Easter Day

Luke 24:1-12

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The women who go to the tomb early that morning think they know what to expect. They think they know how death works. They expect to see Jesus’ body, wrapped in linen cloths. They expect to smell the dampness of the earthen tomb. They expect to touch Jesus, anointing his body (and expelling any noxious smells) with their burial spices.

Like the women who went to the tomb, our experience of our embodied, incarnate God is deepened through our senses.

Gathered here on Easter Sunday, we celebrate that we
see Jesus in the people around us;hear the sound of our voices raised in prayer and music;

recognize God’s presence in the scent of our shared breath, as we remember God’s Holy Spirit or ruach moves among us;
and feel God’s comforting touch in hands joined together in welcome and embrace.

The men who ask, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” name the paradox – the incongruity – of what it means to know both God’s absence and presence.

There are times in our lives when we have nights like the one the women just had. After the crucifixion, living in the grief of Holy Saturday, and awaiting the new morning, they put one foot in front of the other, doing what they knew how to do, in the face of uncertainty and unknowing. When the darkness of the night seems unending, and it is difficult to imagine the sun will rise, sometimes all we can do is wait to see what dawn will bring.

Maybe it is the day you are told you won’t have a job tomorrow. Or you receive a life-changing diagnosis. Or you watch your child struggle with illness or addiction. Maybe it is a day when no one calls or speaks to you and the loneliness of a solitary life weighs you down.

In these Good Friday moments, it is easy to notice the absence of the divine. To cry out and wonder where God is. To despair. It can be challenging to know God’s presence when we are hurting, when we are grieving and when we are afraid.

But is in these same moments that, like the women do,

we are asked to remember.

Trying to make sense of the empty tomb early that first Easter morning, the men say to the women, “Remember how he told you…” and they do! They remember that Jesus had said he would be rejected and killed and then be raised on the third day. (Luke 9:22; 18:31)

Confident in the resurrection and God’s victory over death and the grave, we too are called to remember God’s words of promise and God’s saving action for us.

At this table eating the bread and drinking the wine, we remember:
Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again.

As we live our Easter lives, especially on this Easter morning, we are invited to experience the fullness of our incarnate God, to celebrate with joyful alleluias, glorious music and full-throated singing, to enjoy the sight of butterflies, to drink in the scent of flowers and to savor the taste of bread and wine that nourishes us in body and spirit.

Let us pray…
Holy God,
Thank you for your Son Jesus, who is risen from the grave.
Thank you for your love that soothes us when we are weary.
Empower us by your Spirit to reshape the world around us in faithful obedience to you, and in love for all of your creation.
Help us keep the feast that the whole world may be fed by your eternal grace.
Amen.