New Life (Matthew 28:1-10)

Easter Sunday is the beginning of a 50-day period in the church calendar dedicated to hope, renewal, and new life.  It lasts until Pentecost, a day which commemorates the in-dwelling of God’s spirit among us and within us.

There are eight Sundays in this 50-day period, including Easter Sunday and Pentecost.  It’s a good time to remember that our congregation is itself seeking and experiencing hope, renewal, and new life. 

Last week I talked about the death of the church, and yes, in order for new life to come, the old life must pass away.  I once heard our General Minister Sharon Watkins say that in the church today, it often feels like death – that’s what people tell her – but her response is that transformation does often feel like a death experience.  Anytime you have to let go of the past, let go of what’s familiar – even if it’s to make way for something new – it can feel like a death experience.

But today’s focus is on that “something new.”  Today’s focus is hope, renewal, and new life.

We have a couple of youth and adults who are thinking about baptism and becoming members of this congregation.  This is a reminder that we as a congregation are always changing.  We are not the same congregation we were a year ago.  In fact, every time we lose someone or gain someone, we become a new congregation.  We are always becoming something new.  The congregation that was is always dying, and the congregation that is and will be is always being born.

Traditionally, churches will have a class for youth who want to be baptized, and a class for adults who want to become members: A “Pastor’s Class,” a “Baptism Class,” a “New Member’s Class,” or whatever you want to call it.  The challenge, however, is that people these days lead incredibly busy lives.  Finding a time when everyone could meet – even if it’s just 2 or 3 people – proves to be impossible!  People are just so busy these days.

As a church, we can complain about that.  We can mourn forever the church and the society that once was.  Or, we can meet the challenge of embracing the church that is being reborn, and find new ways to do thing.

I choose the latter.

So here’s what I’ve decided:  We’re going to have a baptism class, and the class begins now.  This very moment.  You all are a part of it.  Maybe you took a Pastor’s Class many years ago and thought it was a one-time thing.  Well, think again. 

Our classes will last for 8 weeks, until Pentecost Sunday – June 8.  On that day, we will welcome new members into the church, we will baptize those who want to be baptized, and we will celebrate with a big party after worship. 

Each “class session” will have two parts.  Part one is the sermon, in which I will introduce a topic or two.  Then, after worship, we’ll have part two, which is the discussion time.  In the fellowship hall, the tables will have discussion questions for you to discuss with one another. 

Don’t skip out on the discussion time; as much as my own ego may like to think otherwise, it’s the discussion time, and not the sermon, that will be the heart of these eight weeks.

Plus, you get to have refreshments.

I’ve chosen, as the basis for these classes, a list of 12 “Principles of Identity” that I found on the Disciples of Christ website.  Now, you don’t have to have mastered the quadratic formula to realize that 12 principles and 8 weeks means that some weeks we will have more than one principle, and that is the case today.

And one more thing:  all 12 of these principles of identity come out of our identity statement.  And since this is a class, I’d like for us to recite that identity statement together:

We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.  As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table, as God has welcomed us.

If you’ve been around awhile, you’ve heard that before.  With every sermon I preach, this statement is in the back of my mind, and I’ve shared it with you often.  It wouldn’t hurt you to memorize it.  Memorize it, and I’ll be sure to put a little gold star next to your name on the class roster.

Today we have two principles of identity, and the first is this:

We participate in God's mission for the world, working with partners to heal the brokenness of creation and bring justice and peace to the whole human family.

This follows directly from the identity statement.  We participate in God’s mission for the world; we work to heal the brokenness of creation; we bring justice and peace to the whole human family.

Being a Christian, being baptized into Christ, means that we follow Christ.  Right?  We live the way Christ lived, and we do the things he taught us to do.  Jesus was committed to God’s mission for the world, and so we commit ourselves to that mission as well.

What is that mission?  One way that Christ’s mission can be stated appears in the 4^th chapter of Luke.  It’s the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, and he’s in the temple, basically introducing himself and what he stands for to the world. 

He reads the following words from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me…

What does anointed mean?  It means marked in a special way.  Literally, that mark came in the form of oil that was placed on one’s forehead.  Think of Rafiki anointing Simba shortly after he was born; that anointing was a sign that Simba was destined to be king. 

Jesus was anointed.  What was he anointed for?

The Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

After he read this, Jesus rolled up the scroll and said, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled.  In me.”

Jesus has a mission to heal the brokenness of creation.  There are things wrong with the world, and Jesus’s mission is to make them right.  There are people who are suffering, and Jesus’s mission is to bring them good news, news that their suffering is over, or at least, that they no longer have to suffer alone.

And throughout the gospels, you see Jesus helping those who have been bullied, and confronting those who bullied them.  Usually it was the powerful, the rulers, and the religious leaders who passed laws and enforced rules that made it harder for poor people to live.  Their system was a broken system.  It didn’t help everyone, it only helped a few.  That wasn’t right.  Jesus’s mission was to heal that brokenness, and make the world a better place for the whole human family.

As followers of Jesus, that is our mission as well.  To defend the poor.  To speak out for those whose rights have been taken away.  To stand up for those who are being bullied.  And to make sure that our world is a world in which everyone is able to feel secure, safe, and whole.

In bringing wholeness to people, Jesus brings them new life.

The other principle I want to share with you today is similar:

 We anticipate God's coming reign, seeking to serve the God - Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer - whose loving dominion has no end.

Jesus talks an awful lot about the kingdom of God.  Matthew’s gospel calls it the kingdom of heaven, but that’s the same thing.  Some scholars today like to refer to it as the “reign of God.”    

Here’s what those words mean:

The kingdom of God – or the reign of God – describes what the world would be like if everything were as God would want it.  If God were in charge, and all people followed God’s teachings, that would be the kingdom of God.

Now when we do the things Jesus has taught us to do – when we speak out for those whose rights have been taken away, when we stand up for those who are being bullied, when we work to make our world better – we are working to make God’s kingdom come.  We’re working to make it happen.

This is why we pray, every Sunday, for God’s kingdom to come on earth as in heaven.

God’s kingdom becomes real when we care for one another and all the people of the earth.

God’s kingdom becomes real when we care for the earth itself, taking care of creation and all creatures.

God’s kingdom becomes real when we don’t just think about what we want, but we think about what others need.

Jesus said that God’s kingdom is at hand.  He said that it starts right now.  He said that the kingdom is present right now.  Because whenever you care for someone, show kindness to someone, express love to another human being, you are doing the work of God… and God’s kingdom is present in that moment.  The good work you do makes God’s kingdom present.

This is so important to followers of Christ.

For Jesus, it was important enough that even when the people in charge told him to “stop or we’ll kill you,” he kept doing it.  It doesn’t always seem like a big deal to show kindness or love to someone, but it is, and sometimes it can require a lot of courage. 

When Jesus announced his mission by reading those words from Isaiah, the people who heard him were so upset by what he said that they ran him out of town, and even tried to throw him off a cliff. 

It takes a lot of courage to stand up to a bully, especially when that bully is a Roman soldier or ruler.

It takes a lot of courage to show friendship to the person who everyone else makes fun of.  Everyone will look at you and say, “You’re hanging out with that loser?  Why?”

People said that to Jesus.  But Jesus knew that the people he became friends with weren’t “losers;” they were children of God.

I remember once, a long time ago, someone told me that a teenager I knew would probably have killed himself, but the reason he didn’t was because of the kindness I and a few others had shown to him.  Now, showing kindness to this particular teenager wasn’t that hard, and I was surprised to discover that it was so important.  Little acts of kindness and love shown to him really did give him new life.

But we’re called to show kindness to others even when it’s not easy.  We always have the opportunity to show kindness.  We always have the opportunity to be a friend to someone. 

That’s what followers of Jesus do.

That’s how we participate in God’s mission for the world.

That’s how we heal the brokenness.

That’s how we make God’s kingdom a present reality.

And that is how we live as Easter people, because in showing kindness and friendship to all, to strangers, to those who most need kindness and friendship in their lives, we make it possible for new life to happen.