Don't Miss Easter For the World

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 24: 2435

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Easter, March 31sth, 2013

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. (Luke 24:5 NRS).

It’s Easter, so let me start this message with a joke about the Easter Bunny.  (It was really about Santa, but since this is Easter…..)  Once the Easter Bunny kept having the same weird dream every night, so he went to a doctor.

Doctor: What was your dream about?

Easter Bunny: I was being chased by a vampire!

Doctor: (giggles quitely) So... what is the scenery like?

Easter Bunny: I was running in a hall way.

Doctor: Then what happened?

Easter Bunny: Well that's the weird thing. In every single dream, the same thing happened. I always come to this door, but I can't open it. I keep pushing the door and pushing the door, but it wouldn't budge!

Doctor: Does the door have any letters on it?

Easter Bunny: Yes it did.

Doctor: And what were these letter.  Could you see what they spelled?

Easter Bunny: Oh, yea, it said "Pull."   (source: http://www.jokebuddha.com/Dream#ixzz2LfdqteHJ).

We’ve all had bad dreams and some of them are just as stupid.   Ten of most recurring dreams have been determined not to completely stupid, but in our minds we must might be dealing with something.  Here are the list of most reoccurring dreams are in reverse order:     

(10) The Number ten dream is being trapped----interpreted as you are wasting something---money perhaps.   

(9)  Then came “excuse me, where’s the bath room”—meaning, get up, your bladder’s full.  

(8)   Another frequent dream was drowning---that is feeling overwhelmed or overcome.

(7)   “Flying” may be a dream of freedom from something or from someone. 

(6)  Walking and going nowhere, could mean there’s a large obstacle you’re facing.  

(5)  Then there’s losing your teeth---perhaps you need to cut out on your sweets or something else.  

(4)  With public exposure or nudity there’s an implication that you may be hiding something. 

(3)  Being lost in your dreams often might mean you’re unprepared for something that could happen.

(2)  Falling may mean something is uncontrollable in your life.  I’ve heard if you hit bottom, you don’t wake up.

(1)  Finally, being chased means you are trying to get away from a problem or some much feared event.

(At the website http://www.toptenz.net).

I wonder what those women were dreaming when they woke up early to go to the tomb. 

Surely everything seemed like a big, bad dream.  When they woke up that morning after the crucifixion, they probably wanted to believe it had all been just a bad dream, but it wasn’t, was it?     Well, it almost was.   I mean it was almost a bad dream all over again.   If it had not been for those angels who appeared at the tomb scolding them about being in the wrong place, these women could have missed Easter.   At least that seems to be how Luke wants us to see the event.   Those angels even sound a little huffy, “Why are you seeking the living among the dead,” they question.   Is that any nice tone to start out with on Easter?   What do you mean,  guys?  Yesterday he was dead.   

But the angels are insistent.  “He’s not here, but He’s risen!  Don’t you remember what he told you back in Galilee?    Either these angels are rude and crude, seeming as if they are off their rockers, or they can’t bear the idea that these woman just might have missed Easter.

And missing Easter is serious stuff.   I know most of us don’t put Easter up there with Christmas, but we should.   Easter is that big.  It’s even bigger than Christmas.  You must not miss it.   There are a lot of things in life you can miss and you’ll get over it—even though it seems like you won’t.   Remember you thought you wouldn’t get over that first Romeo or Juliet who dumped you?   But you did.   Remember how you thought you’d never get over losing that job?  But you did.  You can get over a lot of things, you never thought you could.   Remember that bad cold, that pneumonia, that broken bone?  Life can be difficult and it came seem like a bad dream, but one day you will wake up and it will be over.  

I’ll never forget about the time I missed a train in Germany, going from Frankfurt in the west to Frankfurt in the east.  I bet you’ve never heard of the little Frankfurt in the East, but this is where the one of the first pipe organs was manufactured by Wilhelm Sauer in the late 1800’s.   On the other side of the river from the little Frankfurt is Poland.   I lived only 10 miles from there and was trying to get back home when I missed my train.  My train was still in the station, but they wouldn’t let me get on.   They said I had missed it.  It sat there for 30 minutes, but even so, they doors were shut.  The time had passed, and this is, Germany.    Ordnung!  So I had to take another train.   But this train didn’t go in the same direction.  I had to go north and then go east.  And the train I had to take after the connection wasn’t a nice German train, but the only train headed toward my home was a Russian train.  And that train wasn’t just going to Frankfurt, but it was going through Frankfurt, and if I didn’t wake up when the train arrived there at 4 in the morning, I’d be waking up a little later in Moscow.  I always wanted to go to Moscow, but not this way.   Trying to sleep that night, I had all kinds of dreams.  I didn’t want to wake up ‘on the wrong side of the tracks’, literally.  I didn’t want to miss my final train home. 

I finally got over missing my train, and I could have survived ended up in Moscow, but missing Easter is something you don’t get over.   The possibility of missing Easter is so serious, that the idea pops in the very next story too.  In this story, Luke tells us about two disciples of Jesus (not from the 12, but two others), who are on their way ‘out of town’ toward a town called Emmaus.    We don’t know much about the town or these disciples, but we do know exactly where they are headed: AWAY!   But in their attempt to escape everything a mysterious stranger joins them along the road.  As the stranger speaks with them, we get a very good picture of what they are feeling and why they are leaving.  They talk to this ‘stranger’ about all these bad things that have just happened.  They talk about how disappoint they are.  They talk about how they are running away from Jerusalem.   Fortunately, you can run away, but you can’t hide from Jesus.   If this mysterious stranger had not come along and opened their eyes and hearts again, they too would have missed Easter.

When people run from things, they can miss a whole lot that could happen next in their life.   And what happens next in this story is that Jesus appears to his disciples in their little ‘locked’ room.   They didn’t run, but they were afraid.  And if Jesus had not walked through that locked door, they too would have missed Easter.   And even when Jesus appears to them, they still think he is a ghost, not a real person.   They almost miss Easter again, so Jesus lets them see him with their own eyes and touch him with their own hands.   Without playing ‘two hand touch’ with Jesus, most all of the disciples would not have believed, and we all would have missed Easter.

Could you still miss Easter?   Could we know this story all of our lives, since the time we were very young and still miss the message and the meaning for us today?   Can we know about the Easter Bunny and not realize how we need to push on another door that might open to deeper meaning?   Could you that person hear today, who, unless you had made yourself get up and come, might have missed the new chance God wants to give you?   The worst part of this is not just what you might miss, but what you will lose and perhaps, never know you lost it.

When I was about 9 years old I lost a brand new ‘toy’ airplane.  I loved airplanes.   My grandfather had helped to build the Statesville airport.   He lived right next door.   Now, the farm my grandfather worked, where I also loved visit and watch the planes, is gone and the land is taken up with a new landing strip.  It’s gone, but I’m glad I didn’t miss that.   But now back to my new airplane.   It was different than the wooden ones I was used to.  This was plastic and you could shot it higher up in the air.  But one day I shot it so high up in the sky that I lost it in the light of the sun and never found it.   I thought I got a glimpse of it when it fell.   I went to the spot and hunted, and hunted all day, but never found it.    I remember saying to myself.  I just had it a moment ago.  It can’t be gone.  It’s got to be there somewhere.  But I searched and searched, and I never found it.  How could I lose something that I just brought home and held in my hand only moments ago?

I wonder if those women were thinking similar thoughts:  How could Jesus, who was so alive, so kind, so promising, and so wonderful be gone?   How could they lose someone who was so real to them all?  How could God let this happen?   The women were frozen in grief.   And they would probably had remained frozen in grief, had not those angels been standing at that tomb pointing them in a very different direction:  What are you doing here in the graveyard?  This is the place for dead people.   He is not here, but he is risen!

Can we miss the meaning in these words?   I think we can and I think we still do.   I think we miss the meaning just as easily as I lost an toy, or missed a train, or what any of us might miss as we think about how it might have been on that first Easter.   Trying to recreate what happen this is a sure way to miss it.   We can hear this message over and over and imagine what really happened or even know what it claims, but we can still miss what it all means?   WE CAN STILL MISS EASTER.

Could you miss Easter for the same reason:  because you are still ‘looking for the living among the dead?”  The way things happen and the way things were can be very hard to let go.   Recall that song, “The Way We Where?”   Barbara Streisand must have had a difficult time letting go of Robert Redford, when she sang, “Memories, light the corners of my mind!”  Memories can haunt us.  Memories can be something we don’t want to let go.   Memories can be all we have left.   It can be hard to let go especially when all we have left are memories.   “Don’t you remember what he told you in Galilee?”   This is how the angels put it.   We can have good memories too, remembering the people we once knew and loved.   Some memories are ‘misty water colored memories, we try to forget”, while other memories are those we hold on to for dear life.   

There is something wonderful about memories and remembering, but what these angels are trying to tell these women and us is that Easter is supposed to be much more than a memory, no matter how good it was.  If we only remember Easter, or if we only remember Jesus---and if we don’t meet this ‘living one’ along our own road in life, then we’ve missed Easter----the Easter that is much, much more that a memory.

Fred Craddock, one of America's great preachers and teachers of preachers, tells the story of a breakfast experience.   He was stuck in Winnipeg, Canada and in the midst of an early October snow storm which paralyzed the city. Everything was shut down and his host could not even make it to Fred's hotel to pick him up for breakfast.

So, for breakfast, Fred found himself at a crowded bus depot café about two blocks from his hotel. As he entered, somebody scooted over and let him get in a booth. A big man with a greasy apron came over to the table and asked him what he wanted. Not knowing what the café served, Fred asked to see a menu.

"What'd ya want with a menu?" the man asked. "We have soup."

 "Then I'll have soup," he said. Just what he wanted--soup for breakfast.

 The man brought the soup and Craddock says it was an unusual looking soup. It was grey, the color of a mouse. He did not know what was in it, but he took this spoon and tasted it. Awful! "I can't eat this," he said. So he sat in that crowded café warming his hands around the bowl, railing against the world, stuck in Winnipeg.

Then, the door opened and someone yelled, "Close the door," and she did. A woman came in. She was middle-aged, had on a coat, but no covering for her head. Someone scooted over and let her in a booth. The big man with the greasy apron came over and the whole café heard this conversation:

 "What'd ya want?"

 "Bring me a glass of water," she said.

 The man brought the water, took out his tablet and repeated the question. "What'd ya want?"

 "Just the water."

 "Lady, you gotta order something."

 "Just the water."

 The man's voice started rising: "Lady, I've got paying customers here waiting for a place, now order!"

 "Just the water."

 "You order something or you get out!"

 "Can I stay and get warm?"

 "Order or get out."

So, she got up. The people at the table where she was seated got up, people around got up, the folks that let Fred sit at the table got up, Fred got up, and they all started moving towards the door.   "OK," the big man with the greasy apron said, "She can stay." And everybody sat down. He even brought her a bowl of that soup.

 Fred asked the man sitting next to him, "Who is she?"

 "I never saw her before," he said, "but if she ain't welcome, ain't nobody welcome."

Then Craddock said, all you could hear was the sound of people eating that soup. "Well, if they can eat it, I can eat it," he said. He picked up his spoon and started eating the soup.   "It was good soup. I ate all of that soup. It was strange soup. I don't remember ever having it. As I left I remembered eating something that tasted like that before. That soup that day tasted like bread and wine."  (From Craddock Stories).  

Easter is never just a day to remember, when the risen Christ makes his presence known in our lives.   Easter is today, when someone lives and acts like Jesus.  Easter is the future, because our Lord keeps showing up again and again.  You just can't keep a good person down.  Sometimes Jesus shows up in the people who will stand up and do the right thing.   Sometimes Jesus shows up in a little woman who’s cold and just needs a place to get warm.  Sometimes Jesus shows up in the most unexpected meal---even in bad soup.   And sometimes----yes, sometimes----Jesus will make himself known, not just in a memory of the past in how things were, but Jesus shows up in how things can be, could be, should be, if only we would realize who is walking with us, beside us and inviting us to God’s table, so we too can be witnesses to those moments of love and grace we don’t ever want to miss.  

We are all walking toward the tomb.   We all find ourselves walking through days of disappointment.   We might even think, this Jesus stuff is like seeing a ghost.  But Luke’s hope and mine, is that you will stop and consider the truth of these stories again.   It my hope that you won’t imagine what you missed, but you will be able see what you have; what you can touch, see, smell, taste and hear.   “HE IS RISEN!  And he’s not just somewhere, but he’s right here!   Don’t be a ‘dumb bunny’!   Don’t just push against everything, but simply do your part and pull!  Pull up in your heart all these things too good not to be true.  WE too have been invited to God’s table and to eat the bread and drink the cup, and be witnesses of Easter.  Don’t miss Easter for the world.  Amen.