A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

SUNNY SIDE UP

Luke 24:1-12, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, April 8, 2007

A group of new recruits was going through basic training in World War II. Unfortunately, there were not enough rifles to go around.  The sergeant gave a very gullible young man from the Tennessee Mountains a broomstick instead and told him, "When you need to shoot, just point this and say, `Bangity, bangity, bang!''" There was not even a bayonet for the young soldier so the sergeant, tying a stick to the end of the broom, said, "If you get into hand-to-hand combat just poke the enemy with this and say ‘stabbity, stabbity, stab!’”  The young mountain lad was nervous, but he figured the sergeant knew what he was doing. Finally, the company was in combat. Sure enough, the young soldier with the broomstick saw a few German soldiers running toward his position. He pointed the broomstick at them and said, "Bangity, bangity, bang!" He was amazed when they all fell down. Suddenly another soldier jumped out from behind a nearby tree. Immediately the mountain boy poked him with the stick and said, "Stabbity, stabbity, stab!" The German fell at his feet.  Just then another enemy approached, so he pointed his broomstick and shouted confidently, "Bangity, bangity, bang!" This time, however, the German just kept on coming. So the young fellow poked him with the stick and said, "Stabbity, stabbity, stab!" But he just kept on coming.  Finally the German knocked the young man down and walked over him. As the young man was lying on his back being trampled, he heard him saying, "Tankity, tankity, tank!"  Positive thinking is important but it has to have some reality behind it, or life will just roll right over you.

Our text for this morning is about seeing the positive.

Gosh darn it Christians really ought to be upbeat people. Scripture is firm on this. It even says, “Happy is the one whom God corrects,” Job 5.17 which means when our life is struggling along with whatever it might be, when God is redirecting our focus, you know, correcting us, even this is a good thing. We are supposed to find the positive even when everyone else sees something else. We’ve got to find our way to a solution, a positive outcome. Like the atheist, who complained to a friend: "Christians have their special holidays, such as Christmas and Easter; and Jews celebrate their national holidays, such as Passover and Yom Kippur. But we atheists," he said, "have no recognized national holidays. It's unfair discrimination." And the friend said, "Why don't you celebrate April first?" See, positive solution.

What we want to see this morning is that there is an end to the bad. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30.5 The Jewish Sabbath, our Saturday, is the last day of the week and commemorates the rest that God takes after the work of creation. The Christian Sunday is the first day of the week and commemorates this Resurrection day, this rising up day. It may take six days of worry before the first day of the new week rises clean and clear, but rise it will. So either we work and struggle for six days and the seventh comes as the day of rest, or we work and fight for six days and on the seventh a new day dawns, a sunny-side up day. Either way something good follows something tough.

Look, there are two kinds of labor. There is a labor of work and there is a labor of belief. There is a labor that takes back muscles and sweat or brain power and tears, and from this we get the Sabbath rest or the Sunday best. But there is also labor that takes the work of faith and the effort of hope, and the reward for that labor is the arrival of the new day, because God always provides. God always overcomes. It may take longer than six calendar days to arrive, but it will come, for the Lord always brings the bud to life and the blossom to full bloom. So believe, even when it feels like work. And hope, even if it takes effort. Life doesn’t always continue on the same line. Only God remains the same. Everything else changes. And really this isn’t all bad, as a wise elderly person observed, “the nice thing about being senile is you can hide your own Easter eggs.” Accept the change, but keep the essentials. Find the new and the good. Look around the bend and face the challenge. The Lord has an opportunity in store for you that at first looks difficult, but you know what, the rock will roll away, and you will be asked to come out.

What we ought to remember is that we can be en-couraged or we can be dis-couraged. We can live in our heart or we can live with the heart taken out of us. Sometimes an event or news takes the heart right out of us. It’s like a punch to the gut, all strength is gone, and you are left gasping for air. For those who believed in Jesus, the eleven, the women, and the others, that’s what happened to them. They each had their own plans and dreams for what was going to happen, and then Jesus is arrested. And that’s that. The Romans crucified hundreds and hundreds of Jewish men, at one time even. Anyone  they considered an enemy, rebel, or a disturber of the order could be dealt with in this manner. Now I know our bible stories lean toward saying the Jewish leaders did it, but like I said, the Romans had no qualms whatsoever of killing just about anyone whenever they wanted. As you can imagine, no leader of any country, Israel back then included, would want hundreds or even one of their men killed in such a way. Still, Jesus was killed mercilessly, buried in a tomb quickly, and the tomb shut concretely. It was over. The bad, the really bad, had happened and now things could only get worse for his followers. They expected the worst. But you know what, this is the way we think, and not the way God thinks. The women, who went to the tomb to carry out the last offices of the dear dead, to embalm Jesus’ body with their spices, knew he was dead, and they also knew when they got there, and the stone was rolled away and the tomb empty, that something unusual had happened. And then they heard the question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

The new day had begun!

The breath of the Almighty had given Jesus life. He was no longer buried, but risen, no longer dead, but alive. What they thought they knew no longer was true. We think because it’s gray outside and raining, our outdoor plans are ruined. The next moment, it stops, the clouds pass on, and the sun is out. We get so convinced about the strength of the bad. How quickly we forget all the good and the staying power of the good. How quickly we sometimes forget the gifts of our loved ones, and once they stop being able to give but now must receive, we turn our back. That’s not right. Remember the good. Keep your mind on the gifts you’ve received. The Lord keeps us flush with blessings. God surrounds us with benefits. Give back to those who gave to you.

Diana Butler Bass says, “I was fortunate enough to meet the Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrigan, an aged Episcopal bishop who was also the first bishop to ordain women to the priesthood. Dan Corrigan was a unique breed: one of those mid-20th century liberal princes of the pulpit, a Protestant minister whose stirring preaching and passionate commitment to social justice pushed Christians to enact God's shalom toward the oppressed and the outcast. He was both pastor and prophet. One year, as Easter approached, I overheard an exchange between him and a fellow parishioner. "Bishop Corrigan," the person asked, "Do you believe in the resurrection?" Frankly, I could not wait to hear the answer—like most of his generation, there (seemed to be no way) that Bishop Corrigan believed in a literal resurrection. He looked at the questioner and said firmly, without pause, "Yes. I believe in the resurrection. I've seen it too many times not to."

She goes on to say: There is a woman in my church in Washington, D.C., who was homeless for 15 years. Several years ago, she came to Epiphany Church and was welcomed by the congregation's ministry to homeless people. "It was the first time," she told me, "that I came into a church and no one looked at me as if I was going to steal something." Epiphany's people respected her humanity, fed her, listened to her, and helped her – all in the name and power of Jesus. Eventually, she moved off the street into Section 8 housing, secured both work and support, and pulled her life together. An active member of Epiphany, she helps run the homeless ministry, serves as a Sunday reader, and usher. When I see her on Sunday, she is a living, breathing, historical witness that the resurrection is true.

You better believe there is resurrection.

From all kinds of things there is resurrection. Like the parent who encourages the crawling baby to take its first step, God urges us to rise to our feet. Get to walking with the Lord. Get to really living. Stop living in the dark of misplaced desires and wrong-hearted goals. Get that stone rolled away. Put aside the bandages that have bound you and get out before you get embalmed. You’ve got a resurrection life to live.

A six-year-old boy named David was taking a walk one day with his grandmother. They decided to detour through the local graveyard. Stopping to read the tombstones, Grandma explained that the first date on the tombstones was the day the person was born and the second date was the day the person died. “Why do some tombstones only have one date?” little David asked. “Because those people haven’t died yet,” his grandmother explained. Little David was just amazed with Grandma’s answer because when he got home he went straight to his mom. “Mom,” he said with wide eyes, “did you know some of the people buried there in the cemetery aren’t even dead yet!” I guess this would be one way of answering the question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

I hope you didn’t come here this morning expecting to find the resurrected Christ embalmed in a creed or a ritual. We read these and sing hymns not to find Christ in them, but to remind us to find him where he truly is. I hope you didn’t come here this morning expecting to find him forever entombed within the walls of this church. We come here not for the building itself, but because this building stands because he rose. Look, on Sunday mornings you can go elsewhere to worship, the beach, etc., but this is the only place you can go where Christ’s resurrection is the reason this is here, that people are here. He is forever with people who are suffering, and loving, and reaching out. He is forever with people who are losing themselves in service, and in the process finding themselves. He is with those who are lost and those who are lonely. Christ is not among the dead. He is not there. He is here. He lives. And as he told his disciples, so he tells you: “Because I live, you shall live also.” John 14.19

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