Easter Morning Message 2008

David: This morning is Easter the most glorious day in the Christian year!

Um... this is Easter morning the glorious, the most important...the day...

Excuse me for just a moment (whisper in Cathy’s ear and leave the sanctuary)

Cathy: Wow I don’t know what to say...David has become “indisposed” and he will come back as soon as he can. This is a little embarrassing...

Easter, well, David is right, without the surprising discover of the empty tomb we wouldn’t be here this morning. Our celebration of Christmas wouldn’t make sense without Easter and all it means for us...

...Where is that David... (look at watch, pause) It’s great that you all came this morning, especially our visitors... and how about those Blue Jays... and...

Oh ya! ...I know what I can tell you. Do you know that Easter hasn’t been this early in 95 years? There are only a couple of members of our congregation who were alive the last time Easter was this early. Most of us are accustomed to Easter in April and often we are enjoying the signs of Spring with the grass getting greener and the Crocuses and Snow Drops emerging. When that happens it is so much easier to celebrate the resurrection.

This year it has been more snow flakes than Snow Drops. In lots of places there has been record amounts of snow and those flowers are still hiding in the ground. Those poor people in Newfoundland this past week with another big storm.

The good news is that Easter won’t be as early as March 23 for another 220 years. I guess not many of us will be around for the next one! Then again, this is Easter when we celebrate eternal life, so we will be around, but our vantage point will be a little different.

If only we had a bit more of the signs of Spring to help us along...

David: I’m back! I’ve got my wheelbarrow and my shovel and I’m itching to get into the garden, except everything is covered in snow. Are any of you getting impatient with winter?

We went to Canada Blooms last weekend and the flowers were inspiring. But the weather just isn’t cooperating!

The little miracle of spring flowers is one of the ways God our Creator points toward the great big miracle which is the resurrection of Jesus and all that the Easter story means to us.

Did you notice in the gospel lesson today that Mary was so sad on Easter morning that she didn’t recognize the risen Jesus to begin with? No wonder. After Jesus died on the cross the people who loved him took his body to the cemetery and they buried him a grave. A big stone was rolled across the entrance. It must have been confusing when Mary got there early on that Sunday morning because the stone was moved away and Jesus’ body was gone.

So she asked the gardener what had happened. Cemeteries often have people who look after the gardens and Mary knew that Jesus had died. Where is the body?

It was an honest mistake on Mary’s part, although maybe it wasn’t a mistake at all. Without Jesus tending to our souls, how can we experience new life and resurrection? Still, even though Jesus is our Gardener it’s a challenge to trust in life and eternal life when it feels the way it has outside. Maybe it actually helps a little that there is still the evidence of cold and snow around us because most of us live with a certain amount of winter in our souls, no matter how many blessings we have to count.

Some of us may be dealing with disappointment that is hard to shake, and we may not know what the future holds. People will say to those of you who are younger “Oh, you have your whole life ahead of you” as though that solves everything. When we are scared it’s tempting to count all the things that have gone wrong rather than the blessings.

Some of us have loved ones both young and old who are dealing with illness and it can be tough to stay hopeful. Even when we get good news about our health we wonder, how long will it last?

Of course death is a reality for some of us as well. Even though we are grateful for today’s wonderful message that Christ has defeated death we feel the emotion and the loss which comes with death and the darkness can seem stronger than the light.

Earlier this week I went to visit one of our elderly members who has been slowly dying in a nursing home. They didn’t want to let me in because of a virus “making the rounds” but they gave me a mask and told me that I could go to see him. His eyes were closed and he didn’t respond to my voice, so what could I do?

I got out my bible and I read the passage from John’s gospel which we heard today and I prayed that he feel the warmth of God’s love and the promise of eternal life.

Sometimes it is a huge leap of faith to say Christ is Risen! and to have the exclamation mark in our hearts as well as in our voices.

This Easter morning we can push back the snow in our spirits and discover the signs of hope. There is an empty tomb in our story where the stone is rolled away and from Jesus, the Risen One comes to our lives.

Have any of you read the book by C.S. Lewis called the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or seen the movie the Chronicles of Narnia?

In the story the land of Narnia is locked in the ice and snow of a perpetual winter because of the power of the White Witch. When she is angry she turns creatures into frozen statues in the forest. In Canada that’s just people waiting at a bus-stop, but in Narnia it is scarey!

Do you remember what happens next? The White Witch realizes that her sleigh isn’t moving very well and it is because the snow is melting. And there is the sound of running water which confirms that the ice and snow are changing. Buds appear on trees and life returns to the frozen world.

Every moment the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of snow grew smaller...Soon there were more wonderful things happening...the noise of water grew louder.Presently they actually crossed a stream. Beyond it they found snowdrops growing...

This is no thaw, said the dwarf, suddenly stopping. This is Spring!

Then Aslan arrives and there is a moment of hope which is quickly dashed when the great Lion is sacrificed. It seems so sad, so hopeless. But life isn’t over. It is just beginning because Aslan rises from the dead, and evil is defeated, and life returns to the land.

C.S. Lewis was a Christian and Aslan the Lion is really Jesus the Risen Christ. He believed that whatever our disappointments may be, in Christ we find the courage to expect eternal life and experience new life now.

The signs are with us. Our days are growing longer and the snow is melting and we are sure that winter can’t last forever. Actually spring officially began a couple of days ago, but it will be when we see the first flowers of the Spring season emerging during the next few weeks we can remember that today is just the beginning of our Easter celebration. Easter is a whole season, and Christ will be with us.

Well, I don’t have a sleigh, but I do have a wheelbarrow, and I wonder what will happen if I push back the snow a little and dig around. Here are some spring flowers!

In a few minutes we are going to sing a hymn which is often used at funerals to remind us that this life is a beginning, not an end. The first verse gives us hope today and every day

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed an apple tree,

in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!

In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.