Second Presbyterian Church

"The Absurdity of it All"
April 20, 2003

Upcoming Events

Worship Schedule

Sermons

About the Church

• Accessibility to the Church

• Directions to the Church

• History of the Church

Church Staff

Groups & Organizations

• Boy Scouts of America - Troop 175

• Choirs

• Presbyterian Women

• SPY (Second Presbyterian Youth)

Committees

• Building & Grounds

• Church Growth

• Congregational Care & Fellowship

• Education & Nurture

• Finance

• Office & Personnel

• Stewardship

• Witness & Service

• Worship & Celebration

Ad Hoc Committees

• Architectural - Engineering

• Building Fund

Presbyterian Internet Sites of Interest

Virginia Links

• Virginia Cities

Web Site Statistics

Site Map

Second Presbyterian Church Homepage

Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2003 » Sermons for April 2003

Easter Sunday, Year B
by The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• 1 Cor. 15: 1-11
• Mark: 16: 1-8
• John 20: 1-18

If there is one universal truth about humanity it is this: we resist change. We hate change. It is so discombobulating! It is so unpredictable! It makes us uncomfortable, by changing that with which we are familiar. Even those of us who believe that we welcome change, we have set up a reaction-formation to love change so that change doesn't make us too anxious.

To resist change is not only a law of human nature; it is a law of all nature! A general law of physics is that it takes more energy to change the direction of matter, to accelerate it or decelerate it. That is why you burn more gasoline in your car when you have to make a lot of stops, than when you don't have to make a lot of stops. It is why it may take more than a mile to stop a train. We resist change; nature resists change.

Do you recall the healing, by Jesus, of the Geresene Demoniac? He was the man who had been possessed by a legion of demons. And the demons would make him scream, beat his head against the stones and have him hang out around the cemetery. When Jesus healed the Geresene Demoniac he sent the demons into a herd of pigs that rushed head-long down a cliff and drowned in the sea. It was easier for the people to have a raging stark naked maniac running around their cemetery. They were used to this. They were not used to change that brought healing, sanity and also had the power to destroy a large herd of swine.

The disciples also resisted change. Over and over again Jesus tried to cue them in as to what was going to happen to him. Over and over again he would tell them that they were going to Jerusalem, he would be handed over to the Temple leaders, be crucified and on the third day he would be raised from the dead. Three times Mark records that Jesus warned his disciples of his impending death and resurrection. And three times the disciples manifestly expressed that they did not have the slightest clue as to what Jesus was trying to tell them! It was strange, it was new, it could not be comprehended and they resisted what the words of Jesus really meant.

In a word, what Jesus was saying was absurd. No Messiah is supposed to die. The Messiah is supposed to get rid of the Romans and rule over the land of Israel as the great king of David. Someone who forgives sins, heals the sick, casts out demons and raises the dead is not supposed to be the one who will refuse to defend himself and allow the Temple leaders to have him arrested, beaten, and crucified. What kind of Messiah is that? That won't rid our land of the Roman soldiers and governors! It's useless! It is absurd!

Now, look at us. 2000 years later and we are just as resistant to change and to something new as anyone ever was during the time of Jesus. What do we do? We trivialize Easter so that we don't have to deal with the absurdity of the doctrine that we call, the Resurrection of Jesus. Let me explain.

What do we do around this time of the year? We celebrate Easter by making it some kind of "rite of spring." We conjure up bunny rabbits that lay Easter eggs. Please note, I am not aware that bunnies lay eggs, much less colored ones, or fancy designer eggs. We conjure up some myth about how the Easter bunny goes around giving these Easter Eggs to all the children. It has a faint semblance to what Santa Clause does at Christmas. We decorate our houses and offices with pastel, spring-like colors and flowers. Some of us actually hang colored eggs (hopefully plastic) on the trees in our front yards.

In some ways this is all in good, innocent fun: the Easter Bunny, Easter eggs, and so on. Believe me, I shall not refuse, when offered, a chocolate Easter egg, or a chocolate Easter bunny. But I am dismayed by the commercialism and the shallowness of pretending that we are celebrating Easter by celebrating the season of spring. And I fear that too many people have grown up without really coming to serious terms with the true meaning of Easter.

This dismays me, yet I also understand it. The meaning of Easter is this: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, suffered and died upon a cross and on the third day he was raised from the dead and has been alive since then. He is still alive, not just in spirit, but in his resurrected body - even to this day.

Let me say that again, Jesus of Nazareth was killed upon a cross. Three days later God raised him, bodily, from the dead. He lives, even now, even today! Now, doesn't that seem absurd?

Let's face it. How many times have you witnessed somebody who has been dead for over 36 hours and who was raised from that death bed, even while he laid in a tomb? I am willing to bet it has not been very many times at all. It is just plain absurd!

That's why I understand people who prefer to run around during this time of year and celebrate flowers, eggs and rabbits, even egg-laying rabbits! Everyone knows that it is just good, clean fun and doesn't have to be taken literally, or seriously.

But not we Christians. When we say that we believe in the resurrection, we are serious. In fact we are so serious that we are willing to follow Jesus, not only to Galilee, but also to the ends of the earth. We are so serious that we are willing to take up our crosses and follow Jesus; we are willing to follow Jesus even if it means that we get killed doing so!

Why? Because we are absurd! We not only believe that Jesus died and was raised back to life, we actually believe that when we die, there shall come a day when we, too, shall be resurrected!

Say What?!! We actually believe that there shall come a day when death itself dies! God shall destroy death itself and we shall live forever! From a purely human point of view, this is just plain absurd! From a human point of view, I understand why so many people focus upon the Easter Bunny and candy and things, the absurdity of it all!

Just how absurd does it seem to you, the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead? One way to test the range of how absurd this resurrection stuff sounds to you; just try telling a friend about it. See what it is like to share with a friend the fact that you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by God.

It is very, very hard. Why? Because we do not like to have our friends think that we have lost touch with reality. We do not like to have our friends believe that we have gone loony.

Today is Easter Sunday! Today we, along with Christians all over the globe, celebrate the glorious good, albeit absurd, (Absurd doesn't mean untrue; it just means - absurd!) news that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead. It is not only good news: it's great news! We now know that we can be forgiven. We now know that God loves us very, very much, so much that God has chosen to give us eternal life, not death. Death no longer has the final word, God has that final answer! Life is that final answer! Not existence, but life that has purpose and meaning. Life that is rich and abundant, because we live in fellowship with the loving, creating, redeeming God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead has implications, not only for our individual lives, but also for our congregational Life. Someone has noted that too often congregations function under the principle of "operational atheism." We may mouth the words of "Praise the Lord" and "He is risen," yet we go about our congregational life as if there is no God, much less a resurrected Messiah!

Second Presbyterian Church has a rich and wonderful history. But what is our present and future? Do we have one? You Bet we do! And our future does not hinge upon our financial or human resources; it hinges upon our willingness to accept and live as people who accept the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as true. Our future hinges upon the power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was raised for our salvation. Our future hinges upon us living the ministry of the resurrected Jesus, as if there is no longer any more death! Why? Death is no longer permanent. Death no longer has the final say.

It means that if we accept the fact, the absurd fact, that Jesus is alive - even now, then we don't have to be afraid of the future. We don't have to be afraid of the changes that God may have in store for us, because we know and trust in God's future for Second Presbyterian Church. And, let's face it, We, Second Presbyterian Church, have no future by worshiping the past, that which has died. We, Second Presbyterian Church, only have a future when we search and claim God's future for us. And it is my absurd belief that that future hinges upon our continuing acceptance of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who was killed, the one who was raised back to life by God, the one who lives today, the one who is willing to live in our hearts daily, the one who wishes to bring life into our congregational heart.

May each of you have a blessed Easter, renewed by the Spirit of the resurrected Christ who witnesses to his resurrection. Amen.