First U M C Santa Monica | Sermons

As has become our custom, each time I say: Christ is risen, I’d like you to respond in the ancient greeting of the church: HE IS RISEN INDEED.

This has been such a year of incredible rains in Southern California, hasn’t it? We have reached the second highest level of rainfall in recorded history! I know there are a few of you out there who really wanted us to make it to first place, but I, for one, am very grateful that we are not accumulating any extra precipitation this morning!

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, in the desert, and I know what many of you know-- that amazing things happen in springtime in the desert after a season of winter rain. The desert that normally looks dry and brown and barren comes to life as millions of wildflowers bloom. Even in that normally barren place called Death Valley. You know, it can be 120+ degrees out there in the summer and nothing grows. Normally, it deserves its name Death Valley, but not this year.

The rains have dissolved the protective waxy coatings off millions of seeds that have lain dormant for years in the arid ground. A National Park Service botanist has called this the bloom of the century! Those who have seen it say they can hardly believe their eyes.

But if you’re going, go soon, because as soon as it starts to really heat up out there, the flowers will disappear. And it may well be another hundred years before we see the likes of this again.

As beautiful and wonderful as this year’s bloom is, it is outdone by God’s even more stupendous miracle in the resurrection of Christ Jesus. We are here this morning and we know that we will not have to wait another hundred years to again celebrate this miracle. We will celebrate next Easter Sunday AND we celebrate it every day!

Christ is risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

God’s miracle in Christ Jesus is not a fleeting thing. It is so much more than just a feeling that we have every now and again when we’re feeling good and life is going our way. It is an awesome word of truth and power that changes us from the inside out and makes us
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Now, of course it takes a lot of growing, a lot of living, a lot of believing and a lot of hoping when we see no hope to get to that place of new life. It was just the same for Jesus’ earliest disciples.

We heard the familiar story this morning. Mary and Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, to the place of sorrow and death. But what happened there that day was not at all what they could have anticipated. These women who had been so close to Jesus, when they heard the angel’s words that he had been raised from the dead and was going on ahead of them to Galilee and that they would see him, when they heard this they were filled with fear and great joy. As they were running to tell the other disciples Jesus greeted them and they took hold of his pierced feet and they worshipped their Risen Lord. Jesus said to them: “Do not be afraid; go…” Go and tell the others and they also will see me.”

Now, we, too, have heard that word, we have heard his voice, and we come this morning full of joy. Yet, surely some among us have come this morning, like Mary and Mary Magdalene, carrying grief on our hearts that is still close and raw. Some of us have no doubt come today with tears still on our cheeks or brimming up in our hearts, because the death of a loved one is so close and so painful. Some of us who come this morning are afraid: afraid to believe in transforming the power of God and afraid NOT to believe it.

Friends, whoever you are, however you have come this morning, whatever it is that has brought you here, Easter is for you. You do not have to feign happiness. You do not have to pretend to be healed. You do not have to hide your sorrow, your questions, your doubt or your fear. You only have to come and trust that God is here to greet you through the Risen Lord.

Christ is risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

The great spiritual teacher, Henri Nouwen, told the story of a POW who was at risk of losing hope. He had had no news of his family or his homeland. And then one day, miraculously, a letter from home got through to him in the prison camp. It was torn and smudged from months of travel. The letter assured him that his family had not forgotten him. They loved him. They were praying for him. It said: “We are waiting for you to come home.” The letter restored his hope and gave him the strength to hold on.

Nouwen went on to say that in Christ Jesus, God has written us a letter. Christ is our letter from God. Sometimes the words of the Bible can fall flat on our ears; the prayers of the church fail to touch our hearts. It is the living Christ who comes to us, just as he did to Mary and Mary Magdalene as they ran to tell others. The Risen Christ is God’s letter to us, sent to reassure us that we are not forgotten, that our tears and our fears and known to God and that there is always a place for us in the waiting love of our God.
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"Our Name is Resurrection" by Rev. Patricia Farris, March 27, 2005

Christ is risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Because Jesus shared our life and death, the real power of our faith in our resurrected Savior is that it comes to those places in our hearts that hurt the most. Ours is real faith for real life, which always holds a measure of pain and loss. I recently read a letter from one of our military chaplains, serving with our troops in Iraq. As we hold them and their families in our prayers this day, I want to share her story. Chaplain Terri Jones described visiting a mortuary there and spending time with the soldiers who care for the dead. One had been an Administrative Specialist, whose new assignment had yanked him from an office and sterile paperwork to the work of keeping the records of the personal effects of those who had been killed in the line of duty. Chaplain Jones said: “As he spoke with me, his eyes filled with questions of how to live in the daily presence of grief and the harshest realities of war…These are raw moments. The ones lacking words to explain, express or understand. Moments that stand in defiance to anyone who would pose simple answers.”

“When I meet grieving soldiers,” she said, “I see Christ, in his agony, in their eyes. I pray [that] when they look into mine, they see the hope of his resurrection.”

I pray they see the hope of his resurrection.

Ours is not a simple faith, or a fleeting hope, or a once-in-a-hundred-years experience. Our faith is strong because it is grounded in real life and it takes that life seriously and says, even so, God has the power to raise us up. Our faith is found in Christ’s way of dying and rising, dying and rising, dying and rising. Ours is a faith real enough to give strength to frightened and grieving soldiers, a faith strong enough to one day beat swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Dying and rising, dying and rising, dying and rising. God’s letter is addressed to us in Christ Jesus. Our name is Resurrection.

Christ is risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Oh, daily we must take up our cross to follow him. Daily we must choose his path. Like Mary and Mary Magdalene, there may still be fear within us, along with our great joy. Heavens! In a world such as this, of course there will be fear within us sometimes. But we are now no longer defined by that fear. We are no longer limited by that fear. We are no longer held captive by that fear. We have received a letter from God in Christ Jesus addressed to us by name. Our name is Resurrection.

In recent weeks, the nation has been inspired by the incredible faith and strength of Ashley Smith. Ashley is the young woman who was taken hostage by the fleeing Brian Nichols after the horrible shooting rampage in that Atlanta courtroom. Nichols was armed and dangerous when he nabbed her outside her apartment at 2 a.m., coming back from a trip to the store. This 26 year-old mother said that she did what her faith taught her to do: to see him as one hurting soul reaching out to another.
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"Our Name is Resurrection" by Rev. Patricia Farris, March 27, 2005

Through the long night, she began talking to her captor and gradually began to win his trust. She showed him pictures of her family and of her little daughter. She made him pancakes. She talked to him about the family of one of the men he had killed, and how his murder left another family bereft. She read to him from the Bible and she spoke to him about God. He noticed that she was reading Pastor Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose-Driven Life” and she read him a chapter out loud and talked with him about its themes of finding God’s purpose for oneself.

Her faith helped him see that his life did not have to end in a bloody battle with police. Finally, he let her go to see her daughter, and as he knew she would do, she called 911 and he was arrested and taken into custody.

She reported later that he had told her to look into his eyes and see that he was already dead. But she replied: “You are not dead. You are standing right in front of me.” In her eyes, he saw the hope of resurrection.

Ashley Smith had the presence of mind and the faith to see even her captor as a human being, a child of God, and to reach out to him. Her faith propelled her past her fear. She was God’s letter sent to Brian Nichols that night and in her resurrection eyes, he could see that even he was not beyond hope. Even he was not outside God’s love. Even he was not beyond the power of God to raise up new life.

It was not yet Easter on the calendar, but it was Easter in this young mother’s life. Her witness inspires us all this morning to live into our faith with equal courage and conviction. To know that the power of the living Christ lifts us up to be instruments of God’s love in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. To be living letters of God’s love and hope for every hurting person in this world, the hope of resurrection shining in our eyes. Our name is Resurrection.

Brothers and sisters, this world will be transformed by the force of our witness and the depth of our insistence on the triumph of love. For all who believe in Christ Jesus, love is stronger than hate and war. Love is stronger than violence and crime. Love is stronger than suffering and death. Love is stronger than fear and doubt. This world will be transformed and we will all be changed by the power of God’s great love in Christ Jesus. Our name is Resurrection and from this day forward we witness that the power of that love can change our lives and change the world. Our name is Resurrection.

Christ is Risen! HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Our Name is Resurrection Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris March 27, 2005

Our Name is Resurrection
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
March 27, 2005