I suppose
the seeds for this sermon began germinating Monday night at the Y. Those who come regular understand I have a
lot of interesting conversations at the Y.
As I was getting ready to bench, though, some gentlemen came up to me
and asked me if it was true. I had that
look of “I was just psyching myself up to exercise what the heck are you
talking about” on my face. They were a
bit hurt, so I told them I needed them to be more specific. I was knee deep in Holy Week activities, and
I had no idea which thing they were referencing. It turns out they had read my sermon from
Lent 5 and wanted to know if the story was true. The story is such that, by the time I had
addressed their questions, and the questions of those who felt compelled to
join our conversation, that I barely had time to finish my lifting and get in
thirty minutes on the bike. But their
questions were far more important.
Those who
attend regularly can fill in other details that interest those of you who come
less frequently. The question was
whether God still does miracles. On Lent
5, I had shared the story of laying hands on Gib with the folks down at the
Fountains in Franklin. By way of a quick
summary, some eight or ten years ago I was summoned to the hospital at about 2
or 3 in the morning to give last rights to a man in the hospital from a
neighboring parish. I had dutiful gone
to the hospital to minister to the family and, if Gib could hear us, give him
permission to die. Now, Adventers will
tell you I can talk. I am not often at a
loss for words. I will tell you that I
can read. Given me a liturgy and I am
set! But I found myself in the middle of
that night unable to read the words of Ministration at the Time of Death in our
Prayer Book. It was not that the words
were hard or anything like that. I
simply could not give the words voice.
In the
midst of that struggle to read the words, I eventually realized what was
happening. The Holy Spirit had bound my
tongue. Now, I was being told to pray a
healing prayer. Those of you who do not
know me cannot begin to understand how left-brain I really am. There is not a single creative bone, a right
brain vestige, in my body. I am a cause
and effect kind of guy, if ever there was one.
I think the world is measurable, dependable, and that we, well I, can
interpret the presented data accurately.
I see the nods. Some of you are
like that, too, I see.
After some
time, and though it was a minute or two, it seemed like hours, I finally
through up my hands and told God I would do as He commanded. But this was on Him! He was going to have to deal with the fall
out of the widow. He was going to have
to deal with Darrin when he got back from vacation and found the mess I had
created. I was not going to give that
soon-to-be-widow false hope. THAT was
not my idea.
I was so
stubborn about the blame, I even apologized to her as I closed my prayer book
and started to pray. I am so sorry I am doing this. It is not my idea. It’s God’s. She thought I had lost my mind. It was probably confirmed when I prayed an extemporaneous
prayer rather than one from our beloved BCP.
The rest is
history. I prayed over that man dying
from aneurism. He sat up wondering where
he was and telling us he had to pee.
What
interested the group at the Y Monday was not the miracle. They giggled, like y’all, at Gib’s first
words. Oh, and there were a few
questions about it, to be sure, but most really enjoyed the fact that I fought
with God about the prayer. We spent
maybe as much as forty-five minutes discussing the wrestling and the results. And we even moved on to the question of
whether miracles happen anymore. Some
were surprised to hear that such healings take place. But the real focus for maybe forty-five
minutes to an hour, was on the wrestling.
It gave them a peculiar hope that a priest could have the same arguments,
the same boneheadedness, as them, and still God acts.
If you are
sitting here today expecting a “here’s proof that the Resurrection happened”
sermon, you will be sorely disappointed with me. I learned a long time ago that I am no Peter
when it comes to preaching. The throngs
don’t stop their bustling and listen to my sermons and immediately confess
their faith in God. Most of us have sat
through such sermons, and even sermons that point out our acceptance of UFO’s
or Bigfoot or whatever even when we do not believe in the Resurrection of
Jesus. Has it worked? Have such sermons caused you to give your
life to God? I mean truly and without
reservation give yourself to God? Give
yourself to God in such a way that, if you died today, your friends and
neighbors and coworkers would not be surprised you were buried from a
church? Have such sermons kindled that
fire within you that causes you to burn for His righteousness and His glory and
His holiness? No. My guess is that they helped us keep God at
arms’ length, but THAT is a different sermon.
We use
Lent, at least we use Lent at Advent, as a time to talk about the depth or
shallowness of our faith. Oh, if you ask
an Adventer, they will tell you that Fr. Brian is working on helping them
improve their relationship with God. I
encourage us to study Scripture or engage in prayer or spend time in meditation
or spend more time in worship or spend more time in service of others. But all those disciplines help us strengthen
our relationship to God. Put another
way, those spiritual disciplines help us develop more or strengthen our
faith. Those of us who gather here today
probably like the fruits of those increased efforts in Lent. We want desperately to believe that God is
real. We want desperately to believe
that God can and does act in our lives for our benefit. We want to know that He truly is good, that
He truly does love us, and that He made is possible that we can spend eternity
with Him.
But when it
comes to Easter, we hit a big stumbling block.
When it comes to Easter we hit that wall that makes the one in Westeros
seem small by comparison. What? I’m not supposed to know you like Game of
Thrones? Even the folks on the Jesus
seminar can accept that Jesus was born in Nazareth and that He died on a
Cross. But coming back to life from the
dead? Whoa, now! There are just some things that cannot
possibly be true, can they?
If you find
yourself sharing those doubts, if you find yourself wishing you had a kernel of
faith like the loved one that introduced you to God or like your neighbor or
coworker who invited you today, you are not alone. In fact, you are in better company than you
might know.
Our account
of the Resurrection comes from John this morning. John is known as the great theologian of the
Gospel writers, deservedly so, but notice the details about faith that he
shares in the story. First off, John is
the disciple whom Jesus loved. As John
tells the story of his response, he tells us clearly gets it. John sees and believes. What does he believe, though? He heads back to be with the other disciples,
but we will find him in a locked room full of fear. Other writers will tell us that John was
among those who did not know what to make of that Empty Tomb 2000 years
ago! If John really understood the significance
of the Resurrection of Jesus, would he be afraid? Would he doubt the stories of the women and
Mary Magdalene, in particular?
But John is
representative of those for whom faith comes easily. If you are a doubter or seeker today, folks
like John are those who always seem to see things through the lenses or eyes of
faith. They never question their belief;
their faith never seems shaken.
Sometimes we oscillate between wanting to kill such people and to share
desperately in their simplicity, don’t we?
Perhaps there are some folks like John here this morning. You believe that He rose from the dead and
that is enough. The events in the world
around you cause you no crises of faith.
You know, in ways you cannot explain, that God is bending the world
towards His ends. You, like John, are
truly blessed.
I suspect
more of us, though, fall into the Peter or Mary camp of faith. Unlike John, who sees the evidence of the
Empty Tomb and believes, Peter is not sure what is going on. John allows that Peter is braver, as Peter
enters the Tomb first, but John comments that
they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead. Like John, Peter is not in the locked room
telling the others that Jesus is raised.
Like John, Peter is not telling the men that the women were correct.
It takes
Peter time to put it all together. Peter
has to consider what Jesus has taught him, what he has seen, what he has
experienced, and even overcome the guilt he has from abandoning His Lord just a
few hours after he drew a sword in His defense.
There is, for Peter, much to process, much to consider, much to see. But once Peter sees Jesus, though, look at the
change! Peter goes from a man who, just
a couple nights ago, denied even knowing Jesus of Nazareth and, this morning in
history, terrified of the Jewish and Roman leadership, to a man whom we read
about in Acts today. That same Peter is
the one calling the Sanhedrin and the people of Jerusalem to believe in the
Lord Jesus! Something sure “clicked” for
Peter, and it was the Resurrection which made that click possible!
Many of us
here today, I suspect, fall into Mary’s camp.
Mary sees the same evidence as John and Peter, but she is certain
someone has stolen her Lord’s body. Her
plea to everyone is simply to tell her where to find His body. She begs the angels, and she begs Jesus. When Jesus comes up behind her, she has no
idea it is Him. It takes Jesus saying
her name for her to understand what has happened. Truly, He knows His sheep, and His sheep know
His voice! Mary heads back to where the
disciples are gathered and tells them all that she has seen the Lord. We know from other accounts that the
disciples still have doubts, but Mary grief is clearly transformed from grief
to unimaginable joy. There have always
been people who claimed that Jesus’ Resurrection was a fantasy. People have tried to explain it as His body
being snatched by His disciples, as a mass grief-induced hysteria, as a
non-physical event, or an outright lie.
Like us and like the disciples who first witnessed His Resurrection,
death seems unconquerable by human effort, human will, or human expertise. Thankfully and mercifully God meets us where
we are so that we may make up our minds.
We may choose to bend the knee and serve, or we may, like skeptics
throughout all ages, reject His invitation to true glory and eternity.
Sitting
here in Nashville nearly 2000 years and some 6400 miles removed from the events
of that morning, you may be inclined to argue whether God meets you as you need. But the evidence before you is as clear as
the brilliant sun this morning.
Why are you
here? If you want to place yourself in
the camp of the skeptics or doubters or unbelievers, why do you drag yourself
to church on Easter? The threat of
disappointing grandma or mom wears off as we grow older. And if mom or grandma has passed into her
glory already, well, it’s not much of a threat, is it? So why are you here? Why do you give up time sleeping, on the golf
course, out on the lake fishing, catching up on your favorite series, or any
number of infinite possible distractions?
My guess
is, if you are not here because of the threat of a living matriarch, you are
here because someone introduced you to the Gospel. Chances are, somebody you respected, maybe
somebody you loved, introduced you to the Lord Christ. If you respected or loved them, I’m guessing a
part of them that inspired your respect or your love was the fact that they
lived their life as if they believed that Tomb was truly empty, as if God truly
Resurrected Jesus and offered us all eternal life through Him. Make no mistake, living their life as if they
believed did not make them perfect. They
sinned; but they truly repented. They
had an ego; but they humbly and truly tried faithfully to respond to God’s
calls on their life. They were busy; but
they recognized that even their time belonged to God, and so they carved out
time to pray to Him, to study Him, and to worship Him. To you, their faith seems almost naïve,
almost impulsive like John’s today.
Maybe you wonder if they know or knew in what or in whom they were
placing their faith. Some may have
laughed with you if you ever had the guts to ask that question of them!
For you
Peter’s, you wonder at the evidence.
Where is the proof that Jesus was the Christ and that He was resurrected
and that through believing in Him you might have eternal life? The fact that we are gathered here today
should be proof enough. For those of you
unaware of history, both the Temple leaders and the Roman empire tried hard to
halt this spread of this story. Hard. All the men in the locked room died a
martyr’s death, all experienced some degree of torture in an effort to get them
to recant. When given the chance to
recant and live or to die, all chose death.
What would give them that confidence but their encounters with the
Resurrected Jesus? What explains their
lack of concern about their own impending physical death? I know, it’s easier to believe that they told
a “lie” because they wanted to help someone unrelated to them gain the power of
the Church centuries later—you laugh, but that is a thread of skepticism out
there, and those who believe it call Christians gullible!
And while
we are on those men, what do you make of Peter?
Just Thursday night we read that Peter denied even knowing Jesus of
Nazareth three times before the night was over, so afraid was he of being drawn
into the trial of his Lord! Yet this
morning we read the account of Him sharing the Gospel with the household of
Cornelius. He is extending the invitation
of the Covenant to Gentiles! But before
that, the same Peter who was so afraid on Maundy Thursday and in that locked
room that Easter morning, will evangelize the very Sanhedrin who put His Lord
to death and will proclaim to all Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost that
salvation is offered through Christ, who died, who rose again, and who will
come again! What would it take for such
a man to go from that kind of visceral fear to that kind of conviction and
boldness? What of Paul? He was a fast riser in the Temple. He was a Benjamite and a Roman citizen! And he willingly gives it all up, counts it
as skubala in his words, when
compared to the offer of Christ. What of
Mary? She is beyond distraught as we
read the account this morning. She is
convinced someone has stolen the body of her Lord. By the end of the passage her joy cannot be
contained. A woman runs to where the
disciples are staying and tells them all that Jesus said to her! Her boldness and her proclamation earn her
the title of Apostle to the Apostles—she is the first to receive the “go and
proclaim” command of our Lord Christ.
And she does.
Given such
pathetic beginnings, how do you explain the presence of the Church today? Rome tried hard to stamp it out, and, believe
me, they were good at eradicating enemies—just ask Carthage. Yet an emperor bent the knee some two
centuries after a predecessor puts Peter and Paul to death. The Church’s message is one of serving others
of salvation freely given. At our very
best, we exist for the benefit of those not yet members. It’s the craziest business plan I have ever
read; it is likely the nuttiest one you have ever heard. Yet here it is. Evidence for you to make your decision.
And while I
deal a lot in the past, I am a Classicist by educational training, God still
meets us today. Again, you may argue Brian, God has never healed anyone for whom
I have prayed. He does not appear to me in my garden to chat. Fair enough. He certainly has not raised everyone for whom
I have prayed, either. But He sure has
answered countless prayers for healing in my presence. The one I shared is just the most . . . longed
for, if not what we really need for our faith.
How many people here watched a glorious cathedral burn in France earlier
this week? Some of you may have your own
memories of Notre Dame. Sociologists and
other experts claim that France is the most “post-Christian” country in the
West. Yet, that most “post-Christian”
country has now had over a $1 billion dollars pledged to help in its
reconstruction. “Post-Christian” people
paying to reconstruct a cathedral to the glory of God! I don’t think our brothers and sisters at the
National Cathedral here in America, which some in the church like to think of
as God’s chosen nation, have raised the $25 million needed for earthquake
repair.
When we go
home today, we will likely hear all kinds of wonderful redemptive stories, in
the midst of a terrible massacre of Christians, in Sri Lanka. As we began early service this morning, the
toll stood at just over 200 dead, plus many others wounded. I am certain the numbers will go up as they
continue to dig through the rubble from the explosions; but, as the days and
weeks progress, I am certain we will hear stories that testify to God’s
presence in the midst of that horrible suffering. And people will show up for church later this
week, risking further attacks, confident in their faith, certain that God will
raise them if the attackers strike again.
Though such
sufferings may seem muted by distance, we expect God’s redemption because we
have seen it occur far closer to home.
Churches have burned in Mississippi, perhaps because of deferred
maintenance, but perhaps because of racism.
On a far smaller scale than France, our citizens have pledged to
rebuild. The monies pledged pale in comparison,
but they are no less significant. God
cares both for the individual and the people groups. God sees the heart of His Son in His other children
when dozens worship in rural Louisiana or when throngs worship in majestic
cathedrals. Both are equally pleasing in
His sight.
We, too,
have the examples of Charleston and Antioch.
No doubt you have heard far more about the forgiveness and grace that
flowed in the aftermath of the attack in Antioch, and continues to this
day. But it is that evidence which will
cause us not to be surprised by what will come out of Sri Lanka. God meets us afresh with new evidences of His
redeeming power. We have only to make up
our minds when presented with the evidence.
Make no
mistake friends, every day that you are confronted with this evidence, you are
making a decision regarding faith. Even
a decision to wait to make up your mind later is evidence of your faith. The real question is what is it, or who is
it, in which you are placing your faith?
So many of us are tempted to place our faith in what we can see, what we
can feel, what we can experience. To use
the words of God, we place our faith in ourselves, or perhaps in the things we
think give us an illusion of control like money or power or relationships. And its that misplaced faith which leads us
astray and causes us to reject that which seems absolutely impossible, like
raising the dead.
Thankfully,
mercifully, God is not bound by our expectations or experiences or
choices. He can act whenever He chooses. The Good News of Easter, the Great News of
Easter really, is that God really is working to make all things new, and that
nothing, not even death itself, can thwart Him from His purposes. The Resurrection of our Lord Christ is the
ultimate demonstration of God’s redeeming power. If not even death can keep us from Him, we truly
have nothing to fear!
I
understand, those of you less active in your faith in God, what God is asking
of you is challenging. It’s not at all
easy. Choosing to trust Him, choosing to
place your faith in God, puts you immediately an enmity with the world around
you. You want to be captain of your own
ship. You want to be master of your own
domain. You want to have it your
way. You don’t want to be a “religious
freak.” God says there is a better
way. Pick up your cross and follow Me. Let Me be your King. Let Me show you what is truly best for you. And please be faithful; not religious. And when you sin, when you fail, repent and
return to Me.
I suspect
that many of us who find themselves in a church infrequently find it weird to
hear a priest say that faith is hard, not easy.
To outsiders, living a life of faith in God seems simple, easy, not a
big deal. Jesus is the answer for
everything. And when we are jerks, we
say we are sorry and all is forgiven.
What could be harder? In reality,
faith in God through Jesus Christ is far more difficult than it seems. More often than not, it seems that it falls
to us proclaim to the world around us the possibility of new life in every
death. It falls to us to proclaim the
Light shining in the darkness to a world that would rather grope blindly in
that darkness. It falls to us to point
the way to hope in the midst of human suffering and despair. It falls to us to proclaim a message of
salvation to a world that would rather be confirmed in its own suffering and
death. In short, it falls to us to live
and speak vulnerably, imitating the life on earth of our Lord. It is not for the faint of heart! It is not for the lazy! It is not for those who want to be
comfortable!
In truth,
it is a life only for those willing to die.
You all know this. The outward
pledge of our faith in Christ, baptism, is an outward sign that we have died in
Christ and that, in dying in Christ, we will be raised in His
Resurrection. The pledge of God that
this is true is in the Resurrection of our Lord Christ some 2000 years
ago. And we will remind ourselves over
and over and over, as we gather for the Eucharist day in and day out, week in
and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out, to get it through
our thick heads that He alone is worthy in which to place our faith, our
trust. And because we are slow, because
we are doubters, because we are like Mary and Peter and John and all those who
have come before, He gives us other signs of His redeeming grace in the world,
and then entrusts their telling to us!
What a stupid marketing campaign!
Except
somehow, some way, for some reason, we are all gathered here today 2000 years
later and 6400 miles distant, reminding ourselves of His Good News! It’s almost as if we are stumbling about that
garden tomb ourselves, searching, wondering, hoping. Alleluia Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
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