“Three Ways to Change the World (on Easter Sunday)”
Sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Lance Moore on Sunday, March
16, 2008
John 12:17-19: “Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, "See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!"”
Acts 17:1-6: “When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here.…”
Or as the King James Version said, they “have turned the world upside down.”
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This is a Palm Sunday sermon to help us get ready for Easter. Some of you will spend a great deal of time and thought on buying Easter dresses, Easter candy, arranging Easter egg hunts. But I am, of course, speaking about getting spiritually ready for Easter. Some sharp-minded listener out there will say, “But I thought that was what Lent was all about.”
Exactly. Lent is a journey to prepare us spiritually for Easter. And this is a Lenten sermon about how to let your spirituality become embodied in action—with the goal of nothing less than to CHANGE THE WORLD!
Let’s study our two scriptures for a moment. They have several things in common:
• First, characters in each scene remark that the Christian movement is changing the world. I love the way the King James Version rendered this verse: the city officials said: “they have turned the world upside down.” The words in John, that “the whole world has gone after him,” is an exaggeration: despite the Pharisees’ fear, “the whole world” had NOT “gone after” Jesus — in fact, at that point, his followers were only a small percentage of the population. But both of these statements, in John and Acts, eventually came true: Christianity did turn the world upside down, and the entire world now sets its calendars by the birth of Christ.
• One more parallel with these two passages: in both cases, the remarks about “world-changing” events were connected to the idea of resurrection. In the gospel passage, the word was spreading about how Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. In Acts, Paul had been preaching, three times, about the resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection—the victory of life over death—has changed the world! Jesus Christ changed the Universe on Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago! The universal law of death was conquered. Christ arose from the dead, and more than that, through the cross and by His resurrection, He defeated Death and made eternal life available to all who will accept Jesus and His gift of grace.
Easter changes the world. And you can, too. Assuming that you have already made Jesus your Lord and Savior, you can change the world in 3 easy steps, beginning this holy week:
1. Share Your Faith. This can be done very simply. For instance, invite someone to church. On Easter Sunday, when even secular newspapers and magazines put Christ on their covers, non-churched friends are very receptive to an invitation to church. The best way to insure that they attend: invite them to be a guest with your family for Easter Sunday, beginning with Worship at 10:30 a.m. followed by a meal together (you can have them in your home or take them to a restaurant). Pick them up if necessary.
Be in prayer that God will lay on your heart and mind the name or names of someone who needs to find a church. It might change their lives for the better, and the ripple effect could change the world.
Another way to share your faith: give someone a Bible. Do you believe that something as simple as the gift of a Bible could change the world? I do. Did you know that the latest Superbowl was decided by one play...and one player... and that player would not have been there if it had not been for the gift of a Bible! Here’s the whole story:
Who was the hero of the recent Superbowl? I don’t think it was Eli Manning, who had a mediocre day at quarterback. I think it was David Tyree. In the last moments of the game, the Giants were losing, but they had one desperate longshot chance at a first down to put themselves in a position to score and win the game. Truth is, Eli Manning threw a terrible pass. It was way too high. 99% of the time it would have been an incompletion or an interception. But David Tyree, with a defender all over him, jumped as high as he could and brought the ball down, squeezed against his helmet. That play won the game for David and the Giants, and David Tyree BECAME a giant, receiving fame and fortune and acclaim, and will ever be remembered as hero. But three years ago, he was at the lowest point of his life: an alcoholic, convicted of selling drugs, his girlfriend was pregnant and about to walk out on him, and he was almost thrown off the team.
But then, in desperation, David Tyree picked up a Bible, and read, and then went to church, and cried, he said, “for 25 minutes straight,” and decided to change his life. He never drank again. Today Tyree is “clean, married, happy” and quite sure he would not have been there to make that Super Bowl winning catch if he not read that Bible. I don’t know who gave him that Bible, whether it was a Gideon, or his minister, or his mama, but every time I give a young person a Bible, I’m going to think about the changed life of David Tyree.
2. Give a significant gift, or begin tithing. The United Methodist Church has a variety of ways to help needy persons, feeding them both physically and spiritually. I hope you want to be a part of that. I hope you want to support the less fortunate, year-round, partly because we have been blessed, and partly because they NEED the support. And we should also give as an expression of gratitude to God. Romans 6:23b states, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” During Lent, we are reminded that God gave us the greatest gift: Christ died upon the cross to grant us eternal life. Can we not give at least 10% of our income back in appreciation? Coincidentally, this past week, we had one gift of $5,000 and another gift of $10,000 to our church! If you are not yet a “tither,” there is no better day to begin this holy practice than on Easter Sunday.
This is not really a “stewardship sermon,” yet I must say this: love makes the world go ‘round, but MONEY is what greases the axle! I’m just impatient and tactless when it comes to saying this: don’t tell me you love God if you don’t give money to the hurting people of the world. I am impatient with any political liberals who claim a heart for the poor but who do not give their own money to help the poor (they’d rather use tax revenues). I am impatient with political conservatives who claim to be part of a “Christian coalition,” but whose attitudes toward the poor are tight-fisted and un-Christian. I am impatient with church-members, not only at this church but at EVERY church, who complain about church spending if God they have not first gotten their own spending under control enough to be tithers. Jesus said in Matthew 10:8: “Freely you have received, freely give.” We will never change the world for the good until we heed Christ’s repeated command to “give to the needy.” (Mt. 5)
At Christmas, we buy gifts for ourselves. Lots of gifts. Expensive gifts. Some people have lately started giving presents at Easter, too. But I think we should begin the custom of giving extra to God at Easter. Your extra gift on Easter Sunday, as an expression of thanks to Christ for His gift to us on the Cross can definitely change the world for the better—especially when multiplied by many donors. Now, the third and final way to change the world this week:
3. Live victoriously. Vow to begin living as a victorious “Easter Christian,” rather than as a weary and hopeless “religious person.” Jesus has forgiven us of the failed past, has empowered us for positive living in the present, and has guaranteed us eternal victory in the future. This knowledge should drastically change our attitudes and actions, and in turn, it can change the world for the better.
The victory we shall celebrate on Easter is, specifically, a victory over death. This is the most dramatic and important news in human history—after all, any other achievement a human may claim would be irrelevant if life simply ended in death. Indeed, consider the alternative: If death were the final way of things, life would be useless, an exercise in meaningless futility. Poetry often deals with this theme of death and life’s futility.
Consider this excerpt from the poem, “Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelly:
“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sand stretch far away.…”
Ozymandias, also known as Pharaoh Ramses II, believed that by building a big enough statue, and having his mummified remains entombed carefully in a giant pyramid, he could cheat death and leave a legacy greater than any other. He called himself “king of kings.” Instead, his statues are crumbling, his mummified body remains lifeless, dried and decayed, and because he does not know the true “King of Kings,” Jesus Christ, Ozymandias will be confined to the dustbin of history.
The Christian message is as audacious and colossal as the boast of Ozymandias: through Christ, we can triumph over death, and we can change the world. The difference between Ozymandias and Jesus is simple: Jesus backed up his claim by casting off his burial wrappings, while Ramses is still wrapped in his! Unlike the reign of the Pharaohs, Christianity is not just ancient history, it is active and alive, changing the world even as we speak.
And you can be a part of it, yes, by following the three steps outlined in this sermon, including that third step: “Living Victoriously.” Palm Sunday is a celebration of victory... though of course we know that the triumphant march of Jesus into Jerusalem only led to the more difficult road up to Calvary and the Cross.
And so it is with life. Living victoriously doesn’t mean we travel the easy path. Of course, I am not under any illusion that you and I alone will transform the world into a paradise. No, to the contrary, only the coming of Christ and His Kingdom can do that. However, the three things listed above will help prepare ourselves and those around us for the Kingdom. This is why the main message Jesus gave at the moment of his Resurrection was “go and tell” (Matthew 28). This is why Paul said in 1st Corinthians 15: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” The flip side of that is: Christ has been raised, your faith is fruitful, you are freed from sin and death. Rejoice! Jesus has transformed the laws of sin and death, and we are invited to assist him in changing the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Foley, Alabama