Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about expectations:  what God expects from us and what we can expect as a part of God’s community in the church.  In some ways, that concept of mutual expectations resonates with us.  We live in a culture that teaches us to have high expectations of ourselves and one another and it also teaches us that there are consequences for failing to perform up to those expectations.  The woman in our story this morning clearly felt that the pastor was violating her expectations of the church and unfairly changing the church’s expectations of her performance as a church member; perhaps she even believed that the church simply didn’t have the right to expect anything from her.  It’s not an uncommon reaction.  And it is a reaction that is grounded in a major assumption:  that our relationship with the church and with one another is a contract.  But is it?  Is our relationship with God a contract?  Is our relationship with one another as members of the church a contract?

We can easily begin to think it is.  After all, that’s the way our culture works.  It’s the way the culture tells us that all relationships work.  When we enter into a relationship with one another, I do certain things for you that you find beneficial and you do certain things for me that I find beneficial.  The relationship is maintained as long as each person continues to perceive a benefit, and when that’s no longer the case for one or both parties, we consider ourselves free – actually almost duty-bound – to move on to another relationship.  Relationships are a transaction for mutual benefit and when there is no longer a perceived benefit we move on down the road.  And for certain kinds of relationships, under particular kinds of circumstances, that contractual relationship is perfectly fitting and appropriate.  But the trouble comes when we start thinking of our relationship with God and the community of the church in that same way.  Friends, God does not call us to a contract relationship – God has something far more permanent in mind – God has established a covenant relationship with us and Jesus established the church as a community in which we live out that covenant.

We don’t live in a culture that talks about covenant, so if we’re going to talk about being a covenant community, we first need to understand what a covenant is.  A covenant is no mere contract in which either party can just walk away when things don’t go according to spelled out expectations.  A covenant is a deeply binding relationship, one that gives us our very identity, that forms who we are and how we live.  A covenant signifies a lasting relationship that weathers unmet expectations and even outright failure.  The best way to understand the concept of covenant is just to take a brief walk through God’s history with us.  The first thing to understand about this covenant is that God initiates it.  After all, God has created us out of nothing as a sheer gift.  God was not obligated to create us, God didn’t need us.  God created us out of sheer love and goodness, set us in relationship with him and came to walk with us every evening in the garden – we were created to be friends with God.  When our sin and rebelliousness broke that relationship, God didn’t abandon us, but rather continued to love and sustain us.  Later, God enters into a special covenant with the Hebrew people – they are called and blessed to be a light and a blessing to the world.  Even though they continually fail to live out that covenant, God rescues them from slavery in Egypt and gives them commandments intended to form them in a right relationship with God and with each other in this covenant community.  Of course, we know that the Israelites continued to rebel and to place themselves and other idols at the center of their lives in place of God, just as we do – that’s our story.  In other words, we definitely don’t hold up our end of the covenant.

But God is everlastingly faithful to that covenant, finally coming God’s own self in the person of the Son, Jesus, to keep our side of the covenant for us.  Jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves and even more he creates a new covenant through his death and resurrection.  Now, in the power of the resurrected Christ, we have the ongoing gift of the Holy Spirit, who actually lives within us and makes it possible for us to live in a covenant relationship with God and one another.  Can we pause for a minute and allow the magnitude of that gift to sink in?  You see, no matter how sinful we are, no matter how badly we behave, no matter how completely we fail to live up to who we are created to be as God’s covenant creatures – God just never gives up, God continues to love us and be gracious to us.  God now has enabled us to really live in covenant with God and each other because Jesus dwells in us and with us.  The power of Jesus, expressed through the Spirit, really does make it possible for us to live this way.  This is what Jesus is talking about when he tells his disciples that he is the vine and they are the branches; Jesus is the source of life, love, growth and service – and as long as we stay connected to that vine, we really share in his life – we abide.  Connected to Him, we have a new life that is richer, deeper, more joyful, more connected to God and to other people than we could have imagined possible.  And apart from that source of life in Jesus, outside of that covenant connection with God and one another, we just cannot really live – our lives, our ability to live deeply and truly, just wither and die.

The need for this covenant connection is actually wired into us – it is who we are created to be and how we are intended to live.  So we need to be clear — when we make a decision to follow Jesus and we enter into the community of His church – we are entering into a covenant relationship with Him and with one another.  It is not a contract.  It is a covenant. The church does not operate as a simply quid pro quo contractual arrangement where we stay as long as we feel like our expectations are being met and our needs are being served and where we are never uncomfortable or challenged.  This is the body of Christ.  We are in covenant with one other.

Now that we have a better understanding of this covenant to which we are called, we need to talk about how that challenges the culture’s view of relationships as contracts.  The church is not a place in which our commitments are contingent and are valid only as long as they serve us, in which we need only stay or participate to the extent that we are feeling good about things, that we feel we are getting something out of it and that the church is not making demands on us that we find difficult or challenging.  The covenant community Jesus established is not primarily intended to serve us or comfort us – it is intended to be the place where Jesus utterly transforms who we are and how we live in the world. James Bryan Smith puts it this way:  the true story – the biblical narrative – tells us that the church as a covenant community “exists to shape and guide” our souls.  Smith goes on, “The community has a right to expect certain behavior from me, and can provide the encouragement and accountability I need” to develop an ongoing and growing relationship with Jesus and other people.  “Transformation into Christlikeness has been the aim and responsibility of the church from its beginning.”²

God has not formed a contract with us – a contract is paltry thing in comparison to the relationship God has created with us.  God created and keeps a covenant relationship with us through Christ in which nothing – not the worst we are or the worst that we can do — not sin, not even death – can separate us from a relationship with the God who loves us everlasting to everlasting.  And Jesus has not placed us in a contractual relationship with His church – we are a covenant community, growing out of his steadfast and self-giving love for us as a branch grows out of a vine.  In the church, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage and hold us accountable, who stick with us when we are at our worst and who celebrate with us when we are at our best, who pray with us and serve with us and share the stories of the way God is transforming them too.  And through that transformative covenant sharing, we are changed – we become disciples of Jesus Christ who share the light of his life and his love with the world.   That’s who we are – that’s the covenant life to which we are called.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

¹ As told in James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful Community: Following the Spirit, Extending Grace, Demonstrating Love (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2010). 128.

² Smith, The Good and Beautiful Community, 129.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Now there’s a church!  Oh, to be a member of that church!!  It is a church committed to learning, a church with a vital educations program where parents don’t have to drag their kids to church school, where the parents themselves are excited about adult classes, where all are growing in their faith and their discipleship.  It’s a church that is a real community, a place where relationships are alive and people become friends and care actively about each other.  It’s a community free of bickering and factions, where all are respected and all are welcome.  It’s a church that prays not just on Sundays but every day, realizing that prayer is what holds the community with God in Christ and one another. No wonder Luke tells us this church grew!  Such were the expectations of those First Century Christians as Luke describes them.

Granted that Luke is looking back nearly a half century which makes one wonder how real his description is.  Yet, something inspired people to join the church in rapid fashion.  I would suggest Luke offers us not just a nostalgic backward glance of the “good old days,” but a vision of what converts and members can expect of God’s church in any age.  These are the earmarks of the Christian Community.

In our text from Mark, Jesus offers an invitation to those who would be His disciples, and the invitation is brutally clear about what these who would follow can expect. “If any want to become my followers, (that is become engaged in my community) let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  That is about as clear as one can get.  And He continues, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it.” Once again, Jesus is painfully clear.  He concludes, “For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”

Jesus makes it clear that those who wish to become a disciple can expect the community to provide the resources and opportunities and the demand that they let go of self, serve even sacrifice for others, and walk not according to their own agendas but according to where Jesus leads them.  Would be disciples can expect the church to challenge them but also support them, to equip them to be faithful, and hold them to be accountable. Such is what members can expect.

A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Cynthia gave me a book entitled, DEATH BY SUBURBS, written by David Goetz.  (I understand Cynthia was given the book by Pam McCord.)  Goetz is addressing life in the suburbs and how it can kill one’s soul.  Each chapter is given what Goetz calls an “Environmental Toxin” and a related “Spiritual Practice.”  In a chapter entitled, “Lashed Down” the Environmental Toxin is “My church is the problem,” and the spiritual practice offered is “Staying put in your church.”

The issue in this chapter is what Goetz calls “Suburban Church Consumerism,” by which he means the difficulty of folks in the “burbs” to stay put in relationships—of any kind, including church. Suburban folks have resources to rush off to whatever church has the “buzz” for the moment—the more biblical preacher or less depending on taste, the different style of worship, the great youth program etc, etc.  These expectations of the church are what Goetz calls “restless” prompted by life change, conflict, impatience, whatever.  Such people are consumers of churches always looking for the next worship conquest.  It is simply the “water we swim in,” always looking for the newest and best.

Goetz tells on interesting and symbolic story about a couple who visited the church he was attending in Wheaton.  The couple asked for an interview with Goetz and a few others.  At that interview the couple shared that they were looking for a new church because of a conflict with their now former pastor and wanted to know if the Wheaton church had a well thought-out process for handling conflict. They wanted specifics.  Goetz admitted he was less than helpful as he muttered something that they attempted to handle conflict in a Christ-honoring manner.  The couple was not impressed.  Then he writes that he began to attempt to anticipate their questions and be able to tell them what they wanted to hear. The interview continued to disintegrate.  Finally a woman from the Wheaton team asked the woman of the couple, “What gifts do you bring to the church?  How do you think you could serve?”  “I’d rather not talk about that!” the woman replied.  The interview abruptly ended, said Goetz, “and we never saw them again. Choice is a beautiful thing.”  Some expectations are authentic and others are not, in that they do not reflect Christ Jesus’ call to be a community of disciples.  The great danger here is playing the game of attempting to be what the church thinks people are expecting.  That is neither faithful nor does it have integrity.  The church must be faithful to its calling not what it perceives as the latest consumer expectation.

We all come with expectations and that is as it should be.  Yet these expectations must be brought up against both our calling and the realities of our context.  I remember meeting with a pastor when I was serving as a Superintendent to tell this young man about his new appointment. He was completing about five years at his first appointment and had done a relatively good job.  When I informed him of the appointment, he said to me, “I’m disappointed. I was expecting a bigger church.”  I said, “Great! So are the Bishop and Cabinet.  Now go and make this church bigger!!”  Whether for pastors or lay persons, the reality is that the Lake Wobegone UMC, where everyone is in worship every Sunday, where every member tithes, and everyone is involved in mission does not exist.  All that exists is the very real, very human body we know as the church—that community that has the incredible task of representing Christ Jesus in the world.

It is this body that is the object of our expectations, expectations that need to be clear and invite us to become engaged. Our expectations may differ but if we are willing to engage in discussion about them, we open our conversation to the activity of the Holy Spirit and all sorts of things can happen them!!

Again, as I did last week, I will offer some expectations for those who want to become engaged in a congregation that invites engagement.  And again, these expectations are drawn and adapted from those offered by UM Pastor Albert Winseman in his book, GROWING AND ENGAGED CHURCH: HOW TO STOP ‘DOING’ CHURCH AND START BEING CHUCH AGAIN.  The Engagement Team has been using Winseman’s book to guide our efforts to move BUMC toward becoming an engaged congregation, I will use both Luke’s description of the marks of the early church in Acts and Jesus’ invitations to discipleship as the foundation of what members can expect of the church.

First, an engaged member can expect the church to be a place of learning, a community that is committed to grow in their faith and to provide opportunities for members to develop their spiritual life.  This means strong preaching and passionate worship which present the Gospel message and Jesus words and translate both for every day life.  This also means a commitment to learning in Bible Study, theological reflection, ethics, prayer, and spiritual life.  As John Wesley constantly reminded those early Methodists, the Christian faith is dynamic; one is expected to grow in grace and understanding.  Personally, I believe one of the most clear indicators of the vitality of a congregation is how the Word is shared both in worship, in study, and lived in the community.  It is that Word that shapes our life and our life together.

Second, an engaged member can expect the church to provide opportunities for members to express their discipleship in service to others.  As Jesus makes clear those who follow Him are called to service in which they deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him.  This is as Jesus says it is to be for His disciples.  I firmly believe there is something that is simply inauthentic for someone who claims to be a disciple to come to church to be entertained, go to Sunday brunch and then return to life as usual. That is not the invitation Jesus offers us. As Tom Long comments on Jesus’ invitation, “A life committed to serving the poor, soothing the pain of the broken, caring for those in need, hammering nails in houses for those without shelter, sharing bread with the hungry, denying self may seem like a squandered life in the economy of a self-centered world but in the store house of heaven, it is a lavish treasure.”

Third, an engaged member can expect the church to offer opportunities for members to develop significant relationships in community with others.  Fellowship in community is an essential mark of the church.  This is more that coffee and doughnuts after worship; more than congenial good and fuzzy feelings.  Such opportunities express active care for others, including time and resources, praying for and reaching out to those in need, even to the point of sharing resources.  Luke tells us that these early Christians held all things in common, not so much as an expression of an economic theory but as an expression of the love of Christ Jesus for sisters and bothers.  Praying for one another is foundational.  As a family who has been the recipient of prayers in times of need, I can testify that is essential to the sense of community.

Fourth, an engaged member can expect the church to enable her or him to be faithful stewards of both financial and spiritual gifts.  This means the church is open and transparent as to how financial resources are used.  It also means that the church helps members discover their gifts and how to use them for the common good.  Inspired by Winseman, a few months ago, we added a question on our new member profile.  “If money and time were no object, what would you do for God?”  We want identify each member’s passion and how that passion can be shared in ministry.

Fifth, an engaged member can expect the church to encourage and enable members to grow in grace and in the meaning of faithful discipleship. Being a disciple is being a life-long learner.  The church teaches the practices and skills that grow disciples.  In fact, a colleague once decided to rename worship to “disciple training.”  Lucy Laird died at 102 and up to just a month or so before her death, she read the large print New York Times and her Bible every day. One day, I asked her why she did that, after all, she had seen most of what there could be to see.  She said, “I want to know what’s gong on in the world and what the good Lord wants me to do about it.”  I think that says it all.

Such are some beginning expectations an engaged member might have of the church.  You may have others.  In fact I would hope so.  But as I said last week, let the conversation begin, but let it move from talk to engagement in ministry with clear expectations.  Thanks be to God!  Amen!

Expectations are fundamental to every relationship.  Wives and husbands have expectations of one another and for their marriage. Parents and children have expectations of one another as do mangers and employees; as do teachers and students, as do doctors and patients; as do congregations and pastors.  Yes, expectations are an integral part of relationships.  What is critical is that these expectations are clearly articulated and understood.  When I see or become involved in a conflict situation, my initial instinct is to look for unmet expectations—some expectation that is not understood or not clearly stated, which usually inevitably leaves one party upset and the others scratching their head.

What about the faith relationship, the relationship between God and us? Are there expectations there?  Yes, and there have been from the beginning.  After all, God did not give Moses the “Ten Suggestions.”  He gave Moses the Ten Commandments, clearly stated expectations about how God expected His covenant family to relate to Him and with each others.  Just so, God clearly has expectations of us, His people.  For the next three weeks these expectations will be the focus of the sermons.  This morning we will explore God’s expectations of God’s people.  Next week, our focus will be on what God’s People can expect of God’s community, the Church.  And the final sermon in the series will focus on what it means to live in covenant community, a community of clearly understood expectations.

As most of you know, for nearly two years we as a church have been on a journey, to become an engaged congregation.  This journey was inspired and in many ways continues to be stimulated by a book entitled, GROWING AN ENGAGED CHURCH: HOW TO STOP “DOING CHURCH” AND START “BEING” THE CHURCH AGAIN, by Rev. Albert Winseman.  One of the primary characteristics of an engaged congregation, according to Winseman is that members have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and of what they can expect of the church.  I totally agree.  Like any other relationship, people want to understand what is expected of them.  Clearly understood expectations will build stronger relationships.  So, this is our end in mind as we explore expectations in the faith relationship.

What, then, does God expect from you and me?  I believe the place to begin is with the Bible.  There are several places where God’s expectations find expression.  I have chosen two.  They are clear and happen to be personal favorites.  The first is from the prophet Micah.  Micah writes in the 8^th century BCE, a time when Israel was not living up to God’s expectations, failing to witness to God’s mercy and justice.  So, in this 6^th chapter, God brings a law suit against Israel, puts the people on trial.  After asking what He has done to cause Israel to be unfaithful and then reminding the community of his faithfulness, God has the prophet ask, “With what shall I come before the Lord…?” In other words, what does God expect of me?  The prophet poses several possible answers:  “Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

The implied answer to these questions is “No.” God does not expect sacrificial offerings.  These will not meet God’s expectations of faithfulness.  Then prophet offers a stirring answer to the question:  “He has shown you, O mortal, what does the Lord require/expect of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”  Such are God’s expectations of us, you and me.  To do justice, that is, to make things right, to establish equity between ourselves and others, particularly with the poor and powerless. To love kindness, that is, to transcend legal obligations with acts of mercy and compassion, acts of hesed, the Hebrew word for steadfast love, grace, acts that reflect our faithful commitment to God and others.  And to walk humbly with our God, that is, to live—for which “walk” is a metaphor—in the presence of God.  This is not an additional expectation.  It is the tent under which all other expectations gather and makes them possible.

The second passage is the words of the Risen Lord to the community which express His charge to them. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.”  Here again, is a statement of what God in Christ expects of God’s People.  Often referred to as “The Great Commission”, all too often the Church leaves off the “C” and… Well, you see what happens.  The point Jesus makes is we are expected to be in the Disciple-making business.  And we do this by going into the whole world, to all the nations, no exceptions, no restrictions—even those next door, and sharing the Good News.  We baptize them in the name of the Triune God, as we help usher them from the old life to the new.  And then we teach them all that Christ Jesus taught. In other words, our task is not complete when others join the church.  We are a learning community, constantly growing in faith, developing our spiritual life.  This may seem daunting, even overwhelming.  It would be, were it not for the final words of the text:  “And remember I am with you to the end of the age.”

One additional source that expresses God’s expectations for God’s People is found in the membership vows we take as we become members of a local congregation of the UMC.  They read as follows:  “Will you be loyal to the Barrington UMC and uphold it by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness?”  Craig Miller from the stewardship resource group, RSI, reminded us there is no “or” between these expectations.  We don’t get to pick and choose.  We are expected to commit to each one.

Prayer, will you commit to praying for the church?  It is an expectation for prayer keeps us connected with God and open to the Spirit’s direction.  Presence, will we commit to be present in worship, in learning opportunities, in service?  We can be engaged only as we are present.  Gifts, will we offer our gifts, both spiritual and financial. This is our investment, our buying in, so to speak, when we give of self and of our resources. It is expected.  Service, we are expected to serve as an expression of our discipleship.  We are called to serve others as Christ Jesus modeled for us.  Witness, will we share the Good News by our words and actions?  Will others see God’s presence and mercy at work through our words and actions?  Such are the commitments we promise when we come into membership.

A cartoon shows a fourth grade boy and his teacher toe to toe.  Behind them is a white board filled with math problems.  The boy says to his teacher, “I am not an under-achiever.  You are an over-expecter.”  You may feel a bit like that right now.  Yet, let me remind you that while God has great expectations of us, God also always provides what is necessary for us to meet these expectations.  When God expected Moses to go down to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel God and Moses was overwhelmed, God said to Moses, “I will be with you.”  And when Jesus told his followers that they would be persecuted and brought before the religious leaders for following Him but not to worry, I will give you the words to say and I will be with you.  This is the promise.  God will provide the grace necessary to meet these “Holy Expectations.”

With that in mind, I now want to offer six expectations of engaged member here at BUMC.  These are adapted from Winseman’s suggested list.

First, as an engaged member you and I are expected to support and work to further the mission of BUMC which is “To build a Community that Creates Disciples to Serve All People.”  This statement proclaims who we are and what we are about.  We are in the disciple-making business.  Everything we do must work to further this mission.

Second, as an engaged member of this church, we are expected to pray for our sisters and brothers regularly.  Prayer is the life line of the community, connecting us to one another and to God.

Third, as an engaged member, we commit to being present in worship and at other events on a regular basis.  If you ask what does “regular” mean, you may have already missed the point. Significant relationships demand significant involvement.

Fourth, as an engaged member of BUMC, each of us must commit to grow in faith by participating in at least one learning experience each year, be it Bible study, an interest group, a spiritual development program, a discussion group.  This is basic Methodism.  John Wesley taught that we must grow in grace.  Faith, he emphasized must be nurtured, if it is to be alive. Engagement demands that faith be alive and vital. Discipleship means we continue to grow in our understanding.

Fifth as an engaged member each of us commit to supporting the mission and ministries of BUMC with our spiritual and financial gifts.  It is expected of us not because the church needs our gifts, but because we need to give them.  This is the very essence of discipleship.

Sixth, as an engaged member of BUMC, we commit to growing in discipleship by finding an area of ministry in which we can serve Christ Jesus and others.  Engagement means getting out of the pew and into service, off the bench and into the game.

Obviously, there could be other expectations.  But these serve as a beginning and I believe capture what the Scriptures tell us about God’s expectations and what the church has expressed as its expectations of members.  So, let the conversation begin, but let the conversation move to active engagement!

Thanks be to God!  Amen!

What drew me to this story was that it captured the defiant edge which I believe is integral to the Easter proclamation. On Friday, the powers of this world put Jesus to death on the Cross, believing that they were victorious, that He and all He taught and did and promised had died.  On Sunday, however, comes the defiant response of grace, “Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!”  When I read this story of this faithfully defiant celebration of Easter, a line of poetry kept coming to mind, a line that said, “Death, thou hast died.”  But for the life of me, I could not recall who penned these words.  Have you ever had that happen?  You are haunted by a phrase or some lyrics that just keep whirling around in your head, you may even be able to hum the melody, but you just cannot identify the author?  Such was my dilemma.  I finally settled on the title for the Easter sermon, “The Day Death Died,” but without satisfying my desire to know who said these words. It was early one morning a few days later, 4 a.m. kind of early, that I awakened with the name.  It was John Donne, the 16^th Century English clergyman who wrote the words in one of his Holy Sonnets.  After cautioning death to “be not proud,” since it is neither as mighty nor as dreadful as it believes, Donne brings his Sonnet to a magnificent and triumphant conclusion with the words, “And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”  Easter declares the truth of Donne’s words, though we would change the tense to celebrate Easter’s present reality to read, “Death thou has died, Death thou art dead.”

Do you not hear the defiant tone in these words, a bold affirmation that Easter is the day death died, a tone not unlike that of the Russian priest?  There is really something wonderfully defiant in the Easter proclamation.  Here we are on a March Sunday, in a world filled with the sights and sounds of the power of death all around us, in Afghanistan, in the gun violence killing our children on the streets of Chicago, in the starvation and stunting of children in Africa, in poverty and oppression, mass shootings that seem to plague our society, and  in the inhumane brutality being carried out in Syria, and in the midst of these shouts of death, we gather to boldly proclaim, “Death has died!  Life is triumphant!”  And such has been the case from the very beginning, and for very good reason.

I hear echoes of this defiant tone in Luke’s story of that first Easter.  He tells of the women making their way to the tomb just as the light of a new day was beginning to dispel the darkness of the night.  They bring spices to anoint Jesus’ body, a final act of love that had to be postponed because of the interruption of the Sabbath.  When they arrive, they are surprised to find the stone, that huge circular stone that stood at the entrance of the tomb keeping the boundary between death and life, had been rolled away.  They enter the tomb and are shocked to find that the body is not there. Standing perplexed as to what has happened to Jesus’ body; two men dressed in dazzling clothes suddenly appear beside them.  Now the women are more than perplexed!  They are terrified!  The men ask the Easter question, “Why do look for the living among the dead?”  Did they, do we, think Friday is the end of the story?  I believe this question really puts the Easter message before us, in a gracious, but defiant way.  Not perhaps as bold as Matthew’s messenger who sits defiantly on the stone to make it absolutely clear that God’s gracious, redemptive love has triumphed over death and all its relatives, but boldly defiant nevertheless.

Yet missing bodies need explanation.  They are not self-explanatory.  So the messengers explain:  “He is not here, but has risen!”  Don’t you remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again?”  The missing body is simply a matter of the promise being fulfilled.  As a colleague loves to say, “Resurrection is not all that problematic.  What did you expect God to do?  Leave Jesus in the grave?  Really?”  The women remembered the promise and rush off to tell the eleven and the others. “But,” Luke tells us, “these words seemed to them like an idle tale and they did not believe them.” Such is the other response to Easter.  The women hear the Easter Word in all it defiance and remember the promise.  The others hear the Word and consider it an idle tale.  Such is the difference, who really dies this day, Jesus or death?  How do we answer, you and I?  You see Easter is not something we prove or disprove.  It is something we respond to or don’t.  Resurrection is not a concept to be discussed.  It is a reality to be experience.

For us, Easter is the day death died and Jesus is alive. Everything now is forever changed.  By raising Jesus from the dead, God has reordered our present.  We no longer look for the living among the dead.  We remember his promise that on the third day he would rise again.  Death no longer has dominion over us. Love, God’s graciously defiant love, is now the ordering principle for your life and mine.  No longer do death and its relatives determine how we live, how we relate, how we decide.  Before Easter the power of death did in fact order our lives, whether by anxiety or bigotry or anger or violence or dishonesty — all cousins of death.  Now God has rolled the stone away and life is reordered by gracious, life-giving love.

On February 27, 1991, at the height of Desert Storm, Ruth Dillow received a very sad message from the Pentagon.  It stated that her son, Private First Class, Clayton Carpenter, stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was killed.  Ruth Dillow later wrote, “I can’t begin to describe my grief and shock.  It was almost more than I could bear. For 3 days I wept. For 3 days I expressed anger and loss.  For 3 days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was just too great.”  But 3 days after she received the message, the phone again rang.  The voice on the other end said, “Mom, it’s me, Clayton, I’m alive!”  Ruth Dillow said, “I couldn’t believe it at first.  But then I recognized his voice and that he was really alive.”  The first message had been a mistake.  She said, “I laughed, I cried, I felt like turning cartwheels, because my son whom I thought was dead was really alive.  I’ m sure none of you can even begin to understand how I felt.”  Well, Ruth, maybe we can and maybe we can’t.  Ruth Dillow’s life was reordered when death yielded to life, at least in terms of the messages she received.  And as a result her present was made to look very different.  For all of us, the Easter message, “He is not here.  He is risen!” has this same reordering power. Indeed Easter opens us to a life in which we are no longer captive  to the powers of death and despair. All of life has been transformed.  Every time I see a relationship mended, a marriage renewed, a life set free, I see evidence of Easter.  Every time I see hatred overcome, bigotry countered, racism extinguished, self-righteousness liberated, I see evidence of Easter.  Every time I see a broken life healed, a lost life given direction, a grieving life transformed by joy, I see evidence of Easter. Every time I see faith renewed, hope rebirthed, or joy rekindled, I see evidence of Easter.  And I know the truth and great joy of this day.  Death has died.  Love, God’s gracious love now orders our lives.

But there is even more.  Not only does Easter reorder our present, it also reshapes our future. The Easter message is a Word of Promise, a word that tells us that because God has raised Jesus from the dead, you and I are given a future, a future dominated not by death, but by hope, ruled not by fear, but by grace. No longer are we captive to the principalities and powers, to the forces of oppression and injustice, to the powers of evil and despair, those forces that seek to render our lives meaningless. No, our future has been reshaped.  We do not look for the living among the dead.  Death has died.  We have passed from death unto life.

Yet, if we are honest, we must admit we live in a culture overrun by promises to reshape our future, promise that we can make our future bright, prosperous, joyful and meaningful—if we support this politician or that program, if we buy this product or go to this school, if we get this job or move in those circles.  When I hear such promises I am reminded of a letter sent by a young woman to her former fiance. “Dear John,” she began, “Words cannot express the deep regret I feel at having broken our engagement.  Your absence from my life leaves an emptiness no one else can ever fill.  Please John, can we put the past behind us and start over.  I love you.  I love you.  I love you.  Your adoring Sally.  P.S. Congratulations on winning the power ball jackpot last week.”  Somehow the empty promises of our ability to reshape our lives by our own power, or our own conniving, seem as foolish, just as superficial. They leave us subject to death.

Our situation must change; our future must be reshaped but it is by the power of God’s redemptive, transforming love, that same love that raised Jesus that defeated death on that first Easter morning.  A story is told about the English people anxiously waiting for news during the Battle of Waterloo.  All Britain was sent into deep despair when the message was flashed by signal across the English Channel.  It read, “Wellington Defeated…”  The next morning, when the fog that had hung over the Channel lifted, the rest of the message could be read:  “Wellington Defeated Napoleon.”  So it was and is for us.  In the darkness of Good Friday and the Good Friday world we live in, the message seems to be, “Christ Jesus, the Church, the Christian Faith Defeated…”  But on Easter morning, as the light of a new day drives out the darkness, the joyous news is proclaimed, “Christ Jesus Defeats Death.”

This Easter morning the joyous news is that because God raised Jesus from the dead, you and I have defeated death.  This is a day of defiant joy.  “He is risen.  He is risen indeed!” This is the day death died and we now can life freely and joyfully.  Thanks be to God!  Amen and Amen!