Speaking of Resurrection

Sermon

March 31, 2013

Easter Sunday

Text:  John 20;1-18

Dr. Jacquelyn L. Foster

Compton Heights Christian Church

(Disciples of Christ)

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen, Indeed!

Rev Barbara Brown Taylor was leading worship in a nursing home one day, and she asked the residents what story from the Bible they would like to hear that day.  There was silence for a moment and the cracking voice of very old woman said, “Tell us a resurrection story.”

Don’t we all need to hear a resurrection story?!   When we, like this woman know that we are in the final years of our life… we need to hear a resurrection story.   When we are young and we are faced with horror of war, we need to hear a resurrection story.  When we are facing the loss of one we love, we need to hear a resurrection story.  When life around us seems lost in chaos and destruction, we need to hear a resurrection story.  We we are stuck in addiction and we see our life crumbling, we need to hear a resurrection story.  When we feel the life and the joy sucked out us, we need to hear a resurrection story.  When we are filled with joy, when we are in love, when life is full, we need to hear and share a resurrection story.  Whoever we are – we need to hear a resurrection story!

The Good News is that we are full of resurrection stories.  There is story in John’s Gospel of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb early in the morning and finds that the stone has been rolled away,  so ran to find Peter and the that disciples Jesus loved.  They then come running, and not finding Jesus’ body, they return home, leaving Mary there where she meets the Risen Christ who calls her by name.

And there’s Luke’s story of the group of women who come to the tomb bringing spices to prepare Jesus body for burial but he is not there and the angels tell them that Jesus is risen. They ran to tell the disciples, but they thought is was a silly, idle tale, and Peter came to see for himself.

And there’s the story of the Risen Christ meeting the disciples along the road and going home with them where they recognize him in the breaking of the bread.

And the story of the Risen Christ appearing to the disciples who are locked away in a room in fear, Thomas was not there and did not believe them, until he saw the Risen Christ for himself.

And the story of the Risen Christ on the beach cooking fish for breakfast with the disciples.

And then there’s Paul’s story on the road to Damascus, knocked off his horse by his encounter with the Risen Christ.

And the stories go on and on – stories of people throughout history coming to know Jesus the Christ.  Our stories of the Christ present with us!

But never is there a story that tells us what happened; how resurrection comes to be, what resurrection looks like!   The  resurrection story is the story of the experience of Christ-with-us.  The experience of New Life.  The resurrection stories proclaim the Good News that God brings life out of death.  That death has not the last word.  But in Christ we know that God raises us up to life.

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to name the pain, the wrongs, the sorrow, the death than to name the good, the redeeming acts, the new life, the resurrection?  The secret fact that many pastors will tell you is that it is easier to plan the services of Lent than the celebration of Easter!  Partially because there is no shortage of fodder for our reflections on sin and brokenness and pain and tragedy and persecution and betrayal and death.  It’s all so concrete and visible.  But even we Christians who claim a resurrection faith, can  have a hard time naming the joy, the redemption, the goodness, the renewal, the resurrection!  We’ve got to work on that!!

Several years ago, the children’s choir at Goshen UMC in Piedmont, Alabama, was singing for the Palm Sunday service. As they sang, a massive tornado hit the church, killing nineteen people and injuring eighty-six others. Among the dead was Pastor Kelly Clem’s four-year-old daughter, Hannah. Over the next few days, Kelly performed one funeral after another, and in that time was the funeral for her own daughter.  Toward the end of that awful week, Kelly began receiving phone calls from members of the congregation. Given the death of those in their congregation, including the pastor’s daughter and the destruction of their sanctuary, they asked, “Reverend Clem, are we having Easter this year?”

“Are we having Easter this year?”

That must have been how the Jesus’ disciples felt – so lost in their despair, so confused and afraid, and dazed that it would have been almost impossible to comprehend that God was doing something good.  Resurrection – Christ with them was almost too much to embrace.  And YET, IT WAS EVERYTHING.  It was life.

“Are we having Easter this year?”  It felt impossible.  Surely in our culture if you are going to have Easter, you must of the energy to have a party, the where-with-all to decorate, to put on a feast, to color eggs.  But no —  EASTER just comes!

The day after the tornado, a reporter asked Reverend Clem if the disaster had shattered her faith. She replied: “It has not shattered my faith. I’m holding on to my faith. It’s holding me. All of the people of Goshen are holding on to one another, along with the hope that they will be able to rebuild.” Then Kelly said to the reporter, “Easter is coming.”

That Sunday morning at the Easter sunrise service, two hundred people gathered in the front yard of the destroyed facilities at Goshen UMC. With a bandage on her head, her shoulder in a brace, and her heart breaking with grief, Rev. Kelly made her way to the makeshift pulpit. She opened her Bible, looked into the faces of her traumatized congregation, and then read these words from Romans 8, “Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That is the Easter message!  It is not one of the scriptures we tend to read at Easter – but that is it – that nothing –neither life nor death – nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

EASTER  has come.  The Stone has rolled.  The Christ has spoken our name!   Nothing we can do, nothing that happens to us, can undo the fact that God has raised Christ and God is bringing the world to life!  Thanks be God!  Amen and Amen.