2015 Easter Sunday Sermon
Immanuel Lutheran Church
This is my favorite day of the year!
This is an amazing time; not just in my life but in all our lives. It is
amazing because the tomb is empty. Friday night we experienced the crucifixion
and the closing of the tomb. Through our service of shadows, the lights got
dimmer and dimmer. After each reading we saw the light fade. It was the light
of the day AND it was the light that is the life in our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Finally, we sat in darkness, as Jesus was laid in the tomb, and we
prayed.
It was a solemn time. It was a sad
time, a moving time because of all it meant for the one who was coming into the
world to save us all. But now, this morning, we woke up to a new world. That
sadness that we felt and have gone through these three days is no longer here. This
new world is here because we wake up to find an empty tomb. That place that was
so dark, cold and held so much in it is, this morning, no more than an empty
tomb.
Why? What has happened? What has
happened is that our Lord and Savior, Jesus is no longer in this tomb. He is
not there as we are told in the Gospel of Mark. That young man who ran away on
Thursday evening when Jesus was handed over is back. He tells both Mary’s that
this one they are looking for…the Jesus that they just buried on Friday is not
in the tomb. It’s empty and for that we can say Hallelujah!
This is exciting news isn’t it?
Jesus is now going to meet them all in Gallilee. Go and tell the disciples.
This young man is a messenger for God. He is telling the Mary’s that what Jesus
said will be true. Jesus is alive and back on the earth. The Son of Man is
raised…not even death can keep this Son of God down! This is something to
celebrate! Because Jesus is alive, God’s promises have been fulfilled to send a
son into the world to save the world and THAT IS SOMETHING TO BE VERY EXCITED
ABOUT!
But there is one other thing to get
excited about. Today is the day that we know, see, and experience that God
gives us a second chance at being disciples. How do I know this? Who does the
young man tell the ladies to go and tell? The disciples…that’s right, Go tell
the disciples; but, then he goes on to say “and Peter!” And Peter is very
important because what did Peter do? All along, Peter wasn’t as steady as a
rock as we would like to think, right? HE walked on the water with Jesus and
when a wave came up, Peter started to sink. Peter was there at the
transfiguration, at the arrest, and sat out in the courtyard…denying Jesus.
This messenger from God tells the
ladies to include Peter; they are to include the person who had little faith,
witnessed the transfiguration, started rebuking Jesus, said he would never
leave Jesus’ side, and WHO did reject Jesus…far from the death that Peter was
proclaiming he would do to walk with Jesus. This messenger is told by God to
include Peter and that tells us all something about God.
This inclusion of Peter tells us
that God did not abandon Peter. Despite all his anxiety and insecurity about
who Jesus was and was going to happen, despite his faith crises and abandoning
Jesus, God did not abandon Peter. God includes Peter to be a part of this Good
News that the Son of God is alive…that God will not let death be their end and
that God has raised Jesus to show them that forgiveness is real, mercy is a
reality, and that eternal life is a promise kept.
God is showing us this morning those
same things. Because of the resurrection of Christ on this Easter morning, we
are given a new perspective on the world in which we live. God does not abandon
us in our faith journey. We are not abandoned when we have a crisis of faith,
or feel that our mistakes and poor decisions are not so big that we cannot ask
for forgiveness from God. Because of our broken, human world that we cannot
seek out God’s grace in our lives for ourselves and for others.
Our world is closely tied with the
world of that first Easter morning. Easter shows us that we too, live in a
world where forgiveness is real. Because of this resurrection morning, forgiveness
is more real now than ever before because it was God’s Son, Jesus Christ who
went on that cross and died for us. Meaning that there are times when we mess
up, say or do hurtful things BUT we are not doomed to that type of life. It is
hard but we can always try harder to not make the same mistakes or bad choices.
We also live in a world where mercy
is a reality. Because of that cross and Jesus being upon it, God has given us
the second chance. The second chance to see that we are all valuable and worthy
of God’s love. That, despite, our faith crises we are not left alone to deal
with this world but we are in a community of all of God’s children to care for
one another and help one another. It is the mercy of starting our lives new,
beginning with this very day; Living in a new body because all that God has
taught and showed us through Jesus is now in us; So that, we think a little
deeper about what it means to live as a child of God.
Living this new life in the light of
the resurrection can take on many different shapes. It may be helping our
neighbors around the world with food or farm animals (through the good gifts
program) like our youth did for advent. Maybe it is helping people in our
county through NESAP (the local food bank in Hampstead), school children, and
their families, across the street (literally) who may need help OR Maybe people
in our congregation who need help, who need a Stephen Minister to help them get
through a tough situation or sit and listen, or a person who just needs one of
us, whether in the church or community, who needs to know that they are
important.
Living this new life helps us to
realize the promise kept by God. Living in the light of God’s forgiveness and
mercy is all part of this resurrection which is God’s promise kept. It is not
easy to do all these things and living in this new way may mean that we need to
slow down in life and think about our actions and words and We all know that is
like one more thing on the “to do” list. Think about it this way, when we live
in the light and the life of the resurrection and we take it to heart, our
lives do change. They change in wonderful ways because the resurrection
promises us…God promises eternal life; NOT because we check these things off on
a list, but because we do it as a way to give thanks to the God who showed the
blessings of forgiveness, the reality of mercy, and the promise of
resurrection.
May your Easter be filled with
blessings and joy to know that our Savior lives with us, among us, and in us:
AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment