Easter – Acts 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18
April 4, 2010
A few years ago we had a garage sale in anticipation of moving my mother into town. We had an old garden plow made from scrap pieces of angle iron by Norval who lived the next house down the road. He had given it to my dad. It was a neat plow because Norval customized it to fit the stature of his body. The long steel handles were set at just the right angle so that he could exert the maximum strength from of his short stocky body when pushing it along.
Norval always had a great garden. He loved his onions, peppers, beans, tomatoes and was generous to share with others. He had a good heart.
Yet, in life he had problems that he was never able to conquer. Alcohol destroyed his first marriage and also his health. He was an early heart patient of Dr. DeBakey in Texas and was among the first to have coronary bypass surgery. His only consolation at the end of his life was the love of his second wife and what he had helped Doctors learn about this new medical procedure. The knowledge gained from his case has no doubt helped many others enjoy longer lives as a result.
Norval was never able to translate the power of God that sustained his gardens over into his life. There are a lot of Norvals like this. Indeed we are all tempted to become stuck in the disappointments of the past which robs us of so much joy.
Good Friday had the potential to be like this for Mary and the friends of Jesus who accompanied him in his ministry. They could only watch helplessly as he was nailed to the cross. When his limp body was taken down and laid in a tomb all seemed lost. The stone rolled in front of the tomb punctuated the absolute end of their Teacher and Lord. Instead of joy, there was sorrow. There was no hope for tomorrow.
The mood had not changed by the third day afterwards when Mary discovers the tomb of Jesus open and his body gone. She automatically assumes someone has taken the body. She comes expecting to find a dead body, not a living one. She doesn't even recognize Jesus at first when he appears to her.
We can identify with Mary here. If we found a grave today in which we knew someone had been buried, but the body was now missing, we would naturally assume the same as Mary. We would probably not jump to the conclusion that they had risen from the dead and were alive again unless we could actually see them.
Mary was slow to believe in the risen Christ. And we struggle with this too. When a loved one dies, we wonder how we can ever be happy again. Or when a dream dies and hopes are crushed, how can we build a new dream and hope again? When a part of life dies, it can feel as if one's whole life is dying. Is there any hope beyond the dead ends of this world?
Long before in a time of national calamity the prophet Isaiah described Israel as a tall and majestic tree which had been cut down by circumstances and was now only a stump. It was a hopeless time, but Isaiah goes to describe a miracle. "A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots."(IS 11)
What Isaiah saw in that stump is what Mary and the others would eventually see in the stump of the cross. On the day of resurrection God made a new root sprout. Jesus was still alive and he would never die again.
The stump of the Cross reminds me of another tree, "Ailanthus altissima," or as it is more popularly known, "the tree of heaven." It is called that because it grows so fast and as tall as 80 feet. For homeowners who like to keep their yards well kept, this tree is a nuisance. But it has an amazing power to grow anywhere - along foundation walls, in fence rows, along roadsides, cracks in sidewalks and rocks, drainage inlets and even in the poorest of soils. One tree can produce more than 300,000 seeds a year. It has the capacity to produce numerous suckers from the roots and resprout vigorously from cut stumps and root fragments. To quote one scientist: "Cut one down and 20 more may sprout up to replace it." I have cut down saplings of this tree many times myself and can testify that within a few weeks it will be back several feet tall!
Now it is this power that cannot be killed, but keeps coming back that we come to celebrate this morning. The resurrection of Christ was a demonstration of the power of God to transform the most "hopeless" situation into something new and full of life. Jesus had died, but was now alive again. The future was no longer dark and foreboding, but bright and filled with joy and hope because God was doing a new thing.
It was this faith that Norval never seemed to grasp even though the lessons were all around him there in his garden or perhaps growing next to his house. The same power of life that overcomes drought and flood and weeds to bear much fruit is the same power that gathers up all our sorrows, our disappointments, even our sins and makes something good grow from them. It is the power of God's love which keeps on giving and giving and giving.
There are many "Norvals" who do not fully know this power or believe in it. Indeed we are all tempted to become stuck in the bitter memories of the past. And yet, the evidence of God's power to renew and revive and reverse terrible situations is all around us too. When bad things happen we react with anger against the world, on the one hand or we become depressed and drown in our sorrows on the other. Either way we can't let go. And so our capacity to believe, to hope, to trust gradually dies until something happens to remind us that death is not the end. Jesus is alive. God is still working in our lives.
I put a price of $5 on Norval's plow that day. About mid morning a car drove in and a couple got out and started looking around. I didn't recognize them. The lady came over and said she was in high school with my older brother and added: "I'm Norval's daughter. We grew up in that house," pointing across the field.
Immediately I thought about the old garden plow. "Oh, I have something you might want to have." I took her to the shed out back and showed it to her. "Your dad made this and he gave it to my dad, but I think you should have it." She was very pleased and said her son would really love to have something his granddad made.
The way she spoke made me feel this was very special to her. I felt very good about passing along something that might bring some comfort and heal old wounds and disappointments. I didn't know all the details. It wasn't necessary. It was a sacred moment when you feel the warmth of a higher light, that there was a 'new shoot' growing from an old stump. Norval was gone, but a power was still working to make something positive grow from his life. The timing of this could only have been a God thing.
Could it be that this is the way God works through and for all of us? That what we think are dead ends, are simply new challenges for God to reach out to heal old hurts and help us to build new dreams. We may be cut down, but God hasn't died and is still there. God isn't finished yet.
I pray that Norval is with the Lord because he surely will know now that his life was not a failure. Despite all the problems that drove him to drink, that ruined his marriage, and caused sorrow for his family, God made something good come from it that day at a garage sale.
My prayer is that we might all believe in God's power sooner rather than later and so avoid so much sorrow and heart ache. That we would look up in the midst of troubles and trust that the same power that gives life in the garden is the same power that surrounds and fills us every day to overcome huge obstacles. This is the power that raised Jesus from the dead and promises to us now that through him we too will be made alive forever. "I am the resurrection and the life. Because I live, you also shall live."
As Jesus directed her, Mary goes back to the disciples and says: "I have seen the Lord!" And then tells them what Jesus said: "I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.' From now on one will see Jesus in the same way as Mary and the first disciples saw him. But we will all see him because the love of God didn't stop working on Good Friday. And God isn't finished with us even now.
God is still working to revive, restore and renew the life of the world through the gift of his love in Jesus Christ. We don't see him as the first witnesses did, but we do see him in every act of kindness. We see him in every act of love that lifts us up. We see him as old hostilities give way to reconciliation. We see him when broken spirits and bodies are mended. We see him wherever the hungry are fed and the thirsty are given drink. We see him wherever his love is working through his family to care for one another. Through God's grace and mercy we see Jesus renewing the life of the world like an old plow turning over the soil of the past so that new seeds can be planted and a new creation born.
May you have a wonderful Easter day with your family and friends. Take a moment today to appreciate the new things God is working in your life and all around. Give thanks for the gift of life from a loving God and remember, no matter what happens, whether good or bad that Christ is risen! God is still there and nothing can separate you from his love.