Easter 2009

IN THE NAME OF GOD, CREATOR, REDEEMER, INSPIRER
Denise Giardina

Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; I John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48

When considering the many questions we have, as human beings, the many dilemmas we face, perhaps the greatest is this -- when we die, what happens next? Is there a “next”? Is this life all there is? Or do we continue? How do we continue? Will we have eternal life, as our faith promises? As Jesus promises in today’s gospel? For there is perhaps no more clear, direct answer to those questions than we are provided in today’s gospel.

Jesus stands before his friends. They have been his companions for the last three years of his life. They have watched him die, and seen his body buried. And yet here he is before them once more. He invites them to touch his flesh. They know who he is. And yet something has changed as well. Jesus is different somehow. And yet he is not different, he is himself. At first the disciples are frightened, as any of us would be if one we thought dead should suddenly appear among us. And then, perhaps most extraordinary of all, Jesus asks for something to eat. “They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.”

Can there be any more indication that Jesus is saying his physical life continues? He wants something to eat. And he takes food and eats in front of the disciples. The risen Lord has a physical body that desires food, and what could be a more indication that it is like this physical body we all inhabit? And yet we all know what will happen to our physical bodies when we die. Whether we are cremated into a pile of ash and bone, or whether we are atomized in some sort of accident such as an airplane crash, or whether we are embalmed in a metal coffin to await a slower disintegration – and believe me, it will still be disintegration – these physical bodies are scheduled for demolition. But today’s gospel indicates that still, that is somehow not the end.

We imagine what happens next in a variety of ways. Some people believe in reincarnation, that we will return to another body on this planet and continue in a different earthly existence. Still others visualize themselves as ethereal, body-less souls floating among the clouds. Others reject that notion. When I was in college, I had a proudly atheist professor who declared he had no interest in being a pile of goo floating on a cloud. Many, like that professor, think we will simply disappear, and exist no more. Others visualize a physical heaven with gold streets where we will be equipped with white wings and robes and spend our time playing harps, while others will be consigned to the eternal torment of a fiery, sulphurous hell. A Far Side cartoon I have on my bulletin board at school (remember the Far Side cartoons?) pictures a line of sullen people entering the fiery flames guarded by devils while two old codgers in overalls watch from the front porch of a log cabin. One codger is saying, I reckon them must be the new lost souls.” The other says, “I reckon.” And the caption of the cartoon is “Hellbillies”.

Modern science, of all things, provides us with more to speculate upon. Quantum physics speaks now, and fairly confidently, of other dimensions, other entire universes, different from this one, and yet connected by mysterious passages called wormholes. Our current knowledge of physics suggests that our physical bodies could not survive passage through a wormhole without being totally annihilated. And yet, if our technology develops to the point of allowing us to enter wormholes, what then?

And I wonder, as have others, what about when we lose this particular physical body? Then will we be able to enter a wormhole and pass through to another universe? Indeed, is heaven itself another universe? In the passage in Luke that immediately follows today’s gospel, the every last of Luke’s story, we are told “Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” What does that mean? Did Jesus disappear? Did he shoot up into the heavens like a rocket? Or did he go through a wormhole?

Well, this is a mystery. And the only people who know the answer to it are those who have died. And since those who have died include many who are dear to us, I feel that is a bit of a hint that we should not be afraid. My mother and father faced death, as have many of your relatives and friends. If they have consciousness, and I believe they do, they know what we do not. And yet we still wonder, and we are still tantalized by this description of the risen Lord appearing in visible form, a form that was similar and yet different. Jesus, in this passage, is clearly not a pile of goo floating on a cloud. And yet he has also clearly been transformed in some way. What is the nature of that transformation that occurred after Jesus’s death? And what would it be like for us?

I believe I received an answer to this question, of all places, on the Internet. This past week, I made an unusual request of you, through the Interchange and through an e-mail from Brenda Dearien: I asked that, if possible, you look at a video clip on Youtube, on the Internet. Specifically I asked if you could watch a woman name Susan Boyle singing on a TV show called Britain’s Got Talent, which is similar to the show America’s Got Talent in this country. This particular clip has been viewed over 45 million times in the past couple of weeks, and has in fact set a record for viewings this year. So I know that some of you have seen it even without my request. I also understand that some of you have no Internet access at all, or have no experience looking at the Internet. Never fear, you will not be totally lost when you listen to me, for I will describe the video clip. I only thought that it would add to your understanding if you could actually watch, because you will have seen that transformation I am about to describe.

For Britain’s Got Talent, potential contestants have first to perform in front of an audience and three judges, who include Simon Cowell of American Idol. Contestants come onstage for a brief interview, and then they perform. One of the judges, Piers Morgan, has since explained that on this particular day, the performances had gone on for a long time, and most of them had been, well, pretty bad. By the time Susan Boyle walked onstage, both judges and audience were tired and ready to go home.

So, enter Susan Boyle. Unlike most of the other contestants she is not young but middle-aged, 47 to be exact, as she tells the judges, who react as if being 47 makes one odd somehow. In addition, Susan Boyle is overweight, has a double chin and thick eyebrows, wears a shapeless dully-colored dress, and has graying frizzy hair and a very visible bald spot on the crown of her head. As she interacts with the judges, she tries to compensate by grinding her hips in an effort to be sexy. She is momentarily stumped when asked to describe where she lives. (And information learned after the show indicates that Susan in fact suffered a mild form of brain injury at birth). The judges roll their eyes, the audience catcalls. And then Susan Boyle opens her mouth and sings the song “I dreamed a dream” from the musical Les Miserables.

Well, if you haven’t seen and heard the video, I can’t reproduce for you the beauty of Susan Boyle’s voice, or the reaction of the judges and audience, or the excitement of that moment. I can tell you that the judges were beaming and gave their enthusiastic approval, and that the audience was on its feet applauding throughout the performance, but that doesn’t really do justice. I mainly want to tell you what has struck me as I have watched that video over and over again, and what I saw in that video that relates to today’s gospel.

I watch that video, and I see transformations of physical bodies – three in particular that catch my attention. At the beginning, before Susan Boyle starts to sing, a young woman in the audience is watching. She is an attractive young woman, but when Susan Boyle states that her dream is to be a professional singer, the young woman makes a face. And she is no longer attractive; she is, for a moment, ugly.

Next, I see three celebrity judges, attractive younger people, looking bored and jaded. And then I see their faces transformed by a moment of surprise and sheer joy.

But most of all, I see a frumpy, frowzy, plain woman, who begins to sing. And in that moment, and as Susan Boyle continues to sing, she is stunningly beautiful. Mind you, she is the same woman. She is still overweight with thick eyebrows and frizzy graying hair with a bald spot. And yet she has been transformed by the sheer joy of her own singing, and she is beautiful.

Could it be that this type of transformation is what the disciples saw when they encountered the risen Lord? He was Jesus, and yet he was not. He was more than Jesus. He was something he had perhaps not been until after his resurrection. And he was beautiful.

I understand, again from the Internet, that Susan Boyle is having a bit of a makeover. New hairstyle, new clothes. I wish her well, and I pray her life from here on will be happy, for it certainly will change, and there will be stress and pressure. But I would guess Susan Boyle will never look any more beautiful than she did in that moment when she was singing. And I would suggest that when we come to the time when we pass from this life to the next, and inherit our new bodies, as Jesus did, we will undergo the same type of transformation Susan Boyle did. We will be transformed, we will still have flesh that can be touched and we will be hungry and eat. And we will be beautiful.