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"Changed!"
Your being here today will change the world! That's a pretty
bold statement. In the next 12 minutes (go ahead check your
watches) could I say anything that would change your life,
much less change the world?
There's a lot of talk these days about the need for change.
Seems the majority of people that pollsters talk to want it,
but I have to tell you I am a bit suspicious that any of
them are thinking about themselves when they imagine what
needs to change. I'm guessing they're thinking about those
"other" people who are the real problem. Church people are
notorious for that.
They say they want the world to be a better place. They
say they think the world would be a better place if those
people would only change, change their attitudes toward
family, at their work places, in the classroom, in their
loyalty to friends, their love for their country. Surely
I am not the only one who looks around and wonders why
does it have to be this way?
Why can’t the United States be seen as a nation of integrity,
hard work, strength, and compassion that others would look
to and say, I want to be like that? Why can’t every Congressman
and Senator be a paragon of virtue and moral character above
reproach? Why can’t our businesses and factories be places
where people work diligently and joyfully and are treated
with respect and receive a wage they are content with? Why
can’t students go to school with a passion for knowledge,
a hunger for learning that has them hanging on their
teacher’s every word? Why can’t home be a place where
one man and one woman are committed to each for life,
work together in genuine love and respect for one another
and instill in their children a deep sense of security
and confidence in themselves and in the future?
Are you ready for this? There is two phrases I want you
to hold on to and remember in case anybody says – what did
they talk about at your church today. They’re at the
beginning of vs. 5 and the end of vs. 7. The angel said,
“Do not afraid,” and “Come and see.” Do you have it?
If you’re looking for change, and there is no doubt the
world desperately needs it, you’ve come to the right place.
The angel said to the women, “I know that you are looking
for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen.
Come and see the place where he lay.” Come and see. Change
begins with a cold hard slap of reality, God’s reality,
that challenges our expectation and perception of the world,
ourselves and one another. (Now if this were an interactive
sermon I’d suggest that each of you turn to the person on
your right and give them a good hard slap full in the face –
it would be kind of like slapping “wave” that would start on
this side of the sanctuary and travel all the way across to
that side. Then of course it wouldn’t be complete without
reversing it and coming all the way back, but that’s probably
not one of my better ideas, so let’s just imagine it). Change
begins with a cold hard slap of reality, God’s reality that
challenges our expectation and perception of the world,
ourselves, and one another.
The women came to the tomb expecting death and were
surprised to find life. Here is that cold hard slap of
reality: we are trapped and held captive by our
expectations, our well documented perception that
this world is a dying place. What did you come here
expecting to see? It is very hard not to be cynical
about life.
Philip remembers when he was four waking up in the middle
of the night to the sound of a wild pounding on the front
door. It was a neighbor lady whose angry, drunken husband
stood in the front yard with a broken beer bottle in his
hand screaming until the police arrived. In the neighborhood
where he lived his mother was constantly warning him and
his brother about the “nasty, nasty man” who had been seen
offering candy to little boys and girls. His mother had
lost their father to polio at age 26. When Philip was five
they moved to the country to escape the harsher realities
of city life. They always had a dog, one from the pound,
but never a cat. It seems they had an aunt in Philadelphia
who had scores of cats and let them run loose in the house.
But finally one year their mom let them have a kitten,
six weeks old, all black with white “boots” on each leg.
It stayed on the back porch where they tended to its
every need. Mom had said Boots couldn’t go outside until
she learned to defend herself. Easter Sunday was set as
the date of the kitten’s first outdoor experience. After
church the boys couldn’t wait. Boots came out to explore
the big, beautiful world of the back yard. She sniffed
her first blade of grass, and batted at her first daffodil,
and stalked her first butterfly leaping high in the air and
missing. She kept them entertained until the neighbor kids
arrived for the prearranged Easter egg hunt.
That’s when it happened. The neighbor’s pet Boston terrier,
Pugs, spied Boots, let out one growl, and charged. He snatched
the kitten in his mouth and shook it like a sock. Amidst the
yelling and screaming the boys stood helpless. Finally Pugs
dropped the kitten on the grass and trotted off nonchalantly.
Looking back over his life Philip said that moving to the
country had not spared him from learning the ugly word,
irreversible.
There are so many things you and I have experienced that
cannot be undone: cruel words, not enough attention or too
much of the wrong kind of attention, a failed marriage,
an absent parent, an accident, cancer, and always lurking
somewhere in the background is death.
I think that we get so used to seeing death and all the
irreversible damage that leads to it that we begin to think
that’s it normal. What did you come expecting to see? The
women came to the tomb expecting death and what they found
was so foreign to everything they knew it terrified them.
The angel said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are
looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has
risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
Real life, resurrection life is so foreign to us that it is
frightening. Here are the facts. This is the Christian faith.
Jesus is God. He was born into human flesh in the town of
Bethlehem 2000 years ago by the power of the Holy Spirit
through the Virgin Mary. He grew up in Nazareth and lived
for 33 years facing all the ugliness and irreversible damage
inflicted by this sick and dying world. He did it trusting
perfectly in His heavenly Father. He always kept the Father
first in every single thought, word and deed. He always put
the needs of others before his own. Then he allowed himself
to be arrested, condemned, tortured and crucified. As true
God in human flesh he absorbed into his own body not only
the anger and hatred of the world but the very punishment
of God that we all deserve. He died. His lifeless body was
laid in the tomb.
Consider this possibility. In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
the irreversible, even death itself is reversed! And it is
offered to you freely – forgiveness – the reversal of everything
in your past, a chance to change and start over every day –
and eternal life, real life starting right now, eternal life,
the life you’ve always dreamed of having, the reversal of death.
You say you want the world to be a better place. If only
this person (pointing to myself) would change. If only he
had a better attitude toward family, work, friends, US
politics. You look around and wonder why does it have to
be this way? I have good news for you. The power to change
is the resurrection of Jesus.
A woman was dreadfully embarrassed by her husband at church
on Easter Sunday. As they stood shaking hands at the door he
said, “Your in a rut, Reverend. You preach about the Resurrection
every time I come here.” Humor is what keeps pastors sane, my friends.
I don’t understand why you won’t try regular, active
participation in the community of faith called the church.
I guess the whole idea of going to worship weekly, digging
into what God is really like and what the Bible really says
is frightening. Someone put it this way, “The evidence for
Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question
it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event.
And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change
the way you live.
Don’t be afraid the angel said. Come and see where he
lay. He is not here. He is risen.
I wonder what would happen if 5 or 10 or 100 or a 1000
of you mysteriously, inexplicably, felt moved, almost
compelled to act on what you are hearing today. Life,
real life, resurrection life will change the world and
it is available here. I wonder if a wave of change would
swell up in this little spot in the road and break onto
work places and schools and neighborhoods and spread
across the whole nation.
It’s a challenge somebody should try. Jesus Christ died and
Jesus Christ rose. If that’s true then there is power here
to change the world – power to bring life out of death –
and that’s the ultimate power of all. I’d just be curious,
that’s all. Maybe we could do a documentary? The tech
department could do the taping and editing - sort of a
reality TV type thing.
Here’s John Doe, a year ago Easter he stopped into worship
at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Oviedo Florida. He heard
a ridiculous Easter sermon that baited him into seriously
pursuing a life of faith for 12 months. He worshipped every
Sunday. He attended a 12-week class called Explorations
(starting again in April by the way) on the basic teachings
of the faith. After that he continued attending worship and
a weekly Bible study. In short, he chose to invest 2 hours
a week for 52 weeks a total of 104 hours, a little more than
4 days to see for himself whether it made any difference.
Don’t be afraid. Come and see.
Amen.
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