Sermon Tone Analysis

Easter

Easter Day

Isaiah 25:6–9

1 Corinthians 15:1–11

John 20:1–18

This Gospel reading is not, as one writer has suggested, ‘a sanitized story about a trip to a garden and a lovely surprise’.

If Easter is in any sense the happy ending after a sad story, that is the least important thing about it.

It is not primarily an ending, but a beginning.

It is the start of God’s new creation.

Line up John 20 alongside John’s prologue (1:1–18).

The themes come full circle: light and darkness, new life ‘in’ the Word, the right of Jesus’ followers to become children of God (in v. 17, for the first time, Jesus calls God ‘your Father … and your God’).

The later scene with Thomas echoes 1:18: the Son has unveiled the invisible God.

John 1 echoes Genesis 1; in John 20, God’s new day has dawned.

Twice John reminds us that it is the first day of the week.

Of all the passages which strike me as eyewitness testimony from the shadowy figure we call ‘the beloved disciple’, verse 8 is among the strongest.

This ‘other disciple’, who had reached the tomb first but had paused and allowed Peter to go in ahead, went in, ‘and he saw—and believed’.

Simple words with limitless depth.

This is a moment of great intimacy and power.

As many find when they hear this story, the previously unthinkable dawns, not as the logical conclusion of an argument, nor as a scientific proof, but as a sudden but lasting warmth of heart and mind, an assurance in whose light the rest of the world makes a different and more powerful sort of sense.

Don’t be fooled by the way people talk of ‘belief as a lesser kind of ‘knowledge’ (‘Is it raining?’

‘I believe so’—in other words, I don’t know for sure); when John says ‘he saw and believed’ he is talking at the level of world-view, speaking of rock-bottom convictions that create the context within which knowledge itself can spring to new life.

This new sort of believing is hardly, then, the recognition that Jesus had simply ‘gone to heaven’—as one frequently hears people say, both outside the Church and inside.

As Paul emphasized, quoting the earliest known confession of Christian faith, this was an event that happened at a specific time after the crucifixion (if Jesus had ‘gone to heaven when he died’, why would anyone suppose it had taken place ‘on the third day’?).

Jews like John and Paul believed firmly that the souls of God’s people were in God’s hand against the day when, in the future, God would raise them all to new life.

If all Easter had done was to reaffirm that belief, there would have been no news, no new creation, no reason to break into a trot, let alone a breathless chase (people hardly ever run in the Gospels; on Easter morning they do little else).

Isaiah spoke of death being abolished.

Beware of speaking, instead, of its being merely redescribed.

Easter Sermon

Joy of Jesus’ Resurrection

Chaos of Grief

Peached at: Hurstville Corps, Easter Sunday 2017

Introduction

Marcus Wunderlich

15th April, 2017

I have found it hard to choose the title of my sermon.

I was tired between two titles.

Joy of Jesus’ Resurrection with subtitle Chaos of Grief.

Introduction

Before this sermon play

Play “Easter only changed my day” by OneTimeBlind

Click

Introduction

Or Will Easter Change your life?

Please feel free to let me know which title you feel is best after the sermon.

I will be focusing on the telling of Easter Sunday from John’s version.

When you read each gospel account you will notice that their accounts do not match up all the time.

That each witness account has differences.

We see this in John that Jesus carries his cross the whole way to his crucifixion, and that there is no earth quake when his dies or darkness during Good Friday.

Turn your eyes to the screen.

Click

These difference in fact are a good thing.

For more information google ‘Cold Case Christianity’.

Play “Easter Only Changed My Day” by OneTimeBlind

Chaos

Illustration of Chaos

I will be focusing on the telling of Easter Sunday from John’s gospel version.

When you read each gospel account you will notice that their accounts do not match up all the time.

That each witness account has differences.

We see this in John’s account that Jesus carries his cross the whole way to his crucifixion, and that there is no earthquake when his dies or darkness during Good Friday.

Let me begin by sharing with you this story.

These difference in fact are a good thing.

It gives more credibility of them being unique eyewitness accounts and for more information google ‘Cold Case Christianity’.

Click

Picture a young boy and if possible picture that you are that little boy.

Illustration of Chaos

The little boy is turning 4; he is playing with his toys in the lounge room.

He starts to feel the pains of hunger.

So he goes looking for is mum.

He goes to her room and opens the door.

She is lying in her bed, the phone has split from her hand.

He feels unspeakable dread start to grow within his heart and all thoughts of hunger are total forgotten.

His dread continues to grow with each step that he takes to his mum.

Let me begin by sharing with you this story.

He tries to wake his mum but as hard as he tries she will not wake.

Finally he has to ring for help because his mother has gone to sleep to never wake again.

Picture a young boy and if possible picture that you are that little boy.

The centre of his life has gone.

All that is left is her body.

The little boy is about to turning 4; he is playing with his toys in the lounge room.

He starts to feel the pains of hunger.

So he goes looking for his mum.

He goes to her room and opens the door.

She is lying in her bed, the phone has split from her hand.

He feels unspeakable dread start to grow within his heart and all thoughts of hunger are total forgotten.

His dread continues to grow with each step that he takes closer to his mum.

His mother is buried in a new grave, all hope is gone.

All that is left is despair, sorrow, anger, tears, and chaos.

The chaos of never being able to touch his mother ever again, never having her comfort and reassurance that all will be ok.

Her arms are no longer there to comfort him and her kisses are no longer there to reassurance him.

He tries to wake his mum but as hard as he tries she will not wake.

Finally he has to ring for help because his mother has gone to sleep to never wake again.

The next day he asks his father to take him to her grave.

When he gets there he tells her all the things that have happened.

Finally with despair he throws himself on top of her grave telling her how much he loves her, that he misses her so much that his heart will not stop aching.

The only way for his heart to stop aching like this before was in her loving embrace, having his head caressed with sweet kisses, hearing her voice encouraging him that tomorrow all will right.

The very centre of his life has gone.

All that is left is her body.

The next day, again he pleads with his dad to see his mother’s grave.

Before the car pulls up his seat belt is off, before the car stops his door is open, and before the car’s engine has stopped he’s out the car running with all his strength.

His dad notices that the boys stopped dead 5 metres from the grave.