Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Dr. Sandra Stevens Poirel - "Fireworks"
Transcript
- Belin Memorial UMC: the story comes to us ⁓ from the gospel of Matthew. ⁓ And it comes to us from the 28th chapter, the first 10 verses. After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of this Lord descending from heaven came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him, the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised as he said. He has been raised as he said. Come see the place where he lay. 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. So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, greetings. And they came to him, took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee. There they will see me. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Now we have practiced this. I've put it on a slide. So now we're going to do it. You know Easter is my favorite Sunday. I have 52 favorite Sundays. This is my all time favorite of the 52. I love them all. Christ is risen. Hallelujah. Look how well you did. See, we are practiced. We can do this. Well, hallelujah is that word that we have not said for the entire season of Lent. And translated, it means praise the Lord. Well, today we celebrate the summit. This is the pinnacle, the event in the entire church year. It is the central event of the entire Christian faith. It is the event, the date, the day around which the liturgical year takes place, the resurrection, the raising of Christ from the tomb. In Acts we hear it said this way, they put him to death on a tree, but God raised him. That is a phrase that I heard a lot and learned a lot about when I was serving in the Lowcountry. Something could take place, there could be a situation, someone could have a concern or an issue, and people would simply respond to the circumstances with a heartfelt and a visceral phrase. but God. And sometimes the phrase would be just a simple amen, but God, and someone would say amen. Sometimes they would say but God and point heavenward. Sometimes tears would fill their eyes when they said those two words, but God. regardless of how impossible things may have seemed, but God entered into the narrative and it signaled a critical moment. It was a fireworks moment when hopelessness is intervened by God's love, mercy, power, and grace. That is the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No wonder Matthew's version is actually called the fireworks version. When we heard it read, it has the effects of pyrotechnics that we would expect from a theophany, which is a really fancy word for a visible, audible, tangible manifestation, an appearance of God. complete with the profound effects. Matthew didn't leave anything out, nothing. Earthquakes, lightning and rollings, graves shaking and quaking, stones being moved and angels sitting on top of it, dead men walking, angelic visitors that speak to those who are gathered. The lineup sounds like a Hollywood movie set, but this story has nothing to do with pyrotechnics and special effects. It is about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is about God with us. We remember Emmanuel all the way back from Advent and Christmas. Well, it's no different. for Lent Easter. It's a reminder that God is with us during Advent and Christmas and God is still with us and how important it is the way Matthew presents it. Because this is following Good Friday when we know what happened and Jesus died on the cross and we are still being reminded through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that God is with us for this life and the continued eternal life. It signifies God's presence and God's communication with us. It's interesting when we read this story and we experience this story with Matthew. Matthew does not describe the resurrection as an event. Matthew points to and provides evidence of the resurrection as faith in action. In other words, we are living as resurrection people. Matthew reflects on the past, the here and now, and into the future. And we're told that his disciples grabbed Jesus' feet and they worshiped him. It's interesting that the word there that is used for worshiped him in verse nine that we just read is actually the same word that was used to describe the Magi's response way back in chapter two. And if we keep reading over in verse 17, when Jesus is commissioning his disciples, we hear the same word again. So Matthew gives us this clear picture of faith being connected to, hearing about, experiencing, encountering the effects of the hope and the promise of the already resurrected Christ. claiming, believing, and living the resurrection life matters in the here and now. That's why for Matthew it just wasn't an event that took place and we remember the event. With Matthew he is stressing we are living as resurrection people right now and it matters. And it matters because people notice They will see something in you that is different. Regardless of the set of circumstances or the situation, it will be different. All of us have wounds and scars. Trying to reason through grief and pain and loss or trying to make sense out of the world telling us if you just have more of everything and anything, fill in the blank. We know that that is all actually pointless. What we do know is that not because of us, but because of Jesus, God with us, who raises us back up in the midst of sometimes what seems to be hopelessness. With the resurrection of Christ there is hope, there is promise, there is but God who can and does completely reverse that which was meant for evil it becomes good. On Good Friday the world did its worst to its best and on Holy Saturday the world turned dark. We waited. They waited. Now we, as resurrection people, we know the story. When they were living through the story, they didn't know. They had to wait. That which seemed hopeless actually on Easter Sunday morning became the message of great hope. Distraction and death became victory and salvation. And folks, there are fireworks and there is earthquake shaking on this side of the grave and we have all experienced it. And in the midst of it all, God reminds us through the gift of his son, God is with us. We cannot reclaim the world from death. We cannot conquer death, but we know who can, will, does, and has. We have been given the gift of resurrection faith. Christ has claimed victory over death. And because of God's action in Jesus Christ, we don't even have to hide from, we can actually enter into places of suffering and fear with actions that embody, make visible life and hope and the promise of life that does not end. God has promised that the last word will be love. And because we believe that we can proclaim and we can live and we can demonstrate for others that love in ways that makes life better. through actions, words, deeds, and choices. The resurrection that we know in the here and now that we live every single day matters because we also look joyfully to the future, but we can be joyful right now because we are already living eternal life. How many of you, if I can see your hands and you don't mind sharing, remember a movie that was made many years ago? I'm like Ben, I'm remembering that from a long time ago. But he said he was, didn't he say he was like entering high school in the 90s? I'm not going to tell you when I was in high school. I was no longer in high school in the 90s. But as a very young little girl, I watched a movie almost every year with my daddy. It was called The Robe. Do any of you remember The Robe? Some of you do. Well, it's actually the story of the Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus. And it was nothing like Mel Gibson's The Passion, which I have never been able to make it through that one. But I can remember as a little girl crawling up in his lap when they got to the crucifixion part or even leaning up to it and the tears would be just streaming and of course as any parent does my dad would try to comfort me and console me and I would I remember looking up at him and saying but you can't tell me it's not real and he would say no I can't but that's not the end of the story you see that's not the end of the story Trials and tribulations are going to come. That's not the end of the story. Mary's Easter day was a mixture of sadness, awareness, and discovery. The two Marys, and Mary in particular, were one of the two people in the world to first witness this. Mary went to the tomb and she went in sadness. She was experiencing deep grief and deep despair. She went to a cold place. She went to a stone cold tomb. A tomb personified hopelessness and death. was the end. She went expecting to perform a loving final act, which was to prepare the body of Jesus for final and permanent burial. But things shifted. When she arrived, she went from despair to being aware that things had changed. When she arrived, there was an empty tomb, there's a missing body. angels lurking about who were speaking, and among the angels there was comfort. And from comfort she went into discovery. Instead of preparing the body for final burial, there's a command from the angel and then she's told, go share the good news, go tell rejoice. In one fell swoop, she went from despair to comfort to go, tell, go and rejoice. Now that is a fireworks moment and we can identify our lives are filled with earthquakes. They just come. We don't invite them. We don't want them, but they happen. Grief, health issues, death. employment issues, family concerns. Everyone here, even children, have experienced something that they're dealing with, something that is tough. Life happens. But God, Easter, reminds us that that is not the end of the story. We are living resurrection promise right now. Easter is God's promise that God is active in the here and now, right now, in this very moment, in all places, at all times, and in all circumstances. And the good news is that we're already living eternal life. It has already begun. Whatever comes our way, God is already there. Holy fireworks have already been set off. God loves us so much that God was willing to send the greatest gift the world will ever or could ever receive in his son, who was willing, knowing what was ahead of him as he approached Jerusalem, was willing to die on the cross to be resurrected on Easter for us. You see, we are resurrection people. Today is the day. Today is the day that we celebrate Christ, the stone had been rolled away for him. Christ rolls away the stone from the tombs of our lives and opens us to a love that makes a difference. Today, Christ is risen. Today is the day, living in the here and now. We are resurrection people. We have the same command that those first disciples had. Christ is risen. Hallelujah. The command is the same, to rejoice and go and tell. Let us pray. ⁓ God, this is indeed the day which you have made. It's a day of gladness and rejoicing. You caused new life to burst forth with great beauty and fragrance. You have given us a beautiful day to celebrate. Celebrate the gift of your Son. You adorn creation with splendor and grandeur. You gave your only son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption. Almighty God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you broke the power of death and opened the way to eternal life. The empty tomb stands as witness to his triumph over death. We pray that we, your church, would be a bold testimony to his enduring victory in life. so that all may proclaim to the world, he is risen indeed. O God, increase in our hearts and minds the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. who taught us to say when we pray, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.