Sermon
for Easter Sunday, 3-31-13
Text:
Luke 24:1-12
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ
is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Kevin
Kling is a wonderful local storyteller.
I recently heard him talk about a serious motorcycle accident he was in 10
years ago. The accident left him with a
paralyzed right arm and required surgery to reconstruct his face. A man who witnessed the accident was so
convinced Kevin had died that he started telling people about his death. Even after this man read in the paper about Kevin's survival, he still couldn’t believe it.
Kevin likes to joke that whenever he sees this man on the bus in
Minneapolis, the man still turns white and looks as if he’s seeing a ghost.
Resurrection
is almost impossible to believe. It’s
outside of our experience. Death always
seems to have the last word in this life.
How can we believe it?
Luke
gives women a big role in his gospel. He
has the most women (at least five, possibly more) on the scene when they go to
Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning. The
women are perplexed when they find the stone rolled away and no body present. The first thing the angels say to them is, “Don’t you remember?” “Don’t you remember Jesus said he would rise
from the dead?”
The
women remember, and they believe.
The women
don’t see Jesus’ resurrected body. They
only have a story, like us.
But
they remember.
The
women run to the disciples to tell them the news. Even though there are at least five women
claiming they saw the empty tomb, the disciples don’t believe them. Instead, they think the women are telling an idle
tale.
“Idle
tale” is a tame translation of the Greek word leros. This is the only time
leros appears in Scripture. It’s the root of the word delirious. The disciples think the women are delirious—crazy—out
of their minds. To translate it crudely,
the disciples think the women are full of crap—that their story is bull*^%#.
To
dare to believe in the resurrection is an act of courage and faith. If you have trouble believing it, you’re in
good company.
Yet Easter
is more than simply saying yes to the resurrection; it’s saying no to the power of
death and destruction that surrounds us.
By accepting hope we say NO to the darkness. The resurrection puts
darkness and death in their place. When
Jesus rose, death’s power was destroyed.
Last
week I talked with someone about time he spent in the hospital several years
ago. He was there due to a serious
health issue, and he told me his fondest memories are of the overnight nurses
and attendants. They were often
immigrants and people he didn't connect with on a regular
basis. The hardest part of being in the
hospital is often during the night, when there is time to think and worry and the
visitors go home. The compassion of the people who cared for him carried
him through those fearful hours. They
brought him life and hope and pushed the darkness away. They walked with him into the light of dawn.
The
darkness was put in its place, and it was replaced with hope.
Don’t
you remember?
If
you’re in the midst of death, stress, grief, depression, anxiety, darkness,
self-hatred, disappointment…
Don’t
you remember?
Jesus
said he would die and would rise again on the third day, for you. Don’t you remember? Alleluia!
Don’t
you remember the times in your life when death seemed like the only reality,
the only option? And somehow, somewhere,
you found life and hope? Don’t you
remember? Alleluia!
Don’t
you remember? Someone reached out to
you, or you reached out and found someone, and you recognized each other and
found compassion and support together? Don’t
you remember? Alleluia!
Don’t
you remember? A warm spring day suddenly
appeared in the midst of a seemingly endless winter? Don’t you remember? Alleluia!
Don’t
you remember? When new green shoots appeared in the middle of miles of the charred and sooty remains of a forest fire? Don’t you remember? Alleluia!
Don’t
you remember? The time the right dosage
was found and the medication finally lifted the depression and anxiety? Don’t you remember? Alleluia!
Don’t
you remember? Death and destruction are in
their place, and the hope of the resurrection stands firm! Don’t you remember? Alleluia!
WE SAY
NO to the powers of death and destruction, even though they surround us, nip at
our feet, and try to tell us they have the final word. WE SAY NO.
WE SAY
YES to the power of the resurrection and hope.
WE SAY
YES to the resurrection, here and now. Eternal
life is lived out each day in our acts of compassion, recognition and laughter. Alleulia!
In
2003, the Massachusetts Mental Health Center was about to be demolished after
almost 100 years in operation. Artist
Anna Schuleit was asked to create an artistic exhibition to honor the building
before it was torn down. Throughout her
work in various hospital settings, she was saddened by the lack of flowers in
psychiatric hospitals and centers. For her exhibition, she filled the old building with 28,000 potted plants and
flowers. The building was opened to the public for four days during the exhibition.
She
left the building as it was, but filled it with new life. It was the same, but transformed—just like
Jesus—just like us.
And my favorite--she took the basement hallways and covered them with sod, which was raked and watered throughout the day and continued to grow:
Some
people found great healing in that building, and they found her exhibition to
be a testament to their experience there.
Others had suffered greatly in the building, and found profound hope in her
expression of joy. They were given a new remembrance of the building.
She
then donated all the flowers to psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals,
halfway houses and homeless shelters throughout New England.
Darkness
was put in its place, and new life created hope and joy.
We are
a resurrection people. That’s why we’re
here this morning.
It’s
easy to only see death in the world.
It’s much harder to say no to it and claim the hope and life of the
resurrection. There are days when it all
seems like bull*%&#.
But in
the midst of all of it we dare to be courageous and have faith.
Yes,
the resurrection happened. AND WE HAVE
STORIES TO TELL.
Don’t you
remember that Easter morning, when Jesus rose and the powers of darkness and
death were destroyed? Don’t you
remember? Alleluia!!
Amen.
