Easter Sunday – April 20, 2014.
Our sermon today begins on a dark winter day in London, England. Early in the history of the Second World War, the tide seemed to favor the advances of Hitler’s armies. It seemed that the well-oiled Nazi war machine was producing more than the expected results. More and more victories were won and Allied armies and defenses seemed to fall apart on a daily basis. Large parts of Europe and North Africa were under the specter of totalitarianism.
By November 1942, America had entered the war, and American soldiers, sailors, and aviators had begun to fight the enemy both in the Pacific and in North Africa. And yet, without any major victory, all that could be expected was if not total capitulation, perhaps a negotiated settlement, leaving behind millions and millions of people and vast swaths of land under the control of the enemy. November 1942 was a very dark winter, indeed.
Against that somber backdrop, on November 10, 1942, Winston Churchill was invited to a lunch at the London Mayor’s Day. On that day, however, Churchill was able to announce “a new experience. We have a victory – a remarkable and definite victory. General Alexander, with his brilliant comrade and lieutenant, General Montgomery, has gained a glorious and decisive victory … Rommel's army has been defeated. It has been routed. It has been very largely destroyed as a fighting force.”
Yet, Churchill advised his hosts, there would be “blood, tears, toil, and sweat” to be shed in the long road ahead. Indeed, he said, the victory at El Alamein, was not the end. “It is not even the beginning of the end.” But, perhaps, it was – Churchill said – “the end of the beginning.”
Today, we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And our celebration is against the backdrop of our daily battles “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Today, as in 1942, large parts of the world and our beloved nation are under control of the dark forces of evil. I am not speaking about weird religious groups or sick people. Evil is real. And, it seems, it has the upper hand.
For indeed, as St Paul’s writes, our real battles are not against “Obamacare” or the “Koch brothers.” School killings, mothers burying the new born children in their yards, women kept in dungeons for decades, terrorism, the deterioration of the environment, “the killing fields of America” resulting from drug use and trafficking, the unbridled exploitation in the financial markets, and the growing sense of social inequity will not be eliminated by a better political understanding here in Washington, by new laws, or by a new and better administration by the same or the other party.
But my, friends, be of good cheer. Today we proclaim, once again, the Victory of the Resurrection. Death, as St Paul writes, “no longer has dominion” (Romans 6:9). Today with the victory over death and sin, we are proclaiming that “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died” (1 Corinthians 15:20), and in the words of the old hymn that St Paul sung, we too can sing,
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
So today, my brothers and sisters, we are proclaiming that in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Evil and its forces have been defeated. The power of death and sin has been vanquished. Creation can – and certainly, it will – be restored, reconciled, and be set again under the rule of the Lord of Peace. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is not the end of the beginning, nor it is the beginning of end, but it is through God’s grace, love, and mercy, “the end of the end.”
“The end of the end” is not a play in words. It is a reality to be lived, and it is a reality that you and I can live, and that we, together, here at St Paul’s can begin to call into being, by supporting each other in our common journey, by cheering your brother or sisters when he or she begins to slack down, and by encouraging each other with words of confidence, faith, hope, and trust.
There is still work to be done. Yes, there is toil and sweat ahead. The good news of the victory of Jesus Christ needs to be proclaimed until the ends of the earth. A new society where swords are hammered into plowshares and spears made into pruning hooks, and where “nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4) still needs to be built. A new society where “justice will be made for the poor, and fair decisions will be made for the exploited” (Isaiah 11:4) still needs to be called into being. A new order marked by peace and not enmity, a new understanding where we can sit in harmony with our neighbors, indeed a new earth and a new heaven needs to be planted, tendered, and harvested for the Kingdom of God.
Yes, there is a lot that needs to be done. But the good news is that we are not alone in this battle and, certainly, the good Lord has baptized us not only in water but has baptized us in the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that lifted up Jesus from among the dead, so we have all that we need to carry on.
Yes, we can. This is not a political statement. It is the resurrection’s statement. It is the affirmation of an empty tomb and the testimony of a group of people who otherwise may have been classified as bums and yet who somehow – in the world of an early writer – managed to turn the world upside down.
“The end of the end” marks, so to speak, the “beginning of a new beginning.” As Prof. N. T. Wright, the retired bishop of Durham said in a sermon, “the ‘good news’ of the Christian gospel is that this new world, this new creation, has already begun: it began when Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead on Easter morning, having faced and beaten the double enemy, sin and death, that has corrupted and defaced God’s lovely creation.”
The “New creation has begun in Jesus. There is a pilgrim highway leading all the way from the cross and the empty tomb right through to God’s new creation; and we are called … to walk that pilgrim way, the Holy Way, in the way of healing and hope.” Don’t be afraid was the angel’s message to the disciples. It is God’s message to us, today.
What we do, what we are, what we believe, what we testify are just signposts pointing the way. Don’t be afraid. As it happens to many signposts that you may find along the way, signposts sometimes are used as a kind of target by trigger-happy guys. That goes with the business. But, don’t be afraid, we will not only survive, but we will rise to new heights in the same power of the Spirit who lifted the Lord Christ from among the dead.
Be of good cheer! Be confident! Be a builder of the kingdom! Be a witness to the resurrection. The end is not near… It is already over!
Let us go into the world to love and serve the Lord: Alleluia! Alleluia!
Fr Gustavo
