Sermon Delivered at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey,
Thursday, April 25, 2021, at 10:00 p.m.
By the Rev. Stephen C. Galleher
Resurrection Is Built into Creation and Is Now!
“And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
(I John 3:24)
“Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia
Resurrection happened, we declare, in a most singular and particular way… a long time ago. No one knows for sure the exact date. Calendars were different then. Some scholars guess that it occurred sometime in early April A.D. 33. Nowadays dates after Christ are referred to as CE, meaning Common Era. This is to avoid an explicitly Christian reference. CE: Common Era. B.C. is now BCE, Before the Common Era. Confusing, yes? But how important is this date anyway? Is it important to you?
Because resurrection—while it is likely in some, as-yet-to-be-understood sense an historical occurrence—points to a larger meaning, a meaning with impact for all time and all history and most of all for each of our lives as lived now. It is not simply an event to be noted and perhaps remembered as we remember the date of the fall of the Roman Empire or the dates of the American Civil War. If this is all it is, then we would be justified in giving it only the barest attention.
Resurrection is built into creation. If it is true, it has been true from the beginning and for all time.
There are hints of it throughout the Old Testament. When Job, after suffering the tortures of hell itself, proclaims—surely one of the great affirmations in all scripture—“But I know that my Redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!” (Job 19:25-26)
Is this not a foreseeing of an ultimate bliss beyond the vicissitudes of everyday life? In fact, it reflects back into this present life. In other words, it is not just a forecast, but a proclamation of the joy of all life, both now and forever. “For now is Christ risen,” yesterday, today, and forever!
[Play video of Handel’s “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth”]
Remember the colorful but scary story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to bow before the gold statue that Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had set up? These fellows’ defiance resulted in Nebuchadnezzr throwing them into a roaring, fiery furnace. Furious that these rascals refused to worship his idol, the king fired the furnace seven times hotter than usual. It was so hot, in fact, that those throwing Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego into the furnace were scalded and killed in the process.
Then the king shouted in amazement, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound hand and foot, into the fire?…But look,” he continued, “I see four men, walking around freely in the fire, completely unharmed. And the fourth man looks like a son of the gods,” elsewhere translated “the son of God”!
Isn’t this the resurrection? “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the earth.”
These Old Testament illustrations hint very clearly that the resurrection is built into life—God created the earth and everything in it, not to desert it, but to remain cheek by jowl with it, closer to us than our beating hearts. And God can manifest itself in the most trying of circumstances: with Job in his trials, with Shadrach and his brothers in the fiery furnace and with our Lord Jesus as he cries out for his very life on a wooden cross.
Elizabeth Kubler Ross once said, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
Do we not sense this in our own lives? Have we not known the living, resurrected Christ in the events of our lives, sometimes on occasions of great anxiety and even sadness?
I’d like to tell you a story about an experience of a good friend of mine, a retired Episcopal priest colleague. He and I were ordained deacon together at a ceremony in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in June 1970. Bill was assigned early in his ministry as curate in a large parish in Roanoke, Virginia, and was left on his own, still wet behind the ears, while the rector took a brief holiday with his wife out of town. Alas, a diocesan-sponsored ski trip of teenagers to South America met with tragedy when an avalanche overturned the bus they were riding on. Bill was called by the parents of one of the girls on the bus; and he went to the home with news that the daughter was likely still alive, since they had not yet gotten any word. Upon returning to his home, Bill got word that, in fact, the daughter had perished in the avalanche tragedy. He returned to deliver the sad news. The parents said that as they saw Bill drive up, they knew he came with the truth of what he had learned about their daughter.
Later, with the rector returned, the rector and Bill met the parents at the Roanoke airport to greet the cargo plane with the returning casket of the parishioner’s daughter. The family lined up outside the cargo door where the forklift was removing the plywood coffin. It was gently raining as it came out on the lift, and the rain drops made distinct indentations on the soft wooden frame. Bill knew just then that these were the tears of God.
Resurrection. Easter. In the midst of tragedy.
It cannot be accidental that this is Good Shepherd Sunday. And the twenty-third psalm is an Easter hymn if ever there was one! It is a hymn about üpresence; üeucharist; üovercoming strife; and üeternity
This translation is from the Message Bible:
Psalm 23 The Message
23 1-3 God, my shepherd!
I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of God
for the rest of my life.
I believe that the extent to which we do not live these lines, absorb them into our hearts and lives, we sell short our joy and miss out on the cup brimming with blessings.
We needn’t blame ourselves for what we may be missing. Our secular world, even our church at times, sells us false goods, things that postpone us out of existence: fulfillment down the road, after we’ve made our earthly fortune or after we go to heaven. Phooey!
Resurrection is now. Hallelujah Christ is risen! This is the eternal proclamation of the Christian church, indeed of the world where God resides, and we heed it precisely to the extent that we intend joy for our lives, now and forever.
Amen.