LOVE CAN NEVER LOSE ITS OWN John M. Buchanan

Mark 15:42-16:8 Broad Street Presbyterian Church
April 19, 1981 Easter Columbus, Ohio

In the middle of the television coverage of the flight of Columbia, our
nation's space shuttle, someone thought to interview Check Yeager, now General
Yeager, former test pilot. Yeager flew the X-series planes that own ali the speed
and altitude records and which twenty or so years ago first broke the legendary
sound barrier, Yeager was the pilot, The interviewer invited him to reflect on
how we have pushed back the borders of the unknown in the intervening years. Gan-
eral Yeager wag Simple and eloquent. He said that at the time, many smart people
believed it couldn't be done: intelligent people thought they had scientific evi-
dence that no object can move faster than sound, and that an airplane would dis-
integrate as it broke through that barrier,

One of the exciting aspects of life in this era is the reminder, repeated
daily, that we don't know everything we thought we knew. Twenty years ago, the
event we all watched last week, would have heen consigned to the comic strips or
the naive fantasies of the dreamers and visionaries, There was a time, not very
long in fact, when we were confident that we knew about all there was to know and
that the major intellectual assignment facing the race was the cataloging of all
the final information we had discovered,

We are a little less confident today, a little more modest, Space explora-
tion has taught us what we don't know, Astro physics deals with concepts. such as a
universe expanding at the speed of light into infinity and suddenly you and J
realize that things are not nailed down as tightly as we assumed.Most of us have
trouble With that, however. The visionaries and futurists may be comfortable con-
templating entirely new ways of perceiving, but most of us Erust the scientific
method without even thinking about it.

Seeing is not only believing, for us...in a real way, believing is seeing.
We have come to assume, quite unconsciously of eourse, that we may believe only
what we can see; only what we can touch, weigh, measure and reduce to component
parts, Faith is limited by knowledge: common sense dictates what we believe and

don't believe,

So we come to church on Easter Sunday thinking that we ‘now what it's alT
about, our analytical Powers turned on full, assuming that Easter involves daffo-
dils and the rebirth of life, or perhaps the immortality of noble principals that
live on from one generation to the next; we hide ourselves in a well dressed crowd
hoping against hope that the preacher won't say something silly, something our
cognitive capacity tells us isn't true, something about a Tesurrection; or hoping,
at least, that if be gets into it he'll have the Braciousness to couch it in
enough theological jargon that it won't matter much one way or the other,

If only we had proof! If we had the courage to be honest, most of us would
confess that we come to church on Easter morning in the same way three women came
to a tomb in Joseph's garden, early in the morning on the first day of the week, a
very long time aga: tentatively, assuming they knew what they would find there,
knowing what happened and what it meant.

The trouble with the only thing resembling an eyewitness account is that the
writer is very stingy with detail. The trouble with the Gospel accounts of the

- 2 -

Resurrection is that they were written for people who already believed it: they
don't even bother to argue the case, they simply state it, sparsely, sparingly.
Someone has pointed out that the New Testament can't hold a candle to the medieval
Paintings of the stone split down the middle and the sovereign Christ stepping out,
and the soldiers fainting and the angels Singing Hallelujah Cheruses. Can you
imagine what the people who brought us Masada could do with the Resurrection?

The earliest account is Mark's, It is the briefest and plainest. Three
women go to the tomb to annoint the body. When they arrive the stone has been
moved, a young man tells them Jesus is not there, and the three women leave,
frightened, and agreeing with one another that no matter what happened their lips
are sealed; they aren't talking to anyone, ‘That's all these is to it and I have
come to appreciate its leanness, It doesn't press hard, argue, debate: it doesn't
ask you to shut your cyes and swallow hard, it simply tells it.

So abruptly does Mark end his account that scholars have speculated about
the possibilities: perhaps he wrote a glorious conclusion about the Resurrection
appearances and the marvelous faith of the disciples and it was lost, tern off and
forgotten: or perhaps an editor somewhere along the Line didn't care for it and
simply eliminated it: or perhaps Mark was interrupted as he wrote by the Roman
authorities and carted off the prison. (See David H.C.Read Unfinished Easter).

I think Mark wrote it that way. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was 80 real,
s0 central to the whole life of the Christians that he saw no need for spelling out
the sequel to the empty tomb. He was living it. He and the others had encountered
a whole new way of living - in the presence of a Lord who was alive and at work in
the world. St. Paul called it, enigmatically the "New Being", And C,8,Lewis
wrote - "He has forced open a door that has been loched...Everything is different
because He has dene so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter
in cosmic histery has opened." (The Joyful Christian, p.65).

The point of Easter is not that in an isolated incident in history a dead
man came back to life, and that if you can swallow that you probably won't have
trouble imagining the same thing happening to yourself sometime. Of course, that's
exactly what it is for many...David Read calls it "an exercise in religious nos-
talgia to the sound of trumpets", If that's all this day is, it's no wonder folk
come now but not again. What the faith proclaims, however, is a risen Lord and
therefore the reality of the Resurrection in the midst of your life and mine ta-
morrow and next weck and next month,

The point is, first, that God is faithful. "Rise, shine, for your light has
come", the prophet wrote to a miserable band of Jewish exiles, 2,500 years ago.
Easter is our assertion that the God who brought His people owt of exile, the God
who - before that ~ heard their cries and liberated them from oppression in Egypt -
that same God has raised His son - and will centinue to do that sort of thing
in history, Easter means that the future may be regarded, not as the eneny and
time the relentless pursucr, but as friend, as adventure, as the delightful pros-
pect of surprises which may be anticipated now, not in fear and trembling, but in
full confidence and joy, The Resurrection means thet God is faithful and may be
trusted.

The point is that love is strong. That Friday cross, that monstrous in-
justice stands for a lot that is wrong about human life. The crucifixion of Jesus
stands for little Jewish children waiting in line in front of the concentration
camp shower room; it is the same category with automobile accidents and cancer.

~43-

It stands for unfairness, injustice, irrational evil. In theological terms
Friday's cross means that the power of sin and death has no rival, that despair is
the only appropriate emotional pasture. Easter's empty tomb, however, moans .that
there is another word on the subject; that ‘there is one thing stronger, more
powerful, more real, and that.is-the love of God. And once we have seen the faith-
fulness of God, and the strength of His love, the point becomes the very good news
that God's love for-you‘- for me - for all-people - does not end in death,. It is
not the only meaning of the’ day: in fact, in isolation it degenerates into nos-
talgia. But the love-of God for each individual is at the center of it all. It
is” a meaning best expressed’ ina line of John Greenleaf Whittier.

' “Life is ever Lord of.death

And Love can never lose its own." | -

I thin about that line a lot. I think about it-.in the middle of many of —
the more difficult duties of my profession... IT think about it in connection with
my relationships, and the source of meaning in my life. I knew the line and was
surprised to discover that it is from Snowbound. Remember that poem you had to read
sometime in the distant past? Whittier-is telling about an experience from his own
childhood, Using unforgetable images he describes the storm, its aftermath, the
cozy family hearth - and each person who was present. In the middle, between storm
and _ family circle the poet reflects. -
"Q Time and Change!.
' How strange it seems S with so0 much gone.
Of life and love, to still Live on!
0 brother, only I and thou
Are left of all that circle now...
Alas for him who never sces
The stars shine through his cypress trees!
Whe, hopeless, lays his dead away,
Nor Lool:s to see the breaking day.
Across the mournful marbles play!
Who hath net learned in hours of faith
The truth to flesh and sense un'nown,
That life is ever Lord of death, ;
. And love shall never lose its own."..,..
. (The Poems. of Whittier, p. 401, line 2°3££),

t
rs thous wa doa

What is it about! us that “holds us back Fron eabractng that? Is it an innate
‘negativism that concludes that nothing that good could be true? Is it an oxper-
fenced cynicism that-cencludes finally that the sum of everything is nothing, that
life is absurd, meaningless, finally? At heart I believe our hesitance is honor-
able: we suspect. that any notion of life after death, eternal life, is simply a
reflection of our ; ride, sur inability to contemplate a world without us in it..

There is serething honorable and strong about the sentinent and the conse-
quent courage to square our shoulders, to live our lives fully and be content with
our‘lot. And yet the argument can be jained from the opposite paint of view, and
it has been eloquently and persuasively.

"Can it be that God is the most unscrupulcus waster in the universe?"
Harry Emerson Fosidck asked, "Making great personalities only to throw them
utterly away?" (Questions People Ask, p.31).

-4-

1 think the .: st ursuasive argucent of all is that at heart ur 1 nains,
cur need, our crying out to the living God, our si:,le inability to acce t the
finality .£ death + is net the des»erate whining of selfish :ev. le gras,ing at
straws for a little wore tine. Is isn't that at all. It c.:es, net fro: egotisn
oxy arrogance ~ but fro: love, itself God's greatest gift.

I encountered that this wee: in 4 uarveluus essay by Martin Marty, Church
historian at the University cf Chicago, one of the brightest Christians around.
Those who read Marty's fortnightly colurm in the Christian Century jmow that his
wife is gravely ill and that sonetine ago, in a poignant essay he ex)-lained how they
would s,-end whatever time renained together. And so his Easter column coi:anded
attention. Always urbane, creative, Marty sets up a conversatiun between Gabriel
Marcel and the New Testanent. Let's listen in...

A Macel character says, "Nothing is easier at a certain tine of life
than to acce,t death for oneself...what cannot be accepted is the
death of the beloved one, more deeply still the death of love itself."

And the New Testanent answers, "Christ has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have fallen asiee;:."

Marcel, "Because I love you, because I affirm you as being, there is

souetning in you that can bridge the abyss that I vaguely call death...
And Marty reflects; "I cannot picture anyone who will hear the message of life
without having in mind the images of louvers, friends, family members, who call
forth derands for us to ac'mwledge that love is stronger than death." (The
Christian Century, 4/15/"1, M.E.M.0O., p.431).

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an affirmation net about human irmortal-
ity essentially, but about the incredible faithfulness of God - who has promised
to stand with us every day of our lives, even the last day. It is an affirmation
abeut His incredible luve that will never aband.n us - an affirnation that "life
is ever Lord of death, and love can never lose its own."

Religious nostalgia to the sound of trumpets? It can be that I suppose...
and yet, allow me to suggest something more, something that envelopes all of life,
the way we perceive, the way we live and love and die. Let me suggest in words
which will not bear all the meaning with which I would invest them that Jesus Christ
is alive ~ that the tomb was empty, and that Mark's incomplete conclusion was
exactly right, Let me suggest.- that God's redemptive love - which is to say, His
risen son ~ is alive and well and at work in the world: knocking on the door of
prejudice, oppression, sexism: let me suggest that I see Resurrection in a world no
longer patient with injustice; that I perceive the risen Lord casting out the devil
of racism and turning attention now to poverty, hunger. I see a risen Lord at wotk
where sickness is healed, where broken relationships are mended, where distressed
minds are soothed ard where hopeless people are embraced,

And I dare, this day, to see Resurrection in my life and your life; not ina
earefully prescribed enotional high, but exactly where we find ourselves pushed and
pulled tu love more, and give more, and forgive more, and live more. And I invite you
to dare, today, to believe what you may not have seen ~ to listen to instincts God
has given you...instincts that tell you that, "Love will never lose its own.

Jesus Christ is risen...go..,tell His disciples.,.He is going before you...
Amen.