Look & Hear

John 20: 1-18

Reading the scripture I thought of two stories I believe relate. The first was a time I was on a canoe trip on Mooselookguntic Lake in rural Maine when I was about twelve. The trip was going very well, when the weather finally turned stormy and especially windy. For one full day we stayed on shore as the waves rolled in more like the ocean then a lake. The 3-4 foot waves kept us camped that day, but we had to press on the next day so parents would not worry and the waves had diminished to 2 ½ to 3 ½ feet. I remember feeling queasy before getting into the canoe. We had to go directly across the lake to head back to our vehicle and we needed to head the canoes directly into the oncoming waves to avoid being capsized. This trip across was taking much longer and when we were almost half way across our leader realized that the kid in the middle of his canoe (we had 7 people and 3 canoes) was getting quite hypothermic so he pushed on to get to the island to warm up the passenger. Also, the waves got progressively easier as we crossed the middle, but being the last canoe I did not realize that as I watched the first canoe get out of ear shot and the second as well. My canoe was still among the roughest waves and we felt defeated and scared. So I prayed. When I looked up I saw two fighter jets fly overhead (which was not unusual in our area) and one tipped his wing, to us, and my reaction was not that someone knew we were out in the middle of the lake, but that God was with us. I felt calm and went back to paddling, and within 5-10 minutes we were also past the roughest and then got to the island with little difficulty. We were all cold and wet, but because we were paddling we kept warm enough, but the passenger was changed into dry clothes wrapped in a sleeping bag near a fire sipping hot cocoa, and his color was returning. We left for the last leg a few hours later and about twenty minutes into the journey, I noticed that the lake was calmer then it had been all week. It was then that I truly realized how I knew God was with me in the middle of the lake. It was then that I realized when I saw the plane after prayer I knew God was with me, and for my canoe mate the plane was simply cool.

The second story was much more recent. I was working with a youth I have known since he was in middle school and I can tell you he is a good and theologically minded boy. However, during his senior year of high school he was hanging out with the wrong crowd. He did stay someone active in church, but he was often more interested in his friends. Well I got a phone call from him when he got in serious trouble. This time the law was even involved. I knew when he called me first that he was reaching out to God as I embodied the church/God for him as his pastor. I asked him to visit with me the next day, and we talked for a long time. I never condoned his action, but I was there as his pastor. I did finally ask him where he saw God in this and he answered "I dunno." I let the conversation go for a while longer before bringing that question back up, and again I got an "I dunno," so I started to tell him this very story. I knew a youth that got into serious trouble and the first person he called for help was his pastor, the church, for help. I could see his eyes light up as he had to admit he knew and did turn to God in his despair.

This scripture tells us of how three different people approached the resurrection that dawn. John apparently believed by simply seeing, yet Peter, who we know would believe fully, still not get it standing in the empty tomb. Mary saw angels, Mary saw Jesus (perhaps through great tears) and still did not believe, but once Jesus called her name she knew of the resurrection. My canoe mate did not see the resurrection from the jet nor the still water, but I did. I knew from the first phone conversation that Jesus was working through the youth, but he needed to hear it. The resurrection is there for all of us, but we will need to realize that we will need to look, hear, feel, smell, and sense it and often it will be different for each individual. Just as the first three according to the Gospel of John, so go looking and listening and do tell others where you had sensed the Risen Christ.