Easter Sunrise

Romans 6:3-11 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.


For a brief while Jesus who was with God since the beginning and who had created the heavens and the earth, emptied himself and in obedience to God came to earth in the form of a human man, so that he could save the world, not condemn it.

And while he was here on earth he healed many, gave hope to the poor, loved the children and the widows, brought the marginalized into his community, ate with the lowest of the lows and challenged all of us to look at our sin and the way we use power to hurt others. All the while he was scorned by those who should have embraced him and misunderstood by many.

All this he did as a gift for us.


When his time here on earth came near to an end, he endured being betrayed by a friend, one of his inner circle. His trial by the authorities was a sham.

The guards beat him and stripped him, mocked him and spit at him. They dragged him to Golgotha where they lay him on a cross with two common criminals on each side. The guards were joined by a large crowd and the elders and chief priests and scribes. Their hatred and disbelief lead them to mock Jesus and taunt him calling him the King of Jews.

Jesus in his love for us, brought them and us, and all of our sin and evil to the foot of the cross, and then he gave his final self up for us. He emptied himself completely up to his Father for us. And then he died.

All this he did as a gift for us.


And at the moment on Good Friday when Jesus died, it must have seemed to the world that evil and sin had won over goodness. The world would stay in darkness and we would scratch out our existence in hatred and sin.

Yet a lone centurion witnessed to the truth. He said, Surely this man was the Son of God. Truth and goodness had prevailed. Jesus has brought us to the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and so that evil could reign no more on earth.

But it was a lone light in the darkness. It was just a flicker and the world had little hope that the light of the goodness of Jesus was for us, that we could claim it. It was a distant light, like the light we see now in the trees. Flickering, illuminating just a little bit, but still leaving us to grope hesitantly in the darkness and in the shadows.

He had died for us, but was it a gift we could receive and claim for our lives?

Three days the world lived in twilight. They took Jesus down from the cross and buried him in a tomb. They put a large boulder at the entrance of the tomb and then they went home and waited.
The last time I was in the Keys, I got up early to see the sunrise. I bundled up in a blanket, just as some of you are bundled here today and I went and sat on the beach and waited. With each passing second the sky changed, colors were introduced, rays of the yet as unseen sun danced off the clouds on the horizon. Twilight was so much better than the darkness, there was so much expectancy and so much hope of something to come that was better than the dark. But still there were shadows and uncertainty.

The ocean remained dark and menacing. The trees moved in the breeze and seemed to loom around me. There was a chill in the air that I could not avoid. There was beauty and goodness but there still was a threat or a potential that darkness would swallow up the light and we would be plunged right back into the chaos of the night.

And just right before the sun indeed peeked over the horizon, there was a pause. Probably not a long one in the span of time of creation, yet a hesitation, that was palpable. It made me hold my breath. It was if the suspension of time was meant to draw me to the promise to come…was preparing me to accept its promise…was inviting me into the new day…I leaned forward as I sat on the beach…

And then the sun in all its brightness came over the horizon and lit up the ocean and the land and my face. Sunrise…The promise of a new day…was indeed there for me to enter into. It had been given to me as a gift that morning and I took it with all its promise and hope.



So the new morning, when the women came to the tomb and found it empty. Jesus had risen. He now sat at the right hand of his father. The heavens were alive with the sounds of praise and halleluiahs, that Jesus, who had emptied himself and came to earth to save us, had indeed brought salvation to the world. A new day had come to earth and to heaven and Jesus was and is Lord of it all. Death, evil and sin would not have the final say. Light would prevail. We would not have to grope around anymore, but we could enter into the new day that the Lord had made.

All this he did as a gift for us.


And the light revealed that Jesus had taken all that was ordinary, all that was familiar to us and made it new. And he did this because he loved us with a love that was stronger than death, stronger than evil, stronger than sin..

When the sun rises and overcomes the darkness, the ocean is still the ocean, the trees still the trees, I am still who I am.

But everything is different now. There has been a change. The light has illuminated everything in the world in a new and fantastic way. By coming to the cross, our sins have been forgiven, we have been liberated and in response we give ourselves up to Christ as an offering to him.

And Jesus takes us in all of our ordinariness and he reshapes us so that we may become extraordinary. Unified with Jesus’ we too become a gift for the world.


In communion we see this. We offer up to Jesus ordinary bread and juice and through the work of the Holy Spirit it becomes a gift to us from Jesus. What is ordinary, becomes extraordinary, life giving, becomes something that points to the goodness of Christ.

All this he did as a gift for us.

But how often do we think of ourselves as extraordinary as a gift for the world. Now I know that sometimes we will say about an egotistical person that they think that they are God’s gift to the world.

But how often do we really understand that in the resurrection Jesus offers to us the gift of a sacred life. A life lived for Jesus, a life that points to Jesus. A life poured out for others, a life of humility and obedience to Jesus. A life of giftedness that is to be shared not hoarded.


Paul in our scripture this morning sees the work of Christ this way. As a gift. He then challenges us to make a decision. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t stay in twilight and live in the darkness while also having one step in the light. Our liberation is not about us having our own way, living as we want to live. The pregnant pause of twilight has occurred. We will either live for Christ or we will live for ourselves.

Jesus has offered us his life, his death and his resurrection. He has offered us the freedom of a sacred life lived as a gift from God to be shared with the world. Will we be slaves to the twilight, to the security of the shadows that hide our shame and guilt, to the darkness where we can gain power and use fear and intimidation for our own gain?

We will either live lives of sacred worth or we will live lives of waste and sin.

Will we turn our backs to the light, or will we seek it for our lives? Will we in response to Christ’s actions, offer ourselves up to Christ so that he can re-form all that we are into his goodness, or will we deny Christ and live according to our needs and our desires?