Park United Methodist Church

Matthew 28

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Every year, I get to Easter morning, and I try to explain what makes new life in Christ real.  I mean, some of you come like the soldiers, you are here because you are told to be.  Your reaction is probably much like theirs, sitting as “dead men” in response to the message.  Others come because they have experienced God and this new life and are like Mary jumping and running to share what has happened, rejoicing and crying and knowing.  So, what is the difference?  Is it because you have to be here?  Is it the choice? Is it life experience?  Is it the state of your heart?

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The scientist in me wants to be able to explain to my dear soldiers in the room what exactly it is.  Why, why this is ground-breaking amazing stuff, and “you have to feel it” never settled right with me.  

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So, as a person who has felt God’s new gift of life, where does that lead me?  I guess, trying to explain it a bit.  It is like speaking another language sometimes.  So we talk about new life, and we talk about conquering sin and death, and that Jesus did that, and yet, people die. The world is really messed up, and sometimes it does not feel like we are getting any closer to heaven on Earth despite how many prayers we pray as we watch wars wage, and people hunger, and corruption flare.  

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So what is this new thing?  How can you tell?  What does it mean now?  How does it work - that is totally the scientist in me.   First, let's try to do some translating from Bible speak to things we know.  So when we talk about being “freed from slavery to sin and death,”  what that means is that before Jesus, from the time of the first humans, we as humans have been “enslaved to a pattern of thinking, and behaving, and desiring that’s leading them (us) to death.”  We had been following patterns of behavior where we operated out of control, fear, and power.  

​Jesus rewrote that story.  With Jesus’s kingdom, he did not act out of fear or violence.  People flocked to him out of his kindness, his willingness to love, and create a community that honored love.  God came and lived/dwelled within Jesus to be with us.  When Jesus rose on Easter morning, it was with the promise to leave the Spirit to dwell within us.  That means that each one of us gets to be like Jesus.  We get the choice, the true freedom from fear.  We can operate out of love, and even when it is really hard, learn to love our enemies because that is how the world changes.  Jesus changed the world, not with war horses and violence, not with castles and warriors, but with love, with food, with walking next to his neighbor, and speaking truth.  

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So this Easter, my friends, breathe that in.  Accept that freedom of the resurrection this morning.  Do not be bound by fear made by any human.  Do not allow others to define you, but hear Jesus speaking to your Spirit, calling you into being who you were always meant to be - God’s child, loved and beloved, meant to lead others in love.  Let’s go out into the world to make it a little better, one breath, one moment, one person at a time.