Community Church Sermons

Year C

April 4, 2010

Easter Sunday

What Happened?

Matthew 28:1-10

Luke 24:1-12

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

The story of the resurrection in the Gospel of Luke begins with the women going to the tomb in the early predawn hours of the first day of the week. They find the stone rolled away. Jesus’ body is gone. And Luke writes that the women “wondered what happened.”

Running back to where the disciples are hiding out, the women tell their story. No one believes them, although Peter gets up the nerve to run out to the cemetery to see for himself. And finding the body of Jesus nowhere to be found, Luke writes that Peter – like the women before him – “wondered what happened.”

Do YOU know what happened?

We ALL know that SOMETHING happened. Not only do we have preserved in the Bible the individual personal accounts of those who experienced what happened to them that day, but history also attests to what I believe is a very convincing piece of evidence that SOMETHING happened. The followers of Jesus who on Friday were running for their lives suddenly turned around. The danger they had been running from they started running toward. They returned to Jerusalem where the authorities were hunting for them. And they started publicly proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus. Why would they do such a crazy thing? They risked their lives – and eventually most of them lost their lives. SOMETHING must have happened to make them turn around like that.

What do YOU think happened on that day long ago?

Most of us will answer that question with a common reply: Christ arose! That’s how we Christians always begin our Easter services, with the words, “Christ is risen!” We sing the hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!” And the return to life of Jesus Christ is certainly the focal point of our Easter celebration.

But that fact does not tell the WHOLE story of WHAT happened because what happened THAT day is only meaningful if understood in the context of what happened three days earlier – on Friday.

Jesus was murdered.

15-year old Phoebe Prince was murdered too. It happened last January. Phoebe was a pretty little girl who moved to America with her parents from a tiny seaside hamlet in County Clare, Ireland. They settled in South Hadley, Massachusetts, a very nice, upscale community nearby the very prestigious Mt. Holyoke College. Phoebe enrolled in South Hadley High School. And that’s where the end of her life began.

The murder weapon was not anything you could put your hands on. But the truth that everyone knows now is that Phoebe’s death began right there at school at the hand of nine other girls who decided to hate Phoebe. They became known as “the mean girls.” They bullied Phoebe every day, all day long, relentlessly picking on her, assaulting her, taunting her, making fun of her until one afternoon – January 14, 2010 – Phoebe couldn’t take it anymore. She went home from school that afternoon and hanged herself. The death certificate would say that Phoebe’s death was a suicide, but we know the truth.

Phoebe was murdered - just like Jesus was murdered.

Death is an everyday experience in our world. And death takes on a wide variety of disguises – not just crucifixion or being bullied to death, but also cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, depression. Death rears its ugly head in the stripping away of people’s dignity, the denial of human rights, the sexual abuse of children in the care of the Church, the nasty ways people treat each other, racial and ethnic prejudice, economic injustice, selfishness and greed, the pollution of land, sky and water, the stigmatization of those with mental illness, terrorism, racism, genocide…

Death is everywhere.

And who will vindicate those who are held in the icy grip of death both in this world and in the grave? Who will champion their cause? Who will speak up for them?

During World War II, a group of Hasidic Jews was being herded like cattle into the gas chamber of an extermination camp. As they marched, they began singing over and over again an ancient Jewish poem called Ani Ma’amin which means, “I believe.” Even when the doors to the chamber were closed and sealed, those outside could hear them singing inside, “Ani Ma’amin, Ani Ma’amin!” – “we believe, O God, in you above all.”

The gas was turned on, and several minutes passed. Still the voices sang, “Ani Ma’amin!” Ten minutes went by, and though the chant was more quiet, it could still be clearly heard, “Ani Ma’amin, Ani Ma’amin!” – “We believe, O God, in you above all.”

Fifteen minutes passed and still there were voices singing. Impossible! How could this be?

Twenty minutes passed. The voices were almost all quiet now. But still, from inside the gas chamber, came one voice singing, “Ani Ma’amin, Ani Ma’amin.” It was unthinkable that one could survive so long. Yet the voice still sang until a full thirty minutes had passed.

And then the singing stopped.

The story spread about the amazing voice that sang in the midst of darkness and death and, in some ways, even beyond death itself. No one could explain it, although a rabbi once was asked what he thought.

He said, “I believe it was the voice of God.”

What was it that HAPPENED that day long ago that brings us together today?

It had nothing to do with Springtime flowers, Easter Eggs, spiral hams, or Easter bonnets, although those are all good things worth celebrating. What happened that day is even bigger than the fact that the story of Jesus was given a happy ending.

Easter is about the day God spoke up for the dead, and those who live in death’s shadow! Easter is the day God demonstrated that good will conquer evil. Easter is the day God had the last word over the death of His Son, the death of those murdered in the holocaust, the death of little Phoebe Prince last January 14^th, and the death of all of us whenever the power of death sweeps over us and robs us of life.

What HAPPENED that day long ago is that God kept his promise - to RESCUE the world from sin and death!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the living promise that God cares about you, and me, and little girls like Phoebe Prince, and all those whose lives are touched in this world by the powers of evil.

Easter says, “GOD WILL COME AND SAVE US!”

I was reading an article a while ago by Christine Wicker who beautifully relates her own experience of Easter. She tells of attending Easter services where she left the church wondering whether anyone really believes all this hooey, as she described it. But then came the Easter she was worshiping in a small storefront church where the only visible sign of the holy day was a preacher who held a worn bible in his hand as he preached, and whose every sentence was filled with resurrection. The people clapped and "amen'd", and then it came time for testimonies. The song leader shared how he had been a homeless crack addict before Christ touched his life. A skinny guy got up to say that, a year ago, he was trying to find a way to kill himself, but now he was a follower of Jesus. Then, a little blonde ran up to the podium to say that the devil had been after her for a long time, and almost got her twice. As she talked, it was clear that her life was still one huge tangled mess.

Christine Wicker writes, "The little blonde needed big magic. She needed powerful stuff. She needed a miracle strong enough to beat death, strong enough to beat crack, strong enough to beat poverty." And then Christine Wicker realized that, "She needed the Resurrection. Nothing else would be enough."

So if you’ve come here today bearing in your life somewhere the burden of hurt, loss, injury, life’s unfairness, illness, injustice, I want you to know that Someone just like you died on a Friday long ago, but was raised by the power of God three days later. And what HAPPENED to Him, God promises will HAPPEN for YOU!

Easter is God’s promise whispered to you today. God will champion your cause! God will vindicate you! God will speak up for you! God will save you – even from the ultimate injustice called “death”!

So receive Easter’s promise for yourself. Receive Christ, the living Lord. And then go and give Christ away to others! Become part of a church that believes that good WILL triumph over evil, right over wrong, and life over death and that actually DOES something about it besides just preach and sing praise songs. Join with others who are at work in the world being the voice of the poor, the champion of the neglected, the friend of the lonely.

Receive Easter as a gift, and then go share the gift with the world.

Because something HAPPENED! Something WONDERFUL happened!

Alleluia!