The Consequences of the Resurrection

1. 2nd Sunday of Easter, 8 and 10:30am Services Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN

   The Rev. Robert P. Travis

   Text: Acts 2:14a, 22-32, Psalm 16, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

Sermon Text:

In the storm Monday night a large tree fell at our house,

while we were eating dinner.

It fell exactly the way it should have fallen,

if a professional were taking it down,

and it didn’t damage our house,

or anything of value behind our house.

Still after it fell, I was afraid,

I forgot the message of Psalm 16,

even though it’s one of my favorite psalms

which has comforted me in fear in the past.

“I take refuge in you. . .

it is you who uphold my lot.

My boundaries enclose a pleasant land;

indeed I have a goodly heritage.”

By late Tuesday,

I thought seriously about cutting down all the other trees

that surround our house.

Then Wednesday came,

and the cluster of storms,

we have all heard so much about,

and experienced for ourselves.

Our neighborhood got hit pretty hard,

not as bad as some,

worse than many around here,

but certainly not as bad as Tuscaloosa.

Friday I spent the whole day cleaning up the debris,

and I noticed,

that all of the leaves, I was collecting as if it was autumn

those same leaves that

I was hoping weren’t there with their trees anymore,

threatening my house on Tuesday,

had borne the brunt of the hail, on Wednesday,

and spared our house from

the damage our neighbors’ house suffered.

So what was the lesson there?

If anything for me it was not to jump quickly,

and react out of fear

based on something bad that has just happened.

The disciples were in danger of doing just that,

in our gospel reading.

Their Easter, up to the point we read today,

was full of despair, and fear.

We read that first Easter Sunday in the evening

the disciples of Jesus were meeting in a house,

and the door was locked for fear of the Jews.

They were worried about being implicated

and killed for the same reasons Jesus was killed.

And that was a reasonable fear,

given what they had just gone through.

And the fearful world they lived in.

Sometimes we too become afraid,

when we forget the importance

of the resurrection of Jesus, in every aspect of our lives.

when we forget that because of our Christian life

our “boundaries enclose a pleasant land;”

when we forget that indeed we “have a goodly heritage.”

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago

that has stayed with me,

as is probably the case for you,

that is unusual for me.

Mostly I forget my dreams moments after I wake.

But this one was powerful, and it stayed with me,

and I feel I am supposed to share some of it with you.

This was not what my girls would describe

as a good dream.

In this dream I was struggling to survive,

I was in a world that had most of the things that we have today, but they were arranged differently.

In the area I was living,

everything was broken, and discarded,

and I was trying to survive off of the refuse of others.

(much like the areas we’ve seen this week, devastated by tornadoes)

The way I acted was more like a scavenger animal,

more like a rat than a human being.

And everyone around me was like that,

we were grasping for food,

hiding for protection,

constantly running away from people who would hurt us,

and licking our wounds ourselves whenever we got hurt.

There was no caring, no love, certainly no altruism.

People had not cleaned up this area,

or restored it,

but had just abandoned it,

and left others to scavenge there.

I was part of the lowest level of society,

but we were aware of there being other levels.

somewhat like what existed in India

under the caste system,

with the Untouchables to the Brahmins.

We were like the untouchables, but worse,

because if anyone from the upper levels of society saw us,

they would try to kill us on the spot.

We were not considered humans but vermin.,

No one was considered a neighbor deserving love.

And it was clear as I climbed throughout tunnels and mechanisms of this ultra-stratified society,

that everyone was set on not just getting what they needed and wanted for themselves,

but were afraid both of those above them who would kill them, and those below them whom they would kill

probably because of fear

as they didn’t know we were just like them.

Mostly in the dream I was afraid, deeply afraid,

and that fear seemed to dominate the experience

of everyone around me.

After I awoke,

I realized that this dream was a vision,

of what the world would have been like,

if Jesus had not come,

if Jesus had not died,

if Jesus had not been raised from the dead.

What it also could be like, if we neglect the significance

of death being conquered for us by him who

died and rose again.

We see evidences of that fear in the Gospel today,

and throughout the Bible,

the foundations were already laid

for that kind of horrible world,

the stratification was being solidified,

and Roman society was oppressive to most people.

Fear was already a big part of life.

Even at the tomb, the encounter with the angel

is met with fear, by the soldiers, for good reason,

for they were up against something over which

they knew they had no power.

But even the female disciples were afraid.

And of course, the disciples who had not encountered

the risen Jesus at the tomb

were afraid of the power systems

of the people who had killed Jesus just days before.

If that world had continued,

without the resurrection of the Lord changing everything,

you would not see the restoration that people in our society take for granted after terrible storms,

and devastating tragedies.

Especially among the poorest of the poor,

those who get hit so hard by tragedies

we witnessed this week,

who seem to make the news more than anyone else,

because their situation seems so hopeless.

Followers of Jesus Christ will help them

in the coming days and weeks,

as we should,

maybe you will be among them,

and you will see in a few short years,

that many of those lives will have been restored,

because of the love, we have for our neighbors,

because of the Good News,

that was made possible by Jesus’ conquering death,

the very thing at the root of most of our deepest fears.

As the psalmist says,

“You will show me the path of life,

in your presence there is fullness of joy,

and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

And the whole gospel was written,

we read so “that through believing,

we will have life in His name.”

Shortly after the disciples encountered the risen Lord,

The reasonableness of the fear was still there,

but the fear was not,

look how the message of Peter had changed,

from “Lock the doors for fear of the jews,”

to “God has given us an inheritance

that is imperishable,

undefiled and unfading,

kept in heaven for you, who are being protected

by the power of God!”

And that message of a living hope,

gave them the confidence to stop hiding,

and to preach openly,

and they were bold

so bold as to proclaim Christ had risen,

at the very real risk of their own lives.

So we as Christians have always been called to do,

to take risks, even to the point of our lives,

for the sake of the good news of Jesus,

for the sake of loving our neighbor

as he commanded us to do.

Then we can rest in the peace that only Jesus can give.

Peace that passes all understanding,

and conquers all fear.