Erl Purnell Sermon

cEaster 4 ~ April 29, 2007 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Acts 13.15-16, 26-33; Psalm 100; Revelation 7.9-17; John 10.22-30

During these Easter Sundays, we cannot avoid repeated references to Jesus’ resurrection. That’s pretty obvious since Easter is all about the resurrection, the empty tomb. It’s in all the Gospels. It’s also prominent in the Acts of the Apostles as we’ve seen this morning.

“Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. When they carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in the tomb. But God raised him from the dead…”

Now, from time to time, the teacher in me comes out. This is unabashedly a teaching sermon. And it covers ground that I’ve touched on before. But, because, in our own times, many of us struggle with the notion of resurrection—How could this happen?—it seems a good idea to revisit what this all means, especially to those earliest followers of The Way.

“God raised him from the dead.” Please note, it’s God’s action and God’s action alone that raises Jesus from the dead. What’s that about? Why?

We just heard this from the Acts of the Apostles, “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus…” What did God promise and what has been fulfilled?

All too often, and quite unfortunately, our Christian education begins with Jesus and ends with Paul. We consider “Christian” scripture but neglect the context of Jesus’ world and life. And—and this is quite true—there are millions of Christians who believe that Jesus was the first Christian and certainly not a Jew. Make no mistake, Jesus was a Palestinian Jewish peasant. So, let’s begin in the heart and mind of 1^st century Judaism.

Hebrew Scripture records many instances of the Jewish people being persecuted, tortured, and killed for their belief in their God. But the Hebrew people believed God was a good and loving God. Sometimes, like with Daniel, the persecuted are vindicated before the jaws of death. But at other times, Scripture attests, God’s vindication of the martyrs is put off to the future, and that’s very much the point when considering resurrection.

By way of holding out hope that God would establish a just world, many of the people of Jesus’ day expected, at some future time, for God to transform earth from a place where the righteous are tormented to a place where true justice rules. Jesus scholars John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg (The Last Week) call this “God’s Great Cleanup of the world.” In Greek the concept is expressed as “apocalyptic eschatology.” Jesus, however, uses a simple catch phrase that everybody can understand. He calls this the Kingdom of God.

Here’s the deal. The often oppressed Jewish people prayed for and expected God’s transformation of the world from a place characterized by violence, pain, and suffering to a place of abundance, beneficence, and justice. Moreover, when God transforms the earth, God will resurrect those tortured and bloodied bodies and transform them, too, into magnificent, transfigured bodies for eternity. The Pharisees, by the way, were big proponents of this belief. To quote Borg and Crossan, “When God’s Great Cleanup of the world happened—and it might well be very soon—the first order of business was the general resurrection.”

Now lay that expectation—the deep seated anticipation of God’s imminent vindication of the Jewish people—over top of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus says the Kingdom of God is at hand. He teaches release of the prisoners, healing for the sick, and justice to all people. Those who follow this Jesus see the beginning of God’s long-expected transformation of the earth, the fulfillment of the Scriptures. “…what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children…”

Step one, Jesus’ Kingdom of God program signals the beginning of God’s great cleanup of the world. The time of change has come. If that’s good news, and it is, the empty tomb—step two—is even better news: the resurrection of the dead has begun with Jesus. Of course you can’t help but notice that Jesus, himself, was righteous but died unjustly! Jesus fits the model perfectly. He has proclaimed the Kingdom of God is here and he is killed unjustly. Of the scores of righteous Jewish people who died unjustly in the past, Jesus is the first to be resurrected. For Jesus’ followers, the empty tomb—Jesus’ bodily resurrection—is a clarion call that the fortunes of the Hebrew people are changing. What has been expected is happening.

Matthew’s Gospel even proclaims, “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks split [Hear: the earth was being transformed!]. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised [The bodily resurrection of the martyrs]. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27.51-53).

In sum, Jesus’ proclaiming the Kingdom of God and his bodily resurrection make perfect sense to early followers of The Way. Jesus fulfills the hopes and dreams and expectations of a people in the grip of Roman occupation and a religious domination system. The resurrection, especially, alerts the faithful that God’s program to transform the earth has begun. In other words, in the context of Jesus’ Jewish world, Jesus’ death would have been entirely meaningless without his bodily resurrection. It fulfilled the Scriptures!

Perhaps you’re wondering how I could get this far and say nothing about the veracity of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Did Jesus literally rise up in bodily form, appear to many, and eventually float off into heaven—what we now call space? Isn’t it always good to save the best for last?

For those who need the bodily resurrection to be fact, I understand and support your belief. To some, the historicity is vital and that’s OK. There are many, however, whose very faith falters on issues like the literal resurrection. Since the Enlightenment, more and more people have abandoned the Church because what were once inspirational images are now considered through the lens of scientific fact. For example, no other observable bodily resurrections have occurred, so, in all likelihood, the Jesus’ event did not happen literally. But, if the resurrection didn’t happen, some argue, the whole Jesus story is a scam.

Another way to approach the resurrection is as it was understood for centuries, and by that I mean before the Enlightenment negated imagistic understanding. First of all, we must honor those many people who have experienced the risen Christ viscerally or in their dreams, visions, or prayers. These un-deniable moments of knowing account for “something” profoundly numinous and I, for one, believe they are very real.

But more commonly, generations of people have used the image of the resurrection to bolster the understanding that in death all things are made new. Jesus’ resurrection—whether literal or figurative—speaks of renewal. In the ancient Hebrew belief, God has made a new earth and vindicated the oppressed of former days. The Kingdom of God is established now and for ever. This is the message that was broadcast after Jesus’ death.

For those who doubt the literal bodily resurrection, they say that the resurrection story cannot be history, that it could not have been video-taped. They contend, however, that the real value and power of the resurrection is as metaphor and even parable. What matters is the meaning of the story. Metaphor and parable have the unique capacity to tell important truths, though the stories they represent may not have actually happened.

So, what matters here? Jesus lives! As I just mentioned, at the time of Jesus’ death and even today, people experience Jesus in a radically and wonderful new way. Jesus lives! is the first major theme of Easter. Death, an ignominious and unjust death, cannot entomb who Jesus is, what he stands for, and the new Kingdom of God now established on earth. Jesus lives! says that Jesus is a figure of the present, the here and now.

In addition to Jesus lives!, the Easter moment broadcasts that God has vindicated Jesus. To quote again from Borg and Crossan, “God has said ‘yes’ to Jesus and ‘no’ to the powers who executed him … Easter is God’s ‘yes’ to Jesus against the powers who killed him.”

Likewise for Paul, the earliest recorded witness to the Jesus story, Jesus lives! and Jesus is Lord! are central to his theology. Paul experienced the risen Christ as we heard last week. It would seem that Paul’s understanding of the resurrection stories are that they parallel his own, that is, as visionary experiences. In any event, the immediacy of Jesus to Paul changes his life. For Paul to say Jesus is Lord! is to say Caesar is not, nor are any other princely or religious powers.

Finally, and especially for Paul, the resurrection story recapitulates the contemporary belief in an apocalyptic eschatology. Remember, an apocalyptic eschatology is all about “’God’s Great Cleanup’ of an unjust and violent world” (Borg & Crossan). The earth is being transformed—made new—and the great resurrection has begun with Jesus, which Paul famously argues in 1^st Corinthians.

The concept of resurrection—be it literal or figurative—is essential to Christianity. Through the resurrection, Easter represents a great reversal of fortunes. No longer do the authorities of this earth hold sway, but God does. The Kingdom of God is established and Jesus leads The Way for the people of God.

Amen.