STM: He Is Risen
Easter
He is Risen
Here is something I bet you didn't know--if 170 million people could be convinced to stand on one another's shoulders, one on top of another, we could make seven and a half stacks of people, that reach from the earth to the moon. I bet you didn't know that.
Or, if you took those same 170 million people and laid them head to foot, they would wrap around the circumference of the earth about 37 thousand times. And if you could convince them to stitch together their underwear, you could circle the earth with them about 8500 times, wrapping the planet in a great big diaper.
Fortunately, these 170 million people have not chosen to make human ladders to the moon, or lay head to foot around the globe, or wrap the earth in a diaper. No, these 170 million people join you today in doing something a good deal more purposeful, more hopeful, more meaningful.
We have gathered in churches and fellowships to hear that Christ is risen! 170 million people here today with a common, though not identical purpose. 170 million people . . . looking for something, hoping to hear something, longing to feel something, seeking to understand something. 170 million faith stories, different in their way, because someone told someone who told someone.
Let's look the story of one who preceded us past the empty tomb. Mary Magdelene showed up this Easter morning, looking for something. This was an empty Mary, a broken Mary . . . that's her story, might be yours. She stood before the empty tomb in the perfect storm of loss . . . loss of hope, loss of meaning, loss of purpose.
Her hope was lost because all that she had become, all the promises Jesus had made, the change he led was bound up in his person. He had shared his incredible life with a bunch of unlikely, second-class citizens. Now that he is in the tomb, where is hope?
The purpose of Mary's life had come undone. He who had opened doors for her, called her to follow, taught and loved and comforted and led her, was sealed in the tomb with the life that ended on the cross. Purpose died for her.
This Jesus had given her life meaning. Because of him, where she was no one, now she was someone, where she was outcast, she was accepted, where she was not taken seriously, she was a follower and witness of this great prophet. Now her life had lost meaning.
So she came to the empty tomb with low expectations, maybe a last moment's peace by the grave--you could hear the despair in her voice, the plaintive expression of loss, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where to find him.". . . . . "They have taken my Lord, she said again, and I don't know where to find him . . . and I feel empty and hopeless and I don't know what to do." so he found her. He found her.
There's Mary's story. He called her by name. She encountered, the Risen Christ and that which she thought she had lost was renewed. Her purpose--she runs to proclaim, "I have seen the Lord." The meaning--a love and power beyond our understanding is revealed in the one who leaves the tomb and walks before her. The hope--all that Jesus represents has now come before her in even greater measure. Her purpose and her meaning and her hope were renewed. She discovered that Easter doesn't deny death--she felt that in her heart, she stood by the tomb--but challenges its durability. The deaths she suffered were resurrected in the one who vacated the tomb to bring that power into her life. . . and ours.
We suspect something powerful of this story. That's why we're here, you and me. We suspect something good and meaningful and hopeful and purposeful comes from this. You and I are here with our own measure of faith. And in that faith, and the power it seeks, this word of grace is borne into our lives and into the world.
Since Mary ran from the tomb, those words have been proclaimed across all time and boundaries, unabated and undeterred, because they give hope and meaning and purpose to the world. . . persisting despite those who resist such hope.
And it has been resisted from the beginning. Even as we stumble with, even resist the resurrection news, we are not breaking any new ground. The historian Tacitus, writing in the 1st century, just a couple of decades after Jesus' death, wrote about the spread of this confounding resurrection news, "Christus, from whom the name of christians, had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of on of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a deadly superstition, this checked for the moment, again broke out, not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but also in the city of Rome where all things hideous and shameful from all parts of the world meet and become popular."
This deadly "superstition" has burst through the centuries because it bears something eternal, transcendent, healing and hopeful . . that Christ is risen and because he is risen the deaths that we suffer will not endure. We hear it first in this story of Mary Magdelene. Christ intends for that to be our story . . . where we who seek the empty tomb may too be renewed and reborn . . .
Where is resurrection needed in your life? Where does your heart, your understanding, your relationships need resurrection? In part, that compelling question is why you are here. If you bear these to the empty tomb, he will meet you there.
You may come with low expectations, mournful even, as Mary did. But take a cue from the Magdelen. Listen for his voice. Look for his figure passing by, amongst the community, in the words of scripture, in the heart of prayer, in your encounters with the world. He will meet you there. The hope, meaning, and purpose begin in the places in your life where the dealers of death, of sinfulness, despair, hopelessness and met and contested by the greater power of God's love made real in this risen Christ. And then know, that this grace through you works a great purpose in the world.
Where in this world do we need to hear the cry that he is risen, that durabiltiy of death will be contested. Frankly, it seems more like Good Friday in some ways than it does Easter, as the land of our Lord's birth is torn to bloody shreds, as bombs fall in Afghanistan, and people are murdered in Indian and Pakistan, when we still mourn the murder of thousands at the hands of terrorists and millions die of disease and hunger and violence. How does Christ's hope bear on the world. Where is resurrection needed? Where is it not? Turn your eyes to those things, you who are touched by this Jesus in large ways and small, and the power of the resurrection and that hope will shine in these places.
The word of resurrection we come to hear this morning is one of meaning and purpose an hope . . . and freedom. . . . that has the power to contest the dealers of death and to undermine the durability of the darkness. The freedom to soar together on the wings of God's love. The challenge to us when we hear these words, is whether we respond. Mary, seeing this hope made real, ran to tell others, "I have seen the Lord." She was energized, made new, put to a purpose. And nothing has been the same since. She didn't fully understand. Of course not. She was not left with all of her questions resolved. That will never happen. But it was enough for her to be renewed and called to hope and purpose, and through her and others who heard, love was borne into the world where love before fell short. The challenge for us is whether and how we respond to this news.
Theologian Soren Kierkegaard somewhere tells a parable of a community of ducks, maybe 170 million of them, waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. This was a wonderful and unique gift, he said, for there was no place these ducks could not go, nothing they could not accomplish. Why, with those wings they could soar right up into God's presence! Shouts of "Amen" were quacked through the congregation. When the service ended, the ducks left, commenting on the wonderful word they had heard--and they all waddled back home?
Do we hear the message of resurrection, the meaning, the hope and the purpose. . and then waddle back home unchanged?
170 million people are in church this morning. . . . have chosen to seek this venue, these words together. . . to search for hope and meaning. . . choose not to stack themselves in human piles to the moon . . . but seek something full of hope. Here it is. Christ is risen.
Can you imagine . . . if we all linked arms together, energized by these words . . . to bear that message of hope and love in our lives. . . to the world. . . if we all decided not to hurt each other because God loves those whom we distain . . . pledged to share with one another so none would suffer want and poverty and disease . . . lived out of this core in community so no one would be left out, if we lived this word of hope and love . . with each other. . . . if we all linked arms . . .for such things . . . .why, the whole world might be . . . . resurrected. Imagine.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia
Amen
Copyright (c) 2002 by Pastor Robert J. Rasmus
He is Risen
Here is something I bet you didn't know--if 170 million people could be convinced to stand on one another's shoulders, one on top of another, we could make seven and a half stacks of people, that reach from the earth to the moon. I bet you didn't know that.
Or, if you took those same 170 million people and laid them head to foot, they would wrap around the circumference of the earth about 37 thousand times. And if you could convince them to stitch together their underwear, you could circle the earth with them about 8500 times, wrapping the planet in a great big diaper.
Fortunately, these 170 million people have not chosen to make human ladders to the moon, or lay head to foot around the globe, or wrap the earth in a diaper. No, these 170 million people join you today in doing something a good deal more purposeful, more hopeful, more meaningful.
We have gathered in churches and fellowships to hear that Christ is risen! 170 million people here today with a common, though not identical purpose. 170 million people . . . looking for something, hoping to hear something, longing to feel something, seeking to understand something. 170 million faith stories, different in their way, because someone told someone who told someone.
Let's look the story of one who preceded us past the empty tomb. Mary Magdelene showed up this Easter morning, looking for something. This was an empty Mary, a broken Mary . . . that's her story, might be yours. She stood before the empty tomb in the perfect storm of loss . . . loss of hope, loss of meaning, loss of purpose.
Her hope was lost because all that she had become, all the promises Jesus had made, the change he led was bound up in his person. He had shared his incredible life with a bunch of unlikely, second-class citizens. Now that he is in the tomb, where is hope?
The purpose of Mary's life had come undone. He who had opened doors for her, called her to follow, taught and loved and comforted and led her, was sealed in the tomb with the life that ended on the cross. Purpose died for her.
This Jesus had given her life meaning. Because of him, where she was no one, now she was someone, where she was outcast, she was accepted, where she was not taken seriously, she was a follower and witness of this great prophet. Now her life had lost meaning.
So she came to the empty tomb with low expectations, maybe a last moment's peace by the grave--you could hear the despair in her voice, the plaintive expression of loss, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where to find him.". . . . . "They have taken my Lord, she said again, and I don't know where to find him . . . and I feel empty and hopeless and I don't know what to do." so he found her. He found her.
There's Mary's story. He called her by name. She encountered, the Risen Christ and that which she thought she had lost was renewed. Her purpose--she runs to proclaim, "I have seen the Lord." The meaning--a love and power beyond our understanding is revealed in the one who leaves the tomb and walks before her. The hope--all that Jesus represents has now come before her in even greater measure. Her purpose and her meaning and her hope were renewed. She discovered that Easter doesn't deny death--she felt that in her heart, she stood by the tomb--but challenges its durability. The deaths she suffered were resurrected in the one who vacated the tomb to bring that power into her life. . . and ours.
We suspect something powerful of this story. That's why we're here, you and me. We suspect something good and meaningful and hopeful and purposeful comes from this. You and I are here with our own measure of faith. And in that faith, and the power it seeks, this word of grace is borne into our lives and into the world.
Since Mary ran from the tomb, those words have been proclaimed across all time and boundaries, unabated and undeterred, because they give hope and meaning and purpose to the world. . . persisting despite those who resist such hope.
And it has been resisted from the beginning. Even as we stumble with, even resist the resurrection news, we are not breaking any new ground. The historian Tacitus, writing in the 1st century, just a couple of decades after Jesus' death, wrote about the spread of this confounding resurrection news, "Christus, from whom the name of christians, had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of on of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a deadly superstition, this checked for the moment, again broke out, not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but also in the city of Rome where all things hideous and shameful from all parts of the world meet and become popular."
This deadly "superstition" has burst through the centuries because it bears something eternal, transcendent, healing and hopeful . . that Christ is risen and because he is risen the deaths that we suffer will not endure. We hear it first in this story of Mary Magdelene. Christ intends for that to be our story . . . where we who seek the empty tomb may too be renewed and reborn . . .
Where is resurrection needed in your life? Where does your heart, your understanding, your relationships need resurrection? In part, that compelling question is why you are here. If you bear these to the empty tomb, he will meet you there.
You may come with low expectations, mournful even, as Mary did. But take a cue from the Magdelen. Listen for his voice. Look for his figure passing by, amongst the community, in the words of scripture, in the heart of prayer, in your encounters with the world. He will meet you there. The hope, meaning, and purpose begin in the places in your life where the dealers of death, of sinfulness, despair, hopelessness and met and contested by the greater power of God's love made real in this risen Christ. And then know, that this grace through you works a great purpose in the world.
Where in this world do we need to hear the cry that he is risen, that durabiltiy of death will be contested. Frankly, it seems more like Good Friday in some ways than it does Easter, as the land of our Lord's birth is torn to bloody shreds, as bombs fall in Afghanistan, and people are murdered in Indian and Pakistan, when we still mourn the murder of thousands at the hands of terrorists and millions die of disease and hunger and violence. How does Christ's hope bear on the world. Where is resurrection needed? Where is it not? Turn your eyes to those things, you who are touched by this Jesus in large ways and small, and the power of the resurrection and that hope will shine in these places.
The word of resurrection we come to hear this morning is one of meaning and purpose an hope . . . and freedom. . . . that has the power to contest the dealers of death and to undermine the durability of the darkness. The freedom to soar together on the wings of God's love. The challenge to us when we hear these words, is whether we respond. Mary, seeing this hope made real, ran to tell others, "I have seen the Lord." She was energized, made new, put to a purpose. And nothing has been the same since. She didn't fully understand. Of course not. She was not left with all of her questions resolved. That will never happen. But it was enough for her to be renewed and called to hope and purpose, and through her and others who heard, love was borne into the world where love before fell short. The challenge for us is whether and how we respond to this news.
Theologian Soren Kierkegaard somewhere tells a parable of a community of ducks, maybe 170 million of them, waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. This was a wonderful and unique gift, he said, for there was no place these ducks could not go, nothing they could not accomplish. Why, with those wings they could soar right up into God's presence! Shouts of "Amen" were quacked through the congregation. When the service ended, the ducks left, commenting on the wonderful word they had heard--and they all waddled back home?
Do we hear the message of resurrection, the meaning, the hope and the purpose. . and then waddle back home unchanged?
170 million people are in church this morning. . . . have chosen to seek this venue, these words together. . . to search for hope and meaning. . . choose not to stack themselves in human piles to the moon . . . but seek something full of hope. Here it is. Christ is risen.
Can you imagine . . . if we all linked arms together, energized by these words . . . to bear that message of hope and love in our lives. . . to the world. . . if we all decided not to hurt each other because God loves those whom we distain . . . pledged to share with one another so none would suffer want and poverty and disease . . . lived out of this core in community so no one would be left out, if we lived this word of hope and love . . with each other. . . . if we all linked arms . . .for such things . . . .why, the whole world might be . . . . resurrected. Imagine.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia
Amen
Copyright (c) 2002 by Pastor Robert J. Rasmus