I Have Seen the Lord!

Happy Easter!  


Easter at Bethlehem was such a joy-filled packed morning.  Pancake breakfast, flowers decorating the sanctuary, joy-filled choir, bells ringing during Alleluias, a remembrance of baptism, family and friends worshiping with us, and even a visit by the Easter Bunny after worship.  


For various reasons, including wanting to start worship with part of the gospel (I have always found it odd that we begin worship with "Alleluia Christ is risen!" but we don't hear about his resurrection until a third of the way through the service) I decided to preach on John's version of the resurrection instead of Matthews which is the preferred text in the lectionary.  Since Mary is the one who spread the Easter message with her words "I have seen the Lord" I was struck by how much that is like when people share their stories each week of where they have seen God.  


Enjoy!

I have seen the Lord!  Those are five simple words (only 3 words in Greek) that have changed the world. 

Over the past few months I have asked you, the people of Bethlehem, week after week, where have you seen God this week?  So today on Easter I ask you:  Where have you seen the Lord?

________________________________________

And today I have a second question for you:  What is it like for you when you share these stories, these moments of where you have seen God, the Lord in you life? 

____________________________________________

My observation is that it took time for you all to be comfortable with answering that question.  Many of you were or still are too timid to answer that question publicly.  And that is okay because often I still here stories, via email or during coffee hour or senior lunch or visits about how you have seen God in your lives.  But as some of you have started to answer that question more of you have become comfortable answering it.  And once you answer one week, you are more likely to share a story or a God moment in the following weeks.  And then it become contagious as you share stories.  There have been a few weeks where I have felt that worship should just be us sharing our stories because nothing I can say in preaching would convey the Easter message, God’s message of love and grace any more than what you have said through your stories. 

I picture this process was similar for Mary.  She was probably timid or fearful at first.  What if the disciples think that she is crazy for having seen Jesus whose body they just laid in the grave a few days before?  What if they don’t get how excited she is?  Or what if they think she is lying?  But instead she told her story.  “I have seen the Lord.” And in doing so she shared the Easter message, God’s message of love and grace with those disciples who as yet did not understand the scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead. 

And once Mary told her story, “I have seen the Lord!”, then Simon Peter and the other disciple shares that they had seen the empty tomb.  And they told not just the disciples, the 11 remaining close followers of Jesus, but all of his followers.  And in doing so they shared the Easter message, God’s message of love and grace with many who believed.  Mary’s story, the Easter message, then spread farther and wider.  And as Jesus appeared to others they too told their stories. And the Easter message, God’s message of love and grace continued to spread.

And it has continued to spread and be retold in new ways all the way till today.  And when we share with each other how we have seen God, that “we have seen the Lord!”, we are sharing the Easter message, God’s message of love and grace with each other.  And hopefully you are not just sharing your stories in here in this sanctuary but other there with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, strangers in the line at the grocery or fellow parents at the baseball field.  Because when we share our stories, we become part of the Easter story, of God’s message of love and grace that is still here today, abundant and alive because Alleluia! Christ is risen! 

Christ has overcome sin and death, Christ has died in order to forgive our sins.  Christ has died for each and everyone of us so we are part of the Easter story, God’s message of love and grace, and you being willing to share this Easter story with one another is just one of the many away that I see God in you.  I have seen the Lord and I see in you!  Alleluia! Christ is risen!