QUIET FAR TOO LONG
EASTER 2020 HE IS RISEN INDEED
ISAIAH 65: 17-25
JOHN 20: 1-18
April 12, 2020
HE IS RISEN, WORLD!! JESUS CHRIST; the SON of GOD has left that tomb behind HIM! HE IS INDEED RISEN!
Jesus CHRIST, the SON of GOD, is alive and has been Risen from the dead since that brilliant day so long ago when the women discovered … when the women preached … when a woman not a disciple nor a religious leader … MARY MAGDALENE became the first to share with joy and excitement that HE IS RISEN … her Jesus … the disciples’ Jesus … the world’s Jesus … God’s Jesus had RISEN INDEED! She rushed to preach it … to share it … and let others in on the love of the Risen Savior!
HE IS RISEN <<echoes of HE IS RISEN INDEED>> I can sense your response but on this EASTER when we are socially isolated … when our connection is through technology … when many of you have extra hours in your homes alone or just with immediate family … in these strange times we are living through … I have been wondering whether we have been QUIET FAR TOO LONG in sharing the loving justice-filled message of Jesus Christ. The essential truths of God easily accessible for shining heaven’s light here and also on highlighting the hope of eternity through our Savior.
Have we been keeping the Easter message quietly to ourselves or are we amongst those who have been coloring it with human priorities that reject or hide the key truth of the teachings of Jesus? LOVE GOD … having no other gods and LOVE ALL of our NEIGHBORS; all of them just as Jesus did!
The lessons of God … the love of God … the realities of God as shown through His Son, Jesus the Christ. He had defeated the tomb … those lessons, that love, those realities and Jesus Himself were alive … were real .. and what was the word we are told that Mary used when she heard the RISEN JESUS call to her “Mary?” When she saw Him alive?
She said RABBOUNI … TEACHER because in that moment she knew the lessons for living life were real. Amidst her shock … there in that moment of total joy at the unexpected, unbelievable, God-powered moment of Resurrection, in the radiant beautiful glory of God through Jesus Christ … she called out RABBOUNI!
My goodness … I want to dance … I want to sing … this morning church I wish you were here! I want to hear your shouts … HE IS RISEN INDEED … new friends in Malaysia and Bangladesh and Upstate New York …. Old friends in Kampala and Buffalo … family in New Jersey … the members and friends of St. Paul’s … don’t you want to just shout out RABBOUNI? Don’t you want to declare the teaching of Jesus as life’s key lessons?
Perhaps I caught you on that one … but I want you to consider on this EASTER morning whether we have been QUIET FAR TOO LONG in declaring that Jesus Christ is our teacher for life whose teaching and lessons are essential; our Savior for eternity whose salvation is for all; and the One we follow whose light outshines the world’s darkness. Yes, I hope you have run to your doors and opened them this morning to shout HE IS RISEN in your loudest voice but who is the HE … to you tomorrow?
HE IS RISEN INDEED and yes, this morning on the street outside my house I shouted it … I would love to have again run out of our church doors with all of you this morning loudly exclaiming to the world that the Son of God … our Savior … their Savior … everyone’s Savior is ALIVE! He’s doing just fine folks and His journey to earth to teach us and love us well that’s left to humanity to figure out because the evidence is clearly there. His words are recorded for all time … we just have to read them and follow. And, together we are the witnesses; if we sense a personal relationship with Him because that is what Jesus expects from those who really believe and follow Him.
If you have followed the events in Jerusalem the last few days you may have noticed the confusion, the sadness, and even the anger. Out of life there was death and those who followed Jesus were unsure of what might await them in the coming days. Some were literally thinking that they might die, which is a horrific fear to have.
Those who had been on Palm Sunday’s Hosanna filled roadside watching Jesus as He smiled and waved before entering the city of His death were nowhere to be found.
Those who had travelled the dusty roads from Nazareth passing the fishing villages of Galilee through Jericho down that desert road that connects Jerusalem to the Dead Sea had forgotten the lesson from that road … of a Samaritan who showed love of neighbor.
Even His chosen ones … the disciples … the eleven who had been with Him on Thursday when at the Seder Jesus had lifted the bread and shared the cup and reminded them LOVE GOD … LOVE LIKE you have seen me LOVE … those men were locked behind closed doors hiding their faces; one in particular having denied Jesus three times.
Friends, have you ever felt the need to stay behind closed doors? Have you ever hid your face from the world? I think on this Easter morning more than any Easter of the past we can relate. I need to state here again what I have been saying since the pandemic struck God’s globe … if we love our neighbors as Jesus loved then we will act as healing people. In these times we live in that means we will not gather in groups … it means we will not open these church doors and invite everyone in … it means we will wear masks and gloves at the stores because in doing so we are loving as Jesus loved. To open these doors and tell you to come here today would be declaring that I, as your pastor, hate my neighbors and I would be encouraging you to do the same because in-person gatherings right now are incubators for COVID 19 and anyone coming to a gathering can easily carry the virus to their friends, to their families, and to their neighbors. So, we gather online but it won’t be long until we are gathered together both in this Sanctuary and online with our new friends from around the world.
I received good news yesterday church … my fellow pastor in Ewing New Jersey, whose roots are also in Buffalo, Brian Joyce reported that his sister Kathy whom it was assumed was not going to survive COVID even after a brief glimmer of hope has been taken off the ventilator and had conversations with her daughter and now just has to regain her strength. As Brian said … an EASTER moment .. a LAZARUS moment …
So, church when we sang CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY HALLELUJAH … did you sing out loud? There in your own home did you sing? When you had your first cup of coffee and were alert enough … did you open your front door to shout with GUSTO … HE IS RISEN?
This morning I woke up to see a new meme on social media. It read, “Maybe, for once, we celebrate Easter differently. Maybe we celebrate the Resurrection just as the Disciples did: Alone, in the silence, hoping the faith outweighs the fear.” It did hit home with me as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes before I went out to record a sunrise message … are we learning from Jesus? Are we learning from the Resurrection? In the past have we been too wrapped up in the gotta get home … gotta get to the big dinner with family … gotta open up the gifts … gotta eat the candy … GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA … no time for Easter truths … no time for sharing the JESUS story … we were too into GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA … where does the time go pastor, I don’t have time to talk about Jesus pastor; absolutely no time to read my Bible. I can’t live like Jesus taught pastor … its too hard. Anyhow I GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA be like the world.
Friends … we have allowed the true message of the Gospels to be quiet far too long. The Prophet shared God’s message, “Past events won’t be remembered, they won’t come to mind. BE glad in what I am creating. Because I am creating Jerusalem as a joy and her people as a source of gladness!”
The reality of Jerusalem is that the darkness of Friday’s crucifixion has been swallowed up in the RADIANCE of LIGHT coming from the empty OPEN TOMB!! Today, again on this Easter, past events don’t matter because it is a new day … it is your opportunity to again connect with God through Jesus Christ because when you do there will be a joy you can’t quite explain and a peacefulness that the Holy Spirit will deliver and fears will be pushed aside through the hope we sense together through the Holy Spirit. We will be quiet no more … we will shout with joy HE IS RISEN!!!
My Easter tradition as a pastor has been to hand out stones. I know some people have more than 10 of my Easter stones still in their possession. The idea of the Easter stones is to represent the stone that has been in all of our lives blocking out the light of Jesus … our sins, the world’s priorities. I handed them out to remind each of us to roll the stone away and let Jesus light shine in. But, I can’t give you stones this year … but friends find a pebble in your yard … remind yourself that now is the time for change.
At 1:00 this afternoon, on YouTube, Andre Boccelli will be singing from the DUOMO in Milan. He said, “For Christian people, Easter is the most beautiful day of the year, because it is a day of hope. When music can become a prayer, I think it’s the most noble way to sing.” What I found interesting is that he is going to sing one song outside of the DUOMO, AMAZING GRACE … how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
We don’t have to be in a church building to experience God’s love and grace. Gathering for an Easter Sunrise Service does not rescue us from our sins nor transform our lives.
I once was lost but now I’m found .. was blind but now I see.
Jesus CHRIST … RABBOUNI … TEACH ME … once again be my SAVIOR who takes away not only my sins but the sins of the world. Give us HOPE and PEACE!
My friends … it is with incredible joy and happiness knowing that our future is one of hope and joy that I declare to you this morning …. HE IS RISEN!!!
AMEN