April 9, 2023 Easter Day
Luke 24:1-12
Introduction
As one who prides himself on the self-proclaimed adage “Why use ten words when you can use 100”, I want to tell you I am going to preach for the next 15-17 minutes, and use roughly 1800 words to do so. But, if we wanted to get technical about all this, essentially my sermon for today is really just seven words long. And those seven words are: “He is not here, but has risen.”
But because I love to make the joke, “I get paid by the word” and thus have to preach the remaining 1793 words I’ll just say if you need to finish today’s New York Times crossword puzzle or play Wordle you could knock that out and be fine for your family Easter gathering sermon quiz. Or if you are needing to make that “Oh heck, I forget to get…” grocery list for Easter dinner, or need to step out to make the Easter brunch reservations you promised your spouse you would make on Monday, you can safely pretend you need to use the restroom and still be able to converse at brunch about today’s Easter sermon by simply remembering, “He is not here, but has risen.”
Now, as a disclaimer, if you do decide to tune out for the remaining…1668 words, note I cannot be held responsible if anyone were to ask follow-up questions about today’s Easter sermon. “Oh your pastor’s sermon was about Jesus not being in the tomb because he had risen. Pretty standard for Easter, so did your pastor get into why Jesus’ resurrection is significant and what its impact is for us here in 2023?” If you get that question, but still only have “He is not here, but has risen” I would suggest a redirect attempt by saying, “Hey, have you done today’s Wordle yet?”
Because here’s the thing… Though today’s message of resurrection can be stated with just the seven words— “He is not here, but has risen”—there is a deeper understanding still to be discovered. Sure, it’s one we already know, but let us dare to discover it again and again and again—because it is in discovering the deeper understanding of Easter— again and again— that we discover, again and again, there is literally nothing that could ever possibly keep us from saying… “And still we rise.”
Move 1
The Easter story of Jesus’ resurrection is in all four Gospels. Matthew tells us there was lightning and an earthquake and the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb were so scared they literally played dead. Mark tells us about the women’s encounter at the tomb, and when told to go tell the other Disciples Jesus was raised and going ahead of them to Galilee, they fled from the tomb “for terror and amazement had seized them—but then they didn’t tell anyone anything because they were afraid.” John is full of rich, fertile sermon fodder we preachers love to craft sermons from. We get that great interaction between Mary and Jesus, believing Jesus’ body to be stolen and asking Jesus (who she thought was the gardener) if he had moved the body. And Luke tells us that most of Jesus’ closest followers simply think the announcement of resurrection is an idle, meaningless tale.
These are the stories of this pinnacle, crucial, transformative, all important piece of the Christian faith. And when we read of the resurrection in one of the Gospels, or all of them, we consistently see these stories are full of people… getting the wrong end of the stick. Mary thinks Jesus’ body has been stolen. Peter sees the linen wrappings but can’t work out what it’s all about. The Disciples have given up. The angels question Mary, who still doesn’t know what’s going on—thinking Jesus is the gardener. Then, when Jesus reveals himself to her, she reaches out and clings to him, only to be told she mustn’t. People are told to go and tell the joyful news, but they’re so traumatized they tell no one. And let’s not forget about the Roman soldiers who are literally playing dead— probably realizing they are going to be literally dead after trying to explain how, on their watch, a dead guy got up and walked away. You could not get any more misunderstandings into a couple of paragraphs if you tried.
Easter has burst into our world—but our minds are too small to contain it. So, we do our best to put the ocean into a bottle and fit the explosive fact of the Resurrection into the possibilities we already know about. The deeper meaning waiting to be discovered then, is that no one on that first Easter was prepared for what happened. Agnostic scholar Henry Cadbury got it right, saying, “It looks as though they were struggling to describe something for which they did not have adequate language.”
And we can say the same about resurrection today. We struggle to describe something we don’t have adequate language for, because resurrection—as it was seen and experienced on that first Easter morning—just doesn’t happen like that. And because it doesn’t, it becomes incredibly difficult for us to tell people, convincingly, “Death—sure it happens. And still we rise.” Which is why we must discover the language needed— along with the deeper meaning of resurrection in 2023—so we can effectively use them. Because if we can’t…or if we won’t… then why are any of us even here today?
Move 2
I’ve spent a lot of time in cemeteries. And while sometimes peaceful, most times at a cemetery are filled with heartache and sorrow because we mostly go to cemeteries to say goodbye to a loved one or a friend. And what we don’t do is wait around for lighting and earthquakes; or for someone we mistake for the gardener, who turns out to be our loved one showing back up. We are there to say goodbye, pay our respects, and then figure out how to process our grief and move forward in life. We don’t expect anything else to happen.
And this is why Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women (whose names are not listed), have come to Jesus’ grave— to pay their respects and prepare his body for final burial. They knew— at least they thought they knew— what to expect. But when they arrive, they find a situation they don’t have language for, and then hear language they can’t begin to process because they are words never before spoken, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” With these words, the Good News of the most significant event in human history, the most transformative event the world has ever known, is made real. And it all begins in—of all places—a cemetery. And this too is part of the deeper discovery.
This Good News of new life begins in an unlikely place, yet reveals the truth that the worst things are never the last things; that not even death can overcome God’s power to create life.
The women run to tell the other disciples— who are locked away out of fear or perhaps prisoners of their pain, or maybe a little bit of both—but they haven’t had time to discover the language needed to convey this Good News, and so many of the disciples are skeptical— thinking it to be just an “idle tale.” All except Peter, who runs to the tomb to look and see if the Good News is true.
Move 3
We have two competing claims here. One claiming the tomb is empty, the other claiming it is an idle tale. And when two competing claims collide, we tend to fall back on what we know, what we have experienced, rather than what may be possible. The Disciples know… not much happens in a cemetery. Add in, the Disciples know… the empire wins, power wins, death wins.
And the same is true for us. As we sit here today, we wrestle with the same choice those who followed Jesus long ago had to make. Is this an idle tale or is it Gospel truth? And we need only to think about what we have experienced and seen to convince us to fall back to what we know, what we have experienced. Just think about what’s going on in the world: The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the school shooting in Nashville, devasting weather events, the marginalization and hate heaped upon those of differing races and differing sexual identity. And this is not to mention any pain and struggle we carry in our lives. Which can make it easy to believe that death wins. That nothing has changed with the tomb of our lives.
And it is this reality that keeps us from discovering the truth that there is more than what we think we know. We keep ourselves from discovering—for more than a day that is—the empire doesn’t win; the only power that prevails is the power of God’s love; and death is no longer final. We keep ourselves from discovering the truth Easter reveals again and again… that now, nothing can ever keep us from saying, “And still we rise”…nothing except ourselves.
Professor and preacher Will Willimon speaks about the challenge to discover resurrection when he says, “The challenge in sharing the resurrection of Christ is not convincing modern people that resurrection is possible, it’s convincing modern people it only happened once.”
Conclusion
Each Gospel tells a resurrection story, and each tells it a little differently. Luke’s story is particularly unique however because he tells of the resurrection not as an appearance, but as a discovery. Jesus does not appear to the women, nor does Jesus appear to Peter when he runs to the tomb. And when resurrection is presented as a discovery, it means a choice has to be made.
Will the women… Will Peter… Will the Disciples… Will we… chose to only see and believe what is known? Or will they, and us, choose to go deeper and discover what can be?
“He is not here, but has risen.” is the message given by the two men in dazzling clothes to the women who had come to the tomb of Jesus early in the morning on that first Easter Sunday. “He is not here, but has risen” is the message they went and gave to the Disciples. “He is not here, but has risen” is the message that moved Peter to get up and run to the tomb. “He is not here, but has risen” is the message the rest of the Disciples heard but then did nothing with. Some heard this message and though confused, chose to go deeper and discover more. Some heard this message, and chose to stay with what they knew—believing such was an “idle tale.”
So which is it for us? What is our choice? And what will our choice be tomorrow, and in the days to come? “He is not here, but has risen.” Is it an idle tale. Or is it the beginning of discovering a truth… a truth that says again and again, there is literally nothing that could ever possibly keep us from saying… “And still we rise.”
What is our choice? Happy Easter. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, April 9, 2023, Easter Sunday
On this blessed and holy Easter morning, we praise you, living God, with songs and prayers and listening hearts, and lives trying to obey your will. You have created and are still creating, bringing life and hope and love into a world where too often it seems there is less and less of such. Yet truly, your life and hope and love is always rushing into the world, still, through your Son Jesus, your Word made flesh, all so that we are forgiven and made new in your creation.
On this day of resurrection and celebration, we give you thanks that in a culture where the power of death gets all the headlines your Holy Spirit summons us to be people shaped by your power to work resurrection.
We are not sure we believe as fully as we think we could. We are not sure we trust as deeply as we think you ask. But we bring who we are, and what we have become, into your presence, longing to know your grace and your love; longing to know your goodness again, longing to be your people who chose resurrection everyday so that we can live fully as you have called us to live—as those who live and embody the truth that you have conquered death, and your promise of everlasting life is fulfilled.
So we pray you forgive in us what has gone wrong. We pray you put back together any broken spirits. We pray you reveal in us what is good and turn us toward that goodness. We pray you make this all possible in us so that we are implored to follow wherever your Spirit may lead, that we may love with the love of Jesus flowing through us, that we will—in body, mind and spirit— give us the confidence and courage needed to see that though the world seems determined to destroy itself—because you are still creating, because you have not given up—we can say with conviction and truth… “And still we rise.”
On this blessed Easter Day we ask you hear to the prayers we have to offer in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray, in the name of our risen Lord, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”