Creekside Church Sermon of April 19, 1998 "More" John 20:19-31	Rev. David Bibbee
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What a difference a week makes! In the liturgical churches the Sunday following Easter is called "Low Sunday", an appropriate term because we swell at the seams on Easter, and one Sunday later, we shrink. "Nothing is as over as Christmas," somebody said. Instead, I think it should go, "Nothing is as over as Easter." The trees and lights linger after Christmas day is past. But after the Easter service is over, the flowers are taken home, the Hallelujah Chorus is put into the music file till next year, by Monday the chocolate bunny is consumed, and by mid-week the colored eggs have been chopped into egg salad sandwiches. It's a return to normal...back to church business. But it shouldn't be this way. Easter says there is something more.

For those who had given their all to follow Jesus, or had at least housed their hopes on his version of life, on Friday, nothing was as over as Jesus. They had put all their eggs in his basket. They had to let reality sink in. Jesus was gone. The gospels say nothing about them expecting the resurrection. They didn't sit on blankets outside the tomb like tourists waiting for the bats to fly out of Carlsbad Caverns. They were cowering like the frightened little puppies they were behind a triple bolted door and drawn shades. Time to grieve their loss, plot their escape, and figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. But they were about to discover something more.

In Franco Zepherelli's film "Jesus of Nazareth", there is an exchange between Caiaphas and a temple official who have come to inspect the empty tomb. "It's over." The official says. "No," Caiaphas responds. "It's just beginning." Jesus broke out of his tomb and into the disciple's protective tomb. He appeared before these terror stricken men and said, "Peace be with you." He had risen and come to show them so. He came to give what they had experienced with him before, only more. The power that was present up until his death, would continue, forever. It's the same power of the living Christ that is available to us, here and now.

Last Sunday, I said the proofs for Jesus' resurrection are found not in a tomb but in our lives. Throughout history there have been many attempts to explain the resurrection in terms of something less fantastic. The oldest explanation is that he wasn't resurrected. His disciples stole the body and spread the rumor he was alive. It was a publicity hoax. But how long can a rumor give life to a movement? Can a hoax account for the remarkable transformation of the disciples from Good Friday chickens to post-Easter dynamos? Some said he never died, but that he was given a drug before the crucifixion which anesthetized him, and when he came out of it, the disciples billed it as a resurrection. Some explain Easter in terms of Jesus living in the disciple's memory. He made such an impression that they would never forget him. There's just one problem...we do forget. A child who lost his father at an early age broke down before his mother just weeks after the funeral. "I am forgetting things about Dad. I don't remember what his voice sounds like. I can't see his face." Sure, the disciples would retain cherished memories of Jesus, but what good would it do for those who never knew him?

Others explain the resurrection in terms of the lingering impact of a great life. They say he lives on in his teachings and wonderful example. He inspires the way a Shakespeare play reveals truth, or a Beethoven sonata warms the heart, or an Emily Dickinson poem illumines us. These all have an impact, but are they enough to better a life? You need something more to explain the remarkable change in the disciples. You need something more to explain the explosive growth of the church. You need something more to explain how this church, in just two centuries, with no wealth, no armies, no land, and no power but truth and love, brought down the mighty Roman empire. Nothing shy of a belief that Jesus was raised from the dead could do this. Only a resurrection could account for the move from grief and despair to passionate conviction.

Jesus appeared against his disciples expectations, but I want you to consider that in part, he may have appeared against their wishes. The Lutheran preacher Edmond Steimle said, "Before Easter brings inevitable joy, it brings judgment. With Jesus, the disciples buried their hopes and dreams and all his promises; all his love and concern for the downtrodden, but something else was buried with him."

Once two men were taking a stroll on a farm when they came upon an open well. Wanting to know how deep it was, one man picked up a stone and tossed it in and waited for the splash, but heard none. "Throw in something bigger-then we'll hear it," the other said. He then threw in a concrete block and they listened, but still no splash. "Wow! This is one deep well. Get the biggest thing you can find and we'll throw that in." Several minutes later the other man returned with a truck transmission. They hoisted it up and dropped it in, waiting for the sound of water, then one looked up and saw a large billy goat charging straight toward them. They jumped back just as the goat dove into the well for some strange reason. Just then the farmer showed up. "Howdy boys!" "Hi!" they said. "This is a really deep well you've got here." "Yeah, I reckon so. Say...you fellas didn't happen to see my goat did you?" "A goat? Nope we haven't seen a goat. Where did you see it last?" "Well I had it out by the barn a little bit ago-tied to a long rope around a truck transmission."

They buried Jesus and his promises, but tied to it was their anemic faith, their unbelief, their backbiting, selfish ambitions, jealousy, betrayal and denial. The tomb swallowed their faith and their failure. There was so much about Jesus they would miss, but so much about themselves they would rather forget. For a long time, I couldn't understand why the disciples were so terrified when Jesus came back. What made him so scary? In coming back to life, Jesus brought their ugly side with him. Before Easter brings joy, it brings judgment. Along with everything we want remembered, Jesus brings all we would forget.

Jesus didn't appear with shouts of, "Happy Easter, it's me!" "Don't be afraid," is what he said. "Peace be with you," he said because knowing how they failed him left them in turmoil. Peter ran for cover. The Lord was back and they were going to get it, and it was beyond what they had imagined. He judged them all right...but he judged them with love so they could give their faith and failure to him. Steimle says Easter became a commentary on I John, "There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear."

Someone observed, "There is more to life than meets the eye. There is more in our past than history can tell. There is more going on in the present moment than we can know. There is more to our relationships with one another than we are aware of. The more we explore the mystery of ourselves, the more mysterious we become. Seldom are we content with what appears on the surface. Seldom are we at ease in the present moment. We know there is more." Isn't this why we continue to come to church? Easter Sunday alone won't do. Nothing is as over as Easter. We need more. Every Sunday we try in different ways to proclaim that Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, is the heart of our existence. But he means more than we have considered, or even more than we have allowed.

The issue of Easter is whether there is more life in Jesus than death in us. Psalm 103 tells us, "God knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust. Our days are like grass, they flourish like flowers of the field and are gone."

Someone put it in less poetic terms: "The obituary page tells us the news we are dying off, while the birth announcements in fine print at the other side of the page inform us of our replacements." But thank God there is more. Easter counters the fact of death with the certainty that our lives are precious to God. "I have come that you may have life," Jesus said. "Abundant life...the possibility of moving from something less than life to full life itself."

Easter says there is more life in Jesus than death in us. It also says there is more mercy in Jesus than sin in us. Not all the disciples had courage enough to believe this. Judas' betrayal was no worse than Peter's denial, but Judas concluded too soon that he was beyond redemption, so he hung himself. Peter faced his failure and let himself be forgiven. To know the joy of Easter, we must face the reality of death and our sin, and stand in awe of his judgment, for it is a judgment of love which causes us to face our failure, but also frees us to live for him and forgive others like him. The disciples were afraid, but he passed through their bolted door of fear and said, "Peace be with you." We know he lives because our failures aren't the defining fact of our lives, it is his forgiveness.

There is more life in Jesus than death in us. There is more mercy in Jesus than sin in us, and thank God, there is more compassion in Jesus than lethargy in us. If Jesus was not raised, we are on our own. We will have to manage as best we can. We will do little and expect little. But he was raised, and after he calmed the disciples fears and showed them the holes in his hands, Jesus said, "Follow me" all over again. "Tell my disciples I'm going to Galilee,"...that's shorthand for into the world. "There they will see me." Into the world is where he calls us. Get off your big pews and feed my sheep, feed my lambs, heal the sick, share the word, grow my church." If God raised Jesus from the dead, then for God's sake, let's act like it! Be more. Do more. Don't settle for what you've got when you can have more life, more mercy, more compassion.

A few years ago I was asked to conduct a funeral for a Cambodian woman who was the matriarch of a large family. It was one of the most difficult I had ever done. Most of those who attended didn't speak English. There was no interpreter, and I didn't know if any of my thoughts about the Christian view of death and life got through. When I finished, the oldest daughter walked up to the casket, sprayed perfume on her mother, laid it beside the body and then she knelt on the floor before the casket and wept out loud. In a few moments, her sister repeated the action, knelt by her sister and began to wail. Then another joined them. The grieving went on several minutes. The rest of the community sat with expressions ranging from somber to sad to empty to weeping. Then the eldest son went forward, placed his hand on his sister's shoulder, and the crying stopped.

How I wished in that moment we all could have understood each other, I would have said, "There's more-there is more than separation. More than grief. More than goodbye." I would have said, "The God we all long for loved us so much that Jesus got up from his grave, and because he did, God is always with us to wipe every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, or crying or pain anymore." I would have said, "We are so precious to God that he is present to us in the everyday moments of life...to give us more than we settle for."

I didn't say it like that to them, but I just said it to you who have showed up on the Sunday after Easter-after the crowds have gone elsewhere. If you are here because you suspect there is something more for your life and this church, there is. Jesus Christ is risen, and that is enough.

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