A Sermon by Rev. Whitney Bruno – Easter Sunday – March 31, 2024 – Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18
‘Because He Lives…’
Sometimes when I stand in a graveyard I feel… I feel my mortality. This is what we all become – bones in boxes. Bones that turn to ash sooner or later. Tombstones. Stones that wear away into illegible rocks. Rocks that become sand. Who recalls us in 100 years? 1000 years? 10,000 years?
I feel a panic – is what I’m spending my tiny, short, life *worthy*? When that tomorrow comes, who will look back and talk about how often I did the dishes or washed the windows? Ought I spend that time on something more worthy than cleaning? But what?
My knee-jerk reaction is to answer: People. Every single moment needs to be invested in people.
But then – then that’s not possible! I need to sleep, eat, and recuperate. If I don’t eat, or find time for silence and solitude, then the people I want to be with won’t find me all that pleasant. I have only so much time that I can spend, but what is the value of my time?
What is worthy? What is worth a life? Mine or anyone else’s?
This seems to be a perennial, always present, question for humanity and we’ve found as many answers as there are people who ask it. We can look in our history books to find enduring works such as the pyramids and earth mounds. People echo those thoughts today, building beautiful mausoleums and steel art that reaches for the sky. Some people spend their lives having, or raising, children, for some that means having as many as possible hoping to gain a genetic immortality; still others plant trees – a different kind of living legacy.
I think we all feel it… sometimes more strongly than other times… but we feel we are mortal. Death is present. How will we spend what precious time we have? Will we look back and be proud of what we’ve purchased with that time?
I think Jesus’ story asks the question “what is a life worth?” over and over again. What is your life worth? How do you spend it? And there is no right or wrong answer. The question, the reflection, is the point of Jesus’ question. Good Jewish Rabbi that he is, he knows questions are often more important than the answers.
What is worth your life?
And on one hand, for Jesus, his life was worth the whole world – for God so loved all the world, God gave us Jesus. And on the other hand, Jesus’ life was worth 30 piece of silver – what Judas betrayed him for.
His life was worth his family fleeing to Egypt as refugees when he was little. And his life was worth his family turning around and rushing to find him when he went missing as a child.
Jesus’ life was worth his mother and sisters and brothers begging him to stop his nonsense and return to his senses. And his life was worth those same siblings, and now many siblings in faith, gathering in his name unto this very day to love one another, to support each other, to proclaim his life-after-death and the hope that this life, as long or as short as we have, is worth the living.
You. What has your life been worth? What did your caretakers sacrifice to raise you; what have you done to preserve your health and life? I wear a seatbelt. My life is worth the inconvenience of wearing a seatbelt.
Each year I plant annuals. These flowers grow in the spring, bloom in the summer, and die in the fall. They have to be replanted every spring. Is my life worth this futile work? My time worth this? Why go through the effort?
Because their short lives are beautiful.
I believe that like flowers our short lives can be beautiful. It doesn’t matter if we produce many seeds, or no seeds, life is beautiful. Whether we move mountains, or simply live, our lives have purpose. If we perform great deeds of love or small ones, our love is meaningful.
Life is worth the living because it is short. Time is rare for us. Our lives are purposeful, meaningful, poignant BECAUSE they are short.
Jesus told us “follow me” and he lead us on to a grave. Lead us to death. He had a rather short life of about 30 years. But he lead on – through death. Through catastrophe. He shows us how to die, how to face the worse, and how to rise again. He shows us the short lives we have – a mere blink! – are part of a larger picture.
Out of our short lives, our good gardener, the very one Mary met that morning 2000 years ago, brings forth the next year’s growth. The next generation. The next chapter. A heavenly chapter for we annual flowers who die. An earthly chapter with new flowers for the world our bodies stop living within. I believe the Book of Life is for all the living and dead to be united in God forever. I have faith that no chapter, no story, no person’s life is too short to not be important to this Book’s story.
Because Jesus lives, because death is not the end, because catastrophe is not the last word, I have hope. I have encouragement. I have faith that flowers will bloom after every long winter. That God does all very well, and is making and remaking this world to be very well. I have peace that whatever comes, God, love, Jesus, the Holy Spirit among us all, shall be by my side and I never face anything alone.
What is our life worth? What has meaning? Jesus doesn’t dictate to us. He invites us to follow and find out. Follow me, and see how to die, and how to rise.
Let me show you one image of Easter, of life after catastrophe and after death… This is a photo from Yahya Bashir, Palestinian. He writes, “I cleared the rubble from Israeli airstrikes, tilled the soil, and planted seeds. This is our home, our land. Everything will return more beautiful than before.”
His life is worth spending bringing forth hope. He is planting seeds. Annuals. Which may seem meaningless. But he is also planting hope. Peace. He is showing how he rises after death. How to live in hope. How to aim for peace.
For me, because Jesus lives, I feel confident together we will experience life after death; love that conquers hate; peace in spite of war; and new beginnings, new plantings, new experiences of God throughout our lives and life to come.
Jesus never tells us “this is how to spend your life” but he does say “If any wish to follow me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of God’s good news, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?” (Mark 8:34b-37)
We’re always going to have woes, and small deaths and large deaths and end of life deaths – we can’t “save” our lives. Everything, eventually, turns to dust. But we can choose to give our lives to worthy causes; to sharing God’s love with all. Jesus invites us to conquer death by rising with him in lives of love.
Amen!
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 