Easter Day/Year C Sermon/April 20, 2025 Acts of the Apostles 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Luke 24:1-12 (Rev Julie Platson)
Opening Prayer (Feasting on the Word: Worship Companion)
Living God, by your Holy Spirit, open our eyes to see the new light of this day; open our lips to tell the story of the empty tomb; open our hearts to believe the good news; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We almost always hear the Resurrection story from the Gospel of John on Easter Sunday…but this year, I decided to go with Luke’s story….not that it is really much different (but it is a bit shorter)…and I’m guessing many of you, may not have noticed much…because, basically…just like the Christmas Nativity story we are all so familiar with…our Easter story is one that is equally familiar…
So, how do we listen to this familiar story year after year, and not allow our minds to go on “auto-pilot” while listening to it… What would it take for us to hear it, as if for the first time?
Well, for starters…we might acknowledge that we are creatures of habit…and many of us get stuck in routines, traditions, and leave no wiggle room for surprises…even the most adventurous people…probably still have some predictability about them…
Think about our work and school schedules over the years…alarms go off, coffee pot goes on, shower, maybe some breakfast, run out the door, take the same route to work or school every day, start at the same time, daily tasks are all about the same, end your work day or school day at the same time – time to head home after practices, or stop by the store to pick up a few incidentals for dinner, walk in the door, drop the bags in the kitchen, change clothes, do your homework, prepare dinner, sit and eat, then maybe relax a little bit...and start getting ready for bed…start thinking and preparing for tomorrow…set alarm and fall into bed…only to start all over again…8 or so hours later…
But think back again…was the day really all about routine and seemingly going about at the same pace? I’ll bet not…
Remember when… the coffee pot you set on the timer the night before, didn’t start, as planned… but instead, you got to enjoy the fresh aroma by being in the kitchen while it was brewing…or maybe you couldn’t have cereal for breakfast as you usually have…because you forgot to get the milk for the cereal the night before when you stopped at the store…but, instead, a family member steps up, and cooks up some eggs and pancakes for breakfast for the whole family to enjoy….
Chances are there were many times when you went to start the car, and it wouldn’t start…or …you had to shovel the driveway and scrape the ice off the car before you just run out the door and go off to work or school…But even while you muttering under your breath about shoveling and scraping ice…when you looked around at the newly blanketed landscape of winter snow…you were in awe of the breath-taking view on the mountain tops and in your own yard…and you even had a few extra moments to spare to build a snowman before school…I’m sure each of you could come up with more to add to these examples of those times, when your days, were anything but routine…days that were blessed, when amazing surprises interrupted your daily routine…
One of my favorite remembrances of a wonderful surprise that popped up in the midst of looking for something in the routine of usual places…was a time when I was preparing a funeral homily for someone back when I lived in Nevada. I was struggling to figure out what I would focus on to remember her that day…And, as I walked out of my house that morning, I came across the tiniest daffodil that I had ever seen, blooming in a small patch of dirt, in front of my home. I had never had any daffodils in my yard, ever…and I was so overwhelmed with awe, as to how this miracle of new life popped up in my yard, on this day. You see…this woman that I would be remembering in a few days...loved daffodils…and she lived on a 5 acre plot of land…that was splattered with daffodils every spring…they were her favorite flower…So this little tiny flower…was a reminder for me that God is a God of extraordinary surprises…and yet, at the same time, a reminder that God has always been with us in the daily routines of our lives…and is always trying to get our attention to remember, to remember the many stories and teachings of Jesus and God’s love, that we have heard so many times before…as we’ve gathered as a community of faith to listen to the scriptures, sing songs, pray together, break bread together, and celebrate in fellowship with one another…and then sent forth to go out into the world…to love and care for those in our communities…
Our gospel reading today begins in a way that would have been considered somewhat “routine” …or at least seemingly so...The woman in today’s gospel story were on their way to anoint Jesus’ body with spices - a task that was traditionally assigned to woman. After Jesus’ death on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea had been given permission by Pilate to take Jesus’ body and bury it in a new tomb. This all had happened so quickly, that the proper anointing and preparation for his burial had not been completed. This was one sign right here…that the usual routine was off track…
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body…
Not exactly what they were expecting…why was the stone rolled away? And where was the body? They had watched as Jesus was placed there just days before...They were expecting to find his body still there to anoint it with the spices they had prepared…they were expecting to be close to the one they had grown to love so much…and perhaps hoping to find some comfort in being with him again…
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
Who were these two men? What were they doing in the tomb? What had they done with Jesus? They weren’t supposed to be there. Only Jesus’ body was supposed to be there.
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.
What? What are you talking about?
The light bulb comes on now….
And...Then they remembered his (Jesus’) words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
They thought about it, ever so briefly….and yes…they remembered….and how nervously excited or perhaps surprised they must have been, and thinking...even for just a brief moment…wow…he really did rise from the dead….just like he said was going to happen…and they ran to tell the others…
Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
No break from the routine here…no surprise here…woman weren’t always regarded that well…and were probably thought to be over excited and misunderstanding what they thought they saw and heard...the apostles seemed to have just brushed them off…
But here comes a bit of a break in the routine….
Peter stuns them all…
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Peter seemed to ever so slightly, perhaps, break out of the usual…perhaps pondered the woman’s words …and decided it was worth going to checkout for himself…and what he saw…amazed him…
And this amazing story is meant to be passed on…just as Peter went back home and told others, just as the woman told others…
The Easter story is an amazing one….because it breaks into the routine…it dares us to believe and to hope in something far beyond the usual, the commonplace, the every day trials and temptations that come with being human, and the heartbreaking surprises that impact all of our lives, and especially the most vulnerable peoples among us …
It dares us to believe in something/someone whom we can trust and be encouraged by, as we recall and remember the many stories we have heard throughout the years as proclaimed in the scriptures…stories of Jesus and his words, his teachings, his promises of hope, renewal, healing, reconciliation, peace, and joy that is open to all who desire to follow him, in walking the way of love with him, and one another…a a way of life that invites us to practice keeping our hearts and minds open to the abundance of signs and surprises of this life-transformative love that God is scattering every where we go….waiting for us to notice and respond not only with our lips, but in our lives… and as noted on the front page of the bulletin today, to keep our eyes and ears open to the extraordinary things that are always hiding in places people never think to look (Jodi Picoult)…
There is nothing routine or ordinary about the Good News of Easter…God is continually bringing new life out of death, new life into places in our hearts that have become numb to the suffering all around us and in us…God is breathing new life into every moment of each day…extraordinary, surprising, new life…waiting for us to discover, embrace and celebrate this joyful news and share it with those we meet along the way…
So, lets join together in singing a hymn to celebrate this joyful news…a hymn we sang on the night we celebrated the “good news of great joy” proclaimed by the angel about the birth of the promised One, Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection we celebrate on this joyful Easter Day…
Closing Prayer/Hymn: (H) 100 Joy to the World – (vs 1,2,4)
1 Joy to the world! the Lord is come: (RISEN)
let earth receive her King;
let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing.
2 Joy to the world! the Savior reigns;
let us our songs employ,
while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,
repeat the sounding joy.
4 He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness,
and wonders of his love.