Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, the daffodils in the back yard bloomed for the first time this spring almost as if on cue.

Easter/Resurrection of the Lord

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." (Matthew 28:1-10, NRSV)


“BEHIND THE STONE”

People are afraid of various things in life. Pain is one of the things we fear, and so is loss. But I think we have a special level of fear for the unknown. There are fearful things we have experienced and things we have seen from the lives of others. We know those things. Those might be very unpleasant, but what is known is somehow more manageable than what is not known. We fear what we cannot see.
The Gospel reading for this Easter Sunday is familiar. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. They are incredibly surprised on the way. We have no idea how they planned on rolling away the stone, for tombs were caves sealed with large rocks so that wild animals and robbers could not disturb the bodies inside. While it was sealed, no one could look inside. They probably only wanted to be there at the place where they thought the body of the Lord, whom they loved and followed, was. They saw his death and knew that he was quickly placed in the tomb because of the approaching Sabbath. What they would have expected, if they could have seen behind the stone, was to see Jesus, who died on the cross as they saw.
On their way, the earth shook and an angel rolled the stone away. The guards fainted with fear, but to the women the angel said, “Do not be afraid.” And the stone was removed and they could see behind it and what they saw was beyond all imagining. Jesus was not there and the angel told them what had happened. He was not there because he had risen from the dead. They were invited to look at the place where he had been and were told to tell the disciples to go to Galilee where they would soon see Jesus. They left with fear and great joy. Fear at this completely unexpected event and joy that their beloved Jesus was no longer dead. And on their way, they saw him. And his words, too, were, “Do not be afraid.”
The angel removed the stone from the tomb, but in another sense Christ does that for us. If death is the greatest unknown, our greatest fear, we have been given this great gift by Christ’s rising from the dead. We know what is beyond this life and it is life. The words of the angel tell us that this was part of God’s plan. He has been raised as he said he would be. His death and resurrection was to give us something we needed, something that we could not have by ourselves. It is the assurance of life after death and that we can have a way back to God and into eternity by what he did. We can look beyond the stone, the seal on the tomb, the mystery, the thing that keeps us from seeing past this life and traps us in our fears by what Christ did on that first Easter morning. And his words to us are also: Do not fear. What Christ did makes it possible not to fear. When we stop being afraid, we find freedom.

Christ goes before us into death and into life. It is more than an example; it is someone beside us, walking with us to show us that we need not fear. It is like the older sister or brother who goes with us into new territory not only to let us know that it is possible, but to welcome us there. Brenda Wilbee tells the story of a thunderstorm she experienced as a young child, when her grandfather had to coax her out from under a bed. He sat with her, all bundled up on the porch and saw that he was not afraid of the storms. She recalled, “Soon I, too, caught his excitement and lost my fear.” We gain and learn courage when we know that Christ is with us and for us.

What is behind the stone is life, not death. The darkness of the cave is only temporary. Once we know that by faith, we are freed to have hope. We are freed from sadness to have inexpressible joy. That joy is possible because we know about the future. It is like the discovery Rick Hamlin made when informed of the death of a friend, Charley. He knew that he would miss the way he could drop in on him during his long illness and know that he would always be there with a friendly greeting. He found it hard to believe that it was over. At the service there were tears, but also hugs and the fellowship of those who had supported Charley and his family over the years. His impression was that it was more like Easter than Good Friday. The service used the hymns and readings that Charley had picked and some of those attending formed a little choir. He thought that death had not triumphed. “At the last minute, a group of us gathered in a corner and sang one more tune for Charley: ‘Out in Arizona where the bad men are, nothing there to guide you but the evening star.…’” He drove home beneath a sky filled with stars.

We are freed from our fears so that we can seek the things that are above as the writer of the letter to the Colossians talks about. The Resurrection is not only about how we will live some day; it is about how hope changes our lives now. We are no longer limited to living from our fears; instead, we can seek something higher, greater, more lasting. Once fear is gone we can live this life fully. Once we are freed from the greatest uncertainty in our lives we can live with purpose. Christ is our guide both in life and in death.

The Resurrection shows us what is beyond this life, just as those first disciples got the chance to see what was beyond that great stone. It is the answer to our hopes both now and for the end of our lives. It is light in our darkness. It is life, that where Christ is, we will be also. The disciples saw that death could not hold him and the women found that he walked among them. He is alive and holds life in his hands. We shall not die, but we shall live. That is our hope, that where he is, we would be also. Christ is alive. Allelujah!

This was the sermon last Sunday, for the fifth Sunday in Lent.

Text: John 11.1-45

“WHAT IS TO COME”


Each holiday has symbols associated with it. The ones for Easter are flowers and grass, eggs, rabbits and chickens. They all fit what is happening around us at this time of year. New foliage is springing forth and newborn animals and newly hatched birds appear. I don’t think it is a coincidence that as I left the house to come here, two rabbits ran across my path. It is a time that reminds us of the life that is taking the place around us after the deadness of winter.

New life is the message of the Gospel reading. It is the familiar story of Lazarus who was revived after death. The whole story has, not just a miraculous ending, but stages along the way. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, along with his sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is ill, but rather than come right away, Jesus delays. He intends to go back to Judea but it has become a dangerous trip since the Judeans had just tried to stone him. He tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep and he is going to wake him. The disciples misunderstand and say that he will be alright then, but Jesus tells them that Lazarus is dead. They go and arrive four days after Lazarus’ death. Martha went out to meet Jesus. She said that had he come Lazarus would not have died. He reassures her that Lazarus will rise again. He says instead that he is the resurrection and the life and asks her if she believes this. She does. Martha comes out to see Jesus and he weeps with them. Jesus came to the tomb and orders that the stone sealing it be removed. After a prayer, he commanded Lazarus to come out and he did. Those around him believed.

We might wonder, too, why Jesus said that the illness does not lead to death. That is a strange statement when we consider that Lazarus had indeed died. It is as if Jesus has something else in mind than what they call death. Being a friend of Jesus did not prevent Lazarus’ death. There comes a time for the earthly life to end. But there are many kinds of death. There is the end of life, but also hope, love, the things we hold dear. People’s spark of life can die before their bodies do. We can lose our sense of purpose or right and wrong. A person can lose what makes that person a person. But perhaps what Jesus means is that this illness is not going to end in death because it can’t touch Lazarus in a way that brings him to an end.

Martha and Mary express hope that Lazarus will rise when all rise on the last day. It is part of the general rising of the righteous at the end of time. But Jesus’ answer isn’t that. There is more to it than that. It is not some vague hope for some day in the future that things will turn out well. It is real and immediate. They are correct that Lazarus will live again, but it has its basis in Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. Those who have faith in him will live forever. Eternal life is found through him. And what he does shows that. He has power over death. This miracle, like the others, shows us something about God. It is that God has power beyond the ultimate power in our world, power over life and death.

This is for God’s glory. It is also to bring the disciples to faith. That is why they are able to see it. It is why this story and even more so the one we share at Easter is central to our faith. It shows that Jesus is more than a man and his earthly life more than the average earthly life. In this account, some people believe, although incompletely, and some question what Jesus is doing, but in the end, all the doubts are cleared up. We, too, have times when we wonder what is going to happen, what is going to survive in our lives.

Jesus’ miracle first brings faith alive in us. Martha’s hope is our hope, too, that on the last day, all will be made right. We know that beyond this life lays a new existence, not just what we know here extended on infinitely. We will need a whole resurrection, like Lazarus had, from the dead, not just a healing. This is the hope of a completely new existence, one in which we cannot die again. Part of the joy of the resurrection is the end of all that is imperfect.

Spring shows us part of that hope. We see grass and flowers, like last year’s, but they are not last year’s. The new rabbits in the yard are not last year’s; they are their descendants. New life is not the same as old life.

Brenda Wilbee tells a story that show us that hope. She was mourning the loss of her Aunt Grace who had made her Tinsy Winsy, a sock monkey when she was very little. Time came when Tinsy Winsy wore out and lost his stuffing. Aunt Grace suggested she repair the monkey and those of her sisters. The girls were apprehensive that they wouldn’t be the same and Aunt Grace wisely replied that they would keep their button eyes, that it throwing out their bodies, they would keep their souls. She concludes: “How well I remember the summer afternoon she handed me Tinsy Winsy, all plump and new, his limbs fit and fat, his eyes sparkling … And remembering that, I see I’ve not lost Auntie. Because, though we all have to throw out our old bodies sometime, we have a Creator Who never throws away our souls.” The account of Lazarus’ rising from the grave is a story to strengthen our faith. It is to show us again who Jesus is.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he gave us a sign of a greater hope, greater reality. It is a sign of who he is—the Messiah, Son of God, the One who cares for us in this world and into the next. And it gives us a sign of the hope for our lives, that under God’s care we do not come to an end. But it is not a hope only for some day. It is for us today. What in us needs to come alive? What in us is gone? Like with Lazarus, Jesus calls it to come forth, into new life.

Amen.

This is the last of the Lenten devotionals. We have enjoyed our time of fellowship over the past six weeks.

When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house. (Deuteronomy 26:1-11, NRSV)

This is more of the instructions for life in the Promised Land. God has given them the land and when the land gives them something to sustain their lives, this is what they are supposed to do with it. They are to take the first of it and bring it to the sanctuary and put it down. They are to declare that they live in the land that God gave and recite this speech: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.” Then the gift is to be shared with the Levites and the aliens, those who do not have land to support them.

They are to retell the national history that brought them to that moment. All the main points of their history are there and they are to recall it, recite it. They were slaves, they were freed, they were brought to this land and given it. It is remarkable how each individual is connected with the history as they bring their offering. By telling the story of the whole people as part of your story, you join who you once were and what you do today. Your personal story and the national story are mixed together. It is like our holiday of Thanksgiving. We remember, if we pay attention, that the holiday is about how we came to this country and were helped through hard early times. We gained our independence, identified our freedom, grew, fought a war that threatened to divide the nation, and went on to become world innovators and leaders. That is what is behind the feast, that God has helped and provided for us throughout our history. And we are prosperous enough today to celebrate with food and rest and travel and festivities. We do that because we are a part of what happened and is happening; we, too, are a part of the national story.

In giving, like the Israelites, we remember where we have come from and, more importantly, that God is behind the fact we have abundance. We remember God’s hand in history, not only of our nation, but our personal stories. We see God’s goodness around us and in our past. We remember that God’s gifts are to be enjoyed and used. The abundance is not reluctantly given away, it is to be celebrated with joy.

There is more to it than that. Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers of children’s television programming, was asked to write a chapter in an ophthalmology textbook. They looked for his understanding of children to help eye doctors put their younger patients at ease in what can be frightening procedures and exams. He began the chapter, “You were a child once …” and invited the doctors and medical students to understand how they are to act in the present by how they were once young themselves. They were to think back to their pasts so that they could understand others. So, too, the Israelites. They were strangers wandering without a land and God gave them this good land, and now in bringing their gifts they are to provide for those who do not have land. So, too, us. We were strangers once, and someone welcomed us. We were hungry once and someone gave us food. That is why our part of the story is to grow and expand and to include others. That is why we present our gifts. That is why coming into the land is not an end, but a beginning.

This is last night's devotional. Next week we wrap up the series based on Moses' instructions to the Israelite people right before they enter the Promised Land.

This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.

11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19 If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:1-20, NRSV)

“Poor But Honest”

My dad used to joke that he came from a “poor but dishonest” family. Now, I know that explaining a joke makes it even less funny, but it was, of course, not true. Pat and Hattie were some of the most honest people around. Grandma used to say that no honest work was bad work. And, if you think about it, a person who is dishonest and poor is either dumb or lazy. I think why my dad thought it was funny was that it was a parody of many of the biographies of some years back which stressed that the person came from “poor but honest” parents and rose by his or her own abilities to become great and famous. The name for such a person back then was the “self-made man”.

Dad never forgot where he came from. He grew up in the Great Depression and never forgot it. My uncle described their family dinners as potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna. People from that era include both folks who, having undergone severe deprivation, went on to spend lavishly on whatever they wanted, never to feel deprived again. And it included others who saved everything because hard times might come again. It was not an easy time and not all the people who lived through it were poor but honest. My dad tells the story of a man who visited a friend at a job site with a bottle of whisky, had a few too many drinks with the friend, then called the boss to report the employee was drunk on the job, then applied for the open position the next day. The experience of poverty tests people. It makes some people kinder, other people meaner.

The reading from Deuteronomy is about the other experience. It is about the experience of prosperity. We might not think that such a condition is dangerous, but the reading cautions the Israelites about it. When they go into the land that God has promised them, they will have new temptations. In the desert they were tempted to doubt God’s care and to forget God’s directions. The wandering in the wilderness was to test what was in their hearts. Arriving in the land will, too.
The Promised Land will have flowing streams, wheat and barley, honey and olives, vines and figs and pomegranates. There will be no scarcity, they will lack nothing, and they will bless the Lord. Then the possibility for trouble begins. The warning is not to forget God in the abundance. It is not to forget God’s commandments. And it is not to exalt themselves, to think that they are self-made people, the source of their own prosperity, when, in fact, it is the gift of God. We don’t like this idea of testing, that there is another hurdle. We like the idea that when we become prosperous, we “have it made” or “have arrived”.

The reaction to poverty tests people. The choices we make when things are going well count every bit as much as those we make when things are not prosperous. We don’t like to hear that. We want to be comfortable and assume that the state of being wealthy is entirely good. Prosperity, or the desire to be prosperous, can distract us and blind us in many ways.

There are some dangers with wealth or with being preoccupied with getting ahead. One is how people can hide in it. They feel free from life’s realities. We can begin to think that money is the meaning of life. Henry David Thoreau went out to the woods near Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, over 150 years ago. There he lived off the land, as simply as possible in a cabin, as an experiment in living, as he put it: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear …”

Prosperity can change how we treat others. It can change how we see ourselves. The stories of many successful people emphasize how they achieved success, not where they have come from. They forgot how others helped them and the opportunities that came their way. Prosperity can make some people vain. Prosperity can make people more greedy and fearful. Those are some of the ways prosperity tests us as much as poverty does.

The answer for the Israelites is to recall how they came to the land. They are to remember their path, their story. It was under God’s leading and protection and care. That did not begin on the day they came into the Promised Land. It is also that they are to remember the One who brought them to the land. The Israelites are to remember that they are God’s people. They are not self-made. The land is a gift. Their abundance is to include kindness, generosity, humility, and gratitude. Only then will they live in the land well, and be truly well-off.

This is last week's Lenten devotional. We had to skip a week because of snow and sleet. The weather in Minnesota almost always manages to give us a little surprise.

NRSV Deuteronomy 6:1 Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?" 21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right."

PASSING IT DOWN

I have a friend who has a relative who is worried about leaving things to her children. That is a way of keeping precious things in the family. That is a good impulse for someone in their later years, but my friend wishes the relative would be more decisive about it. The plan constantly shifts back and forth. The list keeps changing. It is sometimes hard to figure out whether it is going forward or backward. One concern is what they will do with it. Another is whether each gift fits the individual. Decisions are made and unmade.

As we have been considering these weeks of Lent, the Book of Deuteronomy contains the speeches Moses gave the people right before they were about to enter the Promised Land. It is a plan for entering the Promised Land and staying there. The land is their inheritance. God promised it to them long ago and that has not changed. But staying there could be as tricky as getting into it. God makes a covenant with the people of Israel and the land is part of that covenant, so when the people cease to be in the covenant, cease fulfilling their part of the covenant, then their future, their inheritance, their living in the land, is in question. So it is very important that they keep it.

And so, part of this is learning, learning the covenant, learning the relationship with God, again and again, over and over, from generation to generation. It is not just repeating the words; it is finding the meaning of faith. That is why when the children ask they should have an answer for them. We should too. That is what Christian Education is. It is so that our children, like the children of the Israelites, have a faith of their own, like an inheritance, something given to them, but given away, given as we let go of it into their own hands, so that it can be their own. It is it is so they can have lives of faith that sustain them all through their lives.

What we learn in life, even very early in life, is important in who we become and how we see God and ourselves. W. Frederick Wooden tells the story of when he was a boy, not athletic, who could only climb one or two branches of the neighborhood tree. The evening before they moved out of the neighborhood, he made one last attempt. He went to the top and looked around and fifty years later still remembers that. The most important learning is about who we are and what we can do, not what we have.

God is giving a message to Moses. And Moses is giving it to the Israelites about this great inheritance. It is not furniture, not stocks and bonds, or cattle, or antiques, or coin collections, or houses, or something else. It is the knowledge of what is most important and what God is doing and who they are. It is that the meaning of their faith is who God is and who they are and what their relationship to God is. They are to pass this on from generation to generation. How they live according to those things will determine their future. How they teach them, will determine their future’s future.

The most important thing is this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And they are to learn the people’s story. “Who are we?” they might ask. “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.” And what are they to do? “Love God.”

They are to recite the words, to learn them over and over. That is their truth, their story, their inheritance. These great truths are a gift. An inheritance is a gift, to our children and children’s children, and to their children. It is what makes life possible. If there is anything worth passing down it is these. When your children ask.