April 8, 2007 - Easter Sunrise Service
Luke 24:1-12
Grace and peace to you from God the Creator and the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Christian churches throughout the world will be packed today, filled with people united by one common need. I was reminded of that need earlier this week when a group of people stopped by the office for a visit. It was Prayer First, a small group of dedicated, faithful members who routinely pray for concerns in the congregation. They came by the office last Wednesday, asked if I had any prayer requests, I shared a few, and then, for some reason, Mack popped into my head.
Mack isn’t his real name, but his situation certainly is. He’s in his early 60s; he’s not a member of the congregation, but he comes in about every three months looking for some help. It’s always something with Mack: money problems, health problems, unemployment problems, motivation problems, one bad decision after another. Truth is, he’s made a mess of his life. He is the “s” in mess. So when Prayer First asked what exactly Mack needed, I thought for a moment and then realized that what he really needs is his own personal Easter; he needs to wipe the hard drive clean and start over again; he needs a whole new beginning.
And then I thought of you and me. Because you and I are really no different.
If you doubt that, just reflect back on those occasions when you have thought to yourself, “Oh, why did I say that?” “Why in the world did I do that?” “How did I ever get into this mess?” And the ever-popular, “If I knew then what I know now … .” Sooner or later we’re all able to identify with the words of author Robert Spector: “If I had Solomon’s wisdom, possessed all the power of Atlas, and moved with Mercury’s swiftness, I’d find a way to mess things up, because I’d still be me.” Truth is, we all could use a new beginning, a new chance, a new lease on life.
Well, you’re all bright people, certainly clever enough to see where this train of thought is taking us on Easter morning. Ours is a religion of the dawn: Creation happens in the morning, the women come to the tomb in the morning, Resurrection is announced in the morning. New life is a thread that weaves its way throughout all of Scripture. Time and time again the Bible tells of one new start after another, one new opportunity after another, one new beginning after another. And it all reaches a culmination on Easter morning, the ultimate new beginning.
That’s what the apostle Paul means when he says in his letter to the Corinthians about how Christ’s Resurrection transforms us: “If anyone is in Christ” (or in other words belongs to Christ through faith), “that person is a new creation; everything old has passed away. See, everything has become new.”
One argument from reason against the truth of the Resurrection, and I’ve heard it often, goes like this: Resurrection brings new life? Well, when I look out at the world, it looks the same to me.”
They could have said the same thing the day after the Resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was raised from the dead, and a handful of Jewish peasants knew about it, but nothing really changed. The sun didn’t stop, rivers didn’t reverse course, thieves continued to steal, the strong continued to dominate the weak, the poor continued to suffer.
So what changed? Wrong question. The question is: Who changed? And from what to what?
Look at the women in this story. Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James come to the graveyard ready to cover Jesus’ savaged body with ointment and spices and the wrap it in linen for its burial. Instead they become the first Christian evangelists, bearers of good news.
And look at the men. Fearful, weak-kneed, uncertain, never quite getting it; they have an encounter with the Resurrected Jesus and all of a sudden they discover a backbone they didn’t know they had; they’re clear-eyed, strong, resolute; these are the ones their critics complained about in the book of Acts: They’re turning the world upside down!
I suspect no one was more surprised by that than the disciples themselves. They had no idea they were capable!
Have you ever done something that absolutely shocked you because you didn’t know you had it in you? Whenever it happens to me I’m both astonished and grateful, and wonder, “Where did that come from?” Theologian Paul Tillich once said, “Nothing is so surprising as the rise of the new within ourselves.”
These disciples surprised themselves, and the world as well, because of the strength and courage that took them over as a result of their encounter with the Resurrected Jesus and their conviction that he was alive and living for them.
Well, that was then; how about now?
When you settle down after brunch later this morning and open up the Kansas City Star, you’re going to bump into headlines that will look numbingly similar to the ones you saw yesterday, last week, last month, last year. The war in Iraq continues to grind on, we’re still looking for Osama bin Laden, Israelis and Palestinians are still at each other’s throats, it’s still beginning to dawn on public officials that someone really ought to get serious about global warming some day, and on and on. And we become more and more convinced that the Teacher in Ecclesiastes had it right: There really is nothing new under the sun. There always have been wars and conflicts and betrayals of trust, and there always will be. But the Gospel doesn’t promise us heaven on earth. In fact, Jesus himself says that in this world we will always have tribulation, troubles. But he follows that up immediately by saying, and this is a command, “Take courage; I have conquered the world!”
By that he doesn’t mean that he’s stopped the problems of the world. Not at all. He’s announcing an attitude of new beginning, the same attitude that was adopted by the disciples after the Resurrection, the same attitude of new beginning that is offered to you and me this morning.
It’s an attitude of new beginning that says, “I won’t be inhibited or intimidated or defined by the problems of the world. I will not allow my vision to be limited by the headlines. And I will live and die by a standard that absolutely defies the standard of the world: Where the world tells me to hate, I will love, no matter the cost; where the world tells me to stay put and protect, I will advance; where the world tells me to play it safe and cautious, I will be courageous, no matter what; where the world tells me that my future is determined by my past, I will insist that God is my future, and I will become who and what God intends.”
That’s the good news of Easter. Easter is not only about Jesus; it is also and profoundly about you. Jesus has already claimed and is living his new life; today is your opportunity to claim yours. Easter is not just about life after death; it’s also about new life before death.
Jesus has given you a new beginning, a new opportunity, a new lease on life. What you do with it is completely up to you. You can read about it, analyze it, reflect on it; or you can seize it and claim it for yourself, today. If Resurrection life is what you want for yourself, then get on with it, for God’s sake and for your own. If you do, you will be the only proof of the Resurrection this world will ever need.
If anyone here belongs to Christ through faith, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away; see, you have become new!
Amen.
