Jesus is Risen

He is Risen Indeed!

 

He is Risen!

(He is risen indeed!)

 

It has taken a lot to get us to this point today, hasn't it?

I'm not just talking about the journey through Advent, Christmas, Lent and the Great Three days to get us to this Easter morn.

Although that was quite the journey, wasn't it?

No, I am talking about all it took to get you here today on this beautiful morning.

There were all the preparations:

The waking up, the noticing the beautiful sky and wondering, "should I really go in to church today."

The remembering that you'd probably better, it is easter after all...

There may have also been Easter salutations to share with a loved one.

Perhaps, before you were ready, your kiddos awoke you, bursting out of their rooms ready to hunt for their Easter eggs.

Then there was breakfast that needed preparing.

Eating.

You had to get yourself ready, get decked out in your Easter duds.

There were also all those who helped prepare our Easter Breakfast here. For all of them, there were those preparations to make.

Then finally there still was getting everyone into the car and driving here.

But you've made it!

Easter is here and so are you!

He is Risen!

(He is risen indeed!)

Through all of those preparations, though, as you made your way here - something happened along the way...

Isn't that always how it goes?

We're minding our own business, trying to get the task for the day done, when suddenly something interrupts us.

 

For me it takes a moment to collect myself, a moment to figure out how to respond to the interruption.

In fact, a member and I had a terribly awkward phone conversations one Friday afternoon.

Typically I am not in my office on Friday afternoons, so when she called all my brain could do was respond, "Does not compute."

Needless to say, I wasn't much help.

Or another time; there was my first morning in Nicaraqua. I've studied Spanish, but after arriving late at night and not getting to the hotel until even later; that first morning I just wanted to read the paper and drink coffee.

Sitting in the lobby, a pleasant woman came to me and asked "diasyuno."

A very simple and common word in Spanish, all I could come up with, though, to respond was, "huh?"

Not my most intelligent moment...

 

I suspect you can all relate to moments like these; although hopefully you're absent-minded moments haven't been as public.

We're busy with our preparations, and suddenly, something interrupts...

That is exactly the kind of experience that happened to those women that first morning.

Although their shock was even more profound.

This isn't exactly the same the same kind of, or as strong as moment; but I can recall an evening that shook me from my doldrums.

Every so often the seminary I attended would organize these theology discussions; where students had the opportunity to ask a handful of professors to speak on different topics.

 

This evening my world was shaken was during one of those gatherings.

It was during my senior year, and that year I studied in Washington D.C. Occasionally I would go back to Gettysburg to visit my friends.

So that night on campus, I admit, I didn't want to go to one of those discussions. I wanted to sit outside with my friends and catch-up.

Only my friends wanted to go, and they outvoted me.

So they said I could stay in, or go with them. "Well, this might be my last chance to go with them," I thought. "Or I guess I should at least go to these discussions twice a year," I figured.

So I went...

At one point during the discussion, one of the professors was talking about the importance of understanding death in biological terms.

You know, that death is a part of life, and so on.

 

While this professor was equivocating, another professor got up to add her two-cents.

The first professor was going on about death, until the second professor could take it no longer...

*BOOM*

Her book slammed.

"NO!" she declared.

Death is the enemy.

Wow.

In that moment we were all starring, mouths ajar.

This professor, in her early fifties, had found out that year that she had an aggressive form of cancer.

The doctors hadn't given her long to live.

In fact, that semester was going to be her last before she retired early...

That professor, in her struggle, transformed that lecture with her proclamation.

She spoke of how her cancer tempted her to think that death was the end of her story.

She spoke of the importance of trusting that death, the final enemy, had been defeated by God.

 

Needless to say, her proclamation that evening shook me out of my usual thinking, all the preparations I had been making.

 

Sisters and brothers, that is what today is.

Today is that morning where we get up, get ready, get everything in order, get in the car, get in our pew;

but along the way:

WHAM

we're interrupted.

The preparations we've made must be put aside.

He is Risen!

(He is risen indeed)

We gather here, but something is missing...

The tomb is empty!

Death, the last enemy, has been overcome!

That is what today is about.

Today is the day when we remember that our Lord and savior, yes, did say that he would suffer and die,

but that is not all he said.

We remember that he also said that on the third day he would rise.

Today we remember, that in Jesus, that final enemy, death, has been overcome.

Today we remember, that in Jesus, God has triumphed.

Today we remember,

and in our remembering we are not only taken to the past, to that first morning of the empty tomb,

 

we're also taken to the future.

Yes, the future.

It is that vision that startles is from all the preparations we've been making.

Today we glimpse behind the curtain of the present, to see the future;

to see life on the other side of the grave,

to glimpse the resurrection:

to glimpse those poor children from Newtown restored, healed,

to glimpse our beloved Pastor Chuck, restore, healed,

to even glimpse ourselves, sisters and brothers, wearing the imperishable.

And that, that, is what is in the empty tomb we peer into today,

that is the slammed book, that startles us from our preparations for the meal to follow,

that future unveiled, is the proclamation we must respond to.

Yes those first disciples thought it was all an idle tale, and maybe you've been tempted to think its an idle tale, too.

Listen to, trust the testimony of those women.

And let me tell you, the tomb is empty!

He is Risen!

(He is risen indeed)

Stop looking for the living ones, among the dead!

Jesus has been raised, and so we along with him.

This is the culmination of what has been, transformed into what will be,

the culmination of darkness, turned to life,

the culmination of God's victory of death, turned to life.

 

He is Risen - Alleluia!

Amen