was empty, and that what was left was the linen cloth. It’s no wonder, then, that Peter went home completely amazed! And there’s no question that we can too. Happy Easter, and Amen.