Expanding Easter
With a Thomas-like attitude we doubt whether very many people were thinking about Easter last Monday much less thinking about it today, a week after Easter is gone. But is it gone? Acts 10:34-43 shows us how Easter continues and how Easter is Expanding! March 30, 2008.
Can you believe it? Easter’s over, and we’re still in March! Pastor Lindemann made us aware in his Easter sermon that in our lifetimes we will not experience an Easter this early again. But because it was so early, it seemed to come and go so fast, what with a super-short Epiphany season and minimal time to get ready for Lent, an Ash Wednesday snowstorm, a Good Friday snowstorm, piles of snow to crawl over to get to Easter worship. But we made it. Easter happened with all the grand music, cross procession, and the message, “He is risen!” Whether you were all alone on Easter Day and ordered pizza while watching NCAA tournament games, or whether you gathered with family and friends to enjoy an Easter feast, by now the Easter leftovers are almost gone, the Easter bonnets have been stored away for another year, the hard-boiled, colored Easter eggs and chocolate Easter bunnies have been consumed, and the relatives have departed. Easter sales have ended at the malls, Easter cards have been pulled from the Hallmark displays, and Easter candy has been removed from the grocery stores and pharmacies. With a Thomas-like attitude we doubt whether very many people were thinking about Easter last Monday much less thinking about it today, a week after Easter is gone. But is it gone?
The early Christians determined that each year they wanted to mark the greatest miracles of all time – the death and resurrection of our Lord – with special worship. So they pegged their Good Friday and Easter worship to the first full moon in spring. They also realized the truth that is driven home in the Bible account of today’s first lesson, that Easter is not just a one day event and then gone. So, they expanded their Easter celebration over seven weeks. There simply is more to Easter than dressing up and pigging out on one day. The Easter miracle not only affects us personally each day but affects how we connect with others. The apostle Peter learned that, and he helps us learn that we’re all involved in Expanding Easter.:
Expressed by Peter
Cornelius was a Roman soldier living in the beautiful Mediterranean seaport of Caesarea fifty miles northwest of Jerusalem. He had heard about the true God from Jewish friends living nearby. An angel appeared to him and told him to send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter(Acts 10:32). The very next day, God gave Peter a vision while he was praying on a rooftop patio at a friend’s house. The message was, “This business of avoiding people who aren’t like you is over. I want all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” As soon as that vision ended, sure enough, “Knock, knock!” there were Cornelius’ men. “We have come from a Roman officer who was told by an angel to invite you to his home.” Peter went and was given an opportunity to express the truth about Jesus to Cornelius and his crowd.
Did you ever wonder what to say to someone who asks what the Bible is all about or what Lutherans believe? It’s a good idea to get a simple outline in your head that covers the basics. There are several portions of Scripture that can help. We have an example right here. Peter expressed the truth in a five-part outline: 1) Identify the big problem people have. Peter did that with a reference to John the Baptist because Cornelius and everyone there knew that John did a good job pointing out people’s sin. “You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism John preached.” 2) Identify who Jesus is. “Jesus Christ is Lord of all … God anointed [him] with the Holy Spirit and power.” 3) Point out the double duty Jesus did. “He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil … We are witnesses [that] … they killed him by hanging him on a tree.” He led a perfect life and died an innocent death. 4) Proclaim the Easter victory which proves that forgiveness has been won for all. “God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was … seen … by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” 5) “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Peter had the tools and experience to dump all kinds of theological jargon on Cornelius. After all, Peter had been in the missionary business for ten years now. But he just expressed the truth in clear and simple terms. Do you remember the five points so you can use them? 1) The biggest problem people have is sin, and all are in it. 2) Jesus is unique because he is God and man. 3) As such, only he had a life good enough and a death worth enough to cover and pay for all sin. 4) His resurrection proves it’s all true. 5) Believe it because it is true! That’s what Peter proclaimed right after Easter, and that’s what he proclaimed ten years later in Caesarea. Easter’s joy and blessings expanded that far in time and space when he expressed the truth.
God expects nothing more and nothing less of us. He removes the objection of “I don’t know what to say.” He says, “If you want to see Easter expanding over time and extending to more people, then just express the truth. Get it out on your lips, and say it. Get it onto your hunt-and-peck fingertips, type it, and click ‘send’.” When we express the truth, Easter expands.
Exercised by the Spirit
God could have used an angel to tell Cornelius, “Your sins are forgiven by Jesus.” But God used the angel to tell Cornelius to invite Peter and then used Peter’s words to touch Cornelius’ heart and the hearts of all in his household. What happened? The Holy Spirit exercised his power. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The Jewish Christians who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
If you study all the passages that refer to the power and working of God’s words and the power and working of the Holy Spirit, you would find an interesting parallel. Everything the Bible says about the working of the Holy Spirit it also says about the working of God’s words. The Holy Spirit works only with and through the words of God. I suppose he could have decided to touch hearts in a variety of ways, but he has chosen to use only one tool. A painter uses a brush, a carpenter uses a hammer and nails, and God the Holy Spirit uses the words of God to drill God’s forgiving love into the hearts of sinners.
Sometimes I think we put too much pressure on ourselves when we want a friend to come to faith or to return to an active spiritual life after falling away. We begin to think we are responsible for that person’s turn around. We finally get the courage to talk to someone about spiritual issues, and nothing happens. Then we feel like a failure. But this account shows how Easter expands. The pressure is off of us. Just express the truth, and let the Holy Spirit exercise his power. When we have shared God’s message of love for sinners, the rest is in the Spirit’s hands, not ours. That doesn’t mean, “Give up after one shot.” No! Tell, tell, express, express. Our job is to share the truth. The Spirit’s job is to turn people around in his own time, in his own way.
Experienced by others
It’s likely that Cornelius had been fairly content. He had a decent job, a nice home, good friends, a good reputation in the community, respect from employees. But there was something missing. Peter’s words and the Spirit’s work filled the vacuum. The result? Easter excitement expanded to Caesarea. Cornelius had as much fun as the disciples in the locked room when Jesus first showed up, as much of a thrill as doubting Thomas when Jesus said, “Put your finger here; see my hands … Stop doubting and believe”(John 20:27). Cornelius and everyone in his household ended up praising God.
Read all the New Testament books from Acts to the Revelation, and you are five times more likely to run across a word for joy than a word for sorrow. Don’t you think God is telling us something by that? He does not expect us to cruise around with a silly, sappy grin, but he shows the way to true lasting joy, the way to expand Easter from a one day festival into a day by day lifetime experience.
What would you think if every day you woke up and found an Easter basket at your front door? Not loaded with chocolate bunnies and a few jelly beans but every day something new, something different, something useful, something true! That’s what God gives to us through his Word and what he will do with the truth you express to others.
A day after the first Easter, Thomas heard the reports and had his doubts, “You say Jesus is alive. I doubt it. Either you saw a ghost, or some weird mushrooms fell into your salad.” A week after the first Easter, Jesus appeared to Thomas, and the solid facts, assurance, certainty, and confidence of Easter expanded by one week. Did Thomas and the others have to deal with other doubts after that? Probably. That’s why Jesus spent the next several weeks appearing at various times and places, assuring them of Easter’s expansion. Did they or other Christians experience doubts after that. Probably. That’s why Jesus guaranteed that Easter’s facts and confidence endure.
“I doubt whether old Grace Church will ever be able to survive in a dying downtown.” That’s what people were thinking fifty years ago. Then God went to work behind the scenes, changed the neighborhood, and Easter expanded. “I doubt whether Christianity will survive in China.” That’s what people were thinking when, between 1966 and 1977, the communist ruling party tried to close every Christian church in that country. There are eighty million Christians in China right now, and our prayers and offerings are making it possible for Christians teacher to go there so that Easter expands. “I doubt whether God will use me.” “You’ll never be able to acquire land from the city and expand your facilities.” One year and eight days ago we dedicated the Grace Center, and Easter expands. A young woman is thinking, “I doubt whether God will ever use little ol’ me to make a difference in his kingdom.” Then she invites her boyfriend to our back-to-the-basics-of-the-Bible class, and Easter expands. “I doubt whether I’ll ever see a spiritually dead sinner raised to spiritual life,” but we see it at every baptism, and Easter expands. On the Sunday after Easter we doubters join Thomas to see God at work, marveling that he even uses sinners like us to touch the hearts of others, and sure enough our Easter does not fold up shop and go away no matter how early or late it falls on the calendar. Over the next six weeks and every day after that, Easter expands. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on March 30, 2008
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