Luke 24:1-12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body.^{[a] 4} While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women^[b] were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men^[c] said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.^[d]6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸ Then they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.^[e]

I recently came across a fantastic website, put together by an online magazine called Smith (www.smithmag.net), which is a collection of six-word memoirs. Thousands of people, both famous and otherwise, have attempted to distil their lives down to six words about what is most important, or distinguished, or interesting about them. Anyone can participate, and there is an ongoing gallery of the most recent offerings.

This website has now spawned several books which collect the best of these six-word memoirs; the first was called “Not Quite What I Was Planning”, and the most recent “It All Changed In An Instant”. I find the website quite fascinating, both how popular the website is, and what a challenge it is to try and fit something about our essence into such a narrow form. I wonder what your six-word memoir might be.

Some six-word stories are quite poignant; for example, “I still make coffee for two”, writes someone recovering from a breakup. Comedian and TV star Stephen Colbert wrote “well, I thought it was funny.” Deepak Chopra somehow found a way to be more Deepak Chopra-y than usual with his: “danced in fields of endless possibilities”.

Some are tragic. The inspiration for this project was an old tale about Ernest Hemingway, who when challenged to write a story in six words, is said to have come up with: “for sale: baby shoes, never worn.” And my personal favourite is from recently deceased screenwriter Nora Ephron: “secret of life: marry an Italian.”

You might wonder why I’m talking about this website. Well, what is the six-word phrase that brings us together this morning? Get past the joy and fanfare of Easter, and all the complexity and mystery of our whole religious life together, and all the billions and billions of words we use to try and explain it all… it turns out, Christianity itself has a six-word autobiography or memoir: Jesus Is Risen From The Dead.

There are about 775,000 words in the Bible, and not one of them makes sense to Christians without these six words. There are around 2 billion Christians around the world, and not one of us has a thing to say without these six words. These six words are the words that the breathless women carried from the empty tomb back to the male disciples. These six words have been passed from person to person, from community to community, every day since that day – in secret, in freedom, in pain, in triumph, in darkness, in celebration.

It is these six words that have taken us from scattered, broken people who are lost and persecuted to the largest religion in the world. It is these six words that have found countless individuals whose lives were already dead — broken by pain and suffering, by sin and darkness — and given them new life.

These are the words that are whispered at bedsides and shouted from rooftops and shared at dinner tables and workplaces and in neighbourhoods. These are the words that have been forbidden by governments both ancient and modern, and yet somehow they have still been spoken, still been shared.

Jesus is risen from the dead.

These are the words that the martyrs sang as they were being burned at the stake, fed to the lions. These are the words that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German martyr who opposed the Nazis and was forced into seclusion, taught his students in the secret seminary he managed to hold.

These are the words that Oscar Romero was speaking as he was gunned down while celebrating Communion in El Salvador.

These are the words that Martin Luther King Jr. held fast to as he opposed the violent racism of our culture, the words that inspire Desmond Tutu’s work in South Africa; these are even the words that Mother Teresa admitted had lost meaning for her, at the end of her ministry. And yet she so believed in their meaning for the world that she did not abandon her work with the poor.

Jesus is risen from the dead.

Are these words true? If they are not, Paul says to the Corinthians, “we are of all people most to be pitied.”

If they are not, then millions – maybe billions – of people have gone to their graves unnecessarily. And millions – maybe billions – more continue to live in the tombs of whatever darkness and despair overshadows them. If they are not, then we are doomed to very short and pointless lives, and to be defeated by the suffering that we continue to see all around us. To be defeated by death itself.

Hear the Good News: this is not our story, and not just because I say so or the church says so.

Of course, we hear all the time that Jesus’ resurrection cannot be proven, because nobody saw it; that it cannot be true, because people still suffer and die; that we cannot believe it, because it seems so utterly unbelievable.

To which we say: Jesus is risen from the dead.

How many lives have been transformed, starting with Mary Magdalene and her companions, falling to the ground in utter shock, upon hearing these six words? How could we possibly count the ways that billions of hearts have been “strangely warmed,” in the words of John Wesley, upon the understanding of these six words?

What could we possibly use to measure the impact that these six words have had upon the world — the ways in which forgiveness, joy, reconciliation, self-giving love and charity have wrought miracles and abundance on the face of this earth in the time since we have first heard that Jesus is risen from the dead?

Is it true? Listen to the stories.

C.S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

This is the story of our lives, the story of the life of the world, the story of life itself. It is the story of how life is stronger than death, how God’s love for us is stronger than death. It is, in the end, the only story that there is.

And so, in Easter, we hear these six words again: Jesus is risen from the dead. We may have heard the message many many many times, but these six words form our identity as members of the body of Christ: the Church. Jesus is risen from the dead, so West Epping exists. Jesus is risen from the dead, so we know each other. Jesus is risen from the dead, so I am a minister of the Word.

Jesus is risen from the dead. So what now? How will these words change your story from today? Where do you hear the call to new life – to come out of the tomb you’ve been sealed in, whether that’s the tomb of fear, or hopelessness, or lost dreams? Where are you looking for living among the dead? How will you receive this simple but powerful piece of Good News, that has been handed from life to life, from heart to heart, from age to age, that is now handed again to you? And what are you going to do about it? How will these six words change the world? What does our story have to say to a world at war, a culture at odds with itself, a people in pain? How will those around us hear our six-word story of hope, of love, of God?

This six-word memoir must be practised, every day. Every day, we must write our six-word memoir again, and affirm that it is no less true today than it was on the first day, nor is it any less miraculous, any less shocking, any less joyful, any less important, any less life-changing and meaningful.

Jesus is risen from the dead. So practise resurrection. Run out and tell others what you have heard. Be people that proclaim life in the midst of death. Plant new seeds in your backyard. Reconcile relationships. Embrace absolutely everyone as you would a sister or brother, without exception. Stand up for compassion over indifference. Give away more than you can afford to give. Work for nothing in return. Or, as Wendell Berry says, “be joyful, though you have considered all the facts”. Jesus Is Risen From The Dead, sisters and brothers. Live into our identity, today and every day. Amen.