Rolling Stones

Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church

Auburn WA, April 12, 2009 – Easter Sunday

by Gregory S. Kaurin, Senior Pastor

Texts: Psalms 118:21-24 & Mark 16:1-8

“Rolling Stones”

The stone—some archeologists suggest—the stone covering Jesus’ tomb was probably 1 to 2 tons. It’s kind of humorous (but makes it so real) that the women were halfway to the tomb before it occured to one of them to ask the other, “How in the world are we going to move it?” ...Details.

So you can imagine their surprise to find it already rolled aside. Our translation says they were alarmed. The Greek was ek-thambeo, which meant they were out- or beyond astonished; stupefied would be a good word for it, dumbfounded perhaps.

Mark’s gospel says that entering the tomb they only find a young man, a teenager, actually. He sees their faces and tells them, “Don’t be ek-thambeo, don’t be dumbfounded over this. Jesus told you this would happen. Look, it’s empty! He’s not here.”

The stone wasn’t rolled aside to let Jesus out. It was moved for the sake of the women, to let them in, to see this simple message that death had been emptied of its power. The tomb was empty.

And the boy’s next message started the evangelical stone rolling. “Look,” he says, “but don’t stop, go out, quickly tell Peter and the others around him.” Christ is the rejected stone of Psalm 118, rejected by the builders and now the foundational cornerstone, but unlike the Temple building, he is a Resurrected, Living, and Moving Stone: “Go out!”

I pray that Christianity never succeeds as an establishment gathering moss, but always as a movement.

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Verse 8 of Mark ends with the women running from the tomb. Gripped by a trembling fear they were unable—at least for a while—they were unable to talk to anyone until they got far away from the tomb.

We take it almost for granted, but I know for a fact that if I had been there with them that first Easter, with the moved stone, the creepy boy in a tomb with a weird message? I’d have been spooked out of my mind, way ahead of them, running.

But these women had been there at the Cross, after most of Jesus’ men had fled; they had been there when he was laid in the tomb; and now they were the first to hear the hair-raising powerful message of the Resurrection.

As we read this story of the first two people in the world to be confronted with the fact of the empty tomb and the Risen Christ, two imperatives spring out.

First, they were urged to believe. To look for themselves and believe. The thing is so staggering that it might seem beyond belief, too good to be true. The boy reminds them of all that Jesus had promised, and confronts them with the empty tomb; his every word calls them to believe.

Second, they were urged to share. "Go, tell!" Here at Messiah, we are a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is that first word that is the important one in that title. So my second prayer is that we learn more and more what it means to be Evangelical, sharing the Good News of Salvation by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ, with those all around us who need to hear and experience the love of God for themselves.

Easter may have started with those two women at the tomb, but it hasn’t stopped yet!

Like those two women bursting from the tomb, and with Christ as our Rolling Cornerstone, we rise up from our griefs and tears. We live in Easter now, and in the power of resurrected lives.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is no longer dead.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Agnus Dei, Lamb of God

Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church

Auburn WA, April 9, 2009 – Maundy Thursday

by Gregory S. Kaurin, Senior Pastor

Texts: Genesis 22:6-13;

Revelation 5:1-10; &

Mark 14:12-25

“Agnus Dei, Lamb of God”

Through these past weeks of Lent, we’ve lifted up some of the names and titles of Jesus. Here is one more, “Lamb of God,” or “Agnus Dei” in the Latin.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who protects and lays down his life for the sheep, fulfilling many prophecies in Isaiah and other parts of scripture. He is not only the Shepherd over us, but a lamb from along with us sheep; he is the Lamb, who once and for all fulfills all our punishments and debts.

For our Old Testament lesson, I chose Abraham’s trek up the mountain with his only beloved son. Isaac asked him where the sacrificial lamb was, and Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb.” We know that Abraham thought Isaac would be that lamb, at least until he was stopped by God.

Two things. First, God lead but stopped Abraham to clearly say, “No, I am not that kind of God; I don’t want any human or child sacrifices.” The second thing just before that, though, is what Abraham had said to Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb.” Those words should grab your attention.

“God himself will provide the lamb.” Abraham didn’t know how right he was. And it wasn’t just the ram they found stuck in the bushes nearby. Abraham was just about to offer up his only-begotten son. But it would be God himself through his only begotten Son who would provide the Lamb.

To us, the sacrifices seem disturbing, bloody. Maybe if we lived in a society where it was more obvious that our life depended on the give and take of other life, where life is raw and delicate and precious, it makes more sense to recognize God, to worship and show faith through sacrificing something as precious as life from the crops and herds of your livelihood.

But I also notice in scripture that there were times when even God was disturbed at all the mass blood-letting: sacrifices carried out too far, without heart, mindless expectations for good crops, or as an easy way to wipe the slate clean for another week of sin. It was never meant to be that way. Religion is always about keeping and understanding our relationship with God, more than performing certain rituals. Several times in the Bible God warned that he gets sick of mere ritual and sacrifice. “Your hands are full of blood,” he said through Isaiah (1:15).

So, finally, God sent Christ, once for all. Again: it is his way of saying, “No more. Enough. Jesus fulfilled any and all debts. No more blood, no more sacrifices.” God provided the Lamb to end the shedding of more blood.

Jesus said, “This is my blood, shed for you and all people for the forgiveness of the world.”

Through his life, suffering, and death among us, though his blood, this cup contains everything we bring to it: our grief, tears, fears, pain, loss, everything. We drink it as our way of joining Christ, as he joins the suffering and sin of the world, and as we rise with him to forgiveness, new life, joy and hope.

We are forgiven. Christ, the Lamb of God has paid all costs. We are freed to turn to others with the same kind of compassion and care he showed to us, when he said to you by name, “Child of God, you are forgiven and loved.” Go and do likewise. Amen.