Easter Day year C 07 Sermon
In the gloom and the fog they arrive at the tomb... believing there’s no hope. They come to pay their respects…anoint his body...their hearts broken…
and their faith destroyed…
Through puffy red eyes... the world around them looks bleak…and dark…and cold… they’re afraid to be there at the tomb...and afraid not to be....thinking the powers that be...who have death as their ultimate weapon... believing they have triumphed. [pause]
But death... does not have the last word. A shaft of light breaks through the gloom… …and everything changes
And as that third day unfolds…the undreamed of… actually happens. And over the next forty days…
Jesus walks and talks... with whole groups of sane rational people... who report how he spoke with them, ate with them...even cooked for them...how they touched him...and how they touched him. [pause]
What else could be so compelling…as to change a quivering terrified… defeated…depressed… band of mourners… …some scared stiff even to be associated with Jesus… What could be so convincing…
to turn Jesus frightened hopeless friends... into such brave enthusiastic heroes… prepared to travel any distance... and face any danger even death...
for the sake of their cause.
I absolutely believe, that nothing... but a face to face…
touch to touch encounter… with the risen Christ…
can possibly explain the change...the transformation…
of those gutless cowards in the garden of Gethsemane
what else could change them... into the heroes and martyrs of the early church
nothing else… but meeting the risen Christ… could mobilise that paralysed pack of people…who stood by powerless… allowing the soldiers to lead Jesus away…
Nothing else…could organise them... into a new and enduring movement…willing to face devouring lions, imprisonment, execution...and every other conceivable tactic… to stop them from talking. To prevent them from uttering those subversive words...Jesus is Lord... not Caesar.
And it can’t be that Jesus didn’t really die …
and somehow lapsed into a coma...and then revived.
and then despite the flogging and bleeding, the six inch nails, the spear, the smothering grave clothes…Jesus... pushes away a one tonne stone... from inside the tomb…and overcomes the healthy strapping guards outside…
and then bleeding on the path…walks or maybe crawls with pierced feet…in desperate need of medical attention…along the road to Emmaus
Nope... such a human wreck... could not inspire Jesus grieving friends... to proclaim him Lord to the ends of th earth...So I don’t think... anything else but resurrection and new life... can explain the dramatic change that happens...in the thinking and behaviour of Jesus friends.
And don’t we see this same transformation today...
in people all over the world...who through the power of the Holy Spirit...in faith and prayer and worship... encounter the risen Christ. Lives transformed...
to serve God’s purposes of love in the world. [pause]
This is the reason… still... today…
we hold on to hope…we face life with courage…
This is the reason...we must never cave in to despair…
as we watch the news from night to night…this is the reason... we never tire of standing up...
against oppression and injustice…
Jesus resurrection is the reason... we believe the worst anyone can do…will never prevent God from working out his purposes of love. [pause]
Death could not keep its hold on him. In Jesus life and death and resurrection God has accomplished what he promised Abraham...to number his family like the stars... a covenant people...not bound by ethnic or religious ties nor shackled to the Law, but a people saved and saving through faith in the risen Christ and his way of love.
People upon whose lips is the confession... that Jesus is Lord.
A service of Confirmation of Faith followed for Miles and Hugo Topping 17 and 15.
