As of First Importance - Paschal Sermon

Sermon for Holy Pascha (Year B RCL)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Holy Spirit, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 20:1-18

My brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen! The Lord Jesus is risen from the grave!
Can you see it? Can you feel it? The darkness is fading; the Light has risen! The old has passed away; the new has come! Death is dead; life is born again!

This is the resurrection Feast, the holiest and most blessed of all days, when we rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead – the first fruits of the new creation!
And so we sing, Alleluia! Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the grave bestowing life!

Everything has changed now because of this event, this resurrection. Life on this planet has never been the same since that day. Your life, and my life, is forever changed because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now, I recognize that it is hard for the modern mind to grasp this reality of resurrection. The problem is that the resurrection cannot be proved or disproved as if it were a theory for which we could develop a set of experiments. In truth, this is because we are not speaking of an abstract idea. Today, we are not celebrating a concept, like the rebirth of spring after a long winter.
No. We sing, we speak of a man – a real life human being who is alive and well today.
This is not some fairy tale story. This man, this one who was so brutally executed by Roman soldiers, early on Sunday morning, before the sun rose, that man stood up and walked out of the tomb alive, more alive that you or I could ever imagine!

This man is the one we trust. We are not espousing faith in the idea of a resurrection. The church does not counsel us to consent to the concept of life after death. Rather, we are committing ourselves to this man, to this particular man who lived and died and yes, who is alive even now.
And so put out of your head once and for all any notion of “Christianity”, as if we could trust our very lives to some set of beliefs and ideals. I often hear people say things like, “Oh, I believe in the golden rule.” That might be nice on the kindergarten playground, but it won’t do to sustain a real life in the real world.

What we proclaim today is a real man in the real world – Jesus the Messiah – who lives today to transform ordinary human lives into something beautiful and fantastic and divine.
And so I will say it again: There is no such thing as Christianity. You will never hear me use that word. It doesn’t exist! But what does exist is a real man who died and rose again, and a real life community of people who love him and who are learning from him how to live.

Any intellectually honest person who is willing to look at the facts of what we know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ will conclude that something extraordinary happened on that Sunday morning. Something that cannot be explained away, something that has altered the lives of billions of people in the ensuing centuries.

Even Newsweek magazine had this to say recently about the veracity of the resurrection:

“From the beginning, critics of [the Church] have dismissed the Resurrection as
a theological invention. As a matter of history, however, scholars agree that
the two oldest pieces of New Testament tradition speak to Jesus’ rising from the
dead…The uniqueness – one could say, oddity, or implausibility – of the story of
Jesus’ resurrection argues that the tradition is more likely historical than
theological” (Newsweek, March 28, 2005).

If, in fact, Jesus did rise from the grave, than every other human discovery before or since pales in importance when compared to this. Mary Magdalene found an empty tomb, and it remains empty to this very day.

But if the resurrection be a hoax, some creative theological tale spun by desperate and ingenious followers of a failed revolutionary, then this building and all the nice and pretty words which are spoken here are totally hollow and empty. They may work to provide some measure of psychological soothing to human beings who are living through a difficult life – like an opiate for the masses, as one famous observer described it.

But if our claim be true, ah, then my friends, nothing else can matter so much. No one else but this risen Lord could possibly be the authority for our life. If Christ is raised, then there is power available and accessible right now to change and transform our lives.

We can never outrun that power, we can never use it up, we can never become separated from it. Because we can never become separated from Him, unless we choose to walk away. Resurrection power is here today, by trusting in the Lamb of God, who laid down his life out of love for you, who overcame the powers of death and hell, and who lives today.

The apostle Paul, who met the real, alive Jesus on the road to Damascus, and who was transformed by his awesome power, wrote this in his letter to the Christians at Corinth: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.”

Beloved, don’t let the grace and love and mercy that God has showered upon you – don’t let that be in vain! God loves you. God wants to be in loving relationship with you in a way that fills every moment of every day with light and truth and goodness. Open your minds and your hearts to this kind of new life with Jesus.

The great Saint John Chrysostom of the 3rd century has given us the magnificent and famous call for all people to join in the celebration of this Feast. Listen well to his words, and take them to heart.

The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom (Read Each Year at Pascha)

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive
your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful,
celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have
not, rejoice today for the Table is richly spread! Feast royally on it, for
the calf is fatted. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of
faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!
Let no one grieve at his
poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that
he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has
destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered
Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

Where, O death, is your sting?

Where, O Hell, is your victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!

Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen
from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen

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