Sunday 04.20.25 - Easter Sunday - "Practice Resurrection" - Fr. Jeromie Rand

Transcript

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This is an audio sermon from Christ Our Hope Anglican Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. We're glad you're here and we hope that you'll be able to join us at the table soon. And now, here's today's message.

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At a conversation before church around the idea of fasting and feasting, And we talked about how in our church we fast during the season of Lent, and then we come to Easter, and it's a season and a time of feasting. And for many of us, we actually find that feasting is more difficult than fasting. that to actually live in the abundance of Christ and the resurrection is actually a challenging and hard thing. We are confronted with the fact that our lives oftentimes shrink in upon themselves, that we revert back to people who do not live with the power of the risen Christ. And it is hard at times to live into that. And so this morning is as much as we can practice. It is practice for what it is to live in the joy of the knowledge that Christ is risen. And so kids, I want you to help everybody practice this, okay? So this is normally the part of our service where I would invite the kids to come forward and receive a blessing, and we would send them out to Children's Church. But today the kids are going to be in here with us to celebrate Easter and to witness the baptism that is coming right after the sermon. And What I need you to do for me, kids, is to teach the adults to celebrate. Because we're sometimes not so good at that. We're a little bit self-conscious. We're not sure. I mean, my daughter dances. I hope you see that. And it's hard to dance, isn't it? In church, somebody says you can dance, but you're always a little bit like, but maybe I shouldn't do that. But kids can lead us in that. So what I want you to do is, during my sermon... Every time I say Christ is risen, or Jesus is risen, or he is risen, I want all of the kids to shout alleluia. Okay? You got that? Let's try it out. Today we are celebrating because Christ is risen. Alleluia! Great, great. I'm going to have a bunch of those moments in my sermon, and you can interrupt me. If I say he is risen, you just yell out hallelujah. You interrupt me right then and there. But it means you have to listen and pay attention so that you don't miss those moments. The story of Easter morning, as we heard it in the Gospel of Luke, begins with confusion. A few of the women who have followed Jesus during his ministry, they were with him all the way back in Galilee. They have sat under his preaching, his teaching. They have followed him around. They have provided for him and his disciples where they needed it. They have witnessed his death and his burial. And they've come to the place where Jesus was buried in order to anoint his body with spices and ointments. This was the Jewish custom meant to show honor to the dead. But they had not had time to care for his body before the Sabbath. Jesus was taken off the cross and laid in the tomb and the women followed the commandment of God and they rested for that Sabbath day. But early on the day after that, on the first day of the week, they came to take those spices and ointments that they had prepared and to place them on the body of Christ. But they ran into a problem. There was no body. The stone in front of the tomb was rolled away, and the tomb itself was empty. Our reading said that they were perplexed. They were confused. They wondered, what does this mean? And then two men in shining robes, angels, appeared to them and told them, he has risen. Very good. You got the first one. And that as they reminded them that he had predicted these things, they remembered all that Jesus said, and they ran to tell the apostles and the other followers of Jesus that it was true. The grave could not contain him, and the Lord Jesus is risen. But no one believed them. Perhaps it was because they were women. who were not generally considered reliable witnesses in first century Palestine. Or perhaps it was because the story just seemed too good to be true. This is what they wanted, they longed for most. And how often do we have that moment where we have something that we hope for, and almost because we hope so much for it, we don't believe that it could possibly happen, that it could possibly be true. Whatever the reason was, the disciples dismissed their wonderful message as an idle tale. But there was just enough of a spark of hope in Peter, and according to the other gospels, John, that they ran to the tomb to see for themselves. I don't know how many of you saw the artwork that was up there at the end of our Stations of the Cross this morning. There's a beautiful painting from the 1800s that shows Peter and John running to the tomb and there is this John has this look of worry on his face like he's not sure of what he's going to find and Peter has this look that I think captures Peter so wonderfully because it's just this look of wild excitement or uncertainty both at the same time. He looks afraid and excited and and he wants to see what he's going to find. And when they got there, it was exactly as the women had said. The tomb was empty, except for the grave clothes that Jesus had been wearing, which someone had neatly folded and left behind. So remember, when you're stuck folding laundry, Jesus folded laundry. And he left it. First thing he did after he rose from the dead was folded laundry. And I'm sure that many of you feel that's the first thing you have to do every morning or that it's just a never-ending task. But our Lord has sanctified the folding of laundry. And Peter was amazed. But he did not yet quite believe that Christ is risen. Good, good. See, the kids are better at continuing to pay attention than the adults. They'll get it. But he would come to understand. He would carry the message that the Lord is risen. Hallelujah! And, and... If you believe in him, he has promised to everybody who believes in him forgiveness of sins and new life, the same resurrection life that he has. It's that same message has been passed down from one generation to the next, recorded here in scriptures, but also passed down by those who believe. And it's why we are gathered here today. In fact, every Sunday, As part of our liturgy, we proclaim that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. This is the mystery of faith, and it is the foundation of our hope. But still, I think that sometimes we find ourselves asking, like those women on Easter morning, and like Peter in those first disorienting moments, what does it mean? When we say Christ is risen, it first of all means just that. It means that Jesus Christ died and was buried. And three days later, he walked out of the tomb. And then as with the stories accumulated of those days afterward, the disciples saw him and had encounters with him, it becomes clear that his body was the same, but different. It was bearing the same wounds. But it was somehow unrecognizable until he spoke somebody's name or looked upon them, and then it was clearly, clearly him. He could eat fish, share a meal with his disciples, but he was also able to appear in a locked room among them. But no matter how we account for the differences, it was really the same man who died. And who rose again. But we don't celebrate with raucous joy just because Jesus didn't stay in the grave. That is good, good news. But it's not the first resurrection that happens in all of Scripture. There are other times that God, through his prophets, raised somebody from the dead. It is what his life and his death and his resurrection means that brings us together to celebrate again and again and again. On Easter, yes, but every single week, every time that we gather, we remember that Jesus won a victory over sin and death and Satan, and his resurrection proves it. It is because he is the master of sin and death that we can find forgiveness and eternal life through him. No man can give to others what he does not have, but Jesus does have life. He is life. And he is the beginning of the end. When Jesus came back to life, he did so as the firstborn of a new creation. Jesus' life is the preeminent sign that God has not abandoned the world, but is making all things new. He began with his son, but he will not end there. The work goes on. It is being continued in us, in those who believe, and it will one day encompass all of creation. And I find it difficult to grasp this, just how wonderful this is, and even more difficult to put it into words that can, with any sense of adequacy, portray what is happening in Christ. But it's a job to try. Everything is being made new. Everything sad comes untrue. Death will be defeated once for all. Sin's power is no more. And it will one day not impact or affect any of us. Creation is being restored and renewed for the new heavens and the new earth. All things are being reconciled in Christ. And when we descend into the waters of baptism... We die to our old selves and begin to participate in new life with Christ. This is what Paul is telling us when he says that we have been raised with Christ, and this is only possible because Christ is risen. Notice that when we make that proclamation, we do so in the present tense. Christ is risen. And our life is, as Paul says, hidden with Christ in God. We are connected to the risen Lord now. And that changes everything. Not only for the life that is to come. Not only because we have life after death. But for the life that we participate in right now. Because Christ is risen. And he is with us. And so we have a responsibility to live in the light of that fact. And it takes work. It takes practice. As Wendell Berry puts it in one of his poems, we have to practice resurrection. There are several ways that we can do that. One is to hold to, to cling to words of hope when things seem dark. Because there is always reason for hope. It doesn't always seem that way. Sometimes in our own lives, it feels like there is darkness around us that we can't see through. Or we look at the world around us and we think that things are going and descending in a way that we do not like or appreciate. We cannot see how the end goes. And there are moments that all of us will face where we will be tempted to give up hope. But the living Christ is with us. The master of death is with us. Which means that even when we go unto death, even when a situation seems so dark that there is no end, there is a life on the other side of it because Christ is with us. And yes, we look to and long for future resurrection. Just as Christ's body rose from the grave, one day we will have bodies like his. One day we too will die but rise again. But we believe that new creation has already begun. This is what it means when Jesus is raised from the dead, that the promise that God has that he will make everything new has begun and it began with Christ and he is one who keeps his promises and he will see it through to the very end. And so the life that we have when we talk about resurrection is not just darkness and gloom for this life and then resurrection and joy in a life beyond. It is joy that breaks in right now in every corner of our lives, even in the dark areas, maybe especially in the dark areas because the candle shines brightest in the dark. And in those moments of darkness where we cling to the hope of resurrection and the power of the risen Christ, that is moments where we practice resurrection. It means we can hope even in the moments that lead to death. Because the resurrected Christ is with us and he has promised resurrection for us as well. So because Christ is risen, that was weak kids. You're fading. Let me try that again. Because Christ is risen, and with us, we have hope. And it's important to remember here that when we talk about having hope in the risen Christ, hope is not passivity. Hope does not just mean that I'm looking forward to something and I'm sort of waiting and sitting and maybe twiddling my thumbs or trying to just stand up and bear up underneath the pain until I get to that moment where there is relief. The wonderful news of Easter is is that because Christ is risen, and we have that resurrection life in us, we have ourselves become agents of new life. Paul said in our reading of Colossians that Christ is our life. And that means that in a very real way, if we have faith in him, if we are united with him in baptism, then we carry that resurrection life and power in us. We are united with him in a death like his, and we will surely have a resurrection like his, and it has begun already. The life that we carry is the life of Christ. And when we live with that in mind, it means that we are those who can bring light into the world. The light of Christ into the world. On In the season of Easter, we have this Paschal candle that we light. And so every time we gather in the season of Easter, we'll have this candle. During the baptism and a little bit later, there was a smaller candle that I will light from that Paschal candle. And we do this every time there's a baptism, even outside the season of Easter. And we hand it off to the person and everybody looks a little bit awkward because now you're holding a candle and everybody wants to come up and hug you. And so most people blow the candle out pretty quickly because it's a little bit awkward. But the candle is important because it symbolizes that when we are going through baptism, The light of Christ that shines in our midst is something that we carry with us now. The candle goes out, but the light of Christ in us does not. So we are agents of resurrection power, bringing God's life to the world. This is the mission that we have been given. Because there is resurrection life, it means that we can give ourselves up for the sake of others. So much of our world is clinging to things, holding on and grasping, wanting the most that we can gather for ourselves and forget about anybody else. We just want what we can have and we can hold and think of ourselves first all the time. And Jesus says there's a different way. You can give up your life. You can serve others. You can give away your money. can give it away even unto death because resurrection is already begun in you and resurrection will happen and there is nothing that is important that you can lose when that light of Christ is within you you've got it and it cannot be taken away and so there is nothing that you need to cling to nothing that you need to hold on to you can give your life away for the sake of others but because Christ is risen. As we love people in Jesus' name, as we serve people in Jesus' name, we do so because we carry the light of Christ with us. It also means that because resurrection life is within us, there is this sense that everything we do and touch as Christians, that light spreads. there's this wonderful image just sort of happens throughout scripture even, that it feels like sin is something that stains people, that it passes easily from one person to another and one generation to another. And it feels like through all the generations, even talking about God's saving power, that each person who it looks like might be able to break that cycle only perpetuates it, that they hand it down again and again and again. And then Jesus breaks onto the scene. And every time that he touches somebody who's a sinner, He does so where he proclaims forgiveness. Instead of sin marring him, he actually is bringing forgiveness and hope to the sinner. When he touches somebody who is unclean, like the leper, the leper doesn't make him unclean. He makes the leper clean. It's this great reversal where everything that Christ touches becomes imbued with his power and his life, and he has touched you. If you have faith in Jesus and you have been baptized with him, you have some of that resurrection power in you. And that means that when you touch and act and serve in the name of Christ, the things that are dark become light. You are not tainted. You are not made unclean. You bring life to the world. There is a sense, a great mystery, I don't know exactly how it will happen, but in which everything that we do in the name of Christ will pass through and endure beyond the judgment into the new creation. It is this that should motivate us to serve, not because we are necessarily going to flip around society because of our actions, though sometimes many good things have happened through Christians taking action. but because when we act in the name of Christ, even if it goes forgotten, even if it is invisible, even if it seems like it becomes undone, there is a way in which Christ will take that up into himself, and it will endure. When Christians create works of art or music, when we work to create beauty in the world, and we do so in the name of Christ, when we do it in his name, We are bringing light and life to the world in a way that will endure, not just if you're a composer whose name is remembered and passed down from one generation to the other, but because you have stepped out in the name of Christ and had an impact on somebody, anybody, that will endure and it is worth it. And all of this is true because Christ has defeated death, because Christ is risen. There will be discontinuity and also continuity, just as there was in the body of Christ. Not everything that we do will be recognizable necessarily in the new heavens and the new earth, but it will be there if it is in God, in his life. This also means that if we are to live in the light of the resurrection... that our small gestures matter just as much as our large ones. We oftentimes think of resurrection as such a big thing, we wonder how we can bring resurrection life to the world around us. We think only those who are imbued with incredible talent have any hope of doing something worthy of the kingdom of God. But that is not true. That's a discouraging lie that Satan would like to perpetuate. Everything that we do in his name matters. the things that we do in our homes, with our families, every moment of gratitude that we offer up to him. I'm humbled that every week I get to stand here and bless bread and wine and then hand it out to you. And that's not through my own power. That is through the power of God. There's nothing magical about that. It is by God's continued grace that he pours out over and over again. But there is a sense that all of us are called to bless the world around us, to give thanks for it to God, and in doing so, transform it, to see it become something that is what it was always intended to be, where we stand as the image of God in the world, and by giving thanks and offering our blessing, it is transformed bit by bit into the new heavens and the new earth, as we recognize the presence of God with us now. It also means that we need to give thanks to have joy. As I said at the beginning, we had that discussion around the breakfast table this morning about fasting and feasting and how in some ways it feels like fasting is clear. What we do, we give something up and you can be pretty clear about this is my fast and this is what I want to do. But what does it look like for you through the season of Easter? Because in the Anglican Church, Easter is not just a day, it's a season. We get to stay here for a while giving thanks for what God has done. What does it like in the season of Easter to take up a celebration, something of joy that you can offer to God just as you offered your sacrifice to God? It doesn't have to be something big. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! There are moments where it will seem that nothing has changed, that you'll ask yourselves, what does it mean? But remember and cling to the fact that Christ is risen. Have hope. Live as an agent of new life in the world, giving up your life for the sake of others and knowing that resurrection comes on the other side. Practice joy and gratitude and practice resurrection because everything is different now that Christ is risen.

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Hallelujah! This is an audio sermon from Christ Our Hope Anglican Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. Find out more about how you can worship with us