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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| Now What? Ezekiel 36: 25-28, Romans 6: 4-11, Ephesians 4: 22-24 April 15, 2007 Nemo gets captured off the reef and put in a fish tank in a dentist’s office. The big fish in the tank is named Gil and he is delighted to see Nemo arrive because he has been developing an escape plan. The plan is to plug up the filter with a rock so that the tank will get dirty, and Nemo is small enough to fit into the opening and do it. The blow fish belches a lot so he is assigned the job of making the tank as disgusting as possible. They know that when the dentist cleans the tank he puts the fish in individual plastic bags. When he does that they will roll off the counter out the window, across the street and into the ocean. The plan finally works; they make it. There they are bobbing around in the ocean each in their individual plastic containers. They look at one another and finally the blow fish says, “Now what?” and the movie ends. Someone who sounds like Bobby Daren sings “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” and they roll credits. They spent the whole movie working that ingenious escape and ended up even more confined than before – Now what? This is the Sunday after Easter. It’s been quite a ride. We shouted, “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We walked through the drama of Holy Week and ended up last Sunday making the most joyous and outrageous proclamation imaginable, “Christ is risen.” “The stone is rolled away.” “Death is defeated.” Now what? The world looks pretty much the same after all that – that’s what we expected isn’t it. A lot of the people who chanted, “He is risen!” last Sunday aren’t even here this week; gone back to the same expectations for the same old world. Most loyal Christians have pretty much given up on the hope of any immediate benefit from the Easter event opting rather to see it as a promise for later, like when we die; as Christ was raised from the dead, so we claim the promise of resurrection when we are dead. One problem: when ever Jesus talked about life, abundant life, life in the spirit, he was talking about this life, here, now. There is far too much conversation in the church about the next life and religion as merely a ticket there. Christ came to offer abundant life starting now, not bye and bye in the sky. You and I are Easter people, so now what. When I first came here last June and met with the SPRC they had lots of questions about who I was and what I was about. The chair of the Committee, Norm Shaw, asked me what I considered to be the heart of the gospel. My answer was something like this – that by his grace made available in Christ we can be reconciled to God and that in being reconnected with the source of our being there is the possibility of transformation – we become like him. That is the heart of the gospel and the central hope of the Easter event: not the hope of new life in the life to come but to know a spiritual resurrection in this life, to become more and more like our Lord. That has been God’s plan for us from the beginning; the coming of Christ was necessary because nothing else worked. God sent prophet after prophet and they still didn’t get it. The evidence of that is written into Jewish history. While they were still a slave nation in Egypt they were victims of awful atrocities, the worst of which was the murder of their children up to the age of two. Centuries later the sound of Rachel weeping for her children can still be heard. But after God delivered them from Egypt and they moved into the Promised Land they treated the inhabitants of that land with equal brutality, killing everyone and even the live stock. And they saw it as a great victory, a cause for rejoicing and giving thanks to God. They didn’t get it. They still don’t. At the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem there is a two word motto, “Never Again.” They have preserved the record of the awful thing done to them by the Nazis to assure that such an awful event is never repeated. But the sign ought to say, “Never again, to us.” The suffering they continue to heap on the Palestinians is incredible. The political realities notwithstanding, it seems that the suffering they have endured should instill in them some level of compassion for the suffering of others. But, instead, it seems to have given them permission to abandon all restraint in the pursuit of their own well being. They didn’t get it. It’s not unique to the Jews; it’s the human condition. The atrocity the was committed against our nation five years ago has given us permission to cast off the restraints of compassion – to initiate a war that has led to the deaths of a half million people, most civilian like those at the World Trade Center. It has led to the deaths of twice as many Americans as died on 9-11. Our national motto is not, ”In God we trust,” it is “Never again, not to us.” So we suspend the rule of law, justice, fair trials for the accused, the principals upon which our republic is founded. We talk openly of the righteousness of torture, a conversation that would have been unheard of before 9-11. We who call ourselves a Christian nation didn’t get it either – 9-11 revealed that as true. It’s an act; our hearts need to be changed. When I was in college I traveled with a gospel quartet on week ends and holidays. The other guys were all southerners and it was the early 60s – their attitudes about racism were still pretty harsh. They even used the “N” word with some ease. One day in the car I simply couldn’t endure it any longer. I told them they had to stop using that word or find a new second tenor. They all agreed to my demands and acknowledged that it probably wasn’t appropriate for Christian gentlemen representing a Christian college anyhow. One day we were in Birmingham, Alabama. We had performed at the church the night before and, before leaving the next day, decided to stop by the parsonage and say good bye. We left the car running at the curb and went and knocked on the front door. A moment later when we turned around we saw a man rounding the corner with our suits that had been hanging in the car. The man was a black man. You cannot imagine how quickly the “N” word leapt back into common usage – and without restraint or apology. We tried to change behavior without changed hearts – when the pressure was on the real person emerged – and with new permission for bigotry. We didn’t really get the miracle of Easter. Don Imus makes and outrageously ugly remark about the Rutgers Women’s basketball team on his radio show, then issues this lame pseudo-apology which no body takes seriously – because he only did it to try to save his job. He may be more careful in the future about what drops from his mouth but it’s all still there festering in his heart. He needs a heart transplant. He needs to be made a new creation. He needs to be an Easter person. Then God looked at the world he had created and in sadness admitted to the angels that in spite of all his efforts, they didn’t get it. And, they weren’t going to get it until their hearts were changed. So, in the latter days, he sent his own Son, to show the way, and to be the way. So that people’s hearts might be changed and when the hearts are changed the world will be changed – this world, not the world to come. If we are willing to postpone the benefits of Easter until we die, then we don’t get it either. The heart of the gospel is the promise of transformation – we shall be like him. “If anyone is in Christ, there is new creation.” The heart of stone is transformed into the heart of love – revenge becomes forgiveness – anger becomes compassion – the hurt inflicted on us becomes the catalyst for making us more sensitive to the suffering of others and more determined that suffering will not come from our hands. Not hands made gentle by the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us and that move out of a heart of love – never again A father gave his child a puzzle; it was a map of the world. He took it all apart and asked the child to try to put it together. He was surprised at how quickly the task was accomplished, every piece in its proper place. He asked the child how he had managed it so quickly and the child said, “I noticed that on the other side of the puzzle was a picture of a man, and when I got the man right, the world was right too.” Now What? Now we live our lives as Easter people, people who have experienced and are experiencing a spiritual resurrection. Heart transformation, it’s the central promise of the gospel and if you get it, it will turn you around just like the guys on the Emmaus road. They thought their destination was one place until Jesus walked with them a while then they turned around and headed the other way. That’s what is supposed to happen the Sunday after Easter. So, now what. Now we put on that new identity as Easter people. Not a one time commitment like the evangelists call for, that’s the easy part. John Wesley, in his writing about justification and sanctification, emphasized that the work was not instantaneous alone, there was also a gradual process of becoming Christ-like, born of spiritual discipline and patient prayer. Like a potter with clay, there is a molding and forming process, even a firing process. This business of living life as an Easter person takes some getting used to, some practice; like becoming a senior citizen takes a while to get used too. When I was 50 I got my first invitation to join AARP; I tore it up, it made me feel so old. Soon after I discovered I could order off the senior menu at Denny’s. Then a young woman at the movie ticket office gave me a discount ticket without even asking my age. Every day we put on the resurrected Christ like a new Easter suit, and every day you get more comfortable in it – it fits better not because the suit is being altered but because you are – re-made in the image of Christ. So, everyday we chose to live our lives following the way of the Master, the way of abundant life in this life. Every day we let the transforming power of the resurrected Christ mold us a little more into his image. Every day we walk in the world in such a way that it is apparent to God and everyone around us that we get it. Finally there is no such thing as the Sunday after Easter; every Sunday is Easter. And, for Easter people, every morning is resurrection, the time to put on a new identity like a new Easter garment – To grow more comfortable in our new life as children of the resurrection. Now what? Now we begin the journey of transformation with our eyes on the destination, that of becoming like Him. As always you can get a DVD of this sermon. Contact the church office.
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