As I was giving thought this week as to what I would share with you today, there was a phrase that kept coming to my mind over and over again. That phrase is ‘the basics’. The basics. When we think about it, all of life revolves around having a foundation from which we can move forward. In business, periodically, a business has to go back to the basics, and to rethink, “What is our product? What is our market? What are we trying to accomplish through this business?” When you think about it, relationships periodically need to return to the basics, whether it is family, or friends, or acquaintances. What is it that brought us together? Why is it that we are meant to be in a relationship with each other? How can we get this back on track? Think about sports. Sports teams, whatever the sport, that are most effective are the ones that are the best at the fundamentals. If you go to a major league baseball park early enough, you will see batting practice and fielding practice day, after day, after day. These athletes in the major leagues who are at the absolute pinnacle of their profession still practice because they have to maintain the fundamentals so that they can go on and do things that are special in the athletic field. So whatever we think about in life, we have to have the basics. We have to have the foundation. I can remember us building a small memorial garden in my first parish. And, we were all absolutely fixed on the idea that we haf to lay a good foundation for the rest of it to hold together.

So, as I thought about what I would say this year on Easter, this phrase, ‘the basics’, kept coming to my mind. Because, what we are here to celebrate is the basics of our faith. The resurrection is the foundation for the Christian faith. Everything else we do as a church, the outreach that we do, the Christian Education that we do, the worship that we do, everything comes out of this foundational assumption and understanding that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. When we look at the Gospel narratives, they are unambiguously clear. This is a real historical event. The Gospels do say not that this was a psychological event in the minds of the disciples. The Gospels do not say that the disciples dreamed this in the midst of their deep grief. No. The Gospels are clear. The tomb was empty. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And, because of that, the church came into being.

Think about it for just a minute with me. This is going to be a short sermon today. But think with me for just a moment about the disciples. These were work-a-day people. The Gospels are clear. The disciples were people like you and I. They went to work. We know that some of them had families. These were not specially trained people. We can’t tell from Scripture that they were unusually gifted prior to Easter. How is it that these every day folk could begin a movement that now spans the world? How is it that these people could have started the church of which you and I are a part some two thousand years later? I humbly submit to you why. They knew that Jesus Christ was raised. They experienced him being brought back from the dead. They knew that he was God’s Anointed One. And, that is how the church was built through the power of the Holy Spirit. Not human initiative. Not human cleverness. These disciples believed that Jesus was God’s Son because they had seen him come back from the dead. And, they risked their lives building the church in his name. Nearly every disciple died a martyr’s death. Nearly every one of them. Why would they have been willing to die for Jesus if they could have simply walked away after his crucifixion? They could have gone back to their trades. They could have gone back to their homes. Why were these disciples willing to die for Jesus? Because they knew. They had seen him raised from the dead. They knew he was God’s son.

The basics. I want to share with you a thought that kept coming to me this week. There is an old gospel song called Because He Lives. Some of you know that song. I grew up hearing that song. I hadn’t thought about it for years until my grandmother’s funeral a number of years ago. I have a cousin who sang that song very beautifully. It turns out that was my grandmother’s favorite gospel song. The title is so simple, and yet so poignant. Because He Lives. That is why we are here this morning. We are not here to celebrate the arrival of spring. We are here because He lives. Everything we do in this church, if it is outreach, if it is education, if it is worship, everything we do, we do because he lives. His love is real, and his love forgives us of our sins. And his love assures us that God the Father cares for us as we are, in all of our human frailties and all our human shortcomings. Jesus came to teach us that we are loved by God, that we can be forgiven, and can experience peace. And, because he lives, these are not just ideas. They are not just concepts. It is all true. Because Jesus gives this love to us. Whenever I am in need, or something is going wrong, and I feel a particular sense of gratitude, I talk to the Lord like you do. How can we talk to the Lord? Because he lives. Because God raised him from the dead. Our ministry is to know this love from this living Lord Jesus, then to share his love. We don’t exist as a church to just care for one another. We don’t exist as a church merely to carry on the tradition. We exist as a congregation to make the love of Jesus Christ known in this community and beyond. Why? Because he lives.

So, today as we say, “Happy Easter” to each other, it is a lovely greeting. I wish that to you in the deepest possible way. Happy Easter. Why Happy Easter? Because He lives. Happy Easter means the love of Jesus is real. Happy Easter means that the grave couldn’t contain him. Happy Easter means you and I are loved by the Son of God, and he washes away our sins, and wants us to know peace. So, Happy Easter. May the love of Jesus, our risen Lord, be very real to you today, and always. Amen.