Date: March 23, 2008 Easter Sunday
Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10
Sermon: Resurrection Victory
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Some of you may be avid (or rabid?)
hockey fans of the Lethbridge Hurricanes team.
It’s quite exciting that our local team is in the playoffs, and
naturally, we hope for a home-team victory.
A team’s victory may depend upon a
number of things – team effort, individual skill of its members, ability to
respond quickly to opportunities or to the opposition’s mistakes. In a recent issue of the “Canadian Mennonite,”
a former hockey player recounted how, after scoring a number of goals which
resulted in a victory for his team, he was told that the managers wanted to
speak to him. Presuming that he would be
congratulated for his wining effort, he was surprised and saddened that the reason
for the meeting was to bawl him out for not fulfilling the roll for which he
had been acquired –the roll of “enforcer.”
It was clear to the managers and now
to this player in particular, that victory depends not only on beating, but
more importantly upon “beating-up” the opposing team.
Sadly, other areas of our society
enact the “victory-by-destroying” way of life:
--politicians hope
to bring more voters to their side by assassinating the characters of other
party’s members;
–leaders of some
countries or militant groups see the best option for winning by killing or
imprisoning those who stand against them;
–and verbal,
emotional, physical, even financial abuse whittles away any remaining fragments
of power from the powerless.
With God, however, the Easter story is
not about winners and losers, nor destroyers and victims. The victorious actions of our powerful,
almighty God raising Jesus from death carry no resemblance or connection
to “the enforcer,” “the assassinator,” or “the abuser.”
God’s victory is indisputable: the
earth shook, the stone was rolled away, the tomb is empty, and an angel
proclaims that death cannot hold the crucified son of God. Yet, God’s way of winning is not by destroying
life, but by giving life! God
could have skated into the corner with both fists flying and swallowed up all
of Jerusalem with that earthquake. God’s
angel--while rolling away the stone that blocked the tomb --could have used a
little extra ‘muscle’ on those guarding the tomb; instead, they were allowed to
live. God could have sought revenge-with
-a-capital-‘R’ on those responsible for the death of his Son. Instead, God claimed victory over death and
evil by rasing Jesus from the dead!
And with Christ’s resurrection, all
things above and below were forever changed.
“The angel’s gospel ‘He is risen!’ is not a story, but a status-report
on the way things are with God and [us] and the universe–now” [Richard Lischer, “The End of Words: The Language of Reconciliation
in a Culture of Violence,” ( Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 96].
How is it with us now? We still suffer illness,
estrangement, fear and death, but the body of Christ likewise still cannot be
stopped from rising and coming in life-giving word and deed to comfort,
reconcile, grieve-with and support. Whenever we go in the name of the risen Lord
to people with these actions and the words that accompany them, we are enacting
and proclaiming the resurrection, and living that ‘victory-status
report.’
“The Apostle Paul, quoting the prophet
Isaiah, once said of people who speak gospel, “How beautiful are the feet
of those who bring good news” (Romans 10:15).
Now, one would expect Paul to say, “How beautiful are the words
of those who bring good news” or “How beautiful are the faces of those
who speak the gospel” or “How beautiful are the mouths” or “How
beautiful are the churches” or even “How beautiful are the stained-glass
windows.” But no–how beautiful are
the feet. The reason for this is
that before we can open our mouths to speak some good news from God, we usually
have to...journey to the people who need to hear these words of comfort....The
real good news, the kind of talk about God that matters in life, the kind of
talk about God that is honest and freeing, cannot be shouted over the airwaves,
plastered on a billboard, or mused about in the abstract. Somebody has to pick up his or her feet and
go from here to there, from where he or she is to where we are, look us in the
eye, and speak. No wonder, then, that on
the very first Easter, when the women had gone to the cemetery to see the place
of burial; no wonder then, that when the risen Christ met them on the path full
of life over death and love over hate; no wonder, then, when he spoke to them
and said, “Greetings!” his voice full of the grace and peace of God; no wonder,
then, that they ‘took hold of his feet (Matthew 28:9)” [Thomas G. Long, “Testimony,”
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004), pp. 15, 113].
The victory of God in Christ which we
celebrate is not demonstrated by throttling the opponent, but is more like
going to help another player up off the ice –no matter which team the fallen
one is from. It’s about going with
gentle hands offering to hold someone else’s fussy baby, about going with
thoughtful hands bringing food or flowers, about going with generous hands to
help with work, about going with open hands ready to share burdens, and about
going with loving hands -- grasping those beautiful feet of Jesus in worship,
even as we’re on our way to tell others about Him. Alleliua!
Let us pray:
With fear and joy,
LORD God,
we too receive
this earth-shattering news again or for the first time
-- that
Jesus is alive!
Enlarge our hearts
to receive it all,
make our feet
swift and beautiful to carry it far,
and strengthen our
voice to proclaim it as we go.
We pray this in the Name of your Easter Child, our risen Lord Jesus. Amen.