Sermon 4/12/15
Multiple Texts
After Easter
Last Sunday, during our sunrise service, I talked about
how easy it can be sometimes, or at least has been in my own life, to “miss”
Easter. After all the build-up, all the special Holy Week services, somehow
Easter can seem less intense. Part of it is because we focus first on something
that is empty: Jesus is not in the
tomb. And that’s a bit harder things to get our heads around. And sometimes we
can be like Peter and the other disciple who ran to see the empty tomb, only to
quickly go back to our place of fear and darkness without understanding. It is
Mary Magdalene, who stays at the tomb, weeping, grieving, who is still present
to have the very first encounter with the resurrected Jesus.
But if we have a chance of sort of missing Easter on
Easter Sunday, we really have a
chance of missing Easter on the Sunday after,
this, the second Sunday of Easter. In fact, it has a non-technical name:
it’s typically known as “low Sunday,” because after the hype and fanfare and
sometimes increased attendance and participation and Holy Week and Easter, the
Sunday after is pretty quiet, pretty
empty, a kind of emotional letdown. Jesus’ resurrection – that was so last week, right? Actually, though,
the Great Season of Easter is 50 days long. It goes all the way from Easter
Sunday up until Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy
Spirit, which we will celebrate at the end of June. These 50 days include the
40 days between Resurrection Day and the Ascension, the day Jesus returned to
God and no longer was physically present on earth. Sometimes we forget, that
for over a month, the scriptures record the resurrected Jesus as continuing to
appear to and interact with and share teachings with the disciples and other
close followers of Jesus. Normally, throughout this season of Easter, these
post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Bible would be spread throughout
our Sunday services.
But this
year, we’re rolling it all up into one, today. Throughout the service, we’ve
heard nearly every scripture that refers to this “post-resurrection” time. Next
Sunday, we’ll begin spending time looking at dreams in the Bible, and talking
about our dreams, and God’s dreams for our lives and for Apple Valley. We’re
going to get serious about thinking about where God is leading us as
individuals and a congregation. We’re going to see how big we can dream with
God, right up through Pentecost, when I hope we will celebrate some of our dreams
that will lead us forward. But today, before we begin that process, I want us
to think about resurrection and new life. What does Jesus do and tell us in
this time between resurrection and ascension? Yes, Christ is risen, Christ is
risen indeed! But so what? What does it mean? What does Jesus hope it means for
us? I think as we look at all these post-resurrection appearances, we get some
clues.
First, I
think we see in these passages the same temptation we experience with Easter.
In the second part of John 20, which continues directly after the Easter
morning story we read last Sunday, we find that Jesus appears to the disciples
where they are all locked in a room, hiding in fear. This is after Peter and the other disciple have
seen the empty tomb, and after Mary
Magdalene has presumably found them and shared with the them the good news that
Jesus has been resurrected and is alive and that death has not been victorious.
And the disciples respond by: Hiding. Trembling. Doing nothing. Essentially
sticking their heads in the sand. Jesus is alive – resurrection has happened –
but it seems to make no difference! Not, at least, until Jesus comes to them
and encourages them and breathes on them and speaks words of peace to them. I
worry that sometimes we’re the same way. Has resurrection made any impact on
us? If we have this good news, but don’t share it, don’t let our lives be
changed because of it, if being Easter people who serve a God who conquers even
the power of death makes no real impact
on our lives, causes nothing about our lives to change: what’s the point? It’s
so easy to go back to life as usual. Easter was so last week. But new life isn’t just a momentary event. It’s a new
beginning, and like those seeds we talked about last week, we have to cultivate
life, continue to nourish it. It doesn’t go from seed to fruit-bearing plant in
a moment. There’s growing to be done. How is new life, resurrection, taking
place in you?
Another
theme in these post-resurrection stories is that we see Jesus encountering
whatever stumbling blocks there are to moving forward for the disciples and
followers and effectively removing them from their path. There’s Cleopas and
the other disciple, walking to Emmaus, who seem confused about what has been
happening, and don’t recognize Jesus, but Jesus walks with them, explains
things, reveals himself to them, breaks bread with them. There’s of course
Thomas, forever stuck with the label of one moment of doubt out of his whole
lifetime. I feel sorry for him – what one mistake, one misjudgment would you
like made into a nickname that sticks with you forever? All Thomas wants is to
see Jesus for himself, to touch Jesus and verify that this outlandish story is
true. Jesus says that we’re blessed when we can believe without seeing, but he doesn’t withhold proof from Thomas. Instead,
he guides his hands to touch the wounds of the crucifixion. He gives Thomas
exactly what he needs to believe and act on what he’s experienced. And then, of
course, there’s Peter. Peter, Jesus’ closest, most devoted disciple: his last
moments before the crucifixion were full of shame as Peter denied and abandoned
even knowing Jesus, just as Jesus said he would. He’s a failure. He must be
nervous, anxious about what Jesus will have to say to him. But what Jesus gives
Peter is a gift: three times the opportunity for Peter to state his love and
commitment to Jesus, three times a command from Jesus to go forth and carry on
the work that Jesus began. Three strong responses to cancel out the pain of
three denials. As we move on from here and begin to dream with God, we will
find a lot of stumbling blocks – excuses that we’ve built up of why we can’t do
something and why God can’t really be asking us to do that and why we aren’t
qualified or ready or the right person or it isn’t the right time. To me, these
resurrection stories show us Jesus removing every excuse we’ve got. There’s
nothing God can’t work around. With God’s help, it’s time to put away our
excuses, and clear the path forward.
And then, I’m struck by how these post-resurrection
scenes end. In John, Jesus is giving Peter the commands: Feed my lambs, tend my
sheep, feed my sheep, follow me. In Matthew, Jesus gives the disciples
authority and tells them to go, make
disciples – fellow students of Jesus – teach them about Jesus, baptize, share
the news about Jesus everywhere! In
Acts, when we read about Jesus returning to God’s eternal home, and the
apostles are left staring up into the sky, the messengers of God say to them,
“Why are you standing here staring at the sky?” The implication is clear:
“Don’t just stand there! Get on with it! Go!” The final words, final teachings
of the resurrected Christ on earth are all grounded in action words. The
disciples have work to do. They should get going. They aren’t meant just to
bask in the joy of resurrection, treasure a pleasant feeling of happiness.
They’re meant to go, to share the good news, to teach others all they’ve
learned and experienced, to help others get on God’s path, to feed and tend a
hungry, waiting flock. They’ve been given authority. They’ve been equipped. The
barriers removed from their path. After Easter, after resurrection, everything begins!
What about for us, friends? What does “after Easter” look
like for us? If we are tempted to go back to business as usual, then, well, I’m
not even sure why we’re here! If we’ve got excuses – fear not! – Jesus has a
“nice try” way of removing excuses large and small, showering us with love and
grace along the way. Christ is alive, and new life is ours! So let’s go, and do something with the new life
we’ve been given. Let’s go, and live
out God’s dreams for us. Let’s go,
knowing the Christ is with us, in us
always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
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