God’s Love Song

Jeremiah 31:1-6, Matthew 28:1-10
The Rev. Sara Fischer

I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised.

It is not often that we hear someone sing us a love song, in real life. Maybe in the movies, maybe on the radio. If we are really lucky, somewhere along the way we might have had a boyfriend or a girlfriend say “this song reminds me of you,” or “This song perfectly expresses how I feel about you.” (Usually it’s a boyfriend or a girlfriend who says this; rarely a spouse.) I suppose these days people go one step further and pick out special ringtones for their loved ones.

I will never forget the first wedding I did here at St. John’s. The couple told me that they wanted to say some things to each other during the service, before exchanging vows. When the time came, and it was the groom’s turn, the best man handed him a guitar and he sang to his bride. With no text or music in front of him, he sang the beautiful love song by Bruce Springsteen: “If I should fall behind.” If I should fall behind, wait for me; if you fall behind, I’ll wait for you.

So, you might be sitting here thinking: why is she talking about this?? No one has ever sung me a love song and I don’t want to be reminded of that on Easter Sunday! Well, I have good news for you. Someone has sung you a love song. Listen to the words of God as spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

I have loved you with an everlasting love. Easter is God’s love song. Easter is God’s love song to each one of us.

Which is a good thing, because otherwise, preaching on Easter Sunday morning would be a huge challenge. To those of you who have been with us Sunday after Sunday, for weeks and months and years, there is always the temptation to try hard to say something new about Easter, something dazzlingly worthy of your faithfulness. For all of you who are checking in with St. John’s for the first time since Christmas, or perhaps even for the first time since last Easter or the Easter before last, my ego wants me to preach a fantastic sermon that will say the magic words to make you come back again before next Christmas. Some of you are part of our extended family who gathers each year for our Easter Sunday reunion. Some of you are here for the first time, because something pulled you to church on Easter. We are honored that you found your way to St. John’s this morning. Perhaps you haven’t been to any church for a very long time, and there is something going on in your life which leaves you longing for a miracle.

The disciples on the first Easter morning were longing for a miracle. They went to the tomb with profound sadness. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. With this, grief and sorrow are replaced by fear and joy. Grief, sorrow, fear, and joy. The women at the tomb experience the whole range of human emotions as they move from the reality of loss to the reality of the resurrection. Do not be afraid. He has been raised from the dead. This is God’s love song to us.

Wherever we are with this “church stuff,” I think we arrive on Easter morning looking for a miracle, hoping for resurrection. We may be looking for resurrection of our own faith. Can we believe again, what we believed in childhood? Or we may have questions about the resurrection of Jesus: did it happen? How? Why?

We may be looking for resurrection in our own lives: the resurrection of a lost love or a broken relationship. We may long for the resurrection of hope in the midst of suffering. Easter is the breaking open and rolling back of the stone of suffering, the stone of apathy, the stone of fear. The stone is rolled away and we see a glimmer of light where before, there was only darkness. If you came this morning looking for hope, you’ve come to the right place. This is true if you were baptized last night or baptized seventy years ago or not yet.

The first disciples understood that their lives would be changed forever as a result of what they saw on Easter morning. Easter is God’s extravagance, and there is enough to go around for everybody. God raised Jesus from the dead so our lives would be changed forever.

What is our response to be, to God’s love song, God’s extravagant gift?

Our love song to God is in how we live our lives. Our love song to God is to be Easter people.

I would like to suggest that for those of you who come to church—any church—year after year on Christmas and Easter that you pay attention to signs of resurrection and hope. Listen for God’s love song in your lives, today, tomorrow, and next week. I have loved you with an everlasting love, says God. Do you hear it? This is the story that we try to tell each week, Sunday after Sunday. What stones in your life are blocking you from the light of resurrection?

To those of you who are here week in and week out, I want to say: remember that we celebrate resurrection here. There is a wonderful poem by a Guatemalan political exile named Julia Esquivel, called “Threatened with resurrection.” It’s a long poem about the relationship between the forces of the world and God’s claim on us. The title alone is worthy of an Easter sermon. There is something threatening about resurrection. It is easier to think about the ins and outs of our daily lives, who said what to whom, who did something without asking someone else, whose random remark is keeping you awake at night, or who cut you off in traffic. What matters is that on a spring morning a long time ago, two sad, frightened women went to a tomb expecting death, and found life and hope. And they went and told their friends, and as a result, we are here to discover life and hope where we thought there was only death. God loves us with an everlasting love.

In a few moments we’ll celebrate resurrection by gathering around this table. When we give thanks for our gifts, break them open, pour them out, and share them, we are practicing resurrection. When we share in the sufferings of others, in big ways and in little ways, we are practicing resurrection. When we go forth from this place proclaiming the triumph of life over death, we are being Easter people, and we are singing our love song to God.

God has loved us with an everlasting love. Let us sing our love song to God:

Alleluia, Christ is Risen.