EGO - It really is a dirty word ! Resurrection Sunday 20th April 2025

 2025  04  20  RESURRECTION SUNDAY

 

It was ladies who saw the Angel, received a message, and delivered that message to the disciples, but the disciples didn’t believe them.  And that, my friend, is the joy of being female!

 

Seriously, I’m not someone who is going to shout women’s liberation at you, because I know God made us different and complimentary.  And I know full well from what we do on the streets with Street Chaplaincy, that we ALL are needed, though we bring different strengths to the table.  Also, it isn’t just females that experience disbelief when there is something a little fantastical to tell, (like the size of that fish that they caught), but I can’t tell you how many times in the past, I have tried to tell someone something about how to solve problems with sound systems and they completely ignore me because, at the time, I was just a young girl.  And this is not just something that comes from males either.  Telling tales here, but when I first got the keys to a certain Mitsubishi, it was said to me, “Maybe you can get Rex to program your phone in.”  And that was hilarious, because I’m way more tech savvy than he is.   Also, I recall a recent trivia game where a young female who had previously worked in a vet tried to tell us all that Koalas CAN have twins, but no one believed her – until the answer was given and she was proved correct.   How often might we have we missed the truth because we didn’t expect the message to be valid from the person delivering that message?  Is it a sense of pride, or a sense of our superiority that prevents us?  Our ego?  Or our unwillingness to let go of our own opinion?  Not to mention that dear stumbling block of tradition – and we all have traditions we hold dear – I personally love the Easter fire – this liturgy….  But what about that one, based on a single scripture (a text taken out of context) that only men can preach…  ?

 

God is so good and gracious to choose these women as the ones to first tell the Gospel.  As a female who has felt called into a speaking ministry since I was 18, I am SO grateful.  These women diligently did as the Angels told them, and the men thought that their words were idle tales.  But this morning is not about shouting the virtue of having woman in ministry – we DO need both!  Today is about examining why those disciples didn’t receive the message and learning from them.  Was it their pride, and ego that prevented them from receiving the Gospel?  Gospel simply means Good News, and those good apostles were slow to receive it.  However, the bad apostle… that one who had denied Jesus, with no self-pride or ego intact, to his credit, ran to the tomb. 

 

Peter had learned so much in his time with Jesus.  He especially learned to expect the unexpected and he learned that God does things differently to what we might expect.  This would prove to be a vital quality in Peter being chosen as a leader.  Peter would be the one who would first go to the Gentiles… something incredibly out of the box for a Jew, as Jews generally looked down at Gentiles and believed them to be unclean.

 

This Good News, which is our Gospel, truly is something out of the box.  Jesus Christ who was so very disfigured by the whipping and the crucifixion, and completely and utterly dead… so much so that his side was pierced rather than the traditional breaking of his legs, was now alive.  This is crazy, and humanly impossible and so very unbelievable – but it is true.  We know that eventually Jesus would appear to over 500 witnesses, proving that he did, in fact, rise from the dead, and this is vital for our faith.

 

Jesus is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  There is a story about Jesus healing a lame man by saying, “your sins are forgiven”.  The Pharisees were upset by this because only God can forgive sin.  Jesus IS God, and he proved it in the next part of the story.  Which do you think is easier, to say, “your sins are forgiven”, or to make a lame man able to walk?  Of course, saying that your sins are forgiven is easy – anyone can say it.  However, it doesn’t mean that those sins are forgiven.  Jesus proved that he could forgive sin by the action of also healing the man.  The man was healed spiritually and physically, took up his mat and walked.   More often than not, those who experienced healing were people without “ego”.  They were those, who were in touch with their humanity and fallibility.  (And we can note that it was their ego that stopped many miracles in his home town, as they looked down at Jesus as the carpenter’s son – how can he do miracles?) 

 

Jesus is the Lamb of God who died to take away the sin of the world.  Once again, this is easy to say, but where is the proof that this is a fact?  But if Jesus who said that he said that he died for the sin of the world, is risen from the dead, then we can bank on that fact that our sins are really and truly atoned.

 

When I talk to non-believers about Jesus, I get a little frustrated because there is a belief that everything about Jesus is a matter of faith.  However, it is a Fact that Jesus was born, died and was crucified.  It should be indisputable as the evidence is enormous.  However, I do generally concede that the resurrection is a matter of faith, although there does exist plenty of evidence for that also.  I would go so far as to say, the main thing that holds people back from faith in God, is not that the resurrection is a fantastical story, but what holds us all back from anything of faith, is the same thing as what we see in our Gospel reading, that held back the apostles from believing the women.   Ego… it really is a dirty word.  The etymology of the word is “I” and it is the opposite of all that God calls us to be.  We use it as an excuse for doubt, but often it is just that we want to do, what we want to do and we put, “I” as of first priority instead of God.   

 

There is a song that captures this understanding, by Christian singer, Jeremy Camp, called NO SURVIVORS.  It’s pretty tough.  Check out the lyrics:

I'm at war with my humanity - Trying to reclaim my sanity
Nothing in my veins but vanity - It's the same old, same old

You told me it's Your battle, God, so I need You to fight
'Cause if I'm gonna live then there's some things that need to die

My ego, my pride - My grip on my life
Throw it all into the fire - And leave no survivors   Survivors

Somebody give my past my sympathies  - Tell the old me I'm not missing me
He can call, but I'm not listening (woo) - To the same old, same old

My ego, my pride - My grip on my life
Throw it all into the fire - And leave no survivors    Survivors

You're pushing back the dark to get me closer to the light
Somebody tell my enemies there's nowhere left to hide
You told me it's Your battle, God, so I need You to fight
'Cause if I'm gonna live, then there's some things that need to die

My ego, my pride - My grip on my life
Throw it all into the fire - And leave no survivors - -Survivors

 

It’s a pretty tough song, but it actually fits perfectly with our letter to the Romans, which tells us, that our old self was crucified with Jesus so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  We are to walk by faith as a new creation, but even this is not in our power.  As the song tells us, the battle is God’s.  God has won this fight for us.  All we need to do, is to surrender and submit our lives to him.  Raise the white flag to God and accept the life of Christ in place of our own.  Our life is mortal and finite.  His is eternal. 

 

We have lit our Easter fire, signifying that we have passed over from darkness to light and from death to life, and this is a reality through our union with Christ which we declare in our baptism and our creed.  We now live in the joy that we are a new creation… the old is gone- as the song says, “Through it all into the fire”.    There is to be no ego or “I” but only Christ who lives in and through us.  He calls us to a new life.  He calls us to be resurrected with him.

 

Now is the time for letting go of all that is in our past.  The times we failed, and even our expectations and disappointments.  Today, we are called to reflect on the elements of our “I”…  those things that we hold back from God…. God who loves us so completely, calls us submit them all to his holy fire.  God who loves us so completely calls us to resurrection.   We are resurrected with him.  We are eternally the beloved children of God.  And it isn’t a fantastical story, but it is reality.  Christ is risen.  Alleluia.  – He is risen indeed – Alleluia.