Community Church Sermons

Year A

April 24, 2011

Easter Sunday

Living Easter

John 20:1-18

Colossians 3:1-4

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

 

LISTEN IN!

Whatever you do today, do not leave this sanctuary believing in Easter!

Easter is NOT to be believed in!

No, Easter is to be lived!

Isn’t it true that the world is full of people who believe the most wonderful things about God, Jesus, and the Bible, but whose lives don’t really reflect the values of God, Jesus and the Bible? And it’s not just people “out there.” It’s us “in here”, too. It’s definitely true about me. My Monday morning living doesn’t always match up with my Sunday morning believing.

Do you know what I’m saying?

Part of the problem is that modern day Christians have been hoodwinked into a version of the Christian religion that is a lot different than the faith of Jesus and his followers. At the beginning, they were a movement of people who LIVED Easter every day. And the way they lived was so full of love and hope and transformational power that people from all cultures, all religions, and all walks of life came and wanted to join in! And this Jesus movement spread like wildfire throughout the vast Roman Empire. Even the emperor – Constantine – converted! And Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

And that was the worst thing that ever happened to the Jesus movement.

You see, Constantine’s conversion was not only good for his soul, but it was even better for his political fortunes. The Empire was so large from east to west and north to south that it was increasingly difficult to hold it together. There was no real common politic, no common culture, no common religion…

Oh, wait a minute. Did I say “religion”?

These Christians were all over the place! If Constantine could unite this widespread and very diverse movement he could unite the empire under the leadership of – well, himself! And it was just about that time that Constantine – miraculously - got saved. He made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and he – of course – got to be its head. He appointed the bishops – and the bishops appointed the priests – and the priests told the people what to do and believe. Then Constantine got all these political appointees together in the year 325 AD in a Bithynian city called Nicea. And there they crafted a document intended to unify these very diverse Christ followers throughout the empire. It was called the Nicene Creed. The Creed begins with the words, “We believe…”

And Christianity became a religion, and less a living faith. What you “believed” about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit became far more important than how you lived Easter.

And that conversion of Christianity from a movement of people living Easter into a religion that is about believing doctrines and creeds has produced terrible consequences. Think of those nice Christian kids who killed Matthew Shepherd in Laramie, Wyoming in October of 1998. What they believed the Bible said about gay people drove them to do something Jesus and his followers never would have done. You know, almost all hate crimes are driven by religious BELIEF. Do you think Jesus and the disciples would be showing up today outside a mosque to burn a Koran? But Christians do. Can you imagine Jesus giving his life to God on Sunday morning and then going home and beating his wife or girlfriend for not being submissive to his will? Many men do.

This religion where what you believe is all that matters – where what you believe qualifies you for heaven – where what you believe is the litmus test that determines whether or not you are truly saved - is not the faith of Jesus and his followers.

They were not about believing creeds. They were all about LIVING Easter!

That’s why it is so important to get people to stop believing in Easter.

You see, it’s easy to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. It’s just as easy to not believe Jesus rose from the dead. Believing or not believing stuff about what happened to someone named Jesus long ago is not the point of Easter.

The point of Easter – in fact, the power of Easter - is what happened to YOU in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. What Easter means in YOUR life makes all the difference in how you live!

Listen again to those words we heard read from Colossians 3. And as you listen to them, I want you to think about what’s going on in your own life right now – especially the things going on in your life that hurt, or that hold you back, or are really challenging you, or that overwhelm you. Listen to what God’s Word says Easter means to you as you face those things:

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

These words tell us that something happened to you – and to me – and to all of us in the death and resurrection of Jesus. For one thing, when Jesus died, we died.

I can’t explain this, although I have experienced this in my own life and I’ve seen it in the lives of others. A friend of mine recently told me about growing up in a home where his father constantly criticized him. Everything he did was wrong. No good achievement was ever rewarded with a compliment or even a pat on the back and a “Way to go, son!” All his life, he told me, he desperately sought the love and approval of his dad. It never came. The constant criticism nurtured in him a terrible inferiority complex – a lack of self-confidence – and a belief that he was not deserving of being loved. And all that produced some pretty self-destructive behaviors. You can imagine. Or perhaps you know this experience yourself.

Well, years later, he started checking out this Jesus thing. He’d grown up in a church that was very judgmental and reinforced all those things his dad had heaped upon him. But as he read through the Gospels for himself, he discovered that Jesus spent all his time with people who were far from perfect, and who – at the end – betrayed him, denied him and ran away. And yet, on Easter morning, Jesus went looking for them – not to condemn them, but to prove he loved them and to show them they were worth loving!

And in some miraculous way, my friend said, as he was encountered by the compassion of the risen Christ in the Gospels, something started happening – gradually - on the inside of him. The self-loathing, the feeling of unworthiness, the guilt of not ever being good enough began to fade into the past.

And in its place arose an incredible sense of being valued and loved!

He died that day. Oh, he died that day. He died to the terrible past of his father’s rejection.

And was raised to the FUTURE as a beloved child of God!

This is why Colossians 3 tells us that since we have died with Christ, we have also been raised with Christ. And now we are to set our hearts and minds on better things!

Listen: if you are here today chained to some hurtful experience from the past, you no longer have to be bound to that past. God has a future for you, and it can begin today! If you are living under the oppressive weight of an abusive relationship, or dealing with an addiction, or sitting here today with your life in a million shattered pieces because of something that’s happened, you do not have to let your future be determined by what happened yesterday. And if you are plagued by guilt – as Tim Meadows likes to say, the gift that keeps on giving – guilt over something you’ve done or not done, or sins you’ve committed – you can put those failures behind you, and start today with a clean slate.

Easter means that you have died with Christ. And you have been raised to a hope-filled future with Him!

So lift your eyes and see the beauty of Easter and all it means for you, and live INTO it!!

I think of old Simon Peter the fisherman-turned-disciple who swore his allegiance to Jesus one minute and then denied he even knew Jesus the next. As Jesus went to the cross that Friday, Peter ran away. He ran all the way back to Galilee, got into his fishing boat, and set out to sea. Can you imagine how Peter felt about life with all its unfairness? Can you imagine how Peter felt about religion and how it will even kill those who disagree? Can you imagine how Peter felt about God who let an innocent man like Jesus be killed? But most of all, can you imagine how Peter felt about himself?

“Even if all the others desert you,” he had said to Jesus, “I’ll stick by you!”

But then he denied he even knew Jesus. Three times he denied it. And the rooster crowed. And Peter ran.

Friday was the worst day of his life!

But then came Sunday.

Easter.

And through the early morning mist out on the waters of the Sea of Galilee, Peter saw a figure standing on the shore.

It was the Lord!

And all the unfairness he had experienced in life, and his disillusionment with God and religion, and all those awful thoughts about what a terrible person he was faded away. He saw something greater than his sin, something higher than his failures, something more profound than his doubt.

In the risen Christ, Peter saw that God loved him. He saw that God was on his side and not against him. He saw that God had hope for him, and that nothing could shake God’s friendship. In Easter, Peter saw something high and wonderful – and Peter found new life!

And that’s how Easter was lived by the followers of Jesus.

They went and loved others with an unshakable love. They went and sought out the outcasts and gave them dignity. They went to the hopeless and told them there IS hope! And they worked their butts off transforming their communities into places of justice, mercy and peace. And when others saw these “higher things” in the followers of Jesus, they wanted in too!

So let me ask you a question: If this is what Easter meant to the followers of Jesus, what does Easter mean to you?

Is it something that you believe about something that happened to other people from another time and another place?

Or will you let it become a way of life – a way of living in which ordinary people like you and me step out from the past into God’s new future, and setting our hearts and minds on things above, live Easter every day?

And one more thing. What does Easter mean to us when we face the end of our lives on earth?

Let me tell you a story that I'm told was inspired by Frederick Buechner.

Once upon a time, a set of twins was conceived.

Weeks passed and the twins developed in the womb. As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy: "Isn't it great that we were conceived? Isn't it great to be alive?"

Together the twins explored their world. When they found their mother's cord that gave them food and nourishment, they sang for joy! "How great our mother's love is, that she shares her own life with us!"

As weeks stretched into months, the twins noticed how much they were changing. "What does it mean?" one asked." It means our stay in this world is drawing to an end." said the other.

"But I don't want to go," said one. "I want to stay here always. It is warm and comfortable and safe here."

"We have no choice," said the other. "But maybe there’s something beyond here. Maybe there is life after birth."

"But how can there be?" responded the one. "We will shed our mother’s cord and how can life be possible without it? Besides, we have seen evidence that others were here before us, and none of them has returned to tell us there is life after birth. No, this is all there is. There is nothing more. In fact, maybe there is no mother after all."

"But there has to be," protested the other. "How else did we get here? How do we remain alive?"

"Have you ever seen our mother?" asked one. "Maybe she only lives in our minds. Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good."

So the last days in the womb were filled with deep questions and fear. Finally, the moment of birth arrived. As the twins were pushed through the birth canal and left the world they knew, they opened their eyes… and cried for joy!

What they saw exceeded their wildest imagination!

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!