The context for this sermon is an ecumenical Christian service of the word in the chapel of a large, high-acuity teaching hospital.
The text is Luke 24:13-31.
I have used some ideas from the following websites in this sermon:
* Working Preacher
* Beatitudes Society
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Introduction
Cleopas and his companion are in shock.
They didn’t go to Jerusalem just because they were curious onlookers who heard about Jesus and the controversy that surrounded him. And they didn’t go there to see the equivalent of a first century soap opera: to see whether Jesus would make a play for power this Passover or to see how the Roman Empire would respond to him.
Cleopas and his companion were disciples of Jesus. Obviously, they were not part of the closest twelve disciples, but they were disciples nonetheless. Jesus was their Rabbi, their teacher and their Messiah. They believed in him.
They went to Jerusalem because they believed him when he said that the Messiah had to die but would rise again in three days. And so they stayed in Jerusalem and they waited for the resurrection. They waited for the resurrection that the women witnessed in the verses just prior to this story, but somehow they missed it.
The passage tells us that on the very same day that the women witnessed the empty tomb, that Cleopas and his companion started their journey back to Emmaus convinced that their hope had been in vain.
And, as they made their way back to Emmaus from Jerusalem, they were in shock and in mourning. They had had so many hopes and dreams and now all of these were shattered. Jesus had not risen from the tomb. Jesus was dead, and all the hopes and dreams that they had invested in him were dead too.
Everything that they had hoped that he would do for them was dead. They had lost Jesus and any living relationship that they had hoped to have with him in the future had also disappeared.
Like everyone who loses a loved one, Cleopas and his companion were in shock. Their world had been turned upside down and they didn’t know what to do.
How ironic, then, that when Jesus appears in their midst, their souls are so clouded with shock and pain and mourning that they don’t recognize him. In fact, they tell him: “You must be the only person in the entire city of Jerusalem who doesn’t know what’s going on!” They think that it’s Jesus who is clueless about reality when, in fact, it is they who are temporarily blind. They believe that God is dead when, in fact, God is walking with them right at that very moment.
Where is God in All of This?
Reading this story in this way made me chuckle a bit to myself because I do this too:
God can be right there with me in my journey and I don’t recognize the divine presence. God can be right there relating to me, trying to communicate, trying to teach me and show me the truth, and I don’t recognize it.
I say that I believe that God is present in every situation, but like a lot of people, I only partly believe it. Now there are times when I recognize God in the middle of my messes. But, like Cleopas and his companion, there are also times when it is only after the event that I realize that God was there all along.
And one of the things that I find comforting about this passage is that Jesus doesn’t get fed up. He’s walking and walking with these two men for a few hours and they are telling them about their lost hopes and dreams. They are telling him about how God was not present in the events of Holy Week and Easter after all.
But Jesus doesn’t walk away. He doesn’t get fed up. He doesn’t throw up his hands and declare: “Well, if they can’t see me standing in front of them, why am I even bothering?” Jesus just keeps walking with them.
Jesus also doesn’t get annoyed with them because they are grieving and in shock and in pain. Jesus doesn’t run away from their pain and their grief. He just stays with them. He accepts them as they are and doesn’t abandon them because it would be a lot easier emotionally to make the journey on his own.
Jesus just sticks with them and keeps on walking.
If this story is anything to go by, God continues to walk with us during our times of challenge and isn’t all that easily put off.
It can happen that during difficult times we ask ourselves the question “Where is God in all of this?”. This story suggests to me that the answer is that God is right here. Just like the story of the footprints in the sand: we think that God has abandoned us when, in fact, God is the only thing that is keeping us going.
We Had Hoped
The other aspect of the story that touched my soul was when Cleopas and his companion outlined to this presumed stranger their failed hope “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
Because all of us also have failed hopes:
•“We had hoped that that this would be the doctor who could help our loved one recover.”
•“He had hoped that she would call.”
•“They had hoped that their son would come back from Iraq.”
•“We had hoped that this was going to be the company that would hire him.”
•“We had hoped that our child would be born healthy.”
But the stranger interrupts the travelers’ litany of grief and despair and he demonstrates to them that there is a bigger picture. He shows them that this story of Jesus is part of an ancient story of God’s saving action in the world.
God’s story is woven into the story of humanity. Jesus helps them to see that there is another way to look at this story.
The disciples had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel but they had hoped for the kind of victory that the world understands. And they were still hoping for that kind of victory, for that kind of resurrection.
On this first day of Easter, it was still way too early for these disciples to understand that God was offering them a completely different sort of redemption than the one that they expected.
God is With Us
I love this story because it is a story of God’s presence with us in all the aspects of a life of faith.
It’s a story of God’s presence with us in the breaking of the bread: God is with us in the ordinary things of life and God is with us when we gather as a Church community at the Lord’s Supper.
But it’s also a story of God with us in our faith journey: God with us when we don’t recognize God’s presence. God’s sticking with us when we are in shock, in grief, when we are confused and even when we presume to lecture God incorrectly about what God is all about!
This story is certainly a story of the assurance of God’s persistence in being present with us.
But there is also a lesson in the story: if we look around and we don’t see God, maybe we need to look again and shift our own preconceptions of where God might be.
My prayer for all of us this morning is that, as we go through this week, we will know the assurance of God’s presence and, carrying that faith with us, that we will look for God even in the most unlikely of places.
Amen
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday April 22 2011 - My Lord My God is Crucified
The context of this service is an ecumenical Good Friday service in the Chapel of a large teaching hospital.
The texts are John 18 - 19
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People
It was the people in this story that struck me as I read the text. All the different kinds of people – a whole cast of characters – with a wide range of motivations.
First we have the groups of people:
The disciples, Jesus’ closest twelve.
The Roman soldiers.
The courts of the High Priest and Pilate.
The common people lurking in the High Priest’s courtyard.
The spectators on Good Friday come for a good execution and a bit of entertainment just as people have done from time immemorial.
And then we have the individuals, too many to list now:
Jesus, of course.
Judas, the disciple and the betrayer.
Peter, who is disciple, defender AND betrayer.
And Annas (the High Priest) and Pilate. So-called “leaders” who don’t seem to be doing a lot of leading.
I don’t know about you, but as a child I was taught to read all of these events as things that happened because Jesus needed to die for my sins. So, as I sat in church on Good Friday hearing these stories, there was a kind of inevitability about it all. In the same way that I knew how the story about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs turned out, I knew the story about Jesus praying in Gethsemane, judged by the High Priest and by Pilate and marched off to crucifixion.
It never really occurred to me that, in some very real sense, these events occurred because a number of people – both groups and individuals – made free choices. Free choices which led human beings to execute the Son of God. And as today’s reading reminded us, Jesus didn’t call down legions of angels to fight the legions of Caesar. He left the events of human history to the consequences of human actions.
Jesus died because an angry mob was looking for a scapegoat.
He died because the rulers of the subjugated people were frightened and thought it was better for one man to die than for the nation to suffer.
He died because the official representative of the Empire didn’t have the courage to do what he knew in his heart was right.
Yes, there is a sense in which all of this had to happen. Yes, he died for our sins, but he also died because of our sins.
The choices made by individuals over 2000 years ago killed Jesus. But I don’t think we’re off the hook. Unless any one of us can truly say that we would never be so frightened as to permit our government use individuals as scapegoats. That we would never give up one of our group in order that the group might survive. That we would never sacrifice another person on the altar of expediency. The human choices that were made by those individuals 2000 years ago are choices that we ourselves are very capable of making. And those choices killed Jesus.
Death
The other thing that struck me in reading this text was that it is a story about the death of a human being.
Of course, the Christian tradition affirms that Jesus was the Son of God, true God and true human being. But he was a human being. And I think that, historically, Christians have tended to forget this.
Often we tend to see Jesus as a kind of a Superhero, who shared all the qualities of God but was only masquerading as a human being. But the Passion story is also a story about a very human Jesus: a man who made sure that his mother would be looked after, a man who was thirsty, a man who looked death in the face and gave up his spirit.
And this particular human death reminded me of the deaths of other human beings that sadly happen here in the hospital, despite all the prayers and wishes of the people who love these individuals. Despite all the best efforts, choices and work by the medical staff here. Deaths that sadly sometimes happen despite all our best choices. And just like Jesus had all these different people surrounding him at the time of his death, so too do families often gather at the death of a loved one.
And that reminded me once again that, as a Christian, I believe in an incarnate God: a God who took on human form. Christianity does not tell us that we humans are a lower form of life who have to work very hard to rise up to the level of the divine. Christianity tells us that, by divine grace, God became embodied like us. Christianity tells us that, if we have seen Jesus, we have seen not only the invisible God but we have also seen who we are truly created to be as heirs to the New Creation.
Although the Christian church tends to talk about the Incarnation at Christmas, I think that here in this hospital we need the incarnate God – true God and true human – even more on Good Friday. When we see individuals facing times of pain, illness, trauma and death it’s good remind ourselves that God had a body. As human beings, we all need the Jesus who understood physical human suffering and who did not evade it.
This – embodied, suffering Christ – is The One who we need to be by our side when we are gravely ill and suffering. The embodied Christ is the One we need when we begin to wonder if God is so far off that God has no idea what we’re going through. On Good Friday, we are reminded that God became incarnate not just as a little baby but also as the Suffering Servant.
Conclusion
Today is Good Friday. I regret if you think I’ve spoken too much about death. Because, of course, we know the end of “The Jesus Story” and it’s not ultimately about death. The story of Jesus’ mission is ultimately about resurrection, about New Birth and New Life and a new Reign of God.
And Easter, of course, is the source of the sure and certain hope that we have in Christ.
But I do want to urge all of us not to jump too far ahead. As a devotion, let’s linger a bit at the events of Good Friday.
Let’s remember that human choices – the sort that we are all capable of making – put Jesus on the cross. And let’s remember to that Jesus also freely chose his suffering. A suffering which somehow unites God and humanity in a new and lasting coventental relationship. But a suffering that Jesus chose because of his deep and abiding faith that, ultimately in the final analysis, death does not dwell where God dwells.
This is the ultimate source of the Christian hope. This is the hope of Good Friday that points us toward the hope of Easter Sunday.
As we commemorate the death of Jesus this afternoon, I pray that the hope that we have in the embodied, crucified and resurrected Jesus will be with us all. Amen
The texts are John 18 - 19
++++
People
It was the people in this story that struck me as I read the text. All the different kinds of people – a whole cast of characters – with a wide range of motivations.
First we have the groups of people:
The disciples, Jesus’ closest twelve.
The Roman soldiers.
The courts of the High Priest and Pilate.
The common people lurking in the High Priest’s courtyard.
The spectators on Good Friday come for a good execution and a bit of entertainment just as people have done from time immemorial.
And then we have the individuals, too many to list now:
Jesus, of course.
Judas, the disciple and the betrayer.
Peter, who is disciple, defender AND betrayer.
And Annas (the High Priest) and Pilate. So-called “leaders” who don’t seem to be doing a lot of leading.
I don’t know about you, but as a child I was taught to read all of these events as things that happened because Jesus needed to die for my sins. So, as I sat in church on Good Friday hearing these stories, there was a kind of inevitability about it all. In the same way that I knew how the story about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs turned out, I knew the story about Jesus praying in Gethsemane, judged by the High Priest and by Pilate and marched off to crucifixion.
It never really occurred to me that, in some very real sense, these events occurred because a number of people – both groups and individuals – made free choices. Free choices which led human beings to execute the Son of God. And as today’s reading reminded us, Jesus didn’t call down legions of angels to fight the legions of Caesar. He left the events of human history to the consequences of human actions.
Jesus died because an angry mob was looking for a scapegoat.
He died because the rulers of the subjugated people were frightened and thought it was better for one man to die than for the nation to suffer.
He died because the official representative of the Empire didn’t have the courage to do what he knew in his heart was right.
Yes, there is a sense in which all of this had to happen. Yes, he died for our sins, but he also died because of our sins.
The choices made by individuals over 2000 years ago killed Jesus. But I don’t think we’re off the hook. Unless any one of us can truly say that we would never be so frightened as to permit our government use individuals as scapegoats. That we would never give up one of our group in order that the group might survive. That we would never sacrifice another person on the altar of expediency. The human choices that were made by those individuals 2000 years ago are choices that we ourselves are very capable of making. And those choices killed Jesus.
Death
The other thing that struck me in reading this text was that it is a story about the death of a human being.
Of course, the Christian tradition affirms that Jesus was the Son of God, true God and true human being. But he was a human being. And I think that, historically, Christians have tended to forget this.
Often we tend to see Jesus as a kind of a Superhero, who shared all the qualities of God but was only masquerading as a human being. But the Passion story is also a story about a very human Jesus: a man who made sure that his mother would be looked after, a man who was thirsty, a man who looked death in the face and gave up his spirit.
And this particular human death reminded me of the deaths of other human beings that sadly happen here in the hospital, despite all the prayers and wishes of the people who love these individuals. Despite all the best efforts, choices and work by the medical staff here. Deaths that sadly sometimes happen despite all our best choices. And just like Jesus had all these different people surrounding him at the time of his death, so too do families often gather at the death of a loved one.
And that reminded me once again that, as a Christian, I believe in an incarnate God: a God who took on human form. Christianity does not tell us that we humans are a lower form of life who have to work very hard to rise up to the level of the divine. Christianity tells us that, by divine grace, God became embodied like us. Christianity tells us that, if we have seen Jesus, we have seen not only the invisible God but we have also seen who we are truly created to be as heirs to the New Creation.
Although the Christian church tends to talk about the Incarnation at Christmas, I think that here in this hospital we need the incarnate God – true God and true human – even more on Good Friday. When we see individuals facing times of pain, illness, trauma and death it’s good remind ourselves that God had a body. As human beings, we all need the Jesus who understood physical human suffering and who did not evade it.
This – embodied, suffering Christ – is The One who we need to be by our side when we are gravely ill and suffering. The embodied Christ is the One we need when we begin to wonder if God is so far off that God has no idea what we’re going through. On Good Friday, we are reminded that God became incarnate not just as a little baby but also as the Suffering Servant.
Conclusion
Today is Good Friday. I regret if you think I’ve spoken too much about death. Because, of course, we know the end of “The Jesus Story” and it’s not ultimately about death. The story of Jesus’ mission is ultimately about resurrection, about New Birth and New Life and a new Reign of God.
And Easter, of course, is the source of the sure and certain hope that we have in Christ.
But I do want to urge all of us not to jump too far ahead. As a devotion, let’s linger a bit at the events of Good Friday.
Let’s remember that human choices – the sort that we are all capable of making – put Jesus on the cross. And let’s remember to that Jesus also freely chose his suffering. A suffering which somehow unites God and humanity in a new and lasting coventental relationship. But a suffering that Jesus chose because of his deep and abiding faith that, ultimately in the final analysis, death does not dwell where God dwells.
This is the ultimate source of the Christian hope. This is the hope of Good Friday that points us toward the hope of Easter Sunday.
As we commemorate the death of Jesus this afternoon, I pray that the hope that we have in the embodied, crucified and resurrected Jesus will be with us all. Amen
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sunday 23 March 2008 - The Good News of the Resurrection
This is a sermon for Easter Sunday based on the resurrection story in Matthew 10:1-8
Introduction
During Friday’s episode of the BBC’s production of The Passion, there is an interesting scene in which Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and John run to tell the rest of the disciples that Jesus has been crucified.
The disciples express disbelief at first and then when the reality hits them, they seem at a loss as to what to do. One disciple says that he is going to go back to Galilee and resume his former life with his family and his trade. Another protests, ‘No! We promised to be Jesus’ disciples and to spread his good news to the whole world and that’s what we have to keep doing!’
The reply comes back ‘What Good News? Follow Jesus and be crucified?’
Whilst the above scene is based on some information from scripture, it’s not actually a story that the bible itself tells, but it struck me that this was a very good question indeed: ‘What Good News? Follow Jesus and be crucified?’
Because Christianity often gives the impression that the Good News of Christianity is that Jesus died for us. True enough, but only half a truth.
Also, given the fact that the BBC production was written by writers who are not, for the most part, followers of Christ, it made me wonder about what message the non-Christian world has about the Good News of the gospel.
Because I think we’ve been really good at communicating the message of Jesus’ crucifixion. And I think that we’ve been absolutely terrible at communicating the message of Jesus’ resurrection.
And I suspect that I know why that might be. ‘Jesus died in order that you might be reconciled with God’ is an idea that everyone can understand. People might not agree with it, people might not like it, but it has some grounding in our own experience.
We can understand the idea of a third party making a large sacrifice to reconcile us with someone with whom we have been estranged. That idea isn’t too far outside of human experience.
And, although I’ve met a handful of people in my life who claimed that they don’t believe that Jesus ever lived, by and large if you tell an unbeliever that Jesus was born, had a ministry and was crucified, it’s likely that most of them will agree with you.
But try proclaiming to an unbeliever: ‘Jesus has risen from the dead!’ From the point of view of the world, it’s just ludicrous. ‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ At best you’ll be seen as superstitious and a bit dim, at worst you might be regarded as someone with a shaky grasp on reality.
Resurrection is Key
My claim to you on this wonderful Easter morning is that ‘Jesus has risen from the dead!’ is a vitally important part of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It’s as important as the message that ‘Jesus died to reconcile us to God’. The two ideas are part of one message and they should not be separated.
I guess that you could argue that without the crucifixion there would be no resurrection and that would, of course, be true. But death is a normal expectation of human experience. How many people expect resurrection?
St. Paul said it best: ‘If Christ be not raised, then our faith is in vain.’ Go back in your imagination to that earlier scene between the disciples just an hour or two after Jesus’ crucifixion and picture again one disciple asking the other ‘What good news?’
Sure, there is good news (small letters) in Jesus’ preaching: God loves you and forgives your sins, with God’s forgiveness a new start is possible. Take care of each other as you would have others take care of you and love one another as Jesus loved you.
Nice ideas – inspiring ideas even – but without the resurrection they aren’t Good News (capital letters), they aren’t anything more than inspiring ideas.
Jesus didn’t just give us inspiring ideas: he brought those inspiring ideas to life.
Or perhaps a better way of putting it is that he breathed the breath of life into these inspiring ideas.
Because without resurrection, death has the final word. A world without resurrection is a world where cynicism, cruelty and despair have the final word and where hope, self-giving love, and morals will all ultimately die.
In a world without resurrection, the question ‘What good news?’ makes absolute sense. In fact, before the resurrection, it is the only question that makes sense.
But, after the resurrection, in a world where life has the last word, it is only self-giving love and hope that make sense. The resurrection demonstrates the authority of Jesus and the resurrection causes something to happen in the cosmic reality that brings love and hope into their full, everlasting, potential.
The resurrection demonstrates unmistakably that the God who we worship is first and foremost a God of life. He is not a God of death or destruction or even a God of pointless despair.
But a God whose ultimate purpose and desire is to weave all things together for good. God’s desire is not to give us any old life, but abundant life, life as it was meant to be. In a post-resurrection world, the answer to the question: ‘What good news?’ is that Christ has risen so that the world might have life in all its fullness. Individuals as well as all creation.
But there is more Good News, although we mustn’t jump ahead too far into the story. Because Jesus is alive and not dead, he can be with us.
There is another scene in The Passion, where Jesus tells his disciples that he is going away and that they will not be able to follow him where he is going. This scene depicts a well-known passage in the Gospel of John that is often read at funerals.
But BBC production uses different words than we are used to in the Gospel of John. And the disciple says ‘But you can’t go away. We need you here with us to help us find God.’
The joyful thing about the resurrection is that Jesus is here with us to help us find God. We don’t have to try find God on our own – something that is impossible anyway – because Jesus is here to help us.
As is made clear in the Gospel of John, after the resurrection, Jesus’ Holy Spirit is here with us, guiding us every day. Helping us find God.
Conclusion
The Christian Faith proclaims the Good News not only of Jesus’ death but of his resurrection.
We proclaim the good news that not only are love and hope alive but that, by the power and sustenance of God, they will live forever.
And we proclaim the Good News that our brother Jesus has risen and that we too will rise again into a New Creation.
Brothers and sisters, Christ has risen.
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Introduction
During Friday’s episode of the BBC’s production of The Passion, there is an interesting scene in which Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and John run to tell the rest of the disciples that Jesus has been crucified.
The disciples express disbelief at first and then when the reality hits them, they seem at a loss as to what to do. One disciple says that he is going to go back to Galilee and resume his former life with his family and his trade. Another protests, ‘No! We promised to be Jesus’ disciples and to spread his good news to the whole world and that’s what we have to keep doing!’
The reply comes back ‘What Good News? Follow Jesus and be crucified?’
Whilst the above scene is based on some information from scripture, it’s not actually a story that the bible itself tells, but it struck me that this was a very good question indeed: ‘What Good News? Follow Jesus and be crucified?’
Because Christianity often gives the impression that the Good News of Christianity is that Jesus died for us. True enough, but only half a truth.
Also, given the fact that the BBC production was written by writers who are not, for the most part, followers of Christ, it made me wonder about what message the non-Christian world has about the Good News of the gospel.
Because I think we’ve been really good at communicating the message of Jesus’ crucifixion. And I think that we’ve been absolutely terrible at communicating the message of Jesus’ resurrection.
And I suspect that I know why that might be. ‘Jesus died in order that you might be reconciled with God’ is an idea that everyone can understand. People might not agree with it, people might not like it, but it has some grounding in our own experience.
We can understand the idea of a third party making a large sacrifice to reconcile us with someone with whom we have been estranged. That idea isn’t too far outside of human experience.
And, although I’ve met a handful of people in my life who claimed that they don’t believe that Jesus ever lived, by and large if you tell an unbeliever that Jesus was born, had a ministry and was crucified, it’s likely that most of them will agree with you.
But try proclaiming to an unbeliever: ‘Jesus has risen from the dead!’ From the point of view of the world, it’s just ludicrous. ‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ At best you’ll be seen as superstitious and a bit dim, at worst you might be regarded as someone with a shaky grasp on reality.
Resurrection is Key
My claim to you on this wonderful Easter morning is that ‘Jesus has risen from the dead!’ is a vitally important part of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It’s as important as the message that ‘Jesus died to reconcile us to God’. The two ideas are part of one message and they should not be separated.
I guess that you could argue that without the crucifixion there would be no resurrection and that would, of course, be true. But death is a normal expectation of human experience. How many people expect resurrection?
St. Paul said it best: ‘If Christ be not raised, then our faith is in vain.’ Go back in your imagination to that earlier scene between the disciples just an hour or two after Jesus’ crucifixion and picture again one disciple asking the other ‘What good news?’
Sure, there is good news (small letters) in Jesus’ preaching: God loves you and forgives your sins, with God’s forgiveness a new start is possible. Take care of each other as you would have others take care of you and love one another as Jesus loved you.
Nice ideas – inspiring ideas even – but without the resurrection they aren’t Good News (capital letters), they aren’t anything more than inspiring ideas.
Jesus didn’t just give us inspiring ideas: he brought those inspiring ideas to life.
Or perhaps a better way of putting it is that he breathed the breath of life into these inspiring ideas.
Because without resurrection, death has the final word. A world without resurrection is a world where cynicism, cruelty and despair have the final word and where hope, self-giving love, and morals will all ultimately die.
In a world without resurrection, the question ‘What good news?’ makes absolute sense. In fact, before the resurrection, it is the only question that makes sense.
But, after the resurrection, in a world where life has the last word, it is only self-giving love and hope that make sense. The resurrection demonstrates the authority of Jesus and the resurrection causes something to happen in the cosmic reality that brings love and hope into their full, everlasting, potential.
The resurrection demonstrates unmistakably that the God who we worship is first and foremost a God of life. He is not a God of death or destruction or even a God of pointless despair.
But a God whose ultimate purpose and desire is to weave all things together for good. God’s desire is not to give us any old life, but abundant life, life as it was meant to be. In a post-resurrection world, the answer to the question: ‘What good news?’ is that Christ has risen so that the world might have life in all its fullness. Individuals as well as all creation.
But there is more Good News, although we mustn’t jump ahead too far into the story. Because Jesus is alive and not dead, he can be with us.
There is another scene in The Passion, where Jesus tells his disciples that he is going away and that they will not be able to follow him where he is going. This scene depicts a well-known passage in the Gospel of John that is often read at funerals.
But BBC production uses different words than we are used to in the Gospel of John. And the disciple says ‘But you can’t go away. We need you here with us to help us find God.’
The joyful thing about the resurrection is that Jesus is here with us to help us find God. We don’t have to try find God on our own – something that is impossible anyway – because Jesus is here to help us.
As is made clear in the Gospel of John, after the resurrection, Jesus’ Holy Spirit is here with us, guiding us every day. Helping us find God.
Conclusion
The Christian Faith proclaims the Good News not only of Jesus’ death but of his resurrection.
We proclaim the good news that not only are love and hope alive but that, by the power and sustenance of God, they will live forever.
And we proclaim the Good News that our brother Jesus has risen and that we too will rise again into a New Creation.
Brothers and sisters, Christ has risen.
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Sunday 8 April 2007 - Easter Sunday
This sermon is based on John 20:1-18
===
Introduction: In the Garden
Nobody ever expected a resurrection.
On that morning when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, she knew what her errand was about.
Of course, we understand that she would have been in mourning. She was present at the foot of the cross when Jesus died, but events had moved swiftly and death would have seemed incomprehensibly sudden. Mary knew very well that Jesus was dead, but she was probably feeling a bit surreal, like she was present but somewhere else, not knowing what to think or what to feel.
We can imagine that this morning’s task of anointing Jesus for burial might have been a welcome one. She had one last duty to perform for her friend and it was a very practical one; there was actually one more thing that she could do for him – and this might have been a comfort to her.
Despite being in mourning and probably feeling surreal, we have no reason to believe that Mary was – as psychiatrists say – not oriented in time and space. She knew exactly what had happened, exactly where she was, and exactly what she had to do.
The world as she had known it had not changed, although it had become a sadder place for her.
What Mary found in the tomb began to change her expectations. She’d expected to anoint Jesus’ body with herbs and oils but the body had disappeared and the burial linens lay abandoned in the tomb.
She knew that she could not anoint a body that wasn’t there. What she didn’t know was that the world had changed.
Mary must have been quite shocked to see an empty tomb. Perhaps she thought that her grief had got in the way of her seeing Jesus’ body in the shade of the tomb. But when Peter and the disciple who Jesus loved came to inspect the tomb, they confirmed that the body wasn’t there.
The logical explanation must be that someone had taken the body away. Perhaps a friend, perhaps an enemy. After all, a body does not just disappear of its own accord.
But in her encounter with Jesus in the Garden, Mary began to understand that her world had changed. No-one expected a resurrection, but Mary began to suspect resurrection.
The man who Mary met in the garden that morning called her by her familiar name: Miriam. Not Maria. Not the formal name that the Gentiles used, but Miriam. Her Jewish name. The name that her family and friends used. Her real name.
It was in this intimacy, in this familiarity and love, that Mary was able to recognise her friend Jesus. It was from this point forward that Mary understood that everything had changed.
The New Creation
Everything had changed.
The Good News on that first Easter morning is the same news that we proclaim this morning: that the incarnate God is alive. God is completely alive and without reference to death. Eternal, abundant life has broken into the cosmos. And reality as we know it will never be the same again.
Everything has changed.
Jesus is risen, Christ is alive but the meaning of his resurrection is not – in my view – simply a miracle on the order of other New Testament miracles. Jesus Christ did not simply rise from the dead in order to give us some kind of supernatural sign that he was really divine.
The resurrection was somehow – and I can express it no better than “somehow” – an integral part of God’s plan for creation – for God’s New Creation.
To borrow images from John’s Gospel, the Christ event – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - was the event which brought light into the darkness. Yes, the resurrection proved that God is completely alive and without reference to death, but more than “proving” God’s driving force toward life, the Christ Event actually brought that life into Creation.
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
Illustration: “Lazarus Laughed”
The American playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote a play about the raising of Lazarus entitled Lazarus Laughed.
You will remember that, in the story as told in the bible, Mary and Martha summon Jesus so that he can heal their brother, Lazarus, who is on his deathbed. But Jesus delays his journey to their village and, when Jesus gets there, Lazarus has already died. And so, rather than healing Lazarus, Jesus calls him forth from the tomb.
In Eugene O’Neill’s play, once Lazarus has been raised and has settled back into mortal life, all his friends and neighbours gather ‘round him and ask him what it is like being dead.
And Lazarus’ response is to laugh and to say that death is not an abyss. The story he tells them is one of God, of life, of joy.
As Lazarus tells this story to his friends and neighbours, they all start laughing too.
They are amazed at this wonderful good news and they tell their friends and neighbours.
Soon the entire village is one great big laughter factory.
But the Roman authorities hear about what has happened and they become alarmed. The Romans understand that the key to controlling people is to intimidate them with the threat of death. The Romans understand that if everyone in Judea loses their fear of death that they, the Romans, will loose their control over their conquered land.
Without fear of death, the conquered people are, in fact, free people.
The Application of Resurrection
The resurrection makes us free people.
Because of the resurrection, Christians understand that God is completely alive and without reference to death.
On Easter day, we proclaim our faith in God’s complete aliveness.
The question, I think, is whether we live as people who really believe in resurrection. To the extent that we live in fear of death, we are people who live under subjugation. The more we come to grasp the reality of resurrection, the freer we are to hope, to give thanks, to be joyful and to laugh.
What would the world be like if, because they were not afraid, those who understand God’s life-force were totally free to do what is right and what is Godly?
What would the world be like if every Christian lived as a person who was “brilliantly alive and completely without reference to death”?
What would we do if we believed in the resurrection?
===
Introduction: In the Garden
Nobody ever expected a resurrection.
On that morning when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, she knew what her errand was about.
Of course, we understand that she would have been in mourning. She was present at the foot of the cross when Jesus died, but events had moved swiftly and death would have seemed incomprehensibly sudden. Mary knew very well that Jesus was dead, but she was probably feeling a bit surreal, like she was present but somewhere else, not knowing what to think or what to feel.
We can imagine that this morning’s task of anointing Jesus for burial might have been a welcome one. She had one last duty to perform for her friend and it was a very practical one; there was actually one more thing that she could do for him – and this might have been a comfort to her.
Despite being in mourning and probably feeling surreal, we have no reason to believe that Mary was – as psychiatrists say – not oriented in time and space. She knew exactly what had happened, exactly where she was, and exactly what she had to do.
The world as she had known it had not changed, although it had become a sadder place for her.
What Mary found in the tomb began to change her expectations. She’d expected to anoint Jesus’ body with herbs and oils but the body had disappeared and the burial linens lay abandoned in the tomb.
She knew that she could not anoint a body that wasn’t there. What she didn’t know was that the world had changed.
Mary must have been quite shocked to see an empty tomb. Perhaps she thought that her grief had got in the way of her seeing Jesus’ body in the shade of the tomb. But when Peter and the disciple who Jesus loved came to inspect the tomb, they confirmed that the body wasn’t there.
The logical explanation must be that someone had taken the body away. Perhaps a friend, perhaps an enemy. After all, a body does not just disappear of its own accord.
But in her encounter with Jesus in the Garden, Mary began to understand that her world had changed. No-one expected a resurrection, but Mary began to suspect resurrection.
The man who Mary met in the garden that morning called her by her familiar name: Miriam. Not Maria. Not the formal name that the Gentiles used, but Miriam. Her Jewish name. The name that her family and friends used. Her real name.
It was in this intimacy, in this familiarity and love, that Mary was able to recognise her friend Jesus. It was from this point forward that Mary understood that everything had changed.
The New Creation
Everything had changed.
The Good News on that first Easter morning is the same news that we proclaim this morning: that the incarnate God is alive. God is completely alive and without reference to death. Eternal, abundant life has broken into the cosmos. And reality as we know it will never be the same again.
Everything has changed.
Jesus is risen, Christ is alive but the meaning of his resurrection is not – in my view – simply a miracle on the order of other New Testament miracles. Jesus Christ did not simply rise from the dead in order to give us some kind of supernatural sign that he was really divine.
The resurrection was somehow – and I can express it no better than “somehow” – an integral part of God’s plan for creation – for God’s New Creation.
To borrow images from John’s Gospel, the Christ event – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - was the event which brought light into the darkness. Yes, the resurrection proved that God is completely alive and without reference to death, but more than “proving” God’s driving force toward life, the Christ Event actually brought that life into Creation.
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
Illustration: “Lazarus Laughed”
The American playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote a play about the raising of Lazarus entitled Lazarus Laughed.
You will remember that, in the story as told in the bible, Mary and Martha summon Jesus so that he can heal their brother, Lazarus, who is on his deathbed. But Jesus delays his journey to their village and, when Jesus gets there, Lazarus has already died. And so, rather than healing Lazarus, Jesus calls him forth from the tomb.
In Eugene O’Neill’s play, once Lazarus has been raised and has settled back into mortal life, all his friends and neighbours gather ‘round him and ask him what it is like being dead.
And Lazarus’ response is to laugh and to say that death is not an abyss. The story he tells them is one of God, of life, of joy.
As Lazarus tells this story to his friends and neighbours, they all start laughing too.
They are amazed at this wonderful good news and they tell their friends and neighbours.
Soon the entire village is one great big laughter factory.
But the Roman authorities hear about what has happened and they become alarmed. The Romans understand that the key to controlling people is to intimidate them with the threat of death. The Romans understand that if everyone in Judea loses their fear of death that they, the Romans, will loose their control over their conquered land.
Without fear of death, the conquered people are, in fact, free people.
The Application of Resurrection
The resurrection makes us free people.
Because of the resurrection, Christians understand that God is completely alive and without reference to death.
On Easter day, we proclaim our faith in God’s complete aliveness.
The question, I think, is whether we live as people who really believe in resurrection. To the extent that we live in fear of death, we are people who live under subjugation. The more we come to grasp the reality of resurrection, the freer we are to hope, to give thanks, to be joyful and to laugh.
What would the world be like if, because they were not afraid, those who understand God’s life-force were totally free to do what is right and what is Godly?
What would the world be like if every Christian lived as a person who was “brilliantly alive and completely without reference to death”?
What would we do if we believed in the resurrection?
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