A RESURRECTION ON ROYAL AVENUE
An Easter Sermon preached by the Rev. Earl William Greene, Jr., based on:
John 20:1-29
Acts 10:34-43
A resurrection from the dead sounds like something out of fantasy, something to see on late Saturday night TV. There isn't much which stretches "believability" as the resurrection of Jesus does. We don't have any experience to match it.
The actual accounts in the New Testament don't help much. You can't harmonize all the stories. Some of the facts vary from one report to another. Yet, "resurrection" is at the heart of our faith. It always has been. Something happened that first Easter morning that has changed history.
Frankly, I don't know exactly what happened. No one does! The most convincing evidence isn't so much in the story written in the Bible. The "real" evidence is in what happened to the disciples because of that Easter day.
Good Friday was the darkest day of their lives. Jesus - this good man who taught and healed, who accepted all kinds of people - this man that some said was the very Son of God - this man Jesus was put to death. It didn't make any sense at all!
But if Good Friday was a dark day for the disciples, Saturday must have been even darker. The "day after the funeral" when everyone goes back home again, - the day when the reality sets in, when it's time to go back to work, back to picking up the pieces of your life and pretending that it's okay - that day must be the hardest day of all.
Imagine the disciples. Demoralized. Their dream had come to an end. They went into hiding. Some thought about going back home again - back to their fishing boats, the only other life they had known. The great adventure was over. Injustice had won another round.
But something happened. It was enough to turn a cowardly Peter into a spiritual giant, who spent the rest of his life preaching and teaching. Whatever happened on that Easter morning was enough to transform that motley band of disciples into the most powerful and history-changing movement we've ever seen.
Whatever happened, the disciples knew that God had "interfered" with the normal, usual pattern of things, and had dealt death and injustice a mighty blow! Somehow, in ways even they couldn't explain, they knew that Jesus was with them.
Not even death could kill that "presence." Not even Rome - the most ruthless and influential power on earth - could put Jesus away for good. That understanding changed the lives of the disciples, and it has empowered countless people ever since: to refuse to let death have the last word, to refuse to believe that crucifixions and injustices - wherever they happen in this world are going to have the last word, that hatred, greed, pettiness is to forever go unchallenged in this life. The resurrection challenged the thinking that the way things have always been is the only way things can ever be, that humankind is trapped by death and destruction, that God is off asleep somewhere unconcerned, uninvolved, that there's nothing to do but survive the best you can.
The exact details of what happened that Easter morning may not be clear, but the power of the experience of the risen Jesus changed the lives of all who knew him and continue to change things in this world that need to be changed, challenging apathy, challenging the idea that everything is just a matter of fate, and that nothing can ever be different. In a real sense the disciples themselves were resurrected in their thinking, in their idea of what the Creative Force of this Universe was about, and where it was leading them. Those timid, terrified, often fickle disciples become as bold as lions. It wasn't something you could "trump up" yourself. No amount of "hype" that the disciples could invent could possibly have had the staying power of the discovery that indeed, Jesus was alive! And with them! And moving ahead of them into the future, away from the past with its limitations, away from the "old order of things" to a whole new experience of life everlasting.
Yes, they changed from being depressed and despondent losers, and became joyful and courageous apostles. And more. Many of their of their attitudes about people changed, too.
Nothing illustrates this like the lesson from Acts which was read earlier. Peter thought he had everything about people figured out. But Peter made an astounding discovery. Peter learned that God was leading him beyond the "old ways." And miracle of miracles: Peter opened his heart to "those other people," people who were outsiders, people who by good Jewish standards were unclean and immoral. Peter made a discovery. Peter was resurrected in his thinking.
He said, "I now understand. God shows no partiality toward anyone. There is no 'inside track', there is no 'we' verses 'they' anymore. He discovered that in God's eyes all people are children of God - all people - those who have impressive credentials and those who do not, - those who were born into proper homes, and those who've never had a home, - those who follow all the rules, and those who don't, - those who swarm with the rest of the butterflies, and those who are off smelling a different flower. All people. God shows no partiality."
What a discovery! For Peter, the issue was whether or not non-Jews could ever have God's grace in their lives - as though Peter had anything to say about it anyway! He didn't. He discovered that. And Peter changed. His whole thinking was resurrected. God's love was for everyone!
The resurrection, for us, isn't just about life after death. Resurrection is also about now. It's about a change in thinking. It's about a willingness to see things in a new way, it's about how relationships can get "unstuck," and given new life, it's about old rules that can be re-framed to work better in this day, and it's about a new spirit that doesn't just resuscitate us - back to our old selves in the same way we've always lived life, but instead letting the resurrection spirit change us - the way we see ourselves, the way we see other people, the way we see God. Not resuscitated to a former self. Buy changed completely. Resurrected.
Unlike Peter or Mary, you and I may never encounter a Jesus who we can see or hear. But we can sense a Presence which knows each one of us, a Presence which calls us each by name, which watches over us, and which leads us into uncharted territory we never expected to see.
Now, I couldn't resist the sermon title "A Resurrection on Royal Avenue." I'm struck with the title because it moves the focus on something that happened 2,000 years ago right into the present. I believe that that's where God calls us - not just to something from the past.
As awesome as that was, God continues to do awesome things in this day. Resurrection isn't limited to the past. It's here now - waiting to happen on Royal Avenue with this church. It's here now - with new possibilities for each one of us - yes, you and me.
Christ is risen! Believe it! Let us open our hearts to it! A "hereafter" - yes, in God's time. But there's something for the "here and now." There's something about Easter that is capable of stirring us up, something capable of giving us the courage to try it another way, something that inspires us to "reframe" an old truth in more vital ways than we ever have in the past.
This is Resurrection Day. It's not just about Jesus. It's about each one of us.
Thanks be to God who has the power to make all things new!