Easter Day
April 4, 2010
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Luke 24:1-12
ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN. (Congregational Response) What nonsense, huh. I mean how can we make sense out of Resurrection? We hear our Easter acclamation, and we respond as if we know what we are saying. And, in fact we don’t know, and we can’t know what happened to Jesus on that day. Even the women who witnessed the empty tomb could not know. But they believed. That’s all we need to do—believe. Believe that on this Easter morning Jesus was raised from the dead. Believe. We cannot know how God raised him from the dead. There were no witnesses to how that happened. But there were witnesses to the fact that it did.
They were women. And when they came to the tomb and found Jesus missing, they were terrified by those figures in white who told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead. And wouldn’t you and I be terrified, too? Imagine going to a funeral home to view the body of a loved one, only to find he is not in the casket. And then have two strangers, dressed in white, appear out of nowhere to ask you why you even thought he would be in that casket. “Don’t you remember what he told you?” they ask. And now you not only feel dumbfounded, but maybe even a little stupid.
So we can hardly blame the women who went to the tomb that day for not remembering, and we can hardly blame the disciples for not believing their story. These are human responses to this God event. And this is why so many people out there in our world are not in here celebrating Ester resurrection today. They are not here because even thought they know the story, they can only make a human response to it. That makes it easy for them to ignore it, dismiss it out of hand, and even make fun of it. And, in a way, we can hardly blame them either. Because we have to admit, this is a pretty preposterous story.
Even the disciples thought the story the women told them was just an idle tale. And yet, when I proclaim to you on this Easter Sunday morning that Christ is risen, your bold and confident reply is, yes his is; the Lord is risen, indeed. But how can we know? How can we be so certain?
Well, one of my favorite hymns answers that question for me. It begins, “We walk by faith, and not by sight.” We have made the leap of faith; this is why we can believe that resurrection happened. This is why even nominal Christians come to worship on Easter Sunday. Because we can’t imagine that death is the end of our life. Only life as we know it in this world. The promise which comes in resurrection is real to us. This is why our services of burial are so necessary to making our transition from this life to the next. It is only natural for people of faith to believe that when we die to this world we live eternally with God.
But wait, there’s more! More to resurrection than the promise of eternal life with God. People of faith have settled the question of belief in resurrection to eternal life. But eternal life with God is not all there is to resurrection. Our challenge comes in learning how to live into the life we have been given to live eternally in this life, in this world. People of faith struggle with questions about resurrection every day of our life. They are questions we wrestle with every time we come together for worship, or for study of the scriptures. They were undoubtedly were the same questions asked by the women who went to the tomb that morning, and they were the same questions the apostles had as they came to believe in the story the women had to tell. They were undoubtedly the same questions which came to Peter’s confused and amazed mind as he left the empty tomb that day.
The questions we struggle with are not about our faith in the living God. We believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. And we believe that we will also be raised to eternal life with God. Our questions have to do with what resurrection means for us in this life: Why does it matter? What difference does resurrection make in my life. How does resurrection change anything in this world? What is my role in God’s plan for salvation history?
There is no doubt that the story of resurrection has great consequences for people of faith BEFORE we die, consequences which redeem us in the dangers and difficulties we face in this world. I have no doubt because I have experienced resurrection in the dead and dying places of my own life. And I believe you have, too. We have experienced the freedom of forgiving and being forgiven of our faults and shortcomings; we have known the joy of reconciliation and renewal with people who matter us, we have found the strength and courage to let go of former things which keep us from living into the new life God is calling us to live. We have had faithful mentors; people who have shared their faith with us in worship and study and in living a life which is a model for our own. They have shown us how to love and serve our God by loving and serving God’s people in need. These are the ways resurrection makes a difference for good in our life and in our world. Such resurrections experiences take us well beyond simply believing in the story. They enable us to live it. And by living it, by worship and study, by loving and serving others, we grow in maturity and in commitment to the God who raises us from death to life, in this world and the next.
This is why we come here on this Easter Sunday. This is why we are able and willing to make our bold proclamation: Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia. Not because seeing is believing. But because believing is seeing; seeing the truth of something the mind cannot comprehend—things the mind was not even meant to comprehend. We respond so boldly with our Alleluia’s because what we believe and what we live tells us everything we need to know about resurrection. Our encounter with the living Christ bears witness to the truth of what we believe. Our experience of faith gives us all the assurance we need to believe. Resurrection becomes a way of life, in this life, in this world, until we make our way into the life to come. That’s why I can say with assurance: Alleluia, Christ is risen. And you will respond: (Congregational response.)
Sad to say, there are so many out there in our world who do not and will not share in our celebration of Easter. People who live in a Good Friday world. People who believe that what is dead stays dead. People who will not come out of their own tombs of denial and death. People who even come to church on Easter Sunday, but choose to stay at the tomb, either because they doubt that the story is true, or, even more, they fear that the story is true, and what that might mean for their life. Let’s fact it, it is so much easier to doubt this story. Doubting does not require anything of us. And the one truth of resurrection is that it makes its claim on us. It calls us to live resurrected lives. And it’s hard to live a life of Easter resurrection in a Good Friday world. But the victory has already been won; all we have to do is claim it.
So, let’s claim it one more time. ALLELUIA. Christ is risen. (Congregational response) And let us pray daily that our words of Easter acclamation will continue to make their claim on our life as we grow into the life God has given us to live, right here and right now, for all eternity.