24 April
2011
St. Athanasius Lutheran Church
The
Resurrection of our Lord Vienna, VA
“Christ is Risen!
That’s it!”
Text: Jeremiah 31:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4; Matthew 28:1-10
Alleluia!
Christ is risen! [He is risen
indeed! Alleluia!]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Christ
is risen. That
seems like such a small thing to say in the midst of a world and life that can
be most difficult.
Christ
is risen seems so small when we watch a wall
of water wash up over Japan and carry off so many lives.
Christ
is risen seems so small when we watch floods
in North Dakota, tornadoes in the south, and revolutions all over the world
wreak havoc and do their damage.
Christ
is risen seems so small when we watch the
body of a loved one being lowered into a grave and covered with dirt.
Christ
is risen seems so small against all the evil
we see in our world, all the hatred, all the bad news that never seems to stop.
Christ is
risen seems so
small as we watch our own bodies and their inexorable march to death, whether
than comes for you in old age, by accident or violence, or from disease.
Christ
is risen. Is that
all the church has to say?
Well,
yes! And that is enough. Because those
are no mere words, but words that express the truth that on this day, in
Christ, everything has changed. That though sin and evil oppress us, that
though the devil roar and bear his teeth at us, and though the grave opens wide
its mouth to swallow us up - these have all been defeated! Sin, satan, death, and hell all did their worst to Christ, and
lost. And because Christ won, so do we.
This is
the message the angel was given to proclaim to the women. This is the message
the women were given to proclaim to the disciples. This is the message the
apostles were given to proclaim. And this is the message we are given to
proclaim - in every time, in every place, in every circumstance of life. Christ
is risen! For it is the message no one else
has. It is the hope no one else has.
The
world, without Christ, cannot handle death. It has no words to say. Therefore,
many try to ignore death, or wish it away. Many turn to medicine to look for a
cure, others try to turn it into a friend. And when all else fails, we try to
dress it up with fancy caskets, make-up, loads of flowers, and pious sounding
platitudes. But the 800 pound elephant is still in the room! And it is
monstrous and threatening.
The
church does none of these things. Instead, we look death and hell straight in
the face and say: Christ is risen! And you, O
death, are defeated. Christ is risen! And you,
O satan, are a toothless foe. Christ is risen! And you, O grave, are just our resting place. For as with Jesus, so for us. On the last day, your jaws
will be forced to open and release our bodies. He is raised, and so we will be
raised.
So rest
well, we say to those who die in Christ. Rest well, until our Lord comes again
and finishes His victory, and we appear with Him in glory. For Christ
is risen.
As St.
Paul said (1 Cor 15:14-19), this
is the truth on which the Christian faith depends. If Christ did not rise, if
His body is still in some tomb somewhere, our faith is dead. Oh, we could still
piece together some interesting ideas about God and men, about man’s being and his obligation, and
create some kind of religious worldview - like all the other religions of the
world. But the Christian faith would be dead. Jesus would be a failed religious
leader; a Saviour of no one.
For only
if Jesus is risen is there something that has changed the world and the
situation of mankind. Only then is He a Saviour on which we can rely. For
though He was not the first to rise from the dead, His resurrection was
different. Others, we are told in the Scriptures, were resuscitated from death
- the widow of Zeraphath’s son (1
Kings 17:17-24), the son of the widow of Nain (Luke
7:11-17), the daughter of Jairus (Mark
5:22-24, 35-43), and Lazarus (John
11:1-44), as we heard two weeks ago, to name
a few. These people all returned to their normal lives and then died again.
But
Jesus was not merely resuscitated, but resurrected, and now no longer
subject to death. He did not just come back from death, but defeated death. The
Spirit that gave life to all things in the beginning now gives life to His body
- and thus begins a new reality, a new creation, a new dimension of human
existence, and a new future for us. Not the same old life dressed up in a new
way, but a new life that will never end. A new life where the
grave will provide a temporary resting place for our bodies, but no more than
that. Christ in His death and resurrection has transformed it from a
place of horror to a bed, from which He will call us from the sleep of death to
eternal life. For Christ is risen! And we too
will rise.
This is
what we confess in the baptismal Creed, when we say: I believe in the
resurrection of the body. Whose body? Christ’s? Yours? Yes! For Christ’s resurrection is your
resurrection. For He took your humanity to redeem it, to
raise it. When He rose from the dead, it wasn’t for Himself - it was for you. And
in Holy Baptism you were joined with Him in His death and resurrection. Therefore,
today is not just a remembrance of the past, but a glimpse of the future. Your future and mine. A future that has,
in fact, already begun.
For Jesus didn’t just come to save your soul, as so many are wont to say
these days. As if whether Jesus actually rose
physically or not really doesn’t matter! That is a satanic lie; nothing could be further
from the truth. If Jesus’ body did not rise
from the dead then death won, and we lost. A mere spiritual resurrection means
nothing, for you are not a mere spirit. You are a person, made up of a body and
a spirit. You cannot be you if you’re not both. A body without a spirit is an animal. A spirit
without a body is an angel. You are neither. You are a man or a woman, a
special creation of God, the crown of His creation. And He came to save not
part of you, but all of you! That you live with Him forever.
And you
will! For Christ is risen! Yes, He is risen indeed. And so, too, will you rise.
But as I
said, it is a resurrection already begun in you, in your Baptism, in the
forgiveness of your sin. You are already being made new. How new? How so?
Listen to what we heard from Jeremiah earlier: “I have
loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness
to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!”
Now, to
call Israel a virgin is quite a stretch by Jeremiah! For thirty chapters before
this, he has called Israel everything but a pure and holy virgin. For,
in fact, she had committed spiritual adultery against her God with every false
god she could find! But now, suddenly, something is different. Jeremiah speaks
of a new reality, something so radical that Israel can be restored from a whore
to a virgin. And that something new is the forgiveness God will accomplish
through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Or as Jeremiah would write a few
verses later in this chapter: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more.”
That’s a remarkable statement! And it is a
promise not only for Israel, but also for you. That you live
a new life even now. A life restored in the forgiveness of your sins. No matter how many, no matter how great. If Israel
can be restored as a pure and holy virgin Bride of Christ, so can you! And you
are. You heard it again today, in fact, as you hear it every Sunday: I
forgive you all your sins. That’s not me, but the voice of your Saviour. The
same voice that will call your body from the grave on the last day. What
He speaks now, He will speak then. What He promises now, He will do then. For Christ
is risen! And so will you be.
So as we
heard from St. Paul this morning: “If then you have been raised with Christ,” - and you have! - “seek the
things that are above . . . Set your
minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have
died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
That’s one of the reasons why, in our
Communion liturgy, I say: Lift up your hearts! and
you respond: We lift them to the Lord. Whatever is dragging us down in
this world and life, whatever sins oppress us from without or weigh heavily
upon us from within, whatever doubts and fears are robbing us of this life -
not here! Not here at this altar, where Christ now comes in His resurrected
Body and Blood, with His forgiveness, life, and salvation. Here, we set our
minds on things above, that we may live here below. That we
may live in our callings. That we may live as new
creations. For truly we are! How could we not be? For when we eat the
Body and drink the Blood of Christ, we do not make this food into what
we are - this food makes us into what it is. We are transformed into the image
of Christ. Transformed even here and now to live a new life.
Until when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
And so
an old pastor, as he lay dying, said: If Christ is risen,
then nothing else matters; and if he is not risen, then nothing else matters.
And so
as we proclaim today Christ is risen, we are
saying no small thing. We are proclaiming, in fact, the event that changed
everything. And from this small proclamation, first spoken by an angel, then by
the women, then by the apostles, then by the church for some 2,000 years now -
from this small, easily overlooked proclamation, has come a new beginning. The new beginning for which the world was silently waiting.
A reality so powerful that not even the gates of hell can stand against these
words: Christ is risen!
Yes,
that is all the church has to say! The sum and
substance of our proclamation. That is our good news today and everyday,
and that makes a difference today and everyday. Come what may, Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed!
Alleluia!] Alleluia!
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.