Sermon
I have spent much of the last two weeks getting ready for my first Holy Week as pastor. The journey from Palm Sunday, to Maundy Thursday, to Good Friday, and finally to Easter is the high point of the Christian year. When we engage fully in it, we participate in Christ’s entire journey through life, death and resurrection.
Sometimes, in the rush from Palm Sunday to Easter, I think we can pay short shrift to the importance of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, the agonizing prayers Jesus offers up in Gethsemane, and his torture and death on the cross on Good Friday. As such, David, Bert, Sue, Andy and I put in an extraordinary amount of time crafting services that would take you through the fullness of the Holy Week journey. In culminated in the transformation you saw at the beginning of the service.
Sometime, maybe about Thursday or so, it occurred to me that I better figure out what I’m going to preach about on Sunday. I had been so busy getting ready for Holy Week that I just simply hadn’t had time to really contemplate my Easter message until last this week. And boy, then the pressure starts. Since its my first Easter Sunday as a fully fledged pastor, I began to ponder just the right way to share with you the message of Christ’s resurrection. After all, many of you have heard dozens of Easter messages, is there really anything meaningful that I can offer?
I was walking through a parking lot on Good Friday when it finally hit me. God had put a message on my heart, and I began to get excited about the prospects of delivering it. Why hadn’t this ever occurred to me before? It’s just a perfect and relevant metaphor for how we can, and cannot, understand Jesus’ resurrection from the tomb. What was it that suddenly struck me, that one word that God provided to inspire this message?
Zombies.
Yes, the undead. The title of today’s Easter sermon is Jesus vs. the Zombies.
There is no doubt that Zombies are all the rage in popular culture. When AMC’s The Walking Dead debuted this last fall, over six million people tuned in to learn how a small group of survivors would fare in a world overrun with the undead. In 2009, Jane Austin’s famous book was re-released as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies- mashing up the full text to the revered book with a zombie epidemic set in 19th century England. As reported by the Plain Dealer, this zombie epidemic even infected Case Western this past year as over 150 students participated over a 10-day period in a Humans Vs. Zombies game, replete with nerf guns, and official website, and a school sanctioned rule book. Sorry Twilight fans, Vampires are out; Zombies are in.
So why on earth would I bring up Zombies today, on Easter morning of all things?
Well, it occurred to me there are some parallels between the undead and the Bible’s account of Jesus’ resurrection that are worth exploring.
To become a Zombie, you must die, often a gruesome death. Jesus died on the cross. Check.
To become one of the undead, you must rise bodily from the grave. Jesus’s tomb was indeed empty. Check.
Through the touch of a Zombie, a human’s life is then fated to end, and they will be reanimated into a new and changed life. When Jesus comes into our lives, we are called to die to our former life. Though Jesus’ touch, our lives will indeed be transformed. Check.
Zombies are mindless, destructive, murdering creatures that.....ok, so here the analogy begins to break down. But that’s ok, I think you get my point. For all its silliness or gore, there appears to be something tremendously attractive to our culture about the idea that death does not have the final say over our lives. After all, isn’t that the technical understanding of the term un-dead? Un- implies a reversal. So therefore, to become un-dead is to reverse death and to overcome it.
But in his resurrection, Christ shows us a way that is far superior than just celebrating not being dead. Rather then being ghoulish, the resurrected Christ is fully alive. He bursts forth out of the grave and wipes the tears of his followers. Rather then being afraid, Mary and Mary Magadaline throw themselves at his feet and worship. This is a man, our God, who radiates with life. He tells the women, do not simple be content with the fact I have escaped death’s clutches. I have a mission for you, and for all of my disciples. Go to Galilee and you will see me. Go to Galilee and join me in the work of bringing all of the world into the fullness of life.
And so, the disciples come, and Jesus gives them what we now call the great commission- “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” You see, Jesus wasn’t content in having them celebrate that he who was dead is now undead. No, this reversal of death’s power had a purpose- it was to transform and save the entire world.
We as his followers can celebrate that we will also join with Christ’s victory over death. But the question remains, are we going to simply be content with being un-dead, or are we going to be fully alive in our faith?
A faith that is simply un-dead stays put in its environment. It might stagger to church weekly, but it doesn’t grow and learn. An un-dead faith shuts off the mind, is content in its rigid way of looking at the world, and cannot wonder at the mysteries of our faith and the bigness of God’s grace in the world. An un-dead faith cares little for the plight of the down trodden, the poor and starving in this world, no, it cares only for its own ability to continue on and escape the suffering of others. As Paul puts it in his letter to the Colossians, an un-dead faith still engages and draws energy from the powers of death in this world- anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language.
No, as followers of Jesus Christ, as children of the resurrection, we are called to respond to the empty tomb by being fully alive in our faith. Let’s not revel in our own ability to escape death, let’s actively go forth and try to fight against and wipe out the powers of death in this world. Let us put to death our own prejudices, bitterness, desire to be mighty and right, and instead by transformed into resurrected people who love one another with body mind and soul. Let us not merely sit in these pews, but go forth to combat hunger, and disease, war and violence. Let us in all places and times push back the forces of death so that we can join with God in the creation of new and renewed life in this world. Let us be so transformed by the resurrected Christ that our faith can be contagious, causing others to turn away from violence and self-centeredness and toward a Savior who is full of compassion and new life.
There are some in this world who worry that the church, maybe even our church, has become like a zombie. That while we have our buildings, but we’ve lost our soul. That our bodies are still present, but we seem to stagger about with little purpose or energy. That the form of religion is present, but our vital faith is no more. That we are more concerned with dogma rather than disease, politics over and above people.
Brothers and Sisters, on this Easter Sunday at Independence United Methodist Church, we are faced with a challenge. Are we simply trying to survive, or are we looking to be transformed? We will be happy that we are not dead, or will our Easter faith compel us to go forth and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? Are we content to sit here in comfort, or are we ready to charge forth into Independence, or Seven Hills, or Parma, or maybe even Cleveland. Are we willing to make Easter not just a story or a set of doctrines, but a way of living, a way that encompasses who we are and what we do every day of the week, every week of the year.
In sum, my friends, in this Easter season, are we seeking a faith that is merely undead, or yearning for one that is fully alive?
