Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008

Rev. Linda B. Hirst
John 20:1-18

I have a friend who was teaching 4th & 5th grade Sunday School - a delightful class of boys and girls and because it was the Sunday before Easter they were talking about Holy Week. How Jesus entered Jerusalem a king on Palm Sunday and how later in the week the crowds turned on him and how the Pharisees were threatened by what they perceived as his power - and how he was then crucified on the cross and died.

Then three days later he was resurrected - try explaining that to 10 and 11 year olds.

Although kids are so much smarter than we give them credit for and they have this amazing ability to take long, confusing explanations and boil them down to one sentence.

I used to explain the resurrection to kids by saying that on that day long, even though it’s hard to understand, and we don’t know how God did it, God did raise Jesus from the dead and brought him into his kingdom where he sits now at the right hand of God.

And because I had studied Greek in seminary and felt it was my duty to use this valuable part of my education at least once a year I’d then say...and the word resurrection - in Greek, by the way, is Anastasiv, which literally means "raising up" or "rising from the dead" and if I was really on a roll and their eyes weren’t too glassed over, I’d continue with...

Did you know the resurrection of Jesus is the central doctrine in Christianity? And that according to Paul, the entire Christian faith hinges upon the resurrection of Jesus on the third day, and the hope for a life after our own death.

And I may have thrown in a few more important theological and historical facts just for fun. And after I was done, the kids would look at me - as confused or perhaps more confused than when I started until one girl or boy would inevitably say...So basically, God brought him back to life.

So now, that’s what I say. The resurrection - what we celebrate on Easter Sunday - is when God brought Jesus back to life. A different kind of life, but life nonetheless.

Anyway, back to my friend, in this class she was teaching - once she had gotten through Holy Week and explained the resurrection as best she could - telling them that because Jesus died and rose from the cross we have new life and isn’t that great and aren’t we lucky and isn’t God good when one little boy raised his hand, looked her in the eye and said with all seriousness.

"I’m not sure I understand...what’s in it for me?"

Isn’t that a great question? Because after all is said and done, after (the brass has played - Gina has sung). After we’ve shouted together - The Lord is Risen, he is risen, indeed, we’ve finished the last Easter hymn and the Easter Egg hunt in the mud is completed, we need to know, what’s in it for me?

What does it mean that Jesus Christ has risen? How does this effect us right here, right now. What’s in it for us?

New life - here on earth and in heaven. What does that mean?

The new life in heaven part is pretty easy to grasp - to understand - even if you aren’t sure you believe in heaven - most of us believe in something - that there is some kind of place for us after this life is done. There are all kinds of books about that talk about heaven - for adults and kids - there’s even a book called Dog Heaven for those of us who love dogs - and one called Cat Heaven, for those of you who love cats.

There are movies that give us ideas about heaven - who can forget Field of Dreams - where Kevin Costner plays a farmer who plows under his crops to build a baseball field where, as it turns out, old baseball players who have died come to play. And while the players - men like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth take the field one of the players turns to Kevin Costner and says....Is this heaven? And he replies...No, this is Iowa. For many of us heaven will always look a little bit like Iowa - complete with a baseball field.

And the bible talks about heaven - in my Father’s house Jesus tells us there are many mansions, many dwelling places and he goes there to prepare a place for us. He doesn’t give us specifics but we believe that’s where our loved who have passed on have gone. And what they’re doing, who knows. But I’m with that group of people who believe that if people liked to dance here on earth, then they’re dancing in heaven now, if they liked to golf here - why couldn’t they be golfing up there, if they sang here, I know they’re singing up there.

A few days ago, our organist and music director Mr. Ernest Fiske, known to all of us as Mr. Fiske died. He was our organist for 17 years and after he retired he was still here every Sunday - for 13 more years- chances are you heard him play or saw him sitting there at one time or another - even if you were only visiting.

I believe, as many others do, that he is in heaven now, playing the organ and conducting choirs and doing all those things he loved to do, surrounded by God and Jesus and all those loved ones who have gone on before him. In a place where there is no more sickness or pain or suffering of any kind - only joy and peace and all that is good. And that is eternal life - new life - in heaven.

That’s part of what we gain from Jesus death and resurrection. That’s part of what’s in it for us.

The other part is this: Because Jesus died and rose from the dead - we have a different kind of life here on earth.

And this is what it looks like....it looks like the person you know who continually prays for peace and who talks about it, maybe even works for it, too, even though all around us it looks like peace is impossible - which some days it does - but this person keeps on going day after day because she believes - truly believes - that good will ultimately triumph over evil. She has proof.

Look what God did with Jesus.

Like the hymn we sang earlier that says: Death where is thy victory, death where is thy sting. God triumphed over evil that day and things have been different ever since.

And it looks like the teenager who goes on a mission trip not just because all their friends are going and it’s fun to sleep a floor on a sagging air mattress in a classroom with 30 other girls and then share one bathroom with those same 30 girls, or eat really bad institutionalized food for a week - they do it because they know somewhere in their head or in their heart that this is what you do when you follow Jesus. And we are still following Jesus - because he is alive. Rich has a great line that we’ve heard him say many times: we serve a living Savior, not a dead line. And things are different because we do.

And this new life looks like the person who in the midst of a crisis manages to find hope somewhere - a light in the darkness - even if it’s just a glimmer - because he or she knows that after great pain and sadness and hurt...there is resurrection - it may be healing, it may be acceptance, it may be reconciliation or forgiveness or the feeling of peace that comes from knowing God is there - resurrection takes many forms - but you know it’s there because this is God’s promise.

God who brought Jesus through the pain and sorrow and sadness to new life, will do the same for us.

Think back to those first few weeks and months after the tragedy we now just call 9/11. As a nation we were devastated - we just walked around stunned, not knowing what to say, what to think.

At church here the following Sunday we tried to make sense of everything that had happened and all we kept coming back to was that God was with us in this terrible time, just as God has been with people everywhere over the years in times of tragedy and turmoil and God would see us through.

God’s light shines in the darkness, we read from the bible - and that light is Jesus Christ - raised from the dead - and that light never goes out.

And while we were saying these things I was watching the altar candles burn - which, because they were low on wax or the wick was too short - were burning awfully low. At one point it almost looked like one of them was about go out - which would have been terrible given the point of the message - but it never did.

And though it was a dark, dark day in our lives, and the feeling in the church was dark - still that candle stayed lit - it was a glimmer of hope and promise in the midst of despair.

And though the war continues five years later - we cling to the possibility that things will change - some day. Because when you live with the new life that Jesus’ resurrection brings...that’s how you think.

And new life looks like the person you know, maybe it’s your neighbor, your mother-in-law, the person sitting next to you who is smiling, who has this incredible sense of peace about them - because they know in their hearts that Jesus’ death and resurrection brings them forgiveness - the kind of forgiveness that enables them to let go of all the bad stuff, the dumb things they’ve done, the grudges and hurts and resentment they feel sometimes - the baggage they used to carry around with them that made them feel like an awful person - that did nothing but weigh them down - because when Jesus died on the cross for us over 2000 years ago he took our sins with us - those things we have done, those things we have done and those things we will do.

Tony Campolo tells a story of a Catholic bishop who was upset because a woman in his diocese claimed to have daily conversations with Jesus. A little cult had grown up around her and every day people surrounded her house, got on their knees, prayed, sang hymns and said the rosary.

The bishop thought this was all getting out of hand, so he went to visit the woman. He told her that while he knew she thought she was having conversations with Jesus, he was pretty sure it was all a part of her imagination. To prove his point he said, "If Jesus is right here in this room with you now and you can talk to Him, then ask Him to name the three sins I confessed this morning when I went to the confessional. After having what you believe to be a conversation with Jesus, if you can accurately name those sins, I might believe in what you say."

The woman sat for a long while. Then she smiled and turned to the bishop and said, "I asked Him, but Jesus said, "I forgot."

Our sins have been forgiven and forgotten - and when we come before God, come before Jesus and ask for forgiveness, we get a fresh start each and every day and doesn’t that feel good. That’s what new life feels like.

That’s what’s in it for us...healing, hope, peace, forgiveness, knowing that good does and will triumph over evil...all these things and more are what’s in it for us, what Jesus’ resurrection means, how it effects us right now.

There is new life - here on earth and in heaven.

Thanks be to God.

The Lord is risen...He is risen indeed.