Usually Won T See the Dead
The Rev. Josh Shipman
The Third Sunday of Easter, Year C, 2016
John 21:1-19
“The living
usually won’t see the dead.”
I have a confession
to make.
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice
is my favorite movie
dealing with the afterlife.
Followed,
at a close second,
by Albert Brook’s
Defending Your Life.
If you haven’t seen it,
watch it—
we can schedule a movie night.
If you have, bear with me,
as I briefly rehash the plot.
The Maitlands,
Barbara and Adam
begin their vacation
in a most unfortunate way,
by passing away.
But, as the Prayer Book
tells us in the Eucharistic Preface
for the “Commemoration of the Dead”
“Life is changed, not ended.”
It’s the “change”
part that they have difficulty grasping.
They try to wave down
a family member,
but she doesn’t see them.
A mysterious book,
The Handbook for the
Recently Deceased
had appeared on their coffee table—
a book which Adam says
“reads like stereo instructions.”
“…rule number two:
the living usually won’t
see the dead.”
“Won’t or can’t,”
Adam wants to know.
“It just says won’t,”
Barbara replies.
The main problem comes,
as can be expected,
when some quirky new residents
move into what was, formerly,
the Maitland’s house.
The wife basically
wants the house torched—
scraping,
painting walls in the most unusual colors,
knocking down walls,
installing peculiar art.
Intolerable acts of intrusion.
They try everything
to get these new people,
The Deetzs, out.
Cutting holes in designer sheets.
Various horror movie effects,
even forcing them to dance Calypso
and having their shrimp salads attack them.
Parlor tricks don’t work,
when the people you hope to scare
can’t see you.
(pause)
Interestingly enough,
one of the Deetzs can see them,
the daughter, Lydia.
She says,
“I read through that
Handbook for the Recently Deceased.
It says, ‘Live people ignore
the strange and unusual.
I, myself, am strange and unusual.”[1]
(pause)
Now, I want to be clear
that my love of the movie
Beetlejuice
is not for its accurate
portrayal of the afterlife.
Don’t call the Bishop
and report that
Father Josh teaches
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice
as doctrine.
There are other ways
of getting my name
in the paper, you know.
I like the film
because
it makes me laugh.
If you like,
at coffee hour,
I’ll share some of my favorite appropriate lines.
When I was reading
this week’s Gospel,
though,
I couldn’t help but think
of Rule Number Two.
“The Living
usually won’t see the dead.”
(pause)
Let’s back up.
Let me recap for you,
the resurrection appearances
in John’s Gospel:
1.It is dark.
Mary comes to the tomb.
Mary weeps because
she believes the body
has been stolen.
Mary doesn’t see Jesus.
She sees a gardener.
Until, he calls her by name.
2. It is dark.
The disciples are behind
locked doors
“for fear of the Jews”
even though they are Jewish.
Jesus appears.
The disciples do not see
Jesus
until he revels the marks
of the Crucifixion.
3. A week later
Jesus appears again.
Thomas does not believe
until he sees the marks
of the Crucifixion.
4. It is dark.
Peter has decided
to resume his regular
paying job—
one that doesn’t
have a dress code, it seems.
The disciples join him.
They catch nothing.
Then, the original Greek reads:
“But morning was now
coming to be.”
Jesus appears on the beach,
but they do not see him, properly.
Jesus addresses the disciples
using a term in the Greek
that carries a sense of
immaturity.
Children,
you have no fish,
have you?
They don’t.
Then, they listen.
Then, they do.
The Beloved Disciple
realizes, in the abundance,
that this is the work of the Lord.
And he tells Peter.
And in the words of the King James Bible:
Now when Simon Peter heard
that it was the Lord,
he girt his fisher's coat unto him,
(for he was naked,)
and did cast himself into the sea.
And then,
Jesus saith unto them,
Come and dine.
And none of the disciples
durst ask him,
Who art thou?
knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus then cometh,
and taketh bread,
and giveth them,
and fish likewise.
This is now the third time
that Jesus shewed himself
to his disciples,
after that he was risen
from the dead.
(pause)
You’ll have to indulge
my love of the beautiful language
of the Authorized Bible.
(pause)
Many commentators note
that Peter is once again
presented with a charcoal fire—
remember how he denied Jesus
while standing near a charcoal fire
way back in Holy Week?
Many see it as a scene of forgiveness.
But there is another perspective.
One commentator writes,
“Peter needs no justification.
He needs no forgiveness.
Read closely.
In John, his denial is not of Jesus
but of his own identity,
his own discipleship.
The conversation between Jesus and Peter
has nothing to do with a re-instatement of Peter…
but is John’s version of “take up your cross”
if you will.
Peter needs another invitation,
an invitation to participate in
and make abundance happen.”[2]
(pause)
But why does nobody see Jesus?
(pause)
Perhaps because
they think he’s dead.
It took the first apostle,
Mary Magdalene,
a bit to put the pieces together.
It seems that it took the disciples
a lot longer.
They just couldn’t wrap their minds
around this new reality.
Much easier
to maintain the status quo.
Much easier to return
to what is known.
A foolish consistency.
The hobgoblin of small minds.
Isn’t that what fear
does to us?
Drives us into the usual
instead of the unusual?
But I have news for you:
The Kingdom of God
isstrange andunusual.
And people can’t see it,
unless we bear the marks
of it—loudly in the community.
(pause)
My first week in Altoona,
I took a black and white photo
of the decaying church up the block.
I was mesmerized.
Now, I walk or drive by it.
I barely see it at all.
That’s how darkness works.
It seeps in.
It becomes
“just the way things are.”
My brothers and sisters.
There is much darkness in this town,
and it clings to us
like the smell of smoke.
(pause)
In all of this darkness
how can we be seen?
(pause)
Mary Magdalene
saw Jesus when he called her
by her name.
Let us call the people
of this town by name.
Let us let them know
we love them.
(pause)
The disciples saw Jesus
when he showed them
the marks of his Crucifixion.
Let us bear the marks of Christ, boldly.
Now, I’m not saying we should
demonstrate the stigmata,
of course.
But let’s wear our faith
always and everywhere
like a giant Easter hat.
Let us walk around town
as if we were an enormous
Paschal candles!
Let us give off light.
Melt the clouds
of sin and sadness.
Drive the dark
of doubt away.
(pause)
The Beloved Disciple
saw Jesus in abundance,
and said to Peter,
It is the Lord.
What do we have
in abundance
that we need to give away?
Money?
Love?
Patience?
Kindness?
Compassion?
Jesus says,
Feed my lambs.
Tend my sheep.
Feed my sheep.
Follow me.
(pause)
This is the way of life.
Be alive!
The living
usually won’t see
the dead.
1
[1] All summary/quotations of script from:
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