Easter C

EASTER C

April 8, 2007

SCRIPTURES

Acts 10:34-43. Peter proclaims to Cornelius and his household both what they know about Jesus from widespread reports and what he and the apostles personally witnessed and were commanded to tell by the risen Lord: the resurrection of Jesus, and his appointment by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Psalm 118:(1-2), 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26. Paul "sings" one of the early Christian hymns celebrating the resurrection of Jesus to the Christians of Corinth (verses 20-22), then explains its implications for the resurrection of Christians and the final victory of Christ at the end of the age.
John 20:1-18. Peter and the beloved disciple verify Mary Magdalene's story that the tomb of Jesus is empty. Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Christ who sends her to announce his ascension to the other disciples.
OR Luke 24:1-12. Luke tells of the women going to the tomb, finding it empty, and running to tell the apostles, who thought theirs was an idle tale. Note that verse 12 is a very uncertain reading in the manuscript tradition, and is likely to have been inserted later.

Easter

- Listen to the sounds of Easter : Moans and groans, sounds of the hammer, weeping, silence, etc.

- Difference between power and control. Jesus had little control but much power. Pharisees, Romans, etc. had lots of control but what turned out to be little power. (spiritual power) Lindy

- "It is very possible that the writer of John is also the beloved disciple, who is telling this story of the birth of his own belief." Richard Donovan

- Christian Century This day is not about bunnies, springtime and girls in cute new dresses. It's about more hope than we can handle. Craig Barns,

-What the Gospels ask is not "Do you believe?" but "Have you encountered a risen Christ?" Craig Barns, Christian Century

-We must learn that what matters is not that we be confident in our hold of Jesus, but confident in his hold of us. Craig Barns

- "The first morning of forever" Jerry Goebel

-The symbolic meaning of the resurrection is to die to one’s smaller self and then discover one’s larger Self

- Repeatedly Jesus had said that he would be "raised on the third day," but none of the resurrection accounts use that expression. Rather they say "on the first day of the week". Perhaps this was to emphasize the change from seventh to first day worship. Stoffregen

- We are beings in process!!

-"Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing." Buechner

-The resurrection is not a return to the past, but a movement to the future. Neither Mary nor we nor our congregations can hold on to the past after resurrection Stoffregen

-.The disciples did not see the risen Christ that morning anymore than we do now.

- There was joy in the morning: (sermon outline)

....Joy for Mary...she now knew she would never be alone...in some cosmic eternal way she would always share the God she and Jesus had in common.
.... Joy in the heavens for God knew that now humans would never be the same again for they now knew what it meant to be fully human
....Joy for all humans for they now knew that you could destroy the body but not the relationship one has with his/her God. Lindy

- Hope is born in not knowing where you are going but in knowing who is leading the way.

-He not only knows Mary's name; he knows your name, too. Rev. Dr. George Mason
- Resuscitation means resumption of physical existence; resurrection means entry into a different kind of existence.

- Lent, Palm Sunday, etc. is a human response. Easter is God's response.

- Who will roll the stone away from those places where death and decay have us locked in or trapped? Keith A. Russell

- We must roll the stone away that keeps people from coming out of their tombs.

QUOTES

- Easter is the eighth day of creation. Fred R. Anderson

- We cannot nail Him down. We tried once but he got loose…BB Taylor

- “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” Martin Luther King, Jr

- The new life would not really be new life if it did not come from the complete end of the old life. Paul Tillich

- Easter never happened.....Easter always happens.

- Easter has to do with the victory of seemingly powerless love over loveless power. W.S. Coffin

- It is a Good Friday world. William Sloane Coffin

- As wilderness preceded the Promise land; foolishness precedes wisdom; emptiness precedes fulfillment, suffering precedes joy. So death precedes resurrection and darkness the light. Lindy

- The human body has a built-in-obsolescence. John Macquarrie

- "Let Christ "Easter" in us. Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland

- Behold I am doing a new thing Isa. 43:19

- No more do we need to ask, "Did he arise from the dead?" It is more appropriate to ask, "Did he ever die?" Richard Niebuhr

- Christ left us that he may never leave us.

- Easter is such a "churchy" event. Keith Russell

-Father Daniel Berrigan, "If you want to follow Jesus, you had better look good on wood."

-Resurrection is always present, if we only have eyes to see and ears to hear. Easter death thought

-We live in a world in which what's dead stays dead

- god has woven resurrection into our daily lives so we can learn the shape of it and perhaps learn to trust the strength of it when our own time comes. BBTaylo

- In our end is our beginning; in our time infinity; reversal In our doubt there is believing, in our life eternigy In our death a resurrection at the last a victory song

- Behold I am doing a new thing.

ILLUSTRATIONS

1.Good Friday morning 2002 brought bad news for the Ross Avenue Baptist Church in old East Dallas. The lovely building caught fire, and the beautiful Greek-revival architecture with the stained glass dome is now a burned-out shell. But church members have gotten used to the idea over the years that they need to die to the past if they are to live again as a church. Their current pastor, Eddie Sanchez, leads a church that's changing with the neighborhood. They may not be the church they once were, but they are worshipping the risen Lord even this morning, because they have discovered that Christ is neither shut up in a garden grave nor buried in the ashes of their old building's more glorious past. That church is still a community of resurrection people, even though many of them no longer speak English as a first language.

2. "Where there is death and destruction, there is a morning." from Easter service following tornado destruction in Alabama

3. Escape From the Tomb (Jn. 20:1-18) Barbara Brown Taylor talks about Easter but does so with the illustration of a cicada shell

HUMOR

-Dumb Easter Bunny gnawed off 3 legs; left 4th in trap!

-Tomb becomes a womb

-He was always hard to get a hold of-Jesus. I wonder if he tried to climb out of the manger. It probably shouldn't have surprised us that the grave couldn't hold him either. Even death couldn't keep that good man down. Rev. Dr. George Mason

CHILDREN

- Have a children's Easter Parade. Have them walk up and down aisles of church, etc. Lindy

-Talk about Easter symbols: butterfly (resurrection); cross (symbol of suffering and joy); egg (something in us that never dies); the lamb, Christ; white lily, purity; purple, royalty; green, new life; rabbits, fertility; pretzels, hands in prayer; hot cross buns, cross frosted on top. Lindy (Take your choice!)

- Plant grass in your Easter basket. (new life, etc.) Lindy

- What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly Richard Bach. Talk about resurrection using the butterfly as an example

PRAYER PHRASES

-Gracious God, on this day of resurrection, we give you thanks. We thank you for the promise of life, life after death and life before death through Jesus Christ our risen Lord. Amen.
Rev. Mary Jane Cornell
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