Denice K. Leslie
April 16, 2006
Easter Celebration Service
Acts 10:34-43
I Corinthians 15: 1 – 11
Mark 16 1 – 8

“The NeverEnding Story”
	“A community-wide Easter pageant assigned various people in the town to play the different parts. The character of Jesus went to a most unlikely person - a big, burly, barroom brawler, an oilfield worker, the most unlikely person to be typecast as our Lord. After several weeks of rehearsals, the day of the Easter Pageant finally arrived.
	When they came to the part of the play where Jesus was being led away to be crucified, one little man, filling in as a part of the crowd, got caught up in the emotion of the drama. 
	He joined in the shouts of Crucify him! Crucify him! as Jesus was led away toward Calvary. 
	Then, in the midst of shouting insults at the top of his lungs, he accidentally sprayed some spit in the face of the character playing Jesus as the actor walked by carrying the cross on his back. 
	The oilfield worker stopped in his tracks, reached up and wiped his face dry. And then he looked at the little man and said: “I'll be back to take care of you after the resurrection.”
	The Prince of Peace threatening mayhem! 
	We need to tell jokes on Easter, did you know that? It’s an old, ancient Orthodox Christian practice actually—Because…CHRIST HAS BEAT THE OLD DEVIL!! AND that is something to laugh about and celebrate! The powers of this world have been defeated! God has the last laugh! 
 Yes! Easter is a tall tale to many, a very tall tale. And speaking of tales….
	One of my favorite movies is The NeverEnding Story. It’s an old flick now—have you seen it? Our children loved it when they were kids. It’s a story about an 11 year old boy, Sebastian, whose mother has died. He dreams about her at night. Dad is doing his best to move on, and decides to have a talk with Sebastian—telling him its time to get out of his dreams, come down to earth, face his problems and get on with life. 
	Sebastian is dutiful in his agreement, but still a sad, dispirited little guy. On his way to school he’s bullied by some bigger kids. Running away he darts into an old book shop where he strikes up a conversation with the dealer who just happens to be reading a very interesting story book. 
 	Sebastian loves books and asks what it’s about. The dealer tells him this story is not like other books, he says, “Other books are safe, you read them and become Tarzan or Robinson Caruso and then, when the story is over you are a little boy again…..See, your books are safe…this book is not for you!” 
 	 Intrigued, Sebastian grabs the book while the dealer is on the phone, leaving a note that he will return it, and dashes out of the shop. A knowing smile spreads across the old book dealer’s face as he gleefully watches Sebastian run down the street clutching the story book.
 	The boy arrives at school late and hides himself in a big old storage room, pulls out a gym mat and begins to read. Soon he is deep into Fantasia—a beautiful world of wonderful creatures and characters…. AND a world that is about to end! 
	A world slowly but surely being consumed by the great Nothing! Nothingness is devouring every-thing and only one person can possibly save them. That person is a warrior hero named is Atrayu. 	
	Atrayu is summoned to the Empress’s palace and arrives on the scene only to be scorned—because he is a little boy. But he is their best hope and so in their despair, with hope against hope, they accept him and send him on the quest of saving their world.
 	Atrayu’s quest tests his courage, his faith in himself and his loyalty to his mission even to death. At one point in the story he must look into a mirror which will reveal the truth about himself. And a very interesting thing happens: as Atrayu gazes into the mirror, Sebastian finds himself gazing back! 
	Atrayu finally meets up with the dark creature sent by the great Nothing to devour him. He beats this death- bringer and perseveres through one final adventure to save Fantasia. He knows he must find a human child—but so far he is unable. 
	 Only a believing human child can restore Fantasia.
	It takes our reader, Sebastian a while to comprehend that it is up to him. That he is a human child. That he is the hope of Fantasia. That he and the hero Atrayu in whose eyes he saw his own reflection-- are connected in a very deep and knowing way. But by this time the world of Fantasia is reduced to a single grain of sand held in its Empress’s hand. Will it be too late? 
	That is when Sebastian takes courage, believes and ---steps into the beginning of the story. Yes, I said the beginning. You see it is a neverending story once we understand that it begins again with us. 
	 The hope of the future, disciples, rests in us making the story our own. Not through our own power, not through our own physical strength— but through believing in the one we have come to know and love—the one whom we follow—the one who has dared all, braved all, suffered all for our world: Jesus: the Atrayu of our world: 	Atrayu: A TRUE HUMAN BEING. The one who has bested death and won. The one whose life and death and resurrection make the world new again. Make us new again! The one who Mark’s gospel declares to us this morning ….“is not here!” (because) as the angel announced: “He goes ahead of you to Galilee—there you will see him, just as he told you.”
	He is not here in this grave because life is not about mourning at tombs for fallen heroes who have died for us. Life is not about death. Life is about life. 
	 Life is not about honoring the powers that put the fallen in their graves. Life is not about worshipping the forces that divide us. Life is not about the false values that would have us believe the power, the force preferred by this world can “redress, cure, civilize” or resolve anything— because in fact it simply ends up making everything worse in the long run of human history through an endless, seemingly inevitable cycle: generation after generation, after generation.
 	Just as Atrayu discovered the answer to saving Fantasia was not of their world, so to we Christians know that salvation comes from beyond this earth. And that is the power of God at one with the man Jesus. Jesus is the warrior of our world who does battle for us to save us. 
	 It’s very important for us to realize “Jesus is not an innocent victim ambushed by folks who can’t stand to live on the planet with more virtuous persons. 
	 Jesus is done in by folks whom he challenges: he challenges their political power, he challenges their weapons—violence and oppression. (He challenges their control), He challenges their right to power with GOD’s power. When Jesus rises from the dead God wins, not Pilate or the Roman emperor or the other religious authorities or the powers of the age.” 
	When Jesus rises from the dead WE win because the sheep skin is torn off the wolf and we are given the power to see the truth —when we look into his eyes and see ourselves mirrored back we see the truth—the truth about our world and the truth about ourselves. 
	Can we survive what we see? Not all by ourselves we can’t. It is too crushing. The weight of our human evil is crushing. But the good news of the Risen One is: we are forgiven, we are accepted, and we are reconstituted as his beloved disciples. And as the New Community we are given a new commandment and a mission. 
	The commandment is to no longer live in complicity with the old power: specifically, we are commanded by Jesus to do this by loving one another as he has loved us.
	 The mission is to be his disciples and to live out his commandment. To live the story of his truth—to make it our own and to apply it to this world, to share it with others, to proclaim it. To become a part of the neverending truth of resurrection. 
	The truth is: the only life sustaining, life-creating, life-giving power the world has ever known comes from our Creator, who chose to intervene on our behalf and show us the way—who chose through A True Human Being to go all the way for us—to make the way for us. 
	 To give us what the power of this world can not give us: hope. To know the truth is to know hope as we have never known hope in anything: not in technology, or modern medicine, or in weaponry, or in politics, or in making a fortune, or in marrying the right person, or buying the right house, or the right car, or getting the right job, or even education! 
	Salvation comes through none of these things! Salvation is from our God and from the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—not as the victimized scapegoat our violence and evil intend for him—but as the Warrior of God, the Victor who in the midst of strife won the war for the enemy—Yes! for us! For all the powerfully powerless everywhere. For our salvation. 
	We are called to live out of God’s truth. We are called to be the bearers of the only real hope this world has. To declare once and for all what is true and to be willing to live for it, and if need be, to die for it. 	Otherwise, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
	At his resurrection Jesus commands us as his disciples to meet him in Galilee. Galilee is where Jesus’ ministry began, where he called the first disciples, where he healed and taught and where he is calling us to minister: in the real world as his followers using the force of his resurrection life to reclaim the world around us. 
	To save it from the great encroaching nothingness! The big nothingness that is overwhelming us, slowly but surely, dumbing life down, desensitizing our consciences, anesthetizing us to the reality all around us, to other people’s plights here and abroad, to blindness to human systems that run over the vulnerable, that take advantage of people. 
	To save us from a world that mesmerizes us with meaningless distractions: the nothingness of TV, the nothingness of CNN or FOX or CNBC or ABC news all about the latest survival reality show, or Donald Trump’s blarney, or the latest murder case, or just through the mindless repetition of old sitcoms.
	To save us from the nothingness of a life obsessed with acquiring things: the huge treasure complexes we call malls that sell us the myth that the goodness of life is a round of “work for a paycheck, secure your home, buy more and more and more, over and over and over again—while family’s are scattered all over God’s green earth, and neighbor-hoods are anonymous strangerhoods, and our children are disconnected from meaningful contributions to family or community because we keep them perpetually adolescent in big box schools. 
	To save us from a world where the lust for Humvees and physical prowess, and military might, and the almighty dollar demand our worship. 
	A world of non-culture and the big lie that this is abundant life. Millions succumb to this myth of emptiness, thoughtlessness; and millions more know deep inside an incredible gnawing hunger for more: for real community, for right relationships, for purpose and mission and a spiritual perspective that unmasks the lie, that sets the world right, that sets neighbor right with neighbor, that works to end the things that hurt, and oppress, and overwhelm. That restores innocence, brings joy and pleasure and wellbeing in living-- not just for some.
	 Is there no balm in Gilead? Yes, Says the Risen One: Meet me there in Gilead—the region of the Galilee—that multicultural place of mixed races and cultures and poverty and disease and political intrigue and endless human need. This is where I call you, my followers to be and to begin again my story which is now your story. My life which is now your life. My ministry which is now your ministry. To dispense hope to the hopeless, a balm for what ails us. This is where I call you to challenge the same forces I have fought. Right here, right now! 
	Easter in Mark’s gospel is a clarion call to live the resurrected life in the here and now. 
	Susan Spencer, a pastor who visited South Africa in January of 2004, on the 10th anniversary of this new multi-racial democracy following collapse of apartheid , shares a little of her experience there. 
	She tells us, “The amazing thing is how in the face of overwhelming difficulties, the people of South Africa dare to sing songs of life. They seem to have a way of taking tragedy and turning it around. In gospel terms, they’re Easter People… who have refused to give in to hatred or defeat, who have turned tragedy into ministry.
	Sue goes on to share her visit to a garbage dump settlement. She expected it to be a cauldron of human despair. She found not only a health clinic for well baby care, HIV education and TB treatment but …a preschool, a women’s health clinic, and a youth choir rehearsing for a concert of African songs and music.
	Sue says, “Here were people who had nothing in the way of material goods, and yet they were blessed with a vibrant community life that we often lack. It wasn’t Easter but the words suddenly came into my head: “He is not dead. He is risen.” 
	Sometimes, resurrection is a thing we believe in. Sometimes it is a thing that happens to us. Sometimes resurrection is something we do…a decision we make. In the words of poet Wendell Berry, we ‘practice resurrection.’” 
	Easter is not like other safe stories that you read and they leave you the same. This story changes everyone who believes —who enters in and meets Jesus. Once you really meet him, once you see yourself mirrored back in his eyes you will never be the same again because you will never see the world the same again. 	
	You will not be able to look at brokenness, or ignorance or hatred and turn away. You will not be able to say, “This is none of my affair.” You will not be able to deny the nothingness that is creeping over our world and devouring us. You will not be able to resist stepping in and making the story your own----
	---Because Easter is about what really matters-- the eternal life of our creator begetting, beginning, becoming and befriending us over and over again: God’s neverending resurrection story of life! 
	Let the people shout: Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!