Easter Sermon, 2010
They Were the First To Know
A Sermon for Pleasant Street Church
Easter Sunday – April 4, 2010
Rev. Reebee Girash
Text: Luke 24:1-12
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men c said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. d 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Sermon
I’m going to sum this story up for you in one word. Actually, I’m going to sum the whole gospel up in one word.
BUT.
I have to thank Karl Barth for this idea. He said it this way: “The gospel is not a natural therefore, but a miraculous nevertheless.”
The women – those brave ones we met last week, the ones who had followed Jesus to the cross, who stood watch there, through the agony, who witnessed his body laid in a tomb – these brave ones came back to the tomb to tend to his remains.
But when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, BUT has risen.
The world told them he was dead and gone. God had something different to say. God said, You think he is dead, BUT My Son Lives!
The world said, Death. God said, HOWEVER, LIFE!
The world said, Crucifixion. God said, EVEN SO, RESURRECTION!
The world said, Good Friday. God said, AND YET, EASTER! And we say, with God, Christ is Risen! (Christ is Risen Indeed!)
Now, these women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others, They were the first to know. Not just the first to be told – although they were. They were the first to know. They were the first to believe. They were the first to proclaim it: they ran right from the empty tomb and the angels, to the eleven, and they declared, Christ is risen!
Why, I wonder, didn’t they get stuck, like the eleven?
You see, the eleven, at least at first, thought it was nonsense. An idle tale. It took them a while, to become Easter Christians.
But Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the Mother of James, they caught on fast. Why?
The angels asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, BUT has risen.” Then the angels asked them to think back on all they knew of Jesus. “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words.”
They remembered his predictions, but perhaps they also remembered his life. Let me propose to you that it was the reminder of the kind of life that Jesus led, that helped them to believe he could rise from death.
It was the memory of a life filled with overturned expectations, with outsiders brought inside, with the last becoming the first – that life of howevers and even-sos, and despites, and notwithstandings, and even thoughs and buts that made it possible to believe that was was not there in that tomb, but had risen!
They ran out of wine, but Jesus made more.
The prodigal son ran away from home, but the Father welcomed him home!
The woman was crippled for 18 years, but Jesus said, that’s not your last chapter!
The leper was ostracized and suffering, but Jesus touched him and made him well!
They had no food, but Jesus fed 5000 anyway! But that’s not all, 4000 more! But, that’s not even counting the women and kids!
She was an adulterer, they were going to stone her, but Jesus said, let he who is without sin cast the first stone!
Lazarus was dead, but Jesus raised him up!
The little girl was dead, but Jesus raised her up!
He was a king, but he came to proclaim good news to the poor!
The Pharisees asked why Jesus hung around with outcasts and tax collectors. Jesus said, I am not here for the righteous, but for sinners!
The betrayer was there, but Jesus shared the cup with all of them!
They put him on a cross, but Jesus said, forgive them!
Jesus told them, “that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, BUT on the third day rise again.”
That was the gospel in one word: BUT. Whatever bad news there was, Jesus said, BUT! No wonder, remembering that truth, the women could embrace the unexpected, the unbelievable, the resurrection.
The choir sang it to you, what those women might have been thinking:
“Had Christ, that once was slain, ne’er burst his three day prison, our faith had been in vain,
BUT
Now is Christ arisen!”
(From: This Joyful Eastertide, George R. Woodward )
(As an aside, every time I typed the word but on my computer, it filled in with “butterflies.” I think my computer has an Easter faith, too.)
Now, these words might seem to you an idle tale.
After all, it was two thousand years ago that all this happened. If it happened.
Easter is history.
The last chapter in the Gospel according to HOWEVER has already been written.
But, let me tell you. This is good news for today.
Everywhere I look I can see Easter.
Let me tell you some stories.
Ten years ago, I was in despair. All I could see around me in the world was Good Friday. I sat with my pastor, who looked me in the eye and said, “But, Reebee, we are people of the Resurrection!” And that was the word of hope I needed.
Let me tell you a story from January. You heard it right here in this sanctuary. Sister Claire Marie told you that the people of Haiti, after the quake, still cry out: God is good. William Willimon writes that “as darkness fell upon Port-au-Prince after the earth heaved that January night, people danced in the streets and sang hymns.” (Christian Century, March 23, 2010 “Now Can We Sing: The Easter Response”)
Let me tell you a story from this season. Winter lasted so long that it flowed right into the two worst floods in decades. But! Crocuses! Tulips! Forsythia! Daffodils! Not butterflies yet, you silly computer, but real soon now!
Let me tell you a story from this month. There was a woman so embedded in grief that her children thought they had lost her. But then she called and said, let’s go to church this Easter.
Let me tell you a story from Friday. I tell this with permission from Joanne. Joanne Jordan’s father died suddenly on Friday morning. We were talking about that, the grief and the shock. “But,” said Joanne to me, “But, I am not afraid to say, Jesus is my savior.” I told her she’d just preached Easter.
Now, you might be with the eleven. So far, this might seem like an idle tale, not one you can quite believe, at least not yet. That’s ok – it took them awhile too. But, I tell you, look at your life. See where God has been there, putting a comma where everyone else thought there would be a period. See where God has been there, offering love where there was supposed to be hate. See where God has been there, offering inspiration when you thought you were on your last breath. See where the book was supposed to end, but God said, Behold, I am doing a new thing! When the world said, death, see where God said, Life! People of God, Easter is Past, Easter is Present, Easter is Future!
And if you are still on Good Friday, yearning for Easter, remember this, in the words of Fred Buechner:
“Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing.”
God says, BUT.
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed!
Hallelujah. Amen.