There is an ancient Easter caller response that we've been using in the church for almost 2,000 years, and every time Christians got together in worship they would use it.  On Easter, the leader would say “Christ is risen,” and the response from the people would be” He has risen indeed.”  OK?  "Christ is risen" (Response) "He has risen indeed." "Christ is risen" (Response) "He has risen indeed."    "Christ is risen" (Response) "He has risen indeed." 

Well, you know, we are dealing with crossroads today.  All of us come to crossroads in our life where we have to make life-changing decisions. This past fall Carolyn and I were at one of those crossroads.  Here’s what happened: I was upstairs in my office late one afternoon and I received a call from someone asking me if I would consider moving to New York to head the global mission arm of the United Methodist Church.  It came out of nowhere. I’m 58 years old and have been at Ginghamsburg for 31 years, but this offer was the most tempting I’ve had. I’ve had other invitations throughout the years but this offer was the most tempting because you know here at Ginghamsburg Church our heart is for global mission.  The decision had to be made by the middle of December, so for the next six weeks, Carolyn and I prayed about it and we talked about it.  We didn’t mention it to anyone in the church or to anyone on staff.  My bishop gave me great council.  He said, “Mike you’ve got to follow this road until you’re clear that Jesus says no.”  None of you knew this was going on, so you can imagine how agonizing this was every time I got up here.  That’s the thing about a crossroad; you have to go one way or the other.  One staff member from New York went with me to Darfur, and we talked about it every morning.   That’s when it began to leak out to the Ginghamsburg staff that was with me because they heard these conversations going on.

When I got back from Darfur, I knew I had to fly to New York on the Monday of Thanksgiving week to check it out further.  Before that scheduled trip, we had an offsite church leadership board meeting where I announced this to the board, in a conference room at Houston Woods State Park.  Have any of you had these crossroad decisions where you want to do both, but you can’t?  You have to go one way or the other, and whatever commitment you make today determines your life tomorrow.  I’m not much into poetry, but I love that last stanza from a 1920 poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. It says, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”  Well, obviously I had to choose a path and here is the path I chose as you see me right here today.  It would be exciting to live in Manhattan.  I am 58, almost dead, so it would have been exciting to experience Manhattan.  But we felt that this is the Jesus path God has called us on and that God is not finished with us here. 

The most important crossroad decision I’ve ever made in my life was at 18 years old. I bet my life that the resurrection was true.  And I committed all of me, everything I had, to this Jesus path. 

Now folks, if the resurrection is true, then all of us are going to be held accountable for the decision we make.  This is the most important decision you can ever make in your life.  And it’s a hard decision because. It is really hard to believe that this resurrection thing really happened historically.  Do any of you struggle with that?  I mean, we have been brought up in an enlightened world view which taught us there is a closed system and miracles don’t happen.  And yet we believe - commit to believe-in an illogical event.  There are many things in the Bible that aren’t meant to be taken literally, like it really happened.  There are parables and metaphors; one parable is the story of the Good Samaritan.  How many of you know the story of the Good Samaritan?  That is a story that Jesus told to illustrate a greater value of our responsibility toward our neighbor.  The book of Job is written in a parabolic or parable form.  Most scholars believe that Job was meant to be an ancient metaphor about how human beings dealt with suffering. 

We’re good at coming up with symbols to represent higher values. The only symbol I can’t figure out is the Easter bunny. What great value does the Easter bunny represent?  I guess Easter bunnies do lay eggs and eggs represent new life, right? My wife gave me an Easter basket this morning, and it had a bunny with a bunch of chocolate eggs around it, so that’s what I think.  But here is the problem: Biblical authors were claiming to be eye witnesses to an historical event.  We can’t write this off like it‘s a metaphor. The resurrection is either fact or fiction.  It is either history or a hoax.  And if it didn’t happen, folks, I got better things to do than work weekends and holidays and risk my life in Darfur.  Do you know what I’m talking about?  So if it happened, if the resurrection is fact, then every one of us in this room is going to be held accountable for the crossroads decision we make.  When we make a total life commitment, it’s important to look at all of the facts, information and history about the resurrection.  What do we know that history tells us?  Well, one thing we know as a historical fact is the tomb was empty.  From that very first day onward, no one has ever been able to produce the body or bones of Jesus Christ. 

In 1975, I spent a month in India and went to the place where Buddha preached his first sermon. In that place is Buddha’s tomb, where Buddha is buried.  2600 years later, every Buddhist would tell you that Buddha’s body and bones are in that tomb.  As a matter of fact, no one in the world claims resurrection for any religious leader but one.  And that is Jesus Christ.  Here’s what is so amazing.  2600 years later, Buddha’s body is still there.  Every Buddhist admits it.  Don’t you think the enemies of the new Christian movement everyone was against, including the Roman State, would have presented the body if they could?  There are other possible explanations.  Maybe there were grave robbers.  But one thing we’ve got to deal with is the empty tomb and the fact that no one has been able to produce a body.  But the second thing we have to deal with, sisters and brothers, are the alleged sightings. 

If you have your Bible, open it to 1 Corinthians 15.  Now I am going to get deep this morning with this because we’re not here for Easter tradition.  Easter tradition is not the same thing as Easter faith.  Either this happened, or it didn’t.  We don’t have time to sing nice Easter songs.  1

 Corinthians 15 is a part of a letter written by the apostle Paul to the church of Corinth, somewhere between 53 and 57 A.D.  This is important as it means it was not written later than 30 years after the event of the resurrection.  The letter was widely circulated in Jerusalem where the event of the resurrection was purported to have taken place.  We’re going to begin at 1 Corinthians 15:3. Paul inserts something in this verse that is an ancient creed used by the church as early as four to eight years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Paul says, “For what I received I passed onto you as of first importance.”  Here’s the creed Paul drops in; “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and then he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve.  After that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still alive although some have died.”  See, this is only 30 years after the fact.  Most of the 500 people who were in the crowd were still alive to testify to this event.  Paul continues, “Then he appeared to James,” that was the brother of Jesus, “then to the apostles and last of all he appeared to me also, as one abnormally born.”  Now what we have to deal with historically are these alleged sightings.  There are no other religions in the world that claim they’ve had an experience of meeting their religious leader after the religious leader’s death, except one, Christianity.  What is so troublesome here is that any individual can make up something.  They can say, “Jesus appeared to me.”  But have you ever seen 20 people try to collaborate on the same lie?  What we have here are 500 people that Jesus appeared to on one occasion, who were still alive to either say yes this happened, or no it didn’t happen. 

Now bring this up to modern times, here’s what this would look like.   In 1993, there would be a book published that would be widely circulated in Washington D.C. and  which would have claimed that John F. Kennedy resurrected from the grave and appeared to a group larger than both houses of Congress.  That book would have never gotten off the ground, right?  Seventeen years after, in 1993, there were too many people around that could say it never happened.  Well, that’s exactly the question; how do we explain these sightings?  Other troublesome facts we have to deal with, unlike any other religious leader, are the personal encounters over the last 2,000 years that people from every different culture and ethnic background have claimed to have had with the resurrected Christ.  It’s unique.  With no other religious leader do we see this. 

I’ve never shared this with most of you.  If you’re new to the church in the last ten years, you’ve never heard me say this.  When I was five years old I had a physical and visual encounter with the resurrected Christ, and I didn’t even understand who Jesus was at that point.  I had just gone to bed and Jesus appeared at the foot of my bed.  I saw a brilliant light, so brilliant I couldn’t make out his facial features, and yet I knew it was Jesus.  And I didn’t even understand who Jesus was at the time.  Now as any five year old would do, I covered my head with blankets and closed my eyes.  But, his presence was so brilliant that even through the covers and my eyelids; I could see his presence in my room.  There was this fear, but I have to explain what the fear was like.  The fear was not like being scared - that I was going to be hurt - it was more like it was the safest place in the universe to be but at the same time, I recognized his utter pureness and my impureness.  Does that make sense?  Jesus spoke to me, not audibly, but more like he communicated with my mind. He told me he had chosen me and set me apart for a specific purpose.  I couldn’t believe it. I have prayed for another experience like that, but I have never had it again.  He appeared to me in a visible form when I was a five year old child. 

Now, folks if the resurrection is a historical fact, if it really happened, then every one of us are going to be held accountable for what we do with it.  This is the most important decision you ever make.  See, there is a difference from having an Easter tradition and an Easter faith.  A whole lot of people have an Easter tradition, sisters and brothers, but that is different than a faith.  Here is the difference:  an Easter tradition is when you wear the cross and an Easter faith is when you’ve made a commitment to walk the way of the cross.  A lot of people have an Easter tradition and believe in God and profess Jesus, but they continue on whatever road they have been on.  Whatever road you are on is really your faith.  A lot of people believe in Jesus and believe in God, but their life is given to a materialistic road and they spend all of their life working hard to gather and collect possessions, believing that their meaning and security comes from possessions.  Folks, when you die, you are not going to take any of that with you. 

You see that little booklet in your chairs?  That little booklet is our gift to you.  Do you see that, it is called Change the World.  It is amazing how God will use us.  I wrote this book, and now the entire 11 million United Methodist around the world are having a ”Change the World” weekend April 24 and 25.  So this little gift that we have for you today was also offered and made available to 11 million United Methodist around the world.  My kids came over to my house one day, and they picked up a catalog. The catalog has all kinds of merchandise in it, created around ”Change the World” day, like: these little booklets, change the world hats, t-shirts. There are a couple of pages of merchandise for ”Change the World.”  My kids looked at me and said, “Wow, Dad, how much change are you going to make off of this stuff?”  They asked because they know there is a copyright for “Change the World” in my name.   You can imagine how much change will be generated if you put out 11 million of something and get 15% of it.  So they are looking at me thinking, “Dad, I guess you are going to be paying for a family cruise for all of us, huh?”  Well, I told them I’m not getting any change off of this.  All of the proceeds from merchandise sales go to “nothing but nets” to stop malaria, a disease that kills one child every 30 seconds.  Can you believe that?  They just looked at me with their mouth hanging open, and I said, “Kids, I am 58 and almost dead.  You can’t take change with you but you can take lost and broken people with you.” 

The best decision I ever made in my whole life, sisters and brothers, was when I bet my life the resurrection is a historical fact.  We are going to be held accountable. A lot of people have an Easter tradition, but they continue to pursue whatever they are pursuing.  If the resurrection is true, turn that Easter tradition into an Easter faith.  Can we be honest?  Even though I had this personal, visible encounter with Jesus as a five year old, I still walk in this paradox of I believe, help my unbelief.  Am I the only one who struggles with this?  And so many times people say to me, “Pastor, if the resurrection is fact and Jesus would just show himself to me one more time, I would put everything on the line. I’d take off on this Jesus road, no question.  Jesus just show yourself to me one more time.”  Have any of you prayed that kind of prayer?  I have prayed this prayer again and again. Show yourself to me, Jesus, like you did when I was five. But God does not work that way. 

You know where Jesus said in the Scripture, this generation demands a sign but you’re not going to get one.  And so, somehow, I don’t know what God is doing but we have to continue to trust him on this journey of faith living between this paradox of I believe, help my unbelief.  Jesus gives us insight into how we can experience him, his resurrected presence.  He appeared to Peter after the resurrection and he asks Peter, “Do you love me?” three times.  And Peter repeated three times, “Lord, you know I love you.” Then he says to Peter, “Well, then, Peter, this is how you will demonstrate the way you love me.”  Notice what he said first. “Feed my lambs.”  Now I want you to get this.  We are not going to find Jesus in religious meetings.  You get no points for showing up here on Easter.  We’re going to find Jesus when we commit ourselves to his mission in changing the world.  Jesus said this, ”Feed my lambs.”  You are never closer to experiencing the resurrected Christ in your life than when you’re serving his interest in other people.  Then he said it again, repeated it multiple times because we are a little thick.  Am I talking to some thick people out there, like myself? Jesus then says, ”Take care of my sheep.”  The third thing he said was “Feed my sheep.”  We are never closer to experiencing the presence of the resurrected Christ until we are serving Jesus’ interests in others.  If all you ever do is go to religious meetings and Bible studies, you will continue to live in doubt, skepticism and boredom.  God never becomes real.  There is a day of judgment coming.  Do you know that judgment is coming?  Don’t ever say that no one ever told you.  There is a day of judgment coming, and it’s coming sooner than you think. 

Go with me to Matthew 25.  On the Day of Judgment, God is going to separate the goats from the sheep.  You are going to want to be on the sheep side of this thing, believe me!  That’s called the right side not the wrong side.  Here’s what’s going to happen on the Day of Judgment as spelled out in Matthew 25:34.  “The King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”  Does this sound similar to anything he told Peter?  Look at Matthew 25:37 with me. “Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry?”  Now notice the word ”see.” What are we looking for?  We’re looking for evidence of the resurrected Christ.  So they continue, “We’ve been looking, when did we see you hungry?”  Notice how many times they use this.  “When did we see you a stranger and invite you in?  When did we see you sick?”  What are we looking for?  We are looking for evidence of the resurrected Christ. Here is what Jesus said in response, “In as much as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you’ve done it unto me.”  We are looking in all the wrong places.  Jesus didn’t call his people to meetings, he called his people to mission.  We’re all going to be held accountable, sisters and brothers, if this resurrection is a historical fact. We all going to be held accountable for the commitment we make to his mission - to be his hands and feet in serving the least and lost and to go with him in our commitment to change the world. 

I never feel closer to Jesus Christ than when I’m serving the least and the lost.  I have to get out there at least once a year to work with the poor and the oppressed.  Just four months ago I got back from Darfur, and I’ve got to get back real quick.  I’m taking a group of young pastors from Ohio to Jamaica in October to work with our medical, dental and micro-business programs. That’s where I’ll experience Jesus. 

I am going to challenge you to do something today.  You get no points for showing up here on Easter, so I want to challenge you to come back next week and become part of a movement - a movement of changing the world. For the next three weeks, we are going to talk about what it means to be a community of people who change the world. Then on April 24 and 25 we are going to commit, along with 11 million other people from around the world, to work outside of the walls of our church in our community. 

Consider what’s going on in Haiti right now, folks. When that devastation occurred, the world responded.  But guess what’s happened two months later?  Out of sight, out of mind.  There is still so much devastation in Haiti that Pastor Brian is going to lead our first rebuilding team.  The team is leaving three weeks from yesterday.  We will probably send one team a month for the next several years to work in Haiti.  We need those of you who have construction skills, electrical skills, medical backgrounds, and dental backgrounds. 

We get no points for coming to meetings.  The most important decision I ever made in my life was when I came to the crossroads that if this resurrection is true, then I have to fully commit to Christ’s mission in the world.