Now what?

Before we testify to the reality of Jesus’ Resurrection, we have to fully trust the message ourselves.

 — A sermon preached at Louisburg United Methodist Church, Louisburg, KS, on 28 April, 2024, from 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. —

 We are now in the fifth Sunday of the Easter season. We consider Easter a season rather than just one Sunday because the event is so significant.

 There’s a lot to celebrate and a lot to take in, no matter how many Sundays we devote to it. In fact, I think that even today, nearly 2,000 years later, what happened at Easter is so far beyond our expectation and so far above our understanding that we still grasp only a small part of the meaning of it.

 For much of my active career in ministry, I suffered from what I call PED, or Post Easter Depression.

 It’s a common ailment among pastors. On Resurrection Sunday, we proclaim that the resurrection of Jesus makes all the difference in the world, and it changes everything – and the next morning we discover anew that for most of the world, nothing has changed at all. Most of the world simply does not care.

 We proclaim, “Christ is risen!” The world shrugs and says, “So what?” It’s deflating. It’s depressing. And I suspect that pastors aren’t the only ones who suffer this way.

 I’m sure that each of you remembers the day after a special loved one died. That day, you saw life radically differently than you did 24 hours earlier. But it quickly became apparent that most of the world did not know about your loss, or much care about it either.

 Our sadness in death is mirrored by our gladness in the Resurrection. We have a great message for the world – and the world doesn’t much care to hear it. We shout, “We’ve got good news!” And the world yawns. “Heard it all before. Tell me something I haven’t heard.”

 I heard an old, old story, we sing in that old Baptist hymn about “Victory in Jesus.” How do we best convey the truth of that story to others?

 When you tell a story that everybody’s heard before, you’ve got to make it as significant for them as it is for you. And that means, first of all, that it has to be significant for you. If it’s not life changing for you, you can’t expect it to be life changing for anyone else.

 So before you try to answer the world’s “So what?” question, you’ve got to answer that question for yourself. You’ve got to know what difference it makes for you.

 Christ is risen! What does that mean for you, personally, in your daily life as well as for all eternity?

 We tend to focus on the eternity question. If I trust in Jesus, will I spend eternity with him? I consider that question answered. Emphatically, yes, we will spend eternity with Jesus if we trust in him. That’s the promise we have, and as far as I’m concerned, that settles it.

 I know that some preachers like to go on and on about how short this life is versus the vastness of eternity, but I think, as some folks say, that puts the accent on the wrong syl-LA-ble.

 Jesus never said much about eternity. He said a lot about how to live today, in light of eternity, in the eternal present. And I think that’s where we ought to put our emphasis. It’s not pie in the sky when we die but the bread of life and living water right here and right now, not only for us but also for all those we meet.

 If the Resurrection of Jesus doesn’t change how we live now, then it fails the “So what?” test. Actually it’s not the Resurrection that fails the test. It’s us, if our response to the Resurrection is so tepid that it doesn’t radically change our lives.

 Let’s turn to our gospel reading as it comes to us this morning not from the four documents we call gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – but from the Apostle Paul.

 His summation of the gospel in First Corinthians chapter 15 contains not only the heart of the Christian message but also the earliest way it was preached, by Paul, 20 to 30 years before the other gospels were written down.

 Paul begins, “I remind you of the good news that I proclaimed to you.” You received this proclamation from me as the very truth of God. It’s a truth that still anchors you firmly, and through it you are being saved by the grace of God, if…

 If – oh, look out! “If you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you, unless you have come to believe in vain.”

 Whatever does it mean to believe in vain? We’ll return to that, but for now let me note that the word that is almost always translated in our Bibles as “believe” actually almost always means “trust.”

 There is a huge difference between belief and trust. You can believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and flying saucers and all sorts of other things, and none of those beliefs alters your basic orientation to life.

 Trust is another matter. Trust is a wholehearted whole-life commitment – in this case a wholehearted and whole-life commitment to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

 The good news that I received, Paul says, is what I passed on to you. That is the news that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised on the third day, all in accordance with the scriptures.

 Paul does not go into detail here about how any of this was in accordance with the scriptures. Parsing that out can be quite a chore. If you read the Hebrew Scriptures straight through from the beginning, you won’t see many clear signs that point directly toward Jesus. It’s only when you look backward, from Jesus to Genesis, that it starts to make sense.

 In his letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians, Paul calls this the mystery that was hidden for the ages but only lately has been disclosed in Jesus. The signs were there, but we didn’t know how to read them clearly until Jesus came along.

 Paul also says little here about how Jesus died, though he makes much of that elsewhere, and he makes no mention at all of the empty tomb – only that Jesus was raised on the third day.

 Not only was Jesus raised from the dead, but he also appeared to Cephas – that is, Simon Peter – and to his other closest followers, to his brother James, and to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive when Paul is writing.

 “Last of all,” Paul says, “as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

 By untimely born, he means that he came to faith in Christ later than all the others he’s mentioned. Most of these appearances are not recorded in the four written gospels. We know of them only through Paul’s mention of them here.

 There is possibly one difference. While the others saw the Risen Jesus in the flesh soon after his Resurrection, Paul’s encounter with Jesus came long after Jesus ascended to heaven. Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus may have been more of a vision than a physical Resurrection appearance. Or maybe Paul is claiming a special revelation of Jesus that’s no different in kind from the others.

 Whatever exactly he means, by including himself on that list of Resurrection witnesses, Paul leaves room for us, too.

 Remember the story of Thomas? It has long been fashionable to slander him by calling him Doubting Thomas. I consider him Faithful Thomas because he is always a stalwart defender of Jesus.

 On the evening of the Resurrection, Jesus appears to his followers who are huddling in fear in the Upper Room. Thomas is absent for some reason; we don’t know why. When the others tell him what happened, he says, no, I won’t trust you on this until I see him myself.

 He wants the same experience they had. He wants to see the Risen Jesus in person.

 A week later, he gets his chance. Again everyone is assembled in the Upper Room, and again Jesus appears to them. Thomas doesn’t just say, “Master, it’s so nice to see you.” No, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

 Jesus says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet still place their trust in me.”

 That is the essential Easter experience that is proclaimed as gospel, as good news, by Paul in First Corinthians and in the four gospels. Only about 500 people were able to experience the Risen Jesus in physical form. Blessed are those who missed that bodily experience and yet believe. Blessed are those who have not had that direct experience and yet place their trust in Jesus.

 That includes us, doesn’t it? At least I hope it does. Maybe the real question is this: Have you had a life-changing experience of the Risen Jesus?

 I suspect you probably have, though you may not think of it that way.

 Haven’t you, so many times, seen the Risen Jesus in the eyes and actions of others?

 Haven’t you, so many times, seen situations that simply could not be resolved, and yet, amazingly, were resolved in healthy and beneficial ways?

 Haven’t you seen two people reconcile who once were snared in a net of misunderstanding and distrust, and your only response could be, “Thank you, Jesus”? Haven’t you seen the Risen Jesus at work all around you, every day, in so many thrilling ways?

 And if witnessing those things does not change your life, I can’t imagine what might.

 I think that’s what Paul means by believing in vain. Believing has to change your life. Mere belief isn’t enough. Even strongly held opinions don’t count. You have to trust. You must have skin in the game. You have to put something of yourself on the line.

 When I say that Jesus Christ is risen form the dead, I am not stating a mere belief. I am stating a firm conviction. I trust that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. I stake my life on it. I stake my present life on it, and I stake my future life on it. That’s what trust is all about. Trust risks everything. It’s a wholehearted and whole-life commitment.

 It’s not until we make such a commitment that we begin to feel the deep truth of the Resurrection. There’s a line in the sand that we have to cross, and until we step across that line, we really can’t know, in the deepest sense of knowing, that Christ is alive.

 Until you step across that line, you really can’t see all that has changed because Christ is risen. It’s like putting on a new set of glasses. Now you have Easter Vision. What was fuzzy is now crystal clear.

 We are all witnesses to a life-changing encounter with the Risen Jesus. We can testify to the truth of those encounters. We know that our testimony is true.

 The question is no longer “So what?” The true question is “Now what?” Whatever are you going to do with this new life you’ve been given? How are you going to live in light of this momentous event?

 That’s the deepest question of all. We know that Christ is risen from the dead. What difference does knowing that make in our lives? What difference does knowing that make in the lives of those we encounter on the street and those we live with most intimately?

 Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Praise God! Now, what do we do about it?

Time to pray

Today I am praying for the United Methodist Church. Delegates from around the world are meeting April 23 to May 3 in Charlotte, N.C., for a General Conference session long delayed by covid concerns and complications.

 A lot is at stake, and destructive forces are arrayed to do as much damage to the church as they can.

 Some history:

 In 2019 a special General Conference was held to settle disagreements over UMC policy regarding sexual orientation. “Conservatives” rammed through a “Traditional Plan” that was “traditional” only if you choose to base tradition on the Spanish Inquisition.

It was unfair, unjust and un-Christian, but the “traditionalists” cheered – until “progressives” rallied and threatened to overturn the whole thing in a regular General Conference in 2020.

Covid derailed everything. So now in 2024, we are holding the 2020 General Conference. Meantime, “traditionalists” have bailed to form their own church, deceptively called the “Global” Methodist Church. The GMC and allies have managed to dupe one-fourth of UMC churches to disaffiliate from the UMC and join the GMC or go independent.

GMC and other anti-UMC operatives are still working within the UMC, and they hope to use this General Conference to continue their efforts to dismantle the UMC.

Here are some things I pray for:

* Removal of the harmful language about sexual orientation that “traditionalists” jammed into our Book of Discipline.

* Passage of a new set of Social Principles that does not contain such harmful language and sets a positive tone for the treatment of all humans.

* Passage of a regionalization plan that will give United Methodists in America the same freedom that those in other regions now enjoy to tailor certain policies to their own contexts without having to rely on a vote by global delegates.

It should go without saying (but given the level of lies promulgated by the GMC and others, it must be said) that none of these proposals would change our fundamental theology or our commitment to the mission of Jesus Christ.

Some forces have been working for a long time to devise an issue that would fracture the UMC, and they decided that sexuality would do the trick. So far it has cost the UMC dearly, but the battle isn’t over yet because these forces haven’t destroyed the UMC yet.

These forces (see how carefully I avoid reference to the GMC, the Wesleyan Covenant Association and Institute on Religion and Democracy) will not quit until they have destroyed the church or are divested of their power within it. I pray that this year’s General Conference will begin the process of exorcising these elements so that the United Methodist Church may continue its vibrant global witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Lights out!

KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES

CBS added insult to injury Sunday night when it delayed and then cut short coverage of a landmark Billy Joel concert.

 The much-touted broadcast began 30 minutes late because CBS wanted to show the end of the Masters Tournament. I used to play golf, and sometimes enjoyed it, but TV coverage of professional golf has always struck me almost as exciting as watching grass grow.

 When the Billy Joel concert did not begin promptly at 8, I thought perhaps CBS had inserted coverage of some major event – specifically, something involving Iran’s attack on Israel. So why, I wondered, did no other network delay its programming?

 That’s because only CBS carried the Masters, and apparently golf reigns over good sense CBS.

 Then the part that is simply insane. In the middle of Joel’s last song, his trademark “Piano Man,” CBS cuts to black and cues its local stations to begin their delayed 10 o’clock news shows. (Only in Central and Eastern time zones, though, because apparently nobody important lives out here.)

Heads may be rolling today at CBS. Probably heads should roll, but not just the one who punched the “out” button at the end. The strange ending only capped a flawed broadcast.

The show was the 100th sellout concert in Joel’s monthly residence at Madison Square Garden in New York. Joel and his band were in fine form. But CBS made two huge mistakes going in.

First, it mixed up the set list. Musicians draw up a set list to build a performance to perfect pitch. So you have to wonder why the musical geniuses at CBS saw fit to toss Joel’s set list and substitute their own.

Second, CBS inserted far too many commercials. Mostly these were boring ads for way-too expensive medications and lame promos for lame CBS prime-time series.

And that’s probably why the show ran overtime. If CBS had cut one or two unnecessary commercial breaks, it would not have had to cut the show short. CBS brass had to have known going in that the broadcast would go over two hours. So why did someone panic when it did?

Responding to widespread viewer anger, CBS has apologized for the “programming timing error” and promised to show the whole thing again Friday night. Think it will cut any of the ads?

Sometime back in the 1980s, Linda and I saw Billy Joel live at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. We were mostly spellbound during the broadcast Sunday night. After more than 50 years of making music, Billy Joel still has it. He’s an incredible performer. That a TV network would butcher his signature song on its 50th anniversary during his 100th sellout show at Madison Square Garden is almost unthinkable.

 But these days the unthinkable is almost routine.

 Stay tuned after this commercial break for live coverage of the Second Coming of Christ (unless a sports event runs long).

Eclipse notes

Linda and me being amazed.

The Great American Eclipse of 2024 has come and gone. Even though we could see only 89 percent of it in the Kansas City area, it was spectacular. The light took on an eerie quality, the grass turned a vibrant green, and the temperature dropped noticeably as the moon passed across the face of the sun. Awesome!

 The next eclipse likely to be visible around here is not until 2044, when I would be 96, so I don’t expect to see that one. I saw the one in 2017, of course, and I recall one other, though I can’t recall when it was.

These being odd times, some odd things happened in and around the eclipse.

A friend in Lawrence (hi, Missy!) says she had to take her son out of school so he could witness the event. She was told the school wasn’t allowing students to view it because some didn’t believe in it.

Say what? It may be that the school wanted to avoid potential legal trouble if a student looked at the sun without proper protection. Or maybe some were frightened by superstitions promoted by some churches.

Yeah, the idea that the eclipse might be part of a “rapture” scenario was being pushed by a lot of people who should know better. Simply put, the “rapture” is a cruel hoax. It’s extrabiblical and nonbiblical.

The notion was created around 1830 by a wacko Brit named John Nelson Darby, and it’s been part of wacko fundamentalist “theology” for about a hundred years now.

The passage of time does not make it any more true today than it was in 1830, but millions of people still buy into it, sad to say. The idea that Christ will return secretly and zap special people off the planet is nonsense. The Second Coming will be a major event that no one can miss! You won’t have to be in the path of totality to witness it!

*  *  *  *  *

Speaking of hoaxes, about the blasphemous “God Bless the USA Bible,” I will say little. There is a fundamental difference between the Bible and the U.S. Constitution and other foundational national documents (unless, of course, you think that Thomas Jefferson was directly inspired by God, but think about that for a minute).

Still, if you want to put $60 in the pocket of a rich swindler for a King James Bible you could buy for ten bucks elsewhere, it’s your money to waste.

*  *  *  *  *

So what do you do with those eclipse glasses you bought especially for this event? You could keep them as a souvenir, or you could hang on to them for next time, though I get mixed signals about whether the plastic lenses will be any good by then.

If you act by Aug. 1, you also can send them to a place that will pass them on to Latin Americans who can use them in a few months when their country is in the path of totality for the next eclipse. Yes, they happen several times a year, just not often where we can see them. The address is:

Eclipse Glasses USA

PO Box 50571

Provo, UT 84605

*  *  *  *  *

I was rooting for Caitlin Clark and her Iowa teammates on Sunday, but they couldn’t quite pull off the NCAA women’s championship. Clark reached 3,951 career points during the game – a record. Or maybe it isn’t. Seems that Lynette Woodard got 3,649 points during her KU career, and none of those was a three-pointer.

These are the things that some sports fans quibble over endlessly. I guess that’s part of the game, as it were, and why I’m not a sports fan. Life’s too short, I say – though I know others think that arguing these things over a beer is the spice of life.

*  *  *  *  *

German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis on this date in 1945. 

Fools for Christ

It seems appropriate that the first Sunday after Easter was April Fool’s Day. After all, it was a cheerful Christian missionary, not some grouchy atheist, who first called Christ followers “fools for Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:10).

 I have frequently felt a little foolish right after Easter. For much of my active career in ministry, I suffered from what I call PED, or Post Easter Depression.

 It’s a common ailment among pastors. On Resurrection Sunday, we proclaim that the resurrection of Jesus makes all the difference in the world and changes everything – and the next morning we discover that for most of the world, nothing has changed in the slightest. Most of the world simply does not care.

 We proclaim, “Christ is risen!” The world shrugs and says, “So what?” It’s deflating. It’s depressing. And I suspect that pastors aren’t the only ones who suffer from it.

 I’m sure everyone remembers the day after a special loved one died. That morning, you saw life radically differently than you did 24 hours before. But it quickly became obvious that most of the world did not know about your loss, or much care about it either.

 Our sadness in death is mirrored by our gladness in the Resurrection. We have a great message for the world – and the world doesn’t much care to hear it. We shout, “We’ve got good news!” And the world yawns. “Heard it all before. Tell me something I haven’t heard.”

 The very word “gospel” means “good news.” This is the kind of news that if it were printed in a newspaper and tossed onto your driveway, the impact would shatter the pavement. This is weighty news. This is news so weighty, so significant, so life-changing, that no matter how many times we announce it, it’s always news – and it’s always good news.

What’s good about it? What makes it news, rather than “olds”?

Let’s start with the micro view – that is, our personal view. Consider the perennial questions. Who are you? Why are you here? What is the meaning of life?

Trust me, you are here for a reason. You’re not an accident. You’re here on purpose, and you have a purpose. You’re not here just to take up space and look pretty and get a sugar high on Easter candy. You have a higher calling. You have a holy calling.

God is calling you to live for God’s glory by becoming the best you that you possibly can be – and you can’t be that person by serving just yourself. You can achieve your full potential only when you serve others. You are here, then, to love and to be loved and to make a difference in this world.

That’s the micro view. For the macro view, let’s turn to this big, fat, scary book we call the Bible. It has two parts. Part One is a whole lot fatter than Part Two. The plot keeps thickening in Part One until it comes to what appears to be a dead end.

Your individual story is in here. Your individual story is the same story that’s told in Genesis chapters two and three – you know, that embarrassing episode with a garden and a talking snake. And that, in turn, is the same story that’s told in all the rest of the chapters of Part One – only now the protagonist is a people called Israel.

Sadly, it’s mostly a story of failure. Israel is charged with being God’s light to the world, and Israel just isn’t up to it because, as a representative of all of us, and just like the best of us and the worst of us, Israel is just so human.

Part One ends without resolution. It’s like a musical chord that hangs in suspension, waiting for the next chord to resolve the tension, only the musician stops playing, and the resolution never comes.

Part Two provides the resolution. Part Two says, “Surprise!” and wraps it up. Part Two says that there is a character in Part One who was there all along, only you didn’t recognize him because he worked behind the scenes, as kind of a stagehand. (I’m mixing metaphors here, you see.)

In Part Two, the stagehand takes center stage, and he wraps things up in a most unexpected way. Like a masterful musician, Jesus resolves the suspended chord.

Jesus is the answer to Israel’s yearnings, and the answer to ours as well. Jesus called his people to a new way of being Israel, and he calls us all to a new way of being human. Jesus sums up Israel’s story, and he makes our lives add up, too.

Here’s the good news as proclaimed by that bandy-legged squirt of a guy named Paul, in one of his letters to some Christians in the ancient city of Corinth. Paul says: “I passed on to you as most important what I also received: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and he was buried, and on the third day he was raised in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15.3-4).

It all happened “in accordance with the scriptures,” Paul says. That’s the way it had to happen to complete the story of Part One in this big book, though nobody quite expected it to happen this way.

Looking back, it makes sense. Looking forward, you just can’t see it. It’s a mystery that’s been hidden for the ages, Paul says in another letter (Romans 16.25). But it’s not a mystery you’re going to figure out on your own. The answer has to be revealed. The author of the mystery has to reveal what’s been going on all this time.

What God has been up to is rescuing a world that has gone way off course and can’t find its way back, just as each of us has gone way off course and needs to be brought home safely. The Bible’s story is about the rescue and renewal of all creation, and my story and your story are about being rescued and renewed in the process.

We are rescued, yes, from the clutches of what we call sin and freed by forgiveness to be renewed and to become the loving people we were created to be.

How does the Resurrection of Jesus accomplish this? By six o’clock on the evening of what we (strangely) call Good Friday, Jesus was dead and buried. No doubt he was dead. Roman soldiers were trained killing machines.

Jesus was dead, and there was no hope for his recovery because, as everybody knows, dead people just don’t come back. Cry for them all you want, it doesn’t happen.

Except that this time it does happen. And it’s not that his body is re-animated or resuscitated. Let’s get our “R” words right. He is resurrected. He comes back in a new body that is somehow very much like his old body but also very different.

This is the first time it ever happened. But we are assured that it will happen again, at some future time, when all who trust in God are raised with Christ to new life. And we won’t just be re-animated or resuscitated. We also will be resurrected in bodies fit for eternity. That’s our personal stake in this story. Because he lives, we also shall live.

Jesus’ death is important, oh yes. As the Suffering Servant of God, he bears the consequences of our sin. But without the Resurrection, his death would have no meaning. Good Friday makes sense only in light of the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, Jesus might be just one more of the millions of people who are ground into the dust every year by the tyrants of this world. By raising Jesus from the dead, God completes the story of Israel and fulfills the story of creation and brings salvation and hope to our broken world.

If Jesus is alive today, we ought to be alive as well. Just the way the birth of a baby changes everything in a household, so the resurrection of Jesus gives each of us an opportunity for new birth, a chance to be changed with all of creation, and a chance to give glory to our creator by living according to the master plan, in love and peace and joy.

See, we need to do more than simply believe the good news of Jesus. We need to be changed by it. We need to become good news people. Everything about us ought to be shaped by the good news. We ought to be living, breathing evidence that Christ is alive, and that his living in us changes everything about us and is changing every thing every where all at once.

It's news so good is sounds foolish, news so good that we fools for Christ will keep proclaiming it until all the world understands.