Easter Sunday 2012, Year B The Reverend Dr. Howard J. Hess
The Continuity of Easter: Jesus Christ’s Constancy
Introduction: The Easter experience is unlike any other – it is firmly rooted in the past, projected into the future, but most fully powerfully experienced in the present moment. There is immediacy to the joy of Easter that is infused with the memories of earlier Easters and grounded in the promise that, for those who follow Christ, Easter will never end. For each one of us, there are threads that weave our Easters together. One of the meaningful threads of Easter for me is the hymn we sang after this morning’s Gospel, “Up From the Grave He Arose.” All week, as I reflected upon my Easter sermon, this hymn played over and over in my mind. So this morning, it has served as the beginning of my sermon. This hymn clearly evokes the Christian images of the Easters of my childhood. Of waking up at 5:00 AM to prepare for our Easter Sunrise Service which was held on a large pier extending out over the Atlantic Ocean. As the sun began its movement above the Eastern horizon of the ocean, accompanied by the trumpets we would begin to sing “Up from the Grave He Arose.” The light, the music, and wonder of the moment were profoundly moving. I can remember those early Easter mornings as if they had just happened.
But other Easters have come and gone since then. There were Easters when
I had wandered away from church and Easter seemed dim, not absent, but dim. There were several Easters after I had returned to the church when, as the first hymn began, I found myself weeping. Each Easter has had its own unique character as I’ve moved through different life stages, said good-bye to some I loved and welcomed others into my life. But in the midst of it all, I have come to understand that the continuity of Easter that has never really depended upon where I have been or whom I have worshipped with. The continuity of Easter emanates out of the unchanging person of Jesus Christ. As the writer of Hebrews tells us: “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (13.8). Jesus Christ is the only source of fully reliable continuity in our lives. We have all fallen short in our promises, in our dreams, and in our perseverance. But Christ, fully capable of working with and through change, has been the solid ground beneath our feet. Christ has been and continues to be the source of both continuity and constancy in our lives.
II. Christ, the source of constancy. In psychological terms, constancy is crucial to our healthy development as human beings. We must have sources of affection and guidance that will be reliable and responsive to our needs. We must receive care from others who know us so well that they can even anticipate our needs before we express them. Our early life experiences become the basis of our sense of security and our capacity to trust and love others. For Christians, the absolute core source of constancy is Jesus Christ. The constancy of Jesus Christ is built upon promises made and promises kept. He promised that he would bring new life to those who followed him and that he would die and be raised again. And he promised that we would be able to spend eternity in Heaven with him. In sum, he modeled a new life, lived what he taught, and was and is totally trustworthy. No other source in human history can make such a claim or offer us new life. Whether it was in Jesus’ healing, his teaching, fellowship with the poor and oppressed, or his death and Resurrection, Jesus was, and continues to be, totally present and constant. It is he who weaves the threads of all our Easters together.
III. Ironically, it can sometimes be very difficult to trust Christ’s constant presence and to understand what he was and is trying to say to us. Let me give an example of how this can work. When I was in 8th grade, my father asked me to talk with him privately. He had had several heart attacks and in retrospect, I believe he knew that most likely he was dying. He said, “I may not have much longer to live. I want you to always remember how much I love you. I want you to go to college and work hard to become the person you can be. Take care of your mother and sister when you can. I am very proud of you.” He was tender and loving as he spoke to me. I said, “Dad, you’re not going to die. It’s all in your mind. If you make up your mind that you want to live, you will – you won’t die.” He smiled, and after a pause said, “It may not always be that easy, but remember I love you.” Although I was not ready to comprehend that my father was telling me goodbye at the time, later the memory of this moment has proved meaningful in my formation. My father has always been with me since he died.
So it was with Jesus’ disciples – with the women who went to the tomb on that first Easter morning. For them and all of Jesus’ disciples, the dream of Jesus was dead. Jesus was gone, and they were in despair. The women went to anoint his dead body, not to meet Jesus. Their experience at the tomb was not what they had anticipated. Mark tells us that “they . . . fled from the tomb for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.” This is called the shorter ending of Mark. It is not the joyful conclusion of Matthew, Luke, or John. These women were confused and afraid. There are different theories about the end of Mark. Some believe that the original final ending was torn off of the scroll and lost; others believe that Mark was killed before he could finish the work. I believe the Gospel intentionally ends this way in order to move us, the witnesses and the hearers, to determine how we will respond to the empty tomb. Of course the empty tomb frightened the women and it frightens us. The constancy of a Jesus who can defy death is something all humanity had never experienced before. We know death to be final, but Christ demonstrated unequivocally that death is an event, not an ending. The constancy of Christ is not limited by what we see or understand.
Look at one more way that Jesus communicated his constant presence. He told the women: “Go and tell his disciples and Peter.” Peter was the strong leader who had bailed on Jesus, who had such fear and remorse that no doubt he was ready to give up. But Jesus loved Peter and knew him well, and so he said, “Go and tell Peter.” At our finer moments this is what we do with the people we love. When they fail us, when they go off-line, when they hurt us, we invite them back and offer a path of reconciliation and growth. This is what constancy does – it stays steady, transcends the disappointments, and offers forgiveness and the possibility of reconciliation.
V. Conclusion. One of the great joys of Easter is the grace-filled constancy of Jesus Christ, which outlasts our limited ability to understand and respond. I couldn’t understand the fullness of my father’s words as a young boy. But now as a father and grandfather myself, I understand the meaning of my father’s blessing much more deeply. We may have personally rejected Christ’s offer to be constantly present in our lives. But the offer still stands today. We are invited to become one with him, including his invitation to overcome death in our lives. The continuity of all our Easters is the limitless constancy of Jesus Christ, in this life and the life to come. Death has been defeated. Amen and Amen.
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