Live at the Improv – sermon on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016
Luke 23:55-24:12 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they were not trusting them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Sermon: Live at the Improv by Rev. Doreen Oughton
This morning we got to hear the story of the empty tomb according to gospel writer Luke. The story includes at least five women, two angels, no Jesus, dismissive apostles and a curious Peter. Each of the four gospel writers have different details. As Matthew tells it, there are two women, both named Mary, an earthquake, an angel coming down from heaven causing two guards to faint. As the women run off to share the news as instructed, Jesus meets them on the path. And the disciples actually believe the women enough to go to Galilee to check it out.
According to Mark, the two Marys are accompanied by Salome early that Sunday morning. At the tomb they encounter an angel described as a young man in a white robe. He tells them to let the others know that Jesus is risen and they should all go on to Galilee, but the women are too frightened to say anything to anyone. Gospel writer John has Mary going alone to the tomb, and when she sees the stone rolled away she goes back and gets Peter and another disciple. After the two others enter and discover nothing but the burial linens, they head home, leaving Mary there grieving and distressed. She is addressed by two angels, and then by another man who turns out to be Jesus. She goes back and tells the disciples, but John does not tell us their reaction to her news of having seen the Lord.
So what’s going on here? All these different stories! Can we trust that any of it is true when there are all these contradictions? It’s almost enough to make us wonder along with the disciples in Luke if this is just nonsense. Well I don’t think so, and I loved the take on this of Rev. Dr. Homer Henderson. He says that this isn’t contradiction, its improvisation! Now Rev. Henderson talks about musical improvisation, but I’m more familiar with comedy improv. What happens with creative improv, whatever the form? Is it something you do alone? No, it is a responsive form. Is it completely without structure? Is it everyone doing their own thing? No, there is a theme, a core idea, and you listen to what’s going on, reach inside of you and respond with your own take on the theme and on what others are doing.
The theme here, the thread that ties all these accounts together and carries no contradiction is that the tomb is empty and Jesus has risen! Christ has risen indeed! Rev. Henderson says, “Like skilled musicians, each Gospel writer adds grace notes like angels or crescendos like an earthquake or codas like an appearance, all of which augment the major theme that in Christ death no longer has dominion. Neither life nor death can separate us from the love of God and in Christ shall all be made alive; everyone in Christ is a new creation. The four Gospels are improvisations on the Good News.” I say Jesus is alive, and live at the Improv. The Gospel writers riff off the core story, off each other’s interpretations, using their own feelings and experiences of how the living Christ has grooved in their own lives and communities.
This insight positively sings to me because this idea of improv is increasingly what I hope for in my life of faith – a freedom to dance and play and live within this great truth of God’s love which is powerful enough to conquer death.. I think a living faith worthy of a living Savior can’t be bound by “infallible doctrines” or strict adherence to rituals, whether ancient or more modern. But that doesn’t mean anything goes. I can’t pick up a trumpet and go join the choir and make any sound worthy of being called music. In order to even have fun at improv, let alone be any good, you have to know how to follow the rules, how to play music by following a score that you have practiced and practiced and practiced. Or you have to know how to tell jokes – how to get the timing and inflection, just so, how to pause before the punchline. You have to know how to observe the world for material, and you have to have practiced and practiced and practiced. You need to get the techniques down in order to incorporate your own feelings and interpretations into the performance.
I believe it is the same with our faith. Before we can do like the gospel writers do and improvise our own interpretations and stories, we have to be really solid in our understanding of the tenets of the faith, of the traditions of our faith, of our holy scripture. We need to know the core truths – that we were created by a loving and powerful God, that in our human limitations we forget that and we start to think we belong to ourselves or to this limited world instead of to time eternal. What else? That God came to us in the person of Jesus to help us remember. The Hebrew scriptures tell us that God not only created us, but continued to be active in the world, continually sought after us, and called us, and prodded us. Another core truth, it seems to me, is that we are a people burdened by fear. And that fear is like a tomb, keeping us trapped in a place we cannot sing or play music, or dance or live as we were meant to live. And the thing we are most afraid of, besides public speaking, is death. So God showed us in Jesus how little power death really has in the big picture.
In the story we heard this morning, the angel asks the women why do they look for the living among the dead. But that is a reframe of what really happened. The women were not looking for the living, they were looking for someone they thought was dead. The angel reminds them that Jesus had told them he would be raised on the third day. Did they forget, or did they just not believe Jesus when he said it too them? The women intended to do what was honorable and right in their tradition, anointing the body, the corpse. But Jesus wasn’t going to stick around for that. He was raised. That was always part of the plan, but I wonder, just leaving an empty tomb, isn’t that a total invitation to improv – what will the angels do, what will the women do, what will the other apostles do? In what ways do we get preoccupied with death, with rituals surrounding death that we lose sight of the life all around us?
And of course scripture always invites us into the improv also. We’ve had something like improv with our Lent and Easter sharing, with an experiment with Maundy Thursday. And we have lots of room to improvise with changes in our personal lives, in the life of this faith community, in the wider world. Let’s get solid in our understanding of the core story – God adores us, Jesus lives and is with us, we were created for freedom. Steep yourself in the scripture and tenets and traditions and in prayer, and then let’s get together, listen to each other, and improvise. People don’t go to church much anymore – let’s riff off that in a way that still proclaims the good news of our living Christ. The church budget gets tighter and tighter – let’s let our music soar with the trust that we are in God’s hands. Others think the meaning we’ve made of an empty tomb is nonsense – well let’s just laugh along and let the music of our joy sing for itself. The tomb is empty and the Holy Spirit will roll away every stone that threatens to entomb us in a rigid and timid faith. The music is playing, can you let yourself dance? May it be so.
