Readings for the Feast of the Resurrection (Year A)
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church Eureka on Sunday April 12, 2020. (Sermon begins at 18:25 in video above). Worship program here.
I love the tradition of beginning the Easter Sunday sermon with a joke when we celebrate the great trick that Jesus played on death on this feast of the resurrection. So if any of you have any jokes that you like that are church appropriate, please send them my way. This morning I have a joke for grandparents, which I hear is the best job in the world.
A little girl was sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and touch his weathered, wrinkled cheek. She would alternately stroke her own cheek and then touch his again. Finally, she spoke up.
“Grandpa, did God make you?”
“Yes, sweetheart,” he answered, “God made me a long time ago.”
“Oh,” she paused.
“Grandpa, did God make me too?”
“Yes, indeed, honey. God made you just a little while ago.”
Stroking their faces again, she observed, “God’s getting better at it, isn’t he?”
I love this image of a parent or grandparent holding a child. Just a couple weeks ago, when my father passed away, I had a vision of him holding a child, which was appropriate since he died on the feast day of St. Joseph, the patron saint of fathers and the patron saint of unborn children; and my father had an especially deep love and compassion for unborn children. (I should also say that St. Joseph is the silver halo winner of Lent Madness this year; and I’ll be announcing our own golden halo winner later).
When I first received this vision, I felt mostly grief because I wasn’t going to be able to see my father holding a child again in this life. And then fairly quickly, God knocked me over the head with the great proclamation of Easter and filled me with overwhelming joy. The great proclamation of Easter is the great proclamation of the church; and if we ever stop making this proclamation as a church, then it will be time to close our doors completely, to discontinue these live-stream worship services, and to give in to the power of death and despair. This is the proclamation that gives our church meaning and purpose and makes us so much more than a mere social club. The proclamation of Easter is the only real proclamation that Christianity has to offer a deeply wounded and frightened world.
And on this Sunday, as I try to “roll the rock away from the tomb rather than pile more on,” I’m not going to preach to you about a colorful 14th English mystic whom I preached about last year (Margery Kempe) and I’m not going to preach about how we can encounter the Risen Christ tangibly in our midst whenever we gather in person (because we are not gathering in person). Instead, I’m going to make it plain by simply preaching the great proclamation of Easter, which is best thing to do on an Easter Sunday.
You’ve heard me make this proclamation at every memorial service at Christ Church because memorial services are indeed Easter services. And the great proclamation of Easter which is the great proclamation of the church is so simple. Grandchildren often understand it better than their grandparents. So simple and yet there is nothing more profound: Jesus Christ is risen and because he has risen from the dead, we too shall be raised! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and because he is risen, we too shall be raised! We repeat this proclamation three times, just in case we didn’t get it the first two times. Jesus Christ, who was put to death by hanging, was raised by God on the third day, and because he is risen, we who are in him shall be raised!
My father was in Christ Jesus. He was a Jewish man who accepted Jesus as his Messiah and as his Lord and Savior; and my father too shall be raised. So that image of my father holding a child was not just a memory, but a vision of what my father is doing right now in the eternal and abundant life that awaits us all, beyond the grave. This is not wishful thinking. Absolutely not. This is the Gospel truth. Everything else we do as a church gushes forth from this proclamation: Christ is Risen! And we too shall be raised! Therefore, my friends, even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (the shadow of a potentially deadly virus), we shall fear no evil. We need not be afraid.
As Father David Shewmaker pointed out in his April Chronicle article, there are over 300 verses in the Bible that instruct us to not be afraid. Kirsten Sumner reminded me that many people count exactly 365 occurrences of the phrase “Do not be afraid” in the Bible, one for every day of the year. She then jokingly said that, during Leap Year when we have 366 days, we are permitted on February 29th to let ourselves be as afraid and terrified as we can possibly be, but that’s only once every four years. Every other day we are told, “Do not be afraid” and especially on this Easter Sunday, do not be afraid. In fact, this phrase occurs twice in our relatively short reading from the Gospel of Matthew this morning. Today, we get a double dose of “Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid because Christ is risen and because he is risen we too shall be raised.
In today’s Gospel, as the earth trembles and the stone rolls away from the tomb, causing the guards to shake in terror as if it were February 29th, the angel says, “Do not be afraid.” When Jesus appears, defying the most certain reality of all (death), he says to the women, “Do not be afraid.” And as COVID-19 spreads its shadow of death across our country and our county, Christ says to each of us, “Do not be afraid. My love is stronger than your fear. I am risen and you too shall be raised.”
These words do not give us permission to be foolish and ignore the guidelines provided by the government and the church. Rather they invite us to ask ourselves, “What is that we fear most? And how can we bring these fears and concerns to God in prayer? How can we honestly name these fears when we speak to God, who promises to ultimately overwhelm all our fears with his perfect love?”
Fr. David Shewmaker writes in his article, “It is quite clear to me that, though I cannot by myself overcome fear all the time, I [can] remember …to bring myself into the awareness of the strongly protective presence of the Holy God, who is the essence of the Perfect Love that casts out fear.” He then concludes his article with this gem from the book of Philippians: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6 – 7) because wherever there is death, Jesus is there offering resurrection; and wherever there is fear, Jesus is there offering his perfect love.
So if you remember anything from this Easter Sunday, if you remember anything from church in general, let it be this: Do not be afraid because God’s love is stronger than your fear. Do not be afraid because Christ is risen and because he is risen, death has lost its sting and fear has lost its greatest weapon. Do not be afraid because Christ is risen and because he has risen we too shall be raised. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Amen.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 