Easter Warnings
April 23, 2000
What a magnificent day! Easter is the crowning jewel in the church calendar. It’s truly the best day of the entire year. It’s the model for every Sunday. The church overflows with people. Flowers are everywhere. The music is outstanding. The hymns are all golden oldies. There is a magical sense of celebration in all that we do. It’s truly a great day to be alive and to be here in church.
But it’s also a dangerous time. A note of caution needs to be sounded. Easter may also be a time when you could be changed. There are forces within the service, hidden forces, which have not been tamed by our over-familiarity
And so, if you get too close, listen too intently, hear the message too well, if you pause too long by the empty tomb, your mind may be permanently discombobulated. Come to think of it, we should have put a notice in our bulletin, “Warning – Easter may be hazardous. Approach this service with caution. Your life could be changed forever.”
One of the changes might be that you would have to view yourself in a different way. I don’t know about you, but I frequently experience a crisis of confidence. I don’t feel that I am worth much. If the truth were known, sometimes when I look in the mirror, I see (to use a church term) a sinner staring me back. Sometimes when I’m sitting quietly in church and I review my life, I begin to think of that old black hymn, “It’s me. It’s me, O Lord. Standing in need of prayer.
My point, my warning, is that if we really hear the Easter message, we’re going to have to give up that view of ourselves. We’re going to have to admit that the most real thing about ourselves is that God loves, and that love is unconditional. No matter what you have done, or said, or have caused, no matter what – the basic message is that there is more mercy in God than sin in us. And that means you are forgiven, loved, appreciated, and worth more to God than you ever thought possible. As we focus on the empty tomb, we see that God will go to any length to assure us of our lovableness, even coming back from the dead.
My hope is that you will enjoy this day without getting too many surprises. I want to give you a fair chance to avoid dangerous paths. You might want to abstain from thinking too seriously about the Resurrection. The message of the Resurrection is a signal that the way we thought about life and death has to be reversed. If the Easter story is true, really true, then it is NOT that life is short and death is forever. It is life is forever, and death is short. Death is merely an event; something that happens to us all, but life continues, even after death
In funerals, I often am fond of saying, God doesn’t take death yet seriously. From God’s perspective, death is not an ending but simply the beginning of new life. Or as the old Latin requiem put it, as in our prayers for the dead, “Vita mutator, non-tollitar.” Life is changed, not ended.
This is the underlying claim of Easter. It’s as if God were like a good broker (I wrote this before the stock market went down), and God asks us to look beyond the short term. Our lives are not crammed between the dates of our birth and death. They are more like a long-term investment from God.
It’s a scary time for people who take the experience of Easter seriously. The fact is that you can’t inhale the fragrance of Easter and be content with life as it is. Listen once again to the story as it comes from the pen of St. Mark.
Three women were making their way through the cold, dark streets of Jerusalem, preparing for one final act of devotion a salute to a dead leader, a recognition of a past relationship. When they arrive at the cemetery, that place of death, the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled away and there sat a young man, dressed in a white robe. He gave them some unexpected news. “Jesus of Nazareth is not here. He is going ahead of you.”
And Mark’s Gospel says of the women, “They went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement seized them.” The story ends abruptly with these words, “They were afraid.”
Have you ever wondered why they were so frightened? They came to pay their last respects to a dead leader. And they are suddenly told that he is alive and will be encountered in the future. There’s more to come. You would think they would react joyfully, but Mark puts it this way: “They were scared half out of their wits.”
The message from the young man is not about what God has done or is doing, but rather that you can expect more from God in the future. And this can be unsettling.
Undergirding this message is the realization that God is not finished with these women. There’s more to come. And the last word will be God’s.
For those of you who feel like most of your life is over, who feel that the future has already been shaped by your past; the message of Easter is truly startling. The message is simply that there is more to come. Much more. You ain’t seen nothing yet. And this is scary for it asks us to be like the three women; not settling for what is, but instead willingly placing our hand in God’s hand and being prepared to step into the unknown future.
My advice to many of you here this morning is, don’t pause by the empty tomb. Don’t listen to the message of Easter, for you may hear the words, “He is ahead of you.” You are being beckoned into the future, a God who doesn’t stop at death. And the message could be hazardous to your priorities. It could change the way you view life. You have had fair warning.
Happy Easter.