“Easter, What Have We Learned?”

     Sermon Written By Rev. Dick Stetler – April 12, 2020

     On the occasion of church closings due to COVID-19

     Centenary United Methodist Church

     John 20:1-18; Colossians 3:1-4

EASTER SUNDAY

    There is very little in our human experience that challenges everyone more than knowing that death awaits all of us. With the Coronavirus among us, the number of deaths world-wide evokes fear.  We wear masks.  Grocery shopping carts are overflowing as people buy as though there will be no tomorrow.  Some people are hoarding as much as they can buy. 

    Seeing these responses happening all around us should make us wonder if the message of Easter has been accurately understood.  Are people living with hope and trust in the unfolding of their lives or with fear?  Sometimes fear disguises itself as a need to take responsibility for ourselves and the lives of others.

    As a faithful Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus knew the correct message that must be understood by his people.  He found himself protecting God's Word as written by Moses.  His need to protect God drove him to rid his culture of another message being spread by a renegade carpenter. As he neared Damascus one day, suddenly a light from Heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city and you will be given guidance on what to do."(Acts 9:3f).

    After his encounter, Saul was unexpectedly transformed by the experience.  What was it about this mysterious encounter that was so dramatic that it transformed the direction of his life? He was totally committed to his truth and yet, as a result of his experience, he became committed to spreading the teachings of Jesus.  The people, who knew of Saul's relentless pursuit of Jesus' followers, could not believe that this was the same man.(Acts 9:13f) 

    Doctor Luke, author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, was so impressed with Saul's rapid transformation that he described his spiritual rebirth in two other accounts, Acts 22 and 26. 

    Why were these Divine encounters so dramatic that they completely altered the direction of the life of a prince of Egypt at a burning bush, a carpenter at his baptism, a ruthless persecutor of Jesus' followers by a blinding light, and a group of very timid and frightened disciples because they saw and spoke with Jesus after he had died? 

    The answer is that for these people an out-of-this-world moment suddenly broke into their lives with an experience that overwhelmed their senses and thoughts.  Why did this happen?  Radical change often occurs when a person has had such a mystical encounter that they can no longer accept the notion that this life is all there is.

    The Apostle Paul wrote how his divine encounter influenced his life in his letter to the Colossians. He described how the lives of others would be equally influenced if they followed his example:

Keep your minds fixed on the divine qualities of your lives, not just on your skills at performing your earthly responsibilities. Basically, your experience of the spirit of love coming alive within you will cause you to die and become reborn into a life of developing and giving away the same loving-energy possessed by God. You will share God's glorious nature with everyone from now on. (Colossians 3:2f)

    This same transformation occurred within everyone that had a verbal exchange with Jesus following his death.  It does not matter how many times the Scriptures suggest what Jesus fore told was about to happen.  His disciples did not believe any of it until they had experienced for themselves that Jesus was alive.

    We have Thomas who verbally told his fellow-disciples that he would not believe what they were saying until he saw for himself that Jesus had risen from the dead. (John:25b) We also have several recorded episodes where the disciples had no idea that Jesus had survived his death. (Luke 24:8f & John 20:3f)

    Once they spoke to Jesus, no one could take that experience away from them. Having an experience that will simply remain a belief for others, is what energized them to carry on Jesus' mission of teaching others to live all the variations of the Golden Rule after initially being afraid and in hiding behind locked doors. (John 20:19)

    There was a moment in my early ministry where I encountered a very committed atheist.  For him, there was no reason to believe in a God. The Scriptures were rubbish.  He was bitterly opposed to the entire Christian-experience. Being handsome and physically fit, he remained available to women before and after he was married. He was a captain in our County's Police Department. I was asked to officiate at his marriage to a friend of my sisters.

    He did not want any prayers or any mention of God during the ceremony. When it came time for the wedding in the bride's church, the host pastor literally took over the ceremony and delivered the official version that contained every word that John had asked to be omitted. John just glared at me during the ceremony with rage in his eyes. He felt betrayed by me and remained angry for the rest of the ceremony.

    I was equally surprised that the pastor became so controlling. He had assured me earlier that I could conduct the ceremony, but when he showed up wearing his robe, I knew he had a change of plans. 

    A number of years later, I received a call from the groom. John was now a recovering cardiac patient in our County's Hospital.  He asked me if I would visit him. He had an experience that cancelled everything that he once believed. He described that moment:

I was being transported on a gurney to the O.R. to have a procedure on my heart. A gorgeous nurse came walking down the hall in a white transparent uniform.  I got up on my arm and started to flirt with her, when she started screaming for a crash cart. I immediately blurted out, 'What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy?'  People came running from all directions.  She took the paddles of the defibrillator while I continued to scream at her.  I turned around and saw that my body was still lying on the gurney.  She reached through my body. When she delivered the jolting shock, I spun around and fell backwards.  I remember seeing the dots imprinted on the acoustical tiles on the ceiling.  Please explain to me how I was able to see and hear everything that was happening while being in a state of cardiac arrest.

    In the future, I eventually conducted John's memorial service.  The place was packed with Prince George's County police officers.  It looked as though the entire department was in attendance. Blue uniforms were everywhere. The tributes from senior officers would have been fitting for the Apostle Paul. All of them said that having that cardiac arrest was the best thing that could have happened to John.  His life was radically changed from being what he was to this new man who became grateful that he had been given a second chance.

    His wife told me that John had been completely transformed by whatever happened to him while on the way to the operating room.  She told me that John had read hundreds of books about spirituality, after-life, and studies of people who had out-of-the-body experiences. She asked me:

Who was the man that I was married to?  During the later years of our marriage, I felt I had married a saint. Where was that man hiding for many years of our marriage?  Many times, I almost left him but I'm glad I remained patient. He became such a good man.

    She was aware of this dramatic change that compelled John to understand what he had spent most of his life denying.  The equation of life had changed and he had to admit to himself that there was far more to life than what he had settled for.  John's transformation was a remarkable experience for me to witness as a young pastor.

    I learned that John was the first among many others in my future who would come to me needing an explanation of what they had just experienced.  Everyone had stories of loved ones who dramatically made their presence known to them.

    Later I became interested in the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who wrote the book entitled, On Death and Dying, that verbally choreographed the process that people go through when they learn that they are dying.  She later ventured into writing about episodes of adults and children who had experienced moments when they had died and yet they could see and hear everything that was taking place prior to their being resuscitated.

    One pre-teen had been born blind.  With tears streaming down her face she told Elizabeth, "I now know what it is like to see." She had watched everything that was being done to her lifeless body prior to the ambulance crew resuscitating her. She said, "While I remain blind, I know what I look like."

    What has remained most surprising to me was the reaction of people who were members of my churches. They had celebrated Jesus' resurrection every Easter and yet, they became shocked and sometimes panicked and bewildered when they encountered the return of a loved one who had died.  None of their lives remained the same after their experience. They thought that Jesus' resurrection was just for him because he was the Son of God.

    Their comments made me wonder what people have been hearing about the Easter message for centuries. Do most people have to wait until their own death before they realize that life does not end when they exit their physical forms?  Maybe so.  If true, what a shame that is.

    What was Jesus teaching by his numerous appearances? What has each of us been celebrating through the years on Easter morning?  In my numerous discussions with others who have had these extraordinary experiences, I have learned from their stories that life continues for everyone.  We are all God's daughters and sons.

    Our continuing to live after our deaths is as automatic for all of us just as the sunrise each morning.  Jesus said, "Do not be afraid or upset about your lives, I have overcome the world."(John 16:33) Our death is not the final conclusion of life. Our physical death is only the end of one chapter in the story-line of our continuing spiritual evolution.

    Before Jesus' death he said, "In my Father's realm there are many levels of awareness.  I would not tell you this if it were not true." (John 14:2) During his crucifixion Jesus said to the thief on the cross next to him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) After his resurrection, Jesus said:

    Do you believe God's plan for our lives because you have seen me? How happy and peaceful it will be for those who trust in what you are now seeing and yet they have not seen me. (John 20:29)

God's unconditional love would never allow any of us to be in an environment where our eternal destiny is determined solely by our decisions and choices. We are flawed by our lack of understanding. We are still somewhere on the learning curve of spiritual maturity.  We lack sensitivity to the needs of others.  Self is still at the center of most of our lives.  We know far more than our ancestors, but quite often our emotional responses have remained the same as people who lived centuries ago.

    What we are celebrating this Easter morning is that Jesus gave to many of his followers an insight that life for everyone continues. God's love is bigger than the I don't care attitudes of countless people.   What makes our lives sweet and peaceful is when we learn to love one another right now while we are still alive to do so. After all, that is what God's unconditional loving-energy within us inspires us to be. We are the ones who must make God's love visible. 

     

     CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

     O God, how often we enter the experience of life with resurrection-faith as our hope, but have the doubts of Thomas in our hearts. Help us this Easter morning to walk away from the tombs that so easily imprison us: a spirit that cannot forgive, pursuits that seemingly prevent us from feeding our spirits, and decisions that bind us because we live in a world that never stops changing. Jesus left his tomb and bid us to follow him.  Help us to re-enter our world with faith and trust that the life we create goes on and on.   Amen.

                                                                                                              

    PASTORAL PRAYER

     Loving and eternally faithful God, we thank you for your inexhaustible patience with our world.  We are grateful that your love for us is so all-encompassing that you have provided us with insight through the resurrection of Jesus, that life is eternal for all of us. There is no greater lesson that provides us with the staying power to persevere even when life appears to be at its worst. 

     Inspire us to recognize that the world is what it is and that all of us are angels in the flesh that are only passing through during a brief phase of its history.  Help us never to grow weary of sowing our seeds that demonstrate how better to extend our love to each other. Cause us to remember how fortunate we are to be able to use our lives as vehicles through which your love comes into a world that desperately needs diverse people to embrace collectively what it means to live in community.  Help the scales, caused by living in a material world, to fall from our eyes so that we are able to live in eternity right now.

     So many people are suffering this Easter morning in many countries.  Sometimes the words, "He has risen," appear empty and hollow when people all over the world are distracted and suffering from a ravenous virus that has shut down commerce on every level.  Our lives from our economies to worship services have grown still and silent.  Clearly the world needs what your son brought.  We all need that blueprint that teaches what sounds so simple but continue to elude many of us – to love one another.  Inspire all of us to keep the world's people in our thoughts and prayers.  We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught his disciples to say when they prayed . . .