Easter Sunday Serrmon Notes 2016

Easter 2016 Is. 65, Lk. 24, Is. 25:6-9

In some ancient caves, early humans sought to reach the beyond. Religion  uses symbolic language to try to touch the beyond. This is such a day.

Angels frame Luke’s gospel-One of the first Easter actions was the stone that sealed jesus from life and from us was rolled away.Easter and eschatology in Is. 65 ends as beginning tombs into wombs emptiness to fullness death into life Waiting for Godot-we give birth -astride the grave,the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more -We are people of the dawn, forever people Easter dawn God is hard at work building a new world, imagining a new world into existence-

why do you look for the living among the dead

Peter has to see for himself, so we are in a superior position than the great apostle himself.We believe the words of the women, the ones in this gospel after all who stay with Jesus.

Hultgren-  Easter also marks the beginning of a new creation.The church at its best continues to be the community of the new creation in a world that is too often headed for dissolution by violence, death, and destruction. - praying for the renewal of the world and seeking to renew it.

In Evangelical Lutheran Worship:”Mighty God of mercy, we thank you for the resurrection dawn, bringing the glory of our risen Lord who makes every morning new.And then, shortly after that, the congregation prays:Merciful God of might, renew this weary world, heal the hurts of all your children, and bring about your peace for all in Christ Jesus, the living Lord.”

In the life of the church, Easter is a once a year event, strictly speaking, but every Lord’s Day throughout the year is a “little Easter, “the eighth day” of creation, the day of new creation. It is also an occasion for the church to claim the resurrection promise that God is making all things new, beginning with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. As the body of believers who belong to the risen Christ, the church is the community of the new creation.

In Isaiah, death  reels in the face of the new creation. Longevity is the rule. More than that, it announces that the future does not have to be a replay of the past. The way things always were in not the rule for god’s new future.Tull-Here it is God who plans and serves the menu, described as very rich food and wine: choice wines, strained clear; sumptuous meats.- banquets often accompany criticism of debauchery. In Isaiah 24, the wine had all dried up, along with mirth and joy. But here food, drink, and delight return on God’s terms, not as an occasion for social oppression, but in a spirit of celebration and harmony hosted by the one who created all foods. Mourning clothes are no longer needed, since the people are comforted. As they eat, God “swallows” both the shrouds (verse 7) and death itself (verse 8). Victorious over that most persistent foe, God wipes tears from all faces.

This “swallowing” recalls the story of the Canaanite god Baal. There the underworld god Mot (“death”) either swallows Baal. Their battle recurs year after year in the seasonal alternation between drought and fertility, just like the Greek story of Persephone and the spring.. Distinct differences from the Baal story appear in this biblical poetry: it is God who swallows death rather than the reverse, and this victory is not subject to repetition, but is sustained forever.We like to imagine shouts of alleluia on Easter and may be there were. Maybe it had a cry that sounded a bit like the birth of a newborn.Maybe it was the whisper of a new breeze.