April 20 2025 Easter Day

Acts 10.34-43 Hymn to the Risen Christ 1 Corinthians 15.19-26 Luke 24.1-12

Paul’s words that we have heard today make a claim about Jesus’ resurrection that bears witness to why we believe what we believe.

Our faith is based on our belief that Jesus did rise from the dead.  Unless we have an empty tomb, we have no reason to believe that all the ills of the world can be tolerated, or overcome.

Yet, even with the empty tomb, doubt is never far away from us.  It is not easy to hold onto the resurrection when we look at what is happening in the world around us, it is not easy to hold on to belief in miracles, life after death, and other things deemed outside the area of science.

This Easter, we come to the empty tomb as ‘ourselves’, we enter carrying all our baggage with us, and that baggage shapes our perceptions and conclusions.  But what is important is that we encounter the risen Jesus in the ‘nitty gritty’ of our daily lives.  In the empty tomb we find hope for all our struggles, losses, traumas, and disappointments.  And we need to be willing to ‘linger’ in the garden, listening and waiting for the sound of our names, spoken back to us in love.

Paul ends his letter with a promise rooted in pure joy.  He is risen.