April 16, 2017
Lenten Devotions – Easter Sunday Year A

“After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Matthew 28:1-10

On Easter we are given a great gift – and we are given a choice. The gift for us is the empty tomb. The empty tomb means that Christ defeated death and we have the opportunity to share in a resurrection like Jesus’. Christ has been raised and we will be able to share in this reality when everything comes to completion through Christ. That is the greatest gift any of us could receive. The choice we have is this: does the empty tomb change how we will live life right now? Will we dessert Jesus like the disciples did – hiding away in the Upper Room? Or, will we become bearers of this amazing story?

About halfway around our world, in many African nations including Kenya I believe, Christians were slaughtered because of their faith. When gunmen come to them and ask about their faith, they remove those of other faiths and they slaughter the Christians. In our society, it is more likely that we will be killed in an accident or from disease, rather than lose our lives because of our religion. Those in other countries have a reason not to profess their faith, and yet they do, even to the real possibility that they will lose their lives because of their beliefs. We have no fear of saying whether we are Christian, or not, and yet many are afraid to profess their faith in a private conversation let alone in some outward manner – in other words, their faith is as shut-in as Jesus was on Good Friday. And many of our churches are shutting people out because they are afraid of an uncertain future. They are becoming more and more dead because people are afraid – afraid to admit that their culture no longer recognizes them as viable – viable to their faith and viable to their community. People are also avoiding local churches either because their lives are too secular, and they believe that the church and its leaders are as incompetent as society likes to portray.

Well let me tell you this – our church is not an empty church. Our church is not about sealing ourselves in to prepare for our death – Trinity Lutheran Church Lemoyne is filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit – and the Holy Spirit is filling our lives so we can fill other people’s lives – with love, mercy, food, housing, scripture, personal products, and on and on and on it goes. This church is not empty – it is filled with people who are filled with joy and the Holy Spirit who is guiding us to be the church in amazing ways.
If you feel as if your life is empty, come and join us and be a part of sharing the story of an empty tomb – not only will it fill your life, it will fill the lives of so many others in our community.

Come and join us in living out the message – Christ is Risen; He is Risen Indeed – Alleluia.

Pastor Dave