My Resurrection
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For April 17, 2022:
My Resurrection
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 10:34-43, Luke 24:1-12
If you watch television at all, you’ve probably seen this commercial:
Jake from State Farm is visiting the home of Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanović where the 7’3” center is kneeling, frantically trying to clean the water rings off his coffee table. Jake explains that assuming all NBA players want rings is the same thing as assuming you can't get a great insurance rate with State Farm. Boban interrupts Jake and angrily laments, “Why do we have coasters if nobody’s going to use them?” and throws down the rag he’s using to scrub the table.
He then looks at Jake whose water glass is sitting on the table, conspicuously coaster-less. Angrily, he sets down a coaster that bears a photo of his smiling face and places the water glass on top of it.
A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that the same question that Boban asks about coasters could easily apply to the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter.
Why do we have resurrection if nobody’s going to use it?
In the Scripture
No, really. If the resurrection is just the reanimation of a corpse that happened one time, 2,000 years ago, what possible difference could it make for you and me?
First, of all, it wasn’t the only resurrection in the Bible. There are at least eight and possibly more. There’s Lazarus, of course, who wasn’t just dead, you will recall, but was really dead. When Jesus arrived at his grave the people said that he was too late, because Lazarus was so long dead that, “he stinketh.” But he was resurrected anyway.
In 1 Kings there’s the resurrection of the widow’s son at Zarephath. (1 Kings 17:17-22) And then, in 2 Kings we have the resurrection of the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4:18-37) and the resurrection of the man who was thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kings 13:20). In Mark 4, there’s the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41) and in Luke we return to Nain where we witness the resurrection of the nameless “young man.” (Luke 7:14) Matthew says that a whole bunch of unnamed “holy people” were resurrected during the crucifixion (Matt. 27:52-53). Likewise, in Matthew, Jesus tells the messengers to go back and tell John the Baptist that the raising of the dead was something that has been happening on a regular basis even though there’s no written record of it up to that point. (Matt. 11: 2-6) And the book of Acts tells us that after the first Easter there was the resurrection of Tabitha/Dorcas (Acts 9:36–42) and the resurrection of Eutychus (Acts 20:7-12).
And don’t get me started on pagan religions. They’re full of resurrection stories.
Then there’s the “so what” factor. Even if it did happen, just as it says in the Bible, even if it is a historical fact, so what? What difference does it make for us?
If all these other resurrections have happened, what makes this resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth so special? Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s not just Jesus’ resurrection, it’s ours as well. Jesus showed us that resurrection from death isn’t just an interesting phenomenon that happened one time a long time ago. And it isn’t just something that happens at the end of our lives.
It isn’t just something that we hear about and learn about and talk about. It’s like Boban’s coasters. It’s something we’re supposed to own AND USE. It’s a metaphor for the authentic life, a reality that is available to us in the midst of life.
In the Culture
The Major League Baseball lockout is finally over and earlier this week, my beloved Cincinnati Reds took the field for their home opener. Opening day is an unofficial holiday in southwest Ohio. Schools and businesses close, or, at the very least, forgive those who are absent and can show with a ticket stub that they were actually at the game.
The day will begin, as it has since 1852, with the Findlay Market Parade, which snakes through downtown from the historic market to the Great American Ballpark, overlooking the Ohio River. All of this falderal will happen, as it does every year, because opening day is, after all, resurrection day for our ball club.
No matter how or where they finished last year, the new year brings new hope. The team, complete with old favorites like 16-year veteran first baseman Joey Votto and new rookies like pitchers Alexis Diaz and Hunter Greene will, it is hoped, spark new life into the team and lead them in being resurrected from the death of last year’s season.
Probably the prime symbol of the resurrection the Reds are hoping for will be riding in the convertible as the Grand Marshall of the parade: Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrows, who suffered what could have been a career ending knee injury in the 2020-2021 season, recovered and led the Bengals to the Super Bowl to end the 2021-2022 season.
The spirit of resurrection permeates sports in America.
Ask any longsuffering Cubs or Mets fan. No matter how rotten they were last season, rare is the fan who doesn’t believe on opening day that “this could be their year.” Ask the fans of the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team who overcame a 15-point deficit at halftime to achieve the biggest comeback win in NCAA Tournament history and take home the championship just a week ago. Ask the fans of Tiger Woods who thought he would never play golf again after nearly losing his leg in an automobile accident just over a year ago and, last week teed off at Augusta to play in the Masters golf tournament. And those are just the ones you might have heard of. There are those who play in the shadows who overcome as much if not more than the pros.
In 2001 competitive swimmer Natalie du Toit was riding on her motor scooter when she was hit suddenly on the side by a careless driver, causing her to lose her left leg just above the knee. Less than two years later she qualified for the finals of the 800-meter freestyle at 2002 Common Wealth Games. In 2008 Natalie qualified for both the Paralympic and Olympic games.
In 2003 Bethany Hamilton was attacked by a 14 foot tiger shark that ripped her left arm off just below the shoulder. By the time she reached the hospital she had lost 70% of her blood. Three weeks later she was back on her surfboard and in 2004 received ESPN’s ESPY award for Best Comeback Athlete of the Year.
Figure skater Scott Hamilton competed and was victorious after being treated for testicular cancer.
Sports does no hold a monopoly on resurrection stories. The world of literature and the arts has plenty of its own.
James Patterson’s first suspense novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was turned down by 31 publishers until it was accepted by Royal Books, Inc. in 1976. The following year, it won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel.
Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune, was rejected by 20 publishers. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was rejected by 40. Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen was turned down by 31 publishers. Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was turned down by 30, and my own first novel, Viper Quarry was turned down by more than a dozen publishers before being accepted by Pocket Books. Then, the following year, it was named one of the five best paperback mystery novels of the year by the Mystery Writers of America and nominated for an Edgar Award.
Resurrection is not something that happens only in response to physical death. It is a possibility that is open to us for all the smaller, symbolic deaths we suffer throughout our lives. Failure, humiliation, ridicule, grief, and loss can all kill our creativity, our hope, our dreams, and our self-esteem. The culture we live in is ready, at a moment’s notice, to pounce on our enthusiasm, our positivity, our aspirations, and our dreams; to call us naïve, wide-eyed, gullible, and ingenuous.
But Easter offers us hope. We can rise from the grave of cynicism, despair, and hopelessness that the world insists on digging for us. We can rise and live again.
In the Sermon
How hopeless and aggrieved must the followers of Jesus have been in the days immediately following that first Good Friday. Their friend murdered. Their hopes dashed. Their ambitions thwarted. Their dreams crushed.
They were so depressed that when they received the good news of his resurrection from the women, they refused to believe it, dismissing it with a vulgar epithet. Only Peter could rouse himself enough to go to the tomb and, even then, after finding it empty, he had to go home and think about what he had heard and seen.
But let’s not be too hard on Peter or his friends. How many of us have turned away the words of comfort and encouragement from those who love us most? How many of us have been so hurt and depressed that, when our friends reach out to us, all we can do is reply in anger, “You just don’t understand!”
And, of course, they don’t. They’re just trying to be helpful and they don’t know what to do or say.
Even our despair can’t undo the reality of the resurrection. Even our anger, righteous as it may be, can’t lessen the promise of new life that is given to us in Jesus Christ.
The wise preacher begins the Easter sermon, as always, in the garden. But we dare not let it end there. Our responsibility as heralds of the Good News is to answer the “So what?” question for our listeners. Resurrection is NOT simply a one off — a single event that happened a long time ago in a land far, far away. It is existential and experiential.
It is ours for the asking. Ours to be claimed, owned, and used.
Just like Boban’s coasters…only more.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Fake News?
by Tom Willadsen
Luke 24:1-12
In the Church
It’s Easter. The first Easter in three years that we’re not worshiping in the shadow of a pandemic. There’s a decent chance you’re going to see more people in church this Easter morning than you have in a long, long time. You’ll want to bring you’re A game, but don’t forget: the music and flowers add to the worship experience. It’s not all up to you, Preacher.
In the Bible
The Greek term λῆρος (transliterated “lair’ose”) appears only one time on the New Testament. It is rendered into English as “idle talk,” “nonsense,” “delirious talk,” “sheer imagination,” “a fairy tale,” “fables,” “pure nonsense,” “an idle tale,” “foolish talk,” “vain things,” “stupid, useless talk,” “fiction, a lie” and “madness.”
The Message, a paraphrased version of scripture, not a translation, renders the scene this way: “but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.”
Anna Carter Florence renders λῆρος this way `@$?%&!*.
It is likely λῆρος is a vulgar term, something like “total bullshit,” in modern American English. The disciples were tired, devastated, grieving and depressed. They probably were not in a mood to hear something from women that they knew was impossible.
Chances are, you’re not comfortable saying “total bullshit” on Easter Sunday; there will be so many witnesses. Instead tell a story like this one.
If you went to a college basketball game in 1980s and the officials made a close call that went against the home team, you heard the Greek word λῆρος. When that happened at Northwestern University you could count on the partisans chanting “λῆρος, λῆρος!”
And I’ll never forget that one, sweet moment when Northwestern defeated Indiana. It was February 18, 1984 and I was playing trombone in the band. That week, the Hoosiers, coached by the legendary and notorious Bobby Knight, were ranked 17th in the nation. Mr. Knight had a violent temper and late in the second half, while his squad was going down to defeat and the fans and the band were egging him on, Mr. Knight spotted me in the band and said, “Young man, I disagree with your assessment of my institution’s student-athletes. Furthermore, I do not care for your insolent tone.” Bobby Knight was a brilliant basketball coach, but very few people are aware of how articulate he was. He said all that to me with a single finger.
You know what I’m talking about. You know the kinds of words, and gestures that I mean, even though I will not use them in a service of Christian worship does not mean you have never heard them. No one yells at the opposing basketball coach “Idle tale! Idle tale!” No one yells “We beg to differ!” at the referees.
The three women were smacked down, dismissed and insulted when they brought the truth they had seen with their own eyes to the men.
In the News
In the past five years Americans have been hearing the phrase “fake news” to dismiss and undermine facts that are not to the liking of former President Trump and his followers. Prior to the 2016 election, Mr. Trump was never regarded as the poster boy for veracity, the reign of error, however, became even more pervasive and egregious within days of his inauguration as he disputed the size of the crowd on the national mall. Prior to the event he had predicted the crowd would be “astronomical” and “record setting.”
Anyone who saw photos comparing the crowds at President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 with President Trump’s in 2017 could see that the former gathering was substantially larger.
When confronted by this fact, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, delivered a fiery statement in front of the media in which he claimed that “this was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period.”
Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, cited “alternative facts” in an interview.
The controversy over the inauguration’s crowd size was merely the first of many occasions when President Trump, members of his staff, and loyal followers “doubled down” denying basic, indisputable facts. The danger of this kind of discourse is that even credible, trustworthy sources find they cannot be trusted because “everybody has their own agenda.” We saw this repeatedly during the first few months of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Another example of fake news leaking into the mainstream has been the drumbeat of calls for “election integrity.” A majority of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen.” Millions of dollars and hours of legislative time have been spent hunting for voter fraud. At last, voter fraud has been found, huzzah! Of the 3.4 million votes cast in the 2020 election in Arizona, there were nine cases of fraud. Yes, friends, voter fraud is real. A staggering .0002671% of the votes were invalid.
After the most rigorous, thorough and costly examination of voting in American history the facts reveal that our system was extraordinary in 2020. The measures the Arizona legislature has taken to “fix” voter fraud are like prescribing chemotherapy for bad breath.
How do we respond to idle tales, sheer imagination and nonsense today? I fear that most Americans have grown weary of even trying to determine what’s true. We choose instead the comfort of our own biases and the echo chamber of like-minded friends on social media.
In the Sermon
Building on the bridge between λῆρος and fake news, explore what it would take for something true and factual to get through to people are who unable or resistant to hearing the truth. Remember, the disciples in Luke’s gospel do not go all Thomas on the women and say they’ll believe if they see it with their own eyes. They dismiss the women and even the possibility of resurrection.
One might think that the way out can be found in verse 12, “But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.” Peter did his own research; he saw with his own eyes, true. But he didn’t tell anyone. Early texts of Luke do not even have verse 12! How would the story be different if it ended at verse 11, “they did not believe them.”?
The earliest version of Mark’s gospel ends, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8, NRSV)
The fact is, the Good News cannot be suppressed, denied or dismissed. Last week Jesus said to the Pharisees, who told him to get his disciples to pipe down, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Luke 19:40, NRSV)
We know the story of the Resurrection spread from the empty tomb. We’re here because the story has been passed on nearly 2,000 years! It’s preposterous, impossible, sheer imagination, an idle tale, nonsense, and it’s the way, the best way ever that the living God has shown his love for all of Creation. λῆρος is true. Christ is risen. Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Transforming the Wounds
Father Greg Boyle works with young men and women who want to leave gang culture in Los Angeles, supporting them with work programs, education, and tattoo removal. Most of the people he meets have childhood trauma, which turns into trouble with the law and sometimes prison. As they become employed, centered, and more whole, his community members still carry their recovery from addiction, their hurts, and the weight of the past.
Father Greg says, "In the end, all great spirituality is about what to do with our pain. We hesitate to eradicate the pain, since it is such a revered teacher. It re-members us. Our wounds jostle from us what is false and leaves us only with a yearning for the authentically poetic. From there to here. Holiness as a contact sport, busting us open into some new, unfettered place. We are hesitant, then, not to call it God. Remarkable, incredible, and… all the other “-ables.” (from The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle)
On Easter, Jesus comes back with the agony of Good Friday transformed, and he makes faith a contact sport for the disciples who encounter him and find their own pain transformed.
* * *
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Good News Spreads
Every resurrection story needs people to spread the word. We wouldn’t know anything about Easter without people who told people who told people who told us. Inmates at Rikers Island jail have their own story of transformation, which spreads from person to person, and even from plant to person. Rikers Island “holds 12,000 pretrial detainees who can't afford to post bail, as well as 4,000 prisoners sentenced to a year or less in jail. [Some] years ago only overgrown weeds covered the two acres that now make up the Rikers Island gardens. Since that time more than 300 "students," as a select group of Rikers inmates are called, have passed through the prison's GreenHouse Program, run by James Jiler for the Horticultural Society of New York.” Now, herb gardens flourish, flowers to go library gardens in lower income areas of New York, and vegetables go to soup kitchens and to cooking classes in the jail.
Jiler says, "This place is about transformation. The students learn that if you can transform this environment, you can transform your life, yourself. We try to use the program at the gardens to help people build self-esteem.” He adds, "Most people view prisons as sinkholes. We want to be contributing to society here. This way, by giving back to projects such as the library gardens, the students feel like part of the community and less marginalized."
People who grew up in the city come to the project unaccustomed to gardens and being in nature. They learn that nature is resilient, which adds to their own resilience. The resurrection of their lives continues when they leave the prison. “Most inmates coming out of Rikers have lost their jobs, homes, sometimes their children to the foster care system, while in jail. The Horticultural Society hires them to work in gardens around the city, which often leads them to further their studies in the field, or helps create a bridge into other types of work.” The resurrection story travels from person to person, taking hold in the world.
* * *
John 20:1-18
Resurrection Birds
It’s no accident that Mary supposes the risen Jesus to be the gardener. Nature offers an infinite number of resurrection stories, if we have the eyes to see them. Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas write about hummingbirds, saying, “They flash in front of flowers and feeders for seconds, wings a blur, and then whiz away. Next they’re back — but before you can gasp at the beauty, they’re off again. A glittering fragment of a rainbow; a flamingo comet; a living gem: All of these metaphors struggle to describe the evanescent magic of hummingbirds. But what they are doing when we don’t see them is more wondrous yet — as I discovered several years ago. Working with a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Brenda Sherburn, one summer I was privileged to help to feed, raise, and release orphaned baby hummingbirds. Too often, people “rescue” baby hummers prematurely, Brenda told me. It’s rare to find a hummingbird nest, but if you do, back off, leave the babies alone, and, using binoculars to watch from a safe distance, observe the nest without looking away for at least twenty minutes. “So few people can just sit still and watch anything that long,” said Sherburn. But if you so much as blink, you could miss the mother’s return. A mother hummingbird leaves the nest from 10 to 110 times a day to find food for her nestlings.”
It takes a huge amount of work for these magical birds to thrive. “To survive, a hummingbird must consume the greatest amount of food per body weight of any vertebrate animal…An adult hummer visits an average of 1,500 flowers in a day. If the nectar were converted to a human equivalent, that would be fifteen gallons a day. But few people realize that insects are equally essential. Each hummingbird needs to catch and eat six to seven hundred bugs a day. (So spraying insecticide in your yard is like hiring a hummingbird exterminator.)”
The authors add, “Reasoning that surely a bird so tiny with feathers so brilliant must be born anew each day, the Spaniards who first encountered South America’s hummingbirds called them “resurrection birds.” This names the gift these birds offered us that summer, with each fleeting glimpse. They force us to see the world made new each time, and teach us to believe in ordinary miracles.”
* * *
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
For the Unconvinced
Both John and Luke, as they tell the story of the resurrection, include the people who need to be convinced. This year, with Covid’s losses, the brutal war in Ukraine, the strangeness of the economy, many of us may fall into that category.
The late Brennan Manning has a word for anyone beginning Easter in this place. He asks, “Are you as certain of the triumph of good over evil as the fermentation of dough by yeast? Though on a given day you may be more depressed than anything else, is the general orientation of your life toward peace and joy? Are you diminished by other people’s perception of you or your own definition of yourself? Do you possess that touch of folly to transcend doubt, fear, and self-hatred and accept that you are accepted?”
“If not, you probably belong to the brotherhood of the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. You may feel like a charred log in a fireplace, totally drained of energy, and unable to light a fire in yourself. Your personal inner resources appear to be exhausted.”
“The first step toward rejuvenation begins with accepting where you are and exposing your poverty, frailty, and emptiness to the love that is everything. Don’t try to feel anything, think anything, or do anything. With all the goodwill in the world you cannot make anything happen. Don’t force prayer. Simply relax in the presence of the God you half believe in and ask for a touch of folly.”
“Should you ever have the opportunity to celebrate Easter in France, you will hear one phrase sung, chanted, and recited in the churches. You will hear it exchanged as an Easter greeting as people pass on the street: “L’amour de Dieu est folie!” — The love of God is folly. This truth reaches out to ragamuffins everywhere. May Jesus Christ convert us to the folly of the gospel.”
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Luke 24:11
Idle tales and deepfakes
The NRSV provides a rather sanitized rendering of the disciples’ reaction to the women’s story of the empty tomb. Their reaction is a bit more along the line of “balderdash” than gossip. We’d call it fake news, or even a deepfake such as the recent fake video that purportedly showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleading with Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender. The heavily manipulated video was quickly debunked and removed from the Internet.
Deepfakes are created using artificial intelligence. Unlike the resurrection, deepfakes try hard — sometimes a bit too hard — to make things look real. The technology that allows computers to swap images and voices is becoming more advanced. “Deepfakes have a significant potential for sinister purpose, already being used in ways linked to abuse, fake news, fraud, explicit misogynist revenge material, and smearing activists to name just a few,” writes Petr Knava. It’s that danger that sparks curiosity about deepfakes he notes. As an example, Knava points to a popular YouTube video that plops comedian Jerry Steinfeld into the classic movie Pulp Fiction.
* * *
John 20:1-18
Belief Beyond Bucha
Filled with grief and confusion, Mary faces the tomb, trying to make sense of the new reality. Suddenly, the chaos of trauma gives way to the slender promise of hope as she hears Jesus call her by name. In a time of tragedy, she begins to experience what it means to be a witness to resurrection.
As Ukrainians attempt to make sense of the atrocities of war, some are discovering that they are also called to be witnesses of resurrection. Ukrainian theologians interviewed by Catholic news site The Pillar have said all aspects of Christian faith and life will need to be reshaped in light of the brutalities that have occurred in the town of Bucha, where more than 320 men, women, and children were raped, tortured, and killed by Russian forces. Like Mary, Ukrainians are peering into the tomb, wondering where God is now.
Fr. Pedro Balog, OP, director of the Institute of St. Thomas Aquinas in Kyiv, reported that he believes Christ has been present in these moments of suffering.
“Today we must recall the words of Christ from the 25th chapter of Matthew, where he says that ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
“When we talk about Bucha, we must say that Christ was raped, Christ was killed, Christ was deprived of his home, his hands were tied, and he was shot. All this was done to those with whom Christ identifies himself.”
“It must be said that God is being crucified again, tortured again. Christ does not say that this applies only to those who believe in Him. He is talking about defenseless people.”
The Pillar noted that as darkness has engulfed the country, many are trying to find signs of hope. Andrii Andrushkiv, a lay theologian, recalled watching cranes return to Kyiv from their wintering habitats recently. “But all their nests were destroyed, and they were just circling over the village. They were like people who came out of the basements and saw that their previous lives were ruined…in Ivankiv [a small town outside Kyiv], I saw a young woman with a newborn child come out of the hospital. And I thought that life goes on after all.”
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:19-26, Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous
Blogger Bob Ellis, former dean of the Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University, admits that the unrelenting stories of death and destruction in Ukraine have often led him to seek out other news. “Yet in the back of my mind,” he writes, the images still play, pictures of destruction and death.”
Ellis writes that his longing for hope led him to stories of how Ukrainians are enduring. These images of “haunting hopefulness” included the fortitude of the sponsors of the annual Kharkiv Music Festival. When it was clear the festival could not go on as normal, organizers rebranded it as a “concert between explosions,” and offered it inside of a subway station turned bomb shelter. Five musicians filled the space with the sounds of Bach, Dvorak, and Ukrainian folk songs.
“For a few subterranean minutes in the middle of chaos, life returned: humanity, beauty, art—a few minutes of joy.”
Ellis also recounts the story of a seven-year-old girl shyly beginning to sing “Let it Go,” from Disney’s “Frozen.” Standing in a bomb shelter, the little girl found her voice. Her voice became a witness to resurrection as she sang,
Let it go, let it go
You’ll never see me cry
Here I stand and here I stay
Let the storm rage on
My power flurries through the air into the ground. . .
Let it go, let it go
When I’ll rise like the break of dawn. . .
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:
John 20:1-8
Why are you crying?
Kaitlyn Schiess posted on social media that at children’s church they were discussing the Last Supper. They had already covered Palm Sunday the week before so they knew what was going on. One little girl said she was scared for Jesus, and another little girl leaned over and whispered, “I’ve heard this story before. He comes back.”
* * *
John 20:1-8
Emptiness and Hope
I am not scared of empty churches. I do not worry about the fact that the face of ministry is changing and that it all must look different, because we are a resurrection people. Emptiness does not scare me. After all, look what God did with an empty tomb.
* * *
Luke 24:1-12
Nobody Expects the Resurrection
One Easter I asked the kids what they thought Jesus said when he came out of the tomb. One child said “you are free” very seriously, the next said, without missing a beat, “Ta-daaaaaaaah!”
* * *
Luke 24:1-12
Surprised by Hope
"I know he doesn't stay dead because I've been reading on ahead." — A young evacuee of mixed religious heritage, listening to Dorothy L. Sayers' radio plays about the life of Christ, "The Man Born to be King," in England in 1943.
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O give thanks to God who is good.
All: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
One: God is our strength and our might.
All: God has become our salvation.
One: This is God’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
All: This is the day that God has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
OR
One: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
All: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
One: The terror of the night is vanquished.
All: The light of day has revealed God’s glory.
One: Christ is alive and death is vanquished.
All: We who were dead are now alive in Christ forevermore.
Hymns and Songs
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
UMH: 302
H82: 188/189
PH: 113
AAHH: 282
NNBH: 121
NCH: 233
LBW: 130
ELW: 369/373
W&P: 288
AMEC: 156
STLT: 268
The Strife is O’er, the Battle Done
UMH: 306
PH: 119
AAHH: 277
NCH: 242
CH: 221
LBW: 135
W&P: 290
AMEC: 162
The Day of Resurrection
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELW: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159/160
Christ Is Risen
UMH: 307
PH: 104
CH: 222
ELW: 383
Thine Be the Glory
UMH: 308
PH: 122
NCH: 253
CH: 218
LBW: 145
ELW: 376
W&P: 310
AMEC: 157
He Lives
UMH: 310
AAHH: 275
NNBH: 119
CH: 226
W&P: 302
Now the Green Blade Riseth
UMH: 311
H82: 204
NCH: 238
CH: 230
LBW: 148
ELW: 379
W&P: 311
STLT: 266
Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
UMH: 312
H82: 214
NCH: 260
W&P: 323
Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain
UMH: 315
H82: 199/200
PH: 114/115
NCH: 230
CH: 215
LBW: 132
ELW: 363
Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
He Has Made Me Glad (I Will Enter His Gates)
CCB: 3
Sing Unto the Lord a New Song
CCB: 16
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is life eternal:
Grant us the faith to trust that our lives are safe in you
as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are life eternal; you have vanquished death in the resurrection of Jesus. Help us to fully enter into the reality of our also being raised with Christ. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to trust our lives into God’s hand.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but we act as if our lives are in our own hands. We worry and fret even after we have done all we can do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy. We are slow to learn from the resurrection of Jesus that our lives are always safe in your hands. Help us to trust you more so that we may live in peace with all that comes our way. Amen.
One: Our lives are safe in God and in the Christ whose Body we are. Rest in God’s love and face the day with peace in your hearts.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God of life and resurrection! You are life and you are the source of all good. You are the one who vanquishes death forever.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but we act as if our lives are in our own hands. We worry and fret even after we have done all we can do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy. We are slow to learn from the resurrection of Jesus that our lives are always safe in your hands. Help us to trust you more so that we may live in peace with all that comes our way.
We give you thanks for our lives and all the blessings that you send our way. We thank you for Jesus who taught us how to trust in you even during the darkest of time. We thank you for his resurrection that proclaims your victory over death not just for him but for all your children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and especially for those who find it so difficult to trust during the dark times of their lives. As you move among us and bring new life out of darkness and death, help us to be your shining light for others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
More Than Egg Hunts and Candy
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
Acts 10:34-43
Themes:
Puppets or finger puppets — One of the puppets should be identified as Peter, who tells the story.
“Hello I am Peter, and I have a special story I would like to tell you. I had a friend named Jesus. Maybe you know him and all the good he did for this world. I truly cared for him and I hope you do too. Jesus loved so deeply that he would do anything to insure the world was a better place. The way the world looked in his eyes was beautiful and good — he brought joy but also heartache. There came a time when my friend Jesus had to leave for a little while. This made me and a lot of other people very sad. But he did not stay away for very long.”
“That is why we’re celebrating today because I witnessed the empty tomb but I need help filling in my story:”
At this point have the puppet ask the children why we celebrate Easter. Personally I don’t think there is any wrong answer to this question.
Thank you so much for helping me to finish tell our story!
Prayer
Loving God we thank you for today.
We thank you for the gift of life and we thank you for your steadfast love.
Help us to be a symbol of your grace.
Praise be to the risen Lord.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 17, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- My Resurrection by Dean Feldmeyer.
- Second Thoughts: Fake News? by Tom Willadsen.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Chris Keating, Katy Stenta.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: More Than Egg Hunts and Candy by Quantisha Mason-Doll.
My Resurrectionby Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 10:34-43, Luke 24:1-12
If you watch television at all, you’ve probably seen this commercial:
Jake from State Farm is visiting the home of Dallas Mavericks center Boban Marjanović where the 7’3” center is kneeling, frantically trying to clean the water rings off his coffee table. Jake explains that assuming all NBA players want rings is the same thing as assuming you can't get a great insurance rate with State Farm. Boban interrupts Jake and angrily laments, “Why do we have coasters if nobody’s going to use them?” and throws down the rag he’s using to scrub the table.
He then looks at Jake whose water glass is sitting on the table, conspicuously coaster-less. Angrily, he sets down a coaster that bears a photo of his smiling face and places the water glass on top of it.
A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that the same question that Boban asks about coasters could easily apply to the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter.
Why do we have resurrection if nobody’s going to use it?
In the Scripture
No, really. If the resurrection is just the reanimation of a corpse that happened one time, 2,000 years ago, what possible difference could it make for you and me?
First, of all, it wasn’t the only resurrection in the Bible. There are at least eight and possibly more. There’s Lazarus, of course, who wasn’t just dead, you will recall, but was really dead. When Jesus arrived at his grave the people said that he was too late, because Lazarus was so long dead that, “he stinketh.” But he was resurrected anyway.
In 1 Kings there’s the resurrection of the widow’s son at Zarephath. (1 Kings 17:17-22) And then, in 2 Kings we have the resurrection of the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4:18-37) and the resurrection of the man who was thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kings 13:20). In Mark 4, there’s the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41) and in Luke we return to Nain where we witness the resurrection of the nameless “young man.” (Luke 7:14) Matthew says that a whole bunch of unnamed “holy people” were resurrected during the crucifixion (Matt. 27:52-53). Likewise, in Matthew, Jesus tells the messengers to go back and tell John the Baptist that the raising of the dead was something that has been happening on a regular basis even though there’s no written record of it up to that point. (Matt. 11: 2-6) And the book of Acts tells us that after the first Easter there was the resurrection of Tabitha/Dorcas (Acts 9:36–42) and the resurrection of Eutychus (Acts 20:7-12).
And don’t get me started on pagan religions. They’re full of resurrection stories.
Then there’s the “so what” factor. Even if it did happen, just as it says in the Bible, even if it is a historical fact, so what? What difference does it make for us?
If all these other resurrections have happened, what makes this resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth so special? Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s not just Jesus’ resurrection, it’s ours as well. Jesus showed us that resurrection from death isn’t just an interesting phenomenon that happened one time a long time ago. And it isn’t just something that happens at the end of our lives.
It isn’t just something that we hear about and learn about and talk about. It’s like Boban’s coasters. It’s something we’re supposed to own AND USE. It’s a metaphor for the authentic life, a reality that is available to us in the midst of life.
In the Culture
The Major League Baseball lockout is finally over and earlier this week, my beloved Cincinnati Reds took the field for their home opener. Opening day is an unofficial holiday in southwest Ohio. Schools and businesses close, or, at the very least, forgive those who are absent and can show with a ticket stub that they were actually at the game.
The day will begin, as it has since 1852, with the Findlay Market Parade, which snakes through downtown from the historic market to the Great American Ballpark, overlooking the Ohio River. All of this falderal will happen, as it does every year, because opening day is, after all, resurrection day for our ball club.
No matter how or where they finished last year, the new year brings new hope. The team, complete with old favorites like 16-year veteran first baseman Joey Votto and new rookies like pitchers Alexis Diaz and Hunter Greene will, it is hoped, spark new life into the team and lead them in being resurrected from the death of last year’s season.
Probably the prime symbol of the resurrection the Reds are hoping for will be riding in the convertible as the Grand Marshall of the parade: Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrows, who suffered what could have been a career ending knee injury in the 2020-2021 season, recovered and led the Bengals to the Super Bowl to end the 2021-2022 season.
The spirit of resurrection permeates sports in America.
Ask any longsuffering Cubs or Mets fan. No matter how rotten they were last season, rare is the fan who doesn’t believe on opening day that “this could be their year.” Ask the fans of the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team who overcame a 15-point deficit at halftime to achieve the biggest comeback win in NCAA Tournament history and take home the championship just a week ago. Ask the fans of Tiger Woods who thought he would never play golf again after nearly losing his leg in an automobile accident just over a year ago and, last week teed off at Augusta to play in the Masters golf tournament. And those are just the ones you might have heard of. There are those who play in the shadows who overcome as much if not more than the pros.
In 2001 competitive swimmer Natalie du Toit was riding on her motor scooter when she was hit suddenly on the side by a careless driver, causing her to lose her left leg just above the knee. Less than two years later she qualified for the finals of the 800-meter freestyle at 2002 Common Wealth Games. In 2008 Natalie qualified for both the Paralympic and Olympic games.
In 2003 Bethany Hamilton was attacked by a 14 foot tiger shark that ripped her left arm off just below the shoulder. By the time she reached the hospital she had lost 70% of her blood. Three weeks later she was back on her surfboard and in 2004 received ESPN’s ESPY award for Best Comeback Athlete of the Year.
Figure skater Scott Hamilton competed and was victorious after being treated for testicular cancer.
Sports does no hold a monopoly on resurrection stories. The world of literature and the arts has plenty of its own.
James Patterson’s first suspense novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was turned down by 31 publishers until it was accepted by Royal Books, Inc. in 1976. The following year, it won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel.
Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune, was rejected by 20 publishers. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was rejected by 40. Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen was turned down by 31 publishers. Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was turned down by 30, and my own first novel, Viper Quarry was turned down by more than a dozen publishers before being accepted by Pocket Books. Then, the following year, it was named one of the five best paperback mystery novels of the year by the Mystery Writers of America and nominated for an Edgar Award.
Resurrection is not something that happens only in response to physical death. It is a possibility that is open to us for all the smaller, symbolic deaths we suffer throughout our lives. Failure, humiliation, ridicule, grief, and loss can all kill our creativity, our hope, our dreams, and our self-esteem. The culture we live in is ready, at a moment’s notice, to pounce on our enthusiasm, our positivity, our aspirations, and our dreams; to call us naïve, wide-eyed, gullible, and ingenuous.
But Easter offers us hope. We can rise from the grave of cynicism, despair, and hopelessness that the world insists on digging for us. We can rise and live again.
In the Sermon
How hopeless and aggrieved must the followers of Jesus have been in the days immediately following that first Good Friday. Their friend murdered. Their hopes dashed. Their ambitions thwarted. Their dreams crushed.
They were so depressed that when they received the good news of his resurrection from the women, they refused to believe it, dismissing it with a vulgar epithet. Only Peter could rouse himself enough to go to the tomb and, even then, after finding it empty, he had to go home and think about what he had heard and seen.
But let’s not be too hard on Peter or his friends. How many of us have turned away the words of comfort and encouragement from those who love us most? How many of us have been so hurt and depressed that, when our friends reach out to us, all we can do is reply in anger, “You just don’t understand!”
And, of course, they don’t. They’re just trying to be helpful and they don’t know what to do or say.
Even our despair can’t undo the reality of the resurrection. Even our anger, righteous as it may be, can’t lessen the promise of new life that is given to us in Jesus Christ.
The wise preacher begins the Easter sermon, as always, in the garden. But we dare not let it end there. Our responsibility as heralds of the Good News is to answer the “So what?” question for our listeners. Resurrection is NOT simply a one off — a single event that happened a long time ago in a land far, far away. It is existential and experiential.
It is ours for the asking. Ours to be claimed, owned, and used.
Just like Boban’s coasters…only more.
SECOND THOUGHTSFake News?
by Tom Willadsen
Luke 24:1-12
In the Church
It’s Easter. The first Easter in three years that we’re not worshiping in the shadow of a pandemic. There’s a decent chance you’re going to see more people in church this Easter morning than you have in a long, long time. You’ll want to bring you’re A game, but don’t forget: the music and flowers add to the worship experience. It’s not all up to you, Preacher.
In the Bible
The Greek term λῆρος (transliterated “lair’ose”) appears only one time on the New Testament. It is rendered into English as “idle talk,” “nonsense,” “delirious talk,” “sheer imagination,” “a fairy tale,” “fables,” “pure nonsense,” “an idle tale,” “foolish talk,” “vain things,” “stupid, useless talk,” “fiction, a lie” and “madness.”
The Message, a paraphrased version of scripture, not a translation, renders the scene this way: “but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.”
Anna Carter Florence renders λῆρος this way `@$?%&!*.
It is likely λῆρος is a vulgar term, something like “total bullshit,” in modern American English. The disciples were tired, devastated, grieving and depressed. They probably were not in a mood to hear something from women that they knew was impossible.
Chances are, you’re not comfortable saying “total bullshit” on Easter Sunday; there will be so many witnesses. Instead tell a story like this one.
If you went to a college basketball game in 1980s and the officials made a close call that went against the home team, you heard the Greek word λῆρος. When that happened at Northwestern University you could count on the partisans chanting “λῆρος, λῆρος!”
And I’ll never forget that one, sweet moment when Northwestern defeated Indiana. It was February 18, 1984 and I was playing trombone in the band. That week, the Hoosiers, coached by the legendary and notorious Bobby Knight, were ranked 17th in the nation. Mr. Knight had a violent temper and late in the second half, while his squad was going down to defeat and the fans and the band were egging him on, Mr. Knight spotted me in the band and said, “Young man, I disagree with your assessment of my institution’s student-athletes. Furthermore, I do not care for your insolent tone.” Bobby Knight was a brilliant basketball coach, but very few people are aware of how articulate he was. He said all that to me with a single finger.
You know what I’m talking about. You know the kinds of words, and gestures that I mean, even though I will not use them in a service of Christian worship does not mean you have never heard them. No one yells at the opposing basketball coach “Idle tale! Idle tale!” No one yells “We beg to differ!” at the referees.
The three women were smacked down, dismissed and insulted when they brought the truth they had seen with their own eyes to the men.
In the News
In the past five years Americans have been hearing the phrase “fake news” to dismiss and undermine facts that are not to the liking of former President Trump and his followers. Prior to the 2016 election, Mr. Trump was never regarded as the poster boy for veracity, the reign of error, however, became even more pervasive and egregious within days of his inauguration as he disputed the size of the crowd on the national mall. Prior to the event he had predicted the crowd would be “astronomical” and “record setting.”
Anyone who saw photos comparing the crowds at President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 with President Trump’s in 2017 could see that the former gathering was substantially larger.
When confronted by this fact, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, delivered a fiery statement in front of the media in which he claimed that “this was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period.”
Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, cited “alternative facts” in an interview.
The controversy over the inauguration’s crowd size was merely the first of many occasions when President Trump, members of his staff, and loyal followers “doubled down” denying basic, indisputable facts. The danger of this kind of discourse is that even credible, trustworthy sources find they cannot be trusted because “everybody has their own agenda.” We saw this repeatedly during the first few months of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Another example of fake news leaking into the mainstream has been the drumbeat of calls for “election integrity.” A majority of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen.” Millions of dollars and hours of legislative time have been spent hunting for voter fraud. At last, voter fraud has been found, huzzah! Of the 3.4 million votes cast in the 2020 election in Arizona, there were nine cases of fraud. Yes, friends, voter fraud is real. A staggering .0002671% of the votes were invalid.
After the most rigorous, thorough and costly examination of voting in American history the facts reveal that our system was extraordinary in 2020. The measures the Arizona legislature has taken to “fix” voter fraud are like prescribing chemotherapy for bad breath.
How do we respond to idle tales, sheer imagination and nonsense today? I fear that most Americans have grown weary of even trying to determine what’s true. We choose instead the comfort of our own biases and the echo chamber of like-minded friends on social media.
In the Sermon
Building on the bridge between λῆρος and fake news, explore what it would take for something true and factual to get through to people are who unable or resistant to hearing the truth. Remember, the disciples in Luke’s gospel do not go all Thomas on the women and say they’ll believe if they see it with their own eyes. They dismiss the women and even the possibility of resurrection.
One might think that the way out can be found in verse 12, “But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.” Peter did his own research; he saw with his own eyes, true. But he didn’t tell anyone. Early texts of Luke do not even have verse 12! How would the story be different if it ended at verse 11, “they did not believe them.”?
The earliest version of Mark’s gospel ends, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8, NRSV)
The fact is, the Good News cannot be suppressed, denied or dismissed. Last week Jesus said to the Pharisees, who told him to get his disciples to pipe down, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Luke 19:40, NRSV)
We know the story of the Resurrection spread from the empty tomb. We’re here because the story has been passed on nearly 2,000 years! It’s preposterous, impossible, sheer imagination, an idle tale, nonsense, and it’s the way, the best way ever that the living God has shown his love for all of Creation. λῆρος is true. Christ is risen. Amen.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Transforming the Wounds
Father Greg Boyle works with young men and women who want to leave gang culture in Los Angeles, supporting them with work programs, education, and tattoo removal. Most of the people he meets have childhood trauma, which turns into trouble with the law and sometimes prison. As they become employed, centered, and more whole, his community members still carry their recovery from addiction, their hurts, and the weight of the past.
Father Greg says, "In the end, all great spirituality is about what to do with our pain. We hesitate to eradicate the pain, since it is such a revered teacher. It re-members us. Our wounds jostle from us what is false and leaves us only with a yearning for the authentically poetic. From there to here. Holiness as a contact sport, busting us open into some new, unfettered place. We are hesitant, then, not to call it God. Remarkable, incredible, and… all the other “-ables.” (from The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle)
On Easter, Jesus comes back with the agony of Good Friday transformed, and he makes faith a contact sport for the disciples who encounter him and find their own pain transformed.
* * *
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Good News Spreads
Every resurrection story needs people to spread the word. We wouldn’t know anything about Easter without people who told people who told people who told us. Inmates at Rikers Island jail have their own story of transformation, which spreads from person to person, and even from plant to person. Rikers Island “holds 12,000 pretrial detainees who can't afford to post bail, as well as 4,000 prisoners sentenced to a year or less in jail. [Some] years ago only overgrown weeds covered the two acres that now make up the Rikers Island gardens. Since that time more than 300 "students," as a select group of Rikers inmates are called, have passed through the prison's GreenHouse Program, run by James Jiler for the Horticultural Society of New York.” Now, herb gardens flourish, flowers to go library gardens in lower income areas of New York, and vegetables go to soup kitchens and to cooking classes in the jail.
Jiler says, "This place is about transformation. The students learn that if you can transform this environment, you can transform your life, yourself. We try to use the program at the gardens to help people build self-esteem.” He adds, "Most people view prisons as sinkholes. We want to be contributing to society here. This way, by giving back to projects such as the library gardens, the students feel like part of the community and less marginalized."
People who grew up in the city come to the project unaccustomed to gardens and being in nature. They learn that nature is resilient, which adds to their own resilience. The resurrection of their lives continues when they leave the prison. “Most inmates coming out of Rikers have lost their jobs, homes, sometimes their children to the foster care system, while in jail. The Horticultural Society hires them to work in gardens around the city, which often leads them to further their studies in the field, or helps create a bridge into other types of work.” The resurrection story travels from person to person, taking hold in the world.
* * *
John 20:1-18
Resurrection Birds
It’s no accident that Mary supposes the risen Jesus to be the gardener. Nature offers an infinite number of resurrection stories, if we have the eyes to see them. Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas write about hummingbirds, saying, “They flash in front of flowers and feeders for seconds, wings a blur, and then whiz away. Next they’re back — but before you can gasp at the beauty, they’re off again. A glittering fragment of a rainbow; a flamingo comet; a living gem: All of these metaphors struggle to describe the evanescent magic of hummingbirds. But what they are doing when we don’t see them is more wondrous yet — as I discovered several years ago. Working with a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Brenda Sherburn, one summer I was privileged to help to feed, raise, and release orphaned baby hummingbirds. Too often, people “rescue” baby hummers prematurely, Brenda told me. It’s rare to find a hummingbird nest, but if you do, back off, leave the babies alone, and, using binoculars to watch from a safe distance, observe the nest without looking away for at least twenty minutes. “So few people can just sit still and watch anything that long,” said Sherburn. But if you so much as blink, you could miss the mother’s return. A mother hummingbird leaves the nest from 10 to 110 times a day to find food for her nestlings.”
It takes a huge amount of work for these magical birds to thrive. “To survive, a hummingbird must consume the greatest amount of food per body weight of any vertebrate animal…An adult hummer visits an average of 1,500 flowers in a day. If the nectar were converted to a human equivalent, that would be fifteen gallons a day. But few people realize that insects are equally essential. Each hummingbird needs to catch and eat six to seven hundred bugs a day. (So spraying insecticide in your yard is like hiring a hummingbird exterminator.)”
The authors add, “Reasoning that surely a bird so tiny with feathers so brilliant must be born anew each day, the Spaniards who first encountered South America’s hummingbirds called them “resurrection birds.” This names the gift these birds offered us that summer, with each fleeting glimpse. They force us to see the world made new each time, and teach us to believe in ordinary miracles.”
* * *
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
For the Unconvinced
Both John and Luke, as they tell the story of the resurrection, include the people who need to be convinced. This year, with Covid’s losses, the brutal war in Ukraine, the strangeness of the economy, many of us may fall into that category.
The late Brennan Manning has a word for anyone beginning Easter in this place. He asks, “Are you as certain of the triumph of good over evil as the fermentation of dough by yeast? Though on a given day you may be more depressed than anything else, is the general orientation of your life toward peace and joy? Are you diminished by other people’s perception of you or your own definition of yourself? Do you possess that touch of folly to transcend doubt, fear, and self-hatred and accept that you are accepted?”
“If not, you probably belong to the brotherhood of the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. You may feel like a charred log in a fireplace, totally drained of energy, and unable to light a fire in yourself. Your personal inner resources appear to be exhausted.”
“The first step toward rejuvenation begins with accepting where you are and exposing your poverty, frailty, and emptiness to the love that is everything. Don’t try to feel anything, think anything, or do anything. With all the goodwill in the world you cannot make anything happen. Don’t force prayer. Simply relax in the presence of the God you half believe in and ask for a touch of folly.”
“Should you ever have the opportunity to celebrate Easter in France, you will hear one phrase sung, chanted, and recited in the churches. You will hear it exchanged as an Easter greeting as people pass on the street: “L’amour de Dieu est folie!” — The love of God is folly. This truth reaches out to ragamuffins everywhere. May Jesus Christ convert us to the folly of the gospel.”
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:Luke 24:11
Idle tales and deepfakes
The NRSV provides a rather sanitized rendering of the disciples’ reaction to the women’s story of the empty tomb. Their reaction is a bit more along the line of “balderdash” than gossip. We’d call it fake news, or even a deepfake such as the recent fake video that purportedly showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleading with Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender. The heavily manipulated video was quickly debunked and removed from the Internet.
Deepfakes are created using artificial intelligence. Unlike the resurrection, deepfakes try hard — sometimes a bit too hard — to make things look real. The technology that allows computers to swap images and voices is becoming more advanced. “Deepfakes have a significant potential for sinister purpose, already being used in ways linked to abuse, fake news, fraud, explicit misogynist revenge material, and smearing activists to name just a few,” writes Petr Knava. It’s that danger that sparks curiosity about deepfakes he notes. As an example, Knava points to a popular YouTube video that plops comedian Jerry Steinfeld into the classic movie Pulp Fiction.
* * *
John 20:1-18
Belief Beyond Bucha
Filled with grief and confusion, Mary faces the tomb, trying to make sense of the new reality. Suddenly, the chaos of trauma gives way to the slender promise of hope as she hears Jesus call her by name. In a time of tragedy, she begins to experience what it means to be a witness to resurrection.
As Ukrainians attempt to make sense of the atrocities of war, some are discovering that they are also called to be witnesses of resurrection. Ukrainian theologians interviewed by Catholic news site The Pillar have said all aspects of Christian faith and life will need to be reshaped in light of the brutalities that have occurred in the town of Bucha, where more than 320 men, women, and children were raped, tortured, and killed by Russian forces. Like Mary, Ukrainians are peering into the tomb, wondering where God is now.
Fr. Pedro Balog, OP, director of the Institute of St. Thomas Aquinas in Kyiv, reported that he believes Christ has been present in these moments of suffering.
“Today we must recall the words of Christ from the 25th chapter of Matthew, where he says that ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
“When we talk about Bucha, we must say that Christ was raped, Christ was killed, Christ was deprived of his home, his hands were tied, and he was shot. All this was done to those with whom Christ identifies himself.”
“It must be said that God is being crucified again, tortured again. Christ does not say that this applies only to those who believe in Him. He is talking about defenseless people.”
The Pillar noted that as darkness has engulfed the country, many are trying to find signs of hope. Andrii Andrushkiv, a lay theologian, recalled watching cranes return to Kyiv from their wintering habitats recently. “But all their nests were destroyed, and they were just circling over the village. They were like people who came out of the basements and saw that their previous lives were ruined…in Ivankiv [a small town outside Kyiv], I saw a young woman with a newborn child come out of the hospital. And I thought that life goes on after all.”
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:19-26, Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous
Blogger Bob Ellis, former dean of the Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University, admits that the unrelenting stories of death and destruction in Ukraine have often led him to seek out other news. “Yet in the back of my mind,” he writes, the images still play, pictures of destruction and death.”
Ellis writes that his longing for hope led him to stories of how Ukrainians are enduring. These images of “haunting hopefulness” included the fortitude of the sponsors of the annual Kharkiv Music Festival. When it was clear the festival could not go on as normal, organizers rebranded it as a “concert between explosions,” and offered it inside of a subway station turned bomb shelter. Five musicians filled the space with the sounds of Bach, Dvorak, and Ukrainian folk songs.
“For a few subterranean minutes in the middle of chaos, life returned: humanity, beauty, art—a few minutes of joy.”
Ellis also recounts the story of a seven-year-old girl shyly beginning to sing “Let it Go,” from Disney’s “Frozen.” Standing in a bomb shelter, the little girl found her voice. Her voice became a witness to resurrection as she sang,
Let it go, let it go
You’ll never see me cry
Here I stand and here I stay
Let the storm rage on
My power flurries through the air into the ground. . .
Let it go, let it go
When I’ll rise like the break of dawn. . .
* * * * * *
From team member Katy Stenta:John 20:1-8
Why are you crying?
Kaitlyn Schiess posted on social media that at children’s church they were discussing the Last Supper. They had already covered Palm Sunday the week before so they knew what was going on. One little girl said she was scared for Jesus, and another little girl leaned over and whispered, “I’ve heard this story before. He comes back.”
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John 20:1-8
Emptiness and Hope
I am not scared of empty churches. I do not worry about the fact that the face of ministry is changing and that it all must look different, because we are a resurrection people. Emptiness does not scare me. After all, look what God did with an empty tomb.
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Luke 24:1-12
Nobody Expects the Resurrection
One Easter I asked the kids what they thought Jesus said when he came out of the tomb. One child said “you are free” very seriously, the next said, without missing a beat, “Ta-daaaaaaaah!”
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Luke 24:1-12
Surprised by Hope
"I know he doesn't stay dead because I've been reading on ahead." — A young evacuee of mixed religious heritage, listening to Dorothy L. Sayers' radio plays about the life of Christ, "The Man Born to be King," in England in 1943.
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O give thanks to God who is good.
All: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
One: God is our strength and our might.
All: God has become our salvation.
One: This is God’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
All: This is the day that God has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
OR
One: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
All: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
One: The terror of the night is vanquished.
All: The light of day has revealed God’s glory.
One: Christ is alive and death is vanquished.
All: We who were dead are now alive in Christ forevermore.
Hymns and Songs
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
UMH: 302
H82: 188/189
PH: 113
AAHH: 282
NNBH: 121
NCH: 233
LBW: 130
ELW: 369/373
W&P: 288
AMEC: 156
STLT: 268
The Strife is O’er, the Battle Done
UMH: 306
PH: 119
AAHH: 277
NCH: 242
CH: 221
LBW: 135
W&P: 290
AMEC: 162
The Day of Resurrection
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELW: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159/160
Christ Is Risen
UMH: 307
PH: 104
CH: 222
ELW: 383
Thine Be the Glory
UMH: 308
PH: 122
NCH: 253
CH: 218
LBW: 145
ELW: 376
W&P: 310
AMEC: 157
He Lives
UMH: 310
AAHH: 275
NNBH: 119
CH: 226
W&P: 302
Now the Green Blade Riseth
UMH: 311
H82: 204
NCH: 238
CH: 230
LBW: 148
ELW: 379
W&P: 311
STLT: 266
Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
UMH: 312
H82: 214
NCH: 260
W&P: 323
Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain
UMH: 315
H82: 199/200
PH: 114/115
NCH: 230
CH: 215
LBW: 132
ELW: 363
Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELW: 631
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
He Has Made Me Glad (I Will Enter His Gates)
CCB: 3
Sing Unto the Lord a New Song
CCB: 16
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is life eternal:
Grant us the faith to trust that our lives are safe in you
as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are life eternal; you have vanquished death in the resurrection of Jesus. Help us to fully enter into the reality of our also being raised with Christ. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to trust our lives into God’s hand.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but we act as if our lives are in our own hands. We worry and fret even after we have done all we can do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy. We are slow to learn from the resurrection of Jesus that our lives are always safe in your hands. Help us to trust you more so that we may live in peace with all that comes our way. Amen.
One: Our lives are safe in God and in the Christ whose Body we are. Rest in God’s love and face the day with peace in your hearts.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory to you, O God of life and resurrection! You are life and you are the source of all good. You are the one who vanquishes death forever.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We profess our faith in you but we act as if our lives are in our own hands. We worry and fret even after we have done all we can do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy. We are slow to learn from the resurrection of Jesus that our lives are always safe in your hands. Help us to trust you more so that we may live in peace with all that comes our way.
We give you thanks for our lives and all the blessings that you send our way. We thank you for Jesus who taught us how to trust in you even during the darkest of time. We thank you for his resurrection that proclaims your victory over death not just for him but for all your children.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need and especially for those who find it so difficult to trust during the dark times of their lives. As you move among us and bring new life out of darkness and death, help us to be your shining light for others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
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CHILDREN'S SERMONMore Than Egg Hunts and Candy
by Quantisha Mason-Doll
Acts 10:34-43
Themes:
- Meaning of Easter — Jesus overcoming death for all of us.
- God’s love and God’s promise to care for creation.
Puppets or finger puppets — One of the puppets should be identified as Peter, who tells the story.
“Hello I am Peter, and I have a special story I would like to tell you. I had a friend named Jesus. Maybe you know him and all the good he did for this world. I truly cared for him and I hope you do too. Jesus loved so deeply that he would do anything to insure the world was a better place. The way the world looked in his eyes was beautiful and good — he brought joy but also heartache. There came a time when my friend Jesus had to leave for a little while. This made me and a lot of other people very sad. But he did not stay away for very long.”
“That is why we’re celebrating today because I witnessed the empty tomb but I need help filling in my story:”
At this point have the puppet ask the children why we celebrate Easter. Personally I don’t think there is any wrong answer to this question.
Thank you so much for helping me to finish tell our story!
Prayer
Loving God we thank you for today.
We thank you for the gift of life and we thank you for your steadfast love.
Help us to be a symbol of your grace.
Praise be to the risen Lord.
Amen.
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The Immediate Word, April 17, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
