"
Up from the grave He arose. ". . "Was it morning like
this? "
Praise the Lord for this glorious Easter morning. We cannot fully describe it. We cannot fully fathom it. It is full of surprises, full of mystery, full of splendor, full of Majesty and glory. Only the Risen Lord announces the glorious Good news from the graveyard. Only our Lord Jesus brings new life from dead places. He makes the woeful heart to sing again. He causes the earthquakes. He shakes and shatters the earth. He shakes the powers and the principalities of this world. We indeed can declare, "weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning". Praise the Lord for millions and millions of people belonging to Jesus from every land, every language and nation who will be gathering in churches, cathedrals, abbeys, under trees, in cemeteries, on hilltops, and in the valleys celebrating and worshipping the Risen Lord. Countless persons will be announcing and proclaiming the Good News, "Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen indeed". "Why do you seek the Living among the dead? He is not here. He is Risen as He said. Come and see and go and tell".
Many will be gathering for Sunrise services this morning. This is the sunrise that people all over the world long to witness and welcome. Many of you will be traveling to be with families and loved ones. Many of will be banqueting and feasting with families and friends. Jesus, the Risen Lord, is the Host at every meal. With Jesus as Host every meal becomes sacramental. Let our feasting and banqueting be full of mirth and hilarity. We praise the Lord for you all as we together celebrate once again the Resurrection of Lord Jesus... who came, who saw, and who conquered. When we sing, when we celebrate, when we worship, when we give and invest in His Kingdom with our tithes and offerings, the Lord is honored, Satan flees, and the mountains tremble. We will be gathering for our worship on Resurrection Sunday at 10:30 AM. Our children will be participating with special songs and dance. Wherever you might be plan to be in the house of the Lord with thanksgiving and praise. There are no excuses on this glorious day. Invite your friends and neighbors for this special celebration. The Risen Lord is going touch all of us.
Our oldest daughter Janice and her family will be staying in Boston, celebrating Easter there. Sunita and her family will be celebrating Easter in Washington, DC. Laureen will be celebrating Easter in Washington, DC also. Jessica and her family will be celebrating Easter in the Philadelphia area. On the other hand they all, except Janice's family, will be coming to New York to spend some time with us this week. We are excited. I won't be putting out any blogs for the next week. Thank you for your love and affection. Thank you for praying, caring, and sharing.
It is a morning scene. At first light, early dawn, that wonderfully mysterious time when it is not yet day and the sky is gray and it is difficult to see clearly, they made their way back to Joseph’s tomb to do what needed to be done. When the women arrived, the stone had been rolled away; the body was gone. Two men were there. The women were terrified and fell on their faces. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” the men asked. “He’s not here, but has risen.” As He said, "Come and see where He lay and go and tell". The tomb of Jesus depicts a story. What God does is eternal. Jesus said to his disciples, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19) This is the incredible message of Easter. What this means is that our lives have significance. We are important to God. Our lives are not lived in merely strutting across the stage of life — we will live eternally. Our lives have meaning and purpose. God has a plan for our lives and calls us to live out that plan. Our lives mean something. We will not be “wiped out”, but we will be raised up!
Sometime ago I read about Winston Churchill, one of the great and courageous world leaders. Winston Churchill planned for his own funeral to take place in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and he wanted to have the great hymns of the church and the elegant Anglican liturgy for the service, but one of his requests was very untraditional. He asked that a bugler be positioned high in the dome of Saint Paul’s, and after the benediction the sound of “Taps,” be played, which is the universal trumpet call indicating that day is over. But then he planned a dramatic twist. As soon as “Taps” was finished, another bugler, placed on the other side of the great dome, would play “Reveille” (“It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up in the morning.”) The great message of Easter is that at the end of history, the last note will not be “Taps,” but “Reveille.” God will say, as the trumpets sound, “It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up in the morning.” The Bible says, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). What better news could there be? What could give our lives more significance?
In our culture we are so attached to this world, with all of its good things, that we think very little of eternity and value it even less. Whenever God does something, it lasts forever. The life he gives is eternal life. It is written, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The empty Tomb and the Risen Lord declare and testify that what God does is unexpected — We are surprised by joy. God comes into our monotony, into our despair and hopelessness, and changes everything. Just when we think that nothing new will ever happen — God shows up. When he comes he brings his joy with him.
"If it is really true that in going to his death he took upon himself, and in some sense exhausted, the full weight of the world’s evil— there clearly then is a task waiting to be done. The music he wrote
must be performed. The early disciples saw this and got on with it.
When Jesus emerged from the tomb, justice, spirituality, relationship,
and beauty rose with him. Something has happened in and through Jesus
as a result of which the world is a different place, a place where
heaven and earth have been joined forever. God’s future has arrived
in the present. Instead of mere echoes, we hear the voice itself:
a voice which speaks of rescue from evil and death,
and hence of new creation."N. T. Wright
The Risen Lord and the Empty tomb transformed the discouraged depressed, disheartened, depleted disciples. The disciples of Jesus, now Easter people, walked through the door into a new world suddenly full of hope and possibility. What happened was that the frightened, discouraged, grieving men and women somehow were transformed into brave, hopeful, loving bearers of good news—which they could not and would not stop talking about. Good Friday people became Easter people who lived out the rest of their days in the full confidence that there was nothing to fear, no darkness so dark, no threat so dire, no death so deadly to hold them back. We can see the reality of Easter and resurrection all around us, in courageous people who live with hope and grace and love even in the midst of dreadful circumstances. We can see resurrection in the lives of Easter people who know that we are living in a new world, that hope is stronger than despair, and that love is stronger than death.
May the great surprise of Easter overtake us all and fill us with joy.
Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed.
In Him,
Brown
https://youtu.be/QMvT7CPRmqk
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