The English language is an extraordinary thing; and perhaps we find learning other languages so difficult because it takes all our effort to learn our own. Take the word ‘idle’ for example. We probably think that means inactive or lazy as in the curious phrase, ‘bone idle’. But put the word ‘idle’ with the word ‘tale’ and what do we get? Surely a tale or story can’t be inactive or lazy. But look back into the earlier history of our language and you find that the word ‘idle’ can also mean foolish or empty of meaning. Intriguingly the word was used in 1604 in that sense in a play called ‘The Witch of Edmonton’. So the message that the women brought to the disciples on the first Easter morning that Jesus was risen seemed to the men just a story empty of meaning – an idle tale.
But what if, for a moment, we were to think of an idle tale as a lazy story? The opposite of a lazy story might be an energetic story – a story that did a lot of work. A lazy story would then be one you didn’t have to think much about; you might easily forget it; there are some newspapers which contain a lot of lazy stories. But the opposite of an idle tale is one which can be told over and over again without our losing interest or becoming tired of it. An energetic story is one which does a lot of work in us. It shapes our lives in some way – it becomes a source of inspiration and guidance. An energetic story can bring people together into a community and harness the energies of that community and shape its life.
At first the disciples believed that the story of Jesus’ rising was a tale without energy, a tale without substance, a pointless fiction. And yet…clearly even at the moment of its first telling it had a little energy. It made Peter sneak out of the room to go and see for himself. And according to John’s gospel the disciple closest to Jesus went with him.
And so the tale began to grow, to take shape, to be energetic. The disciples began to be less afraid, they found an unexpected peace; Peter knew that he was forgiven for having denied Jesus when Jesus was on trial. Doubting Thomas no longer doubted. The disciples came to realise that Jesus’ ministry hadn’t come to an end – it was to go on through them. They were to go out baptising and preaching, caught up in the energy of the story and letting it grow in power as it passed on through them.
Of course sometimes the energy of the tale met an opposite force. When Paul took the story to Athens he met with scoffing and mockery; but some wanted to hear more and the story went on and on down the ages until it comes to this morning and this church. In one part of the story the disciples are back on the Galilean hills where Jesus had often preached. And there they hear him telling them to take the story out to the world; those who want to go on listening to it are to be baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And so as we listen to the story this morning we also baptise little Martha. She may not understand it as yet, but it can still be a story to shape her life, as it has shaped ours who renew the promises made at our baptism today.
And yet…we have to admit that perhaps sometimes we might just wonder like the Athenians and the disciples when they first heard it and later doubting Thomas – might this after all – be an idle tale? Is it a true story? Stories have a habit of growing; the different gospels grow different parts of the story; there are contradictions; it’s not always clear what happened. What if they just wanted it to be true?
We can never know what we would have seen if we ourselves had been part of the story at its beginning. All we can know is the power of the story for which men and women were prepared to give up their lives; a story by which lives were changed, new ways of living together were discovered, breaking down old boundaries, creating hope and courage and generosity and new meaning. We cannot deny that the energy of this story changed the world. And by baptising Martha here this morning we are saying that we believe the story can have energy in her life too, can be creative of hope and courage and generosity and meaning in her life too. Jesus can be risen in our lives and in her life and so the story will go on, for Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen