TCETTING JGHa Te BASTCS BETHAGY PRESBYTERTAY CHURCH
JOH 2O:7-18 LAFAYETTE, IdDIAdA
EASTER SUHDAY, APRIL 14, 1974 JOKE 4. BUCHANAN

He had been, literally, her salvation. it is said that a man's life
Flashes through his consciousness as he dies. In her case, her best and
dearest friend died - Ser savior ~ and her life came flowing back out of
the deep recesses of memory. He aad taught her to overcome that - that
living out of a wretched past that made a hell of the present. But now tie
was dead, and wiat she had bean before caneback Tike a flood. The little
girl in the rough streets of nagdata: the young woman who learned quickly
that sailors would pay generously for her favors: disowned by her family:
the miserable, lonely women who could not stand nerself and wiose only
relief seemed to be that affection and attention she received as a
practitioner of her profession: the woman otner people said was sick -

possessed by demons.

But then a man by the name of Jesus had come into her life. He loved
her = and alone - accepted ticr as she vas; until stowly she came to Tove
and accept herself. Until slowly she was free of her past and there was no
need to continue her self-hating, self-destroying behavior. Sho was
literally saved - actually reborn - because of the honest, strong love of
a man named Jesus, And so she had followed him: she had follewed him into
Jerusalem. She had seen with her own eyes how the city had turned against
him: she had seen him arrested and spat upon and whipped. And when his
friends backed away ~ she Stayed, at the foot of his cross as he died.

There were a tot of broken Searts on that gloomy Friday - but none,
but none, with the single exception of his mother's, so desparately broken
as hers.

And so it is not surpristia that “ary addalene, not more than 36
hours after nis death, in that gray dawa before the sun appears found his
tomb. The others either didn’t kaon where it WaS, OY more probably knew
but were too afraid to aven coutemplate going there. Nary wasn't afraid:

she had nething to lose the only thing that mattered to her was gone:

"GETTING DOW. TO BASTos" ~2- APRIL 14, 1974
he only light in her life of darkness was snuffed out: her savior was
dead.

When she came to the tomb in the semi-darkness, she noticed that the
large stone which covered the Opening had been rolled away. Immediately
she went to the place where the others were niding and told them what she
had seen. "ft wasn’t enough to kill him - now they have taken the body.?
Peter and John ran - saw the empty tomb ~ some things jelled in their
minds - and returned convinced they had witnessed the evidence of a miracle
to end all miracles.

Gut Mary returaed to the tomb to resume her vigil of grief. And then,
in the depths of despair, in her misery and hoplessness, Jesus Christ,whkom
she presumed dead. cailed her by name.

Hers if a special story because it jis personal and intimate. It is,
for me, one of the most touching stories in all titerature, and in terms
of Celebrating Easter Sunday it may be the most important of all. It
takes the resurrection of Jesus Christ out of those categories with which
we are most comfortable ~ philosophy, theology, biology, and places it
squarely in the embarassingly intimate context of the life of a very real
numan being - which is the place where we are most uncomfortable. The
dead Jesus was alive enough to say her name. And she was honest and courad-
eous enough to answer,

Jonn Calvin, father of Prasbyterianism, and one of the greatest minds
ever to think intellectually about the Gospel of Jesus Christ once obser-
ved that the creeds of the church ought to be sung instead of recited.

That is to say; the great, central doctrines of Christianity came out better
when they are affirmed poetically, artistically, with body, setrit, mind

and emotions; rather than dealing with them solely as a mater of intellect,
and intellectual understanding.

Never is that observation more relevant than on Easter Sunday. In

the first place the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so central to the

“GETTING DOW! To BASTES" -3- APRIL 14, 1974
Christian Faith taat ali else is commentary. Apart from the resurrection
there would be no New Testament, no Church: Jesus might occupy a seat of
prominence in the pantheon of history's noble martyrs, but even that's
ratner doubtful. Everything that has been done in the name oF Christianity
for 2,000 years; everytning that is dane today, including the life of this
particular congregation, grows out of the basic conviction that Jesus
Christ did not stay dead. |

In the second place the resurrection defies explaining and therefore
understanding. Hot that men haven't tried. There is no end to man's
efforts to explain how it happened: how a man who was supposed to be dead
got up and walked away. It's interesting that the Gosnel writers didn’t
even give it a collece-try. In fact tney document the rather embarassing
fact that the ones who should have been ready for it weren't. They didn't
expect it: they had difficulty believing it, particularty when al? they had
£0 go on was the testimony of someone alse.

Taking the historical/analytical approach there were only two things
that can in any way be called hard facts. The first is that Jesus was
dead. Even the most skeptical historians concede that there was a desus,
that he ended up a victim of criucifixtan, and that crucifixions were a
notorously effective method of execution. People didn't faint on Roman
crosses, to be revived Tater. Hewas dead.

The second fact is that his friends became convinced that he rose from
his grave. First, a relatively small group: and then a much larger group.

With those two bits of hard data the analytical appraach comes to a
grinding halt, and the person wo wants to maintain a posture of intellect-
ual honesty is left with the conclusion that something fantastic happened
in between. The writers, while staying a respectful distance from the
actual event do try to describe the other events that Surrounded it. But
their accounts differ and contradict each other. And inevitably it has

been suggested that someone took the body. The authorities perhaps - ta

"GETTIGG DOW! TC BASTSS" “&~ APRIL 14, 1974
keep the disciples from taking it. In a delightful chapter in his book

“The Christian Agnostic “, Leslie Weatherhead deals with and demolishes all

‘the rational explanations of the resurrection. About this one he wrote:
"God raised him from the dead; said Peter, preaching. within a short time
of the crucifixion and within a mile or so from where it took place. If
this were not true, why in heaven's name did not someone come forward and
say, ‘Don't be silly, I can show you his body.!"

As for the suggestion that the disciples themselves secreted the hody
away, if there is anything more incomprehensible to me than the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, it is the idea that this pathetic little group of
frightened men assembled in a room and concocted the story and then went
out and died for it.

Something happened: something that convinced tham that Jesus who

was dead, was dead no longer. The victim af cruelty, hate, bigotry - was
the victor. On the basis of that something, eleven very unlikely men went
out and literally turned the world upside down. For Mary, what happened
that morning near the garden made all the difference in the world. For
the disciples it meant the complete transformation from men who were hiding
behind a locked door, into followers of Jesus Christ who were afraid of
nothing. Whatever happened ft convinced tnem that they had nething to
fear, ever again. A world in whicn a resurrecttion happened is a whole new
wortd,

It was a world, for instance, in which the deas of Jesus - which
sounded so alien and out of step ~ were suddenly the right ideas. The
cause was not lost. Love is not the eternal victim of hatred. Goodness,
compassion, integrity,kifndness were for real: lasting, ultimate realities,
not just the noble dreams of a martyred rabbi. And because of that they
could live with a nev! sense of hope and confiderice.

G. K. Chesterton once wrote that "A real Christian who believes

Should do two things: dance out of the sheer sence of joy, and fight out of

“GETTING DOM! TO BASTCS" Lf. APRIL 14, 1974
the sheer sense of victory." That needs saying today. For joy and con-
fidence seen, in cur day, to be casualties of rampant boredom and cynicism
James Smas* describes tha disciples, botween the crucifixion and resurrect-_
fon as men “groping in the dark, standing heipless, before the towerding
mystery of evil, feeling hopeless and inadequate in the face of sin and
chaos and man's ruthless inhumanity to man."

That says it pretty well for us I think. There is a Tot about ar
wortd that is discouraging and depressing and senseless. On Maundy Thuy 3-
day the newspaner carried the account of a terrorist raid in Israel that
resulted in the death of eighteen peale: men, women and Tittle children.

It seems sometimes that man's inhumanity to man hasn't even slowed down

in 2,090 vears. The cross of desus Christ is a continuing reminder that
uncatecorically evil things do happen in the world. Easter is not the
time to try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with a lot of talk about
Flowers and man's nobility. History proves that to be hopeiessty bank-
rupt. What the resurrection maant and means is that Tove will win. There
may be set-backs. Ignorance and hatred may win a skirmish here and there.
But love is the ultimate oower.

The resurrection meant chat the strugdle ahead was werth it: that the
disciples could commit their tives - with confidence - (> the cause of
Christ. Recent poits continue to reveal that a startling number of American
people have concluded that it's no use standing up for what (Ley Aeleceec-
is right and good-in the public domain: that dishonesty and corruption
are so deepiy a part of our politice!l processes that it is foolish to
bulid one's personal philosophy on the concepts of fairness, integrity
and responsibility. That is to. say, Americans are becoming. cynical. And
their cynicism is turning them inward - away from any stance of commitment
and invelvement. na resurrection of Jesus Christ means that the struggle
is worth it. It may seem that it's stretching the point to get from

Faster to Watergate. But I am suggesting that it is precisely in the midst

"GETTING DOW TO BASICS" | -6- APRIL 14, 1974
of political and social ambiquity that Christians who are confidently
committed need to stand firmly. It does matter. It is worth it to stand
for what you know is goad.

The cress is the symbol of goodness Suffering at the hands of evil.
But that’: behind us on Eester Sunday and we can fight out of the sheer
sence of victory,

The cross symbolizes death: death as a personal reatity - and death
as a force in the world with a power of its own. But that, too, has been
put in a new perspective by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That last
and deepest fear has been banished. Of course we wit Il dite. But that
prospect no longer needs to fill us with fear and trembling. For Jesus
Christ hw shown us that the love of God overcomes even the power of death.
So we can dance: joy - real joy is possible,

The closing message cf tne World Council of Churches Assembly several
years ago put in words the meaning of the resurrection in tlife: "We do not
Know what is coming: to us, but we know who is coming. It is he who meets
us everyday and who wil? meet us at the end. Therefore we say, Rejetce
in hope."

Now the disciples did not put it in these terms. but I am suagqesting
to you that whatever happened to them after the crucifixion of their
Lord was so redical that it changed them entirely: it changed their
sorrow into joy: it changed their fear into courage: it transformed
cynicism into commitment. And I am suggesting that the rasurrection of
Jesus Christ means that same thing today: that to know Christ as Risen
Lord is to live in joy and courage and commitment.

Finally, however, we are left with the question with which we began:
the one we avoid: the one preachers back away from in favor of more manag-
eable topics like good and evil> death and freedom. We are left, finally,
with the whole matter of personally believing and dealing with the resur-~

rection of Jesus Christ. We are left, that is to say with a woman weeping

"GETTING OOWd TO BASICS -]- APRIL 14, 1974
beside an empty tomb. I don't think Mary Magdalene would have been very
impressed with’ the philosophic thesis that the empty tomb meant good was
more powerful than evil. I don't think Mary would have been helped much
by most of the sermons preached on this day.

For:att our vaunted analytical prowess, I am not convinced that
knowing that the tomb was empty on Easter morning makes much real difference
in a person's life. What mattered to Mary was the fact that desus Christ
called her by name. That's what Easter is all about. A person, a voice
calling each of us by name. Edmund Steimte put it this way: "Not just a
fact, a rather sterile fact, actually, that Christ is risen frenthe dead,
but that Christ is alive to call you by name, to call me by name, for all
our names are caught up in that one name , ‘Nary'".

That's getting down to basics. Easter, for Mary, meant that Jesus
Christ was a reality she could continue to rely on. Easter meant that the
personal love and acceptance that had changed her life did not die, and
therefore she could continue to live in the freedom he had given her. He
nad been, literally, her savior. Easter meant that he was still and for-
ever would be = her savior.

So, for you and me the resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes a reality,
not when we hear about it, but when we put ourselves in a position where
we are confronted by him personally. When we, like Mary, follow him -
suffer with him ~ watch him die for us - he wit] come to us and call us by
name. If the lovely story of Nary Nagdalene has amthing to teach us it is
this: the Risen Christ comes to those who love him enough to follow him.

He did not appear to the people who crucified him: he did not come to the
vast majority of Jerusalemites who were neutral. He came to that little
band of the faithful who had followed ~ starting with Mary Magdalene.

One thing more her story teaches us and that is that we experience the
Risen Christ in order that we might live courageously and joyfully in the

world. When he came to Mary she did a very normal thing. She tried to

. *

"GETTING DOW TG BASICS” -8- APRIL 14, 1974
hold on to him so as never to lose him again. But he said: “Don't cling
to me - Go to my brethren - go back to life - and know that I am always
with you. " Mary accepted that. Frightening as it must have been she
went to the disciples and said "I have seen the Lord."

That is the greatest mystery of all. The Risen Christ goes with us.
His presence in the world is in us - in you and me. He lives through us.
He is revealed in the world when we live as his people.

So let us celebrate - the victory of good over evil: life over death:
love over Late: let us celebrate in joy and confident commitment: Tet us
celebrate a voice out of death that calls each of us by name. For Christ

our Lord was dead but is alive.

OUR FATHER, we are grateful for this day; for each other;for your Tove.
We are grateful for a world in which a resurvection has happened, and for
the new life of joy and hope we are given, We are grateful father, that our

Lord who was dead, is alive. AMEN