Sunday, March 27, 2005

Sun, March 27, 2005 - Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34-43
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=acts+10%3A34-43

Psalm 118:1-2:14-24
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=psalm+118%3A1-2%2C+14-24

Colossians 3:1-4
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=colossians+3%3A1-4

Matthew 27:57-28:10
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=matthew+27%3A57-28%3A10

"I know that you are looking for Jesus," says the angel, "who was crucified." Observant angel, to guess that the two Marys who had gone to Jesus’ tomb were there seeking their Lord. It couldn’t have been hard to figure out that the two women who had been dedicated disciples of Jesus throughout his ministry, who had been pretty much the only ones to witness his actual death, who had watched his lifeless body being placed in the tomb were there, as soon as possible after the Sabbath, to mourn over his dead body. Jesus had made a particular point throughout his ministry of welcoming women into his circle, and affirming them, and so, like any distraught follower, they were going to keep vigil at his graveside. Even though he was dead, he continued to draw them to him, and so they were there, seeking him out.

We are here today because we, too, are looking for Jesus. Our situation is a little bit different than the two Marys - a lot different, in fact - because we are not here keeping vigil for someone who has died. Instead, we are here because we know that Jesus has been given new life and we are seeking some kind of contact with that one in whom death was defeated and whose resurrections has brought us hope of new life. Now, you might not put it that way, exactly. You may be here because it’s Easter, and you feel like somehow you should be in church on Easter. And that’s fine. You may be here because a family member or a friend wants you to be here. And that’s fine, too. Those are good reasons to come to church today. But I would hazard a guess that whether or not it’s your express reason for being here, pretty much each one of us here feels deep down that our life is not as satisfactory as it ought to be, that something is missing. In a vague, unidentifiable way, our lives are not complete. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve, remodel, reshape. What we are really seeking, church-language aside, is new life, and renewal, and a reason to hope that this isn’t all there is. And for us Christians, this new life and renewal comes to us embodied in the resurrected Christ. Thus, consciously or subconsciously, we seek him out.

But boy, is he hard to find. After all, we are two thousand years removed from the resurrection event. Can you imagine that? The event that we celebrate this morning took place almost two thousand years ago. Jesus Christ, whom we seek, died and was raised almost twenty centuries ago. None of us here, neither our parents, or grandparents, or any of the family we can trace back, personally saw the living Christ. We are so far separated from the event that it is stunning. And that can make it very difficult to find Christ. In the past two thousand years, the church has piled interpretation on top of interpretation of what Jesus’ death and resurrection means, and has built layers and layers over top of the original person of Jesus Christ, each person adding, inevitably, their own bias to the mix. The Gospels, our primary source for who Jesus was, weren’t written until at least thirty years after he died, by people who weren’t eyewitnesses and had to rely on word-of-mouth.

But it’s more than just two thousand years of history that makes it difficult to find the Christ who brings new life. It’s also the stuff that’s going on in our own lives. In addition to all of the newspapers, radio stations, and tv reports that tell us at every turn about somebody who’s been shot, or about a war that has broken out, or about the escalating violent crime and gang activities, we also have the difficulties of our own lives: the family relationships that aren’t what they used to be, the illnesses that threaten the lives of our loved ones, the financial difficulties that make the future seem bleak. And all of these things surround us and overwhelm us until it seems that even if Jesus Christ was standing right in front of us, proclaiming new life and light, we would have a hard time seeing him. These things make "blind faith" almost impossible, and no matter how much we might work to find Jesus, it seems as if everywhere we look, the tomb is empty and we are afraid.

But the angel says, "Do not be afraid. He is not here." And then goes on to tell the two Marys something further. "He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him." So it’s not that Jesus is not here, period. It’s just that the risen Christ isn’t here at this particular place. The disciples must go to Galilee to find him. But why Galilee? Ah, there is the clue both for the disciples and for us.

Galilee is the place where it all began. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus makes his first public appearance on the mountain in Galilee. Now, because the Gospels were crafted by writers, we know that first things and last things always carry some significance, and so we can guess that this first public appearance is important. And it is. On this mountain in Galilee, Jesus lays out his platform, as it were. He tells the crowd what he’s all about and what kind of teacher he’s going to be and what he wants them to do. In short, he gives them the Beatitudes, he tells them to love their enemies, and to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In other words, he tells them how to act ethically towards those around them; how to carry out God’s love for the world in concrete ways. In Galilee, Jesus lays out that God favours the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. That rather than being impressed by the righteous, God has set out to redeem the unrighteous. And Jesus invites us to be a part of that. In Galilee, on the mountain.

Which is where Mary, and the disciples, and by extension us, are to go to see the Risen Lord. You see, we aren’t going to find new life simply in church, per se, or in reading our Bible, or in refraining from committing one sin or another. By directing us to Galilee, Jesus is telling us that where we will find new life, where we will find him, is wherever we actively carry out those ethical guidelines - when we embody the Beatitudes, when we turn the other cheek, when we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. These things might take place in church - I’m not saying don’t come to church, after all - but they are far more likely to happen outside of church, to happen in your day-to-day living, with your regular interactions with people at work, as you shop, with your family and friends. And when they do, you will be greeted by the risen Christ in those situations, in those Galilees.

There is a reality show on TV that I stumbled across recently called "Dog: The Bounty Hunter." It is, as you might suspect, about a real-life bounty hunter. You might not think that that has anything to do with seeing the risen Christ bring new life in the day-to-days, but the episode I saw was the perfect example of that. You see, before he became a bounty hunter, Duane "Dog" Chapman lived a life that eventually landed him in jail on manslaughter charges. But while he was in jail, he had an encounter with the risen Christ, and he realized that his sins had been forgiven and he was being given a second chance. And because he was so grateful for this new life that God had given him, he has made it a point to help others to experience that new life, too. And he does it through his mantra of second chances. In the episode I saw, he and his crew had to go pick up a young guy who had skipped out on his court appearance. This kid had never been arrested before, but the crew suspected that he was involved with drugs, and Dog believed that if they could set him right this one time, then they could probably prevent him from embarking on a life-long cycle of drugs, crime, and jail. And so Dog made an impassioned speech to his crew, telling them about how God had given him a new life and a second chance in jail, and he ended by saying, "This is the second chance business, and we are going to give this kid a second chance because we are second chance people." And so they tracked the kid down and gave him the chance to set things right with his family before they finally handed him over to the authorities. As unlikely as it seems, this biker-looking ex-convict was bringing the new life of the risen Christ into this kid’s life. He was acting out the ethics of Galilee in his workplace, and here’s the thing - I have no doubt that he found that Jesus Christ was right there alongside him.

Now, I’m telling you about Dog: The Bounty Hunter because if this guy can live out Jesus’ words in his life, so can you You can give others a second chance, you can affirm their lives as worth saving, you can treat others the way you wish to be treated. It’s sometimes very difficult, but it’s not impossible. Jesus did it, Dog does it, and so can you And when you do these things, you know that you will be greeted by the risen Christ, Jesus whom we seek. It’s not that these things are a requirement, and that Jesus won’t bring you new life until you do them, it’s just that in doing them, you find what the disciples two thousand years ago discovered. You find that in doing these things, you have arrived at Galilee. You find that the risen Christ has gone ahead of you, and is in fact already there, sharing his new life with the disciples and with you Thanks be to God. Amen.

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