Alleluia! Christ is Risen.

Luke 24

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb…

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?

“They found the stone rolled away”

What a shock or surprise!

You see the women had gone expecting death.  They were surprised by life.

I wonder if too often we expect death.

Death of a way of life.

Death of the church or maybe at least the ones we know.

Death of a faith.

It is possible to hang about the places of death.

To expect the things of death.

To speak the language of death.

To even be dead ourselves – oh yes there are a lot of dead men (and women) walking – and I don’t mean zombies.

No I mean those who have never discovered life.

The women went to the tomb, prepared for death, ready to deal with death, ready to mourn death.

And they were surprised by life.

That is the message for us today. That people can be surprised by life. Those who feel life is hopeless and a dead loss – Jesus can surprise with life.

Those who feel that the things they hold dearest are dying – Jesus can bring transformation and a new perspective – a perspective of life.

Those who picked up a cross at this site where we stand and thought they had destroyed what Christ and Christians stand for because they had taken or thrown it over the cliff– they can be surprised by life.

Those who feel that faith is hard or non-existent – they can find the life that Jesus brings.

Those who feel there is no hope for the church –can find the life that Jesus brings.

Those who think death - they can discover life.

Those who think the Christian faith outdated, old fashioned, all in the past, a dead religion with a dead leader can find He is Risen and that life is there.

Today we acknowledge that we are not people of the tomb, those who deal in death, but rather those who proclaim the risen Lord, victor over sin and death and the one who brings life.  The Life Giver – who sends us into the world to be life givers also.

L: Alleluia, Christ is risen

R: He is risen indeed, Alleluia

A Summary of this was preached at the Easter Day Sunrise Service on the Isle and Royal Manor of Portland on 27^th March 2016.