Easter Sunday March 27, 2005

Trinity Sunday May 22, 2005

Reflections on All Saints Day and All Hallows Eve

Easter Sunday April 16, 2006
Luke 24:13-35

Recently on a popular talk show Ann Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham was being interviewed. She was asked, “How can you be sure that your message and beliefs are right?” This question of what type of certainty we have about our religious beliefs is an important one.

In Thursday’s edition of the Star Ledger there was an article highlighting a poll taken among residents of NJ, whether we believe in the literal bodily resurrection of the Lord and the literal historical account of the Old Testament people of God crossing the Read Sea. These issues deal with the truthfulness of the center of the Christian Faith. How certain are we that the truths we profess are truly right?

This Easter morning, I ask the question: how firm is our persuasion that Christ literally had a bodily resurrection, that He rose from the dead on the third day? And is there credible evidence that confirms this conviction or is it just a religious leap in the dark, which has no evidence to support it?

I am persuaded that Christ’s bodily resurrection has substantial evidence to support it. In our Gospel lesson this morning we have three key pieces of evidences that God in His mercy used to help confirm our faith in Christ’s resurrection. These three key pieces of
evidences stand together and not apart. Taken in isolation they don’t prove Christ’s bodily resurrection but taken together they are strong evidence for the Christian affirmation, "...and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures."

When we come to the Gospel passage, we have two disciples walking to Emmaus which is a village seven miles from Jerusalem. The resurrected Lord joins them along the way and they include him in their conversation. The first question quite natural for a person walking in on the middle of a conversation, is: "What are you talking about?" They are downcast because they had thought Jesus would redeem Israel but from their perspective He must not have been the Messiah because He suffered and died a cruel death at the hands of the Jewish authorities.

Looking into the Jewish religious climate of the 1st century, we find that there were quite a few people who claimed to be the Messiah but once a Messianic candidate died in whatever manner, the natural tendency of his followers would be to start looking for a new messianic figure because the Messiah was destined to rule the world and not die. The logical conclusion was that if you claimed to be the Messiah and you died, then you were obviously not the real McCoy and it was time for people to move on to the next messianic candidate. The men on the road thought Jesus would redeem Israel but obviously since Jesus of Nazareth died, He couldn’t be Messiah.

That is their assumption. The narrative shifts as they begin to speak of the happenings of this day.

1. The first piece of evidence of Christ’s resurrection is the empty tomb. The men from Emmaus say that some women went to the tomb early that morning, the morning of Easter Sunday and reported that the body was not there. This is the first clue that something unusual is going on here.

Now this is the real dilemma, what possible explanation do we have that there’s no longer a body in the tomb? Everyone knows that dead bodies just don’t disappear nor are mere mortals able to bring themselves back to life. Now one obvious conclusion could be that someone stole the body. This is one conclusion that some reached and this rumor spread in parts of Jerusalem and Israel which was begun by the foes of the Christian Faith.

Some other followers of our Lord also went to the tomb and found no body. John’s Gospel lets us know it was Peter and John who went to the tomb checking out the story of the women. More will be said about the conclusion of this dilemma by the apostle and other followers of Jesus of Nazareth. We can be ever so glad that we have more evidence than just an empty tomb.

2. The second piece of evidence is the vision and message of the angels to the women. In Luke 24:23 the men continue speaking of the women’s visit to the tomb, “They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.” Matthew’s Gospel goes into more detail on the message of the angel where
it says in Matthew 28:5, “The angel said to the women ‘Don’t be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen; just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen
from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.”

This adds an important basis for evidence of Christ’s resurrection because the angel fills in the blank for the women of what’s up with this mystery of the missing body. They tell them, "He is not here, He has risen." It bears repeating and review that in the Jewish world of the 1st Century when they spoke of the resurrection, they meant the resurrection of the body. When they said resurrection they meant more than the soul being in the presence, they meant the transformation of the physical body which would no longer suffer from the effects of the curse of sin and would live on eternally knowing neither sickness, ailment, declining health, death, or corruption. The women came looking for his body and the angel says, "He is not here", i.e. His body is not here, He is risen.

The angel also reminds them Christ had told them of his resurrection for He did on many occasions. Jesus in John 2 said to the Jewish religious authorities, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” They did not understand that He was talking about the temple of His body and His bodily resurrection.

God made man as having a soul and a body and Genesis 1 says that God saw all that He had made and it was good. All of Scripture affirms the goodness of all God’s creation and the redemption first of Christ and then of all of God’s people is a reaffirmation of the goodness of creation. God created body and soul and will redeem us both body and soul. The message of the angel fills in the gap and adds important substantive information about the empty tomb.

3. The third piece of evidence is the eye witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection in varied circumstances. Women, apostles, and other followers of Jesus’ saw the resurrected Lord. What the two disciples didn’t realize is that they were in the presence of the resurrected Lord but God kept them from recognizing Him. Later after they recognize Jesus and He disappears from their midst they go back to Jerusalem to tell the apostles.

There is no doubt Jesus’ body had undergone a transformation because He is able to appear and disappear in a manner that we can’t. But this does not contradict that He has a resurrected body. It only goes to demonstrate that His resurrected body is a glorified and transformed body. For He broke the bread as in other resurrection appearances, He did what only someone with a physical body can do such as eating fish, showing the scars of His crucifixion to Thomas and inviting him to touch His side and hands.

Before Jesus takes away the blinders from these two disciples eyes, He opens up the Scriptures to them showing them from the books of Moses and Old Testament prophets how it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer first and then enter his glory. The three of them then come to a house and they invite Jesus in and they sit down to eat. Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. This is mirroring what Jesus did at the Last Supper and many early Church Fathers and Christians believed it was pointing to the importance of the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

Once Jesus has opened the Scriptures to them and broke bread, their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus. He is no longer a stranger but they know Him to be the resurrected Lord and then He disappears. What an encounter and what confirmation when connected to the other pieces of evidences that Christ truly had a bodily resurrection! The empty tomb, the message of the angels to the women, and now this resurrection appearance to these two men along with many others in the Gospel all point to this central tenet of the faith, “Christ rose again from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures.”

Chuck Colson in a recent column asks the question Can you keep a secret? If you can, you’re pretty unusual, because a lot of people can’t. Especially if it’s the kind of secret that, if exposed, could get them in major trouble. In a situation like that, as Colson saw up close in the Watergate scandal of over 30 years ago, the desire to save oneself has a way of overriding loyalty or any idealism.

But that little quirk of human nature, believe it or not, gives us one of the strongest proofs we have for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just think about the situation Christ’s disciples were in after He left them. Here was a group of followers who were up against the most powerful empire in the world. Possible prison time was the very least of their worries. They knew that torture and execution could be in their future if they refused to stop preaching the name of Jesus Christ. But they couldn’t stop. What would inspire men to suffer and die for a belief? Only one thing, the absolute certainty that their belief was true.

Who would die to protect a lie or a hoax, especially if he knew it to be a lie? We see the witness of the apostles most of whom died a martyr’s death. Do we really think they would have died for a lie that they knew was a lie? Which leads me inescapably to one conclusion: Jesus’ resurrection was not a lie. The only explanation for their behavior, their witness, and their beliefs is that they really believed Jesus had been bodily raised from the dead.

Easter then is God's new creation launched upon a surprised world, pointing ahead to the renewal, the redemption, the rebirth of the entire creation. Every act of love, every deed done in Christ and by the Spirit, every work of true creativity –– every time justice is done, peace is made, families are healed, temptation is resisted, true freedom is sought and won –– that this very earthly event takes its place within a long history of things which implement Jesus' own resurrection and anticipate the final new creation, and act as signposts of hope, pointing back to the first, Christ’s resurrection, and on to the second, the resurrection of all people and the renewal of all things at the end of the age.

The precious joy of Easter is that Christ has conquered sin, death, and evil. He will also give us resurrection power to fight sin and follow the path of righteousness, justice, and mercy. We can have hope that because He has been raised from the dead, that history is moving in God’s timing and direction to the final conclusion where Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead. And our labor in the Lord is not in vain, it has purpose and meaning. God will not let any good deed go unnoticed. May we be patient in this life and continue to persevere in our faith in Christ, the risen Lord and Savior and let not our hearts become weary in doing good. May we live, proclaim, and order ourselves, our priorities and desires according to the newness of life brought in by Christ’s bodily resurrection.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for in Your order of salvation the day is past and evening has come. Be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know You as You are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of Your love. Amen.

The 24th Sunday after Trinity. Nov 6, 2005
I Thessalonians 4:13-18

We have just passed through another week of the annual celebration of Halloween. Halloween as a national celebration is one which is neither all good nor all bad. Certainly there is nothing wrong with the custom of children going "Trick or Treat" and getting loads of candy other than the fact it may cause some extra bills at the dentist. There are other customs in the celebration of All Hallows Eve which are not so positive. The glorification of violence in Halloween movies and the fascination with death and gore are not helpful from a moral and spiritual perspective.

This morning I want to consider what is good and right about a proper observance of All Saints Day. From our epistle lesson I want to draw some connections between the present existence of the Church here on earth, the Church Triumphant in heaven, and the resurrection.

First, let's consider St. Paul's words to the Church on earth. He writes to the Thessalonian believers because they had some particular confusion about death and the promise of Christ's resurrection. Some of the Thessalonians seem to have misunderstood Paul and thought all believers would live until Christ returned. When some believers died, the question arose, "Will those who have died have part in that great day." Paul writes to reassure them that both the living saints and the departed saints will have their inheritance with Christ as they are raised from the dead, receiving resurrection bodies and eternal fellowship with God in the Eternal Age.

The apostle Paul was concerned that the Church here on earth would have hope. Inscriptions on tombs and references in literature show that the first century pagans viewed death with horror, as the end of everything. The Christian perspective was in strong contrast to this because Jesus as Lord and Savior conquered death by His resurrection from the dead. Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday demonstrates His ultimate victory over death itself - the most powerful sign of Adam's fall. Death itself could not hold our Lord down.

This is the foundation of our hope built upon the promises of God fulfilled in Christ. God had given this promise to our first parents in the Garden of Eden after they had sinned: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush you head, and you will strike at his heel." The enmity spoken of in this verse is between the serpent who is Satan and the children of the woman. One of the descendants of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. In other words, this promised child of Eve would overpower Satan and destroy his usurped authority. Christ is the chosen child of Eve who would crush Satan's power and authority by His atoning death and His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead.

John Donne was a minister in the Protestant Church of England. He was born in 1572 and lived til 1632. He was one who combined extensive learning with an orthodox and profound spirituality. He was a gifted preacher and poet. His poems were called Holy Sonnets. One of these Holy Sonnets is entitled, "Death be not proud." Part of it reads as follows,

"Death be not proud,
though some have called thee mighty and dreadful,
for thou art not so.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings and desperate men,
and dost poison, warre, and sickness dwell,
and poppie, or charms can make us sleep as well,
and better then thy stroke; why swellest thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
and death shall be no more;
death, thou shalt die."

As his poem points out there will come a day when death is no more. This will be so because Christ rose victorious over death. Through Christ's death and resurrection, even though we die, we shall be raised to life at the last day. As Christians we need to be encouraged and to have hope because of Jesus' person and work for our deliverance and salvation.

Notice the words hope and encouragement serve as themes for this passage and are mentioned at the beginning and ending of this passage. I Thess. 4:13 says that the apostle Paul does not want the believers to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. In I Thess. 4:18 he says, "Therefore encourage each other with these words.?" Hope and encouragement are the bookends of this passage and Paul's purpose is not to give a detailed chronology of future events, but that believers would encourage each other with the hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

It is basic to the condition of the Church militant, the Church here on earth, that we are to constantly struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are in need of encouragement, we are in need of persevering in godliness and trust in God. As soldiers of Christ we are engaged not in physical combat but in spiritual warfare, struggling against sin in our hearts, the sinful suggestions and sometimes deafening calls from others to sin, and the invisible but real pull of the Devil toward sin. We are in this battle and we need to encourage each other to keep on trusting in the fact that Jesus has gained victory over sin and death and we will overcome, not in our own strength but in His strength. He is the risen Lord and He is coming again to bring human history to a close as He comes to judge the living and the dead.

My second point is that the apostle Paul speaks about the Church in heaven. In trying to comfort the Church on earth he mentions those saints who have died and have departed this life. He tries to educate them about the plight of those who sleep but who still await the resurrection. Although the Thessalonians had evidently been concerned that those among them who died would miss their place in the great events when the Lord comes, Paul assures them this will not be the case. Paul uses the language of the departed saints as those who have fallen asleep in Him.

The language of the sleep of death is referring to the deceased body of the believer and not about the soul of a believer. St. Paul affirms elsewhere in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5 that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So sleep is language used of death but it is a poignant metaphor because it speaks of the body resting in the grave. We speak of the body of the believer resting in peace and those three initials RIP are on the face of some gravestones. The believer's body lies in the dust while his soul is in the company of God with the holy angels and the whole company of heaven.

It is the bodies of believers which still awaits the general resurrection at the last day. God will come to bring final salvation to both the living and the dead. The great comfort that Paul draws upon is that all of God's people, both the Church militant and the Church triumphant, will know God's final salvation of body and soul at the last Day. Because of this great comfort we can know that Christ has come to redeem His entire Church.

We speak of the mystical communion of the Church. The "Catholic Church" is the entire company of Christ's faithful people, both the dead and the living. On All Saints Day we remember the godly contributions of the saint of old. We remember Noah, the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all other righteous servants of God who demonstrated their faith in the living God as they labored and worked for the glory of God in their generation.

In the hymn, "The Church's One Foundation", the final stanza reads as follows,

"Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee."

We also sing in our Communion service these words- "Therefore with angels and
archangels, and with all the Company of heaven, we praise and magnify Your
glorious Name." We are not alone when we praise God but we are joined by the
saints in heaven as we praise God together.

There are not two communions of saints or two holy catholic churches, but we
believe in One church, One communion of saints, comprising both the living and
those whose rest is won. God shall raise up the dead in Christ and then those who
are living in Christ to be with Him forever and ever.

This brings me to my last point, which is the hope of the resurrection and the
life of the world to come. Notice Paul's words in I Thess. 4:16-18,

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

In the New Testament, the word used to express the coming of Christ is the Greek word parousia. This word is used in I Thess. 4:15,16 and translated as the coming of the Lord. But this same word also means presence. The word was used in connection with the Roman Emperor. When the Emperor visited a certain place, people expected his coming, his parousia. And when the Emperor arrived, he was there in person, so the same word expressed his presence. As a Christian and a Roman citizen, Paul used this same word parousia and applied it to Jesus Christ.

For Paul and for all Christians, not Caesar but Jesus is Lord. In I Thess. 4, the particular presence of Christ is His presence as He comes to judge the living and the dead and to resurrect all His people. The Latin Vulgate translates the phrase, believers being caught up in the air as believers being raptured. Paul views this rapture not as something secret but as something open and public, Christ coming with the voice of an archangel and trumpet call of God.

It is also worth noting that the rapture and the resurrection are simultaneous events. In other words, believers living at the time of Christ's return will be caught up in the air to join the resurrected departed saints and the world as we know it will come to an end with God bringing in a new heavens and a new earth. Christ will redeem the bodies of all His saints which will no longer subject to death, disease, and corruption. He will make all things new and bring His people into His eternal kingdom. We will be with the Lord forever.

History moves in a determined path, guided by God, according to His ordained will. It moves from Creation to Christ's cross and resurrection to Christ's return. At the very center of human history stands the cross and Christ's resurrection from the dead. Along the way much work needs to be done, work that God does not do alone. He has His servants here on earth -- His body, His saints in action, laboring to bring the light of hope, righteousness, and justice into the world not by our own strength but as we trust in God's power. Christ's resurrection power will help to transform our lives so that instead of being dominated by sin and evil we are dominated by righteousness and holiness. By Christ's power we can say no to sin and obey the commandments of God and do what pleases Him. And everything in history moves towards the second coming of Jesus.

So it is that the scope of God's work begins to widen again. Now it is not just concerned with a select group of servants in one geographical area but with Kingdom Servants throughout the world, people from all over this globe who have surrendered their lives and fallen into line behind the Perfect Servant, their King Jesus, workers in the Kingdom of God. This is where you stand in history, as a child of God, a believer in Jesus. This is where I stand... where WE stand together as God's servants and citizens of His kingdom. Let us receive and hold firmly to the hope of the resurrection and encourage one another in this holy faith.

Let us pray:

Merciful Father, we thank You for the hope of the resurrection that we have through faith in Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son. Help us to hold firmly to this hope and build one another up, remembering Your promises of redemption in Holy Scripture. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Lord.

Amen.

Trinity Sunday. May 22, 2005
Matthew 28:16-20

My children love listening to Focus on the Family’s children’s radio program Odyssey. There is an episode entitled Tin Flat. The father gathers the family together at the beginning of the episode and tells them he has a very important announcement. On the edge of their seat, they finally demand that he tell them what this great news is all about. He then informed them he has won an all expense paid vacation to Tin
Flat.

It is human nature to become excited by the announcement of good news. In our Gospel lesson for this morning, Christ is about to ascend to heaven and gives His disciples and His Church some really great news. From Matthew 28 we learn of the great news of the Gospel and once we truly realize how Great this news is, we should be firm in our commitment to proclaiming and living out the Gospel of Christ. This morning I want us to focus on the Great News of the Gospel.

The Great News of the Gospel begins with the Greatness of Jesus Christ. The foundation of the Christian Gospel begins with the conviction and proclamation that Jesus Christ is both God and man. We see in Matthew 28 two ways that Jesus Christ’s deity is affirmed:

1. The disciples worshipped Him. No one but God is worthy of our worship. Jesus does not scold His disciples for worshipping Him because Jesus is God and therefore their act of worship and homage was totally fitting and appropriate.

2. Christ’s statement in Matthew 28:18 "All authority in heaven and on earth has been give to Me." Who but God could truthfully make such a claim.

The Christian Gospel is a message that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is fully God, fully man, yet without sin. All authority belongs to Him and therefore we must worship Him and heed His divine authority and His Word.

In this passage we see not only the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ but also the teaching of the Holy Trinity. Christ calls upon His disciples to go and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We get a glimpse of God's inner life because He chose to reveal himself to us. We employ the word Trinity ("threeness") to affirm the teaching of Holy Scripture that there is one God existing in three person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It may come as a surprise that the precise word Trinity appears nowhere in the Bible. Still it succinctly sums up biblical teaching; it proved its value during the great controversies of the early Church. The historic Christian Faith accepts and receives the doctrine of the Trinity as being what the Bible teaches. The Athanasian Creed expressed the doctrine this way: "The Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three gods but one God. The Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty, but there are not three almighties, but one Almighty." Everything we can say of the Father, we can also say of the Son and Holy Spirit - except for their relations to each other. Jesus is the Son precisely because of His eternal relationship to the Father. They are so closely related that Jesus can say, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9)

In today’s Gospel the Risen Jesus instructs His apostles to go out and make disciples "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The teaching of the Holy Trinity should show us that our minds are finite and God is infinite and in order to know Him and worship Him we must receive the revelation of Himself in His Written Word. If we choose to believe only what we can understand and what we can wrap our minds around, we will end up with a god of our making but not the one true and living God. Christ calls upon us as disciples to humbly receive and believe that which we cannot understand but which is real. The disciple of Christ must not invent or create their own version of religion but embrace the teaching of Christ and the holy apostles as given in God’s Word written. This requires childlike humility and God’s gift of faith. But a disciple first and foremost is one who is willing to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen.

We can know the One God in three Persons because in His mercy He has condescended and revealed Himself to us. We must do precisely what the disciples did on the mount that day, worship Jesus and listen to Him as Lord and God.

Secondly, the greatness of the Gospel means responding to our Lord’s Great Commission. Because all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to our King Jesus Christ we are therefore to go and make disciples, and administer Christian Baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity to Christian believers and their children and teach baptized Christians to observe all things that Christ has commanded. The Great Commission then addresses not only the method of entrance into being a disciple of the Lord through faith and baptism but it also speaks of the need for a comprehensive discipleship. What I mean by comprehensive discipleship is the fact that a Christian is a lifetime student always being called to a deeper maturity in Christ, a call to deeper holiness, a challenge to inspect our lives, to turn from the sin that so easily entangles us.

The call of the Gospel always include both pardon and renewal. Our baptism reminds us just as clean water cleanses our bodies of dirt even so the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin. At the same time the Great Commission calls us to observe the whole teaching of our Lord and the whole counsel of God revealed in Holy Scripture. We must resist this tendency inherent in our sinful fallen nature which tempts us to be selective in observing the teaching and commands of our Lord. Recently it has been labeled as cafeteria style Christian. What this means is that we embrace what we like in the teaching of Scripture and what doesn’t suit our fancy we ignore and reject. We rationalize this by perhaps thinking what we don’t like is non-essential unimportant. The moment we do that we are being selective, picking and choosing what caters to our frame of thinking instead of being a man and woman of integrity and bending your will to be an obedient follower of all that Jesus Christ taught us to follow.

As Christians I believe it is important we read the Word of God and pray to the Lord daily. In our reading of Holy Scripture we should read all of the Bible which helps to at least be exposed to the intent of our Lord in this Great Commission, that we hear, remember, and observe all that Christ has commanded. It is important to go beyond just a selective reading of the Psalms, Proverbs, Sermon on the Mount, or a favorite epistle of Paul. We need to read the whole counsel of God, all of Scripture.

As a minister of the Gospel I am very glad we are in a church which emphasizes using a lectionary for the readings for Sunday worship because it disciplines ministers not to just ride constantly on a few pet hobby horses but to preach the whole counsel of God. Left to our devises we could be putting too much emphasis on our short list of favorite passages in Scripture and thereby not giving you a balanced diet. A lectionary spurs the minister to preach on matters that we might be inclined to ignore. What minister is just itching to preach on hell, gluttony, and tithing. We could put those topics on the back burn forever and ever Amen. But if the passage speaks of them, we do well to speak about them and not shirk our responsibility to teach and proclaim everything which our Lord commanded.

The Great Commission reminds us that we must remember both the grace of God in our salvation and the comprehensive call of discipleship. If we only focus on God’s grace without the call to moral transformation, we will be guilty of believing in a cheap grace foreign to the Bible. If we emphasize only the call to holiness and comprehensive discipleship without the promise of pardon and assurance for us Christians who still sin, we will be weighed down and crushed by the burden of our own moral failures and sins which we are all too aware of. We need to hear the Great Commission of our Lord which speaks both of the grace of God as He pardons and continually forgives us when we repent as well as the call to observe everything Christ has commanded. Our need to grow in our sanctification is a lifetime pursuit and we do get dirty because we sin, we are called to confess our sins and receive pardon and then get back to it serving God and seeking to do His will. We are lifetime students of our Lord ever seeking to grow in faith, hope, and love.

Third, let us remember the Greatness of the Gospel in the gracious promise of Christ in Matthew 28, "Behold I am with you to the end of the age." We can take comfort that we are not engaged in the work of discipleship and evangelism all by ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right of God the Father Almighty but He is always present with us as well. As God, Jesus is everywhere at once. He is present with us as He works in people’s hearts to bring unbelievers to faith and repentance and to bring believers to an ever increasing maturity and holiness in our lives. So while we go about worshipping God, trying to serve Him, to know Him and make Him known, we are not isolated from God, He is not distant. He is right here with us strengthening us for the task at hand. The disciples saw Jesus for the last time before His ascension and His great promise is that He will be with us to the end of the age.

While this task of living the Christian life in a way that is pleasing is challenging we are not making this journey all by ourselves nor are we making this journey just in the company of other saved sinners struggling as much we do. Jesus is with us all to the end of the age and we are call upon Him, to remember He is present with us, to save, sanctify, and direct as we live for Him.

The suggestion that religious practice is a kind of escapism has intimidated many Christians. Karl Marx used it with devastating effect when he asserted that religion is the opium of the people. I believe the charge can be reversed. Are not the true escapists those who "keep their nose to the grindstone," or, to speak more frankly, keep themselves so distracted they do not think about the possibility of the life of the world to come. To pause and lift up ones head is an act of realism which requires considerable courage. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of the plan of God.

Like the apostles in today’s Gospel, it is easy to doubt the reality of Christ. But like them, we draw near and worship him. Precisely because of His Ascension into heaven, He is near to us. May we be excited and challenged to live to the glory of God because of the greatness of the Gospel. The Gospel is great news because of the greatness of Christ, the privilege of responding to the Great Commission, and the gracious promise of Christ to be with us to the end of the age.

Let us pray:

Holy and Almighty God, we thank You that Your only Son Jesus Christ gave us all we need for salvation and godly living in this life. Help us to hear Him, to worship Him, and to heed His call. This we beg through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Easter Sunday - March 27, 2005
Matthew 28:1-10

The month of March is commonly know as "March Madness." If you follow college basketball you know that this is the time of the year for the NCAA playoffs. Quite a number of games are played and at the end there will be one winner. The fans scream at the top of their lungs, wave their hands wildly, and shout, "We’re Number One!" They paint their faces in their school colors, wear wigs and crazy hats. Emotions are at peak levels as the crowds roar with "BOOs" as well as applause. The players, coaches, parents and fans are passionate about the game of basketball.

The closer they get to the championship game the more passionate they become. The drama reaches a high point and unfolds in the last game and in final minutes of the final game.

I often wonder how we can be as passionate about our faith and as we are about basketball, baseball, or football. And I don’t mean we should come to church with multi- colored hair along with banners as we chant and scream. But we should have passion and focus on our Christian Faith because it’s important to us and we will always be driven by what we consider most important. As we look at the main characters in our Gospel lesson I think it becomes obvious that they came to the tomb of Jesus early on that first Easter morning preparing to take care of details in regard to the body of Jesus and by the end of the story they have gone through a transformation and are passionate about telling some exciting great news.

This morning I want us to consider two questions in connection to our Gospel passage:

1. Why were they passionate?

2. What did they do with their passion?

First- why were they passionate? The women spoken of in Matthew 28, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary undergo a dramatic change because of some very forceful encounters. First, there was "...a great earthquake." Then,

"an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled away the stone. His appearance was like lightening, and his clothes were white as snow."

The guards trembled at the site and then the angel spoke to the women:

"Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’"

Just as an arena shakes during a basketball game, the earth shook that morning when the women went to the tomb. Dramatic? I certainly think so.

I’ve seen sky divers land in the middle of football fields and jets fly overhead, but an angel? That was part of the real life drama of that first Easter morning. You see the women underwent a change in belief concerning Jesus because of what they encountered. The resurrection is not a myth, it is a reality. These very women who were going to prepare the body of Jesus are now told by the angel, "He is not here, He has risen just as He told you He would." They went to the tomb absolutely believing that Jesus was dead and would remain dead. They came away believing that Jesus was alive, and that He had undergone a bodily resurrection.

This, however is only the beginning. The drama in the scene builds even more. As the women left to tell the disciples all that was taking place, "Suddenly, Jesus met them. ‘‘Greetings,’’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him." To add to all the drama that had already taken place, Jesus spoke. "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

First the earthquake, then the angel, now Jesus appears and speaks. They became passionate about Christ’s resurrection because they saw and heard the angel and his message and they saw the resurrected Lord Himself and heard His message. They were moved by the truth of the resurrection because they truly saw and heard Him. The resurrection was not a myth made up by the early Church to somehow explain an empty tomb. The resurrection was not made up by the Church because the apostles wanted somehow to keep Jesus alive in their hearts. The resurrection was not made up because the early followers of Christ were in denial and fabricated a story because they
couldn’t accept His death. The resurrection was not made up because the disciples stole the Lord’s body, hid His body in another cave, and used the resurrection as an alibi to cover their wrong doing.

But, when you read the next part of this story (vs. 11-15) you will discover there were
others who had passion too. The chief priest and the elders were passionate, but for different reasons. They attempted to cover up and deny the resurrection. They were expending time and resources to cover up the story of the resurrection rather than celebrate it. They concocted a story and told the soldiers to tell the people that someone stole Jesus’ body in the middle of the night. They gave the soldiers a sum of money as
payment for their services. They saw Jesus as a threat and therefore created a mini "Watergate" to discredit what had really taken place.

Unfortunately there are times when our passion is misdirected and focused on doing more harm than good. Try as they could to make the story of the resurrection disappear the chief priests and elders could not. All the energy and resources in the world couldn’t stop God from raising Jesus from the dead.

The news of the resurrection of Christ spread because it actually happened. Jesus rose bodily from the grave and appeared to His followers. The women’s report and the disciple's passion was based on the truth, the truth that Jesus Christ was no longer in the tomb, he was no longer dead, He was risen, a bodily resurrection. This event was so shocking and so real, it caused both them to be both afraid and yet filled with joy. The reason for their passion concerning Jesus once they left the tomb is that they had truly encountered the risen Lord, not a figment of their imagination, not wish fulfillment but they truly saw Jesus who once was dead and now is alive forevermore.

This brings me to my second point: What did they do with their passion?

Can you imagine what was going through the minds of these two women when all this was happening? Talk about adrenaline. The women left the scene, not walking, but "...in a hurry, they ran to tell his disciples," the story says. These women were passionate about their faith. They couldn’t wait to share the good news. Their emotions were running high and their hearts pumping fast. As you know when we are passionate about something we make it a high priority in our lives. We give it our prime time and energy. We also expend our resources to maintain it. What we’re passionate about is
what we talk about. It consumes us and we do whatever we have to keep the fire burning.

The two women were passionate about their faith. All the drama and emotion surrounding this event points to the evidence that Christ has risen from the dead and God needs impassioned 21st Century disciples to carry on the work of Jesus, to build the church, to proclaim by word and deed the kingdom of God on earth.

The women did several things with their passion. They obeyed the message of the angel. Once they heard from the angels that they were to go and tell his disciples about the Lord’s resurrection, they immediately ran to where the disciples were staying.
They did not drag their feet, they did not make excuses, they were not captivated by fear of what the authorities would do to them. But they ran in obedience to the angels word.

And while they were running, Christ appeared to them. Does this not suggest that God will bless our obedience to His Word?

A second thing that the women do with their passion for God is that once they encounter Christ, they clasped His feet and worshipped Him. This action was based upon the truth that Jesus had risen from the dead and the truth that Jesus is God. If Jesus is not God, the women had no business worshipping Him, but the fact of the matter is Jesus is God and is worthy of our worship, our obedience, our service, our adoration.

Passion, excitement, enthusiasm, zeal are all directed toward a person or thing. To be zealous about the wrong cause has no merit or virtue. But these people were zealous according to the truth of the risen Jesus who is worthy to be worshipped. May God give us strength to spread the news of Christ’s victory over sin and death with the same zeal.

When we are passionate about our faith, we participate in the drama rather than just being spectators. When we are passionate, we "feel the earth shake." When we are passionate about our faith we "hold on to Jesus and worship him." And when he tells us to "...go and tell others," we run.

"He has risen, now go quickly and tell the story."

To be excited about our faith is to be running. All the witnesses on that Easter morning were running. I’m sure that none of you ran to church this morning unless you overslept. How we got here is not important. What matters is how we respond. When we leave Easter will we run or walk? Will we go away with enthusiasm about our faith or just continue on, living our lives as if nothing has happened?

One thing is certain, our faith will be visible when we "run" with passion and tell every one we can, and especially those who have ears to hear.

Let us pray:

Holy and Mighty God, we gather to remember the Resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter Day. We thank You for the life that is ours in Him. We praise you for the forgiveness and reconciliation that He has purchased for us because of His victory over sin and death through His death and resurrection. Help us to worship You and be passionate about spreading the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ to others. This we beg through Jesus Christ our Lord and Risen Savior.

Amen.