2005 March — wadehodges.com

The Tulsa Workshop is upon us. Every year thousands of people come from all directions to gather at the Tulsa fairgrounds for three full days of preaching, teaching, singing, hugging, backslapping, and eating. It is the largest Church of Christ oriented gathering of adults in the world. There are some great preachers on the program: Mike Cope, Rubel Shelly, Jeff Walling, Marvin Phillips, Terry Rush, Lynn Anderson, and Randy Harris are just a few. Leonard Sweet is going to be doing three special keynotes. I expect him to say some things that Church of Christ folk desperately need to hear. I hope we listen. I’m not sure we can afford not to.

Tonight we kick off the festivities at Garnett with a time of praise and worship. We’ll wrap things up on Sunday morning with an Easter Sunday celebration. It is going to be a great weekend.

If you are coming to the workshop and you read this blog, please take a moment to introduce yourself to me. I’d love to meet you.

For those of you who’d love to come, but can’t, I’ll try to update the blog whenever I can.

Back in the day, I was a huge fan of “The X-Files.” One year in Bellingham, I did a six-month long series out of the Gospel of John and I called it “The X-Files.” I think the angle was that we were investigating the claims of Christ or something like that.

Anyway, I was looking in my “Easter” files this week and I found a little thing I wrote as a call to worship on the day I was preaching out of John 20, which was also Easter Sunday. When we use stuff from pop culture to frame our message, the shelf life is usually pretty short. Unless of course, you have a blog, then you can post your old stuff anytime you want, just for the fun of it. Here it is:

I was initially assigned to the X-Files several years ago. My assignment was to investigate the claims of a radical young Rabbi named Jesus. He had a flair for the miraculous and an unsurpassed ability to upset religious leaders on both sides of the Jordan River.

When given the assignment, I was told to get as close to Jesus as possible, to watch his every move, to listen carefully to his every word, to do my best to determine if he was legit or just another religious-huckster-come-lately.

By the time I finally caught up with him and his crew of followers in Jerusalem, he was already famous for turning 180 gallons of water into wine at a wedding party in Cana.

There were also rumors floating around that had Jesus conducting a long-distance healing. While he was in Cana, he supposedly healed a boy who was in Capernaum, some twenty miles away. At least that?s the way the story came down to me. I found it hard to believe and impossible to verify.

One of the first things I saw him do in Jerusalem was to heal a man who, according to the locals, had been crippled for 38 years. Jesus said to him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk.” That?s exactly what he did. As it turned out, he broke a major rule when he healed the man, and the religious authorities were all over him for it. Jesus? response? “Leave me alone, I?m only doing what I see my Father in heaven doing.” They didn?t leave him alone and he continued to heal people whenever he pleased.

Another time I saw Jesus feed thousands of people with just a few pieces of bread and a couple of fish. I was just as hungry as everyone else, so I grabbed a few bites when the baskets were passed my way. It was good. Maybe the best I ever tasted. When you?re that hungry, doesn?t everything taste good? The next day he told the crowd, “I am the bread of life, come to me and you will never be hungry again.”

Then there was the time he said, “I am the light of the world, follow me and you?ll never stumble through the darkness again.” To make his point, he healed a man who had been blind all of his life. Again he got in trouble with the authorities for breaking their sacred Sabbath rule. He responded by telling them they were the ones who were truly blind. No wonder they hated him.

Up until this point, I had maintained my objectivity. Jesus was impressive. He certainly had panache, but I wasn?t swayed by his bold claims or his miraculous feats. Those who believed in him needed something to believe in. As far as I was concerned, the evidence was still inconclusive. At least it was up until Lazarus. He had been dead for 4 days. I verified it twice, just to make sure. Jesus said “I am the ressurection and the life. Those who believe in me will live again.” Then he stood outside the tomb and shouted, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus came out, still wrapped in his grave clothes and very much alive.

When I enthusiastically reported back to my superiors what I had seen and heard, they suggested that perhaps I was getting too close to the case. What began as a suggestion ended as an order to turn my notes over to another agent who would take over my investigation. I assured them I was fine and refused to hand over anything to anybody. I had come too far with Jesus to be taken off of the case now. I knew something big was coming and I wanted to be there for it. They agreed to let me continue, but only if I turned in daily reports.

I followed Jesus into Jerusalem and was totally unprepared for what happened next, although I guess I should have seen it coming. The religious leaders had had murder in their eyes from the very beginning. It had been building up to this all along. It was a surprise to everyone but Jesus. When it all started to go down he acted as if it were all a part of the plan.

He had been there for about a week when they arrested him on a Thursday night. The next day they crucified him. The trial was a sham, a ramrodded process. It was the worst miscarriage of justice I?ve ever witnessed as an agent.

His dead body was taken down from the cross and put in a tomb. I saw them roll the stone in place. When I told my superiors what had happened, they told me to come home. The X-Files were officially closed.

That was several days ago. I was just notified by my superiors that Jesus? tomb was found to be empty early this morning. The stone had been moved to the side, and there was no sign of his body anywhere. Some are already claiming it was stolen. Others are saying he came back from the dead. I?m not sure what to believe. But I?ll find out soon enough, because as of this morning, the X-Files have been reopened. . .