March 27th - Easter Sunday"Seek the things that are above"Acts 10: 34-43Colossians 3: 1-4
1. Well, what a week we have been having! And here we are on Easter Sunday and the message of Easter is, of course, supposed to be about hope. Isn’t that right? Hope. Hope in the Resurrection. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hope in God’s Victory over Death. Hope for New Life – New Life in Christ.
As Paul proclaims:
50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and we will be changed. 53For when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55“Where, O death, is your victory?
2. And is this not a message we need to hear this morning especially after the week we have been having? A week where the messages have not been about life … but about death.
A week where the darker powers of this world have been most evident in the Principality of death…
A. Death on the Red Lake Reservation.
B. Death in Iraq as the war, which started on March 19th 2003, now enters into its third year with no end in sight. A conflict which as so far resulted in the loss of over 1500 American lives and thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children.
C. And death, or the possibility of death, for Terri Shiavo in the incredible legal and legislative drama surrounding her “right” to live or die – depending on how you view it.
How in the midst of all this death … do we have hope … for a
hopeful world … or a least a hopeful life …?
Just where does our hope come from? In the midst of death and trouble … what does Easter have to say? … what does the resurrection mean? … what is the “victory” about which Paul speaks?
3. First, a word about the situation at Red Lake. Trouble and violence, we must admit, are not new in High Schools, although the recent wave of shootings is …
Tell about incident at Canby HS... where I was accosted by a high school student with a switchblade in the lavatory.
That was over 50 years ago. But nobody was killed - although two of my classmates died before the age of 18. One because of burns which were caused by an accident … when his sister tried to start a fire with a can of kerosene …
The other was critically injured in a car crash due to reckless driving
and after living in coma for three weeks – he died. It was my first
encounter with death at that young age.
There were no trauma counselors in those days. You just picked up
and went on … but as you can tell, it affected me greatly for, there is
no denying, that death can have a lasting impact on anyone –
particularly a young person. Someone like Jeff Weise, whose father
committed suicide. Just the shame from that alone can do a person in,
in some cases. “Hey, Jeff, do you see your father much? No, he killed
himself!”
So, my point is that we should not get the idea that trouble in schools
is something totally new. What is new, however, - is guns. What is
also new - is drugs. And then there is the internet, video games,
television and movies which glammorize violence to a greater degree
than ever before and along with it are movies and sports which
emphasize competition, winning at all cost, being tough and being a
“survivor” – instead of cooperation, compassion, and understanding.
And it’s not just the kids … parents are also to blame. The
tremendous push on the part of parents for their children to be
successful … leaves kids with no other message than if you are not # 1
then you are nobody. Just like Jeff Wiese up in Red Lake. Jeff was
a “nobody.” But nobody is ever going to forget him now!
Is this what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is supposed to teach us?
Hopefully not! Hopefully, this further incident will increase public awareness in the need for better schools and increased attention to our many troubled young people who for various reasons have lost all hope and turn to violence as a final resort … a final cry for help.
For in the end – the ultimate response to the loss of hope is violence … because sooner or later the feeling becomes “if nobody cares … I’ll make them care!!!” It’s really the same thing with terrorism. So, as Christian people of hope our task is to sensitive to the hurt and the pain … the hopelessness that afflicts many in this troubled world … especially our young people.
4. But the violence is not just in schools, for as we all know, the war in
Iraq continues … need I say more …? In my Easter letter in our newsletter (which is coming out this week) I ask for all of us to pray for the well being of the women, men, and children of Iraq, Israel, and Palestine. And to also to pray for our own American soldiers, civilians, and other personnel whose lives are continuously in danger and especially for those who have already been injured, wounded, and continue to suffer trauma from being in harms way. And we also need to pray also for the families, spouses, and children of the service personnel whose lives are at risk and who have lost loved ones.
“But what good is prayer?” We might ask. Methodist theologian Ruth Suhocki writes in her book In God’s Presence, “Were there were absolutely no limitations on God, then intercessory prayer would be unnecessary. But in a God-world relationship where God’s power can be and often is rejected by the powers of this world, then intercessory prayer is of utmost importance. It’s not just that we need to pray – it’s that God needs us to do the praying. Our prayers actually make a difference in what God can do!” “God works, she writes, “with the world the way it is!”
John Wesley summed it up this way:
Without God, we cannot
Without us, God will not.
In other words, in our Methodist way of seeing things … it’s not just a question of shrugging our shoulders and saying “Oh, well, it’s out of my hands … I’ll just leave it up to God.” It doesn’t work that way!
God calls us to be part of the world – not just a bystander. God’s
needs us to be in prayer. Can we do that? I ask you to think about and pray this week for peace and a speedy end to the war in Iraq.
Will it work? Well, we never know what God will do, do we? But, as we learned in our discussion about prayer this past week at UMW, God always hears every prayer – every prayer! And sometimes:
A. God answers them
B. And sometimes God does not answer them
C. And sometimes the answer is not what we expect
D. And sometimes God answers them after we are gone!
5. Thirdly, there is this whole amazing situation about Terri Schiavo. For if Red Lake was big news around the country this past week - the Schiavo case was even bigger. So big, it even got into the Congress - Pretty Amazing!!!
Well, I don’t know about you … but sometimes I wonder if up here in Northern Minnesota we are living in the same country … Really, I ask you … would anyone here want to actually go on living in a persistent vegetative state for fifteen years and have videos of your half dead body shown all around the country??? Whatever happened to personal privacy?? What are these people thinking? I ask you…
Now, you may not agree with me … but my father was stricken with Alzheimer’s. It took him 3 to 4 years to actually die. Fortunately, it happened gradually, and in the first years we had some good times and we talked … and when it came time for him to go … I was at peace. Which isn’t always the case … and isn’t with Terri Schiavo … apparently. But I will never forget the day when I walked into my father’s room and I was shocked to realize that he had no idea who I was … or where he was … or anything else … and at that moment, as far as I was concerned, he was already dead!
6. Oh, of course, his body was still functioning and it continued for another nine whole months. But he never knew a thing. So, as far as I am concerned, and this is just my opinion, life ends when we are no longer conscious … no longer a human spirit capable of talking, understanding, caring, loving and all the other wonderful things that human beings can do.
For the person in front of me that day, I quickly realized, was no longer my dad. It was not him. It was not my father who sat before me staring blankly into space. And I knew I would never speak with him again. It was over.
A few years ago after I had gone on the Alzheimer’s walk, I wrote short poem about alzheimers and my dad.
(Note: poem not available at this time.)
8. So, as I thought about this some more, I was reminded of the passage
which we read a few Sundays ago about how Ezekiel
breathed life into the dry bones:
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then God said to me, "Prophesy say “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet.
What are we … the passage asks us … without the breath of life? Without being conscious … without the spirit … merely a bunch of bones … really? So, when does life begin and when does it end? Well, every situation is different … and it’s not for me to say … but I ask each of you … what would you do in this situation …? If Terri Schiavo were your daughter or your wife … and if you really loved her … would you really want her to go on like this for fifteen years? Well, it’s a free country not everyone agrees.
9. Overall, as I said, it’s a pretty complicated for when it comes down to
an actual real life person it’s never that simple -- so I don’t want to oversimplify things … which is unfortunately what has happened … because the whole situation has been reduced down to one issue … an either or situation.
But, I not finished yet, because I am concerned about this whole attitude about preventing death and preserving life … and all its religious implications and what it means for us at Easter.
Especially when we are thinking today about the resurrection and Christ’s victory over death. Well, I am not the only one. Here is what Syl Davis wrote in the Minneapolis paper last week …
“During Easter week you’d think that someone would ask if the story of Jesus death and resurrection offers any clues to this dilemma. Would Jesus, for instance, have sanctioned the use of a feeling tube to save his own life or that of his many disciples? If not, why would we? Was he not rescued after death by the one of whom it is said, “With God, all things are possible?” If so, isn’t that more than enough? Has not God already, through Jesus Christ, conquered death for all time and showed us the way and the truth and the life?”
10. So, what then does the message of Easter have to say … about
matters of life and death and about hope? In our scripture today
Paul says:
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on thing that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
To understand this passage, we must realize that the earliest Christians were baptized as adults - often at Easter. As they were submerged under the water (as Jesus was at the Jordan River) it symbolized their "death" to their old self and a rising to "new life" in Christ. It was a form of resurrection.In being "resurrected" the new Christian was to set his/her life on things that are from above (ie. the spiritual life). As a result, one's thoughts were to be directed away from earthly concerns (which are temporal and bound to pass away) and toward the eternal things.
11. Now, Paul is not just saying, however, that Christians are to
become other-worldly, but rather that we are to go on with our work in the world. But from now on we are to live with the knowledge that this world is not all that matters. We are to have, as it were, a new set of values. Things we once desired and wished to possess – will no longer have the same importance. The will to dominate and control gives way to a desire to serve others and feelings of revenge and anger are replaced by mercy and forgiveness.
We need to also realize that this "new life" in Christ makes no real sense in terms of the world and it's values. The "world" is by nature primarily interested in survival and self preservation even at the expense of everthing else. While this appears to be a practical matter it is, if we really look at it, a very despairing idea for if this world is "all their is" then there is not much to hope for - because as Ecclesiastes says "it is all vanity and striving after wind." The real hope is that God has acted to "save us" and that is what Easter is all about. Without a spiritual life in Christ - we are, in a way, "hopeless."
12. No one knows exactly how it all happened. There was confusion after Jesus crucifixion. The disciples naturally thought he had died. Talk about despair! Talk about hopelessness!
Then, something happened. They didn’t get it all down exactly the same:
A. Mark’s Gospel says that the spirit of God came down on Jesus
when He was baptized in the Jordan River.
B. On the other hand, Mathew and Luke say that Jesus was concieved by the Holy Spirit at birth.
C. And John says that Jesus – the Word of God – was with God from the very beginning of time – the Divine Logos – the
Word made flesh.
But, after it was over and regardless of circumstance, everyone believed that somehow they had experienced the presence of God in the person of Jesus. They also believed somehow that this spirit – the spirit of Christ – continued to exist in the world --- and because of it --- they no longer feared death … and in letting of this fear … they were able to let go of many other things … they were, it seems, reborn to new life.
13. It was a huge breakthrough which had occurred in human consciousness … for God had broken through to us in Jesus Christ in a remarkable way …
So remarkable that although ten years after Jesus death there were still only around a thousand Christians in the world … by the year 350 there were 35 million!!! Today there are about 2 billion – about 1/3 of the earth’s population.
How shall we respond to this new life … how shall we live seeking the things which are from above … the things which are from God?
This past week, instead of our usual Maundy Thursday communion service we celebrated a Jewish Passover complete with a Seder Meal.
We had great food, music, a good time and it was very meaningful time for everyone. During the service I read a passage from a Rabbi about gratefulness.
Does God need our praise? He asked. Is he sitting up there complaining that He doesn’t get enough appreciation? Does he need us to get his slippers? That’s ridiculous! He doesn’t need any bribes or compliments. Rather, we need to thank Him – for our own sake. Because the person who is an ingrate will never enjoy the gifts he has.
So why isn’t everyone happy? He continued. Because we are focused on what we don’t have. That’s ingratitude. Of course there are difficulties. But all told, life is good.
14. Gratitude, then is what it is all about. Despite all our troubles, despite our fears about death, despite life’s uncertainty … we need to give thanks to God … who has conquered all things … and we need to keep our thoughts on these higher things … the eternal things … the things which bring us hope … on this Easter …
No better way to do this than to sing … a couple of verses from O’ For A Thousand Tongues to Sing … Page 57 … let’s sing it now … verses one and two.
Let us pray …
