A Sermon for Easter Day
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118
Colossians 3:1-4
Mark16:1-8
Easter eggs. Are these real? These eggs in my basket are made of stone. Some stones look like eggs. At Easter time in Ireland at sunrise they have egg rolling races. It reminds them of something? Can you guess what? In our reading today, did we hear about something that was rolled away? A stone. Easter eggs can remind us of the stone that was rolled away.
Is this one real? This one's a regular colored Easter egg. Is this one alive? Probably not. What if I went to the farm and got an egg out from underneath a chicken? What if I found an empty eggshell in the nest at the farm? What would the empty egg mean? That there is a live chick somewhere. Easter eggs remind of new life.
There's an old story about Mary Magdalene – the woman we just read about.
The same one who found the empty tomb.
An ancient Easter Orthodox tradition says that she went to visit the Emperor Tiberias.
She wanted to explain to him about Jesus' resurrection.
She decided to use an egg to tell the story of Jesus' new life.
But the emperor didn't believe her.
He said, "A human can no more rise from the dead than that egg in your hand can turn red."
And immediately the egg in Mary's hand did turn red.
So, there we have the first colored Easter egg.
Still today we see pictures of Mary Magdalene holding a red egg.
Do you see any red eggs around here? Or eggs of any other color? Well then, you'd better get up and get one. And once you have one, help someone else find one because we need them for the rest of the sermon. There are 13 of them.
I know you're supposed to have a dozen eggs. They come in boxes that way. And 12 is one of the special numbers in the Bible that means "everyone." 12 tribes of Israel and 12 disciples of Jesus. But I put in an extra egg to remind us that God is always with us too. 12 tribes and one God. 12 disciples and Jesus. Of course God has more people than the 12 tribes and Jesus has more followers than the 12 disciples.
There are names of Jesus' disciples on the eggs. Since there are different lists of who is part of the twelve, we picked our own list from people that the Bible tells us were disciples of Jesus.
There are some special names in there. Like Judas. You might not want that one, because he handed Jesus over to the police, but really its one of the really good eggs to find. The Bible says that Jesus didn't lose any who were given to him, that he loved them all to the end. So that if he didn't lose Judas and kept on loving him, the egg with Judas's name reminds us that even when we betray Jesus, he will still love us. So the Judas egg is a special one. All the eggs have stories you can find in the Bible.
So, read us what your eggs say: Thomas, Salome, Peter, Paul, Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary Madgalene, Mary, Mother of James, Mary of Bethany, Martha, Judas, John, James, Alexandra
But there's one of these names that doesn't seem to have a bible story to go with it. Alexandra – Who's that? There she is. The baby being baptized this morning. What's she doing with all those others from the bible?
Oh, but Alexandra is in the bible. She's part of the best story of all. Her baptism makes her a disciple. In her baptism, we get to tell the Easter story again. We talk about her "dying and rising with Christ."
We read in our second reading that a Christian's "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." Little Alex is hidden with Christ in God.
Tucked away like an Easter egg still in the nest, Alex is ready to burst open with new life. Christ will be revealed in her life.
Alexandra's life on this day is the Easter story. Today Christ is risen. Today Christ is alive. Christ lives in Alexandra. And Christ lives in you.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! (The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!)