Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
April 8, 2007 – Easter
Acts 10:34-43
1st Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-18

On Seeing Things Clearly

There is a saying, “Seeing is believing!” There is also a concept in psychology called “signal detection theory.” Signal detection theory has to do with the experience of wondering if we really saw something, if we really heard something … or if we only think we did!

If I am walking in a dark place that is dangerous – sometimes my imagination can get carried away and cause me to see things that aren’t really there … or to hear sounds that aren’t really there.

Likewise – especially when it comes to vision, much of what we see is dependent on what we have seen before. We learn to recognize people because we’ve seen them before … we recognize various situations because we’ve been in them before.

What happens is that we get a little bit of information, and then we fill in the gaps – and we make the data fit what we are expecting, what we already know.A couple of weeks ago, some of us didn’t “see” that Joel had shaved his beard. Later this morning, some of us will “see” the Easter Bunny … and others of us will interpret the visual data differently.

That’s sort of what happened to Mary on Easter morning. She “saw” that the stone had been rolled away and, based on that data, concluded that somebody had stolen Jesus’ body. Then, a few minutes later, a couple of the disciples came running to the tomb. Peter “saw” the linen wrappings. So did John, but the scriptures tell us that “he believed.” They both saw the same thing, but what they saw had very different meanings to each of them.

Mary’s experience continued. She came back to the tomb --“knowing” that the body of Jesus had been taken away. She saw two angels – inside the tomb. They asked her why she was crying and, after telling them, she turned and saw Jesus – but she didn’t see HIM. She didn’t recognize the person she saw. She saw him through the filter of her mind that “knew” Jesus was dead. So this person that was talking to her must be somebody else – whom she assumed was the gardener.

It is ironic that as well as she knew Jesus she didn’t interpret the visual data accurately … she made it fit what she “knew” from what she had seen at the crucifixion.

It isn’t until after Jesus actually calls her by name that she truly “sees” him. She just can’t get it out of her head that she is in a cemetery – a place of death and loss. This isn’t a place where you “see” life – even after “seeing” angels!

Most of us can’t trust what we see to tell us about Easter … we have to have the truth revealed to us.

I heard a story this week about a woman whose daughter died of anorexia less than a month from the date the girl was supposed to be married. The woman says that from the moment she learned that her daughter was dead and for more than a year afterwards, she remembers nothing except what her family has told her. That experience took her vision away … nothing registered. She went through life on automatic pilot. More than a year after that, one day she realized that IF she really believed what she said she believed … if she really believed that her daughter was with God in the Kingdom of Heaven, then there was no need for her to be sad. If she really believed that, then her daughter really was in a better place, and – IF all of this were true, then there was no reason for the woman not to live, not to be fully alive, not to experience life in the fullest.

Maybe Easter isn’t something we see, but something that is revealed to us – just as it was to Mary in the Garden.
My hope for us this morning is that – as we are gathered in this place, on this day, with the lilies trumpeting the Good News of the resurrection, as we sing the hymns celebrating the resurrection, as we are wearing new clothes and thinking about the new life of spring – that some how in the midst of all of this the truth of Easter will be revealed to us …and we will truly SEE that Christ is alive, and because of that, we have nothing to fear … ever … not even death itself!

Happy Easter!

NOTE: The idea for this sermon is largely credited to a sermon preached by Will Willimon entitled “Seeing is Believing”, found in Pulpit Resource, Vol., 35, No. 2, April, May, June 2007.

To prepare for next week’s worship, read Acts 5, Psalm 150, Revelation 1 and John 20.