The Lord be with you!

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Let us prepare our hearts for study in God’s Word, using this Sunday’s Collect of the Day, the perfect summary of our Easter celebration, and our desire to regather in God’s gracious presence as His redeemed Easter People.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life. We humbly pray that we may live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Jeremiah 31:1-6
We have all been reminded lately (due to our present pandemic) of those verses in the Bible that speak of God’s judgment against the land of Israel in Old Testament times due to the people’s lack of faith toward Him and their lack of love and justice for their neighbor. But this word of promise from Jeremiah, the promise that the Lord who loves us with an everlasting love will build again His virgin Church, it rings ever clearer in our ears. Keep on reading this amazing chapter! It’s the good news we’re looking for at Easter.

Colossians 3:1-4
Now, more than ever, it is time for us to set our minds on things above, and not on earthly things. How futile and fleeting are the things of this world, that so relatively little can take those comforts and conveniences away from us in the blink of an eye! We must remind ourselves that we are blessed, and this momentary affliction we’re going through will not rob us of the blessed Easter hope of our own resurrection and our life that is hidden in Christ, but will be revealed in glory on the Last Day.

Matthew 28:1-10
The account of Jesus’ resurrection in Matthew notes the interplay between “fear” and “afraid” on the one hand, and “joy” and “rejoice” on the other hand. The guards shook in unbelieving fear at the sudden appearance of the fearsome Angel of the Lord to roll back the stone from the tomb. It seems as though Jesus is already risen and gone, by the way. The women approached in fear, as could be guessed from the Angel’s immediate announcement of “Do not be afraid.” The Easter good news is that the Lord who once lay there dead in the tomb, God in flesh who gave up His life, is risen and has taken Life back up again as His prize to share with all who believe. The women leave the tomb, still with fear, but now that fear is tied in with God-given joy, as the risen Jesus Himself appears to them and says, “Greetings,” or literally from the Greek, “Rejoice!” May we too rejoice this Easter and for the rest of our lives, for we shall rejoin all the disciples and meet with our Savior at His appointed time, to live before Him in righteousness and purity forever.

Joy is not a feeling that we can stir up within ourselves. Joy must come to us from God, who gives everything, including Himself, to us. Just as we could not have saved ourselves from eternal death, so too we could not have concocted a feeling to replace the joy that can only come to us from Jesus. This is why we set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. And Hebrews proclaims, our Savior “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.” He suffered, knowing that pure joy was ahead of Him, joy that His sacrifice would earn forever. And that Easter joy that we hear this day will rebuild us as God’s people, until the glorious final day of our own resurrection from the dead. What a joyful day that too will be!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Please feel free to leave a message, a question, a thought, a prayer request. I’d love to hear what you think.

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.

God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant