| April 08, 2007 - Easter
You are welcome to reflect on this message From The First Baptist Church in America pulpit
The Bible says a lot about spirit but it also makes a lot out of bones. Joseph’s bones were not to be left behind down in Egypt. So they loaded them in a wagon on the exodus to the land of Canaan. Ezekiel prophesies about a “valley of dry bones” taking on sinew. Recently somebody made a stink over claiming to have found Jesus’ bones. Like that matters. But still fascinated with bones! So we’ve come to the Meeting House today, to see what Easter has to say in a Ground Zero world. And what God has to give, once death has taken. Manhattan’s still a somber site, sacramentalized by the shreds of the bones of hundreds of innocent people.
On Easter morning some two millennia ago, the bone-collectors were busy too. But for a different reason. The religious leaders of old Jerusalem were worried that the disciples would steal the bones of Jesus. They took seriously what he said about “the third day.” And they aimed for him to stay put! So they posted guards to secure his tomb. No bones about it! At the break of dawn on the first day of the week, “Magdalene and the other Mary” went to the tomb to pay their respects and found the stone rolled away! Not to let Jesus out, but to let them in. God turned the tomb into a tunnel -- to remind us of Jesus’ promise that death is not the end, only the beginning. That’s the first time in human history that could be said. There’s no earthly reason to suspect his corpse would not be there. Except one: He said it wouldn’t! But words are cheap. And death is death. And the thing is, once you bury somebody’s bones in the ground and seal it ... they mostly stay there! Not Jesus.
The angel casually sitting on top of the rock, mocking its petty power delighted in proclaiming, “He’s not here. He’s risen.” Bones and all! We can’t find Jesus’ bones, ‘cause he left none to be found. Good news for believers. Bad news for the bone collectors. To many people, the resurrection of Jesus remains a bone of contention, a subject for debate. And I understand that. Our world is uncomfortable with enigmas, preferring objective verification; evidence. We like rock-hard facts, empirical data, carbon-dating and DNA matches. But every year Easter rolls around to exhaust our capacity to imagine and pushes our ability to reason to the breaking point. That’s why people have some bones to pick with the gospel story of the empty tomb. And Easter’s as good a time as any to pick ‘em.
First is the bone of perception. Nobody was present to feel the earthquake roll away the stone. No eyewitnesses saw Jesus come alive. It’s swaddled forever in the mystery of God. Because the gospel story is a faith-event, where propositional arguments carry no weight, if somebody refuses to accept it. We can’t make anybody believe. The evangelists are far more interested in us encountering the living Christ, than believing in a resurrection. “Proof” is not an Easter word, especially considering the instability of our bones of perception. For instance, most of us accept the fact that the earth is spinning on its axis at a tremendous speed. Yet we have no sense of movement. It seems like we’re standing still. But in fact we’re whirling at a speed of over 1000 mph! That can make you dizzy if you think about it! Plus the earth is soaring in an orbit around the sun at a speed of 66,000 mph! Do ya’ll feel anything? Hey I got up this morning and it hit me. I’m moving 1000 mph this way and 66,000 mph that way! I’m talking about some serious spinnin’ folks! But it’s too big for us to perceive it. Let me put it down there where the cows can get to it: (2 smacks) Between those 2 blows with my fist – we just traveled 30 miles to Attleboro! Incredible motion. But no perception. Yet we accept the truth of it, most of us anyway, who believe in “global warming” at least.
The reason we have a bone of perception in faith matters, is we base everything on our sensory perception. Since the world of spirit and faith are not subject to any of these, the resurrection of Jesus calls for a sixth sense. And cannot be perceived by any of our five natural intuitions. Nobody saw it, or heard it, or touched it; smelled it or tasted it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Anymore than the fact that our earth is spinning like crazy, orbiting on its axis around the sun. You don’t experience resurrection like that. No bones about it!
There’s another bone--particularity. How can God reveal himself in one particular man? There are so many religions, and spiritual paths, how can we claim only Jesus is “the way the truth and the life?” Flexible people rarely get bent out of shape; and narrow-mindedness leads to my-way-or-no-way-thinking. But broadening our horizons shouldn’t prevent us from sharpening our focus.
That’s why I never say anything bad about any religion that makes people good, just because they have different names for God. Their ways are as true for them as ours are for us. Regardless, we’re Christians, who’ve discovered God most clearly in Jesus of Nazareth. The older I grow the less I argue with people. And the more I just try to tell the stories of Jesus and let them decide for themselves. One is confrontive; the other’s winsome. One repels; the other’s magnetic. Which one are you most attracted to? To just lift Jesus up, let all who care to, see him as he is. And conform our lives to what God did through his life, death, and resurrection. That’s what the Bible says to do: Lift him up! Not make a legal case like a lawyer in a religious courtroom.
If you lift up Jesus, you’ll love not only your friends but also your enemies. If you lift up Jesus, you’ll go the second mile, because Jesus showed us what self-giving can do. If you lift up Jesus, you learn how to lose in a society that only cares about winning. Because you believe new life can emerge, even from crushing defeats; 9/11's, and Iraq’s. Pluralism and diversity shouldn’t bother Christians. Because we know who we are, we don’t need to be threatened by who somebody else is. If we spent more time loving people than debating them, or trying to convert them to be like us, the world would be a better place. No bones about it!
There’s one more bone to pick, the bone of persuasion. Matthew has the women racing away from the empty tomb, caught up in an exuberant mixture of “fear and joy” (V. 8). It’s a great day when we can turn our backs on death and the grave. Because you know if the tomb couldn’t hold him...because he lives, it can’t hold us either!
Passionate people are persuasive. Yeah the ladies had a credibility problem in those days, because their word didn’t count. But that didn’t bother the angel. One’s gender didn’t matter, only the message: “Come and see. Go and tell!” And the church’s been saying that ever since. But people want more than just words from women or anybody else. We’re in luck, because there is more. The most persuasive evidence of Easter is not the empty tomb, but the changed lives of his disciples. Now that’s compelling! On Good Friday, his best friends were traitors, cowards, whiners and quitters. The pre-Easter church cowered in fear. But the post-resurrection church became fearless martyrs! Recklessly courageous, can-do, sacrificial, doggedly faithful to the risen Lord. From fearful to bold, hopeless to ecstatic, from depressed to joyful. Now folks, sane people don’t die for a lie they made up themselves! There’s something real going on here. You know it when you see it.
So the best thing we can do is lift up Jesus. And let him “draw people to himself.” There’s something about Jesus, that keeps us coming back for more. There’s a church here today, and two billion other Christians, 2000 years after his disciples became convinced that death could not defeat Jesus. Their lives validate the resurrection. Think of the books, the music, schools, hospitals, and ministries, that have ensued from the radical changes in people’s lives because of their faith in the risen Lord. It’s enough to make a believer out of you. No bones about it! And the third day follows Good Friday! Cowards become heroes! Good things come out of bad things! Katrina strikes and people respond! As a result of our Ground Zero world, we’re more appreciative of freedom. What it takes to get it; what it takes to keep it. That is good. People should be more sensitized to what causes wars. That is good.
Maybe we’ve been looking for Jesus with the wrong tools. You can’t dig him up with a bulldozer! Perhaps its time to stop the bone-collecting and come at it another way. The tools of argument and proof cannot produce the transforming power of abundant life. And force sure can’t! But a “towel and a basin” can. Those were Jesus’ only tools. And that’s why only the 6th sense of inner faith can access the reality of resurrection. That and changed lives. My hope for this Sunday is y’all will leave worship at the Meeting House today, with something to look forward to. And like the women, to turn our backs on past hurts and our faces to future hope. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, what the Lord has prepared for those who love him!”
Not long ago, a bone-collector toured our facility, after asking the expected question, how many attended worship, she at least came up with a new one. And wanted to know if I “believed in the resurrection.” And I said, “Most days. I hope I believe in it the day I die!”
Willa Cather tells in her book, “Great Day in the Morning,” about a grandmother, with the usual aches and pains that come with aging. Her misery was so bad, she dreaded getting up most days. But when her grandkids came to visit, she was a different person. Her spirits arose. She forgot about herself, and ceased to be a defeated old woman eaten up with arthritis. And she also ceased to be an individual. She became part of a group, a family. She got so caught up in the kid’s vigor -- telling her about their dreams, explaining their troubles with velcro and shrunken underwear. In the presence of the new life around her, the worn-out-solitary-old-woman vanished at daybreak. Suddenly the morning seemed as important to her as it did to her grands!
Jesus did this for the whole world on Easter morning. Great day in the morning! That’s Easter. It’s about a Risen Savior on the loose, who offers us more hope than we can handle. But it requires us to bury our selfish navel-gazing and get a life! Like that grandmother, visibly brought back to life by her vibrant grandchildren, may we too be transformed from cynical, struggling, broken individuals into an Easter people! It’s not about believing the impossible. But trusting the invisible! Make no bones about it. Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! |
EASTER SUNDAY – April 8, 2007