Today’s sermon calls for a certain amount of personal involvement. So I’m going to ask for a show of hands in response to a few questions – just to start out.

All right, we’ve gotten that out of our system, now let’s talk about Easter. With due respect to Hallmark cards, candy manufacturers, florists, and everyone else wanting to profit from this holiday, Easter isn’t about any of those things. Mind you, baby chicks, breaking out of their shells, bunnies, hopping out of their holes, and flowers, springing out of the dirt, certainly do hint at what Easter is really all about. But they’re just clues – clues of life where it looked as if there was none, and not just any life at that. Easter’s really about Jesus – about the fact that Jesus died and was buried, and that, unbelievable though it may seem, a few days later, He came back to life. Jesus rose from the dead, came out of His grave, and contacted his friends again.

Of course, everyone doesn’t actually believe that. Some folks see Jesus’ resurrection as the way the Church Christianized spring fertility celebrations. And so, naturally, lots of folks prefer to emphasize bunny rabbits, baby chicks, Easter eggs, flowers and candy. You don’t have to believe in them. You can see them for yourself. And I suspect that’s also why some get intrigued by stories like the recent discovery of a mausoleum with a 1st century family sarcophagus in it – bearing the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on it. If some of those bones were the bones of Jesus of Nazareth, well then, it helps to provide folks with another reason not to believe in His resurrection. Never mind that the man promoting the story isn’t a professional archeologist or a historian. Never mind that professional archeologists disagree with him. Never mind that the tomb was miles away from where Jesus died and that His friends had to get his body buried before sundown, within a very short time. And never mind that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were among the most common names of that time. Never mind all that. The story relieves people’s anxieties about a God, who can do what we haven’t personally experienced. Isn’t that at the root of not believing that Jesus rose again after three days – that none of us have ever personally seen anything like that? I mean the apostles didn’t even believe it when the women told them that Jesus was alive. In the original Greek Luke said they thought the women’s story was trash -- rubbish.

But then again, of course, every day we live by faith to a certain extent. We believe that a piece of paper is worth more than the materials that made it – just because we call it money. We believe that a piece of plastic can be traded for real goods and services – just because we call it a credit card. That’s belief. Ah, you say, “We trust in those things because they work. The proof is in the effect.” Fair enough. The proof is in the effect, whether it has to do with money or credit cards, or just about anything. Well that’s true for Jesus’ resurrection, too.

Some say that the opposite of faith is doubt, but I think that the opposite of faith is fear and the women in today’s gospel reading were terrified. So what transformed the fear of that handful of women -- into faith? I’ll tell you what I think. It was their experience of the risen Christ. That’s what made the difference. That’s what changed Mary Magdalene from a woman melted in her own tears into the first witness of the resurrection. That’s what changed Peter from a friend who, fearing his own well being, denied knowing Jesus into His first public spokesman. That’s what changed Thomas from a cynic into a worshipper. That’s what changed James, from a skeptical sibling into the leader of the church in Jerusalem. That’s what changed Saul from an ardent persecutor of the disciples into Jesus’ chief advocate. The proof of the resurrection was in the effect it had on people’s lives.

Those people became Easter people -- because they experienced Jesus alive again after He died. The encounters that they had with the risen Christ replaced their fears with faith -- with faith that enabled them to receive His Spirit and to carry on what He began. That’s what made them different people -- people so different that others who met them saw the difference and believed, in turn. Others met them -- experienced Christ in them -- and were, them selves changed by the experience. They became Easter people too. That’s what made the Church -- not a compelling philosophy or a compassionate ethical system or an appealing set of rituals, or political maneuvering, but people transformed by their contact with the Risen Christ and then galvanized into a community of Easter people -- through whom Christ remained physically active in the world.

Author Philip Yancey agrees, saying, “The Resurrection is the epicenter of (Christian) belief.” Likewise, the biblical scholar, C. H. Dodd, wrote, “(Jesus’ Resurrection) is not a belief that grew up in the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up, and the given upon which its faith was based.”

It was personal contact with the risen Christ that made all the difference in those first disciples. That’s why the Church survived, and it’s the basis of the Church now, too. That’s why I can stand here, this morning, talking about an event so long ago – the truth of which some clearly question. I don’t do it to spin yarns, to pass on old myths, to defend dusty doctrines, or to try to get others to think as I’ve been taught. That would be a waste of your time and my life. I say it because I believe it and I believe it because I’ve experienced Jesus alive again, too – feeling His presence when I pray, the sound of His voice when I’m quiet, His touch in the lives of those I’ve been privileged to watch Him transform. That’s why I believe that Christ is risen. I, honestly, wouldn’t be who or what I am if I didn’t, and I certainly wouldn’t be at all inclined to foist some antiquated ideology on you. Instead, I do this because I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that it matters more than anything else. It matters because it’s what makes Easter people.

• Easter people know that there’s more to life than this world – they have destiny.
• Easter people know that they’re never alone even when they feel lonely.
• Easter people know there’s light in the darkest times and that it will prevail.
• Easter people know they don’t need to defend themselves because they’re upheld.
• Easter people know they can love with reckless abandon because they have been.
• Easter people accept imperfections because God specializes in new beginnings.
• Easter people can give without taking because they know their source of support.
• Easter people can forgive without blaming because they know God’s forgiveness.
• Easter people don’t need to change others because they know who can.
• Easter people can afford to lower their guard because they know who guards them.
• Easter people can endure pain and sacrifice because their risen Lord overcame.
• Easter people can look for Christ in every situation because they know He’s alive.
• Easter people know they have a purpose beyond themselves as their Savior did.
• Easter people know that they don’t have to play God because there already is one.
• Easter people know that nothing is hopeless or irreversible because Christ is risen.
• Easter people can laugh at death because they know it’s the threshold of eternity.
• Easter people know that Jesus Christ is alive because He lives in them; they know that He’s well because He lives through them.

Now, at the outset, I said that this was a participatory sermon, and so I’ll end with an invitation for anyone who wants -- to participate – to participate by offering a challenge to the Risen Christ and to see what happens yourself. If you’re willing simply repeat a prayer after me.