Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

One of my favorite moments in Luke's version (Luke 24:1-12) of the empty tomb is the interaction between the women and the two men. The women, who just witnessed Jesus' death, were visiting the tomb to perform a burial ritual. They expected to walk to the tomb and find it exactly as it was left. However, once they get there, the tomb was already open. The women, confused, peaked in and nothing was there. Suddenly two men in dazzling clothes (aka angels) appeared. The women, shocked and terrified, recognized these men to be divine so they bowed down, shielding their eyes and faces. We could (and maybe should) read the words the two men spoke to the women as meant to be reassuring and comforting. But I also like to imagine these divine messengers being a bit shocked by the women's reaction. These women were the most faithful followers of Jesus. They stayed when every one else fled and made plans to tend to him after he was dead. The women knew Jesus, followed Jesus, and loved Jesus. And even when they didn't know what God was up to. So the divine messengers invited them to remember. As Jesus' most faithful disciples, they should have expected the unexpected Yet in their shock and grief, their expectations got the better of them.

If we're honest about our faith, there are times when we struggle to see what God is up to. We don't always see Jesus clearly, nor do we always know exactly how faith should make a difference in our lives. It doesn't really matter how often we attend church or how often we pray; it's normal to have a moment when we feel as if God has left us alone. This kind of experience doesn't match up with expectations we have for our lives or the expectations we have for God. Yet, it's maybe at those moments when we should remember the words the two men shared in Jesus' tomb 2000 years ago. When we are trapped by our dead-end expectations, we're invited to remember that our Savior is alive. Our limitations are not how God defines us nor are our expectations the limit of what God has in mind. When the women went to the tomb, their mission was to bury Jesus properly. But after they were met by the empty tomb, they suddenly became brand new. The women were the first to proclaim the resurrection, the first to proclaim that Jesus was raised, and the first to say that God was undoing our expectations. They became, in that moment, the first Christians. We don't always know what Jesus is doing in our life. But we can trust that Jesus is alive - and that he will, in the end, always carry us through.

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Christ is Risen! Alleluia! 

It's hard to pick a "favorite" when it comes to the different stories of Jesus' resurrection. But today's reading from the gospel according to Mark 16:1-8 is near the top of my list. If you open up your bible at home, you might notice more verses after these eight. Yet we know that Mark originally ended at this point. Overtime, two different endings were added to the text. One was short, with the women telling others about what they saw (and completely contradicting the verse that came before it). The other ending is much longer, merging together stories from Matthew, Luke, and John. We know this original ending to Mark, with people too afraid to speak, troubled the early church. The early Christians felt compelled to show that the early disciples overcame their fear. And we know the women at the tomb did speak because, 2000 years later, we're sitting right here.  

So why end the story in this way? Because, I think, Jesus' resurrection is terrifying, shocking, and downright amazing. This kind of ending doesn't happen in our daily lives. The shock of the empty tomb is unexpected. And Mark loves the unexpected. The women, out of devotion to their teacher and with a desire to properly care for him in his death, arrived at the the tomb early in the morning. They knew Jesus died and they all knew what death looked like. They had their expectations of how Jesus' story ended. But once they approach the tomb, every expectation was reversed. The large stone was rolled away. A young man, dressed in white, sat inside. The young man acknowledged their fear and surprise and he told them to leave this place and go forward to Galilee. The women run away in silence because none of this was expected. And that makes sense because Jesus was (and is) a brand new thing. 

This brand new thing, however, doesn't end with verse 8. Jesus continues. If we look at the opening verses of the gospel according to Mark, we read this: "The beginning of the good news..." Mark's story was never meant to be an ending nor designed to contain everything about faith and Jesus. Mark (and all the gospels) are only a beginning. And this new beginning continued in Galilee, Turkey, Greece, and beyond. Jesus' story continues wherever people gather to show and tell hoe Jesus made a difference to them. You, right now, are part of that story. And I pray that Jesus' story of love, compassion, and grace will continue to shape your life in amazing ways. 

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When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.​

Mark 16:1-8

My sermon from Easter Sunday (April 1, 2018) on Mark 16:1-8. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below. 

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I’ve noticed that my life lately keeps wrapping up mid-sentence. When I walk from one side of my house to the other, with a very clear and specific purpose in mind, I’m usually detoured by the most random thins - like that sock, right there, in the middle of the floor. I grab it, planning to toss it into the laundry but then realize I forgot to move the laundry into the dryer. Oh, and there’s that email I need to write and I better post that funny thing my kids said on Twitter before I forget….….wait...I forgot what they said. When I finally return to that original task, hours have literally floated by. I call these mid-sentence moments because my wife and I will start a conversation and in the middle of a sentence, something like this will come up, and we’ll finish the conversation days later. This mid-sentence kind of living is exhausting and it’s also hard because it leaves conversations, thoughts, and experiences hanging in the air. And unless I keep these mid-sentence moments right here, right in front of me, they end up forgotten and falling away. Now I know that most of my mid-sentence living is caused by my life choices. It’s not easy having many competing priorities and living with a family that has their own priorities as well. I have some control over my mid-sentence moments but I also know that this isn’t always true. There are experiences that stop us in mid-sentence and not by our own choice. We are caught up by things and events and people we can’t control. And before we know it, our expectations are inverted. Our plans go awry. Our assumptions are undone. And we become like Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, left in mid-sentence.

The gospel according to Mark is a little weird because it ends basically in mid-sentence. Unlike Matthew, Luke, and John, there’s no vision of the resurrected Jesus in this text. Jesus doesn’t speak Mary’s name. He doesn’t walk through locked doors to surprise a disciple named Thomas. We don’t even get to see Jesus having brunch with his friends on the beach. Instead, we get a large stone, rolled away. A young man sitting there, telling the women to not be afraid. He gives them a job, saying “Go and tell.” Tell the disciples what you saw. Tell Peter where Jesus is going. Tell everyone that Jesus isn’t where you expected him to be. And the women, according to this text, go nowhere and say nothing.

Which isn’t really the story we expect to hear on Easter. We already started today by proclaiming that Jesus is risen. We’ve already shouted alleluia. We’re gathered here because we know that someone told; that there have always been women preachers because if the Marys and Salome hadn’t preached, we wouldn’t be here right now. We expect on Easter for the Bible to show us Jesus raised from the dead and yet the gospel according to Mark leaves us, and these women, stuck in mid-sentence - between what we know came before and what now looks brand new.

Now the women already knew everything that had gone before this moment. They had followed Jesus, heard his teaching, watched his healings, and were the only ones of Jesus’ disciples who saw him die on the Cross. I’m sure these women thought they knew Jesus’ whole story. But then, in a completely unexpected way, the women heard that the resurrected life was now a reality. And at that moment, their understanding of their relationship with Jesus suddenly changed. Their connection to God’s Son; this Savior who called each of them by name; who promised through word and deed that God knew them; that God saw them; and that God loved them; this Jesus who gave so many other people new life now had a new life of his own. And because Jesus knew these women, this new Easter life was now part of them. Their mid-sentence life was over and their resurrected life had, because of Jesus, begun.

But, according to Mark, this resurrected life doesn’t show up at the end. The resurrected life appears in our everyday living and it shows up everywhere. We see what this life looks like “when Peter’s mother-in-law is raised out of a fever and freed to serve (1:31).” We see the resurrection happen when a tax collector, a profession in the ancient world that required corruption, abuse, and violence, leaves his tax booth behind to follow Jesus(2:14). We see a person marginalized because of their difference “raised into the center of his community’s attention and is” then fully “healed (3:3).” And we watch a father, knowing that his doubt and his faith are not incompatible, so he bring his most cherished relationship to Jesus because being with Jesus changes everything. (Mark 9) Time and time again in Mark, the sick, the wounded, the marginalized, and the ones society casts aside are raised up, given new life, and then placed into a community called to care and love them. It was only at the tomb, after the good news of new life was told to them, that the disciples finally realized that Jesus had already been filling out the next part of their sentence and the next part of their life.

The resurrection isn’t something we have to wait to find out. It’s already here. In our baptism and in our faith, the new life of Jesus is given to each of us as a gift. This gift isn’t given to us because we’re perfect, or get everything right, and or we come to church every Sunday. No, this resurrected life is given to us because God lived our mid-sentence life and, through the Cross, God pushed us to the other side. It’s not always easy to feel and notice this resurrected life. We are, like those women at the tomb, still living lives in between what has come before and what will come next. The Marys and Salome had no idea what joys, struggles, and experiences their new life with Jesus would bring. But they did know that Jesus was right there, ahead of them, and he is right here, ahead of us. We just need to shift our focus, reset our eyes, look to him, and live into our resurrected lives. Lives where healing, not harm, is all we do. Lives where love of neighbor becomes a reflex because it’s part of who we are. Lives where the walls and dividing lines we build to keep others out so that we can stay in our personal bubbles - those walls need to be torn down. And these resurrected lives are where inclusion, care, service, and love become habits that offer new life to all. The resurrected life knows who we are, where we’ve been, and knows all the ways we failed to serve others without fear. This life knows us as we are, right now, caught in our mid-sentence moments; but with our eye stuck on Jesus, this resurrected life will carry us through into a new reality, into God’s reality, where the next part of our life becomes love.

Amen.

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From our June 2016 Newsletter

Did you notice that we celebrated Easter a month before our Jewish friends and neighbors celebrated passover? Several people asked me why that is since so much of the story around Easter (The Lord's Supper, Good Friday, Easter Sunday) take place during the passover celebration. After doing some research, here's what I found:

In 325 AD (or CE), Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire brought together bishops and church leaders to meet and talk about their differences. One of the issues this First Council of Nicaea debated was the date of Easter. Prior to this council, different churches in different places celebrated Easter on different dates. Many celebrated Easter after Passover and relied on the local Jewish communities to calculate when Passover would take place. But some felt that this calculation wasn't correct. Since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar (a little more than 354 days long), some calculation and adjustments were needed to help it fit a solar year (1 trip around the sun). This means that calculating Passover was tricky and that the date moves around. Sometimes this caused Passover to take place before the spring equinox (around March 21) and Easter would not fall on a Sunday. This didn't work for other Christians. After debate, the council resolved to calculate Easter on their own and not rely on the Jewish calendar. Not everyone agreed to this (we have sermons from the late 300s attacking the practice) and the actual calculation for Easter wasn't agreed on. It would take several more centuries for this to be sorted out. The church decided that March 21 will be its starting point. The formula is that Easter will be the first Sunday after the Full Moon following March 21 unless that Full Moon falls on a Sunday (in which case Easter would be the following Sunday). 

So why do churches in the West (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Baptist) usually celebrate Easter on different dates than Eastern churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox)? It's because of the calendar we use. In 46 BC (or BCE), Julius Caesar implemented a new calendar system called the Julian calendar. Each year has 365 days with an extra day added to the calendar every 4 years (leap years). In a Julian calendar, the average year is 365.25 days long. However, scientists know that it takes less than 365.25 days for the earth to travel around the sun (365.24 days). This isn't much but, after centuries, the calendar starts to move away from where the Earth is in its rotation around the Sun. Eventually, the Spring Equinox wasn't in March anymore! So, in 1582, a new calendar was introduced (Gregorian). That's the calendar we're used to and matches how most governments keep dates. But the Eastern churches still use a Julian calendar to calculate their religious festivals. Currently, there's about a 13 day difference between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian. Eastern and Western churches do, sometimes, celebrate Easter on the same day but due to different calendars, Easter is celebrated at different times. 

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Easter begins as an idle tale. 

I love so many different parts of today's gospel reading. The story starts during the early dawn. Dawn, which is the breaking of day, isn't enough for this story. The story starts at early dawn, when the light first begins to fill the night sky. Several woman, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the mother of James, and others, are carrying spices to the tomb where Jesus is buried. When Jesus died, they were not able to properly bury him because the sabbath (the holy day set apart for God and a day when no work is done) was about to come. So the women return once the sabbath is over to complete the process. As they near the tomb, retracing steps they took just a few days before, sunlight begins to show them something unexpected: the door to Jesus' tomb is open. 

When the women rush back to their friends, the apostles don't believe a word they say. The story seems ridiculous. They saw Jesus killed by the Romans. They buried him in a large stone tomb. Jesus was gone. The 11 and others were gathered together, trying to figure out what to do next. When these women showed up, with their tale about an empty tomb and men in pure white, they weren't believed. Even when Peter runs to the tomb, he's amazed but he doesn't tell anyone what he saw. Instead, the first sharing of Jesus' resurrection remains what it was first: an idle tell. 

But this unbelievable tale couldn't stop being told. And we keep proclaiming it today. Jesus, God's own Son, lived a human life. He cried when he was a baby. He ran away from home. He grew up to call the poor, the working class, and the undesirables as friends. And when the Roman Empire convicted him and killed him like he was just some lowlife criminal, he hung on that cross with his arms open and welcoming all. The unbelievable tale isn't only that Jesus was raised from the dead. The unbelievable tale is that God wants a relationship with you and with me. Jesus isn't in the tomb. He's here, among the living. So let's seek out and keep sharing this idle tale and find Jesus in everyone around us.

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Today is a day of paradox. On the day we remember Jesus' death, we proclaim that this day is good. On a day when we recall God's Son suffering on a cross, we see this cross as a source of life. On a day during the first week of Spring, when new life surrounds us, we gather around Jesus' death. On this Friday, it seems contradictory to call today good. 

But the church does declare today good. By calling today Good Friday, we're not saying that Jesus' death is a "good" thing. We're not saying that the death he experienced is something to emulate or be proud of. We're not making a value judgement that gives support for what the Romans did. Instead, we acknowledge something fundamental to our faith: that Jesus, God's Son, lived a complete human life. 

Death is scary. Death is an idea and a concept that we try to run away from. But God never runs from what's scary or frightening. Jesus went to the cross, and even then, forgiving others for what they are doing. We gather tonight to remember our baptism. We are bound, connected, and united with this Jesus who died a terrible death. And we are bound, connected, and united with this Jesus who will rise in just three days.

Even on Good Friday, we are still a people of the resurrection. Even in the face of death, we still proclaim hope. The hope isn't that our lives will always be like they are now. Our hope is that, even in death, we will always be close to God, the source of life. Tonight, we gather at the foot of the cross because we know that Easter will come and even death doesn't, in the end, overcome. 

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Tonight begins three central days of the church year: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter (or the Saturday night service called the Easter Vigil). Recalling Jesus' own words that, after 3 days he will rise again (Mark 10:34), we condense these three days into one single movement. Tonight begins one long church service. 

Over these 3 days, we'll include elements that match up with what we do on Sunday morning. On Maundy Thursday, we'll confess our sins and receive forgiveness. We'll follow Jesus' example of humility and service with Pastor Marc washing the feet of anyone who comes forward. The Lord's Supper will be celebrated as well. But then, later in worship, the altar will be stripped. The candles and fabrics will be removed. The bare altar is a sign of what's to come. 

As we leave the sanctuary this morning, we'll still be in our long worship service. I won't offer a dismissal. I won't invite you to remember Jesus or the poor. Instead, our drive home and our nightly chores will happen while we are still in worship. When we brush our teeth and curl up in bed with a good book or our favorite smartphone, we'll see be in worship. And when we wake up and enjoy that morning cup of coffee, our worship continues. Wherever we find ourselves, we are still with God. Whatever we are doing, we are still in a relationship with the God who fed us, washed our feet, and was betrayed by his friend. These three days invite us to see our entire lives as an act of worship. Even tying our shoes and combing our hair is connected to God. God cares about all of us. God even cares about the very human and tiny things that we do. Tonight begins our three-day long worship. Let's see how God is even involved in our everyday. 

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When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, [Mary and Joseph] brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Mark 16:1-8

Pastor Marc's sermon on Easter Sunday (April 5, 2015) on Mark 16:1-8. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below. 

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Did you ever have a favorite tv show that ended a little too soon? 

Now, as one of those people who tends to fall on the geeky, sci-fi, fantasy side of things, there are a slew of series that I got into that ended way too soon. Space: Above and Beyond, Firefly, and Stargate Universe - some didn’t even last into their second season. And when you’re telling a story that involves new cultures, aliens, distant planets, and all sorts of ridiculous technology that makes really awesome explosions - a handful of episodes just doesn’t cut it. It’s been fun watching what the author George R.R. Martin is doing with his Song of Ice and Fire series that the tv show Game of Thrones is based on. There’s still at least two more books that need to come out - and the tv series is already getting close to the end of the material that the author has published. There’s a slim chance that the author might die before the series is finished - so he’s even told the creators of the tv show the end of the story just in case he doesn’t make it. When we get invested in characters, their histories, and their worlds - we need more than just one binge watching session of Netflix to feel satisfied. We need a conclusion - a way to wrap the story up that makes total sense and leaves us in awe. We need a conclusion where we don’t need to ask “what if” kinds of questions. We need an ending that, when we tell our friends and family why we loved this show so much - they hear how the show ended and they just get it. They might not be as geeky as us but they’ll still get why we’re excited about it and why we devoted the hours and hours watching the show like we did. 

And our Gospel reading today, from the Gospel According to Mark, doesn’t really give us that. It reads like the end of a tv series that we really got into - and ended way too quickly. 

Now, these 8 verses in the sixteenth chapter of Mark are it. Many scholars believe that this is how the original version of Mark ended. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome come to the tomb at the break of day - to finish the burial rites for Jesus, their beloved teacher and friend. And, along the way, they’re a little preoccupied with a detail about how Jesus was buried. So I imagine, as they walked through the crisp spring air, with the sound of songbirds flipping about, and the early morning merchants and laborers stirring, these three devout women spent their time talking about a rock blocking the doorway. And, when they got to tomb, they were surprised - shocked really - to see that stone already rolled back. All their talk during the journey was unnecessary. Instead, something brand new was happening. 

So as they peaked their head through the door - slowly, hesitantly, not really knowing what they were going to see - they spot someone they didn’t expect: a young man in a white robe, just sitting there. The young man tells them to not be afraid - that Jesus is raised, Jesus is not here - and this young man tells them to go, tell the other disciples what’s happened and where Jesus is going. And these three women - run. They flee. They freak out - and they say nothing, to anyone, “for they were afraid.”

That’s how Mark’s gospel ends.

Now, if we go home and open our bibles - we’ll see other endings added on. One is just a sentence while the other is an additional 11 verses. These endings were added years after Mark was written because this abrupt ending makes us uncomfortable. How can silence be the final word? How can the story of Jesus - the story of God coming into our world - showing us what love looks like - how can we be afraid of that? How can we tell Jesus’ story if we don’t have a neat little conclusion to share? The other gospels give us resurrection stories. The other gospels show us that these women at the tomb - the first to proclaim Jesus dead and raised - they actually told someone. And we know they did because - well - look around - would we be here if they didn’t? 
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And maybe that’s Mark’s point. 

Take a moment and look around at everyone here. We’re here for a reason. We’re here because Christ Lutheran is our church and we’re here every Sunday. We’re here because it’s Easter and going to church on Easter is just something that we do. We’re here because a friend or a family member invited us - because our parents dragged us - or because something happened this week - and we just need to be around spiritual people today. The reasons why we’re here are legion - and our reasons for being here are all incredibly real, incredibly valid, incredibly valued, and I am glad you’re here. We’re bigger today because of your presence. We’re better today because of who you are. We’re better followers of Jesus because of your story and we couldn’t be who we are - without you.

And maybe - that’s Mark’s point. If we take the story and wrap it in a nice little bow, put on that nice conclusion that makes us feel satisfied, we miss what the young man sitting in the tomb is saying. “He has been raised; he is not here.” Jesus isn’t where the women expect. He isn’t waiting for the women to finish burying him. He isn’t dead. Jesus’s always been beyond their and our expectations - from the very start, when he began preaching that the kingdom of God - where God’s inclusive and overwhelming love defines who we are, what we are, and just how we live and love each other - Jesus has always been beyond where we expect him to be. Jesus isn’t dead. Jesus isn’t where he’s suppose to be. Jesus is resurrected - he’s brand new - he’s more than alive. We can’t wrap his story up in a neat little bow because we don’t get to say how this story ends. We don’t get to say how God acts and how God doesn’t. 

Because what matters to Mark isn’t the conclusion to story; what’s important are people - those who are living in God’s conclusion - those who are living in the world that God made, that Jesus died in, and the world that the Holy Spirit continues to breathe new life into. All of us here, right now, are part of God’s conclusion. Everyone outside these walls - are part of God’s final story. We, like those early disciples and those first Christian women - whether we believe or not, whether we understand or not - we are part of Jesus’ story. 

Go, tell - that’s what the young man in the tomb tells these women. Go and tell our story - how God has mattered in our lives - or how we’ve never felt Jesus near us. Go and tell our struggles, our fears, our terrors, share what amazes us and what scares us. Go and tell, the problems that the world faces - from racism, terrorism, income inequality, violence, sickness, and fear. Go and tell, our honest story about how far we are from loving like we should and how hate sometimes looks like it’s won. And then Go and tell that Jesus is not in the tomb. He’s not hiding behind a rock. He’s not waiting for us to find him where we expect him. No, Jesus is out there - in the terrors - in the fears - in the times of our lives that amaze and frighten us. God’s story continues - and Jesus is with it, through thick and thin, showing us that God’s kingdom - God’s love - and God’s presence matters more than how we’d like the story to end. Jesus - who was crucified - Jesus who was killed - Jesus who was defeated - has been raised. The ending we gave him couldn’t hold him. We’re now living in God’s ending where this creation and this human race isn’t just worth dying for - it’s worth being resurrected for, too. 

So Go, tell, that “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” 
All: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!  
 

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What do you think about the resurrection? 

It's easy to get lost in what the church says about the resurrection. We have the story recorded in four different ways in the four gospels. Paul's letters and the later epistles written in his name are centered on what it means to live on this side of Easter. We hear how the empty tomb matters, how there's an angel sitting on a bench, and there's a neat pile of linens stacked to the side. And we see the disciples, women and men, standing there and wondering what happens next. 

But, beyond that story, how does the resurrection matter to you? 

Easter is a beautiful day. Flowers cover the altar here at church and the music will be amazing. And once the worship is done, Easter, for many of us, doesn't end. There's brunch and family dinners, visits to the mall in New York or a trip to Manhattan to experience NYC in Spring. We hit the road to see friends and family while decked out in our best suits, beautiful pink ties, and while wearing our most fun socks. And who can forget the opening and sharing of Easter baskets, the hunting of Easter eggs, and the bitting the ears off chocolate bunnies. The world around seems to be all about Easter as well. Easter sales, bunnies standing outside fire houses, hams that we need to pickup from Shoprite, and TV specials featuring Jesus premiering later tonight. Easter is an event that goes on, for everyone, all day. 

But Easter is more than just today. Easter is for every day and night of our lives. 

Today, like we do everyday, we shout from the rooftops that Jesus lives. But he's more than just a member of the Walking Dead. This Jesus is something brand new; living a promise that death isn't the end. Death isn't the opposite to life; instead, a new, different kind of life, is. And this new life matters now. Easter means our lives today are different than they were before. We're living in a post-Easter world where our lives, the specifics of our lives, are not defined by its end. Christ is risen. Christ is living. We are in the post-resurrection future. More is coming - and that matters to me and to you. 

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