The
Feast of the Resurrection + A The
Reverend Robert R.M. Bagwell+
16, April 2017 All Saints’ Hampton Parish, SC
Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-18
Christos Anesti the orthodox say to one another
on this day. Alithos anesti is the reply given by the other
person. The >79 Prayerbook gives us an English
translation.
Alleluia, Christ
is Risen and the reply The Lord is
risen INDEED Alleluia ! Lets practice the Easter greeting this morning. Alleluia, Christ is Risen@ AThe Lord is Risen Indeed,
Alleluia!
Good
news. We all LIKE good news. But do we
understand how good this news is? Even
the disciples, Jesus= closest friends Peter and John
says that Athey did not believe for as yet
they did not know the scripture that he would rise from the dead.@ (Jn. 20:9)
Sure our
culture sees Easter as commercially B and not the Feast of the
Resurrection! But it is still difficult
even with bunnies and baskets, bonnets and bow, baby chicks and chocolate, to
divorce ourselves completely from the events that the Christian Church has
proclaimed for two millennia. Those
events have transformed human history and the world.
Easter: a
pagan word, yet it connotes a profound mystery, an earthly transformation, a
metamorphosis from what was, frail weak and limited to another mode of being: power,
transformation and Resurrection! Former
Franciscan Priest, Brennan Manning once said that God didn’t redeem humanity to
make “nicer men with better morals, but brand new creations. “ That is what the resurrection from the dead
accomplished.
The cross is
the meeting place between God and humanity. However it is profoundly more. At
the foot of that cross is a level playing field. No earthly riches, no important earthly
family, no position or fame is of any import.
The cross of Christ was and is the grand equalizer and what is the point
of that equality?
Forgiveness…forgiveness. Coupled
with that fundamental principle is the other and the two go hand in hand:
recreation. Resurrection makes these two
principles necessary to Gods salvation of humanity possible. It takes us the
heart with this immortal verse about the heart of our God. Perhaps you’ve heard it? “ For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life. (John 3:16) This verse so
moves everything that is perhaps the best known Bible verse in the world. At St Paul’s in Savannah, where I assist,
below the great crucifix, the carved figures of Jesus on that cross and Mary
and St John at its feet staring up at their dying son and friend, and below the
figures in large gold letters we read: for
God so loved the world. The world is
filled with so much pain and suffering that people are filled with fear and
despair. That has not changed, however
when the disciples and Mary Magdalene went to the tomb that morning and found
it empty, the remaking of the world was initiated. Jesus did not rise from the
dead to make new life possible,
as was said by The Rev. Tullian
Tchividjian, Jesus was raised from the dead to make new life actual for those who believe.
Through this
resurrection all of God=s salvific strains of grace have
gone into motion. We say in the creed
and in the Baptismal Covenant, Awe believe in the resurrection of
the body.@
That is no small statement. How
many religious faiths around the world believe in the Aresurrection of the dead.@ It is a bold claim of the
Christian faith. But it is not a
rejoinder of that faith, but rather it is the core of that faith. In the Nicene Creed, the creed normally used
in the Mass, we say Awe look for the resurrection of
the dead@.
Are we nuts? Or do we know
something that many in the world do not?
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have testimony and the
experience of two millennia of people who claim that the receiving of this man=s free offering into their
personal lives and histories has changed their lives forever.
What do we
claim about this man Jesus of Nazareth who we have the temerity to call God=s
Messiah for the whole world? We are not
saying that God reanimated the cells in the body of the dead Jesus. We are not saying that Christ was raised as
in the stories of Lazarus being raised.
Christ is raised to die no more.
We are not saying that our immortal souls live on forever. That pales in comparison to the
resurrection. We say we believe in the
resurrection of the BODY!
Resurrection
is a statement about the character of God.
It states that He does not and will never stop loving God=s
creation. It says that Jesus Christ is
the victorious one who has conquered death.
The disciples did not believe in the resurrection because they believed
in Jesus@ says theologian Martin Marty, Athey
believed in Jesus because they believed in the RESURRECTION! A
If you take the Christian faith seriously, it will inevitably lead you to
Easter.
Without
Easter Christianity falls. Paul said Aif
there is no resurrection your faith is vain.@
There are many good proofs as to why one would believe in it, but this
is not the time for such proofs. Many seeking Aproofs@ are more seeking information than
faith. Many who seek information, even
if convinced would not believe in Christ. And this Christ demands an answer to
His claims.
In
a new motion picture, award winning Chicago Tribune journalist has a life
jolting experience. He and his pregnant
wife and their daughter are out at a restaurant when his daughter begins to
choke on something. The film opens with him receiving a promotion and his
family of three (soon to be four) seemingly enjoying all that life has to offer
a young upwardly mobile family. However, a crisis in a restaurant leads to an
encounter with a follower of Christ and the course of Lee’s life forever
changes. He and his wife are both professed atheists, however the encounter with
the nurse who saves their daughter shakes her to the core. The woman said, “I wanted to go somewhere
else for dinner, but something told me to come here”. As an addendum she says that God told her to
be there. This begins the wife’s search.
Lee
is determined to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. He exerts great
effort and talks to a number of experts in different disciplines. He talks to
skeptics and believers. Meanwhile, his wife is drawing closer to Christ and
embracing her new Christian faith. This isn’t what Lee bargained for and he’s
angry and tortured. What is displayed in the film is sometimes ugly and for
good reason, this all happened. Furthermore, to go from atheism to belief is
not something that will or should happen cleanly. Lee is
conducting an investigation and it is not going as he thought and that
ticks him off, especially at his wife, who now has a relationship with someone
else…Jesus. In a dramatic scene at the
office one of Lee’s colleagues, responds to his sarcastic despondency saying:
“at some point you have got to ask yourself, how much evidence do you have to
have?” In the basement workshop, where he has charts and chalkboards and
interviews and questions as well as evidence he had gathered over approximately
two years, in exasperation he says: “ok God, you win!” and the story of his
redemption begins which would eventually take him to a status of a world class
proponent of the Christian faith. I have
been through that same struggle in my own teen years and finally gave up and
chose what seemed the most authentic and genuine thing: Jesus.
Today
and every day we are confronted with the same choice and the same
evidence. Will this Jesus be the center
of our lives for this life and the next, or will we protest and refuse. But
for those who know him and celebrate him, today is the day that changed the
world. Alleluia, Christ is risen: the Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
In
the Name of the Father and of the glorious and risen Son
and
of the Holy Spirit. AMEN
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