Surprise!--Easter Sunday

Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019

Gospel Lesson                                                                                          Luke 24:1-12                       

          But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had followed him from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body.

          ⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”  ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

          ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

          So I was prepping this week.  There’s a lot of prepping this week.  And we were doing a new thing—the Even Greater Vigil.  So I was looking for fun stuff for us to do in the middle of the night here at church.

          And I thought, “Easter Karaoke!”

          Because I am a pastor and that is what passes for fun in my mind.

          So I head over to The You Tube and type in Easter Karaoke and up pops this [Slide 1].

          First song is by Elvis, but it’s one of his gospel songs—he did a lot of those.  So that makes sense. 

          Next song, “The Old Rugged Cross,” which I wouldn’t call an Easter hymn, but that’s a quibble.  Next is “Because He Lives,” which is an Easter hymn.

          And then Song Number Four.

          “White Rabbit,” by Jefferson Airplane.

          Some of you are perhaps too young to know that song.  So let me tell you that it is most definitely not an Easter song.

          But its inclusion in this list is, in a funny, paradoxical-and-therefore-most-appropriate-for-Lutherans-way, absolutely perfect.

          Because Easter is all about surprises.  Seriously, isn’t this the ultimate surprise ending? 

          [Slide 2] The news was out.  Jesus died a terrible death at The Place of the Skull. 

          They laid him in a tomb, and everybody went home.

          First thing Sunday morning, the faithful women went to the tomb.  They brought with them spices that they had prepared.  Frankincense.  Myrrh.  Aloes and ointments.  They themselves were prepared to encounter their Lord in the darkness of the tomb.

          But…SURPRISE!!!  [Slide 3]

          Christ is risen!

          Instead of a body, they found divine messengers.

          “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”

          SURPRISE!!!

          So they ran and told all the disciples, holed up in a room, and SURPRISE!  The men didn’t believe them.  They thought it was “an idle tale.”  The Greek word is leiros, and it does not mean “idle tale.”  [Slide 4]

          The women’s story is dismissed as utter nonsense of the worst kind…but Peter is still a little curious, so he goes to check it out. [Slide 5]

          And SURPRISE! It is Peter, not one of the never-wavering, always faithful women, who gets to unlock all of the doors of the kingdom and the church. [Slide 6]

          Peter, who hid in the courtyard and denied Jesus three times.  Peter.  So yes, the story of Peter is also a resurrection story. 

          That story (indicate Peter) is not so surprising.  Peter is a usual suspect when it comes to Church Fatherhood. 

          Much more surprising is the identity of those who do continue to profess and follow Jesus throughout his passion and after his resurrection.

          It’s women.  All the way through—beginning to end.

          But also a criminal on the cross.  And a Centurion—a soldier of the Empire—at the foot of the cross.

          It is often the unexpected ones who bear witness to the good news of God’s love—to the power of resurrection.  [Slide 7]

          It is often the unexpected ones who are living as Resurrection People.  So often it is the people on the margins who testify to how much God loves them and how much God has given them.  In the antebellum south, the dominant class refused to teach slaves how to read, in order to steal every last bit of their power.  So slaves taught themselves, usually reading The Bible.  And they wrote and sang songs of liberation.  “Wade in the water.  Wade in the water, children.  Wade in the water.  God’s gonna trouble the water.”

          Some believe that hymn is an instruction manual on how to use the Underground Railroad.  If so, it is an even more poignant testimony to the God whose story and promise is so often a song of freedom from captivity.

          In the most terrible times of history, God has been most present.  In our most terrible times, God has been most present.

          Maybe you find that surprising.  And maybe you already don’t, because you’ve been there.  You’ve experienced God’s abiding presence in your deepest darkness.  You already knew that about God 

          We know stuff, don’t we?

          Because we are Resurrection People.  We know that God triumphs over death.  We know that God is good.  [All the time.]

          We know stuff.

          But as Resurrection People—people whose lives are utterly changed by the good news that Christ is risen [Christ is risen indeed!]…

          …as Resurrection People, we also want to be ready for surprises.

          Resurrection People live expecting to be surprised. 

          [Slide 8]  Even when things seem bleak, when the news is not good at all…even then, God shows up to surprise us.

          [Slide 9—Resurrection Happens]

          Resurrection People live expecting to see resurrection happen all around us.  We are people of hope and peace, are we not?

          Resurrection People don’t stand around in tombs of cynicism and frustration.  We make our own news.  We co-create spaces of resurrection with God.  We fight for a living wage, and surprise surprise, it starts to roll across the country.  We take our faith out into the streets and the alleyways, knowing that our surprising God will walk right alongside us. [Next 4 Slides]

          We venture into places where we are told we don’t belong, and we witness to our resurrected God.  We are unwilling to accept what the dominant class tells us is dead.  We are unwilling to let our own hope die.

          Because we are Resurrection People.  Living the sheer audacity of the knowledge that Christ is risen.

          One more Easter surprise for you—under your pew, or under a pew nearby—is a note for you from God and a little Easter sweetness.  Most of them have nuts, so if you don’t do nuts, see me and I will switch out your treat.

          People of God, we are inheritors of a promise that continues to amaze and surprise.  We are witnesses to a God whose power cannot be contained…by tombs, by doctrine, by those who trade in temporal power.

          God is preparing multiple surprises for you.  All you have to do is step out into light and look for them.