Sermons for the Month

THE Most Important Day of the Year!
DATE: April 11th, 2004
SERVICE: Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of our Lord
TEXT: Luke 24:1-12

“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

Did you jump out of bed this morning excited because THE most important day of the year had arrived? Did you think, "I cannot wait to tell someone the Good News - Jesus is alive!"

Today we have heard again the amazing story of how some of Jesus' followers, a group of women, took spices and ointment to the tomb of their crucified Lord intending to lovingly prepare his broken body for burial. But the stone covering the tomb's entrance had been removed and they looked inside to find only a perplexing emptiness. That's when the heavenly beings appeared. They were terrified, but thrilled by the message the dazzling visitors bore. "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." It was such an amazing tale that at first the other apostles did not believe the women, that is until Peter saw the evidence with his own eyes.

So, I ask you again, did you open your car windows this morning and proclaim to the world, "Listen everyone, this is THE most important day for us Christians. Jesus is alive!"

Well now, Pastor, you may ask, did you disturb the peace at 6:30 a.m. as you drove down Revere Road with such a proclamation? I mean, after all, we have celebrated Easter before now and it is not as if this is new good news and we are, for heaven's sake, Lutherans and not inclined to be too vocal about these things. (We're reserved folks, you know.)

That's an understandable response, but I'm thinking it cheats us out of an opportunity to really celebrate something life-changing - and that does not happen all that often. This week I was reading an essay by Frederica Mathewes-Green in which she tells about a note she received at Christmas from a man who is Jewish. He was wondering why Christmas appeared to be the big celebration for Christians. It seemed to him that it should be Easter. After all, if there were no Easter, there would be no Christianity.

He wrote, "Why Christians don't whoop it up more at Easter is a mystery to me. How inspirational! How joyful! That is the time to toast each other, lay on gifts, attend worship services and pack in the rich food. (There is) something really substantial and holy to remember."

And it's true, if there was no resurrection than who cares where Jesus was born? This non-Christian somehow "got it".

Today we do celebrate an event that is really substantial and holy. It's not just about the fact that Jesus is alive, but that we have been granted new life, eternal life too. Do we get it?

Perhaps the person driving a car that I encountered one Sunday evening did. It was about the only warm spring night that we've enjoyed. As I headed down the street of a Cleveland neighborhood I could not help but notice how people had shed their winter wear and were zooming by on motorcycles, sitting with their feet up on balconies and strolling hand in hand, glad to be outdoors.

I'll admit that I was not as focused a person behind the wheel should be, so I was startled when a red sports car cut in front of me in time to stop at a light. I had one of those "wake up!" moments, and then I looked at the license plate in front of me. I looked again. I'll tell you the letters on it - G O D I O U and then the number 1. God I owe you one.

I so wanted to jump out of my car, see who was driving what seemed to be an unlikely vehicle for such a message, and ask, "Why do you owe God one?" My imagination ran wild. Had the owner of the red car survived a terrible car accident? Had he or she avoided injury in a mortar attack in Iraq? Was a big lottery win responsible for the car and its message? Was an organ transplant or a miracle healing involved? Maybe he or she had avoided an unhappy marriage.

Or, could it be, that this was a way to say, "Jesus is alive and by the grace of God so am I!" Could that license plate have been an Easter proclamation? Perhaps the owner of that car really appreciated the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the gift of forgiveness and the opportunity to walk with the risen Jesus in this life and the next. Was this a public declaration of faith? Was the message loud and clear, "I get it!"

Every year at Easter I contemplate what I can say, how we might worship, so that the miracle of the resurrection is more real for all of us. Perhaps if we did what the Moravian Church does on Easter morning it might help.

It is tradition in that church to celebrate Easter in the graveyard. Instead of decorating their church for Easter, as we do, during Holy Week the people lovingly scrub the gravestones and place a bouquet of fresh flowers before each one. In a Moravian cemetery the stones are identical to one another. Plain white, the same height, engraved in the same way, symbolizing that whatever our status in life, in death we are equal.

On Easter Sunday the whole faith community gathers at the church and processes to the cemetery. There, among the orderly rows of gravestones that might be thought of as the very teeth of death they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Out there, where death is unavoidable, they proclaim God's promise of new life for those who are already in the grave as well as those who are standing among the graves. They feel it's the only proper place to celebrate Easter. No doubt that setting helps them "get it."

Today we have something really substantial and holy to celebrate. The resurrection is joyful. It is inspirational. This is THE most important day of the year for us Christians. So, go ahead, whoop it up! Gather with family and friends! Make this day one of a kind. Because of what we celebrate on Easter our lives today and for every tomorrow have been transformed and there is hope. So … open the windows and shout. "I get it. Jesus is alive!" Alleluia!

AMEN

---