Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on April 8, 2007
(Year C, Easter Sunday, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:14-29
Colossians 3:1-4
Luke 24:1-10

Everybody loves a conspiracy. There's something about a good conspiracy that draws us in because it neatly ties up all of the loose ends of an otherwise confusing, sometimes messy situation.

Christianity has been the subject of many conspiracy theories over the centuries because there is one huge item that confounds everybody's mind that thinks about it, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here's one variation of a conspiracy theory about event that took place some two thousand years ago.

Jesus was arrested in the middle of the night and all of his lieutenants ran away. A few of them put up a struggle for a moment, one even cut off the ear of a slave, but in the end, they showed their true color, which was yellow and high-tailed it away from the garden. As far as we know, two disciples followed the arresting party at a safe distance back to the Temple. One of them had inside connections through a family member so was able to get beyond the court yard, while the other tried to hide his identity but was given away by his Galilean accent, and when caught, denied that he even knew Jesus existed. The lesson here is that no matter what, even in conspiracies, it's still who you know that counts.

Through the early morning hours, the accused was the subject of a kangaroo court held illegally by the local city council. He was then turned over to the federal authorities, where yet another kangaroo court was held with the result being conviction, a large dose of police brutality, and a sentence to capital punishment, which in this case was being nailed to a large wooden cross.

Only one of Jesus' lieutenants came to the execution hiding among a handful of women, which included the mother of the accused, while at best the others watched from afar or were not present at all, fearing for their own safety.

Fortunately, Jesus died in the middle of the afternoon, and there was just enough time to stick him in a tomb before the Sabbath began so that his body could be dealt with at a later time. Using this Sabbath time to their advantage, the lieutenants gathered behind closed doors and figured out a plan of action. In the dark of night, the eleven of them would go to the tomb, over power a guard of fully armed Roman soldiers, break the seal on the stone that had been rolled in front of the opening of the tomb, roll the stone out of the way, steal the body, and make it looked like Jesus had come back to life by neatly folding up his shroud and leaving it on the shelf. Later on, in a few days or so, they would act like they had run into Jesus on the road or fishing or something, and he had given them instructions on what to do. Then they would go around and tell everyone that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he had chosen them to develop and build a Church, whatever that was, and all one had to do was to believe what they were told by the lieutenants, and then they could live forever. And oh, yeah, one more thing, they would in all probability get kicked out of their local synagogues, be accused of blasphemy just like Jesus, possibly arrested just like Jesus, assuredly beaten just like Jesus and positively killed just like Jesus. If we willingly sacrifice our lives, then everyone will have to believe, and we're home free. Now are we all on the same page? Everyone agrees to the story? We can't be having anyone back out now, right? One for all, and all for one, Ok?

Now what kind of conspiracy is that? Who in their right mind would agree to participate in a plan like that? Nobody with half a brain, right?

But fortunately for the disciples and for us, that's not what happened. Because while Peter and the gang were supposedly upstairs planning this elaborate ruse, the women of the community were doing their thing, which was to gather all of the necessary items to go and prepare Jesus' body for a proper Jewish funeral. And much to their surprise and horror, when they arrived at the tomb, they found no Roman guard, the huge stone covering the opening had been rolled away, and Jesus was gone. According to today's Gospel, two men in dazzling white clothes came up to them and asked why they were looking for the living among the dead. Then their memories were opened up and they remembered what Jesus had told them about this situation, and they ran back to the upper room to share the news with the apostles.

The conspiracy theory that I have shared with you doesn't work because nobody would walk into certain death for the sake of a lie. Not many of us would do so for the sake of the truth. And no matter how you spin the tale, it always comes back to the fact that the apostles had to agree to die in order for it to work.

And of course, for the average Jewish person, the story wouldn't work because of the cross. The cross was seen as the instrument of curse, which is to say, being on the wrong side of God. So there was no way that Jesus was the Son of God because he who was hung on a tree was cursed.

It doesn't matter which side of the story you are on, the whole thing doesn't make sense…at least from a human perspective. But from God's perspective it makes perfect sense and it's really quite easy, especially for us because God has done all of the work for us. He created us as perfect beings and planted us in a perfect relationship with Him. He then gave us a gift of being able to choose between right and wrong. And with this gift, He gave us only one command: Obey me and live or disobey me and die. And we chose to disobey, causing us to fall from His grace and to become mortal. But God didn't want it to end that way. He gave us chance after chance to turn back to Him and enter back into that perfect relationship, and time and time again, we chose not to do so, and God realized that because of our fallen nature we were unable to do so. Only a perfect human being would be able to give God the satisfaction that He required, and the only way to for that to happen was for God to become that perfect human being, which He did in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And then He took the time to live among us and to teach us all that we need know in order to come back into relationship with Him but in order for that to happen, there was a price to pay. And only he, as the perfect human being could pay that price. He had to willingly give himself up to death, and to shed His own blood in order to pay the penalty to Himself, to redeem all of us for all of the choices that we have made and continue to make that separate us from a perfect relationship with Him. But the Good News is that by His death, He has destroyed death, and proved it by rising to life again. And all we have to do in order to get back into that perfect relationship with Him, is to repent and confess our belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and God. And then, in order for us to live our physical lives to the fullest, He has given us another gift, that of His Holy Spirit, in order to help us, guide us, comfort us, mediate for us, and to direct us to make the right choices in life. Yes, we will still die a physical death in this world but now instead of being eternally separated from God, we will receive new resurrected bodies in the next world, and will be able to live in a perfect relationship with our Creator for eternity as it was first intended.

It's so easy! All we have to do is believe. God has done and continues to do all of the hard work. It may not make sense to us but the proof is in the resurrection. Jesus lived, Jesus died, and Jesus lives again. Jesus matters!

So let us take the opportunity of this Day of our Lord's Resurrection to believe, and to confess our belief by shouting out Alleluia!

Alleluia! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!