Readings:
Sermon:
Do you listen to Classic FM?
If so, you will know their nine note theme tune - the one they play between pieces of music and after the ads. In fact, even if you don’t listen to the station, you’ll almost certainly know it.
Nine simple notes which have now It has now been played in more than 200 different styles - on every solo instrument you can imagine; by quartets, quintets, octets, full orchestra; as Baroque, Classical and Modern music. In Western style, Eastern style, as a Tango, as lush ballet music.
Always though, it’s the same nine notes. Instantly recognisable as the signature tune for Classic FM.
At Easter we discover God’s signature tune - his theme tune. And we call it Resurrection. God’s distinctive way of working is to turn what is dead into something new. To take what seems finished and to call life out of it.
On the first Easter day, when the resurrection tune is first heard, the disciples really have no idea what’s going on. And even the gospel accounts - which were written many years after the events of that glorious, confusing day when their authors had had time to reflect and think about what had happened - still contain a strong sense of the confusion of that day.
In Luke’s account the women discover the empty tomb and go to tell the disciples who, we’re told, ‘considered it an idle tale’, or in another translation ‘the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.’ And even Peter, who took their words more seriously and went to the tomb to see for himself ‘walks away puzzled, shaking his head’.
In John’s gospel, Thomas went on refusing to believe that Jesus was alive again until he could see the evidence for himself.
And in Mark’s gospel, the confusion is so serious that the whole story ends at that point - ‘So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.’ That’s the end of Mark’s gospel.
And it’s not surprising. People 2000 years ago may not have had access to the same medical knowledge that we have, but they knew perfectly well that dead people do not come alive again. The Romans were particularly good at killing those they wanted to get rid of, and crucifixion was a very effective way of doing it. People who had been crucified didn’t start walking around again.
No wonder the disciples were so shocked.
But it turns out that God has always been in the resurrection business. His resurrection theme tune has always been playing. It goes right back to the earliest days - the nation of Israel is founded on resurrection when they are taken out of slavery and brought into a new kind of freedom in the Promised Land. And before even that, those Israelites were in Egypt in the first place because of Joseph - he of the technicoloured dreamcoat - Joseph who was thrown into a pit by his brothers and, presumed dead, and who ended up as the leading advisor to the greatest King on earth.
And think of other stories in the Old Testament - Jonah, chucked overboard by superstitious sailors, only to be saved to bring the whole city of Nineveh to penitence and forgiveness.
Or what about the great prophets of the exile, Isaiah above all, who are called by God to proclaim the end of Israel’s time in the wilderness and to speak of the promise of something new rising up. All that talk of straight ways in the highway, of lions and lambs lying down together. That’s the same resurrection tune again.
And then we get to Jesus. And although we have to wait a while to get to resurrection day, with Easter eyes, it turns out that he has always been in the resurrection business. The tune plays in Jesus more strongly than ever. Water is turned into wine. The deaf are suddenly able to hear again. The blind can see. 5000 people who have nothing to eat are given more than they need, with leftovers to spare. Jesus meets a woman beside a well. Her life is a mess, and she has been ostracised by her community, but she meets Jesus, is forgiven and given the means to start all over again. A tax collector who has been ripping people off is welcomed to dinner with Jesus and leaves completely changed.
God’s great theme tune has been playing for generations, but is now heard more sharply and more beautifully than ever. And on Easter Day, and in the weeks that follow, all becomes clear. It turns out that this tune, this movement from death to life, this is what God does. All those stories of resurrection, all those times when something unexpectedly new and good emerged out of misery and mess, it was always the same tune being played. Always the same God at work, and now we can hear it very, very clearly. Resurrection is what God does. Resurrection is who God is.
And that’s the good news. That’s why we’re here today. It’s what the church exists for. To keep on singing that same resurrection tune.
Christians have always met together, just like we’re doing now. We meet, Sunday by Sunday, to make sure that we never forget the resurrection tune. Services like this give us the opportunity to explore the different ways in which God has been at work over the generations and in our own lives, bringing something new out of something that’s tired or defeated or dead. We read the bible and listen for signs of resurrection. We pray for people and places where resurrection has not yet come. We open our own hearts to the Holy Spirit, asking that the parts of our lives where there is despair or darkness, be transformed and changed. We share bread and wine as a reminder that resurrection is only possible because Jesus has been there before us.
Coming to church isn’t just a matter of an hour on Sunday and then home for the roast. This time together is when we let God’s signature tune shape us and change us. It’s where we learn God’s music again and again and again, and let it become part of who we are.
And then, of course, we leave - but the tune goes with us. We keep singing the resurrection song, because we know that the world around us desperately needs resurrection. Whether it’s our neighbour who has just lost her husband, or the local Food bank trying desperately to keep up with the needs of those that come to them, or a member of our own family who doesn’t know how they’re going to carry on. It’s our job to carry resurrection out into the world and to be the good news. To be resurrection and hope and light in a world that often seems lost in darkness and death.
It’s a tune that is played in a thousand different ways, in countless communities and lives. It has been played yesterday, it is playing today, it will play tomorrow. It is God’s signature tune. It is resurrection.
Alleluia, Christ is risen.