An Easter Sermon preached by A.H.Harry Oussoren

Prayer:
Let only truth be spoken, so that only your truth may be heard. AMEN

"Mais c'est normal, monsieur."
That was a phrase we heard frequently and learned to dislike while living in Geneva for two years.
Freely translated: "it's only normal, sir."

We got that response too often when something we'd bought in a store wasn't quite the right thing and we were looking for a cash refund. We quickly learned that in Geneva, refunds don't come easily in the shops. For the Genevois "buyer beware" was all too normal.

It was a revealing contrast just 10 days ago when the manager of a local super market was seen reimbursing a elderly customer for eggs she didn't like and had bought three months before!! The customer was clearly disturbed and confused. The manager exhibited much grace.

I recount this not to cast stones at our Swiss friends, but more to point to all our inclination to expect and accept what we think is normal. Wouldn't any one of us normally have expected the store manager to just dismiss the client's request as unreasonable? But he didn't.

It's easy to allow ourselves to get committed to the normal.
Increasingly, we accept that it is only normal for people to look after themselves first and foremost. And for the last decade or two we have made a cult out of self-interest.
We see it personally as fewer people give to charitable causes. We see it politically as increasingly we mouth platitudes like: we can't afford universal health care, we can't afford education that allows all our young people to blossom and contribute their best, we can't afford to be generous with the poor.
We're getting used to thinking that "me first" is only normal .

We've also getting accustomed to the idea that the church can be expected decline in our society.
We point to Europe and say that the falling away from shared religious practice is even worse there. In most countries where Christianity once flourished, only a small fraction of the population participates.
Increasingly people seem to be going after their own religious thing. "Faith" and "organized religion" seem to be viewed as contradictions in our time.
Squeezing God out of an "enlightened" society is only normal, I guess?

We read the newspapers and we're getting used to the idea that Palestinian and Israeli kill each other.
Vengeance, reprisal, retribution, retaliation, revenge -
it's just an endless cycle and for the last fifty years, we've come to expect it in varying measures, just as we did with Northern Ireland. It's only normal, isn't it?

Mary Magdalene was doing what was normal. She is one of the many women in our sacred history overshadowed by the men around Jesus. All four Gospels agree that on Easter Sunday after the Sabbath rest, Mary Magdalene and another Mary are the first to get to Jesus' grave.
They go there to mourn the one they love.
They expect to see the tomb closed with the body secure inside - it's only normal.

The other disciples were also doing what anyone would tell you was normal. Having just witnessed the execution of their leader, they went into hiding and mourning.
They were defeated and discouraged. That's normal.
They had invested a lot of themselves in Jesus and his ministry. They had left their work and their families. Up and down the land they traipsed - wandering aimlessly it seemed.
Just when Jesus seemed to be getting somewhere - remember the great Palm Sunday parade - he is snuffed, a judicial murder.
So now Jesus' friends are demoralized and depressed. All seemed vain.
If we were in their shoes, would we be any different?
Maybe we'd have the courage to accompany the women and run the gauntlet of the grave guards. Maybe not.
Normal is keeping safe and avoiding risky situations.

But what is normal for us, is not normal for God. It is absolutely not God's way.
God really doesn't really buy into our versions of normal.

(Story of God communicating with the earth.)
One day God was looking down at earth and saw the all-too normal behaviour that was going on.
God decided to send an angel down to earth to check it out. When she returned, she reported, "Yes, God, it is bad on earth. 95% normally misbehave."
God decided a second opinion was needed and sent another angel to earth. When she returned, she confirmed to God that indeed earth was in normal, bad shape. 95% misbehave routinely and only 5% expect your surprises.
God was not pleased.
So God decided to e-mail the faithful 5% so God could encourage them to keep expecting God's surprises and help them keep out of the "normal" trap.
Do you know what that e-mail said?

Oh, none of you got one either, huh?

----

Normal isn't God's way.
The Egyptian Pharaoh thought it was normal to subjugate the Hebrew people.
But God surprised Pharaoh and voice-mailed the message: "Let my people go."
They went. And on the other side of the Red Sea the newly free people threw a huge party.

Put a seed into the ground and why would you think anything good could come from that.
And God surprises us with a beautiful sunflower that radiates joy and speaks of God's glory.

Normal is to laught off a request for a refund for three-month old eggs, but God's grace moves a shopkeeper to compassion for the disturbed customer.

Normal increasingly means I look after me and mine only. God's surprise is that life flowers for us when we focus more on the needs of the neighbour than on ourselves. When we remember that we need each other we begin to experience the abundant life God promises.

Normal is for Israeli and Palestinian to attack and kill each other. But God says no, that's abnormal.
My way - the way of life - involves surprising forgiveness, reconciliation, and self-giving - much like Northern Ireland's Good Friday accord.

Normal is for us as people of faith to accept the decline of the church and act as though one day churches will be a thing of the past.
But God's surprise is that around the world in developing countries millions are discovering the power of the resurrection shared in community.
When we make room for the Spirit and for Christ in our midst, then surprising things begin to happen.

Normal is for Mary to mourn a body in that sealed grave.
God's surprise is an open tomb and a living Christ recognized through tears.
Normal in those days was for only the men to speak in public. God's surprise is making Mary Magdalene - a woman - the first to proclaim the resurrection of Christ to the frightened friends.

God won't be bound by our normal.
God's ultimate surprise is that the crucified, dead, and buried Christ is alive and out of that grave. Christ accompanies people who see beyond the normal and can open themselves to the miracle of God's love.

So my advice on Easter Sunday:
don't settle for what is normal. It's a killer.
Expect God's surprises. Anticipate them. Relish them. Respond to them. Experience life with them.
Let God shake us up.

And that is my self-given permission to shake us out of the normal just a tad more.

I've told you before that Easter is a good time for humour as our way of thumbing our noses at all the evil in the world.
Not even the devil can keep God's people from laughing and feasting.

So here goes two more:

1. A Church School teacher asked her pupils as they were on the way back into the worship service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping!"

2. A little boy opened the big, old family Bible with fascination, looking at the old pages as he turned them.
Then something fell out of the Bible and he picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old bright coloured maple leaf that had been pressed in between the pages.
"Mum, look what I found," the boy called out.
"What have you got there, dear?" his mother asked.
With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, "It's Adam's suit!!"

Normal for people of faith isn't good enough.
When we accept what society deems normal, when we buy into business as usual, when we commit ourselves to the routine and what everyone expects - then we squeeze out God - the living God, the God who never stops surprising.
Normal is our way of controlling God, domesticating God, not trusting God. Normal becomes yet one more nasty false god to displace the true God.

Easter teaches us to await God's life-giving surprises. Easter is God's biggest and best surprise.
Not even horrible evil, not the tomb, not even death itself,
can stop the holy and living God from surprising the world and transforming all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

So, if you believe in the one God, and
if you believe in God's powerful love to raise Christ and us from the dead, and
if you believe in God's power to surprise even us -
then raise your voice and shout

"Hallelujah, Christ is Risen."

Now I know this kind of exclaiming is not normally done here, so let's surprise God and shout the Easter proclamation aloud twice more for good measure!

"Hallelujah, Christ is Risen." "Hallelujah, Christ is Risen!"

Thanks be to God.

Choir sings Hallelujah Chorus.