Pastor S Notes for Easter Day, B Date: 4/5/15
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Pastor’s Notes for Easter Day, B Date: 4/5/15 Theme: Resurrection of our Lord Bible Ref’s:Acts 10:34-43 or Isa. 25:6-9; Ps. 118:1-2, 14-24; 1Cor. 15:1-11; Mk. 16:1-8 or Jn. 20:1-18.
Prayer of the Day O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Brief Sermon Outline: “Death Rolled Back” Focus Statement: With death rolled back & the hope that is in us, isn’t it time to hit the road running?
1. Something like terror & amazement seized me after I got off the phone with the St. Louis County Sheriff. It was a Friday night about 7:10pm when the call came in—he said there’d been an acci- dent—which for a pastor isn’t so strange a call to get. But when he said “Here’s your wife…” sud- denly an immense stone rolled onto my chest, a dreadful weight throwing off my pastoral bearing. 2. For the three women (Mary, Mary, Salome), an immense stone of death rolled into their lives, too, on a Friday night as their beloved rabbi was betrayed into the hands of sinners, tried & crucified. 3. Another pastor writes, “The reality of Jesus’ death weighs on them as they worry re: how they will get into the tomb to anoint his body. Who will roll away the stone?” Who will roll away the stone? 4. “Then things get real yet un-real. The stone is already rolled away, the tomb already open. Instead of a dead body, they find a young man in white.” “Do not be alarmed…” the voice tells the women. 5. To say I was alarmed when the sheriff said “Here’s your wife…” would be an understatement. But then there was the voice, her voice:“no head injuries, no life-threatening injuries, you need to meet us at St. Mary’s, it was a head-on collision.” My being in the cities had already put me at some dis- tance from those I loved, which now only heightened my sense of powerlessness/separation/fear. 6. In retrospect, it dawns on me how that immense stone of death that rolled so devastatingly into our family’s life that Friday night, rolled similarly into the lives of these women when, as Mark records, they witnessed the events of Jesus’ crucifixion at a distance (i.e. from a place of powerlessness, of separation, fear). The stone of death threw off their bearings…sealed off the tomb where their hopes had been laid. But then came the voice, “Do not be alarmed…no life-threatening injuries…!” 7. So I hit the road running, feeling the terror and amazement of a near-death experience that seized these women at the tomb: acutely aware of the powerlessness, separation and fear that death al- ways imposes, but amazed that somehow, inexplicably, death rolled back & hope resurrected. 8. Now the back-story: The immense stone of death had been rolling heavy across the ancient world for many, many years—millennia, in fact. It grieved the Lord to his heart. The wages of sin/evil had exacted a heavy toll on God’s creation, from humanity’s fall & spread of wickedness, to the Great Flood, the confusion of languages, stiff-necked Israelites incurably punished (their’s but a micro- history for the sins of the world mounting up global casualties of wrath, greed, pride, gluttony etc.). 9. This immense stone of death truly showed no partiality as it rolled its way across the earth destroy- ing everything in its path: destroying not just the beauties of field/forest, vale/mountain, quashing not only earth’s ability to regenerate & sustain life, but death had been crushing humanity’s God- ordained reason for being (to serve/preserve the earth, love all its creatures & give glory to God). 10. For many, many years, the immense stone of death had been rolling across God’s intentions for creation, & something (or Someone) had to give. Since the foundation of the world, God had in- tended creation to flourish in peace, to be the joy of God’s heart & source of jubilant praise. Cre- ation was to be the beautiful object of God’s love—yet all these hopes in the heart/wisdom of God were being crushed by the stone of death, shut up in a tomb, an immense stone rolled in front. 11. So the Logos of God’s Peace/Joy became flesh; the Logos of God’s Love/Wisdom became flesh; the Logos of all God’s Hopes/Dreams for the world became flesh in J.C. & dwelt among us full of grace & truth. That grace & truth according to St. John was life itself: “What has come into being in him was life, & the life was the light of all people…He was in the world, & the world came into be- ing thru him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, & his own people did not accept him.” (1:3b-4, 10-11) But at a distance there were witnesses, whose hope wouldn’t die. 12. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth w/ the H.S. & w/ power; he went about doing good & healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was w/ him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea & in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day & allowed him to appear not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as wit- nesses…” (Acts 10:38-41) As God dwelt in Jesus by grace thru faith, so Jesus now dwelt in them. 13. In retrospect, after death rolled back and Jesus was raised, it dawned on these witnesses that the powerlessness, separation & fear that always attended sin & death had also rolled back. All those forged nails of the cross—the pride, betrayal, envy, cowardice, cruelty & hatred—all seven deadly sins—the wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony—indeed every vice list ever accrued to humankind, all were rolled back on account of Christ crucified & victoriously raised from the dead. 14. But what’s more, these witnesses were left with a sure/certain hope that b/c Jesus now lived, they too could live in newness of life. Remember that old Easter hymn? “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living, just because he lives.” Every sacrament Jesus commanded, every everlasting covenant God declared—all were gloriously validated b/c death mysteriously rolled back &Jesus was raised. 15. Paul bore witness to the hope that was in him like this: “I have been crucified with Christ & it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me & gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:19b-20) 16. Just so, joined to Christ in the waters of baptism, nourished by his presence in the bread/wine of communion, the church is rooted & established in him to bear God’s redeeming love to the world. 17. Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses that death rolled back & Jesus is raised, isn’t it time we laid aside every deathly weight and the sin that clings so closely, and hit the road running to the praise & glory of God? (Heb. 12:1) With death rolled back & the hope that is in us, isn’t it time we reclaimed humanity’s reason & joy for being, joining Christ’s work in reconciling all things to God, fulfilling in Christ’s name the hopes & dreams God always intended for creation? Yes, it is time, for death is rolled back and Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Hymn of the Day: “Thine Is the Glory” (ELW #376, LBW #145)
Children’s Sermon
(Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24) 1 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever."
14 The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; 16 the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly." 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. 18 The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
(1Corinthians 15:1-11) Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them —though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
(Mark 16:1-8) When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Sermon Notes In the lectionary, Acts 10:34-43 appears most notably on Resurrection Sunday, and on that day is hardly the focal text. But this story’s contributions are not only independently profound, they are complementary to the message of Easter.
First, more directly than anywhere else in Luke-Acts (and arguably the New Testament), Acts 10:34- 35 declares that “in every nation” God shows no favoritism to particular peoples. For a church now overwhelmingly Gentile that holds dear an Easter story entirely about Jewish characters, this is no small detail. For our benefit Peter’s message proclaims: God does not play favorites.
Second, the passage declares “he is Lord of all,” using politically- and religiously-charged language (kyrios, “lord”) to claim Jesus’ lord-ship over earthly and supernatural forces. In this way Acts 10:34-43 makes explicit what the resurrection story only implies: Jesus is Lord over all things -- death, the devil, and all the forces that defy God.
Third, the message of Jesus is powerful. Just outside the bounds of our first reading, Peter’s message is interrupted by an unexpected guest: the Holy Spirit (vv. 44-45). Although the narrative of Acts complicates a formulaic relationship between the proclaimed message and the Spirit’s presence, the Spirit’s advent at several occasions (e.g., 2:37; 10:44) implies there is a mysterious power about the message of Jesus.
Whereas today’s Gospel reading states “he is risen,” our first reading declares boldly a message no less profound: “he is Lord of all.”
Commentary excerpt by Troy Troftgruben, Asst. Professor of New Testament at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa