Sermon For April 23, 2000
Easter Sunday
CHRISTIAN GOSPEL: He is Risen ~ Mark 16:1-8
What would we have done, if we had been amongst those first visitors to the tomb? Expecting the corpse of our dear friend and finding the stone rolled away and an empty tomb. Unlike the other Gospels, Mark doesn’t explain the resurrection, he just says, “The tomb was empty. And the women were filled with fear and they went away without saying anything.” Filled with fear. How often are there things that happen in our lives that fill us with fear? How often are there things that happen that bring a darkness down on top of us, a darkness that we can hardly even comprehend? What happened to the disciples to drove away their darkness?
How did they become convinced that Jesus’ death was not the end, that there was something more? We don’t know how to explain the resurrection appearances. Our scientific minds say, “It just couldn’t happen.” We don’t know what the true history of it is, but we do know what the truth of it is. The truth is that God’s love is stronger that death. Whether Jesus’ presence was an historical reality, or a story or metaphor that points to the truth of God’s love. What ever your heart and your mind will let you accept. The truth is undeniable. The truth is that God’s love is stronger than all darkness. There is always new life that can come out of the most tragic death.
The newspapers this week were filled with observances of tragic death.
Seven years ago on Wednesday, Waco, Texas. Eighty Branch Davidians, religious members of a small sect and a conflict with the Federal Government, Eighty people died when the building they were hiding in burned to the ground.
Five years ago, Oklahoma City. One hundred and sixty eight people died in a terrorist bomb blast.
One year ago on Thursday, Littleton, Colorado. Fifteen people’s lives ended that day.
On the one-year anniversary of Columbine High School in Littleton, people gathered together for a memorial service. In Oklahoma City five years after the bombing, the memorial was dedicated. One hundred and sixty eight chairs made of stone and bronze on a glass base. Each chair bearing the name of a person who died in the blast. A large reflecting pool. In Waco, Texas on the site of the building that burned, a new church was dedicated. All of these events show signs of new life coming out of darkness.
But it’s not all that simple. It’s not an easy process. In interviews on Public Radio this week, a teacher in Littleton said, “Kid’s are unable to focus on their work. If I asked them to write a two-page essay, it is a difficult assignment for them, difficult for them to focus their thoughts. Then if they happen to get their essay piece accomplished, I have a stack of thirty of them, and I can’t focus either. One of the mother’s in Oklahoma City said that when her daughter died, she though the world had come to an end. She didn’t’ see how the pain would ever go away. How there could ever be the dawning of another morning.
What would it be like to be part of such a tragedy? What if we were gathered together here on a Sunday morning and I was sitting on the stairs with a group of children around me, talking about God and God’s love. Talking about a bunny tree. Talking about new life. What if three people came into the Sanctuary with masks over their faces. What if some people from one of the groups that meet here were unhappy because we told them that if they got any more candle wax on the window sill they wouldn’t be able to meet in this building any longer. Upset by what they perceived to be intolerance on our part, decided to come into the worship service, with masks and with guns. What if three people came in and began firing guns here in this sanctuary, in this place? What if the minister was killed by gunshots? Four of the children dead, three more wounded. Of the adults who rushed to aid, two of them were killed and more wounded. How long would it take before you would be able to come back to this place to worship? How long would it take before you would be able to feel as secure here in this room as you feel now? How would you live from day to day? Among the reports of happenings in Columbine is a report of one of the mothers whose daughter had died. During this past year the mother committed suicide. She wasn’t able to deal with the pain in her heart.
When we face something like that, when we face a tragedy in our life, a tragedy as a community, a tragedy in our individual life, how do we respond? A death of a child, a divorce, the lose of a job. When we face those things we have options about how we are going to respond. We can say, “I don’t understand it. There is no sense to it. The world has really no meaning at all. From how on I’m only going to do what I feel like doing. What makes me feel good, what’s good for me, and what’s good for my friends. That is all I’m going to do. I’m not going to care about anything else, because the world is a chaotic place and it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
There is another way to respond. Some people believe that God is like a human being. God makes plans, thinks things through. If God is all powerful and all knowing, these things must be part of God’s Master Plan. If something bad happens, it must have a purpose. Remember when the students died at Columbine? There was a young girl who was shot. The stories from the news reporters said that she was asked if she believed in God. When she said, “Yes”, the gunman pulled the trigger. Her parents chose to deal with the event in this second way. They said that God caused this event to happen so that, “our daughter could testify to her faith.”
Is the world a chaotic place? Not meaning anything at all? Should we just do what we want to do, do what is good for us? Is God in control of everything? Does all this happen for some good reason? To teach us a lesson? To make us stronger? To provide an opportunity for God to reveal God’s glory? Neither of these positions are very satisfying for me. They don’t provide comfort. They don’t provide encouragement. They don’t provide strength for me to go on.
We could ask the same questions about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Was Jesus confused? Did he die only because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time? So his death didn’t really mean anything at all? Did he die because it was part of God’s Master Plan? Did God send Jesus in order to go and pay the price of our sins, so that we would be free to live? Do you get access to that payment by saying the right words, “Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Christ.” Again neither of those answers are satisfactory for me. I don’t think that the world is chaotic, without meaning. Nor do I think that God has set everything in motion and only plays us as puppets. To walk through the steps that have been pre-determined. At the dedication in Oklahoma City, President Clinton spoke. He dedicated the memorial with the promise that, “America will never forget the suffering inflicted by the bombing.” He said, “There are places in our national landscape that are so scarred by freedom’s sacrifice that they shape forever the soul of America, Valley Forge; Gettysburg; Selma, Alabama. This place, Oklahoma City, is such sacred ground.”
I believe that this is sacred ground. Each time people gather together to remember Jesus’ life and death, each time we gather together to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, what we are recognizing is freedom’s sacrifice. We are celebrating the fact that a person could live faithfully, even in the face of arrest and death. I don’t believe that Jesus wanted to die. I don’t believe that God wanted Jesus to die. But I do believe that Jesus was living faithfully. Declaring God’s love for the people who were the outcasts of society. Challenging the religious leaders to look at their rules and to understand the ways in which their rules were an obstacle to God’s love. He knew that his teachings would take him to Jerusalem. And he knew that if he set foot in that town there was a great danger that he would be arrested and killed. But he lived his life faithfully, the courageous suffering of freedom.
What is new life for us then? Some people find comfort in believing that a loved one is now with God in some place in heaven that is paved with bricks of gold. Whoever dies to this world is no longer dealing with the day to day things that we are dealing with. There is nothing that I can do to change their life, there is not a way that they will again walk on this earth. I have faith that what is good and loving about a person continues on as part of the fullness of God. But the kind of new life that I think is critical when something bad happens is the new life that we need here. The new life that God offers says that our life doesn’t have to end when someone we love dies. Our life does not have to end when there is a tragedy. Our life does not have to end when we lose some of our musical abilities. Our life does not have to end when our children grow-up and leave home. Our life doesn’t have to end when we can no longer do the job that we would love to be doing. There is always new life that can come from even the darkest times. I believe that is the resurrection message of Easter. God will be with us in our darkness. God will help us to get up in the morning the next day. God will help us continue to find meaning in life. God will show us how to love and how to reach out to others. I believe that this is the kind of resurrection life that our world so badly needs. We give thanks to God this day and we ask for the strength of God’s Spirit to share this love with all the world. Amen.