“A GHOST STORY?” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, April 14, 2024, Year B / Easter 3 – Acts 3:12-19 • Psalm 4 • 1 John 3:1-7 • Luke 24:33-48

THEME:  Share the power of Christ’s resurrection by sharing our personal resurrection stories with those who are in despair.

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you like a good ghost story? When I was a kid we used to love hearing ghost stories, especially when we were out camping at night. We would be gathered around a campfire somewhere. One of the adults would hold a flashlight under their chin to give their face a ghostly glow. Then they would tell stories that would make our hair stand on end. Needless to say, we did not sleep too well. And we would all think that maybe we saw a ghost somewhere in the night. But then, in the morning, we realized that there were no such things. Ghosts are not real. They do not have flesh and bones.

That is what Jesus’ disciples learn about him, too.  It is the evening of the third day after Jesus’ crucifixion. What a strange day it has been. First, that morning the women found the tomb open and empty. Then two angels appeared speaking of resurrection, but when the women come back, none of the other disciples take them seriously. Then, in the afternoon, two disciples encounter Jesus on the Road to Emmaus. But no sooner do they recognize him than he disappears. To cap it off, Peter, too, has reported a sighting of Jesus.  But, if all this is true, where is he? So, no one really knows what to think or how to feel. Do they dare hope that Jesus is somehow alive?  They are confused, to say the least.

Then, suddenly, Jesus is right there among them. “Peace be with you,” he says. Peace? Peace is about the furthest thing from their minds. They are frozen with fear and petrified by doubt.  In the Roman world, there were only two possibilities for what they were seeing. Either this was the corpse of Jesus, somehow animated but still a corpse, or it was a ghost. But it definitely could not be the real flesh and blood Jesus. Except it is. “Touch me and see,” Jesus says. Sure enough, he’s got the holes in his hands and feet to prove it. He even has an appetite.  He also has a mission for them. They will be his witnesses. They will carry the gospel message of hope and redemption to the world. But they cannot and will not do that if all they see in the risen Jesus is a mere ghost.

That is Luke’s message: Jesus’ resurrection has to be embodied to be believed.  What is true for the disciples is also true for you and me. You and I are an Easter people. We have been given new life because God raised Christ back to life.  And his resurrection is embodied in each of us – in the distinctly hopeful, gospel-oriented way that we live. That is what it means to be an Easter people. Pope John Paul II famously said, "We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song. Joy is our banner and hope is our anthem.”

Like the disciples, our mission is to witness to Christ.  Our job is to share his gospel of hope and new life with the world.  The only way we can do that is if we ourselves have experienced the power of resurrection in our own lives.  The resurrection cannot be just some long ago story that happened to unfamiliar people in a far-off land. It has to be our story, too. 

This is my resurrection story. When I first began college, I was lost. My father had died when I was 14.  My family and my world were turned upside down. Then, mid-way through high school, I switched schools which just made things worse. I was smart enough to get by without working very hard.  I took those study habits with me to college. I spent most of my freshman and sophomore years, as I used to say, developing my personality. I went out far too often, drank way too much, and studied way too little. No surprise, my grades took a nosedive. I was a whisker away from getting kicked out, frankly. Although on the surface, it looked like I was the life of the party, I was deeply unhappy. I was unsure of who I was, what I was doing, and where I was headed in life. It seemed like everyone around me had a purpose and direction for their life. But not me. So, I became depressed.  At one point I even considered suicide. 

Gradually, I started to go back to church. I prayed like I had never prayed before. These were real prayers. I asked God to guide me out of the depth of despair. Slowly and surely, he did. I finally switched my major to English, where I should have been all along. I found a summer job working in sales. Pretty soon I was excelling at both work and school. Then God led me to an internship in New York.  That experience changed my life. It opened the door to my career in media sales and marketing. After college, it brought me back to New York where I found a spiritual home at church and a wife as well. God answered my prayer by showing me the way out of despair and leading me to a new life in Christ.

That’s my resurrection story. I’ll bet you have one, too. It will be different, of course – everyone’s story is unique. But they all have a similar pattern. They all start in the desolation of Good Friday.  But, through the transformative power of God, they always end in the joy and hope of Easter. It’s like a great comeback in sports. I thought about that this week as I was watching the Masters Golf Tournament this week.  As someone who has recently developed a taste for this uniquely Scottish form of masochism we call golf, I have gained an appreciation for just how difficult this game is to play.  Mark Twain was right: golf is a good walk, spoiled. But the very difficulty is also what makes it so appealing. Even the best players hit bad shots, sometimes spectacularly bad. There is something about golf that drives us to our knees in despair and brings out our faith and resilience.

So, it’s not surprising that there are a number of compelling personal resurrection stories among those who play it professionally. One of the best has to be a 29-year old PGA tour rookie named Jake Knapp.  Jake was a star on the golf team at UCLA.  When he graduated in 2016, he turned pro. He had all the ability, hope, and enthusiasm you would expect of a talented, up-and-coming professional golfer. But things did not go Jake’s way. His game slipped and so did his world ranking. Five years later in 2021, he hit rock bottom. He lost his professional status and he ran out of money.  To make ends meet, he took a job as a bouncer in his hometown of Costa Mesa California.

Jake was lost. He almost gave up on himself and on golf, and he would have if not for the love and support of his family, especially his grandfather, whom he had idolized since childhood.  Jake had a moment of reckoning. He said, “Standing there at 1 in the morning every Friday and Saturday night, you realize just how good you have it when you get to travel and play golf for a living.”  So, as he always did, he leaned on his faith and his family for support. His grandfather, whom he texted after every match, encouraged him to keep going, to keep grinding, to keep believing. That’s when God stepped in. One night, Jake met a sports psychologist who offered to help him. Together, they rebuilt Jake’s confidence.  Within a year, he had worked his way back onto the pro tour. And just last month, Jake Knapp won a PGA tournament for the very first time. His only regret was that his grandfather was not there to see it. He died of cancer last year. But through his love, which was the echo of God’s love, he was still very much present to Jake. And still very much a part of Jake’s resurrection story.

Friends, when you and I have experienced the power of God’s love to transform our lives, to bring us from Good Friday despair to Easter Joy, we can be powerful witnesses to Christ. For us, he is not just a ghost. He is real. His resurrection is real, and his mission is real. The question is how will you use the power of your resurrection story to be his witness? 

Who in your life is stuck in despair? Who is living a Good Friday existence, desperate for some Easter hope? Whoever it is, remember this. We have a story to tell and we have hope to give. Not because we read it somewhere, but because we have lived it. It is as real to you and me as Jesus’ resurrection.  We know the power of the resurrection. And so can they.

May it be so.