Easter Sermon 2008

Alleluia, Alleluia, In the name of God, Creator, Saviour, Liberator. Amen.

It is a delight and a pleasure to see so many of you here to celebrate the resurrection this morning. It is a particular pleasure for me to have my parents here today. And I want to begin with a story my father has told me of the time when we first moved to this great city.

On the day in question - it was the first day for him at a new job - he went to work. The other managers and directors asked to see him. They had a question.

“Tell us,” they asked, “which team do you support?”

Now, my father is no fool. He had been prepared for this moment. He knew the answer.

“Who do you follow?” they said, “Celtic [the team with a large Roman Catholic following] or Rangers [the team with a similarly large Protestant following]”.

My father answered confidently, “Partick Thistle”.

This was met with a stunned silence. One of those present murmured, “Oh my God. We’ve got an atheist!”

[They all trooped out bar one. Who stayed and said, “Well, I support Clyde, actually.”]

Now, the question that I have to ask you this morning is no less demanding and no less intimate. What do you believe about the things that are being said around you in church today.

Are you sitting here in this place with people all around speaking of this Jesus of Nazareth and wondering, is it all so? We proclaim this truth - Jesus Christ is not dead! He is risen. Jesus Christ is entombed no more! He is alive. Jesus Christ, the man put to death on the Friday is here and now present. For if Christ were not risen, we would not be gathered here.

In the face of all that, what do you say? Do you believe? Do you want to believe? Do you hope you can believe? Or is there something nagging away. Is there a part of you that says, “Oh my God. I’m really an atheist too.” Oh my God, I don’t know what to believe about all this. Oh my God. Can it, can it really be true?

Let me try to tell you how I know that it is true.

On Friday afternoon, I stood down there, preaching with the other cathedral clergy. We preached through the three hours - remembering the death of this man Jesus Christ. When I was my turn to preach. I found myself standing in a hushed church, clutching the lectern. And as I did so, I felt and heard a deep rumbling. It was the same sound that raises me from sleep on most mornings. It was the sound of the tube train deep beneath us.

As I have reflected on how to preach the resurrection this morning, I want to preach on another deep, rumbling sound. I want you to go away hearing this other deep rumbling sound. It is the sound of the stone rolling away. It is the sound that precedes the resurrection. It is the rumbling of the stone moving away from the tomb.

Scripture tells us that the tomb was sealed with a large stone. The children have prepared for us an Easter Garden. The tomb yesterday was sealed tight shut. Go and look at it today and you will see the tomb open.

Let me tell you that I can hear the rumbling of the stone moving as I listen to people’s lives. I get glimpses of the resurrection when I hear about all that I know that is good and right. Everything that lives must rise.

I hear the rumbling of the stone moving when food is shifted around the world in a hurry to feed the hungry. I hear the rumbling of the stone moving when people march for peace. I hear the rumbling of the resurrection when people stand up to power and proclaim the commonwealth of commonsense which knows that we need a world without war.

I hear the rumbling of the stone moving when the people of sectarian cities trample over the presumptions of the past and build a new and better life together.

I hear the rumbling of the stone when closets are smashed to pieces and gay and straight people are treated with equal dignity. And I believe that in the face of the most appalling recent prejudice from leaders in the churches in this and in other nations.

I hear the rumbling of the stone moving when school gates in the middle east crash open to receive boy children and girl children alike and give them the same opportunities.

I feel the rumblings of the stone as rocks are moved aside and earth is shifted in the digging of wells for clean water in places where there has been none.

So, do I believe only in a social gospel? Not a bit of it.

I hear the rumblings of resurrection when lives are changed. I hear the rumblings of resurrection when people are set free to be who they are. I feel the world shake when people encounter the living God. The resurrection stone moves and rolls away when someone comes and quietly asks me, “Can it be true? Teach me about spirituality. Teach me to know God too.” I encounter the rumblings of the stone moving from the tomb of death when people find new life through a deeper relationship with God.

These things are not different things. The rumblings of resurrection are all around us. Everything that lives must rise with Christ.

The stones, which used to shut tight the tombs, the closets, the doors to closed worlds of power and privilege, are moving, rumbling, shifting. Rolling away.

Life is changing. God is alive and at work in the world.

So who do you follow? What do you believe?

Do you believe in a world which knows no positive change? Do you believe in a world which knows no force for good? Do you want to believe in a world from which God is wholly absent? A world with no spiritual values? A world which has no hope of new life?

Behold, I set before you life and death, blessing or cursing. Choose life, and you will live.

Choose life. God in Jesus Christ chose life over death, blessing not cursing, resurrection not destruction.

And the offer to you all is the same offer.

And I believe it is true.

For if Christ were not risen, we would not be gathered here.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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