Sermon: THE ROCK THAT ROLLS – April 4, 2010

Sermon:  Audio not available due to technical difficulties

Scripture Reading: John 20:1-18

I would guess that of all the sermons I have preached over the 30+ years of my ministry the most difficult to preach have been the sermons for Christmas Eve and Easter. How can any words, no matter how clever or creative, even begin to describe these incredible, supra-natural, non-understandable, divine events?  How can any ears really hear and any hearts really imagine what they are all about?

Last week we heard the religious leaders demanding Jesus to quiet the crowds who were praising and cheering him on as he entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.  Jesus replies, “If these people were to be quiet, the rocks themselves would take up the cry.”  It was not the only time rocks played a part in Jesus’ story.  When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus is asked to turn a stone into bread (Matthew 4:3). Jesus is described as the living Stone (1 Peter 2:4). In Mark 12:10, Jesus refers to Himself as the stone that the builders rejected, but who would become the cornerstone of a whole new world.  Jesus’ enemies attempt to stone him.  He saves a woman about to be stoned.  Upon Jesus’ death, Matthew says the earth shook and the rocks split.  And, of course, we remember the stone that was rolled away as Jesus rose from the dead.

I have had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land twice.  It was apparent why rocks were so much a part of Jesus’ history, specifically, and biblical history, generally.  Rocks are everywhere.

I received a big “rock” surprise when I saw the kind of stones used to seal the tombs of Jesus’ day.  I always pictured the “Easter” stone as a large round granite boulder rolled in front of some sort of cave.  As we stood at the sites of some very old, excavated tombs, I revised my picture.  Tombs were sealed by huge stones carved like big rice cakes or hockey pucks.  You can see a picture on the bulletin cover.  These giant stones sat in a channel that gradually sloped down from both sides towards the middle.  In front of the door, the channel was cut deeper so the stone would drop down into the depression.  Since they weighed between 3000 and 4000 pounds, it would have been a major effort by several people using levers, to move such a stone once it was set in place.

On what we know as Palm Sunday, Jesus talked of the rocks singing out in praise.  What about the rock that sealed Jesus’ tomb?  If that rock could talk what would it tell us? Can you imagine the special seat of observation it had – far better than any 50-yard line or courtside seat.  That stone watched as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus solemnly, sadly carried the body of Jesus, laying the body on the slab inside. That stone shuddered as it was shaken loose from its setting, as it rolled down the channel and then as it thunked into its place of sealing. That stone felt the soldier put the official Roman seal on it. That stone watched the guards stand hour after hour night and day so no one could get close.  It heard all kinds of stories: about a claim that the body inside might come back to life or that some of the dead man’s followers might try to come and steal the body.

That was on the outside. What about the inside? I wonder what the stone witnessed between that Friday night and that Sunday morning?

Then it was Sunday morning.  That stone sensed the electricity in the air as something stirred inside the dark tomb. That stone felt the power as the angel pushed it back up where it had been.  That stone watched the guards run away in terror. That stone watched as the dead man sat up and then stood up and then walked out.  If ever there was a rock that cried out in praise to God, it was that rock.

But, we aren’t gathered here today because of that rock that rolled two centuries ago.  We are here today to celebrate the Rock that rolls – today.

While in college, Dawn and I attended a Christian coffeehouse in downtown Mandan.  We sang a lot.  One of the songs we sang started like this “Jesus is the rock and he rolls my blues away.”  I later learned this song written by Tony Congi was a popular camp song.  In fact, after 40 some years, kids and adults still sing it around the campfire.

Jesus is the Rock.  38 times, the various writers of the Old Testament refer to God is as the Rock: 2 Samuel 22:32, “And who is a Rock, except our God?;” 2 Samuel 23:3, “The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me …;” In Psalm 19:14, the prayer we pray before we preach can be translated as, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer;” and, Psalm 62:2, “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.”

When Jesus comes on the scene he claims that imagery for himself.  Peter and Paul, in their writings, do the same.   Jesus is the Rock.  Jesus is on the move.  Jesus is the Rock that rolls.

We have all heard the saying, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” I have always thought that meant if one is lazy and always laying around, they will soon be covered by moss and fungi and other nasty kinds of stuff.  As I looked for the origin of that phrase this week I was surprised to learn it is not a prompt for staying away from laziness but a criticism of folks who never settle down to be productive and to make lasting relationships.

Jesus is not a moss-avoiding rolling stone but Jesus is a rolling stone that gathers all who will follow.  We don’t have time to get into this but in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he takes Psalm 68:18, applies it to Jesus, and conjures up the image of a conquering hero riding through the city streets with a train of captives following behind as he hands out gifts to the people.  Let’s take the image one step further.  Imagine a victorious, risen Savior, who has just conquered death and evil.  He gathers us.  He leads us out of captivity from the prisons in which we find ourselves – self-made or built by others. He gives us gifts to enable us to live a new life.  This is what his death and resurrection were all about – to deliver us and to gift us – to bring us from darkness into light – to bring us from death to life.

How has the year since last Easter been for you? Good? Bad?  Has it involved job loss? Grief? Worry? A fight with addictions?  Disappointment? Think of the worst that has happened to you and to this world.

A better day is coming.  We will be set free.  Pain will be done away with once and for all.  We will no longer need to be afraid.  Jesus the Rock has rolled right through it all – not to avoid it but to destroy it.  He invites us to follow in His path. His path will lead us to victory.

Adam Hamilton, a well-known United Methodist pastor in Kansas City – has ended every Easter service with the same words for the past twenty years as pastor of the Church of the Resurrection.

This is how he tells it: “People ask me, ‘Do you really believe this story of the Resurrection?’  And my answer is always the same.  I not only believe it, I am counting on it.”

Jesus is the Rock and he rolls our blues away. Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!