| The Most Radical Proclamation |
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The Most Radical Proclamation
Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008
Luke 24:1-12
Douglas S. Long
Umstead Park United
Church of Christ
Thank you, choir… for that beautiful, beautiful anthem
("Sicut Cervus"):
“As the deer longs
for water, so we long for God…”
Sung in Latin, it reminds us of our rich and deep heritage,
of our diversity, of our history…
And the words, taken from the Hebrew Psalmist long ago,
identify an even deeper longing within all of humanity… a longing for the
Divine, for a connection with something more than mortal, for God.
Today, in our tradition and even more so in the Creation
itself, that longing shouts with its loudest proclamation.
Today, Life confronts Death… and the Divine life force…
well, look around you in all of nature… the winter barrenness disappears… the
brown earth springs green… Life shoots forth from the seeming deadness… and
from the tomb…. God speaks!
God is still speaking!!!
Just think how radical that proclamation is!
“God is still speaking!”
That phrase is, of course, the byline of a publicity campaign that the
UCC, the United Church of Christ, has run for the past couple of years. For the
most part, the public at large had never ever heard of the UCC… didn’t know who
the United Church of Christ was… but my, what a splash we, The United Church of
Christ, what a ruckus we’ve found ourselves pulled into this Holy Week.
They are saying we are a radical denomination!
Used to be when you said you were part of The United Church
of Christ you had to go through this spiel about… “No, I don’t mean the 'Church
of Christ.' I said the United Church
of Christ. They’re two different denominations who, for the most part, express
themselves from opposite ends of the theological spectrum."
Not this week. This
week everyone has heard snippets of the UCC… endlessly played snippets.
20 years ago, when I pastored St. John’s United Church of
Christ in Burlington, N.C., we were, at one particular Deacons meeting, trying
to figure out how to let people know who we were. The problem was folks kept
confusing us with another church. We were located on
So we were the United Church of Christ located on
This week I've been anticipating a “Church of Christ”
spokesperson to come out with a disclaimer any day proclaiming, “We are not the United Church of Christ.”
But we are… We are the United Church of
Christ. Let me quote from a portion of a letter to the Editor submitted this
week by 30 plus area UCC clergy (that has yet to be printed):
.. Our forbearers came to this
continent aboard the Mayflower and founded the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
They founded institutions like Harvard, Yale, [and]
came to this continent aboard slave ships,
and founded some of the first free African American Churches.
They came to this
continent as German immigrants, who in the 18th century came to
of
them helped smuggle the Liberty Bell out of
were also 19th century immigrants who came to the
[The United Church of Christ has
been] and always will be fierce defenders of American liberty, free
speech and separation of church and state. We are a domination that vests much of
its authority in the
local church. Each of our over 6,000 local
congregations are autonomous, free to follow their own hearts
and minds as they
work out their relationship with God.
Yes, we are the United Church of Christ…
and we have found ourselves in the harsh glare of a simplistic spotlight this
week. We ministers have been put on notice… and you parishioners as well. Any
sentence or phrase I say, or have ever said, is fair game to be lifted up and
out of its context… and disseminated via media outlets and the worldwide web …
for all the world to see…. and judge. …
and even if the portrayal is anything but 'fair and balanced' you can be proven guilty, too… guilty by association.
That’s what happened this week to one of our fellow UCCers…
Barack Obama is a member of the UCC… and, in a thinly veiled political effort
to discredit Obama, some of Obama’s minister’s (Jeremiah Wright) …some of
Jeremiah Wright’s most controversial statements have been lifted out of the
full text of his sermons and strung together making him sound to many as if he
is a raving lunatic. Maybe he sounded that way to some of you.
Now, I’m not going to make a full sermon out of it on this
Easter morning, but I simply have to interject a few words here. I’m not going
to try to defend everything Jeremiah Wright has said. Honestly, I don’t
understand some of it… but I DO understand much of it… and the consistent core
of Jeremiah Wright’s preaching is that God is bigger than any culture, class, or
single country’s hold on God.
I have heard Jeremiah Wright preach several times and I have
always counted myself fortunate, even blessed, when being so privileged.
So, as an important aside this Easter morning, hear this:
Jeremiah Wright has been portrayed in a grossly distorted manner this past
week. This Holy Week it is Jeremiah Wright (and Trinity UCC in Chicago)… It is
Jeremiah Wright, on the basis of false and incomplete evidence, who has been
crucified in the shallow and self serving court of public opinion.
Do not misunderstand me as campaigning for Barack Obama.
What I'm doing here is standing up for my faithful and forthright colleague,
Jeremiah Wright. The only reason there has not been a tremendous firestorm
sweeping the country in his defense is that those who know the truth and want
most to come to Jeremiah’s aid are also those who want most to not stir up
difficulty in Barack Obama’s campaign. They want to come to Jeremiah’s defense
but they doubt the ability of many American voters to carefully sort out the
issues.
…and so Jeremiah Wright is largely left to hang, at least
for now, in the court of superficial sound bites. God help us!
So with that in mind I’m going to be ever-so-careful about
what I say in the future.
… and by the way, are
any of you planning on running for public office?… Because if you are, I’m
telling you right now, we don’t need the kind of trouble you’re going to ‘cause
for us!
That was a joke! That was joke! Don’t put that on You Tube.
I can only imagine, having seen the kind of hate directed at
the UCC and its leadership this week how such a statement might play in the
blogosphere.
Golly… John Thomas, as loving and compassionate and just a
man as I ever hope to meet, John Thomas, the president of our denomination, has
been excoriated by bloggers. It actually has been embarrassing to read!
Seeing the manner that people have responded to John's
attempts to be truthful and thoughtful, I wonder if we’ve progressed as a human
race at all… Why, these blogs are enough to make me doubt my belief in
evolution!
I’m certainly going to be careful about what I say!
…and the N&O had a request for solicitations in Friday’s
paper.
- Has a pastor ever ticked you off? Tell us about your experience at www.share.triangle.com
I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking Jesus must have
ticked off somebody. They killed him.
Did you hear?
The politicians of Jesus’ day didn’t just run away from him… they
allowed him to be killed… encouraged it. They dispensed of him, or so they thought…
until the most radical proclamation took
place.
It's the story of Easter..
and the attempt by the powers of the world to snuff out the message of
God
…and the message cannot be extinguished… The message lives!
Did you hear the story, the scripture, as Tim read it from
Luke’s Gospel?
The day begins with the empty tomb being bad news. The women think the body of Jesus
has been stolen.
(Do not accept the Easter message too glibly, too easily, or
it will leave you in the times you need it most.)
According to Luke, when the women returned to the disciples,
after they had been to the tomb, ...when they returned with their incredulous
tale, ...you remember,...they said they had seen the tomb empty and been told by two men in brilliant clothes that Jesus was
alive, had risen..... when the women told the disciples that, every single last one of the disciples gathered there thought
it was an idle tale (Dare I say ‘women’s chatter’? Clarence Jordan translates
it that way.) and none of them believed it. Another translation reads... ‘but this story of theirs seemed pure
nonsense, and they did not believe them.’
The first reaction of the disciples was unbelief.
Skepticism is not always a bad thing. Easter raises
questions and honest questions are good... but, Easter holds answers,
too, and we live by its faith.
Here's an answer. We sang it at the beginning of today's
worship:
Love's redeeming work is done...
It is a most radical proclamation!
People,… that is why we are here!...
I mean that is why we are here!
Ever thought
about where you’d be if you weren’t here?… if you could be two places at one
time? That’s not what I’m talking about… Ever wonder where you’d be if you
weren’t alive? If you didn’t exist… and never had?
Our existence springs forth from the love of God...
Our being is called forth from nothingness
by the wondrous love of God ...
This morning, there are those who
say that the resurrection of Jesus is ludicrous and cannot be taken seriously.
Pascal, 17th century
philosopher, in the middle of his Pensees
says...
“What reason have
atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? Which is the more difficult?... to be born, or to rise again? That what has
never been, should be, or that what has been, should be again? Is it more
difficult to come into being than to return to it?”
We are here, from …no where… by… the grace and love and power of God.
The first Easter sermon I preached to this Congregation was
in the spring of 2000. Denise preached on our first Easter, 1999…. Just our second
worship service, by the way.)
But I said in that 2000 Easter sermon… and I quote…
"I've concluded that Jesus
did not rise from the dead......"
There’s a sound bite for you! How
would you like that played 100 times in a continuous loop on Cable TV? [News
Flash- Doug Long, the minister at Umstead Park United Church of Christ
proclaimed on Easter Sunday morning- "I've concluded that Jesus did not rise from
the dead!"]
But that’s right, Jesus did not
rise…
God raised him!! It’s a most radical proclamation.
Now that may sound like some kind
of ‘semantical gobbledy-gook’ to you (It
probably would to a sizeable part of the American public) but it is an incredibly
important distinction.
You see, if the life of Jesus
stressed anything... it was absolute dependence on God...
The resurrection doesn't testify
to the power of Jesus...
It's a testimony to the power of God and is God's “YES!” to the model of
living and even more importantly, model of God, image of God, that Jesus
professed.
The powers of the world crucified
Jesus… but God said, “You have no power
over this Life.”
It is a most, the most, radical
proclamation!
What comes together at the
resurrection... is the definitive
answer to the question the Biblical narrative, and human history, has been
addressing in one way or another from the beginning... literally from In the beginning... and continues to address throughout the O.T.
and the Gospels.... …Who is God?
Enter into human history the only
one who can answer the question... enter the very message of God... the
Incarnation, God-with-us... God loving humans so much God becomes one...
a defenseless and vulnerable baby,
a powerless child to a less than prestigious family....
who grows among the common folk
and shows signs of brilliance in the law of love and justice...
whose presence commanded grown
men to drop their nets and grown women to follow...
Who taught the crowds who followed about God, and taught them...
-to care for their neighbor...
-and that their neighbor included
all human beings...
(Samaritan/Jew,
black/white... male/female... gay/straight... all people means all people...
you can't name a
person that all people excludes...)
-taught them to love even
their/our enemy...
(If I was an
African American preacher I might be ‘hooping’ at about this point!)
Further, this one of God taught
the crowds to approach God as a loving parent...
-to love God first...
-to seek purity of deed and heart...
-to give to the poor...
-to visit the sick and
imprisoned...
-to feed the hungry and clothe
the naked...
not when your friends
are destitute or hungry or sick... but to the least of your society...
(a Hispanic prostitute in an HIV clinic, convicted
murderers- gang members on death
row, commentators for
That's another
joke!
…sort of…)
…the least of these…
-yes, love in deed the very least of these... the one
you find it so easy to despise...
as you treat these, taught the messenger of God, so you treat God...
Jesus was serious that God is a
God who lifts up the powerless, who makes the last first and the first last and
the powers of this world have never been comfortable with being anything but first.
And Jesus was arrested, and
beaten, and killed.
Get rid of the troublemaker,
eliminate the problem...
and they did eliminate the problem... and Jesus died... and Jesus would
forever stay dead just like every other human being that had gone before him
...
Did Jesus save himself on the
cross?
No... he couldn't.
Did he fake his death?
No... He died. And they buried
him and said...
'Well, that was that and not so
hard. Now let's get on with our lives.'
Jesus was dead and there was
nothing Jesus could do about it...
Dead is dead...
BUT... God is God...
and God was not about to let the
powers of this earth have the last word on THE WORD...
THE IMAGE of GOD manifest in
human form...
... this loving, serving, sacrificing,
Jesus who was raised back to life on that first Easter morning.
… a most radical proclamation.
Easter is about the power of God!!!
...Easter is God declaring 'It is
not over 'til I have my say.'
Easter is the proclamation that God is the God Jesus proclaimed!
'Death in vain forbids him rise'
Amy Plantinga Pauw describes the practice of some Latin
American Congregations who, on All Souls Day each year call, out the names of
the members of the church who have died, some violently. As each name is read
the congregation vigorously exclaims, “Presente!” as a sign that the church
refuses to accept death as the last and defining word about them. Those who have died are declared
present to the living community through God’s gift of life that triumphs even
over death.
God forbids death to pronounce
the final word.
God's 'yes' to Jesus, God's
presentation of the living Christ is an incredible (?), almost incredible, response to the life of love and service Jesus
modeled.
The resurrection is the
proclamation that God is God.
…and a most radical proclamation
it is.
The green blade rises from the buried
grain.
Love has come
again like wheat that rises green.
Amen!
The Congregational Hymn of Response-
Now the Green
Blade Rises
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