St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Easter Sunday, Day of Resurrection, April 12, ’09
“Different Kind of Easter Joy”
Text: Mark 16:6-8
Well? “Don’t you know,” as we like to say here in Nebraska, it’s been a different kind of spring. Where else but in Nebraska can spring still feel like winter. In fact, I read a column on gardening in yesterday’s Kearney Hub where the author likened living in the state of Nebraska this spring to living “in a state of confusion.”
I can attest to that. Last Sunday morning, 5 am, Palm Sunday, I woke up to wind howling, gusting upwards of 50 miles an hour. I looked out the front door and saw snow swirling, streets & sidewalks icy & slick! At that early, wintry hour I would not have thot the sun was going to shine or the streets were going to be clear or the ice would be gone so we could have church. But we did!
And it turned out to be not just another church service, but our Palm Sunday Service was a joyful beginning to Holy Week as 30 plus children sang their hearts out for their parents and the few others that braved the cold, wintry conditions. The more I think about it, church half full or half empty, it was a different kind of Palm Sunday reminding me - it’s been a different kind of spring.
Now comes Easter Sunday! Early service, late service, traditional Easter breakfast between services! Easter lilies, larger than average Easter Sunday attendance in most churches today, joyful Easter music, joyful Easter proclamation, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”
But just when I’m ready to think unlike a surprising last Sunday, that this Sunday, Easter Sunday, there are no surprises, there IS a surprise! Easter is not like the end of winter followed suddenly by joyful arrival of spring. Easter is not the end of the story, the closing of a book, or a passing reminder of life eternal, life after death. The true meaning of Easter is that summer, fall, winter, spring -- ice, snow, wind, rain – sickness, weariness, suffering, pain! The true meaning of Easter is that with Christ risen from the dead, something new has come; no longer is same old, same old!
And that can be upsetting, scary, intimidating, challenging, and yet very rewarding. According to the Gospel of Mark’s account of Easter, Easter turns out to be a very open-ended, not finished!.
The last verse of Mark’s gospel says, Trembling & bewildered the women went out and fled from the tomb – They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid –
That is not Easter like what we are use to. Mark’s open-ended, un-finished account of Easter is different from the way the other three Gospels report Easter. With Mark there are no eye-opening appearances of a risen-from-the-dead Jesus alive again! No reports of Jesus appearing, embracing, smiling, talking, eating, with His disciples.
This is different but hopefully not confusing! For Mark the joy of Easter is not a happy-ending kind of a joy, but it’s a sobering, sustaining, reassuring joy; the kind of joy & hope that’s born of believing and seeing the good news of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead helping people cope with the reality of heavy & difficult things in their every lives.
Just as it’s been a different kind of spring, a cold, winter-like spring, making us all the more eager for warmer weather, so too with Mark’s account of Easter there’s a different kind of Easter joy. For Mark the joy of Easter is a joy that’s eye-opening, heart-touching, life transforming, full of the promise of Christ’s living, able to carry people thru all kinds of ups & downs in life right now, tomorrow, next month!
The story is told of a couple named John & Sue who were a bit surprised & excited when they learned they were going to have their first child. John & Sue had grown used to thinking that they could not have children of their own, so even though they were late into their marriage, news spread like wild-fire, when it was learned Sue was pregnant and they were going to have a baby.
Then the baby came, a beautiful little boy, only it was a beautiful little boy whose legs were tiny, withered, way out of proportion to the rest of his body. The doctor said the baby was “malformed”, that the child would never walk.
Still, John & Sue’s friends celebrated the wonder of that baby.
It was easy for the friends to be happy because they didn’t have the day-to-day responsibility of caring for a severely handicapped infant Nor did friends & relatives know what it was like, day after day to look into the baby’s crib and see the future of a child crippled from birth that would never walk or run or live the life that other children might live.
Some of those thoughts & fears began to work on Sue & John too.
When people inquired about their baby or when folks in the congregation made a fuss over the baby when they brought him bundled up to church there was a tint of sadness in the parent’s eyes, a premonition of the difficult times ahead for them and for their new baby. Some folks spoke behind their backs of the “tragedy of it all.”
But on Easter Sunday, when John & Sue came to church with their baby boy bundled up in a new Easter outfit and he was baptized that Easter Sunday, Sue & John left church different. When Sue talked about it later on, she said it was as if a door opened for her, and she saw the way. It was as if during that Easter baptism God almighty passed a blessing over them, baby & parents. Thru the eyes of a renewed faith in Christ & His resurrection, Sue saw her son not as a lifetime burden but as a new, unique, undeserved, special blessing.
It was a different kind of Easter for Sue and John. Not just a joyful Easter Sunday and that was it, Christ is risen, Happy Easter, back to work, life goes on. But for Sue & John Easter was an on-going, open-ended story filled with a deeper joy; a hidden, unspeakable, life-redeeming, hope-giving joy.
The angel at the empty tomb said to those frightened women, “Jesus the Nazarene is risen, He is not here . . Go! Tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just se he told you.’”
Believing & seeing the promises & presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ at work in the midst of the hard realities of life is not al-ways something to shout about, and at times it can be a little un-nerving, a little frightening because it’s living on the edge of uncertainty, living on the edge of opportunity, living by faith. But as unnerving & frightening as it can be living by faith, living with things not finished, things open-ended, things down the road, it’s what Mark’s account of Easter is all about. It’s believing that’s better than seeing because having, seeing tends to focus only on now, not tomorrow, not next week, not the next go round of tests or bad weather or losing a job or having to move the family.
I tell you, Easter in a hospital, Easter in an oncology unit, Easter in the midst of death & dying, Easter in the midst of failures & frustrations, Easter when Easter is over is the assurance, the on-going, every day assurance that the living Christ goes ahead of us - all is well . . death is not the end . . the end is Christ’s life and our lives lived for the glory of God & the good of others thru the risen Christ, in Christ, for Christ.
Unlike the weather in Nebraska which can be confusing, the true joy of Easter is that Easter ain’t over until God Almighty says it’s over, and there’s nothing here at the end of the Gospel of Mark to say it’s over!!
That’s the message of Mark’s unfinished account of Easter. Don’t get hung up on needing proof. Get going! Get the word out! Easter is getting on with living, hoping, working, serving, caring, forgiving, bearing one another’s burdens – summer, fall, winter, spring - ice, snow, wind, rain – sickness, weariness, suffering, pain. With Christ raised from the dead, newness has come. Great is Christ’s name. What a great victory the risen Christ has gained. Nothing is the same!
God is not done with us yet and we are not done with God. Easter isn’t the last chapter, long ago. There are more chapters, new chapters to come. Christ is risen. He goes before us. Next worship service. Next Sunday. Next bump in the road. Next valley to walk through. Next bad news to face. Next round of bad weather. Next child born with a handicap. Next funeral. The risen Christ goes before us. Nothing is the same. With Christ going ahead of us there’s great gain. The story continues
