As we move through this sermon today, I'd like you to participate with me from time to time. Each time I say, "Christ is risen," I'd like you to respond in the ancient greeting of the church: "HE IS RISEN INDEED."

Christ is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

There's a story of a crotchety old preacher getting on to the age of retirement. As he reflected on the long years of his ministry, he shook his head and said, "Well, the first soul I ever saved has long-since backslid. The first couple I ever married is divorced. But I know this for sure! The first person I ever buried is still in the ground!"

That old guy must have slept right through Easter all those many years. He had abandoned hope! Somehow it hadn't occurred to him that what is true of Christ will be true for us all-Christ is risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

And that changes everything. But, like the old, worn-out preacher, most of us still don't get it. Even today, most of us still need to make the leap of faith from Lent to Easter, from the way of the world to the power of God, from hopelessness to hope.

Someone's done a study and calculated that each person speaks approximately 4800 words per day. No one has calculated how much preachers talk, thank goodness. One observer noted that much of what we all say in those 4800 words per day might be called "Heresies of Hope," referring to the things we say that reveal that we really don't hope for much.

Listen-maybe you'll hear yourself in some of these: "It's too late. It's no use. Nothing can be done about it. You can't change the world. That's just the way it is. You can't fight city hall. Get real. Give up. Why bother? Don't get involved. Everything's going downhill. There's no point. It's always been that way. I'm tired. Same old same old. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. He'll never learn. Good grief. She's been that way forever. He doesn't listen. I'm wasting my breath. Look at the facts. There's no hope. It won't make any difference. No matter how hard I try, I just can't do this. I told you so. They don't care what I think. The deck is stacked against me. The only sure thing is death and taxes. It doesn't matter. Who cares? O, brother. Duh. . . ."

Hear yourself in any of those? How many of your daily 4800 words come from this list? "Heresies of Hope." We're full of them and we don't even hear ourselves. We don't hear how the things we say, when we're not paying attention, reveal our lack of true faith and hope.

I fall into the same trap from time to time, I must confess. I've been scouring the news in these last weeks to come up with some great stories to make the point of this sermon about why we have hope, why we live in hope. But I didn't really find any. Politics, economy, war, environment, disease . . . for the most part, the news is pretty grim. Including the Dodgers. I forgot for a moment that I was looking in the wrong place for hope, that we'll hardly ever find it in the news.

Christian hope is not found in the facts, but in the truth.

And, just as it was for the women disciples that first Easter morning-Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome-the only place to find the truth is at the place where the stone has been rolled back and the angel is saying, "He is not here; he has been raised." The only way to find the truth is to stare at the facts, take them in, and see beyond them.

Let's tell the truth, church. Christ is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

This year, we hear the first Easter story from Mark's gospel, and a strange one it is, indeed. Even the earliest Christians found it difficult to end at verse 8 with those words, "for they were afraid," and have pasted a variety of extra verses onto the end to make it more like the resurrec-tion accounts in Matthew and Luke. You will find those extra verses in your Bibles, usually in parentheses or italics to show that they are a later addendum.

But Mark's style was consistently rough and abrupt. In fact, his wording ends even more abruptly than our current translation would suggest, something more like: "and they were afraid, for . . . ." Just like that. The story ends and we're left wondering!

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome were strong women, faithful disciples. They had come up from Galilee with Jesus, had gone through many things with him already, and surely were not afraid of much of anything, by that point. They had remained at the cross when all the other disciples, the men, had fled. They were not afraid of the soldiers. They were eager to get at their work at the crack of dawn, leaving while it was still dark to arrive in time. They were not afraid of the dark. Their society had not yet handed over care of the dead to under-takers. Their loving task was to anoint their teacher's body and prepare it for burial. They were not afraid of the dead.

The only thing they wondered about that morning was a practical task: how they would move the heavy stone. But they discover that the stone has already been rolled away. They enter the opened tomb in astonishment, and the angelic messenger, true to form, reassures them. "Do not be amazed," he says. "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified."

This first report from the angel is given from the perspective of the authorities who had killed him. To call Jesus a Nazarene was an insult; it was derogatory. To focus on his crucifixion was to underscore his violent death as a common criminal. In effect, you see, the angel first tells the story from the point of view of the apparent victors: "You are looking for a worthless convict, disgrace-fully dead." This is the language of a heresy of hope, for there is no hope to be found in this version of what has happened. It's the story the women had been telling themselves, the story they expected to hear, the facts. They came looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.

But immediately, the angel shifts into God-talk and retells the story a new way. He tells them the truth. Here's what really happened, the angel insists: "He has been raised (and only God could do that!). He is not here, in the place they put him. Go and tell the others that he's going ahead of you to Galilee and you will find him there, just as he told you."

Now, the angel is telling the story of Easter's Good News for the first time. The one condemned and crucified could not be contained in a tomb. Even death could not keep him prisoner. The story of Jesus is not ultimately about his fate at the hands of his enemies. It is the account of what God has done in and through him. The power of God has raised him up! And just as he promised, he is going on ahead and you will find him where he said he would be. The promise is true. The hope is not in vain.

Christ is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Oh, these brave women had not been cowered by the "facts" of the real world-soldiers, darkness, death. But that morning, to the truth of Easter-resurrection, promise, hope-they respond in awe and in the fear of God. They are standing on holy ground in that opened tomb, and they know it, and the dawning truth of God's love is more awesome than anything they ever could have imagined. Nothing had prepared them for the resurrection, and its powerful mystery was perplexing and fearful.

They run from that place, with the fearsome news for the others that it's not over. That it's just beginning. That what happened was not a dream, not vain and empty words. God has once again saved his people, has rolled away the stone and raised up the Christ! And now they must go for-ward with the promise and the hope. They must learn new vocabulary, change the way they live, sing a different song! They must live in hope and base their lives on its sure and certain promise.

Mark's ending to his story is really no ending at all, you see. Jesus had told the disciples many times that their work together would go forward in Galilee. But they could scarcely have dreamed that this would be how the ministry of the church would begin. This story is purposely open-ended, like the new beginning that it is. It begins in our fear, our doubt, our skepticism, our heresies of hope, but then it moves us on towards new life. Christ has gone on before us and we will see him, just as he promised.

Christ is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

We come to this Easter celebration yearning to find the ground of hope for our lives. We need to hear that there is much more to the story than just the facts as they are presented, the tired news, cynical news, world-weary news of TV, radio, and newspapers, facts, maybe, but always heresies of hope. We come this morning, because we sense that new life beckons beyond that sophisticated, worn-out cynicism and despair. We come looking for joy!

Find it here this morning, dear brothers and sisters. You are standing on holy ground! Never shy away from the facts. But always remember this: Christian hope is not found in the facts, but in the truth. God has rolled away the stone for you. God has raised Christ Jesus from the dead for you. God has fulfilled the promise for you.

Seek the Christ who goes on ahead. Follow him.

It is the resurrection day! The love of God never ends. The mercy of God is everlasting. The will of God is justice and peace in this world. The power of God prevails over sin and death.

People of God, go on living. Go on dreaming. Go on creating and building. Go on doing what is good and right and true. Go on with the work of ministry. Go on loving as much as you possibly can. Live in hope. Christ goes with you.

Christ is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED. Christ is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2003. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.