“The Way to Life: Worship” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – April 16, 2017 (Easter)

Lay Reader = Luke 24:1-11
1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
Introduction

We are starting a new series of sermons looking at the Way to Life. Starting next week we’ll have some devotionals to go along with the sermon series – ways to put it into practice on Tuesday, not just Sunday. It’s also on the sermons page of our website if you want to download it.
This series reminds me of my faith journey in college. I was studying computer science, but I had already been programming computers for ten years at that point so it wasn’t a lot of new info. Studying wasn’t a big time-drain for me. I had all the time in the world. I did have a job as the head programmer of a mid-sized company, so I had plenty of money. And when I combined tons of free time with lots of expendable income I found…the most boring era of my life. When I just lived for myself, I wasn’t truly alive, I was a bland cardboard-cutout of my former self. It was only when I reconnected with my faith that I recovered the vitality, the purpose for my life.
So in this series we’re going to be looking at the various ways we can practice our faith, and how those practices lead us to new life.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Expectant
Well it was many years ago, it was Halloween, and one guy was ruining it for everyone. When you go to a haunted house, you’re generally expecting to be scared, right? Well this guy was the “I’m too tough to be scared” guy – probably trying to impress the girl attached to his arm. But if you’ve ever been through a haunted house with “that guy,” you know that it kinda ruins your good time, too. At this particular haunted house, my dad was supposed to scare people with his chainsaw – the teeth were removed, so really it was just a big noisemaker, but you can’t tell that when it’s revved up. My dad was one of the last scary points in the haunted house, and he heard this guy coming. So he waited for the whole group to pass, ran up behind him, put the chainsaw between his legs, and RRRR! The guy dance/sprinted his way out of there shrieking at the top of his lungs. Definitely impressed his girlfriend.
When you go to a haunted house, you expect to be scared. In the Easter text today, the women went to the tomb expecting to find Jesus dead in the tomb. Instead they found two men in dazzling clothes standing in the tomb. That was probably scarier than a chainsaw between your legs – the text says the women were terrified. They expected to find death, but these two men in dazzling clothes told them they should have expected to find life. That Jesus was raised from the dead just as he had foretold.
The other text I read today from the Old Testament is also an expectation-buster. I mean, I remember when I was in high school I was trying to take my faith seriously. And what’s the big summary of how we’re supposed to live? The Ten Commandments, right? And the Ten Commandments are a whole bunch of stuff we’re NOT supposed to do. So I thought Christianity was mainly about restraining my impulses, having a giant checklist of things to avoid. I needed to REMOVE things from my life. Those parts of my life needed to die. But in this text, God doesn’t say that. He says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life.” Our faith isn’t about death…it’s about life.
When you came here this morning, what did you expect to find? Before you got here this morning, how did you think you would feel AFTER worship? (LONG PAUSE)
By way of contrast, have you ever been to concert? Rewind back to the point where the opening acts are done, and the band or singer you came to see walks onto the stage. Did the crowd cheer? What did you expect? Were you on the edge of your seat, ready for the experience?
That’s kind of like what the early church expected when they came to worship on Sunday. They expected to hear from God. They expected God to do something in their midst. They expected to have a purpose for the rest of the week. They expected God to show up and they expected to be somehow different as a result. They didn’t expect to be bored. They didn’t expect their Sunday morning time to be meaningless. No, they expected their Sunday worship to be the most meaningful part of their week. They expected life.
And if worship is the most meaningful part of the week, then Easter is the most meaningful day of the year. I’m a geek in general, but I’m a space geek especially. If scientists found evidence of life on Mars or Europa, it would be the biggest news of our lives. But the good news of Easter far surpasses that. I mean, if they discovered microscopic organisms in the depths of Mars would that affect your daily life? Not unless you’re an exobiologist.
But before Easter, some Jews had a theory that there was life after death. That death wasn’t the end of the line. But when Jesus rose again, their theory was confirmed. THAT good news affects every human on the planet – and since I’m a space geek, let’s be inclusive and say it affects those orbiting the planet, too. It affects us because everyone dies. But thanks to Easter we know that’s not the end of the story. That changes everything!
If you are guaranteed that your personal story doesn’t end in death, but in life, how does that change things? When you are suffering, does it give you hope to know that your suffering isn’t the last chapter? When you are feeling blessed, does it excite you to know that your blessings today won’t hold a candle to the blessings God has in store for you?
That certainly gives me hope, but I think we have an even better hope through Jesus. Because elsewhere Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it to the fullest. We should expect life even after death. But we should also expect life NOW. WE should expect to hear from the Living God. We should expect to find purpose and passion in our faith. We should expect life!
What do you expect from your faith? What do you expect when you come to worship? Do you expect to hear from the Living God? Do you expect to be more alive? Do you expect to get a clearer glimpse of your purpose? Those are valid expectations.
Worship = True Life
I guess the real question is “how?” How is worshiping Jesus going to make you more alive? How are you going to get a clearer glimpse of your purpose? How are you going to hear from the Living God?
That’s where I find the various stories about Jesus after his resurrection to be very interesting. The women in our text today – they were on their way to serve. To properly anoint Jesus’ body after death. Serving was their thing. And through their act of service, they found life.
Right after this text in Luke, Jesus appears to two of the disciples who were doing their thing – walking and talking with a good friend. Through their relationships, they found life.
Another time Jesus appears after they went fishing. Through their fishing, they found life.
Still another time Jesus appears when they were studying Scripture. Through their study of the Bible, they found life.
What is life-giving for you? Is it hiking? Is it biking? Is it fishing? Is it building? Is it friendships? Is it study? Is it music?
God made you a particular way. He made you to resonate with some of those activities. And he made you that way so that he could talk to you through it. One of the best ways to hear from the Living God is by listening to him while you’re doing something life-giving, because he made you that way.
Brother Lawrence was a monk in France in the 1600’s. And he found that God spoke to him quite frequently when he was doing the dishes at the monastery. When he did this common business – nothing great, just a simple and common task – and when he did it intentionally with the love of God in mind, that’s when God spoke to him. Over the dirty dishes. That was life-giving. And because he heard God in the kitchen, he heard God even more in worship on Sunday. He expected life, and he found it.
Summary
Sisters and brothers, Easter is the most life-altering news ever. Because it means that death isn’t the end. That doesn’t just affect the exobiologists studying Mars, that affects us all. We should expect life.
But that expectation isn’t limited to life after death, it also applies to life today. Our faith isn’t meant to make us deader to the world, it’s meant to make us more alive. It’s meant to make turn us into the best version of ourselves. The version God created you to be. How he wired you. That’s life.
So how can you listen for the Living God in the midst of life-giving things? And how can you set aside whatever is actually making you deader? How can you expect life this week? Amen.