This is the day...

(In this sermon I am going to use some words from the Psalm 118:21-24 and get you to finish the verse – This is the day the Lord has made – we will rejoice and be glad in it).

This is the day the Lord has made – we will rejoice and be glad in it ! Jesus is Alive ! Happy Easter to you all.

I am sure that you all have various traditions at Easter. It may be lamb or turkey for dinner, it may be going for a walk, it may be all sorts of things including how much chocolate can one adult eat compared to the huge amounts a child can seem to eat !

I remember once being put right on Easter by a little girl who explained that that at Easter the Easter bunny comes and he brings chocolate and sweets, but she pointed out whilst it is good that the Easter bunny brought these gifts they were not as important as other parts of Easter.  Because, she said the chocolate and sweets were for after Church and not before.  She went further to say that Easter is about being happy that even though Jesus had died He was now alive, and so we eat chocolates and sweets to celebrate that Jesus is alive.

I really liked her way of looking at Easter, she realised the most important thing, and she had an interesting perspective on the use of chocolate and sweets. It was good.

I have my own special tradition and it is a particular piece of music that I like to listen to on Easter Sunday. There are so many spiritually edifying pieces of music to listen to on this day but none beats my particular favourite. “He’s Alive”, sung and written by Ms.Dolly Parton !!!

Now it is a little strange perhaps, but the song uses phrases such as, “He’s risen and we’re forgiven, His arms are open wide. He’s alive”.

Jesus is alive and this is the Day that the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it. 

The very first Easter was not met with such confidence and to be honest I am not surprised. In our gospel reading (Mark 16:1-8) we heard of the women who had gone to do for Jesus all that they could now do – which was to anoint His body. 

These women must have been so confused and whether they went to the tomb because of auto pilot – this is what we do now, or whether they went because it was the only thing they could now do for Jesus we don’t know. 

Jesus had told all His followers what was going to happen to Him. We don’t know if any remembered or even held out a little glimmer of hope that it would all be ok in the end, but what we do know is that these women when they arrived at the tomb were surprised. They were amazed and they felt terror.

None of these feelings are a surprise – after all the body of their loved one had been removed and in it’s place was a stranger who told them the most incredible news. 

The news that not only was Jesus alive but He was on His way to meet them ! 

I think under those circumstances amazement and terror are quite restrained !! 

This is the day the Lord has made – we will rejoice and be glad in it. 

At Easter we celebrate and after the pain of Holy Week we come into the happiest of times – it is amazing. The theologian Jurgen Moltmann said that Jesus weeps with us on Good Friday so that He could laugh with us on Easter Day. I think this is lovely – that Jesus weeps with us and laughs with us. God is always with us and on this day when we can laugh we remember that this day marks the time when history was changed for ever. 

The time when Jesus rose from the dead reminds us that Jesus has the victory. Love has won. Without the resurrection Jesus would have been seen as a great man. With the resurrection we know that Jesus is the real thing. He is life eternal, He is all we ever need. Jesus is alive and that is the greatest joy there can ever be.

I hope that Easter will always cause us amazement as we think of Jesus alive for ever and with us always. Easter can never be just a story it is life changing. 

Easter is not just about the sentiment of being happy it is about a life changed for ever. We have the option to consider what happens next. Are we prepared to celebrate ? Are we prepared to go further than this and to trust our lives once again to God who loves us, cares for us and will never leave us ?

Jesus is Alive, we have a message to proclaim, and it is a message that Christianity is alive, and that we worship God who has saved us, who has set us free and in order to keep the celebrations going, maybe with less chocolate !!, we need to think about the ways in which we are showing that Jesus is alive in the ways that we live. 

We know that Jesus has risen and that is why today is so different for us – we reflect on an empty cross – we reflect on an empty tomb and on a risen Saviour! 

This is the Day that the Lord has made- we will rejoice and be glad in it.

D William Sangster, a Methodist who had been working on a renewal movement in this country following the 2nd world war contracted a disease which progressively paralysed his body, and even his vocal chords. But on the last Easter Day that he was alive, he painfully printed a note to his daughter saying, ‘How terrible it is to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout “He is Risen!” But it is far worse to wake up with a voice and not want to shout…’ 

Easter is the time when the incredible happens, it is the time when we can see how great and powerful God is. 

We need to rejoice in this great news, and to offer this news to others as we share the joy of the Risen Lord with this world.  We will do this by being as Jesus to others, and by loving them and not being afraid to want to shout out the good news, that Jesus is alive and He has brought life eternal through his death and resurrection.

This is the Day that the Lord has made – we will rejoice and be glad in it. May we rejoice and give thanks, that Christ has risen, He has risen indeed Alleluia !AMEN