Easter 2023

Happy Easter. I am so grateful that we are all able to gather here together physically in this place.

It feels very different than Easter 2020. And so that enough is enough to fill my heart with joy.

The other thing is on Easter Sunday, we tend to preach about the same topic.

It kind of comes up every year because this, of course, is the Super Bowl of the liturgical calendar.

And so I am glad that we are all here and that take a few moments to take a second and reflect

and remember the fact that we are here because we are part of the new humanity created in the image of Christ

placed on this great, on this universe that's saturating with grace so that we can be vessels of that love, mercy, and grace to others.

And so let's take a moment to remember why that is. And so as we tend to do on Easter Sunday,

I attempt to preach a message where we go from Genesis to Revelation.

But don't worry, I like you and baking a ham to celebrate the risen Jewish Messiah.

So I will need to make sure I watch the time. So if you will, let's think about Genesis chapter one.

Here's what simply and succinctly what we are celebrating today.

The gospel is a story of how God in Christ has taken humanity from death to flourishing,

not just let death to life, but death to shalom, how God in Christ has taken humanity

if we respond to the invitation from death to flourishing.

The story begins, of course, in Genesis chapter one where it says in the beginning.

And what it says is in the beginning, God creates the heavens and the earth.

And as you read that narrative, as you go down that narrative, there is a frame that is repeated over and over.

It is good. It is good. It is good. And finally, it is very good.

And when we say that God created the universe, as we take into account the fullness of Scripture

and the full testimony of Scripture, what we learn is this. God is love.

Not just that he's loving, but he is love. So whether we believe in him or not,

we are always being touched by his grace. Because when you look into the eyes of your beloved,

be that a friend, a partner, or your children, when you look into their eyes and you say,

I love you, and that energy that's reverberating between the two of you, that is the presence of God.

So in the beginning, love created the heavens and the earth.

And then we look at Genesis 2, and it celebrates the creation of humankind.

It says that God makes humankind, of course we can say love makes humankind.

And he creates a garden for them, not just as a utilitarian means of having a place to exist and food to eat,

but he creates a garden that is pleasant to the eyes and the senses, and he creates harmony among the man and the woman.

In other words, he gives them a place in which they can flourish and delight.

And he gives them dignity of worth by making them in his image.

And he gives them dignity of purpose by giving them the responsibility to care for creation and care for one another.

If they were asked the question, am I my brother's keeper, what would they have replied in that perfect harmonious state?

Yes, I am my brother's keeper, because that is the dignity that my creator has bestowed upon me.

And then we're told a story in Genesis chapter three.

Many of us may be familiar with it. We've probably seen it in doctors and dentist's office.

If you've seen the children's Bible and you open it up the first few pages, there's a naked man and woman with bushes properly placed where they need to be.

And it says that they that they were tempted to eat off a tree that they were told not to partake from.

They were tempted to take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they are both deceived.

They both choose to eat from this forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And here's the thing. You look at that story, the key deception of humanity that distracted us was a lie that you are not enough.

The creator didn't create you being enough. But there's another way.

And you can bypass what he's neglected if you will act independently.

And so that's exactly what happens. They believe God didn't make them enough or that maybe he wasn't enough, that maybe he was holding out on some pleasure for them that they weren't experiencing.

And so maybe the thought entered their heart and mind that perhaps he can't be trusted.

So they take the fruit and they eat together. And then it says that once their eyes are open, they can now have the knowledge of good and evil, my friends,

which means they can categorize and they can judge. They're filled with shame and they seek to gather them to cover themselves.

It becomes the reality that dominates the human discourse. This tension, this polarity, even down to modern day Facebook conversations.

We can see the result of what happens when independent from the mercy of God, we take it upon ourselves to define good and evil and judge those who are worthy and judge those who are not worthy.

And we see it all play out in this one little brief chapter. In this moment, they are taken from a place of vulnerability and intimacy to hostility and hiding.

Suddenly they experience a new sensation that will come to dominate theirs and their posterity's life.

That sensation is known as fear and it's rooted in shame and guilt and deception and rejection and in the lie of alienation.

But that fear begins to dictate their decisions as it does the rest of their posterity's.

Genesis 3, 8 through 10 kind of revealed the tragedy.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking out in the garden.

So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, where are you?

He replied, I heard you walking in the garden. So I hid.

I was afraid because I was naked. And then we see this harmony with God is disrupted, harmony within himself is disrupted, and harmony with his wife, his mate, his partner is also interrupted.

So we see this breakdown between a relationship with God, a relationship with ourselves, relationship with one another.

And ultimately, as the story goes on, our relationship with the created created order itself is now characterized by antagonism and a hostility that is not what God intended.

And he picks up the dialogue in verse 11. Who told you you were naked?

The Lord asked, have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I can manage you not to eat?

The man replied, it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.

Then the Lord God asked the woman, what have you done? The serpent deceived me.

She replied, that's why I ate. Harmony is destroyed.

Now the fruit of alienation begins to wreak its deadly havoc.

Now, it's important that we see that at the beginning of the story to understand really what it means to celebrate a savior that has overcome death,

because what it means is that disharmony, that alienation, that antagonism has been finally conquered because when Jesus rose from the dead, love won.

And the resurrection is the forever statement that love wins. Love will always win.

And this is the hope that we're celebrating this morning.

But for now, in the part of the story, this part of the story, alienation, this lie begins to cover them and the human experience.

Instead of harmony, we experience resistance within ourselves, with one another, and even with the sweat of our brow as we seek together and work for our own sustenance.

Within one generation, the Bible records the first violent act of murder.

Why? Because of a warped sense of judging what is good and what is evil.

Abel makes a judgment. Or Cain makes a judgment against Abel. And Abel's life, in Cain's mind, speaks judgment to him.

My friends, this is why the Bible says that we literally become children of wrath.

We spend our lives striving to construct more sophisticated fig leaves to cover our shame.

In our fear, we run from God instead of running to him, and we begin to make a mess of God's dream.

On a personal level, we seek to create schemes and strategies for filling the void that has been created by our believing the lie of alienation.

And if you're held captive by the lie of alienation, you will know it because you are afraid to be authentically yourself in front of others.

And the reason why is because your heart is still captivated by that lie.

But Jesus came and he died and he rose again to say, you are not alienated. You are reconciled.

As we begin to seek these schemes to sow these metaphorical fig leaves, we have different strategies.

Some of them sow the fig leaves by keeping all the rules and being honored by and praised by men and women.

Others of us sow our fig leaves by projecting a persona where we just don't follow any of the rules.

Rebellion is my religion. So either way, whether it's, quote, good religion or bad rebellion,

it's all coming from the same place, trying to sow a fig leaf and hide myself because if I reveal myself, I fear rejection from God and from everyone else.

So we come up with these schemes and we construct these very, very sophisticated fig leaves, both religiously and irreligiously.

We use the ones we love and we hate the ones that we do not love.

It's a process that the Bible would come to identify as idolatry and it enslaves us.

But the story of the Old Testament is about God presuming a lineage that would one day see the birth of the Messiah.

God's healing for the sickness of humanity's soul.

And in the fullness of time, the creator became an embryo, then a babe, then a man.

Life enters our death. On the cross, Jesus takes our alienation or our sense and felt alienation upon himself.

In fact, he actually feels forsaken from God.

And that's why he prays that prayer that we find in the Psalms, because on the cross, God feels forsaken by God and cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And taking our sin, our alienation, our death upon himself, he then destroys its power by overcoming it and rising again.

The proof of the completion of his mission to destroy the alienation of death is his resurrection.

That is why we are here this morning. That is why we sing and clap.

And that is why we can feel, hopefully, as we engage in the practice of meditating on the story and singing our worship and praying our prayers,

hopefully you feel that resurrect and hope rise up within your own soul.

Maybe for some of you that's been alive and well, but for others of you, you've walked down a path, you've wandered away and that hope has become dark and feel snuffed out.

And maybe, perhaps, perhaps, the power of that resurrection will bring that hope back this morning.

The Bible proclaims that sin, separation, and judgment have been removed and we are now welcome to come home.

When we live in reconciliation with the Father, we become part of a whole new humanity.

We no longer need to defend or fake or pose or fight or judge or reject.

We are now able to live in the peace that has been secured because of the work of God's only Son.

When we are reconciled, we become reestablished.

We are brought back into that harmony, both with God, with ourselves, and with one another,

if we are allowing the Spirit to do his full work and let the gospel to work the transformation that it promises.

So in conclusion, what exactly does that mean today?

I mean, in one sense, it reads and sounds almost like a mythic epic fairy tale.

But the difference, as C.S. Lewis says, is that although it's a fairy tale, it's a real fairy tale.

I like that. In fact, C.S. Lewis would say it's the only real fairy tale from which all of our other fairy tales derive

because of the ache in our heart for this story. So what does it mean for us today?

It means, my friends, that number one, the Creator is a God who pursues relationship with us, real authentic connection.

It means that the Creator God is the one who chooses to redeem us from sin.

It means that the Creator of God has chosen to reveal his love for us.

We speak rightly so about the significance of the death and therefore the resurrection of Jesus.

But sometimes we speak about it so much that it's as though we think that Jesus's primary mission was to die.

But it misses a very important aspect that the writer of Hebrews reminds us, that Jesus is the exact image of the Father.

Jesus's mission was first and foremost to reveal the Father to us in flesh and blood.

He moved into our neighborhood, rented a house, and lived among us so that we could see the contrast between the God of religion,

the God of money, the God of war, and the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And he does this. He reveals the truth of God's love and forgiveness to us.

So much so that when humanity is executing, murdering the author of life, the response is,

Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do.

Now I know you may have been in some circles that may have said something a little different, and I'm not here to argue with that.

There's probably something to say.

But unfortunately, this is not a situation where they ask forgiveness before they were able to receive it.

God is the God of preemptive forgiveness.

Like it's already covering us by the time we realize we need it, and it's already been given to us by the time we even ask for it.

All this acknowledgment does is allow our lower brain to rise up with Christ to understand that we can live lives of forgiven people.

We can have the audacity to live like we no longer need to pay attention to the voice of shame.

What an amazing thing it would be to one day meet a Christian who lived like they were forgiven rather than that they were depressed as they were trying to keep that forgiveness.

See, it was proclaimed well before we were born and could even ask for it.

This is the creator's heart. He pursues relationship with us.

It's a kind of a theological biblical word for this is reconciliation, and it simply means being brought into harmony with God.

Colossians 1, Paul writes, For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through God reconciled everything to himself.

Question, according to that verse, what has left? What has been left unreconciled to God?

Nothing. He has reconciled everything to himself, made peace with what?

Everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

God has reconciled us. Secondly, in being brought back to the intimacy of this reconciled relationship, we have been redeemed.

So whatever thing that you think creates an obstacle to your living free of shame and guilt and fear,

everything that you think might create an obstacle that would make God be tempted to turn his nose or at least feel exasperated when you approach him all lies.

Every obstacle has been removed. Now, the only obstacles that remain are those we build up by the deception of our own minds and thinking,

which is why our thinking must submit to the truth of the gospel.

First, John tells us that he himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins and not only our sins, but the sins of all the world.

I am so grateful to have lived at 50 so that I could continue to pursuing God and allowing and entering this process where God is transforming me one year to another

by delivering me of unhealthy thinking and bringing me into the light of the liberating truth that he reveals.

For years, I taught that Jesus was the Savior that atoned for Christians.

And then I felt convicted when I read the scripture because I got corrected because the scripture doesn't say he himself is a sacrifice that tones for our sins,

not only ours, but of every Christian in the world. That's not what he says.

No, God in Christ has atoned for the sin of the world.

Revelation. And then and then finally, after reconciliation and redemption, we had this revelation of his love.

First, John says this first on four, first nine.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

This is real love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

How do I respond? This is the remarkable part.

What the Bible says, if you want to participate in this invitation, if you want to say yes and come home, you respond by simply believing that it's true.

It's what the Bible calls faith. It's also a word that we come to understand as trust.

So the first thing you have to do is trust that you are loved.

Trust that because of the work of Jesus, you are whole.

And secondly, surrender, surrender to the daily leading of the spirit as he empowers you to become who you are.

Trust and surrender. The old timers called it trust and obey.

There's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

I really love that sentiment. I'm just altering a little bit.

Trust and surrender. This is how we participate in the dream of God.

And this is how we manifest the dream of God.

Would you all stand and would the worship team please come forward?