Prayer: Our joy is so heightened today, O Lord! We praise your name! Help us to become fueled by your energy today! In the name of the risen Christ, Amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

What a joy-filled day this is, isn’t it? Amen? Amen! There is such good news today! Amen? Amen!

But, there is a downside. There is good news and bad news today. It was following the resurrection and disciples were still somewhat scattered about Jerusalem and the surrounding villages. John finds Peter and runs up to him. Excitedly he says, “Peter, Peter! I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” Peter takes a hold of John and calms him down. “Take it easy, John. What is it? What’s the good news?” John says, “The good news is Christ is risen!” Peter says, “That’s great! But, what’s the bad news?” John, looking around, says, “He’s madder than hell that too many people are still stuck on last Friday.”

That’s the good news, friends! Death has lost its sting. Hell has no power to threaten or convict. Jesus’ resurrection power is the power of life that always rules and overrules the power of death.

The trouble is that way too many of us are living as if it still is Friday! We’re living as if the suffering is terminal. There is so much questioning, unfairness, trouble, mistakes, hurts, losses, and grief that it is all too easy to be deceived into thinking that there is nothing other than those negativities. Sometimes the lowest points in our lives can tend to keep us low. The struggles can tend to keep us from growing. We forget that even in the midst of our trials, the night time has a dawn, that the days of suffering shall pass, that even though we walk through the valleys of the shadows of death, we shall not stay there very long, because our God is with us! God is our rod and our staff, and God will be there to comfort us.

See how the finality of death does not win out? See how the people in both Jesus’ time and our time were changed? Everything from their attitudes, their expressions, their gestures, their demeanor... All that changed. Even their images of their future changed from moving on without the loved to moving on with their loved one again. That new future started right at that moment. The moment the good news came, everything changed. And the celebrations began! And other places were noted too… a war had ended. Peace began. People were rejoicing.

We celebrate that Christ is risen from the grave today, that the risen life he received, we also can receive. We praise God in this sanctuary! We praise God in our Sunday School rooms, and in the hallways.

But, what happens when we walk out those doors? What happens after today? We have something new in our lives. We have a new outlook on life, but our challenge is: as soon as we finish worshiping God here, we are to let that new life, that new outlook inform us, aren’t we?

You know, God fulfilled what God promised through Jesus’ actions. God inspired Jesus to be obedient to God’s will so much so that Jesus accomplishes the task of making salvation, which is God’s saving grace a promise the human race by God. Our response has to be more than simply to say, “Hallelujah! Christ is risen.” In my opinion, our response has to be to claim that promise of God… to accept it in our hearts, to let the light of it shine in the places of our lives where the light needs to shine.

If our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then what habit do we engage in that clearly cannot handle the light of God on it? What habits are we practicing that may need to change the day after today? Some smoke too much, drink too much, or ingest other mind and body altering substances too much. Some of us may be spending too much money, buying to feel good instead out of necessity. Some of us are workaholics, spending waaaay too much time in the office. Perhaps some of us are on the Internet too much, or have gone to the Wow! Hollywood casino and gambled too much. Some are grieving too much, or are holding on to grudges too much, or have felt the sting of rejection and dejection and refuse to let those go—too much. Some have stayed angry too much, and have forgotten how to forgive too much. Which leads some to stay away from God, prayer time, and church too much.

What ever it is… if we let it, those are the kinds of habits that the power of the resurrection, can help change. Those are the kinds of situations that, while we live on earth, God can help us transform. God’s living presence can help us move away from dedicating our time and energy to a habit that needs to change and move to dedicating our time and energy to habits that not only have the light of God in them, but also reflect that light so others can see it.

That’s why so many people can claim that when they trusted in God, their lives changed. New, healthier habits started to form. A new day, the day after the tragic day of the metaphorical Friday had dawned. It is the day of resurrection. It’s Sunday!

Friends, we have only a certain amount of time on this earth. We only have a certain amount of days in this life to live in God’s transformative light. We only can live in this day, learn the lessons from the previous days, and choose to do differently in God’s light tomorrow. An then our time expires. Somebody sent me an email that had this whimsical picture of a grave site expressing the deceased sense of humor. Her time had expired. She lived 64 years, to the day, it appears.

But, don’t let these pictures fool you. The day after April 29th, 2005 was a new day for Barbara Sue Manire. In fact, I would say that in the moment after that moment of expiration, a new day dawned. Her earthly time expired, but spiritual time with God is still going on.

Notice I said “still going on.” Time with God is happening now, for all of us. God blessed Jesus with a new, resurrected power after his death. God blesses us with the same new, resurrected power, a life after whatever Friday-type deaths we face. Bring Easter Sunday’s joy-filled message into our lives the day after today, no… the moment after this moment… because this is Easter morning. This isn’t Friday morning. This is SUNDAY! Easter morning!

Singer songwriter James Ward has written a song called “Every Morning is Easter Morning.” I highlighted it a few years ago; I do so again today: “Every morning is Easter morning from now on! Every day’s resurrection day; the past is over and gone. Good-bye sin, good-bye fear. Good riddance! Hello life, hello Son! I belong to the Easter people, my new life has begun!” This is the day of resurrection. Earth tell it our abroad!

Thanks be to God. Amen.