A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Resurrection Day, April 4, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Salutation: Psalm 118:24:
On this day the LORD has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it!
On Good Friday, my wife, Cindy, went with her mother, her aunt and our daughter Lindsey to Three Mile Blue Creek, near Clendenin. Cindy thought she was going to visit relatives, but what she was actually doing was sermon reconnaissance. This became apparent yesterday morning when I was doing her debriefing and realized she had come home with at least two good stories for my sermon today.
Here's the first story. While Cindy was conversing with her relatives, she asked about the graveyard up on the hill behind the home place that belonged to her mother's father, Grandpa Brown. She asked if the people laid to rest there were actually buried in caskets - or were they in pine boxes? Aunt Louise clucked and replied that yes, they were buried in caskets, and some of them even had vaults - except Great Grandma Brown, who always said she didn't want a vault because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get out on the Resurrection Day!
Friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate the fact that the stone vault could not hold Jesus!
On this day the Lord has Acted! Christ arose from the grave - and because of his breaking forth - no vault will hold us on our resurrection day either! Great Grandma Brown has nothing to worry about. On that great day when we are all raised with Christ and seated in the heavenly places, no power on earth or below earth or in the heavens will be able to keep us in the grave. Our bodies will rise in the same way Christ arose. All things will be made new.
And all things are changed even now.
As writer Alex Davis says: "Christ's Resurrection changes everything!...A resurrected Christ creates a new world. This idea cannot be tamed and should not be taken for granted. It is an earth-shaking idea. God raised Jesus from the dead - and he promises to raise you as well!"
The idea of the Resurrection is such good news - such GREAT news - that it cannot be fathomed no matter how many years we celebrate it. It is the BEST news possible, and it ought to cause us to shout, to jump up and down and turn back flips for JOY! Even get up early on Sunday morning to celebrate! - and not just because there's a chocolate bunny in my Easter basket!
You will not surely die! Satan used this line to deceive Adam and Eve, but it has actually come true! We shall live forever in the presence of the Living God, in a world that has been completely reset, recreated, put right, made whole - even better than they were meant to be originally!
Yet we sometimes respond to this news as if we're asleep! We've heard it so many times, it just seems commonplace, dull or boring.
Alex Davis again:
"Inasmuch as we are asleep, let us awake! Inasmuch as our capacities to be charged with childlike delight at God's gospel have atrophied, let them revive! And inasmuch as we are dead in our pride, lusts, fears, and despair -let us rise in Christ! The dawn has come. The new day has begun. Let us greet it as people who behold, with ever-increasing awe, a resurrected God."
(Alex Davis, quoted in Mosaic Holy Bible, pg. 132.)
The ability to respond with Childlike delight. Would to God that we could renew it and keep it going. Like the little girl who told about the resurrection by saying,
"It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance." ...
or like the little boy who had a unique answer for the pastor one Easter Sunday morning...
Seems that as the pastor was preaching the children's sermon, he reached into his bag of props and pulled out an egg. He pointed at the egg and asked the children, "What's in here?""I know, I know!" a little boy exclaimed, -
"pantyhose!"
or the young lady who explained to her Sunday School teacher that...
...Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution."
Ah, to be a child again! To experience delight - and maybe some confusion at the wonder of our faith! - On second thought perhaps we're more childlike in our faith than we think...
The ability to respond with childlike wonder even extends to those who may be overtly questioning God and His purposes.
A couple of weeks back, I told you about a conversation I had with a young lady who raised almost every possible objection to the Gospel in the course of a one-hour discussion. During that discussion, I spoke with her on the intellectual level about some of the classic arguments for the faith, and she seemed intrigued if not convinced.
The next time I talked with her, she had become rather desperate. She hadn't slept for three days. Her mind was racing and she was seriously worried that she might jump off a bridge just to stop her suffering. I was really concerned about her and offered to pray for her.
"Well, it couldn't hurt, I guess," she replied.
So I explained that I would use oil to make the sign of the cross on her forehead and that this would be similar to the Passover, when the children of Israel took the blood of the lamb and put it on their doors and windows, so that the angel of death would passover them and spare the life of their first born. By praying for her, we would ask the Lord to see the oil on her head and cause Death to passover her too.
So we prayed - very simply - and waited a bit, not knowing what to expect, but just knowing that everything else had been tried and she was still suicidal and couldn't rest. So after the prayer, she sat there for a moment and then she exclaimed, "Wow, I feel like I just took a Xanax!"
"Is that good or bad?" I asked cautiously.
"That's good!" she said. "I feel peaceful - calm - just relaxed. That's so cool!"
I had to agree with her. That was very cool. And I have to say it was the first time I had ever heard anyone describe the effects of prayer as feeling like they had just taken a Xanax!
This is how childlike delight sounds. It's enthusiastic - and simple. It inspires good humor and faith in those who observe it. I know it did for me. After that prayer and response to it, my sense of childlike delight in the Lord was renewed for the rest of the day! And she herself seemed to walk out of the office on a cloud.
The third time I saw this young lady, she was actually open to hearing more about God and the Gospel and she reported that while she had not been to church since she was 7, she had made arrangements to be in church with her aunt this Sunday!
The Resurrection of Christ made this possible on two levels. Number 1), Christ's power to heal and to comfort got this young lady's attention -
and number 2), He himself was drawing her in to worship Him on this Resurrection Day. And He did this through one of his followers.
Here's another wonderful thing that has happened as a result of the Resurrection: Now that Christ has begun to reign as King, he has Deputized us, his followers, as agents of his Kingdom. We now have been given authority to act as His emissaries. His authority enables us to re-enact the Passover - to make the sign of the cross over the 'house' (person) we wish him to spare, and to see his glory and power revealed as he passes over and preserves that life.
Because Christ, the Sacrifice Lamb took the punishment that rightly should have fallen upon us - and because he rose in power from the dead, the Father has given Him all Authority in heaven and on earth, and he, in turn, has given us his Authority to do what he did, described by Peter in Acts 10:38:
"He (Jesus) went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil..."
Peter goes on to say, "And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day...(vv.39, 40).
Therefore, since he has been raised, and "He is Lord of all", the right response is for the disciples to "preach good news of peace through Jesus Christ" (v. 36).
And so it is for us. The right response to the Resurrection is threefold:
To be Joyful
To be full of childlike delight, and
To Preach and Heal in Jesus' Name, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If we live this out, we get to see all kinds of wonderful things happen, and we can say, like the young lady, "That's so cool!"
Now I'll tell you the second story Cindy came home with on Friday.
Cindy's cousin Steve and his wife, Gail, also live "up Three Mile". In April of 2009, we learned that Gail had been diagnosed with Stage 3 cervical cancer - with some suspicious spots on her liver. At the time, the doctors thought it was curable and she underwent radiation and chemo for 6 weeks. This was a very grueling process and it caused her to lose her strength.
At the end of this round of treatment the plan was to do internal radiation, but after scans were done, it was discovered that the spots on her liver had shrunk - indicating that they were malignant. And now there appeared no hope. the doctors didn't want to do any further treatment and advised her to think in terms of months, not years.
Gail says she was heartbroken as she thought about leaving her husband and her children. She still got up and went to her job as a mail carrier each day, bu all she could do was go to work, come home and collapse on the couch - then get up and do it all again the next day. One Friday as she was delivering mail, she felt burdened and stopped her truck right in the middle of the road, and told the Lord she just wasn't ready to go.
In the quiet of that moment, she heard the Lord speak to her very plainly, "I know how you feel." She sensed His Presence very strongly and was amazed as He went on to tell her that he was born to die for her and to carry her sins. Right then, she felt as if her broken heart was cured. - but even so, she knew she was still deathly ill.
Sunday morning she woke up very burdened to have her church pray for her. But because they were starting Revival and had a guest choir and evangelist there, the time wasn't right. Sunday evening service came, and the same thing happened - but this time, she just had to have prayer, so after the preaching and singing were over, she asked her pastor and others to anoint her and pray for her healing.
As they prayed over Gail, she felt a wave sweep over her, starting at the top of her head and moving through the rest of her body, bringing with it a great sense of relief. She KNEW she had been touched!
Within a few days, her strength returned and she was back to full strength, working a full day and then coming home and doing housework as well. Three weeks later, when her regular scans were done, the lesions on her liver were 'just sitting there'. Her blood work was perfect and no cervical tumors were visible.
The doctor was surprised - but Gail wasn't. She didn't tell him what had happened until afterward - just so she could see his surprised reaction.
Now Gail and her husband, Steve, travel the state, reporting to the churches who were praying for her about all the Lord has done for them. She had had visions ministering with her husband, but had no idea how it would come about. Little did she think it would take a deadly illness to bring about such a ministry!
And she finds herself talking to people at the Pharmacy, the grocery, on her mail route - everywhere - about what the Lord has done for her. It's the natural response to his great work in her life!
.... How's that for Cool?!
And it's all because Jesus was Resurrected!
On this day the LORD has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it!
I'd like for us to respond to all this good news by saying Charles Wesley's hymn Christ, the Lord is Risen Today as a litany. Each line of the poem is followed by the exclamation "Alleluia"! Since we haven't been able to say it for the past 6 weeks, let's do it up right. I'll say a line, and you respond with 'Alleluia!"
1. Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!
2. Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!
3. But the pains that he endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation have procured, Alleluia!
Now above the sky He's King, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!
4. Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
praise eternal as his love, Alleluia!
praise him, all ye heavenly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!
Finally, let's put our hands out together and join in the All Saints cheer,
"Yay, God!"
AMEN!
