Looking Into The Tomb
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
When the grief-stricken women discover the empty tomb on Easter morning, it is so unexpected and beyond their comprehension that it’s extremely difficult for them to understand exactly what it is they’re experiencing. And when they tell the disciples about what they’ve seen, the disciples find it equally difficult to wrap their minds around this turn of events -- they run to the tomb to see for themselves this incredible new reality. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that we find ourselves in an analogous situation in our contemporary world, with all too many living in the midst of unbearable sadness and hopelessness. Yet like the women arriving at the empty tomb, Mary notes that God is breaking through the barriers of our sorrow-laden world -- and considers whether we are able to see the unexpected new things that God is doing among us... things that are so unexpected that they can be difficult for us to grasp.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on Matthew’s account of the women discovering the empty tomb, and the angel’s command for them to go tell the disciples what they have seen. This imperative echoes the theme of witnessing in the Acts text, in which Peter says: “We are witnesses to all that [Jesus] did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear.” As Chris points out, we have a solemn responsibility to share with others news of Christ’s resurrection, and of the rebirth we have experienced by faith and grace -- even if doing so is a scary prospect that makes us uncomfortable. Again, in the words of Peter: “[Jesus] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.”
Looking into the Tomb
by Mary Austin
Matthew 28:1-10; John 20:1-18
The women go to Jesus’ burial place expecting to find... well, who knows? Matthew’s version of the story doesn’t say they’re going to anoint the body, and there are no handy spices in his telling of the story. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has already been anointed for burial by the unnamed woman (Matthew 26:6-13). The story says only that the women are going to see the tomb. Perhaps they just want to know where it is, or perhaps they plan to sit outside it and mourn. They aren’t expecting anything more than that.
There’s no category in their minds for a teacher who has risen from death back to life. They don’t speak of any hope that Jesus will be alive. They’re expecting death and grief, more of what they’ve already experienced. They are prepared for what they know.
We too are accustomed to death and grief. Years of war in Syria, recent church bombings in Egypt, and countries in Europe flooded with desperate migrants remind us every day of the limits of human power, and the reach of death and despair into our lives. We look into a modern version of the tomb each time we read the news or pray for neighbors around the world.
Easter begs the question of whether we have room in our minds for more than that. Can we see more than loss and suffering? Is there space within us for something more than ever-present, overly familiar sorrow? We are prepared for what we know. Are we ready for God to do more than that?
In the News
In Syria, a barrage of Tomahawk missiles from the United States followed a chemical weapons attack last week by the Assad regime on its own citizens. The show of force from the U.S. apparently did not deter further violence, and “Saturday brought fresh reminders that a single U.S. attack would hardly dissuade Assad from his brutal campaign to crush a six-year rebellion that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Residents in the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun, where at least 86 people had been killed in the sarin attack, reported that Syrian warplanes had returned and dropped new conventional bombs.” The people of Syria are caught in a desperate squeeze, with violence on all sides. “Senior administration officials have acknowledged that the targeted operation did not eliminate Assad’s ability to carry out chemical attacks. And Trump, who has attempted to enact a ban on Syrians and those in five other majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States, has not indicated that he is willing to accept more Syrians who are fleeing violence.”
Following the missile attacks, Jon Finer and Becca Heller wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that if we think we’ve added to Syria’s stability, we’re wrong. In fact, they argue, “images of children foaming at the mouth and video of 59 Tomahawk missiles launching from the decks of American warships will have the opposite effect -- causing more Syrians to flee, discouraging returns, and exacerbating what is already the gravest humanitarian crisis on the planet.” Refusing to admit refugees is both incongruous and immoral, they say. Their organization, the International Refugee Assistance Project, works to resettle people who are accustomed to looking into the tomb in search of new life.
One such family in their care is “a family of four Syrian refugees currently in Jordan that our organization is trying to help. The father is a survivor of torture; his two sons are of Syrian draft age and both suffer from extreme anxiety and seizures. They lived a simple lifestyle in Homs -- the father was a shopkeeper -- until the day their house was bombed, causing one of the sons to lose his hearing. Knowing Syria was no longer safe, they fled to Jordan in 2013.”
This family was close to an experience of resurrection when U.S. policy changed. “The family had completed their resettlement interviews and medical checks, and were fully approved for refugee resettlement in the United States when President Trump signed his first executive order in January, putting their resettlement in limbo. Mr. Trump’s revised order places a 120-day freeze on all refugee admissions and slashes the overall refugee resettlement number to 50,000, from 110,000. Departures have ground almost to a halt. The family has no idea what is going to happen to them or where they can go, and they are extremely anxious about their future.”
Palm Sunday brought bombs to Coptic churches in Egypt, killing and injuring worshipers in two different cities. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the carnage. “It was the single deadliest day for Christians in decades and the worst since a bombing at a Cairo church in December killed 30 people.” Several Muslim police officers were also killed in the bombings. In the coming days, there will be plenty of funerals and tombs, and not much hope.
And in San Bernardino, California -- the same locale that experienced a terror attack in December 2015 -- funeral processions will be starting soon as the week began with this year’s 12th school shooting. The incident resulted in the deaths of a teacher and her estranged husband, plus a student, all of whom were killed in front of a classroom full of other students. We are accustomed to death, and school and workplace shootings no longer shock us. Violent death is deeply familiar. We know the experience of the tomb all too well in our own lives.
Resurrection is more elusive, harder to take in, and even more difficult to believe. The more we experience death and sorrow, the more unexpected resurrection feels. And yet, as Christians, we base all of our hope on this most unlikely event: an empty tomb and a risen redeemer. Death and destruction are familiar, but resurrection is so startling that we forget to look for it.
In the Scriptures
For the women at the tomb, coming as soon as they can after the end of the Jewish sabbath, their hope doesn’t extend beyond honoring the dead. They expect only the familiar, and instead are greeted by things completely outside of everyday experience. The arrival of an angel in a story always signals the presence of God’s plans, and the earthquake is certainly an attention-getter. It takes both an earthquake and an angel to jolt the women out of their expectations and into the knowledge that something dramatically different is happening here. The guards tremble with fear and become “like dead men.” Life and death are reversed; the once dead Jesus is alive, and the living guards are like the dead in their terror.
“Do not be afraid,” the angel says. One has to wonder if this was reassuring at all, but there’s no time to be afraid -- the women have a job to do. They’re allowed to see where Jesus has been, to see that he’s no longer there, and then they have to be off to share the news that Jesus has been raised from death and is going back to Galilee. He’s going back to where it all began.
The presence of an angel in the gospels is usually to get someone to do something that they normally wouldn’t want to do. It takes an angel to persuade Mary that she will bear a child for God’s purposes, and to convince Joseph to marry her anyway. The angel here nudges the women out of their mourning and into their new work as evangelists.
Just before this, Pilate and the authorities have made the tomb of Jesus as secure as they know how to make it, rolling a huge stone over the entrance. In a reminder that the plans of God are greater than any human power, God’s angel comes, rolls away the stone, and then sits on it as a final display of strength. The guards at the tomb are reminded who really holds the power.
When Jesus himself shows up, the earthquake and the angel have already prepared the women to experience the extraordinary. They’re ready to see him, having been shocked out of all of their expectations for the day. Everything they knew to anticipate has been upended, and the things they never imagined have taken place. The earthquake turns out to be the least of the upheavals on this miraculous morning.
In the Sermon
It takes an earthquake and an angel to announce the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Two forces of extraordinary power get the women’s attention and let them know that this is no ordinary day. Their minds are spirits are jolted out of all the usual thoughts and expectations, and then they’re ready for this unexpected news. What does it take for God to get our attention, and move us out of the ordinary into the miraculous? The sermon might look at how we stop thinking in our usual, everyday patterns and start to think as resurrection people. How do we make the mental, spiritual, and vocational shift that the women made?
Or the sermon might look at the people who succeed in looking not into tombs and places of death, but instead make possible places of resurrection. Some churches are embracing a resurrection spirit by offering support, or even physical sanctuary, to immigrants in need. As NPR reported, “hundreds of churches... have stepped up in the last few months to say that they’re going to provide some kind of protection to immigrants living in the country illegally. In a lot of cases, that’s just supporting them in ways like food or accompanying them to meetings that they have with immigration and customs enforcement where they feel they may be deported. In other instances, it’s actually inviting immigrants to live in the four walls of the congregation as a way to protect them from immigration agents.” There are different ways to offer support to people in distress, and to seek the spirit of new life for people who know the sorrow of the tomb.
Or the sermon might look at how we organize our lives to follow the example of the women, who are told to go and share this astonishing news. Both the angel and Jesus tell them “do not be afraid,” and yet we are often afraid to share God’s good news in our own lives. Without being obnoxious bores, or maybe without even saying a word, how do we follow the instruction given on this first Easter day? How do we use our lives to pass on the gift of new life?
The sermon might also look at the question of fear. The first casualty of resurrection living is fear, and yet it’s a hard gift to receive. We keep falling back into fear, and there is a lot to be afraid of, it seems. The sermon might look at how we let fear shape our lives, even though Jesus’ first Easter words are “do not be afraid.” This is an Easter gift, a dramatic part of our new lives in the risen Christ, but it’s hard to remember it through the year.
Like the women in this story, we know the experience of coming to the tomb. We know tombs of death and grief, of prejudice and injustice, of despair and illness. The tomb casts its shadow over all of our lives. But on Easter, when we arrive at the tomb, nothing is the way we expect. Everything is changed. God is waiting to get our attention and announce that the world is now different, and we are invited to be different too. There is a gift here that we never expected and never even knew to look for.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
SECOND THOUGHTS
Witnesses to Resurrection
by Chris Keating
Matthew 28:1-10
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection seems to have spared no expense. It’s a full-scale pageant, complete with budget-busting special effects, a rock-splitting earthquake, dazzling angels, and terrified guards -- not to mention the two amazed yet awestruck women who are suddenly commissioned to begin proclaiming the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.
Sunday morning at the tomb is no quiet affair, as Matthew’s addition of a “great earthquake” and powerful Roman guards knocking their knees in fear demonstrates. It’s a mighty sunrise pageant that includes angels who have been absent from Matthew’s gospel since the temptation narratives. The rock-shattering force provides the soundtrack to the angel’s announcement: “Do not be afraid.”
Now, of course, we know that’s what all angels say -- but in this narrative the assurance serves to tee up the messenger’s primary task. “I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified,” the angel continues. “He is not here; for he has been raised.” The wide-eyed women are invited to look into the tomb. What happens next, however, is stunning.
They’re told to start spreading the word.
In other words, Mary Magdalene and the mysteriously-named “other” Mary are commissioned to be witnesses. They are sent by God, equipped to tell the story of what they have heard and seen. They are called to repeat the deep hope of their morning encounter: “He is not here.” But Matthew’s ending is only a beginning, as the women are given the critical task of bearing the news of resurrection to the rest of the disciples.
Off they go, filled with excitement and overwhelming, heart-pounding joy.
Witnessing, at least in most mainline congregations, generally does not induce moods of elation. Fear, yes; dry mouth, certainly. Most of those who will rise from their tombs on Easter Sunday to participate in our worship would pass on the assignment given to the women. They’d be perfectly happy to let someone else tell the story. In fact, it’s likely more people could identify with the stupefied guards than with the two Marys. Given the chance, we’d rather stay mum than rush around to tell our closest friends about Jesus’ rising.
Heart-pounding joy is generally not the way witnesses tell their stories. Note, for example, the numbers of undocumented persons who are increasingly afraid to report crimes or testify in court. Law enforcement is noticing a trend of decreasing reporting of crime by undocumented persons in the wake of the Trump administration’s increased deportation priorities. Afraid that they could be detained or deported, growing numbers of undocumented persons are remaining silent.
“Sadly, it appears that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s] aggressive tactics, including arresting people at courthouses, are having a chilling effect,” said Michael Kaufman, a Southern California representative of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The result is that more victims will remain in the shadows and more immigrants will be vulnerable to abuse.”
In Los Angeles, sexual assault reports are down 10% from last year among Hispanics. Charlie Beck, the city’s police chief, noted that other ethnic groups do not show such disparities. “Imagine a young woman, imagine your daughter, your sister, your mother... not reporting a sexual assault, because they are afraid that their family will be torn apart,” Beck said. In El Paso, Texas, officials report a similar phenomenon. Victims come forward, only to retreat out of fear of being deported.
Sometimes witnesses remain silent out of fear of personal reprisal. In 1985, New York mob boss Paul Castellano was gunned down outside a Manhattan steakhouse. The killing, orchestrated by a then emerging mobster named John Gotti, was a rare example of a Mafia hit on one of its own. Jeffrey Davis, who worked in an office near the restaurant, saw the whole thing -- but remained quiet for years.
Years later Davis took the witness stand, testifying in federal court against one of Gotti’s close associates. For many years, however, Davis said he was afraid to tell what he had seen. For good reason: Gotti, who succeeded Castellano as head of the Gambino crime family, was known to be especially brutal in his wielding of power.
The women at the tomb might have been scared, but they were moved to tell the truth. Other witnesses don’t. Even under oath, many skip telling the truth -- perhaps out of fear of reprisal, or even in hopes of avoiding jail. Police officers lie to get a conviction, or defendants lie to get an acquittal. Either way it’s called “testilying,” and it often results in unjust convictions.
Not surprisingly, it is a practice so widespread that prosecutors say perjury investigations are generally unworkable. “If we attempted to prosecute every witness that perjures themselves,” said Jennifer Creed Selber, formerly of the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, “it would be a completely unworkable and impossible situation.”
That’s what makes the women’s act of witnessing so remarkable. Easter is the prime example of an unworkable and impossible situation. It is perhaps the boldest example of what happens when witnesses stick to their stories. The women tell the story of what God has done: Jesus is on the move, headed back to the place where he exorcised demons and spoke with authority. He’s headed to Galilee, and the church had better get moving too.
They are witnesses to the amazing story of how God overturned the tables on death, and they are the only ones who can tell that story. They have seen it with their own eyes, and now it is time to testify that God will not remain sidelined.
There’s a curious documentary available for streaming on Netflix, which in its own way also witnesses to the power of the stories we carry within us. Mortified Nation relates the improbable success of the Mortified project, which celebrates the stories adults tell about themselves as teenagers.
Mortified participants share their stories using the words of their own teenaged diaries and journals. If you’re starting to sweat, it gets worse: participants stand on a stage in front of strangers and share their angst-ridden secrets of puberty, body image, sexuality, and rebellion. It began with the discovery of an unsent teenage love letter, and has become a nationwide movement.
Those selected to participate read their diaries, share their secrets. They are, in essence, telling the truth on themselves. They’re also witnesses to a greater truth few of us could ever imagine telling about ourselves: we’ve all got secrets.
It’s funny, but also cringeworthy. It’s raw, and riveting, and often earthy. Yet this is the essence of what it means to tell the truth about ourselves. Testimony invites resurrection into our lives, so that healing can take place.
At the end of each Mortified show, all the participants gather on stage to recite what could be called the movement’s credo: “We are all freaks. We are fragile. But we all survived.”
One can almost imagine the two Marys sharing a laugh and saying something similar late on Easter evening. After all they had witnessed, they deserved a good laugh.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 10:34-43
A recent piece in the New York Times followed the life of 22-year-old Bahir Mohammad and his conversion from Islam to Christianity. After witnessing many atrocities committed by Muslims, the final turning point for Mohammad was when he witnessed a bulldozer used as an execution device for a long line of prisoners. Mohammad found Christianity to be more generous than Islam. Mohammad also found that reading the Bible made him calmer than reading the Quran. Mohammad said, “There is a big gap between the god I used to worship and the one I worship now.”
Application: In Acts we are called to be witnesses.
*****
Acts 10:34-43
The war on Christmas has now advanced to also being a war on Easter. England’s Cadbury candies has sponsored the “Easter Egg Trail,” an event that sends hundreds of thousands of children hunting for Easter eggs on historic properties across the country. The name has now been changed to “Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt”; the word “Easter” no longer appears. The company was founded in 1824 by John Cadbury, a Quaker. Though as a Quaker Cadbury did not participate in Easter celebrations, he always recognized the importance of the event. John Cadbury did provide housing, schools, and heath care for all of his employees. Archbishop John Sentamu said, regarding John Cadbury: “It is obvious for him Jesus and justice were two sides of the same coin.” Peter York, a cultural commentator, said the reason for the Cadbury company’s decision is a desire to sell more candy beyond a Christian audience.
Application: It is important that we share the message and meaning of Easter.
*****
Acts 10:34-43
India regards the cow as sacred. This is because in Hinduism the cow symbolizes the earth, the nourisher, the ever-giving undemanding provider. The country’s state of Gujarat has now elevated the sentence for killing a cow to life in prison.
Application: We can rejoice in the Christian message that Jesus is the true giver of life.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Pope Francis has been criticized for advocating giving to beggars. The pope outlined all of the reasons that have been presented to him for not taking this position; but the pope said that one overriding mandate applies: “Help is always right.”
Application: We are instructed to always focus on the heavenly, not the earthly.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
William Powell, known for writing The Anarchist Cookbook, recently died. As an angry teenager who was bullied and sexually abused, and who protested the Vietnam War, he spent months in the New York Public Library in 1969 researching how to kill people. He studied military manuals and other similar books, then compiled this information with drawings and explanations for The Anarchist Cookbook. The book has sold more than two million copies in addition to being downloaded off the internet. In his later years, Powell apologized for writing the book -- an apology that was especially necessary when it was learned that his work was used by Thomas Spinks, Timothy McVeigh, Eric Harris, and Jared Loughner, all mass murderers. Charlie Siskel, the director of a documentary on Powell, said in an interview: “What interested me was: How do you go through 40 years of your life with his dark chapter in the background? How does one sleep at night or get through the day?”
Application: We are instructed to always focus on the heavenly, not the earthly.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Francine Hughes recently died. She was physically and sexually abused by her husband James for 13 years, abuse which started a few weeks after Francine dropped out of school in the tenth grade to marry James, three years her senior and also a high school dropout. Eventually, unable to endure the abuse any longer, on March 9, 1977, she set James’ bed on fire while he slept. Francine then drove to the Manson, Michigan, police station and surrendered herself. At her murder trial, the jury founded her not guilty due to temporary insanity -- giving rise to the term “burning-bed syndrome.” Francine’s life story was made into a popular television movie starring Farrah Fawcett. Francine said of her abuse: “For a long time I took it because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. I thought, ‘What did I do wrong?’ Then you lose your self-esteem.”
Application: We are told to be givers of life, not takers.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Carol Burnett was struggling financially to remain at UCLA as a drama student. Having been raised in a family that was sustained by welfare checks, all Carol knew was poverty. Even though she was able to remain in college on a day to day basis, Carol did not believe her dream of going to New York would ever be realized. One day a professor invited Carol and eight of her classmates to be his evening dinner guests. Carol and a friend acted out a comedy scene from Annie Get Your Gun. After the performance, a gentleman came to Carol and expressed his admiration for her talent. He asked Carol what she intended to do with her life. Carol shared her dream of acting on Broadway. The man then asked what kept Carol from following her dream. A lack of money, she simply replied. The gentleman then offered Carol enough money to travel to New York and establish her stage career. Before Carol could accept the money, her benefactor outlined three rules to which she must adhere: First, if Carol became a success, she was to pay back the loan within five years, without interest. Second, she was never to reveal the identity of her patron. Third, she was to pass the kindness along by helping someone else in a similar circumstance. Carol accepted the offer, established her career in the theater, and remained true to her promise -- promoting many other struggling young actors.
Application: We are to do all we can to help others.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Noreen Fraser recently died after a 16-year battle against breast cancer. Upon learning of her diagnosis Fraser said, “I have made cancer my business.” As a producer of Entertainment Tonight, ABC’s Home Show, and The Richard Simmons Show, she was able to use television as a part of her effort to raise cancer awareness and funds for research. In 2008 ABC, NBC, and CBS devoted a single hour for a simultaneous broadcast to raise money for cancer research, with the shows hosted by Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charles Gibson. Part of the reason Fraser made cancer her business was because “I’m frustrated by the pace of new therapies to save my life and other people’s lives.”
Application: We are to do all we can to help others.
*****
Matthew 28:1-10
A recent installment of the New York Times “Wealth Matters” column discussed how John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company, gave away an estimated $2 billion in his lifetime. His children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews have continued to be generous in their philanthropic giving. But Mr. Rockefeller also transmitted the family values of humility, responsibility, and engagement. These are values that his heirs continue to practice. The Times noted that while we don’t have the money of the Rockefellers, “one of the top lessons is a sense of gratitude.”
Application: The Easter message is one of gratitude.
*****
Matthew 28:1-10
Russia is making it difficult for organizations that the government considers “extremist,” even disbanding some of them. One of the organizations that is being persecuted is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The most significant reason for the targeting of the religious sect and its members is because they practice pacifism, and pacifism is considered as a threat to the state. The 170,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia have been ordered to stop spreading “extremist texts.”
Application: With the resurrection, Christians began to experience and fear persecution from the Romans.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Stories of Resurrection
Over the Wall
James Shuter produces new exhibitions for Museums Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia. He readily admits that his point of view tends toward the retrospective, toward history and the past, and his grasp of modern-day geopolitical events is usually lacking.
For example: On the evening of November 9, 1989, Shuter was staying with some German friends in the city of Berlin. A program on the television was suddenly interrupted at about 7:20 p.m. with a news bulletin, but his grasp of German wasn’t good enough for him to follow what was being said. His German friends began to shout “The wall! The wall!” in German and they ran outside, so he followed. In just a few minutes they were at Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing point in the Berlin Wall.
People were shouting and cheering and climbing on the wall, shouting and singing. Others were hitting the wall with hammers and shovels and stones, and collecting the pieces that fell off. Shuter and his friends climbed atop the wall and saw, beyond the no-man’s-land, people crowded along the East German side shouting and cheering as well. Someone on the wall explained to him that at 7:17 p.m. it was announced that all the gates had been opened and people were now free to move freely back and forth between East and West Germany.
But no one was moving to cross from east to west, and the crowd on the eastern side was getting bigger and bigger and louder and louder.
All of a sudden a young man on the east side dashed into the no-man’s-land and began running toward the west. A group of East German guards dashed after him and caught up to him, surrounding him. The West German guards brought their rifles to bear upon the East German guards -- and everything became deathly quiet.
After a moment that seemed like an eternity, an officer from the East German side came to the middle, talked with the guards surrounding the man, and they parted as he went to the man and took him by the hand and led him to the wall. There he stooped and made a stirrup with his cupped hands, the man stepped into it, and the officer lifted him to where the people on top of the wall could receive him and lift him up to join them.
An appropriate story of resurrection for Easter morning.
*****
Sergio Garcia Wins the Masters
Golfer Sergio García turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest score by an amateur in the 1999 Masters tournament. His first title on the European Tour came in his sixth start as a professional in July 1999, at the Irish Open. He first achieved worldwide prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship, where he eventually finished second. Shortly afterwards he became the youngest player ever to compete in the Ryder Cup.
In the intervening years Garcia has had a distinguished career, winning 31 tournaments, including the prestigious Players Championship in 2008. But until last Sunday (April 9, 2017), he had never won a “major.” These four tournaments -- the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship -- comprise the holy grail of pro golf. In 73 starts in the majors Sergio had been the runner-up three times, but he had never taken home the trophy.
Seventy-three starts. People were beginning to lose faith in him. He had peaked in 2008 and managed to win some tournaments since then; he had earned from $2-$5 million per year, but had fallen out of the top ten ranking. It looked like he was on a slow slide to obscurity.
Then last Sunday, after numerous close calls and almost 18 years after becoming famous at the PGA, Sergio Garcia won his first major at the Masters, by two strokes on the first playoff hole against his friend, British pro Justin Rose.
*****
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke that resulted in a condition known as “Locked-In Syndrome.” The well-known French journalist, author, and editor was left paralyzed and speechless, his only method of communication being the ability to blink his left eyelid. He went on to write the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, letter by letter, with this one good eyelid. A transcriber recited a modified alphabet to Bauby until he blinked his eye to indicate the letter he wanted. An average word took around two minutes to “write” this way. The book was written in about 200,000 individual blinks, accomplished in 4-hour-a-day sessions over a span of 10 months.
*****
All You Need Is Love
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a study dedicated to unearthing the secrets to a happy and purposeful life?
Well, there is such a study, done by a group of Harvard researchers who followed 268 male Harvard undergraduates from the classes of 1938-1940 (now well into their 90s) for 75 years, collecting data on various aspects of their lives at regular intervals. And the conclusions are universal.
George Vaillant, a Harvard psychiatrist who directed the study from 1972 to 2004, wrote a book about it. According to him, the study revealed lessons about how to live a happier, more authentic, more productive life.
Love Is Really All That Matters: It may seem obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less true: Love is key to a happy and fulfilling life. As Vaillant puts it, there are two pillars of happiness. “One is love,” he writes. “The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.”
Vaillant has said that the study’s most important finding is that the only thing that matters in life is relationships. A man could have a successful career, money, and good physical health, but without supportive, loving relationships, he wouldn’t be happy. (“Happiness is only the cart; love is the horse.”)
It’s About More than Money and Power: The study’s findings echoed those of other studies -- that acquiring more money and power doesn’t correlate to greater happiness. That’s not to say money or traditional career success don’t matter. But they’re small parts of a much larger picture -- and while they may loom large for us in the moment, they diminish in importance when viewed in the context of a full life.
Regardless of How We Begin Life, We Can All Become Happier: A man named Godfrey Minot Camille went into the study with fairly bleak prospects for life satisfaction: he had the lowest rating for future stability of all the subjects and he had previously attempted suicide. But at the end of his life, he was one of the happiest. Why? As Vaillant explains, “He spent his life searching for love.”
Connection Is Crucial: “Joy is connection,” Vaillant says. “The more areas in your life you can make connection, the better.”
The study found strong relationships to be far and away the strongest predictor of life satisfaction. And in terms of career satisfaction too, feeling connected to one’s work was far more important than making money or achieving traditional success.
Love, it would seem, is the great resurrector.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, who is good.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: God is my strength and my might.
People: God has become my salvation.
Leader: There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
People: “The right hand of God does valiantly.”
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
OR
Leader: We come back to worship where we laid Jesus in the tomb.
People: Death is difficult for us. It robs us of our hope.
Leader: We come to worship a God who often surprises us.
People: Today we are ready for a good surprise.
Leader: In the midst of darkness and death, God brings light and life.
People: Praise be to our very surprising God!
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”
found in:
UMH: 302
H82: 188, 189
PH: 113
AAHH: 282
NNBH: 121
NCH: 233
LBW: 130
ELA: 369, 370
W&P: 288
AMEC: 156
STLT: 268
“The Day of Resurrection”
found in:
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELA: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159, 160
“Easter People, Raise Your Voices”
found in:
UMH: 304
“Christ Is Alive”
found in:
UMH: 318
H82: 182
PH: 108
LBW: 363
ELA: 389
W&P: 312
“This Is a Day of New Beginnings”
found in:
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
found in:
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELA: 31
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”
found in:
UMH: 715, 716
H82: 481
PH: 155
NCH: 303
CH: 699
LBW: 171
ELA: 430
W&P: 342
AMEC: 88, 89
“The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done”
found in:
UMH: 306
PH: 119
AAHH: 277
NCH: 242
CH: 221
LBW: 135
W&P: 290
AMEC: 162
“Behold, What Manner of Love”
found in:
CCB: 44
“How Majestic Is Your Name”
found in:
CCB: 21
Renew: 98
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who brings victory out of defeat: Grant us the faith to trust in your powerful love that conquers all enemies and brings us life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, giver of life and restorer of all goodness. From the very depths of despair and death, you bring us life. Fill us with the light of your Spirit that we may hope in you and share that hope with others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to trust God in the dark moments of life.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at all the darkness and evil around us, and we begin to wonder if you are even here with us. We begin to doubt your love for creation or your power to do anything about it. We forget that while love is the most potent power, it is patient and seems slow to us. Renew our hope in your goodness and your redemptive work in all creation, so that we might work with you as you love creation and your creatures into salvation. Amen.
Leader: God is with us and at work in us and through us. Receive God’s love and hope, and go about the work of God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise and glory to you, O God, who brings life out of death and light out of darkness. We praise you for the resurrection of the Christ.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at all the darkness and evil around us, and we begin to wonder if you are even here with us. We begin to doubt your love for creation or your power to do anything about it. We forget that while love is the most potent power, it is patient and seems slow to us. Renew our hope in your goodness and your redemptive work in all creation, so that we might work with you as you love creation and your creatures into salvation.
We thank you for all the ways in which you have come to us and brought us life. You created us, and you are redeeming us. We thank you for those who have been before us and have passed on the good news of your love and grace.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need this day. We lift up those who are crushed by the burdens that threaten to take all hope from them. Help us to reach out to those around us with the good news of your love.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
I have a stole with images of a caterpillar, chrysalis, emerging butterfly, and a fully developed butterfly. I use it to talk about Jesus going into the tomb and coming out three days later with a new, glorified body. Videos of emerging butterflies or of chicks emerging from eggs could also be used -- being careful, of course, to be sure that the children understand that Jesus’ resurrection was an act of God apart from the natural world of chicks and butterflies.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Looking and Finding
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 28:1-10
Supplies: a Bible, open to Matthew 28:1
(Welcome the children as they gather. Chat a bit about their Easter morning and anything special that they have done/will do to celebrate Easter.)
Easter Sunday is one of the most important Sundays in the year. (If it’s your favorite, say so, and explain why.) Because Easter is such an important day for Christians, I have read and told the story of Easter many times!
In the gospel of Matthew, I read something I hadn’t noticed before -- it’s right in the first line of Matthew’s telling of what happened on Easter morning. (Read aloud from the Bible) “After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb” (v. 1).
That is all the verse tells us: Mary Magdalene and Mary went to see the tomb. It doesn’t tell us why they went. It doesn’t tell us what they were looking for or what they planned to do when they got to the tomb. They simply went to see.
The other gospels tell us more about why Mary and Mary went to the tomb. But Matthew only tells us that they went to see the tomb.
Why do you think they went to Jesus’ tomb? What do you think they expected to see? (Allow the children opportunities to respond to the questions. Remind them that Mary and Mary didn’t know that Jesus had risen before they went to the tomb. They only knew that he died and was buried in the tomb.)
Think about this: Have you ever gone somewhere and expected to see it the same way you left it? It’s like coming to church each Sunday -- you probably expect the church to look the same as it did the last time you were here. Or like going to school, or to a friend’s house -- you expect that your classroom will be in the same place, your teacher will be there. Your friends will be there. Right?
So I ask you again: What do you think Mary Magdalene and the other Mary expected to see? What do you think they wanted to see?
I expect that they thought they would find Jesus’ tomb just as he left it -- sealed up and deserted, with Jesus’ body inside. Maybe they would see the men who were left to guard the tomb.
But what the women found was different: Matthew’s telling about the women and the tomb continues: The two women feel the ground shake like an earthquake; they see an angel come down from heaven and roll away the stone from in front of the tomb; then the angel speaks to them!
What does the angel tell them? “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’ ” (vv. 6-7).
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb looking for the same thing they left behind. But on this morning they found something completely different -- something that surprised them, and scared them. Something they never expected.
It’s the “never expected” things that they found that make Easter so special.
They DIDN’T find a deserted place.
They DIDN’T find Jesus’ body.
They found an angel, an empty tomb, and an important message -- Jesus is not here, he has been raised. Go and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Jesus being raised from the dead is the surprising event of Easter. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary only went to see Jesus’ tomb -- what they found was so much more! They found the good news of Easter: Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!
(Close with this call and response -- repeat three times, getting louder each time.)
Leader: Christ is risen.
Children: He is risen indeed!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 16, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on Matthew’s account of the women discovering the empty tomb, and the angel’s command for them to go tell the disciples what they have seen. This imperative echoes the theme of witnessing in the Acts text, in which Peter says: “We are witnesses to all that [Jesus] did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear.” As Chris points out, we have a solemn responsibility to share with others news of Christ’s resurrection, and of the rebirth we have experienced by faith and grace -- even if doing so is a scary prospect that makes us uncomfortable. Again, in the words of Peter: “[Jesus] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.”
Looking into the Tomb
by Mary Austin
Matthew 28:1-10; John 20:1-18
The women go to Jesus’ burial place expecting to find... well, who knows? Matthew’s version of the story doesn’t say they’re going to anoint the body, and there are no handy spices in his telling of the story. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has already been anointed for burial by the unnamed woman (Matthew 26:6-13). The story says only that the women are going to see the tomb. Perhaps they just want to know where it is, or perhaps they plan to sit outside it and mourn. They aren’t expecting anything more than that.
There’s no category in their minds for a teacher who has risen from death back to life. They don’t speak of any hope that Jesus will be alive. They’re expecting death and grief, more of what they’ve already experienced. They are prepared for what they know.
We too are accustomed to death and grief. Years of war in Syria, recent church bombings in Egypt, and countries in Europe flooded with desperate migrants remind us every day of the limits of human power, and the reach of death and despair into our lives. We look into a modern version of the tomb each time we read the news or pray for neighbors around the world.
Easter begs the question of whether we have room in our minds for more than that. Can we see more than loss and suffering? Is there space within us for something more than ever-present, overly familiar sorrow? We are prepared for what we know. Are we ready for God to do more than that?
In the News
In Syria, a barrage of Tomahawk missiles from the United States followed a chemical weapons attack last week by the Assad regime on its own citizens. The show of force from the U.S. apparently did not deter further violence, and “Saturday brought fresh reminders that a single U.S. attack would hardly dissuade Assad from his brutal campaign to crush a six-year rebellion that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Residents in the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun, where at least 86 people had been killed in the sarin attack, reported that Syrian warplanes had returned and dropped new conventional bombs.” The people of Syria are caught in a desperate squeeze, with violence on all sides. “Senior administration officials have acknowledged that the targeted operation did not eliminate Assad’s ability to carry out chemical attacks. And Trump, who has attempted to enact a ban on Syrians and those in five other majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States, has not indicated that he is willing to accept more Syrians who are fleeing violence.”
Following the missile attacks, Jon Finer and Becca Heller wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that if we think we’ve added to Syria’s stability, we’re wrong. In fact, they argue, “images of children foaming at the mouth and video of 59 Tomahawk missiles launching from the decks of American warships will have the opposite effect -- causing more Syrians to flee, discouraging returns, and exacerbating what is already the gravest humanitarian crisis on the planet.” Refusing to admit refugees is both incongruous and immoral, they say. Their organization, the International Refugee Assistance Project, works to resettle people who are accustomed to looking into the tomb in search of new life.
One such family in their care is “a family of four Syrian refugees currently in Jordan that our organization is trying to help. The father is a survivor of torture; his two sons are of Syrian draft age and both suffer from extreme anxiety and seizures. They lived a simple lifestyle in Homs -- the father was a shopkeeper -- until the day their house was bombed, causing one of the sons to lose his hearing. Knowing Syria was no longer safe, they fled to Jordan in 2013.”
This family was close to an experience of resurrection when U.S. policy changed. “The family had completed their resettlement interviews and medical checks, and were fully approved for refugee resettlement in the United States when President Trump signed his first executive order in January, putting their resettlement in limbo. Mr. Trump’s revised order places a 120-day freeze on all refugee admissions and slashes the overall refugee resettlement number to 50,000, from 110,000. Departures have ground almost to a halt. The family has no idea what is going to happen to them or where they can go, and they are extremely anxious about their future.”
Palm Sunday brought bombs to Coptic churches in Egypt, killing and injuring worshipers in two different cities. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the carnage. “It was the single deadliest day for Christians in decades and the worst since a bombing at a Cairo church in December killed 30 people.” Several Muslim police officers were also killed in the bombings. In the coming days, there will be plenty of funerals and tombs, and not much hope.
And in San Bernardino, California -- the same locale that experienced a terror attack in December 2015 -- funeral processions will be starting soon as the week began with this year’s 12th school shooting. The incident resulted in the deaths of a teacher and her estranged husband, plus a student, all of whom were killed in front of a classroom full of other students. We are accustomed to death, and school and workplace shootings no longer shock us. Violent death is deeply familiar. We know the experience of the tomb all too well in our own lives.
Resurrection is more elusive, harder to take in, and even more difficult to believe. The more we experience death and sorrow, the more unexpected resurrection feels. And yet, as Christians, we base all of our hope on this most unlikely event: an empty tomb and a risen redeemer. Death and destruction are familiar, but resurrection is so startling that we forget to look for it.
In the Scriptures
For the women at the tomb, coming as soon as they can after the end of the Jewish sabbath, their hope doesn’t extend beyond honoring the dead. They expect only the familiar, and instead are greeted by things completely outside of everyday experience. The arrival of an angel in a story always signals the presence of God’s plans, and the earthquake is certainly an attention-getter. It takes both an earthquake and an angel to jolt the women out of their expectations and into the knowledge that something dramatically different is happening here. The guards tremble with fear and become “like dead men.” Life and death are reversed; the once dead Jesus is alive, and the living guards are like the dead in their terror.
“Do not be afraid,” the angel says. One has to wonder if this was reassuring at all, but there’s no time to be afraid -- the women have a job to do. They’re allowed to see where Jesus has been, to see that he’s no longer there, and then they have to be off to share the news that Jesus has been raised from death and is going back to Galilee. He’s going back to where it all began.
The presence of an angel in the gospels is usually to get someone to do something that they normally wouldn’t want to do. It takes an angel to persuade Mary that she will bear a child for God’s purposes, and to convince Joseph to marry her anyway. The angel here nudges the women out of their mourning and into their new work as evangelists.
Just before this, Pilate and the authorities have made the tomb of Jesus as secure as they know how to make it, rolling a huge stone over the entrance. In a reminder that the plans of God are greater than any human power, God’s angel comes, rolls away the stone, and then sits on it as a final display of strength. The guards at the tomb are reminded who really holds the power.
When Jesus himself shows up, the earthquake and the angel have already prepared the women to experience the extraordinary. They’re ready to see him, having been shocked out of all of their expectations for the day. Everything they knew to anticipate has been upended, and the things they never imagined have taken place. The earthquake turns out to be the least of the upheavals on this miraculous morning.
In the Sermon
It takes an earthquake and an angel to announce the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Two forces of extraordinary power get the women’s attention and let them know that this is no ordinary day. Their minds are spirits are jolted out of all the usual thoughts and expectations, and then they’re ready for this unexpected news. What does it take for God to get our attention, and move us out of the ordinary into the miraculous? The sermon might look at how we stop thinking in our usual, everyday patterns and start to think as resurrection people. How do we make the mental, spiritual, and vocational shift that the women made?
Or the sermon might look at the people who succeed in looking not into tombs and places of death, but instead make possible places of resurrection. Some churches are embracing a resurrection spirit by offering support, or even physical sanctuary, to immigrants in need. As NPR reported, “hundreds of churches... have stepped up in the last few months to say that they’re going to provide some kind of protection to immigrants living in the country illegally. In a lot of cases, that’s just supporting them in ways like food or accompanying them to meetings that they have with immigration and customs enforcement where they feel they may be deported. In other instances, it’s actually inviting immigrants to live in the four walls of the congregation as a way to protect them from immigration agents.” There are different ways to offer support to people in distress, and to seek the spirit of new life for people who know the sorrow of the tomb.
Or the sermon might look at how we organize our lives to follow the example of the women, who are told to go and share this astonishing news. Both the angel and Jesus tell them “do not be afraid,” and yet we are often afraid to share God’s good news in our own lives. Without being obnoxious bores, or maybe without even saying a word, how do we follow the instruction given on this first Easter day? How do we use our lives to pass on the gift of new life?
The sermon might also look at the question of fear. The first casualty of resurrection living is fear, and yet it’s a hard gift to receive. We keep falling back into fear, and there is a lot to be afraid of, it seems. The sermon might look at how we let fear shape our lives, even though Jesus’ first Easter words are “do not be afraid.” This is an Easter gift, a dramatic part of our new lives in the risen Christ, but it’s hard to remember it through the year.
Like the women in this story, we know the experience of coming to the tomb. We know tombs of death and grief, of prejudice and injustice, of despair and illness. The tomb casts its shadow over all of our lives. But on Easter, when we arrive at the tomb, nothing is the way we expect. Everything is changed. God is waiting to get our attention and announce that the world is now different, and we are invited to be different too. There is a gift here that we never expected and never even knew to look for.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
SECOND THOUGHTS
Witnesses to Resurrection
by Chris Keating
Matthew 28:1-10
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection seems to have spared no expense. It’s a full-scale pageant, complete with budget-busting special effects, a rock-splitting earthquake, dazzling angels, and terrified guards -- not to mention the two amazed yet awestruck women who are suddenly commissioned to begin proclaiming the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.
Sunday morning at the tomb is no quiet affair, as Matthew’s addition of a “great earthquake” and powerful Roman guards knocking their knees in fear demonstrates. It’s a mighty sunrise pageant that includes angels who have been absent from Matthew’s gospel since the temptation narratives. The rock-shattering force provides the soundtrack to the angel’s announcement: “Do not be afraid.”
Now, of course, we know that’s what all angels say -- but in this narrative the assurance serves to tee up the messenger’s primary task. “I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified,” the angel continues. “He is not here; for he has been raised.” The wide-eyed women are invited to look into the tomb. What happens next, however, is stunning.
They’re told to start spreading the word.
In other words, Mary Magdalene and the mysteriously-named “other” Mary are commissioned to be witnesses. They are sent by God, equipped to tell the story of what they have heard and seen. They are called to repeat the deep hope of their morning encounter: “He is not here.” But Matthew’s ending is only a beginning, as the women are given the critical task of bearing the news of resurrection to the rest of the disciples.
Off they go, filled with excitement and overwhelming, heart-pounding joy.
Witnessing, at least in most mainline congregations, generally does not induce moods of elation. Fear, yes; dry mouth, certainly. Most of those who will rise from their tombs on Easter Sunday to participate in our worship would pass on the assignment given to the women. They’d be perfectly happy to let someone else tell the story. In fact, it’s likely more people could identify with the stupefied guards than with the two Marys. Given the chance, we’d rather stay mum than rush around to tell our closest friends about Jesus’ rising.
Heart-pounding joy is generally not the way witnesses tell their stories. Note, for example, the numbers of undocumented persons who are increasingly afraid to report crimes or testify in court. Law enforcement is noticing a trend of decreasing reporting of crime by undocumented persons in the wake of the Trump administration’s increased deportation priorities. Afraid that they could be detained or deported, growing numbers of undocumented persons are remaining silent.
“Sadly, it appears that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s] aggressive tactics, including arresting people at courthouses, are having a chilling effect,” said Michael Kaufman, a Southern California representative of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The result is that more victims will remain in the shadows and more immigrants will be vulnerable to abuse.”
In Los Angeles, sexual assault reports are down 10% from last year among Hispanics. Charlie Beck, the city’s police chief, noted that other ethnic groups do not show such disparities. “Imagine a young woman, imagine your daughter, your sister, your mother... not reporting a sexual assault, because they are afraid that their family will be torn apart,” Beck said. In El Paso, Texas, officials report a similar phenomenon. Victims come forward, only to retreat out of fear of being deported.
Sometimes witnesses remain silent out of fear of personal reprisal. In 1985, New York mob boss Paul Castellano was gunned down outside a Manhattan steakhouse. The killing, orchestrated by a then emerging mobster named John Gotti, was a rare example of a Mafia hit on one of its own. Jeffrey Davis, who worked in an office near the restaurant, saw the whole thing -- but remained quiet for years.
Years later Davis took the witness stand, testifying in federal court against one of Gotti’s close associates. For many years, however, Davis said he was afraid to tell what he had seen. For good reason: Gotti, who succeeded Castellano as head of the Gambino crime family, was known to be especially brutal in his wielding of power.
The women at the tomb might have been scared, but they were moved to tell the truth. Other witnesses don’t. Even under oath, many skip telling the truth -- perhaps out of fear of reprisal, or even in hopes of avoiding jail. Police officers lie to get a conviction, or defendants lie to get an acquittal. Either way it’s called “testilying,” and it often results in unjust convictions.
Not surprisingly, it is a practice so widespread that prosecutors say perjury investigations are generally unworkable. “If we attempted to prosecute every witness that perjures themselves,” said Jennifer Creed Selber, formerly of the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, “it would be a completely unworkable and impossible situation.”
That’s what makes the women’s act of witnessing so remarkable. Easter is the prime example of an unworkable and impossible situation. It is perhaps the boldest example of what happens when witnesses stick to their stories. The women tell the story of what God has done: Jesus is on the move, headed back to the place where he exorcised demons and spoke with authority. He’s headed to Galilee, and the church had better get moving too.
They are witnesses to the amazing story of how God overturned the tables on death, and they are the only ones who can tell that story. They have seen it with their own eyes, and now it is time to testify that God will not remain sidelined.
There’s a curious documentary available for streaming on Netflix, which in its own way also witnesses to the power of the stories we carry within us. Mortified Nation relates the improbable success of the Mortified project, which celebrates the stories adults tell about themselves as teenagers.
Mortified participants share their stories using the words of their own teenaged diaries and journals. If you’re starting to sweat, it gets worse: participants stand on a stage in front of strangers and share their angst-ridden secrets of puberty, body image, sexuality, and rebellion. It began with the discovery of an unsent teenage love letter, and has become a nationwide movement.
Those selected to participate read their diaries, share their secrets. They are, in essence, telling the truth on themselves. They’re also witnesses to a greater truth few of us could ever imagine telling about ourselves: we’ve all got secrets.
It’s funny, but also cringeworthy. It’s raw, and riveting, and often earthy. Yet this is the essence of what it means to tell the truth about ourselves. Testimony invites resurrection into our lives, so that healing can take place.
At the end of each Mortified show, all the participants gather on stage to recite what could be called the movement’s credo: “We are all freaks. We are fragile. But we all survived.”
One can almost imagine the two Marys sharing a laugh and saying something similar late on Easter evening. After all they had witnessed, they deserved a good laugh.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 10:34-43
A recent piece in the New York Times followed the life of 22-year-old Bahir Mohammad and his conversion from Islam to Christianity. After witnessing many atrocities committed by Muslims, the final turning point for Mohammad was when he witnessed a bulldozer used as an execution device for a long line of prisoners. Mohammad found Christianity to be more generous than Islam. Mohammad also found that reading the Bible made him calmer than reading the Quran. Mohammad said, “There is a big gap between the god I used to worship and the one I worship now.”
Application: In Acts we are called to be witnesses.
*****
Acts 10:34-43
The war on Christmas has now advanced to also being a war on Easter. England’s Cadbury candies has sponsored the “Easter Egg Trail,” an event that sends hundreds of thousands of children hunting for Easter eggs on historic properties across the country. The name has now been changed to “Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt”; the word “Easter” no longer appears. The company was founded in 1824 by John Cadbury, a Quaker. Though as a Quaker Cadbury did not participate in Easter celebrations, he always recognized the importance of the event. John Cadbury did provide housing, schools, and heath care for all of his employees. Archbishop John Sentamu said, regarding John Cadbury: “It is obvious for him Jesus and justice were two sides of the same coin.” Peter York, a cultural commentator, said the reason for the Cadbury company’s decision is a desire to sell more candy beyond a Christian audience.
Application: It is important that we share the message and meaning of Easter.
*****
Acts 10:34-43
India regards the cow as sacred. This is because in Hinduism the cow symbolizes the earth, the nourisher, the ever-giving undemanding provider. The country’s state of Gujarat has now elevated the sentence for killing a cow to life in prison.
Application: We can rejoice in the Christian message that Jesus is the true giver of life.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Pope Francis has been criticized for advocating giving to beggars. The pope outlined all of the reasons that have been presented to him for not taking this position; but the pope said that one overriding mandate applies: “Help is always right.”
Application: We are instructed to always focus on the heavenly, not the earthly.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
William Powell, known for writing The Anarchist Cookbook, recently died. As an angry teenager who was bullied and sexually abused, and who protested the Vietnam War, he spent months in the New York Public Library in 1969 researching how to kill people. He studied military manuals and other similar books, then compiled this information with drawings and explanations for The Anarchist Cookbook. The book has sold more than two million copies in addition to being downloaded off the internet. In his later years, Powell apologized for writing the book -- an apology that was especially necessary when it was learned that his work was used by Thomas Spinks, Timothy McVeigh, Eric Harris, and Jared Loughner, all mass murderers. Charlie Siskel, the director of a documentary on Powell, said in an interview: “What interested me was: How do you go through 40 years of your life with his dark chapter in the background? How does one sleep at night or get through the day?”
Application: We are instructed to always focus on the heavenly, not the earthly.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Francine Hughes recently died. She was physically and sexually abused by her husband James for 13 years, abuse which started a few weeks after Francine dropped out of school in the tenth grade to marry James, three years her senior and also a high school dropout. Eventually, unable to endure the abuse any longer, on March 9, 1977, she set James’ bed on fire while he slept. Francine then drove to the Manson, Michigan, police station and surrendered herself. At her murder trial, the jury founded her not guilty due to temporary insanity -- giving rise to the term “burning-bed syndrome.” Francine’s life story was made into a popular television movie starring Farrah Fawcett. Francine said of her abuse: “For a long time I took it because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. I thought, ‘What did I do wrong?’ Then you lose your self-esteem.”
Application: We are told to be givers of life, not takers.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Carol Burnett was struggling financially to remain at UCLA as a drama student. Having been raised in a family that was sustained by welfare checks, all Carol knew was poverty. Even though she was able to remain in college on a day to day basis, Carol did not believe her dream of going to New York would ever be realized. One day a professor invited Carol and eight of her classmates to be his evening dinner guests. Carol and a friend acted out a comedy scene from Annie Get Your Gun. After the performance, a gentleman came to Carol and expressed his admiration for her talent. He asked Carol what she intended to do with her life. Carol shared her dream of acting on Broadway. The man then asked what kept Carol from following her dream. A lack of money, she simply replied. The gentleman then offered Carol enough money to travel to New York and establish her stage career. Before Carol could accept the money, her benefactor outlined three rules to which she must adhere: First, if Carol became a success, she was to pay back the loan within five years, without interest. Second, she was never to reveal the identity of her patron. Third, she was to pass the kindness along by helping someone else in a similar circumstance. Carol accepted the offer, established her career in the theater, and remained true to her promise -- promoting many other struggling young actors.
Application: We are to do all we can to help others.
*****
Colossians 3:1-4
Noreen Fraser recently died after a 16-year battle against breast cancer. Upon learning of her diagnosis Fraser said, “I have made cancer my business.” As a producer of Entertainment Tonight, ABC’s Home Show, and The Richard Simmons Show, she was able to use television as a part of her effort to raise cancer awareness and funds for research. In 2008 ABC, NBC, and CBS devoted a single hour for a simultaneous broadcast to raise money for cancer research, with the shows hosted by Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charles Gibson. Part of the reason Fraser made cancer her business was because “I’m frustrated by the pace of new therapies to save my life and other people’s lives.”
Application: We are to do all we can to help others.
*****
Matthew 28:1-10
A recent installment of the New York Times “Wealth Matters” column discussed how John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company, gave away an estimated $2 billion in his lifetime. His children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews have continued to be generous in their philanthropic giving. But Mr. Rockefeller also transmitted the family values of humility, responsibility, and engagement. These are values that his heirs continue to practice. The Times noted that while we don’t have the money of the Rockefellers, “one of the top lessons is a sense of gratitude.”
Application: The Easter message is one of gratitude.
*****
Matthew 28:1-10
Russia is making it difficult for organizations that the government considers “extremist,” even disbanding some of them. One of the organizations that is being persecuted is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The most significant reason for the targeting of the religious sect and its members is because they practice pacifism, and pacifism is considered as a threat to the state. The 170,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia have been ordered to stop spreading “extremist texts.”
Application: With the resurrection, Christians began to experience and fear persecution from the Romans.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Stories of Resurrection
Over the Wall
James Shuter produces new exhibitions for Museums Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia. He readily admits that his point of view tends toward the retrospective, toward history and the past, and his grasp of modern-day geopolitical events is usually lacking.
For example: On the evening of November 9, 1989, Shuter was staying with some German friends in the city of Berlin. A program on the television was suddenly interrupted at about 7:20 p.m. with a news bulletin, but his grasp of German wasn’t good enough for him to follow what was being said. His German friends began to shout “The wall! The wall!” in German and they ran outside, so he followed. In just a few minutes they were at Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing point in the Berlin Wall.
People were shouting and cheering and climbing on the wall, shouting and singing. Others were hitting the wall with hammers and shovels and stones, and collecting the pieces that fell off. Shuter and his friends climbed atop the wall and saw, beyond the no-man’s-land, people crowded along the East German side shouting and cheering as well. Someone on the wall explained to him that at 7:17 p.m. it was announced that all the gates had been opened and people were now free to move freely back and forth between East and West Germany.
But no one was moving to cross from east to west, and the crowd on the eastern side was getting bigger and bigger and louder and louder.
All of a sudden a young man on the east side dashed into the no-man’s-land and began running toward the west. A group of East German guards dashed after him and caught up to him, surrounding him. The West German guards brought their rifles to bear upon the East German guards -- and everything became deathly quiet.
After a moment that seemed like an eternity, an officer from the East German side came to the middle, talked with the guards surrounding the man, and they parted as he went to the man and took him by the hand and led him to the wall. There he stooped and made a stirrup with his cupped hands, the man stepped into it, and the officer lifted him to where the people on top of the wall could receive him and lift him up to join them.
An appropriate story of resurrection for Easter morning.
*****
Sergio Garcia Wins the Masters
Golfer Sergio García turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest score by an amateur in the 1999 Masters tournament. His first title on the European Tour came in his sixth start as a professional in July 1999, at the Irish Open. He first achieved worldwide prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship, where he eventually finished second. Shortly afterwards he became the youngest player ever to compete in the Ryder Cup.
In the intervening years Garcia has had a distinguished career, winning 31 tournaments, including the prestigious Players Championship in 2008. But until last Sunday (April 9, 2017), he had never won a “major.” These four tournaments -- the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship -- comprise the holy grail of pro golf. In 73 starts in the majors Sergio had been the runner-up three times, but he had never taken home the trophy.
Seventy-three starts. People were beginning to lose faith in him. He had peaked in 2008 and managed to win some tournaments since then; he had earned from $2-$5 million per year, but had fallen out of the top ten ranking. It looked like he was on a slow slide to obscurity.
Then last Sunday, after numerous close calls and almost 18 years after becoming famous at the PGA, Sergio Garcia won his first major at the Masters, by two strokes on the first playoff hole against his friend, British pro Justin Rose.
*****
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke that resulted in a condition known as “Locked-In Syndrome.” The well-known French journalist, author, and editor was left paralyzed and speechless, his only method of communication being the ability to blink his left eyelid. He went on to write the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, letter by letter, with this one good eyelid. A transcriber recited a modified alphabet to Bauby until he blinked his eye to indicate the letter he wanted. An average word took around two minutes to “write” this way. The book was written in about 200,000 individual blinks, accomplished in 4-hour-a-day sessions over a span of 10 months.
*****
All You Need Is Love
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a study dedicated to unearthing the secrets to a happy and purposeful life?
Well, there is such a study, done by a group of Harvard researchers who followed 268 male Harvard undergraduates from the classes of 1938-1940 (now well into their 90s) for 75 years, collecting data on various aspects of their lives at regular intervals. And the conclusions are universal.
George Vaillant, a Harvard psychiatrist who directed the study from 1972 to 2004, wrote a book about it. According to him, the study revealed lessons about how to live a happier, more authentic, more productive life.
Love Is Really All That Matters: It may seem obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less true: Love is key to a happy and fulfilling life. As Vaillant puts it, there are two pillars of happiness. “One is love,” he writes. “The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.”
Vaillant has said that the study’s most important finding is that the only thing that matters in life is relationships. A man could have a successful career, money, and good physical health, but without supportive, loving relationships, he wouldn’t be happy. (“Happiness is only the cart; love is the horse.”)
It’s About More than Money and Power: The study’s findings echoed those of other studies -- that acquiring more money and power doesn’t correlate to greater happiness. That’s not to say money or traditional career success don’t matter. But they’re small parts of a much larger picture -- and while they may loom large for us in the moment, they diminish in importance when viewed in the context of a full life.
Regardless of How We Begin Life, We Can All Become Happier: A man named Godfrey Minot Camille went into the study with fairly bleak prospects for life satisfaction: he had the lowest rating for future stability of all the subjects and he had previously attempted suicide. But at the end of his life, he was one of the happiest. Why? As Vaillant explains, “He spent his life searching for love.”
Connection Is Crucial: “Joy is connection,” Vaillant says. “The more areas in your life you can make connection, the better.”
The study found strong relationships to be far and away the strongest predictor of life satisfaction. And in terms of career satisfaction too, feeling connected to one’s work was far more important than making money or achieving traditional success.
Love, it would seem, is the great resurrector.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O give thanks to God, who is good.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: God is my strength and my might.
People: God has become my salvation.
Leader: There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
People: “The right hand of God does valiantly.”
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
OR
Leader: We come back to worship where we laid Jesus in the tomb.
People: Death is difficult for us. It robs us of our hope.
Leader: We come to worship a God who often surprises us.
People: Today we are ready for a good surprise.
Leader: In the midst of darkness and death, God brings light and life.
People: Praise be to our very surprising God!
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”
found in:
UMH: 302
H82: 188, 189
PH: 113
AAHH: 282
NNBH: 121
NCH: 233
LBW: 130
ELA: 369, 370
W&P: 288
AMEC: 156
STLT: 268
“The Day of Resurrection”
found in:
UMH: 303
H82: 210
PH: 118
NNBH: 124
NCH: 245
CH: 228
LBW: 141
ELA: 361
W&P: 298
AMEC: 159, 160
“Easter People, Raise Your Voices”
found in:
UMH: 304
“Christ Is Alive”
found in:
UMH: 318
H82: 182
PH: 108
LBW: 363
ELA: 389
W&P: 312
“This Is a Day of New Beginnings”
found in:
UMH: 383
NCH: 417
CH: 518
W&P: 355
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
found in:
UMH: 384
H82: 657
PH: 376
AAHH: 440
NNBH: 65
NCH: 43
CH: 517
LBW: 315
ELA: 31
W&P: 358
AMEC: 455
Renew: 196
“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”
found in:
UMH: 715, 716
H82: 481
PH: 155
NCH: 303
CH: 699
LBW: 171
ELA: 430
W&P: 342
AMEC: 88, 89
“The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done”
found in:
UMH: 306
PH: 119
AAHH: 277
NCH: 242
CH: 221
LBW: 135
W&P: 290
AMEC: 162
“Behold, What Manner of Love”
found in:
CCB: 44
“How Majestic Is Your Name”
found in:
CCB: 21
Renew: 98
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who brings victory out of defeat: Grant us the faith to trust in your powerful love that conquers all enemies and brings us life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, giver of life and restorer of all goodness. From the very depths of despair and death, you bring us life. Fill us with the light of your Spirit that we may hope in you and share that hope with others. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to trust God in the dark moments of life.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at all the darkness and evil around us, and we begin to wonder if you are even here with us. We begin to doubt your love for creation or your power to do anything about it. We forget that while love is the most potent power, it is patient and seems slow to us. Renew our hope in your goodness and your redemptive work in all creation, so that we might work with you as you love creation and your creatures into salvation. Amen.
Leader: God is with us and at work in us and through us. Receive God’s love and hope, and go about the work of God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise and glory to you, O God, who brings life out of death and light out of darkness. We praise you for the resurrection of the Christ.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at all the darkness and evil around us, and we begin to wonder if you are even here with us. We begin to doubt your love for creation or your power to do anything about it. We forget that while love is the most potent power, it is patient and seems slow to us. Renew our hope in your goodness and your redemptive work in all creation, so that we might work with you as you love creation and your creatures into salvation.
We thank you for all the ways in which you have come to us and brought us life. You created us, and you are redeeming us. We thank you for those who have been before us and have passed on the good news of your love and grace.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all who are in need this day. We lift up those who are crushed by the burdens that threaten to take all hope from them. Help us to reach out to those around us with the good news of your love.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
I have a stole with images of a caterpillar, chrysalis, emerging butterfly, and a fully developed butterfly. I use it to talk about Jesus going into the tomb and coming out three days later with a new, glorified body. Videos of emerging butterflies or of chicks emerging from eggs could also be used -- being careful, of course, to be sure that the children understand that Jesus’ resurrection was an act of God apart from the natural world of chicks and butterflies.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Looking and Finding
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 28:1-10
Supplies: a Bible, open to Matthew 28:1
(Welcome the children as they gather. Chat a bit about their Easter morning and anything special that they have done/will do to celebrate Easter.)
Easter Sunday is one of the most important Sundays in the year. (If it’s your favorite, say so, and explain why.) Because Easter is such an important day for Christians, I have read and told the story of Easter many times!
In the gospel of Matthew, I read something I hadn’t noticed before -- it’s right in the first line of Matthew’s telling of what happened on Easter morning. (Read aloud from the Bible) “After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb” (v. 1).
That is all the verse tells us: Mary Magdalene and Mary went to see the tomb. It doesn’t tell us why they went. It doesn’t tell us what they were looking for or what they planned to do when they got to the tomb. They simply went to see.
The other gospels tell us more about why Mary and Mary went to the tomb. But Matthew only tells us that they went to see the tomb.
Why do you think they went to Jesus’ tomb? What do you think they expected to see? (Allow the children opportunities to respond to the questions. Remind them that Mary and Mary didn’t know that Jesus had risen before they went to the tomb. They only knew that he died and was buried in the tomb.)
Think about this: Have you ever gone somewhere and expected to see it the same way you left it? It’s like coming to church each Sunday -- you probably expect the church to look the same as it did the last time you were here. Or like going to school, or to a friend’s house -- you expect that your classroom will be in the same place, your teacher will be there. Your friends will be there. Right?
So I ask you again: What do you think Mary Magdalene and the other Mary expected to see? What do you think they wanted to see?
I expect that they thought they would find Jesus’ tomb just as he left it -- sealed up and deserted, with Jesus’ body inside. Maybe they would see the men who were left to guard the tomb.
But what the women found was different: Matthew’s telling about the women and the tomb continues: The two women feel the ground shake like an earthquake; they see an angel come down from heaven and roll away the stone from in front of the tomb; then the angel speaks to them!
What does the angel tell them? “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’ ” (vv. 6-7).
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb looking for the same thing they left behind. But on this morning they found something completely different -- something that surprised them, and scared them. Something they never expected.
It’s the “never expected” things that they found that make Easter so special.
They DIDN’T find a deserted place.
They DIDN’T find Jesus’ body.
They found an angel, an empty tomb, and an important message -- Jesus is not here, he has been raised. Go and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Jesus being raised from the dead is the surprising event of Easter. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary only went to see Jesus’ tomb -- what they found was so much more! They found the good news of Easter: Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!
(Close with this call and response -- repeat three times, getting louder each time.)
Leader: Christ is risen.
Children: He is risen indeed!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 16, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
