3-POINT EASTER SERMON

A Sermon for Easter Sunday, Year A

April 24, 2011

Pastor Laura Gentry

Matthew 28:1-10

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

In real estate, they say there are 3 rules to remember. These 3 things will determine whether the piece of property is going to sell easily or not. And the three rules are: location, location, location. It matters most where a piece of property is located. Even if it’s old and crumbling down or has out-of-date appliances, it will sell if it is in a desirable location. That’s what it’s all about. Do people want to live there? And conversely, you can have a beautiful property with everything perfect but if it isn’t in a good location, it won’t sell very well. Indeed, it's all about location, location, location.

And today, as you might have noticed, it is Easter Sunday. This is the highest, holy day of the church year and so I’d like to preach something really inspiring so you’ll be able to understand and appreciate this incredible day. In order to do so, I’m going to preach an old-fashioned 3-point sermon. That’s the traditional model of preaching, by the way. The pastor is supposed to fit every important scriptural matter into 3, easy-to-remember points. That way, the congregation will be able to hear it, go home and say: “Yes, I can still remember the 3 points of the sermon.” And then rattle them off to one another. Now typically, I don’t use this form because I usually have more to say than can be fit into 3 points.

But today—because it’s Easter—I’m sticking with the 3 points. I’ve got to tell you about the Easter message in a way you can remember. Here are the 3 points I’ve come up with after great contemplation on the Gospel text. Are you ready? There may be a pop quiz later in the service so you might want to take notes. They are: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!

Each of these points is important so I’m going to start with the first one. The story begins on that first Easter morning. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary make their way to the tomb of Jesus. What do they expect to find? I suppose they expect what you would expect if you went to visit the grave of a friend: the grave would look like a grave. It would be undisturbed. Perhaps there might be flowers there, but generally things at graves look pretty much the same whenever you go to visit them. You don’t expect your friend to be risen!

And yet that’s exactly what the Marys encounter! It’s highly dramatic in Matthew’s telling of the story. There’s a great earthquake, which shakes up their perspective and probably everything else in the surrounding area. And then an angel of the Lord descends from heaven before their eyes, and with superhero strength, rolls back the stone of the grave and sits on it. There he looks at them—dazzling like a lightning bolt!

Can you imagine how shocking it would be for these two women to witness all this? It’s incomprehensible, really. The guards behavior tells you how disarming it is. They panic so much they pass out—but the women, the women keep it together (perhaps that's why Jesus appears first to women in all 4 of the gospels). The angel, then, speaks to them and says: “Do not be afraid; for I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised from the dead, as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” So that brings me to the first point of my sermon: He is risen!

They have come to the place of death and found life! This is a game-changer for Mary and Mary. The fact that Jesus is risen completely changes their world. Not even death could defeat their Lord. He is risen. Though they are still afraid and unsure about what this means for them, they know that nothing will ever be the same.

Then, the angel commands them to go quickly and tell the disciples that Christ is risen. He explains that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee. And so they respond immediately—leaving the tomb, it says, with fear and great joy as they run to meet the disciples. Obviously, it is very emotional for them. It’s like when you cry and laugh at the same time. As humans, we can have a complicated mix of emotions. The women are afraid because this news is so new and so riveting, but they are filled with great joy at the same time.

Suddenly, Jesus meets them on the road and says “Greetings!” They are so elated that they come right up to him, take a hold of his feet—confirming that he is, indeed, risen bodily—and worship him. This brings me to my second point: He is risen. Not only have the women witnessed the empty tomb, the earthquake and the stone being rolled away by an angel, but now they have experienced the risen Jesus themselves. For them, it is completely clear that Jesus is risen.

Then he says to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Go and tell, he commands them. Jesus wants everyone to know that he is risen. Death has been defeated for all who will believe. Resurrection is not just for Jesus, but for every one of us, which brings me to my third point: He is risen!

So the women go and tell and those they tell go and tell and those that they tell go and tell. And in this way, the message of Christ’s resurrection is passed down all the way through the generations to you and me today. We have been given the good news of all 3 of these important points: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!

What does it mean for us? I mean, can we comprehend even one of these points? The fact that Christ is risen may seem confusing, unbelievable, and even irrelevant. But as Christians, we understand that in the resurrection, God turned everything around. Jesus was put to death but God said a resounding “NO!” to death by raising him. Sin and death were defeated and everlasting life was made possible for all who believe in him.

So yes, because he is risen, you and I have the assurance of heaven. That’s all well and good, you say, but what about the problems I'm facing right now? I need Jesus' help in this very moment. What does the resurrected life look like?

Well, let's take a look. For example, you say: what about the price of gasoline? If it hits $4 a gallon, I won't be able to afford to go anywhere. And your response to this should be: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! The price of gas is important, but not nearly as important as the new life of Jesus within you. That's the thing that matters most. Everything else is secondary and you can trust that God will get you through it.

But what about that grief you’re facing? You say: This is the first Easter without my husband. I didn’t think grieving him would be so hard. Sometimes I wonder if I can even go without him. And your response to this should be: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! Because of your faith in Jesus, you know you'll be reunited with your deceased loved ones. This separation, which hurts so much, is only temporary. Because he is risen, you are not without hope and healing.

Then there’s the economy. It’s so unstable, you say, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my job. I can’t imagine how devastated my family would be if I lost it. And your response to this should be: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!

There’s also health or lack thereof to think about. I know I’m failing, you say. I’m so afraid I’ll end up being a burden to my kids but I don’t think I can live alone much longer. And your response to this should be: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!

Just as location makes all the difference in real estate, the fact that Christ is risen makes all the difference in our lives. I am not just talking about the hereafter. Easter starts now. Resurrection matters right in the midst of our troubled lives. Everything that you and I face—whether it’s mundane or catastrophic is resurrected with Christ. That means, God is with us—giving us new life to face whatever we have to face with confidence. If your location is with Christ, then nothing is impossible. You can hold your head high in faith and proclaim: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!

The angel commanded the Marys to go and tell the good news. May we be filled with their joyful enthusiasm and go and tell it too. And I think we can cover all 3 points of the resurrection: He is risen! He is risen! He is risen!

Amen!

FEAST ON FORGIVENESS

A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter (Year B)

by Pastor Laura Gentry

Luke 24:36b-48

On Easter Sunday—two weeks ago—my husband and I headed to Dubuque after we’d finished our Easter worship duties. We were celebrating the resurrection with my parents. Since it was just the four of us this year, we opted not to make our own feast. Instead, we went out for a fancy buffet. I haven’t been to a buffet in a long time. I’d forgotten how difficult it is to make choices about what to eat at an all-you-can eat banquet. After a while, you get too full to walk and you have to sort of roll yourself out to the parking lot. I remember once I ate so much at a buffet that I announced I was unable to even lick my spoon! Though this year’s Easter banquet was delicious, I ended up thinking how ridiculous it was that we’d eaten quite that much.

Yet now as I continue to study the resurrection scripture lessons through the season of Easter, I am beginning to think our massive Easter banquet was actually appropriate. Why? Because as the gospel of Luke describes it, Easter is not just about the empty tomb, it is about eating. Jesus himself, it seems, spent the first Easter eating.

In the portion before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes himself known to two disciples in Emmaus through the breaking of the bread. Now in today’s reading, he demonstrates that he is not a ghost by devouring a piece of fish. His disciples gather around the table too. Like us, they celebrated the resurrection of Jesus by sharing a meal—perhaps they didn’t get a fancy “omelet station” like I did at the Easter buffet I attended, but they had a meal nevertheless.

And it wasn’t their first meal together. We remember, of course, the last supper Jesus and his disciples shared in the upper room the night he was betrayed. At that meal, he assured them that he would be with them in the bread and wine even after he was gone from them in body. No wonder the disciples later recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread at Emmaus—it reminded them of this landmark last supper.

But Jesus had already spent his entire ministry with the disciples, he had already shared countless meals with them and he had already given them the amazing experience of the last supper—a gift that would keep on giving. So why would he need to keep showing up after the resurrection to convince them that he had really risen?

We don’t know Jesus’ motivation for sure but we do know what his post-resurrection appearances accomplished in the disciples. It gave them a deep sense of forgiveness. Remember that according to the gospels, the disciples weren’t there for Jesus in his time of need. Fearing for their lives, they all fled when the Romans came to arrest Jesus. Peter denied him three times even though Jesus warned him he would do so.

They had good reason to feel guilty. They had failed their Lord and Savior. Though he’d spent so much time with them, they were failures when the rubber hit the road. Pathetic might be the best word to describe the followers at the time of the crucifixion and resurrection. But then Jesus comes to them in his resurrected body. He offers them forgiveness and embodies this by eating with them. In Biblical times you would never eat with someone against whom you held a grudge. Eating with them demonstrated that all was well between you. These caring appearances and shared meals utterly transformed the disciples. That must be the reason Jesus came to them.

Now Jesus didn’t appear in body in our modern world. We have no photographs of him or TV interviews and so it would be easy to dismiss the story of the resurrection as fiction. There’s no proof Jesus rose. If you made that argument, you would be right. There is no scientific evidence to prove the Easter story.

What we do have, however, is the convincing evidence that something changed the disciples entirely. They went from a ragtag group of run-aways to the greatest evangelists you can imagine—evangelists who were so zealous to spread the good news that many gave their lives for the cause. Something changed them. We believe it was not something, but someone. It was the loving, forgiving Jesus who came to them and ate with them until they were convinced that their sin was wiped away and they were equipped to carry on the ministry Jesus had begun.

Forgiveness of sins—that’s what Jesus brought to them and to us. That is what he has always been about. Even as he was dying, Jesus asked for forgiveness for those who were killing him (Luke 23:34). In Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in the doubting Thomas story from John’s gospel, he told them that they had the power to forgive sin. Just as God had forgiven them, they were called to forgive the sins of others. This echos the important lesson in the Lord’s Prayer he had already given them: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Do WE know forgiveness? Do we know it in our hearts—that Jesus rose from the dead for US? For the forgiveness of OUR offenses? Does this give us the inspiration to turn away from our ways of sin and to forgive others as they wrong us? It certainly should.

The German theologian, Karl Rahner, wrote: “we are always tempted to stay in sin because we do not dare to believe in the magnificent love of God, and because we do not want to believe that God will forgive us our sins” (The Content of Faith, p. 306).

We do not dare to believe in the magnificent love of God. How tragic! I remember once when I was a child, a bird flew into our window and injured itself. The neighbors and I ran after the flopping, hurting bird—attempting to capture it so we could get it treatment. We were trying to help, but the bird didn’t want to let us help. It didn’t understand. It was afraid. We were unable to catch it and later found it’s body in the lawn.

When I think about how desperately God wants to love us and how unwilling we are at times to let God love us, I think of that dying bird. We are only hurting ourselves when we attempt to go it alone—pushing against the God who made us and who given his life to redeem us. But it is hard for us to ask for help and to really allow God to love and forgive us. God’s love is foreign to us. No where else do we experience such unconditional love and forgiveness. It is hard to trust in it when others have promised love and then let us down. Yet by the gift of faith, we CAN trust in this love, we CAN accept this forgiveness and we CAN be changed into loving people who offer forgiveness to others.

Jesus love and undeserved forgiveness offered to the disciples in the concrete experience of shared meals changed the denying Peter, the doubting Thomas and the run-away disciples into the heros of faith God designed them to be. Jesus continue to offer this love and forgiveness to us in the Lord’s Super and in the Word. May we also feast on forgiveness that we may be transformed to change the world with God’s love. Amen.


© 2009 Laura E. Gentry

A WHOLE NEW CRY

The ceramic butterflies were hand-made and given to worshipers on Easter Sunday as a reminder of the resurrected life to which Jesus calls us.

A Sermon for Easter Sunday

by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 20:1-18

This wonderful Easter morning we have come together celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Throughout our service, we continue to affirm that Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen, indeed. Alleluia! We are all aware that this is a joyful day—a day to dress in our finest clothes, a day to plan a wonderful meal, to come to church with the whole family, to sing our favorite Easter hymns.

And yet, the people at the tomb in this morning’s Gospel didn’t find it so joyful. They weren't having Easter egg hunts and munching on Cadbury cream eggs, or wearing pretty springtime fashions thinking pleasant thoughts about bunnies and about all the half-price pastel M&Ms they were going buy at the after-Easter sales tomorrow. No, they were caught up in the harsh reality that their Lord had died—a reality they did not expect, though Jesus had tried many times to tell them that this was God’s plan. It is a reality they cannot understand or accept—for with Jesus, all their hopes had died. They were deep, deep in darkness.

And it is in darkness that Mary Magdalene makes her way to the tomb that first Easter morning. She has no idea he is risen. She comes before dawn, perhaps because her sorrow has kept her awake all night and she cannot sleep anyway. All she can think about is the fact that her Lord has been crucified. With her hopes dashed and her world in shambles, she has come to his grave, perhaps to grieve in the peace of this garden.

But the serenity of the grace is certainly not what she finds. The sealed tomb has been opened! The huge stone is rolled away! Mary turns and dashes off to find Peter and the other disciple. Out of breath, Mary cries to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him!”

Shocked, the disciples run to the tomb to see if what Mary was hysterically crying about was true. Sure enough, they see the out-of-place stone, the empty linens, the body-less tomb. In this Gospel account, John doesn’t tell us what the two men are thinking or feeling—he just simply says that the other disciple “saw and believed.” He doesn’t even tell us for sure that Peter saw and believed, though we assume so because then the two men turn around and go home. Not very big parts for important disciples. They couldn’t even get a “Best Supporting Actor” for these little cameo roles.

But Mary—Mary deserves a “Best Leading Actress” for her dramatics here. After the two disciples run off, Mary stands weeping outside the tomb. When faced with the empty tomb, Mary doesn’t just “see and believe” so easily like the two disciples. She is still convinced that some opponent of Jesus’ has stolen his body to further undermine her Lord—as if getting him crucified was not enough. She is wrought with grief in this moment—her world has come to an end. I picture her in this scene shaking with sobs, unable to get a hold of herself.

Still trying to comprehend this catastrophe, Mary peeks into the tomb again. This time, it is not empty. This time, she sees two angels hanging out where Jesus was supposed to be, and they casually ask, “Woman, why are you weeping?” We can see that Mary is overtaken by her grief because she seems to lack logic here. If you saw two angels sitting in your loved one’s empty tomb, wouldn’t you start to catch on that something strange is afoot? Not Mary—she goes on to answer the angel’s question as if she’s talking to some regular person, crying, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

As if Jesus cannot stand to see Mary grieve another moment longer, he appears. Perhaps she senses him, because she turns right around to face him. Yet, through her tears, she cannot recognize him. He asks her the same question: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”

Mary assuming he is the gardener and also the alleged grave robber, addresses him in an accusatory tone: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Then, Jesus calls her by name: “Mary.” That’s all it takes to turn her tears to cries of joy. She hears her name, recognizes her Lord and responds with the affectionate name she had always called him, “Rabbouni,” the more familiar title used to address teachers.


A parishioner from my congregation in California showed me a painting she had commissioned by the artist Richard Serrin (pictured above), which seeks to visually interpret this passage from John’s Gospel. Mary is outside the tomb, kneeling in darkness, yet her face is mysteriously illuminated. Christ is standing in the background because she has not yet turned to face him. Her hands are clutched in tight fists and there is a cry upon her face. It looks like a cry of anguish but if you look at it for a while, you think it might be a cry of joy. It is as if the artist has caught the precise fraction of a second when one cry transitions into the other. And that very moment, I think, expresses the whole purpose of the Easter story.

Today it is Easter Sunday, 2009. Nearly 2,000 years have passed since that first Easter day. We have come to church to celebrate the Resurrection. And, yes, we are dressed up in our Easter finest but deep inside, I think we can all relate to Mary Magdalene. Like Mary, don’t we carry around a burden of grief in our souls? Perhaps it is the loss of loved ones that grieves us. Perhaps it is the disappointments and crushing blows we’ve suffered in our lives. Perhaps it is the terrible weight of our sins, the unwise choices we’ve made. Perhaps we bear the wounds of pain inflicted by others. Or maybe illness and disease weigh us down. Yes, we confess that Christ is risen. We believe it in our hearts and we know that there is cause for great joy this Easter Day but the grief is there, too. Like Mary, there is a cry of anguished sorrow on our lips.

But just as Mary’s cry was changed into joy, so is ours. As he called her by name, as he under stood her deep need and came to her rescue as the Risen One, so he calls us today. So he rescues us from sin and death. He came to change our human cry of grief into a cry of happy victory. He came to give us a whole new cry!

And what does Mary do, once her cry has been changed—once she has been given a new cry—a faithful cry of joy? She immediately does as Jesus commands her. She runs like the wind to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” and to tell her whole story of how Jesus has transformed her cry.

Do we recognize Jesus? We hear him call us by name? Do we see that Easter is more than just a springtime tradition? Do we see that it is the church’s celebration of the fact Jesus has changed our human condition entirely? It is a celebration that Christ continues to reveal himself to us today in Word and Sacrament: in the Holy Scriptures, in the healing waters of Baptism, in the body and blood of the Lord’s Supper, and in the fellowship of our church community. And in these things, Jesus changes our cry of grief into a victorious cry of joy! And, like Mary, we are called to share with others the good news that Christ is Risen! May we do so with Mary’s exuberant, Oscar-award-winning zeal and proclaim in all we do and say that “Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, Indeed, Alleluia!”

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

MY LOVE IS MY SHEPHERD

A Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter
April 13, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator and from our Savior Jesus Christ.

In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy stands with her arms folded and a resolute expression on her face, while Charlie Brown pleads with her. "Lucy," he says, "you must be more loving. The world needs love. Make this world a better place, Lucy, by loving someone else." At that Lucy whirls around angrily and Charlie goes flipping over backwards. "Look, you blockhead," Lucy screams. "The world I love. It's people I can't stand!"

We laugh at Lucy’s antics but her attitude here is all too prevalent. It’s funny because it is true. People trying to get along with people is a dicey business. We can get pretty jaded and exhausted trying to deal with the conditional love and the lack of love we see in the world.

And so when we stop to consider the love of God, it seems too good to be true. We are not used to such lavish love, especially when it is undeserved. The 23rd Psalm from our lectionary today is a famous song of God’s love and care for us.

It uses the metaphor of sheep and a shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” it declares. We are so accustomed to this language because of the popularity of the psalm but have you ever stopped to think about the implications of our sheepness in this metaphor? Sheep. Why would we be sheep? Why not something more exotic like an eagle, perhaps.

You may have heard that sheep are kind of stupid. That doesn’t make us feel too good about ourselves, then, does it? But you see, sheep in Biblical times were highly valued. They were central in the economy and so it isn’t actually an insult to be called a sheep. For us to be sheep and have God as a shepherd means that we are enormously valued.

The shepherd in this Psalm goes to great lengths to care for the sheep. There are many tender images here about the way our shepherd leads and cares for us. And the verbs in this passage are all talking about the shepherd. It is the Lord who does all the active things: leads, restores, comforts, anoints, and so forth. The sheep passively receive all this, simply enjoying the marvelous gifts provided by the shepherd.
In this Psalm, it is interesting to note, it says that the shepherd prepares the table. In Biblical times, this preparation meant preparing the fields for the sheep. The shepherd would have many things to do in order to make a field graze-ready for the sheep. There would be poisonous weeds and thorns to remove, along with snakes and scorpion’s nests. In the evening, the shepherd would corral the sheep and tend to the injured ones, treating them with oil and a curative drink sweetened with honey. The 23rd speaks of these things, explaining that this is what the Lord does for each one of us.

Another important thing to note about sheep is that they are communal animals. They don’t thrive alone. They need to be with others and they need a shepherd to guide and protect them. So, we need one another. As members of the church, we have the delightful assurance that we are not alone. We struggle to have faith and live God’s will, not as individuals but as a community. As a flock, we share a common life and this is, indeed, good news.

Then, in our gospel reading today, Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. He says that he calls the sheep and that they know his voice. I once saw a wildlife special in which a baby hippo had been orphaned and was being cared for by human caretakers. The little hippo looked pretty placid in the pen until his human “mother” came out to feed him. She called his name and little ears began to quiver with joy and he ran toward her with great vigor. It just sticks in my mind as a metaphor as to how we should respond when Jesus calls. So now you’ve been compared to not only a sheep today, but a hippo as well!

Jesus, as our good shepherd, calls us gently into a relationship. He never forces himself into our lives though that is where he most wants to be. No, he gently woos us into a loving relationship because of all the love he gives to us first. When the Lucys of the world scream “it’s people I can’t stand!” Jesus says, “it’s people I can’t stand to be without!” and he pours himself out for us.

Jesus, who is both the shepherd and the gate declares that he came for us, that we might be life more abundantly. As the gate, he has opened the way for us. He seeks us so urgently, that we—along with the rest of the flock—might be God’s own.

Yet it is hard to feel this loved. We feel beaten down by life’s hard blows, unworthy and unable to accept this love as it is lavished upon us by God. But that is the whole point. The theologian Walter Brueggemann once wrote: “The true joy and purpose of life are to love God and be loved by God, no longer alone, but in communion." True joy, my friends, true joy! Don’t you want it? Don’t you want to lay claim to it?

Can we admit that we are helpless sheep in need of a trustworthy shepherd? We accept the unfathomable love of God who loves us just as we are? What would living in that love fully mean for our daily living? How would accepting ourselves as God accepts us translate into the way we treat others? Let us prayerfully invite our good shepherd to love us that we may know and share this love.

In closing, I would like to share a brand new recording with you. Augsburg Fortress Publishers just produced this recording of modern renditions of Psalms by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. The web site for this album is: The Psalm Project: Sharing the Road. In this version of the 23rd Psalm it calls the Lord “my love,” suggesting a deep, loving relationship with God. The pronoun is feminine, which might seem jarring at first, but it is intended to help us think of God’s presence in a mothering, nurturing way. Let us listen to it and pray along, inviting God’s love to overwhelm us today.

VERSE 1
My Love is my shepherd; I need nothing more For she leads me into lush pastures of green And beside the still waters My life is renewed today Guiding me in the best paths of her way, Though I walk through the valley of darkness and fear, My Love is with me.

VERSE 2
Anointed and bless’d with abundance, I thrive With a table prepared in spite of my enemies And all my secret fears My soul lacks for nothing now Goodness and mercy are following me Every day of my life And I’m forever home in the presence of Love

Copyright © 2008 Augsburg Fortress. All Rights Reserved.


For more information visit Behind the Song.


© 2008 Laura Gentry

HE HE HE HE IS RISEN!

A Sermon for Holy Hilarity Sunday
March 30, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (NRSV)


Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here we are on our second annual Holy Hilarity Sunday! I thank you for indulging me and assume you enjoy these silly celebrations as much as I do.



Easter, as we’ve said, is God’s great joke on death. Now the thing that makes a joke funny is that there is something unexpected that catches us off-guard. By this definition, resurrection is comic. The people who originally witnessed it were not expecting Jesus to be risen. Oh, he’d told them that he would be rising but they thought it was a more of a spiritual metaphor than something this outrageously real! Here he is, alive again! He beat sin and death, isn’t that funny?

You could go so far as to claim that the empty tomb is the "banana peel" of the Christian faith. Easter is the cosmic pratfall as God pulled the rug out from under the powers of darkness and death by the resurrection.

So this celebration of Eater with humor isn’t so strange after all. In fact, there is evidence that post-Easter lightheartedness is part of our Christian heritage. Even Martin Luther was a fabulous laugher. He once said, “If you’re not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.”



So for this laughing celebration, I have some new Easter jokes and funnies for you.

This was sent to be by Bob Grover. It is entitled: “Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from the Easter Bunny” and I will give you a few of the highlights.



• Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
• Walk softly and carry a big carrot.
• Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.
• Keep your paws off other people's jellybeans.
• Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.
• Some body parts should be floppy.
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Here are some other fun jokes:

Good Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Easter.
Bad Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Xmas.
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The problem: How to get two pounds of chocolate Easter candy home from the store in a hot car.
The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.
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This one is a picture and if you haven’t seen it, you can imagine it. One chocolate Easter bunny has a bite taken right out of his back side. He complains to his fellow chocolate bunny, “My butt hurts.” But the other one’s ears have been bitten off so he says, “What?”
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Secret Service
A man was heading out of church on Easter morning. The pastor greeted him at the door, then pulled him aside and said to the man: "You need to join the Army of the Lord!"

“But Pastor, I'm already in the Army of the Lord!” he said emphatically.

Pastor questioned, "How come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?"

He leaned in and whispered, "I'm in the secret service!"


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Post-Resurrection Visit
It cannot be found in the scriptures, but one story has it that upon his resurrection, the Lord appeared to a certain fisherman.

"I am Jesus - My death has saved all who do or will believe, and I am returned to show the Father's love and power.

"No, you're not Jesus, so bug off, you're scaring all the fish," answered the old fisherman.

"I see thou are full of doubt. What would thee have me do to show who I am?"

"Walk across the river," he tells Jesus.
So Jesus starts walking across the river. Next thing, he sinks and disappears under the water. After he swims back to shore, the old man says to him,

"There you are, see, you're not Jesus, you can't walk across water"

Jesus responds, "Well, I used to be able to do it until I got these darned holes in my feet!"


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Top Ten Reasons to Celebrate Easter
10. You absolutely love the movie, "The Ten Commandments".
9. You look really, really good in yellow.
8. You just went on a low cholesterol diet and didn't want to waste all those eggs in the fridge.
7. You figure any Holiday that starts with a "Good Friday" can't be all bad.
6. You love to bite the heads off chocolate bunnies.
5. It's a good time to check out your neighborhood church and not be noticed.
4. You have this bunny suit you love to wear, but are too insecure to wear it without a reason.
3. Even though you don't know what it is, you really like the sound of going to a "Passion Play."
2. You figured since Jesus went to all THAT trouble to make it to the first Easter, you'd give it a shot.
1. As a Christian you celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, why not Easter too?
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This morning, we heard the story of doubting Thomas. Poor Thomas, though he went on to do such good work, we always think of him as Mr. Doubtful. The other disciples have seen the risen Christ and so they believe. But they tell Thomas and since he wasn’t there, he just won’t believe that Christ is risen. He tells them: "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Perhaps Thomas' real problem was that he was so devastated by what had happened that he could not see the wonderful reversal that God has accomplished in the resurrection. He was blind to the miraculous power of God. Even his friends shiny, happy faces could not convince him. Thomas could not connect to their joy.

No doubt there are some of you here today in the same boat. Life has dealt some crushing blows — financial struggles, loss of loved ones, insurmountable problems, diseases, depression, the list goes on and on. We so desperately want to be Easter people but at times, our lives look a lot more like Good Friday. Hope seems to have dried up and our joy is no where to be found.

The message of the story of Thomas is: open your eyes! You might not see it at first, you might doubt it, but the resurrection is real! The resurrection if for you! Celebrate! Go ahead and laugh!

We need this reminder so much. Life can be so hard and we can get so down that we forget which way is up. And then along comes Holy Hilarity Sunday and we are given the chance to have laughter and light-heartedness, for comedy and silliness. We can throw our hearts into celebrating the victory of the resurrection. The psalmist says that God "sits in the heavens and laughs," and I believe God invites us to do join in the heavenly laughter. God wants us to live in the joy of the Lord.



So here’s one last joke for you.

A man was blissfully driving along the highway, when he saw the Easter  Bunny hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the bunny, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of his car
and was hit. The basket of eggs went flying all over the place. Candy,  too.
 
The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road, and got out to see what had become of the bunny carrying the basket. Much to his dismay, the Easter Bunny was dead!



The driver felt guilty and began to cry.  A woman driving down the same highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong.
 
 "I feel terrible," he explained, "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny and killed it. What should I do?"
 
The woman told the man not to worry. She knew exactly what to do. She went to her car trunk, and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead bunny, and sprayed the entire contents of the can onto the little furry animal.
 
Miraculously the Easter Bunny came to back life, jumped up, picked up the spilled eggs and candy, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped on down the road. 50 yards away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved and hopped on down the road another 50 yards, turned,  waved, hopped  another 50 yards and waved again!!!!



 
The man was astonished. He said to the woman, "What in heaven's name is in your spray can?" The woman turned the can around so that the man
could read the label.  It said:
 
"Hair spray. Restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave."

Happy Holy Humor Sunday! Be joyful. Let us never live another day as if Jesus were dead. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed, so let’s laugh! Amen.

 
 
© 2008 Laura Gentry

DO YOU WANT YOUR STONE TO BE ROLLED AWAY?

A Sermon for Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry


Above are the "Alleluia" flags the children distributed to begin our worship service. Every time we said or sang "Alleluia" we waved our flags to show the celebratory nature of our worship.

John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (NRSV)


Here we are on Easter Sunday, gathered for our celebratory worship: the sanctuary is decked out in fragrant lilies, we’re in our Easter finery and we’ve got yellow “Alleluia!” flags to wave about excitedly. What could be better? The stone of the grave has been rolled away and Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Ah, but what does it mean for us that Christ is risen? What sort of demands does it make upon us? That’s right: demands. Have you ever thought of the resurrection of Christ as demanding? Yes, it is fun to worship on Easter morning with all the great hymns and scriptures and to down bags full of pastel colored candies and dye eggs but there is more to this message than that. We have to face the reality that Christ is risen, really risen!

Because he is no longer in the tomb, he won’t be quiet. He is not just a fond memory. He is a living presence with whom we can have a relationship. As a resurrected Savior, he’s entitled to his opinions about the way we choose to live our lives. Frankly, he’s concerned about our disinterest in living the resurrected life.

The question he asks us is: do you want your stone to be rolled away? Do you want to be alive with me or would you rather stay in your old, dull, dead-end lifestyle? You see, we tend to like to stay in our graves. It is safer there. There is no challenge, just go through the daily routines and everything will be fine. Do you want your stone to be rolled away? He demands an answer.

Certainly Jesus’ disciples had a difficult time answering that question. They find the tomb empty and struggle to figure out what this unexpected ending means for them. To be honest, it would have been a lot more convenient for them if he had stayed dead. Oh yes, they would miss him and all those great parables he used to tell, the exciting healings he would perform and so on. But in the grave, he couldn’t challenge them to take up their crosses anymore. I mean, they’d already dropped their nets to follow him, what more did he want? In the grave, he couldn’t give them a mission to spread the good news. In the grave, he couldn’t ask them to give up their very lives for this cause. What simple, uneventful lives they could have led if only he’d stayed in the grave.

Now the stone has been rolled away! Now his body is gone and an angel announces that he is risen. What do they do? They should be leaping for joy and holding laughter club meetings to giggle at the devil’s foiled plot. Instead, they respond with fear. “Oh no! What’s going to happen to us now?” they think. “How are we going to take up the challenges, which the risen Jesus lays before us? We had so wanted to be able to retire in comfort and, you know, perhaps write the Gospels with all our newfound free time.” They don’t seem eager to embrace the adventure that is set before them. They kind of liked it before the stone had been rolled away.

As human beings, it is our nature to want stable and predictable lives. We want life to be easygoing and God to always have comfortable messages for us. But that is the life of the grave. That is not what we were designed for. The resurrected Christ has a more exciting plan. He barges into our neatly ordered lives and demands that we drop our nets and follow him. He demands we put down our tv sets and our easy chairs and our notebook computers and anything else that stands in the way of our discipleship. He demands that we follow him, and follow him all the way to the cross. Then he rolls away our stones whether or not we wanted him to. And then he calls us to live the resurrected life with him!

To live the resurrected life means that we come out of our self-inflicted tombs. It demands that we allow the stone to be rolled away. It demands that leave behind our fears. If we truly believe that our Lord has risen from the dead and that in doing so, he has secured our salvation, then there is no room for fear. There is no room for small-minded, go-with-the-flow, be-like-everyone-else, live-a-boring-life thinking! There is NO room for it! We cannot proclaim that Christ is risen and then turn around and shrink in fear that we can’t handle our lives.

Yet so many people live in this perpetual state of fear and anxiety. It’s easy to see why they do it. The news stations broadcast a smorgasbord of tragedy every single day. You can’t even bring a full-size bottle of shampoo on the airplane with you because of the terrorist-fighting restrictions. And who can you trust to love these days? So many broken relationships and broken hearts may cause us to be cautious. Looking around at the state of our world, it is logical to want to sequester ourselves, to hunker down for a safe but boring life in the grave and ask Christ to kindly leave our stones alone. It may not be great, but this is the life we know and we don’t want it disturbed by any risen Saviors.

The ending of the Gospel of Mark is the subject of much scholarly debate. How did the original writer end it? There are actually three possibilities. Each one of the endings is possible and is supported by ancient manuscripts. Yet, the most likely ending is odd. After telling the story of the resurrection, it simply ends with the sentence: “and they were afraid.” And they were afraid? That’s not a very triumphal ending to such an amazing story! Yet it is truthful. That’s how the disciples felt when they first heard the news. Like us, they were afraid of the stone being rolled away.

So Christ asks us on this Easter morning: do you want your stone to be rolled away? Do you want me to infuse you with my resurrection power? Do you want to believe that I am alive and working in you to live the life God plans for you? Do you want to leave the sofa behind and step out into the adventure of resurrected living? Do you want to be overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord, with the peace that passes all understand, with the courage to face life’s fears head-on in faith? You, yes you, are being called forth from your graves. You are being asked to live with Christ, to really live! Let us summon the courage to say YES to these questions, my friends. Let us sing and dance and shout “Alleluia!” not just today but every day, for our stones have been rolled away! Amen.

© 2008 Laura Gentry

TRINITY MEANS COMMUNITY

A Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday
June 3, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 16:12-15
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (NRSV)


Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today, we celebrate Trinity Sunday—the only day of the church year dedicated to a theological teaching of the church not associated with the life of Jesus and given the name “Trinity,” which is not even in the bible. To this, you probably respond, “HUH?” Why in the world is such a ancient and difficult-to-understand festival sandwiched right into our church year? How did it begin? And what purpose does it serve?

It all began in the ninth century where Christians in French monastic communities would celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity. They were carrying on the tradition of the early Christians, who developed the teaching of the Trinity in order to give them a common understanding of God , which helped Christians understand that God was one, not three gods. Later, in the fourteenth century, the festival became so widespread that it was added to the church calendar and has been celebrated throughout the world ever since.

Saint Augustine, one of the most prominent Christian thinkers, often puzzled about the whole idea of describing God as a Trinity. He described an incident in which he was walking along the beach and observed a young boy with a bucket, running back and forth to pour water into a little hole. Augustine asked, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole." It suddenly occurred to Augustine that just as this boy was pursuing the ridiculous goal of putting the whole ocean into the hole, he was pursuing an equally ridiculous goal: trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind. We, with our very limited brains (in comparison to God’s wisdom), have come up with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity—the belief that God is expressed in three parts as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But we must recognize, as Augustine did, that we could never fully understand God—we could never capture God’s entire essence with a doctrine.

Garrison Keillor once said of love, “We should not think that we have figured this out, because it is not a problem, it’s a mystery and always will be.” The same could be said of the doctrine of the Trinity. We don’t have to think of it as a problem to be solved, but rather a glorious mystery in which to relish.

How, exactly, God can be three-in-one, we cannot know, but we can know God in three various ways. Through the biblical accounts, we have come to know God as God the Father—the Creator of our entire universe. In this morning’s lessons, we heard from the Genesis story of creation in which God calls the universe into being by the power of God’s word. God the Father is the all-powerful, eternal, yet loving source of all life.

We also know God as Jesus, the only son of the Father—the Eternal God become flesh, Emmanuel, God-with-us, who came to earth to live a life of service and to die and rise again to redeem us from our sin. Jesus made it clear that to know him was to know the Father, for they are one. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul says that "Christ is the image of the invisible God." In Christ, God created everything; in union with Christ all things hold together; in Christ all things are reconciled to God, bringing peace on earth and in heaven (Col. 1: 15-20). Jesus Christ has reshaped our understanding of God.

And we know God as the Holy Spirit —the one who is with us in this very moment, inspiring us, illuminating the Scriptures, animating our faith and worship, interceding for us in our weakness "with sighs too deep for words," leading us, strengthening us, turning on the lights for us when our paths become unclear, blowing as powerfully as the wind.

Three forms, and yet one God. The Athanasian Creed (on page 54 of the LBW) states “And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other; but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the trinity in unity and the one God in three persons.” These three, equal persons of God work together in community as one, unified God. Some theologians insist that what is most important about belief in a triune God is not that we see God in three ways, but that we understand God as dynamic community. Within the triune God there is a special energy which expresses the love of God experienced in Jesus Christ.1

What is unique about Trinitarian theology, is that it explains that there is an inner relational energy within God which spills over into the Christian life. John of Damascus, an eighth-century theologian, described this way of understanding God by saying that there is an exchange of energy between the persons of the Trinity by virtue of their eternal love. The unity of the Trinity is not static substance, but an open and loving community. He used the Greek word "perichoresis" to describe the relationship going on within God. This word comes from the same root as the word "choreography." It suggests that there is a movement, a dance within the internal life of God. 2 When we worship God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we celebrate the love which flows in God's mysterious dance of togetherness.

So if God is community and we are created it God’s image, what does that mean? It means that we are created to be in relationship, just as God is in relationship. The doctrine of the Trinity gives us a vision of a community of women and men in church and society who treat each other as equals and work together in shared responsibility of unity and love. You see, when we understand God in terms of the doctrine of the Trinity, we can see within the very person of God, a radical example of a community built on justice, relationship and care. It gives us a vision that the self and the other should be treated as of equal worth; that despite differences in power, things should be fair; that every person should be responded to and included and that no one should be left alone and hurt.

This reminds me of a true story of a priest who was sent to serve an inner city church. His passion was for young children and families, yet this parish was a small congregation—just a handful of elderly people. “How can I possibly have a fruitful ministry here?” He wondered. After a few months, he happened to be visiting the hospital and stopped in to a visit a mother with her newborn son. She talked to the priest of her experience of childbirth, and said sadly, “But the problem is that we had this baby all alone.” He asked her what she meant by that. She went on to explain that their parents lived across the country from them. The young mother said, “This is a little scary for us. We have no one to go to for advice about parenting. Most of the people in our neighborhood are also young couples like us. I wish this baby had some grandparents nearby.”

And suddenly a light came on in the priest’s head, “Grandparents!” he thought, “My church as grandparents! The whole congregation is made up of grandparents.” So he talked some people in the church into visiting the home of the couple. They had such a wonderful visit! The young couple had been desperate for someone to be excited about the birth of their child and the elderly visitors had been desperate to get some young people into their church community. It wasn’t long before the couple started coming to church where their baby was doted on by dozens of “grandparents.” The couple got excited and started telling their neighbors about the wonderful congregation of older people who made such great surrogate grandparents. Little by little, more of the young families began attending the parish and what happened was a fantastic synthesis of old and young people, which caused the church to be reborn. In relationship, loneliness and solitude gave way to loving new community.

You see, as people created in the image of the Triune God, our greatest human longing is to be in union. To be whole, we need each other. That’s how God is made and that’s how God made us.

So that is what we are celebrating today. In very clear terms, the profound mystery of the Trinity tell us who God is: the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Spirit who exist in perfect community with one another. And as people formed in God’s image, it tells us who we are, and why we crave community. May our hearts follow this natural impulse to search and out and find connections with God and with one another that we may be one as God is one.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.


© Laura E. Gentry 2007

FREED TO FREE

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 20, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Acts 16:16-34
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortunetelling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God. (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Today, on our last Sunday of the Easter season, we hear an amazing story from the book of Acts. Paul and Silas are going about doing their ministry and they run across a girl who has been possessed by a demon. Paul miraculously removes her power of divination. He sets her free. But her master is upset about the loss in revenue it will cause him. So he drags them to the magistrates. They are beaten with rods and thrown into jail. Not only that, but they are fastened with stocks.

We’ve all had days like this, haven’t we? Okay, maybe it’s never been quite that bad for us, but we can certainly relate to Paul and Silas at this point. Sometimes life just throws us a curve ball and we think how unfair and outrageous it is that we should have to suffer such a thing. Our experience can be pretty painful and a pity party would definitely be in order.

But here is where we can really learn something from the scripture lesson. We hear not one little peep of complaint out of Paul and Silas—at least the way the story is written. Despite the pain and exhaustion of the beatings they must feel, it says that they begin to pray and sing songs of praise to God. Wait a minute? Did we hear that right? They are beaten up, in stocks, in jail, at midnight and they are just singing their little hearts out to God.

What do they know that we don’t? I mean, would we be happily singing songs in the middle of the night if we’d just been through what they’ve just been through? This is absolutely remarkable! They are completely undaunted. They are still filled with joy of the Lord despite their bleak circumstances. Many people think that the miracle of the story is that God frees them from prison by an earthquake and that’s certainly miraculous, but I consider their boisterous cheerfulness in the midst of adversity the most amazing miracle. It is obvious that these men are filled with faith to behave in such an astonishing fashion. They must know the God of love—they must really know the truth of the gospel in their hearts. And because of this, it seems to me that they are already free. Nothing can really imprison them because they know that the power of God is bigger than any shackles they’ll ever have on.

And then, the earthquake shakes the place. Earthquakes can be quite terrifying. I’m glad I got out of California before the “big one” hits. This earthquake, however, is a freeing one. It bursts their chains and Paul and Silas are freed—fully freed! But they don’t run away. I think it is because they were already free in their hearts. They behave in most strange fashion. They stick around. And when they see the jailer about to kill himself because he fears what his superiors will do to him if they find out he’s let the prisoners go. Paul yells out to him and convinces him not to do so. This so baffles the jailer that he ends up accepting Christ, being baptized and inviting them to his home where he tends their wounds. This is another completely unexpected turn of events. What a drama we’ve been offered!

This passage demonstrates the degree of change that is possible in human life. Paul and Silas act in a way that defies normal behavior. They act in faith and joy and deep compassion. They teach us about being intentional agents of change in our society. They could have hated the jailer for being a part of their oppression, they could have run away—protecting their own self-interest. Instead, they open their hearts to him and he, in turn, opens his heart to them and to Christ. More miracles.

As Christians we are called to a ministry of reconciliation, transformation, and renewal. Our own behavior and our own willingness to effect that change is defined by our relationship to the risen Christ. Is Jesus alive in you? It is obvious by your actions when he is.

The capacity to be different and to act differently because Christ is the center of our being is one of the most effective ways of sharing the Good News. Don’t just talk about Jesus, live his truth. Our commitment to recognizing and appreciating the best that is possible in others reflect the best qualities of what it means to be truly human.

As human beings, we find ourselves captive and imprisoned by a number of things that separate us from Christ and from one another. We may be imprisoned by fears, prejudices, attitudes, anger, and a other feelings that well up during times of stress.

At times like this, when we are unable to manage the complexities of life or circumstance, may we be freed by the power of the Holy Spirit, as Paul and Silas were. May we be set free so that we can free others.

In all things may the mind of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, direct us to fulfilling the God's work during the course of our lives. May the Holy Spirit work within us to bring a sense of joy, centered peace, and a deep sense of compassion in our work and witness with others, in the name of Christ.

And now, may the peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2007

HOLY HILARITY SUNDAY

A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter
April 15, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.(New Revised Standard Version)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

Easter is God’s great joke on death. What is a joke? It is something that turns the tables on the expected, something that hinges on the unpredictable. The resurrection is comedy of the best sort, the unexpected reversal of expectations. What a wonderful surprise—Jesus isn’t dead as we expected! He is alive!!!

In fact. some have said that the empty tomb is the "banana peel" of the Christian faith. Easter is the cosmic pratfall as God pulled the rug out from under the powers of darkness and death by the resurrection.

We can imagine God laughing out loud on Easter morning. And we can laugh too! We can laugh at all the things that try to hold us back, to snuff out our joy, we can even look death in the face now...and laugh! Because it has no sting, no power over us any more.

Church historians tell us that there is considerable evidence that during the early centuries of Christianity, Easter celebrations went on for days and even weeks. And the tradition of Holy Hilarity Sunday, of post-Easter lightheartedness, goes back a very long way, and is especially rooted in the religious life of Eastern Europe.

Saint Paul wrote that we should all be "fools for Christ." The cross is foolishness to those who do not believe; it is salvation, hope, love, and joy to those who do. Some have argued that April Fool’s Day should really be included in our church liturgical calendar! How fun to know that we can be fools for Christ.

St. Francis of Assisi advised many years ago: "Leave sadness to the devil. The devil has reason to be sad." We don’t! And G.K. Chesterton wrote: "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly!” So, let's fly around with the angels for a moment by way of some levity!

Now, you’ve probably seen the funny church bulletin bloopers like: "the peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict," or "The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir."

Now my favorite Easter joke. Perhaps you’ve heard me tell this one before. If so, please bear with me and laugh loudly at the end.

Three blonds die and arrive at the gate of heaven. Saint Peter meets them at the gate and tells them they’d be allowed in if they can just answer this question: what is Easter all about?

The first blond quickly answers, “I know, I know, it’s when we all eat turkey and cranberry sauce!”

I’m afraid not, says Saint Peter, looking sad.

“Well, I know what it is about,” chimes the second blond. “It’s when you open presents around a decorated fir tree and sing carols and eat cookies.

“No, I’m afraid that’s not it either,” replies Peter, his head downcast.

Finally, the third blond steps forward and says confidently, “Easter comes at the same time as the Hebrew holy day of Passover. The Roman Soldiers crucified Jesus after mocking him and putting a crown of thorns on his head. He was buried in a cave and a large stone was placed over the entrance.”

St. Peter smiles approvingly, nodding in spite of himself.
She continues, “And then, once a year, they roll the stone away and Jesus pops out and if he sees his shadow, we’ll have six more weeks of winter!”

And then, of course, we have some Easter egg jokes:

Q: Why shouldn’t you tell an Easter egg a joke?
A: Because it might crack up!

Q: Why did the Easter egg hide?
A: He was a little chicken

And some Easter bunny jokes:

Q: What is the best way to send the Easter bunny messages?
A: hair mail

Q: What do you call rabbits that marched in a long sweltering Easter parade?
A: Hot, cross bunnies.

Q: What do you call ten rabbits marching backwards?
A: a receding hareline.

Q: What is the difference between an irate rabbit and a counterfeit bank note?
A: One is bad money and the other is a mad bunny!

There’s a one-liner about the Easter story. A neighbor asked Joseph of Arimathea why he gave his beautiful hand-hewn tomb to the followers of Jesus to bury him there. Joseph replied, "Well, he only needed it for the weekend."

Then there are true stories to make us laugh. One pastor recalls a time he as trying to get his congregation excited about Easter and so he invited everyone to sing and shout out whatever would make them joyful such as "Praise the Lord!" or "Thanks be to God!" One small boy had his own prescription for joy; he yelled right out, "I want to go home."

Another story goes that a pastor’s wife wanted to impress her husband by teaching their children to respond to the Easter cry of “Christ is Risen!” by saying “He is risen, indeed!” But her young son got so excited that Easter morning, he ran into his parents room, shouting “ Daddy, daddy, God’s back!”

This morning, we heard the story of doubting Thomas. Poor Thomas, though he went on to do such good work, we always think of him as Mr. Doubtful. The other disciples have seen the risen Christ and so they believe. But they tell Thomas and since he wasn’t there, he just won’t believe that Christ is risen. He tells them: "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Perhaps Thomas' real problem was that he was so devastated by what had happened that he could not see the wonderful reversal that God has accomplished in the resurrection. He was blind to the miraculous power of God. Even his friends shiny, happy faces could not convince him. Thomas could not connect to their joy.

No doubt there are some of you here today in the same boat. Life has dealt some crushing blows — financial struggles, loss of loved ones, insurmountable problems, diseases, depression, the list goes on and on. We so desperately want to be Easter people we look around and at times, it looks a lot more like Good Friday. Hope seems to have dried up and our joy is no where to be found.

The message of the story of Thomas is: open your eyes! You might not see it at first, you might doubt it, but the resurrection is real! The resurrection if for you! Celebrate! Go ahead and laugh!

We need this reminder so much. Life can be so hard and we can get so down that we forget which way is up. And then along comes Holy Hilarity Sunday and we are given the chance to have laughter and light-heartedness, for comedy and silliness. We can throw our hearts into celebrating the victory of the resurrection. The psalmist says that God "sits in the heavens and laughs," and I believe God invites us to do join in the heavenly laughter. God wants us to have joy.

So here’s one more bit of Holy Humor to close my sermon. It was following the resurrection and disciples were still scattered about Jerusalem and the surrounding villages. John finds Peter and runs up to him. Excitedly he says, "Peter, Peter! I've got some good news and some bad news."

Peter takes hold of John and calms him down. "Take it easy, John. What is it? What's the good news?"

John says, "The good news is Christ is risen."

Peter says, "That's great! But, what's the bad news?"

John, looking around, says, "He's really steamed about last Friday."

Happy Holy Humor Sunday! Be joyful. Let us never live another day as if Jesus were dead. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed, so let’s laugh! Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2007