"Easter"
Rev. Barry W. Szymanski, J.D.
First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
April 8, 2012

INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY

This is the story of the resurrection of Jesus as told in John’s Gospel beginning at chapter 20. In this Gospel reading there is continual reference to ‘the disciple that Jesus loved’. Many theologians believe that the reference is to the original author of the Gospel, who was John, the apostle.

GOSPEL
John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that [Jesus] must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her. [These are the sacred words of the Gospel.]

SERMON

The word, which sums up Easter is the singular word: Alleluia! Christ is! Christ is among us! Jesus is alive in heaven and on earth.

Today we celebrate the Easter Mystery. Today we rejoice with St. Paul who wrote "if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you." Romans 8:11+.

Miracles occur around us constantly – we just miss most them. We don’t notice them. We look at the creation of the world – the original ‘Big Bang’ as termed by scientists – which was the first of the miracles, which touched us. Touched us, because without the original creation we would not be here this morning. The next key miracles, and I focus on the word key, are God’s interactions with Abraham, and with Moses; and the miracles of the prophets, and the psalmists. The next major miracle is the incarnation. But, please understand, I believe that miracles occur every day.

When I was a chaplain and minister intern at Children’s Hospital, I had doctors’ tell me they regularly experienced miracles there; healing took place beyond what medical science could explain. Let me draw a parallel. Earthquakes occur all the time. On the Richter scale, earthquakes of magnitude 1 continually occur. Do you know how many Magnitude 2 earthquakes occur every year? The answer is estimated to be 1,300,000! There are 130,000 Magnitude 3 earthquakes every year. But there are only 13,000 Magnitude 4 quakes. When we move up to Magnitude 7 earthquakes, there are only 15 each year. Magnitude 9 earthquakes only occur once every ten years! There has never been a Magnitude 10 Richter Scale earthquake recorded. I think this to be the best correlation with miracles that I can make.

I believe that God is always with us. Most of the time we don’t really see God’s hands at work in the world. The vast majority of time the world just keeps on moving along at it’s own slow pace – trees grow, the wind moves around the planet, ocean currents circle the globe, our bodies take in food and process calories, the miracle of birth occurs, our bodies eventually break down and death occurs.

All living creatures eventually die. But every once in a while, during our lives, God interferes. It may be a magnitude 1 interference and we don’t notice – and may not even care to notice. Or we think it just plan ‘luck’. However, when a major healing takes place, or we experience conversion of soul and spirit, we do see God’s direct hand.

This has been so true in my life. I look back at how God has shaped my life, and I am amazed – amazed because I could never have planned my life the way I have lived it. I look at my family – never could I have wished for more loving people surrounding me. I look at my career – and how it has led to me meet people and do things I could never have imagined! I sincerely wish this is true of your lives also.

Yet, even when I speak of miracles, I believe that God mostly wants -- and allows us -- to use the gifts he blessed us with to perform his work in this world. That is why we have eyes and hands and feet and the ability to talk – and, more importantly, to think and, most importantly, to love. The world’s most important miracles are God’s foremost messages of His love toward us: - the incarnation, - and the resurrection of Jesus!

The resurrection could not occur without the incarnation, and the resurrection is God’s paramount miracle! It is the Magnitude Ten of God’s hands at work in this world. We look at the Bible – we have two testaments: the Old, which are the stories and prayers of the people before Jesus was born, - and the New, which are the Gospels which are the records of Jesus himself; and the letters and other books written after Jesus died.

The Old Testament remains important because it tells us of how God disclosed who he was, and what he did, for those peoples who lived before the birth of Jesus. The Gospels are four versions of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

I look at the Gospels the same way that four people give their eulogies at a funeral. The eulogists offer four different loving depictions of the person who has just died. They give four views in their witness to a life lived.

And the rest of the New Testament is just that, the testaments of Peter, James, Jude, John and Paul. These are their Testaments of Jesus and his impact on their lives -- testaments of what Jesus should also mean to us; and testaments of what the relevance of Jesus is to our salvation.

In the Old Testament we learned that the Jews traveled in their exodus from slavery in Egypt to their new lives in Israel. In the celebration of Passover the Jewish people re-live their Exodus from slavery to freedom.

The Last Supper, when we celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist, occurred at the feast of Passover when Jesus was in the upper room with his apostles and disciples. Together they were praying the sacred words of Passover that the Jewish people continue to commemorate every year. When Jesus stated that this is the New Covenant, we now understand that Jesus’ invites us to join him on his pass-over from this world to the heavenly world.The result of the miracle of the resurrection is that Jesus’ removed the death barrier between God and us. Jesus proved that union with God the Father would occur after death.

When we walk with him we are not just followers of Jesus -- # When we walk with we are united with Jesus, who is the Resurrected Christ.When we walk with him we share in His resurrection! In union with Jesus, our hope to be with him forever is not simply a wish -- our hope is almost a certainty -- only limited by our free will to choose God. We believe in God – that is faith. We love God - that is why we direct our hearts and minds to God. We hope in God – yet, in our day-to-day lives, our hope does not often seem to be on firm ground.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Roman church, wrote of hope when he said, "Hope that is seen is not hope.For who hopes for what he sees?But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:24b-25.

God asks us to be patient during our life on this earth. And, while being patient, God asks us to remember Jesus’ life on this earth, and to walk with him every day of our life. This means that every time we move or think or pray we are to include Jesus in what we do, and how we think, and when we pray. Every time we celebrate Holy Communion we remember ‘Jesus’ offering of his entire human life to his Father and joining his Divinity with God the Father.

All wrapped up in Holy Communion is our remembered celebration of Jesus life, His suffering, death, and His resurrection. We celebrate his passing over from this mortal world into the eternity of God. We celebrate his union with God the Father. And we celebrate God’s Holy Spirit always with us.

Easter is the miracle of miracles. The Richter scale, which I referred to earlier, increases by the power of 10. In plain terms it is this: 1 is 1. By the power of ten, the next number is 10. The next is 100, the next is one thousand. The next is One Million. Then One Billion. Following that, by the power of ten, is one trillion. Then One Quadrillion. And on and on by the power of ten.

Why did I pick the Richter scale to even talk about miracles? Simply because the Richter scale boggles my mind. And since I am boggled by the power of the number 10, I am telling you that my mind CANNOT comprehend the power of miracles! I cannot wrap this old finite mind around what God can do! I just cannot envelop my brain around what God did do! But what I can do is to let my heart try to grasp God’s love for me – and for each of you!

God’s love for us has a vision. God has a plan for each of us. In our lives we have life goals – in our businesses we create vision statements. In organizations we have mission statements. All of these are blueprints. God also has a plan – not just for the universe, - but for each person.

Jesus, Word made flesh, was born to allow us to become fully human – and to be fully human is to develop our spirituality. Jesus was born so we would learn more of who God is; what God offers us; and how we can be in deeper union with God. And when this happens our lives are enriched.

Jesus tells us how to be happier individuals – the Beatitudes are examples of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus desires that we mature into our full capabilities. Jesus, the Son of God, Second Person of the Trinity, both God and human, is the Jesus we celebrate today. This is the resurrected Jesus. But He is also the fully human Jesus, who was -angry: in the Temple with the moneychangers; - disappointed: with the lack of acceptance of some who heard him preach; - frustrated: by the lack of understanding of his Apostles; - loving: to all he met; - irritated: by the attitude of the Pharisees; - compassionate: to everyone; - grieving: when he heard that his friend Lazarus died; - forgiving: throughout his life, even while dying on his cross; -anxious: in the Garden of Gethesmane; - dejected: on the cross when he cried out ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ - but warm and caring and smiling: when the children surrounded him. This is the mystery of the miracle of the incarnation!

After his resurrection, Mary Magdalene, who knew Jesus for years, did not recognize him in his joyous resurrected form! Once she comprehended who he was, she called him Teacher and hugged him and held onto him. We saw that Peter and John, who saw, still did not understand the resurrection. What we see is Peter’s and John’s and Mary Magdalene’s hopes, fears, and lack of understanding. Can we be any different in our hopes? and our fears? and our lack of understanding? When Jesus asked Mary Magdalene not to hold onto him, he was telling her he had other work to do. Jesus was revealing to Mary Magdalene that it was time for Him to move on from that obscure time, and that generally minor country, to take His place as the Christ of the Universe.

This is what Paul understood when he wrote to the church in Philippi: --and you can see Paul bursting with emotion as he wrote this: “God highly exaltedJesus, and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11.

A well-kept secret of Christianity is that it is a religion of Real-Time. Christianity is relevant. Unfortunately we have preserved this secret. Many people assume that Christianity and the Gospel is only history. Easter tells us differently! Jesus, the resurrected and ascended Christ, is with us.

Mary Magdalene was told that she could not keep hugging him for Jesus is now the Christ of all of us – of each and every one of us! - in 2012! Jesus miraculously continues to transform lives. Jesus miraculously shares His vision of “. . . the Kingdom of God, on earth, as it is in heaven.”

We no longer live in fear of the unknown, because Jesus is with us. We no longer live in the dimness of life, for Jesus provides the light of eternity. We no longer accept the trivial, for His Resurrection becomes the significant event. We no longer avoid change, because with Christ any transformation becomes easier to accept. Different experiences open us up to God’s created world – of people, of places, of cultures, yes, even of other systems of belief.

You know that you have been blessed with gifts. You are to go forth because you are Jesus’ disciples, just like Mary Magdalene, and Peter and John did, and live the Christian life – and definitely to tell the Christ story. In our Easter hope we join with Jesus the Christ in his great mystery of life and death and in his full life in eternity.

The Easter message is simple: The Son of God lives! I pray that you have a Blessed Easter; I am joined in this prayer by Sue, my wife, by Tonia, our Youth minister, by Lee, Tom, Nick, Ralph, and the choir, by Cindy and Anne, our administrative staff, and by Chip, Kelly, and Mark, our efficient building crew.

Remember, the only word, for us mere humans, that sums up the miracle of Easter is Alleluia! May you be blessed by the miracle of Easter! Amen.