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Easter is not about theology. Easter is about God, but it's not about theology. Easter is about news. Now theology makes us think, but news catches us by surprise. News creates fresh perspectives and makes us think again. News creates an experience. It causes feelings and emotions, feelings and emotions like sadness or delight, anxiety or relief, grief or joy. News creates perplexity or assurance, fear or hope. News, real news, makes you angry or happy; it makes you laugh or cry. Like the news announced by the mother in Austin, Texas, a few years ago. She had heard lots of news from her children over the years, she said, and she wanted to share it, because she was absolutely astonished by it. Honest and no kidding, she said, here's what she learned from her children: She learned that a king-sized waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000-square-foot house four inches deep. She learned that if you soak dust bunnies with hair spray and run over them with roller blades, they sparkle and can ignite. She learned that a six-year-old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year-old man says they can do it only in the movies, that a magnifying glass can start a fire even on an overcast day, and that the Austin fire department's response time is five minutes. Honest and no kidding, she learned that if you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42-pound boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape, but it is strong enough to spread paint on all four walls of a 400 square-foot room. She learned that when the ceiling fan is on and you throw baseballs up, you have to throw them up several times before you get a hit, and that glass in windows is not strong enough to stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan. From her children she learned that a three-year old's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant, that brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it, and that when you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh-oh," it's already too late. She learned that Super Glue is forever, that garbage bags don't make good parachutes, that certain Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a four-year-old, that VCR's don't eject peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, that marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving, and that "Play Dough" and "Microwave" should never be used in the same sentence. She learned that you probably don't want to know what that odor is, that you should always look in the oven before you turn it on, and that plastic toys do not like ovens. Honest and no kidding, she learned that the spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy, but that it will make cats dizzy, and that cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy. All this was news to her. She had never heard or seen anything like it before she had children. Until she had children, she had never conceived that the world could possibly contain all these astonishing facts. Now here's some news from a school teacher. One day Mrs. Wilson asked her second grade class what each wanted to be when he grew up. "A football player," said one boy. "A doctor," a little girl said. "A policeman," "a fireman," "an astronaut," "a teacher," came the answers from every corner of the classroom. Every second grader responded except Timmy. Timmy just sat quietly. Mrs. Wilson noticed his silence, so she asked him, "Timmy, you haven't said anything. What do you want to be when you grow up?" "Possible," Timmy said. "Possible?" asked Mrs. Wilson, perplexed. "Possible," Timmy replied. "Timmy, what do you mean, you want to be 'possible'?" "Well, my mom always says I'm impossible," Timmy explained, "so when I get big, I want to be possible." The Bible never asks if God is possible. It never offers an argument for the existence of God. The Bible assumes the existence of God. But the Bible does wonder what is possible for God. It raises questions about God, and that's where theology comes from. Why is God? What is God like? What does God do? Is anything impossible for God? All these are theological questions, questions that can tie theologians in logical knots. But Easter is about news, and at Jesus' tomb on Easter morning, the women heard news about God that has tied theologians in knots ever since. Jesus had died late on Friday, just before the Sabbath began, so his burial had been a kind of rushed up affair, and those who loved him had not been able to prepare his body properly. So early on Sunday morning, as soon as the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome - and maybe Joanna and some others as well, if Luke is right - anyway a number of women who had known and loved Jesus bought spices so that they might go to the tomb and anoint his body. They were going to have trouble getting into the crypt, they reasoned, because the soldiers had placed a large, heavy stone over the entrance to seal it. The women went to the tomb the way the mother in Austin went home from work each day; they went expecting to find their world the way the had left it just a few hours earlier. They went to the tomb on Sunday believing that they would find the body of Jesus, which had been broken and torn and drained of all life, right where it had been placed on Friday. They went assuming that on Sunday the world would still work the way it had worked on Friday, the way it had always worked before, with the soldiers and police and federal marshals and guns and spears and tear gas all having their way with the world the way they always had their way in the past. They went to the tomb believing that force, having once again beaten up on love, would have its way again. They went expecting to find death waiting for them right where they had left death on Friday, and expecting that all they would be left with then was their grief and tears. But all the evangelists report that, honest to God and no kidding, when the women got to the tomb they saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. At first they were scared. But a young man who was sitting there said, "Don't be alarmed. I have news for you. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. Well, he has been raised! He's not here. You'll find him in Galilee, just as he told you. So go and tell his disciples, and Peter." But they didn't go at once, says Mark. For a while they didn't say anything to anybody, because they were terrified! And who wouldn't be terrified by news that has just turned one's world on its ear! After they gathered their wits, however, the women reported the news to the disciples, as the young man told them to. However, when Peter and the other disciples heard the news, all the evangelists tell us, they were skeptical. They knew death when they saw it. But before the day was out, Jesus began to show himself to the disciples, and honest to God and no kidding, this is the news they heard from Jesus' own lips later that same day and in the weeks that followed: They heard him say that he still loved them. They heard him say that he forgave them for the way they had betrayed him and denied him and deserted him on Friday, and that he wanted them to forgive each other just as he had forgiven them. They heard him say that even now he was sending them out to feed his sheep and to spread the good news of Easter Day. The news the disciples heard from Jesus was that love is the womb in which life is possible. What they learned from Jesus is that even after Friday love is possible because love is stronger than death, and that that's why Jesus was on the loose again and why even their fear and their locked doors and locked hearts couldn't keep Jesus from coming to see them on Sunday, because Jesus still loved them. All this was the news of Easter Day. They had never heard or seen anything like it before. Until Easter Day, they had never conceived that the world contained such astonishing possibilities. That's not all they learned, of course, but that was enough to make their day that particular day. It was also enough to turn their lives upside down so that God could turn the world upside down, just as God had promised. In the weeks that followed, they also learned that Easter keeps on giving. They learned that Jesus was only the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. They learned that the Spirit of God who had raised Jesus from the dead was alive and well in them, too. Honest to God and no kidding, they learned that God, who raised Jesus from the dead, would even now quicken their own fearful, timid, mortal bodies and souls. They learned that, because Jesus loved them, even cowards and wimps like themselves could become vital human beings again. And this really turned their world upside down. Contrary to everything they had ever believed before, they learned that God can and will love whoever God chooses to love, and that's why Peter tells us this morning that God does not have favorites, but that in every nation those who are God-fearing and do what is right are acceptable to God. Even those who aren't circumcised, even those who don't keep all the laws the disciples had been taught to keep. Peter and the others also found out, however, that if your tell this good news to others, and especially if you begin to live as if it is true, then some people won't like it and it will get you in trouble, and it can land you in jail and maybe even cost you your life. But that didn't bother them any more, because Jesus was still with them, and they had also learned from him that emperors and kings and presidents and other people who don't like good news really aren't the most powerful force in the world, that faith and hope and love are. And they found out that all of Caesar's crosses and all the jails and prisons of the priests can't tie faith up or hold hope down for more than a short weekend, because, with Jesus on the loose it's impossible for crosses and spears and guns and jails and prisons to kill love. So after Pentecost they went out and challenged Caesar themselves, and Satan to boot, and they told everyone the good news of Easter anyway, despite the threats of Caesar and priests alike. Well, that's the news of Easter. The women went to the tomb expecting business as usual, and the disciples locked themselves in a room so ready for death that they feared life. But the young man said, "You are looking for death? Honest to God and no kidding, there is no death here. Death has fled! Don't you know, friends, that in the end love and hope will have their way with the world, because God always has his way with his own world, just as he has with this stone?" On the Queen of Days, and in the weeks and months and years that followed, Mary Magdalene and all the other disciples learned that, even uphill, love is strong enough to move a puny 1200-pound stone and open the mouth of a cave, and at the same time to shut the mouths of emperors and priests and politicians and centurions and federal marshals, and even of preachers. "Possibility, faith and love and hope, have the last word after all," the young man told them, "and you'll find him in Galilee, as he told you." And that's all the news for Easter Day, April 16, AD 2006. In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. |