Easter Sunday

He is Risen!
He is Risen indeed!

Jesus Christ Is Risen Today    VU#157
(Link to this hymn can be found on our church facebook page or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRz6QHMxTqo

1
Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah!
all creation join to say; hallelujah!
raise your joys and triumphs high; hallelujah!
sing, O heavens, and earth reply: hallelujah!

2
Love's redeeming work is done, hallelujah!
fought the fight, the battle won. Hallelujah!
Lo, our sun's eclipse is o'er! Hallelujah!
Lo! he dwells in death no more! Hallelujah!

3
Lives again our glorious King: hallelujah!
where, O death, is now your sting? Hallelujah!
Once he died, our souls to save: hallelujah!
where your victory, O grave? Hallelujah!

4
Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven, hallelujah!
praise to you by both be given! Hallelujah!
Every knee to you shall bow, hallelujah!
risen Christ, triumphant now. Hallelujah!

Today is Easter. Hallelujah!
The celebration of the resurrection.
The festival of hope.
The promise of new beginnings.
The dance of faith
The song of joy.
The music of gladness.
The hymn of love.
Let us worship our life giving God.
Hallelujah! 

Mark 16:1-8    (NIV)

   1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome
​      bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 
  2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 
  3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
  4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled              away. 
  5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right       side, and they were alarmed.
  6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He         has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 
  7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see       him, just as he told you.’”
  8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing         to anyone, because they were afraid.

Easter morning! EASTER MORNING!

The women go to the tomb and Jesus is gone. Gone! The stone has been rolled away! Bewildered and  terrified they encounter a stranger who tells them Jesus has risen! He is not here!

You know, I get it. I would be right there beside them running away in fear. Who would believe such a story. Even the disciples would laugh at us. We don’t know what to believe, what to say even to ourselves. Even today.

How do we explain the resurrection, notice I’m not saying what do you believe.
But how do we talk about the resurrection? Do we talk about the resurrection?

We have a few different accounts of that Easter morning in Mark the women (Mary and Mary and Salome) end up running away and staying silent. In Matthew (28:1-10) Mary and Mary, and an angel telling them not to be afraid and they run joyfully to tell the disciples. Then they meet Jesus who again tells them to tell the disciples. The Gospel of Luke adds even more women: Mary, Joanna, Mary (mother of James) and other women (not named) go into the tomb where the stone has already been rolled away and two angels appear reminding them what Jesus had said:

       4 They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two men 
          in bright shining clothes stood by them.
       5 Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them,
         “Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive?
       6 He is not here; he has been raised. Remember what he said to you
          while he was in Galilee:
      7 ‘The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified,
          and three days later rise to life.’”    Luke 24:4-7


The women in Luke go and find the eleven disciples and others gathered together and tell them what happened but they don’t believe them. Peter runs back to the place where Jesus’ body was brought and is amazed at the empty tomb.  

The Gospel of John just has Mary Magdalene going to the tomb and finding the stone rolled away after which she runs to find Peter and John (the other disciple whom Jesus loved). They go back to the tomb but do not understand where Jesus’ body has gone. They leave but Mary remains and looks into the tomb and sees two angels. When she turns from the tomb she sees a person who she thinks is a gardener until he calls her Mary. Only then does she recognize Jesus.  Jesus tells her to go to the disciples and tell them all she has seen and heard. 

Different accounts but the same story: The tomb is empty! Jesus is risen!

We experience Easter as a fait accompli, a joyful ending to a harrowing situation, Jesus has risen from the dead! Death has lost its sting.

But that’s not what we are reading in these passages, we are reading about fear and confusion and disciples still in hiding and into that: mix the joy of Mary recognizing the gardener as Jesus!
Easter for me is not a happy ending. 

What we do know is that Jesus crying out from the cross “ "Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?" ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?") is not the end of the story. 
Jesus dying on the cross is not the end of the story.
Jesus being laid in a tomb is not the end of the story.
There is more, the story continues.

We don’t quite know what Easter means in the gospels, there’s a lot of ambiguity, there’s a lot of questioning going on  - Peter goes back to the tomb in John because he doesn’t quite believe Mary Magdalene and doubting Thomas is about to make an appearance, in Mark the women won’t even tell anyone. So it isn’t surprising that we too don’t have the words to describe the Resurrection or what the resurrection means to us. 
​
This journey that we have been on during Lent continues. We still don’t know what's going to happen on our journey, who we will meet or what Jesus has to say to us but we do know that Jesus is risen. He is Risen indeed!

This is the Day  MV #122

Link to hymn can be found on the church Facebook page or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boVSvvPQS0c

This is the day that God has made;
​We will rejoice and be glad! (2X)
Singing hallelu, singing hallelu, singing hallelu!
We will rejoice and be glad! (2X)