Sermon from Luke 7:11-17 for October 14

So…

“I see dead people.”

For those of us who have been around a long time (since the movie debuted in the last century) we may remember a movie called The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osmet.

The story by M. Night Shyamala, is actually from the horror genre, though in many ways it is a story of hope and redemption. Willis, a psychologist is trying to help a boy who says he sees dead people, come to terms with his problem. In the process Willis discovers that he himself is dead with his own unfinished business, keeping him from moving on.

“I see dead people,” has since the movie become a bit of a meme, applicable to all kinds of situations where it seems that a situation or group of people are simply unable to move, change, or act lively. They are dead and I see them!

It reminds of one potential disciple of Jesus who complained that he couldn’t “come and follow” because his father was ill and he would need to be present for his burial as tradition required. To which Jesus replied, “let the dead bury their dead”.

Pretty harsh it seems. Forget tradition, forget family, take up your cross and follow me.

But it also suggests two very different approaches to death.

It’s either “let the dead bury their dead” or as our Presbytery’s mission statement says, “practice resurrection everyday”!

When the presbytery first adopted this particular mission statement I was a bit unimpressed, as I am with almost everything that is done at the higher governmental levels both secular and religious.

Skeptical for two reasons, one, because for me at least at that time, resurrection was reserved for the religious event we call Easter, that is Jesus bodily resurrection. Applying it daily seemed to diminish, in my thinking, that pinnacle event.

And two, skeptical because if we were to see resurrection power at work, I very much doubted that it would be because some government thought it was a good idea.

I will admit my approach to all of this has changed, though not because I am suddenly of the opinion that government structures are anything more than a necessary evil. A view all healthy Calvinists should have, I think, because Calvinists, and those of the Reformed way of thinking, believe sin is at work in all people and especially in governments, well-meaning or not.

So still skeptical, but with changed thinking motivated by New Testament stories such as this one, where Jesus meeting a funeral procession coming out of the Village of Nain, practices resurrection.

This is not the only story where Jesus brings back to life someone who has died. Jesus is singularly unimpressed by death. It is simply a state of being that can be changed if needed.

Just as Jesus raises Lazareth, he raises the widow’s son. He weeps at the widow’s sorrow, and perhaps, and this is speculation, remembering the sorrow his own mother felt at her husband Joseph’s death.

In any case, Jesus determines, as he does in so many encounters with ordinary people in difficult circumstances to do something, to practice resurrection every day, to not leave a person in misery, but rather to put God’s grace to work in a very transforming way.

He could have and should have let the funeral procession pass by. He should not have troubled himself with this woman’s needs. He should have never ever walked up to the casket and put his hands on a dead body.

But thanks be to God he did!

He chose in the moments when he could have avoided involvement, to get involved. He chose to “make a difference”. He chose to practice resurrection! He saw dead people, and made them alive!

It is our calling as well, as scary as that thought may be. We are called to see dead people and then to practice resurrection!

So how does that happen?

Well one, we have to be looking for situations were people are struggling with the power of death, not only physical death, but spiritual, material, and emotional death.

Turn on the TV and take a look at Mexico Beach, Florida.

Read the newspaper and note the power of the opioid crisis.

Take a listen to the folks around you at work or at school, and ask what form of the power of death are they grappling with?

And then, ask, if resurrection power was present here, what would happen?

The other day one of members came by to talk about a group of children she has become aware of that don’t have enough to eat. They are living in really tough circumstances and need some resurrection power.

So, she sat with some of our Deacons and asked some great questions about how our leaders are getting food into the mouths of hungry children. Seeing the power of death, she decided to apply resurrection power.

It is what we do.

Instead of standing by and letting the funeral procession pass by, we go to the casket and bring resurrection power to bear.

Jesus went over and touched the stretcher on which the people were carrying the dead boy. They stopped, and Jesus said, “Young man, get up!” The boy sat up and began to speak. Jesus then gave him back to his mother.

I see dead people, but I practice resurrection every day. How about you?

Amen.