Beginning, Belonging, Being

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday

Beginning, Belonging, Being

Luke 24:1-12

Jesus betrayed,

arrested,

brought before Pilate,

handed over as the crowds shouted,

“Crucify! Crucify!”

                                   

Jesus beaten,

nailed to a cross,

left to die in agony as a common criminal

on that notorious hill called Golgotha.

Jesus alone,

the disciples hiding behind locked doors,

fearing for their own lives,

even Peter so afraid that he denied knowing Jesus,

not just once, but three times.

Jesus dead,

his limp body hanging from the ropes and nails.

It was left to a man named Joseph from Arimathea

to take Jesus’ body down from the cross,

to wrap it gently in linen and place it in a tomb,

a tomb Joseph had prepared for himself.

The day after Jesus’ crucifixion and death was the Sabbath,

but could any of Jesus’ followers even think of worship

when all of them were overwhelmed with despair and fear?

On the third day, Sunday morning,

even before the sun rose over the horizon,

Mary Magdalene set out for the tomb

intent on completing the job Joseph had begun.

The disciples may have felt compelled to hide

but she was determined to anoint Jesus’ body properly,

to prepare the body as Jewish ritual demanded.

In John’s gospel she is alone,

but Luke tells us that she has the company of

Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others.

They find the tomb empty,

horrified to find the great stone

 that had covered the entrance,

rolled away,

the body of their beloved Lord gone.

But then the women see

“two men in dazzling clothes”.

It is curious that Luke doesn’t call them angels.

The men speak to the women:

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen.

Remember how he told you,

while he was still in Galilee,

that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,

and be crucified,

and on the third day rise again?”

The women look at each other.

Yes! Of course we remember!

We can hear our Lord’s words even now,

“See, we are going up to Jerusalem,

and everything that is written

about the Son of Man by the prophets

will be accomplished.

For he will be handed over to the Gentiles;

and he will be mocked,

and insulted and spat upon.

After they have flogged him,

they will kill him;

and on the third day he will rise again.”

(Luke 18:31)

Their despair vanishes with dawn’s darkness,

the rising sun warming them,

hope mending their broken hearts.

They run to find the disciples to tell them

what they had found,

what they had heard,

 what they had seen.

“Our Lord is alive!!”

But when the men hear what the women have to say,

their “words seemed to [them] an idle tale

and they did not believe [the women].”

A bucket of cold water thrown on them;

the chill and dark of the dawn

cover them once again.

Hope dashed,

excitement gone,

hearts broken into even more pieces.

The women could see it in the men’s eyes:

the story was over, Jesus was dead.

The only thing that needed to be done

was to figure out the best way

for them to slip out of the room where they were hiding,

and blend in with the crowds

who would soon leave the city

following the end of the Passover festival.

They could hear in their voices

that that was the only hope the men held onto,

the hope of escaping with their lives,

escaping back to anonymity, obscurity.

The disciples had agreed that they would

make good their flight from Jerusalem

and each would return to the life he’d lived

before Jesus had called,  

before Jesus had gathered them together,

before Jesus taught them

to be a fishers of men and women.

The adventure, the hope,

the life,

the story – it was over.

All over.

But we know, of course,

this was not the end of the story.

that what the women told the men was no idle tale,

but the truth:

that God had raised Jesus from the dead,

that that Sunday was the first Easter.

This was something the disciples would shortly learn

when the resurrected Lord appeared to them,

showing himself to them to help them

overcome their fear, their doubt;

the men hearing the voice they knew so well ask them,

“Why are you frightened,

and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

(Luke 24:38)

The death that had seemed like the end,

became a new beginning

as the resurrected Jesus, the living Jesus,

gathered his stunned followers around him

and commissioned them,

“As the Father has sent me,

so I send you.”

(John 20:21)

Our Lord’s resurrection

became the disciples commencement,

their graduation from student to teacher,

from follower to leader,

from unsure, unsteady,

even a little unconvinced,

to confident,

rock-steady,

convicted, committed,

the disciples empowered by the breath of God filling them,

and graced with assurance in Jesus’ promise,

“And remember that I am with you always,

to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:20)

Out they went, fearlessly,

without hesitation,

out to spread the good news of the gospel

out to spread the news

that God had raised Jesus from the dead,

that in Christ’s resurrection

the power of death had been defeated,

death vanquished.

Christ’s resurrection brought a new promise

of a new beginning,

of new life:

life in Christ,

life through Christ,

and life with Christ;

the resurrected Christ,

the living Christ.

Life now,

and life in the era to come:

“Those who believe in me

even though they die, will live,

and everyone who lives and believes in me

will never die.”

(John 11:25)

There could no longer be any misunderstanding,

any confusion,

any doubt that this was and is truly

the Word of the Lord.

In Jesus’ resurrection the old ways were gone;

a new life had begun for the disciples.

In Jesus’ resurrection the old ways are gone for us,

you and me,

and a life of endless beginnings is ours in the living Christ.

It is a very different life:

It is a life of patience and tolerance;

of acceptance and forgiveness;

compassion and concern;

It is a life of selflessness,

as we follow the one who came not to be served,

but to serve.

It is a life modeled on the life

of our resurrected Lord.

It is a life of belonging,

for we are called to community,

the community of men and women of different cultures,

different languages,

different skin colors,

all of us created equally in God’s image,

all of us followers of Jesus Christ.

We are called to community to build community:

build community through hospitality,

through the warmth of our welcome,

by embracing all,

by working to tear down barriers and

removing obstacles to any

who come to be part of the community.

Conversion is God’s work;

ours is make a place at the table for all.

In this community of followers of Christ

we recognize that even as God defeated death,

in Jesus’ resurrection,

death in other forms still lurks all around us

and we are called to defeat the power of death

as it wreaks its havoc:

There is the destructive power of economic death

among the poor who struggle

to feed themselves,

clothe themselves,

shelter themselves.

There is the debilitating power of social death

of the outcast, the different,

the alien

the bullied,

the mocked,

the lonely,

the differently-abled,

anyone who doesn’t feel he or she belongs to community.

When we see a person dying for lack of hope,

lack of compassion,

lack of love;

when we see a world that is dying for

justice,

righteousness,

for peace,

we are to work to bring death to death

and in the process restore hope,

restore compassion,

bring peace,

assure justice

create a world in which righteousness flourishes.

This is a radical call from our resurrected Lord,

for it is a call to a completely new life,

a completely new way of living,

a new way of being.

We can turn from it.

We can embrace it tepidly, with mild enthusiasm.

Or we can take on this life all the way,

embracing it fully.

In this new way of living,

this new way of being,

we can live a life of joy,

of riches – spiritual, not material –

of grace and love.

It is a life in which we can put to death fear,

that lurking shadow that hovers everywhere.

We can put fear to death,

for our trust is in the Lord,

our hope is the Lord,

our lives are in the Lord.

“I shall not die,

but I shall live,

and recount the deeds of the Lord.”

(Psalm 118:17)

These are words spoken by one who did not fear

for he stood on the solid, unmoving foundation

that was the Lord his God.

And you and I stand on the very same foundation

in our living Lord, Jesus Christ.

This is the promise of Easter,

the promise of the Resurrection,

that you and I will know life,

have life,

live life in its fullest,

its most joy-filled

for it is life in Christ.

It is Easter!

It is a day of belonging,

a day of new beginnings,

a day that calls us to a new way of being,

to new life in our living Lord.

For Christ is risen,

Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed!

Alleluia!

AMEN