This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole,
Ayrshire, Scotland on the 9th April 2023
(a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)
Introduction: The Resurrection!
We have just heard the familiar story of the women who went to the tomb of Jesus to pay her final respects; just as we hear almost every single Easter … and we never tire of this story as it has so many meanings; the most important being, that Jesus has risen from the dead.
In fact, this is so important because it sets Christianity apart from all other religions, as Jesus was the only man to conquer death … and that is no mean feat, but what is even more extraordinary is that he did so for us, not because we deserved it, no, he did it for us because he loved us, and that we deserved better. … This is a claim that no other religion can make … mind you, no other religion can claim they wrongly condemned, and killed their founder, but no other religions founder rose again after they had died … regardless of how much they were praised.
And what about those who disliked Jesus, hated him in fact, and who plotted and killed him? … Well … this happen in a manner he foretold, Luke 9:22 for example, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and he must be killed, but on the third day be raised to life", … and Jesus told this to his disciples many times; saying this will happen, because, it needs to happen, to demonstrate amongst other things, the power Jesus had over life, and death.
The resurrection therefore was truly the pivotal point in Jesus’ ministry, (in fact the most pivotal point ever), … as our calendars bears out … but the resurrection validated Jesus’ claim that he is the Son of God, made man in the flesh, … which means that because of him, we do not need to follow any set of impossible rules and regulations from the Old Testament to make us right with God, and find our salvation. … No, we find our salvation through him, by following him, through Grace, meaning that although we don’t deserve it, it is ours by our association to him.
Now let us ask the question, what would be so different if Jesus had not been raised from the dead; in other words, let us say he died like every other living thing?
Well … everything really, because if we still had a Christianity, … people would just be following just another holy man, with just another set of rules and regulations, and our sermons would be full of nice wee moral stories, the likes we had in the 70’s tv programs, with the odd reference to politics and society.
In fact, the words of Jesus would merely join the countless words of all the other religions, and people would still be striving for God to love them just the same … usually by trying to be “good people or good persons”, without any assurance that the Lord actually wants to work through them … never mind the thought of a life thereafter.
How are we different
And yet, this may still be a problem for us, because it can be really difficult at times, to see how the resurrection changed everything, because at times we do not see ourselves as being all that different to those who do not worship the lord. … But we are so much different, because in our minds somewhere, we are grounded very securely, knowing that Jesus is Lord. … We know without thinking, that he is Lord of all … Lord of everything, and that he is either looking down on us, or guiding us within … changing us for whatever, we really know … but with him rooted in our hearts, whatever we do … whether we do it right, or whether we make a complete and utter mess of it, we will return to him, and he will see us alright. … Correct?
In fact, he makes sure we return to him, because he is the one in charge, he is the “alpha and omega”, and I love that expression because it reminds me that he is looking after us, whether it is from the past, from the present, or from the future …whether it is from above, or within us, he is all powerful and we need to be constantly aware of this.
Now, when things do go wrong, and they always do, it always feels like we are on our own … and that he has deserted us … but when we get through our trauma and when look back … we all say, “how did I get through that” … “somebody”, must have been watching over us” … And all those things we were worried about at the time, well “do they now really matter”?
Jesus is the Lord of all, and he will put things in motion to look after us. … We probably will not feel that at the time, but that’s because it’s all for his benefit, but … because as we are one in him, it will in turn, be for our benefit also.
I know full well, that went things get tough, we feel isolated, deserted and rejected, and totally exposed to the elements. … We even feel that God is either so far away, or he too has completely deserted us … but as we move on through life, as we mature, our feelings do become like that of Paul when he said, 2Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, … I have finished my course, … I have kept the faith”.
As you know, Paul endured many troubles, and at times, we too feel we have had more than our fair share of them, but like Paul, because of these troubles, we grow, we mature and through them our faith gets stronger and stronger, and we change. … The lord is developing us all the time, right up until the time we die.
In many ways, it is all about us … but with him at the helm, guiding, controlling, and directing us, for whatever he wants us to be … or become. … And although we will never really find out what that is, we persevere because he within us, driving us on … but keeping us alive with hope, and transforming us into something he wants us to become.
To me, it takes real faith to become an atheist, because its real scarry to think there is no God … that there is no one higher than us, yet … we take comfort in knowing that he is in controlling, and guiding every aspect of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not.
Do you see the difference, between having a God that has risen from the dead, and a nice wee religion, with nice sets of rules and regulations to follow … Can you see that by following a set of rules, you have no direction in life, with no real purpose but that of your own … however, with the living Christ within us, we allow him to direct and control our lives, in preparation for the life to come, and that is what we are here today to celebrate.
Frank Sinatra used to sing a song, “I did it my way”, a very popular song to be sung at funerals these days … That is not the song for me, I don’t want to do things my way, I want to things his way, that way, if I mess up, he will clean up after me.
I think now I’m content to be a Christian, it took me years to realise this. … It’s by far a much better way to live, but I don’t think its an easier way to live … but I continually ask myself, and I can’t help it, what are we on this earth for, in the first place? … And why have we been given the gift of life? … I don’t know the answer for sure, but I do know that … too to do things my way … without any moral compass or internal guidance … is definitely the not answer.
The bible tells us that all we have to do, is to get to know Jesus, and his ways. … Jesus who has been raised from the dead, and who is at the very core of our being, changing us into his “likeness”; … so we can live for him, die for him, and be raised from the dead just like him. … … We therefore, do not need to fear death, in fact … we can look forward to death … and welcome death, because it through our death … that we can find our new beginning. … A beginning with him there, ready to welcome us home.
I want to tell you a story
Now, I want to tell you a story now, a true story if I may, which happened in Poland, during the second World War, to try and illustrate the relief those disciples experienced, when they found Jesus alive … and that all his prophecies were true. … This is a very difficult story to tell and I hope I can do it justice.
It’s the story a young mother who escaped on the last train out of one of the cities under siege, with a small baby; well as you can guess, getting on that last train was frantic enough overcoming many problems, but as the train made its way, it came under attack many times; and the journey which should have taken hours, ended up taking days.
The mother was at her wits end. The food ran out on the train, and so did all forms of liquid, and so when they finally arrived at their destination, the baby was seriously ill; … but fortunately … a group of nuns interceded and took the baby to a hospital, much to the relief of the mother. … But this relief was short; because that night … the hospital was bombed, and so when she returned to the hospital once the bombing had stopped … there was only debris where the hospital once was. … So, in horror, she searched the rubble in vain for her baby, or worse, the baby’s body.
Return to the good Friday story
Now I mention this story in an attempt to relate to you the scene of Good Friday when Jesus died, and where all hope went with him.
Jesus the Messiah … the one who had been prophesised … the one who had been foretold for centuries … the one who was going to change the world … the one who would deliver the Jews and provide salvation for us all … the one who would restore us to God … … was dead. … That’s how it happened, he was dead … … how then do you think those disciples, and followers felt?
His followers like this mother, were devastated, their whole lives were destroyed, everything had just fallen apart … and that was the end, there was nothing they could do … all hope had gone. … Jesus was dead, and buried, and his tomb was sealed. Back to our story of the mother.
Back to the story
The mother however did not give up, she lifted rock after rock, brick after brick, just looking for something to hold onto; … and this must have been difficult as she watched other people removing the bodies of their loved ones from the rubble.
What was going on in her mind we don’t know, but this woman persevered, even as the others watched in vain … and she knew what they were thinking … that there was no way her child was alive. … But as her desperation grew, she knew deep down that she had to keep on searching.
And then, she began to asking the old questions … she asked God, what did my little baby, or I, do to deserve this? … She then turned on herself, and started going through all the “what if” questions. What if I had stayed in the city, what if I could have gotten on that train with food and water … what would have happened if I had not given the baby to the nuns, … what if, what if, and what if, and with each what if question, came more and more despair, and she tore herself apart?
And what about us.
And what about us, we Christians, what would life be for us without Easter; … where death would be death … and the ultimate end. Without Easter, there is no hope in death, only despair; … but wait a minute, there is a different ending to our story, and a different ending for the women, as she hears a cry … a baby’s cry, and she runs over to where the cry comes from … she rolls back some wreckage and there in an air pocket … under all the rubble is her baby … alive and well … and then she holds him high up in the air for everyone to see … as she feels that incredible surge of relief … mingled with the tears of joy. …
So we ask ourselves, what about all the “why me” what did I do to deserve this … and all the “what if” questions? … Well, they didn’t seem to matter anymore, did they, because all she knew and cared about was that her baby was alive … she had finished that bit of the race … and how she got there, this is key, how she go there … did not matter. … How we get to were Jesus wants us to be, is not important, it is the getting there that is his priority.
Why this story
This story is an attempt to give you an analogy of what Easter should mean to us; it should completely change the mood from hopelessness and despair … from the death of Jesus on the Friday … to relief and joy on the Sunday; … a day that should empower both Christianity, and every single fibre of our being.
The body of Jesus had gone … and by doing so, it unlocked death forever. There was no body of Jesus to be found, because he had passed through death, onto another life. … and so death has now changed from a finality, to a “Passover” … into a new life after death.
Jesus did die on that cross, he was dead dead … but he passed through this death, onto a life after this death, and is thus alive … thereby keeping his promise that he would rise again … and by doing so, opened the gates for us to follow him through the same death, and onto his eternal life.
Return to the story
Returning to our story, like the joy in that woman, all those why me and “what if” questions disappeared, as they just did not matter … the baby was alive, … and so it is with us, … whatever we have done in our lives, what ever disasters we have created or caused, whatever failings we may have had … even whatever sins we have committed, whatever state we are in, by following Jesus … God himself forgives all our sin … and allows us to walk through death, and onto eternal life.
The resurrection has therefore taken away all our obstacles to an eternal life; as death for us too, has been defeated; and the promises of God are therefore … all true. Amen.
