Finding Faith ... in Jesus conquering death

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on April 1, 2018.

Faith Lutheran Church on Easter morning.

In 1985 I was a young boy out of the church. … I don’t mean this church. I don’t the church I grew up in. … I mean the whole church. As in capital “C.” … I was done with it.

I was 11 and my father had just passed, and while I hadn’t had much of a relationship with him since my mother and father divorced eight years earlier, he was still a presence in my life.

As for the church, while I was still attending when my mom could get me to go, you might say that I had left it years earlier. … It was the ‘70s and divorces were different, especially in how churches handled them. Often times there were winners and losers, and I didn’t feel like a winner in my church after that divorce.. … So eight years later, when my father passed, I was a disillusioned and angry boy and I left the church. … My mother tried her best to keep me engaged in a relationship with Christ. ... But I was having none of it. And that decision led to an almost 25-year exodus from the church.

But yet here I am today to proclaim to you: “Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!”

I suspect that some of you are thinking right now, “Just where is he going with this?” … You thought you were coming to hear that familiar and reassuring message that Christ died on that cross and rose again three days later, carrying our sins to heaven with him.

But the introduction to my sermon is no more preposterous than today’s Gospel text when Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene and says, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

There are two extremely important points in Jesus’s instructions.

First, our Lord, the one who willingly conquered death on our behalf, reminds Mary Magdalene that as long as she remains clutched to him -- because, after all, wouldn’t you clutch at your Savior if you’d just discovered that he had indeed risen from the dead? I would! … I would grab his robes, fall to the ground and lose all composure. At least that’s what I imagine I would do. … So, it’s no surprise that Mary Magdalene is clutching at Jesus, probably partly to see if he is real. ... And then partly, clutching onto him because she doesn’t want to see him go again.

After all, Mary Magdalene had just been through -- traveling with Jesus as one of his disciples, watching him be mocked, tortured and killed, and then coming to the tomb and seeing his grave empty -- after all of that, none of us would blame her from hanging on tightly to her Lord.

And I’m sure Jesus also could understand that. After all, he was human too. … But rather then let Mary revel in holding onto him, he instructs her to go to his brothers and tell them that he is ascending to his father, our father … a father that belongs to Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene and the disciples … and to us.

In other words, Mary if you do not let me go and go tell your brothers and sisters in Christ that I am ascending to our father’s side, to rule his kingdom both earthly and divine … no one else is going to know.

I think many of us have been in Mary’s sandals. … There might have been a moment in your life -- just like Mary’s -- when you looked in the tomb and found it empty, and you were devastated. And then unsuspectingly, Jesus tapped you on the shoulder and said, “Mary Magdalene, I am right here.” … And then in that moment, what’d you do?

In that moment, were you torn between holding onto Jesus with all of your might because you were worried that if you let go, you’d lose him and he’d be gone again. … Or did you reluctantly let Jesus’s robes go and go tell your story to your brothers and sisters in Christ. … Go tell them “I have seen the Lord!”

I know what my normal instinct has been. … After all, it’s scary to testify to others, isn’t it? … Because, when you go running breathlessly to others, and tell them that you have seen the Lord, even the most courageous among us thinks, “But what if they think I’m crazy? … Wouldn’t it be better if I just stayed silent and held onto my Jesus. It’s more comfortable.”

But my fellow believers that is not how this relationship works. … Yes, Jesus willingly died on that cross to bear our sins and take them with him to heaven so that he could open the door to his father’s Kingdom for us. … But it wasn’t so that we could keep that Good News to ourselves.

The exchange here, as Jesus so eloquently tells Mary Magdalene is that, “Yes, I have come back to life, and I will ascend into heaven on your behalf, just as my Father … our father promised. … But, in return, it is you, who has to go forth and proclaim this message to your brothers and sisters in Christ.”

This isn’t a gift that we get to keep to ourselves. … No, this is a gift we must share. … In other words we must testify that “Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed!”

Now, I also know there are many sitting in this sanctuary today who are thinking to themselves, “Well, that’s not possibly me the preacher is talking to. … After all, I am not disciple material. … If he only knew how many times I had screwed up. ... If he only knew how bad I’ve been.

If God only knew, about my brokenness and my incompleteness, then Jesus would never ask me to testify about his death on the cross and his resurrection. He’d never ask me to testify to another about how our Savior willingly gave up his life, so that he could die and ascend into heaven to open up a relationship with our father so that we too can have eternal life. … If he only knew …

But trust me, God already knows. … And so does Jesus, and he’s still reaching out to you today and telling you to go share the Good News … “Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed!”

Because, after all, if Jesus can use a 1st century Jewish woman to testify to the apostles on his behalf. … And if he can use a preacher that left the church for more than half of his life to stand up here today to testify to you. … Then Jesus can use you right where you are today!

I don’t know how much you know about 1st century politics, but it shouldn’t surprise us that society was unkind to many people during that time. ... And women were mostly kept on the fringes of society. … But, yet, in Jesus’s greatest act of all, after conquering death and rising again after three days, who did our Savior choose to reveal himself to first? … A woman. … His devoted Mary Magdalene. … A person on the fringe of society.

… Jesus could have picked anyone to be the one to proclaim his resurrection to the world. ... He could have picked his apostles, he could have picked the Jewish priests. He could have picked the Roman emperor. … He even could have announced it to the entire world.

… But he didn’t. … He chose Mary Magdalene to tell the other disciples that “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

And Jesus could have picked anyone to be standing here today to proclaim to you, “Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed!” … But he picked me. A boy who grew up in a broken home, who left the church and traveled his own rock-strewn path back to the church 10 years ago before he again found Jesus. And despite the many times that I looked into that tomb and found it empty, there finally was one time that Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I proclaim to you today: “I have seen the Lord! … He is risen. His is risen indeed!”

Today, on this Easter Sunday, the day our Lord conquered death and rose from the dead on our behalf … this day, I don’t care where you are in your journey with Christ.

… I don’t care if you feel like you are still staring into that empty tomb wondering when it that Jesus is going to tap you on the shoulder.

... Or if you have already been to the tomb and you have found Jesus and you’re still clutching to his robe because you’re afraid that if you let go you’ll never see him again.

… Wherever you are on that journey, I encourage you to say this with me … Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed!” … Because if God can use Mary Magdalene, and if he can use me, then he can certainly use to testify to his brothers.

And that is the Good News on this Easter Sunday. … Amen!