One of you, and I don’t know which one…will know the story I’m going to tell you. In years past, I’ve shared that my Easter morning routine is to stop down at a nice lookout on the eastside of the hill that looks out over Lake Union. And two years I told you about running into Jerry there, a guy who I knew just a little bit from around the hill.

Jerry’s life had been very difficult, a number of addictions and other issues. Two different times I showed up on Easter morning about 6AM and Jerry was there, and rather surprisingly greeted me with “He is risen!” To which I replied “He is risen indeed.” And then he said “He sure has.”

Anyway, I told you that Jerry died in a fire here on Queen Anne a couple years ago. So, this morning I went down as I always do to the lookout. It was about 5:45 am, not a soul anywhere, no lights, still dark. And I looked out over the city for a few minutes. And then I noticed that on the one bench that sits there, a large yellow flower, a daffodil. And attached to it was a not that simply said: “He is risen indeed.” He sure has.

We believe that God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ, and that it is in these pages of scripture that we find the most faithful witness to that. This morning we’ll look at two short passages from near the end of the book of Revelation.

Maybe you don’t know that most preachers are rather insecure, particularly about preaching on Easter morning. I foolishly fed that a bit this week. I looked through my Easter sermons from the last 7 years. And I thought, “I think I pretty much said everything…I have nothing else to say!” I think every pastor fights this inferiority complex, especially at Easter. I was comforted by a history lesson.

John of Antioch was a pastor who lived in the 4th century AD. His preaching was so respected that people eventually called him John “Chrysostom,” or “golden tongue.” In 398 AD John was seized by soldiers and taken to Constantinople where he was forcibly installed as the archbishop. Rather than fight it, John accepted it as God’s providence and stayed.

Now, Chrysostom was known for preaching sermons that lasted up to 2 hours! His very famous Easter sermon, starts like this: “Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Is there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages!...”

Chrysostom had his own insecurities, though, at one point complaining that his congregation got more excited about the local horseraces than about his sermons!

His Easter sermon is so famous, that today in many Orthodox churches, on Easter the priests don’t preach their own sermon, but rather they read John Chrysostom’s. Now, that clearly seems like cheating to me, but…!

It does get a little crazy this time of year. It happens every year. Wild theologies, religious hoaxes, heretical arguments begin to fill the air like so much pollen, always right about Easter. Frankly, I think they are mostly designed to distract us. And we’re easily distracted.

And so I pick up the newspaper just last week to read about the raging controversy over a 200 pound chocolate sculpture of Jesus in New York called “My Sweet Lord.” (think about that). It was to be “purely coincidentally” unveiled at a gallery during Holy Week…a completely naked, anatomically correct Jesus on an invisible cross…with no loincloth. The Cardinal in New York and many folks were very upset. The gallery pulled the show. The gallery director resigned in protest. And on and on. Let’s not get distracted.

Or I note the new documentary that came out a few weeks ago, arguing that a number of small caskets discovered near Jerusalem contained the bones of Jesus and his family, including a son…which naturally insinuates that the scriptures are wrong about all sorts of things, including the resurrection of Jesus. Never mind that the “new discovery” happened in 1980, or that many scholars dispute what the Aramaic on the caskets even says. Let’s not get distracted.

Or I hear widely popular Oregon State University professor Marcus Borg, who continues to trot out things like “The truth of Easter really has nothing to do with whether the tomb was empty on a particular morning 2000 years or whether anything happened to the corpse of Jesus…Borg thinks the disciples “had visionary experiences.”

Let’s not get distracted.

I think the truth is that we are uneasy with Resurrection, and we’ll grab at any straw, any distraction we can to avoid having to deal with it head on. We ignore it, we explain it away, we make a metaphor of it, we call it a symbol. All of that is easy for me to understand, because if the resurrection happened, if resurrection happens…then it changes everything. Everything.

N.T. Wright is one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the world, brilliant, educated, prolific. When I heard him speak a year ago or so, someone asked him whether he thought miracles really happened, or could happen. Wright nearly choked, and laughed out loud, and do you know what he said? He said “Listen. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!! And if that is true, then all sorts of other things can be true as well.”

What every single gospel says happened, what the followers of Jesus have claimed for 2000 years but often gotten distracted from is this: that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross, dead and buried. That a dead Jesus got up on the third day and had life in him and glory around him, and because He did, we can know him, and we too can live and die without fear, and be part of what God is doing.

In every single one of the gospel accounts, the common reaction for those people who witnessed these things was: Astonishment. Wonder. Not a mild appreciation that somebody had a neat dream about Jesus, but that they saw, heard, experienced, touched an empty tomb and a living Jesus. So let's not get distracted.

But also, let’s not stop here. Jesus’ resurrection is called the “first”…to be followed by many others. Like you. Yes, resurrection means you go to heaven to be with Christ. But don’t stop there.

Jesus’ resurrection is like the cracking open of a door that had kept a room in total and complete darkness. Suddenly, wonder-full-y…light streaming in. Jesus’ resurrection is a doorway to the end of time. And it is a sign of more to come.

Now, we have signs all over our world, don’t we? Visual pollution really. bumper stickers, commercials, internet advertising, retail signs, traffic signs…all staring at us. Often they are confusing or contradictory.

In fact, if you came off Aurora this morning, you may have noticed two large signs at the five way intersection. One has big letters that says “Welcome to Queen Anne.” Nice. And then I noticed the sign right near the stop sign that says “Litter and it will hurt!” Hmm. Confusing signs. But Resurrection is a clear sign.

I’m going to read you a statement that British theologian Alistair McGrath once wrote, and I’ll read it twice: “The resurrection of Jesus is a sign of God’s purpose and power to restore his creation to its full stature and integrity.”

Where do we see this restoration of God’s creation, the returning of things to the way God designed them? Well, we see it in the book of Revelation, not written down as doctrine, but shown to us in pictures. As Curt mentioned, our congregation has spent the last 11 weeks reading Revelation.

In these weeks we’ve been carried up into heaven, we’ve seen battles on the earth, we’ve been in awe over the power and magnitude of physical suffering and global catastrophes. We’ve marveled over the acts of God, cringed over the sight of a dragon, two beasts, kings and armies of empire lined up against the people of God…and sometimes defeating them, making martyrs of God’s people.

But at every turn, we have been brought back, over and over…to Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lamb of God. We see Christ calling the churches, Christ reassuring, Christ on a white horse, Christ leading the armies of God, Christ appearing each time when He is most needed.

Now, here, at the very end of Revelation, are the pictures of restoration. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God)… “See”, God says, “ I am making all things new.”

I don’t know how you usually think of the end of time, of heaven. Most people have an idea that we’ll be beamed up into some combination of clouds, floating angels and bodiless beings floating around with harp music in the background. Not in Revelation.

Interesting, that here at the end of time, the people of God, the bride of Christ, are portrayed as a city. Now, we (most of us) live in the city. The city is often a place of problems, sin, drugs, dirt, violence, poverty. The city is a place of difficulty. The cities that received the letters of Revelation chapters 2 & 3 had all sorts needs. The cities that we know are full of things that rob people of life (literally and figuratively), that cause death.

But now comes this holy city, the way a city should be. It still looks like a city, it has dimensions and color and gates and…but now it’s complete. It looks familiar, almost like the city that was just out of reach here on earth, just beyond our grasp. Look at this picture:

• It’s a city…which means that it is a community, not just one person, but a community together.
• It’s built on the foundation of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles.
• Its dimensions are 1500 miles square…as big as the western U.S. and extending up into space. Lots of room
• It’s gates are many and wide, and can welcome the nations and bring healing to them.
• The city needs no temple, because God Himself is there.
• The city comes down from God (which means we don’t work our way up to it).
• Something that looks like the original garden of Eden is inside the city. The river of the water of life, and the tree of life straddling it.
• The people of the city are no longer hiding, like Adam and Eve in the garden, ashamed…but they are turned towards God. Unlike even Moses, the people see the face of God. There is the unrestricted presence of God with them.
• The difficult things of life: death, morning, crying, pain…are washed away.

It’s quite a picture, isn’t it? A restored creation, city, people. And if all of that can be restored by God. Then your life and mine, no matter how crushed, broken or confused, can be restored as well. And it starts with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Resurrection says God has invaded the realm of death and is now at work setting things right. And not just at the end of time. Now. We see glimpses, pieces, incomplete pictures, shadows of the future… but it has begun.

In the ancient tradition of Celtic Christians in 5th and 6th century Britain, they often talked about “thin places” on the earth. There is a Celtic saying that “heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller.”

A thin place was a sacred place and time where the supernatural came near, even touched our world. Often these were places in nature. Sometimes they were places where miracles had happened. They couldn’t say what it was, only that God seemed especially near. I think they were onto something there.

I think that in the birth of Christ, certainly God was so poignantly coming near. In the crucifixion on the cross, heaven dramatically touched earth. And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a door was opened that will never be shut. Let us not get distracted.

Where do you experience these “thin places” where heaven and earth are close together? For me, sometimes worship seems like a “thin place,” which makes sense since the book of Revelation is filled with scenes of worship, including here in chapter 22.

Sometimes when we worship, my heart touches something, some One I know, something I long for. Sometimes when we all come here to share the Lord’s Supper, some in tears of joy and others in utter despair, it feels like we might touch heaven, encountered by the living Christ.

Are there other “thin” places that come to mind for you? I think of the times in the hospital for the birth of our children. I think of God meeting me on a walk. I think of holding my grandmother’s hand, or the hand of a friend’s father, knowing it’s the last time. I think of standing with my family at a cemetery, or having what seemed like nearly a magical evening with friends or praying in the evening on the shores of Lake Victoria. Thin places, where God seems near, and it is good and right.

Resurrection means the restoration of things has begun. We are living in the middle of something God is working out, even in the midst of this place where we all know there are tears and crying and pain. But we can live without fear, knowing the direction things are headed, and knowing the end.

The resurrection of Jesus is a sign to us, and we are then given the privilege of being signs to the world…displaying God to people that literally don’t know how to imagine what the kingdom of God is like. A huge privilege. A huge responsibility. So let us not get distracted.

And by the way. Living out resurrection life will often look funny, and feel funny in our world. Sometimes it will distinctly get us into trouble.

Watchman Nee was a pastor and a leader in the church in China in the 20th century, whose writings have been helpful for many and who helped start hundreds of churches. When the communist cultural revolution hit, his life was in danger, and despite the urging of friends, he refused to leave his young churches. He was arrested in Shanghai in 1952 and imprisoned. In 1956 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and was allowed to see very few people, even his wife.

Nee died in prison in 1972. Under his pillow, there was a crinkled piece of paper, and on the paper in large letters and a shaky hand, he had written this:

“Christ is the Son of God. He died to atone for men’s sin, and after three days rose again. This is the most important fact in the universe. I die believing in Christ.”

Friends. We have this amazing privilege and responsibility to tell and show and live out in the world…the resurrection of Jesus. For God’s sake, Let us not get distracted.

Christ has risen! (He is risen indeed!).
Christ has risen! (He is risen indeed!).
Christ is risen! (Alleluia! He is risen indeed!).

Let us pray.