Calvary United Methodist Church

March 27, 2016

BEYOND THE CROSS

Rev. R. Jeffrey Fisher

Easter Sunday – 9:30 AM Worship

Message: Luke 24:1-8

The gospels have different recordings of that first morning when the

disciples who had all their hearts broken on Good Friday, they weren’t

sure. They had heard the stories about Jesus saying he would rebuild it

in three days, but this was a new reality for them. And the story today

is taken from Luke: On the first day of the week, very early in the

morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the

tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they

entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were

wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like

lightning stood behind them. In their fright the women bowed down

with their faces to the ground and the men said to them, “Why do you

look for the living among the dead? “He is not here; he has risen! Re-

member how he told you, while he was still in Galilee: “‘The Son of

Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, be crucified and on

the third day raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.

Sometimes in this Holy season of Lent and how the resurrection sea-

son of Easter, we tend to focus on the cross and the cross itself can be

very sorrowful as we recall as we recall the events of Good Friday, but

many people live their life as if that is where we are stuck, that we are

stuck on the cross. And we forget that there is something far more

than that. And that is the story of Easter.

There is still in the Italian Alps, people make a journey up into the

mountains. Many of us don’t make those kinds of journeys.

They have seven stations of crosses up on the mountains and people

make that journey. For years they would go through the various icons

to see and be remembering this process of what happened to our Lord

and our Savior Jesus Christ.

But for many years they always would end at the crucifix, until some-

one supposedly years ago found that behind the crucifix was yet anoth-

er scene that had been covered by trash, covered by growth and things

that were over it.

And it was along this journey for all those years, but it was missed. It

was a tomb. If you stop at the cross, then the grave is it. It is as if eve-

rything is locked in there and it was pain and it was suffering and it

was grief and loss and so many people today, we only remember the

cross, we don’t remember the tomb and more than the tomb, we don’t

remember that the tomb is empty. We have new life. Easter is about

new life. It is a promise from God and His promises are something

you can count on. They aren’t like the promises we make to one an-

other and sometime fail one another. These are promises for new life.

It’s amazing to me as we look at the church calendar, it’s only been

three short months ago that we celebrated Christmas, and so it is hard

in our own mind to get the grasp, because the disciples of the early

days had journeyed with Christ for years of his life and especially the

disciples for three entire years that they lived and breathed his word,

his truth, his miracles, the healings, the many things he did.

And yet, we have gone from this moment of time, this moment of time

of Christmas into a moment of crucifixion and sometimes we get stuck

there and we don’t move ahead to this bright place that we had this

morning.

For those who went to the cemetery this morning here for the worship,

we are reminded that place, while it looks still, is a place of new life,

that our bodies, worn and torn and tattered find new life.

When the ladies went to the tomb that morning, it was a stark reminder

of the promises and yet they still had doubts, they still had fears, as we

do even today. For even from that tomb they could see the crosses on

the hill to remember what they saw happened. And the reality is that I

want to believe in new life, but I saw a man I loved crucified and they

even remember the final words, remember? When a soldier pierced

his side with the spear? This is no tale that he might have been laying

in the tomb just in pain and suffering. He was dead. He was gone, and

they knew it.

And so when the ladies came that morning and when they encountered

this other guards, the angels that were there, they were stunned, think-

ing “What has happened to my Lord? Is it really possible?” They had

gone to anoint his body, but his body was not there.

So what they did was go back and tell the other disciples and the disci-

ples ran with the same kind of strength, the same kind of courage that

we ought to run with today, to tell our neighbors of what it’s been like

when we have met our Savior, Jesus Christ, for what he has done in

our life is truly miraculous.

The cross was a reminder of our sins being washed away. The scrip-

ture tells us someone had to pay the price for our sinfulness, mine and

yours and God’s Son who came on Christmas was willing to do that.

That was a gift from God that you and I could have new life and it’s so

important to know that he is new life. There are many teachers in the

world today and many throughout history who have claimed to be the

one that we ought to follow. If Jesus, indeed, were only a good man

who came to earth, the Apostle tells us, then it is shameful for us, for

all that we have believed is a loss.

He was much more than a teacher, much more than a person who

taught good lessons, much more than a man who healed the sick and

raised the dead. He was the Son of God, living among us to provide

life.

He was the one, if you looked as his nail-scarred hands, as the one

said, “I did this for you. I did this for you. I went to the cross, I car-

ried your burdens.”

A month ago I had the privilege of being in Uganda and I was speak-

ing to a man that a lot of our church met a few years ago. His name

was Melvin and he was our guide in 2013. And I asked him about

coming to his faith. He came from a Muslim family, very dedicated

Muslim himself. He said “The longer I grew in years, the more I read

and as I read the word of Mohammad,” he said, “at the end of the

book,” he said” “he basically said, ‘I don’t know what’s next.’” Folks,

we don’t follow Buddha, we don’t follow Mohammad, we don’t fol-

low other people. There have been many people through the ages who

have had a lot of good ideas, but it usually ends with this life. We fol-

low a man names Jesus Christ who says if we have been born in him

and baptized in him, we have new life, so that when we die in him we

have new life.

The resurrection that was his is our resurrection today. And sometimes

we think only in terms of new life, but I want to put it in terms of eve-

ry day. I must die to self every day. The disappointments, the things

we say, the things we do, the things we let unsaid, the things we left

undone. God says “I’m forgiving you. I’m giving you a new start.

Today I’m wiping the slate clean. You have been again washed, you

have been cleaned up. You have new life.” God didn’t want us just to

follow him to have that gift of new and eternal life. He wants us to be

lifted in the life every day. And when we read that one hymn that we

will sing later:

I serve a risen Savior; He’s in the world today. It’s the presence of that

Spirit of God. It’s in us, in the world around us, in all the pain and sor-

row and trouble we see. It needs that love of God flowing out of us.

This love isn’t something we hold tight to. It’s something we share

with others. He is living whatever men may say; I see His hand of

mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. Just the time I need Him, He’s al-

ways near.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and

talks with me along life’s narrow way.

He lives, He lives, Salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He

lives? He lives within my heart.

He’s so much more than that miracle worker. He wants what he gave

to this woman at the well. God wants a relationship with you and with

me. We know how important relationships are in our lives. We know

what it’s like to be in those lonely journeys, those dark moments when

we’ve had struggles and it appears that there’s no one around and God

says, “I don’t want you to ever have to live that way.” When you are

in your high points and when you are in the low points, Jesus says,

“I’m with you in spirit and I will be with you always,” is what the

scripture records.

You see again, the Christmas story was a moment in time. It was a

great moment. Thank God He sent His Son Jesus Christ.

The crucifixion was a moment. It was a day in time when Christ as

gone.

But the resurrection is eternal. It is now. It’s every day. It’s when I go

to bed tonight thanking God that this day, in some way, is over and fin-

ished and I’m rested, but it’s the consolation in my own mind that my

mistakes, my wrongs, my sins, are forgiven. And I wake in the morn-

ing and when I wake and sometimes in my life anyway, before I put

my feet on the floor, I say, “God, thank you for this day. Guide me.”

God wants to be in relationship with us through the power and the

presence of the Living Lord, not just long ago, but every single day of

our life.

The Apostle Paul again says, “If Christ has not been raised, our

preaching is useless and so is your faith.” Are we just talking about a

man in the past? No! Praise be to God, we are talking about the one

who lives with us.

And so there are a few things I would like to talk about, about what

these symbols of Easter mean for us and one is Love. Of all the things

God sent to earth through Jesus Christ, it was God’s message to us of

love.

This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only

Son into the world that we might live through him. Those words are

heavy and if we looked at a few of the words that follow, he reminds

us that if you say you love God and don’t love your brother or your

sister, you are really lying. How can you say you love God and you

can’t love the very ones you see when you don’t see God?

When I first started going to church camp as a young boy, I became

aware more and more of God’s presence in my life because there were

devotions morning and afternoon and the things we did through the

day were relating to God.

And the campfires at night were meaningful and we sang songs.

There was one song that we sang, “They will know we are Christians

by our…”

So God is saying if you have love in your heart, it should flow out of

you. If we have love and keep it to ourselves, it doesn’t help anybody.

It’s like having food and you are watching the starving. Folks, we

have food for the world today. We have Jesus Christ. We have the

power of the Spirit and the world is hungry for new life. It should

pour from us. The Word of God says “We know we are Christians by

our love.” And that love isn’t for us alone, but it is to share with the

world.

The cross is also and the empty tomb is a reminder of new life.

The new life: when we go to a cemetery many of us visit from time to

time, decorate the graves of our loved ones, parents or grandparents or

family members, loved one that we have had real dear. There again is

some of the possible fear. We wonder if this is the end. But the empty

grave is there to prove to us that there is life after death. And one of

the things I’ve always thought of in those moments when I have lost

loved ones dear to me, as much as we miss them, as much as it is diffi-

cult to move on sometimes, anyone you love today, if something were

to happen to you, you would not want their life to end, because again

of the love pouring out for you, you would tell your loved one, your

children, your family, your spouse, whoever, to say, “Please continue

to live in my name, continue to know that God is with you and, what’s

the promise? We will meet again.”

From time to time throughout ministry, some of the most difficult mo-

ments are when you are facing children facing death. It’s in some of

those moments I’m reminded of scripture with Jesus Christ, says we

need to become like little children. I remember several through the

years, and we’re holding hands and praying as they are near their last

days. And I remember two in particular where we were praying and

the parents of course, are brokenhearted and little Stevie looks up and

says, “Mommy, don’t cry. I’ll be with Jesus. And we’ll see each other

again one day.”

You see, we teach them and they believe the words. They don’t for a

moment think this is the end. They believe the Word of God. And I

believe it or I wouldn’t be here. What is here, Paul says, this is just a

sham. That’s not reality. It’s only momentary when you consider all

of eternity. We have the brevity of our life’s years, 60, 70, 80, perhaps

90 or 100, if we are blessed.

But Paul says this isn’t really what it’s about. We have new life. We

have continued to find new life as we have been washed up, day after

day, in the Living Lord, because we again have resurrection to new

life.

We also have hope. I met someone yesterday who had just been diag-

nosed in September with cancer, a younger woman. She has gone

through all the chemo, all the sickness. Some of you have seen that in

your family, some of you have experienced it, lost their hair. She feels

not so well right now, she is facing in this next week her radiation

treatments, but she said, “I tell the people at my church, ‘I’m okay, be-

cause if I get well, that’s a blessing, but if I go to be with God, that’s a

blessing.’” That’s a hard thing for most of us to conquer, but I want to

tell you, it is the truth.

The song we sang at the cemetery this morning, “Because He Lives I

can face tomorrow,” there’s times we wonder how do you go on?

When you read the tales in the newspapers, when you see the stuff on

the television news, you wonder “How do these people living in war

town areas, how do the people live in constant devastation where they

have lost entire families, how do people go on?” Because he lives they

face tomorrow. They know this isn’t it. They know that to live as in

Christ and to die as in Christ, so to live or die, I am always in Christ

and I will have new and everlasting life.

And our hope is, the reason this love and this life pours out through us,

is that you and I can offer a hand to someone else. One of the greatest

things about Christianity, again more different than other faiths, is that

Christians are known to volunteer. Christians are known to care, not

just in volunteering, care for their loved ones, care for those around.

In preparation I saw a story about Rome in the days of the plague, that

those without Christ would often just toss the family members who

were sick out on the streets, they didn’t want to get sick and die. Now,

we know a lot more about bacteria today, but even today, even with

Ebola in the news in the last couple of years, we saw men and women

from America go into those nations where they knew they could die.

We know doctors and nurses and health care people who went because

of what they believed that they could make a difference.

Christians believe we can give a hand out to others and Christians be-

lieve in the power of the Living Lord. God came through Christ that

we might have power, not just momentarily, but that we have power

for daily living.

A part of the resurrection, being washed again, is giving up those parts

of our lives that need changed. It’s giving up the addictions that we all

have, every one of us, that we know are not good for our bodies or our

minds or our soul. It’s giving up the habits, it’s giving up the behav-

iors, it’s giving up parts of ourselves that aren’t always what they

ought to be. And it’s also that cleansing that says, there are things I

need to do. I need to make things right, I need to serve, I need to be

more obedient, I need to follow, I need to pray, I need to be in a closer

walk with God. And as we make those conscious decisions, the Power

of God will come on us.

In the day of Pentecost he talks about that fire. I want to burn with

God in my heart. I want to burn all the days of my life, to think that no

matter how old I may become that God will use me, that God can di-

rect me and God can use some part of me to make a difference, howev-

er small in this world because I’m willing and able to be a servant.

We need to look beyond the cross; we need to look beyond the tomb

because if you look through it, you will see sunlight on the other side.

You will see a new day, a day of celebration. That is this day. It is

Easter that should be lived every day, because Christ is in us. Thanks

be to Almighty God. He lives and reigns in our hearts today. Christ is

alive. Praise God.

We have the privilege at this point of receiving God’s gift for all of

God’s children, Easter Communion. There are times when I think of

communion and there have been many people through life tell us it is

such a somber time. I think in my own mind there is a real difference

between something that is somber and something that is serious.

There are very few things more serious than communion to me be-

cause I recall that in order for me to receive it, I’m reminded that

someone died. It’s an intense experience, as you take of the break re-

membering his body broken, to remember his blood was spilled for

you and me. But it’s not somber. It’s a celebration of new life. And I

pray today, as we receive these elements of bread and wine that you

will find new life. I invite you to prepare your hearts now as we pre-

pare to receive these gifts from God that God has for all of His chil-

dren.

On that night he was betrayed, Jesus Christ took the bread. He broke

it, saying “This is my body, broken for you. Take and eat this as oft as

ye shall meet in remembrance of me.” You will be invited, as the ush-

ers will bring forth the bread, that you would hold it until we would

receive it again.

Likewise he took the cup of the new covenant. He looked at the disci-

ples, blessing them, saying “This is my blood of the new covenant

shed for your sins and not yours alone, but for the sins of the world.

Take and drink ye all of this in remembrance of me.”

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting Father, we thank you for the

goodness of sending your son Jesus Christ into our world. We thank

you that through his obedience he willingly not only led a life of faith-

fulness to you, but walked a life of obedience even unto the cross. We

remember not only his pain and suffering, but this day, O Lord, we re-

member his resurrection and the new life promised, and the reminder

that we should receive these elements. We thank you today that you

would bless these elements of break and wine, that as we receive them

we will find new life, we will be reminded of the forgiveness of our

sins and the newness of life and that we will make things right in our

lives and those around us by your power and grace. We ask these

blessings in thy Son’s Holy name. Amen.

Benediction:

Because of the resurrection Jesus Christ lives in our hearts and he de-

sires to flow forth that the world that receives so much darkness will

be filled with light. As we go forth today, may we be empowered by

that resurrection spirit to know that we are life changers and we have

received these promises as truths from the Father, Son and Spirit. Let

us go forth with that peace. Amen.