Sermon for Easter 2005

Key Text Proclaimed in Sermon: 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. ²So 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.’ ³Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; ¹²and 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. ¹³They 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.’ ¹⁴When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus 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.’ ¹⁶Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus 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.”’ ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her."

Easter Sunday 2005-   “God's Party”
       
          “A Surprise PARTY”
(at every word PARTY- all children blow their noisemakers)
          Thursday evening- Maundy Thursday, I preached about the New Commandment of Jesus to love one another. Friday Night- Good Friday, I preached about death. Today, the theme running through the texts, literally Peter and the Beloved Disciple are running to… a surprise. Easter is a surprise PARTY. Easter is a surprise PARTY, where everyone is invited, yet it’s Jesus who surprises us. Today we celebrate God’s life for us with a PARTY.
          Why then am I going to bring up the subject of money? Well here’s the story…and it has to do with the celebration of Palm Sunday last week, because that marked the beginning of the week of the Passover. You see, the Passover for the ancient Jews was one of the feast times when they brought one-tenth of their annual income to Jerusalem. Now here’s the punch-line, they gathered it together to spend it on a PARTY. What is Pastor talking about?
          After commanding Israel not to eat pork or winged insects, hmmmm, Deuteronomy Chapter 14, has Moses proclaiming to the Israelites that all the people of God were to bring one-tenth of all their earnings to the temple in Jerusalem. And yet, it was not to be used for mission work; and it wasn’t even to be used to build an education annex onto the temple. It was to be used on a gigantic PARTY.
          Here’s the scripture,
22 Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. 23In the presence of the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 24But if, when the LORD your God has blessed you, the distance is so great… 25then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the LORD your God will choose; 26spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your household rejoicing together.
          Rejoicing together as a family, and as a community, and with God as the central focus of it all, now that’s what God calls a PARTY. The PARTY was, and is, about the kingdom of God, It has been planned by God as a foretaste of what God has in mind for all of us. Every Sunday we worship together we celebrate a little Easter, a little PARTY, we celebrate the Eucharist, the meal where we give thanks, for God’s love.
          Life may be hard. It may be full of troubles. But in the midst of it all, God tells us to set aside a tithe—a full 10 percent of all we have earned—and to throw a PARTY which will remind us of what God has in store for us. Yet, isn’t the kingdom of God marked by pain, suffering, and sacrifice. Well yes; and it’s the vision of what is coming in God’s future that enables us to endure suffering and pain that mark our present lives. Christians follow a man who died a horrible death on a cross, and Jesus dared all who follow him to do the same- and then, on Easter Day it’s time for a surprise, a surprise PARTY. Celebration begins and ends the ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of John. His first miracle in the book of John, is at a PARTY, a wedding PARTY where he turns water into wine. Please understand however, that celebrating as Christians doesn’t need to lead to drunkenness, nor do the pains of life need to lead to drunken numbness. And recall, Jesus never drove a car after drinking- an act today which causes too much needless death and suffering.
          I realize that for many Christians this emphasis on the Kingdom of God as being a “PARTY” may seem inappropriate, and in some cases embarrassing. And yet, Jesus always was embarrassing pious religious persons, by sharing meals with the out- crowd, in his day the tax collector, harlot, and sinner- and in our day? Once, while in Oregon, Alia and I attended a charity fundraiser for a homeless shelter where a preacher recited a firey sermon given by Billy Sunday, and concluded that he was embarrassed that “Jesus would have ever done something so stupid as to turn water to wine.” Those were his words, he was embarrassed by Jesus. And yet Jesus says in Matthew 11, ““Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me… For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”
          Getting back to Deuteronomy, the Old Testament concept of tithing was to bring tithes to the temple not for missions or on typical church projects.” Instead the money was to be spent on a PARTY, a PARTY that would give evidence of a God who gives in abundance. The concept of tithing is a statement of how much we are supposed to spend on celebration; even as it limits what we are to spend on PARTYing. The other 90 % of our earnings are to be used prayerfully in service to God, to family, and to those in need outside our family.
          The thing that has gone wrong is obvious. We Christians, and Americans in general, have turned the figures around. As Tony Campolo, a favorite Christian of mine has said; “Instead of spending 10 percent on PARTY and 90 % on building the kingdom of God; we usually end up spending 90 % on PARTYing and then, at best, set aside 10% for service in missionary enterprise and to meet the needs of the poor.”
This is the imbalance that also creates addicts and binge drinkers in university campuses and in family homes. The past forty days of Lent, which end today, are for many people a time to give up something that you like and take upon a discipline also; Alia and I who enjoy moderate drinking, gave up drinking any alcohol. As a rule of thumb, I usually don’t drink around people I don’t know, for the very reason that I don’t know who might have a series problem with alcohol, and then use me as an excuse for their addicted behavior. The world’s PARTYing and God’s PARTY are different;
while the world’s PARTY leads to worse problems,
God’s PARTY leads to worship, dance, and songs.
          In fifty days we are going to celebrate another major PARTY, Pentecost. At Pentecost, we will have several confirmation students affirming their faith. This will be a PARTY, a PARTY like it was on that first Pentecost, where Christians were celebrating the spirit with such life, it only seemed that they were drunk. The Spirit of God wants us to celebrate, not despairingly intoxicate—To rejoice for Christ has risen, to be responsible to God and each other, to sing together a joyful song unto the Lord, to sing Alleluia. Today is a PARTY, and yet, the point isn’t to focus on the food or drink, but to think about God, friends, and family, with love.
          One final image. Years ago, Tony Campolo a Sociologist and Christian, was on a lecture circuit in Switzerland, and at his hotel room he was sitting there feeling lonely and anxious about getting back home. Then, onto the TV screen came pictures of the closing celebration of the Olympic games. At first, the teams, wearing their official uniforms and carrying their national flags, marched around the stadium in a structured parade that looked to him like soldiers on review. Then, suddenly, he recalled, the Olympians broke ranks. They ran and danced with one another in spontaneous celebrations. The neat columns were gone. There were no longer blocks of each countries colors. There were no longer winners or losers, communists or capitalists, whites or blacks, Hispanics or Asians, rich or poor. There were only happy, dancing people hugging each other and loving each other. All at once, there was joy. That was a PARTY. Easter is indeed a PARTY.