title: Easter Homily 2022
date: April 2022
author: St. Paul's, Monroe
Opening ^1
Wearing new clothes
There is a tradition that Easter is the day to show up at church in new clothes. That tradition goes back to the association of Easter with baptism, with the incorporation of new Christians into the body of Christ. Baptism as it was practiced for many centuries entailed being stripped of your old clothes before entering the baptismal font and as you emerged being clothed in new white robes. New clothes for the new life given in the Risen Lord.
This morning
I am particularly attracted to the women at the tomb, to their tenderness, sensitivity, intensity, awe, wonder, and not a little bit their trepidation. I am drawn to Mary who heard the Lord call her by name. And with that was ready to run to pass on the news that she had seen the Lord.
I am in awe of the power of one person’s testimony, be it a story or just the look in their eye, that the world has just changed. That God has spoken. That in the empty tomb & Resurrection, life was transformed.
The scripture readings today are primarily about those who, having been touched in various ways by the sacred encounter with Jesus, were able to pass on their account in such a way that one person after another, stretching now into the billions, believed and followed him to become his students and friends.
That is powerful story-telling.
Peter began to speak:
We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Tell it for healing
How one tells the story. To tell it with power. It has moved men and women, young and old, for thousands of years.
Eli Wiesel illustrated this with a story:
“When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted.”
In succeeding generations, when their people were threatened, rabbis would return to the forest seeking salvation for them. But in the next generation, a rabbi had forgotten how to light the fire. In another, the rabbi forgot the prayer. In the third generation, the rabbi does not even know the place.
This last rabbi prays to God, ‘‘I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is ask You to redeem us, and this must be sufficient.’’
The whole point of the book of Acts is that as the followers of Jesus began to tell the story, their lives and the world around them began to change. As they tell us again and again, “The reason we do this is for all those who come after.”
Tell it for power: the monk^2
Stories are powerful.
In ancient times there was a conquering army going through villages wreaking havoc and mayhem. The soldiers killed indiscriminately and were especially harsh on the monks, taking special care to humiliate and torture them, before killing them. When the army arrived in a town the general asked for a report. His subordinate replied, “The population is subdued and terrified!” This gave the general some satisfaction. Then the subordinate continued, “In the local monastery all monks have fled, except one.”
Hearing this, the general became furious. He rushed to the monastery to meet the monk who dared defy him. When he saw the monk he pulled his sword out and pushed it towards his stomach and hissed in a low but terrifying voice, “Don’t you know who I am? Why, I could take this sword and run it through your belly without blinking my eye!”
The monk was not fazed, he replied gently, “And don’t you know who I am? I could have your sword run through my belly without blinking an eye.”
The general was awestruck by the fearlessness and the deep spirituality of the monk. He sheathed his sword, bowed, and left without uttering another word.
Those who heard the disciples knew they were in the presence of a power far greater than the Roman Empire that stood so proudly around them. And so it is to this day.
Tell it loud for all to hear
I once heard a whoop sweep through an entire city: the city of Milwaukee.
In 1982 the Milwaukee Brewers won the pennant.
I was the associate at a parish in a suburb of Wauwatosa, WI. The baseball team – the Milwaukee Brewers was having a tremendous season. They made it to the series that would determine the winner of the American League. For that series I rented a television. We had not had one in our home for many years.
As the final out came with a ground out to the short stop, Robin Yount, and the pennant won, my son Owen – age 5 at the time – and I jumped up and gave a yell. We ran outside to the street in front of our house, Wisconsin Avenue, one of the main roads leading into downtown Milwaukee Ave. There was not a car on it. And then we heard it. A whoop and a holler that began to grow out of the asphalt of Wisconsin Avenue until it was like a mighty storm. The city of Milwaukee was celebrating their first pennant.
The Easter good news that went up that day in Jerusalem, has grown and grown up to the present day. God has won a great victory.
Tell it so that fear is cast away
The Easter message has the ability to bring hope and confidence to the weakest and most fearful. I have watched my own children learn to ride bicycles. At first there is great fear. Shaking. Caution. Then finally they’re up. My youngest, Emma, was so excited the moment she got up on her own she completely forgot that she had no idea how to stop the bicycle. She rode around the circle in front of our house until she finally crashed the bike into a large bush.
I had my own slow starts, but eventually rode century rides around the mountains of Colorado and took my brother to college in Santa Fe, 300 + miles away, by bicycle. That’s like the craziness of the Resurrection message.
Big enough God
To hear this story for healing for power as loud as it is we need a big enough God. I continue to be stretched day in and day out year in and year out to know how to experience God in something near the magnitude that God deserves.
The whole concept of a big enough God I really owe to an author by the name of Sarah Maitland. She wrote:
So as it turns out we do not have a little tame domestic God, thank God, but we do have a huge, wild, dangerous God -- dangerous of course only if we think that God ought to be manageable and safe; a God of almost manic creativity, ingenuity and enthusiasm; A big-enough-God, who is also a supremely generous and patient God; a God of beauty and chance and solidarity.
She articulates what our response to such a God ought to be. I love what she suggests -- for its simplicity and for its glorious seeming ordinariness. She says that the proper response to our "Big-enough-God" should be, "Wow!" She then tells of a story:
Once upon a time someone invented mayonnaise.
It may not have struck you what an extraordinary thing this is, but think about it. While you do, be sure to bear in mind that in rural societies every egg is precious, and every drop of olive oil has been pressed out by the feet of children who doubtless complained ceaselessly as they stamped.
Nonetheless, and for no apparent reason, it occurred to someone in Mahon on Minorca, without an electric blender, that if you wasted a great number of egg yolks by pouring olive oil on to them very slowly while half breaking your wrist with a whisk, the resulting mixture, far from being yellowish and perfectly revolting, would be white and fluffy and taste delicious with cold meat, hard-boiled eggs and particularly cold poached salmon. (p. 156)
"Wow," is an appropriate response to our Big-enough-God.
On Thursday I referred to the powerful words of Pastor S.M. Lockridge, "It's Friday ... But Sunday's comin'." An equally well known sermon of his focuses on the "Sunday" part of that message. It's called "That's my king." Part of it goes like this: ^3
My King
The Bible says my King is the King of the Jews. He’s the King of Israel. He’s the King of Righteousness. He’s the King of the Ages. He’s the King of Heaven. He’s the King of Glory. He’s the King of kings, and He’s the Lord of lords. That’s my King.
I wonder, do you know Him?
My King is a sovereign King. No means of measure can define His limitless love. He’s enduringly strong. He’s entirely sincere. He’s eternally steadfast. He’s immortally graceful. He’s imperially powerful. He’s impartially merciful.
Do you know Him?
He’s the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He’s God’s Son. He’s the sinner’s Saviour. He’s the centrepiece of civilization. He’s unparalleled. He’s unprecedented. He is the loftiest idea in literature. He’s the highest personality in philosophy. He’s the fundamental doctrine of true theology. He’s the only one qualified to be an all sufficient Saviour.
I wonder if you know Him today?
He supplies strength for the weak. He’s available for the tempted and the tried. He sympathizes and He saves. He strengthens and sustains. He guards and He guides. He heals the sick. He cleansed the lepers. He forgives sinners. He discharges debtors. He delivers the captive. He defends the feeble. He blesses the young. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He rewards the diligent. And He beautifies the meek.
I wonder if you know Him?
He’s the key to knowledge. He’s the wellspring of wisdom. He’s the doorway of deliverance. He’s the pathway of peace. He’s the roadway of righteousness. He’s the highway of holiness. He’s the gateway of glory.
Do you know Him? Well…
His life is matchless. His goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting. His love never changes. His Word is enough. His grace is sufficient. His reign is righteous. And His yoke is easy. And His burden is light.
I wish I could describe Him to you. Yes…
He’s indescribable! He’s incomprehensible. He’s invincible. He’s irresistible. You can’t get Him out of your mind. You can’t get Him off of your hand. You can’t outlive Him, and you can’t live without Him. Well, the Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found out they couldn’t stop Him. Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him. Herod couldn’t kill Him. Death couldn’t handle Him, and the grave couldn’t hold Him.
Yeah! That’s my King, that’s my King.
Amen!
Today we give thanks. Today we bow down. Today we tell the big, big, story for a big, big, God. Jesus Christ is Risen today! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
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