Sermons for the Month
"Not Friday night any more"
DATE: March 31st, 2002
SERVICE: Easter“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
My kids are generally ready to helpfully let me know how out of the loop, old-fashioned, and uncool I am; so I was grateful to discover on the Internet last week an article about recently coined and trendy teenage slang expressions that have been inspired by current events. Did you know that a way to put down someone's outfit is to say, "What is that, a burka??" Or that a new way to describe a good-looking guy is "firefighter cute?" The expression that really caught my attention was: "Oh, that's so-o-o September 10th!" The obvious reference is to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and it's a way of suggesting that what's being discussed is so petty, such a trivial concern in light of the destruction and loss of life that would occur on the 11th. I wonder if Jesus' first followers had a similar expression with which they put things into perspective, something like, "That's so-o-o Friday night!" Perhaps they said things to one another like, "Remember how it was? Frightened out of our minds, running for cover… Afraid of the soldiers, afraid we might die …Remember, Peter?" "Remember how we talked about Jesus in the past tense? How we wept with sorrow, with disappointment, with shame?" "Remember, ladies, how concerned you were with taking care of his poor, battered, dead body? Mary, you were crying so hard you couldn't even see Jesus when he was right in front of you!" "Hey, remember how the chief priest and the elders and the Romans posted guards and sealed the stone, how they were so sure that they had Jesus under wraps and out of their way once and for all? Can you believe that Friday-night thinking?!?" "And then everything changed -- remember?" "And we found out that we didn't have to be afraid of anything again, ever, not of the future, certainly not of dying." "And suddenly - O.K., maybe not so suddenly, but sort of gradually and steadily, we learned that we didn't have to be ashamed any more, no matter what we had done or what we would fail to do, because Jesus' mercy and God's forgiveness came at us like a steady stream from His cross." "We had a new reason for living, to celebrate God's goodness, to worship Him with the whole of our lives, to share the good news His love and mercy with everyone we meet." "We had Jesus back -- well, not back, exactly -- we had Jesus like we'd never had him before." "And we knew we'd have him, and he'd have us, forever. And ever!" "And life just hasn't been the same ever since!"" The apostle Paul talks about it as a life-and-death, or better still, a death-and-life experience. Not just those fortunate few who saw Jesus in the flesh before and after Easter morning; but Paul himself, and you, and me, and all those who are baptized into Christ, he says, are linked with Him such that we "were buried with Him," lying in the stone cold silence of the tomb -- and then are filled with life and breath again, standing up and strolling over the kicked-aside stone, striding forward into God's future with confidence and courage. So, Paul says, "if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is…Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." In other words, "give up your Friday night thinking!" The world has been changed, because God in Jesus Christ has come into it, His sacrificial life and death has redeemed it, His Spirit has been set loose to make things happen. YOU have been changed, according to the promise and the power of God, "raised to walk in newness of life," no longer boxed in by what has been, free to do and to dream and to dare because Christ has joined his limitless life to ours. September 11, 2001 will take its place with November 22, 1963; December 7, 1941; July 4, 1776 and other watershed dates in the course of our nation's story. The landscape has been altered, and for those people directly touched by the event, there will always be a sense that life is not what it might have been. But truthfully, for most of us, not much has changed. The political maneuvering and bickering has resumed; the news media has resumed its hunt for scandal that will appeal to our fascination with the troubles of others. In an occasional moment of reflection, we may have the awareness that so many of the things we fret about - the price of gasoline, the traffic on West Market Street, our spouse's habit of leaving hair in the sink, the kids' shoes strewn about the living room floor, the Cleveland Indians' lack of a consistent leadoff hitter - are "so-o-o September 10" that we're embarrassed to spend our energy on them, but we do -- our minds run in the old familiar self-absorbed grooves. But they don't have to. 'Cause it's not Friday night any more! Everything has changed! The cosmic structure of the universe was rocked to its foundation; the twin towers of evil and demonic pride were collapsed, the clenched fist of death blown wide open. The powers of evil and their minions in this world came at Jesus with the most fearsome weapons in their arsenal - rejection, isolation, betrayal; injustice, cruelty, suffering, abandonment, death - and in the end, it was Jesus who was standing, without having lost or compromised a single particle of his goodness, truthfulness, patience, and boundless love. It's Jesus who greets us on Sunday morning, calling us by name, telling us and showing us that everything's changed. We don't have to worry what's going to become of us, not of you and me individually, not of our families, not of our nation, not of our world - God's in control. All that energy is freed up to do something constructive. We don't have to run away and hide, not from God and not from one another, fearing we're not good enough to measure up; we're not, but God loves us so much it's to die for - his death, not ours - and if God loves me that much, you can surely put up with me can't you? And I can be patient and forgiving with you, too. We don't have to fret and frown about what we're going to make of ourselves, because God has a vision and a plan, and God has the wherewithal to do it. We can welcome the chance to be a part of the adventure. We don't have to be concerned about hanging on to who we are and what we have - as if it were within our power, anyway - because in the end, we will never lose the eternal love and the eternal life which is our gift from God, compliments of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's all that truly matters. We're free to extend and expend ourselves for the sake of the good that God would have us do in this moment, while we're here in this world that He loves so much. Everything else is so - well, just so "Friday night," isn't it? It's Sunday morning - it's Easter morning, and when we've been joined to the life of Christ, every morning is Easter morning from now on. This is the beginning of the party that goes on forever - this bit of bread and wine we receive are the appetizers for the heavenly feast - the spirit of fellowship and Christian love that lives here will only be multiplied in quantity and quality into an endless future. God be praised for this new day; for His promise of new and abundant life; for His redeeming and transforming love that will never end. AMEN