Easter Sunday
HMPC – Christopher H. Edmonston
Dead to Sin – Alive to Christ
Matthew 28: 1 – 10; Romans 6: 3 – 11
I.
Earlier
this month I got to go down to the beach at Figure 8 Island. I go to meet there, at the invitation of a
convener, to meet with other pastor’s of Presbyterian Churches in
One
afternoon during my two days there, I walked out onto the back porch which
overlooks the marsh and the sound behind the island. And there floating in the current, was a
rather large jellyfish. It struck me as
odd for a several reasons. First it was
a single jellyfish, and usually I see them in big bunches: more like swarms of jellyfish. Second it was really large for a jellyfish in
II.
It occurs to me as I watch the church and as I listen to media-stories about declining church membership, soaring poverty rates, and general social stress and societal demise, that many of our Christian brothers and sisters seem to practice their faith like the jellyfish practices its life.
Instead of actively witnessing and actively engaging in mission and growth, they are passively blowing wherever the current takes them.
Instead of rising in prayer, they are rising and falling with the tide.
Instead of feasting on bible study, sacrament, and service, they nibble on whatever the waters bring them.
Now the good news is that their spiritual survival is not dependent upon their activity. God is good, and God will sustain them – after all there is no shortage of jellyfish. If the goodness of God and of God’s creative order will sustain the jellyfish, then the goodness of God will sustain us all.
The tough news is that they are yet, still, jellyfish. And wouldn’t it be so much more inspiring, inspiriting, and incredible to be a dolphin, or a shark, or a tuna, or a manatee? Something more active than a jellyfish?
III.
Of all the days in the Christian year, this Lord’s day, this Easter Sunday, is the day that should inspire us to seek the Lord with a renewed and increased vigor. This is the apex day of our faith, and while it is not necessarily any more or less important than any other Sunday, the truth is that every other Sunday, every other Lord’s Day of the year is a reflection of our claims and of our joy on this Easter day. To put this another way – every Sunday is resurrection Sunday because this Sunday is resurrection Sunday.
And so today, much more than any other day of the year, we should not be passive in our faith or passive in our witness. Imagine what happens if the women who discovered the empty tomb had been passive. Uncaring. Unconcerned. Uncommitted. Waiting for the next “wherever” that fate might take them. What happens? Not much. Instead everything happens – the story of Jesus is shared. The word about his resurrection is spread. And hope springs eternal for those whom Jesus calls his own. We have a gospel, we have a church, we have a word of hope in a world that is mighty full of despair – because by the power and the glory of the Holy Spirit those first witnesses were not passive, but were active, and they told what they had seen and they shared what they knew to be true about the miracle of miracles. Thank God they shared what they knew. Thank God they broke free from the currents of the day, the tides that rose with the crowd that demanded that Jesus just go away – from the buzz and the shouting that called for his death and an end to what he represented.
IV.
Jack Haberer, Editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, begins his editorial this week with the sentence: “Thank God that Easter comes around every year.” Jack is right. Thank God Easter comes around every year.[1]
In a time where terror and warfare are front page currency it is easy to give into despondency.
In an age where elected leaders fall from grace left and right as they succumb to any and every temptation it is easy to succumb to distrust and trust no-one.
In an era of school shootings, teen pregnancies, military escalations, soaring drop-out rates, denominational splintering, debates over human sexuality, and declines in church membership, it is understandable that so many of us want to close the blinds, bar the door, and long with nostalgia for easier and simpler times.
As Haberer reminds us in his editorial – too many of us are told in a world that is quick to remember shame and forget redemption:
§ You’re a loser.
§ You’re unforgiveable.
Instead of thinking about how we can share, what we can give, or who we can help, we are often consumed with envy, laziness, isolation, pride, and indulgence as we think:
§ It’s mine, give it back.
§ Nothing ever changes, what is the point of trying?
§ I am all alone, nobody cares.
§ I am above all of this, why should I care?
Yes, thank God for Easter. Thank God for a day and faith and a church and a gospel which reminds us at each and every turn:
§ Jesus values us.
§ Jesus forgives us.
§ Jesus absorbs the barbs for us.
§ Jesus abides with us.
§ Jesus liberates us from sin and self-destructive tendencies.
§ Jesus rose, victorious over death.
Yes, Thank God for Easter. And thank God for those forefathers and foremothers in faith who chose not to flow out with the tide and disappear at sea, but who kept the faith, finished their races, and passed onto us this trust in God. Our Easter faith is that which proclaims life in the face of death and second chances when we know we have not earned such a chance by our own merits.
V.
That’s good news, right?
No, wait, it’s better.
It’s wonderful news, right?
No, wait, it’s better.
It’s excellent news, right?
No, wait, it’s better. Still better yet.
Easter is, the BEST news we have been told and the best news that we might ever be told.
VI.
Sin, evil, warfare, pain, infamy, degradation – none of those unpleasant things can hold us because of this good news. Easter calls us out of lives that are dictated by easy fate – fate that says we are subject to the currents; fate that says we only have to eat what comes our way. Fate that says we are always destined to make the same mistakes over and over again. As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans Chapter 6: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Because of Jesus and because of Easter, we are not enslaved to sin.
Because of Jesus and because of Easter, the world is not destined to fail and flounder.
Because of Jesus and because of Easter, we are empowered to be a people of hope and a people of trust, and a people unafraid of even death itself.
VII.
At our home, we read many, many children’s books. One of our favorite books is a book of poems by Nikki Grimes and Tim Ladwig – a book called When Daddy Prays. There are many, many good poems, but one of my favorites is called Baby Brother.
They sent him home
half-finished,
still scrunched up
like a brown
package.
They should’ve
ironed him out first,
if you ask
me. But Daddy
doesn’t seem to
notice.
Last night,
[Daddy] leaned over that
wrinkled creature
in the bib,
sleeping in what
used to be my crib.
“Make me a godly
man,” he prayed.
“Help me show this
little one
exactly how it’s
done.”
I punched my
pillow, jealous as could be
‘til Daddy asked
the Lord
to please watch over me.[2]
Easter lets us know without a doubt, without a fear, without a worry for our sin or regrets, that we are all watched over. No matter how jealous we are, no matter how lost we feel, the goodness of God watches over us just as the father who prays over the son who is afraid he has been forgotten. Easter is beautiful because it leaves no one behind as it calls us all to be alive for God.
Alive
today, as the realized
Alive
tomorrow, as the heavenly
VIII.
Because of Jesus and because of Easter, we are reminded that not one of us is doomed to always be a jellyfish, or to feel like a jellyfish. But each one of us is watched over. Each one of us is claimed. Each one of us is called. Each one of us is chosen and might live forever and ever.
It is as
the Bible says: 1st Peter 1: 3 – 5: “Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for
you…..”
IX.
It is kept for you, this
promise. Whether you are at the top of
the class or at the bottom of the curve.
God’s goodness allows for the thriving of jellyfish, and it will allow
us to thrive as well, even on our jellyfish days.
There is a problem, though, with
jellyfishing for too long – the jellyfish is spineless, it conforms easily, and
is apparently lifeless. Even worse, the
jellyfish stings, and it can hurt others, even when it does not intend to. When my child was stung at the beach, I don’t
think the little jellyfish meant to sting him.
Whenever we jellyfish, as a husband, a worker, a girlfriend, a child –
whenever we live without conviction or dedication, simply being satisfied with
the tides we run this risk of too easily conforming to the world around us and
of hurting others, even if we don’t mean it.
Or to fold this back into the Bible
– Romans calls us to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. When we are as clear, spineless, and slimy as
a jellyfish it is hard to tell if we are alive to anything.
My point is not to slam the
jellyfish, but to say that while the jellyfish is cared for, and while it still
survives, it is still a jellyfish and there are much more appealing creatures
in the sea to be. Easter is calling us to
be alive to Christ and dead to sin; Easter is calling us to give our best to
God, even as it offers God’s best promise to us.
[1] Presbyterian Outlook – March 17, 2008. Page 5. This entire section, section IV, is adapted from Haberer’s article. http://www.pres-outlook.com/tabid/2240/Article/7141/Default.aspx
[2] When Daddy Prays, 2002. Nikki Grimes. “Baby Brother.” Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.