Great Joy
Luke 24:33-40 and Luke 24:41-53
Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024
I want to take just a moment for reflection of where we have traveled through this Lenten journey in 2024.
On February 14th, we began with Ash Wednesday, being anointed with oil as a reminder that we belong to Jesus Christ as we began our journey into the wilderness as we walked each day with self-sacrifice, confessing our sins and professing our devotion to God.
We were invited to participate in a Presbyterian worldwide sharing of God’s love with neighbors in need around the world by providing relief from natural disasters, food for the hungry, and support for the poor and oppressed through a special offering through One Great Hour of Sharing. We were reminded by this program that through our living and in our giving, we are there in over 100 countries being good neighbors.
Over the following Sundays, we considered what it means to have a good conscience, to have righteousness of faith, to consider the meditations of our hearts, why we should look up, and why all Jesus did was for our sake.
On First Friday in March, we gathered at our Contemplative service to celebrate a World Day of Prayer, and discuss scripture from the book of James on the prayer of faith and how we are healed when we confess our sins to one another and pray with one another.
We met each Wednesday, either in person or via Facebook Livestream for Centering Prayer, to listen to liturgies of hope and clear our minds from the rush of our everyday lives while we gathered to be in the presence of God for just 15 minutes each Wednesday.
During this past week of Holy Week Prayer Services, we have considered how to learn to love in a world where so much heartache exists. We read about the love Mary had for Jesus, and how she celebrated her love as a faithful disciple by anointing Jesus’ feet with her precious perfume.
We considered looking for joy, and how to choose joy in circumstances of darkness that misleads us into being cynical turning us away from the light of Jesus, who is both a man of sorrows and complete joy.
We read scripture that invited us to consider our own call, even when we might not be considered wise or powerful by human standards, or noble by birth. We were reminded that God chooses the weak, the low, the despised in the world, so that out of humility, there is no boasting, except that it be boasting in the Lord.
We reflected on the importance of gratitude and blessings and what it means to be alive. We are blessed by a Giver of good things, a God that sends what we need when we need it, even his Son to show us in his actions on earth all the love one has to offer. Jesus showed us ALL who God is, and we are complete in his truth and his love. God in Christ came to be a servant among us, and taught us how to love by serving one another with humility and tenderness.
Just as Jesus shared the bread and wine at his table with his disciples, we shared in communion the body and new covenant of Christ on Maundy Thursday. We learned what it means to be a humble servant as Jesus set the example in washing feet to show that no one, even those chosen and those sent to deliver the message, are greater than the one who sent them.
Jesus came to glorify God, and to teach us how to glorify God through love of one another and our neighbor, and through worship, prayer and praise of the one who sent Jesus.
On Good Friday, we heard Jesus’ words to his Disciples as he spoke to them about his departure and return, and how they would weep and mourn while the world rejoiced, how they would suffer pain, but their pain would turn into joy.
Then we read the Gospel of John Chapters 18 and 19 witnessing the betrayal, the questioning, the beating and the humiliation leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and death, and how his body was prepared and laid in the tomb. The world went dark because the world put out the light.
On Saturday, Easter’s day of vigil, we read scripture at home and waited for scripture to be fulfilled. We lit a candle to remember and to wait.
Wow! What a journey it has been in the wilderness. I hope that you were able to find time away from the busyness of the day to reflect and ponder your journey with Jesus these past 40 days.
And on this beautiful, Easter morning, regardless of the weather outside, it is a beautiful Easter morning because once again we celebrate God’s glory in Christ’s resurrection. The Word of God is fulfilled, and we are redeemed! Alleluia!
Now, we can sing our closing hymn, say our closing prayer, say our good-byes, go have our Easter lunch with our families, and go home and put our feet up, right!
No. Because this is where the mission starts. We would like to go home and get comfortable, except there is just one little problem. We can’t. As much as we want to, we can’t because Jesus, being resurrected and fulfilling the scriptures, the Word of God, has tasked us with sharing the gospel, the love of Christ, the love of God with ALL nations. That means with every neighbor we meet.
We can’t just check Easter off our list of things to do because it’s the beginning!
Our minds have been opened, and we have been blessed by Jesus, so as much as we want to go home and put our feet up, we can’t. Because each day we live as a Christian in the light and love of Jesus, claiming his death and resurrection, we can’t just keep that held within us. We are not made that way. We have to share the good news…we want to share the good news.
Granted, each of us are given different gifts in how we go about carrying the light of Jesus to others, glorifying God. Some of us do it through music, like Donna and her beautiful team of folks here with us today.
Some of us do it through the silence of our daily lives, allowing our lives to be the example to the world of how Jesus shines within us in our very being through actions of love with one another.
Many of you know Deb Carter, David’s wife, who has been helping me out in the church office until our new Office Administrator starts on April 8th. Deb said to me the day we started working together that she has the gift of gab. Not everyone has that beautiful gift to be able to talk to anyone about anything, but like Deb, my mother had that gift as well. My Daddy, who was a very quiet and private man, would tell my mother that she could meet a complete stranger, and they would know her life’s story before they left. Like my mom, Deb shines in her gift of gab, in her ability to share herself with others.
I would venture to say that all of you have a gift of sharing in some way through your gifts, time and talent.
So as much as you want to, you just can’t go home and put your feet up, because as Disciples of Christ you are called to a greater joy. The joy of sharing the one who loves you, the greatest joy of all. It is complete joy, and once you claim it, there is no unseeing it, no undoing it. The only recourse you have is to share it.
While so many get caught up in the sorrows of Jesus’s last days, the unfathomable cruelty that he suffered, our focus should remain in the joy of the resurrection, and the commissioning that follows. From the very moment Jesus is met outside the tomb by the women in the morning of his resurrection, Jesus tells them to go tell the news.
It’s our life’s mission. It’s why we are here. It is the greatest joy we know, and through the Holy Spirit we experience it again and again and again.
I can just imagine the chaos, the buzz around the eleven when the two men from their walk to Emmaus meet with them, and oh my goodness, when Jesus himself appears to them, the emotions were off the chart.
Have you ever walked into a room, and there is a party going on, and you are trying to find someone or get people’s attention, but they are so wrapped up in something that has happened with excitement and loud talking, that they don’t even know you are there because they have become so entranced with focusing on each other in the chaos.
Here Jesus stands in their midst, and they are overjoyed and excited, but they are disbelieving, too. I mean, wouldn’t you! Mixed in with all the joy and excitement there is also doubt in the chaos.
That’s how I imagine this moment, and I just love Jesus because he always knows what to do to get their attention, to reign them back in, “do you have anything to eat?” Now, I’m thinking in this moment, Jesus and I have a lot in common, because when I go to a party, and all these people are congregating and talking around the hors d’oeuvre table or buffet line, and I can’t seem to work my way into the midst of them to get to the food, I find that I can get their attention to be able to get to the food! Food can be a driving force, a sharing experience, and Jesus used the opportunity to dine and teach throughout his ministry.
Jesus is like, “Hello! I know you all are joyous and excited, but I’m still here, and by the way, do you have anything to eat.”
Jesus not only shares a meal with them for nourishment, but he opens their minds so they can fully understand the scriptures to see that what he has been telling them throughout their journey together has been fulfilled.
Then he restates the mission: YOU are the witnesses, and you will be clothed with the power from on high, the power provided by God through the Holy Spirit. Then before Jesus ascends to heaven, he blesses them. Just like he blesses each of us today to be able to carry out the mission to go and tell the gospel to all people.
In their mission, the disciples worshiped Jesus and were continually in the temple blessing God. All with great joy.
Just like Jesus, we will suffer sorrows, yet the complete joy we have in the knowledge of the resurrection is that Jesus loves us and is always with us, and this great joy outweighs the sorrows of our lives here on earth. It’s the great joy of knowing we have a God greater than the suffering and sorrows of death, because in the light of God, we live. To God be the glory!
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER
God of love, it is with joy we pray for all Christian assemblies united this morning at the empty tomb. Help us to see you, O God, in those we do not expect to encounter, and remove all fear from our hearts. We pray with gratitude for the many gathered here this day, and ask your blessings to shower down upon them as they go and tell the news of the gospel. We pray with humility for the earth you created and all upon it that you called good. Heal what we have scared and broken, and open our eyes to see the creation that speaks to us of your goodness when we pause on our life’s journey to see it. With hope and love we pray for all nations, especially those places overwhelmed by war and conflict, greed and hatred. By the light of the resurrection, destroy the shroud that is cast over all who live under dictatorship, in the clutches of propagandists, and in ignorance. Confuse the minds of those who wish to control, that hold people against their will, and those that abuse children. Send your angels to minister and care for those in harm’s way, and bless peacemakers who work to bring peace to their country, city, village and household. With compassion wipe away the tears of all who weep. Give us the spiritual tools we need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort those who are in any trouble. Send your angels to watch over the vulnerable and the sick, and the caregivers who watch over them. Hear our prayers for healing for those who have asked for our prayers as we pause to remember them __________________ ___________________________________
On this Easter morning, we especially remember those who saw our risen Lord and witnessed to his resurrection so that we might have faith. May their words and deeds inspire us through the Holy Spirit to sing our “Alleluia!” again and again, and as we pass from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom, from death to life, we commend all these prayers to you, gracious and ever-living God, as we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father, who art in heaven……
Amen.