Easter Message

“I Believe”
John 20:1-18

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

That is known as the Paschal Greeting. Paschal, which means Passover, refers to the way in which we Christians believe that Christ has assured a way for us to pass over death into eternal life. And, during the Easter celebration instead of "hello" or its equivalent, one is to greet another person with "Christ is risen!", and the response is "He is risen indeed!" During the turn of the 20th century, particularly in Eastern Orthodox, this greeting was a way of identifying with others who were also believers.

Well, a story is told of a moment in time when this Paschal Greeting was once used to its fullest effect. The story takes place in Russia in 1930. The story begins with a man well known in Communist history. His name is Nikolai Bukharin. Now, that name may not ring any bells for us, but during his day he was as powerful a man as there was. As a Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda, and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today in academic classrooms. Well, to refresh our memory of communism; one of its characteristic philosophies held that religion was merely a mode of false consciousness that the capitalists have instilled in order to make people more docile and easier to exploit. There is a story told about a journey that Nikolai Bukharin took from Moscow to Kiev to address a huge assembly on the authority of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heaviest artillery at Christianity hurling insults, arguments, and proofs against it. After an hour long barrage he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of the people’s destroyed faith and Bukharin thundered his final remark, “What do you have to say now?” Deafening silence filled the auditorium, but then one man motioned for permission to speak. Bukharin, convinced this little peasant man’s comments would surely be the community's ascent to atheism that would finally put an end to Christianity, yielded the podium to the man. The man surveyed the disheartened, dejected crowd for a moment. Finally, with all the passion his faith could muster, he shouted out the ancient Paschal Greeting "CHRIST IS RISEN!" In mass the crowd arose as one body and the response came crashing like the sound of a mighty wind from heaven: "HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!"

I say to you this morning: CHRIST IS RISEN!

I am convinced! I have faith that this man , this Christ, died for me. Oh, I don’t believe he actually knew me at that point. But I do believe that this man, this Christ, looked upon the world with God’s eyes. He saw the world with God’s perspective. And with such perspective he saw the way in which people just like you and me have destroyed God’s vision for all of humanity. And, this man, this Christ, this innocent Jesus believed with every fabric of his being that God had put him on this earth to die for the sake of the world. I believe that this man, this Christ, believed that if humanity could see by the way he died even the slightest glimpse of how deeply God loved them that it would turn their hearts to place their faith in God over all things. As a member of this human race—this God construct— I believe that Jesus’ death was for my sake. But, there’s something else I believe as well. Because over the centuries there have been many a martyr to die for a good cause. I do not believe this Jesus, this Christ, was a mere martyr. I believe that on the third day—on Sunday—this Jesus, this man, this Christ rose from the dead and walked out of his tomb. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

In doing so, Jesus the Christ, has claimed my death for himself, and in exchange for my sin and death he has offered to me His resurrection. This more than mere man has offered to me the promise of life eternal. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

This is Easter. And today I stand here on this day in this pulpit and proclaim this word. . . I cannot begin to tell you how this defines all that I am. Today, I humbly come before you as a fellow doubter, one who shares with you the same challenge of believing that you have endured. And, it is with as much faith that one humble man can muster that I joyfully announce to you these words that Christians have been proclaiming since Mary left the empty tomb and went to Jesus’ brothers. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

But, you will say to me, how do you know that the resurrection is real? How do you know for sure? How can you believe such a thing?

And the only response I have to offer you is my own witness. My own testimony. There is no other evidence. Just as Mary, and every encounter with God in scripture and history; God meets us in very personal ways. Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus until he says her name. So it is with my own faith. Yet, even while God’s communication to us is very personal. It is never private. Mary meets the risen Christ when he says her name. Yet, afterward she is sent to tell the others. A witness of the risen Lord is a very personal story. But, it is not a story that can be kept private. Even though there is a distinct possibility that you will claim, just as the disciples claimed of Mary’s witness, that my faith is my own delusion, my own creation, the culmination of my own searching for answers to questions. Nevertheless, it is Easter, and I must proclaim. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

So, humbly I will attempt to answer your question.
First I would say I believe in Christ’s resurrection simply because somebody told me. For generations people have been handing down this faith. This faith which is encased in the story of the bible. This story that is given to us from others who love us or at least have our best interest in mind. Sunday School Teachers, Parents, Grandparents, Pastors, and friends—they are the ones who share this story with us. And for 2000 years we have been sharing and telling.

Yet, even so, you may say to me, “Pastor, how can you believe those people? What do they know? How can you trust them?”

Look, people, we believe stories without evidence all the time. Raise your hand if you believe Columbus discovered America in 1492? [Hands go up] How can you believe this? Were you there? Did you see this? Where’s your evidence? Where did you hear this? Sailing across an ocean—sailing even off the map—that’s crazy. Yet we believe it. Why? Because someone who loves us, or at least wants us to know the truth told us. That’s why. How many of you believe the US landed on the moon? What, a man walking on the moon—that’s crazy?! Yet, we believe it, even in spite of the many claims of how Hollywood produced the TV footage in a studio. Why do we believe this? Because someone who loves us, or wants what's best for us told us. I would like for you to believe that I have a brain, but I can’t take it out of my head and prove that to you. Yet, we all believe that I have brain—right?! :-) We believe lots of things without evidence. We believe because someone who loves us or wants what’s best for us told us and invited us to believe it as well.

Second I would say I believe in Christ’s resurrection because the story became real in me. This crazy story about a man who died and came back to life has become my own story about my own death and the promise of life beyond it for me. I believe this story because it is my hope, it is my peace, it is my healing. I believe this story because it is my story.

As you have gotten to know me, you have also gotten to know my grandmother. She remains for me an image of Godliness in this world. She is my role model; the saint to which I pray, and the one who, most profoundly, passed on her faith to me. Therefore it is imperative for me to tell you about her if I am going to have any integrity at all when I share with you what I believe. Not an Easter goes by that I am not reminded of her. You see, I was in my first year of seminary when she died. She was so very proud of her grandson. Looking back on that first year of seminary, I'm not sure if I went to seminary for God’s purposes or simply to please this woman I so deeply loved. Thankfully, I have come to learn that those two are one in the same. But, in that first year of seminary, I remained with many of the same doubts and hesitations that I assume most people endure through in Christianity—many which you may sit with here today. I wasn’t sure of the resurrection. I had hoped that somewhere in seminary I would find the answers to my deepest questions. My grandmother was not in good health, but we all comforted ourselves by the fact that she was 93. Her years were fruitful and overflowing with the blessings of God. Even so, this excuse was revealed as just that —and empty excuse— in the face of the truth of this woman’s mortality. I’ll never forget that dreaded phone call at 6:00am, on Easter Sunday. I was supposed to read the lessons and offer the prayers at my field education site—that’s what seminarians do on Easter. Never did I know how this one phone call would change forever the way that I read and heard those Easter words. I’ll never forget the pain in my heart, the pit in my soul, of hearing my father’s tears as he told me the news of his mother’s death. My grandmother, this icon of Godliness to me, died on Easter morning. And, every Easter, I remember that day during seminary—-that phone call. Every Easter I remember the way all the life inside me died that day. But, at the same time, I remember something else. I remember reading those Easter lessons, and offering those prayers in church like never before. I remember that Easter proclamation, and I heard as if it was for the first time I had ever truly heard it. That announcement of the new life, became the hope upon which I could cling forever. That Easter proclamation became my hope, my life, my healing. The only thing that could give that woman back to me was God’s promise to raise me with her some day. But, this resurrection was not just for the after life. It was for me, here and now. My grandmother’s faith, her hope, her life was not her own—someone had given it to her. Someone had told her. And the trace of that faith goes back to the one who first gave all of us this gift. It was first the faith, the hope, the promise of life from this man who died and came back—this Christ. Today, my faith, my life, my love is my grandmother’s, which was first Christ’s. It is Christ who lived through my grandmother—and now it is Christ who lives through me. You see, I believe this story because it has changed me from the inside out. I believe this story because it is my story, and it is my promise. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

Finally, I believe in Christ’s resurrection because I can’t stop myself from telling others. If you find no other reason to believe in the resurrection, consider it at least plausible on these terms. It has stood the test of time. People have been proclaiming crazy things forever. But, crazy things said do not stand the test of time. No matter how true they seem for one generation, the next generation comes along and claims a new teaching to be true. The Baby-Boomers said, “Hell no, we wont go!” But, today as the reality of the end of life seems more and more self-evident—the Baby-Boomers themselves are changing their version of the truth. Now, realizing that the end of life is some place that we all must go. The new truism is sounding a lot like, “If we must go, then we’ll go our way.” How long will it be before the Boomers realize that they have no power over that either. Whatever the case, over the generations, for 2000 years people have been proclaiming this crazy story to be true. While 2 millennia of strange and momentary good ideas have passed away, this proclamation has remained. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

For 2000 years nothing has managed to silence the Paschal Greeting. Think about the way that those forst belivers proclaimed it. Nothing was going to stop them, not even their own death.
What was it that turned Peter from a denier into a preacher?
What was it that changed the frightened disciples into fearless leaders of this new found faith?
What was it over the following 300 years that caused men and women to risk their own lives for the sake of passing on this new found faith of theirs?
What is it about this 2000 year old story that continues to inspire us still today?
Maybe its not as crazy as we thought. Maybe we CAN believe this.
CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

I believe. Not because I think it’s a good idea, or because I have some sort of faith that others do not have. I believe because someone who loved me, and wanted what's best for me, told me. I believe because this message has changed me, and has become my story. I believe because, like those first disciples, I can’t stop telling others even if it means facing public ridicule.
And, my hope and my prayer for all of you is that you would also believe.
CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

Today, we do not have Communist Leaders preaching atheism to us. We are also free in this country to worship God as we choose. We may not face death as those who have gone before us had to. For them we are indebted for the faith that we have been given. But, that does not mean that our message is without challenge. There are just as many who want to silence our Paschal Greeting today as there have been in any age.

But, we are part of a legacy that has been proclaiming this Paschal Greeting for 2000 years. And, we have a responsibility to the next 2000 years. We do not proclaim this message because we expect to get something in return. We don’t proclaim it because we are special and want the world to know it. We proclaim it because the world is dying, and we know it. Yet, in the face of this truth—we proclaim another more significant truth. CHRIST IS RISEN! (Response)

This truth; nothing, no one, not even death can take away from us. Therefore we proclaim this message because we want our children, and their children, and their children, and their children to claim the same hope, love, peace and promise of eternal life that has been passed on to us.

Why do I believe in resurrection?
I believe it because it is my hope, my love, my peace, and my promise of eternal life.
I believe it, finally, because it is why I can stand here this morning and, with all the passion my meager faith can muster, shout out this ancient Paschal Greeting "CHRIST IS RISEN!"

Amen.