Looking for the Living Among the Dead
Most of us do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. During his day, he was as powerful a man as there was. A Russian Communist leader, he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution, was the editor of the Soviet newspaper ‘Pravda’… which, by the way, means “truth” … and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. There is a story told of him… of a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a large crowd on the subject of atheism. In addressing his remarks to the crowd, he aimed his most caustic attacks at Christianity…hurling insult… argument… and proof against it. An hour later, his tirade was finished. He looked out on the quiet assembly and asked if there were any questions. One lone man asked if he could speak. Bukharin invited him to come forward. He came to the stage, climbed to the podium, paused, and then, in a loud voice, he spoke the ancient greeting well known in the Russian Orthodox Church, “Christ is risen!” The crowd came to its feet and in one voice responded, “He is risen indeed!”
I tell you this morning: “Christ is risen!” (“He is risen indeed!”) I have faith that Christ died and was buried. That I believe. But, the story doesn’t end there… for I believe also that Christ rose from the dead and that he will come again in glory. For that reason, I tell you, with authority, “Christ is risen!” (He is risen indeed!”)
There have been many times in history when the Christian church has been brutally attacked and attempts have been made to wipe it out. The Romans tried. The Persians tried. The Arabs tried. The Japanese tried. The Chinese tried. The Russians tried. In every case, Christianity not only survived, but gained converts, even during the most terrible years of oppression. This religion… this faith… this Christianity has remarkable staying power… in spite of all the enemies that have lined up against it. Some have said that what we need in this country is not a revival… but some religious oppression… for we take our faith… and our freedom to worship… for granted. It is complacency… more than opposition … that threatens Christianity in the United States. Eighty percent of the population of this country still claims to be Christian… and yet, even on Easter Sunday… one of two high holy days of the Christian year… only about twenty-five percent attend any kind of worship service.
I realize that I am preaching to the choir here… but the question that I want to pose to you today is this: What can we do to bring life to the gospel message here in Stephenville? We seem to be in a slump… in a downward spiral that we cannot stop… not because the story of God’s love is any less potent today than it was two thousand years ago… but because other things seem to distract us… and those around us… from our relationship with God… or because the trials of life drag us down until life loses its meaning… or, perhaps, because sheer apathy prompts us to say… like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind… “I’ll think about that tomorrow… after all, tomorrow is another day.” So, little by little, our souls die from the weight of futility… bitterness… injustice… or apathy. We forget the truth that gives us life… and become dead… living dead… like dead men walking.
One of the things that can weigh all of us down is futility. In much of life today, there is an appalling sense of the utter uselessness of everything we do that presses down on the human soul… the sense that nothing that we do makes a difference. Each year, life seems to become more and more confined by rules and regulations that bind us in all that we do… more and more structure that robs our creativity… more and more technology that instead of freeing us seems to suck us in until it encroaches into even the sanctuary of our homes. The harder we work… the more work there is to do… and the more we long to escape from it.
Closely tied to futility is bitterness… our resentment of those who seem to succeed without any effort… the seemingly endless litany of our broken dreams… our misspent years… our lost opportunities… and our demoralizing failures. Many a relationship has lingered on for years… not on the tender gentle embrace of love, but on the piercingly sharp memory of bitterness unforgotten. Many a life has ended before its time… not because of poor health or violence… but because the person has allowed the futility and bitterness of his or her life to create a sense of hopelessness that robs life of all color. He or she may find an escape from life in the solitary existence of a recluse… or the temporary respite of drugs or alcohol… or the more permanent escape of suicide.
Another chain that wraps itself around our souls is injustice, which manifests itself in many ways… in the violence of one against another…men against women… parent against child… predator against prey… in the subtle terrorism of inequality… between races… among religions… in work opportunities… in access to, and acquisition of, money and power. Injustice leads to disillusionment and despair… particularly when it witnesses the inaction of those who are in a position to intervene. The British statesman Edmund Burke once said, “All that is needed to evil to prosper is for a few good men to do nothing.” It is not just our action that creates injustice… it is our inaction that does not stop it.
Those weighed down by futility… those who feel helpless… those who have no hope… those who lives are steeped in bitterness… those who are surrounded by injustice… those see no purpose in continuing to strive… sink into apathy… the deadliest condition of all. Apathy kills more people without allowing them to actually die… because it doesn’t stop them from breathing … just from breathing deeply. It doesn’t stop their hearts from beating… only from experiencing passion. Apathy kills because it only leaves the shell of a person alive… a shell without life. Wow, Sharon, what a depressing Easter message!
The angel asked the women who came to the tomb, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Could that same question be addressed to us today? Are we the dead… or are we the living? A story is told of Martin Luther that he once spent three days in a black depression over something that had gone wrong. On the third day, his wife came downstairs dressed in the clothes of a mourner. “Who died?” he asked her. “God,” she replied. Luther responded sharply, “What do you mean, God died? God cannot die.” She responded, “Well, the way you have been acting, I was sure that he had.” How many of us have forgotten that our Lord lives… not just today, but every day? Have we forgotten that he has triumphed over death… that he lives that we also might live… that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ? Why do we walk around as if our lives have ended… as if our future holds no hope? Shall I tell you again: “Christ is risen!” (He is risen indeed!) Do you really believe that?
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Christ died that we might live… not just survive, but truly live. Christ rose from the dead a victor over death… over all death… to give us life… that we might live in him. And so, he lives… that we may never die… and that living or dying, we live in him. Halleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Amen.
Luke 24:1-12