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The Resurrection and You
A Sermon Preached by Dr. James Flamming
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va.
Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005
Scripture: John 20:1-8; Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
That wonderful Quaker Christian educator, Parker Palmer,
tells a wonderful story about Tim, a shop teacher. Tim had been in a group with
whom Palmer had been meeting. Tim had shared with the group that he and his
Principal had been in total disagreement about Tim attending a summer institute
presenting a new, high-tech method of teaching shop. For two years Tim had
resolutely refused to go. Now it was round three. Once again the Principal
called Tim in to make his demand that he attend, and once again Tim refused.
But this time Tim said something new. He explained that for
the past year and a half he had been sitting with this group of teachers who had
been exploring their inner lives. He said, “I’ve begun to realize that I have an
inner life too. I can see that I’ve been lying to myself, and to you, about why
I won’t go to the summer institute.
“The truth is, I’m afraid. I’m afraid I won’t understand
what they are saying. I’m afraid that what I do understand will make me feel
like I’ve been teaching the wrong way for twenty years. I’m afraid I’ll come
home from that institute feeling like I’m over the hill. I still don’t want to
go, but at least I can be honest with you about why.” There was the kind of
pause that happens with honest confession. Both sat there looking at the floor.
Then the Principal looked up at Tim and said, “You know what? I’m afraid too.
Let’s go together.” (A Hidden Wholeness, p. 67)
I think that is something like what must have happened
between Peter and John on that first Easter morning. Mary Magdalene burst on
them with the news that the tomb was opened and Jesus was gone. In my mind I can
hear John saying, “Do you suppose we can believe this? Do you think Mary is
just hallucinating in her grief? Do you suppose someone has stolen the body?
Peter, I’m afraid. I’m afraid if the tomb is empty. I’m afraid if it is not.” I
see Peter staring at the floor and finally saying, “You know what? I’m afraid
too. Let’s go together.”
John was younger and got there first. But he was afraid to
go in. Peter, huffing and puffing, came in second but didn’t hesitate to barge
in. The tomb was empty. Only the grave clothes were there, carefully laid to the
side.
But solid faith needs more than information about an empty
tomb. Life-giving faith needs a Presence, the presence of the Living One. In
John 20:19, “Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were
overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
The earliest listing of the appearances we have is in 1 Cor.
15:3-8. (The Gospel accounts do not include all of these.) Paul began by
reciting the basics of our faith: that our Lord died for our sins, was buried,
and then raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Then he lists the
appearances: he appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve, then to more than 500,
then to James, then to all of the apostles, then to Paul who calls himself the
least of the group. It was the presence, the appearances of our Lord, that
turned these guys around.
For those of you who doubt – doubt is a good place to visit
but don’t live there, belief has some questions but so does doubt.
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How do you explain this extensive list of
appearances?
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How do you explain their courage in taking the
gospel everywhere?
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How do you explain their perseverance through
every difficulty.
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How do you explain Christian worship being on
the first day of the week in direct violation of the Hebrew commandment, if
there was no resurrection?
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How do you explain his appearance to James,
his brother, who was not a believer before the resurrection but then became
a leader after the resurrection?
I mean, what was it that sent them throughout the world,
allowed them to face gladiators, lions, their own crosses? I mean, rumors may
produce gossip, but they don’t produce martyrs. It was the appearances of our
Risen Lord and his constant presence that never left them. Jesus said in John
14:18: “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. . .”In verse 19 he
says, “Because I live, you also will live.”
But, the real doubt reducer is your own experience with the
Lord. As Paul said to his Roman friends, “If the Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead lives within you he will give you life. . .” What was it Jesus said,
“Because I live, you also will live.”
The Possibilities
Some motivational speakers these days speak of Possibility
Thinking. O.K. Possibility-Think with me for a while.
Consider this possibility! You can connect with that same
power, that same purpose, that same Spirit that raised our Lord Christ from the
dead. I bear witness to you that is really possible. The great Creator of the
universe cares enough about you to bring life to you as he did at the
resurrection.
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Let the Life of the Resurrected One whisper
hope through the chambers of your past;
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Let Him settle in the doorways of your
feelings;
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Let Him nestle in the corners of your fears;
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Let him elbow his way into the closed closets
of your anxieties.
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Let Him find refuge in the stairways of your
faith.
In the caves where early Christians hid and survived, they
scratched words into the rocks that have survived through the centuries vita,
vita, vita – life, life, life.
Look at Resurrection Possibilities for Today
There is a song I like. I like to hear it. I like to hum
it. I sometimes quote it.
It begins, “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. . .” But
if I could add a verse it would be, “Because he lives, I can face today. . .”
Jesus said to Mary and Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” It is
present tense. Jesus had more to say about living today than worrying about
tomorrow. Listen to Paul again: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the
dead is living in you, he will give you life.”
Look at The Possibility of the Gentle Lifting
of the Spirit
Margaret Silf tells of a chapter in her life when she
worked near a canal. Sometimes she would go at lunch time to watch the ships
come into the locks, some of them carrying many tons of materials. She would
watch in fascination as those tons of material would be lifted or lowered simply
by the lift of a gentle stream of water.
One day she boarded ad boat that would pass through the
locks. She wanted to feel what it was like to be inside one of those locks.
Locks have addresses just like houses do. It turned out to be Lock 46. She was
shocked to find how trapped she felt. All she could see were the bare walls on
the side of the locks and the bare walls of the lock gates. No horizon. No shore
line. No trees. No foliage. No life. No fish breaking the surface. No birds
flying through the air.
Then the boat began to lift. Not by its own power, but by
the gentle power of the water lifting it. After a while the lifeless walls were
being left behind. The horizon was coming into view. The shoreline brought a
smile to her face. It was as if her eyes were seeing afresh the trees, the
foliage, the birds flying overhead, the fishermen, the gentle current of the
river.
For her it became a parable of life and of her life with
the Lord. She couldn’t lift herself. She needed the gentle power of the Spirit
to do it. She needed to be lifted above what seemed to have her trapped, walled
in, closed off. As the Spirit of the Lord held her, lifted her she found she
could again rejoice at the horizon of hope, the soft current of love, the trees
of beauty lining the River of Life. She needed to let the Lord of life take
control.
It reminds me of Easter, resurrection day. Sometimes we
don’t see the lifting power of what God is really doing. Even if we can’t always
see it, let us recite together with enthusiasm in our voice, “The Lord is Risen.
The Lord is Risen indeed.”
Look at Resurrection in Difficult Times
But what about those times when we feel trapped in Lock 46:
locked into schedules, responsibilities, calendars. What about the times when
the unexpected has us locked in, things are not what we thought they would be.
What does the Resurrection of our Lord have to do with the
difficult times of life? Ruth Graham, daughter of Ruth and Billy Graham, lives
in Virginia. When she is unable to attend her own church she catches us on T.V.
She has written a wonderful book entitled, In Every Pew Sits a Broken Heart.
It is the story of her own difficult journey through difficult times and how the
Lord sustained her through it. A subtitle goes like this: “When life’s rosy
dreams dissolve into difficult realities that break our hearts, God shows that
he specializes in restoration.”
Consider Old Testament Ezekiel and his vision of a valley
of dry bones. God asked, “Can these dry bones live again/” Ezekiel said, “Only
you know.” And then God breathed into them and they began to come together, they
moved, they worked, they gathered momentum. There are dry bones in every life,
and in every family, in every church, in every nation. They need the power that
raised Christ from the dead to raise them up. But when they do come together,
Watch out dry bones of fear, the Risen One is
at work.
Get ready dry bones of doubt, the Lord is
putting things together.
Hold on, mister fatigue, strength from above is
on its way.
Linger a minute, impatient one, it will take a
while but the Lord is doing his thing.
The Spirit that raised Jesus is doing his work in you. The
Spirit comes softly, like a thin whisper, and you can only sense it in your
heart. But wait for the Risen One in the quiet, or in the traffic, and the
Spirit will come.
For the Lord is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed.
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