The Reality of the Resurrection

Yesterday I watched "I Married a Monster From Outer Space" (1958) on TCM. You may remember the story line. Aliens come to Earth seeking women and a new home, but oxygen is poison to them and they hide their bodies in human forms, mere shells that can be easily pushed over once the creature strips down to its original form.



What does this have to do with church?

Stay with me on this one.

This Sunday's sermon was delivered by the Rev. Mary Cat Young (she admits the new name will take some getting used to). After briefly touching on her collection of Jesus "Kitsch,"

(Available via link at Ship of Fools)

She based her homily on Luke 24:36-48.

"While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.'"

The reality of this event was clearly noted by Mary Cat. It is clear that she believes this and is a "witness" to us in the "congo." Her last question, "And what do you believe?" should be a signal to all of us to go back and read the testimony in the scriptures and decide once and for all if we believe in a physical Resurrection. And I'm not talking about the resurrection fern,



but in the hungry risen Lord, showing himself and asking for a bite to eat. Not a mere shell or outer covering as in the movie "I Married a Monster From Outer Space." The real event was terrifying, but comforting, startling, but true, and we are wedded to this resurrected Jesus.

Let me rephrase Mary Cat's final question to read, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Jesus Shaves (Also at Ship of Fools)