Immediate Word

March 27, 2005

Easter Sunday| Cycle A

Dear Fellow Preacher,

As Holy Week moves toward Easter, there are many disturbing stories in our news media, including, once again, killings at a high school, this time at the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Well might we ask the question King Zedekiah plaintively put to Jeremiah, "Is there any word from the Lord?" (Jeremiah 37:16).

While acknowledging the bad news, George Murphy, our lead writer for this Easter issue of The Immediate Word, assures us that there is indeed good news: God has raised Jesus from the dead, and all other news stories must be seen in light of this, the lead story for the greatest celebration of the church year.

As usual, we include helps for the planning of a memorable service -- team comments, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.

Happy Easter to you and yours.


Our Lead Story
Matthew 28:1-10 or John 20:1-18
Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4
By George Murphy

What's going to be the big news next week? At the time of writing, Terri Schiavo in Florida is no longer receiving food and water artificially, but the United States Congress has intervened in hopes that federal courts will get sustenance restored to her. The inspiring story of Elizabeth Ashley Smith, who was able to communicate with a fugitive killer in Atlanta and bring about his peaceful capture, will probably still be in the news. Democracy seems to be stirring in the Middle East and there may be new developments there. Basketball's March Madness will be reaching its climax and the baseball season will be starting. It's possible though that some dramatic and surprising event may burst upon the world and we'll all be gathered around televisions to hear about it.

But the really big news will be what we hear in one of the assigned Gospel Readings for the day, Matthew (28:1-10): "[Jesus] has been raised from the dead."

Back in 1969, when the Apollo 11 astronauts returned from the first human landing on the moon, President Nixon met them on the deck of the aircraft carrier that picked them up and in his remarks said that the previous week had been the most important in the world's history since the creation. Billy Graham quickly corrected him. The week that ended with the first Easter, he said, was the most important. He was right.

Every week at The Immediate Word we try to relate one or more of the lectionary texts to some prominent event or phenomenon in the current news. But in this week of all weeks it's appropriate to look at things a bit differently. This week Easter is the headline news. It's news -- not just data or some religious principle.

Of course the way we think of news today, when we have 24-hour news channels and the internet, is very different from the way people knew it in biblical times -- or for that matter, even a century ago. But some of the same ideas apply. The evangel, the "good news" that stems from the resurrection of Jesus, is kerygma, the message proclaimed by a herald, a keryx. It's the word brought by the messenger coming over the mountains "who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns' " (Isaiah 52:7b). It's the cry of the exhausted Greek courier coming into the city from the field of Marathon -- "Rejoice, we conquer." A hundred years ago it would have been the "Extra, extra, read all about it" news and today it's a "We break into our regular programming" bulletin.

We can see the kerygmatic quality of the message from the way the stories about the empty tomb are told. Stories plural, because there's more than one and while they agree in their broad outlines, some details are rather different. Of course these texts were written down decades after the event, but we can perhaps still see some of the things we might expect in accounts from witnesses who are excited and naturally somewhat confused about what happened, accounts that moreover were transmitted through different channels. The lectionary this year gives us two choices for the gospel, the one from Matthew and John 20:1-18. In the first, two women go to the tomb while in John, Mary Magdalene goes alone -- but in verse 2 the reference to "we" indicates that at some level there were understood to be others.

(Speaking of "accounts" shouldn't be taken to mean that these texts are straight historical reporting. They are theological accounts and the effects of theological redaction -- "editing," if we want a news-related term -- have to be considered.)

But the primary sign of the kerygmatic character of these texts is in their central announcement. Matthew is clearest in this regard: "I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said." This is not simply the conveying of information -- for the transmission of data does not produce the kind of numinous awe that is suggested by the phrase "fear and great joy" that describes the women's reaction. It is surprising and unexpected news -- not just a "believe it or not story" that somebody returned from the dead but an electrifying report that the humiliated one is exalted and the defeated one is victor.

The earthquake of verse 2 -- corresponding to the one at the moment of Jesus' death in 27:51 -- should not be ignored. What happens on this Sunday morning is indeed "earthshaking news."

One of the suggested First Readings, Acts 10:34-43, perhaps makes the point even more clearly. This is one of the texts from Acts we'll have during the Easter season in which we have accounts of the missionary preaching of the early church. And the core of that preaching is always the news of the resurrection: "God raised him of the third day."

You all know that preaching on Easter is a real challenge. It's hard to come up with a way to proclaim the message that measures up to the importance of the day. There will be people in church on that day who don't come very often, and some of them have only the haziest idea of the gospel. How can you get them to realize that something more is involved than some vague ideas about new life in the spring? And for that matter, what can be said to regular churchgoers who have heard so many sermons and need something fresh?

To begin with, focus on the character of the Easter gospel as news. This is not the best time to try to prove the truth of the resurrection by detailed historical and literary analysis. That's an important task, but for a different time and probably an educational setting. (Nor, for that matter, is it a time to explain that the Easter message can give us hope even if Jesus isn't really risen. It's never the time for that, because it's false.) What should be emphasized is the quality of the story as breaking news and its exciting air of complete reversal of expectations. The women come to the tomb hopeless. Of course they're hopeless: Their friend and leader has been killed and everyone knows that the dead stay dead. The messenger at the tomb makes a point of announcing not just that Jesus, but Jesus "who was crucified," has been raised. It is the great "eucatastrophe" in Tolkien's phrase. It is the impossible that only God can do.

Christians do need to grow in their understanding of the faith and should be exhorted to live in accord with it. But it's a serious mistake to think that once people have been "saved" we can move on beyond the basic gospel message to supposedly more advanced topics. Even the most advanced Christian still needs to hear as breaking news, "Jesus who was crucified has been raised and for his sake your sins are forgiven."

When we've heard startling news, the first reaction may be shock -- or "fear and great joy." But when we do start thinking we begin to ask, "What if this is really true? What does this mean? The early Christians very quickly began to see that in order to do justice to this news of the resurrection of the crucified then Jesus could not just be an ordinary human being. As a human being he is the Messiah and "Lord of all" and because of him a new relation with God in which sins are forgiven comes about (Acts 10:36 and 43). What was proclaimed on Easter is not just an item in the back pages of our local paper. It has cosmic significance, so that language of "new creation" is used to speak of its effects.

Now all of this attention to Easter itself as our lead news story does not mean that on this Sunday we have to ignore all the other things in the news. In fact, if the resurrection of the crucified is a genuinely cosmic event then we ought to be deliberate about looking at all the other things in the news in light of that event.

The saga of Terri Schiavo has been in the news off and on for years and suddenly came to the fore again in the past few days. (This happened so quickly that it wasn't one of the stories that we talked about at The Immediate Word when we were thinking about this week's installment.) Her feeding tube has now (Monday, March 21, 2005) been removed but the United States Congress has passed a bill to give federal courts jurisdiction in her case. At this point we don't know whether she'll be allowed to die now or be put back on life support.

Christians will have different takes on this matter. Some will see the insistence of her parents that food and hydration be continued, the crowds praying for her and the support of congress and the president as an inspiring sign of the triumph of life over death. We can empathize with the feelings of her family while still recognizing that there are other aspects of the story. There is the likelihood that family members in such a situation are deluding themselves that a person in a persistent vegetative state really is aware and responding to them. More important for our present topic is the implication that maintenance of physical life is our greatest hope, so that metabolic processes should be continued for every possible minute.

The courageous actions of Elizabeth Ashley Smith in helping to bring about the peaceful capture of accused killer Brian Nichols in Atlanta have been pushed off the front page by the Schiavo case but are still worthy of attention. A woman who just four years earlier had experienced her own murdered husband die in her arms and is struggling to raise a young daughter by herself wouldn't seem the most likely person to handle such a situation so well. She not only arranged his capture without further bloodshed but was able to talk with him about the significance of his actions and life and share something of her faith. It's not hard to see this as a story of the triumph of life over death.

And there are the other stories I mentioned in the opening paragraph. Elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories and the demands for democracy by demonstrators in Lebanon are just a beginning, and it's still a long way to real political transformation in the Middle East, but something does seem to have started. Even the sporting news can suggest hope. At the beginning of the baseball season the fans of even the lowliest team in the majors can be optimistic about chances for the coming season.

But none of these stories is an unambiguous message of resurrection. To think that would be of a piece with the naive notion that the blooming of flowers and the singing of birdies in the spring are what Easter is really about. And in fact that's the way a lot of people think of the relationship: Easter is just one inspiring story of the victory of life, or faith, or hope, alongside the reawakening of the earth in spring or some other story of the triumph of the human spirit.

In reality, the resurrection theme is hidden, and at best ambiguous, in all the stories we've mentioned. Terri Schiavo will either die soon or be maintained in a vegetative state lacking the distinctively human features of life, and there will be people who will think that the situation was handled badly no matter which way it goes. It may be nice that Brian Nichols surrendered peacefully -- nice for him. But what about his victims? Would justice have been better served if he had been killed in his escape attempt instead of being returned for what will no doubt be years in prison? Signs of democracy in the Middle East are encouraging -- for those who think that democracy is good. Those who believe that Islamic theocracy is the only legitimate kind of government are not so happy about recent developments. And no matter how hopeful fans are about their teams on opening day, we know that by June some of those teams will be firmly embedded in the cellar.

In Romans 6:3-11 Paul says that, because Christians have been united with the death of Christ in baptism, they will also share in his resurrection life. It is a short step, but a disastrous one, to say the resurrection of Christians has already happened, and that even now they have the fullness of that new life. At least by the time of 2 Timothy there were those like "Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by claiming that the resurrection has already taken place" (2:17-18). Our Easter text from Colossians (which may or may not be by Paul) goes somewhat beyond the language of Romans without endorsing that "swerve."

"If you have been raised," the text begins: there is still something to seek. The new life that a person has been given "is hidden with Christ in God." That new life is not a private possession that a person has, but it exists only by virtue of one's relationship with Christ, and will not be revealed fully until the final coming of Christ.

In the same way perhaps we can think of the effects of Christ's resurrection working their way through historical and current events, permeating the world, but usually beneath the surface. It is only when we place those events in the context of Good Friday and Easter that we see their theological significance. And when we do that we can see that not only the lives of some individuals but the whole world is being transformed by those events that took place "under Pontius Pilate."

The news of the world can be depressing. There are wars, scandals, crimes, and warnings about economic and environmental problems. Christians should be encouraged to look at the news, large and small, in the context of what should always be the lead story. Jesus was indeed crucified, and there are other forms of crucifixion still going on. But Jesus has been raised from the dead, so that there is hope for the whole world.



Team Comments

Chris Ewing responds: "If the resurrection of the crucified is a genuinely cosmic event, then we ought to be deliberate about looking at all the other things in the news in light of that event." Here George Murphy has nailed one of the most challenging issues facing the church, that of enculturation. We do not, by and large, view the news from the vantage point of the gospel; rather, we view the gospel from the vantage point of our culture and our individual personal histories. This is, to some extent, unavoidable; what makes it problematic is that we are generally quite oblivious to the fact that we are doing so.

Edward Hays, in Blaine M. Ward's The Art of Storytelling (Educational Ministries Inc., 1990), spins a captivating tale of an Ethiopian tattoo shop in old Jerusalem. He imagines someone traveling to the holy city of Jerusalem on pilgrimage who, wandering the narrow, stone-paved streets of the old city, comes to the doorway of a shop that seems as ancient and mysterious as the very foundations of the earth. Half enticed, half afraid, he peers inside, and as his eyes adjust to the dimness, he sees an ancient Ethiopian who smiles at him, and asks if he would like a tattoo.

A tattoo? An Ethiopian tattoo from Old Jerusalem, for a pilgrim who will soon go home to Kansas?

"Does it hurt?" he asks.

"You feel nothing!" assures the Ethiopian. "For generations my family has been tattooing our people who come to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. Not only are the designs ancient, so are the methods. I will tattoo you as my father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather tattooed -- without pain!"

"Will I have to take some kind of drug?" the pilgrim wondered.

"No! Not at all! I will tell you a story, and it will absorb you so that there will be no room in you for pain. Close your eyes and listen. Each story is not long, but you will see how it can fill every corner of your consciousness."

So the pilgrim sat down and closed his eyes, and the Ethiopian began.

All night long the Ethiopian unfurled story after story, and they were not long, but they filled every corner of the pilgrim's consciousness, and there was no pain, only the transport of another world.

When dawn tiptoed into the tattoo shop and the stories came to an end, the pilgrim stretched and opened his eyes, and the Ethiopian said to him, "You cannot see them now, but your entire body is covered with the invisible images of the stories and the symbols of my people. They are indelibly tattooed on your inner self, and they will be seen, back in Kansas, for they are Ethiopian, and they will be a part of you for as long as you exist."

Like that pilgrim who went home forever changed after a night of listening to stories, we are changed, we are shaped, by the stories that fill our consciousness -- and very often they are not the stories of the gospel. With television, Internet, and advertising, with Disney videos and music videos and more bombarding us from every direction: we and our children are being steeped in stories that have nothing to do with the gospel; and by sheer overkill we are being persuaded that they are true. The stories of our culture, the stories that we are constantly encouraged to live by, come from news reports, full-colour magazine ads, bestsellers, billboards, websites, reruns of Seinfeld, Oprah tapes and teenage summer movies -- and where their messages come from God only knows! Far too many come from places we would not want to linger. Yet our heads are full of them. For the church in such an environment, keeping ahead of the competition -- or even recognizing the competition for what it is -- is a constant struggle.

Perhaps this is never more evident than at Easter, when the rationalistic heritage of the enlightenment combines with the woolly spiritual free-for-all of the culture that spawns Touched by an Angel and My Heart Will Go On to make us hear the resurrection story with a peculiar mix of skepticism and nostalgic longing. Very few in our pews will hear this story in its biblical matrix; they will instead hear it in the matrix of nonbiblical, contradictory and largely unexamined cultural stories that can make it almost impossible for the biblical message to be heard.

How, then, do we break through the cultural conditioning to allow even the possibility of a Christian kerygma being heard? This is a long-term, multi-pronged project. Finding ways to tell, retell, and tell over again the stories of the faith to a generation bombarded with other stories is crucial. Encouraging people to reflect critically and theologically both on the faith stories and the cultural ones is also vital. These things need to happen in worship and in educational and pastoral settings.

As to how to deal with the challenges of this Sunday, the Easter service itself, our lead writer has rightly identified that we need to capture the "breaking news" quality of the kerygma, and the way that it completely reverses expectations. This is perhaps best accomplished, at least initially, by building some drama into the liturgy. The Whole People of God Sunday school and worship resource several years ago had a wonderful suggestion for opening the Easter service with the sanctuary bare and darkened and "Peter" entering the pulpit to lead the congregation in a funeral service for Jesus. He had only just begun to speak when he was interrupted by Mary Magdalene racing down the centre aisle of the church to exclaim that the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive. With that, the choir burst into jubilant song, the lights came on, flowers, clusters of helium balloons and other decorations were carried in, the cross was draped with butterfly-studded tulle, and the entire atmosphere was transformed. It was a stunning experience of the resurrection as breaking news. When the news has been experienced with such immediacy and power, the sermon can then go on to put some legs under the story, pointing out how we can carry it out to encounter the stories of our day-to-day world.

Carlos Wilton responds: I'm going to take your suggestion, George, and give some attention to the earthquake Matthew mentions in 28:2. For him it's more than a merely incidental detail. As you point out, an earthquake also occurs in 27:51, immediately after Jesus dies on the cross.

To many people's minds in our culture, Easter is a lovely, peaceful rite of spring. Yet Matthew's Easter story is anything but peaceful. Jesus' death and resurrection shake the old order to its foundations. It's no wonder the disciples depart the empty tomb "with fear and great joy!" At first glance, joy and fear may seem an incongruous combination, a sort of theological oxymoron. But to Matthew, the coming together of these two powerful emotions makes perfect sense. The defeat of death and evil must necessarily occur not with a whimper, but with a bang.

Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh, in their Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Fortress, 2003), p. 140, point out that "in the first-century Mediterranean, earthquakes were believed to be cause by sky events. Now, the celestial being the women see looked like lightning, in a garment white as snow -- all features of a being from the sky." The earthquake has angelic origins. The barrier between heaven and earth is not easily breached, and when it is, the very earth shakes with the recoil.

So, too, Easter is an earthshaking experience. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything, as John Chrysostom noted centuries ago in his famed Easter sermon, which is still read aloud each year in many Eastern Orthodox churches:

"Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep."

Chrysostom's words describe an event that's a far cry from marshmallow chicks and frilly spring dresses. The resurrection shakes the old order to its foundations!

Mary Boyd Click responds: I'm glad to hear George taking some of the pressure off preachers on Easter. We preachers forget that this news of Christ's resurrection is so "out of the box" that it defies categorization. We forget that all we are called to do is point to it, like John the Baptist in so many classical paintings. All we have to do is tell the story, describe it, get excited about it, believe it, and let it sail away on the Spirit. We tend to forget that the developing faith of parishioners has a much wider context than this one Sunday. People will hear the Good News through the one standing in the pulpit, a real human being whom they know and trust and believe, but they will also hear it through the love and ministry of a community that sustains them. So Easter Sunday preachers need not become paralyzed by the task ahead of you this week. If you really want the Good News to come through in you, then free yourself from the fear of trying to say it all and allow your playful imagination to convey the passion and power of today's text.

George raises a good question in this week's focus. How will people in our congregations hear the good news of Easter as news that is really like no other news? The Easter message is more than any ordinary news headline can convey. To Matthew, Easter is more than a mind trip, more than metaphorical remembrance. It is the day for "R" words like Resurrection and new Reality. Christ has been raised from the dead. Resurrected. Not resuscitated. Not reincarnated. Not simply rescued and returned to the way things used to be. But resurrected. Life given once again after the old has completely gone.

Easter is like no other news because it was totally unpredictable. I'm not talking about this spring's crazy weather or how one determines the date of Easter. I'm talking about the sheer lack of logic to this whole Easter thing -- this business of a dead man coming back into this life, a dead faith given new life, a dead hope for humanity rising palpably once again within the human heart. Who would have ever predicted that after what the world did to Jesus Christ on Good Friday, God would still want to stay in relationship with human beings? And furthermore, who would guess that God would give to the world in Christ, a sneak preview of the new reality that awaits us?

For Matthew the resurrection is earth-shattering news. Of all the gospel writers, Matthew uniquely mentions that the world awakened that morning to the rumble of an earthquake. The two Marys were out of breath when they arrived at the tomb of Jesus. A lottery-winning angel had flexed his muscles, dug in his heels, and rolled the stone away from the tomb. I like to imagine that this angel-of-the-hour then dusted his hands together and, happy as a lark, plopped on top of that stone and sat there, legs swinging, lips smiling, and whistling, just waiting for people to come by for the cosmic "show and tell." At his feet lay the limp bodies of the governor's once tough-talking guards. Matthew says they looked dead, utterly powerless. What a picturesque contrast between earthly power and divine power on this day of great awakenings, a day of wild reversals and ironic humor!

Here's another picturesque scene. Back in the 1990s when Presbyterian minister Bill Carl drove up to his church early on Easter morning, he expected to see the cross on the front lawn of the church, draped in white. Instead he saw a splintered fraction of a beam protruding like a dagger from the ground. The night before, the Texas wind had snapped the cross in half, about two feet below the juncture of the two beams. The decapitated limbs were propped against a nearby flowerbed. Momentarily he gasped. Then, slowly, he began to smile, thinking what a wonderful, throbbing symbol of God's resurrection power on Easter Sunday morning! God broke the backbone of death!

For Matthew, Easter is a picture of such a shattering encounter with a new reality -- the reality of our risen Christ whose Spirit has been let loose upon our world. It is good news that makes all other news not irrelevant but relevant. The world can now be seen in a new light; even the past can be replayed in a new light. With that in mind, Matthew sends us, along with the two Marys, away from the tomb and back into the real world. "Go to Galilee and there you will see the risen Lord," Go back to Galilee! Go back to where it all began, where Jesus ministered to "the least" of these, where he got his hands dirty, where he ate with sinners, healed the blind, maimed and mute, and crossed boundaries between the clean and unclean.

Where is the Galilee to which we direct our parishioners? It's the one right outside our church. Easter is a good Sunday for simply shooing the folks right out the door. It's a good Sunday for challenging them to go find the news they seek -- evidence of the risen Christ hidden in the lives of people they meet every day. They will find his Spirit alive and at work in healing fellowships that form between cancer patients and in the grace of those ministering to prisoners. The Spirit of Christ is hidden and working in the lives of those who encourage the unemployed, adopt the orphaned, educate the illiterate, sustain the oppressed, console the lonely, house the homeless, calm the fearful, offer hope to the broken hearted. There's plenty of work to do in the Galilees that surround every community of faith.

Before we hide the Easter eggs in the town square, however, Christians should humbly keep in mind that Easter is still an earthshaking day of tragic remembrance for some. Throughout history Christians have had a track record of proclaiming God's resurrecting power with both smugness and insensitivity. In our smugness we cover crosses with daffodils as if death never happens. In our insensitivity to non-Christian neighbors, we forget that all of our gussying up for Easter is a vivid reminder to European Jews that Good Friday used to be the most frightening day of the year. It was a day when Christians looking for scapegoats hunted down Jews. We have celebrated Easters in recent years in the U.S. while Serbian Christians broke into Muslim homes in Kosovo and carved crosses on the faces of some of their victims. Human beings are capable of turning the very finest gift God has given us into an exercise of triumphalistic self-righteousness. There can be a negative side to Christian celebrations at Easter. As U.S. soldiers occupy the Muslim nation of Iraq, it is a good year to live out the spirit of humility that characterized our Lord's life and ministry.

In his book, Why Christian? (Fortress Press) theologian Doug Hall writes that he is mystified by the resurrection. He confesses, "I don't claim to understand it, but I do stand under it." And that is where we find ourselves on most Easter mornings. Like Hall, we don't claim to understand it, and neither did the disciples who ran to the tomb. Together we all stand under it, as we stand in awe of God's re-creative power.

One year during Lent I led a group in my church in a series of classes titled "Holy Living, Holy Dying." Each night we discussed some aspect of our experiences with the death and dying of loved ones. One evening we talked about what we think happens to our bodies after we die. Are they resurrected and in what form? Do I still have the same second toe that's longer than my big toe? Will I be resurrected with my 55-year-old body or my 25-year-old body? The discussion went all over the map, as one can imagine. I mentioned that people sometimes confide to me that they do not want to have their bodies cremated because they are afraid that it will prevent God from being able to raise them to new life. I told them that such statements truly amuse me because that kind of thinking assumes that God needs some sort of "starter dough" in order to get us going again!

God created this whole world out of nothing -- absolutely nothing! The resurrection of Christ tells us that God can do it all over again! Indeed, God has done it all over again in Jesus Christ, the first born of the new creation. Who knows how it all happens? Like Hall, I don't claim to understand it, but I do stand under it and I will celebrate it on Easter day.


Related Illustrations

From Carlos Wilton:

The awareness of the grandeur and the sublime is all but gone from modern man. We teach our children how to measure, how to weigh. We fail to teach them how to revere, how to sense wonder and awe. The sense for the sublime, the sign of the inward greatness of the soul is now a rare gift. Yet without it, the world becomes flat and the soul a vacuum. Here is where the Biblical view of reality must serve as our guide.

The sublime is that which we see and are unable to convey. It is the silent allusion of things to a meaning greater than themselves. It is that which our words, our forms, our categories can never reach. The sublime is but a way in which things react to the presence of God. It stands in relation to something beyond itself that the eye can never see. The sublime is not simply there. It is not a thing. It is a happening, an act of God, a marvel. There are no sublime facts; there are only divine acts.
-- Abraham Joseph Heschel, Between God and Man

***

Nevertheless, fear has been much forgotten -- both by the world and by Christians in general. We rush toward angels unafraid. We approach the blazing furnaces of the seraphim with no more apprehension than children who reach laughingly for fire.

This fearlessness is not a sign of the character of God, as if God has changed through the centuries that divide us from Moses and Isaiah, from Zechariah and Mary and the shepherds. Rather, it is a sign of the character of this present age, of arrogance or of ignorance, whether or not one admits to a living God.
-- Walter Wangerin, Preparing for Jesus (Zondervan, 1999), pp. 59-60

***

During all the years of Communist domination in eastern Europe, the church had a very difficult time -- and in no country did it have a harder time than in the country formerly known as Czechoslovakia. Ever since the day in 1968 when Soviet tanks rolled through Prague, the church was repressed. Christians were forbidden to evangelize. They had to be careful about how they spoke in public. They could post no public notices, not even on their church buildings. They were forbidden even to ring their church bells.

Then, in November 1989, came "the Velvet Revolution." A group of university students confronted a group of young soldiers. Everybody took to the streets, and in a few days it became apparent that the Communist regime was history.

On November 27 at noon, everybody in the country was to walk out of their homes, their businesses, their schools. Every bell in every church would be rung, in celebration. And that's exactly what happened.

The pastor of one of the churches, Dr. Vilem Schneeberger, realized that for the first time in years he would be able to post a sign out in front of his church building. On the sign, out of all the things he could have written, he chose to write four words: "The Lamb Has Won."

What a truth that is -- what an Easter truth! What a victory that is -- what an Easter victory!

The Lamb has won! Not the Russian bear, but the Lamb!

The Lamb has won! Not the British lion, but the Lamb!

The Lamb has won! Not the American eagle, but the Lamb!

That's the Easter message: there is no other Lord than the one who has rolled away the stone, left his tomb, and gone before us into Galilee.

***

A good few years ago, I heard a distinguished American scholar of ancient history commenting on the proclamation of the resurrection as it would have been heard in the classical world. "If an educated Greek or Roman had been told that someone had been raised from the dead," he said, "his first question would have been 'How do you get him back into his grave again?' " The point was that most of those who first heard the Easter gospel would have found it grotesque or even frightening.

Resurrection was not a joyful sign of hope but an alarming oddity, something potentially very dangerous. The dead, if they survived at all, lived in their own world -- a shadowy place, where they were condemned to a sort of half-life of yearning and sadness. So Virgil at least represents it in his great epic, unforgettably portraying the dead as "stretching out their hands in longing for the other side of the river."

But for them to return would have been terrifying and unnatural; the boundaries between worlds had to be preserved and protected.

Even the ancient Hebrews, who first made resurrection a positive idea, thought of the condition of the dead in just such a way: and resurrection was something that would happen at the end of time, when the good would be raised to receive their reward and the wicked their punishment, as in the prophecy of Daniel. But the news that someone had been raised from the tomb now would have been as disturbing for the Jew as for the Greek, if not perhaps quite so straightforwardly frightening.

When St. Matthew tells us that between the death and the ascension of Jesus many holy people of older days left their tombs in Jerusalem and appeared to many in the city, he is portraying not a scene of happy reunion but a true earthquake in the established order of the universe.

It all helps us make sense of that unmistakable element in the resurrection stories in the gospels that speaks of terror and amazement.
-- Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, Easter Sunday 2004

***

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realised the new wonder; but even they hardly realised that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.
-- G. K. Chesterton

From Mary Boyd Click:

"Resurrection is no gentle pushing away of soil to make room for new life. It is more than metaphor."
-- Barbara Lundblad

***

Years ago, when the legendary Baptist preacher Carlyle Marney spoke to a group of students at Duke University, one of them asked him to talk about the resurrection of the dead. Marney replied, "I will not discuss that with people like you." "Why not?" the student asked. Marney replied, "I don't discuss such matters with anyone under thirty. Look at you," he said, "in the prime of life, potent -- never have you known honest to God failure, heartburn, impotency, solid defeat, brick walls, mortality. So what can you know of a dark world which only makes sense if Christ is raised?"

***

"The Resurrection of Christ blows a new purifying wind into the present world."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

From Chris Ewing:

One of the things that anyone under occupation will tell you is that they refused to speak the language of the occupier.... We too should refuse to speak the language of the occupier; it is not now German or Russian but the language of the market, where they speak of service providers and clients, of stakeholders and of the bottom line.
-- Ursula Franklin, Professor of Physics (ret.), Toronto

***

Wouldn't it be something if we (in the church) could show the world the transforming power of a gospel that turns ideological opponents into brothers and sisters who love one another, who can't stop enjoying ... praying ... caring for ... protecting one another? If we did that, the world might even find us interesting again.
-- Rev. John Buchanan

***

Then there's the cartoon showing two Roman soldiers standing in front of the empty tomb. One says to the other, "Well, now the only thing that's for certain is taxes!"
-- John Cunningham

***

A nationwide survey of 4,510 adults conducted by the Angus Reid Group shows that 78 percent of Canadians consider themselves Christian. Yet only 20 percent read their Bibles even once a week. For many churchgoers it wouldn't matter if they didn't own a Bible, considering they rarely read it anyway.

Maybe they hope what they hear in church on Sundays will get them through. The pulpit has the power to foster a healthy, hopeful outlook on life. We become what we hear. Alas, fifteen minutes of even the most profound pulpit rhetoric isn't enough. And thirty minutes of Christian education for the children downstairs isn't enough either.

The fact is, most people only vaguely remember on Monday what they heard on Sunday. According to a recent study by Stanford University, we need to hear something 7 times in order to form an opinion. It takes an additional 7 times to internalize what's heard. And a person must hear a truth 11 times in order to change a false conception. So, if you ever hear the preacher say something you've heard before, chances are it's at least the seventh time it's been said.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God says, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds." Some orthodox Jews literally do that. They attach portions of Scripture to little tags they wear against their chest or inside their hat. These tags, or phylacteries, are a symbol that God's Word is precious to the Jewish people.

Scripture shows how God has been revealed to humans of Jewish and Christian heritage. And Scripture reveals God with fresh relevance today. Yet as Saint Paul asks in Romans, "How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?" The Bible gives us glimpses of God, but how will we glimpse God if we don't know what's in the Bible? And how will we ever know what's in the Bible considering only 20 percent of Christians read the Bible?

In 1987, over 300 clergy were asked, "What do you feel is the major reason Christians don't read the Bible?" Their top two answers: "lack of discipline" (48 percent) and "lack of time" (44 percent). It's also worth noting that people today aren't inclined to read, period. Many people fail to read a single book -- religious or otherwise -- in a whole year.
-- Editorial (excerpt) in the Anglican Diocese of Huron Church News, October 1995

***

Less than 50 percent of U.S. Christians say the most important aspect of Christmas is the birth of Jesus. Of those surveyed by Barna, 88 percent classified themselves as Christians, but only 37 percent considered Christ's birth the most significant part of Christmas; 44 percent rated "family time" as most important.
-- Quoted by Jim Spanogle in November 1997

***

When my son was a four-year-old acolyte, my colleague and I got all decked out for Easter. He in his butterfly bedecked chasuble, and I in my stole and academic hood. With the three of us really fancy, my four-year-old son looked at us and said, "When we go out there, let's say 'Trick or Treats!' "
-- Roger Harano

***

From a newspaper article on coming back to church as an adult: "As a religious being, I am but an awkward toddler, still learning the rituals and history of my chosen denomination. Wrestling with larger issues of faith is somewhere off in my future...."
-- Jennifer Grange, quoted in the Toronto Globe and Mail, September 3, 1996

***

Donn Brammer offers this important exegetical question: "So why does God want me to hear this story?"


Worship Resources
By George Reed

OPENING

N.b.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.

For those who generally use a prayer of confession or have included one specifically throughout the Lenten season, you may consider not having the general confession during the Great Fifty Days of Easter. During this season the emphasis is on the celebration of the work of Christ completed, and the general confession may be omitted. Some will want to use a confessional line in the general prayers while others may not.

Music

Hymns

"Christ Is Alive." WORDS: Brian Wren, 1968, alt.; MUSIC: Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789. Words (c) 1975 Hope Publishing Co. As found in UMH 318; Hymnal '82: 182; LBOW 363; TPH 108; Renew 300.

"He Lives." WORDS: Alfred H. Ackley, 1933; MUSIC: Alfred H. Ackley, 1933. (c) 1033, renewed 1961 The Rodeheaver Co. As found in UMH 310; AAHH 275; TNNBH 119; CH 226.

"Christ Is Risen." WORDS: Brian Wren, 1984; MUSIC: Polish carol; arr. Edith M. G. Reed, 1926. (c) Words 1966 Hope Publishing Co. As found in UMH 307; CH 222.

"Easter People, Raise Your Voices." WORDS: William M. James, 1979; MUSIC: Henry T. Smart, 1867. Words (c) 1979 The United Methodist Publishing Co. As found in UMH 304.

"The Day Of Resurrection." WORDS: John of Damascus; trans. John Mason Neale, 1862; MUSIC: Henry T. Smart, 1835. Public domain. As found in UMH 303; Hymnal '82: 210; LBOW 141; TPH 118; AAHH 124; TNNBH 245; TNCH: 228.

"Christ The Lord Is Risen Today." WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1739; MUSIC: Lyra Davidica, 1708. Public domain. As found in UMH 302; Hymnal '82: 188, 189; LBOW 128; TPH 113; AAHH 282; TNNBH 121; TNCH: 233; CH 216.

"Alleluia, Alleluia." WORDS: Donald Fishel, 1973; MUSIC: Donald Fishel, 1973. (c) 1973 The word of God. As found in UMH 162; Hymnal '82: 178; TPH 106.

Songs

"He Is Exalted." WORDS: Twila Paris; MUSIC: Twila Paris; arr. Nylea L. Butler-Moore. (c) 1985 Straghtway Music/Mountain Spring Music. As found in CCB 30.

"Alleluia." WORDS & MUSIC: Jerry Sinclair. (c) 1972, 1978 Manna Music. As found in CCB 45.

"Great Is The Lord." WORDS & MUSIC: Michael W. Smith and Deborah D. Smith. (c) 1982 Meadowgreen Music Co. As found in CCB 65.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader: Christ the Lord is risen today. Alleluia!
People: The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
Leader: Come and hear the good news of God's triumph.
People: Darkness and death have been defeated.
Leader: Bring the news stories from today.
People: They have new meaning in the light of the resurrection!
Leader: Bring your own stories.
People: We see our lives now emerging from the empty tomb.
Leader: The Lord is risen. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
People: The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER

O God, who is life eternal: Receive our praises as our hearts overflow with joy this glorious day. Grant that the power that raised Jesus may flow in and through us that the world might be raised to life eternal; through Jesus Christ our risen Lord. Amen.

or

We worship and praise you, O God, for your life is the life of all eternity. You have defeated the power of death and chaos as you raised Jesus and us to new life in you. Receive our praise and use us as your ambassadors of the Good News; through Jesus Christ our risen Lord. Amen.

GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.

All praise and glory is yours, O God of life eternal. We worship and adore you for your greatness and your love. There is no power in heaven, on earth, or in hell that can defeat your plan to redeem all creation.

(The following may be included if a general confession is desired.)

We confess, O God, our need for your redemption and salvation. We give you thanks for all the blessings we have received. You have blessed us with the good earth that provides for all our physical needs. You have blessed us with life eternal revealed in the raising of Jesus from the dead. You dwell within us and among us bringing us more fully into your life eternal.

(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)

We offer into your keeping those who are on our hearts this day. We pray for those who find this earthly life full of pain and woe. We pray for those who have been denied the good things your earth brings forth. We pray for those who are oppressed in body, mind, or spirit. Free them and us to a joyful, abundant life.

(Other petitions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father...."

Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations

UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship


A Children's Sermon

The Lord is risen indeed

Object: some clear cellophane wrap

Based on John 20:1-18

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know what makes today special? (let them answer) That's right, today is Easter. Christians all over the world are saying the same thing, "The Lord is risen, the Lord is risen indeed." Would you say that with me? (have them repeat this several times) Very good! Let's try it with the whole congregation. You say, "The Lord is risen!" and the congregation will say back to you, "The Lord is risen indeed!" (try this several times until you build some real enthusiasm) That was very good.

I brought along a special kind of material called cellophane. We wrap candy in it and cover leftover food with it. Today I want to try something different with it. (distribute the pieces of cellophane) Can you see through it? (let them answer) Now put it over your eyes like this (demonstrate it to them) and we will check how well you can see.

Can you see me? (let them answer) Can you see the organist? (let them answer) Can you see the windows at the back of the church? (let them answer) Do you think you could see the back of the church if you didn't have the cellophane over your eyes? (let them answer)

Now imagine that the cellophane is like tears in your eyes. Do you remember how hard it is to see when you have tears in your eyes? Everything is very blurry and out of focus.

Mary Magdalene, who was a close friend of Jesus, went to his tomb on the first Easter and discovered the big stone in front of it had been moved. She was very frightened, so she ran back to the disciples to tell them about it. Peter and John ran to the tomb and also saw that the body of Jesus was gone. By the time Peter and John left the tomb and ran back to tell the other disciples, Mary was back at the tomb and she was crying. Soon a voice asked her why she was crying. She told the angels, whom she could hardly see, that she was unhappy because someone had removed the body of Jesus. Then another person asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for. Through her blurry eyes, Mary thought it must be the gardener. She asked him to tell her where he had put the body. She didn't know that the person was really Jesus. Her eyes were too blurry. But when Jesus spoke her name, Mary immediately recognized him. Mary was the first person to speak with Jesus after he was resurrected. Then she went back to tell everyone the good news.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Immediate Word, March 27, 2005, issue.

Copyright 2005 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.