Alive in the World – Easter 2026

Grace and peace are yours in God who is our Father and our Mother,

            and in Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead

 

In the most recent edition of the Christian Century magazine,

Stephanie Saldana wrote about knowing God in the present tense,

even living in the war-torn Christian community in Bethlehem.

She first thought of the grammar of how we know God

when she was writing at Christmas time.

She wrote, Christ was born in Bethlehem.

Then, Christ is born in Bethlehem.

And she noticed what a difference it makes, knowing that Christ is born,

Christ arrives, not just in the distant past, but now, today.

 

“God calls us into the present tense,” Saldana writes, “Yet staying here requires an openness to seeing God present and available in the bread and dishes of the everyday.”

Then she continues, making the connection to this Easter season:

 

If we can hold onto it, this knowledge that God is truly present becomes the very ground of our being. When our neighbors are detained and war looms, it is knowing that God is alive with and in us, speaking to us in the present tense, that gives us strength.

 

In this season, I’ll look towards my neighbors in Bethlehem to show me what is possible. On Good Friday in the Syriac Catholic rite, we hold a funeral procession. Jesus is taken down from the cross, placed in a casket, and perfumed with oils. The faithful become pallbearers. Maurice, who works in a stationary shop, his brother Mourad, with his long commute every day, Emile, who suffers from health issues—for a moment they, too, are drawn into the story of salvation, entrusted with the sacred task of lifting the casket and solemnly carrying Jesus through the courtyard. We pass beneath it, touching it, remembering that we, too, die with Christ.

 

Then, on Easter, the bishop calls out: “Christ is risen!”

We respond: “Truly he is risen!”

Our joy can no longer be confined to church or to Sunday. Over the following days, the Christians of Bethlehem greet one another all over town by announcing the resurrection. Christ is risen, among laundry and war and bread and the grammar of our lives, here and now.

 

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed – Alleluia!

Today we read the story from the gospel of John

about the day 2000 years ago when Mary came to the tomb

and found that Jesus had risen from the dead

But we don’t say, Christ was risen.

We say, Christ is risen.

Because the good news of Easter is that Christ is alive, now –

alive and at work in the world around us.

Christ is risen, and that gives us hope in the face of whatever challenges

we know in our lives.

Life and love are stronger than death,

and God offers eternal life, abiding in Jesus now and for eternity.

In raising Jesus from the dead God defeated death forever

 

 

Mary came to the tomb that morning filled with grief, near despair –

and perhaps she was simply not ready to give up, to let it all go.

Jesus had taught her so much, given her so much,

but now it had all come to nothing, to ashes in her hands.

She would never forget seeing him arrested, seeing him beaten,

seeing his broken body, crucified as an enemy of the state.

 

She is surprised – shocked – to see the stone rolled away from the tomb.

She is distraught that the body of Jesus is not there.

A man comes – she thinks he is the gardener, until he says her name.

“Mary.”

And then she knows it is Jesus.

He is alive.

And she is filled with hope once again.

 

 

Perhaps some of us come today weighed down by grief.

These are difficult days, in this country and around the world.

We lament for our immigrant siblings,

and for people of color who are targets for discrimination.

We lament for our siblings who need food and health care assistance

which has been cut from the budget.

We lament for the laws being passed and proposed which deny the full dignity

of our LGBTQIA siblings.

We lament the hate and bigotry which has become commonplace around us.

We lament war and violence rising around the world.

 

Yet in the midst of these difficult days, Easter invites us to share Mary’s hope.

Even in the midst of our lament,

We make the proclamation

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

And we know that Christ is alive in the world around us.

 

 

Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber invited her online community

to a different kind of Lent this year.

(Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter)

Instead of giving something up, she invited us to spend the season of Lent

looking for what is good – naming, each day, the good stuff.

Similarly, here at All Saints our theme for the season of Lent has been

Tell Me Something Good – Grounding Ourselves in the good news.

We have spent the season considering the good news of Jesus Christ –

revealed in miracles of abundance and acts of mercy and lovingkindness.

 

This practice of Lent – hearing the good news, naming good stuff in our lives –

prepares us to practice Easter.

To practice seeing love in the world around us,

looking for kindness and mercy.

To practice hope-scrolling, instead of doom-scrolling –

looking beyond all the very real grief and sorrow,

to the promise of a God who has shown that love is stronger than hate,

and mercy is more powerful than abuse and vengeance.

 

Karoline Lewis, a professor at Luther Seminary,

wrote in an Easter devotion

That love itself can overcome death is not only the promise of Easter morning but the meaning of Easter living. Easter is not just a Sunday but an everyday certainty that in our acts of love, all that which leads to death can be defeated. We participate in the resurrection not only as a future promise but in our pledge of life for all.

 

When it comes down to it, Easter hope is a choice we make,

a way of living in the world that sees and chooses love and kindness.

Not to deny the reality of our lament,

but choosing to believe that despite all the world tells us,

might does not make right, and death is not the end.

 

I got in the car this morning to drive to church,

and picked up my phone to play some music for my drive.

There in Apple Music I found a new release by the band U2, called Easter Lily

 

Bono sings in the song “Resurrection”

If love is in the air, let’s take a breath
If I sound ridiculous, I’m not done yet

Fear to love, my friend, and remain in death

Are you holding on?
Hold on
Are you holding on?

 

Love extravagantly and without regret
If there’s anything better, I’ve not heard it yet

Hold on

Are you holding on?

Resurrection song

 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

Thanks be to God, alive in the world, giving us hope.

Amen.