SING HALLELUJAH

I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures.

Prayer:

            When I lived in Europe several years ago, I spent my past time during which I visited a great many Churches large and small. Especially I liked walking slowly through the burial grounds, reading the inscriptions on tombstones.  "All of them were sincere, and many deeply touching," but I was amazed to see how many epitaphs managed to avoid the plain word, "died." Here are some of the words and phrases used instead ...

            Left this life. Fell asleep. Departed this life. Forever at rest. Taken by the hand that is Divine. Entered into rest. Passed to a fuller life. Now reunited. Taken to his holy home. Home with Jesus. Jesus called her away, Free at Last, Fought a good fight, Served others, Tak for alt.

            Isaac Asimov tells the story of a fire-and-brimstone preacher looking down sternly at the worshippers in the pews and saying, "What a fearful thought it is that every member of this congregation is going to die."

            He had evoked a somber-looking expression from everyone – with one exception.  A man in the front pew had a disbelieving smile on his face.  The preacher's face grew red as he looked squarely at the man in the front pew and said, "I repeat!  Every member of this congregation is going to die!"  Again a disbelieving smile came over the man's face. Now the preacher addressed the man directly. 

            "May I ask you what you find so amusing in my statement that everyone in this congregation is going to die?  To which the man replied, "I am not amused.  I am relieved.  You see, I am not a member of this congregation." 

            We may try to cover up the reality of death with euphemisms, but, sooner or later, members of this congregation and non-members alike, are going to die.  Regardless of whatever else we may choose to believe. Jesus knew He was going to die.  And die He did!  And so, today's Gospel Lesson begins at the place where He was buried. 

               Picture the mood of the disciples on Easter Sunday.  They had loved Jesus.  They had left everything to follow Him. In Him, they had experienced God's Presence and God's Love as never before.  Have you ever find yourself wondering, if only for a brief moment, whether there really is life after death? 

            If you do, it’s a common experience. Most people want to know what happens when we die. What will it be like? What sort of body will we have? What will we experience at the moment of death?

All of us are faced with the question from time to time as we see loved ones die or hear of other people dying in tragic circumstances. It's a question that has intrigued people for thousands of years.

 "The Lutheran" the editor, Linda Macqueen, wrote about her personal struggle with the whole question of death when a High School friend was killed. She wrote this:

"At the age of fourteen, my friend was hit by a truck. I prayed and prayed that she would live. A week later, when her life-support was turned off, my hitherto warm and fuzzy feelings about God shattered into tiny pieces.

For the rest of Year 10, every time I sat next to Vicki’s empty chair, I told God that death was his dumbest idea. Not long after Vicki’s death, I stopped at the duck-shooting stall at a country show.

Here was a snapshot of human life, I thought. The tin ducks were born without their consent, destined for a life they didn’t ask for. I observed their pitiful helplessness as life fired pot-shots at them.

I watched as one was wounded, wobbled a bit and then struggled on. That one was my mum. Others took a direct hit, early in life, or in mid-life, and disappeared into oblivion. Vicki. With grim inevitability, the surviving ducks approached the end. There was no escape. No reward for all their determination and perseverance. One by one, right on cue, they toppled over the edge. Grandma.

When you consider the ducks moving ever onwards towards their dead-end, you wonder, what’s the point of it all? What’s the point in creating a garden, or a painting, or anything that’s beautiful? What’s the point of anything you do or achieve if ultimately it dissolves into black oblivion, if, at the end of your days, you are just another duck disappearing into a bottomless pit?" (1)

Have you at some time thought like that? Have you asked similar questions about the purpose of life and death when grieving the loss of someone through death? At one time or other most of us question why a person who is full of life and who still had so much to offer suddenly drops off into oblivion like one of those ducks at the sideshow.

The disciples and their friends must have wondered this very same thing when they saw their master nailed to a cross, he was only 33, in the prime of his life. They must have wondered what was the purpose of his death when there was still so much to be accomplished. In fact, God most have got it all wrong when the most wonderful man, the most kind and caring person who ever lived is suddenly yanked away from among them.

What a terrible waste! Struck down when life still held so much for him, disappearing into oblivion like the ducks in sideshow alley. When Jesus died so did their hopes, their convictions, and their faith. They huddled together behind locked doors confused and afraid.

The women who went to Jesus’ tomb went there not with the expectation of seeing Jesus alive, but rather to finish the job of burying him. No one expected the resurrection. In spite of what they had heard Jesus say about dying and rising 3 days later, the last thing they expected to find was an empty grave.

The message of the angels who were sitting where Jesus’ body had been laid, "He is not here – he has been raised!" was totally unexpected. Something illogical, unthinkable, unnatural, and incredible has happened. The one who had been certified dead has come alive.

The last person Mary Magdalene expected to see in the garden was Jesus – the gardener yes, but not the resurrected Jesus. The disciples on the road to Emmaus talked to a stranger as they travelled, they did not expect to meet the resurrected Jesus.

When the disciples were behind locked doors and Jesus appeared to them, they thought he was a ghost. The last person they expected to see was Jesus. They had seen him died, buried in a cave but miracle of miracles he was now  standing right there amongst them in the flesh.

The resurrection might have been unexpected but there is no doubt that it happened. The gospel writers give a clear account of what happened when the women went to the tomb on Easter morning and they record the many occasions that the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples.

Paul told us in the Second Reading this morning that "Jesus appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once … then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles. Last of all he appeared also to me …" (1 Cor 15:6-8).

In fact, the resurrection is the most important thing we believe in as Christians. The resurrection is of first importance to us, not because it is a nice ending to the story of Jesus, but because it is the centre of our faith, it is basic to our lives as Christians,
it is the thing that we all look forward to.

It is the thing that gives us hope and comfort as we stand at a grave of someone dear or face the day of our own dying. There are those who scoff at the whole idea of the resurrection of Jesus, and those who believe that when this life is over that’s all there is. There is nothing else to look forward to.

And then there are those who believe that there is a heaven, a life after death but have got it all wrong about how we get there. I’m sure you are as glad as I am that a central part of our faith is the fact that after we have taken our last breath we will go from this life to eternal home with God of the Bible.

We will not only experience the joy of being welcomed by Jesus on the other side of death but we will also experience the joy of being among all the faithful who have gone home before us. That is the confidence that we can have because of Easter Day.

Death is not the end of us, but it is the beginning of a brand new life. We will rise from the grave and be given a new life, a new and refreshed body, and we will enjoy God's new heaven and earth. Didn't St Paul say,

·        "The truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised" (1 Cor 15:20)?

And didn’t Jesus say,

·        "I am the resurrection the life … whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 10:25)?

And what about the promise,

·        " There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you"  

      (John 14:2)?

What can be surer than that? We will live - Jesus has shown us that death has been defeated, and we too will rise from death to life. Today we are celebrating a victory. Christ has won the victory over the grave and assures us that death will not hold us down.

But there will still be those times when we will look at life (and death) as Linda did after her friend was killed. We will be sad, we will question God’s wisdom and get angry, we may lose faith (like the disciples). To be sure, we will have pangs of fear and anxiety shoot through our minds when we think of our own death and the thought of leaving everything we know and love in this life and being placed in a grave alone.

It is just at those moments when we think of ourselves as doomed ducks that the meaning of the word "Saviour" has full impact. Jesus has saved us. Without his death and resurrection life would be futile and death utterly final. Jesus has saved us. He had the choice of saving his own life or ours.

He chose us. He gave his life on the cross for us and on Easter morning we hear the cry, "He is risen!" Because he is our Saviour we are no longer dead ducks. We will rise from death to life, a glorious new life. In this we are sure.

 

We Sing Hallelujah to our God and King.

Amen

 

1) Linda Macqueen, The Lutheran vol 34.3, a magazine of The Lutheran Church of Australia, used with permission.