We Have Seen The Lord!

He is risen. (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)

Please pray with me. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we think about what this day means, and we have walked with you. Seen you suffer, seen you die. And now the tomb is empty. And we live like Easter people. We live like Victorious People. And Jesus, let us be the light and the salt of that Gospel message in Your name. Amen.

So, I don't know whether you know why this is called an Easter lily. And if you do, I'm going to tell you anyway, so just so you know, and I kind of feel like I'm in a flower shop. Or a nursery, the smell is pugnant with it. But anyway, the reason is cuz it looks like a trumpet. Okay? And if you remember when the people came across the Promised Land, and here was Jericho, and they walked around Jericho seven times each day, once a day. And then the seventh day, they did seven times, and they blew the trumpets, and they yelled loud, and "the walls came tumbling down."

In Jesus' day in Jerusalem, if there was a big announcement to be made, they'd blow the trumpet and the people would come out, and announcement would be made. In the worshipping community in Israel, they would blow the shofar, which is it a type of trumpet, and that would signal that the worship was supposed to start. Ironically, Paul, when he talked about the coming of the Lord, also mentions the trumpet and I want to read that to you.

He says - in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 - "According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." The trumpet call of God. And this loud command. I thought about it, and what I think that loud command is is one word. And I think that word is "enough." I think in the day of the coming of the Lord, He's going to say "Enough. Enough pain. Enough death. Enough sin. Enough devil, you are gone. Enough."

And we think about that, cuz we come together and - love the music.

Do you know how long it's been since we've sang "This is the Feast"? You're nodding your head, you know what I'm talking about? I think it's 14 months. Let's say thank you to our musicians. Okay, here's how we say thank you in Africa where my wife and I teach. You put your hands like this. Are you rubbing them? You're going to clap three times, and then you're going to raise your hands up to our musicians. Ready? *clap clap clap

You just said thank you in Swahili. Didn't know you could speak languages, did you?

But at the time, it was not a joyous occasion. There were not trumpets. There were not violins. There were not cellos. There was no organ. They were locked in a room for two days and two nights. And they were depressed, really. Because their Jesus, who they thought was the Messiah, the Savior, they watched Him as He had the nails put in his hand after they did the 39 lashes on His back, which literally ripped it to pieces. They had seen or heard that the spear went into His side. And the blood was blood and water, so He had died.

Where were the Ten Thousand Angels that Jesus could have called on? Where was the power that they had seen for three years of healing the sick and raising the dead? It just didn't happen. And they were in the room. Cooped up.

It happens to us sometimes, when we have grief, when we have fear. Or we have lonliness. Sometimes, we have that time when we're just kind of in a room. Maybe not literally a room, but a room inside ourselves, where it's really hard to get out of that.

Kelly Frier was kind of in that room. She was sitting with her mom. She's 11 years old, and her mom got the phone call from the police station that her father had been killed in an accident.

And so she waited for the policeman to come, and when the policeman came, they also brought a chaplain. And the policeman took her mother, and then the chaplain sat down in a chair. She was on the couch, but the chaplain didn't know what to say.

The chaplain knew this was a very awkward position. Later on in Kelly's life, she became a counselor, and she was in this situation many times, and even though she was empathetic towards the chaplain, her comment was "silence is not an option."

And she's right. In 40 years, I I don't know how many people I burried. Hundreds and hundreds. Average about 30-35 a year. Big church. But there's always something you could say because of today. There's always some hope that we could give because of today. I read it. There's the word "enough!" and the trumpet call of the Lord because today happened.

And because today happened, we do have the opportunity to give hope, we do have the opportunity to give comfort as we think about what it is and who we are as a people of God. And really, what we have to understand is help is closer than you think.

We didn't read in this Gospel lesson, but the women came to the tomb. There's Mary Magdalene. There's Mary the mother of James, Johanna and Salome. And in our Gospel, Mary Magdalene, who was the one that cast out the seven demons - some commentators think that she maybe had an ill reputed history, but there's no really documentation of that. And when Mary came back after James and John came - or Peter, excuse me - and they saw and believed, she was weeping. And Jesus comes and asks, "Woman, why are you weeping?"

Or I could say, "Sir, why are you in despair?"

Mary, Ron, Marlene, Jeff why are you weeping? Why are you in despair? Jesus says "I'm alive!" He has risen just as He said. And that is the help we're talking about in terms of who we are and what we are.

That's what Easter is all about.

Congressman - California Congressman Leo Ryan was Congressman in the 60s and 70s, and what's interesting about Leo was he took his job very seriously for his constituents.

For example, in the mid-to-late 60s, they had the riots in Watts, in the state of California, LA area. So he wanted to know what's going on, so he moved in with a black family for two weeks to understand what the issue was. In 1970, he was on the board for California Penal Institute. So in order to find out what reforms need to be due, he was arrested, strip searched and put in the Folsom Prison, which was the most violent prisons in Southern, California at the time, and he stayed in there for a week or two to find out what was the issues. Understand what kind of man he was?

Regretfully, in 1978, he went over to look at the Jim Jones Commune. You remember how this all turned out. Because he wanted to see whether they're being brainwashed or whether they were really there of their own free will. And they were brainwashed, and he was assassinated.

One of his friends said "Leo would charge the gates of hell to change something."

And I thought to myself, "Yeah. That's also what today is about." Isn't it? In the Apostles Creed, we read "He descended into hell." How do you suppose Jesus did that? You know what I think? I think he descended into hell like "Woah ho! You thought you had me! No, no, no, no."

And I bet He danced His way through hell because the victory had been pronounced. We have that victory. It's ours. It's always been ours and it's the gift that is for everyone.

It's a gift to share.

By the way, when Tara walked up here, she reminded me that I forgot to do an announcement. So this is where I'm going to do it - right now.

She has multiple bags left for you to take your neighborhood kids. OK?

Those that you adopted? You make the little muffins for and everything? Bring a couple on for them. Because it's a gift to be shared. It's a gift for everyone. We don't always think of it that way, but it is. And we as the people of God are the salt and the light in the midst of all the darkness.

I don't know if you watch the Tonight Show, but Stephen Colbert is the commedian and talk show host over there. He had a similar thing happen to him that Kelly did. When he was 11, his father and his two teenage brothers were killed in plane crash. He says if it wasn't for his mother and her faith, he would be a very bitter man. But even in spite of that, he got to college, and by his own admisison, he said, "I became an athiest. I didn't really believe in anything."

Steve's from Chicago, Illinois where my wife's family is from. In fact, my aunt and her husband know him. So there's a validity about the story. But anyway, he was walking in Chicago, and you gotta be careful where you walk there, by the way. And a guy came up and handed him a little book. It was the New Testament. And on the front of it, if you've ever got one of these, they have words like despair, grief, anxiety and he was kind of anxious. So, he was reading through these anxiety things, where it says "Jesus says 'come onto me all who are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest" and all the ones like that, and he said it was like a light switched on. And his faith came back.

We have that word. We have that same amazing Gospel statement. We are - if we understand correctly - the trumpets of the Lord. And especially on this day. In spite of the fact it's getting hot and we opened the windows. So we'll end here. Ready?

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!