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“The Stone Rolled Away”
Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-18; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24;
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
Easter Sunday
April 8, 2007
Prayer: Gracious God, as
we hear your Word and try to understand its message, help us to respond
through your Holy Spirit by spreading the good news and welcoming all into
the Body of Christ. AMEN.
Can you imagine them coming to the
place and being amazed at what they saw? I mean, so amazed that they were
awestruck at what they found? These Galilean women came to the place where they
expected to anoint the body with fragrant spices, but instead, not finding it,
they ran away terrified, telling the news of what we know as the Resurrection of
Christ to the eleven apostles and others around of what had happened. From that
first Easter day, we want to hear and tell this story often, don’t we? This
Easter proclamation is not new, but it is a story worth telling!
But what in the world did happen?
What is this story worth telling? In all of the gospels, in every one, we see
quick glimpses of the resurrection on what we know as this side of heaven, but
the glimmers seem to be just beyond our grasp. As we heard the account in Luke,
this amazing story is just an “idle tale”; in the gospel of John, Mary
Magdalene, associated by name with the burial of Jesus, was weeping but
declares, “ I have seen the Lord (John 20:18)”,
and in the resurrection in Paul’s letter to Corinth
(I Cor. 15:19-26) no ‘Easter story’ is
given whatever. Yet, on Easter Day, we proclaim the good news of Jesus’
resurrection unequivocally. What can we make of all this confusion, questioning,
and differing accounts of so important an event that in this story of the stone
rolled away it is the cornerstone of our faith?
Christmas and the birth of Christ
is seemingly much easier to explain. Birth, that tangible entity where we are
formed and made wonderfully in God’s image, we can grasp or get a glimpse of
that event in understanding our Christian faith. But the resurrection, rising
from death to life and on the third day after the crucifixion? Come on,
already!! But, maybe it is in the wonder, the mystery, the difficulty,
and the glory of Easter truth, that we experience our own resurrection.
Maybe it is in the glimpses, the confusion, the questioning of these
stories, that we find, perhaps eventually, resurrection into new life. It seems
to me, in trying to understand what in the world did happen, to claim a
resurrection faith for ourselves, it is important, to recognize that Christ’
death, along with Christ’ resurrection, are acts of faith, AND acts of God’s
grace. In the actions of the women at the tomb at Christ’ death, and in the
actions of the men in their reactions to the telling of Christ’ resurrection at
the stone rolled away, in the power of the Holy Spirit in them, they are
saved and reconciled by God and God’s grace to God and to one
another! That’s the resurrection; the story worth telling is that through the
grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, God delivers us from death to
new life. It is God’s deliverance from death to new life that is this
cornerstone of our faith; the Easter celebration as the central event in the
Christian year. Everything, everything else revolves around this event..
Alleluia!!
If I could choose ten sentences of
the N.T. that are, for me and us, the good news of the gospel, that are the top
ten ‘power plays’ of who God is in Jesus Christ, this Acts text today would be
that description. Without boring you with mentioning ALL TEN (!), I love this
text because it’s Peter, only dear Peter, who is speaking, and because the
action describes God in Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit in
us. This miraculous resurrection of Christ Jesus is the real story worth
telling; the ‘power play’ that brings new life to God’s people. We are the
witnesses, you and I are; chosen by God to believe in him and to be forgiven of
our sins through his name ( Acts 10:43). This is our new life.
In the good news of the Risen
Christ, as the stone was rolled away, perhaps Christ was on the move in new and
different ways, just as Mary Magdalene was on the move and was sent out into the
world to new and different places. She went out and saw and was with the living,
just as Jesus had told them he would rise again on the third day and be with the
living. It was her faith, her responsibility, her joy, even her amazement to
tell everyone that a new day, a new light, had come. Perhaps we, chosen by God,
are sent out to be on the move as witnesses, to be disciples of Christ to bring
the good news of Christ to all people. The stone has been rolled away; a new
morning has begun for us this day. Let it be so for us in our new life
in/through Christ Jesus.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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