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We all have times when hope seems lost. We find ourselves running on our journey.

We’re running from something or we’re running towards something. We might not even know

why we are running, but we certainly know that we’re running. We need something.

We’re like the two Marys in the story. Their hope seemed lost, and they were running.

They had seen Jesus brutally killed. All that he represented to them seemed gone, all of their

hopes seemed gone. lost. He was dead. They needed something.

But at the tomb something changed. they experienced something at the tomb. That’s

why we’re here today. It’s about what happened at the tomb. What the women experienced

there changed them and ultimately them. Friends, Jesus is risen!

The two Marys had a moment of clarity—a new understanding of God. It was their

ultimate Aha moment.

We’ve been talking about Aha moments around here for the last month. These moments

didn’t originate with Oprah. They are part of all our faith journeys. An Aha moment is a

moment of clarity where we experience a new understanding of God. In this series we’ve looked

at people in the Bible who had an Aha moment. We learned how David had an Aha moment

when he discovered that God is the God of second chances. David had raped a woman and had

her husband killed, but God gave him another chance. We learned from the story of Hannah that

God rewards dreamers. Hannah’s dream of having a son came true even though everyone

around her told her it wouldn’t happen.

Today we’re going to look at the ultimate Aha—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus is a challenging idea. The idea that a man who was dead can

come back to life should give us all pause. Some of us have celebrated the resurrection for so

long that we have no doubts about it. But I know that some of us do question. It’s okay. One of

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the Core Values of Chain of Lakes is acceptance. We accept you where you are on your faith

journey.

If you have questions about the resurrection I have a resource for you. It’s this brochure.

This week I wrote a devotion about the resurrection. I wrote it for people who might have

doubts. I encourage you to use it. In the middle of the brochure is a place to take notes. I

believe God might say something to you that you’ll want to remember. On the back is a listing

of the prayer requests.

Today we heard Matthew’s version of the resurrection story. He started out by saying

that as the first day of the week was dawning Mary Magdalene and a woman called the other

Mary—who was probably the mother of James and Joses—went to the tomb.

A lot had happened. Jesus had been sentenced to death for blasphemy. He died on a

cross between two bandits. A man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body from

the cross and placed Jesus in a tomb that Joseph owned. Joseph rolled a large stone in front of

the tomb.

The religious leaders put a guard in front of the tomb. The two Marys saw all of this.

They had kept vigil outside of the tomb. This is how the story was left on Friday. On Saturday

nothing happened because of the Sabbath.

Then as the first day of the week was dawning the two Marys went to the tomb.

An earthquake happened. The story says an angel came from heaven to roll away the

stone that was in front of the tomb. We’re not sure if the angel coming to earth caused the

earthquake or if this was an earthquake that geologists could explain. When the guard saw the

angel the guard was so afraid that he fainted.

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This left the angel with the two Marys. Then the angel spoke. It’s the first words out of

the angels’ mouth that I want you to remember. If you can take away one thing from this sermon

I want you to take away the four words that the angels’ said. In fact I encourage you to write

down these four words. Do you remember what they were?

SLIDE “Do not be afraid.”

Let me pause from the story. Those four words are sad quite often in the Bible. Do you

know how many times? 61 times. If you have an extra 15 minutes this week you could find an

on-line concordance and unch in the phrase “do not fear.” A concordance is a book that

tabulates how often a word or phrase is used in the Bible. Here are two sites for an on-line

concordance.

bible.oremus.org

biblestudytools.com/concordances

Let me whet your appetite.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus, do you

know what Gabriel told Mary?

When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce Jesus’ birth, do you know what the

angels told them?

When Joseph found out that Mary to whom he was engaged was pregnant he thought about

divorcing her. But Joseph had a dream where an angel instructed Joseph not to divorce her.

What do you think the angel told Joseph?

The Bible has many purposes. One of the purposes is to share stories with us so that we

can learn that we do not need to be afraid.

Saying “do not be afraid” was part of a message. .

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Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he

has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his

disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee;

there you will see him.’ This is my message for you. Matthew 28:5-7

So the women go running—again they are running. You remember what happened next?

They literally ran into Jesus. Jesus greeted the woman. Then guess what Jesus said.

“Do not be afraid.” Again.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that the angels’ said this and then Jesus said this? No.

It’s one of the messages of the resurrection.

All over the world billions of people are celebrating the resurrection. It’s worth asking

ourselves, “why is the resurrection of Jesus important to us?

It’s important for many reasons.

Because of the resurrection we are given the gift of salvation. We’re going to live forever.

Because of the resurrection we know that the worst thing in the world is not the final thing;

because of the resurrection we know that anything on this earth can be transformed into

something good.

And the point we’re lifting up today is that because of the resurrection you and I know that we

“do not need to be afraid.”

Why is the resurrection important for my life? We do not need to be afraid.

What is the Aha moment. What is the moment of clarity that the women received, the

idea that suddenly made sense to them and helped them learn about God? They could live a life

without fear.

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If someone came to you and told you that you could live a life without fear, how much

would that be worth to you? A hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, a hundred thousand dollars.

Seriously. How much is it worth to you to experience a life without fear.

If you follow Jesus Christ you can have a life without fear.

Let’s push into this. What does it mean to live a life without fear?

What is fear. Well fear is being scared. We know what’s that is. We might be watching

a movie that scares us to death. We have this sudden reaction to events that we are watching

around us. Most of us have probably had someone jump into our bed at night because they’ve

had a bad dream.

This idea of fear makes sense when we think about the story because the women

encountered a heavenly angel. If you or I encountered a heavenly angel we would probably have

a chill go through our body and goose bumps rise from our skin. We would be scared.

Another type of fear is the belief that something bad is going to happen. It’s the emotion

of dread and all that surrounds that. Minnesotans know about this—I call it Minnesota

Pessimism. I can say this because I’ve lived in Minnesota my entire life. I love Minnesotans. I

know that we live with this Minnesota Pessimism. We live with the idea that something bad is

just around the corner. If life is going well—don’t get too excited! You might get a phone call

from your doctor, or your boss. If you’re feeling good about life, don’t worry. It’s not going to

last

If you’re feeling good about life. Don’t worry. It will probably snow in April.

Are you kidding me? 13 inches of snow on April 16th? I think Minnesotans are

pessimistic because we’ve had too many April snow storms. T.S. Eliot was right when he said

that April is the cruelest month.

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This pessimism or dread might not overwhelm us—it’s different from being scared at a

scary movie. This dread operates at the margins of our life. It causes us to wake up in the

middle of the night with our mind spinning out of control about something that could go wrong.

This dread comes at us when we are most vulnerable.

But this dread can inhibit us even more from being the person God wants us to be.

This dread stops us from experiencing joy or sustained happiness. It robs us of the beauty of life.

It’s worth knowing that most of what causes us dread or anxiety never happens.

90 percent of us fear something that ultimately never happens

88 percent of us fear things about our health that will never happen.

It’s ironic that we live with this Minnesota pessimism because you and I have a life that

would blow our grandparents away. If we could magically show our grandparents what life was

like today, what would they say. Wow

On all accounts life is really good

My grandmother is actually is still alive. She was born in 1914.

Do you know what the life expectancy in the United States was in 1914? For men it was

52 and for women it was 56.

Do you know what the life expectancy is today?

In Minnesota it’s 78. In a hundred years our life expectancy has gone up by 50 percent.

According to the 2010 census over 50,000 people in the United States were a hundred years old.

But despite this progress with our health how many of us have a sense of dread about

getting cancer or unexpectedly getting hit with the big one?

Take our finances. Do you know the average income in the United States? The median

income in the United States is 51,000

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Do you know what the average income is for the whole world? $10,000. That includes

the United States.

Friends, here me. I understand that some of us have serious issues with our finances. But

you and I are incredibly wealthy compared to the rest of the world. But how many of us are

anxious about our own finances. We worry about our house payment or how we’re going to pay

off our credit cards. If we did get that phone call from our boss, we would be in big trouble.

Take our safety. Do you know how many murders were committed in Anoka County in

2008. Nine. That is for a population of 352,000.

You know how many murders were committed in Blaine in 2012? Zero

We live in one of the safest places in the world. But how many of us have a sense of

dread about someone breaking into our house or getting robbed or even having the unthinkable

happen.

We’re safe, we’re wealthy, and we’re healthy. But surveys show that we’re more afraid

than ever.

It’s like that we’re naturally inclined as humans to forget all that we have. We have so

much—yet we’re still afraid. It’s the human condition.

Let me give you some examples. Remember the story of Moses parting the Red Sea. A

lot of us learned the story in Sunday School or watched Charleton Heston in the movie. One part

of the story that we don’t remember is that three days after this incredible event the Israelites

started complaining. They had three days without water. That’s the amount of time it took for

them to forget that God saved them from the Egyptians. It’s the human condition

Or how about the male disciples. Where were the male disciples in the resurrection.

They fled. Peter—the rock on which Jesus promised to build the church—denied him. On the

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night of the resurrection the disciples had locked themselves in a room for fear of their lives.

These were people who traveled with Jesus. They had seen and witnessed how Jesus was

creating the Kingdom of God. Even these followers forgot the message of Jesus. It’s the human

condition.

We’ve heard the story—Jesus was raised; we know the Aha moment—do not be afraid;

we know the challenge—it’s living with Minnesota Pessimism.

So what do we do with all of this.

I think we need a group of people who brings out the best in us.

We need to encounter a group of people who will support us and encourage us and to let us know

that our thoughts that have spiraled out of control that we do not need to be afraid. We need to

be reminded once a week that the message of the resurrection is our defining story.

We need each other. We need the church. At least once a week we need an experience

that will remind us that we do not need to be afraid.

Last Sunday was a terrific day at Chain of Lakes. Yay, god! How many of you were

here? We put on a benefit breakfast for homeless teens. In just a moment we’re going to share

with you how much money we’re going to give Tiger Take-Out at Blaine High School. A lot of

people came to the breakfast and a lot of people came to worship. The spirit was beautiful.

One person shared with me afterwards that it was so encouraging to experience the

people of Chain of Lakes. She told me that the people at Chain of Lakes are so positive and

uplifting. She told me that he would be back. She needs to experience that sense of

encouragement.

We need each other.

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One of the reasons we’ve been emphasizing small groups is that participating in a small

group gives us another opportunity to experience the power of a community. A little later in

worship today Dave Nyberg and Frank Butterfield are going to share their vision for their beer

and wine making group. They are going to gather once every two weeks to make beer and wine.

The purpose of the church is not to make beer or wine. In the process the people who participate

are going to grow in relationship. It wouldn’t surprise me if the group grows close to each other.

The people there will learn to trust at least one other person in the group with the challenges of

their life. We need each other.

How do we live with the challenges of Minnesota Pessimism. We commit ourselves to a

community that is sold out to the resurrection.

I want to close by sharing a dream that I have for us. We’ve been talking about dreaming

over the past month here. We’ve shared all sorts of dreams—dreams about our congregation,

dreams about ending homelessness among teens, and dreams for our own life. My dream is that

we can be a congregation where everyone who participates has developed a kill switch for dread

or fear. Did you see in the news this week that cell phone makers have come around to having a

kill switch for our phones. A kill switch will deactivate our phone if someone steals it.

I want every person who is connected to Chain of Lakes to have a kill switch for fear or

dread. When it starts to come on we know how to let it go; do not be afraid. We know that we

have other people in the congregation with whom we can share our deep anxieties. We know

that we have a 2:00 in the morning friend who we can call when life seems out of control. Do

not be afraid. We know that when we come to worship we will always receive a message of

hope and encouragement. No matter how many people are here, we know that God will always

be here. We know that we can connect in a small group to others who are going to encourage us.

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Do not be afraid. We know that the people at Chain of Lakes will always encourage us to

follow our dreams. Do not be afraid.

Do you want to be part of a group of people who help us develop a kill switch for fear

and dread.

All of us are running; all of us are afraid; all of us need the message; all of us need each

other. Happy Easter