Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
Easter Day
April 16, 2006
W. Gregory Pope
WALKING IN THE WAY OF JESUS:
THE WAY OF RESURRECTION AND HOPE
Isaiah 25:6-9; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8
A pastor went to a nursing home to offer communion to the residents. This was not one of those upscale places called a retirement center. This facility was for the poor and its residents were mostly in various stages of dementia. When the pastor arrived she was told by a volunteer, who was wheeling patients into the room, that since it was late afternoon, everyone’s medication seemed to be wearing off. Some would sleep through the service as usual, but for the most part, her little congregation would be on the wild side today. Sure enough, all through the beginning of the service, a woman sang, “Row, row, row your boat,” bouncing up and down in her wheel chair. It got so chaotic that the pastor clapped her hands to get their attention, and said, “What shall I read from the Bible today? What part would you like to hear?” Above all the movement and noise still in the room, one answer could be heard in an old woman’s voice: “Tell us a resurrection story.” The room changed. Those who’d been moving grew still. Sleepers opened their eyes. “Yes,” said another. And from yet another: “Yes. Tell us a resurrection story.”
Anybody need to hear a resurrection story? Have you been smelling death for too long? Have you come face to face with your own death? Or the death of someone you love? Are you sick to death of world news, saddened and repulsed by the tragic wasting of life? Or is it that something within you has died? A relationship. A career. A way of life. Your faith. The forms of death are legion. Are you here this Easter Day to hear a resurrection story?
Well, I happen to have one for you. It’s a story that comes most fully and most meaningfully to those who seek to walk in the way of Jesus. As you can see up behind me from these beautiful liturgical banners, “Walking in the Way of Jesus” has been the focus of our Lenten journey this year. We carry that point of focus with us into Easter because the way of Jesus does not end upon a cross.
Perhaps you think it does.
You’ve tried loving your neighbors and your enemies, but they keep using you and hurting you.
You’ve tried suffering with the wounded through acts of compassion, both large and small, but all it seems to do is deplete you, and you can’t really see any difference that it makes.
You’ve tried grace, but your sin and shame are just too overwhelming.
You’ve tried forgiveness, but the wounds are just too painful to forgive. Besides, if you do, people will just run over you.
You’ve been giving your life for peace in a world possessed by “a terrible love of war” (James Hillman’s phrase) and your voice seems so small.
You speak and act and vote for justice, but injustice continues to roll down like a mudslide all over God’s beautiful creation, suffocating the weak, the poor, and the powerless.
You want to live simply and generously, but you think, “What’s the use? It really is everyone out for themselves. So why not enjoy life’s creature comforts and let others find their own way.”
You’ve tried life as a servant, but you have to live in the real world where power and forceful leadership are the only instruments of success. You can’t live your life at the beck and call of the needs of others.
If you’ve tried it, you’ve found that the way of Jesus truly is the way of the cross. All these things Jesus taught and lived run so counter to the way of our world. Freedom is what’s most important. Don’t tell me I’m responsible for contributing to the world the gospel medicine of love and compassion, grace and forgiveness, peace and justice, simplicity and generosity, as a servant of the world!
That’s how Jesus lived. And where did it get him? That’s right. It got him crucified on a cross. Surely, God doesn’t want me to deny myself and take up my cross! Wait. That is what Jesus said, wasn’t it?
On a Friday afternoon, the powers and authorities of religion and government colluded to rid the world of Jesus. He was a threat to their coercive powers and unjust social systems that protected the wealthy and oppressed the weak.
I wonder how much of a threat are we. How dangerous does this world think we are in the face of violence and injustice? Is anyone after us?
The powers and authorities joined together against Jesus by stealth. And on a dark Friday afternoon they snuffed out his life and silenced his voice, seeking to put fear into the hearts and minds of any who would join his band of followers. On Friday, the powers of this world said a resounding No to the way of Jesus. They still do.
Now you may thinking, “Preacher, what happened to that resurrection story you had for us? This still sounds like death.” Well, as one writer put it, “resurrection takes place in the country of death.” (Eugene Peterson, Living the Resurrection, NavPress, 2006, 55). In the country of death where all of us live, that is where we wait and hope for resurrection.
On that Friday afternoon, in the country of death, the world had come to an end. The finest human being you could ever imagine was dead. Those who were closest to him could only believe that God was in him like no other. And now, a reality beyond their worst nightmares had come true. He was dead, killed on a cross. The sinful powers and authorities of greed, violence, and injustice had silenced compassion, peace, and justice. The world screamed No to the way of Jesus with hammers and nails.
But . . . on . . . Sunday, on a Sunday morning while it was still dark, God was at work. God had been at work in Jesus all along. But only now was the whole world about to find out.
Three women who had known Jesus came to his tomb to anoint his body. It was very early on the first day of the week. The sunrise was just beginning to peer over the horizon. They arrived at the tomb, and to their astonishment they saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. They entered and saw a young man dressed in a white robe. And it nearly scared them to death.
The man said, “Don’t be afraid. You’re looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has been raised. Go now, and tell his disciples that he’s going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.”
While on Friday the world said No to the way of Jesus. On Sunday morning God said No to those powers of injustice and oppression that had killed Jesus, and God said Yes to the way of Jesus. Jesus died for the kingdom of God, because of his passion for God’s justice and grace. Through his resurrection, God vindicated the cross and validated the way of Jesus. “This is the kind of world I’ve been dreaming of since the day of creation,” said God. “This is how it’s supposed to be.”
The good news of Easter, says Jim Wallis, is that “when all that sin had done, or could ever do, was laid on Jesus, it did not overcome him. Death could not swallow him. The grave was denied its victory. . . He is alive. He has triumphed over all. He is the victor over every sin, hate, fear, violence, and death. Nothing is stronger than his victory. The Crucified One has prevailed over every principality, power, and dominion. . . . He has unmasked their illusions, exposed their lies, and showed them for what they are. He stands free of their threats, power, and control. He defeated them by letting them do their worst to him, then he vanquished them by the power of God’s love and truth - weapons stronger than all the weapons of the world. . . . The resurrection seals the truth of the cross; it declares that, once and for all, oppression and death are swallowed up in Christ’s victory.” (Jim Wallis, The Call to Conversion, Harper San Francisco, revised 2005, 172-73)
If that is true, why does the world still look like it’s not true? Why does the world’s No sound louder than God’s Yes? If not all the time, at least most of the time. Well, let’s return to the tomb.
You may be aware that the four gospels tell the resurrection story with slight variations. However, Mark’s story ends very differently than the others. The best biblical manuscripts we have lead most scholars to believe that Mark’s gospel ends with the women fleeing the tomb, seized by terror and amazement, saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid. A crazy way to end a gospel, but profoundly true, I think.
Could it be that resurrection does not look true in the world because, for the most part, the church of Jesus Christ is just like those terrorized women who say nothing about God’s ultimate defeat of the kingdoms of this world because we are afraid? Are we afraid of the kingdoms of this world? Are we afraid of what resurrection really means?
Or worse, do we not truly believe it? Are we so hopeless and cynical that we have given up on the way of Jesus in this world, afraid to look like naive dreamers? Are we are left to believe that the way of the world is the way things are and always will be, that the powers of this world will always be in control, and that faith is only worth something in the next world? Without a firm belief in God’s Easter triumph that is where we are left.
In his death, the world threw everything it had at Jesus. But Easter is God’s Yes to the way of Jesus. Each of us must decide if we will walk in his way.
The way begins by hearing Jesus’ vision of a new kingdom and turning our lives away from the self-centered kingdom offered by our culture, whose ways are those of oppressive injustice and violent coercive power. In repentance we turn from that worldly kingdom toward the kingdom of God.
We identify with the kingdom of God through baptism. We commit ourselves to a life of discipleship, following Jesus.
We take the road to which Jesus calls us because it is this world’s last and only hope. We are able risk his way because, even if it kills us, we believe that there are worse things than death.
There is a way of life that brings death to others and, though it may save our lives, it kills our souls and breaks the heart of God.
God in Christ has offered to us another - a life that leads to life for others. And though it might get us killed, it will save our souls and bring to life God’s dream for the world.
We risk the way of Jesus because Easter says death does not have the final word. We walk in the way of Jesus because it leads ultimately to resurrection.
The way of Jesus leads through death into life. Paul writes about the way of transformation as the way of dying to your old self and rising to walk in newness of life. Baptism is a ritual enactment of dying and rising, death and resurrection, into a new self, a new creation. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”
The baptismal confession, “Jesus is Lord” is both personal and political. It involves a deep personal centering in God that includes a radical trust in God, and issues forth in a politic where all loyalty and allegiance is to the kingdom of God.
To confess “Jesus is Lord,” is to say that the lords of this world are not, and they do not have the final word. The risen Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he shall reign forever and ever.
The question is: When we leave this resurrection celebration today, will we depart in fear and say nothing to anyone, or will we decide to walk in the way of hope?
Lisa Sullivan was a young African-American woman who grew up in a D. C. in a working-class family, earned a PhD. at Yale, and felt called back to the streets and forgotten children of D.C. The youth of the city trusted her. She was in the process of creating a network and infrastructure of support for the best youth-organizing projects up and down the East Coast. But at the age of forty, Lisa died suddenly of a rare heart ailment.
Lisa’s legacy continues through countless young people whom she inspired, challenged and mentored. There is one thing Lisa often said that has lived beyond her life. When people would complain that we don’t have any leaders today or would ask where the Martin Luther Kings are now, Lisa would get angry and declare, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
That is the commission the risen Christ offers all who will follow him. It can only be fulfilled by people who, though very human, are foolish enough to believe that the world can be changed. And it is that very belief that changes the world. (Jim Wallis, God’s Politics, Harper San Francisco, 2005, 373-374)
Jim Wallis says, “The greatest threat to any system is the existence of fools who do not believe in the ultimate reality of that system. Indeed, the first step in making new realities possible is to break free from the grip and the authority of the old realities. To repent and to believe in a new reality - that is the essence of conversion. . . . The basis of our faith is that Jesus Christ is stronger than any of the powers that confront us: political tyranny, economic oppression, injustice and violence . . . We confront the world’s powers not merely with our own strength, resources, ideas, commitment, work, or resistance. Rather, we confront the world with the very life of the resurrected Christ among us. . . . And we join the body of Christ whose purpose it is to make visible this new reality in the world.” (Wallis, The Call to Conversion, 174-75)
We are the Easter people of God, entering the suffering of the world with resurrection hope. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We’re the ones Jesus is waiting to meet out there. Will we walk in the way of Jesus and meet him there?
LET US PRAY. God of Resurrection, grant us courage for the living of these days as we seek to walk in the way of Jesus. May the risen Christ live in us and through us. May we be your voice of No to the injustice of this world. May we be your voice of Yes to the way of Jesus and your kingdom. Through Christ we pray. Amen.
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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