Readings: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Mark 16:1-8
Good Morning! Happy Easter everyone!! I would like to begin with a couple of
questions for you to consider this morning?
Why did you come to church today?
Did you come looking for something new, or did you come merely to hear
the Old Old story once again. Karl Barth
a popular theologian has been quoted to say “ What brings people out to
worship, not just at Easter, but any day, is the unspoken question that cling
to their hearts and minds, and the question is simply this: “Is it really true? People
ask me this question often but in different ways. Is God really real Sim, does God live with us
now and is it really God who gives us life? Is it true that God not only established an
order for creation with birth, life and then death, something we call the laws of nature, but then one day God
broke these laws by raising someone from the dead to live forever more? Is it true, that something so extraordinary
happened on Easter morning, that we can only rebuild our lives on its foundation,
that there is no other foundation? Is it true?
One might think that
this is not the day for beginners to come to church, that you would have had to become fascinated
with Jesus’ life and teachings, or at least studied the bible to some degree to
grasp what this day really means. But
Folks!! This is the day that is probably
the hardest and most difficult to understand let alone believe for even the most
seasoned follower. Doubt should not make
you feel out of place here because, Jesus closest friends, his disciples and
even his mom had doubts about the resurrection, let alone to
understand it. This is the day when God brakes one of the three laws of nature by showing
us that neither law, nature nor human logic have any authority or power when it
comes to death or the ways of our God. God and
Jesus would change history and humankind forever on EASTER morning. Nothing would ever be the same again. If we look at all the sermons that were
delivered by the Apostles to the early churches, beginning with the book of
Acts, we would see that the preaching and testimonies they delivered were not
about Jesus life and his teachings. No! It was about living with the resurrected Christ. In fact, I believe that they understood that what Jesus had taught by word and
action, was not original, but had been said and done before. Jesus wasn’t trying to surpass the religious
teachings of the earlier prophets or their miracles. The parting of the red
sea, my goodness who could top that! Great wisdom, acts of healing and compassion even raising someone from the dead can be found within the earlier books of the Old
Testament. In fact Jesus even predicted that greater mysteries
and miracles would be uncovered, discovered and presented by modern day teachers,
those who would come after him, theologians, philosophers, sages, monks, Zen
Master, scientists, and developers of technology and medicine. We need not look any farther than just some
of the medical and technological advances of our century to prove Jesus right. Can you
imagine a computer, the internet, a smart phone or an iPad book reader in the
hands of Mary, Thomas, Peter, Matthew or John. What
would they make of it, unbelievable mind boggling miracles? This is
why the Gospels are considered the forerunner for the main event, for the
greatest mystery and miracle there ever was or ever will be: THE RESURRECTION of the dead to an eternal life. This
mystery shatters the illusion of death, we don’t die. God
has made a way for us to defeat death and to live forever eternally? Now Top that one humankind if you can!
You see for the early followers this day, Easter
as we call it, was and still is the beginning point to finding faith. After the resurrection it took about 60 years
to lay the foundations for what would become Christianity, the resurrection is
what makes Jesus, and his followers today unique from all the other religions of
the world and their miracles. We must remember here that there was
no such thing as the Christian Church during Jesus’ time. The word Christian therefore would have been
foreign and meaningless, to him. The early followers of Jesus were only known
as people of the way. It was after
Easter that the Christian Church began to take it root, Easter is where it all
begins: Easter is for the beginner. This is where we start, it is precisely where
the church started. For centuries
Christians all over the world have begun their journey of faith by turning to and
reflecting upon the empty tomb. Without
the resurrection, Jesus would have remained just another prophet of his time. As
sophisticated and technological as we have become in our time we can not forget that God raising someone from the dead
would be just as difficult to believe by those in Jesus’ time as it is for many
of us today. All the disciples Peter,
Thomas, James, Andrew, his mom they all had their doubts. In fact if you have doubts about it, it's
OK. Why, because there is something in
this story that produces doubt. Would it
surprise you if I told you, that at the very foundation of faith is doubt. The
Thomas we know from scripture the Doubting Thomas as he was labeled would tell
you that it was precisely because of his doubt that he eventually found his faith,
and discovered who Jesus was for him.
John 20:27-29 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here.
See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and
believe." Thomas said to him,
"My Lord and my God!" Then
Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me but
still have believed." Did you
notice that when Thomas called Jesus GOD, Jesus doesn’t rebuke him. In the past Jesus was famous for rebuking his
disciples especially Peter. No rebuke here, he simply says “Because you
have seen me you have believed”. There
is something in this story that reached the deepest regions of our hearts and
minds, where both doubt exists and faith can be found. The resurrection gives us such a miracle of
love and forgiveness that it is worthy of doubt and thus opens the door to faith. So then, the place to begin is not with those
things we know for certain, things we never doubt. Consider this: realities that leave no room
for doubt, may not be large enough or open enough, to reveal God to us. So let me say without hesitation: what we Christians
proclaim at Easter is too profound to be contained by human certainty, to wonderful
to be found only within the boarders of our logical minds. I cannot explain to you with certainty, or
logic just what has happened here for me, nor could Thomas or any of those who
have found their faith in Christ. Your Faith is personal and it begins right
here, at the resurrection. You must
begin to seek and find faith for yourself.
Easter is a day for beginners, and for the committed alike, why!!! because
faith needs to grow and a healthy faith will continue to grow through your
life. Do you have a longing to know
more!!! I have a suggestion for you,
do not start your search with the first Gospel in the New Testament The Gospel
of Matthew, but start with the fourth Gospel the Gospel of John. For
it is John the mystic, who places Jesus with God in the beginning. Let us hear verses 1 &14 of John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14 The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only
Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 
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