Celebrating Easter - April 11, 2004

Irene Fekete, Jane, Sharon Clay	Kim Sherring
Decorating Crew: Jean Riggins, Sharon Clay, Barb Grozell, Irene Fekete, Kim Sherring, Jane Clarke, Ted Sherring, James Farrell

Alleluia! Christ is risen indeed! Celebrating Easter is about changing our frame of reference from the expected to the incredible. Throughout Lent, we have encountered stories of God’s presence, guidance, and provision. The mystery of Easter is God’s profound presence in what seems to be absence: the tomb is empty but the life of faith is full of God’s fulfilled promises.

Message - How Amazing

 by Jane Clarke

For the last five weeks we have walked with Jesus and the disciples on a journey to the cross.  Lent has been about repentance, forgiveness and healing. Lent reminds us that the way is not always easy but there is always hope.  The way has been heavy at times and as we moved through Good Friday the journey became sad and dark as we read again the account of Jesus' betrayal and death.

For those of you who were here for the Good Friday service you see how the sanctuary has been transformed from gloomy and sad to light and joyful.  From death to resurrection.  A celebration of new life.  That's what this journey of Lent has been about.  Walking through death to resurrection.  As a congregation we have walked through the darkness of Lent and into the light of Easter together.

We heard in today's readings how people were affected differently by what they saw and heard. The women were so excited after leaving the tomb that they went and told "the eleven and all the rest" what they had seen and heard.  They were not believed because what they were saying seemed too far-fetched for them.  It was too amazing to be believed. 

Peter on the other hand went to the tomb himself and was so amazed by what he saw he went home without telling anyone anything.  He didn't speak about what happened until he was summoned to Cornelius' home and was asked specifically to talk about the experience.

How then does the Easter story affect us personally? What does this story mean to us? How does it affect how we view this season of Lent and Easter?

I tend to not take the Easter story literally. I know Jesus died on the cross.  I believe he died because people were afraid of him.  Because he was an advocate for those people suffering injustices.  He was reported to have healed people.  He ate meals with tax collectors and people who were judged to be less than perfect.  What do we say today when people tell us about their healing?  Are we supportive of these people or are we skeptical?  Do we listen to their stories?  I know that we as Christians believe the Easter story in different ways.

I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead the way we will be raised upon our death.  That we will be raised from this earthly body and our spirits will return to the place from where we came.  Where or what is that like?  I don't know but I have faith that there is something that continues on after this earthly life. 

What about the people that claim they saw Jesus?  Each Gospel story tells the story of the risen Christ differently.  Did the women see the risen Lord at the tomb at the dawn of Easter?  No, said Mark.  Yes, said Matthew.  No, said Luke. Yes, said John, but it was not "the women."  John has insisted that only one woman went to the tomb and her name was Magdalene.  No one can harmonize this feature in the gospel witness.

I am not saying that the resurrection didn't happen, what I am saying is that I am careful about how literally I understand the stories to be.  Did these people sense the spirit of Christ?  Most probably yes.  I have heard countless stories of people who have experienced the presence of someone who has passed.  People who are comforted by the knowledge that their loved one is safe and that they are close to them.  I'm sure you have heard or have stories much the same.  These stories give me hope.

I see the hope and grace of God throughout all these stories.  The hope that I will be raised from the dark times in my life and also at the time of my death I will return as spirit from where I came.  To be reunited with those who have gone before me. 

I don't want to think that the Easter story is all about my physical death and what will happen to me at the end of my life.  I love to be amazed by thinking and pondering the many times I have been resurrected and will continue to be resurrected from the dark times I have experienced and will experience while I am alive. I often don't connect the whole process until after it has happened and I look back or I am telling the story to someone.  It's often an AHA moment for me.

I want to know that there is hope when I am in the "depths of despair" that God is with me while I am in darkness and that resurrection will happen for me.

I am reminded of a story I was told about a refugee family sponsored by a church in Saskatoon who came to Canada from Africa. These people arrived in Canada in the summer when everything was lush and green. No one told them about our fall season so when the leaves started to turn color and fall off the trees and the grass turned brown and the flowers were withering they were terrified that the earth was dying.  Imagine them trying to understand the concept of the earth just going to sleep for a while and that soon there would be this white covering called snow that would blanket the earth. 

How could they understand that in the spring when the snow melted and the sun warmed the earth that all would come back to life?  How amazed they must have been to see the land resurrected!  I'm sure they must have felt resurrected to be able to flee harm and come to a safe place.

A couple of weeks ago I was in the back yard at home and I looked at my little strip of garden and saw the green leaves of the tulips poking through the ground!  I was so excited to see the green coming up through the ground that was still covered with some leaves that didn't get cleaned up last fall because of the early winter.  The dead leaves and stalks from last years lilies were still there but the new growth was coming up through the dried leaves of last year.  This never ceases to amaze me and I love to talk about it.  I called James to come and see the green!  

I wonder every year what it is like for the bulbs deep down in the soil.  They lie patiently dormant until the warmth of the spring sun brings them up to the light.  The new life keeps coming and soon there will be the flowers that burst open in color!  Tulips are one of the first flowers to die in the summer and the first to awaken after the winter.  They give us the hope that soon the rest of the earth will awaken.

How many of you have resurrection stories? I believe we all have stories that are amazing.  Stories of grief over the loss of a person, a job, a home, a friend, a marriage.  Stories of forgiveness, of being forgiven.  Do we share these Easter stories?  I hope so.  These stories help us to understand what it is to be loved by God and we see that love and share how we died; how it was for us in the tomb and how it was to be resurrected.  Sometimes we don't even realize at what moment life began again for us we just, one day say, wow I think I feel again.  I think I actually feel happiness again.  Mostly we are different in some way.  Life has changed for us, but we have been reborn.  We may have scars but scars tell the story and amaze others and our gift to others as we recount them. 

What are our personal stories about death and resurrection?  Do we tell these stories or do we like Peter go home and be amazed by ourselves. Or are we like the women who found the tomb empty and went and talked about it? 

There may be some here today who are not at Easter yet.  Perhaps you are still on a Lenten journey waiting to feel and see the light.  The Good News is that it will come.  It may take more time than we think or hope, but it will come.  As we tell our stories to one another we may be sharing just the right story that another person journeying through Lent needs to hear. 

As we continue on into the Easter season let us be bold and tell our resurrection stories; our amazing stories of how God was with us through the darkness of the tomb and continues to go with us as we experience resurrection.

The Easter story is the axis of Christian faith.  Our lives orbit the mystery of the risen Christ like the earth orbits the sun.  In Resurrection, the God of new things transforms reality and offers hope and life to all.  Amen.