"Without A Vision" ES 4/16/2017

 Though Jesus' followers weren’t physically dead in those horrible hours after his Crucifixion-- emotionally and spiritually, they would have been walking cadavers. If there is one phrase or verse of Scripture that would have described the disciples and the women followers of Jesus in that first Holy Saturday, it would have to been Proverbs 29:18, "Without a vision, the people perish."

They had no vision. Or rather, they no longer had a vision. On the very first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and the others didn’t walk to Jesus' tomb in anticipation of his resurrection-- but rather to complete His burial. Mary was crushed. Her closest friend, her mentor, her teacher, her rabboni, her Lord was dead!

If like me, you're a Les Miseables fan, you're familiar with the haunting song that Marius sings after his friends have been killed in an ill-fated rebellion:

There's a grief that can't be spoken

There's a pain goes on and on

Empty chairs at empty tables

my friends are dead and gone.

It must have been something like that for Jesus' followers after his crucifixion. We read in Luke's Gospel a story of that first Easter afternoon on the road to Emmaus. Two of Jesus' followers speak of their dashed hopes by saying, ". . . we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."

Notice the past tense. They had hoped. Hope is a fragile entity. Hope unrequited is a cruel emotion. They had hoped, but now they hope no more. Hope died when Jesus died, and who can blame the disciples for their despair?

Not only was their master, their dear friend dead, but they had to be wondering-- if the Romans would kill Jesus, then why wouldn't they next go after his followers? And even if that didn’t happened, or even if they survived, they would certainly face considerable scorn from family and community for wasting three years in following a dead Messiah. They had risked, they had hoped . . . but now they hoped no more. “Without a vision, without a hope.... the people will perish.”

The hope-- the good news of Easter is that the story doesn't end with the women anointing a life-less body. It doesn't end with a dozen disillusioned former disciples running back to Galilee, returning to their fishing boats, retreating into their old, safe, humdrum lives. And it need not end with you and I giving up our search for joy and purpose and meaning-- for new life.

Easter ends at an empty tomb. Easter ends with Mary testifying to her frightened and discouraged friends: "I have seen the Lord." Easter ends with the disciples opening their eyes to Jesus as he breaks bread with them. And, if you and I keep the faith, the Easter Vision can continue bringing us hope and new life, giving us so

much more to us than chocolate bunnies, ham dinners and adding Turf-Builder to the lawn.

Jesus' resurrection is a positive answer to the question raised in an extended parable called the Book of Job-- written centuries earlier. Just like the disciples, Job's world had come crashing down around him. He lost his property, his health and even his family.

In his pain, Job asked a question he could not answer, "If a person dies can he or she live again?" Later in the narrative, Job would dare to ask, to pray, to hope, "I know that my Redeemer must live!"

“Without a vision the people perish” The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the answer to Job's question. A man or a woman can rise from the dead. Our Redeemer does indeed live-- and is risen! That Resurrection is God's answer to the riddle of death. Just as Christ passed through death to everlasting life-- so shall we. Death then, becomes no more than another stage of our existence-- an event-- like birth, that is lived through.

That's the Easter faith. That’s the Christian hope. But there's still more. Easter isn't just a promise of "pie in the sky when you die". Easter can mean new life-- here and now!

Carol was the organist at her church. She was an outstanding musician, but she did something no organist should ever do. She overslept on Easter morning and missed the Sunrise Service.

She was utterly embarrassed. Of course, the pastor and the church forgave her. They teased her about it a little, but it was done lovingly and in good fun.

However, the next Easter, her phone rang at 5:00 in the morning. Jolted awake by the loud ringing, she scrambled to answer it. It was the pastor, and he said, "Carol, it's Easter morning! The Lord is risen! ... And I suggest you do the same!"

We smile, but behind our smiles we know that one way or another, we all can find ourselves in Carol’s story. More than on that light-hearted level though, one way or another we can all find ourselves in the Easter story. We all can recall those moments in our lives when we have thought, "I had hoped, but I hope no more."

We have all had to face our own personal Good Fridays-- often more than once in our lives-- a broken relationship, an untimely death, a battle with addiction, inappropriate behavior or feelings that embarrassed us, a disappointment in the workplace, a struggle with meaning and faith. We have all of us known what it is to feel totally buried in the tomb of sin and self and pain. We have all descended to the hell of despair and hopelessness. We have all needed our own personal resurrections-- more than once-- on this troubled and tear-soaked planet.

Friends, it’s Easter morning! The Lord is risen! ... And I suggest you and I do the same!

We too can be resurrected. Christ has shared His Resurrection with us. He rises, and so can we. We too can have new life-- on this plane of existence and on whatever lies beyond it. We too can have a vision.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” If we take that to be a truth, then its opposite must also be true: "Where there is a vision there is life."

That first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and the disciples of Jesus, who had no hope when Jesus died, received new hope-- a reborn, magnificent hope, a vision and purpose that far surpassed anything they could ever have imagined. For Mary, it happened when the risen Christ called her name. For Peter and the Beloved One, it happend when they saw that the tomb was empty.

For two other disciples, it happened along the road to Emmaus. In the breaking of bread, Jesus made himself known. The disciples knew that their Redeemer lives. Their hearts were strangely warmed. Their hope was reborn.

Emily Dickenson wrote:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all,

The forces of hopelessness and death are still much alive in this world. We can see them in the tragedy of ethnic hatred, in the exploitation of the drug trade, in the violence that still stalks our streets and even invades our schools. If we despair, if you and I give in to those demonic forces of evil and exploitation which enslave, dispossess and murder, then sin and wrong will indeed triumph. And that will be the moment when our vision will die-- and we will indeed perish.

But death does not have the last word. There is another way. There is a vision. It is the vision of the risen Christ conquering death. It is a vision of the people of God standing up against sin and evil in the name of the fragile little bird called hope.

In the finale of Les Miserables, as the aged Jean Valjean is finally called to his heavenly reward, escorted by the spirits of the dead Fontine and Epoine. As the scene unfolds, the spirits of the slain students appear and begin to softly sing

They will live again in freedom

in the garden of the Lord,

They will walk behind the plowshare,

they will put away the sword,

The chains will be broken

and all men shall have their reward,

Whenever the people of God refuse to despair, whenever you and I refuse to allow evil the upper hand in our lives, or in the lives of nations, or of corporations, or of the guy down the street-- we do more than simply strike a blow for good. We make known the Risen Lord in the world. We join in hastening the coming of Christ's Kingdom. We make real that vision of new life. We live again in freedom

As long as men and women reach out to neighbors in need, as long as God's Easter people stand up against hate and wrong in the workplace, the classroom, the streets, the world-- as long as evil is resisted, as long as hope is nourished and celebrated, God's victory is sure. Easter comes again into this world.

“O Death where is your victory, O Death, where is your sting?”

When he was Vice-President ,George H. Bush wrote of represented our country at the funeral of Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev. The funeral ceremony was conducted with military precision and icy coldness. There were no prayers, no hymns, no words of comfort for the bereaved friends and family, and obviously no mention of God.

At last the time came for Mrs. Brezhnev to step forward for her final good-bye. She stood motionless until the very last minute. Then just as the soldiers were preparing to close the lid on the casket, Mrs. Brezhnev took one last look at her husband, leaned forward and traced the sign of the cross on his chest . . .

There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all dared to hope that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.

In that single act, God broke through the core of the Communist system."

Our God still can and does break through the core of systems which enslave. The stones of hatred and oppression, violence and genocide, despair and futility are still rolled away. And when they do, surely heaven itself breaks out in its own Hallelujah Chorus:

"And he shall reign forever and ever!"

May this be a most blessed Easter for you! May this be a day of Resurrection for all of us. May this be a moment in our lives when despair is replaced with hope, hatred with love, broken-ness with healing, death with new life. Alleluia! He is Risen! Amen