"Forgiveness of April Fools" Easter 2018

Mark 16:1-8 Acts 10:34-43 The Calendar played a wonderful trick on us this year, not only that Ash Wednesday came on Valentines, but that Easter comes on April Fools! Yet, instead of a celebration of love and sacrifice, the 14th of February became the day of the Parkland High School killings. Would that every day beginning from this 1st of April on, could be a living out of the Resurrection and forgiveness! April Fools is a marvelous description for Easter morning. The Disciples, Followers and Crowds, Everyone had placed their hopes and dreams on Jesus. Oppressed by the Empire, everywhere they looked there was corruption and abuse of power in Government and Religion. Jesus had described an ESCHATALOGICAL HOPE, that this Empire would end and a new time would dawn. Jesus had healed the Blind, given voice and hearing to the Deaf and those unable to Speak, he had healed Lepers, he overturned the Tables of the Moneychangers, and Taught with Authority. He preached and told stories of a new world order, no longer based on power, but forgiveness! But the Empire could not tolerate that, they Arrested him, Scourged, Whipped and Beat him, Tried him as a Criminal and Executed him with the Death Penalty. A Death of intentional Suffering, Degradation, Shame. When he had breathed his last, they took his lifeless body down, placed it in a stone tomb in the earth, and sealed him DEAD. But the great joke was yet to come: on April Fools Day, when at Sunrise, the 3rd Day, Death had not been THE END for God. What could it mean in our world, if our greatest fears, our greatest intimidations, the acts of Terrorists, Scarcity, the revealing of all our secrets, the end of everything we know and imagine, were undercut by a new reality, making the past as nonsense? I mentioned a few weeks ago, we are heavily influenced by the experience of the Enlightenment. We believe in the power of knowledge, the power of thought, as Rene Descartes described, “I have being, I exist, I can know that I AM because I think, I think, therefore I AM”. The Biblical world was not like that. 1500 years before the Enlightenment, Plato’s Philosophy Aristotelian Reasoning were brand new, and the people based their Truth on their Senses, what they could feel and prove in their own experience. So, go back to begin with the Crucifixion, in the heat of the day, the smell of sweat, the sounds of suffering. Then death. Some imagine Death as Bright Light, some as Darkness. What does death sound like? Is death deafeningly loud, or silent? Pain and Suffering end. Is death absence? Can we hear people outside our bodies? Then three days later: Resurrection! Smell is one of our strongest senses, What would Resurrection Smell like? Is it flowers? Is it Grandma’s Baking? Jelly beans? What is the sound of Resurrection like? Trumpet blasts? Is resurrection the sound of birds? The sound of children? The stone was rolled away, so shafts of sunlight pierced the dark shadows of the grave. Fresh air wafted in. Particles of dust danced in the sunlight. Movement to muscles and sinews that had been stretched beyond capacity, bearing the weight of flesh had rested & relaxed, now reaching, stretching. There are experiences in this life which so surpass what we had to do to get there, that the former becomes meaningless. Resurrection makes death meaningless. Terrorist’s Fear and intimidation and suffering all become meaningless. The impossible suddenly becomes possible, unforseen alternatives. What an amazing April Fools’ Joke! The women who had gone to the tomb and were the first witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, could not trust themselves, could not believe what they saw and heard. Death was not The END? They ran away in fear and doubt telling no one... Over and over again, before the resurrection, there had been discussion of telling no one, I think what that means is that they did not publicly preach and profess it, but instead spoke to one another sharing a most trusted secret as something precious and vital. In our instantaneous culture, we have come to imagine that Death is a door, on one side is Life, and on the other heaven. Because of the Scriptures, I am not so certain about Time. Personally I think Resurrection may best be understood by Forgiveness. There are circumstance where we can immediately forgive, someone cuts in front of you in line at the grocery, someone inadvertently sends you a text they did not intend, and we forgive… But there are relationships and wounds that have come over a lifetime, hatreds and fears that we inherited from those before us, when Forgiveness takes time to cure. Weeks after the Resurrection, Simon Peter was visiting Simon the Tanner at Joppa, the City where Jonah had boarded the ship for Tarshish instead of where God intended he go to be a prophet from Israel to Babylon. Jonah is a reminder of the power of God to forgive even the most outcast, especially the enemies of Israel. A Tanner took skins and pelts of animals and dried them over open fires, cleaned and cured the animal skins with chemicals for leather and furs. Peter was sleeping on the roof, when he had this dream of a great clean white sheet being lowered from heaven. In it were every kind of animal for him to eat. But three times, Peter said, “No, I am one of the Elect, I follow the Covenant of Abraham, I am Kosher”. When suddenly there was a knock at the door and Cornelius a Roman Gentile came seeking Simon Peter. And Peter opened his mouth and said “I now truly understand that God shows no partiality!” What will it take for all the people of the world to come to that realization? That we have been the ones showing partiality and prejudice, not God. For the terrorists to stop trying to kill infidels, for the bullying of a lifetime to stop, and would be shooters would have no reason to hate. Easter is more than Jesus’ return from death to life 2000 years ago; Easter is God’s act of forgiveness of all the sin of the world. What an incredible April Fools Joke, to realize what fools we have been to hate, recognizing that God shows no partiality!