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Dear Centenary Family,
I’m looking forward to worshipping with you Easter Sunday. We’ll have a wonderful service. Our choir and brass ensemble I know will lift our spirits and inspire our own singing and worship.
Easter’s the high point of the Christian year. We begin this service with the joyful acclamation, “Christ is risen!” and the response, “Christ is risen indeed!”
I’m aware that we all come to this joyful celebration from different places. For some of us, this Easter will be the first major holiday we’ve celebrated without a loved one. Some of us have experienced some other loss, whether recent or experienced at some point in the past, that will be fresh on our minds. Some of us will find ourselves wondering about why the power of Christ’s resurrection has not yet completely eradicated violence, war, oppression, and injustice.
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is John 20:1-18. The major character in this Easter narrative is Mary Magdalene who is the first to arrive at the tomb only to find it empty. One of the things that stands out to me in John’s account is that even when confronted with the empty tomb, and even after the disciples receive those reports, not everyone knows exactly what to make of Easter. It takes time for Mary Magdalene to recognize Jesus. John seems to grasp the significance of the empty tomb, but Peter doesn’t seem to know what it all means. In fact, later in John’s gospel, he’s gone back to fishing.
My title this week is “Unnerved by Easter.” Without giving it all away, I’d be very happy if this Easter we could all leave worship asking ourselves and each other, “What if Easter is true?” You see, most of us have no problem believing that we live in a world where war is commonplace, where injustice is tolerated, where unkindness and cruelty have become accepted tactics by some to achieve our own goals. The reality of sin and evil in the world seems to be self-evident. But what if Easter really is true? What if Christ is alive? How would believing and experiencing that reality transform us? How would that transform the way we approach the problems so pervasive in our world? How would that truth alter the way we approach our own losses and disappointments?
Whatever else we are or claim to be as the people of God, we’re at least folks who try to live our lives as if Christ is alive, no matter how challenging that may be.
Let’s help each other this Easter season to look for the signs of the presence of the risen Christ in our church—and in the world around us! I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday!
Peace,
Matt
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