First Reading: Acts 10:34-43
34Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Psalm 16
1Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” 2All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, upon those who are noble among the people. 3But those who run after other gods shall have their troubles multiplied. 4Their libations of blood I will not offer, nor take the names of their gods upon my lips. 5O Lord, you are my portion and my cup; it is you who uphold my lot. 6My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; indeed, I have a goodly heritage. 7I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night. 8I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand I shall not fall. 9My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. 10For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the Pit. 11You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Gospel: Matthew 28:1-10
1Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
I Believe in the Resurrection
In the second Article of the Creed we affirm, “On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” We recite this part of the Nicene Creed during festival Sundays; it’s a statement of belief that the church proclaims and is a foundational statement for the entire Christian faith. Yet, how many people actually believe that confession? Or, during our Communion Rite, we will proclaim, Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. And at the beginning of our service today, we opened with the proclamation, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Hallelujah!” Do we really believe these words? If so, in what way does it affect your life?
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. During his day, he was a political powerhouse in the USSR. As a Russian Communist leader, he took part in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which, by the way, means truth), and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. The story is told about a journey he made from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd, he took aim at Christianity hurling insults, arguments, and what he considered to be proof against it. He railed on for more than an hour.
At the end of his speech, he looked out at what he thought was the smoldering ashes of men’s faith and asked, “are there any questions?” Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd, first to the left then to the right. Finally, he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: “CHRIST IS RISEN!” En masse the crowd stood as one and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”
This morning, I once again proclaim, CHRIST IS RISEN! Of this fact, I am absolutely convinced! My faith assures me that Christ died, was buried, and on the third day, by the power of God our Father, was raised from the dead. I also believe, with my whole being, that He not only conquered satan, sin, and death, He also returned to the Father and even now sits at His right hand in glory. And at the right time, He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. These are the statements of faith we make each week and the faith statements that shape my life.
Today is Easter, it’s resurrection Sunday. Today we proclaim the hope that is the foundation of our faith, a hope that defines, or should define, who we are as children of God. It’s a faith that should not only define who we are, but how we live. And the question we need to be able to answer is, “how do we know that the resurrection is real? How do you know that it’s really valid?” This is the question that the world is asking and a question we need to be prepared to answer.
First, we believe in resurrection because somebody told us about it. To this some might reply, how do you know what you’ve been told is reliable? Well, the truth is, most of what we know is simply because somebody told us about it. For example, how do you know that Columbus discovered America in 1492. Were you there? No, but there were people there who witnessed and wrote about it and that’s how we know about the discovery of America. Or, how do you personally know that a man has walked on the moon? I certainly wasn’t there to greet Neil Armstrong when he, “took one small step for mankind.” We can certainly argue that we know because we saw it on TV. Yet, there are still some today who say it was all an elaborate hoax done in a Hollywood studio.
These same people may also argue that the International Space Station is a ruse as well. That may sound absurd, but since I have not personally been to the Space station, I cannot prove or disprove it either way. In the end, we must accept by faith that a man did walk on the moon and that as we sit here this morning there are 10 people in space: 7 aboard the International Space station and 3 aboard the Chinese Tiangong space station. Because of what I’m told, I believe that men have walked on the moon, and that people are right now living in space simply because a lot of people have told me about it.
Now consider this, we have far more historical proof of the resurrection than we do thousands of pieces of information which we routinely accept as fact every single day. If we’re going to take a stand on something, then why not the historic testimony of countless people throughout the ages who have declared the validity of the resurrection? In our gospel reading for this morning, we have witnesses who were at the tomb on Easter morning.
When Mary went to the tomb on Easter morning, she did so with a heavy heart. Her Master, her teacher, and her friend, had been crucified, she watched Him die, and she saw where He was buried. All of life, at that point, was in doubt. She stood at the entrance to that tomb weeping. And then she feels the earthquake. She sees the angel roll away the stone and she meets the resurrected Jesus as she obeys the angel and goes to tell the disciples that He is risen. And at the sight of Jesus, she falls to His feet and worshiped Him. Can you imagine the look in her eyes when she sees Him?
In St. John’s gospel we read what Jesus tells Mary. It’s the job description for the church. Jesus tells her: “Go to my brothers and tell them” (20:17). Today, the reason I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is because someone told me about it. I understand that there are some who struggle with the fact that they cannot prove that, when Mary told the Disciples “I have seen the Lord,” she spoke the truth. But the truth is, until Jesus returns, we will never have more empirical proof than the testimony of those first century witnesses. The resurrection today cannot be absolutely proven, but it cannot be disproved either. What we know is what people have told us about it.
The second reason I believe in the resurrection is that it has stood the test of time. A lot of things start off good but soon fizzle out. I’ll never forget the things that Michael Jordan accomplished as a member of the Chicago Bulls; some are simply impossible to describe. He was the kind of talent that sports journalist love to write about. During the nineties he eclipsed all other athletes. Then came Tiger Woods in 2000. What Woods did in winning four Major titles in a row in 2000-2001 is arguably the greatest athletic accomplishment of our time. However, athletes, singers, and actors are catapulted into the national spotlight, but their star soon fades, either because our memories of them fade, or they tarnish their own reputation through their own personal failings. Fame fades and new fads and fashions emerge. This is understood in business and in the music industry.
The music industry’s philosophy is, “You’re only as good as your last hit record.” Songs come and go so fast we hardly have time to learn them, but consider the hymn Amazing Grace; that’s a hymn that has stood the test of time. John Newton, the British slave trader, turned Christin, renounced the slave trade and wrote this great hymn: Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see. Our great grandparents sang that hymn, and long after you and I are gone, people will still be singing that song. Why? It’s the real thing and it has stood the test of time.
The resurrection is a fact precisely because it has stood the test of time. It isn’t something that is here today and gone tomorrow. As long as Jesus delays His return, there will be people talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This brings me to the third reason I believe in the resurrection, because I have experienced it. The first century disciples didn’t believe in the resurrection because they could explain it; they believed in the resurrection because they had experienced it.
Each time we celebrate Holy Communion we invite people to come up to the alter rail and those who are able kneel. After they have received, they rise. Why do we do that? Some will say, it’s obvious why we do that. We get up because there are others waiting to take communion so those who have communed must move. There’s a little more to it than that. Kneeling is a symbol of our participation in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. As we kneel, we are descending unto death, and when we stand, we are experiencing the resurrection of new life in Christ. Yet, as beautiful a sentiment and symbol as that is, there must be more to resurrection than that.
The best proof of the resurrection isn’t in what the witnesses said that they saw, but in how they responded to what they saw. A frightened band of disciples huddled together in a house with the door barred. That’s the scene before resurrection. A powerful band of mighty witnesses thrust out into the world, that’s the scene post-resurrection. One estimate is that by the end of the first century there were over a half million people under the Christian banner. That’s the power of resurrection.
It’s hard to disregard the testimony of witnesses who are ready to die for their beliefs. Eventually, of course, almost every one of the disciples met a violent death. People may lie to perpetuate a myth, but people aren’t going to die to perpetuate what they know to be false. The Apostles weren’t individuals with a death wish. They knew what they had seen. They believed in it so passionately that they were willing to put their lives on the line in their efforts to tell the story to others. They were resurrection people.
The Apostle Paul wrote: “I have died to sin and have been raised with him” (Romans 6:4). This is what I’m talking about. The resurrection is an historical event, but it must become more than that to us. It’s different from the Battle of Waterloo and man’s landing on the moon. The resurrection is an ongoing event, an event shared by every generation. More than that, it’s an event we’re invited to participate in. We must become resurrection people. When we become resurrection people, then we will each echo the words of St. Paul to the Philippians: “All I care to know is Christ, and the power of his resurrection” (3:10).
There’s a saying: The only difference between a grave and a rut is the dimensions. That’s a folksy way of saying the resurrection isn’t just for the afterlife; it’s also for this life here and now. Don’t get in a rut and miss the impact of the resurrection. It’s power for the living of these days. We can sing the great hymns of Easter, we can hear again the familiar stories of scripture, we can enjoy the lilies, and we can join in on the Halleluiah chorus. Easter can be experienced in these ways. But the real power of Easter is the way that people’s lives are moved from death to life, from sealed tomb to open doorway, from despair to hope, from the old ways to new opportunities. That’s Easter. That is the resurrection. I believe in the resurrection because I have seen the God of resurrection at work.
I have seen the risen Christ raise people from the death of despair to the joy of new life. Let me share a true story that happened some time ago: A young boy’s father died in a car wreck when he was twelve years old. He read it in the newspaper before anyone got word to him to tell him about it. When he saw that picture of the family car smashed up on the front page of the newspaper… and read that his dad had died in that accident, he was immediately and painfully thrust into the shocked numbness of deep grief.
Strangely, one of his very first feelings were those of guilt. He had remembered how some months before at a family picnic he was showing off with a baseball. At one point he became careless and threw wildly; it hit his dad in the hand and broke his thumb. The young boy felt horrible. He said to himself, “What a terrible son I am! I’m the cause of my dad’s pain.” It seemed that was all he could remember after his father’s death—the pain he caused his dad. Finally, the young boy went to see his pastor and told him about the deep feelings of guilt and about breaking his dad’s thumb.
The young boy said: I’ll never forget how my pastor handled that. He came around the desk with tears in his eyes. He sat down across from me and said, “Jim, listen to me. If your dad could come back to life for five minutes and he knew you were worried about that, what would he say to you?” “He would tell me to quit worrying about that,” Jim said. “Well, all right,” the minister said, “then you quit worrying about that right now.” And he did. The point the minister was making was, “You are forgiven. Accept the forgiveness… and make a new start with your life.”
The young boy did make a new start. And many years later, he became the pastor of a large church in Houston. The young Boy? James W. Moore, the author of over 30 books on Christian living. That’s Easter. The Risen Lord comes back to life… and assures the disciples that they are forgiven. Peter denied his Lord three times. Thomas doubted. All the disciples forsake Him. But Christ came back, forgave them, resurrected them. He came back to share with them, and He comes today, this morning, to share with all of us the joy, the encouragement, and the forgiveness of Easter.
Why do I believe in resurrection? First, I believe because somebody told me about it. Second, I believe because the account to the resurrection has stood the test of time. Finally, and of utmost importance, I believe in the resurrection because I have seen it in the life of others and I have experienced it myself. This is why I can stand here this morning and boldly proclaim: Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah!
Amen