Text: 1 Peter 1:17-23
Theme: "'Organic' Easter"
3rd
Sunday of Easter
May
4, 2014
FIRST
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton,
Texas
Rev.
Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
Since you call on a
Father who
judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that
it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed
from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the
precious blood of
Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen
before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you
believe in God, who
raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have
purified yourselves
by obeying the
truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.[a] 23 For
you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
What
comes to mind when you hear the word "organic"? You probably think of food. We're given to believe that organic foods --
meats, vegetables, dairy products, and so forth -- are better for you than
non-organic. This is because the
products don't have the preservatives and pesticides that could be harmful.
They may be grown locally -- that is, they don't have to be shipped from miles
away. On certain days of the week, we
have a farmer's market down on Carroll Boulevard offering lots of produce from
our area. We have a couple of grocery
stores -- the Cupboard and the one right down the street from us -- that
supposedly give a healthy alternative to the products sold at big name
supermarkets. The general feeling is
that "organic" is better.
For
me, "organic" is about the real thing -- whatever the real thing may
be. In short, there are no added extras.
I
have a thought or two I'd like to share with you about what I'm going to call
an "organic Easter." It's an
Easter that's the real thing, and Easter with no added extras, an Easter that
is more than just an annual memorial of some event that took place over two
thousand years ago.
Easter,
as most of you know, is the annual celebration of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the grave. It's a day that
remembers an event -- and it's done, in churches, with quite a bit of
liturgical and celebratory excess. There
are special decorations, special music, pancake breakfasts, egg hunts, etc.
Personally, I would argue that this is very good. After all, without Easter there would not be
a faith that could, in a proper sense of the term, be called
"Christian". The Apostle Paul
declared: "If Christ be not raised,
your faith is in vain." Without
Easter, Christianity becomes just another philosophy among the many to choose
from.
So
when I talk about an organic Easter, I'm basically asking a couple of
questions: what did Easter actually do
to people, and what does it do today? What
power does Easter wield? What changes
did it make? What changes can it
make?
Today's
Scriptures go a long way in helping us answer these questions. In our first reading from the Book of Acts, the apostle St. Peter is in the
midst of delivering the first post-Easter, post-Pentecost sermon. He's telling people, in the first Christian
sermon ever recorded, what happened at Easter.
Then he shares with his hearers what it all means. In short, it's "Here's what happened,
and here's what it means."
Well,
that message had an effect on people. It
says that, upon hearing the message of Easter, that they were "cut to the
heart." They ask: "What shall we do?" Allow me to cut to the chase. This is EXACTLY the effect we yearn and hope
for: people hear the straightforward good news of the Gospel (the
"organic" Easter, if you will) and they are "cut to the heart"
and they wonder what to do.
Are
we always going to get that result?
No. Not everyone is going to feel
"cut to the heart". Not
everyone is going to take the true, life-changing message of Easter and run
with it There are going to be those who
reject the message and who doubt the message.
The modern mind is very skeptical.
The modern mind is very religious about doubt -- and it rejects the
miraculous. People don't rise from the
dead today. Therefore, it stands to
reason it didn't happen back then. Therefore, Christianity is a noble fairy
tale. Besides that, Christianity
seems more like a code of rules and list
of standards that people must conform their lives to. It seems more divisive than unifying. You add these and other factors together, and
it shouldn't surprise us in the least that people are indifferent to the claims
of the Gospel. They're being polite, but way down deep inside they don't
believe it. In a word, they are
skeptical.
Still
other folks have a curiosity about Easter. They may not necessarily believe
it's veracity, but they are willing to explore it further. They are seekers; they are inquirers. They
are missing something in their lives, and they're not quite sure what it is or
put it into words. But they are going to
try to find out.
I
want you to know that both the skeptics and the seekers are welcome here. Come to our church; take it all in; absorb
it; ask questions; contact me. Your
spirit -- what makes you you -- is important.
Your loved ones are important; your family is important; your welfare is
important.
Then
there are those who hear the message of Law and Gospel, of sin and grace, and
they are cut to the heart. "What
must we do?" they ask.
You
know what? St. Peter didn't ask them to become
Presbyterians. Neither did they have to sign
a record of friendship pad. They didn't
have a guest register. There were no
divisions of "we/they". There
were no hoops they were to jump through in order to become a
"full-fledged" member.
They
asked: "What must we do?" Peter answered, very simply: "Repent." In other words, "change your
mind."
The
lyrics of that great song by Sister Hazel come to mind:
Hey,
Hey
Did
you ever think there might be another way
To
just feel better,
Just
feel better about today?
If
you want to be somebody else,
If
you're tired of fighting battles with yourself,
If
you want to be someone else,
Change
your mind!
"Change
your mind", says St. Peter.
"Be
baptized", he says. Baptism -- with
its promise for you and for your children -- signs, seals, and delivers the
organic Easter, the message of the Gospel, to you and yours personally. You don't have to shy away from Baptism. Come running to it. Are you not sure you've been baptized? No worries.
You can have that assurance.
That, among other things, is why we're here at First Presbyterian
Church. Let us know. We'll pour the water and make it happen. The Scriptures declare: "We were...buried with Him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
What
else does the organic Easter do? It creates people who have "reverent
fear." More and more, in my experience at least, I've learned that there
are two kinds of fear: first, there's
self-centered fear -- that's the kind where you think of no one other than yourself and whether or not
you're going to make it in this fast-paced and troubled world; the second kind
of fear is "reverent fear" -- that's the kind that says that you'
re
not in control. There is a power greater
than yourself -- indeed, a power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. You honor that God and you respect that
God. That's "reverent fear".
Now
here's one final thing the organic Easter does for people. It creates people who genuinely love one
another from the heart. If I could sum
up what more and more people -- both
inside and outside the church -- are saying, it would be this: "I love Jesus; it's just His people I
can't stand." Will there be
personality conflicts? Will there be
differences of opinion? Of course there will be; that's part of what it means
to be human. We are all alike in so many
ways and so different in so many ways.
But if we don't genuinely love one another, then that tells me -- at the
very least -- that the message of the organic Easter, the good news of the
Gospel, is not getting out.
It
really is all about the Gospel -- that Christ died for our sins and He was
raised from the dead for our justification.
That's what we want to be about here at First Presbyterian Church. "I'm
not ashamed of the Gospel," declared St. Paul. "It is the power of God unto
salvation."
Repent!
Be baptized!
Live in reverent fear!
Love one another deeply!
Our
own willpower will not cause this. But
the organic Easter -- the message of the Gospel -- will!
Amen.
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