New

Even though it is not where the writer of Ecclesiastes ends his reflections, quite often we are ready to snatch one of his lines and make it a centerpiece of our thinking.

Remember that he said “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Measured against that assessment, Jesus life and death have been counted a failure.

Oh, he tried really hard, but unsuccessfully to change things in his words and actions,

but things just keep grinding on.

Birth leads to death,

life seems to go in a circle: spring to summer to fall to winter to spring....on and on forever.

That is the way that most religions look at things.

There is a certain sense of safety, security and predictability in that view.

So it is a great shock to the disciples when on that first Easter morning when they hear something new, something unexpected.

...that God has broken that wheel that just would keep grinding on

...that time does not bind Jesus

...that Jesus has come out of death, never to die again,

...that time is not a circle, but a line or perhaps a spiral,

What a shock it is to hear that God may do something like that!

What a shock to see Jesus.

They had buried all their hopes on Friday afternoon, and were trying to figure out how they were going to live without them.

That much we have recognized right along.

But they also had buried a number of other things that Friday:

--their pettiness

--their squabbles over their places in the Kingdom of God,

--their uncertain faith

--their impatience with Jesus when he would not act with hastiness and violence as the Zealots wanted him to do

--their ugly scenes of denial and betrayal

--their forsaking Jesus and fleeing

--their wish that all of these things would be forgotten.

This entire list of things had been buried on Friday afternoon, and if Jesus is living, there they are all back again!

It is a little like the high-school student who was never quite part of the in-group, who goes off to college and a fresh start only to discover that it is a nightmare because all those people who hassled him in high school have come to the same college.

There they all are again, oh no!

It is then with very good reason that Jesus' first words to the disciples are not “Hurray! Let's celebrate!” but instead is “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid to honestly face all that you have been, and all of the thoughts and fears which you have held, as well as all of the heartaches and failures you have known.

God has moved and is moving to transform them, from the least of them to the best of them, into something new.

Edmund Steimle sees this as one of the greatest and most wonderful mysteries about Easter:

“that we can rejoice and sing our hallelujahs at the moment that we are shown up for what we really are and have been.”

--no more pretending is needed

--God already knows us thoroughly

and has vowed to transform us completely

and to transform the world in which we live comprehensively. Oh, hallelujah!

There is joy and freedom in knowing this.

But the knowledge does not let us escape from the world as we have known it, from struggling, suffering pain, and from making difficult choices.

The powers which crucified Jesus still hold sway around us.

Even though we know the final outcome, that those powers are finally defeated, we are busy living in the middle of the battle in which the enemies of God refuse to give up until the very end.

The happy freedom of Easter is tempered by the pain felt by Jesus for a world so full of suffering.

The church, too, is under persecution in so many places around the world.

We name just one person or a specific group of persons in the Prayer of the Church week after week, and we never run out of candidates to be named.

But there is a wonderful secret here:

even when Easter joy cannot be fully realized, it can still be celebrated, stored up, and pondered until God's right moment arrives.

It is that sure and certain.

Families that are grieving at this time are in that situation.

At a funeral we can talk about the promises God makes at our Baptism that extend through death to resurrection, but the pain of the loss may make it too great to hear and process that message effectively right at that moment.

But the Good News is not once-and-done; it can be stored up until the right time arrives, until the Good News can be pondered and taken to heart.

Carl Braaten tells of how this worked out in a different situation.

Some political dissidents, not criminals, had been rounded up in a South American country and jailed for their views.

When it came time for Easter, they had no way to be with the rest of the church.

So they guardedly gathered in a corner of the prison, and without having bread or wine, acted out the Holy Communion.

Freedom may be denied them, but the anticipation and the understanding was still theirs to be celebrated, pondered, cherished, and dreamed.

In some ways, it is the same for all of us:

the pains and sorrows are still with us, but we can act out our anticipation that they will not have the final word, that they will not overwhelm us.

We have just hints and anticipations of the victory of God's kingdom, not yet the Kingdom's completeness.

But we can celebrate even now, because the promise is sure.

We can act out the Great Heavenly Banquet, and at the least, receive an appetizer of that Meal.

And we will hold the Good News of Jesus' resurrection in our hearts and minds until all of God's purposes are fulfilled.

Christ Jesus lives, and loves, and makes all things new! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.