Reflections on "A Reminder" I Corinthians 15: 1-11; Mark 16:1-8 Easter Sunday

Two things that impacted this sermon:  in the Sanctuary, I have been focusing on using illustrations on the screens during sermons.  It subtly changes the sermons, in part because I know that there is something visual up when I am preaching a particular point.  When I preach the sermon in the Chapel without the visual, I notice that I need to preach it a bit differently.

Also, I preached in the Sanctuary in the front of the congregation, instead of behind the pulpit, in part because of how we have the Sanctuary set-up.  I find that the mechanics of looking at notes I am holding is harder than preaching from a pulpit.  Not sure if what is gained by being positioned in front is worth what it lost in the mechanics.

“A Reminder” I Corinthians 15: 1-13; Mark 16: 1-8; FPC, Troy; April 5, 2015; Easter

(1 Corinthians 15:1-13) Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; (NRSV)

Introduction: “Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you,”

In my world of hand-me-down phones where I am given the phone that no one else wants, I inherited an iPhone last fall.

Which means I am still trying to figure out how to use my iPhone (tune in this fall for a preaching series on “Life with an iPhone).

But I now know this about my iPhone.

It has a “Reminder” function.

Somehow on its own without my telling it to, it tied in to my Google account that has a calendar function that for a brief time I tried to use (I gave it up for my old-fashioned Presbyterian calendar that I carry with me), so now I receive reminders on my iPhone on a fairly regular basis.

I ignore the Reminders as best I can, but they are persistent, and they keep reminding me.

This morning the empty cross stands before, center stage as a reminder of what God has done.

The empty cross reminds us that when the women arrived at the tomb with spices to care for Jesus' dead body, the stone that had sealed the tomb had been moved away.

Their concern about who would roll the stone away for them disappeared in that moment.

But even more amazing than the stone being removed was the empty tomb.

No dead body. No Jesus.

Just someone there to tell them that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

We gather here this morning to be reminded that the tomb was empty. Christ is alive..

Move 1: Why people show up for Easter morning.

As our own Sanctuary will attest, Easter is one the most attended worship services of the year.

I bet some of you are here because you want to listen to the brass play.

For some of you, worship this morning is a family event. One of those times of the year when the family gets together, and attending worship is part of that ritual.

Some of you are here because it's Sunday, and you're always here on Sundays!

Some of you are here because you are feeling a bit lost or overwhelmed by the challenges in your life and you are hoping that something will happen this morning that will make a difference, that will give you hope.

Why are you here?

Probably most of us are here for a mix of reasons.

I'm here in part because I get to preach and preaching Easter is a pretty cool gig.

But I'm also here because frankly the last year has had some tough deaths and challenging difficult medical journeys; and I want to be reminded of the good news that Paul tells us about the resurrection.

I suppose there are other reasons I am here that I cannot even articulate.

It does not matter why you are here. What matters is that as we gather here, we receive this persistent reminder about the God who raised Christ from the dead.

Move 2: Reminds us that Jesus is not dead, but he is alive.

a. I saw a cartoon a while back. Two Roman centurions lying on side of tomb (clearly Jesus' tomb) that now has stone rolled away and you can see the foot of someone who has left the tomb. One soldier says to the other: “Waddya mean? That wasn't you who just said, “Good morning?”

b. Empty tomb reminds us that Easter is not about idea, precepts or principles, Easter is not some theological concept. Easter announces to the world that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and is alive and among us.

c. The young man in Mark tells the women that Jesus has gone to Galilee.

1. Galilee had been the center of their activities. Now Jesus is going back there to meet them.

2. Christ is not done.

d. William Sloane Coffin, a long-time pastor at the Riverside Church in New York, once wrote:

“I myself believe passionately in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because in my own life I have experienced Christ not as a memory, but as a pres-ence. On Easter we gather not, as it were, to close the show with the tune “Thanks for the Memory,” but rather to reopen the show with the hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.” (Credo, p. 28)

The empty tomb reminds us that Christ is alive.

Move 3: Reminder that the God of resurrection has been at work and continues to be at work in our lives and our world.

a. For those first women arriving at the tomb, it is their first experience of a resurrection.

1. Maybe they were there or have heard about Jesus going into the tomb and raising his friend Lazarus
2. Either way, it's still a new thing. A new reality that dead bodies do not stay dead.

b. But we hear the story today with the knowledge of what God has done.

100. We know about the resurrection.

d. We have seen the power of God to resurrect at work in our lives and our world.

d. William Willimon tells the story of visiting with a dying man.

Willimon asked him what he was feeling. Was he fearfully

“Fear? No,” the man replied, “I’m not afraid because of my faith in Jesus.”

Willimon notes that he pulled one of his pious minister answer by responding, “We all have hope that our future is in God's hands.”

“Well, I'm not hopeful because of what I believe about the future,” the man corrected Willimon. “I'm hopeful because of what I've experienced in the past.”

And then the man described the times he had made mistakes, and yet had found forgiveness and new opportunities from God; how he had strayed from his faith and gotten lost along the way, but there was God pulling him back.

He finished by noting, “I don't think God will let something like my dying defeat Christ's love for me.” (Journal for Preachers, Vol. XXXI, Number 3, Easter, 2008, 8).

e. We are reminded today that the God of resurrection, is the God who is still at work and will not let us go.

Move 3: the empty tomb reminds us of the God who overcomes death.

b. John Buchanan, the former minister at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago tells the story from when his father-in-law died. He died during Lent.

Before his death, Buchanan's wife went to be with her father. “She sat by his bedside on the last night, holding his hand.

‘What did you do all night long?’ Buchanan asked his wife. ‘What did you say?’

‘I ran out of things to say,’ she explained, ‘so I sang all the Easter hymns I could remember , and I said, ‘Easter’s coming, Daddy, Easter’s coming.’ John Buchanan, Christian Century, “Editor’s Desk: Easter’s coming” 3/20/13 (3)

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that nothing, not even death can separate us from the love God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8: 38).

100. Today we are reminded of that truth – death does not have the final answer for us. God does.

Move 4: Reminds us as we face challenges that with God all things are possible.

a. It is easy to face challenges – easy if we cannot see any new possibilities; if we assume that what the world says will happen, will actually happen; easy if we have not hope that things can be different.

b. someone comes to you and asks if you think they can really make a change in their life. Or better yet, you ask it of yourself. “Can I change?”

1. get control of their addiction.

2. Make that transition in their work life that they have been contemplating, but have so far been scared away from attempting.

3. Work through the challenges in their relationship and find a way to trust and be vulnerable.

4. it's easy to fall back on the statistics that give little hope that the change can take place.

5. We know how hard it is to make the changes necessary to overcome

c. then the empty cross reminds us that God has turned death into life;

We are reminded that with the God of resurrection the probabilities the world offers are overwhelmed by the possibilities God has for us.

Move 4: Reminder that the future is God's future.

a. When we look to the future and think about what we can do, we see a world full of war, violence, helplessness and hopeless

b. But here's the thing: the future is not ours, but God's. And God has something else in mind.

100. Student in a Bible survey class is asked to summarize one of the gospels: “It gets dark, dark, dark, then Jesus shows up” ( (Journal for Preachers, Vol. XXXI, Number 3, Easter, 2008, 7)

500. The women who arrive at the tomb know the immediate future. They will dress Jesus' body with spices. Their hearts are heavy and their steps slow as they move into that future.

e. But the stone is moved. The tomb is empty. God has a different future in mind.

We gather here today to be reminded that the God of resurrection is also the God of our future.

Conclusion: Eugene Peterson in his translation The Message begins this passage we read of Paul's letter likes this: “I'm assuming your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy...”

a. Sometimes our faith is little more than a passing fancy. It is easy to forget about God and believe in the way of the world.

b. but then we see the empty tomb.

We are reminded that Christ is alive.

Amen.