Easter Day
Rev. Ken Wratten at St. Stephen’s, San Jose
Psalm
118:14-17,22-24
Happy Easter!
Well, one thing is certain: Christ is on the loose n=
ow.
There is no pinning him down, no getting a handle on him, and no holding him
back.
They hung him on a cross and they laid him in a tomb. But then God got him =
out
of there. If the tomb couldn't hold Jesus, then nothing could.
When Mary realized that it was Jesus she saw in the garden near
the empty tomb, she must have tried to hug him, being so excited about seei=
ng
Jesus alive. She deeply loved Jesus in life. And here he was, believe it or
not, alive again. But Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me,
because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”
There is something fundamentally important for us to understand about Jesus
saying these words to Mary. Every time you or I think we have hold of
Jesus, we’re only kidding ourselves;
He has places he wants to take us,
people he wants us to meet,
things he wants us to get done.
Jesus is free of the tomb and travelling at large in the world
now. He is on the loose. But he's not on the loose from us. No; he i=
s on
the loose in order to free us from every tomb we find ourselves in. It is t=
he
business of the resurrected Christ to call us out of the false securities t=
hat
can become tombs for us. What=
has closed
you in; that prevents you from being and doing what God created you for?
Accumulating wealth?
Busy-ness without clear purpose?
Duties that feel like they are pulling the life from you?
Relationships that isolate you rather than feed you?
When I graduated from college with a degree in electrical
engineering, I was absolutely confident that the rest of my life would be f=
un
and exciting, and I would have all the money I would ever need. I quickly
discovered one problem. I hated being an engineer. I hated sitting at a desk
8.0 hours a day, designing circuits. So after about 5 years of hating my jo=
b, I
talked Ruthie into selling our home and our furniture, moving, and using our
small nest egg to buy some land and a double wide mobile home, and opening =
up a
branch of my family’s RV business. I think back about how thrilled Ru=
thie
must have been! But she hung in there. I found a piece of land, and a
contractor to build a site for the mobile home.
While this work was being done, we lived about 60 miles away i=
n a
small two room apartment in the cellar of my parents’ house. Then this
little world of mine started falling apart. Our little apartment was dark a=
nd
damp. The land purchase deal began to fall apart. When that was fixed, the
weather wouldn’t allow the contractor to build the site for the mobile
home. When the weather cleared, the contractor ended up being incompetent. =
And
when we finally got moved in, and began the RV business, the energy crisis =
of
the 1970’s was in full swing. You could only buy gas on an even day o=
r an
odd day of the month, depending on your license plate number. Unemployment =
was
high. The banks stopped funding new RV businesses, and I was out of business
overnight. This long story is=
to
tell you about a time in my life when I thought there were no choices left =
for
me; no options; no possibilities; no hope. That was my tomb. I was in
tears.
Finally, God cleared my head and got me to work. God led me to=
an
employment agency that did a terrific job. It took some time, but they foun=
d me
a great job in applications engineering, where I was NOT tied to a desk. It=
was
a great job, and it set the course for training in skills I am still using
today. Christ was on the loose, and freed me from the tomb I was in.=
Because Christ is free from the tomb, he is alive and ready to free you too=
, and
to meet you unexpectedly along the ordinary paths of your life. Thinking th=
ere
are no possibilities is one of those tombs Christ wants to free you from. <=
br>
Easter has to become personal for each of us. If Christ is going to free us
from the tomb we are in, we have to let go of it ourselves, and let Christ =
in. Let
me take this idea of a ‘personal Easer’ one step further…=
Jesus said, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God=
and
your God." His odd statement challenges us to have our own personal
Easters with this God who raises the dead. The same God and Father who pull=
ed
Jesus out of his tomb is able to do just that for each of us. The Bible spe=
aks
of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. It
doesn’t say, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Each of these great
leaders had their own experience with this one God. And so must we. When Je=
sus
said he is going to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God, he w=
as
telling us that the same God who got him out of the tomb will do that for u=
s. And
he was telling us that we have to experience our own resurrections. Because
Christ is still on the loose in the world through his Holy Spirit, he can b=
ring
resurrection to us anywhere, any time.
Christ is on the loose! There is no telling what he is up to next; b=
ut
know this for sure: He not only knows Mary's name; he knows your name, too.=
And
he brings you a personal invitation to a new, resurrected life like his.
Alleluia, Christ is risen.
The Lor=
d is
risen indeed, Alleluia.
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