In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

During a holiday to Israel, a woman’s mother-in-law died. She was in Israel with her family, so there was the difficulty of making funeral arrangements for her in a foreign country. The director at the Israeli morgue explained that the body can be sent back to Canada at the cost of $10,000, or she can be buried in an Israeli cemetery for just $200. The daughter-in-law quickly decides to have her mother-in-law sent back to Canada. “Yes, ma’am, but are you sure? It is very expensive” said the director. “I know” said the daughter-in-law. “But 2000 years ago they buried a guy here and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can’t take that chance.”

All around the world bells are ringing, trumpets are sounding and a chorus of “Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!” is lifting our hearts on high. For Christians everywhere this is a day of high festivity, the high and holy season, the crown of the year, for Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, the grave is defeated and death has been robbed of its sting.

But it was not with such shouts of joy that the women came to the tomb two thousand years ago. They came weighed down with grief and sorrow. They came weighed down by the devastating loss they had suffered. Their teacher and friend executed and dying with him the vision of a kingdom, a new life of justice and love, freedom and peace that he preached.
And if this loss was not enough were not enough, when they reach his borrowed tomb, the stone is rolled away and horror of horrors, the body is gone. Distraught with grief they enter the tomb and look about for the body. But it is not there the body of their beloved teacher and friend is gone. “Hallelujah” we cry, “Christ is risen!” But empty tombs are not “good news.” A visit to the tomb of a loved one, only find it empty, produces horror. Such is the case with the women, the friends of Jesus. An empty tomb is simply an empty tomb. The body could have been removed.

Here in the terrible, dark silence of the grave they are confronted with a wonder beyond their imagining, for suddenly, in their midst, stand two men in dazzling clothes. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember, how he told you…” Now a wave of recollection falls over the women. In the cool, damp darkness of the grave, they begin to feel the peace they knew in his presence. And that first hint perhaps begins to grow. Christ is risen. They rush to tell the other disciples.

Easter Sunday, then, is to go with the women to the tomb carrying our own crushing memory of our Lord’s suffering and death, to search for the Lord. On this very Sunday … we go again to the tomb. For we too have heard Jesus’ promises that he will free us from the chains that bind us to all that is dead in our lives. But our first instinct is to look for him among the dead.

And it is at the tomb that we too hear the word that he is no longer there, that we must seek the Living One, not among the dead, for our God is a God of the living.
From the dead center of our lives God calls each of us to life, to abundant life. And if we are honest it is from those dead centers that our worries, anxieties and fears emerge.

Maybe it is the fear of failure in our place of employment. Maybe it is the fear and anxiousness that comes with retirement. Maybe it is the fear of illness; one minute life is going along fine and then comes a devastating diagnosis. Maybe it is the fear of growing older or the fear of death itself.

In my experience, we cannot get to Easter; we cannot begin to understand the Easter experience unless we make our way to the tomb. Until we have been where the women have been, our hearts broke, trembling with fear, we cannot grasp what Easter is really about.

I believe that the deep, life changing Christian faith is based not upon arguments and reasons but upon the encounter with the risen Christ. We believe simply because he comes to us and gives us that which we cannot give ourselves – a reason to believe, a way to go on, a path out of worry, anxiety and fear toward faith.

And finally, the Easter event dawns on us. Easter has always been that way. Like the sunrise itself, it most often comes slowly, gradually, bringing its light into the darkness of the empty tomb. Our worries, anxieties and fears are not the last word. Death itself is not the last word. For the Easter event proclaims to us that there is no longer anything that has ultimate power to keep us from being the people that God intends us to be and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And yet this event has not simply happened 2000 years ago. The Easter event happens whenever we are ready to recognize that the love of Christ has broken the chains of that which binds us. Jesus Christ is risen today! A new future is breaking open for us because we worship the God of the living.
Again and again and again, God raises Christ from the dead and each day and we share in that dying and resurrection as God’s people. His light shatters the darkness of the present order and his life triumphs over death.

This victory is yours, is ours, and in it the whole universe is restored. Alleluia!
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.