Easter Sunday – April 1, 2018
© The Rev. Brian R. Paulson, D.Min.
First Presbyterian Church of Libertyville, Illinois
Introduction
I love the James Harnish story about a boy that was none
too happy about going to church on Easter morning. His new shoes were too
tight, his tie pinched his neck, baseball season was starting and there was
just something wrong about getting cooped up inside a church on Sunday morning.
He sulked in the back seat, and all the way to worship
and his parents heard him mutter: “I don't know why we have to go to church on
Easter, anyway; they keep telling the same old story and it always comes out
the same in the end.”[1]
But the gospel of Mark is not so very sure about the
ending. At least, the followers we meet were not so very sure about the way
things are turning out. So I want to begin the message at the end of the story
this morning.
At the end of a story that most of us here today know
so well but which the world could scarce imagine in that first Easter morning.
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| The Resurrection by Annibale Carracci |
Anxious
Paralysis
When the angel announced, “He is raised!” these first
followers were afraid.
They had a disease that is afflicting society today. It
is the first thing I want to examine with you this morning: Something afflicted
those followers. Something that is afflicting us as well. Something we might call,
“Anxious Paralysis.”
We know that malady right here, don’t we?
Just name your anxiety: School safety; Nuclear threat;
Stability of governance; Terror alerts; Market volatility; Ethical abuse;
Domestic abuse; Substance abuse – the list goes on and on.
The consequence of this anxiety afflicts young and old
alike. We are anxious as a people these days, and that anxiety has deadly
consequences.
Dr. Laurie Santos of Yale says that today, “students
report being more depressed than they have ever been in history at college,
more anxious.” She developed a class to address this phenomenon called
“Psychology and the Good Life: The Science of Well Being.” The class is the
most popular on campus at Yale bringing about 1200 students to a lecture hall
at Yale twice a week. It is a mass gathering seeking relief from anxiety in
pursuit of happiness. It is such a draw that Yale has opened the course online
via Coursera.[2]
We all are afflicted by anxiety and that is precisely
where the Gospel of Mark ends – suddenly, with anxiety.
“Terror and amazement seized them; and they said
nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”[3]
They were seized in spirit because in the normal
course of events when a person dies, you make preparations, make your way to
the grave. You pay your last respects.
That is what the women of our story were doing.
Trying to piece together the events of the past few
days, they were focused on practical matters, like who will roll away the
stone.
They were tending to details, but suddenly there was a
new shock to absorb.
He
is Raised!
So here is the second dynamic I want to consider with
you today – it is our “One Verse” for Easter morning – “Do not be alarmed (“anxious”),
you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised!”
Now I wonder, how can anyone consider that to be
predictable? How is that predictable in a world that is seized by death every
day?
Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia.
Alleluia. Alleluia!
That was a surprise which did not fit the followers’
plans.
Now, for us, on Friday night we were tending to
details here at church and one of our Good Friday ushers was a very capable
young man. A grandson of one of our members. Of course, that particular service
is our most somber of the year. It is a service of darkness. It was such a
moving service that I hated to raise the lights after the congregation left.
But we had preparations to make for Easter Sunday.
The ushers were helping me in this effort. Our mood
was somber, and we all were still whispering as we worked. But this wonderful
boy had a great story he just had to share with the Pastor.
So I halted and listened. He said, “What did angel say
when the women came to the tomb? April fools! Surprise!”
“He is not dead, he is raised!” He was crucified. But
he is raised!
It could not have been a more perfect word for this April
Fools Easter!
How is it that we have become so immune to the most
powerful surprise that the world has ever known?
How can our spirits be so jaded, seized, anxiously
paralyzed, when the miracle of “Resurrection/Being Raised” is constantly confronting
crucifixion, constantly raising up life over death all across the earth? How
can we be so paralyzed? So jaded in the face of such life giving power?
And how could little boy, that I named at the start of
the sermon (not our magnificent young usher) but the little child, (who like so
many in our world today, did not want to come to church at all), how did that
little boy, how can any of us, find the Easter story to be so very predictable?
Friends, Resurrection is the improbable,
unpredictable, life giving outburst of joy and possibility which God
accomplished for you and for me.
Life conquers death. Grace conquers sin. Alleluia,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Why do we all anxiously look for life among so many
deadly things in this world? The grave will not hold us! For he is raised!
Resurrection is the antidote for our anxious paralysis
and it is high time we start using it.
Use
the Resurrection
Yes, I said use the resurrection!
That is the third thing I want to consider with you. The
challenge to use the resurrection!
That is what the angel had in mind when he shared the
good news: “Jesus has gone ahead of you to Galilee.” “Tell the disciples,” said
the angel, “tell the disciples that he is going ahead of you to Galilee” – back
home – back to the daily grind – from “super/natural” to “daily/habitual.” Jesus will meet us there – in daily life.
Resurrection means our spirits “come awake.”
Whenever the Bible speaks about being raised, it uses
a world that, when literally applied, means coming awake.[6]
And so many of us are sleep walking through life.
Most of us face anxiety by finding a way to numb out. Anxious
paralysis.
In the past several years, I have watched the
downsizing of corporations, and the upsizing of liquor licenses in our
community. I have seen the last vestiges of sabbath in our schedules fall prey
to a spirit killing scheduling frenzy.
We are driven by a restless insecurity and anxiety
that is killing our spirit in Lake County.
Worshipping friend, wake up!
Christ is Risen. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Face your daily anxiety by being awake to resurrection.
You know. The passage ends by telling us that they
said nothing. But I gotta tell you. Someone squealed. Someone broke the news.
Someone came alive, believed, and shared resurrection – Used the resurrection!
Resurrection is a new life – alive, awake – and you
and I can access today. We can share it, in our own way.
An Example
And it can be one simple thing. So I have one simple
example of a way one man helped the people around him come awake – if only for
a moment.
Frederick Buechner remembers late one afternoon. He was
walking to teach his college class. He noticed the beginnings of what promised
to be one of the great local sunsets. It had just the right kind of clouds. The
sky was starting to burn, and the budding trees were perfect silhouettes
against it.
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| Independence Grove Easter Ecumenical Sunrise Worship 2018 |
He said, “When I got to the classroom, the lights were all on, of course, and
the students were chattering, and I was just about to start things off, when I
thought of the sunset going on out there, and on impulse,” he said, “without
warning. I snapped off the classroom lights.”
He said, “I am not sure that I ever had a happier
impulse. The room faced west so as soon as it went dark, everything disappeared
except what we could see through the windows, and there it was -- the entire
sky on fire by then, like the end of the world or the beginning of the world.
You might think that somebody would have said something. Teachers do not
usually plunge their students into that kind of darkness, and you might have
expected a wisecrack or two.”
“But the astonishing thing,” he said, “was that the
silence was as complete as you can get it in a room full of people, and we all
sat there unmoving for as long as it took the spectacle to fade slowly away.”
“For over 20 minutes nobody spoke a word. Nobody did
anything.”
But they were not numb. They were coming alive.
Now, that’s just one little thing. But you can do a
thing like that too.
Resurrection - Being
Raised: In a classroom; Over dinner; At the office; Over coffee. Renew and
transform your spirit. Walk into the transforming color of resurrection!
Let yourself be surprised by this miracle of life –
this one beautiful glorious victory that echoes across the ages: Life over
death!
Resurrection for you and for me. Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia!
Come awake!
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[2] Christian
Science Monitor, March 29, 2018, “Yale
students find anxiety relief in popular happiness course” - Angela Moore.
[4] You
may sign up with this link to receive devotions about the “One
Verse” in worship every week.
[5] Mark 16:6 NRSV
[6] ἠγέρθη
