What a joy to greet you on this glorious Easter morning in the name
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as has become our custom,
I’d like to invite you to help me preach this sermon by joining
me in the ancient greeting of the church on this day: Christ is Risen.
HE IS RISEN INDEED.
What
a day to worship and give thanks to God. We do it with flowers and
music and alleluias. We bring the all of who we are to this time and
place to give God thanks and praise. All of who we are. We bring our
hopes and our dreams, our sorrows and disappointments. We bring our
convictions and our questions. We bring our deepest longings, and
our weary souls and our wildest thoughts. Because, you know, if God
can make this day happen, then just maybe everything IS possible.
Christ
is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.
As
many of you know, a couple of weeks ago we hosted the Keiskamma Altarpiece
here in the sanctuary, that huge work of folk art that is an amazing
testament to the power of hope over the suffering of AIDS in South
Africa. It was here for ten days and our staff did a Herculean job
of getting the word out through press releases and mailings and every
e-list we could find. Our friends at The Santa Monica Daily Press
came through with a great front page story and photo that really grabbed
people’s attention. But in the end, it was word of mouth that
got people here. Friends telling friends and co-workers and neighbors.
By closing day, hundreds and hundreds of people had come. And still,
on that very last Friday, just hours before closing, I heard three
different individuals, here in the sanctuary, on their cell phones,
literally exclaiming to some friend: “You’ve just got
to see this!”
Now
this morning, friends, I hope you’ve all turned your ringers
off so that these fabulous musicians up here don’t have to compete
with you. But, if you’re inspired this morning, if it has just
dawned on you that God is doing something absolutely stupendous and
life-changing right here on Easter Sunday, if you’ve finally
figured out that Jesus Christ is living now to Easter in us--please
feel free to get out your phones and stand right up where you are
and call someone and say: “You’ve just got to see this!”
Christ
is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.
Now,
if the ancient Easter story were to be re-told in contemporary language,
it go something like this. Women, disciples of Jesus, went to his
tomb with sorrowful hearts and spices to anoint the body which had
been placed there just days before. But, we know that what they found
there that morning was something very different indeed. They found
the stone rolled away and they did NOT find the body. They found two
men, or were they angels, who reminded them of what Jesus had said
about this very moment: that he would be crucified and on the third
day he would rise again. Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the
mother of James, and the other women, they hurried back to the other
disciples and they said: You’ve just got to see this! The tomb
is empty. The body is not there. This is exactly what he said would
happen and it has!
But
no one believed them except Peter who had to go and see for himself.
And he ran to the tomb and he saw that it was just as they had said.
And he was amazed at what had happened.
That
first Easter morning nearly 2000 years ago something so powerful happened
that it changed the world forever and is still changing lives to this
very day. There will be differences among believers until the end
of time about what actually happened, about the facts of what happened
that day. It is in the very nature of disciples to see things differently
and to interpret things differently just as we see from Luke’s
story itself. While we may always disagree about those facts, we all
adhere to the truth of the matter, and with the whole church through
the ages we proclaim: “We believe in Jesus Christ, who...suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended
into hell. On the third day he rose again…”
Christ
is risen! HE IS RISEN INDEED.
You
see, dear friends, the fact is that the most brutal suffering the
world could impose, the most awful death, the most intense pain, could
not thwart the force of life itself, the power of God to triumph over
all the powers of darkness. “Christ’s Resurrection is
finally the most real thing there is or ever was or ever will be.”
And
that truth continues to change lives. What happened that day continues
to happen in us. God in Christ “Easters” in us, in countless
disciples, men and women and youth and children, whose lives testify
to the power of this day.
One
story. It was sent to me on the internet, one of those many “you’ve
just got to see this” things that go around. Frankly, most I
pay no attention to whatsoever. But this one caught my eye. As the
story first came to me, it was titled: “Who was Harry Bingham
and why is he getting a stamp?” I guess because as a child,
I collected stamps for many years, it was the stamp thing that hooked
me into the story. A stamp issued by the US postal service with a
picture of Harry Bingham, with the American flag and a few words from
an American visa in the background.
Just
like Peter, I had to see for myself. I read it. I checked it out.
I looked at several other sources to confirm the story, including
the Washington Post and National Public Radio and when I was convinced
of its veracity I decided to share it with you today.
Hiram
Bingham IV, known as “Harry”, was a child of privilege,
a Harvard graduate, son of a former Republican senator from Salem,
Connecticut, and heir to the Tiffany and Co. jewelry fortune. Some
years after graduation, Harry entered the US diplomatic corps, with
postings first to Poland, China and Great Britain. In 1937, Harry
was posted to Marseille, France, that southern seaport city on the
Mediterranean, as Vice Consul. As war clouds were gathering in the
north, this posting to the Riviera might have seemed like an idyllic
place to wait out the war in ease and luxury.
But
as the war advanced, thousands of Jews began to flee from the north
and found themselves in Marseille with nowhere to go. It was a shameful
period in the history of our country. The official US policy at the
time was that these refugees were not to be granted American entry
visas for fear that they might be German spies. And furthermore, the
government did not want to upset relations with our ally, Great Britain,
who had not yet entered the war.
Harry
Bingham was told his job but he responded instead to a higher calling.
Who could have guessed that his faith and his family ties would have
prepared him for a situation he could not have imagined. You see,
his grandfather had been a missionary to Hawaii and Harry himself
was an active Episcopalian. And so, when Harry Bingham was confronted
with the suffering and the desperation of the refugees flooding his
city, he responded as a disciple of our Risen Lord. Defying State
Department superiors, he personally granted visas to the refugees,
saving between 500 and 2500 lives, among them artists Marc Chagall,
Marcel Duchamp, poet Andre Breton, philosopher Hannah Arendt, chemistry
Nobel laureate Otto Meyerhoff. He spent his own money to finance risky
escapes and harbored refugees at his own villa. Bingham’s superiors
finally exiled him to Buenos Aires, where, much to their dismay, he
continued to pursue Nazi war criminals after the war.
Harry
Bingham later left the State Department so that his children could
experience growing up in the United States. In 1980, he made an audiotape
for a school project being done by one of his granddaughters in which
he stated: “My boss, who was the consul general at the time,
said: ‘the Germans are going to win the war. Why should we do
anything to offend them?’ but I knew that] I had to do as much
as I could.”
He
died in 1988 at age 84. His children described him as a man of “missionary
zeal as well as tremendous moral fiber” but they did not learn
of the full extent of his wartime deeds until 1996 when one son found
a cache of his journals and letters in a hidden closet in their Connecticut
home. That son, Kim, now a Justice Department lawyer, headed the campaign
for recognition of his father’s courageous witness. In describing
his father, he said that he “placed humanity ahead of his career.
He always told us: ‘give the best you have to the best that
you know….He was a religious man and a humble person who would
be embarrassed by all this attention because he knew he was doing
the right thing.”
In
2006, the year his stamp was issued, the Episcopal Church added Harry
Bingham to its list of “American Saints”.
Christ
is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.
This
is one story, but I see it repeated over and over again in the lives
of disciples, young and old, who give their time, their money and
their best to do what is right as Christ continues to “Easter”
in us. In a Beverly Hills doctor who virtually lives in South Los
Angeles serving the poor. In an attorney who gives her time pro bono
to consult with non-profits. In children who eagerly bring medical
supplies for our partner church in New Orleans. In organ donors, whose
gift of life has given new life to members of this congregation. In
students and youth who spend their Spring Breaks and summer vacations
helping others. In 90 and 100 year-olds who never stop praying for
the church and its witness.
An ancient prayer of the Russian Orthodox Church sums it all up as
it proclaims: “Christ is in the midst of us! He is, and ever
shall be!”
You
see, dear friends, finally, we might just say that Easter is God’s
way of saying to us, of shouting to us: “People—you’ve
just got to see this!” This life the tomb can never contain,
this power of life, as the Song of Solomon says, whose “embers
are fiery and a flame of the Lord,” this love, this beauty,
this justice, this courage, this Spirit, this hope—God’s
new creation in Christ Jesus. You’ve just got to see this!
Christ
is Risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED.
Notes:
Quote from
the Rev. Dr. Frank Hegedus, Saint Alban’s Episcopal Church,
El Cajon, California.
©Patricia
Farris, 2007. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
First
United Methodist Church
1008 Eleventh Street
Santa Monica, CA 90403
www.santamonicaumc.org
(310) 393-8258
YOU’VE
JUST GOT TO SEE THIS!