Click to hear this sermon  sermon090412

Easter Sunday and the Celebration of the Resurrection is my favorite Sunday of the year, by far.   

He Lives! 

            Easter Sunday and the Celebration of the Resurrection is my favorite Sunday of the year, by far.   Of course, I love all the colors and sights and smells and sounds associated with this day, but theologically, Easter is so central to my faith....that I really cannot even separate myself as a person and my life experiences from the Easter Story.

            A year or so ago when I pondered what retirement might be like, I thought that I was ready, and could handle it.....with one exception.   The one thing I thought might make me very sad,   was the possibility of NOT preaching on Easter.

 God is good. Here I am.   And by the way, this sermon will conclude with that ancient call and response that has been done for centuries on Easter Morning.   I will give the first half....'he is risen', and I hope you will respond with a resounding he is risen indeed.

            You all know that the resurrection which happened on that First Easter is central to the Christian faith.  It is our supreme day of celebration.   One could argue that in practice, Christmas is the church's biggest celebration,   but I don't think anyone would disagree that in its theological significance, Easter is ultimate.

            Now it IS true that many people over the ages have questioned the truth of the resurrection with many theories as to why it did NOT actually happen.   But by far, the best proof of the resurrection is the existence of the Christian Church and Christian people.     Nothing less than that ultimate event could have changed sad and despairing men and women-- into people with radiant joy and flaming courage.   Because they had personally seen and experienced the Risen Christ, they had no doubt about the resurrection, and could not be stopped from sharing that incredible good news.

            As I am sure you know, preachers can sometimes be larger than life characters.  One such person is the Reverend Eugene Magee.   Magee is an enthusiastic pastor who does not wear a robe.   His sanctuary is plainer than most, and adorned with only a cross and an American flag.  Magee likes to wave his arms to emphasize important points in his sermons.   Unfortunately he is so animated that he has trouble keeping his shirttails in his trousers.    Because of that, he has developed the habit of periodically reaching behind his back and stuffing his shirttails back into his trousers, even while he is preaching.

One Easter Sunday, while he was preaching to the faithful with great excitement, he kept fishing around behind his back in the usual way, pushing his shirt material out of sight.   He persisted doggedly.  On he preached and on he stuffed.   As you have probably guessed, at the close of his sermon, he discovered that he had about half of the American flag stuffed into his pants. 

Of course, he felt foolish.   But that kind of excitement is to be expected on Easter Sunday.  What pastor can help but get excited on Easter?

So what's all the excitement about?

Well, for one thing.   Easter is an act of God.

It is an act of God that gives us a new view of life, and of ourselves.  God raised Jesus from the dead.   NO human being can achieve immortality on their own.  Many people have tried, but it cannot be done.

    We cannot defeat death on our own.   Only one way does a person who is truly dead come back to life, and that is by an act of God.

Perhaps you heard the story about a six year boy named David who was taking a walk one day with his grandmother.  They decided to detour through the local graveyard.  Stopping to read the tombstones, Grandma explained that the first date on the tombstone was the day the person was born and the second date was the day the person died.

Little David was very observant, and so he asked:  "Why do some tombstones only have one date?    

"Because those people haven't died yet," his grandmother explained.

David was obviously stunned by his grandmother's explanation because that night, he couldn't stop talking about the excursion.  "Mom" he said with wide eyes, "some of the people buried there in the cemetery aren't even dead yet!

Leave it to a six year old to put a different twist on things.  That is also what Easter does.

                        It puts the grandest twist to the grandest story.......that a worn out physical body is exchanged for a spiritual body that lasts for all eternity.  

Easter says that people who are in Christ are not dead at all.   

               The human struggle has occasionally been compared to a person pushing against a huge stone...a stone like the one that blocked the entrance to Christ's tomb.  We all push against something from time to time-things that block the light from our lives.

Maybe we've been pushing against a boss who is hard to satisfy, or against the threat of having our job eliminated. 

Or maybe we're pushing against a marriage that seems destined for failure. 

Or maybe we are pushing against chronic pain, or against depression, or loneliness and grief, or against some other obstacle that is between us and our greatest hopes and dreams.   

Certainly, lately, we have all been pushing against the anxiety of a failed economy, and the uncertainty that goes with all that..

But when we come into the light of Easter morning, we realize that the stone we have been pushing against has been rolled away----and cracked open......

the stone of mortality, to immortality

the stone of our inadequacy,  to confidence in Christ.

the stone of fear, to a heart of love.

God has given us his Divine Blessing......and now we have a new picture of our lives.

And that picture says:  

the loss of a job will not destroy us;   neither will the loss of a marriage; 

nor the loss of a dream,  or even failing health.

In Easter.....God says to us that there is nothing in this world or the next that will forever defeat one of God's children.   Easter is an act of God.  And God has conquered death.  

   Easter Is an Act of Grace.   Easter says that God accepts us as we are, not because of anything we've done,  but because of what Christ has done for us.

            In April 1995, Edye Smith lost her two small sons, Chase and Colton in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.  Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, two men with a deep hatred for the American government, set off a truck bomb that destroyed the front half of the federal building, including a day care center, and killed 169 people.   Edye and her mother, Cathy Wilburn were devastated by the loss of their beloved children, Chase and Colton.  But hatred and suffering did not have the last word in this family's story.

At the trial of Terry Nichols, Cathy Wilburn, grandmother of the murdered toddlers, noticed that Terry Nichol's mother and sister were alone in the courtroom, bearing the brunt of hatred from the victims and the public.  And as a Christian person who knows God's Living Presence in her life, Cathy knew what her responsibility was.  So Cathy befriended Terry Nichol's mother and sister.  In fact, she opened her home to them, offering hospitality to two women she could easily have hated.

Such love and forgiveness is possible in this world.

   That kind of peace and acceptance is possible because of what God has done in Christ.   Christ has forgiven our sins, not because we deserve it, but simply out of his great love for us.    Easter is an act of grace.

Easter is a summons to a new way of life.   It is about a new beginning, a new lease on life.  A fresh start.    A transformation.

            As you know, the imagery of the butterfly is frequently used as a symbol for Easter.    And for good reason.   The stages of the butterfly life cycle could probably be compared to the stages of our own spiritual lives.

One of my favorite writers, Sue Monk Kidd, wrote a book called While the Heart Waits, and it is about taking an inward journey and waiting for God's direction to unfold in our lives.

She writes:  The life of the soul evolves and grows as we move through the three circles of separation, transformation and emergence.   The process isn't a one time experience, but a spiraling journey that we undertake throughout life.  Life is full of cocoons.  We die and are reborn again and again.   By repeatedly entering the spiral of separation, transformation and emergence, we're brought closer each time to wholeness and the True Self.

A few years ago when we were on vacation.  Gerry and I visited a butterfly farm.   The tour guide pointed out all sorts of interesting things about butterflies,  some of which I had never heard before.

Now the very notion of butterflies immediately brings to mind Easter for me, so I was hearing everything through the theological lens of Easter.

One of the most fascinating details that I recall had to do with the cocoon stage, or the chrysalis, or pupa stage.     There are four stages, as you know....the egg, the caterpillar,  the chrysalis stage,  and the adult butterfly.  

  I guess I had always envisioned that the caterpillar stayed inside the cocoon, and then sort of lost its fuzz and grew wings, but the tour guide showed us a cocoon, held it up to the light, to look at it closely and shake it and listen to it.    The caterpillar had completely changed form----and turned to liquid---and then miraculously, the liquid had re-configured itself into a butterfly.   

  In other words, there was a total and complete metamorphosis.  

Changing from one form to another.  

   And that is what the resurrection of Jesus did for the world.    He changed it completely.   And the message is:   We don't have to stay in the tomb of fear, cut off from the possibilities of new life. Because now we have seen how no grave is deep enough,  no seal imposing enough,  no stone heavy enough,  no evil strong enough to keep Christ in the grave.

The new order that came into being with the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of love and forgiveness, abundant life and blessing.

We no longer have to be blocked by the stones of isolation....or indifference...the stone of snap judgment,  or negativity.  

We can be transformed, made new creations, for indeed we are always in the process of becoming.

Easter is all about the victory of life over death, love over hate, faith over fear, hope over despair.

            Once, a priest found a branch of a thorn tree twisted around so that it resembled a crown of thorns.   He thought it was a symbol of the crucifixion, so he placed it on the altar in his chapel on Good Friday.    Early on Easter morning, he remembered what he had done.    He thought that was inappropriate for Easter Sunday, so he hurried into the church to clear it away before the congregation came.  But when he went into the church, he found the thorn branches blossoming with beautiful roses.

That's Easter exactly......when the thorns of Good Friday have blossomed into the roses of resurrection.

            On Good Friday, Jesus was crucified.   And he was buried in a borrowed grave.  And then on Easter morning,  Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.

She was crushed, heart-broken, devastated....and demanded ‘where have they taken his body?'

It is important to notice in the scripture lesson for today in John 20...that Easter did not become real for Mary until it became personal.   

When the Risen Christ called her by name...... then Easter was personal, powerful,  life changing....and you could say--- at that moment,  Mary was resurrected too!---raised to a new level of spiritual awareness.

            A few years ago, I ran across the story of the transformation of a beetle, which I think makes a perfect illustration of the message of Easter.

One afternoon, a man was lying in a canoe.   As he came close to shore, he saw many beetles in the muddy bottom of the lake.  He felt sorry for these lowly creatures which would never know any other world except gloom and mud and water.  Then a big black beetle came out of the water.  It crawled up on the gunwale and sat there blinking at him.  Under the heat of the sun, the beetle died. Then a strange thing happened.  His black shell cracked down the back.  Out of it came a shapeless mass whose hideousness was transformed into a beautiful brilliantly colored life.

Out of that mass gradually unfolded four incandescent wings from which the sunlight flashed a thousand colors.

 The wings spread wide as if to worship the sun.  The man realized that he had witnessed the transformation of a hideous beetle crawling in the mud to a gorgeous dragonfly soaring above the waters.  The body that was left behind still clung to the gunwale of the canoe.

While the dragonfly explored the wonder of wings and his new world, the other beetles were still crawling in the mud.

The man knew that he had just seen a miracle of nature.   Out of the mud had come a beautiful new life.  The thought occurred to him...if the Creator worked such wonders with the lowliest of creatures, what must be in store for his children created in his likeness.

And therein is our hope and our victory this day.

No evil could keep Christ in the grave.  Through faith in him, the victory is ours as well.  We also can rise from the mud.  When we get knocked down, we can get up and try again.   Resurrection is about a new beginning.  New life.   God says, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'

Even us.  Even now.  And just like that broken life which was nailed to a tree,  so also can we be-- set free.

That applies to our spirits  while we are alive on this earth,  because we can be transformed,  forgiven,  loved, ----and become completely new creations through our Lord Jesus Christ..  

That applies also to our bodies, when they become an empty shell.   Jesus showed us clearly---that our soul lives on.    And that is the glorious message of Easter.

He is Risen.    He is Risen Indeed.

Amen.