He has indeed risen! This morning’s early service featured the Gospel of Mark. Reading 16:1-8 and ending with verse 8 stating;
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Some of the early copies of Mark end right there, with Mary and the Disciples scarred and terrified because their walk in the Lord still has a way to go in their understanding and maturity. And before we get too judgmental on our ancestors in Christ… so do we!
I think sometimes being scarred frozen is an excellent place to start a Faithwalk in and with our Lord. For hopefully that rough start becomes a placemark to reference all the growth that lies ahead in our futures. Sometimes, as in my own case at times, things can only go up!
It certainly seems to be the case in our current society, and the world that we are living in right now. And yet you and I have insider information. Information that is not meant to be kept as a secret, but intended for sharing with the whole wide world.
That insider information is… God came into this world, walked among His creation in spite of the cesspool that was their chosen habitat, suffered, was mocked and abused. As a reward for healing the sick, the paralyzed, lame, deaf, blind, and lost, bringing the dead back to life, forgiving, and forgiving, and forgiving, you name the sin, and teaching all of us a better way to live, that featured living our faith, by having a real relationship with our God, and really learning what the good life can be like. As a reward for all of the above, we murdered our God!
And yet one cannot kill God if He is real (and He is). One can only snuff out the flame of understanding, loving, and responding to His invitation to life. So, perhaps, what humanity really did, is attempt: human spiritual suicide. But again, God being God, has saved us from ourselves by His willingness to forgive, if we will only repent, trust and live in and with Him, and His family.
We have God’s eternal word on what He intends to do for His people, and that my friends, is you and I. For we know that God loves all of His creation. All Peoples are dear to your God. Please let me read Isaiah, the Prophet quoted more than any other by our Lord. Reading Isaiah 25:6-9;
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Oh, and He our Lord has indeed. That is what today’s observance, todays rejoycement, today’s celebration is all about. Today all peoples have a Passover available to them. The very Passover you and I observe each Sunday in this room with our observance of the Last Supper. The Eucharist, Sacrament, Communion. Let us indeed be glad in His salvation!
For God has removed our disgrace by living, dying, and then living again for each and every one of us. Our Passover is the result of God shedding His blood, when the price of sin is death, and your God has purchased that price indeed. That’s how much you are loved on this Easter morning my beloved!
Our shepherd will walk with us and guide us to green pastures and still waters while He restores our souls. As way of backing up my quote from the 23rd Psalm and my reading of Isaiah’s instruction earlier, let me now read from Ezekiel 36:24-28;
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
From an overview approach, one would believe that Ezekiel is speaking of the return of the children of Israel to the promised land of Israel, and that is certainly true. But one could also make a connection to what happens to you and me when we invite the Lord into our lives, and allow Him to shepherd us in our lives to the greener pastures of healthy relationships, law abiding communities, and a way of life that involves; Acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God!
As we go further down that road with our Lord, Paul’s letters to the early Church begin to resonate within us. In fact, Paul instructed the church back then and you and me today about (Living as Those Made Alive in Christ). You know, like people saved and transformed. Reading from Colossians 3:1-4;
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
All those things that remain a mystery to those who do not understand what it means to love unconditionally in healthy ways, will frankly find our behavior of service to God by serving others, outright bazaar, if not foolish. That won’t be the case when: “you also will appear with Him in glory”.
Make no mistake about it, we do not do good things to earn our way into Heaven. Because we are not capable of being good enough to earn our way out of and into anything of substance that would include… eternity. Our behavior comes from a heart that God has changed and is the driver of. That is what leads us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. At least we are trying on a regular basis to do so.
After a while, we not only find our long-lost freedom to live the good life in and with our Lord, but we begin to learn to actually love God with all we have, and love other people that God places in our lives. By the way, that is what makes all the above just mentioned possible, because God is the centerpiece of the society and not individual people playing god, to all of our detriment.
And our actions are not done within a vacuum. When you live your life joyfully, and sharing that joy with others, people are going to want what you have. And you have Christ. With our Lord, we have been removing sinful things from our lives as we get stronger and stronger, more and more stuff that represents death is left behind each day.
To illuminate my words a little further, we have yet another passage from one of Paul’s letters. This time from 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8;
Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
If leavened is yeast and sin, and unleavened is sinless behavior, we need to be ditching the yeast in our lives. Plain and simple. Getting rid of our old habits is easier said than done. Removing the old leavened in our lives (that is the yeast of sin) isn’t easy because it spreads and spreads uncontrollably without the help from our Lord in our lives.
As our Jewish brothers and sister remove the physical yeast located within their homes, as is the rule (Jewish Law) each year for the Passover Festival, let us remove the yeast of sin within our hearts this Christian Passover, called Easter.
And all of this is made possible by a God who was willing to sacrifice all for you! But even more significant to me is this; your Lord was willing to live for you! Today’s Call to Worship reading that Cindy read for us and the Message reading both document that our Lord didn’t remain on the cross as an icon or an idol. No! He didn’t remain in the cold dark tomb dead. No!
Todays joyful observance along with the rest of the Christian world, is our family in God, reflecting and expressing our awe and wonder at the working of the Mater of the Universe! Reading once more today for your edification and growth in and with Him, our Lord’s return to our lives. As if He was not always there!!!
Call to Worship and Message Reading; John 20:1-18,
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Our God is a living robust, integral part of every atom molecule, every motion, force, magnetic wave, or surfer’s wave, your God drives, thrives, and strives to be a part of your free will lives!
If you have not already done so, I plead with you to invite God in, or back into your life. His yoke is lite, and life in Him is light itself. As history reflects, those searching to be filled, will never get enough. Those seeking to serve will have an abundance of overflow for the rest of their lives.
God bless you my beloved family in all that is Holy and good.
Amen!