Pulling all the Stops For Jesus
Sermon based on Acts 10:34-43 and John 20:1-18
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

          It has always been curious to me that our Western culture seems to like preparing for celebrations more than we actually enjoy celebrating in the moment of celebration.

Think about it.  We put up lights for Christmas as early as we can – but few people keep them on beyond Christmas Day.  Baby Showers happen before the birth much more often than they are planned afterward.  Even wedding celebrations are often more oriented toward pre-nuptial parties – from bridal showers to bachelor parties and rehearsal dinners – than they are toward the actual wedding receptions.  In other cultures, like in Asia and the Middle East, weddings are celebrated over several days.

The largest worship attendance Sundays on the church calendar are Christmas and Easter – and the Sundays immediately before them.  People like getting excited for these important holidays, but very few people want to celebrate them for more than a day.  For the Christmas holiday we go shopping, we decorate for weeks ahead of time, we write cards, and wrap gifts, and then Christmas comes, we spend an hour in church, unwrap a couple of gifts and then it's life as usual.

Today, we celebrate Easter Sunday; it is the most important Christian holiday and celebration. More so than Christmas, Easter tells the story of the ultimate victory of God over sin, death and oppression.

In our Scripture reading from the book of Acts, Peter explains in a sermon to a crowd at Jerusalem: “We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses . . . “ (Acts 10:39-41)

Here we have in a nutshell what the Easter hype is about…or should I say “what it should be about?”

No bunnies here, just a message that is so powerful that it has single-handedly propelled Christianity to the world’s largest religion.  Christ was raised from the dead!  Really!  No gimmicks, no hoax, no magic trick, not a comeback from a “clinical” death, or a deep hibernation of sorts.  Jesus was truly dead and was truly brought back from death.

At a moment when the hope for the true Savior was shattered; when things looked worse than ever in the history of the world, at a moment when it looked like the dark forces of evil had won, our Savior was raised from the dead. And with his resurrection he reversed not only the destruction of sin and evil, but even overcame death for all of us.

And there is some sort of evidence according to Peter.  He himself is a witness of the risen Christ, so are many other disciples, including Mary Magdala.

Easter should be a day when Christians are jubilant and pull all the stops.

What about us?  Are we doing justice to the most momentous of celebrations on this Easter Sunday?  Did we pour out our hearts to the resurrected Christ in worship?  Did we pull all the stops in our worship service today?

I actually use this expression (“pulling all stops”) quite a bit and finally last week I did some research on it only to find that it is a metaphor that derives its literal meaning from the church organ.

The knobs or sliders for the instrumentation on a church organ are called “stops.”  In order to provide variety of sounds, the organ has different stops for different sounds; some sound more like a flute, other more like a trumpet and so forth.

[Ask the organist to illustrate this point on the organ]

These stops can also be varied in volume so that the organist can create different sounds and mixes of sounds.

Once in a while an organist will pull all, or nearly all, the stops, which doesn’t only result in a full orchestrated sound, but also in a very loud sound. When All the stops are pulled, the organ really fills this sanctuary; in fact, it may fill the entire neighborhood!

We typically hear all the stops pulled on very special occasions when the singing of the congregation swells to the tune of a familiar, usually jubilant song such as How Great Thou Art, or He Lives.

But do we really? Do we really know how to pull all the stops for Jesus?

            It’s not like we are not capable of showing excitement in public, is it?  All you need to do to see excited, emotional church folk is to follow them to a football stadium.  But for some inexplicable reason we have gotten it stuck in our heads that worship in church must be “unemotional.”

I remember having a conversation with the organist of the church I served as a student pastor. Following one of my sermons on “celebration” she pulled me aside and advised me: “Pastor Frank, I know you weren’t raised in the UMC, so I will give you a pointer: we United Methodists folks do not get animated and emotional in worship. We are not the kind to show emotions; we praise God quietly."

I believe her….until, some time later, we went with a group of church folk to a Philly game in Philadelphia.  The church organist came along too.  I just could not believe my eyes when I happened to glance over to where she sat in the stadium, seeing her clap her hands, whistle, do the chop, scream and wave like a ….manic!! "We Methodists are not the kind to show emotions?"  Give me a break! I learned that day that we Methodists do know how to show excitement and emotions, just not in church!

We are willing to cheer for our favorite sports team, but are unwilling to cheer our Lord and Savior on his way to the Cross and Resurrection.  How sad is that?

My favorite Easter story is the one recorded in John.  It contains so much passion, both sorrow and joy.  I wish we could somehow encapsulate the joy of seeing the risen Christ in our service this morning.

       

In verse 20:11 we read that  “  …Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.”  She was weeping, she was mourning, she was devastated at Jesus’ death, perhaps more so than all the others.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus chose to reveal himself first to Mary following his resurrection. I don’t understand why some Christians still have a problem with women preachers. If you think about it: Mary was the very first Christian preacher (if you believe that the resurrection is the keystone of the Christian message). She was the first witness to the resurrection of Christ and she was the first one to testify to the resurrection.

In Mary we really see the changing from sorrow to joy most clearly.  The Psalmist’s words “Sorrow may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning” fits almost perfectly here.

Once Mary realized who was talking to her, namely the Lord and Savior himself, she couldn’t help but break down and cling to him. I imagine the tears of grieve turned into tears of joy as she is only able to say one single word under the overwhelming emotions: “Teacher!” 

(Side Note: by the way, if Mary Magdalene had really been married at one point to Jesus as some theologians and non-theologians speculate, do you really think she would have shouted: “teacher?” I would have expected her to call him “honey” or at least call him by his name)

In verse 18 we read about how she runs back to where the disciples had gathered.  And the first words out of her mouth were: “I have seen the Lord!”  This is the only verbal statement of Mary that we have recorded (besides the word “teacher)—but did she have to say any more?  It expresses it all, the incredible message that it is, the hope and the joy! “I have seen the Lord!”

[You may want to repeat the phrase with different joyful emphases]

Can we keep silent on this day when Jesus is standing among us as the risen and victorious King of Kings and Lord of Lords this morning?

Let us sing our closing hymn jubilantly today and let us sing it with all stops out.  And I don’t just mean the organ. Let us sing in celebration like we have never before sung.

For today, we are proclaiming to the world visible and invisible . . .

That we love Jesus.

That Jesus rose from the dead!

That Jesus is the Messiah!

That Jesus has overcome sin and death once and for all!

That we will live with him victoriously, now and forevermore.

Alleluia! Amen!