Do you believe in ghosts?
Sermon from the Third Sunday of Easter + April 14, 2024 + Pr. Michelle Sevig
Do you believe in ghosts? Or maybe I should ask, have you ever had an experience with a ghost? Are you afraid of ghosts?
There are several different ways to quantify belief among Americans in so-called paranormal phenomena. One way is to ask a representative group of the population if they believe in ghosts. In a study that was reported on in the New York Times in 2021, 46 percent of respondents said they did. Another way is to ask people what they fear; nearly 10 percent said they feared ghosts. By the way, about the same percentage fear zombies, while many more people say they fear government corruption or widespread civil unrest.
Over the years each time there’s a Gallop poll about belief in ghosts, the percentage of believers has increased; from 25% in 1990 to now nearly half of Americans believing in the existence of ghosts.
How would you answer the question about ghosts if you were asked? I won’t tell you my answer, but I will say that one of my favorite television shows right now is simply called, “Ghosts.”
In the pilot episode a young couple, Sam and Jay, inherit a haunted mansion and unaware of their invisible housemates. They plan to turn it into a B&B but their lives become much more complicated after a fall causes Sam to be able to see the ghosts. Now in its third season, we’ve seen these ghosts, all of whom died on the property and are bound to that space forever, interact in hilarious and quirky ways with each other and with “the living” Sam and Jay. But in that first episode when Sam had the accident that made it possible for her to see the ghosts–she was terrified. She’d run from them, try to hide, thought she was seeing things or losing her mind.
I imagine that’s how most of us would respond if we saw a ghost, whether we “believe” in them or not, whether they’re a friendly ghost like Casper or one who might cause us harm. Interactions with ghosts can be terrifying!
Maybe it’s because of this show Ghosts, that this line from scripture stood out to me, “they were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost.” With those short and yet powerful strokes, Luke paints a picture of the disciple's reaction to Jesus appearing among them. Startled and terrified, seems reasonable enough, even with Jeus’s opening words, “Peace be with you.”
Wouldn’t you have the same reaction? These people had been an intimate part of Jesus’ life. They’d seen him suffer and had been with him at his death. It’s possible they were with him too when his body was laid in the tomb and the tomb was sealed with a heavy stone. Seeing him now in their midst now was more than they could believe, so they were sure they were losing their minds or this was a ghost. Either of those options is a better explanation than resurrection. It was difficult, if not impossible for them to believe that this really was Jesus, alive and well.
Jesus calms their fears and says, “Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And so they do touch him. Maybe they expected their hands to go right through him, as happens on the TV show about ghosts because you can’t touch or feel flesh in a ghost. But they were able to feel for themselves the scars, the holes, his warm, alive flesh. With joy, wonderment, and still in disbelief, they marveled at his appearance.
And then this funny detail, Jesus asks them for a bite to eat. Now, maybe you didn’t know this about ghosts, but they are not able to eat. On the show about ghosts, they can smell food, which is great because Jay is an excellent chef, but they can never eat. Consistently throughout the ages, people have understood that ghosts may seem to be solid, but ghosts NEVER eat.
The risen Jesus though, now that man can eat. He ate grilled fish “in their presence.” They witnessed him eating food, and only the living can do that. These details recorded in the gospel of Luke affirm to the disciples, affirm to us the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. This passage in particular points to ordinary human actions–talking, seeing, touching, sharing food–connecting this highly extraordinary event with the lives of everyday people.
Proof of the resurrection was not made with a booming voice from heaven declaring Christ’s presence. There were no magical signs spelled out by the stars or planets, not an earthquake, wind, or fire. But with the simple act of Jesus being with his people in person, talking with them, letting them touch him, and eating with them, Jesus provided the ultimate definition of what following him meant–that living out faith in him was to be done in community, in togetherness, and with each other.
As Jesus eats, the disciples lose enough of their fear to draw close and actually listen to what he’s saying, he “opens their mind to understand.” By the end of the encounter, they are no longer frightened men–they are witnesses of these things, emboldened for life that is full of resurrection promise and possibility.
And we're not that different from those early disciples. Their faith, like ours, is a mixture of joy, doubt, and wonder. And that is good news. They didn't have it all figured out. Doubt is not the opposite of faith, but a necessary ingredient. Because honestly in light of all the death and trauma and disappointment in life, it's impossible not to wonder and doubt if the good news of the resurrection is true.
But today’s gospel account helps us to recognize Christ’s resurrected body along with those disbelieving disciples. And in recognizing his resurrected body we are invited to celebrate and give thanks for all bodies. The resurrected body of Jesus, our own aging bodies and brand new baby bodies, the slim and the obese bodies, the wounded bodies, and the healthy ones too. Because ghosts don’t have bodies, but we do. And God so loved us that God became flesh and lived among us. And that very same God who suffered and lived among us, died and was raised again to new life, not as a ghost, but as a human body. Christmas and Easter are bookends around the radiant good news that creation is profoundly good. “Very good” as the creation story is told in Genesis 1.
So let us use our bodies to give witness to the power of resurrection in our own lives. Let us use our bodies to serve those in need. May our worship and prayer include not only our minds and our beliefs, but also our bodies used for touching, tasting, seeing, smelling, and feeling the real presence of Christ among us. Let us give thanks for the gift of our bodies and boldly proclaim Christ is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!
