Lent is over … Easter is over … Now what?
ACTS 2: 14, 36-41
LUKE 24: 13-35
[1]Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright
Yep, I have been in a Paul Simon state of mind these last few days … Sounds of Silence, Homeward Bound, the Boxer … well I can go down the list. The first time I ever preached a lesson of faith to a group of individuals long before God called me into ministry, I used two Simon and Garfunkel songs to weave the Gospels to those hearing me.
Poets like Simon strike home with me … “[2]He was my brother … five years older than I … 23 years old the day he died. Freedom Rider they cursed my brother to his face. He died so his brothers could be free.” I don’t know the words I used that day but that line of Simon and Garfunkel’s song, He Was My Brother, strikes home as we reflect back on Easter … Jesus died so we could be free … they cursed Him to His face but he beat back the cross and we know the Easter truth Mary said it to the disciples, “HE IS RISEN” … <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> the verification of faith … the lesson of hope … I can find it again and again in my world and in my life when I pause … when I look … and absolutely when I am in my most neediest of moments.
How do you answer … personally answer the challenge of our times … EASTER is OVER … LENT is OVER … NOW WHAT? Do you care? Are you motivated to do something?
Last night, I was telling my brother about HOMELESS MARK. All of you helped Mark without knowing it … he’s safe in Florida now pulling his messed-up life together pushing addictions out. And Paul and Artie sang, “[3]Fogs rollin’ in off the East River Bank … like a shroud it covers Bleeker Street fills the alleys where men sleep hides THE SHEPHERD from the sheep.”
They covered Jesus with a shroud … who do you think is responsible for hiding THE SHEPHERD from His sheep in the year 2026? EASTER IS OVER … LENT IS OVER … are you sharing the story? Do others know about your faith? Or is it wrapped in a fog.
Peter, whose awful moment in time I shared with you last week stood up with the other apostles in Jerusalem after Jesus had ascended into heaven and PETER RAISED HIS VOICE … EVERYONE LISTEN CAREFULLY … GOD HAS MADE THIS JESUS … whom YOU ALL CRUCIFIED …. GOD MADE HIM LORD and CHRIST …
The crowd became deeply troubled … and they began to ask … “WHAT SHOULD WE DO?” In Jerusalem they asked WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Do you ever ask … do you ever plead with God … in your private prayers that go beyond a quick blessing onto breakfast foods … when you pull into the privacy of your closet … or out in the green meadows where you know you need restoration from on high … when you have found still waters that you stare at and pray do you ask GOD with sincerity WHAT SHOULD I DO GOD? OH GOD what should I do?
Perhaps you utilized the Lenten season of 2026 for your faith walk … you are walking recognizing that it’s Jesus beside you or maybe just maybe you never have considered that the Holy Spirit can be out on Crown Point Road with you … out on Main Street … even on Bleeker Street.
If we actually take those calendar Holy Seasons like Lent seriously the calendar offers us our opportunity to declare to God … while also admitting to ourselves that, yes, many times … all too many times we’ve been mistaken; we’ve slipped and fallen and definitely been confused because the world runs counter to the essence of God’s expectations… when we notice that friends and neighbors are pledging their allegiance to philosophies that counter the extremely clear teachings of Jesus Christ. Lent gives us an opportunity to move in close to God … to embrace God … to either hold tight to Jesus Christ or perhaps Lent followed by Holy Week with it’s joy-filled conclusionary celebrations on Easter verifies to each of us that God rescues us through Jesus Christ … and once again we can admit to ourselves that we are alright … alright.
Our church family this morning is well aware that the realities of the world … health challenges … wars … poverty … and yes life and death especially when death hits home as it did to all of us this weekend that those realities can shake us to our very core. We are allowed to be angry … Jesus Himself became visibly angry when the self-enriching individuals attempted to take over the Temple in Jerusalem … Jesus tossed tables in His fury. We are allowed to be sad … we can read in the Gospels that Jesus wept.
WE … collectively … WE lost a good … a very good man yesterday. I wept and many of you I am sure wept. We were witnesses to his love for all of us … we knew how he always stepped up to say YES to help us … to help me … to be there for God and this church … my God his smile and laugh … but we remain here left with memories because life doesn’t go on forever …we won’t go on forever … the closure of our time here is unpredictable and friends that is why we need to acknowledge today … and tomorrow and the next day that Jesus is walking with us and we can be using our time in paying attention or we can just reject God … reject Christ and shove the Spirit away … Jimmy never did … but … he’s in a better place and
LENT IS OVER … EASTER IS OVER …. NOW WHAT
Those of you attuned to popular music like me may have heard these lyrics along the way … lyrics to a song that won a Grammy and lyrics this morning that need to remind us of priorities … of essentials … of our call to be amongst the living destined for a better place … amongst those few who can answer the question of this morning as we realize that Easter is over even though we are in a season called Eastertide and knowing that we cannot recreate the official Lenten season of 2026 because Lent is over … but we know what we need to do … we love God, are rescued by Jesus and can sense the Holy Spirit.
[4]And, I may be obliged to defend every love, every ending … or maybe there’s no obligation now. Maybe I’ve a reason to believe … we all will be received in Graceland in Graceland. I’m going to Graceland.
Friends … are you assured of that destination … do you have a reason to believe … can you hold onto me, your pastor, when I am falling, flying or tumbling in turmoil … do you know what I mean when I say we’re bouncing towards Graceland? Life’s vortex’s that seem to throw trash and struggle smack into our faces … we need to hold onto the shroud of Christ … push and pull ourselves into the Light … we all deserve GRACELAND GRACELAND.
It’s hard to recreate Lent’s 40 days because even the collective church moves forward into this season of Eastertide that for many individuals opens up a vacation from faith until Advent calls to them along with Christmas shopping opportunities following Thanksgiving but we are in Eastertide … who are you walking with in your days outside of church. Did you hear Peter’s call this morning?
The people asked … we should be asking … WHAT SHOULD WE DO? LENT IS OVER until next Spring … we are eating chocolate again because Easter is over … now what? WHAT … oh God WHAT
Last Sunday I had you respond over and over again to my reflection of Easter morning that Yes, Jesus Christ… He is Risen <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> But the people were troubled when they heard the message from Peter … Peter the denier … Peter declared as most pastors declared last week … Jesus was crucified … LORD and CHRIST by people in the crowd more focused on the world and worldly stuff … they wanted to know what they needed to do.
And, friends that hasn’t changed today … the answer … the clarity of the Apostle, the one whom Jesus declared the church would be built upon Peter straightened up … Peter looked out at them … knowing that there was a need to rescue folks from the forever fire of damnation … he had the answer … they really should have already known the answer …. HE tried to catch their eyes but the Holy Spirit was alive that day and people were really ready … LENT IS OVER EASTER IS OVER … and Peter declared to them … CHANGE YOUR HEARTS … and CHANGE YOUR LIVES … EACH of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins that’s when you get your ticket to GRACELAND … when you change and get rescued …. Saved from this perverse generation … three thousand every day humans hearing Peter give that challenge figured it out that day CHANGING THEIR HEARTS.
Have you figured it out … have you changed … are you willing to reject the perversity of the generation we are living next to and to get on the road talking with Jesus Christ? We are in church … we are aware of life’s realities and its unpredictable nature … God loves all of humanity equally.
Jesus told Cleophas and the other walking on Emmaus Road … “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing.”
LENT IS OVER … EASTER IS OVER … Paul and Artie sang “In restless streets I walked alone … narrow streets of cobblestone … and the sign said “the words of the prophets are written on subway walls and tenement halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.” We celebrate the words of the prophets fulfilled by Jesus Christ and we know that we no longer have to walk alone we just have to choose to accept God’s love and believe and change.
On that album that led to my first preaching moment … Paul and Artie sing the proclamation GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN JESUS CHRIST IS BORN HALLELUJAH … GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN …
I’ve a reason to believe … we all will be received in GRACELAND … GRACELAND. We only have to believe and change our lives for God. AMEN