Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Easter finally arrived. After 40 days of Lent, after a long Holy Week, Easter had arrived. And what a gorgeous day for it. Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week was filled with torrential rains, Wednesday was overcast and cloudy, but Thursday through today have been absolutely wonderful! Bright sun shine, light clouds, an occasional cool breeze, and the flowers are blooming.

And while everyday is Easter, I'm so glad that our Easter celebration is only one day. I was wiped out! After not getting much sleep (I may have had too much caffeine in order to be alert for the vigil the night before) I was at the church by 7am so I could have some quiet time to prepare. Others started to arrive by 8am to set up for our breakfast (Ellen's vegetable bread pudding was the bomb!) and the choir shortly started to practice and the pews began to fill.

Worship was wonderful! The choir and bells performed a wonderful call to worship, we shouted Alleluia Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia! The music was joy-filled, the flowers overflowed from the altar area and their fragrance filled the air and so many people were dressed in bright colors.

A highlight for many people was my children's sermon. I made confetti filled Easter eggs and talked to the kids about what their reaction would be if they found a plastic Easter egg without candy. I then asked about the real Easter eggs (and I even had one hard boiled one that I cracked and ate), how would they feel if one of those eggs were empty. And they responded appropriately - confused etc. I then took one of the confetti ones and smashed it on one of the boy's head who I knew would get a kick out of it and allowed the confetti to fall all over him and the ground. (Apparently his face was priceless) This then led to the confusing being a good surprise and Mary Magdalene and the other women's confusion at the empty tomb being a good surprise.

Worship was wonderful! Easter is my favorite holiday and it was wonderful to be the person who got to say "Alleluia Christ is risen!"

Below is my Easter sermon based on Luke 24:1-12

He is not here, but has risen! That verse is at the heart of our faith. But there is something interesting about that verse and our entire gospel reading today. Did anyone catch it? I’ll give you a hint – it has to do with a name.

The name Jesus is not mentioned in the gospel. Nor is the title Christ, or Lord or Savior. Jesus is in many ways not mentioned specifically but alluded to – “the body” “the living” “the dead” “he.” The closest we get to a name that we normally call Jesus by is “Son of Man” which in Jesus’ time was similar to someone saying that he was human.

But yet we all know who the “he” is. Jesus! The women were looking for Jesus’ body in the tomb, in order to prepare his body for a proper burial. The men in dazzling cloths tell them that Jesus is not here but has risen. They remind the women what Jesus said. The women went and told the apostles about Jesus. Peter went to see Jesus’ body but did not find Jesus and was amazed. Jesus Christ is not here, but has risen! Alleluia Christ has risen!

And as the Sunday School kids sang Jesus is alive! Yes the tomb is empty, he is alive!

Then why do we look for the living among the dead? We have heard the women’s account, we have heard of Peter double checking the tomb. And yet in many ways we still think of Jesus as dead. We treat Jesus as someone who died 2000 years ago, as someone who is far off and doesn’t have any impact on our lives today. We treat Jesus as dead. That he had some great moral things to say about what is good and bad, right and wrong. We know that Jesus wants us to be happy but yet we have a hard time connecting Jesus with our own lives here today.

When we pray to Christ, many of us envision our words being sent to the far reaches of space or through some space/time continuum. When we sing hymns of praise, many of us think of our songs being just one part of a long tradition. When we read scriptures many of us think that we are opening an ancient book that needs to be put on a pedestal and revered.

But yet Jesus is alive! Not just Jesus lived again, past tense, that Jesus rose from the grave once, two thousand years ago. But Christ has risen! And Jesus is alive!

Jesus is alive in our lives today! Jesus is active in our lives today! Yes Jesus had wonderful things to say about what it means to live a moral life, but Jesus is also active in our lives today helping us make those moral decisions. Yes Jesus would like us to be blessed and happy in our lives and just because we currently do not feel blessed or happy does not mean that Jesus does not exist or Jesus is not alive today. Jesus is constantly blessing us even if we do not see it. Also Jesus did not die to take away all the bad things in life; Jesus died for our sins. Jesus is active in our lives even during bad times, Jesus is who gives us people who support and care for us during those times, Jesus is who causes those minor miracles to occur that keep us from financial disaster or from seriously injuring ourselves.

When we pray, we are not praying to someone far off in space or traveling through time, we are having a conversation with a dear friend who is sitting right next to us. And the risen Lord, Jesus who is alive in our lives, is listening and responding to our prayer, to our conversation. And when we sing our hymns, yes we are adding to a long tradition, but we are adding to that tradition. Making things new in our lives. Many hymns have been written to the tune of popular drinking ditties. So maybe in 50 years we will be singing hymns about Jesus’ resurrection to the tune of Lady Gaga songs.

And when we read the scripture, we are hearing, reading a living word. A word that is alive in our lives. Couldn’t you picture Mary Magdelene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women going to the tomb to tend to Jesus’ body and seeing the perplexed looks on their faces when the body was not there? Couldn’t you feel the emotions in this text as they hear men in dazzling cloths ask them why they were looking for the living among the dead?

Scripture is alive because our faith is a living faith. Worship is alive because our faith is a living faith. Prayer is alive because our faith is a living faith. And our faith is a living faith, our faith is alive because Jesus is alive! That is the heart of our faith – Jesus is alive! We worship a living Lord. We pray to a living God. We read and hear words from a living scripture.

The heart of our faith is Easter, this holy day. The heart of our faith is not something that happened once long ago but something that happens every day, every moment of our lives. He has risen! Jesus is alive! Continuous, on-going action. We are not commemorating the anniversary of Jesus rising from the dead today. We are celebrating that Jesus is alive today, right now, right this instance. Just look at our hymns today – Christ the Lord has risen TODAY! Jesus Christ has risen TODAY! Christ rose from the dead today. Christ rises from the dead everyday.

Every morning is Easter morning. Every day is resurrection day! Every day is a day to celebrate Christ rising from the dead. For Christ died for us, we have been forgiven and Christ is alive. Alleluia Christ has risen! Alleluia Christ is alive!