“This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made” April 20, 2025 Easter Sunday
“This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made”
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Isaiah 65:17-25
Acts 10:34-43
Luke 24:1-12/ John 20:1-18
Two old friends met each other on the street one day. One looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, “What has the world done to you, my old friend?”
The sad fellow said, “Let me tell you: three weeks ago, my uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars.”
“That’s a lot of money.”
“But you see, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and left me eighty-five thousand dollars, free and clear.”
“Sounds to me that you’ve been very blessed.”
“You don’t understand!” he interrupted. “Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million from her.”
Now the man’s friend was really confused. “Then why do you look so glum?”
“This week . . . nothing!”
That’s a problem with receiving something on a regular basis. Even if it is a gift, we eventually come to expect it. The natural tendency is that if we receive a gift long enough, we come to view it almost as an entitlement. We feel hurt, even angry, if we don’t receive it any longer.
It is the same way with the blessings God gives us every day. I don’t deserve my comfortable home that I live in, the beautiful scenery around me, the clean water I drink. But after receiving these gifts (and a multitude of others) for years, I sometimes fail to be grateful.
I’ve come to expect these good things, and when one of them (2)
disappears, even for a short time, I get upset.
One of the practices of the Benedictine Monks is the memorization of the Psalms, and for some reason this has always fascinated me. Now granted, in my advancing years, the prospect of memorizing much of anything is fairly remote, but it fascinates me. it fascinates me, I believe, because I’d like to think that with all the other noise and nonsense that runs through my brain on a daily basis, wouldn’t be great to be able to bring to mind these beautiful and ancient songs any old time I felt like it? I know it would. I know this because there are certain bits and pieces of the Psalms that tend to stick with me like that. They comfort me and they reassure me that there is such a thing as love without end. The 118th Psalm is one of these gifts from a loving God that causes me to hope and pray that the day never comes when I become ungrateful or begin to take these beautiful songs for granted.
Verse 1 is simple, straightforward, & direct: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” It is comforting – reassuring – but then it changes into something like a cheer at a basketball game. (vs 2) “Let Israel say, ‘His love endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron say, ‘His love endures forever.’ Let those who fear the Lord say, ‘His love endures forever.
I know that I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. When I was in rehab I had the opportunity to get to know a Father Dominic who was there for some kind of ailment or other; I never did ask. He is a member of the Trappist monastery north of Dundee and was simply delightful. One day I happened to comment on this practice of the Benedictines , remarking that such commitment and dedication have always fascinated me.
I didn’t stop to think that maybe there might be some sort of competition (3) between different orders of the monastic life, I started to wonder if I may have offended him in some way but his answer put my mind at rest.. “It’s better when you sing them,” he said, and judging by the giant grin on his face, I could tell that, for Dominic, this gift of singing praises to our God is a blessing that lasts a lifetime. If there happened to be just a hint of one-up- manship in his voice, then who am I to judge?
“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
There are many reasons as to why the 118th Psalm makes the perfect reading for this day, the day that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. We best remember that the crucifixion was not the end; the empty tomb was not the end. , this day marks the beginning of a revelation: a revelation that is so powerful in its truth that we find it scarcely believable.
It’s been said that, “If the dead don’t stay dead, what can you count on?” Well, resurrection should be hard to believe – I mean, we learn of this glorious event from 4 different stories which greatly differ from one another, so don’t pretend like it is easy. Even David Lose, one of my favorite Lutheran seminarians, confessed, “If it’s not hard to believe, you’re probably not paying attention!” “But as Frederick Buechner tells us, “The gospel writers are not trying to describe it as convincingly as they can. They are trying to describe it as truthfully as they can. It was the most extraordinary thing they believed had ever happened, and yet they tell it so quietly that you have to lean close to be sure what they are telling.” And so once again, we gather to listen closely to the words of the apostles who had witnessed the arrest and conviction and crucifixion of this one who proved to be the Messiah. Once again we gather to consider the empty tomb.
And once again and best of all, we gather to bear witness to the most (4) extraordinary thing we believe has ever happened. Extraordinary, extravagant, extrasensory – the words that we use are poor substitutes for the awesome feeling of wonder and awe that comes from the realization in our hearts and our gut that just as Jesus had predicted, he had indeed risen from the dead.
I like to imagine how it was that the Pharisees, who did not believe in a life after death; I like to imagine how they reacted when it was starting to look like this same Jesus of Nazareth who had died was out walking the streets and spreading the good news to the people of Jerusalem. Perhaps they might have convened a legal hearing of some sort, complete with a panel from the Sanhedrin, or leaders of the local church and community. This panel would have been hand picked, surely, to guarantee that this troublemaker might be proven to be an impostor once and for all. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine putting the resurrected Christ on trial? I realize that I’m going off into the weeds a bit here, but bear with me.
So now, Can you imagine the reaction from these grumpy old men when they heard the testimony of Mary Magdalene, of Joanna, Of Mary, the mother of James, and all the other women who had first reported that, “I have seen the Lord.” And then imagine the same testimony from the disciples – not to mention the hundreds of others who had heard him speak, who had touched his flesh, who had looked into his eyes. This would have been very convincing testimony, I would say, even for a bunch of old fuddy duds whose minds were made-up: “this was not the Messiah,” they might say. “There is no such thing as life after death.” And on and on it goes. Ah, but here’s the thing:
we have more in common with my imaginary judge and jury than we might (5) believe. We are faced with an abundance of testimony and yet we hesitate. It is too far out there, too bizarre, too, well, just plain weird. And so we drape the resurrection in metaphor or bury it in the strong box of tradition, never once allowing ourselves to truly believe the words of Jesus when he said. “And on the third day. I will be raised up.” To repeat the words of David Lose, “if it’s not hard to believe, you’re probably not paying attention!”
It was by chance that I stumbled across a piece this week written
by the author and poet John Updike titled “ The Seven Stanzas of Easter.” It is a powerful piece and touches upon our sometimes stilted understanding of Easter and our struggles with the resurrection. One passage in particular sparked my imagination when Mr. Updike wrote, “Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages: let us walk through the door.”
“Let us walk through the door.” You know, we are a people of faith, and there is nothing that can inspire and bolster our faith like the knowing that our Redeemer lives, and nothing will bring us more joy than to walk through the door and give our heart and our everlasting praise for the greatest gift of all time. Christ reviled, Christ redeemed, and Christ resurrected. So let us walk through the door. Let us feel the warmth and the wonder and the awesome power of God’s demonstration to us that life after death Is a reality. It is a gift that never stops giving And let us know that Christ died that we might live, and that there is great joy in believing – there is great joy in the assurance that our Redeemer lives.
Hymn introduction
- I know that my Redeemer lives. (6)
comfort this sweet sentence gives.
He lives, he lives who once was dead
he lives my everlasting head
(2)He lives, all glory to his name
He lives my savior still the same.
Ohh sweet, the joy this sentence gives.
I know that my Redeemer lives
refrain
He lives to bless me with his love
He lives to plead for me above
He lives my hungry soul to feed
he lives to bless in time of need sing vs 2 as a refrain and end
And so we come. We come to worship, we come to be in this place. We come to be a part of church, we come to be church. We come bearing our pain, our grief, our frustration to a place where the words are spoken, “God’s love endures forever.” We come to stand beside Mary Magdalene as she cries out, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have lain him.” followed by the joyful words, “I have seen the Lord!”
We come needing to relive the story; needing to be fed 7)
from the (mystery of life on the other side of death. It was Adam Hamilton that wrote, “God did not need Jesus to suffer and die on the cross in order to save us. Rather, we needed it, so we could know the depth of human sin, the breadth of God’s graciousness and love, and ultimately God’s triumph over sin and death.”
To get a taste – just a hint – of the depth and the breadth of God’s enduring love; that’s what Easter is all about. And this is the day. This is the day when we don’t want detailed explanations, no intellectual ponderings. This is the day when Christ becomes real. This is the day when he gives us the gift of a love that endures forever and the solid assurance that darkness leads to light, that despair leads to hope, and that death leads to resurrection. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Amen & Shalom
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