Easter Sunday Sermon April 8, 2012
Mark 16:1-8
PRAYER:
Christ is Risen…. He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia
John was coming out of church, the pastor was standing by the door shaking hands. He grabbed John by the hand and pulled him aside.
The pastor said, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!... John!!”
John quickly replied, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.”
Pastor says, “How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?”
He whispered back, “I’m in the secret service.”
Here we are again… another Easter Sunday where families gather to go to church and have family celebrations. For some it’s just another holiday and for some in our post-modern world, they wonder why all the fuss. From a human perspective, perhaps for some here today, Jesus died and he’s still dead!
Perhaps the best we can do is to remember Jesus as a great guy, or an insightful teacher, or a prophet, or a compassionate person. And maybe at best, all we may be able to do is respect him for how he lived his life.
So… here we are this Easter Sunday gathered to worship and perhaps our imagination will allow us to share his memory with praise as a legacy much like the women who went to the tomb to honor Jesus’ body.
This must have been one heck of a weekend for the friends of Jesus. Think about it…Jesus’ friends have just experienced a great trauma. Their friend had just died a humiliating death. Now they’re all wondering what will happen next. They’re wondering who will lead them… Who will teach them? Who will save them?... What will emerge from all of this? They are sheep without a shepherd, and it seems they have forgotten all that Jesus told them. They’re all hunkered down hidden away affraid of what the religious leaders or the Romans might do. And, the women, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Mary the mother of James go to the tomb. They wondered, "who was going to move the stone!" Why didn’t the “guys” go? Someone in the audience says, “They were chicken” (laugh). The women go and… crisis erupts because Jesus is not there. The stone is moved and Jesus is gone.
A man says, “Don’t Be Alarmed!” This Jesus… God has raised him to Life.
The story basically ends there. We don’t know why Mark ends the story where he does. So we too… are left to wonder what will emerge next. We’re wondering because we too seem to be living in crisis. There’s a job crisis… A housing crisis… Gas Crisis… We’re wondering when it will end and who will lead us out of it. Who will save us? Who or What will emerge in the future?
And we hear the voice… Don’t Be Alarmed!!
Some suggest there’s a Great Emergence of Spirituality happening all around our country and the world for that matter. While many people acknowledge a belief in God… many churches are experiencing the opposite… fewer people in church. After-all, the church is where you find God… Right!
People are now acknowledging they are “Spiritual but not Religious” But what does that mean? There are different understandings about what this means, but we seem to be living in a time of tension about what spirituality is or isn’t in the church. Yet… there is something is different going on… something spiritual is happening. Something is Emerging.
The Great Emergence of Jesus we experience today on Easter Sunday was not about changing the course of history from a cultural and materialistic standpoint, but about changing the course of history of the heart. God’s desire for humanity is to have a changed heart, and to turn back to God.
The resurrection of Jesus is God’s way of saying, “I am with You. I am your God and you are my people.”
The Great Emergence of Jesus was meant to transform our lives from the material to the spiritual. “Faith”… or dare I say “Trust” is the divine transformation God seeks from us. Trust in God sets us on a course to the divine transformation of the heart. Jesus believed if our spirit was transformed our lives would be transformed and lived out differently. In this manner we could experience fuller relationships, fuller compassion, fuller justice, fuller community, and fuller lives.
The Great Emergence of Jesus is much more than just a day where we say,
“HE IS RISEN… HE IS RISEN INDEED”
The Great Emergence of Jesus is a time when we see differently. That Jesus can be alive in each of us on any day, at any time, and in any place. Maybe the Great Emergence is a time we focus less on self and more on others. Perhaps, The Great Emergence opens us to being more generous, more patients, more forgiving, and a word I like… more grace-filled. Maybe what emerges becomes more purposeful and meaningful? Maybe The Great Emergence of Jesus isn’t really about you and me, but about a loving God doing an incredible and miraculous thing… way beyond our comprehension giving us an opportunity to emerge into a new and different life.
Perhaps, that’s why Mark’s gospel ends as it does. Maybe it’s an opportunity for us to write the “Rest of the Story” of how The Great Emergence of Jesus changed our lives. Maybe it’s our opportunity to finish the story so that we can proclaim….
HE IS RISEN… HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!
See You Out on the Road
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