Easter morning.2019

A miracle happens around 8 months of age. Babies begin talking. Parents get all excited when their little one starts to babble dadadadad. And when those tiny voices starts jabbering mamamamam…the smiles and the delight are amazing.

Often the words hi and ball come next. And a word we all learn quite early on, is a word that carries power, this is a word that toddlers say with delight, while shaking their heads is NO. No becomes a toddler’s favorite word.

Guess what? Children are not the only ones who love to say no. No is God’s favorite word, too. In fact, No is what today is all about. NO.

Look. Jesus is dead. He died on Friday, he was crucified, nailed to a cross. A small group of family and friends buried him in a borrowed tomb. His friends had had just enough time to roll the stone door closed before the sun set. Like an alarm clock going off sundown signaled that the Sabbath had begun.

And this Sabbath was the most important of the entire year…for it was Passover.

They had to be home, celebrating this religious remembrance of deliverance…it was their culture…it was their law…it was who they were.

And so they had to leave Jesus, hastily buried, but at least in a tomb…and they would have to wait for early Sunday morning to finish cleaning him up, anointing him with oil and fresh spices, wrapping him gently and saying their very last good byes.

Finally the sun was coming up signaling that Sabbath was over. The women return to the tomb to complete this last act of love. They come around the corner of the cemetery and the stone has already been rolled back.

Hmmm? That’s strange. Who did it…what is going on?

They do the only logical thing, they go inside to see what’s up. And when they go in, they find…nothing. Jesus’ body is gone.

What did that mean?

After all bodies just don’t get up and walk around…unless you are watching the Walking Dead.

So to help us understand what this empty tomb means, the evangelist, the writer of the Gospel, gives us a foot note. But instead at being at the bottom of the page in

small print, this foot note is written right into the story. Two “men” are there in the story to tell us why the tomb is empty.

We know these “men” are heavenly beings because of what they are wearing…dazzling clothes…And they ask the women: why are you looking for the living among the dead? Jesus is not here…because he has risen. You are looking for life in all the wrong places. Because God said NO to death.”

Listen. This is one HUGE NO. Before Jesus walked out of the tomb, death used

to separate us from God. It kept us locked in, sealed in a grave. But when Jesus died, God thundered from heaven,“Enough! No more. Death…no…no..no!”

And God raised Jesus from the dead. That simple two letter word changed EVERYTHING.

For you see, instead of being the end, death became the door to life with God.

This No, this NO of God’s became a way for us to have life here and now. We do not have to wait until death to experience Easter. It is here, here and now, in our daily lives…all because of baptism.

For in the waters of the baptism we are given resurrection power. God shares Easter life with us while we are still breathing. The baptismal font, that wooden structure, is a mini easter tomb. It is a place of death. For we could drown in its waters.

But it is also a place of life. For there God reaches down into the water and raises us, just like Jesus to everlasting life. We are marked as Christ’s own for ever…and

given the power to say No.

That means we can say No to those things that want to stop us, or slow us down, or hurt us. Those things like rejection or meanness. The waters of baptism give us the ability to overcome anything we are up against in life.

We can say No to discouragement, because we know God is working. We can say NO to despair because we know God is stronger. We can say NO to fear because God has a life planned for us. We have the power not to let death and its friends win in any situation.

God, not death or any evil force, is in control. Cancer, and terrorists may think they win, but in the end, it is God who emerges. Not our chemo, not the tragedies that ravish us. For when our eyelids close and our mortal bodies lie in death, we do not stop living. That is why even at the grave we make our song Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Friends, let the waters of baptism re-fresh our energy. Let this Easter remind us that nothing is bigger than our God. Today let us all seize the power that raised Jesus

from the tomb. Whatever we are facing, let us say: not your way, but God’s.

Whatever is weighing us down, keeping us up at night, making us cry…let our voice thunder like God’s on that first Easter and say : NO.

Because Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!