Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, based on Luke 24:1-12
Some 2000 years ago there lived a Roman emperor named Hadrian.
That name may sound familiar to you because during his career Hadrian endured criticisms from his peers that he did not ply enough resources towards expanding the Roman empire, he chose instead to fortify its defenses, hence the namesake of that famous British barrier, in the north of England that you can still see today, Hadrian's wall.
One day, as Hadrian was touring the Middle East, he engaged in a theological discussion with a famous Jewish rabbi named Joshua Ben Hananiah.
Hadrian was unconvinced that the Jewish God could possibly be Lord, and so he asked the rabbi to explain God to him. The rabbi said God could not possibly be explained to another human because God is so much higher, so much more complex, so much more intricate, than a human mind might fathom.
Hadrian would have nothing of this, and the debate went on for quite some time until the rabbi invited Hadrian to come outside, underneath the cloudless, Palestinian sky. Then he asked Hadrian to look up at the Sun and to describe what he saw. Hadrian remarked, "Are you crazy? That sun would burn my eyes!"
'Then how,' said the rabbi, "if you cannot bear to look at one of God's creations, could you possibly look at God?"
His argument being that the human eye is just too fragile and limited to be able to stare at the Sun, and in the same way our minds are too limited to be able to unpack the notion of God.
The rabbi's reasoning only flustered the Roman emperor, which I totally understand, I get angry because I can't throw a football like Tom Brady, craft a sentence like John Updike, or even just boil a pan of water as well as Nigella Lawson. But my frustration with reality should not cause me to deny it, rather it should encourage me to find a way to accept it in a way that can be life-giving and soul enhancing.
I think that's how a lot of us deal with Easter.
This is our annual journey into mystery.
We can't explain it, because we can't understand it, how could somebody possibly rise from the dead?
Theologian Peter Rollins summed it up well when he said, "As a Christian I'm always haunted by doubt as to questions concerning God. However, I cannot deny that something has transformed my life and that I love the source of that transformation with all of my heart."
I don't expect anybody here to be able to explain the resurrection, the Easter miracle, the source of our transformation. But what I do find is that we all gather today in celebration of the source of that transformation, to offer our praise, to offer our thanks, and to sit in the presence of a God who is capable of things beyond our understanding.
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Back in the 1950s, at the opening of Disneyland in Southern California, a famous newscaster named Walter Cronkite had occasion to interview the wife of Walt Disney, Lillian Disney.
Now Lillian had played no small role in the founding of the Disney empire, after all it was her, who, years earlier, on a long train ride with her young husband, who was carrying a bundle of drawings to show a potential employer, looked at one of the drawings and said: 'I don't think you should call that character Mortimer mouse, you should call him Mickey."
And this same Lillian was sitting down with the most famous news broadcaster in the country, just a few years after her husband Walt had died. And Walter Cronkite, after surveying the impressive new theme park, the first of its kind in the country, asked Lillian Disney, "It's too bad Walt isn't here to see this!'
Not missing a beat, Lillian replied, "Oh, he saw it, that's why it's here."
If the Easter event brings up anything, it's this notion of possibility. It's this idea that no matter how far fetched, far flung, or seemingly impossible, that’s not the final word: to quote Jesus, Nulla impossible per Dio, nothing is impossible with God.
I think that's one reason you and I are here today: every one of us are facing challenges, difficult challenges, things we feel like we should be doing, but lingering doubts that it can ever be possible. Can I make it through this medical challenge, or at least have the strength to endure things if things don't go my way? Can I make it through this financial pinch, or at least have the grace to act decently as I endure it? Or can I make it through this pandemic without losing my friends, my job, my sense of purpose, or even my mind?
To all of these things, the God of Easter, cannot encourage us enough. We do not serve a God who gave up and lost, we serve a savior who gave it his all, and won.
We serve a God of hope, a God of possibility, a God who's very nature is to plant inside us impossibly difficult things to do, and then to help us do them.
Where do you need Easter hope this morning?
How is God calling you not to give up?
How is God letting you know that the jig is not up?
What might we do, from here, to draw closer to that God, and hear more clearly those encouraging words?
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There is a little-known tale of a bunch of British teenagers in a South Pacific country called Tonga, who in 1965 stole a boat, tried to make for New Zealand, and wound up castaways on a mostly barren island instead until their rescue nearly a year and a half later.
Now for anyone who read the fictional book Lord of the Flies, you may suspect they set up a lawless, free for all society, stuck pigs heads on spikes and shouted, "To heck with the rules!"
But that's not actually what happened, not by a long shot. These youngsters employed virtues of charity, respect, and communal care to lay down the ground rules of how they would survive.
After taking days to make fire, they set up a rota system that kept it burning nicely their entire time on the island. They figured out how to collect rainwater and pick berries. If two kids had an argument, they had to walk to opposite sides of the island to cool off.
At the heart of their worrisome predicament, when these kids were faced with the most foundational aspect of our humanity, survival and an unknown future, nail and claw did not win out, but mutual care and brotherly love ruled the day.
And what happened when these teens were finally rescued 15 months later?
Doctors declared them in excellent physical and mental shape.
The moral of the story is that these youngsters won because they chose to abide by virtues rooted in love. They chose to follow the voice that was deepest within them, that's the voice you and I have, that was given to us by God
Because, at the end of the day, Easter is about a God who is love. The Pinnacle celebration of the Christian year is a day that proudly declares that this is how much God loves us. God loves us enough to become one of us, become subject to us, and to show us that in service and sacrifice we experience life's greatest joys and fulfillment.
So that is the final meditation for today is this contemplation of the vast love of God.
Hans it's von Balthazar observes that since we are made by God, for God's pleasure, we belong more to God than to ourselves. Thus, we mean more to God than to ourselves.
This means that you and I can never love as much as we are loved.
No matter how good of a parent, grandparent, or neighbor you are, you can never love anyone or anything more than you are loved.
Easter is a time not only to bask, celebrate, and receive that love but to dream up ways to give it away.
And Jesus made it clear that the best way to show the love we have for God is to love other people. It's by loving things that are of equal or greater value than ourselves. Because when we love things that are of lesser value than ourselves, we squander ourselves. We experience only a fleeting, melancholy pleasure. Our most fulfilling love is for the higher things, to love others, and the one who created them.
So friends, on this blessed Easter morning, go forth, into the mystery of God, giving thanks to the source of transformation in our lives, that allows us to be lovers, just as our Lord is.
Go forth in possibility! Knowing that if Jesus did this, then God can do that.
And finally, go forth in love, in word and in deed, showing forth our joy with loving care to all whom God brings across our paths.
Christ has risen, alleluia alleluia!
He has risen indeed, alleluia alleluia!