First Presbyterian Church
Afterwards
Sermon for March 27, 2005
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Children's time

A long time ago, over a hundred years ago, there was a queen who lived on an island that the United States wanted. They grew a lot of sugar cane there, and one of the men who had a big plantation wanted to be in charge of everything. He named himself president and had the queen arrested. The president of the United States told him to stop, but he didn't obey the president.

He imprisoned her in her own house. He said if she would step down from the throne, and stop being queen, he wouldn't have all her people killed. What do you think she did? Yes, she stepped down. She was a Christian, and very faithful. She wasn't allowed visitors, but she could see people from her window. They didn't have the internet in those days, or tv or radio, but they had newspapers. Her jailers would look through the newspapers and cut out any news of what was happening in her country and what the sugar barons were doing. Her friends would send her flowers from her garden. She loved getting fresh flowers. Guess what her friends wrapped them in? Newspapers! So she got some news after all.

She wrote hymns about Jesus, and she prayed. She knew Jesus was her risen savior. Her name was Liliuokalani, and her country was Hawaii. It's a state in the United States now. In Hawaii, to welcome boys and girls, they give flower necklaces, called leis. On Easter, we bloom the cross as a sign of new life. Jesus welcomes us into new life. I have some leis to give you this morning to help you celebrate Easter.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in Matthew 28:1-10.

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified . He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you.”

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

This ends our reading from God's world

Last week I received the March 20 edition of Newsweek magazine. Of course it had Jesus on the cover. I resent Christian scholarship being news only at Christmas and Easter. We Christians know that Jesus is 24-7, not just C and E (1). I was sharing my disgust with Mike, my husband the journalist, and he said, “You know why they do that? If a magazine has a picture of Jesus on the cover, it outsells even bikini models.”

I read the article, and it quoted some biblical scholars. It was interesting, but it didn't tell me anything new. Probably because I've been to seminary in the last twenty years. For my generation of pastors in the Presbyterian and reformed traditions, Jesus' death and atoning work can't be separated from his life and his gospel work.

Some of you might wonder who would want to do that anyway- separate Jesus' death from his life?

Well, early theologians did. They talked about how the persons in the Godhead were related to each other, and whether Christians who denied the faith under persecution could be forgiven, and how Christ was present at communion and whether or not the Father and the Son were one substance or two. Early theologians were trying to develop teaching tools for new Christians, and answer the question what do baptized people have to believe? The early creeds were written to distinguish what was heresy and what wasn't. One man who was eventually labeled a heretic was Marcion. He and his group didn't like anything Jewish, and so they didn't believe the Hebrew Bible or old testament as we call it, was holy scripture. Nor were some parts of Luke's gospel and Paul's letters that Marcion thought were too Jewish.

The Apostles creed answers some of those questions. It's the one that starts out “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth.” That meant that the creator in Genesis, the old testament, the Hebrew Bible, was the God of the Christians, and the father of Jesus. Then the creed says “And In Jesus Christ his only son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.” That's as much as it says about Jesus' life on earth: he was born, suffered, and he died.

In the Presbyterian Church, it wasn't until 1967 that we had a statement of faith that took more than a word or two to discuss Jesus' work on earth. It has six lines about Jesus' life. In the Brief Statement of Faith, approved in 1990, Jesus' work of healing, teaching, challenging and forgiving made up a third of the statement.

I don't know about you, but I need to hear stories of Jesus' work and how he lived. We are supposed to follow him, and do what he did. In order to do that, we need to tell those stories. We Christians are just now getting around to looking at Jesus' life, what he taught, who he challenged, by what means he forgave, and what problems he healed .

I'm guessing that the early church told the stories about Jesus; they just didn't write about it in their creeds because, perhaps, it went without saying. Perhaps stories of Jesus were as basic as bread and water, as assumed as air. The early Christians were working on making sense of theology and answering the question “Why did Jesus die?” instead of “How did Jesus live?” We inherited their questions and answers, their arguments, and their statements of faith. Sometimes all that tradition prevents us from taking a fresh look.

A pastor friend I know named Skip likes to listen to jazz. A parishioner of his did some jazz improvisations on old hymns. Skip was pondering the ways jazz connects with the life of faith. He says, “There's an improvisational freedom in it that emphasizes grace above judgment. In a sense, nothing is beyond redeeming. Miles Davis once said about jazz, ‘when you hit a wrong note, it is the next note that makes it right or wrong.'” I asked Judy T about it, and she agreed.

There's a sermon by the Rev. R. Cameron Miller called “Improvise on Us, O God.” He says:

“Behind Western Christianity lies the assumption of a well-ordered universe that has been created from a rational mind—God, the mind of pure reason. …Our hymns and anthems aim at an ideal that approximates perfection with having finished without mistake…But what if God improvises? What if God is a jazz musician? …What if we thought of God as an improvisationalist instead of an engineer or cosmic accountant? It wouldn't be as if there was no predictability because even an improvisationalist has patterns, historic references, favorite chords, preferred rhythms and styles of syncopation.

If we look at the history of Israel as jazz instead of as an historical novel, we can imagine God as an improvisationalist letting her fingers stray upon the keys of history and searching for the rhythm that works best with a particular people—stretching for the groove that brings it all home. What if God …knows how to make music from our otherwise lifeless, dormant potential? That would change everything, wouldn't it? ” (2)

I was thinking about that this Lent. For six Sundays, I've been preaching on Christ's atonement, and various atonement theologies through history and different biblical metaphors. The new testament tells us how Jesus lived, and gave us lots of reasons for why Jesus had to die.

And so, for me, the resurrection is the note God hit after the crucifixion.

Resurrection transformed the crucifixion from a terrible failure of the disciples and the crowds into a victory for God's life-giving power of redemption. The resurrection turned the triumph of the Romans and the puppet religious leaders into failure. Their greatest power was to condemn people to death, and the resurrection demonstrated that death has no power in Jesus Christ.

People of God do not need to be afraid of the empire any more.

Queen Liluokalani was a devout Christian, who lost her kingdom, Hawaii, to a sugar empire ruled by men who felt no loyalty to God nor to the president of the United States . She gave her daughter this advice:

“You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant, and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all. It is a razor's edge. It is the width of a blade of pili grass. To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable.—that is Aloha. All things in this world are two: in heaven there is but One. (3)

Happy Easter.

(1) Christmas and Easter.

(2) Jackson , Skip, “Life and Times of Indianola Presbyterian Church, March 2004, p. 1-2. Permission to reprint personal communication March 28, 2005 , fromRev. Miller, who is an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in downtown Buffalo . 

(3) A 1917 quote given by her hanai daughter, Lydia K. Aholo, to Helena G. Allen, in her book the Betrayal of Lili'uokalani, Mutual Publishing. I found in An Hour with the Queen, p. 81, Hagadone Printing Company.