The Happenings at Pilgrim this week

THIS WEEK AT PILGREM REFORMED CHURCH

ALL DAY SUNDAY, April 24th...STUFF THE TRUCK
Tuesday, April 26th...Noon, Prayer in the Parlor
7:00 PM Bible Study (Genesis)
Wednesday, April 27th... 7:00 PM Choir Practice
Sunday, May 1st... 9:15 AM Sunday School opening
9:30 Sunday School
10:30 Wordhip Service

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Wednesday, April 27th ... George Clifton/
Saturday, April 30th ... Terry Hege & Sylvis Stafford

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

I suspect that we all have had the experience of going to the cupboard or refrigerator only to find that the peanut butter jar or juice carton was empty. It was still on the shelf where it always sits, indeed, right where you put it when you last used it, but empty nonetheless.

We generally feel anger that anyone could do this. We may even feel a righteous indignation of sorts, because we know that it was not empty when we last closed the door upon it.
After the immediate angry and indignant response to the empty container we may dwell more on the “who” or the “how” parts of the question. Who could have done this? Who in my very own home could possibly be so thoughtless as to do this? Who?

It’s so much more comforting to try to blame someone else for such a horrendous deed none the less some of us, who may be a little more open to other possibilities, may consider the “how” question. That question goes something like, “How could I have ever done something like this? How could I forget the jar was empty and put it back?” Well, habit is one answer. It always goes there when we’re through. The other answer, the more frightening one is “How could I forget I just emptied it?”

Whatever the answer, we all hate looking in something we’re sure is full and finding it empty. I thought of this as I was reading some of the Easter stories in the Bible this week and I realized that an empty peanut butter jar is nothing compared to an empty tomb. Luke 24:1,3 (NIV) On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb…but when they entered, they did not find the body of Jesus.
How would have reacted to that kind of situation? John 20:11 (NIV) says Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. But Mary was not weeping out of anger or indignation, she was weeping because of the terrible emptiness of first the tomb and now her heart. Nothing Mary could possibly have imagined could have prepared her this. Jesus was gone, her teacher was gone, her Lord was gone, stolen. All was lost.

Then she heard a voice, even a familiar voice, and the voice spoke her name, “Mary” (John 20:16) and her fear turned to joy and she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni”

In that moment nothing in the tomb was everything for Mary … and it is for us today.
There’s an expression, “Thanks for nothing” and, indeed, this morning it is most appropriate! Thank you God for this nothing, is everything!




Sermon for Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011
“GOD’S ANSWER TO THE BLUES”

Mark 16:1 8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Do you know how to sing the Blues? A strange question for Easter Sunday, but bear with me. Back at the turn of the twentieth century, a new form of music came forth from the coal mines and cotton fields of the South. It was a sad, soulful music based on the experiences of people who lived hard lives. And it was called the Blues.

A Professor of Blues, in Memphis, Tennessee has written a comprehensive and humorous guide called “How to Write the Blues.” He says that not everyone can sing the blues. He says that blues is not a color thing.

Blues is about luck. The winner of this years Masters Charl Schwartzel can’t sing the blues. Tiger Woods on the other hand probably can

Breaking your leg while skiing in Aspen is not the blues. Losing your leg to an alligator in a Louisiana swamp is. You cannot wear a suit and sing the blues -- unless you happen to be an 80 year-old black man and you slept in it. Dying in a bar fight is a blues death; dying while having liposuction isn’t.

Also, no matter how tragic your life, if you own a laptop computer, you cannot sing the blues, says the professor. Maybe your big ol’ mean woman done sat down on it. It doesn’t matter. It’s not the blues.

It’s all right to sing the Blues if you drive a Chevy or a Ford -- but forget it if you drive a Volvo, BMW or any kind of SUV. Even better yet, take a Greyhound bus or a southbound train if you want to sing the blues.

Do you have the right to sing the blues? Yes, say folks who know about the Blues. You have a right to sing the Blues, if your first name is a southern state - like Georgia, if you’re older than dirt, if you’re blind or if you shot a man in Memphis.

However, you can’t sing the Blues if you have all your own teeth, no matter how old you are, or if you once were blind, but now you can see, or, if when you shot that man in Memphis, it turned out to be just a flesh wound.

Most blues begin "woke up this morning." If you didn’t wake up this morning, you will have difficulty singing the blues.

So, can you sing the Blues? By the Professor’s definitions I believe Mary Magdalene could sing the blues. After all, she was a woman of the streets. She was no society babe. Life had been hard. She had been used, abused, now she was confused. She had met a man who turned her life around. He gave her hope, dignity, love.

But now he was gone. Crucified like a common criminal. Now Mary could do nothing but moan, nothing but sob, nothing but sing the Blues. Mary Magdalene could sing the Blues.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, could sing the Blues. After all, she had lost her boy to the lynch mob. It seemed like only yesterday when he was lying in a manger, looking up at her with helpless and loving eyes. She had nursed him, changed him, taught him to walk and play.

Saw how, even as a boy, he impressed the wise men in the Temple with his knowledge of the scriptures. She saw him become a man--and what a man he was. Gentle with little children, a spellbinding communicator when he was in front of the masses who was able to reach out and heal people with his touch.

Mary’s heart had once burst with pride over her son but then the crowd turned against him and instead of allowing him to live a respectable life like other men of talent and ability were allowed to live . . . they put him before Pontius Pilate for a mockery of a trial.

They yelled, “Crucify him . . . crucify him.” And Mary’s heart broke as she looked up at him hanging like a common criminal on the cross. Surely, if any woman who ever lived had the right to sing the Blues, it was Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Simon Peter could sing the Blues. He let down his best friend, the one man in all the world who believed in him. Did Simon believe in Jesus? Yes, but even more important, Jesus believed in Simon. The Master called him a Rock and said he would build his church on him.
Simon Peter couldn’t believe his ears. Yet for all Jesus’ kind words, Simon knew he wasn’t really that strong.

The Master knew it too. It was he who foretold that Simon would deny him three times before the cock crew. Someday Simon Peter would be a rock for the early church, but right now he knows he’s come up short. He let down the one man who truly loved him, and Simon Peter’s weeping his heart out so there was nothing for this would-be rock to do but sing the Blues.

And none of the people who knew Jesus could sing the Blues like Judas Iscariot. He didn’t shoot a man in Memphis. No, he did worse than that. He betrayed the very Son of God.And he did it with a kiss. Heaven help Judas Iscariot. But Judas won’t accept heaven’s help. He takes the coward’s way out. He hangs himself.

On the two nights preceding that first Easter morn, it was a time for singing the Blues. If a Blues singer had been present, he might have sung, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh-oh-oh-oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble . . . Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

All the earth was covered with darkness. Denial, betrayal, broken hearts and broken dreams. “We thought he was the one who would deliver us.” But they had seen him with their own eyes, with nails in his hands and feet, and a spear thrust in his side. As befitting a Blues death, their Master had been laid in a borrowed grave. And those who followed him were now in hiding. “Let your light so shine before men . . .” he had taught, but his frightened followers were content to hide their light under a bushel. Their grief and confusion weighed heavily upon them, and all they could do was sing the Blues.

But then, just before daybreak, the women made their way to the tomb. The reports are a little jumbled. Just like the reports we got out of Egypt or Libya as those wars recently unfolded.You can expect that. The memories of eyewitnesses are frequently jumbled. This was an emotional day. The writer of the Gospel of John mentions only Mary Magdalene.

The writer of Mark says that Mary the mother of James, and Salome were with her. It makes no difference. The important thing is that when they reached the tomb, they found it empty.
Even though the authorities had placed guards at the tomb to guard against his disciples stealing his body, the stone was rolled away and the body was gone. Vanished. Only the grave clothes were left behind.

And then the Lord began making appearances to his followers. John tells us he began with Mary Magdalene. Isn’t it just like God, this gracious God who takes our sins and buries them into the deepest parts of the sea never to surface again?

Isn’t it just like God to have the risen Christ appear, first of all, to a person who had once been a woman of the streets? If you can’t see the irony and at the same time the beauty of the risen Christ appearing first of all to a woman who was perhaps a converted prostitute, you have never experienced grace.

Then Christ started appearing to those who believed in him. Peter, John, those gathered in the upper room on Easter evening, and many others, and last of all, after his ascension, to the apostle Paul.

Christ appeared to those who believed in him and he stole something from them.He stole from them the ability to ever again sing the Blues.

• Because, you see, you can’t sing the Blues, if you were once blind, but now you see.
• You can’t sing the Blues when hope is restored.
• You can’t sing the Blues when your first love is in your arms once more.
• You can sing the Blues beside the grave, but not if it’s empty. And it was empty.

The followers of Jesus could no longer sing the Blues. Now, all they could do was shout for joy.
Journalist Bill Keller wrote of Mandela’s inauguration after becoming president of South Africa. “Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a man who had also spent his life opposing apartheid, danced up to the podium and shouted into the microphone, ‘We are free today! We are free today!’” Desmond Tutu could no longer sing the Blues. His reality had been altered. The people danced for joy and they shouted, “We are free today! We are free today!”

That’s been the cry of Christians for 2,000 years. “We are free today!” Free people can’t sing the Blues. And we are free.

• Free from the pain of death.
• Free from the pain of separation.
• Free from the darkness of despair and desperation. “We are free today!”

Maybe you came to church this morning singing the Blues. It’s possible. Life can deal with us brutally at times and we can forget our faith, forget our hope and even forget our God. Maybe that’s your condition today. I want to tell you not to give up.

Because of that empty tomb, we know that love conquers hate, life conquers death, light conquers darkness. Because of that empty tomb we know that no situation can be written off as hopeless. Just when we think we have reached the end of our rope, God reaches down a hand of support.

Many years ago, Rev. Robert Barnes was serving at a church in Philadelphia. The church had just bought a nearby lot on which to expand their parking lot. A small patch of Easter lilies had been growing in the lot for the last few years. The paving company came in and bulldozed the lilies. Next, they poured the asphalt. Soon, the congregation was using the new parking lot.

But the following spring, they began to notice something strange going on. The pavement in the new parking lot was starting to buckle and crack. Sure enough, the Easter lilies were poking up through the asphalt. And that’s what Easter is about. Life is stronger than death. You can bury life in the ground, but sooner or later it will spring up once again. If that’s not good news, I would like to know what is. Surely if an Easter lily can overcome its circumstances, so can you and I.

The followers of Jesus were singing the Blues. But soon they were singing “Hallelujah. Hallelujah. For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Hallelujah.” And that’s why you and I are here today, in hopes that we can trade in our Blues, too, for Hallelujahs.

The most famous clock in the world is London's Big Ben. It stands by the Houses of Parliament and towers above Westminster Abbey. It is a familiar landmark. Did you know that the chimes of Big Ben play a tune? No, it’s not a Blues tune. Do you know what it is? It’s the tune of a hymn. The hymn is "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth."

"I Know That My Redeemer Liveth." And if you know that, really know that in your heart of hearts, then you can’t sing the Blues anymore.

Amen.