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Sean Gonsalves⁽¹⁾ writes an Easter parable for preachers & theologians, and really for all people.

He writes of growing up, and spending more than a few Sundays at Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church in East Oakland.

He remembers a very special Easter sermon.

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"It's around this time of year that one of the most vivid of my church recollections flashes in front of my mind's eye over and over again:"

"The preacher (whose name I cannot recall) had just given a powerful message about how the human spirit can be perpetually renewed by God's spirit.

It was the concluding story of this preacher that stayed with Sean Gonsalves.

"The Preacher said:

"I am going to end this morning by telling you something that happened when I was in seminary," he said, dabbing his forehead with a white handkerchief that had been folded into a perfect square.

"I went to the University of Chicago Divinity School.

"Every year they used to have what was called 'Baptist Day.'

"It was a day when they invited the entire Baptist community in the area to visit the school, basically because they wanted the Baptist dollars to keep coming in," he explained.

"On this day everyone was to bring a bag lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area giving the students, faculty and visitors a chance to mingle.

"And every 'Baptist Day' the school would invite one of the greatest minds in theological education to give a lecture. This one year the great Paul Tillich came to speak."

"The preacher paused to sip some water.

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"Dr. Tillich spoke for two and a half hours, proving that the historical Resurrection was false.

"He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book, concluding that since there was no such thing as the historical Resurrection,

"the African American religious tradition was groundless, emotional mumbo jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense."

"The preacher told us that Dr. Tillich ended his talk with a sweeping, "Are there any questions?"

"The silence in the packed lecture hall was deafening.

"Then, finally, after about 30 seconds--it seemed like five minutes an old, dark-skinned preacher with a head full of short-cropped woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.

"Docta Tillich, I got a question," he said as all eyes turned toward him.

He reached into his bag lunch and pulled out an apple.

"Docta Tillich..." CRUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH...

"My question is a simple question."

CRUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH...

"Now, I ain't never read them books you read..."

CRUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH...

"and I can't recite the Scriptures in the original Greek..."

CRUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH...

"l don't know nothin' about Niebuhr and Heidegger..."

CRUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH...

He finished the apple.

Then he began to lick his fingertips and pick his teeth.

"All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate--was it bitter or sweet?"

Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion:

"I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven't tasted your apple."

The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag,

looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly,

"Neither have you tasted my Jesus."

The 1,000-plus in attendance could not contain themselves. The auditorium erupted with roaring laughter, cheers and applause. Paul Tillich promptly thanked his audience and left the lectern.

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Sean Gonsalves writes that he loved that story. Hope you have a joyous Easter.

How are we going to have a joyous Easter, a joyous life?

We will have a joyous Easter if we have tasted Jesus.

To taste Jesus is to allow ourselves to truly come to know Jesus and experience the power of God in resurrection.

It is the power of God that is evidenced in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Not the alternative theories of the resurrection

It is not the swoon theory.

Jesus did not pass out in a faint and then was removed from the cross only to go into hiding.

It is not the drug theory.

There were no powerful drugs in the sip of liquid that moistened his lips.

It is not the kidnap theory.

The disciples did not spirit his body away and declare a lie.

The soldiers guarding the tomb would have prevented this from happening.

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God exercised the creative and restorative power that brought Jesus back to life.

Put him on his feet and let him speak to the women and men to whom he appeared and ate and drank.

The resurrection proclaims more than the resurrection of the body.

The resurrection proclaims the rebirth of the spirit.

It is energy for those who are tired.

It is strength for those who are weak.

It is determination for those who can't decide.

It is hope for those who are hopeless.

It is faith for those who are lost.

Jesus knows the dark disappointment in the experienced of his followers.

Jesus knows the heavy grief in the hearts of those with whom he has shared the intimacies of his life.

The resurrection resuscitates, revives, energizes them.

They go out and turn the world upside down.

They do this because they have tasted and seen the Lord of life.

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It is no wonder that Paul declares

17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,

18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,