Broadway Christian Church ·Columbia, Missouri
Morning Worship ·March 27, 2005
Easter Sunday
Prayer of the Day
Spirit of the Living Christ, in your glorious resurrection, you not only defeated evil and the powers of death, but you also came back to live with us. For your continuing presence with us, that we might live with you and for you, now and always, we give you thanks. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Amen.
Scripture
John 20:1-18
On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran to Simon Peter and to Jesus’ favorite disciple and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him.”
Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. They ran side by side, until the other disciple ran faster than Peter and got there first. He bent over and saw the strips of linen cloth lying inside the tomb, but he did not go in.
When Simon Peter got there, he went into the tomb and saw the strips of cloth. He also saw the piece of cloth that had been used to cover Jesus’ face. It was rolled up and in a place by itself. The disciple who got there first then went into the tomb, and when he saw it, he believed. At that time Peter and the other disciple did not know that the Scriptures said Jesus would rise from death to life. So the two of them went back to where the other disciples were.
Mary Magdalene, however, stood crying outside the tomb. She was still weeping, when she stooped down and saw two angels inside. They were dressed in white and were sitting where Jesus’ body had been. One was at the head and the other was at the foot. The angels asked Mary, “Why are you crying?”
She answered, “They have taken away my Lord’s body! I don’t know where they have put him.”
As soon as Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not know who he was. Jesus asked her, “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener and said, “Sir, if you have taken his body away, please tell me, so I can go and get him.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him, “Teacher.”
Message
Easter Sunday, Easter Monday
Rick Frost
Today is Easter. I’m so glad you are here. We can be together. Some of us have been walking together for over 40 days now just to get here this morning. It’s been quite a journey, as it always is, to get to Easter.
Of course, as you know, the date of Easter always changes each year. Christmas is always on the 25th of December. Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday in November. But Easter changes every year. We celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or after March 21. How about that little piece of trivia for you today?
But the important fact we do sometimes overlook is that Easter always, always follows Good Friday. Forget that, and Easter is just another holiday. Forget that, and Easter is just another celebration of spring. Forget that, and Easter is just a break after a long, cold, gray winter, rather than the people of God praising God for giving life to the dead. Forget this, and we obscure the fact that the risen and exalted Lord and Savior of this world has nail prints in his hands. He has a gash in his side. Easter Sunday always follows Good Friday.
Easter Sunday is also a day for shouting with joy. So, I am going to ask you to join billions of Christians somewhere in the world today in doing something special. Every time you hear me say, “Christ is risen,” I want you to shout with joy, “He is risen, indeed!” Let’s try it. “Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
Oh, very good. Very good. You should have heard the eight o’clock people. We had to do it just again and again until they got it. I think white, Protestant Christians in North America are the only people in the world who need permission to shout with joy in church. I want you to know, today you have permission. Now every time you hear, “Christ is risen,” from me, what are you going to say?
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
With joy! Now, I’m going to tell you, today, two Easter stories. The first Easter story is a familiar one. In fact, I read it to you just moments ago. We read one of those stories from one of the gospel writers every year. Someone was saying just the other day, “You know, I go to church every Easter Sunday. I don’t know why. I hear the same sermon every year.” Well, Yeah! I mean… That’s what we do! OK?
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
Good. Good. Good. Now in this story that the gospel writer John offers, remember, Jesus’ body has been laid in the tomb. Early Sunday morning Mary Magdalene goes to that gravesite. She finds that huge stone rolled away. She runs back to tell the others that Jesus’ body is missing. Peter and John, two of the disciples, race each other to the tomb. They see the burial cloth there, but no body. They leave the tomb. I guess they go back home or to where the other disciples are. It doesn’t say.
But Mary Magdalene, bless her heart, remains at the gravesite. In her profound grief, according to John, she weeps. Now those of us who have been at the graveside of a loved one, can certainly understand exactly what is going on. When we are by the graveside of a loved one, we sometimes don’t want to leave. And we do weep, and that is A-OK.
However, Mary does peer into this tomb, and surprise of surprises, according to John, she sees two angels. “Why are you crying?” they ask.
“Because they have taken my Lord away,” she said. “And I don’t know where they have put him.” Then Mary turns and sees Jesus standing there.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
But Mary doesn’t recognize him. Not yet, anyway. She thinks he’s the gardener.
So, Jesus asks, “Who are you looking for?”
She said, “Sir, I am looking for the body of Jesus. I don’t know where they have taken him.”
And Jesus says to her, “Mary!”
And she says, “Teacher.”
You see… We recognize the Risen Christ… We recognize the Spirit of the Risen Christ when he calls our name. Did you know that the Risen Christ knows your name? Your name! And so one of the ways we recognize the resurrected Christ is when he calls our name.
That, of course, is the story we all know – this first Easter story that John tells. There was a time when this story, when this season, was the peak of the whole year for a Church and culture, in which you and I are a part. For 40 days the people of God prepared in something called Lent. Faithful people fasted. They prayed. They performed acts of great mercy, and they followed Jesus in their Bibles as he journeyed towards Jerusalem and towards the cross. Some of the greatest music ever written was created for this season. The best worship that could be offered was often focused on Holy Week and Eastern Morn. Then, once Easter arrived, there was for the Church the 50 great days of Easter. We celebrated Easter for a long time. We were still going at it in mid-May. It was a huge celebration at one time.
In other places and other times there is evidence that the early Christians often on this day had a picnic. They did. They had a picnic. They would get a picnic together, and they would go to the graveyards. That’s where they had their picnic. They would go to the graveyards where their Christian friends and family were buried, and they would have a picnic.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
When they excavated the place where St. Peter is said to be buried in Rome, (and I think they did this within the last century) do you know what they found there? They found tons of eggshells. Isn’t that interesting? Eggshells! Piles and piles of eggshells, where Christians, for centuries, came to eat a special meal in thanks and praise to God for the promised gift of resurrected life from the dead.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
So I think, and don’t you think that Easter ought to be celebrated in some special way? Do you have special ways that you celebrate Easter in your family and with your friends? Maybe you have some plans today. Maybe you’ve already done some of those things. If not, I simply encourage you to institute some of those things for yourself, for your family, certainly for your children, and for your grandchildren, because “Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
Story number two…
Now here’s an Easter story that you may not have heard offered on Easter Sunday. You may have heard it some other time, but not on Easter Sunday. I’m going to read it from John 21.
Scripture
John 21: 4-14
Early the next morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize who he was. Jesus shouted, “Friends, have you caught anything?”
“No!” they answered.
So he told them, “Let your net down on the right side of your boat, and you will catch some fish.”
They did, and the net was so full of fish that they could not drag it up into the boat.
Jesus’ favorite disciple told Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon heard that it was the Lord, he put on the clothes that he had taken off while he was working. Then he jumped into the water and swam to shore. The boat was only about a hundred yards from shore. So the other disciples stayed in the boat and dragged in the net full of fish.
When the disciples got out of the boat, they saw some bread and a charcoal fire with fish on it. Jesus told his disciples, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” Simon Peter got back into the boat and dragged the net to shore. In it were one hundred fifty-three large fish, but still the net did not rip.
Jesus said, “Come and eat!” But none of the disciples dared ask who he was. They knew he was the Lord. Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave some of it to his disciples. He did the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
The Sermon Continues
Wow!
Now there’s another Easter story you probably don’t hear on this day. John, the gospel writer, tells us that very early one morning, maybe a week or two after Jesus had encountered Mary, the one I just read to you moments ago, he meets and encounters seven of his disciples on the beach.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
Now they are not at a graveyard. They are not at church. They are not at home. They’re not out having a party. They are at work. They’re at work! Just another Monday morning. They’re out there in their boats, tugging on their nets, trying to make a living by fishing. They’ve been at it all night. No fish. According to John, as the sun rises, they see Jesus, the resurrected Christ standing on the beach. He calls out to them, “How’s the fishing?”
They say, “Ugh! Ugly!” They’ve been skunked. They’ve fished all night, and not a fish. Must have been a high-pressure system coming through. That’s what I always say when I get skunked. High-pressure system – I’m sure that’s why they’re not biting.
Anyway… the Risen Christ tells his disciples to cast their net over on the right side of the boat. They do, and according to John, bingo, their nets are full of fish.
Isn’t it amazing what happens when we start following Jesus’ instructions? Just follow them. Just do it. It’s amazing. Things work.
John, the disciple, the first one to recognize Jesus says, “It’s the Lord!” Peter, out there naked, working, puts on his clothes, dives into the water, swims to shore. Jesus has prepared for them a nice little fire, right there on the beach. He’s thrown a few fish on the coals. He calls the disciples to gather around. He picks up some bread and passes it around to everybody, and says, “Let’s eat.”
Do you see that we recognize the Living Christ, not only when he calls our name, but also when we gather around his table? When we get together and allow him to feed us. When he feeds us!
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
Do you see what’s going on here? I think John wants us to see something very important. There is something to be said, folks, for that moment when you and I, like Mary Magdalene, come face to face with the shocking, unbelievable, mind-blowing, turn-your-world-upside-down truth of resurrection, when you finally get it!
There’s a moment to be recognized to get up early in the morning and maybe go up on a mountaintop or maybe down to the shoreline and watch those first rays of sun turn the world burning into a gold and shout…
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
There is something to be said for getting all dressed up, and piling into church, and hearing the great music, and seeing the beautiful colors and flowers, and singing great songs, and afterwards going with family and friends to feast somewhere. But there is also something to be said for those days when you and I, just like Peter and John and those other five disciples, are just out there doing what we do. We actually encounter the Spirit of the Living Christ right here, right now. That Spirit that takes us where we are, wherever that might be, and very gently leads us in very ordinary ways, and guides us, directs us, lures us into what we can become, if we are willing to go. Everyday! Not just Easter Sunday, but Monday, Tuesday, feeding our hungry souls and calling us every single day to do what is good, and what is right, and what is loving.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
That’s the testimony of Christians for 2000 years. In the ordinary, everyday world, that is where we actually encounter the Spirit of the Living Christ. Or more accurately, where the Spirit of the Living Christ actually encounters us.
The question today: Have you personally encountered… have you personally been encountered by that Spirit? Have you? It’s OK if you haven’t. It really is. It’s not a good-guys-bad-guys thing. It’s not those-who-are-in-and-those-who-are-out. The really important question is would you like to? Would you like to experience the Spirit of the Risen Christ? If you would, talk to some of us. We have some steps that we think you could take that might help put you in a place where that could happen for you. But that’s another story. What I want you to see is that encounter. It’s not your theories. It’s not what you think. It’s not what you don’t think about resurrection. I don’t really care what you think or don’t think about resurrection. There is so much more going on in this universe, folks, than any of us think or know. What really fascinates me, and what I think is really important, and I think John thinks is important, is that encounter with the Spirit of the Living Christ right here, right now. Not someday when we die, but right now. That Spirit is the Spirit that can transform, can change. We say it every Sunday in worship.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
Folks, the power of Easter Sunday is not just that the tomb was empty and some few people saw it. The power of Easter Sunday is that the Risen Christ came back, came back again and again and again. He came back again to people like you and like me so that you and I might live with him and for him now, today, and forever.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
So go home today and enjoy a holy meal with family and friends if you have that opportunity, because after Easter every meal is holy. Isn’t it? Every meal is holy. Enjoy that with your family and friends, and on Monday – tomorrow – go back to work, go back to school, whatever it is you spend your time doing, and be ready, because, according to John, that’s the place, that’s the time the Risen Christ is most likely to meet you, in the wonderfully, gloriously, ordinary days of your life. And it will make all the difference in your world today, and not only your world today, but your world to come.
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
“Christ is risen!”
Congregation: “He is risen, indeed!”
And we all say together… “Amen.”
Benediction
Risen Lord, New Life! Life Now! Life Eternal! Everyway and Everyday! Thank You! Amen.
