A sermon preached at Old South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Hallowell, Maine, April 4, 2010, Easter Sunday.
Text: John 20:1-18
The Rev. Susan M. Reisert, Minister
Chapter Eight: In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole. In this chapter, we find Winnie the Pooh is going to see his friend Christopher Robin to see if Christopher Robin is interested in Bears today. Lucky for Pooh, he finds Christopher Robin putting on his Big Boots and, as any Bear knows, that means that Christopher Robin is getting ready for a Big Adventure. So, Pooh makes himself look as though he is Ready for Anything.
Christopher Robin shares his big announcement with Pooh that they—the whole gang—will be going on an Expedition. An expotition? Pooh asks. Of course, an expotition, an expotition to the North Pole, no less, for Christopher Robin, Pooh and all of the animals—Pooh and Rabbit and Kanga and everyone. Because an Expedition means a long line of everybody.
Pooh goes off to round up the others for the Expotition. And, pretty soon, all of the animals are assembled. “They are all there - Christopher Robin and Rabbit are first, then Piglet and Pooh, then Kanga and little Roo and Owl, then Eeyore, and a long line of Rabbit's friend-and-relations right at the back. (Rabbit insists that he didn't invite his friend-and-relations, they just sort of turned up, like they usually do.)”
Eyeore, to no one’s surprise, is a bit gloomy. But, despite his gloominess, the animals, with Christopher Robin in the lead, go off in search of the North Pole.
By this stage the animals are climbing up the stream on some rocks, and after walking like this for a while they find a place where the stream widens, with stripes of grass on its edges, so Christopher Robin calls out "Halt!" and they sit down and have a rest and eat some Provisions - indeed, Christopher Robin suggests that they eat all of their Provisions now so that they will have less to carry.
Poor old Eeyore hasn't brought any Provisions with him though, so everyone else is eating while he just watches. He checks to see if anyone is sitting on a thistle, and Pooh says he believes that he might be, and then he says Ow, and then when he gets up he confirms that he was indeed sitting on a thistle, and Eeyore goes ahead and eats the thistle, although he gets in a Complaint about the fact that sitting on thistles doesn't do them much good at all.
Meanwhile, Christopher Robin and Rabbit have wandered a little way up the stream to have a private conversation, because, it turns out, that Christopher Robin is not entirely sure what a North Pole would look like even if he were standing right in front of it. So, he wants to get Rabbit’s advice. But, Rabbit isn’t much help, declaring, well, that he used to know what a North Pole looks like, but now he’s forgotten. But, then they decide that it must be just a pole stuck in the ground, and hence the name.
I wonder how many of us get to Easter morning with much the same kind of problem. We come to Easter at least sort of knowing what we are looking for, but how will we know when we’ve found it? We come in praise and in search of the Risen Christ, but how we will know when we’ve found him, even if it turns out that he’s right in front of us?
Perhaps we’ve recognized him sometime in the past. We used to know what he’s all about. We used to know, but now we’ve either forgotten or lost our way or have trouble re-creating those experiences we’ve had in the past. Or, perhaps, we’ve been looking all our life long and, despite the feeling that we ought to give up, we’re not quite ready to do that. Here we are, on another Easter morning, looking, searching, but not quite knowing how we will recognize the Risen Christ.
For those of us who are here under these circumstances, I have a couple of words of advice:
Cut yourself some slack. Even those who knew Jesus very well, were his closest, most loyal, friends and followers in that first century when Jesus was actually walking around, teaching and healing and hanging out and eating with actual real, live people, even they had trouble recognizing the Risen Christ. Even they had trouble, even when he was standing right in front of them, talking to them.
In today’s Gospel passage, Mary is at the empty tomb, weeping—confused, maybe angry, fearful. The body is gone, the tomb is empty, what has happened? But, then, there’s Jesus, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” It’s Jesus himself, but Mary assumes he’s the gardener. Mary! How could Mary not recognize him? She’s was one of his closest, most trusted friends.
In another familiar post-resurrection story, from Luke (that we often use during our communion services), we find two of Jesus’ followers walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, thinking that the story was over and done with the crucifixion. And, they are joined by Jesus himself and even though they share companionship and conversation for the seven whole miles that they walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the followers do not recognize him. Not until they sit down for a meal together, but we’ll get to that in just a moment.
So, if you are having a hard time seeing and recognizing the risen Christ in your life, cut yourself some slack. You are not alone.
And, the second piece of advice is this:
Don’t try so hard. Don’t think too much. The bulk of Christian history has been loaded down with getting people to agree to and conform to a belief system—creeds, doctrine, catechism, dogma. But, all this emphasis on belief doesn’t actually help to feed our soul, our spirit, our faith. It doesn’t help us recognize the Risen Christ.
When Jesus appears at the empty tomb and Mary assumes he’s the Gardener, Jesus doesn’t insist that she take out a notebook and write down what she is supposed to believe about what’s happened. Instead, the Risen Christ simply says her name, he speaks to her, and tells her to share the news that he is ascending to the Father, “to my God and your God.”
This is not so much a belief kind of story, despite the efforts of about the last, oh, seventeen centuries of Christianity. This is a faith story. It’s not so much about what you believe about what happened, but about how much you trust it. Do you trust these witnesses whom you have gotten to know in these stories? Do you trust those who have written them down? Do you trust Jesus? Do you have faith in him and what he says and teaches and brings to humanity?
Quite simply put, belief forces you to put aside your doubts—and we all have them, even Jesus’ closest followers and friends did—and to get in lockstep with the system. Faith, however, allows you to have your doubts, to wrestle with them, in a community of the faithful, others with whom we travel this journey.
[Belief depends on statements and on theological constructs by which you can figure out who’s in and who’s out; it depends on your brain. Faith depends on trust, on relationship. It depends on your heart.]
When we gather around the communion table this morning, don’t think so much about what you believe about this story, about Easter. Consider your faith. Consider your experience. Consider what your heart is telling you about what’s going on here.
This is not an exam, about ascribing to a particular belief system, but rather it is about an experience, about accepting the invitation to a relationship. Don’t think so much about what you believe about Jesus. Think more about your faith in him.
Open your heart. Experience these words. Experience these elements. And listen. You just may hear your own name being called. He knows it; he knows your name. He is calling to you.
Don’t worry about the fact that it doesn’t make much sense. Think more about the fact that it is what was promised and in it is new life. We don’t have to understand. We just need to trust. To have faith.
How do Pooh and the gang know that they’ve found the North Pole? Well, as they are eating their Provisions and Christopher Robin and Rabbit are talking, little Roo takes the opportunity to go for a little swim in the stream. But, of course, Roo is little and the stream is running.
As Roo begins floating downstream, the other animals start to get concerned and wonder what to do. Piglet’s idea of jumping up and down and making “oo, I say” noises does not prove to be immediately helpful.
But Pooh saves the day. He finds a long pole and when Kanga comes to help him hold it they set it out over the stream and Roo manages to grab hold of it and climb out.
Christopher Robin stops and notices that Pooh is holding onto the pole that he used to help rescue Roo and he announces that, behold, there it is! The North Pole!
Sometimes faith is not anything about your belief system or the creeds to which your Church asks you to ascribe. Faith is about paying attention, accepting the invitation that who or what is right in front of you may be just the thing that’s going to save you, no matter how improbable, and allowing yourself to be surrounded by good friends, including that very special friend who simply reaches out and says, Follow me.
And, you say, “Yes, I’d love to.”
Happy Easter.
Amen.
“Chapter Eight: In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole” is from Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.