Easter Sunday             March 23, 2008

A friend, Pastor Franz Schemmel of Messiah, Weatherford, told us an Easter joke. He said there were three Norwegian Pastors, but I’m going to change that. I’m going to start our saying there were three old Slovak pastors meeting at the Slovak Club. In my first call in the coal country of Pennsylvania, I was serving a Slovak congregation. Like all immigrants, they could not speak much English, and much of their conversation was about trying to make sense of the American culture, that was foreign to them. They had just heard a new word, Easter.

“What’s Easter,” one said. Is it that holiday were the family all gets together for a big Turkey dinner? You know, the one where they give thanks to God for all their blessings?

“No, No, that’s not Easter. Easter is that holiday where they put an evergreen tree in their homes, and give expensive presents to each other and celebrate the birth of Jesus.”

“No, no,” said the third. “Easter is the one where they remember that Jesus was dead in the tomb. But God sent and earthquake and the tomb was opened. Jesus came out, but then he saw his shadow.”

We all know that this was not ending of the story of Easter. Jesus did not make a brief appearance, and then go back into the tomb. The truth is he spoke first to the women who came to the tomb. The truth is that he appeared in his glory to all the disciples, and taught them what this means. Eventually, Peter would begin one of his sermons by saying that by following Jesus, he learned that God shows no partiality. The resurrection began God’s reign, the new creation, where the whole creation will be raised with Christ and made new. It will have no more sickness, no hunger, no death, no violence or war. God’s peace will reign over all, with God’s peace and eternal life.

We have a baptism today. In baptism we die with Christ, so that we will be part of his resurrection. We can life today fully certain that we will be raised with him. Once baptized, every day the sins of the old creation are forgiven, and Jesus calls us to follow him. Once we are baptized, we can live in the sure and certain hope of his resurrection. That’s why we can shout. He is Risen! (And you can say) He is risen indeed!

Most people have heard that message, but we often forget what Easter means for daily living. We constantly fall back into the poverty of this old creation, full of sickness, violence, and death. It often when we get anxious about all the sickness and death that still happens in this old creation.

One night I stood by the hospital bed of a man in his mid forties, who had a severe stroke, and he was partially paralyzed. He said, “I’ve never been sick a day in my life, but now I will never be able to work again. Then he asked, "What's left for me, Preacher? What do I do now that my body is broken and my career is over?"

The implications of Easter seemed distant to him, but they were his ultimate hope.“He is Risen! He is risen indeed! He is baptized into his death, so that he can rise with him in the new creation. Nothing in all creation, certainly not a stroke, can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

What do we say when we’re living in this old creation, and the bottom suddenly drops out? The disciples faced that on Good Friday. Can you imagine, Jesus being executed in front of his own mother? There’s nothing worse than watching your own son or daughter die. Yet she became one of the first witnesses of his resurrection.

My parents experienced the death of a child. My younger brother Timmy, died of leukemia. It was devastating! They did all they could do as parents. We drove from New Jersey to visited hospitals in New York and Philadelphia looking for a miracle. But back in 1956, when I was in first grade, there was no cure. It was a profound tragedy for my parents, and for me. So much so, my father stopped going to church. He once sang in the choir, and when Dad was growing up, he looked upon his pastor like his own father. He made sure Timmy was baptized. He heard the Easter message many times, but did not make the connection for his own life, and the tragedy of Timmy’s death. About 40 years after his death, In one of my last conversations with my father about 40 years later, he said, “I lost my faith when Timmy died.”

He had heard scores of Easter sermons. He had heard the people shout, “He is risen indeed,” but he didn’t quite make the connection. By his death, Jesus forgives even our unbelief, and opens the door to the kingdom of God. The question is, will we follow him, or spend a lifetime wallowing in sin and death?

It’s not unusual for people to be skeptical even though they know Jesus is alive. It took the disciples a few weeks to even begin to process what Christ’s resurrection meant for the world. Slowly the meaning of his resurrection began to sink in, and they brought that message to all nations, and now to you and me.

Let's talk about Diane, we'll use that name. Diane was every parent's worst fear. By her own account Diane grew up in a good and loving home. There were family outings, birthday celebrations, girls softball, dance classes and even church and Sunday School. But for some reason Diane life took a wrong turn in her high school years. She got into drugs, stealing, alcohol, staying out late.

For the family, it was a hard! The more then tried to help her, the worse she became. They tried counseling, rehabilitation, tough love classes, and intense prayer. But the more they tried, the more abusive and rebellious she became toward them. Finally, she ran away and lived with drugs and prostitution. She was well in her late twenties before she reached bottom, and the process of forgiveness and reconciliation began.

Diane said, "At first, I felt my parents' love was unnecessary. It was smothering. Then eventually, as things got worse, I began to feel unlovable. I think I resented my parents most because if I was unlovable I could do what I wanted and it would not matter. But as long as I suspected I was loved I wasn't free 'to do my thing.' So I needed to destroy their love in order for me to be free." "But," she said, "they never stopped loving me. Even when I got arrested and they refused to bail me out of jail, I could see the pain of love in their eyes. Now I realize how much I have needed their love; that it was probably their love and prayers that kept me alive all those years. But when I look back on those years what amazes me most of all is that my worst could not destroy their love for me."

What happened on Good Friday when Jesus was crucified was humanity’s way of rebelling against God, against God’s love. The cross was humanity's primal "No!" against God’s will for us and for all creation. That "no" comes out of a deep anxiety in life. Sometimes we get into what I call “a funk.” We wonder why we always seem to come up short of what we want, no matter how hard we try. Then we wonder why God won’t give us what we want to make us happy, and we can’t understand why.

Jesus died because he did not give the people what they felt they wanted. Jesus suffered not simply for our sins but because of our sins. After all, Jesus never said that we will never suffer death or sin. What he promised was that we are a new creation by our baptism, but the old creation is still a great swimmer. God has not yet stopped the tragedies that happen in this old world. But what Jesus did offer was an invitation to take up our cross, and follow him to his cross, which leads to his resurrection, where we can live in hope of the full coming of kingdom on earth, the new creation, and new birth.

Jesus talked about being born again from above, and being born from above is like the resurrection. In this old creation, when a mother gives birth to a child, the baby always comes out crying. It’s tough coming into this world. It’s bloody and messy, painful for both the mother and the baby. But we hope that the child is soon placed in the arms of his or her mother and father, even grandparents, brothers and sisters.

I like to think that’s where we are, being born again in our baptism. We are the baby struggling to come into the world, usually resistant to the whole process. But our baptism promises that we are born again, and again, and again, every day. And when we die in Christ, we will emerge into the loving arms of our heavenly Father, and will be with our bothers, sisters and parents who are waiting for us. Every day, let us be born again in the resurrection, saying, “He is Risen! He is risen Indeed!”

Amen!