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Spiritually “unpacking” this special Sunday’s scriptures had the Holy Spirit dust off one of those old record albums from my childhood, to hear the beginning of Carole King’s ‘I Feel the Earth Move.’ If anyone recalls that song, it is aptly placed in an album called Tapestry from 1971. When we think of the word tapestry, we are drawn to see the whole of the human story as stitched into place by our trial and error journey throughout our lives.
This
trial and error journey as we know, began with Adam and Eve. Adam, the name itself, in Hebrew, means
“earth.” The name for Eve, I believe,
alludes to its use as a verb—on the “eve” of a New beginning. We understand
that through Christ to mean the New Creation.
We’ve been on that road ever since, perhaps wondering and wandering
where it will truly lead us—this is faith.
This is the hope and promise, we, as the children of God cling to in
order to follow and deliver the Good News through our hearts, voices, hands and
feet to a weary world.
Today’s
Gospel is Matthew’s telling of the women at the tomb being commissioned by an
angel, who comes down striking the earthquake to roll the rock away from the
tomb. I think it’s interesting how the angel rather nonchalantly perches
himself atop this stone. But, then,
right there, we have Matthew enhancing the victory of the Resurrection over
death… Right there, think about that for
a moment, what is rock, anyway? A rock
is fossilized soil, deadened, impermeable earth! Not impermeable however to the
powers of God! Years ago I used to go
fossil collecting with my friend Jurek.
He was the expert in Paleontology, the earthen record of ancient life. In the southwest suburb of Thornton, Illinois
lies a 600 million year old ancient ocean reef.
And a mere couple of hundred feet from my new doorstep are the Lone
mountains of western Las Vegas, Nevada.
Frozen
in time, is the irony of how we find stone.
Take this thought now, into a spiritual understanding of life and death
and the human spirit. For just like the
chrysalis of a butterfly, waiting to shed from its hardened cocoon, Christ
Jesus victoriously struck a “quake” in our hearts to be in the here and now as
His disciples called, just as the two Mary’s were to herald Jesus’ Resurrection
to the remaining disciples in hiding.
St. Paul epitomizes this awakening within us, when he says to the
Colossians: “1So
if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on
things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3for you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ
who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
Yes, that is, literally, our entire
snippet from Paul for this blessed Easter Sunday but it encapsulates it
all—Christ’s Victory through the cross to defeat sin, death and the power of
evil by His resurrection. All of our sin, death and evil was absorbed in His
death upon the cross and the glory of Grace was revealed and released as a
profound spiritual freedom for our hearts to embrace, at the revelation of the
power, meaning, and reality of His resurrection! Just like those three days or Triduum towards the
Resurrection, what we call Easter Sunday; is this perhaps too sudden or too
brief a time for us to fully grasp what all has taken place? If you recall, what I left you to pray and
think about from last week’s sermon were these questions: Am I doing the do’s of the
Gospel? Am I disciplining my heart to
lead a cross-shaped life? Where am I on this discipleship road?
The
Last question is what comes into focus today, for truly resurrecting our lives
into the will and purposes of the victory of the Gospel: Where are you on this
discipleship road? Are you still trapped
in the chrysalis, hardened shell of the self or have you allowed yourself to be
emptied—freed by God’s Grace to be filled with the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to
strive to reap that New Nature planted by Christ within you to be like Christ,
in loving neighbor? Love is that great force that can bring those walls, “a
tumblin’ down,” like the first lines of that Carole King song. A tumblin’ down,
came the walls, forces of sin, death and the power of the devil, went. This is the triumph of Easter!
The
triumph of Easter declares, proclaims that even those “fleshy stones” can most
certainly be MOVED! When you actually
think about mountains themselves, they at one point in time moved themselves… So hard to imagine, isn’t? Do we think of the world as a giant seismic “Rubik’s
cube,” or constantly changing? I don’t
think we fully can grasp that. And this
is an even stronger reality when we think of ourselves needing to change. Human nature loves to resist it. It’s comfortable to stay just where we are.
Frozen in “our ways,” the way it’s always been done… Sound familiar? Those are words used in many a training
“manual” for church building ministries.
“The way it’s always been done…” is closing without full understanding,
however, many a church door… Shellacking
and reforming that Chrysalis with the life and hope of the Gospel stifled
inside!
We are
here and now, as His disciples, not to be in hiding or unto ourselves, but OUT
and about in this world with what we were commissioned just like the two Mary’s,
to SHARE, give to the world with a bold witness—the Gospel. This past Maundy Thursday was delightful to
network and meet some of our neighbors, at the joint service of First Christian
Church and Northwest Community Church. Instead of a sermon, there was a performance
from the perspective of Judas on why Jesus had to be betrayed. It reminded me a lot of the singing Judas in
Jesus Christ Superstar. It was the
angry, confused ranting of a disciple who just couldn’t rationalize Jesus with
the world or through a worldly perspective. Judas had a tunnel-vision to his
own understanding of the future and it was one that didn’t move or change the
heart…
St.
Paul rebukes the worldly perspective when he not only reminds us of living with
Christ at the center of our lives (within that first church of the heart), but
looking above and beyond. Looking above
and beyond those mountains of hardened rock, what is it that you truly see? The skies aren’t tumbling down, they are
quite crystal clear, open, open to a seemingly, ever extending horizon—here is
the landscape of Hope! The Resurrection
is God’s great revelation to us—the pick axe, if you will upon our hardened
ways to transform spiritually—reap the New Nature, that the grace of the cross
planted within us! Are we allowing the New
Life within us to be realized? This is
the question we will need to carry with us for our whole lives as disciples of
Jesus.
The
Book of Acts is an amazing testimony to both the power of the Holy Spirit and
His tasks in the world, but also to the continuing witness of Jesus’
disciples. The Apostle Peter is no
exception. If you have followed Peter in
particular throughout the four Gospels’ vision of him, he definitely suffered
by trial and error. He often didn’t
understand many things Jesus did, yet alone in a most human way, “chickened
out” or caved into fear by denying Jesus three times. Here, in the Book of Acts, post-Resurrection,
we get to see a truly changed man, thanks BE to God! The snippet we have for this Easter Sunday is
from Peter’s noted sermon to the Jews.
The reality of the heart of the Good News is open to Peter—and like the
rock he formerly was spiritually—he has been broken open and freed to a whole
New Life to share!
Many of
us are still like pre-resurrection Peter, this is simply being human. We see those “mountains of challenges” ahead
as impermeable walls that we can’t break down with the Gospel alone. We sink
into our fears, like Peter treading over the waters— we “think” we need
politicking, war-mongering and divisiveness to build a fortress guarding
ourselves… From what I ask? Whose Gospel is it anyway? If it is one that only preaches to the world
of the self, we are merely rebuilding, re-forming that Chrysalis with the New
Nature, New Creation suffocating inside.
Without cracking away at this, breaking free, we, just like the cause of
death upon the cross, die from a lack of air!
Wherever
we are on that discipleship road, the Resurrection is our reason, our
motivation for carrying on. And it is
never a lonely road. Satan only paints
it to truly be alone. You may not fully
realize it or understand it now, but, God is carrying you in the palm of His
hand. His Holy Spirit, as St. Paul and
St. Peter saw, is always speaking and never puts a period where there will
always be a comma! We are all called to
bear witness to the Gospel. This is a
shared, everyday reality! We have been restored, made right with God, but just
like the Gospel, the never-ending story, obviously never ends. We have work to do—it starts in that first
church, the heart and together we are the branches from the great vine of New
Life, Christ—spreading, growing all over the world—Alleluia! Christ has risen,
indeed! Alleluia and Amen!
Let us
Pray,
Gracious
Jesus,
Your
whole life is one that has freed us
Freed
us from sin, death and the power of evil
Your
Resurrection planted that seed of Grace
Within
the heart, the first church You have restored
We are called
to reap that seed
We are
commissioned to break down the walls the world tries to imprison us within
We are
to love You and neighbor with that New Nature boldness
Seeking
to share with our neighbor the Good News and work
Of Your
Living and restorative Word!
Thank
You for everything You have given us
May we
never not be grateful! AMEN
April 16th, 2017; Resurrection of Our Lord; Easter Day; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 16; Acts 10:34-43; Colossians 3:1-4; & Matthew 28:1-10
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins
Psalm 16; Acts 10:34-43; Colossians 3:1-4; & Matthew 28:1-10
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