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St.
Luke's Episcopal Church |
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Easter Sunday
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Acts 10:34-43
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My sister worked in the newspaper business. She did copy editing at various times and other jobs in production but eventually people in the newspapers where she worked realized what a gifted writer she was. She was very creative in her writing. Even at a very young age she began to be allowed to write features and columns of one kind or another. As I was thinking this week about what I would share with you this morning, I remembered that my sister wrote a column one time about Easter. She said about having visited a church on a previous Easter, “The minister tried a little too hard to put a fresh spin on a very familiar story.” I have always remembered that quotation. “The minister tried a little too hard to put a fresh spin on a very familiar story.” So I don't want to try to tell you something new about Easter today. I am taking a much more modest approach than that. I do want us to realize in some new way today that this is the foundation of our faith. The ethical and moral teachings of Jesus are clearly important and we study them throughout the year. The acts of Jesus are clearly foundational to who he is, and we study those acts in our lessons and our sermons throughout the church year. But the foundation of our faith is the announcement that “He is not here” three days after he had been crucified. Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the great figures regarding our English language and a lasting influence to this day, once said, “We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught.” There is great truth in that. “We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught.” In other words, we frequently know what we should do. We frequently have enough information if we will but remember what we have been taught and apply what we have been taught. So today we are reminded of this joyous news, this foundational news for Christians. Jesus no longer remains among the dead. God raised him from the tomb. All I want to say this morning is this. Today we are reminded that we worship a living Lord, and through his spirit he is with us at all time. Today as we celebrate the resurrection we are reminded of our Lord's abiding presence among us. Jesus through his Spirit is with us in times of joy. He shares with us in our times of joy and contentment. Jesus is with us in those times of agony, and despair, and disappointment. He is with us to give us his compassion, his presence, and his strength. We Christians worship and serve a living Lord Jesus, a Lord whose presence is with us every day. Our calling as Christians is to become more and more mindful of that presence and to allow his presence to guide us in the way that we should go. I could not pretend today to be able to give you some extraordinary new spin on the Easter message. I have no pretension that I could do that. I do want us all to be reminded of what we already know, that Christ is alive, that he is risen, and he is with us. This is not some mere liturgical claim. We don't say, ‘Alleluia Christ is risen' simply because it is that time of year for a handful of Sundays. That is our message. That is our faith. This is why we are here not just this Sunday, but every Sunday. Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is with us in our joys, and in our sorrows, and because he is risen and with us, we are never alone in this life. Whatever the trials may be that we go through, we never have to face them alone, because of the message of the angels that first Easter Day. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has been raised.” So today we do say, ‘Alleluia Christ is risen.' May we live like that is really true. He is risen. He is with us, and there is no greater news than that. Amen.
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