Risen Lord, help us to find ourselves hidden in
your love. Amen.
In the name of Jesus, welcome to each and every one of you. There’s nothing quite like an Easter morning and it fills my heart with joy to see each of you this morning. I hope and pray that your presence here is a gift to you – that you feel welcome in this place of beloved community and that you know God’s abundant love for you.
We
are modern people who do amazingly modern things. I’m sure you saw the news
this week that the team of astronauts who will be going to the Moon was announced
– how exciting and amazing that is! One of the things that comes along with
living in a world where that’s possible is that we are sometimes distracted from
and blinded to things that aren’t easily quantifiable or verifiable. Religion
is one of those things. Many people struggle with figuring out where faith fits
into our busy lives and our scientifically-minded world, and so faith is often
overlooked and forgotten. And so when we come to Easter morning the question
that we all want to ask, but perhaps are afraid to, is “Yea, but did it really
happen?”
That’s
a fair question. And I’ll tell you that the answer is “yes.” With every fiber
of my being, I believe and trust that Easter happened. But I’m not going to
explain it any further than that. If God wanted us to have evidence of Easter,
we would have been given more than an empty tomb. Easter happened in darkness
and without any witnesses – no one saw Jesus rise from the dead. There are some
very sound reasons why we can believe and trust in the Resurrection, and I’d be
happy to talk about that with you another time, but Easter is not the day for
explanations. Instead, Easter is about experience.
This
is clear in how we talk about Easter. The Church does not say “Christ was risen”
but rather “Christ is risen.” To focus on the question of what happened at the
tomb 2,000 years ago, while interesting, misses the point of Easter. The reason
why I’m wearing seersucker under these vestments, the reason why parents
struggle to get a tie on an 8-year-old, the reason why we have so many flowers
in church this morning, the reason why the pews are fuller on this morning than
any other morning is that Christ is risen. We’re not here to celebrate that God
did an amazing thing for that really nice Jewish boy, Jesus. No, Easter is
about all of us and that’s what we're here to experience – the Good News of
Easter is about all of us.
Easter
is not merely about what happened to Jesus; Easter is God’s grand and amazing
announcement that seemingly powerless love is stronger than loveless power. It
is the proclamation that when Jesus said “It is finished” on the cross, he
really meant it and it really is true that our Sins have been forgiven. We are
not defined by how much we’ve accomplished, nor are we captive to the mistakes
that we have made. What defines us is that we are the beloved children of God. Easter
pronounces that death, while still something we face, is not final. And the
reason why we are here is that, on some level, each of us yearns to hear this
message of grace and be told that it really is true that all manner of things
shall be well.
This
Easter message is to be experienced, not explained and that’s how Matthew
presents it to us. Easter begins with an earthquake, making it clear that this
isn’t just about Jesus, but rather the whole earth is impacted by this event.
You might recall that Scripture tells us that there was also an earthquake on
Good Friday, so we might feel this as an aftershock. As horrific and earth-shattering
as the death of God Incarnate was, the Resurrection is a further seismic shift
in reality. The first quake led to Jesus being in the tomb and the second quake
shows that the earth itself convulsed at the Resurrection. The grave could not stay
closed, death has no claim on the living.
Easter
is God’s proclamation and promise that nothing can separate us from the love of
God. As St. Paul put it in Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Or as he wrote
to the Corinthians, “love never ends.” In a world surrounded by illness, war,
famine, division, hatred, violence, and depression, we need to hear this
message that death has been overcome by love.
I
recently listened to a lecture in which the speaker, who is one of the greatest
preachers of our time, was talking about funerals. He said that Death attends
every funeral and gives us that unsettling reminder that our time will come.
Death says to us, “You all are doomed; you belong to me. And one of these days,
it’s going to be your ashes up here.” Yes, there’s some truth in those words. Easter
is God’s rebuttal to Death’s claim on us. As one poet has said, “I will die,
but that is all I will do for Death.” Easter is God’s promise and proclamation that
we belong to God for ever, and always, and no matter what.
There
is a play called Lazarus Laughs, based on the Biblical story of Jesus’
raising Lazarus from the dead. After he comes out of the tomb, the character Lazarus
says, “The one who meets us at the door of death is the same one who gave us
life in the beginning, not because we deserved it but because that generous One
wanted us to be and therefore there is nothing to fear. The grave is as empty
as a doorway is empty. There is no death. There is only life.” This is the
proclamation of Easter, that Sin has been forgiven, that Death has been
defeated, and that Love wins. There is only life! Just as Easter began with an
earthquake, we live in a world that continues to reverberate with the love that
drove Jesus to the cross and raised him from the tomb. We live in a love-shaken
world in which everything sad is becoming untrue.
In
Colossians, we heard “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” We are kept safe
by God’s love – we are forgiven from sin, we are always alive in the love of
God, even after death, and we are given something worth living for, given a
holy vocation – to focus on love as if it were the only thing that matters.
Because, in reality, love is the only thing that matters. Everything else will
fade away, but love endures. When we love, we participate in eternity. In that play, Lazarus notes that “Our great agenda
is to learn to accept, to learn to trust, to learn to love more fully.” Now, our
first reaction to Easter might be like that of the women – fear and confusion
as to what it means that Jesus is risen. Maybe our reaction is skepticism.
Maybe it’s a deep yearning for this to be true. Whatever our first reaction to Easter
is, the Risen Jesus invites a response from us.
When
Jesus meets Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, he says to them “Greetings! Do
not be afraid; go and tell.” We cannot live in an unshaken or unResurrected world.
Easter happened and Jesus is risen. Love is on the loose. It’s why for
centuries, Christians have spoken of Easter as the dawning of the new Creation.
Just as on the first day of Creation, God began to make everything that is; on
Easter, something just as foundational and pivotal was brought into being – Resurrection.
And just as some live as if the universe simply came into being on its own and
do not think that God is the author of life, some people move through this world
not recognizing that they live in a Resurrected world.
And
the difference is huge. If we think the earth is just here, then we cannot
receive life as the precious gift that it is. Our lives are not happenstance or
accidental. We were loved before we were born and will remain alive in that
love even after death. This changes our outlook and our posture on life. And
the same is true of Resurrection – if we recognize that love is not something
that we have to earn and that walking in the way of love is what it’s all about,
well that changes everything. Our lives are hid in Christ. Our salvation is secure
and our belovedness is certain. And we need to know this because the world has
a way of beating us up, of making us doubt ourselves, of causing us to pursue
things other than love. Life is hard. And this is why the “yet” of Easter makes
all the difference.
Jesus
was rejected, yet he comes to us with a word of peace, not vengeance. We make
mistakes, and yet God gives us mercy and grace, not a command to “try harder”
or “do better.” Jesus was crucified, yet he is risen and lives, and with him,
all of creation is raised to new life. We will die, yet we are always alive in
the love of God. We are imperfect, fearful, and uncertain about how to best
follow Jesus, yet we are given the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us.
Sometimes we feel alone and like we’re stumbling our way through life, yet God
gives us one another in beloved community to journey together. Life can be a challenge,
yet our lives are hid and secure in Christ.
Why
would God do this? Why does the perfect One become human? Why does Jesus give
himself to being rejected, tortured, and murdered? Why does his body sit in the
cold tomb for three days? Why is Jesus Resurrected? We proclaim that God is perfect,
and so what could God possibly get out of doing all of this? You.
The
only thing that God does not have in heaven is us. Sin and Death had separated
us from God, and God was not content with this separation. And so God resolved
to do whatever it would take to repair what had been broken by Sin, to rob the
grave of its power over us, to make it clear that we belong to God and that our
lives are hid in Christ. In Hebrews, we read “For the joy that was set before
him, he endured the cross.” We are that joy. As Jesus said, when he was lifted
up on the cross it was to draw the whole world to himself. God did all of this
for you. Beautiful, imperfect, and cherished you. Jesus came to set you free,
to show you how much you are loved, to invite you to walk in his way of perfect
love. Easter might well be about Jesus, but it was done for you.
Because
of Easter, the world is bursting with possibility, with wonder, with a love
that conquers even death. God wants nothing more than for you to know just how
deeply you are loved and that nothing stands between you and this abundant and
eternal love. Life is a gift to be enjoyed, not endured, and in walking this
way of love we find our true meaning, true purpose, and true joy that nothing
and no one can ever take away. Because of Easter, we live in Resurrected world and
our lives are hid in Christ in the love that makes all things well. Come and
see.
