Sermon Archive

On Friday, scourged, buffeted, stretched out on a cross, Jesus gasped seven last words and died.

On Sunday, grieving, distraught, forlorn, some women went to Jesus's tomb in order to cover, with the scent of spices, the stench of putrefaction. There, surprised, perplexed, alarmed, the women found the tomb open—and empty!

Then, suddenly, dazzlingly, terrifyingly, two beings appeared to them and spoke the seven first words of Easter faith: "He is not here, but has risen."

From seven last words to seven first words. From Good Friday to Easter. From death to life.

The angels' seven words to the women at the tomb, "He is not here, but has risen," are the good news of Easter.

They proclaim that all the beauty and goodness, all the tenderness and strength, all the justice and love that we saw die on Friday are again alive and with us.

What seemed on Friday to be a powerless love is seen on Sunday to have triumphed after all, to have triumphed over all the loveless power in the world!

For as the angels said at the tomb, "He is not here, but has risen."

Christ is risen! And from now on in this sermon, let's do what we did at the beginning of our service. Whenever I say, "Christ is risen!" you shout back, "Christ is risen indeed!"

OK: Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] And please note that, taken together, "Christ is risen!" and ["Christ is risen indeed!"] form the seven first words of our own Easter proclamation!

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"], in order that Christ may be an undying presence in our lives.

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] in order that Christ may put love and tenderness in our hearts, beauty and goodness in our heads, justice and strength in our spines.

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] in order that Christ may create through us the kind of world envisioned by the anonymous prophet in our First Lesson: a world where infant deaths no longer occur, where poverty and despair no longer exist, where prosperity and well-being are the rule, where enemies of old are friends, where violence gives way to peace, where longevity is enjoyed by all.

You see, Easter comes to us not only as a promise of eternal life for our immortal souls, but also as a demand on us in the here and now.

Easter comes as a demand that we participate with God, here and now, in transforming Earth from a Good Friday world, to an Easter world, that we participate with God, here and now, in transforming Earth from a place of death in all the forms that Jesus experienced it—hatred, denial, betrayal, miscarriage of justice, disempowerment, torture, violence, hunger, thirst, mockery, death itself—that we participate with God in transforming Earth from a place of death in all its forms to a place of life—that is, to a place of peace and total well-being.

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] so that we, by God's grace, may become champions of life over death and may work to bring peace and well-being to places like Northern Ireland (praise God for the hope born anew there!), and like the Middle East, and Bosnia, and Serbia.

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] so that we, by God's grace, may become champions of life over death and may work to eliminate poverty and hunger in places like New York City (shame on us), the rest of the U.S.A. (shame on us), and in India and many countries of Africa as well.

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] so that we, by God's grace, may become champions of life over death and may work for justice and equality among all peoples, in partnership with other groups within the world community like the Presbytery of Northern Natal in South Africa.

Easter is the discovery that life is more powerful than death. And Easter is the demand that we allow Christ's living presence to create a difference in our lives, so that we ourselves work to create life, peace, and total well-being, amidst the Good Friday world of death in all its forms.

Christ is risen! ["Christ is risen indeed!"] so that we, by God's grace, may be converted from loyalties to people, policies, systems, and institutions that crucify, and so that we, by God's grace, may be converted to loyalty to the Risen Christ alone.

On Thursday, after Jesus's arrest, the apostle Peter three times denied ever knowing Jesus, and on Friday, Peter was in hiding, not at the foot of the cross. Then, on Sunday, he heard the women's report, ran to the tomb, found it empty, and experienced for himself the presence of the Risen Christ.

In that experience, Peter was converted to an Easter faith, to a faith in the power of life over death. And in response to Easter's demand for a difference in him and for an acceptance of God's power in his life, Peter's life was indeed transformed. The "Easter Peter" became ten times the person he had been on Good Friday.

May it be thus for us this Easter.

God has done God's part. By the power of God, Jesus was raised from death to life. And now, it's up to us to accept the demand and the power of Easter.

Today, as we experience the bread and cup of Christ's living presence, may we allow God to transform us into an Easter people, so that, by God's grace, we may become ten times the persons we were as recently as Good Friday!

As we approach the table of Christ, let us remember the seven first words of Easter faith: "He is not here, but has risen."