The Collect Prayer for this the Second Sunday of Easter presents an amazing challenge to us: Almighty God, grant that we who have celebrated the Lord’s resurrection may by Your grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God.
Last Sunday we began our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. After the long wait of Lent and Holy Week, after the two year period since we last gathered in person for an Easter Sunday- at last we celebrated Easter with all of the bells and whistles so to speak.
Now a week later, we are still celebrating Easter, and we are looking in our scripture readings at how God’s people respond of this glad news. ‘Grant that we who celebrated Jesus’ resurrection may by God’s grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God.’
‘By God’s grace confess’: This response of faith of joy and gladness does not come through our own power. Our own hearts are empty and depraved with sin. Remember last Sunday in the resurrection account from Mark, The woman who encountered the empty tomb were at first terrified. They did not confess in their life and conversation that Jesus is Risen or that Jesus is Lord and God, “They did not say anything to anyone for they were terrified.”
The confession of our faith in a world where God is the enemy is no light undertaking. It comes through God’s grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting us of our sin and leading us to say, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”
The confession of our faith is much more than knowing a few phrases for how we speak to people about our faith or about who we believe Jesus to be. It comes down to who we are at the core of our being. How do we respond to Easter Sunday? Do we feel a let down that the celebration is over? Wait until next year.
Or do we live a new life in Christ? Do our very words we speak to ourselves and one another, does our conversation confess that Jesus is our Lord and our God?
“Life and conversation”, who we are, what we say, and feel, and think. All of these aspects of life are by God’s grace transformed by the victory Jesus won for us on the cross, by the greatest triumph in all of history- Jesus’ resurrection from the grave.
In confirmation class last week the lesson over the close of the commandments asked students to reflect on each of the commandments one by one and examine, ‘have I broken them, have I kept them?’
Have I taken the Lord’s name in vain, have I spoke words of envy over what my brother has and I do not? Have I carried on as if I alone matter, or that my wants are more important than what God wants? Have I gladly heard God’s Word, keeping the Sabbath, and sought opportunities to rejoice in Jesus’ victory won for me? ‘Our life and conversation’, only by God’s grace can we confess Jesus is Lord by what we believe and by what we say and do.
Consider our reading from Acts chapter 4. The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. They had everything in common as a way to confess that it all belongs to the Lord. They cared for one another, there was not a needy person among them. What a great testimony to the confession of the early church that Jesus is risen.
With great power the Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. They spoke with great power, God’s power.
Speaking with great power sounds difficult doesn’t it? You may think, I am not a distinguished public speaker. Nobody has put me on the radio or on tv. Don’t you need a big strong voice to speak with great power? Don’t you need all the confidence in the world?
Our church today, just like the church described in the book of Acts, has the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit we are able to be of one heart and one soul because we all have the same Savior at the center of our lives.
The Introit for this Sunday speaks of the beauty of remembering God’s Word to us and celebrating them, and longing for more of the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word:
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! 2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! 3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
We confess with joy the resurrection of Jesus by remembering God’s works that he has done for His people and making known his deeds. We have just as much to say as those in the early church.
Here at Christ Lutheran we have not celebrated the service of Easter vigil on the Saturday before Easter. However, the LCMS has included this Service in its hymnal and Altar books for quite some time now. Many congregations do not celebrate this day most likely because Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday feels busy enough. Regardless of why some churches celebrate this day and others do not, I believe it is worth looking at the scripture reading and themes this service contains as an extra perspective in what it means to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus in our life and conversation.
The service begins outside of the church in darkness following the somber tone of Good Friday. A candle is lit or a fire is kindled outdoors to represent a preview of the light that the resurrection of Jesus will bring. One of the blessings said by the pastor in the begging of the service is: “May the light of Christ, who is risen in glory from the dead, scatter all the darkness of our hearts and minds.”
I like the connection this sentence makes, the light of our risen Lord scatters the darkness in our hearts and minds! It is hard to imagine what darkness we would be in without the resurrection.
The opening Easter proclamation as the congregation enters the nave recalls the connection between the Passover in Exodus and Christ’s resurrection in terms of victory and deliverance from bondage:
“For he is the very paschal Lamb who offered himself for the sin of the world, who has cleansed us by the shedding of his precious blood. This is the night when you brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. This is the night when all who believe in Christ are delivered from bondage to sin and restored to life and immortality.
This is the night when Christ, the Life, arose from the dead. The seal of the grave is broken and the morning of new creation breaks forth out of night. Oh how wonderful and beyond telling is your mercy toward us, O God, that to redeem a slave you gave your Son. How holy is this night when all wickedness is put to flight and sin is washed away. How holy is the night when innocence is restored to the fallen and joy is given to those downcast. How blessed is the night when man is reconciled to God in Christ.”
Indeed how holy is the night when Jesus brought us from death to life. The scripture readings for the service cover themes of God’s gift of life and our covenant relationship:
Including the Creation account from Genesis, The Flood, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea, Faith strained but Victorious from Job chapter 19, A new Heart from Ezekiel chapter 36. At the close of the service is a Remembrance of our baptism and then the resurrection account from the gospel of Mark.
Can you picture how this series of readings ties together our faith history and points to the resurrection of Jesus as the ultimate purpose of all of the Scripture! We don’t have time to explore much more of our readings today, but I will leave you with words from our Epistle reading from 1John which describe the Apostles reaction to what they have heard and seen with their eyes and touched with their hands concerning the risen Jesus: “But if we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”