Easter Day 2010

Easter 2010

St. Luke’s Church

4 April 2010

By Stuart Pike and Sharyn Hall

Stuart: Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

Sharyn: He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

Stuart: This is the traditional Christian greeting for Easter. Despite everything Christ went through during Holy Week - despite all we have gone through in our lives, the Passion of Christ and his death is not the final ending.

Sharyn: Light and life wins. Our worship at Easter marks the turning point from the darkness of the tomb and death, to the light of resurrection. New life.

Stuart: But we begin in the tomb.... You know, the tomb is where many people live their lives.

Sharyn: What do you mean?

Stuart: Well, we are living in the tomb when we forget to live as an Easter people. The tomb is the place of forgetful faith. For many their sense of the real world is the tomb. It’s where disappointed lives live. Joy is forgotten. Suspicion, cynicism, and pessimism are in the tomb.

Sharyn: Oh, I get it. Hopelessness, fatigue, boredom and the mundane, sparkless life are in there too, right?

Stuart: You got it. It isn’t always all negative. Sometimes it just hasn’t got a lot of positives in it. But lots of people live a kind of hum drum life in the tomb. And while some people don’t really live their lives in there, everyone has had at least some experience inside the tomb.

Sharyn: I know what you mean. There’s another thing about the tomb, though.

Stuart: What’s that?

Sharyn: Well, tombs are dark. And when you’re living in the tomb, your vision isn’t very good. It’s hard to see things which might even lead you out of the tomb.

Stuart: You’re right. When you live in the tomb it gets harder and harder to leave it. You might just think that is the way life is. You can really get used to it. If fact, in a weird kind of way, you can even get comfortable in there. Living in the tomb doesn’t place very many demands on you.

Sharyn: Right. If you don’t have much hope, there’s not a lot to live up to. And you don’t have to push yourself very much.

Stuart: But the biggest downside about the tomb is that God’s not in there. Jesus busted out of the tomb! God lives outside.

Sharyn: But the good news is that Jesus broke open the tomb for us too.

Stuart: We need to remember to keep that tomb open, and even to walk out into the light of day.

Sharyn: Easter day!

Stuart: We can’t let anyone close up that tomb. Let’s tell Lois Cheny’s story called “Once upon a time.”

Stuart: Once upon a time
There was a God
Who so loved the world
That he gave his son,
His only son.

Sharyn: And they took that son
And they hung him on a cross
And that son died.
And they buried the son;
Sealed him up tight.

Stuart: But God said,
"Oh no you don't!"
And he rolled back the rock,
He unsealed his son
And his son came out,

Sharyn: Came out walking and breathing
And he was Alive.
And he's alive today
And he walks around
And he stalks around
Breathing hope and life.

Stuart: Every morning just before dawn
For thousands of years
Little grim people
Preachers and bankers and
Storekeepers and students
Sneak up to the grave and
Roll back the stone, to seal it up tight.

Sharyn: And every morning
God roars "Oh no you don't!"
And he flings back the stone.
And out walks Jesus
All over again;
Out stalks the
Grinning, striding Jesus.

Stuart: Tight-lipped
Little people
Hover all day
Around the tomb
And cover it with
Incense
And bow before it
And walk before it
And sigh before it;

Sharyn: And pray to it
And sing to it
And weep to it
And lean on it.

“Once Upon a Time” Lois Cheney from her book, God is no Fool.

Stuart: And no one
Notices
Or at least
They pretend not
To notice,
The living
Breathing
Walking
Talking
Jesus
Out on the Edge calling
"Hey!" "Hey you!"

Sharyn: So do you think Jesus calls out to us, “Hey you?”

Stuart: Yes he does, especially at Easter. We just need to be outside the tomb so we can see and hear him.

Sharyn: If we do, where will he take us?

Stuart: I don’t know. Into God’s ways. But God busted Jesus out of the tomb - that means God is a God who is free. I don’t know where he’ll lead us.

Sharyn: It sounds like an adventure.

Stuart: I’m sure it is. And that’s living as Easter People.

Sharyn: Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Stuart: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Stuart & Sharyn: Amen.