Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017 | Matthew 28

Grace, peace, and mercy from God our Lord and Savior, amen.

Praise the Lord, everybody!  Praise the Lord.

Here is what we are going to do.  In a few minutes, I will say, Jesus rises.  Then I want you to respond by saying, He is risen indeed.

Some of us who have been attending church for a while know how this goes because we have been blessed to be in the company of one another for a while.  Some of us know the flow of our worship service.  Some of us have spent the past sixty days preparing for this day.  We have been worshiping on Wednesday nights.  Some of us have been giving up certain foods and collecting money to dedicate to the church's ministries.  I am sharing this information because we want you to know that church and the Jesus we celebrate did not come to save church folk; he came to save sinners.  Jesus came to liberate people who view themselves as failures, people who are ill, and people who know death and pain in their lives.  So, when we say He is risen!  You say He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Please pray with me: Gracious and loving God we give thanks for this day we celebrate as Easter, Resurrection Sunday.  We thank you for loving us so much that you gave Jesus to sacrifice his life for us.  We thank you too for Holy Spirit and the promise that you will be with us to strengthen us.  Bless us with your Word this morning that we will grow to love and serve you in our lives.  We pray all these things in Jesus name.  Amen 

Charnae is one of our youths, and I recall when she was in fourth grade and was involved in our after-school program.  She was also involved in the after-school program in her school. Occasionally, the programs would have a schedule conflict.  On this day, there was a schedule conflict, and Charnae chose to come to Redeemer instead of the program at her school.  The instructor told Charnea she could not come to Redeemer. She had to attend the program at her school.  Charnea responded to her instructor, “How are you going to tell me I can’t go to my church?”  When   I think of these words from Charnae, I think about Jesus and the Easter message.  Jesus says to death, “How are you going to keep me from rising from the dead?”.   I think of the bold words from Jesus and Charnea challenging each of us today to truly live into this reality of Easter to say to the world, “How are you going to tell me who I can or cannot love?”  How can you tell me who I cannot provide sanctuary?”  How are you going to tell me I cannot choose life over death!”  This is what Easter is about.  This is why God allowed his son to give his life on the cross.  This is why God allowed Himself to experience humiliation and suffering.  This is why Jesus died and was raised from the dead, to give us a voice and an understanding that says to the world How are you going to stop us from being the people of God?
That really is not a question; it’s a statement!

Jesus gave his life and rose from the grave to open us up to new possibilities.  Easter is the power of God, opening us to see new people and new possibilities.  When I think about Charnele and some of the new folks in the church, I thank God because the church needs new people.  New people sometimes challenge us to be the people God calls us to be.  
New people sometimes help us to see things we don’t see.   If you are new here, you strengthen us by your very presence.   You strengthen us in your presence by your very presence.  We hope you will come back here to Redeemer or some other church.  

I have been involved in the church since I was a teenager. I loved coming to church, but I remember back in the day how our family was what I call an “Easter Sunday family”.  Our parents had migrated to Detroit, Michigan, from Tennessee in the south.  In preparation for Easter Sunday, our parents would take us to the thrift store, where we were excited to receive new clothes, and we were giddy with excitement to be going to church on Easter Sunday.  I recall how Easter brought with it the anticipation of baskets, coloring eggs, the egg hunt, and being outside after a long winter.  When we were children, it was enough to know that we were a part of a communal experience called Easter.   
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My understanding of Easter grew as I heard the voice and witness of the civil rights movement in Reverend Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Ralph Abernathy.  I understood that because of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, and rising from the dead, bad things don’t always have the final say.  I learned through a community of faith embodied by plain old ordinary people God is not dead; He rises from the dead. Hallelujah.      


This first Easter was not easy for the disciples.  As much as Jesus' resurrection was right there in front of Jesus' followers, they still had that rearview picture of Good Friday, Jesus dead on a cross.  Mary Madeleine and the women who came to the tomb had been standing at the cross where they saw Jesus suffer and die.  On Friday, they witnessed Jesus being nailed to the cross.  They witnessed the humiliation of his death as a common criminal.  They saw his innocent blood flowing from his body.  From the rear-view mirror, Jesus was dead.  The story was over.  All that was left was to go to the tomb where Jesus lay.    

Early that first Easter morning, Mary Madeleine, a woman whom Jesus had healed seven times, and the other women got up while it was still dark.  They prepared the spices that they were going to put on Jesus' body.  When they got to the tomb, they saw an angel sitting on the stone, they felt the earthquake, and they were shocked to discover that the tomb was empty.  Immediately, Mary Madeleine returned to share the news with the fellows that the tomb was empty.  Mary thought that the tomb had been robbed, rearview.  Then we read about how John, the one who loved Jesus, and Peter ran to the tomb.   John got there first.  Peter went inside and saw that Jesus' clothes had been folded, and then the text tells us John, the one who loved Jesus, went inside and believed. After the men had gone and Mary was standing by herself crying, the angels said to Mary, “Woman, why are you crying?”    She said they have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  


For Mary Madeleine and the first followers to grasp the meaning of Easter, they had to let go of their rearview mirrors.  They had to stop looking back and start looking forward.  Jesus was moving on. “tell the fellas they can catch me in Galilee.”  To see the resurrected Jesus, they had to let go of the past and become open to the new life, the resurrected life Jesus offers.    

Easter does not mean that Jesus died on the cross in order that we would have easy answers and have lives that are perfect and immune from pain.  There will still be accidents on Highway 35, and people who want to put up walls, drop bombs, and deny refuge to vulnerable people.  

Easter reminds us how God allows Jesus, who is the very presence of God to give his life in order that we might face life head on as it comes to us.  “How you going to stop us from being the church!”  How you going to stop us from being the people of God?  

Easter is the power God gives to us to face failure, illness, death, and pain.