Resurrection
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
On Easter we celebrate Jesus' resurrection and his triumph over the bonds of death -- and that holds an endless fascination for the human mind. While we assume that for all of us death will be the certain terminus to our time on earth, recent headlines offer tantalizing hints that science might be able to push back somewhat on what we thought were the permanent boundaries of life and death, from expanding possibilities for bodily resuscitation to the specter of genetically re-creating long-extinct species. But in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer points out that resurrection is much more than merely the powers of science and technology to restore bodily life -- it's about God's continuing power to change and restore life in ways that are far beyond human capabilities. Dean reminds us that the gospels offer no direct eyewitness accounts of the resurrection itself. Instead we are offered a circumstantial case that rests on physical evidence (the empty tomb, the discarded graveclothes) and the testimony of the people who encountered the risen Jesus. And, Dean suggests, that is where we will find the most compelling evidence for the truth of the resurrection -- in the lives of those who daily encounter the risen Jesus. As this week's lectionary reading from Acts sums it up, "We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem" (Acts 10:39a).
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on the folly of conflating simple resuscitation with resurrection. She cites the cover story in the April issue of National Geographic, which delves into the possibility of reviving ancient species -- and the questions of whether it's a good idea. Of course, that's the subject matter of the novel and movie Jurassic Park, where it was an unmitigated disaster -- but Mary notes that we don't need to see science fiction brought to life to grasp that God's power to reverse death and create life greatly exceeds what breakthroughs humans might achieve.
Resurrection
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 24:1-12
I've heard this story, or versions of it, so many times I no longer remember where I first heard it. Diana Butler Bass has one version in her latest book, Christianity after Religion. It goes like this:
A diverse group of folks are sitting around a table during the break at some big judicatory meeting.There are clergy and laypeople, college and seminary students, denominational officials and a bishop, all having coffee and chatting.Directly, the conversation turns to Easter a few weeks hence.As they discuss the meaning and meanings of the resurrection, a college student asks the bishop, somewhat defiantly, "Bishop, do you really, honestly believe in the resurrection?"The bishop thinks for a moment and then answers, "I have to.I've seen it too many times not to believe in it."
If Easter is just about the reanimation of a corpse some 2,000 years ago, then we have little reason to celebrate it.The promise of Easter -- resurrection -- is about more than what happened then;it's also about what's happening right now.
THE WORLD
The Enlightenment still has its grip on us. The Age of Reason still rules in our consciousness, if not our everyday lives. We want things to be proven. Unless a claim can stand up to scrutiny under the scientific method, we are skeptical.
This applies to the topic of death, and life after death, and resurrection from death as much as it does to any topic.
Type "near-death experiences" into the Amazon.com search bar and you receive over 30,000 responses, books by people who are trying to prove empirically that death is not final. We especially seem to value accounts from people in the scientific community.
Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander and To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal, M.D., lead the best-sellers in this area. Both of these near-death experiences are told by medical doctors who claim to have been to heaven after "dying" and come back to tell us about it. In Heaven Is for Real, four-year-old Colton Burpo returns from heaven after a near-death experience on an operating table and confirms his pastor/father's fundamentalist Christian expectations that heaven is a real place, Jesus loves little children, God is really huge, and there's a big battle between good and evil coming soon.
Life after Life by Raymond Moody and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was first published in 1975 and remains a best-seller on this topic. It was the first to really explore the phenomenon of near-death experiences. The book contains stories from 100 people, all of which are similar accounts of what the witnesses assume was heaven.
For those who are troubled by the "universalist" nature of these accounts (everyone seems to go to heaven), there's Grady Mosby's book. The title, A Near Death Experience: I Died and Came Back from Hell, pretty much tells the whole story, as does mystic Vasulla Ryden's Heaven Is Real But So Is Hell.
The experiences that are offered as proof are usually recounted as "near-death" experiences. Apparently death is considered final. If you come back you were "near death" but you weren't dead exactly, even though you may have gone to heaven or, in Vassula and Grady's case, hell.
None of these accounts claim the name "resurrection." Near death doesn't qualify for resurrection. To be resurrected you have to be dead -- three days dead, if you really want it to count.
But let's be honest. These near-death stories of bright lights, missed relatives, much-loved pets, flowers, music, and a sense of peace make it a lot easier to believe in the resurrection. They make it easier to accept that maybe death isn't as final as it seems. They provide something like evidence for the empirical, scientific mind.
Only we Christians don't need books to convince us that there is life beyond death or scientific evidence to believe in resurrection. We've seen it too many times not to.
THE WORD
Did you ever notice that there are no eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus? No one actually saw Jesus get up and walk out of that tomb. The guards ran away before they could see anything, and the women arrived after the deed was accomplished.
What we have is what in legal terms would be called a moderately strong circumstantial case. We have the results of the resurrection of Jesus.
We have the empty tomb. And we have a man who looks like an angel sitting in the tomb, telling us Jesus isn't there, that he has in fact risen.
In another account we have a woman saying that she talked to Jesus in the garden outside the tomb.
Later we have a bunch of scared former followers of the deceased, who claim that said deceased person entered a locked room without using the door but was flesh and blood enough to be touched and consume food.
The honest truth is that if we put all of the post-resurrection stories together we probably still wouldn't be able to convince a modern 21st-century jury of twelve "good folk and true" that it had really happened.
No, the proof of the resurrection -- to the degree that there is any proof -- is all subjective and personal. I believe in it because I've seen it. We have seen the evidence of it in the lives of Christians for the past 2,000 years.
I believe that the rock was dropped into the pond -- not because I saw it, but because the ripples that it caused reached and touched me.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The truth of the resurrection is not to be found in empirical evidence but in the lives of those who have claimed resurrection as a promise and a possibility in human existence. It is an existential reality before it is a historical one.
So let this Easter be a day not of laboratory results and logical proof formulas but a day of testimony. Let us use this time to recount the resurrection stories in our lives and the lives of the saints we have known...
...of the alcoholic who was resurrected to sobriety;
...of the depressed woman who was resurrected to hope;
...of the angry man who was resurrected to forgiveness and grace;
...of the failing marriage that was resurrected to love and passion;
...of the estrangement between parent and child that was bridged;
...of the failure that was forgiven, the slight that was forgotten, the hurt that was healed.
Let this Easter be the day that we remember resurrection not just as a 2,000-year-old miracle but as promise and possibility for new life, today and tomorrow.
Happy Easter, everyone.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Luke 24:1-12
The April 2013 issue of National Geographic examines the possibility of reviving currently extinct species. The magazine highlights attempts by scientists to re-create long extinct animals, and poses the question of whether we should bring back iconic species like the woolly mammoth. One of the articles is an opinion piece from Stewart Brand -- the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog -- who notes: "Many extinct species -- from the passenger pigeon to the woolly mammoth -- might now be reclassified as 'bodily, but not genetically, extinct.' They're dead, but their DNA is recoverable from museum specimens and fossils, even those up to 200,000 years old." Dead, but with the possibility of resurrection.
One reader commented on the topic, saying, "They should do it if for no other reason then [sic] just because they can," while another reader asked with some incredulity: "Did we learn NOTHING from Jurassic Park?!" Yet the possibility of bringing to life a species we thought was gone forever is alluring. Partly, it feels like time travel. We could coexist in the same time period with creatures who roamed the earth thousands of years ago. Brand -- who was also recently interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation -- observes "that something as irreversible and final as extinction might be reversed is a stunning realization. The imagination soars. Just the thought of mammoths and passenger pigeons alive again invokes... awe and wonder..."
Brand also suggests that science will be served well by being able to look at once-extinct animals. "Useful science will also emerge," he contends. "Close examination of the genomes of extinct species can tell us much about what made them vulnerable in the first place. Were they in a bottleneck with too little genetic variability? How were they different from close relatives that survived? Living specimens will reveal even more." Looking at these species can teach us more about why some species thrive and others fade, he believes.
Scientific research, increased biodiversity, and the chance to reverse the human errors that contributed to the decline of some animals are all cited as reasons to pursue reviving extinct species.
The other appeal is the power to reverse death.
Death, and resurrection, are on our minds as we move toward Easter. Is it possible that death is not final?
The gospel accounts of the resurrection teach us that, on a whole different level. The anticipatory grief of Thursday and raw agony of Friday are transformed as Sunday comes, and the tomb is empty. Luke's version of the story asks more of us than the others. Until the appearances later in the day, there is no risen Jesus -- no sighting in the garden, no one promising to meet them in Galilee. There's the empty space of the tomb, and the announcement that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and the memory of what he said.
Apparently it's enough for Mary and Mary and Joanna, who hurry back to be the first witnesses to the resurrection. Something about it is so compelling that they know Jesus is alive without having seen him. That's the power of what God can do. God's good news is evident enough, powerful enough, alive enough that just a glimpse is enough.
Human power is more limited, even the power to bring something back to life. And we are more skeptical people. We would need to see the passenger pigeons or the mammoth or the sea cow come to life to believe it.
Human power is the power to bring back what once was, and no longer is, but it's limited to the past. We can re-create what God once created, but that pales in the face of what God can do. The triumph of the resurrection is not just that Jesus is reanimated. Even in resurrection, Jesus is changed. He has become fully and completely the messiah, the redeemer, the face of God for a weary and skeptical world. In dying and rising, he is also changed into a fuller, more complete, more triumphant version of his generous, compassionate self. In dying and rising, his abundant love for the people of God is transformed into an eternal grace.
Human power, no matter how alluring, is a pale imitation of the kind of life God can create, and redeem, and keep creating.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
March 16 marked the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of Rachel Corrie. She was a 23-year-old peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who took her mission to Palestine, where she publicly protested the Israeli government's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
Unable to negotiate a peaceful settlement, she took her nonviolent protest to a housing project where she defiantly stood between a bulldozer and a home that was about to be razed. The operator of the machine, an Israeli Defense Forces soldier, moved forward. Rachel was crushed and later died at the hospital from multiple skull and chest fractures.
When Rachael was 10 years old she made a video in which she expressed her love of people and hope for peace. In that video she said: "We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs. We have got to understand that they are us. We are them."
Application: Easter is the message of hope and peace. It is the message that we live in a global community where we all share the same dreams.
* * *
In a few minutes of transition from his identity as cardinal to becoming pope, Jorge Bergoglio had to decide on a name for his pontifical office. Sitting next to him was his longtime friend, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes. Hummes leaned over, embraced Bergoglio, and whispered in his ear, "Do not forget the poor!" With that comment Bergoglio pointed to his heart, said it "entered here," and took for himself the name Pope Francis, in memory of St. Francis of Assisi, renowned for his devotion to the most vulnerable: the poor and animals.
Application: Easter is the day in which we reaffirm the deity of Jesus and our calling to carry forth his message to all those who are poor in body, mind, and spirit.
* * *
About 4 in 10 Americans have watched one episode of the History Channel's miniseries The Bible. Of those, 7 in 10 have said they've learned something new, according to research conducted by the Barna Group (Adobe PDF). Though producer Mark Burnett -- best known for reality television shows such as Survivor, The Voice, and The Apprentice -- consulted theologians, scholars, and pastors for accuracy, it is apparent that great literary license was expended in the miniseries... so much so that a book version has now crossed over to the best-seller list as A Story of God and All of Us: A Novel Based on the Epic TV Miniseries "The Bible." With 69% of viewers saying they have learned something, one becomes concerned regarding what they have learned -- facts or dramatic fiction.
Application: If we truly want to understand the message of this Easter Sunday, let us remain steadfast to reading the scriptures themselves.
* * *
William Paul Young, who is the author of the best-selling novel The Shack and the new book Cross Roads, was recently interviewed by Mark Galli for Christianity Today. In his introduction, Galli wrote: "Given the genre of writing, it's understandable that some readers are left confused about what Young really believes."
Application: It is disconcerting that an author who has captivated the public but whose imagery of heaven and the Trinity defies biblical exegesis has been elevated to the position of being a reputable theologian. Yet, even Christianity Today's Mark Gail confesses that Young is confusing to most readers, and that only an interview can bring clarification to his abstract ideas. Contrast this to the Easter story of Mary and the apostles, where in the Upper Room the message of truth was plain, straightforward, and discernible.
* * *
In an interview for the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy shared her interest in reading and the books that she enjoys the most. When asked if she had any guilty pleasures, her answer was most intriguing. Kennedy responded: "Books about the Inquisition and the crusades are a guilty pleasure because I feel guilty reading bad things about the Catholic church -- though it's hard to avoid these days."
Application: In many ways the good news of the Resurrection was soon lost a few days after the Upper Room experience. It is our calling to recapture and reintroduce individuals to the good news of Resurrection Sunday.
* * *
From team member Leah Lonsbury:
Popular literature, especially the kind that has a spiritual flavor, is full of resurrection stories. They can be found in several of Sue Monk Kidd's books -- very clearly in Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Divine Feminine, and again in the book she co-wrote with her daughter Anne, Traveling with Pomegranates.
Barbara Brown Taylor's An Altar in the World tells the story of her discovering "church" outside the traditional four walls of the church building and beyond her role as an Episcopal priest. Each chapter tells another piece of her resurrection story -- into a reclaimed, simplified, tangible and real, everyday, deeply personal, and far-reaching faith.
In the extended introduction or "Overture" of Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott tells of the power of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in her resurrection from alcohol and drug abuse and self-loathing. The gospel music that spilled out onto the street was the first hook for Lamott. She began by standing in the doorway, close enough to the door to make her escape but far enough in to let the rich sounds wash over her insides. Then...
Eventually, a few months after I started coming, I took a seat in one of the folding chairs, off by myself. Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone's very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.
Something inside me that was stiff and rotting would feel soft and tender. Somehow the singing wore down all the boundaries and distinctions that kept me so isolated. Sitting there, standing with them to sing, sometimes so shaky and sick that I felt like I might tip over, I felt bigger than myself, like I was being taken care of, tricked into coming back to life. (p. 48)
What is the resurrecting power of our congregations today? How is it channeled? How can we live as resurrected and resurrecting people -- as witnesses to the power of God's love known in and through Jesus and the availability and persistence God's creative and re-creative Spirit in the world?
* * *
The preacher could consider a sermon that goes through several examples of what resurrection is not, and then tell one or more "real life" resurrection stories like the above, bringing "new life" after death into the here and now. Here's an example of what resurrection is not...
The future of reality TV could be kids who think they've had past lives. A Los Angeles production company is currently holding a nationwide casting call for children who claim to have, or have had, past life memoriesfor a new reality series, Ghost Inside My Child, scheduled to air on theBio Channellater this year.
* * *
Popular music is also full of resurrection stories. Mumford and Sons' "Roll Away Your Stone" is a pretty clear one.
The song speaks of a "restart" into new life...
It seems that all my bridges have been burnt
But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works
It's not the long walk home that will change this heart
But the welcome I receive with the restart
And of impassioned new life blazing its way in a world of darkness...
Stars hide your fires
These are my desires
And I won't give them up to you this time around
And so I'll be found
With my stake stuck in the ground
Marking my territory of this newly impassioned soul
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, for God is good;
People: God's steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: God is my strength and my might;
People: God has become my salvation.
Leader: This is the day that God has made;
People: let us rejoice and be glad in it.
OR
Leader: The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
People: The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Leader: Christ is alive and is here among us!
People: We see the evidence of the resurrection in the lives of those around us.
Leader: Death and darkness and evil do not have the last word!
People: God and God's life is the final word -- and it is Alleluia!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"This Is a Day of New Beginnings"
found in:
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
"Become to Us the Living Bread"
found in:
UMH: 630
PH: 500
CH: 423
"He Lives"
found in:
UMH: 310
AAHH: 275
NNBH: 119
CH: 226
W&P: 302
"In the Garden"
found in:
UMH: 314
AAHH: 494
NNBH: 116
NCH: 237
CH: 227
W&P: 300
AMEC: 452
"The Day of Resurrection"
found in:
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELA: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159/160
"O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing"
found in:
UMH: 317
PH: 116/117
NCH: 224
CH: 220
ELA: 386/387
W&P: 313
"Christ Is Alive"
found in:
UMH: 318
H82: 182
PH: 108
LBW: 363
ELA: 389
W&P: 312
Renew: 300
"Cristo Vive" ("Christ Is Risen")
found in:
UMH: 313
PH: 109
NCH: 235
"He Is Exalted" ("Ele é Exaltado")
found in:
CCB: 30
Renew: 238
"His Name Is Wonderful" ("Maravilloso es")
found in:
CCB: 32
Renew: 30
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
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
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who brings life out of death and hope out of despair: Grant us the faith to see in all that happens around us your work of redemption and resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to celebrate the life that cannot be defeated, O God. We have come to hear once more the story of that first Easter and to celebrate the resurrections we have experienced in our own lives. Help us to share the good news with others and to reach out in love and compassion into the dark places of their lives. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to understand that the truth of resurrection is about testimony and not about facts.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We argue among ourselves and in our own minds about the resurrection and whether or not it is a historical fact. We listen to stories of near-death events and wonder what it is really all about. We lose sight of the truth of the resurrection -- that out of death and horrible events God raises us up. We focus on "facts" when we are called to reflect on testimony. Help us to look for the truth of the resurrection not in science but in lives that have been raised up. Amen.
Leader: God is never content until creation comes to the fullness of life. Spread the good news that death is not the answer. Life is found in God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
With joy we raise our Alleluia to the great victory you bring of life over death, light over darkness, righteousness over evil. We praise you for the wonder of resurrection.
(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 argue among ourselves and in our own minds about the resurrection and whether or not it is a historical fact. We listen to stories of near-death events and wonder what it is really all about. We lose sight of the truth of the resurrection -- that out of death and horrible events God raises us up. We focus on "facts" when we are called to reflect on testimony. Help us to look for the truth of the resurrection not in science but in lives that have been raised up.
We give you thanks for the witness of Jesus that nothing can defeat those who walk the way of the Christ. We thank you for those through the ages who have continued that witness with their words and with their own resurrection.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are bound by the chains of sin and death and do not yet know the power of resurrection. We pray for those who are blinded to the light of your love and live in darkness.
(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 Lord's Prayer 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 Starter
Talk to the children about a time when you were tempted to try a new thing (food, activity, and so forth), but you weren't sure you would like it. Then someone you knew said it was okay -- they testified about it -- and so you tried it and liked it. On Easter we not only come to hear the testimony of the gospel writers but of each other as we have met Jesus in our lives.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Spread the News!
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Objects: a newspaper and a Bible
Good morning, boys and girls! Our Bible reading telling us of what happened on Easter is taken from the gospel of John (or the gospel of Luke). The word "gospel" means "good news." Let's see if we can find out why the story of Jesus is called good news. See this newspaper? (hold up newspaper) This is how many people read about important news. We also get our news from television, radio, the internet, and magazines -- and we might even learn about major events from alerts on our smartphones -- but another way to find out something is to have someone tell you face-to-face.
On Easter morning, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. She wanted to see where they had put his body. When she got there she found out that he was gone. At first she thought that someone had stolen his body, but then she found out what had really happened. Jesus had risen from the dead! Mary was so excited that she ran off to tell the disciples as fast as she could. She couldn't keep it to herself; she had to tell everyone the good news.
The good news that Mary told is still good news for us today. (hold up Bible) The Bible is one of the ways that this good news has spread to people all over the world. People have also used music, art, dance, and words to share the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection.
Why is this story good news? It's because Jesus' love for us is stronger than death. Even death couldn't stop Jesus -- his love is more powerful than anything in the world. The story of Jesus is the greatest news the world has ever heard.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son Jesus. Thank you for giving us a love that is stronger than anything else in the whole world. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 31, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
Team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on the folly of conflating simple resuscitation with resurrection. She cites the cover story in the April issue of National Geographic, which delves into the possibility of reviving ancient species -- and the questions of whether it's a good idea. Of course, that's the subject matter of the novel and movie Jurassic Park, where it was an unmitigated disaster -- but Mary notes that we don't need to see science fiction brought to life to grasp that God's power to reverse death and create life greatly exceeds what breakthroughs humans might achieve.
Resurrection
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 24:1-12
I've heard this story, or versions of it, so many times I no longer remember where I first heard it. Diana Butler Bass has one version in her latest book, Christianity after Religion. It goes like this:
A diverse group of folks are sitting around a table during the break at some big judicatory meeting.There are clergy and laypeople, college and seminary students, denominational officials and a bishop, all having coffee and chatting.Directly, the conversation turns to Easter a few weeks hence.As they discuss the meaning and meanings of the resurrection, a college student asks the bishop, somewhat defiantly, "Bishop, do you really, honestly believe in the resurrection?"The bishop thinks for a moment and then answers, "I have to.I've seen it too many times not to believe in it."
If Easter is just about the reanimation of a corpse some 2,000 years ago, then we have little reason to celebrate it.The promise of Easter -- resurrection -- is about more than what happened then;it's also about what's happening right now.
THE WORLD
The Enlightenment still has its grip on us. The Age of Reason still rules in our consciousness, if not our everyday lives. We want things to be proven. Unless a claim can stand up to scrutiny under the scientific method, we are skeptical.
This applies to the topic of death, and life after death, and resurrection from death as much as it does to any topic.
Type "near-death experiences" into the Amazon.com search bar and you receive over 30,000 responses, books by people who are trying to prove empirically that death is not final. We especially seem to value accounts from people in the scientific community.
Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander and To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal, M.D., lead the best-sellers in this area. Both of these near-death experiences are told by medical doctors who claim to have been to heaven after "dying" and come back to tell us about it. In Heaven Is for Real, four-year-old Colton Burpo returns from heaven after a near-death experience on an operating table and confirms his pastor/father's fundamentalist Christian expectations that heaven is a real place, Jesus loves little children, God is really huge, and there's a big battle between good and evil coming soon.
Life after Life by Raymond Moody and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was first published in 1975 and remains a best-seller on this topic. It was the first to really explore the phenomenon of near-death experiences. The book contains stories from 100 people, all of which are similar accounts of what the witnesses assume was heaven.
For those who are troubled by the "universalist" nature of these accounts (everyone seems to go to heaven), there's Grady Mosby's book. The title, A Near Death Experience: I Died and Came Back from Hell, pretty much tells the whole story, as does mystic Vasulla Ryden's Heaven Is Real But So Is Hell.
The experiences that are offered as proof are usually recounted as "near-death" experiences. Apparently death is considered final. If you come back you were "near death" but you weren't dead exactly, even though you may have gone to heaven or, in Vassula and Grady's case, hell.
None of these accounts claim the name "resurrection." Near death doesn't qualify for resurrection. To be resurrected you have to be dead -- three days dead, if you really want it to count.
But let's be honest. These near-death stories of bright lights, missed relatives, much-loved pets, flowers, music, and a sense of peace make it a lot easier to believe in the resurrection. They make it easier to accept that maybe death isn't as final as it seems. They provide something like evidence for the empirical, scientific mind.
Only we Christians don't need books to convince us that there is life beyond death or scientific evidence to believe in resurrection. We've seen it too many times not to.
THE WORD
Did you ever notice that there are no eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus? No one actually saw Jesus get up and walk out of that tomb. The guards ran away before they could see anything, and the women arrived after the deed was accomplished.
What we have is what in legal terms would be called a moderately strong circumstantial case. We have the results of the resurrection of Jesus.
We have the empty tomb. And we have a man who looks like an angel sitting in the tomb, telling us Jesus isn't there, that he has in fact risen.
In another account we have a woman saying that she talked to Jesus in the garden outside the tomb.
Later we have a bunch of scared former followers of the deceased, who claim that said deceased person entered a locked room without using the door but was flesh and blood enough to be touched and consume food.
The honest truth is that if we put all of the post-resurrection stories together we probably still wouldn't be able to convince a modern 21st-century jury of twelve "good folk and true" that it had really happened.
No, the proof of the resurrection -- to the degree that there is any proof -- is all subjective and personal. I believe in it because I've seen it. We have seen the evidence of it in the lives of Christians for the past 2,000 years.
I believe that the rock was dropped into the pond -- not because I saw it, but because the ripples that it caused reached and touched me.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The truth of the resurrection is not to be found in empirical evidence but in the lives of those who have claimed resurrection as a promise and a possibility in human existence. It is an existential reality before it is a historical one.
So let this Easter be a day not of laboratory results and logical proof formulas but a day of testimony. Let us use this time to recount the resurrection stories in our lives and the lives of the saints we have known...
...of the alcoholic who was resurrected to sobriety;
...of the depressed woman who was resurrected to hope;
...of the angry man who was resurrected to forgiveness and grace;
...of the failing marriage that was resurrected to love and passion;
...of the estrangement between parent and child that was bridged;
...of the failure that was forgiven, the slight that was forgotten, the hurt that was healed.
Let this Easter be the day that we remember resurrection not just as a 2,000-year-old miracle but as promise and possibility for new life, today and tomorrow.
Happy Easter, everyone.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Luke 24:1-12
The April 2013 issue of National Geographic examines the possibility of reviving currently extinct species. The magazine highlights attempts by scientists to re-create long extinct animals, and poses the question of whether we should bring back iconic species like the woolly mammoth. One of the articles is an opinion piece from Stewart Brand -- the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog -- who notes: "Many extinct species -- from the passenger pigeon to the woolly mammoth -- might now be reclassified as 'bodily, but not genetically, extinct.' They're dead, but their DNA is recoverable from museum specimens and fossils, even those up to 200,000 years old." Dead, but with the possibility of resurrection.
One reader commented on the topic, saying, "They should do it if for no other reason then [sic] just because they can," while another reader asked with some incredulity: "Did we learn NOTHING from Jurassic Park?!" Yet the possibility of bringing to life a species we thought was gone forever is alluring. Partly, it feels like time travel. We could coexist in the same time period with creatures who roamed the earth thousands of years ago. Brand -- who was also recently interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation -- observes "that something as irreversible and final as extinction might be reversed is a stunning realization. The imagination soars. Just the thought of mammoths and passenger pigeons alive again invokes... awe and wonder..."
Brand also suggests that science will be served well by being able to look at once-extinct animals. "Useful science will also emerge," he contends. "Close examination of the genomes of extinct species can tell us much about what made them vulnerable in the first place. Were they in a bottleneck with too little genetic variability? How were they different from close relatives that survived? Living specimens will reveal even more." Looking at these species can teach us more about why some species thrive and others fade, he believes.
Scientific research, increased biodiversity, and the chance to reverse the human errors that contributed to the decline of some animals are all cited as reasons to pursue reviving extinct species.
The other appeal is the power to reverse death.
Death, and resurrection, are on our minds as we move toward Easter. Is it possible that death is not final?
The gospel accounts of the resurrection teach us that, on a whole different level. The anticipatory grief of Thursday and raw agony of Friday are transformed as Sunday comes, and the tomb is empty. Luke's version of the story asks more of us than the others. Until the appearances later in the day, there is no risen Jesus -- no sighting in the garden, no one promising to meet them in Galilee. There's the empty space of the tomb, and the announcement that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and the memory of what he said.
Apparently it's enough for Mary and Mary and Joanna, who hurry back to be the first witnesses to the resurrection. Something about it is so compelling that they know Jesus is alive without having seen him. That's the power of what God can do. God's good news is evident enough, powerful enough, alive enough that just a glimpse is enough.
Human power is more limited, even the power to bring something back to life. And we are more skeptical people. We would need to see the passenger pigeons or the mammoth or the sea cow come to life to believe it.
Human power is the power to bring back what once was, and no longer is, but it's limited to the past. We can re-create what God once created, but that pales in the face of what God can do. The triumph of the resurrection is not just that Jesus is reanimated. Even in resurrection, Jesus is changed. He has become fully and completely the messiah, the redeemer, the face of God for a weary and skeptical world. In dying and rising, he is also changed into a fuller, more complete, more triumphant version of his generous, compassionate self. In dying and rising, his abundant love for the people of God is transformed into an eternal grace.
Human power, no matter how alluring, is a pale imitation of the kind of life God can create, and redeem, and keep creating.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
March 16 marked the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of Rachel Corrie. She was a 23-year-old peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who took her mission to Palestine, where she publicly protested the Israeli government's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
Unable to negotiate a peaceful settlement, she took her nonviolent protest to a housing project where she defiantly stood between a bulldozer and a home that was about to be razed. The operator of the machine, an Israeli Defense Forces soldier, moved forward. Rachel was crushed and later died at the hospital from multiple skull and chest fractures.
When Rachael was 10 years old she made a video in which she expressed her love of people and hope for peace. In that video she said: "We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs. We have got to understand that they are us. We are them."
Application: Easter is the message of hope and peace. It is the message that we live in a global community where we all share the same dreams.
* * *
In a few minutes of transition from his identity as cardinal to becoming pope, Jorge Bergoglio had to decide on a name for his pontifical office. Sitting next to him was his longtime friend, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes. Hummes leaned over, embraced Bergoglio, and whispered in his ear, "Do not forget the poor!" With that comment Bergoglio pointed to his heart, said it "entered here," and took for himself the name Pope Francis, in memory of St. Francis of Assisi, renowned for his devotion to the most vulnerable: the poor and animals.
Application: Easter is the day in which we reaffirm the deity of Jesus and our calling to carry forth his message to all those who are poor in body, mind, and spirit.
* * *
About 4 in 10 Americans have watched one episode of the History Channel's miniseries The Bible. Of those, 7 in 10 have said they've learned something new, according to research conducted by the Barna Group (Adobe PDF). Though producer Mark Burnett -- best known for reality television shows such as Survivor, The Voice, and The Apprentice -- consulted theologians, scholars, and pastors for accuracy, it is apparent that great literary license was expended in the miniseries... so much so that a book version has now crossed over to the best-seller list as A Story of God and All of Us: A Novel Based on the Epic TV Miniseries "The Bible." With 69% of viewers saying they have learned something, one becomes concerned regarding what they have learned -- facts or dramatic fiction.
Application: If we truly want to understand the message of this Easter Sunday, let us remain steadfast to reading the scriptures themselves.
* * *
William Paul Young, who is the author of the best-selling novel The Shack and the new book Cross Roads, was recently interviewed by Mark Galli for Christianity Today. In his introduction, Galli wrote: "Given the genre of writing, it's understandable that some readers are left confused about what Young really believes."
Application: It is disconcerting that an author who has captivated the public but whose imagery of heaven and the Trinity defies biblical exegesis has been elevated to the position of being a reputable theologian. Yet, even Christianity Today's Mark Gail confesses that Young is confusing to most readers, and that only an interview can bring clarification to his abstract ideas. Contrast this to the Easter story of Mary and the apostles, where in the Upper Room the message of truth was plain, straightforward, and discernible.
* * *
In an interview for the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy shared her interest in reading and the books that she enjoys the most. When asked if she had any guilty pleasures, her answer was most intriguing. Kennedy responded: "Books about the Inquisition and the crusades are a guilty pleasure because I feel guilty reading bad things about the Catholic church -- though it's hard to avoid these days."
Application: In many ways the good news of the Resurrection was soon lost a few days after the Upper Room experience. It is our calling to recapture and reintroduce individuals to the good news of Resurrection Sunday.
* * *
From team member Leah Lonsbury:
Popular literature, especially the kind that has a spiritual flavor, is full of resurrection stories. They can be found in several of Sue Monk Kidd's books -- very clearly in Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Divine Feminine, and again in the book she co-wrote with her daughter Anne, Traveling with Pomegranates.
Barbara Brown Taylor's An Altar in the World tells the story of her discovering "church" outside the traditional four walls of the church building and beyond her role as an Episcopal priest. Each chapter tells another piece of her resurrection story -- into a reclaimed, simplified, tangible and real, everyday, deeply personal, and far-reaching faith.
In the extended introduction or "Overture" of Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott tells of the power of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in her resurrection from alcohol and drug abuse and self-loathing. The gospel music that spilled out onto the street was the first hook for Lamott. She began by standing in the doorway, close enough to the door to make her escape but far enough in to let the rich sounds wash over her insides. Then...
Eventually, a few months after I started coming, I took a seat in one of the folding chairs, off by myself. Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone's very heart. There was no sense of performance or judgment, only that the music was breath and food.
Something inside me that was stiff and rotting would feel soft and tender. Somehow the singing wore down all the boundaries and distinctions that kept me so isolated. Sitting there, standing with them to sing, sometimes so shaky and sick that I felt like I might tip over, I felt bigger than myself, like I was being taken care of, tricked into coming back to life. (p. 48)
What is the resurrecting power of our congregations today? How is it channeled? How can we live as resurrected and resurrecting people -- as witnesses to the power of God's love known in and through Jesus and the availability and persistence God's creative and re-creative Spirit in the world?
* * *
The preacher could consider a sermon that goes through several examples of what resurrection is not, and then tell one or more "real life" resurrection stories like the above, bringing "new life" after death into the here and now. Here's an example of what resurrection is not...
The future of reality TV could be kids who think they've had past lives. A Los Angeles production company is currently holding a nationwide casting call for children who claim to have, or have had, past life memoriesfor a new reality series, Ghost Inside My Child, scheduled to air on theBio Channellater this year.
* * *
Popular music is also full of resurrection stories. Mumford and Sons' "Roll Away Your Stone" is a pretty clear one.
The song speaks of a "restart" into new life...
It seems that all my bridges have been burnt
But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works
It's not the long walk home that will change this heart
But the welcome I receive with the restart
And of impassioned new life blazing its way in a world of darkness...
Stars hide your fires
These are my desires
And I won't give them up to you this time around
And so I'll be found
With my stake stuck in the ground
Marking my territory of this newly impassioned soul
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, for God is good;
People: God's steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: God is my strength and my might;
People: God has become my salvation.
Leader: This is the day that God has made;
People: let us rejoice and be glad in it.
OR
Leader: The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
People: The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Leader: Christ is alive and is here among us!
People: We see the evidence of the resurrection in the lives of those around us.
Leader: Death and darkness and evil do not have the last word!
People: God and God's life is the final word -- and it is Alleluia!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"This Is a Day of New Beginnings"
found in:
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
"Become to Us the Living Bread"
found in:
UMH: 630
PH: 500
CH: 423
"He Lives"
found in:
UMH: 310
AAHH: 275
NNBH: 119
CH: 226
W&P: 302
"In the Garden"
found in:
UMH: 314
AAHH: 494
NNBH: 116
NCH: 237
CH: 227
W&P: 300
AMEC: 452
"The Day of Resurrection"
found in:
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELA: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159/160
"O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing"
found in:
UMH: 317
PH: 116/117
NCH: 224
CH: 220
ELA: 386/387
W&P: 313
"Christ Is Alive"
found in:
UMH: 318
H82: 182
PH: 108
LBW: 363
ELA: 389
W&P: 312
Renew: 300
"Cristo Vive" ("Christ Is Risen")
found in:
UMH: 313
PH: 109
NCH: 235
"He Is Exalted" ("Ele é Exaltado")
found in:
CCB: 30
Renew: 238
"His Name Is Wonderful" ("Maravilloso es")
found in:
CCB: 32
Renew: 30
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
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
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who brings life out of death and hope out of despair: Grant us the faith to see in all that happens around us your work of redemption and resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to celebrate the life that cannot be defeated, O God. We have come to hear once more the story of that first Easter and to celebrate the resurrections we have experienced in our own lives. Help us to share the good news with others and to reach out in love and compassion into the dark places of their lives. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to understand that the truth of resurrection is about testimony and not about facts.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We argue among ourselves and in our own minds about the resurrection and whether or not it is a historical fact. We listen to stories of near-death events and wonder what it is really all about. We lose sight of the truth of the resurrection -- that out of death and horrible events God raises us up. We focus on "facts" when we are called to reflect on testimony. Help us to look for the truth of the resurrection not in science but in lives that have been raised up. Amen.
Leader: God is never content until creation comes to the fullness of life. Spread the good news that death is not the answer. Life is found in God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
With joy we raise our Alleluia to the great victory you bring of life over death, light over darkness, righteousness over evil. We praise you for the wonder of resurrection.
(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 argue among ourselves and in our own minds about the resurrection and whether or not it is a historical fact. We listen to stories of near-death events and wonder what it is really all about. We lose sight of the truth of the resurrection -- that out of death and horrible events God raises us up. We focus on "facts" when we are called to reflect on testimony. Help us to look for the truth of the resurrection not in science but in lives that have been raised up.
We give you thanks for the witness of Jesus that nothing can defeat those who walk the way of the Christ. We thank you for those through the ages who have continued that witness with their words and with their own resurrection.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are bound by the chains of sin and death and do not yet know the power of resurrection. We pray for those who are blinded to the light of your love and live in darkness.
(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 Lord's Prayer 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 Starter
Talk to the children about a time when you were tempted to try a new thing (food, activity, and so forth), but you weren't sure you would like it. Then someone you knew said it was okay -- they testified about it -- and so you tried it and liked it. On Easter we not only come to hear the testimony of the gospel writers but of each other as we have met Jesus in our lives.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Spread the News!
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Objects: a newspaper and a Bible
Good morning, boys and girls! Our Bible reading telling us of what happened on Easter is taken from the gospel of John (or the gospel of Luke). The word "gospel" means "good news." Let's see if we can find out why the story of Jesus is called good news. See this newspaper? (hold up newspaper) This is how many people read about important news. We also get our news from television, radio, the internet, and magazines -- and we might even learn about major events from alerts on our smartphones -- but another way to find out something is to have someone tell you face-to-face.
On Easter morning, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. She wanted to see where they had put his body. When she got there she found out that he was gone. At first she thought that someone had stolen his body, but then she found out what had really happened. Jesus had risen from the dead! Mary was so excited that she ran off to tell the disciples as fast as she could. She couldn't keep it to herself; she had to tell everyone the good news.
The good news that Mary told is still good news for us today. (hold up Bible) The Bible is one of the ways that this good news has spread to people all over the world. People have also used music, art, dance, and words to share the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection.
Why is this story good news? It's because Jesus' love for us is stronger than death. Even death couldn't stop Jesus -- his love is more powerful than anything in the world. The story of Jesus is the greatest news the world has ever heard.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son Jesus. Thank you for giving us a love that is stronger than anything else in the whole world. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 31, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 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.
