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It was a woman who first made contact with the risen Lord. Jesus didn't even reveal himself to John or Peter when they checked out the tomb. You can make of that what you will, though she did not recognize him at first. If it was hard for Mary to convince the men and for the disciples to believe in the resurrection even when they were witnesses, then how can we expect some today to believe it just from us quoting the Bible? What does it take to bring to Jesus some we try to convince today? I feel the answer is that people may believe if they see Jesus alive in us today. Are we loving and kind? Do we heal the sick and bring the dead back to life? Can we still perform the miracles that John said Jesus did to win people? No, miracles are not an everyday occurrence, nor do we always believe men or women who tell about something miraculous that they have experienced or witnessed. I witnessed miraculous healings in Nepal, and they brought people into the church to learn about this new God who can do anything. It was easier to convince these new prospective believers in the mission field than to convince our next-door neighbor. We are too wrapped up in science and our minds are confused by all the cynics who condemn us for believing such things. Even Dr. Moody's book Life after Life reports that his own experience and the experience of others who came back from death, can't convince some that there is something beyond death. I had a member of my church in California who had such an experience and was worried that I wouldn't believe him. I might have doubted if I had not read Moody's book.
We are always searching for the truth when it is right in front of us. Writers, like some we read in seminary, want us to find something more logical to win "modern man" who may question all these wild tales and who try to find logical explanations for Jesus' miracles that will fit our modern heads. I have found that there are few "modern men" in the parishes I have served. They are more ready to believe in the miracles of Jesus than those professors, and so are also less doubtful about the resurrection. We don't have to preach to convince most of our members, but we have to preach the right message.
I was searching for some spiritual meat in college when I first attended, but the professor of Bible spent the whole semester talking about the JPDE theory. It so turned me off that I didn't pick up the Bible again for almost ten years. When I finally did have a "religious experience" I was about 30, but the dean of the seminary frowned at me as though to say "Lutherans don't have religious experiences!" Make sure that our sermons are not full of doubt or that we are not spending our time trying to convince our people of something that they may already believe. When they see us in the chancel and the pulpit, let them have the feeling that "they have seen the Lord"! Let our words and actions speak to them of a God who is still alive and wants to live in them and in all the people of the world. We all need to rush out and tell our friends and neighbors, "We have seen the Lord!"
We are always searching for the truth when it is right in front of us. Writers, like some we read in seminary, want us to find something more logical to win "modern man" who may question all these wild tales and who try to find logical explanations for Jesus' miracles that will fit our modern heads. I have found that there are few "modern men" in the parishes I have served. They are more ready to believe in the miracles of Jesus than those professors, and so are also less doubtful about the resurrection. We don't have to preach to convince most of our members, but we have to preach the right message.
I was searching for some spiritual meat in college when I first attended, but the professor of Bible spent the whole semester talking about the JPDE theory. It so turned me off that I didn't pick up the Bible again for almost ten years. When I finally did have a "religious experience" I was about 30, but the dean of the seminary frowned at me as though to say "Lutherans don't have religious experiences!" Make sure that our sermons are not full of doubt or that we are not spending our time trying to convince our people of something that they may already believe. When they see us in the chancel and the pulpit, let them have the feeling that "they have seen the Lord"! Let our words and actions speak to them of a God who is still alive and wants to live in them and in all the people of the world. We all need to rush out and tell our friends and neighbors, "We have seen the Lord!"
