ASK YOURSELF THIS SIMPLE QUESTION
ACTS 10: 334-43
JOHN 20: 1-18
APRIL 20, 2025 EASTER MORNING
Happy Easter … “Joy to the World, the Lord has come … Let earth receive her King! Let Every heart prepare Him Room…” Yeah, I know that’s a Christmas song, but those words are so true to me today … are they real to you too? Is this a day when you want to shout for JOY because God’s loving gift to us has pushed back death and can rescue us from our sinful nature … is your heart preparing room again for Jesus. You do know that He left the tomb behind, right. In your life … in that inner thinking essential part of you that we refer to as our souls … are you feeling joy today and preparing room knowing that HE IS RISEN <<He is Risen Indeed>>
We have arrived at the culmination of this year’s Holy Season; last week here in this sanctuary we marched around with palms, and I pray that you have invested your time since Ash Wednesday with reflections on and with God through Jesus Christ. We are frequently reminded that “God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that EVERYONE who BELIEVES in Him will have eternal life.” And, somehow, we seem to miss the next verse, “God did not send God’s Son into the world to judge the world … in fact we are not supposed to be judging nor condemning others especially about their faith lives either …Jesus was sent to earth so that the world might be SAVED through Him.”
Easter … Easter is all about THAT lesson offered to Nicodemus by Jesus … it’s the soul refreshing sharing truth about God’s loving relationship with ALL of us … or at least God wants to have a loving RELATION-SHIP with ALL of humanity … but a relationship is a two-way street, isn’t it? Easter, it’s about Jesus beating back the tomb of death … and yes, it’s more than chocolate bunnies and deviled eggs. It’s much more … and believing in Jesus is much more than offering lip service or adding Christian to self descriptions on social media. Easter carries an incredible and essential life option … become an Easter person who actually obeys Jesus Christ’s teaching or reject Him. Engaging in an active and honest relationship recognizing that God is God and then doing what God expects or the other option is just tossing God away like used candy bar wrappers from your Easter feasting.
I want you to consider a simple question … it’s not that the answer really matters to me but since this is EASTER … you know not just another Sunday in worship when I stand up here with joy in my heart sharing the reality of God’s loving gift of salvation in Jesus Christ with you but this Sunday is extra special because the fact that the tomb could not hold JESUS back has its own specific day on the calendar called Easter and perhaps the reality that ‘HE IS RISEN’ … <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> is hitting home with you like it is with me this morning like it hopefully is with millions of people around the world TODAY before that proverbial midnight bell sounds.
My question for each of us here in this beautiful sanctuary and for all of you watching and worshiping online with us … my question is about how you start your days or perhaps how you start your days the moment when you feel awake enough to think clearly … I know that I need a good cup of coffee to really feel a day has begun … yea COFFEE. My simple question is this ‘When … when do you think about God and Jesus Christ each day? Perhaps more specifically, when did you think about God and Jesus Christ today?” Do you even think about God and Jesus Christ on a daily basis?
Yes, it is a simple question … but as I listen to an array of loud voices out there in the world whose verbiage of messaging countering the teaching of Jesus Christ spews out with increasing energy it makes me ponder my simple question of the day … ‘When do people out there in the world who call themselves “Christian” think about God and Jesus Christ?’ … IF EVER … At what moment in their days/your days, weeks, months, or years do the expectations of God that Jesus taught both before and after Holy Week come to mind? Not only come to mind but are then included in your life’s activities.
Perhaps reflectively, I should be asking or challenging folks with a more intrusive question, “At what point in your day do you reflect as to whether or not your words, your actions, and your social media posts are aligned with God and Jesus Christ?” Do you make a quick edit to ensure that what you show to the world is actually showcasing the lessons of Jesus from the Gospels? Are your conversations EVERY DAY about the world around you … aligned with our Risen Savior’s teaching?
EVERY DAY … in response to Jesus not being left on the cross but leaving the tomb empty and vacant because Jesus is THE MESSIAH; since you are with us this day I am assuming you call Jesus your MESSIAH … God’s loving GIFT of LOVE … and we are asked … well no we actually we are told that we need to believe and by believing it means that we are actually obeying Jesus Christ’s teaching as if He truly is our Lord and Savior.
In my mind these are important Easter questions because later today … so many folks who self identify with Jesus will be gleefully eating that chocolate that they sacrificed for their faith for the Lenten season … If they are asked what did they do for God or to get close to God what would their answer be? Well, I gave up chocolate for 40 days … God will be so pleased with me. Did that candy bar sacrifice coincide with additional reading of Scripture or moments of prayer or listening to music of faith or was the only faithful practice a glance at the scale to see if any weight was lost … for the 40 days of candy sacrifice to God and perhaps also to Jesus a sacrificial reflection of non-candy devouring. And, I know of others who are absolutely looking forward later today to a vacation from church now because Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday were just a bit overwhelming this time around but now they can escape from any scheduling issues with church until it is time to bring out the tree and manger scenes once again. Just a quick FYI, Christmas Eve this year is on a Wednesday … services here will probably be at 6pm or maybe 5pm and 7pm. Just check in November because we should know by then.
Peter in Acts delivers a remarkable perspective on the relationship between God and humanity. Peter who had denied Christ three times after the Son of God was arrested and the beating had started. Peter who was hiding behind locked doors not understanding the Easter truth until the women came to declare the good news … HE IS RISEN <<He is Risen Indeed>> … Peter had just taught those gathered around him that “God has shown me that I should never call any person impure or unclean” and now he is declaring “God does not show partiality to one group of people over another. Rather, in EVERY nation, WHOEVER WORSHIPS Him and DOES WHAT IS RIGHT is acceptable to Him. This is the message of peace God sent by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ.” That’s the Word of God … for ALL the people of God ; an Easter truth from Peter.
And,” Jesus asks Mary … who are you looking for?” That should be our Easter challenge … actually our challenge in life … the answer to our daily question that should inspire us to move closer into the light of Jesus Christ. We ALL should be looking for Jesus and then listening and obeying and following Him.
I realize that we all are subject to an onslaught of voices and messages. It seems that between my I-pad, my cell phone, and my desk top computer that those alerts and messages never ever stop. Of course, when it is a story about the Buffalo Bills … I will stop everything that I am doing to read the update because football played by millionaires is essential to my well being and my future. So, whose messages do you stop and set aside everything for? God is always trying to reach us … God is as close as the Bible apps on our cell phones or in the birds in the trees and the clouds in the sky.
I guess this Easter … when yes, I know I have candy in a colorful basket waiting for me even though I obviously did not sacrifice a single sweet this Lenten Season … this EASTER is the most essential EASTER for each of us because we can’t go back to those days when we played ‘Here Comes Peter Cottontail’ on our record players … we can’t go back to Easters when almost every woman wore a new hat or a new dress before helping to fill up almost every single church along with the men of their lives who were dressed in suit and tie. What we have control of is our relationship to God this Easter. Not a single one of us knows whether we will have another Easter in our lives … so this EASTER is your’s friends … YOUR opportunity to mold your relationship with God into whatever you choose. God is ready to mold you … God has hope for each of us.
And, on this Easter … as I prepare to stand later this week in front of a gathering celebrating the life of Bill Blair … and then on Friday I will stand at a gathering for Kathi Meyers and then on Saturday here in this church, for Janet Brown … They have lived out their life journeys which presented them all with opportunities to make Easter more than candy and their Mondays through Saturdays more than days fixated on the world. They heard sermons and they knew where to find Bibles. I am sure they each knew how to pray, and they had those Easter choices to make … stare vacantly at emptiness or find Jesus’ light beyond the tomb ready to save them and to allow Jesus to become their Lord and Savior! On this Easter, I realize I don’t know when my last moment here will be. That is why this EASTER matters!
So, this all brings me back to songs. It seems that music is always a central reality of my life. I have been wondering why people of faith have not added more songs of Easter’s joy to the popular hit lists. Why do we know so many songs about the birth of Jesus and have even created a whole playlist of Christmas songs that really have nothing to do with Jesus yet … yet when it comes to Holy Week … when it comes to God’s ultimate moment of showing love to all of humanity … I can only think of a song about a frill covered Easter bonnet and the lost bunny Peter Cottontail. “Hopping down that bunny trail hippity-hopping because Easter” was on its way. Perhaps Christians are embarrassed to let the world know the Easter truth while singing about a baby in a manger in public is easy to do or celebrating a pile of gifts under a tree is promising.
One verse from Peter Cottontail begins “you’ll wake up on Easter morning and you’ll know that he was there.” The song is about a pretend rabbit but as Christians … when you woke up this morning were you waking up with joy knowing that Jesus Christ was here on earth … teaching us about God’s expectations and then providing us with a pathway to eternal life with God; Jesus taking our sins to the cross. When we woke up today on Easter morning perhaps you were once again reminded of God’s love … that there Jesus was … beyond the tomb … the women rushed to declare the loving truth …. HE IS RISEN <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> and so what are you going to do with that knowledge because I pray … I pray that you wake up every morning knowing Jesus was here and then reflecting on our Risen Savior, putting the Messiah into your life’s actions and words pushing aside the world especially anything in the world that counters the lessons of Easter … “He rules the world with truth and grace … let heaven and nature sing … let heaven and nature sing.” AMEN