“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

I want to begin by reviewing the main points that we have looked at since Good Friday and in particular to revisit the point that it is reasonable to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. I want to help you understand why it is reasonable. I said sometime back that I want to show you why it is reasonable, and why it is intellectually and morally responsible to believe the historic accounts in the New Testament texts that report, describe, and narrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I pointed out then that there are four facts reported in the New Testament texts that are undisputed by the majority of biblical scholars who ply their trade in the best universities of Europe and America. I don’t mean for a moment that the Christian Church is dependent upon the modern university to tell her what is true, but what I do mean is that the very best tenured biblical scholars today, though they would not all agree on how to interpret them, would all agree that these four facts, reported in the New Testament’s texts, really occurred in history.

What are the four facts? First, that Jesus suffered a horrific death by crucifixion and he was buried. Secondly, only a few days after his burial, his body went missing and the tomb was empty. The third historic fact is that on different occasions and under various circumstances individual persons and groups of people experienced what they believed to be appearances of Jesus very much alive from the dead. The fourth historic fact is that his disciples suddenly, practically over night, and quite sincerely came to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead physically, even though they were predisposed not to believe any such thing.

So there you have it: The overwhelming number of people whose life-work is given to the study of the documents of the New Testament all assert that there are four bedrock historical events recorded in the New Testament: Jesus died and was buried in a tomb; that tomb turned up empty a few days later; immediately after they discovered that the tomb was empty, individuals and groups of his followers believed that he appeared to them; and finally those individuals and groups believed he appeared to them because God physically raised him from the dead. Now I am not saying that most academics will agree with the disciples’ own interpretation of those four events, because some do not, but I will say that far more of the scholars do accept the disciples’ interpretation than is popularly reported.

What do I mean that more academics actually believe that the earliest disciples’ got it right than is popularly reported? What do I mean by popular report? I mean that our culture is permeated by a mood, an uncriticized set of pop beliefs that are biased against Christianity therefore it goes without saying that really smart people don’t believe in supernatural foolishness like Christianity. For example, this past week the BBC ran an editorial entitled: “When did people stop thinking God lives on a cloud?” Well according to that opinion piece, it happened 50 years ago in 1963 when John A.T. Robinson, a Church of England bishop, wrote a book entitled Honest to God in which he schooled the general public that contemporary, scientific cosmology doesn’t square with an out-of-date biblical cosmology. And that, Robinson told us back in 1963, is why the parish churches in England were empty – modern people can’t believe in old-fashioned, obsolete worldviews. God doesn’t live on cushy clouds. Here is the point that I want to make: What Robinson and the BBC say is not true for several reasons. First, cloud dwelling does not enter into a biblical worldview in any shape, fashion or form. Secondly, the BBC piece is little more than un-self-critical, naive, Enlightenment propaganda: science destroys the Bible. Its use of cartoon-like thinking may even be an unconscious form of hate-speech meant to ridicule Christians. But the other thing I want you to see is how this sort of distortion and misrepresentation works to reinforces a secular, Enlightenment horizon at the expense of the facts. What is amazing to me is how well this banality works today. But 50 years ago it wasn’t quite the case. If you actually went back and counted you would find that the parish churches of England were not empty like John Robinson assumed. Furthermore, the year that Honest to God was published, CS Lewis died. Now I doubt that many of you had even heard of the book John A.T. Robinson wrote before today, but you all know who C.S. Lewis is. It is also a matter of fact that in 1954 close to 2,000,000 people attended Billy Graham’s 12-week long London crusade. All those Brits and Americans must have missed the memo that Billy Graham’s and C. S. Lewis’ worldview had been demolished by science. Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because I want to widen your horizon. There is an element of this world that is entirely focused on what is here below, what is here and now, what has utility, what I may own and possess, what I may measure and weigh, what the law protects and what medical science can keep alive. This world order masquerades as the elite intelligentsia, but in fact it is unimaginative and prosaic. C.S. Lewis gives us a far more realistic portrait of the worldly wise, sophisticated secularist in his fantasy The Pilgrim’s Regress. On being asked to explain how he had intelligently arrived at the conclusion that there is no God, the character named “Mr. Enlightenment” puffs up his chests and declares, “Oh well! Christopher Columbus, Galileo, the earth is round, invention of printing, gunpowder!” Well there you have it – so much for the big honesty!

Another problem with the BBC article and with the so-called honest-to-God thinking is that they portray Christians as a group of people who believe that the space-time continuum will come to a fiery end. That is not true. It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to see that bodily resurrection and cloud dwelling are incompatible. They are not demythologizing the antique myths of the Church; they are re-mythologizing and with myths of their own making. To make my point let’s look once again at the fourth historical fact – the first disciples believed that God had raised Jesus bodily from the dead.

What made them believe that? The situation of the disciples was that their leader had been horribly put to death by crucifixion. They had such great hope in Jesus, but their hope had been shattered. On top of that, Jewish belief had no concept of resurrection prior to the general resurrection at the end of the world and even that is vague. As far as his disciples were concerned Jesus had been defeated and now they would be lucky to get out of Jerusalem alive. Nevertheless, his original band of disciples suddenly came to believe that the man they loved who died such a horrible death on the cross was now alive. Not only was he alive. God raised him from the dead and they were suddenly so sure of its truthfulness that they were quite willing to die for that belief. Of course, the big question is, what on earth caused them to believe in such a non-Jewish, bizarre, fantastic, far-fetched thing? What is the best explanation? As one scholar said “Some sort of powerful, transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was.” And according to N.T. Wright, one of the most astute New Testament scholars living today, “as an historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity, unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him.” Let’s talk about being honest to God – how honest or dishonest do you think these first disciples were? When they were facing death by stoning or crucifixion, when their loved ones rejected them or when their loved ones were stoned or beheaded before them do you really believe that they deliberately continued in an outlandish falsehood? I don’t believe that. That is unreasonable and it doesn’t square with the facts. Jesus was bodily raised from the dead and for forty days his disciples spent time with him, eating, drinking, and being instructed. And after that Jesus returned to his Father and 10 days after that the Father sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church and to empower her to preach the Gospel of the Risen Jesus Christ to the whole world. And it is that sending of the Holy Spirit to the Church that we commemorate today.

Here is another point: if one is going to criticize the doctrines of the Church, why not go for what we really believe rather than a secular make-over? The reason Jesus’ disciples were willing to face a tortuous death is because they believed that Jesus would take care of them. They believed that what happened to Jesus, the fact of his bodily resurrection, was exactly what would happen to them at the Second Coming of Christ. They were not looking forward to living on clouds as disembodied spirits. Jesus was raised bodily from the dead and so those who believe in Jesus will be raised bodily from the dead as well. Jesus said that we would all be together, and we would all be with him bodily at his second coming, and that is what they expected. And that is what Paul was attempting to teach his troubled children in Corinth.

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.”

Far from expecting a life in the clouds, St. Paul has an entirely different hope in mind. Paul refers to our body as “the tent that is our earthly home.” Our home is not in the clouds; our home is in this space/time continuum in bodies of flesh, bodies that will be transformed by the power of God when Jesus returns. The importance of our bodies is magnified by the hint of distress in Paul’s words. On the one hand Paul longs to put on the heavenly dwelling, the resurrected body, at the Second Coming. Where is the distress coming from in Paul’s voice? His distress is over the expectation that he may die before the Second Coming of Christ and end up in a disembodied state, as he puts it, being “found naked.” He goes on to say in other places that to depart this world, this space/time continuum is good – “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” To be with Christ, even in a temporary disembodied state, is good, but it isn’t the best and it isn’t our Christian hope. Our Christian hope, and by that I mean our expectation, is to be with our Lord and clothed with our resurrected bodies. Well, that’s as far as we can get today, but I do intend over the next few weeks to focus on the state of being of our loved ones who are absent from the body and present with the Lord, and further I want to focus on exactly what the apostolic vision of eternal life is, which, I can assure you, has nothing to do with cloud dwelling.

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Pentecost - Dorffmaister 1782

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF WHITSUNDAY (May 19, 2013)

20, Monday in Whitsunday Week
21, Tuesday in Whitsunday Week
22, Wednesday in Whitsunday Week
23, Thursday in Whitsunday Week
24, Friday in Whitsunday Week

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet May 21, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!

+ Monday Morning Bible Study is taking the summer off! The class will start up again in September. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

Ascension - Perugino 1496-98

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight…

It would be easy to simply pass over the Ascension of our Lord and jump right to Pentecost and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, especially since that seems to be when the action picks up once again. Maybe the cosmology is embarrassing? Even the Epistle and Gospel for the Sunday after the Ascension direct our attention not to our Lord’s rather obvious return to his Father in Heaven, but to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. After all, his departure, his “going away” as it is put it in John’s Gospel, was a natural unfolding of the story’s plot. We have seen over these last few Sundays after Easter that our Lord was raised physically from the dead and Luke is careful to point out to his readers that Jesus presented himself to his disciples after his resurrection and continued to teach his disciples up until the day he was “taken up.”

According to Luke’s account in Acts at the end of that period Jesus and his disciples once again gathered together at Mount Olivet one last time. The word Luke uses here that we have translated “come together” literally means, “sharing salt,” which suggests the possibility that they were sharing a last meal. In fact the Aramaic verb for eating salt had come to mean simply eating together. It is certainly consistent with Luke’s assertion that after his resurrection Jesus offered “proofs” of his corporeality to his disciples.

Now, they all stood there together outside Jerusalem. Jesus commissioned them to go into the whole world and preach his gospel. But he told them to wait in Jerusalem until the Paraclete, the Comforter is come upon them. And then right before their eyes he was taken up until a cloud received him out of their sight. This is what the Church calls the Ascension. They were awestruck of course. Ascensions do not occur everyday and they stood there apparently gawking till two men dressed in white said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven. This same Jesus that you have observed departing will one day return in the same way.” Christ was taken out of their sight that is the resurrected Jesus would no longer be empirically available as he had been post-resurrection because he returned to his Father, to the abode of the Trinity, which is “higher,” than this space-time continuum.

Throughout the Last Discourse and presumably during this post-resurrection, Jesus had been preparing his disciples:

“A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father…”

“Jesus said, Now I go my way to him that sent me…”

“It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you…”

“I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father…”

I want to think about some of the implications of Jesus’ return to his Father. Exactly, what is the upshot of his return to his Father for creation and especially for humanity? First of all realize that the Ascension did not bring an end to the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the permanent state of being of the uncreated Son of God. The Subject, the Person of Jesus Christ, has two separate natures; true God and true Man. Jesus is not two Persons, one human and one divine. Jesus Christ is only one Person and that one Person, that one Subject is the Second Person of the Trinity and has two separate natures. His divine nature is whole and undiluted by his humanity. And his humanity is whole and undiluted by his divinity. In other words, Jesus is not a hybrid of divinity and humanity; nor did Jesus’ divine nature swallow up his humanity. In his Incarnation the eternally begotten Son esteems the integrity of human nature. And what is important today is one human being who died and who has been raised from the dead eternally. And that means human nature is such that it is may be joined to God’s nature, and it is such that it is capable of being raised from the dead and then to participate in the Divine life.

Jesus Christ is One Person who subsists in two natures. Now the Person, the Subject of the two natures, is not a creature himself. The Person, the Subject, did not come into existence at the Incarnation. So who is the Person of Jesus Christ? The Person, the Subject of the two natures is none other than the Logos, the eternally begotten Word of the Father. He became flesh by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary. The fact that it could happen at all is very big news and a very big deal. What it means is that there is a fundamental compatibility between the Creator and his creation. It means that the uncreated Word of the Father has become the Subject, the Person of human nature by assuming it into his life, making it his own life, without destroying it or altering it in any way. He did this by receiving human nature from Mary. Thus, human nature is assumable into the Godhead. Human nature is created with a capacity for openness to God. And now with the Ascension, we know even more about the capacity of human nature: Jesus Christ has taken human nature into heaven – a human being is sitting at the right hand of God the Father.

And all this is “for us men and for our salvation,” to cite the Nicene Creed. But you must see that “salvation” is not merely an escape from death and hell. Nor is salvation a matter of changing or altering human nature into something other than human nature. Salvation does not mean that we become hybrids of God and Man. By assuming our humanity our Lord did not change human nature into something else, he perfected it. And that perfection is not merely a moral perfection; it is far more than that. Now conforming our behavior to the model of Jesus Christ will necessarily follow, but that is not the endgame. This is the endgame: The perfection of our nature, which is an action of grace, is participation in the life of God himself – that is the endgame, the telos, our destiny; indeed, that is our common vocation.

In this Jesus is the Pioneer of our Faith. He has demonstrated by the Incarnation that human nature is open to God, open to assumption, capable of participation without being altered. Remember this: Grace does not destroy nature; grace perfects nature. Here’s a formula that helps me remember this: “The Creator entered into the life of his creation as a creature so the creature may enter into the uncreated life of the Creator.” What this means for us is, yes, God’s solidarity with humanity and indeed his solidarity with all of creation is declared in the Ascension. But further we are the offspring of Divinity.

“Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear; we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

“We shall be like him,” in his humanity. And our destiny is to live in Jesus and he in the Father and the Father in him and we in them.

Now in light of this, I want to look at the text for this Sunday and make only one point. I want you to see that the Witness of the Paraclete or the Witness of the Spirit involves our giving voice to the Spirit, which is the same as giving voice to Jesus in this World. The voice of Jesus is the voice of the Spirit and the voice of the Spirit is the voice of the disciples in the World:

“When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning… They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

The Paraclete will bear witness to the truth of Jesus’ life, words and works. This is happening now. The Paraclete will bear witness that Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of God. The World has rejected Jesus and the World continues to reject him. This has been a constant theme in the Sundays following Easter and especially in the Final Discourse. The World does not know God. The World has rejected God’s offer of Life.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not.”

The world will treat his disciples just like it treated him. The Beloved Disciple presents a narrative in which the Christian community is to be locked in mortal combat with the World. And for the Beloved Disciple that included the Synagogue. There is an evil alliance between the Synagogue and the rest of the World against Jesus. Two times in the Revelation the Beloved Disciple refers to

“The synagogue of Satan (and those) who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie…”

I’ve said this before and I know you realize it already: the World is not evil in itself. God created it and declared that it is “good.” What makes it bad is what is missing. God has offered the World the possibility of participating in his life through Jesus Christ, but the World has declined his offer. Israel rejected Christ as well. And today much of what used to be the Church has declined Jesus’ offer. Where this absence of the good of God’s life is most concentrated in the world, is in the thrones and principalities of power, even if that principality happens to be vested in the people, that is in a democracy. Every kingdom, even one elected “by the people” is set against Christ and his Kingdom. In light of that rejection, the World and her tamed religious institutions have been shaped and continue to be shaped by a consuming obsession with what is here below. The higher life in Christ is not within the horizons of the rulers and nations of this world. Participation in the Life of God has been rejected and a passion, driven by self-interest, compels men to strike out against Jesus even though Jesus is at right hand of the Father. The World strikes out against Jesus by striking out against his disciples. We reject participation in this dying World that has rejected its Creator!

“The World is passing away along with its desires…”
“The Darkness is passing and the true light is already shinning…”

The Paraclete indwells the Church and indwells each disciple. It is the Church and the disciples who give voice to the Holy Spirit’s witness, making his witness their own witness. The Holy Spirit makes Jesus present in the world. The disciples give voice to the Holy Spirit who indwells us. By hating us who are the dwelling places of the Holy Spirit the world continues to strike against Jesus. We, you and I, the Church, the Bride represent Jesus; we stand in for Jesus contra mundum!

The Ascension - Garofalo 1510-1520

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION (May 12, 2013)

13, Monday – Feria
14, Tuesday – St. Boniface
15, Wednesday – Feria
16, Thursday – Feria
17, Friday – Feria

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet May 14, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!

+ Monday Morning Bible Study is taking the summer off! The class will start up again in September. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

The Ascension - Rembrandt 1636

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF EASTER V (May 5, 2013)

6, Monday – Feria
7, Tuesday – Feria
8, Wednesday – Rogation Wednesday
9, Thursday – Ascension
10, Friday – Octave

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet May 7, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Holy Communion is celebrated Monday through Friday at 12:15 p.m.

+ Monday Morning Bible Study – A Bible study of the Old Testament books of Ezra and Haggai will meet Monday, May 6, 10:00-Noon and continue for six weeks. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!

Raising of Lazarus - Caravaggio 1608

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF EASTER IV (April 28, 2013)

29, Monday – Feria
30, Tuesday – Feria
1, Wednesday – St. Philip & St. James
2, Thursday – St. Athanasius
3, Friday – Holy Cross

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet April 30, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Monday Morning Bible Study – A Bible study of the Old Testament books of Ezra and Haggai will meet Monday, April 29, 10:00-Noon and continue for six weeks. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ The True Cross – According to legend, Constantine’s mother, Saint Helena, traveled to Jerusalem to find the true Cross. Nails and three crosses were subsequently discovered. Pious tradition has it that one of these was the true cross, being authenticated by the miraculous healing of a woman. Whatever the case may be, today we do well to remember the gift given through the Holy Cross – “… by the Tree of the Cross thou hast wrought the salvation of the race of man; that whence death arose, thence also Life might rise again; and that he who by a tree was once the vanquisher, might also by a Tree be vanquished; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.”

Last week at Bob’s funeral there were numerous references to the resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection. In addition to that Fr. Dan made the point in his sermon that the various offices of the Christian man and woman, that is what we sometimes call duties, are actual means of sacramental grace that form Catholic character. For example the office of the “husband” carries with it duties that are not mere rules or laws performed by rote, but rather, the performance of such duties forms the man more and more into the image of Christ. Well, that’s just dandy so long as we are not, as Christians, living in a fool’s paradise; so long as our belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ corresponds to reality. If Christ was raised bodily from the dead, then his resurrection has “become the first-fruits of them that slept.” If Christ is raised from the dead, then we too shall be raised bodily from the dead. But if Christ has not been raised bodily from the dead, then we will not be raised and all that good theologizing that Fr. Dan does about sacraments and duty and character is just sound and fury because it doesn’t square with, it doesn’t correspond to reality. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

I want you to understand beyond any shadow of doubt that if Christ was not raised bodily from the dead then Christianity is a scam and a deception and we are all great big fools for being here. But as a matter I also want you to understand that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead. However, it isn’t enough that he was in fact raised from the dead because for you to be a Christian that is exactly what you must believe, and if you don’t believe that then with all due respect you are not an authentic Christian. Now I’m not saying that you’re not a sweet person, I’m not saying that God doesn’t love you and I’m not saying that you’re not a patriot and a good American. I’m saying – well, not I – but the Apostle Paul and all the other Apostles and prophets are saying that one is not an authentic Christian – one is not the genuine article, the real thing unless one affirms the historic, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

It is reasonable to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and I want to help you understand why it is reasonable. I can show you why it is intelligent, why it is reasonable, and why it is intellectually and morally responsible to believe the historic accounts in the texts we call the Gospels that report, describe, and narrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And so that’s what I want to do beginning with this: There are four facts that are reported in the New Testament texts that are undisputed by the majority of biblical scholars who ply their trade in the best universities of Europe and America. Specifically, I can cite Duke University, Notre Dame, Emory, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University of Munich, St. Andrews, and Union, just to name a few where some of the very best tenured biblical scholars teach and have agreed that these four facts, reported in the New Testament’s texts, really occurred in history.

What are the four facts? They are all asserted in the little creed that St. Paul presents to the Corinthians in Chapter 15 of his first letter:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.”

The first fact is the burial of Jesus after his horrific death. The second fact is the empty tomb. The third fact is his post-mortem appearances. And the fourth fact is his disciples’ belief in his resurrection.

Now someone will say, “Hey wait a minute there’s no mention of an empty tomb in that little creed.” Yes, you are correct about that but first I want to say something about his burial and then we will look at the empty tomb. After his death Jesus was removed from the cross, wrapped in linen or cotton burial sheets and placed in a tomb that was located quite close to where he died. According to all four Gospels it was Joseph of Arimathaea, a member of the Sanhedrin, who had the courage to ask Pilate to permit him to bury Jesus. Remember that – Joseph of Arimathaea was a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was something like a supreme court; it was made up of seventy men and they presided in Jerusalem. When we see phrases in the Gospels that refer to “the Jews” and especially to the group that opposed Jesus it is a reference to the membership of this group. It would have been on the authority of this group that Stephen was stoned, and it was upon the authority of this group that Saul would have been hunting down Christians before his Damascus Road conversion. It is highly unlikely that the Church would have just made up a story that threw such favorable light upon a member of the very group that sought to destroy Jesus. But it is very likely that in recording the events as they unfolded, the disciples would scrupulously recall such key events and key players whoever they happened to be. So here we end up with the first historic fact: After Jesus’ horrific death, Joseph of Arimathaea quickly buried him in a new tomb close to Calvary.

And three days later that very tomb was empty. Well, what about the empty tomb? Paul never mentions an empty tomb and thus it is not a part this rudimentary creed that he passed on to the Corinthians. But just because it isn’t explicitly stated in this elementary creed, does not mean that people in Israel in the 1st century actually thought you could get away with preaching the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and at the same time have his decomposing body still in the tomb. The easiest and surest way that the Jews or the Romans could put an immediate end to the preaching the resurrection of Jesus would have been for them to drag Jesus’ dead body out of the tomb and put it on display for all to see. But they didn’t do that because there was no body in the tomb. It is the case that the narrative of the empty tomb is probably the earliest of all the resurrection narratives and it is recorded in all four Gospels. The tomb was empty. It is a historic fact. How do you explain it?

The third historic fact is that on different occasion and under various circumstances individual persons and groups of people experienced what they believed to be appearances of Jesus very much alive from the dead. We have no accounts of people who claim to have experienced Jesus as a survivor of his crucifixion. No one describes him as a wounded survivor staggering about Jerusalem. Nor does anyone describe an appearance of Christ as the experience of a spirit or a ghost. What’s more there are several texts that draw attention to the fact that his post-mortem appearances were not of a spirit but of a man of flesh. Resurrected flesh. In the 24th chapter of Luke when our Lord appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room the texts states that:

“They were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why does questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have.’”

Furthermore we know from the Gospels of other appearances, both to individuals and to groups. He appeared to Mary Magdalene when she was alone in the garden and according to Luke he appeared to Peter when he was alone. He also appeared to his disciples and Apostles as a group all at once, probably in what we know as the Upper Room. There are two such occasions separated by one seven day week. He also spoke to his disciples face to face and several times by name: Mary in the garden, Thomas in the Upper Room one week after his resurrection; as well as the Beloved Disciple and Peter at some point after that first week. And according to Paul he appeared to over 500 disciples at one time most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians. It is obvious that the only reason Paul mentioned the appearance to the 500 was to say to his readers that there are authentic witnesses to be questioned at the present time if you wish. Please also note that there is no way that Paul would have mentioned the event if it had not occurred. It would have been foolish to challenge the Corinthians to question witnesses of an event if the event had not taken place. The Gospel narratives and Paul’s citations provide us with multiple and independent testimony of Jesus’ post-mortem appearances. It is a fact that individuals and even groups of people believed that they had multiple experiences of Jesus very much alive from the dead. What is the best explanation for that fact?

The fourth historic fact is that his disciples suddenly, practically over night, and quite sincerely came to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead even though they were predisposed not to believe any such thing. What made them believe that? The situation of the disciples was that their leader had been horribly put to death by crucifixion. They had such great hope in Jesus, but their hope had been shattered. On top of that, Jewish belief had no concept of resurrection prior to the general resurrection at the end of the world and even that is vague. As far as his disciples were concerned Jesus had been defeated and now they would be lucky to get out of Jerusalem alive. Nevertheless his original band of disciples suddenly came to believe that the man they loved who died such a horrible death on the cross was now alive. Not only was he alive – God raised him from the dead and they were suddenly so sure of its truthfulness that they were quite willing to die for that belief. Of course the big question is, what on earth caused them to believe in such a non-Jewish, bizarre, fantastic, far-fetched thing? How are we to explain these four facts? As one scholar said “Some sort of powerful, transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was.” And according to NT Wright, one of the most astute New Testament scholars living today, “as an historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity, unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him.”

Well that as far as we get today! There are four facts that most credible biblical scholars all agree on: Jesus died and was buried, his tomb was shortly discovered to be empty, his disciples all believed they experienced post-mortem appearances of Jesus, and something caused his disciples to believe that he was raise from the dead. What is the best explanation for these facts?

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.”

Christ Appears to his Disicples

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF EASTER III (April 21, 2013)

22, Monday – Feria
23, Tuesday – George, Patron of England
24, Wednesday – Feria
25, Thursday – St. Mark
26, Friday – Feria

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet April 23, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Our last Agape will meet this Wednesday, April 26. Whether you have been able to attend all year or not I hope you can come out this Wednesday. Carolina barbecue is on the menu. The Agape and Christians Education will pick up again in September. Also remember to RSVP us so we can prepare dinner for you and your family and friends. The agape dinner begins at 5:45 p.m. Child and adult education classes begin at 6:30 p.m. and are over at 7:15 p.m. allsaintscville@gmail.com

+ Monday Morning Bible Study – A Bible study of the Old Testament books of Ezra and Haggai will meet Monday, April 22, 10:00-Noon and continue for six weeks. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ According to tradition St. George was a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a guard of Diocletian who was martyred during that emperor’s persecution of the Church. He is venerated in the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church. He is regarded as the most prominent military saint. He was likely born into a Christian noble family around 275 AD and he was martyred on April 23, 303 for begin a Christian. St. George presented in icons as the dragon slayer. The general iconographic interpretation is that the dragon represents both Satan and the Roman Empire. Within ten years of his George’s death, Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan putting an end to the persecution of the Church.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY (April 14, 2013)

15, Monday – Feria
16, Tuesday – Feria
17, Wednesday – Funeral Mass for Bob Taylor 11:00 am
18, Thursday – Feria
19, Friday – Feria

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet April 16, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Our Winter Agape & Christian Education will meet this Wednesday, April 17. Fr. Lawrence Adams is teaching an adult class on the New Testament epistle to the Hebrews. Also remember to RSVP us so we can prepare dinner for you and your family. The agape dinner begins at 5:45 p.m. Child and adult education classes begin at 6:30 p.m. and are over at 7:15 p.m. allsaintscville@gmail.com

+ Monday Morning Bible Study – A Bible study of the Old Testament books of Ezra and Haggai will meet Monday, April 15, 10:00-Noon and continue for six weeks. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!

The Road to Emmaus - von Ehde

MASS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF LOW SUNDAY (April 7, 2013)

8, Monday – Feria
9, Tuesday – Feria
10, Wednesday – Feria
11, Thursday – St. Leo the Great
12, Friday – Feria

+ All Saints’ Men’s Group will meet April 9, 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft.

+ Our Winter Agape & Christian Education will meet this Wednesday, April 3. Fr. Lawrence Adams will begin an adult class on the New Testament book to the Hebrews. Also remember to RSVP us so we can prepare dinner for you and your family. The agape dinner begins at 5:45 p.m. Child and adult education classes begin at 6:30 p.m. and are over at 7:15 p.m. allsaintscville@gmail.com

+ Monday Morning Bible Study – A new Bible study of the Old Testament books of Ezra and Haggai will begin Monday, April 8, 10:00-Noon and continue for six weeks. For further information please contact Priscilla King, kingplk@gmail.com, 540-456-6458.

+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.

+ Daily Mass is celebrated at 12:15 p.m. You and your family members are all remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers!