RESURRECTION FOR LIVING

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:1-10

A lonely woman decided she needed a pet to keep her company. After searching around, she decided on a parrot after the shopkeeper assured her that the parrot would talk to her.

The next morning, she was back at the pet store complaining that the parrot wouldn’t talk. “Well,” said the shopkeeper, “Parrots like to see themselves – buy this mirror.” So she did.

The next morning she was back. “This parrot won’t talk,” she complained.

“Well,” said the shopkeeper, “parrots like to swing – buy this little swing and he’ll start talking.” So she did.

The next day she was back – “Still won’t talk!”

“Well,” said the shopkeeper, “parrots like to climb – buy one of these little ladders and he’ll talk.” So she did.

The next morning she was back and very upset. “My parrot is dead!” she cried.

The shopkeeper tried to console her. “I’m sorry to hear that. Did he ever say anything?”

“Oh, yes,” she replied, “just before he died, he said, ‘Don’t they sell any food at that store?’”

This morning is about the message that saves our lives. This morning isn’t about pretty things to look at, though we have some wonderfully beautiful flowers here. This morning isn’t about fancy clothes, though all of you look lovely. This morning isn’t even about beautiful music, though we praise God for our talented musicians. This morning isn’t about any of the extras and the luxuries of life. This morning we’re serving nothing but bread, the bread of life, the stuff that enables us to live in this world of ours. This morning, as we declare the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are declaring the meaning of our own lives.

There is a true story that comes from the old Soviet Union. A communist lecturer was speaking before a large audience and concluded his speech with, “Therefore, there is no God: Jesus Christ never existed; there is no such thing as a Holy Spirit. The Church is an oppressive institution, and anyway it’s out of date. The future belongs to the State, and the State is in the hands of the Communist Party.”

The speaker was about to sit down when an old priest near the front stood up. “May I say two words?” he asked. (It’s three in English, but he was, of course, speaking Russian.) The Lecturer, disdainfully, gave him permission. The priest turned, looked out over the crowd, and shouted: “Christ is risen!” The people roared back, “He is risen indeed!”

This morning we declare this message that has been shouted out every Easter for nearly two thousand years. It is a message that has stood the test of time, weathered every tyranny, and sustained the Christian people throughout every circumstance. It is the heart of our faith. It is the bread of life which saves us from death.

Reverend G.I. Williamson was greeting his congregation following the morning service in Fall River, Massachusetts. During this greeting time, a group of fine Christian ladies approached Reverend Williamson. Apparently, they were not too pleased with what he had preached that morning. So they asked Reverend Williamson when he had been saved. In other words, when was his personal born-again experience in coming to know Jesus Christ?

Before Reverend Williamson could respond, a 5-year-old girl standing beside them blurted out, “I was saved two thousand years ago!”

Two thousand years ago, you and I were saved from the powers of sin and death because of what God did through Jesus Christ. That’s the wonderful message of this Easter morning.

But did you listen carefully to our Gospel Reading? Two thousand years ago, on that first Easter morning, they were afraid, those who came to the tomb. There was an earthquake, the stone rolled back, there was an angel who liked lightning, and they were afraid. Matthew tells us the guards shook and became like dead men. But it wasn’t only the guards who were afraid. The women who came to the tomb were afraid as well. That’s why the angel’s first words were “Do not be afraid.” That’s why Jesus’ second words were an echo, “Do not be afraid.”

And that’s the first message of Easter morning to you and me: “Do not be afraid.” The power of death has been broken. God has overcome all that threatens to overwhelm us. Do not be afraid of death.

And then comes that second message of Easter: “He is going ahead of you to Galilee.” That’s how the lightning-looking angel put it. “Tell them to go to Galilee. There they will see me.” That’s how Jesus put it.

So, Easter message number one: “Do not be afraid.”

Easter message number two: “Go to Galilee.”

Huh? What? Galilee? Why Galilee?

Well, that’s a good question. Think for a moment: if you had one week to live and could go to any one place you wanted – money is no object – where would you go? Well, that’s a bit like the situation facing Jesus: on the first day of his eternal life, Jesus could go anywhere he wanted. So why did Jesus decide to go to Galilee?

If it were me, I probably would have walked right back into Jerusalem, right to the temple, right up to Pontius Pilate. Imagine what a sight that would have been! “Hey, Pilate – I guess that crucifixion thing didn’t really take!”

Or maybe I would have gone back to my hometown of Nazareth to show all those doubters that the local boy they looked down upon really did make good! “What do you think of the carpenter’s son now?”

Or maybe take a trip all the way up to Rome. “Hey, Mr. Emperor, Mr. Divine line of Caesars! Let me show you what a Son of God REALLY looks like!”

That’s what I would have done. That’s where I would have gone. Maybe you might have some ideas of your own of where you would have gone. But What Would Jesus Do? Where Did Jesus Go? To Galilee… of all places, to Galilee.

Okay. So what was so great about Galilee? In a word – nothing.

Nothing, that is, until Jesus got there. Before Jesus came, healing, teaching, and preaching in Galilee, it was a dusty, out of the way sort of place, known maybe for having some racial and ethnic diversity. Then Jesus came to Galilee, calling disciples, working miracles, crisscrossing the Sea and the countryside. Jesus shook things up out there in Galilee just like an earthquake. Jerusalem was the place of death. Galilee was the place of life.

So the second message of Easter, “He is going on ahead of you to Galilee,” is a call to us not only to let go of fear, to let go of death, but to come back to life.

I want you to listen to a short quote and then I’ll tell you who said it:

“What is the thing you respect above all else? That’s easy. Death. It’s the only thing left to respect. It’s the one inevitable undeniable truth. Everything else can be questioned. But death is truth.”

Now I’ll tell you who said it – James Dean, the actor who died in a car crash at the age of 24. James Dean was the Heath Ledger of an earlier generation. He lived fast and died young.

Let’s be honest - our culture agrees with James Dean. Death is the only thing left to respect. That’s why life is so cheap in our world today, why disrespect, violence and war are so common. Our world doesn’t respect life – it only respects death.

But we who live in the hope of the empty tomb, we have come to believe not in death but life. We have come to believe that life is the final word, not death. That’s why we’re told to rush off to Galilee, to the place of life and ministry. It’s like that great line from “The Shawshank Redemption: “You either get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.”

By inviting us back to Galilee, Jesus has called us to get busy livin’!

Do you remember this story by Soren Kirkegaard?

In a little duck village it was Sunday and all the ducks got into their best duck clothes and they waddled off to their duck church. And at the duck church they sang their duck hymns and read from their duck Bibles and then the duck minister preached the duck gospel. She said, “Ducks, you have wings… you can fly! No more will you have to be fenced in or trapped by farmers. You can fly!” And the ducks all said, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” And then they all waddled home.

So, are you smarter than a duck this Easter morning? Do you realize that your life must change, must assume a greater importance, a higher significance in light of the great news of Christ’s resurrection? Can you get busy livin’? Can your life take wing with faith?

In another Gospel account of the angel’s conversation at the tomb, he asks, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” There was a minister who was becoming terribly frustrated at a very lethargic church, so at one service he said, “Why don’t we all form a circle, hold hands, and attempt to communicate with the living?”

This is how Clarence Jordan put it: “The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave but a spirit-filled fellowship; not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.”

With the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, death has lost its sting and living has gained new significance. On this Easter Sunday morning, may you rise up with faith, free from your fear of death, and get busy livin’. Let our spirit take wing as we live lives worthy of a Resurrection. Amen.

Sermon preached by Reverend Steve Savides at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008.