Easter 2017 Reinbeck UMC
We all know why we are here don’t we?
I mean, I doubt that anyone came to celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birthday,
which was Friday! We are here to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ! THAT
IS EASTER! Easter is about Jesus walking out of the cold dark grave, the power
of life defeating death, grace defeating sin, and hope conquering despair.
Those are great words. We can also
say great words about Thomas Jefferson, however, and I doubt that anyone even
remembered his birthday. No, Easter is much more than great words.
If Easter were just great words, it
would have no power. If Easter were merely an historical fact, it would have no
power. If Easter were just a holiday on the calendar, it would have no power. If
the Easter story were to sit quietly on the pages of the Bible, or safely
contained in one 24-hour day; then Easter would have no power. I assure you, however,
that Easter power is very real.
The real power of Easter Is unleashed
in the lives of people like us:
·
Easter
is for people who feel like the walking dead because they are too busy going
through the motions to actually live. If that is you, the power of Easter is
for you.
·
Easter
is for people who feel like they are trapped in a dark tomb of shame, or guilt,
or unforgiveness, or hatred, or bitterness and they can’t figure out how to
escape. If that is you, the power of Easter is for you.
·
Easter
is for people who are drowning in grief, hunting for hope, or wondering if life
has any meaning or purpose. It is for people grasping for something to hold on
to, when the whole world is spinning out of control. If that is you, the power of
Easter is for you.
·
Easter
is for people who just feel empty, like there is nothing inside, they have to
hide their true self because no one can possibly understand let alone love them.
If that is you, the power of Easter is for you.
At the beginning
of the service, you all heard what we generally think of as “the Easter story.”
The Easter story, however, is bigger than the events on one Sunday morning 21 centuries
ago.
It begins with a choice God made in
the beginning to make human beings in God’s image. One of the things that means
is that God created us with the blessing (and sometimes it seems like the
curse) of being free agents; able to chose between possible futures, or at
least between possible courses of action.
The problem is sometimes we feel we
don’t have a choice. We feel trapped. We feel like we are up to our armpits in
quicksand and the only way to go is down. We feel like we are stuck in the left
lane of the interstate in Chicago going past exit after exit because we can’t
change lanes. Do you ever feel trapped like that? I do. The power of Easter is
for people like us.
Philippians explains why that is so. Permit
me to give you my own paraphrase
Though he was God,
Jesus chose not to hold on to divinity.
Jesus chose not to hold on to divinity.
He chose to empty himself,
He chose to be like a slave,
He chose to be born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
Jesus chose to humble himself
Jesus chose to be faithful all the way to death—
even death on a cross.[1]
He chose to be like a slave,
He chose to be born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
Jesus chose to humble himself
Jesus chose to be faithful all the way to death—
even death on a cross.[1]
He chose all of that! In Jesus, God
exercised his free will to become one of us, and live as one of us. Jesus
exercised his free will to be the perfect revelation of God no matter what the
consequences. People exercised their free will and killed him.
I’m guessing that, at least in part,
all of those people felt trapped.
·
Maybe
Judas felt trapped by hatred for the Roman occupiers. He felt like he had to
goad Jesus into doing something before it was too late.
·
Maybe
the leaders of the Jews felt trapped by their greed and fear of losing their
wealth and power.
·
Maybe
Peter denied Jesus three times because he was trapped in fear. And then fled
because he was paralyzed by guilt.
·
Pilate
wanted to do the right thing, but was trapped by the pressure exerted by the
crowd.
·
The
guards were trapped under orders just going through the motions.
By Palm Sunday, because of their
greed, shame, bitterness, hatred, emptiness and fear they were all stuck in
that left lane of traffic. No matter how badly they might have wanted to exit, none
of the characters felt they had the power to change the end of the story.
By Maundy Thursday, the boulder of
their sin was already gaining momentum and it seemed like there was nothing
anyone could do to stop it. Finally, on Friday night, that boulder slammed into
place sealing Jesus body in the tomb. It was dark. He was dead. The end.
NOT QUITE… NOT SO FAST…out of the
darkness, the glory of God blinds us.
The power of God overwhelms us.
The love of God warms us.
You see we forgot that while almost everyone
in the story felt trapped, there was one who was there by choice. Jesus was not
the victim in this story. He chose the cross and the tomb saying, “Father, thy
will be done.”
Jesus chose to be faithful even though it meant death—
Jesus chose to humble himself and accept death on a cross.
Jesus chose to humble himself and accept death on a cross.
Jesus chose to humble himself to lie in a tomb.
While everyone else was trapped by sin, Jesus was
there by choice.
BUT NOT FOR LONG
Jesus chose life and the resurrection
changed everything!
Jesus chose life and death no longer
had the last word.
Jesus chose life and snatched victory
from the jaws of sin.
·
Jesus
chose resurrection and gave Judas the opportunity to choose hope instead of
hatred. Sadly, he didn’t, but he could have.
·
Jesus
chose resurrection and gave Pilate the opportunity to choose to rule justly.
Sadly enough, as far as we know, he refused.
There were many who did accept the freedom and power to choose
that Jesus offered.
·
Jesus
chose resurrection and gave the leaders of the Jews the Easter power to choose
faith instead of fear. Some like Joseph of Aramathea, Nicodemus, and eventually
Paul did just that.
·
Jesus
chose resurrection and gave Peter the Easter power to choose grace over guilt.
That choice changed the rest of his life.
·
Jesus
chose resurrection and gave the Roman guards the Easter power to choose faith
and forgiveness. One was heard to say, “Surely this was the son of God.”
ü Because Jesus chose the resurrection,
we have the Easter power to choose forgiveness.
ü Because Jesus chose the resurrection,
we have the Easter power to choose eternal life.
ü Because Jesus chose the resurrection,
we have the Easter power to choose to trust him to conquer all the darkness in
our hearts.
ü Because Jesus chose the resurrection,
we have the Easter power to choose to trust him to fill all the emptiness and
futility of our lives
·
Because
Jesus chose the resurrection, you have the Easter power to step out of that
grave and live a daily life in Christ who said, “I am the resurrection and the
life.”
·
Because
Jesus chose the resurrection, you have the Easter power to step out of the
darkness, shame, guilt, hatred, bitterness, or unforgiveness to follow the one who
said, “I am the light of the world.” And to prove it, he pierced the darkness
of evil as he hung on the cross by saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do.”
·
Because Jesus chose the resurrection, you have
the Easter power to stop hunting for hope, or purpose, or security; and choose the
joy and security of following the one who said, “I am the good shepherd.”
·
Because
Jesus chose the resurrection, you have the Easter power to choose to abide in
Christ who fills all our emptiness and loves our unlovableness.
·
Because
Jesus chose the cross and the resurrection, you now have choices. You have the
option to choose death but you also have the Easter power to choose life.
It is said that we make up to 35,000
choices each day.[2] The vast majority of those won’t change your life or anyone else’s life.
Which shirt do you wear? Do you have a second cup of coffee? Which TV show do
you watch, or which way do you drive to church.
A few times in a
lifetime, we make choices that make all the difference in the world. The choice
of whether to be an Easter person is one of those choices. You can choose death
or life, guilt or grace, hatred or hope… you can choose whether or not you want
to live as an Easter person.
A story is told
of an African man who became a Christian. His friends asked, “Why have you
become a Christian?”
He answered, “Well, it’s like this.
Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two
directions, and you didn’t know which way to go. There at the fork were two
men, one dead and one alive—who would you ask which way to go?”[3]
Personally, I choose Jesus Christ who
faced all darkness and death but lives again as the lord of Easter.
How about you? Will you be Easter
people with me?
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