Tuesday night’s two-hour long season premiere of “Lost” left many viewers and reviewers in a word – lost. Last season’s cliff hanger ended with Juliet blowing up a nuclear bomb in an attempt to destroy the island. Their hope was that by blowing up the island, their flight from Australia to Los Angeles would never crash and all of the past 5 seasons of suffering would never happen.

The bomb detonates, a flash of white light, then we’re on the plane and we see Jack Shepherd; we see John Locke; we see various cast members from last season and from seasons past; we see cast members we saw die. Now they’re alive again.

But we also see these same characters still on the island, still struggling, still suffering, still trying to make sense of what is happening. We see one character, John Locke, lying dead. Then we see him walking out of the temple and walking past his own body, which is all the more remarkable because we also see him get off the plane in a wheelchair!

If you’re feeling “lost” in this introduction, do not fear! I do not hope to explain what no one understands. But watching “lost” and reading 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 gave me a new appreciation for what those first century Christians experienced. If resurrections on television bewilder us, imagine what it was like to hear 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NRSV) For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

This is the good news. This is the promise of our salvation. We’ve been given a gift; grace has been shown to us; God’s grace is the source of our salvation; God’s grace empowers us to be a source of salvation so that no one is lost.

George Buttrick, one of the great preachers of the 20th Century, said somewhere that every sermon should proclaim, “The most wonderful thing has happened!”

What is that “most wonderful thing?” God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.

I am not going to prove that this thing happened. I believe that it happened. At the same time, I will not concede that belief in the resurrection of Jesus is a mere matter of opinion: Some people believe in the resurrection; some people believe aliens built the pyramids. Comme ci, comme ca.

No, the bedrock of Christian faith is the conviction that sometime around 30 AD; Jesus of Nazareth was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem. He was buried in a nearby tomb. And three days later he was seen to be a living, breathing, eating, fully alive human being by Mary Magdalene, Peter, and many others.
They “handed on” these experiences. 30 years after the resurrection, Paul writes to the Corinthians describing what he received from these witnesses just a year or two after the event took place. 300 years later, the Empress Helena built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher over the site where Jesus’ was buried. The great early historian Eusebius identified the site based on the fact that it was a limestone quarry north of the city; limestone quarries were where the Jews executed the condemned; the great Via Maris, the road from Egypt to Damascus ran to the north of the city and the Romans liked to execute people where everyone could see; that was the point of crucifixion – to send a message; and local tradition, people who lived there told Eusebius what had been told to them – that’s where Jesus was buried and raised from the dead.

Does this “prove” the resurrection occurred? No, but when you step under the low doorway and enter the little cavern and you see that slab of gray rock where tradition says his body lay, you are confronted with centuries of belief that Jesus was raised; you are surrounded by a depth of faith that has brought pilgrims who saved all their lives for this one moment, to kneel before the empty tomb. Staring at that slab of rock, you are asked, “What do you believe? Is this simply a tale told well, or has the most wonderful thing happened?”

So, God raised Jesus from the dead. So what? Obviously that’s good news for Jesus and his friends, but what difference does a resurrection roughly 2000 years ago make in a 21st century in which 1 in 10 in Berks County are getting food from the food bank and nationwide 1 in 10 do not have a job and many more have given up looking? What difference does it make in Haiti and in the Congo and on the Gulf Coast where Katrina’s wounds still fester and in so many other places where life is defined by pain and sorrow? How is the resurrection good news in this world in your world and my world at this time?

The resurrection occurs in history; it occurs in a human body; it occurs in the here and now not the happily-ever-after; it is an eruption of grace that overcomes evil and death; that grace is still erupting; that grace is the source of salvation. The resurrection invites us to embrace this scandalous thing called “hope” and to orient our lives by that hope.

One writer put it this way: “The good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is not one more piece of information to add to the information overload from which many people suffer. Receiving the gospel is not simply giving assent to the articles of a creed. Receiving the gospel is not a matter of accruing one more good thing to a life already full of good things. Receiving the gospel is discovering in Christ a new center of existence, a new power for living, and a new perspective from which to view all things.”

This “new perspective” empowers us to see things differently. Instead of looking at a world where the fickle hand of fate decrees good for some and ill for others, we see a world where God’s grace is at work in all things. Instead of looking at lives where we’re trapped by our mistakes and misdeeds, we see lives where God’s grace offers the freedom of forgiveness. Instead of looking at a future where impersonal forces like economic indicators and political profit predetermine who will win and who will lose, we see a future full of possibilities, because one empty tomb holds the promise of more to come, and the next empty tomb just might be the one we’re currently buried in.

This “new perspective” empowers us to see things differently, and therefore we are empowered to respond to things differently. Hope is like water; it does not seem like much, certainly in comparison with what’s going on in Haiti and in our economy, just as a small stream doesn’t seem like much in a mountain range, but you never know when that stream will suddenly cause a cliff face to give way.

“It is amazing what we can accomplish when do not care who gets the credit.” It is even more amazing what we can accomplish when we do not care if we live to see the results. Instead, we act. We serve. We witness in word and deed that the most wonderful thing has happened, and there’s more to come!

We witness – and homes and lives are rebuilt on the Gulf Coast. We witness – and homes and lives and a nation are rebuilt in Haiti. We witness – and the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered, the immediate crises are addressed, and the long term changes are accomplished. The resurrection occurs in history; the resurrection occurs in a human body; it occurs in the hear and now; slaves are set free; civil rights assured; child labor ended; and what will future eruptions of grace look like? Health care for all, an end to poverty and want, who knows what God will raise up through our witness!

“We are confronted with the world as it is, torn asunder by human arrogance and greed, and the world we hope it may become, one in which all its inhabitants can share the gift of life in love for one another. We live in a tension between conventional wisdom and the wisdom of God. Paul tells us that Christ’s death and resurrection reveal the way to live in this tension. If we “hold firmly” to this gospel message, it is the way we are “being saved,” which is to say, most simply, the way we are living now in response to God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.”

““Tom Bandy, who speaks and writes about congregational transformation, regularly reminds his listeners that the key question for church members to consider is “What is there about my experience of Jesus Christ that this community cannot live without?” How can your experience provide insight for the ways others might experience the good news? How can the difference Christ has made in your life be made a real and compelling story for others that touches their own deepest needs?”

The most wonderful thing has happened. God raised Jesus from the dead. Stand firm in this hope! Be a witness in word and deed! See things differently. Do things differently. And if this good news is news to you, I invite you to believe it. I invite you for the first time, or for the umpteenth time, to believe the good news – Jesus Christ is risen today; there is hope for you; there is hope for all; the grace that erupted from that tomb is erupting still; that grace is the source of salvation. Amen.