- We start in triumph on Palm Sunday with the parade into the city.
- Then we get somber with the Last Supper.
- Then we go down in to the valley of the shadow of death as we watch the crucifixion and burial.
- and then...
This year we will be reading the Easter story as it is told by Luke (Luke 24:1-12)
The Sermon title is Risen!
Early Thoughts: The climax of the Christian year has come!Without the Easter story we would not tell any of the other stories. We would not talk about a baby in a manger. We would not talk about a Cross on a hill. Without Easter there is little reason to believe that the other stories of Jesus of Nazareth, that the movement that coalesced around him, would have survived long past his death.
The women go to the grave to weep and mourn. They go to perform that basic act of mourning (anointing of the body) that was not possible before the burial. And when they get there...
A new beginning! New life! New possibilities!
AS Natalie Sleeth says in hymn (VU #175):
“This is the day that God had made!
Rejoice! Rejoice, and be exceeding glad!
This is the day that God has made!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Hallelujah!
Christ has conquered death at last,
Left the tomb that held him fast!
Gone the sorrow, gone the night,
Dawns the morning clear and bright!
Jesus lives who once was dead,
Lives forever, as he said!
Risen now our Saviour, King;
Songs of gladness let us sing!”
The world is changed. Life wins. Can we believe it?
The other disciples couldn't. They dismissed the women's story as an "idle tale" (one commentary suggest a more idiomatic way of saying that might be "a load of...", or more politely "wishful thinking"). Jesus was dead. They all knew it. Only when he went to the tomb himself did Peter believe.
Can we believe it? Can we trust that the end is not the end? Is the Risen Jesus here alive and among us?
More from Natalie Sleeth (VU #703)
In our end is our beginning, in our time infinity
in our doubt there is believing, in our life eternity
In our death a resurrection; at the last a victory
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
Christ is risen! Life wins! Hallelujah!
--Gord
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