Love brought us together today. You may be here because you wanted to be together with family. Or maybe a dear friend invited you to celebrate Easter with them. Maybe you have early memories of dear ones who have since passed who always made sure you were in church for Easter. Maybe you love the familiar Easter hymns or the beautiful flowers or the joyful celebration. And then there are the children. It’s a delight to see them excited about this special day. For me, it is love for this congregation and you dear ones and the expectation of seeing you.
Love brought this world into being. Love has filled the earth with beauty and called it good. We who bear the image of the Holy One have been called to both freedom and responsibility as we walk in awe among the wonders of creation. We experience delight in the abundance and variety of life as well as sorrow at the destruction of what is precious and beloved.
Love offers us freedom from every bondage. Love led us through a wilderness time into a land of promise. Love broke the chains of enslavement and granted us dignity and hope. Love led an exiled people home where they might dwell in security and safety. In every situation where we might feel trapped, stuck and hopeless, love offers a way through, a second chance, a new life. Whenever we feel alienated and cut off from our true home and true selves, love calls us back, rebuilds and renews us and sets us free to dance and sing again.
Love breaks down the walls that separate us from one another. We can proclaim with our sisters and brothers in the Black Church tradition that “God shows no partiality” and that we are all equally loved and valued. Love calls us to sit at the table together with every race and tribe and people, recognizing that all of the precious children of God are of infinite worth.
Love can unite us because with love there is the possibility of reconciliation and forgiveness. God breaks down the dividing wall that has come between us. From the cross, forgiveness is poured out upon us and through us into our relationships with others. The impossible becomes real by the gift of love and grace. Hurt is not erased but can be healed and we can walk in newness of life. The tenderness of love for us allows us finally to receive forgiveness, to begin again and to believe that we are worthy of love.
Perfect love casts out fear. That Easter morning the earth quaked and an angel appeared. The hardened Roman soldiers on guard duty were so terrified that they fainted as if they were dead. The hardier Mary’s stood their ground so that they could hear the angelic message and become the first to see the risen Christ. Both the angel and Jesus let them know that they are not to be afraid. Terror turns to joy in the face of the one who loves them. The women are the first to bear the message of the resurrection and share the good news that love wins.
There is much that makes us anxious and afraid. We may even know the same paralysis that the guards experienced. Those wee hours of the morning when we are awake and worried about what the day might bring are often the toughest. Into dark and difficult times, the light and life of love is breaking. The voice of love reminds us to “be not afraid.” Love has endured the very worst the world can dish out and has yet triumphed. Love opens our eyes and ears to see beyond our fears to find hope. And love opens our mouths to proclaim that message.
From the beginning, love calls us by our true names. Love recognizes us and knows us through and through. Love finds us where we are but never leaves us as we’ve been.
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