Today is the First Day of the Rest of your Life

March 27, 2016 Luke 24:1-12 Easter Sunday! Year C We all know the story of the empty tomb, most of us. We know that Jesus was unfairly put on trial, was crucified. His mother and his followers watched as he died on the cross. They had to hurry up and bury him, because it was the Sabbath. And the day after the Sabbath, the first day of the week, the women set out for the tomb. They wanted to make sure that Jesus was properly prepared for burial. But when they got there they found the stone rolled away and there was no body. The reports do not agree on how many women were there – Luke says that there were a lot of women. Luke also says that two angels came to them and reminded them of how their master told them that this had to happen – the betrayal, the death in order for him to rise again on the third day. And then they realized what happened, they ran to tell the male disciples. But what struck me as significant about Luke’s telling of the story is the last part of our scripture. It says that the women ran back to tell the disciples what happened, and scripture says that the disciples thought that the words of the women was nonsense. They did not believe any of it. The word nonsense in our text for today is a euphemism for a bunch of crock. Total insanity, making no sense. It was no outrageous, that only 1 of the 11 even bothered to go to the tomb and to see what was going on. And when he saw the empty tomb, and he saw the linen cloth, he had to take a walk and figure out what was going on. Sometimes I think that is our problem too. We all know that story, we hear it again and again. But we are still struggling with whether it is a bunch of nonsense or not. We don’t struggle with the story we struggle with whether we believe that story or not. Is it fairy tale or is it real. And if it is really real, what does that mean for our lives? Peter struggled with his unbelief even back then. He knew that story too, he was there. When Jesus was in court being tried, he was outside denying that he even knew that man. When Jesus breath his last breath, he ran with the rest of them to hide and make sure that they would not be next. And now his body was missing. If anybody was going to steal his body – it would have been him and the other disciples. And all of them thought this whole story was a bunch of nonsense. But now what would it mean for him if it is not nonsense. What if it really happen. What would that mean for Peter? But more importantly, what does that mean for you and for me? Peter realized that if this story was real, then he would really have to believe in Jesus. And if he believed in Jesus, then he might have to change his lifestyle. He couldn’t be a coward any more. He couldn’t pretend that he didn’t know Jesus. He couldn’t just run and hide. There was no more taking the easy way out. Jesus said Peter if you love me, them feed my sheep. He said that Peter was a rock upon which the church would be built. If this story was more than nonsense, if he was really going to believe this story, then there were a lot of other things that he was going to have to believe also. One biblical scholar made a good point, when he said that the empty tomb and the resurrection has to be the center of our belief. If we don’t believe that, then we are not Christian. It was Billy Graham that said if the devil is going to attack anything about the church, then he is going to attack our belief in the resurrection. He wants us to doubt the story and call it nonsense. Because if it is nonsense, then everything else that Jesus said is wrong. And what Jesus was trying to do for the world has been defeated. This is not something that Peter came up with on his own, and made up on the church. If Peter had not moved from nonsense to truth – the church would not exist, and we would not be sitting here today. But here we are, what difference does the resurrection make today in your life? Let me tell you about one woman who had a special way of sharing her resurrection faith. Her story is told in a book by her physician, Dr. Will Phillips of San Antonio. Her name was Edith Burns. She was an elderly widow who loved Jesus. She would often sit down with someone and say, "Hello, my name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?" If they said yes, she would ask them what they believe about Easter. If they talked about Easter bunnies and colored eggs, she had a chance to share with them the real meaning of Easter. Countless people were led to Christ by Edith Burns, including Dr. Phillips’ head nurse. One day Dr. Phillips called Edith into his office and said, "Edith, I’ve got bad news for you. Your tests have come back positive. You have an aggressive form of cancer, and you may not have long to live." Edith replied, "Why Dr. Phillips, you need not look so sad. I have had a full life. Now you are telling me that before long I’m going to see my Lord Jesus face to face. I will be reunited with my dear husband, my parents, and so many old friends." After several months of chemotherapy, it was clear that the cancer was winning the battle for Edith’s life. She went into the hospital. Everybody who met her was attracted by her warmth and positive faith. And if she got half a chance she would say to anyone, "Hello, I’m Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?" She picked up a nickname in the hospital—"Easter Edith." But there was one person who was not attracted to Edith. Phyllis Cross was a mean, ornery nurse. She had been an Army nurse for twenty years. She had been married four times. Phyllis told her supervisor, "I don’t want to have anything to do with that religious nut, Edith Burns." One day Phyllis had to go to Edith’s room to draw some blood. Edith said, "Phyllis, God loves you and I love you too, and I’ve been praying for you." Phyllis said, "Well, you can stop your praying for me. It won’t work and I’m not interested." Edith said, "I can’t stop praying for you. And I’ve asked God not to let me go home until you have come into his family." Phyllis replied, "Then you will never die because that will never happen." Then she walked out. Edith and Phyllis saw each other regularly over the coming weeks. But Edith never asked her the question she posed to everybody else, "Do you believe in Easter?" Finally, Phyllis’ curiosity got the best of her. She said, "Edith, why have you never asked me if I believe in Easter?" Edith smiled and replied, "I asked God to cause you to ask me about the Easter question, and you just did." Phyllis was caught off guard. Her defenses dropped. Edith shared Christ with her. This tough old Army nurse invited Jesus into her heart as Savior and Lord. A few days later Phyllis walked into Edith’s room and said, "Hey Edith, today is Good Friday." "No," said Edith, "It’s Easter. In the life of a Christian, every day is resurrection day. Happy Easter, Phyllis." Two days later, on Easter Sunday, Phyllis walked into Edith’s room and noticed a tranquil smile on her face but it was obvious that her soul had departed to be with the Lord. Phyllis placed her hands on Edith’s and said, "Happy Easter, dear." Then she assisted the family in making funeral arrangements. Several hours later Phyllis managed to get a few minutes off duty. She sat down in the break room to have a cup of coffee. One of the new student-nurses happened to be there. Phyllis said, "Hello, my name is Phyllis Cross. Do you believe in Easter?"(5) So what about you? Do you believe in Easter? If the story is true and the tomb is empty – how are you going to have to change. If Peter went from coward to evangelist, if the disciples put aside their fear to tell the world about Jesus? What is going to happen to you? If God can raise a man from death to life, then anything is possible. Easter is the first day of the rest of your life – what does God have in store for you? The resurrection is God’s creative response to death. It is new day, a new way of doing things. It is time to put aside old beliefs about yourself, about life about others, It is time to give up old predjudices and to move forward. God has a plan for you and for your life. And just like God left the tomb empty, the holy spirit is working quietly behind the scenes to transform you and your life. You may not believe god’s story, but he believes yours. I Want to See Your Resurrection Father Basil Pennington, a Roman Catholic monk, tells of an encounter he once had with a teacher of Zen. Pennington was at a retreat. As part of the retreat, each person met privately with this Zen teacher. Pennington says that at his meeting the Zen teacher sat there before him smiling from ear to ear and rocking gleefully back and forth. Finally the teacher said: “I like Christianity. But I would not like Christianity without the resurrection. I want to see your resurrection!” Pennington notes that, “With his directness, the teacher was saying what everyone else implicitly says to Christians: You are a Christian. You are risen with Christ. Show me (what this means for you in your life) and I will believe.” That is how people know if the resurrection is true or not. Does it affect how we live? King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com You know the story, you may even believe the story, but the real meaning of Easter is in how you live the story. Go in peace…. Amen. Children’s Sermon – Object: An egg Boys and girls: If I brought with me a firecracker this morning, what holiday would you think of? That's right, the Fourth of July. How about if I wore a mask? That's right, Halloween. How about a turkey? That's right, Thanksgiving. How about brightly colored lights? Christmas. How about this egg? That's right, Easter. There are many things we can do with an egg. We can break it and eat it, can't we? Some of us like having eggs for breakfast. Or we could dye it. Some of you have been on Easter egg hunts this week, haven't you? Or we could let the egg alone and let a mother hen set on it and wait for what to happen? That's right. A new little baby chick would hatch out of this egg. That is a miracle, isn't it? That is why since from early in the life of the church, the egg has been a symbol of Easter. A baby chick comes from the egg just like the resurrected Jesus came forth from the tomb. Years ago in the church people were not allowed to eat eggs in the six weeks leading up to Easter. But on Easter Sunday they brought out the eggs and they gave eggs to their children as a symbol of the New Life in Christ. So the Easter egg has a great and glorious history. And I am glad for Easter egg hunts that allow us to have fun with our friends. But I hope as we think about Easter eggs, we will remember their original significance. They help us remember that Jesus is alive and that because of him, you and I have eternal life, as well.

A New Understanding of an Old Situation

Mission Sunday March 6, 2016 SERMON ILLUSTRATION Don't Recycle Old Life In the late 1920s my grandparents married and moved into Grandpa's old family home. It was a clapboard house with a hall down the middle. In the '30s they decided to tear down the old house and build another to be their home for the rest of their lives. Much to my grandmother's dismay, many of the materials of the old house were re-used in their new house. They used old facings and doors, and many other pieces of the finishing lumber. Everywhere my grandmother looked, she saw that old house—old doors that wouldn't shut properly, crown molding split and riddled with nail holes, unfinished window trimming. It was a source of grief to her. All her life she longed for a new house. When God brings us into the kingdom, the old way of living must be dismantled and discarded. Len Sullivan, Tupelo, Mississippi Even Jesus says not to put new wine into old wineskins, it just doesn’t work. If you are going to do a new thing, you have to do it all the way. As a matter of fact, did you know that you get a totally new body every seven years. The cells in your body totally die and have to regenerate themselves every 7 years. So there is not one part of your body, that is the same part as it was last year. It looks the same, and some of us may even say that we are worse off now than we were seven years ago. But that is not true, life and death occurs in our bodies somewhere every day. And as long as you have breath, the body is continually working to regenerate itself. The problem is that we may have a new body, but many times we have the same old thoughts and feelings. We don’t want to change, or to adapt to new conditions. And yet the bible says that when you are living in Christ, you are a new creation, on the inside and the out. Everything is new, your thoughts, you feelings, your way of dealing with things, even your commitment. We have been dealing with renewing ourselves through renewing our relationship with God during the time of lent. Stewardship has been about us renewing our commitment to Christ and to christ’s church. That process should continue long after today. But I wanted us to come together on this last day of the stewardship campaign in order for us to rethink who we are as a community, to rethink how we are working together as a church, and for us to recommit to doing the work of the church. This has been a tuff year for us. Have you noticed that we have had very few outside guest coming to our church this year? Paul says that our task is not complete, until we give someone else a chance to renew their mind and spirit. He tells us that we should be ambassadors for Christ, spreading the good news, that everything and everybody can be a new creature in Christ. God is trusting us to not only renew ourselves, but to pass this message on to others. It is like a fisherman who was in his boat off the coast of Alaska where the tides vary up to 25 feet. The tide was going out fast and he was too close to the shore. His boat got stuck on the rocky ocean bottom. It was rocking back and forth and would break apart shortly, destroying his whole livelihood. A fellow fisherman further out to sea saw his plight. Without hesitation, he drove his boat alongside the mired boat and threw lines to the other boat, lashing them together catamaran fashion so that both boats could ride out the low tide together without rocking back and forth. When high tide returned, they could both back off to safer, deeper water and go their way. (5) In order to pass this message on, you have to see people the way God sees them. And want for them what God wants for them. I don’t want to talk for too long because we have a lot of work that needs to be done. And I don’t want people to think that the pastor got you to church and held you hostage. But this is the culmination of our stewardship drive. So it is time for us to recommit our selves to the work of Christ. I do want to say one thing, and I could write a whole sermon on this, and just might a little later in the year. When I hear you all talk about the ministry of the church, you tend to think that your are helping the pastor out in her ministry. When something needs to be done then the pastor needs our help. Whenever there is a function, in order for it to happen, then the pastor needs to be a part of it. There is nothing further from the church. I am here to help you, you are not here to help me. As a matter of fact, all of us are here working together, to help God. Have you noticed that the scripture never says that God need to be reconciled to man. It is always man who needs to be reconciled to God. God never gives up on any of us. but we tend to give up on ourselves. And we can give up on the church. I say all that to say – that the ministry of this church is about all of us, we all have a role to play. Not the same role, but I role. Sometime we even have to learn how to switch our roles and to do something different in order for God’s kingdom to move forward. Today – we celebrate the work of the laity. This is your church, your future, and your walk with God. We have three task to perform today. So I want to allow as much time as possible to get through those task. The task are: a special building project led by the lay people, and Peggy Jackson Turner is going to talk about that, Next since it is mission Sunday – we have to fill out our pledge cards, and Rosalynn Anderson is going to lead us through that portion of giving not must our treasure, but our time and talent. And finally, we have to put that commitment into action. I am not sure that we will get everything on the calendar today, but we will do the basics and continue to work on these projects. We will have communion and then celebrate our work with a meal together.