God’s Mornin’ is Come!
04/08/07
Easter Sunday
1 Corith. 15:19-26, Luke 24:1-12
Dear friends in Christ,
In former days in the south there were some cemeteries reserved exclusively for white people and others for African Americans. This is the story of the only white person in the state of Georgia buried in a cemetery reserved exclusively for African-Americans. This man had lost his mother when he was just a baby. His father, who never married again, hired a black woman named Mandy to help raise his son. She was a Christian woman who took her task seriously. Seldom has a motherless boy received such warmhearted attention. One of his earliest memories was of Mandy bending tenderly over him in his upstairs bedroom at the beginning of each day and softly saying, “Wake up--God’s mornin’ is come.”
As the years passed this devoted woman continued to serve as his surrogate mother. The young man went away to college, but when he would come home on holidays and in the summer, she would still climb the stairs and call him in the same loving way. One day, after he had become a successful statesman, the sad message came: “Mandy is dead. Can you attend her funeral?” As he stood by her grave in the cemetery, he turned to his friends and said, “If I die before Jesus comes, I want to be buried right here beside Mandy. I like to think that on Resurrection Day she’ll speak to me again and say, ‘Wake up, my boy, God’s mornin’ is come!’”
Today is the day that Christians around the world declare that “God’s mornin’ is come!” It’s Easter, the day we celebrate that the night of Good Friday gives way to the morning of resurrection. Life defeats death.
You know the story well. On Friday Jesus was humiliated, flogged and crucified. They took his lifeless body from the cross and laid him in a borrowed tomb. Soldiers were ordered to stand guard outside that tomb. On Sunday morning the women who were closest to him came to the tomb to anoint his body with spices, but the stone was rolled away and the body was no longer there. An angel told them that he had risen as he said. Then the risen Christ began making a series of appearances to his followers, beginning with Mary Magdalene.
This is the day on which the whole Christian message is centered and upon which it depends. As the apostle Paul says In 1 Corith. 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Since the resurrection is so central to our faith, I want to begin by dealing with the question, “How do we know this remarkable event is actually true?”
This is an important question. Probably now more than ever we wonder if something is actually true, or just a hoax or a joke. This past year has been the year of the YouTube website, where anyone can post their own video clips. A few months ago I remember there was one called the crazy bride. It was supposedly a clip of a bride a few hours before her wedding going absolutely nuts over the way her hair looked and other details, pulling out her hair and throwing things at her bridesmaids, really making a scene. It was posted as a real bride before her actual wedding. But, as it turned out, it was actually some aspiring young actresses who put it together just to have a little fun. Is the resurrection of Jesus some kind of similar hoax thought up by his disciples and the women that followed him? Would it be a Youtube joke today?
According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corith. 15, the resurrected Lord appeared to more than 500 people, in addition to the disciples. Could they all have been making it up, in some sort of grand conspiracy? Former Watergate conspirator and now respected Christian writer, Chuck Colson, says that is preposterous. He says all you have to do is look at the Watergate conspiracy in which he was involved. He notes that Watergate was a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States--the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, turned state’s evidence, and testified against Nixon. The cover-up, the lie, could not be held together. In the end, everyone jumped ship in order to save themselves. Colson goes on to note “that the disciples, 12 powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stonings, and execution. Even political zealots at the pinnacle of power will, in the crunch, save their own necks, even at the expense of the ones they profess to serve so loyally. But the apostles could not deny Jesus, because they had seen him face to face, and they knew he had risen from the dead … “You can take it from an expert in cover-ups,” says Colson, “nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord.”
Beyond that, the evidence for the resurrection is found in all the lives that have been changed by faith from the time of Christ to this very day. This is a movement that has withstood the test of time. A lot of things start off with a bang, but soon fizzle out. We see it all the time in daily life. What’s hot today will soon be replaced by the latest new thing. Does anyone seriously think American Idol will hold the same popularity in American culture 10 years from now, that it has today? Do you think in five years anyone is really going to care about “Deal or No Deal?” Fame fades and new fads emerge. But the Christian faith, centered in the hope of the resurrection, did not fade. Quite the opposite, it grew, despite many attempts to stop its growth. It’s estimated that ½ million people had come to faith by the end of the first century. It continues to grow today, worldwide, because Christ is risen and it is the risen Lord who continues to lead and guide his church.
There will never be a proof positive video that will prove the resurrection is true. Even if such a thing existed, it would surely be discounted by skeptics. But what we do have is the faithful witness of the disciples and the women who proclaimed the resurrection and were willing to die for what they saw. And what we also have is generation after generation of people coming to believe, to live and walk by faith, throughout the world. This can be no hoax. If it were, it would have died out long ago. This is God’s most amazing miracle of all, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If we receive this good news by faith, what does it mean for us? Let me lift up two things. First, it changes our understanding of God and the way we live, right now. It is interesting that the story ends as it began. At the birth of Jesus the angel’s message to the shepherds is: Be not afraid. When Mary comes to the tomb on that first Easter Sunday the message is: Be not afraid. We have come full circle. The message seems to be that despite our countless human failings, God is not to be feared like some angry judge. Rather, God is a God of love. His love is given in Jesus, who was nailed to the cross for our sins. He died the death we deserved. But the grave could not hold him. He is risen! All that we need to do is believe in God’s great act in Jesus, and forgiveness is ours. Despite our failings, because of Jesus, we can know the love of God in our lives. We don’t have to live in fear of condemnation. Jesus took care of that on our behalf. Now we live by faith in the love of God and seek to share that love with others.
The second thing that the resurrection means for us is that we no longer have to fear death. In the resurrection, this final enemy is defeated. I like the story of a pastor who on Easter morning was visiting the grave of his parents. He was quietly standing before the headstone when he heard the music blasting from a car radio. He said he could hear the bass even before he spotted the car. Around the road of Memorial Park came a car filled with teenagers. They were laughing and shouting, seemingly full of joy. His first inclination was that they were there simply to create trouble. Surprisingly, however, the car stopped by a grave in the distance. They all got out and they went over to a particular marker. They stood there quietly, and they all broke out in tears. They embraced one another. Then they slowly got back into their car and quietly drove away. They came in joy and departed in sadness. The pastor later said, “I cannot help but think how that first Easter was different. The women came in sorrow and left in joy.”
That’s the good news of Easter. It is true there is sorrow and suffering in life. It is true we will all one day die. But sorrow, suffering, and death do not have the final say. Christ is risen! Death is defeated! Simply because our hearts have stopped beating, does not mean the last chapter has been written. Because of the resurrection, we believe we pass through the gate of death to eternal life with God. Pat Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic basketball franchise, tells a story he heard of a minister named Walter. Walter was married to his childhood sweetheart, Murtis, for 64 years. The two had met in school, and Walter immediately took a liking to Murtis. He took bold action, sending her a note asking for permission to walk her home after school. But first, he had to clean the teacher’s erasers. Would she wait for him? Murtis wrote back that she needed to get home, but that she would walk slowly. Obviously, she didn’t mind if Walter caught up with her. This was the start of a lifelong romance. Murtis was the first one to pass away. As she lay dying, she told Walter, “I’m going home to heaven to be with Jesus.” And then she added with a wink, “But I’ll walk slow.”
None of us really knows just what heaven will be like. But we do know that death is not the end. The resurrection declares that. Death is the gate through which we go to be united with God and with those that have gone before us.
Today we declare “God’s mornin’ is come.” The sunset of Good Friday is replaced by the dawn of Easter. This morning, let us once again hear and believe this good news, first announced by the women at the tomb and then passed on by the many generations of believers that have gone before us. While we are blessed with the gift of life, let us live in the love and forgiveness of God, sharing this with others through word and deed. And when the night gently closes in on us, let us trust in the promise of the resurrection, knowing we will be united with God forever. “God’s mornin’ is come.” May this good news fill us with hope all of our days. Amen
1 Corith. 15:19-26, Luke 24:1-12
Dear friends in Christ,
In former days in the south there were some cemeteries reserved exclusively for white people and others for African Americans. This is the story of the only white person in the state of Georgia buried in a cemetery reserved exclusively for African-Americans. This man had lost his mother when he was just a baby. His father, who never married again, hired a black woman named Mandy to help raise his son. She was a Christian woman who took her task seriously. Seldom has a motherless boy received such warmhearted attention. One of his earliest memories was of Mandy bending tenderly over him in his upstairs bedroom at the beginning of each day and softly saying, “Wake up--God’s mornin’ is come.”
As the years passed this devoted woman continued to serve as his surrogate mother. The young man went away to college, but when he would come home on holidays and in the summer, she would still climb the stairs and call him in the same loving way. One day, after he had become a successful statesman, the sad message came: “Mandy is dead. Can you attend her funeral?” As he stood by her grave in the cemetery, he turned to his friends and said, “If I die before Jesus comes, I want to be buried right here beside Mandy. I like to think that on Resurrection Day she’ll speak to me again and say, ‘Wake up, my boy, God’s mornin’ is come!’”
Today is the day that Christians around the world declare that “God’s mornin’ is come!” It’s Easter, the day we celebrate that the night of Good Friday gives way to the morning of resurrection. Life defeats death.
You know the story well. On Friday Jesus was humiliated, flogged and crucified. They took his lifeless body from the cross and laid him in a borrowed tomb. Soldiers were ordered to stand guard outside that tomb. On Sunday morning the women who were closest to him came to the tomb to anoint his body with spices, but the stone was rolled away and the body was no longer there. An angel told them that he had risen as he said. Then the risen Christ began making a series of appearances to his followers, beginning with Mary Magdalene.
This is the day on which the whole Christian message is centered and upon which it depends. As the apostle Paul says In 1 Corith. 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Since the resurrection is so central to our faith, I want to begin by dealing with the question, “How do we know this remarkable event is actually true?”
This is an important question. Probably now more than ever we wonder if something is actually true, or just a hoax or a joke. This past year has been the year of the YouTube website, where anyone can post their own video clips. A few months ago I remember there was one called the crazy bride. It was supposedly a clip of a bride a few hours before her wedding going absolutely nuts over the way her hair looked and other details, pulling out her hair and throwing things at her bridesmaids, really making a scene. It was posted as a real bride before her actual wedding. But, as it turned out, it was actually some aspiring young actresses who put it together just to have a little fun. Is the resurrection of Jesus some kind of similar hoax thought up by his disciples and the women that followed him? Would it be a Youtube joke today?
According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corith. 15, the resurrected Lord appeared to more than 500 people, in addition to the disciples. Could they all have been making it up, in some sort of grand conspiracy? Former Watergate conspirator and now respected Christian writer, Chuck Colson, says that is preposterous. He says all you have to do is look at the Watergate conspiracy in which he was involved. He notes that Watergate was a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States--the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, turned state’s evidence, and testified against Nixon. The cover-up, the lie, could not be held together. In the end, everyone jumped ship in order to save themselves. Colson goes on to note “that the disciples, 12 powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stonings, and execution. Even political zealots at the pinnacle of power will, in the crunch, save their own necks, even at the expense of the ones they profess to serve so loyally. But the apostles could not deny Jesus, because they had seen him face to face, and they knew he had risen from the dead … “You can take it from an expert in cover-ups,” says Colson, “nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord.”
Beyond that, the evidence for the resurrection is found in all the lives that have been changed by faith from the time of Christ to this very day. This is a movement that has withstood the test of time. A lot of things start off with a bang, but soon fizzle out. We see it all the time in daily life. What’s hot today will soon be replaced by the latest new thing. Does anyone seriously think American Idol will hold the same popularity in American culture 10 years from now, that it has today? Do you think in five years anyone is really going to care about “Deal or No Deal?” Fame fades and new fads emerge. But the Christian faith, centered in the hope of the resurrection, did not fade. Quite the opposite, it grew, despite many attempts to stop its growth. It’s estimated that ½ million people had come to faith by the end of the first century. It continues to grow today, worldwide, because Christ is risen and it is the risen Lord who continues to lead and guide his church.
There will never be a proof positive video that will prove the resurrection is true. Even if such a thing existed, it would surely be discounted by skeptics. But what we do have is the faithful witness of the disciples and the women who proclaimed the resurrection and were willing to die for what they saw. And what we also have is generation after generation of people coming to believe, to live and walk by faith, throughout the world. This can be no hoax. If it were, it would have died out long ago. This is God’s most amazing miracle of all, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If we receive this good news by faith, what does it mean for us? Let me lift up two things. First, it changes our understanding of God and the way we live, right now. It is interesting that the story ends as it began. At the birth of Jesus the angel’s message to the shepherds is: Be not afraid. When Mary comes to the tomb on that first Easter Sunday the message is: Be not afraid. We have come full circle. The message seems to be that despite our countless human failings, God is not to be feared like some angry judge. Rather, God is a God of love. His love is given in Jesus, who was nailed to the cross for our sins. He died the death we deserved. But the grave could not hold him. He is risen! All that we need to do is believe in God’s great act in Jesus, and forgiveness is ours. Despite our failings, because of Jesus, we can know the love of God in our lives. We don’t have to live in fear of condemnation. Jesus took care of that on our behalf. Now we live by faith in the love of God and seek to share that love with others.
The second thing that the resurrection means for us is that we no longer have to fear death. In the resurrection, this final enemy is defeated. I like the story of a pastor who on Easter morning was visiting the grave of his parents. He was quietly standing before the headstone when he heard the music blasting from a car radio. He said he could hear the bass even before he spotted the car. Around the road of Memorial Park came a car filled with teenagers. They were laughing and shouting, seemingly full of joy. His first inclination was that they were there simply to create trouble. Surprisingly, however, the car stopped by a grave in the distance. They all got out and they went over to a particular marker. They stood there quietly, and they all broke out in tears. They embraced one another. Then they slowly got back into their car and quietly drove away. They came in joy and departed in sadness. The pastor later said, “I cannot help but think how that first Easter was different. The women came in sorrow and left in joy.”
That’s the good news of Easter. It is true there is sorrow and suffering in life. It is true we will all one day die. But sorrow, suffering, and death do not have the final say. Christ is risen! Death is defeated! Simply because our hearts have stopped beating, does not mean the last chapter has been written. Because of the resurrection, we believe we pass through the gate of death to eternal life with God. Pat Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic basketball franchise, tells a story he heard of a minister named Walter. Walter was married to his childhood sweetheart, Murtis, for 64 years. The two had met in school, and Walter immediately took a liking to Murtis. He took bold action, sending her a note asking for permission to walk her home after school. But first, he had to clean the teacher’s erasers. Would she wait for him? Murtis wrote back that she needed to get home, but that she would walk slowly. Obviously, she didn’t mind if Walter caught up with her. This was the start of a lifelong romance. Murtis was the first one to pass away. As she lay dying, she told Walter, “I’m going home to heaven to be with Jesus.” And then she added with a wink, “But I’ll walk slow.”
None of us really knows just what heaven will be like. But we do know that death is not the end. The resurrection declares that. Death is the gate through which we go to be united with God and with those that have gone before us.
Today we declare “God’s mornin’ is come.” The sunset of Good Friday is replaced by the dawn of Easter. This morning, let us once again hear and believe this good news, first announced by the women at the tomb and then passed on by the many generations of believers that have gone before us. While we are blessed with the gift of life, let us live in the love and forgiveness of God, sharing this with others through word and deed. And when the night gently closes in on us, let us trust in the promise of the resurrection, knowing we will be united with God forever. “God’s mornin’ is come.” May this good news fill us with hope all of our days. Amen