The gods are dying

1 Corinthians 15: 1-28 Matthew 28: 1-10

The Gods are dying. They stagger around, bouncing from wall to wall like a B grade actor in a death scene that he just can’t get right.. Gasping for breath, aching to live for just another day. Yet oddly they are blind to their sickly nature and are full of their pride saying “I’m a God – nothing can stop me – worship me, bow before me.” While all the time their gaunt paper-like skin and empty eyes betray their words as lies.

If you listen carefully… you can hear them. Moaning, weeping and wailing.

Can you hear? Is that the death rattle of communism?

Communism; that God who promised that all people would be free and equal. There would be no suffering; the state would wipe every tear from their eyes. But the state it turned out couldn’t even wipe its own mouth.

The juice of first fruits of the harvest dripping from their mouths corner as those leaders who of course were equal – just more equal than others - feasted, ignoring the starvation of those they had said they would care for.

Did you hear that crash! Democracies blind and bewildered giant has just tripped up on its own feet again. Let the people decide, the people know what they want – or do they?

Let’s look at New Zealand’s example of the populous making up its mind. Oh dear... But still the giant stumbles on saying come to me I have the answer, I have the way, I will give you the life you want!

Is that the cry of Mr Feel Good? Yes it is. I recognize his war cries “if it feels good do it”. And “how can it be wrong if it feels so good?” But all his followers have different ideas of what “feels good” – don’t they? What it is that they should do to get their kicks. And all of them ignoring that following behind Mr Feel Good is his big sister Consequences and boy is she mad.

The Lord of Science is calling to us now. Trust in me, believe in me, put your faith in me and I will give just the facts but apart from that I have for you nothing – absolutely nothing. No life, no meaning, no hope no ever after. Go to him believe the Lord of Science, who for some strange reason keeps changing that which is fact or not every year or so.

I have heard another god, a small god, people only listen for a short time and it only squeaks out occasionally, here and there. The God of denial. Recently he denied truth and said “Hey, guess what? Judas was a good guy. Forget that which you have heard from reliable sources, from people who actually were there. Listen to me I was written by Gnostic heretics hundreds of years after the fact.” Deny, deny deny.

Ah but there is the other god, yes we all know it, we all listen to its sirens call. Money, money, money, Of yes it’s so funny, in that rich mans world. Every modern appliance can be yours, happiness can be yours, fame can be yours just get the money, gather it in, bring it to yourself, hold it caress it never let it go until it gives you what you want. All the time you think you are getting more but in the light of the day you see it’s been bleeding you dry, leaving you empty and soulless, with just things surrounding you that may give pleasure but no love.

All the gods cry out, staggering from place to place. Unfortunately they take people with them. They at times seem so alive but they are dying. The gods are dying.

Another God died once. But where this one is different, is that this one was real. Jesus. Jesus was the most real thing that has ever been and ever will be. Jesus, unlike the other gods mentioned was not a construct of humanity. In fact humanity was constructed by Him!

His death began the same way all our deaths begin. He was born…

Away in a manger, in a little town of Bethlehem, on that silent night. We have all heard the retelling over and over. The worlds media lets us pay lip service to some of the events but…

do we dare tell them the crux of the matter,

can we break through the walls of doubt and tell them the truth.

That on that night all those years ago. The event of history occurred?

God the creator of the universe. The one and only real God, He who spoke the words that made all things seen and unseen. That the creator humbled himself and became part of his creation.

God became human. Born helpless and dependant on the care of Mary and Joseph. Threatened by the evil Herod, had his glories sung by the Angels, given kingly gifts by high born wise men, and worshipped by mucky, fresh from the paddock sheep herders

God came here. He didn’t stay in his heaven, he came down to be God with us.

Let us then skip forward 33 odd years. In fact we are in good company when we do that. The Apostles and Nicene creeds do the same thing. As if even if you miss out, and have not heard any of Jesus’s teaching as long as you get these three things right about that God Jesus then you are saved.

Jesus was born, Jesus died, Jesus rose again.

Yes Jesus died. He had power in himself to avoid it. As a human he could run away and hide. As the son of God, at his command he could call on more than twelve legions of Angels to rescue him, but there He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, getting ready to die.

That night in the garden, something was happening that had never happened before. The real God was dying.

The one that allowed us to make our own little gods. The one who lets us turn to him after all we’ve done. And this God – this Jesus did not want to die.

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” He prayed. This cup of suffering let it be taken from me. If it is possible don’t let me die.

“Yet not as I will, but as you will.” What an answer. We might ask for god’s will to be done on many things in our lives. Your will be done for this job, this car, my health, but we’re talking about life and death here.

And not a pretty, easy or graceful death but violent, painful and humiliating death. Jesus knew it was coming, and He knew why it was coming.

It was coming because of you, because of me, and the because of the person next to you. Our sin, that we all do day by day, minute by minute has a price – death. But Jesus knew in the garden that his death would pay the price for us.

The prophet Isaiah wrote hundreds of years before Jesus was born

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

So pierced, crushed, wounded and then finally on the cross die he did.

Not faint or fall unconscious to then wake up and run off the France with Mary Magdallen. Jesus died

A simple proof of this was the spear that was pierced into Jesus’ side as he hung on the cross. If you have a hole in your side that goes into your lung then the blood that comes out will actually be a pink froth. Like soapy water coming out of a sponge that you squeeze in your hand. The lung is a gathering of very small sacks, quite like a sponge, and those sacks hold the air to be transferred into the blood. Pierce that lung/sponge while breathing and there will be froth. But if you are dead and not breathing then your blood and pneumo-thoracic fluid – a water like substance that surrounds the lungs will flow from the wound.

Just like the bible says it did when the Roman soldier pierced the side of Jesus to see if he was dead or not. Sounds like the Romans had a lot of experience in killing people.

There’s something to think about next time you do the dishes.

Jesus, He who was fully God, He who was also fully man was dead. Dead and then buried.

Buried in a tomb that had to be borrowed.

Dead and buried in a borrowed tomb with a guard placed outside it to make sure no-one did anything untoward with the body.

There he was, Friday, Saturday and then Sunday. Under normal circumstances he’d be beginning to smell.

So those woman on early Sunday morning who went to his tomb, must have been brave. To go there they had to confront the soldiers to not only let them in but likely also to ask them to help move the stone so they could go in. Once in there they knew they would have to struggle against not only seeing but also smelling the dead body of the one they loved and worshipped. But when they got there the stone had been moved.

Christmas is unique to history. God became flesh. The crucifixion though is vital to history as the punishment that brings us peace was paid. But on that Sunday morning the total and ultimate pinnacle of history, the event that defines all things past, present and future occurred. Christ is risen!

Without that event, his birth, his life, his death would be meaningless, mere dust in the wind. Without it, as Paul wrote, we would still be in our sins; we would have no hope and should be pitied more than anyone else there is.

Christ is Risen! With that event, it shows not only has the price been paid, it has been accepted fully. Our punishment, death, has been defeated its sting and bite have been nullified and we have a future.

After our deaths, as Christians, we shall, in God’s timing, be resurrected. We are not going to be angels. We are not going to be going to some sky palace and live on fluffy clouds. St Peter is not waiting for us at the Pearly gates to decide if we are allowed in or not.

Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection. Like the first ripe apple you take from the tree prior to harvest that shows what is following in bulk – so is Jesus. His resurrected body, as described in the scriptures, is like that which we shall be given. He ate, he had form that could be touched, he could appear suddenly in locked rooms and go quickly from one part of the country to another.

Jesus is our salvation, with his birth, life, death and resurrection he is our all in all.

Christ is risen! Our God lives. Jesus lives. That is the truth.

So… why do we bend down and worship before these other staggering dying Gods?

Democracy, communism, materialism, hedonism, all of these things are dying gods. Gods made by man and flawed by man.

Humanity which is sinful, cannot guide or lead itself, there may be grand systems, but at the core there are still humans who, separate from God, follow and seek the old old lies.

Lies that ignore the real God who lived, died and is there for them.

So why do we bow down to the modern appliance and listen to the Lord of Science? The real God said “I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me.”

Today let us remember the gift that is Christmas, our shame that is the crucifixion and not only today but all days the victory and hope that is the resurrection.

Our God is an awesome God, Our God reigns, Our God lives.