Many years ago, my husband and I were at my parents’ home in the suburbs of Chicago.  We were all standing around in the kitchen, when the cupboards began to rattle.  My parents didn’t live close to railroad tracks or a highway.  No children were running in the house.  The rattling kept up for several minutes, while we all just looked at each other.  It was, of course, an earthquake.  Chicago is known for wind and snow, but not for earthquakes.  I learned later that many people called 911 either because they didn’t know what it was or thought that the police could do something about it. 

In the last few months, the world has seen other earthquakes – in New Zealand in February, in Myanmar and Japan in March and in Indonesia in April. The raw power unleashed in those events is incredible.  I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to get my head around it, hard to fathom how that happens, how so much can change so quickly.     

Matthew is the only gospel writer who mentions an earthquake on Easter morning.  Matthew tends to include the big things like that – he’s the one who tells us about the star and the magi coming to Bethlehem too.  Matthew understands that Jesus’ coming into the world is a cosmic event, nothing is ever going to be the same.   And so he tells us about an earthquake. 

Earthquakes are measured by seismographs.  Earthquakes are studied by seismologists.  Both of those words come from the Greek verb seismo.  And that verb, which means to shake or to quake is all over the place in the end of Matthew’s gospel.  Last week, we had the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem in Matthew 21:10  It says that when Jesus arrived, the whole city seismo (ed)  the whole city was shaking.    And then in chapter 27, on Good Friday, when Jesus breathed his last, verse 51, the earth shakes.    It happens twice in the short reading for this morning.  First it says that the earth shakes while an angel rolls back the tombstone.  And then the Romans guards shake and become like dead men.  Matthew wants us to see that there’s a whole lotta shaking goin’ on.

Now what I need to tell you is that this sermon has a soundtrack.  Only I didn’t set it up on the sound system.  So I need you to help me out here.  I’m not going to make us sing it – but if you can imagine Little Richard and a concert hall full of young people shaking it, that will only enrich your experience.    Every once in a while, I’m going to ask you to repeat out loud, “There’s a whole lotta shaking goin on.”    You don’t have to sing it, but you can say it with rhythm.  There’s a whole lotta shaking goin on.  When I put my hands up like this, that’s your cue for the soundtrack.

What’s all the shaking about?  The shaking lets us know that the world has changed.  A geologist friend says that earthquakes release tension between two plates of the earth’s crust.  The earth's crust is broken into plates, similar to jigsaw puzzle pieces.  When the tension builds to a certain level, the earthquake rearranges things to relieve the tension.

Well, if we look at Jesus’ life, the tension has been escalating for a while.  It’s the tension between God’s way of being, and humanity’s way of being, the tension between what Jesus called the reign of God and the world’s power structures.   Jesus’ way challenges them at every level – personally, socially, religiously, politically.   That tension has been building and finally the world’s powermongers can’t take it any longer.  Jesus’ message is just too threatening, so they mock him, torture him and finally, they execute him.  That’s what normally happens – the big guns win.   But on Easter, there’s an earthquake and a whole lotta shaking going on.

The earthquake of Easter morning is God’s way of rearranging things.  In the resurrection, God says Yes to Jesus and No to the powers who killed him.  God says Yes to Jesus’ way and No to a world bent on domination, hierarchy, exploitation and greed.

On Easter, God said Yes to the power of life, to life abundant and full.  In the words of Barry Robinson, “God said No! to the glamorization of greed, No to the domination of others just because you can!  No to the notion that “the weakest” should be eliminated or expelled from our midst.  All of that, which we still take for granted, still accept as the way things are . . . was turned upside down on Easter” [1] because there was a whole lotta shaking going on.

We can’t control earthquakes.  We want to, so we build warning systems.  We still can’t control them, so we construct wooden buildings and bridges that flex in an effort to control the effects of earthquakes.

We can’t control resurrection.  We want to.  Two times the Marys are told “Do not be afraid.”  First it’s an angel and then Jesus who says it.  Barbara Lundblad says that they probably needed to hear it at least twice because it is not easy to believe in the power of life over death.[2]

William Willimon is a bishop in the United Methodist church, in Alabama.  One time he was preaching in Alaska and during his sermon, the church building shook its way through an earthquake.   The Alaskan Methodists sat there like it was another day at the office.  The only response was from the woman who said, “How about that, the light fixtures didn’t fall down this time.”  He ended his sermon immediately.  He said he was shaken by the earthquake by also a bit shaken by those nonchalant Alaskans.  Afterwards over lunch with the pastor,  he asked, “What the heck would it take to get this congregation’s attention?  I’d hate to have to preach to them every Sunday.”[3] 

Matthew says that Easter is an earthquake that shook the whole world.  And some of us find nothing attention-getting in that.   Maybe we did at one time, but now we’ve become nonchalant about it.    Or maybe we could allow ourselves to feel the power of the resurrection earthquake. Maybe we could, if we let ourselves.  Maybe we could just let ourselves believe that there is still “a whole lotta shaking going on.”

We can’t control earthquakes.  We can’t control resurrection.  Both are threatening.  And sometimes it’s not easy to believe in the power of life over death.

Some of us simply choose not to believe – no resurrection, no earthquake, no problem. 

Some of us do believe.  We have been to that amazed and astounded place, but we can’t stay there for long.  We don’t want the earth moving under our feet all the time.  Willimon says that people like us are the sort of folks who like to believe that you can have resurrection and still have the world as it was yesterday.  We want to have Easter and still have our world unrocked by resurrection. [4]

How we do that?  I suggest that we do it by compartmentalizing, by only letting Jesus into certain parts of our lives.  Different people do this in different ways, but there are a couple of common patterns.  One way is to emphasize Jesus death and resurrection as very personally transformative.  We hear the call of Jesus to take up our cross and follow him, to submit our personal desires, our individual behaviors to the will of God. 

On the other hand, there are some folks who remember that Jesus was executed by a political empire.  He died because he challenged the political and social and economic order of the world.  And so, these folks emphasize Jesus’ earthly ministry, his call to be part of God’s reign on earth which is  characterized by social justice where everyone has enough and systems are fair, by a commitment to the poor and to those without options, not by destroying opponents in battle, but by getting everyone to lay down their weapons in peace.  It was that vision that got Jesus killed, and God vindicated Jesus in the resurrection, so some folks hear the call of Jesus to work for social and political transformation. 

Both of these understandings of Jesus life and work are true.  They are true at the same time, but that’s more resurrection than most of us can handle.  We might let Jesus rock our personal world, but if our economics and politics have to be transformed, that’s too much shaking going on.  On the other hand, some of us are just fine working for Christ’s kingdom to come on earth, creating systems of equity and justice for all, but don’t ask us to pray, don’t ask us to put real trust in God’s love.  That would be too much shaking going on. 

Matthew is telling us, whether we like it or not, the shaking has happened.  Christ is risen and the world will never be the same.  We can choose what we know, the world with its power structures or we can choose resurrection.  Resurrection is not for the faint-hearted, not for those who need solid ground under foot. 

After Easter, the early Christians said, “Jesus is Lord.”  That meant Jesus rocks, Jesus rules – both personally and politically.  Jesus is Lord – the powers of this world are not.  Jesus is Lord – my desires, my ambitions, my ego is not.  Jesus challenges the domination system of this world even as he also invites us upon a personal journey through death to resurrection. 

This is good news, brothers and sisters.  Rejoice because there’s a whole lotta shaking goin’ on.