A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
April 5, 2015
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
John 5: 25-29
Job 19: 23-29
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
25 “Very
truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For
just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have
life in himself; 27 and he has given him authority to execute
judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be astonished at
this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his
voice 29 and will come out—those who have done good, to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
condemnation. [1]
We've come now to the culmination of Holy
Week, the culmination of the Church Year, the culmination of Jesus' ministry,
the culmination of everything good in the world, for on this day we commemorate
the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for on this morning, when
the Mary's had come to the tomb, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus was not
there, he had been raised from the Dead, and is Risen. He is Risen, indeed. And
what a week we have had. The palms last Sunday, a wonderful service on Maundy
Thursday, where we talked about the importance of Remembrance, we shared
communion together, and lit candles, including our beautiful Holy Week, Mock
Advent wreath out of the crown of thorns. It was great symbolism, and I thank
Kelsey for putting in the flowers, and also gathering the rosemary, which
Shakespeare reminds us is for Remembrance. We lit 13 Candles remembering
aspects of Christ's ministry and then we Extinguished them remembering all of
the ways that we treated Christ poorly while he was alive. Father forgive us,
we know not what we do. . . Which brings us to Friday. . . Good Friday, also
about remembrance, but in this case, our service was centered around seeking to
remember experientially, using our senses, through symbols, poetry, and songs.
I want to step through those, briefly, because it is good to remember again
today, before we go forward.
While on the Cross, Jesus said:
Father
forgive them, they know not what they do. . .
He told us not
to throw stones unless
We had no sin,
but he had no sin,
And so we hanged
him instead,
Whipped, and
bloody, there he hangs,
Right there on
that cross:
Holy hands, Holy
feet, thorny crown,
All complete,
and yet He forgives us,
Even so He
forgives us,
And still He
forgives us,
Here is a basket
of stones.
Who shall be
first? Who shall be last?
Take one, each
one is jagged, broken,
Just like you
are, none is perfect,
No smooth edges,
so grab hold of yourself,
And throw it, do
the job and destroy perfection,
He makes us look
bad, like fools,
Take one, any
one, throw it.
Look he's made
it easy,
He turns His
back,
He's closed His
eyes
Throw it now!
No?
How can we ever
pick up a stone
again, then?
Father, do you
still forgive us when we do?
This
day you will be with me in paradise. . .
They hung me on
a cross next to Him,
Next to Him what
was I?
No, I, next to
Him, was nothing.
Next to me, He
was without blemish, without stain,
Perfect, and
untarnished, and blooming,
And blinding,
His light was blinding.
And I next to
Him was not.
I deserved it,
well maybe not this,
No one deserves
this,
But I was
guilty,
I did what they
said I had done.
My soul has been
withered a long time,
The things that
nourish
My roots have
all but been forgotten.
I made my way
through this world.
I made my bed,
and I'll lie in it.
I embrace the
darkness
Where I can
finally rest.
It is the choice
I have always made.
What makes Him?
What makes Him
do?
I will surely
remember Him?
And that He was
Hanged next to me.
Will He remember
me,
That I was next
to Him?
Maybe I should
ask. . .
Woman,
behold your son; son behold your mother. . .
Could you imagine
watching your child go through it,
The trial, the
beatings, the cross?
You know you'd
feel every lash.
You'd feel the
pain.
You'd cry each
tear.
Even the words
would hurt
The jeers, the
accusations.
That's my son,
I remember
holding him,
Him lying there in
the manger,
There was a
moment when He was just mine,
Mother and Son,
Before the
Shepherds came,
Only to this,
It has rent my
heart in two.
Behold he says,
If only for one
more time,
One more second,
One more day,
I could just
hold Him,
Rather than behold
Him.
My soul would
truly magnify the Lord,
If he would just
look again on his lowly servant,
And show one
more time the strength of his arm,
And give me one
more moment,
Then I would
truly call myself blessed.
My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me. . .
If there is one
thing a carpenter knows (bang)
It is nails,
nails and wood, (bang)
And the bang of
a hammer. (bang)
Joseph showed me
how to hold a nail just right, (bang)
To swing a
hammer just so (bang)
And the nail
would go in, faster (bang)
One swing (bang)
Two Swings
(bang)
And we'd be off
to the next. (bang)
Joseph sure
could swing a hammer. (bang)
I almost got
used to the noise, (bang)
So I could hear
it without flinching. (bang)
Oh the things he
would make, (bang)
Tables (bang)
Chairs (bang)
Even Homes
(bang)
He'd never make
something like this. (bang)
There just is no
art in torture (bang)
And my Father is
an artist (bang)
Crafting with
care (bang)
A carpenter is a
creator (bang)
And a creator's
work is never done (bang)
Eli Eli Lama
Sabachthani (bang)
Why God, Why?
(bang)
I
thirst. . .
Have you ever
been so thirsty it hurts?
Your throat
starts to dry,
And it seems
like it is cracking,
Just like the
dry dusty ground,
When the sun
burns down in August.
It's hot, and
you sweat.
It all just
flows out of you,
And nothing is
replaced.
Jesus is there,
and beyond.
He's not just
leaking sweat either,
But blood and
bile and pus,
Just gushing
out, emptying him
Of all the
waters of life,
And his voice
comes out in a hoarse whisper,
I thirst.
When you are
that dry,
And your tongue
is swollen and raw,
Even water
burns.
Could you
imagine vinegar?
It burns your
nose.
Even cut with
oil on salad,
It leaves your
tongue split and burning,
Dry.
How cruel do you
have to be
To mock
someone's need like that?
Again did we not
know what we were doing?
I've thirsted,
Ignorance is not
what it was.
It
is accomplished. . .
Is it the weight
of this burden,
These chains
that drag me down,
Or is it that
they have trapped me,
Confining me so
I can't be free?
I so want to be
free.
I want to do
what I want.
I want to
control who I am.
I want to define
myself.
I want to be
whatever I want to be.
It's my right.
I've seen it written.
I can be
whatever I want.
We call it free
will,
But why does it
feel more like chains?
Why do I always
seem to choose to carry this burden?
Why is it
comfortable to live confined in lies?
What is that,
Jesus?
What did you
say?
It is
accomplished?
What is?
How?
Wait what?
It is as if I
could fly away.
Is this the
light?
I'm so light,
even I could walk on water.
Father
into thy hands I commend my spirit. . .
It started with
a rainbow and a promise,
And then it
grew,
To a nation,
A child,
A land flowing
with milk and honey,
And demanded a
sacrifice of a son,
But not my son.
It then expanded
to laws,
A guide to being
righteous,
To make a
sustainable community,
But external
laws are hard to follow.
Give us a king,
instead,
Something we can
actually see.
He did,
Promising again.
We didn't.
Again hard to
follow.
It all brought
us to this moment,
A new promise,
A new covenant,
Sealed in the
fulfillment of an old promise
An old
sacrifice.
This time He
writes it on our heart,
For Love
Is more than a
promise,
It is more than
external,
It is
experience.
So take and eat.
Take and drink.
Remember me,
Follow me,
And into the
Father's hands commend your spirit.
And then he was laid in the tomb, three days
have passed, and now he is Resurrected. I never thought it would be like this
for me, but it is true that Good Friday is easier to preach than Easter. It is
easy to look at ourselves and look at the world and see the potential for such
cruelty, the potential for such anger, the potential for such human
degradation. It is harder to point to the miracle, to point out the miracle, to
find something new and important to say about the miracle, without cheapening
it, without offering false promises beyond the truth. You see it so much, that
Easter means you’ll never have any pain, or that you will prosper, that
everything will go your way, that Easter is a good luck charm. It is hard to
put the miracle of Easter into words that live up to it because none really
can, but the word we use is “Resurrection.”
As we continue our study of the Gospel of
John. . . and it is here in John Chapter 5 where the word Resurrection is used
for the first time. All in all the word Resurrection is found 5 times in the
Gospel. Here in chapter 5, then twice in chapter 11, which is where Lazarus is
called out and raised from the dead, and Jesus says I am the Resurrection and
the Life. . . and then, in chapter 20, the word is not found except in the NRSV
subtitles, but the story is there. John has it this way, Chapter 20, beginning
with verse 1: We've heard this story so many times, but it does never get old.
. .
20
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene
came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So
she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus
loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do
not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other
disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running
together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5
He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he
did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into
the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth
that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up
in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the
tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they
did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then
the disciples returned to their homes.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the
disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; [2]
That is what we celebrate today, the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ, rising from the dead, beating back death. . . do
you know what the Greek word for Resurrection is. . . and it is the same word
in all of these instances of Resurrection in English, it is the Greek word,
Anastasis. . . which literaly means up and stand. . .or stand up. . . how cool
is that within the context of John 5, when we think of things like upstanding,
being an upstanding person, or righteous. . . but even more within the context
there is the crippled man with his mat. . . and Jesus tells him to stand up and
take it, and walk, and that is the greater context for this talk in chapter 5.
. . Jesus heals on the sabbath, the people gathered question him about it, and
get angry with him, and it all has to do with authority, where does Jesus'
authority to do these things come from. . . the Father. . . remember back to
John 1. . . the Word in the beginning. . . God called us out of oblivion into
creation, and now God calls again to stand into a new life with Jesus Christ. .
. and it is an upright standing. . . people will hear the call of Jesus Christ
and come to him. Easter, Resurrection, believe, and receive. . . the message of
this Gospel is becoming more and more clear. . . Resurrection, eternal life,
perfect sacrifice, power over death. . . all there for us to receive. . . is
believing in such things possible?
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