Redefining "Shock and Awe"!
Sermon Transcript for April 20, 2003By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
Today we are celebrating Easter while our country is at war. Now granted, the major fighting has past; but we are still at war in Iraq. Our military has been successfully defeating the regime of Saddam Hussein with overwhelming might. And in the early days of the conflict, that awesome power brought down by the American military was often referred to as “shock and awe”. Well, today I want to give a new definition to the term “shock and awe” as I tell you a little bit about the “shock and awe” campaign of our Lord Jesus. But first, let us pray. “Gracious God, speak your Word now through this sermon. Let your voice be heard above all else. And as your people leave this place let only that which is of you remain. In their hearts we pray, Amen.”
Now by all accounts it was a typical morning in Judea. The son arose over the Sea of Galilee just as it always had on that third day after this Jesus had been put to death. This Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God in fact was very easily put to death. Some were disappointed because he didn’t linger long enough. But nevertheless he was dead and his followers had been disbanded and his rebel rousing ways had been taken care of. And now on this particular morning, a few women who had waited upon Jesus in life now came to complete his burial with oils and herbs. And on that morning there was a violent earthquake and an angel of the Lord appeared and his presence was like the appearance of lightning. And the guards were so afraid of it that they shook and became like dead men. And the angel told them that Jesus had risen just as He said He would.
Now that’s what I call shock and awe. Jesus’ critics had often been very difficult to deal with particularly as they chastised him for his passivity. They all believed that this long awaited Messiah would be a great military leader like King David. The fact is they didn’t believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be because He hadn’t organized a shock and awe campaign like the American military used to conquer the leadership in Iraq. They had trouble believing that Jesus was in fact the Son f God, the Messiah, simply because His message was so counter to the contemporary logic. Because Jesus came to proclaim the love and grace of God and He came to offer himself as the last sacrifice for human sin. Jesus generated shock and awe because of what he didn’t do. Because of His unconventional ways, Jesus had not brought about the anticipated overthrow of the enemies of God’s chosen people. No, in fact Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh, allowed mere mortals to kill Him and put Him in a hole in the ground.
When He arose on that third day, the first to see Him were the women who had served Him on their knees. And they recognized Him by the way He said their name. They recognized the sound of His voice because they knew Him. And He had come back not to chastise them for abandoning Him, not to criticize them because they didn’t get it. No, He came with even greater love for His disciples and for all of humanity because Jesus had fulfilled all that He planned to fulfill. He was brought up to completion. As He arose from the dead, He illustrated His true godliness. And believe it or not, Jesus even planned to use this ragtag band of followers to transform the world and to bring about your salvation and mine. Even though these apostles had scattered and abandoned Him in His hour of need, Jesus chose to use them to spread the good news that would change the world forever. Even though they considered themselves unworthy to the point of going back to the jobs they had before they were apostles. Jesus said to them, “I will use you to feed my sheep.”
The evidence of the last 2000 years is surely that Jesus was alive and that He turned the world right side up on the day of His resurrection so much so that those who had once run in fear from Him when they felt that their fate and His were tied together in death, now risked everything to proclaim His life and His willingness to come in to the hearts of those who trust Him. The scripture tells us that when He met with those disciples who had once considered themselves unworthy, He gave them these commands based on the fact that He had the authority and His resurrection was proof of that authority. So that he encouraged, no commanded them to go in to the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit. He sent them in to the world by His command to teach us to obey His command. He demonstrated His true authority through His power to return from death.
That same command is for all disciples, for all who follow Jesus: To proclaim the good news that Christ the Lord has arisen from the grave and He is alive even today. What He does matters more than anything else in human history and we are to joy for that. Here at Grace Church we believe that is our primary mission—to celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ and to bring those who do not know Him into a saving relationship with Him, and then to nurture one another to grow as disciples in that faith in Christ.
On a day that Jesus ascended into heaven after having been witnessed by hundreds, heard by hundreds and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit breathed down by Jesus on this world, He ascended into heaven. And the angels told all who were gathered there that day, that He would return again in glory in the same way. And so we wait for that day of shock and awe when Christ comes again. And we wait for hope and joy for Him to shout out our names. And the question is simply this, “When He shouts will you hear His voice they way those women did on that first Easter saying your name in a way that is so familiar and so loving? Or will you shake and be as dead men like those guards on that first Easter morning?
Whatever kind of shock and awe you experience in the presence of Christ, you can determine by choosing to enter in to a relationship with Christ. To be a disciple of Christ is to believe certainly that a man was God in the flesh, was put to death and raised again on the third day, ascended in to heaven and awaits the day when He will come again. And He is present with us today in His Spirit. That very Spirit can course through our veins if we simply ask Jesus to make it so.
On this day that we commemorate the resurrection of Jesus, it’s important for all of us to reconsider our relationship with Him. There are those here today who are not sure they would know the sound of His voice when they hear it. And so I give you the formula for changing that. It is simply this: Ask Him to let you know Him so that you hear His voice and you know that your Shepard is calling you, His sheep, by name. And if you are one of those who consider yourself already one of the followers, the sheep of His flock, who is in a relationship with Him, then I challenge you this day of resurrection to resurrect in yourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit, new life, new service, new commitment to Christ. Each of us need to recharge regularly our commitment to Christ to re-experience on a daily basis the shock and awe that comes from knowing that God loves you so much that He died for you, rose to show you that there is something beyond this existence, ascended into heaven filling this world with His spirit and reminding all who would accept it to be empowered by this spirit so that when He comes again we will hear Him shout our name and we will know the sound of His voice.
What will you do today? I beg you, don’t leave without answering that question. Let me pray for you now. “Oh Lord, our God, I praise you and I thank you for what you have done for us. I thank you, Jesus, for breathing the Spirit into our dead hearts. Now revive us, Lord, who call you our shepherd and help those who don’t know you to enter in to a relationship with you that brings about salvation and a promise that when you call their name they will know the sound of your voice and be transformed by your spirit. We pray in your holy and glorious name. Amen.”
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