The Bungee Cord 4-1-18
EASTER!

Hello,
Here's my Easter message this year:

Mark 16
Easter 2018

Who will roll away the stone?

• I bet that God cried when Jesus, the Son of God, was being whipped and flogged. 
• I bet that God cried when Jesus, the Son of God, was spit at and crowned with a crown of thorns that was pushed down on his head. 
• I bet that God cried when Jesus, the Son of God, stumbled his way through the streets of Jerusalem under the weight of the cross and the taunts of the people. 
• I bet that God cried when Jesus, the Son of God, was laid down on that cross and was secured to it by ropes and nails. 
• I bet that God cried, when Jesus, the Son of God, hung there, blood spilling from the wounds, the sun baking his skin, the birds landing on his head and pecking at his eyes, pain shooting through his body like lightning, and his lungs gasping for air. 
• I bet that God cried when Jesus, the Son of God, screamed in agony and breathed his last breath. 
• I bet that God cried when Jesus, the Son of God, was taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb. 

But when they rolled the stone across the door of the tomb, I bet that God laughed. I bet that God whose power filled the universe full of stars and planets, and whose power holds it all together laughed when those soldiers rolled that comparatively puny bolder across the door of that tomb. Did they really think that that stone, that puny stone, was going to keep God out of that grave? God must have laughed at those soldiers as they rolled that stone, like you or I would laugh at an ant thinking it could keep you or me out of its nest by covering the entrance with a speck of dirt. When God saw those soldiers foolishly rolling that stone across the entrance to the tomb to keep everyone out, I bet that God laughed!

And I also bet that God laughed when he heard those women who approached the tomb on that first Easter ask, “Who will roll away the stone?” But this laugh was different than the laugh God laughed at those soldiers. The thing that brought laughter to God as he watched them roll that stone was their unbelievable foolishness. But the thing that brought laughter to God when he heard those women’s question was the thought of the upcoming surprise those women were soon to find…the same kind of laughter that a young man feels begin to erupt when he sets a small box containing an engagement ring in front of the one who is hoping for marriage.
Who will roll the stone away? When God heard that question – hardly able to wait for them to reach the tomb to see – God must have laughed.

And I don’t know if you can hear it today, but today, on this Easter Sunday there is laughter rumbling through the universe….God’s laughter. 
• Laughter when God sees the world rolling a stone of shame and guilt across the door of your heart, thinking that will keep God out. 

• Laughter when God sees the world rolling a stone of hatred and vengeance across the door of your heart, thinking that will keep God out.
• Laughter when God sees the world rolling a stone of tragedy and misery across the door of your heart, thinking that will keep God out. 
• And maybe laughing loudest when God sees the world rolling a stone of doubt and disbelief across the door of your heart thinking that will keep God out.
How foolish can the world be? All of these things are mere pebbles in the eyes of God. With the mere flick of God’s pinky finger, and they are gone….gone forever.

And today, we can hear God snickering in delight when we ask those women’s question, “Who will roll the stone away?” When you and I are entombed in the darkness of lives, and maybe you have come here today with the world having rolled a big boulder across the door of your heart, a boulder that you have tried to move, but cannot. When you and I are worn out from trying to push it away so some sunlight can get into our life and we ask…. 
• Who will roll away that stone of guilt and shame? 
• Who will roll away that stone of fear and despair? 
• Who will roll away that stone of doubt and disbelief? 
• Who will roll away that stone of the pressure to succeed and the crushing weight of failure?
That is when God gleefully snickers with anticipatory delight to see our reaction when we discover that when God rolled that Easter stone away from that tomb, God set off an avalanche rolling away every stone from every tomb that the world foolishly rolled there to keep Jesus, the light of the world, out of our lives.

Easter is full of laughter, God’s laughter, a contagious laughter. What stone could ever keep Jesus away from us. Ha! Ha! Ha! What stone would God ever let seal us in darkness? Ho! Ho! Ho! What stone will stand in the way of God’s love for you and me in this life or when this life has come to an end? He! He! He!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! He! He! He!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Have a great day!
God's grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger