Sermon of April 15, 2001
Dr. Jim Standiford, Senior Pastor

“HOLY WORK”

Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 24:1-11

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Thanks be to thee, O God, for the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the
new life we have through him. Amen.

When we lived in Phoenix, we lived in a part of town that was an old citrus orchard. It was still an irrigation district. By that I mean, years and years before we arrived, there had been constructed a series of canals coming out of the lakes of the mountains around that valley, cutting across the desert, and bringing water into the city and into our neighborhood. Those canals still existed, so once every two weeks water was delivered through the canals and our lots were flooded. The properties were bermed to hold the water. Water District personnel opened and closed the appropriate gates at the appropriate times. We never knew exactly when the irrigation would arrive.

I remember well one Easter in that location. As was typical, we had a number of services at church, so I was gone all morning. Mary Lou went out early and hid the Easter eggs in our backyard. After church Mary Lou kept the kids inside until I got home so that we could all go out together. As we went out in the backyard we noticed it was flooded up to the brim. There were Easter eggs floating all about. But the great joy of the morning was that our Golden Retriever, Sam, was already out there bobbing for eggs. We called her and she came with multi-hues of food coloring all over her face.

It has been our experience that Easter is full of surprises, that Easter is very unpredictable. Theologically there is a good reason for the unpredictability of Easter. Easter is the work of God. It is God's "holywork."

By "holy work," I mean the task that is only God's, that of defining the borders of our existence. All the monotheistic religions of the world understand the Supreme Being as the one who determines the beginning of things and the end of things, including our individual lives. It is God who breathes into us the gift of life. It is God who receives us at the end of our lives.

There is a witness to that fact throughout all of scripture as well. The sole actor in Creation is God. The sole actor in the reCreation story, the story of the Flood, is God. The sole actor at the beginning of the Exodus out of Egypt is God. God hears the cries of his people in slavery and redefines the boundaries of their existence by leading them to a new land. When they are in that new land God gives them a new law, the Ten Commandments, that redefines the boundaries of their existence one with another, and with God. When God hears the people in Exile in Babylon, again there is a leading of the people to a new existence back home in the Promised Land.

It is out of that context, the coming out of Exile, that we have the Old Testament lesson for today from Isaiah 65. In that lesson God says, "I am creating a new heaven and a new earth; everything will be new. The boundaries of existence won't be what you remember. They will be different now. There will be no weeping, or distress. There will be no babies that die, and all of us will live long and fulfilling lives. People will be able to build houses and live in them; they will be able to plant vineyards and reap the harvest from them. God will be so close to us and so attuned to us that before we pray, God will answer our prayers. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like an ox; there will be no hurting in all of God's creation."

It is a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. It is a vision of God's "holy work," of creating new dimensions for our existence. But it is certainly not just in the Old Testament; it is also in the New Testament as well. If "redefining the boundaries of our existence" isn't an image that speaks to you, consider this: what we see is not the true horizon.

Living in the desert for a number of years, I was used to waking up in the morning, having crystal clear blue skies overhead, and being able to look out my windows and see for miles across the desert floor. Having spent this spring in San Diego, I have a different view now. They call it "marine layer," or "on-shore flow," but I call it fog. We had some this morning in this area. What you see is not the true horizon when you are in the midst of fog. You know there is still something out there, but you can't see it.

That was the experience of the women on the first Easter Sunday. They went to that tomb for one reason, and one reason only, and that was to minister to the body of their dead Lord. They were going to prepare the body for burial. That whole process had been interrupted by the observance of the Sabbath. This was unpleasant work. This was emotionally draining work. It was difficult work. It was work that would render the women ritually unclean, so it was a work of great sacrifice. But it was also "holy work," because it deals with death, it deals with one of those boundaries ofexistence.

So the women were going to do "holy work." But when they arrived at the tomb, what was revealed to them was God's new "holy work." Life as they understood it was no more. There was a new dimension to life. In the Resurrection, God had expanded the boundaries of existence. The women went to do "holy work" and they received a holy revelation. It is only in the Book of Luke that we find that the women are not told to go and tell anyone else about the resurrection. This work and this word are for them. I believe it is because they were about "holy work."

The best summation of the Easter event is in Revelation 21:5, where God says, "I am making all things new." That is what Easter is all about. The moving of the boundaries of our existence so that all things are new. There was a story about a little girl who lost her cat. It died. Her mother was trying to comfort her, and said, "Well honey, you know your cat is in heaven with God." The little girl thought for a moment, and said, "Well what does God want with an old dead cat?"

The new "holy work" of Easter is not about resuscitation: more of the old. The new "holy work" of Easter is about resurrection: all things new. Our salvation was secured for us in the death of Jesus. That reunited us with God and gave us a relationship with God. But in the resurrection of Jesus, we have the dimensions of what that new relationship is like, and there are no limits to it because everything is new.

What is life presenting you this day? Is life presenting you some problems in the family, perhaps some marital difficulty? Is life presenting you challenges around your job, are you insecure in your present occupation? Are you facing financial questions? Do you have questions about your purpose, or the meaning of your life? Whatever life presents to us, the message of Easter is: all things are new. There are new possibilities for us in our lives because of what God did in Christ on that first Easter Sunday morning. The old dimensions, the old limits, are no longer there. They are blown out. They no longer exist.

Hal Cowart tells a story about an incident that took place in the Buchenwald Prison in WW II. Remember that was one of the prisons where tremendous numbers of Jewish people were brought. Amongst the great population of that prison there were some Jewish doctors. These doctors were not treated any differently than anyone else. They got up at 4:00 a.m., like everyone else. They stood for roll call after roll call in the shivering cold, like everyone else. They went out and worked on the autobahn like everyone else. When it was dark they were brought in like everyone else and given cold, thin soup that barely nourished them. But when everyone else went to sleep, those doctors huddled together in the back of their barracks and they talked with each other. They stimulated each other's minds. They talked about cases. They talked about situations amongst their fellow prisoners and how they might treat them if they only had the medicine. They kept challenging each other.

Finally they stopped talking and they began to act. They secured items from here and there. They bribed the guards so they could bring in some material. With the help of some other prisoners who were electricians and engineers, they fabricated a very rudimentary x-ray machine so they could examine their fellow prisoners and help them as much as possible.

Those doctors knew like every other prisoner in Buchenwald about the crematoriums. They knew that was their destiny. They knew that's where they would end up. And yet in spite of that, they were about God's "holy work" of expanding the boundaries of existence.

Friends, that is the call on you and me as well, to be a part of God's new "holy work," to expand the bounds of existence. As those Jews in Buchenwald faced violence and death, there is violence and death all about us as well. We have seen it all too recently at Santana and Granite Hills, and now most recently at Congregational Towers. It respects no one of any age. The call upon you and me is to use the gifts that we have, whatever our abilities, to expand the boundaries of existence.

In 1992, James E. Barnes wrote about a little boy, eight years old, by the name of Philip. Philip, along with nine other boys and girls, was a member of a Sunday School class. Philip was unlike all the others. Philip had Down's Syndrome. The other boys and girls in his school, and even in his Sunday School, would tease him on occasion. He knew he was different, but he was a happy child, and he wanted to be a part of the group.

In 1991, on Easter Sunday, the teacher brought those plastic eggs that you can pull apart and put things in, one for each of the children in her class. She told them, "Take your egg and go out on the church grounds. Find something that represents new life, and put it in the egg. Then close up the egg and bring it back to the classroom where we will open them up together."

The children did as they were instructed, and brought the eggs back. The first one they opened contained a little flower inside. Everyone went "Ooh! Ah! New life!" They opened up the second one. In the egg was a very dazed butterfly. Everyone went, "Ooh! Ah! Yes!" They opened up the third egg. There wasn't anything in it. Somebody in the class said, "That's dumb! Somebody couldn't find anything to represent new life?" Then Philip spoke up. "That's my egg. It's empty because Jesus' tomb was empty." There was silence in the class. A miracle took place that day. Philip was welcomed into the group. The bounds of existence were moved.

A few months after that Philip died from his Down's Syndrome. They had his memorial service in the church. The nine fellow members of his Sunday School class all participated in the memorial service. They were all in the procession. They came down the center aisle of the church and went all the way to the altar, each carrying an empty egg.

Easter is a celebration of God's new "holy work," the work that expands the boundaries of our existence, making all things new.

Thanks be to God. Amen.