Thursday, April 30, 2015

"The Touch Confirms" Jeremiah 1: 4-10; Isaiah 6: 5-8

We continue our series on "Being in Touch." This week, the touch will involve the anointing of the confirmands as they join the church.

The two texts are taken from stories of how the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah wee touched as they received God's call.

The Isaiah passage has the Isaiah suggesting that his unclean lips prevent him from serving as a prophet.  The answer from God is the fiery touch of coal on his lips to make him clean.  Now, when God asks, "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah can answer, "Here I am!"

Again in Jeremiah we have the touch of the lips as part of Jeremiah's call to be a prophet.  This story also notes that God knew Jeremiah in the womb.  A reminder that the one who calls us is also the one who creates us and claims us,.

I love Tony Campolo's story of being called by his mother! It might make it into the sermon.

  Tony Campolo says that whenever anybody asks him, “How were you called into ministry?” he replies that when he was a little boy, his mother used to say to him, “You were brought into this world to love other people in the name of Jesus Christ, to serve other people, especially the poor and the oppressed. Do you understand that, Tony?” People ask Tony, “How did you get called to the ministry?” and his response is that he never once was called, his mother decided!
(By the way, sometimes people tell Tony that parents can’t decide things like that for they children. His response is, “Why not? Everybody else is telling their children what to do with their lives: the media, their peer group, the counselor at school. What is wrong with a parent standing up and saying, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ My calling to serve Jesus Christ came from my mother and that’s a good place for it to come from. I advise all mothers and fathers to do that for their children.”) (1) Tony Campolo, “Becoming What God Intended You to Be,” sermon and interview broadcast, Chicago Sunday Evening Club 30 Good Minutes, January 25, 2004. www.csec.org.  

I also ran across this poem by Wendell Berry.  It might make it into the sermon as well.
An untitled poem by Wendell Berry, at the beginning of Remembering, (a novel), 1988

Heavenly Muse, Spirit who brooded on
The world and raised it shapely out of nothing,
Touch my lips with fire and burn away
All dross of speech, so that I keep in mind
The truth and end to which my words now move
In hope. Keep my mind within that Mind
Of which it is a part, whose wholeness is
The hope of sense in what I tell. And though
I go among the scatterings of that sense,
The members of its worldly body broken,
Rule my sight by vision of the parts
Rejoined. And in my exile's journey far
From home, be with me, so I may return.

-- Wendell Berry


Sunday, April 26, 2015

Reflections on "Just a Touch" Mark 5: 21-34; Psalm 30

I intentionally did not have an introduction that addressed the fact that we are in the middle of preaching series on "Being in Touch."  I went straight to the story, which I hope added some drama to the beginning of the sermon and also put the focus on the narrative story being preached.

This sermon was more "stream of consciousness" than three points that fit together and make a coherent argument.  I love that type of sermon, but it means the listener has to find himself or herself in the story and in a sense make their own points in the sermon.  I could not really tell how the sermon impacted the congregation today (which usually suggests a less powerful sermon!).

In the beginning when I mention that the woman might as well as had a "Do Not Touch" sign, it was a last minute addition to the sermon.  If I had figured out that comment earlier in the preparation process, I could have played with that image a bit more by contrasting Jesus' approach to engage those who society chooses not to engage.

The iPod touch illustration was my attempt to engage the idea of touch from our daily lives with the sermon.  Not sure how it worked, but each week I am trying to give a concrete example of touch that comes from our daily living.

Just a Touch” Mark 5: 21-34; FPC, Troy; April 26, 2015
Move 1: She had been living with and suffering from a flow of blood for 12 years.
Twelve years. 144 months. Awaking 4383 days to her medical problem
a. She suffered from more than just the flow of blood.
  1. She has suffered as an outcast from society – her medical condition marked her as unclean.
  2. She might as well have had a “Do Not Touch”: sign hanging around her neck.
    1. As the Gospel of Mark describes her, she also suffered at the hands of physicians.
    2. I bet she has seen all the doctors or anyone else, from the ones with the best reputations to the quacks and their wild theories, anyone who might have a chance at healing her.
4. she also spent all of her money to deal with her problem.
4. And for all that she has done to try and treat her illness, she has just gone from bad to worse. "Begging Believers and Scorning Skeptics," from the blog Left Behind and Loving It on 6/26/2012, by Mark Davis (http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/06/begging-believers-and-scorning-skeptics.html):

b. She is a desperate woman.

  1. Her desperation shows as she fights her way through the crowds.

    1. There are no guarantees, but she has decided that her last, desperate hope is found in Jesus.

      3. People surround him, the crowds are pressing in leaving little room for her to reach him.

    1. Perhaps she is too ashamed to admit publicly what has happened to her so she is sneaking up on Jesus.

    1. Perhaps she has tried to arrange a meeting with Jesus but has been rebuffed by the disciples who handle his schedule.

    1. perhaps she has just not felt good enough to get to Jesus.

    1. But today, maybe today will be different.

7. “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

  1. The hope and dream of a desperate woman who is pushing her way to get near Jesus.

  1. She is not trying to strike up a conversation with Jesus.

    1. She is not demanding his attention.

    1. She just wants a touch.

    1. Just a touch of the hem of Jesus' garment.

    1. Does she really think that can make a difference?

    1. she's desperate enough to be seemingly delusional.

  1. how could touching the man's clothing make a difference in her life.
  1. But desperate people can convince themselves of almost anything.

  1. Do you ever feel that sense of desperation?

    1. Maybe a health issue that seems beyond your control and overwhelming.

    1. maybe life seems to be falling apart.

    1. Maybe you seem to have no control over anything in your life.

5. and you are desperately trying to make changes.

e. She is not the first or the last desperate person to to turn to God.

  1. We hear the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 30 - “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help”

    1. Nowhere else to go, so the psalmist desperately turn to God.

    1. Or in this passage from the Gospel of Mark we meet another desperate person – Jairus.

    1. the Gospel of Mark uses this “sandwich” technique of telling stories several times.

    1. He begins one story, breaks in with another, and then completes the first (For other examples, see Mark 3:22-30; 6:6-30; 11:12-20; 14:1-11; 14:54-72)

    1. each aspect of the story helps to interpret the other.

7. Here is Jairus – his daughter has died at his house.

8. Stricken with grief, desperate to try anything, nowhere else to go, he turns to Jesus.

9. Jairus, the well-known leader from the synagogue; Jairus who has a name in this story; Jairus is linked with this unnamed woman and outcast from society; linked by their desperation, both turning to Jesus.

Move 2: Jesus meets their desperation with his healing powers.

a. Mark does not make much of this, but Jesus is really stepping outside the societal norms in these stories.

  1. Mark does not explicitly mention violations of the "purity code," but there are two of them in this reading.

    1. First, the woman with the hemorrhage touched Jesus, rending him unclean.

    1. Second, Jesus touched the dead young woman, which also would have rendered him unclean. (Blog progressive involvement, Posted by John Petty on June 25, 2012 http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2012/06/lectionary-blogging-mark-5-21-43.html)

    1. Jesus clearly tells us by his actions that Societal norms do not matter; desperate people do.

b. It's almost as if Jesus cannot help himself.

  1. he is wired to connect to the desperate people.

2. He comes for those people who need him.

    1. We can dress up in our Sunday best to look good for God..

    1. We can act as if everything is great, even if it is not.

    1. We can dress Jesus up however we want as we turn to the world.

    1. but ultimately, those who recognize their need for Jesus, those who out of desperation cry out for God, they, we, will find him.
6. that's why Jesus came – for the desperate people who need to be changed.

Move 3: The disciples do not get it.

a. perhaps after Jesus dies on the cross they will finally understand the faith of the desperate.

  1. The disciples cowering behind locked doors out of fear; the disciples needing to touch Jesus' wounds, maybe then they get it.

2. perhaps they look back on this woman and “Go aha, now we understand how desperately you needed Jesus.”
3. But this day with the crowds they do not understand what is taking place.

    1. Jesus asks them who touched him.

    1. Their reply” “Are you kidding. With this crowd pressing in. How do you even know you were touched?“

b. But Jesus knows.

  1. he knows the touch of the desperate.

    1. He can find the woman.

    1. As he looks for her, she comes forward, trembling on her knees. She tells him of her desperate need for him in her life.

    1. your faith has made you well.”

5. the touch. Grace abounds.

  1. it's hard to comprehend that just a touch changes the woman's life.

  1. can a little touch really make a difference?

    1. Some of you may have an iPod Touch.

    1. Given its name because with just a touch you can have a camera, movie, music, Facetime, videos, messaging, wifi,games, pages to work on documents, numbers to work with spreadsheets; keynote graphics; internet; mail

    1. Really simple. Just a touch. Really powerful.

    1. It can do just about anything, but it cannot change a life.

    1. That takes the power of Christ’s touch.
  1. Christ, the one to whom we turn in our desperation.

6.Christ the one whom we take to the world so others can know the power of his touch.

Just a touch.









Thursday, April 23, 2015

"Just a Touch" Mark 5: 21-34

The second sermon in the series on touch.  I've been reflecting on the woman desperately seeking Christ.  She has tried everything with no success, and now she fights through the crowds to touch Jesus.

I am reflecting on the faith of the desperate, who have nothing else to hope for, so they seek just the touch of Christ.

Here are a few textual notes.   "Begging Believers and Scorning Skeptics," from the blog Left Behind and Loving It on 6/26/2012, by Mark Davis (http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/06/begging-believers-and-scorning-skeptics.html):  


"Here is why I think vv.25-27 ought to be one, long sentence. Yes, this unfortunate woman did have a flow of blood for 12 years. But, to put that description into a self-standing sentence (as NRSV and NIV do with v.25) is to define her in a singular way, which is not how Mark tells the story. She had been living with a flow of blood for 12 years, but she also suffered at the hands of physicians, she also spent all of her money to address it, she also did not benefit but went from bad to worse. AND, she also heard about Jesus and she also went into this pressing throng of people – to grab his garment. She is as defined by her determination as by her suffering. That is the value of respecting Mark’s string of participles and being patient for the main verb. After all that she suffered and did, she grabbed his garment." 

Blog progressive involvement, Posted by  on June 25, 2012http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2012/06/lectionary-blogging-mark-5-21-43.html
"Background and situation:  This section of Mark (4:1-5:41) sees Jesus operating around the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus had been on the gentile side of the Sea of Galilee, and has now returned to the Jewish side.  (Matthew's version of this story is 9:18-26; the Lukan one is 8:40-56.)
Mark employs his "sandwich technique" in this lection.  He begins one story, breaks in with another, and then completes the first.  For other examples, see Mark 3:22-30; 6:6-30; 11:12-20; 14:1-11; 14:54-72.  This technique not only heightens tension, but each aspect of the story helps to interpret the other......Mark does not explicitly mention violations of the "purity code," but there are two of them in this reading.  First, the woman with the hemorrhage touched Jesus, rending him unclean.  Second, Jesus touched the dead young woman, which also would have rendered him unclean.  
That Mark does not mention this, even though it would have been obvious to a first century audience, is a way of saying that Jesus took no notice of these purity violations.  For Jesus, human need always trumps technical rules."

Monday, April 20, 2015

"Too Good to Be True" Luke 24: 36-49; John 20: 19-21

The first sermon in the next preaching series, "Being in Touch."

In some respects, I really enjoyed this sermon because it dug into the two texts.  It was fun comparing the two different stories, although it left me with lots of thoughts that I never go to in the sermon:  1. Do the different audiences to which Luke and John  write cause them to tell these two stories in the way they do?  2. What might Thomas have been doing when the other disciples were gathered behind locked doors out of fear? 3. the disciples ability to forgive sins.  4. "Peace be with you."  Lots of interesting topics I did not touch (pun intended!).

When I think about "touch" stories, I end up thinking more about not touching stories, which may reflect my not being a very touchy person.  Sort of interesting to realize that I am going to be preaching on touch stories for the next six weeks or so.  If you have some stories about touching or being touched, please send them my way.

This sermon was probably just the prelude to what should have been the sermon. That is, the offer (or demand) to touch Jesus' wounds ushered the disciples into the world of new possibilities.  I spent most of the sermon leading up to the new possibilities, but did not spend much time,  In retrospect, that where the real sermon should have been.

Too Good to Be True” Luke 24: 36-49; John 20: 19-31; FPC, Troy; April 19, 2015
introduction: stories about touch
This sermon begins the post-Easter sermon series entitled, "Being in Touch." All the stories being preached will involve touching in some way or another.
Included in the series will be a renewal of baptismal vows on the last Sunday in May, a gift related to being touched by God, and the anointing of the confirmands on the first Sunday in May when they profess their faith in Jesus Christ.

I invite you to consider how you have been touched by God, or how the literal touch of someone has carried with it the power of God, or how you have sought to reach out to touch God in your life.

This morning we see how the power of touch meets the miracle of resurrection and ushers in the new reality and the new call to faithfulness for the disciples (and for us).

Contrasting approaches – in Luke, Jesus invites the disciples to touch his wounds; in John, Thomas demands to touch.

Move 1: Let's look at the story in Luke first.

a. there he is, the resurrected Christ, standing among appears among the disciples offering for them to touch his wounds.

  1. The gathered disciples are startled and terrified, as if they were seeing a ghost.

  1. They have not demands to see the wounds like Thomas does in the gospel of John.

2. Jesus wants to show his wounds to the disciples.

  1. he wants them to not only recognize him, but somehow comprehend what has happened.

  1. touch my wounds.” Know that this is really me, the resurrected Jesus.”

b. This will not be the first episode of "Touched by an Angel;"

  1. The one standing before them is not some ghostly rendition of the one they knew as Jesus.

  1. Standing before them is not some beyond human, next stage in life beyond death creation that God has cooked up.

  1. this is the one who was dead, the one they watched killed on the cross, the one who was buried in the tomb.

  1. And now he is standing before them with the wounds to show for it.

  1. He is resurrected.

  1. Believe it.

  1. and if you are having trouble believing it, come touch my wounds.
8. even after they touch, they still have trouble believing, so Jesus eats something.

  1. When Jesus invites them to touch his wounds, he invites them into a new reality.

  1. the world has been changed.
3. They live with new possibilities.

4. Sin and death no longer rule.

5. But first, they have to touch and believe.

Move 2: Gospel of John

a. Emphasis is not on Jesus inviting them to touch his wounds, but on Thomas' demand to touch his wounds.

b. Not an apologist for Thomas.

1. Let's stop for a minute and remember Thomas.

  1. Gospel of john is the only one that tells us anything about Thomas.

  1. The other gospels only mention his name when the disciples are listed.

  1. You may remember that earlier in the Gospel of John Thomas offers to go with Jesus when they hear that Lazarus has died.

  1. the other disciples are not sure Jesus should go. There had been some issues with angry people, and they thought heading off to Lazarus' house put them in danger.

  1. But Thomas is ready to go with Jesus. “let us go that we might can die with him,” he says.

  1. That does not sound like the words of an unfaithful disciple.

  1. or you may remember that Thomas is the one who spoke up when Jesus told the disciples that he was going ahead of them, but not to worry because they knew where they were going. And Thomas says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

  1. Maybe a bit of doubt, but it sounds more like someone trying to get a concrete answer out of Jesus.

b. And then there is the passage we read today.

  1. Thomas misses out on the moment when Jesus first appears to the disciples.

  1. Do you ever wonder where Thomas was when all the others were there to see Jesus?

  1. They were gathered together behind closed doors afraid, but Thomas was not with them.

4. Could he have been going about his business, instead of paralyzed by fear? That's another sermon waiting to be preached!

  1. Back to the story. There is Jesus, meeting Thomas' demand and offering his wounds for Thomas to touch.
    1. Do you notice that the text does not tell us if Thomas actually touched the wounds?

2. . We know that Jesus makes the offers.

3. “Go ahead. Touch”

4. but the story immediately shifts to Thomas blurting out, “My Lord and my God.”

    5. It reminds me of what N. T. Wright says about the resurrection: “”Rather, the meaning of the resurrection must begin with the validation of Jesus as messiah...” (The Meaning few Jesus: Two Visions, Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, 125-126)

6. That's what Thomas does.

7. He professes Jesus as the Messiah.

8. Part of me like this ambiguity in the text because it invites people like us to believe in the resurrection and profess Christ as our Lord without having to touch the wound.

9. it makes it easier to be one of those believers who never gets to actually see the Risen Christ.

Move 3: this is where we enter the story.

a. What does it take to move us to that new place?

1. A touch.

  1. My first girlfriend is one of my Holy Week memories. Funny how things get tied together in memories.

But I remember her because Good Friday we were off from school, and I saw her at the Good Friday service at church.

I also spent part of that afternoon talking to her on the phone and going out and getting her a chocolate bunny to give her for Easter.

We did not last very long as a couple. A short-lived, two or three week relationship.

Our first “real” date after talking on the phone or at church for a couples of weeks, was to meet at the roller skating rink. She went to one Jr. High in town and I went to the other Jr. High, so I guess this was the neutral dating ground.

Skating was fun, although I could not impress her with my expertise. No backward skating for me. But things were going pretty well.

But then we got to the date skate when they dimmed the lights and you skated around with your date. Sort of like slow dancing on skates, I guess.

This led, of course, to holding hands, which I suppose made some sense while we were skating together, but then she wanted to go off to the semi-dark corner of the skating rink whee all the couples congregated. And she kept want to hold hands.

That was the next step in Jr. High dating. You held hands all night. I didn't really want to hold hands all night. Felt kind of restrictive, and sweaty.

That didn't sit too well with her. She called me the next day and told me that I was a nice guy and all, but that she wanted a boyfriend who would hold her hand, so she was moving on to someone else.

Presumably someone who could hold her hands and move on to the next level.

b. A touch.

1. The touch of Christ's wounds., or the possibility of touching Christ’s wounds, are an invitation to move to the next level for the disciples.

  1. they had seen what Christ could do when we was alive.

    1. They had experienced what it felt like to know he was dead.

    1. Now are they ready for the new life of faith and discipleship as they give their lives over to the God of resurrection?

c. Are you ready and willing to do the same?

1. the triumph and glory of Easter and its resurrection are gone. We wait another 50 weeks to celebrate that again.

2. Are you ready to live your life believing that the God of resurrection is calling you to a new life?

3. Ruth Stilwell's granddaughter would walk through the cemetery and play there with her parents. She would ask them to read the names of the people off the gravestones. One person was named “Lord.” When her mother told her that the person 's name was Lord, she replied, “So that's where Jesus is buried!”

4. It might be easier to follow Jesus if he had stayed in the tomb.

  1. we could go by and visit the grave and tell stories and share some great memories.

  1. But Christ is alive. They have touched his wounds to prove it.

And now we are called to live in that new world of possibilities.





Friday, April 17, 2015

"Too Good to Be True" Luke 24: 36-49; John 20: 19-31

This sermon begins the post-Easter sermon series entitled, "Being in Touch."  All the stories being preached will involve being touched by God or reaching out to touch God.  Included in the series will be a renewal of baptismal vows on the last Sunday in May, a gift related to being touched by God, and the anointing of the confirmands on the first Sunday in May when they profess their faith in Jesus Christ.

I invite you to consider how you have been touched by God, or how the literal touch of someone has carried with it the power of God, or how you have sought to reach out to touch God in your life.

This week's passages tell the stories of touching the resurrected Christ.  In the Luke passage, the resurrected Christ appears among the disciples and offers for them to touch his wounds.  This will not be the first episode of "Touched by an Angel;"  this is the resurrected Christ with the wounds to show for it.

In the familiar John passage, Thomas demands to touch Jesus' wounds.  Whenever I read this text, I wonder if Thomas actually touched the wounds.  When Jesus offers for him to do so, he immediately bursts into, "My Lord and my God!"  Did he have to touch the wounds to believe?  Part of me likes the story being open-ended on that point.  it makes it easier to be one of those believers who never gets to actually see the Risen Christ.

Still trying to pull this together as the opening sermon of the series.  Does it matter if Thomas touched Jesus?  Or demanded to touch?  What do we make of Jesus' apparent willingness, indeed his sense that the disciples needed to touch him?  How do we hear these stories in our context when touching the resurrected Christ is not possible?

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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).
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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)
  1. 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.