“I Hear Singing”
John 20:1-18 Isaiah 65:17-25
Easter, 2009
Intro: A familiar scene at the conclusion of major sporting event—
Reporter saying, “You just won the Super Bowl! What are you going to do now?”
Response: “I’m going to Disney World!”
What if that question had been posed to Jesus on the day of the resurrection?
What is a Resurrected Lord to do?
Scene from Disney’s Aladin as Geni is freed from the lamp
After a million years in the lamp-now free-what are you going to do?
“Hitting the road! Off to see the world!”
So, after death on a cross, laid in a tomb—now alive and free—
What is a Resurrected Lord to do?
Could have said, “Hitting the road! Off to see heaven!”
But not when his followers were crying in despair, pain, sorrow and grief
I. Look at Mary—and see ourselves
A. She, too, had “descended into hell”
Separation/despair/pain/ shattered dreams and hopes
B. She did not know where to find Jesus—
Knew he was not with her, he was missing
C. Did the only thing she could do
Shared her pain, told her story, cried from a broken heart
II. Look at Mary—and find what she found
A Lord “not yet ascended”
A. When our lives “descend into hell”—Christ has been to every corner of that hell
B. When life takes us there—and it will—Jesus is there with us
C. God has raised him up that we might be raised up with him (2 Cor 4:14)
Wm Willimon, Methodist Professor—trip to Haiti “disarming thing was the laughter of the children and the singing…How dare they sing when life expectancy is so short?”
Escapist respite from unmitigated tragedy OR
Rebuke of assumption that life was trapped in tragedy
Power and grace of resurrection is made known in our suffering
Turns today’s tensions into tomorrow’s song:
Affirming life is not trapped in tragedy
III. Look at Mary—who turns toward Jerusalem
The scene of her greatest tragedy “with great joy”
Because Jesus was not hitting the road…off to see heaven
Because Jesus calls the crying one by name
He proclaims that, indeed,
“God raised him up that we might be raised up with him”
That is why he was raised up—
But not just so individuals in a broken world could be raised up
More…
Again, remember the Disney movie of Aladin as Aladin and Jasmine sing
“A whole new life for you and me…A whole new world”
Jesus is raised up that we might be raised up with him BUT ALSO
That a whole new world might be raised up—
A world about which Isaiah prophesied:
1. Children will be safe
2. People will not be exploited
3. No life cut short
4. Old will live out a lifetime
Jesus was raised up that…
5. A whole new world would be raised up
6. Former pain forgotten
7. No sound of weeping and crying
8. A world of gladness and rejoicing
Jesus has been raised up that we in our suffering; that the world in all of its pain
could be lifted up
That in the midst of despair, through the shadows of death and darkness—
There could be heard singing: Affirming life is not trapped in tragedy
Conclusion: How shall we, how shall this world be lifted up?
1. Like Mary, we must recognize and receive the presence and transformational grace of the resurrected Lord in the midst of our pain
2. We must become the embodiment of the same presence and that same transformational grace—To one crying soul at a time
We must see them, we must hear them, we must touch them with the presence of the resurrected Lord--Until there comes a whole new world where
A. Pain is remembered no more
B. The sound of singing is heard
And what shall we be heard singing???
Choir singing: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
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