Sermon, Easter 2010

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

There can be no doubt that we have come through an eventful Lent; probably the most significant Lent in the history of our two parishes. And that makes this the most significant Easter in the history of our two parishes.

For some of us, it feels like we've been wandering in the wilderness, lost and alone. For others, we feel like we've been on an amazing journey and the Promised Land is within our grasp. Regardless of where we fall on that spectrum, there can be no doubt that this journey of ours is one like we've never experienced before.

Lent is the season of penitence and fasting, but it is also the season of preparation. It is the time when people prepare for baptism. It is the time when congregations prepare to welcome those newly baptized. It is the time when outcasts prepared to be restored. It is the time when congregations prepared to welcome home the lost. And overall, it is the time when we prepare for resurrection as we move from death to life.

Our journey through Lent has been no easy task. Changes in worship schedules and discerning our future have taken a toll on all of us in some way. Faced with a new and radically different way of being the church in our valley, some have chosen to depart, while others have chosen to limit their participation. Some have welcomed the change with an eye towards a thriving, Spirit-filled future. And some have struggled to find the perfect solution.

As your priest, I have tried to listen intently and honestly to what you have had to say. I have tried to find God's voice in all of the noise, to hear what God might be saying and to lead our congregations in that direction. I have struggled with the pain of separation and loss. I have tried to proclaim a message of unity, hope and resurrection. And I have tried to envision how we can reflect the new community of God to the people of the Ruby Valley.

This is exactly why it hasn't been easy for us - because we are being asked to envision a new community. We are being asked to envision something totally different from the way things have been in the past. We are being asked to change. And, fortunately or unfortunately, Easter is all about change.

If Lent is the season of preparation and allowing old ways to die, then Easter is certainly the season of change and resurrection into a new way of being. The old ways no longer hold us in their grip of fear and stasis. A new way of being is presented to us so that we may embrace life and thrive. But that new way of being is not without risk and it is not without our need to give up control. A new way of being and a newly resurrected life takes courage and it takes a new, reordered, upside-down way of thinking.

On the first day of the week the women came to the tomb expecting to find a body. That's the way it has been from the beginning of time - when we bury a body, we expect it to be where we left it.

But the two men at the tomb reminded them what Jesus had said about his resurrection. So they went back to where the disciples were and relayed what had happened. And the apostles immediately believed this new thing, this change in thinking, and began to worship him and proclaim the good news of the resurrection to all those in Jerusalem.

Not quite.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, told the apostles Christ was alive. They told them he had been resurrected into a new way of being. They told them their old ways of thinking about life needed to change. And these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe.

Why did the apostles not believe? They didn't believe because dead men don't leave their tombs. They didn't believe because they were afraid to let go of the way things have always been. They didn't believe because they weren't yet ready to commit to a reordered, upside-down way of thinking about life; a way that tells us that in losing we gain and through death we have everlasting life.

It's hard to believe a paradox, but there it is - in order to live in Christ we must die to ourselves. It calls for us to give up control. It calls for us to have courage. It calls for us to reorder our thinking into this new, upside-down way of being. And it calls for us to have faith that our future life in Christ will be more glorious than anything in our past ever was - even when people around us think we are crazy and foolish.

It has been an eventful Lent for us. Our Tuesday night soup & scripture focused on Jonah. Jonah the reluctant prophet who tried to run from God. Jonah, who had compassion for a boatful of Gentiles but couldn't bring himself to have mercy for the city of Nineveh. In this story we heard themes of fear, stubbornness, mercy, forgiveness and redemption. It took courage for Jonah to play the part of a prophet in a foreign city. And Jonah needed to come to a new, upside-down way of thinking about God's mercy when Nineveh was spared. In the end, though, we weren't really sure if Jonah ever got it figured out.

And in our Sunday morning bible study sessions, we looked at issues of self-denial and submission, confession, forgiveness, a return to God and death. The world tells us that it is through power and control that we survive. And that may be right. Political parties survive by exerting a certain amount of power. People survive to some extent by controlling the environment around them. But as Christians we should be looking to do more than survive - we should be looking to LIVE.

The world may talk about power and control, but the life of Jesus shows us another way. Through his self-denial and submission he drew closer to God. Through his willingness to forgive others, he laid the groundwork for healing. And through his death we are shown what it means to live.

Too often people want to rush through Lent and Holy Week in an effort to get to Easter. A colleague of mine has said that they didn't do Holy Week services because, among other things, people would rather focus on Easter. But without the submission in the garden, without the forgiveness from the cross, without the cross itself and the death, there is no resurrection. Jesus died to live and Easter is the day we celebrate that new life. Easter is the day we are changed; but new life doesn't happen without death.

It has been an eventful Lent for us. We are being called to take a hard, honest look at ourselves and our community. Will we be like the women before reaching the tomb? Are we expecting to find things the way they've always been?

Will we, on the morning of the most eventful Easter in our history, be like the apostles? When told of a new way of being, when told our old ways of thinking about life need to change, and when told we too can be resurrected, will we simply claim that these are idle tales and not believe?

Or will we be like the women after their visit to the empty tomb? Will we remember the words of Jesus Christ how he said he must die but will be raised to new life? Are we ready to give up control and step into a new and upside-down way of thinking and being? In short, are we ready to live?

Today is Easter Day, the day when Christ passed over from death to life. Today is Easter Day, the day when death and fear no longer hold us captive. Today is Easter Day, so come ye sad and fearful hearted, come with a glad smile and radiant brow! Come, for death's long shadows have since departed; Jesus' woes, and our woes, are over now.

Come, for today is Easter Day - may we glory in Christ resurrected and live.

Alleluia!