October 24, 1985 and January 24, 1991 are days that I don’t believe I will ever forget.  These were the days my children were born and it is amazing to me how many details I can remember – a conversation in the hospital cafeteria, facilitating a counseling session, planning a funeral, trying to coach my wife to victory, the pronouncements in the Labor and Delivery Room – “It’s a girl!” and five years later, “It’s a boy!”  These are important days in my life, days I will never forget.  Don’t you have such moments, such days in your life?  There are some things too important to forget.

Today is one of those days.  Easter is a day when inextinguishable hope is born.  The message of this day is just as significant today as it was on the very first celebration.  It is simply too important to forget.  However, before the first generation had passed, they were in danger of doing that very thing.  The Apostle Paul wrote to the members of the church in Corinth, many of whom had come to the conclusion that they were ready to move beyond the message of Easter.  His words assure us that this day is too important to forget.  We find those words in I Corinthians 15:1-8. Hear now the Word of the Lord:

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ²through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. ³For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage Paul reminded the Corinthians that the resurrection event is simply too important to ever forget.   The Easter Story has always been the defining story of Christianity.  It is in this day that we discover a hope that rises to the challenges that we face.  Three of the greatest challenges that we deal with are emptiness, guilt, and grief.  Today we will look at how this day rises to the challenge of each of these.  We have a constant reminder of the Easter Event in this sanctuary.  It is one of the stories in these windows.  Last Fall I had the chance to preach about the stories in the East Windows, today I want to begin a series of sermons about the stories in the West Windows.  Because many of you cannot see the window on the southwest corner of the sanctuary, I am going to show you the window on the screen overhead.  Its message is simply too important to forget.  The resurrection reassures us that Christ rises to the challenges of emptiness, guilt, and grief.


Christ Rises to the Challenge of Emptiness

The apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians about the bedrock nature of the Christ event.  He said it was good news - always an important thing to notice.  The source of emptiness is the shortage of good news applied to one’s life - somehow the good news that is around us, does not get assimilated into our beings.  Paul addressed the past, present, and future in this proclamation. This is good news which they received (past), and in which they stand (present), and through which they are being saved (future).  It is an all encompassing assurance.

Jesus was challenged about the resurrection only days before he died.  The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, tried to make him look like a fool by setting up this hypothetical situation in which a man married a woman and then died.  The woman married the man’s brother out of loyalty to the family and he died, this happened seven times.  “So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” they inquired with a significant amount of arrogance.  Jesus’ explanation began with a statement that I have not been able to get out of my head this week.  He said, in Matthew 22:29, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.”  They had been ignoring a lot of the scriptures and they had lost sight of the power of God.  Who is it that has a problem with the resurrection event?  Could it be some who know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?

Last summer I joined a group of Senior High Campers on the High Ropes course at Lakeview Conference Center.  The very first thing we learned was how to secure a carabiner.  It was clear to see that these clips were very important; they were our safety clip that would prevent us from falling, should we slip from 30 feet above the ground.  I watched closely as the instructor pushed and turned and pulled.  This was simply too important to forget.  Paul wrote that this past, present, and future power of the good news is theirs if they hold firmly to this message, otherwise they have come to believe in vain, that is, their faith is empty.

This is a day simply too important to forget.  Dr. Mitchell and his wife knew this. They were the charter members of this church who donated the Resurrection Window.  Dr. Mitchell was a professor of Mathematics at Texas A&M and from all that I could read, his wife was very active in the ministry of this church, planting the oaks in the front yard in 1936.  The Resurrection Window has the cross, the eternal circle, and the rays of light grounded on bedrock, the rock of salvation reminding us of the triumph of the Redeemer throughout the earth.  This good news is solid ground which we have received, upon which we can stand, and through which we too are being saved.  The good news is that Christ rises to the challenge of emptiness.

Emptiness was experienced by the two men who were walking back to Emmaus from Jerusalem on that first Easter morning.  They had believed the words of Christ, but his death had taken all hope from them.  Then Good News began to walk alongside them in the form of the risen Christ.  Even though they didn’t recognize him, their hearts were warmed as he began to unpack the scriptures for them.  When he broke bread at their table they suddenly knew that Jesus was there and their emptiness completely went away.  It was an incredible day.  It is an incredible day, a day when Christ rises to the challenge of emptiness and when…
 

Christ Rises to the Challenge of Guilt

After stressing the bedrock importance of this good news, Paul summarized it brilliantly in a way that highlights the events of this weekend: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared…”  Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.  This was not some afterthought of God.  It is pointed to in the first book of the Bible when in Genesis 3 the serpent is assured that the Son of man will crush his head and the serpent would bruise his heal.  Isaiah looked for a suffering servant who would heal us through his stripes, bear our sins in his being.  Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that his death was for their sake, and at the Last Supper he took the bread telling them, “This is my body, which is given for you.”  Then he took the cup and said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”  Just as the blood of the lamb had been a reminder that the death angel passed over those who had applied the blood to their doorposts, so the cup reminds us that our sins, which separated us from God have been atoned for through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Christ died for our sins.  So that when we feel completely beat up by guilt and shame for things that we have done, Christ comes and assures us, “I died for those.  There is no need to beat yourself up any further.”

The Resurrection Window features that cross, a Greek Cross, symbolizing the sacrifice of Christ.  It also has rays of light emanating from the center of that window out.  According to Emma Gay, in her booklet on the Sanctuary Windows, those rays are a reminder of Malachi 4:2, “But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.  You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” 

The Resurrection has always had this power.  Paul mentioned that Jesus appeared to Cephas, this is another name for Peter.  Peter, the impulsive disciple who assured Jesus that he would stick to him until the very end and then hours later denied him three times to save his own skin, was eaten up with guilt and shame over the events of Thursday night.  There is no sign of him at the crucifixion on Friday, no mention of him on the stillness of Saturday, and when Sunday rolls around the women have to go find him to tell him that Jesus is alive.  Don Francisco tells this story in one of my favorite Easter songs, He’s Alive!,  “Back inside the house again / The guilt and anguish came / Everything I'd promised Him / Just added to my shame / When at last it came to choices / I denied I knew His name / And even if He was alive / It wouldn't be the same.”  To all those who suffer from the burden of guilt, this day is simply too important to forget.  Here Christ rises to the challenge of guilt and says, “I did this for you.”
 

Christ Rises to the Challenge of Grief

Grief is a powerful force in our lives and it tends to whisper lies to us.  It whispers when someone has died that this is the good-bye, that this is the end, that this is defeat.  However, the resurrection responds to those whispers with a loud shout: “This is until we meet again! This is a new beginning! This is victory!” The Corinthians really did not have a problem with the resurrection of Jesus; it was our resurrection that they were arguing over.  This is the first piece, a critical piece, a piece way too important to forget, in his confronting the error of those who were teaching that when we die, we die and that’s it.  Actually, they had more of a Circle of Life type of philosophy where we are absorbed into the great life force that is spirit.  However, Paul is clear that Jesus rose from the dead and this piece of information was so vital to the faith that Christ appeared to Peter and the Twelve, to more than 500 (many of whom could be questioned), to James and the apostles, and even to Paul himself.  Jesus was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.  Later in this chapter he will conclude that if Christ has been raised, we too shall be raised.  This is simply too important to forget.

The Resurrection Window shows the circle of eternity without beginning or end proclaiming the eternity of God and God’s grace for us.  Inside that circle of eternity is the cross, but notice it is an empty cross on which Jesus died, which gave way to an empty tomb from which Jesus emerged, after having been dead and buried.  This is a sign of a resurrection that rises to the challenge of grief.

Mary was overwhelmed with grief.  It is curious that Paul mentioned none of the women to whom Jesus appeared.  Perhaps he was writing about those who needed to be restored from the burden of guilt.  Peter’s three fold denial, James who according to John 7:5 did not believe in Jesus during his public ministry, and Paul who persecuted the early church until Jesus intervened.  I don’t know why Paul omitted the women, but none of the Gospel writers did.  They were the first ones to encounter the risen Christ and when they do, Christ rises to the challenge of their grief.  A beautiful picture of this is when he appeared to Mary in John 20.  Something prevented Mary from recognizing him.  In fact, she thought he was a gardener, but when he spoke her name all the grief dissipated. 

William Barclay wrote that the message of Paul which addresses our grief is this, “After death individuality survives.”   This day addresses all the whispers of grief with a loud proclamation, “Cristo vive, Christ lives!” If Christ has been raised, the promise is that we too shall be raised and all those that we have loved will be raised.  This is a day that is simply too important to forget.

Every time you walk into this sanctuary I want to encourage you to find this window and remember this day, a day when Christ rises to the challenges of emptiness, guilt, and grief and meets them with his resurrection.

It is no wonder that on this day, a day simply too important to forget, we sing, “Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed o’er the grave, and rose victorious in the strife for those he came to save.  His glories now we sing, who died, and rose on high, who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.”  This is a day that is simply too important to ever forget.  Amen.