Easter
Sermon
April 4, 2021
Fr. Philip Eberhart
HE IS NOT HERE. HE IS RISEN!
Come,
Holy Spirit, come among us here. Open
our eyes, Lord, to your REAL PRESENCE here today … Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Help us, Lord, to see you … take the veil
away from our eyes. Touch us and let us
touch you, as your disciples did so long ago on that first Easter morning. Be among us this day and forever more. Come, Lord Jesus. AMEN.
HE
IS NOT HERE! HE IS RISEN!
Seven
words that changed the world! The women
that morning came expecting one thing, wondering how they would be able to get
into the tomb to do their religious duty for their friend and Master. They were on a mission of mercy.
The
resurrection of Jesus Christ, no matter what anyone says to you, is one of the
most well attested facts of history – there is no other explanation for these
events. The four gospels tell the story
from various points of view, with the witness to particular groups of people in
mind: Matthew as a witness to the Jews,
Luke to the Gentiles, Mark is the “JOE FRIDAY” gospel (Just the facts, ma’am!)
and John, as he refers to himself, “the one who Jesus loved”, the one and only disciple
at the foot of the cross, tells a very spiritual and personal story of these
events.
Today we
are still, like the women and the disciples, trying to do our best to wrap our
minds around the events and their implications for our day to day life! 2000 years on, and we will take the rest of
eternity, as we say in the Holy Week services, “contemplating these mighty
acts, by which God has wrought our full salvation.”
He Is NOT
Here. HE IS RISEN! Seven words that enfold the central kernel of
truth for the universe. It all comes
back to these words. The resurrection of
Jesus from the dead, … “turned the world upside down.” Those are not my words, but the words of the
leaders of the known world, only 4 or 5 decades after this event!
Have you
had your world turned upside down? The
fact is the resurrection of Jesus – the living Christ turns our world back
upside right!! We are like the pilot who
crashed the jet he was flying when he “pulled up” and flew into the ground,
because he had lost his bearings- his horizon- and was flying upside down at
night! We are flying upside down at
night!
The
resurrection reorients our lives, just as it did the women and the disciples
that day and the subsequent days as Jesus appeared to them in various ways and
places. He met Mary Magdalene in the
garden, to disciples on the road to Emmaus, then he showed us at the Upper
Room, behind a locked door: “Peace! Do not be afraid!”
After the
days of Jesus appearances, his ascension to heaven, which they witnessed, and
the empowering of the Holy Spirit for witness at Pentecost, these men and women
were different, to say the least. They
were a force for the reconciliation of the world, cooperating with the Spirit
of God to share the word of His resurrection.
They were
different people! Different than they
were before; different from the world
around them; different from anything the world expected.
And Jesus
final words, before He ascended are the most promising in the whole story… “And
behold, I am with you even to the end of the age.”
HE IS
RISEN!
This event
didn’t just have an impact on the world back then, it has impact and influence
in our own lives today. He is still today,
“with us.” He is still alive! That is the meaning of today!
I want to
just remind you of something that Peter wrote.
It’s not
in our readings but it should be:
Born Again to a Living Hope 1 Peter 1:3-9 esv
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born
again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, 4 to an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who
by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you
rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved
by various trials, 7 so that the tested
genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it
is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though
you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you
believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with
glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith,
the salvation of your souls.
As OAK
McEachren could be heard to say, “There
it is!”
If you
want to ask the question, “SO WHAAT?” here it is.
Seven
outcomes of those seven words:
1. [You are] born again to a living hope…
2. [You have an] imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading inheritance…
3. [You are receiving] a
salvation ready to be revealed…
4. [You experience the] tested
genuineness of your faith…
5. [Your life is] to result
in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…
6. [You have a] joy that is
inexpressible and filled with glory,
7. [Because you are] obtaining the
outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls
He
is not here. He is risen!
Now
may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great
shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with
everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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