Easter Sermon in Westport

I cannot tell you how blessed I have been by each of you as we start this new ministry here. It has been so exciting to see new life coming into the place. It has been so exciting to see all of the new ideas that you all have for our future. It has been so exciting to see the leadership that you all have taken. I am so very grateful to be here.

This is the time of the year that we celebrate new fire and new life. It comes at the right time, doesn’t it? This is also the time of year that everything starts to grow again. Everything seems to be coming back to life.

It’s a great metaphor for this place, isn’t it? There is a lot of history in this place and in this building. It was a school a long time ago. Then it was a church and a clothing bank and a food bank. Then it was empty for awhile. Now there is something new happening here—and you are all co-creators in it. We are all building this together.

In our gospel today, we have the story of three women who go to the grave of Jesus.

Now, Jesus has spent the last three years building a movement. He has spent almost all of his time where he grew up, in the fishing villages of Galilee.

He has preached things like this; “The kingdom of God is at hand. Turn around—repent—and believe this good news.” He encouraged the poor farmers and fisherfolk of Galilee, people who were suffering under the Roman empire, people who were struggling with deep poverty, he encouraged them to hope. Jesus told them that a better kingdom was possible. Jesus raised up leaders from people like himself—people who were poor, who were craftsfolk, and fisherfolk.

Eventually, the movement Jesus build got so large that the religious and political leaders of the time started to take notice. And they were afraid.

When Jesus came to Jerusalem, the capital city, he was arrested, tried, and imprisoned. Then the Roman governor sentenced Jesus to death.

I can only imagine that the women who come to the grave of Jesus are sad and they are scared. It seems like everything is crumbling around them. They might have even been losing hope.

And then they see this guy, sitting in the tomb, and he tells them that Jesus is gone and that Jesus is risen from the dead.

As you might know, there are four different versions of the story of Jesus. The one that we read today was from Mark.  And Mark leaves us hanging. The women go to the tomb and they get told by this man in white that Jesus has risen. But they just leave and they don’t tell anyone right away. They are still scared. And they don’t know what is coming next.

They hear about new life. They hear about resurrection. But they are not sure what that means yet. It is still a mystery.

That’s a little like what this is like for us, here, isn’t it?

We don’t know what will come next for our little community as we start this ministry up. We don’t know what kind of new life and new fire will come out of this. We want to build a movement like Jesus did. We want to see new life in our community. We want to sing and eat and pray and hope and dream together.

But we are just at the very beginning. We can’t even imagine what it will look like in the future. We are like the women in our gospel reading today. We are waiting, hoping for new life. Even when we don’t know what is coming next.

I’m pretty sure, whatever does come, as you lead, and you serve, and you dream together—I’m pretty sure its going to be awesome.