Worship
Sermon Teachings
Acts 5:17-21a, 27-32
Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at God's right hand as Leader and Savior, so that God might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey God.”
Thomas Long, a professor at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, tells the following story. “Many years ago, a friend told me that his young son was a great fan of both Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers. The boy faithfully watched both of their television programs. One day it was announced that Mister Rogers would be paying a visit to Captain Kangaroo. The boy was overjoyed. He could hardly believe it. Both of them, together on the same show! Every morning he would ask, ‘Is it today that Mister Rogers will be on Captain Kangaroo?' Finally the great day arrived. The whole family gathered around the television set. And there they were – Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo together! The boy watched for a minute, but then, to everyone's amazement, got up and left the room.
“Puzzled by this, his father followed him and asked, ‘What is it, son? Is anything wrong?'
“To which the boy replied, ‘It's just too good. It's just too good.'”
Have any of you ever felt like this? You experience something that is so good, so wonderful, so amazing, that you're just not sure what to do about it. You need some time to yourself, perhaps some time in silence, simply to revel in the glory of what has occurred. You can't put words around it, you can't explain it to anyone else, it is just a moment of pure delight.
I often feel this way on Easter Sunday – I sure did last week. The sanctuary is filled to overflowing with people praising God's name, the minister is proclaiming that Jesus Christ has risen, the choir is singing loud alleluias, God's spirit fills the air. And for a moment every Easter, I just have to stop, to be still, to embrace the moment, because it is just too good.
But then what? Worship ends and we head off to our post-church Easter celebrations – perhaps a special meal shared with family and friends, perhaps an egg hunt or a visit from the Easter bunny. And then Sunday ends and Monday begins, and it's back to normal – to work, to school, to overcrowded calendars, to discussions about the weather.
But is it really back to normal? Is it possible to be back to normal? The tomb is empty! Jesus is risen! The old has passed away, the new has come! We can't just go back to normal, can we? We have heard the good news, and we can't help but be changed by it. So what do we do now? What do we do with the moments that were just too good on Easter Sunday? What do we do with the hope and the light and the grace and the love that is resurrection?
The disciples wondered the same thing. What do they do with this empty tomb? At first, they needed to be by themselves. They were understandably a little scared, a little mystified, perhaps even a little disbelieving. But after some words of encouragement from the resurrected Jesus, they got out there, onto the streets, proclaiming the good news of their risen Lord. Their lives certainly were no longer normal, and they wanted people to know about it. Now, these rabble-rousers did not make the authorities too happy, but their news was too good to keep to themselves. Their news was too good to be silenced by anyone. Their news had to be shared.
In the passage from the book of Acts that we heard this morning, Peter explains all of this to the high priest, and then ends by saying, “We are witnesses to these things.” They had spent countless days and nights with Jesus, seeing him heal with their own eyes, hearing him preach with their own ears, asking him questions, sharing meals with him, watching him die, seeing the empty tomb, experiencing his presence and his words after the resurrection, and then they were even freed from prison by an angel of the Lord. These disciples were witnesses, witnesses with a first-hand account of Jesus Christ. And because they were witnesses, they could not stay silent.
In her book Practicing Resurrection, Nora Gallagher writes, “When I think about the resurrection now, I don't only think about what happened to Jesus. I think about what happened to his disciples. They went into hiding after the crucifixion, but after the resurrection appearances, they walked back out into the world. They became braver and stronger; they visited strangers, and healed the sick. It was not just what they saw when they saw Jesus, or how they saw it, but what was set free in them.”
We will never be first-hand witnesses of the empty tomb – we did not see it. We were not there. But we, just like the disciples, are still witnesses. We are witnesses to what Jesus' resurrection has set free in us. We are witnesses to what it means to us that life has triumphed over death, that the old has passed away and the new has come, that God is present with us always. And because we are witnesses, we can not stay silent. God called the disciples then, and God calls us now, to be witnesses in the world.
Now, I don't know about you, but I sometimes get a little uncomfortable with the word “witness” and how it interacts with religion. I hear witness, and one visual that comes to my mind is a hard-core evangelist pushing his or her specific faith beliefs on someone who does not necessarily believe the same way. That is not what I mean when I talk about being a witness. I prefer the type of witness that comes from the Black religious tradition, where witnessing indicates an affirmation of the expectation and understanding that God will be present in everyday life. The phrase, “Can I get a witness?” has roots in this tradition, as people would share about how God had been present in their lives, and then ask, “Can I get a witness?” which meant, “Has anyone else experienced a similar movement of God's spirit in their own life?” That is the kind of witnessing I want to do. I want to share the good news of God's abundant love. I want to share why some moments are just too good in my life, because God's spirit is at work. I want to share what the resurrection has set free in me.
One of my favorite authors, Barbara Brown Taylor, acknowledges that it can be difficult to be a witness to the resurrection. She writes, “The resurrection is the one and only event in Jesus' life that was entirely between him and God. There were no witnesses whatsoever. No one on earth can say what happened inside that tomb, because no one was there. They all arrived after the fact. Two of them saw clothes. One of them saw angels. Most of them saw nothing at all because they were still in bed that morning, but as it turned out that did not matter because the empty tomb was not the point. The singing was going on somewhere else, which may be why Peter and the other disciple did not stay very long. Clearly, Jesus was not there. He could have stayed put, I guess, sitting there all pink and healthy between the two piles of clothes so that everyone could come in and see him, but that is not what he did.
“He had outgrown his tomb, which was too small a focus for the resurrection. The risen one had people to see and things to do. The living one's business was among the living. That is where the miracle happened and goes on happening - not in the tomb but in the encounter with the living Lord.”
So where have you encountered the living Lord? What resurrections have you seen lately? And will you be a witness to this in the world? Barb started us down this path of witness in her Easter sermon last week, and I want to continue, because it is so important. Barb wondered if the living Lord might look like the Larkspur fire captains who traveled to Haiti to care for people there after the earthquake. Just one glance at the Marin IJ from this past week shows countless resurrections happening here, in our own community.
After 4 weeks at Marin General, injured Marin Catholic baseball player Gunnar Sandberg – whom Barb also lifted up in her Easter sermon - is strong and healthy enough to move to a rehab facility in San Francisco. Can I get a witness?
Across the county, neighbors are investing in their communities and joining together to work on the planting and beautification projects that the city budgets can no longer afford. Can I get a witness?
Our own Camilla Barry is featured at Park School's Science Night as she discusses her visits to Afghanistan to revamp and restore science curriculum for the Afghan Ministry of Education. Can I get a witness?
A program in Marin City that mentors troubled youth, providing a clubhouse, counseling and jobs, has been so successful that crime rates are falling in the community. The program just received $50,000 from the Board of Supervisors to keep it running through the end of the year. Can I get a witness?
We are surrounded by resurrection! Now, just as the high priest and his comrades did not want to hear what the disciples had to say, there are some who will point to the many disturbing and distressing headlines also found in the IJ this past week, and they will claim that our world is not a world of resurrection. I can only hope that they will one day hear the resurrection witness of one of us. Or, perhaps, they will one day stumble across this on YouTube:
(“Easter Is Coming”- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c2inXKD6PI)
Easter has come. Easter is here. In the Christian calendar, the season of Easter lasts for six more weeks. May we use that time to be witnesses of our risen and living Lord. Amen.
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