An old legend relates that a group of the apostles gathered right after the resurrection, and St. Peter wasn’t there. Meeting St. Peter afterward, one of the apostles told him, “Hey, Pete, we have some good news and some bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” St. Peter asked.
“The Lord is risen. We actually saw him. He even ate a piece of fish with us to prove it was really he.”
“And what’s the bad news?” demanded Peter.
“He wants to talk to you about last Friday.”
I want to talk to you about last Friday, and Thursday! And it’s all good news. This past Holy Week has been a very inspiring, encouraging, and renewing experience. At least, it has been for me, as all Holy Weeks tend to be for me, and I hope it was for all who participated as well.
And today it all comes together, it all makes sense. This is the day that makes the events of Holy Week not a tragedy, but a triumph. This is the day when the cross is unveiled, revealed to be not a dead end, but the only way to true life. For this is the day on which Jesus rose victorious from the grave, breaking the bond of death and hell.
In a nutshell, this is what the Christian faith is all about. Jesus Christ is risen from the grave—not in a figurative sense, as one who would simply live on in his disciples’ memories, but in a very literal, tangible way. George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, said this of the resurrection: “I believe that Jesus was crucified, buried, and that his cold, dead body was raised alive by God.”
This is the witness of Holy Scripture. When Mary Magdalene went to the tomb that first Easter Day she went in sorrow. When she saw the empty tomb, she had no thought of the possibility of resurrection. Only when she saw the risen Lord did she believe. Likewise, Jesus’ disciples came to believe in the resurrection only when they saw the risen Lord. St. Paul said, in his First Letter to the Church in Corinth, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins….If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
Unlike those first witnesses, everyone after the ascension of Jesus has had to accept the resurrection by faith. There are those who claim that if you have a scientific way of looking at the universe, belief in the resurrection is out of the question. Yet, I know many people who have thoroughly scientific backgrounds, with many degrees behind their names, who believe in the resurrection. Science does not contradict the possibility of the resurrection, it simply cannot prove it or disprove it. Acceptance of the resurrection remains a matter of faith.
Currently I am reading George W. Bush’s book entitled Decision Points. One of the most important decisions in his life had to do with his faith in God. What he says about that is one of the best parts of the book. “At first I was troubled by my doubts. The notion of a living God was a big leap, especially for someone with a logical mind like mine. Surrendering yourself to an Almighty is a challenge to the ego. But I came to realize that struggles and doubts are natural parts of faith. If you haven’t doubted, you probably haven’t thought very hard about what you believe.
“Ultimately, faith is a walk—a journey toward greater understanding. It is not possible to prove God’s existence, but that cannot be the standard for belief. After all, it is equally impossible to prove He doesn’t exist. In the end, whether you believe or don’t believe, your position is based on faith.”
Our experience of the risen Lord comes through the gift of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the resurrection first of all because God has given me that gift of faith. Yet there is something else that strengthens and affirms that faith, and that is living in the community of faith, the Church. That community of faith is older than any government; it transcends cultural, national, ethnic, and economic bounds. And it is within that community of faith that the risen Christ continues to make his presence known and felt, even and especially in difficult times.
Since I am reading the book by the second President Bush, I was reminded of an incident that occurred during the presidency of the first George Bush. This is what he describes about a trip he made to Russia upon the death of Brezhnev: “An amazing thing happened at the funeral of Soviet leader Brezhnev,” said President Bush. “Things were run with military precision; a coldness and hollowness pervaded the ceremony—marching soldiers, steel helmets, Marxist rhetoric, but no prayers, no comforting hymns, no mention of God. I happened to be in just the right spot to see Mrs. Brezhnev. She walked up, took one last look at her husband, and there—in the cold, gray center of that totalitarian state—she traced the sign of the Cross over her husband’s chest. I was stunned. In that simple act God had broken through the core of the communist system.”
That simple act of faith in a country that did its best to stamp out Christianity for 70 years not only shows the enduring truth of the Gospel, but also, on a much more personal level, I suspect that that simple act strengthened George Bush’s faith, and reading the report of that event strengthened my faith. Of course, many years have passed since the break up of the Soviet Union, and we have seen how Christianity has come back to many of those states as if the seventy years of Soviet rule had never happened.
But what is most important to me in living in the power of Christ’s resurrection is what goes on in that small segment of Christendom called the Church of the Redeemer. I see that faith and devotion in those who take their precious time to worship God Sunday after Sunday at this Altar, who lovingly teach their children the stories of the Bible, who give unselfishly of their time, their talent, and their treasure for the spread of God’s kingdom. I see that faith in the young couple who prayerfully say their vows of marriage to one another. I see that faith again and again as I visit the sick and dying, and comfort the grieving. I encounter the presence of the risen Christ over and over again as he is manifest in his people in this place. I know the truth of the Gospel because it is incarnate in the lives of God’s people.
As I celebrate the feast of the Resurrection of Christ this Easter Day, I give thanks for the witness to the presence of the risen Christ that day several years ago in Mrs. Brezhnev and President Bush. But most of all I give thanks for your witness day in and day out as we live together in the power of the resurrection. God bless you.
Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Easter Day
24 April 2011