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Alleluia! We gather to celebrate that death does not have the last word, that sin does not drive our lives, that guilt and fear can be transformed into freedom and grace!

Alleuia! Christ is risen-

Welcome to everyone here -

For those of you who go through the liturgies of Holy Week that leads to Easter Sunday, you have followed Jesus to his crucifixion, taken a part his Passion, and know the ab-sence of His Spirit in his death.

My former parishioner and now priest, David Henson wrote an article about the Holy Week journey that led to death and back to life us-ing one of the creatures from the Harry Potter series - I have to say that his young sons are now reading Harry Potter. Any Harry Potter

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fans here? Many preaches are inspired for ser-mons by the youth around them.

He wrote about the creature — the thestral.

‘These magical creatures — are like skeletal horses — are invisible to most, save those who have looked upon death, understood it and internalized it. Thestrals are visible, in other words, only to those who have been baptized into death. They are terrible, fright-ening looking creatures, and when Harry first sees them, his friends — who have not borne witness to death — cannot.

He says that these creatures come to mind for him on Holy Saturday— the day when Chris-tians believe Jesus was still in the tomb.

On Good Friday, the day before, we entered into the death of Jesus, and experienced it ourselves in different ways.

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And on Holy Saturday, we come to grips with the silence of the grave. It is a day for thes-trals…. a day where we can admit the hope-lessness of our world. It is a day in which we can be baptized into Jesus’ death. It’s no won-der that the earliest Christian traditions sur-rounding baptism happened on this day — at the very beginning of Sunday — the day of resurrection.

But … there is no hope of resurrection to new life without the hollow, emptiness of death. Resurrection makes no sense unless we can see the thestrals of our world.

Tradition says that Jesus descended into hell, the place of the dead. I imagine this to be true. And I imagine it is still happening today. Jesus is still descending into the places of the dead, the dying, and the abused… those whom life has thrown away as disposable.

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When I reflect on the suffering of Christ - I see the connection between the suffering of Christ and the suffering of all of God’s children, all of us who are vessels of the Spirit of God.

When we take our suffering and also bear wit-ness to the suffering and death in the world, we begin to be transformed into people who can see thestrals, too.

To allow the tombs to transform us into peo-ple of the resurrection and live that here and now… 2000 years after Christ’s resurrection.

I look for people who live with spirit of resur-rection - like the Joni Mitchell song ‘I'm fright-ened by the devil and I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid.’ We are drawn to mentors and others who exude the presence of Life and Love and Wholeness. A life of spiritual in-tegrity…mind, body and soul.

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An example of someone who lived like that is Clarence Jordan, (May he rest in peace) - He was a farmer and New Testament Greek scholar, from southwest Georgia and founder of Koinonia Farms, which eventually led to the formation of Habitat for Humanity.

Jordan lived from 1912-1969 - he was the the seventh of ten children, active in his Southern Baptist church where he was taught racial equality and couldn’t reconcile the words of peace and unity in his church that were in stark contrast to the racial discrimination he witnessed outside church walls.

He wanted to do something about that and created a community called “Koinonia Farms,” named after the Greek word for “fel-lowship or communion.” He respected the dig-nity of all and invited the workers on the farm to eat together, irrespective of race.  It caused a lot conflict in his life - the KKK was around - and he faced the questions about

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his loyalty to his southern heritage like, “Your choice seems quite clear.  It is whether you will follow your granddaddy or Jesus Christ.”

He followed Jesus Christ and commanded re-spect because he was so willing to put his life on the line for what he believed in,

Jordan said:

“The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a va-cant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.”

A way of life that will be celebrated today but lived as fully in the days and weeks and months ahead.

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Author Eugene Peterson wrote in a book called Living the Resurrection in 2006, that “The land of the living is dangerous country. There is a lot of trouble brewing out there and in here. Resurrection takes place in the coun-try of death.

The land of the living is obviously not [always a] a vacation paradise. It can be more like a war zone. And that’s where we Christians are stationed, along with the children, to affirm the primacy of life over death, to give a wit-ness to the connectedness and preciousness of all life, to engage in the practice of resur-rection.”

A few days ago the Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of our church wrote: the shadow of the cross is found in the shadow of those who have been killed in Brussels and he quoted George McLeod, the founder of the Iona Com-

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munity, who had fought in the First World War, who said this:

I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the centre of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathe-dral between two candles, but on a cross be-tween two thieves, in the town garbage dump, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. It was the kind of place where cynics talk smut, thieves curse, soldiers gamble. That’s where he died. And that’s where we as Christians ought to be and what we as Chris-tians ought to be about.”

Yet, it is easy to become disconnected from the source of life the spark of the Holy. We may celebrate today, but over time we tend to lose our vitality and become dull. How do we keep it going?

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The answer is found in the very ordinary …

… by doing this .. gathering in congregations and regular worship before our life-giving God. … We do it by reading, pondering, teach-ing, keeping silent

…by eating the life of Jesus in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.

…by visiting prisoners, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, working for justice, loving our enemies, raising our children, doing our everyday work to the glory of God.

It is less important what people say they believe happened on a Sunday morning 2,000 years ago and much more important whether we are partnering with God to practice resurrection today. This Easter, these prophets are challenging us to ask,

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“How are — and how are we not —following Jesus’ example of caring for the poor, respecting the dignity of every human being and of building the Beloved Commu-nity?

The contemporary prophet Wendell Berry sim-ilarly challenges us to “Practice resurrection” in his poem “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Lib-eration Front.” Here’s a taste of this poetic and prophetic masterpiece

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,vacation with pay. Want moreof everything ready-made. Be afraidto know your neighbors and to die.And you will have a window in your head.Not even your future will be a mysteryany more. Your mind will be punched in a cardand shut away in a little drawer.When they want you to buy somethingthey will call you. When they want you

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to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do somethingthat won’t compute. Love the Lord.Love the world. Work for nothing.Take all that you have and be poor.Love someone who does not deserve it.

Hope to live in that freerepublic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannotunderstand. Praise ignorance, for what manhas not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forestthat you did not plant,that you will not live to harvest.

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Say that the leaves are harvestedwhen they have rotted into the mold.Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humusthat will build under the treesevery thousand years.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyfulthough you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheapfor power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfya woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleepof a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

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in her lap. Swear allegianceto what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicoscan predict the motions of your mind,lose it. Leave it as a signto mark the false trail, the wayyou didn’t go.

Be like the foxwho makes more tracks than necessary,some in the wrong direction.Practice resurrection.”

Open your whole self — heart, soul, mind, and strength — to God’s inspiring call to new life and renewed love. May you feel God luring you, prompting you, and encouraging you — each day and in each new present moment — to practice resurrection.

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