Northminster Presbyterian Church Merri Alexander Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017 Scripture: 31:1-6 and Matthew 28: 1-10 “The New Normal”

Prayer for Illumination Resurrecting God, who conquers death and opens the gates of everlasting life, speak to us now as the Scripture is read and proclaimed, that we may know your presence and be filled with your joy.

Our Old Testament lesson today comes from the prophet Jeremiah. This passage provides us a brief summary of the history of salvation for the Hebrew people. In this lesson we hear an affirmation of God’s ongoing love for God’s people and the promise that this divine love will be manifest in a new way.

Hear now this prophecy of divine love from Jeremiah 31:1-6 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of ; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit. For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.” This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Our lesson today comes from Matthew. In this portion of Matthew’s resurrection narrative he has two messages for his people. The first is: Christ is risen. The second message is: he will meet his disciples in . This promise serves to join together the risen Christ with the historical Jesus. The one raised is the one crucified. Jesus’ ministry was primarily in Galilee. He told his disciples to meet him there because he intended to continue his ministry in Galilee through his disciples.

Hear now the Word of God from Matthew 28:1-10 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The New Normal

“When local church leaders asked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to ease up on his work for civil rights, King responded in a sermon in Montgomery that is often called “Our God is Marching On.” In that sermon King mocked the desire of white moderates for a return to a more comfortable, placid world. He vowed defiantly, “No, we will not allow Alabama to return to normalcy.” A world in which racial segregation made sense had ended. Dr. King avoided normalcy, not as a political strategy but, rather, because of his Christian faith: after God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, forget ‘normal.’”1 The Sabbath has passed. It is the first day of the Jewish workweek. The weekend had been a violent, disturbing time—literally earthshaking. The disciples are despondent. They are afraid. Their leader has been killed like a common criminal. The city is in turmoil. The disciples hover together as they try to stay safe and to understand what has just happened. The sun begins to rise and ushers in what many expect is a regular back-to-normal workday. Two women leave the worried group of followers and return to the tomb to pay their last respects to their poor, dead, beloved friend and teacher, Jesus. When the women get to the tomb the earth shakes. An angel arrives, rolls back the stone, and sits down. Truthfully, you and I know the earthquake in this story serves as a metaphor to let the readers and hearers of the story know that this event, this crucifixion and , was an apocalyptic event with seismic consequences for everyone. Matthew is telling us that something has happened to alter the world order of things: an earthquake; an angel descending and rolling away a huge stone; military guards fainting from fear; blinding lightening; …a missing body. This is no simple story in the lives of a couple of women who venture out at dawn. Forget normal, this is a mystery that testifies to the in-breaking of God’s reign in the world! “The earth has shifted on it axis, a badly damaged creation is being restored, and God is at last having God’s way with sin and death—but not without shake, rattle, and roll.”2 You see, somewhere along the path to the cemetery these two women left one world and entered another. “Without even knowing it, they left the old world where hope is in constant danger, and might makes right, and peace has little chance, and the rich get richer, and people hatch murderous plots, and dead people stay dead, and they entered the startling and breathtaking world of resurrection and life! Jesus of Nazareth, who had been dead on Friday afternoon, was not in his tomb that morning, and the world”3—their world and our world—was forever changed…the new normal had been ushered in. Have you ever thought about the fact that the only evidence we have to the resurrection is the ? And, even more challenging is that the story of the empty tomb is the testimony of only a few women. Where are the admirers from the triumphal entry? Where are the disciples? Where are the hundreds who have been healed or fed with fish and bread on the hillside? Are there only two women left in the movement? The angel tells these two women three things, ‘Do not be afraid; Jesus has been raised from the dead; go and tell the disciples Jesus has been raised from the dead and to meet him in Galilee.’ “These two women are now the human link between this great event of God and the community of faith. They are the first ones sent by God with the good news: Christ is risen! They—the women— are the first apostles of the risen Christ.”4

1 Willimon, William, Feasting on the , Matthew Vol. 2, Westminster John Knox, p. 356 2 Willimon, William, Feasting on the Gospels, Matthew Vol. 2, Westminster John Knox, p. 358 3 Long, Tom, Matthew, Westminster Companion, p. 322 4 Long, Tom, Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion, p. 323 While the women are certainly important witnesses, this story is not about the women. This story is about God and God’s love for the world. The prophet Jeremiah reminded the people of God’s promise of a new covenant and that God’s everlasting love for the people would be manifest in new saving events just as God’s love had been evident to them in the past through God’s grace and care in the wilderness. God has not, does not, and will not abandon God’s people…even in the face of death. The story of God’s love for the people did not end at the empty tomb…it began anew! Here we see love in action: God taking on our battles with sin and death and doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Here we come face-to-face with the news there is a force loose in the world that is stronger than death…that causes Roman soldiers to faint…that is more powerful than our own betrayal. And, in this story we are called, along with the disciples, to meet Jesus in Galilee…Galilee: the place of hands-on ministry. …Galilee: the place where the risen Christ will gather his scattered and frightened disciples again. He will gather them around himself in forgiveness and give them a new sense of purpose…of mission. “Galilee is the place where Jesus’ ministry, which embodied the dawning reign of God, had been lived out. Galilee is where he called disciples, taught the crowds, healed the sick, appointed the Twelve, showed compassion on the suffering, offered the weary rest, spoke in parables, fed the multitudes, blessed the children, challenged a rich man, and taught about a Messiah who would suffer. The reason for gathering in Galilee is straightforward: the risen Christ is to be expected in the places of his once and future ministry, in all those places of grace-filled work, where healing, feeding, teaching, and even suffering are untaken in his company.”5 The ministry of the historical Jesus is now to be carried on in this newly birthed world order by the followers of the risen Christ and Galilee is place where God’s new normal emerges to spread across the face of the earth through the church. When hospitals and libraries are built to the glory of God, we are given a glimpse of God’s new normal. When the hungry are fed in soup kitchens with garden grown vegetables, we are given a glimpse of God’s new normal. When human trafficking is interrupted and women are given a safe place to live, we are given a glimpse of God’s new normal. When refugees are given sanctuary and are told “do not be afraid,” just like the angel told the women at the tomb, we are given a glimpse of God’s new normal. When the LGBTQ community is welcomed in the church, the marketplace, and in the workplace, we are given a glimpse of God’s new normal. Jesus’ resurrection declares there is hope beyond death and the death-dealing powers of the world do not have the final word in our lives. The resurrection ushers in God’s new normal and offers us hope in spite of the powerful forces that push against us. The victory that Christ has won over death is the guarantee of the final victory that us surely on the way at the end of time. Yes, Jesus Christ is risen! Evil is not stronger than God. Death does not and will not have the final word. God is at work in the world to bring reconciliation where there is hostility, freedom where there is slavery, life where there is death, and humanity where there is inhumanity. There is still work to be done, my friends. You and I have been called to join God in this work that is at the heart of God’s new normal. The truth of Easter is that the one who died on Good Friday was raised on Easter Sunday and the world changed forever! This Jesus, our risen Lord is marching on. He waiting for us in Galilee and has work for us to do!

Alleluia! Amen!

5 Murchison, Cameron, Feasting on the Word, Year A Volume 2, Westminster John Knox, p. 350