[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #550, Easter Sunday, 4/8/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Easter Sunday – (April 8, 2007)

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Acts 10:34-43
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12

He is Risen – He Who?

What I always tell myself in preparing an Easter sermon is, "Don't gild 
the lily."  "You can't improve on the text; you can only serve it and 
offer it up."  (Of course, that applies to all sermons, but most 
especially to this one.)  Some churches don't celebrate Easter.  They 
consider it an unnecessary accretion to the original Sunday worship 
which was no less than a weekly celebration of the resurrection and 
anticipation of Christ's coming in glory.  If Easter is to be more than 
a creature of tradition, a kind of atonement for under-emphasizing the 
resurrection the other fifty-one Sundays, then it needs to be the 
service in which we look at nothing but the resurrection.  Fine, but 
what do you say after you say "He is risen!"  You say, "He who?"

When Peter preached "He is risen", he also addressed the question, "He 
who?"  "You know the message he [God] sent to the people of Israel, 
preaching peace by Jesus Christ  he is Lord of all."   (Acts 10:36)  
Who is it that has been raised?  It is the person you meet by reading 
the Gospel backward from the resurrection.  Peter does this in large 
brush strokes:   "That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in 
Galilee after the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes 
in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."  (Acts 10:43)  
Who is it that is risen?  It is the one the disciples knew.  It is the 
one the prophets knew.  It is the one God knew from the beginning of 
creation.  And, if you don't know this one, you don't know the 
significance of the words "He is risen."  "He is risen" does not refer 
to the son of the widow of Nain, nor to the baptism that John 
announced:  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and 
with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were 
oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.  We are witnesses to all 
that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by 
hanging him on a tree..."  (Acts 10:37-39)

In fact, it is the person you meet if you read the whole Hebrew 
Scripture backward.  "All the daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue, 
nor to Lazarus, but to the one who is risen never to die again, the one 
who is risen to reign forever.

"Who he is" is tied to "that he is risen", and "that he is risen" tells 
us who he is.  This is to read the Gospel forward from the 
resurrection:  because he is risen we know that "In those days a decree 
went out from Caesar Augustus..."  (Luke 2:1)  and we know that "In the 
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." 
  (John 1:1)  Peter moves from the resurrection forward in his sermon 
when he says, "God raised him on the third day and allowed him to 
appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as 
witnesses..."  (Acts 10 40-41)  Yes, witnesses, and to what do they 
witness?  That he is risen who ...  and then they go back and tell the 
story of his life knowing who he was but making it clear that they 
didn't know who he was before the resurrection.  Beginning with Mark 
and culminating with John, the witnesses tell the story of Jesus ever 
more as the one who is risen.  Indeed, in the Gospel of John, Jesus 
starts out risen.  "Risen" is a given throughout the Gospel.  "Risen" 
is a given when the beloved disciple enters the tomb.  "Believing" is 
the event, not the resurrection.

So, you can't know Jesus as the Christ apart from his resurrection, and 
you can't know the significance of the resurrection apart from knowing 
the identity of Jesus.  Therefore, preach the two in equal measure lest 
the risen Lord be confused with a butterfly.


May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
http://www.webspawner.com/users/McGregorPage/

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