LAMBS A’LEAPING

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON EASTER DAY

MARCH 23^rd 2008

"Christ is risen!"   "The Lord is risen indeed; Alleluia!"

Alleluia indeed! The last time March 23^rd was Easter day was 1913 - this is one of the earliest dates one can celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unless, of course, you follow the Julian Calendar as our Orthodox brothers and sisters do - they will be celebrating it on April 27^th.

The fact that it is so early in the English speaking world is a godsend to many preachers today - for they can talk about Easter in terms of the death of winter and re-birth of spring.   Those of a poetic mind will take that further and talk about bulbs sprouting and lambs leaping. About the birth of hope after the death of despair.

Whilst it is nice poetry, it has nothing to do with the Gospel reading for today from Saint Matthew. Mind you, his image of an angel of the Lord rolling back the stone at the tomb and then sitting on it is also nice poetry - but like lambs leaping and bulbs sprouting, it is also beside the point. The resurrection is not about any of these things. It is certainly not about Jesus Christ's body (like John's browns) a’moldering in the tomb whilst his beautiful soul goes marching on!

Saint Matthew tells us in his Gospel that the Jews sealed the tomb with a stone and set a watch upon it so his followers would not come and steal the body away.   Jesus was not supposed to get out.   But he did!   Saint Matthew doesn't tell us how he got out, how it happened.   He says only that it did, and that Jesus Christ then appeared to the disciples, and that they worshipped him.   Subsequently they were then transformed into a community which turned the world upside down, and has ever since. And what turned them and the world upside down is unbelievable in every way.

It is unbelievable in every way. And because it is unbelievable, in every age people have said it was just a myth to prove a point. Indeed - how does this generation deal with something that can not be proved, and is in the end a miracle?

But this miracle sustained the Church right from the beginning and through 300 years of persecution - in which they were prepared to lay down their lives for this Son of God who rose from the dead.   When Constantine freed the Church from persecution, the worship of this risen Christ intrigued the pagans of the Roman Empire. What happened in the new Christian temples was different to what people were used to. This Jesus Christ was no demi-god rising somehow with the newness of spring.

For a start, the Christian community had an altar - but the sacrifice was a meal shared, a meal in which they said this risen Christ came to them again. And the worship seemed like another world.  Their worship was so different - in fact when those pagans stepped in they thought they were on another planet.   Nothing's changed.   People still come to All Saints' and think they have walked in on something from another planet!

But not only was the liturgy strange - the buildings to their minds seemed insensitive.  

At a Greek temple, the altar was out the front of the building on the street, so that anyone could come and offer sacrifice to the deity.  But Christians had their altar inside - and it was right at the East end where the sun rose, recalling those words of the Old Testament that the Son of Righteousness would rise with healing in his wings. And if by chance you wanted to join in and share this worship, you had to join the community - and that sometimes took two years. And you had to believe in a god-man who suffered, died, was buried, and rose from the dead. As Saint Paul said: "To Jews a stumbling block and to pagans madness".

Those pagans could see that as bizarre as the story was, it was central to that community - every Sunday they celebrated the Resurrection of this Lord Jesus Christ.

Some people at the time suggested that what they celebrated - what is still celebrated - is not a body rising from the dead, but the effect the risen Christ had on the disciples.   That is a half-truth. Yes - they did meet him, and yes - they were transformed and were inspired. But if that's all we're celebrating today - we are only celebrating the resurrection of the disciples, and not of Jesus Christ.

Today is not essentially about their experience and transformation. It's about the empty tomb - and who is missing from it. And this missing person is not some caterpillar turned into a butterfly.  He is the risen Christ - he is the god-man!

Today we sing Alleluia to that risen Lord Jesus Christ. So the real question is: who Jesus Christ is?  On the answer to that, everything else hangs.

For Muslims, the Koran makes no sense unless you believe that Mohammed is the ultimate messenger from God. For people of the Jewish faith, the Torah can only be understood if you believe that God delivered it to Moses.

For Christians the test of Christ's integrity was that he really died, and then rose again on the third day.

The death of Jesus Christ presents no difficulty - for we all die. It is the resurrection that defies belief. Most Christians do not come to faith by an immediate belief in the resurrection, for it is outside our human experience. Most of us arrive at a understanding of the Resurrection many years after we learn to pray and read the Bible, and come to Church.

But in the context of the Passover and of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, this Resurrection of our Lord makes sense. It certainly confirmed the apostle's belief about who Jesus Christ was - a perfect human-being, with divine authenticity.

Ultimately even for Christians, the resurrection is a mystery. But it is a mystery easily apprehended, and easily translated.

And ultimately expressed in those familiar words of Saint Paul: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast.   Alleluia".