Sermon for Easter Day

20 April 2025

Luke 24:1-12, Acts 10:34-43, Psalm 118

This is a day for jubilation and rejoicing, for sounds of exaltation and victory. The light of the risen Christ shines forth, the darkness of the tomb unable to contain it, the agony and shame of the Cross incapable of snuffing it out. The good news that he is risen announces the good news of new life in Christ, good news that shines the world over during the Great 50 Days of Easter from Paschal Candles kindled, as is ours, in every parish church, every chapel, every cathedral, at every altar around the Anglican Communion and in much of Western Christianity, although there are some corners of Western Christianity that have lost hold of some of the wonderful traditions of the church, trading them in instead for electric guitars and drum sets and happy bouncy words on the screen. But to each his own, and we're happy to be still holding on to our customs and, and we hope that the new life in Christ is made alive in us through our wonderful tradition, like this Paschal Candle we lit for the first time early this morning for this new Easter season. It takes us back to the origins of this feast day, when it was known as Pascha, as it still is in the East. Pascha means lamb. It is the victory feast of the Lamb of God that was slain, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world through the self-offering of the Cross, the once for all sacrifice that fulfills all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant because Christ the Lamb accomplishes in fact that which the Old Covenant sacrifices only could anticipate.

Through Christ we have the assurance of sin forgiven. Think back to Good Friday. We observed the day in awe and reverence, telling John's story of our Lord's Passion and Death, kneeling in silent adoration when Jesus said, “It is finished.” We prayed together, venerating the cross, blessing Christ, whose Holy Cross has redeemed the world. The cross of Christ completes the Old Covenant sacrifice offered on the Day of Atonement, when sacrifice was made for the confession of sins and the removal of guilt, a ritual that was repeated annually under the Old Covenant. But, under the New Covenant, it need not be repeated annually. The young bull and two goats need not be sacrificed because on the Cross, as Hebrews 10 tells us, Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. We remember continually that single sacrifice in the bread broken and the wine poured out.

Through Christ the Lamb we give thanks for restored fellowship with God and with one another. Such a celebration under the Old Covenant required a lamb without spot or blemish. Once the priest accepted the lamb, the person offering it would lay hands on the lamb, offer the prayer of thanksgiving, and the priest would take the lamb to the altar of sacrifice. If the thanksgiving was for renewed fellowship with God, the meat would be eaten by the priest. But if the lamb was in thanksgiving for fellowship between people; perhaps reconciliation after a period of conflict, or rejoicing between two families over a marriage or over the birth of a child, or some other blessing, the meat was shared among all those who shared in that blessing. In the same way, the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving, is our sacrifice in praise of Christ, through whom our fellowship with God and with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ is restored and renewed. This fellowship aspect of Holy Communion is seen as we come together to the altar rail. We are spread out together, around God's Table. So, there is this horizontal element of Holy Communion just as there is the vertical element of communing with God in heaven. The fellowship aspect of Holy Communion is also highlighted in the teaching found in our Catechism, which lists among the benefits of receiving the Lord's Supper ad strengthening of our union with Christ and one another. And among the requirements to receive in a worthy manner, we are to examine our lives and repent of our sins, that fellowship with God may be restored. And we are to be in love and charity with all people. These are to be important factors in determining if we should come to the table with hands outstretched to partake, or crossed about the chest to receive a blessing, because there is important spiritual work yet to be done.

When we break the bread we regularly call to mind Christ as our Passover, because Christ fulfills what the Passover sacrifice anticipated. On that last night of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, freedom from captivity was to be secured by the offering of a lamb, a lamb without spot or blemish, its blood sprinkled on the doorposts, its flesh roasted with bitter herbs and eaten hastily, everyone dressed for travel, because it was to be the last night of their captivity. The death that befell the firstborn of Egypt passed over the Hebrews that night, and Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, was finally moved to set God's people free, at least until he changed his mind and sent troops to round them up, a decision that did not end well for those troops once they got to the Red Sea. As the Israelites were delivered from mortal death when they kept the Passover, so Christ, by the sprinkling of his blood, delivers us, his new Israel, from the sting of eternal death.

So this is indeed a day to rejoice. The sacrifice made by the Lamb of God is vindicated by the good news that he is not here, he has been raised. Christ is alive. Therefore, the multitude of sacrifices called for under the Old Covenant cease, all that they anticipate fulfilled in Christ the Victorious Lamb.

And yet, this does not mean that life is now free from sacrifice. Daily life in this mortal realm, sacrifice is part of the deal. Do you eat? That involves a sacrifice. Even if you're a vegetarian, there's still a sacrifice that is made. The farmer, and all who work in agriculture, remind us that our common life depends on each other's toil. They make the sacrifice of their labor to bring forth the crops that we eat. And the plants themselves give up their fruit, they sacrifice their fruit so that we can be fed.

Choosing a state of life. Should I marry? By being married one gives up a certain measure of their autonomy in order to live in partnership with their spouse. That's something I learned the day after we returned from our honeymoon, and I went to do my usual Saturday morning play football with my friends. And Beth said, “Where are you going?” And I said, “Well, I'm going to play football. I always do on Saturday morning.”She said, “Well, I thought we would do this such thing.” And I learned that all of a sudden, I'm not in charge of all my decisions, but I have to be in partnership in consultation with someone, and as Tom Spinks of blessed memory liked to tell me that he was, he had over 50 years of marriage without an argument. The number one thing to say is, “Yes, Dear.” So, when you marry you sacrifice some of your autonomy, but there's a blessing to that too. You've got a partner and someone to go through life with.

If we're married, should we have children? Having children is a sacrifice, a sacrifice of time and attention, and sometimes anguish bringing them up. And we have to train our children to know the ways of the Lord. I heard someone talking about the biblical admonition to train up your child to know the Lord. And this person was saying that in our culture, it seems like more and more we're treating our children like free-range chickens. They can just do whatever they want and maybe someday they'll choose God, but we don't want to force it on them or anything. And no, we have to train up our children. It involves the sacrifice of time. When my kids were in school in Mississippi, in elementary school, I often made the “sacrifice” to pull myself away from the office to go pick them up after school. And there's a Sonic in Greenwood, Mississippi that makes the best strawberry slushes of any Sonic in the world. And so I would go pick up the girls, and it would be, you know, that happy hour, Sonic happy hour and I stopped in at Sonic and get a slushie for myself and I would get the girls, a, a strawberry limeade,  just because I'm, I'm really doing this for the kids, you see? And so I would give them their treat, but they saw right through it even when they were like in fourth and first grade. They knew that I was really going after my strawberry slush, and they called me on it. So, one year during Lent I gave up my strawberry slushes for Lent and I discovered that I could live without them. So now a strawberry slush from Sonic is is a is a an, every once in a while treat. So I'm thankful that, I don't know, that that kids can even, they have this brutal honesty sometimes and it's wonderful.

What if you choose to say single? Then you've got autonomy but you sacrifice the partnership and the companionship. And so Ah, there's everything involves a sacrifice life decisions. Should we move to this new town? Should we look for a new job? Should we buy a new house, or should we fix up the old money pit? Everything has a sacrifice because you sacrifice something to make something new happen.

What about religion and spirituality? Should we go to church? Increasingly it seems like in America people are deciding, “No, we don't need to do that all. We just need to be nice humans and God will accept us.”Um but really being here together is just so important in being in God's presence is so important. And we might come and we might say well should we come back next week? And just as a reminder, the bishop is coming next week, so it'd be great for you to be here with him. Or should we just wait till next Easter? What church should we go to? Should we go to one that has a Paschal Candle and all its traditional stuff? Or should we go to the one with the drum kit and the guitars and the screen? Um and really I think it's all about what features feed you spiritually. Should we stay home and not think about it?

All those choices. There's a sacrifice involved. But there's also something to be gained from our choices as we plot out our lives. Are you a person who likes to make detailed plans? Or are you like me, and you'll just cross that bridge when you get to it? And if you're a detailed planner, what do you do when your plans go off the rails? And if you're like me, when you cross the bridge, you're going to cross that bridge, when you get to it, what if you get to the riverbank and the bridge is gone or never was there. There's sacrifices to be made in our choices. Should I stay? Should I go? This, that, the other? Either, either? We think about so many things and the philosopher Rene Descartes said, “I think therefore, I am.” And another philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead even said that our thoughts are a form of sacrifice. Whitehead said, “We think so that our thoughts can die instead of us.”

Everything involves sacrifice. It creates a what is and what could have been. But we have a friend, a risen Savior, who is an expert in sacrifice, the Lamb who lives. And today we have a decision to make to either turn to him in faith and trust and obedience. Or if we're walking in that, to renew our faith and trust in obedience and turn away from whatever it may be that blocks sight of him. Yes, that's a choice that will involve sacrifice. You'll have to let go of something in order to choose him as Lord. But, if you make the choice to follow him as Lord, what is relinquished will one day be seen for just how infinitesimal is its true value. For one day, it is appointed to stand before, as we heard today in Acts, Peter's message to Cornelius the Centurion. It is, it is appointed for us one day to stand before the one who is appointed to judge the living and the dead. And how well will it turn out when you stand before him, and you are part of this great crowd written about in the seventh chapter of Revelation all wearing white robes and waving palm branches and shouting, “Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.” And you see the appointed judge is the Lamb you've been following all along, the Lamb, you know, the Lamb who knows you, the Lamb who loves you, the Lamb who forgives you, the Lamb who is your life.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.