|
One awkward
thing at a funeral; when we gather at a graveside, as we walk across the
tightly-mown grass, as we huddle together to hear the words of comfort and
committal, we get terribly anxious as we try to avoid stepping or standing
on someone else’s tombstone or grave marker. And so it is that today,
gathered amidst a crowd, we might well be at greater risk of stumbling over a
grave, stepping on a grave marker, tripping over a headstone! So be careful.
Look out for one another. No pushing, don’t rush or run;
take time to see
where you put your feet.
In the light of these difficulties, I am pleased to be able to report that
the resurrection of Jesus is not just something that happens once at the
cemetery on the edge of town. The resurrection is something that happens on
ahead of us, something that meets us, an event which we encounter in the
world, in our world, in our Galilee. As
Mark tells it, the whole remarkable
story of the resurrection is not only about life after death, but vindicates
the life and death of Jesus. For this reason the resurrection is a call to
discipleship, in the here and now.
The messenger at the tomb tells the women exactly where that is.
They are
told, in no uncertain terms, to follow Jesus out into Galilee. Don't go back
to church or Temple! Don’t hang around here! Don’t hide away! Don’t stay in
the city with its intrigue and promises of a better tomorrow. Instead go
back home, this is where Jesus will be!
The Resurrection of Jesus, and Jesus’ invitation to all of us to return to
our Galilee is God’s protest against death! And Galilee is a fitting place
for us to experience the living presence of the Risen Christ. For in
Galilee, Jews knock about with Gentiles.
It is a transition region, a
veritable crossroads – more like Buford Highway than the Forum. It is a
region of hard working farmers and fisherfolk, some of whose papers might be
all in order! But, it is also a resort area where the rich could build their
summer homes, their
lake houses. It is a stopping place on the North-South
trade route from Jerusalem to Damascus, a jumping off point for the spice
route that leads to the Mediterranean Sea. It was there in the mix of
peoples and races and cultures and creeds that the Risen Jesus brings in His
own person,
God’s protest against death!
Some of us will recall and have read some of the books of author Lillian
Smith. She was born in Jasper, FL and lived most of her life near Clayton,
GA. Her 1949 book in which she explored her childhood and the Southern
psyche, "Killers of the Dream", was highly controversial in the South. In it
she describes her feelings the first time she ate with an African American.
She knew intellectually that there was nothing wrong with what she was
doing. And yet, the simple act of sitting down and eating with a black
person went against everything she had been taught. The wrongness of such an
act had been drilled so deeply into her that she became nauseous. It was
hard to converse and to keep down her food. She persevered, however, finding
that the feeling went away as she held to her course of befriending and
dining with blacks. As she continued to write and speak out against the Jim
Crow laws which she described as a, “spiritual lynching”, Smith suffered
ostracism from many former friends over her take on the issue of race.
Still today, not just in Georgia, not just in the South, not just in the
United States, not just in Europe, not just in Africa, not just in Iraq, but
here in our hearts, God’s protest against death calls us to desist from all
discrimination and intolerance, all hatred and division. How many of God’s
children have seen their lives lost because of our collective failure to
embrace the gift of the Resurrection? The Resurrection of Jesus reminds us
that before death and before God we are all the same. The presence of the
Risen Savior assures us that life trumps death; that love, not hatred, is
God’s plan; that respect for our neighbor, not ambivalence to our neighbor, is
God’s plan, that the sharing of resources, not hoarding for ourselves, is
God’s plan. Strengthened by our relationship with our Risen Lord, we are to
live God’s protest against death.
This is Easter, this is Resurrection
Life.
The Baptist congregation was gathered on the riverbank.
The preacher was
baptizing some of his flock in the river when onto the scene wandered a
drunkard on his way home from a night on the town. Addressing the drunkard,
the preacher said, “Do you want to find Jesus?” Mumbling, stumbling, the
reply came, “Sure!” So the preacher dunked him in the river and pulling him
out, he asked him if he had found Jesus. “No, I haven’t found Jesus.”
So the
preacher dunked him under a second time for a bit longer this time. “Did you
find Jesus yet?” the man was asked as he was raised out of the torrent a
second time. “No, I haven’t found Jesus yet!” A third time the preacher
dunked him, for a real long time. Eventually the drunkard was brought to the
surface, “Have you found Jesus now?” Spluttering and choking he said, “No, I
haven’t found Jesus. Are you sure this is where he fell in!”
My sincere hope for all of you today is that you are here to find Jesus and
to be found by Jesus. Jesus asked the disciples to find Him and be found by
Him in Galilee. A difficult thing for them since Galilee was their home
turf, the place of their daily routine, the place where they were known.
Galilee was full of reminders of how they had abandoned and denied Jesus.
Not an easy place to be, but where Jesus sent them. It would have been
easier for them to accept that Jesus was alive and back in their midst
anywhere else that in Galilee, for there they faced questions about all that
happened. There was no hiding place for them there.
They would have to walk
along those same roads where Jesus had tried to tell them what would happen
to Him when they got to Jerusalem. Oh, why had they not gotten it the first
time, why did He have to bring them back here? Did Jesus intend to embarrass
them, to chide them, to humiliate them?
It is always easier to be who we are, or even to put on an act, when we are
away from home, because no one knows us. At least for a time we get the
benefit of the doubt. When we are among strangers, when we are not at home,
no one knows our faults, our failings, our foibles, our fears. But, at home
we are known for who we really are.
God’s protest against death in the Risen Jesus is our invitation to love and
follow God in our Galilee, in our homes, in the communities where we live,
among the people we know and whom we know. It is within our families that we
are to live out this Easter faith by which God claims us and asks us to live
under the reign of Jesus Christ. It is in our neighborhood, on our tennis
courts, on our golf course, at our swimming pool, at our school, at our
place of employment, at our local gym, in our favorite watering hole… it is
at home, here, that we are to share faith and love as we express our
Easter faith; God’s protest against death.
Our Risen Lord, present with us today and always, shows us that God has no
partiality; that the resurrection, God’s protest against death, is exactly
what God intends for every single atom of God’s creation. What we are asked
to do is to say Yes as Jesus did. Jesus always said yes to God.
Everything
Jesus did was a living transformation of his humanity from a temporal focus
to an eternal focus. He understood that he needed to die to all the earthly
stuff. Jesus said, and says,
NO! to grasping worldly power and
YES! to
depending on God’s holy power,
YES! to sharing wealth,
NO! to piling it up
for ourselves,
YES! to including people
and
NO! to exclusion.
The good news for us, my friends, is that today, right here and now, God
invites us to share in this very same miracle as we open our lives to God’s
protest against death in the Risen Jesus and commit ourselves to being
transformed and raised. God shows no partiality, God’s invitation is for
all; God waits for us to find and be found.
On this Easter Sunday 2006, God’s protest against death continues. In God’s
name we are all called to re-shape our lives and to go on to change and
re-shape our world. To do this, we have the example of Jesus to guide us and
the presence of Jesus to inspire us. We do not even need to wait for this
opportunity; it is already here; it is already God’s now. God’s protest
against death in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen is for sure, for all
time, for all people, for me, for you. There is an invitation today, to join
with us here at Northminster, starting today and running to our 25th
Anniversary Service on June 4, we will be focused on what it means to find
Jesus and be found by Jesus; what it means to be a disciple of the Risen
Lord; what it really means to be a member, and active participant in the
Church of Jesus Christ. This can be our Galilee as we help one another find
our way to love and follow the Savior of the world, Jesus, who was dead,
but
is alive and has gone ahead of us and invites us to follow. Amen. |
