Pastor Dismer’s sermon from Easter Sunday:

Our Lenten journey begins anew

Matt 28:1-10

Today our Lenten journey is over. We have arrived at Easter Sunday, and we proclaim, with Christians down through the ages and across the world today: Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Our Lenten Journey is over. Or is it? If we could ask the first disciples that question, what would they say?

On that first Easter Sunday, they thought their journey with Jesus was over. However, as much as they had loved Jesus and believed in him, when he was arrested, they were too afraid to stand beside him, and alone, he had gone to his death.

Even after his burial they were afraid, and stayed away. Some women found the courage to go to the tomb, possibly bringing spices to sprinkle on the body - which would have been done earlier if there had been time.

What the women found at the tomb was an angel – a messenger – with an appearance that had sent the guards into shock.

The angel spoke: Do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he is risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Verify it for yourselves, the angel offered.

And then the angel gave a command: “Go quickly and tell his disciples. He is risen and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.”

Can you imagine the reaction of the disciples to this message? They were grieving and afraid and possibly ashamed. They thought their journey with Jesus was over. Instead, it was starting over! Jesus was alive, and he would meet them in Galilee.

Galilee? They may well have wondered. Why doesn’t he triumphantly appear in Jerusalem, before Pilate, or the Jewish leaders and the crowds who had called for his death?

But Jesus had other plans. He would meet them back in Galilee; back where they had first met; where he had first called them to follow him.

Jesus was calling them back to the beginning of their journey – to the place where their enthusiasm and excitement had given them the courage to boldly follow him.

They were going back to meet again the one they had come to know as a rabbi and friend, as a healer, a doer of miracles, as the one who had taught by example, by stories and parables.

But this time they were meeting the RISEN Christ.

They were going back to the place where their discipleship had started, and where it was about to start all over again.

When Jesus met the disciples in Galilee he said to them: “All authority on earth and in heaven has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Start at home, start with those you know, and share all that you have learned, making disciples. Start your journey again, with the love and excitement you first had. And I will be with you to the end.

If we asked the first disciples if our Lenten journey is over, what would they say to us?

We have spent these weeks asking ourselves what it means to be Jesus’ disciple.

We have learned a lot about being followers, learners, ministers, living examples, witnesses, and finally: leaders:

Leaders with a mission to baptize and make disciples.

If we could ask the disciples, they might say: Listen to the angel who spoke at the empty tomb, and you will know that your Lenten journey is NOT over, but beginning anew.

The angel is inviting us today, and every day, to meet Jesus in our Galilee - in the everyday places of our ordinary lives, and there begin our discipleship.

We are commanded to spread the good news to our families and friends, to our coworkers and neighbors, and we may not stop there, for all the world is included in Jesus’ commission to baptize and make disciples.

CHRIST IS RISEN! If you can respond in faith - HE IS RISEN INDEED - then you know that today and every day you are invited to live that conviction as disciples of the RISEN, living LORD. Amen.