Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC's - Easter Sunday - 04/16/17 Sermon - “First born among the dead"

Sunday 04/16/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s

Sermon Title: “First born among the dead”

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Colossians 3:1-4

Gospel Lesson: John 20:1-18

He is risen! He is risen indeed! I want to welcome you again my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ on this our Easter or resurrection Sunday. On this day that millions and millions of Christians all over the world are celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Even though one of the most major Christian holidays is Christmas, Easter is argued by many to be our most significant holiday. This Sunday is in NFL terms, our Super Bowl. You see without this day, the Christian faith doesn’t really exist or even make any sense. For without the resurrection, we have nothing.

For on this day, as Christians, we proclaim in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and in North American, that Jesus Christ is risen, and risen indeed!

Specifically, that Christ who was God in the flesh, or who was in human form, was crucified on Friday, laid in the tomb, but this day is alive and well. While Jesus resurrected Lazarus, and while there are other accounts of resurrection in the Bible of resurrections, all of those people then died there earthly deaths again.

The claim on this day that the historical and two-thousand Christian year faith makes though, is that Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, who was in the tomb since Friday, physically and in bodily form got up and walked out of the tomb on this day. Meaning that Jesus was fully alive and resurrected. Jesus, unlike Lazarus and the others, will never again die another death, as he now lives and reigns forever. Through him therefore, our earthly deaths will lead to eternal life, as we will live and reign with Christ forever.

Since the historical Christian claim, is that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, was God in the flesh, lived a sinless life, taught us to love, heal, and forgive, died for us on God Friday, then only someone who is without sin could die for us. Yet, if Christ on this day were to have remained in the tomb, then this would have proven indeed that Jesus was just man, and not God in the flesh. The empty tomb proves that our savior lives, and proved that Jesus was not only human, but also the fullness of God.

So emphatic about this, the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19, ^“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-19, NRSV).

The resurrection of Christ on this day then proves to us, as I said, that Jesus was divine, yet human. It proved that his work on the cross on Good Friday was not in vain, and it also means that through him we can find peace, love, mercy, and wholeness.

You see my brothers and sisters, as part of these historic claims as Christians, we are not children of misery, darkness, death, and hopelessness. Instead, we are children of love, light, life, and hope. We are children of resurrection, because through the resurrection of Jesus Christ on this day, we can have hope like never before.

We can believe that through Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven, and that the savior we love is alive and well. Consider for a moment the power that this belief has for us. That we can enter into the reality that we can be forgiven off everything we have ever done, and that resurrection wins on this day, not death.

The Christian faith is one then of victory, of hope, of love, or mercy, and of justice, not the opposite. On this day goodness, love, life, and light are victorious, and pain, evil, darkness, and death lose.

Living a life of victory, a life in Jesus, a life where we embrace the power of what resurrection is, can change us so much that God can then use us to transform the world. The resurrection of Christ is opportunity for us to be changed, to be made whole, and it gives us the courage, the desire, and the love to go into the world and change it. This is why the historical and two-thousand year claims of Christian Church are so powerful.

So it is on this day that we declare that God’s love wins, that God’s mercy wins, and that God’s justice wins. When the President of Syria kills innocent people, when he gases children, we are children of light that declare that resurrection will win out, not death. When the poor hunger for bread and we feed them, it is then when we draw from resurrection power. When tyranny, oppression, violence, and terror riddle the world, we declare hope, peace, mercy, justice, and love, and we do it through the power of resurrection. For we believe as Christians that in the end all things will be reconciled through Jesus Christ, and that good will win. Today friends, sisters and brothers, Jesus wins, we win, hope wins, and love wins.

Yet there is still so much work do. There are people dying in this world from lack of food, lack of clean water. We have brothers and sisters who are oppressed, dying in war, and desperately in need of hope, love, and the grace of Jesus Christ. As children of resurrection, life, light, love, and hope, we are called “to make disciples of Jesus Christ, for the transformation of the world”. Resurrection gives us power as followers of Christ, give us power to share Christ, and gives us power to transform the world for Christ. Today then, for Christian, is everything, today in NFL terms, is our Super Bowl.

I really like what our reading for this morning from Psalm 118 says, “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! (Ps. 118:1, NRSV). Friends, brothers and sisters, the love of God is eternal through Christ our Lord, who lives this day.

Among the many things that Jesus has been called, such as “Rabbi,” or “King of Kings,” “Mighty Counselor,” “Lord of Lords,” and etc., one of Jesus’ titles in scripture is the “First born among the dead”. The idea that Jesus existed coeternally with God before time itself, and that when he died on Good Friday that was the “First born among the dead”. For he existed before time, therefore he was the “First born among the dead”. Today, the “First born among the dead,” lives again.

We have a reading for this morning from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or letter to the church in Colossae, or the Colossians. In chapter one of Colossians however, the Apostle Paul says of Jesus Christ, “He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1:18, NRSV).

Jesus Christ, the “First born among the dead”, the head of the Christian Church, our standard, our teacher, our king, our mighty counselor, is risen on this day. Since this is true, the power of the resurrection is all around us, as we can speak life, hope, love, and mercy in a new and a bold way, because Jesus lives.

One of the biggest historical Christian concepts of this day, is that as Christ rises, so shall we. That we put do death those things that are harmful and sinful in us, and that separate from God. That we in a sense we died with Christ, as to put to death the bad parts of us.

In our reading from this morning from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he writes in 3:1-4, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4, NRSV).

So friends, sisters and brothers in Christ, how does this resurrection, this Easter, change us? If we truly believe that the savior of the world rose from the dead on this day, how does this change us? Are we empowered by this reality? Does it give us cause to more, love, mercy, empathy, to give more and do more for others? Does it empower is such a way to change the world, as we believe that our savior lives?

Friends, brothers and sisters, resurrection is a powerful and a life changing belief, and because of this belief, millions upon millions of Christians all over the world celebrate this today and every day. Millions and millions of Christians all over the world woke up this morning then, with faith, hope, love, and resurrection power. These people, like us, awoke to serve, to love, to give, and to pray, because they believe that Jesus has overcome sin and death. They believe that God’s love has won, and that we are on the side of the angels and the saints. When Christians all over the world feed the poor, love the lesser-thans, love our neighbors, seek mercy and justice, we are declaring the great power and love of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The actual story we are given this morning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, comes to use from the Gospel of John. In this gospel narrative, Mary Magdalene is the first disciple to witness the empty tomb (Jn. 20:1, NRSV). Mary Magdalene then runs and tells Simon Peter and John that the tomb was open and that Jesus was gone (Jn. 20:2, NRSV).

They then ran to see that indeed the tomb was empty, and that Jesus’ head covering was in a separate place than the shroud that covered his body (Jn. 20:3-7, NRSV). Then Jesus appears to Mary outside of the tomb, as she was the first to see not only the empty tomb, but the risen Christ (Jn. 20:11-18, NRSV). Mary then went to announce that Jesus had risen, as she said, “I have seen the Lord” (Jn. 20:18, NRSV).

As part of the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Melissa likes to decorate this sanctuary every year with beautiful and colorful butterflies. I hope you like them, as she and I do. The concept of Jesus’ resurrection and our spiritual resurrections is a very powerful. Here is a story of one of the reasons why Melissa likes to decorate this sanctuary with butterflies every year. This story called “Just Like the Butterfly,” based on Harry Balmires, “The Eternal Weight of Glory” Christianity Today, May 22, 1991. Here is what is says:

“The bible holds out the great and glorious hope of a resurrection for us all. But what will the resurrected body be like. Theologian Harry Blamires offers the helpful illustration of the butterfly. As the caterpillar is to the butterfly, so our present body is to the resurrected body. There is continuity but there is also difference. Just as the caterpillar’s body is suited to the realm of the ground, and the butterfly’s to flight through the air, so our present bodies may be suited to this world of sin, but our resurrected bodies will be suited to the life of the Spirit, in a world that is eternal and without limit. And just as it would be difficult for even an intelligent caterpillar to imagine what life would be like as a butterfly, so we struggle to imagine the resurrection life”.

“Finally, it may be helpful to remember that when we think of the caterpillar we think of its life in terms of its becoming a butterfly. We define its present existence by its future. So too, our present existence is defined by the future God has for us”.

Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, today Jesus goes from being dead in a tomb, like a caterpillar, to being alive and glorious, like a butterfly. For this reason, on this day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May this day, this resurrection, this Easter change us, so that every day we continue to change and transform the world. For we are children of light, of life, of love, of hope, of mercy, and of resurrection. Happy Easter and amen.