Sermon 4.5.26 Easter Day: Turning Suffering Stories into Resurrection Stories
- standrewcin
- Apr 8
- 7 min read
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
Good Morning, Church!
On Easter Day of 1742, Handel’s Messiah was played publicly for the first time with its famous Alleluia chorus.
Alleluia….
It was played in 1863 after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Alleluia….
On the first day of this millennium, it was played at sunrise on the island of Kiribati, the Polynesian island closes to the international date line, making it the first music, the first sound to usher in the 21st century of the common era.
Forever and ever, alleluia alleluia alleluia
This song, this word reflects one of the most ancient ways to praise God for things that are indescribable.
It is a word for when all other words fail and all we can do is simply glory in the miraculous.
It has been wept, when in deepest trouble, we give everything to God despite our sorrows.
It has been whispered, when we have felt afraid and a small mercy reminds us that God is with us.
It has been sung and proclaimed with ultimate joy, with clanging cymbals and the sound of trumpets to announce that Easter is here, that Death has no dominion over us, that Jesus Christ is Risen today.
On this holy Resurrection Day, I’m moved to preach to you:
Let your Suffering stories turn into resurrection stories.
This week, and this year, we have come through a lot in our world, in our nation, in our state, and in our city.
And that is not to mention whatever heartaches and anxieties have been part of the year for each one of us as individuals.
Each of us has a suffering story from this year, many of us, I would guess, have multiple suffering stories and small or large they pile up.
Sometimes we are able to ignore them, put on a brave face, fake it ‘til we make it, and then fall apart in private.
Sometimes we cannot hold back the waters and weeping comes, or anger spends the night, or paralysis keeps us from putting one foot in front of the other.
Each of us also has longer term suffering stories.
“Nobody understands me.”
“I have always been underestimated.”
“I have never been enough.”
“This person has always been loved more than me.”
“I never get the credit, I deserve.”
“If this event in my life had never happened to me, everything would have been completely different.”
“I don’t deserve forgiveness.”
“I can never forgive that person in my life.”
“if something can go wrong, it always will go wrong.”
Suffering stories are those things that we tell ourselves about our lives, most of them real, some of them perceived, nearly all of them honestly come by.
They are the ebb and flow of our life, the themes that come back up when we hit hard times, when we connect the dots to explain why things feel the way that they do;
They can feel like the current of troubled waters that lie below the surface of the Jordan River; the chaos that threatens to disorder the balance that we work so hard to create.
They are part of the plot of our lives, part of our identities,
Part of what makes us who we are.
They are also, I would wager, the piece of us that comes to the surface on Good Friday and understands “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me, and are so far from my cry?”
They hurt on an existential level.
But, like the story of Jesus, God wants to show you today that the fabric of the universe does not let suffering stories have the last word.
You were meant for so much more than this,
So much more than the things you tell yourself at night, when you cannot get to sleep,
So much more than the limits that anyone tries to impose on your life.
If you have been raised with Christ, nothing can keep you down.
These suffering stories, if we can really understand them, if we can really face them, unpack them, and get to the root of them also give us our greatest opportunity for transformation.
We have the power, through God, to turn our suffering stories into resurrection stories.
To take a stance, as the Apostle Paul says, to “reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”
C.S. Lewis puts it this way, Heaven works backwards, the resurrection if we can allow it to, means that no matter what we suffer during this life, heaven can make even these things seem like eternal glory.
The first thing that Jesus and the angels ask the women who come to the tomb to care for the body of Jesus in John’s gospel is, “why are you weeping?”
All along in John’s gospel, we have gotten hints that Jesus is the long-expected Messiah.
Everything he does has fulfilled scripture; all of his healings, all of his sayings, his entry into Jerusalem, his passion, all of his suffering.
And here too, “why are you weeping?”
If we are paying attention fulfills the scripture, “weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
This question gives us a hint that the suffering story is about to be transformed.
That “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” is about to be transformed into “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his mercy endures forever… I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord… On this day the Lord has acted, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
The worry that God has abandoned us is turned into the ultimate declaration that God will never leave us.
For years, the church has been telling itself a suffering story.
“We are declining, people don’t believe in God anymore, people don’t have time to put aside for eternal things, they are setting their minds on earthly gain, and we don’t know how to reach them.”
“Woe is us!”
But today, at this church, we will be baptizing ___ new people into the household of God.
We are seeing the abundance of God bringing all of us into this place on this day,
If you are here today, it’s because God has called you here today to see His Glory.
God has called you here today to show you that transformation is possible,
That the church of God is still alive, the Holy Spirit is still active,
And that if you have been buried with Christ, you will also be raised to the new life of Grace in Christ.
God has called you here to witness the sacrament of Baptism by which the lives are set on a journey of seeking and discovery,
And by which the life of the church is renewed.
The worries and sufferings of this life are nothing in comparison with the glory that is being revealed here today,
For our family, with the baptisms of McKall, and Kaius, and Mark,
We celebrate what God began 8 years ago when we moved next door to a young couple, who were just starting their life together,
People who would become part of our family, some of our best friends in this world.
McKall and Kaius, your mom and dad went through some stuff to bring you into this world and you are miracle babies each in your own way.
You show what can come from perseverance and strength and belief.
Mark, you have everything that you need, God is working on you, has always been with you, and has brought you this far.
This is the next part of your transformation that God has been working in you and will continue guide you in.
For the extended Herring family, with the baptisms of Keymond, Keyadria, Adrian, Breasia, Brooklyn, and Enasia,
Your grandma Mary Herring spent the last years of her life praying for you, loving you, and wishing that this day might come for you.
Her love has brought you to this place.
Today we will baptize you not just for St. Andrew’s her church home for the last decades of her life, but we will baptize you once and for all for the whole Church.
No matter where you go, you will be covered by the Grace of this day.
No matter where life leads you, you will be a baptized person, and no one can ever take that away from you.
No matter what weighs you down, Jesus will always be beside you to lift you up.
Your resurrection story has been awakened today.
For all of you who will witness these baptisms today, whether you remember your baptism or were too young to remember it, remember the people who were there, who brought you to the waters,
Whose faith in their generations gave you the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
We are the heirs of their salvation going back in time all the way to the beginning, the heirs of ancestors and saints throughout the ages.
All of their suffering stories turned into the assurance of resurrection,
All of the weeping at night that turned into joy in the morning,
All of the countless witnesses who still live in this place and visit us with their alleluias
We have come to this place today, like the women of Jesus’ life so many years ago and found what we thought was an empty tomb filled with angels and with words of comfort, with a risen Lord, who is going out before us into the world and into heaven to prepare the Way and a place for us.
Whatever happens today, whatever happens in the rest of your story,
Remember that heaven is always waiting to break in like the dawn even when suffering stays the night.
Our suffering stories do not have the last say
That is the message of Easter Day.
That is the reason we sing Alleluias
because sighs too deep for words can always be replaced by songs so high they reach to heaven.
The King of kings, the Lord of lords, He shall reign forever and ever alleluia alleluia alleluia.
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