death we can do, but an empty tomb...

Discipleship Sermon 5 - Cross & Resurrection:

As we hear this story, we all get still.

Something inside us knows this story is important...

Truthfully, though, it sort of feels odd to have this moment in the biblical narrative read today, doesn't it?

This is that most special of stories that we save for the "Three Great Days." Hearing about the cross and the resurrection today almost feels a little inappropriate...

After all, we save this most-central story for that most-central festival, for the most important moment of the Christian year...

 

Honestly, though, I believe there is another reason; a subtle reason we keep this story locked away to that one day.

We do this, keeping the story set aside, because this story is hard to hear.

This story of the empty tomb is hard to believe, it is hard to imagine; frankly it is hard for us to live after that one tomb has been found to be empty.

As Bono of U2 quipped, "I can't live with or without you."

 

Yes, for as intimately as we know we need that tomb to be empty, there is a dark place within us that whispers, "Don't get your hopes up, maybe the body is in that tomb after all."

For as deeply as we long for the tomb to be empty, we are all nearly as afraid that the tomb isn't, that Jesus' body actually lies within, cold and dead.

 

This story of the cross and tomb that we piously pretend to be saving out of reverence; proclaims something hard, that Jesus meets us exactly where our fears and our hopes collide.

And truthfully, it is just too hard for us to stay in such tension at for all that long; so we avoid that place, we avoid risking having our hopes dashed, and in the end we end up avoiding the risen one...

 

Thankfully, though, the "Church" in all of its wisdom has insisted that we must sit with this story at least once a year, that we must go to that tomb at least once a year.

So once a year we put as much pomp and circumstance around this story as we can manage. We fill this day with frills to distract ourselves so we can make it a little easier to pretend that this story isn't so darn hard to hear.

...It's actually a little sad.

And it is kind of odd, after all we can handle lent, dwelling on how dark our days are pretty well.

In fact, we can even handle part of this story; but when we come to the tomb and find it is empty after all, well that is just too hard to bear...

The truth is for as central, as critical, as essential as the empty tomb is to our faith;

the point that we can relate to best is those women as they go to Jesus' tomb, we have a much harder time connecting to their joyful run from it.

 

We too, like those women, have awoke before dawn and gone to the tomb of that person who has meant so much to us.

We too have gone to that tomb sure the dead body will be there.

We've gone to the cemetery to anoint the body for its rest, so the body can stay dead.

We've gone to those cemeteries, with everything ready, so we can finally bury our hopes with that body too...

So we can give in to the seductive pull of hopelessness...

Imagine that morning for those woman.

For all they had already been through, for all they had seen, for all they had heard Jesus teach and promise; these women, like us, are all too ready to bury all their hopes at that tomb...

Rising well before dawn; and familiar enough with the rituals of death so they can do it half asleep anyway; these women head to the tomb.

Spices and jars in-tow, they go to the tomb to bury their hopes with Jesus' corpse; another one of their dreams dashed...

The terrible truth is, we know those morbid rituals all too well ourselves...

At the end of the day we know how hard hope is to come by, and how easier it is to get everything prepared and go to those places of death instead...

When you look at that stark contrast, our willingness to let death rule on the one hand and our hesitancy to hope on the other, you've got to wonder

Why is it so hard for us to hope?!?

Why are all so much more ready to go to those tombs. than we are to hope?

This problem we have with hoping is put on display by our love-hate relationship with the news;

by our cynicism;

just watch how this Syria crisis went;

the diplomatic solution that is thankfully being attempted, was made sarcastically,

and then when others actually went for it, we doubled-back and said we weren't serious, that we didn't trust Syria anyway;

we were ready for a death-march, but not peaceful discussion, we weren't ready for swords to be turned to plowshares...

That isn't the only place where our hesitancy to hope is laid bare either.

Here in Burlington, it seems to me there is an overall sense that this, truly wonderful city, has no reason hope.

It seems everyone is ready for this place to just fall in on itself.

Or here at Trinity!

It is hard for us to hope.

When plans are made, there is always this part of all of us that whispers, 'what if it fails, what if no one shows up.'

I'm speaking for myself now, too.

This, this fear we have of hoping,

this familiarity with death,

it is that fear that keeps us from going to this empty tomb too often,

it is that fear that prompt us to read this story only once a year, and to fill that day with all the bells and whistles we can to distract us!

We can do death, but an empty tomb; now that is what is finally too hard, too much.

That empty tomb pushes all of our hopes into the light of day,

that empty tomb insists we hope yet,

that empty tomb makes us into these odd people,

that empty tomb insists we hope when the world says give up,

that empty tomb shouts over all those whispers of fear,

"He is Risen!"

(He Is Risen Indeed!)

That is what is so hard!

It is hard, sisters and brothers, to really trust, to feel deep in our bones

that the tomb is empty,

that Jesus is alive.

Death we can handle, but an empty tomb...

Paul, too, knew how hard it was to trust, he was familiar with fickle faith.

Listen as Paul speaks to his frustration over how hard hope is to come by at the end of the day, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ,” Paul wrote, “we are of all people most to be pitied."

Yeah. Paul got it, too.

Paul knew how hard it is to hope,

and Paul knew how that empty tomb changed everything,

how it made life impossible and possible all at the same time.

"I can't live, with or without you."

 

-See, we've all known our share of hopes that have been dashed, we've been to too many tombs holding dead dreams.

That is why we try to keep Easter to just one day.

That is why we're so hesitant to go to Jesus' tomb.

"What if," that dark voice whispers, "What if the body is actually there,

maybe it is all just made up,

maybe it doesn't matter,”

the voice whispers.

"Just turn around before you get to the tomb,

Jesus' lifeless corpse, and all his empty words along with him, are probably there anyway..."

 

Light breaks the darkness, though,

Shouts are louder than whispers,

and shouts of joy are more trustworthy than whispers from the devil...

 

To those whispers of doubt, the faithful women who went to that tomb early one morning insist something,

and the church insists too,

and our faithful forebears insist,

and the people who founded this church, Trinity, insist,

and that person who did something incredible, bring you here, insist,

THE TOMB IS EMPTY

SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED

THE CURTAIN OF THE TEMPLE IS TORN IN TWO

EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED

THE TOME IS EMPTY!

He Is Risen!

He Is Risen Indeed!

That tomb is empty,

everything has changed,

light has conquered the darkness,

we're not the people most of all to be pitied.

 

Now the temptation for the preacher at this point, seeing as this is a part of the discipleship series, is to move on to we do with this empty tomb,

but that would be to miss the point, because truthfully the focus of this story is what God has done,

what God does,

how God decides to make disciples!

 

As we've been considering this entire sermon, it is hard enough to go to the tomb, let alone trust it is empty.

So God takes all of that doubt, and raises the one we killed by our refusal to hope.

At the empty tomb God takes a group of women who know death better than anything else, and transforms them to the first evangelists, makes them into disciples by an encounter with that tomb that is empty.

Take a close look at this story, these women can't help but proclaim, be made new!

The very-same God who brought Jesus from the dead has resurrected them from a life that always ends in death; they too have been made new and so they can do nothing else but run from that tomb declaring, 'Jesus is alive and on the loose!'

That is the power of the resurrection,
that is how disciples are made!

It isn't through more and more programming and it isn't though having our lives in order,

in fact it isn't through anything else but coming to that tomb and finding it empty, but encountering that Jesus who is not bound to the grave, but is alive and on the loose in this world.

 

So now Jesus is loosed, and God is getting after people like us, after me and you.

God is getting after You.

Jesus is loose here, at Trinity.

The tomb here, too, is empty.

Jesus is loosed, running around and making disciples out of ordinary people, out of you and me.

If you want to see the empty tomb, if you want to encounter the Jesus who is loose on the world just look around, show up!

I am a person who was blessed to study theology for five-plus years, under some of the most intelligent theologians.

I could write a mean-paper on resurrection, but here, here at Trinity, I stopped talking about the risen Christ, and instead I started talking to him, or at least hearing him talk.

On Wednesday the "Helping Hands" group met.

We had to meet in the lounge instead of the kitchen; in that small place, over a small table, the conversation turned to fighting the devil, it turned to what God was doing; and the Holy Spirit was so present you could practically feel it, the air was electric.

 

Or our counsel, I am so proud of our counsel.

This group of people who meet monthly to do something audacious, figure out how to keep the mission of Trinity alive in our neighborhood, city, country, world.

Faithful decision, after faithful decision is made at these meetings.

Deciding to "Tailgate for Jesus" at the homecoming, October 4, for instance.

Or the Youth and Family Committee meeting!

I mean, wow.

Deciding to get a bouncy-house, organize games and a cake-walk for the Sunday School Kick-off party next week.

I thought we were just going to meet to choose curriculum, and instead we meet to plan how to celebrate leading our youth to encounter that risen one, to celebrate life conquering death.

Woah.

God is so obviously up to something here.

Jesus is loose.

Our risen Lord is loose, turning us into disciples one by one, as we dare to go to that tomb and peer in, only to find it is empty; and with racing hearts we run from here shouting, "Christ is Alive!"

Trinity, where we don’t talk about the resurrection, but are resurrected.

Amen.