“Let Us Be Glad and Rejoice in His Salvation”

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Cameron S. Smith
Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006
Isaiah 25:6-9
     

A number of years ago, I a preacher friend of mine opened up an Easter sermon with an illustration from the Beverly Hillbillies. Many of you remember the television series: Jed Clampett was "the poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shooting at some food, and up from the ground come a bubbling crude, oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. Well the first thing you know 'ole Jed's a millionaire, his kin folk said 'Jed move away from there!' said 'Californy is the place you ought to be,' so they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly, Hills that is, swimming pools...movie stars....…."
     The gist of the illustration was that Jed, Granny, Jethro and Ellie Mae were given a glorious new life in the luxury of Jed's 40 million dollar fortune. My friend's intention with the reference to the 60's sitcom was to illustrate the reality that Easter has the potential to bring new life in Jesus Christ -- It can be ours. We're to leave the poverty of a Christ-less existence for the riches of eternal life, here and ever after. A good and spot-on thought. Life in Christ is like going from rags to riches!
     However, I have another take on this Hillbillie rags to riches story: I think the underlying "moral" of the show was that the folks from Bugtussle were already far richer in their poverty when compared to the pervasive shallow, selfish materialism and greed in Beverly Hills!

On Wednesday at our Holy Week Service, I spoke from Hebrews 12 about Jesus "despising the shame" of a bloody Roman cross and, for the joy of heaven set before him, endured a cruel, bloody death so that all of us who place our faith in him follow in that joy.
     Having spoken on the heavenly joy set before Jesus, today we turn to find that the same joy before our Lord is set before us as well -- a joy that I might add, that builds and nurtures a resurrection faith that's been given to us. This is why I borrow a line from Isaiah 25:9 this morning as our sermon title this Resurrection morning: "Let us be glad and rejoice in [God's] salvation."

Now before I move any further, let me preface all that follows with this observation: As a nation, we are well-to-do with our comfort zone and our expectations understandably sky high. And yet, I don't think we're very happy people. So many people are searching for something to make them happy, but never quite get there. They look for it in wealth; in possessions; in status. But nothing seems to quite work for long. Money, power and sex are in the end, devoid of the capacity to sustain true happiness.
     I was reading this week that a Star from the NFL was feeling particularly slighted by his long-time team -- he was depressed and angry. Come to learn, this same player stands to earn over 20 million dollars this year! That's what I call being 'dissed!
     In another example, I confess that I used to enjoy watching the biographical series, True Hollywood Story on E Entertainment Television. But, I started noting a common theme in each show: These famous, rich, well-to-do actors and actresses always seemed to be so profoundly unhappy. They have the world on a string, and yet they just don't seem to be very together. Cry me a river! I can't watch the show anymore without major irritation.
     I could also mention in passing the dysfunctionality of our families, even in the face of living in a country where even our poorest citizens are far better off than the rest of the world; and yet, overall there's just no lasting happiness. A look at Washington politics also tells us that there is no direction or sense of ultimate purpose, and I might add, this futility extends to both Democrats and Republicans!
     Perhaps most painful to me is the recognition that millions of people will be making a rare trip to church today looking for something, but won't return next week, probably because they don't believe what they hear; and this in spite of the profound truth articulated earthily by Duke theologian Stanley Hauerwas: The Christian message of God intervening in the midst of an evil, hopeless world is the "best damn story out there."
     This is a lesson that I've learned in hindsight from the Beverly Hillbillies. I recall that one of my frustrations watching the show as a young boy was my perception that the Hillbillies just didn't seem to get it. Couldn't they recognize how good they had it? And now, as I look back on that show with spiritually discerning eyes, I see that I was the one who was confused about what really makes for true success and true happiness! The Hillbillies demonstrated resurrection faith when they professed their hope in going to their "re-ward."

This brings me to our lesson from Isaiah 25. I want to suggest to you that this text describes the resurrection of Christ, and that the benefits, i.e. the joy and hope, of this resurrection spread out to include the nations of the world.
     Isaiah tells us in 25:6 that "On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines." The mountain here is Mount Zion, and Mount Zion is a nickname of sorts for Jerusalem. Isaiah was prophesying of a day when God would gather his people from the four corners of the globe for a fantastic feast.
     The connection to Calvary's not quite in focus yet, but then, look at the next two verses, Isaiah describes the reason for the festive banquet: "On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces." God will destroy death on Mount Zion; and we understand in hindsight that Isaiah announced 300 years in advance what the Son of God would do on a terrible Roman cross in Jerusalem, Mount Zion.
     But there's something even more wonderful here: Jesus, in bursting the chains of death, also destroyed the chokehold of sin. Death and sin bit the dust at Calvary! I love the language here: Up until the death of Jesus, there was a death shroud over all the nations. It was only in the Lord's death and resurrection that the shroud, so that we could be raised from death ourselves.
     That's why Easter is so special. That's why we have so many special services during Holy Week. The events of Holy Week changed the world! They changed you. They changed me. You see, it's not just about the resurrection of Jesus; but it's about your resurrection as well.

But, here's the problem: We all recognize that, even though we have repented of our sin and confessed our trust in the work of Jesus in his life, death and resurrection; we still struggle with sin. We still die. How can we preach and teach and trust in a Christian message that is so clearly at odds with reality as we know it? Perhaps this reality is why so many people look elsewhere for their own truth; their own happiness? To this I can only suggest an old theological formula that sums up the coming of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ; that I might add, cradles my own faith in the risen Christ: "Now,…Not Yet." This recognizes that the Kingdom of God came in the first coming of our Lord Jesus; but that we have yet to experience it in its fullness. Somehow, in the wisdom of God, we've been given a little taste of what things will be like. Until that time, we are charged to remind ourselves of what's ahead; to nurture that expectation.
     I might add that this is one of the reasons that we celebrate Communion once a month! As a community of faith, we encourage one another in this resurrection hope and joy as we wait. Now, Not Yet!

I want you to notice the last verse in our text this morning because it sums up this now, not yet mindset: "It will be said on that day, 'Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.'" We have waited on him. Did you catch those words? We have waited on him. We wait on the Not Yet with confident expectation.
     In the confessing Jesus as Lord, we have been "saved." But there is a time coming when we will be saved more fully -- when we stand in the presence of our Lord, and death and sin are completely washed away.

Before I close, let me underscore the fact that this outlook; this resurrection faith that we try to encourage and build in one another, should radically re-orient our understanding of the things that the world so much cherishes. On the negative end of things, resurrection faith compels us over time to evaluate money, power, sex and entertainment in a radically different way. But, on the positive side, it also, through the power of the Holy Spirit, beckons us to go deeper in our worship; in our prayer; in our desire to know Christ. This is what resurrection faith is all about.

I close with a true story that I think illustrates this now, not yet, resurrection faith that I've been showing you this morning. The story is told about a distinguished man, the only white person buried in a Georgia cemetery reserved exclusively for African-Americans. He had lost his mother when he was just a baby. His father, who never married again, hired a black woman named Mandy to help raise his son. She was a Christian, and she took her task seriously. Seldom has a motherless boy received such warmhearted attention. One of his earliest memories was of Mandy bending tenderly over him in his upstairs bedroom each day and softly saying, "Wake up - God's mornin' is come." [That's the Now perspective!]
     As the years passed this devoted woman continued to serve as his surrogate mother. The young man went away to college, but when he would come home on holidays and in the summer she would still climb the stairs and call him in the same loving way. One day, after he had become a successful statesman, the sad message came: "Mandy is dead. Can you attend her funeral?" As he stood by her grave in the cemetery, he turned to his friends and said, "If I die before Jesus comes, I want to be buried right here beside Mandy. I like to think that on Resurrection Day she'll speak to me again and say, 'Wake up, my boy, God's mornin' is come!'" [Clearly a Not Yet moment!]
     This is the Lord's way; we have waited, and we will wait for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Amen