HE IS NOT HERE. HE HAS BEEN RAISED! The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday (Year B)! April 8, 2012

Transcription

1 HE IS NOT HERE. HE HAS BEEN RAISED! The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday (Year B)! April 8, 2012 This Sunday s Lessons Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 25:6-9 Psalm 118:1-2, Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43 St. Mark 16:1-8 or St. John 20:1-18 Pastor David J. Risendal drisendal@stplc.org facebook Dave Risendal Twitter: drisendal Saint Peter Lutheran Church 9300 East Belleview Avenue Greenwood Village, Colorado voice: 303/ fax: 303/ facebook Saint Peter Lutheran Church Prayer of the Day God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life. Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Christ is risen. R/ Christ is risen, indeed. Christ is risen. R/ Christ is risen, indeed. Christ is risen! R/ Christ is risen, indeed! Christ is risen, indeed. Amen. resurrected Christ a sign of God s grace and love let us show the world Sermon On behalf of all of us here at Saint Peter, I want wish a happy Easter to each and every one of you. What a beautiful day it is, and what a beautiful celebration we are having. The weather is just gorgeous, isn t it? You never know what you are going to get at Easter in Colorado. There have been freezing cold mornings with snow on the ground mornings when I d just as soon be in by the fireplace as out greeting you in the driveway. But today is not one of those. It is a beautiful day. And we are gathered in a beautiful place. I am just amazed, season after season, at what our D.E.S.I.G.N team can do. When you walk into this room it absolutely breathes Easter, doesn t it? The sights, the smells we know, the minute we step into this room, that it is Easter Sunday, that Christ is risen, and that we are in for a

2 The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday Year B (April 8, 2012)! 2 celebration. And what a beautiful liturgy we have entered into. The texts, the prayers, the songs, the special musicians they all proclaim the new life that Christ has in store for us. It is a beautiful day at Saint Peter (a great day to be a Lutheran, right? <g>), and I am so glad to have you all with us for the celebration. Wouldn t it be nice, then, if we had a Gospel lesson to fit the beauty of this day? I don t know about you, but I find the end of St. Mark s Gospel just a bit disappointing. St. Matthew remembers an earthquake and an angel, and faithful women who run from the tomb to tell of the resurrection; as they do, they meet Jesus along the way. St. Luke remembers two men in dazzling clothes, who tell the women about their Risen Lord, and they immediately run back to the others to share the good news. St. John remembers that Mary and Peter and another disciple see the burial clothes in the empty tomb, and while she stays alone to weep and pray, Mary sees Jesus himself, who sends her back to the disciples. When she gets there she cries out, I have seen the Lord! What a contrast with our Gospel lesson today! Did you notice how it ends? The men are all hiding, afraid to be seen by those who put their leader to death. The women see the empty tomb, and a person who seems to be an angel from God, but they are alarmed, terrified, amazed and afraid. The last sentence of this morning s Gospel seems to throw a bucket of cold water on the whole celebration: and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Alarm. Terror. Amazement. Fear. This is how the Gospel according to St. Mark ends. But this is not how the story ends, is it? Because somehow, somewhere, sometime, somebody said something to someone. The men may have missed the whole story because they were hiding. The women may have first responded with terror and fear. But word got out anyway. So what happened here? Did St. Mark get the story wrong? I don t think so. I believe St. Mark was intentional in ending it just this way. And the reason I believe that has more to do with St. Mark s first chapter than it does with the sixteenth. Do you recall how this Gospel account starts out? His first sentence reads: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You see, what Mark set out to write was just the beginning. The beginning may end with women who are alarmed, terrified, amazed and fearful. But the story doesn t end there. The story continues. It continues as the Holy Spirit takes hold of the disciples hearts on Pentecost. It continues as Saul meets the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus. It continues as members of the early church find the courage to risk their lives in order to publicly proclaim the resurrection. It continues as saints throughout the centuries have announced with their words and their deeds that Christ is risen. (R/ Christ is risen, indeed.) And it continues as you and I hear this story again today, allow it to take hold of our hearts, and then leave this place committed to do what the young man at the tomb asked the women to do in the first place: Go, and tell the others that he is risen, and has gone ahead of you, to meet you on the way. You see, our primary task as Christians is to live as a proclamation of our Lord s resurrection. It s not to build church buildings. It s not to manage church budgets. It s not to develop church programs. It s not to record church attendance. It is to live and breathe resurrection. We live in a time when death and disappointment surround us. Like Mary and the others on Easter morning, we are aware that life too often seems to be less than it should be. Too many people suffer and die. Too many people are fighting for survival. Too many people have lost the vision of what it means to live with faith and hope. In the midst of it all, we are called to proclaim Christ crucified, and raised from death. We are called to make witness to the presence of God who makes all things news. We are called to place our hope in the

3 The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday Year B (April 8, 2012)! 3 resurrection, and invite others to do the same; even those who may oppose our way of understanding these things. I saw a remarkable picture the other day. It seems that about a year ago, the side of a downtown historic church in Halifax, Nova Scotia was spray-painted with the words, God is dead in large black letters. The people of the church had two options: have the side of the building repainted, or respond in kind. The minister chose to respond. Around the words God is dead, she had written: Not so fast. Happy Easter. Great words to see written on the walls of the house of God. 1 And a great reminder of the calling that is ours: to share even with those who are convinced our faith is in vain, that Christ has been raised, that God is indeed alive, and that the gift of faith can transform and deepen lives in ways that those who don t know might never anticipate. But you know, we re not just called to scrawl words on the walls of our church buildings. We also are called to make our way into the world in which we live, to bear the presence of the Risen Christ with us. That s why I like the first words this young man at the tomb speaks to the women. He says, Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. He is not here. That s the first Easter proclamation, and perhaps the message that we ought to proclaim this morning. You may be here this morning, looking for Jesus, but know this: he has been raised. He is not here. Jesus is not here at least not exclusively here. He is also down the street. He is also across town. He is also at your school or office or exercise club. He is also at the mall or the park or the concert hall. The young man at the tomb announces to the women that Jesus has gone back to Galilee that place where it all began that place where they first met Jesus that place where they came from. They are sent back to their home; back to their beginnings. And so are we. We gather here to be stirred by the beauty of this day. We delight in the proclamation that Christ is risen, and that because of his resurrection we are all welcomed into God s love, just as we are. But we know that this moment is not just for us. It is also for the world. It is also for our Galilee those places from which we come those places where we will go when this service has ended. We proclaim the resurrection of our Lord as we go back to our places and continue the ministry he began: the ministry of tending to the needy, the ministry of loving the unlovable, the ministry of responding to the grace we have received by being a reflection of Christ s love in this world. Our lives have been touched, and we have been blessed in so many ways. For some of us, we are blessed by our families and friends.for others it might be our work or play. Perhaps our 1 from Unvirtuous Abbey on The Hardest Question;

4 The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday Year B (April 8, 2012)! 4 faith or our life. For Lance Armstrong, America s best known bicycle racer, it is his recovery from cancer. As he tells the story, after his successful treatment at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis, one of his physicians, Dr. Craig Nichols, told him about the obligation of the cured." It is Dr. Nichols belief that anyone whose life is changed by successful cancer treatment has been powerfully blessed and they have a unique opportunity an obligation, really: the chance to advocate for others. In the years since his treatment, Armstrong has done just that. He has been a passionate advocate for cancer research and treatment. Since 1997 the Livestrong organization has raised over $325 million, and has touched countless lives. His passion for this work rises out of his awareness of how deeply touched he has been by his own treatment. The medical community may speak of the obligation of the cured. People of faith speak of the obligation of the saved. We, too, have been touched in a powerful way by the healing of our souls: that s the heart of the story we celebrate this morning. But that s not the end of the story. In many ways, it is the very beginning. This story that St. Mark tells has no proper ending, because it remains to be seen how the ending will be lived out in our lives. Christ is risen! R/ Christ is risen, indeed. May he be risen in the hope that is ours. May he be risen in the good news that we bear. May he be risen in the kindness we show. May he be risen in our own Galilee, as we take the gifts we have received this day to those who surround us tomorrow. Thank you for worshipping with us today. And may God bless and strengthen you to proclaim the resurrection of Christ in all that you do. Amen. David J. Risendal, Pastor Gospel Lesson; English Text: 2 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb? 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you. 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. 3 Gospel Lesson; Greek Text: 16:1 Καὶ διαγενοµένου του σαββάτου Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ καὶ Μαρία ἡ [του ] Ἰακώβου καὶ Σαλώµη ἠγόρασαν ἀρώµατα ἵνα ἐλθου σαι ἀλείψωσιν αὐτόν. 2 καὶ λίαν πρωὶ τῃ µιᾳ τω ν σαββάτων ἔρχονται ἐπὶ τὸ µνηµει ον ἀνατείλαντος του ἡλίου. 3 καὶ ἔλεγον πρὸς ἑαυτάς τίς ἀποκυλίσει ἡµι ν τὸν λίθον ἐκ τη ς θύρας του µνηµείου; 4 καὶ ἀναβλέψασαι θεωρου σιν ὅτι ἀποκεκύλισται ὁ λίθος ἠ ν γὰρ 2 A list of Bible lessons for the coming weeks is available at 3 St. Mark 16:1-8, New Revised Standard Version Bible ( 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America).

5 The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday Year B (April 8, 2012)! 5 µέγας σφόδρα. 5 Καὶ εἰσελθου σαι εἰς τὸ µνηµει ον εἰ δον νεανίσκον καθήµενον ἐν τοι ς δεξιοι ς περιβεβληµένον στολὴν λευκήν, καὶ ἐξεθαµβήθησαν. 6 ὁ δὲ λέγει αὐται ς µὴ ἐκθαµβει σθε Ἰησου ν ζητει τε τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν τὸν ἐσταυρωµένον ἠγέρθη, οὐκ ἔστιν ὡ δε ἴδε ὁ τόπος ὅπου ἔθηκαν αὐτόν. 7 ἀλλὰ ὑπάγετε εἴπατε τοι ς µαθηται ς αὐτου καὶ τῳ Πέτρῳ ὅτι προάγει ὑµα ς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν ἐκει αὐτὸν ὄψεσθε, καθὼς εἰ πεν ὑµι ν. 8 καὶ ἐξελθου σαι ἔφυγον ἀπὸ του µνηµείου, εἰ χεν γὰρ αὐτὰς τρόµος καὶ ἔκστασις καὶ οὐδενὶ οὐδὲν εἰ παν ἐφοβου ντο γάρ. 4 First Lesson; English Text: 25.6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. 5 Alternate First Lesson; English Text: Then Peter began to speak to them: I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. 6 Second Lesson; English Text: 15.1 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe. 7 4 St. Mark 16:1-8, The Greek New Testament, Aland, Kurt, Black, Matthew, Martini, Carlo M., Metzger, Bruce M., and Wikgren, Allen, ( 1983, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart). 5 Isaiah 25:6-9, New Revised Standard Version Bible ( 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America). 6 Acts 10:34-43, New Revised Standard Version Bible ( 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America). 7 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, The Greek New Testament, Aland, Kurt, Black, Matthew, Martini, Carlo M., Metzger, Bruce M., and Wikgren, Allen, ( 1983, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart).

6 The Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Sunday Year B (April 8, 2012)! 6 Illustrations: You probably do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. During his day he was as powerful a man as there was on earth. A Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which by the way means truth), and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. There is a story told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it. An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!" [Len Sweet; esermons.com] Don t be afraid. That s easy to do if you re an angel. If you re a human, not so much. Fear of the foreigner. Fear of the burglar. Fear of the kidnapper. Fear of the economy. Fear of the Democrats. Fear of the Republicans. We live in a society that obsesses about fear. Ernest Hemingway told the story of a Spanish father whose son Paco had run away from home. The father suspected that Paco had taken off for Madrid, the big city, and after searching unsuccessfully for him for a while, he took out an advertisement in the newspaper. It read, "Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven! Love, Papa." When the father went to the hotel at noon on Tuesday, there were, milling around the hotel, some 800 young men named Paco who had seen the ad and had come to be reconciled with their fathers. We all seek reconciliation with our Father. So many of us are like Peter: we know we have failed Christ. We know we have sinned against him in thought, word and deed, we know we are no longer worthy to be called his children, if indeed we ever were. [the Rev. Richard O. Johnson; I think our life together is something like this, too. We're often tempted to fix "bad endings" that's understandable, even reasonable, but it's not always our call. Because we worship the God who meets us precisely at the point where things seem the worst, not merely to fix things, but to redeem them and us! turning what looks like an ending into a new beginning and taking what looks like a failure and offering it back to us an opportunity. [David Lose]