[Living the Easter Life in] A World Turned Upside Down (Rock Springs UMC Easter)

Our scripture today is Matthew chapter 28 verses one through

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

10. After the Sabbath, at dawn on

the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary

went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake,

for an Angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to

the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were

white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him

that they shook and became like dead men.

The Angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that

you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

He is not here. He has risen just as he said.

Come and see the place where he lay.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples, He has risen from the

dead, and is going ahead of you into Galilee.

There you will see him now I have told you so.

The women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with

joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Suddenly Jesus met them. Greetings, He said.

They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshipped him.

Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.

There they will see me. May the Lord add his blessing to

the reading and hearing of his Word.

Boy, the resurrection in green is a very different vibe than

the resurrection in the bright yellow of a sunrise.

Yeah, it's, it's, is what it is. We're talking today about the

resurrection. And at the resurrection, God did

an extraordinary thing. He turned the world upside down.

And and we're going to look at that in a lot of different ways

as as we go along this morning. But I want to begin with with a

story that's one of my favorite stories, and I don't think I've

told it here before. And I'm going to tell you a

shortened version of it, because the full version is much too

long to do as part of a sermon. Has anyone ever heard the story

of the greatest cornflake? Anyone ever heard that?

Oh, good, good. Nobody's heard the story of the

greatest cornflake. The the greatest corn flake also

happened to be the first corn flake.

And, and as the corn flake was coming down the chute after

having been made to be put inside the very first box of

corn flakes, he, that corn flake, found himself on the

bottom of the box and all the corn flakes piled on top.

And so he pushed and he shoved and he shoved and he pushed and

he pushed and he shoved and he pushed until he got to the top

of the box. Being the great little cornflake

that he was. That box went down the conveyor

belt and it got to the end of the conveyor belt and there was

a big bin there at the end of the conveyor belt that would

take the box to the place where it would be crated.

And that box went off the end of the conveyor belt down into that

bin and landed upside down. And so the cornflake found

himself back on the bottom of the box.

So he pushed and he shoved and he shoved and he pushed and he

pushed and he pushed till he got to the top of the box, being the

great little corn flake that he was.

Well, that bin was wheeled around through the through the

factory until he got to place where it was put in the crate to

be put on the truck. And as that was lifted out of

the bin and put onto the crate, they turn the box right side up.

And so the corn flake found himself back on the bottom of

the box. So we pushed and he shoved and

he shoved and he pushed and he pushed and he pushed till he got

to the top of the box, being the great little corn flake that he

was. Now, when they when they the

forklift picked up that set of crates to carry it to the truck,

you know, it was late Friday afternoon and the forklift

driver was a little tired. He was paying attention and, and

he, he, he dumped it and, and everything spilled down on the

ground and that big, the box ended up upside down again.

And so the corn flake was back on the bottom of the box and he

pushed and he shoved it. He shoved and he pushed, he

pushed and he shoved and he pushed till he got to the top of

the box, being the great little corn flake that he was.

Of course, they gathered everything back up and righted

it and got it right side back up and put it back on the forklift.

And so the corn flake was back on the bottom of the box.

So he pushed and he shoved and he shoved it.

He pushed and he pushed and he shoved and he pushed till he got

to the top of the box being the great little corn flake that he

was. Now I'm going to stop the story

here because this story, the way this story works is I keep

telling it and telling it and telling it and telling it until,

you know, my longest, I had a very polite couple of friends

that we were on a road trip together, 3 1/2 hours.

I told this story. So I've got to find out.

Think of a lot of different ways for a box to get turned upside

down in 3 1/2 hours. They were way too polite, very

nice people. But I keep telling the story

until someone says something like, is this story ever going

to end? And then I say no, it never

ends. It's a serial.

Thank you, thank you very much. That's how the story goes.

It's a silly story. One of my favorite stories.

I love telling that story, particularly to polite people.

The shortest I've ever had. I got like 3 times in and a kid

said is this story ever going to be done?

As I go get that was quick, that little stork cornflake.

And that story reminds me a lot of of the message that we have

for Easter here today, which is that at Easter God turned the

world upside down and the things that were on top are now on the

bottom and the things that were on the bottom are now on the

top. That is what Easter was, God

turning the world upside down. And if we're going to live the

Easter life as Easter people, we need to we need to wrap our

brains around that and live like we are in a world that is turned

upside down. Systems of this world might be

stacked against you. You know, we're not wealthy,

powerful, political, industrial people in this room.

We're just folks. The systems of the world might

at times feel and seem and really be stacked against us.

But at Easter, God has turned the world on its head and it no

longer ultimately matters to us if the systems of this world are

stacked against us. We see this in the story of

Easter. He is not.

He is not here. He has risen just as he said.

The message that the Angel gave to those women that came to

visit the tomb where Jesus been buried, He's not here.

They expected one thing. They expected to find the dead

body of the person they had thought was their savior.

And instead they found an empty tomb.

Their world was turned upside down.

And that was part of the plan from the beginning, all the way

back at the beginning when Mary was pregnant with Jesus and she

went to a visit her relative Elizabeth and and by the

inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she spoke these words.

He that is God has brought down rulers from their Thrones, but

he has lifted up the humble in the birth of Jesus, in the

incarnation of Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection,

God was was taking those that were up high and putting them

down low and those who were down low and putting them up high,

turning the world upside down. After Jesus's birth, when they

took him to the temple to be circumcised, they met a couple

of prophets there and one of them, Simeon said this of Jesus.

This child is destined to cause the right, the falling and

rising of many. Jesus will turn the world upside

down. That those are on the bottom

will be on the top. We need to remember, because

this is just as true and just as important, though not just as

pleasant to think about sometimes, that those on the top

will be on the bottom. God's not right raising everyone

to the top. God is raising those who were on

the bottom to the top, and those who are on the top are now going

to be on the bottom. That's the work that God is

doing in this world. We see this at Easter in a

number of different ways. First of all, the crucified

slave triumphs over the Roman Empire, the local authorities

and the religious elite. The Roman Empire crucified lots

of people. They crucified thousands and

thousands of people. They almost exclusively

crucified slaves. Now, occasionally there was

someone who was a Roman citizen, maybe even a powerful person in

the Roman Empire, a senator or someone else of a person of

importance that that they decided needed to be crucified.

And so before they crucified them, they stripped them of

their titles, they stripped them of their position, they stripped

them of their citizenship, and they made them a slave.

And then they crucified them. The point being, before Rome,

you are a slave. You belong to us.

You live at our pleasure and at our will, and we can take your

life whenever we want to. The message of the crucifixion

of Jesus, when Pontius Pilate wrote the King of the Jews over

the at the top of the cross where Jesus was being crucified

was that this is what Rome thinks of your king.

You call him a king, we call him a slave.

You say he's powerful, We kill him on a cross.

The purpose of crucifixion was to put and keep people in their

place, and that place was at the bottom.

But on Easter Sunday, the crucified slave rose again.

The crucified slave triumphed over the Roman Empire.

All the power of Rome could not keep Jesus dead.

All the power of the of the religious elite in Israel could

not keep Jesus dead. He rose again and the world was

turned on its head. We see it in the fact that

instead of life ending in death, death ends in life after the

resurrection. Anyone here like clowns?

Raise your hand if you like clowns.

We you like clowns. Raise your hand if you're afraid

of clowns. We got people that are people.

Clowns have a bad reputation these days.

So I got some news for you about clowns.

You can take it as good news or bad news however you like, but

you might not know that clowns started in the church.

Did you know that the very first clowns were in the church way

back in the Middle Ages? Now, shockingly, and I know this

is shocking, there were times when pastors were boring during

the sermon. Now it's true.

It it, it happened, it happened. They would preach really long,

really boring sermons and the job of the clown was to come out

of a door behind the pastor, come out in front of everyone

through mime. They didn't do any speaking

through mime. They would do something, wake

people up and get their attention back on what the

pastor was saying. They weren't just a distract.

They're they're to refocus, get people back paying attention

again to the message because the pastor gotten too boring and,

and the makeup they wore was part of their identity, their

Christian identity. They put white makeup on their

face and then brightly colored makeup on top of the white

makeup. In ancient traditions, many,

many, many, many ancient traditions, death was symbolized

as white, that when someone died, people would wear white as

part of their mourning. When they wanted to represent or

symbolize death, they would wear a white face.

White symbolize death. And so when the cloud, so you

put, you know, we all have color pigment in our skin and to talk

about death, we would color the pigment, the coloring of our

skin. We would color with cover with

white, but the clowns covered with white and then put color on

top of the color covers, put color.

Oh my goodness, this was not that hard when I was doing it in

my head, put color on top of the white cover and they were saying

we're not going from death to life.

We are going from said it backwards, boy, I am really

messing myself. We are not going from life to

death. We are going from death to life.

That's the whole reason why clowns look the way they look.

So the next time you're watching it, think of Jesus.

Bit of a stretch sometimes with some of the clowns that we have

today, but but that's the idea of clowns to remind us the color

goes on top of the white that life doesn't end to death.

Death ends in life. I got a thought on this whole

thing too. I had a professor in, in

seminary that I argued with him about this when I was in

seminary because I was younger and Dumber than and, and I'm

still not like smart, but I'm not as dumb as I was.

And, and, and he talked about in in Genesis, when, when God told

Adam and Eve don't eat from the fruit of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will surely die.

And then they ate from it. And then the way I've always

heard it taught, and I've taught it myself.

I've taught it myself and, and still say this way sometimes is

they ate, but they didn't die. And my professor said that's

really a very arrogant way to read that scripture because it

assumes that we know what death is and that we know what life

is. What if they really did die?

And what if everything that we have called life since is really

death? And we don't even really know

what true life is until the resurrection of Jesus and his

disciples encountered someone for the first time, truly and

completely and fully alive. And that's the life that awaits

us, the same life that Jesus has now, a life that we don't even

have the right words to describe, Paul said.

We just know we're going to be like Jesus because we're going

to see him as he is. Beyond that, it's really hard to

say, but the world has been turned upside down.

Our life doesn't end in death. Death ends in life.

The other thing here, turning the world upside down.

Women are made the first apostles and evangelists of the

good news of Jesus Christ. Rick talked about this for

several weeks with the kids in the children's message.

I hope you were listening along too.

It was good stuff, important stuff.

It's children's messages, always are, but the women if, if, if

this whole resurrection of Jesus thing is a made-up lie so that

the people that made it up could be important religious leaders

or something like that. It's a really bad lie for a

number of different reasons. And one of the reasons it was a

really bad lie was in that day, women were not considered

credible witnesses. Their testimony didn't count or

count as much in court. They were not considered

reliable, credible witnesses. And so if you're making up a

story, you wouldn't make up a story in which women were the

first witnesses of the resurrection.

It would have been men. Jesus knew that.

Jesus sent his Angel to the women.

Jesus himself appeared to the women, and he made them

apostles. That word apostle in the New

Testament just means one who is sent out.

Jesus sent them out, and he sent them out with the good news of

Jesus's resurrection, which also made them evangelists.

The very first apostles. The very first evangelists were

women. God, Jesus turning the world on

its head, elevating those who have been at the bottom and

placing them at the top, sending them out.

We see that. We see that there in Matthew the

Angel said to the women, go quickly and tell his disciples,

he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into

Galilee. There you will see him.

And then Jesus himself commissioned them.

Jesus said to them, do not be afraid.

Go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee.

There you will. There they will see me.

Finally, we see at Easter that the strategies of the powerful

are powerless to stop the tactics of the crucified slave.

Rome did not do crucifixions by accident.

Rome did not do crucifixions in a reactionary way.

Rome did crucifixions as part of their strategic plan for

governing a very large empire of very diverse peoples.

And, and they knew that the poor people and the powerless people

vastly outnumbered the rich and the powerful people.

And so part of the strategy is we need to do things to make

sure that large majority of people knows their place and

they're afraid of us. And so we crucify people.

We do it publicly, we show it how painful, humiliating,

disgraceful it is. Typically when people were

crucified, Jesus died very quickly on the cross.

Typically people hung on the cross for days before they died.

And, and I won't get into all of the details of what that was

like, but it was awful. And here was Jesus crucified by

the powerful Roman Empire in collaboration with the religious

elite in Israel. And now the crucified slave has

risen again. The power of the Roman Empire,

the power of the religious elite was powerless against Jesus's

tactics of love and mercy and grace and forgiveness.

You see what the Roman Empire wanted people to think of

themselves as, as everyone was a potential victim before the

Roman Empire. And Jesus said, you cannot make

me a victim. I willingly give my life.

I dare you to crucify me. Frankly, that's what I've had in

mind the whole time. You go ahead, execute your

strategies. I will continue my tactic of

loving the powerless, of touching the lepers, of

elevating the women, of embracing the outcasts.

I will continue to do those things.

You crucify me and let's see how all of that works out.

Because Jesus was never a victim of the Roman Empire.

Jesus willingly and voluntarily gave his life so that the people

on the bottom could live and be lifted up.

The strategies the powerful were powerless to stop the the

tactics of the crucified slave. See, God brings and restores

order to what sin has disordered.

As we think about the world turning upside down, it's it's

easy to imagine that of God taking what has been ordered and

then disordering it. God's getting things out of

order. But that's the exact opposite.

God is taking something that is out of order, the systems of

this world, and putting them in order, the proper order, the

right order. I'm reminded of a story that

Dallas Willard has told in one of his books, True story, tragic

story about Air Force pilots that were in training and

fighter jets and as part of their training, they were flying

on instruments. So and it was night.

They couldn't see. They were just flying on the

readings of their instruments. And I'm not a pilot.

I got to think that's really, really hard to do and to do

well. And they got a signal and, and,

and they were told to pull up and, and one of those, one of

those pilots pulled up and flew right into the ground.

She had her plane upside down, but she didn't know it.

And she thought up was down and down was up.

And so when she tried to go up, she went down and she died.

This is how our world has been since then, entered the world.

We have been upside down. And Jesus at the resurrection is

finally putting things right side up, putting things in the

right order with the right people on the top and the right

people on the bottom. Not the powerful people, not the

wealthy, the humble, the poor. Those are the ones that God says

are on the top. Those are the ones that I am

elevating now. Even death, even death I should

have gotten. I'm realizing now I should have

put these two slides in different order because anyone

here a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

OK, I'll forgive you. OK, I used to be a fan of the

Marvel Cinematic Universe. I believe that the Marvel

Cinematic Universe has a a real problem now, and it has at least

at the very least caused me to get bored with the Marvel

Cinematic Universe. And the problem with the Marvel

Cinematic Universe is the multiverse.

If you don't know what the multiverse is, the multiverse in

in, in the MCU is based on, on, loosely based on scientific

theory, very, very speculative that there are an infinite

number of universes out there in which everything that can happen

does happen. And so anytime someone in a

Marvel movie dies, we know they're never really dead

because there's another one out there in another universe that

will come back and take their place.

And we're getting that there's another Avengers movie coming

back. Iron Man's going to be back.

Captain America is going to be back.

All these folks that supposedly died or coming back.

And, and to me, that makes for boring storytelling because

there's no tension if, if I grow to love a character in a movie

and I see them die, that that's, that that means something.

You feel that. But if you see them die and now,

yeah, 2 movies down the road, they'll be back.

It's like, who cares? They died.

So what makes for, I believe, really boring storytelling?

If you still love the MCU, that's OK.

There's a place in heaven for you, too.

There really is Just, you know, we'll be watching TV together,

that's all. The curse of the MCU is the

blessing of the Easter life because we know the end and we

know everyone who is a follower of Jesus gets their life back.

So there's no tension. Death has lost its power.

Death has lost its sting because there is no more tension.

When someone dies in Christ, we know they will get their life

back. Yes, there is still pain, there

is still heartache. That is real and powerful when

we lose someone that we love. But in the end, knowing that

their life will come back in the end, as we face death ourselves,

knowing that our life is coming back, that we will be like Jesus

because we will see him as he is, it removes that, that

ultimate bite and ultimate sting of death.

And, and what makes for boring storytelling makes for wonderful

Easter living, Living with that reality, living with that hope

that our lives do not end in death, but that our death will

end in life and that God has turned things around and set the

world right. There's still pain and there's

still death, but there is a sequel, a sequel better even

than Avengers End Game, which was a very good movie, I have to

confess. Very good movie.

There is a sequel, and that sequel is the Kingdom of God and

the Kingdom of heaven. And we know the ending when

Jesus returns and the dead in Christ rise and we meet him and

see him as he is and we become like he is in the resurrection

in that life. Now I say this and I, I've said

it intentionally and, and, and, and I hope clearly that the

promise we have and the hope that we have for resurrection is

for those who die in faith in Christ that have given their

lives to Jesus, that have accepted him not just as Savior,

as Savior, but not just a Savior, also as Lord, as the

King, the one in charge of their life.

And then we have that hope of resurrection.

I'm just going to say today, if you have not taken care of that

part of your relationship with God, today is a good day to do

that. I'm not going to do.

And every head bowed, every eye closed.

I got a lot of that kind of preaching when I was growing up.

It aggravated me. I got saved like 14 times

growing up. But it matters our standing with

Jesus and our relationship with Jesus.

And if you have not accepted Jesus's invitation to be part of

his Kingdom and be part of his family, this is the best day to

do that. Now, the best day was, you know,

a few years ago, but you can't go back in time.

So today is the second best day. So if you haven't done that,

take care of that today. Now I got.

Let's see that. Look at that.

Look at that. Look at that.

Yeah. All right, it doesn't take much

for me to impress myself. My very first gift I've ever

made. Right there.

First one. Thank you.

Thank you. Very, very first one.

Made a cornflake box turn upside down.

All right, it's all right. Now, here's the thing.

I love the cornflake story. One of my favorite stories.

But we are not the greatest little cornflake because the

greatest little corn flake. He had to push and shove and

shove and push to get to the top of the box.

He had to get himself to the top of the box and to get to the top

of the box he had to push others down and stand on their

shoulders. We have it so much better.

Jesus just turns the box over. He just turns the box over so

that those were on the bottom are now on the top.

Now here's the thing. That means the Easter life, the

Christian life, is not a race to the top.

It's not a race for power. It's not a race for prestige.

It's not a struggle for glory. It's not a struggle for wealth.

It's a race to the bottom. How low can I go to serve others

and minister to them and care for them and lift them up and

build them up? Because I know that if I die at

the bottom of the box, that box gets turned over and I'll be on

the top. And that's the calling that we

have not to struggle and strive our whole lives to become the

greatest and the best and to be over and above other people.

But the struggle to get down on our knees and serve and love and

compassion and mercy and grace and trust that Jesus will turn

the box over in the end because he already did it in a real

sense, in the resurrection. We might not see it all yet, but

it's happened. It's happened.

And that's the Easter life. That's the Easter life in a

world turned upside down as we can be.

We can be happy on the bottom with the world stacked against

us, just loving and serving like Jesus, loved and served until

the day we die and our death ends in life and we live with

Jesus forever, as the scripture says, reigning with Jesus

forever and the Kingdom of God. Amen.

Amen.