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"WE HAVE HOPE!"
GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT: LUKE 24:1-11

A SERMON MESSAGE FOR EASTER MORNING
LOS ALAMOS FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
APRIL 8, 2007

SCRIPTURE LESSON: Luke 24:1-11 - 1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words. 9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

MESSAGE: "Hope, like the gleaming taper's light
Adorns and cheers our way.
And still, as darker grows the night
Emits a brighter ray."

Those four lines of poetry, penned by Oliver Goldsmith, attempt to capture the essence of something which is both indescribable and yet indispensable to humanity. Hope. Hope--for ourselves and for our world. Hope--for the living and for the dead. Hope. Today--on Easter--we have hope. Why do we hope? Because "He is not here; he has risen."

Hope. To become a believer in Jesus Christ during most of the first three centuries after His coming to earth meant, most especially throughout the vast sweep of the Roman Empire, almost certain death. Death was neither uncommon nor unexpected to the early believers in Christ. It was not the experience of grandmothers and grandfathers who, after enjoying a long, full span of years on earth, slipped gracefully beyond this life. It was not an aberration--the result of disease or accident--interrupting a more usual, normal course of existence for the Christian community. Death was an ever-present reality for children and parents, male and female, slave and free. Many New Testament scholars say that funeral services were second only to receiving Holy Communion as the most frequent Christian rite of worship during the first 300 years of the Church's existence.

Hope. Paul, the great apostle of first century Christianity, admonished early believers in his first letter to the Thessalonians, despite the constant and continual threat of death itself--to hope. He considered hope to be one of the great trinity of Christian pillars--faith, hope, and love. In his letter to the Christians at Rome, who faced similar, if not worse, circumstances than the Thessalonians, Paul defined hope thus: "that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Hope. Paul's broad, all-encompassing definition says it as well as any human words can. The Christian hope is for personal salvation--yes. The Christian hope is for life after death--yes. The Christian hope is for liberation from all forms of bondage--yes. The Christian hope is for ultimate and complete freedom--yes. The Christian hope is for the return of Christ--yes. The Christian hope is that God's glory pervade all things--yes. For ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors, our friends, our enemies, our world--for the living and the dead, for the past, the present, and the future, for all things both animate and inanimate--Christians have hope.

Hope. On Easter Sunday, the Church of Jesus Christ proclaims the bedrock of its belief to the world. There are 51 other Sundays each year during which the vast array of teachings to be found in God's Word on virtually any subject can, and should, be enunciated. There are times when we must confront and speak out against the myriad forms of evil and corruption in our society. There are weeks and seasons when stewardship is a proper theme. On some Sundays the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit are the right topic. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" deserves to be proclaimed by the Church regularly. Grace and love, sin and judgment--the richly significant foci of God's revelation of Himself are virtually innumerable. But today, on Easter Sunday, just one topic is supremely appropriate. Hope. For the living and the dead--hope.

Hope. On this Easter Sunday morning, I announce to you that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. I proclaim that God is alive--active--and powerfully moving in our midst. I declare, by the authority of His Holy Word, that sin, death, and decay--the minions of Satan--are defeated foes. I offer, in His mighty Name, eternal life to you. And I promise--or, rather, God promises--that, soon or late, Jesus is coming back to receive you to Himself, so that you may dwell forever in the Kingdom of God. Just as Paul did for the Thessalonians long ago, I would encourage you with these words--"Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who, living or dead, have believed in Him."

Hope. Martin Luther, the great founder of the Protestant branch of the Christian Church four centuries ago, once wrote this sentence: "Everything that is done in the world is done by hope." I believe that is true. And the content of my hope is Jesus Christ. Whatever the circumstances of your life this Easter morning, I offer to you, through Jesus Christ, hope.

Hope. This Easter sermon began with a poem. Let's end it with another--the first verse of a familiar hymn. We could sing it, but on this occasion I prefer we not--in order to more carefully hear the words:

"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand--
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

Praise God--we have hope! Amen.

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