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Church Sermons
Easter Sunday – April
11, 2004
“They Came With Spices”
A friend of mine was telling me the other day about how very meaningful this week is. Thursday – which we Christians call “Maundy Thursday” - is such a tender and sacred time. I hope you had a chance to attend the wonderful service of music and candles and drama that was presented by our Music Ministry. What a powerful experience! Friday – which we call “Good Friday” – brings us to the deepest places of life and faith. Many of our members came to the sanctuary to pray and meditate and receive Communion between the hours of Noon and three – the traditional hours for the crucifixion. Saturday, of course, is a day of waiting and wondering. And today – Easter Sunday – well, today is the Day of Days!
So as my friend was sharing about how this week is very special to him, I was not just a little taken by surprise when he asked me a question that I was completely unprepared for.
He asked, “How do you think it will come out this year?”
What a question coming from the mouth of a fine member of our Community Church!! Hasn’t he ever read the Bible?
“How do I think it will come out?” I replied. “Well, “I KNOW how it comes out!” Then, I said, “The real question is, how do YOU think it will come out?”
And this is what he said.
“Well, I think Phil Mickelson has a shot at it this year!”
And then the light came on. He wasn’t talking about Holy Week, he was talking about the Masters! The Thursday he was referring to was not Maundy Thursday, but Opening Round Thursday at Augusta National! The dramatic Friday he was thinking about was not Good Friday, but Cut Day at the Masters! Saturday was not Holy Saturday, but what is called “Moving Day” when the players move into position to win. And for Sunday – well, with all due respect to Easter – he was not imagining white robes and resurrection, but rather a green jacket and a great celebration for the winner of the Masters who he hopes will be Phil Mickelson! And from the looks of things, he might be right!
Well, at first it troubled me that one of the great Christian saints of our church would manage to somehow confuse the Masters with Holy Week and Easter. But the more and more I thought about it, it occurred to me that there really are some similarities between the two. And then on Friday – Good Friday - when I snuck home from meditating at the church to check out the golf match on TV, the Lord showed me something at the Masters that is important to Easter.
Friday was Arnold Palmer’s final round of golf as a competitor at the Masters. This – his 50th tournament at Augusta National – will be his last. And Friday, as Arnie stepped up to the Number One tee, there was a beautiful few minutes of greeting and applause and celebration and commentary as the fans, dignitaries, television commentators, and Arnie and his family savored the meaning of that moment. There were video clips of Arnie’s four wins at the Masters – appreciative thoughts shared by many he’d competed against over the years – and lots of tears among the members of Arnie’s Army as their hero teed it up for the last time, and drove the ball down the fairway.
Then one of television
commentators spoke the words that struck me hard. “After today,” he
said, “Arnold Palmer – the four-time Master’s Champion - will be just a
cherished memory.”
I felt sad when I heard those words. Is that what our lives add up to when all is said and done? Do we just become cherished memories with no real relevance to the present – no real ability anymore to impact life – just a sentimental relic of the past? I shed a tear on Friday afternoon when I saw Arnie himself shed some tears after the round was finished. There in the Butler Cabin during an interview, Arnold Palmer openly wept and said, “Its not fun to know its over.”
They made him a cherished memory.
And that’s what they tried to do with Jesus, too.
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it, but Luke’s Gospel tells us that when the women came out to the tomb that early Easter morning, they came with spices.
Now why do you suppose they did that? Was there going to be a pot-luck supper there later that day and spices were needed to enhance the flavor of those little meatballs and macaroni salad?
No. You know why they took the spices.
They brought spices to turn Jesus into a cherished memory. They came out to the tomb that day to pickle Jesus and preserve his corpse like we do with all our dead. And once he was reduced to a cherished memory, they could sit around for the rest of their lives telling stories about Jesus and how it used to be.
They came with spices.
How do you come to Easter?
Well, when the women reached the tomb that morning, they got the surprise of their lives! There wasn’t anyone there left to pickle! There were only two angels who asked the women a question that we need to ask ourselves. They said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
You see, Jesus of Nazareth may have been just a cherished memory to them, BUT HE WAS MUCH MORE THAN THAT TO GOD! Arnold Palmer may be just a cherished memory to the good folks at Augusta National, BUT HE IS MUCH MORE THAN THAT TO GOD! And you…
…yes, YOU may feel as though your life doesn’t really count for anything – you’re too young or too old – too small or too frail - and that life is about just doing your best until you run out of gas and the world comes to pickle you, BUT YOU ARE MUCH MORE THAN THAT TO GOD!
And that’s one of the most amazing things about Easter. It is not a day for remembering the past. It is instead a day to consider a claim about the present and the future that comes to us all through Christ’s resurrection!
OUR LIVES COUNT FOR SOMETHING!
Every Easter, I find myself deeply moved when I look around at all the Easter lilies. I read the names of those who are remembered with those flowers, and think about those I love whose days on earth have run their course. I think about my dad. And Sandy’s parents. And the many, many loved ones of our friends and parishioners. I think about Dave, and Diane, and Stan who have left us in recent weeks.
And I find hope today!
St. Paul said it beautifully in First Corinthians 15. Do you remember what he said about the connection between Easter and our loved ones? He wrote:
“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ – that is, if faith in Christ is only about the here and now – we are of all people most to be pitied! For IN FACT Christ has been raised from the dead, THE FIRST FRUITS OF THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP.”
The resurrection is not just for Jesus! It is also for you and me. The resurrection of Christ is for your mom and dad and child and sister and friend and neighbor! Jesus was the first, but not the last! Jesus opened the door so others can pass through! For even though things like cancer and heart disease and automobile accidents and wars and violence and natural disasters and old age conspire against us to turn us into nothing more than cherished memories, WE ARE MUCH MORE THAN THAT TO GOD!
And in Easter, this is what our faith claims: God has provided a future even for the dead!
They came with spices to preserve a cherished memory. But Jesus wasn’t there! He was loose out there in God’s beautiful future!
But what about us who are still alive? What does the resurrection mean for us?
Well, it means that OUR LIVES COUNT IN GOD’S FUTURE, TOO – no matter how young, no matter how old!
Many years ago, a dear friend of ours named Harold experienced a debilitating stroke. In one moment of time, much of Harold’s life was taken from him, especially his ability to speak. Where once Harold had been a truly articulate man who used language beautifully and expressed thoughts so eloquently, now he could not even put two or three words together in a sentence. To listen to Harold try to talk would just about make you cry.
Well, one day, I was visiting with Harold and Margaret, his wife. I shared with Margaret my deep sorrow about what had happened to Harold, and how sad it was that so much of his life had been taken away.
But that’s when Margaret stopped me. “No, Marty,” she gently said, “Harold’s life has not been taken away from him. His SPEECH isn’t what it used to be, but he is still able to love! He loves me, and the children, and you, and the church. He’s still doing the work of God, you know! And he’ll still be doing it after he’s gone!”
You see, Margaret believed in the God of Easter! No matter how young or old, how strong or weak, how healthy or sick – OUR LIVES MATTER TO GOD! And we are called forth in the midst of our circumstances to be part of the beautiful future God is building!
A while ago, I received that now-famous email about the kids in a certain geography class. Their teacher asked them to name the Seven Wonders of the World. There was lots of debate, but finally the list was pared down to these: the great pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building (this must have been a while ago, huh?), St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Great Wall of China.
Oh, the world really is full of great wonders, isn’t it?
Well, when gathering the votes, the teacher noticed that one little girl hadn’t passed in her paper. So she went to the girl and asked if she was having trouble with the list. The girl said yes. The other students had named all those great things, but her list of wonders was different. She was afraid she’d gotten it all wrong.
Well, the teacher asked the little girl to show her the list, and this is what it said:
“I think the Seven Wonders of the World are…to touch, to taste, to see, to hear, to run, to laugh, and to love.”
What a wonderful thought! I’ve saved that story for a long time, with the idea that it might make a good sermon illustration. And it does. But not in the way I first thought. You see, the other students thought the greatest wonders of the world were the great achievements of humankind. And this little girl thought the greatest wonders of the world are the human senses. But it was not until the last one that the little girl really got to the first of the true Seven Wonders of the World:
To love.
And I would add to the list these wonders: to heal – to forgive – to make peace – and do justice – to lay down your life for others – and to build the Kingdom of God!
OUR LIVES COUNT FOR SOMETHING! In life and in death, God summons us forth from irrelevance and indifference, and calls us to participate in building the future he is creating! There is a new world coming – the world we’ve always dreamed of, the kind of world where we want to live and raise our children and grandchildren. It is a world where the lion lays down with the lamb, and swords are beaten into plowshares, and no one learns war anymore! It is a world where the young and old alike are celebrated, where justice flows like a river, where illness and disease are driven away, where tears are wiped away from every eye, where families are reunited, and God Himself dwells among us!
And the tools that build that beautiful future can be taken up by any one, anywhere, no matter how young or how old. Love. Forgiveness. Peacemaking. Justice. Laying down our lives for others. Building the Kingdom of God.
Oh, it may be that Arnold Palmer can’t hit a golf ball as far or as well as he used to.
But he still has a calling! He still has a purpose! His life still counts for something!
And so does yours!
They came with spices that day long ago. They came to pickle Jesus and preserve a cherished memory.
But God had other ideas! Jesus had a future yet to be lived!
And the same claim has been brought to bear upon our loved ones who’ve died. Thanks be to God! And the claim is placed upon you and me while we live!
Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead – the first fruits of all who trust in God!
So come and step out of the tomb of cherished memory, and step into the light of God’s new future! Believe in God! Believe in resurrection! Go today and love! Go today and forgive! Go today and make peace, and do justice. Go today and lay down your life for others! Go today and focus your life on building the Kingdom!
You are more than a cherished memory to God.
You are the future!
As my good friend asked, “How do you think it will come out in the end?”
Well, we may not know how the Masters will turn out. But we know how Easter turns out, and we know how our lives will turn out, too, by the grace and power of God!
Christos aneste! Aneste alethos!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
YOU ARE MORE THAN A CHERISHED MEMORY! YOU ARE THE CHILD OF A GOD WHO LOVES YOU, AND CALLS YOU TO A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE!