Sermon for Easter Day, April 20, 2025

Acts 10:34-43+Psalm 118:1-2,14-24+1 Corinthians 15:19-26+Luke 24:1-12

Unexpected, outrageous, unbelievable.

I have used these words a lot over the past few weeks as we made our way through the season of Lent.

What kind of God spends forty days out in the desert being tempted by the devil?

What kind of God is described as a hen gathering her chicks under her wing?

What kind of God goes running down the dirt path, robes flapping behind and tears streaming down, to welcome home a wayward child?

What kind of God not only doesn't criticize but affirms a woman who shamelessly pours out expensive perfumed oil on the feet of a man not related to her?

What kind of God rides a donkey through the streets as people shout Hosanna even while knowing how quickly those voices would turn to shouts of "Crucify him?"

What kind of God allows himself to be beaten and mocked and executed?

What kind of God does all of this?

Our kind of God. The kind of God whom even death cannot contain.

Unexpected, outrageous, unbelievable.

Even though Jesus had told his followers multiple times that he would be mocked and spit on and flogged and killed and that he would rise again on the third day, even with that, these women who came to the tomb on that first Easter morning could not imagine the unimaginable, expect the unexpected, or believe the unbelievable.[1]

They had seen it with their own eyes. Their friend, their rabbi, Mary's son had endured a horrific death, and they watched as Joseph of Arimathea placed his body in the tomb.

He was dead. Their world was shattered. The did not know what to do except to do the one last act of love and care that was required of them. They came to anoint his body.

But the stone they had seen put into place had been moved. There were two men (angels?) inside, but no Jesus.

He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the     Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words... (Luke 24:5b-8)

Then they remembered, and maybe they didn't quite believe it, not just yet, but they ran to tell the others anyway.

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5)

What a question.

He was dead, and then he was not.

Unexpected, outrageous, unbelievable.

What kind of a God brings the dead back to life?

What kind of a God says to a world hellbent on violence, "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also" (Luke 6:29)?

What kind of God says to those who think wealth and prosperity are a measure of a person's worth, "Sell everything you have and give to the poor" (Luke 18:22)?

What kind of God says to those who want to build higher walls and kick the supports out from under the most vulnerable among us, "Seek first the  kingdom of God" (Luke 12:31)?

Paul wrote to the people of Corinth, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19).

This life, the ways of this death-dealing world, a God who does what we expect, who gives what we want like some kind of celestial vending machine, a God who protects only us and not those other people, a God we can contain. That is not a God who breaks free from the bonds of death and takes our hands to free us, too.

This is the God who may not give us what we want but always gives us what we need.

"I came that they might have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

Not just you and not just me, but all people.

This is the kind of unexpected, outrageous, unbelievable God we have.

Don't look for the living among the dead. Christ is risen to give life to the world:

to those suffering in Gaza,
those huddled in bombed out buildings in Kiev,
those living in fear along the southern border or on university campuses or going to work and wondering if this is the day injustice is perpetrated against them,
those whose very identity is being erased across this land,
and yes, each one of us who came here today to see resurrection, to experience new life, to be fed with the body and blood of Christ and strengthened for the work that lies ahead of us.

Whatever is going on in your life, whatever wounds you bear, whatever sorrows you carry, whatever brokenness weighs you down, Christ rose from the dead for you.

Do not look for the living among the dead.

Expect the unexpected; believe the unbelievable; rejoice in the outrageous, unmerited, immeasurable love that God has for you.

            Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

            Christ is risen indeed.

            Alleluia, Amen.

[1] Luke 9:21-22, 9:43-45, 18:31-34