Bill Stroop Sermon, "Resurrection Today!" Ester Day Sermon, Year A, 23 March 2008

Les Cheveldayoff gets crucified six times a week.[1] Now before you think I am speaking about someone with a terrible job and a particularly awful boss, let me assure you that it is his job to portray Jesus at The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida.

For six years Cheveldayoff, a ruggedly handsome man with wavy sandy hair, a full beard, and smiling eyes (unlike your average first century Jew) appears twice a daily. He first appears in the morning for a show called “The Ministry of Jesus,” and then again in the afternoon when he drags the cross down the faux Via Dolorosa while actors portraying Roman soldiers appear to kick and sit on him. After arriving at the Calvary Garden Tomb area of the park, he appears to be nailed to a large cross that is lifted up by hydraulic motors. Later he emerges from the tomb that sits just below Calvary’s hill.

The Holy Land Experience opened in 2001. It was designed by ITEC, the high tech firm that worked on projects like Spiderman. The park was originally conceived by Marv Rosenthal, a Jew who converted to Christianity. The management makes it clear that there’s is not an amusement park, but rather a place where the actors who portray townspeople, soldiers, and the disciples are there to interact with visitors as living historians; they must act in first person and be knowledgeable about life in first century Israel.

Sound like a huge gimmick? Perhaps. But Cheveldayoff has a different perspective. Each time he is hoisted up on that cross for that intense twenty minute presentation, he witnesses the outpouring of emotion among many in the crowd. “I notice it so much” he says, “that sometimes it throws me off my lines.” Taking people back to the events of the crucifixion and resurrection has a visceral impact – probably not unlike the effect many people experience when they watched Mel Gibson’s ThePassion of the Christ.[2] People, it seems, want to experience the cross and the resurrection for themselves.

Although we don’t have hydraulic lifts, a scale model of a tomb, and our ushers don’t speak Aramaic, in church we use music and the different the worship experiences during Holy Week to also try to capture something of the emotional reality of Jesus last days and the profoundly joyous mystery of the resurrection.

And although it is vitally important – crucial in fact – to who and what we are as Christian people to re-live as best we can the Jesus’ betrayal, his trial for sedition, the horror of his passion, the tragedy of his excruciatingly painful death, and the profound hope represented by his resurrection, there is more to the story than just recalling the past. Easter is not just about commemorating Jesus’ resurrection and his appearance to his disciples.

According to the gospel of Matthew, it was early dawn when the two Marys went to see the tomb. When they arrived, Matthew says a great earthquake was accompanied by the appearance of an angel who rolled the great stone away from the tomb entrance. The guards assigned to keep the tomb secure were immobilized, and the angel urged the women to see that Jesus was not where he had been laid. “He has been raised from the dead!” the angel exclaimed. Somewhere deep in your sinews you can feel a little of the mixed emotions they must have had. Their eyes told them that his body was gone. Gone? Gone where? The angel anticipating that question said that he is alive and has gone ahead of them to Galilee. “Oh my gosh, we’ve gotta tell somebody!” And so off they went.

The gospel of John describes this scene differently. It was Mary Magdalene alone who went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away. No angel spoke to her, and she was completely bewildered – probably frightened and mad as well – the body of the man she loved was gone. She ran to tell the others what she saw, just like the two Marys ran to tell the others in Matthew’s account. As the Marys of Matthew were running, Jesus suddenly appeared to them. And greeted them. Overcome, they came to him and took hold of his feet. Mary Magdalene in John’s gospel was overcome with her emotions, and when she encountered someone she thought was the gardener, she wept, and asked if he knew where the body was. When the ‘gardener’ spoke her name, she recognized him as Jesus, and held onto him.

In both accounts, the women grasped and held the living Jesus, the man they knew had been dead; the man they loved.

Who among us wouldn’t want to hold onto the resurrected Jesus? As a hospital chaplain, I often attended people who lost loved ones, and it was not uncommon for a grieving family member to open their arms and hold their loved one in a final, loving embrace. How much more would we hold onto that loved one if they stood before us, mysteriously transformed; resurrected, and alive? Wouldn’t we want to hold him ever so tightly, wanting him to never leave us again? Wouldn’t we cling to him just like the wives and children clung to their husbands and fathers who survived the Sago, West Virginia mine collapse a few years ago? If we saw Jesus that morning, standing before us, wouldn’t we want him to return home with us and live as we once did? You bet we would! It was a miracle that he was there. And we would want to hold onto that miracle for all that we were worth.

On Easter morning, I think we are tempted to get caught up in the awesome transforming nature of the resurrection of Jesus; we want to cling to it, to commemorate it. We throw ourselves at its feet and give thanks to God for the miracle it represents to all of us. For in the resurrection of Jesus lies the root of our understanding that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God …” (Rom 8:38-39).

But in the gospel of John, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene to not hold onto him. Jesus understood all too well that Mary and the disciples would see Jesus as a restored human being, and not the transformed, resurrected Christ. Jesus understood all too well that human beings have the tendency to hold tightly onto the past and to cherish it, to remember the good and glorify it – even idolize it. He knew they would want cling to what was.

On Easter morning, many of us love coming to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. The morning has a newness; a freshness about it. When my daughter was little (and would still wear girly clothes), she and I would go shopping for the perfect Easter dress a week or two before. It would hang in the closet in a garment bag above those shiny patent leather shoes. We and hundreds of others would come to church dressed to the nines and see the church filled with lilies. And we would sing “Hail Thee Festival Day” and “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.” After the Easter egg hunt, which always produced muddy leggings and a disheveled, smudged dress, we would go out to lunch with friends. It was a special and wonderful day.

While it is very, very important to celebrate this day – the day Jesus returned from the dead – it is equally important to remember that we cannot hold onto Jesus or hold onto his resurrection or just listen to the story once a year. We have to move forward from that moment in order to make the story our story. If we don’t move forward, the resurrection becomes static, like a repeat performance of a play we know all so well. And if the story becomes static, it cannot inform the present or direct the future.

The resurrection is all about transformation and change. Jesus, transformed by the love and power of God, told the women to let him go. In the gospel of Matthew, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples at the appointed place and told them to go and make disciples of all nations and to teach others the commandments he left with them: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

The power of the resurrection is two fold: (1) Remembering that Jesus was transformed; and (2) His instruction to us to let him go so that we can carry on his work in this world. It is to make his story of transformation our story too. The gospel message is clear: We are to be the agents of transforming change and love in this world.

So how we become transforming agents of change? We do that by being our best selves. I think oftentimes we don’t think we can be agents of transforming change, because we don’t think that we are good enough. Somehow we’ve gotten in our heads that Jesus brought to the human encounter some special “Jesus ingredient” that we mere mortals do not have. But most of the things we are called to do in life are rather ordinary; mundane and straightforward. We are not asked to cure lepers or make the lame walk. So, if we do the mundane and routine things and do them to the best of our ability, then not even Jesus could do them better. You don’t need to be the incarnate God to give a thirsty person a cup of water; just give him a cup of water. This is not magic. If someone is hungry; give him food. If someone needs a kind word or encouragement; give it to them. If someone needs a kind word or some encouragement, give it to them. Being an agent of transformation is not something only super humans or saints can do. We can all be part of the miracle of transformation. Perhaps by doing something as simple as just listening to someone over a cup of coffee. By doing these small, perhaps mundane things for other people – even strangers – we can continue the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection today in this world.

Just imagine the improvement we could make in our world if we all chose to live into the resurrection today and claimed our responsibility to be agents of transforming change: serving humbly, speaking passionately, doing justly, and living generously. Why, we might just transform our world into the Kingdom of God.

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

16 “The right hand of the LORD has triumphed! *
the right hand of the LORD is exalted!
the right hand of the LORD has triumphed!”

19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; *
I will enter them;
I will offer thanks to the LORD.

21 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me *
and have become my salvation.

22 The same stone which the builders rejected *
has become the chief cornerstone.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 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. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Mission of Trinity Episcopal Church is to be an open and diverse Christian family dedicated to serving God and all creation by fostering spiritual growth through worship, prayer, education, service, stewardship, and celebration.

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