Easter Day
There’s a joke which asks ‘How many Easter eggs can you put in an empty basket? The answer is only one because, after that, it’s not empty any more!
Today we celebrate something that is empty – an empty tomb as Jesus has risen… and throughout the world shouts of ‘Alleluia’ ring out. St Augustine wrote, ‘We are an Easter people – and our song is ‘alleluia’.
Being an Easter people is seeing in the Resurrection more than an astounding event of long ago – a dead man rising in the dust of Palestine in the first century. This rising means that Jesus is out and about in our communities today. He lives for ever – Alleluia!
And that word keeps reoccurring at Easter time – Alleluia – literally ‘Praise the Lord’. It is used in the bible in the Book of Psalms – but elsewhere it only occurs in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha and in the Book of Revelation and in these books it isn’t a song for human tongues at all – it is the chant of the saints and angels of heaven. It is the heavenly song of the New Jerusalem.
So each time we say or sing ‘Alleluia!’ – each time it just comes to our tongues in this Easter season– then earth unites with heaven, and a little piece of eternal life’s song comes as a gift into our world. When you sing or say ‘Alleluia!’ it isn’t just another word among many, it isn’t just the language of earth that you are using, but you speak with all the saints and angels in the language of heaven.
So today on ‘Alleluia!’ Sunday, ‘Alleluia!’ is the word the Church uses to greet the good news of the Resurrection, and not only as an historical event of the past, but as a present reality, for Jesus, the Crucified is alive and He comes to greet us in all our encounters for he is miraculously with us – our prophet, priest and king – and also our companion and friend for the journey.
Resurrection is not only about that event in the past – it is about a present reality, and we can live Easter everyday for Christ’s rising has put a new ingredient into life, not only our life, but the life of everything that exists.
Christians are not ‘the people of the book’ however important the Holy Scriptures are to us and our communities – we are rather ‘the people of a person.’ Jesus comes to us constantly to know us and to be known by us to transform our ‘today’ life into such an enormously glorious thing that it reflects the rays of heaven into everyday life – even the mundane and difficult moments of it.
The gospel of John presents ‘eternal life’ not as something which is to come – beyond the momentous moment of our death – but rather as a present reality into which we are already invited by the power of the Resurrection. In the power of this life lies all Christian hope, and we don’t have to wait until we die to begin bit by bit living it and enjoying it.
What we need do need is the vision to see the realities of resurrection life which shoot through our daily living – and that vision comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit - opening our eyes of faith.
We are an Easter people because God in Christ has invited us into the life which will never end – and he’s done it right here and now. As the Exultet, that great Easter shout of praise, says – earth is united with heaven – in this Easter life. It is a life with different values, higher ideals than perhaps we have ever dreamed we are capable of living. This is the Easter life of grace and peace.
We don’t have to understand this mysterious invitation to new life – understanding lots of things is way beyond most of us – and understanding God is top of the list… but God doesn’t ask us to understand his love, he doesn’t ask us to understand resurrection – he asks us to live it – on the news sheet today I have included a quote from Martin Luther King, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase’…
Sometimes we must all look at the world with somewhat depressing thoughts – many people would ask how to link the Easter Message of Joy to what is going on in the world… many would ask us with a slightly secular edge that expects there isn’t really a link at all.
In times of joy it’s easy to speak of resurrection – easy to believe in a God of hope and love, but actually the Easter message of hope and new life speaks directly into the world’s problems as well - for in the Resurrection of Jesus the Crucified God took the very worst that could have happened, the very worst that anyone involved with Jesus could ever have imagined, and, through grace, brought forth new hope and new life in a way in which those who had lived through the Good Friday experience could never have imagined possible in their wildest dreams.
From the worst we can imagine God’s love is capable of bringing to birth the very best which is totally beyond our powers of imagination. In this hope the Christian community to which we belong was brought to birth. Its hallmark is hope, its way of living is love and its song is that heavenly chorus on the lips of all believers to-day – you’ve probably all guessed the word - ‘Alleluia!’
Christ is risen. Alleluia! We are risen. Alleluia! And that is why this day is the most important day of celebration in all the Christian calendar. There’s a Christmas song which says something about ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’… Well, for Christians, it may be good to enjoy Christmas – to celebrate the gift of a child who would change the world, but at Easter we celebrate that changing moment – the time when new life threw aside the grave stone – and hope and life and love re-entered the world so powerfully that nothing would ever be the same again. Amen
Today we celebrate something that is empty – an empty tomb as Jesus has risen… and throughout the world shouts of ‘Alleluia’ ring out. St Augustine wrote, ‘We are an Easter people – and our song is ‘alleluia’.
Being an Easter people is seeing in the Resurrection more than an astounding event of long ago – a dead man rising in the dust of Palestine in the first century. This rising means that Jesus is out and about in our communities today. He lives for ever – Alleluia!
And that word keeps reoccurring at Easter time – Alleluia – literally ‘Praise the Lord’. It is used in the bible in the Book of Psalms – but elsewhere it only occurs in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha and in the Book of Revelation and in these books it isn’t a song for human tongues at all – it is the chant of the saints and angels of heaven. It is the heavenly song of the New Jerusalem.
So each time we say or sing ‘Alleluia!’ – each time it just comes to our tongues in this Easter season– then earth unites with heaven, and a little piece of eternal life’s song comes as a gift into our world. When you sing or say ‘Alleluia!’ it isn’t just another word among many, it isn’t just the language of earth that you are using, but you speak with all the saints and angels in the language of heaven.
So today on ‘Alleluia!’ Sunday, ‘Alleluia!’ is the word the Church uses to greet the good news of the Resurrection, and not only as an historical event of the past, but as a present reality, for Jesus, the Crucified is alive and He comes to greet us in all our encounters for he is miraculously with us – our prophet, priest and king – and also our companion and friend for the journey.
Resurrection is not only about that event in the past – it is about a present reality, and we can live Easter everyday for Christ’s rising has put a new ingredient into life, not only our life, but the life of everything that exists.
Christians are not ‘the people of the book’ however important the Holy Scriptures are to us and our communities – we are rather ‘the people of a person.’ Jesus comes to us constantly to know us and to be known by us to transform our ‘today’ life into such an enormously glorious thing that it reflects the rays of heaven into everyday life – even the mundane and difficult moments of it.
The gospel of John presents ‘eternal life’ not as something which is to come – beyond the momentous moment of our death – but rather as a present reality into which we are already invited by the power of the Resurrection. In the power of this life lies all Christian hope, and we don’t have to wait until we die to begin bit by bit living it and enjoying it.
What we need do need is the vision to see the realities of resurrection life which shoot through our daily living – and that vision comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit - opening our eyes of faith.
We are an Easter people because God in Christ has invited us into the life which will never end – and he’s done it right here and now. As the Exultet, that great Easter shout of praise, says – earth is united with heaven – in this Easter life. It is a life with different values, higher ideals than perhaps we have ever dreamed we are capable of living. This is the Easter life of grace and peace.
We don’t have to understand this mysterious invitation to new life – understanding lots of things is way beyond most of us – and understanding God is top of the list… but God doesn’t ask us to understand his love, he doesn’t ask us to understand resurrection – he asks us to live it – on the news sheet today I have included a quote from Martin Luther King, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase’…
Sometimes we must all look at the world with somewhat depressing thoughts – many people would ask how to link the Easter Message of Joy to what is going on in the world… many would ask us with a slightly secular edge that expects there isn’t really a link at all.
In times of joy it’s easy to speak of resurrection – easy to believe in a God of hope and love, but actually the Easter message of hope and new life speaks directly into the world’s problems as well - for in the Resurrection of Jesus the Crucified God took the very worst that could have happened, the very worst that anyone involved with Jesus could ever have imagined, and, through grace, brought forth new hope and new life in a way in which those who had lived through the Good Friday experience could never have imagined possible in their wildest dreams.
From the worst we can imagine God’s love is capable of bringing to birth the very best which is totally beyond our powers of imagination. In this hope the Christian community to which we belong was brought to birth. Its hallmark is hope, its way of living is love and its song is that heavenly chorus on the lips of all believers to-day – you’ve probably all guessed the word - ‘Alleluia!’
Christ is risen. Alleluia! We are risen. Alleluia! And that is why this day is the most important day of celebration in all the Christian calendar. There’s a Christmas song which says something about ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’… Well, for Christians, it may be good to enjoy Christmas – to celebrate the gift of a child who would change the world, but at Easter we celebrate that changing moment – the time when new life threw aside the grave stone – and hope and life and love re-entered the world so powerfully that nothing would ever be the same again. Amen
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