Easter Greeting

Easter morning worship begins with the ancient greeting (now in English) that Christians have shared with one another for centuries to celebrate the resurrection:

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen, indeed!

It is an astonishingly simple proclamation.  Three words are all you need to tell the good news of Easter.  Christ is risen.  In the gospel according to Mark, when the three women approach the tomb early on Sunday morning, they see a man dressed in white who tells them not to be afraid - which, of course, they are, because who is this? (but readers know that a mysterious figure who says “do not be afraid” has got to be an angelic messenger of God) – anyway, this man says to them: “you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has been raised.  He is not here.”  No explanation of how he was raised, or what exactly it means that he was raised: just the simple pronouncement.

He has been raised.  Christ is risen.

But you’d like to know more, wouldn’t you?  You’d like to ask some follow-up questions.  I know that I would.  And maybe you have already filled in a lot of the details when you picture the resurrected Jesus in your imagination.  Maybe you have an idea of what he looks like, and what it is like to see him.

Paul’s letters, which are the oldest writings in the New Testament, older than the gospels by several decades, speak of how Jesus appeared to his followers.  In I Corinthians 15, Paul writes that the risen Jesus “appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.”  The book of Acts, chapter 9, describes the appearance of Jesus to Paul this way: “as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice….”
Did Paul mean that Jesus appeared to everyone with a light from heaven and a voice?

Later, the written gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John describe Jesus appearing in bodily form, but it is a different sort of body.  He enters rooms through locked doors; he breaks bread at a table and then disappears; he makes a fire on the shore; he is difficult to recognize, being mistaken for a gardener, or a stranger on the road.  How do we make sense of these various descriptions?

I am intrigued by the what the New Testament says about the risen Jesus, because it seems to me that the experience of meeting the risen Jesus was so profound and so out of the ordinary that they never found language that could exactly explain it.  Easter doesn’t need precise explanations.  It is a wonderful, mysterious experience.  All it needs is are the simple words: Christ is risen.

Sermon - Palm Sunday

Preached on March 24 2013 at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, Ohio, UCC

Scripture: Luke 19:28-40

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Sermon: Silent No More

Palm Sunday! Finally, the day when Jesus takes his message to the big time. No more traveling around the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, Cana, and his hometown of Nazareth. Now he enters Jerusalem, the city founded by King David, seat of the great Temple, at the time of Passover. Jerusalem is to Israel like Rome to the Roman Empire, like New York City and Washington D.C. combined. It is the seat of power, wealth, and influence.

And what an entrance Jesus makes. The gospel of Luke tells of a multitude of disciples praising God with loud voices, and laying their cloaks on the road. (Did you notice that this gospel says nothing about palms? Matthew, Luke, and John tell us about people cutting palms from the trees in addition to the cloaks, but this year we’re meditating on Luke’s account, so, just cloaks. But that’s not going to stop us from having palms. And that’s fine.) Anyway, what an entrance: Jesus riding in and a multitude of disciples shouting “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

A few weeks ago, in Confirmation class, we were discussing the story of this holy week, and Noah Jackson made a really good point about the story of Palm Sunday. He pointed back to the part of the passage that describes the preparation for this great entrance: all the details about sending the disciples ahead to find the colt, untying it, what they are supposed to say if someone asks them why they’re taking the colt. And Noah pointed out that it’s really interesting how the owners just let them take their colt. Why did they do that? What’s going on here? Why are there seven verses about the preparation and only five about the actual entrance, which is the only part we really remember?

There’s a reason for all of the details, because it is important to know that Jesus has carefully planned the kind of entrance that he will make into Jerusalem for the Passover festival. It is all planned out, and he knows exactly where to get the colt. You can see it’s kind of like a pre-arranged signal that he’s made with the owners, and Jesus tells the two disciples the code words they will need. Go get the colt, and if anyone asks you, say “the Lord needs it.” So the owners of the colt ask “why are you taking this?” and they say “the Lord needs it.”

“Right – no problem.”

Why did Jesus make such a careful plan? Great question. If you look at some of the paintings of this scene over the centuries, you might get the wrong impression about this parade. You might think that Jesus wanted to make sure that he looked regal, riding into town on a mount on a carpeted path. But a colt tells a different story. You can’t ride a colt – it’s just a little thing - his feet were probably dragging on the ground. Of course the colt has never been ridden, who would ride such an animal? It’s not an impressive sight that Jesus creates.

Sermon - The Largest Table

Preached on March 3, 2013 at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, Ohio, UCC.

Scripture:   Isaiah 55:1-9

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 

Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 

See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 

See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

Sermon

When we go on mission tours, in those hot summer months, and when we are working on those summer days: repairing a home, tending a community garden, building new housing after a storm, we have to remind ourselves to drink water.  Hey, everyone, time for a water break.  We may not feel thirsty yet, but we drink anyway, because we know that if you wait until you feel thirsty in Birmingham, you may already be mildly dehydrated, which leads to a loss of energy and headaches.  It doesn’t seem like it should be possible that we would need to be reminded to drink enough water, or that we would need to be reminded to eat something nourishing.  But we do need reminded.  So we say “Water Break!”

Isaiah wonders why people spend their money for that which is not bead, and their labor for that which does not satisfy?  Come to the waters, Isaiah says!  Eat what is good!  You would think that we wouldn’t need to be reminded, but we do.  In fact, there are lots of companies who have made a lot of money by selling us food which isn’t really food, but more like an engineered trick of artificial flavors, sugar and fat and a nice taste or crunch that we find irresistible…but doesn’t satisfy.  It doesn’t make us feel good except for the moment it is in our mouths. 

Why do we have such trouble knowing what we really need?  Isaiah throws out the welcome to drink good water, to buy wine and milk without price, to eat what is good.  It is an invitation, and it is a reminder of what we really need, because the food that Isaiah talks about is more than food.  It is a gift of God’s grace.