Beeson Podcast, Episode #658
Dr. Calvin Miller
Date

>>Announcer: 

Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your host, Doug Sweeney. 


>>Doug Sweeney:

Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I’m your host, Doug Sweeney. Last week, we began a special series of ten podcast episodes for the summer that highlight just a few of the greatest hits from our archives. Let me remind you that as you listen to these episodes, we encourage you to go to www.BeesonDivinity.com/store where you can browse our online archive and purchase digital downloads from classes and lecture series here at Beeson. 

Today, we’re delighted to present a sermon by the late Dr. Calvin Miller from a 2022 preaching series on the Apostles Creed. In this sermon, Dr. Miller preaches on the resurrection of Christ. Dr. Miller’s quick wit and humor join with touching personal stories in this sermon to emphasize the hope we have because of the resurrection of our savior. 

Let’s go now to Hodges Chapel and hear from Dr. Calvin Miller.


>>Miller:

I’m not exactly sure how Frank Thielman would interpret the word “Anastasius” but at least a loose living bible translation is, “He’s up and about.” We had a way in Oklahoma of describing people who were on the mend and we often said, “he’s up and about.” We usually said it one of three ways. We said, “Well, he’s up and about.” Which means he’s up, but he’s not very much about. Or then sometimes we said, “Well, he’s up and about.” Which means we wish we hadn’t sent him a get well card.” And finally, “He’s up and about!” And I think that’s the Anastasius where Jesus is indeed standing again.

It lies at the heart of all we are. I’m always aware that Christianity, as Lewis said, is exactly the tale of a great miracle and that we stand in great debt to this miracle because it creates a faith. Traditions are things we create. But miracles are things that make us. 

A few years ago a friend of mine (wasn’t a very good friend. In fact, he’s a liberal Baptist friend). (laughter) ... gave me a jar of brandied fruit. And on the side of the fruit it said, “This recipe has been alive since 1588.” I remember the date because I thought of the Spanish Armada. It’s one of the few dates I actually know in history. And this fruit had been alive since 1588. And that if each week we would take a spoon out and give it to a friend, they could start their own jar of brandied fruit. And we could put in some more fruit. 

The problem is we just don’t have that many friends. So, before long we had jars of fruit all over our house. And finally ... I hate to rack a tradition that’s been in force since 1588 but we just had to stop. And we gave up on that whole idea. 

I’m always aware that traditions are rather like that. We maintain them until somehow they’re in our way. And sometimes we trip over them or walk past them. But the resurrection stands right now in the middle as a great miracle between great doubt and great belief. It was Matthew Arnold who said, for instance, speaking of Jesus, 

“Far hence he lies 
In the lorn Syrian town; 
And on his grave, with shining eyes, 
The Syrian stars look down.”

But if I read John Updike who says it best for me, he said of telephone poles, 

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence,
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
Credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door 

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
Not a stone in a story,
But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of
Time will eclipse for each of us
The wide light of day.

And when we come down to that miracle it seems we have to take our stance on one side or the other. The problem is that there are always plenty of people that give us reasons to doubt. For instance, in 1963 when they were excavating the temple site in Jerusalem, actually building a new YMCA in Jerusalem ... in 1963 they found a skeleton and they said this skeleton was someone who had been crucified and was about 2,000 years old. He had a high brow they said. Obviously very intelligent skeleton. And what they said was they explained that in essence they were hinting of course that this very possibly could have been Jesus. 

That didn’t really say much to me except that intelligent people sometimes get crucified. In 1970 they found another skeleton when they were excavating another but these found these skeletons seven years apart. The thing is the second skeleton had also been crucified, actually still had the nails through his wrists/bones somehow they said. 

And as I meditated upon it I thought about what Luther says in John Osborne’s play. Dr. George, I don’t know what Luther said really but in John Osborne’s play he said as he was protesting to [inaudible 00:05:24] the Catholic Church he said something like, “How does it happen of Christ’s original 12 apostles, 18 of them are now buried in Germany?” (laughter) So, in essence, too many skeletons are as bad as having no skeletons at all if you want to make that sort of point. 

I examined all of this and I began to ask myself why ... what does it really mean? Lots of theories advanced by the doubters. The pretense theory, that Jesus pretended to be dead. It’s not hard to pretend to be dead. The swoon theory that pretended he fainted on the cross and was revived in the cruel tomb. The wrong tomb theory which says those first people to visit the tomb went to the wrong tomb. One of my favorites is Leslie [inaudible 00:06:06]’s I keep this book around just for laughs every spring. But it’s called The Matter of the Resurrection. And he suggests that Jesus’ mind was so powerful that he just, after he died his mind stayed alive and his mind told the tomb it was a great oven. He heated the oven up and vaporized himself. But his mind continued to exist, so everywhere he went he was able by the power of his great mind to re-crystallize his body. I made a decision – it’s just easier to believe Matthew. 

If I examine all of that ... I found something that lends a lot of credibility to my doubt on this matter. I cut this out of a paper and it says it’s apologetics. “Elvis’ tomb is empty.” As an index to its credibility it appears in the same magazine with “Pig Girl Mother’s Wolf in Tibet.” And, “Rio De La Rosa Woman Sees Jesus in Taco.” But what impressed me about this article was he says that everybody thinks Elvis Presley is buried in his Graceland mansion, but the king’s tomb is empty. 

Possibility number one – Elvis faked his death and is still alive. Are you beginning to hear some of the same kind of logic here? Possibility number two – Elvis is buried or hidden in an unmarked grave. This is the Wrong Tomb Theory. Possibility number three – Elvis was resurrected and they took him directly to Heaven and though it may sound farfetched there’s compelling evidence to support this theory. The king died or disappeared in 1977 and thousands of fans had been healed after mentioning his name in prayer, meditating over his photo, or coming face to face with his spirit. Possibility number four – Elvis faked his death and traveled incognito for 12 years before he perished in a plane crash in Bolivia in January of 1988. 

This article intrigued me because it sounds sort of like Josh McDowell. It’s written from a very, like he changed sides and then wrote the article. But when I read something like this I think, you know, these theories in essence all sort of come out of the same place. They are occasions to doubt. And might as well be printed in a tabloid, I suppose. 

Paul mentions these six occurrences. I wonder that he didn’t start with the women, because all the gospels mention the women are the first to the tomb. I wonder why Paul didn’t start there. My suspicions if you had said to him, “Paul, why didn’t you start with the women?” He would have said, “Women? Which women?” He starts out with Peter. Whatever that means. Peter has had some unfinished business with Jesus. And when he and Jesus got back together I believe the issue, all the things that he needed to say to Jesus and might have said after that denial period, he’s given the first chance to square the world with a good clean conscience. I love it when Byron says, “The thorns that I have planted are the tree I have planted. They have torn me and I bleed. I should have known what sort of fruit would spring from such a seed.” Peter had a need to come to Jesus. 

The twelve are next. He appeared to them, perhaps to strengthen the leadership of the church. Then he appears to 500 brethren at once on Paul’s list. And by the way, this is the earliest list we have of the resurrection. He appears to 500 brethren at once. [inaudible 00:09:19] does me a little service here when he points out the difference between hallucination and aberration. If one person sees a lion in this room it could be a hallucination. But if 500 people see a lion at one time, then you’re in quite another area. There must have been something actually there.

James is next, a member of the family. Family members were hard to convince that we’ve been raised from the dead. They’re the last to believe this kind of thing about us. There’s a sort of parable or myth which suggests that James, who you remember early in Mark comes to take Jesus back home because Jesus is apparently embarrassing the family. He brings Jesus back, they want to bring Jesus back home because he doesn’t believe. But somehow, somewhere he comes to faith. And the myth suggests that he‘s at his carpenter shop seriously turning over in his mind the means that everything that happened to his executed brother, when he hears a voice clear his throat in the room behind him. Turns around to see Jesus and comes to faith. 

It is Thomas which most intrigues me, though. Paul doesn’t mention him but he’s in that second list of appearances there. Thomas who has stomped his foot on the ground and said, “Unless I see the nail prints and stick my finger in the nail prints, thrust my hand into his side I will not believe.” What did Thomas need? Well, I think he needed a little intellectual repentance. Once you stomp your foot on the ground and get pretty vocal about not believing it’s pretty hard to retract that without some loss of face. 

Some years ago, in fact quite a few years ago now, a man was traveling down ... things like this happened all the time in the ‘80s and ‘70s, but a man was traveling down Interstate 80 in Omaha, Nebraska. He said he was run off Interstate 80 by a flying saucer. And his car was found in a ditch. They took him to the hospital and he swears he was driven off the road by a flying saucer. His name was Sidney. They were always named Orville or Sidney in those days when they saw these things. But I can remember that when he made this statement ... I was reading this in the paper and I just lived a little ways from where this flying saucer drove him off the road. I said, “[inaudible 00:11:30], I don’t understand this. Why don’t some of these people who are seeing UFO’s take a picture? Why doesn’t someone take a picture of these UFO’s?” I said, “You know why they don’t?” She said, “I don’t know.” I said, “’Cause it’s hard to photograph schizophrenia.” (laughter)

The next Sunday afternoon, Barbara and I were going to the market not far from our house. We pulled up to a stop sign, ready to turn onto a major street and over on the horizon there were these little cigar looking shape things. I was relieved when Barbara saw them, too. And I said to her, “What are those?” She said, “You know what they look like?” I said, “I know what they look like – what are those?” And she said, “Okay, smart alec, where’s your camera?” (laughter)

Once you take a strong stand it requires some intellectual repentance. You have to speak a little more softly. I still don’t know what they were. But I know that there was something out there. 

Finally, says Paul, “He came to me as one born out of due time.” There are two wonderful miracles in the bible, all the miracles are great but two wonderful ones I think – the crossing of the Red Sea upon which I think Judaism literally hangs. There are 51 mentions in the Pentateuch of the little phrase, “I brought you up.” I think that’s an interesting thing. Throughout the Pentateuch – 51 times the writer says, “I brought you up.” Out of the land of slavery, whatever. 19 times in Exodus, 8 times in Leviticus, 7 in Numbers, 17 in Deuteronomy. 

But the litany of the miracle in the New Testament is this Christ whom God raised up. And this phrase is mentioned in the New Testament 35 times, 16 times in Acts, 6 times in Romans, 3 times in First Corinthians, and 10 times in the rest of the Pauline epistles. 35 times, “This Christ who God raised up.” Why would he say it that way? I love the notion that almost every reference in the New Testament to Jesus coming back to life is passing tense, as if Jesus had nothing to do with it. And it seems to me that there is an implication here, a wonderful implication. This is Jesus’ great act of faith. 

I love it when Dr. George quoted Anselm, I love this idea that the Trinity is within itself a sweet society. And I don’t understand it all, but I believe Jesus loved God so much that when he closed his eyes in death he realized that unless God was faithful in raising him back, death was pretty permanent. It always had been up to this point. And would likely be again. And it becomes a great act of trust when Jesus willingly submits his soul unto death and closes his eyes in death.

Because if by contrast Romans 5 with what happens over in the first part of Genesis, I can only read Adams’ last name as Thanatos. Adam who died. And I can only read Jesus’ last name as Anathasius. He’s up and about. And if I pull those quotes together it’s a wonderful thing. Evelyn McAllister in meditating on Jesus and his death and Adam and his death and what they meant she said as she sat by a window one day, “Firm wings,” she said, “I see the gulls this shiny afternoon. Glide past my window. Glide along, curve and turn and rise. Enthralled I watch, no strain, no struggle, firm sinewy wings, no crashes in mid air, no suicidal anguish tears apart the rhythm of their wing beats, for such wings gulls were made. [inaudible 00:15:08] and feather too.” And then she says, “So was the soul of man to be made, to soar in upper regions undismayed. Yet it hobbles, hobbles, hobbles over stones. Wing broken. Feather dragging. A thing of groans.”

I did a lot of funerals while I was a pastor. Nothing ever quite touched me like the funeral of a little child. I don’t know, there’s something about a little coffin. A little tiny coffin that is so plaguing. To just see it silences a church when they walk in. This little girl had for her father, a man who was an aide to a US General in the Air Force. And I could remember so clearly that service and reading that little sonnet I had written. Her name was Mithy. And I wrote this little sonnet on the second day after her death, read it at her funeral. 

“I waited here a second day. I knew your first day there would seem to you a treat. You’d gaze in wonder at the view of all that city gathered in the street. So many that I know are afraid here to cross the sea you swam so easily. What courage made you unafraid to swim eternity. Did God appear a high rise Trinity? Did glass or towering crystal dazzle you? Did he not cry, ‘Let this child come to me? And give her room to skip this avenue?’ At those grand gates which closed against the night, he scooped you up and carried you alight. This is the Christ who is standing again. The Christ who has conquered it for us.”

I just read Leonard Sweet’s latest book. It’s hard to keep up with Leonard. But his latest book is a book called Carpe Manana. (laughter) When I think about Carpe Manana I like that idea but Leonard’s idea, of course, is that if you can cyber psych yourself you can get ready for a new era of church growth. I read this and I like Leonard a lot. He gets paid a lot more than any of us here get paid, but I like him nonetheless. 

But I realized this – I realized that the beautiful thing that Jesus did, Leonard Sweet didn’t quite touch. Jesus is the one who carpe’d manana. He pulled it right out and secured it for us. And it has nothing to do in the finest sense about church growth. It has to do with the brevity of life and life is brief. 

I love the story about the man who went to his doctor, had his diagnosis and the doctor said to him, “I’m sorry to tell you. But you only have a little while left to live.” The man said, “How long?” He said, “Ten.” He said, “Ten years? Ten weeks? Ten months?” He said, “Ten, nine, eight, seven ...” (laughter) Life is short, says James, it is even as a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away. 

I reckon all the time with Emily Dickenson. She said, after losing her father, she wrote those little lines. She said, 

I never lost as much but twice,
And that was in the sod.
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God!

I remember as a little boy, my mother hoisting me up over the edge of a little coffin where my brother laid. It’s one of my earliest memories, actually. To see my brother lying there, dead. And trying to reckon with that as a child. And the huge absence it created in our home. 

I remember even more than that, I remember a phone call in the middle of the night by my sister who said two words with absolutely no way to dress them up. And the words were, “Mom’s dead.” And I can remember getting up in the middle of the night, getting my kids and my wife in our little Volkswagon. It was the only car we had. I can remember feeling very disoriented about this huge section being cut out of the center of my life. 

I can remember starting out in the middle of the night in that little Volkswagon with those tiny little headlights. And going down from Nebraska to Oklahoma. There’s Kansas, you know? Kansas. I ask myself, “Lord, why Kansas?” It has nothing much to do except separate Nebraska from Oklahoma. But on this long, long road and those headlights are being soaked up by that black oil of a black asphalt road. And there’s black inside and there’s black outside of me. And it’s a pretty dark world. 

And you know what came to me as I drove along? It wasn’t one of those new Baptist hymns. It wasn’t shake a little hand, shake the one next to you. What came to me that night were these words, “Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish; Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel. Here bring your wounded hearts; here tell your anguish. Earth has no sorrow that heav'n cannot heal.” 

You may rest assured your future is secure and Anathasius, he’s up and about. Carpe Manana? He’s taking care of that. And you may say with a little girl whose funeral I once attended at those grand gates which close against the night, he the living Christ will scoop you up and carry you to light.


>>Rob Willis:

You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast; coming to you from the campus of Samford University. Our theme music is by Advent Birmingham. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our engineer is Rob Willis. And our show host is Doug Sweeney. For more episodes and to subscribe, visit www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast. You can also find the Beeson Podcast on iTunes and Spotify.