Year A Easter Morning 2023 Declarations

 Year A Easter Morning, 9 April 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Declarations”

Collect: Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Colossians 3:1-4

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Matthew 28:1-10

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

THE LORD IS RISEN!

The Lord is Risen indeed!

What a glorious set of days. Maundy Thursday when we were reminded that we are all welcomed and loved. Good Friday when we pondered the Cross, and the great love of Christ. Holy Saturday when we sat in quiet darkness, and the Great Vigil when we walked through God’s Salvation History from Creation through to Resurrection, and our part in it.

As a priest, I often say to other priests, “We are in a funny business.” We see people at their finest, and often at their worst. We are invited into holy moments around birth and death, and celebrate baptisms and weddings and all of life around and between.

One of the great responsibilities of being a Priest of the Church of Jesus Christ is Declaration. There are not a lot of things that “become” with the “pronouncement.” Royalty can declare. Presidents. Judges. And yes, Priests. 

According to the Ordination of Service, during the Examination by the Bishop, all priests are called to affirm this as their calling:

As a priest, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion your life in accordance with its precepts. You are to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. You are to preach, to declare God's forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God's blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to you. In all that you do, you are to nourish Christ's people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come.

That is a lot of responsibility, one I do not, nor does any priest I know, take lightly. But think of these things:

• Declare God’s forgiveness- that is when I pronounce pardon after the confession

• Pronounce God’s blessing- this is any time I bless anything, particularly after the Eucharist

• Administer Holy Baptism- which includes the declaration & marking one as Christ’s own forever

• Celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist- Sanctifying the elements to be the Body and Blood of Christ

All these are so important, but you probably never thought of them as “Declarations.” But every time I say them I do, I remember that it is not me that is doing the work, but God is doing it, I pray, through me. The one time I do declare something that you readily pay attention to is at a Wedding Ceremony. “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

There is something that is fascinating and scary about the power to pronounce, before the pronouncement was one thing, and after the declaration there is a new ontology, a new way of being. That Before and After is what strikes me about the Resurrection today.

Repeatedly Jesus told his disciples what was to happen. “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” There was a definite before, when Jesus was looking ahead to this happening.

And this morning’s Gospel is the definite “After” where it changed everything.

There was a movie that came out in 1972 starring Robert Redford, The Candidate. He portrayed Bill McKay, a young, idealistic candidate, and the movie follows him through his campaign, and the ending is when McKay surprisingly wins the election. In the final scene, he escapes the victory party and pulls his campaign manager into a room while throngs of journalists clamor outside. McKay asks his manager, "What do we do now?" The media throng arrives to drag them out, and McKay never receives an answer.

That question is what we must ask of ourselves if we hold Easter to be true. “What do we do now?” 

What difference does this make? For those women embracing Jesus’ feet and worshiping him, it is All or Nothing. It is no different for us.

 

After our annual meeting, Kasey and I worked very hard to get an application in for a grant for the church. It would be a real game changer, and it would enable me to make several personal dreams come true. I hope and pray that we get the grant. It is a very long shot, no matter how hard we worked, no matter how much it would help, the likelihood is slim. It would be easy to focus on the near impossibility of it happening. That may give me comfort, to ease the possible pain of it not happening.

But what if it did? It would be a game changer for the church’s budget next year, and a life changer for me and my family.

That is where our hope lies, friends. No matter how dark it is, as people of faith we must envision the dawn.

Jesus told the women in the garden that morning to send his disciples on to Galilee. That is hope. And it would take a lot of faith. Jesus was dead. They knew he was dead. But, the question must be asked, what if it is true?

Or as McKay asked in The Candidate, “What do we do now?”

And that is the question that we must ask.

It is Easter. What difference does it make in your life? How are you changed for the better? Or is it another good story, like your favorite Hollywood blockbuster, that makes you feel good odd Christmases and Easters. Religu-tainment for a season.

Friends, only you can know the difference it can make. Only you have the power to accept the news first, and the life change it enables.

Jesus did not resurrect to make bad people feel good, or even become good. Jesus did not come so that we could get a barcode to get into heaven. St. Peter with his scanner, Beep, “In!” Beep, “In!” Beep, “In!” Beep, “In!” Eccch, “Down you go!” Do not belittle Jesus into thinking like that. Jesus came to make the Kingdom of God here and now, which continues on to there and then.  Jesus came to help us start that Kingdom living now. It will affect our schools. It will affect our politics. It will change the headlines we see each and every day. Imagine that, Good News in the Headlines. It will affect every aspect of our lives and how we life with one another.

Think of it this way, you have been invited to be in on the greatest thing ever attempted. Bigger than D-Day. Bigger than the Manhattan Project. Bigger than vaccinating the entire world in a couple years for COVID-19. God sent Jesus to begin a transformation of the walking dead to life eternal for anyone who wanted in on the action. It would take millenia, but God is patient. Jesus came to show us how to live a Kingdom life on this side of heaven. And so that we might know he is worth listening to, he did the one thing that not a one of us could do, rise from dead.

And two thousand years later, the story continues. It continues in you or you would not be sitting here today.

“But Rock+,” you may say, “if all that is true, why is the world the shape it is in? If God is in control, why does it feel like things are so bad?” Good question.

I have two responses. 

1. God wants us in on the game. God wants us to “Repent (aka change our ways) for the Kingdom of God is at hand (aka Here & Now).” Maybe that is just it. We are waiting on God and God is prodding, urging, begging us to be who God made us to be. He wants us to be God’s People in a hurting world.

2. If God were not God, I do not think we would have survived to now to complain about how bad things are. I think if left to our own devices, we probably would not be.

This Easter, do you have a Before and After story? Before I was this, and After I am this? Maybe you have never tried it on for size, the Resurrection, that is.

Might I offer up this today, from a line in Psalm 34 (v. 8) “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Scripture says it. Maybe you have a hard time believing all that we are talking about is silly frivolities, or as I said, Religu-tainment. But try on this experiment. Give it some time. Act as if the Resurrection were true. Make some changes in how you act and think. Make some changes in how you treat others. Make some changes in how you see yourself in the mirror. Make some changes in how you read the news and see the times we have been given. I believe if you Taste & See that the Scriptures will ring true. The Lord is Good.

I started today with the idea that as a priest I get to make declarations. And my favorite one is this. In response, say it like you believe it with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Alleluia! THE LORD IS RISEN!

The Lord is Risen, Indeed. Alleluia!

Amen