Alleluia, Christ is Risen! This is not a drill!

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A sermon preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Easter Sunday, 2013.

Listen to the audio podcast of the sermon here:

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I want you to repeat after me … and say it loud, say it proud:

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
(Alleluia, Christ is Risen)

Louder!

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
(Alleluia, Christ is Risen)

Louder!

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
(Alleluia, Christ is Risen)

That's the stuff! We do this every year, don’t we? We come together on Easter morning … some of us for the first time since last year, or at least since Christmas … and we shout these four words: Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

Now when we do something every year, it can become rote. When we do something every year, we can forget its power. When we do something every year and then we go back to life and business as usual, it can become just one of those things we do.

Which is why we need to add something to those four words this year. Something that reminds us that this is more than just tradition. So try this one more time … and then just as strong repeat what I say after.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
(Alleluia, Christ is Risen)

THIS is NOT a DRIL!
(This is not a drill!)

That’s right. Christ is risen. And this is not a drill.

What does that mean? It means that this is real, this is urgent, and that we are ready.

One more time:

Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
(Alleluia, Christ is Risen)

THIS is NOT a DRIL!
(This is not a drill!)

This is not a drill means that this is real. That Jesus really is risen from the dead. It’s not a metaphor, idea, illustration, concept, theory, analogy, simile, or treatment for a screenplay on The History Channel. It’s real.

God really did love us enough to be born in human form.

God really did love us enough to go to the cross to die.

God really DOES love us so much that even death cannot stop the love of God from reaching us, from binding us to God and binding us to one another.

This is real means that we really can trust in God’s passionate love for us … each of us – and yes, that means you, no matter what dark secret lurks in your heart that you think God thinks is unforgiveable. It’s not.

This is real means we really don’t need to let fear imprison us.

This is real means we really can live and love boldly and deeply, knowing there is no barrier that can be put in front of us that God has not already removed.

Alleluia, Christ is risen. This is not a drill. This is real.

This is not a drill also means that this is urgent.

When we hear “this is not a drill,” it kind of gets that adrenaline coursing through our veins, doesn’t it? That’s a good thing. When we hear “this is not a drill,” we know that it’s time to put everything else aside and focus. When we hear “this is not a drill,” we know that this moment – right now – is the moment of truth.

Holy Week is a drama we walk through every year – but really it is going on all around us all the time. And too much of our world, too many people get stuck before they get to the empty tomb.

Too many people and structures and systems of our world are stuck in the betrayal of Maundy Thursday , they’re stuck in the pain and death of Good Friday – they’re stuck there and believe that betrayal, that pain and death is the end of the story.

Now is the time. This very day. This very moment. Now is the time to proclaim in word and deed to this Good Friday world that there is an Easter. That Alleluia, Christ is Risen … and that this is not a drill.

Now is the time because there are people out there and people in here who can’t wait any longer to hear that resurrection is here.

Women on the streets of St. Louis right now who believe the only end for them is the life of prostitution, drug abuse and violence they have known since they were little girls, They need to hear Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

Children watching corporations use 3rd grade reading scores to decide how many prisons to build and seeing their Head Start funding cut in the sequester. They need to hear Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People, some of whom are in this very room, struggling with unemployment and homelessness. A St. Louis broken by deep divides of race and class, deep poverties of trust and understanding, a Delmar Divide that looks like the Grand Canyon. A world suffering from a poverty of meaning for whom the false Gospel of endless consumption has consumed us in return. Sisters and brothers suffering from loneliness and despair. They all need to hear it, they’re waiting for us to shout it. Alleluia. Christ is Risen. This is not a drill.

We spent this Lent at Christ Church Cathedral on the mountaintop looking into the promised land, looking for that new thing that God is doing. And we’ve seen it. Behold, God IS doing a new thing and we can perceive it. We see it in Bridge Bread and Lafayette Preparatory Academy and Magdalene St. Louis and Home First. We’ve seen it in Miss Carol’s Breakfast and Grace Hill. We’ve seen God’s new thing in the conversations we’ve had as we’ve read the Bible together and we’ve felt God’s new thing as we’ve held each other’s hands through times of death and loss. We’ve been up on the mountaintop for 40 days and we’ve seen God breaking through all over the place.

Well, it’s time to come down from the mountain and get into the game. And we’re already doing it. But it can no longer wait. What is it for you? What is it for us? There is no shortage of options, but the time is now.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen! This is not a drill.

Finally, this is not a drill means that we are ready.

Yes, this is real. Jesus really is risen from the dead. Yes, death really has been defeated. Yes, there is a living God who is moving all creation out of sin into righteousness, out of error into truth, out of death into life.

Yes, now is the time for us to get in the game and jump on the train.

And yes, we are ready. We are ready to be this Easter people.

We are ready not because we have no doubts. Not because we have some airtight and unassailable theology. We are ready not because we know exactly what we’re doing and have a brilliant five-point plan for transforming the world.

We have none of these things – in fact just the opposite. But that’s OK, in fact that’s great.

We are ready to be Easter people because it’s not up to us. It’s God’s power and wisdom that has made and is making and will make all this happen. And we are ready because God has promised that if we get out in front that God will have our backs.

We are ready because like Mary at the empty tomb, the risen Christ looks at us and says, “You got this. Go!”

But most of all, we are ready to bring this Easter life to the world because we are ready to for joy. Because we are ready for life. Because we are ready for transformation and celebration of cosmic proportions.

We are ready to enter the promised land and continue the proud legacy of Christ Church Cathedral in new ways for a new St. Louis for new generations. We are ready with our deep prayers, faithful companionship, powerful words and bold actions to partner with God in making St. Louis a city that makes glad God’s heart.

We are ready to live without fear. To love without judgment. To give without counting the cost.

We are ready to shout, Alleluia, Christ is Risen! Shout it so loud that there is not a corner of this city or a far reach of this globe where those words do not knock Good Friday into Easter Sunday.

Because this is Easter. And this is real. And this is urgent. And we are ready.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. And this is not a drill.