“When Jesus Calls your name”
Easter 2018 RUMC
Well, this is my last Easter sermon for you guys, so I wrote a good one. The only problem is instead of 5 pages of text it turned out to be 50 pages. So, sit back relax and the flight attendants will bring around a beverage cart. Then, about half way through the sermon, they’ll bring the meal cart down the aisle.
Sorry, we had to get the Easter in April fool’s joke out of the way to start with. There've been so many memes about April fool’s and Easter, I have to share a couple of them with you.
The truth is Easter is no April fool’s joke.
Does this look like a joke to you?...
The only joke is that death thought it had won. Satan thought he had won. Sin thought it had won. Evil thought it had won. The April fool’s joke is on them not on us. So the thing I want to share with you this year is that Easter is not some out there wild and crazy metaphysical event that has nothing to do with our lives. Easter is very powerful and Easter is very personal.
In today’s scripture reading Mary went to the tomb to pay her respects. The tomb is empty. She went back to get Peter and John and they found the same thing. The tomb was empty. Jesus was not there. After the men left to tell the other disciples, Mary stayed in the garden weeping she was sure that someone has taken Jesus’ body and hid it.
Just when she hits rock bottom… Just when she was consumed by despair… just when she was completely without hope… Just when all the life has been sucked out of her… Just when she thought the last chapter had been written… she hears a voice … “Mary.”
Jesus appeared and called her name and a whole new chapter started in her life; actually, all humanity, and to tell you the truth all creation. Just when she thought that maybe she had been duped by the biggest April fool’s joke in history, and she was feeling like the biggest fool ever, Jesus appeared and called her name and everything changed. There's something that happens to us when Jesus calls our name.
For Mary, Jesus calling her name confirmed that all he had said was true. All she had hoped for was possible. Darkness vanished. Death lost. Sin was vanquished, and life was right side up again. She was as dead inside as Jesus was when they took him off the cross and when he spoke her name, she found life again.
There are other times in the gospels when Jesus calls a person by name.
“Andrew, follow me.” and he found life in following Jesus.
“Peter, follow me.” and he would become the living rock upon which Jesus built his church.
“John, follow me.” and he discovered a life of love.
Jesus called “Zacchaeus, come down from that tree. I’m having lunch at your house today.” and the outcast was invited to life in Christ. The tax collector who died a thousand deaths from the sneers and jeers of his fellow Jews was called to new life as a disciple.
At the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus says three times, “Peter, son of John, do you love me more than these?” And Peter who was dead in his guilt and shame of denying Jesus found life once again.
Do you see that all of those people were dead inside in some way? Dead in grief. Dead in meaninglessness. Dead in hope. Dead in rejection. Dead in guilt. But when Jesus called their name and each one experienced a resurrection of sorts. Each one found new life.
That brings us to today’s scripture, the raising of Lazarus.
Jesus received a message one day that Lazarus was about to die. Instead of hurrying to Bethany, we waited until he had been dead 4 days. Hebrew belief was that the spirit of the deceased hung around the body for 3 days. Then the spirit leaves and the person is completely, irreversibly dead. Lazarus had been dead 4 days.
When Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb, he asked for the stone to be rolled back. The sisters say, “Um you probably don’t want to do that, He’s been in there 4 days now and you know it is going to be unpleasant”.
Jesus ignores that warning and calls out “Lazarus, come out.”
I am certain that people thought he was crazy… didn’t he hear 4 days?!
But lo and behold, Lazarus came walking to the entrance of the tomb still wrapped in his grave cloths.
This was no April fool’s trick. This was no trick at all. The one who said, “I am the resurrection and the life” called Lazarus by name and Lazarus walked out alive and well. This is what Jesus offers all of us.
When all of our resources are exhausted, the risen Christ comes and says, _________ come out.
When we don’t have any more ideas of where to turn, the risen Christ comes and says, _________ come out.
When we have are exhausted and can’t take another step, the risen Christ comes and says, _________ come out.
When our hearts are broken beyond repair, and we think life is over, the risen Christ comes and says, _________ come out.
Come out of your personal battles, and death: depression, anxiety, bipolar, alcoholism, drug abuse , heart disease, diabetes, cancer, pain, arthritis, workaholism, and just going through empty motions; accept the power of the resurrection to come out and be made whole “for God so loves you that he gave his only begotten son”.
Come out of your interpersonal battles; unforgiveness, guilt, fear, hatred, bigotry of all kinds, broken friendships, broken families, alienated children, estranged sibling, marriages on the rocks, old grudges, loneliness, rejection, not feeling loved, not belonging anywhere; accept the power of the resurrection to come out and be made whole because “My peace I leave with you.”.
Come out of the tombs we inherit from our culture; racism, black lives matter, blue lives, matter, mental health disaster, homelessness, veterans suicide rates, the jobless rate for mildly and moderately rate for disabled adults, political word bombs across the aisles, fake news from both ends of the political spectrum, school shootings, gang violence, sexual abuse and misconduct, greed, immigration, an unequal justice system that grinds to slowly, high incarceration rates, low humility rates, and greed, fear, and hatred all the way around… I could go on all day… but add your own favorite injustice, whatever it is, Jesus says, accept the power of the resurrection to come out for “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
Jesus says come out of the tombs of a broken world; terrorism, religious intolerance, refugees, international bullies, perpetual victims, hunger, natural disaster, political oppression, war, and all kinds of divisions; accept the power of the resurrection to come out and be my church for “Behold I am with you even to the ends of the earth.”
Come out… Jesus says… come out. But the power of the resurrection does not make all the world’s problems go away. No, Lazarus lived for a while and died again. Peter stumbled. Marry faltered. The church was persecuted. People still sinned, the Roman Empire still oppressed the people, and the world looked pretty much like it did Thursday night before the last supper.
The difference was not what happened outside, in history… in politics… in families… the difference was inside.
What breaks your heart? What weighs you down? What is killing you from the inside out? What is robbing you of peace and hope and joy? Jesus says to you today come out. ..Come out of your tombs whatever they may be…come out because I am the resurrection and the life. The resurrection is Jesus is not an April fool’s trick. The resurrection of Jesus is the exclamation point guaranteeing us that being alive in God’s love is the one power on this earth that no nation, or disease, or persecution, or hatred, or fear, or anything else will ever defeat. When Jesus calls ________ come out. (x5)
Come out and be alive in the love of God.
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