Creekside Church Sermon of April 23, 2000 "Easter Fear" Mark 16:1-8	Rev. David Bibbee
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"Good question," the professor replied. "I'm wearing this to demonstrate that good physics requires a vivid imagination and the willingness to have one's expectations disrupted by new information." This idea really intrigued me, but Twig suggested that I not wear the dress and heels, mainly because I don't look all that great in red. The professor's desire that his students used their imaginations and be open to fresh insights, can certainly be applied to that singular forever moment in history which has brought us together this morning.

If ever there was a claim that calls for a stretch of the imagination and requires us to alter our expectations then certainly it is the great affirmation repeated millions of times throughout the world this day..."Christ is risen!" The resurrection of Jesus is what our faith is all about. It is what the church is all about. This is why we go to Easter extremes. We pull out all the stops to say that his resurrection is so. But we often forget that this claim is not believeable to most people. Because of our familiarity with the Easter story, we make it seem that belief in the resurrection is no problem at all. We reduce the resurrection to analogies equating it with the blooming spring flowers after a long winter's nap, or an ugly caterpillar emerging from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly. Resurrection is not even the experience of those who have been pronounced clinically dead and for a few moments see the great white light of God, only to be snapped back into their bodies. These things are wondrous and precious in and of themselves. All around us are signs that rebirth has been written into God's creation. But our analogies always pale in comparison.

Resurrection is something of another order altogether. Death has a terrible finality to it. I have witnessed several deaths in my years of ministry. To behold a death is an emotionally wrenching experience, and I have yet to see one of those bodies showing signs of resurrection. Hundreds of people watched Jesus die before their eyes on Friday afternoon. They watched Jesus die just as they had watched others die before him. But no one witnessed his resurrection. No one. Only God knows what happened. The disciples Jesus picked weren't the sharpest men around. The gospel of Mark makes a point of showing the dullness of the disciples' perception skills. When Jesus told them he would be killed and on the third day be raised, they didn't get it. On Easter morning when the women ran to tell the disciples Jesus was alive, they didn't believe it.

We come with great expectations on Easter Sunday. We all would like a fresh infusion of Easter faith as we raise our songs and triumphs high. But this morning I ask that you not think of Easter in typical terms. I will ask you to allow your perceptions and expectations to be disrupted with new information. Instead I am going to ask you to consider Easter fear. That's right, Easter fear.

I don't see fear on the faces of Easter worshipers. The hymns we sing are not about fear. You may fear that you're going to get everyone up and dressed and to the church for the 7:30 service. You might be afraid that the old dress won't match the new shoes. You may be afraid you won't be able to keep the kids out of the Easter candy. Maybe you're afraid you will be picked on by the preacher because it's been a year since you've been back. Fear, is the furthest thing from our minds on Easter. No fear here...not on Easter. However, Mark's account tells us that fear was very much a part of the Resurrection day.

Early on Sunday, before dawn, the women went to the tomb to give Jesus' body a proper burial. But when they arrived the stone that sealed the entrance had been rolled back. Inside they didn't find Jesus. Instead they found a young man dressed in dazzling white who told them the one they sought had just checked out and left a forwarding address. "Go tell the disciples he will meet them in Galilee as he said." But the women didn't follow instructions. They trembled and said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.

There's nothing like fear to keep us from our calling as christians. We know, much of the time, what we are to do, but fear keeps us from doing it. The women were the first to know the greatest event in history, yet they were afraid and said nothing. Great news was captive to fear.

Let's talk about ourselves a moment. What fears keep us captive? We fear rejection. We fear getting too close. I have the fear that you won't know me as I really am. I have the fear that you will know me as I am. There's the fear of being bypassed for a promotion. There is fear of extra responsibility when we are promoted. We fear success. We fear failure. We fear for our children. We fear for what might happen next week or next year. We fear not having saved enough for retirement. We fear there won't be a time we are without fear. We fear that we will die before we live. We fear God's judgement. We fear God's love.

Mr. Smith stood before God's throne commending his own cause. As he chronicled the finer qualities of his live, he noticed God wasn't impressed, not even with Mr. Smith's occasional visits to church. And with pride he said, "I always gave old Mrs. McGillicudy leftover tomatoes from my garden." Then God questioned Mr. Smith. "Why did you go along with those unethical business practices at work?" "I was afraid I would lose my job." "Why didn't you do more to help the poor?" "I was afraid my family wouldn't have enough." "Why didn't you go to the family next door that was breaking apart and offer to help in some way?" "I was afraid of prying." Then God said to Mr. Smith, "You have spent far too much of your life being afraid." Then in his own defense Mr. Smith said, "Okay...point well taken. But what about Mrs. McGillicudy's tomatoes?"

Many of us, present company included, spend too much precious time being afraid. This is why throughout the Bible, and especially in the Gospels, we see two very important words. "Fear not." I remember a verse from a song by Annie Lennox. She sang, "Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death." We all will get around to dying. But not all of us will get around to living. "Don't be anxious," Jesus said. "Being anxious won't add one inch to the span of your life. Don't be afraid," he said. "I have overcome the world." "Don't be afraid," the young man in white told the women. "The one who was crucified has risen. He goes before you. Go and tell his disciples."

Fear got the best of the women. They said nothing to anyone, at least at first they didn't. Our fears create dark prison cells which keep us from life. But on this day we worship the God who gave Jesus his life back again. What Christ has given us is a way out of our dark little prisons of fear. Peter Gomes says that fear, not sin, is the great curse of our lives. When Jesus was resurrected, he gave us what we lost beneath the accumulation of all our fears. He gives us possession of our own lives. "This is why I came," he said, "that you may have life...abundant life." No more does fear have the power to jerk us around. Jesus conquered death. By removing the fear of death, Jesus has pronounced the death of fear.

Imagine you are going to the funeral of a friend, then three days the friend calls and asks you to go out for a cup of coffee. Do you think you might be slightly terrified? Imagine you were among those who ran like the wind when Jesus was arrested. Then you are told he is alive. Do you think he would be fearful facing him?

We can understand the women's fear. If Jesus was alive, it meant everything had changed. If God raised Jesus from the dead, there was no telling what might happen next. But amid all the uncetainty, one thing they were sure of...from then on, the last word was God's word.

"Afraid" wasn't the last word of Mark's Gospel for long. The women who found the tomb empty didn't stay afraid. After Sunday, the trembling terrified disciples came out of hiding, now strangely bold and brave, standing up to what once had kept them down. The message today isn't that we should live fear- free lives. The message is that we can exchange fears. We can exchange the fear that paralyzes and imprisons us for a fear we can live with...Easter fear...the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom.

It's not a fear that hurts us or renders us helpless. It is the fear that comes from knowing how very vast and incomprehensible God is. The fear of the Lord shows us how very small we are before God's indescribable greatness. The God we cannot comprehend is the God with whom we can be in relationship. This God has conquered everything that can ever conquer us. Holy fear reduces us to awe and adoration, and gives us the courage to do the things which we once were too afraid to attempt.

Frederick Buechner writes: The symbol of Easter is the empty tomb. You can't depict or domesticate emptiness. You can't make it into pageants and string it with lights. It doesn't move people to give presents to each other or sing old songs. Even the great choruses of Handel's Messiah sound a little like a handful of crickets chirping under the moon in comparison.

He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and unbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some neither has death.

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