[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to the collective table where we celebrate the intersections of Jesus, justice and joy.
This podcast is brought to you by Oceanside Sanctuary Church. Each week we bring our listeners a recording of our weekly Sunday teaching at Oceanside Sanctuary, which ties scripture into the larger conversations happening in our community, congregation and even the podcast.
So we're glad you're here here and thanks for listening.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: For those of you who don't know, my name is Jason Coker. I'm one of the other co lead ministers here and Janelle just walked out so I can't give her her eggs. They're up on my podium, so I'm just going to put those right here.
Happy Easter.
How you doing?
Good.
Janelle and I are married by the way, if you're new here. Janelle, who's the other co lead minister, and I actually met our senior year in high school.
So that was just two, three years ago. And we have been married for.
Hang on, I'm doing math while I turn in my Bible. We've been married for.
What year is it? 23. 35 years. 35 years.
So we've been married for a long time. Know each other obviously very well at this point, but didn't know each other until we were seniors in high school in Riverside, California, not too far from here.
We met in drama class, believe it or not. Sure that that makes some sense now that you've seen that video.
But before we met during her junior year in high school, Janelle was very involved in her church, which was just literally across the street from our high school. There in Riverside is a big Southern Baptist church. And one day after school she got herself ready because there a choir performance that was very important to her, something she'd been practicing for for months. It was a, you know, big production at their church. And so immediately after church she, you know, put on her nice clothes, she put on her makeup, took great care to be ready for this performance and then she walked across the street to her church. And as she was walking up along the sidewalk between the high school and the congregation, a truck pulled up next to one of those obnoxious sort of lifted four wheel drives and a couple of stupid high schoolers rolled down the window and called out to her, excuse me, do you know what time it is?
And she turned and said, oh yeah, it's, and went to look at her watch. And at that moment the obnoxious high schoolers hosed her down from head to toe with a bottle of like compressed water that they had in the passenger seat. She was so shocked, so ut stupefied by this moment, that rather than running or trying to escape, she just stood there while they emptied the contain the water in that bottle entirely on her from head to toe, totally drenched her, ruined her outfit for that particular performance.
It's a huge issue.
Little did she know that a few years later she would be married to the boy in the passenger seat who did that to her.
And when she recounted the horror of that story several years later at a dinner party where we were hanging out together, I said, oh, I remember you.
That was me.
And she said in all seriousness, I would not have married you if I had known that you were the jerk who did that to me. And I just laughed, which is what I did that day, too. Laughed a lot, really hard.
But she couldn't have imagined that one day she would be married to somebody who would do something like that to her.
So I share that story because it's my little way of getting back at the video there, but also because I wanted to point out to you that while Janelle had been baptized once already, she sort of was baptized again that day.
Our passage for today is Matthew, chapter 28, verses 1 through 10.
This is the story, of course, of the resurrection. Matthew 28, verses 1 through 10 says this. After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. And his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards shook and became like dead men.
But the angel said to the woman, do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised.
As he said, come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead. And indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee, and there you will see him. And this is my message for you.
So they left the tomb quickly, with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And suddenly Jesus met them and said greetings.
And they came to him and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. And then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid.
Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.
Would you pray with me?
God, we thank you for today, for this Easter gathering where we have an opportunity as a congregation to raise our voices to lift up our prayers to you. To open our hearts and our minds to the power of your resurrection. We pray that you would do that same work in us that you did in Christ, that we would be buried in our baptism with him in death, so that we might be raised to new life again. It's my prayer, God, that today we would experience a sense of.
Of that resurrection in new ways.
That just as Janelle prayed earlier, that we would experience a bit of resurrection today and every day.
In Jesus name, Amen.
My title for the sermon today is Be Not Afraid, which is kind of funny because it was the same title of my Easter sermon last year.
When I read this sermon last year, this passage last year which has jumped off the page at me was this phrase, be not afraid.
Be not afraid.
And I think the reason it struck me so much last year is because it seemed like there was maybe more to be afraid of than ever before.
That every day it seems like we wake up and there are fresh, new horrors in our social media feeds.
And so last year, it really occurred to me that it was perhaps a distinctive message of our faith, that in spite of everything that's going on around us, we don't have to be afraid.
And so that's what I talked about last Easter. If you were here, I'd like you to very much forget everything I said last year, because this year the same phrase is jumping off the page at me. Be not afraid. And it occurred to me as I was preparing for this week that there is even more to be afraid of this year than there was at this time last year.
That the level of crazy just continues to ramp up. And I'm not just talking about politics, although politics are on everybody's mind in a very heavy way. But it seems like the fabric of our society is fraying.
And that is true not just in Washington, D.C. but maybe in our jobs or in our neighborhoods or our families. But it occurs to me this year as I read this passage that there is something else going on. That multiple times in this passage, the women who show up at the tomb are exhorted to be not afraid.
And so what is it that they are afraid of? They have shown up at the tomb of Jesus and they encounter an angel who says, jesus is not here. Be not afraid. And, you know, the guards shake with fear, and then they run from the tomb and they encounter Jesus and he says, be not afraid.
I think it would be easy to think that what they're afraid of are the implications of a risen Christ because of their own sins, maybe.
And I very much come from a tradition that would find a way to shoehorn my guilt and my shame into every passage, especially on Easter.
Is it that they are afraid because face to face with Jesus, they're reminded that they almost never understood what he was talking about, that they continually missed the point? Is it that they're afraid because they remembered suddenly that as followers of Jesus they were constantly embarrassingly jockeying for power in Jesus own movement, that they were fixated upon being sort of first in his new political order?
Or is it that they're afraid of the powers that be that crushed Jesus? They experienced firsthand what it looked like for the Roman Empire and for the religious elites in their own community to conspire together to make sure that this person whose message of mercy and goodness for all who are poor and oppressed would not be heard anymore. Were they afraid of that? Were they afraid because when they encountered Jesus, they thought, well, this may happen to us as well? Or were they afraid because after his arrest they abandoned him, and here they were face to face with the one that they betrayed?
Or were they afraid because of the earthquake? It's fascinating to see that this is the second earthquake in just three days when Jesus was killed. The passage that we visited on Ash Wednesday reminds us that when he was killed, there was an earthquake. And it says that the tombs opened and dead people walked out, which must have been a little bit weird.
The curtain in the Holy of Holies was torn in two, ripped from top to bottom. All of this is enough to make anybody very afraid.
But the passage tells us, I think very straightforwardly that that is not what they were afraid of. It wasn't their own sins, their own failings. It wasn't the bizarre, strange things happen them. It wasn't even the Roman Empire, however powerful or strong it was. No, what they were afraid of was the angel who stood before them.
They were afraid of Jesus who visited them on the path.
They're not afraid of their own pain or their own punishment or abusive powers around them. They're afraid of Jesus.
Matthew 28, verse 1, which is the very beginning of this, I think, gives us an important signal into what is going on here. 28, verse 1 says, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning. And I want to suggest to you the possibility that this line, as the first day of the week was dawning, is not simply a point of historical data. The author is not trying to locate on a calendar for us when this happened. This is an intentional literary choice. This is a signal that there is something New happening.
A new day has dawned in the universe.
The old day is gone.
A new day has come.
And what's really scary about this new day is that it is utterly unlikely anything else.
The angel that they encounter is strange and bizarre. It says that his appearance is like lightning, which is disruptive and terrifying. It shakes and wakes us up.
The new day is nothing like the old one. These strange creatures that come from this new day, this new week, this new era that has come like lightning into this moment, they are bizarre.
They look like nothing that they have ever seen before. This Jesus that they knew that they spent three and a half years with looks nothing like the Jesus that they encountered before. There is something brand new happening here. And that brand new thing is scary.
It's terrifying.
Jesus says in John, chapter 12, verse 24, memorably that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, no life can come from it.
I've always hated that passage.
I don't want to die. I don't want to fall to the ground and break open. I don't want to become something new. I want to be what I am.
I often wonder, like if the seed is afraid.
The seed knows that when it falls into the soil and it finds itself sort of buried there and water comes along and it cracks open and something utterly foreign and strange and different springs forth from it. I wonder if the seed could ever have possibly imagined that one day it would be a tree or a tomato plant or whatever beautiful and amazing and fruit bearing thing it was programmed to be. I wonder if the seed had any imagination for that.
And I wonder if I have any imagination for what I am programmed to be.
I wonder if I have any imagination for the good thing that is supposed to sprout from me. The tree that's supposed to grow, the fruit that's supposed to be produced. And if what is required of me is that I fall to the ground and die for that to happen. I don't know that I want it.
I've never seen what I could be.
It's utterly strange and foreign to me.
This is, by the way, a very old story. This is the story of resurrection. And you know, one of my favorite things to do as a minister is funerals. I know that sounds a little weird.
Weddings are fine, weddings are fun.
You know, it's the food and all of that. You know, it's the promise of new life. But funerals, I love doing funerals.
There's like no more sacred moment than when a family is grieving the loss of a loved one. And they're grappling with the beauty of that person's life or the difficulty of that person's life, or the fear of what comes next.
And in those moments, I found that the idea of resurrection is incredibly comforting.
And I say all of that just to soften the blow of what I'm about to say, which is I think we cheapen resurrection when we make it all about life after death.
When we talk about resurrection, especially on this day of all days, as though it is simply a comfort for what might happen after we die.
We miss all the resurrection that is meant to happen here and now.
And I think we do that because we are afraid of the possibilities.
I think this is what they are afraid of. They are afraid of the resurrection, the new possibilities, represented by the angel that appears like lightning, represented by the Jesus who appears with a shot, shining face that somehow doesn't look quite like the Jesus that they are familiar with.
I think what they are afraid of is not the pain or the suffering or the death that might come down upon them, because the powers that be don't agree with their little movements of redemption, their little movement of mercy and grace. I think what they are afraid of is life.
True, resurrected, transformed life.
The angel and the Jesus that stand before them represents a future that they have never seen, a future that they have never been able to imagine, a possibility that challenges their comfort zone.
And we, as humans, I think, are terribly afraid of the unknown.
So much so that I think we would generally, as a rule. And this is certainly not true of us and all of us. It's maybe not true of you, but as a rule, I think that we would prefer our familiar miseries to the terror of unknown possibilities.
I think we would rather exist day to day knowing what suffering we might be able to predict in our lives, rather than falling to the ground like the seed and dying so that something new can be born.
And this, I think, is what they are afraid of.
This, by the way, I think, is why Paul in Romans, chapter six says that when we are baptized into the faith of Christ, that what's happening when we immerse you under the water is that you are buried with Christ in his death.
So that when we pull you up out of the water, it symbolizes that you are joined with Christ in his resurrection.
The reason, I think, that Paul very astutely connects our faith to that death and that resurrection of Jesus in the symbol of baptism is because in order to be resurrected, we must first die. And. And letting go of our comforting miseries feels Like a death.
Letting go of the familiar ways that we do things, no matter how destructive they might be to ourselves or others, is more terrifying than the pain we suffer in the midst of them.
At the 11 o' clock service, we're going to baptize six people.
Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah.
It was going to be, I think, nine, but then three of them were like, oh, that's what it means. No kidding. I'm kidding.
But I'm always in awe of people who choose to be baptized because this is what they're choosing.
They're choosing to be buried in death.
They're choosing to embrace the terror of new possibilities, the thing that's going to sprout from them and grow that they couldn't possibly imagine.
I think this passage also contains for us the secret to how we gain the courage to overcome that. I love the way it's phrased. In Matthew 28, verse 8, it says this. I'll actually back up to verse 7. It says, the angel is speaking to the women, and he says he has been raised from the dead, speaking of Jesus. And indeed he's going ahead of you to Galilee, and there you will see him. This is my message for you. This is the angel's message to the women who showed up at the tomb. He essentially delivers to them the good news that Jesus has conquered death, that he has been raised from the dead. And this scares them, it terrifies them. And yet right alongside the fear, it says verse 8. So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy.
And this, I think, is the key to embracing the death that leads to resurrection. It's that when we hear this invitation, when we hear this call it, it begins to sprout in us great joy.
So, yes, there's fear.
What does this mean? What is it that I'm called to? How is it that I'm going to be changed in ways that I don't recognize, but alongside that, the hope of possibility, the promise of some new life, some new day that brings joy.
Hebrews 12:2 says, look to Jesus, who is the pioneer of our faith, who, because of the joy set before him, endured the cross because of the joy set before him.
So these are my questions for you.
What are we afraid of?
Are we afraid of our own sins? Are we afraid of our own shortcomings?
Are we afraid of our ignorance, the things that we don't know? Are we afraid of our addictions? Are we afraid of all the little ways that we experience guilt and shame? Are we afraid to look ourselves in the mirror, as Joey said earlier, and see somebody who is lovable, who is worthy? Are we afraid of our own brokenness?
Or are we afraid of our enemies? Are we afraid of the people that we have slighted, the people that we have wronged? Are we afraid of our family members that we have dysfunctional relationships with? Are we afraid of the next Thanksgiving where we'll have to suffer through what our difficult uncle has to say about the next election? Are we afraid of our broken relationships? Are we afraid of the people we have gone no contact with? Are we afraid of what that means for us?
Or are we afraid of systems of power?
Are we afraid of the mindless institutions that seem perfectly comfortable crushing people beneath the weight of their bureaucracies? Are we afraid of the politics of cruelty that seems very happy to steal food from the mouths of the poor or. Or bomb girls schools on the other side of the world? Are we afraid of these things?
I am.
I'm afraid of all these things.
But I wonder if we aren't more afraid of what could be if we let go of the old ways of doing things.
Are we more afraid of what could be if we let go of our comforting miseries?
My questions for you today are what comforting miseries are you holding onto that you don't want to let go of?
CS Lewis wrote a great little book called the Great Divorce. I know this is going to sound weird. I'm not a huge CS Lewis fan, but I love the Great Divorce. It's basically a story about purgatory. If you're an evangelical, that's not something you should believe in, I suppose. But it's a great, great book.
And in it he describes the ghosts who exist in purgatory and how they're terrified of heaven and if they can just get past their fear, they will be able to enter into it. And as the character, the main character in the Great Divorce is speaking to one of these ghosts that exist, he's saying to him, let go of these things that you're holding on to so that you can enter into paradise, so that you can enter into resurrection, so you can enter into transformation. And the ghost says, I can't let go of this thing or else I will die.
And the main character says, no, you won't.
Only the things that need to die will die, but you will become something new.
What comforting miseries are you holding onto?
What does it look like for you to die to those things today?
What would it look like for you to be buried with Christ in his death, to let Those things go.
And maybe more importantly, what joy is leading you to resurrection?
When you look inside and you ask yourself how you might be holding on to things that are keeping you in your comforting miseries, do you also find joy?
Have you glimpsed with your imagination the possibility of transformation?
And is that joy propelling you forward and giving you the courage to die so that you might live?
My prayer is that I would be able to do that.
My prayer is that we would be able to do that so that we can experience Christ's resurrection. Amen.
Would you pray with me? God, we thank you for this Easter Sunday. We thank you for this passage about your resurrection and the story of fear and joy that stretches us and challenges us.
It's my prayer today, God, that as we sing and as we pray our prayers and as we encourage each other in our faith, that we would catch a glimpse of what's possible so that you could grow this joy in our hearts, so that all of our fears would fall away and we would be able to run from the tomb so that we can be joined with you.
We pray that you would make that resurrection real for us in our personal lives, in our relationships, and yes, also so that we might stand against systems of oppressive power, that we could see your resurrection in all things, here and now. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us for this Sunday teaching, no matter when or where you're tuning in.
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