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Genesis 1:1-2:2, Exodus 14:10=15:1, Ezekiel 36:24-28, Romans
6:3-11, Matthew 28:1-10, Acts 10:34-43, Colossians 3:1-4, Mark
16:1-8
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev. W. Lee Shaw
Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Several years ago when my son Matthew was younger we went to England together. While in London we had several meals from Indian restaurants, his first taste of Indian food. When we returned to Salt Lake City, one day he said to me as we drove past Trolley Square, “Let's get some Indian take-away tonight.” That was some time ago, before we had any Indian restaurants in Salt Lake City (at least that I knew of). I told him, “Well, that was then. This is now. How about a pizza?”
But this mindset of “That was then. This is now.” is not the same as the message of the liturgy of the church and the stories we recall from Scripture. It is not: That was then. This is now. As I mentioned in a sermon a couple of weeks ago, our liturgy proclaims: That is this. Then is now. We gather not just to retell and try to remember old stories of heroes and heroines, tales that take on mythical and legendary significance in literature. What we do, hopefully, in the liturgy is re-call to mind these stories and how we also can experience them in our lives today. We bring to mind today the stories of old, from creation to the Holy Eucharist. We hear them as God's ongoing story with us. That is this. Then is now.
The Feast of Passover was this past Thursday for our Jewish brothers and sisters when they retell the story of the deliverance of Israel in the Red Sea. This is not just a story of military strategy or blunders, nor is it just about a group of people fleeing Egypt thousands of years ago. It is also about how we all experience slavery and deliverance. How we feel enslaved at times and how God meets us in the most unexpected ways and surprising places to help us break free and be the people God has created us to be. Jews and Christians share in this great story of deliverance and freedom. They recall their call to freedom in Moses. We recall our call to freedom in Jesus Christ. As we will announce at the Holy Eucharist: Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
So for Christians and Jews this is foundational as a people of God: That is this. Then is now.
Paul's letters to the early Christians are not some ancient, distant theology. It is about the intersection of life and death and resurrection in Christ. In baptism we die to Christ so that we may be raised in Christ. In baptism the old you has died and a new you is raised to life in Christ. You are now alive in the risen Christ. You have made a covenant with God that we will renew today. You have been washed in the waters of baptism and anointed with oil. You are marked as Christ's own forever. In baptism we are brought out of slavery in sin to a new land of freedom in Christ. A freedom with only two real rules: love God and love one another.
This is real life. These are not just archaic symbols and generous gestures as if it were an initiation into a fraternity or sorority. What Paul wrote to our fellow saints in the first century is as real for us today as it was for them.
This reality is what we proclaim today as this new worldview breaks forth. What we proclaim here this Easter is: That is this. Then is now. The resurrection is now, here in this community of St. Stephen's this morning. We are an “Easter people.” You are living into the resurrection right now as we gather, as we pray, and as we share in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus is made known to us in many ways, and most tangibly in the breaking of the bread.
Christ is risen. The angel proclaimed it to the women at the tomb with simple elegance. On that first day of the week, the first dawn of the new age, these women were the first to hear the Good News that we now proclaim. That which the angel proclaimed to them, is this the angel proclaims to us, here, now at St. Stephen's. What happened then outside Jerusalem, happens now here as we proclaim Christ's resurrection to the world. That is this. Then is now.
Listen to what the angel is saying to us on this morning of the Resurrection:
“Don't be afraid. He is risen. Come and see. Now go, tell others. And remember, he has gone on ahead and is waiting for you. You will see him there.”
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!