Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Welcome to the season of resurrection joy. Unimaginable!
Around the middle of the season of Lent, someone asked what day it was and Vicki Taylor, our Director of Music Ministries said, “It is the 294th day of Lent.” There are days it feels like Lent, with its less than joyful nature and lack of energy, lasts far longer than the 40 days that collect between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day (not counting Sundays).
The words of Mark 16:6 share with us the great joy of Easter. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. Thanks be to God!
“The good news of Easter,” writes Trevor Hudson, “reminds us that God’s action in raising Jesus is the bottom line of our faith. On the third day, after his crucifixion, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Jesus and Salome find Jesus’ tomb empty. The love that Jesus proclaims – the love he lives and the love he is – is not defeated by the powers of evil and death. This is breathtakingly good news. No faith could be more tragic, no belief more futile than Christianity without its risen Lord. It would be sad and foolish to base our lives on a dead hero. The strongest evidence for the resurrection is the transformed lives of Jesus’ disciples. How else do we explain the sudden transformation that took place in their lives? Within days those frightened and grieving disciples are transformed into bold and courageous witnesses willing to die for their faith. Something most extraordinary must have taken place for this to have happened. The One whom they follow is raised from the grave, and they encounter him in a way that convinces them he is now living beyond crucifixion.”
The resurrection means much for our lives today. Jesus is present with us as a friend who walks by our side. He can support us in our struggle with the forces of evil, sin and death. We too can experience “little Easters” in the midst of those things that makes us “die” each day – the betrayal of a friend, the failure of a dream, the death of someone we love. What is the prayer we pray every-so-often in church? Holy God, reveal your resurrection joy to us. Amen. Easter reminds us that the risen Jesus always can bring life where we see only death. We are always and ever an Easter people living in a Good Friday world. This is good news. The risen Jesus is with us. He continues to make available another kind of life to anyone and everyone. He has promised that all those who seek will find. This is the good news of our risen Lord Jesus.
Dear friends, it is Easter. Finally! Again we can shout words of praise, words of light into the blinding shadows of this world in these days. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
It is enough. It is all we need. Easter has come. The grave is empty. The victory is ours! Thanks be to God!
See you in church!
Pastor Chris
