With our routines and world upended by the Shelter in Place Order earlier this week that affects all of California, we are looking for ways to stay connected during a mandate to physically stay apart from one another. I have been blessed to spend Lent providing pulpit supply to Grace Community Church in North Fork, CA, and this is a continuation of our time together, even though we’re in different spaces.

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Opening Hymn • Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Easter Affirmation Chalice Hymnal #217

RESPONSE
I know that my Redeemer lives.

R
Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch,
as you really are unleavened.
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the festival,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. R

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead,
will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over him.
The death he died, he died to sin, once for all;
but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus. R

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have died.
For since death came through a human being,
the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;
for as all die in Adam,
so all will be made alive in Christ. R

Holy Scripture

Jeremiah 31:1-6  • Matthew 28:1-10 

Lay Leader: Rene Horton

Our many voices keep us in community with one another during this time. If you are interested in recording a reading of next week’s scripture, please email me.

Children’s Time

Faith Formation Resource for Easter Sunday from Illustrated Ministry (Including a link to a beautiful Alleluia poster. We colored ours and put it in the window!)

Church at Prayer

All are invited to email me prayer requests for next week’s prayer, or to get in touch any time during the week. We are in the midst of an unprecidented global event, and I am available as a compassionate ear if you find you need to talk through what’s going on.

Due to the public nature of worship and prayers online, prayer requests will be vague on the video recording to respect privacy and confidentiality, trusting that God knows our intention.

Hymn • In the Garden

Sermon

Sermon Transcript

The damp chill of morning clung to the hems of their clothes as they left the safety of their homes and set out. Things had moved so quickly, escalated so fast. What they had been warned about for what seemed a zillion times as something that was coming in the near future had suddenly caught up to them. They had all hoped that the warnings were wrong, or overblown, or that something could change fate, and maybe there was a little bit of an unwillingness to believe that something so unspeakable could be real. But it happened.

Everyone was shaken. In theory there had been enough time to prepare for this, but they hadn’t prepared, and now it was too unsafe to be together. Unsafe to go out in groups, or to even gather at one another’s homes to wait it out, whatever “it” was. They were terrified, scattered, and filled with grief and anxiety about what would become of them.

But the women knew that there were things that needed tending, and so they went out early. It was still dark, not many were milling around and it would be easier to keep a safe distance from anyone they might come upon.

This Easter, we have a lot more in common with the first Easter than we usually do. That’s hardly comforting, since the first Easter morning found Jesus’ apostles scattered, hidden, scared, and trying to avoid detection or arrest before they could figure out just where and how they should proceed. With a tender three days between them and the death of the messiah, their time of mourning hadn’t even begun to begin. With the Sabbath fast approaching, they’d had to flee and sit with their grief for an entire day, keep vigil separately, not tend to the body or find any communal balm to their suffering.

We too come to this Easter morning sequestered away, sitting with the heaviness of Holy Week behind us, steeped in our own uncertainty of what all this means for us in a time of heart-wrenching stories of loss and fear that those stories will begin hitting closer to home. We are entering this day of gladness and celebration with a shaken timidity brought on by loss and a wondering where we will go from here that mirrors that first Easter morning, before the stone rolled away.

Today will look different than our usual Easter mornings. I know that I won’t be spending the first few hours trying to force my kids into semi-matching outfits for church, I probably won’t even notice if they stay in their pajamas all day. Where we would normally be descending upon my grandmother’s house after church with crock pots and dozens of dyed eggs and kites to fly in her yard, we will instead be dying a small amount of eggs here in our home. We will be coloring posters that say “Alleluia” and putting them in our windows to share our joy at the risen Christ with our neighbors. We will probably have left overs for dinner instead of the German sausage and Vareniks and kuche like we usually do in my Volga German family. And it’s okay.

This Easter we are able to experience Christ’s resurrection in a completely different way. We are invited to strip the story down to the basics and rather than moving through the day on auto-pilot because we all *know* the way it goes, the songE aster lilies make us sneeze, we are beckoned closer, given access to feel and encounter it anew.

Feel free to harness those feelings of anxiety, fear, loss, grief, and isolation that are easily accessed as we live responsively to the spread of COVID-19. How ever you’re experiencing this time right now is valid, even if you’re not feeling ready for the Alleluia yet. The close friends, followers, apostles of Jesus started out their Sunday morning far from declaring victory over death or singing about joy. That first Easter, no one knew what to expect. Let’s go back to the story we opened with. Where does it resonate with you?

The damp chill of morning clung to the hems of their clothes as they left the safety of their homes and set out. Things had moved so quickly, escalated so fast. What they had been warned about for what seemed a zillion times as something that was coming in the near future had suddenly caught up to them. They had all hoped that the warnings were wrong, or overblown, or that something could change fate, and maybe there was a little bit of an unwillingness to believe that something so unspeakable could be real. But it happened.

Everyone was shaken. In theory there had been enough time to prepare for this, but they hadn’t prepared, and now it was too unsafe to be together. Unsafe to go out in groups, or to even gather at one another’s homes to wait it out, whatever “it” was. They were terrified, scattered, and filled with grief and anxiety about what would become of them.

But the women knew that there were things that needed tending, and so they went out early. It was still dark, not many were milling around and it would be easier to keep a safe distance from anyone they might come upon. They knew eventually they would encounter guards at the tomb, but they would deal with that when they got there.

The two Marys walked in silence, the dew-damp gravel crunching out a cadence that revealed the task to be part devotion and part dread. How to tend to such beloved deceased at a time like this? How do you grieve such a loss?

At the tomb, the guards stood sentry, Rome asserting power over the powerless and the dead. Before the women could even make their request to do the essential work of tending to the dead, the earth shook. Earthquakes may not rattle Californians like us, but even we would be shocked if the source of the rumble was an angel, rolling the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. The guards were unable to move or speak, they were completely terrified at the dazzlingly bright angel’s appearance.

The women had experienced amazing things in their time accompanying Jesus, however the angel knew they would need reassurance. They came to the tomb empty with grief, broken by the loss of their beloved teacher. The lightning-like appearance was going to be less shocking to them than coming upon an empty tomb with no explanation. The angel tells the women Jesus will come visit them soon in Galilee, so soon that he was already en route to them, and they should hurry and let the disciples know.

The women, adjusting to this information, turned and started to run, powered by anticipation, excitement, adrenaline, and… is it safe to say it yet, before we know for sure.. joy! Yes! Joy!

Before they got too far, Jesus stepped out into the path. They stopped, the joy, Yes! Joy! Welling up, and as Jesus greeted them, they threw themselves down and in exhilarated awe, and in gratitude that their grief was thus truncated, they worshipped at his feet. Jesus comforted them, told them not to have fear, to bring each of his siblings from their hiding places and to make their way to galilee, where they would all see him.

This week’s Matthew reading ends with a promise of coming together, however, as of Verse 10, we understand that many of those who loved Jesus dearly hadn’t been told of his rising. They were still heavily steeped in disorienting loss, and for some of them, even hearing that Christ had risen, triumphed over death, and appeared to the women, they still would be unable to move past the uneasiness they were feeling until they reached Galilee and saw for themselves.

This Easter morning, if you find yourself more emotionally compatible in the company of the apostles who hadn’t received the good news yet, check that feeling. Where does it sit for you? Is it in the pit of your stomach? Does your heart ache? Are you carrying it as tension in your shoulders and neck? Does it just feel like an over-all sagging of the soul? Have you located it? Good.

Now, holding onto that feeling, imagine you are locked up in your home, away from your loved ones, and sitting with that feeling. Again, not a stretch. Now, imagine the Marys are at your door, their faces flush with excitement, they’ve just SEEN him! They worshipped at his feet, and he’s coming to meet everyone in Galilee! Get your shoes. Yes, yoga pants are totally fine, we’ve gotta go NOW, he’s on his way! Well, I’m sorry you haven’t showered in three days, meet you on the road out of town! How does that news hit you? Can you feel the Alleluias welling up yet?

If not, it’s okay. If you recall, Thomas had to get all kinds of evidence before he was ready to move past the heaviness of grief. We’re in extraordinary circumstances, and if you are having difficulty with this Easter be comforted in knowing that the Alleluia will find you, the joy of the resurrection is not limited to one Sunday a year, for Christ is with us always. Amen.

Closing Hymn • Thine is the Glory

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This morning’s virtual worship was created for the wonderful folks of Grace Community Church in North Fork, CA. I am providing pulpit supply and have completely fallen in love with this church. If you came to this via some other source and received blessing by what was presented here today I would like to ask you to consider sending a donation to Grace. Like everywhere else, churches are being hit hard by this disruption to our usual way of life. Thank you!

Checks can be mailed to:
Grace Community Church
C/O Rene Horton
P.O. Box 368
Auberry, CA 93602