Jesus is Alive, Surprise!

Sermon Matthew 28:1-10 April 16, 2017 Easter Sunday

                                                Sermon: Jesus is Alive, Surprise!

A friend of mine (Jo Ann Staebler) said,

“The Easter gospel begins with great grief.”

At first I thought, “No way. Easter is a time of joy. There is no grief.” And then I realized, “Just a minute-of course it begins with great grief.’

The women were on their way to the tomb where Jesus lay. And these women were deep in grief. The women have gone into muscle memory mode. They are going through the motions of grief that all do when tragedy, death, destruction or trauma strike.

And it is also true that it is darkest before the dawn.

And our greatest fears rise up in those darkest hours.

Everyone was in shock and they did not know what to do without their Lord.

Their faith had been crushed, beaten, and dismantled by the death of the Savior. And they were very afraid of what would happen next.

In our journey of faith we too have faced times when everything we believed was crushed, beaten, and dismantled.

We have been in dark hours where we did not know what to do or what to say.

We too were functioning in muscle memory mode.

We too were going through the motions just to get through the day only to have to repeat those motions for more days than we could remember.

The gospel lesson of Easter pulls us into all the

grief and drama of the power of loss.

And then while we are still caught in the challenge of grief,

God astounds us with the BIG SURPRISE!

Jesus is not here.

He is ALIVE!

It is a surprise beyond our imagination.

It is a surprise that once again startles our faith!

He is alive shocks us as much as his death did.

It is too much to bear.

Now what do we do? He is ALIVE!

How do we act? He is ALIVE!

And how do we share this news? He is ALIVE!

Jesus said he would return again, but how many really believed it would happen like this?

He said it over and over again.

But how well did they listen?

I know my husband is always trying to get me to listen-to really hear what he is saying.

I know I’m told things for my own good over and over again-but I don’t seem to hear it-even when my life depends on it.

Jesus spoke in riddles. Some we can give the disciples a break-maybe not judge them so harshly. The parables of Jesus were hard to follow…

Remember the one when he was telling Nicodemus about being born again. We, like the disciples, scratched our heads wondering how this renewal of life can actually happen. We know our bodies don’t go through the birth process more than once. So how can new life be born in us?

Jesus was full of surprises alright.

He had a way of making food appear out of a couple slices of bread. He touched people and they were healed. He taught the leaders of the synagogue things about God no one had ever known. He walked on water.

He raised Lazarus from the dead…wow, he really was full of surprises.

He really did do things beyond anyone’s imagination.

He really did do miracles.

Perhaps, then his rising from the dead is true too.

And if this surprise is true then we can remember all the things he did.

We can talk about them to people.

Jesus didn’t do all these surprising things to entertain us.

He did them to transform us; to change us; to make us new.

Just as the caterpillar crawled into the tomb of its chrysalis and rose from it as a magnificent butterfly; so Jesus has risen-magnificent from the depths of his tomb. Transformed. And so he declares we are too.

You see, in dying, God is making sure there is rising!

For if God goes down to the dead and rises to new life;

rest assured God has made the way for us who die

                                              to rise to new life!

We can be assured and raised up with strength as we witness the surprise and wonder of the Resurrection;

of new life;

of a new creation!

This is our hope!

Believing in this surprise, this miracle of God, fills us with new life.

We rise up today filled with joy and wonder.

God makes all things new through the power of the resurrection born in us.

Jesus has risen to new life so we too rise to new life.

It is the miracle that grants us the power to change not only who we are but the world around us.

SO we wonder again,

what do we do?

How do we act?

What news do we share?

We go out from here today rejoicing in the strength and courage of the Savior born anew in us.

We go out from this place nourished and fed at Table so we can do the things Jesus did.

We can make the abundance of food appear from two slices of bread. We have the capacity to offer our extras to others in need.

We can share the abundance of our joy with our neighbors.

We can take the abundance of our knowledge and offer to help others learn and live. Just like those who volunteer with the literacy council, we offer the abundance of our knowledge through tutoring, mentoring, teaching.

We can take the abundance of our courage and stand in the gap for those who can’t.

The list goes on and on of what we can do.

And how can we share this great surprise?

Through sheer faith in believing. We may not understand it, and we may not be able to explain it, but, we can believe it by the evidence of God’s love within us. It is real because God’s love is real.

Friends let the warmth of love flow through you today.

Let the love you cannot imagine surprise you.

Let the power of the resurrection surprise rise up in you.

Go now and live. Go now and give.

Jesus is alive-surprise! Amen.

This is the good news which we have received, in which we stand, and by which we are saved, if we hold fast: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared first to the women, then to Peter, and to the twelve, and then to many faithful witnesses. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus Christ is the first and the last, the beginning and the end; he is our Lord and our God