Sermon for
March 27, 2005
Easter
“Flashpoint of History”
John 20:1-18
At Easter the world
changed and you and I are never the same again. Christians believe that
Easter is the critical, pivotal, determinative flashpoint of history.
To really understand the power of
Easter, to begin to get our hands around the vast energy of life released
by the resurrection as Christians understand it, consider another cosmic
event of defining proportions. On December 27 of last year another
world-changing event occurred in the cosmos 50,000 light years away from
earth. On that day a star exploded on the far side of the galaxy.
This star was actually a small neutron star. Magnestar SGR 1806-20
was just 12 ½ miles across and spun so fast it completed one revolution
every 7.5 seconds. On December 27 its super-strong magnetic field
underwent a rearrangement, a “star quake.” That one incident
lasting but a split second set off more energy than the sun puts out in
100,000 years. A star quake is the only phenomenon capable of
releasing so much energy: the greatest emission of energy since the
beginning of creation. Now this is an event of universal
proportions. Had this happened within 10 light-years of us the Earth
would have suffered mass extinction. It changed everything around it
for billions of miles forever. That’s energy! That’s
power! The world changed there.
[BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/41780005.stm
]
In the southern
constellation Sagittarius beyond the center of the Milky Way that great
explosion was a flashpoint of history. Things there will never be
the same. It is events like this that define history wherever they
occur. It made a difference.
Thanks be to God that
there are no magnestars anywhere near the earth to ever make us
susceptible to this rare kind of force. Today we are simply left in
awe of this event, observing at a safe distance the evidence of something
that has happened in the past so far away. To us it really doesn’t
make that much of a difference.
Christians believe that
Easter is the critical, pivotal, determinative flashpoint of all of
history. The energy of life unleashed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
far exceeds any power of nature you can ever imagine. On this Easter
Sunday Christians believe no other cosmic event rearranged life, emitted
more energy, or defined history more than did the resurrection.
That’s because at Easter Christians
believe that you and I get life back again—life we lost; life we gave up
almost as soon as it was given us in the Garden of Eden. In the
beginning, God created us in the image of God. God gave us this
incredible gift of life. That gift secured by the image of God in
us, gave us all the knowledge, all the spirit, and all the will we ever
need to live life in the fullest of joy. That gift of the image of
God in us shows us the way, guides our choices in life, and never fails to
discern for us the way that leads to life.
That gift in us is
similar to the gift of instinct nature has given to animals. For
example, December 26 of last year could be considered another one of those
flashpoints of history, when that great tidal wave came crashing into
South Asia so effecting the character and destiny of humanity. But
did you notice as the damage was assessed how very few animals suffered
the consequences of that tsunami? Scientists suggest that animals,
by their very nature, innately sensed something was about to happen and
made for high ground. The animals sensed the evidence, felt the
signs. They properly discerned the way to life. In a similar
manner, God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden the innate gift of
life. You and I were made to tell the difference between the things
of life and the things of death by the very image of God in which we were
created.
But somehow we made a
very wrong choice in the garden of Eden, you remember. We disobeyed
God. We chose to go our own way rather than God’s way. Now
that forbidden fruit hanging on a tree called “the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil” is very tempting to a curious humanity. Just
take a bit of that fruit and you’ll be able to tell the difference
between good and evil, right and wrong, and be just like God! The
temptation is too great! In desperation we disobeyed God in order to
gain that knowledge.
Isn’t it interesting,
once we turned our backs on God and ate of the fruit of that tree, isn’t
it curious how, ever since, life looks like death and death looks like
life to us? If we really did gain so much knowledge in that act of
disobedience, why have we since then consistently made all the wrong
choices, gone the wrong way, drifted farther and farther from God?
That’s what happened when humanity fell. In the Fall we lost our
bearings. We denied the gift of the image of God in which we were
created. The impact of the Fall affects every one of us today.
Because of the Fall,
it’s so easy to mistake the evidence of death for the promise of life.
Because of the Fall, we so often overlook the evidence of life and
misinterpret the signs of death all around us. How else do you
explain we work so hard and so long and hardly ever see our families
because all of that money sure looks like life to us? Why else is it
that it makes so much more sense to us to catch up on our sleep, or
schedule our long-postponed physical exercise, or finally get to that
long-neglected yard work, or attend to other very important activities of
life at the expense of our own or our children’s spiritual growth?
How else do you explain that we make sure to take care of our own needs
before we even manage to think about the needs of the poor and the less
fortunate? It’s the only way I can figure why humanity so
regularly and so often chooses war to settle our disputes and differences.
Because of the Fall we mistake life for death and death for life.
The Fall so distorts, pushes aside, denies that image of God in us that it
effects every single one of us even to this day.
These three, Mary, Simon Peter, and
the disciple whom Jesus loved, rushed to the very site of the greatest
event that has ever occurred in history. The evidence of it lay
right there before them—discarded linen wrappings; a cloth neatly rolled
up by itself; Mary even sees her risen Lord standing right before her.
Yet they misunderstand. They mistrust the evidence. They fear
the worst. And their despair deepens. In the very face of life
itself all they see is death.
That’s what happened to us all
after the Fall. Even when Jesus is standing right in front of us,
even when we are in his very presence, it just doesn’t look like life to
us at all anymore.
At least not until Mary hears Jesus
speak to her. At his Word her eyes are open. At his her
despair turns to joy. Mary and the disciples heard the Word of Jesus
at Easter and it made all the difference. At the Word of Jesus at
Easter the image of God is restored to the very center of their lives so
that, once again, life looked like life and death looked like death.
By the Word of Jesus at Easter life was given back to them so they knew
again without a doubt that the way of Jesus is the way of life. Any
other way just didn’t attract them anymore because every other way is
the way of death.
The question for you and for me this
morning is this: as the Word of Jesus is proclaimed this Easter in
your hearing, does it still make a difference? As you hear the Word
of Jesus this Easter, is the resurrection so pivotal for you that you
celebrate its power and welcome its energy of life in joyous affirmation
that Jesus Christ is alive, active, and making a difference in your life
and my life and in all creation? Or do you come today to observe
Easter not unlike one who observes a great cosmic event—from a safe
distance, viewing the evidence of something that has happened in the past
so far away?
On the day of the
tsunami that brought death to so many, one entire tribe survived that
disaster. While tourists in Thailand looked on curiously as the tide
receded so very far, as fishermen in Sri Lanka ran out to pick up the
flapping fish helplessly exposed on the seabed, the Onge people near Hut
Bay, India, immediately headed for high ground. When the Sri Lankan
fishermen saw those fish right there fresh for the picking they sensed in
that the most obvious sign of life they had ever seen. But the Onge
people, this small, aboriginal tribe considered by many to be the
“missing link” of humanity since the Stone Age, they knew innately
what a sudden receding of ocean truly meant. When the creek went
dry, they innately understood that sign. They never lost the gift.
The never lost the gift of discernment deep in their nature. They
never lost that gift. All 96 of them were the only survivors of that
area. Nine days later their numbers grew to 97 with the birth of a
baby girl. They knew, they saw the evidence, and it saved them.
They never lost the gift. They can always read the signs. They
never miss the evidence. To them life has always looked like life
and death always looks like death.
[The Roanoke
Times, March 6, 2005, A 11]
I recently ran across a
reference to another flashpoint of history. In an afterword of a
collection of reflections on September 11 Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of
Christian Ethics at Duke Divinity School, says many people believe that
the world changed forever on that day. He disagrees. “The
world was not changed on September 11, 2001,” he says. “The
world was changed during the celebration of Passover in 33 A.D.”
[The Sunday After Tuesday,
College Pulpits Respond to 9/11, William H. Willimon, ed.
(Nashville, Abingdon Press) 2002, p. 193.]
After the Passover of
33 AD, because of the resurrection at the Word of Jesus, Mary’s eyes are
opened and once again she sees the evidence of life-- her Lord standing
before her. At the Word of Jesus at Easter she can’t wait to tell
everyone else. At the Word of Jesus at Easter, because of the
resurrection, Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved, and all the
followers of Jesus become Easter people. At the Word of Jesus at
Easter you and I are Easter people in whose hearts the very image of God
in which you were created is restored to the very center of your life.
Easter people, not unlike the Onge people who had never lost the gift of
understanding the ways of nature, get back their innate gift to see and
know and understand and embrace the evidence and the ways of life as God
originally created it. At the Word of Jesus at Easter death looks
like death and life looks like life again. There is restored to you
a gift that so long lay dormant in your soul.
So what about you on
this Easter Sunday? On this very day of this great flashpoint of
history when the world changed forever, have you come today to celebrate
the very real power of the resurrection and welcome its vast energy of
life that transforms and shapes and revitalizes you, your family, your
children, and your world, or have you come today to observe Easter from a
safe distance, viewing evidence of something that has happened in the past
so far away? Sisters and brothers, on this day you are not just
standing there looking at pieces of cloth and talking to a gardener.
Today you get your life back again. Today and every Easter day and
every day of resurrection when the people gather on the first day of the
week the image of God in which you were created is restored more and more
to the very center of your life. The far-reaching influence of the
resurrection brings life to those who have their eyes opened to its truth,
their hearts warmed by its message, and their lives restored by its power.
At Easter the world
changed and you are never the same again. Easter people, on this day
of resurrection, hear the Word of Jesus and get your life back.
