Sermon Preached by the Rev. Sam Frazier, Vicar

Saint Andrew=s Episcopal Church, Haw River, NC

April 12, 2009

Easter Sunday, Year B
Here is a funny story that has been circulating on the internet – you may have seen it: three men died at the same time and found themselves standing before St. Peter.  He told them that before they could enter the Kingdom, they had to tell him what Easter represented.  The first man raised his hand: AI know.  Easter is a holiday where we have a big feast and we give thanks and eat turkey.  St. Peter shook his head and said, ANooooooooo,@ and he banished him to hell.  The second man said: AEaster is when we celebrate Jesus= birth and exchange gifts under the tree.@ Again, St. Peter shook his head and said, ANooooooooooo,@ and he also banished the second man to hell.
The third man said, AThey are all wrong, but I know what Easter means.@ St. Peter said, ASo, tell me.@ The man replied: AEaster is a Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish festival of the Passover.  Jesus was having Passover feast with his disciples when he was betrayed by Judas, and the Romans arrested him.  The Romans hung him on the cross and eventually he died there.  Then they buried him in a tomb behind a very large boulder.@

St. Peter said, AThat=s good, very good!@ Delighted at his success, the man continued: ANow every year the Jews roll away the boulder and Jesus comes out.  If he sees his shadow, we will have 6 more weeks of basketball!@ St. Peter fainted!!!!
Has anybody here this morning ever been afraid?  If so, what were you afraid of - a person, a thing, an event about to happen in your life, a creature you did not know or understand.  Were you afraid of death?  No matter what our age or level of experiences, at one time or another we have all been afraid.  A few weeks ago Arthur and I went to the Carolina Theatre in Durham and saw that old horror classic from the 1950’s, “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.”  We wore the old fashioned 3-D glasses, and we were scared.  We were afraid!

I think my most terrifying moment came when I was about 9 years old.  We were spending the weekend with my grandfather and grandmother who lived in High Point.  In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up with the realization burning in my mind that my mother and father would one day die.  I jumped out of bed and ran into my parent=s room sobbing and saying APlease don=t die, please don=t die.@ They comforted me, and I went back to bed.  But it did finally happen.  My father died in 1979, and my mom, whom many of you knew, died 20 years later on February 9, 2000.  What I was most afraid of came true.  There have also been other times in my life when I was afraid, and I assure you, it was no fun.  I am certain that everyone here this morning has also had moments of fear in their lives.

The Gospel this morning ends with another story of fear, a story of people being afraid because of what happened to Jesus.  The Gospel of John, a portion of which Nan read this morning, describes how Mary Magdalene visited the tomb where Jesus= body was laid.  It was the first day of the week at sunrise.  Mary knew that it was the custom, after every burial in a cave tomb, that a large stone be rolled across the entry to keep out scavenging beasts.  But when she arrived, she found that the stone had been rolled aside.  She immediately ran to find Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. They were prepared to see a lifeless corpse, so when they saw an empty tomb, they were afraid.  They went home to think things over.  But Mary remained there outside the tomb, weeping.  Then she looked inside the cave and saw two angels sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying.  They asked her why was she crying, and she responded that someone had taken away the body of her Lord, and that she did not know where it had been taken.  Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing beside.  However, she did not recognize him and thought he was the gardener who took care of the park where the tomb was located.  But then Jesus called her name, and she recognized him.  Jesus told her not to touch him, but rather to go find the disciples.  So she turned and ran as fast as she could, and when she found the disciples she cried out, “I have seen the Lord.”
Is that the end of the Resurrection story?  Fear and silence?    No!  The disciples told others about their experience, and their fear and silence  were transformed into a hymn of praise and thanksgiving that has thrilled the hearts of God=s people for over 2,000 years.

For the followers of Jesus, Easter was no holiday.  It went beyond everything a person could believe in!  Easter was something that was Wholly Other.  It was unexpected, and it was not natural.  It was an event that broke through the dimensions of time and space, and it caught the disciples of Jesus completely off guard.  No one, no one could have anticipated what happened: a crucified, dead, and buried Jesus was raised by God to a new life form, a form that was both human and yet spiritual.  It was beyond any human imagining!
Think about it.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, God had reached down to take the prehistoric figure of Enoch to heaven.  And apparently God also took the lawgiver Moses, and certainly the Prophet Elijah, before they could be subjected to physical death.  But in contrast, Jesus was subjected to death.  He died, but he had not stayed dead.  The implications were awesome.  Christ made death to be no more than an incident in an ongoing relationship with the Father, and therefore death has become no more than an incident for us as well, even though we have not yet gone through it.

Of course the Resurrection event holds problems for us moderns.  Why?  Because no one witnessed the Resurrection.  No passing stranger made a video tape of the event.  No one in the New Testament ever tried to describe it or explain it.  And no one tried to prove it.  There were no witnesses.  There was no proof.  There was no explanation.  How could it possibly stand up in court?  How could we possibly believe it?
In his book entitled Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring, Henri Nouwen talked about his reluctance to write about the Resurrection.  His words are very appropriate for us this morning.  He wrote: AI think my hesitation about writing on the Resurrection is connected with my conviction that it was a hidden event.  Jesus did not rise from the dead to prove to those who had crucified him that they had made a mistake or to confound his opponents.  Nor did he rise from the dead to impress the rulers of his time or to force anyone to believe in it.

Jesus= Resurrection was the full affirmation of the Father=s love.  He showed himself only to those who knew about this love.  He made himself known as the risen Lord only to a handful of his close friends.  Probably no other event in human history has had such importance while at the same time remaining so unspectacular.  The world did not even notice Jesus= Resurrection.  Only a few knew, those few to whom Jesus had chosen to show himself and whom he wanted to send out to announce God=s love to the world, just as he had done.@ We need to remember Nouwen’s words – they touch to the heart.
The rest is history.  The disciples did spread the Resurrection faith to the world.  Without their Resurrection faith, and without yours and mine, there would be no Gospel, there would be no faith, there would be no Church, and there would be no worship.  This morning you and I are called to keep this Resurrection faith.  If we are to be successful in this effort, we must pray, and we must follow Jesus wherever he leads us.  So your prayer and my prayer on this Easter 2009 should be the prayer of Richard of Chichester who lived in 13^th century England, and whose prayer became the song ADay by Day@ in the Broadway musical Godspell. It goes like this:   O MOST MERCIFUL REDEEMER, FRIEND AND BROTHER, MAY WE KNOW THEE MORE CLEARLY, LOVE THEE MORE DEARLY, AND FOLLOW THEE MORE NEARLY, DAY BY DAY.   Thanks be to God! AMEN.