Readings
Psalm 118:14-21 I
will not die, but live!
The Lord is my
strength and my song;
He has become my salvation.
Shouts of joy and
victory resound in the tents of the righteous:
"The Lord's right hand has done mighty things!
The Lord's right hand is lifted high;
The Lord's right hand has done mighty things!"
I will not die but
live,
And will proclaim what the Lord has done.
The Lord has chastened me severely,
But he has not given me over to death.
Open for me the
gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord
Through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
You have become my salvation.
Matthew
28:1-9 The Lord's resurrection
After
the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There
was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from
heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on
it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white
as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and
became like dead men.
The
angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that
you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here! He
has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the
dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see
him.' Now I have told you."
So
the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy,
and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them.
"Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his
feet, and worshipped him.
Arcana
Coelestia #9405.7 The morning of resurrection
"Morning,"
in its genuine sense, means the Lord, his coming, and the coming
of his kingdom. So another sense of "morning" becomes
clear: it is the rise of a new religion--since religion is the
Lord's kingdom on earth. This kingdom is meant both overall and
individually, and even in the details.
- Overall,
it refers to a time when any religion on earth is being
established anew.
- Individually,
it refers to a time when we are personally being reborn as new
people, since the Lord's kingdom is then being established
within us, and we are becoming an embodiment of our religion.
- In the details,
it refers to whenever the goodness that comes from love and
faith is at work in us, since that is what constitutes the
Lord's coming.
So
in the individual and detailed senses, the Lord's resurrection on
the third morning expresses the truth that in the minds of people
who are spiritually reborn, the Lord rises again every day, and
even every moment.
Sermon
After
the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent
earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and,
going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His
appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like
dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for
I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is
not here; he has risen! . . . So the women hurried away from the
tomb, afraid yet filled with joy. (Matthew 28:1-6, 8)
What
a different reaction to the same events!
The
guards were being paid to make sure Jesus' body remained firmly
sealed in the tomb. Their employers had seen to it that Jesus got
the death penalty, and they intended to prevent even the slightest
rumor that they hadn't put him away for good. So when the guards
felt the earth shaking under their feet, and their eyes were
blinded by the presence of a powerful angel who rolled away the
stone from the tomb, they quaked with fear and became like dead
men. For them, the miracle of the angel's presence, and of Jesus'
absence from the tomb, was a matter of pure fear. And there was
the awful realization that they had failed to do their job, and
would have to face consequences--which could mean their own
deaths.
But
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary had gone to the tomb out of
love, wishing to do what they could for the one they knew as their
Lord and Savior. Yes, they felt fear at the earthquake and the
brilliant, powerful angel. Who wouldn't? But the angel said to
them, "Do not be afraid." Then he gave them the amazing
news of the Lord's resurrection. In contrast to the guards, the
women hurried away from the tomb afraid, yet filled with joy!
For them, this was the most wonderful thing that could possibly
have happened.
For
the guards, the Lord's resurrection meant fear and even death. For
those who loved him and believed in him, it meant joy and renewal
of life. As is so often the case, the reactions to the Lord's
resurrection did not have as much to do with the event itself as
with the attitudes of those who experienced it. The
dramatic story of Easter has a powerful ability to highlight the
differences in our attitudes. It deals with crucial issues of life
and death, of the power of the material world versus the power of
the spirit.
From
an earthly, materialistic viewpoint, physical death has the last
word. The grave is the final arbiter of our human drama--the point
at which all our consciousness stops. But from a Christian and
spiritual point of view, death and the grave are simply the
beginning of a new chapter of our existence when we have finished
our work here on earth. Spiritually, death means resurrection to
spiritual life. This is the first message of Easter.
As
wonderful as this message is, there are deeper layers of meaning
within the Easter story of death and resurrection to new life.
There are other kinds of death besides the death of our physical
body. Have you ever felt dead emotionally? Have you experienced
the death of a relationship? Have you ever felt dead
spiritually--cut off from your faith in God? These inner and
interpersonal deaths can bring us every bit as much grief as
physical death. In fact, they often feel much more painful
to us; in the worst of our emotional and spiritual deaths, we may
long for physical death as a release from a far deeper pain.
Of
all these deaths, the deepest and most profound is the death of
our spiritual life. When we are cut off from God and from our own
deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life, we experience a
living death of separation from the deepest stirrings of life and
love within us. We human beings are not simply bodies. We are living
spirits, with loves and feelings, thoughts and ideas, goals
and purposes. And it is on the level of our spirits that we truly
live and die. In The Heavenly City #38, Emanuel Swedenborg
writes:
Our inner self is
also called our "spiritual self," because it is in
heaven's light, which is spiritual. And our outer self is also
called our "material self" because it is in the
world's light, which is material. If our inner part is in
heaven's light and our outer part is in the world's light, we
are spiritual on both levels. However, if our inner part is not
in heaven's light, but only in the world's light (which our
outer part is in as well), we are materialistic on both levels.
In the Bible, spiritual people are called "living" and
materialistic people are called "dead."
In
the Bible, spiritual people are called "living," and
materialistic people are called "dead." We could read
this statement as a judgmental condemnation of people who have no
interest in spiritual things. However, it is not a matter of
judgment, but of personal experience. Each one of us, if we think
about it, has experienced the difference between the death of
being completely absorbed in materialistic concerns versus the
life of being open to the deeper, spiritual dimensions of life.
At
this stage of my own life, the issue of spiritual life and death
hits most strongly when it comes to balancing work with family. As
anyone who has done it knows, supporting a family in today's
economic and social climate is no easy task. Keeping a roof over
the family's head, clothes on their bodies, and food in their
stomachs is just the beginning. There are a multitude of other
wants and needs that can easily absorb every minute of a parent's
life.
Have
you had times when every waking moment was spent simply in making
ends meet? In working, shopping, maintaining the house and the
car, paying the bills, shoveling the snow, mowing the lawn,
cooking supper, changing diapers, doing the laundry, fixing the
faucet, and on and on and on? I have. It feels like a turmoil of
constant activity, with a gnawing sense of emotional emptiness--of
emotional death--underneath.
My
children will not remember all the time I spent working away so
that they could have a warm house, clothes to wear, and food to
eat. That work is part of my experience, but not part of
theirs--except, perhaps, as time when their father is not
available to them. But they will remember the times that I
take to be with them. Last week, I spent some wonderful time with
Chris and Caleb, walking in the woods and stopping at the streams
to throw sticks into the current on one side of the bridge and
watch them come out the other side. As they get older, they will
remember those times with their father. Two days ago I spent
several hours with Heidi doing the six mile Good Friday walk and
then going out for lunch together. She'll remember that time with
her father, too.
I
don't remember all the time my parents spent working to support
me--as necessary as it was. But I do remember the times my father
took me to the baseball stadium in St. Louis to watch the
Cardinals play. I got to pick where we sat. The first time I chose
to sit near home plate for a close-up on the action; the second
time I chose to sit way up toward the top of the stands, where the
players looked like ants running around the field. I also remember
the times my mother read stories to us, and when she taught my
Sunday School class, telling us about the drama and the deeper
meanings of the Bible stories.
We
all have memories of those bright spots in our childhood, when our
parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, did special things with
us. In the family, these are the times we experience spiritual
life, because these are the times we share love and understanding
with one another. No matter what phase of our lives we may be in,
when we take time out from our busy schedules to have special
times with our loved ones, that is when we begin to feel alive
again. We realize once again that, in the words of Jesus,
"life is more important that food, and the body is more
important than clothes" (Matthew 6:25).
Of
course, as long as we are living on this earth, we do have to
expend our six days of labor securing the food and clothes that
our bodies need. Yet if we do not look beyond these material
things to the seventh day of spiritual fulfillment, we
condemn ourselves to the grave of an empty and meaningless
existence. If we do not take the time to show our love to the
people we live and work with, what will we leave behind but dead
monuments to an earthly existence spent skating across the surface
of life?
We
were created to experience far greater depths of human life. When
the angel rolled away the stone from the mouth of the grave, it
was a message to us as well, showing us where our deepest
satisfaction and our fullest life can be found. "Do not be
afraid," the angel said. Do not be afraid of the deadening
pressures of life in the material world. Do not be afraid that you
will be swallowed up in an existence that has no meaning.
"Do
not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was
crucified." What are we really looking for, in our
heart of hearts? As children, we sought the love of our parents,
and we blossomed when we felt its warmth shining on us. As adults
aren't we all, in our own way, looking for our divine Parent--for
our all-wise and all-loving Creator--to give us the infinite,
unconditional love and understanding that only God can give?
Aren't we looking for the deepest fulfillment that comes only from
following a path toward our Lord?
Yes,
Easter carries a message even deeper than the assurance life after
death. It carries a message of resurrection to new life within us
and among us right here on earth. We know that our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, has risen and is still with us. We know that
when we turn to the Lord, we can find a meaning and purpose that
goes far beyond the busyness of physical and material life. With
the risen Lord at the center of our lives, our truest and deepest
aspirations can become living realities for us every day, and even
every moment.
"Do
not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was
crucified. He is not here! He has risen, just as he said."
Amen.
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