We have been through a lot recently as a country.
Advertisement
And every Sunday, the people of God gather to celebrate the Resurrection.
The Sacred Paschal Triduum is the most solemn three days of the liturgical year which includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. The more you meditate on the seven last words, the more you realize that the Son of God struggled with all that we do – physical, emotional, and even spiritual suffering.
Didn’t Pope Francis declare this a Year of Mercy?
He had gone one step too far…it’s one thing to say God loves you…it’s another to say to the authorities you are corrupt and need to change. Mercy “is a wellspring of joy, serenity and peace”, he said. “To let go of anger, wrath, violence and revenge is a necessary condition to living joyfully”. “What about the time I …?” “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee'”. What about all that Jesus did for the people? People stay for a time, adoring the wondrous sacrament that Jesus instituted that day 2,000 years ago. Woe to the man who is married and forgets their anniversary! Did they even thank him? He told him famously as they looked over civilization, “All of this can be yours if you serve me”.
In sum, therefore, what we are being commanded to do is to accept and have faith in Jesus as God and Savior, and it is this acceptance and having faith in Jesus that does wonders to our lives, both here on earth and in eternity. Since Christmas, I have tried to remind all of us that “politics is not our salvation – only Jesus is our salvation”. “No matter where you’ve been, God loves you, and thinks you’re awesome”.
About half way through Mark’s Gospel, at a crucial point in his ministry, Jesus turns to the disciples with what one imagines to be a mixture of exasperation and affection and says: “Do you still not understand?” “For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will” (Ps 30). We all depend on getting help some time, and we are all called to roll away the stones in others’ path. Nor is substituting that anger with giving thanks to God. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Dr McNie said one indisputable fact associated with Christ’s resurrection had been the phenomenal growth of the Christian Church: “Christ’s resurrection has taken the world by storm, drawing people from every age and generation to the Gospel of God’s Grace”.
Indeed, what this commands us to do is to believe in God, and accept Him as God and Savior.
Advertisement
Easter Sunday is welcomed with bells ringing out across the islands, a traditional march with the statue of the risen Christ will take place in some parishes following the service. Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning! And yet, every Easter the mystery of the stone unfailingly invades my thoughts when I try to write a sermon that is an appropriate Easter sermon for a Unitarian Universalist congregation.
