Easter Message

From Rev. Debra Vanover, Rector

Alleluia, The Lord is Risen.

The Lord is risen indeed!

Many faiths believe in the immortality of the soul, of our existence after death. Christianity differs in that we believe that not just our spirit continues but that the body itself is resurrected. We see this in the transfiguration when Jesus stands with the disciples upon the mountain with Elijah and Moses, then with his declaration of the importance of the body when he raised Lazarus from death and Paul refers to our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

 On Palm Sunday we walked with him as he was declared King of Kings, the Awaited One, only to then find as we walked through holy week, that Jesus met betrayal, trial, denial, abandonment, judgment and torture through crucifixion. After he is determined to be dead, Jesus is buried, but on the third day the women who go to care for his body encounter an empty tomb only to then meet Jesus himself in the garden. Disciples then encounter him on the road to Emmaus; Thomas is told to "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand in the wound in my side, don't be faithless any longer Believe!" Jesus enters the upper room where his followers were all gathered in fear and confusion, and later he meets them on the beach as they come in from fishing.

 It is hard to deny that foundational to Christianity is the belief in a physical resurrection of the body or the impact this encounter engendered in the early believers. The world was transformed, fear was banished, joy replaced sorrow and hope blossomed. Yes, it is hard to believe, and we continue to bear witness to it as we deepen our relationship with Jesus individually and corporately and find we can sing with the hymnist: "You ask me how I know he lives.... He lives within my heart."

So we will come this Easter Morn to step out in faith, in trust and hope, willing to believe the unbelievable because we have been touched by the Spirit and enlivened. We come to believe against belief that His word is true. We come to worship, to bow down to declare him our God, to acknowledge his loveliness, his worthiness and the wonder that is Christ. We come to praise, to give thanks that this God through the Spirit communes with us and companions us daily through the "good, the bad and the ugly" of our life. He is our Savior and our God and our friend. So I encourage you! Sing out your Hosanna's, celebrate his love and praise his holy name for he is Risen and he HAS overcome death for all who will but come and receive.