What can you believe anymore?
Sermon from the Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day + March 31, 2024 + Pr. Craig Mueller
The text brought bad news from my mom. The nephew of my cousin’s spouse, a young man named Travis, had been in a motorcycle accident. Most of my relatives live in Nebraska, and Travis lived in a small town called Gothenburg. He was riding his motorcycle on the way to work on an early morning with thick fog. Travis was struck by an oncoming automobile who was passing another vehicle. And he was in critical condition.
My mom emailed that it was particularly sad because there was a family wedding coming up the next weekend. The news got worse when my parents later told me that they had read online that Travis had died.
The truth is: Travis hadn’t died. It happens more than you might think. People Google the name of someone and perhaps one other thing. In this case, “Travis Pieper” and “motorcycle accident.”
Enterprising web marketers on the other side of the world take advantage of situations void of much information. They then drive traffic to hastily assembled online articles and YouTube videos.
These fake death pirates post fake obituaries. The thing is we believe what we read online. It’s horrific and disturbing because it’s so predatory, one person said.
And these days, you don’t what to believe. What’s fake. What’s a conspiracy. What’s a scam.
The death of Jesus brought many different stories and interpretations. Some thought Jesus was God and never died. Others called the news that he was risen an idle tale. Still others thought his body had been stolen from the tomb.
Some people today are believers because of the resurrection. And others are not because they can’t make sense of it with their rational minds.
So what are you to believe? This morning we are shouting “he is risen.” We want to believe that life is stronger than death.
How do you have hope when the conflict and war in the Middle East seems insurmountable? When the death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is beyond comprehension? How do you believe in the resurrection amid growing nationalism, violence, poverty, xenophobia, greed, and grabs for power, not to mention climate change? When the Internet feeds different interpretations of everything and nearly half our country believes things that blow our minds?
Will everything turn out well in the end? Is that faith or naïve optimism? Is that the message of Easter?
Mark’s account of the resurrection is sparse, disquieting. It ends awkwardly. No one sees the risen Jesus. Peter and the other guy-disciples are nowhere to be seen. At the tomb a white-robed figure tells the women that Jesus is no longer there. That he is risen. The women are to go tell the other disciples—the men—the good news. But it kind of freaks them out. Terror and amazement seized them, the text says. And the story ends in fear and flight and silence.
That’s a long way from the other Easter stories of the risen Jesus talking to Mary in the garden. Or appearing and disappearing. What are we supposed to believe?
Maybe Mark’s Easter account is what some of us need. The ending doesn’t wrap everything up neatly. There are more questions than answers. It leaves room for doubt and wonder. It invites us to ponder what the resurrection means for us today.
Yet, still. So many choices. So many religions. So many denominations. So many philosophies. So much information. What can you believe anymore?
We can enter a question into Google. And an online buffet is spread with more information than we could ever take in. We have more information at our fingertips than in any time in human history.
It leads one author to posit that we are addicted to knowing. The authors of The Distracted Mind write that humans have a drive to forage information in the same that that other animals forage for food.
But is our faith not about information?
Protestantism has been all about believing the right things. Islam and Judaism, for example, emphasize practicing their faith. Ritual. Action. Service.
We believe. That’s what we say in the creed. But if belief is assenting to certain propositions, certain doctrines, certain ideas, it’s all in the head.
If you struggle saying the creed that way, one writer suggests bringing back an older way of defining belief. Belief as trust. I trust in God. I give my heart to God, as revealed in the creed.
What would Easter mean if it wasn’t just something you believe in your mind? It would be encountering God as mystery. It would be opening your hearts to something beyond yourselves. It would be letting the blossoming buds and flowers be your spiritual guides.
If you are bewildered by trying to make sense of these times and what is has to do with God. If you struggle with your faith and what you believe, there is a place for you here in this community. Together, we explore the questions of faith. We are part of the catholic, that is, the universal church through the ages. So yes, we recite the creed, but we also experience resurrection through community, through acts of justice, through music and art and beauty.
There will be plenty of bad news. Texts and emails and online reports. Conspiracy theories. Fake news. That’s the way life is these days.
But we gather in this place to proclaim the good news that Christ is risen. That life is stronger than death. That goodness is stronger than evil. That light is stronger than darkness. That winter gives way to spring. That it’s not about certainty, but mystery.
Easter dawns and there are signs of resurrection all around us. In a world of hate and violence, people embodying compassion and mercy. In a world of greed and lies, people striving for truth, justice, and peace.
Christ is risen, we proclaim. Christ is risen, we shout. Christ is risen, we sing our hearts out. Not because we know it in our minds. Not because we read it online. But because we sense it in our hearts and in our bodies. Because we taste it in bread and wine. Because the presence of Christ in this place stirs to wonder and praise. And because Easter propels us to be signs of good news in the world.
