Sermon - 2019-04-21 - Easter
As many of you entered here today, you may have noticed that things are a little different here. We have changed the direction in which we are seated. For throughout this season of Lent, we have been focused on how it is that God calls us to change and be different for those who are in need in the world around us. So we changed so much of our church function and yet, what has truly changed? The layout has not truly changed but hopefully your perspective has. Now we come to the fulfillment of that change, that new life that God has been leading us through for the past forty days. As we have journeyed, we have looked at what it means to be a disciple. How it is we can wrestle and know that God is with us every single day. I hope that you were challenged and renewed in your faith journey throughout these forty days.
But today, we gather to celebrate and to feast. To know the gift that is truly given to us in Jesus Christ. So we sing, we eat, we decorate, and we are united as brothers and sisters. However, I am also reminded that we would not have gotten here unless it had been for the whole of the past week. For it was throughout this past week that we bore witness to the heartache, terrors and the darkness of this world.
We would not have Easter if it was not for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It is for this reason that we have the one continuous service that stretches for days. That we would be able to experience and understand the fullness and impact that God has within our life. For truly every week is a Holy Week, every day God is active within our lives yet sometimes we are not always aware of it because either we refuse, it doesn’t make sense, or we plain don’t see God at work.
Let me give you an example.
Little Philip, born with Down's syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully. The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, "That's stupid. That's not fair. Somebody didn't do their assignment." Philip spoke up, "That's mine." "Philip, you don't ever do things right!" the student retorted. "There's nothing there!" I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It's empty. the tomb was empty!" Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class.
He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty egg.
Today, we hear that in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that Jesus is the first fruits. Jesus is the first of those who have died, who has been raised from the dead. Now it is from this that we are all brought into that gift. That because of sin and through Adam, we are all under the Law. Now this is not something that you asked for or perhaps always realize but it is what it is. We can not change it. So you are born into a system that we do not always realize or accept. Yet we see what we see and we experience it, it becomes very powerful reminder that we are not God. That it is not just what we see and experience but that there is truly more to this world than meets the eye. The Law then points us to God and God’s Work in the world. And this is where the cross enters our own life. This is where we encounter God within our life, overcoming sin, death and declaring to us that we are with God.
This opens our eyes and our hearts, at least I hope it does, to a life of caring not for yourself but being aware that there is more to your life than just YOU. That as we live out life, it is not just what it is that is important on our calendar, how much is in our checkbook. But truly a calling for you to live for so much more than what it is you have been. To put God at the first of your life because God has made you at the first of His Own Life.
Even today, as we see family and friends together, I am reminded of the ways that God is striving to reunite us. That when we are together, we are able to support, care and speak that word of love that Jesus spoke to his disciples on Maundy Thursday. Even today, as we gather we can cherish the time we have more fully in light of the Good Friday experience of witnessing Christ on the cross.
Now it is Easter, the promise is fulfilled for you and for me and for all people. So now we celebrate what Christ has done for us but now we are called to live anew, to be aware of what God is doing among us and bear witness to share that with others around us. Those who have not heard, those who have not attended and those who refuse to see God in their life but for them to know that they are loved.
Today, let us sing, let us celebrate, and know the promise is fulfilled that today we may be made anew in this promise of God. Amen.
But today, we gather to celebrate and to feast. To know the gift that is truly given to us in Jesus Christ. So we sing, we eat, we decorate, and we are united as brothers and sisters. However, I am also reminded that we would not have gotten here unless it had been for the whole of the past week. For it was throughout this past week that we bore witness to the heartache, terrors and the darkness of this world.
We would not have Easter if it was not for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It is for this reason that we have the one continuous service that stretches for days. That we would be able to experience and understand the fullness and impact that God has within our life. For truly every week is a Holy Week, every day God is active within our lives yet sometimes we are not always aware of it because either we refuse, it doesn’t make sense, or we plain don’t see God at work.
Let me give you an example.
Little Philip, born with Down's syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully. The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, "That's stupid. That's not fair. Somebody didn't do their assignment." Philip spoke up, "That's mine." "Philip, you don't ever do things right!" the student retorted. "There's nothing there!" I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It's empty. the tomb was empty!" Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class.
He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty egg.
Today, we hear that in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that Jesus is the first fruits. Jesus is the first of those who have died, who has been raised from the dead. Now it is from this that we are all brought into that gift. That because of sin and through Adam, we are all under the Law. Now this is not something that you asked for or perhaps always realize but it is what it is. We can not change it. So you are born into a system that we do not always realize or accept. Yet we see what we see and we experience it, it becomes very powerful reminder that we are not God. That it is not just what we see and experience but that there is truly more to this world than meets the eye. The Law then points us to God and God’s Work in the world. And this is where the cross enters our own life. This is where we encounter God within our life, overcoming sin, death and declaring to us that we are with God.
This opens our eyes and our hearts, at least I hope it does, to a life of caring not for yourself but being aware that there is more to your life than just YOU. That as we live out life, it is not just what it is that is important on our calendar, how much is in our checkbook. But truly a calling for you to live for so much more than what it is you have been. To put God at the first of your life because God has made you at the first of His Own Life.
Even today, as we see family and friends together, I am reminded of the ways that God is striving to reunite us. That when we are together, we are able to support, care and speak that word of love that Jesus spoke to his disciples on Maundy Thursday. Even today, as we gather we can cherish the time we have more fully in light of the Good Friday experience of witnessing Christ on the cross.
Now it is Easter, the promise is fulfilled for you and for me and for all people. So now we celebrate what Christ has done for us but now we are called to live anew, to be aware of what God is doing among us and bear witness to share that with others around us. Those who have not heard, those who have not attended and those who refuse to see God in their life but for them to know that they are loved.
Today, let us sing, let us celebrate, and know the promise is fulfilled that today we may be made anew in this promise of God. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment