Invitation to Celebration and Service

What can you preach on the Sunday after Easter?

True that in the Lenten season we have relived the major events in the life of Christ. On Good Friday, you have stood between the crosses and he felt the power of the crucified emanate from the center of the cross. Then on Easter, you go to the mountain top and you stand with risen Christ, and you gaze into the promised land of his kingdom. You reached the acceleration of the climax of the Church year and the crowning event of the gospel. Then comes the Monday morning after Easter. You are physically tired and emotionally spun out. There is an emptiness and a letdown. You really wonder what you will preach about on the Sunday after Easter.

It doesn’t help when on the Saturday after Easter you are on a retreat with a group of young adults, and during the question period one asks: “Why do sermons have to be so dull?” You look for some of the other young people to come to the defense of sermons, knowing that for the most part it is your sermon they’re talking about. After further discussion, you become aware most of the young people feel the same way.

Then you go back to your study on Saturday night and feel very much empty and alone. (If you have ever been in your study alone, you might not know how it feels.) Suddenly you become aware that you are not the only one to pass through the post-Easter doldrums.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus we’re really going home to turn in their ordination certificates. They heard the reports of the empty tomb found by the women, but it only added one more mysterious happening in a long week of happenings that just didn’t make sense. The rest of the faithful women and men must have lingered between ecstasy and despair—between his resurrection appearances—wondering if they were the victims of a cruel hallucination—doubting even the very resurrection itself.

It was at this point I thought I better just address my subject, which was already printed in the Church bulletin. But, the cupboard was so bare I could not remember the subject I had placed in the bulletin two days before. When I discovered the subject: “An Invitation to Celebration and Service,” I actually thought: “Whatever possessed me to announce such a subject—and to announce it of all days for the Sunday after Easter? Well, the die was cast, so I better get to the task before me.”

Where do you start working on a sermon, when you are in the mood you are in, and it is the Saturday night after Easter? Then, I remembered the biblical insights that triggered the sermon.

I returned once more to the Gospel stories written by Matthew. I began to live through the experiences in the Gospel that had set me off in the direction in the first place. While reading the Easter story in Matthew, I suddenly came to Jesus’s closing words to his disciples as he spoke to them on the mountain in Galilee. The last words of the risen Lord went like this:

     Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And low I am with you always to the close of the age!”

As I read these words, I suddenly got a flash of insight. I remembered how at the beginning of the book of Matthew an Angel of the Lord came to Joseph and said to him:

     Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, can’t you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet.

     Behold the virgin shall conceive
     And bear a son and his name
Shall be called Emmanuel
Which means God with us

It was then that the wise men came from the East—following a star—and when the star came and stood over Bethlehem, they rejoice with exceeding great joy—and they went in and found the baby with the mother and Joseph. They fell down and worshiped the baby, and they gave him their gifts.

Now this had all the elements of a celebration. They came to the place with exceeding great joy. They fell down and worshiped him, and then they made an offering to him—all because his name was:

     Emmanuel = God with us.

Matthew begins the gospel story with a celebration of the incarnation, the celebration of God’s presence in the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He ends his book with the enthrallment of the risen Christ: “All Power is given to me!” says the risen Lord. Then he goes on:

     And lo I am with you always to the close of the age.

At this point I thought it would be fun to look up all is celebrations in the Gospel of Matthew. The first one that came to my mind was the experience of the mount of Transfiguration. He had taken Peter, James and John up on the mountain, and suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to talk with him. While Jesus was talking to the prophets, Matthew says:

     He was transfigured before them, and his face shown like the sun, and his
     garments became white as light.

And Peter said:

      I will make three booths here—one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

In other words she said: “Let’s have a Celebration.”

The celebration was very short. I don’t think Peter even had time to build the booths. Soon, they went down from the mountain where they were met by a crowd and were accosted by a man whose son was demonized who cried out to be rid of his demon.

This is too true for us today. Our celebrations are short. There’s not much time for them. There is the struggle of the mission, the hard work of learning the mysteries of the Kingdom, and above all the process of being spent in the love of God and neighbor. This does not leave much time for celebration.

I began to look for other celebrations in the book of Matthew. I found Jesus used the word “joy” twice in his parables. In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains the parable in Matthew 13:20:

     As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and
immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root himself and immediately
he falls away.

Here is a shallow celebration that is so short-lived that the celebration returns to the state of shallow apathy before the brief moment of joy.

In the same set of parables, Matthew has another one:

     The kingdom of heaven is just like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and
     covered up, then in joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.

Here the celebrator goes and sells all that he has—he celebrates with giving all he has—there is a dimension of depth here that makes the celebration real.

There is one other discovery about celebration. Matthew has the celebration of the Magi come after they have completed a long journey. They put their whole life and credibility as astronomers on the line when they followed the star. When they found the baby, they celebrated.

Matthew has his boots parallel with Exodus. During the days of the exodus, Yahweh remained with his people on the march across the Red Sea. As Yahweh went before them, they sang Miriam’s song as they came to the Jordan. Those carrying the Ark slipped into the water. Yahweh went before them, and the water parted. They went through into the promised land, on dry land. And again they had a celebration.

Now at the end of the book of Matthew, the very last words of the risen Lord confirm the celebration of the Lord’s presence, “Lo I am with you always to the close of the age!” As in the Old Testament, a word of revelation is followed by a command followed by a promise.

     Revelation—Christ is King
     Command—Go make disciples
Promise—Lo I am with you

Now the risen Lord would remain with his disciples, while they travel on the border line between history and the Kingdom, until this age is closed.

Back to the young people. Our religious symbols have become impoverished. In our sermons, our young people do not know what we are all talking about. For example, think of the symbol of the Exodus with the rise of the civil rights movement and crossing the River Jordan. Consider the good news message of Good Friday compared to the news stories in the weekly newspaper—Transcendence is on the way out. This is the world on whose border we walk.

Symbols of Exodus, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.

Come let us Celebrate the presence of the Risen Christ!