Easter Sunday (Ps) March 31st

Psalm 64:1-10

¹ Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;

preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

² Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,

from the throng of evildoers,

³ who whet their tongues like swords,

who aim bitter words like arrows,

⁴ shooting from ambush at the blameless,

shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

⁵ They hold fast to their evil purpose;

they talk of laying snares secretly,

thinking, “Who can see them?”

⁶ They search out injustice,

saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.”

For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.

⁷But God shoots his arrow at them;

they are wounded suddenly.

⁸ They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them;

all who see them will wag their heads.

⁹ Then all mankind fears;

they tell what God has brought about

and ponder what he has done.

¹⁰ Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord

and take refuge in him!

Let all the upright in heart exult!

Have you ever been miss quoted? Have you ever had someone twist your words against you? Have you ever been so tongue tied that you are not even sure what you just said? It can be very difficult some times for us to be fully truthful. Many of us struggle to tell the truth and even turn to lies to protect other people.

The tongues of men can been seen as their strength. They can even be seen as their power over others. “They search out injustice, saying, ‘We have accomplished a diligent search.’ For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.” The mind of the Man can be very deep. Many people can reason very deep things. Many people can even come up with answers to difficult questions.

“But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly. They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads.” God’s reason and thoughts are so much more incredible than all your thoughts. God shoots his arrow into your words and shows you how stupid you really are. (I am no different.) Our weakness reveals his power.

“Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!” What better place to take refuge in than a dead man’s empty tomb. It has to be a safe place, and so comforting to know that one-day he will return for me. God is our refuge and strength. God is the one who saves us from death and hell.

Easter Sunday (NT)

Revelation 1:1-20

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ² who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. ³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. ⁷ Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

⁹ I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet ¹¹ saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵ his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. ¹⁹ Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

I love all the references to the Resurrection in this passage. I hope you found them all. It would be a great exercise to go back through and count them all up. (You might come up with a few more than I, if I gave you a number.)

St John is found in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord. He is celebrating the eighth day of the week when the Lord was raised from the dead. It is there where God promised to be that the Word of God made flesh makes himself known to John on the island of Patmos. He continues to reveal more things about himself and about what he had done for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus Christ is simply the one who died for the forgiveness of sins. But he died and rose again to new life as the firstborn of the dead. He is the firstborn, meaning there are plenty more to come. Jesus Christ is only the first. The rest will be raised when he comes. Oh, and he is coming very soon. Jesus is coming again not to be born of another virgin, but to raise his people from death and restore all of creation to the way it is supposed to be.

Don’t forget Jesus Christ has the keys of Death and Hades. He unlocks or breaks down the gates of Hell so that the Devil may not longer seize or deceive his people any longer. God Bless and Keep you from any such errors. God raised his Son and will raise you to new life on the last day.

NTA: 1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.)

Easter Sunday (OT)

Exodus 14:1-31

Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. ³ For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” ⁶ So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, ⁷ and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. ⁸ And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. ⁹ The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

¹⁰ When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” ¹³ And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. ¹⁶ Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. ¹⁸ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

¹⁹ Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ²² And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴ And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, ²⁵ clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸ The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. ²⁹ But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

³⁰ Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹ Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

I always seem to forget the details. The Pillar of cloud and the Pillar of Fire moves around the people of Israel and even the Egyptians. The Lord continues to instruct his people to walk right into traps. The one that really struck me this time was the all Night wind to make sure the sea turned to dry ground.

After the Ten Plagues in Egypt Pharaoh finally let God’s people go. He allowed them to leave the land of Egypt. God continued to harden Pharaoh’s heart after leading the Israelites to this place near the Red (Reed) Sea. Pharaoh sent his chariots, horsemen, and army after his run away slaves. He sent them there and they were held off all night, by fire and a cloud.

It was early in the morning when God had Moses lead his people across the dry land into the sea. They had walls of water on their left and on their right. Through these waters they go from the land of death and Pharaoh’s army to Life and the future hope of the promise land. God does great things in the morning. Every Sunday morning, God continues to do great things by forgiving people of their sins and offering them new life and salvation. Remember it is in the Morning the women go to the tomb.

OTA: Exodus 14:10-13, 21-31

Easter Sunday (CL)

Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ⁴ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. ⁵ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. ⁶ And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” ⁸ And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Many people do not think this could be the finally end of the story. Well they are correct. It is not the end of the story but it very well maybe the ending to the Gospel according to St Mark.  St Mark offers us the great opportunity to ask the question what comes next.

The women come to seek Jesus of Nazareth.  They come to finish his burial. But these things always become a little difficult for me when you put the narratives together. The point really is they come to the tomb in the morning looking for a dead body and don’t find one.

The women find that the large stone is rolled away for them. The Stone opens up the tomb so you can look inside. They are able to find a young man (fully clothed) sitting there. This man seems to know exactly who they are and why they have come. He warns them not to fear or be alarmed, but they remain alarmed. If anything the women get more worked up.

Finally, the women run away or go home the same way most of us go home after church. When we go home, we do not desire to tell anyone anything. We do not want to let this Christianity seep into our daily lives or work. We certainly do not want to raise our children or teach our children about God. We are all trapped in our fear.

Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. Jesus of Nazareth is not found in a tomb. You can not put flowers on his grave site. You can not visit his memorial. He is risen from the Dead. He is alive and able to eat with his disciples. You have nothing to fear, because he can over come the grave. He has given this power to you also to overcome death and live eternally.

GA: Matthew 28:1-10

Good Friday

OTA: Leviticus 16:6-10, 15-22

NT: Hebrews 10:1-10

NTA: Hebrews 4:14-16

GA: John 18:1-19:42

Ps: Psalm 22:1-21 (Jesus’ Prayer on the Cross)